14 year old boy

The number of children receiving counselling over cyberbullying has more than doubled in five years, prompting the NSPCC to call on ministers to put pressure on social media sites to do more to protect children from online abuse. Children as young as nine have contacted the NSPCC’s Childline complaining of being tormented by name-calling, blackmail and death threats posted publicly on social media profiles and blogs. Others have complained of rumours being spread about them online. One boy told Childline: “I’m being bullied on social media by people who call me fat and ugly. I can’t block them because then they’ll just bully me even more at school. I don’t want to talk to my teachers about it, I just feel like giving up. I’ve been self-harming to cope but I just want to stop feeling this way.” Childline delivered 5,103 counselling sessions to children affected by cyberbullying in 2016/17, up 12% from 4,541 the year before and 2,410 in … [Read more...] about Counselling for cyberbullying has doubled in five years – children’s charity

In all its boredom punctuated by sudden moments of unforgettable discomfort and horror, being a teenager could best be approached in a numb state. There is something anaesthetised, or at least tonally ambiguous in this gripping drama about a teenage girl in the US about to leave eighth grade, the last stage of middle school (the equivalent of the UK’s year nine, for 13- and 14-year-olds) and due to enter high school after the summer. Elsie Fisher is absolutely outstanding in the role of Kayla Day, like an undiscovered Fanning sister: her smart, observant performance gives the audience instant access to her vulnerabilities, hurt feelings and quiet determination. Writer-director Bo Burnham has been known before this as a YouTuber and comic, but this is not exactly a funny movie, nor does it fit the more solemn conventions of the coming-of-ager. It appears to hover between two different high-school traditions. It has a bit in common with 90s comedies such as 10 Things I Hate About … [Read more...] about Eighth Grade review – the exquisite agony of growing up

Bill Stephenson had been trying to photograph the residents of one of Sheffield’s most notorious housing estates for some time when he realised he was going about things all wrong. No one trusted him, this outsider with a southern accent and a fancy camera, parachuting in from the city’s leafy Nether Edge area. They didn’t appreciate him hanging around Hyde Park flats, snatching photographs of them as they went about their lives amid the brutalist concrete they called home, perched on the hill above Sheffield railway station. He started to leave his posh Billingham bag at home. His Hasselblad, worth thousands, went in a carrier bag with a towel at the bottom to protect it. Sometimes he never even took it out. “Often I’d go up there and not take any pictures,” he says. “I’d just sit on a bench and smoke and chat to people, go for coffee at the drop-in centre. There’s always someone on an estate who knows everyone, so I found that … [Read more...] about Streets in the sky … the Sheffield high-rises that were home sweet home

Should you ever need cheering up, I can recommend 11am at Stanley Road primary in Oldham. That’s when lunch starts for the youngest children and it is pure excitement; the kind you used to have when horizons were short, days were long and nothing else needed bothering about. First comes the babble of voices, far bigger than the little bodies that follow, swaddled in plump anoraks despite the sun outside. They take crockery, these four- and five-year-olds who, back in September, didn’t know how to hold a knife and fork – and get down to the serious business of choosing. Behind the counter stands Sheena Fineran: black hat, big specs, magenta polo and, after 30 years as a dinner lady, in complete mastery of her domain. “When I started, it was lumpy mash. It was liver. It was cheap, fried, nasty food. “Today we’re the best.” Oldham’s school meals are high quality, wholesome and prize-winning. “What I see now – that’s … [Read more...] about The school that shows good food is not just for posh kids