Every Parent Matters

The UK has to take some harsh decisions to control educational budgets covering teaching resources. One proposal is to turn state schools into academies with local control, but is this really a cop out by the government?

Research shoves effective help with schooling at home can improve a child’s achievement by two grades back in school. The Home Access scheme is designed to help poorer families buy a laptop computer and broadband access and get on-line with the teacher. Performance can be monitored and advice given to parents where they can help. Above all it can be fun as many of the teaching resources are the educational games, toys and puzzles use in class.

Last November keen2learn gave its support to the Vodafone programme to find 500 volunteers for charity work. The 500 winners were selected from a significant number of applicants from the UK., but the real winners are the charities who will get the benefit of the free support of the volunteers.

The Vodafone Foundation find 500 people from across the country for first World of Difference UK Programme
Over 1100 apply for placements

Winners to spend two months working for a charity of their choice
500 people have been chosen from over 1100 applicants to win a place on The Vodafone Foundation’s 2009 World of Difference UK Programme.

The programme gives people from across the UK the opportunity to work for a charity they are passionate about.  The Vodafone Foundation will pay each charity a total £2,500 of which the winners gets the balance once tax and National Insurance has been paid. In addition, Vodafone UK will donate a new mobile phone with pre-paid credit so that winners can capture their experiences and share them on vodafone.co.uk/worldofdifference to inspire others.

This is the first time that The Vodafone Foundation has offered two month World of Difference placements in the UK. The programme was open to anyone over 18 in the UK who had the passion, drive and commitment to donate themselves to a charity. Taking part involved finding the right charity to suit their interests, skills and experience and completing an online application form at vodafone.co.uk/worldofdifference

“We are delighted with the response we have had in the first year of this exciting new phase of the World of Difference programme” commented Andrew Dunnett, Director of the Vodafone Foundation. “We hope that the World of Difference UK programme will help more people to make a contribution to local communities, from veteran volunteers to first-timers.  World of Difference offers an ideal opportunity to help others while gaining valuable life and work experience.

Vodafone 500 winners

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk/news

The primary school results are out. This year these “educational games” are on time, inaccurate and heavy criticised by teachers, parents and the marking contractor.

A lot rides on the SAT’s. The examination results reveal the performance of the pupil, teacher and school. Targets are met or missed and critically SAT’s are designed to give secondary schools an indication of a child’s potential. But they don’t.

The “teach to test” syndrome that distorts the true ability of children and a teacher’s prowess, is routinely heralded by secondary heads as a waste. The policy change where the exams are to be  moved until children arrive in their new school gives partial relief to the primary sector, the secondary schools who inherit the burden think otherwise. But perhaps the greatest shock from the latest results is the claim of government interference by the examination marking contractors.

Exam technique advice given by teachers is not to panic. A pity the schools department weren’t listening. The examiners claim their job was made impossible through constant government interference probably resulting from the 2008 results fiasco, when the original contractor was fired. But maybe there is a common denominator. Lightening may not always strike the same point twice but maybe the schools department does.

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk

It ever it was difficult to educate children to understand the practical use of maths this case will dash all hopes of logic. To protect our interests a consortium of surveyors called CLM have been appointed to keep the bill for the London Olympic Games under control. A laudable task and meant to reassure. Last year they were paid £87m for their efforts. I am staggered by the audacity, but what do I know. This year the fee, yes it is an annual pot of gold, has risen to £151m.

Last year the taxpayer stumped up the cash gap that appeared in the funding for the athletes village and media centre. Presumable CLM were protecting our interests by passing the buck when push came to shove. But apparently they made a splendid job, as buried in this years fee payment was a bonus of £60m.

Estimates that total fees to consultants will top £680m by the opening of the games isn’t desperately reassuring. But the government believe it is value for money, but not perhaps money for value.

After 10 years in operation the Government plans to extend the number of educational academies. But are they working? Has the right decision been made by the DCSF (department of children, schools and families) based on fact or is this way to offload problem schools to third parties?

The debate looms; the protagonists either claim Academies offer fundamental benefits to children by providing schooling based on the needs of the real world, or an experiment fraught with difficulties. Many are struggling to prove the point and numerous Principals have fallen by the wayside. Operating outside many constraints of the National Curriculum these self funding and governing institutions have considerable operational freedom. Critically they are able to adopt a syllabus tuned to local commercial requirements. Matching the needs of local employers improves job prospects, surely a fundamental role of the entire educational programme. The commercial sponsorship of their operation instils a real world environment, many have become hugely successful. But others have not.

It is this situation that worries the conventionalists. The lack of detailed evidence that categorically proves the benefits of academies is causing concern. The government’s proposal to extend to 400 the number of academies has caused a stir. With the total number of secondary schools amounting to 3500, academies now represent a significant proportion of the national educational output. Maybe some of the negative comment stems from envy of their dynamic operational, although they are still subjected to Ofsted review.

