DYSLEXIA AND EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENTS
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Buckden Consultants
“You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen.” ~ Vince Gowmon
Student loans
Fewer than 28 per cent of recent graduates - the first batch to have paid up to £9,000 in fees - have started paying back their loans, meaning most are at risk of being put under financial pressure for life because they’re stuck in low-paying jobs.
According to new data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa), as collated by Vouchercloud as part of an investigation into student spending and finances, figures show that, with an average salary of £21,000, only half of the most recent cohort of graduates who entered full-time work immediately after their studies are paying any money back on their loan.
July 26, 2016
Independent schools change admissions tactics to spot tutoring
Leading independent schools are changing their admissions tactics and introducing six-hour entrance assessments in order to see through "over-tutored" pupils, it has emerged.
Brighton College, Wellington College and Westminster are among those who are changing the way year-six students are examined in order to differentiate between the most naturally able and those who have received the most help.
September 19, 2016
Oxford to run first online 'Mooc'
Oxford University has announced its first "massive open online course" - or
so-called Mooc - in a partnership with a US online university network.
These free online courses have grown in popularity with hundreds of universities and millions of students. The emergence of Mooc courses in recent years has been a major phenomenon in higher education, particularly in the United States
November 15, 2016
Predicted Grades
Just one in six (16 per cent) university applicants achieve the exam grade points that they were predicted to achieve by teachers or lecturers, based on their A Level results.
The study, published by the University and College Union (UCU), also shows that students are likely to receive more generous estimates on their performance. Overall, 75 per cent of applicants were over-predicted - meaning their results were predicted to be higher than they actually achieved.
December 8, 2016
Primary Schools
Almost half of children are leaving primary school unable to read and write properly, new government tables show, with just five per cent of schools achieving a high standard overall.
Newly published primary school performance tables show 665 mainstream primaries in England fell below the government’s floor standard this year, following a year of controversial changes made to the school curriculum and Sats.
January 9, 2017
'Banksy of punctuation' puts full stop to bad grammar in Bristol
For more than a decade, an unknown corrector of poor English has been venturing out in the dead of night and tidying up the punctuation on Bristol’s shop fronts and street signs.
For more than a decade, an unknown corrector of poor English has been venturing out in the dead of night and tidying up the punctuation on Bristol’s shop fronts and street signs.
April 2, 2017
The new Institute for Apprenticeships will start its first official working day today
Independent from government, the institute, which is to be chaired by Antony Jenkins, has been launched to ensure that all apprenticeships are top quality and deliver the skills that employers need. It will further support the government’s commitment to deliver 3 million quality apprenticeships by 2020.
April 3, 2017
Big upsets expected in official UK university rankings
Universities are preparing themselves for a shock in the government’s new official “gold, silver and bronze” league table, which will be published a week after the election, on 14 June. The new rankings, known as the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), will award grades based on factors including graduate employability and student satisfaction.
May 30, 2017
Primary tests: Two-fifths fail to meet standard
Four out of 10 primary school pupils failed to reach the government’s expected standard in their end of primary school tests this summer, despite a marked improvement on last years’ results, according to official figures.
This year's cohort was the second to sit new tougher tests in line with a new national curriculum introduced in 2014.
July 4, 2017
Independent schools outperform state schools in GCSE results
This year’s GCSE exam results have revealed that nearly two thirds of entries from independent schools were awarded an A or 7 or above this year.
This 62.9 per cent rate among candidates at 507 ISC schools is three times higher than the national attainment for top grades this year, which stood at 20 per cent.
This year, changes in GCSE regime meant that a new numerical system was used to mark three key subjects in England - English Language, English Literature and Mathematics.
September 4, 2017
Shortfall in teacher numbers hits 30,000
Ministers have failed to meet their own teacher recruitment targets for five years in a row, leading to 10,000 fewer secondary school teachers being hired than intended.
Staffing levels in further education have slumped by 20,000 since 2010, according to figures that have led to further claims of a crisis in the classroom. In secondary schools, shortfalls are most severe in subjects that ministers claim to be prioritising, such as maths, physics and computing.
February 6, 2018
Private schools abandon charitable status in bid to avoid 'huge pressure' to deliver 'public benefit'
Private schools are abandoning their charitable status. In the past year, nine schools have dropped their charitable status, according to the Independent Schools Council's (ISC) annual census. The proportion of ISC schools with charitable status has dropped this year to 75 per cent, from 77 per cent last year.
April 30, 2018
Teacher recruitment falling behind rising pupil numbers, warns watchdog
Secondary schools are facing significant challenges in recruiting enough teachers to keep up with rising pupil numbers, a Government spending watchdog has warned.
Tens of thousands of teachers left England's schools before reaching retirement age last year, and headteachers are finding it difficult to fill jobs with good quality candidates, according to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO).
The survey also found that schools only filled half of their vacancies with teachers that had the right experience and expertise, and in around one in 10 cases, the post was not filled.
September 19, 2017
Special-school pupils forced to travel three times further than children in mainstream education
A new report shows that pupils with SEND can travel more than 20 miles to reach the nearest special school. Pupils in special schools are forced to travel three times as far as pupils in mainstream education on average, in order to attend lessons.
This means for some pupils, these distances risk becoming insurmountable. A reliance on home-to-school transport leaves pupils vulnerable to cuts in local authority budgets and changes to local provision. This could force pupils out of the system altogether.
March 5, 2018
Secondary school pupil numbers set for 19% rise by 2026
The number of pupils in England's secondary schools is set to rise by almost a fifth within the next decade. Government figures show there are expected to be around half a million more secondary age children by 2026. The increase is being fuelled by the baby boom of the early 2000s, which means growing numbers of pupils moving through the school system.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the pressure on secondary school places would be intense going forward.
