<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16LE"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:xsi="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/rss/core/2005" xmlns:xsd="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/rss/core/2005" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"> <channel> <description>Teaching Personnel News Articles</description> <lastBuildDate>18/05/2013 21:13:31</lastBuildDate> <link>http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TpNewsFullFeed</link> <title>TP Full Feed</title> <pubDate>18/05/2013 21:13:31</pubDate> <webMaster>it@teachingpersonnel.com</webMaster> <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/TpNewsFullFeed" /><feedburner:info xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" uri="tpnewsfullfeed" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item> <image /> <description>Most parents in Norfolk are satisfied with the work of local primary and secondary teachers, according to a new survey.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Ofsted currently rates only 64 per cent of Norfolk&amp;#39;s primary schools and 54 per cent of its secondary schools as good or better, while its recent focused inspection of 28 schools there found 60 per cent of them to be in need of improvement or inadequate.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Yet an Eastern Daily Press poll of the county&amp;#39;s parents found 73 per cent believe their children are receiving at least a good education, while 58 per cent feel they are being equipped the right skills and knowledge for later life&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, 40 per cent of respondents thought schools could do better on the latter front, with a number saying staff in teaching jobs should educate children about financial matters such as taxes and bills.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;When asked whether Norfolk County Council was doing a good enough job in ensuring every child receives a good education, 30 per cent said it was, 38 per cent disagreed and 32 per cent were not sure.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Norfolk&amp;#39;s schools are now independent from the local authority, although it is still expected to provide support and identify weak spots in provision and the council acknowledged there is still ambiguity among parents and schools as to what its role is.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Tim Colman&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801586760-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801586760" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/17/parents-back-norfolk-schools/</link> <title>Parents back Norfolk schools</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>&lt;span style="line-height:1.6em"&gt;Schools&amp;#39; priorities in spending pupil premium funding are likely to result in the creation of new jobs in education, a new survey has indicated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Under the pupil premium initiative, schools receive &amp;pound;900 of additional funding for every child they teach who is currently or has at some point in the past six years been eligible for school meals or who has been in care continuously for at least six months.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A poll of 1,587 teachers and school leaders&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;conducted for the Sutton Trust&amp;nbsp;-&amp;nbsp;on how they utilise this investment has revealed&amp;nbsp;they give precedence to early intervention schemes, designed for example to prevent children falling behind or to tackle bad behaviour.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;span style="line-height:1.6em"&gt;Respondents named this solution as their school&amp;#39;s top priority in spending the pupil premium in 2012/13, while 58 per cent listed it as one of their school&amp;#39;s top three priorities.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The second major spending priority was to provide more&amp;nbsp;one-to-one&amp;nbsp;tuition: 13 per cent of respondents said their schools gave this the greatest precedence in spending the pupil premium and 41 per cent identified it as one of their top three priorities.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Furthermore, nine per cent listed hiring new teaching assistants as their school&amp;#39;s main priority and six per cent said hiring new teachers, while these were cited among the top three priorities by 33 per cent and 18 per cent of respondents respectively.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;When asked how they selected what to spend pupil premium money on, 55 per cent of respondents said they factored in their past experiences of what had worked, but a further 46 per cent also looked at what had worked in other schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Moreover, 42 per cent also now considered research evidence on the impact of different approaches and programmes and 46 per cent evaluated the relative merits of these&amp;nbsp;programmes before deciding which to adopt.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl commented: &amp;quot;It is vital that the pupil premium money is spent well and used on those measures that can do most to improve results for our poorest pupils.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;I&amp;#39;m pleased to see that so many school leaders - and a growing number of classroom teachers - are turning to research on what works rather than simply relying on past practice.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Education secretary Michael Gove recently vowed on BBC&amp;#39;s Andrew Marr Show to defend the pupil premium if the Department for Education is required to make budget cuts in the next spending review.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Charlotte Michaels&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801586285-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801586285" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/16/pupil-premium-helps-create-new-education-jobs/</link> <title>Pupil premium helps create new education jobs</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>A new test being sat for the very first time aims to demonstrate how successful primary school teachers have been in their efforts to improve their pupils&amp;#39; grammar.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Official statistics for writing in 2012 indicated that 17 per cent of seven-year-olds were below the expected level, rising to 23 per cent of all 11-year-olds.