Can you translate GCSE?

Nearly 40 per cent of schools in UK have declared that the number of students taking foreign language GCSEs had increased this year as a direct result of a reform in the world of teaching and learning.

The English Baccalaureate, which was introduced in 2010 as a student performance measure, is a school leaving certificate that rewards students gaining good GCSEs in core academic subjects such as English, maths and foreign languages.

Just two years after its introduction, the reform has started to reverse almost a decade of declining interest in foreign languages, which followed a decision by Labour to make languages an optional subject in 2004.

According to experts it would be a requirement to have at least a GCSE in a foreign language to get into university as the move could prevent UK from suffering serious commercial and cultural damages on the long term.

Kathryn Board, head of languages at CfBT, has recently highlighted how much the introduction of the English Baccalaureate has improved the figures for the take-up of languages in many secondary schools in UK.

However, there is still a significant gap in standards between state and private schools. In the first group only 23 per cent of heads made German, French, Spanish or other foreign languages a compulsory subject at GCSE level, compared with more than 80 per cent in independent schools.

That three per cent has saved Mr Johnson

Two weeks ago Boris Johnson won a second term as Mayor of London.

The Tory candidate won 51.5 per cent of the vote to Labour Mr Livingston’s 48.5 in the run-off between the two top nominees.

During his first speech at City Hall he made a solemn vow to Londoners to lead them out of recession by putting jobs and growth at the hearth of this second term, with a focus on youth unemployment.

He also stressed his intension to invest in local high streets and get the best from the Olympics as well as his plan to bring down both crime and murder rates.

Mr Johnson got a £24 billion budget and powers over Policing, Transport, Housing and the Olympics, just to mention a few.

So far he kept his pre-election promise by appointing a deputy mayor for the economy in order to haul London out of recession.

Meanwhile he has also named five deputies ruling Policing, Education, Housing, Transport and Planning plus Boris Johnson’s official deputy Ms Victoria Borwick.

They are all Tories but known in their own right rather than tied to any faction.

This gruelling campaign saw the victory of Conservatives in London. However David Cameron’s party suffered heavy losses in local elections outside the capital.

Olympic tickets rush hours

The “golden” Olympic tickets sale opened this morning at 11am.

Those who missed out twice in previous sales more than a year ago were given the exclusive chance to apply once again on a first-come first-served basis.

There are almost 80,000 seats on sale and each of the 20,000 applicants is entitled to a maximum of four tickets for a single event.

The sale will last until 6pm on May 12 and seats will be available across all sports.

According to organiser Locog all the remaining tickets will be up for grabs from May 13 at 11am until May 17 for about 1.2 million people who missed out once in the ballot in March last year but did not try to buy any tickets in the second round.

While the “lucky losers” are bidding for the large chunks of the tickets that Locog had held back until venue capacities had been finally set, there is still hope for those who have never applied.

In fact from May 23 they will be given the last pick of any remaining tickets of all varieties if there are still seats available.

Those who missed out twice in previous sales more than a year ago have been labelled “Fans 2606” as they received an email from Locog on June 26, 2011 letting them know they had been unsuccessful even in the second round.

Dear Mayor of London, where would you bring me?

Londoners go to vote tomorrow to choose the person who will be Mayor for the next four years, along with the 25 Assembly Members who will make sure the first citizen of London is delivering on his or her promises.

According to the latest polls, the current mayor of London Boris Johnson is slightly ahead of his labour rival Ken Livingstone.

However, there are five other candidates in the race to become mayor of the capital: independent Siobhan Benita, UK Independence Party Lawrence Webb, Green Party Jenny Jones, Lib-Dem Brian Paddick and Carlos Cortiglia of the BNP.

All the seven candidates have stressed the importance to focus on crime prevention, promote job and growth and build more affordable housing.

Meanwhile, as the country struggles to pull itself out of the recession and Londoners express concern about the ever higher amount of money they have to load onto their Oyster cards, several mayoral candidates have promised to either cut fares or freeze them. There is also a proposal for free weekend tube and the idea of one hour bus tickets.

According to Boris Johnson the promise to cut fares is unrealistic as it would be irresponsible. He wants to invest in the transport system by reducing tube delays and extending the rail system to London’s suburbs instead.

Battle lines were increasingly being drawn for the mayoral election over the past few months and tomorrow Londoners will have the chance to make a choice according to what matters most to them.


Find further information on  http://www.londonelects.org.uk/