Open University plans major cuts to number of staff and courses

March 21, 2018, 10:09 am

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Lecturers express concern over future quality of degrees and £2.5m fees spent on consultants

Open University chiefs are planning significant reductions in the number of courses the institution offers and the number of lecturers it employs, the Guardian has learned.

Last June the OU, established in 1969 and the largest university in the UK, announced it needed to cut £100m from its £420m -a-year annual budget, but specific detail of where the cuts would fall was not made public.

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A right to tuition fees compensation | Letters

April 17, 2018, 10:35 am

≫ Next: Oxford and Cambridge: will elite universities go private and raise fees?

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There is no question that universities owe students fair compensation, says Shimon Goldwater. Plus a university lecturer praises student solidarity, and Robert Ross laments the marketisation of higher education

Students who feel their universities are not taking their complaints about lost teaching time seriously (Letters, 16 April) have tried signing petitions, writing letters and speaking to the media. The universities have stood firm in refusing to pay a penny in compensation.

No other service provider would get away with charging for 25 weeks of a service and cutting that to 22 with no price reduction. There is no question that universities owe students fair compensation. Because of the huge numbers of students affected, universities could have to pay out millions of pounds. This is why petitions have proven ineffective. Universities might act when a petition calls for a lecturer to be sacked or for a change in investment policy. But they are much less likely to respond to a petition for them to pay out millions to students.

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Oxford and Cambridge: will elite universities go private and raise fees?

April 16, 2018, 10:45 pm

≫ Next: Who can blame parents for boycotting Sats? | Laura McInerney

≪ Previous: A right to tuition fees compensation | Letters

Income loss from tuition fees cap could prompt a break from state control, which other institutions might follow

As universities wait to see if the government will cut tuition fees – and therefore their income – one of the most controversial questions of all is being discussed. Could Oxford and Cambridge universities opt to break free from state control and go private?

The government launched its review of post-18 education in February. With the Tories keen to woo young voters, following Jeremy Corbyn’s commitment to end tuition fees, a reduction of the £9,250 fees cap is widely expected. But vice-chancellors say quality could be threatened if the government does not plug any gap with new funding.

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Who can blame parents for boycotting Sats? | Laura McInerney

April 16, 2018, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Robert Halfon: ‘The Tory party should change its name to the Workers’ party’

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Ministers should find an alternative to the year 6 exams, which put enormous pressure on teachers and pupils

The past few years have seen a glut of parents proclaiming they are going to boycott year 6 Sats, the government’s national primary tests. Instead of sending their child in to school for exam week, they will “educate them elsewhere”, in a park or a museum, to get around the school absence rules. This year is no exception. If enough parents followed the trend, would it ever finish off Sats, which have become increasingly unpopular?

In the US, parental protest contributed to several states abandoning the Obama administration’s plan for a national curriculum, known as the “common core”, against which all children would be tested. And states that continued still face protests. Just last year, in Long Island, New York, almost 80,000 children boycotted their maths exams.

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Robert Halfon: ‘The Tory party should change its name to the Workers’ party’

April 16, 2018, 11:15 pm

≫ Next: Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

≪ Previous: Who can blame parents for boycotting Sats? | Laura McInerney

Interview: The chair of the education select committee, dubbed ‘a white-van Tory’, on why he now has more power than a minister

After last year’s general election, one of Theresa May’s first moves was to sack not only Justine Greening, the education secretary, but also Robert Halfon, the skills minister, whom she had appointed to the job less than 11 months earlier. Why, I ask Halfon in his House of Commons office, was he caught up in this purge?“I have no idea. She just said to me: ‘Go back to the backbenches. You’re good at campaigning.’”

He took the prime minister at her word. His first campaign was to get himself elected by his fellow MPs as chair of the education select committee. “I stood for days on end in Commons corridors and in the members’ lobby handing out my ladder of opportunity.” Pardon? He hands me a sheet of paper depicting a ladder with five rungs. It lays out the statistics of educational inequality – “when getting similar GCSE results and living in the same neighbourhoods, pupils on free school meals are 47% less likely to attend Russell Group institutions” – and policies needed for a more socially just system. If the policies are implemented, those who reach the top of the ladder will have “secure and prosperous lives” and the country “a thriving economy fit for purpose in the 21st century”.

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Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

November 27, 2012, 12:00 pm

≫ Next: UK schools fail to climb international league table

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A headteacher says pupil behaviour is better and bullying is down since he barred mobiles in his school. So should others follow suit? Teachers argue for and against

"You'll have someone's eye out with that" used to be the refrain of teachers in my day. In malevolent hands, a pencil, a rubber, even a piece of paper could become a lethal weapon in class, and that's before we got on to compasses and Bunsen burners.

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UK schools fail to climb international league table

December 6, 2016, 2:44 am

≫ Next: Do US laws that punish parents for truancy keep their kids in school?

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Government wanted UK schools to be among best in OECD’s Pisa assessment, but Scotland and Wales rankings have fallen

The government’s ambition to make Britain’s schools among the best in the world in teaching core subjects by 2020 appears to have been foiled, after international comparisons published on Tuesday showed few signs of improvement.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s programme for international student assessment (Pisa) found a little-changed performance in reading, maths and science among 15- and 16-year-olds in England – but good enough to make it the best performing UK nation after a sharp decline in Scotland’s performance.

