andy reynolds assingmnet

Andy Reynolds Guest speakers During the last term we have had many different guest speakers talking to us about different policies which effect education. The four I am going to talk about are as followed: Mike day- Educational policy Steve Gullick- Governors Nick Bennett- further education Russell Grigg – ESTYN Mike day Educational policy 28th Feb 2012 Educational policy is described as 'guidelines for actions to achieve goals and objectives. Specific aims to be achieved and desired end results. It reflects on political opinions, traditions and values, and socio-economic objectives. It's over a long time scale and discusses fundamental choices'. Education is there for many different reasons for example creating a workforce; transmit values and beliefs, keeping people off the streets, tool for social mobility and to produce rounded individuals. These however are just a few as there are a lot more reasons for education. As well as there being many different answers to this question, there are also many questions being asked regarding education. Some of these questions include things such as; What should be the school compulsory age?, Should school be free?, Should it be selective?, Should SEN be incorporated in main school or should it be separate? By having an educational policy, it means that it will guide operational decisions and actions; it will also ensure that teachers in the class room know what to do and what actions etc to take. Politicians or practitioners are the two groups of that people believe should form educational policies. Politicians are elected to represent people they hold the 'purse strings' and are not subject experts. Practitioners on the other hand know how it works in practice, from a different perspective but are unable to look at a wider view. I personally believe it should been developed between the two of them to make sure they take very point into consideration and get everything covered. Education policy is developed in many different places such as: UK Level (Westminster) - Determines compulsory school age, teachers pay and conditions, takes responsibility of LEA's, parents and schools. WAG (Welsh Assembly Government) - Welsh medium, foundation phase, schools, no SAT's or free tuition fees and pupil deprivation grant. LEA - Organise and determine size and number of schools we have. Advice and guidance is also given to schools and identifies where and how many children (of compulsory age) are missing education within their area. School and Governing body – Weather or not there are to be school Uniforms, start and finish school times, child protection, SEN equal opportunities, school improvement plans, personal and social education. Where do regional groups fit in? – There are four regional groups being introduced from this September from south west and mid Wales (SWAMWAC). They all have a common goal to “improve outcomes for young people. The focus of consortium working is school improvement and more specifically the improvement of learner standards and well being”. Policy is developed by ‘policy borrowing’, which “searches the international experience for examples of a unique, transferable ‘best practice’”. (David Raffe, 2011) Steve Gullick Governors 23rd of January 2012 Governors run schools; they employ and discipline staff, decide when to exclude pupils, approve budgets and ensures that the school is reaching its full potential. Not only do governors represent the school, they also represent parents, pupils and teachers. Community governors do not have an attachment to the school; they simply just have a passion for the school and want to help it succeed. There is an election to vote for governors every four years, which anyone can attend. Although governors play such a large role in schools, they are volunteers and are not paid, however are expected to take time off work to attend the three compulsory meetings a year. Governors work with head teachers to set the aims and objectives for the school, agree policies, targets and priorities for achieving these objectives, monitor and evaluate the aims and objectives and whether the policies, targets and priorities are being met, always with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement. A Governors role is also to offer advice and support to head teacher’s as well as asking challenging questions and requesting information to ensure the school is meeting targets. “The head teacher and professional staff are accountable to the governing body for the school’s performance. The governing body must be prepared to explain its decisions and actions to anyone who has a legitimate interest. This may include staff, pupils, parents and the press, as well as the LA, the school’s foundation or Welsh Assembly Government.” (Governors Wales 2009) Responsibilities of school governors include; attending full governing body meetings at least once a term, participate in comities, and to visit their school to ensure they have a clear understanding of how the school is being run and any targets need to be set. There are two groups of people who cannot be stopped from coming into schools, these include inspectors and governors. A large number of the governing body in Wales do not have the full number, and are short of community governors with a business background. Poorer areas or smaller schools in Wales normally lack governors. However those schools which do have governors all seem to be of a similar stereotype for example middle class, white, middle aged. This is a problem as there are not enough ethnic governors which could be down to racism, language barriers, confidence etc. (Stuart Ranson'School Governors and Improvement in Wales') There are 22 LEA's, all of which must provide free training, however 14 of them said that only a few governors were trained. This was said to be down to a lot of the courses being cancelled due to a lack of interest and support. Peter Earley (London Institute of Education) found that there were 4 types of governors which include: The Supporters' club The Partners The Abdicators The Adversaries Nick Bennet (Gower College Principal) Further Education 5th March 2012 Further education is to educate people in a wider way to what they already know. There are many benefits to further education such as widening access, having a second chance, cultural awareness, civic duty, financial support, fulfilment of potential, community regeneration etc. Further education promotes equal opportunities and gives everyone the chance of an equal start in life and to gain qualifications etc wanted. The Welsh government department for further education and skills is currently made up of sixth forms, adult education, colleges, private providers and voluntary sectors. Lots of further education colleges are starting to merge together to increase learning opportunities and to enable closer collaboration between higher and further education. Whilst you are in school until the age of 16, you are in compulsory full time education, where you have set subjects to study and set exams to be taken. However any further education is down to each individual as they can choose their course, subjects or even do different qualifications such as btecs. As you leave school at the age of 16 it is more common for people between the ages of 17- 19 to be in further education, however there are still people off all ages who return to further education to further their qualifications. There are many reasons for going back to further education however one important one is that skills are vital to the economy and society. Without these vital skills individuals hold, it would mean businesses would not succeed and people would never reach their full potential. Below are some college statistics which show the need for further education. College statistics: • 2009/10 - 184,730 learners (6,866 HE, 15,790 work based learners) • 95% from Wales • Offer 5,000 different qualifications, over 6,000 courses available in Wales, majority sit 600 courses. • almost 2x as many 16-19 year olds in college than schools • 68% of FE students aged over 19 / 32% under 19 • 20% of FE students full time, 80% part time • whole FE sector receives over £350,000,000 a year from WAG • Most common courses are care/personal development e.g.: hairdressing, daycares etc and I.T. Dr Russel Grigg ESTYN 16th January • ESTYN are a company who inspect quality and standards in education and training in Wales who are funded by, the National Assembly for Wales under Section 104 of the Government of Wales Act 1998. They look at anyplace where education takes place and inspect standards and quality. Although Standards and quality sound the same they are completely different. Standards means a level reached for example getting a 2:1 or 1:1 in your degree, from this we can then see how much you understand and know about the course. Quality on the other hand refers to how much experience you have. ESTYN are responsible for inspecting nursery schools, primary and secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units, independent schools, further education, independent specialist colleges, adult community learning, local authority education services for children and young people, teacher education and training, work-based learning, careers companies and offender learning. They also provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales and promote the spread of good practice in education and training. (ESTYN). There are also 3 aspects which ESTYN focus on improving these include: • Providing accountability to uses of services and other stakeholders through public reporting on providers. • promote improvement in education and training • Informing government in education and training. When ESTYN go around inspecting, they grade schools etc using by judgements. The four categories are: excellent, good, adequate and unsatisfactory. By doing this we can see where Wales is in the rankings and see what we need to improve on. ESTYN also report on best practice. ESTYN mission is “to achieve excellence for all learners in Wales… through providing an independent, high quality inspection and advice service.” Their vision on the other hand is “to be recognized through the expertise of our staff as an authoritative voice on education and training in Wales.” (ESTYN) Reference List http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/PDF%20Files/Brief057.pdf http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/about-us/mission-and-vision/ http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/about-us/role-and-remit/ http://www.governorswales.org.uk/media/files/documents/2011-08-16/Part_1_-_The_leadership_role_Web-English.pdf http://www.newcollegedurham.ac.uk/school/parents/Pages/FE.aspx http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/further-education-skills http://www.governorswales.org.uk/

