Focus

Web 2.0: boon or bane for universities?

For some the advantages are limitless but the very strength of the technology also poses inherent risks. Harriet Swain weighs the pros and cons

Monday May 12, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

To find out what the interactive communication tools known as web 2.0 could mean for universities, it is worth looking at the YouTube clip "A Vision of Students Today".

Created by students and faculty in cultural anthropology of Kansas State University, it opens with a student eye view of an empty lecture theatre, before presenting the findings of a survey into the student experience through placards held up by individual students.

These findings, drawn from responses by 133 of the 200 students surveyed, are interesting in themselves. They show that on average respondents expected to read eight books, 2,300 web pages, and 1,281 Facebook profiles that semester. While they would write 42 pages for class, they would write another 500 pages of emails.

But the clip is revealing in other ways, too. First, created from an online text edited 367 times by 200 students, it involved students surveying themselves, demonstrating how useful web 2.0 can be for universities in market research. At the same time, it is an example of how effective web 2.0 technologies are in projects involving collaboration.

It then shows how much more interesting it can be to present survey results through these technologies than through a traditional paper-based report - something worth passing on to any learner graduating in the post web 2.0 era.

All this marks a revolution in the way higher education is organised and delivered. Brian Kelly, UK web focus at UKoln, the national centre of expertise in digital information management, says that two years ago everyone was wondering whether web 2.0 had any relevance for higher education - "I think that's generally accepted now."

Les Watson, interim director of information services at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a consultant for the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), which supports universities' online activities, goes further. "Anyone who thinks about learning and teaching and looks at these technologies cannot avoid taking advantage of them," he says.

Universities are indeed taking advantage of web 2.0, although not in a uniform way. Some lecturers are allowing students access to podcasts and videos of their lectures. Others are encouraging students to collaborate through wikis and using RSS feeds to organise their own work. Many are now giving feedback on essays through Skype and using social networking sites both for their own research and to encourage student debate. Still others conduct seminars on Second Life.

Watson says Royal Holloway, which is redesigning its library, set up a Facebook site asking for suggestions from students about what they would like to see provided in the new space. Within 24 hours 200 students had registered comments - many of them constructive, although Watson admits: "You also had a few people with an axe to grind."

This highlights the fact that web 2.0 presents dangers too. One institution reported three examples of serious problems in one year involving students' use of the new technology including the victim of a student scuffle using Facebook to identify the address of his attacker, and getting his revenge.

And there are other difficulties too. First, it tends to be individual academics who are driving innovative use of the technology in learning, which can present problems when those academics move on, or when they want support from their institution's centralised IT systems.

Assessment also becomes more difficult when academics are not merely having to assign marks to a heap of scripts but to wade through student podcasts and video clips or Second Life presentations.

There is also the fear that, if students have access to podcasts and YouTube videos of lectures, they may not bother turning up to the real thing. And who owns the copyright to these podcasts - the lecturer? The institution that employs him or her to lecture? No one?

Meanwhile, there are issues over who should be responsible if students or lecturers say something online that results in litigation against the university.

Then there is the issue of control. A lecturer involved in a discussion on a public social networking site is operating in a forum that belongs not to his or her institution but to the students, and, ultimately to the private company that runs the site. This company may at some point decide to make commercial use of the information on the site, or to withdraw its services.

Peter Tinsen, executive secretary of Ucisa, the Universities Information Systems Association, says it also puts institutions at the mercy of fashion in terms of the collaborative space they use. "Facebook has been flavour of the month up until now, although it tends to be My Space abroad," he says. "But Facebook has seen a decline in the number of users. Does that mean the next big thing will be, for example, Second Life and we will have to move resources into that area?"

Many of these dangers are surmountable. Institutions are issuing guidelines to students about how to keep safe while social networking, and students are still turning up to lectures. But copyright and intellectual property issues involved in web 2.0 remain vague, and it is not yet entirely clear how far students want universities invading their online space.

A survey carried out for Jisc last year showed that 65% of sixth formers hoping to go to university used social networking sites, but most failed to see how they could be used for teaching and resented the idea that academics could interfere in a forum they saw as primarily social.

