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It seems incredible to think that the Easter holidays are just around the corner. At the end of this month schools will be entering the final term of the academic year – the period peppered with SAT’s, GCSE’s and A Levels. Now is the time secondary school children are racing to complete coursework and schools up and down the country are spending what remains of their budget ahead of the new financial year in April. It is a busy time for everyone as we await the arrival of spring.
Stoke on Trent launches radical initiative to improve attainment in maths
Stoke-on-Trent is trying to radically improve maths standards in its schools by helping to pay off the tuition fees of maths teachers who come to work in the city. Local MP Tristram Hunt is working with local schools, council and employers in a £1m maths project aimed at attracting bright young maths graduates to a city struggling with industrial decline and academic underachievement.
Stoke’s schools are among the lowest performing in GCSE results in England with Stoke being in the bottom 10 local authorities in the country. The project, known as the Maths Excellence Partnership is an attempt to get local organisations, including Keele University and regional maths hubs, to join forces to support schools in improving maths.
There is a target for 70% of pupils to achieve a good grade at GCSE maths in the next three years, up from 59% at present. Mr Hunt, a former shadow education secretary, said it was “frankly difficult” for cities such as Stoke to compete for staff with cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. The project is offering cash to pay off tuition fees as well as a relocation payment, in addition to the national bursaries already offered to attract students into training as maths teachers. Ofsted has welcomed this initiative with Ofsted Chief Sir Michael Wilshaw launching the scheme only last week (24th February).
Nursery fees for parents remain static
For the first time in eight years, nurseries have resisted fee hikes amid fears they will price parents out of the market. A report by the Family and Childcare Trust claims that average prices rose by inflation only, as providers in Britain realised they had reached a “crunch point”. The report says government reforms to wages and pensions will raise the staff bill and contribute to financial pressures on childcare providers in the near future, but nurseries accept they cannot make up the financial shortfall by continuing to increase the charges to parents.
Report author Jill Rutter said: “Bearing in mind the massive price increases of the past few years, providers have now realised that if they increase prices any more then they will be pushing parents out of the market and that they simply won’t have a market.
The 2016 Childcare Survey for the charity, based on responses from 197 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland, found the price of sending a child under two to nursery part-time (25 hours) is now £116.77 per week, or £6,072 per year. This is a 1.1% rise since 2015 and compares with much steeper rises over the previous seven years.
Hero or Heroine?
To mark World Book Day on the 3rd March, a poll of more than 7,000 book lovers has taken place, organised by National Book Tokens to determine whether heroes or heroines are most remembered in books. The poll showed that heroines and female villains outnumber heroes and male baddies.
Six of the top 10 heroes and heroines were female, including Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series. In addition, seven out of the top 10 villains were also female, including Matilda’s Miss Trunchbull and 101 Dalmatians Cruella de Vil. However, the top hero and villain were both male – Harry Potter and his nemesis Lord Voldemort.
Kirsten Grant, director of World Book Day said: “These polls show that classic characters and stories stay with us, no matter how long ago we read them.
Those polled were also asked to name the 21st Century children’s book most likely to be considered a classic by readers in the future. While three of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series appeared on the list, it was John Boyne’s acclaimed 2006 novel of the Holocaust, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which topped the poll.
World Book Day is a global celebration of books and reading, and is marked in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Originally written 29 February 2016