News

Students and teachers at Djanogly City Academy are celebrating after beating their GCSE results record for a third year in a row.

The pass rate of 58 percent is up seven per cent from last year. 

The academy was judged to be “good” by Ofsted in May after being placed in special measures in 2013.

Several students achieved a new grade 9 and high pass rates in the new reformed GCSEs including science, history and geography.

For the second year running, 99 percent of students achieved a pass in science, and the percentage of students gaining a grade 4 (C grade) or above in geography and history are the highest the school has ever achieved.

The science facility, opened by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, will allow Sutherland House School pupils to get more hands-on during experiments and expands the range of qualifications available

Sutherland House School (SHS) officially opened their new science laboratory recently, allowing students a full and immersive experience into the subject of science and broadening the range of qualifications available at the school. 

Attending a Thinking School can improve pupils’ GCSE results by as much as a grade, according to new research.

And under the new Progress 8 accountability measure, which aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of key stage 4, schools can expect to see their scores increase by a grade.

Thinking Schools teach students to visualise their ideas with ‘maps’ which help children to create, understand, problem-solve and persist with tasks rather than merely regurgitate answers.

Research author Dr Dave Walters of the Cognitive Education Development Unit at Exeter University, believes the research establishes Thinking Schools as game-changers in school improvement. 

Company director and arts therapist Daniel Thomas tells Education for Everybody about the work Chroma does with children…

Tell us about Chroma and what you do.

We are the UK’s leading national provider of arts therapies working across a range of sectors to improve the lives of every person who works with us. Our 70+ team of experienced therapists provide a national service covering education, health and social care. We provide art psychotherapy, music therapy, neurologic music therapy and dramatherapy. 

We work with social care partners and local authorities supporting adopted children and their families, in healthcare for people who need rehabilitation from brain injuries but also those with dementia or other neurological diseases. 

Luke Swann, founder of The Prologue free personalised books scheme which aims to engage even the most reluctant readers, explains how the books work and why he feels the landscape of literacy learning needs to change in order to include children from all backgrounds…

When did The Prologue begin, and why did you set it up?

Just over a year ago, I set up The Prologue as a way to create the educational and social change I think is urgently needed. I grew up in an impoverished area where education simply didn’t work for a lot of young people. I’ve work as a teacher and a children’s author before but I had to solve some of these issues on a wider scale and so The Prologue has become my primary means to achieve that necessary change.

Israel’s Athena Fund today announced that more than 400 school and kindergarten special education teachers in the Bedouin sector have received iPads in recent months as part of the “iPad for Every Special Education Teacher” program. In addition to computers, the teachers will also receive 120 hours of techno-pedagogical training.

The distribution of iPads was carried out in the communities of Rahat, Hura, Neve Midbar Regional Council and Bir al-Maqsur.

Our journey to becoming a Thinking School began back in 2008; it has been a complex and demanding process, but the impact on our school and its pupils has been dramatic. 

What prompted it?

We had observed that a vast number of our students, who are aged 11-19,  were passive learners. They were being given information in order to pass exams but there was little opportunity for them to discover things for themselves. What we wanted was to raise the level of challenge and for them to become self-motivated and lead their own learning. 

Helen Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Northampton, who’s also an Apple Distinguished Educator, shares her thoughts on the use of technology for education and outlines some ideas for implementing technology in outdoor sessions…

Our children are increasingly spending less time outdoors exploring their environment. They spend more time engaging with the world around them in a digital format - through the various mobile devices now available to them at home and in the classroom.

They’re mixing learning, gaming, watching video content and using social media to communicate in a more interactive way than ever before. They are often way ahead of the curve in understanding technology, compared to parents, and some educators. 

Encouraging and supporting your child in their reading can sometimes be a monster task, let the Book Monster (RRP £24.99) by Thinking Gifts come to the rescue! This brilliant book holder can be propped on to any surface and keeps the book or tablet firmly in position with monster teeth to mark each page.

This gentle giant, available in green and blue, can accommodate most sizes of books, e-readers and tablets and has handy pockets at the back for storing items such as bookmarks, power cords and ear phones. Book Monster can now also accompany you on holiday – the new, inflatable Bookmonster Air (RRP £14.99) is waterproof and perfect for story-time on the beach!