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SecEd The ONLY weekly voice for secondary education Inside this issue


Curriculum plea: ICT must have higher status


Issue 276 • March 3 2011 Price £1.00 www.sec-ed.com


Shakespeare & the Arts Award


The Shakespeare Challenge is inspiring students in the work of the Bard and also offering Level 1 qualifications to boot Pages 8 and 9


Creativity – an essential skill


A recent report into creativity in education looks at how well we are preparing our students for the workplace. We look at how schools can foster student creativity using ICT Page 10


Revision tips


With exam season approaching, we consider the revision advice you should be giving to your students Page 7


SecEddigital


and Twitter Thousands of teachers are reading SecEddigital, a virtual edition of SecEd, which is emailed out every week. You can sign up for free by emailing editor@sec-ed.co.uk. SecEd news and features are now also available on Twitter. You can follow us at www. twitter.com/SecEd_Education


by Daniel White


The coalition government’s decision to axe ICT as a core subject is “baffling” and could lead to employers taking staff from overseas rather than the UK, an education expert has claimed. Valerie Thompson, chief execu-


tive of the e-Learning Foundation, has called for a discussion to be had about the role of ICT in the curricu- lum, saying the government needs to “consider giving the subject a higher status”. Instead of dropping ICT as a


core subject, she says it should be reformed with an emphasis on train- ing teachers. It follows the government’s


recently announced review of the national curriculum. Education minister Michael Gove has already signalled his intention to reduce the number of core subjects from five to four with ICT to be dropped. He has called instead for more “facts” to be taught to equip children with “essential knowledge”. Ms Thompson told SecEd that


there was “not a hope in hell” of Mr Gove changing his mind on ICT and that she is “baffled” by his decision. She explained: “Of course it


should be a core subject, you look at the list of jobs out there that need ICT skills – the ICT sector is enormous.” Campaigners have raised con-


cerns at the falling number of ICT and computing students. In 2010 there were 4,065 A level comput- ing students, 0.5 per cent of the total number of entries, and there are now fewer students taking the subject than in 1992. Ms Thompson continued: “One


of the main concerns is how few a girls do it. Only 10 per cent of the industry, that’s one in five women in the ICT industry, which is a


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shocking statistic. Someone needs to look at how it is taught and changes need to be made but it is an essential skill and knowledge in the 21st century. “Basic skills need to be taught,


it is hard just to learn them from scratch, and the current ICT cur- riculum is dull, changes need to be made.” Headteachers have already


expressed fears that although they have been promised freedom over the curriculum, Mr Gove has dic- tated specific areas of knowledge that he wants to see taught. ICT firm Syscap is also backing


the call for a national discussion on the place of ICT. Chief executive Phillip White said the UK education system is still not producing skillsets that are in immediate demand for employers. He said that the UK is continuing to import computer graduates from abroad. He told SecEd: “If ICT and


computing are given special status as subjects then we can be sure that the same effort will go into ensuring that the curriculum is kept up-to- date and in line with employers needs as is given to English, maths, science, and languages. In an ideal world, we’d be getting as excited about the content of ICT GCSE as we do about physics, or the need to teach Mandarin in schools.” Headteachers this week expressed


mixed reaction, with some arguing that ICT should be at least a core subject until the end of key stage 3. Peggy Farrington, headteacher


at Hanham High School in Bristol, said: “I firmly believe that ICT should be a core subject, at least until the end of key stage 3 and could also be so at key stage 4, with a variety of possible associated options. “There is hardly a career now


which does not require ICT. It makes far more sense than the arbitrary


identification of some subjects within the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).” However, Robert Benzie,


headteacher at Ansford Community School in Somerset, said his school is dropping ICT as a core subject from September, but that it would still be an option for students. He told SecEd: “A considerable


amount of teaching is done through ICT – it is a component of just about every course at some point during key stage 3 and 4. The ICT syllabuses are not particularly inter- esting, even when they are taught by outstanding teachers and results are very good. “The pressure from individual


subject groups has been a real nui- sance to the education system over the last 20 years – leading to a fragmented, hotch-potch of a cur- riculum. The EBacc is bad enough – it’s time to let schools have more flexibility to provide a curriculum which is more coherent, relevant and challenging.” Dave Gibbs, assistant manager


at Sheffield West City Learning Centre, added: “ICT as it stands – with its focus on office skills and narrow-assessments such as ‘poster-making’ or spreadsheet cal- culations – should not be a com- pulsory subject. It isn’t, in itself, a subject, it is a set of tools that can be employed by teachers across the curriculum.” However,


Jacques


Szemalikowski, headteacher at Hampstead School in north London, said: “Of course it should be a core subject. Young people will have absolutely no chance of a meaningful career without it.” For more information on the


e-Learning Foundation, visit www.e-learningfoundation.com


• For more on the ongoing campaign to safeguard the place of citizenship in the curriculum, see page 2.


New friends: A trip to Gambia in Africa has inspired a group of students from Queen Elizabeth II High School on the Isle of Man. They learnt about farming techniques, sustainable agriculture and held cross- cultural discussions about issues like volunteering and migration. It was all part of the Citizenship Foundation’s Giving Nation Award. For more, see page 2.


NASUWT The Teachers’ Union JOIN FREE TODAY UK news n SecEd: On Your Side n Independent thinking n NQT diary n Union address n Managing ICT n At the chalkface


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