Poor-quality education, the daily threat of violence and discrimination hold back adolescent girls, and world leaders need to take action to change the landscape for young women and men, UN member states were told at the weekend. As a result, adolescents join women and children for the first time in an updated global plan to transform lives. Read more
Professional services firm Deloitte has changed its selection process so recruiters do not know where candidates went to school or university. It hopes to challenge unconscious bias and tap a more diverse ‘talent pool’. For next year’s recruitment round for 1,500 graduates and school leavers, an algorithm will consider ‘contextual’ information alongside academic results. Read more
After Bex Taylor left school in 2010, she couldn’t find anything that suited her. A-levels didn’t work out, and then she tried jobs in retail and telesales, which she left after a few months. By 2014 she was a Neet. Then she became part of her council’s training scheme in social care. Read more
As soon as the children at one primary school in Stirling hear the words ‘daily mile’, they down their pencils and head out of the classroom to start running laps around the school field. For three-and-a-half years, all pupils at St Ninians primary have walked or run a mile each day. They do so at random times during the day, apparently happily, and despite the rise in childhood obesity across the UK, none of the children at the school are overweight. Read more
New Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell has told a meeting of teachers, industry experts and party members that she was very much ‘in listening mode’ and keen to develop Labour Party policy in a thought-through and non-kneejerk fashion. The starting point on how to develop policy would be addressing how to close the education gap that existed between children from less advantaged backgrounds and those from more advantaged backgrounds, she argued. Read more
Almost half of primary head teachers are worried about the marking of this summer’s key stage 2 national tests, research shared exclusively with TES reveals. In a poll of more than 1,000 head teachers and senior leaders by the NAHT union, 46 per cent said they ‘had concerns about the marking of this year’s Sats’. Of these, 78 per cent were worried about the accuracy of marking. Read more
The Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI), which runs subject-based training for secondary school teachers, has announced plans to expand into the primary sector. The charity, whose co-director Bernice McCabe has spoken out strongly in favour of ‘rigour’ and a knowledge-based curriculum, will run its first event for primary school heads this week. It will focus on how schools can ‘develop an ethos and culture of high aspiration for all pupils’. Read more
Fewer schoolchildren are turning to their teachers for careers advice, while YouTube, Google and social media sites are becoming increasingly popular. In three years there has been a 12 per cent drop in the number of young people who speak to teachers about jobs. Almost two thirds of 11 to 15-year-olds still speak to teachers about future career plans – but now 15 per cent of the ‘self-service generation’ also turn to YouTube for information. Read more