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Institute for the Study of Civil Society
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03 August

Primary and Secondary Education

  • SATS results show that the proportion of 11 year olds reaching Level 4 in English and Maths has risen by one percentage point. 81% reached the required level in English; 80% reached the required level in Maths; 84% in reading and 71% in writing. Teacher assessments suggested 81% of pupils were reaching the expected levels in English and Maths. Telegraph

  • SATS results published today are likely to lead to widespread confusion as results from the tests and teacher's appraisals of pupil performance are this year published side by side. Ed Balls as Education Secretary had made the decision to do this in order to placate unions threatening to boycott the exams. Telegraph

  • A family have won a landmark ruling as Poole council was found to have acted illegally in spying on them for more than three weeks using powers designed to track serious criminals. The council had received phone calls to advise them that the family were not living at the address they had given on the application form for a top primary school. Housing Minister Grant Shapps spoke about how the government would change the law 'to stop the rise of a town hall Stasi'. Guardian

  • Ed Balls writes in the Guardian about why Michael Gove should afford more protection for home educated children by taking on board the findings of Sir Graham Badman's review of home education and his conclusion that 'the assessment requirement for home education is weak and there is no mandate to monitor, assess or inspect the quality of home-education provision, once approval to home educate has occurred'. Guardian

  • A leaked letter has suggested that thousands of teenagers taking the Labour government's flagship Diploma qualifications may be left without grades this summer. The letter, written by ex-head of the Edexcel exam board, warns that the qualifications are so complex that systems to process results are in severe danger of failing. Exam boards are unable to guarantee all diploma candidates will gain awards on time this summer and failure rates are predicted to be higher than for GCSEs and A-Levels. Mail

  • A report by the HM Inspectorate of Education in Scotland has found that many new teachers feel ill-prepared to teach basic literacy and numeracy and that teachers also become stale after too many years in one post. It suggested that head teachers have fixed term contracts, that teachers move school from time to time and recommended better provision of in-service courses. BBC

  • England's Communication Chief Jean Gross has warned parents against allowing their children to spend hours playing on video games or watching DVDs on car journeys. 'Children develop in close contact with adults', Gross told The Times, 'This is your chance to double their vocabulary.' Ms Gross has been travelling the country to visit projects designed to help parents learn how to talk to their young children. Times


Higher and Further Education

  • The government's watchdog on fair access to higher education has warned that pupils from the poorest backgrounds will not gain access to the UK's best universities, as many elite institutions demand applicants gain A* grades, which require a score of above 90% in the exam. Cambridge has made A*AA its standard offer for most subjects; Oxford has declined to use the A* in offers this year. Guardian

  • Connexions, the advice service for 13-19 year olds, is to be decimated by cuts ranging from 11% to 45% as local authorities make deep cuts into their area-based grants, at a time with unprecedented levels of young NEETS. Neither careers advisers nor central government had expected cuts greater than the 3.6% efficiency savings. Unison has launched a campaign to save the service and is exploring the possibility of legal challenges against local authorities. Guardian

  • 2010 will see the culmination of the Bologna Process, the attempt to standardise higher education across 47 European countries. Experts air their concerns that the visions put forward by Vince Cable for two year Bachelor's degrees and a graduate tax will clash with this. British three year Bachelor's degrees and one year Master's are already significantly shorter than comparative degrees on the continent. Guardian

  • Family

    • Women detained at Yarl's Wood speak to the Guardian about their reaction to the government's recent announcement that it would close the family section of the detention centre, in its bid to end child detention. Six months after around 70 women participated in a hunger strike at the centre, women remain detained in its three wings, all but one with children who they will or have been separated from. They call for bail or tagging to allow them to care for their children while their claims are being processed. Guardian

    • Baroness Warsi, the country's first female Muslim cabinet minister, has said that British women have the right to choose to wear a burka in public. She claimed that it did not prevent them from 'engaging in everyday life' and that 'If women don't have a choice over what to wear then they are oppressed.' Telegraph

    • Three quarters of non-Muslims believe that Islam makes a negative contribution to British society, according to a poll by the Islamic Education and Research Academy. 63% of people surveyed did not disagree with the statement that 'Muslims are terrorists' and 94% agreed that 'Islam oppresses women'. The organisation has made a number of recommendations on how to spread knowledge of Islam and of the Muslim community. Guardian


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