Michael Gove unveils plan to convert weakest primary schools into academies [guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 16 June 2011
The 200 weakest primary schools in England will be turned into academies and placed under new management next year, the education secretary, Michael Gove, has said.
It is the most direct intervention in primary schools by a government that has so far been mainly focused on intervening in secondary schools.
The primaries that will be turned into academies are those that have fallen below the government's minimum standards for five years. The standards require at least 60% of pupils to achieve a basic level – level four – in English and maths by the age of 11, and also require them to have made at least average progress between the ages of seven and 11.
Around 500 primaries have fallen below the minimum standards for three or four years, and local authorities have been asked to draw up plans to show how they intend to improve them.
Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk
More schools to face surprise inspections from September [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 16 June 2011
Post-primary schools will face unannounced inspections from the start of the next school year in order to evaluate their performance, if new proposals from the Department of Education and Skills are approved.
The process will run alongside an established system already in place for primary schools that does not inform them before inspectors arrive.
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn welcomed the proposals, stating: "These inspections are an important development and are a logical component of ongoing reforms to inspection processes for primary and post-primary schools."
He added it will allow inspectors to obtain "authentic information" about the learning experience provided to pupils.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
School defends record on special needs pupils [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 16 June 2011
A SCHOOL which refused a place in junior infants to a boy with Down Syndrome has defended its record on pupils with special needs.
The board of Lucan Educate Together National School said it refutes any claim of discriminatory practice in its enrolment processes regarding children with learning disabilities.
The parents of five-year-old Christian Medina Finsen claimed their son had been discriminated against by the school when it refused last month to enrol him. The school’s refusal referred to his moderate learning disability and said it had been told the full-time special needs assistant (SNA) recommended for him by a psychologist would not be provided to the school, leading them to believe that the boy’s educational needs could not be met in a mainstream setting.
The school board said in a statement to parents on its website that it is not policy to comment on details of an individual case, but that it carefully follows its protocols on every enrolment application.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
School bus service changes labelled as 'a tax on rural Ireland' [Independent.ie]
- Published: 16 June 2011
CHANGES to the rules governing the provision of school bus services have come under fire from parents who have described new charges for pupil transport as 'a tax on rural Ireland.'
Furthermore, one parent who sends three of her children to Kildorrery National School says the changes may force her to send her fourth child to a different school in another parish when he joins Junior Infants next year.
Under the previous Primary School Transport scheme, pupils were eligible for free transport if they lived 3.2 kilometres or more from their nearest national school. A loophole known as the Closed School Rule (CSR) established in 1968 provided free transport for children regardless of how close they lived to their place of education in the event that their nearest school was closed or amalgamated with another school.
The last budget abolished the CSR for pupils starting school from September 2012 however, meaning that children who are living less than 3.2km from their school who would have been entitled to free transport will now be subject to a fee.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Teachers face on-the-spot tests in surprise school inspections [Independent.ie]
- Published: 16 June 2011
SECOND-LEVEL schools are to start getting surprise visits from Department of Education inspectors.
Teachers will only know about it when an inspector arrives in the school, rather than having advance notice and time to prepare.
It is already happening in primary schools and is part of a move to get an accurate picture of what is going on in the classroom and improve standards, where necessary.
Unannounced inspections in primary schools have produced some shocking findings, with one-in-four teachers found not to have lessons prepared on the day.
A report last year on the inspections carried out in 450 primary schools in 2010 also revealed that teaching practice in about one-in-six classes was not satisfactory.
Those inspections covered 800 English lessons and 500 lessons in Maths
There is an increasing focus on the quality of the education system arising from the findings of the OECD global survey last year that showed that Irish 15-year-olds are only average in maths and science and have fallen from fifth to 17th place in literacy.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
