Small Yorkshire school helping some of most needy pupils faces axe

November 13, 2018, 8:33 am

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Life chances will be blighted says Grove Academy head amid slated 83% funding cut for school serving excluded young

A tiny school with only 31 pupils, which has turned around the fortunes of some of the most challenging and vulnerable pupils in North Yorkshire, is facing closure.

The Grove Academy, in Harrogate, a pupil referral unit for mainly excluded pupils, was rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2015, but it has become a casualty of the education funding cuts affecting children across the UK.

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Scouts to recruit children aged four and five in trial scheme

November 13, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Birmingham University warned of risk to LGBT rights at Dubai campus

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Pilot project aims to close opportunity gap between poorer and wealthier children

The scouting movement is getting younger with plans to recruit four- and five-year-olds as part of a pilot scheme targeting disadvantaged children.

The aim is to build emotional resilience and encourage independence among children from hard-to-reach families. By developing life skills at the earliest possible age, the Scouts hope to close the opportunity gap between poorer children and their wealthier peers.

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Birmingham University warned of risk to LGBT rights at Dubai campus

November 14, 2018, 7:19 am

≫ Next: I am no product of privilege | Letter from Michael Meadowcroft

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Staff and students say new campus lacks safeguards against strict local laws

Staff and students at the University of Birmingham have warned that LGBT rights are not adequately protected at its new campus in Dubai where being gay or transgender risks imprisonment, flogging and execution.

They have called on the university to make clear what safeguards staff and students have in the Gulf emirate given that same-sex behaviour, identifying as transgender, and LGBT advocacy are illegal on the campus, which is classified as a public space subject to Dubai laws.

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I am no product of privilege | Letter from Michael Meadowcroft

November 14, 2018, 9:53 am

≫ Next: Taskforce warns of risk to children from 'county lines' gangs

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Michael Meadowcroft takes issue with a reference to him in a previous letter regarding tuition fees

Catherine Davies makes the mistake of failing to check facts before trying to make a personal example (Letters, 14 November). For what it matters, I had to leave school at 16 as a consequence of my father’s unemployment. I have no A-levels and no first degree but only a master’s degree entirely by research thanks to Bradford University taking the risk of accepting me and the generosity of the then Joseph Rowntree Social Services Trust seconding me from their staff. So, no grant at all and certainly no current income over £25,000. In any case, it is always unjustified to make arguments ad hominem rather than on the principles involved in a case.
Michael Meadowcroft
Leeds

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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Taskforce warns of risk to children from 'county lines' gangs

November 14, 2018, 8:30 am

≫ Next: Councils face £536m shortfall in Send budgets, says LGA

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Professionals and parents warned that children from all backgrounds are at risk of exploitation

Police, teachers and parents should be aware that all children, including those from well-off families, are at risk of grooming by criminal gangs running illegal drugs from cities to rural areas, according to a multi-agency taskforce investigating “county lines” networks.

The report into child exploitation and modern slavery by inspectors from four agencies – including police and probation services – said some children drawn into working for criminal gangs were being overlooked, including “affluent children attending public school”, seen as less likely to be identified as drug runners by the police.

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Councils face £536m shortfall in Send budgets, says LGA

November 14, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Young people from ethnic minorities most positive about universities - poll

≪ Previous: Taskforce warns of risk to children from 'county lines' gangs

Shortfall projected to double in a year as demand for special needs services grows

The scale of the crisis gripping services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) has been laid bare by research that indicates council budgets are facing a potential funding shortfall of more than £500m.

A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) of the councils it represents in England projects a £536m funding gap this year as a result of growing demand for Send services – more than double last year’s shortfall.

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Young people from ethnic minorities most positive about universities - poll

November 14, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: 'The city was dying': university leaders on how they've transformed local communities

≪ Previous: Councils face £536m shortfall in Send budgets, says LGA

Young people think going to university will get them a better job but worry about whether a degree is worth it

Far more young people than older people think that they have personally benefitted from universities – primarily in terms of improved job prospects, according to new research from Universities UK.

Polling showed that 55% of 18-24 year-olds and 44% of 25-34 year-olds felt universities had a positive impact on them personally, compared to just 35% of people aged over 65. People in the younger age groups are more likely to have attended university, since nearly half now enter a degree by the age of 30.

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'The city was dying': university leaders on how they've transformed local communities

November 14, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: It's a harmful myth that UK science can't translate ideas into practice | David Gann and Nick Jennings

≪ Previous: Young people from ethnic minorities most positive about universities - poll

The vice-chancellors of Ravensbourne and Lincoln universities discuss how disastrous a university shutdown would be

As the fierce new higher education market begins to bite, experts are warning that we are now closer to a university going under than ever before. What would this mean for the local community? Are universities across the board doing enough to connect with, and improve, their own local areas? In the latest of our 2VCs discussion series, Anna Fazackerley talked about growing local roots with Professor Mary Stuart, vice-chancellor of Lincoln University, and Professor Linda Drew, vice-chancellor of Ravensbourne University.

