Teachers for Supply

Lifetime Homes, the Code for Sustainable Homes, Secured by Design, Housing Quality Indicators, British Standards, Building Bulletins, Planning Policy Guidance Notes and the 14 parts of the Building Regulations are only a few of the statutory standards and guidelines that architects face when building within the UK.

It is a dense minefield of rules and regulations that governs everything from the dimensions of windows to the pitch of rooftops, the depth of stair treads to the gradient of slopes – even where to position light switches. From overlooking distances to rights to light, every aspect of a brand new building was quantified and calibrated before the designer even sets pen to paper.

But does all this red tape hinder architects, or are these the type of constraints under which creativity can thrive

It is a matter posed by architects Liam Ross and Tolulope Onabolu of their contribution to a brand new exhibition at London’s RIBA gallery – Venice Takeaway: Ideas to switch British Architecture. The show brings work to London that was first exhibited inside the British Pavilion on the Venice Architecture Biennale last year, curated by the British Council, where 10 teams of “explorers” scoured the globe to source ideas that can influence the profession within the UK – from collective housing in Buenos Aires to standardised school building in Rio.

Ross and Onabolu travelled to the Nigerian capital of Lagos, to determine how a less regulated building culture fares. Although town is a seemingly chaotic frenzy of ad hoc urbanism, their research unearthed the obscure LSPD Regulation 15, which defines the town-wide setback rule – the space every development must step back from its legal boundary. A regulated no man’s land between buildings and the road starting from three to nine metres, this buffer zone actually turned out to be probably the most lively and dynamic portion of the city’s fabric. It’s an intermediate zone packed with the ancillary structures of security posts, guards’ houses, generators, storage and utility buildings on one side of the fence, while the road-side space is stuffed with temporary users – food vendors, garden centres, mechanics and non secular spaces.

“It allows Lagosians to take personal responsibility for themselves,” write the architects. “Nothing is legally sanctioned within this zone, yet – somewhat counterintuitively – anything can happen. The setback is a legally defined zone of additional-legal tolerance.”

Diagram showing a person’s reach in terms of window size: ‘Windows need to be tailored to the scale and shape of a small elderly woman’

Their work contrasts this example with the impacts of the over-regulated UK setup, targeting the express example of windows – namely British Standard 8213-1:2004 for the cleaning of windows. This innocuous sounding piece of steerage specifies that each one windows need to be cleanable from within, by women aged 64-75, without the usage of ladders or cleaning devices and without stretching. Through photographic surveys and measured diagrams, they chart the profound impact this rule has had on contemporary housing, resulting in a proliferation of low, poky windows with protective Juliet balconies.

“We aren’t just serious about the physical outcomes of those rules,” says Ross, “but what economic side-effects they have got, and the way they have an inclination to formalise existing patterns of inequality.”

They talk about that the regulation is also avoided by the customer using a “factoring agreement” to transfer the danger of window cleaning to a pro contractor – meaning that it’s the low-value housing developments who suffer.

“Suddenly the folks that live within the cheaper blocks are deemed unable to be making their very own judgments about leaning out of a window,” says Ross. “These regulations are fortifying existing class definitions.”

Since the Venice Biennale, the pair have continued to develop the work with students on the University of Edinburgh. Examples shown in a pinup space as component of the RIBA exhibition include fascinating insights into the origins of fireplace regulations, that are bizarrely regarding the time it takes to play the national anthem.

a regular results of British Standard 8213-1:2004 for the cleaning of windows

Statutory escape distances still date back to the British Fire Prevention Committee’s report on a fireplace at Edinburgh’s Empire Palace Theatre in 1911, which was taken to be a model of best practice, as a result of the safe evacuation of the audience – who left the building within the time it took the band to play the national anthem, ie 2.5 minutes. This time is then translated right into a linear escape distance by a formula that pertains to lots of variables, from room area to the dimensions of departures – in addition to the presumed shoulder-width of the escapees. “Scotland has more conservative travel distance requirements than England,” they note, “because Scots are presumed to have broader shoulders than their southerly neighbours.”

It is these quirks and inconsistencies of regulations that intrigue the pair. “We’re interested in how these rules were generated,” says Ross. “While the project is sceptical concerning the empirical data that defines the explicit parameters of regulations, it is usually attracted to what the productive outcomes are – the type of ‘accidental architectures’ that emerge.”

• The controversy would be continued on the RIBA on Tuesday 5 March, at Constraint and Creativity: Is Red Tape the Enemy of Architecture Liam Ross can be joined by Tom Mullarkey from the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents, Piers Gough of CZWG Architects, Alex Ely of Mae Architects, Tim Gill of Rethinking Childhood, and Finn Williams of Common Office. The exhibition runs until 27 April, and Guardian Extra members should buy tickets for the talks on the discounted rate of £5.

