I work at one of America's underfunded schools. It's falling apart

May 26, 2018, 3:00 am

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An Oklahoma teacher’s account of her school district, from the classrooms without desks and supplies to the professors who hold office hours in their cars

In my Oklahoma high school classroom, it is not easy to tell where federal funding ends and state funding begins – in fact, most teachers don’t have a clue about where our funding comes from. But what is abundantly clear is that our schools need more funding.

Unless you are in a school every day, you might not see the results of underfunding education. That is because we open our doors no matter what, and my colleagues and I will do everything we can to make sure our students get the education they deserve. But just because the consequences are invisible doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. Isn’t that the definition of privilege? Thinking something isn’t a problem simply because it might not be a problem for you?

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Gay teacher launches network to help British LGBT colleagues

May 26, 2018, 7:57 am

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Event for new support group, LGBTed, coincides with section 28 anniversary and aims to create role models in schools

A gay teacher who fought back against advice to keep his sexuality secret by coming out in front of his whole school last year has set up a network to encourage other LGBT teachers to do the same.

Daniel Gray will launch the initiative, LGBTed, next weekend at an event where more than 100 teachers, school leaders and other educationalists will share advice on being gay or trans role models in schools. It is being supported by Nick Gibb, the schools minister, who came out to his family as gay three years ago having been in a relationship with his partner, now husband, for 29 years.

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'On brand': Helen Dale accused of plagiarising tweets

June 27, 2017, 12:59 am

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Author of The Hand that Signed the Paper, who penned the controversial novel under the name Helen Demidenko, embroiled in fresh row over Mark Zuckerberg comment

A controversial Australian novelist has been called out by a popular US podcaster for plagiarising their and other posts on social media.

Helen Dale – or Helen Demidenko and Helen Darville, as she has been variously known – came to prominence in Australia in the early 1990s for The Hand that Signed the Paper, her debut novel that was apparently informed by her Ukrainian ancestry.

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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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No evidence to back idea of learning styles | Letter

March 12, 2017, 4:59 pm

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There is widespread interest among teachers in the use of neuroscientific research findings in educational practice. However, there are also misconceptions and myths that are supposedly based on sound neuroscience that are prevalent in our schools. We wish to draw attention to this problem by focusing on an educational practice supposedly based on neuroscience that lacks sufficient evidence and so we believe should not be promoted or supported.

Generally known as “learning styles”, it is the belief that individuals can benefit from receiving information in their preferred format, based on a self-report questionnaire. This belief has much intuitive appeal because individuals are better at some things than others and ultimately there may be a brain basis for these differences. Learning styles promises to optimise education by tailoring materials to match the individual’s preferred mode of sensory information processing.

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What's the point of school uniform?

October 3, 2013, 1:50 am

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You might hate your school uniform, but I think it's there for good reason, says 15-year-old Chloe Spencer

A shirt, tie and blazer may not be the ingredients for my favourite outfit, but if I were given the choice, I wouldn’t throw away the idea of school uniform. Wearing a uniform is a badge of pride, creates an identity for a school and is an important part of being a school student.

“Uniforms show that you are part of an organisation. Wearing it says we’re all in this together,” Jason Wing, head teacher at the Neale-Wade academy in Cambridgeshire, says.

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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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Burned out: why are so many teachers quitting or off sick with stress?

May 12, 2018, 11:00 pm

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Overwork and lack of support are driving teachers across England out of the profession much faster than they can be replaced. But schools facing cuts and rising costs can see no way of improving matters for their staff

It was a toxic routine: plan lessons until 1am, wake up at 5am in a sweat, vomit, go to work, teach. “I lost a stone and a half in two months,” Dan Lintell said. “I was having heart palpitations and panic attacks. My body was totally exhausted. I couldn’t go on.” He had barely completed his first half-term as a newly qualified teacher.

The start of the school year in September had been filled with optimism. After a successful 20-year career as a design engineer, Lintell decided he wanted to become a teacher. This made him what the government called a “high-calibre career changer”, who would revitalise schools and bring experience from the “real world” into the classroom – in his case, teaching physics at a comprehensive in Leicestershire.

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Revealed: the developers cashing in on privatisation of student housing

May 27, 2018, 7:07 am

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More than 20,000 UK students are paying for rooms owned by companies based offshore

Swansea to Newcastle: the offshore ownership of student blocks

Tens of thousands of undergraduates are paying for accommodation at universities where developers are cashing in on the privatisation of student housing using offshore companies, a Guardian investigation has found.

More than 20,000 students are paying for rooms owned by companies based in places such as Jersey, Guernsey, the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg but that figure is likely to be an underestimate given the surge in building in university towns in recent years.

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Swansea to Newcastle: the offshore ownership of student blocks

May 27, 2018, 7:36 am

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Much of the upmarket housing being developed is owned via complex business structures

Developers cashing in on student housing privatisation

Undergraduates are being offered rooms in upmarket developments that can sound more like hotels than student digs, where gyms, superfast wifi and plush shared kitchens now go hand in hand with the usual desk, bed and bookshelves. Many blocks are being developed in university towns in England and Wales and hundreds of these are owned by offshore companies through complex business structures.

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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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Ron Cox obituary

May 28, 2018, 9:37 am

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My father, Ron Cox, who has died aged 93, had a lifelong passion for local history, sharing his research and enthusiasm with a range of audiences. Starting out as a teacher, he went on to work at HM Treasury and then in local government.

