Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Distance Between 2 Points

Distance Between 2 Points Distance between 2 points can be found by using distance formula. The distance is the amount of space between points, lines etc. In mathematics the distance formula is an expression used to determine the distance between two points in a plane. The distance between two points with coordinates (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) can be represented by a formula Distance = ((x2- x1) ^2 + (y2 y1) ^2) The distance formula is obtained from Pythagorean Theorem. The below two examples illustrate how to find out distance between two points. Problem 1: Calculate the distance between the two points P (2, 1) and Q (3, 2). Solution: According to the question the coordinates of two points are P (2, 1) and Q (-3, 2). = To find out distance between P and Q use distance formula = Distance = ((x2- x1) ^2 + (y2 y1) ^2) = ((-3- 2) ^2 + (2 1) ^2) = ((-5) ^2 + (1) ^2) = Distance = 26 = The distance between PQ = Distance = 26 Problem 2: The distance between the points A (-2, -3) and B (-3, x) is equal to 5. Find value of x. Solution: Given the distance between two points is 5 = Since the distance is known we can use distance formula to set up an equation = Distance = ((x2- x1) ^2 + (y2 y1) ^2) = 5 = ((-3 (-2)) ^2 + (x (-3)) ^2) = 5 = ((-1) ^2 + (x + 3) ^2) = 5^2 = 1 + (x + 3) ^2 = (x + 3) ^2 = 24 = We get 2 solutions for x = -3 2 sqrt (6) and -3+ 2 sqrt (6).

Friday, March 6, 2020

5 Most Difficult Italian Grammar Rules Made Simple

5 Most Difficult Italian Grammar Rules Made Simple Suzy S. Are you ready for a lesson in Italian grammar?  Below, Italian teacher Liz T. breaks down the five most difficult Italian grammar rules Learning Italian can be difficult, not to mention overwhelming for new students. Many students are afraid of tackling Italian grammar, as it can be complex and confusing at first. If you take the time to learn Italian grammar, however, youre much more likely to understand what youre  actually saying, hearing, reading, and writing. Below, we break down the  five most difficult Italian grammar rules  to make it easier for you to understand. 1. Nouns and Adjectives We categorize nouns and adjectives  as either masculine and feminine. Typically, nouns  ending in -o are masculine, while nouns ending in -a are feminine. See examples below. Feminine: Donna (woman) Masculine: Uomo (man) If the noun ends in -i that means it’s masculine, but plural and  nouns ending in -e are  feminine, but plural. See examples below. Masculine: Bambini (children) Feminine: Ragazze (girls) 2. Singular vs. Plural Knowing how to create singular and plural nouns can be difficult. While there are a few  tricks to remembering the rules, its really all about memorizing the endings. See examples below. Nouns ending in  singular -o switch to plural -i Amico is changed to Amici (Friend, Friends) Nouns ending in singular -a switch to plural -e Torta is changed to Torte (Cake, Cakes) Nouns ending in singular -ca switch to -che Mucca is changed to Mucche (Cow, Cows) Nouns ending in singular -e switch to -i Professore is changed to Professori (Professor, Professors) 3. Introducing “The” Definite Articles (Singular) Singular: There are two main forms of the definite article in the singular, il (masculine) and la  (feminine)  and two alternate forms.  l’  for any noun starting with a vowel, and lo,  for any masculine noun starting with s- plus a consonant, p-s, or -z. See examples below: Masculine singular Example: Il gatto (the cat) Feminine singular  Example: La gatta (the cat) Masculine noun starting with a vowel Example: L’uomo (the man) Feminine noun starting with a vowel Example: L’amica (the friend) Masculine noun starting with a -s plus a consonant Example: Lo Zio (the uncle) Plural: Le is used to describe plural feminine “Le Ragazze” replaces La or L’. I is used to describe plural masculine “I Ragazzi” replaces il. Gli is used to describe plural masculine “Gli Zii” replaces Lo or L’. 4. Indefinite Articles “A, An” Describing Nouns Masculine nouns use “Un” before a vowel or consonant. Example: Un libro (a book) Masculine nouns use “Uno” before consonant beginning with -s, -z, -gn, -ps etc. Example: Uno specchio (a mirror) Feminine nouns use “Una” before consonant. Example: Una donna (a woman) Feminine nouns use “Un” before vowel Example: Un’attrice (a actress) 5. Italian Pronouns to Use When Describing People According to Italian grammar, there are singular pronouns and plural pronouns. Below is  a table that will help you better memorize the singular and plural pronouns: To gain a better understanding of the Italian language, it’s important to master these five grammar rules. Use flash cards, write them down, put them in a song, use visuals, anything that will help you memorize them. Here are some additional Italian grammar articles that can help supplement your studies: Italian Grammar: Mastering the Informal and Formal You 4 Quick and Easy Italian Grammar Exercises Italian Grammar Rules: How to Form Singular and Plural Nouns Photo by Phil Roeder Post Author:  Liz T. Liz T. teaches singing, acting, music and Italian lessons in Brooklyn, NY.  She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in vocal performance and has a graduate certificate in arts administration from New York University. Learn more about Liz here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher

