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Latymerians celebrate university offers

Latymerians celebrate university offers

I had meant to post this on the day after it had been posted by Latymer Upper. Much has now changed and Latymer Upper has been in the media relating to a toxic harassment and assault environment. I am hoping the school can move forward in a positive manner, learning from all mistakes that have been made.

Congratulations to our Year 13 student, Ariana, who has secured a place on the prestigious Huntsman Programme at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Huntsman Programme in International Studies & Business is a unique undergraduate dual degree programme in language, the liberal arts and business, jointly administered between the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences at UPenn. It supports the development of globally-minded scholars who go on to become leaders in a wide variety of sectors. Just 50 students are enrolled on this extremely selective programme each year from the many thousands who apply. Ariana is the first Latymerian ever to win a place on this programme and we are incredibly proud of her achievement.

Attain: Reforming GCSE

Attain: Reforming GCSE

Reform to GCSE is nothing new. Educators have been calling for changes for some time but the pandemic has not only increased the desire to look at things in a new light but also shown how quickly changes can happen.

For Sarah Fletcher, High Mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in London, GCSEs have simply not kept up with the pace of change in the last thirty years. "I think the fundamental problem is that the world is now very different to the one that existed back in the 1980s."

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: 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.

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: University students ditch arts degrees and opt for medicine

The Times: University students ditch arts degrees and opt for medicine

New medical schools have opened, allowing 12,000 students to start medical degrees last autumn

The arts degree is in steady decline as medicine, computing and engineering soar in popularity, university entry figures show today.

The Times: Elite Tokyo school expels masked impostor who posed as his brother

The Times: Elite Tokyo school expels masked impostor who posed as his brother

A boy impersonated his brother to attend one of Japan’s most celebrated private schools for several months without staff noticing.

Kaisei Academy in Tokyo, an all-boys school, said it had expelled one of its pupils after discovering that he was passing himself off as his younger sibling and had never passed its rigorous entrance examination.

The Guardian: Tory MPs back ditching GCSE exams in English school system overhaul

The Guardian: Tory MPs back ditching GCSE exams in English school system overhaul

Covid-19 crisis has allowed for a radical rethink of education system, says One Nation group.

The disruption caused by the coronavirus allows for a “radical” rethink of England’s school system, according to a group of Conservative MPs who advocate scrapping GCSEs, delaying the start of formal education and introducing longer school days.

A paper from the One Nation caucus of centrist Conservative MPs is the latest assault on GCSEs, arguing that England is unusual in making teenagers sit two sets of high-stakes exams within the space of three years, and that this is partly responsible for high levels of stress and unhappiness among pupils.

The Times: Afghan bomb victim Shamsea Alizada is nation’s top pupil

The Times: Afghan bomb victim Shamsea Alizada is nation’s top pupil

Another article about Shamsea Alizada, which makes her achievement even more inspirational.

A coalminer’s daughter whose tutoring centre was bombed by Isis has come top in an Afghan entrance exam.

The Guardian: Schools in England told not to use material from anti-capitalist groups

The Guardian: Schools in England told not to use material from anti-capitalist groups

Idea categorised as ‘extreme political stance’ equivalent to endorsing illegal activity.

The government has ordered schools in England not to use resources from organisations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism.

Department for Education (DfE) guidance issued on Thursday for school leaders and teachers involved in setting the relationship, sex and health curriculum categorised anti-capitalism as an “extreme political stance” and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, antisemitism and endorsement of illegal activity.

The Guardian: Coalminer's daughter comes out top in Afghanistan's university entrance exam

The Guardian: Coalminer's daughter comes out top in Afghanistan's university entrance exam

Shamsia Alizada, 18, first out of more than 170,000 students

Government in talks with Taliban, which barred girls in schools

Exam Results, Family, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisSeptember 27, 2020Lando EducationShamsia Alizada, Lando Education, Lando, Afghanistan, university entrance, doctor, university, Hamid Karzai, TalibanComment

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: Cheated in class? No mortgage for you, Chinese government warns

The Times: Cheated in class? No mortgage for you, Chinese government warns

The Chinese government is threatening to withdraw a postgraduate’s ability to secure a mortgage if they are found to have plagiarised someone else’s work.

In a joint statement, the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission announced they would include academic dishonesty as part of the country’s social credit scheme.

