The winners of the 48th annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 have been announced marking another great year for the Northern Ireland finalists who scooped top awards at the exhibition.
Now it’s the turn of the Belfast Telegraph BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 Video Diary finalists to be in with a chance to win another amazing prize.
Four Northern Ireland schools who qualified for the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 entered and were selected for the Belfast Telegraph BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition Video Diary initiative last December. The schools were given a video recorder to record their preparations and experience of the exhibition to create a Student Diary.
The participating schools, Wellington College, Loreto Grammar School Omagh, St Louis GS Kilkeel, and Abbey Christian Brothers Newry have now submitted their video diary entries which recorded their overall experience of having qualified as a finalist for the world leading event.
A judging panel will now choose the overall best video diary entry in early February and the winning school will be awarded with an iPad.
Besides relishing the extraordinarily warm and sunny weather conditions of this winter, students are also enjoying a new addition to our dining hall. This addition is a fully expanded vegetarian/vegan station at Frank. It was introduced this week and the response from students has been extremely positive.
Being a vegetarian, I am excited to see the dining hall offering more options for people with specific diets. The chefs at Frank took into consideration the suggestions and comments from students and decided to act on their wishes.
The food at the station has been great so far and I am grateful for the wonderful staff at Frank and their commitment to answer to the students’ requests.
Clubs have started meeting and have started to plan for this semester. I have already attended a variety of meetings and I hope to find time to participate in as many clubs as I can.
One club I find myself enjoying is women’s club volleyball. This group is full of talented players who enjoy the sport for exercise, meeting new people, and working together as a team. Women’s club volleyball will begin competing against other colleges starting in March. By then, I believe we will be ready to show our competitors our skills.
Last weekend Colgate students, who bought tickets, attended the David Guetta concert. It was a good time with great friends and it offered a change of scenery for those who had never been in Syracuse. The Colgate CAB organization undertook the task of transporting eighty students to and from a concert, which is no small feat; it was smooth traveling and a fun experience to remember.
After I went to Syracuse on Friday, a little bit of Syracuse came to me the following day. One of my good friends from back home, a student at Syracuse University, came and visited me last Saturday.
It was great to have her on campus and to show her around Colgate. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Hamilton, Royal Indian Grill, and we spent time with my friends on campus. She seemed to really enjoy Colgate’s community feel, how easy it is to get from one place to another, and our beautiful campus.
This weekend brings rest for many students who have already taken some of their first tests of the semester, and for students who have tests next week, some time to study!Look every Friday for my blog entries about what is going on at Colgate.
The areas on which schools are measured drops from 27 to four categories.
A quarter of schools rated “outstanding” are to be re-examined because their teaching did not reach the highest standard, says the new chief inspector of schools in England.
Schools will only be “outstanding” if their teaching is, Sir Michael Wilshaw confirmed.
In his first major speech he said “we have tolerated mediocrity for too long” and radical improvements were needed.
Teaching unions have accused him of “trashing the school system”.
A new framework for Ofsted inspections came in last month which ended regular inspections for outstanding schools.
Now schools with this highest overall rating but which did not get top marks for teaching face being re-inspected.
In his speech at a school in London, in front of heads from outstanding schools, Sir Michael said: “I believe we need radical improvements to the education system in this country.
“My view is that we have tolerated mediocrity for far too long – it has settled in to the system.”
Sir Michael told the BBC the new inspection framework would “focus on what really matters – the quality of teaching”.
“I dont see how you achieve outstanding status unless the quality of teaching is also outstanding,” he said.
The new framework slimmed down the areas on which schools are measured from 27 to four categories.
No-notice inspections
Sir Michael has formally set out other changes he plans to make by the autumn in a consultation paper published on Thursday.
A big change is a move to “no-notice” inspections.
At the moment, most schools are told a few days before an inspection when inspectors are coming in.
Critics of the system complain this notice prevents inspectors from seeing schools as they really are and some have accused schools of “bussing out” challenging pupils by sending them on day trips.
Heads said the notice gave them the chance to pull together all the data inspectors would want to see and arrange cover for staff the inspectors might want to talk to.
Another change proposed is the scrapping of the “satisfactory” label.
