Place your cut of meat in a water tank and just add explosives
Before John Long applied his expertise to the problem, people tried many ways to make meat more tender — chewing it, pounding it, soaking it in enzymes.
The report, Hydrodyne Exploding Meat Tenderness, published in 1998 by the US department of agriculture (USDA), describes Long's act of creation as "a peacetime use for explosives".
"Throughout John Long's career as a mechanical engineer, he worked with explosives at Lawrence Livermore [National Laboratory]. His mission: preparing the Nation's defence. He always wondered if the explosives he studied could be used for peaceful ends — like tenderising meat. Then, after more than 10 years of retirement and long after the Cold War's end, he began pursuing the Hydrodyne concept in earnest".
The article explains that in 1992, Long teamed up with a meat scientist, Morse Solomon. Their first set-up was "an ordinary plastic drum filled with water and fitted with a steel plate at the bottom to reflect shock waves from an explosion". By 1998, Long and Solomon were stuffing meat, water and explosives into a 7,000lb (3,180kg) steel tank covered with an 8ft (2.4m) steel dome.
This official USDA story of how it all began looks past the fact that another man, Charles Godfrey of Berkeley, California, obtained a patent in 1970 for his "apparatus for tenderising food". Godfrey's first sentence blasts away all confusion: "An article of food is tenderised by placing it in water and detonating an explosive charge in the vicinity thereof".
Godfrey explains his method: "A cut of meat desired to be tenderised is placed under water within a tank. In view of the tendency of the meat to float, it may be necessary to tie the meat in position by a string ... A compressive pressure wave travelling at a speed higher than the velocity of sound may be generated in the water by a means, such as a charge of high explosive, which is supported above the meat by any suitable means, such as the leads which are used to ignite the detonator of the high explosive".
Once the idea was out there, other scientists took to experimenting with beef, pork, chicken, and other things that went boom. A study in 2006 alluded to a scientist named Schilling who showed that "the hydrodynamic shock wave ... did not affect the colour of cooked broiler breast meat."
A pamphlet from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association bragged that the "technology has been shown to improve the tenderness of beef by 30-80% and, the tougher the piece of meat, the greater the magnitude of improvement".
But so far the process works well only for small, sub-industrial quantities. The niggling problem, when applying explosives to heaps of flesh, is how to tenderise without pulverising.
Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize
On return from the ESU/CILIP Travelling Librarian tour, the successful candidate produces a report. Past recipients have found the study tour a rewarding personal and professional experience which has often helped advance their career.
2011
In 2011 the travel grant was awarded to Jane Rawson, Vere Harmsworth Librarian, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Jane visited thirteen institutions with significant library and achival collections for American history in order to learn more about the collections. Jane is a US Studies Librarian and says in the executive summary to her report:
"I have returned to Oxford with a much greater appreciation of the breadth and depth of the physical collections in the institutions I visited, as well as an understanding of the issues and constraints surrounding the process of making parts of these collections available digitally..."
Her report gives details of her follow-up work to share the knowledge she has gained via a blog, reports, guides and talks.
Read Jane Rawson's full reportvia RSS Feed
Clinical images, videos and other recordings are vital to good teaching and learning within the health care professions. Increasingly these are originated outside the institution that wishes to use them. This raises a number of legal, ethical and other issues relating to their re-use.
Debra Hiom, the project’s manager at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol, added: “Students and teachers increasingly use pre-existing patient images from the web without adequately considering copyright or how they have been consented. The new materials will help individuals be clear how resources can or can not be reused.”
Listen to Debra (Duration 6:02) explaining the issues that professionals face when using recordings and how the new guidance can help:
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
The materials aim to help users of clinical healthcare recordings to:
The guidance is aimed primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording for learning and teaching. It will also be of interest and use to other clinical and healthcare workers as well as to university staff where patient recordings are being made available for learning and teaching.
Dr Jane Williams, Director of e-Learning in the Centre for Medical Education at the University of Bristol, said: “There is already a wealth of advice and guidance but it is currently overwhelming. The new advice and guidance attempts to provide an easy navigable route through a very sensitive area of professional practice.”
Stuart Dempster, Director of the Strategic Content Alliance at JISC, said: “I am delighted to see that the significant advances being made in medical recordings, networks and other technological innovation within the education, research and health are being matched with clarity in the advance and guidance being offered to clinical and non-clinical staff alike through this project. This work builds on from earlier JISC investments in improving the skills required in the digital age.”
The materials have been created by a collaboration of cross-sector organisations and individuals, including the General Medical Council (GMC), Wellcome Trust, Institute for Medical Illustrators, University of Bristol and Newcastle University.
The project has been funded through JISC’s Strategic and Content Alliance and will be hosted by JISC Digital Media.
Read the advice and guidance
http://jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/clinical-recordings/
via Jisc news
Keith Wilson, Liz McGettigan, Mike Hosking and Maria Cotera have been elected as Councillors of CILIP.
The new Councillors will serve on CILIP Council from 1 January 2012 until 31 December 2014.
“I would like to thank all the candidates who stood for election,” said Leader of Council, Isabel Hood, “They all got involved in lively discussion on the ehustings forum and at the hustings event. I wish the elected Councillors every success over their three year term.”
The election turnout was 23%, which is 3% lower than in 2010 but consistent with 2009.
CILIP Council consists of twelve individuals who are elected by the membership and are Trustees of CILIP. Up to three additional Trustees can be co-opted. Council meets several times a year and also regularly communicates by email. Council sets and oversees CILIP’s overall strategic direction and Council must ensure that CILIP acts within its charitable objects at all times.
Read a Councillor job description
Find out more about how Council works
Read election manifestos and supporting statements for the elected Councillors:
Keith Wilson
-ends-
Press contact:
Mark Taylor, Director of External Relations, CILIP
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
Phone: 020 7255 0654
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CILIP Communities allows candidates access to more information about you as a mentor.
If you have already registered on the CILIP Communities login and update "My details" with information you think would be useful to potential candidates.
If you haven't used CILIP Communities before then follow the instructions when you click on "Register on this website". Part of this process will lead you to add information about yourself on your CILIP communities profile.
