Dilemma – Facebook or bust (UPDATED Oct 2010)

#tmfuture – two further thoughts

#tmfuture

English Schools in 2010 (Part 3 – Special Needs and Short Stay Schools)

English Schools in 2010 (Part 2 – Secondary)

English Schools in 2010 (Part 1 – Primary)

New Education Minister – Michael Gove

2010 General Election – The Result

What didn’t happen with the CSF Bill!

Updated: Son is still 12 and now in Year 8. Grounded for 2 weeks (nothing major) but the issue remains. His entire homework delivery system is guided towards internet connected computers (love that, great stuff) but blocking facebook and other social media he uses (and when pressed he will use them all), also tends to knock out YouTube and other homework-useful sites.

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

PS VERY proud its been almost 5 months since last grounding!

This is a dilemma.

I have a 12 year old boy who sometimes needs calming (as I call it) or ‘grounding’ he says.

Now, part of his social world is his ‘town’, ‘phone’ and

It’s pretty easy to ground both town and phone. For the former. He has to hang out with his Dad doing ‘crap Dad stuff’ like trying to work Word Press or gardening or even (excitedly) shooting baskets.

His phone goes in my pocket and that’s it.

So, do I ban him from ?

He is online with homework set online (mymath). He has 3 independent learning tasks per half term most of which require internent involvement (research/presi/wordle). He learns his bass chords online and youtube provides his stance for bass.

So, when grounded should Ewan have to give up the internet (and)

or should I find an alternative?

I just don’t know.

#tmfuture – further thoughts

As a sometime presenter and lurker, and sponsor of a couple of teachmeets, I have been fascinated by the debate and thought over the last week or so on this topic. Its wonderfully summed up by @ewanmcintosh ’s blog earlier today but I also loved @chrisrat ’s post too which I thought was a voice of reason from a clear commercial mind.

I have two further thoughts that I hope will move the debate on and provide some options for Teachmeet going forward. One comes from my experience in publishing and business over the past few years and the other from the Year 6 class that I work in as a teaching assistant. (Actually they both come from peeling and chopping carrots but that is not so relevant).

1) Teachmeet publishes stuff and sponsors itself

Teachmeet generates huge amounts of content be they presentations, video streams, podcasts and twitter feeds. It is clear from various posts that everyone wants to get more people involved in Teachmeet (as organisers, presenters and lurkers) but there will be some people who might want a bit of a Teachmeet experience before attending.

Could Teachmeet curate, aggregate and publish the experience for a small fee to a wider audience? Then use the money generated as the 5-10% for international expansion.

This is, of course directly the opposite to what bands do when they release ‘free albums’ and then charge £40+ for a concert but it could be a way of generating the 5-10% of income to ‘go international’. Something about owning a bit of Teachmeet strikes me as an interesting starting point (I don’t tend to see a band before listening to their stuff at  home).

I imagine that this might cause a bit of controversy but I thought it worthwhile putting it out there. There are enough publishers involved already to help and I am pretty sure that what Teachmeet does is not competitive with most potential sponsors out there.

My aggressively commercial self says run a batch of Teachmeet t-shirts (Teachmeet: Watch teachers do it live in front of 50 people – but only for 7 minutes!) and punt them out at £10 a time, but then again … perhaps not.

2) Teachmeet Experts (on web and via twitter)

In Class 6W everyone was an expert. Everyone had a certain talent (from drawing to cutting, to reading to working the projector) and that talent was known across the class. When I needed to try to re-start the projector then I would ask Joe, when I wanted some great handwriting for a class poster I asked Vicky and when I needed a bit of Turkish translated, I’d ask Umut. It worked, was inclusive and meant that the class could function pretty well as an autonomous unit.

Could this work for Teachmeet too? I can see the need for venue finding, audio-visual help, financial help (including negotiating and getting sponsorship), recruitment of attendees, scheduling and budgeting. Then, if you want to run one yourself, there are two or three places you can go to get help.

