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/