Too many unconditional offers? Bring back university entrance exams | Gill Evans

May 4, 2018, 12:30 am

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New skills assessments test an applicant’s aptitude for a course in ways that cannot easily be gamed by ambitious schools

Good A-levels have long been treated as indicators of an applicant’s ability to cope with a degree course and graduate successfully. But the rise of unconditional offers has undermined this. In 2013-14, 2,985 students were told their grades didn’t matter – by 2015-16, that number had risen to 51,615. At the same time, drop-out rates are rising. Now, the new regulator, the Office for Students, is working with Ucas to investigate the impact of unconditional offers on students’ access to higher education and degree and employment outcomes.

One solution might be to restore tests for applicants. These are coming back into favour. Oxford and Cambridge have had them for a while and others are following suit: a thinking skills assessment is now required for some courses at UCL and there is a maths test for Imperial and Warwick, alongside more established tests for law and medicine.

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How kids are getting into DIY tech: Chips with Everything podcast

May 4, 2018, 4:00 am

≫ Next: I grew up here, but Britain is making it as hard as possible for me to become a citizen | Chrisann Jarrett

≪ Previous: Too many unconditional offers? Bring back university entrance exams | Gill Evans

This week, Jordan Erica Webber looks at how children are getting involved in maker culture and building their own adventure

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The other day, a friend told Jordan Erica Webber that her tech-savvy dad has used the Raspberry Pi– a small and very cheap computer – to build all sorts of creative projects. For example, he created bark-activated door that allowed the family dog to let herself out for her morning pee.

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I grew up here, but Britain is making it as hard as possible for me to become a citizen | Chrisann Jarrett

May 4, 2018, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Project Fantasy? German exam question debates Brexit reality

≪ Previous: How kids are getting into DIY tech: Chips with Everything podcast

Applying to university turned into a humiliation because of my ‘status’. This why I set up Let Us Learn

I am only 23, but I stand with the Windrush generation because I know what it’s like to suddenly feel unwelcome and unwanted in the country where you’ve lived most of your life, and which you thought was your home.

I was born in Jamaica but arrived in the UK aged eight to join my mum. I loved school, and in my final year was made head girl at Clapton Girls’ academy. I was so excited when I won a place at LSE to study law in 2013.

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Project Fantasy? German exam question debates Brexit reality

May 4, 2018, 8:19 am

≫ Next: Teachers demand funding for 5% pay rise in budget

≪ Previous: I grew up here, but Britain is making it as hard as possible for me to become a citizen | Chrisann Jarrett

Students of English tasked with discussing differences between UK’s hopes and consequences

The UK government may still be at odds over what precisely Brexit means and when it will happen, but in Germany the British vote to leave the EU is already shaping the curriculum.

As part of their school-leaving exam, students of English in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg were last week asked to elaborate the differences between the hopes connected to the British referendum, and the reality of Brexit since.

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Teachers demand funding for 5% pay rise in budget

November 6, 2017, 11:01 pm

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

≪ Previous: Project Fantasy? German exam question debates Brexit reality

Unions say public sector pay cap is contributing to growing recruitment and retention crisis in schools

Teachers’ leaders are calling on the government to fund an immediate 5% pay rise for teaching staff in an attempt to fend off a growing recruitment and retention crisis in schools.

In a letter to the education secretary, Justine Greening, ahead of the autumn budget, leaders of the main education unions say teacher pay is lagging significantly behind that of other graduate professions, leading to teacher supply problems.

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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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Teachers must ditch 'neuromyth' of learning styles, say scientists

March 12, 2017, 5:01 pm

≫ Next: 'Epidemic of stress' blamed for 3,750 teachers on long-term sick leave

≪ Previous: You are not alone: student stories of mental health

Eminent academics from worlds of neuroscience, education and psychology voice concerns over popularity of method

Teaching children according to their individual “learning style” does not achieve better results and should be ditched by schools in favour of evidence-based practice, according to leading scientists.

Thirty eminent academics from the worlds of neuroscience, education and psychology have signed a letter to the Guardian voicing their concern about the popularity of the learning style approach among some teachers.

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'Epidemic of stress' blamed for 3,750 teachers on long-term sick leave

January 10, 2018, 10:00 pm

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Policy changes, budget cuts, fewer staff and bigger classes blamed for toll on teachers’ mental health revealed by figures compiled by Lib Dems

Teaching unions are warning of an “epidemic of stress” as research revealed that 3,750 teachers were signed off on longterm sick leave last year because of pressure of work, anxiety and mental illness.

Figures obtained through a mass freedom of information request show a 5% rise on the year before, revealing that one in 83 teachers spent more than a month off work in 2016-17.

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Vast majority of teachers considered quitting in past year – poll

April 1, 2018, 9:24 am

≫ Next: Secret Teacher: students need PSHE guidance but I'm not equipped to give it

≪ Previous: 'Epidemic of stress' blamed for 3,750 teachers on long-term sick leave

Four-fifths of respondents say increased workload is leading them to think about leaving profession

A poll of teachers in England has found that four out of five say they have considered quitting the profession over the past year because of the heavy workload that they have to endure.

More than 80% of respondents to a question circulated by the National Education Union (NEU) said that they were thinking about other careers because of the long hours now required of classroom teachers.

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Secret Teacher: students need PSHE guidance but I'm not equipped to give it

May 4, 2018, 11:31 pm

≫ Next: Does music really help you concentrate?

≪ Previous: Vast majority of teachers considered quitting in past year – poll

Issues around consent, social media and mental health aren’t easy to teach – allocating the job to a form tutor isn’t good enough

In my past role as a form tutor, PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) teaching was not my passion. It filled me with dread – not because I didn’t see the value of it (I did) but because I didn’t have a clue.

