Posts in Business
The Times: Want to be a success? Fail 15% of the time
The Times: Want to be a success? Fail 15% of the time

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. But try to succeed 85 per cent of the time.

Scientists have discovered that there is a perfect amount of failure, suggesting that those who get the answers wrong 15 per cent of the time while studying have found the optimum difficulty level to stimulate fast learning.

Researchers said that a success rate of 85 per cent, or getting about six of every seven questions or challenges right, was the “sweet spot” for fast learning, explaining that anything above this is too easy and anything below is too difficult.

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Family, Education, Business, Higher Education, Maths, Languages, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationsuccess, fail, succeed, The Times, media article, learning, education, higher education, perceptual learning tasksComment
Evening Standard: Inspiring Girls International: New video hub launched to inspire the next generation of global female leaders
Evening Standard: Inspiring Girls International: New video hub launched to inspire the next generation of global female leaders

A charity working to give girls around the world access to female role models, has launched a landmark new online platform.

Inspiring Girls Video Hub will showcase stories from inspirational women of all nationalities in a bid to raise the aspirations of girls worldwide.

Influential figures from broadcaster Mishal Husain to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg joined Inspiring Girls founder Miriam Gonzalez Durantez to mark the event at a global summit in London on Wednesday.

Hosted by Google, Thursday’s launch saw local schoolgirls participate in interviews, networking sessions and workshops, and gain advice from women who have excelled in their chosen fields.

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Education, Business, Higher Education, Media Article, TechnologySarah NorrisLando EducationInspiring Girls, Technology, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, Sheryl Sandberg, Platform, GirlsComment
The Guardian: Exam board AQA to pay out £1.1m over rule breaches and errors
The Guardian: Exam board AQA to pay out £1.1m over rule breaches and errors

Watchdog’s reprimand comes after failings such as markers re-marking their own work.

The exam board AQA is to pay more than £1.1m in fines and compensation for a string of rule breaches, errors and failings in GCSEs and A-levels that regulators said could seriously undermine public confidence in the qualifications system.

Ofqual, which oversees school exams in England, said it had levied its largest ever fine on AQA after 50,000 appeals for exam papers to be reviewed or re-marked, spread across three years between 2016 and 2018, were carried out by AQA staff who had already marked the same papers.

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Business, Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationThe Guardian, exam board, AQA, reprimand, fines, rule breaches, Ofqual, appeals, examsComment
The Times: Beating screen time curbs is child’s play
The Times: Beating screen time curbs is child’s play

Children and teenagers are using simple loopholes to circumvent Apple parental controls that are supposed to limit daily screen time, experts say.

They have called for improved, tamper-proof restrictions after details of how to bypass the limits were circulated online.

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Business, Family, Technology, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationApple, screentime, children, teenagers, parental controls, iphone, ipad, mental health, apps, social mediaComment
The Guardian: Turkey says Rebel Girls children's book should be treated like porn
The Guardian: Turkey says Rebel Girls children's book should be treated like porn

Turkey has ruled that the million-selling book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls should be partially banned and treated like pornography because it could have a “detrimental influence” on young people.

The book, which has been published in 47 languages, offers a series of inspiring stories about women from history for young children. But in a decision published last week, the Turkish government’s board for the protection of minors from obscene publications said: “Some of the writings in the book will have a detrimental influence on the minds of those under the age of 18.”

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Business, Education, Family, Media Article, Reading, ScienceSarah NorrisLando EducationTurkey, Rebel Girls, books, children's booksComment
Evening Standard: Every business will rely on AI in five years and most people are worried they’re being left behind
Evening Standard: Every business will rely on AI in five years and most people are worried they’re being left behind

My daughter's school have started to incorporate all things AI into their school curriculum. Interestingly our daughter has moved from wanting to be a vet, towards something in the maths/technology world. 

Microsoft believes that every business will be an AI business in the next five years but there are concerns that people don’t fully understand the technology and will be left behind in the AI revolution.

Ahead of Future Decoded, the tech giant’s annual conference at the ExCel Centre in London, it released a new report, named Accelerating Competitive Advantage with AI, covering how businesses across the UK are using the technology. 

The report shows that there is more awareness and adoption of AI overall among businesses, with 56 per cent of businesses adopting AI. However, less than a quarter of these organisations (24 per cent) have an AI strategy and 96 per cent of employees surveyed reporting that their bosses are adding AI without consulting them on the technology. This is fuelling anxiety around the technology, as well as concerns over job security. 

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Business, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationartificial intelligence, Microsoft, business, concerns, employment, communicationComment
The Times - Top 100 Graduate Employers: bright young things flock to prison careers
The Times - Top 100 Graduate Employers: bright young things flock to prison careers

The prison service has made it on to a list of Britain’s top 100 employers for graduates thanks to its innovative fast-track scheme.

The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2019-20, published on Wednesday, also shows that the number of new graduates wanting to work in the public sector is at its highest level for almost a decade. There are 11 public sector employers in the rankings, including the NHS at number five, its highest position since the list began in 1999.

Unlocked, a scheme that parachutes graduates into the prison service, entered the table at number 49, the highest new entry.

The rankings are compiled from research with 19,700 graduates who left university this summer. They were asked: “Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?”

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Business, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationtop 100 graduate employers, graduate, employers, prison service, civil service, PwC, Aldi, Google, NHS, KPMG, Deloitte, Teach First, BBC, JP MorganComment
The Times - Please sir, can we grow up to be entrepreneurs?
The Times - Please sir, can we grow up to be entrepreneurs?

Schoolchildren in deprived areas are being given the chance to learn about enterprise as well as maths.

James Ludlow, head teacher of the King’s Church of England School in Wolverhampton, often stops pupils in the corridor to ask them what they want to do in the future. For years, the answer has always been the same: “I don’t know, sir.”

The secondary school contends with some of the toughest conditions in the country for providing education. Its near-700 students are drawn from 40 different primary schools and speak more than 40 languages. One pupil who joined recently had escaped the war in Syria.

In the past year, however, answers to the head’s corridor question have become far more varied as a new focus on providing careers skills has started to pay off. Pupils talk regularly to entrepreneurs and business leaders and are invited to work at local companies — including the Mount, a plush hotel where visiting Premier League teams stay if they are playing Wolverhampton Wanderers.

King’s is playing a small part in a quiet revolution in schools. Along with English, maths and science, pupils are being taught the skills required to start businesses and thrive as workers in a changing economy that values entrepreneurship as much as it does qualifications in traditional subjects.

At the same time, the push — both by government and private interests — is helping improve social mobility by addressing one of the big inequities in the business world: a shortfall in working- class entrepreneurs.

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Business, Education, Maths, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationeducation, entrepreneur, schools, business, mathsComment