New education secretary Damien Hinds wants to push forward with his predecessor’s plan for baseline tests for 4 and 5 year-olds in the first few weeks of reception. Minerva takes a balanced, even-handed look at why this is clearly a terrible idea. The new baseline tests, it has been suggested, would begin in 2020 (after a trial in September … Read More
Education News Weekly – 18th January, 2018
Grade inflation at universities, double standards for inappropriate teachers and a blistering attack on the Department for Education, in our first education news roundup of 2018… Headteacher: ‘If the DfE were a school it’d be in special measures’ – TES Furious school leaders have attacked the Department for Education as not fit for purpose, providing no taxpayer value for … Read More
Year in Review: Education News
2017 has been a crazy year in the world of education, with concerns about Brexit, British schools expanding into the wider world and of course Theresa May abandoning her flagship grammar schools policy after a disappointing election. But what else went on? Schools One of the biggest stories earlier in the year was that SRE (sex and … Read More
Education News Weekly – 24th November, 2017
Tory childcare blunders, a glitter freeze at nurseries and… Is Mein Kampf back on the curriculum? Government failing families on childcare – Independent The cost of childcare for young children has risen more than four times faster than wages since 2008, research shows. New analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reveals that in England the average wages … Read More
Education News Weekly – 7th November, 2017
CCTV in school toilets, a comedian advocating teachers and some good ol’ fashioned Ofsted-bashing Time to put Ofsted in ‘special measures’? – TES Ofsted has come under attack this week, with a leading education academic claiming the regulatory board’s methods are “invalid, unreliable and unjust.” Frank Coffield, emeritus professor of education at the UCL Institute of Education, was scathing … Read More
How can we teach young people about sexual assault?
Weinstein, Spacey, Fallon… Amid so many public sexual assault claims, young people need to know what is and isn’t appropriate sexual behaviour. In light of the recent widespread sexual assault scandals in the worlds of entertainment and politics, we look at how bad the problem is in schools, and what we can do to address it. Awareness of sexual … Read More
Education News Weekly – November 2nd, 2017
Student loan reforms, Brexit tension and further Oxbridge admissions drama… MPs demand admissions reform after Oxbridge admissions scandal – Independent More than 100 MPs – many of whom represent parts of the country that are under-represented at Oxbridge – have written to the heads of Oxford and Cambridge University calling for urgent reforms after data revealed a “social apartheid” in … Read More
How unfair is the university admissions process?
Suffice to say, the answer goes far beyond just Oxbridge… We have probably by now seen all seen the recent – and damning – statistics about Oxbridge admissions, and how significant ethnic, class and geographical factors can be. If you haven’t, you can see them here. Such is the difference in chances of receiving a place at one of Britain’s … Read More
Education News Weekly – 24th October, 2017
Alarm clocks, term-time holidays and a shocking lack of diversity at Oxbridge… MP David Lammy criticises Oxbridge lack of diversity – BBC The former education secretary was dismayed at data released after a Freedom of Information request about admissions statistics for Britain’s top two universities, amid news that as many as 16 Oxbridge colleges failed to offer any places … Read More
What’s It Like To Tutor Abroad?
In this installment of ‘David Investigates…’ I’ll be looking at what it’s really like to tutor abroad. Live-in and international tutoring is on the rise, whether it’s a weekend away in the country, or a year living with a family in South Africa. Unsurprisingly, this offers a completely different challenge to tutors, and is incomparable to regular face-to-face tutoring and … Read More
