Learning Through Action

Ros Asquith, Lines cartoon

Channel 4 Education combines Ken Loach, Fresh Meat, The Sims and TOWIE into an interesting new story-telling experiment

Video games have been toying with the notion of 'emergent narratives' for many years. Stories that arise from the combination of player actions and the unpredictable behaviours of AI characters are a common element in 'open world' titles like Fallout, Far Cry and Dwarf Fortress. But can these techniques be used to create new forms of TV and movie drama?

Channel 4 Education certainly thinks so - it has just launched a new online drama named SuperMes, about a shy loner moving into a shared house with three lively characters. The series uses virtual actors and settings from popular PC game The Sims – a sort of interactive soap opera which has sold over 150 million copies since its launch in 2000.

But this wasn't a case of simply hijacking the character models and moving them around like automatons to act out pre-set story. Instead, developer Somethin' Else programmed the game's AI characters with a set of disparate behaviours and characteristics and then let them lose, filming the resulting interactions and building a narrative around them. The team hired indie games coder Robin Burkinshaw (who previously made his own Sims drama, Alice and Kev) to effectively 'direct' the action by playing the simulation, but he kept his interactions to a minimum, allowing the characters to decide on their own courses of action.

"This is not machinima," says producer Sean Coleman, referring to the burgeoning artform in which game engines and characters are used to act out narrative stories. "The scripts always followed gameplay and never dictated what should happen. The basic rules we set were never to recreate anything that hadn't happened and never to force the characters into situations their in-game wishes wouldn't put them in.

"We spent a number of weeks working out the personality traits that would work best to give us the most interesting characters, the most dramatic conflicts and the most quirky entertainment. The game is very sophisticated in the grey areas that it provides - the kind of ambiguities of personality that make really fascinating characters, and we were constantly surprised by our Sims. Like the time the two boys decided to go skinny-dipping. Nothing we had done told them to do that."

In effect, SuperMes is a convergence of game design and traditional story-telling – it is an experiment in allowing computer programmed characters to create their own plotlines on the fly. There are certainly parallels to be found, as Coleman points out, "There are elements of Dogme, Ken Loach and TOWIE in this project. It was always vital for us that we made a genuine collaboration between the film-makers and the AI of the game, and that's what we did."

The Ken Loach comparison is, perhaps, the most interesting. Like Mike Leigh, the veteran director often uses improvisation to discover and enrich elements of each scene, with a script following afterwards – and this is essentially the formula behind SuperMes; except the actors are replaced by artificially intelligent virtual beings.

Fascinatingly, the Somethin' Else team talks about the similarities between AI algorithms and emotions – both are sets of systems that, when combined with different agents, can lead to unpredictable and dramatic outcomes. "We tried to create internal conflicts," explains Coleman. "Clare was shy and a loner, but her life goal was to be super popular. Because of her shy trait, she doesn't like being among strangers, and finds it difficult to talk to people. If Anita then talks about herself to Clare, the combination of Clare's discomfort with strangers and her hot-headedness would make her angrier with Anita's self-obsessed blathering. The idea was to look at archetypal sitcom characters, and try to arrange the traits we gave our Sims to create similar characters, who would rub each other up in all possible ways."

The results are surprisingly watchable, touching and at times really funny. The morbidly self-conscious Clare loafs about the house, often sitting alone in the garden contemplating the narcissism of household attention-seeker Anita, while slacker Robert and musician Ryan mess about, eventually forming a quite heart-warming relationship. Meanwhile, a jokey voice over from Waterloo Road actor Jason Done adds a sort of Come Dine With Me meta-narrative.

The series is a spin-off from Channel 4 Education's award-winning SuperMe project, an online social game designed to help teenagers through difficult experiences and emotions. But it also hints towards interesting new narrative experiments, in which AIs rather than scriptwriters shape future linear dramas.

"Myself and co-deviser Jo Roach came up with the phrase 'emergent drama'," says Somethin' Else's chief creative officer, Paul Bennun "Emergence is a core concept of the science of complexity—hugely sophisticated behaviours can emerge for free from simple systems interacting. It's almost like the universe wants to tell stories.

"The human mind is always looking for patterns, and is always giving personality to inanimate objects or seeing narrative even when events are random. We're using universal tendencies to tell stories, but it's through the agency of talented storytellers that we interpret the sims. We called Robin Burkinshaw our 'Sims whisperer,' because he was able to do this with such style."

Bennun compares the approach to generative music, a term popularised by Brian Eno to describe a process in which the musician enters a set of criteria into a computer and allows the software to improvise. There are various applications, such as Mixtikl and Eno's own Bloom and Trope apps for the iPhone that allow users to create music in this way.

I wonder how long it will be before soap opera writers and movie producers are using AI improvisations to create content. After all, the three act structure that governs most mainstream film releases is so intricately shaped, it is almost a computer program in itself; start combining the data from successful movies, and allowing AI characters to experiment within the resulting confines, and you have the sort of crazed hybrid of Hollywood formula and Marxist dialectics that can only result in hit romantic comedies.

Coleman is more grounded in the possibilities of emergent drama. "For me, you will always need an experienced storytelling team to guide the output to make the best programme, but in terms of making a reality-drama from a virtual environment - this was inspirational to work on. As long as games engines can create characters which surprise you as much as a real-life person, you can have fun creating stories inside them."

Frankly, anything that you can usefully compare to both Ken Loach and TOWIE is worth exploring. And if that means a future of dramas based around AI programs and improvisational avatars, so be it.

The internet is awash with people offering to write essays for students. Should you regard them as a service or a scam?

Printing two copies of a 35-page dissertation at the university library: £3.50

Wire-binding both copies: £18

Four-pack of energy drinks and a packet of biscuits to make it through deadline night: £3.49

And there you have it – the recipe for a complete dissertation comes in at under £25. But what price do you put on the sleepless nights, stressful supervisor meetings and 12-hour library stints? How much would it cost to have someone else do it for you?

Well, if you're after a first-class history dissertation written by an Oxbridge graduate and delivered in a week, according to one essay-writing company, it'll set you back a cool £3,430 – just £145 less than an entire year's standard student maintenance loan. If you can wait a bit longer and you're only after a Desmond, you can get it for just under a grand.

These prices must be out of reach for most students, but a quick online search of "essay-writing services" returns more than 31 million hits. Clearly these businesses are thriving – so where are their customers? Where are the students who are shelling out thousands of pounds for a pre-packaged essay?

The unhappy answer, I fear, is: wherever there are desperate students. Things go wrong at university – family bereavements, personal crises, simple time mismanagement – and the sheer stomach-turning, throat-constricting panic of being unable to produce an assignment on deadline leads vulnerable students down this costly path.

Now, three grand is worth a bit of customer service, right? Yet online forums are full of complaints about essays arriving peppered with spelling mistakes, arguments that don't match pre-approved propositions and – the most common grievance – results that don't match the promised grade.

One user, who goes by the forum name RippedOff, told me that when she complained about not receiving an essay on time, she was informed that the company had been unable to get in contact with her assigned writer.

"They refused to give me a refund," says RippedOff, "and said that I could claim a discount, but only off the next purchase I made with them. I didn't want to take it any further because I was worried about being found out. The essay never arrived and I was £200 out of pocket."

So the prospect of shelling out for one of these essays is already looking pretty unappealing, even before we consider the unpleasant possibility of, you know, being thrown out of university for wilful plagiarism.

The websites advertise their essays as being "100% plagiarism free!", which we can take to mean that they haven't been copied from a database, and aren't resold to future customers. But students would be very wrong if they thought this somehow put them on the right side of the rules.

By presenting someone else's work as their own they would be in breach of any plagiarism policy at any university. The papers might pass a plagiarism scan, but there's always the chance that a tutor will spot the signs of an essay that hasn't been written by its submitter – disparity in writing style, for example.

But, of course, the essays provided aren't for submitting! How could you possibly think such a thing? Because they guarantee certain grades? Because they promise to meet your deadlines? Because they're fully referenced, double-spaced and bound? Well, clearly you haven't read the small print. Because hidden away on a hard-to-find page on each of these websites is a disclaimer that says something like: our essays are intended for research purposes only.

A leading UK-based site even says that customers who order papers are implicitly confirming that using the service does not violate their university's rules. It adds that, due to the fact the essays are purely for research, that shiny guaranteed 2:1 you were promised on the home page refers only to the general standard of the essay and not your final grade. Well, aren't we glad we cleared that up?

So it's as simple as that. All you have to do is shell out a few thou, bank on your essay arriving on time, hope it's grammatically correct, ensure it makes sense, pray you don't get found out, keep it quiet from all your friends (just to be safe), and live on packet noodles for the rest of term. What could be better?

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From the moment Eileen Daffern, our new teacher, walked into the classroom at Westlain grammar school in Brighton, in 1966, her elegant flowing silk clothes, and her insistence that French was fun, marked her out as different. Eileen, who has died aged 98, had become her family's breadwinner as her husband, George, was suffering from Alzheimer's. She was a success in teaching; in one year, all of her 35 O-level students passed their exams.

In the 1960s, Eileen thrived in the atmosphere of educational experimentation in interdisciplinary learning and new methods of language teaching. She built a strong relationship with Sussex University, where she eventually headed the schools unit of the Centre for Contemporary European Studies, supporting teachers nationally with publications, course development, conferences and fellowships.

She was born Eileen Clough and grew up in the village of Sutton, in Craven, West Yorkshire, and attended Skipton girls' high school. In the late 1930s, she travelled in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; after the second world war broke out, she worked in the munitions industry.

The war politicised Eileen. She joined the Communist party in 1941 and steadfastly championed nuclear disarmament, women's rights and the United Nations. In 1949, having married, she and George emigrated to Canada, where they remained for a decade before relocating to Brighton. George died in 1974.

Eileen was a natural coalitionist, always orientating herself towards a middle ground consistent with her principles. When I was elected to the London Assembly in 2000, she insisted that the Greens should try to work with Ken Livingstone to expand the social and environmental agenda.

Bruce Kent, who got to know Eileen well during the 1980s when she was the secretary of the Sussex Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament, and served on the national and international committees of CND, says: "Single-minded is too weak a word for Eileen. I was endlessly impressed by her keen intelligence, determination, world vision and capacity for efficient hard work. Many times we set off together to attend various international peace gatherings. Daffern bag-carrier was usually my allotted role. One theme was constant in Eileen's many letters: everyone can make a difference. We all have potential. Don't waste time. And she never did."

Her book, Essays on a Life: Politics, Peace and the Personal, was published in 2007. A few months ago, she wrote a letter to the Guardian reminding readers of the existence of the UN's Economic and Social Council and that its original purpose was to be a global system of economic co-operation, in contrast to the current economic turmoil, currency wars and speculator greed. She was determined, right to the end, in her beliefs.

Eileen is survived by her children, Jane, Michael and Thomas; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Britain's future economic and political wellbeing is being hamstrung by our reluctance to learn foreign languages

It is a baleful sign of our times that one of Newt Gingrich's most effective attacks on Mitt Romney is that he is so un-American he dares to speak French. Ever since the Iraq war, France and the French are synonymous with European lack of martial spirit and solidarity with the US, but more is at work than that. Command of a foreign language shows the wrong priorities, according to this line: it shows a willingness to work hard at understanding another culture, its language and mores. Real Americans don't do that.

The British are infected by the same culture, but we don't have the excuse of being the globe's dominant power and of occupying a continent. We live on a large island in the North Sea whose economic power is rapidly waning; any conceivable viable future demands openness and exchange with the rest of the world. Even Eurosceptics preach that, as a country, we have to look globally to secure our future. In fact, Britain should pursue both its European and global ambitions. But whatever your position in this debate, a capacity to speak a foreign language – and to enthuse about doing so – is a vital competence.

