School Gate - Times Online - WBLG

Teaching kids that animals are NOT rubbish!

Back in March, Orion Children’s Books, the Born Free Foundation and Waterstone’s announced the launch of a nationwide competition to raise awareness of animal conservation and encourage children to think about why wildlife is important. They were to do this by making models of endangered animals from recycled material (the kind of project which sends me into a right panic!).

However, the entries were fantastic, so creative and ingenious (you can see the shortlist at www.animalsarenotrubbish.co.uk) The winners were announced last night, and the judges included author Lauren St John, Virginia McKenna and Will Travers from the Born Free and actor Martin Clunes.

Here Lauren St John (whom you can see in the picture, along with Virginia McKenna and the runner up in the group entry, from St Augustine's C. E Primary School, Pendlebury, Manchester) explains why she got involved in the competition, and how she wants kids to share her passion for wildlife...

"There have been two highlights in my year so far and both have involved wild animals. The first was a living, breathing and very large leopard, whom I de-flead with Frontline spray, a story I intend to dine out on for the next 50 years. The second was a collection of endangered snow leopards, turtles, orangutans and tigers made from papier mache, boxes and Sainsbury’s plastic bags. It’s telling that the real animals and the man-made ones have been equally thrilling.

In Spring this year, not long after Prince Charles informed us we have 100 months to save the world, my publishers, Orion and myself, in association with international wildlife charity Born Free, launched Animals are Not Rubbish, a competition to get kids creating models of endangered animals out of recycled rubbish. The ingenuity of the shortlisted entries far exceeded our expectations. One class moulded cloth bees into the shape of a dodo to show that bees could soon be extinct. There were cheetahs, tigers and alligators which were works of art. The winners were announced last night.

Conservation and, in particular, getting kids thinking about conservation, was my passion long before I started writing children’s books about an animal healer. I was fortunate in that I grew up in Zimbabwe on a farm with over a hundred acres of private game reserve and had a pet giraffe. My family was about as animal obsessed as Gerald Durrell’s, and our house and garden was a kind of extended petting zoo with an ever-increasing menagerie of adopted or recuperating warthogs, baby monkeys, cats, dogs, pythons, horses and assorted antelope or orphaned calves.

An educational trip to Scotland - find out about your ancestry and just have fun.....

There's a huge event happening in Scotland at the end of July (July 25th and 26th) and I think you should know about it. Of course it's educational, full of history and genealogy, not to mention children's activities. It's also a real one-off. Want to know more? Then read on...

The Gathering 2009 celebrates both contemporary and traditional Scottish culture. It's taking place at Holyrood Park and will include Edinburgh's first Highland Games, as well as music (including Pipe Idol!), children's activities, and a Clan Village with 127 clan tents.There will also be a huge Clan Parade, with up to 8000 people marching along the Royal Mile. My children are half-Scottish (not my side, I'm afraid), so I think this might be one for us...

Co-director of the whole event, Lord (Jamie) Sempill told me that he'd been "nursing" the idea for 10 years. But it was the Scottish Executive's decision to turn 2009 into the "Year of Homecoming" which made him feel that now was the right time. He has travelled to clan gatherings around the world, and felt that this event, actually in Scotland, should be a showcase.

"I wanted to do it on a scale never seen before," he says. "to show off gatherings and clans, do put on a Highland Games like no one's ever seen, to make this a blue ribbon event. But first and foremost it's a celebration of our culture and some of the great traditions of our culture, many of which emanated from the clans."

Richard's story - is he really unsuitable to teach because of previous mental health problems?

Today is the launch of Time to Change, an ambitious programme to end discrimination faced by people with mental health problems. Why am I writing about this on School Gate? Well, it's because anyone can suffer from mental health problems, whether child, parent or teacher, and that means all can be discriminated against as well.

According to the Social Exclusion Unit, over 60 percent of employers say they would not consider employing someone with a history of mental illness. However, 85 percent of employers who do employ someone with a mental health problem are very satisfied. (Royal College of Psychiatrist: Mental Health and Work)

Richard* is one of those who has suffered direct discrimination on a number of occasions. This 28-year-old has always wanted to be a teacher, but despite a history degree from Oxford, post graduate diploma in psychology and years of experience volunteering with children who have learning disabilities, he has not been able to find the work he wants. He is currently involved in legal action, so needs to remain anonymous, but his story should make you think hard about mental health and the decision some people take without really thinking them through.

Here is his story:

"I am more than qualified for a teaching assistant's course at my local college. The interview was going
extremely well, with the lady saying that I would make an excellent male role model, until I mentioned my mental health condition.

"Everything turned around immediately, suddenly I wasn't allowed on the course. The woman interviewing me said that I wouldn't be allowed near children and that I'd never find a placement. She advised I go and stack shelves in Tesco, which wasn't what I wanted to do.

This experience hit me hard, but in fact, I had no difficulty finding a placement - I got a list of local schools, and the first head teacher I phoned took me on immediately. I have now been at the same school for over two years. Although I have experienced bipolar psychosis in the past, I've been in a stable condition for some time now.

Last December, I decided to pursue a teaching career, and applied to do a Primary PGCE. I was interviewed, but my application was unsuccessful. Since I'm highly qualified and have experience of working with children, I appealed. The university upheld their original decision, but refused to offer any justification.

I contacted a solicitor, who managed to get hold of copies of the interview transcripts. These showed that, contrary to the university's claims, I outperformed a number of students who had been accepted onto the course. However, the words "advise on mental health" were the only thing written in the 'reasons for rejection' box on my application form. While I passed all areas of the assessment the university decided that I was "unsuitable" to be a teacher.

They did ask if I had any health condition at interview, and I disclosed my mental health condition, emphasising that I was stable and that I was in no doubt that I was able to complete the course and work as a teacher. They asked no further questions, and I assumed that everything was OK as they raised no concerns. After deciding I was "unsuitable" and requesting advice on my mental health on the interview
transcript they did not contact me or ask any further questions, nor did they approach my doctors or Consultant.

It was an arbitrary judgement, I've instructed a barrister, and expect the case to come to court soon.

They're crying out for male primary school teachers, but there is a lot of sexism. A man with a mental health condition who wants to work with young children faces extreme stigma and prejudice.  Basically, they assume you're a threat and danger to children.  I don't have a criminal record and I do have a clear Enhanced CRB check, but Child Protection policies are a minefield and there is an awful lot of fear, especially when working with young children.

The end of scholarships and changes to private schools - who can still afford to pay?

The most interesting development the Good Schools Guide has noticed in private schools over the last few years hasn’t been the steep fee increases, the facilities arms race, the introduction of baffling exams like the Cambridge Pre-U, or even Jamie Oliver’s influence in the kitchens.

Instead, it’s been the complete overhaul of scholarship criteria at the country’s most famous public schools. Janette Wallis explains...

"Bullied by the Charity Commission - and led by schools like Eton (which you can see above), Rugby and St Paul’s - most big schools that you could name, and lots you’ve never heard of, are now means testing all their scholarships.

Awards for academic, sporting, musical and other forms of excellence are capped at 5 or 10 per cent of fees, or are in some cases purely honorary. A scholarship to academic powerhouse St Paul’s School in London brings with it the princely sum of not £6000 – not £600 – but £60 per year. The serious money goes towards means-tested bursaries that top up these awards to as much as 100 per cent of fees.

Britain’s public schools, so long the symbol of privilege, have in effect thrown down the drawbridge and opened their doors open to any child clever or talented enough to excel on the entrance criteria. True, the number of free or heavily subsidised places these schools can currently fund is limited, but the principle is there, and all of these schools are working hard to expand the bursary kitty.

Who could fault it? Bringing in children from a range of backgrounds is a win/win situation: Artful Dodgers rubbing shoulders with Little Lord Fauntleroys. For many schools, it is simply a return to their roots when they began as charitable foundations on the largesse of a wealthy merchant’s bequest.

The university "black hole" when it comes to places. How do you feel?

Have you just taken your A levels? Do you feel cheated by the news that there is a huge "black hole" when it comes to university places this year? After all, there have been warnings about this for months.

In the middle of a recession, despite advice from some that university isn't the answer, it can seem as if university is the safest place to be (as long as you're not graduating and trying to find a job). But there are clearly huge problems afoot. Funding has fallen, while demand has risen. Students are being bombarded with confusing messages - from being encouraged to live at home to being told how important it is that they continue their studies. Er, without any places?

As Director General of The Russell Group of Universities, Dr Wendy Piatt, said today:
“Unfortunately the sudden clampdown on student numbers this year means it is likely that Russell Group universities may have to make fewer offers in heavily over-subscribed courses and students who just miss out on their grades are probably less likely to be accepted than in previous years.

“However, it is essential that any potential increase in student numbers is funded in a sustainable way that will not create difficulties for UK universities in the longer term.  For example, if the amount of funding per student was cut, or money was diverted from another area of core funding, it would inevitably sacrifice the quality of the student experience and, as a result, the world-class reputation of UK higher education.”

I'd like to know your stories, about how you feel, if you blame anyone and what you think should be done. After all, this is your future we're talking about. And, some would say it's the country's future too. And doesn't the government mind that they may be losing a generation of voters?

See the rise in applications

Read School Gate:

Is there any point going to university if you can't get a job afterwards

The credit crunch hits - will more students live at home?

Kate Winslet, social class and why working class kids need proper financial assistance

Would you send your child to Hogwarts?

Well, with the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this seems a topical question. It's also one which I'm guessing many Harry Potter readers will have asked themselves over the years. Your kids may love the idea of going (all that excitement, albeit with perhaps rather too much death and destruction), but I'm not convinced I'd send my children to Hogwarts (that's if they turned out to be talented muggles). Not only is it too dangerous, but what on earth would they learn there?!

