Brian's Test Blog

Inspiring day for Future Scholars One hundred students from 21 different state schools were welcomed to Cambridge for a day of activities aimed at inspiring the students and informing their teachers about the opportunities available at leading universities, including the University of Cambridge. Today has helped to break down barriers, helped our students to aspire, and encouraged them to reach for the skies. Michael Gannon, Assistant Headteacher, Arthur Terry School, Sutton Coldfield. The Future Scholar Awards programme is a Department for Education initiative, focused on young people who have the academic potential to win places at selective universities but who might lack the confidence to see themselves as realistic applicants. Students came to the University of Cambridge from schools in East Anglia, London, the West Midlands and Yorkshire.  Their day included a tour of one of Cambridge’s 29 undergraduate Colleges, a Q and A with current underg...

On Saturday 23 rd March 2013, sixteen Arthur Terry students who have opted to study Government and Politics at A Level from September attended and participated in the Labour Party’s innovative public listening exercise, ‘The People’s Public Policy Forum’ at Birmingham’s ICC. The students; Daniel Jones, Simon Martin, Charles McGuigan, Tom Bevington, Will Bennett, Viccy Littleford, Sam Bowker, Nathan Bell, Chris Deekes, Kyle Cookson, Miles Gregory, Harry Plaistowe, Guy Merrington, Georiana Louka, Florence Plant and Harry Bennett, battled through the snow and ice to trade questions with both Stephen Twigg, Shadow Secretary of State for Education and the Labour Leader himself, Ed Miliband. Even Government and Politics Subject Leader, Mr Zarifeh got in on the act asking the Leader of the Opposition a question during the main Q&A chamber session.

On Thursday 7th March, I travelled down to London to shadow Andrew Mitchell for Independent Women's Day 2013. I was up at 5am and got to London at 9:45, then caught the tube to Westminster, where I arrived at Portcullis House. Here I met Isabella, one of Andrew's interns. She took me for a tour around Portcullis House and then to Andrew's office. We met briefly and he wished me a nice day. Isabella then took me to the MPs Assistant's office where I met his 2 other assistants, Hugh and Sarah. They were all very friendly and welcomed me throughout the day. Isabella then took me back to the lobby of Portcullis House where me and 4 other girls, shadowing different MPs and from all over the country, walked to Downing Street. We went through airport-type security and some very chirpy police officers assisted us. We then went through the famous black door and had a tour of number 10 Downing Street. (This was a complete surprise as I had no clue this was going to happen until ...

It has been a year since Emma and I visited the Olympic park as correspondents for the BBC School Report. Although the euphoria surrounding the Olympic Games has faded, the lasting affects from the Games is all around. Lord Coe spoke about the “Olympic Legacy” and “Encouraging social change”, developing sports facilities, and encouraging participation in schools and clubs”. From my perspective it is now all coming into play. I run for Birchfield Harriers and have done so since the age of eleven. From time to time new athletes join and in the past only a small proportion would continue on for a whole athletic season. However this year the flood gates opened and a much higher number of young people from the ages of 9-16 have stepped through the doors and look keen to continue. My uncle Philip Brown a former team mate of Lord Coe in The1984 Olympic Games has also noticed the changes that the Games have brought “It’s a great seeing fresh new talent across different athletic disciplines. H...

In hosting the Q&A session with Adrian Chiles in the sixth form centre back in December, Ollie and I both received extensive advice and support from him on how to establish yourself in the ever-changing industry of Journalism. Adrian also promised us the chance to go to a live ITV match production to see how the actual material we see on our screens gets put together. He was true to his word and before we knew it we were making our way up the M6 to see the FA cup sixth round encounter between Everton and Wigan Athletic. We were told to meet him at the broadcast trucks in the stadium car park and at 10.30AM we had arrived. Adrian took us on a brief tour of the two major trucks in which ITV were operating and introduced us to a few important people before he had to go to the studio to begin rehearsing. All of the production staff were very friendly and enlightened us to the countless logistics behind producing a two hour transmission. The first broadcast truck housed around 20 people...

"What you’re doing is what we’re doing…Investigating" In an effort to understand what being a Police officer involves, ATS Press invited PC Farrington and PC Smith from West Midlands Police into school to provide us with an insight into Policing on the Four Oaks front line. The main line of questioning was about what the ‘average day in the life’ of a Police officer entails. However, as the officers shared their experiences of: neighbourhood noise, dramatic car chases, breaking and entering and visiting the elderly for tea and talk; it soon became apparent, that there is no such thing. Neighbourhood officers PC Farrington and Smith deal on a daily basis with community issues, this involves: neighbourhood disputes, abandoned vehicles, traffic collisions and liaising with the council. As well as, this they offer open surgery sessions for members of the public at ‘The Hub’ and communicate with local landlords as part of ‘Pub Watch’. In fact, PC Farrington stated that “a lot ...