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Tory leader demands national scheme for school leavers

Britain needs new ideas to involve school leavers in society to combat social problems like anti-social behaviour and family breakdown, says Conservative leader David Cameron.

In a major speech, Cameron highlighted the Young Adult Trust, a pilot programme in Warrington, as a model for a possible national programme if he wins the election.

"The Trust is designed to bring young people together, from all backgrounds, to engage constructively in our society," he said. (30th October 2006)

Ministers consider permitting IGCSEs for English state schools

Ministers in England are to consider allowing state schools to offer IGCSE exams.

IGCSEs, which are currently sold abroad by the Cambridge and Edexcel exam boards, are considered more demanding than GCSEs.

Although a third of fee-paying schools in England offer at least one IGCSE option, state schools are not at present allowed to do so. (26th October 2006)

SQA plans for Chinese qualifications proceeding

The SQA hopes to offer a range of school qualifications in Mandarin by summer 2009, the Herald reports.

The courses, which will explore Chinese culture as well as language, will be targeted at both Chinese native speakers living in Scotland and non-Chinese learners.

The newly opened Confucius Institute (based at Edinburgh University and part-funded by the Chinese government to promote Chinese culture, as the British Council does British) will help train Mandarin teachers.

"This is a challenge, but we will be working to train existing teachers in Mandarin as well as encouraging fluent speakers into teaching," says Professor Natascha Gentz, Professor of Chinese at Edinburgh and director of the Institute.

"We have targets of producing five teachers a year for the next two years and then we hope to increase the numbers, although that depends on funding from the executive." (20th October 2006)

Let's push our top kids, says McConnell

First Minister Jack McConnell has announced that, as in England, Scottish schools will be encouraged to develop specialisms, in response to the feeling that Scottish education must do more to push the most able students.

At present there are only 6 specialist schools in Scotland, 4 of which focus on music.

Next week Mr McConnell will visit the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, an elite, selective specialist school in the US state of Virginia.

Students at the school are not only encouraged to excel in maths and science, but also to push themselves in other ways - as part of their compulsory foreign language course, for instance, students are encouraged to opt for difficult options, like Mandarin, Japanese or Russian.

While many in Scottish education fear selection breeds elitism, others feel that Scotland should follow this example. Margaret Sutherland is director of SNAP, the Scottish Network of Able Pupils at Glasgow University :

"We need to look at what we do for kids who are especially good at maths, physics or other academic subjects, and how we challenge them," she told the Herald newspaper.

"That is likely to mean selection, but if it is selection on the basis of talent, there can be no argument with that." (10th Oct 2006)

Coursework questioned in QCA report

In England the QCA has recommended that coursework should be scrapped in several subjects, building on comments made by the Education Secretary at the recent Labour Party conference.

Current arrangements encourage cheating, the report argues - not just in Maths (highlighted by Alan Johnson), but also in English and the Humanities.

One option the QCA proposes would be to retain coursework, but under supervised conditions and to be set and / or marked externally rather than in-school.

Any changes will affect courses starting in 2009, following consultation. (6th October)

Not enough personal finance in new maths course, says IFS

The government plans to increase more personal finance into England's National Curriculum in 2008, as a part of a new subject called Functional Maths.

Not good enough, says the Institute of Financial Services, pointing to recent research showing Britain has the highest levels of personal debt in Western Europe.

The IFS points out that the Functional Maths course will include only 7.5 hours of personal finance over two year; what is really needed, they say, is a stand alone GCSE course.

At present personal finance, while referred to in the National Curriculum, is optional, forming part of PSHE.

Supplementing the efforts of the IFS, the Financial Services Authority and the Personal Finance Education Group hope to help 4,000 schools in England to improve their teaching of personal finance. (3rd October)