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Continue reading...Category Archives: Education
‘I do not see a single student wash their hands’: teacher’s diary of the first week back at school
Children packed in like sardines, few face masks ... an English secondary teacher records pupils’ return
I wake at 4am, two hours before my alarm is due to go off, with sneezing fits and stomach cramps – cramps are one of my symptoms of anxiety.
Continue reading...Oxford University takes top spot in Guardian’s annual university guide
This year’s report sees Oxford moving up from third to first for the first time in a decade
Oxford University has vaulted into top place in the Guardian’s annual universities guide for the first time in a decade, thanks to new employment data showing that more Oxford students are moving into graduate-level jobs after completing their studies.
This year’s Guardian university guide sees Oxford moving up from third to first, while the University of St Andrews stays in second place and Oxford’s ancient rival Cambridge drops to third after occupying the top spot for nine years.
Continue reading...Elite Cambridge club asks members for £50,000 to keep it open
Pitt Club, founded in 1835, faces financial crisis after losing rental income from Pizza Express
It has survived a wartime recruitment crisis, a disastrous fire and a “horrible scarcity of whisky”. Now a Cambridge University members’ club is facing a surprising new challenge to its survival: the lockdown misfortunes of Pizza Express.
One hundred and eighty-five years after it was founded, the university’s Pitt Club – whose alumni include John Maynard Keynes, John Cleese and the Prince of Wales – is so close to financial catastrophe that it has been forced to make a desperate appeal to its lifetime members.
Continue reading...Andrzej Krauze on the return to classrooms during a pandemic – cartoon
As a new school year begins across Europe, governments are balancing the need to get children back in the classroom against the risks of a new spike in covid infections
Continue reading...UK coronavirus live: Gavin Williamson chose to cancel exams while Ofqual wanted them to go ahead, MPs told
News updates: Ofqual wanted exams to go ahead but Williamson chose to cancel
- Johnson backtracks on meeting group for Covid-19 bereaved
- Lockdown eased in two of England’s worst-hit areas despite cases surge
- Scotland announces local lockdowns and quarantine for Greece arrivals
- Global coronavirus updates – live
The education commitee has published the written submission it has received from Roger Taylor, chair of Ofqual, about the exam grade debacle. There is a link to it here.
We have received this written statement from @ofqual.
You can read it in full here: https://t.co/R4OO4eB1Qx pic.twitter.com/EG9jdZ0X2y
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has posted a nine-item thread on Twitter explaining the reasons for the decision to tighten coronavirus restrictions in three local authorities in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. It starts here.
1. New restrictions have come into effect in Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire & East Renfrewshire. I know residents in these areas - I am one - feel frustrated and are wondering why we have done X and not Y...so I thought it would be helpful to set out some of the rationale...
3. Our data suggests that spread in and between households is driving much of the transmission just now. That doesn’t mean there are no cases in pubs etc - but unlike in Aberdeen, pub clusters don’t appear, at this stage, to be main driver. That analysis has guided decisions...
4. Based on data, clinical advice is that restricting household gatherings indoors - where it is most difficult to keep physical distance - is vital. Closing pubs wouldn’t be an alternative to that - but an additional measure which, for now, they don’t consider proportionate
8. Data has also told us in recent days that we’ve had a number of positive cases amongst people returning from Greece - that’s why we’ve had to add Greece to quarantine list. Given uncertainties of situation, my advice remains to avoid non essential foreign travel for now
9. Finally, I know how difficult all this is. I hate having to take these decisions and you all hate the impact of them. My plea is that we treat yesterday’s developments as a wake up call and take seriously our individual responsibilities to stop #COVID spreading. Thank you!
Continue reading...Global report: schools across Europe reopen as Covid cases grow
Parents and teachers fear face masks and other measures not enough to prevent second wave
Tens of millions of pupils, most wearing face masks, have headed back to class in France, Belgium, Poland and Russia, as schools across Europe cautiously reopened amid spiralling numbers of new coronavirus cases in several countries.
Parents and teachers around the continent have expressed fears that strict physical distancing and hygiene measures such as hand cleansing stations will not be able to prevent a second Covid-19 wave, maybe coinciding with the autumn flu season.
Continue reading...‘I’m going round in circles’: parents in England still undecided about return to school
As government guidance continues to change over mask-wearing in schools, many are anxious about the risk to families
Eva Harratt, 13, would love to go to the park to meet her friends but it is forbidden because she lives in Oldham, the town in Greater Manchester facing restrictions due to a rise in Covid-19 cases. And yet, in five days, she is expected to return to her 1,370-pupil school and sit in classes of 30.
