Pupils must not be denied school trips because teachers fear being sued if things go wrong, says the government.

The government’s new £4.5m Out and About scheme gives schools in England clearer advice on safe outings.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said children should not be wrapped up in cotton wool.

The initiative comes as the schools watchdog, Ofsted, reports that outings boost achievement but that many schools do not see trips as a priority.

England’s Ofsted inspectors said trips enhanced learning and motivated pupils.

The watchdog visited 27 schools and found activities such as trips to museums, visits to historical landmarks in foreign countries, after-hours sports and music clubs all increased pupils’ involvement, enjoyment and achievement.

Even conducting a science class in the school field had a positive impact, they found.

"Where young people experience memorable events in their education, they don’t just remember the emotion and excitement of the event itself but the learning that went with it," the report said.

Chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "The positive impact of learning outside the classroom is widely recognised, but unfortunately it is sometimes seen as an extra or a treat, rather than as an integral part of the curriculum.

"Many schools will find the examples highlighted in the report extremely useful."

Vivid memories

The government’s Out and About scheme aims to give schools in England much clearer information to help organise effective learning outside the classroom.

The package, which has received £4.5m funding, will indentify organisations that provide high quality and safe outings for schools.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said it was wrong to wrap children in cotton wool as they grew up.

"Trips and getting out of the classroom should be part and parcel of school life and always give the most vivid childhood memories," said Mr Balls.

"Learning outside the classroom is not some optional extra. It should excite young people, deepen their understanding of classroom subjects and are a vital to make young people independent, confident and self-reliant.

"The vast majority of England’s eight million children go safely on school trips or learn outside the classroom at some stage. But we know that more can be done to make sure it is an integral part of every child’s education.

"It is time that the fear of compensation culture is consigned to history once and for all."

Union support

The NASUWT union said it supported the plans.

"The perception of the classroom as the only space for learning needs to be challenged and we are excited to see there is such a positive direction of travel on this agenda as part of the Children’s Plan," said general secretary Chris Keates.

The National Union of Head Teachers gave its "full endorsement" to the programme.

"With all learning outside the classroom activities, we will need to be confident that all health and safety aspects are secure but non-bureaucratic," said general secretary Mick Brookes.

A Roman Catholic school’s decision to prevent girls receiving the cervical cancer vaccine on its premises was "disappointing", a health boss said.

Governors at St Monica’s High School in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, said they had concerns about the possible side effects of the injections.

The head teacher of the school said he could not comment on the decision.

Dr Peter Elton, the borough’s director of public health, said the governors’ concerns were "not justified".

The vaccine gives immunity to key strains of the sexually-transmitted Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), responsible for 70% of cervical cancers. Experts believe it could save hundreds of lives in the UK each year.

It is given in a course of three injections over six months and is being offered to all year-eight girls.

Dr Elton said schools were the best places to immunise children because when parents have to make special arrangements uptake was often lower.

"It is very important that we have the maximum number of children vaccinated against HPV, that all girls get vaccinated," he said.

"The way we can get the most done is by having them at school, so we are naturally disappointed when we can’t go into a school to vaccinate girls.

"They [the governors] recognise it as a very effective vaccine but they have these other concerns and we think they are not justified."

Governors at St Monica’s - which has 1,200 pupils - have sent a letter to parents outlining concerns about possible side effects.

It states: "We do not believe that school is the right place for the three injections to be administered.

"Therefore, governors have taken the decision not to allow the school premises to be used for this programme."

Although some religious groups are opposed to the vaccine because of fears it may encourage promiscuity, the governors make no moral objection to the programme.

In its advice on the HPV vaccine, the Department of Health said it had undergone rigorous safety testing as part of the licensing process.

All primary school pupils are going to be offered free school meals in a pilot scheme in two areas of England.

In a third area, means testing for free meals will be altered so that more pupils qualify.

The government, education authorities and primary care trusts will share the £40m cost.

A number of areas have already tried a variety of similar ideas. Unions have pushed for universal entitlement, with a cost estimated at £1bn a year.

