SENCO – Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. It sounds simple – I co-ordinate “things” for children with Special Educational Needs. How do we know if children actually have Special Educational Needs (SEN) (as compared to being in the bottom group for everything or because parents say they must have)? That’s easy! In 2014 the government wrote a Code of Practice (officially -Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years.

This is a re-blog post originally posted by Jill Turner and published with kind permission.

The original post can be found here.

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Statutory guidance for organisations who work with and support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities) where it defines exactly how you know if a child has SEN.

” A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.” (1)

If that doesn’t make it clear enough, it goes on

” A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or

• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions” (1)

So we’re all absolutely clear as to who has SEN.

My job, therefore, is just to co-ordinate the provision that the child receives – I obviously don’t have to deliver the teaching to the children with SEN and I’m not even responsible for their progress as

” Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, including where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff.” (1)

Sometimes we all agree that a child has SEN and that we are making significant adjustments e.g. we allocate an adult to help them, we provide special pencil grips or extra lessons.  The school has to provide (currently) the first £6000 worth of extra support for every child with SEN, for the majority of children with SEN this is generally fine. Sometimes though a child can, in the opinion of the school, only access the curriculum with substantially more support – this costs money. It is alright – there is a system in place, you can apply for an Education Health Care Assessment leading which possibly leads to an Education Health Care Plan which will top up your funding.

Education Health Care Plans (EHCP) are applied for and (in the Local Authority where I live) eventually decided upon by an SEN panel; this panel consists of an Educational Psychologist, the head of SEN and other SENCOs who are presenting EHCP requests. These EHC assessments take a reasonably long time to do and involve a lot of paperwork and professionals seeing the child. Just because this has been done it does not necessarily follow that the child will get an EHCP and funding to the level that you have been providing in school.

So regardless of the result and the money available what do you do? It’s easy – our friend the Code of Practice says

“Every school……… must:

• use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEN gets the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEN
• ensure that children and young people with SEN engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEN” (1)

So now we know!

(1) DFE (2014) Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years London: DfE

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With SATs fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to boost your child’s confidence in spelling, telling the time and mental maths.

Based on the new curriculum, and specially devised by ex-Headteacher Andrew Brodie, these easy-to-use apps help pupils to practise those essential maths and English skills in a fun and interactive way.

The 7-app SATs bundle will both consolidate learning and stretch children further, developing their core skills and identifying areas where there are gaps in their knowledge.

The apps are bundled together in the Apple App Store, click the image below to open the bundle directly.

Includes:

• Starter questions, progress and practice tests
• An endless supply of mental maths questions covering place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, time, measure and shape
• All curriculum-required spellings
• Fun illustrations to ensure children remain visually engaged
• Audio to support different learning styles

 Andrew Brodie KS2 SATS Prep: Spelling, Telling the Time and Mental Maths bundle is available for iPad and iPhone for £11.99 – a saving of over £13 compared with the cost of purchasing the 7 apps separately.

Additionally, there is a similar bundle to support KS1 pupils. Explore the bundle by clicking the App Store image below:

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A study by researchers at the University of Kent is expected to help teachers identify specific reasons for different types of pupil withdrawal in the classroom.

The study, which was led by Stephen Earl from the University’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, discovered that psychological pressure from teachers can contribute to disengagement amongst teenage pupils under 14. Active disengagement behaviours include talking and making noise, with daydreaming in class amongst the more passive disengagement behaviours.

It also discovered that although most teachers may pressurise pupils with the well-meaning intention of engaging them, it may have the opposite effect and actually promote disengagement. Such pressure includes threats of punishment or controlling language — e.g. ‘do this because I say so’ — without providing any explanation.

Other findings from the study, which was conducted across three secondary schools in Kent, include:

• pupils who were made to feel incapable of being successful reported less energy in class and were rated as passively disengaged by teachers
• pupils who felt forced to do activities in class were reported to disengage either actively or passively

The research is published in the journal Learning and Instruction as ‘Autonomy and competence frustration in young adolescent classrooms: Different associations with active and passive disengagement’ (Stephen R. Earl, Carla Meijen and Louis Passfield, University of Kent; Ian M. Taylor, Loughborough University).

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There is an age-related decline in children’s physical activity levels as they progress through primary school, according to a British Heart Foundation-funded study.

Researchers at the University of Bristol found that children spent less time doing physical activity and spent more time sedentary from Year 1 (aged 5-6) to Year 4 (aged 8-9).

Additionally, by the time they got to Year 4, around a third of boys and two thirds of girls aged eight to nine years old in the study were failing to meet Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) recommended physical activity guidelines of an hour of physical activity per day.

Previous research has shown that low levels of physical activity in childhood can track into adulthood, suggesting that we should be doing more to ensure children keep active throughout their younger lives.

In the study, published today in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, the researchers tracked the physical activity levels of 1,300 children in Year 1, aged 5-6, over a week.

To track the children, the team used an accelerometer, a smart device which gives an accurate measurement of movement. They then tracked the same children three years later, when they were in Year 4 (aged 8-9), and compared the results.

The levels of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity dropped by four per cent in boys, and eleven per cent in girls, but even more worryingly the sedentary time increased by 20 per cent in boys and 23 per cent in girls.

Further examination of the data showed that 62.3 per cent of boys and 35 per cent of girls met the CMO’s recommendation of an hour per day in Year 4, compared with 72.5 per cent and 53.7 per cent respectively in Year 1.

Professor Russ Jago, Professor of Paediatric Physical Activity and Public Health at the University of Bristol, who led the study, said: “The results show a clear need to find ways to help children to be active throughout the primary school years. We need to get children active and then keep them active as they move through primary school.

“To help us to do this we need to find the activities that children enjoy and foster as many opportunities within and outside of school to take part in activity across the day.”

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Notions of childhood

What do you think about when you think of the word ‘childhood’? Do you think of toys, playing with friends, the magic of Christmas, amateur dramatics or making a mess with paint? My own children think of playing outside, going to castles (we went to a lot of them!) and school.

Whatever comes to your mind, your thoughts are very likely to include commonly held notions of what it means to be a child. As a child you play, you learn, you imagine and you are kept sheltered from the dangers of the world for as long as possible even though bad things can, of course, still happen. The adults in your life want you to remain naïve and untainted by the brutal realities of the world—to simply be a child.

This article originally appeared the March 2017 edition of UKEdMagazine

So it is quite shocking to consider that this notion of childhood has only been a mainstream concept in the western world since the twentieth century. It is also worth remembering that, in many countries, for many different cultural, religious and economic reasons, childhood is very different to and distant from, our western ideal. In the past, while some children did experience a childhood that we might recognise today, most did not, and it is only in the twentieth century, and even then mainly in the west, that childhood, as we now know it, has become the norm.

Origins of childhood

Our modern notion of childhood has its origins during the Enlightenment otherwise known as ‘The Age of Reason’, which spanned from about the 1620s to about the 1780s. The Enlightenment shook up the traditional religious values of the Middle Ages and many cherished ideas about the nature of childhood were challenged and re-examined.

