Nicky Morgan's Plans for Education

Nicky Morgan will announce her plans
for English schools today.

It seems that every education secretary wants to unveil their own big revolution for our education system, before schools, pupils and teachers have had time to adapt to the last seismic shifts.

Today it was Nicky Morgan's turn to announce a raft of measures that will bring profound changes to our schools.

The eye-catching suggestions are:

• Primary school pupils in England could face formal tests at the age of seven;
• A pool of "elite teachers" will be recruited to work in struggling schools in coastal towns;
• A target will require 90% of pupils to take core academic subjects at GCSE.

Mrs Morgan maintains her changes will help "every young person get the best start in life". At present, she says, there are 20 local authorities where most pupils do not achieve five good GCSEs, including English and maths. For Labour, shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said that rather than raising standards, the government has caused a "chronic shortage" of teachers.

In her speech today, Mrs Morgan will announce details of the pre-election pledge to create a National Teaching Service. It will recruit a pool of 1,500 high-achieving teachers over five years who would be deployed to struggling schools. It will also give local "commissioners" the power to intervene in under-performing state schools in a variety of ways. These commissioners are already in post, created to oversee academies and free schools.

The plans also include the re-introduction of testing all pupils at the age of 7, which was previously scrapped. Critics point out that the UK's pupils are already the most examined in Europe and our schools are in danger of becoming "exam factories".

In secondary school, there is clarification of the last education secretary Michael Gove's target that all pupils will have to take traditional GCSE subjects, in what he named the English Baccalaureate. This requires pupils to take GCSEs in English, maths, history or geography, two sciences and a language.
There will now be a target of 90% of pupils, which will allow for just a small number of exemptions, such as for pupils with special needs. At present, only about 39% of pupils take these subjects.

Brian Lightman, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said it would be "immensely challenging" for schools to get enough staff for subjects such as modern languages to meet these new targets.

Are you a teacher, head teacher, parent or pupil? What are your thoughts on the big changes being announced today?

Post-16 Education Revolution Begins Here

Teenagers in England will have to stay at school or in training longer from today. The "participation age" has risen from 16 to 17, although in the rest of the UK, it will remain at 16. From 2015 this rises again to 18.

However, unlike previous increases in the school leaving age, it does not mean that teenagers will have to remain in school. As an alternative, they could enter some form of work that includes an element of training, such as an apprenticeship.

This change has been introduced on the same day that pupils who do not get a grade C or higher in GCSE maths will be required to continue studying the subject during their subsequent schooling.

Schools and teaching unions are already talking about the increased pressure on already-stretched teaching staff and/or the need to employ more staff.

The government says that employers are complaining about a lack of basic numeracy and literacy skills among those applying for their first jobs and this has motivated both changes. However, there will not be sanctions imposed on any teenagers who fail to get some kind of training. The government says that the changes are aimed at increasing educational standards, not about introducing penalties. In reality, the new law would be difficult to enforce: how do you prove whether or not an employer is providing adequate training for a young employee.

Let us know what you think about these two changes. Will they provide valuable skills to those who have missed out in previous years? Or is this just another unnecessary change brought in by a tinkering education secretary?

Key Stage 2 Worksheets and Transfer Test Practice Papers

Our sister site Orchard Education Solutions has recently launched a series of Key Stage 2 learning materials.

There are worksheets for a wide selection of maths topics, e.g. decimals and fractions, area and perimeter and working with charts.

Also included are worksheets on English topics, such as apostrophes, poetry and comprehension.

You will find all of these worksheets at http://orchardsolutions.com/downloads/ks2-worksheets . Most of them are 99p to download.

There are also sixteen practice papers for the Northern Ireland Transfer Test, available at http://orchardsolutions.com/downloads/transfer-test . These are available as downloads or as hard copies to be sent out to you. You can also buy bundles of four papers in either format.

You will need to register on the site to access any of these materials.

Gove Allows Unqualified Teachers into the Classroom

Michael Gove outside the Palace of Westminster (Photo: Wikipedia)

In another move that has angered the teaching profession and its unions, Education Secretary Michael Gove has given the green light for academies to recruit unqualified teachers into teaching positions.

All new academies sign an agreement with the Department for Education. From now on, this agreement will state that the school has the right to recruit whoever it believes to be qualified for a teaching role, removing the condition that the recruit must have QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). Existing academies may apply to have the new clause inserted into their agreements with the Department.

Academies now account for more than a half of all secondary schools in England, although they are much less prevalent in other parts of the UK. The move brings new academies into line with private schools and the government's free schools.

The Department says it expects the vast majority of recruited teachers still to have QTS status, and that it is allowing more flexibility, by allowing schools to hire people from a broader range of backgrounds.

In contrast, the feeling among the teaching profession is that Michael Gove is trying to de-professionalise teaching. The general secretary of the NUT, Christine Blower, has described it as a cost-cutting measure and a clear dereliction of duty.

Unions point to the fact that Mr Gove has in the past praised the education system of Finland, where teachers are respected and paid accordingly. In other countries where the required level of teaching qualifications is being watered down, such as Sweden, educational standards now appear to be falling.

Teachers know how rigorous and valuable their training is. They know that pupils do not respond as well to untrained teaching and that this applies both to the academic rigour required and to classroom management.

Many teachers also suspect that this is one step of a plan for further privatisation of the education sector, eventually allowing private companies to run the academies for a profit and offering a cut-price education, to compete with neighbouring schools.

This is another move that the Education Secretary has attempted to introduce by stealth, as a part of his creeping revolution of the UK's education system. But proposals such as this, with such far-reaching consequences, will not go unnoticed by the teaching profession. There will be trouble ahead.

A-Levels are Changing

A-Levels are changing, there is no doubt about that.

Education Secretary Michael Gove began the process by consulting universities earlier this year, asking how they could become more involved in setting of the exams and the curriculum. Those consultations received a mixed reaction from teachers and teaching unions.

The Russell Group of leading universities has provided some more food for thought today. With a particular emphasis on maths A-Level, they say that some of the modules are simply not challenging enough and do not prepare students for a university degree in maths, physics or engineering.

Indeed, the Russell Group thinks that A-Level studies should be less dependent on the current modular system and more focused on a final examination. They describe A-Level modules as 'bite-sized chunks' which are too easily forgotten.

Another recommendation is that the number of times a candidate can resit any module should be limited, perhaps to one resit. Currently, a candidate can resit a module indefinitely.

Finally, the future of the AS is to be considered. The Russell Group did not express any clear views on its future, but the options are for it to be scrapped completely, given its own status as a stand-alone qualification (i.e. not a stepping stone to an A-Level) or the status quo.

All of these points will be considered by Ofqual, the exams regulator, as it begins drafting a report to be released later on this year. By then, we will know how radically different our A-Levels will look in the next few years.

Caleb Gattegno (1911 - 1988)

Image via Wikipedia

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Caleb Gattegno. He was an educator, particularly in mathematics, but also in linguistics, publishing many seminal works on the theory of education. But none of this theory was detached from the real world. His ideas were based on practical, real-life situations, and what, according to his observations, helped his students the most. He was also an inventor, creating tools for the classroom that are still used and found invaluable by today's teachers.

Gattegno grew up in Alexandria, then lived in Cairo, London and New York. He worked all over the world and devoted his life to a study of learning, not only creating a number of important innovative techniques for the teaching of languages and of mathematics, but also made a remarkable, seminal contribution to the understanding of the learning process at all ages. In 1952 he founded the organisation that would later become the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, and its magazine Maths Teaching. This year, the ATM is making Gattegno and his work the theme of their annual conference.

Caleb Gattegno made a significant impact on teaching and thinking about education not only in the UK but also in many countries around the world. Within mathematics, apart from the creation of ATM, his work included the promotion and use of Cuisenaire Rods, the creation of geoboards, developments of the animated geometry films of Nicolet, and the Gattegno ‘tens’ chart for number. Cuisenaire Rods were so effective, he thought, that he founded the Cuisenaire company in the UK.

In linguistics, Gattegno pioneered the learning of reading and foreign languages with ‘infused reading’ and ‘the silent way’. He was the first English translator of Piaget, he was influential in spreading awareness of developmental psychology.

