All posts tagged: Standards

School food standards overhaul: The key proposals

School food standards overhaul: The key proposals

Published by skeptic

Ministers are proposing “the most ambitious overhaul in a generation” of school food standards, with a raft of changes that will limit foods high in fat, salt and sugar. Government is consulting on changes to the legislative framework covering all state schools, to offer “fresher, healthier” options and tackle concerns around rising childhood obesity and tooth decay. If approved, the new standards would apply in full to primary schools from September 2027, with a phased rollout in secondaries. But what exactly is being proposed? Here are the key points… 1. Cake limited to once a week Only one portion of “sweetened baked products or desserts” would be allowed weekly. That includes cakes, doughnuts, flapjack and ice cream. Those served must contain “at least 50 per cent fruit or vegetables, and no confectionery or chocolate”. 2. Fibre drive The proposals also push for higher fibre across the board. The consultation cites a National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), which found just 14 per cent of primary and four per cent of secondary pupils meet the recommended …

School food standards update to take ice cream off the menu

School food standards update to take ice cream off the menu

Published by skeptic

Deep-fried and high-sugar items like ice cream are to be removed from school menus under long-awaited new food standards, ministers have announced. The reforms, the first update to the school food standards in more than a decade, will be accompanied by a new national enforcement regime intended to ensure schools comply with the rules. Schools will also be asked to make their food policies and daily menus publicly available to allow for parent scrutiny. The changes reflect growing concern within government about children’s diets and their long-term impact on public health. Officials claimed one in three pupils leave primary school overweight or obese, while tooth decay linked to excessive sugar consumption is the leading cause of hospital admissions among children aged five to nine. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Every child deserves to have delicious, nutritious food at school that gives them the energy to concentrate, learn and thrive – meals that children will actually recognise and enjoy, backed by robust compliance so that good standards on paper become good food on the plate.” Deep-fried …

BBC says “breach of editorial standards” at BAFTA Film Awards was unintentional

BBC says “breach of editorial standards” at BAFTA Film Awards was unintentional

Published by Daniella Wilson

The broadcast of a racial slur during the BBC’s coverage of the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards breached its editorial standards but in a way that was “unintentional”, an investigation has found. During the ceremony in February, Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson involuntarily said a racial slur while Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were on stage. The broadcast remained on iPlayer overnight before being taken down. On Wednesday (8 April), the BBC’s chief content officer Kate Phillips said that the corporation’s executive complaints unit (ECU) found that “the inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast (which was also streamed live on iPlayer) was highly offensive, had no editorial justification and represented a breach of the BBC’s editorial standards”, but added that the breach was “unintentional”. The ECU added that leaving the coverage containing the slur on iPlayer until the Monday morning was also a “serious mistake” and breached guidelines. “The fact that the unedited recording remained available for so long aggravated the offence caused by the inadvertent inclusion of the n-word in the broadcast,” …

BBC breached editorial standards over racial slur incident at Baftas, investigation finds

BBC breached editorial standards over racial slur incident at Baftas, investigation finds

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The BBC breached its editorial standards when it broadcast a racial slur during its coverage of the 2026 Bafta Film Awards, an investigation has found. The corporation said it received a large number of complaints after disability campaigner John Davidson, who has Tourette’s, could be heard shouting as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects during the ceremony on 22 February. An investigation by the BBC’s executive complaints unit (ECU) found the inclusion of the slur was “highly offensive” and “had no editorial justification”, but it added that broadcasting it was unintentional. It went on to say the slur should have been edited out of the version of coverage available on iPlayer when the event finished, but said a delay of several hours was caused by “a lack of clarity among the team …

Baftas N-Word Broadcast Breached BBC’s Editorial Standards, Investigation Finds

Baftas N-Word Broadcast Breached BBC’s Editorial Standards, Investigation Finds

Published by Sam Flores

The BBC has determined that the broadcast of a racial slur during its coverage of this year’s Baftas went against its editorial standards. During this year’s Baftas ceremony, Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson – attending the ceremony with the cast and crew of the movie I Swear – experienced a series of involuntary tics, resulting in him shouting a variety of slurs from the audience. One of these, which saw him shouting the N-word while Sinners actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting on stage – was included in the BBC’s broadcast of the Baftas, which aired on a two-hour time delay. Following the event, the BBC faced a wave of scrutiny – and a “large number of complaints” – due to the slur’s inclusion, with outgoing director-general Tim Davie “fast-tracking” an investigation into how it came to be broadcast. On Wednesday, chief content officer Kate Phillips confirmed that the BBC’s executive complaints unit (ECU) had “found this should not have made it to air and it was a clear breach of our editorial …

BBC breached editorial standards over BAFTAs racial slur, investigation finds | Ents & Arts News

