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from Hollie Barnes

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The representation and inclusion Movement for people of colour in the video games industry.

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The Social Network - Film, Script and other things 

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The Social Network - Film, Script and other things 

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From Hollie Barnes

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The Social Network script's story beats

Here is the story structure for the The Social Network screenplay:

STORY BREAKDOWN

STRUCTURE OF THE SOCIAL NETWORK SCREENPLAY

EXPOSITION (OPENING)

Mark Zuckerberg is a narcissistic computer science student at Harvard. He's obsessed with social status, and is driven to be recognized at any cost. After demeaning his girlfriend Erica's intelligence, she dumps him.

INCITING INCIDENT

Mark returns to his dorm where he immediately posts derogatory insults about Erica. With the help of his friend Eduardo Saverin, he decides to write a rudimentary program (Facemash) that allows blog users to vote on girls attractiveness.

CLIMAX OF ACT ONE

Mark is given six months of academic probation for Facemash. The Winklevoss Twins, two Harvard rowers, approach him with the prospect of developing Facemash into Harvard Connection. Mark agrees as a facade, as he only wants to be around the twins for their social connections. Instead, he secures capital from his friend Eduardo.

RISING ACTION

While Eduardo is out partying, Mark works on the new site. Mark becomes jealous that Eduardo is recruited by the 'prestigious' Harvard Phoenix club. We cut in and out deposition hearings in which both Eduardo and The Winklevoss Twins accuse Mark of legal crimes.

MIDPOINT (TURNING POINT)

Mark and Eduardo become celebrities at Harvard after the launch of Facebook. Mark is served a cease and desist letter from the Winklevoss Twins, which he ignores. The small Facebook team decides to expand to other Ivy league schools.

CHARACTER CONFLICT

Napster creator Sean Parker hears about Facebook at Stanford and sets up a meeting with Mark. Although Mark is smitten with Sean, Eduardo is apprehensive.

TENSION BUILD UP

Mark takes Facebook out to Palo Alto for the Summer, while Eduardo works in New York. Mark meets up with Sean again, and they both express interest in working together. Meanwhile in England, the Winklevoss Twins learn that Facebook has gone international.

CLIMAX

Eduardo expresses doubt about Sean's ethics, which Mark firmly rebuffs. Facebook secures an angel investment which prompts the company to restructure. Eduardo is invited out to the new office where he's ambushed by a lawyer. Mark had diluted Eduardo's 34% equity stake to .03%, effectively removing him from the company.

FINALE AND DENOUEMENT

Sean is arrested for drug possession. Eduardo and The Winklevoss Twins both settle with Mark outside of court. Mark logs onto Facebook and looks up his old girlfriend Erica, who he requests to add as a friend.

The Social Network Script Takeaway #1

The Social Network dialogue and quotes

As an adapted screenplay based on real people, every quote in The Social Network is subject to heightened scrutiny. But Sorkin does an incredible job of showing us who these people are, in simple and subtle ways. Let's bring the script into StudioBinder's screenwriting software to see Sorkin's work in action.

In this scene, Eduardo details the confrontation that he had with Mark after learning his equity share had been diluted to less than one percent. Although the scene has plenty of memorable quotes, it's when Eduardo says, "Tell me this isn't about me getting into the Phoenix" that we see the resolution of the subtext that had been building throughout the film.

This quote is an excellent example of using dialogue to develop the story. Facebook was created in response to Mark feeling isolated and alone.

The Social Network Quotes

Here are some other great quotes:

Mark:
"Did you know there are more people with genius IQ's living in China than there are people of any kind living in the United States?" "I'm talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online. " "If you guys were the inventors of Facebook you'd have invented Facebook."
Eduardo:
"She said "Facebook me" and we can all go for a drink later. Which is stunningly great for two reasons. One, she said "Facebook me." Right? And the other is, you know⏤" "I did not torture the chicken, I don't torture chickens, are you crazy? " "Sorry, my Prada's at the cleaners along with my hoodie and my fuck-you flip-flops you pretentious douchebag. "
The Social Network Script Takeaway #2

There are two ways to build character. The first is to show how other characters feel about them. The other is to have the character themself demonstrate their qualities with actions, monologues, and dialogue. The Social Network does a great job of balancing these two methods.

Sean Parker is a character we know very little about; other than that he slept with a Stanford student and once founded Napster. So in this scene, we subconsciously make a critical judgement of his character, since his introduction is so late into the story.

Eduardo has already proven to be a character we can trust, so his feelings on Sean are something we should pay attention to.

The Social Network Restaurant Scene

Eduardo calls him "delusional" and "paranoid." This is backed up in the script, as Sean goes on diatribes about how everyone is out to get him. Furthermore, his actions are sporadic and expressive, which foils Mark.

This suggests that Mark is attracted to the attention Sean draws, something that he's unable to do on his own.

Building well-developed characters is essential in telling a good story; whether through dialogue, actions, wardrobe, casting, etc.

DID YOU KNOW?

Writer Aaron Sorkin said this about researching for The Social Network; "The defendants, the plaintiffs, and the witnesses all went into the deposition rooms, all swore an oath, and they ended up telling three very different versions of the story. I didn't pick one and decide on my own that that's the truth. I didn't pick one and decide on my own, geez that's the sexiest, that's the one that will make the best movie. I liked that there were three different, at times conflicting versions of the truth."

The Social Network Script Takeaway #3

The Social Network is told through the deposition hearings of Mark Zuckerberg. This means that Sorkin decided on an atypical script structure; one that interweaves time periods will still holding onto key story beats. For example, although we know that Mark is sued, we don't know why. That information is regaled to us through those in the depositions.

This scene is from Mark's second deposition with the Winklevoss Twins. But the excerpt is more about why Mark sought out financing from Eduardo rather than the Twins. Mark says that Eduardo was his best friend and that's why he did it, to which a Winklevoss lawyer responds, "your best friend is suing you for 600 million dollars." This is a strong example, using dialogue to reveal critical information creatively.

Aaron Sorkin on Writing The Social Network

Up Next

Read and Download More Scripts

The Social Network is one of the all-time best, dialogue-driven scripts. If you want to read more great scripts, we have Gone Girl, Fight Club and Good Will Hunting in our screenplay database. Great screenwriters read lots of scripts. Get started today!

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VIDEO: The Social Network's Negative Change Arc [PDF Download]

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Here is the story structure for the The Social Network screenplay: EXPOSITION (OPENING) Mark Zuckerberg is a narcissistic computer science student at Harvard. He's obsessed with social status, and is driven to be recognized at any cost. After demeaning his girlfriend Erica's intelligence, she dumps him.

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from Hollie Barnes

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Last year, Covid-19 wiped out the UK's summer festival season. Only a handful of shows were able to take place, and most of them were in car parks or socially-distanced green field sites.

At the start of 2021, organisers were more optimistic.

With the vaccination programme under way and mass testing available, dozens of events put tickets on sale, confident that fans would be allowed to mosh, pogo and stage-dive with the risk of injury, rather than disease, their main concern.

But as the year has progressed, the summer season has collapsed in slow motion. Events scheduled for the early summer - most notably Glastonbury - cancelled first. Dozens of others followed in April and May, with many citing the inability to obtain cancellation insurance as a factor.

To help you plan ahead, here's a guide to the events that have been delayed, cancelled, postponed or given the green light. This page was last updated on Tuesday, 27 July 2021.

All Points East - RESCHEDULED

Organisers have moved the event from its usual slot in May to August bank holiday weekend, giving it a greater chance of proceeding unimpeded. "We can't wait to welcome back live music in the UK and be back dancing with you all later this summer," say organisers.

Beautiful Days - ON

Founded and managed by the band The Levellers, Beautiful Days started in 2003 and has been awarded the title of best family festival at the UK festival awards.

Organisers say they are "planning to go ahead at full capacity" after Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed. However, tickets are already sold out.

Big Feastival - ON

Held at Blur star Alex James's farm in the Cotswolds, the Big Feastival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with the usual mix of music, food, comedy and kids' entertainment. "We're all in need of a serious celebration this year so we're pulling out all the stops to ensure this is our best line-up yet," said James. "Roll on August!"

Big Weekend - ONLINE

Black Deer Festival - OFF

One of the UK's newer festivals, Black Deer concentrates on Americana and bluegrass, with big name music acts spread over several stages. The 30,000-capacity event was set to be one of the first to take place after lockdown restrictions eased, until those plans were delayed on 14 June.

"We can't quite put into words how we're feeling right now," said co-founders Gill Tee and Deborah Shilling. "It's devastating news for all connected with Black Deer but we'll be back in 2022". They said ticket-holders would be informed of their options "very soon".

Bloodstock - ON

The long-running heavy metal festival has added an extra day to its line-up due to the postponement of last year's event.

However, the festival had to revamp its line-up, explaining that "due to the ongoing issues and restrictions surrounding Covid-19, a number of overseas bands are no longer able to be at Catton Park with us this summer". That included former headliners Mercyful Fate, who have been replaced on the bill by Kreator.

Boardmasters - ON

It's been a rough two years for Boardmasters. They were forced to cancel their 2019 event due to severe storms, before Covid-19 wiped out their plans for 2020. Tickets from 2019 will still be valid for this year's festival, which takes place on a cliff-top location overlooking Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach.

Organisers said they were "delighted" to be coming back in 2021 and thanked fans for "sticking with us over these past two years".

"Your continued support has been truly overwhelming and quite simply, we couldn't do it without you."

Boomtown - OFF

When: 11-15 August

Where: Matterley Estate, Hampshire

A five-day immersive musical and theatrical event, Boomtown had branded its 2021 comeback "The Gathering", as a celebration of the return of social contact.

However, organisers pulled the plug on 20 April, blaming the government for its inability to provide a Covid-specific insurance scheme.

"This means anyone putting on an event this year will be doing so without the safety net of insurance to cover them should Covid prevent them from going ahead in any capacity," they said in a statement. "For an independent event as large and complex as Boomtown, this is a huge gamble of up to an eight figure sum and the financial risk is simply too high."

The festival says it will return in August 2022.

BST Hyde Park - OFF

BST was one of the first festivals on the calendar for 2021, with three shows planned for the second weekend in July - but on 30 March, organisers confirmed "with a heavy heart" that the shows were being postponed until 2022.

Headliners Pearl Jam and Duran Duran will come back for the rescheduled shows, and all tickets remain valid.

Camp Bestival - ON

The family-friendly festival announced its return immediately after the government revealed its four-step plan for emerging from lockdown in February.

The festival has yet to respond to the extension of lockdown restrictions, and is assumed to be going ahead.

Creamfields - ON

The UK's biggest dance music festival sold out in record time when tickets went on sale in February. Organisers are promising fans "the party of the summer" after a year locked indoors.

Deer Shed Festival - OFF

After announcing their line-up and putting tickets on sale, the family-friendly Yorkshire festival took the difficult decision to postpone for a second year in April.

In a statement, organisers said a lack of cancellation insurance had left them vulnerable. Tickets will roll over to next year; and a smaller-scale event, Base Camp Plus, featuring live music and comedy will take place on this year's original dates.

Download - Scaled back

Originally due to take place on the first weekend of June, Download pulled the plug on 1 March, after it became clear the UK wouldn't emerge from lockdown until later in the summer.

The headline acts are Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Enter Shikari and Bullet For My Valentine, with Creeper, While She Sleeps, Twin Atlantic, Yonaka, Employed to Serve and Neck Deep also in the line-up.

End Of The Road - ON

"We were ready for one hell of a party in 2020 so we did our best to keep most of the original line-up," said organisers of End Of The Road, who are welcoming back almost 100 artists who were due to play last year's festival. "It has been a strange year and we'd like to extend the biggest thank-you to everybody who's bought a ticket and stood with us through these tough times."

Although the event has sold out, a few extra tickets will be released in May, with resales available via Twickets.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention - OFF

Run by folk-rock legends Fairport Convention, Cropredy is one of the UK's oldest festivals, dating back to 1976.

After saying they were "cautiously confident" earlier in the year, the band were forced to postpone the event to 2022 in late June.

"We have reached the point where we'd need to spend big money but without any certainty we could go ahead," said Director Gareth Williams. The dilemma we are facing is simple - proceed and risk potentially going out of business or postpone for a year and live to fight another day."

He added that the lack of Covid-related cancellation insurance, and the failure to provide guidelines for events taking place in step four, had "made it effectively impossible to plan this year's event".

Glastonbury - OFF / ONLINE

The sheer size of Glastonbury - which features more than 100 stages, thousands of performers and nearly 200,000 fans - meant they had to make a decision on their viability early.

The bad news broke in January: "In spite of our efforts to move heaven and earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the festival happen this year," said Michael and Emily Eavis. "We are so sorry to let you all down."

Gone Wild Festival - ON

Organised by Bear Grylls this unusual festival mixes live music with activities such as wakeboarding, bushcraft and coasteering, all in support of the Royal Marines Charity.

2021 marks its inaugural year, with Grylls describing it as "the perfect event for families to experience adventures together".

The Great Escape - ONLINE

Brighton's Great Escape normally takes place in May, which made its 2021 edition impossible. The event, which focuses on up-and-coming talent, had previously announced its first 50 (of more than 400) acts, including BBC Sound Of 2021 winner Pa Salieu, and rising star Arlo Parks. However, the line-up has since disappeared from the festival's official website.

Instead, the event moved online, with a full schedule of live-streamed concerts and music industry debates. The event will return in full on 11 May 2022.

Green Man Festival - ON

Green Man boasts one of the most spectacular backdrops of all the UK's festivals - nestled at the foot of the mountains in Wales' Brecon Beacons National Park.

Although the Welsh government's plan for emerging from lockdown was more cautious than the England's, organisers were "ecstatic" to announce the festival would be going ahead on 16 July.

"A gigantic thank you to everyone for your patience over the past year," they added in a statement. "Seeing your faces in the fields is going to be nothing short of incredible!"

Originally due to take place in May 2020, Lancashire's biggest open-air music festival will now take place in the first weekend of September.

In celebration, the event is expanding to four days for the first time, with James and Lightning Seeds taking the stage on the opening night.

Festival Director Richard Dyer said: "We're going to throw the biggest, most outrageous party of 2021. We cannot wait for you all to see how we plan to transform the beautiful Williamson Park once again, into an amazing, sensory overloading festival site".

Isle Of Wight Festival - RESCHEDULED

Originally scheduled for June, the Isle of Wight festival has been pushed back by three months. Organisers announced the "quartet of iconic names" taking the main stage and stressed the importance of being a Covid-safe event. "Over the coming months we'll be watching and learning from the events taking place before us and, of course, liaising with all the relevant authorities to make sure everyone - audience, artists, staff, the community - is kept safe," they added.

Kendal Calling - OFF

"It breaks our hearts to tell you that our 15th birthday celebrations are postponed once again".

One of the UK's most picturesque festivals, Kendal Calling had been optimistic about its prospects early in the year, telling fans they were "lucky that our on-site preparations don't begin for some time, unlike some of our much bigger friends in the festival world", meaning they could be more nimble in reacting to Covid-19 restrictions.

After the end to lockdown was delayed, organisers had hoped to keep the festival alive as part of the government's pilot scheme for live events - but they weren't selected for the programme.

