The Guardian: Excluded: former pupils in spotlight in play about school system

In a Victorian Gothic church behind Harrods in west London, a group of young people from troubled backgrounds have gathered to rehearse a play about school.

Excluded is a new production, set in a turbulent GCSE class in a Londonsecondary school in 2019, that attempts to shine a light on the problems faced by vulnerable young people within the education system.

The content of the play is close to home. At an early workshop exploring the issues, it emerged that all but two of the young performers had been excluded from school. Some are care leavers, some have mental health problems, others have been young offenders. Many have been affected by the consequences of knife crime, which they link to the increasing number of exclusions.

BBC: How women students put a rocket up Cambridge

Women's long struggle to gain fair access to university is commemorated in an exhibition opening next week at the University of Cambridge library.

What's most shocking, perhaps, is that it's all so relatively recent - with women not allowed to graduate from Cambridge on equal terms until 1948.

For teenagers currently filling in their university applications, it would be hard to imagine that within living memory at Cambridge there was such blunt discrimination.

The "Rising Tide" exhibition shows the level of resistance, including violence, against women wanting to study at Cambridge with equal rights to men.

This includes the remnants of a firework thrown by protesters in 1897 as they rioted against the revolutionary idea of women getting degrees.

But in the end it was the women who put a rocket up Cambridge, rather than the other way round.

Education, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 16, 2019Lando EducationBBC, women students, Cambridge, Cambridge University, womenComment

BBC: Royal National College for the Blind threatened by financial crisis

One of the country's most historic educational centres for young blind people is warning that financial pressures are threatening its survival.

The Royal National College for the Blind, which has operated for almost 150 years, says without extra funding it will cease to be sustainable.

Lucy Proctor, chief executive of the college's charitable trust, has blamed a squeeze on special-needs budgets.

But the government is promising a £700m increase for special needs.

Media Article, CharitySarah NorrisOctober 16, 2019Lando EducationBBC, Royal National College for the Blind, blind, financial crisisComment

The Guardian: Why mathematicians just can’t quit their blackboards

Another year, another wave of students trampling across autumn leaves, making their way to their first lectures heady with a cocktail of excitement, apprehension and a nasty hangover. But while every year brings new faces, one feature of the academic landscape remains ever-present: the huge, imposing blackboards.

Now photographer Jessica Wynne, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has thrown a spotlight on this workhorse of academic endeavour, travelling across the US and beyond to capture the blackboards of mathematicians.

The Times: Don’t close private schools, open them up

This social divide is much deeper in Britain than it is in other countries. In America, though there are some swanky schools, regular prosperous families send their kids to the local state school. In France, Italy and Germany, private schools tend to be for the religious or the troubled. It is only in Britain that the professional classes willingly go without holidays to ensure that their children are educated apart from the great majority of their compatriots.

The divide is much more important than it used to be. The top private schools used largely to be patronised by the cream of society (thick and rich). But as the growth of the “knowledge economy” outpaced that of the manufacturing industry, and children’s educational achievements increasingly determined their futures, they became highly selective and highly academic.

The Guardian: School gates 'breeding ground' for vaccine myths, says NHS chief

School gates can be a “breeding ground for harmful myths” about vaccines, the chief executive of NHS England has said, as he called for a zero-tolerance approach to misinformation about their alleged dangers.

Simon Stevens said it was often the parents who did their best to find out more about the impact and effect of vaccines on their children who were liable to be deceived by “fake news”.

“In this way the school gates themselves can be a breeding ground for harmful myths to catch on, spread and ultimately infect parents’ judgment,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.

The Times: Trash TV makes boys ‘less intelligent’, researchers claim

In the 1980s glamour came to Norwegian TV: out were staid documentaries on fjords and the leather industry, in were flashy game shows and the Scandinavian version of Blind Date.

Some 30 years later researchers have spotted an unexpected side-effect — the earlier boys were exposed to cable television the worse they did in IQ tests.

Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 13, 2019Lando Educationtv, television, the times, Norwegian study, cable tv, IQ tests, europe, media artcileComment

The Times: Mother’s data-mining algorithm knows best

A director at the world’s most successful strategic consulting firm has brought the data-mining techniques of her day job to a decision with which many parents wrestle: how to help offspring choose a university course.

Tera Allas, director of research and economics at McKinsey and a self-confessed geek, said that it came as “no surprise” to her family when she launched a fact-based analysis and created a “prioritisation algorithm” to help her daughter weigh up courses.

The Times: Power of violin helps transform problem school

An inner-city secondary school that transformed behaviour and results after giving every new student a violin and three years of music lessons could have its success replicated across the country.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nicola Benedetti are patrons of the scheme, which is being taken beyond London for the first time and eventually aims to reach every school in England.

The Times: ‘Super-size’ class packs in 67 children

It looks more like a lecture theatre than a primary school classroom. Welcome to Broadclyst Community Primary School in Devon, where year 6 pupils are taught in a class of 67 — sometimes with just one teacher.

A Sunday Times investigation has found that cash-strapped primary schools are packing pupils into giant classes to boost their budgets. A school receives between £3,500 and £5,000 a year for each child. More than 559,000 primary pupils were taught in “super-size classes” averaging more than 30 children last year, compared with 501,000 five years earlier, according to our analysis of official data.

Evening Standard: 'Stormzy effect' helps rise in black students at Cambridge University

The “Stormzy effect” has contributed to more black students being admitted to Cambridge University, the prestigious institution has said.