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Shortcomings in this area can detrimentally affect pupils later on in life, with the Confederation of British Industry&amp;#39;s 2011 skills survey indicating that over 40 per cent of employers were dissatisfied with the basic literacy of school and college leavers.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;As part of efforts to tackle this problem, 600,000 11-year-olds will this week sit the new spelling, grammar and punctuation test, comprising a 45-minute grammar test and a 15-minute spelling test.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;This will gauge pupils&amp;#39; ability to use grammar correctly, including usage of subordinate clauses and connectives, to punctuate sentences appropriately, including using colons, ellipses and apostrophes, properly and to spell some of the most commonly misspelt words.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Education minister Liz Truss commented: &amp;quot;Many children struggle with the basics of the English language at primary school, then don&amp;#39;t catch up at secondary school.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;That is why employers bemoan the poor literacy of so many school and college leavers. This new test will mean that children are again taught the skills they need to understand our language and to use it properly, creatively and effectively.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The Standards and Testing Agency evaluated the test in March and deemed that it was rigorous, in line with international best practice and asked the appropriate questions for assessing children&amp;#39;s grammar, punctuation and spelling skills.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Grammar and spelling are also heavily prioritised in the government&amp;#39;s draft primary school English curriculum, which will be introduced in 2014 and aims to emulate the curricula of some of the world&amp;#39;s leading education jurisdictions, such as Singapore, Massachusetts in the US and Alberta in Canada.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, while the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) agreed with the need to promote grammatical, spelling and punctuation skills, it questioned whether these new tests were the best way of achieving this.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby argued that it was instead better for primary teachers to examine children&amp;#39;s grammar and spelling across their portfolio of work for year six, in order to measure how they use these skills in context, rather than in abstract.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Harriet McGowan&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801585782-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801585782" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/15/pupils-to-sit-new-grammar-test-this-week/</link> <title>Pupils to sit new grammar test this week</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Education secretary Michael Gove has vowed to protect funding designed to help primary and secondary teachers in educating underprivileged children.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Introduced in April 2011, the pupil premium sees schools allocated an extra &amp;pound;900 for every child they teach who is currently or has been at some point in the past six years eligible for free school meals or who has been in care for more than six months continuously.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;With the spending review covering government expenditure from April 2015 set to take place next month, Mr Gove has said that while the Department for Education may be able to make some budget cuts, he wants the pupil premium to remain unaffected.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Speaking on BBC&amp;#39;s Andrew Marr Show, the education secretary stated: &amp;quot;I&amp;#39;m fighting hard to ensure that the budget priorities that we have, particularly making sure that we can protect spending for schools and spending for the most disadvantaged children, is insulated from the necessary economies that we need to make.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;In an interview last month with the Independent, schools minister David Laws criticised some schools in wealthier parts of England for not making good enough use of the premium in aiding staff in teaching jobs to raise the achievement levels of their poorer pupils.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Theo Foulds&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801585024-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801585024" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/14/michael-gove-vows-to-defend-pupil-premium/</link> <title>Michael Gove vows to defend pupil premium</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>It is harder for staff in teacher jobs to raise the achievement levels of pupils born towards the end of the academic year, a new study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has suggested.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Its research confirmed that pupils born in August are 6.4 percentage points less likely to achieve five GCSEs at grades A*-C than those born in September, as well as being less likely to go onto university and have faith in their own academic ability.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Moreover, the IFS&amp;#39;s analysis revealed that August-born children were also 5.4 percentage points more likely to be labelled as having minor special educational needs by the age of 11 and more prone to engaging in risky behaviours, such as smoking, at younger ages.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The IFS concluded the ages at which pupils sit tests has the greatest bearing upon variations in their performances in them, rather than the ages at which they started school or the amount of schooling they received before sitting the tests.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It therefore recommended that this discrepancy be remedied by age adjusting national achievement test scores, with the new scores being used to calculate school league table positions.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Furthermore, the IFS said that the adjusted scores could also be helped to determine entry to schools selecting on the basis of ability and potentially for guiding the assignment of pupils to ability groups.