1. The claim that “children use five times more words when playing outdoors compared to indoors” caught my attention when I read it in the leaflet in our weekly vegetable box a few weeks back https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/weathering-lifes-storms/

Which research, though? The claim is repeated endlessly all across the web – for example, in this CBeebies piece which is quoted as ‘evidence’ in several other places: if the BBC said it, it must be true! https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/why-should-children-play-outside I can’t find the specific piece of research that underpins this claim.

I did find this, which is an account of a ‘systematic review protocol’ to conduct a systematic review of the topic rather than completed research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566327/ PDF below.

2. I had a bit of a Kafka-surf on Sunday. I can’t now remember what started me off, but it must have been some subliminal sense of the centenary of his death on Monday. Here’s some of what I found.

Kafka Online (run by someone called Gregor!)  https://www.kafka-online.info/

An Oxford University research project, Kafka’s Transformative Communities https://www.kafka-research.ox.ac.uk/

Author Franz Kafka’s life was far from kafkaesque, biopic shows from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/03/author-franz-kafka-life-kafkaesque-biopic

From The Guardian, ‘Where to start with’ – A handy guide to the authors you’ve always wanted to read https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/04/where-to-start-with-franz-kafka Lots of other authors here https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/where-to-start-with

BBC Radio 4’s Words and Music series: Prague and Kafka https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001znxg

five essays, In the Shadow of Kafka https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b05vsz4y

In Our Time on ‘The Trial’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04pv8j1

‘Orwell vs Kafka’, a series of programmes in which Ian Hislop and Helen Lewis explore the extent to which the works of George Orwell and Franz Kafka continue to express the reality and frustration of life in the 21st century https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201sm/broadcasts/upcoming

A series of programmes on Drama on 4 over the next fortnight https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xxp0g/broadcasts/upcoming

You can either read or listen to this one by Nicholas Lezard, The wry humour of Franz Kafka https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-wry-humour-of-franz-kafka/

3. I’m not completely sure what ‘instructional leadership’ is, which is I guess one good reason for signing up for this FutureLearn course from the British Council, Exploring Instructional Leadership in Education https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/exploring-instructional-leadership You’ll need to open a Future Learn account, which is free and easy. Not only for those of you who are already school principals!

Topics covered include:

• Overview of instructional leadership
• Understanding and practising instructional leadership
• Leadership practice and its impact
• Defining a school vision
• Engaging school staff
• School leaders role in raising standards
• Monitoring, evaluating and reviewing school and classroom practice

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on instructional leadership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_leadership

4. The winners of the Pink Lady – the apple, I think! – Food Photographer of the Year for 2024 competition have just been announced https://www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/finalists-gallery-2024/

5. And, finally, Colm Tóibín’s latest novel, ‘Long Island’, his sequel to ‘Brooklyn’, is the current Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001zlzs (I’m not completely sure that they call it Book of the Week any longer.) ‘Brooklyn’ is also available, here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b00k87g8