…………….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.… Continue Reading
Author Archives: Melissa Benn
Meeting Mr Balls.
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… Continue Reading
Chair today………….
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. Continue Reading
How sad am I?
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… Continue Reading
Faith schools: the latest news………..
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… Continue Reading
On an unexpected meeting with a batch of football fans………..
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… Continue Reading
Hands up those who oppose a generous pay rise for teachers………
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… Continue Reading
Twitter power in Moldova
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. Continue Reading
The kindness of strangers
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… Continue Reading
The death of Ian Tomlinson, Jane Austen, and how to raise children……..thoughts on the week’s stories.
Two stories this week, both in the Guardian, have refreshed my faith in journalism, firstly the unfolding tale of the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller who collapsed during the G20 protests in London; the other a feature in today’s Guardian about two different organisations helping troubled kids. The extraordinary Ian Tomlinson story… Continue Reading
Latest writing
THE CRISIS OF THE MERITOCRACY
The crisis of the meritocracy: Britain’s transition to mass education since the Second World War PETER MANDLER, 2020 Oxford: Oxford University Press 361pp, hardback, £25, ISBN 9780198840145 Cambridge historian Peter Mandler has a fundamentally optimistic story to tell about the growth of universal education in Britain over the last seventy years and one can sense… Continue reading…
Latest news & events
A Cold War Tragedy
Melissa will be in conversation with Anne Sebba about her new book, ‘Ethel Rosenberg – A Cold War Tragedy.’ Weds 15th September 2021, 5-6pm, in the Robert Graves Tent at the Wimbledon Book Festival. More information here. Continue reading…
