Friday 29 June 2012

Exam Central attends Chamber of Commerce Birmingham Networking Event


Last week  Exam Central took some time off teaching and attended the Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham, Garden Networking Event at the lovely New Hall Hotel in Sutton Coldfield.
Director Ben Inshaw said ‘attending networking events is very important as it is an opportunity to showcase your business as well as meet great people. We look forward to attending and sponsoring other events in the future’.
Ben, accompanied by Trustee, Duncan Chamberlain, met a wide variety of guests and talked about Exam Central’s commitment to increasing attainment in education and offering support for individuals and schools.



Reduce Truancy


 A new scheme in Wiltshire has been launched by the police aimed at targeting truants by calling at the homes of any pupils who fail to turn up to school without a reasonable explanation.
If they are still in bed, police get the parents to wake them up before driving them to lessons in a patrol car.
The scheme, in Wiltshire, is the first of its kind, developed in a partnership between police and the county council. The operation began last week in Amesbury and the town’s police chief, Inspector Christian Lange, said it was already producing results.
“So far, one early morning visit from the police has been enough,” he said. “It’s not good for the parents when their neighbours see us knocking on their doors and taking their kids off to school.”
Each morning, police officers are provided with a list of children who have failed to turn up at school without a reasonable explanation.
“Of course, if they are off sick or there is a good reason then we don’t intervene,” said Insp Lange.
“If they are still in bed we get their parents to wake them up, we put them in the car and deliver them straight to school.”
Officers are accompanied by an education welfare officer and are working closely in partnership with Wiltshire council and local schools.
It is hoped that the operation will help reduce anti-social behaviour in the town and ensure that children are getting their education.
Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their children attend school until they are 16.
Fixed penalty notices and fines can be issued if parents fail to make sure their children go to school, along with parenting contracts and parenting orders designed to enforce attendance.
It is not just in Wiltshire that truants are being targeted. Elsewhere in the country police forces have mounted “truancy sweeps” on the streets around schools to drive teenagers back into the classroom.
Under the scheme police and council education welfare officers stop and question every child of school age they find out of doors — even if they are with an adult.
If the youngster has no good reason for missing lessons, officers take them back to school.

The race to open new grammar school begins.


 Two local authorities are competing to be the first to use a "back door" route to get around a legal ban on the creation of entirely new selective schools.
Croydon, in south London, which currently has no selective schools, is planning to open a 600-pupil grammar on a site it has identified. The move follows a vote in Kent to open a similar-sized grammar school in Sevenoaks.
In each case, the school would open as an "annex" of an existing grammar elsewhere – a tactic sanctioned by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. Conservative-led Croydon council has committed nearly £15 million for a new 120-pupil secondary school in South Norwood, to be run as an annex of an existing school. Grammar schools in neighbouring authorities have been invited to take it on
Experts said the plans were likely to open the floodgates for other councils to set up grammars where there currently are none.Mr Gove's proposal to scrap GCSEs and return to traditional O-levels, revealed last week, is also likely to fuel demand for the academic rigour grammar schools provide.
Since a change of law under Labour in the late 1990s, the construction of entirely new grammar schools has been banned.
But Coalition reforms now allow existing schools – including grammars – to expand where there is demand, even if this means opening an annex many miles away as it was revealed last year that as many as half of pupils who pass the 11-plus entrance exam fail to get a place in grammar school because of the sheer competition for places.
Nick Seaton, secretary of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "Parents everywhere will welcome these developments.
"Most existing grammars schools are vastly oversubscribed and parents should have the choice of a grammar school place if their child is eligible."

