Happy New Year!

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

Schools:

• The education secretary is being urged to ditch regulations limiting infant class sizes to 30 pupils, in order to save money.
• Education Secretary Michael Gove has accused those who oppose his academies programme of being “happy with failure”.
• The Education Secretary loses the concentration of his young audience shortly after beginning his defence of academies.
• Dozens of teachers facing allegations of incompetence and misconduct will escape official hearings owing to the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England, new figures suggest.
• A third of parents are so unhappy with their child’s school they would advise other families not to send their children there, new figures from Ofsted have revealed.
• Schools are routinely cheating Ofsted inspections by bribing pupils, sending troublemakers home and rehearsing lessons, teachers have warned. Read the response from Ofsted here.
• The school day should be lengthened to prepare pupils for work, says Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg.
• Too many exams are ruining children’s enjoyment of their time at school, a former schools adviser has said.
• How well children perform in the classroom could be linked to how physically active they are, suggests a Dutch review of previous studies.
• Children who grow up without a daily routine of set bedtimes and mealtimes do worse at school, a report suggests.
• The Commission on School Reform has urged Scottish schools to abandon what it called the “bog standard” model of comprehensive education.
• Schools are being encouraged by the UK’s top scientific body to bring cutting edge science into the classroom.

Universities:

• University application numbers could be making a sharp recovery – according to figures from a university.
• A new type of privately-funded science and technology university has been announced by the universities minister.

Other News:

• Children’s access to smartphones and computers should be limited to stop them becoming “addicted” to electronic gadgets, according to a schools’ leader.

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

Schools:

• Ofsted have published their Annual Report 2011 which can be downloaded here. Various articles relating to the report have been published on the BBC, Guardian, TES and the Telegraph sites. The Schools Minister has also published his comments about the report.
• The TV chef Jamie Oliver has accused the Education Secretary Michael Gove of eroding healthy school food standards.
• Cities in England with high youth unemployment must do more to raise young people’s attainment in maths and English, a report says.
• History should be compulsory in England’s schools until the age of 16, argues historian Sir David Cannadine.
• The first ever national plan for music education has been launched by the Department for Education. It aims to ‘enable every child to have the chance to learn to play a musical instrument for at least a term and ideally for a year by transforming the way music is delivered to schools.’

Strike Action (30th November):

• Thousands of teachers in the UK have voted to strike over changes to their pensions and pay. However, Michael Gove warns unions that there’s no more money to fund an improved pension deal.
• Employers should allow staff to bring children to work where possible, during the public sector strike next week, David Cameron has said.
• A headteacher is preparing to draft in soldiers to keep her secondary school open during next week’s nationwide strikes.

Other News:

• The government has pledged to continue to provide free milk to all under-fives in the UK despite ordering a review of the scheme.
• Children are still at risk of “significant harm” in almost one in five council areas as social workers struggle to cope with mounting workloads, according to Ofsted.
• Thousands of teenagers are being consigned to the dole queue after leaving school with a poor grasp of the three-Rs, according to a report published today. However, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says a £1bn plan to provide subsidised work and training placements will “provide hope” to thousands of young people.
• Sports medicine specialists say governments across the UK have squandered the chance to create an Olympic legacy of fitness.
• Parents are dressing up their children in provocative clothes and allowing them to wear make-up and high heels because they lack traditional values, according to a leading headmistress.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 21st to 27th November - Road Safety Week
• 30th November - St. Andrew’s Day
• 30th November - Computer Security Day
• 1st December - World AIDS Day
• 1st to 10th December - Great British Tea Party
• 2nd December - NSPCC Number Day
• 3rd December - Tree Dressing Day
• 3rd December - International Day of Persons with Disabilities

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

Schools:

• Children born in the summer in England are at an academic disadvantage throughout school, says a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
• Primary schools in England are to have a single, co-ordinated day for offering places, under a revised admissions code published by the government.
• Growing numbers of “ordinary” children face being edged out in the race for school places under radical Government plans to allow thousands of pupils to jump the queue.
• Children in England are more fearful of attacks and intimidation on their way to and from school than pupils in other European countries, a study suggests.
• Schools across England are being invited to apply for grants to help other schools in their area make the most of Olympic opportunities.
• The incoming head of Ofsted has told MPs his “tough guy” image will not be a barrier to success in heading England’s schools inspection system. Sir Michael Wilshaw has said that staff should be granted sabbaticals during term time to keep them refreshed and address mounting concerns over high workload. He has also claimed that staff are forced to provide care “beyond the school day” amid concerns that many mothers and fathers lack basic parenting skills.
• School children are failing to get the amount of sleep they need to stay alert while in classes and are spending more time watching TV than doing homework, new research has suggested.
• Teacher training will be toughened up under plans by Ofsted to raise the standards of reading and behaviour in schools. Read the official information from Ofsted here.
• Public spending on education in the UK is falling at the fastest rate since the 1950s, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
• Babies are to be employed as ‘tiny teachers’ in classrooms to reduce levels of bullying and aggression in schools.
• Teachers from across Scotland have told the BBC they have spent hundreds of pounds of their money on basic resources for their classrooms.

