A guide to Sats — by two primary school teachers of the year
Key Stage 2 tests run smoothly at Willow School in north London because of outstanding teaching and preparation, according to the head teacher, Dawn Ferdinand. But there is the occasional hiccup.
'We had a child who had a disagreement with his mum on the way to school one year and arrived in a bad mood and refused to sit the test,' says Ferdinand, who was named head teacher of the year at the Pearson Teaching Awards in December. 'So aim for uneventful journeys to school during Sats week!'
About 600,000 year 6 pupils across England will sit the Key Stage 2 assessment in maths and English this month — six papers over four days. Last year 74 per cent of pupils reached the standard expected
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The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘It's all very raw': Twenty victims of the Air India plane crash connected to the same London temple
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been left in mourning after the Air India plane disaster claimed more than 240 lives on Thursday. But one north-west London community, some 4,000 miles away from the Ahmedabad crash site, is feeling the impact more than most. Twenty of the victims have connections to the same temple in Harrow, its leader has said, with multiple families now trying to come to terms with what has happened. Among those killed in the Dreamliner disaster are a mother and father who lost their son, a pilot, in a plane crash in France just a few years ago. Click here for the latest updates on the crash. Members of the British Gujarati community have been gathering to pay their respects and grieve at the International Siddhashram Shakti Centre, which is just tucked off the high street. Speaking to The Independent, spiritual leader Shri Rajrajeshwar Guruji described the crash as a 'huge loss', adding that he personally knew of 20 people who boarded the doomed Air India flight. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after clearing the runway at Ahmedabad Airport, with a huge fireball appearing after it collided into a medical college housing dozens of doctors. Mr Guruji, who is from the Gujurati region but has lived in the UK since 1993, said: 'I have good communication with the people there, and I woke up to see so many calls. There were messages to say there has been a crash. 'The day before yesterday my priest who works here in the temple had flown from Gatwick to Ahmedabad on the same flight. He was on the same plane that crashed but travelling on the way out.' After frantically calling his colleague who reassured him he was safe, Mr Guruji began receiving endless phone calls both from people on the ground in India, and from his worshippers who had lost loved ones or had known people on the flight. 'I had a message from a police officer from Gujarati who said the former chief minister Vijay Rupani was on it, he has previously worshipped here. I was then given a list of people on the flight from Indian police and I was checking the names, and I could see some of them were familiar. 'Then people kept calling me to say 'so and so were on the flight' and so I eventually knew 20 people personally who had been lost,' he said. He then spent the remainder of his day speaking on the phone to the families of the victims, and contacting their wider relatives to inform them and to offer them support and comfort. 'One family, they have lost a couple, a mother and father have both died. A few years ago, three or four years ago, their son died. He was a pilot, his flight crashed in France. It was a passenger jet and he was the pilot. Yesterday, his parents were travelling back from India and now both are gone.' According to Hindu beliefs, the process of cremation and scattering of ashes is a part of liberating the soul and bringing peace to the deceased. But the nature of the crash means that some of the victims' bodies may not be found. Police officers on the ground in Ahmedabad have described the scene as 'chaos' in their calls to Mr Guruji, and he remains in close contact with relatives and spiritual leaders in Gujurati. Navin Shah, a retired architect and former Labour chair of the London Assembly, worships at the Harrow temple. He was horrified by the crash that destroyed a densely populated area near his hometown. Having been born and raised less than 10 miles from the crash site, Mr Shah is intimately familiar with the area. He lived there for 15 years before moving to the UK and shared his concerns that the number of dead on the ground remains unknown. 'We know that the plane crashed into a housing complex called Meghani Nagar, but I understand there was a slum, a hutted area, with poor people living there. If they have been wiped out, that's another factor that deeply concerns me,' he said. Mr Shah first received a call at 8.30am from his nephew, who lives just four miles away from the airport, who informed him of the tragedy. Soon afterwards, he realised that the majority of those killed had connections to areas such as Harrow, Brent, and Leicester, and that his community would be disproportionately affected. 'We had a prayer at the temple last night and I met a young man, 20 years old, whose grandparents had perished in the plane,' Mr Shah said. 'I was speechless, I didn't have the heart to express my feelings - I pretty much broke down. One young lady had lost her father-in-law and she was crying away. It's all very raw at the moment.' Over the coming days, services and prayers are due to be held at the Harrow centre, including an inter-faith ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the dead.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Woman scrambles to create 'forever home' for 180 sheep
