School ‘transformation’ pledged Ed Balls has set out plans to shake up schools in England.This sounds nearly as good as the package put out to stop people losing their homes. ED-balls

 

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Last Updated – 30th June 2009 at 10:23 PM –>


School 'transformation' pledged

Addressing MPs, he said that the plans would “transform our school system to meet the challenges of the 21st century”.

The schools secretary explained that the government would match “continued investment with reform and higher expectations”.

Balls also said the government had a duty to step in when education services are failing.

“I will not shirk that responsibility,” he added.

The white paper includes new entitlements to personalised support for every child, and a ‘parent guarantee’ for every parent.

Every child will be promised a personal tutor, with any primary pupil falling behind in Key Stage 2 being entitled to 10 hours of one-to-one tuition.

“For those who are behind at the start of secondary school, we will now guarantee one-to-one or small group catch-up tuition in Year 7,” said the white paper.

There will also be a pledge of access to five hours of PE and sport each week and a wide range of out-of-school activities.

The pupil and parent guarantees will be “underpinned by legislation, and implemented across the country in the coming years”.

There will be a new system for accrediting education providers who wish to run groups of schools, with £20m made available to deliver reform.

A ‘school report card’ for every school will “provide a rounded assessment of school performance and enable parents and the public to make better informed judgements about the effectiveness of each school”.

And there will also be a renewable ‘licence to teach’, linked to a new professional development entitlement for teachers.

“This will mean that every teacher will need to keep their skills up to date and demonstrate periodically that their professional practice and development meets the standards required for the profession, and that they will have access to the necessary professional development support,” said the white paper.

“We will begin the roll out of the licence to teach and new entitlement with newly qualified teachers and for those returning to teaching.”

But shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said the promises on tutoring had already been made but the government had “failed to deliver” them.

“Simply repeating the same old nonsense over and over ad nauseum hasn’t exactly helped the prime minister to new heights of popularity and it won’t help him,” Gove told the schools secretary.

And he argued that it was not new entitlements that were needed to improve education. “We need a new government because all the good ideas in this white paper are Tory ideas,” Gove said.

By mole45

First Time Users of Pain Relievers Continue to Surpass All Other Drugs; Number of New Ecstasy and Stimulant Users Increases

 

Source: CESARFax, 9/17/2007

More than 2.1 million persons ages 12 or older used prescription-type pain relievers for the first time in 2006,according to recently released data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). While the number of new users of pain relievers has been decreasing since 2003, it continues to be the drug category with the largest number of new initiates since surpassing marijuana in 2002. The number of first-time marijuana users has declined significantly, from nearly 3.0million in in 2000 to slightly more than 2.0 million in 2006. Other recent changes in the initiation of illicit drugs include increases in the number of first time ecstasy users (from 615,000 in 2005 to 860,000 in 2006) and in the number of first-time nonmedical users of prescription-type stimulants*(from 647,000 to 845,000). Previous research has found that changes in initiation levels “are often leading indicators of emerging patterns of substance use”(p. 49).

See Also:

By mole45

What is a Consultant? i found two answers which one do you think is the best?

A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed, and engages with multiple and changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house,

 

A Consultant is a person who charges very large fees to tell your management what  they should all ready no,and who all ready get paid a lot of money to do it.Call-center-cartoon-106_jpg

By mole45

Who said pictures are worth a 1,000 words and this one make me feel sick.We can’t afford to let this happen again.

Demi Leigh Mahon’s murder: a catalogue of errors

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Last Updated – 27th June 2009 at 05:31 PM –>

Salford online
 


Demi Leigh Mahon's murder: a catalogue of errors

The two year old girl who was murdered by her babysitter could not have been saved by better communication by Salford’s chilcare professionals, say the council.

Demi Leigh Mahon was beaten and bitten by Karl McCluney in a vicious attack, which took place while her mother, heroin addict Ann Marie McDonald, went to collect a child benefit cheque.

McDonald was well known to Salford city council. Her behaviour was questioned by Demi’s grandmother, Frances Gillon, who made contact in January 2008 after hearing that drugs police had raided McDonald’s flat.

She phoned again three weeks before Demi’s death. Ms Gillon said: “I was concerned about Demi’s safety and spoke to someone. He said, ‘I’ll get in touch with the police and get back to you’. I’ve not heard from him.”

She called the process “a disgusting failure” by Salford’s social services.

Salford admitted that it failed to begin a child protection investigation, but a Serious Case Review (SCR) found that they could not have anticipated her death.

In the SCR the leader of Salford City Council, Councillor John Merry noted: “The death of any child is a dreadful thing to happen and my heartfelt sympathies are with the family.

“I do not want to make excuses: it is rightly critical and we should all have done better, but the report’s sad conclusion is that this tragedy could not have been foreseen and it could not have been prevented.

“Child protection in Salford has been under intense scrutiny for a number of months and I am confident that the city council’s service today is significantly better than it was when Ofsted delivered its judgment in December 2007.

“There will always be improvements that can be made to any service and this is even more important in child protection. I can reassure our residents that I will do everything I need to to ensure that children are safe in Salford.”

Obviously child protection is made more difficult by obstructive parents. Ann Marie McDonald is a heroin addict with mental health problems who regularly missed medical appointments, overdosed on heroin and suffered domestic violence.

Demi’s father, Gary Mahon, said in an audio interview released yesterday: “They always say they’ll learn from a child’s death. But is that what it takes to learn something? How many children have to die before they can put any of this into practice?”

Image: Demi Leigh Mahon in hospital

e leader of Salford City Council, Councillor John Merry noted: “The death of any child is a dreadful thing to happen and my heartfelt sympathies are with the family.

“I do not want to make excuses: it is rightly critical and we should all have done better, but the report’s sad conclusion is that this tragedy could not have been foreseen and it could not have been prevented.

“Child protection in Salford has been under intense scrutiny for a number of months and I am confident that the city council’s service today is significantly better than it was when Ofsted delivered its judgment in December 2007.

“There will always be improvements that can be made to any service and this is even more important in child protection. I can reassure our residents that I will do everything I need to to ensure that children are safe in Salford.”

Obviously child protection is made more difficult by obstructive parents. Ann Marie McDonald is a heroin addict with mental health problems who regularly missed medical appointments, overdosed on heroin and suffered domestic violence.

Demi’s father, Gary Mahon, said in an audio interview released yesterday: “They always say they’ll learn from a child’s death. But is that what it takes to learn something? How many children have to die before they can put any of this into practice?”

Image: Demi Leigh Mahon in hospital

n is that this tragedy could not have been foreseen and it could not have been prevented.

“Child protection in Salford has been under intense scrutiny for a number of months and I am confident that the city council’s service today is significantly better than it was when Ofsted delivered its judgment in December 2007.

“There will always be improvements that can be made to any service and this is even more important in child protection. I can reassure our residents that I will do everything I need to to ensure that children are safe in Salford.”

Obviously child protection is made more difficult by obstructive parents. Ann Marie McDonald is a heroin addict with mental health problems who regularly missed medical appointments, overdosed on heroin and suffered domestic violence.

Demi’s father, Gary Mahon, said in an audio interview released yesterday: “They always say they’ll learn from a child’s death. But is that what it takes to learn something? How many children have to die before they can put any of this into practice?”

Image: Demi Leigh Mahon in hospital

By mole45