Latitude - ON

Latitude will take place with a full-capacity audience of 40,000 people as part of the government's Events Research Programme.

"The additional research collected at Latitude will benefit all festivals and live events moving forward," said festival director Melvin Benn. "Everyone will be welcome to attend as long as they have a negative lateral flow test or proof of two vaccinations."

The line-up had changed considerably since the festival was first announced, with Swedish headliners First Aid Kit no longer able to attend, and Lewis Capaldi cancelling all upcoming shows. However, Bastille remain in place as Sunday night headliners, with Wolf Alice and Chemical Brothers also on the bill.

Lovebox - MIA

Focusing on dance, hip-hop and R&B, London's Lovebox festival was set to expand in 2020 with a new stage, and headline performances by Disclosure; Khalid; Robyn; and Tyler, The Creator.

Until recently, the festival's website still carried a banner reading "see you in 2021" but the message was updated in May to the more generic, "Lovebox will return".

Love Supreme - OFF

The team at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival say they are "devastated" not to be able to go ahead in 2021, despite "exploring all avenues" to make the festival happen.

"We simply would not be able to deliver a Love Supreme that lives up to our own and your expectations," they added.

Tickets will automatically transfer to next year; but refunds will also be available.

Lytham Festival - OFF

Organisers announced they were postponing from 2021 having "explored the possibility of moving the festival later in the year", which they found was not going to be possible. "We are now in the process of making some big plans for a triumphant return next year," they added.

Neighbourhood Weekender - ON

The event neither confirmed nor denied the claim, simply saying they would "comply with the conditions outlined by the government" when the event takes place in September (having been moved from its original date in May).

Brown was swiftly replaced by Mancunian indie band James. Fans who cannot make the rescheduled dates can apply for a refund.

Noisily Festival - OFF

An underground music festival, Noisily takes place deep in the heart of the Coney Woods - about 15 minutes from Market Harborough. Organisers had initially made a Covid guarantee - saying dates will be rescheduled if government advice changes, and anyone who can't attend rescheduled dates will receive a "100% refund at face value (minus booking fees)".

But after the government's announcement on 14 June, they had to backtrack on those plans.

"Today's announcement was the one that we dreaded," they wrote in a statement. "The wood and fields in which Noisily takes place are part of a working farm, meaning there is no scope to delay until later in the summer".

Describing the loss as "devastating", organisers promised the festival would return "stronger than ever" in 2022.

Notting Hill Carnival - CANCELLED

Last year, the Notting Hill Carnival was cancelled for the first time in its history. Organisers were hoping it could be resurrected for its 55th anniversary in 2021, but those hopes have now been dashed.

In a statement on 18 June, organisers said this year's Carnival "will not be on the streets due to the ongoing uncertainty and risk Covid-19 poses".

"This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make. Everyone involved in the event desperately wants a return to the road where Carnival belongs but safety has to come first and with the latest cautious announcement on the government's 'roadmap', this is the only way to ensure that," they added.

However, they said they were looking at holding "alternate events that will allow everyone to safely celebrate everything Notting Hill Carnival stands for", as they did in 2020, and that next year they hope to put on the "greatest ever" Carnival.

What started as a humble barbecue for family and friends in 1998 has turned into a fully-fledged festival with 11 stages and some of the biggest acts in the world dropping into Pete and Ella Nosworthy's farm in Herefordshire.

Although they initially hoped to proceed with this year's event, they were forced to pull the plug.

In a statement, Ella said the financial consequences of pressing ahead "could affect Nozstock's future and we simply cannot take that risk".

However, the Nosworthy family have since announced a special, one-day event on 7 August, to put "a little bit of Nozstock magic in your life". Headlined by Dub Pistols, it will see 1,000 people welcomed onto the farm, with overnight camping.

A brand new festival for 10,000 people in the "enchanted realm" of Hightown, near Liverpool, One In The Woods focuses on dance, techno and drum and bass.

Originally scheduled for 17-18 July, organisers swiftly booked new dates for August as soon as the government delayed the end of lockdown restrictions.

Parklife - ON

Another festival that's shifted from June to September to minimise the chance of cancellation, Parklife says it is confident it'll be able to host 80,000 fans at Heaton Park this autumn.

The event's line-up is due to be announced on 23 March.

Proms - ON

Last year, the BBC Proms managed to stage two weeks of socially-distanced concerts in an audience-free Royal Albert Hall. This year, as the venue celebrates its 150th birthday, organisers will stage six weeks of concerts, with full-capacity audiences.

The season will open with Vaughan Williams' Serenade To Music, described as "a love song to music and musicians" after a year of lockdown.

Other highlights include a family concert featuring all seven of the talented Kanneh-Mason siblings; and a season dedicated to Stravinsky, on the 50th anniversary of his death.

The festival will also welcome back Prommers - with about 1,000 tickets for every show available on-the-day for under £10.

Reading & Leeds - ON

"The acts are desperate to play, the kids are desperate to come," Reading & Leeds organiser Melvin Benn told BBC News last month.

The dual-site festival is due to take place on August bank holiday, by which stage most adults will have had their first Covid-19 vaccination, and many will have had their second shot. Benn said that, on that front, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had "got it right".

"I applaud him for that, and I am going to hold his feet to the fire on it. And I think there's going to be 200,000 young people holding his feet to the fire on that position as well."

After cancelling in 2020, Rewind said it had started "planning with confidence" for 2021 after the UK government revealed its four-step process for emerging from lockdown. Organisers of the 80s throwback festival even joked they'd formed their own SAGE committee - comprised of Sad Aged Gits from the Eighties.

The Perth leg of the festival was cancelled in April, based on guidance from the Scottish Parliament, but the two English concerts will go ahead as planned.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival - ON

Organisers said they have plans in place for a "Covid-safe festival, including a refreshed line-up, to celebrate the best of British-based folk artists".

They added: "We have elected for outside stages and more outdoor activities, to ensure we can meet any possible Covid-related regulations that might be in place by August Bank Holiday."

Slam Dunk - ON

Usually kicking off the summer festival season, Slam Dunk Festival organisers have made the decision to push back their event from its usual May bank holiday weekend.

"We feel the guidance now is clear enough to know the event will happen in September," says festival director Ben Ray.

Solfest - ON

One of about 25 music festivals to receive funds from the government's Cultural Recovery Fun, Solfest will return to the Cumbrian coastline over August bank holiday weekend "with no social distancing measures in place".

"We are also fortunate enough to have an additional nine weeks after the official end of social distancing measures to survive any short lockdown extensions," said organisers, before Boris Johnson announced just such an extension. If the worst comes to the worst, tickets will carry over to next year.

Splendour in Nottingham - OFF

"We're devastated that we're having to postpone for a second year running," said organisers in a statement on 23 June. "We know this will be disappointing to everyone who had plans to attend, but also for all the artists, contractors and staff who count on Splendour for work.

"We can only say how sorry we are that we couldn't make it work for this year."

The festival will return in 2022, and many artists - including Becky Hill, Belinda Carlisle, Sleeper and The Selecter - have confirmed they will return.

Standon Calling - ON

Celebrating its 16th year, the independent festival announced its line-up on 4 March, and reaffirmed it was going ahead on 29 July.

Trenchard said he was confident the festival could take place after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England was "very likely" to emerge from Covid restrictions on 19 July.

However, he also called on Johnson to provide more support to the live music sector, saying: "Now is the time for government to go beyond words of confidence and finally step forward with the long called-for government-backed insurance for the festival sector."

Sundown - ON

Coming at the tail end of festival season, Norfolk's "bass and pop" festival looks more hopeful than most - and has already sold out. "Here's to a summer together," organisers declared last month.

This Is Tomorrow - ON / POSTPONED

Postponed from May, the three-day festival will see sets from the likes of Blossoms, Bugzy Malone, Mahalia, Fontaines DC. Pale Waves, and Holly Humberstone.

'We're delighted to be able to get this back in the diary," said Stuart Galbraith, of promoters Kilimanjaro Live. "It's a brilliant festival with huge potential in an area which has been traditionally over-looked as a music market."

Tramlines - ON

Taking place less than a mile from Sheffield's city centre, Tramlines has transcended its roots as a free event to become one of the biggest festivals in the north of England.

The 2021 edition has been given permission to take place as part of the government's Events Research Programme, with a full capacity of 40,000 people.

There will be no compulsory social distancing or masks inside the event - but fans will have to provide proof of a negative Covid test, or that they have had two doses of a vaccine.

"We would like to express our solidarity with those festivals which have not been able to go ahead this year and those which are still seeking clarity," said festival director Timm Cleasby, as he announced the news. "Huge ticket sales across the sector show how keen fans are to come to our events and we want to help reassure them that we can welcome them back safely."⁣

TRNSMT - RESCHEDULED

Originally scheduled for July, the Scottish festival was pushed back to September in late March. Festival boss Geoff Ellis explained the date change was down to "a combination of the timetable to exit lockdown and the preparation time needed to put on an event of TRNSMT's scale".

But he was optimistic, saying the delay "gives us the opportunity to put on the best festival we can for our fans after such a long time without any live music", and added: "We will, of course, work with all relevant authorities to ensure we follow any guidelines that may be in place in September."

Truck Festival - OFF

"The Godfather of the small festival scene," Oxford's Truck festival sold out before the line-up had even been announced.

But after the government delayed the end to lockdown, organisers took the difficult decision to cancel for a second year running.

"It's the news that many expected but few wanted," they said in a statement. Tickets for the 2021 festival will be automatically rolled over to 2022, but refunds will be available.

Victorious Festival - ON

Most of the bands who were due to play in 2020 are back on the bill this year, with Craig David, Supergrass and Rag 'N' Bone Man joining the headliners.

"This year's line-up is my personal favourite," says organiser Andy Marsh. "We believe there really is something for everyone to enjoy this Summer and we can't wait to welcome you all!"

Wilderness Festival - ON

Set in the picturesque, 5000-acre Cornbury Park, Wilderness festival offers a diverse line-up of music, theatre, comedy, forest bicycle rides, pop-up dining and even "paddleboard yoga".

"With government restrictions being lifted on the 19 July, we're delighted we will be able to welcome you to Wilderness this August," said organisers in a brief statement in June.

"Once again, guest experience continues to be our top priority and we are working with public health authorities to bring you the festival safely."

Wireless Festival - RESCHEDULED

Wireless, which started out as a nuts-and-bolts indie rock festival in 2005 has, in recent years, transformed into the UK's biggest showcase for hip-hop and grime. The line-up for 2020's cancelled event included A$AP Rocky, Skepta, Da Baby, AJ Tracey and D-Block Europe.

This year's event has been moved back by two months, with organisers saying "early July was too much of a worry for us in the government's timing out of lockdown". The new dates mean the festival has had to move out of its home in Finsbury Park to a new venue.

Womad - OFF

"It is with great regret that we are cancelling Womad 21," said the festival's founder, Peter Gabriel, on 28 June.

"Without the simple support of a government insurance scheme or the guarantee of Test Event status, we cannot continue and put WOMAD's long term future at risk."

"We feel that our audience, artists, staff, and contractors, who have been amazingly supportive throughout all this, will understand the need for us to act to guarantee our survival."

Y Not Festival - OFF

Organisers of the 15,000-capacity festival had secured their "biggest line-up yet" in 2021 with acts like Manic Street Preachers, Jade Bird, Kelis and Sigala joining the headliners.

But after "gritting out teeth" and working through the delay to lockdown, they finally took the decision to delay the event on 1 July.

"It has been the hardest decision to make," they said in a statement, adding they had been "placed in an extremely awkward position" by the lack of government guidance or an effective insurance scheme.

"This week, we would usually start building our festival site and whilst all the planning is done and we are good to go, we now find ourselves in a position where we are unable to commit to the build of the site, as we have no solid guarantee of it being allowed to take place".

All tickets will roll over to 2022, with the festival pencilled in for 28-31 July.

All information was correct at the time of writing. Advice on public gatherings and Covid-related safety guidelines may change, and could affect the prospects of many events.

Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

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Festivals 2021: Which ones are still going ahead?

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After the easing of lockdown restrictions was delayed in England, music festivals announce their plans.

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Added by Rachel Öner
'Construction Hands'
A work book style resource to support the development of Functional Skills English for Construction students (also specific activities for Painting & Decorating and Plastering students).
See accompanying document here: https://www.skillsworkshop.org/sites/skillsworkshop.org/files/resources/HSE_3_texts_small_site_plasterboard_injury_and_old_lead_paint.pdf

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From Hollie Barnes

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Every issue of Women in Construction UK provides an update of news, current and upcoming projects, industry comment, training, interviews, articles, features, event news and product information - covering all areas of importance to our readers.

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Added by Rachel Öner
Level 1
A short exercise for Construction students to read the official definition for several terms and then write their understanding of the definition in their own words.

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from Hollie Barnes

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To mark International Women in Engineering Day 2021, several senior tech execs discuss how the pandemic has impacted gender diversity in the industry

Every June, the tech industry comes together to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day. Ada Lovelace springs back onto social feeds, talented women around the globe are championed, and talk inevitably turns to what can be done to encourage more women into the sector.

Before COVID-19,  of the industry's male to female ratio was imbalanced  by as much as 77% in favour of male directors. The pandemic has only exacerbated this. In fact, a women in tech reveals:

Over half (57%) feel burned out at work this year, compared to just over a third (36%) of men

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to have lost their jobs or been furloughed due to the pandemic

So what does International Women in Engineering Day mean today for leading figures in the industry today?

Why trust will drive greater success

Natasha Kiroska, Technical Lead, , says women must be made to feel their ambition will be matched by their progress. "In my first position as a Telecom developer, I was working with a lot of internationals and seniors from all over the world and I was always trying to identify who is the best in some particular area and always trying to learn from them. We had few excellent engineers who I can consider as my mentors. Environments where trust and respect are served gain the maximum of everyone's potential. In those kinds of environments, women will be more confident and brave to pursue the next steps in the career and not be stuck on the same level."

Eliza Dickie, Data Analyst , , believes woman are the perfect answer to the current skills gap. "As a young woman working in data engineering, I am constantly reminded of businesses' need for data skills. I hope that this International Women in Engineering Day will reach more females and inspire them to pursue STEM education and careers, no matter their age. Starting out in my role, I didn't realise how many sectors you can work across or how versatile it is, but more importantly how in demand data engineering professionals are!"

Celebrating female employees and showcasing creativity

Edel Kelly, Senior Manager of Development, , also highlights how rewarding a career in engineering can be today. "International Women in Engineering Day is a timely reminder that a career in this field can provide women with high levels of job satisfaction, and is well suited to those that enjoy problem solving and creativity. Individuals considering courses in computer sciences can look forward to a rewarding career upon graduation, and whether the goal is to stay closer to home or explore the world by travelling internationally, software engineering can tick that box."

Widening skillsets and identifying role models

Clair Griffin, Projects Director, ,comments how important it is to inspire others to step outside their comfort zone and seek opportunities to grow, much like she was given the opportunity to do. "With a widening digital skills gap, especially in cyber security, the opportunities on offer should be made available for everyone. Online training courses have become more available over the past year, making it easier to extend existing skills and develop new ones. To increase digital knowledge, organisations need to recognise aligned skills, encouraging women from different areas of the business into more technical roles."

