THIS WEEK - 10-16 AUGUST 2013
SATURDAY
Bookish pleasures
Edinburgh International Book Festival opened with a talk by Patrick Ness, the celebrated author of young-adult novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. BBC journalist Andrew Marr will also make an appearance.
SUNDAY
Seeing stars
The annual Perseids meteor shower starts in mid-July but reached its peak on Sunday and Monday. The meteors are the remains of the tail of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near Earth in 1992.
MONDAY
Masterful display
Dozens of British masterpieces were plastered up on more than 22,000 billboard sites around the UK today, to celebrate the Art Everywhere event. It is the largest exhibition of its kind in the world.
TUESDAY
Knowledge economy
People educated to degree level on average earn double the pay of those who left school at 16, and 57 per cent more than those with A levels, analysis of OECD data released by the University and College Union revealed.
WEDNESDAY
Driving lessons
As if teachers don’t have enough to do. Auto Trader surveyed 3,000 motorists to discover that 77 per cent thought driving skills - theory and practical - should be taught in schools.
THURSDAY
Result!
It was that time of year again: the day when the media in England and Wales focuses on lovely young women leaping about with a clutch of fantastic A-level results. Well done, teachers, on steering your charges through.
FRIDAY
A staffroom romance
David Walliams, comedian-turned-children’s author, is starring in his new sitcom Big School. He’s a nerdy science tutor who falls for the new French teacher, played by Catherine Tate. 9pm, BBC1.
NEXT WEEK - 17-23 AUGUST 2013
SATURDAY
You talkin’ to me?
Happy 70th birthday to Robert De Niro, star of cinematic classics Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and, er, Meet the Parents. His stage debut was as the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz.
SUNDAY
Spread your wings
A flypast inspired by new Disney film Planes, and its characters Dusty and Ripslinger, will be one of the events at the final day of Airbourne, the Eastbourne International Airshow in southern England.
MONDAY
Prize draw
The tiny US territory of Guam in the western Pacific is due to open its first charter school today. Guahan Academy held a lottery to decide who would attend after 800 students applied for 500 places.
TUESDAY
Kick-off
Will the internet survive? Tickets for the Fifa 2014 World Cup in Brazil go on sale today. More tickets will become available after the 32-team line-up is confirmed in November.
WEDNESDAY
Enlightened programming
Indian composer Param Vir’s latest work, Cave of Luminous Mind, will receive its world premiere at the Proms in London tonight. Sibelius, Bantock and Elgar are also on the programme.
THURSDAY
Will they make the grade?
After last week’s A-level results, today it’s the turn of 16-year-olds as GCSE results are published in England and Wales. Last year, a furore over marking led to court action by teaching unions, schools and pupils.
FRIDAY
Breaking free
Slavery Remembrance Day is marked worldwide. The day has been designated by Unesco, the cultural arm of the United Nations, to commemorate an uprising of Africans in 1791 on the island of Haiti.