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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- Pupils may be tested more often - BBC, Monday January 8, 2007
The government is considering replacing the national tests children in England take at 11 and 14 with shorter but more frequent assessments.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Testing times for school assessment - BBC, Saturday January 6, 2007
Change is in the air for testing, targets and league tables. It seems these central pillars of the education scene in England for the past 15 years are about to be transformed. ... Research by Professor Dylan Wiliam, of the Institute of Education, suggests that around 32% of test results at 11, and 43% at 14, are wrong by at least one level.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Teachers tap into creativity - Times Educational Supplement, Friday January 5, 2007
A trio of teachers has written a call-to-arms for English teachers, urging them to restore creativity to the curriculum and fight attempts to stifle their subject. The polemical pamphlet by Sue Palmer, Geoff Barton and Peter Barry has been written to mark the 100th anniversary of the English Association.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Philippa Pearce - The Guardian, Tuesday January 2, 2007
One of the finest children's writers of her generation has diedLink broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Bright pupils to receive vouchers for extra lessons - The Guardian, Thursday December 28, 2006
A voucher system to provide extra lessons for the brightest 10% of children in England is being introduced in schools, the Department for Education and Skills said today.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Pupil tests 'should be replaced' - BBC, Wednesday December 27, 2006
Tests for primary school pupils and 14-year-olds in England should be replaced with teacher assessments, a think tank says. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said "too many" pupils left primary school unable to read and write and do mathematics well. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Thinktank calls for end to national exams for pupils aged 11 and 14 - The Guardian, Wednesday December 27, 2006
The national testing regime for pupils aged 11 and 14 in England should be scrapped, a thinktank with close links to Tony Blair's government says today.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Scrap school tests to stem rising tide of illiteracy, says think-tank - The Times, Wednesday December 27, 2006
National tests for pupils aged 11 and 14 should be scrapped and replaced with random tests in order to develop broader skills in reading, writing and arithmetic, according to a leading left-wing think-tank.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Schools minister takes life skills off syllabus - The Guardian, Wednesday December 27, 2006
Ministers have scaled back plans to teach teenagers "life skills" such as communication and teamwork as part of GCSEs and A-levels, despite warnings from employers that too many school leavers are poorly prepared for work.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - School says sorry after revealing the truth about Father Christmas - The Guardian, Wednesday December 20, 2006
A junior school was forced to apologise yesterday after one of its teachers ... taught a lesson revealing that Santa was a myth and letters addressed to him were actually dealt with by the Royal Mail. To make matters worse, the youngsters, aged nine and 10, were asked to put themselves in the place of Royal Mail staff and make up replies to children explaining why their requests for certain presents had been rejected.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Education department accused of failing to collect reliable data - The Guardian, Tuesday December 19, 2006
The Department for Education is today branded "unfit for purpose" in a report from the National Audit Office which finds that information on whether 12 out of the 14 key targets set by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will be met is likely to be unreliable.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Millions 'cannot read well enough for karaoke' - The Independent, Sunday December 17, 2006
Millions of adults have such poor reading skills that they will struggle to keep up with karaoke lyrics at Christmas parties this year, government research has found.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - UK's Vicky Pollards 'left behind' - BBC, Tuesday December 12, 2006
Britain's teenagers risk becoming a nation of "Vicky Pollards" held back by poor verbal skills, research suggests. And like the Little Britain character the top 20 words used, including yeah, no, but and like, account for around a third of all words, the study says. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Reading scheme 'saves taxpayer' - BBC, Monday December 11, 2006
A scheme to help pupils who struggle with reading could save the taxpayer millions of pounds, a report says.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Reading scheme will save taxpayer money, study finds - The Guardian, Monday December 11, 2006
The "reading recovery" scheme backed by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, could save the government up to ?1.6bn a year dealing with consequences of illiteracy in secondary school and early adult life, a study claims today.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Machine marking ?lunacy? - Times Educational Supplement, Friday December 8, 2006
The UK?s second largest exam board is to start trials of a computerised system which marks essays without a human examiner. Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Robo-marking sees off red pen - Times Educational Supplement, Friday December 8, 2006
Does essay-marking software spell the end for the red pen? The system has already caused a stir in America. Now Edexcel has announced plans to trial the Pearson Knowledge Technologies programme in Britain - initially on dummy papers.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - More intensive lessons for children failing to read - The Guardian, Thursday December 7, 2006
The huge "reading recovery" package to boost the skills of five- and six-year-old children who are falling behind in primary school shows how worried the government is about its stalling literacy drive.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Primary schools miss test targets - BBC, Thursday December 7, 2006
This year's league tables of England's primary schools confirm the government missed its targets for the results of Sats tests children took in May.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here - Chancellor gives books to pupils - BBC, Wednesday December 6, 2006
Children starting primary and secondary schools in England are to receive free books to help raise reading levels.Link broken or innaccurate? Please report here