According to Times online, Academy schools introduced by the Government in an attempt to raise standards in deprived inner-city areas, are being hijacked by middle-class families, research suggests.

A five-year study by the consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that although academies still admit far more children from poor homes than most state schools, the proportion of those pupils has declined significantly in the past five years.

Between 2002 and 2007 the number of academy pupils eligible for free school meals, considered the bench-mark of poverty, rose from 6,600 to 8,000. But as a proportion of all academy pupils, the number of such children declined from 42 to 35 per cent. Nationally, the proportion has declined from 15 to 13 per cent over the same period.

This obviously raises a number of concerns in areas such as East Marsh when the closest school is the local Havelock Academy led by the sponsor David Ross of Carphone Warehouse.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, David Laws, said: “The Government must make sure that where there is admission by banding this is implemented fairly.”

As an ex-pupil at Hereford School who started at the school in 1964 at the age of 11 years – WOW, that is scary, and everyone can now work out my age I am pleased that the preferred bidder for the new school has been announced. And, yes I am just a little older than Jon-Paul Howarth and younger than Tony McCabe my fellow Liberal Democrat Councillors. 

1964, was a great year, Hereford was one of the very first brand new Comprehensive Schools built by the Harold Wilson’s Government; at the time it was considered to be state of the art, but now it is outdated and falling apart.  

North East Lincolnshire Council, announced that that Kier was the preferred bidder for the design and redevelopment of Hereford Technology School and Havelock Academy projects with a combined value of £37 – 40 million.

Both the school and the academy will be replaced over the next three years by modern, state-of-the-art buildings, designed to help to raise the educational standards of those attending as well as meeting the needs of the communities of North East Lincolnshire.

Work is due to start at Hereford in April 2009 with an aim to open by September 2010. Work on Havelock will follow closely with their opening anticipated to be January 2011. The predecessor buildings will largely be demolished.

    The Havelock project is particularly important for the young of the East Marsh area owing to the fact that this school is closest to the East Marsh Ward, and it is important that it keep close links with residents even though it is an Academy.

       Successful Bidder Read More>

According to the Guardian a major review of the government’s academy programme is about to conclude that results have improved markedly however that the proportion of pupils they take from the poorest homes has shrunk.

The findings are taken from a five-year independent inquiry and they are expected to support claims by critics that more able students are being selected to improve results. It will also raise questions about expansion of the programme and warn of shortages of headteachers and sponsors to meet the government’s plans for 400 academies. Separate figures revealed today show the scale of the drop in the number of pupils on free school meals in academies. In 2003, 45% of academy pupils were eligible, compared with 29% at the beginning of this term, according to figures released in parliament.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report will reveal that there are now three applications for every place at an academy - most of the predecessor schools were among the worst in the country and hugely undersubscribed. GCSE results have improved on average in academies, though the picture is mixed, with some schools making much faster progress than others.

Academies tend to have more pupils on free school meals, of ethnic minorities and who speak English as an additional language than the national average. But the proportion of children from poorer homes is “declining faster than [in] England”, the report will say. Absences and exclusions are also higher than the national norm and that for schools in similar areas.

Separate figures, obtained by the Liberal Democrats through a parliamentary question, reveal a 16 percentage point drop in the proportion of children on free school meals in academies. At the same time the proportion of pupils across England who qualify fell from 14.5% to 12.8%. The researchers will question whether the schools are using a form of selection to admit pupils from wealthier homes.

This is a worrying trend because two of the Secondary Schools that serve the children of the East Marsh ward are both Academies – I along with the two other Liberal Democrat Councillors will be watching the situation very closely.

Seven local primary schools will be completely rebuilt following the announcement of £30 million Government cash from the Department of Children Schools and Families over the next 14 year years.

Edward Heneage Primary School which is just outside East Marsh Ward and over the border in Heneage Ward will be one of the first to two schools to benefit – it will be demolished and rebuilt. It is great news for both East Marsh and Heneage Ward because many children from both wards attend this school, and it was once earmarked for closure under the primary schools surplus place review. But this is now great news for local residents.

All secondary schools within North East Lincolnshire are being rebuilt or remodelled with a separate £100-million Government Building Schools For The Future grant.

NELC head of capital and assets Wendy Fisher said: “It is an exciting time. We have already been holding design team meetings to discuss Edward Heneage and Woodlands’ new schools and talked with governors.

“This means we can transform the education of pupils and provide an ideal situation for 21st Century learning. It supports our aims for the Every Child Matters strategy.”

She added: “With the creation of the East and West Gateway For Learning we shall be planning 0-19 year’s campuses and under the plans for Building Schools For The Future we will be looking at Whitgift and Humberston schools to have primary schools.”

The education chief said Information Technology facilities in all primary schools will be improved as part of the £30 million investment.

