Performance reviews mooted
Education Minister Alex Fletcher has come out in favour of reviewing teachers’ performance from time to time, with incompetents dismissed. He thinks it no longer enough for registration with the General Teaching Council to be a licence to a lifetime’s teaching, and will support moves to make it easier for education authorities to dismiss staff.
Damning verdict for Moray House
One of the most damning verdicts on a college of education by the General Teaching Council has descended on Edinburgh’s Moray House. The GTC said the college had no overall philosophy or strategy; co-operation with schools was not good enough in some departments; and communication within the college was inadequate. Acting principal Mr Bernard Thompson said changes were already happening.
Unflattering report shelved
The British Library has refused to publish a pound;14,000 report which says librarians are inflexible, unimaginative and more interested in organising inanimate objects than helping people. Author Patricia Coleman, Derbyshire’s assistant county librarian, concludes that failings in the library service are the fault of librarians: “nice, quiet, gentle people who do not want to be involved in anything strongly controversial.”
`Chalkface’ - a first for television
What producers claim as a “television first” - a magazine programme devoted exclusively to education - starts next weekend. Chalkface is presented by Ted Wragg, a regular columnist in this paper. The news section will be introduced by Stephen Cohen, TES news editor, followed by a personal view from Dr Eric Midwinter, a frequent contributor on these pages.
Schooling related to brain growth
A move is underway in the US to relate schooling to scientific evidence about the development of children’s brains. Until recently educators have assumed the brain grows progressively until adulthood or develops in an unpredictable pattern. But research is revealing that the brain follows a series of highly-predictable two-year growth spurts up to the age of 16.
