Category: Education

Children in the UK start school at just four years old, yet in several other countries across the world they start school at age six or seven – is the UK doing something wrong here?

Leeds Trinity University has won the 2020/21 WhatUni Student Choice Award for excellence in diversity and inclusion. The university prides itself on its diversity of culture.

Schools and covid – as any parent knows, kids spread coughs and colds. And covid. But that evidence escapes the prime minister.

The professional qualifications bill has many problems, the Henry VIII powers, and the potential of brain drain overseas.

Dangerous views must be called out and condemned for the disgusting nonsense they represent. But does that mean that the owner of those views has taken a permanent stance and can never learn and evolve and move beyond outrageous immature attitudes?

In Malawi, covid and the lack of tourism has ground much of the local economy to a halt, leaving many established tourist destinations, particularly in game parks, reserves and lodges near to Lake Malawi, empty and silent. In this context, the international aid cuts recently proposed by our government will have a devastating impact.

Charlotte Forten looks into the allegations of systemic racism in education, what the problems are and what we can do about it. The system has got worse rather than better in recent years, and something needs to be done.

Educational psychologists have advocated a focus on play, socialisation and wellbeing rather than adding more hours of lessons to the school timetable.

Sapphire Boast, an English student at Leeds Trinity University, discusses the challenge of dyslexia and how to overcome it

Catch this week’s episode of the Bylines Network podcast, as Alex and Jules discuss the Queen’s speech, and what its contents mean for the country at large. Also this week, a new “article of the week” section and a dive into some under-covered stories.

Brian McHugh writes about the impact of Covid-19 on the class of 2021; exams have been cancelled, grades are determined in a new way, and a huge burden has been placed on both students, parents and teachers, which will likely affect wellbeing and mental health.

Charlie McCarthy looks at how British children compare to children abroad in the education system; improvement in English and Maths is taken as a green light by the government for their policies. But the OECD study is being challenged and reporting for PISA ought to be more transparent.

Sapphire Boast looks at the way the English education system is white-washed with male, white authors. Her love for literature has prompted her to challenge the English literature canon and push for more inclusive reading lists.

Charlie McCarthy considers the alternative to A-Levels. A more practical, applied and vocational course called ‘T-Levels’ are growing increasingly popular. But how much do people know about them and are they valued as highly as A-Levels?

The Festival of Debate 2021, is starting in a few weeks. Its purpose? To increase political discourse, encourage local voices to speak up, and come up with solutions to the most pressing issues in society right now. All events are free and welcome to anyone interested.

Jack Blythe draws to light the phenomena of ‘the blob’, or in Gove’s head, ‘Marxist teachers’. It has been revealed that bloggers have had significant influence over the Department for Education. Populism within policy is a dangerous path.

With the UK officially removed from the EU’s Erasmus Plus scheme, Prof. Juliet Lodge asks whether these benefits are gone for good. With Erasmus Plus lost, can the UK truly remain the educational powerhouse that it once was, and will our soft power be forever diminished?

Dr Hywel Ceri Jones, one of the founders of the Erasmus scheme, shows why Erasmus’ replacement, Turing, is not up to scratch. With less generous provisions and less support for the less well-off, Turing is not as good as Erasmus.

Pam Jarvis brings to light the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mental health and their education. She suggests that the ‘Reggio Emilia’ is one that we could learn from.

Are schools delivering the skills and the social mobility we need for a successful post-pandemic, post-Brexit economy?

Andy Brown breaks down the problems with the Chancellor, looking at its impact on care, education, waste management, and the government’s use of back room deals, cheap tricks, and pork barrel politics.

Emily Horner explains the purpose of the new wellbeing support service for teachers in Bradford. They are facing mounting pressures from the pandemic and the service aims to provide advice and reassurance to those who need it.

Charlie McCarthy looks at the reality of opening schools, with personal testimony from a teenager affected and professional evidence from the scientific community, to show just how how difficult both home schooling and reopening schools are.

Charlie McCarthy explains Boris Johnson’s anticipated ‘big bang’ method of allowing children to return to school. He lays out the concerns from scientists and some school staff that he is rushing the process, perhaps risking an increase of the R number.

Education specialist Sheila Smith denounces the mistake of unnecessarily leaving the Erasmus+ scheme after Brexit. “From the little we know so far, Turing focuses only on higher education. It shows a poor understanding of the years of quality, rigour and development behind Erasmus+.”

Emily Horner draws attention to the study in Bradford schools, which found a strong link between children’s performance during their early years’ education and a later diagnosis with autism. Delayed autism diagnosis can lead to later problems in life.

The all-party group on coronavirus heard evidence from experts and families in relation to the impact of covid and covid policies on children. In particular, at what level children are likely to infect other people and whether schools are a major vector for infection spreading between communities.

Amy Day looks into how the education secretary’s failings are leading to a confused educational environment for real children. “On the one hand, children are expected to dismantle the English language down into its most basic and technical components. On the other hand, they’re treated as being entirely ignorant of even everyday processes.”

Oliver Lawrie looks at how our lack of knowledge of other languages will impede us in the post-Brexit world. “Fewer than 3,000 students sat A-level German in 2018. That’s about 5 percent of the number of people who would attend one average football match in the UK.”

University of Leeds student Annabelle Levins looks at how students have been let down by both the government and their universities during the pandemic.