College of Teaching
A study of teachers’ views about the proposed College of Teaching has shown strong support for the idea. The Commission set-up by the Prince’s Teaching Institute to develop the proposal said the strongest support was for “a body to provide a voice for teachers on: professional standards, educational policy, raising the status of teaching in society, and advising policy-makers on curriculum, assessment and school inspection”. The Commission’s online survey was completed by nearly 1,200 teachers and headteachers and there was also support for the College to set teacher-defined standards, structure CPD and promote the use of research. Membership should be voluntary, respondents said, while more than 60 per cent said they would be prepared to pay a membership fee of between £75 and £175 a year. Visit: http://princes.ti.org.uk/CollegeofTeaching
Holocaust research
A research project is to survey 10,000 secondary school students across England to explore their perceptions of the Holocaust. Launched by the Centre for Holocaust Education at the Institute of Education, London, it will seek to understand what students know before they are formally taught about the Holocaust, and what they understand afterwards. Funded by Pears Foundation and the Department for Education, it is hoped the work will reveal patterns in students’ knowledge, such as common preconceptions, myths, or areas of confusion and inaccuracy. The findings will also help the Centre to improve its teaching materials, which are free for teachers, and to develop new resources. Professor Stuart Foster, executive director of the Centre, said: “This will vastly improve the evidence base for developing and disseminating careful, thoughtful and age-appropriate teaching about the Holocaust. It will also have important implications for the wider teaching of history and other subjects.” The survey is due to be completed in July and schools can volunteer to take part. Email: holocaust@ioe.ac.uk
Inspection consultation
A consultation has been launched over changes to the inspection framework for independent schools, including plans to ensure that “good” or above is the only acceptable standard of education. Ofsted inspects around half of the independent schools in England and proposes changing the current “adequate” judgement to “requires improvement”. The consultation proposes introducing improvement inspections from September for independent schools that have been judged “requires improvement”, with a full re-inspection within two years. Improvement inspections will become more frequent for schools found to be inadequate. The consultation closes on February 21. Visit: http://bit.ly/1dp1aIT