Controlling parents 'harm future mental health'

By Hannah Richardson BBC News education and social affairs reporter

4 September 2015

A dults who were psychologically controlled as children by their parents are more likely to have poor mental health, research suggests.

University College London researchers likened the impact to that of the death of a close friend or relative.They said the most important factor in developing a sense of mental wellbeing was parents' care and responsiveness.

But controlling parents restricted their children's autonomy and stopped them developing a strong self-identity. They prevented them from learning from their own mistakes or conflicts. And this had a strong and persistent link with poor mental health throughout their life.

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Reaching the parts others cannot teach

By Sean Coughlan Education correspondent

29 July 2015

I t's easy to take online learning for granted, whether it's finding how to do something on YouTube or following a free online course from a university.

But Cheril Demasuhid doesn't take it for granted. It's immensely important to her.

She is working as a maid in Hong Kong so that she can send back money to her family in the Philippines. In her spare hours, she goes on to the internet to study subjects such as IT and business.

When educationalists write about Moocs - massive open online courses - it is often about the technical achievement of being able to deliver chunks of higher education courses to millions of online learners.

Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios 'to split from Disney'

3 September 2015

S teven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios is to end its distribution partnership with Disney next year, according to Hollywood reports.

Spielberg founded DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, and the studio made hit movies including Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty and Gladiator. DreamWorks Studios' films include War Horse and Lincoln. Its productions are currently distributed and marketed by The Walt Disney Company.

But The Hollywood Reporter and Variety said DreamWorks would not renew the deal when it expires next August.

DreamWorks is likely to do a deal with Universal instead, the reports claimed.

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Authors unite to raise funds for Syrian refugees

4 September 2015

A campaign set up by children's author Patrick Ness to raise funds for Syrian refugees has raised more than £150,000 in 24 hours.

Ness offered to match the first £10,000 in donations, an offer that was itself matched by fellow authors John Green, Derek Landy and Jojo Moyes.

"What started out as a small thing has exploded," wrote Ness on Friday on his official fundraising page.

In his initial post, Ness - whose works include A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy - said he was "tired of just tweeting [his] despair about the current refugee crisis".