1. ‘In making plans or decisions people in good moods have a perceptual bias that leads them to become more expansive and positive in their thinking.’ ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Daniel Goleman

2. ‘Students who are anxious, angry or depressed don’t learn; people who are in these states do not take in information efficiently or deal with it well…when emotions overwhelm concentration, what is being swamped is the mental capacity cognitive scientists call ‘working memory’, the ability to hold in mind all information relevant to the task in hand.’ Daniel Goleman: ‘Emotional Intelligence’

3. Research from High Scope suggests that a young child’s ability to keep a steady beat is one of the best indicators of later academic success.

4. In terms of literacy, one of the key stages of phonological awareness is the ability to discriminate syllables – the ‘beats’ within a word. Appreciation of rhythm also leads children to recognise rhyming patterns, critical for the learning of phonics. ‘Foundations of Literacy’ Sue Palmer and Ros Bayley

5. MALES In a ‘state of rest’ 70% of electrical activity in the brain is shut down. FEMALES 90% of electrical activity is still present!

6. ‘The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.’ Simon Baron-Cohen: ‘The Essential Difference’

7. Baby girls, as young as twelve months old, respond more empathetically to the distress of other people, showing greater concern for others through more sad looks, sympathetic vocalisations and comforting behaviour.

8. Girls’ speech has been described as more co-operative, more reciprocal and more collaborative.

9. Imperatives (direct commands, such as ‘Do this’ or ‘Give that to me’) or prohibitions (‘Stop it’ or Don’t do that’) are more common in boys’ speech.

10. In 1984 20% of nine-month-olds were unable to listen selectively (discriminating a foreground sound against background noise.) By 1999 the figure was 40%. Findings from a long-term study conducted by Speech and Language therapist Sally Ward

11. A recent study (HPI Research Group, 2002) found that three- quarters of British children spend mealtimes with only the TV for company, whereas elsewhere in Europe almost all families sit down to eat, talk and discuss their lives.’

12. ‘Children are not speaking properly because they’re not hearing words pronounced slowly’. A fondness for watching television means they are used to hearing words at a fast pace, which does not allow them time to focus and link the words with their picture referents.’ J.Healy: ‘Endangered Minds, Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It’

13. Visual 29% Auditory 34% Kinaesthetic 37% Visual 35% Auditory 25% Kinaesthetic 40%

14. Professional parents spoke almost 1 500 more words every hour than unemployed parents A child in a professional family heard 11 million words a year, while a child growing up on benefit heard just 3 million

15. Children from professional families received 700 000 words of encouragement, with just 80 000 negatives Children from families on benefit heard 60 000 words of encouragement and 120 000 negatives ‘Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children’ by Betty Hart and Todd Risley (Brookes Publishing)

16. ‘The indications are that far more attention needs to be given, right from the start, to promoting speaking and listening skills to make sure that children build a good stock of words, learn to listen attentively and speak clearly and confidently.’ Rose review of the teaching of early reading

17. ‘Many problems that children have with writing are because they are required to write at a level beyond which they can think and speak.’ Professor Paul Black

18. ‘Personalised learning is an approach to teaching and learning that stresses deep learning as an active, social process and which is explicit about learning skills, processes and strategies (such as information processing or reasoning).’

19. ‘It’s not about individualised learning, but about building independence through interaction, intervention, stimulation and collaboration.’

20. ‘So personalised learning places a strong emphasis on high expectations, teacher and practitioner intervention, group learning, social interaction, using language for learning and developing the language of learning.’

21. ‘In personalised learning, whole class and group interaction, supported by tailored, focused intervention for pupils who are underachieving at any level, become the keys to accelerate the progress of the individual beyond what he or she can do alone, ensuring the best progress for all.’

22. ‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’ Traditional Japanese proverb