Teacher cutbacks 'short-sighted'

Scotland's largest teaching union has attacked "short-sighted" cuts in teacher training numbers.
The EIS predicted a third of Scotland's teachers were set to retire in the next few years.
It added that cutting back on training new teachers could create "a massive problem" in the future.
A Scottish government spokesman said it was working towards getting the right number of teachers for future generations of pupils.
Four out of five teachers who qualified this summer have not found full-time jobs.
The government has said it had cut the number of training places in response to that, falling school rolls and education authorities cutting the number of posts in schools by almost 2,500.
Reducing student numbers will create more jobs for those teachers already qualified
Scottish government spokesman
But it said there was no point in educating teachers for the dole queue and it planned to build up student numbers in future.
The union said schools may struggle to fill vacancies and training institutions may struggle to produce more new teachers because of job losses among those who teach the teachers.
EIS general secretary Ronnie Smith said cuts in the number of new teachers being trained was bad news for Scottish education, both at school and university level.
"These cuts are hitting the budgets of teacher education departments in universities, and forcing them to reduce their numbers of lecturing staff," he said.
"Cutting back on the number of trainee teachers and the number of university education lecturers is remarkably short-sighted, and runs the risk of creating a massive problem in a few years' time.
'Stimulating demand'
"The Scottish Government has adopted the easy answer to the problem of lack of job opportunities for new teachers by slashing the future student intakes.
"But their focus should be on stimulating demand for new teachers, not cutting the supply."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "We took the difficult decision to reduce student teacher intakes to deal with teacher unemployment.
"Reducing student numbers will create more jobs for those teachers already qualified.
"Furthermore, ministers have also asked Graham Donaldson to conduct a thorough review of teacher education in Scotland, from initial teacher education through induction and continuous professional development."

Young people's writing: Attitudes, behaviour and the role of technology

Writing is an important issue in the UK today. While children’s and young people’s writing standards steadily improved until 2006, levels have not increased in recent years. Writing is much more than just an educational issue – it is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today’s society and to contribute to the economy.
Relatively little is known about young people’s views about writing in the UK. The key objectives of this survey were therefore: to explore how much young people enjoy writing, what type of writing they engage in, how good at writing they think they are, what they think about writing and what the role of technology is in young people's writing.This report outlines the findings from 3001 pupils aged 8-16 from England and Scotland, who completed an online survey in May 2009. It explores gender and age differences, and examines the link between socio-economic background (in terms of free school meals) and writing. Furthermore, it explores young people's writing with respect to mobile phone ownership, having a blog and having a profile on a social networking site. It concludes with practical and policy implications.

Bananagrams come to Facebook

The latest news is that Bananagrams has joined forces with one of the largest international gaming software companies – Majesco Entertainment – and is in development for use on various electronic platforms, initially launching on FACEBOOK in early October. Facebookers will be able to compete against friends in one of two multiplayer modes - the Classic Multiplayer Game, or the Banana Café, where they can race against the clock (posting their best times on a leader board) and play in real time against each other, having the ability to chat online the entire time! There will also be a Solitaire version for those who want to hone their speed and word making skills! Development for the iPhone, DS and Wii follow shortly! The entry into the electronic world is a wonderful compliment to the original games continued success, just making it easier for Bananagrams fans to play with family and friends around the globe!

Friendship in Networking Durham

Friendship In Networking Durham is a local networking group set up to help Women in Business in and around County Durham - providing a central hub to access business information, education, support and guidance.
Focused on developing relationships, friendships, growing businesses and participating in networking events – FIND is here to help local women reach their full business potential.
Our aims are to:
Provide a valuable network of contacts and to encourage trade, information sharing and support between Members
Provide access to seminars and workshops for professional and personal development
Inspire and encourage women to develop professionally and drive them forward for success in business
Encourage and support new enterprise by providing support to those women looking to set up their own business
Provide a central hub for like-minded individuals to share information, ideas and knowledge and develop friendships and team spirit
Raise the awareness of local women and the talents and resources they have to offer to County Durham
FIND is fast establishing itself as leading resource for North East women in business.

Phonics Flashcards

Phonics Flashcards from Oxford Reading Tree are a fun way for children to learn the initial sounds and letters of the alphabet. Playing the alphabet games will help children to : develop memory and concentration skills, learn to recognise individual letter shapes and sounds, read simple words, spell simple words.

Maths Wrap

For children, learning their times tables can be repetitive and boring – now thanks to the Maths Wrap, counting numbers is a whole lot of fun. The kinesthetic element aids memory and could be used at home or as a great mental warm up to a numeracy lesson.

Maths Wrap looks like an ipod and feels like a game, yet is a powerful tool for building confidence and helping children to understand the process of multiplication. The ipod-sized device has numbers notched down one side, and a cord attached. It comes with 12 cards to test different tables.

Many children learn best when they are physically engaged and doing something with their hands as it helps them to process information. The ‘doing-and-seeing’ method also helps children recognise patterns of numbers in the tables they are learning. Chilren, who are confident with multiplication, may find it easier to master complex problems such as division and algebra.

End of National Straegies

The government is to abandon the most significant education reform of the New Labour era in order to end the centralised control of schools and grant headteachers more powers, the Guardian has learned.
In a totemic break from the Blair years, next week's education white paper will signal the end of Labour's national strategies for schools, which includes oversight of the literacy and numeracy hours in primaries. The changes will strip away centralised prescription of teaching methods and dramatically cut the use of private consultants currently employed to improve schools.
They will give schools more freedom and establish new networks of school-to-school support to help drive up standards in what will be described as a "new era of localism".