Every student, everywhere, knows the feeling: walking out of a big exam with no idea if you did well or completely bombed it. This year, that feeling hit an entire country at once.
In the UK, this year's math exams were unusually tough — tough enough that students flooded social media with one shared message: "that test kicked my butt." And it wasn't about skipping study time or being dramatic. Many said the exam's structure meant you could know the material and still not be able to show it.
Here's why: the questions were worded differently than in past years. If a student got stuck on the first part of a question, they couldn't move on to the rest — like having the perfect ice cream sundae recipe, but the ice cream and toppings are locked in a vault guarded by a saber-toothed parabola.
Not everyone agreed the test was actually harder. Some math experts said the calculations themselves were standard, and students should have been able to solve them. So who's right?
It's not really a students vs. experts argument. When exam boards set the grades for a test like this, they review a wide range of evidence to make sure students end up with fair results — not just the raw difficulty of the questions. The organization that oversees UK exams also said it will keep a close eye on this one going forward.
The UK might be looking at 2027 with a lot less scrolling and far fewer TikTok dances, as Prime Minister (at the time) Kier Starmer announced plans to ban people under 16 from using social media, planned for spring.
Many of the ban's strongest supporters are parents who lost children in cases linked to online harms and have been campaigning for this for years. Though they’re happy about the announcement, there’s still some skepticism about how the ban will actually work, the logistics of how it will be enforced, and what sort of pushback there will be.
Even before taking effect, the proposal has sparked debate. Some people argue the ban is too strict and that better guidance, education, and parental controls would be more effective. Others point out that many teenagers use social media to stay in touch with friends and family. Some also worry the ban could give parents a false sense of security if they rely on it instead of staying involved in their children's online lives.
Tech companies argue the ban may not keep children as safe as supporters hope, as a ban on widely-used platforms might push some young people toward less-regulated online spaces that aren’t included in the ban or entice them to find a work-around for the age verification.
Your phone goes in a pouch the moment you walk in. If it's seen or heard, it's gone — for 4 weeks. That's the policy at Astrea Academy, one of the strictest phone bans in the UK, and yes, those 4 weeks can run straight through school holidays.
Harsh? Maybe. But teachers say it's working. Focus is up, behavior has improved, and students' overall wellbeing has shifted noticeably since the policy took hold.
Student reactions are split. Some think the rules go too far. Others — perhaps surprisingly — admit they don't really need their phones during the school day anyway. Both groups are probably right about something.
Parents are largely on board, and for reasons that go beyond test scores. They're noticing their kids coming home and actually talking — asking questions, making eye contact, and reconnecting in small ways that are easy to dismiss until they're gone. One thing the ban has surfaced that nobody quite expected: parents realizing they have a phone problem too. Several reflected that if they want their kids to put the devices down, they probably need to do the same. Role modeling, it turns out, works both ways.
Phone-free schools aren't going away. The UK is already moving toward national guidelines pushing schools in this direction, alongside measures to encourage more moderate social media use. The experiment at Astrea Academy may be ahead of its time — or just ahead of the curve.
End-to-end encryption prevents anyone from viewing online communications except the sender and the receiver. Or, it prevents anyone online from viewing it. Can’t do much about someone looking over your shoulder on the subway.
In 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to roll it out across his suite of apps — you know, those Facebook and Instagram things you may have heard of? But that promise was met with mixed results. On one hand, many were happy that their private conversations could be kept, well, private. On the other hand, there was pushback from police and government groups that could use messages to catch criminals.
Implementing end-to-end encryption was a years-long process for Zuckerberg, until his platforms abandoned the concept just this year. The company tweaked their terms and conditions to suggest that not enough people were opting into the encryption, but critics have questioned that explanation, pointing out that private messaging is an important part of how platforms keep users engaged and can support their advertising business.
Some high school students recently swapped their smartphones for basic "brick" phones — the kind with no social media or apps, just texting, calling, and the classic game Snake.
The three-week experiment offered a preview of what life might look like once the UK's proposed ban on social media for under-16s takes effect next year. Calls to limit young people's social media use have been building for years, as critics argue some app features are designed to keep users scrolling. Some young people spend up to 20 hours a day on screens, which can affect sleep and time for schoolwork. Many students — along with their parents or carers — say they're struggling to manage screen time.
Feedback from the students was mixed. Some missed chatting with friends online and keeping up with trends. Others found they spent more time outdoors or with family and friends in person. Many said they didn't end up missing screen time as much as they expected.
Birdwatching is taking off in a big way among young people. Reports say that around 750,000 people aged 16–29 in the UK and millions in the U.S. now regularly go birdwatching — turning what was once seen as a “quiet” hobby into a fast-growing trend.
