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A dad recently lost a court case to avoid being fined for taking his daughter on holiday during term time. What are your views about parents being fined for this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39504338

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A father has lost his legal challenge against a fine for taking his daughter out of primary school on an unauthorised holiday during term time.

The Supreme Court ruled against Jon Platt, who had won earlier legal battles against a £120 fine in a case brought by the Isle of Wight council.

Mr Platt said the decision, over a trip to Florida, meant the "state was taking the rights away from parents".

But Prime Minister Theresa May said it was for schools to decide on absences.

"It's right that the individual head teacher has that flexibility to make that decision," she said.

The judges ruled that the interpretation of "regular" attendance, at the centre of this long-running dispute, should be decided by the school.

The decision makes clear that parents in England can be fined if their children miss school without the agreement of the head teacher, except for reasons such as illness or family bereavement.

Holiday costs

But Mr Platt said parents would find it "utterly shocking" that they needed the "permission of the state" to decide on school attendance.

"You are not the final arbiter of what's right for your child."

In her judgement, Lady Hale said it would cause unacceptable disruption if parents were able to withdraw children whenever they wanted.

"Unauthorised absences have a disruptive effect, not only on the education of the individual child, but also on the work of other pupils, and of their teachers," she said.

Allowing parents to decide when they took their children away would be a "slap in the face" to parents who kept the rules, said Lady Hale.

The case has raised questions about the high cost of travel during school holidays and Andrew Shelton from the Cheapflights travel website said the tough message on term-time absences could "widen the price divide between term-time and school holiday even further".

Mr Shelton said that at present there could be a 50% difference in prices.

'Much-needed clarity'

The Supreme Court ruling, which upheld the appeal by the Isle of Wight council and the Department for Education, means that the case will be returned to the magistrates' court, where Mr Platt says he will continue to plead not guilty.

The court found that the penalty notice had been properly issued and without a reasonable cause for the absence, Mr Platt could have expected to face a fine.

The Isle of Wight council backed the decision as providing "much-needed clarity about what constitutes regular attendance at school".

The ruling rejects Mr Platt's argument that despite missing a week of school for a holiday, his daughter had regularly attended over the course of the year, with an attendance rate of over 92%.

The judges did not accept this interpretation and said parents would have to comply with the rules set by schools and education authorities.

The row centred on a week's holiday to Disney World in the United States two years ago, when Mr Platt's daughter was taken out of primary school without the head teacher's permission.

Mr Platt, originally from Northern Ireland, was fined £60 which with non-payment was increased to £120 - after which he faced prosecution for failing to ensure his daughter's regular attendance at school on the Isle of Wight.
Truancy prosecutions in England in 2015

Proceeded against: 19,920 (16,430 in 2014)

Found guilty: 14,890 (12,479 in 2014)

Fined: 11,493, average fine £176.

Immediate custody: 8

Suspended sentence: 111

Community sentence: 553

Conditional discharge: 2,280

Absolute discharge: 306

Source: PA

Magistrates had accepted Mr Platt's argument that "regular attendance" should consider attendance across the whole year - and decided that he had no case to answer.

When this was put to appeal, the High Court agreed that magistrates had been entitled to consider school attendance outside of the term-time absence.

But the Supreme Court has now overturned these earlier decisions.

End of uncertainty

Head teachers' leader Malcolm Trobe welcomed the court's decision, saying that it ended a "period of uncertainty" over term-time holidays.

But Liberal Democrat education spokesman, John Pugh, said the ruling was "disappointing" and called for more "flexibility" for families.

"Many employees have no choice when to take their holidays... Others simply cannot afford to go on holiday at peak times, when the cost of holidays goes through the roof," he said.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We are pleased the Supreme Court unanimously agreed with our position - that no child should be taken out of school without good reason.

"As before, head teachers have the ability to decide when exceptional circumstances allow for a child to be absent but today's ruling removes the uncertainty for schools and local authorities that was created by the previous judgment.

"The evidence shows every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil's chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances."

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Term-time holiday dad loses court battle

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A father has lost his legal challenge against a fine for taking his daughter out of primary school on an unauthorised holiday during term time. The Supreme Court ruled against Jon Platt, who had won earlier legal battles against a £120 fine in a case brought by the Isle of Wight council.

