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I redesigned a school playground for my PhD – and the children got better marks learning outside
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the education of at least 1.5 billion school students. That’s more than 90% of the world’s children. Although many schools in the west, along with private schools in the developing world, have continued some school activities online, more than 50% of learners worldwide do notContinue Reading
Marcus Rashford: a brief history of free school meals in the UK
Marcus Rashford. Jose Breton- Pics Action/Shutterstock Following a campaign led by the England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, the UK government has committed to providing free school meals to children in England during the 2020 summer holidays. The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on household food security.Continue Reading
Police in schools: Black Lives Matter protests raise urgent concerns
Tana888/Shutterstock The recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests has demanded that societies pay closer attention to the way racism shapes lives. While standing in solidarity with Black people in the US, protesters in the UK have been clear that much greater attention needs to be paid to racism inContinue Reading
Joe Wicks got children moving – how to keep them active as lockdown ends
When parents in the UK were suddenly forced to become teachers to their kids in lockdown, physical education (PE) was largely an afterthought. As many PE lessons are now delivered by outside professional coaches, few primary schools had the in-house experience or skills to create and suggest content to helpContinue Reading
Why youth activism has passed China by
sevenke/Shutterstock Around the world, young people are emerging as trailblazers for social change. Youth activism has ranged from Malala Yousafzai’s fight for girls’ right to education to Greta Thunberg’s mobilisation of youth climate action, the Hong Kong youth protests in 2019 and even the TikTok movement which led to organisersContinue Reading
UK government pledges £1 billion to rebuild schools – here’s why they need to be sustainable
YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock This week the UK government announced a £1 billion investment in new school construction and an additional £560 million for school repairs and upgrades. The funding is part of a package of spending proposals intended to stimulate the economy as Britain emerges from the coronavirus lockdown. School repairsContinue Reading
What primates can teach us about managing arguments during lockdown
Grooming is the key to positive relationships. tratong/Shutterstock The world may be reopening in some places, with people looking forward to pubs, restaurants and haircuts. Many of us will no doubt also be looking forward to some time away from home – alone – once more. Spending such prolonged timeContinue Reading
China and AI: what the world can learn and what it should be wary of
Shutterstock China announced in 2017 its ambition to become the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. While the US still leads in absolute terms, China appears to be making more rapid progress than either the US or the EU, and central and local government spending on AI inContinue Reading
Coronavirus: why we should end the pandemic ban on reusable cups
Vincente Sargues/Shutterstock Of the many ways the coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives, the banning of reusable cups by many cafes and other outlets serving hot drinks probably doesn’t appear at the top of most people’s lists. But the move is likely to add to the mountain of waste pilingContinue Reading
History tells us that ideological ‘purity spirals’ rarely end well
Iconoclasm: the beheading of the English king, Charles I, in January 1649. Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart, for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. Author James Baldwin’s words, written in the America of the late 1950s, captures perfectly a feeling in the airContinue Reading