Since our last newsletter, politicians have been busy reviewing and reformulating education policy. Here is an outline of a few of the key developments in recent months.

Raising the participation age in education or training
The participation age for education or training has been raised from 16 to 18 - the most radical change in education policy since 1972. The primarily purpose of this change, due to take place from 2013, is to increase young people's skills level and ensure every young person has the chance to obtain relevant a qualification. However, whether it will raise students' aspirations appears to be debatable. Critics of the legislation argue that the Government needs to identify why young people drop out, and encourage rather than force them to stay on. In an article in the Guardian newspaper published recently, it was suggested that this could be implemented sooner than expected to tackle rising unemployment. A DCSF spokesperson, however, has denied any plans to accelerate introduction of the raised participation age.

Rose Review Interim Report
The interim report of the Independent review of the primary curriculum led by Sir Jim Rose (December 2008) reviews the design and content of primary school curriculum. It proposes 6 areas of learning: English, communications and languages; mathematics; science and technology; human, social and environmental; physical health and well-being; and arts and design. Provisional recommendations include:
· Prioritising literacy and numeracy with particular attention given to developing spoken language - introducing a framework for children's personal development that builds on good practices from the SEAL programme.
· Introducing one or two modern languages for key stage 2 pupils.
· More meaningful and explicit integration between areas of learning.
The final report is due to be published in March 2009.

National challenge programme
The National challenge programme, launched in June 2008, is designed to support secondary schools where fewer than 30% of pupils achieve five A* to C GCSEs. Funding to support poor performing schools include extra teaching assistants and support for individual pupils, so that by 2011 at least 30% of pupils in every school will gain a minimum of five A* to C GCSEs, including both English and mathematics. A press briefing by Rt Hon Ed Balls MP in January revealed 137 local authorities around the country have agreed to these plans and the number of underperforming secondary schools has fallen from 638 (2007) to 440 (2008), which shows that the programme is on track to achieving its goal by 2011. It has, however, been controversial, with accusations that 'pointing the finger' at schools takes no account of social circumstances and 'distance travelled', has counterproductive effects on parental choice and is demoralising for teachers.

Launch of the national peer mentoring programme
In December 2008, Beverley Hughes, Children and Young People's Minister, announced plans to deliver a peer mentoring programme that will enable pupils in schools and Colleges to provide advice and support to peers and build friendships. The £720,000 programme, run by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation until March 2011, will help to resolve disputes between groups or individuals and encourage friendships. This support service is at the heart of the Children's Plan, and is seen as the key to individual development to help raise attainment and aspirations, improve behaviour and support victims of bullying.
Safer schools partnerships

Safer School Partnerships
As part of the Youth Crime Action Plan, schools, police and local agencies are being encouraged to sign up to Safer School Partnerships and work together to keep pupils safe and reduce anti-social behaviour. Safer School Partnerships can involve having a police officer based in a school or police working with groups of schools. In January 2009, it was reported that 5000 schools have signed up to the initiative and more schools are still being recruited across the country. So far it has helped to nurture better relationship between young people and the police and improve community relations. Evaluations of the initiative have been positive. It shows improvement in pupils' behaviour and attendance, and has reduced the risk of pupils being perpetrator or victim of antisocial behaviour and crime.

Scheme to encourage young social entrepreneurs
In December, Beverley Hughes, Children and Young People's Minister, unveiled £9 million scheme to encourage young people to be social entrepreneurs. Funding and practical support will enable young people to develop and deliver positive activities in their local communities on Friday and Saturday nights. The purpose of the scheme is to help young people develop essential skills associated with enterprise such as business, teamwork and communication skills, and open up opportunities to be role models and leaders to their peers. This scheme is part of the Aiming high for young people strategy (2008) worth £679 million of funding.

Re-skilling or up-skilling?
The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee has called for radical reform of the Government's Train to Gain scheme because it does not reflect employers' training demands, and suggested that targets set following Lord Leitch's World Class Skills report are no longer appropriate in an economic downturn. The Committee argues that the recession requires greater focus on re-skilling rather than up-skilling, and that qualifications alone will not help UK recover from a recession. Secretary of State John Denham, stated that the Government is working hard to continue reforms in the skills system so that further education Colleges and universities are better able to respond to employer demand. Denham announced new funding of £158m to retrain people who have lost their jobs and increase apprenticeships to over 250,000 starts.

Queen's Speech
The Queen's Speech in December suggested further changes for education and training in 2009.

"My Government will bring forward a Bill to reform education, training and apprenticeships, to promote excellence in schools, to improve local services for children and parents and provide a right for those in work to request time for training."

The Campaign for Learning is happy to hear workplace training will soon be a legal entitlement, and is interested to see how employees will be encouraged to take this up.

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This newsletter is sponsored by
Select Education, the 'Number One Education
Staffing Agency' in the UK and worldwide.
www.selecteducation.co.uk