In this essay by Steve Vander Ark, the consensus seems very much to be no, don't educate your children with Harry and co. After all, as he writes, the children really don't learn much, and the teachers do not treat their students well. He's right, isn't he? I don't recall much maths, foreign languages (although, of course they're no longer compulsory at secondary school in the real world either) or PHSE. Surely Hermione would love to read some English literature, whether a little bit of Forster (I think this would tickle her fancy) or something more challenging (the metaphysical poets?). Instead she's stuck with potion making, fighting off evil and learning magic. Hermione, Harry and friends also come up against so many truly terrible teachers (would Dolores Umbridge or Severus Snape be licensed to teach?)

The genius behind Elmer, Not Now Bernard and Mr Benn. School Gate talks to David McKee

Courtesy of the new Children's Laureate, Anthony Browne, it looks as if picture books are back in vogue. And today I'm delighted to have spoken to one superb picture book author, David McKee, a man who says the "air is full of stories!"

Some authors know just how to capture a child's imagination, and, often through one character, they create something particularly special. David McKee, however, has managed to do this with at least two, Mr Benn and Elmer. He's also managed to remain very modest about it all.

For those of a certain age, it's Mr Benn who will evoke the greatest memories (the clip of this introduction to the show on You Tube has had over 200,000 views!), and McKee is clearly proud of his old creation. "It was traditional, but fairly strong," he says. "The concept happened to be right." He also adds that he had always hated "those stories when it all turned out to be a dream." Mr Benn, it's clear, does go to all the places we see on screen (or read in the books). After all, once the shopkeeper appears, Mr Benn always has a souvenir.

But David McKee hadn't intended to become a children's book writer, or, in fact an artist, even thought he had always loved art. He did join Plymouth Art College after school, but says that his plan, "was to avoid work."

He started selling cartoons to newspapers and magazines before he left college, and thought about becoming a teacher. The inspiration for his writing was a book called Crocodile Tears by Andre Francois, and his first book was called Two Can Toucan (which was recently reissued). Elmer came much later, firstly with a publisher called Dobson, in 1968, and then, 20 years ago, with Andersen.

Many parents of young children will know McKee's books, and not just because of Elmer. My daughter used to laugh and laugh at the insults contained in the Two Monsters (McKee says children used to ring him, just to insult him!), and was also very tickled by Not Now Bernard. My son, however, has always loved Elmer. My husband and I are fans of pretty much all of them.

Want a good degree outside the "golden triangle"? Here are some tips for other universities which are good choices for the most popular subjects....

Universities are in the news constantly these days. If it's not concerns about the lack of places, then it's the cost of going, or even whether it's worth studying at all.

But if you are looking to apply to university, then you will, I'm pretty sure, be overwhelmed by the choices on offer. Well, School Gate is here to help, and particularly to offer you some tips about other good universities where you can study popular subjects. As the Good University Guide's John O’Leary says, "a good degree (especially a first) from a university with a strong reputation in your subject may be worth more than a mediocre result at a supposedly prestigious institution."

Here's more from John to enlighten you.

"There is no easy route into one of the top universities, particularly in popular subjects such as law or medicine. At first sight, assuming you take the right A levels (maths and physics), there is almost a 50/50 chance of a place in materials science at Oxford. But the competition will all have at least three As – and want to study materials science.

Classics was an even better bet at Cambridge last year, with only 158 applicants, 81 of whom got in. But that just serves to underline the point that the number of applications per place is not a reliable guide to the level of competition: classicists at Cambridge averaged 518 points at entry in 2007 – the equivalent of four As at A level, with an AS level on top.

Most of the top universities have some courses that are not heavily oversubscribed. Bristol - which has 11 applications per place, a ratio exceeded only by the London School of Economics - was in clearing for audiology last summer, for example. But such courses tend to be in areas such as modern languages or engineering, which require particular qualifications. And what would be the point of spending at least three years studying a subject that did not interest you?

The only conceivable reason would be to have a degree from a university that will impress future employers. And it is true that many employers are more interested in the university that a graduate attended than the degree he or she took there.

But in fields of employment that make direct use of the knowledge acquired during a degree course, employers are equally aware of top performers outside the ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London. The subject tables in The Times Good University Guide include numerous examples of comparatively lowly-ranked institutions with consistently good employment records in specialist fields.

Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, for instance (which you can see above), has had the best graduate employment figures for accountancy and finance in the last three guides, while Bangor is the only university in the current guide to register full employment in art and design – subjects with notoriously uncertain early career prospects.

Should cameras be banned on sports day?

It's sunny, impossibly hot, and not the weather for anyone to be running around like a maniac outside. Surely that must mean it's Sports Day...

Last year, a guest post on non-competitive sports days certainly captured your imagination (go ahead, read it again and sigh for those of us with this sports day experience). This year, another guest post, from Kim Thomas, asks whether parents should be allowed to take pictures of their little darlings winning or losing (that's if any competition's allowed.....)

Over to Kim:

"It’s that time of year again. Children of all ages are gathering outside in the baking heat to see who can run the fastest, jump the highest, or simply make their way around a “non-competitive” obstacle course.
Many parents enjoy seeing their children compete and like to keep a record of the occasion, either by taking still photographs or video footage. What better way to let Aunt Daisy in Australia know how young Benjamin is doing than emailing her a photo of him coming third in the 20m sprint?

But this longstanding tradition may be coming to an end. Some schools – there are no figures on how many – have banned cameras from Sports Day, just as they have banned them from the nativity play and the summer show.

Understandably, some parents are upset at the ban. It feels like another example of “political correctness” gone mad. After all, they argue, how many paedophiles are going to want to pore over footage of children running the egg-and-spoon race?

Film rentals go up - in line with exam texts! Which are your favourite adaptations?

Public exams don't normally include film stars, but this year's students have turned to actors including Leonardo Di Caprio, Ian McKellen and the late Natasha Richardson for inspiration. New research reveals that demand for film adaptations of English Literature set texts rose by almost fifty percent during the summer exam period.

Film adaptations of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (an A level text this year) starring Natasha Richardson, King Lear starring Ian McKellen, and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet were the most rented titles; increasing by 624 per cent, 271 per cent and 270 per cent respectively.

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo and Juliet (on many GCSE papers), which starred Leonardo Di Caprio and Clare Danes (whom you can see above) as the star-crossed lovers, saw a 65 per cent increase in demand. It was followed by 1961 war film The Long and the Short and the Tall - an adaptation of Willis Hall's 1958 play, which increased by 30 per cent.

LOVEFiLM.com compared rental figures of film versions of this year's GCSE and AS/A-Level English Literature set texts before and after the summer exam period. You can see the list below.

But Ian McNeilly, Director of the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) warned that although he is happy for his students to watch film adaptations of set texts, they mustn't rely on them too much.

"They have to be complementary and not relied upon as primary material," he said.

Mr McNeilly said that he often has pupils mentioning films in English literature essays - they will write about a particular scene, for example, even though it isn't actually in the text. The danger, of course, is that students will not bother to read a book properly or in great depth, and instead concentrate on their interpretation of a more easily-understandable film.

"The film's obviously had an impact," said Mr McNeilly. "But you need to sideline that and talk about the novel. The danger is that a weak candidate may struggle with a book, rely on the film and write about that instead. It's only a small minority of students, but it can happen."

The new "licence to teach" - what does it mean and is it good or bad for teachers, parents and schools?

Much of today's education White Paper had been trailed in the press. Journalists, teachers and unions, weren't expecting any surprises, but Ed Balls managed to surprise them anyway. Within all the other announcements of report cards and personal tuition for failing pupils, he added, James Bond style, that teachers would soon be "licenced to teach". Those who fail will have to leave the profession.

The instant reaction to this could be summed up, Report Card-style like this:

Parents' view:
Good: it should get rid of poor teachers and increase accountability
Bad: it may not happen considering that there will soon be a new government, especially as Michael Gove, the Shadow education secretary has said he is not in favour.
Bad: how much will it cost? will it divert money and attention from other educational areas?

Teachers' view:
Good: it should get rid of the bad teachers who give good teachers a bad name
Good: more training and development for teachers
Good: higher "status" for teachers (will this really put them on a par with doctor and lawyers, as the NASUWT seem to hope? Chris Keates, the General Secretary said: "a licence to teach could have merit if it helps to emphasise to the public that teaching is a highly skilled profession for which years of training is required.")
Bad: more bureaucracy and more tasks for headteachers to add to their lists (Michael Gove chose this argument, saying: "Instead of real steps to improve teaching, such as giving heads the power to pay bonuses to specialist teachers or reforming teacher training, Ed Balls proposes yet another huge bureaucratic measure that will cost a fortune and cause all sorts of problems. We don't support it.”)
Bad: many teachers don't like the General Teaching Council, who will be running this scheme.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Families and Schools was keen to explain more about the licence and what it means, although he added (unsurprisingly) that the detail was "still to be worked out."

Still, here's what we do know:
The idea is that the licence will be launched next year, starting in September 2010, and that it will cover newly qualified teachers (who teach children aged 5 to 16). It will then be phased in across the profession, first to teachers returning to the profession after a career break, then to supply teachers, and then rolled out to everyone. It will be under the auspices of the General Teaching Council ("about time they were given something to do" snorted one teacher I spoke to), but will basically be run by headteachers. It won't cover teachers in private schools.

As it grows increasingly hard to get a place at a British university, have you thought about studying in the USA?