However, last week's figures, revealing a steep decline in those applying to study non-European languages – down 21% – appear to suggest we are heading in the opposite direction. What does this say about our young people's interest in the other? Of their awareness of the growing importance of China, the Arab-speaking world and the rest? Or, indeed, of their willingness to subject themselves to the discipline of learning a foreign language? The picture with regard to European languages is no better – 57% of pupils now take no languages at GCSE, while there has been a marked drop in the numbers of candidates studying for languages at A-level.

Seventeen-year-olds applying for their choice of university course are the creation of a series of personal, family and school choices, which in turn reflect our wider cultural reflexes and dispositions. But if part of the explanation is that these 17-year-olds feel that acquiring a language will not be valued by the labour market, then their judgment is completely wrong. The unemployment rate for language graduates is extremely low. The labour market values them.

Perhaps the new fees regime in which students will leave university with average debt of around £45,000 has become a factor; we shall see. (Full declaration: I chair the newly established independent fees commission that aims to explore the impact of the new fee regime on applications.) But this would be a mistake. In sheer utilitarian terms, the economy needs more people who can speak foreign languages. This is a valuable skill, whether you're part of the global scientific community or the world trade system.

Learning a language is thus a double win. The brilliant translator Michael Hofmann has written in these pages of the delight of mastering more than one language. To speak a single language, he argues, is to be enclosed in one cultural possibility – to be preordained to live in the linguistic and cultural cage into which you are born. "If you don't have another language, you are condemned to occupy the same positions, the same phrases all your life," he wrote. "It's harder to outwit yourself, harder to doubt yourself in just one language. It's harder to play." To acquire another language is to open yourself up to the world and to increase vastly your employability.

But such propositions are hard to get off the ground in a popular culture that can appear too shaped by insularity, distrust of foreigners and a jingoistic belief in British superiority. What's more, the initial years of studying a language are tough: there is no escape from the grind of learning how to conjugate verbs, construct sentences and to absorb enough words to begin to understand what is written and said.

To elect to do this, young boys and girls need to know that, like practising a musical instrument, designing clothes or playing a sport, the end-result will be worthwhile. They need teachers who can inspire them, classmates who encourage them and families who understand the value of the skill. In Britain, none of this exists to a sufficient degree.

It is not as though the situation is new. Successive education secretaries say how they deplore the trends. There are initiatives and campaigns galore, whether from the University Council of Modern Languages or the British Academy. But for all their good work, their efforts do not get much traction.

The deep problem is that neither Britain's popular culture nor its elite has yet to come to terms with the country's new international standing or what is implied by our economic position. The hangover from Empire and the legacy of great power, along with the comforting reality that the US is English-speaking, deludes us into still thinking that speaking a foreign language is a nice-to-have rather than a must-have asset.

Instead, in our eyes, the real traffic remains in foreigners learning our language and adjusting to our mores. Worse, there are floods of them beyond our borders anxious to live off our allegedly extraordinarily generous welfare state. The task is not to open ourselves to them as part of rebuilding our economy and remaking ourselves – it is to keep them out, pull up the drawbridge, make our welfare system as mean as possible and to balance our books. Foreigners are part of the problem, not the solution. Perhaps this is why so many of our children embarking on learning a foreign language are teased rather than praised and quickly give up on something that is so demanding.

The crisis in our foreign language studies is thus part of something much larger and why the coalition government's rhetoric and programme are so very, very misguided. There is a poverty of vision about what Britain needs to be – apart from a country that balances its public finances and says boo to foreigners. Without immigration, the European Union and the euro crisis, we would be just fine, or so runs this line, a cultural disposition fired up daily by our popular press.

But Britain has to build, has to trade and has to be open. It has to underwrite the risks faced by ordinary people in a ferociously competitive world, made more acute by the lost decade after the credit crunch. It has to be generous and inquiring, both of itself and of others. Empire and great power status have gone. We are starting over. It is when our elite and popular culture start talking in these terms that we will turn the corner.

Will Hutton is principal of Hertford College, Oxford

If we are not to fail future generations of pupils, Mr Gove's changes will have to be refined before they are instituted

It is hard to conceive at a time of stalled growth and rising unemployment that within the next 20 years the world economy is predicted to double in size. A billion skilled jobs and thousands of new industries will be created of a kind and nature that we cannot begin to imagine. Possibly half of all pupils starting school last September will work in careers and industries that have yet to be invented. Education, preparing young people for an uncertain present and an unknown future, has rarely faced a greater challenge.

However, as Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, warned in the MacTaggart lecture last year, education is in danger of  becoming an anachronism for many young people because it offers too little relevant preparation for 21st-century life. The result is disengagement, wasted talent and a massive drain on the public purse. Understandably, all of this absorbs Michael Gove, the education secretary. He has shown Cromwellian zeal in reshaping the landscape of learning at a pace that does not lend itself easily to a more consultative and cautious approach. His mission also appears, to some critics, to be driven by the minister's fondness for his own traditional education rather than an understanding that the unpredictability of the future will require a genuine diversity of approaches.

Last week, he announced a drastic tidying up of the complex world of vocational qualifications. In 2014, only 125 of 3,175 qualifications, such as construction and the built environment and IT, will merit inclusion in school league tables as an equivalent to a GCSE. Other qualifications such as the new highly regarded engineering diploma will be reduced from the equivalent of five GCSEs to one.

The culling is no surprise. Last year, Professor Alison Wolf was charged by Gove to review all vocational education. Her findings exposed yet again the educational apartheid that has plagued Britain. Those who are "clever" are taught to think. Those considered academically inferior are deemed "good with their hands". This division was enshrined in the 1944 Education Act; it was intended to provide a workforce of 80% manual workers and 20% clerical and professional staff.

Heavy industry has long gone, while the number of unskilled jobs is predicted to decline from 3 million now to 600,000 in 2020. Emerging from school with skills and capabilities, as well as qualifications that count, has never mattered more. However, paradoxically, the huge increase in vocational education has helped to disguise the extent of the failure of our education system to adapt to modern times.

In 2004, 22,500 vocational qualifications were taken in school: by 2009, this had risen to a staggering 540,000. That bloating occurred at a time when the pressure to "teach to the test" and boost league tables became imperative if a school was to be judged a success. The net result is that too many young people have received a counterfeit education, adding up to little. Professor Wolf concluded in her review that up to 400,000 16- to-19-year-olds were on courses of little value, leading to "a dead end".

Last week's stripping-out is part of Mr Gove's welcome attempt to restore credibility. Practical education, he says, "has been robbed of its specialness". The problem is that while his words indicate commitment to the value of the practical and experiential as an equally valid route in education, the scale of his actions last week, intentionally or not, conveys  a different message. It says to the many dedicated vocational staff and their pupils that much of what they do is of little worth.

Review, refinement and rationalisation of the vocational sector are undoubtedly required. But these need to take place in the context of a wider understanding of how and why the English education system has gone so badly wrong. In areas of low aspiration and poor attainment, where teachers' expectations are also low, igniting a passion in a pupil is made all that much easier if the practical has an equal status with the academic.

The Darwen Aldridge Community Academy, for instance, uses "learning by doing and entrepreneurship" in all its approaches. In 2009, in its previous incarnation as a failing school, only 22% of pupils achieved five GCSEs. The pattern was to graduate into joblessness. Last year, 56% of pupils achieved five A*-C GCSEs including maths and English. For the first time, five pupils have gone to university; 20 more will go this year, the first in their families.

Studio schools, university technical colleges (UTC), academies and free schools are each trying different approaches. What they all acknowledge is that the flaws in vocational education are symptomatic of a much larger crisis in learning. Thousands of young people leave school with little more than a sense of failure. In addition, employers complain that even among the highly academic, there is a dearth of  those who have "employability" – good communication, initiative and  drive.

Tellingly, a 2011 survey of UK employers revealed that only 16% thought that the young people had the right mix of practical and academic skills and more than 80% thought students would benefit from studying vocational subjects alongside academic ones.

We are blighted by a notion that divides academic and vocational into first- and second-class educations, while non-cognitive abilities, the ingredients that make up employability, are an "extra" instead of an integral part of learning. In Scotland, by contrast, the Curriculum for Excellence teaches skills for learning, life and work, trying to help young people to be self-aware, adaptable, resilient and determined – in or out of employment.

These skills are gold. In a  study by the University of Sussex University, students in two classes were taught the same content and acquired the same grade B in GCSE maths. However, in one group, the pupils took away "an expanded mind and a greater sense of confidence and capability in tackling all kinds of real-life problems and difficulties". The others "had learned nothing of transportable value". The first had been properly educated, the second had been merely schooled.

The difference between educating and schooling is one that needs to be better understood and applied for all pupils, not just the few. As part of this, Mr Gove's overhaul of vocational education is necessary, although too brutal. In the two years before the streamlining takes place, he and we have time to consider what a world-class education system ought to offer. To turn away from this challenge is to chain ourselves to the snobbery of the past and to betray both current and future generations.

Michael Gove wrote to Premier League football clubs urging them to back his plans for free schools and academies

Tottenham Hotspur football club is in talks to host a free school at its stadium after Michael Gove, the education secretary, wrote to every Premier League club urging them to back his reforms.

Following the letter from Gove, the club, whose manager Harry Redknapp is on trial for tax evasion, is planning to build a new stadium close to its current ground, White Hart Lane, with space set aside for "educational use".

The club said it had held talks with a number of groups interested in establishing a free school at the stadium but had yet to decide who would take the space in the 56,000-capacity arena.

The development, which was uncovered by the BBC'S Sunday Politics London show, adds a new twist to the controversial free schools programme.

Gove wrote that he hoped football clubs might meet him to discuss sponsoring an academy or setting up a free school. He said: "It would be possible to ensure that training is incorporated effectively into the school day without disrupting pupils' academic studies."

He added: "Football clubs… are pillars of their communities and invest time, money and energy into young people. The work you are doing is having a positive impact on young people's lives. Your experience and drive would be hugely beneficial to children in your local area, who would be inspired by going to a school that their local football club is involved with."

Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, his former boss at Portsmouth Football Club, are accused of colluding to conceal payments of £187,000 in a Monaco bank account. Both deny the charges.

A group of parents and teachers called the Academy of Entrepreneurship and Sporting Excellence (AESE) is campaigning for a free school in Tottenham and has partnered with the charity founded by Lord Harris, owner of Carpetright. The Harris Federation runs 13 academies and is expected to submit plans for the new free school to the Department for Education by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Tottenham has dropped its campaign to move into the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, and the club is committed to its original plan for a new stadium near White Hart Lane.

A spokesman for the Harris Federation said: "We would certainly look to work closely with Tottenham Hotspur if the free school gets the go-ahead to open, wherever in the area it is located, just as we would wish to partner any major organisation in the areas our schools serve."

Adam Davison, head of community relations at Spurs, told the Sunday Politics London show, which airs today, that the club was exploring its options. He said: "Tottenham Hotspur Football Club believes education has the potential to play an important role in the new stadium redevelopment and could bring great benefit to the wider community.

"The club has been approached by groups and organisations who are interested in exploring the opportunities on the Spurs site but is not endorsing any one proposal at this time and is keen to explore all the options before committing to anyone. All options for education provision will be considered in the context of the club's vision and ethos, community benefit and financial viability."

Three courses created at Stanford University prove that free online education can compete with traditional teaching methods

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in 1995 to be precise, a scholar named Eli Noam published an article in the prestigious journal Science under the title "Electronics and the Dim Future of the University". In it, Professor Noam argued that the basic model of a university – which had been stable for hundreds of years – would be threatened by networked communications technologies.

Under the classical model, universities were institutions that created, stored and disseminated knowledge. If students or scholars wished to access that knowledge, they had to come to the university. But, Noam argued, the internet would threaten that model by raising the question memorably posed by Howard Rheingold in the 1980s: "Where is the Library of Congress when it's on my desktop?" If all the world's stored knowledge can be accessed from any networked device, and if the teaching materials and lectures of the best scholars are likewise available online, why should students pay fees and incur debts to live in cramped accommodation for three years? What would be the USP of the traditional university when its monopolies on storage and dissemination eroded?

