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School of Education

CPR News

Whole Education Northern Conference - Thu 24th May

9.00am - 3.30pm at Leeds United Football Club.

The theme for the event is 'Becoming an outstanding school through engaging learners and raising attainment'.

We would like to offer CPR Network members 33% off the ticket price (schools price £175, non schools £245). We would love to see you there.
Keynote speakers / further details are as follows:

  • Alan Yellup, Executive Head, Wakefield City Academy will speak about the key transferrable lessons from their journey to become an outstanding school in challenging circumstances. Central to Wakefield's approach to raising attainment is through providing a 'whole education' and engaging all young people in learning. Alan will explore their focus on raising aspirations, effective use of data and curriculum design. Table discussions and Q&A will follow;
  • Angela Armytage, Headteacher at Yewlands Technology College will share their 'change journey', including their innovative approach to staff professional development, and strategies used by the school to engage parents and support their children's learning;
  • Plus more than 20 innovative projects and initiatives feature in breakouts offering ideas to enrich the curriculum and provide a rounded, highly engaging education;
  • Young people will be videoing and interviewing throughout the day as part of theRadiowaves programme

For further information contact: Jo Dale, Operations Manager, Whole Education
Email: jo@wholeeducation.org

New Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Here is the link to the new Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and assessment framework that will be implemented from September 2012. 
http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-2012/

You may also be interested to read Professor Cathy Nutbrown's interim report on early education childcare which is downloadable as a pdf below.

New Charity - National Numeracy - Launched this Month

National Numeracy is a new, independent organisation, unique in its commitment to transforming attitudes and achievement in numeracy across the age range.  In particular it focuses on those with low levels of numeracy.  It has come into existence following a report in April 2010 from National Philanthropy Capital, Count me in, which highlighted the problems of poor numeracy and the need for a national campaigning voice and co-ordinating body focused on improving the numeracy of children and adults.

National Numeracy aims to transform public attitudes so that poor maths ability is not seen as a badge of honour.  It believes that it is essential that the importance of good numeracy - and the possibility of it being achieved - is recognised.  It also wants to see a measurable transformation in maths at school and numeracy for adults.

National Numeracy will work with key partners in a range of fields to achieve these aims, raising awareness of the issue and campaigning for improvements.  It will also work on a practical level to spread the word on good ideas that really work and highlight where change and new ideas are badly needed.  And it will work with partners on a small number of trial projects to improve numeracy - in schools, with families and in adult learning.

National Numeracy believes that, if it succeeds in these aims, the UK can significantly improve its international skills ranking.  For more information please visit the National Numeracy website.

Music Education

'Children, their World, their Education' emphasised the importance of a well taught, broad balanced curriculum.You may be aware that Ofsted published a survey inspection report last week entitled 'Music in schools: wider still, and wider'.  The survey found that there was considerable variation in the quality of music education within primary schools.  

Please find the Ofsted survey below with two summary documents that have been prepared by Dr Alison Daubney on behalf of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

National Curriculum Review: announcement and reports (19th December 2011)

Today (Monday 19 December 2011), the Secretary of State issued a statement about the progress of the National Curriculum Review to coincide with DfE's publication of the Review's first four reports. These are: 
1. Report summarising responses to the DfE call for evidence issued in January 2011.
2. Report and recommendations of the NC Review Expert Panel.
3. Report on curriculum scope and structure in other countries and states.
4. Report on requirements for language, maths and science in 'high-performing jurisdictions' (i.e. countries whose students top the PISA league tables).

The Secretary of State has decided to postpone the introduction of new requirements for the core subjects from autumn 2013 to autumn 2014 in order to allow time for further discussion. We hope that all those associated with the Cambridge Primary Review and its network will join this discussion, not least when they note how many of the CPR's own ideas  and proposals have found their way into the Expert Group report. 

Here is the link to the four DfE reports listed above: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/AllPublications/Page1

And here is the BBC's take on these developments, including its summary of Michael Gove's statement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16248847 

Finally, two members of the Expert Panel (Andrew Pollard and Mary James) have circulated their own one-page summary of the Expert Panel report. This is downloadable as a pdf below.

The Education Bill 2010/11

The Education Bill 2010-11 received Royal Assent on 15 November 2011 and is now an Act. Details about the new Act can be found at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/education.html but you may like to know that the Act includes the following key areas:

  • The Act provides a new entitlement for disadvantaged two year olds to 15 hours free early years education.
  • It replaces independent appeals panels for exclusions with independent review panels.
  • It also removes the duty on local authorities to appoint a School Improvement Partner for every school.
  • It extends the Secretary of State's powers to intervene in underperforming schools;
  • Closes the Local Government Ombudsman's school complaints service
  • Removes the duty to consider complaints about the curriculum from LAs - general complaints about schools will now be made direct to the Secretary of State.
  • Provides for the abolition of the following quangos - TDA, GTCE, QCDA, YPLA and SSSN
  • Includes measures relating to school admissions, school meals, composition of school governing bodies, school inspection, school finance and permitted charges.

National news from the Cambridge Primary Review can be found at: www.primaryreview.org.uk

CPR report wins Sociaty for Educational Studies Book Award

Cambridge Primary Review Network members will be interested to learn that Children, their World, their Education, the CPR's final report and main text, has won the First Prize in the Society for Educational Studies Book Awards for 2011. The downloadable CPR press release below gives further information.

Workshops in Schools

Workshops in Schools aims to become the largest database for workshop leaders and creative artists in the UK. The team behind this site have years of experience working in schools and with young people from all backgrounds.

We've worked with Creative Partnerships as creative agents and creative practitioners and know what schools need and are searching for. Our network of schools and contacts in the arts sector is extensive and we're confident that by advertising your skills on our site you'll be seen.

With funding for Creative Partnerships disappearing by the end of 2011 we know that schools need a central resource where they can easily find professional workshop teachers to deliver high quality art experiences in schools.

Workshops in Schools is the best way to promote your workshops skills or company to schools across the UK and it's our aim to match talented, creative, workshop facilitators with forward thinking schools who value creativity and the arts.

To find out more link to the Workshops in Schools website 

Summer born children: the forgotten disadvantage?

The Cambridge Primary Review welcomes the Institute for Fiscal Studies report, Does When You Are Born Matter? The Impact of Month of Birth on Children's Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in England. This report highlights a long-standing concern which will be familiar to many teachers, parents and children, not least from the controversy generated by the Rose Review's proposals about school starting age in 2008, but as the Cambridge Primary Review evidence indicates, understanding and responding to the problem requires looking beyond the simple fact of a child's date of birth. The CPR Final Report* stressed the need for policymakers and practitioners to work to ensure that gaps in the learning and achievement of many different groups - including summer born children - are significantly reduced, and in 2010 we placed 'narrowing the gaps' and 'consolidating the EYFS' high on  our list of post-election policy priorities.  The CPR seeks to address these concerns by proposing changes in:

  • the structures of schooling, including the age of transition from the early years foundation stage curriculum to key stage one (CPR final report, recommendations 26-29) and later transitions (recommendation 109)
  • assessment practices tracking children's progress in learning (CPR recommendations 30, 70)
  • teacher education and continuing professional development, giving greater attention to research-based evidence on children's development and learning needs (CPR recommendations 31, 60).

The CPR also argues that reducing these linked issues to a debate about school starting age tends to miss what is more important: that early years educational provision, whether it takes place in pre-school or school settings, should be developmentally appropriate and should lay solid foundations for the kind of learning required in the formal curriculum that follows. This is something that, historically, has been better understood in many continental European countries than in England.

To find out more about the Review's recommendations, read the Cambridge Primary Review report, Children, Their World, Their Education (2010) http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415548717/

For further research evidence on birth-date effects see: http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/ca/digitalAssets/169664_Cambridge_Lit_Review_Birthdate_d3.pdf

 To access the IFS report: http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5737

Whose Curriculum is it Anyway?

Middlestone Moor Primary School, Durham

Thursday 17th November 2pm - 6pm

Why attend? 

This free CPD event enables primary practitioners to learn about how Middlestone Moor are working towards providing all their children with a 'whole education' through use of initiatives such as SOLE and Building Learning Power. There will also be an opportunity to hear from Whole Education's partner organisations, including Iris Connect and Sports Leaders UK, regarding how they have developed a range of exciting 'whole education' approaches to help children:

  • develop a range of skills qualities and knowledge
  • make learning more relevant and engaging, supporting independent learning skills
  • engage the wider community in learning

Please see below for downloadable flyer for the event. If you need any further information from me please contact: Jo Dale, Operations Manager
Whole Education. Email: jo@wholeeducation.org  

Edison Learning curriculum

An introduction to the Edison Connected Curriculum and Core Learning Skills can be downloaded below or further information can be found at: www.edisonlearning.net

Angela Wade would be happy to give schools more information or visit schools to discuss further.

Please contact her on: angela.wade@edisonlearning.com tel: 07939 573201

National Network Newsletter

The latest edition of the CPR National Network newsletter has now been published. Download it below.

Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys soon to be available as an e-book

When the final report of the Cambridge Primary Review was published in October 2009 it was accompanied by the 850-page Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys, a unique and authoritative set of surveys of published research in all aspects of primary education. These first appeared as CPR interim reports and were later revised and re-edited for this volume, together with an introductory essay and a section-by-section commentary.

There has been understandable frustration that the book is so expensive that only libraries will buy it and some won't even do that, and we have been urging Routledge to turn it into a e-book. This they have now agreed to do, though the process will take a couple of months to finalise. Better still, they are going to offer it with a truly massive price reduction for a limited period. We'll notify you as soon as we hear more. 

Robin Alexander

Director, Cambridge Primary Review

No Pens Day

The Cambridge Primary Review is supporting No Pens Day (28 Sept) and the campaign to raise the profile of oracy - something which we make much of in the CPR final report and which we have pressed in our evidence to the national curriculum review.

www.hello.org.uk/get-involved/no-pens-day-wednesday

Press coverage

The Cambridge Primary Review has been featuring regularly in the press over the last couple of months. Below are links to the relevent reports:

Ideas for practical, values-based schooling

With the events in August raising some fundamental questions about the health and wellbeing of the fabric of our society, herewith some practical ideas for values-based schooling, which can empower children and young people so that they - and possibly some teaching staff - become progressively more confident and 'fluent in values'.  Some of the concepts could prove helpful to those who have joined your regional centres.

The 4 files below provide:

  • an introduction to the Human Values Foundation, which was established in 1995 by a primary school teacher who wanted to share with others, the transformational effects she discovered from embedding values into all aspects of her teaching
  • some values-centred education points for consideration, including school transition policies and the contribution to children's wellbeing through the continuity of explicit, systematic values education
  • thoughts on Values-Based Schooling - are teachers being sufficiently prepared and trained for this?
  • a simple 10-step guide to implementing values education, embracing the whole school, parents and the local community.

With our best wishes for a very successful and rewarding academic year.

Rosemary Dewan
Chief Executive
t: 01403 259711
m: 0795 711 2680
e: rosemary.dewan@hvf.org.uk

Creative Exchange

13th September with Estelle Morris, Mick Waters and Alison Peacock confirmed as speakers.

Creative Exchange is an exciting one-day event that will explore relationships between art, culture and learning through lectures, debates, workshops and conversations.

The North East region has developed many new approaches to arts, culture and learning and is advancing thinking and action around partnerships for the future. Reflecting on the work developed through the North East's Creative Partnerships programme, Creative Exchange will focus on sharing and building strategies, ideas, and practices to help deliver inspirational creative learning for the 21st century.

http://creativeexchange.ning.com/ 

Places can be booked on our eventbrite page http://creativeexchange.eventbrite.com/ 

US President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities

You may have read recent press coverage of the report on arts education from the US President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (honorary chair, Michelle Obama). It's of considerable significance to those who care about children's education, wherever they live and work, and we urge you to read it.  

We believe that this kind of evidence is no less important for the future of the National Curriculum than the TIMSS and PISA test results on which statements from ministers and their advisers tend to concentrate. Summary quotes about its relevency to the Cambridge Primary Review are in the downloadable document below.

You will find the report at http://www.pcah.gov/sites/default/files/photos/PCAH_Reinvesting_4web.pdf . Please do consider its implications both for the national curriculum review and the work of your school. There's a summary at http://www.pcah.gov/sites/default/files/photos/PCAH%20Report%20Summary%20and%20Recommendations.pdf  

Literacy Updates

Below are three documents relating to the current debate about literacy and phonics which may interest CPR network members: the recent letter to the Secretary of State about the 'phonics check' from leaders of various key organisations including the Cambridge Primary Review; the report 'Overcoming the Barriers to Literacy' from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education; and the press release for this report.

Dare to be Different - Curriculum Innovation through Music

The National Education Trust, in partnership with the Cambridge Primary Review Network, invites you to be part of this exciting, high quality event.

