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Whilst we celebrate all the positive sides of technology in our lives, we must never lose sight of the potential damage that inappropriate use or over-reliance on technology may cause. I heard a story on Radio 4 last week, which was about a son attacking his father when he tried to take his son’s computer away. That story sadly reminds me of an ongoing situation of a distant relative of ours. There is an 18-year-old young man who is now […]

Are your teenager’s devices adding value or are they damaging? The effect of technology on young people’s lives The issue of gaming and general use of electronic devices by young people has featured very prominently in the news in the last week or two. I was listening to Radio 4 yesterday and parents were lining up to tell their story about the effects that gaming in particular has had on their children – mainly boys. The stories told by people […]

If you prevent your children from using computers, you had better have an alternative idea for them! In my last article, I spoke about other activities that young people could do in order to avoid spending so much time on their electronic devices. Apart from playing sports or music, which are excellent activities to stimulate young people’s brains, there is also playing with their friends or siblings, climbing trees and cooking. Cooking is the one I promised last week to […]

For me, one of the things which I have a profound memory of when I think back to my childhood is how much I enjoyed playing outside. It was either playing in the neighbourhood or roaming far and wide from home. I could have been playing with kites, riding a bicycle or just doing other things with my peers that I considered to be fun. One notable feature of modern life is how much time children spend indoors. They derive […]

September – full of hope and promise For all the people who are involved with school, college or university – be it as a parent, student or teacher – September is a special month – full of hope, promise, anticipation and anxiety. A good time to reflect, after all the anticipation of the summer. No matter how good or bad the summer has gone, the start of the autumn term is a time to look back and also, a time […]

For many years Cambridge University has never recognised Business Studies as one of the subjects on which to base their offer of a place for admission into that prestigious institution. You can find information on various websites on the list of subjects that are preferred by the top universities in the country. My list of good A-level subjects My own recommendations of A-level subjects are as follows and I will do more than just suggest, but in fact insist that […]

For those teenagers who receive the results of the GCSEs today or the IGCSEs, which were released earlier this month, it is the beginning of another process. The next step is the post-sixteen studies – where these young people have a choice between studying academic subjects or vocational ones. Around three decades ago, qualifications at the age of sixteen were the highest that many would obtain in terms of formal education. The government has now adopted a policy, which compels […]

It is wonderful to see the faces of all these young people, as they are full of joy after they received their examination results. Year in year out improvements we have witnessed in those who are achieve the top grades has now slowed down in the last couple of year or so, since the exam process is made much more rigorous. One significant development is the fact that universities now have a free hand in recruiting as many students as […]

In the mid to late 1990’s, I moved schools twice – meaning that within four years I taught in three different schools and the three schools that I taught in were inspected four times over that period.  By the way they were all very good schools and the inspections were not due to any negative reasons but for positive reasons, which I will not necessarily be explaining here. After my first inspection, I stopped making any special preparations for an […]

Questions are being asked recently if the government is right in stating that “headteachers should not be informed before OFSTED inspectors visit a school.” It was the case that schools were informed many months in advance before an inspection was due so that they had plenty of time to prepare for an inspection.  The government is now moving to a position in which schools are not warned before inspectors turn up to inspect the school. Are 1 in 4 headteachers […]