Happy new year! Another year at school! To get us going here’s a few interesting articles on the BBC education wesite that caught my attention over the Christmas period:
Sensitive information on school pupils is being put at risk by staff who take it home with them, an IT firm says. Teachers in nearly half of England’s primary schools back up pupil data on CDs and memory sticks, which they then take out of school, research suggests.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7171740.stm
Boys in nursery schools should not be discouraged from playing with toy guns and other weapons, the government says. In guidance for nurseries in England, the Department for Children, Schools and Families says staff should resist a “natural instinct” to stop such play.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7163741.stm
More than 250,000 qualified teachers no longer work in England’s schools, the Conservative Party says. And nearly 100,000 switched careers between 2000 and 2005 – more than double the number that left in the preceding five-year period.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7161071.stm
So farewell to 2007: the year when education in England was “personalised”, the school motto came back into fashion and a new prime minister sent out the potentially ambiguous message: “Balls – to the department of education”.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7156741.stm
