THIS WEEK - 7-13 DECEMBER 2013
SATURDAY
Vive la revolution!
The head master of England’s eminent Eton College turned out to be a radical. Anthony Little argued that schools should embrace the “dynamic, frightening and exhilarating technological revolution” in teaching.
SUNDAY
It’s not clever or funny
The new chairman of the UK’s Boarding Schools’ Association, Ray McGovern, claimed comedians were fuelling a culture of swearing in schools. It’s hard to believe the foul language wasn’t there already.
MONDAY
Test tube terror
Culturally ingrained gender roles have created a generation of girls afraid to study science and maths, UK education minister Elizabeth Truss said. Posters of Marie Curie were hastily pasted on to laboratory walls.
TUESDAY
Entering the matrix
Computer Science Education Week was under way in the US, with teachers of all subjects being asked to dedicate one hour to it. Art teachers pondered representing “AND” and “NOT” gates as potato prints.
WEDNESDAY
Pattern of infection
The World Health Organisation launched the World Malaria Report 2013 in Geneva and Washington, summarising the state of the disease in 104 countries. Progress towards goals for 2015 was also discussed.
THURSDAY
The Cost of caring
Affordable childcare was at the top of the agenda at the Family and Childcare Trust’s annual conference in London. The trust also launched a report outlining the case for a new strategy for improving provision.
FRIDAY
Woolly Wonderland
Ironic reindeer knitwear is the order of the day in UK classrooms: it’s Christmas Jumper Day, held in aid of the Save the Children. Join in or risk being labelled a humbug. Christmas never used to be this humiliating.
NEXT WEEK - 14-20 DECEMBER 2013
SATURDAY
‘We got him’
It’s the 10th anniversary of the capture of Saddam Hussein. The ousted Iraqi dictator was found hidden in a bunker near Tikrit. “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” a US official told journalists.
SUNDAY
Popularity contest
The winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year will be revealed today in a live broadcast. Will Wimbledon champion Andy Murray smash his way to victory or will Mo Farah run off with the prize?
MONDAY
Abolition Celebration
It may be hard to imagine a time when capital punishment was used in the UK, but on this day in 1969 British MPs voted to abolish the death penalty for murder. A cheer went up in the House of Commons.
TUESDAY
A Choral Christmas cracker
The Hansel and Gretel Overture by Engelbert Humperdinck (the composer not the crooner) is among the seasonal works due to be performed by the world-famous King’s College Choir at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
WEDNESDAY
Meet the megaliths
When is a pile of rocks not a pile of rocks? When it has a visitor centre. Stonehenge, one of the world’s most celebrated stone circles, will open a new centre and museum today in time for the winter solstice.
THURSDAY
Presidential address
Hoping to inspire girls to greatness? Look no further than Park Geun-hye, who was elected South Korea’s first female president a year ago. Maintaining relations with her northern neighbours has been key so far.
FRIDAY
Let the bells ring out
Reward yourselves with a stale mince pie and a glass of something bubbly - the final day of school for most teachers in the UK has arrived. Time to look forward to some seasonal snacking and a well-earned rest.
