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The Guardian: 'A community of equals': the private school with no fees, set up by a south London teacher

The Guardian: 'A community of equals': the private school with no fees, set up by a south London teacher

While most teachers express frustration about the education system in England, with its focus on Sats, GCSEs and league tables, what they don’t usually do is set up their own school instead. But that is exactly what Lucy Stephens did.

Stephens had been a primary teacher for six years but grew disillusioned and left. “I was just shoehorning kids through test papers,” she says. “Everything was so competitive. You’d find the headteacher in your room, looking through your books, checking on you. Behaviour managers can rule by fear, the staff as well as pupils. I’ve seen them scream at kids in front of the whole school, humiliating them.”

Stephens decided to resign and work for The Prince’s Trust charity, helping vulnerable young people. But now she is back teaching – this time in her very own school, where she writes the rules and sets the pace.

Charity, Business, Education, Family, Interview, Media Article, politicsSarah NorrisMarch 23, 2021Lando EducationLucy Stephens, The New School, Croydon, headteacher, The Prince’s Trust charity, primary schoolComment

The Guardian: Pitch perfect: the UK children's choirs finding ways to connect in lockdown

The Guardian: Pitch perfect: the UK children's choirs finding ways to connect in lockdown

Eight-year-old Emily Grills was looking forward to turning singing teacher this month, drilling her parents on the songs she has been singing with her children’s choir in Bristol.

“Lockdown has been lonely,” she said. “But singing makes me happy and so teaching my parents to sing means we can do it together even when it’s not my lesson time – although my mummy doesn’t sing very well yet.”

Encouraging even their youngest members, such as Emily, to become “singing ambassadors” who help plan and lead lessons, is just one of the new and positive ways that the pandemic has forced Bristol Beacon choir to innovate.

The Guardian: Covid hits exam-taking and poorer pupils worst, study finds

The Guardian: Covid hits exam-taking and poorer pupils worst, study finds

Survey of students in England reveals huge disparities in effects of lockdown and school closures.

Children studying for exams and those from disadvantaged families are the most likely to have suffered severe disruption to their learning and motivation during the pandemic, according to the largest published study of its impact on pupils in England.

The Times: Sacked Eton master Will Knowland faces lifetime ban from schools

The Times: Sacked Eton master Will Knowland faces lifetime ban from schools

The teacher dismissed from Eton over an anti-feminist video could be banned from teaching permanently after the school referred him to the watchdog.

The Times: Manners makyth a girl too, says Winchester College head

The Times: Manners makyth a girl too, says Winchester College head

Since its beginnings in 1382 Winchester College has been guided by the motto “Manners Makyth Man”. But more than 600 years after it was founded by William of Wykeham to teach 70 “poor and needy scholars”, Britain’s oldest public school will open its doors to sixth-form girls.

The Times: Tencent: Tech giant backed by Beijing funded Cambridge research

The Times: Tencent: Tech giant backed by Beijing funded Cambridge research

Cambridge University received a “generous gift” from a Chinese software company with links to the communist regime to fund an engineering fellowship, The Times has learnt.

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge Grade Boundaries (over the last 24 years) - IMC

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge Grade Boundaries (over the last 24 years) - IMC

For those parents whose children sat the UMKT Intermediate Maths Challenge from the 1st - 4th February, I’ve pulled together the last 24 years of grade boundaries. Going forward, you’ll be able to find yearly updated boundaries on my website Grade Boundaries

Charity, Education, Exam Results, Maths, Lockdown, Pandemic, STEAM, STEMSarah NorrisFebruary 9, 2021Lando EducationUKMT, Lando, Lando Education, IMC, Intermediate Maths Challenge, grade boundaries, bonus roundsComment

The Times: Royal Springboard scheme gives private school places to pupils in care

The Times: Royal Springboard scheme gives private school places to pupils in care

Children from troubled backgrounds will win places at prestigious private schools as part of a government-backed scheme aimed at transforming their life chances.

About £200,000 of public money is being given to a charity that helps match vulnerable children and those in care with top independent schools.

The Times: Nicola Benedetti frustrated by music education

The Times: Nicola Benedetti frustrated by music education

Both my husband and I were asked to leave recorder club at our primary schools. I was even asked to mime in a concert. My problem - I didn’t practice. Not sure if that’s because I always forgot or because my mother didn’t remind me. She wasn’t big on helping me with anything to do with school. My husband on the other hand, is musical and spent 20 years as a Sound Engineer and Producer, before switching careers.

Our daughter is very musical, although she’s also not big on practicing. She was very lucky and managed to be offered a 3 year plac, on the Royal Academy of Music’s First String Experience course. She made it to grade 5 violin (then gave up to work more on her ballet), grade 4 piano, grade 3 recorder and is now just beginning grade 5 flute (her only weekly lesson instrument now). She’s spent lockdown teaching herself to play her guitar (Rolling Stones, A Star is Born soundtrack and random Siri inspired tracks), learning how to use GarageBand and back to playing her piano.

