A friend of my 9-year-old son has clearly been lurking beneath the pines that define the far reaches of their school's playing fields, awaiting his arrival in order to try to disclose an oh-so-prized nugget, namely information to which the other hasn't been privy.
''Hey, do you know what class you're in?'' he says in a tone that confirms this is more bright-eyed challenge than question.
''Want me to tell you?'' The result of the polite, but firm, rejection of the offer is a splintering of the family group. The two friends instantly become stragglers, briefly out of earshot of my wife and younger, 7-year-old, son before all are reunited a few minutes later, when we lend our voices to the excited/anxious undercurrent of children and parents scanning spreadsheets that tell of classes and teachers, of faces familiar and foreign.
It's the first day back at school.
Yet here's a question you're unlikely to find at either new entrant or national standards level: what do you get when you combine mathematics, literacy, problem-solving and the development of fine motor skills with other challenges such as social interaction and personal responsibility?Answer: a tired child.
''There are rules for learning to read, learning to write, how to hold a pencil, and there are rules governing academic subjects. Some rules are explicit and others are negotiated daily by teacher and learner,'' state the authors of one recent international study. In short (and this is not even considering the varying abilities of pupils), the learning curve is steep. Yet there are ways to lessen that gradient. Read on ...
LET THEM PLAY
In the past five years, a growing body of research has begun to uncover the significant effects that play and exercise have on the brain.
Dione Healey, a senior lecturer and registered clinical psychologist at the University of Otago's department of psychology, has developed a programme called Engage (Enhancing Neurobehavioural Gains with the Aid of Games and Exercise), in which parents and children play prescribed games for half an hour a day over an eight-week period.
All common children's games (eg, Simon says, musical statues, card memory, snap, hopscotch, skipping, beading ...) involve skills such as memory, attention, motor control, emotion regulation and impulse control.
''The games per se are not the key to the programme, it is the act of playing games, targeting areas where your child could benefit from skill development, every day, that is important,'' Dr Healey explains.
''Any game involves skills, and so by playing it you are building those skills, particularly if you increase the complexity of the game over time so that it is always just a little bit challenging for your child.''
Dr Healey says targeting games to a child's skill level is essential. If it is too easy, it will not lead to skill development; if it is too difficult, the child will not be motivated to play. It needs to be fun.
''Parents can think of skills that they would like their child to improve and then pick games that involve those skills. Learning a skill within a game is much easier than trying to just practise it in isolation and, once learnt in the game, it is easily transferable to 'real world' settings.''
For example, in Dr Healey's work with hyperactive and impulsive children, she plays a game called ''animal speeds'', in which children engage in a range of activities at various speeds: cheetah is fast, giraffe is moderate, tortoise is slow.
''Once children have practised transitioning from fast to slow within the game, then parents can just ask them to go into 'giraffe mode' when they are being highly active when out and about and children are easily able to slow themselves down. This game has had a huge positive effect for the children and families in our studies,'' Dr Healey says.
''It is also very important to teach children how to manage frustration.
''Most children want to succeed or win at games but if you are setting the game at the right level, it will be slightly challenging for your child and so they will not always succeed.
''It is very important to acknowledge your child's frustration, help them to calm down [e.g. by teaching techniques such as deep breathing or brief relaxation exercises], and then encourage them to persist. The game should be a challenge but do-able, so their persistence should quickly pay off.
''Our studies have shown that playing games every day leads to both improved behaviour [reductions in hyperactivity, impulsivity and aggression, as well as improvements in attention span] but also to improved brain functioning as measured by neurocognitive tests.''
Although the Engage programme uses both active (eg, ball games, animal speeds) and passive (card games, beading) games, research has shown that exercise significantly improves brain functioning, especially just after exercise.
Thus it might be a good idea to let children be involved in some active play after school, perhaps before they sit down to do their homework.
''Exercise has been shown to particularly improve executive functioning, which involves organising, controlling responses, attending and remembering,'' Dr Healey says.
''Active play or sports have also been shown to help with emotional regulation.
''In particular, if children have had a stressful day, or if they have a tendency to get anxious or frustrated during their school day, even a small amount of active play [e.g. 15 minutes on the trampoline or riding their bike] can really help them to release some of that 'nervous energy' and help them to feel calmer in the afternoon and evening, which will also be helpful in focusing on any homework that needs to be done.''
According to an international study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, children who get more exercise tend to perform better in class, whether the exercise comes during lunchtimes or intervals, physical education or on the way to or from school.
Researchers reviewed 14 studies that compared children's physical activity with their grades in maths, language, general thinking and memory tests.
Yet one of the problems with physical activity research is defining what counts as physical activity.
