Primary schools up and down the country would have received this year’s SATs results yesterday and spent all day digesting the figures to see where they stand. And with predictable great timing, a survey of primary school teachers was published yesterday morning just as headteachers were crunching the headline figures. Low and behold, 97% of…
Unlocking children’s potential – and ultimately this country’s future success – must begin in primary school. For far too long subsequent governments have been focusing most of their efforts on improving GCSE results. What many politicians have failed to realise is that in order to improve the end exam results you need to have a…
On Tuesday the news bulletins were filled with scenes of happy children stomping through woods and playing among nature. But this wasn’t because the bank holiday had been extended – no, these children should have been at school. It was the first ‘kids strike’ when thousands of parents deliberately kept their children away from school…
April 23rd is United Nations English Language Day. This date was chosen because it is Shakespeare’s birthday (thought to be 23rd April 1564). Shakespeare’s plays and poems have had an enormous impact on the development of the English language. The origin of many words and phrases that are commonly used in our language today can…
You may have read the Sunday Times article this weekend (a front-page commentary written by Tim Shipman and Sian Griffiths), about the ‘war on innumeracy’ that could take place over the next few years. The article states that ‘at present the UK ranks 23rd for reading, and 26th for maths in international league tables for…