Sunday, February 10, 2013

Teaching News

Teaching News

Teaching News and Events (9/2/13)

Posted: 09 Feb 2013 02:00 AM PST

Here are links to some of this week’s education-related news:

Schools:

According to this article in the TES, most teachers know they don't have a healthy work-life balance and fear that their relationships will pay the ultimate price.
Giving children a love of books is one of the greatest gifts, says primary headteacher Bill Lord. To do this, teachers must develop and put into practice a bill of 'reading rights'.
Plans to scrap GCSEs in key subjects in England and replace them with English Baccalaureate Certificates are being abandoned by the government.
There is a “worrying” lack of reliable data on missing children in England, Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has said.
Local dialect is often heard in classrooms around the UK, but one primary school in Middlesbrough has banned pupils from using some words such as ‘nowt’ and ‘yous’ in school.
Primary school headteachers are failing to provide pupils with high- quality PE and sports skills and are instead happy to just see children "running around, making lots of noise", the head of UK Sport has warned.
The government has cancelled a national survey on the take-up and nutritional content of school meals, one of the major victories of Jamie Oliver’s campaign and seen as a significant indicator for wider childhood health and obesity.

School Meals

New National Curriculum:

The government has published its plans to slim down the national curriculum followed by primary and secondary schools in England.
Schools will have to be innovative when putting the new National Curriculum into practice, to make sure students get what they need from it, according to Kathy James from the National Association of Head Teachers.
The EU has been cut from the National Curriculum amid fears that current lessons are effectively biased towards European integration, it has emerged.

Internet Safety:

Pupils as young as five should be given lessons in how to use the internet safely, campaigners have urged.
Children are increasingly being groomed over the internet for the sole purpose of online sexual abuse, research by a child protection watchdog suggests.

Next week's Teaching Events include:

10th February – Chinese New Year
11th to 17th February – Go Green Week
12th February – Darwin Day
12th February – Shrove Tuesday
13th – Ash Wednesday
14th – Valentine’s Day
15th – Vasant Panchami