In addition he challenged many in the educational world to consider what is involved in learning, encouraging them to allow an explorative approach. The teacher's actions should be subordinated to the way in which the child learns through exploration and investigation. His idea that only awareness is educable breaks the learning process down into four stages. The first, the most important, is a single act of awareness, for example that something is there to be learned or can be explored. Without this realisation, or any notion that there is a challenge, problem or issue to be explored, the pupil will not be able to proceed to the next three stages. These stages can be described as exploration, transition (which begins with the new skill being something that can be achieved with a lot of concentration, and ends with it being automatic) and transfer, in which the new skill can be used and applied to the learning of yet other skills and ideas.

Use of his teaching aids was developed in classrooms, and to demonstrate their power he was prepared to teach children of any age or ability, at any time, in front of other teachers. He ran many seminars through his lifetime and his personal influence was felt profoundly by those who saw him in action.

A-Level Exams Earlier, University Applications Later?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

UCAS, the body that administers UK university admissions, has put forward proposals for changes to the admissions system. These recommendations include bringing the A-Level examinations forward and completing most of the university application process when the exam results have been released. This system, UCAS argues, would be fairer and less complex.

Currently, pupils in their final year of school must make their UCAS applications by mid-January. Universities judge each application based on predicted A-Level grades, references from teachers, personal statements and possibly an interview. The universities then award conditional offers, dependent on certain A-Level grades being gained.

Many schools, particularly private schools, give university admissions advice that can maximise the chances of successful entry. UCAS argues that this system makes it unfair for pupils who do not have such a system of support available to them. In short, as the Guardian puts it, the current system favours the rich.

An overhaul would lead to a fairer and more transparent applications process, with the actual grades gained being central to a university’s decision.

An application later in the year would also give pupils more time to discover their real interests, which subjects they are excelling in, and would like to spend further time studying. The downside to such a plan would be the timing. A-Level examinations, the marking, awarding of grades, university applications and decision-making would all need to take place in the summer term. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, this problem would be exacerbated because schools break up for their summer holiday earlier than in England and Wales.

The last Labour government attempted to bring in similar reforms of the universities applications process, without success, largely because of opposition from teaching unions. Although many teachers see some benefits to such a scheme, the amount of teaching time for the A-Level examinations would be shortened. There is also a feeling that there would be simply too much to achieve during the summer term.

What do you think? Would you be happy to delay your university application until after you have received your A-Level results? How do other countries manage university admissions? Would a compulsory gap year be one radical solution to the problem (which they once called National Service), giving pupils further time to think about their futures and time to do something useful in the workplace, while ensuring our students are more mature when entering university? Let us know your thoughts.

Free Schools have Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Michael Gove (Photo: Paul Clarke)

Education Secretary Michael Gove is putting a brave face on the numbers of schools applying for "Free School" status. He told Andrew Marr this weekend that of 700 initially expressing an interest, 16 schools have formally applied to adopt this status from September 2011 and that this has "exceeded his expectations". Free Schools will be state-funded, but will remain outside of local authority control. In Gove's vision, it will be parents, teachers and voluntary groups that will be interested in creating Free Schools. He cites similar systems in Sweden and the US; and legislation was passed just two months into the lifetime of this Parliament to allow for their creation.

Supporters of the scheme claim it will create more local competition and drive-up standards.

But there are many critics, even from Michael Gove's own side of the political divide. Some have argued that the scheme will only benefit middle class parents with the time to dedicate to setting up a school and that it will divert money away from existing schools. Moreover, if having Academy or Free School status becomes a symbol of success, schools remaining under local education authority control will be seen as inferior.

Peter Wilby, writing in The Guardian, thinks that such schools will end up being run by private companies rather than parents, teachers and voluntary groups.

Paul Carter, the Conservative leader of Kent County Council, stated that under present funding arrangements: "The more Academies and Free Schools you operate ... the less maintained schools would get."

The National Union of Teachers warns that the policy could "fuel social segregation and undermine local democracy". The union is already talking about strikes to oppose the Free Schools scheme and the expansion of the Academies programme.

Rushed legislation is so often bad legislation. Rather than inventing new types of school to fit in with the Prime Minister's "Big Society", Gove's attentions should instead focus on the buildings programme, whose scaling back he so badly botched after taking office. It has been shown that a good working environment is one of the most important factors in a child's educational development.