Accommodation in Beijing

Accommodation in Beijing How Can You Find Accommodation in Beijing? A Mini Guide ChaptersA Quick Look at Accommodation in BeijingFinding Accommodation in Beijing on AirbnbUsing HomeAway to Find Accommodation in BeijingOther Resources for Finding Accommodation in Beijing“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. ” - Charles de GaulleChina and its capital, in particular, don’t appear in the top 10 lists of tourist destinations around the world. However, if you’ve booked a flight to Beijing to see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, or the Temple of Heaven, you’re going to need somewhere to stay.For the National Day of the People's Republic of China in 2017, Beijing welcomed 12 million tourists! By 2030, China could be the world’s most visited country. This is hardly surprising given how big China is; you can visit the Yangtze River, the Terracotta Army, The Great Hall of the People, and tonnes of tourist attractions!Are you looking for accommodation in China?Here’s how to book somewhere to stay in Beijing, the capital of the north, w hen you visit China.For a short stay, you won’t need to sign a lease with an agency. There are plenty of holiday rents and hotels available on sites like Booking.com, Hotels.com, Airbnb, and HomeAway.Where you stay and when you stay will drastically affect the cost of your accommodation.  Thus, try to avoid the National Day of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese New Year, or the high season in summer.  Summer in Beijing is really hot and humid anyway.Additionally, with so many people trying to visit in the summer, the prices are much higher than they would be in spring or autumn.By the end of autumn and the start of winter, things are much cheaper. However, the temperatures can drop to -25 °C.Find out more about the best time to visit Beijing.You can find beds in youth hostel dormitories for between £5 and £10 per person per night. If you want a private holiday flat in the heart of the city centre, you’ll be paying upwards of £100 per night (for two people).If you’r e looking for something between £50 and £60, you’ll have to look outside the city centre and make sure it’s near the metro.Alternatively, you can find hotels for less (from £20 per night per person), but you won’t enjoy the same amenities as you would in a flat or a house.Finding Accommodation in Beijing on AirbnbAre you already familiar with Airbnb?You can use the holiday rental site in Beijing too!Have a look round Beijing for the right accommodation. (Source: SW1994)The advantage of private rents is that you can find traditional Chinese houses, siheyuan, forming small streets known as hutong where you can stay.On Airbnb, you can find accommodation for between £30 and £50 per night for two people. However, they’re still quite a distance from the city centre.Just like in other large Chinese cities, the cost of accommodation will vary according to the neighbourhood and the amenities. The closer you are to the historic centre, the higher you’ll expect to play.You defin itely shouldn’t just find the cheapest place.You don’t want to end up 50 miles from the city centre.  If you want to stay in Beijing and enjoy the city’s history, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, museums, and temples, you could always find an Airbnb in the Central Business District (the CBD).  This area stretches from Dawanglu in the east to Dongdaqiao in the west and from Chaoyanglu in the north to the Tonghuihe River in the south.  Here you’ll find your typical Asian megalopolis with its huge modern buildings, shopping centres, and chain bars and restaurants.You can find the Temple of Heaven, a 15th-century monument that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, just a few metro stations to the south-east.The Sanlitun neighbourhood to the north is great for party animals with its nightlife and expats. You can find some affordable accommodation for between £25 and £50 per night for two people in the middle of June.The Gulou neighbourhood near Houhai Lake has renovat ed hutongs you can stay in for an authentic Chinese experience as you enjoy one of the city’s most picturesque areas.  