How to use Bitesize Daily - Our new service to help you learn at home
Bitesize is changing to support you.
We’ll provide more support to students and their parents with a series of special daily broadcasts for both primary and secondary students, complementing a whole host of extra resources online.
From Monday to Friday, you’ll be able to watch Bitesize Daily on BBC Red Button from 9am to 11am, and again on BBC iPlayer.
Each 20-minute lesson will cover a different age group from ages five to 14, and will be brought to you by experts, teachers and some very familiar faces from the world of TV, sport and beyond.
As well as dedicated programmes covering Maths, Science and English, there will also be lessons featuring other subjects such as History, Geography, Music and Art.
Alongside the new Bitesize Daily lessons, there'll also be Teacher Talks - a brand new series offering helpful hints in tackling core concepts in Maths and English as well as extra content from BBC Teach including their Live Lessons series.
How you follow the lessons is completely up to you - you can join our broadcasts every day or catch up with a few in a row with every broadcast available to catch up via BBC iPlayer.
Learning with the daily broadcasts - in three easy steps:
Check out our TV lesson schedule. Pick your age group, tune in
Seen a web page that caught your eye in one of our daily broadcasts? Find all the links here and discover extra content from every lesson
Missed a lesson? No problem - catch up on BBC iPlayer
That’s not all, though – we're adding even more to the BBC Bitesize website and app, with over 150 new lessons published every week.
The new online Bitesize Daily Lessons in Maths, English and other core subjects will cover every year group up to the age of 15. Created in collaboration with teachers and other education experts, they will be easy to navigate, concise and combine the best of Bitesize, BBC Teach and other education providers.
The lessons will include videos, educational games, articles and practice tests. We’ll also have advice for parents or guardians on how to teach anyone who is home-schooling as well as guides for pupils with special educational needs (SEN).
And if you want even more, BBC Sounds will also be releasing daily 10-minute podcasts aimed at primary and secondary pupils to support their learning at home.
How to get the most of our online learning resources:
Decide what you're going to learn today. Explore the full list of Bitesize Daily Lessons
Need to give your eyes a rest? Listen to our daily, 10-minute podcast on BBC Sounds and enhance your learning. There's a daily podcast for primary and one for secondary students
Find out more about our resources to support students with Special Educational Needs
Check out the thousands of guides, videos and games across all age groups and key subjects on the rest of the Bitesize website
Want even more? Here's a guide to everything the BBC is doing to help young people study at home.
If you’re a GCSE or A-Level student, BBC Four and the Red Button are linking up each evening to show curriculum-based programming.
Learners in Scotland can see Scottish Curriculum-specific content each day on the BBC Scotland television channel from 10am. Other than the core subjects content of English, Maths and Welsh, pupils in Wales will also have lessons which will reflect the Cwricwlwm Cymreig to help them advance their understanding of Wales.
Additional lessons with a Welsh angle will be available in English and Welsh on our online daily service as well. There will be English and Welsh content available on iPlayer too from 20 April. In Northern Ireland, the 3 O’Clock Club gets primary aged pupils involved in skills-based learning every week day.
All of our study schedules will be shared across our Facebook and Twitter accounts – and students can find weekly flashcards, quizzes and study and wellbeing tips on our Instagram account - where Year 10 pupils can also 'Take on the teacher' live every Thursday from 10.30am-12pm with Q&A sessions with teachers on English, Maths and Science as well as live quizzes.
bbc
UK Covid-19 furlough scheme opens to flood of claims
The government’s coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) opened for applications at 8am on Monday, with employers expected to claim for millions of workers put on temporary leave because of the crisis.
HM Revenue & Customs said claims for 67,000 employees had been made in the first 30 minutes of the scheme opening. Under CJRS, the government will cover 80% of a worker’s wages, up to £2,500 a month, if they are not working but kept on the payroll. Millions of workers across the economy have been furloughed because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The chief executive of HRMC, Jim Harra, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The big payroll date this month is on the 30th, so employers can claim anytime today, tomorrow or on Wednesday, and there’s time to get that money into their account for the 30th of April.”
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said: “Exactly one month ago today I announced the unprecedented decision to step in and help pay people’s wages. We promised support would be available by the end of April – today, we deliver our promise.”
