‘It stops the scary stuff’: pupils thrive with mindfulness lessons

November 24, 2018, 10:00 pm

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Schools in deprived areas teach meditation to help those affected by violence

English Martyrs Catholic primary school in Litherland is a stone’s throw from one of Merseyside’s most notorious areas for gangs and gun crime, and most children at the school have been affected by the violence.

It is an unlikely place, perhaps, to find a thriving mindfulness teaching programme. But English Martyrs is one of a growing number of schools in deprived parts of Britain that are embracing meditation techniques to help vulnerable children cope.

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Catholic schools improve the lot of poor children, so what’s the problem? | Kevin McKenna

November 24, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: The Guardian view on civil service jobs: all sorts required | Editorial

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The first minister has praised the contribution of Catholic schools to ‘modern Scotland’

There was a time not very long ago – perhaps 25 years, maybe 30 – when Scotland wasn’t obsessed with how its education system was delivered.

This is not to suggest that education was ever deemed less than crucial to the nation’s future. It’s just that, until recently, you never had the sense that education on its own could destabilise governments. There was a received wisdom that Scotland possessed the finest education system in the world. This probably resonated for many years after it ceased to be true.

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The Guardian view on civil service jobs: all sorts required | Editorial

November 25, 2018, 10:27 am

≫ Next: How to write a personal statement for law: 'forget the jargon and gimmicks'

≪ Previous: Catholic schools improve the lot of poor children, so what’s the problem? | Kevin McKenna

Divisions between academic and vocational education are symptomatic of our class-ridden society. Recruiting from a wider pool is a good move

Four out of the last five education secretaries went to the same university (answers on a postcard please). The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, took a different route to adult life. Having left school at 16 to have a baby, she went to her local college in Stockport and took classes in care, counselling and sign language. A politician’s priorities don’t necessarily mirror their life. But Ms Rayner’s emphasis on second chances in education, drawn from her experience, is right.

Her policies have much to commend them. Ending compulsory retakes of maths and English GCSEs is a good move; there are other means of gaining literacy and numeracy skills, and endlessly repeating the same exams is pointless. Removing automatic academic requirements for civil service jobs is a sound proposal which sends an inclusive signal. Why shouldn’t the British state be as broad-minded, in its willingness to look at applications from a range of people, as private-sector employers, including Google and Penguin Books?

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How to write a personal statement for law: 'forget the jargon and gimmicks'

November 26, 2018, 7:05 am

≫ Next: 'Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave' : UAE pardons UK academic – video

≪ Previous: The Guardian view on civil service jobs: all sorts required | Editorial

Don’t be over-familiar and don’t rush: two admissions tutors explain what makes a good Ucas personal statement

Every year, universities receive thousands of personal statements from law school applicants eager to impress admissions tutors. While grades are still the most important factor in securing a place on a course, a well-written statement can help you punch above your weight. So with the Ucas deadline looming in January, how do you write a personal statement that will pique an admissions tutor’s interest?

Russell Buchan, senior lecturer in law at the University of Sheffield, and Joel Klaff, a law lecturer and admissions tutor at the University of Derby, offer their advice:

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'Mr Hedges will be permitted to leave' : UAE pardons UK academic – video

November 26, 2018, 2:05 am

≫ Next: Matthew Hedges: jailed British academic released by UAE

≪ Previous: How to write a personal statement for law: 'forget the jargon and gimmicks'

Matthew Hedges has been released after being jailed for life on charges on espionage in the United Arab Emirates. The 31-year-old PhD student was visiting the country for research purposes but the UAE insists he was an MI6 agent

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Matthew Hedges: jailed British academic released by UAE

November 26, 2018, 2:55 am

≫ Next: 'A playground for grown up kids': inside the student housing built by its residents

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Durham student given life sentence on spying charges granted ‘gracious clemency’

Matthew Hedges, the 31-year-old British academic jailed for life on spying charges by the United Arab Emirates, has been released hours after a presidential pardon by the country’s rulers, according to local officials. .

The move follows intense lobbying by the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, amid an international outcry that left the UAE scrambling to produce evidence to justify claims that Hedges was a spy.

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'A playground for grown up kids': inside the student housing built by its residents

November 26, 2018, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Swansea University suspends vice-chancellor

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Stuttgart’s Bauhäusle was built by university students in the early 1980s – and residents have been adapting and improving it ever since

When Stuttgart student Heiner Steinacker noticed the veranda of his halls of residence had rotted away, his landlord Studierendenwerk(student services), arranged for a nearby sawmill to deliver fresh timber.

Together with 11 housemates, Steinacker spent three days designing and assembling a new terrace. They then plastered a wall and built four new roofs.

