School pupils in England have less tolerant attitudes to immigration, and are less interested in news than their international peers, a study finds. The research showed a hardening of attitudes on immigrants, jail sentences and benefit payments as students in England got older. The National Foundation for Educational Research also found that English pupils’ knowledge of the EU was poor.

But it found that regular citizenship classes could raise civic involvement.

The research tracked the attitudes of some 24,000 pupils over nine years, as they aged from 11 to 18.

It showed that over time, the cohort experienced a hardening of attitudes towards refugees and immigrants, jail sentences and benefit payments. It also showed their trust in politicians declined.

The researchers also compared the attitudes of English teenagers with those of their international counterparts.

This revealed that English pupils had attitudes which were “broadly democratic and tolerant”, the study said.

But “their tolerance of immigration is well below the international average and their view of European migration is particularly critical,” the researchers said.

English pupils had a “low” level of interest in social and political issues, the study found.

The report’s authors noted that this is an international trend, but that English young people had a level of news media interest significantly below the international average.

Pupils in England scored significantly above average in the international test of civic knowledge and understanding when compared to all participating countries.

But when compared only to their European counterparts, their performance was average.

Their knowledge of the European Union was significantly below that of other pupils in Europe, with English pupils scoring the worst on many questions of all 24 member states that took part in the study.

Pupils in England had a strong sense of national identity, which outweighed their sense of European identity.

The report’s authors noted that this is an international trend, but that English young people had a level of news media interest significantly below the international average.

Pupils in England scored significantly above average in the international test of civic knowledge and understanding when compared to all participating countries.

But when compared only to their European counterparts, their performance was average.

Their knowledge of the European Union was significantly below that of other pupils in Europe, with English pupils scoring the worst on many questions of all 24 member states that took part in the study.

Pupils in England had a strong sense of national identity, which outweighed their sense of European identity.

‘Weakening attachment’

The research also showed a weakening of English pupils’ attachment to their communities at local, national and European level, although their attachment to their school communities remained strong.

Trust in social, civil and political institutions also remained high, although 33% reported in the latest survey that they do not trust politicians “at all” – up from 20% at age 11.

The findings indicated that when citizenship education learning is delivered in slots of more than 45 minutes per week on a regular basis, it can improve young people’s chances of positive involvement in civic activities.

It also suggested that this can lead to young people feeling more able to make a difference to their communities.

Citizenship became compulsory for pupils aged 11 to 16 in September 2002 and a GCSE is available in the subject.

In the citizenship classes, young people learn about democracy and justice, the structure of political systems and how to function in that structure.

Curriculum shake-up

But Education Secretary Michael Gove has said he wants to slim down the national curriculum.

On Sunday he told the BBC that “hundreds of pages of prescription” aimed at teachers would be removed.

The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) last month said it understood that citizenship will be made non-statutory in the coming curriculum shake-up.

It fears this will mean the end for a subject which, it says, chimes with the Conservatives’ “Big Society” idea.

The government said it had not decided the future status of any subject.

Millicent Scott, Development Manager at the ACT said citizenship education, when taught well, equipped young people with the skills to appreciate the intricacies of controversial issues:

“The future health of British democracy will only be secure if we have an active, engaged electorate who participate in public life. Citizenship education supports the development of these skills.”

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said citizenship classes were “a very important part of education” But she said many schools struggle to find sufficient time to teach it properly. “Also, as the report suggests, teachers need to have access to training in order to be able to teach the subject effectively,” she added.

Citizenship education is statutory in some form in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and is one of the national priorities for education in Scotland.

Pupils in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland were not included in the study.

David Cameron is Britain’s new Prime Minister. The photo shows him shaking hands with the Queen, who invited him to become prime minister following Gordon Brown’s resignation and the agreement between  Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government.

Gordon Brown resigned. Speaking outside No 10, he said: “I wish the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future.

Tout savoir sur les elections britanniques, c’est ici !

Une petite révision sur le système politique britannique : là

An interview in The Guardian

A twelfth-century poem newly translated into English casts fresh light on the origin of today’s Francophobic stereotypes. Although it is meant to be an ‘entente cordiale’, the relationship between the English and the French has been anything but neighbourly.

When the two nations have not been clashing on the battlefield or the sporting pitch they have been trading insults from ‘frogs’ to ‘rosbifs’.Now the translation of the poem has shown just how deep-rooted in history the rivalry and name-calling really is.

Written between 1180 and 1194, a century after the Norman Conquest united England and Normandy against a common enemy in France, the 396-line poem was part of a propaganda war between London and Paris.Poet Andrew de Coutances, an Anglo-Norman cleric, describes the French as godless, arrogant and lazy dogs. Even more stingingly, he accuses French people of being cowardly, and calls them heretics and rapists.

It has taken David Crouch, a professor of medieval history at Hull University, months to complete the translation of what is one of the earliest examples of anti-French diatribe. The poem was written at a time when Philip II of France was launching repeated attacks on Normandy, taking advantage of in-fighting within the English royal family. Prof Crouch says that the poem is of great interest to historians because of its “racial rhetoric”, which was deployed by Anglo-Norman intellectuals in support of their kings’ bitter political and military struggle.