The CJRS system can process up to 450,000 applications an hour. Employers should receive the money within six working days of making an application, the Treasury said.
HMRC has deployed 9,500 staff to deal with queries, including 5,000 on web chat. Fears that the website could crash and that phone lines would be overwhelmed proved to be unfounded as the scheme got off to a smooth start.
Many firms said on Twitter that they were able to file a claim, but Ed Lindsay, who runs an events business from his farm in Co Down in Northern Ireland and has furloughed six staff, said he had experienced technical difficulties.
Harra expressed confidence that the system would be able to cope with demand. “We have scaled our IT system to cope with the maximum number of claims that we could receive – there are well over 2m pay-as-you-earn [PAYE] schemes and our system is big enough to handle a claim from every one of those.”
A spokesman for the business lobby group the Institute of Directors said: “Another acid test will be the money reaching firms’ accounts.”
The CJRS has been extended until the end of June after the government decided to keep lockdown measures in place for at least a further three weeks. Employers can only claim for furloughed employees who were on their payroll on or before 19 March, and there are fears that many people will fall through the cracks. The scheme does not cover everyone who recently switched firms, or seasonal workers who were about to start jobs at holiday parks, airports and youth hostels.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank estimates that 8 million workers could be furloughed, and said this mostly affects the low-paying hospitality and retail sectors, where almost half the workforce, or 3.1 million people, are expected to be put on temporary leave. This compares with just 4% of workers in finance and insurance, the highest paid sector.
The Office for Budget Responsibility put the cost of the scheme at £42bn, before the extension was announced. The Resolution Foundation estimates that the extension could cost up to £12bn, although it noted that some firms were unlikely to use it for an entire extra month, assuming some physical distancing measures are eased.
Daniel Tomlinson, an economist at the thinktank, said: “It’s encouraging to see reports of many businesses successfully applying for the CJRS today. This scheme is central to the government’s response to this economic crisis and so understanding how well it is operating and the scale of take-up is crucial to helping us all make sense of how the crisis is unfolding.”
He said the scheme was what stood between “Britain experiencing high unemployment over the coming months, and catastrophic depression-era levels of long-term joblessness”.
Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that firms should only use the scheme if they could not afford to keep paying staff themselves. Asked about a report that Victoria Beckham was using the scheme for staff at her fashion company, Dowden said she would not comment directly, but added: “The clear principle is: you should only be using it [the scheme] if you have to.”
Adam Marshall, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Our research indicates that two-thirds of firms have furloughed some portion of their workforce. With April’s payday approaching, it is essential that the application process is smooth and that payments are made as soon as possible. Any delay would exacerbate the cash crisis many companies are facing and could threaten jobs and businesses.”
theguardian
FTSE 100 dragged down by coronavirus oil crash
The FTSE 100 has turned lower as a slump in oil prices hits energy companies and investor sentiment sours with coronavirus battering the economy.
Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.8 per cent at 5,743 points in early afternoon trading. It spent much of the morning in the green before plunging oil prices spread gloom over markets.
Stocks also turned from green to red in Europe. The continent-wide Stoxx 600 was down 0.7 per cent and Germany’s Dax was 1.2 per cent lower. France’s CAC 40 was down one per cent.
US stocks were set to tumble at the open, according to futures prices. The Dow Jones industrial average was on track to drop two per cent.
A cloud spread over global markets today as oil prices plunged. WTI crude, the US benchmark, crashed 37 per cent to a 20-year low of $11.40 per barrel. Brent crude fell six per cent to $26.40 per barrel.
The slump in the US price was driven by fears that supply capacity could soon run out despite production cuts. Demand has evaporated during the coronavirus slowdown, sending prices crashing.
Falling Brent oil prices hurt the energy-heavy FTSE 100. BP fell 3.4 per cent to 293p while energy group Centrica slid 2.7 per cent to 31p.
European losses “may well accelerate once the US gets involved,” said Connor Campbell, market analyst at trading platform Spreadex.
US markets are set to be particularly hard-hit by the tumbling WTI price. Speculation is rising that President Donald Trump may have to bail out the massive shale oil industry, which breaks even at roughly $40 per barrel.
