Impact of social media on children faces fresh scrutiny

January 15, 2019, 7:08 am

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UK researchers study 40,000 households to explore biggest risk factors for mental health

Barely a day goes by without concerns being raised about the effect of social media on children’s mental health. Now a study aims to delve behind the headlines to ascertain whether it has been unfairly vilified.

By analysing data from a longitudinal survey of 40,000 households, researchers from Portsmouth and Sheffield universities hope to identify the biggest risk factors for children’s mental health. This could help determine whether social media are negative or positive for children’s wellbeing and in what circumstances.

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London state school says 41 students offered Oxbridge place

January 15, 2019, 11:10 am

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Many of the successful applicants at Brampton Manor academy are from minority ethnic backgrounds

A state school in east London is celebrating after 41 of its students – almost all of them from minority ethnic backgrounds – secured offers to study at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge later this year.

Brampton Manor academy in Newham opened its sixth form in September 2012 with the objective of increasing progression rates to Oxbridge and other elite Russell Group universities among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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Junior high school students caught forming swastika with their bodies

January 15, 2019, 2:01 pm

≫ Next: Ofsted plans overhaul of inspections to look beyond exam results

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California youths traded racist and violent messages in county called ‘hotbed for white supremacists’

A group of California junior high students were caught forming a swastika with their bodies on school grounds and exchanging racist and violent messages on a group chat, administrators said.

The scandal at Matilija junior high school, which culminated in an emotional meeting with parents and school officials Monday night, has sparked intense debate in a region that has experienced a sharp increase in reported antisemitic incidents.

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Ofsted plans overhaul of inspections to look beyond exam results

January 15, 2019, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Norfolk council rebuked over special needs provision

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New guidelines will shift focus towards quality of education rather than ‘outcomes’

The way nurseries, schools and colleges in England are inspected is to undergo its biggest overhaul in a decade, with proposals by Ofsted aiming to address concerns that education has been too narrowly focused on exam results.

The new guidelines will be launched by Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, in a speech on Wednesday, with a consultation on revised inspection frameworks for state and independent schools as well as early years settings and further education colleges.

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Norfolk council rebuked over special needs provision

January 15, 2019, 4:01 pm

≫ Next: Video games can turn university graduates into better employees | Matthew Barr

≪ Previous: Ofsted plans overhaul of inspections to look beyond exam results

Ombudsman has upheld 11 complaints against county council in two years

The local government ombudsman has reprimanded a local authority over its provision for children with special educational needs after upholding 11 complaints against the council over the last two years.

The ombudsman’s office said the number of complaints upheld against Norfolk county council was one of the highest in England, particularly given the relatively small population.

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Video games can turn university graduates into better employees | Matthew Barr

January 15, 2019, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Young mothers at university: 'I breastfed at 5am while writing essays'

≪ Previous: Norfolk council rebuked over special needs provision

Video games improve communication, adaptibility and critical thinking – just the attributes that employers are looking for

In recent years, Boris Johnson has excelled at making ignorant pronouncements and illiterate blunders. From offensive remarks on burqas to reciting Kipling in Myanmar and his ludicrous statements on Brexit, Johnson has perfected the art of getting it wrong. It feels like he’s managed to offend just about everyone. For video game educators like myself, that moment arrived way back in 2006, when Johnson attacked video games as a learning tool.

“They [young people] become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious,” he wrote. “These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory – though some of them may cunningly pretend to be educational.”

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Young mothers at university: 'I breastfed at 5am while writing essays'

January 16, 2019, 6:19 am

≫ Next: Egyptian universities reinstate students expelled for hugging

≪ Previous: Video games can turn university graduates into better employees | Matthew Barr

Pregnancy can be seen as a barrier to university – and young student mothers say they lack support

I started university, aged 19, with my12-week-old baby. While other freshers were getting to know each other, I was squeezing my breasts into a pump and cursing the price of nappies. My life as an Oxford student and mum was so unexpected that one student thought the “baby” I talked about was a doll. It’s 2019: women earn scholarships while pregnant and mothers study at top universities while raising children, but the existence of student parents still goes unacknowledged.

I crammed a full academic schedule into my daughter’s nursery hours. It was exhausting. I breastfed at 5am while trying to finish essays. My tutors were very kind but, as an institution, Oxford does not expect you to be a mother. More than 700 Oxford students had children in 2016, but many feel they are not on the university’s radar. Ash Mohanaprakas, who discovered she was pregnant during her undergraduate degree, says she felt “constantly lonely” trying to reconcile motherhood with her studies.

