Archive for February 2008

Latest on achievement and attainment

29/02/2008 by Tony Attwood.

According to the government the Key Stage 3 Achievement and Attainment tables for individual schools show that the percentage of pupils achieving the expected level in English and Science slightly improved in 2007, but had fallen back by one percentage point in Maths. In comparison to the figures for 1997 this means an additional 100,000 pupils reached the expected level in English; 95,000 in Maths and 80,000 more in Science.The results confirm that the percentage of pupils achieving Level 5 or above (the expected level) by subject are as follows:

• in English 74% - up one percentage point (ppt) from 2006 (17ppts higher than in 1997);

• Science 73%, an increase of 1 ppt to 73% - the highest ever level. This represents an increase of 13 ppts since 1997; and

• Mathematics 76%, a drop of 1ppt. This is still 16 ppts higher than in 1997 and follows a 3 ppt increase last year.

Also the Department announced that a new resource pack for schools will help Key Stage 3 pupils make faster progress in English, maths and science. The pack will be available for all secondary schools in England. The pack contains reports of investigations, posters and ‘prompt sheets’ to help pupils and their mentors or personal tutors think about their own progress and what they need to do to do better.

The reports go behind the 2006 Key Stage 3 results in maths, science and English at groups of schools. They are based on interviews with hundreds of pupils and teachers. They feature common characteristics and behaviour of brighter pupils who are making fast progress and less able children who are making slow progress. They gather together - from these pupils and their teachers - practical suggestions for the classroom to help individual children do better.

For example in maths, one report shows that bright, articulate pupils, who at age 11 are already achieving beyond the expected level for their age need to develop a deeper understanding of maths to help them continue making outstanding progress throughout Key Stage 3 and go on to enjoy GCSE and A-level maths.

These pupils were doing well and could use fractions and decimals confidently but didn’t always understand the mathematical concepts behind them. They said that visual images and practical activities such as making models or drawing shapes in geometry helped them to develop a deeper understanding of maths. For example, activities like plotting ‘human graphs’, using pupils to represent the points on a line, helped them to understand the relationships between shapes, numbers and processes.

Another report focuses on teaching techniques for a group of children who started Key Stage 3 at level 3, behind national expectations. In maths, to help children who were worried about getting answers wrong, the report suggests encouraging them to talk in class about their method of working out a problem or to show it in their exercise books. Their teachers said that these pupils also struggled with maths vocabulary and needed support for their literacy skills as well as specific teaching to help them understand maths words.
1) KS3 tables can be found at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/performancetables/

2) More info in diplomas which come in in September and will affect the way much teaching is conducted can be found at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/14-19/

3) More info on the National Year of Reading 2008 can be found at http://www.yearofreading.org.uk

4) For more information on the Resource Pack please contact Lizzy Bell on 0207 925 5261

5) The SFR National Curriculum Assessments at KS3 in England 2006/07 (Revised) can be found at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000776/index.shtml

If you would like to read more news on education there are a series of regular email newsletters you can sign up to - the details are at http://www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html    

There’s more on education in general in www.schools.co.uk

Tony Attwood

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An extraordinarily simple way to organise school improvement

26/02/2008 by Tony Attwood.

The Guardian this week carried a story about a simple but brilliant piece of hospital research.  The researchers wanted to know if an incredibly simple modification to what people in hospitals do when working with intravenous drips could cut infection rates.

Please don’t give up on me at this point - there is a real educational issue here - and this is not about some complex medical procedure.  All the researchers instituted was a tick list.  The research set out to prove whether there were less infections when the medical team had a tick list covering all the basics - such as wash your hands, put on the gloves, and so on.

The result of the research was amazing - in a period of 18 months the level of infections dropped by 75%, 1500 people lived who (by the results being obtained before) would have died, and over £100 million was saved in terms of further medical intervention.

All from a simple tick list reminding people to do the obvious.

