Thursday, December 18, 2008

Reloop Design - Gifts for Christmas - very very cool

http://www-2.net/yoffe.com/ruth/re-loop-design.html

http://reloopdesigns.wordpress.com/

http://reloopdesigns.org/


helping improve livelihoods by providing fair-wage income through bag collection, yarn production, teaching skills and environmental clean-up. Each item is unique in coloring and patina, reflecting the nuances of weathered plastic. Creating artisan products of intrinsic beauty is an essential step to building a sustainable business and raising the esteem and aspirations of the individuals employed. Our mission is to create beautiful designs that address the critical global issues of environmental pollution and sustainable development. ReLOOP Designs Eco-sustainable, transform recycled plastic bags into high-market products. Generate fair-trade income and skills within the disable community. Teach artisan skills and design concepts for product development. Raise the esteem and economic aspirations of those individuals in the community most often neglected. Clean-up the environment while developing a sustainable source of income.

Reloop Designs beautiful designs handcrafted from recycled plastic bags generating fair wage income in Cambodia reloopdesigns@gmail.com Welcome to Reloop Designs. We invite you to browse through our Reloop store and shop with confidence. Reloop's handmade recycled plastic bag products are generating fair-wages at every level of production, from bag collection to teaching new artisan skills to the disabled. Thank you for sharing in the mission to address the critical issues of environmental pollution and sustainable micro developments through purchasing our beautiful designs. Please note we update our designs on a regular basis, each product label acknowledges the individual artisan. 100% of profits go back to artisans and their community.We invite you to create an account with us if you like, or shop as a guest. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store. GUARANTEED XMAS UPS GROUND DELIVERY DEADLINE 18TH DEC. Thank you for visiting. beautiful designs that recycle plastic bags and generate fair-wage income in Cambodia PROCESS & PRODUCTION Every phase of making the recycled plastic bag `yarn' and the handcrafting of these designs fosters skills among the disabled and poor, improving their quality of life and environment. By setting standard payment per plastic bag collected, regardless of usability, ReLOOP helps guarantee that as many bags as possible are collected. A small group of deaf adults were employed for the yarn production to ensure quality control. Each ball of yarn's beautiful unique coloration is due to the random variations of weathering on the bags. Batch coloring and patterning skills were taught to allow for more ARTISAN LABS Product design development was conducted with research labs. Initially with two individuals skilled in crotchet, the labs eventually expanded to include four. The supportive environment of the lab encouraged exploration and experimentation, with emphasis placed on confidence-building and the sharing of knowledge. As design complexity grew, so did the participants' capacity to understand design drawings and follow quality-control standards. These labs successfully nurtured trust in the design-direction process, leading to impressive results in a short period of time. The product samples are designed for a variety of skill levels, price -points and markets. RODUCT SAMPLES Although ReLoop designs have high-end urban marketability, they are created with simple methods and tools enabling artisan training and employment in rural villages. These product samples are the results of the research `Labs`. We continue to refine these designs, quality and yarn patterning. DISABLED BEGINNERS WORKSHOPS Due to decades of conflict in Cambodia, crocheting skills are rare, making it necessary to teach a new generation. The disabled were invited to participate in beginners workshops, where lessons were taught in wool and later basic designs with plastic yarn. The participants showed tenacity and enthusiasm as they learned a new skill that they could apply in their rural communities. It also proved how in a short period of time many disabled adults could train to an artisan skill-level that can provide them with income. Product designs were developed for every skill level to ensure future employment. KIDS CREATIVE WORKSHOPS These workshops combined the wish to find a creative outlet for the deaf youth in the community with the useful application of the non-yarn quality bags. Teaching simple yet whimsical animal designs with wire and plastic was great fun, and within a few workshops the kids could make them on their own. Their individual creativity and dexterity is evident with each delightful animal, and has potential marketability. Kampot is a riverside town located in the south east of Cambodia, an area until fairly recently untouched due to Khmer Rouge presence. The legacy of French colonial architecture is still evident in the town and the nearby hill station of Bokor Mountain. The province has yet to recover from the economic and social devastation of years of civil war.
