A team of local commissioners should be employed to identify institutions that should lose their academy status and find headteachers who should be replaced, the incoming head of Ofsted has said.

 

 

As more schools become independent academies, Sir Michael Wilshaw called for the creation of the network of commissioners who would report back on the performance of schools in their area.

 

Wilshaw, who will take up his post as England's new chief education inspector next month, also suggested in an interview with the Times that some school governors should be paid in a bid to improve their performance and that scruffy teachers could be reprimanded.

 

"If we turned up at the doctor's surgery or the lawyer's offices … we would expect them to look professional, it's the same with teachers," he said.

 

He said that the local commissioners would be needed to help with the task of identifying problems as more schools became academies.

 

"I speak as someone who believes in autonomy and who believes in independence and as a great supporter of the academy programme, but we know there will be some academies that won't do well," Wilshaw said.

 

"It is no good just relying on Ofsted to give the judgment. By that time, it is too late. We need some sort of intermediary bodies which can detect when things aren't going well, look at the data and have their ear very close to the ground to determine when there is a certain issue."

 

He added: "These people would be non-political, in other words they would not be like LEAs responsible to a council, they would be people who would report directly to the secretary of state."

 

"The job of the commissioner would be to meet the managing directors, the chief executives of those clusters, report to him or her on the performance of the group. And the commissioner would then make a judgment on whether a school needs to be improved, report to the secretary of state and then bring in other agencies to improve those schools or not."

 

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "We welcome Sir Michael Wilshaw's thoughts on how we can continue to drive up standards in schools."

 

"We have already established the Office of the Schools Commissioner and will take action to deal with any failing school or academy. We have also published more information than ever before about how schools are performing, including their spending and results, so they can be held to account and parents really know what is going on in schools, including academies."

 

Stephen Twigg, Labour's shadow education secretary, said the party will give "serious consideration" to the suggestion in its policy review.

 

He said: "We have been looking at the idea of local schools' commissioners to raise standards and deal with poorly performing schools, whilst protecting autonomy and local accountability."

 

"But the Tory-led government must answer serious questions before bringing in any changes. Will the new posts be accountable to local parents and communities? Will the new superintendents be qualified professionals?"

 

Michael Glenister, 02 March 2012, 10:43am

 

Many parents consider early years settings to be more important than the home environment when it comes to children's communication and literacy skills, according to research published by the charity National Literacy Trust (NLT)

 

Almost a third of parents said they did not consider themselves to be the main influence on children’s communication and language skills, with 15 per cent citing school and nursery teachers as the primary influence on children’s communication skills. 

 

 

As a result, 14 per cent of parents shun the opportunity to read to their children at home, as shown by the poll of 1,000 parents of 0-16-year-olds, carried out as part of the launch of the NLT’s Words for Life campaign. 

 

Clare Bolton, campaign manager at Words for Life, encouraged nurseries to work in conjunction with parents to improve literacy standards. 'It’s about getting parents involved as much as possible in what is happening in the nursery,' she said.

 

'Reinforcing messages from the nursery environment is really important and nurseries can help by doing things like sending reading lists home with children and celebrating World Book Day in order to get families talking about reading.'

 

The Words for Life campaign encourages parents to aid the development of children’s reading and communication skills and provides tips and guidance for parents on their website. 

 

Advice for reading with three- to five-year-olds includes hints such as voicing different characters to bring children’s books to life. The site also includes resources such as worksheets and puzzles relating to popular children’s books.

 

Ms Bolton also encourages nurseries to use the resources as well in order to promote literacy among children.

 

'If nurseries can use the resources and encourage children and parents to utilise those resources at home and create continuity between the two environments then that is fantastic,' she said. 

 

Bestselling author James Patterson is also supporting the campaign. He encouraged parents to set an example to children by reading at home themselves.

 

'Let's face it, most of us don't realise it, but we are failing our kids as reading role models,' he said.