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Do US laws that punish parents for truancy keep their kids in school?

June 23, 2014, 8:59 am

≫ Next: ‘Every lesson is a battle’: Why teachers are lining up to leave

≪ Previous: UK schools fail to climb international league table

After a woman died serving time in jail for her children's truancy fines, the Guardian investigated US truancy data and how states try to enforce laws for keeping kids in class

Earlier this month, a Berks County, Pennsylvania, mother died in jail while serving a 48-hour sentence, handed down because she couldn’t pay her children’s truancy fines. She owed about $2,000 in fines and other court costs, which had piled up over more than a decade, according to the AP.

But while the woman’s story took a particularly tragic turn, many more parents across the US face fines or jail time over their children’s unexcused school absences. Just how many is hard to quantify nationally or even at state-levels, but the Berks County school district alone has imprisoned over 1,600 people – mostly women – for failing to pay truancy fines between 2000-2013, according to a local paper, The Reading Eagle.

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‘Every lesson is a battle’: Why teachers are lining up to leave

April 9, 2018, 11:15 pm

≫ Next: Two girls make rare addition to UK maths Olympiad squad

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As the deadline looms for staff to hand in their notice before the next school year, unions warn losses will soon be unsustainable

Ellie Jones, 40, is an assistant secondary headteacher. Most mornings she gets up at 4 to do paperwork, arrives at school for 7.30 and gets home at the earliest around 6pm – often later – despite only teaching 11 hours (half a full timetable) a week. “I probably have around four or five hours sleep a night,” she says. At weekends she tries to have a full day off. She rarely manages it.

Jones, who has been teaching for 17 years, recently resigned her £52,000-a-year post with no job to go to. “I love the kids and teaching but I cannot maintain this for another 20 years. I’d break. They’d take me out of there in a box,” she says.

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Two girls make rare addition to UK maths Olympiad squad

July 14, 2017, 6:45 am

≫ Next: Inclusion in education works. We must respect it | Letters

≪ Previous: ‘Every lesson is a battle’: Why teachers are lining up to leave

Teenagers Rosie Cates and Naomi Wei win entry to traditionally male-dominated ‘world cup of maths’

The rarefied world of international mathematics competitions has traditionally been where brainy teenage boys show their genius for problem solving.

This year however, for the first time in a quarter of a century, two girls have made it into the UK squad for the International Mathematical Olympiad, the largest, oldest and most prestigious of international maths contests.

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Inclusion in education works. We must respect it | Letters

April 18, 2018, 9:53 am

≫ Next: #Metoo in China: fledgling movement in universities fights censorship

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Readers respond to John Harris’s article about schools being forced to abandon pupils with special needs

It was my great privilege to lead an inclusive secondary modern school in the selective nightmare that is Lincolnshire (Forcing schools to abandon inclusion leaves us all poorer, 16 April). We actively welcomed those with complex social and emotional needs, and our school community benefited enormously. Clive (not his real name) had Asperger’s. Everyone got to know him. Everyone recognised his difference.

By educating all about Asperger’s, it was possible for Clive to be himself and be accepted. We learned more from him about the autistic spectrum than any course any of us attended. He blazed a trail so that staff and students could welcome those with the other alphabet soup of conditions that demand inclusion but are so often met with intolerance and exclusion.

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#Metoo in China: fledgling movement in universities fights censorship

April 17, 2018, 6:43 pm

≫ Next: Test anxiety can be debilitating. But schools can help students manage it

≪ Previous: Inclusion in education works. We must respect it | Letters

Former classmates of Gao Yan say she was raped by a professor and the assault led to her suicide

Peking University, China’s top academic institution, admitted this month that 20 years ago a professor had been involved in “inappropriate student-teacher relations” with a female student. Former classmates of that student, Gao Yan, a star pupil studying Chinese literature, say she was raped and that the assault pushed her to kill herself less than a year later.

The university said in a statement on 6 April that at the time they concluded the professor, Shen Yang, had “handled the situation very imprudently” and he was given an administrative warning and demerit in the summer of 1998, about four months after Gao’s suicide. Shen has denied the allegations by Gao’s classmates, calling them “total nonsense”.

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Test anxiety can be debilitating. But schools can help students manage it

April 18, 2018, 2:38 am

≫ Next: Is it time to get rid of head girls and boys?

≪ Previous: #Metoo in China: fledgling movement in universities fights censorship

Helping students understand the nature of anxiety makes all the difference to how well they are able to cope in stressful situations

In a 2015 interview with the Guardian, author Matt Haig made an interesting observation: anxiety makes you curious and curiosity leads to understanding. It’s unusual to hear people speak about the positive aspects of negative emotions. After all, anxiety can be debilitating and can significantly reduce wellbeing. In schools, it’s common to see students experiencing test anxiety.

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Is it time to get rid of head girls and boys?

April 18, 2018, 5:06 am

≫ Next: 'Intensive but fun': all you need to know about studying architecture

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A headteacher in Guernsey has abolished the posts, replacing them with a leadership team. But without gender balance and a wider variety of roles, discrimination is always likely

Head boys and girls sound like a Harry Potter creation, but most secondary schools in Britain have some version of the role.

Twenty years ago, when I was selected as head girl at Fairfield High in Widnes, a mini scandal broke when the head announced it would be decided by a pupil vote instead of senior leaders. Teachers worried that this would lead to distracting campaigns. But they forgot we were teenagers, and therefore lazy. Mostly, I won because no one else wanted to spend their evenings showing potential new parents around.

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'Intensive but fun': all you need to know about studying architecture

April 18, 2018, 8:08 am

≫ Next: The teachers of Idlib on the impossible struggle to educate their students

≪ Previous: Is it time to get rid of head girls and boys?

The course involves long hours and a huge workload, but it can be hugely rewarding and can give you the skills for a range of careers

Doing an architecture degree can be hugely rewarding. But it is also among the most challenging – with long hours, a huge workload and focus on detail – so it’s vital to understand what you’re letting yourself in for. Here we answer students’ commonly asked questions.

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The teachers of Idlib on the impossible struggle to educate their students

April 18, 2018, 9:05 am

≫ Next: British girl wins gold medal in international maths competition

≪ Previous: 'Intensive but fun': all you need to know about studying architecture

In a city under siege, schoolchildren take public exams in cellars to escape the shelling, and classes are conducted by WhatsApp. Their teachers describe what it’s like to run a school in a war zone

Abdulkafi Alhamdo is an English teacher in Syria. He loves Coleridge and Shakespeare and is currently teaching his students Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In 2016, he was evacuated from Syria’s very own heart of darkness – Aleppo – where he taught traumatised school children in cellars and bombed-out buildings throughout the siege, even as they starved. Now he lives and works in the rebel-held north-west province of Idlib, where he and fellow teachers are struggling with few resources and little support to educate the next generation, those who will shape the future of Syria.

Idlib, the largest province in Syria to remain outside the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has seen a steady increase in violence in recent months with bombing raids by Russian and Syrian jets and the arrival of refugees fleeing from other war-ravaged zones, which – according to Alhamdo – makes the ongoing work of Syria’s teachers all the more vital. “We want education to continue because we don’t want these young children or students to think of guns,” he says. “Without schools, they would carry guns but, because of their attendance at school, they are students.”

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British girl wins gold medal in international maths competition

April 18, 2018, 9:18 am

≫ Next: Ministers under fire as student loan interest hits 6.3%

≪ Previous: The teachers of Idlib on the impossible struggle to educate their students

Emily Beatty from King Edward VII school in Sheffield came joint-first among 200 teenagers

A 17-year-old Briton has won a gold medal in an international mathematics competition, becoming the first UK entrant to achieve full marks.

Emily Beatty, who attends King Edward VII school in Sheffield, came joint-first among nearly 200 teenagers who took part. She was one of only five competitors to get a perfect score of 42 out of 42.

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Ministers under fire as student loan interest hits 6.3%

April 18, 2018, 11:08 am

≫ Next: 10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

≪ Previous: British girl wins gold medal in international maths competition

Use of RPI figure condemned as students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland face rise

Ministers are facing renewed criticism over university funding after an increase in student loan borrowing costs using a “flawed” measure of inflation. The interest rate on loans for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will rise by up to 6.3% from September, up from the current 6.1% for anyone who started studying after 2012.

The change is a consequence of the increase in the retail price index (RPI) for last month to 3.3% from 3.1% in March a year ago. The government links the interest rate on student loans to the RPI reading for March each year, plus 3%.

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10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

June 9, 2014, 11:20 pm

≫ Next: Does music really help you concentrate?

≪ Previous: Ministers under fire as student loan interest hits 6.3%

The long school year is coming to an end and one primary teacher has a few things to share

• 10 things parents want to say to teachers

1 Your kids are not your mates

Something I'm starting to hear with worrying frequency within the primary school setting is "my daughter's my best friend". Often, this rings alarm bells. Your kids aren't your mates. You're their parent, and your responsibility is to provide them with guidance and boundaries, not to drag them into your own disputes. Your nine-year-old doesn't need to know about your bitter feud with his friend's mother, or which dad you've got the hots for at the school gate. In the years to come he or she may realise that some of their own problems (social alienation, in its various forms, being a prime example) might have something to do with exposure to that sort of talk at an early age. Continue at your own risk.

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Does music really help you concentrate?

August 19, 2016, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: No grammar schools, lots of play: the secrets of Europe’s top education system

≪ Previous: 10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

‘I won’t be able to focus if you turn that off,’ a gazillion teenagers have whined at their parents. Is it possible that they’re right?

Many people listen to music while they’re carrying out a task, whether they’re studying for an exam, driving a vehicle or even reading a book. Many of these people argue that background music helps them focus.

Why, though? When you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense. Why would having two things to concentrate on make you more focused, not less? Some people even go so far as to say that not having music on is more distracting. So what’s going on there?

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