Homer’s story of Odysseus’ struggle to get home from Troy, The Odyssey (which dates from at the very least the 8th century BC), was utilized in the traditional world for moral instruction. But i locate that the stories lend themselves better to critical and philosophical thinking.

This is since the stories contain much complexity and ambiguity that they engage adolescents in a far more interesting way than straight moral tales. Many education professionals feel that everything must be made relevant to the childrens’ direct experience – as though children do not need an imagination – and that everything old must be updated. But there’s a real danger that the universal quality of significant stories, equivalent to those present in the Odyssey, could be overlooked.

There were ‘philosophical novels’ written for kids before, including Matthew Lipman’s Pixie, but these have right away dated and feature cultural references that fail to travel. The identical fate won’t befall the Odyssey if it’s left as virtually the unique as possible. The Arab countries have their very own version of the Odyssey within the Tales of Sinbad, and that’s widely thought that Sinbad was modelled at the Odyssey, which might have travelled way past the borders of Greece.

Homer’s work is stuffed with big questions including: the legitimacy of war; moral dilemmas (Scylla and Charybdis); moral relativism (the Laestrygonians and Ciconians); the character of affection (Kalypso); the price of happiness (the Lotus Eaters and Circe) and private identity (The Phaeacians). All are universal issues that affect us just up to the folks of antiquity. Porphyry, a philosopher of antiquity, recommended that the Odyssey be used for teaching philosophy and that is just what I’ve tried to do in a trendy British primary school context. This has prompted me to take advantage of Homer as a source to spark debate among children today.

The children sit in a large circle. We start by taking a look at probably the most online maps available with the book I’ve written to support my teaching, that records Odysseus’ progress across the Mediterranean and beyond, then I tell or we read the newest installment. We stop reading, usually at a crisis point within the story, to conduct a philosophical enquiry across the issue found in the crisis.

Enough time must be left on the end of each lesson, however, to complete off the tale, usually on a cliffhanger similar to the ship hitting the shore of a few unseen island within the night, leaving the youngsters wanting more. Each session is ready an hour long and, in the event you work through all of the stories (though you do not have to), it takes about 14 weeks to finish.

To use an example, the outlet sequence of The Odyssey describes the war between the Greeks and the Trojans; this lends itself to a discussion of when is one justified to visit war and when at war, what’s one justified to do The 1st two stories (the Wooden Horse and the Ciconians) explore each of those questions respectively. Each story thereafter tackles another philosophical theme or issue.

And once you think that there couldn’t possibly be a philosophical theme in every among the stories then reassess. It is all in there. The tale of Aeolus and The Bag of Winds permits an exploration of rulership in a debate between autocracy and democracy; the section with Tiresias and the Underworld brings prophecy, the character of one’s future and one’s control over it into the study room; the glorious story of the Sirens has one of the vital profound and complicated metaphors for freedom and desire that has ever been outlined either in fiction or by philosophers.

For me, the foremost rewarding portion of teaching philosophy in the course of the Odyssey is seeing the youngsters respond so positively to an ancient story and fasten with the characters. Choice moments that appear to actually affect the kids include: when Odysseus and his men reach the bay where their families await them but then, as a result of their very own hubris, they may be blown back out to sea by the winds that have been trapped by Aeolus’ bag; the children’s responses are unforgettable when Odysseus descends into the underworld to chat to Tiresias and is devastated to find his own mother there, having died of a broken heart looking ahead to him; and, without a doubt , the youngsters share with Odysseus a way of accomplishment once they reach the top – it is not just Odysseus that has completed an ‘Odyssey.’

When we’re exploring the existential angst facing Odysseus upon meeting with the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, one primary-aged boy said to me: “What have monsters got to do with real life” a woman within the same class saved me the hassle of getting to check out to reply him: “It is not really about monsters, it’s about difficult choices.”

Working with children and Greek culture like this has also made me think more in regards to the nature of news, why they’re important to us, ways to work with them. Storytelling creates an immediate line of communication between the instructor and their pupils. Telling the Odyssey seems to make the tale happen within the room and in real time not some three thousand years ago.

By considering these and other fictional, narrative situations in a narrative along with the Odyssey, the kids have a chance to rehearse how they could reply to an analogous situation, akin to a dilemma, that they will find themselves faced with in real life. And what is more, using a narrative or narrative, allows extremely complex situations to be put before the kids that might rather be far too complex to explain in isolation.