The deadline for university applications is today, and demand this year is thought to have surged hugely - despite there being few extra places. Students are being warned that entry criteria will be more strictly adhered to this year, with those dropped grades mattering more than usual. And as the Times has reported,it also looks as if there will be far fewer places available through clearing,

But while many students are worrying about their prospects here, others are taking a different route. The number of Britain’s most able pupils looking to American universities is rising as the battle for places at Oxbridge and other top universities grows increasingly bloody.

Janette Wallis, an editor at the Good Schools Guide explains more:

"The Times recently profiled the case of Jack Harman, 19, who attended top independent King’s College School, Wimbledon. He was predicted to gain three As at A-level, but was rejected by all five British universities to which he applied to read history - Oxford, Edinburgh, York, Warwick and King’s College London. He will now study in the USA instead.

And he’s not the only one. "Once you’ve seen what’s on offer in America,” says Cambridge student and American-Brit John Wallis, who is working on an expanded version of the Good Schools Guide’s best-selling guide to American universities, Uni in the USA, “you may never look at a UCAS form again. Remember – 37 of the top 100 universities in the world are in the USA.”

John is spending three months criss-crossing the States via Greyhound bus, “couch surfing”, visiting colleges and universities and sampling the best that American higher education has to offer. The resulting reviews of American universities – all written from the student’s point of view – are aimed at British pupils who are curious about what American education has to offer.

His most avid readers are pupils from independent schools who, like Jack Harman, are feeling particularly vulnerable to university admissions trends here in the UK. Admissions to Cambridge for the current academic year saw the percentage of independent school acceptances drop to a 27-year low. Private schools entries were down at Oxford too, with numbers the lowest in six years.

Kids at state grammars and high achieving comprehensives should be just as worried. Durham University wrote to schools this year explaining its GCSE weighting system that gives preference to pupils from low-achieving schools, regardless of individual circumstances. Oxford and Cambridge use similar formulas.

What's the point of learning Latin and Greek at school (a pupil asks)?

A few weeks ago I posted a Classical Education quiz, which seemed to be enjoyed by many. The hook was a new book by Caroline McTaggart, a great classics enthusiast.

But Fleur - who's a school pupil - has contacted me to ask whether it really is worth studying Latin, particularly, she says, as you'll "never use it."

"At school, I study Latin, and I ask myself every year why on earth I put myself through all the hard work and stress" she writes. "So my question is: would you carry on even though it brings you nothing in the end (except knowledge)?"
 
It's a fine question, not just about classics, but about so many things, which bring you "only" knowledge. I love to find out about new things, so knowledge is probably good enough for me. But when you're studying lots of different subjects and trying to work out what's the most useful, then it takes on a different slant. I studied Latin at school, and, despite being told how useful it would be to me, I can't say I've found that to be true. How about you?

Read School Gate:

Take our classical quiz

Should children learn the Bible throughout school?

Siobhan Curious on how to save your teaching career - face your fears....

Canadian teacher Siobhan Curious has recently been treating School Gate visitors to a series of guest posts (you can see them below). Here's the next in her series on how she saved her teaching career and it's a real goodie. It's entitled Facing Your Fears something we all have to do at some point in our careers/lives....

"When I first started teaching, I was scared.  Terrified, in fact. 

I’d taken a job as a Second Language Monitor – a sort of assistant language teacher – in a small elementary school in Ottawa, where I was finishing my bachelor’s degree.  I’d never had any intention of becoming a teacher, but this was a well-paid part-time government job that would look excellent on a CV and that was designed for university students, leaving time for their studies. 

I had terrible stage fright.  But I told myself it was just a job, and if I was no good at it, I could quit.

As it turned out, I was good at it.  My fear turned to delight.  Not only did I not quit, but when my contract ran out in April, I stayed on until June as a volunteer, coming in to the school five days a week when I could.

Since then, the stages of my teaching career have all been touched by fear. 

1. I moved to a small town in Quebec to work full-time as a Language Monitor.  I was afraid I’d be lonely, but my job consumed me and I had no time for loneliness. 

2. While doing my education degree, I took an internship in a school for disadvantaged students.  I went to work every day terrified of the chaos that was bound to happen.  It did happen, but I survived, and at the end of my stage the students gave me a list of pointers on being a better teacher (“Be more strict!”  “Don’t take any crap!”) 

3. I took a job giving private English lessons in offices all over Montreal.  I was nervous about navigating public transit to distant areas of the city.  In the process, I got to see places I might never have travelled to otherwise. 

4. I moved to Japan to teach junior high school; I spent every day worried about some unfamiliar task I would need to accomplish.  I learned more there than at any other time in my life.

5. Before I began teaching CEGEP, I worked as a substitute public school teacher.  Many days I woke up petrified of what was in store: a school I’d never been to, in a part of the city I’d never visited, with students who believed that giving me hell was their responsibility.  I told myself, “It’s good to do things that scare me.”  And some days were terrible, but I always learned something.

At first, teaching CEGEP didn’t scare me.  I had a lot of teaching experience.  I was excited about teaching literature after all these years of focusing on ESL.  I found my young adult students interesting, and enjoyed being around them. 

But as the years passed and I became more and more tired and unhappy, I realized that I was becoming afraid of walking into the classroom.

Why you shouldn't go to university

New research suggests that half of full-time students set to graduate this summer are seriously considering postgrad options. This is especially popular with those at Russell Group or other older universities, where, according to Opinionpanel Research, almost a third of final year students have applied for more study.

One major cause of this is the recession. And the reasons are not just the sheer lack of jobs for graduating students, but also because the students surveyed thought that the lack of sufficient graduate jobs meant there was more need to "stand out from the crowd." In fact, the research also suggests (as seen in other surveys elsewhere), that final year students are having a very hard time, and are seriously rethinking their plans. Many say they would consider part-time or non-graduate-level roles.

It's not a pretty picture for students, and Tom Mursell (whom you can see above) could be forgiven if he had a wry smile. The 19-year-old decided not to go to university, and has set up his own website. notgoingtouni.com, to encourage others to follow his path. Here he explains why.....

"Just over a year ago I remember visiting a careers adviser in my local careers centre and telling him I’d decided I didn’t think uni was for me at this stage. However, I didn’t know what my options were.

“Well what is it you see yourself doing in a few years time?” he asked. And, like a lot of young people I didn’t have a clue. The only difference with me was that I had decided not to go to uni.

I finally told the adviser that I thought a managerial position would suit me (a family friend was doing a retail management course) and I was met with a patronising talk about how there are different types of managers. This was probably the most careers advice I got face-to-face during college or at least advice which didn’t involve talking about University courses.

One evening I was looking for jobs online, still not knowing what I wanted to do, and stumbled across a trainee legal position. The prospect of earning whilst studying to become a solicitor excited me, not least because of my interest in Law. I then found similar training positions in different industries; companies offering a salary and the chance to gain a qualification at the same time. At some stage my inner-entrepreneur came into play after finding all these opportunities yet no single place to find them together.
I decided to set up notgoingtouni.co.uk, a website for school and college leavers which offered everything outside of University - "the advice and jobs you probably didn’t know about"!

Where are the parent volunteers in school? Do working mums volunteer more?

Oh yes, I am expecting (figuratively, I hope) to be lynched for this, but it's been on my mind, so I'm going to say it. Where are the school parent volunteers, why do so many mums and dads assume that "someone else" will always get involved, and why are most of the helpers parents who also have jobs?

Two calls have just come out from our class. One was for volunteers to be the class representatives for next year. The other was for people to volunteer to man the stall at the school fete (and not fate, as it was so brilliantly written on our last school missive). There was a short flurry of replies on the school fete front - many on "reply all" for some reason (why? so that we can see how brilliant they are to agree to give up half an hour of their time?). Only I volunteered to be class rep.

Our school has three parent volunteers per class. That means 9 parents have already been reps since we started in Reception. But with 30 children in a class, that leaves 21 parents (in fact, 42 if you include the dads, although we are still awaiting our first male volunteer) still to join in. So why was I the only person to put her head above the parapet? It's not as if I have masses of spare time. I simply think we should all get involved, and, as I'm just coming to the end of a two year stint as chair of my son's nursery, it seemed like a good time. I also don't get why so many parents think that someone else will pick up the slack if they remain quiet.

Oh yes, and this is the bit I'll get lynched for. Of all the parent reps we've had so far, only one didn't work. The others all worked either full or part-time. Is it true that, as a fellow parent said to me yesterday, if you want something done, ask someone busy because they'll just keep on taking on more stuff.

We were talking about the mothers in the class who have all their children at school but don't work. Two mums (who work but have done their fair share of school volunteering) said that they too had noticed that the mums who helped were usually the ones who worked. Why, we wondered (and yes, I am lumping a lot of people together here) don't the non-working mums seem to volunteer for school activities? Why don't they come and help set up events beforehand? Why are they so quiet when it comes to helping? And was it guilt which made the working ones get more involved?

Another mother (and good friend, who doesn't work) got irritated and said that we shouldn't assume that we know what's going on in someone's life. I agreed with her then - and didn't want her to get angrier - but actually I now wish I'd pressed her on what she actually meant. When I asked a couple of other mums to volunteer with me next year, I picked ones who worked, not ones who don't (I didn't want to make those assumptions). But I'm not sure why I did this. Was it because I assumed that the others, who never seem to get involved, would suddenly agree? Was it because I couldn't face them giving me an excuse which I might not really agree with? Was it because I find it irritating that they happily go along to all the (day-time) school activities and look down upon some of the working parents who can't do so, but don't actually take on any of the less appealing stuff?

There are some questions which seem unaskable. You can't ask a SAHM what she does all day - somehow it isn't acceptable. But I'd like to know - in case it just so happens that it really would preclude them from doing some of the less attractive school activities.