A particularly influential thinker at the time was John Locke who published the book ‘Some Thoughts Concerning Education’ in 1693. Locke’s ideas were highly regarded in educated circles despite being at odds with accepted thinking at the time. Locke stated that authoritarian teaching is counterproductive, suggesting, of children, that ‘all their innocent folly, playing, and childish actions are to be left perfectly free.’ The goal was to make moral children, not scholars. Locke believed that education should be enjoyable and sculpted around the needs of the individual child in order to make a productive, positive member of society. This was nothing short of revolutionary thinking at the time when any form of unstructured play or entertainment was considered a waste of time. In fact his words sound distinctly revolutionary and forward thinking today at a time when so much has been done by government to make learning increasingly formal, academic and proscribed.

The hornbook

In Locke’s time the only ‘book’ and learning tool specifically designed for children was the hornbook. With a history that traces back to the 15th century, this “book” was actually a wooden paddle, traditionally inscribed with the alphabet, numbers from zero to nine, and a passage of scripture. Unfortunately for the children of the time the wooden implement had the dual purpose of being both a learning tool and a form of punishment! In Locke’s time, very little thought was given to a child’s rights. If you didn’t have the money to care for a child, that child was simply used as an extra worker and if the child wasn’t working, then they were an extra mouth to feed.

Child labour in 17th century

England It is also disturbing from the perspective of 21st century England , to think of the 200-year-long English tradition of child chimney sweeps, which really took off in the 1660s. Small boys between 4 and 10 years old from families of poverty were sold to master sweeps. Using their elbows, back and knees, the boys would climb up and down narrow chimneys to clean out the soot. These children were severely beaten, starved, disfigured, prone to serious health complications, and frequently died young. However, this ‘business model’ remained until 1875, when it finally became illegal to use children as chimney sweeps.

The historic use of children as cheap labour has of course continued to the present day in many countries. Although the idea of children working, even for part of their day, is generally not now acceptable to us in the west, even when combined with formal schooling, many families across the world would not be able to survive if forced to abandon the practise. However, even if the ideal of a childhood free from the cares and corruption of the world is only possible if there is sufficient disposable income available, it is still amazing to think that the concept of childhood is only as old as our grandparents or, at the most, great grandparents.

What now for childhood?

Could it be that we have already passed the period with the most powerful conception of childhood (1850 – 1950) and that in the current era, childhood is now mainly defined and shaped by the media, particularly social media, rather than by society and families? If so this has profound implications for educators. Indeed I have noticed after 27 years in education that children appear to be less resilient emotionally and physically, than they were in the past. If the notion of childhood as being highly protected and low risk is a relatively modern phenomenon, I would suggest that it is dangerous to now consider this notion as fixed forever more, since it may not be benefiting our children in the long term. As educators, and as parents, I think that we have a duty to continually question what the nature of childhood should be, and that we should resist attempts to set it in conceptual concrete so as to best serve children’s long term interests in a rapidly changing world.

‘Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state’. – John Locke

Paul Stockley is a Primary Headteacher at Bradway Primary School in Sheffield where he is also Chair if the Primary Leaders Partnership. Find Paul on Twitter at @bradwaystockley and read his blog bradwaystockley.wordpress.com

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SATs week… Thursday…Mid-morning… The timer ticks to zero, papers are collected in and it’s my time to announce the end of the torment. I start by saying how proud we are of how hard they have worked all year and that they have represented themselves and the school brilliantly. I remind them that, whatever happens, their futures will not be affected by the outcomes. I assure them that they will no longer have to do daily double arithmetic lessons and pages of practice questions. But a thought will not leave the back of my mind… They still have lots of writing to do. Should I be feeling like this?

This is a re-blog post originally posted by @sirmobbsalot and published with kind permission.

The original post can be found here.

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I find myself repeating how proud we are, yet I can’t help saying (in my most teacherly voice), “but you must keep working hard everyday to make sure you achieve your best in writing.” Why did I have to say that in their moment of triumph?

I reason with myself that they need to keep focussed. That this isn’t the end.

I remind myself that previous cohorts have become monsters in the weeks following SATs, as they take their feet off the metaphorical pedal.

I think about the hours I have spent marking their writing – searching for semi-colons and shifts in formality and finding too few.

Should I be feeling like this?

Surely my amazing class deserved this moment of celebration without any ifs or buts. In this I failed and I’m sorry for that.

To make it up to them we head outside into the blazing sun with a football, sketch pads, chalk, rounders bat and my guitar. They laugh, run, play, climb trees (until I ask them to get down – safety first),  sing, dance and act like 11 year olds. 45 minutes pass and an all too familiar guilt rises inside me – what are they learning? Should I be feeling like this?

They deserved that time together in school but away from multiplying fractions, Roman numerals and fronted adverbials. They deserved to experience the feeling of success and achievement by doing whatever they wanted. Instead of being totally lost in the joy with them, I was thinking about how I could plan next week to make sure I had at least one piece of writing from each of them to assess. This isn’t me… have I fallen victim to assessment madness?! Should I be feeling like this?

Home… wine… plan.

I decided Friday must be a day of celebration (with purpose of course). I introduced the film of Treasure Island – 1950s Disney version because, in my opinion, its closest to the book (and the muppets were unavailable). Our end of year show will be a musical pirate extravaganza – with parrots, treasure and cheese?! But there it was again – that feeling of guilt. Should I be feeling like this?

I had full permission from SLT to do as I wanted on Friday in celebration, but I still sat listening for the classroom door to open, knowing I wasn’t making “every minute a learning minute.” Guilt, born from pressure created by only myself.  To make myself feel better I planned meaningful and interesting lessons for next week. Why could I not shut off just for one day?

Then on to our British picnic, the reward voted for by the class. With military precision, the team of Y6s brought the food out to the playground and dutifully laid it out on tables – savoury one end and sweet the other. As they laid the final tray, the first drops of rain fell, followed by a torrential downpour. We had prepared a plan B so the whole class immediately jumped to action carrying sandwiches, crisps, pork pies, quiches, pizzas, marshmallows, jam tarts, homemade cookies, lemonade and tablecloths into the hall. They were amazing as they organised themselves into a line and took barely any food to ensure they all had enough (3 trips later and there was still enough for the staff room table). Music played and piggy backing, dancing and merriment ensued, but there it was again, guilt. Was it too loud? Should I cut this short and go back to class? Could I accept them throwing a tennis ball inside? I felt so muddled but should I be feeling like this?

After a lovely art lesson, where my wife and daughter visited (a request from a group of my Y6s), we made our way to reward assembly. Certificates were handed out until finally we reached Y6, they stood, bowed, curtsied and Dabbed! I asked the whole school to applaud – staff and parents joined in and they deserved every second of it. As congratulations were offered, I found myself whispering “There is still writing to go.” Should I be feeling like this?

Ice cream sandwiches in hand they waved farewell and headed into the rain to start their weekend. As I closed the external doors, I let out a deep breath. My Y5 colleague said “Congratulations. I bet you’re glad that’s over!” I was about to speak when she said “I know, I know. There is still writing to go.” So apparently it’s not just my class I’ve been keeping focussed. Should I be feeling like this?

SATs are a tough time for Britain’s ten and eleven year olds and I’d like to offer my congratulations to them all. But they are also a challenging time for all adults involved as well, and I think due to the high stakes nature they can leave us feeling confused, conflicted and maybe even a little bit empty. I liken it to the day after a major event you’ve been preparing for – a marathon, the big match, a performance.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has felt anything similar in the days following the tests? Congratulations for finishing SATs this year but remember – there is still writing to go.

