Primary Teacher UK

Schools Recruitment Service

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has announced today that the contract for delivering the new Schools Recruitment Service has been awarded to Tribal.

The Schools Recruitment Service is being established to provide a faster, more efficient and standardised application system to recruit all permanent teaching and support staff in England. This programme aims to reduce the cost of advertising and fill school staff vacancies through ‘talent pooling’.

Nearly 100,000 teaching vacancies are currently advertised each year – with an annual teacher turnover of 20 per cent. In addition to this, an estimated 50,000 non-teaching positions in schools are advertised annually. 

Schools Minister Jim Knight said:

“We are delighted to be launching this important service to our schools and local authorities. Our contractor, Tribal, has significant experience in providing services to schools and we look forward to working in partnership with them to enable schools to recruit both teaching and support staff more effectively and efficiently; making savings on time, money and resources."

Peter Martin, Chief Executive of Tribal said:

“We are delighted to have been selected to deliver this innovative service to schools and local authorities. We look forward to working in partnership with the DCSF to deliver efficiencies and value for money across the education sector.”

The system will use the latest applicant tracking technology to save schools time and money on their administrative processes. It will allow schools and local authorities to upload their job vacancies, whilst candidates will register, search for and apply for jobs online.

Candidates can submit their job preferences for potential vacancies and receive job alerts for relevant roles that match their criteria – building up a ‘talent pool’, where schools and local authorities can choose to contact suitable candidates directly.

This will better match candidates and cut down the costs of advertising and re-advertising posts, whilst giving schools a greater understanding of the market and which media source is attracting the most candidates.

Schools or local authorities that do choose to advertise externally will have access to discounted advertising rates with key media through the Schools Recruitment Service.

The Schools Recruitment Service will be launched this autumn, with candidates able to register from the summer. It will comply with the Data Protection Act, with all personal, schools and payment details maintained securely and regularly assessed and reviewed.

For more information see http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/schoolsjobs

Swine Flu closes Primary School

A primary school in Greenock is to be closed for a week because a pupil there is a probable swine flu case.
The five-year-old boy, who is in primary one at Ravenscraig Primary, has so far tested positive for influenza A.

His mother, who came into contact with a teenager from the town who has been confirmed with swine flu, is also being classed as a probable case.

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said 23 pupils in the boy's class were being treated with tamiflu.
Another 17 children who attended an after-school club with him are also being treated.

They were also being asked not to return to the after-school club or to their own individual schools for seven days.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8046595.stm

Hundreds of trainee teachers queue to be first MTL graduates

More than 300 trainee teachers have already registered an interest in the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) qualification on the Training and Development Agency for Schools’ (TDA) website - ahead of a campaign to recruit them.  The recent surge in interest shows strong demand for the new Government-funded national qualification for teachers, first announced by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in March last year.

Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) will be entitled to a place on the MTL programme in the academic year 2009/10 if they take up posts in:

• maintained primary and secondary schools in the North West, and
• National Challenge schools and other schools in challenging circumstances across the rest of England

This means that up to 5000 NQTs are entitled to start on the programme next year.

In time, Ministers want MTL to be available to all teachers.

The MTL will be a professional, school-based qualification for teachers which will develop, embed and deepen their teaching skills, for the benefit of the children and young people they teach. The skills and knowledge of experienced teachers, acting as coaches, will be vital in supporting the teacher.

Eligible NQTs need to take the following steps:

• Register an interest on the TDA website www.tda.gov.uk/mtl
• Start in post in an eligible school from September 2009
• Enrol on MTL from January 2010
• Start the MTL programme in the summer term in 2010

Headteachers in eligible schools are encouraged to talk to NQT interview candidates about the MTL.

The MTL has been developed by the TDA working in close partnership with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and social partners, and in wide consultation with the education sector, including teachers themselves.

Graham Holley, chief executive of the TDA, said:

“We want every eligible new teacher to take full advantage of the great new opportunity that MTL presents.  There is a critical need to meet the individual learning needs of every child and to remove barriers to learning.  This means that schools must continue to develop and support their teachers at all stages of their careers.  MTL will be an important part of the tool-kit.  The benefits of MTL will spread much wider than the individual participant.  This new ground-breaking qualification will help to build an ethos of shared learning in schools which will benefit all who are involved.”

