Schools
Leading article: We need one exam system for all
Published: 05 October 2006
Andrew Boggis, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), warned this week about the danger of independent schools breaking away from the traditional GCSE and A-level exams because they do not believe they are challenging enough for their pupils. Boggis, headmaster of Forest School in east London, believes that there should be a single national system of exams that all schools support - not a separate system of elite exams taken by private schools.
Education Quandary
Published: 05 October 2006
Bethan Marshall: The play's the thing to win the battle for the Bard
Published: 05 October 2006
In 1908 the recently formed English Association suggested that the best way to teach Shakespeare was to get children to act out his plays because, "There is a serious danger in the class-room, with text books open before us, of our forgetting what drama really means."
Truancy: So, why aren't you in school then?
Published: 05 October 2006
Textbook answers: a guide to online help with homework
Published: 04 October 2006
Leading article: Citizenship and criticism do mix
Published: 28 September 2006
Lessons in citizenship, made compulsory when David Blunkett was Education Secretary, offer the best opportunity to schools to combat disaffection among today's young people towards government - and impress upon them that they can get involved in trying to change institutions for the better. Unfortunately, according to a report from Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, that does not appear to be happening. Provision for citizenship lessons in one in four schools is inadequate - the worst performance for any subject. The reasons for this lie in a lack of commitment by senior staff towards the subject and a feeling among teachers that they do not really know what is expected of them.
A-level parity at last for the IB brigade
Published: 28 September 2006
Christopher Price: Johnson has to be true to English traditions
Published: 28 September 2006
Suddenly the prospects for developing intelligent policy in education seem positive. The iron grip of Downing Street is weakening. In Alan Johnson we have an Education Secretary who is his own man and unlikely ever to become a creature of any prime minister; and, if Gordon Brown succeeds next year, Downing Street will have less legitimacy to dictate English education policy.
Parents need to fight this 'dumb-ass' culture
Published: 21 September 2006
Education Quandary
Published: 21 September 2006
It pays to play the generation game
Published: 21 September 2006
Leading article: Academies are proving their worth
Published: 21 September 2006
The National Foundation for Educational Research has conducted research into whether the Government's flagship new academies have avoided the temptation to choose their pupils through covert selection. And it has given the academies a clean bill of health. That is good news. It has been one of the main complaints from opponents of the scheme that it will lead to a two-tier education system with academies selecting the brightest children from the many who apply for places.
Leading article: University gains
Published: 21 September 2006
Last week, Alan Johnson came clean - more or less - about the Prime Minister's target of 50 per cent of under-30s going to university by 2010. "It is going to be very difficult to achieve this," the Education Secretary said. But he wasn't giving up yet. The question, he added, is where we can get to, and whether we keep the 50-per-cent candle burning. That is hardly a ringing endorsement. But we believe that the Government has been right to put so much effort into encouraging more young people to go to university. It has been right for the country and right for individuals.
Flagship schools: On shaky foundations
Published: 21 September 2006
Quakerism means 'calmer' classrooms
Published: 21 September 2006
Leading article: A new rung in the languages ladder
Published: 14 September 2006
At last, some encouraging news about modern foreign language teaching. A new approach to it - being pioneered by the Oxford and Cambridge and Royal Society of Art (OCR) exam board - has had considerable success in encouraging children at primary school to start learning the subject. Under it, languages are treated like music, with students able to sit a grade exam when they are ready for it (whatever age they are). A total of 10,000 students, some as young as eight, have signed up for it - and more than one in four secondary schools are now preparing to offer it to their pupils.
The tycoons of tomorrow?
Published: 14 September 2006
Schools lay bait in the parent trap
Published: 14 September 2006
Leading article: Too many targets
Published: 14 September 2006
The nanny state is growing apace. Local authorities, it seems, are to have a new set of targets from central government to include how much children are drinking and smoking, as well as how many have sexually transmitted diseases. Where will this lead? Does it mean that schools will be given targets, too? Will head teachers have to delve into pupils' private lives to find out how many units of alcohol and cigarettes they are consuming - and get black marks from Ofsted if they haven't curbed pupil excess? That would be a step too far. Schools should be laying on classes, but not blamed for what teenagers do in their spare time.
Education Quandary
Published: 13 September 2006
Hilary Wilce: First days of school: don't push your child
Published: 07 September 2006
ello, and a big welcome to all parents with children starting school for the first time this week. Your child is either four or only just five. In other words, still very little. They probably still love to play and have cuddles, and maybe sleep in the afternoons, and perhaps dress up and be silly, or whisper in a corner with friends, or racket around making a great big noise about nothing.
Jamie's dinners: What children think about healthier school meals
Published: 07 September 2006
Leading article: Cookery lessons are a must for all
Published: 07 September 2006
The Government deserves much credit for embracing Jamie Oliver's campaign for healthier school dinners.
'Oh!' said a competitive mum when she discovered where we lived. 'The Third World...'
Published: 02 September 2006
Leading article: We need to reform A-levels now
Published: 31 August 2006
The August exam period has left the Government with several burning issues to resolve. No one can deny that the A-level results - which saw the second biggest rise in the number of A grades awarded in the history of the exam - added urgency to the review of the qualification that is being undertaken by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the exams watchdog.
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