Decision Day

The polls are open today (Thursday 23rd June) from 7.00am until 10pm. 

Do use your vote in what must be the most important decision the British people have had to take for decades.

The officials at the polling station (who are independent of either campaign can advise you if you have any problems).

Where is my designated polling station? 

You can find the address of your polling station on your polling card. You can only vote at your designated polling station.  If you can not find your polling card you can contact us and we will be able to provide that information. You do not need your polling card with you to vote because your name will be on the register at the polling station.

How do I vote at the polling station? 

If you are on the register of electors you will receive a poll card a few weeks before an election. This will tell you how, where and when to vote.

This card is for information only so don't worry if you lose it or forget it. (You can still vote without the poll card but it is easier if you have it with you).

You will be assigned to a polling station in your area, for example, at a school or village hall. On election day you should go to the polling station during the times it is open - this will be stated on your polling card.

At the polling station you will be given a ballot paper which is stamped with an official mark.

Take the ballot paper to one of the polling booths and put a cross in the box next to the option you are voting for. Do not write anything else on the ballot paper, otherwise your vote might not count. Once you have voted you must fold the ballot paper and show it to the clerk before you put it in the locked ballot box. You don't have to tell anyone what you voted for.

Do I need to take my polling card to the polling station to vote? 

No, you do not need your polling card to vote. This card is for information only so don't worry if you lose it or forget it. (You can still vote without the poll card but it is easier if you have it with you).

How long will polling stations be open on 23 June 

Polling stations will open at 7am and close at 10pm, if you are still queuing at the polling station at 10pm you will still have the opportunity vote, you will be invited into the polling station or given a ticket that will identify you as being eligible to cast your vote. Find out more information about polling stations on the gov.uk website

Can I still register to vote for the EU Referendum?

No, it is now too late to register for the EU Referendum. If you have registered to vote for any other election at your current address then you will automatically be registered to vote for this referendum. You cannot check if you are registered to vote online. If you have a polling card in your name at your address then you are registered to vote.

How does Parliament REALLY work?

)Today we have an opportunity to see Parliament at work (actually we do every day - the Chamber & committees are open to the public, and can be viewed from home via the internet.

Prime Minister's Question Time  (PMQs) is on at noon. I won't be watching. In my view it is the worst of Parliament - with petty point scoring and more heat than light. But it can be "fun" - and will be broadcast on BBC Parliament and on the live feed at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Commons

Sir Philip Green will be appearing before a joint meeting of the Work & Pensions / Business, Innovation and Skills Committee at 9-15 in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House. He will be answering questions about the failure of BHS & his role in that. Of course there's a danger that it could descend into a lynch mob - but actually such committees tend to be very good at drawing out key points. It might be uncomfortable for Sir Philip - but that's what MPs are there for - to ask the questions that we, the public, would like to put. It can be viewed live at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/e81170bd-19b1-4a53-a96b-874b0cdc2f7f

I had wanted to go down to Westminster this morning to see Ofsted's  Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw & National Schools Commissioner, Sir David Carter give evidence to the Education Select Committee on Multi-Academy Trusts. The Committee (on which I have delivered papers on my research into the working of the committee at various academic conferences)is an example of Parliament working at its best. It is cross-party - but MPs work together well to hold decision makers to account.  It is due to start at 9.30. http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/a2ae37d4-2653-49b7-987e-ae800748244f


Various other committees will be meeting during the day; there will be a debate about Europe in the Chamber this afternoon - and some short debates in "Westminster Hall" (actually not in the ancient hall, but in a committee room off it.

Full details of what's on at Westminster today can be found at http://calendar.parliament.uk and live and recorded meetings can be viewed at www.parliamentlive.tv

Stony Live

Last night we went to see Woburn Jazz  at the Cock Hotel, as part of the Stony Live Festival - which is currently running in the historic town of Stony Stratford, now part of the city of Milton Keynes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening - with lots of my favourite Big Band numbers, and some more recent work (Queen & Stevie Wonder). The band has some very talented members - and I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for future performances.

