Posts in Media Article
BBC - Mothers with 'controlling voice' fail to persuade teenagers
BBC - Mothers with 'controlling voice' fail to persuade teenagers

Mothers who talk to their teenage children in a "controlling tone of voice" are more likely to start an argument than get a positive response, according to researchers.

The Cardiff University study examined the responses of 14 and 15-year-olds to instructions given to them in different ways of speaking.

It showed that mothers wanting to persuade teenagers to co-operate got better results when they sounded "supportive" rather than when they applied pressure.

The researchers said that in terms of young people's behaviour there has been little evidence about the impact of "tone of voice", rather than the words or actions of parents.

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Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationmother, teenager, controlling voice, stressed, homeworkComment
Westminster Under School - Chika’s Test (Maths)
Westminster Under School - Chika’s Test (Maths)

A friend spotted this and knew I would be interested.

Something very exciting happened last Friday when one of my pupils, Chika Ofili, popped into the classroom and asked if he could tell me something he had thought of over the summer holidays. I was intrigued. I had given him a book called First Steps for Problem Solvers (published by the UKMT) to look at over the holidays and inside the book was a list of the divisibility tests, which are used to quickly work out whether a number is exactly divisible by either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 before you actually start dividing. Except that there was no test listed for checking divisibility by 7. The reason why it was missing is because there is no easy or memorable test for dividing by 7, or so I thought!

In a bored moment, Chika had turned his mind to the problem and this is what he came up with. He realised that if you take the last digit of any whole number, multiply it by 5 and then add this to the remaining part of the number, you will get a new number. And it turns out that if this new number is divisible by 7, then the original number is divisible by 7. What an easy test! 

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Education, Maths, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationmaths, Chika's test, 7, Westminster Under School, division Comments
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
BBC - 'Time outs' don't do any harm, parents told
BBC - 'Time outs' don't do any harm, parents told

Using "time outs" to discipline children is not going to harm them or your relationship with them, US research suggests.

Despite criticism of the "naughty step" strategy, children's anxiety did not increase and neither did their aggressive behaviour, the eight-year study of families found.

But a UK psychologist said the key was how the technique was used.

And not all children responded to authoritarian forms of discipline.

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Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationtime out, naughty children, naughty step, parents, parentingComment
Evening Standard - Vlogstar Challenge 2019: Bella Roberts becomes fourth winner of the annual vlogging competition
Evening Standard - Vlogstar Challenge 2019: Bella Roberts becomes fourth winner of the annual vlogging competition

The 2019 winner was crowned at a packed event at YouTube Space

If you were tasked with making a YouTube video about turning a challenge into something positive, what would it be? 

For 17-year-old Bella Roberts, it was about how she learned to become a filmmaker, particularly the skills she picked up through YouTube. “Something only needs to be as hard as you think it should be,” she says wisely. 

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Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationevening standard, vlogstar, youtube, competitionComment
The Times - Piccolo baby food cooks up export business as added security
The Times - Piccolo baby food cooks up export business as added security

A baby food brand that counts Prue Leith, the The Great British Bake Off judge, as an early backer has built a £1.5 million export business in the past year to help to cushion it from Brexit uncertainty.

Piccolo Foods, founded by Catherine Gazzoli in 2016, makes Mediterranean-style organic fruit and vegetable purees using her experience working in food education at the United Nations. The brand, which sells pouches of sweet tomato and ricotta spaghetti and squash mac and cheese purees, is also backed by Craig Sams, founder of Green & Blacks chocolate, and Mark Angela, the former Pizza Express boss.

Ms Gazzoli said that Piccolo was on track to make £7 million in turnover this year after winning contracts with all the main supermarkets, broadening its range to include teething biscuits and stir-in pasta sauces for toddlers, and launching overseas.

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Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationPiccolo, baby foodComment
BBC - Could Labour really ban private schools?
BBC - Could Labour really ban private schools?

Could Labour really abolish private schools? That's the big question after the party's conference voted to "integrate" private schools into the state sector.

The plan would see the assets of private schools "redistributed".

Universities would have a quota imposed of admitting no more than 7% of their students from private schools, so their numbers were in keeping with their proportion in the overall school population.