I am sure an improved website will allow this to happen easily but I also think there is probably an opportunity for people to provide tweeted (or telephoned) advice on a specific area of expertise.

It will be exciting watching how Teachmeet develops at home (and overseas) over the coming months and years. The times I’ve spent at Teachmeets have been some of the highlights of my 18 years in education.

Teachmeet – The Future

“Education is the new rock’n’roll!” – Tweet at TMNE09 after Gwyn Ap Hari had finished.

I have been to a couple of Teachmeets, presented at one, sponsored one and spent a great deal of time talking with various people including @tombarrett talking about Teachmeet and how it might grow.

The multiple posts do seem to have been a success, I’ve had two companies approach me from different posts saying; Do you know about Teachmeet? We’d like to sponsor them.

So, where to go now?

Not a QUANGO probably, not really in vogue at the moment.

As I see it there are two possible paths.

1) If it ain’t broke…

… don’t fix it. Allow Teachmeet to evolve as it has done, with much energy, a bit chaotically and with lots of enthusiasm and sweat from organizers and presenters.

+ve features

• The wider community which drive Teachmeet remain at the heart and included. There is little organization other than your own desire to run a Teachmeet so more and more people feel comfortable about running one.
• It does work and the number of ‘failed’ Teachmeets are very, very few.
• It feels right and can scale up and down.
• There is evolution going on; Takeover and Fishbowl have both developed Teachmeet well – a new blog/website would help.

-ve features

• Hard to grow the number of Teachmeets rapidly at a time when they are massively needed as support for teachers is dwindling from Government.
• Sponsorship is currently centred around 5-10 organisations. Sponsorship is hard to come by and will get harder if the economy continues to tank. Its also time consuming. Also the way it is configured now there is a possibility of one organization coming in, taking the successful brand and running their own show.
• Harder to ‘quality control’. Are we really sure we haven’t seen pitches in the last year?
• Does Teachmeet need to expand beyond the ‘choir’ and really reach the bulk of teachers nationwide? Can this happen is such an adhoc way?

2) Organise

… but do it in a non-threatening way with buy-in from the wider community. Teachmeet is a community and that is the essential reason it works. Witness the debate on #tmfuture over the last 24 hours.

In terms of type of organization;

I would suggest NO to a company or charity (both bureaucratic and create strong motivations for the people at the heart). This can lead to schism and a weakening of the passion people have to organize. @Jonsieboy’s tweet about ‘being told’ is the key issue here.

A social enterprise or charitable company seem the best bet here – no profit, no trustees but a clear mission for Teachmeet (that should be signed up to by the whole community).

+ve

• Dedicated team to support people wanting to run Teachmeets.
• Actively seeking broad range of sponsorship to ensure development and growth of Teachmeet.
• Able to protect the Teachmeet concept from commercial interests.
• Quality Control (see –ve)

-ve

• Overly bureaucratic and time-consuming for people with jobs!
• Pits the ‘organisation vs the grass roots’
• Quality is subjective (unless you maintain motorcycles).
• It doesn’t feel right. It just doesn’t

A Third Way (about 13 years too late!)

1) Let Teachmeet evolve naturally, as it has done over the past 4 years. It works, inspires teachers and those interested in education. It just works.

2) Create a Teachmeet Enterprises (social enterprise) whose aim is simply to support Teachmeet at home and abroad. This would take the form of three specific roles:

• Gaining sponsorship/funding/money!
• Providing support (telephone, twitter, new site) for people wanting to run one (if you want to run a teachmeet in your school on use of switch technology, fine, we won’t judge, just help you get it off the ground).
• Developing Teachmeet overseas – seeking champions, sponsors and helping it to thrive in the way it has in the UK.

3) This organization would be made up of a small group of interested people (with some time on their hands) but they wouldn’t have a say in anything beyond those three roles (thereby keeping Teachmeet, Teachmeet).