Update: Please note that I did not mean this to descend into a stay at home against working mum argument - I've read all that before, and honestly believe that if you are lucky enough to have the choice of whether to stay at home or work after having children, then that's your personal decision. I would like to say, however, that I don't "envy" stay at home mothers (as one comment-er claimed) as I enjoy my balance between part-time working and being at home. But that too, is personal.
I was talking about a very specific issue, and one which, for all I knew, was completely different at other schools (and I've found it interesting that, clearly, it is different elsewhere). At my school gate, this has come up again and again, but I'm always interested in other school gate experiences as well.
The comments on school PTA's/PAs are very interesting. I don't find this clique-y atmosphere at our school, but maybe we are lucky. Perhaps those involved with these organisations should take note.
I do think the dad (Julian) who mentioned his first Reception meeting and all those parents who knew each other was onto something. Many probably do know each other via older children - perhaps they should think about being more welcoming to parents who have their first child starting.
And to clear up three other points.
1) I don't necessarily mean volunteering in the day, to help with reading etc. I was actually thinking more of helping out setting things up at weekends or ringing round parents/emailing with school information (class suppers etc, trying to sell tickets to class events, collecting for teacher presents etc). At least, that's what our parent "reps" do. It's not thrilling, but it's useful.
2) When I wrote this - "Was it because I find it irritating that they happily go along to all the (day-time) school activities and look down upon some of the working parents who can't do so, but don't actually take on any of the less appealing stuff?" - I did not mean that these SAHM help/volunteer with day-time activities. I meant that they are able to go along to concerts/sports days etc which can be quite difficult if you work. It's a turning up to watch thing, not a helping thing....(and, Rachel, the parents in our class, whether they have jobs or not, are desperate to go on school trips. But that's one for another post..)
3) And finally, to all those people saying "volunteering should be voluntary". Well, yes, but if no one does it, then we do have a problem - and we shouldn't always rely on the same people to step up to the mark, should we?

Read School Gate:

Should children be grouped by ability in class?

End of year events and working parent guilt

Here's one way to tackle children in danger of being excluded...

Following the news today about expulsion and young children, Angela Sarkis CEO of The Nurture Group Network, has contacted me to express her views. Angela is a very impressive lady, whose organisation does some remarkable work helping children with emotional and behavioural difficulties to be successfully included in mainstream schools. She knows what she is talking about...

Here is what she had to say:

“We should not be excluding any 3 and 4 year olds from schools.  Even one exclusion is a failure. Exclusion is not the answer at all, the answer is early identification of children who need support. Research shows that exclusions are reduced in local authorities with nurture groups.

Ofsted published a report today looking at exclusions for primary school children aged 4 – 7 years.  Speaking on Radio 5 this morning The Director of Education at Ofsted (Miriam Rosen) said that their report showed that the approaches that worked are ones based on valuing children, and nurture groups are one of the strategies that deliver results.

Nurture groups work with children with social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, who are often extremely challenging. These children are at high risk of exclusion.  In 2006 3,750 children aged four and five received a fixed term exclusion (figures provided by DCSF).  Nurture groups allow children to build a relationship with the adults in a setting in which they will be able to learn developmentally appropriate behaviour, allowing them to progress socially and academically both in and out of school.    

In his recent report Sir Alan Steer said that “Head Teachers report Nurture Groups can be important in supporting pupils who display poor behaviour, and recognised the importance of early intervention in raising behaviour standards in schools.  He recommended that the DCSF undertake an assessment of the impact of nurture groups in areas of high deprivation. 

Nurture groups are increasingly gathering government support. In Parliament this month Jamie Reed MP said that, having recently visited nurture groups in his constituency, “I can say without exaggeration that I have never been as moved or convinced by the need for any public service”.  Diana Johnson (Government Minister for Education said during an adjournment debate that she would be delighted to meet the Nurture Group Network, and that the department would act on all of Sir Steers recommendations.

Jillian Hyde is Head Teacher of Ince Primary school in Wigan, set in a an area of high deprivation.  They’ve run a nurture group, called Seasons, for a number of years. Jillian is a big supporter of Nurture Groups and knows first hand the effect they have on pupils, families, teachers and schools.  Before the Nurture Group began behaviour was a real problem in the school.  Since setting up Seasons this has changed completely. 

The school was recently visited by local authority officers.  Their report said “Children are undoubtedly the greatest advocates of the school and its teachers.  Their behaviour was at all times exemplary and a testimony to the pastoral care of the school.  The Seasons room, Circle time and PHSE were spoken of by the children as being wonderful”. 

I hope to write more on Nurture groups in the future, but what Angela has to say is food for thought - she doesn't want anyone to give up on these children.

Read School Gate:

How should schools deal with disruptive kids? Tell us your experiences

How dangerous are the under 5's?

The ups and downs, the joys and tears of the Spelling Bee - not to mention all those boys.....

I attended the final of the Spelling Bee yesterday and was very impressed by the 11 and 12 year olds who took part. But I found the whole experience rather more emotional than I was expecting. It was so tense waiting for a child to spell a word he or she obviously hadn't heard of before, or when there was a long pause between them being given a word and starting to spell it. When the first girl got a word wrong I had a real lump in my throat. It increased when she began to, very quietly, cry.

But, although there may have been some tears - and anger - there was also some humour to the afternoon. I couldn't resist Samyat Jain, from the Bishops Buzzers whose personality came across even though all he was doing was spelling (very fast at one point). In fact, he was only defeated in the first part by phaeton (he tried "pheton"). Tall, dark Samuel Harrison from Fairwaters Got Talent was another favourite, especially as he glanced into the audience and smiled at someone (who? his mum/dad or teacher?) each time he got a question right. And Opal Bonfante who presented the Bee also had some great lines. Aiming to calm children down when they made mistakes, she would say "lots of it was right" or "not quite." But I think my favourite was "a couple of bits were wrong, but most of it was right." Tell that to the teacher...

There has been a lot of coverage of the final in today's paper, and I don't want to repeat it. However, there are a few things I would like to write.

Firstly, I wanted to congratulate Elliott Harman from the Buzzing Brightonians who was the last man standing in the first part of the Bee. He did remarkably well to keep on going, even though his school didn't make the top three in the end.

How should schools deal with disruptive kids? Tell us your experiences?

In today's Times you can read about how different schools deal with difficult and disruptive pupils and of a new Ofsted report which contains some very wise, and some might say, obvious, information.

The new report is concerned with young children (under 7) and says that the school's attitude is key. Crucially it points out that children know how to behave well. What schools therefore need is guidance and support and a range of strategies to deal with problem behaviour (which usually has a root cause, often stemming from circumstances at home). That way they can help the children to change, and these young kids won't get labelled/expelled or find their lives irreparably damaged before they've even gone into the juniors.

A few months ago I asked "how dangerous are the under 5's?" This was following the publication of statistics showing that many children of this very young age were being excluded from school or nursery.

Much of what I wrote then is relevant now, with these slightly older children. "These young children, and their parents, need help and support, before it all spirals out of control. The children themselves are not solely responsible for their actions." Ofsted clearly sees this too, but schools/teachers, parents and local authorities all need to work together to help children before it's too late. And that means emotional and financial support and, in many cases, a new attitude.

Let School Gate know what you think of the behaviour of young children? Is it worse then in your day or are you just wearing rose-tinted glasses? Are you concerned about your children or did you receive valuable help when you were having problems? Many School Gate parents may be far more concerned about their children not mixing with disruptive and difficult pupils and simply want them removed. Is that really a solution for society as a whole?

I'd be really interested to know your stories.

Update: read School Gate's latest post on one way to deal with difficult children...

Read School Gate:

How dangerous are the under-5s?

Is setting by ability the best way to teach?

The thorny issue of expulsions

A young, single, pregnant college student chooses her graduate programme over her baby...

I was very taken by this post on the New York Times Motherlode Blog. The blog's author, Lisa Belkin, had received an email from a young college graduate who was looking for advice. Aged 22, single and pregnant, she couldn't decide what to do next.

Lisa Belkin chose to publish the whole of the email from the young woman in question (Emmie) and ask readers for their advice. Emmie was hoping for guidance, on whether she should keep the baby, have it adopted or terminate the pregnancy. As she said: 

"I’m a 22-year-old college graduate who is about to begin graduate studies at one of the most prestigious and difficult universities in the world. I’m looking at a February delivery — right in the middle of classwork — and by the time I finish my first year, I’ll have a 3-month old. When I start my second year, I’ll have a 6-month old and by the time I finish my program and start looking for a job, I’ll be a 24-year-old single mom.

I’ve recently moved to a new city, three hours away from my friends and family, and I’m looking at a very lonely pregnancy. I know I’ll have very little help and, especially since you write so often about mothers that need help every so often, that worries me."

Emmie also worried about the lack of support from the baby's father and was utterly torn.

"Do I really want to have a baby at 22? Do I really want to have this guy’s child? Can I finish my master’s and raise a newborn? Can I do it alone? Will I be happy?"

She asked for advice, and she received it. There were over 700 comments on the piece, many supportive, but many aggressive too. Howeer, it had to be Emmie's decision, and it was.

Encouraging reading - more recommended books for boys, plus INSET days at the Roald Dahl museum...

As regular School Gate visitors will know, I am a big fan of books and encouraging children to read. I've recently come across a few goodies, which I think I'll share with you......

Firstly, The Jags books, which are published by educational publishers Rising Stars. These books are aimed at what the publishers call "reluctant boy readers" (of which there are, sadly, many). I passed some on to two boys, one aged six and one aged 7 and both announced themselves fans, which was a pretty good response. The books - part of a series -  are about football, laid out in a very simple to read fashion (like a play-script) and include non-fiction quizzes and jokes too. I have a feeling that they would work well in a classroom setting (teachers, take note) and have to admit that I was impressed. They aren't high art, but I don't think that was the aim....