Tests and Exams:

• More than 35,000 Sats papers taken by England’s 11-year-olds last May were sent back for re-marking.
• The government’s new reading test for six-year-olds is a waste of money that will not identify youngsters’ needs, experts have warned.
• The government is to crack down on school league table tricks by cutting the value of vocational qualifications in performance measures.

Other News:

• This post in The Telegraph explores some of Britain’s most unconventional degrees.
• Parents who joke and pretend with their children are giving them a head start in life, researchers at Stirling University have found.
• The number of people starting apprenticeships in England this year has risen by more than 50% on last year, official figures show.
• A 71-year-old who is still teaching has won one of the major awards at this year’s “Teachers’ Oscars”.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 30th October to 6th November - Get Online Week
• 31st October to 6th November - Dyslexia Awareness Week
• 5th November - Bonfire Night
• 6th November - Eid-ul-Adha
• 11th November - Remembrance Day

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

Schools:

• Tens of thousands of seven-year-olds are struggling to master the three Rs, official figures show. Read the announcement from the Department for Education here.
• The education secretary, Michael Gove, has proposed that every child aged five or over should be learning a foreign language, and promised to “pull every lever”, including encouraging longer school days, to make it happen.
• Work has begun to train 100 former members of the armed forces to become mentors in schools in England.
• A-level pupils should be ranked by the schools they attend as well as the grades they get, an exam board says.
• This report from the BBC discusses schools that are using 3D technology to support learning.

Inspections:

• School inspections in England will give more scrutiny to the quality of teaching, in a back to basics shake-up by the Ofsted education watchdog. Read the official announcement about the changes here.
• Education Secretary Michael Gove has suggested some schools judged to be “outstanding” do not deserve the accolade.
• Parents are to be encouraged to rate their children’s schools on the Ofsted website.

Other News:

• A quarter of teenagers say they have never received any careers advice, according to a poll.
• Nearly a third of children aged ten or under now have their own mobile phone, according to survey of parents.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 7th September to 23rd October - Rugby World Cup 2011
• 17th September to 2nd October - British Food Fortnight
• 1st to 31st October - Walk to School Month
• 1st October - World Vegetarian Day
• 1st October - Older People’s Day
• 1st to 31st October - Black History Month
• 1st to 31st October - The Big Draw
• 3rd to 9th October - Children’s Book Week
• 4th to 10th October - World Space Week
• 4th October - World Animal Day
• 5th October - World Teachers’ Day
• 5th October - Primary Learning and Teaching with Dylan William and Guy Claxton
• 6th October - National Poetry Day
• 7th October - Jeans for Genes Day
• 7th October - World Smile Day

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

Schools:

• A third of secondary pupils in England fail to reach their potential in maths and a quarter are making insufficient progress in English, figures show.
• Children from poorer homes could be denied the chance to go on school trips to outdoor education centres because of spending cuts.
• Union bosses are urging Scotland’s largest education authority to clarify its call for all probationer teachers to be put on half pay.
• The BBC has learnt that 314 teachers are being made redundant from schools in Northern Ireland this summer.
• Private schools have a “moral purpose” to help poor pupils whose parents cannot afford the fees, according to Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister.
• This report from the Guardian investigates the increasing use of video surveillance in schools.
• Half of parents are risking fines by taking their children on cheap holidays during term time, research suggests.

Exams:

• Up to a third of children are effectively going backwards in the three-Rs at secondary school, new figures suggest.
• Pupils are being awarded top grades on “weak” vocational courses that leave them with a poor grasp of business, according to Ofsted.
• England’s exams watchdog is investigating a total of six mistakes in exams taken by tens of thousands of students.

Universities and Colleges:

• David Cameron has been meeting university leaders in Whitehall to discuss the coalition’s blueprint for higher education.
• A private college in England aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge is being launched by leading academics.
• Up to ten universities are in financial difficulty and risk failing as a result of the introduction of £9,000 tuition fees, the head of the Public Accounts Committee said.
• A bin that photographs rubbish is shaming Newcastle students into recycling.

Other News:

• Ofsted have launched a consultation on its proposals for inspection of adoption and fostering agencies.
• Businesses in London have been asked to donate £3m to improve child numeracy and literacy skills in the capital.
• Private services company Capita stands to make tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money from the Coalition’s expansion of the academy programme, it has been claimed.
• Ministers “misinterpreted” research they cited to justify axing education grants for low-income English 16-19 year olds, the study’s author has said.
• A report into the sexualisation of children is proposing a new cinema style system which would prevent young children having access to the most explicit music videos.
• Sukanya Roy, a 14-year-old girl from Pennsylvania, has won the 2011 US National Spelling Bee by spelling the word ‘cymotrichous’.
• The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson is Britain’s new Children’s Laureate, it has been announced.