Lisette Burrows, associate professor at the University of Otago's School of Physical Education and president of Physical Education New Zealand, the sole national organisation for teachers of physical education, says sometimes children whom others may classify as sedentary (because they don't engage in formal physical activity or sports) are actually very physically active in their daily lives.
''It's just that their activities [e.g. playing with their mates, creating games, swimming at the beach, helping out with chores] don't necessarily get reported as `exercise','' Prof Burrows says.
''For primary school children, in particular, informal, fun activity is important.
''The school health and physical education curriculum is about so much more than fitness. Rather, it aims to help children learn about movement.
''Of course, there are many outcomes of physical activity that have little to do with physical development. For example, learning to co-operate, respecting each other's differences, addressing challenges, dealing with disappointment and so on.''
CHALK AND CHEESE
Research has found that school attendance and classroom behaviour are improved when poorly nourished children are given a healthier diet.
Nutritionist and dietitian Nicky McCarthy, of Wanaka-based practice NutritionWorks, points to national surveys that have shown significant numbers of Kiwi children don't have adequate diets.
''Even when parents are well educated about nutrition, when choosing foods for their kids they have to deal with the sheer volume of unhealthy food that is available, as well as slick marketing campaigns that promote these foods constantly,'' she says.
''Breakfast is important for a lot of reasons,'' she emphasises.
''There is a lot of research that shows that children who eat breakfast perform better academically at school.
''A good breakfast would consist of grainy, low-sugar cereal like porridge or Weet-Bix, fruit, milk and/or yoghurt and maybe some toast. However, it could just as easily be leftovers from tea the night before that include a starchy fuel food like rice or potatoes, some protein, such as beans, meat or egg, as well as vegetables or fruit.
''Surveys demonstrate that children who eat breakfast are more likely to eat foods from the key healthy food groups and less likely to eat unhealthy snack foods during the day.''
Lunches should contain some fruit and/or vegetables, grainy foods such as bread, rice, noodles or crackers and some protein, including cheese, yoghurt, meat, egg, nuts, beans or tofu.
Importantly, limit the amount of highly processed and packaged items to avoid an excess of salt, sugar and additives.
And don't overfill a lunchbox, ''as only the yummiest bits will get eaten''.
On days when children have extra activities before, during or after school, they will need extra ''fuel'' foods such as sandwiches, buns and crackers.
Morning and afternoon snacks could comprise small fruit muffins, homemade muesli slice, crackers with cheese or hummus, pikelets, vegetable sticks, nuts, dried or fresh fruit.
Add some protein to the snack (e.g. egg, nuts, yoghurt, milk etc) to fill up children for longer and ''smooth out'' energy levels.
''The important thing about snacks is that they should contribute to a healthy diet,'' Ms McCarthy says.
''Snacks need to be a fuel top-up to get them through to the next meal, so shouldn't always be high-fat, salty, sugary processed foods, although these are OK from time to time.''
A FRESH START
Starting school, changing schools or moving into a new classroom equals anxiety for many pupils. And key to their concerns is safety.
''Most students go from a home life where they have personal attention from a parent/caregiver and surrounded by family members,'' says Steven Sexton, a senior lecturer in primary education at the University of Otago's College of Education.
''Most new students go to school with a primary concern of how physically safe are they going to be.
''For new entrants, their school is likely to be larger than their preschool or home environment. They are going to be in a strange place with strange people doing things that are not what they have been doing for the first five years of their lives.
''They are being asked to follow directions, take turns, share resources. They are not the centre of attention. This can be rather traumatic for some,'' Dr Sexton notes.
''As students get a sense of physical safety in the classroom, they then move on to wider school settings to know where it is safe to play and who it is safe to play with. Only once physical safety issues are met do students then move on to issues of emotional and mental safety.''
Emotional safety might involve questions such as, ''Does the teacher actually care if I'm in the room?''
Mental safety is more concerned with, ''Does what I say matter?'', ''Can I ask a question without being growled at?'' or ''Can I make a statement that may not be very relevant to what is being discussed and not be ridiculed as a result?''
And those issues don't disappear as pupils age.
''As students get older, they know which teachers they do and do not want to get, based on physical, emotional or mental safety,'' Dr Sexton says.
''Students in years 1 to 6 really want teachers that are fun, have a sense of humour [not sarcasm], care and know them as an individual in the classroom.
''As they move into intermediate, the concept of `firm but fair' becomes important.
''Students do not want or like teachers who are wishy-washy, as this makes class/school unsafe [boundaries are not there, rules can get broken] or seen as favouring one student over another [even if they are the one getting favoured, they know this is wrong].''
As pupils progress into secondary school, teachers need to have a passion for their subject, want to be there, want the students to be there and be able to bring the subject alive to the students.
''Students remember teachers for both positive and negative reasons. Teachers can have lifelong impacts on students.''