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When tragedy strikes, it can be devastating. Recently in the UK, many schools in the North of England had to deal with supporting students following the bomb that took so many lives at the Manchester Arena, wiping away lives of children and teenagers at the end of a pop concert. For us all, dealing with sudden, unexpected, and crushing loss like this can devastate lives in inconceivable ways. Such loss of life can really disrupt, but when such disruptions occur during important exam seasons, then it is difficult to focus minds and return to some picture of normalcy.

Beyond such public tragic events, as highlighted above, there are often other tragic events taking place in the lives of our students, which are less obvious, but still as devastating for the individuals involved. For example, the illness or loss of a close family member, a close family friend, even a family pet which has been part of a unit can all have a profound impact on an individual.

School environments can offer a great sense of belonging and community for individuals, offering a sense of escape from intense situations, along with offering a sense of normality. Some individuals need this sense of community, normality and escape, so getting the balance right can often be one of the greatest challenges.

1. Schools need to remember that the loss can affect staff members as well as students

A loss, or major tragic incident, can have a wide impact. Attentions can – quite rightly – focus upon our students, but the loss of a person can also impact of school staff, who may have met with individuals regularly, either in a teaching or teacher-parent capacity. It goes against the natural order of life, but when a student suddenly dies, it can be difficult for adults to come to terms with – this includes teachers. The school leader might not be the person who an individual wants to talk to for comfort, but school leaders can release other key staff who may be able to step in and offer support for their colleagues. Schools need to be flexible in this respect.

2. Acknowledge the sense of injustice

During incidents of personal tragedy or loss, we can all feel a great number of emotions including sadness, anger, anxiety, guilt, fear, denial, disbelief or confusion. It is important that all staff working with students acknowledge that these emotions are normal, and that they are part of being human. It would be abnormal if these emotions were absent, and no-one should be made to feel bad if they are feeling upset about such a disruption in their lives.

3. Support the supporters

Some individuals can take it upon themselves to support their friends or colleagues when they might be dealing with devastating loss. These close relationships are vital, but close friends may not be equipped with dealing with the situation they are trying to support. School leaders and teachers need to consider the wider circle of friends who are emotionally supporting each other, and ensure that they have someone who they can talk to in sharing the situation. This is probably easier to manage in smaller school (or primary) settings, but larger schools or colleges should encourage staff to share their observations of whom the circle of friends might be – who individuals get on with in class, probably beyond their normal circle of friends – to check that they are coping well in supporting each other.

4. Allow opportunities to talk

Grief is intensely personal and individuals will need to deal with such disruption in their own way. Allow opportunities to remember or celebrate the people who have died – it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom – and remembering happy times and memories will help people smile, share stories, and deal with the loss on a personal level. Circle time will work for some, and not for others. What is critical here is not to force people to undertake activities that they may not be ready for, or deal uncomfortable with. Just because a strategy may work for one group of students may not relate to another group of students. Some individuals will withdraw into themselves, but knowing that there is someone there if they want may be all that it takes to ease the situation for them.

5. Refer to formal policies and guidance

Formal policies and guidance documents within schools can sometimes feel very cold and bureaucratic – taking the ‘human’ element of tragedy away from the overall equation. Yet, a policy and guidance document can actually help direct and support school leaders, teachers and all school staff. Remember, the school is a community, and all school staff should be aware of policies and procedures which are in place to support them, as well as students. Policies should be written with reference to sources that deal with the impact of loss and tragedy on a regular basis

6. Be guided by those whose lives have been impacted by tragedy

I was in my late teens when I lost a good friend who had gone through school with me. As a group, my friends were devastated when the life-support machine was finally switched off, but I was taken aback by the resolve, courage and strength of the mother of my friend. Religion played a substantial part in her life, and she turned to her faith to get her through such a turbulent time in her life, including the funeral and burial. Even amongst feelings of unfairness and injustice, there are individuals who do call on greater powers to support them through those tough times. This should not be diminished at any level. Be guided by the beliefs, faith and communities that individuals may be part of outside the school environment. Dealing with tragedy or loss is an intimately personal internal experience. How one person deals with it will be different to another person. Recognise the differences, but observe signs where individuals are crying out for connection.

Just by carrying on with usual day-to-day activities, schools can do a huge amount to support pupils who are dealing with tragedy in their lives. It’s important not to necessarily be stoic and ignore events, but offering a sense of normality and continued routine can help distract and focus individuals during such difficult, tragic times. Schools offer the chance to play, laugh, sing, and generally just be a child without feeling guilty. Consideration also needs to be given about the age of your students, as children at different stages of development have different understandings of tragedy or death.

The world is a glorious and beautiful place, but sometimes darkness, grief and cruelty come along at times least expected. Ensuring children having someone they can trust to turn to – if and when they want – is critical, and schools are well placed to ensure they meet such challenges in a way that is supportive and caring for all members of the school community.

Resources:

Additional Support resources:

www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/bereavement/HealthProfessional/page6

The British Red Cross has launched a free educational resource for teachers to help young people come to terms with the bombing at the Manchester Arena on Monday evening.

Newsthink: Manchester attack will be sent to secondary schools today and is designed to help students age 11-19 share their feelings about the attack, consider how to respond in a crisis, and explore the needs of young people caught up in a similar incident.

British Red Cross staff and volunteers have been providing practical and emotional support to people affected by Monday’s attack.

The We love Manchester Emergency Fund, launched by Manchester City Council in partnership with the British Red Cross, has so far raised over £3 million to support people affected by the attack.

Mike Adamson, chief executive at the British Red Cross said:

“The people of Manchester have suffered a terrible tragedy and crises like this can be understandably difficult to explain and understand, particularly for children.

“We hope this resource will help teachers to help young people to talk about this tragic event and think about how we can respond to events like these with acts of humanity.”

Using real life examples, the British Red Cross teaching resource provides a unique perspective on how individuals and communities prepare for, respond to and recover from similar attacks.

The resource will help students:

• Share their feelings about the attack
• Consider how to respond in a crisis
• Explore the practical and emotional needs of people caught up in the incident
• Gain insight into the role of the Red Cross in emergency response and recovery

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E-Bacc: A couple of months ago my daughter was asked to choose her GCSE options. These are important choices to make when you’re only 12 (our school runs a 3 year KS4) and as a parent you have to worry that your child might be opting themselves out of future opportunities rather than making informed choices about on which subjects they might want to start focusing. Like any 12 year old, she changes her allegiances and preferences on a daily basis, so asking her to pick her preferred GCSE subjects is a bit like asking her to predict how cheese will be made in the year 3267. If I’d have asked her what career she wanted this time 3 years ago, she would have said she wanted to be in One Direction. 2 years ago she would have wanted to be a Survival Expert (think Bear Grylls in pigtails) , last year it would have been a video game coder and this year it’s a goat herd.

Of course I realise the need to pick GCSE options, there’s no way our current educational pathway structure can permit anything else, but our education system does feel a bit like a series of ways of losing out. At the start of secondary school you get given a bag of jelly beans with loads of different flavours to try. After a couple of years you can pick out the three flavours you don’t really like (aniseed, popcorn and mint, du), then at KS5 you can only pick 3 of your favourites (coconut, watermelon and cherry, obviously) and finally, at about 17, at UCAS time, you have to pick just one flavour jelly bean that you’re going to be stuck with for the rest of your life (Oh no! Watermelon. No! Coconut. No! Cherry. Wait! Why is life so unfair?).

