Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

November 27, 2012, 12:00 pm

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A headteacher says pupil behaviour is better and bullying is down since he barred mobiles in his school. So should others follow suit? Teachers argue for and against

"You'll have someone's eye out with that" used to be the refrain of teachers in my day. In malevolent hands, a pencil, a rubber, even a piece of paper could become a lethal weapon in class, and that's before we got on to compasses and Bunsen burners.

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Parents: not happy about something at school? Here’s how to complain

February 23, 2015, 11:30 pm

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Your daughter’s homework isn’t being marked. Your son’s been put in detention for no real reason. What’s the best course of action? A teacher writes …

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was from a friend in the restaurant business. If I were planning to complain about any part of my meal or service, he said, I should wait until I had eaten all I was going to eat that night. He illustrated this warning with examples of what can happen to food prepared for awkward customers, and so I’ve followed this advice ever since. It’s a good principle: don’t complain to people on whom you’re relying – unless there’s no way they can wipe your steak on their bum or drop a bogey in your soup.

As with restaurants, so with schools. The difference with schools is that you’re likely to be stuck with them for a lot longer than one meal. So think carefully before putting on your Mr Angry face and marching into the school for a spot of ranting.

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Schools minister's academy drops plans for longer day after protests

April 26, 2016, 5:59 am

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Parents complain 45-minute extension at Future Academies, established by Lord Nash and his wife, will exhaust pupils

An academy chain established by the schools minister has been forced to drop controversial plans to extend the day for children as young as five after protests from parents and teachers.

Future Academies in Pimlico, central London, which was set up by the academies minister Lord Nash and his wife Caroline, told parents in March that it expected to increase daily school hours by 45 minutes. It followed central government plans to do so, which were outlined in George Osborne’s budget.

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The Guardian University Awards 2018 – the night in pictures

April 25, 2018, 6:09 am

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The 2018 awards, which recognise pioneering work in higher education, were held at LSO St Luke’s in London and hosted by Lauren Laverne

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Free schools policy under fire as yet another closure announced

April 25, 2018, 8:24 am

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Plymouth studio school is 19th of its kind to close since policy introduced in 2010

The government’s free schools policy has come under renewed fire after it emerged that another of its studio schools, set up using millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, is to close this summer after a brief, troubled existence.

Plymouth studio school will be the 19th of its kind to shut its doors to pupils since the policy was introduced in 2010, at an estimated collective cost of £48.3m, according to the National Education Union (NEU).

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Novelist Libby Page: want a creative career? Learn to see ideas through

April 25, 2018, 8:28 am

≫ Next: The Guardian view on analogue clocks: their time has not run out | Editorial

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When you have a creative idea, you need to do more than consign it to your notebook. Grasp it, and get to work

I have a bookshelf dedicated to notebooks. They’re filled with journal entries and endless lists, but also with half-formed ideas – for creative projects, short stories and novels. I currently have 432 saved notes on my phone, some for ancient shopping lists but others that I wrote on the bus or late at night in a burst of inspiration. Many of them make little sense to me now.

If you’ve tried to create something, this may sound familiar. You may also have bulging notebooks and middle-of-the-night scribbles on scraps of paper, perhaps sketchbooks too. Because for a lot of creative students, coming up with ideas isn’t the problem. It’s finishing them.

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The Guardian view on analogue clocks: their time has not run out | Editorial

April 25, 2018, 10:35 am

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Reports of teenagers struggling with old-fashioned timekeeping highlight the importance of a skill that is still relevant in the digital age

At the start of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams described the Earth as “an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea”.

Four decades later and ape-descended life forms have come a long way in the field of portable digital devices, although, no less remarkably, the pre-digital method for displaying time also survives. But not for long, according to some newspaper reports. The anxiety has been provoked by remarks made by a teachers’ union leader noting that analogue wall clocks are being replaced in schools because teenagers find them onerous to read.

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Student complaints about UK universities growing, says watchdog

April 25, 2018, 4:01 pm

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Complaints last year totalled 1,635, a rise of 8% on 2016, and £650,000 in compensation and refunds was paid

Complaints to the universities watchdog are on the rise again, with unhappy students receiving a total of more than £650,000 in refunds and compensation last year.

The annual report of the Office of the Independent Adjudicatorshowed that an increasing proportion of complaints were from students dissatisfied with poor facilities, and with course content differing to what was originally offered. Complaints also arose over a lack of teaching and supervision.

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'Archaic and harmful': report condemns strict handling of student drug takers

April 25, 2018, 4:01 pm

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NUS and Release study claims universities are confused about drugs and the law

Universities are being urged not to tell the police about students caught in possession of drugs, amid fears that an overly punitive approach stops vulnerable young people from seeking help.

The recommendation is made in a study by the National Union of Students in collaboration with the drugs information charity Release. The study looks at drug use among students and how higher education institutions deal with drugs incidents.

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Bank economist calls for counselling for primary school pupils

April 25, 2018, 4:01 pm

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Andy Haldane says early mental health intervention could lead to sixfold return on investment

The chief economist at the Bank of England has backed the use of counselling services for primary school children, arguing there is a strong economic case for investment in early intervention to improve mental health in later life.

Andy Haldane, who is more commonly found grappling with interest rates and quantitative easing, has helped produce a report that suggests early mental health intervention in primary schools could lead to a sixfold return on the investment.