Final piece

I have now decided what to make as my final piece for my project. I have decided to paint a canvas relating to my topic and am also going to use beads and other materials on it. I have decided to do this after a lot of research which is all explained in my folder. I am looking forward to doing it as not only is it an assignment but it is also something I enjoy. ICT and media I have used ict and media throughout my project. Some of these things include: text picture internet research spider diagrams media research e.g magazines collage board photos etc I am now trying to put all of my work together ready to hand in my project on tuesday :) x

Ideas for project

Its taken me a while to decide what to base my project on, I started of wanting to do it on my turtle then family but i have now decided to base it on art and the human body. I have also had a fond intrest in art, especially in drawing the body and eyes. Every person is so different and unique, it makes who you are and no one can change that. I am going to look at different artisits for inspiration whilst drawing and understanding my own feelings. With this information I am going to form a project folder full of drawings, photos, artists copies, different techniques and then hopefully make a sucsesfull final piece. I am looking forward to starting this project as I have know made up my mind on what and how I am going to do it. x

WHAT IS ED? march

Last weeks lecure was held by Mike Day (cabinet member for Education in Swansea). The topic of this lecture was educational policy.

educational policy was described as 'guidelines for actions to achieve goals and objectives. Specific aims to be achieved and desired end results. It reflects on political opinions, traditions and values, and socio-economic objectives. It's over a long time scale and discusses fundamental choices'.

What is education for?

