Free schools, grammar schools, faith schools, private schools… there all sorts of different kinds of schools, and now two football schools are being set up. Well, schools founded by football clubs…

Karren Brady, currently best known as Alan Sugar’s right-hand woman on The Apprentice, and also famous for being the first woman to run a football club (she took over at Birmingham City aged only 23, which is pretty extraordinary really), is the mastermind behind plans to set up a school in connection to West Ham. The location of the West Ham Academy is currently in discussion, but Education Secretary Michael Gove is backing the plans, and Brady is extremely keen to get the school off the ground.

Brady is particularly keen on helping to get more women into the business sector and sees setting up a school as a way to do so. She was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying. ‘I would love to do an all-girls’ school but I probably wouldn’t be allowed…[but] I would like 50% of the pupils to be girls. When I arrived at West Ham (where she is currently vice-chairwoman) there were no senior women at all. Now 50% of the management team are women, which I think is the least percentage that it should be. Someone opened a door for me; my job is to hold that door open to get as many women through it as possible.”

The plans for the West Ham-supported school are not purely football-related, but will help students to acquire skills in areas that are really useful off the pitch, such as finance, sponsorship, marketing and retail. The hope is that the students will have career options, without necessarily needing to go to university and get a degree after doing their A Levels.

Over in Merseyside, Everton football club is setting up another school, and the first pupils will walk through the gates in September. To start with there will be 120 pupils aged 14-19, and then will gradually expand in following years. Although prospective pupils have been warned that lessons will not all be out on the pitch with star players and that they will need to attend a full range of classes. Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for real Education told the Sunday Times, ‘the children who attend will need to be able to distinguish between the celebrity status of the club and the realities of education, which means working hard. Provided pupils don’t confuse the two, the schools should be able to bring real benefits.’

I am very intrigued indeed about the future of the schools and wish them every success!

It’s a well-known fact that revising all day every day is not very good for you. Getting up at 7am and staying chained to your desk until midnight is not going to be terribly effective and may drive you totally bonkers before the exams even begin.

You should aim to do between six and eight hours of revision a day, and divide your day up into manageable sections, split up by reasonable breaks. This will help your brain to stay engaged and make sure the revision you do is really effective.

When talking to one of my students today about revision timetables she told me that she didn’t really know what to do with her breaks and often end up wandering aimlessly around the house, which doesn’t do a very good job of resting her mind. So to fix the problem we brainstormed some ideas for better ways to recharge. If you also struggle to know what to do in revision breaks and need a way of resting and re-invigorating your mind in-between doing past papers and making notes etc, then here are some suggestions…

-Go for a run around the parks to get your limbs moving and some oxygen in your system.

-Take the dog (or a neighbour’s dog) out for a walk. There are lots of beautiful flowers and blossoming trees around London at the moment so see if you can find some.

-Visit a nearby art gallery or museum and have a wander around for half an hour or so.

-Bake some healthy and satisfying flapjacks. They’re fun to make and good for you too!

-Read a chapter of your favourite novel.

-Snuggle up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea and some music playing.

-Take up knitting/cross stitch/embroidery – something that is creative and uses a different part of your brain.

-Call up an old friend who you haven’t seen for a while for a chat.

-Go to a dance or exercise class. Yoga is great for relaxation.

-Meet up with a friend and play a spot of badminton/tennis outside if the weather’s nice, or a board game if it’s cold and wet.

What are your favourite things to do during a revision break? Let us know and we’ll share them on the blog.

Although it’s hard to believe, given the bad press about Britain’s numerical skills at the moment, the number of students studying A Level maths is at a 35 year high. Yet fewer people study maths up to 18 in Britain than in any other developed country and millions of Britons struggle with even basic calculations. The Department of Education is extremely keen to improve the situation and the plans to make maths compulsory for students up to the age of 18 are now well under way.

The changes are being spearheaded by Sir John Holman, who is the senior education adviser to the Wellcome Trust and emeritus professor of Chemistry at York University. Holman told the Sunday Times “we need a qualification that is at the level of A-level but is designed for people who are going on to study a subject which is likely to be more in the medical, biological and social sciences than in the engineering and physical sciences – which is what the present A-level is eminently suited to.”

