NEWS


League table changes will hit most vulnerable, claims head


by Daniel White


The government’s decision to strip hundreds of vocational qualifications out of the school league tables could hit some of the most vulnerable students, a headteacher has claimed. It follows changes announced


last week by the Department for Education (DfE) that the number of courses that are counted within the league tables as GCSE equivalents will be cut from more than 3,175 to just 125. Furthermore, only 70 of these vocational courses can be included in the main measure of students who achieve five A* to C GCSE grades. The changes will be implement-


ed in time for the January 2015 school performance tables.


The DfE has said that some of


the 125 qualifications will be sub- jected to rigorous external assess- ment before their inclusion within league tables is ratified. Courses that have been down-


graded include a Level 2 horse care qualification that is currently classed as the equivalent of four GCSEs and a BTEC in fish hus- bandry. The DfE said this week that


“high quality” qualifications: • Offer proven progression into a broad range of further qualifications or careers post-16.


• Are the size of a GCSE or bigger. • Have a substantial proportion of external assessment.


• Have grades such as A* to G (not pass or fail). However, Paul Scutt, headteach- er at Bishop Fox’s School in


Talented pupils learn Shakespeare Off By Heart


From drama workshops to cartoon animations, teachers are keen to bring Shakespeare alive for young people. And now the BBC has come up


with an exciting new idea. The final of Off By Heart Shakespeare, the BBC’s first national Shakespeare contest for secondary school stu- dents, took place at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford- upon-Avon at the end of last month. The competition followed the


success of the BAFTA award-win- ning Off By Heart, which chal- lenged children to recite poetry aloud.


The road to the Shakespeare


final began last April when BBC Learning invited every secondary school in the UK to nominate up to three students to take part in a series of regional heats. The organisers held workshops and auditions for 1,500 students aged 13 to 15 in the autumn, asking them to perform a famous Shakespearean speech before a panel of judges. As the organisers explained:


“Students taking part experienced Shakespearean language like never before. They learned how to breathe it, feel it, vocalise and make it their own.”


All the world’s a stage: The nine finalists in the first ever Shakespeare Off By Heart challenge will show off their skills in April


As well as getting students


up on their feet and enjoying Shakespeare’s language, the com- petition also encouraged students to appreciate the relevance of his work. The nine talented teenagers who


won through to the Off By Heart Shakespeare final had to deliver


one of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues in front of a live audi- ence. The judging panel included well-known names like actors Samuel West and Imogen Stubbs and historian Simon Schama. The finalists were Neil Foster, Nuha Bazeer, Emily Kamp, Amy


McAteer, Olafemi Akinfolarin, Ben Crick, Jack Gouldbourne, Jacinta Bollard and James Osman. The Off By Heart Shakespeare


final, presented by Jeremy Paxman, will be shown on BBC2 on April 24.


The Royal Shakespeare


Company (RSC) has written a series of activities and resourc- es, offering starting points and insights into how students can approach Shakespeare’s speeches. To find out more, go to


www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ offbyheart/


Mentors have ‘significant impact’ Research backs employer contact


If students are paired with “successful” mentors it has a strong impact on their confidence in finding a job and the way they perceive barriers to achievement. A study by the think-tank


Demos has focused on the impact of a mentoring scheme run by the Prince of Wales Trust. Mosaic Mentoring has been run-


ning since 2007 and voluntary men- tors in the project are trained before being paired with students in sec- ondary schools, as well as primary children and even young prisoners. Mosaic’s work is focused in


some of the most deprived com- munities in the UK and where there is a significant Muslim community.


The report said that more than


two thirds of the mentors believe their mentees have become more motivated after taking part in the programme while 63 per cent said the programme had opened new horizons for the mentees. The report said: “Having a men-


tor they described as ‘successful’ had a strong impact on the mentees’ confidence in finding a job. This also had a significant impact on whether mentees felt they faced barriers to what they could achieve in life.” It also found that the more face-


to-face time that mentees had with their mentors, the stronger their belief that they would feel happier


in 12 months’ time. This also had a more positive impact on mentees’ attitudes to school. The report said that mentees


must be “carefully matched” with their mentors and their needs and motivations need to be taken into account. It adds that relationships must be built on trust rather than objectives. From the mentors’ point of view,


the study said that more than half are now able to better understand and appreciate the issues that stu- dents face. Download the report at


www.demos.co.uk and for more on Mosaic Mentoring, visit www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk


More than a quarter of young people who had no contact with employers at school go on to become NEET (not in education, employment or training), a report has claimed. Research carried out on


behalf of the Education and Employers Taskforce (EET) looks at young people’s expe- riences of the world of work while at school and how this has influenced their working lives and careers. The study spoke to almost


1,000 young people aged 19 to 24. It found that 26.1 per cent of those


who cannot recall any contact with employers during their school days are currently NEET. The report – entitled It’s Who


You Meet – emphasised that only seven per cent of the young adults recalled taking part in four or more careers-related activities, such as mentoring, work tasters, work experience and career insights, while at school. However, it said that of those


who had experienced four or more activities, just 4.3 per cent were cur- rently NEET. The study also said that analy- sis shows the students’ outcomes


are not linked to academic achievement. The findings come after the


launch of a new free service by the EET which aims to get 100,000 professionals volunteering to go into state schools to talk about their jobs, careers and their edu- cation. Called Inspiring the Future,


the scheme’s development has been supported by Deloitte. For more on the EET’s


research, visit www.educationand employers.org/research and for more on Inspiring the Future, see www.inspiringthefuture.org


Survey reveals teachers’ internet fears for students


A significant number of teachers are worried that their pupils do not have the skills to stay safe while surfing the internet outside of school. A survey of 1,300 teachers –


released to mark Safer Internet Day on Tuesday (February 7) – has found that while most teachers (87 per cent) are confident that pupils are safe from internet harm while at school, only 58 per cent believe students have the skills to use the internet safely at home.


4 The survey found that 91 per


cent of secondary teachers think that cyber-bullying is still a major issue for students, while 80 per cent feel there is a growing problem in schools with pupils having phones that allow access to the internet and social networking sites. Teachers in the survey said that


the most common form of cyber- bullying that they had seen was via social networking sites but social networking was an area where


the fewest number of teachers felt confident in advising pupils. Also, 87 per cent of secondary teachers called for social media sites to be banned during the school day. Nearly all of the teachers sur-


veyed said that their schools had an internet safety policy, but only half of the secondary teachers thought that their pupils would know how to report abuse online, while a similar number said that staff had received inadequate e-safety training.


The survey was commissioned


by Vital, the Open University’s pro- fessional development programme for teachers, which is funded by the Department for Education. Its director, Dr Peter Twining, said that banning phones was not the the way forward. He added: “I have great sym-


pathy for hard-pressed teachers, but collecting mobile phones in a cardboard box at the school gate is not the answer. The technol-


ogy is not going away. Schools need to focus on helping pupils and teachers to get the best from SmartPhones and other tech- nologies, while also developing responsible behaviours and learn- ing patterns. “These findings imply that a


significant number of teachers, par- ticularly within the secondary phase of education, want or need more support in dealing with e-safety. Schools need to focus on appropri-


ate staff development. It is a big challenge, but there are many ben- efits to engaging pupils with tech- nology – and a wealth of resources available to help.” Vital provides free events


and resources via its website and includes subject and special inter- est portals helping teachers to explore ways of bringing technol- ogy into the classroom. There is a portal dedicated to e-safety. Visit www.vital.ac.uk


SecEd • February 9 2012


Somerset, told SecEd that the changes could hit the “most vulner- able students”. He said: “The ‘valued’ curricu-


lum has shifted back once again to the benefit of those students at or above national norms who have the potential to succeed with the more academic diet. “This will be to the detri-


ment of many young people and schools whose intake are skewed to the weaker end of the ability spectrum. This together with the Ofsted emphasis on attainment and progress will once again hit the most vulnerable students, schools and communities.” However, Elizabeth Allen, head


of Newstead Wood School in Kent, backed the moved in principle. She told SecEd: “Many of the so-called vocational courses fail to


prepare young people for the world of work: they have no credible progression opportunities, no trans- ferable knowledge for the learner.” However, Ms Allen, whose


school offers the Diploma in engi- neering, said that while it is positive that the Principle Learning strands of five Diploma qualifications have made the cut, the government is wrong to list them as equivalent to just one GCSE. She added: “They are worth


more than a single GCSE – at least the equivalent of the double science specification.” The snub to the Diplomas was


also criticised by Dr Mike Short, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, who said he was “stunned”. He added: “The engineering Diploma is widely recognised as a


significant route to providing the crucial technical and practical skills that young people will need. Appeals to the Department for Education have already been made to allow for more time and consideration but this appears to have been denied. “The government will fail many


of our young people if it does not provide a high quality alternative to traditional academic routes.” Mike Griffiths, headteacher of


Northampton School for Boys, meanwhile, said that performance tables must not drive educational policy. He explained: “If the govern-


ment – and indeed some educa- tional professionals – are worried that some schools have ‘played the system’, well it is a system the poli- ticians have created. “As long as accountability


measures depend so heavily on per- formance in league tables, schools will inevitably focus too much on their position in the table rather than the quality of education on offer.” The DfE announcement fol-


lows Professor Alison Wolf’s report into vocational education last year which said that many qualifications are a “dead end” for students. Education minister Michael


Gove said: “The changes we are making will take time but will transform the lives of young people. For too long the system has been devalued by attempts to pretend that all qualifications are intrinsically the same. Young people have taken courses that have led nowhere.” A full list of the qualifications


that have been axed from the league tables is on the DfE website at www.education.gov.uk


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