www.sec-ed.com
NEWS In brief Education Bill call
After BSF, Gove in new legal threat over EMA
by Daniel White
Legal action is once again being threatened against education min- ister Michael Gove following the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). The Save EMA campaign has
released a statement saying that they are looking at the possibility of legal action against the coalition government’s decision to axe the funding given to students in further education. The abolition of EMA was con-
firmed after MPs voted in favour of the plans in January. The EMA is a contract given
to further education students based on attendance, punctuality and achievement. It costs the govern- ment £560 million a year, with payments to students staying on in further education ranging from £10 to £30-a-week. Students with family incomes of less than £21,817 receive £30; those with family incomes between £25,522 and £30,810 get £10. The campaign says that legal action could be based on students
‘Good’ schools should be given grants to expand
Overcrowded schools achieving high GCSE pass rates should have more money to make more spaces available, an education think-tank has said. It comes as Policy Exchange
released statistics showing that a number of schools across the coun- try are overcrowded, while others are half-empty. The research estimates that half
of the surplus spaces are in the worst-performing 25 per cent of schools while only seven per cent of surplus spaces are available in the top performing 25 per cent. James Groves, head of educa-
tion at Policy Exchange, said par- ents are wanting their children to go to the best performing schools and the government needs to look at the demographics of the schools that are not achieving the 35 per cent A* to C pass rate for GCSE’s and how standards could be improved. He told SecEd: “The govern-
ment needs to look at how the capital grant and the building for schools is allocated. Sometimes the best schools are reaching the maximum set (capacity) levels and achieving good grades. “A way in improving this statis-
tic could be to expand these schools to give ‘good’ schools more space, rather than the failing schools, to provide a good education for chil- dren who otherwise might not get that opportunity.” In England, 225 schools are
more than a third empty. Almost all of the schools running with surplus places are “poor” GCSE perform- ers. Furthermore, 898 schools, near- ly 30 per cent, are oversubscribed and analysis shows that the best performing schools – where more than 75 per cent of children get five
SecEd • February 24 2011
“good” GCSEs including English and maths – are oversubscribed by 1.7 per cent. Other statistics show that: • More than 50 “poorly” performing secondaries in England are nearly half empty.
• There are 303,751 surplus places at schools in England and half of these are at the worst performing 25 per cent.
• The top quarter of state schools in England have just 7.1 per cent of the surplus places. That proportion falls to 2.7 per cent in the top 10 per cent.
• The 10 schools with fewest pupils are all either closed or earmarked for closure.
The Department for Education
(DfE) has already planned to put in an extra £800 million next year for school places, however this will be targeted at primary schools. Mr Groves suggested that if
schools close together are under- subscribed then they could com- bine to open up a free school or an academy to improve the education standards. He also raised concerns about
the schools in the bottom 25 per cent with surplus spaces, saying that the lack of competition for spaces does not help to improve standards. He added: “A lot of the under-
subscribed schools are receiving less money because they have less students than other schools. The pupil premium will help this and if they are still failing by not achieving the 35 per cent A* to C GCSE grades then a possibility could be to open up as an acad- emy or for schools close together to combine and open up as a free school with many taken over by new headteachers.”
who believed their two-year con- tracts for study have been breached by the government’s decision to axe the funding. Advice is currently being pro-
vided by trade union lawyers, who are examining whether they can win payments for students who began courses in September and who expected the financial support to continue throughout their two- year courses. James Mills, head of the Save
EMA campaign, slammed the prime minister David Cameron and Mr Gove for breaking their pre-
election promise that they would not scrap EMA. He said: “Research by the
University and College Union shows that almost 40 per cent of students wouldn’t have started their course without EMA, so that’s a large amount of people who will feel betrayed by this government. “EMA is all about choices –
those teenagers were able to choose to stay on in education because of EMA and this government has cho- sen not to support them. Otherwise they are saying that youth unem- ployment is a price worth paying.
“We’re saying: ‘A deal’s a deal.’
These young people have signed a contract and the government should honour it. Ministers like to bang on about taking a five per cent pay cut, but these kids are taking a 100 per cent cut in their income.” The Save EMA campaign has
been supported by members of the shadow cabinet, including Labour leader Ed Miliband. It comes after a successful judicial review was brought by six councils against the scrapping of their funding under the Building Schools for the Future project. Visit
www.saveema.co.uk
Scotland set to lose half of foreign language assistants
A 50 per cent cut in the number of foreign language assistants in Scottish state schools will directly hamper the drive for a more inter- national education as set out in the new curriculum, according to a senior academic. At least 55 of 106 foreign lan-
guage assistant posts are to end this year, a survey of councils has found, with Glasgow cutting all 35 such staff in order to save £300,000. Native speakers from 15 coun-
tries work in Scottish primary and secondary schools to support mod- ern language teaching and help nur- ture intercultural awareness. They are selected by the British Council. However, local authority budg-
et cuts have already reduced their number from 167 in 2009/10, and that could fall below 50 next year.
