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The Guardian - UK

National

Frederika Whitehead

Cribsheet 07.10.11

Lord Laming, who chaired the Victoria Climbié inquiry, is one of three Lords who objected to a clause in the education bill that freed schools from their "duty to co-operate".

Cribsheet sends its best wishes to three members of the House of Lords who are trying to throw out a government proposal to free schools from the "duty to co-operate" with social workers and other local authority partners. The elimination of "duty to co-operate" is part of the education bill that is currently on its way through parliament. But Lord Hill, Lord Laming and Baroness Walmsley have tabled an amendment demanding that the offending clause be scrubbed from the bill.

A spokesman from the Department for Education told Children & Young People Now, which reported this story, defended the original version of the bill:

"We have always been in favour of schools and other local bodies working together – we just don't think that we need to tell them how to do it."

The assumption made by the sponsors of the bill is that any reasonable school would automatically contact the relevant support services if little Johnny aged six turned up with his third black eye in a year, or if Tilly aged nine showed disturbing insight into adult sexuality, but if it's what any reasonable school would do, what benefit is to be had from eliminating the requirement?

Matt Dunkley, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, told Children & Young People Now:

"This amendment is immensely helpful – the removal of the duty to co-operate had, perhaps inadvertently, given some schools the message that they no longer had a role in supporting vulnerable children."

Education news from the Guardian

• Teachers have told the qualifications quango Ofqual that making children do their GCSE coursework under exam conditions during lessons is leaving them with too little teaching time. Jessica Shepherd reported that the teachers found the new controlled assessments - part of education minister Michael Gove's shift away from coursework and back towards exams - "unfit for purpose".

Teachers were particularly scathing about the new form of coursework when it came to learning foreign languages. Supervised coursework is "unfit for purpose" for modern languages, many said. "Preparing for oral exams in silence means controlled assessment is inadequate for languages," teachers told the quango.

• Lecturers at half of the country's universities have threatened to stop marking students' work unless a battle over their pensions is resolved. From Monday, academics at 67 universities – including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London – will work only their contracted hours in protest at changes which they say will leave them with less in retirement.

Education comment

• Following on from a Guardian survey published at the start of the week which showed that around 90% of teachers feel bullied, disrespected, distrusted and infantilised. Michelle Hanson bemoans the lack of respect for teachers:

Nobody trusts you one smidgen. You may not use your own initiative or imagination. Every action you take or word you utter is proscribed, assessed and criticised. By everyone. The whole world is invited to boss about and judge a teacher.

Education news from around the web

• Cribsheet is officially besotted with the teachers in Educating Essex. As are a gazillion other tweeters and comedian Chris Addison who described it as "heartbreaking and brilliant". Calls on twitter for Mr Drew to run for prime minister abound.

• The new kid on the blog in student media - for any age group - is Quadblogging. Four schools or colleges, agree to take it in turns to read and comment on each other's blogs. So in week one all the students read and comment on the stories on School A's blog, in week two they all read School B's blog and so on... It's simple really. And it might motivate your budding authors to write more, knowing that their website is due to see a spike in readership in a week's time.

From the Guardian's Higher Education Network

Aaron Porter's first or fail: UK science and the University of Wales

This week, Aaron Porter examines the announcement of additional investment in UK science and the University of Wales' decision to stop validating degrees from other institutions

Live chat – working in and with industry, Friday 7 October, 12 noon

With less government funding there is an opportunity for HEIs to start business ventures or partner with industry. In this live chat, we discuss how this can be done effectively

Education seminars from Guardian Professional

The Guardian Teacher Network runs training sessions for teachers throughout the year in Yorkshire and London. Upcoming courses include:

Is your school thinking of becoming an academy?

This seminar will provide an independent view of the advantages and disadvantages of converting to academy status. It will look at the process of conversion, the implications of academy status, and the support and funding available. November 30, in London. February 21, 2012 in Yorkshire

Protecting young people in a digital age

Led by school digital safety experts, this one-day course will provide safeguarding policy and Ofsted criteria updates, as well as looking at social media and offering practical advice to help your school develop its digital safety policies. February 1, 2012 in London. February 8, 2012 in Yorkshire.

For a full list visit the Guardian Teacher Network

Teachers seminars from the Guardian Education Centre

Reading for pleasure – bringing classics to life

This half-day conference for secondary school teachers will explore the use and teaching of classic books from Dickens and beyond. Keynote speakers will be Simon Callow, actor and Dickens enthusiast and Judy Golding, daughter of William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies.

20 October, London

Insight into digital journalism

Spend a day at the Guardian and find out how an international news media organisation works. The seminar will focus on aspects of digital journalism including writing and editing for a news website, the relationship between print and web journalism, live blogging, the use of social media, podcasting and video production.

2 November, Kings Place, London