Essential skills for life

From next year, every student in their final year at our school will study for a normal Diploma of Practical Achievement. This will be in addition to the (1).... examinations. Up to now, the course has been optional, but from now on every student must (2).... it.

The aim is to (3).... students with 'life skills', which the Diploma 'divides into eight categories. These cover a range of things (4).... to life beyond school, from sending an e-mail to (5) .... presentations to an audience. Under the heading 'survival¹, (6)..... students can learn car maintenance, first aid and cooking. We have discovered that many students cannot do simple things such as (7).... a puncture or boil an egg. At the other (8)..... the Diploma includes such things as how to design a webpage and how to (9).... if someone has a heart attack. It has been called a 'Diploma in Common Sense'.

On the course, students will not be taught in the traditional (10)..... but rather will be guided and encouraged to do things for themselves. This is above all a (11)..... 'hands-on' course. To a greater or lesser (12)..... good schools have always tried to (13).... these skills. Unfortunately, students have not always (14).... much interest because such skills are not directly related to passing exams for higher education. We hope this will change now that we have a proper course that will (15).... to a recognized diploma.

Summary

Text I. A little patient with a cleft lip and palate

The palatine shelves emerge from the maxillary prominences during the sixth week of embryonic development and grow obliquely downward on each side of the tongue. Between 8 and 12 weeks, the palatine shelves become horizontal (in a matter of hours) and begin fusing with each other and the nasal septum to form the secondary palate. Cleft palate results from a disturbance in the elevation, fusion, or mesenchymal penetration of the palatine shelves. A cleft in the fetal lip may be visualized with the use of transvaginal ultrasonography as early as 11 weeks of gestation and may be detected by means of transabdominal ultrasonography at 16 weeks. If a cleft lip is detected, the fetus has an increased likelihood of having another malformation, a chromosomal aberration, or both.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 6