June 2017
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Exploring what's free about UIFSM
I was pleased to see that the daft pledge to means-test payments for infant school meals hasn't made it into the Queen's Speech. Unsurprisingly, this was an unpersuasive proposition on the nation's doorsteps. Voters recognised sweets being snatched away when they saw it....
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Oh the joy of being TEF-free
It's TEF time in universities and colleges. This is when there are either whoops 'n' hollas of joy (relief more like) or the traditional wailings 'n' gnashings when an institution had been utterly misjudged and hence had its reputation traduced....
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£780,000 worth of unsustainability
According to MSN, it cost the Eavis family £780,000 to clean up after the Glastonbury Festival. This is the biggest, most spectacular clean-up bill yet. This was despite the involvement of around 1,300 recycling volunteers who came to the farm (that's...
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UK National Action Plan on ESD adopted
Great news from UNESCO. On 20 June 2017, the National Platform on ESD, the UK´s supreme steering body for the implementation of the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP), has adopted the National Action Plan for GAP implementation. It defines 130...
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Glastonbury and the Soil
"Maybe this year", I said to myself. "Maybe this is the year I go – before it's too late in every sense." Well, the nearest I got was the 1436 from Paddington to Castle Cary last Thursday. It was a Festival...
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NUS to go 100% Fair-trade for cotton
At the recent NUS Services Convention, its member students’ unions unanimously approved a resolution for NUS to become 100% Fairtrade for the cotton products it sells. This year, about 18% of the ~£4m of cotton clothing NUS sold to and through students’...
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Voting for cake in Schleswig-Holstein
Cheering news that a kindergarten in Schleswig-Holstein is giving toddlers a say over things such as what games to play and which food to have for lunch. The Times quotes Kristin Alheit, the Social Democratic Party social affairs minister of Schleswig-Holstein: “Young people...
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Nature, Nurture and Environment
I read an article on parenting the other day as it's never too late to learn. It only really contains this piece of advice: “… it should be enough for us to remember that our children are human beings, worthy of...
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Wasting Indian minds
The Economist, last week, had an editorial on the poor state of India's schools. It begins: "In 1931 Mahatma Gandhi ridiculed the idea that India might have universal primary education “inside of a century”. He was too pessimistic. Since 1980 the...
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Ofsted's curriculum enquiry
I have heard back from Ofsted's Seam Hartford about its forthcoming curriculum review, and about whether the public could take part. His letter said: "The current phase of this work is focused on gathering evidence about the curriculum on the...