Daily Mile gets £1.5m to boost fitness in English primary schools

December 17, 2018, 9:54 am

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Sport England funding to pay for major expansion of back-to-basics child exercise scheme

The Daily Mile, the back-to-basics fitness initiative for schoolchildren, has received a £1.5m cash injection from Sport England, which hopes to spread the word about it to every primary school in England.

The national lottery money represents the biggest expansion of the scheme which began six years ago with children at a primary school in Stirling running five laps round the playing field. It is now a regular fixture at 3,500 schools in England and for 1.25 million children worldwide.

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Crime victims can find it healing to meet offenders – but too few know it

December 18, 2018, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Degrees for the rich, apprenticeships for the poor – that’s not a world of parity | Laura McInerney

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Awareness of restorative justice can give victims a sense of closure – and makes the criminal justice system more efficient

Restorative justice consists of a meeting between a criminal offender and their victim or a representative. This meeting challenges offenders to confront their crimes and fully realise the consequences of their actions in order for them to make positive changes. The encounter only takes place if both parties agree and if it is carefully mediated by a third party. In 2015, the Victims Code gave victims a right to be informed about restorative justice. However, this is only a reality for less than than 5% of victims, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2016.

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Degrees for the rich, apprenticeships for the poor – that’s not a world of parity | Laura McInerney

December 17, 2018, 10:45 pm

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The education secretary wants to end snobbery over vocational qualifications. Tell that to the wealthy

Somewhere, right now, a 17-year-old is afraid to tell her family she wants to go to university. At £9,000-plus a year it feels like a luxury, a thing for other people. Even though she achieved the highest results in her school, and has spent her whole life wanting to be an engineer, she knows her parents are terrified of university debt and that attending the best institutions, in far-flung cities, would mean moving away.

Now imagine this 17-year-old was listening earlier this year as the education secretary – the guardian of aspiration – announced that poorer young people would be better off studying near to home through a “commuter degree” in order to save pennies. That would be the education secretary, Damian Hinds, by the way, who studied at Oxford University, 153 miles away from his hometown near Manchester.

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Child abuser in our midst: ‘He was like the Pied Piper, children flocked to him’

December 17, 2018, 11:15 pm

≫ Next: What stopped you applying to Oxbridge?

≪ Previous: Degrees for the rich, apprenticeships for the poor – that’s not a world of parity | Laura McInerney

Marilyn Hawes, a teacher whose sons were sexually abused, is working to change how schools warn children about grooming

Marilyn Hawes vividly remembers the first time she met Jeff Carney. It was 1981, and she and her husband were at church in Wokingham with their one-year-old son. “He was in a pew behind me tapping me on the shoulder saying: ‘You’re a lovely mum. Where’s your little boy going to go to school?’” Carney explained that he was the new headteacher of the local Church of England primary school, telling her: “A boy really needs a man on the staff.”

Thus began a friendship that was to have devastating consequences. Every week, Carney would talk to Hawes after church. Eventually her son became a pupil at his school, followed by his younger sister and twin brothers, born in 1986.

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What stopped you applying to Oxbridge?

December 18, 2018, 12:30 am

≫ Next: What do most artists have in common? A second job

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Why are high-flying state school pupils less likely to apply to Oxford or Cambridge than their private school peers? We asked some

New research from the Sutton Trust has shown that high-flying pupils from state schools are far less likely to apply to Oxbridge than their peers in the private sector and, if they do apply, are less likely to be successful. We asked talented A-level students what stopped them applying.

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What do most artists have in common? A second job

December 18, 2018, 8:21 am

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There’s no way to make ends meet in the arts, where part-time work is the new normal. But how best to manage the side-hustle?

A short video was recently posted to Twitter showing a dancer performing outside Hamleys toy store in London dressed as an elf. The slightly snippy caption reads: “‘Leading role they said. West End location they said.’” The post prompted a flurry of supportive tweets, including one from Irish actor Nicola Coughlan, who wrote: “When I finished drama school I was incredibly broke. Things I did in jobs included: dressing up as a cow and walking around Covent Garden, making bath bombs at birthday parties for wealthy kids, handing out Froyo. Acting is really hard to break into, more power to you Mr Elf.”

‘Leading Role they said. West End location they said.’ pic.twitter.com/10xkvpSaLh

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Universities watchdog threatens fines over grade inflation

December 18, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: 'Society has a duty to help poor students': university leaders on tuition fees

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Proportion of degrees that are first class rose from 16% to 27% in six years, OfS finds

The higher education watchdog has issued a stark warning to universities that they will be fined or even removed from the official register if they fail to tackle spiralling grade inflation at degree level.

Research by the Office for Students reveals for the first time the scale of the problem, which is virtually sector-wide with 84% of universities seeing significant unexplained increases in the number of first-class degrees awarded.