At the event we intend to:

  • Provide opportunities for school leaders and classroom practitioners to hear about curriculum innovation and excellent practice.
  • Hear how schools can maximise learning potential through music.
  • Discuss why using subject specialists can enhance learning. 
  • Have the opportunity to see an innovative approach to providing new musical experiences for children and young people at the Wroxham School. 

If you are able to attend on Tuesday 27th September, please email maryjo@nationaleducationtrust.net or book online via the link below as soon as possible, so that we can finalise arrangements. You will receive a further email confirming your attendance and giving joining instructions. Places are limited and we expect the event to be very popular so please book as soon as you can. There is no charge to attend.

Please click on the links below for more information, including the full programme and online booking:

We look forward to welcoming you to The Wroxham School.

Dame Clare Tickell's Review of the EYFS

A brief summary of the key recommendations of Dame Clare Tickell's review of the EYFS can be seen by downloading the document below.  The recommendations have been broadly welcomed.

Summary quotes from the Bew Report

Alison Peacock has taken quotes from the 'Independent Review of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability' and organised them into key themes.  She hopes the document below is of interest and use.  The final section 'Implications for the National Curriculum Review' is of particular note, especially the recommendations regarding a core 'mastery test' to be taken when ready in Years 4, 5, 6 and a new 'vertical scale' against which children could be assessed at the end of KS2.

A response to the Bew Review from Colin Richards HMI

Colin Richards HMI has written the attached response to the final report into Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability led by Lord Bew.  Professor Robin Alexander thought you may wish to read this.

Education Committee: Select Committee Announcement

BEHAVIOUR AND DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS: GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

Publication of the Committee's Sixth Special Report of Session 2010-12 

The Education Committee publishes its Sixth Special Report (HC 1316) at 11.00 am on Monday 27 June 2011 (Behaviour and Discipline in Schools: Government Response to the Committee's First Report of Session 2010-12). The Special Report contains the response from the Government to the recommendations made by Committee in its First Report of Session 2010-12, onBehaviour and Discipline in Schools, HC 516-I.

Hard copies will be sent by post on Monday 27 June to those who gave oral evidence. The Report can also be ordered from The Stationery Office (tel: 0845 702 3474) or from the Parliamentary Bookshop (020 7219 3890), or can be viewed on the Committee's website from 11.00 am on Monday 27 June. 

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Specific Committee Information:  educom@parliament.uk / 020 7219 6181

Media Information: Rebecca Jones, Jonesbl@parliament.uk / 020 7219 5693

Committee Website: www.parliament.uk/education-committee

Watch committees and parliamentary debates online:  www.parliamentlive.tv 

Review into Key Stage 2: final report

Please find a link to the Final Report of the Review into Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability.

www.education.gov.uk/ks2review

Murton CPS Learning Walk

Murton CPS hosted the first CPR regional network learning walk on the 14th June. A full summary of the event, the innovative practice at Murton and examples of resources are now available.


Phonics check for 6 year olds 

Please follow this link to a newly established web page with information about the proposed phonics check and an option to join the UKLA campaign to review the government's decision to test all 6 year olds http://readingshouldbefun.wordpress.com


SciTech 2011 - Innovation UK 

26 October 2011 

At SciTech: Innovation UK we will be discussing how a dynamic UK science and technology base can lead the world in meeting the global and societal challenges that we face. How can Britain develop new technologies, nurture creativity and encourage world-beating products? The conference will outline how UK science and research can strive for excellence and be at the frontier of research and economic growth. 

This event is CPD Certified. Read more...

National Network Newsletter

Please find below for download the May 2011 issue of Network News, the newsletter of the Cambridge Primary Review Network. Please forward it to others who may be interested.

Special offer for network members

I'm pleased to tell you that we have negotiated a special CPR Network members' discount on copies of the Cambridge Primary Review final report. The Routledge flyer can be downloaded here and if you or your school/organisation wish to take advantage of this offer please contact Routledge as indicated on the reverse. Perhaps we should also mention, for those who haven't yet seen the report, that royalties from the sale of the report are being distributed to charities and organisations that support the education of disadvantaged and marginalised children.

Please help us to spread the word about a better future for children and their primary education. Note the enthusiastic comments on the flyer from one primary head. He isn't the only one!

▸ Contact us for further information or to get involved: Kate.Wall@primaryreview.org.uk

Learning Walks 2011/12

We are pleased to announce a quickly expanding timetable of learning walks through the academic year 2011/12. Each learning walk has limited numbers and so places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

See the learning walks webpage for further information.