2 DAYS AGO - It’s important to consider why school matters to them, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith – but it might be more valuable to help them develop their sense of selfRead more Leading questionsI have teenagers of 12 and 14 and am struggling to work out how involved I should be with their school work. They are bright and I clearly want them to succeed in what they choose to do, but they are also fairly unmotivated and, probably like many teenagers, don’t put their all into their school work.Friends have different perspectives but it sounds like a lot of people are arranging tutoring for their children. I’m not sure mine would enjoy this on top of school and homework but am I holding them back by not supporting them with this? Does there come a point when you just need to sit back a little and let them take ownership of their decisions and behaviour, or is this still too young? I’m sure every child is different and every parent is different too. Continue reading... Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - The education secretary says equation sheets should be available to students sitting exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027. Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Joint review by chief of Ofsted and prisons chief inspector discovers children kept in cells to avoid conflictChildren in youth offender institutions (YOIs) are being denied access to education, with too many being kept in their cells as staff struggle to keep warring youngsters apart, a damning new report has found.It documents a worrying decline in the quality and quantity of education provided to 15 to 18-year-olds in YOIs over the last decade despite a sharp drop in the number of children being held in custody. Continue reading... Collapse

5 DAYS AGO - NEU snap poll shows 95% of members voting for 5.5% pay rise, ending months of industrial actionTeachers in England have voted overwhelmingly to accept a 5.5% pay rise but warned ministers that without further “corrections” pay would remain uncompetitive and teacher shortages would persist.Of those members who responded to the National Education Union’s snap poll, 95% voted to accept the 2024-25 offer, which would give schools an additional £1.2bn to cover the pay rise. Continue reading... Collapse

6 DAYS AGO - YouTube isn’t always a stupefaction engine. Curious children and other autodidacts have unrivalled access to knowledgeWith highbrow content but defiantly low production values, the Numberphile YouTube channel might be considered the antithesis of the platform’s biggest successes. While stars such as the controversial MrBeast orchestrate elaborate stunts and giveaways, Numberphile videos feature mathematicians talking through complex concepts at length. There are occasional questions or prompts from the unseen cameraman. The props are usually a sheet of brown paper and a marker pen. The closest the episodes get to clickbait are titles such as Tau vs Pi Smackdown or The Lazy Way to Cut Pizza; a typical video is More on Bertrand’s Paradox, or An Amazing Thing About 276.None of this sounds like catnip for young viewers. Yet since it launched in 2011, the series has become a cult hit. Eleven million people have now watched the physics professor Roger Bowley discuss Kaprekar’s Constant. Collapse

28/09/2024 - Prime minister says music was ‘great joy’ of his youth and he wants to reverse ‘degrading of creative arts’His father – as we know – was a toolmaker, and he has spoken often of the pebble-dashed semi where he grew up. But when Keir Starmer addressed the Labour party conference this week it was a less familiar aspect of his childhood that he chose to highlight.One of the things that had given him “great joy” as a child, “as well as the football, obviously”, was playing the flute, he told delegates in Liverpool. “I don’t think you were expecting that, were you?” Continue reading... Collapse