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Following a successful ballot of both unions’ leadership members, the NUT and NAHT executives have decided that the boycott of this year's SATs will go ahead.   Clear majorities in both unions voted to support action.   The ballots focussed on leadership members because of the immediate impact on the terms and conditions of those members.   This is categorically not strike action. Schools will be open and children will be taught.   Members taking industrial action will not administer the 2010 SATs.   SATs are scheduled to take place in schools from 10 – 13 May.   SATs in their current form disrupt the learning process for children in Year 6, and are misused to compile meaningless league tables which only serve to humiliate and demean children, their teachers and their communities.   The NUT and NAHT are supportive of a system of assessment that highlights what children can do rather than focussing on failure.   Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, said:   "I am very pleased that we have reached this decision. Not only are we boycotting SATs but we are saying to schools that this is finally the opportunity to do the exciting things you always really wanted to be doing in the classroom. We can make sure SATs week is a really brilliant week, a creative week, which is what we would want every single week of the year to be".   Mick Brookes, General Secretary of the NAHT, said:   "The Government missed the opportunity to reform the assessment for pupils in Key Stage 2 when they abolished the same tests in Key Stage 3 in 2008. We cannot continue to have our colleagues and their school communities in the Primary sector disparaged on the basis of a flawed testing regime. We guarantee that children in Year 6 will leave with accurate information about their achievements that will be both broad and positive.   "We are determined, for all the right reasons, to see positive change. This protest is a significant mark of that determination."

Tags: SAT, Teachersm Boycott, NUT, National, Union, Ass...
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Schools were today ordered to crack down on parents of unruly pupils with the threat of £1,000 fines if they fail to ensure their children behave.   Parents will be forced to sign annual contracts agreeing to give teachers the power to use force to discipline their children under the government drive.   If parents refuse to comply with the rules they will face prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000. Ministers called on more head teachers to use powers to threaten parents with court in order to improve children's behaviour.   Schools minister Vernon Coaker said: "For heads to have the power to take court action against parents whose children continue to behave badly, disrupt lessons and impact on other pupils is a vital step in the right direction.   "I want to see more schools using parenting orders when home school agreements fail - it is time for parents to be held accountable for their child's behaviour."   The Government's school behaviour tsar, former Ilford head teacher Sir Alan Steer, set out details of how the contracts, known as "home-school agreements," should work.   Parents will be required to sign a contract before accepting a school place. Each year when school reports are sent home, parents will have to agree to a new contract that details how their child has been behaving and what they must do to improve. Head teachers can then force parents to attend counselling or parenting classes if they have breached their contract. If this order is broken parents face prosecution and a fine of £1,000.   The plans were published at the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in Manchester. Children's Secretary Ed Balls also said the best schools will be told to work with those where children are too unruly to improve behaviour.   In London, pilot schemes are under way in which children are taken out of mainstream classes and sent to special units before their behaviour becomes so bad they are expelled. The idea is to nip problems in the bud so pupils can later return to mainstream classes.

Tags: Pupils, Fine, Parents, Unruly, School
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Lord Patten, chancellor of Oxford, has voiced his opinion over tuition fees this week, claiming that the current tuition fee cap should be lifted. Universities, he says, should be allowed to charge what they like, arguing that top universities were charging the same amount as polytechnics which negates the status of a better quality university.   His speech went further to say that British universities could charge as much as £20,000 for some courses, mimicking some of the standards of top universities in the united states. This would also seek to reduce competition for top universities as those who could not afford it (now the government no longer pays for tuition fees) at a disadvantage. Patten counters this by suggesting the extra money the top universities make could be used to give poorer students bursaries, but that would only work if enough rich students were taken into the university to allow for enough of a surplus to accomodate poorer students without leaving the university in the same financial position as the current system. This means the majority of places will have to go to rich students regardless of their academic achievements in order for this hypothetical scheme to be successful.   The reason why top universities profess the sort of qualities that they do however is due to this same competition, which requires a much stricter selection process. What Lord Patten doesn't realise is his idea, if implemented, would lower the standards of Britain's top universities as competition to get into them would be severely reduced. This means that geniuses from lower incomes would go to lower quality universities which will raise these universities' quality and not so smart people with enough money would have the means and less competition to enter top quality universities, dragging down their 'top' reputation. These top universities would be better funded, that is true but having strict selection procedures to get only the best minds in top universities is by far the defining factor that gives a university its success rate.   Equality in fees breeds competition which in turn leads to differences in quality. Inequality in fees will lead to a lack of competition which would serve to lower the gap in quality on both ends of the league table.

