75 minutes a month

The TES reports that just 75 minutes a month discussing your work with colleagues can transform you from a bad teacher to a good one, increasing pupils’ rate of learning by at least 50%.

Professor Dylan Wiliam set out a new way for schools to introduce Assessment for Learning (AfL) in the classroom at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) conference in Birmingham this week.

The deputy director of the Institute of Education in London first introduced AfL, which uses assessment to improve pupils’ understanding, with Professor Paul Black a decade ago.
Since then, the Government has taken up the idea. But Professor Wiliam and other experts claim ministers have debased the method by focusing on its least radical and easiest to implement aspects.

Professor Wiliam says that if teachers hold monthly meetings where they report back on their progress, hold each other accountable and decide how to try to improve before the next meeting, they can introduce the AfL approach properly.

The “teacher learning communities” he envisages would focus on AfL techniques such as giving pupils feedback instead of grades, getting pupils to check and take responsibility for each other’s work, and increasing the time teachers wait for an answer after asking pupils a question.

“It is actually doing these things that is hard,” said Professor Wiliam. “Most teachers are aware of the ‘wait time’ theory, but they find it takes six months of trying for them to really slow down. It’s like trying to change your golf swing in the middle of a tournament. The idea is that every teacher makes a commitment to continually improving their practice. There are a lot of teachers who don’t think they need to improve.”

Professor Wiliam has trialled the approach in 60 schools in England and claims it is superior to the five days a year continuous professional development teachers are entitled to, which “doesn’t really work”. “If teachers stick with this, we will have the potential to increase the rate at which pupils learn by a least 50 per cent,” he said. “It makes a really bad teacher into a pretty good one and an average teacher into an outstanding one.”

Pupils on best behaviour

British primary pupils are better behaved now than they have been for at least 20 years. They are more likely than their predecessors to listen to their teacher and to do the work assigned to them, according to a major new study.

Led by Brian Apter, senior educational psychologist for Wolverhampton council, they oversaw a team of 71 educational psychologists, who carried out observations in 141 classrooms. This was one of the largest primary school studies ever conducted.

The psychologists found that pupils were well-behaved and focused on their schoolwork for “an unexpectedly high proportion” of their time in class. Children concentrated on work for 85 per cent of the time: a higher rate than has ever been recorded before in British schools.

This improvement in pupils’ behaviour began with a dramatic rise in the mid-1980s, and has continued steadily since. The researchers attribute this to the fact that the teachers provided clear and detailed instructions, and regularly praised pupils’ work.

Chris Davis, of the National Primary Headteachers’ Association, was not surprised. “Adults always say that it was better in their day,” he said. “It’s the golden-age syndrome. But I don’t think there ever was a golden age.
“Most teachers would probably say, ‘Yes, there’s more focused attention by children now than in the past.’ Lessons are better planned and pitched to individual children. There’s less opportunity for boredom, for being overstretched and understretched.”

The psychologists found no link between pupils’ behaviour and the size of their class, the number of adults in the room, the time of day, or the number of pupils eligible for free school meals.

But there was a link between behaviour and the size of the school: larger primaries tended to have better behaved, more focused pupils. The researchers suggested this might be because these schools offer higher salaries to their heads and benefited from economies of scale.

Read more in the TES.

People can't use apostrophe's

(Before I get started, I deliberately put the apostrophe in the wrong place in the title!)

The Daily Mail reports that apostrophe misuse is among our most common grammatical mistakes and it is also the most annoying. Nearly half of those given a short punctuation test were unable to use the apostrophe properly. They were guilty of a variety of slip-ups. The first was a failure to understand that plural nouns in English do not take an apostrophe.

The commonest evidence of this transgression is on display in countless fruit and vegetable shops, with handwritten signs advertising apple's and pear's for sale - the classic greengrocer's apostrophe.

A second error is the failure to punctuate a possessive plural properly. Forty-six per cent of those who sat the test got this alarmingly wrong.

They were also asked which mistakes they found most irritating.

Replacement of they're with their was voted the most annoying, followed by the use of a greengrocer's apostrophe to denote a plural - as in the incorrect boy's instead of boys. Another infuriating howler was confusing its with it's - the first the possessive form of it and the second an abbreviation of the phrase it is.

In the punctuation test taken by 2,000 adults, teachers were most likely to get the answers right, with more than 80 per cent getting full marks. Journalists and those working in public relations came second, followed by lawyers and civil servants in third and fourth places. Workers in transport and distribution came bottom. Women not only scored higher marks than men, they also claimed to care more about incorrect punctuation.

Londoners came out on top as Britain's best regional punctuators, getting 78 per cent of the answers right.

Surprisingly, the over-55s were bottom of the league. The 25 to 34-year-olds came top.

Professor Christopher Mulvey, an expert from the Museum of the English Language at Winchester University, said: 'To get it right, you need to look up the rules every time you think an apostrophe might be needed - and do this for the next six months in order to internalise the rules.'

I found the comment at the bottom of the Daily Mail article frustrating: I agree, I hate bad grammar - drives me mad. Why do they not teach grammar properly in schools anymore? This person has clearly not read the article properly - teachers are most likely to use the apostrophe correctly. I don't think teachers and schools are the problem for apostrophe misuse - it's the media and retail that show a complete disregard for correct grammar and punctuation. Teachers teach the rules correctly, but if this is not followed through by the rest of society it makes the process worthless. Unless children see a need to use punctuation and grammar correctly then there's no point in doing so. And if they see the mess that certain people can make of punctuation then they aren't going to see why it's important.

Scholastic's Top Ten Fiction Books 2008

Here are the top ten fiction books for 9 to 11 year olds, as chosen by Wendy Cooling for Scholastic's Literacy Time.
Toby Alone
The Battle for Gullywith
To The Boy in Berlin
You Wish (The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff)
The Dragon of Krakow: And Other Polish Stories
Kai-ro
Eggs
Ways to Live Forever
Before Green Gables

Read more here: http://magazines.scholastic.co.uk/content/5262

Great ideas for bringing technology to the classroom

I really enjoyed reading this report in the TES. I'd love to hear if anyone else is using this technology, and also where they learned how to do it!

£2.5billion spent and maths is still not adding up

Almost a quarter of children are leaving primary school with a poor grasp of maths even though spending on the subject has soared to £2.5billion a gear, public finance watchdogs have revealled.

Around 135000 pupils start secondary school unable to cope with their courses. This is little improvement on 2000 despite a 30% increase in funding over the same period.

About 66000 bright pupils are failing to make the progress of which they should be capable at primary school, while 34000 11-year-olds are no better at maths than most seven-year-olds. In a reversal of the usual trend, girls are falling further behind boys.