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The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson review – what it means to be a nurse

April 25, 2018, 11:29 pm

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Nurses are often underappreciated. There are laughter and tears in this remarkable account that immerses the reader in their world

Since my own medical memoir was published last September, I have received – at the time of writing – 57 other medical memoirs by post and email. From publishers requesting cover quotes, newspapers requesting reviews and self-published authors requesting advice. I’ve done my best to read as many as I can, as they flood unbidden into my house. They range from terrible to fine, occasionally tipping into good. (Who knew that so many people with fascinating lives would be able to make them come across as so boring on paper?)

The Language of Kindness, however, has thoroughly resuscitated my faith in the genre. Christie Watson spent 20 years working as a nurse, before pivoting to a career in writing – she is a former winner of the Costa first novel award and now teaches creative writing. The book darts around, chapter to chapter, from her first days as a student nurse to her final day as a very senior one – flitting backwards and forwards in time and through specialties, immersing us in her world.

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Top private school dumps 'too easy' GCSEs

March 3, 2009, 4:01 pm

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• Reforms seen as making exam less challenging
• Move to IGCSE opens gulf with state system

One of the country's leading private schools is to abandon GCSEs after claiming that reforms planned for this year will mean the courses are no longer challenging enough for its students.

The overhaul is the biggest single change to the qualification since it was introduced in 1988, removing coursework and introducing a modular system, allowing pupils to retake chunks of the course.

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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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'Poison soup plot' at private school

March 17, 2010, 7:09 am

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Kitchen assistant held after staff detect 'poison' in the soup at £6,000 a term Stowe school

A catering assistant at a prestigious private school has been arrested after allegedly trying to poison a batch of soup intended for pupils and teachers.

The soup was ready to be served up for an evening meal at Stowe school, in Buckinghamshire, when a member of staff noticed a suspicious smell.

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Jeremy Corbyn: add VAT to private education fees to fund school meals

April 6, 2017, 12:43 am

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In Lancashire for local election campaign, Labour leader will make pledge to fund free meals for all primary school children

Jeremy Corbyn will announce plans on Thursday to fund free school meals for all primary school children by adding VAT to private school fees. The Labour leader will make the commitment during a visit to Lancashire for his party’s local election campaign, saying the policy would benefit children’s health while ending a subsidy for the privileged few.

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Independent schools chief hits back at threat to charitable status

October 2, 2016, 4:01 pm

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Private schools head says independent schools should not be forced to partner state schools ‘with a gun at our heads’

Independent schools say they should not be forced to partner state schools “with a gun pointing at our heads”, and are calling on Theresa May to drop plans to link their charitable status to sponsorship of academies.

Mike Buchanan, the chair of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference (HMC), which represents most of Britain’s leading public schools, will tell the group’s annual meeting on Monday that the government’s threats to revoke their charitable status would be counter-productive.

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Private schools in UK attracting record numbers of students

April 30, 2015, 4:01 pm

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Rise in those attending independent schools in Britain is underpinned by increasing numbers of pupils coming from overseas

Independent schools in Britain appear to have weathered the economic downturn with record numbers now attending fee-paying private schools – although the rise is underpinned by increasing numbers of pupils from overseas.

The annual census conducted by the Independent Schools Council of more than 1,200 private schools found 517,000 pupils enrolled in 2015, the highest number since it began keeping records 40 years ago.

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Arizona teachers begin strike as wave of education walkouts rolls west

April 26, 2018, 4:44 am

≫ Next: Should we call time on analogue clocks? Some teachers think so | Kester Brewin

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Educators across the state, some of the worst-paid in the US, are preparing to take action after strikes from West Virginia to Oklahoma

Teachers in Arizona will embark on another landmark strike on Thursday, the latest in a series of teachers’ walkouts over wages and funding that has spread across the US from West Virginia to Oklahoma.

Tens of thousands of teachers across the state are preparing to walk out despite threats that their teaching licenses will be revoked. Seventy-eight percent of Arizona’s 57,000 teachers voted to strike. About 820,000 of Arizona’s 1.1 million public-school students will be affected by closures, according to an Arizona Republic analysis.

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Should we call time on analogue clocks? Some teachers think so | Kester Brewin

April 26, 2018, 6:00 am

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Students who can’t read a clock during exams aren’t stupid. It’s just that the tools we use have become more sophisticated

Can you use a slide rule? Can you edit a video? These were two of the questions that came to me when I heard news of anxious debate over the fact that some schools were switching to digital clocks in exam halls because “teenagers cannot tell the time”.

The story came about after comments from a former headteacher, Malcolm Trobe, now deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, who said “the current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations”. To help minimise stress in important exams, he has suggested switching to digital clocks.

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Average private school fees rise above £17,000 a year for first time

April 26, 2018, 4:00 pm

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Census figures show slowest annual rate of increase since 1994 – but fees outstrip inflation

The average fee for attending a top private school has risen past £17,000 a year for the first time, despite climbing at the slowest rate for more than 20 years, according to the annual census of leading independent schools.

Data collected from the 1,300 members of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) – an umbrella body that ranges from famous public schools such as Eton and Harrow to hundreds of smaller prep schools – showed that a child attending a private secondary school as a day pupil would cost around £15,000 a year, while a boarder would pay £33,000.

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