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NEWS


Back on track: The plans to relocate Notre Dame Catholic College have been resurrected under Liverpool’s BSF rescue package


In brief Scholarship fund


BSF replacement plan announced in Liverpool


by Daniel White


A £100 million replacement plan has been agreed that will reignite Liverpool’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) plans. Fourteen months after the coali-


tion government pulled the plug on the BSF scheme, leaving school projects and local authorities across England in the lurch, Liverpool City Council has announced that it is to go ahead with its plans. Last summer, the £55 billion


BSF programme was cancelled by education secretary Michael Gove after he labelled it “dysfunctional and unnecessarily bureaucratic”. Under BSF, Liverpool was set to


receive £350 million to help rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in the city. When the funding was axed


by Mr Gove, council leader Joe Anderson set up a taskforce to look at a rescue package and to create an alternative set of proposals for the schools that were most in need. Almost a year since the task-


force began work and the council has now unveiled plans that will see eight schools initially rebuilt or refurbished. All eight schools will be opened


between 2013 and 2017 under the plans and costs have been kept down by building three of the schools using a structure similar to modern airport terminal buildings,


Education secretary hints that individual sciences could return


With the national curriculum review ongoing, secondary schools could return to teaching science as three individual sub- jects, Michael Gove has hinted. In a speech to the National


College for School Leadership, the education secretary ques- tioned why we currently split sci- ence into certain areas like the environment or earth and the uni- verse, and why we do not have the traditional areas of biology, physics and chemistry. Mr Gove said that he did not


want to “pre-empt” the national curriculum review that is cur- rently ongoing. He said: “The science and


maths communities have been clear that they would like to see much more teaching of science as three separate subjects in sec- ondary school. “It provokes the question


why the national curriculum for science is not currently divid- ed along subject lines. Why should we have a science cur- riculum that’s split into areas like ‘the environment, earth and universe’ and ‘organisms, behaviour and health’? Why not have biology, chemistry and physics? “Of course, I don’t wish to


pre-empt the national curriculum review, but I do want your views on how we can ensure the quality of science teaching continues to improve.” However, Annette Smith,


chief executive of the Association for Science Education told SecEd that it could be “problematic” if teachers are only trained in one of the sciences. She explained: “Physics,


chemistry and biology have fea- tures which are common and fea- tures which are very different and there are arguments for teaching them separately and together. “However, if teachers are


trained only to teach one of the sciences the practical conse- quences in schools are bound to be problematic.” She added: “The important


aspect of teaching the science subjects as separate disciplines must focus on how children learn, their previous experience of sci- ence in primary school, and how this relates to the world around them.” Mr Gove wants a new core


curriculum in place by September 2013 with other subjects being brought in the following year. He has previously promised a full consultation on any curriculum reform plans. The curriculum review is


being headed by the Department for Education and is being sup- ported by an advisory commit- tee and expert panel chaired by Tim Oates from Cambridge Assessment. Visit www.education.gov.uk/


nationalcurriculum • See page 6: SecEd On Your Side.


a cheaper approach than traditional methods (see images above). These three schemes are


Archbishop Beck Catholic High School and Notre Dame Catholic College (both to open in 2013) and St John Bosco Arts College, whose opening date is still to be set. The other five schools included


in the initial plans are Holly Lodge Girls College, Archbishop Blanch Church of England High School and St Hilda’s Church of England High School (all to open in 2015), and the co-location of St Julie’s Catholic High School and St Francis Xavier’s College by 2017. Mr Anderson said: “When the


government axed our BSF pro- gramme, we were determined to


find an alternative way forward to make sure our youngsters get the best possible start in life. “We have addressed some of


the key concerns of government around the cost of BSF by com- ing up with an innovative alterna- tive for constructing schools which gives huge flexibility at a much lower cost.” Money has been raised for the


project by selling off land and other assets. Co-chair of the taskforce and Liverpool’s cabinet member for education, Jane Corbett, told SecEd that if the city had not fought to carry on with rebuilding the schools then it would have sent the wrong message to children and families in the city.


She said: “We need to keep the


dreams alive for students in the city with our regeneration project and let them be a part of it. We need to allow students to keep up their high standards and if we did not look to improve the facilities available to them we would be sending out a message that they don’t matter and we’re not inter- ested in their future.” Full consultations are now get-


ting underway for parents and pupils at each of the schools. It is also hoped that four further schemes – three refurbishments and the rebuilding of St Margaret’s Church of England High School – will form a Phase 2 of the project taking place after 2015.


Exam errors ‘unusual cluster’


The series of errors in this year’s exam papers were “unusual” but there is no evidence of a failure in the system, it has been claimed. Nearly 100,000 students were


affected by 12 mistakes in examina- tion papers this summer. The errors included A level and GCSE papers and ranged from incorrect multiple choice answers, mistakes in ques- tions which made them impossible to answer, and printing slips. Papers from five awarding bod-


ies were affected – AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC. Each of them launched their own internal investigations and last week they concluded that the mistakes were simply “an unusual cluster of unre- lated errors”.