Addressing an industry imbalance

Rosie Gallancz, Software Engineer at Labs, , is hopeful the current VMware Tanzu gender imbalance can be addressed soon. She concludes "What's made the difference for me, has been seeking out supportive environments, inspiring individuals - both who I work with, but also in the wider industry - and pursuing encouragement have all been conducive to my growth as a woman in engineering. I'm hopeful that as more women enter engineering fields, and rise through the ranks, the imbalances that I saw when I started out will diminish."

Lisa McLin, Global VP Alliances and Channel Chief, and Head of POWER, takes a similar stance. "On International Women in Engineering Day, I celebrate all women that are shaping the world and helping to make our planet a better, safer, more innovative and exciting place to be. We need more Rackspace Technology women engineers, which is why we should all be a voice guiding our young girls and showing them the possibilities and career opportunities available in engineering.

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Women in Engineering Day: How has the pandemic impacted gender diversity?

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To mark International Women in Engineering Day 2021, several senior tech execs discuss how the pandemic has impacted gender diversity in the industry

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From Hollie Barnes

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From Hollie Barnes

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The coronavirus pandemic continues to significantly affect the hair and beauty industry, with many struggling to adapt to the sudden changes that have affected how businesses are run, and hugely disrupted day-to-day operations.

Whilst the government has established a number of schemes to support UK businesses, such as VAT cuts, Eat Out To Help Out, and the employee retention scheme, as a predominantly self-employed industry those in the hair and beauty world have been mainly left to look after themselves. For an industry that contributes £6.6 billion to the UK economy ¹ with a large High Street presence, this has been a bitter pill to swallow and left many professionals feeling frustrated.

According to a poll by the NHBF ², the largest trade association for the hairdressing, barbering and beauty industry, salons are doing an excellent job minimising the spread of COVID-19 despite offering close contact services. Yet, salon owners remain fearful that their businesses may have to close their doors again, with little to no support from the government to see them through these difficult times.

Takings have also been affected. Restrictions have limited passing trade opportunities and social distancing and heightened hygiene guidelines, mean salons are servicing fewer clients each day to give time for clean down. To survive, hair and beauty professionals have embraced digital platforms to diversify their services to overcome barriers to service and create additional income streams.

When the country entered lockdown in March, many hair and beauty businesses began operating an ecommerce business, selling aftercare products to their customers. With customers unable to visit the salon, these businesses were able to make sales and serve their clients. Even after salons reopened in July, ecommerce has remained an active business component, topping-up in-store revenue and enabling them to cope better if another lockdown were to hit the industry.

Encouragingly, hair and beauty professionals also developed creative ways to serve their customers throughout the pandemic. From offering custom DIY hair and nail colour kits and telephone consultations to running virtual tutorials, it is testament to the industry's ability to adapt, taking a typically "non-digital" product and exploiting technology to maintain contact with clients. While these may not work in the long term, they enabled clients to achieve a decent finish at home and prevented potential damage. and finding solutions to keep servicing their customers. For a more permanent revenue stream, salons may consider developing their own product, which could be sold nationwide and grow their business beyond their local community.

As tightening coronavirus restrictions increase business concerns and Tier 3 becomes a reality for many, social media will play a key role to maintain customer relations and drive new sales. An aesthetic industry, Facebook and Instagram have always been popular platforms for hair and beauty consumers and businesses can build on this interest to open new sales opportunities. Social media also offers channels of communication to reassure consumers concerned about new measures, enabling salons to share their new systems and hygiene measures - which may also appeal to new clients. For salons able to offer discounts and deals, social media advertising allows hyper targeting, ensuring that for minimal spend is directed towards people who are closest to or most likely to buy.

The future for the hair and beauty sector may seem uncertain, however it has proved to be a very resilient industry in the past, with cosmetic and beauty industries often recovering at a faster rate than others. However, with less support from the UK government than other industries, salon owners and beauty professionals are rightly concerned.

Undoubtedly, this creative industry will find its feet again, but it will take time as business models and practices that previously worked well will need to adapt, potentially forever. For example, the era of the walk-in appointment is likely to be a thing of the past, which will require a huge adjustment from barbers in particular. Equally, pricing will need to be closely monitored, as the cost of business increases with additional cleaning products and PPE required.

The hair and beauty industry is full of smart, savvy business men and women but greater emphasis on developing business skills will prove vital for this industry, which traditionally focuses training on technical ability rather than commercial acumen. This growing sector proved successful in the wake of the 2008 recession and can play a valuable role in Britain's post-pandemic economic recovery. It's time that the government supports this industry recovery and celebrates its entrepreneurial spirit, recognising the fantastic career opportunities it offers.

References: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1puB_bNY-in48RybtPqoHceeyrlBo3lmj/view

1 Economic Impact Assessment Report of the Hair and Beauty Sector on the UK Economy Report, Hair & Barber Council in partnership with Babtac, May 2019

² NHBF, October 2020 - The survey monitored the rate at which salons had been contacted by track and trace systems to notify them about a positive case of Covid on their premises: 88% of respondents in England, 92% in Scotland, 94% in Wales, and 96% in Northern Ireland had not been contacted. https://britishbeautycouncil.com/nhbf-social-survey/

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COVID-19's impact on the hair and beauty industry

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The coronavirus pandemic continues to significantly affect the hair and beauty industry, with many struggling to adapt to the sudden changes that have affected how businesses are run, and hugely disrupted day-to-day operations.

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From Hollie Barnes

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English for Health and Social Care Workers Resources | ETp

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English for Health and Social Care Workers resources are available to download to accompany the book.

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From Hollie Barnes

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Social Media Marketing for Artists: 3 Secrets of Promoting Your Art

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Discover the best social media marketing for artists to promote and sell your art succesfully. In-depth tips for Facebook, Instagram & co.

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Added by Rachel Öner
3 tasks for FS English & ICT

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Super set of three ICT task sheets that successfully embed Functional ICT, Functional English and even some Functional Maths!
Each task sheet involves composing, sending and replying to work-based emails: based in a dental surgery, a health centre and a travel agency.
Please also download the separate, very detailed, Functional Skills mapping document which includes differentiation ideas, teaching tips and embedding ideas.

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Emails at work Functional ICT task sheets x 3

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Super set of three ICT task sheets that successfully embed Functional ICT, Functional English and even some Functional Maths! Each task sheet involves composing, sending and replying to work-based emails: based in a dental surgery, a health centre and a travel agency.

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From Hollie Barnes

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Excerpt from Ready Player One | Penguin Random House Canada

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"Willy Wonka meets the Matrix" (USA Today) in this jaw-droppingly cinematic debut that's part virtual space opera, part classic coming-of-age story--and part brilliant pop-culture mashup

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From Hollie Barnes

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Excerpt from Armada | Penguin Random House Canada

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A cinematic, inventive, heartwarming, and completely nerdtastic adventure from the bestselling author of Ready Player One

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Links to Skills Workshop existing content on MV and Transport

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Links to Skills Workshop existing content on MV and Transport

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From Hollie

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Various activities to practise travel and transport themes and ideas. Read about a journey to college, answer comprehension questions and exam style questions, form questions, use adverbs of frequency and conjunctions, along with speaking, listening and writing practice - all on the subject of a journey to college.

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From Hollie Barnes

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The little known secret about beauty editors is that while we walk, talk, and breathe beauty, we don't always wear all that much makeup. But I can give myself lashes that go for miles and the meanest chiseled cheekbones around. How? I've learned from the best.

As a magazine beauty editor, my job was to interview the top industry pros to find out their secrets. From swatches of every shade of red (yes, there is a difference between cherry and berry) for every skin tone to watching celebrity makeup artists backstage at fashion week create next season's trends, it was inevitable I'd pick up a few tricks of the trade. Of course some of them, the most practical and impactful, stuck.

Having gone from beauty editor to creating my own beauty blog, The Beauty Girl, I've collected a treasure chest of beauty tips over the years. Here are the best that have never failed me and will most likely help you too.

1. Dip the Tips

When you need a fresh coat of polish to dry five minutes ago, run your nails under cold water. Then, gingerly touch your nails. If they feel tacky, they're still suspect to smudge so give them another shot of icy water. I learned this trick when I had to step in last minute as the hand model for a beauty story we were shooting for the magazine. The nail technician on set rushed to give me a photo worthy manicure in record time and her cold water trick worked.

2. Master The Tap

When it comes to eye shadow application think text instead of Tinder. While most people swipe on shadow, tapping will get you exactly what you want. I learned this during a meeting that turned into an impromptu makeup session with makeup artist Paula Dorf, who owns her eponymous cosmetics line. Hold your brush vertically and gently tap/press the shadow onto the eyelid. This technique best deposits color evenly across the lid and gives you more control.

3. Dry Shampoo at Night

Apply dry shampoo before you go to bed, rather than in the morning. As hair gets oily throughout the night, it will continue to absorb the dry shampoo so you'll wake up with clean looking, volumized hair. Plus, this gives plenty of time for the white cast dry shampoo sometimes causes to fade.
image via Sincerely, Jules
4. Smoke Out

I was always intimidated by the idea of a smoky eye because I never knew where to start (so I never attempted!). So I asked celeb makeup artist Mally Roncal to show me how to make it work. She shared three simple rules I now swear by-I can now pull off the season's hottest smoky eye looks from navy to plum.

1. Start with a palette. It's much easier than single pots because the colors are already coordinated for you. Try Charlotte Tilbury's Luxury Palettes-they are foolproof and the shades work on everyone.

2. Wondering what color goes where? Here's a cheat sheet: The lightest shade (usually a neutral tone) should be applied from the lid to the brow bone; the second lightest shade should be applied along the lid; the darker shade goes in the crease; the deepest should line the upper and lower lash lines.

3. It's important to finish by curling your lashes and slicking on two coats of mascara. Perfect!

5. Powder for Longevity

The best way to set your lipstick so that it lasts all day or night is to place a tissue over your finished lips and lightly dust translucent powder through the tissue on top of your lips. You won't see the powder (promise!) but this will keep your lipstick right where you want it. The current Everygirl favorite is bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick. The formula is moisturizing, pigmented, and has plenty of lasting power.

6. Save Face

Did you know that there's a better way to dry your face after washing? I used to rub mine dry with a washcloth and I didn't think twice about it until a dermatologist said, "Tsk tsk." The best way is to pat skin dry, ideally with a tissue and pressing it on skin. This technique is a bit too precise for me, so I use a washcloth instead and press it on my skin to absorb the water. Pressing is better than rubbing because it's less irritating, and you're not tugging on skin as much, which helps preserve the elasticity.

7. Anti Frizz Forecast

Humidity feeds on frizz, which can make hair extra temperamental this time of year; my mane is naturally curly so frizz is just part of its DNA. I've been fortunate to sit in the chair of some of the best hairstylists in the biz from Oscar Blandi to Harry Josh so frizz is always a topic of discussion with these experts. Here's some of the best advice I've gotten on how to combat the pouf.

1. Before getting out of the shower, give your hair a cold water rinse. This seals the cuticle to add smoothness and shine.

2. Touch your hair as little as possible once you're out of the shower, which means you need to comb your hair with a wide tooth comb while in the shower. If you insist on brushing post shower, then use your fingers as your brush and gently run them through your locks.

3. Don't ring out your hair with a towel. Instead, to remove excess water gently press it out.

Image via Negin Mirsalehi
8. Mascara Matters

Many people think you should apply mascara by wiggling the wand up and out, but there's a better way to get the most out of your lashes. When applying mascara, comb the wand through your upper lashes inwards towards your nose. This will get your lashes to stand a little taller and appear more curled. The current Everygirl favorite is bareMinerals Lash Domination Mascara.
image via Estee Lauder feature image via Krystal Schlegel, header image via Who What Wear

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A Beauty Editor's Best Tricks of the Trade - The Everygirl

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The little known secret about beauty editors is that while we walk, talk, and breathe beauty, we don't always wear

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Article - Podcasting is the new blogging

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Article - Podcasting is the new blogging

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From Hollie Barnes

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Over the years, we've seen the birth of many communication platforms.

In the early days, blogging was deemed the "in" thing. With free platforms like WordPress and Blogger, anyone who wants to get into blogging can immediately do so.

Then social media came along and introduced us to micro-blogging. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to name a few.

Now, podcasting is being hailed as the new blogging.

And this claim seems pretty accurate given the staggering number of people that has warmly embraced the medium so far.

The golden age of podcasting

While podcasts have been around for some time already, it has only been recently that a significant surge in listenership was observed. The medium also enjoyed massive traction after iTunes integrated podcasts in their software in 2005.

Nowadays, more influencers and bloggers are already testing the waters and finding out for themselves what podcasting has to offer.

Just like the other trends that came before it, podcasting was once seen as nothing more than a passing fad. However, podcasting has proven to be anything but. Come to think of it, the success of podcasting shouldn't be surprising.

For starters, podcasting is considered more personal compared to other mediums. Since people can hear you and can feel your emotions more, it's easier for them to relate to you and establish a connection with you.

The many benefits of podcasting

Podcasting's popularity is no coincidence. If truth be told, its success can be credited to the many benefits it offers. Some of podcasting's peerless benefits include:

1. It commands attention.

With blogging, readers can just skim through the posts and not give it much attention. Also, if an article has a lousy introduction, readers can always choose not to read beyond the first few lines. In some instances, readers will still forego reading even an interesting piece if time is limited.

With podcasts however, listeners need to really pay attention. Otherwise, they might miss an important information or insight. Also, they cannot skim through the content except by playing it 1.5x or 2x the normal speed or stopping it altogether.

2. Content can be repurposed.

One good thing about podcast content is you can repurpose it easily. You can turn shows into blog posts and include your show notes if you need to add more content to your website.

Episodes can also be saved in CDs or flash drives so you can conveniently give them to partners or potential clients.

3. It is a good tool for mobile marketing.

If you have been living under a rock, you probably have not heard of mobile marketing. However, nowadays, a huge number of consumers stay connected using their mobile devices.

Also, many people now use their mobile device to listen to podcasts. And this is a truly awesome thing for those who would like to use podcasting to promote their brands and build relationships. There's no denying it's a huge crowd just waiting to be tapped into.

4. It is cost-effective.

Podcasting can be very easy to get into. You don't need to spend a fortune. You don't need to invest in costly equipment to start. If you're creative enough, an iPhone and a few basic audio equipment can already get your podcast up and running.

5. It's not overcrowded yet.

The blogging world has become oversaturated. Many marketing strategists believe so many are already doing it that finding something new and unique to offer has become truly challenging (if not impossible).

Fortunately, at this point in time, podcasting is still deemed uncharted territory. That being said, it's still pretty easy to make a name for yourself in the industry.

Blogging + podcasting

To blog or to podcast? Why pick one when you can do both?

Although podcasting offers enticing advantages compared to traditional blogging, the latter still has a captive audience who prefers to read and engage through written words.

If anything, you don't necessarily have to forego blogging altogether. In fact, many influencers and bloggers are using both to connect with more people.

However, if you would rather use podcasting to reach your target audience, make sure you are doing it right. Fortunately, you can always work with the experts at Podcast Engineers. We can help you set up your podcast, edit your episodes, and get your message across loud and crystal clear.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions? Feel free to drop them below.

Share this post!

