It will also pay for scholarships to bring students from developing countries to study at the centre.Philip Dalling, the university’s head of public affairs, said: “I don’t think there will be a mass exodus of people. But in the current atmosphere it will be represented that anyone leaving has done so because of the donation.”Professor Ian Gow, head of the business school where the centre will be based, said: “BAT is a legitimate company; the Treasury takes its money in tax and spends it on things like the NHS. Why is it wrong to take money from it and plough it into higher education?”. Latin is making a comeback in inner-city state schools under a £60m government scheme to help gifted pupils. Latin is making a comeback in inner-city state schools under a £60m government scheme to help gifted pupils.
Five schools in Leeds are banding together to provide Latin lessons for their brightest children aged 11 to 14 to revive interest in taking the subject at GCSE level. The scheme could soon be duplicated in other areas because education experts believe Latin is a vital tool to help youngsters develop thinking and communications skills.Stuart Hemingway, the deputy head of Ralph Thoresby School in Leeds, who is co-ordinating the project with the aid of the University of Leeds, said: “We are trying to expand provision for the most able pupils.

We thought Latin was a good basis for helping pupils develop a logical approach to problem solving and logical thinking.”Students from the university’s Classics department are teaching the programme in those schools where there are no teachers with appropriate qualifications. The 75 youngsters enrolled on the scheme spend an hour and a half a week in an after-school club learning the subject.”Their reaction has been very good,” Mr Hemingway said “The drop-out rate from the course has been very small That’s a good indicator Before this, Latin wasn’t provided at all. If there is an interest, we would look in future at offering it at GCSE.”The number of state school pupils taking Latin as a GCSE subject has fallen by 40 per cent in the past decade. Last year only 11,624 candidates sat the subject ­ two-thirds of them from independent schools.The scheme is one of a number of innovations being funded by the Government in an attempt to improve provision for talented pupils. Yesterday it also announced a £1.5m grant for the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey and the Royal Ballet School in London as part of a package showing its commitment to arts education. The Yehudi Menuhin School will receive £500,000 to help it to build a centre in memory of the distinguished violinist.

A new concert hall will also benefit pupils and young musicians from the neighbouring community.The Royal Ballet School will receive £1m for the building of its new premises in Floral Street, Covent Garden.Stephen Timms, the Education minister responsible for schools, toured the Yehudi Menuhin School as his first official visit. He said: “The Government is determined to develop talent and raise standards. This Government will not allow untapped talent to remain dormant.”. The world’s biggest greenhouse, the Eden Project, celebrated its millionth visitor yesterday three months after its official opening. The world’s biggest greenhouse, the Eden Project, celebrated its millionth visitor yesterday three months after its official opening.
Predictions at the time estimated a maximum of 750,000 visitors a year would pass through its gates. Since March it has attracted 500,000 and, with the 500,000 who went to the site last year to watch it being built, the number of visitors has now passed the million mark.Unlike Britain’s previous biggest tourist attractions, Alton Towers and Madame Tussaud’s, the re-creation of the planet’s different climates in a former clay pit near St Austell in Cornwall has succeeded without the lure of thrilling rides or celebrity cachet.

Costing £86m ­ compared with the Millennium Dome’s £758m ­ the project, half-funded by the Millennium Commission, features “biodomes”, which total the size of 35 football pitches and contain 12,000 plants.On its first day, queues formed from 4.30am onwards, and 7,000 had passed through the gates by lunchtime, despite fears that people would stay away because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, which was well under way at the time.”We were expecting it to be popular,” a spokesman for the Eden Project said yesterday. “But not this much.”The figures make an interesting comparison with the Millennium Dome, which was predicted to attract 10 million during the year 2000, but drew only 1.47 million in its first three months and closed well short of the target.The Moignard family were named as the “millionth” visitor. Andy and Jenny Moignard and their 22-month-old daughter, Fiona, had travelled from St Albans in Hertfordshire to see the greenhouse project. It costs £9.50 for adults and £4 for children, with a family ticket priced at £22.Mr Moignard said: “After hearing so much about Eden in the papers and on television, and hearing about it from my mother who has been several times, we’ve been really looking forward to our visit and have come down especially.” Latest calculations by the British Tourism Authority show that the most popular visitor paying attraction in 1999 was Alton Towers, which drew in 2.65 million people during the year, followed by Madame Tussaud’s with 2.64 million.A spokeswoman for the authority said: “The figures for 2000 could change considerably, with the London Eye and the Dome, and Eden will change them again in 2001.”.