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'Society has a duty to help poor students': university leaders on tuition fees

December 19, 2018, 4:46 am

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The leader of the University of Chile and Northampton’s vice-chancellor debate whether students should pay to go to university

With student numbers continuing to rise, UK universities thought that tuition fees – currently set at £9,250 a year – had lost their political heat. But last year’s general election proved them wrong: Labour pledged to abolish tuition fees and students came out in force to vote. The government responded by setting up an independent review into fees and funding in post-18 education, and universities are nervously awaiting its verdict, due early in the new year. The Office for National Statistics has changed the way student loans are accounted for, potentially raising government borrowing estimates by about £12bn a year.

In the latest of our 2VCs interview series, Anna Fazackerley spoke to Prof Nick Petford, vice-chancellor of Northampton University, and Prof Ennio Vivaldi, President of the University of Chile, about the hot topic of fees.

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Homesickness at university: is there a cure?

December 19, 2018, 7:02 am

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It’s among the most common experiences for students. Coping is a matter of settling in and keeping busy

James Mahoney, 19, who has just started university in Glasgow, says his homesickness was triggered by a bad date. He didn’t get on with the person, who he’d met online, and he was suddenly reminded of the people closest to him back home. He returned to his flat and his mind began to race with thoughts of his native Northern Ireland. “I was trying to sleep but kept thinking about my best friend and my family,” he says. “For some reason I also started to think about past Christmas get togethers.”

Mahoney (not his real name) knew homesickness would strike at some point. “In Northern Ireland my neighbours are literally cows, so it’s intimidating being here. It’s overwhelming.”

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Police carrying stun guns ‘more likely to use force and face assault’

December 19, 2018, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Academy chains underperforming for disadvantaged children, study finds

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Study suggests presence of weapon leads to rise in hostility between officers and public

Police officers carrying Taser electronic weapons are almost 50% more likely to use force and also more likely to be assaulted, a study has found.

Stun guns were de-holstered nine times during the year-long University of Cambridge study involving City of London police, and fired on two occasions. Officers carrying them were also more likely to use other types of force, such as handcuffing and CS spray, than those without stun guns.

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Academy chains underperforming for disadvantaged children, study finds

December 19, 2018, 10:01 pm

≫ Next: How do universities prepare graduates for jobs that don't yet exist?

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Sutton Trust finds many chains struggle to improve attainment among poorest pupils

Research into the impact of academy chains on the attainment of pupils from low-income families has found that two thirds of the chains are performing below average for disadvantaged children, according to an influential social mobility charity.

While a few chains are having a “transformational” impact on the disadvantaged pupils in their school communities, the Sutton Trust report finds that many more are struggling to significantly improve attainment among their poorest children.

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How do universities prepare graduates for jobs that don't yet exist?

December 19, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Future graduates will need creativity and empathy, not just technical skills | Natalie Brett

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Most children today will work in jobs that haven’t been invented. They need their education system to keep up

Universities determine the future: they shape it through their research and prepare students for tomorrow’s jobs. But in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, it’s hard to know what the future will look like. Technological changes such as automation and artificial intelligence are expected to transform the employment landscape. The question is: will our education system keep up?

The answer matters because an estimated 65% of children entering primary schools today will work in jobs and functions that don’t currently exist, according to a recent Universities UK report. The research, which explores the “rapid pace of change and increasing complexity of work”, also warns that the UK isn’t even creating the workers that will be needed for the jobs that can be anticipated. By 2030, it will have a talent deficit of between 600,000 and 1.2 million workers in the financial and business sector, and technology, media and telecommunications sector.

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Future graduates will need creativity and empathy, not just technical skills | Natalie Brett

December 19, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: How to tackle grade inflation? Open university exams to all | Sonia Sodha

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Government education policy focuses on the importance of hard science, but soft skills matter, too

Rapidly advancing technology, including automation and AI and its impact on education, skills and learning in the UK, is a subject of much debate for universities. How can institutions equip students with the skills they need to succeed in a changing jobs market? It’s a valid question, though often the answers are the problem.

Since technology is driving these changes, there’s an assumption that the government should keep focusing on Stem subjects. These are often referred to as “hard skills”, which are prioritised in primary school and right through to university level. In the meantime, “soft skills” – which are already disadvantaged by the term’s connotations – are being relegated even further down the pecking order in terms of curriculum must-haves.

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How to tackle grade inflation? Open university exams to all | Sonia Sodha

December 20, 2018, 1:00 am

≫ Next: My mother learned to read at 63 - she was still the smartest woman I know

≪ Previous: Future graduates will need creativity and empathy, not just technical skills | Natalie Brett

The proportion of people getting top degrees is soaring, and there is little oversight. This system needs radical change

Grade inflation is one of the hardy perennials of education stories. And in recent years universities as well as schools have increasingly come under the spotlight. On Thursday a new report by the university regulator suggested that if you control for factors such as the grades of young people going to university, social class and the universities they are attending, a slightly smaller proportion of young people would be getting firsts and 2:1s today compared with in 2011 – if nothing else (such as quality of teaching) was changing. Yet the proportion of young people getting firsts and 2:1s today has actually gone up massively, from 67% in 2011 to to 78% in 2017. The proportion of firsts awarded has doubled in under 10 years. At one university, it has more than quintupled.