I passed another book, The Fix, by Sophie McKenzie, onto another boy I know, who's very bright, but dyslexic, so he finds reading particularly hard. This book is published by Barrington Stoke, who are known for bringing out good, engaging, but not boring books aimed at those who find reading a little harder than normal. He loved the book - and his mum was thrilled.

On a different note, as you may have read a few weeks ago, I was very impressed by my recent visit to the Roald Dahl museum. Now I have found out that the clever people who run the place are piloting some INSET training days. The first is planned for Thursday 2nd July, and includes sessions with literacy and children's books expert Prue Goodwin, Museum Director Amelia Foster (formerly Reading Connects manager at the National Literacy Trust) and the museum's very own Storyteller in Residence, Sarah Mooney.

A while back I ran a piece by a teacher who bemoaned the uninspired, and (let's be honest) useless Inset days at his school. This, on the other hand, sounds as if it could genuinely be useful with sessions including creative writing and storytelling. Parents, why not mention it to your teachers, and teachers, why not mention it to your heads?!

Read School Gate:

The books which boys should read - even if they don't like reading

Books for older boy readers

Do boys need boys' schools?

Why we loved the Roald Dahl museum (and the man's books!)

Which children's book inspired you?

Memories of a Spelling Bee - and the moment where one brilliant speller lost her nerve....

Next Tuesday it's the final of the Times Spelling Bee, the first national spelling championship for schools. Ten teams (out of the 784 who took part) are now competing for the title of The Times Spelling Bee Champions and it's sure to be a tense, nerve-wracking day. That's for teachers, parents and children alike!

Spelling Bees are something quite new to the UK, although they have been running for years in the US (the brilliant documentary Spellbound is well worth a look if you haven't seen it before). One major (and humane) difference between the Times Spelling Bee and most American ones is that the Times works via a team performance, rather than resting entirely on an individual. At least the participants get some moral support from their team members.

My friend and colleague Jennifer Howze, editor of Alphamummy, grew up in America, and has vivid memories of the Spelling Bees from her childhood. Here she explains how she put friendship over winning at one particular Spelling Bee: she's never forgotten it...

"Every year the thin, stapled Spelling Bee book was the same. Every year I vowed to memorise the entire thing, to claim the top Spelling Bee prize, to become a star of stage and screen on the basis of my early Bee success. This was somewhat compromised by the fact that every year I opened it to the first page (why not start in the middle? Because I was that kind of child). I would begin testing myself (abate, abut, abustle…) and be watching the The Brady Brunch by the time I got to "crevasse". 

Spelling was a big thing in my school in small-town West Texas. Not because my school was particularly academic or brainy (did I mention it was in West Texas?). Rather the Bee was a school-year ritual, like the annual sports "play day" and the visit to the hot-dog-bun factory. Studying the Bee conferred special privileges: teachers let you let you out of geography to study in a group in a separate classroom. You got special credit, special attention. And on the day of the big Spelling Bee final you were part of the school-wide bustle, gathering with the other contenders early and finally taking your turn at the microphone in the cafeteria in front of the whole school. It was rock stardom for the literally precise.

Getting to know you: Governesses are back in demand....

Earlier this week I watched, entranced, as the King of Siam employed an English woman, Anna, to be governess to his children. The governess, a widow, was a school teacher in search of a different life. She certainly found it.
You've probably guessed that the story I was watching, was just that, a story. It was, in fact, a new production of the King and I, at London's Albert Hall, and I found it incredibly moving. The songs were great, the sets were sumptuous and the kids were, of course, very cute.
The show, however, is obviously dated - not least in its theme of England bringing its "civilising" influence to the Far East. And yet one aspect of it is, apparently, not dated at all - the idea of governesses.
"It's a growing trend," Lynn Morris, from Beauchamp Nannies, told me. "Demand has very much gone up."
Many nanny agencies now include governesses among their services, sometimes in addition to a nanny, mother's help or au pair. It sounds strange, because the concept of a governess seems so dated - Jane Eyre was one, after all, and that was in the mid 19th century.
But an increasing number of families are asking for experts to help teach their children. And according to Lynn Morris, the majority of the governesses are, like Anna, women. "Most of them are teachers fed up with the education system and looking for private work," she says.

Do our children need better furniture to help their school experience?

A few weeks ago I went to visit some furniture makers. You may think that doesn't sound like a very exciting, or educational, trip. But you'd be wrong.

The people I visited were called Isis and they make really remarkable tables, chairs and other furniture for schools. They claim to make furniture to "support and inspire learning" and although that may sound like PR speak, I have to admit that I was impressed. In fact, my visit was enough to persuade me that the right furniture (or a change in furniture) can make a real difference to the way children learn, and teachers teach.

Changes in the curriculum mean that IT is becoming ubiquitous and Isis is producing furniture for a 21st century classroom: it was the flexibility of the items that really made an impression on me. Our children tend to be stuck in classrooms produced more than a generation ago, with uncomfortable chairs and inflexible arrangements (eg all facing the board) simply because that's the way it's always been done. This should probably change, and Isis has a wealth of solutions. The problem, of course, is cost. This furniture is more expensive than average (probably because it's not average).

Isis moved into making furniture for schools by chance. They were asked to develop a desk which could contain a flatscreen computer for a library at Oxford University. They came up with the Flipscreen, a big success.

James Clarke, the head of consultancy at Isis (and a school governor to boot), and Nick Topliss (managing director) then researched the education market more fully and realised they had found their niche.

"Schools are changing," says James, whose enthusiasm for the products is palpable. "Computers shouldn't just be in the 'computer room', they should be used throughout different lessons. We give that option."

Academic phrases - translated...

Sometimes we all need a little help understanding academic speak. So for those struggling to understand your professors, this may help, courtesy of The Student Affairs Blog.

Let's start with:

1) "In my experience..."   (Once.)

2) "In case after case..."   (Twice.)

3) "In a series of cases..."   (Thrice.)

Go on to...

"It is believed that..."   (I think.)

Make it crystal clear with:

"It is generally believed..."   (A couple of others think so, too.)

"Correct within an Order of Magnitude..."   (Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.)

"It has long been known..."   (I didn't look up the original reference.)

And my favourites:

"Three of the examples were chosen for detailed study..."   (The other results didn't make sense.)

"Typical results are shown below..."   (This one made the prettiest bar chart.)

"A highly significant area for exploratory study..."   (A totally useless topic selected by my academic degree committee)

"Additional study will be required for a more complete understanding of this phenomenon..."   (I didn't understand this, and probably never will.)

Take a look at the blog for more examples...

Now, how you do feel? All set for university......

Read School Gate:

Phrases teachers can say without being fired

The 25 best exam blunders

The best excuses for missing school

Should SATs be taken in secondary school?

Michael Gove has announced what the NUT (shock, horror) described as an "imaginative proposal". What it comes down to is this, that instead of children taking national curriculum tests (or SATs, as we are not supposed to call them) in the last year of primary school, they will take them in the first year of secondary school.

My immediate reaction to this was that it sounded like a good idea. Too often I hear teachers - and parents - complaining that their children's final year of primary school is a real disappointment because they spend so much of the year being prepped for these Key Stage 2 tests. And, before anyone suggests otherwise, these tests are important, possibly more to the school than the child. After all, they are the mainstay of league tables.

Secondary school teachers, however, often complain that the SATs don't give a good idea of a child's capabilities and that they have to carry out more testing in Year 7. Doesn't this make Michael Gove's plan sound very sensible? It takes away the pain of the last year at primary school, allowing children, and teachers, some freedom to learn and maybe even have some fun. And it means that secondary schools don't need to duplicate the tests. 

But of course, without more information readily to hand (or readily being released), there do seem to be some problems. One is whether secondary school teachers would be happy to carry out all this assessment - it's a lot of extra work - and two is how the statistics get fed back to the primary schools in question to make up tables. It sounds like a bit of an administrative nightmare (though that's not enough to say it shouldn't happen), and although they complain about their children having to take these tests, many parents also (and yes, they are sort of contradicting themselves), do like league tables and use them when choosing schools. I'm also unclear why having the tests in secondary school would mean that primary schools would feel "off the hook". Perhaps they would feel an even stronger urge to prepare their pupils for the tests, as their school will still be judged by the results.

On another note, when will these tests actually happen, and how will secondary school teachers evaluate their new pupils before they have any results? I imagine this would probably be via teacher assessment, which is no bad thing. Perhaps we are actually going back to a time when teachers' opinions are taken more seriously.

I find it very interesting how everyone is so neurotic about schools these days. My feeling is that many are much better than they used to be, but that those improvements have sparked off a kind of neurosis in millions of people. Perhaps this is because there is so much more information available. I went to a very poor primary school, but there were no league tables then and my parents seemed singularly un-bothered by the fact that I wasn't learning a great detail. I was lucky - I picked up a lot at home, and also had one brilliant teacher in my final year. I also had a great time and still look back very fondly on those days.

Please let me know your thoughts, especially if you have children at the end of primary school or beginning of secondary, or if you are a teacher.....

Read School Gate:

Streaming or mixed ability teaching - what's the best way to teach your child?

National Bug Busting Day, headlice and a new way to get rid of them?

It's National Bug Busting Day today, so what better time to remind you all about the best ways to deal with nits and headlice.

Please read my headlice 101 post for advice on how to deal with the little blighters - and read the comments too for more tips. You can also bemoan the disappearance of the nit nurse in my post on headlice and schools...

