PUPILS UNPREPARED FOR SCIENCE AND LANGUAGES
P
upils are leaving primary school unprepared for the rigours of science and foreign languages at secondary level, Ofsted’s chief inspector says.
Sir Michael Wilshaw speaks out
Teaching time
Sir Michael Wilshaw said the focus on the “three Rs” had pushed other compulsory subjects “to the margins of the curriculum” in primary schools.
And while the vast majority of schools spent four hours or more each teaching English and maths, none devoted a similar amount of time to teaching science - the third core subject in the curriculum.
Science and languages had become the “poor relations” of the primary curriculum as a result, he said.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We are also investing millions to raise the quality of teaching in languages and science through initiatives like the Science Learning Partnership, which benefited more than 2,600 primary schools last year alone.
The government said more pupils were taking science and languages at GCSE. Sir Michael said, in his monthly commentary, that the government wanted most pupils who started secondary school last September to take the full suite of English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, including science and a foreign language, when they sat their GCSEs, in 2020. The EBacc is a wrap-around qualification that requires candidates to obtain GCSEs in English, maths, history or geography, a foreign language and two sciences.
for this subject was seriously constrained, with schools “struggling to squeeze” foreign language lessons “into an already tight curriculum”.
“We are continuing to recruit highquality candidates at primary level and have already exceeded our teacher training targets for this year, four months before the recruitment cycle ends.
‘Tight squeeze’
“It seems clear that if the government’s ambition is to be met, primary schools will need to lay the foundations in these subjects before their pupils move on to study them at secondary school.”
Sir Michael said: “This drive to raise the academic achievement of our young people is a laudable ambition but undoubtedly a very challenging one.
In a recent review of science and language teaching, drawing evidence from 340 routine inspections, inspectors found a lack of time allocated to these subjects.
“In 2015, less than half of all pupils studied a foreign language at GCSE and, although science is a core subject that should be studied by all pupils to age 16, only 74% of pupils took it to GCSE level to qualify for the EBacc.
Pupils spent less than an hour a week studying a foreign language in about two-thirds of primary schools visited, Ofsted said.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “Primary schools are struggling to prioritise science, languages and arts in the face of an accountability regime which prioritises English and Maths at the expense of all else.
Many school leaders and teachers told inspectors the time available
“We agree that these basics are essential, but they are not the be-all
“Alongside a raft of measures including increased bursaries and other financial incentives in EBacc subjects, including languages, we will ensure teaching remains an attractive profession.”
DEPUTY HEADTEACHER IS HONOURED FOR HIS LGBT RIGHTS CAMPAIGNING Southwark Park’s deputy head Shaun Dellenty who was almost driven to suicide by homophobic bullying who has championed LGBT+ rights for almost eight years has been honoured with three major awards in five days Prime Minister David Cameron said of Shaun: “Shaun’s anti-bullying programme ‘Inclusion for All’ is having a fantastic impact on increasing awareness of homophobia in schools. By equipping teachers to speak to children about these issues he is helping to make sure future generations will not face the prejudice that he and many others in the LGBT community had to endure. I am delighted to recognise Shaun as the UK’s 529th Point of Light.” After initial success in a number of Southwark schools, including his own, the National College for Teaching and Leadership, Stonewall and the De-
partment For Education wanted to know more about Shaun’s groundbreaking vision and he was invited to speak at workshops and conferences across the UK and Europe. With no formal funding (and in addition to his full time role as school leader) Shaun delivered training across the UK, in the form of workshops, twilights, one day regional conferences, using social media to spread the word. Shaun also ran training in his own school involving pupils and other staff members to share good practice. Shaun has now worked with most of the leading anti-bullying, teacher training and human rights organisations across the UK, including Amnesty International and Show Racism The Red Card and he has been called to advise on policy at the Houses of Parliament. In 2014 Shaun met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and his training programme became a recommended anti-homophobia resource for Church of England schools. Shaun is currently touring an antihomophobia schools play called ‘BOY’ and will be working with police and school leaders on the Isle of Man later this year. The training programme was awarded the Southwark Good Practice Award in 2013 and Shaun was voted one of the ‘101 most influential LGBT figures in the UK’ in 2012 and 2013. At the National Excellence in Diversity Awards 2016 Shaun won the ‘Education Champion’ category. In May 2016 Shaun was honoured at Southwark Cathedral by the Mayor of Southwark who presented him with the Mayor’s Special Award for services to education. Inclusion For All became a social enterprise Community Interest Company in March 2016.
