CES Newsletter: Issue 07 - Ratcliffe...
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Transcript of CES Newsletter: Issue 07 - Ratcliffe...
The schools section contains articles on; Education budget highlights State schools should stop fighting a class war Beware turning neuroscience into neuro nonsense We like free speech (of the right sort) Hijab controversy Girls schools give more confidence to call out sexual harassment Girls are more cooperative than boys Pay teachers more and stop the warm words A threat to private schools New remark rule causing problems Ned to toughen girls up Need more linguists Teacher retention problems A new regulation agency Big boost to numbers receiving free school meals Racism against white minorities is accepted We need firm plans on compulsory PSHE Must stop teaching to the test Free school report
The higher education section contains articles on; Oxford failed me Student bullying a major concern UK universities drop in international employability league Professor asks too much of his students Business school woes Cross subsidy or being ripped off? How far should religious tolerance go? Not very neighbourly Class of 92 university
The employment section contains articles on; Models accept abuse as part of the job Small retail businesses face large rates rise Bankers welcome (but) Brexit challenge is not just for the City1 Brexit challenge is not just for the City2 Need more Eu workers to register EU workers Productivity varies by region Current opportunities
The miscellaneous section contains articles on; Income disparity Drink problems are an older age issue Women are more altruistic Old boys network Need to link education to the wider infrastructure Intending to take action on young peoples’ mental health Birmingham is doing well French is not for changing
SCHOOLSEDUCATION BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
New investment to include £177m on maths and around £85m on computing. Expansion of the Teaching for Mastery maths programme to a further 3,000 schools, to train maths
teachers across the country. This training will be delivered through new “Further Education Centres of Excellence”
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The introduction of a £600 ‘maths premium’ for schools, for “every additional pupil who takes A-level or core maths”. More than £80m will be available initially, and there is no cap on numbers.
Invitation of proposals for new maths schools across England, with £350,000 available for each one set up from a fund of £18m
The trial of a £1,000 ‘teacher development premium’ for teachers working in “areas that have fallen behind”, with £42m of initial funding to pay for continuing professional development opportunities
A guarantee that every secondary school pupil can study computing, ensured by trebling the number of trained computer science teachers to 12,000
An £8.5m pilot that will test ‘innovative approaches’ to improve GCSE maths resit outcomes A new National Centre for Computing.
However, education's share of public spending is continuing to fall, to its lowest level since 2011-12. Spending will amount to £102bn in 2018-19, according to data from the Office for Budget Responsibility and HM Treasury. This represents 12.6% of the predicted £809bn of public expenditure due to be spent next year. This is down from the 12.71% that the Spring Budget said would be spent on education in 2017-18. Next year will be the fifth consecutive year in which education's proportion of public spending has fallen. The single biggest area of public expenditure is ‘social protection’, on which £252bn will be spent in 2018-19. This accounts for 31.12% of total government spending. Health is the next biggest area, with £155bn set aside for 2018-19, representing 19.15% of expenditure.
STATE SCHOOLS SHOULD STOP FIGHTING A CLASS WAR Martin Stephen, head of the private National Mathematics and Science College in Coventry, has said that some state schools are "fighting a class war" in turning down partnerships with private schools, and said Ofsted should “oblige” state schools to enter into partnerships with independent schools if offered. Speaking at the GSA annual conference, Mr Stephen said independent schools have a “vast store of expertise in teaching the more able” and yet a number of state school heads do not enter into partnership with local independent schools “through dogma and prejudice and fighting a class war”. He said: “I use the word ‘oblige’ and not the word ‘invite’. There will be bruised egos and bruised prejudices, and undoubtedly attempts to sabotage such schemes. I consider 65,000 children [the number of high-attaining pupils leaving primary who did not achieve A or A* at GCSE in English or maths] far more important than any head’s bruised ego, or the remnants of a class warfare that should not be allowed to injure our children.”
The DfE’s Green Paper last year, and the Conservative election manifesto, said that independent schools could face losing tax breaks that come with charitable status if they did not cooperate in state school partnerships. The consultation paper, Schools That Work for Everyone, proposed that "independent schools with the capacity and capability" should sponsor an academy or set up a new free school, or offer a proportion of places as fully funded bursaries to those unable to pay fees. The Tory manifesto said at least 100 leading independent schools would be expected to become involved in academy sponsorship or the founding of free schools in the state system.
BEWARE MAKING NUROSCIENCE INTO NEURONONSENSE Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, has said that teachers should be wary of using neuroscience to inform their teaching, as there are no genuine links that can be made between it and education. He said: "There is no one discovery from brain science that changes the way education works. There has been a real explosion of interest in neuroscience. There has also been a corresponding increase of neuro-nonsense, neuro-myths or neuro-bollocks. They are using this to propagate all sorts of practices which I think are potentially dangerous. The link between education and neuroscience is a bridge too far and a dangerous bridge."
He told the GSA conference, "What can neuroscience tell us as educationalists? And I have to say, hand on my heart, nothing. We don't really know anything yet.” He said that we are still just beginning to understand how the brain works, and neuroscience can't say anything with "any meaningfulness to something as complex as education”. He added, "Teachers want to improve but they are being fed a diet of misconceptions and neuroscience nonsense."
WE LIKE FREE SPEECH (of the far-right type)Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury has defended plans encouraging students to debate controversial ideologies and texts, such as Mein Kampf. Dr James Soderholm, course leader, said: "To examine a text is not to peddle its propaganda or fall in league with its message, it is to lay bare that ideology for inspection." He said that anyone who did not understand was "wilfully ignorant or doesn't understand the first thing about good teaching". He said that the course, The Unsafe Space, would be "the antidote to political correctness". The school said the seminars would be "a vehicle for freedom of speech", and would challenge pupils to "think oppositely". Other scheduled seminars include ‘Women versus feminism’ and ‘Not all cultures are created equal’.
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The NEU in Kent has urged caution and some students have expressed concern. Christine Dickinson, secretary of the NEU, said: "There are many uncomfortable subjects that have to be discussed in school, but the school must be very careful about the way that they approach it." Perhaps of concern here is the fact that the school has previously been criticised for inviting the far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos to speak, who famously said that feminism was worse than cancer. Is there a pattern? Perhaps it wants to invite Steve Bannon next, or some nice men in white wimple hats?
HIJAB CONTROVERSYThe Ofsted head, Amanda Spielman, has said that primary school pupils should be asked why they wear the hijab, which "could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls". Ofsted said this was in line with its current practice of assessing whether a school promotes equality. The National Secular Society in September said that 59 of 142 Islamic schools, including 27 primary schools, in England have a uniform policy which states a head-covering is compulsory. The hijab is traditionally worn as a sign of modesty once a girl reaches puberty.
