1. From a newspaper ‘down under’ – from a UK perspective, at least! – for a change, the Sydney Morning Herald: University students caught paying others to do their work at record levels https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/university-students-caught-paying-others-to-do-their-work-at-record-levels-20221025-p5bsrx.html

I wonder if ‘the war on cheating’ isn’t going to turn into something similar to ‘the war on drugs’ that will never be won without radical thinking?

2. More evidence, from the BBC, of the extensive (and expensive) impact of the pandemic on child development, Child speech delays increase following lockdowns https://www.bbc.com/news/education-63373804

“Covid restrictions affected some children’s development by limiting socialising and new experiences, which helps them learn new words.”

3. More good sense from Alexandra Mihai, You want your students back in the classroom? Give them a good reason! https://educationalist.substack.com/

‘Teacher presence’ and ‘peer presence’ are the two key assets she identifies.

4. And, finally, I came across The University of Oxford Style Guide https://www.ox.ac.uk/public-affairs/style-guide (PDFs below of whole thing and one-page version)

and this BBC Bitesize guide for Key Stage 3 students, How to punctuate quotations in an essay https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zr6bxyc/articles/zn2n8xs

while reminding myself how to punctuate direct speech. The former was fun but the latter more useful!