Here are five things that make me laugh, and maybe why I find them funny. 

1. My kids being artful. I know that artful isn’t really a word we use these days, but my nan used it to describe us when we were kids if we had a (transparent) alterior motive. So for example, the kids wanting to take the dog on a long walk or buy a newspaper when they really just want to go to the shops to buy sweets. Walking the dog seems like fair reward for a mars bar or two, so fair exchange in my book. But it’s fun seeing them construct stories. 

2. Irishness. My father came from County Cork and only those with Irish parents actually fully understand Irish humour. Television programmes like Mrs Browns Boys and Father Ted crack me up, or should that be ‘craic’.

3. Pompous people and politicians. Need I say more?

4. Silly things that happen to me. You have to be able to take a joke. 

5. Watching old family videos. Peering into a time gone by with my own family makes me realise how much laughter there is within families. Hard not to laugh at the kids when they were learning to speak or at primary school. Funnier still is the faces that they pull now when they watch the videos. 

As I write this, sitting in the garden, the dog is trying to eat a mushroom. That makes me laugh too. 

Next time someone asks me I will have an answer. 

What makes you laugh?

The bald man is me, the teenager is my eldest son, and the tutor is Bella Ferne-Heesom.

1. Get fit. This means losing some weight and getting active. Progress report: Next to no weight lost, but I am seeing Ross Elliot, a personal trainer who has made me realise that this is an achievable goal. So I have joined a gym, and this year is the year that I will get back to my fighting weight and fitness.

2. Be there. This means being there more for my family. Not that I think that I am a bad dad you understand. The time was when I was rarely at home, and these days are now well in the past. I just need to try to be more understanding and supportive. Progress report: trying my best. I am really pleased that my eldest son is working really hard toward his GCSE’s this year, I can’t wait to be there and share his excitement when he opens his results letter and starts Sixth Form.

3. Make my business more successful. We are a tech startup, so maybe some of the usual measures of success e.g. profit, take second place to growing user and customer numbers. Progress report: signs are really positive. Our online tutoring website Tutorhub is getting traction in the market-place. This is the resolution that I am most certain of meeting.

Oh yes, there is a fourth resolution too – to blog more. Which is where I started this blog post….

I blogged eight months ago, back in December about UK based online tutoring websites and the embryonic nature of the online tutoring marketplace. Since then we have seen three new businesses enter the market:

1. MyTutor, which is interesting as it is owned by AQA exam board
2. Itutormaths, owned by the educational publisher Nelson Thornes
3. Tutorme, of which I must admit to knowing very little

I recently came across a useful article by Andy Parkhouse of Team Rubber the other day entitled ‘Silicon Gorge – the Bristol list’. This interests me as someone with a start-up in the Bristol area.

This may surprise some of you, particularly those who live here – how can it be this big? What evidence is there? Well Andy came up with this useful list of businesses, incubators, VC’s, support organisations, networks, meet-ups, conferences. I found this really useful, and have come across many of the organisations / events over time, and would recommend new entrepreneurs to follow the links – there is alot of help and advice out there to you.

Tech and Software Ventures

• Alterian
• Bardowl
• Beanbag Learning
• Brightpearl
• Carsonified
• Churnbar
• Community DNS
• Delib
• The Filter
• Icy Cow
• IMDb
• Love Honey (NSFW)
• Roman Cart
• Simple Web
• Tutor Hub
• Viral Ad Network
• XMOS
• List of ventures in the Set Squared network

Incubators

• Pervasive Media Studio
• Set Squared
• Spike Design
• UWE Ventures

Funds and finance groups

• Chrysalis VCT
• Eden Ventures
• Horatio Investments
• Icon Corporate Finance
• Notion Capital
• SWAIN

Support organisations

• Bath Ventures
• Bristol City Council
• Watershed

Students from high attaining comprehensive schools are far less likely to attend top universities than those from independent schools. So say the Sutton Trust in their report ‘Degree of Success’.

Just focusing on Oxbridge entrants, they found that:

“2,000 schools and colleges had two or fewer Oxbridge entrants over the three years… just under two thirds of all schools and colleges, and accounted for 5.6% of Oxbridge admissions over the three years. The total number of Oxbridge entrants from these 2,000 schools and colleges over the three years is less than the number from 4 schools and one college who produced 946 Oxbridge entrants over the period.”

What proportion of these applications are accepted?

“5.2% of independent school pupils were accepted by Oxford and Cambridge, compared with 0.8% of pupils in non selective state schools, and 4.2% in selective state schools.”

Sutton Trust conclude that “independent school pupils are nearly seven times as likely as pupils in comprehensive schools to be accepted into Oxbridge.”

The Times Educational Supplement commenting on wider university acceptance rates included in the report say “there is something terribly wrong when a comprehensive school with the same scores as a local independent sends 17% of it’s pupils to top universities compared to 66% sent by its neighbour.”

But what do we as a nation do to correct this? Surely bright children from poor backgrounds should be given the same chance as kids from more affluent backgrounds? Can we expect much to change anytime soon? My belief is that increasing tuition fees will only serve to reduce state school applications still further, and that without proactive selection procedures at Oxbridge, nothing is likely to change.

I came across this infographic, which set out all the factors as a periodic table.

It shows the things you have to get right – all common sense really, and unacceptable behaviour which you will get punished for.

Wish I had seen this back in 2007, would have made things alot clearer.

Apart from an hour out of the school day, what did his visit bring to the kids at Globe Academy? As a kid from, shall we say, a ‘more challenging’ inner-city comprehensive school, I believe that meeting people that have done something and achieved in their lives is really important. Getting a new perspective, seeing that they are really no different from you, helps raise aspirations and set a new outlook on life.

Did it really have that big an impact on these kids, well it’s over to Tanvir Khan who said “It was the highlight of my life”. Those wanting Barak to visit their school, should form an orderly queue.

Wonder what the kids would have said about their views on the visit of David Cameron – maybe these weren’t printable

I am pleased with the article. If you would like to read it, just click on this link.