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Swansea University suspends vice-chancellor

November 26, 2018, 6:40 am

≫ Next: Music college is first to appoint lecturer in musicians' wellbeing

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Richard B Davies suspended with Prof Marc Clement as internal investigation takes place

Swansea University has suspended its vice-chancellor, officials have confirmed.

Prof Richard B Davies, who has held the role at the university since 2003, stood aside for an internal investigation to be carried out.

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Music college is first to appoint lecturer in musicians' wellbeing

November 26, 2018, 7:47 am

≫ Next: University education does not close pay gap for women in England

≪ Previous: Swansea University suspends vice-chancellor

Royal Northern College of Music aims to help students deal with career pressures

The Royal Northern College of Music has become the first conservatoire to appoint a lecturer in musicians’ health and wellbeing, to help equip students to deal with the pressures of a career in music.

The number of students reporting mental health concerns has risen sharply across higher education in recent years, and the RNCM is concerned its students have to deal with the additional pressure of concerts and recitals as well as long hours of practice.

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University education does not close pay gap for women in England

November 26, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Missing the point in graduate pay report | Letter

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Female graduates earn similar wages to men without degrees, new figures show

Female graduates earn little more than many men of the same age without degrees, according to official data that shows even superior qualifications are not enough to catapult women across the pay gap.

The graduate pay figures, collected from tax data by the Department for Education and analysed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, cast a new light on who gains most from attending university in England, at a time of debate about higher education’s value for money.

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Missing the point in graduate pay report | Letter

November 27, 2018, 9:04 am

≫ Next: Universities must learn from UAE case | Letters

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The IFS study also showed that men with degrees earned less than those without one, says Paul Hewitson

The article by Richard Adams on the Institute for Fiscal Studies report relating to graduate pay was headlined “Degrees raise women’s pay – to level of non-graduate male peers” (27 November). What the IFS report also said was that men with degrees earn less than men in the same age group without degrees, and that having a degree boosts male incomes by only 6% whereas it raises female incomes by 50%.

Small wonder then that Jack Britton, one of the authors of the report, came to the conclusion that “for women, going to university is a very good investment; for men it is less clear – there is a large class of men doing courses that have a zero or negative monetary value so it is a question for them if they are worth doing”.

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Universities must learn from UAE case | Letters

November 27, 2018, 9:06 am

≫ Next: Fruit and veg used in scheme for English schools 'often inedible'

≪ Previous: Missing the point in graduate pay report | Letter

Steven Burkeman and Jane Ghosh say supervisors should be more careful not to let PhD candidates get into dangerous situations

The case of Matthew Hedges should prompt all universities to reflect on the role of ethics committees, and PhD supervisors, in the process leading to approval of potentially dangerous overseas PhD research (UAE frees British academic but insists Hedges was a spy, 27 November). As a recent member of a University of York ethics committee which dealt with political research, I frequently encountered such applications from PhD candidates. These requests were often accompanied by reassurances to the effect that – like Matthew Hedges, who spent his childhood in UAE, where his father still lives – the researcher had roots, or close connections, in the country concerned, and that these would be sufficient to protect her/him from dangers which could otherwise affect less well-connected people.

The Hedges case, and that of Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge PhD student murdered in Cairo in 2016, should lead to all those involved in considering high-risk overseas research applications to carefully review their processes.
Steven Burkeman
York

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Fruit and veg used in scheme for English schools 'often inedible'

November 26, 2018, 10:29 pm

≫ Next: Dear Damian Hinds, please stop wrecking poetry for children | Michael Rosen

≪ Previous: Universities must learn from UAE case | Letters

Produce frequently low quality and with higher pesticide residues than food in shops

Fruit and vegetables given to children under a government scheme are largely imported, often of poor quality and have higher levels of pesticide residues than supermarket equivalents, a report has revealed.

Children’s health campaigners are urging the government to revamp the £40m school fruit and vegetable scheme, saying it is a waste of taxpayers’ money and is failing in its mission to encourage young people to eat more fresh produce.

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Dear Damian Hinds, please stop wrecking poetry for children | Michael Rosen

November 26, 2018, 10:45 pm

≫ Next: BBC headteacher tells of outpouring of sympathy after he resigned on TV

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Children are being taught that there are right and wrong answers in poems

Do you like poetry? I do. It’s an art form that can entertain, provoke, console, reflect, observe and much more. A breakthrough for me was at primary school when Mrs MacNab got us to perform poems as if we were a choir.

“Choral speaking”, it was called, so there were solos, duets, sections where we said a whole line together, there were moments when we divided into “parts” and other moments where we created the rhythm with words or sounds. One I enjoyed a lot was Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop. We didn’t have to explain under test conditions what it meant. We got the meaning through the way we interpreted the poem in building up our performance.