Tim Burr, the head of the National Audit Office said, "The rate of improvement in primary mathematics has slowed and almost a quarter of pupils are still not equipped with the understanding of mathematics they need to study the subject further, or to tackle subjects such as science once they start secondary school."

The £2.3 billion spent on teaching maths in primary schools works out at £572 per pupil and represents more than a fifth of the total expenditure of £10billion on primary teaching.

Although pupils in their final year at primary school achieved the best results so far in maths SATs last year, almost a quarter, 23%, failed to achieve the expected level.

I hope that the new framework will go some to to challenging this issue, but it still requires proper funding to train all staff to understand it fully.

5-year-olds to tell teachers how to teach

The Daily Mail reports that children as young as five will win the legal right to tell teachers how they should be taught and disciplined for bad behaviour, it emerged today. Pupils will be handed an unprecedented say in the running of their schools - from the uniforms they wear to the meals they eat.

But the proposed new duty on school governors to 'invite and consider' children's views drew an angry backlash from teachers' leaders who claimed it would be 'open to abuse'. Ministers have also been warned that schools will be vulnerable to lawsuits brought by parents who claim their children have not been properly consulted.

The row erupted after the Government this week accepted an amendment to an education Bill currently progressing through Parliament. The Liberal Democrats tabled the amendment after a Ofsted survey suggested a third of pupils do not believe they are properly listened to by their schools.

Regulations detailing what schools must ask pupils about have yet to be drawn up but ministers hinted in Parliament they would be wide-ranging. In the House of Lords, Children's Minister Baroness Morgan said: 'As a minimum, schools should seek and take account of pupils' views on policies on the delivery of the curriculum, behaviour, the uniform, school food, health and safety, equalities and sustainability, not simply on what colour to paint the walls.'

Ministers have already issued guidance to schools saying pupils can have a role in recruiting staff and observe lessons to give feedback on how well they believe they are being taught.

But critics complained the advice was akin to 'the lunatics taking over the asylum'. Yesterday Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, criticised the planned legal duty as 'unnecessary' and warned it would undermine teachers' authority, driving them out of the classroom. She said some schools were already allowing groups of pupils to stand at the back of classes observing lessons without the teacher's agreement and to sit on interview panels for new staff. And she was aware of a recent case where a teacher had gone for a job only to find she was subjected to a 'speed dating'-style interview, which involved spending five minutes talking to a series of pupils sitting at individual desks. The teacher concerned had considered turning down any job offer because of the school's 'disrespectful' attitude to staff. 'The proper use of student voice can aid learning,' said Mrs Keates. 'We have no problem with student councils, and good teachers will always engage pupils. But it's a complete nonsense to make it a duty on schools; it will be open to abuse and is likely to lead to more bureaucracy. The balance of relationships between teachers and pupils is extremely important and this shifts the balance in the wrong direction.

Mrs Keates said it could be appropriate for schools to seek pupils' views on disciplinary sanctions, but added: 'Where pupils have been consulted on behaviour policy they are usually more draconian than the teachers.'

Meanwhile Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, representing thousands of secondary heads, said: 'This is crazy.
'I'm a strong supporter of pupil voice but schools are increasingly consulting pupils because they think it is the right thing, not because Government tells them to. I am furious that yet another in this continual stream of legal and educational duties is being placed on schools. They all bring unintended consequences.'

I love working with our School Council and they have made a really positive contribution to our school. They are becoming more and more involved in important decision, e.g. how the Friends of the school spend the money. Later this year, they will take their first role in the interview process for a new member of staff. But I'm not sure it is right to give children the legal right to tell teachers how they should be taught. Whilst I welcome them explaining the views and ideas, surely this idea could become very damaging for staff morale?

REVISION:
There is also a very interesting interview with the head of Holland Moor Primary in Skelmersdale who have a very effective school council. Read it here.

Getting Things Done: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow

Chapter Two
Adapted from David Allen's Getting Things Done





No matter what the setting, there are five discrete stages that we go through as we deal with our work. We

1. Collect things that command our attention;


2. Process what they mean and what to do about them; and


3. Organise the results, which we


4. Review as options for what we choose to


5. Do.

Collect

In order to manage the different tasks that we collect, we need to create 'containers' that hold items until you have a few moments to decide what they are and what, if anything, you're going to do about them. Then you must empty these containers regularly to ensure that they remain viable collection tools. What we're talking about here is making sure that everything you need is collected somewhere other than in your head.

There are several types of tools that can be used to collect your incomplete tasks:

• Physical in-basket


• Writing paper and pads


• Computers, e.g. http://www.toodledo.com/


• Auditory capture, e.g. answering machine or dictaphone


• Email

In order to make these in-baskets work:

• Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head.


• You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with.


• You must empty them regularly.

If you don't empty and process the stuff you've collected, your buckets aren't serving any function other than the storage of amorphous material. Emptying doesn't mean that you have to finish everything. It means that you have to take it out of the container, decide what it is and what should be done with it, and if it's still unfinished, organise it into your system.

Process

This flow chart shows the basic structure for effective processing.

Organise

This stage refers to the categories in rings round the outside of the diagram, resulting from the processing of your stuff. Together they make up a total system for organising just about everything that's on your plate, or could be added to it, on a daily and weekly basis.

For nonactionable items, you need to trash, incubate and store for reference. If no action is needed, you throw it, to incubate you hold it to reassess later, or you could file it for reference at a later time. To manage actionable things you need a list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions and a list of reminders of things you're waiting for.

Projects: A project is a desired result that requires more than one action step. If one step won't complete something, some kind of stake needs to be placed in the ground to remind you that there's something still left to do. You don't actually do a project, you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it 'done'.

Support materials and reference files should be kept out of sight, but close at hand.

Calendars: Calendars should be used for next-actions. Three things go on your calendar: time-specific actions, day-specific actions and day-specific information.

• Time-specific actions: This is a fancy name for appointments.
• Day-specific actions: These are things that you need to do sometime on a certain day, but not necessarily at a specific time.
• Day-specific information: Use your calendar to keep track of things you want to know about on specific days - not actions you'll have to take, but rather information that may be useful on a certain date.

Daily To Do Lists: These don't work, for two reasons:

• New priorities reconfigure daily work so consistently that it's virtually impossible to nail down to do items ahead of time.
• If there's something on the list that doesn't absolutely have to get done that day, it dilutes the emphasis on the things that truly do.

Next action lists: You action reminders go here. Any longer than two minute nondelagatable actions you have identified should be tracked here.

Incubation: This is where you store your ideas for projects that you might want to do someday, but not now. There are two types of systems:

• Someday/ Maybe: It can be useful and inspiring to maintain an ongoing list of things you might want to do at some point but not now. This is the parking lot for projects that would be impossible to move on at present but that you don't want to forget about entirely. You'd like to be reminded of the possibility at regular intervals.
• Tickler file: This is a system that allows you to almost literally mail something to yourself for receipt on some designated day in the future, e.g. your calendar.