Today most still live on subsistence, with no irrigation, electricity or plumbing and only rudimentary education. As costs of rice and petrol escalate, their struggle becomes ever more difficult with wages well below the world poverty line. SOFT POTS (4) Soft nesting pots ideal storage for bathrooms,kitchens and desks, washable. FRUIT BASKETS (7) unique fruit baskets washable BAGS & BELTS (8) Beautiful unique designs, high detailing BOXES (3) Round lidded boxes durable and washable COIL BASKET URNS & VASES (5) Beautiful decorative urns durable and washable TABLE TOP (2) Washable and durable table top accessories Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP
Our Products >> BOXES STORAGE BOX large lidded storage box STORAGE BOX MED Medium storage box STORAGE BOX MED medium storage box Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP Quick Search Advanced Search Terms and Conditions About Us Copyright . 2008 Reloop Designs. All rights reserved. reloopdesigns@gmail.com 718 522 7158 Web Site Shopping Cart Reloop Designs beautiful designs handcrafted from recycled plastic bags generating fair wage income in Cambodia reloopdesigns@gmail.com Our Products >> COIL BASKET URNS & VASES URN BW Coil basket Urn VASE B/W Vase shaped coil basket VASE FAIRY one-off colored vase basket Urn Green COIL BASKET URN URN LARGE BLUE lantern shaped coil basket Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP Quick Search Advanced Search Terms and Conditions About Us Copyright . 2008 Reloop Designs. All rights reserved. reloopdesigns@gmail.com 718 522 7158 Web Site Shopping Cart Reloop Designs beautiful designs handcrafted from recycled plastic bags generating fair wage income in Cambodia reloopdesigns@gmail.com Our Products >> TABLE TOP MATT COLOURED place mat, washable hangs on wall PLACE MAT BW table mat washable (no direct heat) Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP Quick Search Advanced Search Terms and Conditions About Us Copyright . 2008 Reloop Designs. All rights reserved. reloopdesigns@gmail.com 718 522 7158 Web Site Shopping Cart Reloop Designs beautiful designs handcrafted from recycled plastic bags generating fair wage income in Cambodia reloopdesigns@gmail.com Our Products >> SOFT POTS SOFT POT SET Set of 3 variegated color red/green and yellow/green SOFT POT SINGLE Individual soft pot D5" x H 4" Pink with yellow rim SOFT POT SINGLE Yellow soft pot with green rim SOFT POT SET Nesting set of 3 soft pots Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP Quick Search Advanced Search Terms and Conditions About Us Copyright . 2008 Reloop Designs. All rights reserved. reloopdesigns@gmail.com 718 522 7158 Web Site Shopping Cart Reloop Designs beautiful designs handcrafted from recycled plastic bags generating fair wage income in Cambodia reloopdesigns@gmail.com Our Products >> FRUIT BASKETS FRUIT BASKET Blue basket yellow rim FRUIT BASKET Large fruit basket FRUIT BASKET Fruit basket with yellow rim FRUIT BASKET Medium fruit basket FRUIT BASKET Green/red coil basket FRUIT BASKET bowl shaped coil basket FRUIT BASKET Medium fruit basket Home Shopping Cart Sign In Register Help Contact Us Reloop designs home Our Products SOFT POTS FRUIT BASKETS BAGS & BELTS BOXES COIL BASKET URNS & VASES TABLE TOP Quick Search Advanced Search Terms and Conditions About Us Copyright . 2008 Reloop Designs. All rights reserved. reloopdesigns@gmail.com 718 522 7158 Web Site Shopping Cart

StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

meteor fireball caused Auckland blaze

Meteorite photo/ESO
The fire at Ponsonby's Olympic Commercial Laundry building on Saturday night was thought to be accidental. Photo / Dean Purcell

The fire at Ponsonby's Olympic Commercial Laundry building on Saturday night was thought to be accidental. Photo / Dean Purcell


A meteorite causing the Ponsonby fire?

I saw the meteorite from the top of Mount Eden and I have a BSc in Geology so have a good understanding of what I saw. The blinding green flash was the meteorite entering our atmosphere, it didn’t seem to break the sound barrier as it entered. It looked like it was burning out and left a vapor trail that hung for about five minutes. It was going very fast and would have been burning at about 2,000 degrees, the same as basaltic magma. To clarify, a meteorite is smaller than a metre in diameter and they are not that rare. The meteorite was travelling towards the Ponsonby area and I am not at all suprised that it caused a building to ignite. - Melissa







Laundry owner Dave Hurt's desire to get an early start on van loads of dirty linen from Auckland's restaurants nearly cost him his life on Saturday night.