Finally

As with a child of 4 or 5 or 12; Teachmeet will grow and grow up. It will evolve and there will be good and bad times but Teachmeet is here and here to stay.

On May 13^th The DFE published the provisional results of the English 2010 School Census. It’s encouraging to see these statistics published as it sets a benchmark for the new government’s education policies.

If you want to see the detail of these numbers then go to: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000925/index.shtml

Primary Schools

• 696,490 of children in English schools are considered to have special needs but only 220,000 children have statements of Special Educational Needs.

• 62% of children with statements attend mainstream schools.

• Only 26% of children who got statements in 2009 attend a special school now.

• Over 100,000 children have a speech and language issue which affects their education.

• There are now 443 Pupil Referral Units (Short Stay Schools) up from 295 in 2006.

• 12,800 students are taught in Pupil Referral Units up from a high of 16,500.

• 61% of students in PRUs have SEN but no statement.

• 85,460 students are in special schools.

• The number of special schools has fallen by 12% since 2000.

On May 13^th The DFE published the provisional results of the English 2010 School Census. It’s encouraging to see these statistics published as it sets a benchmark for the new government’s education policies.

If you want to see the detail of these numbers then go to: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000925/index.shtml

Secondary Schools

• There are approximately 3,250,000 students in 3127 Secondary schools, 202 Academies (0 in 2000) and 3 CTCs.

• The average class size is 20.5 students.

• 18.5%% of Secondary schools are religious (all faiths but 22% of Academies are religious)

• More than half of all Secondary schools have less than 1000 students.

• 4.4% of Secondary students are Black.

• 377,000 Secondary students have English as a second language.

• 477,750 Secondary children are considered to be Gifted and Talented. You are more likely to be considered “Gifted and Talented” at secondary school if you are of mixed race than if you are white.

• Chinese students are three times as likely to be Gifted and Talented as Asian children.

• There are 68,000 students in mainstream Secondary schools that are considered to have moderate learning difficulties (MLD).

On May 13^th The DFE published the provisional results of the English 2010 School Census. It’s encouraging to see these statistics published as it sets a benchmark for the new government’s education policies.

If you want to see the detail of these numbers then go to: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000925/index.shtml

Primary Schools

• There are approximately 3,961,000 children in 16,971 Primary schools.

• The average class size is 26.4 pupils.

• 37% of Primary schools are religious (across all faiths – majority being CofE or RC)

• 685,000 Primary children are on Free School Meals.

• 9.6% of Primary children are Asian.

• 16% of Primary children have English as a second language.

• 352,000 Primary children are considered to be Gifted and Talented. You are more likely to be “Gifted and Talented” if you have English as second language but less likely if you are on Free School Meals.

• Chinese primary children are twice as likely to be Gifted and Talented as White children.

• There are 61,000 children in mainstream primary schools that are considered to have emotional and behavioural problems.

There is a new man at the DCSF. Michael Gove.

Here is a reminder of the Conservative education policies.

For Pupil Premium read Lib Dem figures (£2.5bn suggested in their manifesto).

The Conservative Party Manifesto – Education Section

Here is a summary.

Headlines

• Reinforcing discipline and raising the entry requirements for trainees entering the profession.
• Improving the curriculum and exam system – reforming curriculum under subject headings, keeping tests and tables, getting universities and academics to define examinations.
• Estabilising new Academies and creating a pupil premium.

Better teachers and tougher discipline

• Enhance status of teaching profession.
• Heads to have the power to pay good teachers more.
• Expand Teach First and create Teach Now and Troops to Teachers to get career changers and ex-services personnel into schools.
• Heads to have final say on violent incidents and exclusions.
• Raise entry requirement for taxpayer-funded primary school teacher training.
• 2:2 required to get state-funded teacher training.
• Top Maths and Science graduates will have student loans repaid if they go into teaching.
• Teachers protected from false accusations.
• Home-school behaviour contracts to be strengthened.