Educational attainment will be reviewed in poor areas



The chief schools inspector in England, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has launched a review of the educational achievements of the poorest communities in an attempt to find radical solutions to ‘long-standing and deep seated’ educational problems in deprives areas.
Sir Michael told the annual conference of the National College for School Leadership in Birmingham that he recognised there had been big improvements in areas such as London, and among some ethnic minority groups, in recent years.
But he said the gap in educational achievement between rich and poor was "still far too wide".
Ofsted said the review panel of the new report would include leading head teachers and academic experts.
The annual review will focus on five key issues, among them how parents and educators can ensure the best possible start for pupils; why some children and young people are more affected by socio-economic and educational disadvantage than others; and how to learn from the most effective schools.
Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "The NAHT believes that every child should have a good education and welcomes recognition of the heroic efforts of some schools in our most deprived communities to ensure this."
The charity Teach First, which recruits high-flying graduates to teaching in disadvantaged areas, said a system-wide transformation was needed to allow young people from the poorest communities to "achieve on a par with their wealthier peers".

Thursday 28 June 2012

How to prepare for 11+ exams

Preparing your child to take the 11+ entrance examination can seem like a  daunting and stressing prospect, however, it doesn’t have to be. Preparing to take the 11+ exams can be a great way for you and your child to spend time together learning new skills and develop your child’s verbal and non-verbal skills. There are many ways to make such revision fun and one of the best ways to make preparation enjoyable is to incorporate games and activities.
It is also important to always keep encouraging and motivating your child, so that they have fun, enjoy the learning experience and some of the pressure is eased. Encourage them to read at home, from a variety of different texts and regularly check that they are completing their homework in time and on time. Mock 11+ papers can also prove to be very useful as they will help your child to become familiar with the questions and papers, while teaching them to work quickly and efficiently under timed conditions.
Many parents also hire private tutors, to help their child prepare for their 11+. There are many varieties of private tuition to choose from;
There are one-to-one tuition classes, small group classes and even online tutors. Here at Exam Central we offer tailored one-to-one and small group classes for preparation for 11+ exam papers such as verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests.

Friday 22 June 2012

There is an urgent need to increase activity levels in primary school children in order to prevent health problems later in life, according to scientists


New research from the Universities of Strathclyde and Newcastle has found that 8-10 year-olds are active for only 20 minutes a day, a figure well below the recommended hour. The study also shows that girls are less active than boys.
Dr Mark Pearce, from Newcastle University, told the BBC he was surprised by the low activity levels "and even more surprised that girls were even lower".
He added: "Activity drops in teenage years and if it’s this low at eight, there's not much further to fall."
Older fathers seemed to have less active children and, curiously, parents who restricted television access also had less active children.
Prof John Reilly, from the University of Strathclyde, said: "There is an urgent need for interventions, at home and at school, which will help primary school children become more physically active."
The researchers said it was important that parents did more to get their children into sport, but that it was also the responsibility of schools and education authorities.
Dr Pearce said: "One of the important things is that most girls don't see sport as cool.
"We need to be tackling these issues earlier by encouraging girls to exercise, by providing a wider range of opportunities than are currently on offer, and by ensuring they see positive female role models, particularly in the media."

Thursday 21 June 2012

Maths should be compulsory for all pupils up to the age of 18 and should be taught separately from the exam system, says an MP's report.


A recent report from Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk urges for changes in the way maths is taught. According to Ms Truss maths in the UK is falling behind international competitors and more pupils need to study the subject beyond the age of 16. She wants the changes in the way maths is taught to accompany the raising of the school leaving age to 18 in 2015.
"Urgent action" is needed to improve maths, the MP says.
To catch up with international competitors, she proposes maths should be taught until the age of 18, in parallel with other academic and vocational exams. Her research paper suggests maths could be taught at three different levels of difficulty.
The report echoes the findings of a review by Prof Alison Wolf who called for teenagers without good GCSEs in maths and English to continue studying the subjects up to 18.
Head teachers' leader Brian Lightman said that numeracy skills were of "vital importance to the economy" - but there needed to be a "coherent approach" to changes to the curriculum.
In addition the CBI business organisation said employers needed more people with maths skills.

‘Scrap GCSEs and let’s return to O-Level style exams’, says Secretary Michael Gove.