If that was a good question in 1995, it's an even better one today. The answers offered by traditional universities over the years varied according to status and mission. Some universities went into denial and pretended that Noam's "dim future" wouldn't happen to them. Some decided that their USPs – their elite brands – would protect them from the gathering storm. Others decided that they would become primarily research-driven outfits with undergraduate teaching being regarded as a tiresome chore that could be outsourced to graduate instructors. A few experimented with distance teaching and the delusion that putting their educational "content" online would solve the problem. But, different though these responses were, all universities were agreed on one thing: in the end, students would have to come to them because only universities could give them the appropriate credentials. QED.

In behaving thus, universities put themselves in the role of the mythical frog in a saucepan of water that is being slowly heated on a hob. As time passes, the frog notices gradual changes in the temperature, but each increment seems relatively tolerable, so the creature adapts to it. But then there comes a moment when the water boils...

Some things have happened recently that make one think that perhaps the water might be reaching boiling point for traditional universities. The key development is a set of three courses created by Stanford University academics and colleagues in three subject areas: machine learning, database design and artificial intelligence. What makes these significant is that they are: intellectually demanding; free; presented entirely online; taught by world-class academics; and inclusive of assessment as well as tuition.

Take the "Introduction to AI" course, for example. It's based on a course taught to conventional Stanford undergraduates and introduces students to the basics of artificial intelligence – which includes machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, robotics, and natural language processing. It's taught by Sebastian Thrun, who in addition to being a professor at Stanford and an expert in robotics is also a vice president at Google, and Peter Norvig, Google's director of research. And it's very serious academically – an undergraduate- or early graduate-level course that requires around 10 hours a week, has weekly assignments and mid‑term and final exams. In order to receive a "statement of accomplishment", students have to take both exams.

The statistics for the venture are intriguing: 160,000 students signed up, from more than 190 countries, with a median age of around 30. But the really staggering thing is that about 23,000 of them stayed the course and finished it. A friend of mine, Seb Schmoller, took it and reports that it was worthwhile but pretty tough going. The project has been so successful that Professor Thrun has set up a spin-off company which plans to enrol 500,000 students on its first two courses: "Building a search engine" and "Programming a robotic car".

Now you could argue that Thrun (and Stanford) are just treading a path that was already laid down by MIT and our own Open University – free content and sophisticated online pedagogy – and that's true. But up to now, universities have held back from offering qualifications for their free online offerings. That too is about to change: starting this spring, students taking MIT's free online courses will, for a small fee, give them academic credentials if they pass the assessment.

The game's on, folks. Who says that a watched pot never boils?

Plan to award marks for spelling and grammar are unfair to those with learning difficulty, experts warn

Ministers have been accused of discriminating against dyslexic pupils by announcing plans to award 5% of marks in GCSE exams for spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of a drive to improve communication skills.

Dyslexia experts, educationists and teachers' unions say the new rules on marking, announced by the Department for Education last month, will penalise hundreds of thousands with a genuine spelling disability and make it more difficult for them to reach target grades.

At the same time dyslexia groups have reported mounting disquiet and confusion among parents and pupils, who are concerned at the lack of trained staff available in schools who can help them overcome their disadvantage and guide them on how to gain extra time, or other assistance, in exams.

In a white paper in 2010, the DfE expressed the government's determination to better equip young people for the jobs market by placing a greater emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar in GCSE marking. It stated: "When young people compete for jobs and enter the workplace, they will be expected to communicate precisely and effectively so we think that changes in the last decade to remove the separate assessment of spelling, punctuation and grammar from GCSE mark schemes were a mistake.

"We have asked Ofqual [the Office of Examinations and Qualifications Regulation] to advise on how mark schemes could take greater account of the importance of spelling, punctuation and grammar for examinations in all subjects."

Last month, Ofqual announced that for GCSE courses beginning in September, 5% of marks would be awarded for performance in spelling, punctuation and grammar in English literature, geography, history and religious studies.

A spokesman for Ofqual confirmed there would be no special exemptions from the marking regime for dyslexic pupils. However, as was the case previously, a pupil with a statement of special educational needs can gain up to 25% of extra time in exams. This can also be made available for a pupil with an evidence-backed recommendation from a suitably qualified teacher or psychologist. But the process of attaining extra time is difficult for many pupils and parents, particularly when expert help is not on hand in schools.

One headteacher of a large state comprehensive school said the change would mean that a pupil who had shown a good knowledge and understanding of, for example, history – but who had spelling problems due to dyslexia – could well end up with a worse grade than a good speller who had done less well on the history questions.

Dr Kate Saunders, chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said: "We are greatly concerned that these changes may penalise dyslexic individuals. We feel that it is discrimination. Dyslexic candidates are not seeking advantage but merely a level playing field in order to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Our continuous efforts to improve conditions have now regressed."

In 2009 the then Labour government announced a £10m package to train 4,000 specialist dyslexia teachers over the following two years after a review of services for children with the learning difficulty, published by the education expert Sir Jim Rose. The BDA says that many of these specially trained teachers are now being made redundant. It has also had its government funding of £107,000 a year for a helpline withdrawn.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said students for whom English was not their mother tongue would also suffer. "The proposed GCSE reforms to spelling, punctuation and grammar targets will make it difficult for students who have either English as a second language or are dyslexic."

In September last year the criteria for judging whether pupils could gain extra time for exams because of dyslexia were redefined because of suspicion that the system was being abused and that non-deserving cases were getting special treatment. Dyslexia groups say that this has left many parents and pupils confused about the rules.

Rose's 2009 review defined dyslexia as a "learning difficulty which primarily affects skills involved in accurate and fluent word-reading and spelling".

Distance learning has come far since the days of late-night TV lectures. We speak to students who have turned their lives around from the comfort of their homes

Win your Future: Study for free at the Open University

Andrea Goldshaw gets up at 5am, studies for three hours and then goes to work. She is in the second year of a law conversion course with Nottingham Trent University studying under its distance learning programme, an option that allows her to get to grips with the subject in her own time at home. It's hard work combining study, paid work and motherhood, but Goldshaw* has a very personal reason for wanting to change career.

Until a few years ago she was a teaching assistant, living with her husband and children in Wales. "I was a victim of domestic violence, fled my home with my children and ended up in a refuge," she says. "I didn't qualify for legal aid so I self-litigated in the case against my husband but was given some crucial pro bono legal advice. Now I want to become a lawyer specialising in domestic violence and child contact – but my real desire is to give pro bono advice so that I can give back what was given to me."

Goldshaw completed her early childhood studies degree while in the refuge and then got a place on the Nottingham course. She now earns an income as a part-time Freedom Programme facilitator, working with women experiencing domestic violence as well as working as a debt counsellor. "Distance learning has been really hard in many ways, but because I'm passionate about what I want to do, that has kept me going," she says.

Goldshaw's circumstances might be an unusual motivation to study, but her drive and commitment to change her life are common among those heading back to university or college in their 30s, 40s, 50s and even older. The vast majority of those studying through distance learning have financial and personal commitments and cannot afford to give up paid work to study on campus.

The Open University is probably the best known name in distance learning, with 256,000 students worldwide, but it is not the only institution to offer degrees that can be completed at home. Most campus universities now offer at least some element of distance learning on a selection of courses, while others, such as the University of Liverpool, have developed postgraduate courses that involve no face-to-face interaction at all.

"We are at the stage now where we are a serious player in total online learning," says Alan Southern, director of e-learning at the University of Liverpool. "On some courses we have introduced some face-to-face contact, but our courses are predominantly built on the premise they are 100% online."

Further education opportunities are also available via distance learning, most notably from e-learning organisation Learn Direct but also from organisations such as Montessori, which has recently launched a distance learning website for those wanting to train to be a teacher.

"We wanted to make our teacher training accessible for more people," says Montessori's Amanda Gilchrist. "We get a lot of mums who discover Montessori through their own children but we also get quite a lot of people who want to change career from things such as the law or banking, because they want to give something back."

The idea of "giving something back" is a typical motivation for those returning to education. After the near collapse of the UK banking system and the subsequent economic downturn, newspapers and websites were rife with stories of redundant or soon-to-be-redundant bankers turning to teaching and other caring professions.

Christina Lloyd, director of teaching and learner support at the Open University, says that over the years there has been a noticeable trend towards people using the university's courses for a change in career or career progression, rather than studying for personal development or interest.

"The average age of Open University students has dropped," she says. "It used to be mid-40s to 50. Now students are typically in their mid-30s – which makes sense when you think that career change is a strong motivating factor for taking a course."

Michelle Virtue and Vincent Fernandez have very different stories to tell, but both were driven by a desire to move into more people-focused careers. Virtue, 42, had worked in banking for 16 years when she took redundancy and turned to the Open University to study health and social care. "I am more of a people person and decided that my place was helping people to make the most of their life," she says.

She is a single mother, but with the help and support of her mum, managed to juggle running a home and looking after her daughter, with sticking to a strict routine to complete her assignments. Now she manages a sheltered scheme for her local authority.

Fernandez went straight from school into his father's profession of mining, but had to leave after 28 years because of a spinal injury. "I had been involved in training people on site and I got a buzz from imparting information and seeing that used – and I knew I wanted to continue that somehow."

He saw an advert for Learn Direct, and went to one of its centres. "I was trembling like a kid when I went in, but they stuck with me and I did four certificates in maths and English." He is now a teaching assistant at his local school, working primarily with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and is considering studying psychology online in his spare time.

The technological revolution has also made distance learning increasingly accessible and the materials more diverse. Gone are the days when most materials were printed and students tuned in to late-night lectures on television. Today, Open University students are still taught through printed materials but these are backed up by audio CDs, video DVDs, and online resources. The university even has its own channel on YouTube and students can download their materials from iTunes and listen to them on their MP3 players. Technology has also changed the nature of contact between students and their lecturers, as well as their peers.

"Students can now have realtime interaction with tutors via live online conferencing," says Lloyd. "It's quite a bit more sophisticated than Skype. Lots of people can log in at once and a tutor can see who wants to ask a question when a marker appears against that student's name."

This sort of technology has meant that courses such as those at Liverpool can dispense with human interaction altogether. However, most courses require, or at least strongly recommend, some sort of face-to-face contact.

"Most students want face-to-face contact and they are often surprised at how much difference a weekend of contact will make," says Shane Russell, programme leader for the graduate diploma in law distance learning course at Nottingham Trent. "Students do miss out on certain things that come with a campus-based degree, but you have to do what is practical and fits in with your circumstances."

In common with other higher education students in the UK, one of the hardest things to manage for those studying via distance learning is the cost, with undergraduate and postgraduate courses typically costing around £15,000. The vast majority of those going down this route are studying part-time and, up until this coming academic year, there have been no loans for fees for part-time students. From August this year, with tuition fees rising, part-time students will have access to loans that they will need to pay back only when they are earning a certain amount.

Many of those taking postgraduate, professionally focused degrees such as those offered online at the University of Liverpool are either working in professions where they are paid well and can afford to fund their study, or are part-funded by their employers. Others, such as Goldshaw, rely on a combination of bank loans and strict budgeting. "You have to be practical with money and very disciplined so that studying is affordable," she says.

It's not just money management that requires discipline for those studying from home. Distance learning requires real discipline in time management and, often, an understanding partner.

Kate Bressner, who studied for a life sciences degree with The Open University, and subsequently switched her career in business management to become a medical science researcher, says discipline was key. "You have to really plan your work. I studied from 8pm until 10pm or 11pm every evening at one point. Luckily my husband had also studied through Open University and so was very understanding and supportive."