Besides, do we not have enough different types of school in this country already?

Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, described it as "laughable" that Mr Gove considers his expectations to have been exceeded with the numbers declaring an interest.

Our prediction is that the distinction between the Academies and the Free Schools will blur and then disappear. With scant interest from the original audience, the parents and teachers themselves, and private business apparently the only sector of society interested, and in the face of much criticism and the prospect of strikes, the Free Schools programme will be slowly forgotten.

Just as with his plans for reforming A-Levels, it sometimes appears that Gove is shooting from the hip, saying whatever comes into his head without thinking.

Yes, there is room for improvement in our schools, and yes, there may be scope for greater involvement from the world of business, whether it be in the form of sponsorship or in the day-to-day tasks of school management. But there appears to be little appetite among our busy parents and teachers for taking on the responsibilities of running schools, nor so far from the voluntary sector. The Free Schools notion will be brief, will become subsumed into the Academies programme and will die, not with a bang, but with a wimper.

Related articles

• Michael Gove dealt fresh blow as only 20 'free schools' approved (guardian.co.uk)
• First 16 'free schools' revealed (bbc.co.uk)

The Battle for Britain’s University Places

Hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their A-levels and AS-levels results on Thursday. More university places are on offer this year, but the numbers are capped and universities face fines if they breach these limits.

Yesterday, we discussed the new A* grade, introduced this year to help universities differentiate between the very best candidates.

To get the new grade, a student has to score an A overall, plus at least 90% in each paper in the second year of the course. Yesterday, we reported that about 8% of all students’ papers have been given an A*. A total of 8.3% of A-levels taken by girls were awarded the new A* grade, compared with 7.9% of those from boys.

Students from independent schools were proportionately more likely to get an A*. They provided 30% of all A* grades awarded, despite making up only 14% of entries. Candidates from comprehensive schools, which are responsible for 43% of A-level entries, gained 30% of the A* grades awarded. Further education and sixth-form colleges, which enter 30% of candidates, saw their students given 20% of all A*s awarded.

We are pleased to say that the highest percentage of A*s was awarded in further maths at 29.9%. 17.2% of maths candidates achieved the grade. The numbers taking maths continued to rise with an extra 4,526 entries, and an extra 1,209 for further maths. It is pleasing to see this trend after a marked fall back earlier in the decade.

In Scotland, the overall pass rate for Highers was up slightly, to 74.6%, creating a new record. Northern Ireland fared the best of the regions, with 35.7% of papers being given an A or A*, 9.3% the A*.

So why, despite these record successes, are many candidates facing disappointment over university places?

Applications this year are up by 12% on last year's record level, with the numbers increased by those re-applying after not finding a place last year.

Many universities are warning that the number of places available through the ‘Clearing System’ will be severely restricted. Last year almost 48,000 students found places through this system, which matches available university places to students who did not get the grades they needed for their first choices. Half of Scotland's universities have already said their courses are full.

Universities Minister David Willetts congratulated students on their results and said that those who did not get the offer of a university place had other good options.

"There are more university places than ever before and already 380,000 applicants have got confirmed places at university. For those who have sadly not done as well they hoped, there are places available in clearing.

"Of course, university is not the only route into well-paid and fulfilling work. That is why we are also investing so much in Further Education and 50,000 extra high-quality apprenticeships."

Some may accuse Willetts of having his head in the sand. We have heard stories of students with three A* grades without any offers of a university place. The president of the National Union of Students (NUS) Aaron Porter said: "With youth unemployment pushing one million, savage education funding cuts and arbitrary limits on places, the government is at risk of imposing poverty of opportunity on a generation of young people facing a very uncertain future."

The biggest problem this year is clearly the recession. With jobs scarcer, the competition for university places automatically heats up. But there are other factors at work too.

The system has become skewed by awarding points for A-Level grades, implying that an A-Level in media studies is as valuable or useful as the same grade in maths or a science. The fact that these softer subjects are attracting more teachers only exacerbates the trend.