For the first time, black students made up more than 3 per cent of the undergraduate intake, reflective of wider UK society, according to the university.

It said the rise was due to a number of factors, including the "Stormzy effect".

The grime artist is funding the tuition fees and living costs for two students each year.

The Guardian: Homemade invisible ink earns ninja student an A for half an essay

A Japanese student aced an assignment on ninja culture by making her own invisible ink from soya beans in a stealthy move that impressed her professor.

Eimi Haga, a member of Mie University’s ninja club, submitted an essay about the assassins with a message attached instructing the professor to heat it before reading.

The Times: Friends and early nights help girls stay happy

Seeing friends face to face and getting a good night’s sleep are the best ways for teenage girls to ward off psychological ill health, according to a government report.

The first state-of-the-nation report on children’s mental health found that these two actions were far more important than staying off social media, which had only a small effect on teenage girls’ happiness.

Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 10, 2019Lando EducationThe Times, friends, face to face, good night's sleep, teenage girls, femalesComment

The Guardian: Sesame Street takes on opioids crisis as muppet's mother battles addiction

Creators introduce bright-green Karli: ‘Nothing else out there addresses substance abuse for young kids from their perspective’

Sesame Street is taking a new step to help American kids navigate the thornier parts of life in America: the opioids crisis.

Sesame Workshop is exploring the backstory of Karli, a bright green, yellow-haired friend of Elmo’s whose mother is battling addiction.

Sesame Street creators said they turned to the issue of addiction since data shows 5.7m children under the age of 11 live in households with a parent with substance use disorder. America’s opioid crisis has grown steadily worse in recent years. The Department of Health and Human Services reported 10.3 million people misused opioid prescriptions last year, and an average of 130 people die every day from opioid-related drug overdoses.

Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 10, 2019Lando EducationSesame Street, Media Article, children TV, children, USA, American kidsComment

Evening Standard: The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Education

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon - Co-founder of STEMettes

Dr Dayo Olukoshi OBE - Executive principal, Brampton Manor
Sally-Anne Huang - Headmistress, James Allen’s Girls’ School
Andrew Ashe - CEO of onebillion
Emma Russo - Science teacher, South Hampstead High School
James Handscombe - Principal, Harris Westminster Sixth Form
Amanda Spielman - Chief inspector, Ofsted
Tim Barber - Head teacher, Hugh Myddelton Primary School
Tara Baig - Head teacher, Miles Coverdale Primary
Emma Stevens - Music teacher, Norbury Manor Business & Enterprise College

Mike Sheridan - Ofsted’s London director
David Benson - Head teacher, Kensington Aldridge Academy

Mouhssin Ismail - Head teacher, Newham Collegiate Sixth Form
Cheryl Giovannoni - Chief executive, Girls’ Day School Trust
Lady Cobham - Director, The 5% Club
Kimberley Hickman - PTA member, Goose Green Primary School
Sir Daniel Moynihan - Chief executive, Harris Federation
Sir Peter Lampl - Founder and chairman, Sutton Trust
Sara Williams - Chair of Pan London Admissions Board
George Lamb - Grow, founder | NEW

Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 10, 2019Lando Educationeducation, evening standard, progress 1000, influential, LondonComment

Evening Standard: Fatboy Slim plays mashup of Right Here, Right Now and Greta Thunberg's UN speech live at Gateshead show

Fatboy Slim has paid tribute to Greta Thunberg by performing a mashup of her United Nations speech and his song Right Here, Right Now to a crowd in Gateshead.

The mix, filmed by a crowd member, opens with Miss Thunberg’s speech about the climate crisis delivered to world leaders last month over opening bars of the DJ's hit track.

Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 9, 2019Lando EducationFatboy Slim, Greta Thunberg, tribute, speech, powerful speech, DJ, How Dare YouComment

The Times : Robot helps pupils to improve their writing

The handwriting of young children improves significantly when they are required to teach robots that seem to be struggling with the same difficulties, scientists say.

Researchers programmed a small humanoid robot to help under-nines to overcome the most common errors, including where parts of the letter appear out of scale and where the letter appears to be rotated at the wrong angle.

Family, Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 9, 2019Lando Educationrobot, The Times, handwriting, writing, education, learning, schoolComment

The Times: Maths teaser that adds up to better health and wealth

The key to better health, both financial and physical, could involve a mathematical brain teaser.

Psychologists have found that those with higher numeracy skills tend to make better decisions that affect their physical wellbeing as well as their finances.

The Times: Youngsters hooked on internet to get help at NHS clinic

Young people addicted to playing video games or using social media can seek treatment at the first NHS clinic dedicated to internet-related health problems.

The Centre for Internet and Gaming Disorders, based in London, opens for referrals today with the first patients to be seen by specialists in November. Appointments will also be available via Skype, the video calling app, for those unable to travel to the capital.

Family, Media Article, TechnologySarah NorrisOctober 9, 2019Lando EducationNHS, addiction, young people, video games, technologyComment

The Guardian: Turkey says Rebel Girls children's book should be treated like porn

Turkey has ruled that the million-selling book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls should be partially banned and treated like pornography because it could have a “detrimental influence” on young people.

The book, which has been published in 47 languages, offers a series of inspiring stories about women from history for young children. But in a decision published last week, the Turkish government’s board for the protection of minors from obscene publications said: “Some of the writings in the book will have a detrimental influence on the minds of those under the age of 18.”

Business, Education, Family, Media Article, Reading, ScienceSarah NorrisOctober 8, 2019Lando EducationTurkey, Rebel Girls, books, children's booksComment

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