Friday, July 25, 2008
Education news in brief for July 2008
Below are some brief summaries of educational developments and events reported in the last month.
How much do we know about schooling and education systems in other countries?
Often the answer is very little not least because it is quite difficult to find information in an accessible form. The European Education Network (Eurydice) has published a series of short summaries of the educational landscapes of countries across Europe. So if you are curious as to how assessment is approached in Italy or new changes to the secondary curriculum in Spain, take a look. Click here
It is also worth a browse of the UK pages for a really concise summary of the latest bills and initiatives. England, Wales and Northern Ireland here and Scotland here:
Steer Review Behaviour Report Published
As part of The Children's Plan published by the UK government in 2007 Sir Alan Steer was asked to conduct a review of behaviour management policies in schools, the third part of his review was published on 14th July. The report concludes that the standard of behaviour in schools has improved with the lowering figures of serious behaviour incidents reported to local authorities. The report links this success with the implementation of the Assessment for Learning strategy which promotes the active engagement of pupils in all aspects of their learning.
The report's key recommendations are;
- To give schools a legal search power broad enough to search pupils for a range of inappropriate items. ( Secretary of State, Ed Balls has already accepted this wholly and plans to legislate accordingly.)
- To continue and expand current educational initiatives which work to secure parental engagement and responsibility for their children's behaviour at school.
- To expand the Safe Schools Partnership Programme.
The report also highlights the need for all behaviour policies to be interlinked with each school's policies on teaching and learning. This will be the focus of the final report from Alan Steer's behaviour review due to be published in November.
To read the Steer Report in full, click here
New guidance available from Becta on how schools can use social networking sites in education successfully and safely.
The most common response from schools to social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo is to ban them, but a new report from Becta encourages schools to use them to enhance learning opportunites. Click here to view it.
The report compiled for Childnet International and funded by Becta identifies six different types of social networking site and explains the structure and use of each one. There is an evaluation tool designed to take teachers through the features and functions of the sites and to consider their use in teaching and learning. The benefits and opportunities section gives detailed practical ideas on how social networking sites can be used in the classroom and to support work done at school. The report also contain a section on best-practice which describes in detail how sites such as Bebo, My Tube, Flickr and Facebook have been successfully used by teachers.
The guide explains the practical methods of using social networking whilst emphasising that teachers need to incorporate the benefits of these technologies into their lessons in order to successfully educate their learners to be responsible citizens because the online world is an integrated part of their everyday lives. "It is clear that young people regard social networking services as just another part of their social and often school-related activities."
The guide is free to download here.
Pupils starting secondary school this September will be the first to stay on in education and training until at least age 17, with 18 to follow for the cohort starting secondary school in 2 years time. New figures published by the DCSF this month suggest the rates are raising before it is compulsory with the highest ever recorded number of pupils staying on in education or training past the compulsory age currently at 16. The latest figures for 2007 are 78% of 16 olds remained in education or training.
Figures published by The School Food Trust this month reveal the number of Primary school children choosing to have school dinners has risen for the first time since 2004, although at 43.6% still less than those who bring a packed lunch to school. The meals the children are eating will be healthier too from September when all Primary school meals will have to adhere to a definitive set of food and nutrition standards, Secondary schools follow in 2009.
The impact of a healthy school meal on teaching and learning in schools has been well documented. A three year pilot study in Hull, where from 2004 all primary school children were offered healthy school meals and snacks free of charge found marked improvements in Readiness to Learn from Annual Teacher Surveys of pupil behaviour and reduced hunger and feelings of irritability from Annual Pupil Health Surveys. The Hull scheme had 95% take up of the free meals across the 22,000 primary school children in the city and 24,000 pieces of fresh fruit and vegetables being eaten as snacks in primary schools every day.
Providing free healthy meals at school is a practice widespread in other European countries such as Sweden, Finland and France, where the link between concentration and successful learning is accepted. Many pressure groups, charities as well as trade unions and medical experts have called on the government to implement a policy of free school meals across the UK. The School Food Trust has been set up to encourage and motivate children to eat and cook healthy food with initiatives such as after school cookery clubs being funded, but there are no plans to roll out the successful pilot scheme in Hull across the country. The Scottish government has announced a £5 million Pilot scheme providing free healthy school meals to all primary children in five areas across Scotland, starting in 2009.