These pages can only be accessed by CILIP members who have registered to use CILIP Communities.
We then can add a link from your listing on the mentor by region pages. Just email quals@cilip.org.uk to let us know it's been done.
Your profile:
As a mentor the important information for you to complete will be in Biography and About.
If you have a digital photo and would like to upload it under the Avatar tab, please read this advice from the Web Editor, Stephanie Baxter:
Most of you are keen to include images on your websites. Please be careful about resizing images. You should do this before loading them. If you load a huge file and then resize it onscreen - unfortunately this condenses the file and you end up with something which doesn't look very good and is still 1Mbyte in size. If you only need to resize the image you can do this at the following site: http://resizr.lord-lance.com/default.asp
Or download the free software Irfanview if you want to be a bit more ambitious and crop and edit the image:
http://www.download.com/IrfanView/3000-2192_4-10491149.html
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£24,480 - £29,070 per annum + benefits
CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. We provide practical support for members throughout their careers and speak out on behalf of the profession.
We are currently looking to recruit a highly organised and professional Membership Officer to join us.
Within the role, you will take responsibility for providing excellent and efficient support and customer care to new and rejoining CILIP members, aiming to ensure a straightforward and simple experience. As Membership Officer, you will be responsible for dealing with member and prospective member enquiries and for ensuring that all membership packs are mailed out in a timely manner. Regularly updating the membership database, you must ensure that all payments are accurately and efficiently processed whilst supporting the Membership Administration Manager in preparing reports.
We are looking for candidates with a positive and helpful attitude who have demonstrable experience of supporting people in a customer service environment. With the ability to work as part of a team, you will be able to manage your own personal workload in this fast-paced environment. Experience of working with databases is essential, preferably but not necessarily gained in a membership organisation.
If you think you have the skills, experience and attitude to make a success of this role – we want to hear from you.
For more information email: personnel@cilip.org.uk.
Closing date: 24 January 2012 Interview date: 1 February 2012
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£28560 - £34680
Good Benefits, Central London
Take technical responsibility for CILIP’s whole online presence.
CILIP is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. We provide practical support for members throughout their careers and speak out on behalf of the profession.
Your role will be to maintain, support and develop CILIP’s online presence as well as its other internet/web based systems and to assist/advise/support the numerous stakeholders, contributors, editors and users. Your first major project will be to redevelop our website www.cilip.org.uk using an Open Source Content Management System such as Drupal or Joomla as well as maintaining the current website using SharePoint 2007.
You will also be working with the ICT and Web Team in 2012 to:
You will be working in a small happy ICT and Web team, where you will need to:
For more information email: personnel@cilip.org.uk quoting job reference: ICT & W/311.
To apply for this post click here.
Closing date: 6 January 2012 Interview date: 17 January 2012
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Universities have developed a wide range of doctoral programmes from the traditional PhD through to professional doctorates such as the DBA. The development of research skills in both research students and early career researchers is often high on the agenda of individual universities.
Research students have a wide range of academic needs which often requires the help and support from librarians and information professionals. This programme will help academic librarians and others to identify and support the needs of these students.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be of value to any staff supporting the academic needs of research students. This includes academic librarians and learning support workers. It also includes individuals involved in providing e-learning support e.g. through a virtual graduate school.
This is a practical programme. Learning and teaching activities involve discussions, case studies and other practical activities.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellowship. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Supporting Research Students and Blended Learning, Facet Publishing and also Study Skills for Business and Management Students, Open University. Barbara is a Member of CILIP.
Sample programme
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The landscape of learning and teaching is rapidly changing. There is an extensive range of web-based resources as well as paper-based techniques that may be used to enhance training sessions.
This one day programme will focus on practical approaches to incorporating innovative learning and teaching methods into training and coaching sessions.
This is a practical programme. Learning and teaching activities involve discussions, case studies and other practical activities.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be valuable to anyone involved in delivering training or coaching sessions in the context of library and information work. The programme is open to individuals who are beginning to deliver training and coaching sessions for their organisations as well as experienced practitioners.
Participants are encouraged to bring along outlines of their own training sessions as they may develop these during the event.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Deputy Dean at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellow. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Supporting Research Students and Blended Learning, Facet Publishing. Barbara is currently working on a new book for Facet Publishing, The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries
Sample programme
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Increasingly library and information workers are involved in delivering training sessions to large groups. Some people find this a daunting prospect.
The aim of this one-day programme is to equip individuals with practical approaches to designing and delivering effective large group sessions including the use of interactive activities.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be of value to any staff involved in delivering large group sessions to students or customers. Many of the ideas and approaches considered in this workshop are of value to library and information professionals working with any large and diverse group.
This is a practical programme. Learning and teaching activities involve discussions, case studies and other practical activities.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Deputy Dean at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellowship. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Supporting Research Students and Blended Learning, Facet Publishing and also Study Skills for Business and Management Students, Open University. Barbara is currently working on a new book for Facet Publishing, The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries
Sample programme
via RSS Feed
International students come to study in the UK from across the world and they arrive with a range of expectations. Many of these students have studied in educational systems that are based on different approaches to learning and teaching than those commonly used in UK universities.
Consequently, international students may require specialist support to enable them to adopt the academic skills required in higher education in the UK.
This one day programme will focus on practical approaches to supporting international students in higher education.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be of interest to any staff working with international students in universities and colleges in the UK. Many of the ideas and approaches considered in this workshop are of value to library and information professionals working with any diverse group in higher education.
This is a practical programme. Learning and teaching activities involve discussions, case studies and other practical activities.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Deputy Dean at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellowship. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Supporting Research Students and Blended Learning, Facet Publishing and also Study Skills for Business and Management Students, Open University. Barbara is currently working on a new book for Facet Publishing, The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries.
Sample programme
via RSS Feed
Many library and information workers deliver drop-in sessions to their colleagues and service users e.g. students. Frequently, you do not know the topic of the session until you are faced with it.
This programme will help staff in an organisation to design and deliver effective drop-in sessions even when there is a minimum of notice.