There are concerns at the moment that the current maths A-level is not as useful as it could be to people going onto study subjects other than pure maths at university, but who will require mathematical skills. According to the new plans, students will be able to choose from a variety of maths qualifications, so that they can study the subject in a way that will be most useful to them, according to their particular needs and ambitions.

I think that it is fantastic that there will be different options for students, rather than everyone having to do exactly the same qualification. As far as I’m concerned, ‘one size fits all’ does not work at all in the world of education, and so I sincerely hope that the new reforms will be hugely beneficial to all students.

After a hectic term it can be extremely hard to find the motivation to do homework and revision over the Easter holidays, particularly when the weather is so nice and it’s unbelievably tempting to just go and eat ice cream in the park. However, it is really important that as well as relaxing and having some fun, you get some coursework and revision done. The summer exams will come by sooner than you know it, and it is a terrible idea to leave all of your revision until the last minute. To help you to focus and get motivated, here are some little bits of advice that might assist in inspiring you.

1. Wake up early and get your work done in the morning.
Now that it is officially spring and there is more light and warmth it is easier to get out of bed. There are fewer distractions in the morning, I tend to find anyway, and your brain will be more alert and ready for action. Once you’ve got some work done then you can go out and do other things, and you won’t have the thought of revision hanging over you.

2. Make a realistic schedule.
It would be impossible and not at all efficient if you tried to revise too much all in one day. If you make a realistic and manageable schedule that you can stick to then you won’t feel too overloaded.

3. Arrange treats for after a work session.
Book fun activities or arrange to meet friends/go and get a frozen yoghurt/smoothie/other yummy treat of choice to reward yourself. If you arrange things in advance then you’ll have them to look forward to.

4. Think of creative ways to work.
Is there somewhere you can visit or something that you can do/see that will help you but that doesn’t feel like traditional homework. Seeing a foreign film will help with languages, visiting historical sights might help with a history project and go to galleries to inspire your art homework.

5. Set yourself targets.
Whether it’s getting an A, or just improving your essay writing skills, or being able to speak enough Italian to converse when you go on holiday, setting yourself a target can be a great way to help motivate you, otherwise revision can just feel like you’re doing it for the sake of it.

6. Get some help!
A tutor will be able to help inspire and motivate you and keep you company along your journey towards the exams. Academic work can feel lonely, but a tutor will save you from being all alone and will be able to guide and assist you.

Good luck!

A few weeks ago I found myself walking through the streets of east London, from St Paul’s to the Barbican and then on to Smithfield Market. As well as discovering all sorts of amazing buildings and brilliantly named streets, I chanced upon a London museum I’d never heard of before: the Clockmaker’s Museum. The museum lodges in the Guildhall library and holds an amazing collection of horological instruments. You can find out about extraordinary clocks made in London since 1600 and see watches belonging to many famous historical figures. For more information click here.

This curious discovery led me to wonder about all the other unusual museums that must be tucked away in our wonderful city. Here are a few I’ve found out about that are on my ‘must visit’ list for the next few weeks. If you’re looking for somewhere unusual to go this weekend, why not try out one of the following…

Medical students and aspiring doctors might want to go along to the Royal London Hospital Museum in Whitechapel, where you can see all sorts of early pieces of medical equipment.

They say that the ‘eyes are the windows to the soul’, and at the British Optical Association Museum you can find out all about your peepers, the history of spectacles and even see some eyes belonging to Egyptian mummies!

The Foundling Hospital was supported by many great philanthropic figures such as Handel and Hogarth and it looked after many thousands of abandoned children. Although the original hospital has long been demolished, there’s a museum near the original site, where you can discover stories about London’s abandoned children and see an amazing collection of art and Rococo interiors.

Children and the adults who are young at heart will be delighted and tickled by Pollock’s Toy Museum.

‘Money, money, money, must be funny…’ went the lyrics to the famous ABBA song, and at the Bank of England Museum you can find out all sorts of things about the history of British currency.

The Cuming Museum in Southwark showcases the collection of the Victorian Cuming family, who gathered a fabulous variety of treasures on their travels.