And private schools would lose their charitable status and tax exemptions.

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Education, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationLabour, independent schools, state schools, policy, public ownershipComment
The Times - Buying homes near good schools ‘worse than going private’
The Times - Buying homes near good schools ‘worse than going private’

From Saturday.

Buying a house in the catchment area of an outstanding state school is worse for social mobility than paying for your child to go to private school, a prep school leader claims.

Critics of the private school sector are often hypocrites who buy expensive houses close to high-performing state schools, according to Christopher King, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools.

The Labour Party conference opens today and a motion to abolish private schools is due to be heard tomorrow. Labour has already pledged to charge VAT on school fees.

Private school heads have reacted with anger and frustration, saying that many fee-charging schools are small and at the heart of local communities.

Speaking ahead of the conference on Thursday, Mr King said: “Vocal critics of the independent school sector are often the very same people who have enough money to buy expensive houses close to some of the most high-performing state schools in the country.

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Education, Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando Educationschool, education, housing, catchment area, state schoolsComment
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
BBC - Night in national park 'for every schoolchild'
BBC - Night in national park 'for every schoolchild'

Every schoolchild in England should get the opportunity to "spend a night under the stars" in an idyllic landscape, an independent review has suggested.

Helping pupils connect with nature through visits would ensure protected areas such as national parks are "open to everyone", the review's author said.

Julian Glover was asked to review England's 70-year-old national park system and areas of outstanding natural beauty by the environment secretary.

He says they need to be "re-ignited".

Mr Glover's review says challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and a trend towards increased urban living mean fresh ideas are needed to give England's protect landscapes new purpose.

Among his recommendations are a National Landscapes Service to act as a unified body for the country's 10 national parks and 34 areas of outstanding natural beauty, and a 1,000-strong "ranger service" to help engage the public.

Mr Glover, a journalist and former government aide, suggests overnight school trips would help pupils understand more about the natural environment, and he recommends new protections and funding to help improve beautification.

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Media Article, FamilySarah NorrisLando Educationnational park, lake district, peak district, the broads, north york moors, south downs national park, exmoor national park, dartmoor national park, the new forest, northumberland national park, yorkshire dalesComment
The Times - Girls urged to aim for high earnings
The Times - Girls urged to aim for high earnings

One of the highest-paid charity heads has urged schoolgirls to take charge of their money and know their financial worth when they start work.

Rather than relying on a man as a breadwinner women should earn their own high salaries, Cheryl Giovannoni, chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust, told head teachers.

Ms Giovannoni, a former advertising executive, earned £273,680 last year, up from £266,400 the year before.

At the trust’s annual conference in London she said head teachers should tell girls: “Managing your money — getting it, spending it, investing it, and not relying on someone else to provide it — is a life skill every woman needs.

“Taking charge of your finances is vital if you are to have control of your own destiny.” She quoted Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, the US Supreme Court justice, who said: “Be the lawyer your mother always wanted you to marry.”

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Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationGirls, earnings, Cheryl GiovannoniComment
The Times - How to be popular: scientists reveal the secret to being liked at school
The Times - How to be popular: scientists reveal the secret to being liked at school

With a line-up of heroines whose impossible beauty is matched only by their catty one-liners, Mean Girls is supposed to be an over-the-top portrayal of schoolgirls that classmates love to hate.

However, the film may be closer to home than to Hollywood fantasy, according to academics who have conducted research into teen popularity.

The study has found that Machiavellian pupils are at the top of the tree. Liked and feared in equal measure, such teenagers strategically balance aggression with charm.

Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey and starring Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried, was released in 2004 but retains a cult following, with its own Twitter account, annual day of celebration and a Broadway musical that is coming to the West End.

The popular clique of girls — the Plastics — dish out lines including: “I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.”