But since writing that piece, I have come upon a new way of eliminating lice, getting others to do it for you! The Hairforce is a headlice "spa" which treats children (and, if needs be, their unfortunately infested parents) to a thorough check, vacuum, comb and total destruction of any unwelcome visitors (without chemicals). You need to visit three times at four day intervals (it's £40 a session), or the headlice "assassins" can do a housecall instead. It's not cheap, but in its own way, it's genius (er, that means for parents who have the money, but don't want to put in the time). Also, you've got to remember that thorough combing is the only way to get rid of lice, this is certainly thorough and yet the children seem to enjoy it...

At the moment the Hairforce is based in London (in Primrose Hill dahlings), but more salons are planned. Keen to find out what such a place could be like, I took my daughter, Jessica, who's seven (you can see her having her hair vacuumed above). She's had nits before and hates her hair being sprayed and combed. Or she did when I did it at home. The Hairforce was another experience entirely. Here's what she had to say:

"if your Mum or your Dad is checking your hair for nits and lice, I advise you do something interesting like watching the TV or reading a book. It takes your mind off that nasty nit come coming though your hair.
But I just went to the nit place and it was really good. When I went there the people that work there vacuumed my hair and they sprayed it. They did other things too like comb it, but I didn't mind. It wasn't like when I had it done at home, because I had other things to do. There are lots of things to do at the nit place. You can watch DVDs and play on the Nintendo - I went on Mario Karts.
I like the nit place because there is so much to do while people check your hair and get rid of your nits. All you have to do is go there and enjoy yourself. It was so much fun. I wish I could go there again!"

Read School Gate:

Headlice 101

Parents of school age children - beware infections!

Siobhan Curious on how she saved her career. Part 4, find your community...

Guest Blogger Siobhan Curious has been treating School Gate visitors to her advice on saving her teaching career. Why not read read post 1 (her introduction), post 2 (Is teaching worth it?) and post 3 (take time off) before starting this one - on finding your community...

"Teaching can be lonely.  We spend a lot of time with our students, but our relationships with them can feel adversarial and/or distant.  Even our good relationships with students are complex: they’re usually younger than us, and although it’s our job to try to understand them, they have no obligation – and often no ability – to understand us.  What’s more, many teachers are independent-minded people who prefer to tackle problems on their own.  I’m like that.  It’s helped me in some areas of my life, but when it comes to burnout, confronting it without support is unwise.

When I first began teaching, my emotional satisfaction came almost entirely from my relationships with students.  (You can see some discussion of this topic on my blog). As my job changed and I grew older, I realized that my students weren’t my friends. I became aware that fostering a community that supported me in my job, that I could turn to when things were rough, and that gave me healthy perspective on what I was doing was essential.

I began shaping and nurturing that community in three forms.  If you’re feeling burnt out, you might want to examine the people around you, and do the same.

1. Family and friends.
These people were already there for me.  Most of them weren’t teachers.  They didn’t necessarily have advice to give about my professional problems and anxieties; if they did, the advice wasn’t always helpful. But they did know me. They were able to listen, relate my experiences to their own, and point out ways of seeing that were more productive than mine.  Perhaps most importantly, they were able to talk to me about something other than my work.

I don’t know about you, but during the semester, I think of little besides teaching.  Friends who don’t work with me go months without seeing me. If someone wants to have coffee, my response is usually, “Well, how about Thanksgiving weekend/Easter weekend/reading week? Otherwise, I’ll see you once I’ve submitted my final grades.” 

I had to remind myself that my job was not my whole life. I needed to talk to The Fiancé about things other than work. I needed to go for drinks with people who didn’t know or care about the students who refused to do their homework or who cheated on exams, people who just want to talk about books, or gossip.

If I was going to feel like part of a supportive community, I realized, I needed to take care of the relationships I already had.

2.  Colleagues.
I work in an extremely supportive and friendly environment.  Many of my colleagues – including faculty, administration, and staff – have become good friends. I also have friends who are teachers at other institutions. Sometimes talking to another teacher is the only way to grapple with an issue. When things started going badly for me in the classroom, I started to lean on my colleagues more for advice, comfort, or just a beer at the end of the day.

If I hadn’t already had strong relationships with my colleagues, I would have tried to establish some.  We all need peers we can turn to for help or just moral support. Often, there’s someone in the staff we’ve never really gotten to know, but whom we suspect we have something in common with; an invitation to dinner or coffee can pave the way to a deeper friendship. And there may be more structured ways to forge connections, like book clubs or happy hours.

Obviously, we can’t connect with everyone, but we need some friends in the workplace.

Kids worried about swine flu? This may help...

As fears of swine flu rise, and it's confirmed as a global pandemic, children are amongst those most worried about the illness. It's the little things they catch from the news which worry them, or the headlines in the newspaper (yes, it's good they can read, but it also opens up a scary world). My daughter went through a few days when catching swine flu was all she could talk about (now it's the school show; I guess time moves on...)

She also enjoyed a video made by the clever people at BrainPOP UK. They created the above animated clip and it's well worthy showing to any concerned youngsters.  So far 4,000 people (teachers, kids and parents) have viewed the video on the BrainPOP UK site and almost 3,000 have viewed it via YouTube. Take a look at BrainPOP UK's own explanation of why they made the video, but basically they wanted to dispel some swine flu rumours (you can't get it from eating bacon) and help to educate. They also offer some practical advice, in a non-scary way.

Read School Gate:

The teenager suspended from school for taking the contraceptive pill

Should schools tell you what to put in your child's lunch box?

As the government's review into home education is announced, a (home-educated) teenager gives her view

Home education is back in the spotlight, with the news that the government is to set up a register for parents choosing to home-educate. The register is part of the government's review into home education which was set up in January, and which one mother wrote about on School Gate. The homeschooling community was not happy about suggestions that teaching their children was being used as a "cover" for some kind of abuse.

The issue of home-schooling splits visitors to School Gate. To put it crudely, many just don't understand why anyone would want to home-educate, while those who do are evangelical about its benefits (and often critical of the millions of us who send our children to school). Today Schools Secretary Ed Balls talked of "striking the right balance" in this area, "between two important principles: giving parents the right to decide how and where their children should be educated - because I am clear that parents bring up their children, not government; and ensuring that every child gets the education they need to help them fulfil their potential.

"Graham [Badman, who carried out the review] recommends action to address the very small number of cases where home-educated children have suffered harm because safeguarding concerns were either not picked up or addressed urgently," Mr Balls continued. "Home education is a well-established and important part of our education system. And Graham's review will - rightly in my view - stress the importance of maintaining those principles."

Within all the arguments about home-schooling it's rare to hear from a child who was home schooled. But on School Gate today 15-year-old Charley Mountney (whom you can see above) gives her view. It's a real eye-opener...

"I have been home educated for nine years and I don’t regret a moment of it, if I had been in school I think I probably would be a lot different to how I am now.

I only did my first year in primary school, and all my memories of it are horrible! I used to get really badly bullied all the time.

This isn’t the case now; I have loads of home educated friends and friends that go to school. Bullying is not something that goes on in the home educated groups because the kids aren’t trying to get one up on each other all the time, no one feels threatened, and we have a lot of parents and adults around us to see every one is behaving appropriately. We all mix with different ages so there’s no peer group pressure. We don’t judge each other, we get to know each other and help when we can. There’s no competition and no intimidation.

The way I learn is very different to the way the children in school learn. I think we have a lot more say in things that we learn and what we do.

20 years since Dead Poets Society - and why, if you didn't see it then, you shouldn't see it now...

It's 20 years since the release of Dead Poet's Society - a film which divides those (many teachers included) who put it on a pedestal, and those who dismiss it as emotional cliche (my colleague, Oliver Kamm is in this camp). I think I'm sat, rather uncomfortably, on the fence. I just watched the final scene of the film - a clip which has been viewed almost 400,000 times on You Tube - and found myself becoming rather teary.

But I did love Lindsay Robertson's piece on Videogum explaining why the film works - if you're of a certain age. Here's a flavour:

"Now, if you've never seen Dead Poets Society, well, don't. You're too old. It's too late. You'll just laugh at it. It's not like it's technically an amazing movie or anything, it was just a very influential one to people of a certain age, and someone needs to be the first to stand up on his or her chair and salute this injustly dismissed gem of a film, so I guess it'll be me. I'll be the Todd Anderson."

She continues: "Watching the movie now, it contains no insights that aren't cliches (seize the day, live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, make your lives extraordinary, be an actor if you want to be an actor even if your dad wants you to be a doctor, desk sets want to fly, don't kill yourself), but when you're twelve, nothing is a cliche yet. (See: the Twilight phenomenon.)"

I think Lindsay's right, but that wouldn't explain why the film always does well in teachers' polls, like this one. Do they all aspire to be John Keating or is it the emotion which really gets them?

Read School Gate:

Is Dead Poets Society the best movie set in a school? Teachers think so...

The 15 most inspiring teachers in films

The 15 worst teachers in films

20 movies which make you wish you'd gone to university

Arnold Schwarzenegger - man of vision?

Guest blogger Kim Thomas is impressed by the Governor of California....

"Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement that he intends to replace paper textbooks with digital textbooks will confirm the view of many that he is nothing more than a Philistine. Those of who us who care about education tend to revere print books and the thought that schools might do away with them altogether makes us throw our hands up in horror.

But we’d be wrong to do so.  If reports are correct, Schwarzenegger intends to provide Californian schoolchildren with an ebook reader – a device, such as the Sony Reader or the Amazon Kindle, that can hold the equivalent of 160 books. Such devices, which cost about £200, are light and portable and have screens that are much gentler on the eye than the typical computer screen.