This would mean there would be three possible gradings – outstanding, good and “requires improvement” – instead of the current four.
Chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw: “Weve got to up our game”
Sir Michael told BBC Radio 4s Today programme “satisfactory” was no longer good enough.
“All parents want their children to go to good schools,” he said.
“If a school is not good it will be placed in a category requiring improvement. If it does not improve, it will end up in special measures.”
He said 6,000 schools were currently graded as “satisfactory” and too many of these were “coasting”.
Sir Michael said he wanted all schools to be good schools: “This is about a step change. We want to make sure we move things further forward for this nation and that the gap between best and worst and richest and poorest closes.
“These have not closed as much as they should have.”
Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT, said Sir Michaels comments called in to question “every Ofsted judgement which has ever been made on any school”.
“He is trashing the school system, trashing the reputation of Ofsted and removing anything that parents can rely on by which to judge a school.
“This is puerile game-playing at expense of schools, their teachers and pupils.
“The secretary of states strategy of letting outstanding schools automatically become academies is now in tatters.”
‘Quite galling’
Clare Bradford, head teacher at Henbury School, a comprehensive in Bristol, is disappointed her school was recently rated only satisfactory by Ofsted, despite dramatic improvement.
She told Today: “I completely agree with Sir Michael that every school should have aspirations to be at least good or outstanding but its very difficult for schools, particularly in challenging circumstances”.
She said her school had seen the number of children with A* to C grades rise from 13% to 46% – and it was “quite galling” to be rated only as satisfactory.
Sir Michael responded by pointing out there were currently 700 schools “in challenging circumstances” which were graded as “outstanding”.
As a head teacher, he was credited with turning around struggling schools.
The head teachers association ASCL said it welcomed the tighter focus on teaching and learning in Ofsted inspections, but said schools in challenging areas should have the same chance of a high grade as a good school in a less difficult area.
Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of ASCL, said: “This is not about making excuses, it is acknowledging the challenges that schools in disadvantaged areas are dealing with, in addition to raising results”.
Mr Trobe also said that Sir Michaels comments were “damaging and demoralising dedicated professionals”.
“The message that teachers and heads will take from todays announcement is that the chief inspector sees them as part of the problem rather than the solution,” he said.
“This is no way to improve our education system, nor to treat hard working professionals who are doing the best for the young people in their care.”
Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said: “Im glad that the government appears to have performed a partial U-turn on inspecting outstanding schools.
“The government should ensure all schools, including those rated as outstanding, are inspected on a regular basis. Parents need to have confidence that a schools Ofsted rating is up to date.”
Stanford psychology researchers are using imaging techniques to learn more about what happens in the brains of young girls at risk of depression and, as recently described here, theyre exploring a novel way to train brains away from negative situations. Ian Gotlib, PhD, discusses the work, which represents a critical step in learning how to prevent the onset of a depressive episode, in a Stanford Report article and the video above.
When every parent brings a child into their lives, there is a lot of joy for the new born. However, raising the child is no child’s play and especially if the parents are working, one of the most complex decisions such parents will ever have to make is finding the best childcare services that suit their child and their working schedule. Whichever child care a parent chooses should be one that works on the best interests of the child while the parent is away. There are several kinds of child services that are designed to meet the different and unique requirements or lifestyles of different parents, there are services best for the stay-at-home parents, full time working parents, those who work on shifts, single parents and even those that are studying. It is important for the parent to do a great deal of home work to establish among all available options which serves their children best.
The first step should be taking to the care givers t ascertain what they offer and they level of qualification in providing childcare services. From a list of providers, the parent should visit all while crossing them out remaining with the ones that seem preferable. Another important thing to consider is the child’s individual needs. Some children may require specialized care than others. Knowing things like the child’s temperament, likes and dislikes, medical condition, interests, behaviors, interaction with other children, learning styles, stage of development and even ability to communicate can be very useful in getting the best care for children. These needs have an effect in a child’s development and growth and taking them into consideration is very crucial. Regardless of the service chosen, the most important thing is the child to get professional care in a healthy environment, get nurtured and educated.
The areas on which schools are measured drops from 27 to four categories.