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Report co-author Ellen Grieves remarked: &amp;quot;Age-adjusting the cut-offs required for pupils to achieve particular grades would ensure that no child is prevented from going on to further or higher education simply because of the month in which they were born.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has expressed its scepticism over the IFS&amp;#39;s proposals.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman stated the best way to tackle the problem of summer-born children falling behind is for primary school teachers to give them targeted help and support from the early years stage onwards.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;He said that lowering their pass marks would mask rather than address this problem and do little to raise the self esteem, confidence or achievement of the children in question.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Tim Colman&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801585020-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801585020" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/14/ifs-wants-test-scores-to-be-age-adjusted/</link> <title>IFS wants test scores to be age-adjusted</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>An international exams group has advocated that GCSE grading be scrapped, which could potentially repair secondary teachers&amp;#39; dented confidence in the qualifications.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Concerns over the marking of speaking and listening tests prompted Ofqual to revise English GCSE grade boundaries last June, with the exam regulator announcing recently that these tests will now no longer count towards students&amp;#39; final English GCSE grades.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Nonetheless, survey findings published last week by Ofqual suggest the debacle made a significant impression on those in teacher jobs, with 35 per cent stating that they did not have confidence in the GCSE qualification and 60 per cent that they had less confidence in it than last year.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Research published by Cambridge Assessments (CA), which operates three exam boards, has now suggested that GCSE exam grades should be abolished altogether and replaced with a numerical scale comprising a far larger number of points.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;CA argued that this would bring an end to situations arising whereby two pupils with very different marks nonetheless end up receiving the same grade, or where two pupils with very similar marks receive different grades as they are on opposite sides of a grade boundary.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Moreover, it asserted that this system retained as much data as possible from exams about the rank order of students and would also be more &amp;quot;future proof&amp;quot; as there would be no need to add extra grades if attainment rises or if more discrimination is needed at the top end.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Tim Oates, CA director of assessment research and development, described grades as &amp;quot;arbitrary categories&amp;quot;, which mask an underlying continuum of achievement that would be better captured by reporting scale scores.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;He advocated: &amp;quot;New GCSEs must not be confused with existing GCSEs; we need to make a clean break with the past.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;Scale scores might encourage the use of different accountability measures, which could reduce some of the undesirable effects in schools of extra effort being concentrated on pupils around the grade C boundary. This would lead to better teaching and learning.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, education expert Professor Alan Smithers from the University of Buckingham rejected this proposal, telling the Daily Mail that exact scores are meaningless as exams are not an entirely precise vehicle for measuring academic ability.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Professor Smithers added that given the public&amp;#39;s deep familiarity with grades, they should not be dispensed with unless there is a &amp;quot;compelling&amp;quot; reason for doing so.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Alan Douglas&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801583995-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801583995" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/10/exams-group-wants-gcse-grades-scrapped/</link> <title>Exams group wants GCSE grades scrapped</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Many schools need to invest more in scientific equipment to enable staff in science teacher jobs to deliver a higher standard of lessons, a new report has indicated.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Research commissioned by Science Community Representing Education (SCORE) showed that on average state secondary schools and sixth forms had only 70 per cent of the equipment and consumables required for teaching science lessons.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;This included some of the most commonly used equipment such as microscopes and connecting leads for circuits, while secondary teachers also frequently lacked the support of qualified technicians.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;State school primary teachers meanwhile typically only had access to 46 per cent of the materials required to teach practical science.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Resources available to teachers varied widely between schools, with spending on practical science equipment ranging from 4p to &amp;pound;19.08 per pupil in primary schools in 2011/12 and from 75p to &amp;pound;31.25 per pupil in secondary schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Almost half of all state school secondary teachers surveyed felt that they did not have enough funding for practical science lessons, as did around a third of primary school teachers.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;SCORE&amp;#39;s chair Professor Julia Buckingham claimed that this was not simply down to a lack of government funding, stating that schools needed to bear much of the responsibility for not allocating sufficient funding to science equipment.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Professor Buckingham remarked: &amp;quot;Practical work demonstrates the wonder of science so much more effectively than words on a page or pictures in a textbook.