 

'The best role models are in the home: brothers, fathers, grandfathers, mothers, sisters, grandmothers. Mums and dads, it's important that your kids see you reading. Not just books – reading the newspaper is good too.'

 

 

The research did find that 91 per cent of parents wanted to spend more time reading with children.

 

I am going through this myself at the moment with my 19month son, he is coming along well with his speech and understanding more and more each day. It is such good fun having conversations with him and teaching him the meaning of different words. I found this site and it gave some helpful tips, i hope it helps you to. 

 

Activities:

 

■Encourage your baby to make vowel-like and consonant-vowel sounds such as "ma," "da," and "ba."

 

 

■Reinforce attempts by maintaining eye contact, responding with speech, and imitating vocalizations using different patterns and emphasis. For example, raise the pitch of your voice to indicate a question.

 

■Imitate your baby's laughter and facial expressions.

 

■Teach your baby to imitate your actions, including clapping you hands, throwing kisses, and playing finger games such as pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo, and the itsy-bitsy-spider.

 

■Talk as you bathe, feed, and dress your baby. Talk about what you are doing, where you are going, what you will do when you arrive, and who and what you will see.

 

■Identify colors.

 

■Count items.

 

■Use gestures such as waving goodbye to help convey meaning.

 

■Introduce animal sounds to associate a sound with a specific meaning: "The doggie says woof-woof."

 

■Acknowledge the attempt to communicate.

 

■Expand on single words your baby uses: "Here is Mama. Mama loves you. Where is baby? Here is baby."

 

■Read to your child. Sometimes "reading" is simply describing the pictures in a book without following the written words. Choose books that are sturdy and have large colorful pictures that are not too detailed. Ask your child, "What's this?" and encourage naming and pointing to familiar objects in the book.

 

Catherine Gaunt, 06 February 2012, 12:54pm

 

The council says that there is enough good quality and affordable childcare run by the private, voluntary and independent sector.

 

The plans will be put before the children and young people’s scrutiny committee tomorrow and will be considered by the council’s executive on 15 February.

 

Sure Start children’s centres will become community hubs offering a wider range of services to people of all ages, including early years, and a new citywide outreach service will be introduced.

The service will expand pilot outreach schemes already in place. Outreach workers will aim to visit every child in their own home in their first three years, by working closely with GPs, midwives and health visitors.

 

The proposals follow a three-month consultation that involved more than 8,000 meetings with parents and attracted more than 4,000 written responses with parents, schools, health staff and others.

 

The council has to cut £22m from its budget of £29m for early years provision.

The council said that it would ensure that there were enough high-quality, affordable childcare places available for families before withdrawing council-run nurseries.

 

Mike Livingstone, the council’s director of children’s services, said, ‘Our analysis shows there is already enough good quality and affordable daycare provision across the city being provided by the private, voluntary and independent sector, so over time we will no longer need to provide it ourselves.

 

‘What we do need to do, however, is to ensure that the right kind of quality daycare is available in the right places, so we’re going to spend the next two years making sure this happens.

 

‘We will only stop providing daycare in different parts of the city when we are satisfied that there is enough high quality alternative provision to meet the needs of local families.’

 

The impact of these changes will be assessed on a case by case basis and for families that would be worse off in work than out of work, additional support will be given through the Manchester Investment Fund.

 

The council says that the changes will lead to more families using Sure Start services and that this will improve outcomes for children and families.

Councillor Afzal Khan, executive member children’s services, said, ‘At the heart of our proposals is the need to ensure that Manchester parents are ready to parent, that children are ready for school, and that we do what we can to support more of our families into work.

 

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the government is looking at ways to make controversial plans to cut child benefit "fairer".

 

He spoke as David Cameron also hinted moves to scrap the benefit for families with one parent earning more than about £44,000 a year could be amended.

 

 

The PM acknowledged there was an issue with the threshold - amid criticism it unfairly hits single earner families.

