The new school year kicks off
It's that time of year again. The school holidays that seemed to stretch into the distance just a month or so back, have evaporated surprisingly quickly. There's a freshness in the air, the days seem...
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Keeping the kids entertained over half-term
Find hands on activities on Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention website. Autumn half-term is a welcome break in what can seem like a very long term, with days getting shorter and nights drawing...
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Waiting game is over
Logging on to a computer or opening the mail has never been so nerve-wracking. More than half a million Year 6 children and their families all around the country, found out this week if they had been...
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Adopting an older child
Maybe you saw the programme on adoption, that went out yesterday on BBC2 ‘A Home for Maisie’. Featuring an eight year-old girl who has two failed adoptions behind her, Maisie is adopted by Jim and Sue...
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Changing school mid year
Moving house, lack of friends, poor teaching – these are some of the reasons why parents are forced into changing their child’s school and sometimes it has to be mid year. It is quite different from...
View ArticleEducation in the News
According to the BBC News story, English Bac 'first of many accountability measures', it appears that the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (or Bac as it is commonly referred to) could be the...
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Coping with revision and exams
Tension is rising slightly in our household as exam season is fast approaching and my daughters are deep in revision. A couple of years ago I had my son doing A-levels and the my daughter preparing for...
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There have been several stories in the news recently claiming that young people don’t have good enough skills to break through the job market. BBC News reports that a recent survey of business leaders...
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Increasing numbers of pupils are being entered early for maths GCSE, BBC News Education reports, but should this really be viewed as progress? According to the Advisory Committee on Mathematics...
View ArticleEducation in the news
There was an interesting debate this week on BBC News entitled 'Parenting expert: Pushy parents should 'chill out’. The debate featured Dr Bryan Caplan who feels that parents should take a more relaxed...
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Who's backing the International Bac?
You often hear the term Baccalaureate or Bac – there are the relative newcomers in the form of the English Bac and the Welsh Bac and of course - the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma on the...
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This week’s story on the BBC News Education website warning us that the UK could become "yesterday's country equipped with yesterday's skills" if education cuts continue, struck close to home for me,...
View ArticleIn the news - exam errors
“Students hit by more exam errors” was the headline for a recent BBC report. Over the last few weeks a rash of errors in this summer’s AS-level exam papers have come to light across different...
View ArticleDecisions at 16: switching for sixth form
When your child first starts out at secondary school, sixth form seems light years away. Yet GCSEs soon come round and by Year 11 it’s time to think about what they might study next and where they will...
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