Founder and Chair of dbda celebrates her birthday in style!

Dawn Boyfield MBE, the Founder and Chair of dbda celebrated her Diamond Decade with family, friends and colleagues at her home in Kenton, north-west London on 30th July.

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Departures and arrivals in the dbda office

dbda is waving a bittersweet farewell this month, as retirement and new horizons beckon some of our colleagues and friends.

dbda encourages parents to keep their children safe during the summer holidays

With the summer holidays upon us, dbda is encouraging parents to remind their children about the dangers on the road and in the home.

According to a June 2010 survey on behalf of the Child Accident Prevention Trust, while almost three-quarters of parents worry about their child having a bad accident nearly half believe there is nothing they can do to stop accidents from happening.

Deaths on the roads of Great Britain fall to the lowest ever in 2010

Great Britain goes below 2,000 road deaths for the first time.

The number of people killed in road crashes in 2010 fell by 16% year on year to 1,857 – the lowest figure since records began in 1926. The figures are contained in Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain which was published on 30th June 2011. The annual Department for Transport report reveals that the number of people killed in road crashes fell from 2,222 in 2009 to 1,857 in 2010.

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Low literacy levels – the problem continues

In a report by the CBI, the employer’s organization showed that 42% of companies are not satisfied with the basic English skills of those who they recruit and 17% are worried about the low literacy skills of graduates.

The Evening Standard has recently initiated a Get London Reading campaign inviting members of the public to become volunteer readers in London schools. The campaign has already received huge support from politicians, writers, illustrators and celebrities. HRH the Duchess of Cornwall as patron of the National Literacy Trust has also leant her support.

What can showbiz teach real biz? An article by Alex Connock, CEO of Ten Alps

Alex Connock, CEO of TV and education producer Ten Alps and dbda’s parent company, writes an excellent article about what the rules of showbusiness can teach the world of business. Leave your MBAs at the door and walk the red carpet of experience!

To read the article on the Grant Thornton website, click here: What can showbiz teach real biz?

SchoolsWorld (www.schoolsworld.tv) goes live with Teachers TV catalogue.

SchoolsWorld (www.schoolsworld.tv) is now live with the 3,500 educational videos from Teachers TV.   SchoolsWorld is for everyone who engages in the world of schools – from governors to teaching assistants, plus parents and pupils, and also the business world interested in online learning.  View site here.

 

 

The high quality videos launched today on the site cover a huge range of subjects across education.

SchoolsWorld is run by Ten Alps, the group that ran the Teachers TV project for the UK Department for Education from 2005-11, through its specialist education company dbda (www.dbda.co.uk).

New content and tools will be added to the site, creating a rich environment of free and subscription-based services for everyone in education – all over the world.

School leavers lack key employability skills

A survey published by the Confederation of British Industry highlights the lack of key employability skills in the majority of young school leavers. Key areas of concern are English, numeracy, self-management and the growing decline in students taking STEM subjects.

A spokesman for the Department of Education agreed that it is right for employers to raise concerns and commented that the Government are commited to “The recruitment of specialist maths teachers, introducing phonics-based reading for six-year-olds and restoring the rigour of GCSE and A-level exams” in order to help improve matters.

See the full BBC news story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13310246

Nationwide Education will soon be launching an Employability  resources for ages 4-16 helping to develop key employability skills in students and to encourage career aspirations. Keep checking the website for more details. www.NationwideEducation.co.uk

dbda to bring back Teachers TV content as SchoolsWorld

dbda’s parent company Ten Alps Plc has agreed with the Department for Education to continue the Teachers TV service beyond the end of government funding, which ended at the end of April.

The service will have a new brand, SchoolsWorld, at web address www.SchoolsWorld.tv.

Ten Alps has signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement.  It will provide the full video content from Teachers TV, consisting of the current library of nearly 3,500 videos, from May 2011.

The plan is to extend the service into not only a continuing professional development provider to the education profession in the UK, but also as a source of educational videos, content and information to pupils and parents – thus reaching a wider target audience and will seek to develop SchoolsWorld internationally.

dbda Founder and Chairman Dawn Boyfield MBE said:

 “Our aspiration, once we’ve introduced the new site and business, is to build upon this valuable, world-leading library, creating a dynamic international education resource.”
To find out more, click here

Dawn Boyfield MBE moves to Chairman role, Bharti Bhikha to MD

After 27 years, Dawn Boyfield MBE has taken on a new role as Chairman of CSR consultancy dbda, and director of Bob Geldof’s TV and Education group, Ten Alps.

But having founded and built dbda (now part of Ten Alps) she is just as passionate as ever about the business – and keen to use her new position to grow it internationally.

Bharti Bhikha has meanwhile stepped into the ‘hot-seat’, becoming Managing Director, responsible for the day-to-day management of the company. And after 15 years within the company, the continuity will be seamless.

To read more, click here.