A woman has told the BBC she is scrambling to build a "forever home" for 180 sheep and other farm Hubbard, who runs Lotus Lamb and Sheep Sanctuary, said she has to leave her "beautiful, idyllic" site in Woodmancote, West Sussex, by 11 July. Though an "incredible" donor has withdrawn part of her pension and bought the sanctuary some land, the 53-year-old said she needs £20,000 and other items to ready the site for the rescue sheep and other in-need animals. "We are just begging people for help," she added. "These animals are sentient beings. They feel. They grieve. They love. They cry." 'Sheep are lovely' The sanctuary - named after Lotus, a "very special" sheep that used to live inside her house - is home to many animals that have been neglected and abused "in the most horrendous way", said Ms Hubbard. She told the BBC she had rescued sheep that had been left in a field without shelter during winter and starved of water and food."If that was a field of dogs, everybody would be in uproar but because it is sheep people just go, oh, its just sheep." Ms Hubbard added: "Sheep are lovely. They give so much." "Some don't always want to snuggle, but they'll sit with you. They're just incredible." Another animal at the shelter, she continued, is a pig called Clarence that escaped a local slaughterhouse and lived wild in Henfield. He escaped death a second time after Ms Hubbard said she intervened and took him in when a local landowner planned to shoot him. "We literally want to help every animal we can," she said.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
University of Nottingham cuts target language teaching staff
A decision to cut casual staff at the University of Nottingham's Language Centre will diminish its status as a "global university", critics have Poujades, 54, who has worked for the university since 2019, said it had left her having to "rethink everything".Those affected deliver evening language classes to students and the general public, as well as offer language studying options to existing undergraduate students.A spokesperson for the university said it had been dealing with "significant financial challenges" and that the classes did not generate a "financial surplus". Ms Poujades said as a casual member of staff, the university did not need to consult or provide a notice period."There was no letter, nothing, just an e-mail from [a senior member of staff] so it came as quite a shock to everybody," she French teacher had already struggled with money, and during a gap in work at the university last summer she said she had to go on universal credit."I do not want to give up teaching, but this has left me with quite a few question marks," she said."It's left me having to go to the job centre very soon I think." Santosh Ghosh, 58, has been teaching modern languages for 33 years and started working at the university in early said the move had been a "kick in the teeth"."I am registered visually disabled, which means that rightly or wrongly it has always been a lot more challenging for me to secure employment," he said."The university however had faith in me, they took me on... [this move] would be a very difficult and a very bitter pill to swallow."Mr Ghosh also said the UK had a "shocking reputation" when it came to modern languages, and that the closure of language classes would "constitute a missed opportunity" to promote cultural understanding. Hundreds of people have signed an open letter against the closure of evening language classes at the University of Collard, from the University and College Union, said the courses had been "really popular" with the said cuts to the British Sign Language (BSL) teaching in particular was a "national issue" because of the limited opportunities to learn BSL added that staff now felt "disposable", even after years of working for the university. 'Tough choices' In a statement, the University of Nottingham said it had to make "tough choices to safeguard the financial future of our institution"."We understand the disappointment that this will cause," it university said it needed to focus spending on "providing a high-quality experience for our undergraduate and postgraduate students"."We are really proud of the role that our Language Centre has played in supporting language learning in our local communities," it added."We will revisit this once the university is in a more stable financial situation."
