http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Facing a continuing decline in ticket sales the head of British Airways has introduced a novel money making scheme to correct the maths. Passengers are to pay £60 to reserve a seat. Presumably the others have to stand and time will tell if this idea takes off or crashes! We look at some other light hearted ideas to increase airline profit. Perhaps your class at school could use their imagination, lateral thinking, science principles and maths to come up with money making ideas Willy Walsh, the Chief Executive of British Airways might want to consider.

• Aisle seats are the most popular. Replace all aisle seats with hard wooden ones that don’t recline. The £60 booking fee only applies to non aisle seats. Nobody wants to sit on wooden seat; should sell every other seat in first 2 minutes.
• Remove all trolleys to save weight. Fit microwave ovens and allow passengers to do their own catering. Only allow baked beans on toast to be cooked. Extract subsequent methane produced to burn as fuel in engines.

• Allow discount for all passengers who check in with donation of 10 litres of paraffin to use as fuel.

• Scrap luggage allowance flying to Far East. Give voucher to spend on arrival in airport shops selling local goods. Saves flying goods back to where it was made. Weight saved in the hold to be used for freight – some of the freight income pays for the voucher.

• Fill the empty hold with storage racks to be used to freeze foods for food producers. Load aircraft with ice cream mix or vegetables and freeze them in flight at -50 degrees.

• Each aircraft tows a second one as a glider. There a hundreds of spare airliners sitting in the Mojave dessert. The glider has its engines removed to save weight and drag. Tickets in the glider could cost more as the ride is quieter. Ideas on how to land to be investigated. Cabin pressurisation fed from mother ship.

• Offer passengers the chance to fly the plane for £1000 per hour. Fellow passengers can raise £2000 to stop them.

• Fit photovoltaic panels over wings and fuselage to generate electrical power for aircraft.

• Hire out hammocks to economy passengers. These can be fitted to hooks in the ceiling above the heads of seated passengers and give simple and almost flat bed.

• Turn the engines off and glide the last 30 minutes of the flight into landing to save fuel. Take bets on the maximum distance travelled or the time before the first passenger screams.

Some simple mathematics to summarise the nuclear power:

• 12,500 tonnes of uranium = 10 tonnes of Uranium oxide
• 10 tonnes of Uranium oxide = 600kg of U235 isotope
• 600kg of U235 = 1 day of power for Greater London
• 1 day of power = 100,000 years of radioactive waste

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Years of controversy over the critical number of children in the classroom it’s about to go horribly wrong. Government cutbacks as result of the economic outlook will see the average class size increase as teachers are laid off.

The recession has hit many facets of our lives but one critical area where cutbacks will be savagely felt is schooling. Laying off teachers, paring expenditure destined for teaching resources and increasing class size is a slippery slope. Already concerns have been voiced over the failure of the educational programme in numeracy and literacy, yet we may exacerbate the problem by playing games with the central budget.

The economy has convinced many professionals to seek alternative careers. Last year saw a marked increase in the number of applicants for teacher posts. A welcome influx of candidates able to fill the many vacancies in the profession. At last the deficit could be overcome. Hardly has the government advertising programme finished and the ink dried on the application forms than it stands to be abandoned. The coffers are empty; we are increasing the national debt at £6,000 a second. Cutbacks are inevitable.

The dilemma is where to cut that has the minimum impact in the future. If we are broke it could seem academic to worry about what might be in ten years time. But we would be wrong. All of the Issues facing the government have long term implications. A cut in education would manifest consequences in 10 years when the next generation ‘hit the streets’ with inadequate qualifications. Equally, ignoring climate change and the need for renewable energy would have disastrous consequences. When the fuel runs out, the lights go and out the climate has gone crazy the need to cut back will be very apparent. Playing games with educational or renewable energy issues must be handled with immense care. Perhaps other areas should be the sacrificial lamb.

To my mind defence should be seriously reviewed. As a member state of Europe, NATO and the UN surely this should lead to a single standardised European defence force. The glory of the British Empire is long gone, and our primary involvement in overseas conflicts questionable. If we didn’t have the forces we could avoid becoming involved in dubious issues and protecting ideals, trade and “special” relationships; a central theme then handled by Europe. The billions of ponds saved from the current armed force duplication could be released for benefits materially affecting the UK. And if that involves educating the future leaders of tomorrow to could steer us away from future financial crises so much the better. We just need the world to be still habitable when we get there.

Ed Balls is having to cut the educational budget by 2 billion pounds, but sees part of the solution is to remove a huge swathe of headteachers. These are to be replaced by deputy heads who will report into a local super headteacher who manages several schools. 3000 heads could be made redundant to save 250 million pounds per year.

Unfortunately the overall schools budget is also being cut meaning these new super heads have less to fund educational activities.  The proposal by Ed Balls assumes that 3000 people can be found easily with the requisite skills to run multi schools. The current job of a head is already stressful seen by the many vacant headships in the current system. I believe this is going to consume vast amount of time that could divert energy away from the central theme that our educational system is already failing. A substantial restructure would muddy the water and perhaps be vulnerably to abandonment after the next election.