Tags: Lord, Patton, University, Tuition, Fees, Cap
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Every secondary school in Scotland is soon to receive a powerful anti-homophobia DVD, which is being premiered in the country today.   It's called FIT and will be distributed by Stonewall Scotland throughout the rest of March. It's billed as the first feature film of its kind, and has been described by one critic as “a gritty take on E4's Glee”.   FIT was originally produced as a play by London's Drill Hall, in association with Team Angelica, and experienced a successful run during 2007 and 2008. Now it is a DVD.   “The intelligent, powerful and entertaining film uses hip-hop, humour, and lively writing similar to [UK] Channel 4's Skins to communicate with pupils in a way that makes it easy for them to engage with the issues raised,” says Stonewall Scotland.   The film is divided into seven fifteen-minute chapters and explores issues about homophobic bullying and gender stereotyping and the impacts this can have on health, wellbeing and learning for those involved and those who have to witness homophobia on a daily basis.   It is being launched in Scotland at an Edinburgh premiere for pupils, teachers and others involved in education today. And the DVDs will start arriving at schools tomorrow.   The film has been partly funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland and the Scottish Government, and Learning Teaching Scotland are assisting with distribution.   “The interactive DVD has been created to tackle homophobic bullying and encourage pupils to challenge their widespread use of the word ‘gay’ to mean anything rubbish or inadequate,” says the group. “The DVD will offer the support teachers need to tackle homophobic bullying in the classroom.”   In Stonewall's 2009 research document “The Teacher's Report”, nine out of ten secondary-school teachers said children and young people currently experience homophobic bullying, name calling or harassment in their schools – and yet the same proportion had never received any specific training on how to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying.   FIT is an adaptation of Stonewall's “highly successful play for schools”, which was seen on tour at eight schools in Scotland in 2007–8.   “The response to the play showed us that young people welcomed the opportunity to discuss discrimination, relationships and sexual orientation and to challenge each other's views – and that attending teachers wanted to talk about these issues in the classroom, but a lack of resources and materials made this impossible,” the group says.   Stonewall Scotland says that using the DVD could help Scottish schools meet “a wide range of experiences and outcomes in the third, fourth and senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence and sits well with the Health and Wellbeing curriculum area”.   After seeing the play FIT one student said: “It was amazing how people's attitudes changed just like that after the show – they were criticising other people who’d had homophobic attitudes.”   An Edinburgh deputy head said: “FIT was an outstanding presentation which judged its audience extremely well. It raised the profile of homophobic behaviour in both a sensitive but challenging way. It was very well received by our target group of pupils and certainly appeared to succeed in getting its message across.”   Carl Watt, director of Stonewall Scotland, said: “Too many young people have told us they experience homophobic bullying in the classroom and too many teachers have told us they haven’t had the training they need to tackle it.   “Two-thirds of Scottish lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are bullied in school, and 98 percent of all children hear the phrases ‘that's so gay’ or ‘you’re so gay’ at school.   “This film is here to support teachers in bringing about much-needed change in our schools and helping them create the safe learning environment that is every child's right.”   Of homophobia in school, Stephen Blake, writing about FIT in the latest issue of Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine, says: “When I was very young, I knew that I was different from other boys, but I didn’t know why. However, by the time I was ten, I knew that I was attracted to other boys, and throughout the majority of my years at school, I knew I was gay. Any young person in this situation knows how lonely, debilitating a desperate life can become. It can affect how well a person succeeds at school, and in later life, their self-esteem and how well they get on with their family or friends.”   Morag Alexander, the Scotland commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Ten years ago the infamous Section 28 [of the Local Government Act of 1988] meant many of our teachers felt unable to address homophobic bulling and harassment in Scottish schools. It was the elephant in the classroom. Ten days ago a lack of confidence, training and classroom materials meant exactly the same thing. Today that changes. Now there is no excuse for the bullying and harassment that we know shames our school playgrounds to go on unaddressed.”   The writer/director of FIT, Rikki Beadle-Blair, said: “When on tour I would ask the kids how many people thought homosexuality was wrong. In every single school the vast majority, about 80 percent, would put their hands up. But kids would come up after the performance and say quite openly, ‘I walked into this room homophobic and will leave it a changed person.’ ”   Stephen Blake adds, writing of the play that became the film: “FIT is about attempting to fit in and to stand out in today's culture where everything from not liking sport to wearing the wrong trainers is ‘gay’. Snappy dialogue and pacey writing, combined with energetic hip-hop dance, original music and sparky comedy ensured that the play was an unforgettable piece of theatre.”