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Do you think Theresa May should take part in the TV election debates between the main party leaders? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39633696

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https://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/more-got?utm_term=.mwxnx3kqd#.qbqe59NEq

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There's been a lot of rumours flying around in the Game of Thrones fandom about HBO creating up to FOUR new spin-offs of the epic show once it's over.

6. It seems they'll all be set prior to the events of Game of Thrones.

11. And they whole team is dedicated to making them just as good as Game of Thrones.

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11 Things We Know About The Potential 'Game Of Thrones' Spin-Offs

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There's been a lot of rumours flying around in the Game of Thrones fandom about HBO creating up to FOUR new spin-offs of the epic show once it's over. 6. It seems they'll all be set prior to the events of Game of Thrones. 11.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39921799

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150604-can-we-make-britain-wild-again

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Britain once looked very different. In place of sheep-strewn fields and treeless uplands, there were vast natural forests, glades and wild spaces. Within them, wolves, bears and lynx roamed the land. The first Britons lived alongside woolly mammoths, great auks and wild cows called aurochs.

All that is now gone. Humans chopped down the trees to make space for farms, and hunted the large animals to extinction, leaving plant-eaters to decimate the country's flora. Britain is now one of the few countries in the world that doesn't have top predators.

No matter how much we may think England's green and pleasant countryside is "natural", it is a pale shadow of what once was - and what could be again.

If some conservationists have their way, parts of the UK could be restored to a truly wild state. This "rewilding" would bring back animals and plants that have been lost, and allow them to roam freely. In these new wild spaces, people could reconnect with animals and plants in a way no park or zoo could ever manage. But it's also a hugely controversial idea.

There are various interpretations of rewilding. The word was coined in 1990 by an American environmentalist named Dave Foreman, who went on to found the Rewilding Institute. Then in 1998, Michael Soulé and Reed Noss set out the core ideas in an article for Wild Earth magazine.

Top predators allow many more species to flourish

The key to rewilding is creating large protected areas in which animals and plants are left to their own devices. The new wildernesses have to be large to support top predators like wolves, which need space and lots of prey.

The top predators are crucial, because they keep down the populations of their prey. These are normally plant-eating animals like deer, which would otherwise run riot and decimate trees and other plant life - and in turn destroy the habitats for many other animals. By keeping plant-eaters in check, top predators allow many more species to flourish.

These ripple effects are called "trophic cascades". Soulé and Noss argued that ecosystems cannot function as they should without top predators or carnivores.

In the last few years, the idea of rewilding parts of the UK has started to gain some support. For instance, the naturalist Chris Packham has spoken out in favour of reintroducing wolves and lynxes.

We have very poor ecosystems

The journalist George Monbiot has also become a passionate supporter of rewilding, which he described in his 2013 book Feral. He says the return of charismatic predators could make Britain's landscape more exciting.

"We have very poor ecosystems," says Monbiot. Although the UK has plenty of designated national parks, they are all dominated by human activities.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature ranks protected areas on a six-point scale, where 1 is the most wild. "None of our national parks are above grade 5," says Monbiot. "That means that they're marginally better than multi-storey car parks for wildlife, but not by much."

In June 2015, Monbiot and other conservationists will launch Rewilding Britain, a new charitable organisation that will champion rewilding.

Rewilding the UK is not a new concept

They aim to set aside three areas of at least 100,000 hectares of land in which ecological processes are dominant. They also want to designate 30% of the UK's seas as no-take zones, so life can return to the oceans.

"We'd love to have some places where you don't have to travel halfway round the world to see magnificent wildlife," says Monbiot.

This may sound very radical. The funny thing is, rewilding the UK is not a new concept. We are arguably doing it already.

Conservation groups like Trees For Life have been busily restoring native forests and other key landscapes for decades. Many of the biggest projects are happening in Scotland, but there are smaller ones elsewhere.

Marshy areas are crucial habitats for many birds

These include The Great Fen Project in east England, The National Forest in central England, Moor Trees in the south-west and the Mid Wales Red Squirrel Project.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, despite its name, spends much of its time rebuilding wetlands, particularly in the eastern county of Essex. These marshy areas are crucial habitats for many birds.