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Why Podcasting is the New Blogging | Podcast Engineers

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Over the years, we've seen the birth of many communication platforms. In the early days, blogging was deemed the "in" thing. With free platforms like WordPress and Blogger, anyone who wants to get into blogging can immediately do so. Then social media came along and introduced us to micro-blogging.

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From Hollie Barnes

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After a lockdown-fueled rise in popularity, influencer spend is booming on TikTok So, what do brands - and their agencies - need to know about partnering with creators on the burgeoning platform?

In the last 24 months, Bytedance-owned short video platform TikTok has hit the 100 million daily user mark in Europe and grown its subscriber count by 800% to reach the same number in the US. In China, sister app Douyin is used by 600 million people each day.

The numbers speak for themselves: TikTok is popular, and it's spawned a new era of 'micro-entertainment'. From Sea Shanties to baked feta pasta recipes, make-up tutorial activism to dance compilations, the app's secret sauce lies in short form content that doesn't take itself too seriously, a familiar self-directed friends feed and an exploration hub powered by algorithms.

Now, the platform (like so many others before it) is walking the highly-strung circus tightrope of balancing monetization with keeping users happy. Its recently made the platform more accessible for brands with a dedicated-business unit and in APAC it's even allowing advertisers to directly access premium digital inventory across the region thanks to a partnership with The Trade Desk.

In opening up its revenue streams, TikTok has found a sweet spot: influencer marketing.

Among its hundreds of millions of users are an army of switched-on creators, ready to help brands capitalize on the app's virality. The likes of Red Bull and Chipotle have clued on to this already and all signs point to the fact that chief marketers are increasing their TikTok influencer budgets. Some, including P&G and Dunkin' are working with huge names like Charli D'Amelio, where others have been leaning on microinfluencers.

The rise of TikTok as an influencer platform

Fresh data from influencer marketing platform Traackr, pooled from the engagements of 50,000 beauty influencers, finds that Tiktok has seen a 164% increase in sponsored posts and a 481% increase in engagements in 2020. TikTok is the only platform to have seen substantial growth in this area, with paid-for cosmetic influencer posts down 23%, 10% and 39% for Instagram, YouTube and Facebook respectively.

It's not just beauty influencer campaigns burgeoning, either. Klear's recent State of the Influencer Marketing report reveals that the use of the #ad hashtag on TikTok increased by 130% in 2020.

For Rhianna Cohen, creative strategy director at influencer marketing agency This Here, which works with clients like The North Face and Dickies, she observes that though there's been an uptick in influencer spend on TikTok, marketers are still very much in the "test and learn" phase.

She says, right now, TikTok's ad packages are "extremely costly," so for marketers starting out her agency has been recommending collaborating with creators.

She says as a starting point, she's seeing brands move beyond taking part in dance challenges and pushing in-app creativity to host their own love shows virtual festivals fronted by creators, this has included London fashion week previews and a digital event from video commerce company Ntwork Transfer.

Her advice to others looking to jump on the bandwagon?

"When things are heavily branded or feel like curated advertisements they can feel out of place and jarring for TikTok's audience," she explains. "And when content doesn't perform well, TikTok's algorithm kills its reach pretty swiftly. It's is a place where the content look and feel is more lo-fi, and it makes sense to keep in line with this"

Tom McGirr, head of strategy at The Wild (Jungle Creative's in-house agency) asserts that in the last year TikTok has evolved from a 'speed of culture' flex that brands add-on to a plan, to a core part of their digital ecosystem.

"The opportunity to go viral was a big part of why brands initially joined TikTok but now we're seeing it being used very differently," he adds.

McGirr says the true value of the platform lies in connecting with creators and their communities.

"The experimental nature of TikTok and the general levity that exists in-platform means that brands are able to get more creative and feel less pressure to deliver polished content for their audience.

"This creative freedom has led to brands using TikTok as the hub for creator and community content - letting their audience and relevant influencers within their space lead the brand conversation and output."

So, as audiences become increasingly keen on playing a role in brand stories, TikTok could well be best placed to facilitate this dialogue.

Lowering the drawbridge to the ad industry

As it enjoys an influencer boom, TikTok is lowering the drawbridge to agencies to facilitate deeper relationships.

This week, it announced a new partnership with IPG Mediabrands, which will see the two create a series of new programs to connect IPG's slate of clients to sponsored opportunities on TikTok.

The pair will create a 'bespoke Creator Collective', which will bring together a group of diverse creators who will provide hands-on TikTok guidance to Mediabrands' clients.

TikTok will also hold regular 'Creator Camps', where influencers will provide strategic counsel to brands.

Agencies and brands have also started launching dedicated TikTok talent arms, including The Face magazine, which is working with creators to develop their content and profile, as well as consulting brands on talent partners and marketing on the social media platform.

For McGirr, however, it will be some time before TikTok's measurement tools catch up to truly quantify its effectiveness, and this is the missing piece of the puzzle.

"For the time being brands should look to double down on what they know the platform can afford them: reach, engagement and community growth - through influencers or otherwise," he advises.

Cohen says from conversations with clients, there's a unanimous belief that TikTok is not only here to stay, but that it has the potential to take over as the "main social platform for all age groups".

"Tiktok was previously seen as a platform Gen Z but we're seeing this change fast, not just in public opinion but usership too; statistically we know the audience age range is continuing to widen," she says, pointing to the fact that 32% of users are aged 20 to 29, with the type of "strong purchasing power" brands seek out.

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The stage is set for brands to jump on TikTok's influencer marketing boom

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After a lockdown-fueled rise in popularity, influencer spend is booming on TikTok So, what do brands - and their agencies - need to know about partnering with creators on the burgeoning platform?

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Added by Rachel Öner

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An original resource to generate discussion, practise reading comprehension and writing skills (formal letter). Ideal for Functional Skills Motor Vehicle students. Aimed at L1-2 although the discussion is also suitable for Entry Level.

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Young drivers - reading, discussion and writing

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An original resource to generate discussion, practise reading comprehension and writing skills (formal letter). Ideal for Functional Skills Motor Vehicle students. Aimed at L1-2 although the discussion is also suitable for Entry Level.

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Added by Rachel Öner

Reading comprehension & writing tasks

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Three sets of differentiated reading questions (E1, E2, E3) based on a poster about a shire horse centre / farm.
Covers all aspects of Entry Level functional skills reading. The writing task asks learners to plan and create an advertising poster for an attraction of their choice.
Editor's note
With full curriculum mapping

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Shire horses - reading comprehension & writing tasks

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Three sets of differentiated reading questions (E1, E2, E3) based on a poster about a shire horse centre / farm. Covers all aspects of Entry Level functional skills reading.

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From Hollie Barnes

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The power of music: how it can benefit health

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The power of music: how it can benefit health

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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The power of music: how it can benefit health

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Music has the power to trigger a range of emotions, but increasingly, researchers have suggested it can also offer some amazing health benefits. We investigate.

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British Council Music blog by Young people 

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British Council Music blog by Young people 

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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© British Council The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

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© British Council The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

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A game which is looked at within my college and learners were interested in - Hollie Barnes

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About a decade ago, as the last generation of video game consoles hit the market, a debate, or at least a question, proliferated among pop culture critics: Are video games really art? Could they ever be?

John Lanchester addressed the topic in the London Review of Books in a bluntly titled essay, "Is it art?" In Esquire, Chuck Klosterman argued in favor of taking games seriously as a pop culture phenomenon but wondered why they had not yet produced great criticism.

Perhaps most famously, Roger Ebert weighed in multiple times to the contrary, asserting not only that games were not yet art but that they could never be art, because they relinquished ultimate control to the player.

"I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist," Ebert wrote in a response to horror novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker, who had argued in favor of games as a way of creating an array experiences and emotional journeys tailored to individual player preferences.

"Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices," Ebert added. And in another piece on the subject, he wrote that when viewing his favorite pieces of art, his "empathy was engaged," a reaction that he found video games were unlikely to elicit.

In the years since, however, the debate has mostly been resolved in favor of video games as art. A robust critical community has arisen around gaming, with a multitude of writers taking on the social and theoretical aspects of games. Even Ebert seemed to come around, sort of, admitting in 2010 that his position had been foolish given his personal disinterest in playing most games.

One of the games that helped solidify this consensus was Bioshock. Released in August 2007, the game was a first-person shooter set in Rapture, a grandly imagined but decaying underwater city built in an ostentatious art deco style. Rapture was constructed as part of the majestic vision of a man named Andrew Ryan; Ryan, who speaks to the playermostly via radio transmissions, was a monologue-prone capitalist who bore more than a little resemblance to the heroes of novelist Ayn Rand, Ryan's quasi-namesake.

As Ryan explains in an introductory monologue, Rapture was created as a radical haven for inventors and artists, where individuals could pursue their visions without interference from government or social scorn. But by the time you discover the place, it has deteriorated into chaos following genetic modification run amok. Thus, the goal of Bioshock is to get through the city, fending off attacks from zombie-esque gene-mod addicts called splicers while encountering some of its crazed and colorful denizens.

At the time of its original release, Bioshock was immediately hailed by critics for its immersive design as well as for its engagement with political themes, with Lanchester writing in the London Review of Booksthat the game was "visually striking, verging on intermittently beautiful, also violent, dark, sleep-troubling, and perhaps, to some of its intended audience, thought-provoking."

It quickly became the best-reviewed game for the then relatively new Xbox 360 console, garnering a 96 rating on Metacritic. It was a huge commercial success as well, selling more than 2 million copies, and it spawned two sequels, which sold even better.

To this day, Bioshock- which was rereleased in September via a "remastered" edition, along with its two sequels - remains a milestone, often referenced by critics, creators, and fans as one of the best and most influential games ever made.

The game's legendary status is more than a little bit ironic, however, because the game itself serves as a critique of both video games and the people who play them, and an interactive disquisition on the limitations of video games as narrative art.

Like most first-person shooter games, Bioshock gives players an abundance of choices

To really understand Bioshock, you have to understand a little bit about its creator, Ken Levine, a populist game-design auteur who also helped create the critically acclaimed System Shock 2 in the late 1990s. In short, Levine is obsessed with the idea of choice in both games and reality.

He explained this concept to the Guardian in 2014:

Inertia is an incredibly powerful force. It makes us think we have a life, versus a continuum of choices. We always think of the road not taken, of something in the past. "Wow, what would have happened if I married so and so, or took that job in San Diego..." But you rarely think that each and every second that goes by is one of those moments. Like this second that just happened. And that one. And the one that's going to happen in a second.

To Levine, games are more like theme park rides than movies. In the same interview, he compared what he does to what Disney's ride designers do with attractions like the Haunted Mansion, where designers control the environment but can't control exactly where someone looks - meaning that the experience is subtly different for every person.

So it's no surprise that one of the hallmarks of his work is an emphasis on player choice, not only in terms of gameplay style, but in terms of morality and identity. Although he started his career as a screenwriter, he has said that Bioshock started with the idea for its setting rather than the specifics of its story.

"I don't start with story, because games are not story," Levine told journalist Kieron Gillen in 2007. "Games are gameplay. Games are interactive." Player choice, in other words, is the defining aspect of the medium.

Bioshock incorporates player choice in all the ways that first-person shooter games usually do. You can move around pretty freely, exploring the nooks and crannies of each level to find hidden objects. You can select certain upgrades to your character in order to become more powerful in particular ways, and you can "hack" certain enemy objects, like turrets and alarms, by playing an in-game puzzle that, if completed successfully, turns those objects into friendly fighters on your behalf.

And you can choose which weapons you will use in which circumstances, often with a remarkably large number of additional sub-choices involving ammunition types and weapon power-ups. In other words, Bioshock gives you tactical options, letting you approach the game's challenges in a variety of different ways.

At a glance, what appears to set the game apart is the morality inherent in many of those choices

But Bioshock also gives players another choice, one that is arguably more meaningful than which type of bullets you'll use on which type of enemy: At key moments during each level, it also lets you decide whether to kill or rescue Little Sisters - very young girls who possess an in-game currency known as ADAM.

Most of the enemies you encounter are half-crazed, genetically modified humans, and you spend much of the game fighting them off by using your own genetic modifications: fireballs that you shoot from your hands, electricity fields that damage anyone who comes too close, telekinesis that launches enemy projectiles back at them. But to gain those abilities, you need ADAM, which makes it one of the game's most precious resources.

ADAM can only be found on the Little Sisters, little girls in doll dresses who have also been genetically modified. "Harvest" the Little Sisters, the game explains, and you'll obtain more ADAM, but doing so will mean killing them in a gruesome and disturbingly rendered process that involves squeezing out their lives with your bare hands. Rescue the Little Sisters and you'll get less ADAM - but the Little Sisters and their creator, a (possibly crazy) scientist with access to stores of genetic modification material, will be in your debt, and reward you some other way.

Bioshock, like so many first-person shooters, is a violent and bloody game that requires you to kill hundreds of people: to shoot them, to set them on fire, to brutally club them to death with wrenches. Yes, nearly all of them are half-dead already - splicer addicts who have become hopelessly addicted to Rapture's seductive genetic power-ups - but sometimes they're sympathetic anyway: One enemy you encounter is a distraught woman hovering over a baby stroller; another is a crazed man who rambles about wanting his father's approval. You have no choice but to kill both of them. Violence is the game's main form of interaction, its chief source of entertainment and fun.

But the game also forces you to reckon with that violence by choosing to either act in your own self-interest by killing the Little Sisters or make a sacrifice by freeing them. It's a choice about your character - a choice that's not about how you'll play the game, but about who you will be as you play it. It's an empathy test in the midst of a phenomenal video game, and, indeed, an entire video game genre, that seems designed to discourage and destroy any empathetic impulses a player may have. It's not a tactical choice but a moral one.

The end of Bioshock makes a powerful point about choice - and in the process, proves that video games can be art

Or at least that's what it feels like as you hold a screaming, suffering Little Sister in your hands. But in the end, there is no avoiding the strategy involved: Harvesting gives you more ADAM to spend for yourself. Rescuing gives you less ADAM but greater rewards overall, thanks to the in-game "gifts" left by Little Sisters you have rescued. You can win either way. As always, video games tend to distill all choices into tactical decisions. You have a choice, yes - but less of one than you think.

Indeed, the idea that choice is an illusion is Bioshock 's ultimate thematic punchline. Throughout the game, you are assigned tasks by a character named Atlas who communicates via radio transmission. Atlas is a familiar character type in video games, the mostly absent quest master who talks the main character through his or her missions, acting as a guide and a friend. He's on your side, aligned against your enemies. You follow Atlas's instructions because he is telling you how to play the game.

In Bioshock's climactic scene, you finally encounter Rapture's founder, Andrew Ryan, who reveals - spoiler alert! -that Atlas has been taking advantage of secret genetic conditioning to make you do his bidding. That bidding includes killing Ryan, whom you club to death while he declares, over and over again, "A man chooses. A slave obeys." And killing Ryan is unavoidable: It occurs in one of the game's few cut scenes - a cinematic moment in which the player does not retain control of the character.

Atlas, it turns out, is Ryan's competitor, Frank Fontaine, and he's been using you all along. Not only is choice an illusion, but it's a tool of control. The game is structured to emphasize that you never really had a choice - not one that matters, anyway. And of course you didn't. You couldn't have. And perhaps that's especially true in a video game, where the goal is not to provide real choice but to simulate it, to create the fantasy of individual control. Really, it's the artist, the creator, the exploiter disguised as a friendly guide, who is in charge.

