Written by Angelina Weir on November 13, 2011.
Toddlers can go to a variety of nursery settings
As many as 140,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds could have free nursery places under a scheme planned to be rolled out in England.
Plans to give 15 hours of free “early education” a week to all two-year-olds from poor homes were announced last year but details have now been set out.
A pilot scheme, first started under Labour, is due to be extended nationwide from September 2013.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said all children needed the best start.
All three and four-year-olds are currently entitled to 15 hours of early education for 38 weeks a year.
This can be in nursery schools and classes, childrens centres, day care nurseries, play groups, pre-schools and with accredited child minders.
Under the new plan, which is out for consultation, parents will be able to use their allocated time flexibly, between 07:00 and 19:00.
So for example, they could have seven-hour slots for two days a week, to make it easier for them to work.
‘Balance work and home’
Ministers say access to early education improves the life chances of poor children by helping them develop and get ready for school.
Disadvantaged children are far less likely than others to do well in education.
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Written by Angelina Weir on November 2, 2011.
KINGSVILLE — After a recent math test, Santa Gertrudis Academy senior Elizabeth Springs experienced something that had not happened to her since the seventh grade.
“I missed a question,” Elizabeth said. “I called my mom and told her I actually missed one question.”
Elizabeth, 17, isn’t in an ordinary high school math class. Like most of the courses she’s taking this semester, her math class is a college-level course. By the time she graduates, she’ll have earned about 50 college hours from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Ranked first in her class of 39, Elizabeth has a grade average of 101 and is a winner in the 2011 Caller-Times/Citgo South Texas Distinguished Scholars in the Science category.
“I’ve always had an inclination toward science and math and discovering how things work,” Elizabeth said.
Science, math and academic success are a family trait for Elizabeth. Her grandfather was a chemistry professor and her father, Wayne, is a math teacher. Her mother, Mary, is the Santa Gertrudis Independent School District superintendent and is working toward her doctoral degree. E
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Written by Angelina Weir on October 24, 2011.
From The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Spring-Ford Area (Pa.) School District will have to pay pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline $6.5 million in tax reimbursements over the next three years under an agreement that settles a reassessment case brought by Glaxo. Spring-Ford has to pay Glaxo $3 million within 30 days and make up the difference by granting $3.5 million more in tax credits over the next three years. Officials say the $3 million will come out of district capital reserves – money it had set aside in anticipation of school construction and repair projects.
Written by Angelina Weir on October 23, 2011.
A dozen state-of the-art buildings that will advance the medical school’s clinical, educational and research missions are beginning to rise, but Stanford isn’t leading the effort.
With a construction budget of more than $1 billion, the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, or VAPAHCS, has launched an ambitious building project on its flagship campus on Miranda Avenue in Palo Alto, leaving almost no spot of the 93-acre site untouched. The plan includes a new mental health center; the Department of Veterans Affairs’ largest rehabilitation center, which will combine polytrauma and blind rehabilitation; additional research space; and additional lodging facilities for veteran patients and family members.
The project is driven by an emphasis on patient-centric care and concerns about seismic safety. The project is also part of a broader shift by the VA and health care in general toward more outpatient services, concentrating the most advanced tertiary care services at flagship facilities, such as the Palo Alto site. VAPAH
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Written by Angelina Weir on October 13, 2011.
While researching my recent post on the Nobel Prize, I discovered that the website has a series of “educational productions,” including games and written/illustrated primers on different topics. I’ve been playing the malaria game all morning – you have to fly a mosquito around drinking the blood of humans while avoiding bug spray and mosquito nets and birds, but first you get a little lesson telling you about how malaria is transmitted.
Or play immune system defender where general macrophage teaches you how to hunt down the nefarious bacterial invaders.
The written articles are pretty good too, and the illustrations (like the one above) are great. I mostly looked at the medicine ones, but there’s educational games/articles for the other prizes too. Anyone that can make a game out of chemical chirality deserves some recognition.