Cribsheet daily 07.12.10

Council set to make every school an academy

Richmond council considers turning all of its school into academies

Richmond councillors met last night to discuss plans to turn every school in the borough into an academy.

Richmond has 40 primary schools and eight secondaries, although three of the secondary schools are already academies.

Councillor Paul Hodgins, cabinet member for schools on Richmond council issued the following statement:

"Central to this is putting more power in the hands of the front line decision makers, and the community – something the academy model would enable; it gives greater freedom to governing bodies and parents to develop their schools in a way that will benefit their pupils.
"We propose to phase in any changes over a three year period. By having a planned, coherent plan we will be better placed to provide the clarity and support schools may need. We will also look to ensure the academies have a strong relationship and accountability to local parents and the wider community."

Fellow Tory councillor Harry Phibbs from Hammersmith and Fulham described the proposals as 'pretty radical stuff' in his blog on Conservativehome.

He quotes at length from the proposals, helpfully pointing out that 36 out of 40 of Richmond's primary schools are already graded as either 'good' or 'outstanding', which makes father-of-four Will Henshaw's question on Thisislondon.co.uk all the more the pertinent.

"What are the benefits? Why make such a radical change?"

A spokesman for the NASUWT teaching union said:

"We are dead against it. We think it's a really silly idea. While there will be winners, there will be just as many losers.
"Schools are much better when local authorities are there to act as a safety net if something goes wrong."

Harry Phibbs once more steps in to soothe their worried brows. His blog helpfully informs us that Richmond council plans to save money by outsourcing schools and children's services; this plan will 'sustain' services, while producing 'on-going savings to Richmond upon Thames council'.

So how can they be persuaded? 'I know' says Harry:

"What they really need, though, is to give active encouragement to getting some Free Schools started. What surplus council buildings do they have that could make viable sites?"

Government announces plans to curb overseas student numbers

The UK plans to close the door to close the door on up to 120,000 international students from outside the EU who come to Britain to take 'below-degree-level' courses, Alan Travis reports.

Damian Green has infuriated FE college heads around the country with his suggestion that abuse of the immigration system was rife and that students from outside the EU applying to study at FE level weren't necessarily "the brightest and the best". Janet Murray spoke to college principals across the country.

This morning the Home Office invited consultation on the proposals - comments to be submitted by 31 January 2011.

Stories from today's Education Guardian

Funding is at risk for a pioneering school which has changed the lives of children written off by the system, Janet Murray reports.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the children's charity Kids Company, set up The Urban Academy in Southwark to provide education and support for 16- to 23-year-olds, many of whom have dropped out or been thrown out of every school, college or education institution they have attended.

It costs around £12.3m a year to run the Urban Academy, £4m of which is currently funded by the government, through its Youth Pathfinder Scheme, but this is due to end in January.

Batmanghelidjh is worried the government will not continue to fund the scheme.

"We get our funding from 1,700 different sources. Our charitable trusts feel that the work we are doing should be mainstreamed, that the government should be picking up the tab. But if we can't show consistent funding, then our charitable trusts will think our work is not sustainable and will withdraw their support. Without the government funding, we don't stand a chance."

Save our sprouts

Who knew? Sprout plants have been suffering for some time from a plague of black spots caused by a viral infection. The battle is on, with the help of researchers, to save our sprouts. Chris Arnot reports.

Christmas in the classroom

Today try making a tissue paper stained glass candle holder with Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art.

Stories from around the web

How do you teach young children to love and care for each other? You bring cute miniature pigs into the classroom, that's how. Headteacher Lynne Coxell of St Edward's Primary School in Castleton, Rochdale's innovative solution was reported in the Manchester Evening News. Coxell said:

"We do a lot of animal therapy with our children, helping with their behaviour.

To which reception class teacher Lisa Pierce added:

"It makes the children a lot calmer and more nurturing. It changes their attitude – we have found the more nurturing they are towards the pigs, the nicer they are to each other."

And, importantly, Coxell said:

"The pigs are learning lots!"

Competition

Do you have a clever way of using technology to teach children at your school? Enter the Classroom Innovation awards by sending us a short video of what you can do. There is a primary and secondary category and each winner will get £7,500 of Asus computing kit. Take a look at some of the entries so far.