Tags: Bullying, Homophobia, DVD, Gay, Schools
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New teachers could be tested for their desk-side manner under government plans to improve the quality of teaching.

Trainee teachers in England would be screened for empathy, understanding and passion to ensure they have the qualities to be a good teacher.

A trial of a diagnostic test by the Training and Development Agency for Schools in north-west England is due to be tested nationwide.

The scheme was revealed by Gordon Brown in a recent speech.

In a nod to the Conservatives' call for teachers to be better qualified, the prime minister said: "Recruiting the best is about more than simply a class of degree, but also about empathy, understanding, passion - those intangible qualities that define every great teacher.

"So we are now piloting a test to screen potential teachers for these wider qualities."

A TDA spokesman said: "We plan to run a larger pilot throughout the country later in the Spring.

"The pilot involves asking a range of onscreen questions about certain qualities or attributes expected of a teacher, such as organisation, flexibility and resilience."

She added that informal feedback had been very positive so far.

The idea is thought to be loosely based on the recruitment practices of charity TeachFirst, which trains top graduates to work in challenging schools.

Human qualities

TeachFirst's associate director for graduate recruitment, Peggy Sue Drower, said candidates were put through a series of tests checking they possessed six "competencies" thought vital to good teaching.

These included humility, respect and empathy, self-evaluation and reflection, and resilience.

And these were as important as the more obvious skills of leadership, organisation and knowledge.

She said there was much more to being a teacher than just having good grades, they needed human qualities as well.

Miss Drower said empathy was very much about being able to put yourself in the pupil's shoes.

"It's about sharing others experience by relating to their situation.

"If we are working with children whose parents don't value them doing homework, then for someone who has worked hard at school and university, it is a massive change to understand that others might not think about education in that way.

"It's about not writing a pupil off but giving them that resilience to try again.

"We need this humility, respect and empathy to be able to build up the initial relationship needed for good teaching."

Tags: Teacher, Test, Desk-Side, Trainee, Gordon, Brown
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Only one third of the teachers tested for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary were able to calculate that 1.4 divided by 0.1 is 14, while only four out of 10 could work out that 2.1 per cent of 400 is 8.4.   The results of the test, conducted on 155 teachers in 18 schools, add to growing concerns about numeracy standards and teaching in England.   Almost one quarter of children are leaving primary school with a poor grasp of maths, even though spending on the subject is about £2.5 billion a year. Around 135,000 pupils start secondary school unable to cope with their courses.   The Conservatives, who plan to raise the minimum GCSE maths grade required to train as a primary teacher from C to B, said standards of teaching needed to be improved.   Alison Wolf, professor of public sector management at King's College, London, said: "I am actually horrified by the statistics.   "I really think that our obsession with generic teaching skills has crowded out time in which we could be making sure that people actually have the basic content and knowledge of content that they need.   "It doesn't mean that anybody who can do maths can teach maths, that is obviously not true – but I don't think you can teach maths if you can't do it."   Dispatches used a test of 27 questions devised by Richard Dunne, a maths consultant and former Exeter University academic.   The material covered in the Dispatches test is contained in the primary national curriculum, yet the programme found that only 54 per cent of teachers could work out the correct value of 1.12 x 2.2 (2.464), even when told that 112 x 22 = 2,464.   Mr Dunne said: "What we have are tests from 155 teachers which illustrate that probably more than half of them know so little maths that they cannot be conveying mathematics to their children in the classroom."   However, John Bangs, director of education for the National Union of Teachers, said the results highlighted "isolated" examples, adding: "Whatever you think of this government, numeracy and teaching of maths have improved significantly since 1997."   Jo Boaler, professor of education at Sussex University, said: “We need to give primary teachers a few concepts so that four-, five- and six-year-olds are given a good base in understanding numbers, shapes, counting and sums.   "Instead they are given a massive list of methods. In most EU countries, there is no formal learning of methods until children are age seven.   “When children in the UK find they don't understand, they are put in to lower sets and basically told 'You can't do maths.'”   Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: “It is critical we do everything possible to improve maths teaching in our schools. That's why we propose to pay off the student loans of the very best maths and science graduates that go into the classroom so we can have the world's best maths and science teaching.”   Vernon Coaker, the schools minister, said: “We need a shift in social attitudes towards maths. That is why we are training 13,000 maths specialists over the next decade to champion maths in every primary school – with the first teachers beginning the programme in January this year.”   A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families admitted recent improvements in maths results has “levelled out in the last few years” but said the government has “set out a comprehensive set of reforms to make sure that the lowest performing children can get up to the levels of their peers”.   A National Audit Office report, published in 2008, criticised weaknesses in teachers' knowledge of maths and backed calls for a big increase in the number of specialist primary maths teachers.

