Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• There is no hard evidence that schools in England are slipping behind other countries, says an academic study.
• Schools which fail to improve within six years of being classed “satisfactory” should be relabelled inconsistent and pushed harder to improve, a report says.
• The qualification currently required for head teachers in England’s state schools will no longer be compulsory, the government has announced. Read the official announcement here.
• Michael Gove signalled a significant shift in approach last week when he admitted that he and his ministerial colleagues were guilty of being “behind the curve” when it came to technology in schools.
• The number of Scottish teachers has continued to fall, the latest education statistics have revealed.
• The test-run of a new primary school reading check suggests two-thirds of pupils are likely to fail it when it is introduced in England next year.
• Almost four million children in the UK do not own a book, according to a report by the National Literacy Trust.

Exams and Testing:

• The government is calling for a reform of the exam system, after inquiries were launched in England and Wales into claims of cheating. Read the response from the Department for Education here.
• More than 38,000 exam entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were regraded after schools asked for re-marks, the exams watchdog Ofqual says.

Universities:

• Changes to university funding could reduce the number of people getting qualifications in science, technology and engineering, MPs have been told.
• Business leaders are warning that students in the UK are lagging behind in developing an international outlook needed for a globalised economy.

Other News:

• Fewer than a fifth of people think they are part of a traditional family, suggests research by a think tank.
• The lowest price for an acceptable Christmas for a low-income family with two children is £182, a study says.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 10th December - Human Rights Day
• 11th December - International Mountain Day
• 13th December - St. Lucia’s Day
• 14th December - Monkey Day
• 16th December - Boston Tea Party

The Book Club offer a great service for schools, helping them to find and buy books quickly and easily. Schools are able to send them a list of the books that they need and The Book Club will organise a quote (with a 10% discount on all books), source the books from the publishers and deliver them free to schools. Their site also has lots of useful lists of suggested books, which are all organised by age group and subject area / topic.

Take a look at their schools page for more information or browse around their site to find some relevant books for your current topics. You can also follow their book suggestions on Facebook and Twitter. The Book Club have also kindly offered to support my new Teaching Library site, enabling me to continue adding new books on a regular basis.

The Dahlicious Dress Up Day takes place on Friday 30th September and is a fun way for school children up and down the country to get creative and raise money for a fantastic cause by going to school dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character.

From Oompa-Loompas to the BFG, The Twits, Willy Wonka, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox and all those other characters from Roald Dahl’s stories, there are plenty of characters for children to choose from. Children are asked to donate £1 to dress up and wow their friends and teachers with their costumes, masks or face paint.

The money raised will go to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity to help fund much needed specialist nurses, support and equipment for seriously ill children with lifelong and life-limiting neurological or blood conditions.

If your school isn’t already taking part, sign up for an event pack at www.roalddahlcharity.org/schools, email schools@roalddahlcharity.org or call 01494 890465 to speak to someone about getting involved.

Don’t forget that there are also lesson ideas and resources linked to Roald Dahl’s books on my Teaching Library site.

Over the summer holidays, I set up a new site to add my existing collection of Teaching Websites. The Teaching Library is a place to find free lesson ideas, activities and resources linked to popular children’s books. The lesson ideas are all organised by subject and there are also related videos and other material which can be used in the classroom.

www.teachinglibrary.co.uk

The site has been extremely well received so far and I’ve had lots of positive comments from teachers and authors! If you have any book suggestions or relevant lesson ideas / resources, please get in touch. You can also use the ‘Add a Book‘ form on the site to help the site to grow. Thanks!

I hope that the new site is useful to you.

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• Pupils from a east Hampshire school have found a fun way to start the day which teachers say is also helping them in class.
• A primary school has been condemned by parents for disciplining two seven-year-old boys after teachers ruled playing army games amounted to “threatening behaviour”.
• Up to half of five-year-olds are not ready for school as working parents increasingly abandon traditional games, nursery rhymes, bedtime stories and lullabies, according to research.
• Some primary schools, particularly in London, are starting to voice their concerns about a possible shortfall of places around England.
• Young children in inner-city areas often have to face knife crime in their neighbourhood. This report highlights a primary school who are tackling the issue by discussing it in the classroom.
• Hundreds of private schools are to opt out of the National Curriculum amid claims it sets the bar “far too low” for bright pupils.

