English in the News
Below is a selection of articles which are archived online and may be of interest to NATE members. If you know of others please let us know. Keep up to date with our Twitter feed, too.
- Michael Gove attacks 'local worthies' who become school governors - and NATE - Daily Telegraph, Friday July 6, 2012
The Education Secretary made clear that he intends to shake up the current system of school governance - and attacked ' the man in charge of the National Association for Teaching English – who argue that it is oppressive to teach children grammar' Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Does anyone in the education system actually believe Gove knows anything? - Local Schools Network, Friday July 6, 2012
A defence by Francis Gilbert of 'the exhaustive research that has gone on within NATE concerning the teaching of “grammar”; the serious examination of what we mean by the word, the search for a meaningful ‘meta-language’ to describe the processes that happen within language, the careful consideration of how we might best teach the multiple facets of the subject' Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - It’s cruel not to teach children grammar - Daily Telegraph, Friday July 6, 2012
Education Secretary Michael Gove is right to want the young to master the English language, says Dot Wordsworth
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - New grammar tests will 'impoverish English teaching' - BBC, Friday June 29, 2012
Plans for new primary school grammar tests in England will hold a "gun to the head" of teachers, experts say. Chair of NATE Simon gibbons speaks to BBC.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - DfE report on 'Encouraging reading for pleasure' - Department for Education , Monday June 25, 2012
What the research says on reading for pleasure
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Michael Gove in fresh attack on exams after GCSE storm - Daily Telegraph, Monday June 25, 2012
Britain’s exam boards have profited from a qualifications system that has “incentivised dumbing down” over the last decade, according to Michael Gove.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Two-thirds of primary teachers are unconvinced about new curriculum - Times Educational Supplement, Friday June 22, 2012
The government rejected advice from its own inspectorate by publishing a draft national curriculum that sets out what should be taught year by year in primaries, TES can reveal. Ofsted advised against a year-by-year prescription for topics in English, maths and science in its submission to the government, saying that teachers should have more freedom.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Phonics checks will not improve reading - The Guardian, Thursday June 21, 2012
“Phonics checks will not improve reading,” say unions, UKLA, MPs and authors in letter to GuardianLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Return of O-levels and end of National Curriculum? - The Guardian, Thursday June 21, 2012
The education department refused to comment on leaked documents. But it is understood that there are two broad elements to the reforms: the national curriculum, which sets out what secondary school pupils should be taught, will be scrapped; and a more rigorous exam system will be introduced.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Return of the O-Level: Gove announces radical plan to scrap GCSEs - Daily Mail, Wednesday June 20, 2012
Under Gove's plan, class of 2013 will be last to sit GCSEs, according a leaked story in the Daily Mail
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Teachers' unions urge rethink of phonics checks - BBC, Monday June 18, 2012
Leaders of three teachers' unions have written to MPs urging a rethink of the phonics checks for six-year olds in England's schools. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Thazz, spron and fape: the new reading test for six-year-olds - Daily Telegraph, Monday June 18, 2012
Head teachers have criticised government plans for children to be tested on made-up words like '’voo’’, '’terg’’ and '’bim’’ to check their reading skills amid fears it will damage their education.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Sir Jim Rose criticises children's authors in phonics row - Daily Telegraph, Sunday June 17, 2012
Award-winning children’s writers have clashed with a government adviser over efforts to strengthen the teaching of reading in schools.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Simon Armitage is wrong. Learning a poem by heart is a joy for life, not class warfare - The Independent, Friday June 15, 2012
The poet fears a plot to bourgeoisify children and get them to recite 'The Lady of Shalott', says Howard Jacobson
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Patrick Ness wins Carnegie medal for second year running - The Guardian, Thursday June 14, 2012
Winner of children's books' highest honour uses acceptance speech to lambast education policy and negativity to teenagersLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Poetry should be subversive - The Guardian, Tuesday June 12, 2012
If Michael Gove's plan for English means reciting Tennyson in posh accents, it's nothing to celebrate, says Simon Armitage
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Two-thirds of parents 'never read to their babies' - The Guardian, Tuesday June 12, 2012
Booktrust survey finding raises fear that very young children are 'missing out on a crucial window for language development'Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Thousands of teachers go back to school to learn basic grammar so they can deliver tough new lessons - Daily Mail, Tuesday June 12, 2012
Tens of thousands of teachers will be forced back to the classroom to study grammar and maths because they lack the knowledge to deliver tough new primary school lessons. Ian McNeilly, director of the National Association for the Teaching of English, said: ‘The focus and emphasis on grammar in primary schools will mean that potentially a whole generation of teachers will need some quite intensive training. It's a big move from what some teachers have been used to.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Primary school children to be expected to learn and recite poetry - The Guardian, Sunday June 10, 2012
Michael Gove to announce overhaul of English teaching including new emphasis on spelling and grammarLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Children will learn to recite poems by heart from age of 5 - Daily Telegraph, Sunday June 10, 2012
Children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart in a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England.
Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here