How anxiety scrambles your brain and makes it hard to learn

November 21, 2015, 1:00 am

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Levels of stress and anxiety are on the rise among students. Juliet Rix has tips to control the panic and thrive academically

Olivia admits she’s always been a worrier – but when she started university, her anxiety steadily began to build. One day she was simply too frightened to leave the house. For two weeks she was stuck indoors, before she was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and began to get the help she needed.

With support from her GP and university wellbeing service, and courses of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), she was able to stick with her university course and to start enjoying life again.

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Shouting at your kids can damage their brains

March 21, 2001, 8:19 am

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Shouting at your kids can damage their brains, as well as hurting their ears, according to US child psychiatrists. Ouch, says Anne Karpf

I thought I was impervious to those "research shows . . ." scare stories, but this one got to me. Shouting at children, according to a recent study by psychiatrists at a hospital affiliated to Harvard Medical School, can significantly and permanently alter the structure of their brains. It was only inordinate self-restraint - of the kind I never display towards my kids - that stopped me marching them straight off for a brain scan.

Ours is a Sturm und Drang household, with shouting matches, screaming fits, and temper tantrums - and that's just the parents. The neighbours have been warned, even the kids have been warned. At two, my first-born could do a passable imitation of me yelling (and she did, to all-comers). And one of her sibling's early sentences was: "You're a lovely Mummy, but a shouty one."

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Focus: ecstasy after-effects that could last a lifetime

January 20, 2002, 2:54 am

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Britain's half-million pill-poppers could face after-effects that last a lifetime. Anthony Browne reports

Staring intently in the dim light, the music rocking his body, James snapped the little white tablet in two. Pressed against the wall, his back sheltering them from the dancing crowds, he took half for himself and gave half to his girlfriend. They swallowed, and the weekend's clubbing started.

'It makes you feel so positive about everyone and everything. You feel so open - you can talk to strangers like they are your closest friends. You feel so sensual, so tactile. I want to touch people's skin, stroke their clothes. And I want to dance, dance, dance,' gushed James. 'It's the best, the most positive experience in my life. It's life-enhancing.'

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Oxford University to issue 100-year bond worth £250m

November 28, 2017, 10:43 am

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Oxford looks to raise money for investment through capital markets as ratings agency Moody’s gives university highest rating

The University of Oxford has become the latest higher education institution in Britain to raise money for investment through the international capital markets, by issuing a bond raising at least £250m that it plans to pay back in 100 years time.

Oxford has appointed investment bankers JP Morgan to sell its bond, which is expected to be attractive for pension funds and similar institutions looking for a stable, long-term investment.

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University guide 2018: league table for drama & dance

May 15, 2017, 11:00 pm

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Drama students will study theatre management, scenery, costume and lighting. Dance students will learn about music, choreography and drama

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‘I’m 23 and want to save for a house, but I won’t be able to afford one in London’

April 20, 2018, 10:30 pm

≫ Next: If we valued black art, Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer would have been for literature | Dotun Adebayo

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Amy Heuch on how she saved for travelling but now hopes to get on the property ladder

I’m recently back from travelling and am living with my parents in Kent. It’s not my first choice. Not that I don’t get on with them – I do, but before I went travelling I lived in London and had moved away to university, so I’ve had my taste of freedom. Compared with some people’s parents, mine are very generous. They don’t make me pay rent. My mum calls me a “boomerang child”.

I’ve got a new job as a property auctioneer’s assistant in London. I’ll be doing the sales pitches and the prep for the auctions. When I started earning money, my attitude towards it changed – I became thrifty.

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If we valued black art, Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer would have been for literature | Dotun Adebayo

April 21, 2018, 1:00 am

≫ Next: 10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

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Rap should be put on a par with Shakespeare and Wordsworth. When will the education system wake up to black creativity?

