Age and Development

A new study carried out by the NFER has concluded that summer-born children are more likely to develop special educational needs; the literature review examined research projects from the UK and 14 other countries. Among recommendations which the report makes are age-standardised tests which could ensure that younger pupils would have an appropriate curriculum, although the review does not go as far as suggesting that younger children should defer their entry to school for a year.

The 61 page report is entitled The Influence of Relative Age on Learner Attainment and Development and is available online. A summary version (5 pages) can also be viewed.

Fathering / Parenting

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has just published a collection of research reports which examine different aspects of parenting and the role of the father in contemporary Britain. If you have an interest in these topics or are considering a project in this area for your dissertation then they are well worth a look. Links to the full text of each report as well as summary versions are below:

- Understanding Fathering: Masculinity, Diversity and Change
(Summary)

- Understanding the Experiences of Asian Fathers
(Summary)

- Assessments of Parenting and Parenting Support Need
(Summary)

Birmingham for Families

The next time you're passing the Central Library, try popping in for 2 minutes and picking up a copy of Birmingham for Families (see below), a free directory of services in the city for children, young people and families. Copies are available in the Centre for the Child, and the booklet contains details of thousands of useful services and contact details, including everything from children's centres and schools to health advice and child safety. Very handy!

Teaching Resources

Welcome to all of the new students on the College's PGCE programme. This post is intended to point you towards some of the Web resources that will be most helpful to you during (and hopefully beyond!) your course, so it may be worth bookmarking some of the links below if you haven't done so already.

It's likely that you'll quickly realise the importance of the Times Educational Supplement (aka TES). Their website gives you free access to thousands of news stories and feature articles on all aspects of school life that have been published over the last 15 years. The site also contains job listings, lesson plans, a discussion forum, and other interactive features. For further news and features about the profession, try looking at the teaching section of the Guardian website.

The DCSF has set up the Teachernet website to support the teaching profession, and so it contains a mass of information about all aspects of the job, from classroom management and ICT to whole school issues and continuing professional development. The site also contains plenty of links to other useful sites, and can be used to download official education-related publications. Teachernet is also home to the bi-monthly Teachers magazine, which can be read online in full.

If you've ever flicked through the channels on Freeview, you may have stumbled across channel 88, which is home to Teachers TV. This broadcasts programmes on all aspects of school life, and often has themed weeks where a series of programmes on a particular topic are shown. All of the channel's output is available to watch at any time from the website.

The Teacher Training Resource Bank contains materials to help support your professional development; these can include news stories, research reports, government guidance documents, QTS standards and much more. The 'Glossary' section of the site is also very useful in helping you to make sense of all of the jargon that you'll need to get to grips with during your training.

Other teaching-specific websites that may come in handy include the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), which is responsible for the professional development of the school workforce. Also worth a look is Teaching Expertise, an "information and learning website for teachers and other education professionals" which has been put together by the publishers Optimus Education.

As the PGCE contains a significant element of SEN content, you may want to familiarise yourself with the work of the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). Students can access their publications through the library's online resources, but the NASEN site is also worth viewing as it provides news stories, research summaries, and links to the websites of similar organisations. Teachernet also has an SEN area with important information, and the Guardian's Special Educational Needs area contains relevant news stories.

For reference purposes, you may also want to occasionally check the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage sites; these contain detailed information on what skills children are taught at different levels, as well as providing supporting materials.

Finally, don't forget to check this blog regularly for details of new reports on teaching as and when they're published. You can view a list of previous posts relating to teaching by clicking this link, while the 'Useful Links' area in the right hand column lists some more generic education and child-related sites which are worth a visit.

That should keep you all going for now. If any readers are aware of a particularly useful teaching-related site that isn't mentioned here, why not share it by putting a link to it below this post in the form of a comment? Here's how to do it.

History of Primary Schools

From Abacus to Circle Time: A Short History of the Primary School is the title of a 3 part series which begins today on Radio 4 at 4pm. Each episode is 30 minutes long, and the series will cover the changes in teaching methods from Victorian times, through the 'progressive' 1960s and 1970s, to the present day. Further information about the programme is available here, while this article by the series' presenter Mike Baker suggests that perhaps there has been less change than we imagine.

Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents

The DCSF recently published its annual Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents. This report examines information on parental childcare arrangements and opinions on childcare provision, and the impact of government policy in these areas. Among the findings in the latest edition are that more parents are able to find childcare and early years' provision during term-time, but that finding affordable childcare for older children is still an issue. You can read the report by clicking here.

Support Staff in Schools

A new study by the Institute of Education looks likely to prove controversial, after it concluded that pupils who are supported by teaching assistants do no better than those who are left alone. Although more positive findings from the research suggested that support staff have had a positive impact on teachers' job satisfaction and stress levels.

The full title of the report is Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools. The full version (166 pages!) of the report is available here, or you can read a more managable summary by clicking here.

Guidance from Ofsted

The mere mention of 'Ofsted' may strike fear into you if you work in a early years or education setting, but on this occasion it seems the organisation is keen to lend a hand; two new publications on the Ofsted website are designed to offer guidance to those working with children.

Are You Ready for Your Inspection? is a 28 page booklet with information on what to expect from an inspection and how best to prepare for one.

Also, Childminding: a Passion to be Outstanding is based on the opinions of childminders who have received the highest grade during inspection, and lists best practice in keeping children safe, inclusion, learning and development and other issues.

Doing Better for Children

A new publication from the OECD suggests that high public spending in the UK on child welfare and education is failing to deliver results. The report, entitled Doing Better for Children, suggests that Britain has high rates of teenage pregnancy, drunkenness, and young people not in education, employment or training. However, the UK is considered to score well compared to other countries with regards to child poverty and school satisfaction; a summary of the main findings pertaining to Britain is available.