Business, Education, Exam Results, Higher EducationSarah NorrisSeptember 24, 2020Lando EducationChina, Cheated in class, Chinese governmen, Lando, Lando Education, The Times, media article, mortgage, antisocial behaviour, degree dissertations, punishmentComment

The Guardian: London maths teacher shortlisted for $1m teaching prize

The Guardian: London maths teacher shortlisted for $1m teaching prize

Dr Jamie Frost’s tuition website went viral during lockdown, helping millions of pupils around the world with their studies.

A London mathematics teacher has been shortlisted for a $1m (£780,000) international teaching prize after his tuition website went global during lockdown, helping millions of pupils in the UK and around the world to continue their maths studies at home.

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.

The Times: Pupils aren’t up to sitting exams next year, say teachers

The Times: Pupils aren’t up to sitting exams next year, say teachers

A survey found that over 50 per cent of teachers with pupils due to take exams next summer felt they were not on track to get the results they should achieve.

Questions surround next year’s GCSE and A-level exams after ministers, unions and private schools raised doubts that they would run as normal.

The Times: Coronavirus in Scotland: Parents want end to confusion over next year’s exams

The Times: Coronavirus in Scotland: Parents want end to confusion over next year’s exams

Parents are demanding an “unequivocal statement” from John Swinney about the fate of next year’s school exams amid claims that they may be cancelled again due to Covid-19.

Education, Exam Results, Family, Lockdown, Media Article, Pandemic, ScotlandSarah NorrisSeptember 21, 2020Lando EducationScotland, S3, S4, pupils, exams, Covid19, Pandemic, Lando, Lando Education, government, cancelled, virus, The Times, course assessments, scrappedComment

The Sunday Times: UK university rankings: the best universities by subject

The Sunday Times: UK university rankings: the best universities by subject

As well as institutional rankings, The Sunday Times and The Times have identified the centres of excellence within each of 67 subject areas. The subject rankings are based on student opinion on teaching quality and their wider university experiences, combined with the outcomes of the 2014 research assessments, graduate job prospects and course entry standards.

Education, Exam Results, Higher Education, Languages, History, Maths, Media Article, Medicine, Music, Science, Space, STEAM, STEM, Technology, WritingSarah NorrisSeptember 21, 2020Lando EducationThe Sunday Times, UK University Rankings, university, rankings, sujects, research assessments, graduate, graduate job prospects, Cambridge, Aeronautical and manufacturing engineering, anatomy and physiology, anthropology, archaeology and forensic science, biological sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, classics and ancient history, computer science, East and South Asian studies, education, electrical and electronic engineering, French, geography and environmental science, geology, German, history, history of art, architecture and design, Iberian languages, Italian, land and property management, materials technology, maths, mechanical engineering, Middle Eastern and African studies, physics and astronomy, Russian and eastern European languages, sociology, theology and religious studies, town and country planning, landscape, Economics, English, linguistics, medicine, psychology, Oxford, Glasgow, St Andrews, University of Edinburgh, Birmingham, Strathclyde, Bangor, Bath, Bristol, LSE, Animal science, dentistry, food science, sports scienceComment

TES: Why we must scrap GCSEs: 4 ways to form a better system

TES: Why we must scrap GCSEs: 4 ways to form a better system

Sarah Fletcher, the high mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in London and a member of the HMC, offers thoughts on better ways young people can be assessed than out-dated GCSEs.

Everything has changed over the past few months.

We have put students from across the world in the same classrooms, safeguarded new ways of working and shared resources and online platforms.

Most extraordinary of all, teachers have helped in the awarding of grades and we have cancelled all assessments from key stage 1 to key stage 5.

Imagining the unimaginable is something we should do more often! And what better place to start than with the curriculum?

The Guardian: Private and state schools bid to kill off GCSEs

The Guardian: Private and state schools bid to kill off GCSEs

A coalition of private and state schools is expected to launch a campaign to end GCSEs, as growing numbers of schools look at alternatives to the exams following the summer algorithm debacle.

Eton, Bedales, St Paul’s girls’ school, Latymer upper school and several substantial academy chains have been joined by Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary, Kenneth Baker, who created GCSEs, to discuss proposals for replacing the exam system.

The group, Rethinking Assessments, is likely to launch a formal campaign in the next few weeks, forcing ministers into a battle for control of school qualifications.