Mr Hurt, 66, was sleeping in the office above his Olympic Commercial Laundry in Grey Lynn when he was woken by smoke.

"I went downstairs to the front door which was deadlocked," he said.

"I realised then the trousers I pulled on didn't have the keys in the pockets - and I couldn't go back up there.


"Luckily, a fireman arrived at the door and let me out.

"It was all smoke and the place was well ablaze within half an hour."



The fire about 10.30pm quickly gutted the concrete building, though efforts to stop it spreading to adjacent buildings were successful.

Looking at the collapsed, burned roof of his MacKelvie St building of 35 years, Mr Hurt said the fire came at the busiest time of year for the laundry and linen hire business, which serves 150 restaurants.

"We are flat out. I was going to light the boiler and get a few loads done before the staff come in at 5am."

A warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand was destroyed by fire after what witnesses claim was a direct meteorite hit.

According to the NZ Herald:


Some people were convinced the fire was caused by what may have been a meteorite, which was seen from various parts of the upper North Island streaking across the sky just after 10 o';clock.

Several callers claim the light in the sky was very bright, and it was described by some as a blinding flash. Others said it was trailing smoke.

One man, Mike, says he saw the object crash with an exploding noise in the Ponsonby area, and reckons it could have started the fire.


http://www.geocities.com/aerolitehunter/Oct14fireball.jpg

There are three kinds of meteorites, stony, iron, and stony-iron. Stony meteorites consist of minerals rich in silicon and oxygen, with smaller amounts of iron, magnesium, and other elements. One group of stony meteorites, called chondrites, are pieces of the same material from which the planets formed. Another group of stony meteorites, the achondrites, were once part of a parent body, such as an asteroid, that was large enough to have melted and separated into an iron-rich core and a stony crust. Achondrites come from the outer crust; stony-iron meteorites, from the inner crust; and iron meteorites, from the metallic core. Iron meteorites consist mostly of iron and nickel. Stony-iron meteorites have nearly equal amounts of silicon-based stone and iron-nickel metal.

http://www.rcktmom.com/njlworks/520image015.jpg

The size of meteorites varies greatly. Most of them are relatively small. The largest meteorite ever found weighs about 66 short tons (60 metric tons). It fell at Hoba West, a farm near Grootfontein, Namibia. However, much larger bodies, such as asteroids and comets, can also strike the earth and become meteorites.

Meteorites reach the earth's surface because they are the right size to travel through the atmosphere. If they are too small, they will disintegrate in the atmosphere. If they are too large, they may explode before reaching the earth's surface. One such object exploded about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, leaving a 20-mile (32-kilometer) area of felled and scorched trees.

Thousands of small meteorites have been found in Antarctica, providing a rich supply of specimens for scientists to study. Scientists study meteorites for clues to the types of material that formed the planets.

http://meteorites.pdx.edu/tagish_lake_fireball_400.jpg

We were having a late dinner in a restaurant (23 Princess Wharf) when I have seen a flash illuminating the sky back to me. When I turn back, I have seen the huge tail of the meteorite up to my head. The tail desappeared a little bit like a firework does, in about 2 seconds. I use to practice skydiving and I can tell you it was under 500m. It was flying from W-NW to E-SE and passed up to the Harbour Bridge. If the warehouse fire at Ponsonby was caused by it, it wasn’t the main part of the meteorite but it could be from a piece of it.
Because The Geminids (meteor shower) were currently at their peak level of activity on the 13/14 of December 2008,
http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues/2004-08-27/news1/art/fireball_big.gif

We were having a bbq in Morningside and the Meteorite went straight over our heads and lit up the whole sky with bit trail flash lasting for about 6-7 seconds. It was definitely heading towards the Ponsonby area

I did see the meteor and I must say it was impressive and a privilege to witness.
I happened to be outside in the countryside south of Auckland chatting with some freinds after a family BBQ and about 7 of us bore witness to it tearing over directly above us towards the glow of Auckland city, one amongst us is a very keen amateur astrologer but he was unfortunately the only one inside at the time and very disappointed to have missed it.