BBC breached editorial standards over BAFTAs racial slur, investigation finds | Ents & Arts News

Published by Daniella Wilson

The inclusion of a racial slur during the broadcast of the BAFTAs was a breach of the BBC’s editorial standards, a review has found. The broadcaster’s executive complaints unit (ECU) said the inclusion of the slur shouted by a Tourette’s campaigner was “highly offensive” and “had no editorial justification”. However, investigators said the breach made during the initial broadcast was unintentional. John Davidson, who suffers from the neurological condition and was at the BAFTAs ceremony in February to celebrate a film about his life, yelled out the offensive word as the first award of the night was presented by Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo. The BBC received “a large number of complaints” about its coverage of the awards, the report said, and the ECU upheld those in relation to editorial standards on harm and offence. In an email to staff, seen by Sky News, sent following the release of the report, chief content officer Kate Phillips said she had written to Lindo, Jordan and Davidson since the incident to apologise. The corporation …

In Dating, Here’s How To Tell If Your Standards Are Too High

In Dating, Here’s How To Tell If Your Standards Are Too High

Published by Sam Flores

Having standards when dating is important. But sometimes we get so caught up in the pursuit of the perfect partner that we let those standards get in the way of meeting quality people. When you’re swiping through a dating app and find yourself rejecting person after person, it’s worth asking: Are your standards too high? “With dating apps, it is easy to dismiss someone in seconds with a swipe,” Bonnie Winston, celebrity matchmaker and relationship expert, told HuffPost. “You are looking at a human being, but we get used to not realising it is an actual soul, a living and breathing person.” It happens to the best of us; no one wants to risk another failed relationship. And with the right mindset, standards can actually help you weed out the wrong potential partners. But what kind of high standards are actually self-sabotaging, and which ones are worth keeping? Here’s what dating experts want you to know. The Most Common High Standards Dating Experts See From physical traits to lifestyle preferences, dating experts have heard just …

4 Reasons Why You Lower Your Standards for Love

4 Reasons Why You Lower Your Standards for Love

Published by Jenni Sidey

Many people come to therapy describing a familiar problematic pattern in their love lives. They may say things like: “Everything was so promising in the beginning! I don’t know what happened.” “I didn’t see this red flag when we started dating.” “They promised they’d change, and I believed them.” All of these statements echo the same sentiment: some people stay in relationships not because the relationship is consistently good, but because it feels close to being good. However, what they fail to understand is that when an individual falls in love with who someone could be, they are often bonding with a future fantasy rather than a present reality. Psychologically, this pattern is not about being naive or irrational. It’s more about how the brain processes attachment, reward, and meaning when faced with uncertainty. Research suggests that being attracted to potential rather than behavior is often driven by predictable cognitive and emotional mechanisms that can profoundly influence romantic decision-making. Here are the four processes underlying this pattern, and why they make it easier to fall …

EY hit 4x coding productivity by connecting AI agents to engineering standards

EY hit 4x coding productivity by connecting AI agents to engineering standards

Published by skeptic

Coding agents can generate thousands of lines of code in minutes. The problem: most of it can’t be deployed. It breaks internal standards, fails compliance checks, or creates more cleanup work than it saves. “You can generate a ton of code, but it doesn’t mean really anything, right? It’s got to be code that is integratable, that is compliant, and you don’t want to create more work on the back end just because you sped up the code generation process on the front end,” said Stephen Newman, EY Global CTO Engineering Leader. EY’s product development team solved this by connecting coding agents to their engineering standards, code repositories, and compliance frameworks. The result: 4x to 5x productivity gains across teams building EY’s suite of audit, tax, and financial platforms. But the gains didn’t come from just turning on a tool. Newman’s team spent 18 to 24 months building the cultural foundation and technical integrations that made semi-autonomous coding work at scale. The first step was cultural. EY started with GitHub Copilot-style tools, letting engineers get …

A chance to change what we mean by standards

A chance to change what we mean by standards

Published by skeptic

For years, we have used “high standards” as shorthand for outcomes, culture and credibility. But too often we have allowed a quiet, corrosive loophole. Some schools have been able to look exceptional while children with the greatest needs quietly orbit the edge of the system, spending more time out of lessons, out of class, or out of school altogether. In other words, we have sometimes praised excellence that is not fully for everyone. That is why the most important reform Bridget Phillipson is driving is not a new initiative or a new acronym. It is a change in what we mean by the word “standards” in the first place. Not standards that work when pupils arrive ready to learn, regulated, confident and supported at home. But standards that hold when childhood arrives complicated, anxious, distracted, disrupted or carrying needs that schools struggle to meet. In 2026, in the middle of a fast-changing childhood, that is the only definition of standards worth having. A more uneven world Children are growing up in a world that is …