By the end of the course, participants will have:
This programme will be of value to any staff involved in delivering drop-in sessions to students, customers or colleagues. Many of the ideas and approaches considered in this programme are of value to library and information professionals working with any time-pressured training sessions e.g. telephone or interactive web-based sessions.
This is a practical programme. Learning and teaching activities involve discussions, case studies and other practical activities. Participants are encouraged to bring their current training materials and session plans to the event.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Deputy Dean at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellowship. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Supporting Research Students and Blended Learning, Facet Publishing and also Study Skills for Business and Management Students, Open University. Barbara is currently working on a new book for Facet Publishing, The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries.
Sample half-day programme
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Teaching/training has become an essential part of the library and information worker's life. But many have not been trained in how to do this effectively.
This highly practical programme provides library and information workers with the skills they need to design and deliver successful training sessions.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme is relevant to people new to training as well as those who are more experienced. It covers the skills required to deliver training events lasting from 30 minutes to six hours , to individuals or groups.
This is a practical programme. Participants will be expected to deliver mini-presentations and mini-workshops in a supportive environment. Participants are encouraged to bring materials relating to their own training sessions to the event.
Barbara Allan
Barbara is Deputy Dean at the University of Hull Business School and a National Teaching Fellow. Barbara’s areas of interest includes the development of academic and professional skills, she has a number of publications including Blended Learning and Project Management, Facet Publishing. Barbara is currently working on a new book for Facet Publishing, The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries.
Sample programme
DAY 1
DAY 2
via RSS Feed
The UK's leading expert on gangs says the official inquiry into what caused the summer riots is woefully inadequate
Not too many academics have finished up with a broken nose as a consequence of their research. But few academics spend long periods talking to young people on deprived estates. The threat of violence, then, is an occupational hazard for Professor Simon Hallsworth, director of the Centre for Social and Evaluation Research at London Metropolitan University, and the UK's leading expert on gang culture.
Two years ago, the threat became a reality after he took a short cut through "a dodgy part of Hackney". "I finished up on the ground being kicked by a group who mugged me." But he seems sanguine. "You either let that kind of thing get to you or you don't. At least it gives you an appreciation of the violence that is a regular part of so many lives because of conditions that they can't escape from."
What there are not, he maintains, are as many organised gangs as the media and the government would have us believe. "Those that do exist are a lot more fluid and lack the hierarchical structure that the stereotype attributes to them," he says. In the 10 years in which he has been engaged in research on gangs, he says, "they've been blamed for just about everything from drugs to the sexual abuse of women to dangerous dogs. But if you could eliminate gang culture tomorrow, all those things would still be going on and you'd still have disorder."
David Cameron's response to the August riots, he argues, was nothing more than a "scapegoating strategy" that stigmatises the black community and what is now dismissed as a "feral underclass". By lumping many complex issues together under the label of gang culture, the government has absolved itself of any responsibility for what Hallsworth believes is a crisis in the neo-liberal economic theory that has held sway since the early 1980s.
"There was an almost unquestioning acceptance of Cameron's claims across the mass media," he says. Only the Guardian is absolved, in his view, as the paper has embarked on the first empirical study of the riots in collaboration with the London School of Economics.
Hallsworth's reaction has been a transatlantic collaboration with Dr David Brotherton from John Jay College, New York. Together they have produced Urban Disorder and Gangs: A Critique and a Warning, published online as part of the Runnymede [Trust] Perspectives series.
They call for hard questions to be asked about "the perverse form of capitalism" that governments appear committed to on both sides of the Atlantic. "It is not working for the many in a society of escalating inequality and disadvantage where upward mobility is now a thing of the past."
In 1981, Hallsworth arrived in Brixton, moving into a flat the day after the first riots began. At least it gave him an insight that would prove invaluable in his later academic career. "Lord Scarman, who drew up his report on the '80s disturbances, was a patrician figure steeped in the values of the welfare state," he says. "He knew that society was to blame as well as the rioters. Today, official attempts to understand are woefully inadequate."
He dismisses yesterday's interim report by the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel, chaired by the former chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, as "a superficial glossy brochure" before adding: "It tells us nothing new about the riots; tells us nothing more about the profile of the rioters than we already knew; profiles statistics already in the public domain, and it is written in a style that makes the mistake of assuming that sound bites constitute serious analysis. Worryingly, it begins and ends with the assumption that if you listen to people enough – mostly non-rioters – and list what they say, that constitutes an explanation. As to solutions, it leaves us with, by and large, more of the same already being rolled out, including the over-use of prison, which it does not challenge or question."
One fundamental change over the last 30 years, Hallsworth believes, is the transition from a welfare state to what he calls a security state. "We have the widespread use of CCTV, a much more coercive attitude by the authorities and the biggest prison population in Europe. And that was before the riots. No longer is there any aspiration to be universally inclusive and aim for full employment. The requirement for a cheap and flexible labour force is paramount.
"So these youngsters live in a society where you're judged by how you dress and the type of phone you carry, yet they're excluded from jobs that provide the means to buy them."
They conclude their critique by suggesting that now is the time to mobilise youth. "Only this time round, it means investing in them and their communities; not law-enforcement agencies and a new gang-suppression industry."
At a time, however, when reducing the budget deficit is the only game in town, Hallsworth has no illusion that his advice will be taken seriously in government circles any time soon.
Our Guardian Teacher Network this week has resources to help you and your pupils get involved with National Tree Week
Every school in the UK is being urged to plant a tree in its grounds as part of National Tree Week (26 November - 4 December). The initiative has been running since 1975, and it is estimated that more than one million trees will be planted by the end of this week alone. If you would like to get involved – or even just encourage your pupils to learn a bit more about trees – there are a variety of resources on the Guardian Teacher Network that can help. The Tree Council is responsible for organising National Tree Week, and the charity has published a range of useful tips on how and where to plant trees. It has also produced a poster that you can use to advertise your tree-planting event, along with an interactive map showing what else is going on in your area and around the UK.
