1. First up, a chance to win a copy of a recent Multilingual Matters (MM) publication: Ethical and Methodological Issues in Researching Young Language Learners in School Contexts, edited by Annamaria Pinter & (Harry) Kuchah Kuchah, or Assessment for Learning in Primary Language Learning and Teaching by Maria Britton. Send me either an e-mail message or a WhatsApp message by 19:00 UK time on Wednesday, 5^th May, specifying which book you’d like and which format (PDF or paperback), and I’ll put your name in the virtual hat for Harry to make the draw before the webinar with the authors that MM have organised at 16:00 UK time on 6^th May.

Webinar link here https://zoom.us/webinar/register/6316185683047/WN_36W58D15R52CuMGggmCafA

More detail on the two publications here https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/Ethical-and-Methodological-Issues-in-Researching-Young-Language-Learners-in-School-Contexts/?k=9781800411418

and here https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/Assessment-for-Learning-in-Primary-Language-Learning-and-Teaching/?k=9781800410633

2. Three pieces from the latest World Economic Forum newsletter next.

First, what a surprise, most people don’t want to go back to the office after the pandemic https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/survey-65-of-remote-workers-do-not-want-to-return-to-the-office/ Most teachers think differently, I’d imagine.

Second, 6 African cities leading the way to a green future – care to guess which six before reading the article? https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/africa-cities-renewables-ren21/

Third, a scientific paper offering a guideline to limit indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19 https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e2018995118 I can’t understand very much of it, but the summary’s good and clear and bad news for gym bunnies and singers: “To minimize risk of infection, one should avoid spending extended periods in highly populated areas. One is safer in rooms with large volume and high ventilation rates. One is at greater risk in rooms where people are exerting themselves in such a way as to increase their respiration rate and pathogen output, for example, by exercising, singing, or shouting. Since the rate of inhalation of contagion depends on the volume flux of both the exhalation of the infected individual and the inhalation of the susceptible person, the risk of infection increases as Q2b. Likewise, masks worn by both infected and susceptible persons will reduce the risk of transmission by a factor p2m, a dramatic effect given that pm≤0.1 for moderately high-quality masks (74, 75).” PDF below for those of you keen to work out what Q2b is.

3. Some weekend viewing: a good recent Chatham House discussion of Joe Biden’s first 100 days. The panellists explore the implications of Biden’s first 100 days for the future of US foreign policy – and the implications of that policy for the rest of us around the world https://youtu.be/4aYRwbvK8AU

4. Earlier today, I was about to begin an e-mail to three women colleagues with ‘Hey, guys!’ and then thought better of doing so. (I need to ask Marta, Amy and Ellen what they would have thought, had I done so!) Here’s a piece on the subject from The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/08/guys-gender-neutral/568231/

5. And, finally, this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions was a classic. Watch Boris Johnson getting red in the face as Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party opposition, questions him about who paid for his wallpaper https://youtu.be/gzNAeFSqOyI