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;To inspire the next generation of scientists, we need to ensure that all pupils are exposed to the excitement and increased understanding of science that carrying out practical work can bring.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Commenting on this report, a spokesman for the Department for Education backed SCORE&amp;#39;s assertions about the centrality of practical work to high-quality science teaching, adding that it was prioritised in the new science curriculum.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Tim Colman&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801582862-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801582862" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/9/schools-urged-to-up-practical-science-spending/</link> <title>Schools urged to up practical science spending</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Numbers of people employed in teaching and other education jobs continued to grow last year, according to latest figures from the Department for Education (DfE).&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Official statistics indicated that there were 442,000 people in teacher jobs in publically funded schools in November 2012, up by 0.9 per cent from the same month in 2011 and also 8.9 per cent higher than the size of the teaching workforce in spring 2000.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The number of full-time employed staff working in publically funded schools has escalated more rapidly of late, rising by 2.6 per cent from November 2011 to 899,000 last November, which was also up by 58.3 per cent on 12 years previously.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Demand for individuals to fill teaching assistant (TA) jobs has risen particularly quickly, with the size of this workforce rising by 5.7 per cent to 232,300 over the year to November 2012, which was almost four times the number employed back in spring 2000.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A DfE spokesperson commented: &amp;quot;It is extremely encouraging to see there are more teachers joining - or in some cases deciding to re-join, what is a high-status, attractive profession.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;Increasingly, the teaching workforce is highly skilled - with 96 per cent of teachers now qualified to degree level or above.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The department&amp;#39;s figures also provided detailed evidence of the make-up of the current teaching workforce, with females accounting for 73.3 per cent of full and part-time regular teachers in publically funded schools in November 2012, rising to 92 per cent of all people in TA jobs.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Furthermore, 23.6 per cent of all full and part-time regular teachers were aged under 30, 55.2 per cent aged between 30 and 49 and 21.2 per cent aged 50 and over.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;In terms of ethnicity, 88.4 per cent of full and part-time teachers were classified as white British, while 3.3 per cent were listed as coming from other white backgrounds, 1.6 per cent as having white Irish backgrounds and 1.3 per cent as having Indian backgrounds.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Meanwhile, the number of teachers employed in local authority maintained schools fell by 10.6 per cent from November 2011 to 320,800 in November 2012, while the number working in academies rose by 52.8 per cent to 121,200 over the same period.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;This reflected the large volume of schools leaving local authority control during this period, with 2,551 schools holding academy status in November 2012, compared to 1,449 a year previously.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Harriet McGowan&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801581527-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801581527" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/7/official-figures-show-teacher-numbers-on-rise/</link> <title>Official figures show teacher numbers on rise</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Individuals in teacher jobs in Wales should be required to teach their pupils more about the history of Wales, a group of experts has advocated.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Back in October, Wales&amp;#39; education minister Leighton Jones commissioned a panel of 13 experts in heritage, local and national history, as well as black and ethnic minority history, to examine the place of Welsh history within the curriculum.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;This group, chaired by Dr Elin Jones, the Welsh government&amp;#39;s humanities advisor, has reported that a stronger focus on Wales&amp;#39; culture and heritage is indeed required in Welsh schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It asserted too often an &amp;quot;Anglo-centric British&amp;quot; history was the only form being taught and that Welsh history should not be treated as something to be attached to that of England, Wales Online has reported.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The panel argued that countries&amp;#39; history curriculums usually focus on their own national origins, something that was highlighted in a review of how history was taught in other countries such as Greece, Turkey and the US.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Moreover, the experts advocated that Welsh history be integrated into GCSE history specifications and that there should also be a compulsory history element in the Welsh baccalaureate.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The report asserted: &amp;quot;The panel&amp;#39;s experience suggests that many learners in Wales learn far more about the history of England than that of their own area and country.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;The task group also believe that not enough attention is paid to the other countries of Britain, and that there is also a tendency to concentrate on a narrow range of topics in the history of Europe and the world.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It warned that there were obstacles to this, with many teachers having not been themselves educated in the history of Wales, while a shortage of teaching resources has also traditionally been a problem.