University open days are part of the academic calendar. Every university worth its salt throws its doors open at this time of year, giving teenagers the chance to tour the campus, meet students and teaching staff and ‘find out what it’s really like to live and study there.’ They admittedly leave out the non-stop drinking, rowdy all-night parties and wall-to-wall daytime TV. When I applied to university countless years ago ...keep reading
I’ve worked as a freelance education journalist for years, interviewing heads and teachers, eating rather a lot of school dinners and writing about the inspiring work schools are doing. I got into it in the first place because I spent a year or so teaching at an FE college myself and quickly realised that it’s one of the hardest and most demanding jobs there is. Ten years later, having seen hundreds of teachers ...keep reading
My winter uniform doesn’t vary much. When the weather turns Arctic I dig out my old Jigsaw coat, scarf and Brora fingerless gloves. And that’s just for when I’m inside. For walks along the beach I’ve been known to wear two coats – they admittedly make me look the size of a house but at least I’m warm. The other essentials are black woolly tights from Marks & Spencer – bought ...keep reading
Anyone who thinks teaching is easy should definitely watch Tough Young Teachers, BBC Three’s new fly-on-the-wall series. The six-part show follows six young trainee teachers at the start of their careers in secondary schools. They are all part of Teach First, the fast-track programme that after six weeks of intensive training sends high achieving young graduates to teach in schools in disadvantaged areas. The teachers are filmed over the course of ...keep reading
A new study has shown that sleep deprivation is a hidden factor in lowering children’s achievement at school. According to research conducted by Boston College in Massachusetts, 73 per cent of nine and ten-year-olds in the US are sleep deprived while a staggering 80 per cent of 13 and 14-year-olds don’t get enough sleep at night. All I can say is that even though the research is alarming it doesn’t surprise ...keep reading
The news that two-thirds of parents struggle to use technology and rely on their teenage children to sort them out doesn’t surprise me in the least. With two IT whizzkids in the house I’ve never bothered to get my head round how to sync my phone with my computer or download the latest Laura Marling track on to my iPod. I ask my children to do it for me instead. ...keep reading
Teenagers and coats are still a mystery to me. My daughter used to head to the bus stop on the coldest, wettest days without a coat, insisting she didn’t feel cold at all. My son soon followed suit, setting off for school in a shirt and jeans in the depths of winter. But now he’s older (18) and wiser I thought he’d been converted to the idea of coats. Except ...keep reading
Thousands of writers dream of hitting the big time with their first novel. And that’s exactly what Beth Reekles has done. The surprise is that Beth is a 17-year-old schoolgirl studying for her A levels and hoping to read physics at university. She began writing at the age of 15, sitting upstairs in her bedroom at the family home in Newport, Wales and uploading a chapter of her work at ...keep reading
My last pressing book review is done and dusted – so now I can’t wait to get down to some pre-Christmas reading of my own. Top of my list are two treats I’ve been saving up. One is the just-completed manuscript of one of my best novelist friends, the other is Mutton by India Knight. And it’s Knight who gave me the idea for this blog post. She wrote a ...keep reading
The hall’s full of bike bits, there’s a ton of washing (make that two tons) scattered across the floor and a well-thumbed copy of The Cyclist’s Training Bible is propped up on the kitchen table. It can only mean one thing. Yes, my son’s back from his first term at university and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t know why, but I was worried he might be different. But he isn’t. ...keep reading