Readers respond to an article by Sebastian Doggart on being flogged at Eton and share their own experiences of corporal punishement at school
Sebastian Doggart’s article resonated with me (‘It gives me no pleasure, but I am going to have to beat you’: was I the last boy to be flogged at Eton?, 25 May). I had the dubious honour of being the first pupil to be beaten (or receive the “whacks” as we used to call it) by the newly appointed headmaster of my prep school, when I was also 13. Separately, the deputy headmaster was an enthusiastic administrant of the hairbrush whacks, but unlike the claim from the Eton teacher that he derived no pleasure, in my situation, on several occasions I remember having the distinct feeling that one of us was most definitely enjoying it (and it wasn’t me). Being the same age as the author, I know exactly what he experienced, in a very dark time of appalling treatment of children who were entrusted by their parents to these individuals and institutions.
Dr Julian Stone
Buckland, Oxfordshire
• I despaired at the response of Tony Little, questioned during his tenure as headmaster of Eton in 2002-15 about the school’s practice of flogging, which had ended years before. Sebastian Doggart gave an account of his brutal abuse, and asked Little if it was something the school should be ashamed of. “It was a different time,” Little said. “It’s hard to get back into the mindset of what happened 25 … years ago.” No, it’s not. Tap anyone over 50 on the shoulder and ask them.
Lynne Scrimshaw
London
© Photograph: Andrew Michael/Alamy
© Photograph: Andrew Michael/Alamy
Exclusive: Leader challenges Labour to match £500m pledge, to be paid for with US-inspired share buyback tax
The Liberal Democrats would extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren, starting with those in poverty, Ed Davey has said in a challenge to Labour to match the pledge.
Speaking in his first newspaper interview of the general election campaign, the Lib Dem leader announced a manifesto policy aimed at nearly 1 million more children living in poverty in England and their families.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Jacob King/PA
© Photograph: Jacob King/PA
Cutting degrees to pay for more apprenticeships is plain barmy – just look at the facts and ask yourself who this is aimed at
Once upon a time, elections used to be all about kissing babies. But for parents of teenagers, this one has felt more like a smack in the teeth. Last weekend, our children were threatened with compulsory national service, for no obvious reason beyond keeping nostalgic pensioners happy. Now, just in the middle of their GCSE revision, Rishi Sunak is threatening to scrap one in eight degree places.
“You don’t have to go to university to succeed in life,” tweeted the prime minister, who to be fair is currently proving that you can go to lots of universities – he has a degree from Oxford and a master’s from Stanford – and still see your career end in failure. The money saved by slashing 130,000 supposedly “Mickey Mouse” places would, he promised, fund 100,000 apprenticeships. Though given the enduring failure to get these off the ground over the past decade, it would be unwise to bin the Ucas form just yet. Meanwhile, the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, called the apprenticeship she did at 16 her “golden ticket” but failed to mention her subsequent degree in business studies, followed by a master’s.
Continue reading...© Illustration: Thomas Pullin/The Guardian
© Illustration: Thomas Pullin/The Guardian
High Commission to meet leaders at university after currency crash in home country meant students couldn’t pay for tuition
Delegates from the Nigerian high commission in London are to meet bosses from Teesside University to discuss the treatment of a group of students who were ordered to leave the UK after failing to meet tuition repayments.
The Nigerian students were left distressed and in some cases suicidal after they were involuntarily withdrawn from their courses and ordered to leave, in what has been described as a “serious diplomatic issue”.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Peter Jordan_NE/Alamy
© Photograph: Peter Jordan_NE/Alamy
Figures show statistics, computing, physics and maths have risen in popularity and languages bouncing back
Fewer pupils in England are studying drama, media and performing arts at GCSE and A-level, while the popularity of statistics, computing, physics and maths has gone up.