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Nonetheless, the panel was heartened by recent evidence of public interest in Welsh history, suggesting that &amp;quot;innovative and attractive materials&amp;quot; relating to this field could have a positive impact upon education.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Furthermore, it stressed that the Wales-specific &amp;#39;Cwricwlwm Cymreig&amp;#39; should not be solely history-focused, but that other subjects should also include Welsh elements so pupils can learn more about the country&amp;#39;s present, as well as its past.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Charlotte Michaels&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801579895-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801579895" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/5/1/panel-calls-for-more-emphasis-on-welsh-history/</link> <title>Panel calls for more emphasis on Welsh history</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>There has been much discussion of late as to how to deal with the expected boom in demand for primary schools places, which is likely to create new teaching vacancies.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demand for school places on the up&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;With the number of live births rising by 22 per cent between 2001 and 2011, the National Audit Office has estimated that 256,000 new school places would be needed between May 2012 and 2014/15, of which 240,000 will be in primary schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The government is partly seeking to redress this through its free schools programme, with those opening this September expected to accommodate around 50,000 additional pupils once they have been filled.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Moreover, last month education secretary Michael Gove announced that local authorities would be allocated &amp;pound;1.6 billion of basic need funding between 2013 and 2015 to help them provide additional school places where required in their area.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;As parents waited in April to see whether their children had got into their preferred primary schools, a DfE spokeswoman stated that the government would have spent &amp;pound;5 billion by 2015 on creating new schools places and anticipated that 190,000 would be created by September.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;She asserted: &amp;quot;We are confident that our huge investment will mean councils are able to deal with the extra demand for primary school places through building new schools and expanding existing good ones.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, David Simmonds from the Local Government Association was less optimistic, warning that &amp;quot;extensive bureaucratic delays&amp;quot; were holding up the opening of new schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Class sizes likely to grow&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The government has also responded to growing demand for school places by relaxed rules governing class sizes, so that the number of pupils in a class can exceed 30 for several years.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;According to the Guardian, schools will respond to this change by teaching record numbers of pupils in classes of 31 children or more as of September.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A number of urban councils around the country told the newspaper that this practice was increasingly prevalent in their schools, or was likely to be in future.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Yet while some councillors did not see this as a problem, the Institute of Education&amp;#39;s Professor Peter Blatchford warned against the &amp;quot;growing tide of opinion that class sizes aren&amp;#39;t important&amp;quot;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;He said smaller classes meant children received more attention and opportunities to develop their analytical skills, whereas studies have shown that class sizes of more than 30 were particularly damaging for low ability pupils of children with special needs.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The situation in London&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Pressure on school places is especially pronounced in London, which accounts for 39 per cent of the national shortfall on primary school places, rising to 52 per cent for secondary school places.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The Pan-London Admissions Board published figures in April showing that 81 per cent of the city&amp;#39;s pupils will be admitted to their first choice of primary school in September, but that nearly five per cent were not allocated a place at any of the schools listed by their parents.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Analysis by London Councils has also indicated that demand for permanent school places in the capital will continue to escalate after 2015, with the shortfall across primary and secondary schools there likely to exceed 118,000 by 2016/17.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The organisation&amp;#39;s &amp;#39;Do the Maths&amp;#39; report has called on the government to ensure that London&amp;#39;s councils are allocated funding that reflects the demand to attend schools in their area and to support their long-term investment in school places.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;London Councils&amp;#39; executive member for children&amp;#39;s services, Peter John, commented:&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Boroughs are working harder than ever to ensure every child has a school place.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;But we are fast reaching the limit of how many extensions and conversions can be made to existing buildings - soon the only way of creating extra places will be by building new schools.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;His sentiments were echoed by the chair of the Association of London Directors of Children&amp;#39;s Services, Yvette Stanley, who warned: &amp;quot;We should be under no illusion about the scale of the task before us.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;She said planning for all new schools in the capital needed to commence now, in order to deliver the required &amp;quot;hundreds&amp;quot; of new primary school classes and at least 22 new secondary schools, suggesting that the availability of teaching jobs in London may also be set to escalate.