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By John, on September 5th, 2004
The German education authorities are struggling to move from morning-only schools – primary and secondary schools don’t provide midday meals or tuition in the afternoon – to ones which are open for something approaching a normal working day, so long as enough parents request it at a specific school. In many cases where schools are now open longer, there is only unqualified supervision for the children, rather than lessons or the extended school day is not effective on every day in the week.
Meanwhile, the British government has declared the goal of having all primary schools open from 08:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs five days in the week.
The government wants to have the first 250 schools implemented by 2006, and 1000 schools within 4 years. The schools will offer extra sports and art activities, family learning and parenting classes as well as childcare and extra study support for pupils. The goal is two-fold: to help working parents, and to get the children doing more sport.
The move comes after suggestions that the 300% increase in obese pupils over the last 20 years has been largely caused by selling off schools’ playing fields, cutting sports lessons and installing sweet and drink vending machines in schools. The Education Secretary will be announcing further measures aimed at improving the pupils’ knowledge about healthy eating next week.
By John, on August 31st, 2004
I missed this article a couple of weeks ago in Wired. So just for the record, expert opinion is that web, internet and its abbreviation net should no longer be capitalized, unless used in a headline.
And in case you missed it, back in October 2000, Wired decided that e-mail should be written with a hyphen.
By John, on August 30th, 2004
Ruth’s sister, Anne, and family (almost all the family – Katie, the oldest daughter – is still in the USA for another week) were here for a long weekend. The weather was foul, but I see that the UK weather this summer has also been awful.
In between showers, we did manage to pack quite a bit in – including a visit to Hessen Park.
 
As well as a visit to the Bad Homburg Laternenfest (no pix) and some local walks through the woods.
 
By John, on August 30th, 2004
That master of muddled statements has provided us with another gem yesterday, the Guardian reports:
Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day…
(George W. Bush before the Republican National Convention, yesterday in New York)
By John, on August 25th, 2004
Keeping up with the Joneses. In other words, rushing out to buy the latest BMW because they’ve just invested in a new Audi. That we know about and understand.
But did you realise that the Joneses can be a real headache if you are trying to sell your house and the Joneses park a caravan in their front garden?
By John, on August 23rd, 2004
It rained on Sunday, so the pond had to be pumped out again on Monday, before work could continue. Continue reading Pond Update
By John, on August 22nd, 2004
The Observer lists some of the tricks which supermarkets get up to, to try and get you to spend more:
- The most profitable items are at chest height and about 1/3 of the way along the isle. That’s where we look most of the time. (The bargains are often much lower down, near foot level).
- Two for one? Check that you are not just paying two for two – if you can buy melons at a £1 each, why buy two for £2? (I’ve seen that trick used here)
- Buy locally – the local grocer often stocks produce which is in season at 30% less than the supermarket (to be fair, hardly a trick, but worth bearing in mind).
- Ready-prepared is a lot more expensive than buying the raw ingredients and doing it yourself. You’ll often pay 2 – 3 times as much if the supermarket washes and chops up a selection of lettuce, or converts minced beef into beefburger patties.
- Watch for mixed unit prices. A pack of four tomatoes priced at 8.7p per tomato is impossible to compare with loose tomatoes priced at 45p a pound (in the case in point, much cheaper). And of course some unit prices may be in pounds, some in 100g units and some in Kg units, so beware an expensive cut of meat being priced per 100g and a cheaper cut being priced per Kg. (In Germany, I have never noticed unit prices per tomato, but you do see kiwis or mangoes at 99¢ each, for example).
- Bulk packs (of washing power, for example) are sometimes more expensive per Kg than a number of smaller packs to make the same total weight.
- The staple foodstuffs (milk, bread, etc.) are usually positioned around the edges of the store far from the entrance, so you have to go past the high-profit impulse buys (sweets, etc) to get to them.
- And, related to the previous point but not mentioned by the Observer, the supermarkets periodically move everything around to force you to look for the milk and bread, and while you’re doing that, discover lots of impulse-buy items you wouldn’t normally notice!
By John, on August 21st, 2004
Last summer, the level of the water in our pond dropped. At the time we thought it might have been a result of the hot summer, and indeed over the winter the level returned to normal. But this spring, the level dropped alarmingly again and it became obvious that we had a leak. As we have also had problems when it has rained heavily, that water cascades over the edge of the pond into a neighbour’s garden, it was obviously time to get something done about it. Continue reading Finally – our pond gets fixed!
By John, on August 21st, 2004
Pennine sheep have found out how to cross cattle grids, so they can feast on flowers from the local graveyard and nearby gardens.
By John, on August 20th, 2004
The Guardian explains how the British Government has put itself in the ridiculous position of claiming that although 96% of the students pass their A-levels, compared with 70% 20 years ago, standards are increasing.
Previously, a fixed percentage were passed or got a specific grade. Now the marking level is supposed to be held constant and thus the number reaching a particular grade can go up or down. Unfortunately, the marking level is not in practice being kept constant and the marking scheme is so inflexible that you are penalised for knowing too much:
In evidence to the Commons select committee inquiry into A-level standards 18 months ago, the head of one of the exam boards, Kathleen Tattersall, admitted that A-levels are neither norm referenced nor criterion referenced. Instead they are “soft criterion referenced”. What that means is that neither proportions nor standards are fixed in advance. It means that examiners can decide on a standard beforehand, but if too many people or too few then reach that standard, it can be adjusted. “It is a system that has served us very well,” she said. It may have done. But it makes a nonsense of the idea that there any absolute standards being maintained…
…And in a sad illustration of just how narrow the marking has become, the eminent economist Lord Skidelsky failed a Russian economy paper when he took an A-level in Russian two years ago. The examination board said that his points were irrelevant, and that people who had too much knowledge of a subject often over-answered a question.
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