Tags: Maths, Teachers, Dispatches, Standards, Test
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This week, the goverment's Secretary of state for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, ordered schools to save £750 million a year by undertaking certain measures to save on low-level spending such as electricity, gas and caretaking services.
 
He has announced that schools should be doing more to ensure they turn off lights when classrooms are not in use, to cut back on heating bills and sharing cleaners with other schools. However, with the winter coming along this is a far stretch for any school due to the pre-winter solstice onslaught of darkness before school is out and the chilly atmosphere that means heating is a must in order to provide a comfortable learning environment. Some fear these measures may induce depression in pupils as well as a general lack of physical wellbeing that may result in poorer performance, not to mention the strain cleaners will be under having to move from one school to another, which may affect the general tidiness of Britain's schools.
 
The means by which Mr Balls would like to ensure schools stay alert to their energy spending is through the installation of Smart Meters. He has threatened funding for schools who do not comply.
 
'This is sheer ignorance for the way the education system should maintain a good environment in schools' says a concerned member of the public. She went on to tell teachershub.co.uk that her children seem to perform worse during the winter, which she believes is due to a diminishing environment the school her children attend provides during the harsh weather.
 
'My children end up coming home miserable and are more difficult. If Ed Balls' plan to cut costs in this manner comes to force, I cannot imagine what sort of difficulties children all over the country will have to face.
 
'I appreciate the fact that Ed is trying not to skimp on educational resources but for my children to have a good working environment is also key to their successes and if this is lacking, I fear it will only lead to failure.'
 
Ed Balls has justified his requests in a conference of the Specialist Schools and Academies trust in Birmingham by stating that 'In a tighter climate when we're not going to get the kind of rises we've seen in recent years, we are going to have to be more efficient.'
 
Here, again, we are witnessing an advantage Private education has over state education. It is all very well trying to save by being more efficient, we here at teachershub just hope that it will not reduce the quality of education for students. One thing we would like to suggest with regards to saving energy costs is to revert back from interactive whiteboards to normal whiteboards, there is no evidence to show that the former has an advantage over the latter in any way and all they seem to do is to deter schools from apparently much needed energy conservation.
 
Tags: Schools, Energy, Cut, Costs, Save, Threat, Educat...
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US and British universities dominate the top of a league table of universities worldwide published Thursday, but Asian seats of learning are moving up the global rankings.
 
Harvard remains in top spot in the Times Higher Education (THE) league table, followed by Britain's Cambridge University then Yale in third place, with London's University College and Imperial College in fourth and fifth.
 
Oxford has slipped one to joint fifth, but the next 10 places are occupied by US universities, most of them Ivy League like Princeton and Columbia, but also including Chicago University.
 
But Asian universities, while still struggling to break into the top 20, are moving upwards, with numbers in the top 200 growing in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia.
 
After the University of Tokyo in 22nd place come the University of Hong Kong in 24th, Japan's Kyoto University in 25th, and the National University of Singapore in 30th.
 
Philip Altbach of Boston University says the Asian improvement is due to a number of factors.
 
"These countries have invested heavily in higher education in recent years, and this is reflected in the improved quality in their top institutions," he told the Times education weekly.
 
