The Spoon Drawer

Source Summer. For most the arrival of warm weather and glorious sunshine is enough to lighten the mood, however for many it also brings the unrivalled excitement of music festivals. Having been lucky to attend a few in my lifetime, there simply appears to be no let up in the popularity of festivals for attendees and artists alike. In 2017 there was a 12% increase in the number of people who attended live events, resulting in a wave of cash for the industry. This popularity has seen the season stretch from early spring all the way through into winter with everyone from Ed Sheeran to the local pub band lining up for the chance to perform. There are now literally hundreds of different all singing, all dancing events catering for all types of attendee’s and with the ever reliable Glastonbury taking a well-earned break, choosing a festival which will make all the effort, money and time off work worth it can be daunting prospect. Thankfully in the digital age tha

Source At the beginning of May the UK marked its support for the teaching community with national teacher appreciation day , a day dedicated to sharing affection, both online and offline for the role that teachers undertake in society.   Conversely in the subsequent weeks, newspapers have been rife with stories of a growing crisis in the industry. Between unmanageable workloads, growing class sizes or an inability to recruit qualified staff, it is difficult to see how sincere or heartfelt this appreciation really is. Crisis The sense of crisis is supported by some recent stats. The department of education outlined that just under 40,000 teachers quit the profession in 2016, representing around 9% of the workforce. These departures have not been offset by a highly publicised recruiting drive, as there remains a shortfall of 30,000. This shortfall results in a negative knock on effect for the schools. Less teachers results in classes being combined. These larger cl