Coming from the choice-obsessed Levine, Bioshock plays like self-criticism - an extended and elegant, yet frustrated, riff on the limits of choice in video games. It's a frustration he's still trying to work out: His next project is something he's dubbed "Narrative Legos" - an attempt to make a story-based game that is infinitely replayable.

And yet in wrestling with the limits of gaming as an art form, Bioshockinadvertently illustrated that games could meet Roger Ebert's definition of art - leading players not to a smorgasbord of choices but to an inevitable and devastating conclusion, and perhaps engaging their empathy in the process. Bioshock, in other words, helped prove that the video game medium could be art by showcasing all the ways in which it wasn't.

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Bioshock proved that video games could be art

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The legendary first-person shooter critiques both games and the people who play them.

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BBC - Will we ever... Understand why music makes us feel good? 

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BBC - Will we ever... Understand why music makes us feel good? 

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By Philip Ball Features correspondent

Thinkstock

(Copyright: Thinkstock)

No one knows why music has such a potent effect on our emotions. But thanks to some recent studies we have a few intriguing clues.

Why do we like music? Like most good questions, this one works on many levels. We have answers on some levels, but not all.

We like music because it makes us feel good. Why does it make us feel good? In 2001, neuroscientists Anne Blood and Robert Zatorre at McGill University in Montreal provided an answer. Using magnetic resonance imaging they showed that people listening to pleasurable music had activated brain regions called the limbic and paralimbic areas, which are connected to euphoric reward responses, like those we experience from sex, good food and addictive drugs. Those rewards come from a gush of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. As DJ Lee Haslam told us, music is the drug.

But why? It's easy enough to understand why sex and food are rewarded with a dopamine rush: this makes us want more, and so contributes to our survival and propagation. (Some drugs subvert that survival instinct by stimulating dopamine release on false pretences.) But why would a sequence of sounds with no obvious survival value do the same thing?

The truth is no one knows. However, we now have many clues to why music provokes intense emotions. The current favourite theory among scientists who study the cognition of music - how we process it mentally - dates back to 1956, when the philosopher and composer Leonard Meyer suggested that emotion in music is all about what we expect, and whether or not we get it. Meyer drew on earlier psychological theories of emotion, which proposed that it arises when we're unable to satisfy some desire. That, as you might imagine, creates frustration or anger - but if we then find what we're looking for, be it love or a cigarette, the payoff is all the sweeter.

This, Meyer argued, is what music does too. It sets up sonic patterns and regularities that tempt us to make unconscious predictions about what's coming next. If we're right, the brain gives itself a little reward - as we'd now see it, a surge of dopamine. The constant dance between expectation and outcome thus enlivens the brain with a pleasurable play of emotions.

Why should we care, though, whether our musical expectations are right or not? It's not as if our life depended on them. Ah, says musicologist David Huron of Ohio State University, but perhaps once it did. Making predictions about our environment - interpreting what we see and hear, say, on the basis of only partial information - could once have been essential to our survival, and indeed still often is, for example when crossing the road. And involving the emotions in these anticipations could have been a smart idea. On the African savannah, our ancestors did not have the luxury of mulling over whether that screech was made by a harmless monkey or a predatory lion. By bypassing the "logical brain" and taking a shortcut to the primitive limbic circuits that control our emotions, the mental processing of sound could prompt a rush of adrenalin - a gut reaction - that prepares us to get out of there anyway.

We all know that music has this direct line to the emotions: who hasn't been embarrassed by the tears that well up as the strings swell in a sentimental film, even while the logical brain protests that this is just cynical manipulation? We can't turn off this anticipatory instinct, nor its link to the emotions - even when we know that there's nothing life-threatening in a Mozart sonata. "Nature's tendency to overreact provides a golden opportunity for musicians", says Huron. "Composers can fashion passages that manage to provoke remarkably strong emotions using the most innocuous stimuli imaginable."

Sound check

The idea that musical emotion arises from little violations and manipulations of our expectations seems the most promising candidate theory, but it is very hard to test. One reason for this is that music simply offers so much opportunity for creating and violating expectations that it's not clear what we should measure and compare. We expect rising melodies to continue to rise - but perhaps not indefinitely, as they never do. We expect pleasing harmonies rather than jarring dissonance - but what sounds pleasing today may have seemed dissonant two hundred years ago. We expect rhythms to be regular, but are surprised if the jumpy syncopation of rock'n'roll suddenly switches to four-square oompah time. Expectation is a complicated, ever-changing interplay of how the piece we're hearing has gone so far, how it compares with similar pieces and styles, and how it compares with all we've ever heard.

So, one corollary of Meyer's theory is that emotion in music will be primarily culturally specific. In order to have any expectations about where the music will go in the first place, you need to know the rules - to appreciate what is normal. This varies from one culture to another. Western Europeans think simple rhythms like waltz time are "natural", but Eastern Europeans dance happily to metres that sound extraordinarily complicated to others. All of us develop a strong, subconscious sense of which notes sound "right", whether in sequence in a melody, or sounding together in harmonies. But because different cultures use different scales and tunings - the scales of India and Indonesia, for example, don't respect the tunings of a piano - there is nothing universal about these expectations. A jolly piece of Indonesian music may be interpreted as "sad" by Westerners simply because it sounds close to being in the traditionally "sad" minor scale.

This picture also implies that music isn't just about good vibrations - it can provoke other feelings too, such as anxiety, boredom and even anger. Composers and performers walk a delicate tightrope, needing to tweak expectations to just the right degree. Not enough, and the music is dully predictable, as nursery tunes seem to adults. Too much, and we can't develop any expectations at all - which is why many people struggle with modernist atonal music.

All this can rationalise a great deal about why we feel emotions from particular musical phrases and performances. Meyer's ideas have received further support very recently from a brain-scanning study by Zatorre and colleagues, which showed that the rewards stimulated by music heard for the first time are particularly dependent on communication between "emotion" and "logic" circuits in the brain.

But it's not the whole story. Our emotional response to music may be conditioned by so many other factors too - if we are hearing it alone or in a crowd, for example, or if we associate a particular piece with a past experience, good or bad (dubbed the "Darling they're playing our tune" theory).

Underneath all these ideas is the fact that we're not even sure what kind of emotion we're talking about. We can recognise sad music without feeling sad. And even if we do feel sad, it's not like the sadness of bereavement - it can be enjoyable even if it provokes tears. Some music, like some of Bach's, can create intense emotion even though we can't quite put into words what the emotion is. So we'll surely never understand why music stimulates emotions at least until we have a better picture of what our emotional world is really like.

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No one knows why music has such a potent effect on our emotions. But thanks to some recent studies we have a few intriguing clues.

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Added by Rachel Öner

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From Hollie Barnes

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As fans filed into Webster Hall in New York City last week, a note from indie rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs wasted no syllables in laying down the law.

"Please do not watch the show through a screen on your smart device/camera," it said, along with some stronger words unrepeatable here.

During the gig, vocalist Karen O repeated the request, telling fans to take a picture right at that moment - but to then keep devices hidden for the good of those around them.

On the web, news of the band's defiance against the march of the amateur filmmaker spread - and was met with whoops of delight from many music fans fed up with seeing mobiles thrust into their line of sight at every public event.

Many of them longed for the days when the only thing illuminating the crowd at a packed gig would be a sea of cigarette lighters, held aloft during the more tender moments - and not, as is now more often the case, the glow of the mobile phone.

"I would never turn on a cell phone at any musical event," wrote Roger Waters, former bassist and vocalist for Pink Floyd.

"It would seem to me to show a lack of respect to and care for fellow concert goers, or for that matter the artist.

"Apart from anything else, how could I possibly truly experience the thing I'd paid to see and hear, if I was fiddling with an iPhone, filming or twittering or chatting or whatever?"

'Weak and distorted'

To make matters worse, the type of footage recorded at gigs tends to have, as one Guardian journalist put it this week, "audio quality that would make Simon and Garfunkel sound like Slayer".

Sophisticated as it may be, your smartphone's microphone is only capable of capturing anything and everything immediately around it.

But one company emerging from Dublin's blossoming start-up scene thinks it has the answer - and appears to have record labels on its side.

"What our unique proprietary technology is able to do is take the poor quality on-camera audio from fan videos, and we analyse that and can see the patterns, even though it's very weak and distorted," explains Cathal Furey, co-founder of the firm, 45sound.

"The technology takes those patterns and matches it against what we call a master audio recording, which would be a professional live audio recording [from the same gig]."

From here, clips are re-uploaded with the high-quality audio, and in cases where there's more than one recording of the same moment, fans watching the gig on 45sound can switch camera angles.

In recent years, several sites have sought to make use of the swathes of fan footage recorded on a nightly basis.

Apps such as Vyclone have been used by the likes of Ed Sheeran to "crowdsource" gig footage, with fans being encouraged to upload their recordings of Ed for it then to be edited together for the official music video.

Another start-up, OutListen, gathers fan videos and, if there's sufficient interest, will go to record labels after a big show and request the professionally recorded audio.

But Mr Furey believes it is 45sound's audio-matching software which gives it the edge over rivals - meaning no human intervention is needed in order to whip the clips into a listenable state.

"It's all completely automated," he says.

"What we're trying to build is a scaleable company. I'll be happy when one day we do a thousand shows in one night."

Sony trial

Vital to this scalability is in building relationships with record labels. To that end, 45sound has the ear of several companies - including Sony Music-owned RCA Records.

One of their acts, Bring Me The Horizon, has been trialling 45sound on their latest tour - prompting fans to record their show and upload it after the gig.

"It compliments the whole marketing plan," says Justin Cross, head of digital marketing for RCA.

"A lot of the artists we work with at RCA are live bands - if you're watching someone's video of Bring Me The Horizon and you can see for yourself how fantastic they are live, you're probably going to want to go and see them."

As part of their trial with 45sound, Bring Me The Horizon's vocalist Oli Sykes prompts fans during the gig to record one particular song.

For those who hate people recording, it may seem an irritating, even inconsiderate request - but it is somewhat tactical, the 26-year-old tells the BBC ahead of the band's gig in Bristol.

"When we did it in Leeds the other day it was almost like it got it out of everyone's system.

"Everyone filmed the song, and then everyone put [their cameras] down and everyone got back into it so it was cool."

'Put your phone down'

Meanwhile, in the shivering cold outside the venue, Bring Me The Horizon's fans are divided in their views of gig etiquette.

"People behind you are like 'put your phone down we can't see'," says one female fan.

"I think people kind of like just want to just get into it without standing around with your arm in the air all the time filming."

Another fan, male, has more enthusiasm towards the web's possibilities.

"It's always good when people film it, you can go on YouTube and see it, and relive it, and see all the people in the comments talking about it - you can make more friends with that as well."

For record companies like RCA Records, it's a situation that requires delicate compromise, says Mr Cross.

"From a label perspective, and my perspective as a fan, it's something that's just part of a gig now, you can't get away from it.

"On one side of things, it can be quite annoying for the fan that isn't into doing this, but on the other side it's helping to push the band."

But 45sound's Mr Furey argues some events are just too good not to be widely shared.

"I can definitely see that having a sea of cameras can ruin the experience. Ultimately the most important person is the person who pays for a ticket to go and see the show.

"At the same time, I've been at other events where my first reaction is 'who's videoing this?'. Live music shows are an incredible human event - they're very tribal, very powerful, very emotional."

So while the Yeah Yeah Yeahs join a select group of grumblers that includes the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Jack White and the Stone Roses - it is likely that the "sea of cameras" is here to stay, and not just at gigs.

"I have that problem in general life myself," reflects Bring Me The Horizon's Mr Sykes.

"I find a lot of people are documenting too much stuff... rather than just living it."

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Should music fans stop filming gigs on their smartphones?

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Fans holding their mobiles high in the air to record gigs irritates many - but one Dublin start-up believes it has the technology to at least make the clips enjoyable.

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Added by Rachel Öner

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I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant.

Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

There are two other linked resources, as below, to help students with getting to grips with the keywords used in Job Descriptions and Person Specifications.

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I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant. Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

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Added by Rachel Öner
Level 2
A series of challenging reading questions and writing activities based on three texts about the fast food industry. Makes an ideal revision activity for L2 FS English.

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From Hollie Barnes

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I really, really like kebabs. From the dirty, late-night, probably ecoli-ridden, elephant leg doners of my teenage years to the more traditional authentic Turkish skewers and shishes I now indulge in whenever I get the chance, if there's some spiced meat stuffed inside a flatbread I'm there. It's something about the way all the elements come together in every mouthful - rich meat, tart pickles, crisp salad and a combination of hot and creamy sauces - that just makes them such a joy to eat. In my eyes, they beat sandwiches and burgers any day.

That's why I was particularly excited to talk to Manu Canales of Maison Bab - a new two-storey restaurant in Covent Garden specialising in the Middle Eastern delicacy. I was interested to see his take on the dish, especially considering his background. Originally from rural Spain, he studied biology at university before moving to Ireland after the recession hit in 2008. A job as a kitchen porter followed, he caught the cooking bug and, after completing a course at culinary college, he managed to get a job as a commis chef at Le Gavroche. It was here that he met fellow chef Ed Brunet and his close friend Stephen Tozer, and the three of them started selling kebabs on the street food circuit. Quite a unique way to end up selling something often regarded as post-drinking fodder.

'I'd spent a little time working on a few food markets with Ed, and he and Stephen asked if I wanted to come on board,' says Manu. 'I loved getting a good classical grounding at Le Gavroche, but once I had that I wanted to do something that I really enjoyed. Spices and Middle Eastern cooking has always been what I've been most attracted to, and ever since I visited Istanbul I've loved kebabs.'

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Maison Bab: Creating The Ultimate Kebab - Great British Chefs

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A kebab might seem like a simple thing, but at Maison Bab they're pushing this beloved dish into new gourmet territory. Tom Shingler talks to head chef Manu Canales to discover how he's using his classical French training to bring something new to the poster boy of Turkish cuisine.

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Bright horizons: Benefits of music in child development 

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Bright horizons: Benefits of music in child development 

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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Children and Music: Benefits of Music in Child Development

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Music plays an important role in child development. Learn the benefits of music and read parenting tips for helping children enjoy music.

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The great animal welfare debate - Resources from RSPCA

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The great animal welfare debate - Resources from RSPCA

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From Hollie Barnes

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Animal welfare debates are an exciting way for students to discover and explore our responsibilities towards animals and their habitats.

Our debate materials and programmes are designed to promote a kinder future for all animals, by encouraging young people to learn about animal welfare and the work of the RSPCA.

They also aim to teach children about important government and citizenship topics, alongside developing key skills in research and public speaking.

How to get involved

Watch the 2021 Debate Mate Grand Finals

This year, we've partnered with Debate Mate to offer primary and secondary schools a fun and rewarding experience debating RSPCA topics for the Grand Final of the Debate Mate Cup 2021.

Register to watch the Grand Finals online from 4.30-5.30pm GMT on:

The recorded debate highlights will also be available on the Debate Mate YouTube channel at a later time.

You can follow Debate Mate on social media to learn more.

Host a debate through your school or debate club

Please see our debating animal welfare lesson plan for information and guidance about how to host your own animal welfare debate.

