But with private investment to get it off the ground and interest from advertisers including Cadbury Cable & Wireless Tetley and

But with private investment to get it off the ground and interest from advertisers including Cadbury, Cable & Wireless, Tetley, and Channel 4, they are confident they can succeed.Co-founder Hayley Hobbs, an English teacher, believes there is a need for a kids’ newspaper that can be used as part of the National Curriculum, then taken home to enjoy. “Teachers use newspapers in the classroom, but even with bright 11-year-olds it can be hard,” she says. “Tabloids are often inappropriate, the broadsheets in another league. Even mid-market titles like The Express and the Daily Mail can prove difficult because of their content and style.”TheNewspaper is a 24-page colour tabloid with a lively mix of home and world news, sport, celebrity gossip, environmental issues, health, IT, book reviews from Amazon, and arts information from the Tate. Kids will also get the chance to see their own journalism in print.Material will be produced by journalists from regional and national newspapers including the London Evening Standard and The Express. Managing editor Joyce Quarrie, whose background is in contract publishing, oversees style and content, but direction and tone is shaped by an editorial board that includes Hobbs and her co-founders, teachers Busfy Whiting and Jenny Macdonald.For meeting the tastes and expectations of the teachers who will distribute it will be key And Young Media must perfect a delicate balancing act. Using educational publishing distribution house Hamilton House, TheNewspaper will be couriered to schools each month at no cost to recipients.

To be effectively distributed, it must be endorsed by teachers – but not to the extent that potential readers are turned off.Long-term viability depends on advertising and sponsorship Hobbs denies that this could cause ethical problems. “Advertorial will be prominently labelled and adverts will avoid selling specific products.”At one level, prospects look rosy. “Advertisers are eager to get into the classroom, and parents are increasingly positive about commercial involvement so long as it is supportive and responsible,” says Philip Walker, head of media consultancy Initiative.But in other respects, TheNewspaper faces a struggle. “Young people do not read newspapers – fact,” says George Kelly, project director at consults CMC International.

Previous attempts, even with major newspaper backing, have had only limited success. While The Times’ Funday Times has become a regular feature, other papers, including The Independent, have tested the water and withdrawn.Whether Young Media has the staying power to buck the trend remains to be seen And if it doesn’t? Well, there’s always the Web.. Two exam boards are attacked today for failing to deal promptly with appeals over the marking of A-level exams. Two exam boards are attacked today for failing to deal promptly with appeals over the marking of A-level exams.
In the first public report on the performance of exam boards, government advisers looked at the time taken by boards to cope with requests for re-marks from A-level students applying to university who may lose their places if they do not secure the grades they need.They found that last year one board, the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examination Board, (OCR), failed to complete nearly half the re-marks (46 per cent) within the 30-day deadline. Another, Edexcel, dealt with 65 per cent within the target time.

Last year was the first year in which the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority set targets for the speedy completion of appeals and inquiries.Both the Welsh and Northern Ireland boards completed all their A-level re-marks before the deadline. Nick Tate, the qualification authority’s chief executive, said: “All of the awarding bodies are aware of their relative performance and can see the significant differences these data show. It is clear that Edexcel and OCR must substantially improve the service that they provide.”. A new Business Development Centre, recently launched by the OU, will make the University’s expertise in vital areas including research, technology and learning available to support commerce and industry. A new Business Development Centre, recently launched by the OU, will make the University’s expertise in vital areas including research, technology and learning available to support commerce and industry.
Among business services being offered are consultancy and applied research, technology transfer, webcasts (on-line delivery of large scale live events), forums and a range of library services including business information, advice on knowledge management strategy, and training in Internet search skills.Alongside these, the Business Development Centre team is also advanced on the development of a prototype for a corporate university, enabling big business to tailor in-house training programmes for their own staff at every level, to be delivered by the OU via the web.The prototype is currently being piloted in partnership with a major national company.The Centre is able to operate as a gateway to a vast range of experience within the OU, including the highly-regarded Knowledge Media Institute, which developed the virtual microscope and virtual field trip, the Open University Business School, as well as a national academic and research community.Business Development Manager Marion Baldwin says: “Our aim is to increase the University’s links with business and industry, and to establish our ability to respond to their needs by providing services that will benefit them and ourselves.”To contact the Business Development Centre call 01908 659494, e-mail: do-business open.ac.uk. When Brian Williams, a Welsh dairy farmer, heard his daughters’ school planned to reintroduce milk as an alternative to fizzy drinks at break-time, he was delighted. Then he found the children were paying nearly six times more for their so-called subsidised milk than he was paid for it.