Most of those involved in universities' use of web 2.0 nevertheless insist that institutions should not become overcautious. "Universities should be risk-taking organisations, says Kelly. "Learning is a risky process."

Funds promised to end skills shortage

Jessica Shepherd
Wednesday June 25, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

The government addressed Britain's skills shortage today with a promise of £300m to train workers for jobs in construction, hospitality and manufacturing.

The innovation, universities and skills secretary, John Denham, has said Britain needs to train nearly two million workers in these and other sectors to remain globally competitive.

The £300m will be spent over the next three years and comes from Train to Gain, Labour's programme to persuade employers to improve workforce skills.

Its budget was £520m for 2007-08 and will rise to £1bn by 2010-11.

The construction industry will receive £133m of the sum, hospitality £112m and manufacturing and processing £62m.

The construction industry's training body, ConstructionSkills, said the funds would help beat "major skills shortages". It said it needed over half a million new entrants in the next five years.

It will use the money to, among other things, create 8,500 apprenticeships.

The government is expected to announce similar funds for other sectors with skills shortages, such as IT and engineering, in the coming months.

Denham said: "Industries such as construction, hospitality and processing are key to our future prosperity, but there is a need for more highly-trained people if we are to continue to lead the world in an increasingly competitive global economy.

"The success of our country will depend on doing even more to increase people's skills and their ability to gain jobs in growing and successful industries, such as these.

"If we're going to skill people for the jobs of the future, then we must work closely with employers to identify those needs and ensure that training providers are ready to deliver. We've listened to employers and taken action to remove barriers to training. Now we must take it one step further."

Student with three GCSEs wins award for going to university

Anthea Lipsett
Friday June 27, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

A student at Salford University has won an Aimhigher award for going to university despite having only three GCSEs - and making a video diary documenting her life there.

Danielle Simpson won the title of "higher education learner" in Salford as part of the national Aimhigher scheme, which encourages people from deprived backgrounds to go to university.

Simpson, who is doing a two-year foundation degree in sport and leisure management at Salford University, made a video diary called My So Called Student Life, which helps to show young people what university life is really like.

Simpson left school with only three GCSEs and no thoughts about going to university. But, after getting involved with the Aimhigher scheme, she discovered that she could go to university and study what she is passionate about: sport, particularly women's football.

"I didn't do very well at school, and I thought I probably wouldn't be able to go to university," she said.

"The Aimhigher scheme showed me that there were different ways of getting into university, not just through having A-levels, and I'm now finishing my first year at Salford University.

"I realised that anyone can go to university - no matter what their background. I've proved that anyone can go if they really want to."

The Aimhigher award, for which Simpson was nominated by her peers and tutors, recognises the great academic improvement she has made.

"Eventually I want to work in sports development. In my spare time I play on a five-a-side girl's football team and hope to encourage more girls to play football," she said.

Munira Patel from the University of Bolton won the other higher education learner award.

Jo Wiggans, director of Aimhigher Greater Manchester, said: "Every one of the winners is special and every one will represent many others who were not fortunate enough to be nominated for an award.

"It takes courage to aim high, and hard work and determination to succeed. [The awards] are about rewarding the achievements of young people and adult learners and about recognising the commitment of those whose energy and ideas support these learners on their path to higher education."

The Aimhigher scheme has just launched the 2008 national awards to recognise the achievements of less traditional learners

No novels necessary for new-look English GCSE

Anthea Lipsett
Friday June 27, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Pupils can choose to study biographies or travel brochures and avoid classic novels altogether in a shake-up of GCSE English unveiled yesterday by the qualifications regulator.

New-look GCSEs in English, mathematics and information and communications technology (ICT) will be taught from September 2010.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) released draft syllabuses for consultation yesterday.

There will be three English GCSEs on offer, rather than the two at present; "English" joins English literature and English language.

For the new course, pupils will be assessed on their skills in reading, as well as writing, speaking and listening, but could pass without studying plays, classic novels or poetry.

The emphasis will be on learning through "real-life contexts" - such as giving information, explanations or directions - and on students' "creative approaches".