A rigorous curriculum and exam system

• Synthetic phonics to be promoted and more training for teachers.
• Simple reading test at age 6.
• More challenging National Curriculum – Primary curriculum organised around subjects ‘like’ Maths, Science and History.
• Setting to be encouraged in Primary School.
• Key Stage 2 tests and league tables to be kept and made more rigorous.
• Universities and examinations to be made more robust by giving universities more say over their form and content.
• Technical Academies to be formed in 12 cities.
• School League tables to include data on most and least able.
• IGCSE and BACC to be offered in State Schools.
• Separate Sciences to be offered in state schools (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)
• 20,000 new apprenticeships created.
• Schools and colleges to offer work place training.
• All performance data at DCSF to be published.
• Free online database of exam papers and mark schemes.

Giving every parent access to a good school

• Any good education provider to be able to set up a new Academy.
• New Academy schools in most deprived areas of UK.
• All exisiting schools can become Academies with ‘outstanding’ schools pre-approved.
• Primaries can become Academies.
• Pupil Premium to be introduced providing extra funding for disadvantaged children.
• No more closure of special schools and no to inclusion.
• More rigourous Ofsted regime focusing on performance in the core areas of teaching and learning.
• Schools in ‘special measures’ for more than 1year will be taken over by Academy provider.
• Give parents power to save local schools and allowing schools to run community smaller schools.
• Give Academies more freedoms.
• Inspect failing schools more often and best schools visited less frequently.

Manifesto Commitments and the analysis

Summary of the Conservative and LibDems manifesto commitments with confusions (italics) and agreements (bold)

Here is a summary of similarities and differences

*****Agreement on Pupil Premium confirmed*****

	Conservative	Liberal Democrat
Special Needs	Anti-inclusion	Better Teacher Training Diagnostic Assessment at Age 5
Primary Curriculum	Subject Based Curriculum (Maths, History, Science) Synthetic Phonics Setting at Primary School	Free up/slim down curriculum (and EYFS) One-2-One Tuition
Primary Testing and Assessment	More rigorous KS2 Tests All performance data published.	End KS2 Tests replace w/Teacher Assessment
GCSE/Vocational	Separate Sciences and MFL at GCSE IGCSE and BACC can be studied. Work place training in all schools and colleges. Technical Academies formed in 12 cities.	Separate Sciences and MFL at GCSE Small Groups at GCSE. General Diploma at 16 to cover vocational and academic qualifications.
Teacher Training	Expand Teach First (and Troops for Teachers). 2:2 or above to get funded as teacher trainee. Top Maths and Science Graduates get Teacher Training paid for.	Expand Teach First Expand Graduate Teaching Programme. Improve CPD for teachers.
Teacher Pay and Conditions	Heads have power to pay good teachers more.	Heads will have more control over pay and conditions.
Apprenticeships	20,000 new apprenticeships.	Fund adult apprenticeships
Discipline	Heads have final say on exclusions. Teachers protected from false accusations. Home-School Behaviour contracts stronger.	Teacher Training on discipline and bullying.
School Management	Any education provider allowed to set up a school. New Academy Schools in most deprived areas. All existing schools can become academies with more freedoms. Parents allowed to save and create their own local schools.	Sponsor-managed schools responsible to Local Authorities could come from charities or parents groups.
Pupil Premium?	Yes (£1500)	Yes (£2500)

The CSF Bill – What elements became law as part of the CSF Act 2010

The CSF Bill was introduced in November 2009 with and promised wide ranging changes to how we educate children and students in the UK.

Part 1 related to education and Part 2 to Family Proceedings. This article deals with Part 1 only.

The key areas for reform were to

a)     Create certain guarantees for pupils and parents setting out what they are entitled to from the school system.

b)     A reform of the curriculum (including broad reform at Primary and new PHSE curriculum).

c)     Introduced a ‘license to practise’  for teachers to raise professional standards and ensure continuous CPD was enshrined in law.

