PRESSURE OF WORK FORCED 1,000 HEADTEACHERS TO QUIT LAST YEAR

5/3/2008 8:52:00 AM

The Independent 3 May

More than a thousand headteachers quit their jobs early last year because of the pressure they were under, according to figures released yesterday. Senior officials of the National Association of Head Teachers said their members were treated like football managers, with school governors demanding "results, results, results".The figures, released on the eve of the NAHT's annual conference in Liverpool today, also show that state school heads on average retire at 57 – two years earlier than their private school counterparts.Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said: "Clearly, this whole business of hyper-accountability is missing from the private sector." John Hakes, regional NAHT official for the Central Midlands, added: "The headteacher is the football manager of today. It's all results, results, results and pressure from the local authority."Independent

General

COUNCIL COMMISSIONS VIRTUAL SCHOOL

5/3/2008 8:53:00 AM

Daily Telegraph 3 May

Education officials in Manchester have spent £5,000 on a school that does not exist. They have bought a virtual plot of land in Second Life, the online "world", and are paying designers to "build" the school. They hope children will log on to visit it and give their thoughts on how real-life schools should look.Critics, however, have accused the council of wasting money on "trying to look cool". They said it would have been better spent on improving exam results and truancy rates, on which Manchester ranks among the worst in the country. The city council is believed to be the first in the country to pay for a presence in Second Life, which is used by 13 million people. The game allows users to convert real cash into a virtual currency, which they can spend on land, buildings, activities and goods. DT

General

DIPLOMAS; CHECKS PUT DIPLOMAS AT RISK SAY TEACHERS

5/3/2008 7:48:00 AM

CHECKS PUT DIPLOMAS AT RISK SAY TEACHERS

The Guardian 3 May

Tens of thousands of teenagers studying for the government's new diploma qualification could be prevented from completing their courses because of bureaucratic safety checks. A distinctive feature of the diplomas is their emphasis on work experience. The Criminal Records Bureau has to check employers do not pose a risk to students in the workplace. But teaching leaders will say today that these checks are so expensive and bureaucratic that employers are being deterred from taking students. Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, will say the diplomas will not work if the checks were "burdensome" on employers. He will tell his union's annual conference in Liverpool, Brookes: "It is extremely serious that employers, in particular small employers, have to go through Criminal Records Bureau checks that are lengthy, costly and take a long time to process." Clarissa Williams, the union's president-elect, will say teachers also have to check the bureau has cleared their pupils aged 16 and over who wanted to do work experience with children and babies. "It adds to an ethos of distrust and is another hurdle to be met." The concerns come after the head of an exam board warned in a Guardian interview last month that students embarking on pilots of the diplomas in September could be left with "worthless" qualifications unless flaws in the courses were ironed out. Jerry Jarvis, managing director of Edexcel, said a series of problems needed to be addressed, including teachers not having adequate training. Up to 40,000 teenagers in England will study the first diplomas - in subjects such as construction, engineering, health, IT and media - from September.

Guardian

HEADS DEMAND ANSWERS ON DIPLOMAS

BBC 2 May

Heads are worried about the practicalities of the DiplomaHead teachers are warning of "doubts and uncertainties" that could undermine this year's introduction of the Diploma qualification in England. The National Association of Head Teachers supports the Diploma in principle, but has a list of questions over how it is to be introduced. These include funding, transport, child safety checks on workplace training staff and fears over computer systems. The Diplomas will be academic and vocational exams for secondary school. The NAHT heads' union is calling for much more "clarity" from ministers over the new secondary school qualification. The first wave of Diplomas are to be taught in schools from this September - and they have been put forward as possible alternatives to GCSEs and A-levels, studied from the age of 14 through to leaving school or college.

BBC

TEACHERS NEED MORE CONTROL FOR DIPLOMAS TO WORK, SAYS REVIEW

The Guardian 2 May

Diplomas will only succeed if teachers play a key role in developing the curriculum, rather than be given a set of prescriptions, the Nuffield Review of 14-19 education and training warned today. The latest research paper on the national curriculum argues that the curriculum is too prescriptive and teachers should have more say in how it is developed. Prof Richard Pring, from Oxford University's department of education, who wrote the paper, says the curriculum is too tightly controlled by central government. "We have got return to a tradition in which teachers are much more actively involved in creating and thinking about the curriculum rather than - that awful word - 'delivering' a curriculum created elsewhere," he said. If teachers cannot be responsible to pupils' needs, they will risk alienating them from education, he added. Pring said: "For diplomas to work, there's got to be flexibility within them so teachers can think through the learning programmes and be responsive to the particular needs of their young people. "For the 14-19 changes to work, there must be a transformation of teachers from 'curriculum deliverers' of someone else's curriculum, to 'curriculum creators'." The review suggests that the government's current overhaul of 14-19 education, with the introduction of diplomas from September and greater emphasis on work-based learning, provides an excellent opportunity to rethink the national curriculum.Guardian

