Sats results are out, and they sound like good news: 67% of 11-year-olds in England achieved at least a level 4, the standard expected of the age group, in reading, writing and maths, which is up 3% from 64% last year.
What does Twitter think?
"Level 5 reading is big drop this year even statisticians describe it as 'dramatic' - down from 50% to 42%."
"Does the drop in % achieving L5+ suggest the increase at L4+ has been achieved by a focus on the middle attainers?"
"I used to mark Sats. Government adjusted marks every year to make them seem good or bad. Sats don't tell anything about kids' actual ability."
"Big discrepancy in writing results between boys and girls - 75% overall get level 4, but is 81% for girls, 68% for boys."
Schools minister Nick Gibb seems most interested in the one in three (183,000 pupils in all) who failed to achieve the level expected of them in reading, writing and maths:
"These are children who began school in 2005. Labour's legacy is a third of children who can't reach the basic standard in the 3 Rs and thousands of 11-year-olds who have a reading age of a seven-year-old or below."
So that's Sats. But the thing I like best today is the FT's Chris Cook, complaining about how terribly hard it is for him to avoid pretty girls at this time of year.
Cook (@xtophercook) is taking on the vexed question of why newspaper coverage might lead one to the conclusion that being glamorous and female is the key to A-level success:
"This is partly because many journalists are moral degenerates. QED. But what might shock you is the enthusiasm with which schools encourage the use of pictures of pulchritudinous blondes. Indeed, a little cadre of English private schools compete to supply attractive young women to the national press."
Education news from the Guardian
• A council seems to be on the brink of begging all its schools to become academies. Lincolnshire county council says unless they find themselves a sponsor, smaller schools may be forced to close. Warwick Mansell (@warwickmansell) looks at the implications.
• Peter Wilby gets a long sought interview with the outgoing head of Cheltenham Ladies' College, Vicky Tuck, who tells him:
"I get annoyed when parents say: I want to send her to a single-sex school because it'll be nice and safe. Of course, it'll be safe in some ways, delaying all the stuff teenagers deal with. But this isn't a pink, frilly school."
Wilby says the school is generally thought of as "the girls' Eton", but reader KuchenCake retorts:
"Cheltenham Ladies' College will be the female Eton when half the cabinet is made up of its old girls."
Guardian views
• Janet Murray (@jan_murray) canvasses opinion on whether people are snobbish about vocational skills. Plumber Charlie Mullins tells her no one in his field uses the word "vocational":
" We should be talking about 'getting a trade', something many parents used to aspire to for their kids as recently as the 1970s. The fact that, just to get the subject out there for public discussion, you have to come up with a work that plumbers like me don't even use, says it all really."
• Sadly, higher education is not immune to the English vice of hypocrisy, says Peter Scott. Now's the time to tackle double standards.
Education news from around the web
• The schooling of up to 100,000 children in the travelling community is being put at risk by cuts to council funding, an investigation by The Independent has revealed. Nearly half of 127 authorities have either abolished their traveller education service or drastically cut staff levels, Freedom of Information responses show. As a result, the education of the children of England's 300,000 travellers – who have the poorest grades and attendance of any ethnic minority – is in jeopardy.
Joint president of the National Association of Teachers of Travellers, Linda Lewins, says:
"I'm gobsmacked by the speed at which it has happened. I'm watching 20 years of hard work being pulled apart."
• Feathers have been ruffled over at Ucas (@ucas_online) by this headline in the Independent:
"Prepare for university places chaos, admissions chief warns."
The story continues:
"More than 200,000 university applicants will fail to get places this year, the head of the admissions service has warned, in a repeat of last summer's chaotic scramble following the publication of A-level results.
A 'carbon copy' of last year's confusion, when 210,000 people did not get places, is inevitable, especially with record interest from teenagers ahead of increasing tuition fees next year, according to Ucas."
Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook responds:
"Ucas is concerned about the effect that misleading headlines can have on applicants, particularly with A-level results day so close. There was no 'places chaos' last year and we are not warning of such a situation this year. In 2010 UCAS placed over 46,000 applicants through clearing and the number of applicants using the system is likely to be similar this year."
• A website called WalletPopUK tells us to take new OECD figures with a pinch of salt. They show that UK parents spend more on private education than those in any other country in Europe. Damian Wilson writes:
"In what could be seen as a damning indictment of our state schools, a study has found that 11.3% of school funding comes from parents educating their children privately, almost double the 6.2% in France and well above 4.8% in the Netherlands, 3.2% in Italy, and just 0.1% in Portugal. In the USA, the comparable figure is still only 8.6%."
But hang on a moment:
"This research … was actually undertaken back in 2007 and those are the most recent figures. In economic terms, that is certainly the good ol' days. We were still living it large on a volcano of credit that was yet to explode beneath us. Since then, there have been plenty of parents forced to reconsider their opposition to state schools, simply because they couldn't afford to send their little princes and princesses private any more."
• The New Statesman's George Eaton (@georgeeaton) has been spending time with UUK chief Steve Smith, who told him foreign students now think Britain is closed for business.
• Two maths teachers have created a rap video to get their students interested in the subject, the Evening Standard tells us. Rupert Stock and Daljeet Sandhu of Sydenham School in Lewisham recorded themselves rapping about maths formulae to the sound of Black and Yellow by American rapper Wiz Khalifa.
• And saving the best for last - @Amanda_Vickery spotted this:
"Teacher claims scorching witty revenge over former pupil on facebook. AN UTTER JOY."
On Guardian Teacher Network
We're marking National Kissing Day with resources from the British Heart Foundation including a film of people's memories of great kisses, ending with the tale of a girl saved by CPR, the greatest kiss of all. The British Heart Foundation is campaigning for all children at secondary school to learn emergency life support skills, including CPR. Find out about ELS teaching, and download a colourful guide.
Tell the Guardian about your school's A-level and GCSE achievements
The Guardian would like to highlight your pupils' GCSE and A-level success this summer. We are asking schools to respond to a few quick questions about their pupils' results as soon as you receive them - on 18 August for A-levels and 25 August for GCSEs. Please take a note of the following web pages and return to them to fill in your results on those days:
We want to tell our readers how well your pupils have performed and are looking forward to mapping the success of young people across the country.
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20 September, London.
Using social media to enhance the student experience
As tuition fees rise, so too do student expectations. Social media is an effective, low-cost way to manage this challenge. This seminar will explore newly conceived best practice, techniques and strategy for all higher education staff: academic, communications, recruitment, marketing and strategy.
22 September, London.
Whether it's getting published, convincing an employer that you have transferable skills, or securing an academic post, you need to be fully prepared to achieve your goals. This course will help you identify career opportunities for those with research skills and specialist knowledge.
4-5 October, London.
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