Review

• The item you'll probably review most frequently is your calendar. It's a good habit, as soon as you conclude an action on your calendar to check and see what else needs to be done.
• Then you'll check your Next Actions list.
• Each week you need a weekly review.

Weekly Review: This is the time to:

• Gather and process all your stuff
• Review your system
• Update your lists
• Get clean, clear, current and complete.

What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I suggest you do this weekly instead of yearly.

Do

There will always be a large list of actions that you are not doing at any given moment. So how will you decide what to do and what not to do and feel good about both? The answer is, by trusting your intuition. Apply these four criteria to help you decide:

• Context: A few actions can be done anywhere, but most require a specific location.
• Time available: When do you have to do something else?
• Energy available: How much energy do you have?
• Priority: Given your context, time and energy available, what action will give you the highest payoff?

What does your tie say about you?

Research has explained what your tie reveals about you.

MEN should take care when choosing which tie to wear, for it could reveal more about them than they realise.

A purple tie might look just the thing with a lilac shirt but, psychologists say, it gives the impression the wearer is envious, arrogant and vulgar.

Other colours to steer clear of include green – which suggests greed, jealousy, and bad luck.

Yellow, on the other hand, suggests individuality and reliability, while a red tie shouts passion, strength, energy and ambition.

Even worse are novelty ties which, researchers found, are worn by people trying to appear more significant, sexy or outgoing than they actually are.

Psychologist Dr Ludwig Lowenstein, who carried out the study, said: "When one considers the nature of the person wearing a particular colour of tie one must also take into consideration other aspects of the personality such as whether the person dresses to impress, wants to attract, control or look superior. Colours have been used throughout history to denote power, fear, anxiety and to have many other symbolic characteristics. Many people are impressed by colour and how and when it is worn. Be careful as you may be judged on what you wear rather than who you are."

Navy indicates calmness, coolness and confidence, while Dr Lowenstein, who runs Southern England Psychological Services, in Hampshire, suggested brown shows reliability. His research also shows that pink ties should be left in the cupboard as they suggest soppy romantics looking for sympathy.

But Kevin Stewart, fashion stylist at Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh, said that it was more important to be in season."Choosing a tie should be about what you, as an individual, like to wear. This can be quite tricky. "As men have become more fashion conscious they want to choose the colours and styles of the season. I would agree that novelty ties should really be banned, but I don't think it matters what colour of tie you wear as long as you like it, it enhances what you are wearing and you feel good wearing it."

David Walker, of tie makers Peckham Rye, which commissioned the study, said: "Skinny ties are understated and subtle without being too showy. A bit rock and roll, shows you're a bit savvy and edgy."

Other advice includes never wearing a spotted tie with a striped shirt, while a plain bow tie with a checked shirt says creative, eccentric and very swish.The scarf wearer is trendy and very with it, coming across as more intelligent with an air of elegance about them.

And while having an open-neck shirt can look cool if you are under the age of 45, for those over 45, researchers warn, it can look a bit "Sasha Distel", conjuring up images of a hairy chest and a suntan framed by a cheap belcher chain.

BROWN: Considered to be a solid reliable colour. Abundant in nature, earth and for genuine people.
NAVY: Symbolises unity, harmony and tranquillity. It indicates calm, cool and confident types.
RED: Suggests strength, passion, energy and ambition, as well as leadership power and anger.
YELLOW: Appears solid, earthy and reliable. For out of the ordinary people who are very much in control.
PINK: For someone who is a soppy romantic, perhaps looking for sympathy or craving admiration.
GREEN: Gives the impression of greedy, jealous individuals who are generally unlucky and gamblers.
PURPLE: Envious, arrogant and gaudy. Purple suggests superior vulgarity and should be avoided.
NOVELTY: For people who are trying to appear more significant, sexy or outgoing than they actually are.

I have worn every one of these colours at some point - I shudder to think of the messages I have inadvertently given out!!

Cancellation of KS3 SATs

Some interesting letters in the TES regarding the cancellation of KS3 SATs.

Cut the clutter and instil a love of learning

Sir Jim Rose, the leader of the Primary Review, is due to make his interim recommendations in the next few weeks. But he has already told the House of Commons seclect committee on children, schools and families that his key goal is to instil a love of learning in children - and increased specialist teaching could help with this.

When asked how creating a more balanced curriculum would square with teaching to the test that is common in Year 6, he answered that the tests were not the only issue. The key, he said, was to create a system that would bring out the best in fast-developing 10 and 11 year olds. He hinted that one of the most important ways to do this would be to bring more specialists into primary schools.

He said: "The problem in Year 6 is more than that [teaching to the test]. It's the dgree of expertise you need to keep up with lively 11 year olds who are on the march to good quality work in secondary. Eleven year olds are terribly underestimated in what they can achieve. If you have a class teacher system hanging on in there, you are asking a lot of the class teacher. Look at what they are capable of in music when they have a specialist teacher or someone in PE who really knows their subject well."

Poetry being 'frozen out' by schools

The TES reports that the teaching of poetry is being undermined by the free market. Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, has warned that the decline in the children’s poetry market could no longer be ignored and said only one major publisher, Macmillan, now publishes new poetry for children.
As fewer primary teachers appreciate verse, the diversity of the form is not being taught, so demand for new books has dwindled, he said.

“I would argue over whether the market knows best in this instance,” he said. “There are ways booksellers could discover and promote poetry more proactively. The best advocates are poets themselves. While reading is seen as an individual activity, poetry is a social activity. There also needs to be a demystification of poetry. There is an assumption that poetry is difficult, not just among booksellers but among teachers.”

He called for more support for teachers in gaining children’s interest in poetry, and for poets’ status to be raised through a high-profile Man Booker-type prizes. People probably know and love poetry already - through lyrics, rhymes or the text of children’s picture books,” he said. “Adults see it as a niche thing and project that on to children, but children don’t have those hang- ups. If children are not turned on to poetry, they will lose the opportunity to engage with literacy in a way that enriches them, and in the long term there is a danger for the entire poetry infrastructure because we are not growing a new generation who like poetry and who want to read and write poems.

“Poetry has sat at the heart of British experience for thousands of years. It would be very sad if it shifted from that position.”

An Ofsted report on poetry in schools last year found that poetry was the worst taught part of the English curriculum.

Michael Rosen, the famous poet, said, "Poetry is being frozen in the ice of the national literacy strategy. What is needed is needed is a specific poetry curriculum."

Bad handwriting can limit exam success by up to 40%

The TES features an interesting report about handwriting. It writes that bad handwriting isn’t just hard to read - it can limit exam success by as much as 40 per cent. Pupils with bad handwriting are less likely to do well in written tests and composition exercises than their neater classmates. And boys are particularly likely to scrawl, which may explain their continued underachievement in writing tasks.

