Global Classroom newsletter

December 2014 Issue 3 Secondary edition Thinking Futures Choosing what to do after you finish school is a life changing decision. It should be exciting, but the reality is that it can be quite daunting – the world is your oyster and you need to choose wisely. Thinking Futures is our new programme to help you to make informed decisions about your future. We’ve teamed up with a range of experts including admissions tutors and academics to bring you practical advice and information, whether you are just starting to think about your options or are ready to make an application. Watch one of our mini films made in conjunction with King’s College London and the Universities of Cambridge, York and Nottingham, which provide guidance on applying UK universities, through UCAS. The first two films, ‘Making Choices’ and ‘Applying to University’ are available now. Did you know? One third of our Take a look, take control and enjoy the process of planning your future! students have gone on to study at a top 100 university Ready, steady, debate! Over 350 students in 60 teams have signed up to this year’s debating league! Teams of all ages are going head-to-head, starting with lower secondary considering the contribution mobile devices make to learning and upper secondary debating ‘machine intelligence is more reliable than human intelligence’ in round one. Competition is tough and only the very best debaters will have what it takes to win the title. Judges from renowned international law firm Clifford Chance, alongside members of the Education team, will be judging the finals. You can support the teams online in the Global Classroom by watching their progress and commenting in the community forum. Round one has produced some fantastic arguments such as these from the upper secondary debates: Arguing for the motion: ‘…machine technology has proven far more accurate and reliable when quantitative indicators of reliability, such as consistency, accuracy, error rates, reproducibility are taken into account.’ BISH Bulldogs (Houston) Arguing against the motion: ‘But they (computers) are emotionless, their decisions are only based on the facts, they can’t change their ideas according to their surroundings. They function based on what code us human beings type in, they do what the code tells them to do.’ Bratislava 2