Archive for April 2009
Thoughts of an amateur cellist (1)
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 30, 2009
After a break of several years, I have just picked up my cello once more; a few minutes ago, I finished my first lesson and quite frankly I am feeling exhilarated at the prospect of returning to playing, albeit in a wholly amateur way. We started this week with Bach’s cello suites which I was [...]
And the winners are…………
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 29, 2009
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…………….the parents of Queens Park Community School for our brilliant writers’ project, honoured today, at a special ceremony at the House of Commons, as an outstanding achievement in terms of ‘changing the life of a school.’ Given the incredibly high standard of all the entries for these annual gold star awards, we feel particularly pleased. [...]
Meeting Mr Balls.
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 23, 2009
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I am very much hoping that today, at around one thirty pm at the House of Commons, I will get to shake the hand of schools secretary Ed Balls and even receive a generous cheque from him. How and why? Well, the parent body of our local school, Queens Park Community School (which my two [...]
Chair today………….
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 23, 2009
Listen to furniture designer Tom Dixon on the Today programme talk about chairs, past present and future. He was on at 7.49 am. Fascinating stuff.
How sad am I?
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 20, 2009
I am a sucker for information served neat as spirits, particularly of the historical/geographical/political kind. So the new Guardian World FactFiles series, providing digestible A4 length sets of facts on every single country in the world ( and I mean that excited emphasis most sincerely) including rates of literacy, mortality, GDP, indices on press freedom [...]
Faith schools: the latest news………..
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 19, 2009
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Faith schools fail to improve standards and create “social sorting” of children along lines of class, ability and religion, researchers said yesterday. Academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, both part of the University of London, found no proof that providing parents with the choice of a religious secondary school [...]
On an unexpected meeting with a batch of football fans………..
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 18, 2009
Today, I travelled to Bristol for a memorial service for the much loved mother of an old friend. Towards the end of his very moving oration, her son happened to mention that his mother nearly acquired four different passports, that is citizenships, throughout her life. Born in India, she became a citizen of the newly [...]
Hands up those who oppose a generous pay rise for teachers………
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 16, 2009
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I am currently obsessed with a book about Abraham Lincoln and his presidency by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (“Oh oh…….. here we go again! ” said my baby brother kindly, when I quoted from the book during a discussion the other day. Well……we were talking about slavery. ) Anyway, at the risk of arousing his amused [...]
Twitter power in Moldova
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 16, 2009
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For anyone who doubts the importance of the new technology to modern politics or the continuing emergence of brave individuals prepared to stand up for justice, I suggest they read this story, about twitter power in Moldova, in today’s Guardian.
The kindness of strangers
Posted by: melissabenn on: April 14, 2009
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Last night I watched an amazing film, The Edge of Heaven, a Turkish German co-production about six characters in contemporary Europe, several of them first and second generation immigrants, whose lives become entangled and whose fates mirror each other in various clever, poignant ways. There are some unbearably sad moments: a mother and daughter, both [...]
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