Unsurprisingly, it has provoked a backlash, Sajda Mughal, head of JAN Trust, a charity working with BAME and Muslim women, said the idea was "nonsense and discriminatory" and that it will be used by extremists to advance their narrative of "them and us'" and could fuel marginalisation. She said, "I know as a Muslim mother of young girls, I'd be alarmed and horrified if I found that my daughters were questioned if they wore the hijab." Human rights campaigner, Aisha Ali-Khan, said that primary schools should be held to account "rather than quizzing little girls". She said that Oftsed should instead ask "why are primary school uniform policies allowing hijab for girls under the age of puberty when Islamic laws state otherwise." Amina Lone, from the Social Action and Research Foundation, who lobbied Ofsted to take action, had an alternate perspective, she said, "As a second-generation Muslim woman and a parent, I have huge concerns about the increasing encroachment of gender inequality in public spaces for women of faith, the hijab is absolutely not required for children. Gender equality was hard fought for in this country and we shouldn't be diluting that ." Current government advice states: "Pupils have the right to manifest a religion or belief, but not necessarily at all times, places or in a particular manner."
GIRLS’ SCHOOLS GIVE MORE CONFIDENCE TO CALL OUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT Charlotte Avery, president of the Girls' Schools Association, has told their annual conference that girls who attended single-sex schools are more likely to have the confidence to "call out" sexual harassment. She said that there is no sense of such behaviour being "normalised" in girls' schools, “because they don't see it, because it is simply not there”. She added, “I always say to the girls 'you are in a privileged space now, you have got the opportunity to learn, to really understand who you are and what difference you want to make'. And then when they go out and they are involving themselves post-puberty, because I think puberty is a different area from adult life, when they go out and meet men and indeed women who have been at co-ed schools, that they have the confidence to be able to call it out in a way, because it is something that is different to them."
Ms Avery also said that whilst she believed it was important to have celebrities and public figures speaking out about sexual harassment and discrimination, "I also think it's really important that the girls have role models who are not just celebrities, because the aspiration to be a celebrity is unreal, they're not going to end up, most of them being a celebrity. So, if they can find role models who are less elevated but still present in their lives, and that might be a teacher, it might be a figure in their life outside school, that's also very important."
GIRLS COOPERATE BETTER THAN BOYS (PISA states the blindingly obvious)PISA, which compares students' abilities in reading, maths and science, has carried out the world's first global tests on collaborative problem-solving skills. It found that the top-performing countries in academic tests, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Estonia, Finland and Canada, are also high performers at collaborative problem solving. However, Chinese students, who do very well in maths and science, are only average in their collaborative skills. The top 10 for collaborative problem solving were: Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Canada, Estonia. Finland, Macao, New Zealand and Australia. The UK came 15th, behind Germany and the US.
Five years ago, PISA tested individual problem-solving skills, finding that boys tend to do better in most countries. However, when collaboration is added to the problem solving, girls outperform boys. In the UK this gender gap is one of the largest. They found that girls had more positive attitudes towards relationships, tending to be more interested in others' opinions and want others to succeed. In contrast, boys, are more likely to see the benefits of teamwork and how collaboration can help them work more effectively and efficiently. The study also found that disadvantaged students are more likely to see the value of teamwork than their advantaged peers, and that schools with more diversity in their intake are more likely to be associated with better collaborative skills, at least relative to performance in the academic disciplines. The study also said that the classroom environment had a significant influence, when students have a lot of 3
communication intensive activities, such as taking part in class debates or arguing about science questions, they are more likely to have positive attitudes towards collaboration. Where teachers are supportive and have more positive relationships with students, this also is more likely to be linked to higher levels of working together.
The report also said that parents have a major role to play, and that students scored much higher in the collaborative problem-solving assessment when their parents showed an interest in school activities. They said that students who use the internet for chatting or social networking tend to better at collaborative problem solving. But students who play video games seem to do worse, even after considering social and economic factors. The report said that in a world that places a growing premium on social skills, a lot more needs to be done to foster those skills across the school curriculum, and stressed that strong academic skills will not automatically also lead to strong social skills.
PAYMENT RATHER THAN WARM WORDSJoe Nutt, an educational consultant and author, has said that rather than, “Patting teachers on the head, start treating them like adult employees, and reward them financially for all their extra work.” He said, “So many people in education undervalue themselves and their skills in comparison with the private sector. This happens because education is largely a gift economy. It is commonplace to expect things to be done for free that in the commercial world everyone would expect to be paid for. It’s deeply embedded in the professional culture of teaching, a really unpleasant side effect of all that intrinsic motivation”. He said, “It is naive and insulting to suggest to adults, whose only means of supporting themselves and their families is through work, that they should exchange their skills, experience and talent for nothing more than a warm, fuzzy glow. What teachers should do, from their first day in the classroom, is calmly and firmly resist the temptation to do anything for nothing. Heads and other senior staff would soon stop expecting young, enthusiastic staff to work for free.”.
Mr Nutt said that “It should be an expectation, as it is in every commercially sound organisation, that work, and effort are rewarded, fundamentally through income. You can get as creative as you like about incentives over and above that basic contractual agreement, and many businesses do”. He adds, “Where that basic agreement is abused, avoided or ignored, as it is in a gift economy like education, you inevitably sow the seeds of poor performance, resentment and, ultimately, failure. Which explains why the huge percentage of trainees who leave the profession too early has stagnated for so long”.
A THREAT TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS Private schools in Scotland are to be forced to pay full business rates, after the Scottish government announced the plans, which will cost the sector an extra £5m a year. Barnaby Lenon, chair of the ISC, said “The average independent school in the UK has only 150 pupils and makes very little in terms of financial surplus each year. The imposition of additional business rates on independent schools will cause some to close. Others would have to cut back on bursary funding for low-income families, one of the things the English government has said it wants more of.” He added: “By educating children that would otherwise be in the state sector, independent schools will save the UK taxpayer £4bn this year, a huge sum compared with the benefits of business rates relief.”
Heads in Scotland say that the tax will put schools with boarders at a competitive disadvantage compared with schools in England. The Scottish government are considering how they might mitigate the charge for smaller independent schools that cater for children with special needs. About 30,000 pupils in Scotland are educated in the independent sector, including 1:4 pupils in Edinburgh. Private schools in Scotland already have to pass public interest tests to retain their status as charities, including providing means-tested bursaries, and making sports facilities available to the wider community. John Edwards, head of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, said: “Taking away the relief will simply undo the widened access and shared facilities that charitable status requires. In both cases the state and other bodies will pay more as a result.” Richard Cairns, head of Brighton College, said: “Independent schools already pay millions of pounds in taxation each year and, more importantly, they educate hundreds of thousands of children at no expense to the taxpayer. This measure is politically motivated and short-sighted in the extreme .”
