News
Headteacher wins flight with the Royal Air Force
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iz Quinn, 52, the UK’s leading secondary headteacher, celebrated her top prize yesterday with an ‘experience of a lifetime’, flying with the Royal Air Force.
Liz Quinn, head of Stourport High School and Sixth Form Centre in Worcestershire, is UK winner of the 2009 Royal Air Force Award for Head Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School, sponsored by the RAF for the past seven years.
She was a VIP visitor to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and was treated to a tour of the world famous Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, including a flight in a Chipmunk aircraft, piloted by Wing Commander Ian Laing, Officer Commanding Operations Wing.
She said later: ‘It was an incredible experience, absolutely brilliant. The aerobatics were a fantastic mixture of fear and excitement which I absolutely loved – in fact I think I’m addicted to flying now!’ After lunch in the Officer’s Mess, Ms Quinn was given a personal guided tour of a multi-role Typhoon aircraft, the most modern jet in RAF service. She said: ‘I learned a huge amount. The technology in the aircraft is
fascinating but we also share a lot of thinking about ethos and how to create successful communities. Leaders who can convey that we are in this together, that we all contribute but we are all accountable – we shared that too.’ Caroline Evans, chief executive of the Teaching Awards said: ‘We are so proud of Liz who took to the skies with the greatest of ease. She is a terrific ambassador for the teaching profession and all that is good in our schools. Our thanks to the Royal Air Force for giving her a once-in-a- lifetime experience and who are loyal and dedicated sponsors of the Teaching Awards.’
Improving web access for disabled pupils
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eading text-to-speech service for websites are to be given free of charge to 5,000 schools across the country in a £600,000 website accessibility and usability initiative.
ROKTalk, the text-to-speech service for websites designed to ‘make websites talk’ through converting written text on websites into real-time, real voice, audible speech, has announced it is to gift the service to up to 5,000 primary and secondary schools across the UK this year through it’s not-for- profit organization, The ROK Foundation.
There are approximately 30,000 primary, secondary, special needs and independent schools in the UK. Under the terms of the plan, the first 5,000 schools to apply for the free service before 31st July will have it installed and operational on their websites in time for the next school year in September. Schools may apply for the free ROKTalk service to be added to their websites by completing the online application form at
www.roktalk.com
E-waste wrecks lives F
ollowing a recent BBC3 documentary that revealed IT waste belonging to prominent UK organisations had been dumped in Ghana, Government-supported e-waste disposal specialist Remploy e-cycle is urging senior decision-makers to make sure they know exactly where their old computer equipment is being sent. Last month’s programme ‘Blood Sweat and Luxuries’ showed boys as young as five risking their lives to salvage scrap metal from computers to sell for as little as 5p. The documentary showed pictures of a vast electrical dump site that attracts thousands of young Ghanaian boys, many of whom set light to equipment releasing toxic, cancer-forming gases to reach valuable copper wires inside. Chris Sutton, general sales manager of Remploy e-cycle, says: “We need to see the end of this appalling method of computer disposal. While there is still a question over how these computers ended up in Africa, it is probably reasonable to assume the equipment has been processed by one or more UK-based waste disposal companies which the organisations in question believed operated responsibly.
“These companies need to be tracked down and made to the pay the price for their dangerous practices which put so many young lives at risk. Directors and chief executives need to be taking this issue seriously by ensuring their IT equipment is either refurbished, if it can be used again, or disposed of responsibly if it’s reached the end of its useful life.
Trust welcomes new Government
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hair of the School Food Trust, Rob Rees, has welcomed the appointment of Michael Gove as the new Secretary of State for Education and stressed the continuing challenges and opportunities for school food in improving the health, welfare and achievement of young people. Mr Rees said: “We look forward to working closely with the new Government to continue the transformation of school food in England. We want to make sure that all children have access to good school food - which not only improves their health but also their focus in lessons. “Since 2005, the Trust has led the work to improve the quality of school food, overseen the introduction of the new standards for food at school and helped schools, cooks, caterers and local authorities to increase take up and develop sustainable catering services for the future. “More children than ever - around 3 million - now regularly eat a well-balanced
meal at school. But there is still much to do to increase the number of children reaping the benefits of healthy school food, both now and in the future.”
uwww.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk www.education-today.co.uk 7
“What’s more these computers could still contain sensitive data which could be recovered by someone who knows what they are doing, putting many UK people’s personal information at risk of being exploited in some way. We therefore urge all businesses and organisations to check the credentials of the e-waste companies they currently use and find out exactly where there e-waste is going.” Remploy e-cycle is working to reduce the levels of IT waste being sent to landfill through its Re-use IT campaign which is encouraging the re-use of otherwise redundant equipment after the erasure of all pre-existing data.
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