Education

Up and down the nation, parents of children aged around 7 and 11 will be doing battle with the horror that is SPaG tests – or, to the uninitiated, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. Large numbers of children are arriving in school so much further back in their development than they were 20 years ago – many have speech problems, many aren’t toilet-trained, many have never held a pencil or pen or been read a story before they arrive in school....

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor There appears to be a teaching crisis are a Teachers’ union said there was a crisis in recruitment. A survey has revealed that four out of five teachers have thought about leaving the profession entirely. The poll of nearly 900 members of the teaching profession have said they have seriously considered leaving. The worry research was by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers who found 83 per cent were thinking about quitting while at the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Speaking at the NUT’s annual conference; Christine Blower the general secretary of the union has called on its members to build a coalition against the Conservative Party. She said teachers should create a grouping of “horror and dismay” at the government’s plans to make every school in England an academy. Blower called the Tories plans unacceptable and more than likely to hurt the employment prospects of teachers. She said: “We know that total academisation represents...

Almost two-thirds of Brits don't use their university degree, according to new research. A study of 2,000 graduates found 64 per cent felt their degree was not relevant to their current role, with a quarter of respondents in job roles that are completely different to the degree they completed. With the average graduate leaving university with £13,292 in debt overall, the astronomical sum can be estimated at 65 billion squandered on degrees not used! Barinder Hothi, Co-founder of The Knowledge Academy – one...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Nicky Morgan was the first Tory Education Secretary to address the NASUWT since 1997, but it all went wrong, which seems to be the way things go for Morgan at the moment. She was viciously heckled by teachers angry at the Conservative plans for academy schools. Teachers shouted out “rubbish” at her as she tried to sell them he plans for the academisation of state schools. This follows on from the Chancellor, who announced in...

With the pressures of assessments, government shaftings, endless new curriculum decrees and the ever-present sceptre of Ofsted hovering like a bureaucratic vulture above us, the average person could be forgiven for assuming we teachers are all either Stakhanovite indestructible machines or gibbering wrecks. When people know what goes on in schools and its effects on teachers, it could reasonably be asked why any sane person would do it. For most of us, the answer is very simple: the kids. With...

Most people are familiar with SATs tests, the milestone assessments that pupils, teachers and schools are judged on and which have a lasting impact on all concerned. What most people who do not work in schools will not realise is what an absolute swizz, travesty and total mockery of education they are. In these days of performance-related pay (itself an abused and laughable system in schools), teachers are in the awkward position of either inflating levels of achievement in order...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Shockingly the amount of people sleeping rough on the streets of England rose at an “unprecedented” rate in 2015. According to a Government report on any evening in autumn 2015 there were 3,569 people without shelter. This is a 30% rise compared to the same count the year before, and also signals the largest annual rise since there reporting methodology began six years. Rough sleepers are defined as anyone found, either sleeping or about to...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor An Ofsted chief has warned that thousands of teachers are being enticed abroad with generous pay packages, while English schools are struggling to recruit staff. Elite public schools have been opening up branches abroad, leading to a boom in international schools, and soaring demand for teachers whose first language is English. A higher number of people left the UK to teach (18,000) than trained on English post-grad routes (17,000) in 2015. Chief Inspector Sir Michael...