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Editorial Board SecEd is advised by an editorial advisory panel. Members include: Paul Ainsworth: vice-principal, Belvoir High School, Leicestershire. Mark Blois: partner, Browne Jacobson (education law solicitors). Peggy Farrington: headteacher, Hanham High School, South Gloucestershire. Jane Frith: Rector, The Royal High School, Edinburgh. Mike Griffiths: headteacher, Northampton School for Boys. Hilary Moriarty: national director, Boarding Schools’ Association. Neill Morton: headteacher, Portora Royal School, Enniskillen. Jo Smith: vice-principal, Long Field School, Melton Mowbray. Tina Stockman: teacher, Harlaw Academy, Aberdeen. Dr Bernard Trafford: headteacher, The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne. Simon Viccars: headteacher, Leon School and Sports College, Milton Keynes.


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Enthused: Louise Jezzard with two of her pupils from Ripley St Thomas School and Sue Knowles, contracts manager at the National Science Learning Centre (far right)


Louise becomes 7,000th science teacher to get national CPD bursary


Chemistry teacher Louise Jezzard has this week become the 7,000th person to receive an ENTHUSE bursary award from the National Science Learning Centre. The bursaries are available


to UK state-funded schools and colleges and help towards the cost of CPD provided by the National Science Learning Centre and its regional hubs. Ms Jezzard teaches at Ripley


St Thomas Church of England High School in Lancaster and


St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road Herne Hill, London SE24 0PB www.markallengroup.com


used her bursary to take part in the Success in Teaching 11 to 16 Chemistry course. Ms Jezzard said: “I found the


National Science Centre’s course to be incredibly stimulating, increasing my subject knowledge and inspiring me to take a new and different approach when teaching chemistry to our 11 to 16-year- olds. This change in my teaching is already showing a positive impact.” Founded in 2008, Project ENTHUSE is a partnership


supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Education and a range of science and engineering companies. The national network of


Science Learning Centres is a joint initiative by the Department for Education and the Wellcome Trust. There are nine regional centres in England and one National Centre serving the UK. Visit www.slcs.ac.uk/enthuse


and www.sciencelearningcentres. org.uk


Senior teachers ‘sidelined’ during exams audit


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Only one in five councils has asked senior subject teachers for their views on new Scottish exams, according to a poll by a union. Just six local authorities


out of 32 – Fife, East Lothian, Highland, Inverclyde, Moray and East Dunbartonshire – have sought information direct from principal teachers, according to a poll by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA). The rest have either asked


© All rights reserved. No part of SecEd may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of MA Education The publisher accepts no responsibility for any views or opinions expressed in SecEd.


ISSN 1479-7704


headteachers or held the national audit – led by Education Scotland – at council level among education officials.


2 The audit’s purpose is to show


the Scottish government how ready schools are for National 4 and 5 exams, which the first pupils are due to sit in 2013/14. The qualifications will replace Standard Grades and Intermediates. There has been concern


about the preparedness of some schools for the change, with East Renfrewshire, the country’s highest performing authority, opting to delay for a year along with several private schools. Ann Ballinger, general secretary


of the SSTA, said it was “deeply disturbing” that so many authorities


had not asked “the experts” what was happening in their classrooms. “We had hoped the deep audit


would have been conducted in a way that the Scottish government would have had a clear picture of the situation,” she added. “Unfortunately, this is a wasted opportunity and any decision to go ahead based on this is bound to be deeply flawed. “It is quite clear that many


councils are conducting their audit within the education department and not consulting teachers or headteachers at all and that is deeply worrying.”


The Educational Institute of


Scotland (EIS) said any issues over the audit could be taken up with Education Scotland under the terms of a £3.5 million government package to help schools that needed extra support with the change. Larry Flanagan, EIS general


secretary, said: “The terms of the agreement were framed to allow the voice of the profession to be heard, so any attempt to circumvent that circumstance will be challenged by the EIS.” Mark Priestly, reader in


education at Stirling University and the co-author of a report that


was critical of some aspects of Curriculum for Excellence, said a more independent audit would have been better. “There is a sense that highlighting


problems marks people out as a failure and if the evaluation is being done by the school inspectorate there is a conflict of interest there.” Dr Bill Maxwell, chief executive


of Education Scotland, said: “As we have previously made clear, we would welcome SSTA’s formal contribution. If it lets us know which teachers or schools require discussion with Education Scotland, we will be pleased to follow up.”