Thanks to the RSPB's efforts, populations of red kites, cirl bunting, great bustards and goshawks have returned to healthy numbers.

The Knepp Castle Estate in West Sussex, which was once a loss-making intensive farm, is now being rewilded. A host of rare species has returned, from nightingales to barbastelle bats, cuckoos and purple emperor butterflies.

But the story that really brought rewilding into the spotlight began in February 2014, when wild beavers turned up in the south-western county of Devon.

A family of three was found living on the River Otter. It was the first time beavers had been found in the wild in England since they were hunted to extinction in the 16th century.

The UK government raised concerns that they could be carrying a tapeworm

It's not clear where the beavers came from, but they might have escaped from captivity, as beavers are often employed as land management on private estates.

When the runaway beavers were discovered, the UK government raised concerns that they could be carrying a tapeworm called Echinococcus multilocularis, which can be harmful for humans, and that the landscape might have changed too much for them to stay.

Environmental groups and local people campaigned for them to be allowed to stay. Eventually the beavers, now five strong, were tested and found to be disease-free. In March 2015, the beavers were re-released for a 5-year trial.

Beavers are cute, but that's not the only reason for letting them return to the UK.

By building dams across rivers, which create ponds and eventually change the rivers into wetlands, they help species to flourish that would otherwise struggle. Birds, amphibians and fish all benefit.

"You get beautiful beaver ponds and dams, which are used by a whole host of species from otters to birds," says Alasdair Cameron of Friends of the Earth, who was involved in campaigning for the beavers to remain.

There is even evidence that beavers could, in a modest way, help prevent dangerous climate change.

Beavers in this country are a fantastic way of sequestering carbon in wetlands

The Earth's rising temperatures are largely driven by carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, so the more carbon can be kept out of the atmosphere the better.

"One of the principal sources of carbon is the destruction of soils and wetland ecosystems," says Cameron. "Beavers in this country are a fantastic way of sequestering carbon in wetlands."

There is a second population of around 150 beavers, living on the River Tay in Scotland, probably after being illegally released. In 2015 the National Trust for Scotland, a charity that looks after Scottish heritage, said they should be allowed to remain

But even if that happens, it will only be a tiny step down a very long road.

Compared to other European countries, the UK has been slow to reintroduce its indigenous species, despite European legislation encouraging it.

In many cases we have to pick them up and plonk them down

Big predators now roam in nearly one-third of mainland Europe. There are currently 17,000 brown bears, 12,000 wolves, 9,000 Eurasian lynx and 1,250 wolverines. But not in Britain.

One reason is simple: Britain is an island so it's hard to get to. On the mainland, wolves are spreading freely from the east into the west.

"Wolves come across the border from the Czech Republic or Poland to Germany," says David Hetherington, a biologist who advises the Cairngorms National Park. "They come back under their own steam."

But on their own, wolves aren't going to make it to Britain. "Birds can do that to an extent but mammals need a helping hand from humans," says Hetherington. "In many cases we have to pick them up and plonk them down."

Paul Lister, the owner of Alladale Wilderness Reserve in north-east Scotland, is exploring the possibility of reintroducing wolves and bears. He believes we need predators, and suggests releasing two packs of wolves and 20-odd bears on his own land.

It won't start eating people's livestock and pets

"We got rid of wolves and we've got room to bring them back," says Lister. "It will give the land a chance to recover."

Critics say his plan is unrealistic and naïve, but Lister points out that he is not talking about letting the animals go wherever they like.

"It's not full-blown reintroduction," says Lister. "It won't start eating people's livestock and pets and interrupting our lives, because it will be inside a fence and it will be properly managed."

Even with such controls, reintroducing wolves or bears to the UK is likely to prove difficult, as many people consider them too dangerous to live with. Farmers in particular are deeply opposed.

The Scottish highlands already have high densities of prey animals

But lynx might be more viable. These big cats pose no threat to humans. In March 2015, the Lynx UK Trust announced plans for trial releases.

Hetherington says the Scottish highlands already have high densities of prey animals, enough to support about 400 lynx. There is also plenty of room for the cats, which live in well-wooded landscapes and have large home ranges.

A small habitat network in the south of Scotland could support around 50 lynx, says Hetherington. But it's not something to rush into.