Create a workforce
Transmit values and beliefs
Keep people off the streets
Tool for social mobility
Produce 'rounded' individuals

Major questions

What should be the school compulsory age?
Should school be free?
Should it be selective?
SEN? Include in mainstream? Seperate?

Why is it needed?

Guides opertionl decisions and actions
Teacher in the classroom, what to do?
Guidelines or straight jacket?

Who should develop it?

Politicians - elected to represent people. They hold the 'purse strings' and are not subject experts.
Practicioners - Know how it works in practice, from a different perspective but unable to take the wider view.
Should be a meeting of minds (Between the two)

Where is it developed?

UK Level (Westminster) - Determines compulsory school age, teachers pay and conditions, responsbility of LEA's, parents and schools.

WAG - Welsh medium, foundation phase, schools, no SAT's or free tuition fees and pupil deprivation grant.

LEA - Organise and determine size and number of schools we have. Advice and guidnce to schools adn identifies where and how many children (of compulsory age) are missing education within their area

School and Governing body - Uniforms, start and school finish times, child protection, SEN equal opportunities, school improvement plans, personal and social education.

Where do regional groups fit in? - 4 introduced from this September. SWAMWAC, Focus on school improvement, standards, learner and wellbeing.


How is it developed?

Policy borrowing - searches internationl examples of unique, transferrable 'best practice'

Policy learning - development of tailored national policies rather than policies taken off the peg, they also learn from the countries history.

QEd Policy 2020

Raise standards of acievement and attainment
Quality of the learning environment
Make best use of human, physical and financial resources
Stakeholder engagement copeness and partnership
Coherance (Consistency with wider educational strategies and support of other council strategies)
Flexibility (Appropriate use of resources)
Objectivity (Use of robust assessment framework)
Cost effectiveness
Resourced


:)

WHAT IS ED end of feb

Graham Allen (Environmental Manager in Swansea Metropolitan University) took todays lecture and bassed it on Sustainable Education. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development. Agenda 21 (Clarifies and extends ability, encourages students to reflect, debate and form opinions
Coporate responsibility involves:

Coroporate strategy
Integration
Management
Performance and impact
Community
Environment
Market Place
Work Place

Digression: The benefits of growth involves:

Employment
Income increases
Decrease in poverty
Improves standards of living
Economic stability
Creativity
Innovation

GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Causes:

War
Deforestation
Crime
Pollution

Not included:

Loss of natural resources
Caring work
Womens work

Employment

Sharing work hours
Higher working hours means less marginal benefit
Shorter working hours means more jobs and more leisure time.


Political Strategy

The public can be part of the transsition to sustainable society
Global down-turn is in part a result of avoiding the inevitable signs
Public need leadership to work towards sustinability
National Assembly has a duty to promote sustainable development in everything that it does

And the principles of embedding sustainable development as a central organising principle

Long termism
Integration
Involvement


5 themes of ESDGC (Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship):

1.Links between society, economy, environment and our lives
2.Rights for the present and future generations
3.Relationship between power, resources and human rights
4.Local and global implications
5.Actions individuals cn take in response to the implications


Welsh Government recommends that ESDGC continues to be delivered through:

Leadership
Learning nd teching
Practice within an HEI
Partnership and community working
Research

three components of sustainble development are:

environment
economic
social sustainability.

:)

Well that's everything, toodles!

WHAT IS ED?

This weeks lecture was held by Olive Hopker, who is the Head of Planning and Development in Swansea Metropolitan University. The topic of the lecture was about Collaboration-V-Competition in education. Some of the aspects spoken about are as followed:

Ministerial statements
Employment and Governance Structure in Wales
Collabortion and Competition Issues
Regional Planning and the role of HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales)
Benefits and limitations for HEI (Higher Education Institute)

She also gave us examples of government statements, mostly from Leighton Andrews,which was beneficial for Schools / Further Education Sector and Higher Education.

:)

WHAT IS ED? Feb

Hey again, so this is our last seminar with Steve Gullick. Again in this seminar we looked at governers and governing bodys however we now focussed more on Wales. A large number of the governing body in Wales do not have the full number, and are short of community governors with a business background. Poorer areas or smaller schools in Wales normally lack governers. However those schools which do have governers all seem to be of a simular sterotype for example middle class, white, middle aged. This is a problem as there are not enough ethnic governers which could be down to racism, language barriers, confidence etc.

(Stuart Ranson'School Governors and Improvement in Wales')

All 22 LEA's must provide free training, however 14 of them said that only a few governors were trained. This was said to be down to a lot of the courses being cancelled due to a lack of interest and support.

Peter Earley (London Institute of Education) found that there were 4 types of governors which include:

The Supporters' club
The Partners
The Abdicators
The Adversaries

He aldo researched the types of governors, and the amount of each type in Wales.