He was born in Beckenham, south-east London, to Charles, a sailor in the Royal Navy, and his wife, Daisy (nee Williams). After Beckenham grammar school he served in the army during the second world war, taking part in the Normandy campaign.

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Howard Hutchings obituary

May 28, 2018, 9:57 am

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My husband Howard Hutchings, who has died aged 64 of pneumonia after suffering from pancreatic cancer, was a lover of the countryside, an environmentalist and a supporter of vulnerable people. For most of his working life he was a teacher, but he also spent much time as a volunteer in various capacities.

He was born in Birkenhead, Wirral, along with his twin, Bill. Their mother, Eleanor (nee Keating) died when the boys were two, and their father, Albert Evans, a heavy goods vehicle driver, was often away. They were looked after at first by relatives and their older sister Lesley, but at the age of eight Howard took over the running of the house.

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Let’s have a Blair-Cameron College at Cambridge | Nick Hillman

February 6, 2017, 10:45 pm

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New colleges or more places would be the best ways to widen access at Oxbridge

There is welcome evidence of a new emphasis on broadening access at the University of Oxford. Lady Margaret Hall and Wadham College both recently held sparky events on the topic. At one, David Lammy MP questioned Oxford’s commitment to rooting out unconscious bias. At the other, Oxford’s vice-chancellor, Louise Richardson, picked a fight with the universities minister, Jo Johnson, over his higher education and research bill.

It is often forgotten that fair access is different from widening participation. Fair access is about who enters selective institutions, which by definition have more applicants than places, making them “selective”. Widening participation is about the number of places in the higher education system. The fair access debate is about pushing a chosen few through a hole in a very tight funnel. The widening participation debate is about making the hole as big as possible.

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What I learned when I attended my son's 'abstinence-based' sex ed class

April 21, 2015, 9:45 am

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I never thought the class, which centered on shame-and-fear-based teachings, was going to be so awful, or that my tweets about it would be read by thousands of people

When you’re a sex researcher with a sense of humor – which I am – and you have a history of writing about your kid’s rather lame public school sex education – which I do – and he asks you to come to his high school class to see the “abstinence-based” sex education he’s getting now – which he did – you should probably say you have a conflicting doctor’s appointment.

Instead, I went to class.

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University guide 2019: league table for agriculture, forestry & food

May 28, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: GCSEs are failing stress test as students suffer | Letters

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The study of land-based industries, such as farming, countryside management and animal rearing - includes agriculture, forestry, food and beverage studies

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GCSEs are failing stress test as students suffer | Letters

May 21, 2018, 10:43 am

≫ Next: A worrying lack of pastoral care for Russell Group undergraduates | Letters

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A year 11 pupil describes the strain on her non-academic peers, while other readers decry the effects of relentless exams on young people

I am a year 11 student who is currently sitting their GCSE examinations. Sally Weale’s article (‘My lunchtimes are filled with crying children’, 17 May) sheds some light on what people my age go through. Many people I know suffer from depression and anxiety, we lose sleep, we don’t want to wake up in the mornings and we are afraid to walk into the exam rooms.

We are told over and over again that if we do not achieve level 7 or above we will not be able to progress in the future. I am not very academic and my skills are in the creative arts. However, my passion for those things is taken away when I have to sit a written drama exam for 40% of my grade.

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A worrying lack of pastoral care for Russell Group undergraduates | Letters

May 28, 2018, 9:04 am

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My son attended hardly any lectures and this triggered no pastoral measures, writes Simon Shaw, and Tom Richards describes how his daughter’s final exams were brought forward at short notice

Thirty-eight years ago I left a Russell Group university, where I met my tutor regularly, had seminars four times a week and was known by the teaching staff. As one of a very few students from a comprehensive school background, this made the experience manageable.

Now my son attends the same university and I can concur with the “institutional indifference” identified at Bristol University (Growing concern and anger after student suicides, 26 May). He recently told us he had attended hardly any lectures this year and has not met his personal tutor in a year and a half. This triggered no pastoral measures to indicate he was floundering in a system that gives students no structures, and only corrals them in for end of year exams.

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Students are at breaking point in a broken system | Letters

May 28, 2018, 9:10 am

≫ Next: Oxford and Cambridge university colleges hold £21bn in riches

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Sheila Hayman laments the continuing neglect of vocational skills, Stephen J Decker describes the need for school counsellors, and another reader, whose son took his own life, asks where childhood has gone

I too have a daughter who, though creative and gifted, cannot do squiggles on paper, has spent 12 years of her life learning that she’s “thick” and “useless” and is about to sit – and likely fail – her GCSE maths for the third time (GCSEs are failing stress test as students suffer, Letters, 22 May).

I also had a mother who was president of the Mathematical Association and brought the International Mathematical Olympiad to Britain, and a sister who sat on Tony Blair’s Tomlinson commission, which recommended a much broader mix of academic and vocational skills for all children – and was promptly ignored. My mother, a great teacher, always said there was no point in forcing children who struggle with maths to do it, and always began her classes with an example from their own lives which made it “relatable”.

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Oxford and Cambridge university colleges hold £21bn in riches

May 28, 2018, 12:00 pm

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Guardian study reveals how wealth of nearly 70 colleges is held in estates, endowments and artworks

Britain’s ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge have access to a staggering pool of wealth totalling almost £21bn, analysis by the Guardian has revealed.

Using a combination of freedom of information requests and audited accounts to piece together the estates, endowments, investments and other assets – including artworks and antiques – held by nearly 70 colleges and institutions shows the full extent of Oxbridge’s remarkable wealth.

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