Tag: school councils uk

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SchoolCouncilsUK-archive

Taking schools out of special measures – Ofsted

Ofsted have just produced a report on successful strategies for taking schools out of special measures, it contains some strong words about pupil participation:

Pupils and students’ greater engagement in school life had a significant influence on improving outcomes in almost all of the schools surveyed.

…

Establishing and keeping high profile a school council, an open forum
or a house system were all successful approaches to giving expression to the
pupils’ voice.

…

Increasing levels of participation had measurable benefits in all the schools.

It then goes on to specify what those measurable gains were, very useful stuff. The full report is here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/070221

Asher

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More website feedback

(respondent had, a cookie problem so couldn’t log in) Limited responses to questions below:

1. What do I like about the site?

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Stop your whingeing!

A new book, The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education argues that the focus on emotional expression and building up self-esteem in schools and colleges is ‘infantilising’ students, leaving them unable to cope with life. In an interview in the Times Higher Education Hayes and Ecclestone, of Oxford Brookes University argue that attention paid to emotional intelligence in schools and colleges creates an atmosphere where students and staff are treated as emotionally vulnerable, and this is inimical to traditional academic rigour. The coverage in today’s papers links criticisms in the book to the SEAL programme in schools. Hayes and Ecclestone are calling for a public debate about the emotional state of education. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

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Spreading the use of Oyster north of Finsbury Park station

Lynne Featherstone writes:
“Tap in and tap out: yes please

It’s one of the great successes of Transport for London. Yes – you heard right – TfL and the word ‘success’ in the same breath. I’m talking Oyster!

Now we tap in and tap out without a second thought. We nimbly flit from tube to bus – tap in / tap out. And then we try and nimbly flit from tube to bus to train – and oh dear – we can’t!

MJ

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Joint birth registration: recording responsibility announced

Plans to change the law to require dads, as well as mums to be named on the birth certificate are being announced by Secretary of State for Work James Purnell and Children’s Secretary Ed Balls in a joint White Paper published today.

The change, which will be implemented in the next session’s Welfare Reform Bill, will put parental responsibility centre stage by giving mothers or fathers a right to insist that the other parent acknowledges their responsibilities to their child by registering on the birth certificate… Link

This sounds reasonable, but I wonder what the counter argument is to this?

Mark

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Think tank's views on wellbeing in the classroom

IPPR have just published Thursday’s Child, a research/policy document on where they think education should be going.  One of the issues they discuss is social and emotional wellbeing, it contains this paragraph:

Wellbeing in the classroom
The school environment is the most important school-level component of the emotional and social wellbeing of pupils and teachers. Classroom environments that foster warm, personal relationships and strong bonds between teachers and learners best promote social and emotional wellbeing. There needs to be a greater focus in ITT and CPD on how to promote these classroom environments and facilitate social and emotional learning; for example, how to use group dynamics effectively in classrooms. Teachers should also receive training on how to pick up issues as soon as they arise.

You can read the rest of the summary in Information and Research > IPPR.