Gulou also has the advantage of being near the city centre. It’s just a few metro stops from Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.Enrol for and learn Mandarin London here.Using HomeAway to Find Accommodation in BeijingSo where should you stay when you visit Beijing?While most people know Airbnb, fewer know HomeAway.You don't want to have to commute to the most popular attractions. (Source: PublicDomainPictures)HomeAway is another holiday rental company and you can find accommodation in 190 different countries and there are over a million properties.Are you planning on staying in Beijing during your time in China?Each travel guide will tell you; staying in Beijing can be expensive.  China used to be somewhere you could go on a cheap trip with the low cost of living in the country, an abundance of noodle stands, and cheap accommoda tion.  Those days are over! The People's Republic of China’s economy has changed and it’s catching up to its western competitors.That said, the cost of living is still cheaper in China than in the UK and Beijing is cheaper than in London. However, travelling to Beijing will also cost more than visiting places like Chengdu, Guilin, Xi’an, or Yangshuo.  You can pay between £50 and £90 (for two people) to stay in the Sanlitun neighbourhood and enjoy the parties.You could pay between £80 and £100 if you’re looking for somewhere to stay in the business district to the east of the historic centre.Find out more about the different districts in Beijing.Other Resources for Finding Accommodation in BeijingThere are other resources and websites where you can find accommodation in China.Beijing is a mix of the traditional and the modern. (Source: wuwow)You can use sites such as Soufun and The Beijinger to find flats.  If you’re using Soufun, you’ll need to have an understanding of Mandarin Chinese since there’s no English translation of the site.  The Beijinger, however, does have an English translation. This is a bit like Gumtree or Craigslist.Would you like to stay in Beijing’s old town? Budget not an issue?Have a look at Home to Go.  This is very similar to Airbnb and allows you to reserve hotel rooms, guest houses, etc. in different neighbourhoods and for different prices.  You can also analyse offers on Airbnb using this platform. You can book hotels, a private room in a flat, or an entire property.There’s a wide range of prices. You can pay anywhere between £20 and £350 a night for two people.Of course, you can find double beds in a hotel room for between £25 and £30 a night.Make sure you book ahead so that you won’t be panicking once you land at Beijing International Airport.  Of course, as with any trip to China, be it to Xinjiang, Tibet, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Fujian, or Zhejiang, you can use these methods to find accommodation. Fortunate ly for you, accommodation tends to be cheaper outside the capital.Find out more about budgeting for a trip to Beijing.Before you go to China, consider getting private tutorials in Mandarin Chinese. On Superprof, there are three main types of language tutorials available: face-to-face tutorials, online tutorials, and group tutorials.Group tutorials are closer to traditional lessons at school with multiple students and a single teacher. If you and your family or friends are planning a trip to China, you could all get Chinese lessons together from a tutor before you go.Face-to-face tutorials are bespoke lessons with one tutor and one student. As the only student in the class, this is the most cost-effective type of private tutorial. Your tutor can spend all their time focusing on you!Finally, online tutorials are similar with the main difference being that the private tutor isn't there with you in the room. Thanks to the internet and programmes such as Skype, you can learn Chinese from anywhere with a decent internet connection and from tutors from anywhere in the world.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Most Famous Chemists Ten People who Changed Chemistry and the Way we Live

