Academies present schools with greater opportunity to “innovate” says committee member

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Nicole Froio

Reporting by Emily Jeffery, editing by Nicole Froio

Painsley Academy in North Staffordshire received academy status last August. At the same time it also achieved a record-breaking 100% of year 11 students receiving grades A*-C in their GCSE’s.

Painsley shared the achievement with its six Catholic feeder schools. The seven schools work together as a ‘federation‘ to help with finances, resources and services – and they now also share the title of ‘Academy’.

Veronica Johnston Jones, an academy committee member, says there was much to think about in changing status. The change was discussed by the school’s governing body and worked on for over a year before academy status was finally awarded. Continue reading →

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Useful education links for April 19th through April 26th

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Emma Greatorex

These are some of the education stories we found interesting between the 19th and 26th April 2013. Continue reading →

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How are university student complaints handled? Unileaks crunches the numbers

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Unileaks UK

The OIA (Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education) has published its first set of complaint figures for the individual institutions who subscribe to its Scheme.

The figures show rates varying considerably with some universities having as few as one complaint per five thousand students, and some as many as one for every fifty.

British universities have had since the Higher Education Act of 2004 – almost a decade – to adapt to having an external complaints body consider student complaints.

Each institution has been sent an Annual Letter setting out their own complaints handling performance for 2011 compared with other institutions of a similar size.

The OIA has not published consolidated data and refused a request to supply them – so Unileaks UK has compiled the figures manually from the annual letters. Continue reading →

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MAPPED: How many hours do children spend at school around the world?

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Matt Burgess

Recently proposed reforms could allow UK state schools to stay open until 4:30pm each day with pupils taking shorter, four-week summer holidays to spend more time in the classroom.

We’ve mapped the amount of hours pupils across the world spend in education each year. Click on a country to find out more about the hours spent in the classroom at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level.

Primary study – less time than the global average

Speaking at the Spectator Education conference last week, Education secretary Michael Gove used the example of successful education systems in Asia which currently give students more time in the classroom and less free time and school holidays.

In the England, primary school children in state schools currently spend 635 hours in the classroom each year. Continue reading →

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Factcheck: Schoolchildren ‘left behind’ by shorter school days?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Matt Burgess

Education secretary Michael Gove has called for longer school days and shorter school holidays to improve pupil performance and make life easier for working parents – but does the evidence support him? Matt Burgess and Emma Greatorex investigate. Continue reading →

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Useful education links for April 13th through April 22nd

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

These are the education links we found interesting between April 13th and April 22nd:

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Useful education links for the last week

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Emma Greatorex

These are some of the education stories we found interesting between the 13th and 19th April 2013.

Pupils may get congratulations from David Willetts, the Universities Minister (The Times) – Bright pupils from poor backgrounds could soon receive a letter from ministers encouraging them to apply for university.  Speaking at the annual conference of the Higher Education Funding Council, the Universities Minister, David Willetts said that they will target information about university to pupils from a poorer background who have done well at GCSE level. Continue reading →

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What information do universities record – and what might be requested?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Times Higher Education reporter David Matthews wrote about “stumbling blocks” to university transparency this month – and in the process highlighted some useful tips for those wanting to investigate higher education. Here are the highlights:

Who makes the decisions?

Most universities publish minutes of governing council and senate meetings online, Matthews reports – albeit anything from 3 to 12 months afterwards.

But Ferdinand von Prondzynski, principal of Robert Gordon University, points out that these are often not the places where decisions are made. Instead: Continue reading →

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How education changed under Thatcher – Peter Wilby

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Paul Bradshaw

Writing in The Guardian Peter Wilby provides a brief history lesson on the education system in Britain and how it changed under Margaret Thatcher - particularly universities (“[previously] run on similar lines to the BBC”) and schools curriculum, selection and funding. It’s a useful insight into how the structures work now:

“Under Thatcher, the attempt to end local councils’ grip on education began with the introduction of grant-maintained status, allowing schools to “opt out” of local authority control and receive funding directly from Whitehall. New schools, called city technology colleges (CTCs), were set up, also under government control. Thatcher hoped that most existing schools would choose “freedom” while, with the aid of private sponsorship, dozens of CTCs would emerge. In fact, fewer than 1,000 out of 24,000 schools opted out and only 15 CTCs were opened, at far higher cost to the Treasury than intended. But the free schools and academies now being created by Gove are the direct successors of Thatcher’s grant-maintained schools and CTCs. They already account for more than half of all secondary schools. Continue reading →

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12,000 children miss out on chosen secondary school

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Matt Burgess

More than 12,000 secondary school children have failed to get a school preference of their choice, figures have revealed. 

Recently published data from the Department of Education shows the number of applications being made to secondary schools for pupils to begin their studies in 2013/14 has falled by almost 10,000.

The three main figures the Department want us to see are below and generally show the application process is working well. They show increasing number of families getting places at their preferred schools.

  • 85.3% of families received an offer of a place at their first preference school – an increase of 0.7% compared to March 2011 and continuing the recent rising trend.
  • 95.9% of families received an offer of a place at 1 of their top 3 preferred schools – an increase of 0.3% compared to March 2011 and continuing the recent rising trend.
  • 97.6% of families received an offer of a place at one of their preferred schools – an increase of 0.3% compared to March 2011 and continuing the recent rising trend.

But beyond these figures what does the data say? Where in the country has the most amount of applications, where are you most likely to get your first choice of school?

Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Westminster, Southwark, and Kensington and Chelsea all had fewer than 60% of pupils getting their first choice schools. Continue reading →

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Mapped: how many children got their chosen school in London

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Matt Burgess

We’ve mapped the number of children in each London Borough who did not get any of their chosen schools. While only 2.4% in the UK as a whole did not receive places at any of their preferred schools, the figures are much higher in the capital, with rates at 12.7% in Hammersmith and Fulham and 10.6% in Kensington and Chelsea. Read more in our full article.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Secondary school applications and offers 2013

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Matt Burgess

We’ve crunched data from the Department of Education on applications being made to secondary schools to put together this infographic on the winners and losers. Read more in our full article.

Secondary school applications 2013 - infographic

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