Nothing beats the stress and tension of exam season if you work in a secondary school. For students, exam season is a wake-up call, one of the first moments that they realise there are some situations where only their own brain and effort will get them through. For teachers, exam...
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Saturday is the 'big day' - our documentary is being broadcast on BBC2 - and I have to say I am starting to get a tad nervous. It seems so long ago that we went through the whole filming process, and soon there it will be right across...
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I've often wondered what it might feel like to turn up to a Union meeting, Women's Institute lunch, writers' guild workshop, or cub scout jamboree only to discover that it had been chosen as the location for a major political speech or policy announcement by a leading politician. Now I...
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The findings from a study published last week which found that "more than half of the UK population claim to be contemplating revenge and that social networks are the preferred platform for getting even," should not come as any surprise, especially to those who constantly live their lives online.
What...
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Study abroad is becoming a popular destination for UK students, and while there has been lots of debate around whether it's the increase in tuition fees that is driving people to consider alternatives overseas, the reality is that the reasons are far more habitual.
We asked around 500 school...
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Of late, amidst hysteria about academisation and free schools, primary schools have had to work hard for their fair share of coverage in the media. We know of a few isolated supply-side crises--the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, for example, has a shortfall of places thanks to...
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England's school inspectors - known collectively by the little-loved acronym of Ofsted (www.ofsted.gov.uk- that's the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, in case you were wondering....) - have just published a report on the state of mathematics in English schools. Like most education reports, it's a tale...
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The 2012 CIO Survey published last week by marketing research company Harvey Nash PLC, has found that seven out of 10 technology leaders believe they are missing vital skills as a result of low representation of women in their teams.
Whilst many companies are beginning to understand that gender...
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Three years ago this June, the Badman Review ignited controversy with proposals for the compulsory registration of home educating families in England. Ed Balls was eventually forced to drop these measures from the Children, Schools and Families Bill - but are some local authorities still hoping to implement Badman via...
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Ever since the riots blazed across UK streets and TV sets worldwide last year, debate has raged on the catalyst that sparked an estimated 15,000 individuals to become one angry mob. Around 70% of the London 2011 rioters were under the age of 24 so identifying a root cause could...
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Last week, there was an academic conference at the University of St Andrews dedicated to the Harry Potter series of books. Over 50 academics gathered to discuss J.K. Rowling's books, and apparently this caused quite a stir among people who think that children's literature is not worthy of study.
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I'm dyslexic. That's right. Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Henry Winkler and Orlando Bloom and I can all officially high-five each other.
I was diagnosed about three years ago, during the second year of my university study, undetected throughout my entire school life. If you have to place how dyslexic I...
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In rising middle-class neighbourhoods of London, an author-journalist friend notices a pronounced dwindling of 'creative' types among parents comparing his older son's class to that of his young daughter. Bankers, fund managers and lawyers seem to have crowded out journalists, academics and artists from Clapham to Muswell Hill. Is this...
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INTERVIEW Multi-millionaire entrepreneur Peter Jones tells Liz Lightfoot how he wants to boost business with new-style apprenticeships
Students come in at 16, often with mediocre GCSE results and lacklustre school reports. After two years they are beating Oxbridge graduates...
I was recently forwarded an email which contained a link to Richard Branson's own personal blog. Now I'll admit, naively I didn't even realise Mr Branson had a blog! But it makes sense - he's one of our country's greatest entrepreneurs so he probably has a fair amount to say...
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Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson's The Spirit Level became an instant bible and seminal piece of thorough analysis for equality campaigners everywhere when it was first published in 2009. The underlying idea behind its socio-economic analysis is a simple one: that more equal societies tend to have more cohesive communities...
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For 25 years, UK university students have had access to a scheme that offers life-changing opportunities. It can boost their employability, increase their knowledge, skills, and personal experience, and save them money - particularly welcome as tuition fees rise up to £9,000 a year. Yet despite all of this, relatively...
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With deafness playing a large part in my family life; my mother is a Sign Language Interpreter and both my uncle and aunt are profoundly deaf, deaf culture and sign language have always been of interest to me. Yet it was only when I began working for Deafax, a UK...
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This week, Pearson announced some long-term commitments and a wide ranging set of recommendations to help raise standards and build confidence in UK examinations following an extensive consultation.
The debate about standards in the UK examination system turns heads because the importance of education is more vivid now...
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Well, the film of War Horse came and went, much loved by many, less loved by others. I thought it was a wonderful adaptation of the story, as the play is too. The book used to sell only a couple of thousand of copies a year and was translated into...
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