Stuart won The Guardian’s Most Inspiring Leader award this year, for success in turning around what was once a flagging university. The Queen opened Lincoln’s new campus in 1996 – the first city centre campus to have been built in the UK for decades. The city’s leaders wanted the institution to boost the area, but they put up the first building “on spec”, designing it to look like a shopping mall in case it didn’t work out. The university now has around 14,000 students, and a gold ranking for its teaching in the Tef. The institution focused on arts and social sciences when Stuart took over, but now has strong engineering and science departments. It is in the process of setting up a medical school, to supply local hospitals, in collaboration with Nottingham University.

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It's a harmful myth that UK science can't translate ideas into practice | David Gann and Nick Jennings

November 14, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Doctoral dilemma: should I self-fund my PhD?

≪ Previous: 'The city was dying': university leaders on how they've transformed local communities

Government innovation policy is based on the idea that the UK is poor at commercialising research. But it should reflect reality

Britain’s innovators are unfairly tarnished by a tired fable: that the nation’s inventiveness is matched by an unworldly lack of commercial savvy. Anecdotes abound of the proverbial inventor tinkering in his garden shed, or the academic unable to see the economic potential of her discoveries. Britons discover, the rest of the world cashes in. But these are self-flagellating myths that should be consigned to the history books.

In fact, if we adjust for the size of our economies, the UK now exceeds the United States in numbers of spinouts formed, disclosures of discoveries, patents and licences. In emerging fields such as low-carbon, the UK is forming twice as many spinouts per trillion dollars of GDP as the US. Employment growth by digital technology companies in the UK is five times faster than for the rest of the economy.

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Doctoral dilemma: should I self-fund my PhD?

November 15, 2018, 3:12 am

≫ Next: Glasgow School of Art chair says building management 'exemplary'

≪ Previous: It's a harmful myth that UK science can't translate ideas into practice | David Gann and Nick Jennings

The government now offers doctoral student loans, but there are still risks to funding your own studies

It’s a question mulled over by thousands of students every year: should you follow your own path and self-fund your PhD? It can give you freedom and control over your studies but it comes with an expensive price tag. The government has introduced doctoral student loans of up to £25,000, but there’s still plenty more to consider before you decide.

First off, consider the risks. Start by doing the calculations: work out how much tuition fees plus living costs will add up to. It could cost tens of thousands per year to undertake a PhD – which is higher than the total £25,000 pot the government is offering, meaning you’ll have to hunt elsewhere to pay for your costs.

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Glasgow School of Art chair says building management 'exemplary'

November 15, 2018, 9:50 am

≫ Next: Students say they don't know what 'trivial' means in exam question fiasco

≪ Previous: Doctoral dilemma: should I self-fund my PhD?

Muriel Gray regrets not doing more to communicate with local community after fire

The chair of Glasgow School of Art, Muriel Gray, has defended the management of the Mackintosh building – which was gutted by fire in June – as “exemplary”, while acknowledging she could have done more to communicate in the immediate aftermath with local residents and businesses affected by the second blaze in four years.

Gray used her appearance at Holyrood’s culture committee on Thursday to insist the art school management was horrified by the experiences of local residents. Some were excluded from their homes and businesses for months by the safety cordon imposed by Glasgow city council’s building control, while the painstaking work to stabilise the remaining structure of the devastated building continued over the summer.

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Students say they don't know what 'trivial' means in exam question fiasco

November 15, 2018, 8:13 pm

≫ Next: The UK's strength in science is because of the EU – not in spite of it | Anthony Forster

≪ Previous: Glasgow School of Art chair says building management 'exemplary'

Some year 13 New Zealand students who took history exam said they should not be penalised for getting confused

New Zealand high school students have demanded examiners ignore that they don’t know what the word “trivial” means, after it appeared in a final-year exam and left many confused.

Some students who took the year 13 history exam claimed the “unfamiliar word” was too hard, and the exam should now be marked according to each student’s different understanding and interpretation of “trivial”.

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The UK's strength in science is because of the EU – not in spite of it | Anthony Forster

November 15, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: UK government urged to halt academic brain drain to tech firms

≪ Previous: Students say they don't know what 'trivial' means in exam question fiasco

Maintaining a close relationship with the remaining EU countries is crucial to the continued success of UK universities

Brexit negotiations may be in turmoil, but UK universities need the government to encourage even stronger links with the remaining 27 member states in the European Union, no matter how we finally decide to leave. We must ensure the UK remains a beacon of scientific excellence, driving improvements in productivity, job creation and growth.

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UK government urged to halt academic brain drain to tech firms

November 15, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: ‘A wall built to keep people out’: the cruel, bureaucratic maze of children’s services – podcast

≪ Previous: The UK's strength in science is because of the EU – not in spite of it | Anthony Forster

Imperial professor calls for tighter regulation on the salaries that tech companies can offer to researchers at Guardian event

The UK government should regulate the salaries that tech companies can offer researchers to keep important scientific knowledge in the public domain, according to a professor of artificial intelligence at Imperial College London.