http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST101/images/meteor.jpg

The flash of light it produced lit up everything like a bright lighting strike, it was traveling extremely fast for an object which has made it through to the inner atmosphere with the flash from the burn lasting no longer than a decent lightning strike.
The trail went right across the sky and though it’s very difficult to distinguish distance in the sky, especially at night it was however low enough to clearly make out the turbulence patterns inside the vapour trail as it was clearly illuminated by the near full moon and the width of the trail was a lot wider than is seen behind passenger jets, either meaning it was lower or was simply a lot bigger. (we speculated whether it was gas ionisation that caused the glow or moonlight and didn’t really come to a conclusion.)
It did hang around for about 5 mins and then just dispersed evenly before disappearing.

We didn’t hear anything, waited for a sonic boom but heard nothing.

It was definitely heading in the direction of the city.
http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2006/11/12/0001217651/leonid_lorenzo_1.small.jpg
leonid lorenzo


A large group of us were at a party in Mount Eden North, and quite a few people saw the event… although it was so quick/brief that there was much debate about what it was we all saw. The flash itself was like a massive lightning strike. No identifiable sound. I managed to look up and see a burning almost white object streak out of the sky. Hard to judge the size, but about equal to 1/25 the size of the full moon - and shaped like a slightly flattened jellybean. It was a decent sized piece of rock. It was travelling so fast (like a bullet) that it was litterally gone in a fraction on a second (hence i would be surprised if anyone had time to film it - unless there was a camera already fixed on that section of sky filming).

I say “out of the sky” not “across the sky” because what struck me instantly was the angle of entry. The vapour trail was very clear, slightly illuminated (possibly by the moon) and left hanging until it dissipated after about 10 seconds. From where i stood the thing seemed to come almost directly from the upper atmosphere on a 75% trajectory (if 90% were vertical) and i had the sensation that it was very close to us… possibly under 1500m and heading basically NNE towards the sky tower area (although i had the feeling it was gonna hit around Bond St area). Intense.

http://www.fallingrocks.com/images/fireball.jpg





http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/Images/Meteorite.jpg
Metaor strike at sunset

http://north-land.com/ypa/fireball.jpg
Meteor smoke trail
The brightest meteor, a fireball, leaves a smokey persistent trail!

A meteoroid is a small sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's (or another body's) atmosphere is called a meteor, or commonly a "shooting star" or "falling star". If a meteoroid reaches the ground, it is then called a meteorite. Many meteors are part of a meteor shower. The root word meteor comes from the Greek meteōros, meaning high in the air.

http://www.aad.gov.au/imglib/small/20050825-meteor-artist-impression-110436.jpg

If the object is larger than a meteoroid, it is called an asteroid; smaller than that, it is interplanetary dust. The current official definition of a meteoroid from the International Astronomical Union is "a solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom."[1] The Royal Astronomical Society has proposed a new definition where a meteoroid is between 100 µm and 10 m across.[2] The NEO definition includes larger objects, up to 50 m in diameter, in this category.

http://rocksfromspace.open.ac.uk/images/spanish_fireball.jpg

The composition of meteoroids can be determined as they pass through Earth's atmosphere from their trajectory and the light spectra of the resulting meteor. Their effects on radio signals also yield information, especially useful for daytime meteors which are otherwise very difficult to observe. From these trajectory measurements, meteoroids have been found to have many different orbits, some clustering in streams (see Meteor showers) often associated with a parent comet, others apparently sporadic. The light spectra, combined with trajectory and light curve measurements, have yielded various compositions and densities, ranging from fragile snowball-like objects with density about a quarter that of ice,[3] to nickel-iron rich dense rocks. A relatively small percentage of meteoroids hit the Earth's atmosphere and then pass out again: these are termed Earth-grazing fireballs.


http://tomsastroblog.com/images/australiafireball12405.jpg

A meteor typically occurs in the mesosphere, and most visible meteors range in altitude from 75km to 100km.


http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/img/3-meteor-wyoming-lake-714.jpg

(there is a super-8 film of this event, I have seen it on TV)


For bodies with a size scale larger than the atmospheric mean free path (10 cm to several metres) the visibility is due to the heat produced by the ram pressure (not friction, as is commonly assumed) of atmospheric entry. Since the majority of meteors are from small sand-grain size meteoroid bodies, most visible signatures are caused by electron relaxation following the individual collisions between vaporized meteor atoms and atmospheric constituents. The meteor is simply the visible event rather than an object itself.


StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!

Monday, December 15, 2008

New Zealand Australia School Bullying

TIMSS 2007 International Mathematics Report: Findings from IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study at the Fourth and Eighth Grades

Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., & Foy, P. (with Olson, J.F., Preuschoff, C., Erberber, E., Arora, A., & Galia, J.). (2008). Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston College.



New Zealand has been ranked second worst among 37 countries when it comes bullying in primary schools, according to a major international report.

Almost three quarters of about 5000 New Zealand year five students said they had been bullied in the past month in the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study (TIMSS).

The same study, which was released last week, also found that local pupils were lagging behind Kazakhstan when it came to science prowess, scoring just above the international average. In maths they scored below the international average.

When it came to bullying only Tunisia ranked lower – with 77 per cent of students reporting bullying in the last month.

Bullying was defined as having something stolen, being hit or hurt by another student, was left out, made fun of, or made to do something you didn't want to do.

New Zealand also ranked second worse when it came to students experiencing three of more of those forms of bullying in the past month, with 33 per cent reporting such experiences.

Only Taiwan, with 35 per cent, was worse.

http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080304/wbully04/0304bully500big.jpg

New Zealand's rates were more than 50 per cent above the international average.

Australia also fared badly in the year five section of the study – just above Qatar, Taiwan, New Zealand and Tunisia – with 70 per cent of students reporting some form of bullying in the past month and 26 per cent saying they had experienced three or more kinds.

Labour's education spokesman, Chris Carter, said parents "would be horrified" by the report's findings

"This shocking news must be a wake up call for the new National-ACT Government to focus education resources on making our schools safer for students."

Mr Carter, Labour's former education minister, defended his own record, saying he had instructed the Education Review Office to ensure schools had strategies in place to combat bullying.

Resource cards had also been distributed to students on the subject.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Anne Tolley said she had not been briefed on the figures, but would look into it "as a priority".

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/images/Bullying_Prevention_Program/bully.gif

She said she saw bullying in schools as a serious issue that needed to be addressed and Labour's efforts in the area had been lacklustre.

Its resource cards were a gimmick that were either likely to be lying languishing in classrooms or to have been tossed into the rubbish by students.

Mr Carter said 220 New Zealand primary schools had taken part in the study, the major part of which was released last week.

More than 600 New Zealand principals and teachers were surveyed as well as 4940 Year five students.

-NZPA

==========


Bullying in Australian primary schools is in the worst category in the world, according to a new study tracking global education standards.

More than a quarter of Australian year 4 students said they had suffered bullying in the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study which surveyed schools in about 40 countries.

The results have alarmed child health experts and education bodies which have been running strict anti-bullying programs in schools over the past six years.

Australian primary school students suffer bullying at a rate of almost 50 per cent above the international average, putting Australia in the worst category for bullying.

Of the 36 countries sampled in the survey of year 4 students, only Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan and New Zealand fared worse than Australia.

The Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study which found Australia dragging behind its neighbours and even Kazakhstan in maths and science education found more than a quarter of Australian year 4 students had been bullied in at least three ways in the month before they were tested.

The study, produced by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, asked if they had experienced any of five antisocial behaviours in the previous month whether something of theirs had been stolen, they had been hurt by other students, they had been made do things against their will, they had been teased or they had been excluded by others.

In Australia, where almost 460 schools participated in the study, 26 per cent of year-four students had encountered at least three of the behaviours in the period.

Internationally, 42 per cent of primary school students said they had experienced none of the behaviours.

In Australia, it was less than 33 per cent.

Queensland Primary Principals Association (APPA) spokesman Tony McGruther said he was alarmed by the suggestion bullying was worse in Australian than overseas.

''I have visited schools in the United States and Canada and Australian schools would not appear any more conducive to incidents of bullying than schools in those countries,'' Mr McGruther said.

