Education

Education

Multiple schools have temporarily closed in New Zealand and hundreds of education facilities are seeking advice from officials after asbestos was detected in several brands of widely used coloured play sand. Last week, the ministry for business, innovation and employment confirmed a voluntary recall was under way for two brands of coloured sand sold in New Zealand, after testing in Australia found asbestos in similar products.

If you think college sports has been changed by the transfer portal, prepare for what's happening in girls' high school basketball. They say what happens in college trickles down to high schools, and that's the case this season. There are so many high-level transfers that it's almost looking like boys' basketball. And it comes at a time of enhanced enforcement of transfer rules by the Southern Section, so who's available and who's not remains to be seen.

Whether he knows it or not, 6-foot-5 Zane Daoud of San Marino High is going to be a role model for kids born deaf. He was one of them, 60% deaf since birth. He rebelled against wearing hearing aids. He'd take them off constantly while growing up. By high school, he says he figured out how much they could help him and stopped worrying what people thought. He should be a top basketball player for Rio Hondo League favorite San Marino this season.

When my daughter turned 16, I didn't hand her the car keys and hope for the best. She spent a few months in driver's ed, practicing parallel parking, checking blind spots, and learning to handle heavy traffic and bad weather. Like all new drivers, she needed guidance and practice before she could drive safely on her own. With generative AI tools, we all have something far more powerful than a car. And most of us aren't getting lessons at all.

Curriculum quality: A strong emphasis on problem-solving skills to promote a deeper understanding and application of mathematical concepts Instructional expertise: Experienced instructors with impressive qualifications and training in mathematics and test preparation Format and flexibility: A range of instructional formats, including in-person classes, online courses and individual tutoring options, to enable students to select a learning style that suits their needs and preferences

1. SIERRA CANYON: Trailblazers can go 10 deep and have elite trio of Maximo Adams, Brandon McCoy and Brannon Martinsen. 2. SANTA MARGARITA: Four returning starters, led by Georgia Tech commit Kaiden Baley. 3. HARVARD-WESTLAKE: The Wolverines always find a way to improve in the offseasn when top players graduate, and this season will be no different as Pierce Thompson becomes the latest new star.

calling the teacher a "freaking genius," and saying her request "absolutely blew my mind." In the video, she imagines the scene. Thirty kids "on the verge of puberty" packed into an un-air-conditioned classroom after running around on the blacktop in "100-degree Iowa corn sweat heat." "It's got to be like a human crock pot of disgusting sweat and smells," Baird adds with a laugh. She concludes, "Deodorant. The smartest thing I've heard all year."

For several years, I've built and led leadership development programs. I helped leaders at all levels develop the skills they need to transition from one level to the next. Individual contributors transitioned to their first management roles, beginning to learn about what it means to manage people. Senior leaders became executives and learned what it means to truly lead a company, where every action reflects the culture and values.

A new grant competition from the Department of Education redirects federal funding intended for college student success programs to four areas aligned with the president's priorities. Critics say those four areas have little to do with access and retention. Congress appropriated $171 million for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to be used toward seven established programs, including Basic Needs, Veteran Student Success and Rural Postsecondary Education Development.

For the third time this school year, students at Oakland's Skyline High School were put into a "secure school protocol" this afternoon. Parents received a notice at 1:57 p.m. of a medical emergency that involved teachers and students being put into the secure protocol, where they are not allowed to leave the classroom they're in. A message sent at 2:07 p.m. said, "The lockdown is lifted and we will be dismissing students at the gate."

The College of Arts & Sciences is launching Cornell in Los Angeles (CULA), a new semester-long program designed to give students an insider's view of the entertainment industry. Ten students will be selected for the inaugural cohort, which will begin in spring 2027, with applications opening April 1, 2026. The program, spearheaded by the Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA), will place students in Hollywood for a semester of coursework, networking and cultural immersion.

"You'll put in €30,000, but you'll end up with about €41,500." Personal finance columnist Sinead Ryan doesn't mince her words when it comes to the potential power of child benefit, if it's saved strategically. On the latest episode of Money Talks, she explains to Katie Byrne why this €140 monthly payment is one of the most misunderstood parts of family finances. For some households, it's essential income.

When Sesame Street first appeared on television in 1969, it rearranged the architecture of childhood. The show looked like pure joy, a neighborhood of color, rhythm, and creatures who seemed to belong to no one and everyone at once. But underneath the laughter and songs was something more radical. A handful of educators and psychologists came together with a quiet conviction that television could be a classroom for children who didn't have one. They weren't simply trying to teach the alphabet.

A recap of the day's learning is beneficial for children, but let's change the way homework is done Homework - the mere mention of the word is guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of parents and children up and down the country. For the grown-ups of my generation, the word usually triggers a collective trauma intricately interwoven with the all too familiar opening chords of RTÉ's Glenroe.

Proponents argue that the bans are essential to promoting academic achievement and overall well-being among students. Cell phone ownership has more than doubled among school-aged youth in the past decade. At the same time, rates of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and cyberbullying have skyrocketed. And 72 percent of high school teachers say phone distractions are a major problem in their classrooms, according to Pew Research Center polling from June 2024.