The Scottish government is about to decide whether to give free meals to infant pupils, after a year-long pilot in five areas.

England’s national trial scheme would start in a year’s time and run for two years, with what ministers say would be a rigorous evaluation.

This would look at the benefits in terms of increased uptake of healthy meals and children’s behaviour, obesity and general health and well-being.

It is not yet known which areas would be involved but the trial would be funded to the tune of £10m apiece by the health and schools departments, who want to see matched funding from local authorities and primary care trusts.

Feeling the pinch

In July, union delegates at Labour’s National Policy Forum in Warwick are believed to have tabled an amendment calling for free meals for all.

Labour MP Sharon Hodgson - inspired by what she had seen in Swedish schools - wrote in the Fabian Society magazine: "All parents are feeling the pinch and universal free school meals would ease the pressure on purse strings at home and, eventually, in the Treasury."

She said: "Serving up a free healthy lunch in every school would bring benefits to the nation’s collective health, educational attainment and environmental credentials."

The biggest experiment so far in England was in Hull, which offered a free breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack for every primary school child for several years.

The Labour council’s scheme was stopped by the incoming Liberal Democrat administration, although it is now reported to be having a re-think.

Officials at the Department for Children, Schools and Families say there was little formal evaluation of the scheme although teachers claimed that children concentrated better in class and were more engaged with lessons.

Feasibility study

It saw about 65% of children taking school meals, compared with the current national average of 43.6% - which includes some 20 areas where no school meals are provided at all.

Liverpool City Council is studying the feasibility of providing a free school meal to every primary school child, in collaboration with the local primary care trust.

Across England’s primary schools, 15.9% of children come from homes poor enough to qualify them for free meals at present.

Scotland’s trial - which began a year ago in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, Fife, East Ayrshire and the Borders - is being independently evaluated, with a report expected soon.

If this is positive, the aim would be to provide free school meals to all pupils in classes P1 to P3 from August 2010.

The Scottish Government has also promised to offer free meals to all primary and secondary school pupils with parents or carers in the lowest income brackets.

The American firm at the centre of this summer’s exams fiasco for national curriculum tests has lost its five-year contract to mark the papers.

ETS Europe, which failed to deliver the results on time, has also agreed to repay £19.5m to the Qualification and Curriculum Authority, the tests watchdog, as a result of the chaos. In addition, it will cancel invoices and further charges of £4.6m to the watchdog.

The decision to dissolve the firm’s five-year contract was welcomed by teachers’ leaders. However, the firm is still expected to receive £15m, as the first year of its contract was worth £39m.

Last night there were no clues as to who would be administering next year’s tests, with the QCA saying that details would be announced in the autumn.

Two of the biggest exam boards, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) and the Oxford and Cambridge and Royal Society of Art (OCR), have said they want nothing to do with the contract.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "This is very welcome news and many schools who have still not received complete results will undoubtedly feel some sense of vindication."

However, he added: "The testing and examination system is sinking under its own weight and it is time for the Government to examine seriously how it can streamline the assessment regime and again make it fit for purpose."

Many teachers’ leaders – backed by the Liberal Democrats – have argued that the Government should scrap the tests for 14-year-olds to ease the pressure on the system. Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said: "I hope that instead of finding another company to mark future key stage three test papers [for 14-year-olds] the Government will scrap these expensive and unnecessary tests altogether."

She added: "ETS demonstrated pure incompetence when it came to marking this year’s tests. Many children are still waiting for their results which are now nearly six weeks late. Ministers must confirm that ETS will not receive a single penny for the fiasco."

Dr Ken Boston, chief executive of the QCA, said: "ETS Europe was selected due to the strength of their worldwide experience in delivering large-scale assessments. "

Zoubir Yazid, managing director of ETS Global BV, the parent company, said: "ETS Europe has apologised to schools for the delays in marking national curriculum assessments in England." He added that the quality of this year’s marking had nevertheless been high.

