Latest education news
20th of November 2008
Helping hands: How to rescue failing schools
A radical improvement in results is expected in second-ary schools across the country if a policy that has lifted many London schools out of failure proves effective elsewhere.
13th of November 2008
Brave new world: Traditional classrooms, lessons - and even homework - have been expelled
The Duke of Edinburgh smiles, looking a tad bemused at the job he is undertaking – opening a school that is pioneering a radical new approach to learning. Just about everything that the Government has imposed on schools or encouraged over the last decade is being thrown out to make way for a skills-based curriculum called Opening Minds.
Education Quandary: 'Will violent and vulgar TV programmes harm our teenagers?'
Q. 'We are worried that our teenagers watch a lot of violent and vulgar TV programmes. Will it harm them? What's the evidence?'
Leading Article: Skills and knowledge
It is good to see the opening of a school that is genuinely trying to do new and interesting things with the curriculum. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has finally put its money where its mouth is by launching an academy that is teaching skills and competencies rather than knowledge. Pupils can really get stuck into learning via the three-hour lessons, which, amazingly, they seem to like. It is not so surprising that they don't miss homework, the abolition of which was a brave move by the school. The evidence that homework helps children to learn has always been inconclusive.
Mark Davies: Disaffected school children would be better off at work
Last year you published an article in which I said that English schoolchildren were an alien species, being the rudest, most selfish, inconsiderate, presumptuous, arrogant and intractable group of people I had ever met, anywhere in the world ("English pupils are the rudest people I've met", EDUCATION & CAREERS, 8 February, 2007).
6th of November 2008
Steve McCormack: Children are neglected as bureaucracy mounts
On the day last week that newspapers and airwaves were at their most clogged with coverage of the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand affair, a report slipped out from the Audit Commission that should, arguably, have caused far more concern than a few obscene phone messages sent to a former Spanish waiter.
Brain boxes: How digital technology can improve maths scores
It is a scene that's been repeated in primary schools across the UK, stretching back to the middle of the last century. Coats hang on hooks at the back of the classroom while cartons of milk sit waiting to be drunk at break time by the Year Seven class of 11-year-olds.
30th of October 2008
Education Reviews: Digital resources
Evaluations supplied by Schoolzone, an independent body that asks teachers to rate digital learning titles
Is it time to get personal? The technology about to transform classroom learning
Technology never stands still. No sooner have schools got to grips with the interactive whiteboard than the latest gizmo is advancing on classrooms, this time in the form of handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs). There are a number of these small portable devices demonstrating varying degrees of sophistication: the latest versions come with inbuilt digital camera, video recorder, Wi-Fi access and satellite navigation.
A safe haven for state pupils in need
Dawn breaks over Wainfleet Hall, a country house set in tranquil Lincolnshire parkland. Its sleepy inhabitants are woken with a 6.45am call and, after a hearty breakfast, set off to the local train station. No, they're not holiday makers; they're boarding students at Skegness Grammar School, whose website reads somewhat like a hotel brochure. The school has extensive grounds, tasty meals, and a new 52-inch plasma TV in the sitting-room.
Education Quandary: 'The Government wants more team sports in schools. My daughter would hate this, but needs exercise. Shouldn't schools also be helping children like her?'
Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, has recently joined Gordon Brown in calling for more competitive school sports, and pledged to spend £3m on promoting inter-school leagues. But these ministers are pushing on an open door.
Staffroom Tales: Birds, bees, bunnies and cartoon couples
Recent tabloid headlines along the lines of "Condoms To Be Handed Out To 5 Year Olds!" must mean there has been some change in the government's sex education policy for schools. Reading the details a bit more closely, it becomes clear that the government is proposing such radical ideas as teaching 5-year-olds about relationships (I guess some of those children must have been wondering who the two adults were in their house who gave them with food and took them to school).
One-to-one makes all the difference when teaching children to read
Alicia, 7, is reading Father Bear Goes Fishing. "Here – comes – a – fish – he – shouted." With her finger inching along the words, she ploughs through the whole book – a minor miracle considering that a few weeks ago, after a year in school, she was not reading at all.
22nd of October 2008
Sound start: How one primary school got to grips with Spanish
Anyone who has sweated over German grammar in high school or struggled to order lunch from a Parisian waiter knows that the older you are, the harder it can be to get to grips with a new language. Young children, however, have a natural curiosity and a lack of inhibition, which can make learning a new language pain-free – and even fun.
From Egypt to Brunei, British schools are growing in popularity
The Empire may be long gone, but there is one remnant of Britain's colonial past on which the sun never sets. British schools abroad are booming. Last year, more than 1,200 opened across the world. Older, more established British international schools are vastly over-subscribed, with many embarking on building projects to meet the growing demand for places.
Grand design: The architectural wonder that's transformed a private school
The best schools, whether state or private, set ambitious standards. Increasingly, those ambitions are being reflected in architecture. And could it be that private schools are taking a leaf or two out of university and academy school design? At Bryanston, the famously progressive public school in Dorset, a new building has set an exemplary standard, radiating both architectural and educational quality.
Channel crossings: The Kent prep school that's attracting French boarders
It may look like a very British country boarding school, housed in a George Devey-designed Victorian mansion. But Northbourne Park in Kent is, according to headmaster Edward Balfour, a "mid-Manche school". Each year, it plucks three-dozen pupils from French schools in Paris, Marseille and Madrid, and sees them through the Sixième and Cinquième – Years 7 and 8 – alongside English pupils.
Celebration time for the 'new' diploma
Forty years ago, a new educational qualification was born: the International Baccalaureate. The brainchild of teachers at the International School of Geneva, the two-year diploma was to provide 16- to 19-year-olds with a truly international education. Students would study subjects from a global perspective, learn new languages and appreciate different cultures.
'You can do it': Peter Jones reveals how he'll turn teens into entrepreneurs
Peter Jones is looking pretty relaxed for man who is running a multimillion-pound global business. There's none of that lugubrious demeanour that is evident on the BBC's Dragons' Den. Today, he's boyish and excited because the Learning and Skills Council has given him the go-ahead to open his own state school. It will be Britain's first "Tycoon's Academy", as he can't resist calling it, though the official name is the National Enterprise Academy – one of four new skills academies approved for state funding this month.
Mick Brookes: We are ruining the best year of primary school
We are delighted that the Sats regime has been relaxed, and that the Government has done away with tests at age 14. We are even more delighted that the arrangements in place for Key Stage 3 mirror precisely the advice sent to the Schools Minister, Jim Knight, in early May. We asked for more emphasis to be given to teacher assessment, for national sampling to be used to gauge progress, and for tests (or other benchmarking) to be used to ensure the validity of teacher assessment.
15th of October 2008
Alan Smithers: School admissions is the real issue
Andrew Adonis's switch from education to transport leaves the Government's schools policy even more confused. Almost single-handedly, Adonis has conceived and driven forward academies, the independent schools within the state sector that seemed to be the future. Yet, just as the programme is gathering momentum, he moves on or is moved on.