Our Blog

Oxford Open Learning Blogger and English Teacher Anne Thomas continues her series famous literary figures for Black History Month. As a youngster I read and sobbed over Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not widely read nowadays I appreciate, but it was a ground-breaking novel in its time. It was published in 1852 and acquainted […]

To my kids he is the old bloke from the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, to some he is Zoe Ball’s dad but to many many more he is a much loved face from children’s television who inspired a generation with his programmes on mathematics and science. Johnny Ball has been back on our screens strutting […]

In my final blog on famous female mathematicians we look at the life of an Englishwoman who was very influential in the development of mathematics education for women, Charlotte Angas Scott. Charlotte Angas Scott was born in 1858 to an English family already well known for their advocacy of social reform. She was home educated […]

Oxford Open Learning Blogger and English Teacher Anne Thomas continues her series famous literary figures for Black History Month. One of the earliest classic novels I read at my secondary school was The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas one of those books with everything for a 12 year old girl, excitement, history, […]

Voltaire famously wrote that Emilie du Châtelet was “a great man whose only fault was being a woman” – I suspect that this was meant as a compliment although it doesn’t really come across that way today!  In this blog we’ll look at her life and achievements. Emilie du Châtelet was born in Paris like […]

On 5 October 1966 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held an intergovernmental conference in Paris concerning the status of teachers across the world.  The outcome was the politically persuasive (but sadly not legally binding) UNESCO/ILO* Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers, outlining the minimal acceptable standards in key areas such as […]

The Royal Academy of Engineering has recently published a report warning of a shortage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) graduates. At the moment demand is significantly greater than supply in the UK with high wage premiums being established for people with such degrees in a climate of falling graduate pay. Around 1.25 million […]

This is the story of Sofia Kovalevskaya – a Russian mathematician who was the first woman to join the editorial staff of a mathematical journal and to hold a prominent university position in modern Europe. Sofia Kovalevskaya was born in Moscow in 1850. Mathematics historians say that she became interested in mathematics as a child […]

Anne Thomas, An English tutor  and blogger for Oxford Open Learning discusses why she finds Black History and the Arts fascinating. As a very proud Liverpudlian it is an honour to be a part of a city which has one of the oldest established black communities in the UK, something like about 300 years old, […]

If you want an example of how far a home study mathematics course can take you then take a look at the life and work of Sophie Germain.  She became a renowned mathematician who has, among other things, a group of prime numbers and a Paris hotel named after her. Sophie Germain was born in […]