But choose she must, so we, along with similar families all over the UK (and by similar I mean having a child going through options – I realise not all families have an inflatable shark in their kitchen) go along to Options Evening at school and we get to visit all the subject areas and hear about how the Options process works. Good schools do this exceedingly carefully, gently steering the child in a certain direction which will quietly provide them with a collection of matching E-Bacc buckets, whilst at the same time trying to hide their inherent desire to provide a way of delivering a truly personalised curriculum, with one bucket in the colour the child really wants, together with a spade, some sand, some pebbles and a cocktail stick flag to go on the top. Good educators know that the finest sandcastles need variety, imagination, creativity and seashells. No one wins a sandcastle competition with identically shaped buckets.

But this is what schools are being asked to do. To literally limit children’s options in order to create a way of measuring school performance. The E-Bacc page on Gov.UK says:

“The English Baccalaureate (E-Bacc) is a school performance measure. It allows people to see how many pupils get a grade C or above in the core academic subjects at key stage 4 in any government-funded school.”

A school performance measure. Not a way of improving outcomes for young people or a strategy to deliver the very best in education. No, a way of making the business of monitoring schools easier. Isn’t that missing the point somewhat? And whilst I understand the logic behind a balanced curriculum, part of me wants to let the child whose artistic talents are so evident, choose to fill their days with nothing but arts; to let the child who has only ever wanted to be a doctor start following their medical path straight away. The safety net of the balanced bucket approach is OK for the child who doesn’t yet know what they want to do, but even for them, surely they have the right to pick from the broadest range of jelly beans, not just the 5 most popular. After all, someone must like the aniseed flavour, or they wouldn’t make them.

So I explained the bucket thing to my daughter and she made sensible choices; Sociology, German and Geography – broad and balanced, but also absolutely perfect for an alpine goat herd, should her current career plan turn out to be a keeper. If it were down to me I’d have Elvish, Klingon and Parseltongue on the MFL list, and Small Animal Farming, Hot Air Ballooning and Potions listed as Sciences, but then I was lucky enough to have an English teacher as a father, who put creativity, imagination and opportunity into the heart of my childhood.

The E-Bacc is dull. It stifles the growth of a creative & personalised curriculum and it does a huge disservice to our future geniuses (I want to say ‘genii’). So, whichever government is elected after June 8th, I hope it will allow educational leaders to lead education. We have some of the world’s most creative and passionate teachers and educators in our midst, just think how wonderful our children’s lives would be if we let them do what they know they can.

Jelly bean anyone?

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The language learning gap between the North and South of England is widening, according to a new report from the British Council.

Analysis of examination statistics in the Language Trends Survey 2017 –  now in its fifteenth year –  highlights that in summer 2016, 65 per cent of pupils in Inner London took a language GCSE compared to just 43 per cent in the North East. More than that, participation rates over the last three years indicate that London is the only part of the country where the percentage of pupils taking languages to GCSE is currently increasing.

Access to language learning differs along socio-economic lines too. Pupils in schools in more deprived areas are less likely to sit a language GCSE or to be given the chance to study more than one foreign language. These pupils are also more likely to be allowed to drop languages after only two years or even to be withdrawn from language lessons altogether.

In spite of this, teachers surveyed are reporting some positive developments overall. Language teaching is more firmly embedded in the primary curriculum: 88 per cent of respondents express ‘whole-hearted commitment’ to primary languages. Nearly two thirds of primary schools said they now have more than five years’ experience teaching the subject although there are still huge discrepancies between primary schools in terms of language teaching provision.

At secondary level, some state schools with very low uptake in languages say they are successfully increasing numbers, stimulated by the EBacc measure. Meanwhile 38 per cent of state schools are planning for numbers to increase year on year.

That said, challenges remain including a ‘wide gulf of understanding’ between primary and secondary schools about the levels achieved at the end of primary school. There is a marked decline in the number of pupils studying more than one language, particularly in the independent sector where 45 per cent of schools report a decrease in dual linguists.

Fewer opportunities to talk with native speakers and experience other cultures first hand – such as through school exchanges or hosting language assistants in the classroom – is also seen to be negatively impacting languages uptake in schools. There is some concern that this may be exacerbated even further by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

Lead researcher Teresa Tinsley, said: “The report contains important messages for us all about the current place of language learning in our schools. It’s absolutely vital that more people recognise that the ability to speak another language can be as important for a child’s future as maths or science, and that it makes a significant contribution to overall literacy and knowledge about the world.”

Vicky Gough, Schools Adviser at the British Council, commented:“Learning a language should not come down to geographical location or background, it should be for everyone. And as the UK comes to reposition itself on the world stage, it needs to be.

“Not only are the personal benefits of learning a language huge but the country’s current shortage of language skills is already estimated to be costing the economy tens of billions in missed trade and business opportunities every year. If we are to ensure that the UK remains globally competitive in the current and ever-changing landscape, we need all of our young people to be given the chance to acquire these vital skills. And from businesses to parents to schools, we all have our part to play in making this happen.”

The Language Trends Survey 2016/17 is the latest in a series of annual research exercises, charting the health of language teaching and learning in schools in England. The research is based on an online survey completed by teachers in over 700 state secondary schools, over 720 state primary schools and over 140 independent secondary schools across the country.

Other key findings in the survey were:

·         There is little sign of an end to the decline in A-level numbers for languages – only a small minority (13 per cent) of those schools where numbers for languages have increased at GCSE as a result of the EBacc policy say that this has also improved take up for languages post-16;

·         Although many schools are expecting numbers for languages at Key Stage 4 to increase year on year, teachers are concerned that the new GCSE exam will deliver poor results;

·         Significant changes to Key Stage 3 are under way in preparation for the new GCSE exams – for example, a move to concentrate on one language only;

·         Top of teachers’ concerns are the increasingly difficult conditions for school exchanges, funding, and the exams system which is seen to be deterring pupils from taking languages at GCSE and A-level.

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The latest Social Mobility Commission report reveals that failures in early years education in England is creating a huge gap between the poorest children and their counterparts, and leaving many children starting school already behind their peers, which have life-long consequences. According to the report, at current rates of progress, it will take 15 years before all children are school ready and 40 years before the attainment gap between poor 5 year olds and their better-off counterparts is closed.

In response, Kevin Watkins, Chief executive of Save the Children said: “It’s nothing short of a scandal that in this day and age, so many of our children are falling behind in their learning from the start and left to stay behind throughout their lives.

“We all know that unless we get education right in the early years of a child’s life, so many of them – especially the poorest – will struggle right through to their GCSEs and beyond; into the world of work and even in their relationships.

“But while there has been a welcome government focus on providing free hours of nursery care, not nearly enough has been done to improve the quality of nursery education. When we have a shortage of 10,000 qualified nursery teachers and hundreds of thousands of children starting school are already behind their peers, it is time government made the quality of our nurseries a top priority.

“If we truly want to be a fair and prosperous society, we need to start at the beginning and give every child – no matter what their background – the very best start in life. This means making sure that every nursery has a qualified early years teacher to give them the confidence and education they need to prosper and excel.”

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

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SATs in England: This is my sixth time waiting for KS2 results. It is the first time I have tried to wait up for them but Summer 2 tiredness won; instead I had crazy dreams of 0% until finally I awoke at 3.37 and had to check. It was excitement more than anything – knowing how hard my children, team and I have worked this year I knew we were going to demolish our terrible results from last year.