The QCA said: "The emphasis is on students using their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing for real-life purposes in a wide range of contexts. This will develop and enhance students' skills and confidence and so encourage success in the qualifications."

The exam is described as a practical alternative to taking two GCSEs in English language and literature and for "those who might not wish to tackle the reading in English literature".

The English language exam has also been revamped and is billed as "an attractive stand-alone course" for students who have English as an additional language and for post-16s who need a language qualification but would not wish to tackle the reading requirements of the English literature course.

"For such students, this course offers the benefit of being grounded firmly in how language is used, how it works and how it varies in the real world," the QCA said.

Dr Ken Boston, the QCA's chief executive, said: "The skills of English, mathematics and ICT are vital for young people to progress successfully from the GCSE into other education, training or employment.

"The proposed revisions ensure that the functional skills of English, mathematics and ICT will be fully covered by the GCSE in these subjects in the future.

"The development of GCSEs by QCA and regulation by Ofqual ensures that the standards and the comparability of these qualifications are maintained.

"We have already introduced controlled assessments to safeguard the integrity and quality of the GCSE."

Facebook a valid educational tool, teachers told

Anthea Lipsett
Wednesday June 25, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Teachers and lecturers are getting the lowdown on how to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo in an educational way.
Most schools and colleges in the UK block access to the websites but they are missing out on their potential for education, a government-funded guide says.

The report for Childnet International and funded by Becta, the government body for technology in learning, says while teachers and lecturers may be using social networking services they may not recognise the educational potential for their students.

Schools could help students develop "e-portfolios" where learners can record their achievements and collect examples of their work, the guide suggests. Or teachers could use social networking services to set up groups that "semi-formalise" students' online communications and "document discussions and milestones as they go".

Young people are more likely to have learned their social networking skills from their friends or classmates than from any formal instruction or support from adults.

But as social networking spills over into the classroom, with students using sites to collaborate on homework projects or discuss lessons, they can provide many opportunities, the report says.

"In addition to providing a whole community with useful information about a school, college, organisation or event, a social network profile sends a clear message to learners that you are aware of the types of spaces they enjoy online.

"This is a good reminder that these spaces are public and are inhabited by people who may not necessarily be within their friendship network, encouraging them to look at issues around permissions and sharing personal information," the report finds.

It also includes an evaluation tool to walk teachers through key features of sites they may be considering using to support teaching and learning.

Stephen Carrick-Davies, the chief executive of Childnet International, said: "The phenomenal speed at which the internet is developing and the rapid take up of new web 2.0 services by young people can be challenging.

"However, it's vital that all of us really take the time to understand the way students are using the latest technology, the various features of these new services and appreciate how these new tools can aid good social interaction and learning."

Stephen Crowne, Becta's chief executive, said: "As technology increasingly becomes a key ingredient in classroom learning, broadening our knowledge of the technology used in school can really bring benefits, whether you are a parent, carer, governor or teacher."

John Nguyen: Kept short, what i have read is potentially the stolen building blocks to my website (and more) in this report........the idea of facebook being the engine behind it...... my little black book is being updated with the rest ..........jayne this feels like a big problem - the no 1 spot has become a tighter route

Government defends National Challenge target

Anthea Lipsett
Wednesday June 25, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

David Bell, the permanent secretary in the Department of Children, Schools and Families, today defended the government's scheme to close schools where fewer than a third of pupils get five good GCSEs.
The government has said 638 National Challenge schools - where 30% of pupils fail to get five A* to C grade GCSEs including English and maths - will be closed if they fail to improve by 2010 or turned into academies.

Giving evidence to the Commons schools select committee, Bell said: "It's important we corral the kinds of services that are going to make a difference. This isn't a narrow school improvement programme.

"But we make no apology for setting that as the minimum threshold, not least because a lot of other schools in similar circumstances are achieving higher results."

He added that he thought the vast majority of headteachers wanted to "look outwards" and assist students in other schools.

Fiona Mactaggart, the Labour MP for Slough, accused the government of failing to tackle inequality properly - the majority of schools on the list are in deprived areas. She said a headteacher of a National Challenge school in Slough had emailed her to say parents were withdrawing their children from the school.