Think of the benefits. Currently textbooks go out of date very quickly, and schools have to decide whether to replace them frequently, at a high cost, or struggle on for years with out-of-date books. I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, some of my textbooks were years old. When an electronic textbook gets out-of-date, however, you can download a new one very easily.

Then there’s the issue of damage. Pages in print books get torn and dog-eared, pupils write on the covers and drop the books in puddles. It’s not possible to do that with electronic textbooks – though you could, in principle, damage the ebook reader itself. A small contribution or deposit from each pupil would help address that problem.

Finally, imagine how much easier it would be to carry a single ebook reader around rather than 10 or 15 books – which, invariably, get lost or left at home. Pupils could find the book they needed whenever they wanted it, and could search across titles to find the specific information they were looking for.
In fact, there’s very little to dislike about Schwarzenegger’s proposal. Far from being a Philistine, the man looks something like a visionary."

Read School Gate

What children's book inspired you?

Is Henry VIII the greatest ever English monarch?

Tell that to Sean Connery! The teenager told off for cross dressing - he wore a kilt to school

The new children's laureate, Anthony Browne (of Gorilla fame), and the importance of picture books

Anthony Browne, author of books including Gorilla and Zoo, is the new Children's Laureate. He takes over from Michael Rosen, who's had an eventful few years in the position - making sure that his strong views on the lack of creativity in education are well known.

Browne is a picture book writer and illustrator (and winner of the very prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the highest international honour in children's literature). He plans to focus attention on picture books, which he thinks are sadly neglected.

"Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older," he said. "The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader's imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book. Sometimes I hear parents encouraging their children to read what they call proper books (books without pictures), at an earlier and earlier age. This makes me sad, as picture books are perfect for sharing, and not just with the youngest children."

I think Browne (whose surreal illustrations are quite unique) is right. Picture books can be magical, and there is often a horrible chasm in a child's reading when they feel they are too old for picture books, and can't yet manage chapter books. Picture books are a brilliant introduction to reading, but they are more than that too. Picture book writers sometimes feel looked down on, but there can be a real brilliance about the right illustration and a simple story, often with a poignant message.

However, I'm pleased to point out that there are now a number of picture books which are for older children, and which do aim to help children who are just learning to read. I am a big fan of Ed Vere's Mr Big (soon to be given away in schools by the Booktrust, and aimed at 5-7 year olds) and also the brilliant Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs and Timothy Knapman's Mungo books. All are published by Puffin.

So, ditch the picture book snobbery, marvel at the ability to tell a story so concisely and get ready for Anthony Browne to put picture books right back at the centre of children's publishing.

Ten things you didn't know about Anthony Browne

Read School Gate:

The 20 best picture books

Should children's books be more multicultural?

Tips for helping your child to read

Reading environmental propaganda to kids

The stresses and strains of school by Laura Liz, aged 18. How anyone can make a difference...

Laura Liz Partoon is remarkable. While still at school (she's just left and is hoping to go to Roehampton University), she set up her own campaign,The Stresses and Strains of School. Her aim, as you can see from her short video above is to promote and improve the mental health and wellbeing of students.

"I’ve seen friends go through the pressures of school and drop out of courses because of stress," she says. "I’ve seen other people stay on but suffer from depression because of the stress of all the work. I think there needs to be a system to help young people cope." That's why she does what she does...

Laura Liz is one of those people who seems to be able to stretch herself. She's currently working with the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) to get more counselling set up in schools and, having just qualified to become a relaxation therapist, is hoping to set up relaxation classes in schools too. She's also been nominated for the Young Representatives award, the results of which will be announced on 19th June.

Here Laura Liz explains why she set up her campaign and what she's hoping to achieve:

"I started like most other students; average. I liked to get my head down and work but also loved to hang out with my mates and go swimming, which I still like to do. But now my life's changed. I dedicate most of my spare time to making a difference in society, it's amazing fun and has led me to meet and work with so many amazing people…

It all began with going to my School Council in year 9 (aged 13/14) and gradually growing in confidence to try different things. In that same year I heard about an opportunity to make a difference to climate change (which at the time I was most passionate about) so I went on the trip with school. There I got to meet lots of different people who inspired me to think I could make a change,  even if it was just a small one, and that it could eventually have a big impact! 
 
As time went on, I became more determined to make a difference and in Year 10, I became the Chairperson of my school council. This was a massive achievement. 

During my time as Chairperson I got to meet some students who I wouldn’t normally have ‘associated’ with lower down in the school and I was invited to many events as ambassador for my school. The event that stands out the most is “Parti 4 Um” at the district youth forum, (Voice) which I later became a member of. 

Voice opened up so many doors for me including an introduction to the world of the UK Youth Parliament. When I was 16, I ran for this, and got elected as Deputy Member for South Staffordshire. I wanted to give young people a voice to be heard, to go against all the typical stereotypes of young people and to make a difference to others. 

At the same time I went to an event in London, about children’s rights, which is something I hadn’t really thought about before. I loved the event and discovered that this was what I want to do, to stand up for the rights and beliefs of others, help those who need help and be a role model to other young people… 

What do JFK, Cherie Blair, Mick Jagger, Daniel Finkelstein and Yasmina Siadatan have in common? Yes, it's LSE....

Sir Alan Sugar yesterday chose a London School of Economics graduate, Yasmina Siadatan, as his new apprentice (you can see this above). She joins an illustrious list of names, including 13 Nobel Prize winners, 26 world leaders and heads of state, one very famous rock star with a never ending career and our very own chief leader writer.. It's yet another coup for the university, which has been doing pretty well of late, something which can easily be seen in the new Good University Guide.

The LSE not only boasts the highest starting salary of any graduates (a rather pleasant £27, 637), but is also the most in demand of all British universities. Last year it had 19,039 applicants for just 1,299 places. That's 14.7 applicants per place (Bristol was second in demand, with 11.4 applicants per place).

But why is this London institution so popular and successful? Fiona Sandford, director of Careers, is convinced that it's because of its "international outlook," and is not at all surprised by either the demand, or the high starting salaries.

"It's incredibly attractive to employers," she says, explaining that a new career-focussed website, Yes You Can, has just been launched. "Wehave such a global outlook here and are so career focussed. That's a virus which spreads throughout the campus."

I have to come clean here. I am an LSE graduate, and did enjoy exactly that international feel of the place, and the fact that it had so many mature students as well as foreign ones. It made for an exciting place, although I wasn't as impressed by its woeful campus and some of the teaching.

Fiona Sandford is convinced that times have changed. "The student experience is far better here now," she says. "The teaching has improved and we feel there is a real depth and breadth to the academic expereince." She also says that the campus is a far more welcoming place.

Of course, success brings its own problems, and, as in my day, LSE chooses not to interview for its courses. So, how does it know who to accept?

Ms Sandford admits that this is a problem. "The big issue for us is that everybody has 4 A's," she says, and then adds that the institution lays great store on the personal statement (something I find fascinating, as Cambridge recently said it pretty much ignores these!) I'm sure good candidates must slip through the net.

Ironically, just as it's in the news again thanks to Yasmina (who studied economic history), LSE has actually dropped from 4 to 7 in the overall Good University Guide rankings. John O'Leary, the Guide's author, explains that this is for a number of reasons:

"Like other London universities, it doesn't do particularly well in the National Student Survey and the gap has widened with St Andrews (which does particularly well); Warwick has upped its spending on facilities a lot because it's been developing the campus in the last few years; and with UCL it's mostly about staffing levels - UCL's has improved and is the best of all, while LSE's has got worse."

But I have a feeling that this is not going to make much difference to those LSE students who are firmly fixed on the prospect of making money in the city or changing the world (a generalisation, but one with much truth). And I don't think Yasmina will be too worried either...

Watch LSE's Howard Davies explain why the university is so popular.

Read School Gate:

Which is better, Oxford or Cambridge?

The top universities by graduate starting salary - LSE is top. Cambridge is eighth (below South Bank)

20 films which make you wish you'd gone to university

Being on an A level exam paper.....

As you may have read earlier this morning, an article I wrote three years ago, Real Food Isn't Real Life, has appeared on a "pre-release" A level exam paper. It's all very strange. Not least because of the memories which have been stirred by the re-publication of that article.

But before I get to those, I wanted to reiterate how bizarre it was to be part of an exam, some decades after finally saying goodbye to that part of my life. I also found it very odd that students get sent these texts a week before the actual exam - something I'd never heard of before. In this case, six texts are included on the pre-release paper (I've explained what they are below) and students are then given two more "un-seen" extracts on the day for comparison purposes.

I'm not sure whether receiving texts a week before is a help or hindrance. To me, it sounds stressful because you have no idea what you are going to be asked in the exam; it's so open-ended. The emails I have received have been vague, which suggests that pupils are trying to cover all bases. Here's one email, for example (in all its convoluted glory): “I was wondering who your audience is for the guardian, especially your articles and although the article is from three years ago what attitudes and values were you trying to get across to the readership/audience, are there any deeper themes other than modern mothers don't have time to cook healthy exotic meals as would have done in the past?”

But Catherine McCabe from AQA (which set the exam) disagrees about the open-ended nature. Instead she says that students have a pretty good idea of what they will be asked (hence the questions about the motivation behind my article).

But back to the original piece. As I said in today's article,  I was stunned by the abuse I got for writing that article, and never wrote for the Guardian's Comment is Free section again! People - men and women - were so quick to judge me personally for being a bad mother, or a bad cook simply because of something I had written. No matter that I wrote the article because I truly wanted and tried (as I do now, in fact) to give my children healthy, home-cooked food. It was just hard to do so with a toddling 16 month old in the way. And I felt that there was a subtext to the whole debate.

