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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- Authors aim to slash illiteracy - BBC, Saturday December 15, 2007
More than 500 leading authors have signed a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown urging him to confront childhood illiteracy.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Experts back more talk in class - The Guardian, Friday December 14, 2007
Children should be allowed to talk more in class, education experts have argued, despite the traditional view that chatter can be disruptive.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - What's so bad about the national tests? - Times Educational Supplement, Friday December 14, 2007
Here are eight words you don't often see together: Key stage tests aren't such a bad idea. Perhaps the goodwill of Christmas has yet to reach me, but I do think a lot of nonsense is spoken about national tests. Ten days ago a group of prominent theatre directors spoke of an emerging "cultural apartheid" of those with access to the arts and those without. According to The Observer, Sir Richard Eyre blamed "a heavy focus on testing in schools for leaving teachers too little time to provide adequate drama and music in the classroom".Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Tests overhaul will give children second chance - The Guardian, Monday December 10, 2007
The government will this week pave the way for an overhaul of national testing and school league tables in recognition that the system of high-stakes testing has become too nerve-racking for children.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - School poetry teaching too limited, Ofsted says - The Guardian, Friday December 7, 2007
Children in England are studying too many lightweight poems in primary school while dull and repetitive teaching at GCSE is harming pupils' enjoyment of the genre, the education inspectorate, Ofsted, says today. Many teachers, especially of younger children, do not know enough about poetry, leading to a limited range of work by poets such as Spike Milligan, Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear being taught.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Laureate attacks poetry teaching - BBC, Friday December 7, 2007
Children's Laureate Michael Rosen has said government literacy policy is having a "disastrous" effect on poetry.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - No novels in novel exam - Times Educational Supplement, Friday December 7, 2007
Pupils can gain English exam pass without studying traditional books, plays or poetry. Pupils could soon be awarded the equivalent of a GCSE in English without having studied any novels, plays or poetry.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Hello Dolly, this is London - Times Educational Supplement, Friday December 7, 2007
Backwoods Barbie Ms Parton has bounced into Britain to launch her children's book scheme. The lights dimmed. The music began. The spotlights shone. And a diminutive figure in rhinestones and sequins stepped on to the stage.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - League tables pressure 'drives staff to cheat' - The Guardian, Thursday December 6, 2007
Teachers have denounced the excessive pressure government league tables place on schools to perform, claiming they drive some staff to cheat.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Pledge to do more for dyslexics - BBC, Wednesday December 5, 2007
Children with dyslexia are to receive extra help in some schools in England under a £3m pilot scheme.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Dolly Parton brings literacy programme to Rotherham - The Guardian, Wednesday December 5, 2007
education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2222223,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - UK plummets in world rankings for maths and reading - The Guardian, Tuesday December 4, 2007
The UK has plummeted in international rankings for maths and reading according to new findings from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Pilot scheme questions future of Sats - The Guardian, Monday December 3, 2007
A new assessment system that could replace national curriculum tests at ages 11 and 14 is being piloted in 484 primary and secondary schools from today.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Experts blast 'distorted' early learning plans - The Guardian, Friday November 30, 2007
A powerful lobby of education experts called today for an "urgent review" of the new national curriculum for all under-fives, warning it is a fundamentally flawed concept that will harm children's learning and trigger unforeseen difficulties.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - UK falls to 14th place in global teaching table - The Guardian, Thursday November 29, 2007
The UK has slipped 10 places in a respected international league table for secondary school teaching in a new blow to the government's education record.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - England falls in reading league - BBC, Wednesday November 28, 2007
The reading performance of children in England has fallen from third to 19th in the world in a major assessment.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Challenging times - The Guardian, Tuesday November 27, 2007
Is phonics to become a political football, asks Estelle Morris
As political slogans go "synthetic phonics for all five-year-olds" seems unlikely to catch on. That was the Conservative's story for the Observer last weekend. Who would have thought that one of the great dividing lines between the political parties would be whether primary teachers should be instructed to use synthetic phonics or phonics as outlined in the government's national literacy strategy?Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - A-level questions to become more difficult - The Guardian, Saturday November 24, 2007
The exam regulator is to intervene in the setting of A-level papers to help ensure questions are more difficult. It is the first time that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has proposed to take a more active role in the drafting of individual papers.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Don't teach to the test, say children - The Guardian, Friday November 23, 2007
Once again the review of primary schooling in England points to the way national Sats tests are distorting what is taught in the classroom.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - New A-levels face close scrutiny - BBC, Friday November 23, 2007
England's exams watchdog is sending consultants in to exam board meetings to check that new A-levels are being made sufficiently challenging.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here