Provisional figures for exam entries in England this summer, published by the exams regulator Ofqual on Thursday, also reveal a growing enthusiasm for modern foreign languages, which had been in long-term decline.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Roger Bamber/Alamy
© Photograph: Roger Bamber/Alamy
Rules were changed this year in effort to cut immigration, but experts warn bar on dependents will have significant impact on health service
Labour has “no plans” to change rules barring health and care workers from bringing their families to the UK on their visas, despite a plummeting number of NHS staff since the rules were changed earlier this year.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the health service had become too reliant on overseas staff and the party would aim to recruit and train workers from the UK.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
If you listen to any podcast long enough, you will almost certainly hear an advertisement for a Virtual Private Network (VPN). These advertisements usually assert that a VPN is the only tool you need to stop cyber criminals, malware, government surveillance, and online tracking. But these advertisements vastly oversell the benefits of VPNs. The reality is that VPNs are mainly useful for one thing: routing your network connection through a different network. Many people, including EFF, thought that VPNs were also a useful tool for encrypting your traffic in the scenario that you didn’t trust the network you were on, such as at a coffee shop, university, or hacker conference. But new research from Leviathan Security demonstrates a reminder that this may not be the case and highlights the limited use-cases for VPNs.
TunnelVision is a recently published attack method that can allow an attacker on a local network to force internet traffic to bypass your VPN and route traffic over an attacker-controlled channel instead. This allows the attacker to see any unencrypted traffic (such as what websites you are visiting). Traditionally, corporations deploy VPNs for employees to access private company sites from other networks. Today, many people use a VPN in situations where they don't trust their local network. But the TunnelVision exploit makes it clear that using an untrusted network is not always an appropriate threat model for VPNs because they will not always protect you if you can't trust your local network.
TunnelVision exploits the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to reroute traffic outside of a VPN connection. This preserves the VPN connection and does not break it, but an attacker is able to view unencrypted traffic. Think of DHCP as giving you a nametag when you enter the room at a networking event. The host knows at least 50 guests will be in attendance and has allocated 50 blank nametags. Some nametags may be reserved for VIP guests, but the rest can be allocated to guests if you properly RSVP to the event. When you arrive, they check your name and then assign you a nametag. You may now properly enter the room and be identified as "Agent Smith." In the case of computers, this “name” is the IP address DHCP assigns to devices on the network. This is normally done by a DHCP server but one could manually try it by way of clothespins in a server room.
TunnelVision abuses one of the configuration options in DHCP, called Option 121, where an attacker on the network can assign a “lease” of IPs to a targeted device. There have been attacks in the past like TunnelCrack that had similar attack methods, and chances are if a VPN provider addressed TunnelCrack, they are working on verifying mitigations for TunnelVision as well.
In the words of the security researchers who published this attack method:
“There’s a big difference between protecting your data in transit and protecting against all LAN attacks. VPNs were not designed to mitigate LAN attacks on the physical network and to promise otherwise is dangerous.”
Rather than lament the many ways public, untrusted networks can render someone vulnerable, there are many protections provided by default that can assist as well. Originally, the internet was not built with security in mind. Many have been working hard to rectify this. Today, we have other many other tools in our toolbox to deal with these problems. For example, web traffic is mostly encrypted with HTTPS. This does not change your IP address like a VPN could, but it still encrypts the contents of the web pages you visit and secures your connection to a website. Domain Name Servers (which occur before HTTPS in the network stack) have also been a vector for surveillance and abuse, since the requested domain of the website is still exposed at this level. There have been wide efforts to secure and encrypt this as well. Availability for encrypted DNS and HTTPS by default now exists in every major browser, closing possible attack vectors for snoops on the same network as you. Lastly, major browsers have implemented support for Encrypted Client Hello (ECH). Which encrypts your initial website connection, sealing off metadata that was originally left in cleartext.
Party policy is to add standard 20% rate of VAT to school fees and use funds raised to pay for more state teachers
One of Labour’s headline policies in the run-up to the general election is its promise to end tax breaks for private schools in the UK.
