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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• GCSE coursework to be curtailed to stop internet cheats - The Guardian, Tuesday August 1, 2006
  
  The drive to stop cheating was stepped up last night as the exam watchdog unveiled plans to prevent students from taking GCSE coursework home. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said tests should be completed under controlled conditions in the classroom to curb online plagiarism and excessive parental help.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• GCSE basic skills pledge scrapped - BBC, Thursday April 2, 2009
  
  The government has dropped the key part of its pledge to improve teenagers' functional English and maths skills.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Gatsby adds glitter to A-level list - Times Educational Supplement, Friday April 6, 2007
  
  English literature students will be expected to read more books and make comparisons between texts in the new exam.... Gary Snapper, of the National Association for the Teaching of English, said: ?Students are going to have to do more reading and they are going to have to be taught about narrative context more thoroughly. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Game replaces the spelling test - BBC, Friday June 16, 2006
  
  Forget learning a list of words for the weekly spelling test - pupils at Norwich Road School in Thetford get to play games instead.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Future of school libraries in doubt - Daily Telegraph, Friday September 3, 2010
  
  

  The future of school libraries is under threat after the country’s largest local authority cancelled the service for tens of thousands of pupils.

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Fund to boost London child numeracy and literacy - BBC, Wednesday June 8, 2011
  
  

  Businesses in London have been asked to donate £3m to improve child numeracy and literacy skills in the capital.

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Functional skills tests postponed until 2010 - Times Educational Supplement, Friday April 6, 2007
  
  New tests for 16-year-olds in basic English and computing skills will not be taken until 2010, pushing back changes to other exams. ... The delay has had a major knock-on effect, with reforms to GCSEs in English, English literature, maths and ICT also held back to 2010, a year after GCSE courses in other subjects are due to start.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Frustrating puzzle of the literary lists - Times Educational Supplement, Thursday March 29, 2007
  
  Consultation on the secondary curriculum review ends on April 30, so there's still time for voices to be heard - especially on the decision to keep lists of prescribed authors, against the initial advice of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the wishes of English teachers.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• From Shakespeare to Punk Rock - The Guardian, Monday September 20, 2010
  
  When it comes to theatre productions for students, adaptations of cult novels are taking over from more traditional fare this termLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• From one end of the corridor to the other - The Guardian, Tuesday December 9, 2008
  
  

  What turned Philip O'Hear from militant trendy (and pillar of the National Association for the Teaching of English) into a champion of academies and league tables?

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read - The Guardian, Monday January 30, 2006
  
  Don Quixote, Ulysses, The Waste Land and Paradise Lost may seem a pretty daunting reading list to anyone. But the poet laureate believes that children should be expected to read them before leaving school.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• From albedo to zugunruhe - The Guardian, Saturday December 15, 2007
  
  How often do you bother looking up an unfamiliar word? Should writers make us reach for our dictionaries? Four years ago, James Meek vowed to learn every alien word he encountered, and discovered poetry in obscurity Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Fresh blow to ministers over A-levels - and QCA head advocates teacher assessment - The Guardian, Thursday March 24, 2005
  
  The government's plans to retain A-levels were dealt a fresh blow yesterday when one of its key education advisers predicted that the so-called "gold standard" exams could disappear in a new diploma framework within 10 years.

  In another significant development, Dr Boston said it was feasible for the bulk of compulsory national tests to be assessed by teachers, with some external moderation. Such a move would hugely reduce the burden on external markers, he said.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here

• Free poetry for reception pupils - BBC, Thursday September 18, 2008
  
  

  A charity is giving free poetry books to thousands of reception class pupils in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, to inspire a love of reading.

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Free internet access planned to boost library use - BBC, Monday March 22, 2010
  
  

  Free internet access and e-books could help reverse a decline in the number of people using libraries in England, according to a new government review.

  Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Free books for secondaries to get pupils 'hooked on reading' - The Guardian, Thursday December 31, 2009
  
  Each school in England is to receive 15 books from a specially designed list to try to get more pupils reading as a hobbyEach school in England is to receive 15 books from a specially designed list to try to get more pupils reading as a hobbyLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Four-year-olds struggling with writing - The Guardian, Thursday October 13, 2005
  
  One in three young children are struggling to develop their early writing skills properly, government figures showed today. Statistics published by the Department for Education and Skills showed 32% of four-year-olds were not developing fast enough with the skill of linking sounds and letters. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Four steps to being chucked on the scrapheap - The Guardian, Tuesday October 24, 2006
  
  Starter - guided - independent - plenary - dung. "One of these things," to quote the old Sesame Street song, "does not belong here, one of these things is not the same." The first four are the sequence the Department for Education and Skills recommends teachers follow for more or less every lesson; the fifth might profitably be employed as a collective noun for the other four in sequence.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Four out of five adults 'lack basic skills' - The Guardian, Wednesday December 15, 2004
  
  Most adults lack the basic skills expected of GCSE pupils in reading, writing and maths, the body scrutinising government expediture said in a report today. A critical report from the National Audit Office (NAO) follows last week's celebrations after the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) announced it had met its basic skills targets.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here
• Fountain pens boost 'self-esteem' - BBC, Monday November 13, 2006
  
  The headmaster of an Edinburgh school where pupils have gone back to using fountain pens said they helped to raise academic performance.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here