Posts on ‘November 28th, 2008’

Sir Alan Sugar will be the face of apprenticeships in England in a new TV advertising campaign, ministers announced … (2008/0267)
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Ed Balls Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families today announced £22m for Family Intervention Projects and a ‘Think Family’ approach across England to help more families at risk. (2008/0268)
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- raising standards at a faster rate- sponsors contribute to school improvement - good leadership and popular with parents- delivering better education for deprived … (2008/0269)
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The schools minister, Jim Knight, shifted the onus for improving children’s educational and life chances on to parents today.
Speaking at the Special Schools and Academies Trust conference, Knight said: “If we’re really serious about narrowing attainment gaps, we’ve got to put more of our focus on parents.”
He urged schools to do more to engage parents, [...]

The European Space Agency (Esa) is to open a research centre near Oxford.
The facility, which will be built at the Harwell science and innovation campus in Oxfordshire, could be up and running within a year.
The science minister, Lord Drayson, and Esa’s director-general, Jean-Jacques Dordain, signed an agreement after a two-day ministerial meeting in The Hague.
The [...]

Attending a good pre-school and primary has more impact on children’s academic progress than their gender or family background, researchers claimed today.
The Institute of Education study found that the quality of teaching children receive is more important than their gender or family income.
A high quality pre-school followed by an academically effective primary school gives children’s [...]

There has been a “catastrophic slippage” in standards of science taught in schools, leaving children with a superficial understanding of chemistry, biology and physics, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Declining standards in schools, linked to teachers focusing on test results rather than analytical skills, risks starving the country of vital skills, the RSC said. [...]

The number of parents jailed for failing to stop their children playing truant has trebled in the past five years, government figures show.
The statistics, obtained by the Liberal Democrats, reveal seven parents were imprisoned for the offence in 2003, while 22 were in 2006, the latest available year.
In total, 71 parents were jailed between 2003 [...]

The results of a three-year longitudinal study funded by the MacArthur Foundation have argued that online games and social networking tools help kids’ development, rather than hinder it

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Better-off teenagers would lose out under plans to re-target Scottish education allowances at poorer students.
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