Fathers plan legal action to get smartphones banned in England’s schools
Two fathers plan to take legal action against the government in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England.Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery wrote to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, on Friday warning that they would seek a judicial review.They argue that current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for children.The Department for Education now has 14 days to officially respond to the letter, after which point the claimants can issue judicial review proceedings.The DfE said schools already had the power to ban phones and it was bringing in “better protections” from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.
A national survey ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, published in April revealed that 90% of all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils,The survey found that 79% of secondary schools allowed students to keep their phones while banning their use or display, while 8% required phones to be handed in, and 3% stopped pupils from bringing them to school altogether,The two fathers, who have brought their claim under the name Generation Alpha, argue that smartphones are still being used dangerously and the safest approach for children would be a complete ban on smartphones in schools,Orr-Ewing said there was evidence that devices were being used to access harmful “very violent or sexual” content or for cyberbullying,“We know that when children use smartphones they usually don’t do it in a safe way,” he said.
“Parents have told us about boys being filmed naked in the PE changing rooms and then shared across the school.”Girls were “being manipulated by predators on messaging platforms during lessons and in school toilets” and “tiny children” were being shown “graphic pornography” on the school bus by other children, he added.The fathers said a ban on smartphones was a “no-brainer”, and argued that children should only have “brick phones” to communicate with parents if needed.Sign up to Headlines UKGet the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morningafter newsletter promotionLast week government guidance from the DfE on keeping children safe at school acknowledged that some children might use smartphones to bully or sexually harass other children, share indecent images and access and share pornography.Schools should “carefully consider how this is managed”, it stated.
Montgomery said there was evidence that schools were still not taking the necessary steps to safeguard children.The pair made freedom of information requests to schools in England about safeguarding incidents related to smartphones and social media; one school had passed 55 such incidents to social services in the last academic year, 17 of which were referred to the police.“A statutory ban would be a huge relief for headteachers and parents alike,” he said.The DfE said: “Schools already have the power to ban phones, and we support headteachers to take the necessary steps to prevent disruption, backed by our clear guidance on how to restrict their use.We know there are wider issues with children’s online experiences, which is why we are also bringing in better protections from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.
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It’s sexy! It’s Swedish! It’s everywhere! How princess cake conquered America
This spring, something strange started happening at the Fillmore Bakery in San Francisco, which specializes in old-school European desserts.Excited customers kept asking the bakery’s co-owner, Elena Basegio, “Did you see about the princess cake online?”The dome-shaped Swedish layer cake, topped with a smooth layer of green marizipan, had suddenly gone viral, increasing sales of the bakery’s already-bestselling cake.After nearly a century of demure European popularity, “prinsesstårta” suddenly seemed to be everywhere: on menus at hip restaurants in Los Angeles and New York, trending on TikTok, even inspiring candle scents at boutique lifestyle brands.The Swedish consulate in San Francisco confirmed the phenomenon, telling the Guardian that the trend appears to be driven by innovative American pastry chefs such as Hannah Ziskin, whose Echo Park pizza parlor has offered up a sleek redesign of the palatial pastry, as well as by online food influencers, some of whom have offered American bakers more “accessible” versions of the elaborate dessert.The reinvention of one of Sweden’s most cherished desserts as a trendy indulgence might seem like just another retro fad, like the renewed popularity of martinis or caviar
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for passion fruit jaffa cakes | The sweet spot
I don’t buy jaffa cakes nearly as often as other biscuits, but when I do, I’m reminded how much I love them. They’re surprisingly easy to make from scratch, too. The base is an incredibly light genoise sponge that’s topped with a layer of jelly, and it’s this section that allows for some creativity. I chose to go down a summery route with passion fruit. Juicing enough passion fruit to get 200ml of liquid is tedious (and expensive), so by all means use a carton of juice instead
Noodle salad and fried shrimp: Mandy Yin’s recipes for Malaysian home-style prawns
The 14 states of Malaysia are located on a peninsula to the south of Thailand and on the island of Borneo, so it is no surprise that we absolutely adore seafood. Prawns are my seafood of choice at home, and I lean into store-cupboard staples to bring together easy, quick meals for my small family. Today’s glorious noodle salad is perfect for summer, not least because it’s a simple assembly job, while the second recipe, if you make a little effort to devein some shell-on prawns, rewards you with the most magnificent plate of them that you’ll ever eat.Kerabu is an umbrella term in Malay denoting a vibrant salad of vegetables and herbs, dressed with a fiery sambal, shrimp paste and lime to bring everything together. The dressing is spicy, sharp and smells wonderful from all the herbs
Born a star: the juicy history of the passion fruit martini
To many people, the expert combination of vanilla vodka, passion fruit puree, Passoã and champagne serves as a syrupy promise of a good night ahead. To me, however, even a whiff of a pornstar martini takes me right back to my waitressing days in the Midlands, and to sticky hands and broken glass after I dropped a tray of four of the damned things. I don’t need a drinks marketing report to tell me it was the most popular cocktail in 2018; I lived it.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for roast summer vegetable, herb and pearl barley salad | A kitchen in Rome
It is the time of year when the fruit syrups get moved to a more accessible shelf at our local supermarket. They have a range of eight to 10 flavours, but the two that dominate are mint and orzata, luminous green and cloudy white syrups respectively, that need diluting with fizzy water and maybe topping up with ice. I have mentioned orzata here before, how popular it is in Italy and how the name means a drink made from orzo (barley), and also how at some point the barley was replaced by almonds; then, at another point, the almonds were replaced by deacidified benzoin, which is a balsamic resin obtained from trees of the genus Styrax from south-east Asia. Deacidified benzoin is actually delicious and I become dependent on orzata at this time of year, and the sound of the ice clanking against the side of the glass as I walk my cold, cloudy drink back to my hot desk is the sound of summer.However, I have always wondered what orzata made with orzo is like
Australian supermarket chicken nuggets taste test: from ‘mushy’ to ‘super good’
Sarah Ayoub wrangles 10 kids under 10, plus older siblings and their parents, to find chicken nuggets with the best crispiness, even texture and taste of real chickenGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayWhat makes a good chicken nugget? Ahead of this taste test, I put a call-out on Instagram asking this question. Dozens of messages essentially said the same thing: real chicken flavour, evenly textured meat and a crisp exterior.Though a handful suggested I make my own, most understood the assignment: the appeal of a chicken nugget lies not in Nara Smith-ing it but in its convenience, especially during school holiday chaos. To that end, on the first day of winter break, I rounded up good friends, compliant siblings (including a 34-year-old nugget connoisseur-sister who still orders kids’ meals) and their respective children to rate frozen supermarket offerings for their overall appeal, texture and flavour.Nuggets were cooked in an oven according to their packet instructions, but the consensus was that almost all the nuggets needed longer cook times
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