Children should be taught how to speak properly as part of the English literacy curriculum. Another great idea from the powers that be, although common sense may have spotted this oversight a few generations ago.

Employment prospects are increased if children are taught how, and when, to use formal English. Employers are more likely to seek recruits that can speak English confidently and have a sound command of English grammar.

The ability to learn to listen is crucial in learning behaviour and enhances the ability to develop reasoning. There is more to come as Sir Jim Rose, commissioned by the government ministers to review the primary curriculum, is set to publish his findings and recommendations. The outcome could be substantial changes to the curriculum.

Children from poorer homes have a vocabulary of 500 words compared to around 6000 in an affluent home. This aids the better off child towards higher order thinking and reasoning that enhances the learning process. The converse is aggression often caused through frustration from an inability to express an idea or opinion adequately. But perhaps the greater challenge will emerge with the competition from the language in vogue communication. Text messages, Twitter and the like have a language of their own which may hinder or overwhelm the teacher.

Science education in the field of biology takes an intake of breath. Apart from the significance nuisance mosquitoes can create on earth as a primary source of malaria, it comes as a shock that these creatures can survive the harsh environment of outer space.

A recent Russian experiment saw African mosquitoes live after being strapped unprotected to the outside of the International Space Station. Their ability to suspend animation on Earth during periods of drought also works in space.

Their suspended animation is achieved by converting the water molecules in their body to sugars. This ability survived direct sunlight temperatures of +60 centigrade to -150 centigrade in the shade. And 18 months later living in the vacuum of space they were still alive.

Suddenly the horror movies become a reality. The guys in the space station hope mosquitoes do not evolve to become able to fly into space. Similarly these insects take on a whole new level of respect in biology. They even look like aliens  Doctor Who might meet.

If you’re an unruly child, isn’t the chance of being sent home exactly what you want? To be excluded must seem ideal but the impact to the school is enormous. The bureaucracy needed to control the unruly is a huge drain on the school. The temptation to mitigate  the punishment must loom large if only to reduce the effect on the school targets.

Officials claim most teachers are unaware of their full rights to deal with the unruly, thereby loosing the opportunity to nip things in the bud. Similarly justice being seen to be done is a key deterrent and often obscured by the antics of school versus pupil.

I recall my own children suffering the effects of unruly behaviour in class. As a consequence Science was a subject virtually abandoned at their school in GCSE and A level.
In my view the influence and control of a child by the parents is paramount in the formula. Pointless being corrected at school if the issue is not reinforced at home. One individual can induce  huge disruption affecting the entire class. Maybe the fine should reflect this effect, become significantly increased over the £50 proposal. It should be also linked to a points system. Once a maximum score is reached the child is expelled.

Alistair Owens http://www.keen2learn.co.uk

Learning should be stimulating, rewarding  and develop a desire to learn more. But the UK’s current National Curriculum and examination standards fall between a rock and a hard place. Teaching resources  have progressed at the speed of light whilst educational methods have, arguably, moved at the speed of sound. The result; lessons can be seen as boring, children drift and teachers, constrained by the need to achieve targets, are unable to expand or experiment. The employment world has expanded with global markets operating that could prefer to select the cream of students having international qualifications.

Anthony Seldon, Master at Wellington College in Berkshire UK., recently said he was loosing faith in the GCSE system where the qualification had become “too boring.” Conversely the International Baccalaureate (IB) is seen as stimulating and interesting to both teachers and pupils. This mutual motivation can pay dividends in the academic progress of children. Wellington College appears at the vanguard of Independent schools intentions. Unfettered by rigid curriculum and the enforced approach of state schools, there are many progressive independent schools considering the International GCSE exam ( IGSE) option. Regarded as more stretching, the IGSE’s have no course work or modules with just exams at the end. This approach is seen as far more stimulating for bright pupils.

But if the Independents predominately adopt the IGSE there is a fear of a divide with the state schools still operating GCSE. The IGSE is also aligned to the mainstream International Baccalaureate (IB), an educational option that is gathering considerable pace in the UK – and more importantly in the global employment markets. If the option is to persevere with the GCSE, considerable and prompt re-engineering is required to bring the UK in line with the progress overseas. The UK is no longer the educational bench mark authority we were.  Global influences are now in play and we need to adjust accordingly.