While this sort of discipline, not to mention the loss of social life and family time, can be gruelling, The Open University's Lloyd says it really pays off. Employers do notice.

"In the past people were unsure about studying through The Open University because they weren't sure about the university's credibility," she says. "Now we are getting excellent feedback on the calibre of our students and our degrees. Students are particularly praised for possessing great time management and self-motivation. These qualities can really make someone stand out in a competitive employment market."

*Name has been changed

'I worry that you think I feel superior. I don't. I feel embarrassed'

I don't want to make you feel stupid. Really. I just can't help it. However much I try to hold back, I just did have "a good education" and read a lot of books when I was young. So when there is a quiz, I will inevitably know more answers than most people in the room.

Over Christmas, I couldn't help answering all the cracker questions, and began to wish I'd kept quiet. I am aware that quite a few of you feel intimidated, belittled, or both. I worry that you think I feel superior about my general knowledge. Or that I'm judging people when they get the answer wrong. I don't, and I'm not. Actually, I feel embarrassed. What I'm thinking is, please, people, stop putting me up there for my small areas of expertise.

I'd like to think we could judge each other less for our intellectual gifts and ability to pass exams, that we've got beyond these simple and skewed views. In my turn, I am in awe of one person's musical ability, or another's skill at cooking, or their flair for design. All things that I cheerfully admit I am dismal at. I respect that these talents are equal in value to my own gifts.

I'm sorry if my achievements and abilities press your buttons. I really don't want to make anyone feel bad about themselves. I know this won't make you feel any better, but when I know the answer, I don't always say it. And if I am winning at a game, I often deliberately lose. So don't feel intimidated. If only you knew how inferior to you I really feel.

• Tell us what you're really thinking at mind@guardian.co.uk

In our pursuit of the luxury trades, many essential but less glamorous jobs have been overlooked or forgotten

Blood tests must be among the easiest procedures in a hospital, so routine that you can just turn up at the blood clinic, take a ticket from the dispenser and wait for your number to flash red on the screen. Absolutely no appointment necessary, and the wait isn't long, even though the crowd fills two or three rows of seats. My consultant's notes refer to the tests simply as "bloods", which sounds nicely cavalier ("Huzzah, sir, pick up your rapier!") compared to phlebotomy, which is this area of medicine's official name. Just out of sight, the phlebotomists are at work behind the curtains with their needles: pricking veins and turning tubes incarnadine. Your turn. "This arm please … just relax … a little scratch now … press with your finger on the cotton wool for a moment." And within a few minutes, you're rolling down your sleeve and saying thanks and goodbye to the person with the needle – grateful, though these details are never spoken, for their skill and their part, however small, in what you hope is the remedial process.

Sometimes you try to make a little human contact. Recently I asked my blood-taker where she was from. India, I guessed, but the answer was Ethiopia. Through the curtain I could hear an elderly lady ask the same thing of another blood-taker. "Are you from Nigeria?" "No, ma'am, Sierra Leone." Perhaps only an older generation asks questions about origin these days – my children's behaviour implies so – because it's come to be considered ignorant and possibly racist; asked mainly of people who aren't white by white people who have yet to adjust to the facts of the nation's demography. But my experience of the phlebotomy department in this London teaching hospital suggests Hackney or Wembley will be less frequent answers than Addis, Dhaka and Manila. Most of the staff here have migrated long distances to work.

What qualities and skills do a good phlebotomist need? From the patient's point of view, the list looks likely to include a clear head and a calm temperament, a working knowledge of antisepsis and the vascular system, a reasonably sympathetic manner and a steady hand. In a hospital, none of these would be unique to phlebotomists – all would be developed together with much more sophisticated knowledge in the long and expensive educations of junior doctors, for example. But do you want a junior doctor to draw your blood or insert a cannula? On balance, probably not. Sometimes junior doctors get sent on this prentice errand to the wards. Sometimes they fail to find a productive vein in either arm and withdraw in apology and confusion. You are better off with someone who draws blood for a living, day in, day out, for whom veins have lost all of their mystery.

The Royal College of Nursing lists blood-drawing as one of the "sample competences" of a healthcare assistant, which in the medical world may be a similar ranking to the vocational qualifications that the government announced this week would lose their equivalence with GCSEs and be omitted from the calculations of school league tables. Of course, blood-drawing is far more responsible work than fish husbandry, horse care and fingernail technology; done carelessly, it can damage, even end, a human life. But like many other skills that depend on touch as well as thought – fingernail technology, possibly – the more you work with the physical material, the better you become. Finding a full vein in living flesh can't be successfully substituted by anatomical studies in the classroom. That shouldn't lessen its value as an occupation, and yet our addiction to the idea that the only worthwhile jobs are those that can be somehow professionalised – with years of fulltime learning and degrees – probably means it does.

Despite cuts in educational budgets, increased student fees and the general implosion of the social fabric, the addiction persists. Every week a local Scottish newspaper is delivered to our house, and the day after my blood test I saw it included a photograph of a young man in an academic cap and gown, holding a scroll in his hand. It is a nice local newspaper tradition that dates from the Victorian age – to honour the youth who has gone up to the city and returned with a degree and a broader future. This particular youth had graduated with a BA (Hons) in sports journalism after a four-year course at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), whose website promises a programme that will provide students with "the professional abilities and practical skills" for this "exciting and growing field … "

There are degrees in sports journalism in the rest of the UK, too, and hundreds of academic courses in non-specialised journalism, churning out graduates for the shrinking labour market of newspapers and other media. They aren't pointless; apart from any craft they may teach, they can also offer connections and contacts – a "way in" – which is the modern essential of anyone trying to start a career. As UWS points out, all students can expect to meet national sports writers and broadcasters, and to take up work placements in news organisations, where their abilities may be noted and remembered for a later date. But how complicated, unnecessary and expensive it all sounds compared to the old method of being sent to report a minor league football match, reading the dispatches of senior reporters and learning week-by-week how it was done.

The success of the academic route has yet to be discovered, but it will be lucky to produce writers as good as the Guardian's Richard Williams, who joined the Nottingham Evening Post aged 18, or Hugh McIlvanney, often acknowledged as the finest sportswriter of his generation, who left Kilmarnock Academy for the Kilmarnock Standard when he was even younger. Perhaps nobody can do that now – leave school for a job on the local paper; intervention by a university is thought necessary to the meanest of trades. But it would be hard to detect any improvements in local newspapers that could be attributed to the massive expansion of tertiary education.

In a broader and far more serious way, something dysfunctional seems to have happened. Unemployment in the UK now stands at 2.69 million, with more than a million people aged between 16 and 24 looking for work – a rate of 22.3%, and a new record. But several British institutions continue to favour foreign workforces, or be favoured by them. At the sandwich chain Pret A Manger, only 19% of the staff are British, while, according to the Daily Mail, a third of the people who sell the Big Issue, the paper founded to help the homeless, are Romanian. I have no figures for foreign-born phlebotomists, but in London I would guess a majority. Good for them, and me too. But in our pursuit of the luxury trades – graduates in sports journalism, for example – many essential but less glamorous jobs were overlooked or forgotten. To paraphrase the railway apology for disruptions by snow, has Britain created the wrong sort of unemployed?

Two-shift day and use of empty Woolworths stores among ideas to cope with surge in primary age pupils

A council in east London is drawing up plans to convert an empty Woolworths store into a classroom and teach children in two shifts, in emergency measures across Britain to cope with a dramatic increase in primary school age children.

More than 450,000 places in schools in England are needed by 2015, government figures show – partly the result of a baby boom in the past decade.

Schools have begun using every available space, including converting a caretaker's hut into a classroom and a broom cupboard into an office, and moving into council-owned office space.

The problem is most acute in London. In Barking, the number of primary age children is predicted to rise from 19,000 to more than 27,000 by 2015. In addition to the empty Woolworths, the council is looking into leasing a vacant MFI building.

It is also looking at "split shift sessions", where schools would take one group of pupils from 8am until 2pm and then a second from 2pm until 7pm. The shifts would double capacity although the council concedes parents would have great difficulty accomodating the shift patterns.

Rocky Gill, Barking and Dagenham council's cabinet member for finance and education, said "detailed plans" for shifts were being drawn up. "In two years' time we will have expanded all our primary schools. So we're going to have no choice but to move into split shift education at both primary and secondary level."

Gill feared the impact on families with children in different shifts could be "disastrous".

The demographic pressure is particularly acute in London, due to inward migration and increasing numbers of people no longer leaving the capital when they have children.

Ripple primary school in Barkinghad 4.5 applications per place last year, and is growing from three forms to five in each year after expanding into a nearby council-owned office site. By 2015 it expects to have 1,200 pupils, making it one of the biggest primaries in the country.

Initially, the school shared the new space with office workers. The headteacher, Roger Mitchell, said: "It was interesting sharing the building – we were working in the very best way we possibly could.

"It didn't really become my school until the end of February, beginning of March last year, when those people finally moved out to new accommodation. It's nice just to have my school now."

The school's expansion originally has a budget of £4.4m, but this was halved when the coalition came to power. Mitchell is also seeking an extra £3.2m to fund a permanent solution for the original school site, so 120 reception-aged children will not have to be taught in outdoor huts.

"It's not nice to have some of your youngest children taught in outside classrooms, they need a proper learning environment – one that's not too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer," he said.

While the council's strategy has been to expand school building where possible, the authority has also been exploring the possibility of commercial space.

"We've got an empty MFI building and an empty Woolworths; we're looking at speaking to those freeholders and purchasing that space or leasing it," Gill said.

Focusing on the needs of individual children becomes a sharper challenge as schools get bigger. Thelma McGorrighan, headteacher of Manor infants' school, which in September set up another three entry classes at a different site, Manor Longbridge, said: "You have to make your presence felt. Parents have to see you.

"First thing in the morning and at the end of the day, you're out there with the children – greeting the children, dealing with issues outside, keeping the parents well informed."

Parental campaigns are springing up against the expansion of existing primaries, driven by concern that standards will slip if schools become too big.

In Haringey, proposals to expand two schools, Belmont infants and Belmont junior, face resistance. School governors at the infants' school argue that the plans are "likely to jeopardise a successful school".

Victoria Harwood, a writer whose four-year-old son is a pupil at Belmont infants, said: "It's a grade 1 Ofsted school. It does well because it's so small. It's a small, intimate community school. That would change if it expands. If they try and jam-pack more kids in, I'm convinced that standards would drop."

The shortage of primary school places is a sore point for the government. Last November the education secretary, Michael Gove, confirmed that an extra £500m would be allocated to more than 100 local authorities experiencing "the most severe need", while in the autumn statement the chancellor, George Osborne, announced a further £600m for local authorities with the greatest pressure on school places. He also announced an extra £600m for free schools.

This prompted Labour to accuse Gove of lavishing money on a "pet project" rather than spending the entire £1.2bn easing the pressure on primaries.

While London faces the greatest challenge, schools elsewhere are feeling the strain. In Manchester, which will see a predicted rise from just over 37,000 primary school pupils to more than 46,000 by 2015, a headteacher said her schools were "bursting at the seams".

Lisa Vyas, headteacher of Ladybarn primary school and executive headteacher of Green End primary school, said: "Every single little space is used. We've even had to transform a little storage cupboard into the business manager's office.

"At the moment, because of the knock on effect of the dinners taking longer to serve, I now can't provide every child a gym and dance lesson because there's not enough time in the hall.

"I can't meet the PE curriculum needs because there's not enough hours in the day."

An education department spokesman said: "We're creating thousands more places to deal with the impact of soaring birth rates on primary schools. We're more than doubling targeted investment at areas facing the greatest pressure on numbers , more than £4bn in the next four years."

"We are building free schools, and letting what are the most popular schools expand so they can meet demand from parents. We are intervening to drive up standards in the weakest schools, those with thousands of empty places nationally, so they can become places where parents actually want to send their children."

