Senior Cycle Consultation [NCCA]
- Published: 04 October 2009
We would like to hear from you about how changes to curriculum and assessment can make a real difference for senior cycle students and their teachers. Click here to read our consultation leaflet which sets out what this consultation is all about. Then browse through the website to learn more and have your views heard.
So to get started you might like to consider Towards Learning: An Overview of Senior Cycle Education. This overview looks at senior cycle as it is at the moment and points us towards where we might see it going in the future. It also gives some background to the values, vision and principles that have shaped the development and revision of syllabuses that you will see over the coming months.
You might also like to check out the section on Leading and Supporting Change in Schools which looks at some ideas on how these changes might find their way into schools.
Full Story: http://www.nccaconsultation.com
Schools get by with $700m from community [NZHerald]
- Published: 03 October 2009
In the last year parents and communities have propped up schools throughout the country, pumping $700 million into the nation's free education system.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that despite tougher financial times, parents and communities contributed $712.8 million to their children's schools in donations and revenue in 2008.
This figure includes locally raised funds, fees from international students and investment income.
Full Story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Homework's Powerful Effects on Learning [ASCD.org]
- Published: 02 October 2009
What sort of effect does homework have on student learning? In the April 1985 issue of Educational Leadership, educators Herbert J. Walberg, Rosanne A. Paschal, and Thomas Weinstein synthesize 15 studies and find a direct correlation between homework and student achievement.
Read the article: Homework's Powerful Effects on Learning (PDF)
"There seems little doubt that homework has substantial effects on students' learning," the group notes. The authors cite studies claiming that if homework is assigned, a student in the 50th percentile will jump to the 60th. If the homework is graded, the increase is even more dramatic, with students jumping from 50th to 79th. The authors also argue that Japanese students have higher student achievement scores as a direct result of the larger amount of homework they do.
Full Story: http://ascd.typepad.com/
Children denied school trips over teachers' fears of being sued [Guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 02 October 2009
Children are being denied school trips for fear teachers will be sued if something goes wrong, despite the fact that only 156 recorded legal actions have ended in compensation in the past decade, new research reveals.
A culture of fear has grown up around trips, with anxious schools avoiding taking children out of the classroom because of the perceived possibility of legal action if something goes wrong. Teachers also claim the amount of time taken up dealing with health and safety concerns is a deterrent. But teachers' fear is based on the "myth" that they could be sued, the research finds.
Of the millions of individual school trips taken over the past 10 years in the 138 local authorities that responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, only 364 ended in legal action and in fewer than half of cases - 156 - were schools found to be culpable and ordered to pay compensation.
Full Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Schools see language support teacher numbers dwindle [LongfordLeader]
- Published: 01 October 2009
Schools in some parts of Longford have lost English language teachers in recent months with some seeing their student to teacher ratios double because of Government cutbacks. A growing number of primary schools have begun to feel the full force of budgetary revisions over teaching posts even though enrolment levels continue to rise.
Principal of St Mary's National School in Edgeworthstown Helen O'Gorman said the difficulties facing schools up and down the county are becoming gloomier by the day. "We have lost two language support teachers. Last year we had five teachers for 99 students but now we only have three teachers for 120 students," she said. The radical changes that have hit schools like St Mary's mean pupil-teacher ratios have gone from 20 students per teacher to 40 students per teacher in the last year alone.
Full Story: http://www.longfordleader.ie