He suggested the figures did not reflect a worsening pattern of bullying in Australian schools but rather highlighted students' increased awareness of antisocial behaviour.

''I don't believe this is a reflection of an increased number of bullying incidents in Australian schools,'' Mr McGruther said.

''Australian children have been made far more aware of the issue through strong anti-bullying campaigns in schools and are therefore more likely to identify incidents of bullying and then report on those incidents in a survey,'' Mr McGruther said.

However, Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford said the figures concerned him.

He suggested they reflected the country's growing culture of aggression.

http://www.teenissues.co.uk/images/3142.jpg

''This is alarming,'' Mr Welford said.

''In the broader community there is perhaps a weakening of standards of behaviour.

''We have to increase student's social and emotional resilience, responsibility and respect.

''Those schools that have a high standard of behaviour work more closely with parents...good behaviour must be reinforced at school and at home.''

Mr McGruther said the shocking figures were possibly a reflection of a sharp increase in the number of children with mental health issues.

As many as one in seven Australian children suffer from anxiety, he said.

"Children suffering anxiety or another mental illnesses are far more likely to act out at school."

Former Queensland Catholic Primary Principals Association President Terrence Grant said anti-bullying policies in schools were working.

He agreed the survey results were evidence of the success of anti-bullying programs.

''Children are more likey now to discuss incidents of bullying at school with their parents at home,'' Mr Grant said.

''We get great cooperation from families to help us solve problems of bullying that arise in schools.''

Mr Grant, who is also the principal of Saint Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School in Woree, in north Queensland, said there had been no significant change in the prevalance of bullying in Australia.

''Bullying occurs now the same as it did years ago,'' he said.

However Stacey Waters, a research fellow at the Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowan University, said the type of bullying that had changed, but that had not affected numbers.

''Eighty-three per cent of kids who are face-to-face bullied are also cyber bullied. It's not like there's a new group of kids that are being bullied; it's just increasing the dose.

They're just being bullied in more ways now,'' Mrs Waters said.

''It was historically fairly aggressive face-to-face bullying. It's now more covert.''

===============

Of the 36 countries sampled in the survey of year four students, only Kuwait , Qatar, Taiwan and New Zealand fared worse than Australia.

14 December 2008 - 5:11pm — NZPA

By Grant Fleming of NZPA

Wellington, Dec 14 NZPA - New Zealand has been ranked second worst among 37 countries when it comes bullying in primary schools, according to a major international report.

Almost three quarters of about 5000 New Zealand year five students said they had been bullied in the past month in the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study (TIMSS).

The same study, which was released last week, also found that local pupils were lagging behind Kazakhstan when it came to science prowess, scoring just above the international average. In maths they scored below the international average.

When it came to bullying only Tunisia ranked lower -- with 77 percent of students reporting bullying in the last month.

Bullying was defined as having something stolen, being hit or hurt by another student, was left out, made fun of, or made to do something you didn't want to do.

New Zealand also ranked second worse when it came to students experiencing three of more of those forms of bullying in the past month, with 33 percent reporting such experiences.

Only Taiwan, with 35 percent, was worse.

New Zealand's rates were more than 50 percent above the international average.

Australia also fared badly in the year five section of the study -- just above Qatar, Taiwan, New Zealand and Tunisia -- with 70 percent of students reporting some form of bullying in the past month and 26 percent saying they had experienced three or more kinds.

Labour's education spokesman, Chris Carter, said parents "would be horrified" by the report's findings

"This shocking news must be a wake up call for the new National-ACT Government to focus education resources on making our schools safer for students."

Mr Carter, Labour's former education minister, defended his own record, saying he had instructed the Education Review Office to ensure schools had strategies in place to combat bullying.

Resource cards had also been distributed to students on the subject.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Anne Tolley said she had not been briefed on the figures, but would look into it "as a priority". She said she saw bullying in schools as a serious issue that needed to be addressed and Labour's efforts in the area had been lacklustre.

Its resource cards were a gimmick that were either likely to be lying languishing in classrooms or to have been tossed into the rubbish by students.

Mr Carter said 220 New Zealand primary schools had taken part in the study, the major part of which was released last week.

More than 600 New Zealand principals and teachers were surveyed as well as 4940 Year five students.

NZPA PAR gf mgr
StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!