English in the News
Below is a selection of articles which are archived online and may be of interest to NATE members. If you know of others please let us know. Keep up to date with our Twitter feed, too.
- Parents of special educational needs children could get care budgets - The Guardian, Tuesday March 8, 2011
Green paper proposes giving families of special needs children more power to direct health and care plansLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Cheesy poems get a new audience - The Guardian, Monday March 7, 2011
McGonagall and McIntyre, two of Scotland's 'persistent bad poets', are remembered with new public recitalsLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Alfred Lord Tennyson poem to inspire athletes at London 2012 Olympics - The Guardian, Monday March 7, 2011
Line from Tennyson's Ulysses to be visible at Olympic villageLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Country music star Dolly Parton in Scots book giveaway - BBC, Sunday March 6, 2011
Country music star Dolly Parton has launched a project to give free books to children in Scotland. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Warning over reading standards as children shun tough books - Daily Telegraph, Thursday March 3, 2011
Reading standards among children are in sharp decline as pupils increasingly opt for easy books in school and the home, according to a report published today.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Teenagers who fail GCSEs to be forced to retake maths and English - Daily Telegraph, Thursday March 3, 2011
Teenagers failing to gain decent GCSEs in English and maths will be forced to resit the subjects at college under sweeping Coalition plans to boost standards of basic skill.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - World Book Night to open with huge public reading in London - The Guardian, Wednesday February 23, 2011
Unprecedented Trafalgar Square event will feature star authors including Margaret Atwood and be hosted by Graham NortonLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Reading test for six-year-olds to include non-words - BBC, Saturday February 19, 2011
A number of made-up words such as "koob" or "zort" are to be included in the government's planned new reading test for six-year-olds in EnglandLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Martin Amis: Only brain injury could make me write for children - The Guardian, Friday February 11, 2011
Children's authors have expressed anger over 'insult' to their work on BBC programmeLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - I loved our 'failing' school, flailing teacher realises - The Guardian, Thursday February 10, 2011
You can't beat an inner-city, state school, sixth form – sussed, curious, hungry and bright as pins. Ah, the dappled light on shades of academe as we thrilled to John Donne or Emily Bronte or the Clash. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Joined to Seamus Heaney's Human Chain - The Guardian, Monday February 7, 2011
The winning essay from this year's TS Eliot prize for poetry Shadowing SchemeLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - The 'conTROversy' over changing pronunciations - Daily Telegraph, Saturday February 5, 2011Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
In a study by the British Library, interim results suggest a third of Britons taking part now adopt the American-style “skedule” over the traditional pronunciation, which has a softer “sh” sound. The research, which is ongoing, is part of a series of projects connected to the British Library’s Evolving English exhibition.
- Library users 'become better readers' - BBC, Friday February 4, 2011
Children who use their local public library are twice as likely to be above average readers, a report has said.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Reading tests for pupils part of Welsh school shake-up - BBC, Thursday February 3, 2011
National reading tests are to be introduced as part of a shake-up to Wales' schools system announced by the education minister.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Patrick Stewart chosen to receive Shakespeare prize - BBC, Thursday February 3, 2011
Sir Patrick Stewart CBE is to receive this year's Pragnell Shakespeare Birthday Prize.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Children's screen habits revealed - BBC, Tuesday February 1, 2011
UK children watch an average of more than two and a half hours of television a day and spend an hour and 50 minutes online a day, a poll suggests.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Theatre doth protest too little and too slowly - The Guardian, Tuesday February 1, 2011
Playwright Simon Stephens is right – writers should take to the stage and make their voices heard, no matter how ugly it gets, says Lyn Gardner
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Parents 'wrongly blamed for speech problems' - BBC, Monday January 31, 2011
Long-term speech and language problems are wrongly being blamed on parents not talking to their children and too much television, research suggests.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Fears over teacher shortages following training slump - Daily Telegraph, Friday January 28, 2011
Secondary schools are facing a teaching crisis following a collapse in the number of graduates applying to work in the classroom.NATE vice-chair Simon Gibbons, director of secondary teacher training at Kings College London, said: “People are uncertain about working in the public sector – they are questioning if it is a secure profession.”
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Philip Pullman's call to defend libraries resounds around web - The Guardian, Thursday January 27, 2011
Impassioned polemic against closures picked up by thousands of readersLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here