Exams:

• An “unfortunate error” meant maths students were set a question that was impossible to answer in an AS-level exam.

Universities:

• Cambridge University academics are joining their counterparts in Oxford by calling for a vote of no confidence against the government’s handling of higher education in England.
• A senior academic says she doubts the Welsh Government can continue to afford to help all students from Wales pay for their university fees.

Other News:

• Three in 10 children in the UK do not own a single book of their own, with alarming implications for their future prospects, according to new research.
• The Nottingham University Samworth academy has a room packed with curiosities and puzzles that stimulate pupils’ imaginations, and generate a sense of wonder.
• The UK could become “yesterday’s country equipped with yesterday’s skills” if education cuts continue, the UCU lecturers’ union leader has warned.
• Friends, family and teachers are much more likely to influence young children than celebrity role models like actors or footballers are, a study suggests.

Due to other commitments with my teaching and my many other Teaching Websites, I am struggling to keep Teaching Events updated at the moment. As I result, I am working on a new, much simpler system, so Teaching Events will be offline for a short time. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

• Ofsted have released a new report called ‘School governance: Learning from the best’ which identifies the key characteristics of governing bodies in schools judged as outstanding.
• Schools in England should do more to help children of parents serving in the armed forces, Ofsted has said. Read the official report here.
• Only four out of 10 newly qualified teachers in Wales land substantive jobs in primary or secondary schools after training, according to new figures.
• Four thousand fewer student teachers will receive a place to train at university this year, raising fears of massive overcrowding in primary schools over the next decade.
• A south London council has warned it cannot guarantee a primary school place for every child in the borough by 2015.
• School library services providing books to more than half a million pupils have been axed in the last year, a TES analysis has revealed.
• Groups that want to open Free Schools in September 2012 can now submit their detailed plans to the Department for Education. For the first time, the Department will also consider applications from people who want to set up age 16-19 Free Schools, schools that cater specifically for children with special educational needs, and schools that offer alternative provision.
• A secondary school in Surrey is planning to install CCTV cameras in the communal area of its pupils’ toilets.
• Parents will be expected to spend more time helping their children with schoolwork under plans to extend the reach of the national curriculum beyond the classroom and into the home.
• A study of twins and adopted children in America has found pushy parenting has little effect on a child’s future.

• Fears that GCSEs and A-levels are getting easier are to be investigated by the exams standards watchdog.
• Rigid discipline and academic rigour are helping to transform the lives of students at a striking new school in an area scarred by deprivation and gang violence.

Universities:

• Oxford University academics are seeking a symbolic vote of “no confidence” against the government’s handling of higher education in England.

Other News:

• A heart charity is calling on the government to include the teaching of life-saving skills in the national curriculum.
• A teachers’ union is mounting a High Court challenge to government changes to their pension scheme.
• Many secondary school boys do not have the stamina to read beyond the 100th page of a book, research suggests.
• Teenagers may have a good excuse to be anti-social, moody, self-centred and reckless, according to new scientific insights into how the human brain develops.
• The Prince of Wales’s charity for young unemployed people has warned the UK is developing a “youth underclass”.
• Public spending on education and training has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to the latest Social Trends study, published by the Office for National Statistics.
• More than 20% of children aged 10 to 15 have been frightened or upset by bullying in the past year, according to the first British Crime Survey report on their attitude to the police and personal safety.
• As exams loom, leading educationalist Anthony Seldon has offered some words of advice to all those about to sit them.
• Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched a consultation on plans to increase the amount of leave for new parents in England, Scotland and Wales.