"There needs to be some sensible, inclusive and respectful dialogues involving local communities and sectors who feel threatened by this," says Hetherington. "If that doesn't happen, lynx reintroduction will never be given the go-ahead, or it will fail and you'll get illegal hunting."

We don't know the risks

The main objection to reintroducing lynx, or other big predators, is that it could affect farmers' livestock and livelihoods. "These animals are high-level predators whose reintroduction would directly impact on sheep farmers and related businesses," said the National Sheep Association.

"There's a high degree of uncertainty about how it would play out in Scotland," says Andrew Bauer of the National Farmers Union of Scotland. "We don't know the risks and it's irresponsible to present it as cut-and-dried, as some are... Losing lambs is distressing and damaging for business."

One reintroduction, carried out 40 years ago, illustrates the problems.

White-tailed eagles, also known as sea eagles, are the largest birds of prey in the UK. They were wiped out in the early 20th century, but were then reintroduced on the Isle of Mull.

In conservation terms, they are a success story. As of 2015 there are almost 100 breeding pairs across Scotland, according to Mull Eagle Watch.

Llamas and donkeys can be used to protect sheep

However, their return has caused problems for farmers, because the eagles sometimes kill lambs. Scottish Natural Heritage offers compensation, but Bauer says the programme is flawed.

"The scheme pays farmers to do things that will reduce the risk but it doesn't cover the losses," he says. "The problem is much more serious that we thought because the number of sea eagles is increasing."

If lynx are reintroduced, a similar story may play out. Lynx UK Trust has mentioned plans to compensate farmers but the details are hazy.

The good news is that lynx's impact can be controlled. "You can bring predation down to really low levels," says Hetherington. Llamas and donkeys can be used to protect sheep, and since the lynx live in forests, simply moving lambs away from forest edges keeps them much safer.

Because people need to live off the land, rewilding is not just a scientific issue: it's a political one.

Many of the traditional uses of British land are hopelessly unprofitable anyway

The worry is that reintroducing big predators, or allowing farmland to revert to its natural state, will be bad for the rural economy - which is already struggling. "The sheep farmer has a right to be there," says Bauer.

The counter-argument, put forward by Monbiot, is that many of the traditional uses of British land are hopelessly unprofitable anyway. Many only survive thanks to government subsidies such as the Common Agricultural Policy. In particular, upland areas such as the Welsh hills and Scottish highlands have infertile soils that don't yield much.

Rewilding, says Monbiot, offers alternative sources of income, which might well mean rural areas are better off. One option is eco-tourism, in which people pay to stay in wild areas and to be shown the best places to see the animals. Local people with decades of expertise often make the best guides.

"We are in conversation with quite a few farmers who are actually enthusiastic," says Monbiot.

It is about satisfying a natural human desire: to come face to face with the wild

Even if rewilding doesn't boost rural economies in the way Monbiot thinks it could, there are other potential benefits.

For instance, if Britain's bare hills become cloaked with trees, and trees are also allowed to grow right up next to rivers, they will trap rainwater. This should mean a more steady flow of water into rivers, reducing the risk of both floods and droughts.

But it is also about satisfying a natural human desire: to come face to face with the wild, where our species spent almost all of its history.

"We live in a pretty garden, a sanitised landscape. It's nothing like what it used to be," says Lister.

We have a tremendous capacity for being enchanted by the wonders of nature

For many of us, BBC Earth documentaries are as close as we get to wild nature. Yet there is growing evidence that spending time there is good for both our physical and psychological health.

"We have a tremendous capacity for being enchanted by the wonders of nature and we have very little scope for exercising that capacity in this country," says Monbiot.

With popular figures like Bill Oddie and Chris Packham speaking out in favour of rewilding, there might be some appetite for Britain to become a wilder place again. And if a country as stripped of its wildlife as Britain can do it, anywhere can.

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The rewilding plan that would return Britain to nature

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Britain once looked very different. In place of sheep-strewn fields and treeless uplands, there were vast natural forests, glades and wild spaces. Within them, wolves, bears and lynx roamed the land. The first Britons lived alongside woolly mammoths, great auks and wild cows called aurochs. All that is now gone.

