MATHS TEACHER GAP 'TO WORSEN'

5/8/2008 6:32:00 AM

BBC 7 May

The shortage of qualified maths teachers in England and Wales is to worsen, a survey suggests. Analysis of advertised teacher vacancies and numbers of trained teachers suggests there will be a shortfall in the next academic year. Professor John Howson says the overall picture is one of a north-south divide, with the south struggling the most. The Training and Development Agency for Schools says overall, the proportion of trainee teachers accepted is on target. Professor Howson, from Education Data Surveys, said only about 2,000 maths teachers were likely to be trained this year, with even fewer next year. But secondary schools across England and Wales have advertised 1,650 vacancies for maths teachers already this year. This represented about 75% of the likely total number of maths trainees qualifying this yearBBC.

General

ONLINE REPORTS 'SHOULD REPLACE PARENTS' EVENING'

5/8/2008 8:26:00 AM

Daily Telegraph 8 May

Schools should post children’s progress reports online to help overcome a decline in the popularity of the traditional parents’ evening, the Schools Secretary has said. Ed Balls claimed most parents now prefer to have informal discussions with teachers in the playground or check online for their child’s results and record of attendance. Mr Balls insisted that the evening meetings, where reports are given out, would continue, but said schools should also keep parents updated more regularly and in more innovative ways. He said: “We’re not saying that parents’ evenings are a bad thing. But parents want information in a way which is accessible to them in addition to the standard termly parents’ evening. Because of the internet and mobile phones people think if they can get updated on football scores, why can’t they get information like that from their schools. “Parents tell us they like having informal contact with their child’s school, whether that’s a chat in the playground or the chance to go online and see their teenager’s latest marks and make sure they are going to all their classes.” He added: “It is in everyone’s interests for parents to be in the know when things start going wrong rather than being given a bad report card out of the blue at a termly parents’ evening.” DT

General

LET PUPILS INTERVIEW TEACHERS, SAY GUIDELINES

5/8/2008 8:25:00 AM

DT 8 May

Schoolchildren should be able to question teachers applying for jobs, according to new official guidance. The pupils could question candidates, help write job descriptions and provide feedback to head teachers and governors. They could also observe teachers in the classroom and report on their performance to senior staff, it was suggested. Ministers said giving young people a "voice" over the running of the school made pupils more positive about education. But the move has been condemned by teachers who said it "undermines their professionalism". Chris Keates, the general secretary of the union NASUWT, said: "It is completely unacceptable. It is a failure to recognise the balance of responsibilities in the relationship between pupils and their teachers. "We support the idea of the student voice but these recommendations are a complete distortion of that concept." The document, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF], said pupils "value the opportunity" to contribute to the appointment of staff in schools and local authorities. It did not recommend age groups, although a spokesman for the DCSF said it should be focused at secondary schools. Jim Knight, the schools minister, said: "Giving young people a voice in decisions that affect them has a positive impact on the school environment and the local community." DT

General

SCHOOLS CAN'T COPE WITH ALL THESE LANGUAGES

5/8/2008 8:29:00 AM

Steve McCormack; The Independent 8 May

A strange thing happened to me recently when I did a day of supply teaching at a central London comprehensive. I found myself, for four of the six lessons of the day, teaching Bengali. I've had some strange tasks thrown at me as a supply teacher over the years: an all-girls' PE lesson and improvised drama in a windowless studio. But never have I been taken so far outside my comfort zone as with the Bengali classes.Fortunately, the teacher I was replacing had left worksheets for me to hand out, and clear instructions on what each class should be getting on with. So I wasn't expected, of course, to actually do any teaching of Bengali myself, but simply to supervise classes as they worked on improving their written skills in a language that most, to a greater or lesser extent, were comfortable with in the spoken form. And the lessons passed uneventfully. It just so happened that, on the same day, in a science lesson I was covering, I was confronted with another linguistic challenge. A girl at the front was giving me worryingly blank looks as I asked her questions about what she was doing. "She doesn't speak any English," I was told by her neighbour, herself addressing me in semi-broken, but nevertheless, English. Independent

Curriculum / Quality Assurance

PUPILS LEARN FASTER WITH COMPUTERS

5/8/2008 8:27:00 AM

Daily Telegraph 8 May

Children learn languages faster by using computer programmes rather than traditional textbooks, researchers have reported. Pupils who took part in an experiment at a school in Tyne and Wear improved by up to 80 per cent faster when they used a CD-Rom compared to those who relied on old-fashioned methods. Researchers at Durham University analysed data from 1,000 pupils at Monkseaton High School in Whitley Bay, who were split into two groups to complete the French section of a new languages course. Paul Kelly, the head teacher, said: "The pupils who used computers improved by between 0.5 and 0.8 of a level more than those who used books. DT

Curriculum / Quality Assurance

SAUDI PRINCE GIVES UNIVERSITIES £16M FOR STUDY OF ISLAM

5/8/2008 8:31:00 AM

The Independent 8 May

Two of the country's best known universities are to set up research centres aimed at promoting a better understanding of Islam.Cambridge and Edinburgh universities will share a £16m endowment from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family and chairman of the Kingdom Foundation – a charitable and philanthropic foundation set up to alleviate suffering around the world.Both universities, members of the 20-strong Russell Group, which represents the leading research institutions, will set up study centres with the aim of fostering better understanding between the Muslim world and the West.In Cambridge, the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies will seek to develop a "constructive and critical awareness of the role of Islam in wider society". There will be research programmes on Islam in the UK and Europe and the portrayal of Islam in the media. Public lectures, conferences and summer schools will be organised to promote better understanding, with policy makers from both worlds invited to become visiting fellows at the centre.Independent