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My mother learned to read at 63 - she was still the smartest woman I know

December 20, 2018, 2:00 am

≫ Next: Nintendo Labo: a parent's guide

≪ Previous: How to tackle grade inflation? Open university exams to all | Sonia Sodha

It didn’t take education or money for my mama to feel compassion, to reject prejudice and hatred. She taught me to feel empathy, and I cherished it

It was a couple of hours after I got off the school bus one day in 1969 when my destiny was set.

We were living on Fork Road in rural Neshoba county, Mississippi. I was precocious, skinny as a French green bean and with a mouth filled with bad country grammar. I usually watched TV or played outside until my mother got home from the factory where she ironed pants while her mother watched me.

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Nintendo Labo: a parent's guide

December 20, 2018, 4:00 am

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Nintendo’s ingenious combination of video game and construction kit is one of the most interesting family games around. Should you buy it for your kids?

Released in April, Nintendo Labo was one of the more unusual games of this year – or any year. The box contains cardboard sheets, rubber bands and string along with a game cartridge, inviting players to build ingenious little cardboard models that, when combined with the Nintendo Switch console and its controllers, become working interactive toys. It’s rather like cardboard Lego, presented in a way that gently introduces the basics of engineering.

Labo is not as playground-popular as Minecraft or Fortnite, but it’s a rare video game that provides educational value as well as fun, and does so without forcing it down kids’ throats.

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Lessons from interning: how to stand out while blending in

December 20, 2018, 7:40 am

≫ Next: The earning power of apprenticeships | Letters

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More graduates are taking on internships than ever before. Five former interns share their wisdom

They’re seen as a gateway to in-demand jobs in everything from arts and finance to politics and fashion – and according to a new Sutton Trust report, more graduates are doing them than ever before. But internships are no picnic. They somehow require you to be everything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere, part of the furniture but never too at home. Heed the wisdom of these former interns, and you’ll be on your way to perfecting the strange art of standing out while blending in.

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The earning power of apprenticeships | Letters

December 21, 2018, 8:47 am

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Frank Field MP says apprenticeships should be opened up to as many youngsters as possible, while Khosro S Jahdi says modest A-level results needn’t be a barrier to academic success

Laura McInerney’s wish to instil greater equality in the education system is laudable. However, in seeking to draw a contrast between degrees and apprenticeships, she uses misleading comparisons (The rich kid with a degree; the poor kid with an apprenticeship – that is not a world of parity, 18 December).

While demonstrating the value of a degree to one’s earnings prospects, McInerney cites a recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which found that “women who attended university in the 2000s earned over 50% more by the age of 29 than those who did not”. This statement fails to distinguish between the fortunes of non-graduates in general and those with an apprenticeship. It fails also to note another key finding from the IFS report – that “some subject choices … actually appear to result in lower earnings at age 29 than not going to university at all”.

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'It's painful and difficult': the students estranged from their families

December 20, 2018, 11:00 pm

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Estranged students often fly under their university’s radar, even though they’re among the most vulnerable

For Lily-Rose Sharry, a second-year student at Cambridge University, being estranged from her family has coloured her university experience in “the most mundane to the most extreme ways”. University has been a series of difficult questions, the answers to which most students take for granted. Who will bring her stuff? Who will support her when she’s struggling from her workload, or pay for her accommodation in the summer months? Where will she go at Christmas? And who will celebrate her good grades?

The difficulty is compounded by how hard it is to gain estranged status from the Student Loans Company (SLC). For Sharry, that nearly didn’t happen, which would have meant withdrawing from her university place. “It’s a notoriously painful and difficult process,” she says. She recalls applying to the SLC for the additional funding she needs to top up the student loan, and having to reluctantly discuss “really personal stuff about things you tried to bury years ago” with her apologetic sixth-form science teacher.

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I'm an EU academic with the right to stay after Brexit. Why do I feel bereft?

December 20, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next? | Julian Baggini

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I grew up in West Germany and believed I would never return to strict borders in Europe – until I applied for UK leave to remain

I am an EU citizen working at a highly ranked UK university. Like many of my European colleagues, I came to the UK for the reputation of its higher education system, and I want to stay. Today I completed my application to the EU settlement scheme pilot, which is open to university and NHS employees. I should be feeling relieved, or even joyful. But I don’t feel like celebrating.

The Home Office’s official confirmation letter stated how “pleased” they were to inform me that I had been “granted Limited Leave to Remain (LTR) in the United Kingdom for five years”. But rather than having gained anything, I feel that something has been taken away in the most clandestine and cynical of ways. Something vital, something irreplaceable.

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