| Teaching News and Events (19/1/13) Posted: 19 Jan 2013 02:00 AM PST  Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news: Schools: - Ofsted is planning an inspection blitz on underperforming schools in six regions of England.
- Performance-related pay for teachers will begin from September, the education secretary, Michael Gove, has confirmed, a move unions warned would demoralise the profession and be as likely to produce salary cuts as increases.
- More than 3,000 schools have been closed in England and Wales as a band of heavy snow affected most of the UK.
- Raising the school leaving age for teenagers in the 1970s was still having a positive effect for their children a generation later, according to a study.
- All schools in Wales will have access to faster broadband connections as a result of £39m from the Welsh government, First Minister Carwyn Jones said.
- Children are failing to develop speech and language skills at school because teachers talk too much in the classroom, a major report has warned.
- Ofsted will introduce a new system for inspecting around 1,200 private schools in England – typically small standalone institutions – to focus "more sharply" on the classroom.
- State comprehensives will be encouraged to run public school-style debating societies in an attempt to boost pupils’ speaking and language skills under Labour plans.
- A school in south-east London claims that splitting into three separate sections based on ability has improved exam results and behaviour.
- Universities will offer campus trips and workshops to pupils as young as seven, as part of a new drive to encourage young people from poor backgrounds to consider staying on in education once they’ve finished school.
- Thousands of "physically illiterate" children are starting secondary education unable to throw a ball, catch, jump or run, according to the head of UK Sport.
Next week's Teaching Events include:  |