The Most Famous Chemists Ten People who Changed Chemistry and the Way we Live We Owe a lot to These Incredible Chemists ChaptersThe Founders of Modern Chemistry: Famous Chemists from the Eighteenth CenturyPerhaps the most Famous Chemist of all: Dmitri MendeleevRenowned Chemical Scientists: the Nineteenth CenturyTwentieth-Century Chemists You Should KnowOver the last two thousand years, we’ve come a long way in science. We no longer think that everything is made of water or fire, for example, or that the human body is composed of only four things. From this subject â€" one you might sigh about in the classroom, or get frustrated at before exams â€" came some of the most important developments of the human race.The field of chemistry has contributed to this development, and this discipline has given us some of our basic knowledge of the world. All these things we might now take for granted: that the world is made of tiny little particles, that you can burn things like coal to get heat. Not only that, but chemistry has revolutionised the way we live our lives â€" offering us technologies from radiation to solar panels to the dye in jeans. If a lot of people think that chemistry is for the academic, the professor, or the weirdo scientist in his big round glasses and white lab coat, it is important to remember that it is so much more than that. And those weirdo chemists changed your life in more ways than you probably realise.In this article, we’ll look at ten of the most important scientists in the history of chemistry. You can decide just how crucial their discoveries have been.chemistry tutor guide your learning!Alfred NobelYou know this name too. This chemist and businessman, Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), is known in all fields, due to the Nobel Prize â€" the award for excellence in literature, the sciences, and economics.But this man’s biography is not as nice as you might expect. His professional life was in selling weapons â€" explosives, mainly â€" and to chemistry, his contributions were generally in inventing the explosives that he sold.Nobel’s main achievement was the invention of dynamite. Intended as a tool for construction â€" for roads, industry, and canals â€" this chemical discovery was to have a sordid history, as we know.In his later years, as the story goes, he felt a little guilty about producing one of the most destructive chemical substances ever devised. He donated his massive fortune to inaugurating the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, and Peace.Find out what the essential equipment you need in your chemistry set is.Twentieth-Century Chemists You Should KnowIn the twentieth century, the subject of chemistry blossoms even further, branching out into different sub-disciplines and becoming the subject we know today.Linus PaulingLinus Carl Pauling (1901-1994) has often been hailed as one of the most important scientists ever to have lived â€" and if you haven’t heard of him, now is your opportunity.Pauling essentially invented, single-handedly, what we now know as molecular biology â€" the study of things like proteins and acids in the body â€" and quantum chemistry, or the study of the relationships between the smallest things in the atom. And if, at school, you’ve heard of covalent or ionic bonds â€" you have Pauling to thank for understanding them too. Learn more about chemical bonds in our piece on basic chemistry concepts.As a lifelong activist for nuclear disarmament, Pauling was not only a Nobel Laureate in chemistry, but he won the Nobel Peace Prize too. Finally, his research into proteins also inspired the work of Francis Crick and James Watson, who, without Pauling, would never have discovered the structure of DNA.Dorothy HodgkinNow time for a chemist that is often overlooked in the histories of famous scientists: Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994). Another Nobel Laureate, Hodgkin is the only British woman to have ever won a Nobel Prize in a science. Hodgkin’s main discoveries were in the structure of molecules and proteins in the body, and her research had a massive impact on biochemistry and medicine. She and her team worked on the structure of penicillin, vitamin B12, and, importantly, insulin. Her career was notable for her advocating for the importance of knowledge of insulin, too â€" for its central role in diabetes.My online chemistry tutor introduced me to her work; she is a truly admirable scientist!Kathleen LonsdaleAnd another twentieth-century chemist that deserves to be more famous than she is: Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971). As a scientist, she was one of the first women to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded numerous titles for her important work in crystallography, or the study of the arrangement of atoms in crystals.Alongside her work on diamonds, and her profoundly influential research into the structure of benzene, she was an advocate for pacifism and an inspiration for women scientists across the world.Still hungry for chemistry? We have an all you need to know about chemistry piece just for you!

