Monthly Archives: January 2012

Sexism on air: Are there too few women on BBC radio?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Too few female presenters on BBC radio? That’s Tory MP Nadine Dorries’s view. She wants mums to withhold their licence fees – because their daughters are not being given good female role models on air. The failure of the BBC … Continue reading →

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Are YOU bored of the Bard? And can Stanley Wells make it all better?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Aagh Shakespeare, boring, boring, boring! Or is it? My kids have left school so I don’t have to listen to cries of anguish as they pore over Richard III scene aged 14, or tackle Macbeth age 16. But lots of kids … Continue reading →

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Fighting over the four plus

Posted on January 29, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Tutoring for toddlers. Sounds bonkers but that’s what is going on among the well-heeled elite of central London I found out last week when I researched a story for The Sunday Times . Getting into top schools in places like … Continue reading →

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Put your Kindle on the fire… Should the iPad generation go back to books?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by siangriffithsst

What is it with new technology? Everywhere you turn schools are throwing out books and buying up iPads. Wellington college is soon to open a digital library, where children can tune in with their computers in specially constructed pods. The … Continue reading →

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Bring on the boarding schools

Posted on January 17, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Boarding for seven and eight year olds is downright cruel, argues George Monbiot in the Guardian. I’m not so sure after speaking to Daisy Pasternak, journalist Anna Pasternak’s daughter, who is boarding in an Oxfordshire boarding school and has been … Continue reading →

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fancy that, student finance

Posted on January 16, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Another research study points out that the government is going to lose billions from its ill thought out student loans scheme in yesterday’s Sunday Times. Apparently only graduates who end up earning more than £60,000 will repay the whole of … Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Garrett Anderson schoolgirls influenced by Michelle Obama

Posted on January 15, 2012 by siangriffithsst

I went back to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school in Islington last week – the London girls school Michelle Obama visited during her first ever foreign trip abroad as First Lady in 2009. According to a new book by New York … Continue reading →

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Breakfast at the Wolseley with Loyd Grossman

Posted on January 15, 2012 by siangriffithsst

Fun last week – breakfast at the Wolseley with foodie and former TV presenter Loyd Grossman (of the big-selling line of sauces). Loyd, who, it turns out, was once a writer on The Sunday Times, was explaining why, at the … Continue reading →

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The war horse on the red carpet

Posted on January 8, 2012 by siangriffithsst

I wish I was going to the premiere of War Horse, the Steven Spielberg directed film, in Leicester Square today. I have long been a fan of the work of Michael Morpurgo, the best selling children’s author on whose book … Continue reading →

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