If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Because it wasn't so long ago that I bumped into a young man (let's call him Peter) - we'd worked with him when he was in Year 9 and on the very edge of permanent exclusion. Peter couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes, hated being told what to do and saw resources only as ammunition to throw at his classmates.
I object to my family facing discrimination and bias. I object to my child's privacy being invaded on a regular basis for no good reason. I object that unnecessary demands on my family take away resources from children who do need help. I object to being branded a criminal. Wouldn't you?
The crucial point is that simply learning about internet safety is not enough, children need to practise it. With the right nurturing, guidance and practice, children can then have the best possible preparation when the time comes to make the transition into more grown up social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
I'm dyslexic. That's right. Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Henry Winkler and Orlando Bloom and I can all officially high-five each other. Now dyslexia affects people in different ways. It can be a major block to getting through school and getting through work. However, dyslexia isn't all that bad. In fact I ABSOLUTELY FREAKING LOVE IT. Here's why...
The debate about standards in the UK examination system turns heads because the importance of education is more vivid now than it has ever been. If we're not getting it right, that's a big problem - nationally and for individuals.
I love making dens. But den making isn't something I do just for my own children. Every week I go into schools and help pupils and teachers transform classrooms into war-torn towns, cavernous Egyptian pyramids and enchanted forests.
With the years of endured bullying at secondary school long behind me, I'd almost forgotten that bullying wasn't buried at my school. Amongst the sport, the stage productions and field trips, bullying was and still is infectious across classrooms.
Given the numbers we shall have to recruit into STEM industries in the next few years, we need many more employers to engage on a sustained basis to develop the necessary momentum and direction. Embedding the costs in to their budget and planning processes will enable their involvement to make a significant contribution to the solution of the STEM skills shortage.
Youth unemployment is a global problem. In the UK, NEET figures are at a record high. In some countries of the Arab world 90% of 16-24-year-olds are unemployed. In the United States the youth unemployment rate is 23% and in Spain nearly 50%. The problem is very much a worldwide issue with everyone feeling the full force of the recession and slow economic recovery.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in the United States, so even though this day was commemorated in the UK on 27 January, it is worth pausing a moment to think about World War II. In particular, I am interested in how children are taught about it.
If there's one thing English teachers should read before they go back to work on Monday, it is the Ofsted document entitled 'Moving English Forward'.
Soldiers may be 'our finest men and women', and the old Florence Nightingale mystique still produces a soft spot for nurses. But teachers it seems, always know less than the politicians who tell them what to do. With a few exceptions, the UK press has followed suit.
I have been very lucky over the years and been given a helping hand in almost all of my endeavours by friends, family and sometimes just acquaintances. They are far too numerous to mention but within the world of dogs, in education and in all other activities with which I have been involved, individual kindnesses have far outweighed the occasional attempt to trip me up.
I have to admit ambivalence about yesterday's NUT strike in London. I went to work, not because I disagree with the concept of fighting for my pension, but for the rather more prosaic reason that I belong to another union, who did not choose to strike this time.
'Strikes benefit no-one' said Nick Gibb, the education minister, referring to today's public sector strike. He is wrong. Traditionally when strikes occurred, they made a point.
Michael Gove, the UK education secretary, recently announced a cull of over 3,000 British 'vocational' qualifications. From 2014, these 'Mickey Mouse' qualifications will no longer count towards the league tables and compliant schools will not teach what won't make them look good.