Animal lovers, explorers and historians will adore the Grant Museum of Zoology, which holds hundreds of creatures and specimens, including the skeleton of a Dodo and the corpse of a Tasmanian tiger.

Have you found an exciting and unusual museum or building? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

After years of build up, London 2012 is almost here. In a few months’ time the games will begin and the city will be sports crazy. Having never been terribly adept at PE at school my sports knowledge is pretty terrible, but as a resident of this year’s host city, I felt it my duty to find out a bit more about the Olympic sports…

There are 26 different Olympic sports, which are broken down into 39 individual disciplines. There are some famous ones, such as athletics, rowing and swimming, and some more unusual sports such as handball and canoe slalom. Cycling breaks down into four categories: BMX, Mountain bike, road and track, and there are three different types of gymnastics: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.

The event that sounds most impressive (and exhausting) to me is the Modern Pentathlon. Contestants have to swim, fence, ride, shoot and run! The Modern pentathlon was championed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin (the founder of the games as we know them) and is inspired by a 19th-century legend. According to the story a French cavalry officer had to deliver an important message and in order to do so ended up riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running (it must have been a very special message!).

One of the more unusual venues this year is the Horse Guards Parade, which will play host to Beach Volleyball. Beach Volleyball began in the 1920s and became an Olympic sport in 1996. Out of the eight gold medals awarded so far for the sport, five have gone to Americans.

Although canoes have been around for hundreds of years, the 200m-canoe sprint race is making its Olympic debut in London this year. The canoe sprint is one of the fastest races and can be over in no more than 30 seconds!

Olympic sports are full of all sorts of jargon. Here are some new words that I’ve discovered…
‘Piaffe’: a trotting movement, performed almost on the spot (to be found in Dressage)
‘Judogi’: A judo uniform
‘Parry’: A defensive move found in fencing.

I was tickled to discover that ‘Taekwondo’ translates into English as ‘the way of foot and fist’. This martial art is all about powerful kicks and punches, so it seems it is a very apt name after all.

The Iranian athlete Hossein Rezazadeh, who lifted a staggering 263.5kg in Athens in 2004, holds the Olympic weightlifting record.

According to the official London2012 website, the organisers are estimating that 2,400 footballs will be used in the Olympic football matches!

If you want to find out more about the Olympics this summer, check out the official website, which is packed with lots of great info.

Hurrah! We love half term! If you’re staying in London this February, there are lots of wonderful things to see and do. Here are a few of our favourite opportunities…

Are you excited about the imminent arrival of the new James Bond film? If you need a bit of 007 in your life before then you can go on a themed Bond Duck tour.

Cadogan Hall is just a hop and a skip away from Enjoy Education HQ and the venue is putting on a special sea-themed family concert.

Celebrate Chinese New Year at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. They’re putting on lots of fun activities to help you celebrate in style.

Keen swimmers and artists might want to attend an event at Dear Lido where you can decorate swimming caps, make bunting and attend a tea party in Tooting.

Budding musicians have got a great chance to go to workshops led by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the Barbican.

Celebrate the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth by going to the fantastic Dickens and London exhibition at the Museum of London.

Curious scientists should pop along to the Grant Museum of Zoology to take a peek at some fascinating skeletons and weird and wonderful creatures.

It’s a big year for the monarchy with the Queen’s diamond jubilee and you can find out more about the famous Household Cavalry (the Queen’s official guards) at the Household Cavalry Museum.

Are you a fan of the magical and fantastical? Maybe Balthazar’s Bazaar of the Bizarre is the show for you.

Young adventurers might want to go along to Holland Park where you can go on thrilling scavenger hunts.

Have fun!

Autism affects thousands of children, and it is thought that in the UK one in every 100 children has an autism spectrum disorder. Autism is a disorder of neural development and impacts heavily on social interaction and communication. It is usually detected in the first few years of a child’s life; however there is new research which shows that it may be possible to detect autism earlier than originally believed, at around six months of age.