NEW REMARK RULE CAUSING PROBLEMS A new rule requiring schools to seek permission from pupils before submitting their GCSE exams for re-marking is causing an ‘administrative burden’ for teachers trying to challenge results for the whole cohort. The change means that GCSE papers submitted for re-marks from this summer are at risk of being marked down as well as up, so schools must get permission from pupils before sending papers. Previously, schools could submit large groups of pupils for re-marking without any fear that they would drop grades.
Suzanne O’Farrell, from the ASCL, said the concern had been repeatedly raised by members. She said, “I understand the principle behind it, trying to be fair to all students, but if students have moved into a different setting and there is a concern about mistakes at a cohort level, it can get very difficult to get those permissions.” The change was 4
announced by Ofqual in May 2016, but was only enforced in this summer’s exam series. At the time of the announcement they argued that it was “not fair” for a candidate who was given a higher result than their performance deserved to “automatically keep that result purely because the error was discovered through a review”.
NEED TO TOUGHEN GIRLS UPLucy Elphinstone, head of Francis Holland Girls School, has said that sensitive girls should be taught ‘banter’ to toughen them up for the world of work, saying that they need to learn how to laugh at themselves and overcome “the curse of the good girl”. She said, “I think girls are, perhaps by nature, sensitive and easily hurt, very often when we hear something that is just gentle teasing, we tend to call it bullying and boys would never call each other that. They are used to calling each other nicknames, pushing each other around a bit and making fun of each other, but often it’s a sign of endearment. Girls need to learn to not take themselves quite so seriously, to laugh at themselves a little bit more and to understand that teasing isn’t necessarily something that is cruel or unkind.” She said that these important lessons will prepare girls for life beyond the classroom when “they will get far worse than teasing”.
Ms Elphinstone said, “I like the fact that we as women tend to be much more authentic and truthful than men do, than men are, sometimes to our own detriment. I certainly teach my girls that well known trait, how to blag it. Sometimes you have to go for that job or that position when you are not sure whether you have all the experience or qualifications necessary, but you are brave enough to have a go and believe in yourself. Sometimes we need to be able to take risks, to be braver, and sometimes to learn how to wing it a bit.” She said that this was particularly important in male dominated professions such as law, politics, banking and finance.
Mrs Elphinstone said that girls’ schools are the ideal environment to perfect these skills, because they can practise banter and blagging “without fear of losing a boyfriend or losing a boy’s respect or being called brainy or what have you. They can take risks in a supportive environment, and I think that’s the most important thing. They can learn to speak up and be brave, without thinking ‘oh my gosh, my whole street cred [will be ruined] now and will be all over social media’, which is what can happen in a co-ed environment.” She added, “We encourage girls to take risks, to encounter failure, to learn that a grade B is not a disaster, and to laugh at themselves a little bit more ."
NEED MANY MORE LINGUISTSA new report from the British Council, Languages for the Future, says that Brexit will mean more speakers of Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German are needed, and calls for languages to be given the same priority as STEM subjects in schools to help tackle the UK’s “language deficit”. The report warns that language provision in many schools already “looks increasingly vulnerable”, and that Brexit could further erode our already “limited language capability”. It calls for a “bold new policy” to improve language learning.
The report says that Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German are the languages the UK will need most once the country leaves the EU, and that, “Some of the languages we are likely to need most in future have only a marginal place in our education systems.” There was a 9.9% fall in GCSE entries for French this year, with numbers down by more than 26.5% since 2010; while German saw a 13.2% fall, with numbers down by 38% since 2010. There was also a continued drop-off in French and German A-level entries, while the numbers taking Spanish rose slightly. There were increases in entries for a number of other foreign languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Italian.
The report says: “Schools are constrained, among other factors, by the availability of qualifications and of teachers. Although GCSE and A-level qualifications exist in 19 foreign languages, teacher-training courses focus almost exclusively on French, Spanish and German. Headteachers say their main concern is a plentiful supply of high-quality teachers, and with very few teacher-training routes available for the lesser-taught languages, introducing a new language is a considerable risk. These factors explain why it has been difficult for languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Japanese or Arabic to gain a foothold in the system or to achieve a critical mass, despite pockets of intense enthusiasm and good practice.” It concludes, “The UK has now reached a critical juncture where investment in upgrading the nation’s language skills is critical.”
Vicky Gough, schools’ adviser at the British Council, said: “Languages are invaluable for a generation growing up in an increasingly connected world. If the UK is to be truly global post-Brexit, languages must become a national priority. At a time when global connections matter more than ever, it is worrying that the UK is facing a languages deficit. We cannot afford the apathy around the need for languages to continue and must champion these skills. If we don’t act to tackle this shortfall, we’re set to lose out both economically and culturally.” Pippa Morgan, CBI head of education and skills policy, said: "We need to find ways to encourage more students to take up modern languages by showing just how useful it can be to their careers."
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PROBLEM KEEPING TEACHERSA survey by the NAHT has found that the proportion of school leaders citing retention as a key factor contributing to their inability to fill posts has nearly tripled in three years. The findings have been given to the Commons' Public Accounts Committee who are holding a hearing on teacher retention. The survey found that 66% of school leaders said that they were aware that some of their teachers left before retirement age. The top reasons given for leaving were workload (referred to by 84%) and achieving a better work-life balance (83%). When asked why they struggled to fill posts, 44% cited the number leaving the profession as one of the top reasons, the figure was 15% in 2014.
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said that “Too many teachers leave the profession before their time is up, consequently, the UK teaching population is one of the youngest in the OECD. Experienced teachers are a vital component of a well-functioning system and we are just not hanging onto enough of them ." He added: “Low pay, high workload and stress are the main ingredients of the recruitment and retention crisis currently gripping the UK. All three are the responsibility of the government and all three must be solved urgently.”
A NEW REGULATION AGENCYThe DfE has announced that a new Teaching Regulation Agency will be established from April 2018, following the closure of the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). The NCTL was formed in 2013 through a merger of the National College for School Leadership and the Teaching Agency. Roger Pope, NCTL chair, said it was right that the department “adapted” in the face of changes in the education sector. He said, “Having worked with the NCTL since October 2015, I have seen first-hand the benefits of the fantastic work by hard working staff across the organisation. It is right that as the education sector changes we adapt. This new approach will help ensure that all teachers get the support and recognition they deserve.”
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said the move would enable the department to build on work already underway to “invest in the profession and better support teachers in the classroom”. Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the ASCL, said the change was a “logical move” which “rightly keeps the current regulatory function of the NCTL as a distinct organisation” while bringing delivery of teacher recruitment into the DfE.
BIG BOOST IN NUMBERS RECEIVING FREE SCHOOL MEALSUnder proposals for a new earnings threshold put out for consultation by the government, an extra 50,000 pupils will receive free school meals. The proposals, developed in response to the roll-out of a new benefits system, mean that pupils from universal credit-claiming households with incomes of up to £24,000 will be eligible for free school meals.The new earnings threshold will be introduced in April next year if the plans go ahead. Academies will be able to access the local authorities’ eligibility checking system, to see which families should be on free school meals.