When Staci Freed's 5-year-old daughter, Audrey, returned from kindergarten in suburban Atlanta proudly showing off a Ring Pop she'd been given at school, the mother didn't see a sweet gesture; she saw a problem. A few days earlier, Freed had asked Audrey's teacher not to give her conventional candy after learning she had received Skittles as a special treat, citing concerns about artificial dyes and additives.

The serval did not want to go into her crate. The spotted cat's name was Naomi, she had just been weighed, and now it was time to do as she was told. "C'mon - in your crate," urged Thomas Barber, a student at Moorpark College. Naomi, held on a leash by student Trinity Astilla, was the picture of lithe, feline elegance as she slunk around a dusty enclosure, briefly hopping atop her crate - but not into it.

Simon was recently walking through the park with his three-year-old daughter. Autumn had truly arrived, and brown leaves lay scattered across the ground beneath the bare trees. Simon's daughter saw a small boy playing among the leaves and ran over to see what he was doing. The two quickly formed an unspoken bond as they joined forces, collecting the discarded leaves into piles. If you have children, you are almost certainly familiar with this scene, or one like it. Children naturally want to understand what's happening around them, and that curiosity helps them to connect with anyone, or anything, that intrigues them. When there's something new and exciting to discover, social anxiety is easily forgotten. Connections are easily forged.

The warning follows several months of financial crisis within the district. Just a few months ago, Oakland Unified was projected to run out of cash as early as fall 2025, with an anticipated $95 million budget shortfall. That deficit was reduced to $30 million, the district said over the summer, in large part through reduction and rearrangement of staffing. But district staff warned that Oakland Unified was still spending more than it receives and retaining too many employees with money the district simply doesn't have.

In a letter sent to the community Thursday, Saddler - who stepped into the top role over the summer after the school board ousted longtime superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell - said that $100 million must be cut from the 2026-27 budget in order for the district to stay afloat. "People we know and care about will lose their jobs. Programs our students love will be reduced or eliminated," Saddler said.

My parents were strict at home but at school people can airdrop you videos or show you their screen without invitation, to see your reaction. My school had a see it, hear it, lose it' policy, but in reality we just used them under the desk, in the toilets, during lunch break, in the playground, on the bus, even in the corridors. It was impossible for the teachers to stop us.

Much better to defer a white paper on special needs education in England than to announce plans in haste, only to be forced to withdraw them. This was the calculation behind the government's decision to put off until next year its plans for reform in a vitally important and sensitive area. Some council leaders were disappointed by the delay, such is their desperation about overspends.

SAN LEANDRO - Police here arrested a teacher at Bancroft Middle School after a 13-year-old girl reported that he'd inappropriately touched her repeatedly, starting when she was 12 years old, in what investigators described as "grooming stages," court records show. Laurentino Huerta-Garcia, 40, of Manteca, was charged in October with a single felony count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Eduba, developed by Roie Avni, is an adaptive classroom furniture system that challenges the static nature of traditional learning spaces. Designed to make classrooms more flexible, dynamic, and student-centered, it allows quick and intuitive changes in layout and posture, enabling a fluid learning experience that evolves throughout the day. The system includes a and a , both designed for versatility and ease of use. Each piece can be connected, detached, or flipped to create different configurations.

On a grassroots level, it could not be clearer: Irish people want to learn Irish. An island-wide Údarás na Gaeltachta study found last year that 74pc wish to improve their level.

Overthe past few years, a huge number of schools in the United States and around the world have banned cell phone use among their students. It's a divisive topic, and the effects are only starting to come into focus. Just look at New York State, where governor Kathy Hocul and lawmakers put a ban into the state budget last spring in an effort to give kids a break from distractions at school.

During elementary school, I often resisted being homeschooled or attending a private evangelical Christian school, so the summer before seventh grade, I begged my parents to let me return to public school. They agreed, but that transition was also difficult. I felt like a fish out of water, completely naive and innocent in terms of pop culture and developmental knowledge. In other words, no matter which form of schooling I endured, there were real challenges: physical, mental, and emotional.

What you see is the result of a collaborative journey between three fields: education, architecture, and fabrication. The educational perspective guided us in designing a school that responds to the needs of children in a world increasingly dominated by digital technology, fostering instead a connection to nature. The architects shaped forms, spaces, and light that make every living being-children, plants, and animals-feel recognized and alive.

Kevin Kiernan, the winningest girls' coach in state history with 900 career wins, according to CalHiSports, has come out of retirement for a second stint at Troy, where he coached for 11 years before heading over to Mater Dei for an 18-year run as girls' coach and later athletic director. He's also coached at Westminster La Quinta as well as boys' basketball and was women's coach at Cypress College.

The law aims to build on the Dignity for all Students Act, which took effect in 2012 and is designed to provide public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment without discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus, and/or at a school function, according to the New York State Education Department.

Dominic Perfetti is a 6-foot-7 starting basketball player for St. John Bosco. Even more impressive is that he's one of the top high school lacrosse players in the nation and has committed to Syracuse. He became interested in lacrosse when a friend gave him a stick when he was 6 years old. He started fooling around with it and has been playing lacrosse ever since.

I've surfaced from sleep in many weird, not-wonderful ways: waking up in my student accommodation in Maynooth to find I was not only in my boots, but sharing a single bed with two other fully grown people springs to mind.