TAs put children first

The role of teaching assistants should be clarified, and properly supported, says the independent Cambridge Primary Review.

The three year enquiry is calling for a full review of all primary school staffing.

The research team from Cambridge university talked to heads, teachers, support staff, parents and children. They found that teaching assistants try to make school a secure and caring environment for children.

But there was confusion about the roles and responsibilities teaching assistants should be shouldering. The introduction of Planning, Preparation and Assessment time for teachers - covered by TAs - had ironically meant many teaching assistants lost joint planning time with their teachers.

TAs saw children's well-being as their first priority. But many felt they were poorly qualified for the responsibilities they had been given, especially supporting children with complex learning needs.

The three year enquiry has ended with a 608 page report, including 75 recommendations for the future.

Since 1997 when Labour came to power, investment in primary education has risen dramatically and many policies have had a positive impact, says the report.

"Highly valued by children and parents, primary schools provide stability and positive values in a world of change and uncertainty."

But the review criticised the government's standards agenda. Targets, testing, perforance tables, national strategies and inspection are believed to have caused a lot of damage for questionable benefits.


Summary of key recommendations

• Compulsory schooling should start at six instead of five
• The foundation stage should be extended to age six
• Key stages one and two should be replaced with a single primary stage
• Formal assessment at the end of primary school should stay, but SATs should be scrapped
• Redefine standards as excellence in all areas of the curriculum - not just reading, writing and maths
• Review primary school staffing.
• More specialists among primary teachers
• Review SEN provision, including definitions of SEN

Final report of the Primary Review

MPs call for slimmer curriculum

Teachers have been de-skilled by the National Curriculum and National Strategies, say MPs.
The cross-party schools select committee wants a slimmed-down primary curriculum which leaves more room in the timetable for other learning.
The MPs cross questioned 32 expert witnesses including schools minister Jim Knight, and Sir Jim Rose who is writing a review of the primary curriculum for the government.
They also took written evidence from 42 organisations.
"At times schooling has appeared more of a franchise operation dependent on a recipe handed-down by Government, rather than the exercise of professional expertise by teachers," says the report.
The MPs say Sir Jim Rose's interim recommendations are unnecessarily complex, and they also oppose his proposal that children should move into reception at age 4. "Due to their low practitioner-to-child ratios these settings cannot cater for the needs of very young children."
The schools select committee is one of 19 select committees in the House of Commons with the job of scrutinising the work of government departments.
National Curriculum: Fourth report of session 2008-09
Children, Schools and Families Committee of the House of Commons

New curriculum "to include blogging lessons"

Recommendations for a big overhaul of the primary curriculum have leaked out early.
Sir Jim Rose's report is due to be published next month but some newspapers say they have seen his recommendations already.
According to the Guardian, the Rose report will recommend that children are taught about using blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.
The Guardian also says the government-funded Rose report recommends a less prescriptive curriculum so that for example schools would be able to choose the historical periods they taught, and no longer have to teach pupils about the Victorians and the World War Two.
Children should also leave primary school with enough of an overview of history to place the events they have studied in a timeframe and understand some of the links between them.

Government is a bad influence on schools say researchers

Experts have fiercely criticised of government interference in the primary classroom.
Children are missing out on a “broad and balanced primary education” because of the government’s preoccupation with “standards” says the
Cambridge Primary Review, an independent study funded by Cambridge University and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
It has published a string of reports on different aspects of primary education. The latest, called Towards a New Primary Curriculum, welcomes the Early Years Foundation Stage but says that for older primary pupils “memorisation and recall have come to be valued over understanding and enquiry” because of government policies, including SATS testing.
Cambridge Primary Review
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/index.html

Curriculum shake-up recommendations

Primary schools should have more flexibility for project work and other cross-curricular teaching says education expert Sir Jim Rose.
Sir Jim has recommended that the national curriculum should be based on six areas of learning, instead of the current range of individual curriculum subjects.
The aim is to give schools more flexibility for project-based cross-curricular learning, though he also says essential that subject-teaching must not disappear and can be encompassed within the six areas.
Sir Jim rules out changing the school start date from the September after the child’s fourth birthday. But parents could be allowed to send their child to school only part time to begin with.
Sir Jim was asked by the government to review the primary curriculum, but was told not to consider SATS in his report. He has commented that every school talked about testing, and it should be reviewed separately. Teachers’ leaders have said his proposals cannot work unless SATS are scrapped.
In this interim report, the review also suggests that the primary curriculum might be better divided into three two-year phases instead of the current two key stages.

The six areas of learning proposed by Sir Jim Rose
Understanding English, communication and languages
Mathematical understanding
Scientific and technological understanding
Human, social and environmental understanding
Understanding physical health and well-being
Understanding the arts and design

School starting age to be reviewed

Summer-born children could soon be able to start school up to a year later than autumn-born children.

The government has asked former Ofsted chief Sir Jim Rose to look at the options for a more flexibile school start date for children as part of a wholesale review of the primary curriculum.

Parents of children born later in the school year could decide to delay the first day of school until they felt their child was ready.

The review will also be looking at whether the curriculum is too prescriptive, making it difficult to meet the needs of children who are struggling to keep up and those who need more challenges.

Balls wants advice on how to introduce languages as a compulsory subject at Key Stage two in a way that is manageable for schools.

As well as reading, writing and numeracy, personal development should be central to the primary curriculum, says the letter.

Read Ed Balls’ letter to Sir Jim Rose

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/pnattach/20080003/1.pdf

"Too much" maths and English taught

Science, arts and the humanities have lost out to a disproportionate weight on teaching maths and English in the primary curriculum, a study has shown.

A team from the University of Manchester found that children were taught an “alarming amount” of maths and English, to the detriment of other subjects.

Data was examined from the last ten years. The National Curriculum’s emphasis on testing maths and English is responsible for the change, say the researchers.

Dr Bill Boyle, who led the research, said: “It’s scandalous that around half of teaching activity is now on two subjects.
“Ofsted argues that the curriculum should be balanced and allow adequate development of each subject area.”

Schools to decide TA roles in new tutoring schemes

TAs could be involved in intensive tutoring for children lagging behind with reading and maths.

Teachers are to be trained to work intensively on a one-to-one basis to boost children's literacy and numeracy skills, and teaching assistants could be trained by the teachers to support the programme, says the government.

A third programme of intensive support was announced last week, aimed at children who need help with writing.

"Every child a writer" follows "Every child a reader" and "Every child counts" which will be targeted on six and seven year olds children lagging behind with reading and maths. An extra £144 million will be available over the next three years for the reading and maths programmes.

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, said: “ I want all children to master the skills they need to succeed at secondary school, which means that every child should leave primary school able to read and write and do maths.

“However, some children need extra help early on so that they don’t lose heart and get left behind by their classmates.”

Teachers will get the government-funded training, but they could in turn train TAs to do less intensive work to support the programme, said a spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The decision on teaching assistants' role will be left to schools.