It was our second visit to this year's Stony Live. On Saturday we went to the to "Comedy Club" event, which was held at York House. In previous years we've been to a number of events which formed part off this festival. If you haven't yet been along - it's well worth it. There's a wide range of events - to meet almost any taste.

Up to date information on the Stony Live festival can be accessed at http://www.stonylive.info/pages/home/ 

Cherbourg

One of the best ways to get some practice in the language you are learning - is to go to that country - and seek to interact with the locals. That's what I have been doing over the last few days. My daughter and I went to Cherbourg, in Normandy, France.



Whilst over there we ordered a number of meals (breakfast in the Boulangerie maison Toulorge (Boulevard de l'Est - Rue des métiers 50110 Tourlaville Tél : 02 33 20 37 84 - http://www.maison-toulorge.com) was a delight each morning - and brought some useful practice.) and we asked questions in a number of shops. We even had a couple of conversations on the bus.

We were able to do a lot of reading - I got newspapers each day - and have a number of books that I brought home. When we visited tourist attractions we made a point of reading the FRENCH information plaques. There is a delightful walk along the path by the road on the west of Cherbourg - which set out the history of the harbour. We also enjoyed the Chateau de Ravalet. It's a council owned building and gardens - beautifully kept - with a superb café. At the moment they have an exquisite exhibition celebrating "Alice au Pays des Merveilles" - the staff were in costume; the exhibition had some superbly made "fausses pâtisseries" made by l'atelier de Caline.



In the evenings at our hotel we were able to watch some TV.

I've come back a lot more confident about my speaking, listening & reading French

Duolingo - Supporting Language Learning

One of the keys to learning is practising the skill being acquired frequently. Ten minutes a day is often more effective than doing mega-sessions on an occasional basis. Forming habits of regular study is also very important.

There is an app which I have on my iPhone and iPad (and are therefore linked - so I can use either - and my progress is recorded and shared) - called "Duolingo". It's a free app - and there is no subscription. Now, the first thing I do each day is to do my daily practice. You can set your own daily target [Goals can be Casual (10 XP = 1 'unit'); Regular (20 XP); Serious (30 XP) and Insane (50 XP) - but you can exceed your goal - which I try to do - because I can be intensely competitive - ESPECIALLY with myself.] It is addictive - and after two days on a run, you are told how many days you have done. Achieving a run of 100 days was a goal I aimed at - and this motivated me. It felt great to get there. I've now got a new goal - and it keeps me going.

You can also compete against friends. A unit (which only takes a few minutes) earns 10 XP - and there are other ways to increase your score. You can invite friends to join the 'leaderboard' and again that can help by raising the challenge of competition.

You don't have to stick to one language - my main aim at the moment is to develop my French - but ahead of a trip to Hamburg, I want to learn a bit of German. It's easy to switch languages - so my current goals are to do at least three units of French and one of German every day. It doesn't take much time - but time passes, and I can see how my skills are improving. As I say, generating new motivation is key to the Duolingo tool.

There is a large choice of languages available - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Esperanto, Turkish, Vietnamese, Norwegian, Ukrainian, and Welsh - and the developers are working on more.

Visit the website - https://www.duolingo.com or visit your device's 'app store'.

BBC Young Musician of the Year

Yesterday we went to the Barbican in London to watch the final of the competition. It was a fantastic afternoon - with three superb performances. If you are able to view on BBC iPlayer - I would thoroughly recommend watching - it is available at http://bbc.in/1TfxGTt . I won't spoil it for you by revealing the winner (although it was on the news headlines this morning on BBC Radio 4). Three very talented performers indeed! Details (in the order of performance) of each of them (from the BBC website) are below

Ben Goldscheider

Ben comes from Hertfordshire and has been playing the horn since the age of nine. Since a very early age, he has wanted to become a soloist and increase the popularity of the horn! He has played numerous times with the Philarmonia, was principal horn of the National Youth Orchestra and is also part of the International Music Academy for Soloists. Ben is studying Music and History at A level whilst teaching himself the piano and German. Aside from music, he enjoys playing a wide range of sports including football and tennis.

