Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:
Schools:
- Thousands of headteachers need to make “considerable improvements” to their child safeguarding procedures, inspectors have warned. Read the report by Ofsted here.
- One in four primary schools in England still has no male registered teacher, statistics show.
- Plans have been revealed for a free school staffed by former servicemen and women in Greater Manchester.
- The UK is the worst nation in Europe for the teaching of foreign languages following a dramatic collapse in the subject under Labour.
- A high school in North Tyneside is letting teenagers lie in, in an effort to help with their education.
- Some of England’s first “free schools” have opened their doors to pupils.
- Analysis of the catchment areas of the first 24 free schools approved by the government shows they are skewed towards the middle class and that white, working-class pupils will be under-represented.
- A group of Bolton students has launched a rocket aiming to beat the UK amateur height record on the Mull of Galloway.
- Pupils starting at the Longfield Academy in Kent this September will be doing more of their learning on Apple iPads.
- More pupils are choosing English baccalaureate GCSEs as the government strips vocational subjects from school league tables.
Behaviour:
- Learning to look after bees has transformed the behaviour of unruly pupils, says a headteacher in Greenwich.
- A fifth of teachers have been physically assaulted in the last 12 months amid growing concerns over a collapse in classroom discipline.
- The education secretary has announced a review of truancy sanctions in England to help tackle an “educational underclass” of “lost souls”.
- Prime Minister David Cameron has said those involved in the riots need “tough love” as he promised to “get to grips” with the country’s problem families.
Universities and Colleges:
- Pioneering qualifications which allow cash-strapped colleges to cut their teaching costs by using podcasts, self-study and internet learning are being developed by one of the country’s biggest exam boards.
- More than a quarter of graduates are still without a full-time job more than three years after leaving university, official figures show.
Next week’s Teaching Events include:
- 1st to 10th September - Festival of Onam
- 8th September - International Literacy Day