The policy is not new – it was adopted under Jeremy Corbyn and has featured in previous Labour election manifestos. But with Keir Starmer’s party leading in the polls and apparently on course for victory on 4 July, it is coming under renewed scrutiny, prompting front page headlines, claims and counter-claims.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Andrew Michael/Alamy
© Photograph: Andrew Michael/Alamy
An unflinching examination of its own history has revealed shocking stories in the sandstone foundations of a revered institution
Nazi apologists, massacre perpetrators, grave robbers, racists and eugenicists were hugely influential across the entire history of the University of Melbourne, according to its own research.
The university has published a shocking account of the dark side of these erstwhile heroes of Australian academia in a book it hopes will tell a greater truth about the institution and its dealings with Aboriginal people.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Tamati Smith/The Guardian
© Photograph: Tamati Smith/The Guardian
Tory policy would be funded by scrapping courses with high drop-out rates and low job progression
Rishi Sunak has promised to create 100,000 high-skilled apprenticeships a year by scrapping “rip-off degrees” if he wins the general election.
In the latest of a flurry of announcements as the Conservatives try to narrow Labour’s 20-point poll lead, the party pledged to replace “low-quality” university degrees with apprenticeships.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Lee Smith/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Lee Smith/AFP/Getty Images
Those struggling to pay debts include students from overseas who have seen the value of their currency crash
Hundreds of students at the University of Sussex have been warned they may be unable to graduate or re-register for the next academic year if they fail to pay outstanding debts.
Those affected include students from Nigeria and Iran who have been struggling to pay their fees after the value of their currencies crashed. Other international students, as well as UK students, are also among those in debt.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
We’re keen to hear how people feel about Labour’s plan to impose 20% VAT on private school fees, and how this might affect them
We’d like to hear from parents in the UK how they feel about Keir Starmer’s pledge to add 20% VAT on to private school fees if Labour wins the next election.
Labour has clarified it hopes to raise about £1.5bn to increase funding for state education through tax changes such as adding VAT to private school fees, without stripping them of charitable status as Keir Starmer and other shadow ministers had previously suggested.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Britpix/Alamy
© Photograph: Britpix/Alamy
Source: securityboulevard.com – Author: Rohan Timalsina On May 2, 2024, the City of Helsinki announced the data breach targeting its Education Division. However, the breach was discovered on April 30, 2024, and an investigation was promptly carried out. It was found that it has impacted tens of thousands of students, guardians, and personnel, causing considerable […]
La entrada City of Helsinki Data Breach: What You Need to Know – Source: securityboulevard.com se publicó primero en CISO2CISO.COM & CYBER SECURITY GROUP.
About half the students who got in touch skip lectures, with many ‘disappointed’ with the experience and others forced to prioritise paid work
Frances, 19, from Newcastle, had been looking forward to starting a design degree at the university of Northumbria last autumn.
By the end of her first semester, however, she had major doubts about having made the right choice.
Continue reading...© Photograph: monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Forget the military, but working under supervision in the NHS, care sector or for a charity could be hugely beneficial for many
Rishi Sunak’s reinvention of national service is a desperate, last-minute election gimmick. But that does not make it a bad idea. If there is one phase in education across Britain that is way off course, it is the higher teens. Sixth-form, higher and further education are deeply reactionary, more plagued than ever by introverted academic syllabuses and obsessive testing. For decades it has eluded progressive reform.
Sunak’s idea of a year’s military training would be a costly waste. The army has said it does not want amateur conscripts. The defence of Britain against improbable attack requires highly skilled operatives, not trench-war cannon fodder. By all means recruit more of them, but polls show that barely 10% of young people would volunteer for war service and a third would resist formal conscription. Under Sunak’s plan, an overwhelming majority would choose the civilian alternative of spending one weekend a month for a year in a public or charitable service. Germany’s non-military alternative to national service – both it and military conscription were abolished in 2011 – was hugely popular.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
On May 2, 2024, the City of Helsinki announced the data breach targeting its Education Division. However, the breach was discovered on April 30, 2024, and an investigation was promptly carried out. It was found that it has impacted tens of thousands of students, guardians, and personnel, causing considerable concern among the affected parties. They […]
The post City of Helsinki Data Breach: What You Need to Know appeared first on TuxCare.