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Tim Colman&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801579180-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801579180" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/30/primary-schools-face-growing-demand-for-places/</link> <title>Primary schools face growing demand for places</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Speaking and listening exercises overseen by staff in English teaching jobs are to no longer count towards final GCSE grades, under new proposals by the exams watchdog.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;At present, speaking and listening assessments, overseen and marked within schools by secondary teachers, account for 20 per cent of pupils&amp;#39; final GCSE English marks.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Controlled reading and writing assessments make up a further 40 per cent, with written exams accounting for the remaining 40 per cent.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;However, concerns over marking of speaking and listening tests prompted Ofqual to revise grade boundaries last June, with its chief regulator Glenys Stacey subsequently stating that overgenerous marking was understandable given pressures on schools to achieve good grades.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Ofqual has therefore proposed that as of June 2014, speaking and listening assessments will no longer count towards final GCSE marks, with written exams to instead account for 60 per cent and controlled reading and writing assessments for the other 40 per cent.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Following these changes, which are currently under consultation, English teachers would still carry out speaking and listening exercises with their pupils and exam boards would be required to report speaking and listening achievements separately on GCSE certificates.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Ms Stacey commented that speaking and listening remained very important skills and would continue to be assessed in schools.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Nevertheless, she asserted: &amp;quot;But we have found that the design of the GCSE English qualification is seriously flawed.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;The proposed changes will make it more robust and will help protect against any repeat of the problems experienced last year. They will also mean a better balance between controlled assessment and written exams for the qualification.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A Department for Education spokesperson told BBC News that it was Ofqual&amp;#39;s responsibility to maintain GCSE standards and that the department supported its efforts to do so.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg sounded a note of caution, however, stressing the need for &amp;quot;young people need to be able to communicate confidently and articulately&amp;quot;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Harriet McGowan&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801578815-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801578815" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/30/ofqual-plans-gcse-english-changes/</link> <title>Ofqual plans GCSE English changes</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>The mayor of London is urging primary teachers and secondary teachers in the north-west of the city to participate in an initiative to get more children to live healthier lives.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Over the next three years, &amp;pound;600,000 will be spent on the Healthy Schools London scheme, whereby schools that successfully teach children about food and encourage them to undertake healthy physical activities will receive bronze, silver and gold awards.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Boris Johnson has now urged schools in the borough of Harrow to sign up to this voluntary project, the Harrow Times has reported, stating that in doing so, they will help to protect the health and wellbeing of London&amp;#39;s children.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;He asserted: &amp;quot;We know that when schools are healthy places to be, children are happier, their attendance and behaviour improves and they can achieve more.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The Children&amp;#39;s Trust recently surveyed over 250 professionals working with children - including people in teacher jobs - and found that 85 per cent of them believed some of the children they worked with were not getting enough to eat.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Charlotte Michaels&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801578324-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801578324" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/29/harrow-schools-urged-to-join-healthy-eating-initiative/</link> <title>Harrow schools urged to join healthy eating initiative</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>The children&amp;#39;s commissioner for England has urged primary and secondary teachers to take care to adhere to due processes when excluding pupils from school.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Dr Maggie Atkinson has published a report containing the &amp;quot;conservative estimate&amp;quot; that thousands of pupils across hundreds of schools were affected by exclusions in which their school did not follow the required procedures.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Examples of these types of instances included schools not recording exclusions in the proper manner or through placing unruly pupils on &amp;#39;extended study leave&amp;#39;, part-time timetables, or &amp;#39;alternative provision&amp;#39;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Other recorded cases involved parents being compelled to move their pupils to another school, encouraging children to stay at home and sending home children with special educational needs (SEN) as their carer or teaching assistant was absent.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;According to Dr Atkinson, these occasions often arose due to children, parents and teachers being unaware of laws over exclusions.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;She also cited a lack of sanctions against improper exclusions as part of the problem, along with the fact that no official body, with the partial exception of Ofsted, does enough to investigate these instances and reduce the frequency with which they occur.