Tuesday, June 07, 2011
News in brief. June 2011
A summary of current education news.
Ofqual has a new Chief Executive. Glenys Stacey was appointed on 1st March 2011. One of her first announcements has been to launch a review of the standards of GCSE and A level qualifications in England and Wales, in response to concern that exams are getting easier.
The UK’s coalition government’s Education Bill has had its third reading in the Commons. The Education Bill can be viewed in detail here.
Since the UK government's Free School programme was launched last year, 40 out of 323 proposals have been accepted for consideration. Of those, only four have received a promise of Government funding. Another application has been withdrawn and most of the remaining 35 schools will not open until 2012. The remaining 283 have been turned down and the applicants told they must re-apply under stricter criteria. These are designed to show they are "fit and proper" people to run a school.
Ofsted have published revised inspection plans to be followed for school and education inspections in England and Wales. The proposed plans have been open for consultation and will be implemented from 2012. The new framework has fewer criteria inspected but in more depth. Ofsted would concentrate its inspections on four areas: pupil achievement, the quality of teaching, leadership, and children's behaviour and safety. That list, which will come into force next autumn, has been scaled back from 27 headings under the current inspection framework. View the revised plans here.
Teach First is going to place teachers in primary classrooms for the first time this September. The charity is known for recruiting and training top graduates to work as teachers in England's most challenging schools. The organisation will place approximately 80 trainees in primary schools following a pilot scheme which was carried out in 21 primary schools across the UK. Founded in 2002, the charity said it aims to be recruiting 1,000 graduates a year by 2013.
Christine Gilbert has resigned from her post as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools with effect from June 30th 2011.
UK government Culture Minister Ed Vaizey launched an independent review of cultural education in April led by Classic FM Managing Director Darren Henley. Mr Henley conducted a review of Music Education in February 2011. The Henley review of music education, conducted by Darren Henley was published in February 2011. The government response and the report can be read in full, here.
The UK is ranked only 23rd out of 43 more developed countries in terms of child wellbeing. Charity Save the Children assessed countries using pre-primary education enrolment figures, secondary school enrolment rates and under-five mortality levels.
It was found that only 81 per cent of under-fives are receiving pre-school education at present in Britain.
"We know that pre-school nursery or playgroup access helps all children, but especially the poorest. It is a national embarrassment that the UK lags so far behind other countries of a similar size and wealth," said Justin Forsyth, Chief Executive of Save the Children.
He went on to criticise the government over its plans to reduce funding for childcare, adding that this will impact children from the poorest families.
Sweden was named as the best place for child wellbeing, followed by Italy and Japan, which came joint second. Somalia was ranked as the world's worst place for children.
The launch of the new Video Games Ambassadors mentoring scheme is "good for young people, good for education and good for the games industry". This is the opinion of Will Freeman, deputy editor of Develop magazine, who welcomed the initiative and said it will provide a fantastic opportunity for young people. The mentoring scheme has been developed by Stemnet, the organisation tasked with promoting science, technology, engineering and maths subjects in British schools, in partnership with the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment.
Parents can now access detailed GCSE data for every secondary school in England.
The Department for Education's Research and Statistics Gateway is designed to help families choose the right school for their children. Previously the public could only find out the proportion of students gaining five or more A*-C GCSEs. However, the new site breaks the data down, giving parents access to information relating to each GCSE subject.
"We live in an age when people expect more information, not less, in all areas of life. Our schools should be no different. For too long exam results in schools have been hidden," said education secretary Michael Gove. "Parents have been desperate for more information on schools but too little has been available in the past. By publishing all this data we are giving parents the ability to choose the right school for their child."
The public can also use the site to see the proportion of students that are studying each component of the new English baccalaureate.
A proposed new Admissions Code for schools in England was announced by Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove in May 2011. In the White Paper 'The Importance of Teaching', Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, announced a review of the school admissions system to make it simpler, fairer and more transparent, building on the principle of placing the trust back in schools and head teachers. A consultation is running until 19th August 2011 on the proposed changes.
Dr Elizabeth Passmore has been appointed as the new Chief Schools Adjudicator for England. Subject to the passage of the Education Bill, the Adjudicator will be able to consider admissions objections about all maintained schools and Academies. If the Adjudicator finds admissions arrangements are unlawful, they must be changed immediately by the admissions authority . The current Chief Schools Adjudicator, Dr Ian Craig, will leave his post later this year.
Julia Donaldson, the author of the bestselling picture book The Gruffalo, has been appointed the new children's laureate, taking over from illustrator Anthony Browne for a two-year term. Donaldson commented “ I hope to encourage and inspire children to act stories out, though it's too early to say whether there will be one major theatrical event."