Prepare For May 2015 AP Exams - Redesign Physics Exam

Prepare For May 2015 AP Exams - Redesign Physics Exam Now that its March, AP exams are only two months away (find the complete AP exam schedule at the College Boards website).  If youre currently enrolled in an AP class, taking the AP exam in May is a great way to get college credit.  However, many colleges have upped their requirements for awarding credit for AP courses, with some of the most prestigious colleges only giving credit for 5s the top score on the AP exam.If youre thinking you could use a little assistance preparing for your AP exams, AJ Tutoring is here to help!  We offer a couple options for AP exam prep in 2015: group classes and one-on-one tutoring.AP Test Prep Group ClassesAJ Tutoring offers group classes at our Palo Alto office for AP US History and AP English Language.  Both the APUSH and the AP English Language prep classes are taught by our resident experts in the subjects, Dominic Booth and Emily Foster.  Our group classes include 6-8 hours of classroom instruction as well as two full-length proctored pract ice AP exams.For course schedules  or to sign up for a class, please visit our AP exam prep page.One-on-One AP Exam TutoringAJ Tutoring also offers private one-on-one tutoring for all other AP subjects.  Each student meets with their tutor for 3 to 5 weekly sessions leading up the AP exam in early May.  During the sessions, the tutor focuses on timing and test-taking strategies appropriate for problem solving, essay writing, and multiple choice questions on the exam.  The tutor will also review the students weaker content areas and potentially assign additional content review for homework (i.e. outlining important material or creating timelines).  Generally, homework consists of full-length AP exams or 90-minute assignments relating to test-taking strategies or content review.One-on-one AP tutoring students are also encouraged to take proctored AP practice tests at our Palo Alto office.Changes to the AP US History and AP Physics Curriculum in 2014-15If your student is currently enrolled in AP US History or AP Physics 1 or 2 (the replacement for AP Physics B), you may have heard that the AP curriculum for both courses changed significantly this year.The AP US History course has been redesigned to focus on broader historical understandings.  The College Board highlighted seven major themes: ideas, beliefs, and culture; America in the world; environment and geography; politics and power; identity; peopling and migration; and work, exchange, and technology.  While students are still expected to have extensive content knowledge of American history, the course now focuses on fitting content knowledge into these major historical themes and finding causal connections between events.  The AP US History exam has also been redesigned for 2015, with an increased multiple choice focus on interpreting sources, and new short answer questions.AP Physics has also changed extensively, with the one-year AP Physics B course now split into a two-year sequence of AP Physics 1 and 2.  AP Physics 1 covers Newtonian mechanics; work, energy, and power; and mechanical waves and sound.  AP Physics 2 includes fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and atomic and nuclear physics.  The AP Physics exams have been revamped accordingly, with more emphasis on deep conceptual understanding of physics and less emphasis on rote mathematical operations.AJ Tutorings AP US History and AP Physics tutors are fully versed in the redesigned curriculum and AP exams, and weve created extensive proprietary material to assist students who are preparing for the first administration of these redesigned tests in 2015.  If you have any questions about the AP changes or would like to sign up for tutoring, please give us a call at (650) 331-3251 or email us at info@ajtutoring.com.  Were looking forward to working with you!

