Eleven Plus Education News Service
Eleven Plus News - We trawl through numerous news websites so that you don't have to! Please find a selection of interesting news articles on Independent, Private, Grammar, Secondary schools and Universities. Contributions welcome, please write to
11plus-news@ElevenPlusExams.co.uk.
Superheads cashing in on failing schools
Daily Express - 7th Mar 10
SALARIES equivalent to more than £100,000 a year are being paid to so-called “superheads”, drafted in to help turn around failing schools.
The headteachers negotiate their own fees and are cashing in on schools that are often desperate for help after being placed in special measures.
One trouble-shooter is being paid £1,200 a week for two days’ work at a struggling school in Manchester, according to a colleague.
School places farce hits twins
This is Kent - 7th Mar 10
Hight- achieving twins from Edenbridge have been left in floods of tears after missing out on all four grammar schools they opted for.
Despite sailing through their 11-Plus exams, Isobel and Milly Money, 10, have not been given a grammar school place and have instead won places at the non-selective Skinners' Kent Academy.
Parents Stuart and Liz, of Goodwin Close, have slammed Kent County Council for isolating children from Edenbridge who want to attend top Kent schools.
Sacking of school headteachers 'rises by 75%'
Guardian - 7th Mar 10
Record numbers of headteachers were sacked last year for failing to boost their schools' GCSE grades, it will be claimed today.
At least 163 heads or their deputies were fired in 2009 – 75% more than in 2007, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) will reveal at its annual conference in London.
Too many GCSEs make children ill
Times - 7th Mar 10
The new children’s commissioner has said school pupils should sit no more than eight GCSEs, because too many tests are making them ill.
Maggie Atkinson said one of the risks to children was “the pressure that we as a society seem determined to continue to put our children under in terms of how hothoused they are at school”.
Limiting the exams would reduce homework and give children more “down time”, she said.
Children 'being taught in classes of 40'
Telegraph - 7th Mar 10
At least 210 state school teachers were regularly leading lessons of at least 41 children last year, it was disclosed.
In addition, around one-in-eight children in England are in classes of more than 30, despite fears pupils struggle for attention in huge lessons.
'No evidence' of 11-plus cheating
Ilford Recorder - 6th Mar 10
Council chiefs have ruled there is no evidence of cheating in this year's controversial 11-plus exams as schoolchildren discover whether they got their contested places.
The Recorder discovered last month that police had been called in to probe allegations private tutors were flouting
Russell gives tuition fee pledge
BBC - 6th Mar 10
Tuition fees for higher education will not be introduced by the present Scottish government, the education secretary has said.
Mike Russell did admit however that university funding would come under increased pressure in the coming years.
School admissions: more parents facing 'fraud' investigations
Telegraph - 6th Mar 10
Local councils across England have revealed how children's school places had been cancelled or frozen amid concerns families lied on application forms.
Many parents are suspected of submitting false addresses in the catchment areas of the most sought-after secondary schools.
Academy head says 'don't just write us off'
This is Kent - 5th Mar 10
The head of The Skinners' Kent Academy this week called on parents to "open their minds" after 114 youngsters who passed the 11-plus failed to get a place at grammar school.
Thousands of Kent families eagerly awaited news of where their children would be going to school this week, and about 80 per cent of them got their first choice.
But others were furious when their children were given a place at the new Tunbridge Wells academy, which replaced Tunbridge Wells High School, despite having passed their 11-plus.
St Peter's headteacher gives his view on secondary school allocation
This is Gloucestershire - 5th Mar 10
As parents across Gloucestershire wrestle with the allocation given to their children for secondary school places this week, headteacher of St Peter's High School Lawrence Montagu, gives his view of the placement process.
It is always a stressful time when Year 6 pupils receive confirmation of their secondary school places.
It is a difficult time for students, parents and, certainly in our case, the school.
On an annual basis we are always significantly oversubscribed, but the present system of admissions is infuriating for me.