Daily Telegraph Teachers unions’ anger at Ed Balls’s planned cuts

SpaceKraft, leaders in sensory resources and teaching resources developed for special needs children have placed a new selection on the keen2learn website. They have been developed to enthuse and excite both children, teachers and parents. “Our aim is to enhance special needs children’s development by making learning fun and rewarding”. Said Spacekraft. We are looking forward to working with Keen2Learn in the future to expand our product offering.

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

The biggest problem facing our educational programme and teaching resources is the low standard in literacy and numeracy. Primary education, designed to prepare kids for secondary school, shows a significant proportion of children failing to achieve the minimum standards. It’s no wonder they fail to thrive when they move up.

It’s not just a UK problem. Similar results can be found in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But there may be a connection as they are all English speaking. There are vague comparisons with school performance in Scandinavia where educational attainment appears notably higher. Two simplistic differences here; kids in Scandinavia don’t start school until they are 6 years old, and, Nordic languages are supposedly much harder to learn that English.

So there’s the rub; we’re handicapped by starting school too early and not having to work hard to learn to our language. A child struggling at English in school at the start of the learning journey may slip of out of contention and be put off learning.  Can this knock to their confidence impact on other lessons? But hang on, English as the international second language is growing rapidly. Fuelled by the internet, popular TV and films, the BBC world news service, civil aviation and international shipping, English is in an exponential growth phase. Pretty important, therefore, that our children master the language to maintain a place in the global employment market, if not we could be overtaken by others. The emergence of call centres in Indian demonstrated how a huge sector of the historic UK service industry can be relocated virtually overnight based on an ability to speak English.

Australia is also suffering. A recent survey revealed ten percent of kids in NSW cannot spell simple words like “school” or “building”. Five per cent can’t do basic maths but of greater concern are signs that performance is deteriorating with age. One and half per cent have trouble writing in year 3, but this rises to four per cent by year 5 and 10.6 per cent by year 9.

A parent’s job or educational attainment also has an influence on a child’s ability to do well at school. English grammar and punctuation testing shows 18 per cent of children with unemployed parents fail in year 9, whilst only two per cent of children of senior managers or qualified professionals fail. Is this a function of inherited intelligence or a direct result of the parental involvement in the schooling process at home? Or are these symptoms of a deeper issue?

In the USA a survey of 500 school drop outs in 2009 revealed some startling reasons for children to abandon learning:

• 47 per cent said classes were not interesting
• 43 per cent said they missed too many days to catch up
• 45 per cent entered secondary (high school) poorly prepared by primary school (elementary school)
• 69 per cent were not motivated to work hard
• 35 per cent said they were failing
• 32 per cent left to get a job
• 25 per cent left to become parents
• 67 per cent said they would have tried harder if more was expected from them.

The survey found many issues in the teaching process that could have created the situation. We are in the 21st century but somehow have lost the plot as how to teach effectively as we move ahead with technology, aspirations and social outlook. Most of us regard drop outs as lazy yet 67 per cent said they would have worked harder if it had been demanded. In the UK many head teachers are reviewing the IGCSE and International Baccalaureate as their curriculum – primarily because the students have to work harder and the course content is more relevant to the modern world.

Improving exam performance in GCSE and A level mask reality and having defended improving achievement as the reason I am becoming cynical. Strange we would think most kids are just lazy and it is perhaps our teaching procedures that are failing to keep pace. Kids need to work harder to excel.

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

The epitome of learning through fun, Keith Floyd has died aged 65. His eccentric style, love of cooking and novel approach to teaching the process of cooking endeared him to millions throughout the world. Keith Floyd BBC
Those who achieve recognition through innate ability are few and far between. The creation of a cookery programme featuring such passion coupled to the novelty of filming on location brought fun in the cookery educational process. Preceding many who attempted to copy his approach none had the love of the role along with the entertainment he produced. Learning about the local cuisine along with the local ingredients, techniques and locations and enthralled a wide audience who were learning at the same time.

There have been many who have followed but none have the style and self deprecating style that endeared him to many. He will be sadly missed, and regrettably failed to capitalise on his success. We need eccentrics who break the mould and capture attention by driving the message through in the face of authority. We can learn a lot from his approach to learning.

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk

The “Lying down game” craze has resulted in an overreaction from a hospital that could set a bad educational example to children playing the same game and merely create rebellion.

A temporary phase of eccentricity is at large, and thank heavens it is. We lead confined lives bound by rules and regulations. Adults as well as children need to spread their wings and experiment, what better way than involve themselves in the temporary fad of the “Lying down game”. Participants are required to pose for a photograph lying down, arms nearly folded by their sides in various unlikely situations. Posted on Facebook, the event reminds me of one of the newspaper promotions; take a photo of someone holding a particular newspaper in an exotic location.

We need this eccentricity in order to bring some fun into our restrained adult lives. So why has a hospital manager suspended seven doctors and nurses in the A&E department at Swindon hospital for participating in the game? Claims they violated hospital rules seems a huge overreaction implying the NHS must be overstaffed! Can a key department in an emergency department operate efficiently with seven key staff laid off? Retained on full pay pending a formal investigation the staff are absent from their critical jobs and presumably it will take weeks and several mangers to resolve the investigation and formal hearing. What a waste, what a crazy example to set.

