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Despite the launch of a free special web site for schools in the UK to tackle bullying, the company behind it reported this week that no schools in Wales have signed up.

The Edusen for Bullying web site, designed to enable pupils to report incidents of bullying within schools has been taken up by scores of schools throughout England and Scotland, but surprisingly no schools whatsoever have enrolled for the free service.

Because of this the web site is now providing a service directly to parents, so that reports can be made to schools. The information is then stored on to a parental diary system, and e mails are then automatically sent to relevant schools.

Magaret Dyer from Cardiff reported that she felt that the failure of welsh schools to enrol demonstrates how far removed schools are in the plight to tackle bullying. "My son was bullied for many years, and the school kept on saying that it simply wasn't happening" she said, "this was despite the fact that my son was coming home black and blue."

The mother of three argued that the failure of welsh schools to sign up for the free service is "not surprising, seeing that most schools are too busy denying it" she said.

The Edusen company announced that the news was a great shame for a service that could provide such benefits. A company spokesman said "It is disapointing that we have not received a positive response in Wales. The company is however optimistic that more will enrol as parents become more familiar with the system and its benefits."

The reforms of the current GCSE system which are to be implemented this year have already caused controversy as one leading private school has announced that the reforms will mean that the courses are no longer challenging enough for pupils.
The reforms will include removing coursework and introducing a modular system, allowing pupils to retake chunks of the course. GCSEs will be made largely modular, allowing pupils to resit each part after as little as a term's work. Coursework will be scrapped in favour of in-class projects.
Manchester grammar school will drop the government's GCSEs in all subjects apart from art, and replace them with the International GCSE (IGCSE), an alternative more similar to the traditional O-levels.
Christopher Ray, the headteacher of the school, said: "The decision is really what challenges the higher ability students we educate. The view within is that the new GCSEs will present even less of a challenge to the more able candidates than at present. They may well provide a very good answer for very many boys and girls, but not for our boys."
New figures show that the number of pupils in Private Schools doing IGCSEs trebled last year, prompting fears that a gulf will open up between the qualifications sat in private and state schools.
Ministers have refused to fund the IGCSE in state schools and its results are barred from school league tables, meaning that state schools are not able to offer it, although that decision is under review.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "We do not agree that the IGCSE is in any way superior to the GCSE.”
06.03.09

Children are losing out on their funding entitlement because schools are holding too much money in reserve, claims a teachers' union.

Schools in England held surpluses of £2bn at the end of the last school year show annual figures, an increase of almost 15% on the previous year.

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) says this is "unacceptable".

But head teachers say there is a lack of clarity that needs resolving

Controversy has erupted after Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley, Greater Manchester, has claimed that dyslexia is “a cruel fiction”.

The remark was made by Mr Stringer last week in his local newspaper column. Mr Stringer went on to say that it was “time that the dyslexia industry was killed off” and that he did not approve of the extra time that dyslexics, who struggle with reading and writing, receive to complete school and university exams.
“This reached a pinnacle of absurdity,” he wrote, “with a medical student initiating a legal case against the General Medical Council because she believes she’s being discriminated against by having to do written exams. I don’t know about anybody else but I want my doctors, and, for that matter, engineers, teachers, dentists and police officers, to be able to read and write.”

Mr Stringer’s comments have caused disbelief and outrage throughout the country and particularly among those who work to create awareness and understanding of the condition.l According to Dyslexia Action, the condition affects 10% of the population and 1.2m children in the UK. “It is so frustrating having an MP say this sort of thing,” said Shirley Cramer, the charity’s chief executive.

John Stein, professor of neurophysiology at Oxford University and chairman of the Dyslexia Research Trust, said “Basically, the MP is talking rubbish.” However he also recognised the shortcomings of our eduction system, saying it was a “scandal” that so many children in state schools struggled to get their learning difficulties identified.
23.02.09