Languages at key stage 4 2009-2011 : evaluation of the impact of Languages Review recommendations : baseline findings from the first year of the evaluation

• Heads of language departments consider good teaching and support to be central to encouraging language uptake at KS4, and constraints of the options system to be the main barrier. Many schools are reported to have received excellent support for languages in 2008/09 in terms of staffing, training and resources. • Some schools report a positive impact of the Languages Review recommendations but there is a low level of awareness of the Review in the majority of schools. • 19 per cent of schools set a benchmark for languages uptake in 2009/10 (at an average level of 64 per cent) but 62 per cent of schools had actual levels of uptake lower than 50 per cent. In schools where languages are optional (69 per cent of schools), 80 per cent had levels of uptake below 50 per cent

Spin equilibrium in strongly-magnetized accreting stars

Strongly magnetized accreting stars are often hypothesized to be in `spin equilibrium' with their surrounding accretion flows, which requires that the accretion rate changes more slowly than it takes the star to reach spin equilibrium. This is not true for most magnetically accreting stars, which have strongly variable accretion outbursts on time-scales much shorter than the time it would take to reach spin equilibrium. This paper examines how accretion outbursts affect the time a star takes to reach spin equilibrium and its final equilibrium spin period. I consider several different models for angular momentum loss -- either carried away in an outflow, lost to a stellar wind, or transferred back to the accretion disc (the `trapped disc'). For transient sources, the outflow scenario leads to significantly longer times to reach spin equilibrium ($\sim$10x), and shorter equilibrium spin periods than would be expected from spin equilibrium arguments, while the `trapped disc' does not. The results suggest that disc trapping plays a significant role in the spin evolution of strongly magnetic stars, with some caveats for young stellar objects.Comment: version accepted by MNRAS; some significant changes to conclusions about FU Ori star