MORE NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING PUPILS

4/30/2008 6:42:00 AM

BBC 29 April

The share of pupils in England's schools speaking English as a second language has risen to a record high, government figures show. Some 14.4% of primary school pupils spoke a language other than English as their first language in 2008 - a rise of 0.9 percentage points on 2007. It was 10.5% in 2004, the year before the main European Union expansion, and has almost doubled since 1997. In secondary schools, the proportion rose from 10.6% to 10.8% over 2007-08. The latest figures translate to some 470,080 pupils in primary schools and 354,300 pupils in secondary schools whose first language is thought not to be English. BBC

General

MORE TEACHERS, BUT VACANCIES RISE

4/30/2008 6:41:00 AM

BBC 29 April

The number of vacant teaching posts in England's schools went up by almost a quarter in the past year, figures show. The number of unfilled jobs was 2,510 in January or 0.7% of the total workforce, up 470 or 23% from 2007. The total numbers of teachers, teaching assistants and other support staff went up by 20,100 to 767,000. The pupil-teacher ratio fell from 17.1 to one to 16.9 to one across nursery, primary and secondary schools, but there were more infant classes over 30. Analyst John Howson of Education Data Surveys said it was difficult to account for the sudden jump in vacancy rates in the provisional statistics for 2008 published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Prof Howson said the change, especially in the West Midlands, "probably caught us all by surprise". BBC

General

SIXTH FORMERS PAID £5 TO TEACH LESSONS BECAUSE THEY DO A 'BETTER JOB' THAN SUPPLY STAFF

4/30/2008 8:32:00 AM

Daily Mail 30 April

A school is paying sixth-formers as young as 16 to teach lessons instead of hiring qualified supply staff, it emerged yesterday. It has put a team of 24 A-level students on standby to fill in when regular teachers are away, paying them £5 for each 50-minute lesson they take. They are being used in a pilot scheme because the headmistress says they do a better job than qualified adult teachers hired from supply agencies. DM

General

PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS IN SCHOOLS IMPROVING, FIGURES SHOW

4/30/2008 8:35:00 AM

The Guardian 30 AprilSchools in England now have the "highest number of teachers for a generation", Jim Knight, the schools minister, said today as new figures showed improving pupil-teacher ratios in both primary and secondary schools. Provisional figures released by the Department for Children schools and Families (DCSF) show 1,900 more full-time equivalent teachers, 13,100 teaching assistants and 5,100 other support staff in authority maintained schools, Academies and City Technology Colleges since last year. Coming a week after the first teachers' strike for two decades, the buoyant figures for the schools workforce will strengthen ministers' position in dealing with the teacher unions over pay. They will also be aware that downturns in the economy are generally good for teacher recruitment. "We have more teachers than at any time since I was at school," said Knight. There are now 441,200 teachers in England, a rise of 40,900 over the last decade, and 176,900 teaching assistants, a rise of 116,300 - almost triple the number 10 years ago. Knight added: "We've freed up teachers from administration tasks to do what they do best - teaching and giving pupils more individual attention." Guardian

General

LANGUAGE BARRIER MAKES MORE WORK FOR TEACHERS

4/30/2008 8:36:00 AM

The Times 30 April

Immigration is putting schools under immense pressure as they are having to teach record numbers of children whose first language is not English. One in seven pupils at primary school and more than one in ten at secondary school have an overseas language as their mother tongue. New statistics also show that an increasing number of schools are breaking the law by cramming more than 30 pupils into infant classes. Two hundred did so this year, compared with 130 last year. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “The problems stem from the Government’s failure to plan for population changes – not from the existence of migrants.” The data show a decreasing white school population, from 82.1 per cent in primary schools in 2004 to 80 per cent this year. This was mirrored by the fall in the number of pupils who are native English speakers, from 89 per cent of primary school children to 85.5 per cent over the same period. The National Union of Teachers said that schools needed more money to meet the needs of children whose first language was not English. Times

General

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN BRITISH SCHOOLS

4/30/2008 8:33:00 AM

Leader; Daily Telegraph 30 April

Figures released yesterday showing the percentage of children in state schools not having English as their first language to be at an all-time high might be shocking, but they are scarcely surprising.Some 14.4 per cent of primary pupils now come from non-English-speaking homes - a figure that has doubled since 1997.In inner London, the proportion is a staggering 53.6 per cent of all pupils.Given that this Government has made no attempt to control the numbers of migrants entering the country, and particularly that it wildly underestimated the migration from EU accession countries, it was only to be expected that the likely impact of non-English-speaking children on the school system would be overlooked.Even now that the full statistical consequences are clear, the Government seems to have no systematic policy for dealing with it.The schools minister, Jim Knight, utters platitudinous reassurance on the familiar Labour theme: record amounts of money have been invested in schools, and teacher numbers are the highest in a generation. And yet, he has to admit, "there is an issue" for some areas and some schools.Teachers' representatives give out similarly contradictory messages.Telegraph

General

MIGRANTS ‘LOWER READING RESULTS’

