EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Why Rishi Sunak’s maths plan is tutu much for Dame Darcey Bussell

Rishi Sunak announced amid much fanfare last year plans to allow children to study maths until the age of 18. He claimed that the ‘anti-maths mentality’ was undermining efforts to improve numeracy in Britain.

However, the Prime Minister may not have expected to face opposition from one of the country’s most prominent ladies.

Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Dame Darcey Bussell believes children should study less maths, not more.

When asked what she thinks needs to change within the education system, she answers: ‘Less math, more dance, there, I said it.’

She was once a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and now runs her educational charity, DDMix. It stands for Diverse Dance Mix and offers a dance and fitness program for primary school children and offers dance classes for adults. “Technology is all at our fingertips, but what we don’t have is everyone having enough freedom of movement, and people understanding how this can help break up the long hours in the classroom,” she explains.

‘A small exercise class could help children focus and regain their attention, which can really facilitate their learning. Dancing and picking up steps are really good for sharpening the brain and promoting a sense of well-being.”

Dame Darcey, 54, says the use of new technology is making children less active. ‘We are very good at involving children in technology, and they are very good at that, but they are not so brilliant at exercise anymore.

‘Time spent on screens means they may become more sedentary.’

Darcey, who has two children with her businessman husband Angus Forbes, retired from the ballet world in 2007. She later quit as a strict judge in 2019.

Royal flash: Lady Amelia poses in just her little dresses!

Lady Amelia Windsor made history last year when she became the first member of the royal family to serve on jury duty.

Now the 28-year-old granddaughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent has achieved another first.

Lady Amelia, who was once described by Tatler magazine as ‘the most beautiful member of the royal family’, has become the first royal to show off her knickers.

She is pictured modeling red trousers from underwear brand Stripe & Stare in a photo she shared online yesterday.

Appropriately, the underwear was emblazoned with the word “Monday.”

An environmentalist and ambassador for the Blue Marine Foundation, a conservation charity, she assures her social media followers that the trousers are made from ‘wood-based fibers that are completely biodegradable’.

As I reported last year, a change in the law in 2003 made Lady Amelia eligible to serve on jury duty. Until then, all members of the royal family were exempt from civic duty, which meant they would probably have sentenced a fellow citizen to a custodial sentence. at His Majesty’s pleasure.

She served her court period in Cambridge, where she grew up and where her parents, the Earl and Countess of St. Andrews, still live.

Goga is enjoying a very nice birthday

Goga Ashkenazi charmed the buyer of Prince Andrew’s house and arranged the sale of Sunninghill Park in 2007 for £15 million – £3 million more than the asking price.

How fitting, then, that the Kazakh businesswoman and socialite attended her birthday party dressed as a witch.

The Oxford-educated Goga, who turned 44 earlier this month, wore the Maleficent-style headdress made famous by actress Angelina Jolie in the 2014 film about the Sleeping Beauty villain known as ‘the mistress of evil’.

Goga, who runs the fashion label Vionnet, jokes: ‘It’s my party. I can fly if I want to.’

Esther’s forbidden childhood romance

Dame Esther Rantzen has revealed that senior figures in the Church of England stopped her from going out with the first boy she fell in love with because she was Jewish.

“There was someone who I thought was attractive and had a sweet, outgoing personality,” the former That’s Life! says presenter.

‘He was very funny and he liked me. But his family were very high in the Church of England – you couldn’t be much higher.

‘They didn’t like him taking a Jewish girl out. He was forbidden.’

Former Top Gear star Paddy McGuinness announced in 2022 that he had split from his wife Christine, an ex-model, after 11 years of marriage. It followed reports that he had been spotted kissing a TV presenter and that he had sent messages to another TV presenter on social media.

It now appears McGuinness feels he has spoiled Christine. “I bought my missus a Range Rover Sport,” he says. “And she got in and said, ‘There’s no heated steering wheel.’

“So I said, ‘Buy a pair of damn gloves with the money you didn’t spend on that car.’

What a charmer.

With the Garrick Club in constant turmoil over the admission of women, another gentlemen’s club, the Savile, is set to ask its members what they think of the issue. Mayfair-based Savile is best known for its cigar nights and a snuff box that can be passed around the dining table.

Sounds like the place for the likes of Harriet Harman and Baroness Hale. The chairman of The Savile is Gareth Neame, who produced Downton Abbey, which starred Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess. Gareth has a soft spot for ancient dragons.

Comedians Miles Jupp and Josh Widdicombe have revealed that Scrooge producers of BBC game show Mock The Week would film a Christmas special for free.

Jupp refused to play along when he discovered bosses were encouraging contestants to discuss Christmas-themed topics. They then put those clips together to create a festive special.

On a podcast with Jupp, Widdicombe says: ‘We never got paid for the Christmas special. Miles refused to speak during the Christmas story.” Jupp says: ‘I thought it was rude.’

Kirsty Gallacher joked she would move in with her best friend’s husband Gabby Logan if fellow TV presenter Logan died first.

Gallacher, 48, divorced rugby player Paul Sampson, 46, in 2015, while Logan, 50, is happily married to another former rugby player, Kenny Logan, 51.

In a supposed eulogy for Gabby, Gallacher teases on the Where There A Will, There A Wake podcast: “I was thinking, Kenny must be pretty lonely in that big house, right?

“I know you’d like me to maybe move in and take care of the animals, your wine cellar, and your wardrobe. I know you wouldn’t mind, right?’

Gabby responds: ‘I didn’t see that ending coming. Lucky Kenny, she’s beautiful.’