FIRST ELEVEN - FOR CHILDREN. FOR PARENTS. FOR SCHOOLS. FOR LIFE

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Issue 9, the National edition is out now

Our new Summer Issue, which has an estimated readership of 75,000 parents, is now available through leading independent schools or direct from the publishers.

Among our special features are Choosing the Right School; Private Health Care; Summer Sports Camps; Finding the Right Tutor; University Applications; Exam Standards; and the Merits of Mixed or Single Sex Education.

Guest writers include Harrow headmaster Barnaby Lenon; Dr Chris Greenhalgh of Sevenoaks School; Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Oxford University; Classics Professor Mary Beard; and English Heritage Chief Executive Simon Thurley.

Issue 9, the London issue is out now

We’re also pleased to announce our special new London Edition with an estimated 50,000 readers whose children attend London’s independent schools.

Articles include the Drawbacks of a Summer Birthday; Planning a Party with Pippa Middleton; the Importance of Drama; Giving Grandparents; and much more besides.

Click here to subscribe to First Eleven.

The Great Garden Adventure

Saturday 10th July 2010

Storytelling by Roberto Lagnado

Bughunt, art and creativity in Bramham Gardens

Sessions start at 10.30; 11.00; 11.30 - book your space now!

Venue: Bramham Gardens, SW5 0HF (off Earl's Court Rd) (If wet in St Mary's Church Hall, The Boltons, SW10 9TB)

Tickets £2 from the Earl's Court Festival Office, 020 737 00015

1A Nevern Place, SW5 9NR, open Monday to Friday 3pm to 5pm.

Our children need boring teachers

For more news selected specially for First Eleven by www.theweek.com see the current issue of the magazine.

David Mitchell, The Observer

How about this for a futile endeavour. The chief inspector of schools, Christine Gilbert, last week announced a ‘crackdown’ on boring teachers. Quite how she intends to banish tediousness from the classroom is unclear, but the real question is: Why she should even try?

The truth is that some of the things children need to learn are boring. There’s nothing much you can do about that. You can’t make pupils
fi nd maths scintillating; in the end, they just have to ‘gird their brains’ and get to grips with it, or risk limiting their future prospects.
Besides, even if you could turn school into a non-stop, multimedia thrillfest that effortlessly inculcated children with knowledge of everything from the Magna Carta to the periodic table, it would be a totally inappropriate preparation for life. Nothing ever got achieved
without a bit of boredom. Learning to cope with ennui and to persevere, rather than giving up and blaming other people, is a vital skill, perhaps the most vital. Another word for it is concentration. Pupils who leave school without realising this fact have really been let down.