The Woodland Trust provides free trees for schools and youth groups to plant, and the charity has produced a 70-page activity booklet to tie in with National Tree Week. Ideas include a winter scavenger hunt, tips for how to create "ice art" using natural objects such as pine cones and leaf skeletons, a tree-themed crossword and examples of different techniques that can be used when painting or drawing pictures of trees.
One of the Woodland Trust's most popular resources is its Woodland Log Booklet. Suitable for use at KS1 and KS2, it encourages pupils to think about and record what they see, hear, smell and touch on a woodland adventure. The booklet includes space for creative writing, sketching and note-making, as well as for sticking in any woodland treasures found along the way.
For helping primary pupils to identify different species of tree, the Woodland Trust has produced a twig identification sheet that can be used during winter, and a leaf hunt sheet useful for identifying any fallen leaves. Older pupils can learn more about the identification and classification of living things with this science lesson created by the Guardian.
Additional information about trees – including their importance as a home for animals and their role as "the world's lungs" – is contained in this Education Guardian article. Useful for reading comprehension tasks, the article can be used by pupils to research why some trees lose their leaves in the autumn and what the words "chlorophyll" and "photosynthesis" mean. The article includes a link to a short animation about how to calculate the age of a tree by counting its rings and instructions for how to make a clinometer, a device that can be used to measure the height of a tree.
• The Guardian Teacher Network offers thousands of lesson plans and interactive materials. To see, and to share your own resources, go to http://teachers.guardian.co.uk. There are hundreds of jobs on the site and schools can advertise free before Christmas http://schoolsjobs.guardian.co.uk
We ask teachers and parents how they will explain this week's teachers' strike to pupils
Paul Luxmoore, headteacher of Dane Court Grammar school in Broadstairs, Kent
Our students haven't known widespread strike action in their lifetimes, so I don't think many of them can see beyond having an unexpected day off school. Of course, if it were to continue over a prolonged period, as it did in the 1980s, they could start to feel quite miffed. I'd expect our teachers to use their common sense when answering pupils' questions about the strikes. And I hope some might see it as an opportunity to discuss some big political issues: the recession, collective debt and the economy, for example.
Colin Goffin, assistant headteacher and media teacher at the Benjamin Britten High school in Lowestoft, Suffolk
Our students are mostly quite excited about the prospect of an extra day off, but we have had some discussions about the strikes. In media studies, we've been looking at how the teachers' decision to strike has been covered in different newspapers. I've also used it as an opportunity to talk to older students about employment contracts, asking them "What would happen if you got a job and then your employer changed your contract so you had to work different hours or get paid less money?"
Catherine Bourne, English teacher
I won't be striking. I do understand why others are, but in the current economic climate, there are plenty of people in other professions having a tough time of it who are not withdrawing their labour. That's exactly what I'll tell the students. I didn't go into teaching for the money – I went into it because I wanted to make a difference to children's lives. For me personally, there are many more significant issues to get fired up about, such as the introduction of the new Ebacc qualification and how the government is making vocational qualifications such as the BTec almost worthless.
Jackie Schneider, primary school music teacher at Poplar primary school and St Teresa's in the London Borough of Merton
As with all aspects of education, my guiding principle is: always tell the truth, in an accessible way. So if children ask me what the strike is all about, I'll tell them that this is a last resort, that teachers are withdrawing labour because they have a major disagreement with the government and, after all other means of negotiation have failed, it is their democratic right to strike.
Vincent McGarry, health and social care lecturer at Canterbury College
I teach 16- to 19-year-olds, so they are very aware of the strikes from the news. I've told them that I don't want to strike; I don't want to lose a day's pay and let them down. But in the long run, if we succeed, we are making an impact that's going to benefit them. They are all health and social care students so are likely to be public sector workers eventually themselves. By the time our students are retiring, the pension could have had three or four more reductions. The student union – which all of our students are members of – voted in support of the strike, so we feel we have some solidarity.
Jenny Scully, parent, Huyton, Liverpool
My kids are rejoicing at having an extra day off. I have explained why the teachers are striking, and that, while I agree with their reasons, thousands of parents will suffer by having to take time off work, potentially losing a day's pay. Plus the kids will lose a day's education. You could argue "it's only one day", but it's a day of education lost that is being paid for by the taxpayer. It's also highly unlikely that one day will have any impact, which could lead to a series of strikes. This could prove detrimental to children's education.
A new IPPR report finds that though many are very good, a significant minority of madrasas, supplementary schools for Muslim children, have poor teaching standards, use corporal punishment and do not conduct CRB checks on staff
Seven four- and five-year-olds stream into the classroom and sit down quietly. All look extremely smart in impractical white uniforms. Books are taken out and the pupils turn to where the class left off last time.
This is no ordinary reception class. It doesn't start till 6pm, and the children in the classroom at Crown Hills community college, Leicester, will spend the next 90 minutes studying Arabic and prayer. Welcome to Crown Hills madrasa. Ahmed Burani, "five and a half", says he loves coming here five days a week. He particularly likes Arabic. "I know my numbers and colours," he says proudly.
Ahmed is one of 250,000 Muslim children attending roughly 2,000 madrasas in the UK. Children typically attend for up to two hours every night until the age of 14-15. Most madrasas operate out of mosques, but a sizeable number are based in schools or community centres. Some are run informally in private homes. Over a quarter have more than 140 pupils a week.
While many make a valuable contribution to society, new research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), to be published tomorrow, has found that a significant minority do not provide adequate standards of teaching or child protection.
"Madrasas have the potential to positively influence Muslim children's development, allow pupils to explore and understand their own identity and strengthen community cohesion" the report concludes. "However, this is held back by poor teaching standards and narrow curricula in many madrasas."
Some, it points out, are still using corporal punishment because the law does not prohibit this in "supplementary" schools. Madrasa staff can use "reasonable punishment" as a legal defence for any physical action against children. Physical punishment was banned from mainstream schools in 1987. "Madrasas were sometimes seen to use excessively strict approaches to discipline," the report notes. "In a small number of cases, the discipline used was seen to be detrimental to the welfare of children."
