Cribsheet daily 01.12.10

ros asquith christmas scrooge — 'Lines' by Ros Asquith

Students around the country yesterday rallied in large numbers despite the snow, and largely without direction from a national leadership. Guardian reporters say:

"Many of the protests were organised by students occupying up to 32 university buildings across Britain. They have largely been independent of the National Union of Students."

And Newcastle student Rowan Rheingans writes:

"This movement is bigger than [NUS president] Aaron Porter. It is bigger than the universities and bigger than the project of an occupied lecture theatre.

In the north-east, the impetus for actions so far has come primarily from school and college students. This energy is in turn spreading across the wider community.

This fightback will continue with or without Aaron Porter's support."

Tanya Gold, who was in Trafalgar Square says the day felt like "a game of protest Monopoly":

"We run down Piccadilly Circus and into Regent Street, then Oxford Street. 'I don't feel like a protester,' says a music student. 'I feel like a tourist.'

The students dance across Aldwych, singing It Must Be Love, before breaking into a run down to the Embankment. It feels like kiss chase – or, when I see a policeman punch a boy out of the way, entirely without provocation, punch chase.

Soon, we are back in Trafalgar Square. We have played protest Monopoly for two hours and now we have stopped."

Cameron Robertson filmed events at UCL – some students remained there to keep the occupation going; others set off to brave the cold and possiblity of being kettled. John Domokos and Richard Sprenger filmed students from Westminster Kingsway college, many of them more concerned about the abolition of the EMA than the rise in university fees, joining throngs of demonstrators in central London.

The Guardian's editorial on student fees looks at the pickle the Lib Dems have got themselves into:

"Vince Cable recognises that his party is in an extraordinary mess that calls for an extraordinary response, although there is no guarantee that the messy solution he proposed yesterday will work."

Today Lib Dem peer Lord Willis urges Cable to abstain.

Christmas in the classroom

Today, Red Ted Art shows you how to weave some festive magic with Swedish paper hearts.

Education around the web

Welsh students are to be spared tuition fee increases, writes the Telegraph, warning that an "education apartheid" is now developing in the UK.

It also reports that Latin will undergo a revival in state schools under coalition plans to put it on an equal footing with modern foreign languages.

Michael Gove has been defending his unpopular school sports cuts, in the face of fierce opposition from athletes and opposition politicians.

The Mail has the story of a school report riddled with grammatical errors. It is quite funny.

Competition

Do you have a clever way of using technology to teach children at your school? Enter the Classroom Innovation awards by sending us a short video of what you can do. There is a primary and secondary category and each winner will get £7,500 of Asus computing kit. Take a look at some of the entries so far.