It seems the Government is reworking BSF, as I understand it the pupil-involvement in this scheme is till weak. I think now might be a time to try to talk to the DCSF about beefing it up. Any ideas on how we should go about that?
Full story here.
Author: SchoolCouncilsUK-Asher
An amusing and vitriolic article from Charlie Brooker about Brain Gym and teaching pseudoscience in schools. As he and some of the commentors point out doing some exercise and physical movement is good for breaking up lessons, increasing attention and so on, but telling kids it’s because it increases ‘electromagnetic energy’ is just irresponsible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/07/education
Well, not quite, but it’s an interesting project being piloted in Cambridge. Kids are being given cards that entitle them to £500 to spend on specified activities. It’s Government funded to the tune of £1 million. Full story
It’s here if you want to see it:
We’re the only partner, which is good, but it would have been nice to have our logo on every page.
Asher
One of the articles I found on Voice It1 (see previous post), written by one of the student ‘journalists’ was about the newly created position of Chair of the Youth Citizenship Commission. This commission will:
- Examine what citizenship means to young people.
- Consider how to increase young people’s participation in politics; the development of citizenship among disadvantaged groups; how active citizenship can be promoted through volunteering and community engagement.
- Lead a consultation on whether the voting age should be lowered to 16.
It has a small budget attached (£6m). I think we should try to get a meeting with him and see whether he will support the Standard (and maybe more).
Full article >>
At my meeting with Futurelab one of the other people there was from synergy.tv. One of their big projects is www.radiowaves.co.uk which allows schools to create their own radio stations for free. This could be a great tool for school councils. An offshoot of this is Voice It! which is particularly about using those tools for campaigning.