Our pick of the most eye-catching and innovative entries to the 2011 International Science & Engineering Visual Challenge

Hockney On Paper sale at Christie's to include etchings inspired by Hogarth, 1954 lithograph and work from his time in America

The past few years have seen David Hockney experimenting with iPads and iPhones, but an auction at Christie's in London will focus on work made with the most basic of art materials. Hockney on Paper will see almost 150 works go under the hammer, from the artist's 1954 lithograph of a fish and chip shop owned by friends of his parents in Bradford, to photomontages of the 1980s.

The sale, on 17 February, will feature numerous works from the artist's years in America, including a set of 16 etchings based on Hogarth's The Rake's Progress and others inspired by the young Hockney's experiences in New York. The etchings are expected to sell for between £150,000 and £200,000, with the whole auction estimated at £1m. On Monday Hockney visited the Royal College of Art in London (RCA), where he graduated 50 years ago, as part of its 175th anniversary celebrations. He told the Guardian: "Drawing and painting was the centre of the old college and I don't know whether it is now, but I always think the phrase 'back to the drawing board' tells you something, doesn't it? Drawing – it's still there. Nothing's altered in that way."

The auction will feature the 1962 sketch The Diploma, which Hockney drew in protest when the RCA said it would not let him graduate. He had refused to write the essay required for the final examination, stating that he should be assessed solely on his artworks. Recognising his talent and growing reputation, the RCA changed its regulations and awarded the diploma.

Hockney's current show at London's Royal Academy has received huge public acclaim, with all advance tickets sold out, though some critics have been less enthusiastic. Hockney said he had watched the reaction unfold on Twitter, although he did not tweet himself.

He said: "The show is actually one enormous piece, and people who don't get that pick out bits and little points – not very smart, really. Especially for a landscape show, if people are queueing for it, it tells you something. We're very, very pleased with the response – and I'm not complaining about the press. Of course not. It doesn't matter what they say either."

University cites its First Amendment commitment in supporting its climate scientist Michael Mann's right to give lecture

In an uncharacteristically angry post at the New York Times's Dot Earth blog, Andy Revkin has hit out at a "shameful attack on free speech". It relates to a Facebook campaign which is calling on Pennsylvania State University to "disinvite" Professor Michael E. Mann, the director of its Earth System Science Center, from giving a lecture next week entitled: "Confronting the Climate Change Challenge."

The Facebook campaign has been initiated by a seemingly conjoined group called the Common Sense Movement/Secure Energy for America Political Action Committee. Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress has investigated the people behind it and describes it as a "coal-industry astroturf group". Here's a video from the Common Sense Movement's "I Am Coal" campaign, which gives an insight into its worldview...

The group argues on its page:

At a time when Penn State should be doing everything possible to regain its status as a bastion of truth and integrity, the last thing they should be doing is supporting someone of such questionable ethics and motives with our tax dollars.
There is no place for this brand of extreme political activism, disguised as academics, at Penn State now or in the future. University leadership should be ashamed for continuing to provide Mann with such high visibility – at our expense.

Revkin is particularly angry – quite rightly - at the group's templated letter it is asking supporters to send to "daily newspapers near you", which includes the accusation that Mann, one of the world's most high-profile climate scientists whose private emails were among those illegally released online in 2009, is "conspiring with his left-wing cronies to intimidate and silence those who would dare to question his intentions".

Revkin even took to Facebook himself, posting: "Antidemocratic, hateful, and coal-backed smear campaign against a scientist I've sometimes disagreed with but who has every right to state his case at Penn State or anywhere else."

The efforts of those behind the campaign of intimidation against Penn State appear to have come to nothing, though. Common sense (of the real variety) reigns, as a spokesman has just confirmed to me:

Penn State has a deep and profound commitment to the First Amendment and the principles of free speech and expression. Our role as a university is to serve as a marketplace of ideas and by allowing this talk we are protecting the civil liberties of our students, faculty and staff. There are no plans to cancel his speaking engagement.
Michael Mann's research has undergone several rigorous national reviews and investigations and in each case his work has been upheld.
In 2011, the National Science Foundation completed a review and upheld Mann's work. The NSF review was the second major investigation at the national level of his controversial research into climate change. In 2006 the National Academy of Sciences completed an inquiry into Mann's findings at the request of Congress. Again, his research was confirmed.
In 2010, Penn State conducted its own four-month investigation into allegations of research misconduct against Mann and a panel of five University faculty members from various fields determined that the scientist violated no professional standards in the course of his work.

The spokesman added that such a lecture would typically attract 300-400 people. On the question of security, he said: "We evaluate every event on campus from a security perspective and will determine if additional steps are warranted."

He added: "We have received only a handful of comments [about the lecture], and the majority of those are supporting free speech."

National Audit Office says free nursery places have improved development by age five, but results at seven are unchanged

Free nursery places for pre-school children may not have a lasting impact on their education, the government's spending watchdog has suggested.

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found it was not clear whether government moves to fund nursery education for three- and four-year-olds was leading to longer-term benefits.

While children's development at five has improved, results at age seven remain unchanged, it says.

Although it acknowledges that there have been changes to free nursery education, and its link to children's results at the age of seven is not "straightforward", the NAO says the Department for Education "did intend that the entitlement would have lasting effects on child development throughout primary school and beyond".

Nationally, 59% of five-year-olds achieved a good level of development in 2010/11, compared with 45% in 2005/06, the report says.

But it adds: "National key stage 1 results, however, have shown almost no improvement since 2007, so it is not yet clear that the entitlement is leading to longer-term educational benefits."

The watchdog also warns that youngsters from poorer areas are still less likely to get access to good quality nursery care than those from wealthier homes.

In total, 95% of three- and four-year-olds are in early education – a rate that has been sustained since 2008, the report says.

But an analysis of Ofsted data, conducted by the NAO, found the percentage of good or outstanding nursery care in March last year ranged from 64% in some local authorities to 97% in others.

"Areas of highest deprivation were less likely to have high-quality provision," it found.

The NAO head, Amyas Morse, said: "The Department for Education needs to do more to put itself in the position to assess whether the forecast long-term benefits of free education for three- and four-year-olds are being achieved. It also needs to understand how the arrangements for funding providers of that early education drive its availability, take-up and quality.

"Both of these are necessary if it is to get the best return for children from the £1.9bn spent each year."

Under the scheme, all three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours of free education a week for 38 weeks a year. In January 2011, 831,800 youngsters were receiving this entitlement.

Daniela Wachsening, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: "There is absolutely no doubt that high-quality early years education makes a massive difference to children's development, and is particularly important for children from disadvantaged families.

"But the government is jeopardising the chances of disadvantaged children by cutting the grants to local authorities, which has led to the loss of high-quality early years places and drastic reductions in children's and family services to the detriment of the most vulnerable children."

The children's minister, Sarah Teather, said: "We are pleased that the NAO has recognised the progress made since we introduced free early education for three- and four-year-olds.

"There is lots more to do – and the report also sets out important national and local challenges to be addressed. We are determined to improve the availability of quality places in disadvantaged areas, and offering free early education to around 40% of two-year-olds will help by bringing even more money into the system.

"We also want to examine in more detail how to make sure the significant improvements we are seeing at five feed through into better results at seven."

Campaigners have saved some libraries from closure, and an inquiry begins next week – but councils are now under greater financial pressure than ever to cut services

In the 12 months since a surge of public protest against proposed library closures was expressed in last February's Save Our Libraries Day, campaigning bibliophiles around the country have enjoyed mixed fortunes.

There was rejoicing in Somerset and Gloucestershire, where library closures were quashed by a legal challenge, but in Brent, north-west London, despite a determined high court action and 24-hour vigils outside Kensal Rise library, the Brent SOS Libraries campaign group failed to prevent six libraries from being boarded up.

Saturday sees another national day of library action, but users of Brent's Preston Park library will be marking National Libraries Day not in their now closed library building, but at a pop-up library in a nearby primary school.

The day will consist of all manner of author visits and read-a-thons to highlight and celebrate the service. All around the country – including Oxfordshire, Doncaster and Surrey, the latest place where a legal challenge is being launched against the council – groups of committed library users are still battling to preserve their library networks from heavy cutbacks.

Many credit the vigour of the campaigning for the fact that the tally of library buildings to have closed their doors is much lower than had been suggested. A year ago, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals predicted that 600 libraries could go – yet so far, according to the website Public Libraries News, only 32 in the UK have closed. Forty-three mobile libraries have also shut down; eight libraries have been handed over to local communities to run; four more, in Lewisham, have been transferred out to a social enterprise company.

Alan Gibbons, who runs the influential pro-library blog Campaign for the Book, has no doubt that local protesters are responsible for the lesser number of closures. "I think the public library service would have incurred phenomenal damage had not Brent, Somerset and Gloucestershire campaigners created a knowledge in councillors that there would be resistance," he said.

But with financial pressures on councils now greater than ever, there are fears that the next year could look very different. Public Libraries News lists 407 libraries as being at risk of closure, with many more expected come the new budget year in April. Kent, where the library authority has chosen not to host any special events for National Libraries Day, is working on a major shakeup of its service, including trialling the use of a US debt collection company, Unique Management, to recover its unpaid library fines.

In addition, the move towards community-run library schemes in place of outright closures has its critics.

Desmond Clarke, a former director of the publishing house Faber & Faber, and a longtime campaigner for libraries, says the prediction of 600 lost libraries still holds good, but that 550 of those 600 may not be closed so much as moved into "community provision".

According to Clarke, this could mean closure by default, because volunteer workforces are by nature unstable, and will face a burden of constant fundraising for running costs. "There is no blueprint to know whether community-run libraries are viable and sustainable," he said. "It is all being done on a wing and a prayer – sink or swim."

Another theme of the past year has been the "hollowing out" of library services, as authorities desperate to meet squeezed budgets leave library buildings intact but cut back on staff, opening hours and book funds.

Durham county council has announced that 250 staff – the equivalent of 134 full-time posts – may go. In Wirral, 50 library staff are leaving. In Birmingham, 27 of 182 FTE (full-time equivalent) posts are to go.

Clarke estimates that over the two years to April 2013, one quarter of the 23,700 paid library staff who were working in March 2011 (according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) will have lost their jobs.

Annie Mauger, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, said that for councils, there's a choice between "bricks or brains" – and that they are in danger of replacing a library service with a mere "book-lending" service.

"A quality service needs planning and delivery and is professional because it needs to be," Mauger said, pointing out that librarians offer advice and support for families and parents, ensure no bias in the library's collection, and offer access to information and the internet.

Under the 1964 Public Libraries & Museums Act, which underpins the service, the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has a legal duty to superintend public libraries and make sure local authorities are providing a "comprehensive and efficient" library service to all residents. Hunt's unwillingness to intervene over closures has infuriated the campaigners, who have bombarded him and the culture minister, Ed Vaizey, with pleas for action.

The children's laureate, Julia Donaldson, a staunch library champion, said that Hunt and Vaizey have been "singularly unresponsive … The frustrated campaigners are wondering what irresponsible actions local authorities have to take in cutting public libraries before [Hunt's] department decides to undertake an official inquiry."

Next week may see a significant development on this front, with the culture, media and sport select committee, responsible for scrutinising the work of the department, due to start taking oral evidence in an inquiry into library closures.

High-profile authors are likely to be among those offering their views, with the inquiry likely to look at whether the closures are compatible with the 1964 act, and the effectiveness of the secretary of state's powers of intervention. Hunt and Vaizey may also be asked to give evidence.

The campaigning must continue, Donaldson believes. On 13 March, authors, librarians and campaigners will join in a rally and a lobby of parliament to tell MPs their views directly.

