Help Me Investigate… Education

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These are the education links we found interesting between May 15th and June 12th:

• Key Gove adviser blocked civil servants’ free school inquiries –
• Office of the Independent Adjudicator – OIA Homepage – The Higher Education Act 2004 required the appointment of an independent body to run a student complaints scheme in England and Wales. The OIA was chosen to operate this scheme, to which all universities in England and Wales must subscribe. Our role is to review individual complaints by students against universities. We have no regulatory powers over universities and cannot punish or fine them.
• Ofsted reports wording criticised – Ofsted is facing criticism after it emerged that inspection reports which declared two schools inadequate contained a number of identical sentences and phrases.
• Toxic Waste Dump School – Sheila Oliver’s Campaigning Website –
• Unprotected sex is widespread among students, survey reveals –
• Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 — <i>Motion to Take Note</i>: 21 May 2012: House of Lords debates – TheyWorkForYou – All appeared positive, with new sporting opportunities and help for schools to provide them. That is why I say today that the greatest threat to the hoped-for sporting legacy has come from Michael Gove's disastrous plan to demolish the school sport programme in his reorganisation of curricula in state schools. Those schools may become sport-free areas. Heads who are driven by school league tables may decide to transfer funds from sport to their academic programme. It is sporting vandalism. Yet the 7% of students attending fee-paying schools still enjoy two afternoons a week of sport and still achieve good academic results, all within the same school week and with extracurricular activities thrown in for good measure.
• 8,450 students suspected of copying – UK, Local & National – Belfasttelegraph.co.uk – Ucas uses specialist software called CopyCatch to check personal statements against others in the system for similarities. The sharp rise in the number of flagged applicants between 2010 and 2011 was down to the introduction of a more stringent threshold for picking up these similarities, Ucas said. Any statements that are flagged up are checked, and that information can be passed on to the university a student is applying to. It is down to the institution to decide how to deal with the situation, which can range from putting a warning on the student's application or asking for the statement to be re-written, to doing nothing, You and Yours found. Ucas said that the number of applicants that were flagged last year represented 1% of all applications. Three in ten were applicants outside of the European Union (EU). Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/8450-students-suspected-of-copying-16160734.html#ixzz1vcMtgfEF
• Protection of Biometric Information of Children in Schools: Consultation on draft advice for Proprietors, Governing Bodies, Head Teachers, Principals and School Staff, Young people, Parents and Representative bodies – e-Consultations – Department for – The purpose of this consultation is to gather views on a Department for Education draft advice document intended to explain the legal duties schools and colleges have if they use automated biometric recognition systems.
• Jobseeker’s Allowance: Young People: 17 May 2012: Hansard Written Answers and Statements – TheyWorkForYou –
• BIS: Attitudes to further education loans – "This independent research report is intended to inform impact and equality assessments regarding the introduction of loans to fund Further Education (FE) courses, and provide insight into learners’ behaviour and how to influence it so that the transition to FE loans is successful and its impact on learners’ choices and options is minimised. "