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http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/june2017/2017/05/unnoticed-and-unreported-jeremy-corbyn-surging-poll

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https://www.gdst.net/

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Our future PM

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One of the more interesting trends since the election was called is the increase in the Labour vote. Although the Conservatives are still miles ahead, thanks to their almost complete absorption of the Ukip vote, Labour is creeping back up to its 2015 level - that is, close to 30 per cent of the vote.

Before the election was announced, I thought one of two things would happen in May 2020: either Labour would find a way to increase the number of people who think that Jeremy Corbyn should be Britain's next Prime Minister (as low as 14 per cent or as high as 21 per cent depending on the pollster), in which case they would have a chance of winning. Or the numbers of people saying Corbyn was the best Prime Minister and the numbers of people saying they would vote Labour would meet in the middle - some Labour voters would warm to Corbyn as he is the Labour leader, others would go off Labour as the party is led by Corbyn.

Instead, neither of those things appears to be happening. The number of people saying they want Corbyn to be Prime Minister is unchanged since the election. But Labour's vote share isn't falling, it's rising. Why? Here are some theories.

Labour are fighting a very good campaign

As I've said before and will say again, the only bits of an election that matter are the bits that people who don't care about politics see: the newsbreaks between songs on music radio, the pictures that play without sound on Sky News in every Wetherspoons through the country, the few minutes at the start of the six and ten o'clock news before people switch channels - or the few minutes at the end before they switch back.

Labour has a great message for those places - a series of popular policies, largely drawn from the social democratic mainstream though with the odd radical flourish such as abolishing tuition fees. There's a golden thread as there was to the party's campaigning in the Easter recess: Labour will do something for everyone by getting the wealthiest to pay more, whether that be ending the VAT exemption for private schools, increasing taxation on private healthcare, or undoing the Conservative cuts to corporation tax.

There's a criticism to be made that these policies are only fixing one of Labour's Miliband era problems - people weren't sure what they were for - but doubling down on another, that people worried that Labour would "spend too much". Certainly, that many more people are saying they will back the Conservatives shows the limits of that approach. But its benefits may be seen by its increase in its vote share.

People feared Ed Miliband, they don't fear Jeremy Corbyn

One of the things that was very clear to me in the run-up to the last general election when I visited marginal seats is that people who had voted Labour in 2005 but Conservative in 2010 were actively frightened of an Ed Miliband-led government. They were particularly unhappy about an Ed Miliband government that would in fact be "run" by the SNP, but that wasn't their only fear. The mansion tax - which hits only a handful of homes in London and would have touched not one house in any of those constituencies - was mentioned, as was the idea that Miliband was a weak leader who had "knifed his brother in the back". (I'm not wholly sure how these two ideas were reconciled with one another, but there you go.)

Read more: Jeremy Corbyn's vision for Britain

But because of the polls, those same people genuinely thought that Miliband would be in government.

Now, the number of people who think Jeremy Corbyn will be Prime Minister after 8 June is smaller than the number of people who think the Moon landings were faked. People are simply not very worried about Jeremy Corbyn. That may mean that voters who flit between the two are instead voting for their local representatives or to lessen the Tory landslide.

The Liberal Democrats are doing poorly

If you don't like Jeremy Corbyn and don't trust Theresa May, who do you vote for? The usual answer in British politics is the None-of-the-Above party or the Liberal Democrats as they are officially known.

Although Tim Farron has ambitions to establish his party as a genuine alternative to the Tories, not just a repository for disaffection, the assumption of many - including me - was that whatever happened, the party would get the votes of Conservative voters who didn't like May and Labour voters who didn't like Corbyn by default.

Although the Liberal Democrats did outperform their national vote share a bit in the local elections, they didn't do so in very many places they could realistically win on 8 June.

If you look at their campaign, you can see why. Tim Farron has been on the defensive over his views on homosexuality. That Labour are doing better also means the hunger for an alternative in that quarter is not what they might have hoped. And the majority of diehard anti-Brexiteers are concentrated in the big cities, where they cannot hope to overcome Labour's large majorities.

The polls are wrong

In 2015, there were two mysteries about the polls. The first was the large number of Labour voters saying that they would vote Labour but they didn't want Ed Miliband in Downing Street or Ed Balls at the Treasury. The second was how to reconcile the polls with Labour's weak performance in local elections in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. As I tweeted on the night of the European elections, they were the performance of an opposition heading for the knacker's yard, not Downing Street.