She likes school, misses her friends and wants to go back, but her mother is in the most vulnerable category because of an autoimmune disease. “Returning to school, I feel, is just not an option for me. They don’t appear to have given much thought to families with shielding members, or how that may affect them. Personally, I would prefer for things to go back to normal as soon as possible, but in the current situation, it is just not plausible for me,” says Eva.
Continue reading...National Trust sacking education officers ‘will hit worst-off children’
Volunteers accuse charity of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren
Volunteers are accusing the National Trust of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren from enjoying nature and visiting its properties with the planned sacking of the charity’s education officers.
The number of protests and petitions are growing over the trust’s controversial “reset” involving the proposed loss of 1,200 jobs, including its learning staff, as the charity plans to stop providing any curriculum-based content or learning activities for schools.
Continue reading...Reopening schools: how different countries are tackling Covid dilemma
As schools in England prepare to reopen, we examine the situation around the world
As schools in England and Wales get set to reopen amid continued controversy over safe conditions, attention has focused on potential evidence of coronavirus transmission in the classroom and on the experiences of other countries.
Research on the ability of children of different ages to catch and transmit the virus is contradictory, and differences in education systems and social conventions make comparisons difficult.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson drops advice against face mask use in English schools
Prime minister makes another coronavirus U-turn days before return to classrooms
Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in secondary schools after Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before classrooms reopen.
In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester, which have greater restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, wearing face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult.
Continue reading...Chris Whitty: missing school is a greater risk to children than Covid-19 – video
England's chief medical officer has warned that failing to return children to school in September would pose a greater risk to them than catching Covid-19.
Whitty and the chief medical officers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland released a rare joint statement advising on children returning to schools
- Keir Starmer tells Boris Johnson: your chaos puts schools return at risk
- Reopening schools 'risks rise in cases but missing lessons worse for children'
UK coronavirus: top GCSE grades surge to record high in England – live news
Nearly 550,000 pupils in England receive GCSE results awarded entirely by assessment for first time, but BTec students face further disruption
- Ofqual ignored exams warning a month ago amid ministers’ pressure
- Disadvantaged pupils will be biggest winners from GCSE results
- Follow global coronavirus developments
- See all our coronavirus coverage
My colleagues Pamela Duncan and Tobi Thomas from the Guardian’s data unit report discrepancies in today’s GCSE results:
A rising tide lifts all boats and this year’s algorithm-to-teacher-graded-U-turn has resulted in an increase in top grades across every subject. However, some subjects’ boats were lifted higher than others.
After all the uncertainty of the exams fiasco, head teachers across the country are celebrating their pupils’ GCSE success, but they say recent experiences have damaged relations with the Department for Education (DfE).
Jules White, head teacher of Tanbridge House secondary school in Horsham, West Sussex and leader of the Worth Less? education funding campaign, was with pupils this morning, watching with delight as they found out their grades.
Continue reading...Gavin Williamson seeks to blame Ofqual for exams debacle
Education secretary forced into humiliating reversal on A-level and GCSE grades in England
- What does the UK government’s U-turn on exam results mean?
- U-turn on exams may create new set of problems in England
Gavin Williamson has tried to lay the blame for the exams fiasco at the door of the regulator Ofqual after a humiliating climbdown that overturned up to 2.3m grades but left thousands of pupils in limbo.
Two days after saying there would be “no U-turn, no change”, the education secretary apologised and ordered a complete reversal whereby pupils in England will be able to revert to the A-level grades recommended by their teachers, if those are higher.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus: Gavin Williamson apologises over ‘inconsistencies’ in exam grading process – live news
Exams regulator Ofqual announces all A-levels and GCSEs in England will now be graded according to teacher assessment following similar moves in Wales, NI and Scotland
- Boris Johnson urged to intervene as exam results anger escalates
- Ofqual ‘blindsided’ government by revoking A-level appeals process
- Follow the latest global live updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
One of the groups that had been planning to take the UK government to court over exam grades has said it is dropping its legal action, following the U-turn. Jo Maugham QC, the director of the Good Law Project, tweeted:
Statement on Government A Level U-turn pic.twitter.com/wEWYElgCil
Mary Curnock Cook, the former chief executive of Ucas, said the government must announce immediately that the cap on university admissions will be lifted to accommodate the new grading system.
