ETON HEAD BOYCOTTS EXAM LEAGUE TABLES OVER INACCURATE MARKING

7/18/2008 8:52:00 AM

The Daily Telegraph 18 July

The Head Master of Eton College is boycotting next month's exam league tables because the marking of papers is inaccurate, he said. Tony Little described the tables, which are based on provisional results before the appeals process has been completed, as a "circus of misinformation".Eton, along with St Paul's School in west London and Winchester College, has decided not to submit its A-Level and GCSE results for inclusion in the ratings system."There are two particular reasons why we are not going to publish our provisional results. One is that they are not accurate - they are provisional - so you are not giving accurate information to people," said Mr Little.DT

Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Independent/ Private Sector

UNIVERSITIES CHALLENGED ON THE IB

7/13/2008 11:12:00 AM

Sian Griffiths ; The Sunday Times 13 July

Why are admissions tutors taking such a hard line over the IB

Russell Martin is in an elite group – one of a handful of teenagers worldwide who learnt last week that he had achieved a perfect score in his International Baccalaureate exams. It’s an extraordinary achievement, equivalent to getting at least six grade As at A-level. Only 65 (0.17%) of the 38,200 pupils who sat the exam last year scored the perfect 45 points. This year Martin’s school, the fee-paying Sevenoaks in Kent, had nine pupils who obtained the top score. Four are now heading for Oxford or Cambridge and two are going to Ivy League American universities. “The baccalaureate is a more difficult exam than A-level in that you have to perform well across six subjects – you can’t just specialise in three sciences or three arts subjects as you can at A-level,” says Martin, who switched from his grammar school in Buckinghamshire, to take it. “When my friends were doing A-level revision they were very relaxed, even revising just the night before. With the baccalaureate you don’t have that luxury. The amount you need to know means there is no way you could get away with a couple of days swotting just before the exam.” The IB, which is seen as tougher than A-levels, especially for high-flyers, is growing in popularity in state and private schools. Yet even as more schools adopt it, disquiet is mounting among parents and pupils that top British universities – baffled, perhaps, by the scoring system – are asking baccalaureate students to jump unfairly high hurdles. While the standard offer of a place at Oxford and Cambridge depends on obtaining three grade As at A-level, some IB pupils have been asked to score up to 43 points, equivalent to twice as many A-level A grades. Tommy Gill, 18, a pupil at Sevenoaks, is a case in point. He was astonished when a Cambridge college offered him a place last year – as long as he notched up 43 points in the IB. “I was a bit shocked,” said Gill last week, speaking from Cornwall where he is on holiday. “I was expecting a lower offer, one within the range of 38-42 points which is what the university tends to give. The school wrote to the college but they said they felt justified in making it.” Happily, Gill was one of the Sevenoaks nine who achieved a perfect score and so he will be starting a four-year degree in medieval and modern languages at Christ’s College. Nonetheless, he said, he was worried both by the level of the offer and the reaction of some Cambridge colleges to the IB. “At another college one admissions tutor said he knew all about the IB but then asked me how many higher level subjects I was taking. I didn’t apply there because I felt that anyone who didn’t know the basic structure of the IB – that there are three subjects taken at a higher level and another three at a standard level – was not well informed about the exam.” Kelvin Bowkett, admissions tutor at Christ’s College, defended occasional high IB offers. The official conversion scale, which says 45 IB points is equivalent to at least six A grades at A-level, is “absolute rubbish”, he said. “Normally we would make an offer of around 39 to 40 points. If it were higher there would be a reason for that.” However, parents writing to Chris Woodhead’s column last week raised similar concerns to Gill’s. While asking to remain anonymous, one said that her daughter had just received her IB results – she had scored 35 points, which she believed was “equivalent to 4½ A grades at A-level”. Yet her first-choice university had asked for 38 points. Her mother said: “I do not understand how they can ask IB students for such high marks when A-level candidates can only be asked for three As.” Times

Lead Story | Curriculum / Quality Assurance | FE/HE/ Skills | Independent/ Private Sector

PARENTS STRETCHED BY HIGHER PRIVATE SCHOOL FEES

7/12/2008 12:06:00 PM

FT 12 July

The cost of a private school education has sorely tested parents' ability to pay,leaping to one-third of an average person's earnings, research from Halifax Financial Services suggests.School fees have soared 40 per cent in five years, says Halifax, more than double the general inflation rate.It says average day school fees rose to £10,239 for the past school year - 33 per cent of average gross earnings, compared with only 28 per cent in 2003.Martin Ellis, economist at Halifax Financial Services, said the price increase "has made it increasingly difficult for the average worker in many occupations to afford a private school education for their offspring", based on the rule of thumb that fees had risen above 25 per cent of earnings.However, the Independent Schools Council, whose annual censuses are the source for Halifax's figures on private schools, disputed virtually all Halifax's claims.The ISC said it was "difficult" to arrive at a long-term figure for price rises because of a change in the way its census calculates fees. Average day school fees were lower than Halifax's estimate, it said, at £9,579 a year. Average earnings were also a poor measure of affordability because of other sources of money.