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Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationMean Girls, popular, science, film, teenagersComment
What a Difference a Year Makes
What a Difference a Year Makes

Following yesterday’s Climate Strike, I spotted this on Twitter from Louise MacDonald

@GretaThunberg has shown that all young people have a voice. I hope my own 11 year old grows up being inspired to “Make a Difference”.

great article in The Times - Climate strike: Greta Thunberg’s army make their voices heard

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Media Article, Science, FamilySarah NorrisLando EducationGreta Thunberg, Climate Change, Climate Strike, Greta Thunberg’s army, The TimesComment
The Independent - Britain slips behind US as most popular country for educating world leaders due to hardline immigration policy
The Independent - Britain slips behind US as most popular country for educating world leaders due to hardline immigration policy

The UK risks losing its international influence under strict immigration policies, report suggests.

The UK has been superceded by the US as the most popular place of education for the world's political leaders, a study has found, as experts warn the government's immigration policy could reduce the attraction of British universities to overseas students.

Of the current serving presidents, prime ministers and monarchs who have studied at a university abroad, 58 were educated in the US compared to 57 in the UK - reversing last year’s positions.

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Education, Higher Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment
The Guardian: Blame cuts – not headteachers – for school exclusions
The Guardian: Blame cuts – not headteachers – for school exclusions

Damian Hinds should stop pointing the finger at schools – troubled pupils need specialist help that’s no longer funded.

Have you heard the stories about headteachers callously excluding children to make their school’s results improve? In a few instances, it’s true. But for the most part, the exclusion figures are not because evil school leaders suddenly care more about exams. The real problem is squeezed budgets. Heads care about every child: what they can’t do is teach all of them.

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2017/18 Exam Results, Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment
The Guardian: British people often boast about being ‘bad at maths’. Here’s why that causes genuine harm
The Guardian: British people often boast about being ‘bad at maths’. Here’s why that causes genuine harm

We regularly have this conversation in my home. My husband is all things English, and I am all things Maths. The subject we both have in common is a love for Science. Although my husband is more physics, to my biology and chemistry (I have a large collection of virus and extinction books). Our daughter is thankfully a great mix of the two of us.

Saying you’re rubbish with numbers is seen as a badge of honour in the UK. This means those with dyscalculia very rarely get the help they need.

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Education, Maths, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment
The Guardian: North-south schools divide ‘not supported by evidence’
The Guardian: North-south schools divide ‘not supported by evidence’

Thoughts on this article much appreciated! I’m a Northerner who moved to London in 1998. If in 1988, when we first met, you had told either my husband or I that we would have a 10 year old girl, in a single sex, independent school, we would both have called you crazy. Yet here we are. Unless you attend church and have a child who is christened at birth, State school places are almost impossible to gain in Marylebone. I went to church from the age of 3 to 18, however I chose to use all the good of my religious upbringing, without having to go to church. In an attempt to gain a faith school reception place, we tried going to the local church every weekend. Two months in, I was the one who announced I couldn’t take it anymore, I wanted to punch the vicar for his beliefs (that’s a post for another day!).

Major study of 1.8 million pupils also challenges ministers’ claims children do better in academies and grammars.

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2017/18 Exam Results, Education, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment
BBC: School open days: Eight things to look for
BBC: School open days: Eight things to look for

My husband has kindly been scouring the internet for education/family articles for me today, and found this very fitting article. Although our 10 year old has a guaranteed place at her independent school, we have been looking at local State schools as well as visiting St Paul’s Girls’ School.

It's that time of the year when secondary schools freshen up their display boards, pick out their best-behaved kids and prepare for open evenings.

But how can parents get beyond the glossy prospectuses and slick presentations and decide whether this is the school for their child?

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Education, Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment
The Times: Bringing up baby is for Facebook bosses. Working parents get a nanny or get the push
The Times: Bringing up baby is for Facebook bosses. Working parents get a nanny or get the push

When my daughter was in year 2, I put in a request to work flexibly. I asked to come in early three times a week and leave early, but when working from home I wanted to work more hours than I was contracted. I should add here, that I asked for flexible working in term time only. As my daughter was at an independent school, term time was considerably less than at a state school. At this point I had been working up to 15/16hr days, every day, for over a month.

Members of my team worked flexibly. A woman in her thirties, without children worked 7-3pm, so she could go to the gym. Another had a sick wife so would come in after 10am and finish later. Another, with a child, had agreed to work flexibly during school holidays.

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Family, Media ArticleSarah NorrisLando EducationComment