As a linguist, I’m confident I know a thing or two about grammar; but my performance on this key stage 3 test was frankly undistinguished. I hope they do better than I did when I recently attempted the sample test produced by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority to help schools prepare their pupils. This week 14-year-olds in selected schools are taking pilot tests in English grammar, spelling and punctuation. As far as asthma and schools are concerned, there is now no excuse for ignorance.The National Asthma Campaign can be contacted via its head office at Providence House, Providence Place, London, N1 0NT.Its 24-hour information line is on 0171-971 0444 and you can speak to an asthma nurse on the Asthma Helpline on 0345 01 02 03 (calls charged at local rates)nThe writer is a general practitioner.. The National Asthma Campaign has packs available which schools can purchase, as well as an Asthma Helpline.Many GPs now have practice nurses specifically trained in asthma care, who can take seminars on Baker Days. Children are usually accurate assessors of their disease and it is important that teachers listen to them.Not surprisingly, the key to asthma empowerment is education. The first is to treat an asthmatic child as some form of leper, forbidding him to do games.This isolates him emotionally, as well as rendering him less fit and less capable of dealing with an asthma attack when one comes.The second mistake is to refuse to recognise that a child is having an attack, and to insist that he continues what he is doing.

Time is of the essence in an asthma attack: there is no point in keeping the inhalers locked up in the main office when the child having the attack is at the far end of the school field.What are the big mistakes that schools can make? There are two, and they are equal and opposite. Medication should always be kept near at hand, especially when doing games. A child who can confidently control his asthma like this loses his anxiety, and for this reason alone the intensity of attacks will reduce.There are a number of different types of inhalers, and it is helpful if teachers know how each works. Each child should have an individual plan for altering the amount and type of medication in a smooth and progressive fashion. It is a useful rule of thumb to think of relievers as controlling today’s asthma, while preventers control tomorrow’s.Modern treatment concentrates on regular use of the preventers, leaving the relievers to mop up what symptoms remain.

The preventers, such as steroid inhalant sprays, stop the inflammation which triggers off the process in the first place. The relievers, such as salbutamol, stop the spasm, and open up the tubes. When teachers are comfortable with what asthma is, comfortable with the varied ways in which treatment is given, aware of the danger signs, and conscious of the need to be alert to what the child is saying about the symptoms, this minimises the risks and maximises control of the disease.Asthma occurs when the tubes conveying air in and out of the lungs become constricted, irritable, inflamed, and full of mucus There are basically two types of treatment. The second is the empowerment of treatment: the child rapidly becomes an expert who can most accurately gauge what medication he ought to take, and when.The role of the school is to help in this empowerment. The first is the empowerment of knowledge, making sure that the child understands what happens in asthma, and especially what special factors trigger his own attacks.

The more an asthmatic child can take charge of his or her illness, the more relaxed that child will be and the better the asthma as a result.
There are two parts to this process. Empowerment is the antidote to panic and the opposite of being out of control. The aim is to encourage schools to develop practical, consistent ways of helping pupils control their disease

The key to treating asthma successfully is empowerment. How does it feel to have asthma at school? Over a million children can answer that question from first-hand experience, which is why the National Asthma Campaign is holding a conference for teachers and educational health professionals at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, today. Only then will we provide an education fit for the 21st century for our children and grandchildrennThe writer is Professor of Education at the University of Exeter.

We need local co-operation and collaboration, with everyone pulling in the same direction. The national curriculum framework ensures that non-academic pupils are left trying to cope with the lower levels of an academic syllabus – it is a waste of their time, and indeed the teachers’ time, and it is no wonder that there is ever-increasing disaffection and under-achievement in schools today.The aim should be that, within the life-time of this parliament, all schools should be brought up to a common standard of excellence so that parents do not need to seek out a preferred school in some neighbouring area but would be happy to send their children to the local school, confident that they would receive a good education suited to their talents, potential and interests.Competition and confrontation seem to dominate the current thinking in education in both major parties – but high-quality education should be a right for all children, without parents having to fight for it or pay for it. Some of the work experience could be offered in the school itself, with students taking responsibility for cooking, decorating, gardening, portering etc, under the supervision of a tutor.By the age of 14 years, most pupils know which route they should be taking and, provided there is possible transfer across faculties built into the framework, pupils’ options and opportunities would not be closed down, but rather they would have courses and training appropriate to their needs and talents. The Vocational route would involve a planned combination of extensive work experience (requiring the co-operation of local business) together with practical school-based courses. These pupils should be given the opportunity to experience the practical aspects of technology within the school. In fact, the available money for resources, particularly IT, should be targeted at these routes rather than at the Academic route.The Technical route would lead to semi-academic qualifications, leading on to practical degree courses in Higher Education.