But Treasury sources said there had been no change in policy. 

 

Critics say the proposals would mean that some parents will lose thousands of pounds if their income rises above the 40% tax threshold - currently about £44,000, but due to fall to about £42,000 in 2013.

 

'Unfairness' 

 

 

A couple with three children could lose around £2,500 if one parent earned just a few pounds over the threshold - even if the other was unemployed. 

 

But a couple who both earn just under £44,000 a year each, and enjoy a total household income of more than £80,000, would keep all their benefit.

 

In an interview with Parliament's House Magazine, Mr Cameron suggested he did have some concerns over how the proposed changes were structured. 

 

 

"Some people say that's the unfairness of it, that you lose the child benefit if you have a higher-rate taxpayer in the family (but) two people below the level keep the benefit," he said.

 

"So, there's a threshold, a cliff-edge issue. We always said we would look at the steepness of the curve, we always said we would look at the way it's implemented and that remains the case. 

 

"But again, I don't want to impinge on the chancellor's Budget." 

 

'Fairness issue'

 

 

BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said the so-called "cliff-edge" could be replaced with some sort of tapering of benefits, but any kind of rowing back on the cuts would cost the government money.

 

In an interview with BBC Radio Surrey's Breakfast programme, Culture Secretary Mr Hunt said: "We are looking at ways to make it fairer.

 

"Particularly, there's this sort of 'cliff-edge effect', that if someone gets over the top-rate limit they lose child benefit, but there could be two people who are just under the limit in a household and have a combined income of much, much more than that who continue to claim it. 

 

 

"So we just want to look at the fairness issue there and see if there's anything we can do to improve it."

 

And Education Secretary Michael Gove told the BBC: "The policy was right, but you need to make sure that when you implement it, that you deal with any rough edges."

Chancellor George Osborne will deliver his third Budget - where tax and spending changes are traditionally announced - in March.

 

Mr Osborne has defended the child benefit cut - which could save up to £1bn a year - as tough but necessary, saying those on higher incomes must contribute their share to helping cut the budget deficit. 

 

Labour have criticised the proposals, saying they have caused "huge anxiety" and that all families need support in tough times. 

 

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said his party had "repeatedly warned that the government's current plans to cut child benefit are unfair and highly bureaucratic".

 

"These ill-thought-through plans are due to hit families in less than 12 months' time, so David Cameron and George Osborne urgently need to come up with some new proposals," he said.

 

 

A CONTROVERSIAL cost-cutting measure is ‘forcing’ parents to use council nurseries, a concerned parent has claimed.

 

 

Every child, aged three and four, is entitled to 12.5 hours a week at a nursery during term time.

East Dunbartonshire Council announced in October that it would not be funding any more places at partner – private and voluntary – nurseries for the school year.

 

Instead, parents are being offered places at authority-run facilities – generating business and saving cash for the council.

One Bishopbriggs dad who contacted the Herald said he was “appalled” at the decision.

 

He said: “As parents, we all understand that these are perilous financial times, but local private nurseries provide a vital service to the community.

“This change of tack by the council will have severe financial implications for such businesses.”

 

He suggested that funding be paid to parents as vouchers to be redeemed at the nursery of their choice. Scottish Government funding provided to the council for pre-school education is not ring-fenced, meaning it can be used for other purposes if required.

 

Partner nurseries were asked to tender for a set number of free places for this school year – which were duly allocated.

 

That process is set to be repeated next year, with nurseries being invited to tender again to provide free places.

 

A report into the issue of pre-school places was presented at a meeting of the education committee last week. 

 

The report confirms the tendering process will proceed and reveals children not registered by July 31 will be given a pre-school place at a council nursery – not a partnership nursery.

 

A council spokesperson said: “We are about to begin the procurement process to secure private and voluntary nursery places for 2012-2015 and, as part of this year’s budget consultation with local residents, we will continue to review private and voluntary nursery/local authority nursery provision.”