Bell said: "We do think it's important, taking account of deprivation, to do what we're doing under National Challenge.

"We thought carefully about the impact but also about the need to ensure that all schools achieve the 30% minimum. Frankly, that had to be the driving motivation in this."

He claimed a headteacher in a selective school in a selective London authority had said to him: "How can we argue with that 30% minimum?"

Bell said local authorities should be thinking about how to secure places and the best kind of education.

"We've given local authorities, schools and others the choice of a variety of ways to organise themselves to achieve the best results for youngsters in that area," he told MPs.

He insisted that academies would have no added advantage over other schools.

Questioned on figures for "neets" - young people not in education, employment or training - Bell claimed the government was moving in the right direction.

"We're doing all we can to provide the right opportunities for [youngsters] at the age of 16," he said.

On the way schools are funded, Bell said: "Sometimes we're accused of wanting to try to micromanage. Here I think we have a genuine link between national government's priorities and combining that with local funding choices made about funding for deprivation.

"I'd be slightly anxious about suggesting there's no funding benefit or impact for youngsters in more deprived circumstances. Our analysis suggests that quite a large amount of the money does get to youngsters with particular kinds of needs at the local level."

Bell also defended cut backs in government spending on education. He said schools had done well out of government budget settlements given the downturn in the market.

"There have been very substantial increases. Pupil uplift since 1997 has been almost 88%, overall uplift 67% in that period," he told MPs.

"It's unusual to go to schools to hear people say we've not had enough money over the past decade. People are now managing new circumstances and we don't underestimate those...but it was still a very generous settlement given the wider context."

Bell argued that schools have seen significant improvements. "We know now that we've got record levels achieving what they should be achieving at the end of primary school," he said: "And the highest percentage of youngsters ever achieving five plus A to C grades at GCSE.

"Nobody would argue we have finished the job because as the improvements have been seen some families have not benefited in the same sort of way, which is why the department has redoubled it's efforts to make sure everybody benefits from all the investments going in."

He rated the new department as "sixish out of 10" in linking up with other government departments.

"We're trying to enable schools to focus on core job of teaching well but enabling headteachers to draw upon other services that help children and families thrive," Bell said.

The committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, questioned why Chris Humphries, chief executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, could say 50% of children were not getting a "fair crack" at education.

Bell said the government had "broadened the range" of qualifications on offer. "I want the committee to recognise very substantial improvements.

"If we take the measure of people getting five good GCSEs ... we know we have to do better and more in that regard," Bell added. "The qualifications attained by young people by the time they reach 19 there have been substantial improvements there.

"Let's not lose sight of the fact that thousands and thousands of young people are achieving qualifications that they never would have got previously and there's been a huge investment across all aspects of education."

Number of primaries teaching foreign languages doubles

Anthea Lipsett
Thursday June 26, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

The number of primary schools teaching children foreign languages has almost doubled since 2002, according to new research published today.
The study by the National Foundation for Educational Research shows that 84% of primary schools now teach children another language, up from 70% on 2006 and nearly double the 44% in 2002.

Traditional languages dominate. French is the most popular (89% of schools that teach languages) followed by Spanish (23%) and German (9%). But a small number (under 3%) offer Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Urdu.

The numbers studying foreign languages at school plummeted after ministers made them optional after age 14 in 2002, alongside introducing an entitlement for all primary pupils to learn a language in class time by 2010.

The government has since tried to boost take-up of languages overall. They will become compulsory at key stage 2 (age 7 to 11) after the current review of the primary curriculum.

Lord Dearing's languages review recommended this so that all pupils learn languages for a minimum of seven years.

He believed that learning languages earlier would inspire children with a love of languages and motivate them to continue learning languages post-14.

The schools minister, Jim Knight, said: "It's excellent news that so many children have the chance to learn a second language while at primary school.

"Today's research means that we are on target to meet our aim of ensuring all primary school children have the opportunity to learn another language by 2010.

"We have already trained 4,000 primary teachers with a languages specialism and will have trained thousands more by 2010," he said.

Research also published today found that most heads of languages surveyed approved of the KS3 framework for languages.

