The Schools' News Service

According to a book on business psychology which I dipped into recently, when people walk into your office, the office furniture and the way it is laid out affects their attitude and subsequent behaviour. Each visitor gains an impression of you and of your school from what is in the room, and that impression has [...]

We obviously all appreciate the value of educational trips and visits for young people. But unfortunately the UK is currently in the throes of a risk avoidance culture and recent events have made some teachers, heads and governors both fearful of taking pupils out of schools and daunted by the thought of the administrative workload [...]

Ask your pupils what would make them more likely to read a novel, and they might well say, “one that has us in it”. (Of course they might not – a whole generation of school pupils were brought up on Jennings and Bunter – both wholly unrealistic from the point of view of the overwhelming majority [...]

The Autism Bill has been introduced into parliament as a private members bill, having been drafted by the National Autistic Society.   Normally this would stand little chance of becoming law but it has seen and upswell of positive opinion in the Commons, and there is now a chance that it will be taken up. It is is [...]

In its latest the Merits Committee of the House of Lords has concluded that the Government should adopt a less heavy-handed approach in its relationship with schools.  The Committee argues for less Government reliance on Regulations, in order to leave greater room for the professionalism of teachers and school managers to deliver the objectives of improving [...]

I haven’t actually noticed that much about it in the British press, but the President of the United States has decided where he wants all the extra investment that is being pumped into the economy, to go.  And that place is not the banks where the people who got us into this mess are given [...]

I now have more details on the story I ran last week about the BBC wanting to contact wheelchair users.  I reprint below their full statement.   Would you like to learn to dance? Wheelchair Dance Sport is a popular and highly competitive discipline on the continent.  But in Britain we are lagging behind.  It’s [...]

The most popular attraction for visitors in the UK is not Alton Towers, Buckingham Palace or Legoland.  Last year six million people visited the free permanent collections of the British Museum – far more than anywhere else.   Somehow I find that incredibly reassuring. I don’t know how many people went online, but that experience is becoming almost [...]

Reducing the intake of beefburgers and bacon could make a major impact on climate change.  In fact an estimate from the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency shows that it would reduce the cost of combating climate change by $20 trillion.   As such stopping the consumption of bacon and beefburgers would be far more effective than [...]

 Following my piece yesterday about dance I have now been told that BBC3 is launching a nationwide search for wheelchair users to take part in a Dance Sport competition.   Wheelchair Dance Sport is a popular and highly competitive discipline on the continent.  But in Britain we are lagging behind.  It’s time to get Britain [...]

Now here is a story that I can get exicted about.   Around 2,500 children in 29 schools are going to to take part in a pilot programme of lessons in dance, as a central part of the getting fitter programme at the heart of the government’s health programme. Although dance is placed within sport in schools, I think [...]

Here’s a concept recently put forward by New Scientist magazine.     You are at a table and two bowls are in front of you.  One contains peanuts and the other contains MDMA (better known as ecstasy).   A stranger comes alongside you – a stranger about whom you know nothing.  Which of the two bowls do [...]

There has been considerable talk about the government slowing down expenditure on schools. I can’t speak from inside knowledge – I just observe what they are up to, but it does seem to me that rather than slowing down, they are trying to put more money into schools in order to help the economy limp [...]

Of all the subjects we have covered in this weekly email since we started the one that has received more correspondence than any other is dyscalculia – the apparent inability of a small number of pupils and students to do even the most basic maths, despite their having average or above average levels of ability [...]

Bringing the Mysteries of Mathematics to Life   Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, has declared that he is on a mission to make this fascinating subject accessible to everyone, and to bring alive the stories behind the amazing intellectual journey that mathematicians have made since antiquity.   Marcus du [...]

I’ve just been directed towards a new, free, open access website at www.schoolwork.bz which contains resources which enable SENCOs to allocate literacy homework to children age 9 to 14.  The point of the site is that it should be usable with pupils with even the very poorest reading skills.    One real bonus of this [...]

Decisions at 18 is CRAC’s flagship conference for those who advise and work with young people, disseminating valuable information on the broad field of school and college leaver career options. Decisions at 18 2009 is delivered in association with OCR.   It runs from 31 March to 2 April at Lancaster University, and the the [...]

The new National Body of Youth Leadership (NBYL) has now started. Beverley Hughes Minister for Children and Young People has unveiled the seven successful organisations awarded the contract to make up the NBYL. By 2018 the Government wants to “help more young people to unlock their leadership potential, particularly those in the most disadvantaged, under-represented groups [...]