More children excluded from Scottish schools

School exclusions have risen sharply in Scottish primary schools. There were 5,779 exclusions from local authority primary schools, equivalent to 15 per 1,000 pupils in 2005/2006. The number increased by 9 per cent from the previous year, according to Scottish Executive Statistics.
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Pupil exclusions continue to rise

TA growth slows

The number of teaching assistants in primary schools is still rising, but the rate of increased has slowed according to latest figures.
Government statistics for January 2006, just published, show 1000 more teaching assistant jobs in English primary schools than a year earlier. Between January 2004 and January 2005, the number rose by 9,000.
There are now 99,000 "full-time-equivalent" teaching assistants in nursery and primary schools.
The government does not collect information on the hours worked by teaching assistants but many are part-time so the actual number of people employed is likely to be far higher.
During the 2005 the number of qualified teachers working in nursery and primary schools rose by more than 8,000.
The ratio of pupils to adults improved slightly, to one adult per 12.4 pupils. The pupil-teacher ratio also improved with one teacher to every 22 pupils.
School workforce in England January 2006

Schools should tell parents if child is too fat, say MPs

Parents should be warned on school reports if their child is too fat, says a committee of MPs. The Public Accounts Committee says ministers have been doing too much dithering over childhood obesity, and need to give parents more advice in how to help their children maintain a healthy weight. The Government's target of halting the rise in obesity of under-11s by 2011 would not be met unless parents were involved in helping youngsters slim down, say the MPs. Failing to tell parents that their child was too fat meant keeping them "in the dark about possible health risks to their children". Levels of obesity in children aged two to 10 years rose from 9.9% to 13.4% between 1995 and 2004, according to the Health Survey for England.
Tackling Childhood Obesity - First Steps

Nine year olds "used as drug messangers"

Criminal gangs are using primary school children to take messages and carry drugs for them, a government minister has warned.
Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said that the problem had been identified in Birmingham, Manchester and London. Secondary school children were being recruited by criminals, and in some cases their younger brothers and sisters in primary schools were acting as messangers.
"It is an emerging issue that we want to nip in the bud now before it becomes something that is a genuine worry for parents and pupils," said Mr Knight.

Challenge to council's illegal SEN policy

A council has been ordered by the government to change its special needs statements.
Surrey County Council has been told it was acting illegally by not stating how much extra help should be provided at school to statemented pupils.
Parents say other education authorities are doing the same thing. They give schools extra money to support children with SEN statements, but it is not ring-fenced, and parents are not told what it should be spent on.
A letter from the Special Educational Needs section at the Department for Education and Skills gave Surrey five days to agree to comply, and 15 days to send amended notices to parents.
Read more

Veil TA to appeal against sacking

Aisha Asmi, the teaching assistant sacked for wearing a face-covering veil at school, has lodged an appeal against her dismissal. Mrs Asmi who worked in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, is to appeal to the national Employment Appeals Tribinal against a ruling by an employment tribunal that she had not suffered discrimination.
Read more.

£10 million to boost singing in primary school

Primary school children will soon be singing from the same songsheet - literally.
A £10 million package will pay for a national songbook of thirty songs for whole class or whole school singing, to be nominated by children and singing teachers. The songs will range from classical to folk and pop traditions.
The package takes up the recommendations of the Music Manifesto, published last year.
Howard Goodall, a composer and radio broadcaster has been appointed the"Singing Ambassador" whose job will be to campaign for more singing in primary schools. He wrote the theme music for the Vicar of Dibley.
He said, "For me, singing in particular is every child's first, intuitive access to the world of music, but it is also a powerful and often untapped resource for social cohesion. There is barely an adult alive who does not wish they could sing with more confidence or that they had had a better start with their voices as children."
Read the government announcement.

Options for TA pay structure

Trade unions and school employers have agreed new options for settling school support staff pay in England.
A working party of unions and school representatives was set up by the government last year to look at ways of bringing more consistency to pay and conditions for school support staff. The group was asked to come up with proposals for a common contract and standardised job descriptions for school support staff, and ideas for how to convert these into salary ranges.
The proposals had to meet criteria set by the government.
A paper published on Unison's web site says the group has stopped meeting because before the work could be done on contracts and job descriptions, a decision had to be taken about the nature of the negotiating body which would determine pay and conditions for support staff. It had to meet the criteria and also deliver national consistency, says Unison.
The paper outlines four possible models - including the current arrangements. The most likely to fit the bill would be a new sub group of the local government National Joint Council dedicated to school support staff, or a separate National Joint Council for support staff which would include all school employers -including the churches.
A new body which covers the whole school workforce, including teachers, is another option but would be very disruptive to the existing system, says Unison.
Read the Unison report.

Ruth Kelly 's son, 9, goes to boarding school

Former education secretary Ruth Kelly has been branded a hypocrite for withdrawing her child from a local primary school and sending him to a private boarding school.
Kelly said she was trying to do the best by her son.
But critics have pointed out that most parents can't afford a £15,000 a year private school place.
Kelly's three daughters still attend the Tower Hamlets primary school, where her husband is a governor.

Pupils 'unable to use full stops'

One in three children don't use full stops properly in their Key Stage 2 writing tests, say the examiners.

BBC NEWS | Education | Pupils 'unable to use full stops'

SATs under fire

The government consultation includes an overhaul of testing arrangements, and a new emphasis on "assessment for learning" - using assessment as a way of helping children learn.
New tests to replace SATS would take place when teachers felt children were ready to take them.
SATs have been heavily criticised recently. One think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research - traditionally friendly to New Labour - said regular teacher assessments of pupils' work should replace SATs tests at age 11 and 14.
Tests encouraged schools to "teach to the test" rather than focusing on providing children with the skills they need for secondary school, the report said.
Read the IPPR report.

Teachers to work one-to-one

Children struggling with literacy and maths could get free one-to-one tuition from teachers under new government proposals.
The scheme will be run on a trial basis in ten authorities from April. Children would have up to 20 hours tuition in either maths, literacy, or both from a qualified teacher outside normal lesson time.
The scheme will target children in the bottom 5% in maths and literacy at Key Stages two and three.
Read the consultation document.

Autistic children helped by new cartoons

A new series of cartoons showing trains and motor vehicles with human faces is helping autistic children to recognise emotions.
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