Now in schools we don’t deal with saving people’s lives, but we do have to deal with public (or in the case of private schools) parents’ money.  Just imagine what impacts we could all make through such tiny changes as this.  

There is just one problem.  While, in the medical sphere, there is a tradition going back hundreds of years of experiment and  research on the job, this is not the case in schools.  Of course I can’t talk about your school, and I’ll be delighted to receive your comments telling me I am wrong, but my experience in general is that very few teachers, administrators and managers actually do any research in schools at all.   The only exception I know about are those people working on M Phils and PhD degrees.

Maybe its because “research” sounds too grand.  But as the tick box story (which is quite real - page 16 Guardian, Feb 23) shows simple ideas can be tried out to see what effect they have as long as the results are measured.  And no one can say, “you can’t do that with children’s futures” - the example we are drawing from was an experiment with people’s lives.

My personal view is that we could all make a huge difference to schools if we just said to ourselves - I wonder if things would work better if we did this….  Let’s try it for a week, and measure the result.

If you ever do feel moved to try this - or indeed if you have done so - I’ll be delighted to write up the details so that everyone can benefit.

If you would like to read more news on education there are a series of regular email newsletters you can sign up to - the details are at http://www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html    

There’s more on education in general in www.schools.co.uk

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Free information services for school managers & administrators

20/02/2008 by Tony Attwood.

 Slowly, very slowly, the concept of efficiency is creeping into education.   Three years ago a new course for school administrators (the Certificate in Educational Administration) was launched, which focussed very much on efficiency in the school office.   Then the government set up the Financial Management in Schools programme, and the Value for Money Unit.

Back in the world of administration, the School of Educational Administration launched a service through which administrators can write in and ask questions about anything to do with educational administration.

And now they are speaking of the great success they are having with Use the Key.

The project is run by the TDA, and the aim is this - if you have a question and you don’t know how to get the answer, you search The Key’s site for answers to all the previous questions people have asked, and if the answer is not there, you email the project and one of their ten researchers will send you back the answer.

According to a report in the Guardian the sort of questions coming up are  “How can I engage hard-to-reach parents?”, “Can I use Wi-Fi in my school safely?”, and “How can I raise achievement in boys’ writing?”.   You can’t ask legal questions, but anything else educational is ok.

Apparently all questions are answered within 72 hours and the service is thought to be saving users 5 hours a week.

An independent report shows that school leaders believe the service is saving them on average five hours per question asked.

To access the Key you need to be a senior manager in a school in England.  You can log on at http://www.usethekey.org.uk/createMember

For school administrators the SEA’s service takes the form of a weekly newsletter, with subscribers able to email in questions (email ad.admin@schools.co.uk with the word Subscribe in the subject line).  This service is open to all schools in the UK.

The value for money unit is at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/valueformoney/ 

Details of the Certificate in Educational Administration can be accessed from www.admin.org.uk

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Teachers receive far less direct mail than expected

14/02/2008 by Tony Attwood.

The amount of mail being received by schools towards the end of last year was far less than most people imagine, according to a survey by Hamilton House Mailings plc.

Many heads of departments received at most one direct mail advertisement per week. The survey was conducted during the Autumn Term 2007 and analysed the direct mail received by both primary and secondary schools in England.

Most notable was the huge variation in the amount of mail received in different subject areas.

While some subject co-ordinators and heads of department could go for weeks without receiving any advertisements, a small number of teachers got 3 or more a week. Interestingly the teachers who received the most mail were not the same ones as received the most mail two or three years ago.

Music teachers, for example, are now among the most heavily mailed in schools, whereas three years ago they were receiving very little mail.

Despite the fact that Hamilton House has regularly warned about the fact that headteachers in secondary schools get large amounts of mail that is screened out by the school administrators or the Head’s PA, there has been no decline in this area, with heads getting 10 times or more as much direct mail as the most heavily mailed head of department.

While it is worth mailing headteachers on certain occasions, most of the time the mail is better directed elsewhere.