Yesterday the QCA confirmed some scripts were still missing six weeks after the deadline for marking – 98.9 per cent of the tests had been delivered and 95.2 per cent of those for 14-year-olds. The Schools minister, Jim Knight, said: "I am very pleased that the contract has now been terminated. It is disappointing that the issues with this year’s national curriculum test results have meant that the partnership between QCA and ETS must end early."

By Richard Garner
Saturday, 16 August 2008

The general public is over-concerned by the problem of bullying in England’s schools, research suggests.

Some 80% of people surveyed for the Department for Children, Schools and Families thought it was a big problem.

However, 84% of parents and 75% of young people aged 10 to 19 did not think it a problem; 60% of youngsters saying the situation was improving.

Researchers interviewed 3,000 children, parents and members of the general public on growing up in England.

As a rule, young people and parents were more positive about growing up in England than the general public.

Achievement gap

But the majority of all three groups said they felt England was a good country to grow up in, with 90% of young people, 74% of parents and 71% of the general public agreeing with the statement.

And a high proportion of young people (83%) felt schools and colleges prepared them very or quite well for working life.

This compared with 57% of parents and 53% of the general public.

There was also a difference between the views of all three audiences on the quality of publicly-funded education.

Across all three groups, secondary schools were not rated as highly as primary schools and nurseries.

But the majority of all groups - 66% of general public, 74% of parents and 88% of young people - rated secondary schools as good.

More facilities

Both adults and young people agreed that disadvantaged youngsters faced greater hurdles than their richer peers.

Some 80% of parents and the general public said it was more difficult for low income students to go to university. And 74% of young people felt the same.

England’s Schools Secretary Ed Balls said he was pleased so many children, young people and parents were positive about England being a good country in which to grow up.

"But we still haven’t reached our aim of becoming the best in the world.

"In the Children’s Plan we set out how we can do that with investment in play and youth activities and by making sure young people have excellent education and are put on the path to success."

It was vital that the government listen to parents, young people and children’s views as it made policy, he added.

Last year a report for children’s charity Unesco placed the UK at the bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

The report was based on 40 indicators including poverty, family relationships, and health from the years 2000-03.

The schools system in England is failing poorer children "at every turn", says the Shadow Schools Secretary, Michael Gove.

He says initiatives to close social inequalities in exam results and staying on rates are not succeeding.

But the Conservatives say they have no plans to scrap the maintenance allowance to keep youngsters in school.

Schools Minister Jim Knight says that "Tory policies would simply preserve excellence for the few".

Mr Gove’s speech asserted his party’s commitment to strengthening family life, promoting responsible fatherhood and supporting children from the most deprived backgrounds.

‘Opportunity gap’

"Schools should be engines of social mobility, the places where inherited disadvantages are overcome and individual talents can be nurtured to make opportunity more equal," Mr Gove told the IPPR think tank.

"But the record of this government has been of inequality growing, and the opportunity gap widening, between the fortunate and the forgotten.

"In the last year for which we have figures the gap at GCSE between the performance of students in the 10% of wealthiest areas and the 10% of poorest areas doubled."

Mr Gove’s speech highlighted the lack of success for pupils on free school meals at the basic level and among the high-flyers.

He warned that 47% of such poorer pupils did not achieve a single GCSE at grade C - and that only 176 pupils eligible for free school meals had achieved three A grades at A-level - less than 1% of the total.

The Conservatives have also argued that there has been too little progress in poorer pupils staying on at school beyond the age of 16, despite the introduction of the education maintenance allowance (EMA).

But a party spokesman said that there were no plans to stop the EMA, which gives financial support to keep youngsters in education.

Mr Gove also spoke of his support for the Sure Start scheme to help families with young children.

Deadline

Schools Minister Jim Knight rejected the claims that the government is failing to tackle the achievement gap between rich and poor pupils.

He pointed to the current "National Challenge" which has set a deadline to ensure that all secondary schools in England, including those serving the most deprived areas, achieve at least 30% of pupils getting five good CGSEs.