The assumption in British schools has always been that handwriting is an issue of neatness, rather than something directly related to the process of composition. But academics from Warwick University argue that handwriting is more than the transcription of ideas; it is directly related to how we generate and process those ideas.

“Handwriting is not just about training the hand,” they say. “It is about training the memory and hand to work together to generate and correct mental images and patterns of letters, and translate these into motor patterns of letters, automatically and without effort. Handwriting is … a language act, rather than just a motor act.”

When pupils can write fluently, the process does not interfere with other mental processes. But if they struggle, they have to devote large amounts of memory to the task, leaving them with less capacity for generating ideas, selecting vocabulary or planning what to write. “It may be that handwriting can crowd out the composing processes we value,” the academics say.

This idea was reinforced when they tested the handwriting speed and ability of 198 Year 6 pupils from three schools. A high proportion of results for composition reflected pupils’ results in separate handwriting tests. Boys’ handwriting scores were significantly lower than girls’, and they were more likely to be in the lowest category of handwriting ability.

This reflects national concern over boys’ underachievement in key stage 2 writing tests. This year, only 60 per cent of boys scored level 4 in the writing test, compared with 74 per cent of girls.

“At a time when improving composition … is a national priority, this suggests that intervention to improve handwriting … may be of benefit to boy writers,” the researchers say. “Early intervention is desirable - this is not an issue that improves spontaneously.”

They conclude that children with average or poor handwriting have only a 40 per cent chance of achieving level 4, the expected level for 11-year- olds, in national tests. So ignoring poor handwriting fails to address a significant and continuing obstacle to pupils’ achievement. “UK national testing does not assess handwriting speed or fluency, and addresses only writing style and neatness,” they say. “We may be failing to assess an important aspect of writing.”

The report is based on: The Links Between Handwriting and Composing for Year 6 Children’ by J. Medwell, S. Strand and D. Wray.

No more KS3 SATs - but what about KS2?

The Government has decided to scrap the Key Stage 3 SATs with immediate effect. Unions, opposition political parties and newspapers all showed their support for the decision.

But primaries are left bitterly asking why the Government has decided to retain KS2 tests. David Fann, chair of the NAHT primary committee, said, "From what I hear, the announcement has caused complete and utter devastation in primaries."

It seems that the KS2 tests provide some sort of accountability function at the end of primary school.

The child in my class are gutted!

KS3 SATs are scrapped... What about KS2? :-(

The Daily Mail reports that SATs tests for 14-year-olds have been scrapped in a humiliating U-turn by Children's Secretary Ed Balls. And school exams in other age groups will be radically overhauled, he said.

Mr Balls told the Commons today that the key stage 3 tests taken by pupils at 14 were 'not justified' and would be dropped with immediate effect. Tests for primary pupils will remain but the high-stakes examination for 11-year-olds leaving primary school could be scrapped by 2010. The assessment of seven-year-olds will be downgraded.

Mr Balls's announcement cuts a swathe through the controversial testing system embraced enthusiastically by five previous Labour Education Secretaries after its introduction by the Tories 15 years ago. It follows a marking fiasco this summer which heaped misery on thousands of pupils after results were delayed and inaccurately recorded. The overhaul also comes on the back of criticism from teachers and parents of the high-pressure examination regime.

Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity

As I read this inspirational book I want to blog my thoughts and what I've learned.

Chapter One seems to set up some of the ideas for the rest of the book, regarding setting up new practices for your workload.

Basic Requirements for Managing Commitments:

1. If it's on your mind, your mind isn't clear. Anything you consider unfurnished in anyway must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what the author calls a collection bucket, that you know you'll come back to regularly and sort through.


2. You must clarify exactly what your commitment is an decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.


3. Once you've decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organised in a system you review regularly.

Why are things on your mind? Most often, the reason something is on your mind is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet:

• you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is;


• you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/ or


• you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you can trust.

Most to do lists are merely listings of stuff, not inventories of the resultant real work that needs to be done.

New curriculum to focus on skills

The TES reports that the new primary curriculum now in development is likely to have a much greaer emphasis on skills than is currently the case, it has emerged. The document - to be adopted in 2011 - looks increasingly likely to highlight skills alongside content, according to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

The authority is supporting the review of the primary curriculum being led by Sir Jim Rose, the former chief inspector for primary education. The interim report is due out at the end of this month. The QCA has submitted evidence to Sir Jim from surveys with pupils, seminars with heads and other stakeholders, analysis of Ofsted reports and research.

Mick Waters, director of curriculum at the QCA, said: “I think one of the challenges (of the review) is to stop arguments about what is in and what is out, petty arguments over poets, painters and battles. We want to help children understand big ideas behind knowledge to understand the difference science can make to society and the benefits of learning about science for an individual. We need to give them an appetite for more knowledge, the belief that they can make a difference. That is a really different outlook on the primary-age child from the one existing 20 years ago.”

Emma Payne, deputy head at Hillcrest Primary in Bristol, has worked with other schools in the area and the QCA on innovating the school’s curriculum. She said: “We need a new national curriculum because the current one was designed in a different time. I have been shown one of the drafts of a new curriculum and was really excited to see a focus on skills. One of the main problems with the curriculum is there is a big focus on knowledge, and it is too easy to cram children’s heads with stuff, rather than the skills they need to apply with any stuff.”

Paul Jackson, joint head of Gallions Primary in Newham, is part of the Open Future scheme run by the Helen Hamlyn Trust, which offers a skills- based curriculum. He said: “Jim Rose has been to visit our school and I’ve taken the children to meet Mick Waters. The idea that seems to be coming through is freeing up time, allowing schools to take their own direction.”

Sir Jim’s remit, set out by Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, calls for the introduction of languages, less prescription of content, and potentially developing areas of learning rather than subjects.

The primary curriculum’s content is now organised by subject. There are also subject-specific skills and thinking skills, but these are embedded in the curriculum as attainment targets. In the summer, Sir Jim told a meeting of educationists that it was likely the primary curriculum would remain subject-based.

The QCA, in a review of the primary curriculum in 10 countries, has found only two that organise their primary curriculum by subject rather than broader areas of learning, namely Norway and Slovenia. The latter has said it wants more cross-curricular work.

Out with the X-Factor culture

Primary schools are to receive formal guidance on how to combat the effects on their children of the rampant celebrity culture. They will be expected to interest pupils in 'real world' jobs and to discourage them from aspiring to be reality television stars or footballers' wives.

Shows such as The X Factor and Big Brother have previously been blamed for giving youngsters the impression they can become overnight successes without any hard work.

In future, primary schools will be encouraged to organise enterprise days or job talks from figures in the local community.