Tutorfairs Foundation On-Demand Review

Tutorfair's Foundation On-Demand Review As one of the Founders of Tutorfair, my mission has been to make tutoring fair for all.      Last  week the Foundation signed off the final report of our pilot study for Tutorfair On-Demand with Nesta, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the  learning we’ve seen from this pilot. Why did we start On-Demand? We created On-Demand for Nesta, the innovation foundation. They had noticed in 2016 that volunteering projects were making a real difference in education but were not reaching large  areas of the country.  We took up the challenge because we thought the solution might also fix an issue for the Tutorfair Foundation.   We had lots of tutors trying to volunteer  who we were unable to place  most in our projects with schools.  The On-Demand app would let  volunteers anywhere in the country answer questions whenever they wanted. What have we found? Fast forward to 2019 and we now have a real live service that works. Pupils from schools who sign-up can access a tutor for GCSE maths instantly on their phones.  They feel happy with the help they get and their teacher can see what they struggled with. Volunteers can help when and where they are able to, without needing to make complex commitments. The Foundation team can train the volunteers online and monitor for quality and safeguarding.   Now that hundreds of students and volunteers and 30 schools have used it we have loads of great feedback on how to make it all better. What’s most exciting is that we’re starting to find from our small sample of students in the pilot that students who used the app more frequently saw some grade improvement.   One of the most important things moving forward to more schools and more students will be proving this result to be statistically significant. What next? As we wrap up the pilot study we are really excited with the potential for On Demand.  We feel confident that it will  be shown make a real difference to grades when we can do a full proof of concept.   This would mean for our volunteers that they are making a measurable contribution to addressing educational inequality.  When we can prove that we make an impact, there is so much potential to extend to new students and subjects and for this to be a whole new way for teachers and tutors to work together. With thanks to... Before signing off I must thank Nesta and DCMS for setting a visionary challenge and supporting us on the way. Pete and Tas on the Foundation team have designed and run everything. Curvestone help us with development. 364 tutors volunteered to help. And thanks to everyone else in the Tutorfair extended family who has helped to make this idea into a reality.

Catch Em All (With Safety And Intelligence)

Catch 'Em All (With Safety And Intelligence) youtube.com But, some people are throwing caution to the wind entirely and doing anything to catch all of the Pokémon they possibly can. Catching  Pokémon and getting hurt in the end is not worth the hassle. Here are some tips to indeed catch em all, but with safety and intelligence. 1. DO NOT CATCH POKÉMON AND DRIVE. This is just like texting and driving: You cannot do both at the same time and be safe. There is no reason that you can’t wait until you arrive at your destination to catch more Pokémon on your app. Virtual non-existent little monsters in an app are not worth a car wreck or the financial mess that would follow a car wreck. It doesn’t matter if you’re not texting. Looking at your phone, in general, is a driving distraction. According to www.cdc.gov:  â€œEach day in the United States, more than nine people are killed and more than 1,153 people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver. Distracted driving is driving while doing another activity that takes your attention away from driving.” Catch Pokémon with this app at your leisure, but do not endanger yourself or others because of a game. facebook.com 2. WATCH YOUR DATA. It is very easy to download an app onto your phone, not really caring about the data usage and just playing whenever you feel like it. Who needs WiFi, right? Well, you might. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who pay their own phone bills and might even have a WiFi hot-spot on their phone. But, those who belong to a shared data plan with family members or do not have much of a data plan at all need to be aware of data consumption. Going into settings and then apps on iOS devices allows users to turn off an app’s ability to use cellular data. On Android devices, you can set your phone to stay within your data limit and prevent further worries. 9to5mac.com asus.com Some cell phone companies may offer unlimited data but not all of them do. Make sure you are being smart about data consumption and if you do go over your limit, be prepared to pay for it â€"literally. 3. OBEY PHONE RULES/REGULATIONS. Whether you are at your job or on campus, obey the phone regulations already set into place. For example, if you are in the middle of a lecture, do not whip your phone out checking for Pokémon and then proceed to ignore the lecture due to being obsessed with catching the Pokémon should any be present. Moreover, do not almost lose your job over the app. Reddit user scarstruck4 explained that having used the app at work almost cost him his job. Scarstruck4 wrote that he works, “in a Banking/IT company,” and, “Employees of my company are allowed to use smartphones inside the premises [but] using camera is strictly prohibited as we have access to clients personal data.” When he began using the app in order to catch a Pokémon  for it, a higher-up accused him of “clicking photographs,” and his “iPhone [was] confiscated.” While the Reddit user did not lose his job, he was still put through the hassle of having his phone checked for anything incriminating and let off with a warning. That should be enough to take to heart this phrase from Professor Oak himself: “Theres a time and place for everything, but not now.” http://e.lvme.me/mdus4ch.jpg 4. DO NOT TRESPASS. http://cdn.smosh.com As much as the joke keeps being made that the legendary Pokémon MewTwo could be at Area 51, by no means should you travel into restricted areas. That is not only putting your safety in jeopardy, but you could face legal issues for trespassing. The hassle of a lawsuit is not something anyone with a job or college career and opportunity for work in the future should have to deal with. Have fun but do not be outright stupid and enter dangerous or restricted areas that you should be nowhere near. Go ahead and catch ‘em all but with safety and intelligence.

