Latest education news
29th of July 2010
Nature, nurture and pizza: How an innovative farmhouse project is teaching families everyday practical skills
Two dozen people are sitting around a Kent farmhouse table eating lunch – a homely and unremarkable scene. But the anxiety of some of the adults, and the feral eating habits of some of the children, show this is not what it seems. For many of those passing around the plates of fresh pasta and salad this is a rare moment of normality in traumatised lives.
8th of July 2010
New GCSE course in personal finance teaches pupils how to manage money
I used to switch off when the business news came on GMTV in the morning as I was getting ready for school," confesses Emily, a Year 8 pupil at Coloma Convent School in the south London suburb of Croydon. "But now when I hear them talking about interest rates going up or down, or the budget, or the cuts that are going to be made, I really listen because I feel I understand what they mean. And," she adds with a smile, "I've even been explaining it all to my parents."
1st of July 2010
Shape the future: How mosaics are firing up pupils
Jake Jones, eight, is busy fitting a small, irregular square of purple ceramic into the mosaic of a magpie's extended wing. Alongside him, his grandmother, Rosie, is filling in the bird's claws with fragments of something blacker. "Some boys like doing football and sport," muses the tousle-haired Jake as he brushes glue on to one side of the tile he is holding, and manoeuvres it into the jigsaw spread in front of him. "But I prefer concentrating on something like this. I just love making things." Rosie nods her approval. "He was so full of this when I met him this afternoon that I had to come up and see what it was all about," she confides.
Leading Article: Ofsted must retain its independence
It comes as no surprise that the Chief Inspector of Schools, Christine Gilbert, will not be renewing her contract as head of Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, when it expires next year.
24th of June 2010
Alan Smithers: Letting schools do their own thing is a recipe for chaos
Iam warming to the new Government's policies. Binning academic diplomas, Sir Jim Rose's recommendations on the primary curriculum and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and the General Teaching Council all look good moves to me – provided they are replaced by something better. But I cannot see where the extended academies programme is going. Michael Gove has said many times that he has drawn inspiration from the charter schools in the United States and the Kunskapsskolan in Sweden. Some of the charter schools have impressive records. They have, however, tended to attract the better pupils, leaving other schools worse off. They have also tended to take fewer pupils with special needs and to have higher dropout rates. The apparent success of Swedish "free schools" is linked to home background.
Leading Article: Baker's dozen new colleges
Lord Baker is unstoppable. Now aged 75, he is still at it, trying to persuade the Government to put more money and effort into technological education for teenagers. Back in the Eighties when he was Education Secretary under Mrs Thatcher, he set up the city technology colleges; now he is pestering everyone in sight to establish what he calls "university technology colleges". And he is having some success. The former schools minister Ed Balls agreed to open two of these, one in Stoke and the other in Southend, which will be taking their first students this September.
17th of June 2010
Justin Champion: Through the looking glass
One of the memorable moments of my schooldays was learning how Captain Robert Jenkins held up his severed ear in the House of Commons in 1738 to prove Spanish atrocities against British liberties. The War of Jenkins' Ear showed us schoolboys how the British state defended even the most insignificant sailor in far-flung parts of the world. How wrong was that?
Leading Article: Academics should check their facts
A pamphlet from the think-tank Politeia this week makes a persuasive argument for promoting Latin in primary school on the grounds that it can help youngsters master other subjects and learn other languages. Unfortunately, however, Politeia overeggs the pudding by suggesting that Latin is not in widespread use in primary schools because Labour banned it from them under its plans to promote modern foreign languages for children.
10th of June 2010
Conor Ryan: The pupil premium won't work unless it's new cash
The coalition has made improving social mobility one of its central planks. The new Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has declared he wants to close the gap in results between the richest and poorest. Paying schools more for each disadvantaged pupil on their rolls is their big idea to achieve it.