The proposals are expected to form part of Sir Jim Rose's review of the primary curriculum, with an interim report due next month.

John Crookes, an advisor at the QCA said, "If there are low expectations within the community and no role models from the world of work, you have difficulties. One young girl said she wanted to be a footballer's wife. Her dad is a university lecturer. He wasn't very pleased."

A recent survey of 1000 youngsters by the DCSF' Talented and Enterprise Taskforce found that just 1% thought being intelligent or good at school work meant they were talented.

Preventing stress

Back in February it was revealled which LAs had the highest stress-related absences in the teaching workforce. After feel a bit stressed myself in the last few weeks (although it could be more to do with a bug I've been trying to shake off for a while) I enjoyed a report in the TES Magazine which gives some good advice which I really need to try to follow:

• Have a cut-off time and stick to it. Whatever you have done at say, 6pm, is enough. Go home.
• Prioritise. Achknowledge that you can't do it all. Start with what is absolutely necessary and drop the optional.
• Never work when you are exhausted. The quality of work will be low and make you more stressed.
• Always stop for a drink at breaktimes. It is not a waste of time, because you can work more effectively after the break.
• Work as a team. Always share out the planning and preparation with colleagues. never plan a set of lessons without looking at the previous years' first, to avoid duplication.
• During the school holidays, stay off campus and and something completely different. A refreshing change makes you work more efficiently.
• Exercies reduces stress. Take time to raise your heartbeat every day.

Without a shadow of a doubt I've been guilty of not doing every single one of these. Need to try to put myself first for a change. I've recently purchased a copy of "Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity" by David Allen for £6.99 on Amazon.co.uk after a recommendation by Mark Warner. I hope this also helps me to learn to prioritise.

VCOP Teacher

Just found this great blog written by VCOP teacher. The blog has lots of great ideas for writing poetry. The ideas are simple but really powerful and will help to develop aspects of VCOP. A really good site. It's just a shame that I found it the day AFTER National Poetry Day!!

Spelltube.co.uk

Further to a post about learning spellings earlier this month I discovered Spelltube.co.uk. The site has 'brings the weekly spelling list into the technological age'.

Interesting and memorable spelling videos have been created for each of the 3000+ words in the National Spelling Bank. Teachers can generate and assign a word list to their Key Stage 2 pupils. Various characters help to reinforce spelling concepts in an enjoyable way that will appeal to various learning styles.

I think I could definitely use this in class.

The Countdown Kid

The Daily Mail reports that 11-year-old Kai Laddiman became one of the youngest ever winners. Kai beat James Bruce, a 25-year-old teacher, by finding three seven-letter words, being spot-on in a numbers game and working out the conundrum in only 14 seconds.

Kai, from Broad Oak, East Sussex, auditioned for the show in London in January, beating off hopefuls as much as six times his age. He and his mother Naomi were then invited to record the show, presented by Carol Vorderman and Des O'Connor, in Leeds. Kai, who has already got a grade B in AS-level maths said: 'Although everyone else was older, I wasn't nervous at all.

He said, "I got an extra cushion to prop me up on the chair so the cameras could see me over the desk. It made the seat a lot more comfortable so I wasn't complaining. I just concentrated hard and did my best. I enjoy the Countdown letter games, such as the conundrums, the most. Numbers are a bit trickier but I wouldn't say they're difficult either.'

Kai has three younger brothers and attends Heathfield Community College in Old Heathfield, East Sussex.

Spelling Tests axed because they're distressing

Don't get me wrong - I really am a stickler for correct spellings. Poor spelling and grammar (used by adults, at least) infuriates me. But I loathe spelling tests. I fail to see the benefits of spending around 1/2 an hour each week running a spelling test, knowing full well that many of the children will spell the same words wrong in a piece of work immediately after the test. Quality teaching of word rules and spelling patterns must be the best method.

I was impressed by this post from Tom Barrett regarding good spelling resources on the net.

In the news today is a primary school that has axed spelling homework because pupils find learning lists of words 'distressing'.

The Daily Mail reports that children at the Whitminster Church of England Primary, in Gloucestershire, will no longer be given a short list of words to learn each week because staff believe it leaves them feeling like failures.

Parents' groups called the move 'ridiculous' but headmistress Debbie Marklove, whose school has just over 100 pupils aged four to 11, has invited parents to a meeting to explain her reasons. In a newsletter, Mrs Marklove wrote: "You will notice that the children will not be given spelling lists to learn over the week. We have taken the decision to stop spelling as homework as it is felt that although children may learn them perfectly at home they are often unable to use them in their daily written work. Also many children find this activity unnecessarily distressing."

She added: "Spelling lists are sometimes just tests of memory. If children get five out of five when practising with mum and dad and then get one out of five at school it can give a sense of failure. I would like to emphasise that we are still teaching spellings at school as normal, as is demanded by the literacy curriculum.'

A spokesman for the school said no parents had complained about the policy.

But Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the decision would come back to haunt her pupils as some spellings, particularly irregular words, needed to be learned. he said, "Youngsters will feel a sense of failure more strongly when they go into the world of work and can't produce a letter or a report for their employers," he said. "There are quite a lot of words which you essentially have to memorise. Lots of parents and grandparents will remember doing spelling tests either pleasantly or unpleasantly. But for all that, it is a necessary part of the learning process."

A report from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority this year showed that most primary school-leavers are unable to spell such basic words as 'height' and 'rigid'.

Gloucestershire County Council's head of improvement, Karen Charters, said: "It is entirely for the school to decide if it wishes to use spelling lists."

I'm nomophonic

The Daily Mail reports that 2008 has given the English language more than 100 new words and phrases which capture modern life, according to experts. And while previous years have given us bling, bovvered, chav and carbon footprint, many of this year's most popular words and phrases reflect the economic crisis.

Credit crunch has dominated the headlines in recent weeks, but other increasingly familiar financial terms are included in a round-up of the words of the year. They include stagflation, the economic term for stagnant growth and rising inflation, and funt - the financially untouchable.
But it's not all economic doom and gloom. The list compiled by dictionary expert Susie Dent, also includes nomophobia, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact, and nonebrity, a person who enjoys status without anyone really understanding why.

Current events are also reflected in the list, including arguido - the Portuguese word for suspect - after the Portuguese police named Kate and Gerry McCann as official suspects in their daughter Madeleine's disappearance, only to clear them ten months later.

Cripes has made it in after Boris Johnson almost single-handedly resurrected the expression during his campaign to become London Mayor. Writing in Words of the Year, Miss Dent said: 'It is now rather sweetly old-fashioned and confers an air of naivety on the speaker.' Miss Dent, the resident language expert on Channel 4's Countdown quiz show, said the words and phrases were chosen because they captured the spirit of 2008. She said: 'Some are new words which have come into use and others are established terms which have been resurrected.'