RACISM AGAINST WHITE MINORITIES IS ACCEPTED Research, jointly carried out by the universities of Strathclyde, Plymouth and Durham, titled ‘Eastern European Young People in Brexit Britain: Racism, Anxiety and a Precarious Future’ has said that, “many of those it surveyed seem to experience racism on a daily basis in places where they should feel safe such as schools, public transport, parks and shops”. It said that the “post-Brexit referendum atmosphere” has left young Eastern Europeans more likely to experience racism in schools, but that this is often dismissed by teachers as "innocent banter".
The findings are based on an online survey of more than 1,100 Eastern Europeans aged 12-18 living in the UK for at least three years, as well as discussions with organisations which work with Eastern European young people, and more than 20 groups of young people across England and Scotland. Some 77% of those surveyed said they had experienced discrimination as a result of their nationality, accent or appearance. One 16yr old girls said that “at school I had people telling me to fuck off back to my country, a girl throwing bricks and rocks at me and yelling racist things and more incidents”. For some, even though they have grown up in the UK, “uncertainty over the Brexit plans” is making the prospect of moving to another country “increasingly attractive”, although most say they will stay.
One of the researchers, Daniela Sime, said: “Many young people say that teachers ignore remarks or dismiss them as innocent banter because they happen between young people who are white, or they are targeting white people. The cases we have in our research show that racism and hate crime have no colour and whiteness is not a protective factor, as young people stand out through other markers of difference, such as accent or nationality.” She added: “Teachers can’t shy away from discussing issues of racism, identity and migration with young people for fears of being seen as too political”.
Dr Sime,said that “an increasingly diverse school population” should prompt a rethink of “what an anti-racist curriculum would look like”. She said that it should include discussions around “historical patterns of racism", and noted that the Eastern Europeans’ experiences echoes those of Irish people in the UK in the 1960s. She said that
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schools should “bring communities together” and “make sure young people born in other countries don’t feel a sense of alienation in the run-up to Brexit”. She said that the referendum had made these young people “question their sense of belonging, with feelings of rejection or not being wanted in the UK.” Dorota, a Polish 18yr old said: “I don’t want to stay in the country in which I need to hide my nationality to be treated equally. I’m learning German now so that my job prospects will not be limited after I finish university and move out of Britain.”
WE NEED FIRM PLANS ON COMPULSORY PSHEAnne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, has told MPs that she they should release “firm plans” for compulsory PSHE in all schools. Currently, there is no requirement to deliver PSHE lessons, although local authority-maintained schools are encouraged to teach the subject through the national curriculum. Earlier this year, parliament passed a law giving Justine Greening the power to introduce compulsory PSHE at some point in the future. However, there is no timeframe for the implementation of compulsory PSHE.
Ms Longfield told the parliamentary education committee that there was a “matter of urgency” in the need for the extension of PSHE teaching to all pupils, and she had asked to see “firm plans” from the government. She said that the plans should be for “consistent” and “high-quality” PSHE, taught by “specialist individuals”. She added, “I would worry if they didn’t go down the road of being fulsome in terms of consistency, in terms of specialist teachers, in terms of high quality, meaningful lessons.” She also repeated calls for pupils to be trained in “digital literacy”, to help keep them safe online. This should form part of the new PSHE curriculum, she said.
NEED TO STOP TEACHING TO THE TESTA report, published by the RSA, written by Julian Astle, a former adviser to Nick Clegg, has said that children's education is being put at risk by a system that encourages schools to ‘game’ the system and drill pupils to pass tests. He said "So focused have our schools become on achieving the proxy goals of passing tests, hitting targets and climbing league tables, that they risk losing sight of education's higher purposes, like individual fulfilment and societal progress. With governors and trustees fearing for their schools, and headteachers fearing for their jobs, our punitive accountability system has come to dominate almost everything some schools do, distorting professional priorities and practice and narrowing and hollowing out the education our children receive.”
The number of teachers caught cheating to get better exam results has increased fourfold over the last four years, with 388 penalties given to teachers for the offence last year, compared to 97 in 2013. The report said that a sharper focus on tests, league tables and inspections forced teachers to "choose between helping their pupils and helping themselves." It added that, “Considering how hard some forms of cheating are to detect, this is likely to understate the true scale of the problem.” Offences included giving pupils ‘inappropriate assistance’ on coursework, whispering advice during exams or allowing pupils to continue working past official deadlines. The study also found schools were increasingly excluding students before they took their GCSEs, with ‘off-rolling’ cases rising by 40% in the last three years. Others had encouraged students with English as a second language to pick up a GCSE subject in the mother tongue, even though the exams were never intended for native speakers. Mr Astle, said, “Education has become like a game of ‘whack-a-mole’, with schools finding ever more inventive ways to play the system and ministers struggle to keep up with them. Our school system, with its focus on tests, targets, league tables and inspections, is full of unintended consequences and perverse incentives. It has become such a game that it is forcing teachers and school leaders to choose between helping pupils and helping themselves.”
The report has various recommendations, including making tests hard to drill pupils to pass, and educating teachers about the dangers of teaching to the test. It also calls for performance assessments to include data to include the GCSE results of pupils who leave a school between starting secondary school and the time they sit their exams and preventing schools from acting as their own admissions body.
Mary Bousted, head of the NEU, said the report was “another sign that our accountability system has lost the confidence of those who once supported it”. However, she said, “The solutions Mr Astle proposes do not match the scale of the problem. It is right to call for a fundamental change in the functions and priorities of Ofsted. But the pressures on schools to do the wrong thing will continue until the design of our curriculum and the demands of our assessment system are also changed.”
FREE SCHOOL REPORTThe Education Policy Institute has published a new report, Free Schools in England, here are the main findings.
There are few free schools Free schools are just 2% of all state schools, and two thirds of the country don’t have one within a reasonable distance.
There is insufficient data to give any real conclusions about the quality of free schools
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It is nearly impossible to comment on how good the free school programme has been, because there are so few of them, and changes in Ofsted and the testing regime makes this more complicated. Thus, no one can reasonably give hard conclusions from available data. Tentative conclusions are that primary schools are more likely to be outstanding, special schools and alternative provision are less likely, and secondary schools are about the same. A lot of free schools still haven’t been inspected and those that have were mostly inspected before any pupils sat national tests.
Free school pupils are more likely to have EAL but less likely to have SEN EAL pupils tend to have higher progress throughout their schooling, whereas SEN pupils tend to have lower progress. This difference, however, is not recognised in performance measures. Which means when comparing progress measures, free schools have an advantage. One reason for the preponderance of EAL pupils is the high number of free schools in London.