In particular, the emphasis on explicit teaching of grammar and encouraging pupils to take a more independent and analytical approach.

But the researchers from Cambridge University found that moving from primary to secondary schools can be a challenge for pupils' language learning, and primary language teaching was "inconsistent".

Researchers said headteachers were unclear about their plans for KS2 and KS3 language provision because of the changeability of central policy initiatives.

"Honestly, I've given up trying to have a crystal ball on anything the government does because the experience is that it changes in two years," said one headteacher.

John Nguyen: link to focus int. through job/applicant count through (log in) 1st choices. Int. USP

UK's top university teachers named

Jessica Shepherd
Thursday June 26, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

The UK's top university teachers were today named and each awarded £10,000.
Judges at the Higher Education Academy picked the 50 winners on the basis of their innovative teaching techniques and feedback from students and colleagues.

They include Dr Jos Darling, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Bath, who was last year selected by Time magazine as one of the top six inventors of the year.

Students said Darling passed his passion for discovery on to them. One said: "He brings enthusiasm and vibrancy and a quirky sense of humour to his teaching. It's easy to see why he's held in such high regard by the student body."

Another winner is Lynne Barnes, co-ordinator for deaf studies at the University of Central Lancashire, who has developed a degree course in deaf studies and British sign language.

It's in part down to Barnes that the number and quality of sign language interpreters in the UK has risen.

One winner is already well known in university circles. Sir David Watson, of the Institute of Education at London University, is director of the MBA in higher education management. The pioneering course started six years ago and now takes a yearly cohort of 25 future higher education leaders.

The winners:

Barbara Allan, director of learning and teaching, University of Hull

Dr Trevor Barker, principal lecturer, University of Hertfordshire

Lynne Barnes, divisional co-ordinator: deaf studies, University of Central Lancashire

Femi Bola, associate director of student services, University of East London

Dr Stephen Bostock, head of the learning development unit, Keele University

Prof Sally Brown, pro-vice-chancellor, assessment, learning & teaching, Leeds Metropolitan University

Dr Penny Jane Burke, senior lecturer, Institute of Education

Avril Butler, senior lecturer in social work/ practice learning co-ordinator, University of Plymouth

Prof Annette Cashmore, director of GENIE centre of excellence in teaching and learning in genetics, University of Leicester

Prof Tony Croft, director, mathematics education centre, Loughborough University

Dr Jos Darling, senior lecturer, University of Bath

Dr Joanna Drugan, programme director, MA in applied translation studies, University of Leeds

Dr Kate Exley, senior staff development officer and higher education consultant, University of Leeds

Dr John David Fieldhouse, reader in automotive engineering, University of Huddersfield

Dr Derek France, senior university teaching fellow, University of Chester

Rayya Ghul, senior lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University

Prof Angela Goddard, professor of English language, York St. John University

Lyn Greaves, teaching fellow, Thames Valley University

Dr Mark Greenwood, consultant/senior lecturer in oral & maxillofacial surgery, Newcastle University

Dr Jane Henry, head, centre for human resources and change management, Open University

Prof Paula Hixenbaugh, professor of learning and teaching, University of Westminster

Prof Alastair Hudson, professor of equity & law, Queen Mary, University of London

Dr Peter G Knight, senior lecturer in geography, Keele University

Dr Michael Kölling, senior lecturer, University of Kent

Dr L. Lominé, senior lecturer in arts management, University of Winchester

Sue McKnight, director, libraries and knowledge resources, Nottingham Trent University

Prof Peter McOwan, director of teaching, Queen Mary, University of London

Tony Mann, head of mathematics, University of Greenwich

Prof Kristine Mason O'Connor, dean of teaching and learning development, University of Gloucestershire

Dr Deborah Mawer, senior lecturer in music, Lancaster University

Dr Aru Narayanasamy, associate professor, University of Nottingham

Dr Briony J Oates, reader, University of Teeside

Robert O'Toole, arts faculty e-learning advisor, University of Warwick

Dr Julian Park, senior lecturer in agri-environmental systems, University of Reading