Then at the general election, the mystery was solved: Labour voters saying they didn't want the Eds near power weren't Labour voters at all. Instead, they voted for the Conservatives.

Two years later, the same mysteries are present. If Labour's vote is increasing, why was it down three points in the local elections last week? Why did the Conservatives do better than the polls would suggest, registering the best performance by a governing party in the local elections since 1974? And why do 30 per cent of people say they'll vote Labour when at the outside just 21 per cent say they believe Jeremy Corbyn is the best Prime Minister?

Read more: Is Labour really as doomed as it seems?

The systematic error of British pollsters is to overstate the number of people who are going to vote for the Labour party. All of the pollsters have implemented measures to fix that problem after the 2015 debacle. But they did the same after the 1992 election, and that clearly didn't work. (It didn't even work all that well in 1997, but Labour did so well that no-one really noticed that the opinion polls had slightly overstated Labour's strength in the country.)

It may be that once again, the pollsters are simply overstating Labour's popularity.

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Unnoticed and unreported, Jeremy Corbyn is surging in the polls

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One of the more interesting trends since the election was called is the increase in the Labour vote. Although the Conservatives are still miles ahead, thanks to their almost complete absorption of the Ukip vote, Labour is creeping back up to its 2015 level - that is, close to 30 per cent of the vote.

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http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_12-5-2017-13-3-33

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Virtual reality firm Improbable has raised $502 million just five years after being co-founded by Imperial computing graduate Peter Lipka.

The investment from SoftBank values the London-based technology startup at more than $1 billion.

Improbable uses cloud-based distributed computing to enable the creation of virtual worlds for use in games and massive-scale simulations of the real world.

Improbable was co-founded by Imperial graduate Peter Lipka, 28, along with Cambridge classmates Herman Narula, 29, and Rob Whitehead, 26. Narula serves as CEO, Whitehead is CTO and Lipka is COO.

Peter Lipka graduated with a 1st class honours MEng in Computing from Imperial in 2011 before working at Goldman Sachs. He co-founded Improbable in 2012.

Professor Andrew Davison, Head of the Dyson Robotics Lab at Imperial College London, supervised Peter Lipka while he was studying computing at Imperial. Professor Davison said: "Peter was one of the brightest students I've supervised. In his individual final year project he developed an AI software program that could automatically understand a video game and learn how to play it from only seeing pixels on the screen. He was always remarkably self-driven and I am not surprised to see him go on to such great success."

Other Imperial Computing graduates to experience startup success include Zehan Wang and Rob Bishop, who co-founded machine learning and image recognition firm Magic Pony, which sold to Twitter last year for a reported $150 million.

Daniel Rueckert, Head of the Department of Computing, said: "The Department's success is firmly based in the research-based education we emphasise. This means that we not only focus on theoretical foundations and practical programming skills, but that we also enable students to engage in cutting edge research during their projects as well as sending them to industrial placements where they get unique insights into how computing is shaping the world around us."

Revolutionary technology

Peter Lipka played a key role in designing and developing the architecture and core principles behind Improbable's SpatialOS technology. SpatialOS is a distributed operating system for massive-scale simulations that integrates with major game engines.

Over the past five years, Lipka helped the company grow from four to nearly 200 people, taking on roles heading Improbable's fabric team, engineering and commercial team, before becoming COO.

The SpatialOS technology is being applied to the simulation of complex real world systems. Potential applications include simulating transport infrastructure, telecommunications networks or the behaviour of fleets of autonomous vehicles.

Developers are using SpatialOS to build a range of different types of games which take advantage of its ability to manage larger scale, higher player numbers and easy scaling in a seamless virtual world.

Lipka was attracted to working on Improbable with Narula and Whitehead by the technical challenges, he told Wired. "I'll be honest, they were a little batshit crazy," he said in an interview with the magazine. His experience in finance at Goldman Sachs translated well: "High-frequency trading is basically 'speed is money,'... So taking those techniques and applying them to what we were building was incredibly valuable."