Apparently a GCSE examination taken by thousands of students was deliberately dumbed down to make it easier to pass, examiners have admitted. This is an extraordinary admission from the examiners who announced that half a million pupils who sat their science GCSE will never know their true grade. 

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - Britain’s biggest exam board - said it lowered grade boundaries in science tests to make papers less demanding than previous years.

In an extraordinary admission, officials insisted they had been forced into the move “under pressure” from the Government’s exam regulator.

This is unbelievable interference by the state in young people’s education, and they should apologies for any distress caused.

It is the biggest controversy to engulf Ofqual since it was established this year by Gordon Brown as an independent standards watchdog.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, David Laws said: “Ofqual is supposed to be the guardian of standards, it was not set up to erode them.”

England’s three exam boards - which set their own GCSE and A-level papers - met in early August to discuss grade boundaries.

According to the Times Educational Supplement, they failed to come to an agreement over the mark needed to get a C - officially a good pass - in science. One of AQA’s rival exam boards awarded C grades in one paper to pupils getting just 20 per cent of questions correct.

On August 7 - just two weeks before results were published - Ofqual wrote to the AQA ordering them to reduce its own grade boundaries to “bring it into line” with other boards.

       Commenting on the news that Government officials responsible for overseeing this year’s SATs fiasco have been awarded thousands of pounds in bonuses, Liberal Democrat Shadow Children, Schools and Families Secretary, David Laws said: “It is frankly astonishing to hear that staff who have overseen this year’s SATs shambles are receiving bonuses of nearly £4,000.”

“The timing of these bonuses is at the very least insensitive, even if they do supposedly relate to last year.

“I will be writing to the Secretary of State asking for an assurance that in the light of the this year’s chaos, bonuses will not be paid for the 2008 tests.”

    Increasing numbers of trainee teachers are having to re-sit basic math’s tests, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. The average number of attempts needed to pass the basic math’s test has increased by over a fifth since 2001. 

   The figures, released in a Parliamentary answer, show: 

Ø       Trainee teachers made 20,000 failed attempts in numeracy tests

Ø       The average number of attempts needed to pass the literacy test has increased by 16% since 2001

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Children, Schools and Families Secretary, David Laws said: “The Government will only be able to really drive-up standards in our schools if it can attract the best and the brightest to the teaching profession.

“For far too long, teaching has simply not been an occupation of choice for many graduates.

“As the number of applicants being accepted on to teaching courses rises, we need to be sure that this isn’t being coupled with a decline in standards.

“The existing minimum qualifications for people wanting to become teachers are too low. The economic slowdown should be used as an opportunity to promote teaching as a profession and attract top graduates in the same way as the TeachFirst programme has done on a smaller scale.”

      Commenting on the Annual School Sports Survey figures released today, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said: “The improvement in the number of pupils doing enough sport a week is welcome, but we can’t ignore the fact that nearly three quarters of a million children are still missing out.”

Don Foster continued, saying: “The decline in competitive sport is especially concerning as it’s vitally important for developing the next generation of top athletes.

“However, we must recognise that it’s not for everyone. If we’re serious about getting all young people fit and active then we need to look beyond the school walls and stop ignoring the fact that a quarter of children still don’t take part in any sport outside of school.”

Commenting on Ed Balls’ announcement that the Government is to scrap SATs for 14-year-olds, Liberal Democrat Shadow Children, Schools and Families Secretary, David Laws said: “I welcome the Government’s complete U-turn. The SATs tests taken by 14-year-olds are not only a waste of time but have been highly unreliable over the last few years.” 

David Laws went on to say “This U-turn needs to be just the first move in restoring confidence in standards in English education and putting the needs of young people first instead of the current system of factory farming our children. 

“Ed Balls needs to establish a genuinely independent Educational Standards Authority to sample pupil performance each year so that we really know what is happening to standards and that results are not being inflated by teaching to the test or the dumbing down of exams.“It is important to retain testing at 11 years so that parents have real information about results in primary schools and that the focus is on giving young people the key skills they need to thrive in secondary education.”

        A third of students who started university since fees were introduced in 1998 are earning too little to make repayments on their loans, research by the Liberal Democrats has uncovered.  

       Nearly 400,000 graduates have not made repayments on their loans up to seven years after they graduated because they are not yet earning above the £15,000 threshold. It comes amid concerns that graduates now face the toughest time in a generation as firms cut down on recruitment in the credit crunch.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, Stephen Williams said: “It is shocking that nearly a third of graduates are not yet earning enough to be repaying their students loans. 

“Having forked out for at least three years to get a degree, many new graduates would be expecting to be in well-paid employment.
 
“Aside from their student loans, many of these young people will have also stacked up large amounts of commercial debt which they will be struggling to repay on their relatively low wages.

“As the financial crisis worsens the burden on new graduates is going to be even greater.”