The post City of Helsinki Data Breach: What You Need to Know appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Small campaign pledges risk inhibiting Labour’s ability, if elected, to improve people’s lives
Sir Keir Starmer was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last Friday whether, if he achieved his goal for the UK to attain the highest sustained growth in the G7, he would readopt plans to scrap university tuition fees. He had committed to their abolition when running to be Labour leader in 2020, but dropped the policy last year because he said money was tight. Mishal Husain’s question exposed a contradiction in Sir Keir’s plans: the argument that he ditched his tuition-fee pledge to prioritise the NHS melted away if higher public spending could be financed by faster economic growth. Sir Keir parried, leaving the issue unresolved.
On Monday, Labour’s leader sought to further deflect from his rowback by leaving the door open to raising fees. Polling suggests that would be unpopular. Many voters might not want English university education to be free, but most want to see the cost reduced. Last year, Public First suggested that cutting fees to between £6,000 and £7,500 was the most popular option. Sir Keir was first elected to the Commons in 2015 on a Labour manifesto pledge to trim fees to such levels, with universities’ income made up through increased state support. But it would not be lost on him that even though his party had won the argument, Labour lost that election.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
From railways to nurseries and children’s homes, investors are taking advantage of chances to siphon taxpayer funds offshore
Sector by sector, private equity is making deep inroads into UK public services. More than a decade ago, the collapse of Southern Cross, the private-equity-owned care home operator, revealed the havoc that can be wreaked when essential public services are run by heavily indebted businesses with complex financial structures. Typically, such owners maximise profits by using low-tax jurisdictions, loans, and sale-and-leaseback arrangements that split holding companies from property assets.
Present trends show that this cautionary tale is being ignored. A forthcoming report from the Common Wealth thinktank uses the example of the companies that lease trains to railway operators, to demonstrate that private equity companies are pressing their advantage from financial engineering. Britain’s transport network has joined health and social care, children’s homes and some areas of education in offering rich pickings to private-equity investors.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters
© Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters
Labour leader says prime minister’s claims about UK are ‘form of disrespect’ due to high taxes and commitment to abolishing national insurance
Starmer is now running through his six first step promises.
Starmer says he is fed up with hearing Rishi Sunak says the UK has “turned the corner”.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Two sweet and crunchy brainteasers
Here’s a curious fact taken from The Call of Coincidence, a book by Owen O’Shea about serendipity in maths.
The triangle with sides 45, 97 and 56 has an area of √459.756.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Miramax/Sportsphoto/Allstar
© Photograph: Miramax/Sportsphoto/Allstar
Experts say government’s relaxation of rules on staff ratios for two-year-olds is putting children at undue risk
Toddlers have been “sold out” to balance the books of the government’s childcare bill, according to nursery providers, who say young children have been put at risk by changes in supervision rules.
The deaths of two babies in nurseries made headlines last week but frontline workers say they are also concerned for the safety of older toddlers after the government relaxed rules on staff ratios.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
© Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
The brutal repression of student protests from Amsterdam to Los Angeles is exposing failings at the heart of our universities
Across the world, university students have set up encampments to protest against the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza and put pressure on academic institutions and governments. Whatever one thinks of their message and of their requests, their moral indignation in the face of avoidable human suffering is one we should all be able to share.
I find it inspiring that this student movement has been spearheaded by a generation that was too quickly labelled apolitical and self-absorbed. Think about it: these students grew up in the bleak post-9/11 world, with a future foreclosed by the 2008 financial crisis and the climate meltdown. They are still reeling from two years of pandemic that have taken a heavy educational and emotional toll. Still, this generation has succeeded in organising a global movement that is coordinated, smart and humane. It deserves much better than condescension.