"They have also attempted to internationalise their universities by hiring more faculty from overseas... this helps to improve their visibility globally," he added.
 
Japan has the most top-200-ranked universities at 11, one more than last year, followed by China with six; Hong Kong (up from four to five); South Korea (up from three to four); and Singapore and India, with two each.
 
Europe's top non-British university is Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology in 20th spot, followed by France's Ecole Normale Superieure in 28th. The top German university is the Technical University of Munich, in 55th.
 
The top non-US and non-European universities are the Australian National University in 17th place, down one, and Canada's McGill University in 18th position, down two.
 
The league table, compiled by the THE in collaboration with the QS global career and education network, ranks universities according to a series of criteria including peer review, employers' views and student opinion surveys.
 
In Britain, Oxford University voiced surprise at the downgrading.
 
"League table rankings can vary as they often use different methods to measure success," said a spokesman for Oxford, one of the world's oldest universities which has a fierce rivalry with Cambridge.
 
"But Oxford University's position is surprising given that Oxford... has the highest research income of any UK university and has come first in every national league table," he added.
 
Here is a ranking of countries with the most universities in the top 200 of the THE/QS league table:
 
Country Region 2008 2009
 
United States North America 58 54
 
United Kingdom Europe 29 29
 
Canada North America 12 11
 
Japan Asia 10 11
 
Netherlands Europe 11 11
 
Germany Europe 11 10
 
Australia Australasia 9 9
 
Switzerland Europe 7 7
 
China Asia 6 6
 
Belgium Europe 5 5
 
Hong Kong Asia 4 5
 
Sweden Europe 4 5
 
France Europe 4 4
 
South Korea Asia 3 4
 
Denmark Europe 3 3
 
Israel Asia 3 3
 
New Zealand Australasia 3 3
 
India Asia 2 2
 
Ireland Europe 2 2
 
Norway Europe 1 2
 
Russia Europe 1 2
 
Singapore Asia 2 2
 
Tags: Harvard, University, Rankings, Oxford, Cambridge,...
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Children as young as four are to become the youngest in Scotland to be given sex education lessons under a new curriculum from Glasgow City Council.
 
Lessons begin in P1 with children being taught about body parts and conclude in S6 with classes on sexually transmitted infection, especially HIV and Aids.
 
However, the Scottish Conservative Party said there would be "massive concerns" about the scheme.
 
It said parents would question the need to involve primary one pupils.
 
The new sexual health and relationships curriculum was piloted in 13 primary and two secondary schools.
 
The council said teachers, pupils and parents gave it "overwhelming support".
 
Maureen McKenna, service director of education, said the programme was devised to build knowledge year-on-year.
 
"What we have is a broad curriculum which deals with emotions, friendships, self-esteem and respect as well as physical development and sexual health," she said.
 
"Parents have a crucial part to play too and by keeping them involved through supporting their child's learning they are prepared for any questions that may crop up at home."
 
Following the pilot period in 2007/08, the curriculum was extended across other areas in the east end of Glasgow.
 
The roll-out is continuing in the north and west of the city during this academic year with plans now being put in place to extend the curriculum across the remaining areas of Glasgow.
 
Councillor James Coleman, who chairs Glasgow's young person's sexual health steering group, said the curriculum could be "a blueprint for others to follow".
 
'Significant step'
 
"Both parents and children made it very clear to us they wanted to be closer to one another on this issue and this curriculum allows for that to happen," he said.
 
"Stronger bonds between parents and their child help to encourage young people to delay engaging in sexual activity until they are physically and emotionally equipped to deal with the consequences.
 
"What we are now rolling-out in Glasgow represents a significant step forward in the provision of sexual health and relationships education."
 
The Scottish Conservative spokeswoman for schools, Liz Smith, said there would be "massive concerns" about the new curriculum.
 
"Children as young as four - and just out of nursery - will be involved in this new curriculum," she said.
 
"Just how well can they be expected to cope with understanding even some of the more simple facts in what is a very complex and sensitive issue?
 
"Many parents will question whether this is really the most appropriate priority in primary one classes - especially when there is yet more evidence published today that Scotland is performing poorly when it comes to teaching children to read, write and count." 
 
Tags: Sex, Education, 4, Students, Pupils, Scotland, Go...
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