Individual catch-up lessons in reading, writing and maths, the forthcoming Diplomas and raising the leaving age to 18 would all be steps to supporting children from poorer backgrounds, he said.

"If the Tories were serious about improving outcomes for the poorest children, they would support our plans to strengthen local children’s trusts, drop their pledge to cut funding to Sure Start and finally commit themselves to our ambitious targets on child poverty."

Helping to build a school for an African village is not a typical course of study for an English 16-year-old.

But this is exactly how 45 International Baccalaureate and AS-level students spent 10 unforgettable days in July.

While many of their teenage peers were enjoying summer holiday lie-ins, youngsters from Taunton’s College in Southampton worked from 8.30am to 3.30pm in the hot Tanzanian sun.

They were helping to build classrooms at Msaranga Primary School in Moshi, about an hour’s journey from the northern city of Arusha.

The college’s Tanzanian project co-ordinator Dr Kerry Pringle said: "The school has 800 pupils in nine classrooms.

"So we went there to help build them another nine classrooms."

The pupils, and the six members of staff who accompanied them, travelled out every day to the school from the international boarding school where they were sleeping, on what became known as a "death bus".

"The students called it that because you could see the road through the bottom as it went along.

"It’s the sort of vehicle that would have definitely failed its MOT here," said Dr Pringle.

Once at the school, they formed human chains and passed soil, rocks and other materials in metal trays from one end to the other in the red dust.

"They had absolutely no equipment and we were doing manual labour," said Dr Pringle.

"We said, ‘Why don’t you buy some wheelbarrows?’ and they said, ‘Wheelbarrows are expensive and they break, labour is much cheaper’.

"So we did everything by hand."

90 to a class

Wheelbarrows cost about the same in Tanzania as they do in England, she explained, at about £50, but on an average monthly salary of £4, they are far dearer for a Tanzanian.

"When the pupils came out for their breaks, they would help with the work too. That made me cry," she said.

Sixteen-year-old Maggie Callinan, one of the IB students who went on the trip, said even the smallest children in the school would come out and help.

"It was quite worrying in a way because we could be passing them heavy cement and you wondered if they could manage it."

She went on: "But the children were so excited when they saw us. They all wanted to talk to us and hold our hands.

"Most of them knew some English, which they had learnt at school. Some of them had really good English, I was quite surprised.

"Some of them would try to teach us Swahili words. These were mainly words like faster and slower that we could use as we worked."

The fathers and mothers of the school children would come and work on the building project as well.

Dr Pringle said: "They really put us English to shame. They didn’t take breaks or even stop for lunch, while we were pausing for water all the time."

By the end of their trip, the pupils had achieved half of the 100 hours needed for the creativity, action and service part of their IBs, but they left with much more than that.

Maggie says the trip made her realise how lucky she is and how much she takes for granted.

"The classrooms were very basic. They were concrete buildings with black boards at the front and there were quite a lot of children in them.

"That’s why we were building the new classrooms so the classes could be separated out."

With such huge class sizes, one might expect behaviour to be a problem.

But according to Dr Pringle, the children behaved beautifully because they really valued their education.

"Not all the teachers would turn up every day, but the children just sat there quietly and got on with their work.

"Their school uniforms were immaculate. It was their best outfit, sometimes the only outfit they had, except for rags.

"In Tanzania you can only go to school if you have shoes, so they all kept their shoes beautifully as well."

At the end of the trip, the students were so moved by the challenges faced by these Tanzanian families that they all left their shoes behind for them.

3Dkids is proud to offer you the chance to promote our services to your Schools / Nurseries. We know that there are many schools and nurseries out there that would love to benefit from our services and recieve the 10% commision they gain from sales. If you recommend us to the School / Nursery you are involved with and we sucessfully book a photo session with them, we will offer you a free bronze package. With this bronze package you can have an image of your choice placed inside the crystals and key rings.

For more information please send an email to info@3dkids.co.uk