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News from 2006
Stories that featured on the Home Service web site during 2006
Click HERE if you are looking for information about the situation facing German Christian home educators.
19th September 2006
Home education featured in The Politics Show on Sunday 17th September. Click HERE if you would like to read the accompanying article on the BBC web site.
27th September 2006
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, today announced changes in GCSE coursework which could have far reaching implications for home educating families. Click HERE to read the BBC's report of Mr Johnson's speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester. QCA have confirmed that coursework will be dropped from GCSE Maths for courses commencing in September 2007 and in September 2009 for other subjects.
6th October 2006
QCA today announced further details regarding changes to GCSE with regard to coursework. Click HERE to find out more. Details of how this will affect home educators are not yet available. It is likely however that this will lead to increased numbers of families opting for IGCSE qualifications.
19th October 2006
Chinese court rules that a father must send his child back to school despite the fact that the child is two years ahead of his peers. Find out more....
20th October 2006
The European Court of Human Rights has made far-reaching declarations regarding home education in dismissing the case brought by a number of families against Germany. To read the full statement issued by the European Court, click HERE to see the judegment on the ECHR web site or click HERE to download an Acrobat (pdf) version.
21th October 2006
A letter to the Daily Telegraph, signed by a group of 'childcare experts', has warned that early institutionalisation of children in nurseries can have significant adverse affects on the later development of children. Find out more...
25th October 2006
Schools Minister , Lord Adonis today called for a debate over the issue of students in government funded schools being permitted to study IGCSEs. Currently IGCSEs can only be offered by independent schools (and home educators, of course!) since they have not been accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority ( QCA). Find out more ...
2 November 2006
A report entitled "Freedom's Orphans:
Raising youth in a changing world" published by the Institute for Public Policy Research described Britain's teenagers as amongst the worst behaved in Europe! Nick Pearce from the IPPR stated, "They are not learning how to behave - how to get on in life - as they need to." Find out more ...
10th November 2006
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary is said to be considering ways to raise the school leaving age to 18. Find out more...
14 November 2006
Children's minister Beverley Hughes today announced that parents who do not sing nursery rhymes to their children are to be helped to do so through the creation of a new National Academy for Parenting Practitioners. Find out more....
16 November 2006
Accoridng to The Independent "bullying is a continuing problem in schools and will always be so" Find out more ...
16 November 2006
Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, has today said that he believes that current achievement targets are too narrow and will need to be shake-up as schools more towards a more personalised learning. Click HERE to find out more.
16 November 2006
According to the Nuffield Foundation, the failure of many young people to engage with education is a major problem. "Inappropriate targets, learning experiences and forms of assessment" are partly to blame. Click HERE to find out more.
17th November 2006
In a recent home education special the American edition of New Scientist severely criticises creationist home educations. To read the whole article click HERE.
17 November 2006
The Right Rev Carl Cooper, Bishop of St Davids, yesterday suggested that working parents who put their children into nursery to continue their careers are fuelling the Asbo generation. Click HERE to find out more.
23 November 2006
According to Ofsted's annual report, published yesterday, more than half the country's secondary schools are failing to deliver a good standard of education. Find out more...
23 November 2006
The government's curriculum watchdog the QCA today announced the results of its review of IGCSE. Though they are increasingly popular with independent schools and home educators, QCA has declared that they are not suitable for assessing what pupils in England learn. Click HERE to find out more.
24 November 2006
In a growing dispute between Students Unions and Christian Unions at a number of UK universities, leading Anglican and Catholic Bishops have entered the fray by warning Student Unions that any ban of Christian groups is both “Intolerant and Unlawful” Click HERE to read more. To read what The Times said, click HERE.
27 November 2006
The Department for Education and Skills today stated that Truth in Science resources supporting the notion of intelligent design were inappropriate and not supportive of the science curriculum. A DfES spokesman said, "The National Curriculum for science clearly sets down that pupils should be taught that the fossil record is evidence for evolution, and how variation and selection may lead to evolution or extinction." Click HERE to read more.
27 November 2006
The Guardian today revealed that 59 schools are using a resource that encourages debate about evolution and intelligent design produced by Truth in Science. Click HERE to read more.
27 November 2006
Richard Dawkins has today announced the establishment of his Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason.(RDF or RDFSR) RDF will be an Anglo-American organisation with separate charitable status on both sides of the Atlantic. Commenting on why RDS has been established, Dawkins says that in view of his enthusiastic and passionate supporters, "Did I not have a duty to set up my own charitable foundation?" To find out more, click HERE or to visit RDS official web site, click HERE.
4 December 2006
Welsh Assembly Education Minister, Jane Davidson, is today set to announce radical changes to early years teaching in Wales. Traditional desks and formal teaching is to be replaced with play, active learning and outdoors education. Sandpits are not just for play but can be used for basic maths lessons, Ms Dividson's spokeswoman said. Click HERE to read more.
6 December 2006
American academic Cynthia Lightfoot has suggested that formal education isolates children from the adult world and leads to peer dependent culture. Even parents in Ghana and India are complaining of the same effects. "We have to give them that culture, knowing that it will spoil them and that they will lose their own culture." observed Mahesh, talking about his two children in Delhi. Click HERE to read more. |
