Ofsted report damns one in five schools as ‘inadequate for music’

A new report from Ofsted declares that a fifth of schools is providing an inadequate music education.

A damning report, as indicated yesterday in Music Teacher magazine,  also states that there is not enough emphasis on practical music-making in sessions, and that there is a ‘scarcity of good vocal work in secondary schools.’

Amidst a litany of depressing statements, detailing the failures and short-comings Inspectors found in their assesment of music in schools across the country,  one terse fact rings out:

Too often, inspectors simply did not see enough music in music lessons.

Read the report in full here.

By Gove! Michael Rosen’s open letter to the Education Secretary

Novelist and poet Michael Rosen has written to Michael Gove in yesterday’s Guardian, asking for some explanations about the curriculum, and the concept of making schools into academies – especially when they don’t want it to happen…

Credit: author's website

Read it here.

New Hernhill School Brochure 2011

Hernhill School has created a new Prospectus. This is useful for new and existing parents and includes information on the curriculum and how it is taught in the school:

http://www.hernhill.kent.sch.uk/UserFiles/file/brochure%2004_11.pdf

New certificate aims at rewarding pupils taking more academic GCSEs

Earlier this month, the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announced the creation of a new qualification, which will be awarded to pupils who take more traditionally academic GCSEs.

The English Baccalaureate will be awarded to those achieving a grade C or better in five subjects: English, Maths, a science, a modern or ancient foreign language, and a humanities subject.

The move is, in part, attempting to redress the reported rise in the number of pupils taking vocational qualifications. The number taking sciences in particular has also declined.

The results of children achieveing the new qualification would also feed into schools’ league table results.

Read more in the Telegraph article here.

The English Baccalaureate: coming to a school near you.

It’s all Greek!

http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/Greece.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm

http://ancienthistory.mrdonn.org/AncientGreece.html

Ancient Egypt for Kids

 

http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/Egypt.html

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/history/egyptians/index.htm

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/egypt/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

 

Romans R Us

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/romans/

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Romans.html

http://www.brims.co.uk/romans/

http://www.show.me.uk/topicpage/Romans.html

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Romans/roman_army.htm

Canterbury Roman Museum:

http://www.canterbury.co.uk/thedms.aspx?dms=13&venue=3030500&feature=1&campaign=2552

Richborough Castle:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/richborough-roman-fort-and-amphitheatre/

                   

 

Suffolk school embraces dance and drama to improve standards

As reported in an article in The Independent last week, a Suffolk school has forged links with a local dance organisation; pupils go for weekly dance lessons and attend productions at the DanceEast centre.

DanceEast

The move has engaged both girls and boys at the school, as well as parents, who go to productions with their children, with a real sense that the parents are engaging with their children’s education once more. Children are more confident, develop critical thinking as they write reviews of the productions they visit, and have a more positive view of their schooling experience.

With the arts increasingly being sidelined in school curriculum delivery, this step is a positive one; the school’s recent inspection report noticed an imnprovement in achievement and higher standards since the project began.

Speaking and listening skills, in particular, have been improved by developing pupils’ arguments about what they have seen when they act as dance critics. And those speaking and listening skills, according to the recently published review of primary-school national-curriculum assessment carried out by Lord Bew’s inquiry team, are essential to improve reading and writing standards.

Read the full article here.

Maths Games

If your children are asking for Gordon’s Flash Maths Games – this is where you find them and there are all sorts of other interactive resources:

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/14.cfm?s=14&m=80&p=51,index

Recommended by a year 2 teacher!

RNLI website for Children

As part of the National Curriculum in Year 2 the children learn about the RNLI.

This website has information & games for kids:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/Shorething/Youth/Default.aspx