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.

Ofsted have recently launched a new site for those working in sectors who are inspected and regulated by them. The site shares good practice and supporting resources, allowing you to download useful information and watch videos to support your own work.

www.goodpractice.ofsted.gov.uk

Although there are only a few case studies in each section at the moment, they aim to add further examples in the coming months. This looks like it could be a useful resource as the sections are developed.

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

• Children need to leave school with the skills required for the workplace as well as knowledge, believes a head teachers’ leader.
• The government has released data for England’s state schools, showing funding and expenditure per pupil, and how the money is spent. This is all analysed in this BBC report.
• Data published by Ofsted showed 23 per cent of state schools visited over a four month period last year were given a lower overall grade than in previous inspections. Read the official Ofsted report here.
• One in five children in schools in England are classified as having special needs but the government is announcing changes which it hopes will reduce that figure.
• Parents of children in England with special educational needs could get a personal budget to spend on support for their education.
• Just one in six pupils in England has achieved the new English Baccalaureate introduced by the government, England’s league tables show.
• Michael Gove is accused of trying to bring back grammar schools by back door.
• Schoolchildren should be taught how to turn up on time, talk to colleagues and make presentations as part of compulsory lessons in “employability skills”, according to a leading head teacher.
• Parents will get powers to rank local schools using a series of new-style measures under Government plans to stop schools massaging their results.
• The world’s leading thinkers regard the UK as having better universities than any other country apart from the US, a league table shows.

Image – Oxford

• Millions of workers in the public sector should work longer for lower pensions, a major report has said. As a result of this, teachers could take industrial action as soon as this summer, leaving England’s schools facing mass disruption.
• Local authorities have made more than 1,000 school improvement staff redundant since last autumn, prompting fears that more schools could end up in special measures as a result.
• Reforms of the NHS in England are putting the healthcare of children at risk, according to an article in the British Medical Journal.
• England’s schools adjudicator Ian Craig is to leave his post early, months after warning over plans to slim down the rules over fair admissions.
• Nearly half of mothers think the 1970s and 1980s were an easier age for raising children, a report suggests.
• Teachers have given their verdict on the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s new ‘Dream School’ venture, getting accomplished public figures to teach young people who have given up on education. This report from the Telegraph explores how the experience has affected some of the pupils.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 1st to 31st March - Tenner 2011
• 11th to 20th March - National Science and Engineering Week
• 14th March - Pi Day
• 14th March - International Day of Action for Rivers
• 14th to 20th March - Brain Awareness Week
• 14th to 27th March - Cambridge Science Festival
• 15th March - Teaching about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• 17th March - St. Patrick’s Day
• 17th to 19th March - Education Show
• 18th March - Red Nose Day

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

• Nearly half of children in England are not reaching what teachers consider a good level of development by the age of five, public health experts say.
• Head teachers claim stimulants are being over-prescribed to young children, who they suspect are not sufferers of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). They say unscrupulous parents of troubled youngsters are pushing for an ADHD diagnosis to claim disability benefits.
• A Scottish council has confirmed it may consider introducing a four-day week in its primary and secondary schools to cope with planned funding cuts.
• Almost 12,000 children in England have missed school for at least a month and 1,500 of them cannot be traced, statistics obtained by the Times Educational Supplement reveal.
• A major new survey has highlighted the anger among senior school staff over plans to reform their pensions, with nearly two-thirds claiming they are prepared to take industrial action.
• Baroness Morgan of Huyton has been named as the new chairman of Ofsted.
• Singing in school can make children feel more positive about themselves and build a sense of community, research based on 10,000 children suggests.
• To ensure young people from every background have access to quality music education, Michael Gove has announced that £82.5m will be given to music services across England next year.