Mr Gove believes GCSEs "have gone beyond the point of rescue", thus has proposed the removal of GCSEs and a return to O-Level style exams. This means that the proposed changes, planned to be brought in for pupils from autumn 2014, would amount to the biggest change to the exams systems for a generation.  
GCSEs replaced O-levels and CSEs in the mid-1980s. Under that system, the more academic teenagers took O-levels while others took CSEs (Certificates of Secondary Education). Now a similar system could return, although sources say the names of the new exams are yet to be decided.
The details are in a leaked document seen by the Daily Mail which sources say are broadly correct. The leak comes as tens of thousands of teenagers finish their GCSE and A-level exams.
The plan is for students to begin studying what the leaked document says will be "tougher" O-level style exams in English, maths and the sciences from September 2014. They would take their exams in 2016.
The leaked document also shows plans for the national curriculum at secondary level to be scrapped altogether, so that heads would decide what pupils should study. Already, the new academy schools, which are state-funded but semi-independent, do not have to follow the national curriculum.
The document also says the government plans to scrap the traditional benchmark on which secondary schools in England are measured - the requirement for pupils to get five good GCSEs (grades A* to C) including maths and English.
Critics of the existing system point to the year-on-year rises in numbers of pupils scoring top grades, while supporters say teenagers are working harder than ever and teachers are getting better at preparing them for exams.
According to the leaked document, the plan is to put the new proposals out for consultation in the autumn, so it is not definite they will happen.


Wednesday 20 June 2012

3.7 million school days were missed last autumn


About 3.7 million school days were missed last autumn by pupils playing truant according to official figures.
According to official figures pupils missed an average of 3.7 million school days by playing truant. Statistics from the Department of Education reveal that on a typical day, approximately 55,600 pupils skipped lessons without permission.
However overall absence figures were lower than 2011, due to less sickness and fewer term-time holidays.
The schools minister Nick Gibb said the figures were a welcome fall in absence.
‘Tackling absence from school is a key part of the government's determination to close the attainment gap between those from poorer and wealthier backgrounds’ said Mr Gibb.
Although illness was the most common reason for absence, accounting for more than half (58%) of school days missed, the figures show a substantial decrease in absence rates for illness between the autumn term of 2010 and the autumn term of 2011.
The figures also show that families took fewer agreed holidays during term time. The number of school days lost because of agreed holidays dropped by around 300,000 from 2.5 million in Autumn 2010 to 2.2 million in Autumn 2011.
Mr Gibb said: "Such absence is still a problem but it is clear that more head teachers are refusing simply to wave through parents' requests to take their children out of school for term-time holidays.
"Increasingly parents understand the damage that can be caused to a child's education from missing even a day or two of school."

Friday 15 June 2012

Research suggests.UK graduates contribute to the economy almost 10 times what it costs the state to educate them to degree level


 A think tank and UCU academics union report suggests graduates bring in £180,000 more than those with A-levels over their working life although and average degree costs the state just under £18,800 per student. The research warns that reforms
An average degree costs the state just under £18,800 per student.
It warns that reforms leading to fewer graduates will limit the UK's ability to compete globally. China for example has quadrupled its number of graduates between 1999 and 2005 and is expected to become the world’s largest producers of PhD scientists and engineers, while India is planning 800 new higher education institutions by 2020.
The report concludes that with the continuing economic slowdown, the UK needs to develop measures which will create a competitive advantage for the future- As the number of jobs requiring high skills increases, the number of graduates entering the workforce should be maintained and even expanded, the report says.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said unless the UK produced more highly-skilled workers quickly jobs would be haemorrhaged abroad.
"This research shows the huge contribution A-level and degree holders make to our economy and instead of cutting places at college and university ministers should be looking to fast-track learners into the industries of the future."
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman said the government recognised the importance of a highly-skilled workforce and that it was continuing to invest in this.
"More people than ever before will benefit from higher education in 2012.
"Our reforms put university funding on to a sustainable footing. We estimate that the cash going to universities could rise to £11bn by 2014-15, which is an increase of 10%.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18353539