Although there is no ‘cure’ for autism there are behavioural and education programmes that can be hugely beneficial, and the earlier it is detected, the better. As one of the leaders of the latest study, Professor Mark Johnson from Birkbeck College told James Gallagher at the BBC, “The prevailing view is that if we are able to intervene before the onset of full symptoms, such as a training programme, at least in some cases we can maybe alleviate full symptoms.”

Older children with autism often make very little eye contact with people, and so the researchers used sensors to monitor babies’ eye movements and the amount of contact they made with people’s faces in order to help them detect key indicators of the disorder. The researchers were also able to monitor brain activity.

However not all babies who showed potential signs of autism did go onto develop autism, so for the time being, the tests aren’t 100% accurate. Further research is clearly needed in order to develop an accurate way of predicting whether children will develop autism.
In the meantime, there are many technological developments that are really helping children with autism, such as special apps for children to use on touch screen computers, which are helping young people who are affected by the disorder to communicate effectively. Members of the National Autism Society have been praising the benefits of iPads and other tablet computers, which have the ability to show how people think. Many autistic children have very strong visual memories, so pictures presented on a screen can really help them learn. Touch screens are also easier to use than a mouse and keyboard, and can be used by really young children. There are now a number of apps that young children can use in order to learn and practise skills.

Both the research and the apps are in their early days, but show promise of potentially helping thousands of children.

It’s impossible to know everything, and during your lifetime you have to be selective about the things you want to learn; picking GCSEs, A Levels and then university degrees for example, all end up narrowing the subjects that you’ll be studying. Of course there are also all sorts of extra-curricular activities you can do, or adult learning courses in order to expand your horizons. From hieroglyphics to playing the xylophone, there’s pretty much a course for everything out there somewhere and new classes seem to be popping up all the time.

Most recently, Kensington and Chelsea College has announced that they will offer a course in ‘iPhoneography’, which is a course solely dedicated to teaching people how to use the camera on their iPhones. Professional photographer Richard Gray, who said to the BBC, “all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind” and “with the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool”, will lead the course. The course is thought to be the first of its kind. If you’re a keen photographer and the owner of an iPhone, then maybe this is the extracurricular activity for you.

While there are plenty iof unusual courses on offer in the UK, America is usually credited with having the most unusual and esoteric education courses on offer and at the University of California you can study underwater basket weaving, at Pitzer college you can take a course in YouTube and Georgetown University offers a course in Philosophy and Star Trek. My favourite sounding course is The Science of Harry Potter, which is offered by Frostburg State University.

Back in the UK, here’s a link to some lessons in delicious things such as pizza making, cheese tasting and vegetable growing.

Have you heard of or attended some unusual courses? We’d love to hear from you if you have.

Having grown up and gone to school just around the corner, I’ve always been really fond of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and I reckon it’s a great place to go in our special London buildings series.

The gallery is England’s very first purpose-built art gallery, happens to have a rather good café and is next to the rather lovely Dulwich Park, so all in all is well worth a visit. Oh, and it holds some amazing pictures too.

A Swiss collector, Sir Francis Bourgeois and his friend Noel Desenfans were asked by Stanislaus Augustus (king of Poland) to put together a ‘royal collection’ of art in 1790. But after five years of travelling around Europe collecting all sorts of amazing pictures Poland had been partitioned and didn’t really exist anymore. Left with all of these pictures, Bourgeois (Desenfans died in 1807) bequeathed them to Dulwich College and in his will asked for a gallery to be founded to house the works.

The famous Regency architect Sir John Soane was commissioned to design the gallery and it was opened in 1817. The gallery is made up of a series of inter-connected rooms lit by skylights. Its feel is both cosy and intimate and light and airy thanks to the natural light and the well-proportioned rooms.

Dulwich Picture Gallery holds many wonderful paintings by artists ranging from Pieter de Hooch, Rembrandt and Thomas Gainsborough to 10 paintings by Rubens, a pair by Canaletto, two by Raphael, one by Vasari and many more.

The gallery also has a mausoleum where Bourgeois, Desenfans and Desenfans’ wife are buried. Rumour has it that there are some unidentified skeletons lurking in there as well!

Today the gallery holds many exciting temporary exhibitions alongside the permanent collection. They also have excellent education programmes, particularly in school holidays. Why not hop over and have a look around. The website is www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk