MINISTER SEEKS MORE HELP FOR DYSLEXIC PUPILS

5/7/2008 7:17:00 AM

The Guardian 7 May

The government has ordered a review of how schools should educate the country's estimated 300,000 dyslexic children, after admitting that many are being left to flounder without tailored teaching. The schools secretary, Ed Balls, said he wanted to disprove sceptics who questioned the existence of dyslexia, but too many parents were not getting the help their children needed to learn to read and write. The review will be led by Sir Jim Rose, who is also undertaking a separate review of the primary curriculum. It will address calls for a national screening programme to ensure that children with reading and writing problems do not slip through the net, Balls said. Parents and dyslexia groups have been campaigning for such a screening programme. Separately today, a coalition of think tanks will back the idea in an in-depth analysis of provision for children with special education needs. The report, by CentreForum and the Policy Exchange, will argue that as well as screening, parents should be given individual budgets to spend on private tutors and the system of recording children's learning problems should be overhauled. Only 5% of local authorities are fulfilling a legal duty to provide clear and transparent information to parents on services, the report finds.Guardian

General

MORE THAN 40,000 PUPILS ARE PLAYING TRUANT ON AT LEAST TWO DAYS A WEEK

5/7/2008 6:45:00 AM

The Times 7 May

A hard core of more than 40,000 children are missing at least two days of school every week, with a further 300,000 children at risk of falling into similar levels of truancy, figures show. The latest government data indicate a rising number of pupils playing truant and being allowed to skip school, with a persistent band of 44,000 truants attending school for fewer than three days a week. The figures, for the autumn term last year, show another 300,000 missed more than 14 days – equal to one day a week. That was 16,000 more than the previous year. Teachers’ leaders blamed the trend on “deep-rooted social problems” which schools could not tackle on their own. Political opponents used the figures to claim that the Government’s tactic of fining the parents of truants was failing to address the problem. Overall, pupils missed an average of almost four days of school in the autumn term last year, compared with 3.74 over the same period in 2006. Authorised absence rose from 5.04 days to 5.32 over the same period.Times

Lead Story | General

THOSE WHO CAN . . .

5/7/2008 6:47:00 AM

Letter; The Times 7 May

The real meaning of teaching

Sir, The Institute of Public Policy Research raises once more the question of what is a good teacher (May 5). Education was once described as a conversation between the wise adult who wishes to mediate society’s culture and knowledge and the young who need to increase their understanding of the world. Schooling is but one part of this process. However, it can defeat its own highest objectives if, as has been the case for some time, the curriculum is overloaded, schools subjected to endless targets and Ofsted inspectors forced to adopt narrow criteria. Outstanding teachers have always understood that the conversation between teacher and pupil, like all conversations, requires the flexibility of indirection and the recognition of a shared pursuit. That is why fine teaching is an art: it has techniques that need to be grasped and practised and, importantly, it has periods of aridity that only a fool would describe as failure. The conditions for such necessary edifying contact between pupil and teacher are not sustained easily. There are also many types of good teacher and it is the pupils, not always the schools, who know who they are. They usually share one characteristic — independence of mind. It is a quality they have to preserve in the teeth of most educational reform.

Simon McCarthy
London E5

General

NEW APPROACH IN LANGUAGE LESSONS HELPS PUPILS PROGRESS MORE QUICKLY

5/7/2008 7:57:00 AM

The Independent 7 May

A pioneering project that is helping thousands of primary pupils to learn a foreign language shows they are progressing at about twice the rate of children using traditional textbooks. A study of 1,000 pupils learning French through lessons delivered via a CD-Rom revealed significantly higher achievement during the course of a term. The results – to be published today – show their performance went up – on average – by between 0.5 and 0.8 of a level more than those using textbooks. A pupil is normally expected to take a year to progress by one level. The study, by researchers at Durham University, is the first to indicate such a massive difference in performance between pupils learning through new computer technology and those still studying through traditional teaching methods. It has major implications for helping the Government to deliver its new requirement that every child should be learning a foreign language at the age of seven by the end of the decade.The biggest fear among teachers' leaders was that there was likely to be a shortage of trained language teachers in primary schools to deliver the pledge. But under the project – devised by Monkseaton High School in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, the first school to opt for "trust" status in the country, and which is in partnership with the Open University and Microsoft – teachers can start learning the language alongside their pupils if there is no one trained to deliver.Independent

Curriculum / Quality Assurance

FEWER THAN 10PC PLAYING CRICKET AT STATE SCHOOL

5/7/2008 7:05:00 AM

Daily Telegraph 7 May

Cricket is dying out in state schools because of the growing demands of the national curriculum, it has been claimed. Many schools do not have proper facilities or expert tuition in cricket. Fewer than one in 10 pupils plays cricket, adding to fears over the future of the game in England. Despite a wave of enthusiasm for cricket following England's Ashes victory in 2005, most schools still do not have proper facilities or expert tuition in the sport. The conclusions are drawn from a YouGov survey commissioned by the Cricket Foundation charity.

DT

THE MOMENT CRICKET WIDENED MY BOUNDARIES

Michael Simkins; Daily Telegraph 7 May

It was the legendary jazz player Eddie Condon who, when asked to describe the unique sound of the trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, replied, "It's like a girl saying 'yes' ".While his may not be the most politically correct description, it's certainly one of the more poetic. And while I wouldn't presume to comment on jazz, I reckon if Condon had been a cricket commentator instead of a guitarist he'd have given John Arlott a run for his money. Although I went to a state school, it was one that had both the facilities and enthusiasm to promote cricket. The pitches may not have been picturesque, but they were true and reliable: you could go out to bat without the fear of having your teeth knocked down your throat, and there was the added pleasure in seeing your boundary hits sailing over the fence and denting the hub-caps of passing cars.And when fielding, you could safely dive for the ball without colliding with shards of broken glass. Cricket taught me self-reliance, collective responsibility and how to get on in a crowd. And when I scored my first 50 and was hoisted onto the shoulders of my team mates, it was another Condor moment. Even if my mates risked a collective hernia for their efforts.But here's the rub: as The Cricket Foundation, a charity attempting to arrest the decline in competitive school cricket, reveals in The Daily Telegraph today, fewer than one in 10 parents say their state-educated child receives cricket coaching or is part of a school team.Cricket costs money. You need decent squares, practice nets, bats, pads and balls, and someone around with expertise in the mysteries of tending the pitch both in summer and winter. Such things don't come cheap.Faced with such expenditure, how much easier for schools to admit defeat, turn the squares into football pitches and spend the savings on more computer terminals.Michael Simkins is the author of 'Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (Then Ruined It)'DT