When it’s told inside the context of the tale of the Odyssey complex situations are easily understood by the kids, the existential bite is then each of the more easily felt. This teaches the kids the pains of leadership by having felt its sting within the safety of a fictional, hypothetical setting.

Peter Worley is the executive executive and co-founding father of The Philosophy Foundation. He’s the writer of 4 books on philosophy in schools including The If Odyssey: A Philosophical Journey Through Greek Myth and Storytelling for 8-16-year-olds.

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MPs from all three main parties was playing a skipping contest. David Davies is currently top with 348 skips in two minutes, while Chris Huhne languishes on the bottom with only 27 (though to be fair, he probably has other things on his mind). The challenge is a part of the Skip2bfit initiative, which inspires children to get healthier. Videos of the skipping challenge show MPs trying valiantly to keep up a vestige of dignity, with varying degrees of success. George Osborne is obviously not a person accustomed to the skipping rope, while Nick Clegg skips with the energy of somebody not weighed down by the animosity of a nation.

Why do our flesh pressers conform to involve themselves so actively in these campaigns Why not campaign for healthier kids, but retain their pride by refusing to pick out up the skipping rope themselves These PR stunts are regularly ripe for mockery by the media, and do not normally endear these sweaty middle-aged men to the general public. Watching Osborne bounce up and down awkwardly doesn’t instil confidence in his economic abilities. He’d be better visiting those public services that he is so intent on cutting and being attentive to the folks affected than to spend his time being prepped by advisers on how best to grin at schoolchildren without scaring them.

Do politicians embarrassing themselves make it easier to see their human side more easily Does it influence your vote whenever you see MPs pretending to get down with the teenagers Or are you bored by these awkward displays and want that our culture didn’t require such endeavours Maybe you only desire a laugh at Ed Balls trying to not fall over. Tell us within the comments below.

Businesses should order staff to become governors at their local schools, the Ofsted chief inspector has said.

Sir Michael Wilshaw said more professionalism was needed among school governors, and again suggested that some must be paid for his or her work.

His comments came as he announced every primary and secondary school in England could be handed an annual report card detailing their exam results and attendance rates.

The one-page overview will be made available to the general public so it may be utilized by parents to check schools.

The move came amid concerns by Ofsted that governors need additional info to carry their schools to account.

Wilshaw warned some school governors weren’t as much as scratch and would rather spend time ” the standard of lunches and never enough on maths and English”.

In a speech to the Policy Exchange in central London on Wednesday, he argued there had to be a “professional approach” among governing bodies, particularly within the most challenging schools.

He said: “For sure there’ll always be a spot for the volunteer and people from the community who desire to support their local school. That can always be the case. But where there’s a loss of capacity and where there are few volunteers without the mandatory skills, we have to consider radical solutions.

“I even have said it before and that i will say it again, we should always not rule out payment to governors with the mandatory expertise to challenge and support schools with a protracted legacy of under-performance.”

Wilshaw said he desired to issue a challenge to the private and non-private sectors to encourage their best people to become involved at school governance.

“For instance, all large and medium-sized companies could insist that their senior and middle managers join the governing bodies of local schools. i think Rolls-Royce strongly encourage their managers to do that.”

The new report card – the college data dashboard – will give information on how well a college is performing in test and exam results, in addition to attendance, compared with other similar schools.

Ofsted said it might publish the documents, updated annually, for greater than 20,000 state primary and secondary schools.

Wilshaw said governors have to have access to the proper information to realize and challenge their school, and not using a excuses for those who fail to take action.

“The faculty data dashboard i’m launching today raises the stakes,” he said. “Many governors know their school well already. But for people who don’t, there are actually no excuses. Inspectors may be very critical of governing bodies who, despite the dashboard, still do not know their school well enough.”

The 6,000 schools currently considered below good by Ofsted usually have issues with their leadership, including governors, Wilshaw said.

“Poor governance makes a speciality of the marginal instead of the main issues. In other words, an excessive amount of time spent taking a look at the standard of college lunches and never enough on maths and English.”

Brian Lightman, the overall secretary of the Association of faculty and school Leaders (ASCL), said: “It’s absolutely right that governors and oldsters should hold schools to account, and access to data is part of this.

“However, all data, especially ‘simple’ statistics, comes with a health warning. It’s going to encourage people to invite more questions, to not draw premature conclusions. Reciting statistics about how a college is performing is way different from really understanding its strong points and areas for development.”

The last Labour government set out proposals for a US-style report card in a white paper published in 2009. Under the plans, every school was to be ranked on lots of measures and given a last overall grade. The proposals were scrapped after the last election.