Attacks on Teachers has reached shocking levels - Tutor Hunt Blog

Attacks on Teachers has reached shocking levels Attacks on Teachers has reached shocking levels Attacks on Teachers has reached shocking levelsSchoolsIt seems barely a week can pass without another school shooting in America - and while we may think ourselves lucky that our children are not under such risk of violence in their places of study, we should be aware that UK classrooms can still be a dangerous place, for both pupils and teachers. The Labor force survey, conducted by the office for national statistics, investigates the employment circumstances of the UK population. In a recently published major study it questioned 40,000 UK residents, asking them about any work related injuries - specifically those injuries relating to an assault. The study lasted six years, covering the period between 2009 and 2015 - and its results were shocking. It found that there were on average 8000 attacks per year in primary and secondary schools - actual attacks that were severe enough that the teacher was required to report them. The GMB (General and Municipal Workers) trade union instigated its own survey in 2016, specifically focussing on support staff - ; and the results depicted a dismal account of violence against teachers in schools. An astonishing 54% of teaching assistants said they have been physically assaulted or abused, with one in ten saying they are on average assaulted once a month. 9% list a single assault per term, and 17% said they have been assaulted in the past year. Almost 25% of support teachers also said that they are verbally abused by pupils at least once a week. Some of the specific cases make for disturbing reading, with staff saying they have been punched and kicked, and even strangled in class; other teachers said they have had all kinds of projectiles, including tables and chairs, thrown at them. 29% of support staff say they have been injured by pupils, and 21% said it has had a detrimental effect on their working life. One teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told of the ongoing fear they live with after being assaulted by a child in school: `I was extremely shocked and frightened and feel emotionally exhausted - I am very worried this child will attempt to attack me again. I have said I don`t want the child anywhere near me.` Imagine an administrative job, or a position in any well known bank or other private sector position, where more than one in five of the staff said workplace violence was having a determent ail effect on their ability to perform their tasks. Such a shocking statistic would be rightfully decried as unacceptable - it would be classed as a scandal, and the company in which such atrocities took place would be excoriated in the press. Because these widespread misdemeanours are occurring in schools though, little notice seems to be given to them. There are also unsettling signs that this problem is only getting worse, with figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act showing that across the whole of the UK there has been a 50% increase reported to the police between 2014 and 2016. Karen Leonard, a national officer for the GMB said `No one should have to put up with being attacked while at work and our members are no different. The results of this survey make truly disturbing reading, with teaching assistants, caretakers, lunchtime supervisors and more experiencing shocking levels of violence. Many are left with terrible mental and physical scars. GMB demands a zero-tolerance approach to violence in schools with proper, reliable support systems in place for those who do experience it.` I have heard stories from friends of mine, teachers working in London and other cities in the UK, who tell me they are often afraid to even restrain a pupil who is attacking them, so severe could be the repercussions. In the litigious society we live in caution and restraint must be the mantras for teachers in the classroom, whatever the violence of the situation. The Department of Education attempted to address this issue, recently saying a `tough but proportionate` response by teachers when faced with violence were acceptable. `This government has taken decisive action to put teachers back in charge of the classroom by giving them the powers they need to tackle poor behaviour and discipline, and has scrapped `no touch` rules that stopped teachers removing disruptive pupils from classrooms. Teachers and school staff have a right to feel safe while doing their jobs, and violence towards them is completely unacceptable.` 24 months ago0Add a Comment