"We all just have to keep banging away and hoping for the best," said Donaldson. "I do feel that, thanks to all the campaigning, there is now more public awareness about the plight of libraries and that more people are up in arms. On the other hand, there is always the danger of fatigue: if local authorities continue to make cuts, some people are going to be wondering: 'Can we go through this all over again?' It's certainly not a short-term problem."

Benedicte Page is news editor of The Bookseller

A new research project aims to uncover what matters to teachers

What are unions for - and what should they be for? Are they industrial lobbying groups, existing to advance the interests of their members, or professional associations driven to improve the quality of the services they provide?

The two goals can combine of course, but there's often little acknowledgment of this.

Michael Gove has little hesitation in including the NUT among his "enemies of promise", while the teaching unions have been guilty of a little hyperbole themselves.

It's an echo of the angry debate in the US where Geoffrey Canada, of Harlem Children's Zone, has accused the unions of being a brake on reform.

A project being carried out by Loic Menzies, a former teacher who now runs a consultancy, aims to uncover some answers.

Menzies draws attention to the work of Harvard academic Susan Moore Johnson, who writes of "industrial unionism" and "reform unionism" in education.

The first kind assumes that relations between workers and management are at odds - it's a zero-sum game.

The second accepts that while union rules can protect teachers from arbitrary treatment, they can limit the freedom of school managements. This model allows both sides to collaborate on bespoke solutions to school problems.

She writes that there is "substantial evidence... in contrast to the notion that unions limit educational autonomy and professionalism, that teacher unions have led to many practices that not only permit but also promote local variety and reform."

Menzies's research project - commissioned by a social enterprise that is seeking to offer support services to teachers - is an attempt to identify what matters to teachers and therefore what should matter to Britain's teaching unions. On the basis of early findings, he writes: "We might expect the focus amongst teachers to be on 'reform' rather than stagnation. Should this be the case, unions will need to make sure their behaviour is in line with teachers' objectives by focusing on standards and quality as opposed to defensiveness."

It is a project that will be of some interest to the unions themselves. One of Menzies' early discoveries is that there appears to be a high degree of mobility among teachers: more than 40% of his initial respondents have swapped union.

The Ucas figures record applications from full-time students hoping to start university in 2012 but offer no room for complacency (Editorial, 31 January). Recession and unemployment would normally trigger increased interest in higher education but the opposite has happened. It is also too early to reach any conclusions about the impact of the new fees regime on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Analysis linked with socio-economic class is only done when enrolments are known and provides much more robust evidence than the Ucas applications, which rely on limited data and only cover younger students.

This is why the 11% drop in applications from mature students should start alarm bells ringing in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. One in three undergraduate students enters university for the first time when he/she is over 21. Many will not have had the opportunity to study for a degree before and they are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are also less likely to be the students with high A-level grades which the government has said universities can recruit in unlimited numbers at the highest fee.

This is why the decision of ministers on 25 January to reduce by 15,000 the number of funded places in universities in 2012 is all the more significant. These will be lost from universities that traditionally recruit older students and they can only be recovered if the university lowers its average fee to £7,500. Higher education should be available to all those who have the ability and who might benefit regardless of age or background.
Pam Tatlow
Chief executive, million+

• Simon Hughes says that students have apparently not been deterred from applying for university places by the hike in tuition fees (The truth about fees, 31 January), but that does not make it right that our young people should start their working lives saddled with debt to make up for the mistakes of our financial services sector. After all, with youth unemployment at record levels, what other options do they have?
Julian D Roskams
Malvern, Worcestershire

• Simon Hughes (and all the other supporters of £9,000 tuition fees) fails to mention that the majority of people starting university this year will be effectively taxed at 40% on all income above £21,000 for 30 years of their working lives. If they save for their old age, they will keep only 50p in every pound they earn. At the same time, his coalition partners want to abolish 50% tax rate on incomes over £150,000. What is fair about this?
Catherine Wykes
Derby

• Of course, for Professor Green, the drop in those applying for university is disappointing, naturally, considering his position (10% drop predicted in UK university applications, 30 January). However, we know that a lot of degrees are deemed worthless by employers, so the drop in numbers may not necessarily lead to a less skilled workforce. We need to widen the routes into the professions and other career paths instead of always putting so much emphasis on a university education. In finance and accountancy the apprenticeship route is a successful way into our profession, so much so that opportunities are very much increasing.
Jane Scott Paul
Chief executive, Association of Accounting Technicians

• The Ucas data for creative arts and design applications makes interesting reading for those of us swimming against the tide of fine art higher education (University applications: where did people apply and for which subjects?, 31 January). A commercial organisation would ask itself serious questions about the perceived value and actual content of its products and programmes if their its decision to increase prices resulted in the loss of 44,000 customers year-on-year. Students paying high tuition fees will rightly expect high levels of tuition, and precious few fine art courses offer that. Likewise, they will expect to be well prepared for life after education, and professional development seems to be at best an afterthought on many fine art degree courses. Students will vote with their feet and seek out independent-minded and independently funded courses which offer real preparation for a life of creativity. Good news for some at least…
Mark Tattersall
Chief executive, The Art Academy, London

The dangers which Peter Wilby points out (Does Gove realise he is empowering future dictators?, 31 January) were recognised 70 years ago. Unfortunately secretaries of state know very little history. The Oxford historian Dr Marjorie Reeves, when invited to be on the Central Advisory Council For Education (England) in 1946, was told by the permanent secretary, John Redcliffe-Maud, that the main duty of council members was "to be prepared to die at the first ditch as soon as politicians try to get their hands on education".

A war had been fought to prevent the consequences of such concentrated power. The 1944 Education Act, hammered out during the war years, created a "maintained system" of education as a balance of power between central government, local government responsibility, the voluntary bodies (mainly the churches) and the teachers. That balance is now disappearing fast, without the public debate it needs and with hardly a squeak from Labour. The existing education legislation refers to the fast-disappearing "maintained schools", leaving academies and free schools exposed, without the protection of the law, to whatever whimsical ideas are dreamt up by the present or future secretaries of state, to whom they are contracted with minimal accountability to parliament.
Professor Richard Pring
Green Templeton College, Oxford

• The removal of 3,100 vocational subjects from the school performance tables from 2014 (Report, 31 January) has major implications. It is certainly the case that "perverse incentives" were created by the league tables to use soft options to boost school league table positions – the phenomenon known as gaming. However, the cull to 70 accepted vocational subjects, with 55 allowed on the margins, essentially destroys vocational and technical education. Given that the old basis is the one for the current (2012 and 2013) tables, a whole raft of students are on worthless courses.

The wider implication is that the government has no interest in vocational or technical education. However, there is a subtext that Mr Gove's supporters may find less palatable. The schools that have used gaming most cynically have been academies. Indeed, take away 16-plus exam results and the academies are the least successful schools in the country – they had 7% of students gaining Ebacc last year against 13%of comprehensive students.
Trevor Fisher
Stafford

• While some courses don't stand up to scrutiny, others have the potential to form the bedrock of future UK prosperity. The JCB Academy in Rocester is doing ground-breaking work inspiring young people from Derby and its environs to major in engineering and business skills. It was set up to provide future skilled employees for companies like Rolls-Royce, Toyota and, of course, JCB itself, as these companies have found that young people are not being given the necessary skills and experience in mainstream schools and colleges.

Is it too late for Michael Gove to recognise excellence where it exists, and stop tarring all non-mainstream courses with the same brush?
Lucy Care
Derby

• Let's be clear about the pupils at Mossbourne Community Academy (Wilshaw's rules, 24 January). Far from being "well-heeled", 89% of the pupils – according to IDACI data from the 2011 school census – fall within the 20% most deprived in the country. Almost 40% of last year's GCSE cohort were on free school meals, yet 76% of these disadvantaged pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and maths.

For too long commentators have implied that Mossbourne's intake is predominantly of privileged, middle-class children. This is simply not true. The Pembury estate, next door to Mossbourne, is one of the capital's most deprived housing estates.

Mossbourne is not alone in achieving outstanding results for a truly comprehensive intake. You need only look at neighbouring schools, like Bethnal Green technology college in Tower Hamlets, where results compare well.
Alan Wood
Director of children services, Hackney

• According to Susanna Rustin: "Even those community schools that have hung on to comprehensive status and stuck with their local authority rather than striking out as independents, have mostly reintroduced uniforms, streaming and head boys and girls" (Nostalgia for grammar schools is misplaced, 30 January). At Millom School, where I am chair of governors, we have very recently dispensed with the role of head boy and girl, never condoned streaming and remodelled our school uniform (no blazers, no ties, no braid) in the light of students' preferences. We have also twice decided not to seek academy status. Neither nostalgia nor political opportunism has informed our decisions. We are not alone. Hopefully Susanna would approve?
Professor Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria

• I am concerned about the decision to axe in excess of 3,000 GCSEs without appearing to consider the implications on the young people that benefit from such diversity of qualifications. Every child has the right to succeed. Success breeds success and consequently such a decision could affect people's learning drive. One size does not fit all and I would ask the education minister to consult widely before making decisions that may backfire on our communities.

Firstly, and speaking as a principal of an academy whose attainment has grown over five consecutive years, it is important to recognise that a wide range of suitable qualifications are important to ensure we meet our learners' needs. I think it is important to state that a good grade in a traditional GCSE should quite rightly remain a priority. However, it should also be recognised that passing an alternative vocational qualification is of a higher value to a young person than achieving a D or below in any GCSE. It is important therefore to get the right balance.

League tables simply drive behaviour based on wherever the emphasis is, but to date we have yet to find a way of securing accountability through league tables that also recognises the outstanding work that schools are doing to meet the needs of all of their learners.

Secondly, consider those returning to education of any age, which has been encouraged by successive governments. The eradication of so many GCSEs has the potential to create a chasm for people who are in this category. We cannot afford for this to happen as this is part of "building communities".

Let us not wipe out these courses without widespread consultation with people whose feet are firmly on the ground, and who work at the coalface.
Kevin Rowlands
Principal, Oasis Academy, Immingham

• Alison Wolf suggests that "Institutions are under great pressure to do well in league tables" (Let's end qualifications that have no value, 31 January) and Michael Gove has now reduced the number of vocational qualifications from over 3,000 to 135. The effects of this on pupils, teachers, employers and society will be extremely negative and confine pupils to courses for which they are not suited, frustrate teachers for having to offer courses that are not appropriate and deny employers future workers with job-related skills – and poor old society will have to pick up the tab for out-of-work, disillusioned young people.

An easier solution would have been to do away with league tables and let professionals do their work without government interference. Simple really.
Bob Dawson
Bury, Lancashire

School deputy Tom Simons says his son's death is 'indictment of our failure as a society to tackle the scourge of drugs'

A school deputy head has criticised Britain's complacency towards drugs following the death of his 16-year-old son, who had taken ecstasy at a nightclub.

Talented student Joe Simons was let into the nightclub in Bristol even though he was underage and had no valid ID, and bought the drugs from another reveller.

In a statement read out at the inquest into the death, his father, Tom, deputy head of Prior Park College in Bath, said: "Joe is in many ways an indictment of our failure as a society to tackle the scourge of drugs.

"There are no easy answers of course and we are daily beset by the views and advice of the well meaning and the misguided – urging us to legalise drugs or build more jails. Experts in the field are legion, as sadly are the lives touched by the drugs culture that seems to have spread like a cancer across the globe."

He said complacency was "the greatest challenge to us all. We never think it will happen to us or our loved ones. We trust that it will not be our child who will be tempted. After all, we teach our children the dangers of taking drugs and that is enough. Well, sadly not, as poor Joe, souls like Joe and countless others will attest to."

The inquest verdict was recorded as "death through non-dependant use of drugs", specifically MDMA (ecstasy) toxicity.

The assistant deputy Avon coroner, Terence Moore, sitting at Flax Bourbon near Bristol, said he would write to Avon and Somerset police regarding the use of police powers and licensing laws.