Image – Bass Guitar

• Local councils in England could see cuts of up to 10% to their music services budgets when school music funding is shaken up next year.
• The government has been defeated in the High Court over the way it scrapped part of England’s school building programme. The Department for Education responded with this comment.
• A Manchester head teacher, who is the city’s anti-extremism tsar, has criticised free schools claiming they are “divisive”.
• Millions of people in England and Wales who work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults will no longer need criminal record checks.
• Four in ten schools, nurseries and childminders are failing to deliver a good enough standard of communication, language and literacy teaching for toddlers, the education watchdog has said.
• Almost 60% of five-year-olds in some of Britain’s poorest areas do not reach a “good level” of behaviour and understanding. Statistics from the Department for Education also show that 53 per cent of boys have not reached a “good level of development” by five, compared to 35 per cent of girls.
• A school in Norfolk has overturned the mantra that small is beautiful and found a cheap and effective way of teaching the growing numbers of primary pupils.
• Schools ought to spend less money trying to deliver small class sizes and invest more in teachers’ salaries, a leading independent school head teacher has claimed.
• There are signs are that the great majority of universities in England will raise fees above £6,000 – with most going straight to the £9,000 maximum.
• A new “super university” could be created under plans to merge at least three Welsh universities.
• Schools are facing costs that could run to millions of pounds because of new legislation that could see them “picking up the bill” for the extra services needed by their SEN pupils.
• Every school in the UK should have rules about how teachers use Facebook, a teaching union has said. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said new teachers are having problems because of using social networking sites.
• Reg Bailey, Chief Executive of the Mothers’ Union, is carrying out an independent review to address parents’ concerns about the pressures on children to grow up too quickly.
• A controversial website is continuing to let British children post online messages which campaigners say amount to “vicious” cyber-bullying.

Next week’s Teaching Events include:

• 1st to 28th February – National Heart Month
• 7th February to 14th February – Go Green Week
• 12th February – Darwin Day
• 14th February – Valentine’s Day
• 14th February to 21st February – National Nest Box Week
• 16th February to 23rd February – Mini Pots of Care
• 16th February – Teaching about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• 17th February – Teaching about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics

This week was a busy week for education-related news! Here are some of the major headlines:

• The government produced a White Paper which reflects the changing ways that governments will support schools. Watch Michael Gove explain about it in this Youtube video:

• According to the DfE site, this reform programme ‘puts teachers at the heart of school improvement and frees schools from central government direction.’ It also sets out: powers for teachers to improve discipline in the classroom; a vision for a transformed school curriculum; the reform of school performance tables; a pupil premium to channel more money to the most deprived children; and plans to develop a fairer and more transparent funding system.’
• General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has explained that the new White Paper ‘represents a major step towards the dismantling of the state education system.’ You can download the White Paper for yourself. The BBC has summarised the plans of the White Paper here and provided further analysis here. The Guardian has also provided their own review of the document and so have the Telegraph. This website allows teachers who disagree with the proposals to take out some of their frustrations on Mr. Gove!
• Other impacts of the White Paper might include millions of pounds being cut from school sixth forms in England, the training of former members of the armed services for work in the classroom, compulsory studying of foreign languages up to the age of 16 and an increase of ‘on the job’ teacher training. However, twice as many academic courses have been rated outstanding, placing doubt on these plans to shift more teacher training into schools.
• Ministers have given more details of plans to bring in reading tests for six-year-olds in England.

Image – Reading in the Morning

• Teachers will be given new powers to discipline pupils as part of a government plan to restore order in classrooms.
• Schoolchildren are increasingly ignorant of British history as teachers scrap traditional lessons in favour of trendy “skills-based” courses, according to academics.
• Many of England’s schools will struggle to maintain the services they now offer in the wake of spending cuts, council leaders have warned.
• Leading sports doctors have strongly criticised the way PE is being taught in English schools. In related news, the British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine wants all schools to use short exercise routines like the ones shown in this video.
• GCSEs should be taken at the age of 14 – after which pupils could specialise in academic or vocational courses, says a report for an education charity.
• The Telgraph reports that academies are performing worse than other state schools, despite Government plans for a huge expansion of the flagship education programme. In contrast, the DfE site claims that more academies than ever are rated as outstanding.
• Students staged another day of action in protest against proposed increases in university tuition fees.
• This Telegraph article suggests ways that parents can teachers can help their pupils to learn the times tables.
• Head teachers have warned that the timing of the royal wedding could cause problems in schools because it falls just days before the national Sats tests.
• The annual report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education was published.
• Ofsted have warned that tens of thousands of pupils are being subjected to ‘dull and uninspiring’ lessons.
• McDonald’s is introducing its own degree course in business management for its restaurant bosses in the UK.

Visit Teaching Events to find educational events to use in your classroom.

Twitter is an amazing way to discover new and interesting information. Here are links to some of the things that I have found recently:

• Design 2010 – An online exhibition celebrating the achievements of students in Design and Technology. Shared by Gareth Davies.
• Aviary Education – Aviary, who produce lots of fantastic online tools, are now offering a free service for education users. Shared by Paulo Simões.
• History Pin – A digital time machine that allows users to pin their own old photos onto modern Street View scenes. Shared by Claire Jones. Here’s a Youtube video which explains more:

• Diary of an Ofsted Inspection - Michael Shepherd recalls his recent experiences with Ofsted! Shared by Simon Haughton.
• Open ClipArt Library – An archive of clip art that can be used for free by anyone. Shared byProfteresa.
• Augmented Reality – If you’ve heard what augmented reality is, but you’re not quite sure what it does, watch this Youtube video, shared by CommonCraft:

What have you found on Twitter recently?

Image – Run!