While rivalry between the English and their Gallic neighbours now only tends to surface at sporting occasions and European summits, the poem recalls battles between the two countries and describes the vices of the French in detail.

In one passage, it claims that “eating is their religion” and warns that dining with them is not a pleasant experience.

“A man who dines with the French/ should grab whatever he may/ as either he will end up with the nuts/ or will just carry off the shallots,” the poet writes.

“When they’re abroad they’re even more greedy/And shamefully gorge themselves at every table/Whenever they get near one.

“And whenever hosts have them in their homes/they realise the French are such men/So greedy and so avaricious/That he ought to drive them off with kicks.”

“Intellectuals were deployed to compose diatribes against the enemy,” said Prof Crouch.

“This poem was poisonously undermining the French and their national legend while promoting the legend of King Arthur.”

The poet refutes criticisms of King Arthur and celebrates a legendary victory over Frollo, the French ruler who is portrayed as lazy and incompetent.

“Lying flat out without stirring himself/Frollo got the French to equip him/For that is the way of the French/ Getting their shoes on while lying down,” he writes.

Having described at length the cowardly nature of the French, he even claims, wrongly, that Paris derived its name from the word ‘partir’, which means to flee.

He calls the French “serfs” and “peasants” in an attempt to suggest that they are a race without nobility, adding: “People remind them often enough about this source of shame, but they may as well have not bothered; for they take neither offence or account, as they know no shame.”

Using phrases reminiscent of the insults used by the French knights in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, de Coutances says the French “live more vilely than a dog” and calls them “rascals” and “mockers”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index.shtml

Kraft Foods wants to gobble up Cadbury. An alliance of Nestlé and Hershey is rumoured to be considering a rival bid. Shareholders slather like children in the sweetie shop. Should we care that an iconic British company, maker of Dairy Milk, Crunchie, Flake and that budget stick of sweetness, the Fudge bar, looks set to fall into foreign hands?

When gourmets speak of food culture the image is of artisans and rural crafts, of home-baking and unpasteurised cheeses. But Britain’s food culture — like it or not — has long been industrialised and our living heritage includes our classic chocolate bars. Every childhood has pocket-money memories of Flakes stuck in ice-creams and hoarded squares of Dairy Milk. Many an adult has a secret treat in the corner shop. It’s an energy boost with a certain comforting nostalgia.

So the news of a foreign takeover gives me a surge of chocolate patriotism. For while Kraft gave the world the dubious delights of the processed cheese slice, we Brits became world leaders in chocolate bars.The great chocolate-lover Roald Dahl saw the invention in the Thirties of all the confectionary classics, including Crunchie. That decade was, he said, the equivalent of the Italian Renaissance or the golden age of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. As a schoolboy at Repton, Dahl was part of a tasting panel for a Cadbury’s factory. The excitement of unwrapping the foil for unknown treasure is said to be part of the inspiration for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The Great British chocolate bar can also claim some eco-cred. One of Cadbury’s brands, Green & Blacks, has made organic chocolate widely available. Last month the company put Fairtrade cocoa and sugar in Dairy Milk. More obscurely they have committed to using free-range eggs in Creme Eggs. Cadbury’s origins, like those of other chocolate companies such as Fry’s and Rowntree, go back to Quakers who were excluded from professions and went into industry. Their empires were built on the good treatment of their workforce and supplying delight at an affordable price.

Tastes change, and some sneer at “chavvy chocolate” such as Cadbury’s Milk Tray. The classic chocolate bar and chocolate box is not the same sort of taste as a posh bar of 70 per cent cocoa solids or truffles from Fortnum’s. But national tastes remain deep rooted. So as my eye sweeps across a counter of colourfully wrapped chocolate, it hurts to imagine their ownership going to a country that produces the likes of the oily Hershey bar.

taken from The Times online edition.

video from the BBC here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8242008.stm (not to difficult ton understand)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7990080.stm –> une vidéo très sympa sur les chocolats de Pâques chez Cadbury. Cela me rappelle un peu “Charlie Et La Chocolaterie”.

Almost a quarter of children in London live in households where no one is working, official figures showed today.

The UK average for the proportion of children living in households where no one works is 15 per cent, but this rises to 23 per cent in London and 18 per centin the North East, North West, West Midlands and Wales, the Office for National Statistics data showed.

Further reading here

Bon courage à tous les terminales en ce week-end de révisions.

Je vous propose une petite vidéo sympa que j’ai découverte grâce au Twitter de Lilly Allen. Voici donc “Kid British” avec “Our House is Dadless”. Vous reconnaîtrez une autre chanson dans cette chanson : “Our House” de “Madness”, un classique !

Un clip très sympa qui fait plein de clin d’oeils assez drôles aux clichés et aux images traditionnelles sur la Grande-Bretagne.

Bon visionnage !