Prof Patrizia Nanz is president of the European University Institute
Continue reading...© Photograph: Pierre Crom/Getty Images
© Photograph: Pierre Crom/Getty Images
UK government allows British private schools in countries like UAE to use BSO kitemark while not teaching about same-sex relationships
Ministers are allowing private schools abroad to brand themselves as “British schools” despite not teaching about same-sex relationships, equality or drug abuse as required in England, the Guardian has learned.
Overseas schools are able to be officially accredited as “British Schools Overseas” (BSO) by the Department for Education (DfE). This came after the government U-turned and exempted them from using the same curriculum it requires in England if doing so would conflict with local laws.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Andrew Hasson/Alamy
© Photograph: Andrew Hasson/Alamy
Recently, we hosted Michael Tapia, Chief Technology Director at Clint ISD in Texas, and Kobe Brummet, Cybersecurity Technician at Hawkins School District in Tennessee, for a live webinar. Michael and Kobe volunteered to share with other K-12 tech pros how important cybersecurity and safety monitoring are for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and online browsing. They […]
The post Cloud Monitor Makes Online Learning Safer, More Secure and Easy for Education appeared first on ManagedMethods.
The post Cloud Monitor Makes Online Learning Safer, More Secure and Easy for Education appeared first on Security Boulevard.
I was 13 and in my first year at the elite public school when I was caught drinking. The punishment shaped my time there – and became a watershed for the institution
I am the last boy to have been beaten at Eton. I confirmed this in a conversation with Tony Little, the then headmaster of that venerable school, during his 2002-15 tenure. “Our archivist has checked the files,” he said, “and can find no record of any beating since summer 1980.”
“So if I were to say I am the Ruth Ellis of corporal punishment at Eton,” I asked hopefully, referring to the last woman to be hanged in Britain, “would I be correct?”
Continue reading...© Photograph: Cian Oba-Smith/The Guardian
© Photograph: Cian Oba-Smith/The Guardian
King makes first official link with Moray school where he experienced angst and opportunity as teenage boarder
King Charles III has agreed to become a patron of the Gordonstoun Association, reflecting an affection for his alma mater in Scotland despite the teenage angst he experienced there.
The patronage is his first official link with the Moray institution, which he attended from 1962 until 1967, and was welcomed by the school principal, Lisa Kerr, as a “great honour”.
Continue reading...© Photograph: PA
© Photograph: PA
The sex and relationships educator Jo Morgan discusses what she believes a sex education curriculum should look like
Last week, Rishi Sunak’s government issued new draft guidance on sex education. It included a ban on teaching sex education before children are nine years old and a ban on teaching “gender ideology”.
Jo Morgan is the author of Empowering Relationships and Sex Education: a Practical Guide for Secondary School Teachers and the founder of the consultancy Engendering Change.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
© Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) is informing nearly 55,000 individuals that they have been impacted by a ransomware attack.
The post 55,000 Impacted by Cyberattack on California School Association appeared first on SecurityWeek.
A YouGov poll for the charity suggests that while four out of five people would be embarrassed to confess to poor literacy skills, just over half would feel the same about admitting poor maths skills. "It is simply inexcusable for anyone to say: 'I can't do maths.' It is a peculiarly British disease which we aim to eradicate. "It doesn't happen in other parts of the world. With encouragement and good teaching, everyone can improve their numeracy." Mr Humphries said just 15% of Britons studied maths after the age of 16, compared with 50-100% in most developed nations.
Architectural gem has twice been badly damaged by fire and rebuild has suffered a string of setbacks
The responsibility for restoring Glasgow’s Mackintosh building should be taken out the hands of the city’s art school and placed with an independent body, according to leading architects, politicians and heritage experts who have expressed dismay at the lack of progress.