The ratio of disadvantaged pupils in the local area is not reflected in free schools Only 24% of pupils attending free schools in the most disadvantaged areas are on free meals, they should be around 32%. Many free schools are in very disadvantaged communities, but they do not always attract local pupils. While 50% of pupils nationally attend their nearest schools, this drops to 22% when the nearest is a free school.
Other Findings Many free schools have opened in areas where schools were already doing well, despite the original plan for them to drive up standards in poorly-performing areas. This is largely because far more free schools have opened in London, which has the highest place need. London needed the places, but has a lot of highly-performing schools. It is thus unfair to criticise so many free schools for opening in areas where place provision was good, if the alternative was to open them in poorly-performing towns which already had half-empty schools.
The more recent cohorts of free schools are getting better Ofsted judgements, and seem to be in better-targeted places. However, the definition of free schools has changed, and new academies opened by local authorities now count as free schools. It may be that they are getting better because councils are now involved, and they make better choices.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HIGHER EDUCATION OXFORD FAILED MEFaiz Siddiqui has told the high court that “inadequate" teaching on his modern history course at Oxford resulted in him getting a 2:1 degree in June 2000, and that this has cost him a lucrative legal career, and is suing for £1m. Oxford denies negligence and causation and says the case is "massively" outside the legal time limit. Mr Siddiqui said a tutor was away on sabbatical leave and alleges that medical information about him was not submitted to examiners by a tutor. He singled out the teaching on the Indian special subject part of his course for criticism.
His counsel, Roger Mallalieu, said that Mr Siddiqui had been a "driven young man" aiming at a postgraduate qualification at an Ivy League university. He said: "Whilst a 2:1 degree from Oxford might rightly seem like a tremendous achievement to most, it fell significantly short of Mr Siddiqui's expectations and was, to him, a huge disappointment." Mr Mallalieu said his employment history was "frankly poor" and he was now unemployed, rather than having a career at the tax bar in England or a major US law firm. Mr Siddiqui also said his clinical depression and insomnia have been significantly exacerbated by his "inexplicable failure".
Julian Milford, for Oxford University, told the court Mr Siddiqui complained about insufficient resources, but had only described the teaching as "a little bit dull". He added that the student received exactly the same amount of teaching as he would have in any other year. The seven-day hearing is concerned only with liability, with damages to be assessed later if Mr Siddiqui succeeds.
STUDENT BULLYING A MAJOR CONCERNA paper ‘Bullying in the academy’ says that it has shed light on a ‘neglected area of higher education. Authors Amy May, from Alaska University, and Kelly Tenezek from Buffalo University, contacted 20 academics they knew from other US colleges to ask them about bullying by students. They found common stories and in particular, “In many cases, the students perceived academic ability is inflated compared to the reality as defined by the targeted professors”. They said that the problem was exacerbated by an increased feeing of entitlement as a consumer. The authors admitted that the study did not allow them to quantify the extent of bullying but said that they felt it was ‘pervasive’. They said, “Everyone we approached has a story” and that some professors dreaded returning to teach after a break and feared each new cohort would contain bullies. Some changed their teaching style to be ‘more defensive’. The authors warned that the problem was likely to increase with the ‘commodification of higher education’, and said that universities needed to support teachers more and give better training.
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Personally, I think this is an interesting paper and the issue should be examined further. However, a sample group of 20 people who you already know is hardly a statistician recommended sample group.
UK UNIVERSITIES DROP IN GLOBAL EMPLOYABILITY RANKINGIn the THE table of 150 universities producing the best graduates according to employers, UK universities have fallen, with only one left in the top ten, raising fears that Brexit is damaging the reputation of the sector. Edinburgh University, the only Scottish institution recorded, fell 46 places, from 32nd last year to 78th, with US-based institutions taking the top four slots and Asian universities growing in influence. Cambridge fell from 4th to 5th, Oxford fell from 7th to 15th, Imperial College fell from 16th to 17th, King’s College from 23rd to 25th and Manchester from 24th to 34th. The rankings are based on the views of 6,000 recruitment managers from large international companies. Other British universities in the top 100 included the LSE, UCL and Bristol, all of which fell one place.
Simon Baker, data editor of THE, said: “UK universities have taken a severe knock in the ranking, and questions will be raised about whether the Brexit process is tarnishing the image of its universities in the eyes of global recruiters. However, the UK’s general decline in the ranking has been happening for some time, a product of the rise of Asian universities, a traditional weakness in UK institutions’ industry links and the use of English becoming more widespread, therefore removing the UK’s natural competitive advantage. The odds on the UK turning this situation around in the short-term appear slim and it underscores the need to avoid Brexit leaving the country isolated on the world stage.” The highest-ranked university was Caltech, followed by Harvard, Columbia and MIT.
ASKING TOO MUCH A Cambridge Don has been criticised for emailing first year natural science students advising them not to “be fooled” by other students into partying too much. Prof Eugene Terentjev said, “You can only do well if you are completely focussed”. The Cambridge branch of Student Minds mental health charity said that the email could induce “imposter syndrome” and condemned the “outdated message that students should pursue nothing but academic work”.
BUSINESS SCHOOLS’ WOESA survey of 89 business schools, by the Chartered Association of Business Schools, found that 4:10 reported a decline in applications from EU students, and 18.2% reported an increase in the number of EU students not turning up for the start of their studies. For 36.7% of schools fees paid by EU students represent 11-40% of income. Around 1:8 of all undergraduates choose to study a business-related course making it by far, the most popular subject at UK universities.
CROSS SUBSIDY OR BEING RIPPED OFFA report by Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has said that at least £1 in every £7 spent on research comes from surpluses made from teaching. With each overseas student on average paying £3,800 pa of their fees towards research. HEPI director, Nick Hillman, said that whilst some cross subsidies were “inevitable, even desirable” the large-scale transfer from teaching to research “looks less sustainable than it did”.
HOW FAR SHOULD RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE GO?Hamburg University has drawn up a religious charter after complaints about Muslim students praying loudly in the libraries, trying to force female Muslims to wear the veil and ‘flooding washrooms by washing their feet in the sinks’. There have also been complaints from lecturers about students not attending lessons for religious observation reasons. A university spokesman said, “To date, there have been no complaints about Buddhist students, just a few about Christian students, but a great many about Muslim students”.
The new charter states that students who miss class because of religious festivals will have to “bear the consequences”. It states, “Neither course schedules nor other university events are organised in accordance with religious requirements”. A spokesman said saying prayers aloud on campus or in university rooms is forbidden, although “quiet prayer may be acceptable in the library”. They also said that in using the multi faith religious room, “discrimination against male or female visitors by dividing the room according to sex/gender is not allowed”. This was in response to a curtain being erected for Muslim meetings to separate men and women.
