Beth Kitson

Reminded of @stephenkb.bsky.social's excellent column on AI and the curriculum.

"It is knowledge that allows you to deploy and use your skills."

www.ft.com/content/1369...

Academics at prestigious university 'rely on charities for food and showers' Unprecedented demand on income is leaving lecturers at Oxford University on the brink - those in need seek support, food and even a shower from charity Oxford Gatehouse

And on housing and academia: "But we have had Oxford University academics seeking our help simply to eat... The cost-of-living crisis is an obvious factor, but housing, particularly the complex rental market, is also a big driver."
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Desperate to see an updated chart for Shania please

Rising Unemployment Among Black Women Is a Bad Economic Sign "Black women are the canary in the coal mine on the health of the economy," write Cooper and Opoku-Agyeman.

'Because Black women are overrepresented in public sector jobs, the Trump Administration’s massive cuts to the federal workforce have likely contributed towards over 300,000 Black women leaving the labor force between February and July.'

time.com/7315624/risi...

The rise of paid work: Are we really still the “Voluntary Sector”? | PBE We recently published a new paper on the true economic contribution of civil society to the UK economy. (Spoiler alert: it’s big! At least £40 billion.) Among the many new stats in that report, there’...

Civil society has reached a milestone: we estimate that for the first time, paid hours now exceed volunteer hours.

Do we need to slow the tide and re-emphasise volunteering, or do we accept the sector is becoming more professional?

Explore these questions in our new blog: pbe.co.uk/insights/the...

If the energy of 'protecting women and girls' was truly channelled into something meaningful: investing in refuges or shelters, support services, therapeutic mental health services, prevention programmes, legal protections and culture change - real work of safety and justice could happen.

www.bigissue.com/opinion/asyl...

Beyond ‘beyond GDP’ | PBE By Hetan Shah I was involved in some of the calls for improved measurement of wellbeing in the early 2000s. Two decades on, sometimes the debate feels like it has not moved on sufficiently from those ...

‘Let us not risk getting trapped in the last war.’ My piece for @pbe.co.uk on why the wellbeing v GDP framing has run out of road
pbe.co.uk/insights/bey...

In the year to June 2025, 92% of refugee family reunion visas were given to women and children. More than half went to children. Two thirds to people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan. It helps integration and provides a safe route. Family reunion should be easier, not harder.

"As the basis of their analysis, the authors relied on a 1932 book by French historian"

🌈The lack of accurate data on LGBTQ+ folks is pervasive

We're often invisible. Historic exclusion, categorisation challenges, and the potential harm of data collection have all played a part, hindering policy, research, and support services.

This report looks to fill in part of that data gap ⬇️

Parkrun is by far the largest charity - by volunteer numbers - in England and Wales.

Nations of joggers.
register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/sector-da...

"Imagine a football team which measures its success only on the basis of the goals it scores and doesn't count the goals it concedes. That football team could be losing right through without recognising it."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggo0...

Great new evidence from Rachel Gomez on the longterm impacts of children’s mental health.

For the geeks among us…it goes beyond looking at correlations and shows that improvements in mental health as a child lead to better outcomes, even after controlling for a host of other factors.

we invite expressions of indifference

In 2023/24, over thirty thousand children had been left waiting for mental health support for over two years.

Important new @pbe.co.uk report from Rachel Gomez and @jonfranklin.bsky.social, showing the huge costs of failing to meet growing need, and the opportunity that comes with acting earlier.

'This display of craft "brings the Palestinians, it almost puts breath into their lives. We’ve existed for a really long time as a people and we had a place and we had a country and a land and that’s all been taken away. But this history shows that not only did we exist, but we still exist".'

"Our data finds the US out of step with the rest of the world in many respects, from the role the state is expected to play in addressing societal issues through to how important these issues are perceived to be."

From the new Ipsos Equalities index: www.ipsos.com/sites/defaul...

What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom My students call it “Chat,” a cute nickname they all seem to have agreed on at some point. They use it to make study guides, interpret essay prompts, and register for classes, turning it loose on t…

not a resource per se, but found this brilliant on those kind of questions! lithub.com/what-happene...

"School streets, pedestrianised town centres, targeting SUVs for higher parking charges, clean air zones, lower speed limits in residential areas and more severe penalties for breaking them all receive public support, despite placing new limits or charges on car use."

'Where to find a housekeeper with a view to marriage.'

'How to obtain a holiday for a tired mother'

@citizensadvice.bsky.social has shared some of the questions they were asked in the 1950s...

'“Our temperatures haven’t gone below 27C inside the house in the past two months,” she said. Her thermometer peaked at 33C this summer.

She bought a 25% share of the home with her husband for £121,000. On top of this, she pays £1,264 per month in rent.'

Israel claimed responsibility for killing five Al Jazeera staff in Gaza, including Anas al-Sharif, in a strike on their media tent outside al-Shifa Hospital, bringing the total journalists killed to 237 since the war began.

🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage: aje.io/1490et

'Any meaningful description of which arguments and debates are legitimate in a democracy depends on rejecting arguments rooted in violence, xenophobia and racial prejudice.'

Oxford researchers find policymakers underestimate public support for New research by University of Oxford researchers from the Institute of New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, Saïd Business School and Smith School of Enterprise and Environment finds

"I hope our research encourages policy officials to be braver and pursue more ambitious climate policies. They have more public support than they may realise."

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08...

Earlier this year, @jonfranklin.bsky.social and I dug into the data on life satisfaction and housing. We found that private renting - and especially the unaffordability of rents - is making us miserable.

Read more below or take a look at our annual wellbeing report: pbe.co.uk/publications...

'The dogs were judged on balance, time on the board and any tricks they performed.'

My students liked to hate on AI, and tended toward food-based metaphors in their critiques: AI prose was generally “flavorless” or “bland” compared to human writing. They began to notice its tendency to hallucinate quotes and sources, as well as its telltale signs, such as the weird prevalence of em-dashes, which my students never use, and sentences that always include exactly three examples. These tics quickly became running jokes, which made class fun: flexing their powers of discernment proved to be a form of entertainment. Without realizing it, my students had become close readers.

'Without realizing it, my students had become close readers.'
lithub.com/what-happene...

It's official ONS baby name day!
Here are the names that are dying out
– A mere 9 boys called Norman last year
– Rodney = 8
– Nigel = 5
– Giles = 3
And not a single Piers was registered! (If it's 2 or fewer, it's not released for data reasons, so it's possible 2 were)

There were 161 called Zorawar