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Dr Atkinson explained: &amp;quot;We are not saying &amp;#39;never exclude&amp;#39;, but &amp;#39;do your very best not to and if you must, do so within the law&amp;#39;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;Asking the parents of a disabled child to repeatedly take them home early simply due to a lack of support is unacceptable.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;She stressed that most schools were doing well and following due processes on exclusions, but said that there was still room for concern and improvement and that everyone in education jobs has a duty to address this issue.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Back in February, survey findings published by the charity Contact a Family revealed that over 400 respondents had at some stage had to collect their child with SEN early from school or else been told to keep them at home without receiving an official exclusion letter.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Theo Foulds&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801578078-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801578078" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/29/childrens-commissioner-says-exclusions-should-be-by-the-book/</link> <title>Children's commissioner says exclusions should be by the book</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Secondary teachers across England are using a range of methods to improve literacy levels among their pupils, a new report by Ofsted has shown.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The education watchdog&amp;#39;s report &amp;#39;Improving Standards in Literacy: A shared responsibility&amp;#39; sought to identify examples of best practice among secondary schools in driving cross-curricular enhancements in this area.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It found that schools tended to be particularly successful when they treated literacy as something central to rather than separate from the wider teaching and learning debate and highlighted how literacy skills could bolster pupils&amp;#39; performance in different subjects.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Different departments within schools were also encouraged to share good practice in improving literacy with each other and to use systematic and effective monitoring and evaluation to ensure that their efforts were achieving desired results.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The report also found that those in English teacher jobs often played an important role in successful cross-curricular literacy initiatives, while the support of head teachers and other senior staff members was also essential.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Ofsted also stressed that there was no &amp;quot;quick fix&amp;quot; for improving literacy and that while the best literacy schemes shared some characteristics, successful approaches also needed to grow out of their particular context and could not simply be transplanted from one school to another.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Michael Cladingbowl, the watchdog&amp;#39;s director of schools policy, commented: &amp;quot;The best schools made literacy an integral element of the whole school curriculum.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&amp;quot;In these secondary schools, there was no attempt to address literacy through one-off training days for staff. Literacy in the best schools was an integral part of longer term school improvement plans and informed the content of action plans for each subject.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Last September, Ofsted introduced a new framework for inspection of schools in which literacy was built into each of the key judgements made during inspections, with a school rated outstanding likely to have demonstrated its success in promoting literacy across the curriculum.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Alan Douglas&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801578057-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801578057" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/29/ofsted-highlights-best-practice-in-improving-literacy/</link> <title>Ofsted highlights best practice in improving literacy</title> </item> <item> <image /> <description>Wales&amp;#39; education minister Leighton Andrews has praised a scheme that has helped primary school teachers in Swansea to better integrate digital technology into their lessons.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The Lifelong Intergenerational Furthering Education (LIFE) programme was developed by Casllwchwr primary school&amp;#39;s headteacher Simon Pridham with Swansea Council.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It is intended to combat the impact of poverty on pupil attainment, improve pupils&amp;#39; literacy and numeracy and boost the learning experience of children with additional learning needs, by enabling learners to develop their digital skills.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;As part of the LIFE programme, a learning lounge equipped with tablets, plasma screens and laptops has been set up at the school, providing children, as well as those in teacher and teaching assistant jobs, with a site where they can improve their IT skills.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Speaking at Casllwchwr, Mr Andrews remarked: &amp;quot;LIFE draws together themes which are relevant to educators across Wales: engaging with families; transforming the lives of children with additional needs; developing skills which industry in Wales needs, so that we can be a dynamic and prosperous nation in the twenty first century.&amp;quot;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The Welsh government is itself investing &amp;pound;39 million in ensuring all schools in the country have a good standard of internet connectivity and infrastructure, as well as having recently set up the Hwb digital learning platform.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Posted by Tim Colman&lt;img alt="ADNFCR-2164-ID-801577633-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2164&amp;itemid=801577633" /&gt;</description> <link>http://www.teachingpersonnel.com/news/2013/4/26/swansea-scheme-to-improve-it-teaching-praised/</link> <title>Swansea scheme to improve IT teaching praised</title> </item> </channel> </rss>