Jess Gillam

Jess is from Cumbria and began playing saxophone aged seven. She has made a guest appearance with Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, has been a concerto soloist with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra and in July, she was the youngest solo performer at the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg. Jess also runs her own annual concert series in Ulverston where artists such as Courtney Pine, Snake Davis, The Apollo Saxophone Quartet, John Harle and Tommy Smith have performed.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Sixteen year old Sheku attends Trinity Catholic School in Nottingham. He holds the ABRSM Junior Scholarship to The Royal Academy of Music, where he studies cello with Ben Davies. Sheku plays in the Chineke! Junior and Professional Orchestra, as well as the JRAM Symphony Orchestra. He plays chamber music with the Kanneh-Mason Piano Trio and the Ash String Trio. Sheku plays a cello made by Frank White of Ladystone Violins. He also enjoys football.

We were thrilled to find that our seats were on the front row - and we sat next so some of the friends of Jess Gillam's who had travelled down from Cumbria for the competition. I love listening to the saxophone and her performance was electrifying. 

During one of the three intervals, the winner of the BBC Young Musician Jazz award, Alexandra Ridout gave a performance with her trio in the foyer. Another young lady to watch out for in the future. After the competition ended we stayed for another foyer event - this time a big band. 

The next competition runs in two years time.

How to Learn a Second Language

You'd think that I'd be good at learning other languages. After all, I was bilingual as a child. Though I was born and grew up in the West Midlands, my family were from South Wales - and my parents spoke both English and Welsh to me at home. Yet I've always struggled to learn languages. I don't have the ear for it - and the way we were taught French made it tedious and ultimately failed for me (lots of rote-learning - and writing out verb tables and vocab lists). In fact, while I just scraped an O-Level (my worst performance by far), I happily gave up French the day the minute the exam concluded.

It was a trip to Paris (won at a holiday show in Northampton), that ignited my interest in the language. Over time I learned enough for getting by on the holidays we took in France with the children. I came to enjoy reading it (my idea of paradise was, and is, to read Le Monde whilst sitting in the sun and sipping red wine). In fact, I followed the first year of a D.E.U.G. mention Droit (University course in Law at at Université de Poitiers) through attending the first week of each term, getting and buying the reading list, and studying at home. The exam was a disaster - I could read the question - know in my own mind what I wanted to say - but had very poor skills in writing French. (To be honest, I had almost none).

The trouble is, being able to read in a second language, doesn't help you communicate. So when I would pop across to France for a trip - the shopkeepers and waiters would regard me as any other hapless English visitor.

But learning french (or any other language) isn't impossible.

There are lots of books available - and CDs to listen to, but on their own they didn't work for me. I now attend weekly french conversation classes in Milton Keynes with Marie Da Silva. Marie is french, but has lived in Milton Keynes for some years. She's also keen to promote "real learning". She set up a meet-up group for speakers of French (and other groups for other languages - and has organised fun events bringing together people from many different language backgrounds. Recently she set up Lingo Mix. I thoroughly recommend her website - http://lingomix.co.uk/ - and the activities which she runs in Milton Keynes.

I'm finally making real progress. Having the opportunity, in a friendly environment, to practice speaking the language is essential. So whether it's the Tuesday conversation class - or playing Scrabble in French with teams including a wide range of language skill level (last Wednesday) - or a meal with patient French nationals - my skills improve. I had always concentrated on vocab - but Marie has helped me to appreciate how the structure of grammar aids (rather than hinders) learning.

I hope I can persuade Marie to share some of her thoughts in guest posts in the future.

As a teacher myself, I know that a learner can't delegate learning to the tutor. The learner needs to put in the time and effort themselves. So as well as class, and social events - I use other tools at home. I'll be sharing with you what works for me.