More than half a million students in England are to start the new nationwide" curriculum in September 2014, only to be checked on the vintage one in 2015, the Department for learning has confirmed.
In what looks like the newest in a succession of troubles for the curriculum review, the current English and numbers Sats checks for 11-year-olds will not be changed in time for the launch of the new curriculum in September 2014, and will continue to be set for schools throughout the following year, and possibly longer. This will affect pupils now in year 4, who will take the tests in 2015.
In an internet message to the educator blogger Michael Tidd the Department for Education said: "The [Sats] checks must contemplate the current statutory curriculum only, [so] I can confirm that we cannot use anything from the preliminary curriculum as a cornerstone for test content until 2016 at the soonest.
"This will signify that scholars … ending key stage 2 in 2015 will be taught under the new curriculum for the learned year 2014-15, but considered under the vintage curriculum in 2015."
This could create functional adversities, with topics encompassing facts and figures handling and likelihood given more prominence in the old curriculum than in the new.
Tidd states numerous schools are likely to continue educating the old curriculum to year 6 from September 2014, as Sats outcomes are so important. "It is farcical," he states. The DfE did not respond to demands for comment.
Direct marketing
Another demonstration comes to us of apparently overzealous marketing for the government's contentious new School Direct teacher teaching events. Last month, we described that the nationwide College for educating and Leadership dispatched an email to would-be trainees, some of who had already directed for accepted postgraduate credentials in education techniques, encouraging them to address rather than endeavouring School Direct, where provision is middled on schools rather than universities.
Last week, the NCTL sent an internet message to those on its database headlined "School Direct: a new way to train teachers". below was a case study of a school where School Direct trainees had reportedly assisted bring about a fast increase in numbers GCSE results. Yet School Direct was only introduced last September, significance no applicable GCSE results have yet been made. The NCTL now accepts that the school's outcomes could not have been affected by School Direct trainees, and has "tightened up its approval schemes for future promotional material".
meantime, an online review of 730 constituents of the nationwide Association for the educating of English – 538 of them educators – discovered 92% accepted the advent of School Direct would smaller the value of initial teacher education; 78% said schools did not have the time to lead educator learning provision.
Ofsted and out
Claims that Ofsted inspectors are a little too keen to fail schools that are being arranged to become academies do not appear to go away. Suspicions have been aroused by last month's verdict on Roke prime school, Surrey, which placed the previously "outstanding" school in special assesses just as it prepares to be taken over by the Harris string of links, certain thing Roke parents campaigned against.
Comments in the report such as "too little educating is consistently good" seem to some a dubious basis for Ofsted's worst likely overall verdict. Parents who battled the school's compelled academisation have in writing to the inspectorate to complain, while sending flowers to the educators. The report furthermore remarks on high staff turnover – Roke is reportedly mislaying 70% of educators this year – which parents state has been very strongly leveraged by the takeover method.
meantime, parents at Abbey Meadows prime in Cambridge, which furthermore faces evolving an academy, were aghast to read its latest examination report, which labelled the school "inadequate", and educating "inadequate" general, apparently mostly on the basis of poor educator evaluation results in year 2. Its facts and figures for older children propose "all assemblies of students make good progress", a fast enhancement last year and better results than most "similar schools".
For both schools, nearly all respondents accomplishing Ofsted's "parent view" review were affirmative about provision.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: "We do not have a preferred form for schools nor are we furthering any political agenda. The decision to referee a school insufficient is not made lightly."
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