FTSE 100 held back by lengthy lockdown
The FTSE 100 was also weighed down by intense and divisive discussions about when coronavirus lockdown measures can be eased.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is himself recovering from Covid-19, reportedly told colleagues that he is not keen on easing the measures due to the threat of a second wave of infections, according to The Times.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and cabinet secretary Michael Gove are pushing for some restrictions to be lifted soon to avoid economic instability. Bank of England deputy governor Ben Broadbent today said it was “not impossible” that UK GDP would plunge 35 per cent in the second quarter.
The pound came under pressure as the UK lockdown looked set to stay in place and as the death toll from Covid-19 rose. Britain reported 596 deaths in hospitals in its daily update yesterday, raising the total to more than 16,000.
Read more: Coronavirus: UK economy could shrink by 35 per cent in second quarter
Sterling was 0.5 per cent lower against the dollar at $1.244. The dollar strengthened on an index as investors moved out of equities and into safe assets.
The yield on the US 10-year government bond, seen as the safest asset money can buy, fell three basis points (0.03 percentage points) to 0.616 per cent. Yields move inversely to prices.
Investors nervy during earnings season
Earnings season was also on investors’ minds, with firms around the world set to reveal losses or huge drops in profit as coronavirus all but closes economies.
Last week, US banks set aside tens of billions of dollars to deal with loan losses and reported huge drops in profit.
Read more: Bank of America profit nearly halves after it sets aside $4.8bn to cover bad loans
Craig Erlam, market analyst at currency firm Oanda, said: “This is the first real insight we’ve had into the impact on companies bottom lines and the initial readings are ugly.”
“Investors have given a free pass to the data until now, they may not be so forgiving in the coming weeks.”
cityam
Nova Scotia shooting: shock and surprise at killings by denturist
Neighbours in Portapique, Nova Scotia ‘very surprised’ that 51-year-old Canadian man Gabriel Wortman could kill 16 people in 12-hour violence spree
Full report: gunman kills at least 16 people in Canada
Residents in Nova Scotia are struggling for answers after a lone shooter killed 16 people, including a police officer, in the deadliest rampage in modern Canadian history.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Sunday that Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist, had been taken into custody but was later pronounced dead following a standoff at a gas station near the capital of Halifax.
It was not clear how Wortman died but police later issued a statement saying that Nova Scotia’s serious incident response team said it was investigating an event in which RCMP officers “discharg[ed] their firearms” at a suspect.
According to property records, Wortman owned and operated a denture clinic in the city of Dartmouth, across the water from Halifax. In 2014, he appeared in local media after donating dentures to a cancer survivor.
Neighbours of Wortman, who owned three properties in Portapique, a small coastal community where the rampage appears to have begun on Saturday night, were shocked by the news.
“Very, very shocked to think that someone we’ve known for so long, a good neighbour, a helpful neighbour, very kind, would ever think of doing such a tragedy,” Lillian MacCormack told CTV News.
“We never know what others go through in life that makes them make certain decisions,” Scott Balser, a former classmate of Wortman, wrote on Facebook. “I am by no means defending his actions this weekend.”
David George Crockett told the Toronto Sun that Wortman had once fixed his teeth at his home in Portapique.
“Im very surprised,” Crockett said in a brief interview. “I never thought he would do something like that.
“From what I knew of him, he was quiet, gentle and very easy to talk to …. He was very nice. He kidded around a little bit. He seemed normal, not like someone who would do something like this.”
Tom Taggart, a lawmaker who represents the Portapique area in the municipality of Colchester, told the CBA he did not know Wortman well, but spoke to him a few times when he telephoned about municipal issues. He described knowing Wortman’s “lovely big home” in Portapique. He said Wortman owned a few other properties and was believed to divide his time between Portapique and his business in Dartmouth.
A photograph of his high school year book said his future “may include being an RCMP officer”.
Police have not yet determined a clear motive for the shootings, but suggested the killings had a degree of premeditation and that Wortman acted alone.
“I believe at the beginning there was an initial motivation and then I think it turned to randomness,” RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki said on Sunday evening. “We don’t know for sure and we’re going to have to do a lot of work on finding the motivation ... a lot of background, profiling type of events and a lot of crime scene processing.”
She also said that police did not believe the incident was terror-related.
One unusual detail was that Wortman was disguised as a police officer and had mocked up a car to make it look like a police vehicle. On Sunday morning, police in Nova Scotia tweeted out an image of the car that Wortman was believed to be using.