Thursday marks 10 years since the building – which houses Glasgow School of Art – was first badly damaged by a fire, which destroyed the Mack’s library, one of the world’s finest examples of art nouveau design.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
© Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
Christine Maxwell on Mike Harris’s alternative suggestion to Labour’s plan for VAT on private schools
Mike Harris (Scrap the plan for VAT on private schools, Labour. Just let low-income kids attend instead, 20 May) suggests that independent schools should give free places to low-income children to avoid paying VAT and that independent schools are saving the state £8,000 a year per pupil. This is wrong for the following reasons:
1. State schools will still need to exist, albeit with fewer pupils. This would result in budget cuts for them as their income is directly linked to the number of pupils on their rolls. In order to run effectively, they would have to cut staff, or the state would have to increase the amount paid per pupil.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Lbeddoe/Alamy
© Photograph: Lbeddoe/Alamy
Daisy Greenwell from Smartphone-Free Childhood says move likely to have domino effect in other parts of UK
“This is mega!” said Daisy Greenwell from the Smartphone-Free Childhood campaign. “We are absolutely thrilled and we believe it’s going to have a domino effect.”
She was reacting to news that St Albans in Hertfordshire is attempting to become the first UK city to go smartphone-free for all children under 14.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Peter Cripps/Alamy
© Photograph: Peter Cripps/Alamy
In what a professor calls an ‘intellectual embarrassment’, the school is requiring students to complete a bizarre training
Like many other campuses around the world, New York University has seen its students protest the university’s ties to weapon manufacturers and other institutions that are profiting off the slaughter in Gaza or enabling it. Like many other campuses, NYU has been doing its best to curtail these protests and punish the students involved.
Unlike many other campuses, however, punishments include being told to watch The Simpsons and write what the NYU law professor Liam Murphy recently described in an open letter to leadership as “coerced confessions of wrongdoing”.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
© Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
University informs Home Office and withdraws sponsorship from those struggling with fees after drop in value of naira
Nigerian students at a UK university say they are devastated after some were thrown off their course and ordered to leave the UK when they got behind on their fees because of a currency crash.
Teesside University withdrew students who missed their fee instalments and informed the Home Office, after some students’ savings were wiped out when the value of Nigeria’s naira crashed.
Continue reading...© Photograph: TeesUni Communications/Teeside University
© Photograph: TeesUni Communications/Teeside University
There are real benefits to a society where people feel safe enough to leave their babies and bikes on the street. How have the Danes achieved this level of faith in their fellow citizens?
Over the years, Denmark has emerged as the good faith capital of the world. Nearly 74% of Danes believe “most people can be trusted” – more than any other nationality. On wider metrics, such as social trust (trusting a stranger) and civic trust (trusting authority), Denmark also scores highest in the world, with the other Nordic countries close behind.
The political scientist Gert Tinggaard Svendsen argues that trust accounts for 25% of Denmark’s otherwise inexplicable wealth. By his reckoning, a quarter of that wealth comes from physical capital (means of production and infrastructure), half comes from human capital (the population’s level of education and innovation), and the unexplained final quarter is trust: they don’t sue one another, they don’t waste money on burglar alarms, businesses often make binding verbal agreements without sweating the contract. People who hold power in Danish institutions – the government, police, judiciary, health services – are trusted to be acting in society’s best interests, and there is very little corruption.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Valdemar Ren/The Guardian
© Photograph: Valdemar Ren/The Guardian
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ministers argued for radical crackdown on visas would be damaging for universities and UK economy
Plans for a radical crackdown on graduate visas that allow overseas students to work in the UK for up to two years after graduation look set to be abandoned by the prime minister after coming up against staunch opposition from cabinet colleagues.
Rishi Sunak had been considering restricting and even scrapping the graduate visa route as a way of reducing migration figures, but he is now expected to opt for more modest reforms to close loopholes and “prevent abuse” of the immigration system.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Chris Ison/PA
© Photograph: Chris Ison/PA
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