SecEd • April 26 2012 By Dorothy Lepkowska


Pupils who do work experience during their schooling enhance their employability and workplace prospects in later life, according to research from employment experts and policy-makers. A new report from the


Education and Employers Taskforce (EET) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and backed by employment minister Chris Grayling, has found a significant link between young people’s experience of the world of work while still at school, and


their success in the adult labour market. The findings come after the government announced plans to repeal the statutory requirement for work-related learning at key stage 4, preferring instead to encourage work experience placements for students during their further education. Many schools are also scaling


down careers advice and with it, work experience opportunities, following the demise of the Connexions service and the expectation that schools will fund and deliver advice and guidance themselves. The report, Work Experience: Impact and delivery – insights


from the research, highlights the important and different roles that work experience can play in helping pupils to find work, get a place at university and deciding on a career. It also had proven effects in


encouraging students to do well in exams, because they returned from placements more motivated to work hard in school. The report also found that


work experience was underused as a means to stretch the career horizons of young people. One of the problems, it said, was that half of placements were found by young people or their families using largely existing


social networks, which served to perpetuate social stereotypes. Nick Chambers, director of


the EET, said: “Work experience is undergoing major change, perhaps the most significant for a generation. These changes are being driven by the government encouraging work experience for older pupils aged 16 to 19, repealing the statutory requirement to work-related learning at key stage 4 and schools now having to bear the full costs of organising it.” Katerina Rüdiger, skills policy


adviser at the CIPD, said: “More and more employers are throwing their weight behind the creation of high quality work experience


opportunities for school pupils and the young unemployed because experience of the workplace is the most important thing they look for when recruiting new staff. It would be a perverse situation indeed if, at the very same time, schools started to offer less work experience.” Mr Grayling said work


experience offered young people “an insight into the world of work, together with practical skills and knowledge based in a real-world environment”.


•An in-depth analysis of the report's findings is published in SecEd this week. See pages 8 and 9.


Pupils’ self-portraits beamed onto Palace


It is not every day that the nation’s school children see portraits of themselves beamed across the front of Buckingham Palace. But that is what happened to


200,000 youngsters last week, when the self-portraits they had created were put together to form a giant image of the Queen. Face Britain, launched by The


Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, challenged children aged four to 16 throughout the UK to submit portraits of themselves – from paintings and photographs to 3D images and graphic designs. The aim was to celebrate the


achievements of young people in the lead up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is also hoped that the portrait


of the Queen will set a new Guinness World Record for “the most artists working on the same art installation”. The previous record is 28,267 artists who contributed to an installation in Israel in 2009. The response to the project was


remarkable, with more than 200,000 portraits uploaded to the Face Britain online gallery – and 1,000 portraits per hour uploaded during the final week of the challenge.


Jeremy Newton, chief executive


of The Prince’s Foundation, an educational charity established by Prince Charles, said he was impressed by the “amazing array” of high quality artwork submitted. He added: “Face Britain is about


empowering children to explore their identity creatively, using the arts to communicate how they see themselves and giving us all a unique snapshot of our children’s future generation.” The Face Britain montage


was displayed across the front of Buckingham Palace for three nights from last Thursday (April 19). It was also simultaneously


screened in 18 public locations across the UK – including Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich and Plymouth. The self-portraits will now be


stored “in perpetuity for the nation” by the British Library in London. As well as the children’s artwork,


many well-known names (including Adele, Michael Morpurgo, Jamie Oliver and Fearne Cotton) donated their own self-portraits and these will be auctioned on eBay from next Thursday (May 3) in support of the work of The Prince’s Foundation. Visit www.childrenandarts.org.uk


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