Relaxation techniques are to be taught to primary schoolchildren as young as nine in Singapore.

For instance, they will be taught how to identify the symptoms of anxiety experienced in exams or other stressful situations, such as sweaty palms or having a dry mouth.

Next time they feel an attack of nerves coming on, they will know exactly what to do: close their eyes, picture a relaxing scene and tell themselves they can do it.

Youngsters who feel upset over not being able to do their homework will be advised to take a deep breath, go for a walk and recall how they managed in difficult times in the past instead of getting angry with themselves.

Many children do not know when they are feeling stressed or angry.

Even when they do, they do not have the vocabulary to express their emotions because they are too young. They may exhibit it by misbehaving, doing badly in exams or refusing to go to school.

But stress is not necessarily bad. It can help build resilience and character if managed properly. And this is where the lessons will come in handy.

Eco-friendly school

A multi-million pound eco-friendly primary school is to be built in Britain with a government grant.

Staff and pupils at Durham County's crumbling Pelton Junior and Infant School have been waiting for a new school for some time.

The new school, which will cost more than £3 million, will have places for more than 400 children and will include the latest design and environmentally friendly devices.

There will be built-in security measures, solar power, water recycling and bio-fuel boilers

There will also be an information technology suite, a place for special needs teaching and provision for an out-of-hours children's club.

Vitamins for all students

The ministry of education in Jordan is to distribute vitamins to all students, under an initiative of King Abdullah.

Each student will receive one vitamin per day, regarded as enough to make up for any shortage in vitamin intake, according to officials supervising the programme.

The King has given directives to address nutritional problems suffered by schoolchildren, stressing the need to enhance nutrition to ensure normal physical growth.

Music helps language learning

Some schools in Singapore are turning to music to make language learning a fun and creative experience, encouraging students to compose music as a way of reinforcing language basics.

About 1,000 Primary 6 pupils from four schools have worked together to strengthen mother-tongue proficiency, composing songs in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Using various software to compose the music, the pupils communicated with each other via e-mail and video-conferencing to coordinate music and lyrics.

A pupil who worked on a Malay song with five of her contemporaries said: "When my friends wrote lyrics that I did not understand, they explained them. I learnt new Malay words as a result."

Blair promises broadband

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised that all of England's primary and secondary schools would be linked to the internet by broadband in three years' time.

Mr Blair pledged the investment in school technology as part of more than £1bn of government spending to link public services including GP surgeries, hospitals and the entire criminal justice system to the internet.

He predicted such innovations as broadband video streaming in school lessons, ambulance crews accessing patients' medical records on the spot and GPs sending prescriptions to pharmacists electronically.