The Wash Up

As an election neared, the Bill entered ‘the wash up’ phase where clauses were negotiated between the three main parties rather than go through the natural process of amendment through the House of Lords. This meant that Ed Ball, Michael Gove and David Laws (Liberal Shadow Education Secretary) negotiated what should go and stay so the Bill could become law before the end of parliament (12^th April 2010).

Sections of the Bill that DID become law

Clause 7 – Clear and explicit focus (OfSted will mention it in their report) on Special Educational Needs in Inspections

What this will mean for schools?

A further change to the OfSted Framework for Inspection is due by law.

Clause 8 – The right of parents to appeal against a Special Needs Statement after a review and have that statement changed if needs be.

What this will mean for schools?

Where there has been no change in a Statement review schools/Local Authorities are liable to challenge an appeal and keep parents informed about this appeals process.

Clause 9 – An amendment of the provision of education in short stay schools (PRUs) to ensure that students are given a FULL TIME education wherever possible unless the Local Authority see this as not in the child’s best interests.

What this will mean for schools/PRUS?

Schools and PRUs will need to provide full time education for all students on roll unless otherwise specified by the Local Authority.

Clause 15 – Provision of community facilities are further enshrined in law and a responsibility for governers.

What this will mean for schools?

School governing bodies will need to consider at least once a year whether (and how) they should provide community facilities. This must be minuted.

Clause 16 – Ability of governing body to form a company.

What this will mean for schools?

This will allow all schools the ability to form a company and therefore an Academy through their governing body. They do not have to refer to the Local Authority. Schools can spend what they need to, to get there and can employ anyone they need to, to achieve this aim.

Clause 17/18 – Federated Academies and power to propose new schools

What this will mean for schools?

This section of the Law allows schools to federate through their governing bodies and allows governors to work across schools. This section will removes the restriction on governors to make proposals for a new school.

Clause 28 /29/30 – Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards

LSCBs to be inspected by OfSted but given further rights to collect information and testimony from a wide range of sources.

What this will mean for schools?

Schools will be expected to comply with their LSCB and will be compelled by law to give evidence/testimony. They will also be able to read their LSCB’s inspections report.

Sections of the Bill that are no longer law

Clauses 1-6 – Pupil/Parent Guarantees, Home/School Agreements and Parent Satisfaction Surveys

These clauses would have make the above agreements and surveys statutory and binding. There is a bit more freedom for schools now on how they deal with/manage parents and pupils.

Clauses 10-14 Revised Primary Curriculum, PSHE in maintained schools, Sex and Relationships education

These clauses would have revised the primary curriculum and made PSHE and Sex and Relationships education compulsory in Primaries and Secondaries. This is no longer the case.

Clauses 19-22 SIPs, providing information to Central Government and the ability of a Local Authority or Secretary of State to intervene in the running of a school.

These clauses would have increased the powers of SIPs, Local Authorities and Central Government to intervene in the running of a school and require lots of information from that school.

Clauses 23/24/25 – License to Teach

These clauses would have required teachers to have a ‘license to practise’ and for this to be logged by each school.

Conclusion

During an election period this is a considerable victory for the Conservative party who have managed to stave off changes to the curriculum and sex education. There is also a weakening of central and local government in the management of schools which follows their polices.

There will be a new Education Bill proposed in the new parliament (after the election). If will remain to be seen whether this is a completely new Bill or the clauses from this one that didn’t get through!