I can’t help thinking that the Pulitzer prize committee missed a trick in their award to the rapper Kendrick Lamar this week. If they had given him the Pulitzer for literature rather than for music it would have elevated his artform and sent a message that would have resonated around the world: that rap is a legitimate form of poetry and should be put on a par with, and treated with the same deference as, Shakespeare and Wordsworth.

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10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

June 9, 2014, 11:20 pm

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≪ Previous: If we valued black art, Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer would have been for literature | Dotun Adebayo

The long school year is coming to an end and one primary teacher has a few things to share

• 10 things parents want to say to teachers

1 Your kids are not your mates

Something I'm starting to hear with worrying frequency within the primary school setting is "my daughter's my best friend". Often, this rings alarm bells. Your kids aren't your mates. You're their parent, and your responsibility is to provide them with guidance and boundaries, not to drag them into your own disputes. Your nine-year-old doesn't need to know about your bitter feud with his friend's mother, or which dad you've got the hots for at the school gate. In the years to come he or she may realise that some of their own problems (social alienation, in its various forms, being a prime example) might have something to do with exposure to that sort of talk at an early age. Continue at your own risk.

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Ten things I wish I'd known before starting my dissertation

April 18, 2014, 1:56 am

≫ Next: You are not alone: student stories of mental health

≪ Previous: 10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

Are you putting the final touches to a dissertation? Let's pass on some tips to those who'll be doing them next year

The sun is shining but many students won't see the daylight. Because it's that time of year again – dissertation time.

Luckily for me, my D-Day (dissertation hand-in day) has already been and gone. But I remember it well.

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You are not alone: student stories of mental health

April 4, 2014, 4:39 am

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Students share their experiences of mental health issues and reveal a common and worrying problem

Read more: where to get help for your mental health

When I asked students to share their experiences of mental health at university, I had no idea of the reaction it would receive. Over five days we received over 200 stories. Many entries we weren't able to include, for legal reasons or because the experiences described were too harrowing to publish.

Originally planned to stay open for two weeks, we decided to close the project early because there wasn't the capacity to moderate the influx of entries. Each morning we were met with more stories – from students who opened up about their anxieties and struggles.

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Oxbridge becoming less diverse as richest gain 80% of offers

October 19, 2017, 1:00 pm

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Oxford and Cambridge going backwards in drive to recruit students from poorer backgrounds and areas, data shows

Oxford and Cambridge universities have gone backwards on the socio-economic diversity of their student bodies, with more than four in five students coming from the most privileged groups, a Guardian analysis has found.

Data released to the MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, under the Freedom of Information Act shows that 82% of offers from Oxford and 81% from Cambridge went to students from the top two socio-economic groups in 2015, up from 79% at both universities five years earlier.

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‘Every lesson is a battle’: Why teachers are lining up to leave

April 9, 2018, 11:15 pm

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As the deadline looms for staff to hand in their notice before the next school year, unions warn losses will soon be unsustainable

Ellie Jones, 40, is an assistant secondary headteacher. Most mornings she gets up at 4 to do paperwork, arrives at school for 7.30 and gets home at the earliest around 6pm – often later – despite only teaching 11 hours (half a full timetable) a week. “I probably have around four or five hours sleep a night,” she says. At weekends she tries to have a full day off. She rarely manages it.

Jones, who has been teaching for 17 years, recently resigned her £52,000-a-year post with no job to go to. “I love the kids and teaching but I cannot maintain this for another 20 years. I’d break. They’d take me out of there in a box,” she says.

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Helping students with Asperger's prepare for university life

September 8, 2014, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: ‘Today we’re talking masturbation’: sitting in on a sex education class

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As the number of autistic students soars, universities are trying hard to help them with their social and life skills

"I am quite a fussy eater. I only like avocado and boiled egg," Stefania Hanson explains, as her friend pushes a trolley past the frozen peas. They're navigating their way around Asda in Birmingham's Perry Barr, finding ingredients for a cookery session.