Dr Derek M Peters, principal lecturer, University of Worcester

Dr Duncan Reavey, principal lecturer (learning and teaching), University of Chichester

Dr Chris Rickets, director of assessment, Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Plymouth

Dr Anne Ridley, programme director, psychology undergraduate courses, London South Bank University

Sue Robson, subject leader early childhood studies, Roehampton University

Dr Michael Russ, associate dean of music, humanities and media, University of Huddersfield

Sue Thompson, director teaching and learning development, Liverpool John Moores University

Prof Paul van Schaik, professor of psychology, University of Teeside

Dr Catherine Walter, lecturer and equal opportunities co-ordinator, Institute of Education

Sir David Watson, professor of higher education management, Institute of Education

Prof Val Wass, professor of community-based medical education, University of Manchester

Prof Brian Whalley, Queen's University Belfast

Dr Carrie Winstanley, principal lecturer, Roehampton University

Nigel Wynne, senior academic - learning & teaching, Birmingham City University

Prof John Yates, University of Sheffield

Prof Miriam Zukas, director, Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Leeds

Unison urges teaching assistants and dinner ladies to strike

Anthea Lipsett
Tuesday June 24, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Unison negotiators are recommending that teaching assistants and school dinner staff stage a 48-hour walkout next month to kick off a programme of public sector strike action this summer.

Unison's local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted yesterday, by 55% to 45%, for a series of sustained strikes over a 2.45% pay offer.

Union negotiators are recommending staff stage a walkout in protest at the offer on July 15 and 16. Unison's industrial action committee meets on Friday to make the final decision.

Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: "This is a solid vote for action and a clear message to the local government employers that our members are willing to fight for a decent pay rise.

"They are fed up and angry that they are expected to accept pay cut after pay cut, while bread and butter prices go through the roof.

"Most of them are low-paid workers, who are hit hardest by food and fuel price hikes, and they see the unfairness of boardroom bonanzas and big city bonuses.

"Other local government workers who have to use their cars for work are being hit hard too by spiralling fuel costs and they end up subsidising their employers."

Almost 250,000 public sector employees earn less than £6.50 an hour and 75% are women. The unions' pay claim was for 6% or 50p an hour, whichever was the greater. Of the 200,000 school support staff in this group, 70,000 are teaching assistants.

Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: "It is a tough decision to take strike action but our members have shown that they are willing to fight for a fair deal. Once the dates are finally agreed we will be going all out to mobilise maximum support around those strike days. "We are of course always willing to meet the employers. The solution to this is in their hands. They must know that we mean business and they must know that our members cannot afford to take another pay cut this year."

John Nguyen: This has become a repetitive phenomenon towards employees in education, and for this particular case we are now looking at teaching assistants and school dinner staff, as opposed to actual teachers in schools. My own view on this is that of course it is unfair with good intentions(i believe), and perhaps an easy solution for dinner staff and teaching assistants would be to open up shop during break and lunchtimes where extra revenue can be generated through childrens dinner money....? This along with the idea that it exposes the school playground to an internet cafe type environment may be a good way forward from this problem, especially when we consider that young people are always a targeted consumer, here we provide a cafe alternative to approach the problem while improving on the students health? In economics we call this type of policy 'single policy' solutions, where two key objectives are achieved by one policy. I'd like an answer from Gordan Brown personally, but who confronts my views i will see

Airline proves that small can be beautiful

* Steven Morris
* The Guardian,
* Thursday June 19, 2008
* Article history

A tiny British airline that boasts a fleet of one plane - a 34-year-old Boeing 737 - was yesterday named one of the four best carriers in the world.

Palmair, which flies from Bournemouth airport, was rated ahead of global brands such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic thanks to its very personal service, which includes a member of staff who greets every passenger to make sure the seating plan she drew up on her kitchen table the night before suits everyone.

The airline was shortlisted by the consumer champion Which? with four other much bigger names. Singapore Airlines (1.5 million passengers a month) won top prize but Palmair (70,000 passengers a year) was runner-up along with India's Jet Airways and Air New Zealand.

David Skillicorn, managing director of Palmair, said: "We are just little Palmair with a little Boeing 737 yet we beat off the likes of Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.

