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The UK Government has accepted all the recommendations of the independent review of testing, assessment and accountability at the end of primary school.
Changes to the Key Stage 2 system aim to make it fairer and more effective in raising standards.
The review recommended that:
- Writing test should be replaced by teacher assessment of writing composition.
- There should be a spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary test - all have clear right or wrong answers.
- Maths should continue to be externally tested.
- Reading tests should continue but need to be refined.
- Science should continue to be teacher assessed with a sample test to monitor national standards.
- Speaking and listening should continue to be teacher assessed.
- Three-year rolling averages should be introduced to give a rounded picture of a school?s performance.
- There should be a greater emphasis on the progress of pupils.
- Progress should be given as much weighting as attainment and should be one of the two headline published measures, alongside attainment.
- There should be a strong focus on the progress of every pupil, as well as greater emphasis on the progress of each Year 6 cohort. A new progress measure should be introduced to focus on the performance of lower-attaining pupils. This will help stop schools focusing on children on the Level 3/4 borderline.
- New progress and attainment measures should be introduced for pupils who have completed all of Years 5 and 6 in a school so that schools are not held wholly responsible for the performance of pupils who have just joined them.
- Teacher assessment judgements should continue in English, maths and science, and should be submitted before test results are announced. This will mean more weight is attached to them and allow longer for these results to inform Year 7 teaching and learning.
- Transition to secondary school should be eased for pupils and their new teachers. There should be more detailed reporting to secondary schools so Year 7 teachers know right from the outset a pupil?s attainment and the areas where extra work is needed.
- Pupils who are ill on the day of a test should have a week to sit it, rather than two days.
Source
2 February 2014
The cross-platform, desktop application of this program is now available.
2 February 2014
A study by Buckingham University found 27,976 (71.5 per cent) of the 39,103 trainees who qualified in the summer of 2010 were in teaching posts in January 2011.
It found that 62 per cent of the trainees were teaching in state schools, while 5 per cent were in independent schools and 4 per cent in ?other? education.
The report found that teacher trainees who entered the profession via ?hands-on? courses were more likely to go into the profession than those trained at universities, even though only a relatively small number of teachers come through this route.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: ?These figures do not show the whole picture - the fact is some trainee teachers do not want to start straight away and others work in supply teaching first, but many of those do end up as full-time teachers.?
The report also noted that some subjects, notably languages, maths and the sciences, were still struggling to find teacher trainees and it said fewer of the trainees in these subjects went on to become teachers.
Source
2 February 2014
?Be gentle, and you can be bold; be frugal, and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others, and you can become a leader among men.? Lao-Tzu (c. 550 B.C.)
2 February 2014
A lack of employability skills pushes school leavers to back of jobs queue, as demand for migrant workers reaches record levels. New research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) finds recruitment demand for school leavers has fallen since last year, while employer appetite for migrant workers has reached a record high.
The study, based on a survey of more than 1,000 employers, shows that demand for migrant workers has increased to a record high, with a quarter of employers now planning to hire migrant workers in the third quarter of 2011. In response to the annual cap on non-EU migrants, more employers say they will hire EU migrant workers (34%) than up-skill existing workers (23%) or recruit more graduates (18%). Almost one in ten employers (8%) say that they would offshore jobs abroad.
In contrast, employers? overall hiring intentions for young people have fallen since Spring 2010. Only 12% of employers plan to hire 16-year-old school-leavers in the three months to September 2011, down from 14%. Similarly, the number of employers planning to recruit school-leavers aged 17-18 and above has fallen to a quarter (25%) from almost a third (31%) in the same period.
The number of employers planning to take on higher education leavers under the age of 24 is 38%, compared to 47% last year. However, the Government?s efforts to boost the employment of apprentices appears to be working, with 37% of respondents planning to recruit apprentices compared with 24% last year.
Source
2 February 2014
A look at some of the most ridiculous descriptions of student life at university by Ed Cumming of the Daily Telegraph.
He cites Hamlet, Brideshead Revisited, The Secret History, Chariots of Fire, The Social Network, The Glass Bead Game, Zuleika Dobson and The Glittering Prizes.
Source
2 February 2014
Some have genes which makes them more likely to follow instructions
1 February 2014
Pensioners who had music lessons as a child do better in IQ tests
1 February 2014
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