Top of the posts: Gove, Michael Morpurgo and young entrepreneurs

By Neela Debnath
Friday, 14 September 2012 at 7:01 pm

With the continuing fallout from the GCSE English marking debacle still making headlines, Jane Smith questioned if Education Secretary Michael Gove really knows what he is doing. She offered up food for thought from her own experiences in the classroom and looked at a draft document on government guidance on teaching literacy.

On the theme of literacy, Katharine Quarmby urged parents to get their children to read Michael Morpurgo’s novel Private Peaceful and see the film adaptation which will be coming out next month. She explains how there is a divide within children’s literature between books for younger and older children. However, Morpurgo manages to bridge this gap in a balanced manner.

This week the RSA released a report with figures showing that more young people are not letting the economic climate hold them back and are trying to start their own companies using the internet. The author of the report Adam Lent explains why young people are more self-sufficient than they are perceived to be.

Meanwhile Alex Johnson takes a look at the figures which show that buying is in fact cheaper than renting in most cases. Average rents for two bedroom flats outside the capital are £659 per month while the average asking price for two bedroom flats outside London is £139,451.

Here are the most read blogs from the past week, as determined by stats:

1. Does Michael Gove really know what he’s doing? by Jane Smith

2. Why children should see Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Private Peaceful’ by Katharine Quarmby

3. Everything Everywhere and Nokia reportedly readying exclusive UK LTE deal with 4G Lumia 920 by Alex Masters

4. Apple invitation all but confirms next week’s iPhone 5 announcement by Alex Masters

5. Justice For The 96, #JFT96, CCTV, Gove, GCSEs, #ESM – why are they trending? by Emily Jupp

6. Nokia’s new hardware looks great, but is it enough to save Microsoft’s mobile business? by Alex Masters

7. Young people are sorting themselves out without help from the hand-wringing elite by Adam Lent

8. Brazil’s Bentley generation of Leandro Damião, Lucas, Neymar and Oscar are stuck in first gear by James Young

9. Review of Doctor Who ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ by Neela Debnath

10. Owning a property is cheaper than renting in nine out of 10 British towns by Alex Johnson