In addition to the topics recommended in the lesson plan, we have additional briefing sheets for debate topics in England and Wales:

We want to hear from you

We would love to hear from you about your experience debating these topics.

To let us know you¿ve hosted an animal welfare debate, please email education@rspca.org.uk or post on social media with the hashtag #rspcaeducation.

What to do after your debates

You may also enjoy some of our other free animal themed lesson plans and online activities.

For updates about our newest education offerings delivered right to your inbox, please sign up for our education newsletter.

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Animal welfare debates are an exciting way for students to discover and explore our responsibilities towards animals and their habitats. Our debate materials and programmes are designed to promote a kinder future for all animals, by encouraging young people to learn about animal welfare and the work of the RSPCA.

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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You can navigate from this page to four Case Studies from the Project, representing the different experiences of those involved in the research:

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Resources on Manga and Anime - From Hollie Barnes

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Thousands of FREE teaching resources to download

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Thousands of FREE teaching resources to download Pick your own FREE resource every week with our newsletter Suggest a Resource! You want it? We'll make it 24/7 customer support (with real people!) Sign Up Now to Download

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The Effect of Day Care on a Child's Success in School

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The Effect of Day Care on a Child's Success in School

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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What effect does day care have on a child's success in grade school? One National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study found mixed results about how day care influences children throughout their academic careers.

Starting in 1991, NICHD researchers tracked more than 1,350 children from birth through various childcare settings (at home with a parent, relative or nanny, or at day care) to elementary school. It found that children who spent time in "high quality" day care centers as youngsters had better vocabulary by the fifth grade than those who hadn't. But the study also found that day care charges had more behavior problems, even accounting for the child's gender, family income, and quality of the daycare center.

Supporters of quality daycare have discussed the array of early learning and socialization that children learn by spending time with peers and how early childhood educators are more trained than ever. Moreover, primary grade teachers applaud the way quality day care centers prepare children for elementary school. Children learn structure and routine at a young age and are responsible for putting away their coats, putting on their shoes and other independent tasks.

"I always ask my kindergarten students about their care prior to coming to school," says one Texas teacher. "Based on their responses, I may change my approach to socialization and early school skills at first, because some kids who have stayed home with a parent and haven't interacted with peers much don't know general school rules such as sharing, waiting in line, not touching others, and not talking when someone else is. Day care kids typically have all the social rules down pat."

Early educators also point to the lesson plans and early hands-on learning that day care participants get to experience. Most quality day care centers teach the ABCs, early reading, simple math and science and even general hygiene skills to their students.

The main negative about daycare is that your kids will most definitely get sick more frequently than if they are home to a single caregiver. Even at the best and cleanest of day care centers, the germs are flying! It's inevitable that children will be exposed to more illness at day care than they will at home, which can mean more trips to the doctor, more medical bills, and more sick time for your toddler.

Foes of day care have argued that preschool leads children to misbehave because children learn bad habits from watching other kids. Day cares are busy and can be a stressful environment for some kids.

Don't Rush to Judge Day Care's Effect on Behavior

Students may act out for any number of reasons, so day care shouldn't be blamed for making children misbehave. Giving day care the rap may not be fair or accurate.

A study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the U.S. looked at the influence of both child care and the home environment on over 1,000 typically-developing children They found that parent and family characteristics were more strongly linked to child development than were child care features." This means that families have a greater impact on how a child develops than childcare does.

Children who attend child care have the same outcomes as children who are cared for at home. Whether a child attends day care or not, it is the family that has a major impact on their child's development, with the parents' interactions with the child being a critically important factor.

Choosing child care, whether it is with a stay-at-home parent, relative, nanny or au pair, should have one common goal: providing for the overall safety and needs of the child. Working parents shouldn't feel guilty about leaving their child with qualified caregivers nor should stay-at-home parents feel guilty about their choice to remain home with children.

By Robin McClure
Robin McClure is a public school administrator and author of 6 parenting books.

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The Effect of Day Care on a Child's Success in School

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Learn about the pros and cons of day care on a child's social skills, academic performance, and behavior.

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Agricultural Revolution Worksheets | KS3 & KS4 Lesson Resources

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Vast range of Agricultural Revolution Worksheets. Tailored towards UK KS3 & KS4 however used globally. Produced by internationally renowned history teacher.

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Parenting and childcare blog and articles

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Parenting and childcare blog and articles

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Tips for How Parents Can Help with Their Child's Separation Anxiety

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Educational Playcare is pleased to offer the latest news and tips for busy families everywhere.

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Browse all of our social care careers advice articles. Since 2008 we've posted 140 articles by care professionals and experts. Read, Comment, Like & Reply!

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The National Children and Adults Services Conference (#NCASC23) returns to the Jurassic Coast and the Bournemouth International Conference Centre (BIC) this week (29 November - 1 December). Find out who, what and where in our conference preview...

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As a social care representative in the Topol Digital Fellowship, Preet Shergill, is committed to bridging the gap between offline and digital services and data, making sure social care professionals have equal access to transformative resources and opportunities. Find out more...

It's been 18 months since the Digitising Social Care programme kicked off, delivering the 3-year £150m investment in digitally transforming the adult social care sector. Time to reflect on progress made...

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October was the sixth annual Speak Up Month, led by the National Guardian's office. It provided an opportunity to raise awareness and highlight the difference Freedom to Speak Up is making for people in the workplace, including in the social care sector.

"We were delighted to win the Nursing Times Nursing in Social Care Award for a project we are both passionate about. Funded by care provider Care UK and The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) in collaboration with Tympa Health, we researched ways to identify and treat hearing loss for people living in care homes."

Christabel Chinonso U worked as a social care nurse when she first came to the UK from Nigeria in 2022. Keen to boost her confidence and be a positive influence, she participated in a Florence Nightingale Foundation leadership programme for social care nurses from global majority backgrounds. To mark Black History Month, we are proud to share Christabel's story.

In recent years, the concept of supporting healthcare activities at home has gained significant traction,and for good reason. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasised the importance of accessible, high-quality healthcare, prompting a shift towards home and community-based care as a viable alternative to more traditional health and care settings.

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Digital technology can improve care and efficiency - but a cyber attack can devastate a care provider. This National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Mel Judd, South West Regional Coordinator for Better Security, Better Care, outlines some essential issues care providers should consider.

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In the last ten years, landmark legislation and policy frameworks have sought to create social care systems which are more person-centred and support individuals to have greater choice and control. Find out about IMPACT's work turning the evidence of this into action.

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Shantelle Million-Lawson leads the digital transformation workstream within the Digitising Social Care team, where her role includes the rollout of our adult social care technology fund. Prior to joining the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) she worked in digital transformation for a residential care provider group. In this blog, Shantelle gives an update on the care technology funding offer following its launch in April 2023.

"The key to solving the challenges of the social care sector lies in the hands of the right people using data to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions. Data gives you information. Wisdom is the ability to understand that information and translate it into actions and insights."

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This blog from the Department of Health and Social Care shares news, views and information updates for anyone working in - or receiving support from - the care and support sector.

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BBC - why is it getting harder to find a builder? 

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BBC - why is it getting harder to find a builder? 

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If you've moved house or are planning a renovation, you might have found your builder's diary is already pretty full.

Demand in the housing market and for home improvements, driven by the pandemic, have led to a boom in the construction industry.

But there aren't enough tradespeople to meet demand - and nearly 10,000 extra workers are needed in Wales.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) said apprenticeships offered people a promising career.

By 2025, Welsh construction firms will need to recruit 9,250 new workers just to meet demand, according to the findings of the Construction Skills Network, published on Wednesday.

Charlotte Hale initially struggled to find a career after getting pregnant at a young age.

She is now an apprentice painter and decorator alongside studying for a diploma at Cardiff and Vale College in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

"I'm hoping to get a role with a decorating company for a while once I complete my qualifications, and eventually branch out on my own," she said.

"I would like to take on apprentices of my own one day, so that I can pass on all of the knowledge that I have learned."

Being on-site with her host company has been "a big eye-opener," she said.

"I haven't just been painting walls, I've had the chance to do wood and steelwork too. It's been a really great experience."

'An exciting career choice'

Rob Davies, the CITB's senior engagement manager for Wales, told BBC Radio Wales that recent research showed a "rosy picture" for the future of the industry.

The amount of construction work in Wales is set to grow by 4.1% annually, on average, until the end of 2025, slightly below the UK average of 4.4%, with private housing the fastest growth area.

Welsh construction will need an extra 1,850 workers per year to meet demand. Key trades needed in Wales include an extra 500 bricklayers and 350 electricians each year.

Mr Davies said: "We're looking for an increase in every trade because the industry is buoyant, it's good news.

"The construction industry has been a leading sector to take people out of Covid. It's good news for those people in it, but particularly really exciting for anyone looking for construction as an option as a career pathway."

Mr Davies said young people should not be put off by outdated notions of what it is like to be a construction worker.

"We're concerned there's still that stereotype image of the industry that is long outdated and my motto is where the money is, you follow," he said.

"What we want to do is make it more attractive, make sure that young people are getting the information that they need and the knowledge they need so they get the information, advice and guidance.

"Clearly, careers in construction is going to be a good place to go for a young person if they fancy it."

Ms Hale agreed more young people should look at getting a career in construction.

"If I could tell my younger self anything, it would be that you're never too old to take an apprenticeship and you're never too old to achieve your goals. I wish I had started 10 years ago," she said.

How long does it take to train?

According to the CITB, it takes between two and three years to train in the main trades.

But it is trying to speed up the process by promoting more apprenticeships and setting up "skills hubs" across Wales.

"What we're trying to do is create pathways to make it easier for young people to get qualified," said Mr Davies.

"We're looking at the apprenticeship qualifications and saying 'well if you've done one or two years in college, you can top up with a one-year apprenticeship'.

"We're really excited about the future for people coming into the industry."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Covid: Why is it getting harder to find a builder?

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A housing market and home improvement boom means 10,000 extra construction workers are needed.

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Only 8% of engineers in the UK are women. Why are efforts to get more girls to choose it as a career failing?

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All the latest news about Car industry from the BBC

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BBC News - Why it's the end of the road for petrol stations 

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BBC News - Why it's the end of the road for petrol stations 

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Petrol stations are under threat

But the real question you should be asking is how you're going to refuel your petrol or diesel vehicle if you don't go electric.

That's because electric cars are going to send the petrol station business into a death spiral over the next two decades, making electric vehicles the default option for all car owners.

Why? Because charging electric vehicles is going to become much more straightforward than refuelling petrol and diesel cars.

This isn't just because the government has banned the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

Imagine we were going the other way, replacing electric cars with fossil fuel power.

You are writing the risk assessment for a new petrol station. You want to dig a big hole in the ground in the middle of town, put in some tanks and fill them up with an enormous amount of highly flammable fuel.

Then you're proposing to attach a really powerful pump and invite in random members of the public.

They'll arrive in vehicles with hot engines. You'll hand them the really powerful pump that sprays the highly flammable liquid.

As petrol is hazardous, refilling has to be done at petrol stations

Without any supervision they'll use it to transfer large quantities of the highly flammable liquid into their hot vehicle, they'll pay you and drive off.

Are you OK to sign off on that? Do you think Health and Safety will give it the green light?

My point is that fuelling cars with petrol and diesel is dangerous, which is why we do it at specially-designed centralised refuelling points.

Ubiquitous power

Electricity, by contrast, is pretty much everywhere already. Where's your car now? Do you think it might be near an electricity cable? Exactly.

The only challenge is how to bring that electricity a few feet to the surface so you can start getting it into your battery.

And you don't need to be Thomas Edison to work that out.

The goal for the electric car industry is to have recharging anywhere you can park

If you live in a flat or a house without a drive, don't worry. The aim is to have an electric vehicle (EV) charging point at virtually every parking place.

Erik Fairbairn's electric vehicle recharging company, Pod Point, wants to be part of this effort to rewire the UK.

"You'll get to a point where you barely ever think about energy flowing into your car again," he predicts.

Of course, we're a long way from that utopia, and that should be no surprise.

We're just at the beginning of the electric revolution: just 7% of new cars are electric and they make up a tiny fraction of vehicles on the road, so there isn't a huge market.

But, as I argued in my previous piece, change is coming fast and investment in charging infrastructure is coming with it.

There will be good profits to be made when millions of us want to recharge, just as there was a boom in petrol station construction at the dawn of the age of the car a century ago.

More Technology of Business

The first people to get charging technology at home are those with driveways who can run a cable to their electric cars.

They can already install special charging points that recharge car batteries overnight from the power supply to the house, often using the cheapest possible rates.

Typically this is a slow process. For every hour of charging you'll get 30 miles or so of driving, but who cares when most people leave their cars parked overnight anyway and you are only paying a couple of pence a mile?

Some local authorities have begun to install similar chargers in lampposts, designers are working on charging points that can be built into the kerb and some workplaces are already putting in chargers for their employees.

We'll be seeing lots more of all of these innovations in the years to come.

We are also starting to see some businesses putting charging points in for their customers.

You can expect to see charging points everywhere in years to come

In fact, free charging is likely to become like free Wi-Fi, a little bribe to lure you into the shop.

Electric vehicle optimists paint a world where you can plug in anywhere you park - at home while you sleep, as you work, when you are shopping or at the cinema.

Pretty much whatever you are doing, energy will be flowing into your car.

At this point, says Erik Fairbairn, 97% of electric car charging will happen away from petrol pump equivalents.

"Imagine someone came around and filled up your car with petrol every night so you had 300 miles of range every morning," he says. "How often would you need anything else?"

In this brave new world, you'll only ever pull over into a service station on really epic, long journeys when you'll top up your battery for 20-30 minutes while you have a coffee and use the facilities.

Death sentence

If this prediction is correct it is a death sentence for many of the 8,380 petrol stations in the UK.

And the decline of the industry could come surprisingly quickly. Think about it. As electric vehicles begin to edge out petrol and diesel there will be less refuelling business to go around. Those service stations on the edge of viability will begin to go to the wall.

That'll make it that little bit harder for petrol and diesel drivers to find a service station to fill up in and the remaining operators may also feel the need to up their prices to maintain profits.

So, fewer and quite possibly more expensive petrol stations. Meanwhile it will be getting easier and easier to charge your electric car. What's more, as the market scales up, electric vehicles will become cheaper to buy.

You see where this is going: the more petrol stations close, the more likely we all are to go electric. In turn, more petrol stations will be forced to close. And so on.

That's why I called it a death spiral.

As petrol stations become scarce, electric cars will become more attractive

And don't worry about where the electricity to power all these new cars will come from.

The National Grid says it won't have a problem charging all the electric vehicles that are going to come onto our roads.

In fact, it isn't expecting much of an increase in demand, just 10% when everyone is driving electric.

That's because we drive much less than we tend to imagine. The average car journey is just 8.4 miles, according to the Department for Transport.

And, explains Isabelle Haigh, the head of national control for the National Grid, there is already quite a lot of spare capacity built into the system.

"Most charging will not be at time of peak, and peak demand has been reducing over the years so we are very confident there is enough energy to meet demand," she says.

That's because the grid is designed to meet the moments of greatest demand - half time in the Cup Final when we all put the kettle on, for example.