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Imperial graduate's startup valued at $1 billion

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Virtual reality firm Improbable has raised $502 million just five years after being co-founded by Imperial computing graduate Peter Lipka. The investment from SoftBank values the London-based technology startup at more than $1 billion. Improbable uses cloud-based distributed computing to enable the creation of virtual worlds for use in games and massive-scale simulations of the real world.

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Thousands of pupils across England, Northern Ireland and Wales have started their GCSE exams, marking the beginning of what can often be a stressful and anxious time for teenagers and parents alike.

From preparing their favourite dinners, to managing expectations (yours and theirs), experts offer their tips on what parents can do to help in the coming weeks.

1. Brain food

Stress, anxiety and late-night cramming can all effect appetite, but parents can help to ensure children maintain a well-balanced diet and aren't missing meals.

Exams generally start at either 09:00 or 13:30 - allowing plenty of time for breakfast and lunch.

Nutritional therapist Kerry Torrens recommends making breakfast the most important meal of the day, filling up on energy-giving oats and eggs, which contain a nutrient called choline - thought to help cognitive performance and improve memory as we age.

As for revision snacks, consultant Dr Alex Richardson recommends popcorn over crisps as it is higher in fibre, so releases energy more slowly, and is lower in calories.

Make sure your child is well hydrated, as mild dehydration can lead to tiredness, headaches and diminished concentration.

The European Food Safety Authority recommends eight to 10 glasses a day, but sparkling water still counts, and can be made less boring by adding lemon, lime, cucumber or mint.

Research has suggested students who take water into the exam hall may even improve their grades.

2. Bedtime

It won't come as a surprise to parents that teenagers need (and like) a lot of sleep. In fact, they need eight to nine hours a night.

But exam season can see priorities change.

Lisa Artis from the Sleep Council argues a good night's sleep is more beneficial than doing last-minute revision into the early hours.

"When you sleep well, you function and perform better and your memory is better, meaning you retain what you have revised," she said.

For those too nervous to sleep, Lisa says the hour before bed time is crucial.

"Have a good routine before bed. Relaxing properly will help sleep when you're stressed or anxious. Avoid screen time - including television - and get off social media."

Lisa suggests worried students should write down their anxieties, which can "free your mind of them".

"Parents can encourage children to study out of their bedrooms," she added. "If they are sat on their bed cramming, it becomes a place associated with stress."

If another room is not an option, Lisa suggested "zoning" - creating a desk or work area that is not their bed.

3. Support Vs Pressure

Parenting coach Anita Cleare says it's important to "find ways of being supportive without being imposing".

"They know the exams are important. Us ramping up the pressure is not going to help," she said.

While some parents may opt for large rewards, pending results, Anita suggested smaller rewards throughout the process.

"These can be little things like a takeaway or a trip to the cinema after a certain number of hours of revision."

Clinical psychologist Dr Rachel Andrew has been advising a lot of concerned parents in recent months.

"I tell them to look after their teenagers almost as if you would a younger child. You have got to nurture them through this time," she says.

This can be anything from preparing their favourite dinners to offering to run them a bath.

"Give them permission to take a break from revision in between working hard."

Dr Andrew suggests writing a weekly revision timetable, with scheduled gaps for socialising or exercise.

"A moderate level of anxiety will help us perform, but beyond that, we start to be impaired by it."

4. Positive parenting

Anita - who is also founder of the Positive Parenting Project - favours an optimistic approach during exam time.

"A failed exam is not the end of the world. It is important to put things in perspective," she says.

Anita - who has a son completing GCSEs this year - admitted parents are often more anxious than their children.

"We can't make anybody learn, you can only provide the conditions that are conducive to it."

Not all exams go well and telling your child "I'm sure it went better than you thought", isn't always helpful according to Dr Andrew.

She said it is important to validate the way they are feeling and talk through it after an exam, before helping them to move on and focus their energy on the next exam.

"Every child is different and will respond differently to pressure," she adds.

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GCSEs: A revision guide for anxious parents - BBC News

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Thousands of pupils across England, Northern Ireland and Wales have started their GCSE exams, marking the beginning of what can often be a stressful and anxious time for teenagers and parents alike. From preparing their favourite dinners, to managing expectations (yours and theirs), experts offer their tips on what parents can do to help in the coming weeks.

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Sixteen-year-olds will not be allowed to vote at next month's general election, but some are so keen to have their voice heard they are taking to the streets to campaign for their party.