The Guardian: Firm in 'unacceptable' school meals row to pay for half-term provision

The Guardian: Firm in 'unacceptable' school meals row to pay for half-term provision

Compass apologises for poor quality of some UK food delivery parcels criticised by Marcus Rashford

TED Talk: the Danger of a Single Story

TED Talk: the Danger of a Single Story

My daughter was asked to watch novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk for her geography homework. I was listening to it the background and it made me smile/laugh, quite a lot.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

The Times: Open Letter - Rethinking Assessment: Mutant exam system is failing our children

The Times: Open Letter - Rethinking Assessment: Mutant exam system is failing our children

In this letter, leading educators demand urgent action as they launch a group aiming to overhaul the testing regime in schools.

We were told this summer that it was a “mutant algorithm” that had caused the anguish of the exam fiasco. Covid may have exposed the failings, but in truth, something more profound is going on, and it has been brewing for years: we have a mutant exam system.

Created with good intentions — “to raise standards” — it has mutated into something that neither measures the right things nor is very reliable, and leaves in its wake a trail of stress and unfairness.

Many of those who are involved in the exams merry-go-round are reaching the same conclusion — it’s not fit for purpose and needs to change.

This week a new group— Rethinking Assessment — is being launched to do something about it.

The Times: School funding ‘unfair to poor white pupils’

The Times: School funding ‘unfair to poor white pupils’

Poor white children do significantly worse at school in part because education funding is targeted at larger cities with more ethnically diverse populations, academics have argued.

They accused the Department for Education of making it difficult for experts to analyse underachievement by white pupils because this “did not align” with the government’s focus.

Simon Singh: The Maths Masterclass Tutorials (Year 8 & Year 11)

Simon Singh: The Maths Masterclass Tutorials (Year 8 & Year 11)

NB Parents can nominate children. Please see the rules at the bottom of this page.

The Maths Masterclass Tutorials are an intense programme of FREE online Maths tuition designed to stretch and challenge the very best young mathematicians

Following the huge success of our pilot in May, we are now scaling up to a year-long FREE programme. The Maths Masterclass Tutorials programme is delivered by TalentEd in partnership with best-selling author Dr. Simon Singh.

The Times: Young mentor secures 60 Oxbridge offers for deprived pupils

The Times: Young mentor secures 60 Oxbridge offers for deprived pupils

An Oxford student who set up a mentoring scheme using £200 saved from his maintenance loan has just helped to secure 60 offers from Oxbridge for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Joe Seddon set up Access Oxbridge at his parents’ kitchen table in Morley, West Yorkshire, in 2018 shortly after graduating.

He believed that he could boost the number of under-privileged youngsters at the two universities if only they got the right advice on navigating the “scary” admissions system.

Charity, Education, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisFebruary 10, 2020Lando Educationmedia article, Oxford, University of Oxford, mentoring, mentoring scheme, maintenance loan, Joe Seddon, under-privileged, Morley, West Yorkshire, admissions, year 12Comment

The Times: Poorer pupils learn to benefit from Classics

The Times: Poorer pupils learn to benefit from Classics

Latin and the works of Sophocles are no longer the preserve of public schools thanks to a project that links professors with underprivileged teenagers.

An initiative between King’s College London (KCL) and Newham Sixth Form College in east London offering lessons in Classics to bright sixth-form pupils is now in its second year.

The Times: He lived on the streets and with drug dealers. Now he’s a top head boy

The Times: He lived on the streets and with drug dealers. Now he’s a top head boy

They are denounced for preserving privilege and ensuring the wealthy keep their grip on society’s glittering prizes. But one boarding school charging up to £35,000 a year is accepting pupils from troubled families in a move that could ease the pressure on Britain’s care system.

Kingham Hill School, set in 100 acres of Cotswold countryside near the home of David Cameron, has admitted its first pupil part-funded by local social services. Oxfordshire county council is contributing £14,388 a year to the boarding fees of a girl whose fostering arrangements fell through. The same sum will be contributed jointly by the school and Buttle UK, a children’s charity.

Education, Charity, Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisNovember 6, 2019Lando EducationThe Times, media article, drug dealers, Head Boy, poster boy, Kingham Hill School, Cotswold, boarding school, boarding, Buttle UK, Social Workers, fosteredComment

The Guardian: Too many children are unhappy. We need to let them know they are not alone

The Guardian: Too many children are unhappy. We need to let them know they are not alone

It feels like something is beginning to shift. It was noticeable during the past few days as we marked World Mental Health Day and many of us shared our stories. The Britain’s Got Talent final was paused for a minute and viewers were asked to talk to each other about their mental health.

Interrupting primetime Saturday night TV to think about mental health would have been unthinkable only a generation ago. Only recently has mental health been seen on a par with physical health. Yet, in the UK, one in eight children and young people are affected by mental health problems. During the Britain’s Got Talent final, we were told there has been a 48% rise in anxiety and depression among British children in the past 15 years.

Family, Charity, Media ArticleSarah NorrisOctober 20, 2019Lando EdcuationThe Guardian, children, campaign, mental health, Children's SocietyComment

BBC: Royal National College for the Blind threatened by financial crisis

BBC: Royal National College for the Blind threatened by financial crisis

One of the country's most historic educational centres for young blind people is warning that financial pressures are threatening its survival.

The Royal National College for the Blind, which has operated for almost 150 years, says without extra funding it will cease to be sustainable.

Lucy Proctor, chief executive of the college's charitable trust, has blamed a squeeze on special-needs budgets.

But the government is promising a £700m increase for special needs.

Media Article, CharitySarah NorrisOctober 16, 2019Lando EducationBBC, Royal National College for the Blind, blind, financial crisisComment