:)

What is ed feb

Steve Gullick, talked about the health and safety aspect of being a governor. He also looked at diference between strategic and tactical planning. Strategic being the governors (more long term) and tactical being the school (more short term).' As a governor, you are obviously very concerned that health and safety matters are dealt with well at your school'. We were given a scenario which is as followed: the headteacher tells you that there is no structure to the way teachers prepare for overnight trips and visits for pupils. It is the governing bodys job to overcome this and solve it. To deal with this situation the governing body sets up a working party of 3 governors and 2 teachers to produce a checklist for teachers to go through before they take an overnight trip. Some of the things on the list include:

Meeting with parents before trip
Food & drink, spare clothes, money etc
List of pupils and staff, itinerary, risk assesment etc
First aid kits and a first aider
Contact details and medical details, medication etc

:) x

WHAT IS ED begining feb

We had another lecture with Steve Gullick this week and continued talking about governing bodys however we also looked at the contact between school governers and teaching staff. These include:
Presntations at governing body meetings
Link governors and their visits, e.g.: for SEN and for eah subject
Celebrations e..: school concerts and productions
Staff disciplinary committee meetings
Job interviews
Informal visits to schools

He also spoke about the process of the staff disciplinary hearings, And the process of the headteacher sending out letters, the clerks role and also the four possible verdicts Which include
No charge whatsoever
1st written warning
Last warning
Dismissal -> Appeal?

Something I found interesting was that an inspector can stop olice, parents etc from entering thier school, however governors and inspectirs are free to visit whenever they want.

Once again I found this lecture interesting and felt I learnt a lot that I didnt already kinow. :)

WHAT IS ED Mon 30th Jan

Steve Gullick took the lecture this week, who is the director for All Wales Centre for Training and Reserch. The tobic for the lecture was the roles of the governing body. He discussed what they were, who who they, what roles they played in schools and the importance of. He also raised the question weather governors should be payed because the duties they hold are vital to the school and children. He also looked at who and what makes up the governing body from primary to secondary schools. Lastly we looked at the agenda of the meeting and where everybody sits and what role they play.

I learnt a lot from this lecture and now feel a lot more confident talking about it :) x

What is ED?

Hey guys, I know im a couple of weeks behind but ive now decided to talk about all of andys what is education lectures as they have been covered by numerous different people, all who which play an important role in education. Here goes :) .......

6 photos- scared emotion

6 photos- scared emotion

6 photos- scared emotion

6 photos- scared emotion

6 photos- scared emotion

6 photos- scared emotion

graffiti

Graffiti name :)

This is done on the same website as word text and is a different way for writting and displaying names.

http://www.graffiticreator.net/

text image

http://www.delicious.com/peacehome

Estyn by Dr Russell Grigg

Today in Andys Lecture we had a guest speaker called Dr Russell Grigg who is head of South West Wales centre of teacher education. From this lecture we learnt about the company estyn. Estyn are a company who inspect quality and standards in education and training in wales. They look at anyplace where education takes place and inspect standards and quality. Standards and quality sound the same however they are completely diferent. Standards mean a level reached for example getting a 2:1 or 1:1 in your degree, form this we can then see how much you understand and know about the course. Quality on the other hand refers to how much expirience you have. There are also 3 aspects which estyn focus on improving these include:

provide accountability to uses of services and other stakeholders through public reporting on providers.

promote improvement in education and training

informing governement in education and training.

When yestyn go around inspecting, they grade schools etc using by judgements. The four catagories are: excellent, good, adequate and unsatisfactory. By doing this we can see where wales is in the rankings and see what we need to improve on. Estyn aslo report on best practice.

More infroamtion can be found on:
www. estyn.gov.uk

xoxo

Placement

Two weeks before xmas I went on a weeks placement to Penyrheol primary school to gain expirience in a classroom environment. During my time there I worked with a year 1 class and helped out in different ways such as working with focus groups, helping set up and watch free choice, reading to children etc. When I was there I wacthed the differnt ways in which the teacher taught and the way children learnt. I could completely see the foundation phase was the main part or the curricliam as the class was split into 4 small groups and each morning and afternoon 2 groups would be chosen to work in focus groups. This was when the group worked with a teacher doing a main subject e.g maths, the teacher would explain to them using multi links etc to build scaffolding for them to learn and would then go through work sheets witrh them. The other two groups of the class would be given time to do free choice where they would each select an activity and spend time doing it untill they want to move activities or until they reach lunch. This gives them chance to play and explore everything for themselves to learn and understand. I thouroghly enjoyed my week on placement and feel I have learnt alot from it. I am looking forward to many more :)
xoxo