Sarah Breslin, director of
SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, based at Strathclyde University, said: “We are very sad. A foreign language assistant can bring a lot to a school and to the whole curriculum. The fear is that once they are gone, it’s hard to bring them back. “We wrote to all the (local
authority) directors of education and explained that for what we consider to be a small investment, there’s a huge return. A foreign language assistant brings the lan- guage alive, brings the culture to classrooms.” The cross-curricular approach of
Curriculum for Excellence, which was rolled out last year, is perfectly in tune with the assistants because schools use them “very creatively” in subjects from modern studies, art and
design to music, Ms Breslin said. “We are also supposed to be edu- cating pupils as global citizens.” Though she understood that
councils faced tough budget deci- sions, Ms Breslin said Scotland would have to think in the long term about how it was perceived in the rest of Europe in terms of language teaching. CILT is funded by the
Scottish government and offers professional development as well as promoting languages in various ways. A spokesman for British
Council Scotland said: “In an increasingly international world, foreign language assistants pro- vide a unique opportunity for Scottish students to experience different languages and cultures in the classroom.”
Campaign aims to reverse the decline in languages
A campaign to tackle what has been branded the UK’s “flagging achievement” in language learning has been launched jointly by more than 30 organisations. Speak to the Future calls for
urgent action on policy to “safe- guard and revitalise” language learning across all phases of edu- cation. The five-year campaign will tar-
get policy-makers in government and leaders in education and busi- ness, focusing on the importance of languages for the UK’s economic success and cultural life. The campaign has five key
aims, designed to create a coher- ent approach to language learn- ing across all phases of education. These are:
• Every language valued as an asset.
• A coherent experience of languages for all children in primary school.
• A basic working knowledge of at least two languages including English for every child leaving secondary school.
• Every graduate qualified in a second language.
• An increase in the number of highly qualified linguists.
Organisations behind the cam-
paign include the Association for Language Learning, the British Council, CILT (the National Centre for Languages), and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust among others. Also supporting the cause is Dr
Lid King, the national director for languages. He said: “Our campaign looks to a future in which monolin- gualism is a thing of the past and where we celebrate and use the UK’s multilingual resources. The great challenge now is to build on the momentum of successes such as the primary languages initiative.” Statistics show that 38 per cent
of pupils in state schools continue to a language at GCSE, down from 76 per cent in 2000. French also dropped out of the top 10 GCSE subjects last year for the first time. Welcoming the campaign,
Baroness Jean Coussins, chair of the Parliamentary Group on modern languages, called on government to “take a lead and reverse this decline”. Visit
www.speaktothefuture.org
Teachers are being invited to submit evidence as scrutiny of the government’s recent Education Bill begins in Parliament. The House of Commons Public Bill Committee is due to start consideration of the Bill on Tuesday (March 1). Evidence can be submitted from now until April 5. Measures in the Bill include proposed changes to school discipline, public reporting on allegations made against teachers, and includes provision for expanding the academies and free schools programme. It also includes the axing of various arm’s length bodies, including the School Support Staff Negotiating Body. Visit:
http://services.parliament. uk/bills/2010-11/
education.html
EBacc inquiry
The cross-party Education Select Committee has launched an inquiry into the English Bacclaureate measure which the government has included in the school league tables. The EBacc ranks the number of children achieving A* to Cs in English, maths, science, a language, and geography or history. The Select Committee is inviting written submissions addressing the purpose and benefits of the EBacc, its value as a measure of performance, the choice of subjects, and its implications for pupils, schools and employers. The deadline for submissions is March 8. Email subsmissions to
educom@parliament.uk marked “EBacc inquiry”.
Deaf-blind heroes
The hunt is on for the best teachers who make a difference to the lives of deaf and deaf- blind children. The annual 2011 Signature Awards recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution to improving communications and access for deaf and deaf-blind people. Regional nominations are now underway with the winners from 13 regions progressing to a finals ceremony in London in November. Other categories include Young Learner and Centre of the Year. Visit:
www.signature.org.uk/awards
Garden challenge
Pupils aged four to 16 are being invited to create their own gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show. Entries to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Budding Gardeners Competition need to be in by March 18 and any school registered with the charity’s Campaign for School Gardening can take part. Pupils are being asked to design a mini- garden measuring one metre squared to go on show from May 28 to June 5 in special areas set aside at the RHS Gardens. Visit:
www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening
Vet support
Science students are being urged to consider veterinary careers, with resources on offer to explain what the profession has to offer. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has issued careers material, entitled Veterinary Science – for all Walks of Life, comprising short videos. The resource offers advice from real- life vets and veterinary students about the different jobs vets do, what vet school is like, and how students can get there. Visit:
www.walksoflife.org.uk and
www.youtube.com/vetcareers
3
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16