Tag Archives: schools

Juice Burst is a Hit With Schools

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With so many healthy juices cropping up on our supermarket shelves daily, it’s hard to know what to actually go for. With many brands boasting their products are “100% natural” or “made from 100% fruit”, it’s difficult to know whether that means that they are actually healthy for us with many of these products largely exceeding our recommended daily sugar intake. Whats more, if we are picking ones that are indeed full of the good stuff, how many are there that actually taste good?! Well, we went in search of something that checked the healthy and tasty box and was also approved by schools and found you Juice Burst. Juice Burst not only promise a juice drink which is one of your five a day, they also claim to be the ‘tastiest juice drink on the planet.’

So, “what’s so good about Juice Burst?” you say; Juice Burst not only come in a variety of thirst-quenching flavours, they were one of the first manufacturers to produce a school approved range stocked in 1 out of 3 schools in England. The product contains no artificial sweeteners and includes 1 of your 5 a day. The flavours are carefully considered and picked to give you more than just average flavours including; Pink Lemonade, Tropical and Orange Passionfruit to name a few. Our personal favourite, Sour Cherry.

To find out more including where to buy Juice Burst, check out www.juiceburst.com

A Failing Education System – A Recent Student's Perspective

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The education system in the UK is failing, despite what the politicians may tell us. Recently a Labour party MP illustrated what a wonderful job they had done in power. It was the usual infuriating Labour spin and refusal to accept any responsibility. She set out an array of meaningless statistics, stating how much grades and standards had improved.

Frankly grade statistics mean absolutely nothing. Grade inflation benefits everyone. It benefits the, politicians the teachers, the parents and the students. Is it any wonder grades keep increasing? Only one statistic really matters, youth unemployment. Youth unemployment will soon hit a million. It is a damning indictment of Labours 10 years in power. For all the great grades people may have it means nothing when it comes to getting a job and ultimately that’s all that matters.

What’s the problem? The problem is teaching culture. It is an obsession with exams and teaching the test. Teachers have become very good at teaching tests and students have become very good at doing them. Everything in the exams can be learnt. There is no opportunity for the students to show their own ideas. All the answers have to fit into a mark scheme (which we studied extensively) even the so called evaluation questions (where a student is supposed to be expressing their own ideas). All this stems from uncreative rigid syllabuses all again designed to fit into a nice and easy marking scheme. This is not how learning should be.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the teachers it’s certainly not their fault. Most teachers would love to spend more of their time doing real teaching but what choice do they have when their jobs are on the line. The problem is excessive central control and a system which treats everybody as a statistic rather than an individual and is obsessed with targets.

How many practice papers do you think I undertook for each A level module. 5? 10? The true number was closer to 25 per module. By the time I got into the exam I’d already seen and answered all the questions before. Was it any wonder I got great grades? But was it really a test of my intelligence and skill? What did I really learn? I’ve now been doing exams every term since the age of 8. If the education has left me with one thing it’s the ability to pass an exam.

When I came out of the education system I naively thought that with my great grades I would walk into a job. As it was I was completely unprepared.

In my next article I will show what we need to do to fix the system and prevent the country becoming engulfed in crisis in the future, because believe me, if we don’t fix this, it will. In the meantime please add your own ideas and thoughts below.

The Great Political Debate: Part 3: Conservative – Why You Would be Mad to Vote For Labour and Why I’m a Conservative

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By James Yardley

A response to Alain Lewis

Thanks for the article as a Conservative supporter voting for the first time it’s really interesting to know how supporters of other parties think. I guess I feel a bit like you did in 1987 and 1992 at the moment. I wonder how people can still vote for Labour after the last 13 years. However reading your article helped me understand a bit better.

You are right there are some good things Labour has done, giving the bank of England independence, introducing the minimum wage and investing more heavily in health and education but this was all introduced when Labour first came to power. Everything since has been a complete disaster and I can’t believe anyone would vote for them with the record they have.