One of them is Hani Mustafa, who is of Sudanese and Czech heritage, and moved to the UK when he was two.

Hani is on the streets of Peterborough - a seat held by the Tories since 2001 - delivering the Conservative Party message door-to-door.

He raps his knuckles on the front door of a house in the marginal constituency of Peterborough.

"That was a strong and stable knock," he says with a smile.

Hani is 16 years old and a passionate Tory supporter. Despite being too young to vote in next month's general election, he is still determined to make his mark.

"I think Theresa May relates to people like me and that's why she would be such a good prime minister," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.

Hani chose to join the Conservatives after studying the different parties' manifestos during the 2015 general election.
You can watch Catrin's full report on You Tube
"I saw the Conservative mission of working hard, doing the right thing and contributing to society and that really appeals to me," he said.

He describes campaigning for the Tories as the best vehicle to improve his community and, while he has had the odd door slammed in his face, he says the response from householders is generally positive.

"I think when people see a younger person they're more inclined to listen to you," he says.

"[They understand] I could be playing computer games, but I've gone to the effort of knocking on your door.

"You get people making lovely comments. People thanking you for coming."

Asked if he ever envisages becoming a politician he begins shaking his head, before swiftly adding "who knows?", as he breaks into a smile.

'I'm mid-GCSEs'

In the constituency of Sheffield Central - a little more than 100 miles north - Luke Bassett is helping the Labour Party.

He is also 16 and for him, the timing of the election could hardly be worse.

"As soon as she [Theresa May] called the election I was like, 'Why has she done it in the middle of my GCSEs'?

"She has done it because she hates me," he jokes.

The Labour Party won Sheffield Central with a strong majority in 2015 and Luke is trying to convince voters to keep supporting them.

"In government we had a very, very strong record," he says between houses.

"We brought social justice on to the agenda, we invested in the NHS, we invested in infrastructure and I think that everyone should have that kick-start in life and the best possible beginning for them."

Both his parents are unemployed and Luke has decided to try to forge a career in politics.

But he understands this is an unusual path for someone of his age, which he believes is a product of the way politics is run.

"Politics as a whole is quite exclusionary, because politicians don't need to angle for young people's votes - as we can't vote," he says.

"Even 18 to 25-year-olds don't vote nearly as much as their older compatriots.

"It's not in the education system either, you're not taught about politics."

Persuading mum and dad

In west London, Elizabeth Bernard - also 16 - is pounding the streets of Richmond Park.

The Liberal Democrats snatched the seat from the Conservatives last December, in a by-election triggered by the resignation of ex-MP Zac Goldsmith.

Elizabeth is looking at a list of names and addresses on a clipboard.

"Number four, is a 'yellow Conservative'," one campaigner says.

"A 'yellow Conservative' is a Conservative who might also tend towards the Lib Dems," Elizabeth explains, as she heads towards their front door.

"They're fun to canvass because you obviously have to try to persuade them to vote for you."

Elizabeth is a committed Liberal Democrat, even though both of her parents will be backing a different party next month.

"I am very proud of Elizabeth that she has her own thing," her mum Mary, says. "But both John [Elizabeth's father] and myself would vote Tory."

"I don't think I will ever be able to persuade dad, who has voted Tory since forever," Elizabeth says. "But mum? Maybe," she adds.

"Obviously I would say this, but I can't ever see myself becoming Conservative in any future ever.

"I think the Lib Dems are the only party to stand up for the freedom of the individual and also the only party mostly to stand up for our place in the European Union."

Sarah Olney, who was elected as the Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park in December, thinks the EU referendum - a "massive" nation-changing decision - may have made more young people think about politics.

"It is great to have anybody who is enthused about politics and people who really want to make a difference," she says.

"But I have noticed there are quite a lot of young people who are getting very enthusiastic about politics."
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 BST on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.

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General election 2017: Too young to vote, but still campaigning - BBC News

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Sixteen-year-olds will not be allowed to vote at next month's general election, but some are so keen to have their voice heard they are taking to the streets to campaign for their party. One of them is Hani Mustafa, who is of Sudanese and Czech heritage, and moved to the UK when he was two.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39896324

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We are obsessed

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The official line