new one

• February 14, 2012 Protected: Westwood video
• June 7, 2011 Matched funding for approved phonics schemes – some thoughts
• January 12, 2011 Technology in the UK – report to shadow education team (2009)
• December 2, 2010 Rising pupil population – the real issue facing schools
• November 26, 2010 The Importance of Teaching – #eduwhitepaper and responses
• November 15, 2010 Synthetic Phonics – the answer to all our prayers?
• October 13, 2010 Browne Review – some numbers
• September 27, 2010 Prime Numbers Game
• September 5, 2010 Can you crowdsource a business?
• August 31, 2010 #Australia
• August 25, 2010 Crowdsourcing goes mainstream
• August 16, 2010 zondle – feedback wanted
• August 10, 2010 Year 4 Test for Mathematics
• June 2, 2010 Over 1000 Schools Apply to be Academies – DFE
• May 31, 2010 Dilemma – Facebook or bust (UPDATED Oct 2010)
• #tmfuture – two further thoughts
• May 25, 2010 #tmfuture
• May 18, 2010 English Schools in 2010 (Part 3 – Special Needs and Short Stay Schools)
• May 16, 2010 English Schools in 2010 (Part 2 – Secondary)
• May 15, 2010 English Schools in 2010 (Part 1 – Primary)
• May 12, 2010 New Education Minister – Michael Gove
• May 11, 2010 2010 General Election – The Result
• May 1, 2010 What didn’t happen with the CSF Bill!
• April 13, 2010 Manifestos – Labour and Conservatives
• April 12, 2010 “Leave out Clause 10″ – the end of Primary Curriculum Reform
• March 17, 2010 Children, Schools and Families Bill
• February 21, 2010 IncubatED – Moving things on …
• January 27, 2010 Tests and Examinations … and people power!
• January 21, 2010 BETT 2010
• January 17, 2010 KEG Week 2
• January 15, 2010 BETT Day 3 – Reality Bites BETT
• January 14, 2010 BETT 2010 – Day 1
• January 12, 2010 2010 begins at a canter
• KEG Week 1
• December 14, 2009 KEG Week 47
• 10 Point Liberal Democrat Policy On Education
• Social media strategist
• December 13, 2009 Conservative Priorities For Government
• December 12, 2009 BECTA Survey Shows Schools Spending ICT Budget on “Kit” not Software
• December 11, 2009 Brown says primary Sats must stay
• December 10, 2009 Changes to Testing and Reporting Arrangements 2010
• December 7, 2009 KEG Week 46
• December 1, 2009 KEG Week 45

and another

Archives:

• Westwood video
• Matched funding for approved phonics schemes – some thoughts
• Technology in the UK – report to shadow education team (2009)
• Rising pupil population – the real issue facing schools
• The Importance of Teaching – #eduwhitepaper and responses
• Synthetic Phonics – the answer to all our prayers?
• Browne Review – some numbers
• Prime Numbers Game
• Can you crowdsource a business?
• #Australia
• Crowdsourcing goes mainstream
• zondle – feedback wanted
• Year 4 Test for Mathematics
• Over 1000 Schools Apply to be Academies – DFE
• Dilemma – Facebook or bust (UPDATED Oct 2010)
• #tmfuture – two further thoughts
• #tmfuture
• English Schools in 2010 (Part 3 – Special Needs and Short Stay Schools)
• English Schools in 2010 (Part 2 – Secondary)
• English Schools in 2010 (Part 1 – Primary)
• New Education Minister – Michael Gove
• 2010 General Election – The Result
• What didn’t happen with the CSF Bill!
• Manifestos – Labour and Conservatives
• “Leave out Clause 10″ – the end of Primary Curriculum Reform
• Children, Schools and Families Bill
• IncubatED – Moving things on …
• Tests and Examinations … and people power!
• BETT 2010
• KEG Week 2
• BETT Day 3 – Reality Bites BETT
• BETT 2010 – Day 1
• 2010 begins at a canter
• KEG Week 1
• KEG Week 47
• 10 Point Liberal Democrat Policy On Education
• Social media strategist
• Conservative Priorities For Government
• BECTA Survey Shows Schools Spending ICT Budget on “Kit” not Software
• Brown says primary Sats must stay
• Changes to Testing and Reporting Arrangements 2010
• KEG Week 46
• KEG Week 45

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• Blog entries
• Help Wanted
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