What Is Education?

Steve Gullick - Session 3&4

23/1/12 & 30/1/12

I have decided to put both session number 3 and 4 together as they both had the same Guest Lecturer and had the same topic.

In these sessions we had a guest lecturer who was Steve Gullick. He is a Governor or Education and research, which was really interesting to get his opinions and views of the Governing body. Steve began with an introduction to the Governing body and what they do, what their aims and problems are. In his first seminar  he gave a deeper understanding of the topics and problems they discuss with in Governors meetings. He first explained the type of topics that they have to include and to discuss; reports, finance, head teachers, progress of the school and development plans. Many Governing bodies are full of Volunteers which is helpful in situations where there is a lot to discuss in such little time. 

The Volunteers include; 

Teachers, 

Head Teachers,

Parents

Staff of the School

Residents 

Or local representatives of a local business.  

Obviously, they would all need a CRB certificate. Also, depending on the side of the school, the Governing body can include and range between 9 and 20 people. The Lecturer also explained that there could be a few problems with the types of people on the Governing body. There are debates and arguments that the there should only be experts on the team. It is hard to chose whether only experts should be on the body as I'm sure outside volunteers such as parents have just as much interest in the welfare of the school as any expert would, but on the other hand, do they have the full knowledge to be able to have a say in the future of the school?

When Steve came back to our fourth session, he mentioned School interviews, causal 'pop-in' from Governors to see how the school is doing and that every school needs a SENCO.

The Lecturer mentioned that SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordination Officer) is needed in each schools. Also, that 'Special needs' doesn't just mean students or learners that have difficulty learning. It can also include learners that have disabilities physically too. Such as people in temporary or permanent wheelchairs or crutches. 

What Is Education?

Estyn - Dr Russell Grigg - Session 2


In our Second session of Guest Lecturers, we were introduced to a man called Russel Grigg that came to explain to us Estyn. Estyn inspects quality and standards in education and training producers in Wales. Estyn also concentrates at two main areas; First being, looking carefully at learners and their quality of experience and the second would be looking at outcomes and grades and any constitution where learning is happening.
He also pointed out that Estyn provide advice to the Welsh assembly Government  in quality and Standards and then look to promote and to spread good practice.

The Lecturer then mentioned the Three-Fold purposes, which is the three main aspects and reasons behind Estyn; informing, promoting and accountability. Which would be, explaining what the problem is or what can be done about it, then also going forward to help the changes and promoting changes in the educational constitution, and then looking at the overall outcome.

Estyn also provide school reports. Either in Institutions or Thematic - covering the whole of Wales. The Lecturer explained this as having three coggs. The biggest one being the Teachers, Parents and Governors, the middle one being the Learners and Students and the smallest being the Inspectors. I learnt that even though the inspectors give the results of the school or the Education Institution, the Teachers, Parents or Governors are the people, who ultimately have the overall administration of the school to change it and to make it a better learning experience.

Common Inspection Framework
- Outcomes
- Provision
- Management

What Is Education?

Guest Lecture: Session 1
Education: The Welsh Scene. 9/1/12

In our first session of our Guest Lecture sessions was very interesting. Basically giving us a rough educational background of Wales. Giving us useful facts such as the current Minister of Education in Wales is, Leighton Andrews and his predecessor is Jane Davidson. Being a fluent Welsh speaker, it surprised me to learn that according to our guest lecturer that only 20% of Primary Schools and 15% of Secondary schools use  Welsh as a main language, and also, that there was a deficiency of Welsh headteachers that have the NPQH qualification, which surprised me as I thought the Welsh Language in schools and in general was becoming more popular.

PISA 2006
The Lecturer then followed by telling us about the PISA scheme. I learnt that the PISA is a form of tests that is carried over several countries to compare their success of Education. We were told that the National Assembly of Wales said that the tests have done well, but there needs to be a few changes as the results were uneven. We then were taught to consider that Wales, like many other countries, don't have League Tables, but the Welsh Curriculum are aiming to improve their curriculum and other issues to better learning for pupils.

Also quickly mentioning the PLC's which is a community which brings teachers together to concentrate on a particular challenge. This could be a positive affect on the curriculum.