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Egyptian universities reinstate students expelled for hugging

January 16, 2019, 8:03 am

≫ Next: Damian Hinds to lobby Treasury for multi-year education funds

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Mansoura and Al-Azhar universities backtrack after video of celebratory embrace goes viral

Two students expelled from university in Egypt for the “immoral act” of hugging in celebration of their engagement have been reinstated after a viral video of their embrace drew widespread public sympathy.

The universities of Al-Azhar and Mansoura initially told both students they would be thrown out after footage emerged showing the male student kneeling and proposing to the teenage woman before presenting her with a bouquet of flowers. The video, shot on the campus of Mansoura University, then showed the pair embracing, a moment greeted by cheers from their friends.

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Damian Hinds to lobby Treasury for multi-year education funds

January 16, 2019, 10:58 am

≫ Next: Ofsted inspections find three Steiner schools to be ‘inadequate’

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Education secretary agrees DfE needs something similar to recent NHS long-term plan

The education secretary, Damian Hinds, is to lobby the Treasury for a multi-year funding settlement for education in England similar to the 10-year package announced for the NHS, MPs were told.

Hinds, appearing before parliament’s education select committee, said he would make a “a very compelling case” for more funding in this year’s spending review, agreeing that something similar to the recent NHS long-term plan was needed.

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Ofsted inspections find three Steiner schools to be ‘inadequate’

January 16, 2019, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: University should be free for all students, not just the wealthiest | Eric Lybeck

≪ Previous: Damian Hinds to lobby Treasury for multi-year education funds

Concerns raised about safeguarding, bullying and high exclusion rates

The future of state-funded Steiner education has been thrown into doubt after a series of snap Ofsted inspections found that three of the four such schools set up under the Conservatives’ free school programme were “inadequate”.

The four have been inspected in recent weeks – alongside private Steiner schools, a number of which have also been found to be inadequate – following an intervention by the education secretary, Damian Hinds, over concerns about safeguarding.

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University should be free for all students, not just the wealthiest | Eric Lybeck

January 17, 2019, 5:04 am

≫ Next: St Andrews find may be oldest surviving wall chart of periodic table

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We now know that 10% of the wealthiest students get to go to university for free. This compounds inequality

Advocates of the current university tuition fee system in Britain argue it is fair and progressive because only a fraction of students will ever pay the government back in full. Until graduates make more than £25,000, they pay nothing, and thereafter – once in higher-income work – they pay no more than 9% of their salary. Of course, interest continues to accrue, but only around 30% of students will pay back all of their loan.

The problem with the view that tuition fees are progressive is that we only look at those students who take out loans. According to a report published by the Intergenerational Foundation, we now know that at least 10% of the wealthiest students from the UK have their fees paid upfront by their parents. At Oxbridge, the percentage climbs to 16%. This means they avoid accruing the considerable interest paid by their less well-off peers.

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St Andrews find may be oldest surviving wall chart of periodic table

January 17, 2019, 6:25 am

≫ Next: Schools pushing children into home schooling, say councils

≪ Previous: University should be free for all students, not just the wealthiest | Eric Lybeck

Chart appears to date from 1885, and was found under lecture hall during clean-out

A crumbling roll of canvas-backed paper discovered underneath a lecture theatre in Scotland may be the world’s oldest surviving periodic table chart, experts have said.

The chart was found during a clean-out at the University of St Andrews in 2014 and appears to date from 1885 – 16 years after the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his method of showing the relationships between the elements in 1869.

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Schools pushing children into home schooling, say councils

January 17, 2019, 8:04 am

≫ Next: Oxford places ban on donations and research grants from Huawei

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Watchdog told that parents are coerced into home educating, often before GCSEs

Local authorities in England say some parents are being “coerced” by schools into home educating their children, often before GCSE exams, and that there has been a sharp increase in the number of pupils being removed, according to the government’s admissions watchdog.

The annual report of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) says that more than 52,000 children were registered as being home schooled in 2017-18, using figures supplied by the 152 councils in England. But it notes that, because there is no requirement on parents to register, the figure is an underestimate of the real total.

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Oxford places ban on donations and research grants from Huawei

January 17, 2019, 10:01 am

≫ Next: Universities can do more to support their disabled students | Chris Skidmore

≪ Previous: Schools pushing children into home schooling, say councils

Decision on Chinese telecoms firm comes as national security concerns mount in the west

The University of Oxford has placed an indefinite ban on accepting research grants or donations from the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, which is facing mounting concerns from several governments about whether it poses a risk to national security.

The decision emerged the day after the US prosecutors reportedly opened an investigation into Huawei for alleged theft of trade secrets from American firms. Berlin is also reportedly weighing up measures to exclude the company from working on the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure in Germany.