July 17, 2017
England schools in global top 10 for reading
Nine- and 10-year-olds in England have improved their reading scores in a set of prestigious international exams, although their results still lag behind Russia, who top the table.
English children who took part were ranked a creditable joint eighth out of 50 participating countries, scoring the same as their peers in Norway and Taiwan, and climbing up from 10th position in the last round of tests five years ago.
December 6, 2017
Employers confused by new GCSE grading system as a quarter think bottom grade is the best mark
Employers are confused by the new GCSE grading system as a quarter think the bottom grade is the best mark, a survey has found. More than one in five employers incorrectly thought that 1 was the top grade, according to a new report published by the exams watchdog.
April 16, 2018
Student loans system forces nurses to pay back £19k more than lawyers, say peers
The student loan system has come under fire from peers after figures showed nurses must repay thousands of pounds more than highly-paid bankers and lawyers during their careers.
High interest rates on student loans should be cut from 6 per cent to 1.5 per cent to prevent middle-earning graduates from paying back more, the House of Lords economic affairs committee said.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are undertaking a major review of post-18 education and funding, to make sure students are getting value for money and genuine choice between technical, vocational and academic routes.
June 12, 2018
French scientists may have found a major cause of dyslexia
French scientists believe they have identified a physiological cause for dyslexia which could lead to a potential treatment.
They found that in people with the condition, tiny light receptor-cells were arranged in matching patterns in the centre of each eye.
In non-dyslexics, they did not match, allowing the brain to choose one eye to override the other and create a single image.
June 19, 2018
Education secretary Damian Hinds attacks schools that 'off-roll' special needs pupils to improve league table rankings
Off-rolling has become an issue of growing concern for schools watchdog Ofsted amid claims that schools are playing the system and getting rid of students who might bring down their GCSE results.
A report last month found that thousands of children in England are missing from official education statistics after being removed from schools before they sit their GCSEs.
July 9th, 2018
Princess Beatrice doesn’t let dyslexia get in her way as she delivers standout wedding address
Princess Beatrice has been candid about her battle with dyslexia — and at her sister’s wedding on Friday, she shared her triumph with the world.
The royal maid of honour, 30, read a passage from the iconic American novel The Great Gatsby at the wedding of her younger sister, Princess Eugenie, and Jack Brooksbank.
October 13th, 2018
Students are being forced to search for accommodation for their second year within a few weeks of starting university, a report has found.
More than two in five (41 per cent) first-year students said they had to begin looking for places to live for the next academic year before the Christmas break, new analysis shows.
The pressure on students to find somewhere to live is even more intense in regions with smaller university towns and cities, the report from consumer organisation Which? University has found.
Almost half of first-year students surveyed in the North East, South West and East Midlands said they began searching for accommodation for next year in October and November of their first term.
November 10, 2018
Two-thirds of teachers think of quitting over bad behaviour, survey finds
Three-quarters of teachers frequently have to deal with disruptive behaviour in school and many have considered quitting as a result, a survey has suggested. More than half of those asked said they believed the quality of children’s education was affected by disrupted lessons, and 45% said they did not feel their initial training had prepared them to manage pupil behaviour.
December 17, 2018
Unlocking autism
What is the most effective way of encouraging students on the autism spectrum to read and engage with new ideas?
One approach is to offer short texts with illustrations that the students can not only read on any digital device, but which also can be manipulated, so that the events and information in the text can be reduced or expanded as the individual student requires. At the same time such text can be listened to by the student, read aloud by the student, or followed on an interactive whiteboard or on the student’s own digital device.
May 27, 2017
One in five children with special needs left without a secondary school place
At least 2,421 special needs children who are due to start secondary school in September were not given education plans before the legal deadline, according to data released under freedom of information laws. In Cheshire East, 79 per cent of children who needed a plan did not receive one in time, according to one freedom of information request filed by Simpson Millar. Meanwhile, Sunderland, St Helens, Central Bedfordshire and Somerset County Council all failed to provide school plans to 70 per cent of children by the deadline.
August 8, 2017
New Education Minister
Damian Hinds has been announced as England's education secretary in the prime minister's cabinet reshuffle.
He will replace Justine Greening, who is leaving the government.
Mr Hinds wrote on Twitter that he was "looking forward to working with the great teachers and lecturers in our schools, colleges and universities giving people the opportunities to make the most of their lives".
January, 2018
Universities are lowering grade requirements for disadvantaged youngsters amid diversity drive
Teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds are being offered places at some of Britain's top universities with lower grades than middle-class pupils, The Daily Telegraph has disclosed.
Fifteen universities including UCL, King’s College, Exeter, Manchester, Warwick, York, Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool have launched formal schemes where the applicants can get an alternative offer reduced by up to two grades below the normal required tariff, which is generally at least AAB. Birmingham is prepared to lower offers by up to three grades for medicine where students are typically offered A*AA.
April 29, 2018
Link found between resilience to dyslexia and grey matter in the frontal brain
A new joint Tel Aviv University and University of California San Francisco study identifies the brain mechanism that accounts for the discrepancy between low decoding skills and high reading comprehension. For more detail see blog.
August 20, 2018
Cut-throat A-level season ‘pushing some universities towards insolvency’
French scientists believe they have identified a physiological cause for dyslexia which could lead to a potential treatment.
They found that in people with the condition, tiny light receptor-cells were arranged in matching patterns in the centre of each eye.
In non-dyslexics, they did not match, allowing the brain to choose one eye to override the other and create a single image.
August 28, 2018