Category: inclusiveness

Children “too embarrassed” to read

A very worrying report was published last week by the National Literacy Trust and reported in the Daily Telegraph. The survey, of 21,000 children in primary and secondary education over the past few years, revealed a steady and concerning drop in the number of pupils reading in their spare time – from 38.1% in 2005 …

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Beauty and the beast – why we should just ban beauty pageants for children

Tuesday’s report in the Daily Mail of a beauty pageant in Lincolnshire has – quite understandably – created a storm online. Beauty pageants as a formalised concept seem somehow entirely outdated these days – parades of women marked out of ten for their looks and physical appearance, with barely a nod to their ‘personality’. These …

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Back to school …

This poem brought a little lump to my throat, but a big smile to my face when I found it recently: WHOSE CHILD IS THIS? Author Unknown “Whose child is this?” I asked one day Seeing a little one out at play “Mine”, said the parent with a tender smile “Mine to keep a little …

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The deep horrors of motherhood. We Need to Talk About Kevin

I recently read – in one intensive, all-encompassing go – We Need to Talk About Kevin. I know that Lionel Shriver wrote it in 2003, and we are now almost a decade on, in 2012; I know too that it was made into a film last year, so I am well aware that I am …

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The preciousness of life

I have just returned from the annual UK Boarding Schools Association Heads’ Conference in Bristol – conveniently close to home, although it was a delight to meet two of my new Australian fellow Heads, for whom it was not particularly close, but who had made the effort to come and connect. The opening speaker was …

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Mis-Guiding? Girlguiding UK and the manicure controversy

I felt rather conflicted when I read in yesterday’s newspapers about Girlguiding UK’s themed activity packs, designed to provide a focus to meetings. Of the 26 packs on offer to Guide leaders, designed for use by the Guides in their unit, a number appear to focus on physical appearance, style and fashion, with names such …

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