Crackdown on parents who cheat for school places

Local authorities have been urged by a government advisor to set up a whistle blowers' hotline to trap parents who lie to get their children into the school of their choice.
The schools adjudicator Ian Craig is also calling on local authorities to make random checks on one in ten school applications.
Children should lose their school place if it is found that a family has cheated to get it, says the adjudicator's report. Mr Craig estimates that there were 4,200 fraudulent school applications last year, of which about a quarter were discovered.
Children's secretary Ed Balls said he took the issue of fraudulent applications very seriously, but did not want to criminalise parents, or punish children for the actions of their parents. He is proposing that if a child's place is withdrawn because their parents cheated to get it, there should be a fast-track appeals process to an independent panel. "While I am reassured that only a tiny minority of parents apply dishonestly, I am also clear that every place gained by deception is denying another child their rightful place."
Just over four out of five will go to their first choice of secondary school this year, said Balls.

TA saved pupils from being crushed

A teaching assistant who was injured while protecting children from a falling climbing frame has been awarded £10,000 compensation.
June Belcher, 49, was working at Hartlebury Primary School in Hartlebury, Worcestershire when the frame fell from the wall of the sports hall.
She grabbed the bar to protect the six pupils standing nearby, but the frame landed on her thighs. She was left with severe bruising and swelling, and whiplash to her head and shoulders. She also experienced insomnia and nervousness after the accident, and was off work for seven weeks. Her left leg has not fully recovered.
June Belcher's union UNISON made a claim on her behalf against the firm responsible for securing the climbing frame to the wall.
Mrs Belcher said, "I had six young children pulling out the equipment with me, and they could have died if it had fallen on them. The accident has changed my life and you can still see the lump on my thigh through my clothing."
Unison's general secretary Dave Prentis said, "I am happy that Unison has managed to secure some compensation fro Mrs Belcher, but it will not make up for the physical and mental scars caused by the incident. Safety must come first in schools, and that means making sure equipment is regularly checked and maintained."

"Wellbeing" is worst for SEN children

Children with Special Educational Needs  are more likely to become less happy as they get older, according to new research.

The government-funded study looked at changes in children's wellbeing as they passed through primary school and early secondary school.

The researchers measured factors like fears and anxieties (emotional wellbeing), getting into trouble (behavioural wellbeing), friendships (social wellbeing) and what the children said about their enjoyment of school (subjective school wellbeing).

About half the children's wellbeing stayed roughly the same, a quarter improved, and a quarter  got worse.

Children with SEN were more likely to have poor wellbeing, which tended to get worse. Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and children with specific learning difficulties (such as dyslexia) were most at risk.

Children who reported good relationships with their parents were more likely to increase their wellbeing. But when mothers were depressed, children's wellbeing got worse.

Change in Wellbeing from Childhood to Adolescence
Institute of Education

More training to teach children with severe disabilities

Teachers are to get more training in teaching children with severe learning difficulties, the government has announced.
New teachers who want to work with severely disabled children will get the chance to do a six month specialist course, says Children and Schools Secretary Ed Balls.
The announcement follows a review which calls for more to be done to attract and keep teachers who want to teach disabled children in mainstream and special schools.
Ed Balls said, "All children have potential and we want to support them to take part in school life, to achieve and to be happy throughout their education."

Date set for vote on SATs boycott

Heads and teachers will be voting later this month on whether to boycott this year's Key Stage 2 SATS tests.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), and National Union of Teachers (NUT)are both balloting their members on  industrial action from March 15th.
If their members vote for action, they won't be a strike, said  Christine Blower of the NUT. Children will be taught as usual, but they won't be taking the English and Maths tests in the week beginning May 10th as scheduled because staff will refused to administer the tests.

The NAHT and NUT said in a joint statement,  "The outcome of SATs adversely affects our members’ terms and conditions. The use of publicly available league tables, based on the result of these tests, have negative consequences for the pay, tenure and career progression prospects of our members."

Call for pre-school screening

More than one in ten children start school with behaviour problems that damage their ability to concentrate or make friends, says a think-tank.

The report from Demos says in some deprived areas, up to half of children are starting school without the speech and communication skills they need. "These are children who face an uphill struggle throughout their school lives to catch up their peers. They are, in effect, set up to fail before they've even begun."

It wants children to be screened before they start school, and for the children who need it to be offered extra support such as speech and language therapy, mental health services and parent support services.

Ex curricula

BBC News - Ofsted criticises Three Rs 'initiative overload'

The government has loaded too many new initiatives onto schools, harming the effectiveness of the national strategies to improve reading, writing and maths, says Ofsted.
BBC News - Ofsted criticises Three Rs 'initiative overload'

Asbestos in schools "killing teachers and support staff"

Pupils and staff are at risk from poorly managed asbestos in schools, says a new report.
Three quarters of schools have asbestos within them, but the official government policy is to manage it rather than remove it.
More than 60 teachers are known to have died from the asbestos-related disease mesolthelioma between 2001 and 2005.  Figures on support staff are not available because they are bundled with other local authority employees.
The report, from the Asbestos Training and Consultancy Association, says asbestos in schools is not being safely managed because schools haven't got the resources or training to do it properly.
It says, "Most school buildings contain asbestos. All of the asbestos material is old and where it has not been properly maintained, it is deteriorating. All types of asbestos can cause mesothelioma, however schools can contain large amounts of the more dangerous types. Numerous incidents have taken place where asbestos fibres have been released, the schools contaminated and teachers, support staff and pupils have been exposed. The increasing numbers of mesothelioma deaths amongst teachers and support staff is testament that the

policy of management has failed."

Trade unions representing teachers and school support staff are demanding that asbestos is urgently removed from all schools.