End
Author: Fusive Created: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
A blog about different aspects of education

Drugs and young people –some interesting facts and figures
By Fusive on Thursday, June 29, 2006
Mental Health problems are increasingly being linked with drug abuse, which damages many young people’s chances of success at school. You won’t be surprised about the groups that are at risk, but you may need to be looking at who your children spend time with.
More...

Did you know that more than 10% of children suffer from mental health problems ?
By Fusive on Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Are genetic factors or parenting issues more significant in the high incidence of children with mental health problems ? It appears both, but good parenting and a secure homelife is indicated to protect young children by my reading of the information.
More...

Including special needs pupils in mainstream “can be a form of abuse” it seems
By Fusive on Saturday, June 24, 2006
The title of this piece is a quote from the report Professor John McBeath of Cambridge Universit co-wrote for the National Union of Teachers. Also the NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott called for an audit of provisions for Special Needs pupils looking to address “major areas of policy failure
More...

Can Thinking Skills be taught ? Research says yes but
By Fusive on Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Teaching Thinking is, it is said, a growing area in schools and colleges – and Thinking Skills are often rushed into by enthusiastic teachers but there are now so many approaches that it is unclear what kind of activity is supposed to do what.
More...

The Tories say that they would cut the A level pass rate to boost confidence in the exam system.
By Fusive on Thursday, June 15, 2006
The Tories say that they would cut the A level pass rate to boost confidence in the exam system. So – would that make any difference ? Possibly only to those students who would fail under a harder marking system unless the system is well thought out.
More...

Education for Citizenship. What on earth is this – could it be any use.
By Fusive on Tuesday, May 30, 2006
I was quite bewildered as to what Education for Citizenship would possibly be. Would this be like saluting the flag stuff like the Americans ? Surely not. No, it turns out to be nothing like that at all, and though looking at some evaluation studies I can see some point in certain aspects, I can’t really see how this more than woolly curriculum as it is developing, can meld our children into respectful citizens (in fact, some of the issues seem determined to foster rather selfish ideals.)
More...

Teaching sentence combining likely to improve children’s writing skills
By Fusive on Sunday, May 28, 2006
A systematic review of literature on the teaching of grammar identified a particular technique as likely to improve writing skills. If teaching time is limited, the researchers suggested that using the time to teach techniques such as sentence combining would help children write better, rather than teaching formal grammar which they say there is little proof of it improving writing skill in young children.
More...

Do you think grammar should be taught formally in schools ? Is such teaching effective ?
By Fusive on Saturday, May 27, 2006
I have found reports of two research reviews about grammar teaching. The two reviews had some rather controversial findings and want ministers to review National Curriculum guidelines about the teaching of formal grammar teaching. At the moment, younger primary children are required to learn about nouns, verbs and pronouns, and older primary school pupils learn all major parts of speech as well as the grammar of complex sentences.
More...

Its Adult Learners’ Week. Is this an outdated concept ?
By Fusive on Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Adult Learners’ Week is when events are staged all over the country to celebrate Adult Learning and Learners’ achievements. But, there have been major changes in priorities in further education and money for leisure provision has gone –and support for learners over 19 cut (at least that’s how it seems to have ended up).
More...

Parents should support children in working hard at school
By Fusive on Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Chief Inspector of Schools (the head of OFSTED) Maurice Smith has said that parents should make sure that their children do not stay up late watching TV and do not look scruffy going to school. He says that parental support was important for children and schools’ success.
More...

End

Editors Login ONLY