NOT VERY NEIGHBOURLYNottingham Council has written to properties in an area with high student density warning that noise was damaging their neighbours’ mental health and family lives. The council said that “It was forced to act by the volume of complaints about house parties in the first few weeks of term”. Amongst the problems notified were a party attended by more than 100 students resulting in a wall collapsing. Another complaint said that local children were missing school the next day because they could not get any sleep. Another complainant said that her husband had left home because of the constant noise of parties.
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THE CLASS OF 92 UNIVERSITYThe football pundit, Gary Neville, is seeking to establish the ‘University Academy 92’ alongside his brother Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt. Lancaster University will partner in the venture and award the degrees. The institution will have a campus in Trafford close to the Manchester United stadium. Gary Neville said, “This is going to be a high-quality degree from one of the best performing universities in the country”. He said that it will “Deliver a curriculum with employability and character development wrapped around by academic development”. Recruitment is scheduled to begin in January 2018 with courses starting in Autumn of that year.
SURVIVING FOR NOWThe embattled (but very well paid) VC of Bath University, Glynis Breakwell, has survived a no confidence vote of her university senate by 19 votes to 16, with 2 abstentions. The students’ union and staff unions, as well as many staff have called on her to resign, in the wake of revelation that she sat on the board that decided her remuneration. Ms Breakwell said, “I made a mistake. I am sorry. You may rest assured that I will never make a mistake like this again”. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMPLOYMENTMODELS ACCEPT ABUSE AS PART OF THE JOBThe British model, Edie Campbell, has accused the fashion industry of enabling the abuse of models by creating an environment of “toxic masculinity and patriarchy”, and that it was particular problematic with male models. She said “We operate within a culture that is too accepting of abuse. This can be the ritual humiliation of models, belittling of assistants, power plays and screaming fits. We have come to see this as simply a part of the job”. However, she sounded a positive note saying, “There is a younger generation of creatives that I think are more self-aware and do not aim to inspire fear and awe in those around them.”
SMALL RETAIL BUSINESSES FACE LARGE RATES RISEAround 56,000 small businesses will face steep tax rises next year, with rates specialist CVS estimating business rate increases of £152m in April. The prediction follows a drop in retail sales last month, as inflation hit its highest level in more than five years. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of British Retail Consortium, said, "For many shops, this may be the last straw, across the country, especially in economically deprived and vulnerable communities, the cost of failing to take action will likely be seen in yet more empty shops and gap-toothed High Streets ."
CVS says its research shows that 37,364 small shops will see their business rates bills rise above inflation next April, with 30,198 facing rises of between 10% and 14.99%. Business rates are based on rental values, with the rate rising annually, in line with September's RPI. The ONS said the RPI rate of inflation had reached 3.9%. The UK's key inflation rate climbed to 3% in September, driven up by increases in transport and food prices. CVS chief executive Mark Rigby said, "Brexit is driving inflation, import prices have risen given the fall in the pound with prices rising faster than wages, causing households to tighten their belts on spending, especially on big ticket items”. He urged the chancellor to freeze inflationary rate rises in 2018.
The Treasury periodically changes the rateable value of business properties to reflect differences in the property market, called revaluation. In March, the government announced £435m in support to firms facing the steepest increases in bills following the revaluation. However, CVS say that fewer than half of all councils in the country have revised business rate bills after the introduction of the relief package in the spring Budget.
BANKERS WELCOME (but)In a private speech to City grandees David Davis assured them that global banks will be able to transfer staff between Britain and the EU. He said, “We want to ensure that our new partnership with the EU protects the mobility of workers and professionals across the continent. Whether this means a bank temporarily moving a worker from an office in Germany or a lawyer visiting a client in Paris, we believe it is in the interests of both sides to see this continue”. He added, “For Europe, London is a gateway to global financial markets. This isn’t just the City of London, it’s the first city of Europe, the primary financial centre of this continent. It would simply not be possible to recreate, or duplicate, another leading financial centre in Europe”. Mr Davis also said, “Cooperation arrangements should be reciprocal, reliable and prioritise financial stability. These arrangements should also be durable so that businesses know what their regulatory obligations are going to be, not only next week, but next year and beyond
His comments have been broadly backed by Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire financier and former New York Mayor, who despite saying that it was inevitable that some jobs would go, also said, “London is always going to be the financial centre of Europe for the foreseeable future. It has the things that the financial sector needs. It is English speaking it is family friendly, it has a lot of culture, so you can attract those people here. It is a city with the best transportation and communications and scale, and its already here, so it’s hard to see it going away”.
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However, Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, has issued London’s financial institutions a warning, saying that unless they put Euroland first they will not be able to trade in the Eurozone, and that putting a brass plate on an office in Frankfurt, Dublin or Luxemburg would not be enough. He said that, “Brexit related relocation plans must include permanent local trading capacity and local risk committees, with commensurate numbers of staff”.
BREXIT CHALLENGE IS NOT JUST FOR THE CITY 1A huge amount of the debate on the effect of Brexit is focussed on the City, however, Honda has given information to the business select committee on the effect of a hard Brexit on their UK business. MPs were told that they rely on 350 lorries a day arriving from Europe to keep its manufacturing plant going, as they operate with just one hour’s worth of parts on the production line. Honda said that it would take 18 months to set up new procedures and warehouses if the UK left the customs union, and even minor delays at Dover would have huge financial consequences.
If WTO rules applied they said that it would add an average of £1,500 to an imported car, and add around £300 in imported parts to cars manufactured in the UK, currently over a third of cars produced in Honda’s Swindon plant are exported to Europe. Another major problem they foresaw was divergence in EU and UK regulatory approval, with Honda saying that the cost of converting an EU car to UK standards would be the equivalent of a 26% tariff increase. In addition, 15% of Honda’s Swindon workforce are from the EU.
Mike Hawes, head of the society of motor manufacturers and traders, said that car manufacturing was a low margin business, with a yield of only 2-4% on average, and thus any significant changes meant that, “you are quickly getting into negative territory, if we went on to WTO rules it would be incredibly difficult”. He also stressed the disparity in trade, with 56% of UK car exports going to Europe and only 7% coming the other way. He said, “The UK is an important market, but what matters more is protecting the EU single market”.
BREXIT CHALLENGE IS NOT JUST FOR THE CITY 2The Aerospace industry has warned parliament that they face a bill of £1.5bn if a seamless boarder agreement with Europe is not agreed. ADS, who represent over 1,000 businesses in the UK in the sector, said that around £10bn of its exports go to the EU and the industry is very integrated, with many parts crossing and recrossing borders multiple times. They said that, “Without clarity on a transition deal by the end of 2017, ADS members will begin executing contingency plans, which range from setting up EU27 based operations to applying to the European Aviation Safety Agency for third country certification”.
NEED MORE EU WORKERS TO REGISTER EU WORKERSHome Office officials have said that they need to recruit over 1,000 workers to help register the 3m EU nationals in Britain, with many of the current staff East European. The office for registering EU nationals is based in Sheffield and immigration lawyers have said that they have had a problem finding staff to work there. Officials also said that there needed to be many more staff for the UK Border Force to avoid “unprecedented holdups”.