"Singapore Airlines has onboard massages and a choice of DVDs. All we can offer is the choice of tea or coffee."

Palmair was founded by businessman Peter Bath in 1957 when the company leased an aircraft to take passengers to Mallorca. It bought its own plane and now flies to 14 European destinations, including Spain, Tenerife, Portugal and Croatia.

Bath used to make sure he was in the departure lounge for each flight to greet the passengers.

When Bath died longstanding employee Teresia Rossello took over the role. She draws out the seating plan on her kitchen table the night before flights.

Stewardesses place fresh flowers on the plane every day.

Palmair employs 25 cabin crew and 25 back-office staff. The plane flies twice a day in the summer and once a day in winter.

The airline does not operate night flights as Bath believed they were antisocial.

Which? asked 30,000 consumers about experiences on airlines. They were asked to rate factors such as the cleanliness of the planes, the amount of legroom, the quality of the in-flight meal and the helpfulness of the cabin staff.

Student loans: borrowings soar by a third

Anthea Lipsett
Tuesday June 17, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Students are borrowing record amounts to pay for their studies, new government figures published today reveal.

The total amount loaned to university students rose by 32.2% last year to nearly £4bn.

Most of the money loaned to students in higher education during 2007-08 was used to cover living expenses, a total of £2,835.5m, up 10.4% on 2006-07.

The amount borrowed to cover tuition fees rose 176.7% on 2006-07, totalling £1,069.5m in loans in 2007-08.

The Student Loans Company was owed £21,944.3m at the end of the 2007-08 financial year by 2.7 million borrowers. Of these, 1.7 million had started repaying their loans.

Stephen Williams, the Liberal Democrat higher education spokesman, said: "In addition to their loans, students are also racking up thousands of pounds of commercial debt through credit cards and bank overdrafts.

"Ministers need to look again at the whole issue of student finance, particularly for part-time students, to ensure that undergraduates can support themselves while they are studying without having to live in the red.

"A fairer grant and bursary system would ease the financial burden on students and also take the pressure off many parents."

But ministers insist students have access to more financial support than before.

The government estimates that two-thirds of students will be eligible for non-repayable maintenance grants from this year, with a third eligible for a full grant of £2,835.

The higher education minister, Bill Rammell, said: "I want people to aim for university confident that they'll have the help they need to fund their studies, which is why I'm delighted to see that more and more people are taking advantage of the improved financial support on offer.

"From this autumn, more students than ever before - indeed, two-thirds of eligible new undergraduates - will be entitled to a non-repayable maintenance grant of up to £2,835 a year," he said.

"The changes we have made enable an extra 100,000 students each year to benefit from some level of grant support while they are at university. Together with loans available for tuition fees and living costs and bursaries that universities offer, this improved package of support means nobody should be put off considering higher education for financial reasons.

"A university education is now a realistic option for more people than ever before, a fact confirmed by recent figures showing a 6.2% increase in university applicants from England compared to this time last year."

Record numbers of young people in education or work

Anthea Lipsett
Thursday June 19, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Record numbers of 16- to 18-year-olds are in education, work or training, according to new government figures.

According to figures at the end of 2007 more than 78% of young people in this age group - 1.59 million - are taking part in education, work or training. This is up 1.6 percentage points on 2006.

However, opposition parties said that young men were not doing as well as young woman, and that the overall number of young people not in education, employment or training (neets) had risen over the past 10 years.

The government is planning to raise the age for young people to be in compulsory education or training: from 2013 it will be 17, and from 2015 it will be 18.

Ministers said the new figures showed it is well on target, and diplomas will offer those teenagers uninterested in traditional subjects a viable and well-respected alternative.

The government is aiming to reduce the percentage of neets by two percentage points, from 9.6% in 2004 to 7.6% in 2010.

The proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds of neets fell from 10.4% in 2006 to 9.4% at the end of 2007 to around 189,000.

This is the largest percentage point fall since 1999 and means around 20,000 fewer neets than last year.

The proportion of 16-year-old neets fell 1.3 percentage points to 5.4%, the 17-year-old proportion fell by 0.7 percentage points to 9.1% and the 18-year-old proportion fell by 1 percentage point to 13.7%.