The Wars – Lies for going to war in Iraq (Al Qaeda justification, WMD), trying to fight two wars on a peace time budget, a lack of proper equipment and vehicles leading to greater casualties than there should have been. No planning for after the war.

NHS computers systems – A waste of £12 billion which makes peoples job harder

Schools – Only teach the test, standards are no better exams have got easier, teachers have no power, schools are run as democracies.

ID cards and a massive national database – A waste of billions with absolutely no purpose other than to centralise power and exert greater control over the individual, quite frankly dangerous and bad for our democracy

Needing a licence to protest and building millions of CCTV cameras, Arresting people for shouting out the names of the dead outside number 10 – Fascist, dangerous and undemocratic

Brown and Mandelson unelected – It’s a disgrace that Gordon Brown thinks he has the right to govern having not been elected by either the British people or his own party. Even worse is that Mandelson, twice embroiled in major corruption scandals, also unelected is somehow the second most powerful man in the country. Are we living in a democracy? Are people really just going to accept this?

Spin The whole 13years have been characterised by image, deception and spin. Every attempt has been made to hide the real truth.

Numerous broken manifesto promises – Completely unforgivable broken promises about tuition fees and a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. There are tens of others as well some though not all of which can be attributed to the financial crisis.

Economy – The Golden rules proved to be more spin and were broken at the first test, borrowing and spending far more than was affordable. In 1997 the deficit was 6 billion, today it is 160 and the national debt has doubled.

Policing – The police waste hours filling out endless paper work. As a result you never see them on the street.

Reforming benefits – Millions of people on incapacity benefits who shouldn’t be

What is worst and most shocking of all is that Labour has completely abandoned the very people it is supposed to represent. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has grown considerably. There is less social mobility than ever before. Labour has done nothing to break the cycle. Those who most need help getting into work have not been helped effectively. The 10p tax initiative summed up the whole situation. This is why I respect Richard Wright who wrote the first article because although I disagree with his politics he won’t settle for the Labour party as it is today.

Alain argues that David Cameron is trying to force private schools into the state sector. But that’s not David Cameron that’s a Labour policy. The government academy scheme (which Cameron does support and wants to expand). That says it all. The Labour party is not representative of its supporters but because they won’t vote for anyone else and Labour knows they can get away with it.

How can anyone vote for this party when they so clearly have no morality or integrity whatsoever? It is blatantly obvious that the Labour party cares only about itself. It will always put themselves first before the interests of the country. This is where our politics has gone so wrong. It’s time to start putting the people first again.

I’m a Conservative because I believe in giving power to the individual. Letting people live their own lives but still supporting them when they need help. We need to devolve power to a local level, allowing local communities to make their own decisions instead of some bureaucrat in Whitehall. That’s why I’m supporting David Cameron’s big society.

The Labour party has always sought to expand the power of the state. Every decision is controlled from the centre. They’ve tried to bring in ID cards and national databases. Everyone is treated as a statistic. This is not only inefficient and wasteful but it is also dangerous. An overly powerful state is bad for our democracy. The state has a role but it should be there to support you not to tell you how to live your life.

Budgets have seen huge increases, that’s a good thing, but only a small proportion has made it onto the frontline. In the last 13 years the government has created huge numbers of managers and administrators. It has become overly obsessed with its endless targets. This obsession is profoundly damaging. For example school exam results may be improving but does anyone really believe students are more intelligent or skilled. The real test is in the number of people being employed and youth unemployment is at around an astonishing 20%. That’s the only real statistic which matters in my eyes.

Conservatism is also about enterprise. Encouraging everyone to achieve their goals. Taxing people less. Helping small businesses by making it easier to employ people and cutting the ridiculous amounts of red tape that exist at the moment.

It’s time to get rid of this tired, inefficient and dishonest government. It’s time for people to take power back in to their own hands. That’s why I will be voting Conservative.

James Yardley