PRODUCTIVITY VARIES BY REGIONWe are constantly being told that low productivity is one of the reasons for the UK’s poor economic performance. However, a report by the ‘Centre for Cities’ said that London and the home counties were as productive as anywhere else in Europe, and that the UK’s weak productivity was due to huge regional disparities. They said that in places such as London, Slough, Reading and Milton Keyes the productivity per worker was 44% higher than in the poorest performing parts of the UK and 7% higher than in Germany. In 2005 only 8 of the 62 UK cities recorded had productivity above the national average. In Stoke, Blackburn and Doncaster productivity was 25% below the average.
A major reason for weaker productivity outside the south east was that they had a preponderance of lower skilled and lower value businesses e.g. Barclays based its high value banking activities in London and its low skilled call centre in Sunderland. On average, cities in the south east, had a higher proportion of workers in sectors that contribute most to national productivity. Andrew Carter, head of Centre for Cities, called upon the chancellor to tackle the regional productivity divide. He said, “The government should focus its efforts to improve national productivity on addressing the issues that hold cities back, such as tackling skills gap or improving infrastructure”.
CURRENT OPPORTUNITIESThe SuccessatSchool.org website are advertising a wide range of apprenticeship opportunities, including higher and degree level apprenticeships with Nestle, KPMG, EY, the national audit office, and Dentons, who are offering a 6yr law apprenticeship, leading to qualifying as a solicitor. They are also advertising 2-week law work placements. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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MISCELLANEOUSINCOME DISPARITYThe annual global rich study by Credit Suisse said that the richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, with their total wealth increasing from 42.5% during the 2008 financial crisis to 50.1% in 2017. There are over 2.3m new dollar millionaires created over the past year taking the total to over 36m. In contrast 70% of the world’s working age population account for just 2.7% of global wealth. More than two-fifths of the world’s millionaire live in the US followed by Japan 7% and the UK 6%. Just over half of the UK’s 51m adults have wealth in excess of $100,000 i.e. the average wealth of a UK adult is $278,000 but the median is $103,000. In the UK the wealthiest 1% have seen their wealth share increase to nearly a quarter of the country’s total wealth whilst the poorer half have less than 5%.
AN OLDER AGE ISSUEWhilst alcohol consumption amongst young people has fallen, it is a major problem in older people, with alcohol specific deaths for people aged 50+ rising by 45% since 2001. Among men aged 70-74 the alcohol specific death rate has risen by 50% in this period, for women aged 60-64 it has risen by 35%. The largest rise has been for men and women aged 80-84, a rise of 55% and 40%. The latest figures show that over 1/2m adults aged 55-74 were admitted to hospital with alcohol related injuries, diseases or conditions in the year to date, a rise of 64% over the last decade.
WOMEN ARE MORE ALTRUISTICStudies by Professor Philippe Tobler, from the University of Zurich, seem to confirm the truism that women are more altruistic than men. His team carried out two trials looking at whether dopamine, which is part of the brains reward system, is linked to different social behaviour by gender. In the first, a group of 58 men and women were randomly split into two groups, one was given a placebo and the other a drug that blocks the dopamine. Neither the scientists or the participants knew which pill was taken. The participants were then given a scenario by which they could either claim a large sum of money for themselves or split it with another person. The experiment was then repeated with the participants taking the alternative pill. When taking the placebo, 51% of women chose to share the money, compared to only 40% of men. But when the dopamine suppressant was used the figures changed to 45% and 44% respectively.
In the second study, they team looked at data from 40 men and women who had undergone brain imaging while making a decision on whether to share money, focussing on the value processing area of the brain that relies on dopamine signalling. They found that when making pro social choices the activity in this brain area was stronger for women than men, suggesting that women experience a greater dopamine response.
Dr Tobler said that whilst his study suggested that women seem to get more satisfaction from being altruistic, he could not say whether this was gender differences or because of the internalisation of social expectations and norms.
OLD BOYS NETWORKAn analysis of 120 years of data in Who’s Who by the LSE has shown that people who went to one of the 9 Clarendon public schools, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Westminster, Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors’, Shrewsbury, St Paul’s and Winchester, are 94 times more likely to be included in the UK’s elite than those who attended other schools. They still produce nearly 10% of entrants, despite educating fewer than 1:500 (0.15%) of pupils aged 13-18. The study split the sample into five-year birth cohorts to allow comparison over time. During the period analysed, the Clarendon schools were male-only. Among those born in the 1840s, approximately 20% of those in Who’s Who had attended one of the Clarendon schools. In the most recent cohort, 8% had attended a Clarendon school. Women constituted only 23% of the most recent cohort, although their presence has grown steadily over time.
The joint lead authors, Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman, said: “Although the Clarendon schools have not always been the best performing schools, they have consistently remained the most successful in propelling their alumni into elite positions. Clearly their power lies beyond simple academic excellence and is likely rooted in an extensive extracurricular education that endows old boys with a particular way of being in the world that signals elite male status to others.” Some entrants to Who’s Who are included automatically, such as MPs, peers, judges, senior civil servants and heads of public bodies or large arts organisations, while others are selected by advisers.The authors say that the reduced significance of, and fewer reserved places in Who’s Who for, the military and the clergy due to the decline of the British Empire and the secularisation of society have reduced the number of Clarendon entries over time. In addition, 20th-century educational reforms have expanded access and created a more competitive environment. Nevertheless, the proportion of new entrants in Who’s Who from Clarendon schools and the 209 independent schools in the elite HMC listing has remained relatively constant over the past 16 years at 8% and 30% respectively. With Alumni of ‘other’ HMC schools 35 times more likely to be a member of Who’s Who than those who went to non-HMC state and private schools.
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The authors say, “While the democratisation of education clearly dented the influence of these elite schools, their power remains a testament to how far adrift Britain lies from true equality of opportunity.” They noted that education reforms have forced the elite schools to become ‘more academic’. However, the study found that whilst Oxbridge graduates comprise between 30%-40% of the Who’s Who entrants, if they came from Clarendon schools they were twice as likely to be in Who’s Who as other Oxbridge graduates.
NEED TO LINK EDUCATION TO WIDER INFRASTRUCTURE Benjamin Clayton, a former head of the National Infrastructure Commission, has written an interesting article linking education to other infrastructure and called for a joined-up approach. He states that learning works best when it takes place at the heart of communities, and that all government departments need to collaborate to ensure schools, hospitals, bus stations and houses are connected. He says that the problem is that the DfE considers its remit as “broadly beginning and ending at the nation’s school gates”, whilst, “The infrastructure departments speak of roads, energy grids and digital connectivity as things for adults and businesses, not young people and schools”. He says that this means that “policy discussions happen in silos. We debate the pros and cons of academies, and whether High Speed Two is good value for money, but we rarely, if ever, have discussions which join the issues up”.