A number of the mistakes were


put down to human error. In its statement, AQA said that in light of the events more staff will now go on additional training and a greater emphasis will be placed on effec- tive communication in the produc- tion of question papers. OCR said it will make its guidance and support for assessors more consistent. Dr Jim Sinclair, director of the


Joint Council for Qualifications, speaking on behalf of the awarding bodies, said: “Once these major errors had been identified, steps were taken to ensure that no-one was disadvantaged. “The publication of the find-


ings of the investigations shows there was no systemic failure of


the exam system. The number of major errors reported in 2011 repre- sents an unusual cluster of unrelated errors appearing in one year. As the awarding bodies have detailed, there is a separate explanation for each individual error. “The findings highlight that


although there are areas in which awarding bodies can make improve- ments to their own processes, the system itself operates to a very high standard with an extremely high level of accuracy.” The exams watchdog, Ofqual


will publish the results of its own investigation by the end of the year. The individual awarding body reports can be read on their respec- tive websites.


Talented EAL students are being labelled as having SEN


Talented students who do not have English as their first language are being mistaken for having SEN and placed in lower ability classes, it has been claimed. A study by Dr Dina


Mehmedbegović, deputy director of the London Education Research Unit at the Institute of Education (IoE), claims that this is happening despite the fact these students often outperform those in higher sets. According to government fig-


ures, English is not the first lan- guage of at least 11 per cent of secondary school children and more than half the children in inner London schools. Earlier this year, trainee sec-


ondary teachers at the IoE took part in a pilot programme looking at students who have English as an additional language (EAL) and


SecEd • September 22 2011


discovered every bilingual student they shadowed had been placed in lower ability classes even though they outperformed pupils in higher sets.


Dr Mehmedbegović said that


while a “substantial minority” of schools now have an “enlight- ened approach to bilingualism”, too many are failing to recognise the potential of children new to English. She told SecEd: “It is very con-


cerning that student teachers from the IoE were told to shadow stu- dents who were bilingual and were put into lower ability classes despite them being bright students. “It is a major problem because


their families are not always famil- iar with the system and are unaware their students aren’t being educated at the level they should. It is a case


of having equal opportunities and a case of social justice that they should be treated and taught at the levels they can achieve.” Dr Mehmedbegović pre-


sented her study to the European Conference on Educational Research in Berlin last week when she called for better training. She pointed out that during teacher training, students only receive one lecture on EAL and research shows that 70 per cent of NQTs do not feel equipped to engage with bilingual learners. However, while the coalition


government says that EAL teaching should remain a priority, funding for the Training and Development Agency’s work in this area has ended. Dr Mehmedbegović also bemoaned the fact that cuts have hit the numbr of EAL advisors employed by local authorities.


There is less than two weeks left for teachers to apply for a share of £2 million as part of the National Scholarship Fund. The Fund will support “scholarly professional development” – which means programmes and activities that strengthen subject or SEN knowledge and skills. The scheme focuses on four main areas – maths, English, science and SEN – and is open to all qualified teachers in England currently employed in eligible schools. The value of each award will vary depending on the type of activity funded, but the scheme offers a maximum scholarship of £3,500. It is being run by the Training and Development Agency for Schools which expects to be able to fund around 600 teachers. Half of the money is to go to SEN projects with the rest divided equally between the other three areas. The first round of grants will be awarded in December and the deadline for applications is September 30. Visit: www.tda. gov.uk/pdscholarship


Open for business


The Black Country University Technical College (UTC) in Walsall became the second of the new schools to open its doors last week. The school is being supported by lead sponsor, Walsall College and co-sponsor, University of Wolverhampton, as well as receiving backing from Walsall Council. The courses have been shaped by partnerships with local employers such as Siemens, ZF Lemforder and Finning. A coalition government policy, UTCs offer 14 to 19-year-olds the opportunity to take full-time, technically oriented courses. Visit: www. blackcountryutc.co.uk


Chinese challenge


Entries have opened for the British Council’s ninth Mandarin Chinese Speaking Competition. Run with HSBC, the competition is open to students at UK schools and the top prize this year is a trip to Beijing. The deadline for entries is October 13 and students aged 11 to 18 are invited to apply. The competition is a chance for individuals and groups to show off their language skills, and is aimed at students who have learnt the language from scratch. Students can enter the competition through their schools – and X Factor-style regional heats will be held in London and Newcastle in December. The final will be held at the British Museum in February. Visit: www.britishcouncil.org/ schoolpartnerships-chinese- speaking-competition.htm


Green revolution


The Green Schools Revolution educational programme has been launched by the Co-operative. Schools can access a range of free resources via the programme, including cross-curricular classroom resources and activities. The Co-operative is also offering schools educational visits to its own wind farm to see renewable energy in action and to seven Co-operative Farms to see how food grows and how to cook it. So far, more than 2,500 UK primary and secondary schools across the UK have registered for the free resources. Visit: www.greenschools.coop


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