4/30/2008 6:51:00 AM

FT 30 April

British teenagers would have performed “significantly above” rich countries’ average in reading skills, were it not for the comparatively poor performance of immigrants’ children, Financial Times analysis of an international survey shows.The news that the educational level of immigrant pupils has depressed Britain to a mere “average” in the Pisa reading results may increase public concern about high levels of immigration. But although immigrants’ children perform worse than “native” children, they do well above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average for immigrants – particularly if they are second-generation. This suggests British schools are relatively good at assimilating children from other cultures. The findings came as official figures showed that 11 per cent of secondary school children in England, and 14 per cent of primary pupils, spoke English as a second language in January 2008 – a total of more than 800,000.Schools find it expensive to take children who are not fluent English speakers, because they have to hire extra teaching assistants.British 15-year-olds scored an average of 495 in the Pisa 2006 reading test, whose results were published in December by the OECD. This put them firmly into the “average” category. But “native” British children scored 499, according to more detailed OECD analysis. Had immigrants’ children performed as well as this, Britain would have vaulted into the league of “statistically significantly above the OECD average” countries – raising it above Japan and to the same level as Switzerland. But “first-generation students” – born abroad to parents from outside Britain – scored only 455 points, lower than the average overall score of much poorer places such as Hungary and the Slovak Republic. “Second-generation students” – born in the UK to foreign-born parents – scored 492.FT

Lead Story | General

PROVISION FOR THE GIFTED

4/30/2008 8:31:00 AM

Letter; Guardian 29 April

John Crace is unduly pessimistic about provision for gifted children (The tricky issue of talent, April 22). The objective of the government's restructuring programme last year was to move from a position in which a very small number of pupils benefited from summer schools provided as part of the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth at Warwick towards less costly opportunities that could be much more widely available.

Considerable progress has been made. A large number of leading universities are now participating. The summer programme this year will be much more extensive. There is an inevitable trade-off. The provision will mostly be non-residential but the lower-cost and the availability of courses throughout the country will allow many more young people to participate.

Neil McIntosh
CfBT Education Trust, Reading

General | Curriculum / Quality Assurance

SCHOOLS MAY BE JUDGED ON TEENAGE PREGNANCY RATES AND DRUG PROBLEMS

4/30/2008 8:34:00 AM

The Guardian 30 April

Schools will be made to keep records of teenage pregnancy rates, pupils' drug problems, criminal records and obesity levels under government plans to give parents a true picture of children's lives. The ideas, set out in a discussion document from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, suggest schools would become accountable for 18 new targets, from bullying and neglect, to what happens to pupils after they leave school. Sources said the 10-page document, entitled Indicators of schools' performance in contributing to pupil wellbeing, calls for Ofsted inspectors to judge schools on the wide range of measures in addition to existing criteria such as exam results and exclusion rates. The measures could be implemented by Ofsted from 2009, and suggest that schools would become broadly responsible for children's safety, enjoyment and happiness. The move is part of a government attempt to tackle the UK's teenage pregnancy rate, which is one of the highest in Europe, and reduce drug use. A government survey of 115,000 children in England aged between 10 and 15 last year found one in seven had taken drugs. The proposals were discussed last week at a meeting of the New Relationships with Schools group, which includes civil servants, teaching unions, children's services directors, local authority and Ofsted inspectors, governors and headteachers of primary and secondary schools. They call for a study of pupils' experiences, suggesting "parents' and pupils' views will need to be gathered through surveys, probably regular and nationally administered", as there is no existing consistent national school-level data.Guardian

Secondary

PRIVATE SCHOOL DEMAND IS HIGHEST FOR FIVE YEARS DESPITE BIG FEE RISES

4/30/2008 8:39:00 AM

The Times 30 April

Independent schools have had the biggest increase in pupil numbers in five years as parents dig deep to avoid the state system. Although successive above-inflation fee increases have driven the average cost of private education to more than £11,000 a year, the number of children enrolled in schools belonging to the Independent Schools Council (ISC) has risen to a record 511,677. This is despite a fall in the number of English children of school age and in the number of overseas pupils, and fears that the credit crunch could lead to recession. The increase has been driven by a big expansion of provision in the nursery sector, as growing numbers of preparatory schools have decided to accept three-year-olds. Longer working hours, commuting and the rising costs of formal childcare have persuaded more parents to turn to independent schools for a preschool education. Deborah Odysseas-Bailey, chairwoman of the Independent Schools Association and headmistress of Babbington House school in Kent, which has a nursery, said parents were now putting children’s names down for school at birth, if not before. “Parents are buying into independent education at a much earlier age. Once they are in, they wish to remain,” she said. Times

Independent/ Private Sector

MORE NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING PUPILS

MORE TEACHERS, BUT VACANCIES RISE

SIXTH FORMERS PAID £5 TO TEACH LESSONS BECAUSE THEY DO A 'BETTER JOB' THAN SUPPLY STAFF

PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS IN SCHOOLS IMPROVING, FIGURES SHOW

LANGUAGE BARRIER MAKES MORE WORK FOR TEACHERS

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN BRITISH SCHOOLS

MIGRANTS ‘LOWER READING RESULTS’

PROVISION FOR THE GIFTED

SCHOOLS MAY BE JUDGED ON TEENAGE PREGNANCY RATES AND DRUG PROBLEMS

PRIVATE SCHOOL DEMAND IS HIGHEST FOR FIVE YEARS DESPITE BIG FEE RISES

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