Due to other commitments with my teaching and my many other Teaching Websites, I am struggling to keep Teaching Events updated at the moment. As I result, I am working on a new, much simpler system, so Teaching Events will be offline for a short time. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

• The first free school has been given the green light to open in September.
• A third of families in London did not get their first choice secondary school for this autumn, statistics show.
• Working-class children are no more likely to move up the social ladder and hold a middle-class job if they attend a grammar school, rather than a comprehensive, a study has found.
• Teenagers in England should be forced to study maths and English until they have a good standard in both subjects, a key government education adviser has said.
• Tens of thousands of pupils will be sent to colleges and a new breed of technical schools from the age of 14, where they will work “business hours” and attend classes for an extra two weeks a year.
• Hundreds of thousands of young people are doing vocational courses which do not lead to university or a job, a report says.
• Ex-servicemen will be drafted into schools under Government plans to crack down on bad behaviour in the classroom.
• More universities in England could be put at risk of bankruptcy as a result of cuts and changes to funding, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.
• Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline says it will pay off tuition fee debt of its graduate trainees when university fees rise in England.
• Some of Britain’s most deprived areas will have budgets for key services such as Sure Start cut by £100 a child next year – more than three times that suffered in richer parts of the country, analysis shows.
• Reading standards among children are in sharp decline as pupils increasingly opt for easy books in school and the home, according to a report.

Image – Child Reading

• A charity that gives free books to children in England has been told it will have a 50% cut in funding, two months after fears over its future sparked a political “U-turn” row.
• Actress Joanna Lumley has claimed that British children are being brought up with “slack” morals.
• A third of young adults in the UK think buying something on a credit card does not count as spending money, a survey suggests.
• Despite exam stress, a long stint in education is good for people’s blood pressure, according to researchers in the US.
• This BBC report explores the issue of plagiarism after revelations of famous people who have copied chunks of other people’s work in their own.
• Historian David Starkey sparked chaos in the classroom as part of Jamie Oliver’s new Dream School series by branding a pupil “fat”.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 28th February to 13th March - Fairtrade Fortnight 2011
• 1st to 3rd March - Tenner 2011
• 8th March - International Women’s Day
• 8th March - Shrove Tuesday
• 9th March - World Read Aloud Day
• 9th March - No Smoking Day
• 9th March - Ash Wednesday

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

• The new Education bill was published which ‘will help teachers raise standards in schools. It includes measures to root out bad behaviour, tackle underperformance and improve the way in which schools are held to account.’ The BBC has a report about the new Education bill as well as an overview of the main changes that it introduces. As part of the new reforms, the education secretary can order councils to close and give out warning notices to failing schools, teachers will be given greater protection against lying pupils and school inspectors will be banned from snooping in pupils’ lunchboxes.
• Schools could be hit by a national teachers’ strike after one of Britain’s biggest classroom unions threatened industrial action in a row over pensions.
• Many of England’s academies do not have adequate controls to ensure public money is spent properly, MPs have said.
• The number of state secondary school pupils in England learning a language continues to decline, a study suggests. Privately-educated pupils were twice as likely to study languages beyond the age of 14 as those from comprehensive schools last summer.
• Celebrities Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan are launching a book club aimed specifically at children.

• With hundreds of libraries across England earmarked for closure, campaigners fear the humble service may become a soft target for multi-million pound council budget cuts.
• Some 250 Sure Start children’s centres in England could close within a year while many more face budget cuts, two charities have claimed.
• A report in the Telegraph says that a good education should be incentive enough to stay at school. Bribes, like the Education Maintenance Allowance, teach the wrong lesson to young people, according to the writer.
• Delays in young children’s ability to speak and listen properly are leaving them struggling to learn to read and write, Ofsted has warned.
• Children are being prescribed mind-altering “chemical cosh” drugs for conditions such as shyness and mild social anxiety, behaviour experts have warned.
• Ten years ago, Education Guardian held a competition, The School I’d Like, offering children a chance to start setting the agenda for their own education. A new report asks if they got what they wanted.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 24th January to 4th February - Big Schools’ Birdwatch
• 1st to 28th February – National Heart Month
• 2nd February – KS3 ICT is Boring
• 3rd February – Chinese New Year
• 4th February – World Cancer Day
• 4th February – Unicef Day for Climate Change

Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed the Christmas break. Here are links to some recent education-related news:

• The quality of science education in England’s secondary schools has improved in the past three years, Ofsted inspectors say. You can read the official report here.
• More than one-in-10 state secondary schools in England are now academies, outside of local authority control. However, research has found that just a quarter of adults wanted new-style schools run by parents and private companies in their area and the majority opposed proposals to give them extra independence.
• Head teachers have warned that schools will be effectively powerless to expel the worst behaved children under controversial Government reforms to discipline policies.
• GCSEs should be scrapped and replaced with new tests for 14-year-olds, says ex-Education Secretary Estelle Morris.
• The former children’s commissioner for England has warned that the coalition’s “savage” cuts risk robbing a generation of the chance to improve their lives and risk crushing social mobility.
• The government has been accused of performing a partial U-turn over funding for a charity that gives free books to children.

Image – Seuss Collection

• Two former teachers are on a mission to make reading fun by writing some new adventure stories.
• Children as young as four are being tutored to pass the 11-plus examination amid rising competition to get into grammar schools.
• Almost a fifth of secondary schools were in deficit at the end of last year.
• An independent school entrance examination is to be put online to make it less stressful for pupils.
• A quarter of a million students could miss out on university this year amid record demand for places before a hike in tuition fees.
• Ballroom dancing should be taught widely in schools to help children learn discipline and to develop good relations between boys and girls, Ann Widdecombe has said.
• In this report in the Guardian, an ex-teacher outlines why she is home schooling her own children.
• A series of programmes on ITV1 has been asking if we are putting children under too much pressure.
• Children are being left without decent adult role models because of the decline of the traditional extended family, according to a leading headmistress.
• The National Bullying Helpline has closed due to a lack of funding and the resignation of its chief executive Christine Pratt.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 15th January - Martin Luther King’s Birthday
• 12th-15th January – BETT

If you are attending BETT, read these handy guides to help you make the most of your visit:

• BETT for Beginners
• Alternative Guide to BETT
• BETT 2011 – who to visit? where to start?

Here’s a round-up of this week’s education-related news stories:

• In his budget statement, George Osbourne, warned that education spending in England could be cut by as much as 25% over the next four years.
• The chair of Ofsted has resigned, fuelling speculation that ministers plan significant changes at the organisation.
• An announcement is expected next week about the future of the Building Schools for the Future scheme.
• The number of primary aged children is expected to rise by 13.5% by 2018, putting pressure on schools and education budgets. The proportion of 16 to 18 year olds at school, college or in training reached its highest ever level last year.

Image – Salt and Vinegar

• Parents want more advice about how to prepare healthier lunch boxes, rather than having schools tell them what they can and cannot put in them.
• A coalition of senior doctors and nurses have written to Michael Gove, expressing ‘deep concern’ at his decision to axe plans for free school meals for half a million primary school children from low income families.
• A leading headteacher says that more effort should be boosting results among the most able pupils, rather than concentrating on the drive to raise standards to a minimum threshold.
• The National Governors Association is telling its members to be cautious about becoming an academy. The government has also released a list of schools that have asked about becoming an academy.
• A study has shown that the free schools model in Sweden has not significantly improved pupils’ academic achievement.
• Students and staff at 100 UK colleges and universities are protesting against funding cuts in further, higher and adult education.
• An experienced headteacher has been suspended after allegedly making comments about a pupil.
• A report from the Telegraph finds out about schools who are taking part in a range of ‘eco’ activities, including recycling, reducing waste and growing vegetables.

Image – Stack of Books

• Sir Tom Stoppard believes that books are being left behind as an increasing amount of young people’s time is spent focusing on ‘the moving image’.
• It was also claimed that access to PCs and high-speed broadband can lead to a decline in test scores among young people.
• Atmosphir has left their ‘beta’ stage and offers free games based learning opportunities for schools. Thanks to Kevin McLaughlin for spotting this and sharing it on Twitter. Find out more about Atmosphir in the video below: