Creative Teaching & Learning

Survey highlights UK drowning problem

The latest research findings released by the Royal Life Saving Society shows that one in 10 people know someone who has died as a result of drowning, with nearly one in five knowing someone who has nearly drowned.

The survey was carried out as part of the charity’s national annual campaign Drowning Prevention Week, which aims to promote water safety and cut down the number of accidental drowning incidences in the UK, as well as raise money to support families affected by drowning and near drowning.

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      string(357) "... achieving the rites-of-passage experiences young adults expect – moving away from home, buying a property, getting married, having children.At the heart of the problems with Britain’s HE expansion has been many universities recasting themselves from being centres of academic excellence dedicated to educating the academically able into ..."
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      string(353) "Lower entrance requirements and irrelevant courses are creating a glut of graduates but a shortage of qualified job applicants. David Craig and Hugh Openshaw highlight that massive student debt and devaluation of degrees are becoming the norm and that young people are bearing the brunt of a system that rewards aggressive recruitment policies."
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      string(5049) "money loaned to students by taxpayers will be repaid. Within 20 or so years, taxpayers will find themselves footing a bill of close to £100 billion of unpaid student loans. But by then most of today’s politicians will long since have retired with their lucrative MPs’ pensions, seats in the Lords and a few company directorships. So, why should they worry? As for the hundreds of thousands of students who will graduate with little to no chance of ever finding a graduate job, much of their working lives will be blighted by their massive debts which will hinder their chances of achieving the rites-of-passage experiences young adults expect – moving away from home, buying a property, getting married, having children.At the heart of the problems with Britain’s HE expansion has been many universities recasting themselves from being centres of academic excellence dedicated to educating the academically able into becoming corporate, profit-making businesses. Many of them have taken on the attributes of businesses – overpaid chief executives, marketing departments, armies of management consultants to develop mission statements and new management structures and a continual focus on the bottom line – profit. For these businesses, the name of the game has been to introduce and expand the courses which are cheapest to run and which are likely to attract the largest numbers of fee-paying students, irrespective of whether those students have any chance of finding a job after graduation.As for the universities, they seem to be drowning in money since the fees increase. In just a few years, university reserves have shot up from around £14 billion to over £44 billion. This has led to a building spree as universities splash the cash on new facilities and campuses in the expectation of ever-rising student numbers.It’s possible that our HE expansion will continue. A survey conducted by the Institute for Education prior to the 2012 fees increase from £3,000 a year to over £9,000 a year found that 97 per cent of parents wanted their children to go to university. But there’s also a real chance that our universities have created a massive bubble and history has shown us that, in time, all bubbles burst. Already some school-leavers and parents are starting to question the value of a degree and are choosing apprenticeships and starting jobs rather than university. Partly due to this and partly due to a fall in the number of 18- to 19-year-olds, the number of people applying to university has declined in the last three years. The reaction from universities, eager to fill their courses with lucrative students, was immediate – a staggering rise in the number of unconditional offers to school-leavers from 2,985 in 2014 to 67,915 this year – a move many critics compared to ‘bribery’. However, as ever more graduates flood onto the jobs market with huge debts and little chance of a job enabling them to repay those debts, disillusionment in a university education may spread and universities might be accused of profiteering at students’ expense and be engulfed in similar scandals to those of MPs over their expenses and of bankers after the 2008 crash. Already we’re seeing students suing their universities for misleading them into taking courses that had no chance of ever living up to the golden promises in the universities’ marketing prospectuses and several universities have been forced by the Advertising Standards Authority to withdraw inaccurate claims in their marketing materials.As more people become aware of the gap between the universities’ marketing and reality, our universities may face a crisis of falling applications and thus falling revenue. The challenge will be how they deal with this crisis. What they should consider are things like offering students more flexibility with one-year diplomas and two-year degrees, reducing the numbers of useless courses and the numbers of students on the most useless courses and curbing the over-supply of students on vocational courses like Psychology and Law. At the same time, the Student Loans Company should reconsider whether someone with 3 Ds or worse at A level really should be automatically entitled to borrow up to £50,000 of taxpayers’ money when the likelihood of them repaying this is vanishingly small.Sadly, it looks unlikely that our increasingly bloated university sector will come together to pro-actively manage the possible fall in student numbers and income. Instead, we can expect a free-for-all in which the universities fight aggressively to recruit course fee fodder in the hope that someone else will go bust before they do, thus leaving fewer institutions squabbling over an ever-diminishing cake. We can look forward to interesting times in the UK’s HE system.This article is based on the book “THE GREAT UNIVERSITY CON: How we broke our universities and betrayed a generation” by David Craig and Hugh Openshaw, published by The Original Book Company. "
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Leadership

Higher Education and the Betrayal of the Next Generation

12 Sep 2018

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      string(5669) "8Vol 5.1 n www.teachingtimes.comDevelopments/reportsEvery Child JournalThe Prince’s TrusT Macquarie YouTh index 2015Anxiety is gripping the UK’s youth, this report by The Prince’s Trust reveals, with more than one in ten often feeling too anxiousto leave the house, and over half worried about everyday situations. The report – which also explores bullying, troubledchildhoods and resilience – highlights that this anxiety is preventing young people from looking after their health and securingjobs.Overall levels of happiness and confidence have gone down by one percentage point in the past 12 months – from 72 to 71 – withyoung people not in education, employment or training (NEET) significantly unhappier than their peers in all areas of life.Key findingsn The index for young people’s happiness has dropped by one percentage point to 70. The overall index (combining young people’shappiness and confidence) is 71. 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This increases to 35 per cent among NEETs.n More than a third (36 per cent) often feel anxious about everyday situations. This rises to 52 per cent of NEETs.n A fifth (20 per cent) claim they ‘fall apart’ emotionally on a regular basis. This increases to a third (33 per cent) of NEETs.n Forty-six per cent of NEETs say they avoid meeting new people and 39 per cent find it hard to make eye contact with people.n Six in ten (62 per cent) of 16- to 25-year-olds have been bullied at school. For one in ten of those that have been bullied, the bullyinglasted more than five years.n Of those who have been bullied, 94 per cent were emotionally or verbally abused, more than one in five (23 per cent) were physicallyattacked, and more than one in ten (13 per cent) respondents experienced cyberbullying. More than one in five (22 per cent) did notattend school as a result of being bullied.n More than one in ten (12 per cent) of young people say their childhood was ‘traumatic’. The index shows that those young peopletend to be less happy than their peers today. This is the case across all of the various areas of life outlined in the index, from theiremployment to their mental and physical health.n Almost one in ten respondents (nine per cent) were physically attacked at home during their childhood, while 17 per cent witnessedemotional abuse.n More than one in ten (12 per cent) report being scared of the adults in their childhood.n A quarter (25 per cent) didn’t have anyone to talk to about their problems while growing up.n More than half (56 per cent) of respondents did not receive any help after their last setback in life, rising to 71 per cent among thosewho didn’t have anyone to talk to about their problems while growing up.ReportsRaspal Singh-Chima summarises the surveys, reports and government policychanges you need to brief yourself on in every issue of Every Child Journal.http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/pdf/Youth_Index_2015_Report.PDFwww.teachingtimes.com n Vol 5.1Developments/reports Every Child Journal9Developments/reportsn Half (50 per cent) of respondents claim that they lost confidence in themselves following a setback (which the survey defined asa family/relationship breakdown, losing a job, failing an exam, major illness or bereavement, or other significant negative events),increasing to 59 per cent among those who are NEET.n As a result of a setback in life, 47 per cent of NEETs felt that even if they tried, they would not succeed. 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Special Needs

ECJ 5.1 Reports

26 Mar 2015

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      string(322) "... executive’ level. It is often in the pre-supervisory roles that people get their first taste of the difficulties of workingwith other people.In a survey of 60 UK companies (Oliver and Vincent 2000), the three mosteffective ways of developing people at work were found to be coaching, work-based ..."
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      string(5630) "job, it is common to see organisationsimplementing actions that are intended to maximise such development.The more enlightened organisations are recognising the value of personaldevelopment as a retention tool. A recent Hay Group study on retentionshowed that the primary reason employees leave organisations is that they feelthey are not adequately using their skills and abilities. Most employees thinklong term about their careers and want to know that they are able to use theirskills, and develop new ones, in order to make career progress. Examplesinclude:Increased focus on formal or informal coaching and mentoringprogrammes.A managed approach to job moves, one that takes account of individualdevelopment priorities as well as the defined job accountabilities required.It may explicitly countenance a degree of risk or compromise with respectto short-term job deliverables, if the longer-term outcome is effectivedevelopment.A development focused approach to role design, that pays attention to thecreation of the best possible development opportunities within roles as wellas the more tangible job outputs required.Programmes to facilitate less traditional job moves, such as lateral cross-functional transfers, or international secondments, which broaden andenrich individual experience.Growing Tomorrow’s School Leaders © Hay Group 2006 page 15 of 78In recognition of the fact that development does not result only from jobmoves, a developing tendency to identify wide-ranging projectopportunities with specific development objectives attached.Creation of more formal infrastructures to identify and capitalise uponexisting on-the-job development opportunities.An emphasis that is now more on opportunity planning than careerplanning, in order to help individuals and their managers to focus on howbest to develop the required attributes rather than the next step up the careerladder.Individually-driven development contracts, based on an honest view of theorganisation’s assessment of current potential and supported by theorganisation, but ultimately owned by the individual.4.4 Evidence of what leadership development activitiesworkIn a McKinsey report (1998) it was reported that only 3 per cent of the 6,000executives occupying the top 200 positions in 50 large US corporationsstrongly agreed that their organisation developed talent quickly andeffectively. In no area of executive development – job rotation, traditional(internal and external) training programmes or mentoring – did a majority ofthese executives believe that their employers were doing a good job.Organisations develop executives in various ways; for example, by givingthem feedback, coaching, mentoring, job re-design, assignments and training.There is now a substantial amount of research showing which specificexperiences have the most developmental potential. These experiences can besorted into four broad categories: on-the-job assignments; working with otherpeople (specifically hierarchical superiors); hardship and setbacks (‘learningfrom experience’); and ‘other’ which includes training programmes andexperiences outside of work. McCall (1998) identified 16 differentdevelopmental experiences:AssignmentsEarly work experiencesFirst time supervisionBuilding something from nothingFix it/turn it aroundProject/task forceIncrease in job scopeGrowing Tomorrow’s School Leaders © Hay Group 2006 page 16 of 78Hardships and setbacksIdeas failure and mistakesDemotions/missed promotionsSubordinate performance problemBreaking a rutPersonal traumasOther peopleRole models (superiors with exceptional qualities)Values playing out (snapshots of senior leadership behaviour thatdemonstrate corporate values)Other eventsCoursework (formal courses)Purely personal (experiences outside of work)This list is highly significant in that it indicates the wide variety of activities,other than formal training programmes, which impact on the development ofpotential leaders, and underlines the fact that leadership development beginslong before a person reaches ‘executive’ level. It is often in the pre-supervisory roles that people get their first taste of the difficulties of workingwith other people.In a survey of 60 UK companies (Oliver and Vincent 2000), the three mosteffective ways of developing people at work were found to be coaching, work-based assignments and internal training. If coaching is done effectively it doesnot require major investments in training provision or time away from theworkplace. Coaching is directly related to work which removes the problem ofhow to transfer learning from training courses and other types of developmentback to the job.But there are issues about how effective generally is coaching. The studyfound that the group which is least committed to the development of people isthe line managers, the very people who many organisations rely on to do thecoaching. The implications of this finding for schools are considered inSection 8.A study by the Centre for Organisational Research (2001) identified thecharacteristics of high-impact leadership development systems. Theyincorporate some or all of the following principles.Growing Tomorrow’s School Leaders © Hay Group 2006 page 17 of 78They:use action and experiential learning to make the learning process ‘real’encourage leaders to take responsibility for planning and implementingtheir own learning experiences to meet their needsencourage development at three levels: self, team and organisationhave a core mission statement or all-encompassing purpose around whichthe system"
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Leadership

Growing Tomorrows School Leaders: The Challenge

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5254) "ResourceTACKLING BULLYING IN SCHOOLSOriginal DocumentTackling bullying in schools – A survey of effective practice. This 21-page document by Estyn, the Wales inspectorate for education and training, reports on effective practice in tackling bullying. The report highlights progress made, and how the most effective schools have well-developed strategies that are part of school life. The report includes case-studied projects that seek to curb bullying by mobile phones – an increasing problem across the UK – and on home-to-school transport.KeywordsBullying, strategy, best practiceSummaryBullying is aggressive or insulting behaviour by an individual or group, often repeated over a period of time, that intentionally hurts or harms. Research shows that bullying can have a destructive impact on the lives of young people. For some, it can have long-term effects causing distress and damage to social and emotional development. This report highlights some of the best practice in schools for dealing with bullying.Main findings:Best practice occurs where positive leadership promotes a strong ethos of respect for all members of the school community, including respect for difference and diversity.Best practice also occurs where:· Schools deploy staff to ensure that opportunities for bullying and other types of oppressive behaviours are kept to a minimum;· All teaching and non teaching staff share the responsibility of ensuring that the school is a safe place;· School staff themselves do not use bullying strategies, such as sarcasm or derogatory names or nicknames, in dealing with pupils;· School staff regularly consult pupils about bullying and other issues; and· Pupils feel confident that their views and concerns are listened to by adults and will be dealt with effectively.The most effective schools include voluntary and community organisations and groups to make their school safe. All adults in these schools, including the staff, parents and transport companies work and plan together to make the school a safer place. Members of local communities, police and voluntary organisations work with effective schools to ensure that pupils are safe, both whilst on school premises and also whilst travelling to and from the school.In the most effective schools:· Pupils communicate their concerns through a range of well-developed strategies that become part of school life, such as ‘suggestion’ boxes where pupils can indicate their concerns anonymously on a range of issues, including bullying, if need be;· Advocacy services encourage pupils to talk about their concerns with outside providers; and· Careful records of incidents of bullying, their frequency and severity identify where and when pupils are most vulnerable and inform policy and practice.The most effective LEAs recognise the importance of taking a wide view of the issues surrounding bullying. These authorities co-ordinate training and advice to schools, including support from voluntary agencies. A number of LEAs produce good information for pupils.A number of LEAs designate officers to co-ordinate the approach to bullying issues across schools. These officers may be teachers seconded from their schools, advisory teachers for personal and social education, or members of the educational psychology service. Having a designated officer sends a clear message that the LEA takes the issue seriously and has a strategic vision for supporting and improving school practice.ActionRecommendationsThere are a number of ways in which schools and LEAs can improve what they do to prevent bullying and respond effectively when bullying does occur. Schools should:· Provide a clear definition to pupils and parents of what bullying is and why it is unacceptable;· Consult with staff, pupils, parents and other interested groups on strategies for reducing incidents of bullying;· On the basis of this consultation, draw up an anti-bullying policy that meets the needs of the school and is reviewed periodically;· Create an environment where pupils feel able to talk openly about a range of concerns;· Audit school routines on a regular basis so as to keep to a minimum the places and times where pupils may be vulnerable to bullying;· Use the curriculum to support the anti-bullying message;· Promote issues relating to diversity in a positive light;· Make training available to adults who supervise groups of pupils;· Record incidents of bullying carefully and use this data to inform policy and practice;· Work closely with their LEA in order to develop a range of expertise and resources; andIntroduce some of the ‘good practice’ strategies and tactics from the case studies in this report.LEAs should:· Provide clear leadership and practical support for schools in developing their anti-bullying strategies;· Provide school staff, and other adults, with good training in promoting safe schools; and· Liaise with agencies from the voluntary sector and use their expertise to formulate comprehensive anti-bullying strategies.NotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Questions PublishingDate CreatedJune 2006Enquiries to:rchima@qiis.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Tackling bullying in schools – A survey of effective practic

1 Jan 2005