A better outcome would have a trained man manager quietly rebuke the staff in a positive manner to correct and support without the damaging overreaction. Let’s have some fun in the workplace; life is too serious as it is. And the outcome of the enquiry must surely also review the negative press gained from the decision.

Renewable energy education is becoming a hot topic. A great new range of working model cars designed for the classroom demonstrates the function and benefits of hydrogen fuel cells.

Classrooms are great testing grounds for product durability. With this in mind Keen2learn have adopted the Heliocentris range of teaching resources for science. The classroom packs of hydrogen fuel cell cars show how sunlight can be harnessed to produce hydrogen, and how the hydrogen can power a fuel cell model car.

Supplied with teaching instructions and a list of experiments this cross curricular product produces interest and fun as the cars are raced together. More importantly it introduces children to the vital needs of renewable green energy.

“The Heliocentris range is robust and designed to survive in the classroom. The experiments give a huge and fun insight into green energy” said Alistair Owens of keen2learn.

After years of concern over large classes sizes in primary and secondary schools, some research shows in the sixth form the larger classes perform best!

Research shows pupils studying in large sixth forms perform better on average than those in smaller establishments.
Research by the Association of Colleges (AoC) suggests a link between a sixth form or college’s size and the attainment of its pupils at A level and equivalent qualifications.

Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, said: “The poor performance of smaller school sixth forms is a source of concern, as it raises serious doubts about continued political support for an increase in the number of school sixth forms. New smaller school sixth forms do not look like an efficient investment, according to this data, particularly at a time when public spending is so constrained.”

The AoC examined the average Level 3 point scores (equivalent to A levels) per student At schools or colleges with fewer than 50 pupils, the average score was 561, for those with 101 to 150 stu¬dents this was 657, and institutions with more than 250 pupils had an average score of 802. This excludes independent schools.

The evidence would seem to imply that larger dedicated sixth form colleges could be the answer. These establishments would perform batter than the bolt on sixth forms at the local school. As a separate establishment the costs would need to stack up but if it raises the performance bar it seems the better all round approach. Would also give sixth formers more independence.

After 10 years in operation the Government plans to extend the number of educational academies. But are they working? Has the right decision been made by the DCSF (department of children, schools and families) based on fact or is this way to offload problem schools to third parties?

The debate looms; the protagonists either claim Academies offer fundamental benefits to children by providing schooling based on the needs of the real world, or an experiment fraught with difficulties. Many are struggling to prove the point and numerous Principals have fallen by the wayside. Operating outside many constraints of the National Curriculum these self funding and governing institutions have considerable operational freedom. Critically they are able to adopt a syllabus tuned to local commercial requirements. Matching the needs of local employers improves job prospects, surely a fundamental role of the entire educational programme. The commercial sponsorship of their operation instils a real world environment, many have become hugely successful. But others have not.

It is this situation that worries the conventionalists. The lack of detailed evidence that categorically proves the benefits of academies is causing concern. The government’s proposal to extend to 400 the number of academies has caused a stir. With the total number of secondary schools amounting to 3500, academies now represent a significant proportion of the national educational output. Maybe some of the negative comment stems from envy of their dynamic operational, although they are still subjected to Ofsted review.

Schools must evolve with the commercial demands of the employment market. It is as pointless educating children for jobs that do not exist as much as failing to provide an acceptable quality of education for the now global opportunities. Critics of the falling quality are legion, with constant concern over falling standards and the narrowed bandwidth in subject areas created by the “teach to test” syndrome. Concerns levelled by teachers, parents and employers alike over the current performance await a radical review of the schooling process. The solution is complex and will require a courageous plan from the DCSF to correct. But concern over educational matters doesn’t stop at the school gate. We now see a worrying trend developing in universities. The number of graduates finding employment in the discipline of their degree is extraordinary low. Many find that to gain employment they must now achieve a master’s degree. In the prevailing reduced employment demand employers can afford to be highly selective, but this presents additional cost in time and fees to archive a masters. Graduates who find their first degree devalued carry a sizeable financial debt as they enter the job market in a lower paid or qualified role

Academies may therefore be the answer. Tuning education to the changing needs of the now – global employment market may well be the key that academics can adopt dynamically. Their controlling influence from commercial third parties will reflect the changing market needs more readily. Certainly they stand a better change of introducing radical development programmes than the conventional school limited by systems and procedures that can isolate and frustrate new ideas. They may have their critics and still have long way to go, but academies have my vote to become established. To stick rigidly to our current system of schooling which is constantly attracting criticism is of far greater concern.

Keen2learn are delighted to add some great new products by Spacekraft Ltd. to the Special Needs section. Developed to stimulate the senses in special needs children these very popular products provide hours of fascinating fun for children. Comprising of educational toys, games and massage kits, the products have all been specially developed to stimulate and fascinate children.
“They are a splendid addition to the keen2learn range and we are extremely pleased to establish a link with Spacekraft” said Alistair Owens MD of www.keen2learn.co.uk