Schools must evolve with the commercial demands of the employment market. It is as pointless educating children for jobs that do not exist as much as failing to provide an acceptable quality of education for the now global opportunities. Critics of the falling quality are legion, with constant concern over falling standards and the narrowed bandwidth in subject areas created by the “teach to test” syndrome. Concerns levelled by teachers, parents and employers alike over the current performance await a radical review of the schooling process. The solution is complex and will require a courageous plan from the DCSF to correct. But concern over educational matters doesn’t stop at the school gate. We now see a worrying trend developing in universities. The number of graduates finding employment in the discipline of their degree is extraordinary low. Many find that to gain employment they must now achieve a master’s degree. In the prevailing reduced employment demand employers can afford to be highly selective, but this presents additional cost in time and fees to archive a masters. Graduates who find their first degree devalued carry a sizeable financial debt as they enter the job market in a lower paid or qualified role

Academies may therefore be the answer. Tuning education to the changing needs of the now – global employment market may well be the key that academics can adopt dynamically. Their controlling influence from commercial third parties will reflect the changing market needs more readily. Certainly they stand a better change of introducing radical development programmes than the conventional school limited by systems and procedures that can isolate and frustrate new ideas. They may have their critics and still have long way to go, but academies have my vote to become established. To stick rigidly to our current system of schooling which is constantly attracting criticism is of far greater concern.

Teaching four-year-old children to write is nonsense says literacy consultant Sue Palmer. “As useful as teaching a dog to walk on its hind legs.” So why has the National Curriculum in the UK adopted new assessments to measure handwriting skills in the first year at school?

Concerned opinion asks why the government introduced a scheme which is immediately openly criticised by a leading expert. How does this happen?  Surely Palmer is the one of the key people to assist or review the development of a new school policy in literacy before it is launched.

Setting targets that are too easy seems pointless; too hard and those not in contention become demoralised. Sue Palmer believes the long-term effect of the new policy would do more harm than good. The scheme, part of a four billion pound investment into early learning scheduled over the next two years, is therefore questionable.

It is an unfortunate start. The scheme has the right motivation but perhaps lacks the accountability which may have ensured it was thoroughly tested before launch. If government departments could be measured on results the efficacy of many schemes would be more closely reviewed.  The problem starts at the top. Ministerial appointments are inevitably transitory. The tenure of the secretary for education historically has lasted around 18 months. But the measure of the effectiveness of educational policy takes a generation of children to measure its impact. Historically it was always a predecessors’ idea – unless it worked.  But is Sue Palmer right this time?

In an age of computerised communication; e-mails, texts, technology with built in spell check and predictive text, the need to write anything may seem to be superfluous. Cheques are virtually obsolete, even the signature on credit card slips has been replaced by a pin number. Mind you we do get to sign the back of the credit card every two years, and a passport application every ten years. But do you find you have to practice your signature before signing the secure strip that makes it unreadable anyway. Hardly a burdensome task, so do we need to write anything?

Shopping lists could shortly be replaced with bar code scans, or even the fridge could order online for you. Purchases are made more and more on line requiring typing skills and the deft control of the mouse. Even the mouse could be replaced by a touch screen.

Obviously handwriting skills intermesh with spelling. This leads us to another quandary. Teaching children to spell and write words as they sound involves the definition of “phonic.” Where the P and H of phonic of course being pronounced as an  “f.”  But no worry, as the device the kids will ultimately use to communicate will be a cell phone, with camera, spell check and predictive text – assuming that text abbreviations don’t completely take over.

If a more complex message is required then one of the new mini laptops, or knee tops is ideal. These incredible devices incorporate all the functions of the PC in a case weighing 1kg and a screen of 7inches. Highly portable they could tuck into a small backpack – or even a hood. Not as daft as it sounds. I once met a Berber in Morocco who wore the long traditional cloak and used the hood as a vast pocket.

If handwriting and spelling skills are an essential form of communication they are under attack, but they have one great defence. They work when the powers gone, the battery’s flat, the pc has crashed and credit is exhausted. Yes, in this rapidly developing technical world we still need to learn how to read, write and spell!

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Teachers are at the front line and can see the issues and solutions as they develop. Why do we ignore this wisdom and experience and play games with the educational curriculum. The number of children failing in education is astounding and we don’t seem to be getting any better

Education is at a crossroads. Concern criticism abounds at all levels. We need to enter a brave new world matched to the future needs of a global market. An exceptional navigator is required to lead the way. Previous applicants need not reapply.

The UK primary school curriculum is in the throws of a massive positive update, or another upheaval depending on which way you look at it. Clearly the current system is ailing with many performance targets being missed despite the inclination to manipulate the results -inherent with any target based system.

The “teach to test” syndrome is leaving children with an incredibly shallow depth of knowledge and unprepared for the ardours of the global changes that will affect their adulthood. Will the next series of educational games be a  positive move?

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