summer school?
Primary school pupils in north London will experiment with US-style summer school this July, to help them overcome some perceived achievement disparities with more advantaged schools in the area. Its format, a combination of small tutorials and personal mentoring, has proven very effective in American schools. The Education Endowment Foundation will be monitoring closely to see if similar results obtain on this side of the Atlantic. All going well, the programme is set to expand to more locations in the summer of 2013.
Read about it here.
better lunches these days, but …
There is a School Food Trust, whose recent research suggests that pupils get a quarter of their recommended daily food intake at lunch, rather than the third that they ought. Why is this? Probably a distractingly complex social and organisational environment. Gratifyingly, there is evidence that students are at least choosing healthier meals for themselves than they did 8 years ago, when antecendent research examined their culinary lives.
Read everything the nutritionists behind the Food Trust’s research are saying here.
Dance medicine — now in the NHS
There is a new National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science. Within this is an NHS specialist dance injury clinic, in London. The remit of the Institute and clinic is improved treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention of the particular kinds of injury that dancers tend to get. Dance UK, an organisation for performers, estimates that 80% of professional dancers are injured every year. Those of us with children in the Specialist Dance Unit at Broughton will be interested in what may signify a culture change in a professional setting not famous for empathy with its injured players. Read about it here.
ESFA League Cup — Broughton bests Craigmount!
There was battle on the 3G surface at St Augustine’s yesterday. Last time Broughton met Craigmount there was grim-fought victory for our boys in blue. This time it was 4-1, and cup glory! Read the whole tale here.
Family holidays during term
More than half of parents in England admit to having taken a school-age child on holiday during term time instead of during break, according to a recent travel industry poll. One in five respondents said they had sought their schools’ permission and been denied it; one in eight admitted to having lied in order to make their trip. Cost of break-time travel was the factor for half of those surveyed; work restrictions on their own travel time was the issue for a quarter. The DfE do ask schools to fine parents who holiday during term, but these fines do not appear to deter.
Read about the wider issues here.
Broughton High School Parent Council 