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Pupils should not be subjected to full classroom tuition until the age of six to off-set the effects of premature “adultification”, it was claimed.   Dr Richard House, a senior lecturer at Roehampton University’s Research Centre for Therapeutic Education, said gifted pupils from relatively affluent backgrounds suffered the most from being pushed “too far, too [...]

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Thousands of parents whose children fall behind in reading will get vouchers to spend on private tutors under plans unveiled by Nick Clegg today. It marks a major new drive to provide “catch-up lessons” for struggling youngsters from poorer families in their first year of secondary school. Mr Clegg hailed the Evening Standard’s Get London [...]

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Tintin is experiencing new and exciting adventures these days. Not just in the cinema, but in Belgian courts as well. Bienvenu Mbuto Mondondo, a Congolese national studying in Brussels, filed suit to obtain an injunction against the continued publication, distribution and sale of Hergé’s comic book Tintin in the Congo (Tintin au Congo), as well [...]

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During the second Indio-China War, 270,000,000 submunitions were dropped on Laos inside cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are bombs that instead of having one block of explosives at the tip contain dozens of small tennis ball-sized capsules that are made to detonate on impact. Of these submunitions dropped on Laos from cluster bombs, 80,000,000 failed to [...]

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The year was 1948. The world was still reeling from the atrocities committed in the second world war, which left many people missing their relatives, their homes and some, their lives. The world’s answer to this was a bit of paper, containing 30 articles that all humans should be entitled to. So on a rainy [...]

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I’m cold. I’m shattered. My hands are searing with the coldness. I’ve got no job, and nowhere to live. I’m all on my own, with no one to comfort me. Every night I go through this agony. Will I be mugged? Will I be kidnapped? Will I be hurt? No one cares about the homeless. [...]

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Stubbs, 51, made her name as an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company and had notable roles as Desdemona in Othello and Viola in Twelfth Night. But she admitted she could often find the texts impenetrable and it could be “frustrating” to get into character.   Stubbs told the Radio Times: “Shakespeare can be terrifying, [...]

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Although billed as a “modern take” on the children’s classic using a mix of CGI and live-action, the movie will go back to the beginning of the story and explain how the little bear from Darkest Peru was discovered in Paddington Station. It will also keep all of Paddington’s quirks, from his penchant for marmalade [...]

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There are two wondrous events I remember as a young boy: Hillary and Tenzing climbing Everest in 1953, and in 1954 Roger Bannister running the first sub-four-minute mile. I’ve never run a mile – competitively, that is – nor have I ever climbed a mountain: a few tors on Dartmoor has been my limit. But [...]

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Hogwarts, the wizarding school at the centre of the Harry Potter books, can now count 3 million virtual pupils among its numbers after fans rushed to sign up to creator JK Rowling’s latest venture Pottermore. After its initial launch date of last October slipped and slipped, Pottermore eventually went live to all on the morning [...]

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If tattooed warriors can win an audience by chanting Shakespeare in Maori and shaking the hallowed foundations of the Globe Theatre then, come on, there’s hope for us all.   That thought took me back to an evening last year, when I found myself at the Lyric in the West End for a programme of [...]

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Teachers are being told not to  correct more than three spelling errors at a time to avoid damaging pupils’ self-confidence, an MP revealed yesterday. Andrew Selous highlighted the practice at a secondary school in his South West Bedfordshire constituency but fears it is widespread across the country. The Tory MP condemned not correcting all errors [...]

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Maurice Sendak, American born author of Where the Wild Things Are, has died at the age of 83. Over a career that began in the late 1940s he illustrated more than 100 books and wrote more than 20, but it was Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963, that made his name internationally, selling [...]

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Mr Sendak wrote and illustrated more than a dozen books, the most famous of which, Where the Wild Things Are was also turned into a Hollywood movie in 2009. The author died from complications resulting from a recent stroke according to his longtime editor, Michael di Capua.   In the video, shot for the Tate [...]

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Maurice Sendak, who died on Tuesday, was one of the few – and rare – writers who truly wrote for children. Not to entertain their parents, or to improve their social skills – he told the stories that children live themselves, wobbling on the uncomfortable brink between dreams, imagination and reality, where truth is whatever [...]

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People who ‘lose themselves’ in a book can actually change their behaviour to match the characters they like best. Whether that means that reading Harry Potter will make children keener at school remains to be seen – but the effect certainly works on voting habits. The effect is particularly strong with books written in the [...]

