Labour is to promise free, healthy breakfasts for all primary-age children as part of a multibillion pound plan to “poverty-proof” England’s schools and boost educational standards. The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, will on Thursday pledge to recruit 20,000 more teachers, cap secondary class sizes at 30, and spend £7bn on repairs and upgrades to…
Category: Primary schools
School funding crisis in blamed for surge in supersized classes
Almost 1 million school pupils in are in classes of 31 or more, a surge of nearly 30% since 2010, according to a report. Data from the National Education Union also shows that nearly 20,000 more pupils were in supersized classes of more than 36 in 2018-19, compared with eight years ago. Mary Bousted, the…
A year to clean five schools of sexism – shouldn’t others do the same?
A class of 10-year-olds are sitting on the carpet looking at their teacher with open mouths. Their faces say: outrage. Their teacher, Rosemary O’Brien, has put up a statement on the board – a real one, by the Football Association in 1921. Football is “quite unsuitable for females”, it says. Across the classroom, pupils are…
Most schools in England worse off next year than in 2015, study says
Schools in the vast majority of constituencies in England will be worse off next year than they were in 2015, despite the Conservatives’ promise of additional funding, according to research. The National Education Union (NEU) said just 18 out of 533 constituencies would receive real terms per pupil funding increases next April, compared with 2015,…
Dear Gavin Williamson, how that strange prisons have to have a library but schools do not | Michael Rosen
Did you see the report on school libraries that came out last week? The headline facts are worrying, don’t you think? Schools with a higher proportion of children on free school meals are more than twice as likely not to have access to a designated library space. One in eight schools has no library at…
‘If you get a good inspector, it can be magic’: Is Labour right to want Ofsted gone?
The Labour party has said it would abolish Ofsted and its one-word judgments. Local authorities would carry out regular “health checks” instead, while inspectors would be called in for more in-depth visits. What do teachers and parents think? Should Ofsted be abolished? Henry Emoni maths teacher, the Beacon school, Banstead, Surrey Yes. Ofsted creates an…
Parents, can you spot a ‘toxic’ school? A headteacher writes …
The banners are up, the adverts are in local newspapers. No sooner has the autumn term begun than schools are recruiting the next cohort of students. If it sometimes seems that they all say the same things about their engaging curriculum, personalised pastoral care and professional ethos, how can you tell them apart? For some…
Politically literate citizens seem to be a problem for Michael Gove | Laura McInerney
From the vast compendium of Michael Gove’s arrogant moments as education secretary one has been on my mind these last few weeks. He was never a fan of citizenship as a subject – the one that teaches children the rules of democracy – and, once in office, set out to slim the curriculum and get…
School heads criticise new reception tests for five-year-olds
Headteachers and campaigners have urged the government to halt plans to introduce a start-of-school assessment for four- and five-year-olds, arguing it is a waste of money and will not benefit schools or children. About half of all primary schools in England will begin to trial the 20-minute test from this week as the new school…
Ofsted plan to inspect ‘cultural capital’ in schools attacked as elitist
A two-word term, invented in the 1970s by a French sociologist heavily influenced by Karl Marx, makes an unlikely entrance in Ofsted’s new framework [pdf] for the inspection of schools in England this week. Each institution is now to be judged on the extent to which it builds pupils’ “cultural capital”. What exactly does that…
Gap in academic skills of girls and boys widens, show Sats
Girls continue to outperform boys in all subjects by the end of primary school in England, according to the latest key stage 2 test results published by the Department for Education (DfE). The results, from the national curriculum tests and assessments taken by pupils in year six, known as Sats, showed 70% of girls reached…
The Guardian view on testing four-year-olds: wrong again | Editorial
Accountability in education is important. Politicians, acting on the public’s behalf, are right to seek evidence that schools are delivering a good service. So there is nothing wrong, in principle, with gathering information in order to track progress. The problem with the government’s new baseline assessment of four-year-olds – being trialled over the next six…
Everyone welcome: inside the schools that haven’t expelled a child since 2013
Jason Thurley, headteacher at Beacon academy, near Grimsby, leans across the table explaining why yet another of his pupils was excluded before joining the school. “He’d brought in a £1 potato gun. It was at the bottom of his bag and so he goes up to his form tutor and says, ‘I don’t want to…
Why are teachers miserable? Because they’re being held at gunpoint for meaningless data | Jeremy Hannay
Everyone seems to be dancing around the elephant in the room. Jeremy Corbyn is talking about scrapping Sats. The DfE is on the workload warpath. Ofsted is myth-busting itself out of the dark ages into the 21st century, saying it doesn’t care about marking any more. Almost a third of teachers quit in the first…
If ministers really want to trust teachers it’s time to ditch the number fairies | Michael Rosen
Do you think it is now possible to produce statistics on schools that not only ignore what teachers, headteachers and parents have to say about the children, but don’t even have to be attached to real pupils? Can there be fictive figures, floating above a school like number fairies? I had this thought at a…
Year 6 pupils spend Easter at school cramming for Sats
Children at hundreds of primary schools in England are being asked to attend Sats revision classes over the Easter holidays, a teaching union official has revealed, warning that it was part of a disturbing trend. Darren Northcott, the NASUWT national officer for education, said revision classes for primary school pupils were unheard of five years…
One in five teachers using own money for school supplies – report
One in five teachers are spending their own money on classroom supplies, while nearly half say they buy food, clothes and even soap for poor pupils, according to a report charting the effects of austerity on schools. Among the more than 4,300 teachers who responded to the NASUWT education union, 20% said they paid for…
Primary teachers to be balloted on boycotting Sats
Primary schoolteachers are to be balloted on whether to boycott Sats next year because of concerns that high-stakes testing is harming children’s mental health. Delegates at the National Education Union (NEU) annual conference in Liverpool voted in favour of the action after a heated debate, seeing off an amendment from the executive which had argued…
UK schools are turning to foreign governments to fund languages
In Holly class, Matilda, aged six, calls the register. “Ciao, Tyler,” she says. “Presente,” he replies. “Ciao, Arthur,” she says next. “Ciao, Maestra Matilda,” he says. The class collapses into giggles: Matilda is taking the register as part of today’s Italian lesson. Her teacher, Stefania Cellini, helps the children count aloud to check everyone is…
School music report reveals cuts, inequality and demoralised teachers
When the children at Barlby primary in west London got up to perform at the Royal Albert Hall last month it was, according to their headteacher, an overwhelming and aspirational event. The school, which is part of the local community around Grenfell Tower, is among the most diverse and disadvantaged in the country, with more…