“There's a harking back to the days when children weren't being poisoned by the "toxic" 21st century, but that's now accompanied by a parallel longing for a time when women knew their place,” I wrote. “If children are to thrive on delicious, freshly cooked fare on a daily basis, then someone has to be cooking it for them. And I think I'm right in interpreting that "someone" as being, more often than not, their mother.”

The tenor of many of the comments on the piece was that I obviously couldn't be bothered, that I was at too many media parties to take care of my children properly (ha ha, they have clearly never freelanced. I was then, and still am most of the time now, working from my study at home and rarely out gallivanting) and that I was a moron for not involving my children and letting them help. Sorry, at 16 months? Now of course my son could help, and, ironically, he loves cooking and baking. Similarly ironically, my children are brilliant eaters. They love fruit and vegetables and are the very opposite of fussy. I'd love to tell that to the people who oozed such vitriol.

Do you need a better classical education? Take our quiz....

Once, long ago, a classical education was all the rage. School pupils diligently learnt Latin and Greek, and writers from Shakespeare to Shaw assumed a knowledge of classical history or mythology. No longer....

But Caroline Taggart, who's penned A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught At School thinks that the Greeks and Romans do matter - despite being Ancient History. She says:

"Well, the Greeks and the Romans had a huge influence on modern Western civilisation. What we still call classical architecture – those solid, reliable-looking buildings in our city centres – is based on Greek ideas; our scientific knowledge was helped along by Archimedes leaping out of the bath-tub. The Greeks and the Romans also invented all sorts of things, from underfloor central heating to fire engines.

Then there’s the language. Even if you don’t study classic mythology you may still talk about the Midas touch or a Herculean task, or use words such as tantalisingly and jovial without necessarily knowing where they came from. In fact, about half of modern English derives from Latin, so knowing just a smattering of it will help you impress people with your vocabulary, because you’ll be able to throw words like matriarchal or belligerent or vociferous into your conversation."

You might be surprised at how much - or how little - you already know about the classics. Why not take our Classical Quiz (set by Caroline) and find out.. Answers are below.....(and straight to the corner with you if you don't at least get number 10).

The Classical Quiz

1) Latin expressions often crop up in financial contexts. What does a pro rata salary mean?

2) They also occur in crime fiction. What is a modus operandi? And what, strictly speaking, is an alibi?

3) What do the Girdle of Hippolyta, the Oxen of Geryon and the Apples of the Hesperides have in common?

4) Who were the Greek gods of the sea and of war?

5) What is a Midas touch? And why, in the original story, did it turn out to be a bad thing?

6) The Greek historian Herodotus was so much better than anyone who had gone before that he is considered ‘the father of history’. In the same way other Ancient Greeks are seen as the ‘fathers’ of their particular disciplines. What were the subjects ‘fathered’ by Archimedes, Socrates and Hippocrates?

7) The three classic orders of architecture ranged from the Doric (the oldest and simplest) to the Corinthian (most recent and fanciest). What’s the name of the one in between?

8) If the common people of Rome were called plebeians, what were the aristocracy called?

9) What are the Capitoline and the Palatine?

10) What was the name of the escaped gladiator who put together a vast army of slaves and rebelled against Roman rule in about 73 BC? (Clue: Stanley Kubrick made a film about him.)

Top universities by graduate starting salary

The Good University Guide contains a plethora of useful information. One of the nuggets I particularly enjoyed was the starting salaries of university graduates. LSE is top, but South Bank beats out Cambridge. Here the GUG's author, John O'Leary explains why...

"The graduate salaries table in yesterday’s Good University Guide supplement caused quite a stir. How, readers asked, can London South Bank University (second from bottom of the main ranking) produce average salaries that are higher than those at Cambridge, Warwick or Bristol?

They are surprising figures – and not ones that I would rely on in choosing a course because the number of responses vary considerably from university to university. That is one of the reasons why they are not among the measures used in our rankings.

But London South Bank has been identified before as a university with high-earning graduates and one that makes a big difference to the earning potential of its students, many of whom come from relatively poor backgrounds. A report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers put the average salary premium enjoyed by South Bank graduates at £186,000 over a working lifetime - £26,000 more than the average for the UK – partly because of the vocational nature of the degrees there.

Dr Phil Cardew, London South Bank’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, said: “Over 60 per cent of our students are over 25 upon enrolment, and many have had interesting and varied journeys into the world of higher education. This combination of ‘life experience’ and the professional focus and accreditation of our courses means that many of our graduates move directly into relatively senior positions which can command commensurate starting salaries.”

Salary differences are heavily influenced by the course profile of a university - so those with medical schools tend to do well, for example. There is also some advantage to being in London, which is one benefit for South Bank. It has a fairly narrow range of full-time degrees, compared to a lot of universities, with a lot of students in business subjects. Of course, we don't know if that will continue to be an advantage in the recession - these figures were collected well before the effects began to be felt.

Average salaries are likely to tumble in future editions of the guide, but the highest-earners by subject will remain much the same. Medicine and dentistry are always at the top of that table, although there are some surprises – such as social work, which appears in the top ten nationally."

Which is better - Oxford or Cambridge? Two graduates exchange robust views...

The new Times Good University Guide 2010 includes a wealth of interesting, and very useful, information. It also includes a definitive list of the top universities in the UK. At number one, and keeping its position from last year, is Oxford, followed by arch rival Cambridge at number two. You can see the list of universities here, and read John O'Leary's view of the rivalry.

But here we take a more personal look at the top two universities. In one corner, we have Tom Whipple, Mathematics graduate of Churchill College, Cambridge and in the other, Will Pavia, who studied History at Lincoln College, Oxford.

Tom's view: why Cambridge is really number one....

"Let us be clear about what these figures mean. Coming second to Oxford for the 8th year running is a triumph for Cambridge. Look into the data, and you see that, academically, Cambridge outranks the Midlands Polytechnic in almost every category. It has higher entry standards, a better research rating and more staff. Where it loses out – the only reason it is not top overall – is in funding and facilities.

In other words, despite suffering such a paucity of swanky libraries and plushly-upholstered debating chambers that it drops a place in the rankings, Cambridge still produces the finest students in the country. Oxford is like the try-hard sixth former who wins the effort prize, but fails to write anything original in his or her exams.

It was ever thus. Oxford proudly lists 25 prime ministers amongst its alumni – a roll call of academic mediocrities from the Earl of Rosebery, who quit his studies because the university would not let him keep his horse, to Tony Blair. Cambridge, conversely, has just 15 past British leaders. What it does have is 83 Nobel laureates – more than France, Italy or Russia. And whilst 1930s Oxford students voted to in “no circumstances fight for King and Country”; 1930s Cambridge students provided the core of the mathematicians who broke Germany’s Enigma code.

There is an idea at Oxford that there is a great antipathy between the two universities, that we are twin titans of education engaged in an epic struggle. The first time I went to a Blues rugby match, I was assaulted for 80 minutes by the dirtiest, most elaborate chants from the opposite stands. It was bemusing: if only they put the same effort into their studies.

On our side of the pitch we had no retorts – not because we were incapable of finding half a dozen limericks including the words “Oxford Scum”, but simply because we didn’t know we had to. We weren't aware they were qualified enough to be considered rivals.."

Why we loved the Roald Dahl Museum (and love Roald Dahl's books)

Let's not talk about the man himself, as I know that many people have a problem with his politics and views on life. Instead, let's talk about his books - which are, and I will allow no disagreements here - terrific.

I'm writing, of course, about Roald Dahl, the master of children's storybooks, from the magnificent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the brilliance of his Revolting Rhymes one of which you can see above. I've never met a child who doesn't love this version of Little Red Riding Hood - especially: "the small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers".

Meanwhile my son is currently a huge fan of The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me, while I loved Danny the Champion of the World (and still have my signed copy, which will not be making its way onto Ebay). My daughter greatly enjoyed The Twits.

I was intrigued, then, to see what the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre was like. And I have to report that I, together with the three other adults we visited with, plus two seven year olds, two four year olds and a one year old (who was just happy to be able to throw pencils on the floor in the creative area) were very impressed.

Based in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where Dahl lived, the Museum offers something for all members of the family. It starts with the history of his life - probably more for adults than children - and includes copies of an old school report. It, rather brilliantly, states that the innovative writer "lacks ideas".

But there is also a lot of "hands-on" stuff, from making seagulls (a la James and the Giant Peach), to colouring in pictures, writing poetry and even putting together a small animated film. And we could sit in Roald Dahl's own armchair - the one he used for writing.

The museum also offers a range of special events. We were treated to some excellent storytelling, but there is a full educational programme, with the majority of school visits covering years 3-6, as well as some older English language student groups and teacher training groups from Europe. And there's a rather delicious cafe...

"The Museum aims to inform visitors in a very interactive way about Roald Dahl's life and stories, but the underlying focus is on enthusing children about reading and writing - which of course was dear to Roald Dahl's heart," says Isabelle Reynolds, from the centre. "The Story Centre gallery for example, as well as featuring a life-size replica of Roald Dahl's Writing Hut, has all sorts of word and story-making activities including making cut and stick photo-fit characters, making a stop-frame animation on screen, recording your dreams in a dream bottle, fridge magnet games, etc."

The museum is small, but I really enjoyed our visit. I love places which, as Isabelle said to me, enthuse children about stories and reading. Like Discover, another brilliant museum for younger children, and also of course, Newcastle's Seven Stories (dedicated to children's books) this is another very good addition to those places to take children, and which you and they will enjoy. Please recommend any others!

Read School Gate:

Babies painting in an art gallery - should museums be more child-friendly?

Which children's book inspired you?