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An Oxford undergraduate is following in the footsteps of best-selling author JK Rowling – after landing a six-figure book deal with the Harry Potter writer’s publisher. English undergraduate Samantha Shannon, 20, has signed a contract with publishing powerhouse Bloomsbury for the release of her novel, The Bone Season, and two sequels. But she doesn’t plan [...]

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Last year I wrote an article called could we wave goodbye to reading schemes? in which I chatted to one school about their journey which involved doing just that – and how they’ve never looked back. The school have given children with a passion for books, a knowledge of different authors and genres and don’t miss Wellington [...]

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An event has been held to mark the 160th anniversary of birth of Alice Liddell, the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Celebrations have included a massive Mad Hatter-themed tea party on Llandudno’s promenade. Organisers are now waiting to see if they have also earned a world record for the largest number of jam [...]

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I visit around thirty primary schools a year. Although my presentations are fairly standard, each school derives a different level of benefit, ranging from a creative, educational experience down to a waste of my effort and theirs. One of the puzzling experiences of being an author is watching schools undermine their own efforts during a [...]

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I’ve been reading Young Adult books for two years now, ever since I was struggling with a novel idea about a thirty-year-old woman going into Witness Protection. It just wasn’t working and my friend Cristin suggested I make her a teenager. I scoffed at first, thinking all books for teenagers are about sullen vampires and [...]

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The best-selling author said parents should consider restricting the use of mobile phones and websites, encouraging their children to go back to “old-fashioned” interaction. Sir Terry, 64, said the new technology was restricting young people’s thoughts and said having a wide vocabulary “stops you getting frustrated”. In an interview with the Evening Standard, he said [...]

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If anyone should be used to the daily challenges of spelling, it is Agnieszka Kolaczynska, from Llidiartywaen. She says her name and that of Welsh villages like her own in Powys helped her in a global children’s contest. The nine-year-old beat more than 1.5m other youngsters in the World Education Games (Weg) spelling championships. Home-schooled [...]

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“Politicians,” he says, “have been downplaying the importance of history as a subject in our schools but, if they had bothered to have a better grasp of history themselves, they might have avoided costly wars. Instead they act like children. The only time that they think matters is their own.” Since the actor, author and [...]

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One in three London secondary school teachers regularly encounters pupils who struggle to spell their own name. Experts today described as a “tragedy” the findings of research highlighting the extent of illiteracy in the capital. The survey, for the Prince’s Trust and Times Educational Supplement, also found more than half of London teachers regularly come [...]

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Are you a fan of fairy tales? Test how much you know about one of the fairest of them all – Snow White via Are you a Snow White whizz? – quiz for under-7s | Children’s books | guardian.co.uk. » Inline Ad Purchase:  Intext Link

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Teaching children traditional subjects makes them less likely to indulge in ‘risky behaviour’, Michael Gove declared yesterday. The Education Secretary claimed that a good grounding in core academic disciplines was more effective than teaching life skills ‘in minutiae’. His comments to MPs came amid growing controversy over lurid sex education materials used in some schools. The Education [...]

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Literacy has become a hot issue in the UK and internationally, with growing outrage that many children fail to learn to read and write. Globally, there are about 50 million more children in school today than there were just over a decade ago. There are still challenges in achieving universal access – more than 67 [...]

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Public libraries have had to withdraw dozens of long-standing children’s favourites after parents complained they were offensive. Anxious adults have taken action over stories deemed to be racist, blasphemous, violent or otherwise unsuitable, a survey has revealed. Roald Dahl was among those criticised, with his Revolting Rhymes and Even More Revolting Rhymes singled out over the [...]

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While Americans are busy protesting about the violence and offensive language present in dystopian smash hit The Hunger Games, parents in the UK are focusing their complaints on the “coarse language” of Roald Dahl and the violence of the Horrible History books, according to a survey of the country’s libraries. The poll covered more than [...]

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For most parents, bedtime stories are a cherished and innocent time, featuring much-loved books full of comforting characters. But for some, it seems, this nightly ritual is a minefield of potentially offensive and unsuitable material.   A survey of libraries has revealed how dozens of children’s books have provoked complaints from angry parents – accusing [...]

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Readers of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away now. Please, click back to the homepage; forget you ever came here; retreat while your mind is still as pure and unsullied as a recently-laundered doily. This article contains explicit, harrowing details of the violence depicted in The Hunger Games, and they cannot be unread. [...]

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Three-quarters of variations in British schools’ performance is explained by differences in socio-economic background of its students. Photograph: Rex Features Nick Clegg is reported to be planning to set targets for schools to narrow the performance gap between disadvantaged children and other pupils as a way of promoting social mobility. He is right to identify [...]