The private sector and the best state schools have shown that it is possible to maintain good standards, while keeping the demand for trendy or less demanding subjects to a low level. Securing a place for your child at one of these schools and the rules for the child’s education are clear: traditional subject choices, respected by the top universities, rigorously pursued. It is a recipe that has sadly disappeared in too many places.

Our school-leavers deserve better than the mess they have found themselves in this year. What will become of our goals of greater social mobility when subjects such as German and physics thrive in the independent sector but are dwindling elsewhere? The knock-on effect is the closure of the university departments in these subject areas, and this has already begun.

If you are still unsure about where or whether to go to university, it’s essential to get some high-quality, targeted information, advice and guidance. Speak to your teachers and to the universities themselves. Don’t rush into a course that isn’t suitable for you. You may end up leaving university early without a degree, but with the debt.

Good luck.

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• A-levels out amid degree pressure (bbc.co.uk)

The long wait is over

So the long wait is over. A-Level results are out. Congratulations if you have achieved your goals. And good luck if you are still waiting to hear about your post-A-Level destiny.

Two over-riding themes emerge from this year’s bunch of results: the ever-improving grades achieved (including the awarding of the new A* grade this year) and the shortage of university places available for this year’s cohort, both of which are cited as evidence of at best a sign of desperate times, at worst a failed education system.

What of the first, the notion commonly referred to as ‘Grade Inflation’? (I’ll look at university places in my next post).

The statistics

First, the statistics. Well, it was another record-breaking year of results. One in 12 A-level exams (8%) has been awarded the new A* grade (which, we believe is given to those who gain roughly 90% in their exams).

27% of entries have gained an A or A* grade and this rate is currently increasing at about 1% each year (26% achieved grade A last year, 25% the year before). The overall pass rate rose for the 28th year in a row, with 97.6% of entries gaining an E or above, up from 97.5% in 2009.

Why?

In my mind, a number of issues are at play here.

Firstly, let’s give some credit to the students. They are working harder, becoming more organised and better mentally equipped. They support each other, get help from parents and sometimes personal tutors. The web and great textbooks also help.

Secondly, don’t forget the teachers. Teaching methods are improving and this is assisted by new developments in the classroom, such as interactive whiteboards, a whole host of educational websites, and considerable expertise in these resources, as well as in the subject matter. Well done teachers.

There has also been some talk, particularly in these competitive times, of pupils choosing ‘softer’ subjects, in which they are more likely to rack up the number of A-Level points to move on to their institution of choice.

But I don’t think this is the end of the story.

As I’ve hinted already, there’s fierce competition out there. Pupils are realising that it’s a battle out there, and the best university places, or the best jobs, come from good grades. They see the incentives and they are prepared to work to get the rewards.

But I’m going to highlight one more factor, which I haven’t heard mentioned in the debate so far. I have done a lot of work for the exam boards over the years. Edexcel’s mathematics A-Level provides good, challenging questions, in about 12 different maths modules. The questions are quality-controlled, the examiners are tested, their work is scrutinised. In turn, the examiners’ supervisors are put through a rigorous qualification and testing procedure. The planning and the chain of command are almost militaristic.

But – and here’s the point – the exam papers are not necessarily too easy, they are too samey. Year after year, the question papers feature questions from the same topics, with only the numbers changing, the ordering of the parts or the words changed to alter the subject of the question. There is no imagination required to solve some of this stuff. Learn the technique and you know how to pass the exam. The teachers know this and a thorough analysis of the last 5 years’ past papers give them all the teaching material they need to ensure a good bunch of grades from their class.

It’s only exams like Cambridge University's STEP papers and the Advanced Extension Award that really test the imagination, the inventiveness of our pupils.

In my mind, this is the way forward. Forget A* grades, A** grades, ad infinitum. Let’s change the exams. Edexcel and the other exam boards should put as much effort into devising a truly challenging set of exam papers each year as they do into ensuring a fair and unbiased system (which is, of course, also very important). Perhaps a little adjusting of the syllabus would be necessary.

The truly outstanding pupils would shine. An A grade at A-Level would be a true indication of excellence, one that would make us proud of the UK’s education system again.

Related articles

• Record A-level passes spark intense battle for uni places (guardian.co.uk)
• 1 in 12 A-levels have new A* grade (independent.co.uk)