Maja Pantić told a Guardian event that in emerging fields such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, new materials and bioengineering, tech companies such as Google and Facebook are offering “crazy” salaries which universities cannot compete with. She estimated that 10% of academics in these areas are being lost to the private sector.

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‘A wall built to keep people out’: the cruel, bureaucratic maze of children’s services – podcast

November 16, 2018, 4:00 am

≫ Next: Bullying has an impact that lasts years. I know - I’ve been a victim | Anita Sethi

≪ Previous: UK government urged to halt academic brain drain to tech firms

In a system cut to the bone, gaining access to the support we had been promised for our daughter’s special educational needs was an exhausting, soul-sapping battle

• Read the text version here

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Bullying has an impact that lasts years. I know - I’ve been a victim | Anita Sethi

November 16, 2018, 4:24 am

≫ Next: Should all art students learn to paint and draw?

≪ Previous: ‘A wall built to keep people out’: the cruel, bureaucratic maze of children’s services – podcast

Depression, anxiety, panic attacks - it’s a major risk factor for mental health in adulthood. This Anti-Bullying Week, let’s encourage empathy and kindness

A scene that often replays in my mind is being 13 years old, curled up in the foetal position on the floor and being kicked in the ribs. I’m screaming but then my voice catches and becomes a silence that sticks as a lump in the throat that stays there for years.

Bullying– which can be physical, mental, emotional, verbal – can steal a lot, including our confidence and self-esteem. It can also steal language, the ability to express what we have experienced.

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Should all art students learn to paint and draw?

November 16, 2018, 6:22 am

≫ Next: Betsy DeVos to alter sexual misconduct guidelines to bolster rights of accused

≪ Previous: Bullying has an impact that lasts years. I know - I’ve been a victim | Anita Sethi

We’re losing traditional artistic techniques, one critic laments – but others say this view is outdated

In a new paper, What Happened to the Art Schools?, the painter and art critic Jacob Willer claims that today’s fine art degrees do not offer the necessary teaching to produce exceptional artists. Painting and drawing have come to be seen as “no more than art’s old ceremonial vestments”, he writes.

Willer, who visited art schools around the country, says that while the odd talented student stood out for him, the general standard was “depressingly low”. “I would encourage you to look back through the UCL collections to see the quality of paintings that students at the Slade were routinely making in the first half of the last century and you will see for yourself how things have changed,” he says.

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Betsy DeVos to alter sexual misconduct guidelines to bolster rights of accused

November 16, 2018, 6:57 am

≫ Next: Why schools are right to ban pupils from wearing designer coats

≪ Previous: Should all art students learn to paint and draw?

Plans would narrow definition of harassment and allow students accused of misconduct to cross-examine accusers on campus

Betsy DeVos, the US education secretary, is proposing a major overhaul of the way colleges handle complaints of sexual misconduct, narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and increasing protections for students accused of misconduct.

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Why schools are right to ban pupils from wearing designer coats

November 16, 2018, 7:43 am

≫ Next: English university given £900k emergency loan by regulator

≪ Previous: Betsy DeVos to alter sexual misconduct guidelines to bolster rights of accused

A headteacher in Merseyside has ruled that jackets by the likes of Canada Goose, Moncler or Pyrenex are off limits. Is she interfering unnecessarily or maintaining a valuable principle?

Just when I thought my trust in authority had hit the skids and would never be restored, a story popped up to remind me: I love headteachers. Woodchurch high school in Birkenhead has banned its pupils from wearing designer coats – the named brands are Canada Goose, Moncler and Pyrenex. It is not because kids are stupid, lose things or steal off each other (or that a big-ticket item more or less guarantees the worst possible result: mothers fighting in playgrounds). Rather, it is because of inequality. If some kids are walking around in £1,000 coats, those who cannot afford to “feel stigmatised, they feel left out, they feel inadequate”, says the school’s headteacher, Rebekah Phillips.

The idea that teachers are all inveterate lefties is a lingering niggle in the culture wars; when Michael Gove labelled the entire profession and all its acolytes “the blob”, his lack of regard didn’t come from nowhere. Education is widely perceived as a hotbed of anti-establishment political radicalism, starting at teacher training college, ending in the inculcation of dangerous socialism into unformed minds. While on the one hand, this is ridiculous – most teachers wouldn’t attend the revolution because they have marking to do – there is an eye of truth to it.

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English university given £900k emergency loan by regulator

November 16, 2018, 8:49 am

≫ Next: Scammers target students with fake tax refund emails

≪ Previous: Why schools are right to ban pupils from wearing designer coats

Revelation comes week after OfS said it would not bail out struggling institutions

A university received a £900,000 emergency loan from the higher education regulator in England this year, it has been revealed, in a move that calls into question claims by the regulator that it would not bail out struggling institutions.

The unnamed university, described only as a “small, modern institution”, was reported by the BBC to have received the emergency loan from the Office for Students (OfS), which this year took over responsibility for regulating England’s higher education sector.

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