Through bleary eyes, in the tired morning light and glow from my mobile phone, I refreshed NCA tools and pressed the “Pupil Results” tab. Column 1 shows reading and my pupil at the top of the list (secure all year on every assessment he has done and a scaled score of 108 on last years test) shows 99 – uh oh! This pattern continued as I read down the list and counted my 100+ over and over again. Surely there must be some mistake…

As my pillow tried to recover from a brutal right hook and my phone tried to come to terms with the sensation of flying, I considered what could have happened. I recovered my phone and pressed the “scaled score” link. I blinked hard and pressed refresh… I must be still asleep because I am sure I read that the threshold was 26. NCA tools refreshed and I read it again, after dunking my face in a sink full of water – hoping it would wake me from a nightmare.

After each refresh it said the same … 100 = 26 = EXS

I knew last year was 21 but I couldn’t believe that it would increase by so much so I tiptoed downstairs, trying not to wake my 20 month year old and wife, and loaded my laptop onto the school server. Last years’ documents confirmed: 100 = 21 = EXS (equivalent to a 96 scaled score this year) Over 30% of my pupils, who have worked themselves to a stand still this year, fell into the bracket of 96 to 99 scaled score – good enough for last year but not this year.

I understand that last year was deemed ‘harder’ and this year was deemed ‘easier’ but I don’t think it was so easy that 11 year olds should have to score +24% marks than last year to achieve EXS. Yes the maths and GPS thresholds were lowered and Yes we did a lot better in these subjects but the reading scores really hurt!

I have read many great blogs and twitter posts encouraging year 6 teachers to not feel responsible for outcomes as it is a “Key Stage” test. @thatboycanteach wrote a fantastic, supportive blog to all year 6 teachers but aimed at his own team… he also wrote one in the past about his feelings after receiving poor results. Guilt, self-doubt, worry.

This is what came over me. I am English Lead. Reading is the crux of English and I have not been able to deliver acceptable scores (by my standards) this year or last year. Perhaps I am not the person to lead Year 6, KS2 or English. This is how the results from 60 mins of high pressure, high stakes testing made me and I’m sure hundreds of others feel and for what?

I have never really questioned the system before, perhaps naïvely accepting that it is what it is and I am an agent to ensure that outcomes are where they need to be. At 3.48 though, this changed. I am now questioning the system massively, especially after reading some of the fallout on twitter and the huge spectrum of views. I know for a fact that many people will disagree with what I am about to write but I feel I have to say what I think because I am sure that others will agree.

I feel that the moving threshold is designed to make sure a significant proportion of children in Year 6 do not reach the expected standard. It seems that there must be significant failure to ensure that the Government have something to improve or create a ground-breaking initiative for.

I work at a school where Free School Meal children make up 75+% and our charges have extremely challenging home lives (I won’t go into it here but I can’t imagine how I would cope with what my heroic class deal with). We work with a no excuses policy and expect that achievement will be no different to anywhere else. We provide interventions, boosters and as much support that is humanly possible. We also pride ourselves in nurturing children and making them excellent members of society! This is why it is so devastating to see so many of them reach the standard of last year but to not be EXS due to another goal post change.

It feels as though we trained to climb Everest and when we got to the top someone had decided that because too many people had made the same climb that in order to be an expected standard mountain climber you now have to have climbed Ben Nevis as well. But all year, when we were assessing our mountain climbers, we were under the impression that they only had to climb Everest! It is utterly ridiculous!

I read a few comments and articles stating that it would be a flawed system if every child passed the test. Why!?

Set a standard e.g. 50% and have a yes/no grade (attached to a raw score/% score). If all pupils passed then surely that’s a great achievement by all involved in UK education? Moving the goalposts by so much seems as though it is meant to keep the strugglers struggling and the flyers flying. It is designed so that a large percentage of children will never reach the EXS as the threshold would creep higher. If all children had reached the 26 marks then more than likely the threshold would be 30. If they reached 30 then it would be 35 until finally the only way to achieve EXS would be to score 100% in all tests.

I am sure some will throw formulas and processes at me and the phrase “last year’s test was harder” will be banded about but that is down to the people who created the tests. If you have the formulas and the processes, create a test of the same difficulty every year so everyone involves knows the rules and the playing field. At the end of a game of rugby where you win by a point you can’t turn round and say actually you don’t win because too many teams won by 1 point so you have to win by 6. Most things in life have a set standard and either you achieve it or you don’t and if that standard changes, everyone is informed.

I recently watched the film “Eddie the Eagle” which chronicles his courageous journey to an appearance in the Winter Olympics ski jumping event. Originally he is told he must jump successfully from a 70m jump to qualify for the team, which he duly does with a stonking 31 metres. Immediately, he receives a letter from the British Olympic committee explaining that they have decided that he must in fact jump 61metres or more to qualify. They are the evil in the film and as a viewer you immediately hate them for this injustice… sound familiar?

I also read comments saying marking should be “Harsh” and saw pictures of many test scripts where answers, that were blatantly correct and showed that the children understood, were marked wrong due to a formality (slant of a comma, a letter slightly too large, not crossed out clearly enough)! Again… my question is why? Surely our wonderful children should be rewarded for what they know and not penalised for ridiculous things!

We did everything we could to prepare our children for these tests and they did amazingly well and it will be my job to tell them that sadly our best was not good enough in most cases – this is a very sad state of affairs. In my opinion the system is harsh and not fair… not fair at all.

Congratulations to all year 6 pupils for completing a wonderful year and we, your teachers, are proud of each and every one of you. Congratulations to all my primary colleagues on another fantastic year shaping the future generation.

Follow me on twitter @sirmobbsalot

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Funding Cuts: A Chronic Condition

My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes. That’s the one where your pancreas fails completely for no apparent reason. It’s nothing to do with your diet or weight, it’s the one where you have to test your blood throughout the day, eat sugary snacks when your blood sugars drop, even if you don’t want them, at 3 o’clock in the morning,  and inject yourself with insulin every time you eat. Poorly managed, it can cause a whole host of really horrible things to happen. Well managed, it means a strict regime of carb counting, injections, blood testing, hypo treatments and constant vigilance. It’s an absolute bastard of a disease for a child to live with. If I met it in the street, I’d punch its lights out.

But there are no such options with Type 1, you have to live alongside it, however much you hate it. We’ve lived with it for 5 years now, that’s approximately 11,000 times my daughter has had to stab herself in the finger to test her blood, and about 9,200 insulin injections. About a third of those have happened at school. When she was first diagnosed she was in year 4 at primary school, and a whole raft of training was launched at us and at her primary school staff. They had visiting nurses, new policies, training sessions, teaching materials, it was almost overwhelming, but they accepted the whole lot, without question and just got on with it.

As a parent, sitting frantically at the edge of a hospital bed as you’re told by a stranger that your child has a life-changing chronic medical condition, you make a vow, there and then, to protect your child and keep them close to you, so you can shield them from whatever dangers they will face. You learn everything there is to learn about the condition, your life is changed instantly, but you dump your old way of being in an instant and start packing whatever you might need for your family to set off on a slightly different course than the one you had planned. But pretty soon you realise that, however much you want to stay glued to their side, within a matter of days you’re going to have to hand them over to the care of virtual strangers.