If we were to develop a uniquely British system the relevance to overseas standards will become misaligned. Foreign students wishing to study in the UK may be dissuaded, and vice versa. Unstoppable changes are in progress which we need to recognise. The example of the global status achieved by Google in just 10 years indicates just how dynamic markets have become. The world of search engines, ( ironically attributed to a engineer at Nottingham University who missed its true potential ) is dominated by Google. This achievement, due largely to the development of an international service, left the competition in the shadows. The IB could follow suit.

British universities are using the standard as the bench mark for overseas students. High achieving students in China wishing to enter a UK university have seen the standard rise. The UK clearing system UCAS originally set a score of 360 points for three “A” levels; equivalent to 28 points on the IB.  Recently the top UK universities have raised the entry bar to 567 points on the UCAS system or 38 points on the IB. This substantial increase was introduced to attract a higher standard. Although there has been some initial negative reaction from overseas students who need to push for the higher score,  as  reported  in the South China Morning Post (28th Feb 2009) they perhaps have an advantage of being more achievable with the IB approach than “A” levels. The higher standards could also push students overseas to academia offering a more achievable standard than the UK. Similarly if the UK “A” level standard becomes eroded  we could see UK children failing to get into overseas university places.

These educational games are set to run. We must react to resolve the ideal course format between GCSE, A level and IB, otherwise the UK could miss the boat. If the general standards predicted by the IB  become higher than the UK and we could see our children at the back of the queue for  university places at home as well as overseas. Equally we could see a preference from global employers move towards an IB benchmark with the UK qualification a poorer substitute.

By Alistair Owens, managing director keen2learn

By Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk
In Adelaide, Australia, childcare centres are increasingly banning the wearing of “Superhero” costumes by young children ages 3- 5. A letter advising of the ban of all superhero clothes and toys was sent after a noticeable increase in violent behaviour, intimidation and a severe lack of caring about other people. The removal of the costumes and toys has had an immediate benefit in the behaviour of the children.

The awful outcome of child violence in the UK with a 11 year old and his 10 year brother facing attempted murder and robbery on two other boys of the same age. A psychiatrist summarised their condition as children who were “morally empty.” Whilst this is an extreme case, there is a general concern over the disruptive element in classroom, with teachers being abused or attacked – even at home by abusive children and or their parents.

Perhaps any toy should be scrutinised for its ethical or moral content in the same way as film censorship ratings. Only toys or games having recognised educational content receiving support. But this will perhaps only influence the interested parent; the bigger problem concerns the growing number of disinterested parents that for some reason have abandoned their duties to the detriment of their children in particular and society at large.

Once again our educational standards are under threat. Results in SAT’s GCSE and A level show a growing gap in performance. But are the best people to resolve this situation remote theorists sitting well away from the daily grind of schools? Ideally people best able to manage the situation are those on the ground, at the sharp end of operations. Teachers are therefore eminently more able to use their operational skill and judgement to maximise performance than a remote theorist.

The National Curriculum has been played around with for all of its 20 years existence. Results published in April 2009 show we are failing badly in the educational standards at primary level, the essential bedrock that influences attainment in secondary education. Although the rate of improvement in numeracy and literacy shows a marginal improvement over last year the rate is slowing. And the numbers are massive. Can we continue to fail 160,000 11 year olds, or a quarter of the total who missed the target.

Teachers are locked into targets that see some of the brighter students abandoned in favour of addressing the needs of the struggling children. Hardly an altruistic move when the motivation is a need to move the overall numbers up.

We are in the midst of a national crisis that bears similar markers. Although the jury is still out the financial collapse was heavily influenced by government policy to get banks to invest in social markets and areas of risk to improve performance. The judgment of the banks became impaired by people in high places who knew little about the operations at the sharp end. Stressed bankers took risks in order to meet targets. Incentivised by greed the odds were too high for many individuals and banks and the system imploded.

Are we seeing the corollary of distant education policy? The fun has gone out of learning, SAT’s and GCSE milestones being the key measure of education standard. Yet success stories are around.  A top performing school in Bradford broke free and introduced “brain breaks.” A combination of fun and exercise to encourage learning has been a great success. The teaching resources are there they need unfettered application. Let the profession responsible for the operation use their skill and judgement to achieve the results. The current alternative in banks and education has proved what can go wrong.

Children who see education as a fun activity thrive. Putting fun learning back into the schooling process is not taking some easy route, managing the process needs skill and energy, but the results can be extremely rewarding. There is another hidden asset. Engaging parents in the process at home is vastly easier with educational games than exercises. Homework in this form can also be seen as enjoyable and as children spend 85% of their waking time outside school could capture a huge and predominately untapped resource.