Part of the appeal is how simple it is to start. You don’t need expensive gear or special training — just curiosity and a bit of time outdoors. It’s a low-pressure way to take a break from screens, notice what’s around you, and actually tune into sounds and spaces most people scroll past.
Ironically, social media is helping drive the trend. Birdwatching accounts, short videos, and identification apps are making it easier than ever to learn bird calls, spot species, and share discoveries with others. Instead of pulling people away from nature, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are often pushing people back into it.
Conservationists are especially excited because this kind of interest helps more people connect with wildlife and care about protecting it. Birdwatching is becoming less about binoculars and notebooks — and more about curiosity, community, and noticing the world a little differently.
Explore how women are represented in films and why those portrayals matter in this Kahoot inspired by BBC’s Her Story —The Female Revolution. Through the ideas and research shared by Geena Davis and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, students will examine how movies and television influence the way people think about gender, power, and equality.
This Kahoot explores questions about representation, stereotypes, screen time, leadership roles, and how media can shape expectations for girls and boys. Students will build listening skills, vocabulary, and critical-thinking abilities while considering why balanced representation in film and entertainment can have a powerful social impact.
Watch the related BBC video, The Fight for Females in Film, then invite your Grade 6–12 students to test their knowledge and explore how storytelling and media influence culture, identity, and opportunity.
Everyone makes mistakes, and that includes journalists. Introduce your students to the concept of trust and transparency in journalism. In this lesson, they’ll look at examples of mistakes and wrong information, as well as the ways in which news outlets can correct errors.
Fact or fake? Introduce your students to the role of social media in spreading accurate news as well as inaccurate news and rumors. In this lesson, they’ll investigate questions they should ask before sharing news on social media and then design a flowchart for evaluating whether a news story is “shareworthy.”
All news isn’t created equal. Introduce your students to the different ways people get news. In this lesson, they’ll learn to distinguish more impartial news from news that lacks independence or accountability and to build their own “news neighborhoods.”
We’re live from the newsroom! Introduce your students to jobs, workflows, and decision-making processes of newsrooms. In this lesson, they’ll take on various roles and learn what makes up a functioning newsroom.
News is happening all the time, everywhere. So how do journalists choose what to share? Introduce your students to the processes involved in gathering the news they consume every day. In this lesson, they’ll learn the importance of curiosity in shaping news.
Every student, everywhere, knows the feeling: walking out of a big exam with no idea if you did well or completely bombed it. This year, that feeling hit an entire country at once.
In the UK, this year's math exams were unusually tough — tough enough that students flooded social media with one shared message: "that test kicked my butt." And it wasn't about skipping study time or being dramatic. Many said the exam's structure meant you could know the material and still not be able to show it.
Here's why: the questions were worded differently than in past years. If a student got stuck on the first part of a question, they couldn't move on to the rest — like having the perfect ice cream sundae recipe, but the ice cream and toppings are locked in a vault guarded by a saber-toothed parabola.
Not everyone agreed the test was actually harder. Some math experts said the calculations themselves were standard, and students should have been able to solve them. So who's right?
It's not really a students vs. experts argument. When exam boards set the grades for a test like this, they review a wide range of evidence to make sure students end up with fair results — not just the raw difficulty of the questions. The organization that oversees UK exams also said it will keep a close eye on this one going forward.
The UK might be looking at 2027 with a lot less scrolling and far fewer TikTok dances, as Prime Minister (at the time) Kier Starmer announced plans to ban people under 16 from using social media, planned for spring.
Many of the ban's strongest supporters are parents who lost children in cases linked to online harms and have been campaigning for this for years. Though they’re happy about the announcement, there’s still some skepticism about how the ban will actually work, the logistics of how it will be enforced, and what sort of pushback there will be.
Even before taking effect, the proposal has sparked debate. Some people argue the ban is too strict and that better guidance, education, and parental controls would be more effective. Others point out that many teenagers use social media to stay in touch with friends and family. Some also worry the ban could give parents a false sense of security if they rely on it instead of staying involved in their children's online lives.
Tech companies argue the ban may not keep children as safe as supporters hope, as a ban on widely-used platforms might push some young people toward less-regulated online spaces that aren’t included in the ban or entice them to find a work-around for the age verification.
Your phone goes in a pouch the moment you walk in. If it's seen or heard, it's gone — for 4 weeks. That's the policy at Astrea Academy, one of the strictest phone bans in the UK, and yes, those 4 weeks can run straight through school holidays.
Harsh? Maybe. But teachers say it's working. Focus is up, behavior has improved, and students' overall wellbeing has shifted noticeably since the policy took hold.
