Children do better if their family attends parents’ evenings
Pupils score three points higher in verbal reasoning tests if they have a parent who attends parents’ evenings, research has found.
Children whose parents never read to them before the age of five also scored almost two points lower in reasoning tests taken at 11, a report by the Social Market Foundation has said.
To help the poorest pupils, the foundation is asking the government to launch after-school “family literacy” classes in primary schools so that parents develop the habit of reading with their child.
But literacy expert Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, insisted that many of the parents in need of such help would be the least likely to want to come.
Instead, initiatives should encourage parents to read with their child in their home, not in an after-school classroom where they may feel “patronised”, he said.
http://schoolsweek.co.uk/children-do-better-if-their-family-attends-parents-evenings/
Lord Nash answers question relating to the charitable status of independent schools
In the House of Lords yesterday Baroness Tonge put a question to Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System,
Baroness Tonge
“My Lords, have the Government considered ending the charitable status of private schools, which some people see as of rather dubious benefit to the community and state schools? If so, how much money would be released, which could then go to state schools for their direct benefit?”
Lord Nash
“We have not considered that because we do not plan to do it. Were we to lean heavily on the independent sector, it would probably result in a much greater burden on the state sector, because there is no doubt that the country saves a huge amount of money on state education by the number of people who go to private schools.
We have, however, made it absolutely clear that although the independent sector does a great deal to support state schools in terms of both bursaryships and school partnerships up and down the country—I was recently in York, where there is a strong school partnership—we think that some independent schools can do more. We are in active discussions with the Independent Schools Council and the other independent school organisations. They are very willing to help and we will be working with them so that they can help the state sector much more. There is a lot that they can do to help the state sector—particularly in teaching, the use of sports facilities and sports personnel and preparing pupils for applications to university.”