Parent’s birth to education plan
It seems that there is a mini revolution going on in the country, with the middle classes leading the way, this has to do with timing of the birth of a child and how it relates to the school year. For example if a baby is born in the autumn then is stands to reason [...]
October 29, 2007Schools not to sign with Microsoft
With complaints to the Office of Fair Trading by the government’s education technology department (BECTA) it would seem that schools will be urged not to sign up for any licensing agreements with Microsoft for the products 2007 and Vista.
It is believed that this has something to do with Microsoft and anticompetitive practises with the educational [...]
Harry Potter banned from school
He may be the most famous young wizard of all time, but where some people are concerned he is not the type of person that should be gracing the halls of some schools. It has nothing to do with the films, this is a question of books and whether they are suitable material for school [...]
October 24, 2007School photo shoot goes wrong
A school head teacher will have to apologise to the parents of pupils from the Sandhurst Junior School in Lewisham, London. The problems have arisen from what they are saying as was the photographer’s advice, and the photo was taken of the school pupils who were arranged in skin colour, this naturally caused some concern [...]
October 23, 2007Students tracked by microchip
A school in South Yorkshire will be tracking the movements of their students because of microchips that have been placed into their school uniforms. The signal can be picked up by a RFID system where their movements can be tracked and the class attendance monitored as the entered each lesson.
What is so good about this? [...]
Schools have no effect on Social Gap
Despite what we have been led to believe, the social divide is not getting any smaller in our schools. These findings are from the annual report on schools by the inspectors OFSTED.
It seems that children from poorer areas are more likely to have little or no prospects. Out of those on free school meals only [...]
UK Bus Co wins US school run
A division of UK Bus Company has bought the beleaguered school bus company Laidlaw International Inc for nearly $3.5 billion. But there was nearly a disaster when contracts with the schools department in Columbus meant that contracts could be cancelled.
The problem arises because the company were not running checks on theirs driver and one was [...]
Public Sector Pay Crisis
The government is set to hold down the pay increases for public sector workers to only 2% over the next three years. This is more than likely going to cause some sort of reaction from the unions. If this went as far as it could go, we could be seeing another “Winter of Discontent” which [...]
October 15, 2007Make Your Own Word Search
This is a great tool for teachers and other people involved in education. A word search can make people think and the same time its fun, so it makes perfect sense to use one of these in the education process.
The words can be part of a lesson follow up by placing keywords into the grid [...]
Al Gore banned for schools
Nobel peace prize winner Al Gore is being banned from schools in the UK, of course not him personally, but his film, An Inconvenient Truth, why? Well its down a to school governor from Kent who says that there are some points in the film which are political brainwashing material, these points are:
Sea levels may [...]
Cheap Mini Notebook for Schools
Those cheap laptops that we have all heard of, that took the States by storm will be available in the UK from November 1st. The Asus Minibook will available through the supplier Research Machines who supply schools with computers. You may have seen them as they carry the famous RM logo on the machine somewhere [...]
October 9, 2007Parents given homework
Naturally this has to be America! A teacher at Montclair High School in New Jersey has been issuing parents of his ninth grade English class, homework, which is to studying and comment on certain pieces of literature. Failure to do so may result in their child getting a lower grade!
The teachers point is to get [...]
Creationism V Evolution in schools
There are growing concerns for the future of science lessons as evolution becomes a victim of the rise of the creationism movement. Concerns on these subjects are being voiced by Professor Michael Reiss who is head of science at the London Institute of Education.
The major concern is that teachers are becoming the brunt of [...]
Schools told to watch uniform costs
Ministers have put together some new guidelines for schools regarding the costs of school uniforms. They say that the uniforms should take into consideration the individual beliefs of students and that they should not be too expensive, making it difficult for poorer families to afford them.
There have been several high profile legal challenges to the [...]
Training days, a waste of time?
The teacher training day could be a thing of past, that’s what Dylan Wiliam, professor of education assessment will be telling the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference in Bournemouth.
He believes that making pupils stay at home for an extra day, while the teaching staff are in the school catching up on all of the changes in [...]
Education and Alzheimer’s link
There has been a link established between education and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, Sweden, have been working the effect of education and how this affects the risk of getting Alzheimer’s.
The study showed that the more years of education that a person has the lower the risk of them developing the [...]