For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk
Excelling at School Business Management one-day training With the white paper “Educational Excellence Everywhere” calling for all schools to convert into academies by 2020, the ability to effectively manage the business function of a school is increasingly becoming an essential part of school management. As such, we are delighted to invite you to our Excelling at School Business Management one-day training course taking place on Thursday 14th July at Etc.Venues, The Hatton. It is essential that all schools are preparing for the effects of increased accountability and autonomy. This course will cover commercial strategies, marketing, HR and staff development, and financial and budget planning. Delegates will develop the tools and strategies necessary to successfully lead school management and drive progress. Led by National Association of School Business Management’s (NASBM) Associate Practitioner, Peter Melville, delegates on this Excelling at School Business Management course, will leave equipped with the tools and practical guidance essential to successful school management.
BE SUN READY
Peg to Pen Pattern Making • Repitition Stepped Progression
A campaign called Sun Ready has resources that are easily downloadable from https://soltansunready.com/. A quick summary:
STEP 2: Link & Lace Board
STEP 1: Giant Peg Board
STEP 4: Pens & Work Cards
STEP 5: Pencil & Paper
STEP 3: A4 Writing Board
STEP 6: Pen & Paper
Pattern Cards - Copy these patterns onto the Chalkboard Pattern Cards onto the Peg Board Copy this pattern
& Lace Board this pattern onto the Link Pattern Cards – Copy using circles and lines the dots a circle around photocopied dots work card card by making Copy this pattern onto the pied dots work onto the photoco Copy this pattern
All 6 Steps Supported by Work Cards: Available April 2016
Nexus TEC Limited, Lakeside Business Park, Gloucestershire GL7 5XL - Tel: 01285 863990 www.nexus-euro.co.uk
Nexus TEC Ltd, Nexus House, Lakeside Business Park, Gloucestershire, GL7 5XL • Tel: 01285 863990 • Fax: 01285 869517 • nexus-euro.co.uk
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Sun Ready is providing free, expert-produced learning resources for sun safety
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The BIG Exploration is a competition designed to get pupils outdoors and active; the prize is a one-off tailored live event
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Free Explorer Packs are available to the first 1,000 registered schools, providing samples, sunhats, water bottles and other goodies
Boots the Chemist which has organsied the initiative says “the objective here is to address and reduce the growing rates of skin cancer among young people in the UK. The statistics are quite shocking: as a country we now have the world’s fastest growing rates of melanoma occurrence and it is now the most common cancer for 15-35 year olds in the UK. There is also a significantly higher risk of melanoma among young people in the south east of England.”
For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk
New tool enables school business £800m spent on managers to budget better supply teachers www.SBMResources.co.uk is a tool that enables school business managers to effectively plan a budget. The tool works by allowing SBMs to input basic information about staff contracts and generate total on costs to their school. These on costs transfer into a budgeting tool telling the SBM how much they are spending in each CFR category for staffing. The SBM is then able to see how much budget remains and distribute this remaining amount to the rest of the school budget. The tool enables users to predict their surplus balance and create numerous scenarios for salary budgets and school budgets, enabling a future forecast as well. An introductory offer rate of £300 per annum applies to new customers up until the 31st March 2017 and users can trial the product for free for one month. Demos are available for free. Call Natalie Houston on 07581 270 875 or 01322 618 005 to discuss subscriptions.
ACADEMY CLIMBDOWN WAS INEVITABLE The chorus of opposition was getting louder, the climbdown, when it came, was massive but inevitable. Already the chairman of the influential 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, Graham Brady, had warned ministers it would not get through parliament. There was a danger of the political damage escalating. George Osborne put these plans at the centre of his Budget in March. Just last week they were defended by David Cameron in Parliament. Today, when election results around the UK were dominating the news, Nicky Morgan had to front up the U-turn. At her constituency office, on the aptly named School Street, she told me that, on reflection, it was right that schools should have the choice to become academies. Persuaded not pushed The 2022 deadline still stands she insisted, but schools will be persuaded, not pushed, to convert. The end result will still be many more academies by 2020 when the next general election is due. The government will press on with using its recent acquired powers to make schools classed as “coasting” into academies.
They will also consult on new powers to be brought forward in draft legislation in the autumn. Any local authority area where just a handful of schools are still not academies will be given no option but to convert. Councils which are deemed to be chronically underperforming will also have their schools pushed over the line by the Regional Schools Commissioners who oversee the process. So the arguments aren’t over, but the government has turned the heat down from a rolling boil, to a simmer.
Primary and secondary schools in England struggling to recruit teachers spent £821m on supply staff last year, it has emerged. Analysis by BBC News shows the equivalent of £168 was spent on each child in order to hire in extra staff to cover vacancies and absences. Teachers unions say the amount of money spent reflects a “serious teacher recruitment and retention crisis”. The government said the number of quality teachers was at a record high. The latest data for schools in England shows spending on supply teachers accounted for 6% of the total amount spent on teaching staff wages. The overall figure spent on supply teachers fell by £18m on the previous year.
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For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk