ISC Daily News Summary
- Curriculum innovation: 'Human flourishing' framework and alternative qualifications
- Where do recent government changes leave SEND reform plans?
- Make music compulsory in schools, Julian Lloyd Webber tells prime minister
- 'Surely getting comfortable with a pen and paper is part of what school is for'
- Pisa ranking of English pupils above Scots is 'only marketing', says EIS union
- Smaller babies perform poorer as teenagers, study finds
Curriculum innovation: 'Human flourishing' framework and alternative qualifications
Teaching and learningPupils will be taught how to identify fake news, practise ethical reasoning and develop an appreciation of the world's beauty under a new "human flourishing" education framework designed for the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and being trialled in the UK. It has been drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in discussion with the seven best education systems in the world including Singapore, Estonia and Finland, and is being introduced at Wellington College and 15 state schools in the north of England and the Midlands. Pupils will continue to study traditional subjects and take GCSEs, A-levels or the International Baccalaureate, but will also be taught five additional competencies. Speaking to The Observer, Anthony Seldon, founding director of Wellington College Education, welcomed the move, saying classrooms should be places where "creativity, social interaction, challenge, curiosity, independent thought, scholarship and originality are all nurtured alongside practical and social skills". James Dahl, master of Wellington College, said schools have a "moral responsibility" to equip young people with both the knowledge and character traits required to thrive, adding: "The future facing children today is evolving more radically than ever and the frameworks which served the 20th century so well are not coping with the complexity of the 21st." By Rachel Sylvester.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Ian Emerson, senior deputy head at Latymer Upper School, explains why the school has reversed plans to replace most GCSEs with its own qualifications. He says that while the current exam system relies too heavily on terminal assessments and limits opportunities to develop wider skills, concerns from universities about admissions ultimately led to the decision to retain GCSEs. "We had hoped that Latymer's curriculum could have been shared more widely with maintained and independent schools looking for an alternative to GCSEs," he writes, adding: "We will continue to speak out about the need for change."
Where do recent government changes leave SEND reform plans?
SENDTes reports growing uncertainty over the future of the government's proposed special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms following recent ministerial changes, with the sector awaiting clarity on what happens next. Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, told the paper schools must be informed if there are going to be delays to the reforms. "This is a long process and nobody is pretending it is simple. Where we think there is room for improvement is the way in which the reforms are communicated and how the basis for decisions taken is explained," she said. By Jasmine Norden.
Make music compulsory in schools, Julian Lloyd Webber tells prime minister
MusicJulian Lloyd Webber has urged prime minister Andy Burnham to make music compulsory in schools. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, the well-known cellist said many children were leaving school without learning a single note of classical music. His comments come amid a decline in the popularity of music in schools, with fewer than half of state schools putting forward a music student for GCSE. Calling for change, the younger brother of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber said: "Classical music has slipped out of our mainstream culture. The whole thing comes down to music in schools." By Ruby Cline, The Telegraph.
'Surely getting comfortable with a pen and paper is part of what school is for'
ScreensIn an article for The Sunday Times, Lauren Cowell explains how her 12-year-old son Eric has inspired her campaign against the use of screens in schools. Ms Cowell, who is involved with Raise the Age, the campaign calling for stronger protections for children online, says her work has also led her to question the use of technology in learning. Calling for an independent review of "what genuinely helps children learn", she says: "We should know why screens are being used, whether they make learning better and whether a paper-based option for homework is possible."
Pisa ranking of English pupils above Scots is 'only marketing', says EIS union
Scottish educationInternational league tables showing the declining performance of Scotland's pupils are only seen as important because of marketing, Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), has said. Her comments follow intense scrutiny of the Scottish education system after the publication of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) league tables in September, in which Scottish children's scores for maths and literacy fell to a record low. By Daniel Sanderson, The Times.
Smaller babies perform poorer as teenagers, study finds
General educationBabies who are smaller than expected at birth tend to have poorer performance as teenagers, according to a study led by the University of Warwick that followed more than 92,000 full-term children from infancy to adolescence. Published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the study found that children who weighed less than most babies of the same sex, born at the same stage of pregnancy, tended to achieve lower scores in subjects such as maths and reading. By Alice Cullinane, BBC News.