Healthy eating 'improves schools'

Primary schools in England involved in a healthy-eating project have improved their inspection results and pupils ' behaviour, researchers say. http://mwls.com/news.php?n=20

Poor teachers could be sacked 'within a term'

Plans to speed up the removal of poorly performing teachers from schools in England have been announced by the government. Currently, it can take more than a year to remove struggling teachers, because of lengthy bureaucratic processes. A teachers' union labelled the plans 'unfair, unjust and unworkable'. http://mwls.com/news.php?n=19

Quote of the Week

"The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." Confucius (551–479 B.C.). http://mwls.com/news.php?n=18

The tribe with no concept of time

The Amondawa people who live in the Amazonian rainforests have no watches or calendars and live their lives to natural patterns. They have no age and mark the transition from childhood to adulthood to old age by changing their name. http://mwls.com/news.php?n=17

New cookie rules

From 26 May 2011, websites must obtain the informed consent of visitors before cookies are installed. The only exception are cookies that are 'strictly necessary' for a service requested by the user http://mwls.com/news.php?n=16

Qatar to be global knowledge hub

Billions of pounds are being pumped into an 'Education City' of 80 educational, research, science and community development organisations.

http://mwls.com/news.php?n=15

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Which 100 English words should Fabio learn?

England football manager Fabio Capello has claimed that he only requires a 'maximum [of] 100 words' to communicate tactics to the England footballers. This is not as laughable as it first seems because The Reading Teachers Book of Lists claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material. When I was involved with writing technical manuals for engineers whose first language was not English, we were encouraged to use a limited vocabulary. This is not quite the same as using the most frequent words because each word had to have only one meaning and - of course - we used the most useful words for the context. Fabio Capello's 100 words in the locker room would be different to Michel Roux's in the Kitchen. What are your suggestions for the 100 most useful words in your subject? These insights can be very helpful - not only for teaching languages but in any situation and subject where students have limited ability in the language being used. While Fabio Capello is aiming for an English vocabulary of 100 words, I'm pretty sure my dog understands 200 words. I think I'll start listing them - look out for a blog on this subject. Follow us on twitter Latest posts

Meditation stronger than drugs for pain relief

Researchers have found that just one hour of meditation training can reduce immediate pain by nearly half and have a long lasting effect.

The technique appears to work as it calms down pain experiencing areas of the brain while at the same time boosting coping areas.

Meditation was found to reduce pain intensity by about 40 per cent and pain unpleasantness by 57 per cent. Morphine and other pain-relieving drugs typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 per cent.

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Design and technology classes 'out of date'

Ofsted has said that too many design and technology teachers in England are failing to keep pace with global technological advances. A report on the teaching of the subject said too little use was made of modern technology in a third of the schools it surveyed. Schools in China and France emphasise the study of robotics, electronics and computer-aided design, it added.

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Cambridge to Educate Tomorrow's Nuclear Leaders

Some of the biggest companies and organisations in the nuclear industry are lending their support to a new course which will prepare the engineers and scientists of tomorrow for incidents such as those recently witnessed in Japan.

A new MPhil in Nuclear Energy, which is being launched by the University of Cambridge, will, among other topics, focus on ensuring that the reactor designs are extremely robust and that staff working in the nuclear industry have the best possible preparation for the challenges of their careers.

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Oxbridge encourages thousands of sixth-formers

Cambridge and Oxford are giving thousands of Year 12 students across the UK the opportunity to find out more about studying at the two world-class universities.

The 2011 Cambridge and Oxford Student Conference series starts on 21 March in Leicester. The seven-venue conference tour will also visit Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Merseyside and Lisburn in Northern Ireland.

More than 10,000 school students and their teachers are expected to attend the free conferences.

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