IPPR's survey of 179 madrasas also highlights concerns about how well pupils are kept safe. Supplementary schools are exempt from the requirement on other organisations working with children to conduct CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks of staff and volunteers. Although the research reveals that most have a child protection policy and carry out CRB checks on staff, a significant minority do not.
"The current legal situation leaves children without sufficient protection," the authors say. There is "a massive loophole" in safeguarding children in madrasas and other supplementary schools. "All supplementary schools, including faith ones, should be required by law to CRB-check their staff," they say. In addition, the report calls on the government to extend the ban on physical punishment to supplementary schools and for madrasa staff to undergo much more training on how to implement child protection policies.
The report also highlights a lack of adequate teacher training and modern teaching methods. Only 14% of madrasas insist on qualified teacher status for staff. More emphasis is placed on teachers' religious credentials, with 57% of madrasas requiring theological training and three quarters using imams to teach. But 10% of madrasas said there were no minimum qualifications for their teachers whatsoever.
The report reveals that most madrasas want better connections with their local communities and are keen to develop closer ties with mainstream schools. To do this, they need more support and encouragement from local authorities, the madrasas say. But researchers found some councils were much more proactive than others, with Bradford, Kirklees and Leicester councils leading the way.
Mohammed Patel, coordinator of the safeguarding in madrasas project at the Federation of Muslim Organisations, estimates that there are 85 madrasas in Leicestershire. Of these, 66 have signed up to the safeguarding project, a collaboration between the FMO, Leicester council and the police. "95% of madrasas in our project have CRB-checked all their staff and over the last three years, more than 500 people have taken up the training we provide," he says. As a result, Patel says, none of the 66 madrasas uses corporal punishment. "Forget the smacking, pinching, hitting with a pencil, or making a child stand up or sending them outside the classroom. We say there should be no form of punishment at all in madrasas."
But there's more to do on safeguarding he says. "Not all madrasa teachers have training in special needs and many don't have teaching qualifications." To help, the FMO has teamed up with Uplands primary school, which is to provide madrasa teachers with training in teaching methods and behaviour management.
A "zero tolerance" scheme to protect children was launched in September. Madrasas that sign up must have a child protection policy and staff must be given training. Accredited madrasas will be awarded a certificate and the FMO will go back every year to check progress.
Crown Hills madrasa highlights what can be achieved with training and good community ties. The madrasa is organised along school lines, with classes arranged by academic year. Lessons are fun, says Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, head of the madrasa. All 20 staff are CRB-checked and receive training, including in child protection. Corporal punishment is prohibited. "Not a single child is scared of me," he says.
Anna Bawden
Demand for Islamic education in England is growing fast and schools – official and unofficial – are springing up to meet it. Now some local authorities are concerned that there is insufficient regulation
At about eight o'clock on a dull autumnal morning, a mother is preparing breakfast for her young son in the kitchen of an unassuming private house on a little modern estate in Leicester. The doorbell rings. Outside, a series of people carriers and estate cars are rolling up one by one; out of them tumbling a succession of children in twos and threes, all in traditional Islamic dress.
By 8.30, 26 children – some of them only just old enough for school, some almost grown – are sitting in tight rows on the floor of a little inner room, reciting morning prayers in Arabic and in English. By 9.30, the conservatory has become an infant classroom, the dining room has been taken over by the juniors and in the living room, year 7 and 8 girls are preparing to spread their geography projects across the laminate flooring.
By now, the mother has vanished – she doesn't want her name or address to be used, she says, because already families are turning up at odd hours asking to look round the "school" – and Fatima D'Oyen, director of Manara Education, has taken charge with her small team of staff.
There's no doubting that the Manara academy is a most unusual educational institution. But it's also part of a national trend. Although the number of Islamic schools is still small – around 140 at the latest count, just 12 of them state-funded – it is growing fast. About 60 of these schools have opened in the last 10 years; several in the last couple of months. And the demand from parents seems to be huge – one school in Birmingham recently attracted 1,500 applications for just 60 places. At least five Islamic schools have recently applied to be free schools, although so far only one has been approved.
Manara is one of two Islamic schools that have opened in Leicester this autumn – although in its case, the word "school" can only be used loosely. Manara operates just three mornings a week, and its pupils are registered as home-educated.
Because Manara operates on a part-time basis, it does not need to register with the Department for Education as a school. But the rise in the number of Islamic schools has raised some concerns. Leicester City Council has called for national guidance to ensure that parents who send their children to "flexi schools" like Manara can be sure the staff have criminal record checks and their buildings are safe. And in some areas, full-time schools have opened without registration – meaning that there are no checks on the suitability of their staff or the quality of their curriculum.
D'Oyen aims to open a fully registered, full-time school next year. Until recently, she was the headteacher of another Muslim school in Leicester, but left earlier this year – and decided to start her own school. She quickly found that the formalities required were much more cumbersome than in her native US, where she had previously helped to set up an Islamic school in New Mexico.
"The Department for Education wanted everything done six months in advance; they wanted a plan of the building, they wanted to come and inspect," she says. "They wanted to see our curriculum plans in detail – a lot of rigmarole. And we wanted to be open in September. So legally we are a private tuition service – like a supplementary school, but during the day."
Despite its unconventional setting – D'Oyen was invited to tea with the family who live here and seized on the idea that the house could be turned into a school – the children seem contented and the curriculum varied. Manara is experimenting with Montessori teaching methods, and religious education includes moral and personal discussions as well as study of the Qur'an. The time spent by many children learning the Qur'an at madrasas – often 10 hours a week or more – can rob them of their childhood, D'Oyen believes, and she hopes to provide a more humane alternative. The pupils will learn about gardening and alternative technologies, and have access to the garden, which is used as an outdoor classroom.
"We'd like to teach a long morning, which would include some Islamic education, and then in the afternoons children would have more choice of activities – arts, crafts, PE," D'Oyen says. "We want the children to have creativity in their lives, and to follow some of their interests."
She foresees no problems at all in finding pupils – another Islamic school in Leicester already has five applications for each place. The demand from Muslim parents for an education outside the mainstream is growing, she says.