Thursday 14 June 2012

Maths in primary schools is to become increasingly more difficult


As of September 2014, in a revised national curriculum, pupils in England’s primary schools will be expected to know their 12 times table by the age of nine, as changes for schools propose place an extra  an emphasis on improving arithmetic in schools.
There are also plans to scrap the current system of levels used for Sats tests and measuring pupils' progress. The Department for Education says it wants to "restore rigour in what primary school children are taught".
The changes set out for consultation by the Department for Education represent the latest shake-up of what is taught in primary schools in England.
In maths, the curriculum review wants to ensure strong foundations in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, so that pupils are ready for more stretching maths topics in secondary school.
In science, there will be content added on the "solar system, speed and evolution", with an "increased focus on practical scientific experiments and demonstrations".
Earlier announcements proposed that learning a foreign language would be compulsory from the age of seven.
In changes to English, there will be a greater emphasis on learning grammar and pupils will be expected to be able to recite poetry.
Mary Bousted, head of the ATL teachers' union, strongly attacked the proposals.
"Politicians who have been in the job for two years are presenting a heavily-prescribed curriculum as a fait accompli to thousands of teachers - many of whom have decades of experience in the classroom," she said.
Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg said: "Labour supports a strong focus on the core subjects of English, Maths and Science from an early age, as well as making learning a foreign language compulsory from age seven."
But he warned that "the government must ensure it bases its reforms not on ideology, but on what works in the classroom".
The national curriculum is not obligatory for academy schools - but they could still follow its recommendations.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Record of Scottish Universities on admitting students from poorer backgrounds branded as ‘awful’

The National Union of Students describes the record of Scottish universities on admitting students from poorer backgrounds were awful. They said older universities each typically recruit fewer than 100 students from deprived backgrounds.
Students were classed as coming from a poorer background if they grew up in one of the least affluent 20% of postcode districts.
St Andrews University admitted 13 students from these areas. It teaches a total of 7,370 undergraduates.
Edinburgh and Aberdeen also recruited fewer than 100 students from these "SIMD 20" districts.
Robin Parker of NUS Scotland said: "University places should be given to those that have the most talent and potential.
"Unless institutions do more to widen access, they're missing out on some of those with the most potential, that could get the best degrees, and quite frankly, not doing their job properly.
Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, which represents Scotland's higher education institutions, said universities were working "hell for leather" to rectify the situation in terms of places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
He told BBC Radio Scotland many of the inequalities in education begin much earlier, in school or even pre-school.
He added: "If you look at the attainment of five-year-olds, you find some absolutely shocking differences according to whether they're from a challenged background of not.
"There's an 18 month attainment gap in verbal skills between five-year-olds from the most privileged backgrounds and the most challenged backgrounds, so there's a huge systemic issue for Scotland about making sure at every stage along the line that we're helping people to realise their full potential."

New curriculum ‘to make languages compulsory from seven’.


Education Secretary Michael Gove will announce this week that children as young as five will be expected to recite poetry, while there will also be a new focus on spelling and grammar. Furthermore learning a foreign language will be compulsory form the age of seven in England’s primary schools in an overhaul of the national curriculum.
The proposals come amid concerns over a decline in pupils taking foreign languages at GCSE and the plans will be put out to public consultation later in the year, ahead of a scheduled introduction in 2014.
In 2010, 43% of GCSE pupils were entered for a language, down from a peak of 75% in 2002.
The last Labour government ended compulsory language study for children after the age of 14 in 2004.
Under Mr Gove's plans, primary schools could offer lessons in Mandarin, Latin and Greek, as well as French, German and Spanish.
There will be debate around what is appropriate at different ages”
The Department for Education said that where English teaching was concerned, the aim was to ensure that pupils left primary school with high standards of literacy.
'More rigorous'
However, Michael Rosen, the children's writer and poet, expressed doubt about what he called "government diktat".
 The Department for Education said Mr Gove was determined to make English teaching at primary schools "more rigorous" and was publishing the draft programme of study now for informal consultation.
A spokesman said: "Some will think aspects are too demanding, others that they are not demanding enough, and there will be debate around what is appropriate at different ages."
He added that public opinion would be considered and the programme redrafted before being put out to formal consultation later this year.
In May, a study commissioned by the Scottish government said children in Scotland should begin learning a second language as soon as they started school at the age of five.