Mr Clayton says that the whole approach is wrong, and that school success is heavily influenced by other factors, such as whether children live in stable housing, if they can walk to school safely across roads, or if their parents are able to work nearby. He says that since 2014, the number of children living in temporary accommodation has increased by nearly 40%, whilst in London, 600,000 children live below the poverty line, with housing-related expenses the primary cause. He says, “The impact on their learning is immense. Children in unstable housing are more likely to change school, to be absent, and to be expelled”. He quotes the head of a major academy chain, who told him "I’m often asked whether academies are working and how the model needs to change. I tell people that’s the wrong question because whatever the type of school, comprehensive, grammar, academy, free school, I can guarantee you one of the biggest problems right now is whether our kids have a home to go to after the bell rings."
Mr Clayton says, “We need to think about schools as infrastructure. Schools need to be located near clean, safe, affordable housing. They need to be connected to these conurbations with uncongested roads and, ideally, older students should be able to walk or use public transport. They also need to have good links to local centres of work. Many parents, especially single parents, struggle with the logistical nightmare of the home-to-school-to-work morning and evening runs. For some, this challenge is such a constraint that it keeps them out of work altogether”.
Mr Clayton says that the newly established metro mayors have a major role to play, saying, “Unlike ministers, their responsibility is to an entire place, rather than one type of policy”. He says that we should also look at international examples of good practice. He says that in New Zealand there is a publicly owned Social Infrastructure Fund, which marries public sector money with private sector partners to build schools, hospitals, bus stations, housing and make sure that they are all connected. He stressed the need for Whitehall departments to talk more to each other, saying that every new project must be evaluated on how well it will serve the education of local communities. He concludes that, “Children’s learning is only as stable as the wider environment in which it takes place. When we start to see schools as infrastructure, we will see these institutions do what they do best: educate”.
INTENDING TO TAKE ACTION ON YOUNG PEOPLES MENTAL HEALTHA government green paper on children and young people’s mental health, tackling internet safety and the impact of social media, is to be published. The government said that it was “committed to the publication of a children and young people’s mental health green paper by the end of this year. It is important that all children are taught about the risks of social media and the potential impact on their mental well-being.” The paper will also have a preventative focus, tackling ways to prevent children from developing mental health problems and opening access to appropriate support where needed.
Matthew Dodd, the principal education officer at the National Children’s Bureau, said the upcoming green paper was one of the most important opportunities for improving mental health provision for young people. The preceding joint Commons report, ‘Children and young people’s mental health, the role of education’, was first published on May 2, 2017, following an inquiry that began in December last year. It found that schools were struggling to provide time and resources for pupils’ well-being, and mental health services such as in-school counsellors were facing cutbacks. At the same time, it noted that half of all cases of mental illness start before the age of 15 and that 1:10 children aged 5-16 has had a diagnosed mental disorder. In January, Theresa May announced that every secondary school in England would get free mental health training and improved support from local health services, but schools were not allocated any additional funding to treat or refer children.
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The joint Commons report also criticised Ofsted, with inspectors blamed for not giving enough attention to the personal development and well-being criteria in the inspection framework. Ofsted has responded by saying that, “the overall effectiveness of a school is likely to be inadequate if personal development behaviour and welfare, or any of the other core areas, is judged inadequate”. It added: “Pupils’ mental health and well-being are also relevant to consideration of the suitability of a school’s curriculum, within the assessment of leadership and management. Inspectors will consider whether the curriculum also contributes well to pupils’ behaviour and welfare, including their physical, mental and personal well-being, safety and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development .”
BIRMINGHAM IS DOING WELLA study by PwC on the quality of life in urban areas ‘good growth for cities index’, has said that Birmingham is the fastest improving city in which to live and work. Among factors considered were transport, work life balance, inequality, unemployment rate, health and income levels. The unemployment rate in Birmingham fell to 7.4% last year, down from 11.4% in 2013 (national average is 4.3%). The redevelopment of New Street station, new retail centres, the movement of 1,000 jobs by HSBC from London to the city, and the construction of HS2, are all factors in its economic renaissance.
The report noted that cities with a new metro mayor performed better than average. Every city in the study had improved on a year ago, but Sunderland was still bottom of the list, followed by Swansea, Middlesbrough and Stockton. The top 5 cities were Oxford, Reading, Southampton, Edinburgh and Bristol. The 5 most improved cities were Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Newcastle and Southampton. John Hawksworth, the report author, noted that, “These has also been a price to pay for this (success) in terms of worsening house affordability, increased average commuting times and more people having to work long hours”.
FRENCH IS NOT FOR CHANGINGThe French PM, Edouard Philippe, has told ministers and government agencies to stop trying to make the French language more female friendly, and has issued a ban on ‘inclusive writing’. His was responding to an increasing trend to embrace both genders in plural form by using middots or interpoints. Mr Philippe said that he was “resolutely committed to strengthening equality between men and women” and his rule was for “reasons of intelligibility and clarity”. The French education minister said that “French should not be exploited for fighting battles, no matter how legitimate they are”. Critics say that French is spoken by 275m people and should be allowed to evolve naturally, in the same way as English. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SNIPPETS The head of the Student Loans Company, Steve Lamey, has been sacked. He is the third head to leave
suddenly. In 2010, Ralph Seymour-Jackson resigned suddenly, followed by Ed Lester his successor in 2013. More than 1:200 people are officially recorded as being homeless, or living in inadequate temporary
accommodation, according to official figures, the figure is 1:59 in London, and 1:25 in Newham. A fifth of teachers in low income schools are Teach First graduates. John Redwood, an arch Brexiteer, in a financial article that he wrote as part of his £180k part time job as
global strategist for Charles Stanley, advised investors to take their money out of the UK due to its poor economic performance. He also praised the European Central Bank for stimulating growth.
For teachers who are considering a change in career: What Else Can A Teacher Do? by David Hodgson is a good starting point
There is a drive to recruit volunteers to help run girl guides and brownies, with an estimated 70,000 people missing out on taking part due to lack of staff.
The number of new enrolments of foreign students to US universities fell last year by 7% after 5 years of steady increase.
The child sex abuse inquiry set up by Theresa May is holding public evidence hearings on only 36 days a year on average, despite costs of £21m a year.
London is losing 2,000 jobs with the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority moving to the continent. As well as the direct job losses restaurants, hotels and other service companies will be hit as they accounted for many thousands of hotel stays a year.
BusinessEurope, which includes the CBI and counterparts from France, Germany and Italy have warned the PM that unless an agreement is made very soon firms will assume the worst possible Brexit outcomes. One business leader said, “If we don’t get a transition deal agreed fairly soon, it is not going to be very useful”.
Gordon Collins
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