SCHOOLS

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Chellaston School has been forced to take on extra pupils after the city council said it was prepared to take the issue to the High Court. The school had refused applications from about 20 pupils in its catchment area because they would have taken it over its admissions limit. It said that it had previously told the council it was unwilling to admit more than this limit but the council claimed it had not been warned there would be an over-subscription problem at the school.

A housing development was built there in the late 1990s and pupils from there initially went to Noel-Baker Community School, Alvaston. Pupils from villages such as Aston-on-Trent, Swarkestone and Ticknall have been given places at Chellaston since Melbourne's secondary school closed in 1989. With new housing schemes sprouting all over the city, other schools can also expect a similar problem.

Chris Wynn, city council cabinet for children's services, said, "We have been in negotiations with the school and at the 11th hour they have had a change of heart. We were prepared to take the matter to the High Court and the Secretary of State for Education if necessary." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/06)

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers wants extra breaks introduced during the school day to give teachers and pupils time to wash their hands in the event of an outbreak of flu. The City Council has been asked to negotiate a policy to minimise the effect of any flu pandemic. Dave Wilkinson, NASUWT branch secretary, said he wanted additional breaks during the school day for hand-washing and training in hand-washing for pupils and staff to reduce the risk of spreading infection.

A Derby City Council spokesman said, "We work closely with health agencies and emergency planning partners. We are assured that it would not be sensible for there to be a separate education service plan of the sort requested by the NASUWT to deal with flu pandemics. Suggestions that training in hand-washing would play a significant role in a strategy are not supported by any evidence, and will not be taken forward by the council." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

A bid to cut bureaucracy in schools has made red tape even worse with some forms more than 100 pages long. Ministers launched the initiative to streamline the relationships between schools, councils, Ofsted and central government after heads complained of excessive paperwork. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly described the new relationship with schools as "the start of a new era". The Government set up a pilot of the initiative involving 93 schools in eight local authorities between September 2004 and July 2005. An evaluation of the one year trial was published on the Department for Education website. (Source: Mail on Sunday)

Pupils are to get school reports every week, instead of each term or once a year, so parents can keep a closer eye on their progress. At present and at some schools just once a year. Education ministers will now order teachers to assess pupils at the end of each week for behaviour, attendance, class performance and homework. To avoid a huge increase in their workload, the reports will be put online for parents to read on their home computers. (Source: The People)

Sixth-form students who regularly go to school will be paid up to £30 a week as an incentive to stay, the Education Secretary Charles Clarke announced. The "earn as you learn" scheme will be means-tested but has been hailed as a way of reducing the UK's post-16 drop out rate. In pilot projects, attendance of 16-year-old boys rose by 6.9% while participation for 16-year-old girls increased by 5.9%. Mr Clarke urged all eligible Year 11 students to apply for the new Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to try to improve the "appalling" records.

At the national launch of the scheme in London, he said, "The UK has one of the highest post-16 drop out rates in the western world. This Government is determined to smash school drop out rates at 16 and boost the aspiration and opportunities for those young people who have never viewed staying on at school or college as something for them. There is no point having improving GCSE results and higher education participation rising towards 50% if there remains a huge chunk in the middle that continue to drop out and enter into a cycle of continuous low paid work or unemployment."

Mr Clarke said EMAs would "help replace the 'culture of dropping out' at 16 with a 'culture of getting on'." It is estimated that 353,000 of the total 666,000 of 16-year-olds in the UK would be eligible for EMAs in 2004 and 2005. The pilot schemes have been carried out in 56 local education authorities (LEAs) since 1999 and involved 120,000 Year 12 students largely from economically deprived areas. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and University of Loughborough estimated the staying on rate had risen by 10% in the most deprived areas.

EMAs will available across the country as of September 2004. Anyone who lives in a house where income is £30,000 or less will be eligible for the means tested payments which will vary between £10 and £30 a week. Bonuses of £100 also could be given out to students who stay on their courses and demonstrate advances in learning. Mr Clarke said the allowance was "revolutionary" because it would be paid straight into the student's bank account rather than LEAs or colleges. But he warned that the money would only be paid in return for regular attendance.

"EMAs are not money for nothing," he said. "You only earn if you learn. The weekly payments depend on the young person being able to demonstrate that they are committed to turning up and working hard. "If you stop learning, then you stop earning." He went on, "EMAs will produce the biggest increase in 16-18 participation in a decade. Based upon the IFS evidence we project that by 2006/7 EMA will be causing an additional 72,000 young people to be participating in further education every year than would have done before EMA was introduced. That is over 70,000 young people in education, the vast majority of whom would otherwise have been in dead-end jobs with no training or self development at best and unemployed at worst."

The move was welcomed by both the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT). Olive Forsyth, from the NUT, said, "We welcome it. This would allow 16-year-olds to have some sort of income and to continue their education. There used to be discretionary grants which were effectively wiped out by the Conservatives - this seems to be a suitable replacement."

Chris Keates, from the NASUWT, added, "We have actually been quite supportive of the whole scheme. It enables pupils to maintain their access to further education and so we have not experienced any difficulties with the EMAs. As long as there is no administrative or bureaucratic burden on the schools and there doesn't appear to be, then the principle as far as we are concerned is to be supported."