pages tagged educationspwhittonhttps://spwhitton.name//tag/education/spwhittonikiwiki2015-11-18T17:09:12ZSold outhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/collini/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2014-07-20T07:42:00Z
<blockquote><p>Future historians, pondering changes in British society from the 1980s
onwards, will struggle to account for the following curious fact.
Although British business enterprises have an extremely mixed record
(frequently posting gigantic losses, mostly failing to match overseas
competitors, scarcely benefiting the weaker groups in society), and
although such arm’s length public institutions as museums and
galleries, the BBC and the universities have by and large a very good
record (universally acknowledged creativity, streets ahead of most of
their international peers, positive forces for human development and
social cohesion), nonetheless over the past three decades politicians
have repeatedly attempted to force the second set of institutions to
change so that they more closely resemble the first. —Stefan Collini</p></blockquote>
<p>(<a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n20/stefan-collini/sold-out">source</a>)</p>
Emma Mulqueeny on ICT curriculumshttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/hubmumbbc/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2012-08-11T10:51:00Z
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19115743">Viewpoint: Changing the curriculum won’t be enough to get kids to code
| BBC Technology News</a></p>
<p>I came across this piece by Emma Mulqueeny who I know better as the user
<a href="http://twitter.com/hubmum">@hubmum</a> from when I used to use Twitter.
Back in 2009 I participated in her young persons’ computer programming
weekend, Young Rewired State, designed to stick it to the government by
showing what young people are capable of doing if they have access to
openly available data. It was fun to spend three days in Google’s London
headquarters, writing code.</p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/hubmumbbc/#more">continue reading this entry</a></p>
University of Sheffield SU lip-dubhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/sheffieldlipdub/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2011-12-14T15:13:00Z
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DZL_yc_NKN5A">Sheffield Students’ Union: Lip-Dub {Take That & Queen} |
YouTube</a></p>
<p>My mother just sent me this and I was quite astonished by just how much
students all look the same, I mean, this could have been a bunch of
Oxford students no problem. I do not mean by this to suggest that Oxford
students should look different, more I’m drawing a contrast between
students in general, which I didn’t realise were quite so unified in
physical appearance and mannerisms, and the general population of 18–25
year olds.</p>
New College of the Humanitieshttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/nch/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2011-06-05T10:38:00Z
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8557555/New-university-to-rival-Oxbridge-will-charge-18000-a-year.html">New university to rival Oxbridge will charge £18 000 a year | The
Telegraph</a></p>
<p>This was my biggest worry for the education cuts: the humanities of our
generation will be defined by the rich. Gargh this is really terrible.</p>
Couple of tweets from @artuncuthttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/artuncut/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2011-04-19T21:15:00Z
<blockquote><p>London Met Philosophy Dept. to close down. Greenwich philosophy dept.
to close down. Cuts destroying humanities.</p></blockquote>
<p>— distressing. Visited <a href="http://twitter.com/artuncut">their Twitter feed</a>
and found</p>
<blockquote><p>Einstein on common sense: ‘A deposit of prejudices laid down in the
mind before you reach 18’. Nothing to do with politics but quite cool.</p></blockquote>
<p>which has everything to do with politics if you ask me.</p>
<p>(via <a href="http://twitter.com/Seanoftheshire">@Seanoftheshire</a>)</p>
Balliol historian on front of Guardianhttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/guardianbush/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2011-04-13T17:02:00Z
<p>Today’s Guardian has one of Balliol’s History finalists on the front:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/12/oxford-university-diversity-row-students">Oxford University diversity row: ‘Grades aren’t enough’ | The
Guardian</a></p>
<p><a href="https://spwhitton.name//blog/img/guardianbush.png"><img src="https://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/guardianbush/400x303-guardianbush.png" width="400" height="303" class="img" /></a></p>
<p>Oxford University aren’t happy with this and for once the students’
union is with them:</p>
<blockquote><p>Ignore the politicians: for the real story about admissions and
applicants from minority groups, go to
<a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/behind_the_headlines/101307.html"><http://bit.ly/hYvGvS></a>.
—<a href="https://twitter.com/ousunews/status/57500010270556160">@ousunews</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Sure, Oxford’s access is far from perfect and is <em>maybe</em> too reliant on
students (the Target Schools scheme is an effective approach). But it’s
really not Oxford’s fault that there is such a low proportion of ethnic
minority students, it’s the fault of our divided education system with
its rich private schools full of white teenagers who get coached in
Oxbridge admissions. The situation in Oxford is reflective of the
country’s unequal education provision.</p>
Sixth form cutshttps://spwhitton.name//blog/entry/sixthformcuts/2015-11-18T17:09:12Z2011-04-06T14:39:00Z
<p>My sister just got home and showed me a letter signed by eight
headteachers from across Sheffield, that was presumably sent out to all
those schools, that describes how a combination of government spending
cuts and inflation means they are going to have to cut their offerings
to sixth form pupils. The numbers:</p>
<blockquote><p>The present Government has decided to reduce the level of financial
support by about 20% over the next 3 financial years. A 3% cut Will be
made from April 2011 followed by further cuts in 2012 and 2013 …
[l]ike every school in Sheffield we are planning for budget cuts
arising from inflation, increased pension and national insurance
contributions.</p></blockquote>
<p>The staggering thing is what this is actually going to mean. It’s not an
issue in some parts of this city that they’re cutting enrichment,
careers stuff etc. — rich parents will fill the gap. And when times are
tight maybe Sixth Forms should stop offering subjects very few take. But</p>
<blockquote><p>Some classes may be taught in less time with alternative methods of
delivery, including the increased use of ICT, being used … [f]or
2011–2012 High Storrs is proposing to maintain Y12 AS Subjects and Y13
A2 Subjects at 5 hours tuition per subject. We hope that we can
maintain this in the longer term as this is the tuition time that we
feel students need in order to be successful.</p></blockquote>
<p>which implies very clearly that <em>there is the threat of losing lesson
time.</em> Yes: the government have decided that teaching people full time
16–18 is no longer affordable. This is deeply sad, not only because it’s
going to handicap so many, but because it’s something very difficult to
claw back. Look at how well they tick boxes and pass exams with the
virtual teaching they receive! Why spend the money on reinstating actual
teaching?</p>
<p>The purpose of the letter is clearly to get parents and angry older
siblings and indeed pupils themselves to write to MPs and kick up a
fuss; the tone throughout is that the headteachers don’t want this, and
that the letter is their attempt to turn the tide. Look how they note
the potential loss of lesson time in such a non-specific way to engender
anger. I don’t blame them and I wish that there was something that could
be done, but it doesn’t feel like there is — look how little was
achieved in trying to regain EMA. Come on Labour…</p>