The rest of the time some generators sit idle. Electric vehicles will be able to make use of them and, because people typically charge overnight when demand is low, they are unlikely to raise the peak demand at all.

Smart charging systems will also help. They allow your charger to talk to the grid to work out the best time for your car to charge.

The idea is to make sure you get the cheapest power and also help the grid smooth out the peaks and troughs in demand.

Smart charging also helps make maximum use of renewable resources, allowing drivers to cash in on the plentiful and therefore cheap electricity available on a windy day, for instance.

Seances and convenience stores

However, the end of the service station should not be a cause for celebration. They are the only retail outlet left in some small towns and villages, and a lifeline for many people.

So, can they find an alternative role? Jack Simpson believes some will be able to.

The site of the Hyde Park Book Club was a petrol station for more than 80 years

He's converted an old petrol station in Leeds into a plant shop/bar/music venue/restaurant/art gallery called the Hyde Park Book Club. It has even hosted seances.

"People were popping in for dinner and I was like, Oh I'm really sorry, there's a séance going on," explains Jack.

He says the site's central location, large forecourt and roomy buildings make it a very flexible venue.

"I think it also fits in with this post hipster obsession with 20th Century Western culture," he says.

Brian Madderson, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), is more down to earth. The PRA represents 5,500 independent fuel retailers who account for 70% of all forecourts and Mr Madderson says his members have started adapting to the post internal combustion engine world.

Many are already investing in full convenience stores, high-quality take away food and automated car washes to boost their income and, he says, they will continue to enable motorists to fill up their petrol and diesel vehicles for as long as is feasible.

He thinks the transition away from petrol and diesel will take decades. "These vehicles will simply not disappear off the roads overnight. Petrol and diesel stations will be essential in keeping the country mobile beyond 2030," he says.

Maybe. Yet technological change can be very rapid and very disruptive.

Look what happened to the horse and cart at the turn of the 20th Century.

Some service stations will certainly live on - those on motorways, for example - but many are likely to go the same way as the people Jack Simpson's guests were trying to reach at their séance - unless they can find new ways to bring in cash.

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Why it's the end of the road for petrol stations

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Many petrol stations will close over the next 20 years, accelerating the shift to electric cars.

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We have in-depth information about all sorts of pets. Our pet care leaflets cover lots of subjects, including health, behaviour and safety. You can search by species by clicking on your species of choice.

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Cumbrian MPs and farmers are watching today as the House of Lords once again tries to make changes to the Agriculture Bill, to prepare industries like hill farming for the future with Britain outside the EU.

Members of the Lords and some MPs have pressed for the new laws to have clauses ensuring any trade deals insist that food exported to the UK meets the same standards like welfare, or environmental protection, as British farmers work with.

The government argues the bill is not the right place for such measures, and that the standards will be protected in any case, and earlier this week MPs threw out the Lords amendments.

Two of Cumbria's six MPs, the Liberal Democrat Tim Farron and the Conservative Neil Hudson, have voted for the extra clauses, while the other four have supported the government.

These amendments are ill-thought-through, they're in the wrong place, and to be quite honest this is people refighting Brexit."

Mark JenkinsonConservative MP for Workington

It is always better to have legislation in place and not just warm words, Lord Curry's amendment actually allows MPs to do their job and scrutinise trade deals."

Ian Bownesschairman of the National Farmers Union in Cumbria

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Cumbrian MPs and farmers are watching today as the House of Lords once again tries to make changes to the Agriculture Bill, to prepare industries like hill farming for the future with Britain outside the EU.

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A Cornwall horticulture apprentice, Patricie Zeleznikova, has won a prize for her work on a forest garden, the Eden Project has announced.

Ms Zeleznikova was granted the Prince of Wales Award for Sustainable Horticulture in recognition of her work in forest gardening, a sustainable approach to horticulture which makes use of the natural layering of plants found in forests, providing fruits, nuts and leafy vegetables.

Her apprenticeship finishes at the end of September and she plans to use her prize money to help design a new forest garden in Cornwall alongside another former Eden apprentice, the project said.

Ms Zeleznikova said she was "pleasantly surprised" to win the award, which meant a lot to her and her fellow apprentices.

"We already have a commission to work on a forest garden and we are looking forward to putting into practice what we have learned," she added.

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A Cornwall horticulture apprentice, Patricie Zeleznikova, has won a prize for her work on a forest garden, the Eden Project has announced. Ms Zeleznikova was granted the Prince of Wales Award for Sustainable Horticulture in recognition of her work in forest gardening, a sustainable approach to horticulture which makes use of the natural layering of plants found in forests, providing fruits, nuts and leafy vegetables.

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All the latest news about Horses from the BBC

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The home of Equestrian on BBC Sport online. Includes the latest news stories, results, fixtures, video and audio.

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Stay up to date with the equestrian news you need to know with Horse&Hound's dedicated news service

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A Cumbrian mobile DJ says he fears many in the hospitality and wedding entertainment business will not survive.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a four-week delay to the planned easing of lockdown restrictions in England yesterday.

Wedding venues and planners have told the BBC the government's announcement about unlimited guest numbers being permitted has provided some relief, but they are still deeply worried about the future of their industry.

The summer months are usually the busiest time of year for Andy Neen, who runs a mobile disco and also owns Cumbria DJ Store in Penrith, which sells, repairs and hires equipment to bands, clubs and festivals. However, he is currently facing a lot of uncertainty.

Mr Neen said: "I've managed 15 months and I'll survive another four weeks but it's like being back at square one again building up a customer base.

"If it gets extended again and we miss revenue from August, that might wipe me out.

"I've had no income basically, well very little, the shop's been closed four times and all my customers work in the same industry, the forgotten industry.

"It's not just DJ's, it's bands, it's wedding planners and venue dressers - anybody who works alongside us, nobody has been able to work."

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A Cumbrian mobile DJ says he fears many in the hospitality and wedding entertainment business will not survive. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a four-week delay to the planned easing of lockdown restrictions in England yesterday.

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Championing Diversity in The Beauty Industry - Interview with ColorBlend Makeup

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Championing Diversity in The Beauty Industry - Interview with ColorBlend Makeup

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Championing Diversity In The Beauty Industry: Interview With ColorBlend Makeup - Jamii

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Discount card & marketplace for black creator and makers

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Beauty salons have been greatly affected by this year's pandemic. With the first Covid-19 vaccines now being administered, we speak to speak to six industry professionals about how they have coped with 2020, and their hopes for the future.

Elizabeth Chandler says that after a tough year "the vaccine could be great for the industry".

She is the owner of London-based eyelash extension business - Elizabeth Chandler Lashes - whose clients include model Cara Delevingne, singer Nicole Scherzinger, fashion designers as well as dancers on the TV show Strictly Come Dancing.

Like all UK beauty treatment businesses, she had to shut up shop in March, given the close face-to-face nature of much of her work.

"My income went to zero for six months," says Ms Chandler. "I built my business for 13 years, and I was unable to work for half a year. [Previously] I have never been out of work in my life."

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Beauty salons have been greatly affected by this year's pandemic. With the first Covid-19 vaccines now being administered, we speak to speak to six industry professionals about how they have coped with 2020, and their hopes for the future. Elizabeth Chandler says that after a tough year "the vaccine could be great for the industry".

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All the latest news about Hairdressers from the BBC

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All the latest news about Hair and facial hair from the BBC

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Our Magazine is written by young people from the UK. Each year we select a new group of bloggers, from the British Council's language assistants, who share their experiences of learning languages and living abroad. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the LearnEnglish Teens team.

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Blogs about sport | LearnEnglish Teens - British Council

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Our Magazine is written by young people from the UK. Each year we select a new group of bloggers, from the British Council's language assistants, who share their experiences of learning languages and living abroad. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the LearnEnglish Teens team.

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Social Media could transform public services

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Social Media could transform public services

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Social media could transform the NHS and other public services in the same way that file-sharing changed the music industry, a conference has heard.
Growing use of tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, offered an opportunity to reinvent services, delegates heard.

The MyPublicServices event debated ways to harness these conversations, many of which are critical, to make services better and more inclusive.

If this was not done, many services would be undermined, speakers said.

"It's happened to the music and travel industries and it's going to happen to public services," said Dr Paul Hodgkin, founder of the Patient Opinion site that organised the MyPublicServices conference.

Said Dr Hodgkin: "The question is how do we cope with it in a useful and productive way and not spend decades beating each other up?"
Capturing stories
Dr Hodgkin created Patient Opinion to capture stories about what happened to people when they got medical treatment. The site takes their criticism or praise and routes it to people in a local health authority who need to know and can, if need be, use that information to improve services.

He said that conversations about people's experiences with public services were going on all over the web and needed to be taken into account.

Dr James Munro, the director of Patient Opinion, said the web and the rising influence of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other discussion sites was likely to force big changes in the running of programmes.

"Public services seem only to be there to give you what you need," he said. "A patient is all about being passive."

"This is about turning things upside down so the thing that looks like a deficit, your experience, becomes the gift you have to give to other people."

The conference heard from many people who had been moved by their frustration with current practices to set up a website or a service that can do something about it.

Denise Stephens created Enabled by Design in 2003 after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Ms Stephens said she grew increasingly frustrated with unattractive assistive technology that made her home resemble a hospital. She started Enabled By Design to share information about better designed, cheaper and more attractive alternatives.

"A lot of assistive technology is ugly and does not do the job very well," said Ms Stephens.

Talking about their experiences at MyPublicServices were projects to ensure that those in nursing homes are looked after with dignity, to help make welfare to work programmes less adversarial and a place to report experiences with police investigations.

Tom Loosemore, head of 4iP, Channel 4's Innovation fund, said he suspected that active citizens and frustrated users could become a big catalyst for change in public services.

"The design of public services around the needs of the public not the needs of the state enabled by the internet, that's the big change," he said.

"I'm not sure that the government can re-engineer itself from the inside out," he said. "It's going to take the demands of people to force it into shape."

He counselled attendees to "shout loud and force change" on local and central government.

He told conference goers: "You are the future of public services not .gov.uk."

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Social media 'could transform public services'

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Social media could transform the NHS and other public services in the same way that file-sharing changed the music industry, a conference has heard. Growing use of tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, offered an opportunity to reinvent services, delegates heard.

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Allerdale Brough Council has appointed an armed forces champion.

Councillor Alan Pitcher (pictured below), who represents the Wigton and Woodside ward, served with the Parachute Regiment across the world and completed four tours of Northern Ireland.

As the borough's armed force champion, he will be responsible for ensuring armed forces families living in Allerdale are given help and support when needed.

Mr Pitcher said: "Making sure our serving and former members of the armed forces are supported through council services in the correct way is vital and I look forward to working alongside many organisations as part of the role."

The appointment comes ahead of Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

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Allerdale Brough Council has appointed an armed forces champion. Councillor Alan Pitcher (pictured below), who represents the Wigton and Woodside ward, served with the Parachute Regiment across the world and completed four tours of Northern Ireland. As the borough's armed force champion, he will be responsible for ensuring armed forces families living in Allerdale are given help and support when needed.

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All the latest news about Royal Navy from the BBC

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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Big Eyes artist, whose husband took credit, dies

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All the latest content about Art from the BBC.

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How art and design can transform the daily commute

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How art and design can transform the daily commute

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Shared by @NikkiMilton16

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When Crossrail opens later this year it will change how hundreds of thousands of journeys are made through London each year. It's Europe's biggest civil engineering project, designed to shift people quickly and efficiently. But will the art and architecture of Crossrail - officially now the Elizabeth line - also appeal to the eye?

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How art and design can transform the daily commute

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When Crossrail opens later this year it will change how hundreds of thousands of journeys are made through London each year. It's Europe's biggest civil engineering project, designed to shift people quickly and efficiently. But will the art and architecture of Crossrail - officially now the Elizabeth line - also appeal to the eye?

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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Get lost in the art: 10 great art novels to read now | Christie's

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Our pick of the best escapist art-themed fiction to help get you through the coming weeks and months

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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I wrote , a book about the frailties of social media identities when they bleed into real life and the confusion that comes with over-familiarity online and how it breeds contempt for our offline relationships, because I became obsessed with who we really are if we're spending our entire lives taking the best photos of ourselves, turning our stories into the most tweetable quips and sharing our best selves.

What if this isn't how things actually are? What is that doing to our brain chemistry? Our relationships?

People asked me afterwards if I worried that a book about social media would date at all. I said that sure, the references might date, but the story-the one of identity, confusion and loneliness-is pretty timeless. People still study Jane Austen. And her books are filled with letters. Dracula is collated diaries, letters, journals, and articles. How outdated are all of these?

Here are ten novels that ooze social media. Because, even if you're not a heavy Twitter user or Instagrammer, you can't ignore their prominence in the way we live. And it's not all bad.

On the one hand, this is a terrifying body snatchers-style techno horror about a cult masquerading as a bunch of do-gooders wanting to improve the world. On the other, it's an allegory for how the very ethos of Silicon Valley, of the constant broadcast, of zero privacy = consummate accountability, may be founded on a field of shit.

Another terrifying look into the murky world of being someone else online. Kiss Me First is a well-paced thriller about identity and pretending to be other people.

Tao Lin is perhaps one of the authors best at integrating the act of clicking, swiping, zoning out, absorbing content, typing, reading with disdain, ennui, and the very turgid functional nature of the internet into his terse prose. Few writers are able to do this as seamlessly as him.

by David Llewellyn

A book that exists as a series of print-outs of emails - funny, and illuminating in that they become the collected narrative of a series of unreliable narrators, which makes you realise what often doesn't get said in our electronic communications, and how tone and nuance, left at the door, can lead to utter chaos.

It's specifically in the section about Keisha Brown that we get to see how easily social media, and the internet, can turn us into active participants. When everything is a click away, it becomes an anonymous thrill to pretend to be other people and live other lives entirely separate to your own.

The way seeded content arrives before us is all based on intricate algorithms, tracking what we do, say, see, what our friends do, say, see and trying to create a picture of who we are and what we'll be easily susceptible to. No Harm manages to turn this algorithm culture on its head and show that while the numbers may not lie, they may not be able to compete against humanity.

Even more meta than Meatspace, Joshua Cohen writes of Joshua Cohen who is sent to write about Joshua Cohen, the CEO of a Google-esque search engine called Tetration. What happens next is a meandering exploration of the internet and of immortality.

Friendship is a funny and painfully real dissection of friendship when it's put to the test by the staples of city-living - rent, ambition, lack of ambition, boozing, and sex. All the good stuff. Gould is excellent at weaving into the text, without it being clunky, interactions between our two main heroes that happen over email, text, social media, and blogs, and it feels real. Now. How our friendships really unfold. Not with a heart-on-the-table pub chat at 1 a.m. But with a carelessly worded hastily sent electronic communication.

Another Joshua, another bloke (why do we care about social media so much, man?), Ferris writes a bizarre shaggy dog story about the internet and identity, about spirituality, dentistry, and mediocrity. Cutting through all of this is his inventive humor and sideways plot tangents.

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9 Novels About Social Media Identities - Electric Literature

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I wrote Meatspace, a book about the frailties of social media identities when they bleed into real life and the confusion that comes with over-familiarity online and how it breeds contempt for our offline relationships, because I became obsessed with who we really are if we're spending our entire lives taking the best photos of [...]

