'Teachers and TAs must do joint planning' - Ofsted

Teaching assistants make a big difference to pupils learning in schools if they are well deployed and supported by managers and teachers, says Ofsted. 

But schools need to make sure teachers and TAs plan together, and to be clear about each member of staff's responsibilities, says a new Ofsted report on workforce reform in schools.

The survey found that in the best schools, support staff had the skills and sensitivity to provide high quality advice, guidance and support to children. They were able to engage pupils who were at risk of being excluded, or of underachieving. They developed close links with the local community and could also re-engage parents so they were more supportive of their children's learning.

Support staff who had qualifications and training that was directly relevant to their particular work had the most impact on learning.

The Ofsted team called on the government to provide guidance on support staff pay and conditions, because they found support staff and their managers were confused and uncertain about how much support staff in their changing roles should be paid. 

Ofsted's report Workforce reform in school: has it made a difference?

Sparklebox owner jailed for child porn

The man who runs one of the most popular education resources websites in Britain has been jailed for downloading pictures of child abuse.
Ex teacher Samuel Kinge was jailed for twelve months last week at Worcester Crown Court after admitting downloading 424 indecent images of children.
His web site, Sparklebox.co.uk, has been blocked by many local authorities so it cannot be reached from school computers.
Five years ago, Kinge was sent to prison for similar crimes. Kinge, of Evesham, Worcestershire, was a primary school teacher until he was sentenced to nine months in prison for downloading child abuse images. But after he was released from prison he reinvented himself by announcing his death then changing his name from Daniel to Samuel Kinge.
Three years ago he started Sparklebox which provides colourful learning resources for Foundation and Key Stage 1 children and is widely used by teachers and teaching assistants across the world.

Read  the BBC's  report

Take part in Learning Support's survey: Should Sparklebox be blocked?

Anti-bullying ad banned from TV

An advert about bullying has been banned from being shown on TV.
The advertisement for Beatbullying's peer mentoring web site Cybermentors, was deemed too brutal for TV audiences.
But 10,000 children and young people have already viewed the ad on YouTube, claims Beatbullying. It will also be screened in cinemas, and stills from the advert will be used on billboards across the country.
The advertisement shows a girl preparing to sew her lips together, with the message, "You can speak out now". It was made in memory of Megan Gillen who killed herself after being taunted on social networking sites.

A spokesperson for Clearcast, the company responsible for censoring TV advertisements, said it went too far and was likely to offend viewers.

Cybermentors

Most packed lunches are unhealthy

Only one in a hundred packed lunches meet all the official guidlines for healthy school meals.
A study by Leeds University of more than 600 pupils' lunchboxes found most included a sandwich, but were low in fruit and vegetables. Instead they contained sweetened drinks, sweets and savoury snacks.
The standards were set for school meals by the Government's School Meals Review Panel, set up in 2005.
On average, lunchboxes contained three of the standards, and one in twenty contained five of them. These five healthy standards were a sandwich with protein filling (or alternative starchy and protein food), some vegetables, fruit and a dairy product.
Girls consumed more fruit and vegetables than boys, and children in schools with a lower proportion of free school meals ate more vegetables.Children ate about three quarters of their lunch on average
See a summary of the research on NHS Choices

Call for school dinner bargains

Schools should hold a "January sale" of school meals to attract more families, says a charity.

The School Food Trust says local authorities and schools should use special offers to tempt more customers, at a time of year when cash is tight for many parents.
The Trust points to new research which shows that price is a very important to parents' decision to choose a school meal over packed lunch. The study by the London School of Economics found demand for school meals is more sensitive to price changes than other food products, according to the study, with price rises likely to lead to a fall in take-up.
An analysis of the relationship between school meal take up and prices.

Weather closes thousands of schools

Thousands of schools are closed because of the wintry weather, and there may be worse to come.

Snow and ice prevented many schools from reopening after Christmas, and schools which opened at the start of this week have now closed again.

Across Britain, many staff have been unable to get to school, and some schools have also had problems with heating.

Parents have been advised to check school and local authority web sites to find out if their children's school is open.

Labour promises more money for one-to-one tuition

Labour has promised an extra £50 million for primary schools if it is reelected, to provide catch up support for children falling behind in English or Maths.

Children falling behind in the first years of primary school will be guaranteed extra support - either in small groups, or intensive individual tuition for children who are furthest behind.

Looked after children will automatically get one-to-one support.

Children who are still not making progress by age seven will get one to one tuition, and those who leave primary school with poor English or Maths will get individual tuition in the first year of secondary school.

The £50m would mean the current Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts programmes could expand by 10,000 pupils each by 2014. But Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the decision to expand the programmes wouldn't be made until they had been evaluated.

He said, "Personal tuition must not be the preserve of those who can afford it - but must be available to all who need it. And even though money is going to be tighter over the years ahead by protecting schools spending, making tough choices and reducing inefficiency we can afford to make this pledge.”

SEN helpline to be launched

A national helpline for parents of children with SEN is to be launched by the Government.

The phone line is one of several reforms designed to give parents more confidence in the system for assessing children's needs.

It will provide independent, expert advice and information directly to parents, according to a government statement. There will also be stronger independent appeals panels on exclusions and new statutory guidance for schools on excluding children with SEN.

The changes follow an official report on parental confidence in the SEN system by Sir Brian Lamb.

Growth of advertising in schools

Schools are allowing themselves to be used more and more by businesses to market their products, without knowing the impact on children, says a new report.

The government-funded study found that commercial messages are becoming increasingly common in schools, often through sponsorship, voucher and token schemes and overt advertising.

For example Sainsbury's and Tesco both promote themselves through voucher schemes, often getting large banner advertisements erected outside schools.

Commercial organisations also offer teaching materials to schools. Even if these don't directly promote their products, they "brand build" by introducing students, staff and parents to the company in a way which might suggest the school or teacher is endorsing the brand.

Schools might be giving mixed messages, for example on issues such as nutrition, if they allow businesses to market themselves in schools through branded materials and equipment, says the report.

Critics have also questioned whether voucher schemes really benefit schools and pupils, or whether the time and effort involved in collecting vouchers outweighs the rewards.

The Impact of the Commercial World on Children's Wellbeing

Shake up of rules about children on TV

Laws regulating the way children can take part in performances are to be reviewed.

Children's charities and others have been lobbying for a change because of worries that some TV programmes could be harming the children involved in them.

In the Channel 4 reality TV show Boys and Girls alone, 20 children under 11 were left to their

own devices in an isolated cottage, and in Channel 4's Wife Swap (pictured right), parents swap families. Both shows have raised concerns about the emotional welfare of the children involved.

Children's secretary Ed Balls said, "As a country, we want to continue celebrating the brilliant performances of children in stage shows like Billy Elliott or programmes like Britain's Got Talent, and it is right that our talented children should continue aspiring to appear on those stages.

“We also benefit as a country from the careful and sensitive insight into children's lives given by films like Fish Tank or documentary programmes like My First Year.

“But where many parents, educators and ministers become concerned is when programme makers seem determined to keep pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable, to provide shock value for viewers and push up ratings, rather than to do anything positive or meaningful for our children, our culture or our country.

“The original laws were drawn up in 1968 to ensure that children could perform but without harm to their health or education and we now need to make sure they are still fit for the 21st century."

The review has been jointly commissioned by the Deparment of Children, Schools and Families, and the Department of Culture, Media and sport. It will be be carried out by Sarah Thane who chaired the Royal Television Society and is an advisor to the media regulator Ofcom.

New TA pay and conditions plan by May

Plans for a new pay and conditions framework for TAs and other school support staff across England will be out by May, says the Government.

The new School Support Staff Negotiating Body has been meeting since July 09, with representatives of local authority and voluntary-aided school employers, unions and government under an independent chairperson, Philip Ashmore.

It has been asked to come up with a framework that will provide national consistency in the pay and conditions of support staff, without losing local flexibility.

Separate working groups have been meeting to develop

· A common core contract and conditions of service including a method

of calculating pay

· National role profiles for core roles and a method of conversion to a

national pay framework

· A process for assimilating school support staff to the pay framework

The SSNB is also going to be setting out new and stronger expectations for support staff development.