The parent trap
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 23/08/2010
The one GCSE guaranteed not to get any results is in Parenting, writes Annaliese Briggs.
1066 and All That
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in British History, Education, Multiculturalism on 19/08/2010
The BBC series The Normans, presented by Professor Robert Bartlett, concluded last night and has shown the licence payer just how well History programmes can be made. Not only was it well-rounded on facts, interesting asides and minimal judgements; it also displayed great insight into themes such as multiculturalism and colonialism, both still hot topics to this day and fascinating to explore as a result. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-sits undermining the A-level
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 19/08/2010
Michael Gove has proposed scrapping modular A-levels and reverting to linear ones, in a bid to restore the ‘gold standard’. However both teachers and top universities have made clear that re-sits, not modular exams, are the major cause of grade ‘inflation’.
The ‘catch’ in Iceland’s EU negotiations
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union on 19/08/2010
Iceland’s EU accession negotiations have got off to a stormy start due to its determination to increase its fishing quotas, writes Natalie Hamill. The Nordic country, which was granted EU candidate status less than a month ago, is determined to increase its mackerel catch quota, despite warnings it will damage its relations with the EU.
Probophilia
Posted by James Gubb in Education, Health, Politics on 18/08/2010
In this article, written for Civitas, Dr Peter Davies and Dr Adrian Kenny, two GPs from Yorkshire, draw on an amusing medical analogy – probophilia – to describe a painful affliction across UK public services today – not least the NHS. ’The probophile’, Davies and Kenny write, ‘ places false confidence in numbers , and uses these as his focus for justification of activity, whilst losing sight of what the organisation is actually set up to deliver. The sufferer is either oblivious to his affliction, or if aware falls into learned helplessness and just does what the organisation demands (and sometimes cynically pockets the cash). Fundamentally it is based on the ability of spreadsheets to analyse data without any matching ability going into primary thought about what data is being measured or why it counts for anything’. Have a read: it is unnervingly widespread and surely represents one of the biggest challenges the Coalition Government faces.
Less custody, or more intelligent use of custody?
Posted by Nick Cowen in Crime on 17/08/2010
The Coalition Government wants to use more rehabilitation in order to cut the costs of crime and imprisonment. However, effective rehabilitation (though a valuable aspiration) is unlikely to yield immediate cost savings and may well involve greater investment, writes Holly Terry.