Recruitment and Retention of Teachers

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Committee report finds school teacher shortage.

In order to raise the status of the teaching profession, and improve retention, teachers must be entitled to high-quality, relevant continuing professional development throughout their careers. This must include a focus on subject-specific knowledge and skills to allow teachers to continually develop their practice and to create future leaders. The College of Teaching will play an important role in this, and we will continue to support and monitor its development. The Government should consider targeted funding and a central statement of annual entitlement for continuing professional development.

 

To view the full report, click here recruitment-and-retention-of-teachers

 

Educating Ruby

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educating ruby

As Robin Alexander states, students will not learn to think for themselves if their teachers are expected merely to do as they are told.

Bill Lucas and Guy Claxton are calling for changes in education which need your support.  Instead of constantly worrying about tests and assessments, students need to build their confidence, develop curiosity, work in collaboration with others, use communication effectively, be creative, show commitment to their learning and develop craftsmanship.  Seven Cs are highlighted in a book entitled ‘Educating Ruby‘  written by Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas.  In the book, the authors make suggestions about how change in schools may come about.  This must be a cause worth helping. Join Britain’s biggest education conversation and begin to make a positive difference by linking to:

http://www.educatingruby.org/

Professor Guy Claxton highlights how small changes make a big difference.

Does education offer equality?

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students working hard

Professor Steve Strand made a presentation at the University of Oxford about equity in education.  He summarised his recent research about school effects in educational achievement.  His focus was achievement gaps and whether teachers could learn something from the groups of learners who over-achieve in education.  Professor Strand highlighted that the effect of social class on pupils leads to stark differences between learners’ achievement.  Are you doing anything in your learning establishment which addresses successfully the problems of under-achievement?  If you are, it would be great to hear from you.

If you wish to read Professor Strand’s research there are two papers available:

Click here:  Strand, S. (2014) Even at best schools, kids on free school meals are performing worse than their peers. http://theconversation.com/even-at-best-schools-kids-on-free-school-meals-are-performing-worse-than-their-peers-32006

University of Oxford students click here: Strand, S. (2014). School effects and ethnic, gender and socio-economic gaps in educational achievement at age 11. Oxford Review of Education, 40, (2), 223-245.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2014.891980

 

Other recent papers presented by Professor Strand are:

Strand, S. (2014a). Ethnicity, gender, social class and achievement gaps at age 16: Intersectionality and ‘Getting it’ for the white working class. Research Papers in Education, 29, (2), 131-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2013.767370

Lindsay, G. & Strand, S. (2013). The evaluation of a national roll-out of parenting programmes across England: The parenting early intervention programme (PEIP). BMC Public Health, 13, 972. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/972

Strand, S. (2012). The White British-Black Caribbean achievement gap: Tests, tiers and teacher expectations. British Educational Research Journal, 38, (1), 75-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.526702