This weekend it was reported that an Oxford college – St Hugh’s – has refused to award a place to an applicant because it thought he wasn’t rich enough. At least, that’s what the headlines said, and…well, it’s sort of true. It’s just that that’s also quite a misleading way of putting it. A headline [...]
Guest post by Matt Mahon In June, the government announced a 22 percent cut in early years spending. At the time, the effect that was most widely discussed was the closure of SureStart centres, but now the direct impact on state schools and primary education is also becoming clear. Another ‘saving’ announced at the time [...]
You can download the White Paper here, and I’ve added references according to the Paper’s own numbering system. Make students more like commodities The first main point is the creation of 85,000 new student places which behave differently from all others (0.8). Representing around 1 in 20 students in the 2012 intake, these students would [...]
A primary school teacher has avoided being barred from teaching following revelations in the press of her sideline as a dominatrix, the TES reports. Faith-Anne Lesbirel, a primary school teacher, was exposed by a tabloid newspaper in 2008 as none other than ‘Mistress Saffron’, a dominatrix offering her services for money online. [Lesbirel] insisted her fetish activities [...]
This is a guest post by Andy McGowan, Access Officer at Cambridge University Students’ Union So Nick and Dave are at it again – and I don’t just mean making embarrassing slips of the tongue like this one. They’ve also gone back to having a go at easy targets as a smokescreen for their own [...]
Begging your A Level teacher for an extension on your coursework can be an uncomfortable experience. Begging your teachers for a tenner so that you can afford the bus to school is probably somewhat more degrading. Tonight the education secretary, Michael Gove, announced the replacement for the EMA. The scheme will cost 180 million, a [...]
Guest post by Hannah The admission that I did not pay any form of fees to attend university frequently confuses my peers. I watch their quizzical expressions as they try to ascertain if I’m a secret thirty-something. It seems there’s been a collective forgetting or ongoing ignorance of the fact that until recently many undergraduates from [...]
The Metro today reports a surge in cases in which teachers have been punished or disciplined over their private behaviour. Teachers’ union the NASUWT have hit out at the impact of the General Teaching Council’s code of conduct, which came into effect in 2009 and which demands that teachers “standards of behaviour both inside and [...]
A doctor who gave medical assistance to protesters on 9th Dec has spoken of the police risking a ‘Hillsborough-type’ disaster on Westminster Bridge: The anaesthetist from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who gave medical assistance to the protesters, said that officers forced demonstrators into such a tight “kettle” on Westminster Bridge that they were in danger of [...]
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin’. Please get out of the new one If you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’. Wow! What a month! Are we not [...]