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Eddie Nicholls released his message from Halstow Primary School in Greenwich, south east London, last month telling the recipient about his interests and hobbies. But to his astonishment, he received a reply from Mr Gove yesterday saying it was a “delight to receive post in such an unusual way”.   The Tory MP for Surrey Heath [...]

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Culture Books Children and teenagers Happy birthday to the children’s books site No JK Rowling or Philip Pullman – but David Walliams and Enid Blyton make the grade. To mark the first anniversary of the Guardian’s children’s books website, here are the authors that our young critics loved best this year Share 140 Comments (27) [...]

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Whole class of children could fail their GCSEs after teacher forgot to set coursework and then invented grades to cover her mistake By LEON WATSON PUBLISHED: 18:13, 13 April 2012 | UPDATED: 18:36, 13 April 2012 Comments (71) Share More than 30 children face failing their GCSEs after a teacher failed to set their coursework [...]

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Schools to get targets for helping disadvantaged pupils’ performance Nick Clegg to argue for schools to be accountable for spending of pupil premium as part of social mobility strategy Share 54 Patrick Wintour, political editor guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 April 2012 19.43 BST Article history Nick Clegg’s proposed targets will tackle the education attainment gap between [...]

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How many children of school age regularly read a quality newspaper, let alone understand how it is produced? I don’t know the answer, but my unofficial research tells me not very many, unless it’s a quick rifle through the Metro looking for the celeb gossip on the morning journey to school. Skimming my inbox during [...]

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Showing capital letters and how you read from left to right and top to bottom of the page also improves the childrens’ spelling and language comprehension skills. ”By showing them what a letter is and what a letter means, and what a word is and what a word means, we’re helping them to crack the code [...]

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Terry Deary said he shudders to think of his books, which include Terrible Tudors and Vile Victorians, being used in lessons and that he would like to be able to sue schools for doing so. The author, whose books have sold more than 25 million copies and spawned a television series and an award-winning play, [...]

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In the last eight years, high school English teacher Jeff Scheur has graded 15,000 papers. He estimates that each time he collects a new round of essays from his 150 students, it takes him about 40 hours to read them, fill out grading rubrics and write personalized feedback. Meanwhile, he questions the impact of his [...]

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Schools are failing to instil their pupils with a lifelong love of reading, Ofsted will say today. Part of the problem stems from teachers losing the art of reading stories aloud to children, a report from the watchdog found. It also said that tens of thousands of children who pass English tests for 11-year-olds cannot [...]

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Boris Johnson has pledged to stamp out the “scandal” of illiteracy among 11-year-olds if re-elected to City Hall. The Mayor plans to roll out his successful Team London literacy schemes, which help three- to five-year-olds learn to read. He is concerned that older children without basic educational skills are more likely to get into trouble [...]

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It is a Monday morning in the heart of Dublin. In a light, airy room situated in the shadow of the city’s looming Croke Park stadium, two dozen schoolgirls in matching navy blue jumpers sit attentively on coloured beanbags. The room is lined with bookshelves. High up on one wall there are a series of [...]

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The ongoing debate over faith schools is largely conducted at the level of, well, faith. Most of us have an instinctive opinion about whether it is a good idea for churches, mosques and synagogues to have a hand in educating young people. David Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, believes religion fosters a “culture and [...]

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The Problem  With Synthetic Phonics systems in place in most classrooms, many more children are picking up basic skills like reading and spelling with relative ease. However, 20% of children reach age 11 and are still not able to pass a reading test. Why? Children, like everyone, have different learning styles. We all naturally use [...]

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A modern version of tiddlywinks created by pupils from Walworth Academy in Southwark has won a competition run by the Design Museum at Shad Thames. The students will now work with designers to develop the game, Slick Shooter, and it will eventually go on sale in the museum’s shop. They beat projects from more than [...]

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State schools spend no more than £1 per pupil each year teaching religion, a Government-funded study found yesterday. It said religious education was squeezed for time and money, for books and good teachers, and for the support of school heads. Even the most dedicated schools paid a maximum of £1 a pupil for materials and [...]

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Lessons are increasingly dying out because of a decline in the amount of time, money and resources devoted to the traditional discipline, it is claimed. James Conroy, professor of religious and philosophical education at Glasgow University, warned that RE was becoming less focused on issues of faith as schools “overburden” the curriculum with everything from [...]

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Pupils at the Evening Standard’s adopted primary school have taken up poetry as part of the campaign to boost literacy levels. Classrooms at St Mary’s in Battersea became writing workshops for a poetry day – the latest step in our efforts to help transform the struggling school, where half the pupils fail to achieve the [...]

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