The activity is part of a three-day summer school for students with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) who are starting university this month. Run by Birmingham City University (BCU), the programme helps those who are academically very able, but may not have some of the social or life skills that university demands. "It's also a chance for the students – who can have very specific dietary or sensory needs – to have a practice run before the real thing," says Karin Qureshi, manager of counselling and mental health at BCU.

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‘Today we’re talking masturbation’: sitting in on a sex education class

October 23, 2014, 7:25 am

≫ Next: Teaching pupils to make sense of pornography | Letters

≪ Previous: Helping students with Asperger's prepare for university life

As bill to make sex education a statutory requirement gets its second reading in the Commons, Sally Weale attends a lesson

“It’s 1pm and already we’re talking about masturbation,” declares pint-sized bodybuilder Antonietta Moch, with a broad smile across her face.

“Masturbation is very private,” she hollers across the classroom. “Masturbation is about having sex with yourself. It’s about pleasuring yourself.”

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Teaching pupils to make sense of pornography | Letters

October 24, 2016, 9:30 am

≫ Next: Must do better? Why parents plan boycott of school Sats tests

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Jenni Murray’s recent suggestion of analysing pornography in the classroom might raise some eyebrows, but with up to 60% of young people using porn to teach themselves about sex, she’s right that schools should not ignore it (Opinion, 17 October). The accessibility and lack of boundaries around pornography leave our children at risk of seeing confusing or upsetting images. Myths around dominance/submission, consent and sexual norms can skew ideas about relationships and gender, and unrealistic comparisons can damage body image.

A school working with parents to promote healthy relationships and internet safety should certainly support its pupils to make sense of porn, offering practical help to encourage positive choices online and offline.

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Must do better? Why parents plan boycott of school Sats tests

April 21, 2018, 11:00 pm

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Cheating, pressure to improve results, stress. Now campaigners call for a different approach to assessing children

When children across England start their week of Sats tests next month, 30 primary schools will be under particular scrutiny. That is because children from those schools have performed poorly once they have moved to secondary schools. That has raised suspicions that their good Sats results – more properly known as key stage 2 tests – were the result of cheating. Children from other primary schools feeding the same secondary schools, meanwhile, have performed roughly as expected.

“For example, if the children were predicted 10 Bs [at GCSE], they would get 10 Cs,” said Dave Thomson, chief statistician at Education Data Lab, which carried out the analysis. “I don’t think we can say with absolute certainty why this is happening but it warrants further investigation.”

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Top ten nursery rhymes

October 6, 2009, 3:35 am

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≪ Previous: Must do better? Why parents plan boycott of school Sats tests

Booktrust asked 2,500 poeple to name their favourite nursery rhyme. All together now ... here are the top 10 Continue reading...

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70 million children get no education, says report

September 20, 2010, 2:52 am

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Those living in north-eastern Africa are least likely to go to school, according to new world rankings

Almost 70 million children across the world are prevented from going to school each day, a study published today reveals.

Those living in north-eastern Africa are the least likely to receive a good education – or any education at all, an umbrella body of charities and teaching unions known as the Global Campaign for Education has found.

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University guide 2018: league table for law

May 15, 2017, 11:00 pm

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The study of criminal legal systems – includes criminology and jurisprudence

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Discipline in schools speech

December 12, 2002, 8:47 am

≫ Next: Do US laws that punish parents for truancy keep their kids in school?

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Full text of Charles Clarke's Discipline in Schools speech

Why discipline matters
Every day around 50,000 pupils miss school without permission. Bad behaviour disrupts education at one in twelve secondary schools, according to Ofsted. And four out of five secondary pupils say some of their classmates regularly try to disrupt lessons.

The mission of this government is to raise educational standards. But you can't raise standards if pupils miss school and behave badly when they are there. Attendance and good behaviour are preconditions for effective learning. Tackling poor behaviour is as much part of improving pupil performance as good teaching. There are two other reasons why we must tackle the behaviour problem.

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