Newsround

What’s been newsworthy in the world of education?

• The Education Policy Institute and The Bell Foundation published a report on the educational outcomes of children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). This is an eye-opener and their key findings deserve close scrutiny. In relation to the performance of EAL pupils the report says that the average attainment scores of EAL pupils are deeply misleading and conceal considerable variation.

* Headline figures published by the Department for Education show that, on average, in 2016 EAL pupils performed well – with similar attainment scores to the national average, and greater than average progress during school. They were also more likely to achieve the English Baccalaureatethan those with English as a first language (28 percent versus 24 percent).

* These figures, however, obscure significant disparities in performance – and are also distorted by missing records – estimated at nearly a third of EAL primary pupils, and one tenth of secondary pupils, who have absent attainment records due to late arrival to the English school system.

• The Government has announced that aspiring teachers will be allowed to fail multiple entry tests before starting in the job in an effort to ease the recruitment crisis. Some say this is ‘sensible and pragmatic’, others say it is a desperate measure.
• New figures show that malpractice is rife with thousands of teachers being caught cheating. Nearly 2,300 malpractice offences were committed by teachers between 2012 and 2016, according to data obtained through the freedom of information requests to the OCR exam board.
• Nick Gibb reckons that to cope with mental health pressures schoolchildren should take exams earlier. This sounds like madness but apparently not!