Many universities will have already filled their courses based on the grades published last Thursday. Speaking on BBC News, she said:
Decisions have already been made by universities about who they accept, who they don’t accept, who goes into clearing and so on. This change will mean that universities have to rethink completely.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus live: France could quarantine British visitors; UK reports 1,441 new cases in a day
French move comes after UK added country to quarantine list as well as Netherlands, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba
- Britons scramble to get home from France before quarantine rule begins
- Leicester and parts of northern England will remain in tighter lockdown
- Grant Shapps gives wrong day for start of France quarantine rules
- What should I do if I have a holiday booked to France?
- Global coronavirus updates – live
Russia is not the only country pursuing domestic politics over global cooperation in the fight against coronavirus, writes Stephen Buranyi.
The WHO last week warned against “vaccine nationalism”, noting that unless countries cooperate, an actually successful vaccine could touch off a worldwide frenzy.
Similar to the scramble for PPE gear and testing reagents when governments seized exports, and the US reportedly tried to intercept other nation’s shipments at global ports, demand for vaccine supplies could result in another pitched battle for limited resources – with the added complication that no one knows which project will succeed, so no one is even sure what they’re trying to source yet.
Related: 'Vaccine nationalism' stands in the way of an end to the Covid-19 crisis | Stephen Buranyi
Rule-breaking pub landlords are facing a police crackdown for failing to properly record customers’ details as concerns grow about a rising Covid infection rate in Birmingham.
The latest data showed the second city had a rate of 23.6 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 10 August with the trend increasing, according to the NHS Digital progression dashboard.
It looks as though it’s a combination of people socialising and not maintaining social distancing and perhaps hospitality settings or other gatherings of people and this may be the underlying problem.
We are very keen to be working very closely with the police over coming weeks because what we’re noticing across the West Midlands is that as weeks go by the rigour in which pubs in particular are recording names and addresses of customers is dropping off in some locations.
We’d like to encourage the police to re-emphasise to the pubs that they do need to be recording that information.
Pubs and clubs - they also have a very clear responsibility to ensure they’re following the guidelines, that they are getting information on those individuals who attend.
We will work closely with the licensing authorities to crack down on those premises that don’t follow rules and are breaking rules.
Continue reading...Migrant children face hunger over free school meal restrictions
Children’s groups call for meal provision to extend to families barred from UK state support
Thousands of children from migrant families are at risk of hunger when schools reopen in the UK unless the free meal provision is extended, according to a group of 60 organisations.
The Children’s Society, Action for Children, Project 17 and Unison are among the organisations that have written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling on him to extend free school meals to pupils from low-income migrant families classed as having “no recourse to public funds”.
Continue reading...Sturgeon promises urgent review of 124,000 downgraded exam results
First minister apologises after predicted awards downgraded more heavily in poorer areas
Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to tens of thousands of Scottish teenagers whose exam results were downgraded last week and promised urgent changes to their awards.
The first minister attempted to defuse a growing crisis for her government by confirming that her deputy, John Swinney, would lay out proposals to regrade results in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
Continue reading...What we are learning about Covid-19 and kids
As schools around the world prepare to reopen, new scientific evidence about children and coronavirus is coming to light
Back in April, the French epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet found himself leading an investigation in the town of Crépy-en-Valois, a small community of 15,000 inhabitants just to the north-east of Paris. In February, the town’s middle and high schools had become the centre of a new outbreak of Covid-19.
Fontanet and colleagues from the Pasteur Institute in Paris were tasked with conducting antibody testing across Crépy-en-Valois to understand the extent to which the virus had been circulating. As they surveyed the town, they noted an interesting pattern. While the virus had spread rampantly through the high school, with 38% of students being infected, along with 43% of teachers and 59% of non-teaching staff, the same was not true for the town’s six primary schools. While three primary-age pupils had caught Covid-19 in early February, none of these infections had led to a secondary case. Overall, just 9% of primary age pupils, 7% of teachers and 4% of non-teaching staff had been infected with the virus.
Continue reading...Fall in Welsh-capable teachers risks missing language target, report warns
Language decline among newly qualified teachers could undermine goal of reaching 1 million Welsh speakers
A “striking” decline in the number of newly qualified teachers able to teach in Welsh could undermine the country’s ambition to have a million speakers of the language in 30 years’ time, a report warns.
The Welsh language commissioner, Aled Roberts, expressed concern about the trend and called for the devolved government to take urgent action to reverse the fall.
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