Category: Education

Education and teaching.

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Education

Where’s the money for Labour’s triple science plan?

Science, which has been kicked about since GCSEs replaced O-Levels in 1986, is in for another shake-up. The latest review of the curriculum – commissioned by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson – is set* to recommend that all schools must teach separate sciences to children in Years 10 and 11. That should be a good thing. ‘Triple science’ won’t be mandatory, but it will become a statutory entitlement alongside the usual diet of ‘double science’.  If a child wants to learn an extra dollop of science then that will be their right. What’s not to like about that?

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Education

Should teachers be allowed to work from home?

Teacher recruitment and retention have been associated with the word ‘crisis’ since I joined the profession thirty years ago. But Daniel Kebede’s idea to give teachers a day each week to work and ‘mark from home’ is not the answer.

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Education

The tyranny of GCSEs

Deep within the workings of an electric motor lies a split-ring commutator. It reverses the current flowing through the coil every half rotation so that the force on the coil also reverses as it spins between a pair of opposing magnetic poles.

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COVID-19 Education

The legacy of Covid will stay with children for life

Five years ago in March 2020, schools fell silent as Covid-19 swept across the world. At first, there was a tinge of excitement among some students and staff; it was as if, perhaps, we had been told that the whole country was going to be snowed in for six weeks. 

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Education

What has the SNP got against school blazers?

The much-maligned school blazer has come under attack once again, this time by Scottish government. In new guidance issued this morning, head teachers north of the border have been told to either ditch them, or make them optional within their uniform policies. Head teachers who know their pupils rather better than first minister John Swinney and his meddling SNP ministers have been entrusted to ‘be clear that these are not needed or expected’.

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Education

Why the Tories’ national service idea is unworkable

When the Tories start talking about national service they really are grasping at straws. The concept might possibly appeal to some older voters nostalgic for an earlier time, but Rishi Sunak’s ideas are quite different from the military conscription of young men that lasted from 1949 to 1963.

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Education

Why schools must teach kids about gender identity

Schools in England will no longer be allowed to tell children about gender identity. There will be two sexes: male and female. That is if the government gets its way, following a consultation on the teaching of relationships and sex education launched yesterday. Gillian Keegan said that the draft guidance ‘specifies that the contested topic of gender identity should not be taught’.

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Education

The trouble with Ofsted

Ruth Perry’s death last year was a tragedy. The headteacher had carried the burden of an Ofsted inspection pretty much alone over the Christmas holiday. The sword of Damocles was no longer dangling by a thread, but hurtling towards her. Perry knew that the inspection report was on its way but only one word mattered: inadequate. Unable to discuss the report openly for fear of incurring the wrath of Ofsted, Perry took her own life on 8 January 2023.

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Education

The Social Justice Dilemma in Schools

Social justice sounds like a good thing. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it refers to the fair treatment and equitable status of all individuals and social groups within a state or society. Who could argue with that? I am a teacher, and I have seen social justice enter the education lexicon, but while the terminology is widely used, that does not necessarily mean that it is understood. And even when it is understood, does everyone share the same understanding?

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Education

It’s the right time for GCSE grades to return to pre-Covid levels

For the first time in 27 years, I have no personal stake in the GCSE results that are released this morning. I did not teach Year 11 last year, so I will not be poring over statistics to explain the performance of my class to my superiors in school.

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