1 DAY AGO - To tackle staff shortages, jobs in schools and other public services must be made more attractiveWithout teachers, schools can’t do their job. Recognising the problems caused by shortages, Labour made the recruitment of 6,500 new ones a key plank of its education offer to voters in England – one funded by VAT on private school fees. Now a report from the charity Teach First, advocating flexibility and an entitlement to career breaks, attempts to flesh out what improved working conditions in English schools might look like. Given the difficulties faced by recruiters and the alarming drop-off rate – one in four new teachers last less than three years – it is imperative that ministers pay attention to such efforts and come up with a plan.The 5.5% pay rise agreed this summer should make a difference – although not to teachers in further education colleges, who have once again been left out. But the stress associated with teaching, as well as the pay, is putting off potential entrants, Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Ken Done, Jonathan Zawada, Blak Douglas and more created their own companion pieces to kids’ works celebrating sharks and rays – and they’re on display at the Australian Museum now Continue reading... Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Other perks including nine-day fortnight and more planning time at home offered to attract recruits‘A brave new world for educators’: teachers respond to nine-day-fortnight proposalsTeachers in England are being offered a range of incentives to make the job more appealing, including two free periods a week to give them a lie-in, a nine-day fortnight and more planning time at home to help with work-life balance.An escalating crisis in teacher recruitment and retention is forcing schools and academy trusts to come up with novel ways to attract new recruits into the profession and keep experienced staff in front of classes. Continue reading... Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Fabian Society also wants a ‘culture pass’ for children to help break the ‘class ceiling’ in the sectorEveryone in Britain should be issued with a “universal library card” and children should spend 10% of their school time on arts activities, according to a new report.The Fabian Society’s Arts For Us All calls for Keir Starmer’s government to remove the “class ceiling” by democratising access to the arts in schools and ensure culture is a prominent feature of its “decade of economic renewal”. Continue reading... Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Mobile phone use is not the biggest issue facing schools – or society. But device-free time is importantThe genie is out of the bottle. With the advent of smartphones and smartwatches, human life has moved online. Anyone seeking to curtail young people’s participation in the online world is as doomed as the fools who can’t figure out how to use the wishes gifted them in fairytales. The social ills blamed on the internet have complex causes that can’t be fixed by blocking children’s access.This is a caricature of the tech-positive outlook. In real life, most people recognise that the portable computers we carry around with us make excessive demands on our time and attention. Just as children need support to develop healthy eating habits, they need encouragement to use the internet in moderation – especially when very young. But reluctance to give in to unrealistic “ban them!” messages about smartphones can shade into an impression that there is really nothing to be done. Or that if Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Comes with a free pintUPDATE: Solutions up hereToday’s two puzzles are from my new book Think Twice: Solve the Simple Puzzles That (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong.As readers of this column will know, I love a counter-intuitive puzzle, i.e. when the obvious answer is not the correct one. Continue reading... Collapse

5 DAYS AGO - All over the place, average people are completely squeezing the pips out of lifeThe question I am a 22-year-old woman who has just graduated from university and am feeling extremely average. I grew up in an “education-heavy” household where success was measured in excellent marks and prestigious universities, and any good grades I received didn’t seem satisfactory. I used to think that excelling in school was not the only measure of intelligence, yet when I meet people who did excel, they are impressive and have careers to envy. I worry that not being as distinguished as them blights my future and that I can never measure up to them.I am very lucky in many ways and recognise I am naturally gifted at some things, however in my mind it is not enough. I constantly feel I have impostor syndrome and need to prove myself. I am terrified I will feel like this for the rest of my life and that I can never feel satisfied with myself; that every success is not enough because I never got the Collapse

7 DAYS AGO - Exclusive: Ormiston academies trust says impact of phones on learning and mental health has been ‘catastrophic’How going phone-free taught pupils ‘to socialise, old school’A national academy chain is to become the first in England to be phone-free, removing access to smartphones from its 35,000 pupils during the school day due to their “catastrophic” impact on children’s mental health and learning.The Ormiston academies trust, which runs 44 state schools including 32 secondaries, has begun phasing out access to phones at all its schools across the country, with eight secondary schools adopting new policies this term and the rest to follow, after liaising with parents. Continue reading... Collapse

7 DAYS AGO - Some high-achieving pupils in England received lower than expected grades that rose after being re-markedConcerns have been raised about the reliability of the marking of GCSE English this summer, after complaints that normally high-achieving pupils in schools in England were awarded lower than expected results, which then went up after being re-marked.In some cases, marks for individual questions doubled after a review, and at least one pupil’s grade jumped from 6 to 9. GCSEs are graded on a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 the highest grade. Continue reading... Collapse