Untold Stories

A quite extraordinary animation from Kirklees.   Teenagers draw on animation film to highlight plight of child soldiers Books Not Bullets is the brainchild of a group of Kirklees youngsters after they heard firsthand tales of genocide survivors. Beverley Addy – Guardian 01/03/2011

George Szirtes reminiscing!

Teachers – a rant Isn’t it interesting that as the statistics of exam success rise each year and as the chorus of governmental self-congratulation grows ever louder, that we now have demands for a 5-year MOT for teachers? I asked C who still teaches a day a week in school what she thought of this. [...]

Capita about to get the chop!

Labour to junk Tony Blair’s flagship school reform Headteachers to get more powers as era of centralised control ends Farewell then the Numeracy and Literacy Strategy, all the heartache and disillusion these strategies have caused. For me the Literacy Strategy was always worse than the Numeracy, but then I’ve always found maths easier to teach. [...]

Well, you asked!

Sats blight children’s memories of school. by Mark Gould in the Guardian. This echoes the Panorama programme from earlier this year. Do you remember the Sats monster?

It’s all in the class size! Round 2

There it was again this morning. British class sizes among the highest in the world. By Jessica Shepherd in the Guardian. An average of 24.5. Interestingly the Private sector has an average of 13 less than this. In their words “Britain stands out as having the biggest difference in Primary Class size between Public and [...]

A chink? – A glimmer?

A hint apparently. Balls hints at end to SATs tests. from the BBC Website on Sunday. Is sanity about to prevail??

It’s all about class size!

Lord Adonis has been very prominent of late. First acknowledging a problem. Education: Primary pupils without basic skills highlight Labour’s biggest failure, says schools minister. Polly Curtis in the Guardian on the 21st August. Then advocating Academy Schools to solve some of the problems. City academies to take over struggling primary schools Polly Curtis and [...]

National Curriculum Tests – A Ok and fit for purpose.

“Ball’s test answer? More futile, top-down plans that Labour loves. by Jenni Russell in this mornings Guardian. The Children, School and Families Committee site is here. Their report is here. Mr Ball’s response is here. There were some interesting follow up letters to Jenni Russell’s article here. Keep the tests and refine assessment seems to [...]

Inspiring Simplicity

Assessment for learning.