The Handover

Sending your newly-diagnosed child off to school on their first day back after diagnosis is utterly horrifying. However much training staff may have had, as a parent you can never quite believe that anyone other than you can care for your child properly. You’ll be forgiven for being the nightmare parent you swore you’d never be, for the half hourly phone calls, the over-protective written notes in lunchboxes and the triple checking of instructions before anything other than the simplest of school activities.

But, gradually, you learn to loosen the vice-like grip a little, and you start to accept that your child is still alive at 3.00pm every day, that nothing bad happened, and that the school will call you if they have any concerns. They’ll take your advice and they’ll support your child, they’ll work with you and they’ll be absolutely steadfast in their determination to ensure that your child has every possible opportunity to take part in every single activity they can provide. It still astonishes me, the extra effort the school willingly go to, to include her in everything, without question. The extra training sessions, the extra risk assessments, policies, first aiders, snacks, visits to the medical room, work set during hospital stays, the care and concern that school staff show to my daughter, and to me, every minute of every day.

At what cost?

And all of this for nothing – schools don’t get a penny of extra funding to care for children with medical conditions, for diabetics, epileptics, asthmatics – they just absorb it all; the cost of staffing and running a Medical Room, the cost of first aid courses, the cost of supply to cover staff attendance at those courses, the cost of the phone calls home, the policy writing and review, the admin which makes sure that all relevant staff are kept fully up to date with changes to care plans and regimes. The extra eye that all school staff place on those physically vulnerable children, when they battle through normal childhood illnesses made so much more complex by their underlying conditions. The impact of the nightmare of teenage years, anxiety, relationships, hormones, even the weather, on their compromised immune systems and fluctuating well-being.

I worry that soon, as every single part of school life is having to be scrutinized for efficiency and worth, some schools may have to start limiting the quantity and quality of care they are able to offer. Whilst no one will want to say it out loud, there will be schools who will have to consider those costs very carefully indeed, and where pastoral and support staff may have to be sacrificed, so might the school’s ability to provide the full wrap-around care that currently comes as standard. As staffing hours are cut, so might the chance for that member of staff to take that extra minute to check in with their vulnerable kids, maybe missing a sign or a clue that all wasn’t as well as it could be that day.

I’m lucky, I work at the school my daughter attends, so I’m always helicoptering around, and my daughter’s team couldn’t do more to help her. I hope every other child around the UK is just as well looked after. But I worry, truly, that unless school funding is adequately addressed, the cracks will start to show still further, to the point where children are put at risk.

In the meantime, I celebrate the education she receives, the care she gets and the opportunities she is given. She’s off to Germany in a few weeks time, on a school enrichment trip where she will have the time of her life. The risk assessment has happened, the staff who will be caring for her are trained and prepared. I can’t say I’m not worried about her, of course I am, but I can say I’m happy to hand over my most precious possession to them and not sneakily book an extra ticket in the hotel next door, just in case.

I salute those staff. It’s hard enough being a parent of one or two children and managing a serious medical condition on a trip away from home, but I can only imagine the commitment and dedication it takes to look after one in a bunch of 30, where none of them are your own. The additional responsibility of caring for a child with a chronic condition, on a trip abroad, with the possibility of overnight medication and the unknown factors of climate, food and language, is enormous. Even those Cath Kidston Supermums who can juggle cake baking, museum visits, a party of twelve 5 year olds and the simultaneous construction of a cheese-based replica of the Houses of Parliament would baulk at that one, but teachers are expected to take it all in their stride, and they do.

So thank you support staff and teachers everywhere, who do so much more than it says on the job description, so much more than it says on the First Aid tin.

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My class devour stationery! They feast upon the stock cupboard until it is empty and cry “Please sir… I want some more.”
Unlike Mr Bumble, I want to give them more… much, much more. I want them to engorge themselves on, not only catalogue bought whiteboard pens and biros, but a whole feast of resources available. I want them to fall in love with creativity for life.

Sadly, my great expectations won’t be coming true for state school England, in fact we are heading for hard times. With the new funding formula, many schools face deep cuts and some are facing deficit budgets already. ‘Luxuries’, such as stationery, will be difficult to come by as budgets get tighter and tighter.

I envisage a world where Teachers trade card and pens in a Hunger Games-esque black market. Children will be the victims – starving and looking at the gluttony of the Capitol.

When I hear, “Please Sir..: I want some more,” I have to pretend to be Mr Bumble and look disapproving. But deep down I am Oliver, somewhat alarmed by my own temerity, asking those in government, who hold the purse strings, “Please, please,please… can we have some more.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2017 edition of UKEdChat Magazine.

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@sirmobbsalot Y6 teacher KS2 lead English Lead – Bradford, UK

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The number of children meeting the recommended amount of physical activity for healthy development and to maintain a healthy weight, which is 60 minutes a day, drops by 40% as they move through primary school.

A new survey from Public Health England (PHE) and Disney looking at the effects of physical activity on children’s emotional wellbeing, found:

• being active made the majority of 5 to 11 year olds feel happier (79%), more confident (72%), and more sociable (74%), according to their parents
• nearly all children said they liked being active (93%)
• the main motivations for kids to be more active was having friends to join in (53%) and having more activities they liked to choose from (48%)
• children’s overall happiness declines with age; 64% of 5 and 6 year olds said they always feel happy, compared to just 48% of 11 year olds
• 19% of children said they were less active due to a lack of sports or activities they enjoyed

To help kids do more activity throughout the summer holidays, Change4Life is today launching its national 10 Minute Shake Ups programme with Disney and schools across the country.

The programme offers fun, 10-minute activities for kids, featuring their favourite Disney characters and shows as inspiration. The activities, designed for children to do anywhere in small or large groups with their friends, help children get more of the 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity they need each day for healthy development and to maintain a healthy weight.

Currently, just 23% of boys and 20% of girls meet the national recommended level of activity. Furthermore, 1 in 5 children start primary school overweight or obese, rising to more than a third by the time they leave.

Eustace de Sousa, National Lead for Children, Young People and Families, PHE said:

Children’s physical activity levels in England are alarmingly low, and the drop in activity from the ages of 5 to 12 is concerning. Children who get enough physical activity are mentally and physically healthier, and have all round better development into adulthood – getting into the habit of doing short bursts of activity early can deliver lifelong benefits. This programme is part of our work to help children get the right amount of physical activity, both in school and out, as set out in the Childhood Obesity Plan.

The survey also identified the main barriers to physical activity and reveals that the worry of ‘not being very good’ was one of the most common, affecting 22% of children. This increases with age as it affects just 17% of 5 year olds, compared to 29% of 11 year olds.

The 10 Minute Shake Ups programme focuses on fun activities all children can do and is being supported by a number of Team GB athletes, including Olympic swimmer Keri-anne Payne, who have lent their voices to the campaign to encourage more children to take part and illustrate the benefits of physical activity.

Keri-anne Payne, Olympic marathon swimmer and ambassador of SportsAid, said:

Physical activity has always been an important part of my life, as I started swimming from a very young age. But being active is not just for Olympians, it’s for everyone. The 10 Minute Shake Ups provide a load of fun activities to get kids moving more. Anyone can try them and they are a great way for kids, their friends and the whole family to get moving throughout the summer.

10 Minute Shake Ups is run in collaboration with Disney and Sport England. The new Shake Ups will feature characters from Disney Pixar’s latest animation Cars 3, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Frozen Fever, and Zootropolis, as well as the stars of The Lodge.

