One in five parents to bring children up bilingual, study says.
One in five parents plan to bring their children up to be bilingual, according to a new study. More than nine in 10 parents believe that it is important to teach children languages, while more than half say they admire celebrities who have raised their children to speak two languages. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have brought all their children up to speak French, while Gwyneth Paltrow and Christ Martin's children have been learning Spanish since they were babies...【閱讀更多】
Wine-tasting club is the toast of top independent girls' school
The Independent reports that Malvern St James School for Girls in Worcestershire has introduced a wine-tasting club for its sixth-formers to encourage sensible drinking. It is also setting up wine-tasting dinner parties with neighbouring boys' schools, the newspaper reports. The new club, the brainchild of Rachel Huntley – who teaches critical thinking at the school – is one of the most popular out-of-hours activities for students. They are eligible to join from the time they start in the sixth-form at 16. According to staff, it has become quite a selling point in encouraging girls to go on into the sixth-form. Mrs Huntley said the wine-tasting sessions were an attempt to divert the teenage girls away from a drinking culture where the main aim is to become intoxicated over a short period of time...【閱讀更多】
報導來源：The Independent | 返回頁首
Letters: Grading pupils
Dr Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College, writes to the Telegraph in response to think tank Reform’s recommendation that examination syllabuses be taken out of government hands and instead be controlled by university departments. Dr Seldon writes that an alternative to university departments running exams is for schools to take the International Baccalaureate. His own school offers the IB in the sixth form as well as the IB’s middle years programme as an alternative to GCSE and IGCSE, he says, because “we want to see genuine intellectual rigour and pupil imagination return to the classroom”...【閱讀更多】
Harrow School introduces new qualifications
Harrow School is to introduce its own qualifications, the Telegraph reports today. The school said pupils would be required to play competitive sport, develop life skills, complete community service and undertake work experience, on top of traditional exams. Edexcel, the exam board, has accredited the school’s new diploma, which is being introduced amid increasing fears that a focus on tests and league tables undermines pupils’ education and promotes a culture of “teaching to the test”. Other fee-paying schools have already taken action to minimise the effect of exams. Wellington College became the first school this year to scrap GCSEs for a more flexible curriculum that replaces traditional subject headings with more broad study areas, while the head master of Eton College has called for pupils to take no more than five or six GCSEs to give them more time for extra-curricular activities. In today’s Telegraph article, head of Harrow Barnaby Lenon talks of the benefits of the new diploma...【閱讀更多】