Moore said: "The sad but not unique thing about this inquest is the belief by those who take MDMA that it is somehow safe. The evidence I have heard is that it is an idiosyncratic drug and affects different people in different ways.

"Taking a drug when you don't know how much you are taking or indeed what is in it seems a particularly unsafe thing to do. Sadly in this case it cost the life of Joe."

The inquest was told that Joe, from Bitten, near Bristol, went to the Lakota club in Bristol on 30 April last year where he bought the drug. He split it between his friends and washed it down with water. The group separated, and a short time later friends saw Joe having to be supported.

His best friend, Gabriel Wheatcroft, said in a statement: "He looked grey and was staring into the distance. They came outside the club and laid him on the floor. I heard one of the door staff saying that if they were asked, they would say he bought it [the ecstasy] earlier from another club."

Joe was rushed to intensive care at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the early hours of 1 May and died the following day.

Lakota's licence was suspended by Bristol city council after the incident but a police investigation resulted in no arrests and it has re-opened.

The charity DrugScope says it is not possible to know exactly how many drug-related deaths there are in the UK annually because there is no one definition of what is a drug-related death.

It points out, for example, that deaths apparently related to ecstasy can include incidents where people have died from overheating through dancing non-stop in hot clubs rather than from the direct effect of the drugs.

The charity cites figures from the Office of National Statistics showing more than 250 ecstasy-related deaths were reported between 1999 and 2004.

A report published by the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths in 2010 suggests the figure is much lower. It said that in 2009 in England two people who had taken an ecstasy-type drug on its own died. Six more died after taking ecstasy along with other drugs.

DrugScope says estimates of annual alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales vary from 5,000 to 40,000. This includes deaths from cirrhosis of the liver and other health problems from long-term drinking, deliberate and accidental overdose, traffic deaths and fatal accidents while drunk.

In his statement to the inquest, Mr Simons said he hoped his son's death would serve as a warning to other young people thinking of experimenting with illegal drugs.

"Until society as a whole stands up and says no to the dealers and no to those in the media and entertainment industry who glorify and trivialise the taking of drugs, we will continue to count the cost in lives lost and families left bereft.

"It is our profound hope that Joe's untimely death will serve as a warning to young people of the dangers of taking drugs like MDMA and the far from benign influence that some would have us believe the 'soft' drugs culture has on young people."

Last year's riots proved that the schools in our most deprived areas need leaders with drive and high expectations

Those who took part in the riots last August were overwhelmingly young and from disadvantaged backgrounds. Half of those who appeared in court were under 21, and three times more likely to be entitled to free meals when they were at school.

The sad truth is that these are the very young people most likely to attend a weak school and receive a substandard education. This is not acceptable any more. If we don't give more of our young people a good education, then more will end up in jail, and more communities will fracture. If we don't give our young people the skills they need for employment, their communities can't thrive.

Let's be honest. We don't have a good enough schools system yet. Almost a third of the schools in England were not judged to be good by Ofsted at their last inspection. Three thousand schools, educating a million children, were judged "satisfactory" at both their last two inspections. Previous chief inspectors have identified the same problem of too much stubbornly satisfactory, mediocre provision, yet we haven't made enough progress.

So what about some solutions? We need to do something different, which is brave and radical. That's why I have made clear my intention to do away with the false label of "satisfactory" and replace it with a clear statement that a school "requires improvement". There will be greater clarity about what the school needs to do to improve, and faster re-inspection to check on progress. I want to set a clear expectation that a school requiring improvement will do so rapidly, or find itself in special measures.

We know it can be done in the most difficult circumstances. My former school, Mossbourne Academy, has four in 10 children on free school meals; 30% on the special educational needs register; and 38% of children with English as a second language. It now achieves results much better than the national average and sends pupils to Oxbridge – not because of a bright new building, but because of good systems and structures, good teaching, and staff who work hard and make no excuses for failure. The school often acts as a surrogate parent, providing wraparound care, enrichment and support for pupils who don't get enough of this at home. And I'm proud to say no pupil at Mossbourne, as far as I am aware, was caught up in last summer's problems.

Of course, there are many schools like Mossbourne. But they all share some crucial features: a rigorous approach to improving the quality of teaching, and a relentlessness in the pursuit of improvement. They have leaders who drive up the performance of staff. They make no excuses, and they have high expectations of every single pupil. So shouldn't we have high expectations of every single school? We know what works, for schools as well as pupils.

Last year alone 85 schools serving the most deprived communities in our society were judged to be providing outstanding education. If they can do it in these challenging circumstances there is absolutely no reason why other schools in more prosperous areas cannot. And before someone writes in to argue that supposedly "it's all very well if you have the extra focus or resources of academy status", let me be clear: the vast majority of these schools are not academies. They are simply schools with heads and staff focused on the right things, striving every day to provide the best possible education for their young people.

This is not about being provocative: it's about doing the right thing for pupils. Every time heads and others make excuses for failure, it makes it harder to sustain the drive for improvement in the most challenging schools. Every time a substandard teacher is left unchallenged, the most vulnerable pupils have their life chances diminished.

Teaching and headship is now a much better paid profession that needs to remind itself of its core mission and sense of moral purpose. Unless we have this sense of vocation – a word we don't hear enough of these days – we won't drive up standards in the most difficult circumstances.

I'm really clear about my mission as chief inspector. I'm also aware that some of what we need to do to transform our education system will be uncomfortable. So be it: we need a step change. The prize is a significantly better education system: one that gives more young people the start they need and deserve, and ultimately creates stronger communities for all of us.

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Julia Rawlinson admits lying and using fake degrees and teaching certificates to gain employment with exam board

An exam board is to review hundreds, possibly thousands of papers after a marker and teacher admitted she forged her degree, doctorate and teaching certificate.

Julia Rawlinson, 44, lied to gain employment with the exam board Edexcel before going on to be offered a post teaching biology at a school in Devon.

The fraud emerged when the school, Westlands, in Torquay, offered her a contract and carried out a criminal records (CRB) check. It noticed her exam certificates were photocopies and contacted the universities where she claimed she had studied. They proved to be false and the police were called in.

Westlands was also under the false impression that Rawlinson was a chief examiner.

The school claims it was Edexcel that offered it Rawlinson's service and believes she has taught in at least two other schools. Edexcel has launched an inquiry into the case.

Rawlinson admitted fraud when she appeared before magistrates in Torquay and will be sentenced at Exeter crown court on 20 February.

Alison Jordan, prosecuting, said: "Westlands school contacted the police to say one of their teachers, Julia Rawlinson, had provided false degrees in order to obtain a teaching position.

"The school contacted the university and was told those bore no resemblance to their certificates and were poor forgeries."

Police arrested Rawlinson and found three forged certificates at her house in Brixham, Devon. One purported to be a biochemistry degree from a South African university. They also found a fake doctorate from a Scottish university and a fake certificate from the General Teaching Council.

Jolyon Tuck, defending, said there were mental health issues to consider.

After her conviction, Colin Kirkman, the headteacher of Westlands, said the school believed Rawlinson was chief examiner for A-level biology with Edexcel.

"The exam board offered us her help and support prior to the summer with A-level biology project work, which we accepted," he said. "We understand she also worked in at least two other schools in this area in this capacity.

He said Torbay children's services had commended the school for the extensive checks it had made: "the depth of checks that exam boards and other organisations failed to make".

Rawlinson began marking for Edexcel in 2007. The board said she was a marker, not a chief examiner.

A spokesman for the board said: "We can confirm that a marker was contracted for marking services by Edexcel for various examinations over the past four years. Based on information we have now received, she will not be contracted again in future. Markers do not play any role in setting questions."

It is investigating the school's claim that the board offered Rawlinson's help.

Edexcel will also be looking at what Rawlinson has marked over the years. This is complicated as Edexcel examiners do not tend to mark whole papers but often just individual questions on a paper.

Mark O'Brien concludes his account of the work of Simon on the Streets with the homeless and rough sleepers in West Yorkshire

In part 1, Mark described the context of the work in Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield of Simon on the Streets. After a briefing in McDonald's, he and the regular Leeds team set out:

We walk up Briggate towards the car park by the ring road; there is already a good turnout. One or two spot Clive, our team leader, and call out to him; the banter he gives and takes in equal measure. Indeed, take the same group of people, their playful talk, their conviviality, their mutual support, and you might just as easily find them gathered around a bar in town on an evening out.

They come along for something to eat and a cup of tea; sometimes people who have never been before will turn up, hearing about it through nothing more than word of mouth. But they stay to talk to one another, or to say hello to the regular volunteers or the support worker who looks after them and keeps them on the straight and narrow. One or two drop by for a sandwich and head off without staying to talk, but the rest prefer to stay: they find that everyone looks out for one another.

Like Jade, who comes along and tells me about her man who has had to go into hospital to have his leg amputated. She is drinking, but hardly eating. "I never used to be this thin," she tells me, tugging at her jeans which are now almost a size too big for her emaciated frame. "It's taken it out of me," she says, with tears welling up in her eyes.

Or Terry and Steve, who drop by the following week. "He's looked after me since I was this high," says Terry, lowering a hand almost all the way to the ground to prove his point. Steve struggles to speak, and so Terry communicates with him using the sign language he has picked up since he knew him as a boy.

Last autumn, Simon on the Streets appeared on Channel 4's 'Secret Millionaire', after some-time ITV Chief Executive and EMI Chair Charles Allen came to Leeds and found out first-hand about the work of the organisation. When Charles came along at first, he pretended to be plain old Charlie, writing a book about public sector funding cuts. Terry insists, "Oh I knew he was the Secret Millionaire! I bet that's what you are an 'all, aren't you!"

When the students from Leeds Trinity joined me to make our film, Terry thought he'd got us. As though I had a million or so in my pocket ready to hand out there and then, he draped his arm round my shoulder and said: "You know, if I were the Secret Millionaire, I tell you what I'd do." He pointed to a large, boarded-up old redbrick building at the other end of the car park. "I'd buy that building, do it up, and put all the homeless in there, give them a bed and a room. And then they'd be on their way."

As we leave on my last visit, one of the student trainees tells me: "I think I recognised him. I've seen him out walking around Leeds before."

The morning after my first night on the soup-run it is an early start. By chance, walking between engagements, I meet one of the faces from the previous evening hovering outside the St John's Centre on the Headrow.
Jay is thin, emaciated, almost skeletal. His grey beard clings desperately to his skin. On that first Tuesday evening he is wrapped in five layers, including a quite dapper pinstripe jacket he has found somewhere along the way. He walks with the aid of a crutch which he holds on one side. The next time I speak to Helen, I have forgotten his name: I describe him as "the elderly chap, the one with the crutch". She knows who I mean by the description alone, and then asks me how old do I think he is. He is just 41.

"He's been like an uncle to me since I first met him; that's why I call him Uncle Jay," says one girl I meet, just eighteen years old, now put up in a flat in Chapeltown, her father deceased when she was young.

Jay's found a regular spot to sleep, with piping making it a warmer, more hospitable spot to bed down; that is, until he is shunted away at six o'clock the next morning. He sees it all on the streets, but he says he can't bear the thought of girls out sleeping rough. He even takes the time to give me the card of a lady busker who has befriended him; he told her that he'd met me, and thought I might be able to find some way to help her out. "She's a wonderful singer; a lovely girl."

I tell Jay that I'm writing about homelessness, telling the stories of the people that I meet. Jay says: "Tell them we're just the same as you are. We're normal people, no different. That's all you need to say."

You can read the first part of Mark's series here.

Simon on the Streets is a registered charity and welcomes interest and help.

As temperatures fall to perishing levels, Mark O'Brien describes the work of Simon on the Streets whose team takes food, drink and friendship to rough sleepers

"It looks like a good crowd tonight..."

It's gone nine o'clock on a Tuesday evening and I'm standing in an all but deserted car park on the northern edge of Leeds city centre, right by the inner ring road along which the very last ones to leave the office finally drive on home for the night.