I’m an English graduate and an English teacher. I didn’t sign up for anything else. With the pressures to achieve high grades, mark extensively according to school policy and stay on top of lesson planning, PSHE was just an added stress.

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Does music really help you concentrate?

August 19, 2016, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: How a 3D clitoris will help teach French schoolchildren about sex

≪ Previous: Secret Teacher: students need PSHE guidance but I'm not equipped to give it

‘I won’t be able to focus if you turn that off,’ a gazillion teenagers have whined at their parents. Is it possible that they’re right?

Many people listen to music while they’re carrying out a task, whether they’re studying for an exam, driving a vehicle or even reading a book. Many of these people argue that background music helps them focus.

Why, though? When you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense. Why would having two things to concentrate on make you more focused, not less? Some people even go so far as to say that not having music on is more distracting. So what’s going on there?

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How a 3D clitoris will help teach French schoolchildren about sex

August 15, 2016, 8:25 am

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≪ Previous: Does music really help you concentrate?

From bronze clitoris pendants to zines about Dracula’s, the female sex organ is having a moment in France

Paul Verlaine celebrated it in his 1889 poem Printemps as a “shining pink button”, but thanks to the sociomedical researcher Odile Fillod, French schoolchildren will now understand that it looks more like a hi-tech boomerang. Yes, the world’s first open-source, anatomically correct, printable 3D clitoris is here, and it will be used for sex education in French schools, from primary to secondary level, from September.

From Fillod’s sculpture, pupils will learn that the clitoris is made up of the same tissue as the penis. That it is divided into crura or legs, bulbs, foreskin and a head. That the only difference between a clitoris and a penis is that most of the female erectile tissue is internal – and that it’s often longer, at around 8 inches.

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Focus: ecstasy after-effects that could last a lifetime

January 20, 2002, 2:54 am

≫ Next: Language learning: what motivates us?

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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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Language learning: what motivates us?

March 19, 2014, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

≪ Previous: Focus: ecstasy after-effects that could last a lifetime

What happens in the brain when we try to learn a language can tell us a lot about what drives us to learn it in the first place. Lauren Razavi unpacks the science

"Where's your name from?"

I wasn't expecting to be the subject of my interview with John Schumann, but the linguistics professor had picked up on my Persian surname. Talking to me from California, where he is one of the world's leading academic voices on language learning, he effortlessly puts my own Farsi to shame.

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Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

November 27, 2012, 12:00 pm

≫ Next: How the US listened in as the Soviets got the bomb

≪ Previous: Language learning: what motivates us?

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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How the US listened in as the Soviets got the bomb

October 3, 2002, 2:49 am

≫ Next: Disadvantaged pupils learning watered-down curriculum, says Ofsted

≪ Previous: Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

Into Tibet: The CIA's First Atomic Spy and His Secret Expedition to Lhasa by Thomas Laird

In July 1950, a world focused on the Korean War took only brief note of Douglas MacKiernan's singular death. "U.S. Consul, Fleeing China, Slain By Tibetan on Watch for Bandits," read the headline of the lone front-page story in the New York Times.

For more than a half-century, that's all the news on MacKiernan that his real employer, the CIA, has wanted to see. The agency still classifies as secret his identity as an officer (the first to be killed on duty) and his early Cold War missions: on the Chinese-Soviet frontier, and in Tibet, as it desperately sought independence from Mao's communist China.

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Disadvantaged pupils learning watered-down curriculum, says Ofsted

October 11, 2017, 6:12 am

≫ Next: Experiments show we quickly adjust to seeing everything upside-down

≪ Previous: How the US listened in as the Soviets got the bomb

Chief inspector of schools says focus on ‘badges and stickers’ instead of learning and substance could limit social mobility

Disadvantaged children are being shut out from learning a rich range of knowledge, as schools restrict low-attaining pupils to “badges and stickers” rather than history or geography, the chief inspector of schools in England has said.

Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, said social mobility could be at risk if some pupils were given restricted options and schools watered down their curriculum to concentrate on exam results.

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Experiments show we quickly adjust to seeing everything upside-down

November 12, 2012, 8:30 am

≫ Next: Teachers to protest at Kentucky Derby, a symbol of state's inequality

≪ Previous: Disadvantaged pupils learning watered-down curriculum, says Ofsted

A researcher wearing goggles that inverted everything stumbled about wildly at first, but soon enough he was able to ride a bicycle

In the middle of the 20th century, an Austrian professor turned a man's eyesight exactly upside-down. After a short time, the man took this completely in his stride.

Professor Theodor Erismann, of the University of Innsbruck, devised the experiment, performing it upon his assistant and student, Ivo Kohler. Kohler later wrote about it. The two of them made a documentary film.

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Teachers to protest at Kentucky Derby, a symbol of state's inequality

May 5, 2018, 8:29 am

≫ Next: Tories would fail their Ofsted test, Angela Rayner tells teachers

≪ Previous: Experiments show we quickly adjust to seeing everything upside-down

Teaching unions say Republican governor Matt Bevin is punishing them for striking by taking over state’s largest school system

Teachers’ union activists in a state that saw a dramatic strike last month plan to protest at the running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

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Tories would fail their Ofsted test, Angela Rayner tells teachers

May 5, 2018, 9:24 am

≫ Next: Even when the likes of Macron foul up, multilingual politicians get it right | Agnès Poirier

≪ Previous: Teachers to protest at Kentucky Derby, a symbol of state's inequality

Shadow education secretary attacks government at annual headteachers’ conference

The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, has attacked the government’s record on schools, telling a conference the Tories “wouldn’t survive their own Ofsted inspection”.

Rayner, who left school pregnant at 16 with poor grades, told the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference that the government’s record on education has meant targets for teacher recruitment had not been met for five years.

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