The Report Direct mail to schools – A survey of the mail reaching schools in the Autumn term 2007 is available as a download from the Library section of the Hamilton House website for £5.00 plus VAT at http://tinyurl.com/2dqunt A full list of all the articles on the site is shown at http://www.hamilton-house.com/gateways/articles.html

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Government plans on healthy eating at school and home

11/02/2008 by Tony Attwood.

£21 million funding for the School Food Trust over the next three years has been announced by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in England.  The aim is to drive up the quality of school food and increase take up of meals through better education for parents, children and young people.

A further £2 million capital investment has been announced for the Trust to expand the School FEAST network of training centres for the school food workforce. The cash will be invested in new training facilities to equip staff with the skills they need to produce healthy, tasty food. The School Food Trust has been placed by the government at the forefront of improving take up of school dinners.

This funding settlement is on top of the £627 million ringfenced funding for school food since 2005, which includes: • £220 million transitional funding for schools and local authorities to adjust to tough, new nutritional standards from 2005-08;

• £240 million subsidy for cost of producing school lunches from 2008-11;

• £15 million for the School Food Trust from 2005 to 2008;

• £2 million capital funding for the School FEAST network

• and £150 million capital funding to help authorities with the greatest need build new school kitchens – on top of the broader £22 billion capital funding settlement last November for schools and local authorities.Background

1. The School Food Trust (SFT) is a non-departmental public body established by the DCSF in September 2005. Its remit is to transform school food and food skills, and promote the education and health of children and young people by improving the quality of food supplied and consumed in school. Visit http://www.schoolfeast.co.uk to find out more.

2. The School Food Trust is launching the School FEAST network funded by an initial £2m Capital Fund Grant in the period 2007 – 08 from the Government. Allocation of the Capital Fund Grant has been made following a robust and vigorous assessment process. The network includes further education colleges, private and employer led training providers. These organisations either provide training or qualifications individually as a School FEAST centre or together with others as a School FEAST partnership.

3. The School FEAST network will provide a comprehensive package of training and qualifications, from hands-on cooking lessons to formal qualifications at NVQ level 2 and beyond 4. The network will consist of School FEAST centres and School FEAST partnerships. As a member of the School FEAST network each centre and partnership is required to provide a ‘Core Offer’ of qualifications. The ‘Core Offer’ consists of:

VRQ Level 1 Award in Providing a Healthier School Meals Service o Support Work in Schools Level 2 o Support Work in Schools Level 3

NVQ Level 2 Professional Cookery

NVQ Level 2 Food Processing and Cooking It is likely that centres and partnerships will provide additional training and qualifications that have been designed to meet the specific needs of their learners.

5. The organisations that make up the School FEAST network are:

6. The South East o Oxfordshire County Council School FEAST centre

o Kent County Council & its partner KEY Training Services

o Oxford and Cherwell Valley College & its partners Oxfordshire LA; Scolarest (Oxfordshire); St Gregory the Great School; and Cheney School The South West

o Royal Agricultural College & its partners Cirencester College; Gloucestershire College; Stroud College; and Swindon College

o Yeovil College & its partner Somerset College

o The Blue School and its partner Community Skills and Learning (Somerset County Council)

o Ashburton Cookery School & its partner City College Plymouth

o City of Bristol College & its partner Bristol Chefs Forum

The West Midlands
o Bournville College & its partner Birmingham City Council

The East Midlands

o Northamptonshire County Council & its partners Moulton College; Northampton College; Bedford College; and Tresham College The East of England

o The East of England School FEAST Partnership o South East Essex College School FEAST centre The North West

o St Helens College o Manchester Fayre - Manchester City Council & its partners Accrington and Rossendale College; Manchester Metropolitan University; and Manchester Primary Care Trust.

o Cumbria County Council and its partners Furness College, Lakes College, Kendal College, Carlisle College and Cumbria Colleges Limited Londono Thames Valley University School FEAST Centre

You can read more about education in the UK at www.schools.co.uk

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