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Food Technology – A Good Class Or A Waste Of Time?

David — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:38:28 +0000

In my Mother’s generation, learning to cook was the main output of a girls education (although my Mother even went as far to learn how to teach Home Economics!). In this generation, Food Technology (as it is now known) is considered a bit of a coasting lesson, fills in the time, and sometimes (if you get it right or have skilled friends) you get something yummy to eat too!

But should schools place more focus on this lesson? With obesity on the rise, and our budgets being stretched more and more as prices go up and wages disappear into redundancy, we need cost effective ways of keeping house.

So who will teach the kids how to do this? Parents (who might not know how to do this themselves) or the schools? Where should a prents job end and a schools job start?

When I Am Older, I will have…

David — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:09:28 +0000

Just over 40 years ago, 14,000 British children, aged 11, were asked to write a 30-minute essay on were they aimed to be as a grown up. Now in their early 50′s, these people have been asked to review and comment upon their essay, and how closely they have managed to follow their plan for their life.

Surprisingly, a good percentage of people managed to achieve most of what they set out to do; most interestingly, a good percentage of the girls that wrote their essays saw themselves in the workplace, as well as getting married and having kids.

If this generation of 11 year old’s were asked to write the same essay… firstly, would they? secondly, would they consider marriage and children and a home life as a desirable future? thirdly, would they have the support from schools and family’s to dare to dream, and dare to pursue that dream?

Modern life has given us liberties and opportunities that our parents and grandparents couldn’t even comprehend; but is it always for our own good?

Montessori and Steiner school systems in the UK?

David — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:55:33 +0000

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Shadow Children’s Secretary, Michael Gove, confirmed that the Tories are in talks with foreign educational groups, and said that should the Conservatives win the next election, they intend to set up similarly run state schools in England.

At present, our school system is very much focused on the 3 R’s, and little variation from this is actually allowed. The ideas in discussion are aimed at developing the child’s “self” as well as their ability.

The Hawn Foundation, ran by US actress Goldie Hawn, “teaches the Buddhist technique of Mindfulness training, which emphasises social and emotional progress over academic testing and the use of simple breathing exercises to boost learning power”.

The Tories seem keen to implement this style of teaching should they be voted in at the next election.

Montessori schools put a child’s sense of independence and decision-making ability at the centre of their daily lessons (placing these skills above their knowledge/education).
The Steiner school curriculum was designed by the Austrian Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925), and incorporates words such as holistic, spiritual and social when describing how it differs from mainstream education. But in practice it’s an extremely structured curriculum, designed to improve children’s concentration and get them physically and emotionally ready to learn.

Overall, this sounds like an exciting prospect; to enable children to think clearly and decide for themselves and to be able to motivate themselves into implementing their ideas. These skill appears far more transferable for a workplace than the ability to multiply, subtract and understand Dickens hidden meaning.

Ofqual says there has been an increase in “hi-tech” cheating in exams.

Bradley — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:14:48 +0000

Once up on a time, to cheat in a school exam would mean peering closely over your friend’s shoulder to see what they were writing, and hoping Mr. Smith wouldn’t notice.
In this day and age, a small device in your pocket, or even your ear, can provide you with all of the answers, with none of that risky stretching. And Ofqual, the regulator of qualifications, examinations and assessments in England, says that this type of cheating is on the up.

Searching online for devices to “aid” exam performance, finds numerous sites offering gadgets to get you the information discreetly, and in this growing business, the schools and exam boards are having to play catch up, and quickly. Ways to jam or block signals have been trialed and some dismissed, with other ideas still awaiting approval.

But in a country where university entrance is becoming harder to get, is it fair that a small percentage of entrants are there on the basis of others work? And how should this be tackled if it later comes to light that they did not truly earn their place or grades?

Entrants at University

Bradley — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:16:51 +0000

Recent reports suggest that more and more of England’s poorest youngsters are now going to university. This is good news but in stark contrast the entrants from wealthy backgrounds are three times more likely to win a place. The numbers are up by 30% of those from poor area going to university then they were 5 years ago. Ministers are saying this is ‘record investment’ but there’s still a big gap as only a fifth of the poorest youngsters are at university compared to 57% from richer backgrounds. The study did also find that the gap between the rich and poor had widened by one percent since 1994.

Snow Storm Hits Education Figures

Bradley — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:56:39 +0000

In a storm hitting politics about education as the results of GCSE and A-Level League tables are published – Liberal Democrats have claimed that Labour has neglected hundreds of thousands of students in towns across England whilst ploughing money into schools in inner cities. The table show that state schools in the inner city neighbourhoods of cities such as London have shown dramatic progress whereas overall fewer than 50% of students achieved 5 good GCSE’s. however the other side of the coin revealed that only 1 in 13 secondary schools failed to meet the benchmark of 30% of pupils achieving 5 A* to C grades at GCSE including English and Maths.

Universities challenged to maintain language opportunities

David — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:22:31 +0000

A reaction from the government’s cut back in 2004 of a modern language as a compulsory subject for all secondary school pupils at GCSE is just hitting home with universities are now feeling the effects of this.

As fewer students are taking and passing a second language course at secondary level, there are far fewer universities providing such a variety of language courses, which is leading to certain universities consolidating their language departments and cutting back on expenditure for teacher employment and resources.

French and German were the most popular language lessons when mandatory classes were in place in the public sector of teaching. Private schools are unaffected by this government policy, but of course, there is a cost related to student interments via this route. As fewer students are going on to take jobs it multi-language sectors, we could see an increase in translation services and 3rd party language consultants, as fewer people have language skills.

To compensate for the decision to not make a second language at secondary schools, the government are looking at introducing differing languages at primary school level, but this is something not yet implemented in the national curriculum. At university level, languages are being integrated in to cultural studies as to keep some kind of presence on campus.