‘Extended Schools’: an exploration of the feelings,beliefs and intentions of parents and teachers

This research is designed to provide information for participants, facilitators and policy makers in the area of Extended Schools. Its salient purpose is to investigate and examine the feelings, beliefs and attitudes of teachers and parents involved in the development of the Extended Schools project in Northern Ireland. The Extended Schools project was formally launched by the Northern Ireland Secretary of State on 7 March 2006, and aims to provide a wide range of services and activities in school with the intention of helping to meet the needs of children, their families and the wider community. The qualitative approach was deemed the most appropriate methodology for gathering data.     

JUSP in time: a partnership approach to developing a journal usage statistics portal

The Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) service is expanding rapidly, and aims to encompass all NESLi2‐participating publishers by the end of 2011, together with all UK higher‐education institutions subscribing to deals from those publishers. A key part of the success of JUSP will be the implementation of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) protocol for automatic harvesting of usage statistics directly from publishers. This article outlines development of the service and describes how JUSP is working with Oxford University Press to deliver usage statistics to libraries. We also describe future developments at JUSP, including the creation of our own SUSHI server, and explain how new initiatives and enhancements are developed and rolled out in conjunction with our participating institutions.     

The Effects of Stereotyped Toys and Gender on Play Assessment in Children Aged 18-47 Months

The goals of the present study were to identify the impact particular stereotyped toys have on young children's complexity of play; to identify how these behaviours may influence children's cognitive development using play assessment; and to ascertain the toys that would be most appropriate for use in play assessment sessions. A total of 30 children who ranged in age from 18-47 months were observed playing for 30 minutes in a playroom. Analyses revealed that higher levels of play complexity were only manifested when children played with female stereotyped toys. The implications for practitioners of this and other findings are discussed.