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Education Journal No.85 (2005-4) Editorial Education and the public services is a major plank in the Government's general election platform and it should be judged on that record. Features section The LEA is dead: long live the CSA The Children Act 2004 requires the establishment of a Children's Services Authority in place of the Local Education Authority. How will the new bodies fare? |
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Manifestly predictable A review of the education sections of the political parties' general election manifestos. Letter from Scotia Scotland Editor John Dobie reports on the decision of the Scottish Executive finally to repeal the Schools (Scotland) Code 1956. More for Gaelic Scottish Education Minister Peter Peacock announces an increase in funding for Gaelic-medium education. Times Were When Our history feature looks at Roy Hattersley's book, The Edwardians, which recalls how Scotland took a different path to the reform of education compared to the imperfect attempt in England and Wales made by the Education Act of 1870. Media Watch This month's look at media coverage of education focuses on the general election, the Easter teacher union conferences, select committee reports and the attempt of NATFHE and the AUT to merge. General section Conference reports We report from the annual conferences of ATL, the NUT and NAS/UWT. Opinion John Izbicki looks at bullying at home, at school, at work - and in government. Fun A page of jokes and quotes from student essays. Quote of the month: "Artificial insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull." Reference section Document reviews Single page reviews of the following documents appear in this issue: the National Audit Office report Improving School Attendance; the DfES Skills White Paper; the Scottish HMI report A Climate for Learning; and the English HMI report Managing Challenging Behaviour. Document Digest Short reviews of documents from the DfES, HMIE (Scottish HMI), the Institute of Education's Centre for Research and Development in Catholic Education, NOA Wales, the NUT, Ofsted/English HMI, QCA and the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills. Reports Digest Reports from LEAs, prepared by the EMIE section of NFER, cover primary special education provision; disaffected truants; integrated learning neighbourhoods; and adult and community learning. Research section Research Digest During the course of a year this digest lists the research papers published in over a hundred academic journals published in Britain, the Commonwealth, Europe and the USA. All the papers published in each issue are listed, giving the title of the paper and the author. This month the following six journals are listed: British Educational Research Journal, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, Educational Review, High Ability Studies, Oxford Review of Education and Westminster Studies in Education. Research notes In his monthly column Education Journal's Research Editor, Michael Marshall, reports on international comparative research. TIMSS 2003 Graham Ruddock of NFER reports on England's performance in the latest TIMSS maths and science study. School funding: European and OECD countries This month's research section has an international flavour. Michael Marshall reports on NFER research giving an overview of existing models of educational funding in other countries. Brief research reports Brief reports on sorting secondary school children by ability, from Bristol University; a policy paper from IPPR on the role of education in the degree to which first generation Asians view themselves as British; and an initiative from Gloucestershire Connexions Service on an alternative curriculum for pupils at risk of being excluded. Parliamentary section Education and Parliament 2001-2005 Nick Kent, editor of Education Parliamentary Monitor, reviews the major education acts of the last parliament. The Education Act 2005 Chris Waterman, Executive Director of ConfEd, reports on changes for schools and LEAs brought about by the Education Act 2005. Select Committee reports A review of reports from the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills on secondary education, skills and prison education. Every Child Matters A review of the report from the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills on children's services. Teaching Children to Read A review of the report from the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills on Teaching Children to Read. Public services in Wales A report on a Welsh Assembly debate on the public services. Children's services in Wales A report on a Welsh Assembly debate on children's services. Scottish Skills A report on a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Executive's record on skills. Tory policy in Scotland The Conservatives chose education for one of their minority party debates. Parliamentary Questions Answers to written parliamentary questions from Westminster, Edinburgh and Cardiff include those on types of secondary school by some LEAs, ethnic minority teachers, disabled students, the National Literacy Strategy, literacy in Clackmannanshire, school meals, teachers' pensions, post-primary education in Northern Ireland, teacher training, the number of 16 to 19 year-olds by Scottish education authority, the Welsh Safe Routes to School initiative and the Welsh Free School Breakfasts scheme. Phoenix Dr Who's TARDIS materialises in Gateshead for the NUT conference, and Phoenix has a picture of it. The Academy for Sustainable Communities is born at the NIACE conference. |