Eleven Plus Education News Service
Eleven Plus News - We trawl through numerous news websites so that you don't have to! Please find a selection of interesting news articles on Independent, Private, Grammar, Secondary schools and Universities. Contributions welcome, please write to
11plus-news@ElevenPlusExams.co.uk.
Heads warn of exam 'congestion'
BBC - 10th May 08
Pupils about to start sitting GCSEs and AS-levels are being put under extra pressure by timetabling problems, head teachers have warned.
The National Association of Head Teachers says as more pupils sit a wider range of subjects, candidates can face three or four exams in one day.
It is calling on exam boards to co-ordinate schedules more effectively.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said it aimed to minimise clashes but some were inevitable.
The exam season begins across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Monday, but teaching unions fear what is already a difficult time for pupils is being made even harder.
Children being failed by progressive teaching, say Tories
Guardian - 10th May 08
Generations of children have been let down by so-called progressive education policies which have taught skills and "empathy" instead of bodies of knowledge, the shadow education secretary, Michael Gove, said yesterday.
A Conservative government would reinstate traditional styles of fact-based lessons, he told teachers at a conference at Brighton College in Sussex yesterday.
Gove condemned "pupil-centred learning" theories that gained currency in the 1960s for "dethroning" the teacher. "This misplaced ideology has let down generations of children," he said. "It is an approach to education that has been called progressive, but in fact is anything but. It privileges temporary relevance over a permanent body of knowledge which should be passed on from generation to generation ... We need to tackle this misplaced ideology wherever it occurs."
Poor results force government rethink on progress tests
Guardian - 10th May 08
New national level tests for primary and secondary pupils are to be changed after only one in 10 passed one exam.
Schools involved in the pilot to test children "when ready", as decided by their teachers, and in "single levels", rather than at the end of the key stage, produced unexpectedly low results from the first set of exams taken in December.
According to information obtained by the Times Education Supplement, the government is to alter the tests to give pupils more time to complete the higher level sections. Procedures will also be tightened to make sure the right students sit the tests.
More than 400 schools are taking part in the two-year "Making Good Progress" pilot project. Ministers have said the tests will replace national curriculum tests - or Sats - from 2010.
Fewer than 10% passed the level 6 reading test first trialled in December, with a slightly higher pass rate in writing and maths.
The government postponed publication of the results in January because they were disappointing and a full evaluation is not expected until the Autumn.
Letters from the National Assessment Agency (NAA) to the Department for Children, Schools and Families obtained by the TES confirm that agency officials believed some schools entered pupils for the tests incorrectly. In some cases, pupils were entered against teachers' advice.
Return of education's 'Cold War'
BBC - 10th May 08
Oh dear! The education "Cold War" seems to have returned.
The walls are going up again, each side is digging in, and the mud slinging has resumed.
This week, the new head of the Independent Schools Council, Chris Parry, a former Royal Navy officer, fired a missile across the bows of the state school sector.
Mind you, he claimed it was a defensive measure.
Giving evidence to the Commons schools select committee, Mr Parry said he found it "offensive" that he had been unable to find satisfactory schooling in the "poor" state sector.
He went on to criticise those people who were "baying" for the independent sector to do more in order to meet the public benefit test under charity law.
'Cold war' between state and private schools
Guardian - 7th May 08
Private schools are engaged in a "cold war" with state schools which is being aggravated by plans to force fee-charging schools to open up their facilities, according to the body representing top public schools.
Private school heads believe they are being targeted by the state sector in what amounts to a "sectarian divide" between the two, Chris Parry, the head of the Independent Schools Council told a parliamentary select committee today.
There is widespread bullying in teacher training schemes against trainees who want to work in the private sector, he claimed.
"The sectarian divide is quite severe, there's an ideological problem between the two sectors," Parry said. "Like the cold war you have misconceptions of what's going on on the other side."
The Charity Commission's proposals on how private schools should prove their public benefit to justify their charitable status - and £100m in tax breaks - have also "heightened tensions", he said.
"It looks like a missile aimed from the maintained sector," he added. "Most of the pressure is coming from the maintained sector."
The National Union of Teachers called his comments "outrageous", saying they had seen no evidence of bullying in teacher training courses.
Tougher A-level 'to widen gap between schools'
Telegraph - 7th May 08
Almost a quarter of pupils at fee-paying schools are expected to gain at least one top A* grade when they are awarded in 2010.
At comprehensives, the figure is expected to be just nine per cent. Grammar school pupils will perform even better.
The analysis is by exams regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It comes as schools prepare to begin teaching the new courses from September.
Poorer children more likely to fail exams
Times - 6th May 08
Poorer children are more likely to fail their exams than their richer peers according to new figures, raising fears about increasing inequality in state education.
Britain’s poorest children are at a greater risk of attending a failing school than pupils from the wealthier backgrounds, Government data suggests.
A new analysis of official data by the Conservative party indicates that the achievement gap in education between rich and poor children is increasing.
Those from the most deprived backgrounds have more than a 50 per cent chance of ending up in a school that the Government considers to be failing because it has not reached the target of 30 per cent of pupils gaining five A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and Maths.
Minister blamed for 11-plus 'shambles'
Derry Journal - 6th May 08
Limavady Ulster Unionist Colr. Edwin Stevenson is set to table a motion condemning Education Minister Catriona Ruane for what he branded as "her shambolic handling of plans for the future of post-primary education."
The motion will also note the high levels of public concern and will call on the Executive to create a Ministerial Sub-Committee to recommend appropriate regulations to govern post-primary transfer from 2010.
Colr. Stevenson said: "What we have at the present time is an uncooperative and arrogant Minister who has no real idea of how best to serve teachers, parents and pupils in Northern Ireland.
"It is time we started to get real answers to real problems, because at present schools and parents are in the dark as to Ms Ruane's plans for the future of post-primary education in Northern Ireland."
Poor teachers affecting pupils' grades, study shows
Guardian - 6th May 08
Pupils taught by incompetent teachers drop more than a grade in any subject in their GCSEs than those taught by excellent teachers, a study shows.
Left-leaning thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) commissioned the Centre for Market and Public Organisation - a research institute - to look at 6,000 pupils, 300 teachers and 40 schools.
Researchers estimated the quality of each teacher from where they were on the pay scale and whether they had been entitled to performance-related pay. They compared this with pupils' age, gender, postcodes and academic records.
They found a quarter of teachers in their sample were "poor" and that pupils achieved lower grades when taught by them.
Julia Margo, IPPR's associate director, said: "A pupil taking eight GCSEs and taught by eight good teachers will score four to five more GCSE points than the same pupil in the same school by eight poor teachers.
Devolution one year on
Belfast Telegraph - 6th May 08
The decision to scrap the 11-plus — officially abolished six years ago, but only actually scheduled to go after current P6 pupils sit the last test this autumn — still divides opinion, largely along sectarian lines. Forty-nine per cent wanted the exam retained, with 43% agreeing that it was right to get rid of it.
Almost two-thirds of Protestants, 61%, were in favour of keeping the transfer test. Exactly the same proportion of Catholics agrees with its demise.
But the Ipsos MORI survey shows consensus on the general notion of academic selection. According to the poll, 70% of adults agree with some form of academic selection without specifying the age that should happen or the way academic ability should be determined. A majority, 51%, said they strongly agree with the idea.