From the U.S., momnesia is the term for 'a pattern of mental confusion and forgetfulness that characterises a mother's first year after giving birth', according to Miss Dent's Words of the Year book, published today.

Pessimistic individuals are doomers, while moofers are mobile out-of-office workers and scuppies are socially conscious urban professionals.

A YouTube divorce is an acrimonious marriage break-up in which a spouse airs their former partner's dirty laundry on the video-sharing website.

Miss Dent said the new words gave the English language more power. She added: 'You may hate momnesia and nomophobia but few of us could deny that when we first heard them, we weren't just that little bit curious.'

Have you heard any new words or phrases making their way into the classrooms?

League tables delayed

Thousands of parents will be forced to choose primary schools for their children blindly because league tables have been delayed by the SATs marking debacle. Education officials have admitted that this year's primary school league tables will be published up to four months late.

The information is now scheduled for publication in March next year - beyond the deadline for expressing primary school preferences in most if not all local authority areas.

Parents will be forced to rely on last year's out-of-date information or ask individual schools for their 2008 exam scores. Even then, the scores will not have been weighted to take into account whether a school is improving children's standards between the ages of seven and 11.

The publication of tables has had to be pushed back after blunders and delays in the marking of English, maths and science SATs tests for 11-year-olds this summer, with some pupils still to receive their results.

Margaret Morrissey, of the lobby group Parents Outloud, described the situation as a 'major climbdown'. "Having built parents up to need and use these tables, they are left in a situation of having to manage without them at a time when they are making drastic decisions. Many parents will rely on this information, particularly first-time parents and those in large conurbations where there are lots of schools to choose from and you really need a little bit more information to understand what you are choosing.'

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said the tables would be published 'as soon as practically possible'.

SATs question was an 'own goal'

The TES includes a report about one of the SATs questions in this year's short writing challenge.

How was your last year at school, asked the Sats paper? The tests were the worst thing about it, came back the answer from the 11-year- olds. Key stage 2 pupils used this summer’s reading assessment to complain about the exams, with one moaning: “I hate Sats week.” Another wrote: “Everyone was dreading Sats, including me. We worked ever so hard and I was fed up by the end of the week and could not look at a test ever again.”

The responses came after the writing test asked pupils about their memories of the school year, including their “most fun activity” and “biggest challenge”.

The National Association of Head Teachers, which wants to scrap the tests, collated the answers. It called the question an “own goal” for ministers who defend testing. It asked for the answers after noticing that heads were commenting on them on an internet message board. Some six schools wrote back with details of pupils’ responses.

Another pupil wrote: “The best thing about this year at school will be the end of Sats. No more worrying. Sats are horrible, aren’t they?”

“You might get bullied if you get a bad score or even if you get a good score people will call you nerd, geek and beano,” said another.

While the association admits the seven responses are a tiny fraction of this year’s 600,000 answers, they come at a time when heads are fuming about the admin difficulties surrounding this year’s tests, which prompted hundreds of complaints.

A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokeswoman said: “We aim to help all children do their best. Testing is here to stay, but the system is not set in stone.”

Let's Grow and Box Tops

Believe me, as an ex-employee of Morrisons I know how tight they can be. Therefore I was very surprised that they are actually giving something away! The Let's Grow voucher scheme is the latest voucher scheme to hit the supermarkets, specifically aimed at squeezing every last penny out of their customers whilst making themselves look generous!

I sound a bit cynical but actually I'm all for these voucher schemes. I realise that it's a way to get free marketing and that the amount they actually give away compared to the amount they take in during the scheme doesn't sound particularly grand. But at least they are giving away something! It allows schools to get their hands on some useful freebies and it gives our Year Sixes some responsibilities (counting the vouchers). As a reward for their hard work counting the vouchers they help me to choose what we spend the money on. The lads love this role and they take great pride in telling others, "I chose that!"

Let's Grow from Morrisons allows schools to collect vouchers towards gardening tools and plants. I have also finally registered for Nestle's Box Tops for Books scheme. I don't mind giving a little free publicity if it means we get a few free donations!

Lifestyle lessons could cut amount of subjects taught

The Daily Mail reports that lessons in healthy lifestyles and sex education could replace traditionalacademic subjects in a shake-up of primary school teaching planned by Ed Balls. Pupils could even be assessed on their ‘personal development’ as well as the three Rs.

The Schools Secretary has ordered an inquiry into primary school lessons to consider whether pupils are currently studying too many subjects. Now the team behind the review has said heads and teachers agree there should be reductions both in the ‘number of subject areas’ and the subject content pupils cover.

Instead they want pupils to study ‘concepts and skills’ that cut across traditional curriculum areas and a stronger focus on personal development, including healthy eating, ‘self-esteem’, sex and relationships, drugs and philosophy.

The demands are being considered by former Ofsted boss Sir Jim Rose, who is conducting the primary review on behalf of Mr Balls. e is due to publish an interim report next month with final conclusions due next year.

As part of the review, officials conducted 60 seminars across England, involving 1,500 heads, teachers, classroom assistants, governors, parents and pupils. he report on the events claimed participants viewed literacy, numeracy and personal development as having equal importance. spects of personal development considered vital included ‘healthy lifestyles, sex and relationships, drugs and alcohol, philosophy, self-esteem and helping children to understand multiple cultural identities’.

Participants felt these areas should be the ‘central driver’ behind the curriculum. According to the report, personal development should build on existing lessons in ‘social and emotional aspects of learning’, which cover happiness and respect for others.

The report, published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which is assisting Sir Jim, raises the prospect of a threat to the teaching of distinct subject such as history, geography, music, art and technology. It follows a warning by academics yesterday that the review threatens the prominence of science.

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: ‘Subjects don’t come in boxes. Our geography affects our history and putting these together in a topic-based approach seems to me absolutely sensible.’

But Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb said: ‘This approach was tried in the 1960s and 1970s and failed, and it will fail again. 'We need primary schools to focus on maths and English and give childrenan introduction to the history of our country and the geography of the world. The way to raise self-esteem is to ensure children are fluent readers by six or seven, and through sports days and team sports.’

Welcome to high school - By the way you've got a disease!

After my post earlier this week about the ways that high schools are trying to ease the transition to Year Seven, I was shocked yet amused with the stroy that Year Sevens in one school were told they could have a deadly disease and could be placed in quarantine...

Fortunately, the typhoid epidemic was a fictional scenario made up for a lesson in creative writing. But that news came a little too late for some.

New pupils at Bower Park School in Essex were told there had been a deadly outbreak of typhoid to 'liven up' a creative writing lesson. The lesson on the fourth day of term at Bower Park School in Romford, East London, left several of the pupils in tears. One mother whose son was in the class said: 'His teachers had told him they had to stay in school and be tested. If they had red spots or felt sick they had to report to the nurse straight away. Then they were told it was all a joke - it was a lesson in relaying emotions and writing about how they dealt with it. I'm horrified.'

