Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Spring Offensive" and "Strange Meeting". Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before the war's end, at the age of 25.
Sir John Betjeman, was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school.
Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster, a former principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme.
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage.
Birmingham City University is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic in 1971 and gained university status in 1992.
Anselm Paul Alexis Hollo was a Finnish poet and translator. He lived in the United States from 1967 until his death in January 2013.
The National Curriculum for England was first introduced by the Education Reform Act 1988. At the time of its introduction the legislation applied to both England and Wales. However, education later became a devolved matter for the Welsh government. The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.
Paul Patrick was an English teacher and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist. He was openly gay and focused on homophobia in the public and voluntary sectors, particularly in the education system.
La Martinière College is an elite educational institution located in Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The college consists of two schools on different campuses for boys and girls. La Martinière College was founded in 1845 and La Martinière Girls' College was established in 1869. La Martiniere Boys' College is the only school in the world to have been awarded royal battle honours for its role in the defence of Lucknow and the Lucknow residency during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The two Lucknow colleges are part of the La Martinière family of schools, founded by the French adventurer Major General Claude Martin. There are two La Martinière Colleges in Kolkata and three in Lyon. La Martinière provides a liberal education and the medium of instruction is the English language. The schools cater for pupils from the age of 5 to 17 or 18, and are open to children of all religious denominations, the boys' school has a Chapel, a Hindu Temple and a Mosque on its campus and has remained a non-denominational school since its inception, unlike the two La Martiniere Schools in Calcutta which are Christian schools, controlled by the Anglican Church of North India. Both the schools have day scholars and residence scholars (boarders).
Grace Nichols FRSL is a Guyanese poet who moved to Britain in 1977, before which she worked as a teacher and journalist in Guyana. Her first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. In December 2021, she was announced as winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Imtiaz Dharker is a Pakistan-born British poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020.
Raghupati Sahay, also known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was an Indian writer, critic, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary Urdu poets from India. He established himself among peers including Muhammad Iqbal, Yagana Changezi, Jigar Moradabadi and Josh Malihabadi.
Reeta Chakrabarti is a British journalist, newsreader and correspondent for BBC News. She is known for presenting BBC News at One, BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten and BBC Weekend News, and presenting regularly on the BBC News Channel and occasionally BBC World News.
Marion Elaine Richardson was a British educator and author of books on penmanship and handwriting.
Ronald Leslie Dawson is a Special Educational Needs (SEN) educator, psychologist, researcher and author and co-author of numerous books and articles concerning the education of pupils with SEN. His most important publication is The Macmillan Teacher Information Pack (TIPs), a pack of informative materials to assist teachers of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream and special schools. He has also written two novels, six children's story books and a history of Birmingham's first canal. In 2012 he wrote the lyrics and co-composed the music of "Lest we forget", a song of Remembrance. It was first performed in public on 16 September 2012 by the Wellington Male Voice Choir in the New Zealand Parliament building at the inauguration of New Zealand's Malayan Veterans Day. It has since been performed at Remembrance Services, Concerts and Memorials in the UK, Australia, Canada and Cyprus. In 2014 he wrote the lyrics and co-composed the music a novelty dance song "The Brazilian Attack", which was recorded by the Copacabana Brass. He created, wrote, directed and produced the National Children's WW1 Remembrance Concert at the National Exhibition Centre on the 3rd of November, 2018.
King Edward VI King’s Norton School for Boys, is a secondary school for around 800 pupils aged 11 to 16. It is located in Northfield Road in Kings Norton within the formal district of Northfield near the centre of the city of Birmingham, England. It is situated east of the A441, just north of the B4121 in Cotteridge.
The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, is a conspiracy theory that posits a plot to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years. The letter has been characterised as "incomplete, unsigned and unaddressed", but led to two investigations commissioned by the Department for Education and Birmingham City Council, the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, respectively. The reports did not both endorse the idea of "a plot", but point to "behaviour indicative of a concerted attempt to change schools".
Urdu in the United Kingdom is the fourth most commonly spoken language. It is seen as the lingua franca for around two million British South Asians. According to the 2021 census, 270,000 people listed Urdu as their main language, an increase of 1,000 from 2011. Ethnologue reports the total number of Urdu speakers in the UK at over 400,000. Since the 1990s, the Department of Health has issued patient information in Urdu in conjunction with local authorities, which has also led other organisations, institutions and councils to publish public information in Urdu.