Anne Bright, Headteacher at Birchwood Community High School, in Warrington said:

“The appeal of this qualification is that it builds on initial training and offers support and structure for the first years of a teacher’s career, alongside induction. Teachers will be able to develop their skills in teaching and learning in a classroom context. I am confident that the MTL will inspire newly qualified teachers to make a huge contribution to improving the quality of teaching in schools and the outcomes for children and young people.”

If you are interested in finding out more about MTL visit www.tda.gov.uk/mtl and order or download a hard copy guide to the new qualification.

Blogging, social networks and podcasts

Chris from the new media analysis site called New Media Knowledge (www.nmk.co.uk) is following up on the story that The Guardian recently carried that proposals were on the table to teach primary school children blogging, social networks and podcasts and the like (see full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/25/primary-schools-twitter-curriculum)

He'd be interested to know if you'd like to comment on this? (ie. do you welcome it, what impact will it have, what format should it take, is it something primary school kids are doing already?). If you are he'd love to hear your views either by email or by phone (below). 

Email: info@cmrlee.com, Phone: +44 (0)20 7558 8358

Teachers needed for Wife Swap

Katie Yeats from RDF Media has contacted me to ask for teaching families to take part in Wife Swap – a "BAFTA award winning Channel 4 show about family life and values."   She is am particularly interested in contacting families where one or both parents are teachers, because she feels that our career offers many interesting insights into the education system which we all are a part of at some point in our lives.

In particular she is looking to feature a positive family who can be considered as an inspirational force in the UK.  She would like to speak to families who are interested in sharing their values with others and who feel that they have something they could teach another family about their way of life.

"The show explores the notion of different families teaching each other something positive about their family lifestyle and in turn, learning from the way another family lives their life."

Interested?  Katie can be contacted on 0207 013 4517 or by email Katie.yeats@rdftelevsion.com

NCSL to become the NCSCL

NCSL's remit is being extended to include development opportunities for leaders of children's services.

In partnership with the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) and Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and a group of experienced directors of children's services (DCSs), the College has started to develop a leadership programme for directors of children's services and for aspirant directors of children's services, building on its successful provision for school and children's centre leaders.

In addition, the College has also been asked to:

• develop an executive leadership programme for the most experienced directors of children's services
• support the identification of directors of children's services who, with their teams, have the capacity and expertise to help children's services in other authorities who might need their help and value their expertise
• support succession planning and talent management strategies in children’s services at local level
• develop an accelerated leadership programme (fast stream) to enable talented potential leaders to move more rapidly into senior leadership
• ensure that NCSL is a college for senior leaders in children's services as well as for school and children's centre leaders

The National College will maintain its unrivalled services and programmes for school leaders and its support for the development of system leadership in schools and beyond

To reflect the extension of its remit, the College is proposing to change its name to  National College for School and Children's Leadership. The new name underlines the increasingly integrated nature of the work of leaders in schools, children's services and children's centres and encapsulates a common commitment to improving the lives and life chances of children and young people. The College will be consulting on the name change before making a final announcement at its annual conference in June. The new name will come into effect from September.

Maths lessons reduced to a simple exercise in memorising facts instead of understanding and applying equations

Maths lessons are being reduced to a simple exercise in memorising facts instead of understanding and applying equations, it was claimed.  Experts said pupils experienced a “less than broad and balanced timetable” for at least five months in the run up to tests.
 
The comments were made by the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education. It forms part of the organisation’s official response to a Government review of Sats.  In its submission, ACME said:

“Learning mathematics is as much, if not more, about its understanding, reasoning and application than it is the ability to recall facts and remember an algorithm. Using and applying mathematics is not easily tested so at present many pupils experience an impoverished mathematics curriculum as a result.

We believe that a core purpose of mathematics education is to learn, understand and appreciate the importance of mathematics and not to simply to pass tests in the subject.”

Ministers are considering replacing the tests with shorter exams pupils sit up to twice a year between the age of seven and 11 - Key Stage 2.  Under plans, children would either pass or fail the test - and move up to the next level when they succeed. But ACME, which is part funded by the DCSF and the Gatsby Foundation charity, said the reforms would make the situation even worse. It called for a new system in which teachers assess pupil performance in the classroom.

“It is our belief that the preparation for testing at Key Stage 2 is disproportionate to the educational outcomes for the individuals taking the tests,” it said. “If a broad and balanced curriculum is to be encouraged then schools need advice that supports them to make judgments about their pupils without the pressure of single snapshots of attainment.”

Fast track teaching and headship

High-fliers who lose their jobs in the recession will be able to retrain as teachers in just six months – to the fury of teacher unions who said the profession could not be "picked up at the drop of a hat". And those who are particularly gifted could become headteachers within four years, under a controversial new fast-track route into the classroom announced today.

The initiative, which is part of Labour's public service reforms, will from September halve the minimum time it takes to train as a qualified teacher in England from a year to six months. Ministers hope it will attract credit crunch victims from the City and the country's brightest university graduates, many of whom are now looking for jobs in the public sector. At least 200 people will be fast-tracked into headteacher roles from next year. Some will qualify for "golden hellos" of £10,000 for choosing schools in deprived areas. But some teachers are insulted by the idea their profession could be learned in six months and said the initiative was just a headline-grabbing exercise in a recession.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said:

"Training someone to be a teacher in six months is an ill thought out scheme that consigns Gordon Brown's vision of a world class education system to the scrap heap.

It may work for a mathematician or scientist to come into schools and teach a small group of interested 16- to 18-year-olds, but it's quite another thing for someone to take over the teaching of a class of primary school children, or those in the early stages of secondary school. Having knowledge and being able to teach it are not the same thing.

Teaching is not a profession that can be picked up at the drop of a hat. There needs to be the time for reflection and the capacity to undertake in-depth theoretical study. To bring in an entry route that does not provide a good grounding in theory will not only undermine the status of the profession but will also jeopardise the education of our children and young people."

First Aid in School

First aid should be a compulsory part of the school curriculum, St John Ambulance has urged ministers. The charity carried out a survey of more than 1,500 school children, of whom seven out of 10 said they would not know how to help in an emergency.  First aid is a mandatory subject for Welsh and Northern Irish pupils, but in English and Scottish schools it is an optional part of the curriculum.  The government said that it intends to bring England into line by 2011.

An estimated 400,000 young people are injured each year at school, according to the first aid charity.
More than 300,000 children have been taught first aid skills since the St John Ambulance training resource pack scheme was launched in 2007.  Its survey, which was carried out in association with the Children's Forum, suggested that the same proportion of primary and secondary children who said they would not know how to help someone in need of first aid would like to learn.

Contact your local St Johns Ambulance for free Y6 first aid training.

Scholastic Support Red Nose Day

Scholastic UK have announced that it has become a supporting partner for Red
Nose Day 2009 – a six week campaign which culminates on Friday 13th March and that is
encouraging the people of the UK to ‘Do Something Funny for Money’. Scholastic is working
with thousands of schools across the UK to support Red Nose Day and to ‘Read Something
Funny for Money’. The aim is to raise over £50,000 for Comic Relief.    

Participating schools that run a special Red Nose Book Club or Book Fair will help Scholastic to
raise £50,000 – and more – for Comic Relief. It isn’t only the charity that will benefit; schools
also continue to earn free books for their classroom or library. They can help to raise money until
the Easter holidays. 

To help schools to make the most of the Scholastic ‘Read Something Funny for Money’
campaign, the Book Club has highlighted lots of funny titles for all ages. The Red Nose Day
themed Book Fairs come with a wide range of new display material and book-themed activity
sheets that will help to promote the event throughout the school.   

Scholastic Magazines are full of great ideas and ready- made resources to help schools and
nurseries enjoy and fundraise for their Red Nose Day too. These include an interactive circus-
themed ‘Splat the noses’ game that children can play on their classroom computer or interactive
whiteboard, as well as many creative crafts and fun cookery ideas. There is also a comprehensive
website at www.scholastic.co.uk/rednoseday.