The 11 and 12-year-olds were first told by their teacher there had been an outbreak of typhoid in the school. They were then told there would be a 48-hour quarantine, before the teacher explained that the set-up was a role-play exercise to stimulate creative writing.

Typhoid, which is caught through contaminated food or water, kills up to 30 per cent of sufferers if left untreated. Symptoms include a high fever, diarrhoea and sometimes a rash of rose-coloured spots and internal bleeding.

The lesson plan, entitled School Under Siege, was devised by a London-based teaching centre and has been used in at least one other school, in the Havering area of Essex.

Since it was taught at Bower Park School, the headmistress has had to meet with several concerned parents and explain to them that the lesson was part of a push to re-vitalise creative writing classes. Mary Morrison said in a statement: 'There is a massive push at Bower Park School to eradicate "passive learning" and replace it with exciting, creative lessons where students are active participants and wholeheartedly involved in their learning. The English Department introduced a dramatic approach to their Year 7 lessons with the outcome being that the students captured their feelings and translated them into a piece of dynamic creative writing. Unfortunately some of our Year 7 students believed the storyline that there was a local epidemic in the community, even though our less able students were told that the activity was role play prior to the start.'

She added: 'Lots of the children found it a very stimulating class. There were very few who were upset by it.'

I think there was an overreaction from some pupils and parents, but nevertheless, I guess it's a rather unusual way to break the new pupils in!

I wudnt bovva wiv it

A language 'expert' has said we should stop worrying that 'textmessage speak' is creeping into general usage. John Wells, president of the Spelling Society, which campaigns for spelling reform, claimed that the informal language of texts, emails and chat rooms is the 'way forward'. The academic, an Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London, also called for the apostrophe to be abolished.

He said that reforms were necessary because the confusing English spelling system is placing a 'burden' on schoolchildren. He said: 'Let's stop worrying if people sometimes spell "you" as "u"; "your" and "you're" both as "ur"; and "whose" and "who's" both as "whos". Nowadays we often see "light" written as "lite" and "through" as "thru". Let's not hold up our hands in horror - people should be able to use whichever spelling they prefer.'

He added: 'Let's rationalise the use of doubled consonants. If "ballad" has double l, why should we not be allowed, if we wish, to spell "salad" with double l too? We should no longer fetishise the ability to sort out "their", "there" and "they're". There are more important things to life.'

Professor Wells also said it was time to dispel the idea that correct spelling was a mark of being educated. Instead of forcing school children to memorise irregular English spellings, he said that teachers should adopt a phonetic approach. He added: 'The teaching of literacy in schools is a major worry. It seems highly likely that one of the reasons Britain and other Englishspeaking countries have problems with literacy is because of our spelling and the burden it places on children. There are lots of other things that are neglected in class because so much time is spent on spelling.' He pointed out that in other languages, such as Italian, Spanish and Finnish, spellings are phonetic.

Professor Wells also said the apostrophe was 'a waste of time'. "Have we really nothing better to do with our lives than fret about the apostrophe?" he added.

Surely this guy isn't serious? Sadly, I think he is...

Developed countries have smaller class sizes

The Daily Mail reports that British primary school classes have a fifth more pupils compared to other developed countries. An international study has shown that only Japan, Korea and Turkey have more five to 11-year-olds in the same lesson. There are almost 26 pupils to the average class in state primaries here - despite widespread concerns over disruption and youngsters receiving less attention.

Pupils in Slovakia, Mexico and Hungary all benefit from smaller teaching groups. And our crowded classrooms come despite above average spending per pupil, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development. The Government invests £3,610 per child at primary level, against an OECD average of £3,549.

The group said Britain has 'one of the largest average class sizes at this level of education' out of 31 countries examined in its report. The average state primary class size for OECD countries in 2006 was 21.5, compared to 25.8 here. Its report said: 'Only Japan, Korea and Turkey have larger classes, while in 14 OECD countries there are 20 or fewer students per primary level class.'

At secondary level, however, Britain fares better, with 23.7 pupils to a classroom, compared to the average of 23.8.

But the study also shows the gulf between state and independent schools here is wider than in any other country. In primary education, there are 13 pupils more per classroom in state schools than there are in private ones. Across OECD countries on average, class sizes between the two sectors differ by just one or two students per lesson.

The study - Education at a Glance - said smaller classes are 'often perceived to allow teachers to focus more on the individual needs of students and to reduce the amount of class time they spend dealing with disruption', although it conceded the evidence for this is not conclusive.

Moving up to big school

Already this year a few of last year's pupils have been back to school to let me know how they are getting on in high school. A wonder how many other high schools use the principles used in Loreto High School in Chorlton and Monks' Dyke Technology College in Louth...

Loreto High School in Chorlton, Manchester, is attempting to make itself more like a primary school. Pupils aged 11 to 13 are taught by the same teacher, called a personal learning tutor for every lesson - just as in primary.

A specialist teacher then joins classes for subjects such as maths, English, science and languages so there are two members of staff for 70% of the curriculum.

Headteacher Luke Dillon, a former primary headteacher who started at the school a year ago, says the school is trying to combine the best of the two. "We have appointed a few primary teachers, and they have gone down really well, crossing the big divide for teachers as well as pupils. Our personal learning tutors get to know the pupils' strengths, so when the maths specialist comes in, they can say that somebody is really strong on multiplication but struggles with subtraction, for example. They have an intrinsic knowledge of children's learning styles and aptitudes. If pupils are jumping around from ten to 11 teachers, you wouldn;t necessarily have that information. The children really appreciate it and enjoy it. It means that students are really in situ for a lot of the time. They're not spending five to ten minutes between lessons, and they are settled."

Lessons are a bit more fluid as well, says Dillon. "They can run over a little bit, without pupils having to make their way to another class. It's also a little bit like a primary school classroom as they can put artwork up. It's their space."

Meanwhile, Monks' Dyke Technology College in Louth, Lincolnshire, has come up with a novel way to tackle the problem of transition. Head of Year Seven, Steve Armstrong, has set up an e-buddies scheme, which allows younger pupils at 35 neighbouring primaries to e-mail older students with their queries and worries.

"When pupils used to arrive in September, they were still worried about the same things they were when we visited the primary schools months before," he says. "It was clear we weren't getting the message across and we thought, 'who do kids take most notice of? It's the people around them, not parents or teachers."

The scheme has been a great success, with about 40 children this year visiting primary schools and establishjing e-mail contact with older pupils they meet. Each student e-buddy has around six or seven younger pupils to look after. "They can e-mail the children directly and exactly the same things come up as they will around the country. They're worried about older children because they will be the youngest and the smallest; they're worried about getting lost and relationships because they're coming into secondary school where their classes and teachers change. There isn't the same familiarity on an hour-by-hour basis."

