Useful education links for April 13th through April 22nd

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

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?

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

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

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

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 ChelseaRead more in our full article.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Secondary school applications and offers 2013

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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New education site data.ac.uk – what does it do?

New education data website data.ac.uk has gone live, providing datasets on learning providers’ equipment and learning providers themselves.

Launched on March 20 by the “data.southampton” team to “provide a hub for linked data in .ac.uk open data services”, and owned by the community of .ac.uk open data services, the site promises to “aggregate open data from UK academia”.

The term learning provider is used instead of “institution” or “university” because it links with the UK Register of Learning Providers.

What data is available on data.ac.uk

The site draws on data from the UK register of learning providers (UKRLP) – a useful resource in its own right which has been operating for almost 8 years.

The data includes information on over 25,000 learning providers. You can search by provider name (or part of it), postcode or town/city name. Continue reading

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Providing school places – who’s responsible, who does what

A recent report (PDF) from the National Audit Office on funding for new school places includes some useful background detail on how the school system works. In particular, a diagram (shown below) on who’s responsible for what provides a useful at-a-glance guide to accountability and likely sources of information.

Roles and responsibilities in providing school places

Roles and responsibilities in providing school places – National Audit Office

For more useful leads and information, skip to the appendices, which lists a range of background material, data and documents that were used in compiling the report and which may contain other information relevant to your own investigation. Sadly, the referencing is not explicit but they could be used as the basis of an advanced search or a Freedom of Information request.

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Useful education links for April 2nd through April 13th

These are the education links we found interesting between April 2nd and April 13th:

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Useful education links for 4th April-12th April

These are some of the education stories we found interesting between the 4th and 12th April 2013.

Donations to UK universities from alumni reach record levels (The Guardian)

The Guardian reported this week that British universities have received the highest sum of donations from their alumni. In total, British universities and colleges received a total of £774m in 2011-2012 which is a 14% increase on the previous year.

Students elect first union president who hasn’t been to university ‘because taking three years out wasn’t attractive to her’. (The Daily Mail)

The National Union of Students (NUS) elected their new president this week. Toni Pearce is the first president to be elected who has not attended university. She is currently serving as the union’s Vice President for Education. She said that “taking three years out wasn’t attractive to her”. In her new role she aims to find more funding for apprentices, college and postgraduate students.

University of South Wales opens for 33,500 students (BBC Education News)

A new university- the largest higher education institution in Wales has officially opened. The University of South Wales has been created after the merger of Glamorgan and Newport universities. It will make the university the sixth largest in the UK with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Treforest. Over 33,000 students will attend the university with over 500 undergraduate courses available to study.

Labour warns over £3.6bn school repairs backlog (The Telegraph)

Labour has warned that children face being taught in overcrowded classrooms in need of repair because of a £3.6 billion ‘black hole’ in the budget for repairs on schools. Data published following Freedom of information requests suggest local councils are facing a repairs backlog on schools because of budget cuts. Labour obtained figures from 89 education authorities in England and found that over £3.6bn worth of maintenance work was still needed to bring schools up to scratch.

Education vouchers ‘give parents greater choice’ (The Times)

The Institute for Economic Affairs and the Centre for Market Reform of Education have argued that failing schools should be abolished. They also said that government money should go to schools which are more popular with parents. The new proposals call for parents to be given vouchers to pay for a school meaning more opportunities are available for pupils from a poorer background. The new proposals have been suggested in a book released called Incentivising Excellence: school choice and education quality.

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Useful education links for 29th March-4th April

These are the education stories we found interesting between 29th-4th March 2013.

Fingerprinting private school gets the thumbs down. (The Times)

Parents at an independent school in Hertfordshire have protested after fingerprints were taken from pupils without their consent. Pupils from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ preparatory school in Elstree were taken out of class to have their fingerprints taken for a new in-house catering system.

Teachers’ leaders call for resignation of Michael Gove (The Telegraph)

Union leaders at the annual National Union of Teachers conference in Liverpool have demanded that the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove, resigns. On Tuesday they passed a no confidence motion in the education secretary calling for his resignation. This follows more than a week of talks where teachers have evaluated the government’s plans for pay, pensions, the National Curriculum and exams.

Limit teaching to four hours a day, says union (The Guardian)

Members of the National Union Of Teachers have called for a new working week including reducing the time they spend teaching in the classroom. They passed a motion on Tuesday demanding a new working week which includes 20 hours’ teaching time, 10 hours of lesson planning and 5 hours of other duties. Richard Rose, a teacher from Cambridgeshire, told the conference there was “no time to eat, think or go to the toilet” during a working day.

There is currently no fixed limit on the number of hours teachers work per week. However, the conference heard that most primary school teachers work more than 50 hours per week and secondary school teachers work for about 49 hours.

New further education tsar will have power to close failing colleges (The Telegraph)

Underperforming Further Education (FE) colleges in England will soon face a tougher regime as part of the government’s new plans to reform post-16 education. Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said that a new “FE Commissioner” would be established and the new watchdog would be given the powers to take over colleges and even close down the worst-performing institutions. He said that 1.5m pupils are currently stuck in colleges where standards were no better than satisfactory.

Four held as university protesters are evicted (The Guardian)

Four students were arrested this week as police evicted protesters who had occupied a building at Sussex University. The top floor of a university building had been occupied by students since February following a 10 month campaign against the outsourcing of the institutions catering facilities.

The secret to exam success: Puppy love (The Telegraph)

Undergraduate students at a Scottish University will soon be able to avoid the pressures of university in a new special “puppy room”. Following a successful trial last month, the initiative will be brought in during exam period next month to help students from the University of Aberdeen take their mind off work worries. Studies have found that interaction with animals can reduce levels of the hormone cortisol which is associated with stress.

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