Call for more school outings

Learning outside the classroom should be "an integral part of school life" says the Government.
A £2.7 million package to encourage out-of-class learning will include advice for schools and a new safety badge scheme for companies and organisations providing of out-of-class educational experiences.
The Government is also to launch a consultaion on new guidance about the rights and responsibilities of staff who take children on trips.
Although there have been worries that children are getting fewer outings from school, schools believe they are organising as much or more activity as they were five years ago, according to government research.
Most of these were activities on the school's site, or visits to museums and other buildings. Visits to the countryside were less common except in special schools.
Concerns about health and safety, costs, and risk management were the main issues preventing schools from offering more out of class activities.
Education Outside the Classroom Research Brief
Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto

Sacked TA urged to give up

The Dewsbury teaching assistant sacked for covering her face with a niqab (full veil) has been urged not to pursue the case any further.

Aishah Azmi, 24, was suspended in February from her job at Headfield Church of England Junior School. After losing an employment tribunal at Kirklees Council the school governors have dismissed her.

Her MP Shahid Malik who represents Dewsbury, West Yorks, urged her not to go to appeal. He said: "This could drag and drag and drag. It's not something I want, it's not something the school wants, it's not something Dewsbury wants and it's not something the country wants.

"I think if anything the majority of Muslims would be quite angry that she is pursuing this and it will have a negative impact between communities in this country."

But according to a report in the online news magazine Middle East Today, there is support for Mrs Asmi among local Muslim women who are donning the niqab in solidarity.

Call for more action to tackle bullying

Bullying is the "scourge of childhood" and everyone should do what they can to stop it, says England's Children's Commissioner.

The children's rights chief, Sir Al Aynsley Green, has warned that 20,000 children are skipping school every week because of bullying and some have even killed themselves.

He said that although a lot of good work was being done, there was a very long way to go. Bullying needs to be picked up early, and "low level" harassment challenged. School staff need to take all incidents seriously, including aggressive language such as homophobic or sexist name-calling.

School clubs can be very valuable ways for children to develop friendships, and their value should be recognised and supported by the government.

Training on bullying for all school staff also needs to be improved and to be regularly updated.
Children should be able to report bullying in different ways, including to their peers. Schools should make sure that when a child does report bullying that they are not put at risk of reprisals or worse bullying as a result.

Bullying Today: a report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner

Teaching assistant numbers soar

There has been another big increase in the number of teaching assistant jobs in English schools.

An extra 6,000 full-time-equivalent posts for teaching assistants were created in the last year, bringing the total to 153,000 full-time equivalents.

Because most teaching assistants work part time, the total number of people working as teaching assistants is much higher.

The number of teaching assistants has been growing rapidly since Labour came to power in 1997 when there were only 60,000 full time equivalent jobs.

There are now 12.8 pupils per adult in primary schools compared to 17.9 in 1997. The pupil-teacher ratio has also dropped slightly, from 23.4 in 1997 to 22 this year, according to government statistics.

School Workforce in England statistics

Bilingual children "need to use mother tongue"

Children who can speak two languages do better at school than children from similar backgrounds who speak only English. But they need the chance to develop their mother tongue and to use it in their learning, say language experts.

More than one in eight primary school children in England alread speak another language when they arrive at school, and in some schools the proportion is much higher.

When bilingual children are encouraged to use their mother-tongue language as well as English - for example by talking about things they have learnt both in English and in their mother tongue - it improves both their literacy and understanding.

But when children are encouraged to reject their mother tongue, their learning is undermined.
The National Centre for Languages carried out a survey of languages spoken in different local authorities. Urdu is the most widespread community language in Britain - spoken in sixty nine local authorities.

In Scotland over 100 languages are spoken by schoolchildren, including some which have not been recorded in English primary schools such as Chechen and Kadazen.
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