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/

Last chance to grab tickets for the Olympics

Early next month one million people who missed out in the Olympic ballots will be given the chance to buy tickets for the Games.

According to Justin King, who is Mayor of London representative for Locog board, during the first part of the process anyone who has previously applied in the first two rounds more than a year ago and still did not get any tickets, will get first bites at  them before they go on public sale.

However, once applicants have been awarded a ticket, they will not be able to re-enter.

The sale will last for a week and seats will be available across all sports.

There are also a million football tickets and 1.5 million Paralympics tickets still unsold. Overall, there are at least 3.5 million tickets still available.

Locog has rejected claims that it had held back seats to stimulate panic-buying. In fact, the last Olympics ticket race will be happening soon as venue capacities have been finally set.

There is a chance specific sports tickets like the athletics ones will be taken by those who have priority access to the final ballot, while only less popular sports tickets will effectively be on general sale.

100 days to go

It is a gold stamp

First-class stamps will increase from 46p to 60p while second-class ones will soar by more than a third from 36p to 50p.

Royal Mail will be raising prices from April 30 in order to return the universal service to sustainability.

The government-owned postal service in fact, is under threat from 25 per cent drop in postal volumes and losses of about £1billion over the last four years. Volumes are expected to continue to fall as electronic alternatives have replaced letters both within companies and private households.

Despite the current economic climate, price increases are needed to safeguard the UK’s postal service.

Royal Mail (RM) chief executive Moya Greene said that the increase will restore RM finances and maintain the universal, six-day-a week and high-quality service.

Posting a large letter will cost 90p for first class and will go up to 69p for second class. The overall rise is the biggest since the mid-Seventies and customers are joining the queue at post offices and outlets across the country to secure a reasonable allocation of stamps before the end of the months.

However, according to the Communication Workers Union, the move comes directly from the government and is the natural progression towards full competition and privatisation.

Tube drivers welcome the Olympics

London Underground staff could make a massive income from working during the Olympic Games.

According to a senior Aslef source a driver working all the opening ceremony, all the weekend shifts and late nights could earn an extra £6,200.

The offer was made by London Underground (LU) following months of tense negotiations with the drivers’ union and terms are due to be agreed next week.

Payments include up to £1,000 for reporting for duty, £400 extra for key shifts such as the opening ceremony and up to £285 for shifts which extend beyond 1.30am.

Also the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RTM) has agreed Olympic payments of £500 for Network staff and £600 for London Overground workers. Meanwhile, more than 500 members of Docklands Light Railway (DLR) staff will get a 25% rise in the standard overtime rate during the Games.

The overall offer covers nine weeks to the end of the Paralympics and was made despite pressure for public sector pay freezes.

It shows the power transport unions have in London this summer as drivers will be required to transport most of the one million spectators travelling from and to the Olympic venues everyday.

The cost of Tube Olympic bonuses alone for all 16,000 staff on duty is expected to be about £20 million which will be paid with the taxpayer-funded £9,3billion budget for 2012.