1) Diploma dancing

It has been announced that student numbers for the new diplomas are to be cut by a quarter http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2274658,00.html embarrassingly it has been leaked that Ministers and education experts in Whitehall would not recommend studying the new diplomas to their own children http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/20/nedu120.xml This comes at a time when a government committee is asking what the future is for A levels? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7397084.stm It also comes at a time when the pre-U is coming into use at private schools http://education.guardian.co.uk/alevels/story/0,,2273115,00.html Overall, this is an interesting time for post 16 qualifications. We seem to be at a point where we are either on the eve of the establishment of a single system of post 16 qualifications after the phasing out of A levels in 2013. Or, we are seeing the establishment of the most divisive system we have ever had in the UK, where qualifications will reflect the social class of the student and the type of school attended. In this latter scenario, diplomas will identify students as being lower class and having attended a poorer performing comprehensive school; A levels will indicate middle class students who attended a superior state school; while private schools students will study the pre-U.
This in turn will then no doubt be reflected in higher education, with private schools consolidating their grip on the Russell group universities who will give preference to the pre-U students; A levels will be the qualification of choice for the other older universities; while diplomas will get you into an old polytechnic. The result will be that social mobility in the UK will diminish and the introduction of diplomas will have achieved the exact opposite of its originator’s intension. I think both scenarios are possible, what’s your bet?

2) Ending child poverty by 2020

The charity 4children have published a report entitled, ‘Turning up the volume on child poverty’ http://www.4children.org.uk/information/show/ref/1224. The publication begins with 3 relatively detailed and well argued statements from Labour, Conservative and Liberal spokespersons about what they would do to end child poverty. I found it significant, and admittedly a little surprising, that all 3 say they are committed to ending child poverty by 2020. However, I think it fair to say that all are rather vague as to how this will be achieved. Consequently, the analysis that 4children make of this challenge, between pages 28 and 40, is particularly useful. Of specific note to The Brightside Trust is the identification of the importance of various forms of mentoring if poverty is to be made history. From page 42 they identify ‘five end child poverty tests’, which they suggest should be used to judge social policy pronouncements.

3) Mentoring for the difficult

Most of the time, most social policy in the UK is not directed at the hardest to reach or hardest to change populations. However, a couple of recent initiatives are apparently aiming to do just that and have mentoring as a core component of their strategies http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2266449,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/30/socialexclusion1
It will be interesting to see if these projects are pursued. It is not clear how the youth task force action plan will engage and mentor 1,000 difficult teenagers but one for us to watch.

4) Are you NAGTY or Iggy?

Information update about the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) program http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2275354,00.html

5) More to do

Educational gap grows between cared for children and others http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7367250.stm

6) Happiest days?

A million students since 1997 have left school without achieving 5 GCSE at level G or better. http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,,2275280,00.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/21/nschool121.xml In my opinion, not reaching a grade G at GCSE is indicative of a complete failure to engage in a GCSE course or, in a small number of cases, a serious undiagnosed learning difficulty. I see this finding as proof that a significant number of students learn little or nothing in their final years at school.

7) Inadequate advice

Yet more interesting research from the Sutton Trust http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3828407.ece They found that many students reported the level and type of advice they received at school about university was inadequate. This would seem to match anecdotal information that has emerged from a number of Brightside projects. In turn, this seems to parallel concerns about careers advice expressed elsewhere http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7318919.stm However, I think it unwise to read too much into the detail of this type of survey. Firstly, I have doubts about administrating questionnaires in classrooms where the students inevitably feel they are under the disciplinary gaze of the school and hence most of them wisely try to give the correct responses. Also, I wonder if there is any real relationship, especially for the younger students, between their replies and their subsequent actions. A few years ago, I asked a classroom of 10 year olds what work they thought they would do when they grew up. The majority were going to be teachers, most of the rest vets. I don’t suppose that is what happened but I also don’t think it significant – they were children.