FT

MIDDLE CLASSES PRICED OUT OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Times 12 July

The middle classes can no longer comfortably afford to give their children a private education, with average fees rising twice as fast as the retail price index. School fees increased by 6 per cent last year — 40 per cent over five years — and, with the cost of food, fuel and mortgages all rising rapidly, parents on middle incomes are increasingly likely to overstretch themselves to educate their children. The retail price index rose 18 per cent in five years. Only those in 18 occupations, including doctors, lawyers and accountants, can reasonably afford the fees if they are the sole household earner, according to a survey by Halifax Financial Services. Times

Lead Story | Independent/ Private Sector

CALL TO OPEN UP UK PUBLIC SERVICES

7/11/2008 6:46:00 AM

FT 11 July

There is “a clear case” for the private and voluntary sectors to take a bigger role in providing public services, says DeAnne Julius, the economist.She delivered a review on Thursday to the government on the public services industry. Her report shows that the independent sector is already providing a third of public services – a larger share than previously thought – with the business having doubled in real terms in a decade and now worth almost £80bn a year. “A lot is happening in this market, but things are not happening fast enough,” she said. The review judges the UK to be a world leader in outsourced public services. But Ms Julius, a former chief economist at British Airways, adviser to the World Bank, and a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, noted that in Australia the proportion had already reached 40 per cent.Departments and councils needed to develop pipelines of tendering opportunities with timescales attached and monitored, she said, to signal “a long-term commitment to open up public service markets and maintain effective competition”.The Treasury needed to tackle a series of value added tax and other issues that prevented the public, private and voluntary sectors from competing on equal terms.FT

Lead Story | General | Independent/ Private Sector

SCHOOLS EYE DOWNTURN AS FEES RISE

7/5/2008 9:07:00 AM

FT 5 July

A handful of England’s top private schools have responded to the credit crunch by bucking the trend and reining in this September’s fee increases.The 20 highest performing schools have raised fees by an inflation-busting average of 6.3 per cent, according to research by the Good Schools Guide for the Financial Times. The survey measured fees for pupils joining the school at sixth form – a common entry point for parents wanting their children to gain stellar A-levels.But City of London School for boys, which lies inside the Square Mile and educates many bankers’ children, will increase charges by only 2 per cent – the lowest rise in the survey. David Levin, headmaster, said: “Parents are worried. In my view slightly harder economic times are just beginning to show.” He added that in the past week four people had asked to pay monthly rather than a full term in advance, and three had asked for “help” with costs.Vicky Tuck, principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which has raised charges by a below-average 4 per cent, said: “This year we were mindful of the credit crunch.” Consequently, “we have had to trim various things to keep fee increases at that level”, such as building work.Some of the schools that have delivered hefty increases might have raised fees even more, were it not for the economic downturn. Patricia Kelleher, head of Cambridge’s Perse School for Girls, said the school would this year use a financial “cushion” deliberately built up over the years to limit future fee increases in hard economic times. Despite this, Perse Girls is still raising fees by 8 per cent – one of the highest percentages in the survey.FT

Independent/ Private Sector

A PARENT’S LESSON ON PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDY LEAVE

7/4/2008 7:16:00 AM

Jane Owen; FT 4 July

The final round of emotional public school balls and dinners to wave off 18-year-olds and their parents is now taking place. It is a tearful moment for many, particularly those of us who have paid a full term’s fees for a term substantially reduced by “study leave”.

Study leave is the increasingly popular public school habit of letting, or in some cases encouraging, pupils to go home to revise for public exams. Barely had my trembling hand signed the cheque for nearly £9,000 for Offspring Number One’s final term than the study leave question arose.

The theory is that pupils apply themselves to their books at home with the same discipline as they do at school. Given the myriad distractions at home, the chances of ONO being able to revise thoroughly were roughly equal to Alistair Darling’s chance of reversing the credit crunch, and so I canvassed the school to keep ONO. This was met with stout resistance from the school and ONO – and a hint of outrage from both that I should be so unfair as to want ONO to stay.

While I have the greatest respect for the academic rigour, standards and energy of ONO’s outstanding boarding school, I take exception to a system that does not insist on a child being at school at this crucial final stage. Nor does it keep pupils at school after the exams until the end of term to enjoy sport, music, drama and all the other extra-curricular activities that take second place during exams.

Apart from anything else, this time is needed so that parents can continue to labour for the school fees.