Student reactions are split. Some think the rules go too far. Others — perhaps surprisingly — admit they don't really need their phones during the school day anyway. Both groups are probably right about something.
Parents are largely on board, and for reasons that go beyond test scores. They're noticing their kids coming home and actually talking — asking questions, making eye contact, and reconnecting in small ways that are easy to dismiss until they're gone. One thing the ban has surfaced that nobody quite expected: parents realizing they have a phone problem too. Several reflected that if they want their kids to put the devices down, they probably need to do the same. Role modeling, it turns out, works both ways.
Phone-free schools aren't going away. The UK is already moving toward national guidelines pushing schools in this direction, alongside measures to encourage more moderate social media use. The experiment at Astrea Academy may be ahead of its time — or just ahead of the curve.
End-to-end encryption prevents anyone from viewing online communications except the sender and the receiver. Or, it prevents anyone online from viewing it. Can’t do much about someone looking over your shoulder on the subway.
In 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to roll it out across his suite of apps — you know, those Facebook and Instagram things you may have heard of? But that promise was met with mixed results. On one hand, many were happy that their private conversations could be kept, well, private. On the other hand, there was pushback from police and government groups that could use messages to catch criminals.
Implementing end-to-end encryption was a years-long process for Zuckerberg, until his platforms abandoned the concept just this year. The company tweaked their terms and conditions to suggest that not enough people were opting into the encryption, but critics have questioned that explanation, pointing out that private messaging is an important part of how platforms keep users engaged and can support their advertising business.
Some high school students recently swapped their smartphones for basic "brick" phones — the kind with no social media or apps, just texting, calling, and the classic game Snake.
The three-week experiment offered a preview of what life might look like once the UK's proposed ban on social media for under-16s takes effect next year. Calls to limit young people's social media use have been building for years, as critics argue some app features are designed to keep users scrolling. Some young people spend up to 20 hours a day on screens, which can affect sleep and time for schoolwork. Many students — along with their parents or carers — say they're struggling to manage screen time.
Feedback from the students was mixed. Some missed chatting with friends online and keeping up with trends. Others found they spent more time outdoors or with family and friends in person. Many said they didn't end up missing screen time as much as they expected.
Birdwatching is taking off in a big way among young people. Reports say that around 750,000 people aged 16–29 in the UK and millions in the U.S. now regularly go birdwatching — turning what was once seen as a “quiet” hobby into a fast-growing trend.
Part of the appeal is how simple it is to start. You don’t need expensive gear or special training — just curiosity and a bit of time outdoors. It’s a low-pressure way to take a break from screens, notice what’s around you, and actually tune into sounds and spaces most people scroll past.
Ironically, social media is helping drive the trend. Birdwatching accounts, short videos, and identification apps are making it easier than ever to learn bird calls, spot species, and share discoveries with others. Instead of pulling people away from nature, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are often pushing people back into it.
Conservationists are especially excited because this kind of interest helps more people connect with wildlife and care about protecting it. Birdwatching is becoming less about binoculars and notebooks — and more about curiosity, community, and noticing the world a little differently.
Explore how women are represented in films and why those portrayals matter in this Kahoot inspired by BBC’s Her Story —The Female Revolution. Through the ideas and research shared by Geena Davis and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, students will examine how movies and television influence the way people think about gender, power, and equality.
This Kahoot explores questions about representation, stereotypes, screen time, leadership roles, and how media can shape expectations for girls and boys. Students will build listening skills, vocabulary, and critical-thinking abilities while considering why balanced representation in film and entertainment can have a powerful social impact.
Watch the related BBC video, The Fight for Females in Film, then invite your Grade 6–12 students to test their knowledge and explore how storytelling and media influence culture, identity, and opportunity.
Everyone makes mistakes, and that includes journalists. Introduce your students to the concept of trust and transparency in journalism. In this lesson, they’ll look at examples of mistakes and wrong information, as well as the ways in which news outlets can correct errors.
Fact or fake? Introduce your students to the role of social media in spreading accurate news as well as inaccurate news and rumors. In this lesson, they’ll investigate questions they should ask before sharing news on social media and then design a flowchart for evaluating whether a news story is “shareworthy.”
All news isn’t created equal. Introduce your students to the different ways people get news. In this lesson, they’ll learn to distinguish more impartial news from news that lacks independence or accountability and to build their own “news neighborhoods.”
We’re live from the newsroom! Introduce your students to jobs, workflows, and decision-making processes of newsrooms. In this lesson, they’ll take on various roles and learn what makes up a functioning newsroom.
News is happening all the time, everywhere. So how do journalists choose what to share? Introduce your students to the processes involved in gathering the news they consume every day. In this lesson, they’ll learn the importance of curiosity in shaping news.