(Why should we study Mandarin Chinese?)

 

Did you know…?

Nadia goes to a school in New Orleans. She works really hard and wants to do her best at school. Even though she works hard in all her subjects - she is struggling in maths (sorry that should be ‘math’ – we are in America after all). Her teacher is good and she likes him. She reads all her textbooks and really does try to do her homework, but she just can’t seem to understand the complicated bits and even some of the basic concepts are too hard. Algebra makes her head hurt.

Last week Michael Gove outlined his ideas regarding the role that Universities could play in developing examination content for A-levels. The relationship between tertiary and secondary education is a vital one in preparing young people for the “super-complexity of the modern world” (Ron Barnett). The collaboration between UCL and the Academy will be central to ensuring that our students will learn in an environment that will maximise the opportunities available.

If you are sat next to someone reading this, get ready to have an argument…err, I mean a discussion. Which out of the following pairs do you think are more important for students to learn at school nowadays?

If you are quick and go to the main UCL Porters’ Lodge you might persuade them to let you have one of their chocolates. Then again, they may rightly feel they thoroughly deserve to have them all after the staff there helped us out so much with the final rush of sixth form applications on Monday evening.

It is nearly 5 years since the concept for an Academy was first brought up by the Provost and Vice Provost of UCL. For those of us now charged with making the idea a reality, we can see on our wall chart that we have just over 7 months to go.