The evening is unseasonably mild: a blessed relief for the T-shirted revellers flitting about town, but scant consolation for the dozen bodies wrapped in layer upon layer, huddled around the water boiler, drinking tea out of polystyrene cups and taking away a bread roll or three for the long night ahead.

These same faces gather here every Tuesday night at the same time for some food, a warm drink, and familiar company. They are mostly dwelling in the dirty, dangerous hostels nearby or sleeping rough wherever they can find a hidden-away spot to bed down for the night.

Most evenings during the week, one of the local charities or church associations hosts something for the homeless around Leeds – except at the weekend when the crowds flock to town and money is to be made on the streets. But every Tuesday night, the small core of full-time support workers and committed volunteers that make up local charity Simon on the Streets pitches its tent here in this quiet corner of central Leeds.

Over the last two years, the numbers of 'statutory homeless' have crept back up: that is, those who according to local authorities are entitled to council support. Other charities argue these government figures severely understate the true extent of homelessness. The available data on numbers of 'rough sleepers' is similarly unreliable: until recently this was measured by a small team which would go out across town on a single night of the year and do a simple head-count of all those who were bedded down or about to bed down on the streets.

But Simon on the Streets are not interested in the statistics. Formed over a decade ago with a focus on those people who are excluded from or who refuse support from other services, they seek to build relationships with individuals. They are few in number, with two support workers in Leeds and two more across Bradford and Huddersfield, but they have built a great reputation.
The weekly soup-run is not simply intended to dole out food and drink of a Tuesday evening. The real purpose is to build relationships with those who need help and guidance the most.

I'm due to join the soup-run with a group of media students from Leeds Trinity university college to make a short film about homelessness in the city and the work of Simon on the Streets. But first, I pay a visit to try and find out more about what they try to do, and to get to know the people at the heart of their efforts.

I meet Clive (the long-standing director) and Helen (the operations manager, the one who keeps everything going and makes sure nothing goes wrong) in McDonalds on Briggate. They take me through the necessary health and safety briefing. Some of their service users, they tell me, may be HIV positive. If someone leaves a jacket or a bag, warn one of the support workers, rather than making a grab for it: there may be a needle hidden in there. When introduced, they may extend their hand; if I feel uncomfortable about shaking their hand, I should be aware of that before going along.

Read Mark's second post here, on the people he met, and the friends he made. Simon on the Streets is a registered charity and welcomes interest and help.

Many applicants hate the National Admissions Test for Law even more than interviews, but you don't need legal knowledge in order to tackle either

Fifteen years on, I still shudder at the memory of my unsuccessful interview for a place to study law at Cambridge. If only my curtain-haired 18-year old self had been more like the accomplished student who excels in the mock interview video on the Oxford law faculty's website.

How does she do it? At the end of the clip, the interviewer, law tutor Ben McFarlane, singles out for special praise the student's capacity for "looking carefully at words and drawing fine distinctions, building up an argument and applying that to examples", while emphasising how the university is testing for motivation, reasoning ability and communication skills rather than prior knowledge of the law.

I vaguely recall being similarly advised before my interview all those years ago. But like many Oxbridge law rejects, I failed to consider properly what these criteria meant in advance. One of the consequences of this was that every time my interviewer asked me a legal question, as McFarlane does frequently in the mock interview video - without expecting an informed response - I panicked.

It wasn't just the interview I fluffed; I bombed on the written test, too. These days, the test has been formalised, with the specimen questions on the Cambridge law faculty website a good example of how legal conundrums don't always require a QC to answer them. One begins ominously:

Section 1
(1) A person who is not a party to a contract (a "third party") may in his own right enforce a term of the contract if—
(a) the contract expressly provides that he may, or ...

Overcome the initial impulse to freak out, though, read on a bit, and all the question is asking is for some rules to be applied to some facts. In its own way, it's no more complex than one of the more esoteric debates on Match of the Day about whether or not a striker has strayed offside.

The point about prior legal knowledge not being a prerequisite for Oxbridge exam and interview success is an important one. But legal knowledge shouldn't be confused with an understanding of the fundamental aspects of how society works - which is helpful for would-be Cambridge undergraduates, as illustrated by the first question in the Cambridge specimen test essay section. It states:

"Judges should be given no discretion in sentencing criminals: all criminal penalties should be fixed by statute. The exercise of discretion in sentencing requires an exercise of moral judgment by the judge, and judges in a modern democracy should not be allowed to exercise moral authority over their fellow citizens." How far do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Clearly those with a basic grasp of the mechanics of democracy, in particular the separation of powers doctrine, are at an advantage here.

This is one of the many areas in which the Cambridge test differs from the National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) used by Oxford and several other top universities (LNAT is completely separate to the Oxford oral interview). LNAT steers well clear of anything that could be construed as legal, focusing instead on themes like feminism and imperialism. As such, the scores it generates seem less vulnerable to manipulation by the coaching of students in advance. Still, a familiarity with publications like the Economist – to whose editorial style the passages in the LNAT comprehension section bear more than a passing resemblance – can't hurt those sitting the test. A example of its mixture of multiple choice questions and essays is available here.

Despite the efforts of LNAT setters to make it accessible, most students aren't keen on the test. Summing up the general sentiment in a post on my blog LegalCheek.com, law student Jack Harris, who took the exam in 2008, describes LNAT as "pain, suffering and misery." Indeed, many are so averse to the idea of sitting the test - which was introduced in 2004 - that they deliberately do a non-law degree, then convert to law via the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

Surely, though, in the future more will simply grit their teeth and face LNAT as the trebling of university fees creates a strong incentive to minimise the number of years spent in higher education. There is already some early evidence of this trend: Ucas figures released earlier this week – which recorded an overall decline of 8.7% in numbers applying to university - showed the fall in applications for law undergraduate courses (3.8%) to be significantly lower than average. GDL numbers, meanwhile, have dropped substantially over the last few years.

Of course, there are plenty of universities offering undergraduate law courses ranked highly by the Guardian that don't require candidates to sit the LNAT or attend an interview. Indeed, Harris (who got an average score on the test) chose to go to non-LNAT Queen Mary's (ranked fourth in the country for law), graduated with a first and is now studying for the bar with the aid of a large scholarship from Lincoln's Inn.

Alex Aldridge is the editor of LegalCheek.com

Ed Lester to pay income tax and national insurance at source as ministers come under fire for signing off salary arrangements

Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury chief, has come under intense Labour pressure to say whether any minister had been aware they were signing off a tax avoiding scheme for Ed Lester, the head of the Students Loans Company (SLC).

Alexander and the business department, responsible for higher education ended the arrangement on Wednesday, saying Lester would in future pay tax and national insurance on his £182,000 pay package at source, rather than being paid via a private company without paying any tax.

Alexander repeatedly told the Commons: "I was not made aware of any tax benefit made available at the time I was asked sign off the arrangement." He said his responsibility was to sign off any salary levels above £142,500, and to make any adjustments to that size.

The news had come as an embarrassment at a time when the government is trying to crack down on executive salaries in the private sector.

He said the details of the contract were the responsibility of the Students Loans Company and the business department.

He was answering an urgent question tabled by Nick Brown, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne.

Alexander, who has launched a Whitehall review, provided some reassurance about the pervasiveness of the practice, saying: "I can tell you in relation to the 180 appointments with salaries of £142,500 that I have approved myself in my time as Treasury chief secretary, this is the only one, so far as I am aware, having looked through the cases where any similar arrangement applies.

He added that this did not include arrangements that were made before his appointment or at salary levels below the £142,000 threshold. He said the review would look at this issue

David Willetts, the higher education minister, is the figure most likely to have been aware of the arrangement, but it is not yet known whether he was informed by civil servants of its details.

Earlier, the business secretary, Vince Cable, defended the SLC chief executive, saying Lester was "an exceptionally useful individual who has helped to turn round that organisation".

"The arrangements under which the negotiations took place involved substantial value for money for the taxpayer, a tax cut by the individual and we will pursue matters of public concern on the tax issues," Cable said.

Alexander has written to other Whitehall departments, including accounting officers, to ask whether public servants had been given similar tax arrangements.

He has also asked whether any such arrangements were put in place by the Labour government and why HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had sanctioned the arrangement, a point that is now likely to be investigated by the public accounts committee.

Angry MPs called for the review to be widened to include the level and nature of salaries paid to NHS executives as well as bonus payments being paid to the chief executive of the Child Support Agency.

Labour MP Gareth Thomas raised questions about why written answers provided to him by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills failed to highlight the arrangement.

Lester was appointed SLC chief executive in December 2010 and is paid £182,0000 a year through a private firm he has established rather than being paid directly.

Alexander confirmed that the former head of the civil service, Lord O'Donnell, had been aware of the arrangement.

Richard Bacon, a prominent member of the public accounts committee, said there has been too much of this going on, pointing to a similar case at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) under the previous government.

Alexander said he was not aware of the RPA example and promised he would continue to take strong steps to crack down on tax avoidance.

The PAC chairwoman, Margaret Hodge, urged Alexander to publish a complete list of public servants paid by companies when the review is completed in March.

She wanted details of why HRMC had sanctioned the arrangement, and the decision for government to contribute to his pension.

News that Ed Lester is paid via a company undermines coalition rhetoric about tackling tax avoidance

The coalition agreement stated that the government would "make every effort to tackle tax avoidance, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals". On Newsnight last night it was revealed that the Lib Dem proposals included tax avoidance by senior public sector employees.

Ed Lester, chief executive of the Student Loans Company, who was appointed in May 2010, has for the past 18 months been paid through Penna Consulting, which charged the Student Loans Company for his services. This means that income tax and national insurance contributions are not deducted at source, unlike student loan repayments.

Paperwork obtained by Newsnight shows that this was signed off at ministerial level, despite officials warning about the loss of revenue. Danny Alexander, George Osborne's right hand man at the Treasury, confirmed this in the House of Commons last week when he said: "As chief secretary, I now personally sign off any new pay above £142,000."

Alexander boasted that in 45 of 83 cases that had passed his desk he had managed to lower the pay level. In at least one case it now seems he did this by excusing the individual involved from paying tax. David Willetts, the universities minister, has defended the decision, saying the state saved money through this arrangement. If Lester had been obliged to pay tax like the rest of us, his wage bill would have been increased accordingly.

This is absurd. Why then should any public servant have to pay taxes? Should the head of HMRC have to pay income tax, or would it be more cost effective to let her off? Should the prime minister?

What kind of message does this send to self-employed workers in the private sector who have just spent January filling in their tax returns? What kind of message does it send to the benefit cheats and fraudsters that the PM says he is uncompromisingly chasing?

Willetts has form in this kind of intellectual triangulation. Back in the days of the John Major government he had to resign after "dissembling" over his involvement in Neil Hamilton's fall from grace.

We expect this sort of behaviour from a Conservative party that takes half a million pounds a month from bankers and financiers, and recently knighted a donor who made £100m from the collapse of Northern Rock. But the Lib Dems claim to be the moderating force in this government. They are nothing of the sort.

In that same Treasury session in the Commons last week, Alexander said: "Our message to tax dodgers is, 'No matter how well known you are, how clever you think your accounts are or how far away you hide your money, we are coming to get you'." Sanctimonious hypocrisy.

At a time when the public finances are so tight that benefits are being cut for cancer patients and the disabled, Alexander is giving the go-ahead for well-paid public servants to avoid paying income tax. As well as being morally indefensible, the arrangement is corrosive for public service and public servants. Alexander must answer questions urgently about how many other deals of this kind he has let through and what estimate he has of the total cost of these deals to the public purse. What didn't he know, and when didn't he know it?

It is a great irony that a government that has set up a new model of student finance which threatens to price a generation out of higher education has at the same time excused from taxation the very man in charge of recouping student debt.

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