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BBC headteacher tells of outpouring of sympathy after he resigned on TV

November 26, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Senior UK academics call for people’s vote to save universities

≪ Previous: Dear Damian Hinds, please stop wrecking poetry for children | Michael Rosen

Now viewers can see for themselves what cuts are doing, says James Pope from BBC2’s School series

James Pope has not been watching School, the BBC2 documentary he stars in. “I was hugely nervous. You don’t know how people will view you. Despite four years of generally very positive feedback from my line managers, governors, the trust and community, I thought there was a risk people would watch it and go: what an idiot.”

The series follows the pupils, teachers, parents and leaders of different secondary schools in a multi-academy trust across the 2017-2018 academic year. It shows Pope struggling to improve standards at Marlwood, a rural comprehensive in Gloucestershire that has been put into special measures by Ofsted, while simultaneously being expected to cut nearly £1m from his annual budget. Teaching, leadership and support staff numbers are decimated, class sizes are increased, morale falls; pupils and teachers struggle to shake off the label “inadequate”. Last week, in episode three, after a poor Ofsted report, Pope is seen handing in his resignation. He says the resultant outpouring of empathy from headteachers has been remarkable.

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Senior UK academics call for people’s vote to save universities

November 26, 2018, 11:15 pm

≫ Next: Matthew Hedges: pardoned academic returns to UK

≪ Previous: BBC headteacher tells of outpouring of sympathy after he resigned on TV

Three Russell Group heads and Nobel prize winner add voices to demand for new Brexit referendum

Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at Oxford University, sums up the feelings of many of those working and studying in UK universities: “If there is a no-deal Brexit it will be the worst thing that has happened to British universities in modern history,” he says.

As fears grow about the current political impasse and the possible impact of a no-deal Brexit on universities, some of Britain’s most senior academics are joining calls for a people’s vote.

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Matthew Hedges: pardoned academic returns to UK

November 27, 2018, 2:48 am

≫ Next: Professors are selling their plasma to pay bills. Let's hold colleges' feet to the fire

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Durham University student lands at Heathrow a day after being freed from UAE jail

The British academic Matthew Hedges has returned to the UK after his release from a prison in the United Arab Emirates and been pictured with his wife, who thanked the public for their support and asked for privacy as they recovered from their journey “through hell and back”.

Hedges, 31, arrived in the UK a day after he was pardoned and released from his life sentence for spying. The UAE released him on Monday after showing a video of him apparently confessing to being a member of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency. Britain denied he was a spy and welcomed his release.

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Professors are selling their plasma to pay bills. Let's hold colleges' feet to the fire

November 27, 2018, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Could internships replace fashion degrees?

≪ Previous: Matthew Hedges: pardoned academic returns to UK

If you like your coffee fair trade, why not your children’s school ‘fair labor’? Here’s a simple but effective proposal

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg recently gave $1.8bn to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, for financial aid. The donation, the biggest gift of its kind, will enable Johns Hopkins to ensure permanently need-blind admissions. Bloomberg’s big-ticket donation has received plenty of headlines – and criticism– for simply adding to the coffers of an already elite institution. To me, however, his donation highlights another problem involving money on campus that no philanthropist seems to want to touch: the sheer amount of terribly paid adjuncts now toiling away at American universities.

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Could internships replace fashion degrees?

November 27, 2018, 3:21 am

≫ Next: LSE graduates top average earnings table by age 29, data shows

≪ Previous: Professors are selling their plasma to pay bills. Let's hold colleges' feet to the fire

Fashion students are no longer courted for their creative talents. Now they fight for unpaid work placements

“I always planned to go to university to do photography,” says Ryan Saradjola, a London-based photographer. Despite considering himself not to be very academic, he persevered through college, building a portfolio that landed him a place at the prestigious London College of Fashion (LCF). But after a year at LCF, Saradjola opted out of higher education entirely. Offered the opportunity to work alongside the famous fashion photographer Rankin, he took the leap. “It was an amazing experience,” he says. “I learned so much from that year and a half. Working with his clients, seeing how he worked – the whole process was eye-opening.”

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LSE graduates top average earnings table by age 29, data shows

November 27, 2018, 7:08 am

≫ Next: UK universities to hold inquiry into degree awards policies

≪ Previous: Could internships replace fashion degrees?

Former London School of Economics students earning more than graduates from any other university in England

The London School of Economics has emerged as the university whose graduates earn the most by the age of 29, while economics has narrowly topped medicine as the best-paid degree subject, data shows.

The LSE was the top institution for average earnings by both men and women in England, according to raw earnings data compiled from tax records by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), with male students going on to earn an average of £60,000 a year by 29, while women earned £55,000.

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