FT

Independent/ Private Sector

COMPANIES BACK TEACHING DRIVE

7/3/2008 8:36:00 AM

FT 3 July

A raft of blue-chip companies is taking part in a government-backed scheme to help employees switch to a second career in teaching.Larry Hirst, chairman of IBM Europe, which was involved in developing the Transition to Teaching scheme and is one of the 48 companies and government agencies participating in it, denied it was a way of shunting mediocre performers into another profession. He said IBM employees joining it must show "solid performance in their annual appraisals in the past three years".The company will give a quarter of the salary it had been paying before to anyone moving to teaching, during their teacher training.All participating organisations must pledge to promote the scheme to their staff, but do not need to give them financial aid.The scheme's backers include Pearson, which owns the Financial Times.FT

Independent/ Private Sector

WITHOUT PASSION, TEACHING MISSES THE POINT

7/2/2008 8:23:00 AM

Bernice McCabe; Daily Telegraph 2 July

"Subject teaching allows you to expand on any ideas you may have; teaching by themes is probably quite limiting and doesn't allow for a creative thought pattern in the way any subject-based teaching would."The speaker was a sixth former, one of four from large comprehensive schools who were addressing delegates at the opening session of the 2008 Education Summer School, run in Cambridge by the Prince's Teaching Institute."Teaching by themes" is a teaching style in which subjects are grouped together, so that, for example, pupils learn about geography, science, English and history through studying a topic such as the local environment. DT

General | Independent/ Private Sector

TOP PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHUN 'TOO COMPLEX' DIPLOMA PROGRAMME

6/30/2008 7:41:00 AM

The Guardian 30 June

Leading private schools are refusing to adopt the government's new diploma qualification because it is too complex, confidential reports seen by the Guardian reveal. The independent schools' decision to opt out comes despite a number of incentives offered by ministers, and may damage state-educated pupils' chances of getting into the best universities. A separate report by academics at London University's Institute of Education warns today that the diploma risks worsening the divide between vocational and academic education, as private schools increasingly opt for a new range of academically elite qualifications, including the international baccalaureates and the Cambridge University Pre-U. Qualifications such as the Pre-U are designed to prepare students for the top universities, many of which have yet to endorse the diploma. The Department for Children, Schools and Families last month held a private seminar for independent schools that had expressed an interest in the diploma. The reports of that seminar reveal the efforts that the department has made to lure private schools into the diploma programme. They include private schools being offered a special "associate" or "observer" status, to join one of the consortiums of state schools and colleges which will deliver the full range of diplomas, as well as offers of state funding for training teachers. The report says that it is important for the "credibility and reputation" of the new diplomas that they are offered by private schools. However, a second report on the reaction of delegates from private schools - which are understood to include Wellington College and Brighton College - said they had identified "obstacles and difficulties" to joining, which included the question of funding for the scheme.Guardian

Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Independent/ Private Sector

PRIVATE SCHOOL ENLISTS POET TO MIX RHYME AND REASON IN CLASS

6/30/2008 7:10:00 AM

FT 28 June

The vogue at private schools for lessons that feed the heart as well as the head has scaled new heights, with the appointment of a "poet in residence" at one of the highest-performing schools. Colette Bryce, an award-winning Irish poet, this week completed a two-week stint at St Paul's Girls' School in London, helping pupils with their literary creations and giving some readings of her own.Pundits draw comparisons with "happiness lessons" announced by Wellington College in 2006 and Brighton College's recent decision to teach etiquette. But the Good Schools Guide has unearthed a wealth of other intriguing examples of what it calls "lifestyle" lessons. Susan Hamlyn, editor, said: "The schools are all working to the same end - to show parents they can turn out happier and more civilised human beings."St James Senior Girls School teaches the art of hospitality, at its London premises and on stays at Nanpantan Hall, a rented country house. Pupils learn a staggering range of arts, including cooking, interior design, Zen calligraphy, flower-arranging and conversation. Laura Hyde, headmistress, said: "Its main function is to give the girls good social skills and the ability to entertain efficiently and beautifully."FT

Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Independent/ Private Sector

ETON HEAD BOYCOTTS EXAM LEAGUE TABLES OVER INACCURATE MARKING

UNIVERSITIES CHALLENGED ON THE IB

PARENTS STRETCHED BY HIGHER PRIVATE SCHOOL FEES

CALL TO OPEN UP UK PUBLIC SERVICES

SCHOOLS EYE DOWNTURN AS FEES RISE

A PARENT’S LESSON ON PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDY LEAVE

COMPANIES BACK TEACHING DRIVE

WITHOUT PASSION, TEACHING MISSES THE POINT

TOP PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHUN 'TOO COMPLEX' DIPLOMA PROGRAMME

PRIVATE SCHOOL ENLISTS POET TO MIX RHYME AND REASON IN CLASS

Click on the links below for the latest, in-depth education news review and commentary.

Sign in / Register

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
30	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
30	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
30	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10