Others in the Muslim world agree with her. Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, founder of the Muslim Institute thinktank, says there is a growing feeling among Muslim parents that mainstream schools are not serving their children well: "If schools are focused on raising standards and on ensuring that there is discipline, I think most people are happy with that," he says. "But more and more parents are concerned about the quality of education, and about discipline."
Yet in some areas, situations have arisen that have caused concern. A headteacher in the north of England, who asked not to be identified, described how an Islamic school had opened up two years ago without permission opposite her own primary school. "It operated for about six months without registration, and then it was forced to close. It didn't take long before it was registered and reopened again," she says. "Some lovely ladies came to see me and they invited me and my deputy to see what was happening there. But I have to say I found the whole thing very worrying indeed – it's just so divisive." She had been trained as an Ofsted inspector, she said, and did not believe that the school would have been allowed to operate in the state sector. Its buildings, even after renovation, were unsuitable, she said, and its curriculum was too narrow, with every lesson being linked in some way to the Qur'an or the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Association of Muslim Schools, set up 20 years ago to support a then-tiny band of institutions, acknowledges that in response to a growing demand for Islamic education, a number of full-time schools have opened without proper formalities.
"The Department for Education is in constant contact with us, and they do tell us if someone's operating without registration," says Shazad Mohammed, the director of the association. "Then we visit to stress the importance of registering – the local authorities have to know where the children are, for safeguarding purposes. We strongly discourage this – it is illegal to operate without registration."
But it is hardly surprising that there should be some breaches, he adds – the UK has two and a half million Muslims, and the number is rising fast. The majority are aged between 13 and 25. One highly regarded Muslim school, the Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham, has introduced a lottery system to allocate places because up to 25 parents are competing for each one.
In Leicester, the city council says it is anticipating a rise in the number of "flexi schools" like Manara, and it has asked the government to address the issue. "It is anticipated that this form of education may become more common, and the local authority has asked that the Department for Education consider producing national guidance for parents and providers around the quality of provision, including criminal record checks, health and safety and planning permission," it said in a statement.
The DfE welcomed Leicester's commitment to working with home educators, but did not respond to requests for a comment on whether there should be more regulation of the sector.
But for Fatima D'Oyen, the road ahead seems clear. Leicester's home education inspector paid her a visit this month, and was apparently impressed. Attempts to regulate the sector further would be counterproductive, she argues. "My perspective is that 95% of parents can be trusted to do what is best for their children," she says. "I don't believe it is either possible or desirable to try to regulate, especially if the desire to do so comes from racism or misplaced paternalism. The reality is that most Muslims setting up or working at Islamic schools, whether part-time, full-time, supplementary or otherwise, do so out of a sense of altruism and wanting to help children get a good education."
Academies and free schools will do as much harm to our education system as charter schools are doing in the US, says Melissa Benn
It is amazing how quickly you can discourage a nation. Just 18 months ago, Michael Gove kicked off his controversial tenure at the Department for Education with apparently definitive claims, backed by international test evidence, of UK state school failure and the need for a radical new approach.
Last year, Sweden was the model for reform. The government barely mentions Sweden these days, not since it emerged that its free schools produce marginally improved results, but increased social segregation. Now the emphasis has shifted to America, another mediocre international performer, yet already proving a dangerous template for aggressive fast-paced reform over here.
Most people have heard of the American charter schools, which currently educate over one and a half million children, but few understand the conditions under which their highly partial success occurs or what their impact is. Nor do they grasp what their equivalents here in England — academies and free schools — could mean for our education system in the long term.
The model goes something like this: a set of new schools, apparently dedicated to radically improved education of the poor, is set up in competition to existing public provision. Heavily backed by corporate or philanthropic interests, with some working on a "for profit" basis, they are reliant on high-stakes results, strict discipline, a punitive approach to teachers and unions, and tend to have more control over their admissions, higher rates of exclusion, and to take fewer students with special needs or those for whom English is not their first language.
Meanwhile, public (state) schools, many suffering toxic spending cuts, drowning in often unjustified public and political criticism, must continue to educate anyone who comes through their gates, making the alternative new model look shinier still. Yet many still provide an outstanding education, particularly in deprived areas. Sound familiar?
One of the most high-profile critics of charter schools is Diane Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of state for education under George H W Bush, who is now fighting against the role of choice, high-stakes testing and the dominance of massive corporations in US education, all of which, she believes, are damaging to the concept of universal quality public education.
It was interesting to watch the softly spoken Ravitch in debate recently with Geoffrey Canada, the charismatic chief executive of the Harlem Children's Zone, the most high-profile charter network, eulogised in the 2010 pro-charter documentary Waiting For Superman.
HCZ offers a stern, test-driven education to a select few. As Canada admitted, part of HCZ's success lies in turfing out those students who don't make the grade. Its impressive cradle-to-college social support system, underwritten by tens of millions of dollars of private funding, is not replicable on a national scale.
Other charter networks are much less successful. According to the authoritative 2009 Stanford Credo study, 17% outperform public schools, 46% show no difference and 37% get lower results.
There are worrying parallels with the way things are developing here. We are seeing the rapid growth of private interests in education, with some of the more effective chains granted significant influence in national educational debate. Here, too, we are presented with "miracle academies" but a range of unanswered questions about admissions, exclusions, sources of additional funding and pedagogy.
Here, too, our system is being torn up at its foundations, yet there is only a mixed picture of improvement. According to the latest Ofsted report, the proportion of academies judged good or outstanding is similar to that for all secondary schools.
Yet Gove's "quiet revolution" continues unabated. Under the new Education Act, only academies and free schools can now be set up. No new community schools. Many maintained schools continue to be under intense pressure to become academies. Some governors report being asked to special briefings on the achievements of the US charter school model, followed up by invitations to join one of the new educational chains.
Longer term, these developments risk pitting school against school, easing the way for for-profit providers into a key public service, alienating many teachers and undermining across-the-board educational progress. Surely we have learned by now not to blindly follow the US into unproven and expensive policy disasters?