Marianthi O’Dwyer, Vice President and Head of Disney Healthy Living UK said:

We know Disney stories and characters can help inspire children and families to be more active by making it simple and fun. As part of Disney’s global healthy living commitment, since 2006 we have been looking at ways to support families to live more healthily.

Last year’s successful Finding Dory ‘just keep moving’ campaign with the ASA and Change4Life saw over 70,000 families take part in family swim sessions at hundreds of pools across the UK. Highlighting the power of partnership, we are excited to continue working together with Change4Life on the 10 Minute Shake Up programme to encourage children to be more active.

Sport England will help families try new sports and physical activities locally, whether at their local park leisure centre or through a well-known sport.

Mike Diaper, Sport England’s Executive Director of Children and Young People said:

Tackling inactivity is a key part of Sport England’s strategy Towards An Active Nation, and we’re supporting families and children to get active together, using National Lottery funding. We know that parents can find getting their kids to be active a challenge. That’s why we’re proud to be supporting the Change4Life 10 Minute Shake Ups with Disney, which uses storytelling to create a fun, and imaginative way for children and their parents to get moving, perfectly timed for the summer holidays.

Last year, the 10 Minute Shake Ups programme helped over a million children get more active. When children return to school in September, more activities will be released on the Change4Life schools website to encourage them to carry on being active both in and outside the classroom.

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Whenever a teacher is asked what they do for a living, the response to their answer tends to be the same “Oh that sounds like hard work, but must be very rewarding” (closely followed by a remark about holidays, but that’s for another post!), the assumption being that teaching is a vocation, a calling, similar to medical professions or religious orders, for which one will tolerate the difficulties of the job to feel that glow of wellbeing. Teaching still has its rewards, of course, but in these times of data-driven enhanced accountability, the room for individual creativity in the classroom seems to be getting squeezed out, and with it, many of those rewards.

This article originally appeared in the June 2017 edition of UKEdChat Magazine.

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The attraction of teaching as a vocation may have driven recruitment in the past, but these days the reasons one gives for being in the profession are just as likely to be job security, career progression and receiving a decent wage. The disorganised and dishevelled, courdoroy-wearing but inspirational English or History teachers we remember from the Eighties and before, seem now to be a relic from the past.

We all know those famous teachers of film and literature who had the power to transform lives. Mr Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society, or Hector in The History Boys (for all his flaws) were inspirational and that’s what their pupils remembered. Perhaps that’s what Michael Gove was aiming for with his Free Schools – harking back to a different time when the all-powerful teacher had the freedom to use their own methods (although with measurable, evidenced progress and accountability still top priority, it remains to be seen whether Free Schools really offer what their name implies). Currently, there seems little room for the inspirational speeches which characterised those fictional teachers. Instead, if you were to pop into any mainstream school tomorrow morning, you would see all-singing all-dancing lessons packed with mini learning episodes linked to assessment objectives – the only accepted way of achieving the elusive “outstanding” grade. Fantastic for those learners, who no doubt will make good progress, but will it be memorable, or inspirational?

Many of us have been taught by uncompromising characters such as the ultra-strict but brilliant ballet teacher, gymnastics coach or musician. These stereotypes prevail in sport and the arts, with much success. But the didactic, personality-driven approach is frowned upon in schools nowadays. Maverick teachers are few and far between, largely due to the standardisation of the profession, and its high levels of accountability (I imagine Hector would have given short shrift to any inspector wishing to see written evidence of progress in every lesson!). In addition, shared pedagogy and practice, regular lesson observations and the ever-changing curriculum leave precious little time to go off-piste.

Many teachers have left the profession as they find their creative opportunities replaced by data entry requirements and obsessive box checking to prove progress has occurred. Yes, a standardised pedagogy achieves a level of consistency across the profession which was most certainly lacking in the pre-Millenium, pre-National Curriculum age (with some truly appalling characters putting us off certain subjects for life!) but the question remains – have we lost something in the quest for consistency?

So where do the non-conformist teachers go when the classroom is too restrictive? That personality who wishes for greater freedom, autonomy and creativity that used to be the hallmark of excellence? Some teachers seek a different environment – moving to the private sector, to special schools, or to alternative provision (where the national curriculum is not a requirement). Alternatively, there is tuition.

Successful tuition is all about personality and rapport. If a successful working partnership is formed between teacher and learner, the results will speak for themselves. There is no standardised code of practice, in fact a tutor’s unique methods can be precisely what makes their lessons desirable. Consider how Ivan Lendl helped Andy Murray to Wimbledon success. Murray chose him for his unique qualities, not for his standard practice.

Tuition, coaching, instructing, call it what you will. It is the one place guaranteed to provides the freedom to be creative, to be experimental; inspiring and educating through personality.

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School trips to Chester Zoo will be free from November 2017 to February 2018 in a bid to encourage a new generation of conservationists.

Speaking to the local newspaper, Head of discovery and learning at the zoo Charlotte Smith said: “Conservation is critical and now is the time to act for wildlife. We won’t stand back. We know that visiting a zoo improves people’s understanding of biodiversity and the living world. We want to encourage as many schoolchildren through our gates as possible. It could be the key to protecting the living world around us.

School groups are asked to pre-book, with a maximum capacity of bookings per day to avoid overcrowding and ensure every child and visitor is able to enjoy a world class experience. A range of post-visit learning resources for schools are also available at:

www.chesterzoo.org/education

Original source

Image source – Chester zoo Education

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Schools are rejecting the chance to teach children in “mixed-ability” classes despite evidence that the alternative – pupils being put in ability sets or streams – will have a negative effect on at least some of their charges’ results, according to new research from UCL.

The paper – “Factors deterring schools from mixed attainment grouping practices,” written by Dr Becky Taylor, UCL Institute of Education (IOE), together with academics from Queen’s University, Belfast, was presented yesterday at the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) annual conference.

The study finds that fear of reactions from parents, who often expect children to be grouped in sets or streams, as well as a more general caution in schools, may be playing a part in these decisions.

It cites previous evidence that setting, where pupils are grouped in classes based on prior results in tests or other judgements the school may make about their “ability”, is overwhelmingly used for maths in English secondary schools.

It is also widely used in English in secondaries, while setting has also been extending into primary schools. This is despite established research showing that, while “high-attaining” pupils may make some gains from the practice, the reverse is true for those in lower sets, including many students from poorer backgrounds.

The BERA paper sets out difficulties the research team had in even finding schools to take part in a major investigation they are carrying out into “best practice” in how pupils should be grouped in the early years of secondary school.

The researchers sought to set up a randomised control trial in which they would compare the test results of children who were grouped in ability sets, and those taught in “mixed attainment” classes.

But while they recruited all of the 120 schools they had sought which taught pupils in sets, it proved impossible to find even the much smaller sample they had aimed for among schools teaching mixed classes. Having aimed for 20 such schools from the London area alone, the team only managed to recruit 17 from across England.

In the paper, analysis of the team’s experience in struggling with recruitment to the trial is complemented by evidence from interviews, other research studies and a survey of those schools which did feature in the investigation and which use mixed attainment teaching. This presents a picture of a widespread reluctance among schools to adopt the practice.

Survey and interview data suggested that a lack of exposure to mixed-attainment teaching in the past, especially among maths teachers, was a likely factor in low levels of mixed-attainment teaching now. Teachers also worried they would not have the time to do the work needed to change their practice.