 

She added: “This year the amount of money from the budget allocated for partnership centres was £1,316,845. The number of commissioned places at September 2011 was 1,059 compared to a total number of 1,038 last year for the full year.

 

“The situation for most families this year has therefore been broadly similar to that of previous years. 

 

“Although there have been one or two placement difficulties since then, largely because some placement requests were received after the set number of commissioned places had already been allocated, in the main these have been resolved amicably.”

 

 

Written by Catherine Gaunt - December 13th 2011.

 

Some of the largest nursery groups in the country are concerned that a shortfall in the number of nursery places for disadvantaged two-year-olds could hamper Government plans to expand free nursery education, Nursery World has learned.

It is understood that there is already likely to be a shortage of 40,000 places for the initial rollout of the scheme from September 2013.

 

The chancellor's announcement in his Autumn Statement to extend the number of nursery places for two-year-olds to 40 per cent of children, from 2014-15, means thousands more places will need to be found.

The Government says that it will be investing an extra £380m a year in the scheme, so that up to 260,000 two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of nursery education a week. However, it is understood that officials at the Department for Education have estimated that there could already be a shortfall of 40,000 places for the initial rollout, which will entitle 20 per cent of two-year-olds to a free place for 15 hours a week from 2013.

The DfE is currently consulting on the eligibility criteria for providers that wish to offer two-year-old places and has indicated that only providers that are judged 'outstanding' or 'good' by Ofsted will be eligible for the two-year-old funding.

Based on the number of providers that currently meet this standard, it is understood that there is likely to be a shortage of 40,000 places. Now that the Government is planning to extend the scheme, a further 130,000 places need to be found.

It is also understood that although providers are willing to offer two-year-old places in settings where capacity is available, they are not considering investing in providing more places - by extending premises and taking on more staff, for example - without more Government investment.

 

'Question mark'

A number of the large nursery groups have told Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, which chairs the Major Providers group, that they welcome the proposal to extend the scheme for disadvantaged two-year-olds and will use their spare capacity, but they are not prepared to invest further to create additional places. It is understood that nursery groups believe it is unreasonable of the Government to expect them to subsidise the two-year-old offer.

 

Mr Leitch said there was 'a massive question mark' about whether the number of childcare places could be accommodated by the sector.

As the two-year-old entitlement is being offered to the most disadvantaged children, there is likely to be a shortage of places particularly in deprived areas, where childcare quality tends to be lower, or in rural areas.

Mr Leitch warned that a policy to allow only 'good' or 'outstanding' nurseries to offer two-year-old places would 'eliminate a significant proportion of settings'.

He claimed that there could be an overall shortfall of at least 170,000 places, in the 'worst case scenario', and that if the Government adhered to this policy 'a fair chunk of the sector' would be excluded from offering the scheme.

Mr Leitch said, 'Something has to happen to accommodate those places. If funding is only going to "good" or "outstanding" settings, you could be a "satisfactory" setting and not have an inspection for three or four years, which puts you at a disadvantage.'

 

To counter this, the Alliance is proposing that 'satisfactory' settings should be able to ask Ofsted to re-inspect them after six months, so that they have a chance to show that they have successfully acted on Ofsted's actions and recommendations and believe that their provision has improved sufficiently to move up a grade from 'satisfactory'.

 

Mr Leitch suggested that Ofsted's costs would be covered by settings paying for the re-inspection themselves.

He said that such a move would drive improvement to the quality of early years settings, as well as leading to an increase in the number of available places for two-year-olds.

 

Meanwhile, Early Years Childcare, which runs nine nurseries in Sussex, is running a survey about the experiences of nurseries offering the pilot scheme for two-year-olds.

The group says that a number of providers say they are struggling to stay sustainable and that the situation is compounded by underfunding for threeand four-year-olds.

Business development manager Adeline Garman said, 'Most have expressed concern that they will be put under further pressure once the scheme is rolled out to eligible two-year-olds.'

 

To take part in an online survey visit: 

 

http://www.freechildcare.org.uk/%202011/12/two-year-old-funding-take-part-in-our-survey/

 

Research carried out by the University of Bristol found that a quarter of parents decided not to go back to a group after one visit because they found it ‘cliquey’ or did not know any of the other parents.

 

One in five parents in the study was described as ‘group-phobic’.

 

The study - funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Barnardo's - found that rather than cost or location, the key reason which determined whether parents went to pre-school groups was how well mothers thought they would get on with others in the group.

 

Parents were much more likely to keep going back to a group if they were told about it by a friend or relative, than if they saw it advertised on a leaflet or a poster.

 

Researcher Dr Sue Jones from the university’s School for Policy Studies interviewed 30 parents from a deprived area of Bristol to find out why some parents use early years groups regularly, while others do not.

 

Dr Jones said that despite concern that "hard-to-reach" parents do not use early years groups, there has been little research into the social and psychological factors that influence parental attendance.

 

‘Going to a group can be a daunting experience, especially if a mother doesn’t know anyone there. The mother and group need to "fit" together. Mothers need to feel that others in the group are her social equals, with similar values and attitudes to childrearing. Mothers need to feel their age, social class, and their or their child’s ethnic identity will not isolate them in the group,’ she said.

 

Dr Jones interviewed 29 mothers and one father (the father had not attended any early years groups).

 

Between them, they knew of 97 early years groups and had tried two-thirds of them.

 

The early years groups included were those where attendance was up to parents, and not because they needed to attend for childcare reasons. They were run by both volunteers and paid staff and included mother/ parent toddler groups, baby drop-ins and playgroups.

 

Of the 30 children in the study, 11 of them had either never been to a group or had only been once.

 

However, seven mothers had been to three or more different groups and four children had been to early years groups more than 200 times.

 

Lacking confidence was found to be a major barrier to attendance, with even confident mothers preferring to go to groups with friends.

 

‘Knowing someone usually resulted in regular and enjoyable attendance, not least because it often meant the mother had someone to go with,’ the study said.

 

Mothers who had attended ante-natal classes before their child was born were significantly more likely to attend groups regularly and were less likely to have attended council nurseries before their child was three.

 

What mattered most was whether mothers ‘fitted in’ with group members.

 

Although only one mother used the word ‘class’, nine of them commented about 15 groups in class terms. Different mothers could describe the same group as ‘friendly’ or stuck-up’.

 

Mothers who had bad experiences going to a group described how they felt the group was cliquey, with other mothers ‘bitching and gossiping’, or giving them ‘dirty looks’. Seven of the mothers interviewed said that their experiences had put them off groups permanently.

 

Sure Start services appealed to a wider range of social groups that the others.

 

Fewer parents complained about Sure Start being cliquey, which Dr Jones said could be because Sure Start used early years staff to welcome newcomers, and also set up some groups to run for just six to eight weeks to give less chance for cliques to form.

 

Of the 42 Sure Start groups in the study, just two were described as ‘cliquey’, compared with 13 of the 55 other types of group.

 

The report concluded, ‘It would seem that few resources (educational, financial, mental health) balanced against high needs (large family, many problems) and an accumulation of abuse, stress and trauma can severely dent a mother’s confidence, whereas warm encouragement, pleasant group experiences and appropriate help from workers can increase it.’

 

What parents said

 

‘[I] wouldn’t go to a group where I didn’t know anyone. I can’t make conversation with people and things like that.’

 

‘I wouldn’t go to any groups round here…Went to one or two and they are too cliquey.’

 

‘At Sure Start, you’re made to feel welcome, no strings, which put everybody equal…they always used to try and buddy up new mothers and a lot of family link workers used to bring a lot of new ones in. You don’t feel you were on your own.’

 

‘It was terrible. I walked in and they all gave you dirty looks. Looked at [me] like I was a down and out.’

