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.

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• Teachers renew calls to end test targets - The Guardian, Tuesday August 23, 2005
  
  Test results for primary school pupils have improved marginally this year, but are still trailing 10 percentage points behind the government's 2006 targets in some subjects. Ministers welcomed the improvement and batted off allegations that they had overstated the steady, though slight, improvement in English, maths and science by ignoring the fact that some of the gains were down to teachers, who, under pressure to improve results, teach to the tests. Headteachers called for the targets to be abandoned.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers prioritising targets over study skills, research shows - The Guardian, Wednesday August 9, 2006
  
  Most teachers focus their efforts on drilling children to pass tests and meet government targets instead of helping them to learn the study skills they need, research released today reveals.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers plan to boycott school tests - The Guardian, Tuesday March 23, 2010
  
  Unions predict majority of teachers ballotted will vote for a boycott of national tests for 11-year-oldsLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers overwhelmed by constant reform, report finds - The Guardian, Tuesday May 9, 2006
  
  Primary schools are "over-tested, scrutinised and squeezed", leaving no room for teachers to make professional judgments, new research will reveal today.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers lack knowledge on internet safety, report reveals - The Guardian, Wednesday May 10, 2006
  
  Teachers feel uneducated about protecting children from inappropriate websites and do not know who they should to turn to for advice, new research reveals.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers have to be told what a full stop is for - Daily Telegraph, Saturday September 5, 2009
  
  A training manual produced as part of the Government's National Literacy Strategy, aimed at boosting teachers' grammatical knowledge, describes what full stops, question marks and commas are for. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers give up making boys read long books - Daily Telegraph, Tuesday May 17, 2011
  
  

  Teachers are giving up trying to make boys read long books because they cannot get past 100 pages, new research as found.

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers get new coursework guide - BBC, Friday March 3, 2006
  
  Teachers who allow coursework cheats to escape detection could be charged with misconduct, new guidelines say.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers fight back over classics - BBC, Friday February 16, 2007
  
  Education Secretary Alan Johnson has been branded a "bird brain" for ordering that difficult classic authors be taught to 11 and 12-year-olds.

  Policy director of the National Association for the Teaching of English, Ian McNeilly, who is also an English teacher, said: "For students who are not yet ready, teaching texts of such linguistic complexity is completely counter-productive." He accused Mr Johnson of trying to secure a few more votes from Middle England "by not allowing standards to slip". Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here

• Teachers criticise over-testing - BBC, Monday March 24, 2008
  
  UK tests and league tables have made children the unhappiest in the western world, teachers have claimed.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers can load the literary canon - Times Educational Supplement, Friday February 23, 2007
  
  Simon Gibbons writes: The argument over the literary canon is back on the front pages (TES, February 16). But this is not a genuine debate about literary merit. For every "great" put in, there is a Wilkie Collins or a Henry James left out. And this is not an argument about "Britishness", however many politicians feel that dubious concept may be embodied in classic texts.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers back TV viewing concerns - BBC, Monday February 19, 2007
  
  Teachers have backed concerns about the negative impact of TV on children.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers 'struggle with grammar' - BBC, Friday May 2, 2008
  
  English teachers who went to school when grammar was not on the curriculum struggle to teach it, research shows.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teachers 'should have more say' - BBC, Thursday May 1, 2008
  
  Teachers should decide what is taught in schools and not ministers or employers, academics argue.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher writes 'first chav novel' - BBC, Saturday June 4, 2005
  
  An English teacher at a Welsh school has written what the publishers claim is the first "chav" novel.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher training to spot dyslexia - BBC, Monday June 22, 2009
  
  More teachers will be trained to identify and support children in England with dyslexia, as a report says greater expertise is needed in schools.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher training places reduced - BBC, Thursday December 22, 2005
  
  There are going to be fewer places for trainee teachers in England over the next two years.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher training not matched to job vacancies, research reveals - The Guardian, Friday July 14, 2006
  
  Too many teachers have been trained in history, geography and art and too few in physics, chemistry and even English, a new study has found.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher shortage in key subjects feared - The Guardian, Thursday February 7, 2008
  
  · Maths and English hit by decline in trainees · Shortfall will hit schools in summer of 2009Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Teacher sacked over 'racy' novel - BBC, Thursday May 28, 2009
  
  

  An English teacher at a West Yorkshire school has been dismissed for writing a book involving underage drinking, hints of drug use and "pupil fantasies".

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here