Mr Armstrong said, "We find that our e-buddies scheme does allay children's fears. Previously, children might have had their induction days in July and then worried for ten weeks. But now they can e-mail the children right through to the end of term. The feedback we get is that they feel more relaxed."

Could this be the last year for SATs?

The BBC reports that Schools Secretary Ed Balls has hinted that the SATs tests could end next year. They may be replaced by assessments tailored to the ability of each child, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

The national tests are taken by about one million children aged seven, 11 and 14 across England each May, but this year's marking was a "fiasco", he said. A five-year contract with ETS Europe was scrapped after it failed to get papers marked in time, and the next contract will be for one year only. "The current system is not set in stone," said Mr Balls. "We are looking currently at a way in which we could assess progress child by child with individual level tests where the tests would be chosen in a way which was right for the child, rather than everybody doing the same test on the same day. For 2009, we are going to do the same kind of tests as in previous years before the problems with ETS, but for the long term I am really keen to get this right, to listen."

The new exams would still be marked externally, Mr Balls added, at least for children leaving primary school.

Children should be allowed to use mobiles in class

A study by researchers at Nottingham University suggests that children should be allowed to use their mobile phones in class because they can serve as 'learning aids'.

During a nine-month experiment involving classes aged 14 to 16, pupils either used their own mobiles in lessons or the new generation of 'smartphones' which allow internet connection. They were used to create short films, set homework reminders, record a teacher reading a poem and time experiments with the phones' stopwatches.

The smartphones also allowed pupils to access revision websites, log into the school email system or transfer electronic files between school and home.

Although the study was based on use in high schools, I wonder whether some of the ideas could be adapted for primary schools. For instance, in the days of the credit crunch, could children use the calculators in their phone rather than buy separate calculators? Could they be used to take photos of work to show parents?

I'm curious to know if any primary teachers have already embraced the idea of using mobile phones in school...

Poor teachers are too hard to sack

The BBC reports that the chief inspector of schools has warned that weak teachers can put children off learning and are too hard to sack.

Christine Gilbert, head of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), told the Sunday Telegraph pupils were being let down by inadequate teachers. She said "parents should not have to put up with it". However, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said: "The vast majority of our teachers are doing an excellent job."

Ms Gilbert said teaching rated as "satisfactory" was not good enough, especially in deprived areas.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families In the newspaper interview, Ms Gilbert called for schools to be able to fire underperforming staff more easily and criticised a "revolving door syndrome" which enabled poor to teachers move from school to school. She said: "As I go round the country heads tell me how difficult it is to get rid of weak teachers. They say they start the procedure and they might be 18 months down the line and the teacher will move... we need to be thinking of ways of preventing that. That isn't Ofsted's role but I sympathise with head teachers about that."

Amazing Microbe Hunters

This site is great for researching scientists who studied microbes. Very useful for the Micro-organisms science scheme of work which we are starting the year with next week!

Online Photo Services

I have spent some time this summer trying to find an online photo service that I am entirely happy with. Let me share some of the pros and cons of what I found:
Snapfish
I have used this site for about a year for getting photos printed. I have been really impressed by the quality of printed photos and the seemingly unlimited storage space for photos. However, the sharing options are far from adequate, and I can't seem to find a way to tag photos. It was for this reason that I tried to find an alternative.

Oosah
Oosah was the next site I tried, tempted by the promise of 1TB of online storage space. It all seemed promising at first, but then I realised that I couldn't upload documents as well, meaning that I was never likely to come close to using all of the 1TB. Unfortunately I can't print photos from the site, and, as clear as day there were pornographic photos in the public photostream! Not ideal.

Picasa
This was next on my list. This could be useful as it links with Blogger. However, I can't print photos from the site.

Facebook
This is really useful if you want to share photos with friends, and the ability to tag people in photos is brilliant. But what if I don't want to share the photos, or simply back them up? Facebook wouldn't allow this.

Flickr
Flickr appears to be one of the best photo sites around. The tagging is excellent, and the photostream and ability to link directly to individual photos are all valuable features. I can edit photos online, and make photos public, for sharing, and private, just for backing up pictures. However, there is one flaw - at the moment you cannot print photos in the UK directly from Flickr.

Photobox
This morning I am trying out Photobox. Despite rather slow uploading speeds, so far it looks the most promising of them all - photo sharing, making photos private, tagging and printing all seem possible. Could I have found The One?

Anyone got any thoughts?

Sunny Day Sky

This game makes me wish it was sunny. But it's good fun though!

Printable paper

If you ever need a sheet of graph paper in a hurry, why not use Printable Paper.net, a handy website. There are lots of different papers you can download to print.

When Is Good?

Don't spend hours in a staff meeting trying to arrange suitable date. Why not use this useful website that will arrange it for you!

ETS Europe has its contract ended

Good news - the firm responsible for this summer's national test marking "shambles", ETS Europe, has had its contract ended by exams watchdog the QCA.
The BBC reports that this is due to problems with the marking of the tests, taken by 1.2 million 11 and 14 year olds in England, delayed results and prompted concerns about quality. ETS is to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. The total contract for 2008 was worth £39.6m. The QCA said the five-year £156m contract was ended by "mutual consent".

The National Assessment Agency (NAA) will handle the review process, while ETS Europe will continue to work on concluding this year's national test operations, and publish any outstanding results. There will be no further payments made to ETS.

Education Secretary Ed Balls said the tax payers' position had been safeguarded by the deal because two-thirds of the money spent on the contract was being returned. He told the BBC News website that the £15.5m ETS received for their work represented a loss to them and was smaller than the amount they had spent in the UK. The financial settlement reached means the government is able recover some of its costs, including those of re-tendering and re-marking.
The delivery of next year's tests would be carried out as a one-year contract, tendering for which would start in September, Mr Balls said. He said: "Let's put the national interest first and and get things sortred for next year so we do not see a repeat of the shambles that we have seen from ETS in recent weeks."

Schools Minister Jim Knight : 'I'm pleased the contract has been terminated'

QCA chief Ken Boston said: "ETS Europe was selected due to the strength of their worldwide experience in delivering large-scale assessments. It is disappointing that the issues with this year's national curriculum test results have meant that the partnership between QCA and ETS must end early."

Price of petrol

These cartoons just about sum up how we all feel about the price of petrol at the moment.

You might want to use this website to find the cheapest petrol near you:

http://www.petrolprices.com/

Summer Heights High

In case you haven't seen this hilarious Australian comedy, here is a clip of my favourite character in it, Mr G. The whole programme is a satire of life in an ordinary Australian public school. Very funny!