What’s been newsworthy in the world of education?
- Damian Hinds announces new online resources for teachers to reduce time spent on ‘unnecessary’ tasks and support to focus on teaching.
- The education select committee warns of a “Wild West” approach to the education provided for pupils who have been excluded from school.
- Good news or bad news? Lower-paid classroom teachers in England and Wales are to receive pay rises of up to 3.5% but 60% of teachers and senior staff will get below-inflation increases of 1.5% or 2% according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
- More than 130 parents queued from 3am outside Ysgol Y Berllan Deg in Cardiff for the annual breakfast club signup.
- Department for Education figures show a 15% rise in the number of pupils expelled from state schools between 2015-6 and 2016-7, from 6,685 to 7,720.
- Under government proposals, mental health education will be a mandatory part of the curriculum for all primary and secondary schools from autumn 2020.
- The rate of teenage pregnancy has dropped sharply since 2007. Does that mean they are ‘generation sensible’?
- Would you insist that pupils carried Bluetooth tracking devices to make sure that they turn up for classes?A private Catholic-run school in Paris is doing just that.
- Amanda Spielman says that there needs to be a crackdown on “low level disruption” in the classroom. Yet a new study suggests that teachers should ignore low-level disruptive behaviour in the classroom to reduce it. A study led by the University of Exeter Medical School, analysed the success of a training programme called the Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management Programme.
Its core principles include building strong social relationship between teachers and children, and ignoring low-level bad behaviour that often disrupts classrooms.
- Prince’s Trust Ambassador Tim Peake joined the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning, Eluned Morgan to announce £7.2m of funding to encourage young people, especially girls, to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects at school.
-
Schoolchildren in England will have to learn basic first aid and CPR under proposals put forward by the government. See the draft legislation for more details. This news is welcomed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), St John Ambulance and British Red Cross who together form the ‘Every Child a Lifesaver’ coalition.