• School Wars: the Battle for Britain's Education, by Melissa Benn, is published by Verso Books
The shadow universities minister tells Harriet Swain that she is keen to have a battle of brains with David Willetts over government policy and the HE white paper
On her first evening as an undergraduate, Shabana Mahmood, the new shadow higher education minister, recalls feeling distinctly strange. "I was born and raised in Birmingham, which is a very diverse city, so I always knew lots of people who were like me," she says. "My first night in Oxford I was the only one of my kind in the room. It was really odd. That had never happened to me before."
As one of only three female Muslim MPs, she still stands out among the crowd of politicians and policy wonks milling around her Westminster offices. But after just a year and a half in parliament, during which she has risen rapidly through a junior position in the shadow Home Office team to her present role, she looks relaxed and completely at home.
Nor is she phased by the prospect of mentally wrestling with her opposite number, "Two Brains" David Willetts, at the despatch box. In fact, she can hardly wait, having relished her times speaking from the floor of parliament on Home Office issues. "I used to be a barrister so that's me in my comfort zone," she says, giving the first of many hearty laughs.
And she has quite a few issues to debate with Willetts. First, fees. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, announced in September that if Labour came to power tomorrow, next year's tuition fee cap would drop from £9,000 to £6,000. This would be funded by scrapping a corporation tax cut for banks and asking future graduates earning more than £65,000 to repay their loans at a higher interest rate.
Labour's proposal shows that whatever the government may claim about being forced to raise the fee cap so high because of the budget deficit, it could have made different choices, argues Mahmood, who supported Miliband in the Labour leadership contest.
It would also make unnecessary the other major proposal in the higher education white paper – the so-called "core and margin" plan to allow universities to recruit unlimited numbers of students who achieve AAB or above at A-level, but make 20,000 of the places now available across the sector dependent on bids from institutions that charge under £7,500.
This Mahmood describes as "completely confused and chaotic", "almost in making-it-up-as-we-go-along territory, which is just not acceptable".
She is also "very, very concerned" about encouraging for-profit providers in higher education and plans to focus heavily on this when the white paper comes before parliament. She is particularly worried about the government's plan to make it easier to obtain a university title, because of the quality assurance implications.
On all these questions she is firm about what Labour would do if it was in power now – lower fees, scrap the core and margin idea, stop encouraging private providers – but cautious about committing herself or the party to actions after a 2015 election.
Labour will keep to the principles of students making a fair contribution to the costs of their education and of those benefiting the most paying the most, and since a graduate tax adheres to those principles it is not off the table, she says. But she is looking at many different systems and wants to see what the shape of the sector is in 2015. "If we can do more, we will do more," she says. But "I'm not going to put forward a position now, lead students up the garden path and change my mind later on … I think they have had enough of that".
She sees responding to issues raised by the white paper as only part of her job. Also a priority is to look at what universities are fundamentally for. She is drawing up a strategy to do this and hopes to have it in place before Christmas. Her first thoughts are that universities should be drivers of growth and she is keen to encourage more collaboration between institutions and between institutions and business. But for her, the diversity of the UK's university system is one of its strengths and higher education's value is not just economic. "I think there is an important role beyond their economic and research and innovation value," she says. "There is their cultural value as well because they become part of the identity of a city or of a region. Universities imbibe information and people, and then stuff happens."
One policy area on which she is already clear – and becomes quite animated — is post-qualification admissions, which she strongly supports. Why is she so keen? "Because I watched my sister go through clearing and it's a nightmare," she says.
Mahmood, 31, is a committed Brummie, who attended Small Heath comprehensive school and King Edward VI Camp Hill girls' grammar, and was involved in the Labour party from a young age. She has three siblings, including a twin brother and says: "I made them work during my election campaign" – big laugh – "very very hard."
Her father, a civil engineer, is chairman of the local Labour party and he and her mother wanted all their children to go to university, which they did. "I suppose in a stereotypical Asian way they really valued academic achievement and wanted their children in professions," says Mahmood. She worked as an indemnity litigator before becoming an MP. Her sister is an NHS manager and her brothers work in computing and accountancy.
At Oxford, she became president of the junior common room at her college, Lincoln, but otherwise deliberately avoided student politics, preferring to engage with the many views different from her own. "Although I was never attracted to the other side, as it were, it was quite interesting for me to at least test myself."
Widening parliament
She recalls the feeling of being different when she entered parliament as MP for Ladywood in May 2010, becoming not only one of the first female Muslim MPs, but one of the first six Asian women there. "Certainly I think it reminds me on a regular basis that parliament has got a lot more work to do if it wants to look more like the people it represents," she says, criticising the fact that so many MPs have never worked anywhere outside Westminster. "Part of its relevance is in its ability to represent the country, and that's not just a thing about race or religious minorities. That's about a diverse experience that people bring."
What Mahmood does share with Willetts, and indeed with both the Conservative and Labour education spokesmen, Stephen Twigg and Michael Gove, is an Oxford degree.
Since her undergraduate days, which she loved, she has mentored prospective students from disadvantaged backgrounds and admits that in the past she viewed issues of fair access through the prism of Oxbridge. "But immediately getting into the job, I thought I mustn't do this. This is not just limited to Oxbridge or the Russell Group, the widening participation agenda is much broader than that."
She is critical of the government's decision to axe the AimHigher scheme, which encouraged young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider university, and wants to encourage engagement between universities, schools and colleges to change perceptions among some young people that higher education is not for them.
But she wants an open and honest dialogue about the challenges as well as benefits they might find, such as being the only one of their kind in a room.
"I'm a fairly self-confident person so I didn't let it bother me," she says. "But I thought it was odd and if I was less self-confident I might have been completely freaked out. It might have held me back."
Academics have tackled the issue of whether chalk dust is harmful to health – rather belatedly, you may think
At long last, after millions of students in thousands of classrooms have freely and incautiously breathed trillions of breaths, there's a report about the question: How much chalk dust enters the air when a teacher uses a blackboard?
The study, Assessment of Airborne Fine Particulate Matter and Particle Size Distribution in Settled Chalk Dust During Writing and Dusting Exercises in a Classroom, was done by Deepanjan Majumdar, DG Gajghate, Pradeep Pipalatkar and CV Chalapati Rao of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in Nehru Marg, India.
