Laura Doggett

The elephant in the room just made its presence felt. 60,000 pupils get wrong exam grades in exam marking fiasco. Ooops! http://is.gd/o2I5

YouTube - No Future Left Behind.

Swift Kick Central.

What an amazing collection of inspirational EdTech material!

Thanks to Christine Morris for sharing it.

Our schools need a tough reformer (Sunday Times 15.3.09)

They certainly do! We can't blame all of the current mess on Tony Crosland for ditching grammar schools, as the system he reformed was not fit for purpose either. But despite an increased spend per pupil of 55% in real terms since 1997 (the year I left school), we have not seen the increase in social mobility that was promised. Instead of revelling in the success of increasingly high examination results in the comprehensive sector, GCSEs and AS/A2 are accused of being dumbed down to the point where some of the schools educating the nation's brightest sparks are rejecting these qualifications altogether. IGCSE, Internation Baccalaureate... these pupils need something more substantial to get their teeth into, and to differentiate them from the increasing number of students achieving 3 As at A2. The new starred A at KS5 will help to differentiate the most able, but will it be enough?

At the other end of the spectrum, a plethora of lower standard Level 2 and 3 courses mean that many can stay in education who previously would not have met the standards required, but do we have enough proof that it is doing young people any good? There are still worrying numbers of students at 16 for whom a C-grade at standard GCSE is unattainable. In order to get them the magic 5 or more A*-C, schools have to enter students for all kinds of alternative courses that have GCSE equivalence. Many students sit BTECs and other vocational qualifications which bump up the A*-C numbers, (apologies to Ken Boston from the QCA but I am not convinced by your statement about equivalence),  and by extension we should expect more students to go on to further training and employment as a result of these additional qualifications. However, numbers of NEETs have not descreased as hoped but look like they are increasing more than ever.

It's pretty obvious that the current system is failing the students both at the top end and the bottom. There are also thousands of children in communities across the UK who through no fault of their own are educated in schools which are unsatisfactory in both maintained and independent schools (see OFSTED's annual report) Ofsted pointed out that:

"The gap between the performance of the best and the weakest schools is unacceptable."

I still feel strongly that the system we currently have needs big reform from a tough reformer. Could Conservative Michael Gove be the next man for the job? The Times calls him a "worthy antagonist for [Ed] Balls"  and explains that:

"the opposition really does have a reforming agenda. It proposes to build on Tony Blair’s belated public service reform programme, especially his plans to provide more variety and excellence in state schools, of which the city academies are a shining example. Parents, charities and private companies will also be encouraged to set up their own schools under the state’s umbrella."

It sounds very grass roots and community-led: a massive shift away from the control-driven, initiative-loaded system we currently wrestle with. Could it just work, or will it be a swift leap from frying pan to fire?

Social Bookmarking for Educators.

This is a very helpful slideshare presentation with a YouTube video included in it that shows educators how to get started with social bookmarking using tools like Delicious.com. Thanks to Tony Searle for sharing it!

Mark Steed, Principal at Berkhamsted School wrote a very interesting post about schools needing to take responsibility for Digital Literacy, as it is key to pupils' future success.

You can find the post here: Digital Literacy is a vital preparation for life.

Here is my response:

This is another very interesting post, thank you Mark. It led me to ask: how can school leaders ensure that digital wisdom becomes embedded in an academic curriculum? The use of digital tools in practical or vocational subjects is relatively straightforward. However, I think that the natives need both digital wisdom and digital dexterity to be able to go beyond understanding and manipulating the wealth of information and communication possibilities to generate original content in a more academic context. 

Unfortunately there is a mismatch here in educational goals. On the one hand there is an accepted understanding amongst digital natives that interdependent sharing in data-rich media environments is the best way to learn. However, the primary outcome of school education (organised and maintained by a generation for whom learning with technology may have involved, at best, an Acorn Archimedes) upon which students' futures rest remains the centuries-old tradition of students sitting alone in an exam hall with a piece of paper and a pen. 

It matters little that coursework may represent a high proportion of the final grade in some practical subjects here. Let's imagine that the academic subjects' national assessments reflect a digital learning experience. Then, and only then, will reaching the top of the league tables and providing a modern digital education share the same methodology. Until then, we must expect that some teachers will resist completely embedding ICT into their subject teaching; the pupils have got exams to pass!

BBC NEWS | Education | More state pupils head to Oxford.

Numbers of comprehensive students entering Oxford are up according to this article. It left me wondering:

• do comprehensive students cope better or worse with the demands of an Oxford degree?
•  do comprehensive students stay the distance on their degree courses, and how do drop-out rates compare to students from selective or fee-paying schools? 
• do Oxford and Cambridge graduates originating from a comprehensive background achieve broadly similar success  as those from slective or fee-paying schools in their future careers?
• what can community comprehensives do to make sure those with the potential to get to Oxford or Cambridge do get their place?

Here are two displays for your MFL noticeboards!

One is the big four: Être, Faire, Avoir and Aller with personal pronouns and a title. The other is a three part selection of high frequency verbs in the past present and future. Feel free to pass them on!

BBC NEWS | Education | Trials of French teacher training.

A fascinating news item about potential changes to the way that Teaching qualifications work in France.