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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Show caption
More than gifts to those who are grieving ... Photograph: fzant/Getty Images

Shortly before the publication of my first novel, I learned that my mother's cancer had returned. I am not yet her caregiver but I have cared for folks with cancer before - and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and other afflictions, mostly of old age. I worked as a professional companion for elderly people for nearly nine years before I began writing about my caregiving work in the form of Say Say Say - the story of young woman who cares for a woman with a brain injury, and the complex intimacies that emerge within her family as she declines.

During that time I thought about why people might want to read work on difficult or dark subjects, but it was largely an abstract consideration. By the time I began reading and rereading for this list my own pre-emptive grieving was well under way. It changed how I experienced the stories; I was startled by the comfort they offered. Certainly my tears were closer to the surface than when I had first encountered these texts, but I felt grateful when the tears came, grateful that the words could pull me outside of my own sadness and into empathy.
Say Say Say by Lila Savage review - a luminous debut
These caregiving narratives have survival tools embedded in them: humour, anger, beauty and poignant joy. They aren't all loss and decline, though those very human experiences deserve all the artistry that writers can muster. A sense of redemption and awe remains possible within the scope of describing tragedy, and wryness or rage can thwart impulses towards cloying sentiment or "life lessons". And then there is the magic of having your very private experience captured in language.

But these stories aren't only gifts to those who are grieving. They illuminate the experiencing of caring and being cared for, whether as the children we once were or as the vulnerable adults we may yet become. Their focus is not loss. It's the sometimes messy but often life-affirming help that people can offer one another.

1. Purple America by Rick Moody
"Whosoever knows the folds and complexities of his mother's body, he shall never die." Thus we are introduced to Hex Raitliff, the primary caregiver for his 70-year-old mother Billie, who suffers from a neurological disease similar to MS. What follows is an incredibly poetic description of bathing her, a breathtaking opening to an unusually masculine take on caregiving.
Top 10s Top 10 books about insomnia | Marina Benjamin

Writers from Alice Munro to Ottessa Moshfegh explore some of life's most gruelling experiences in ways that build in survival tools

10. The Times As It Knows Us by Allen Barnett
An angry, tender short story about a group of gay friends and lovers who care for one another as many around and among them are dying of Aids. Grief is explored in all of its complexity, from the language of loss to public demonstrations of mourning to the experience of being one who survives when many others do not. "Looking down at him who is dead and gone, then lying across the broken bridge of his spine, the beachhead of his back, you would gladly change places with him. Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent; then be comforted for your sorrow. Find in grief the abandon you used to find in love; grieve the way you used to fuck."

* Say Say Say by Lila Savage is published by Serpent's Tail. To order, go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p on orders over £15.

'God stopped feeling real' ... Akhil Sharma. Photograph: Tim Knox

Smart and furious ... May Sarton. Photograph: Bettmann Archive

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Out of sadness into empathy: the top 10 caregivers in fiction

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Writers from Alice Munro to Ottessa Moshfegh explore some of life's most gruelling experiences in ways that build in survival tools

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E-Books on critical perspectives on "Grease The Musical"

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E-Books on critical perspectives on "Grease The Musical"

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'Grease Is the Word': Exploring a Cultural Phenomenon - Google Books

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E-Book (google books) "Story Behind the Protest Song: A Reference Guide to 50 Songs That Changed the 20th Century"

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E-Book (google books) "Story Behind the Protest Song: A Reference Guide to 50 Songs That Changed the 20th Century"

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https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cZRxDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=protest+songs&ots=lHpfNLaija&sig=Tw932IHc7ae3H5EjtEBibeJPIxg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=protest%20songs&f=false

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Pair of Texts for AQA P2 - from Common Lit

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Pair of Texts for AQA P2 - from Common Lit

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From Hollie Barnes

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For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

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CommonLit | Excerpt from Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse | Paired Texts

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CommonLit has identified one or more texts from our collection to pair with Excerpt from Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts.

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From Hollie Barnes

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Your Ultimate Guide to The Top Destinations

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From Hollie Barnes

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The best travel and tourism reading list

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Having a travel and tourism reading list is important, whether you are a teacher, a student, or a tourist. The key to success is knowledge. And where better to look than books? Having a travel

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From Hollie Barnes

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Air hostess shares a behind the scenes look into life of cabin crew

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Evelin Martin, 22, from London, works for Virgin Atlantic and in a recent Q&A she revealed how the airline pays for hotels and food on stopovers, and opened up about being scared of turbulence.

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Added by @jenny_drain

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Farming & Agricultural Industry News, Videos, Pictures, Blogs and Forums from Farmers Weekly Interactive. UK Farming and Agriculture

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The experiences of a female farmer in Uganda. Added by @jenny_drain

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reading comprehension

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odM7kz8_4U4

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reading comprehension L2

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FS L2

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

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Added by @NikkiMilton16

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Show caption
More than gifts to those who are grieving ... Photograph: fzant/Getty Images

Shortly before the publication of my first novel, I learned that my mother's cancer had returned. I am not yet her caregiver but I have cared for folks with cancer before - and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and other afflictions, mostly of old age. I worked as a professional companion for elderly people for nearly nine years before I began writing about my caregiving work in the form of Say Say Say - the story of young woman who cares for a woman with a brain injury, and the complex intimacies that emerge within her family as she declines.

During that time I thought about why people might want to read work on difficult or dark subjects, but it was largely an abstract consideration. By the time I began reading and rereading for this list my own pre-emptive grieving was well under way. It changed how I experienced the stories; I was startled by the comfort they offered. Certainly my tears were closer to the surface than when I had first encountered these texts, but I felt grateful when the tears came, grateful that the words could pull me outside of my own sadness and into empathy.
Say Say Say by Lila Savage review - a luminous debut
These caregiving narratives have survival tools embedded in them: humour, anger, beauty and poignant joy. They aren't all loss and decline, though those very human experiences deserve all the artistry that writers can muster. A sense of redemption and awe remains possible within the scope of describing tragedy, and wryness or rage can thwart impulses towards cloying sentiment or "life lessons". And then there is the magic of having your very private experience captured in language.

But these stories aren't only gifts to those who are grieving. They illuminate the experiencing of caring and being cared for, whether as the children we once were or as the vulnerable adults we may yet become. Their focus is not loss. It's the sometimes messy but often life-affirming help that people can offer one another.

1. Purple America by Rick Moody
"Whosoever knows the folds and complexities of his mother's body, he shall never die." Thus we are introduced to Hex Raitliff, the primary caregiver for his 70-year-old mother Billie, who suffers from a neurological disease similar to MS. What follows is an incredibly poetic description of bathing her, a breathtaking opening to an unusually masculine take on caregiving.
Top 10s Top 10 books about insomnia | Marina Benjamin

Writers from Alice Munro to Ottessa Moshfegh explore some of life's most gruelling experiences in ways that build in survival tools

10. The Times As It Knows Us by Allen Barnett
An angry, tender short story about a group of gay friends and lovers who care for one another as many around and among them are dying of Aids. Grief is explored in all of its complexity, from the language of loss to public demonstrations of mourning to the experience of being one who survives when many others do not. "Looking down at him who is dead and gone, then lying across the broken bridge of his spine, the beachhead of his back, you would gladly change places with him. Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent; then be comforted for your sorrow. Find in grief the abandon you used to find in love; grieve the way you used to fuck."

* Say Say Say by Lila Savage is published by Serpent's Tail. To order, go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p on orders over £15.

'God stopped feeling real' ... Akhil Sharma. Photograph: Tim Knox

Smart and furious ... May Sarton. Photograph: Bettmann Archive

{{#ticker}}

{{/ticker}}

{{heading}}

{{#paragraphs}}

{{.}}

{{/paragraphs}}{{highlightedText}}
{{#choiceCards}}

{{/choiceCards}}

We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. Look out for a message in your inbox in . If you have any questions about contributing, please contact us.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Out of sadness into empathy: the top 10 caregivers in fiction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Writers from Alice Munro to Ottessa Moshfegh explore some of life's most gruelling experiences in ways that build in survival tools

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Resources via the link to facilitate discussion and / or written work about toys and gender.

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Added by Bob Read
- the tasks headed as 'Group Activites for team meetings' can be used to promote discussion about the use of English and maths in care settings

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Core skills in adult social care covers english, number, digital and employability skills, including team work and problem solving skills.

It is an employer's responsibility to ensure their staff have the right core skills. Developing core skills in the workplace guide will help managers assess and develop the core skills of their workers.

Core skills ensure social care workers can complete everyday tasks such as communicating with the individuals they support, counting medication, using a computer and writing a care plan.

We've developed learning activities to check social care workers have the right core skills to work safely and meet quality standards. They're aimed at front line care staff and can be used in recruitment, induction, supervision and ongoing learning and development. There are also links to resources to help workers develop their core skills.
Other useful resources Other useful resources

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Develop English, number and digital skills in social care

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Core skills in adult social care covers english, number, digital and employability skills, including team work and problem solving skills. It is an employer's responsibility to ensure their staff have the right core skills. Developing core skills in the workplace guide will help managers assess and develop the core skills of their workers.

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- added by Bob Read

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Letter to my younger self - sportspeople

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Letter to my younger self - sportspeople

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From Charlotte Hope

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Letter to My Younger Self | The Players' Tribune | The Voice of the Game

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The Players' Tribune is a new media company that provides athletes with a platform to connect directly with their fans, in their own words. Founded by Derek Jeter, The Players' Tribune publishes first-person articles from athletes, providing unique insight into the daily sports conversation.

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Added by Bob Read
This section of the Jobskills website features a useful video which show how English and maths skills are used in hair and beaty salons. It also contains some basic workshets contextualised for use with hair and beauty students.

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Jill Morris: My name's Jill Morris, I work within the hair, beauty, nails, spa, fashion sector.

People go into hair, they go into beauty cause they like the 'doing'.

They've gone into it because it's a vocation but it is also a business and without those literacy and numeracy skills, which are absolutely key to being successful, they're going to fail.

Female, blond hair, blue top: It's really important to know about angles and lengths, centimetres, inches.

Female, blond hair, blue top: How much would you like me to take off for you today?

Female, long dark hair: A couple of centimetres.

Female, blond hair, blue top: A couple of centimetres, so roughly about that much?

Female, long dark hair: Yeah.

Female, blond hair, blue top: So it all adds up to being quite mathematical without you realising it.

Female, blond hair, blue top: Yeah.

Male, dark hair, beard, glasses: It needs a whole tube of this colour, that's 50 mls of the colour and I need to mix it with the appropriate releaser, which would be 75 mls and the ratio of the mixing of this colour is 1 to 1.5.

It's important I mix exactly 75 mls up just so next time we get the exact same colour again.

Female, blond hair, black shirt: Okay, thank you.

That's all booked for you.

Female, blond hair, black shirt: Okay, the main things I look for when answering the phone is making sure that I get to know what sort of stylist they're looking to see.

What time or date they will be available, either morning or afternoon.

Also, what they're looking to have done.

Jill Morris: It's very much a people business, so you would come to me to have your hair done.

I need to talk to you.

I need to listen to you.

I need to write down what it is that you've told.

Female, blond hair, blue top: You have to keep safe records of clients, of their colours so the client gets a consistent colour every time.

Female, blond hair, black shirt: They'll give the sheet back to me when the client leaves so I will then input it all on to the computer.

Female, blond hair, blue top: Stock is really important and having a good understanding and control of stock.

So we work out the average of how much we sell each month as to how much we would reorder in.

Female, blond hair, black shirt: So we just go around, bit by bit, counting off all the products and tally marking them off so then at the end we would add it all up.

Jill Morris: Those of us in hair, beauty and fashion are looking for quite high levels of literacy and numeracy in our potential employees.

So if there's anybody out there who thinks they might like to get involved in that particular sector, they really do need to make sure they've got the best levels of literacy and numeracy skills that they possibly can.

Female, blond hair, black shirt: Right, we'll see you then.

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Private sector: Hair, beauty and fashion

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Find out which English and maths skills are useful for jobs in catering, bars and hotels.

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Sorry lads: this rule was made for good reason.

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Sorry lads: this rule was made for good reason.

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Opinion article from Construction News about wearing shorts on construction sites.
added by Rachel Webley

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What are the Benefits of Work Shorts on the Construction Site?

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What are the Benefits of Work Shorts on the Construction Site?

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Article from Build magazine exploring the benefits of wearing shorts on construction sites.
added by Rachel Webley

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What are the Benefits of Work Shorts on the Construction Site? - BUILD Magazine

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Just as there is no one-size-fits-all construction site, there are no one-size-fits-all construction uniforms. Of course, PPE and hazard protections should be taken into account, but how important is it to be able to wear work shorts on the construction site? Considering the different categories of work shorts for men and some tips on how to choose the best fit, here is why you should think about work shorts on your next construction job.

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Debate: The government should take tougher action on unhealthy behaviour

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Debate: The government should take tougher action on unhealthy behaviour

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Debating matters topic guide
added by Rachel Webley

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Debating Matters topic guide.
Added by Rachel Webley

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From Laurie O'Mahoney - CRC https://twitter.com/i/events/1237355856754282496?lang=en

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From Louise Sands - CRC

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This ESL lesson plan is designed around a short video titled Diving with Sharks and the themes of sharks and shark diving. Students learn vocabulary related to diving, sharks and describing character, read an article about sharks, talk about the qualities needed to be a shark diver, watch a short video, answer comprehension questions, analyse [...]

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This ESL lesson plan is designed around a short video titled Diving with Sharks and the themes of sharks and shark diving. Students learn vocabulary related to diving, sharks and describing character, read an article about sharks, talk about the qualities needed to be a shark diver, watch a short video, answer comprehension questions, analyse [...]

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British Film Industry Resources for teachers

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British Film Industry Resources for teachers

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From Louise Sands - CRC

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We support teachers in introducing students to specialist, independent and archive film by sharing knowledge, techniques and critical approaches. We do this by running courses and conferences and producing a range of teaching resources.

BFI Screenonline is our online encyclopaedia of British film and television featuring hundreds of hours of film and television clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive.

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We support teachers in introducing students to specialist, independent and archive film by sharing knowledge, techniques and critical approaches. We do this by running courses and conferences and producing a range of teaching resources. BFI Screenonline is our online encyclopaedia of British film and television featuring hundreds of hours of film and television clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive.

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From Louise Sands - CRC

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Links to Film Education resources

Our most comprehensive resource for film and English teaching is Thinking Film, Thinking English: story and genre. This free resource, designed for learners aged 11-16, comprises a DVD of carefully chosen film clips supported by a CD ROM of classroom materials and teachers' notes.

These film-specific resources are all relevant to the English classroom:

Also see these 'Topics', which are broader generic resources relevant for using film within English teaching:

You can also browse the Film Library or search this site for further resources.

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Film Education | Resources | Secondary | Film and English | Links to Film Education resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our most comprehensive resource for film and English teaching is Thinking Film, Thinking English: story and genre. This free resource, designed for learners aged 11-16, comprises a DVD of carefully chosen film clips supported by a CD ROM of classroom materials and teachers' notes.

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From Louise Sands - CRC

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emagazine - EMC's quarterly magazine & subscription website for advanced level English Literature, English Language and Language and Literature students.

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From Louise Sands - CRC

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From Louise Sands