 

‘I am quite a sociable person really, but it’s intimidating I find, going to a group where I don’t know anybody.’

 

‘You have got a few rough mothers who live in this area and it seemed like they went there.

 

Choosing whether to use a potty to start toilet training or go straight to the toilet really depends on how your toddler reacts. There are pros and cons for both choices.

 

Choosing to use a Potty:

 

Pros:

Handy and likely to be kept in the rooms where your toddler spends most of their time, so they can go to the 'potty' whenever the urge creeps up on them.

Small and manageable for your child

Can have multiple potties throughout the house

Portable

Your child can help you to choose it for them self and take some ownership of the potty.

Your child's feet will be touching the ground and this can make them feel more confident and comfortable.

 

Cons:

Can be messy when emptying contents into the toilet

Your child will still have to make the transition to the toilet eventually

 

Choosing to go straight to the toilet:

 

Pros:

Your toddler will already be familiar with you using the toilet

You make the transition to the toilet without the middle step of using a potty.

Easy to flush away the 'mess' rather than having to clean it out of the potty

Your toddler may feel more like a BIG KID by using the toilet like other members of the family.

Your toddler will not be so daunted about going to the toilet when out and about without their potty.

Toilet seat inserts are lightweight and portable.

 

Cons:

Can be daunting

Flushing can frighten some kids

Requires parental assistance to get on and off

 

Potty features to look for:

 

If you do choose to use a potty here are a few things to look out for when buying your potty.

 

It should be large enough for your child to sit comfortably on by themselves, potentially for quite a long time.

The most simple potty will be made of plastic and be lightweight with no additional parts. These can be cumbersome when emptying contents into the toilet, but they have the advantage of being smaller and more portable for outings etc.

Additional features are cup inserts that can be removed from the potty chair and emptied into the toilet separately. These cups often come with a 'boys cap' that provides some extra spill protection.

For boys who have already been training for a while, you can buy a 'potty for boys' that hangs on the side of the toilet allowing them to learn to wee standing up.

Of course there are potties with all the bells and whistles. Some of these look like a real toilet with flushing sounds or even play music when your child does a wee. Your child may respond well to all of these features, but you will still need to make the transition to a regular toilet at some point in the future.

Katy Morton, 22 November 2011, 12:12pm

 

The Government is to carry out a review of the free milk scheme for nursery children over fears of escalating costs to tax payers.

 

Mace Montessori in Camden

The announcement follows an internal Department of Health (DOH) audit that found ‘middlemen’, who act as a go-between for nurseries and arrange for dairies to deliver milk to settings and recover the cost from the Government, are claiming around double the amount of money they should be.

 

All under-fives attending nursery for two or more hours a day are entitled to 189ml of milk.

It is thought that a loophole in the system means that the Government is obliged to pay back the cost of nursery milk, regardless of the costs.

 

A spokesperson for the DOH said, ‘We are looking at how the free nursery milk scheme can deliver better value for money, because we are very concerned about the escalating costs.

‘One thing is clear though, the scheme will continue and every child will receive free nursery milk.’

 

John Sedgwick, managing director of Cool Milk, a school milk supplier, which works in partnership with over 70 local authorities to deliver free milk to under fives, said, ‘We recognise that in the present economic climate the Government has to find cost efficiencies where they can. However, we are confident that Cool Milk offers excellent value for taxpayers’ money in providing a service that is free to schools and nurseries.

 

‘School milk can be an administrative burden for schools, with money to collect from parents, deliveries to arrange and subsidy claims to prepare for the local authority. That’s why we partner with local authorities throughout the UK to deliver a service that makes providing school milk easier.

 

‘Any attempt to make savings by introducing nationally agreed contracts with dairies would simply shift this administrative burden onto the schools and nurseries themselves.

‘However, we welcome the Government’s announcement of a review into the scheme and we look forward to working with the Department of Health to investigate ways of making the present system more cost efficient.’