FE/HE/ Skills

COLLEGE CONCERN OVER TRAIN TO GAIN CASH

5/8/2008 8:33:00 AM

The Guardian 8 May

Train to Gain (T2G), the government's flagship programme for boosting the national workforce's skills, risks stalling for want of funding, ministers have been warned. The vast majority of training companies involved in the scheme are making a loss from it, according to a survey by the Association of Learning Providers (ALP). By contrast, employers and employees are happy with T2G, says the latest survey by the Learning and Skills Council. Four-fifths of employers report they are satisfied with the advice and training their staffs receive. The government expects T2G to have trained half a million employees to a first level 2 qualification (the equivalent of five good GCSEs) by 2010. But the ALP is warning that there is as yet insufficient demand from employers or employees to achieve this. According to the LSC's own internal calculations the programme will not hit its targets for this year, its second in operation. One estimate is that it will underspend about 25% of its budget - perhaps £180m. T2G contracts are underfunded by an average of 20%, the lifelong learning minister Bill Rammell was told when he addressed ALP's annual conference today. He acknowledged the concern and said he had asked the Learning and Skills Council to report back to him later this summer. But he warned there was "no magic solution".Guardian

FE/HE/ Skills

LEADING ARTICLE: PAY THE LECTURERS

5/8/2008 8:32:00 AM

The Independent 8 May

The news that the University and College Union has rejected the 2.5 per cent offer made to further education college lecturers by their employers – coupled with the threat of further strike action along the lines of that pursued in conjunction with teachers last month – is regrettable.College lecturers are in the forefront of delivering the Government's new diplomas from September, so any interruption in preparations is unwelcome. One possible solution would be to recognise the extra effort being demanded of them and come up with a one-off payment to smooth their palms.Independent

FE/HE/ Skills

ROW OVER 'PAID FOR' SCHOOLING

5/8/2008 6:31:00 AM

BBC 7 May

A champion of independent schooling has condemned the way the shortcomings of the state system make parents pay twice to send their children to school.Chris Parry, of the Independent Schools Council, had a heated exchange with MPs on the schools select committee. He said hundreds of thousands of families made sacrifices to send their children into the "paid for" sector. Committee chair Barry Sheerman said that was "offensive", when state school parents also paid through their taxes. Mr Parry replied: "I find it very offensive that I can't find provision in the maintained sector for my child. I pay my taxes." He said: "Where I come from the maintained sector is very poor and my wife and I have made sacrifices to send both our children to the independent sector. "There are hundreds and thousands of families like mine who have chosen to make that commitment both to their child's future and to the future of this country - and at significant expense, I might add." The committee is taking evidence as part of its inquiry, Diversity of school provision: links between independent and maintained schools. The independent sector educates about 7% of England's schoolchildren. BBC

Independent/ Private Sector

STATE EDUCATION SO POOR IT'S OFFENSIVE, SAYS SCHOOLS CHIEF

5/8/2008 7:17:00 AM

Daily Telegraph 8 May

The head of Britain's biggest independent schools' organisation has launched an extraordinary attack on the "very poor" quality of state education. Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said standards were "offensive" to parents who pay their taxes and forced hundreds of thousands to go private. Speaking a week after taking up his post, Mr Parry also criticised the ideological opposition to fee-paying schools that was perpetuated by teachers in the state system. He said a "Cold War" mentality prevented the two sectors working together to boost standards for all children. His comments, in evidence to the Commons schools select committee, come amid concerns over new rules that may force independent schools to offer more free places to pupils from poor backgrounds. In an angry exchange yesterday, Mr Parry clashed with Barry Sheerman, the committee chairman. Mr Sheerman attacked his description of private education as "paid for" schooling, insisting that the parents of state school pupils paid through their taxes. But Mr Parry said: "I find it very offensive that I can't find provision in the maintained sector for my child... Where I come from the maintained sector is very poor and my wife and I have made sacrifices to send both our children to the independent sector. "There are thousands of families like mine who have chosen to make that commitment both to their child's future and to the future of this country – and at significant expense, I might add." In recent years, ministers have actively courted the private sector, encouraging it to sponsor the new generation of semi-independent academy schools. But there has been anger over new rules that make private schools justify their "public benefit" in order to retain tax breaks collectively worth £100 million a year. The ISC, which represents schools responsible for 80 per cent of pupils in the private sector, claimed that the recent draft guidance from the Charity Commission was illegal and could cause some small fee-paying schools to go bust. Mr Parry strongly criticised the requirement, effectively accusing ministers of penalising fee-paying schools. "It looks like a missile aimed from the maintained sector into the independent sector," he said. DT

Lead Story | Independent/ Private Sector

MATHS TEACHER GAP 'TO WORSEN'

ONLINE REPORTS 'SHOULD REPLACE PARENTS' EVENING'

LET PUPILS INTERVIEW TEACHERS, SAY GUIDELINES

SCHOOLS CAN'T COPE WITH ALL THESE LANGUAGES

PUPILS LEARN FASTER WITH COMPUTERS

SAUDI PRINCE GIVES UNIVERSITIES £16M FOR STUDY OF ISLAM

COLLEGE CONCERN OVER TRAIN TO GAIN CASH

LEADING ARTICLE: PAY THE LECTURERS

ROW OVER 'PAID FOR' SCHOOLING

STATE EDUCATION SO POOR IT'S OFFENSIVE, SAYS SCHOOLS CHIEF

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