The team weighed each piece of chalk before and after using it. They collected chalk dust from the air, and also the dust that fell on to a long sheet of paper laid over the base of the blackboard.
Their experiment featured three kinds of chalk, one blackboard, an eraser, an aerosol spectrometer (to measure and record the amount of dust floating in the air), and a Cilas model 1180 particle-size analyser.
The researchers tried to ensure maximally pure conditions for the measurements. "All the windows and the only door were closed airtight", the "fans present in the classroom were not operated", and "personal movement in the classroom was completely restricted during the experiment to minimise resuspension of dust from floor".
The report explains that in schools that still use chalk, teachers brave the greatest direct risk: "During teaching, entry of chalk dust in the respiratory system through nasopharyngeal region and mouth could be extensive in teachers due to their proximity to the board and frequent opening of mouth during lectures and occasional gasping and heavier breathing due to exhaustion. As per current state of knowledge on particulate matter vis-a-vis chalk dust, it "may remain suspended in air for some time before settling on the floor and body parts of the teachers and pupils".
The scientists acknowledge that chalk and chalkboards these days are being supplanted, in many schools, by whiteboards and other more modern, less intrinsically dusty technology. But chalk still enjoys wide usage in many countries.
The study, published in the journal Indoor and Built Environment, ruefully concludes: "Though real-time airborne chalk dust generation was found to be low in this study … and did not contain toxic materials, chalk dust could be harmful to allergic persons and may cause lacrimation and breathing troubles in the long run and certainly is a constant nuisance in classrooms as it may soil clothes, body parts, audiovisual aids and study materials."
• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT Fascinating records from the Church Courts of York are now available on-line at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, allowing historians new insights into a huge variety of topics over many centuries.
From arguments about church taxes on liquorice, roses and pigeon dung, to families disputing wills and inheritance, the records paint a vivid picture of the social, economic, political, religious and emotional world of people living in a period from the 14th to 19th centuries.
Alastair Dunning, programme manager at JISC, said: "Digitisation of this resource opens up the records to a far greater range of research and teaching uses. To date use has been limited by the physical format and the conservation needs of the documents. These new digital images can be shuffled around, enlarged, re-ordered and compared in ways that are not possible with the physical items themselves."
Digitisation of the York Cause Papers, which record the proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts of York from 1300 to 1858, has been funded through a grant from JISC. The development means the papers are set to become one of the most widely-used historical records in the UK.
Borthwick Institute Keeper of Archives Chris Webb said: "Until 1858 the church courts, under the authority of bishops, had jurisdiction over a wide variety of crimes which we would now consider secular and the business of the state.
"They oversaw cases concerning marriage and separation, and disputes over wills and inheritance. They also dealt with cases involving personal reputation and defamation, the maintenance of the Church, the orthodoxy of its services, and the regulation of the moral and professional conduct of the clergy, schoolmasters, physicians and midwives.
"The Church of England was supported by a system of taxation known as tithes and the records also show exactly how this taxation was calculated and how people tried to evade it."
Professor Mark Ormrod, from the University’s Department of History, added: "The digitisation of the Cause Papers brings to completion a comprehensive project designed specifically to allow the widest possible public access to this vitally important historical resource.
"The resource is of tremendous importance to specialists in social, economic, religious and legal history and in the history of gender, sexuality, marriage and domesticity, as well as to a wide range of users with interests in family and local history. The York Cause Papers are now set to become one of the most widely-used historical resources in the United Kingdom."
The digitisation project adds to original work funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation which provided an on-line catalogue. A range of detailed searches are now available which are suitable for building up a list of sources for thematic research and enable searches by personal name and place, adding to the resources available to family and local historians.
The Humanities Research Institute (HRI) at the University of Sheffield provided crucial technical support in enabling this project to link the images of the York Cause Papers with the Borthwick’s searchable database of the Cause Papers. The searchable database had been created by the Borthwick and the HRI during a previous project, funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.
Search the York Cause Papers and find page images
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This is a highly practical course looking at Web 2.0 technologies that library and information professionals can use in their organisation to work more efficiently and effectively.
Participants will learn how to promote themselves and their libraries, service or organisation using social networking and other user generated content (UGC) websites.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme is of interest to any library and information professional who has an interest in web 2.0 technologies and wants to use them within their organisation. Participants should have an email account they can access during the day to validate registration with a variety of resources.
Phil Bradley
Phil is a well known trainer, author and conference speaker who has worked with CILIP for many years. He has written several internet related books, particularly ‘How to use Web 2.0 in your library’. He is also an accredited trainer to the European Parliament.
Sample programme
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This course offers a practical introduction to Web 2.0 resources that will help raise the profile of your services and enable you to deliver them differently.
Participants will receive an overview of Web 2.0 and will spend the day predominately on practical work; creating a weblog, learning how to use RSS and how to create a wiki.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be of interest to any library and information professional in any sector who wants to learn more about this subject area and get up to speed. Participants should have an email account they can access during the day to validate registration with a variety of resources.
Phil Bradley
Phil is a well known trainer, author and conference speaker who has worked with CILIP for many years. He has written several internet related books, particularly ‘How to use Web 2.0 in your library’. He is also an accredited trainer to the European Parliament.
Sample programme
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This workshop introduces Twitter, the microblogging service. Participants will learn what Twitter is, why it’s useful within a library context, what libraries and librarians are doing with it and its role within an overall library context.
During this programme, participants will have an opportunity to create an account, start following people, posting ‘tweets’, using the search options and exploring other Twitter applications.
By the end of the course participants will have:
This programme will be of interest to any library/ information professional who needs to keep up to date with new resources and anyone who needs to communicate effectively in their job. No technical understanding or ability is required or expected.
Phil Bradley
Phil's background is in the information profession and he is a highly experienced trainer, web designer and Internet consultant. He is the author of a number of books published by Facet Publishing and is well known for his Internet Q & A column in CILIP Update magazine.
Sample programme
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