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Universities can do more to support their disabled students | Chris Skidmore

January 17, 2019, 10:15 am

≫ Next: 'Sometimes you feel alone': studying at university with a disability

≪ Previous: Oxford places ban on donations and research grants from Huawei

More students with a disability are going to university than ever before, but we need greater progress to level the playing field

Going to university is no longer the preserve of a privileged few. Thanks to successive reforms under this government, including a generous student finance system and the abolition of student number controls, anyone who aspires to a higher education can achieve it.

Students of all backgrounds and circumstances are unlocking the potential of a university education and widening their horizons. This includes record numbers of students with a disability.

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'Sometimes you feel alone': studying at university with a disability

January 17, 2019, 10:31 am

≫ Next: Academic who defined news principles says journalists are too negative

≪ Previous: Universities can do more to support their disabled students | Chris Skidmore

Three disabled students tell us about how they have coped with the transition from school to university

While the number of disabled people studying at university is growing, they are still far less likely to go than their non-disabled peers. The universities minister, Chris Skidmore, is now calling on universities to do more to support their disabled students, in the hope of encouraging more applications. Here, several disabled students share their stories about what starting university was like for them.

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Academic who defined news principles says journalists are too negative

January 17, 2019, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: ‘Back in 2019, Britain was much larger’: what the history books will say | Jack Bernhardt

≪ Previous: 'Sometimes you feel alone': studying at university with a disability

Exclusive: preoccupation with conflict fosters insecurity, populism and trust deficit, says Johan Galtung

The academic who first defined the essence of news journalism has said the media have misconstrued his work and become far too negative, sensational and adversarial.

Johan Galtung, a Norwegian professor who wrote a key scientific paper more than 50 years ago that listed a series of factors including conflict and immediacy as the hallmarks of news reporting, said his work was intended as a warning, not a guide.

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‘Back in 2019, Britain was much larger’: what the history books will say | Jack Bernhardt

January 18, 2019, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Cutting tuition fees won’t help poorer students – reduce interest rates instead | David Blunkett

≪ Previous: Academic who defined news principles says journalists are too negative

Using the latest technology, I’ve got my hands on a textbook from the year 2070. And it isn’t very complimentary

It’s always odd when politicians make an appeal to “the history books” – it’s like an actor making an appeal to reviewers midway through the film. But it took on a new surreal meaning on Monday, when Theresa May asked us to consider what the history books would say about the vote on her deal.

It takes truly great commitment to your own mediocrity to sort through a catalogue of your own mistakes, find the largest and most avoidable, and then tell the gods of history that yep, this national humiliation is the way you want future generations to remember you. It’s like calling up the Oxford English Dictionary and requesting that “to cock something up irrevocably, to the point that people feel a pang of despair when they hear your name” be for ever known as “doing a Theresa”.

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Cutting tuition fees won’t help poorer students – reduce interest rates instead | David Blunkett

January 18, 2019, 6:02 am

≫ Next: Stonewall defends 'vital' LGBT children's books after spate of ban attempts

≪ Previous: ‘Back in 2019, Britain was much larger’: what the history books will say | Jack Bernhardt

The government’s university funding review must not cut fees – that would damage teaching and help only richer students

• David Blunkett is a former education secretary

Recent research has shown that higher education students from wealthier families are paying off tuition fees in England upfront, in order to avoid debts and “sky-high” interest rates. The findings, from the Intergenerational Foundation, showed that the “bank of mum and dad” was once again intervening in a world of deep inequality and unfairness.

The thinktank called for changes to the current fees system – however, this is unlikely to benefit those being disadvantaged by it.

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Stonewall defends 'vital' LGBT children's books after spate of ban attempts

January 18, 2019, 6:43 am

≫ Next: Birmingham University in row over 'racist' treatment of non-EU staff

≪ Previous: Cutting tuition fees won’t help poorer students – reduce interest rates instead | David Blunkett

In the last week, separate moves in Canada and the US threatened to restrict young readers’ access to LGBT-themed illustrated stories

UK campaign group Stonewall has warned that children’s books depicting LGBT people are vital for the wellbeing of young people exploring their sexual orientation and gender identity, following a spate of attempts around the world to remove titles depicting gay or transgender characters from library shelves.

Earlier this week in Canada, the Ottawa Catholic School Board was reported to have pulled Raina Telgemeier’s acclaimed graphic novel Drama from the shelves of primary schools, moving it to middle and high schools where it would “more appropriately target 13+ students”. Aimed at children aged 10 and older, the book follows a girl who wants to help with her school play, and features a side story in which two boys kiss. It has proved controversial in the US in the past, with the American Library Association naming it as one of the country’s most challenged books.

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