Lead Story | Curriculum / Quality Assurance

TECHNOLOGY FOR TODDLERS’ SCHEME RISKS CREATING A SCREEN-ADDICT GENERATION

5/3/2008 8:54:00 AM

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The Times 3 May

Targets for “toddler technology” skills laid down by the Government, which will require children to master basic computer skills by the age of 4 and understand how to use a television remote control, pose serious risks to child development, experts have said. Aric Sigman, a psychologist and author of Remotely Controlled, said that the Government’s new early years curriculum, which requires underfives to be taught on computers, risked creating a generation of screen addicts. Exposure to screen technology during key stages of child development may have counter-productive effects on cognitive processes and learning, particularly language development and competency in reading and maths, Dr Sigman said. “Legally requiring the introduction of screen technology to 20 to 60-month-old children is likely to lead to even higher levels of daily screen viewing. Early introduction to ICT [information and communications technology] is likely to lead to a greater lifetime dependency on screens,” he said. The Government’s new early years curriculum, known as the EFYS (Early Years Foundation Stage), will become statutory in all nurseries and childcare settings in England from September. It sets out specific computer-related tasks for underfives. Times

Foundation

PREP SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR WAVE OF MERGERS

5/3/2008 7:52:00 AM

FT 3 May

A "how to" guide to prep school mergers is being drawn up by the sector amid a wave of consolidation prompted by financial pressures and parents' demands for better facilities.The initiative by Britain's main association for private junior schools is intended to create larger institutions with the "scale" to provide a broader curriculum and more facilities.The M&A "toolkit" has been championed by David Hanson, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, who suggested some members were too small to invest in improvements.The merger guide will complement a forthcoming "field force" of "very recently retired heads", who will advise member schools on M&A and other issues, Mr Hanson said.Britain's fragmented prep sector, which stretches from tiny schools set up in country houses to large academic powerhouses such as Oxford's Dragon School, is close to merger mania, according to some analysts.No figures exist for the number of prep mergers but Jean Hall of Ratcliffe Hall, the education consultancy, said: "Prep school mergers are occurring on a weekly basis, it seems." Experts say that even successful prep schools can run into trouble by making just one bad financial decision, because many are so small and have few financial reserves.FT

NEWCASTLE GAINS COMBINATION WITH A LOT MORE MUSCLE

FT 3 May

Newcastle School for Boys claims to be both bigger and better after rising from the ashes of two old prep schools: it has started winning rugby matches, teaches Spanish and has a new senior school.But Paul Mankin, chair of the governing board, offers advice learned the hard way: "You need to be sure both schools have an equally strong reason" for merger, because otherwise "the processes and personalities can end up derailing the thing".The September 2005 merger of Ascham House and Newlands School was tough, long and costly, despite a dream team of talent among governors. Mr Mankin is director of corporate finance at PwC in Newcastle - dealing with mergers in his day job as well as in his then role as chair of Ascham's governors. The combined boards also included lawyers and a PR and marketing professional who could work on selling the idea to parents. Ascham approached Newlands in 2004 about forming a day school that now has 400 boys. Newlands "had to find a solution to its reduction in numbers".Although Ascham's figures were "quite robust", it worried its top two years, which ended at 13, could be "squeezed" by the national trend among private senior schools to start at 11 rather than 13.Merger enabled it to respond, by co-creating a prep school on one of the two sites of the new institution, and co-building a senior school, that starts at 10 and will eventually teach up to 18, on the new spare site.FT

Independent/ Private Sector

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PRESSURE OF WORK FORCED 1,000 HEADTEACHERS TO QUIT LAST YEAR

COUNCIL COMMISSIONS VIRTUAL SCHOOL

DIPLOMAS; CHECKS PUT DIPLOMAS AT RISK SAY TEACHERS

TECHNOLOGY FOR TODDLERS’ SCHEME RISKS CREATING A SCREEN-ADDICT GENERATION

PREP SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR WAVE OF MERGERS

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