The head of Sherborne Prep school argues: we have made children safer and yet more vulnerable; more comfortable and yet less happy; more physically secure and more mentally fragile.

Connexions is the government’s support service for all young people aged 13–19 in England. It offers support through personal advisers, who can provide not only careers advice but advice on health, housing, relationships, money, travel, disability and legal rights. It can also be a gateway to more specialist support, for example on drug abuse, sexual health and homelessness.

If you are prepared to do some research and feel confident about making your own investment decisions, instead of following the recommendations of an independent financial advisor (IFA) there are various ways to buy Unit Trusts, OEICs and ISAs for your children's future. Read on for more.

Reading is one of the best ways to learn new words but no-one will read if they don’t enjoy it and are not interested in what they read. At this age, what they read is less important than that they read. Look at your daughter’s enthusiasms.

Many schools assess or even examine youngsters on entry but do little else until Common Entrance (CE) at either 11+ or 13+. CE tests youngsters in the core subjects with a range of other subjects, including Latin and Greek , on offer.

Do you need to find an independent school, state school or fee-paying, day or boarding school? Undoubtedly you want to find a great school, we offer guidance to help you choose the best schools.

With mounting pressure to find the right school and jump through seemingly endless hoops it's little wonder parents are keen to tick all the boxes from day one. When it comes to 'first-day nerves' we explain what's normal and what's not...

Prospectuses abound with girls dancing, boys scrumming and children generally doing everything but think. It has become unfashionable for heads to care about the stretching of minds. Or at least to admit to caring. There is a powerful misconception, in the minds of many, that caring about learning and acting upon that conviction will undermine the other, equally important, elements of an education: the extra-curricular, the social and the spiritual.

Tax and saving for school fees. Children have their own tax allowance, which in theory should cover investment income savings interest. Grandparents may also be able to help.

Relative Popularity measures the popularity of a subject in ‘your’ schools relative to its popularity in comparable schools. Relative Success measures how well pupils do in this subject relative to their performance in other subjects. Weighted AB % is a measure of the raw results achieved and WOW Factor is a combination of the previous three, ie a summing up of overall success. On all measures higher is better.

It's not just parents from the state sector who are flexing their muscles, much of the increase is attributed to the credit-crunch and escalating fees at independent schools. With this in mind, not only do you need to start your search for the ideal school as early as possible but you need to add a tutor to your shopping basket too.

A lot will depend on how well funded the school is: it is worth investigating this before you go any further. A few well-funded, rich schools will pick up the tab until further notice if you fall on hard times and your child is a good egg. Most of them will do their very best to see you through exam periods, but most poor schools simply cannot afford to do this for long, however much they may wish to.

Before you phone the nearest tutoring agency, sign-up for on-line help or rush to buy the latest self-help guide it's worth doing a bit of homework. Find out: what's essential, what's not; what constitutes a hiccup rather than a hurdle and when to rally rather than retreat!