Some schools which ended up withdrawing from the mixed-attainment element of the trial said that they worried that it would be viewed as “unconventional” by parents, who might avoid choosing the school for their children as a result.

In a climate of fear in which schools faced serious consequences if results fell, there was also a caution against trying anything new. This may be creating a “vicious circle”, with the practice seen as “risky”, so few schools adopted it, which meant few teaching resources were created to support it.

Paradoxically, however, this is despite setting seemingly lacking strong research evidence. On the website of the Education Endowment Foundation, the organisation set up by the government to promote evidence-based teaching, the practice of “setting or streaming” is listed as likely to have a “negative impact”, on balance, on pupils.

The site says: “Overall, setting or streaming appears to benefit higher attaining pupils and be detrimental to the learning of mid-range and lower attaining learners. On average, it does not appear to be an effective strategy for raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, who may be assigned to lower groups.”

Lower-attaining learners made one to two months per year less progress when taught in sets or streams as opposed to those in mixed classes, the site says in a summary of existing research, although the reverse was true of higher-attainers.

Some schools were committed and enthusiastic users of mixed-attainment teaching, the paper found, in some cases viewing it as part of their identities. But they were clearly well outnumbered.

Dr Taylor said: “The recruitment records and recruitment outcomes to our large-scale project, and qualitative data gathered in our pilot study, show that schools are generally reluctant to engage with mixed attainment teaching, particularly in mathematics and even in an educational context that strong advocates evidence-based practices.

“Mixed attainment grouping is widely seen as difficult, and unconventional, and therefore risky.”

“It is student attainment outcomes which suffer as a result of this fear, while research suggests outcomes might be improved (at least for low attainers) by mixed attainment grouping.”

“Factors deterring schools from mixed attainment grouping practices”, was being presented to BERA by Dr Becky Taylor (IOE) on Tuesday, September 5th.

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Tertiary enrollment is expanding rapidly, with very strong returns for individuals and taxpayers, but new evidence shows that universities can fail to offer, and individuals fail to pursue, the fields of study that promise the greatest labour-market opportunities, according to a new OECD report.

Education at a Glance 2017 includes for the first time in-depth analysis of the subjects students take at vocational and tertiary level. It finds that business, administration and law are the most popular careers in countries surveyed, chosen by around one in four students. This compares to 16% in engineering, construction and manufacturing, and less than 5% of students study information and communication technologies, despite graduates in these subjects having the highest employment rate on average across OECD countries, exceeding 90% in about a third of them.

Data specific for the United Kingdom reveals that the highest proportion of wealth is spent on primary to tertiary educational institutions, above the average for OECD countries.

Teachers’ Pay

In contrast, teachers’ statutory salaries in England and Scotland fell in real terms between 2005 and 2015. Accounting for inflation over this period, salaries were worth 12% less in 2015 than in 2005 in England, and 6% less in Scotland across all levels of education. This compares to average real terms increases in teachers’ statutory salaries across OECD countries of 10% at pre-primary level, 6% at lower secondary level and 4% at upper secondary level.

EYFS Funding

Early childhood education relies more heavily on private funding in the UK than in most OECD countries. Less than half of the expenditure on pre-primary education came from public sources in 2015 (47%), the second lowest proportion across OECD countries, and considerably less than the OECD average of 82%.

The UK version of the report is viewable here:

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Press Release: New assessment to provide a better starting point to measure progress and the impact of schools.

This is a press release and does not represent our editorial views.

Plans have been announced by Education Secretary Justine Greening for a primary assessment system which focuses on pupil progress, mastering literacy and numeracy, and scrapping unnecessary workload for teachers.

The plans to create a stable, long-term approach that ensures children are taught the essential knowledge and skills they need to succeed at secondary school and in later life were published today following a 12-week consultation with the teaching profession and other stakeholders. This is delivering on the commitments the government made at the election.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said:

A good primary education lays the foundations for success at secondary school and beyond. This year’s key stage 2 results showed our curriculum reforms are starting to raise standards and it is vital we have an assessment system that supports that.

These changes will free up teachers to educate and inspire young children while holding schools to account in a proportionate and effective way.

The government confirmed that it will:

• Introduce a new teacher-mediated assessment in the reception year from 2020 to provide a baseline measure to better track pupils’ progress during primary school. The check, which will be developed in conjunction with the teaching profession, will ensure schools are given credit for all the work they do throughout a child’s time at primary school;
• Improve the early years foundation stage profile – a check on a child’s school readiness at the end of their early years education. This includes reviewing supporting guidance, to reduce burdens for teachers;
• Make key stage 1 tests and assessments non-statutory from 2023 and remove the requirement for schools to submit teacher assessment data to the government for reading and maths at the end of key stage 2, as these subjects are already assessed through statutory tests, from 2018-19;
• Introduce a multiplication tables check to aid children’s fluency in mathematics from 2019-20;
• Improve teacher assessment of English writing by giving teachers greater scope to use their professional judgement when assessing pupils at the end of key stages 1 and 2 from the current academic year (2017-18).

Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT said:

Today the government have confirmed that, from this year, teachers will once again be able to apply professional judgement when assessing pupils’ writing. Teachers and school leaders have argued strongly that sufficient flexibility to properly recognise pupils’ achievements was needed. This move is a welcome step in the right direction.

The decision to make SATs for seven year olds non-statutory in favour of a new reception baseline assessment may well be met with trepidation by some, but it is absolutely the right thing to do. Under current accountability arrangements, the hard work and success of schools during those critical first years is largely ignored. If designed properly, these new assessments can provide useful information for schools to help inform teaching and learning whilst avoiding unnecessary burdens on teachers or anxiety for young children.

We intend to work with government to ensure that this is exactly where we end up. Taken together, these measures are a big step in the right direction.

The government has also set out how it will better support children who are not yet working at the standard of the national curriculum tests.

The changes, which follow a consultation on the findings of the independent Rochford Review, will ensure there are appropriate assessment arrangements in place and there will be a pilot of a new approach to assessing the attainment of children with the most complex special educational needs.

Introducing these measures will help schools support these children to progress on to mainstream forms of assessment during primary school, if and when they are ready, ensuring no child is left behind.

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Ofqual, the examinations regulator, is conducting a review into current teachers being involved in the development of exams, such as writing papers or questions.

As part of this review, they would like to hear from anyone who has relevant insights or experiences to share – responses will be treated in confidence.

They particularly wish to hear from people who:

• have been involved with developing exam materials
• have taught alongside colleagues who had access to confidential assessment materials before the exams were taken
• were taught by teachers who knew, or said they knew, what was going to be included in specific exams

Also, they would particularly like to hear views on:

• the relative benefits and risks of teacher involvement in developing exams for qualifications they teach
• the effectiveness of the safeguards used to prevent disclosure
• the ability of a teacher who knows the content of an exam to disregard that when preparing their students for the same exam
• how current safeguards could be strengthened

Additionally, they would also like to hear from you if you have insights into, or experiences from, other sectors and/or other countries that you believe would be relevant to our review.

All information submitted in response to this call for evidence will be used only to inform the review, and will not investigate any specific complaints or allegations you raise. They advise individuals that if you want them to look into a specific incident you should provide with details using normal complaints or whistle-blower procedures.

The closing date for this call for evidence is 31 October 2017 at 5pm.

Respond, in confidence, to Ofqual’s call for evidence

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