“The fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said, adding that Wortman did not appear to know a number of the victims. On Sunday evening, police confirmed that constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force, was among the victims.
With the province already in lockdown in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, police said the community would be hit hard by the attack.
“What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one,” said commanding RCMP officer Lee Bergman.
According to police, Wortman’s rampage began shortly before midnight on Saturday in Portapique, culminating in a manhunt that lasted for more than 12 hours.
Residents heard gunfire and began to see police gathering on the streets. They were then told to lock their doors and seek shelter in their basements.
One woman said she had come across two burning police vehicles while out driving on Sunday morning. One man said he saw at least three separate fires but police did not confirm if the fires were related to Wortman.
“There was one officer we could see on scene and then all of a sudden, he went running toward one of the burning vehicles,” Darcy Sack told the CBC.
“We heard gunshots,” she said, adding that one police officer looked to have been injured.
Following a chase along a busy highway, Wortman was apprehended around midday at a gas station in Enfield just outside the city of Halifax.
Lisa and Laurie George, both residents of Portapique, told Global News in Halifax that at approximately 11pm on Saturday they saw flames nearby, eventually seeing three separate fires in the area.
The couple said that a large group of police quickly arrived in response, followed by gunshots before RCMP told them to go home.
Another neighbour told the Toronto Sun that he and Wortman had been friends until they fell out over a piece of property.
The neighbour, who declined to give his name, said Wortman had burned an old shed that contained some property that belonged to the neighbour but declined to give any further details of the dispute.
theguardian.
Companies House suspends strike-offs
Companies House has temporarily paused its strike off process to prevent companies being compulsory dissolved amid the coronavirus crisis.
The government announced changes to Companies House’s enforcement action last week (April 16), which it said will help businesses avoid being struck off the register as they deal with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
Currently, Companies House is able to dissolve a company through its strike off process if it fails to submit an annual confirmation statement form or file accounts on time.
A common cause of companies being struck off is due to a change of registered office address that is not notified to Companies House.
The government said suspending this power will give businesses “affected by the coronavirus outbreak the time they need to update their records and help them avoid being struck off the register”.
For companies who make an application for voluntary dissolution, the application will be registered at Companies House but any further action to strike off the company will be suspended for the time being.
However, this does not apply to businesses which are being dissolved as the result of an insolvency procedure such as administration or liquidation.
Martin Swain, director of strategy, policy and communications at Companies House, said: “We know that many businesses are finding it difficult to keep up with their filing requirements at the moment.
“We’re committed to helping them meet their legal responsibilities while keeping the register as up to date as possible.
“We will continue to contact customers to remind them of their responsibilities, and we encourage all companies to file their statutory documents as soon as they’re able to do so.”
Meanwhile, companies issued with a late filing penalty due to Covid-19 will have appeals treated sympathetically.
Last month (March 20), Companies House allowed for a two-month extension to file accounts and then another month if companies can demonstrate extreme circumstances.
All companies must send their accounts, reports and confirmation statements to Companies House every year. If these are filed late the law imposes an automatic penalty.
ftadviser
Microsoft Teams Gets New Yammer Integration
Microsoft is introducing a new Yammer integration for Microsoft Teams today. The company is launching a new app called Communities that introduces stronger Yammer integration for Microsoft Teams. The new app essentially brings Yammer to Teams.
“Put simply, it’s Yammer – in Teams,” said Murali Sitaram, General Manager of Yammer at Microsoft. The new app can be used to stay up-to-date with everything happening in your company’s Yammer without having to leave Teams.
The new app, which can be stored from the Microsoft Teams app store, appears as a dedicated tab on the Teams sidebar. From there, you can access Yammer from within Teams to access your communities (read: groups) in Yammer. You can share updates, ask questions, share polls, etc. You can also access all the live company events hosted on Yammer from within Teams using the new app.
“By bringing Yammer into Teams, we want to make it easier for leaders and communicators to quickly and effectively communicate with their teams and organizations, even when they need to work apart,” said Sitaram.
The new Yammer Communities app for Microsoft Teams only works on the desktop and web for now and it isn’t available for mobile devices just yet. Microsoft says the company will continue to improve the Yammer experience within Teams and introduce new features to unify notifications and search between the two platforms in the future.
thurrott
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