The number of 16-year-olds in full-time education (the first post-compulsory year) rose from 78% to 79.3% in 2007 in full-time education at the end of 2007.

The proportion of 16-18 year olds participating in work-based learning and apprenticeships has remained stable.

David Willetts, the shadow universities secretary, said: "These new figures show how far our young men are falling behind women in education and training.

"They are less likely to be in full-time education. They are more likely to be inactive. And, even when they are in education, they tend to be taking lower qualifications.

"The government's initiatives, from the New Deal to new apprenticeships, are just not working."

David Laws, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesman, said: "Given that the number of neets has actually gone up since 1997, ministers cannot take any pride in these figures.

"With the economy slowing, there is a real risk that this category is going to further increase in size."

The schools secretary, Ed Balls, said: "It is really encouraging news that the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training has fallen again and that participation rates are at a record level.

"By 2015 all young people will stay in education or training until they are at least 18 and these latest figures show we are making good progress ensuring that all young people have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and contribute to our economy in this new and fast-changing world."

The school minister, Jim Knight, said: "This is excellent news and bodes well for the future. No young person should be denied the extra opportunities provided by participating in learning, that is why we have raised the age for leaving education or training to 18. If we do not do this it will be the most disadvantaged who miss out and this is unacceptable.

"This is why we are gearing the whole system up to provide a range of options to suit every individual ... there will be something for everyone and the improvements to 14-19 learning have only just begun."

White boys shun universities

Anthea Lipsett
Thursday June 19, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

White teenage boys are less likely to go to university than those from other ethnic groups - even if they have good enough grades to get in, according to government research.

A study into the higher education gender gap for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills found that Asian and black African teenage boys go to university in much greater numbers.

"We find that young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are overwhelmingly more likely to enter HE compared to white people with the same prior attainment," the report said.

Researchers predicted the likelihood of being in HE by the age of 19 for different types of students. Those getting free school meals would be 3.5 percentage points less likely to go.

Students were more likely to go if they were black (18.0 percentage points), Asian (25.4 percentage points), or Chinese (22.7 percentage points).

When both class and gender were taken into account, white working-class men were eight and a half times less likely to go to university than black and Asian middle-class women, the report found.

It suggested that the rise in the number of women going to university had made "the performance of males look relatively dismal".

Since 1992, women have been in the majority at university. Last year, the proportion of young men studying for a degree fell from 37% in 1999 to 35%, while the figure rose from 41% in 1999 to 45% for women.

The study suggested that more girls go to university because they are more likely to do well in GCSEs and A-levels. But where both sexes have equal A-level results, they are equally likely to go.

Researchers said it was "perfectly possible that boys disengage with the educational system at a very early age, and perform very poorly at their GCSEs, precisely because they had decided a long time ago that they were going to drop out of school at the age of 16 and not go on to HE".

The report said: "Efforts to reduce the gender gap in HE participation should predominantly be aimed at increasing the relative attainment of young men prior to HE."

Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said he was greatly concerned about boys being turned off education.

"Culture plays a very important role. Part of what we have to do is to look across society and look among the ethnic minority groups where there is a very strong attachment to education and try to learn from that."

Intervening earlier in children's school lives was important in tackling the divide, he said.

A POINT OF VIEW

Blue sky thinking, pushing the envelope - the problem with office-speak is that it cloaks the brutal modern workplace in such brainlessly upbeat language... as Lucy Kellaway dialogues.

For the last few months I've been on a mission to rid the world of the phrase "going forward". But now I see that the way forward is to admit defeat. This most horrid phrase is with us on a go-forward basis, like it or not.

I reached this sad conclusion early one morning a couple of weeks ago when listening to Farming Today. A man from the National Farmers' Union was talking about matters down on the farm and he uttered three "going forwards" in 28 seconds.

The previous radio record, by my reckoning, was held by Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor. He managed three going forwards in four minutes on the Today programme, but then maybe that wasn't such a huge achievement when you think that he spends his life rubbing shoulders with business people. And they say going forward every time they want to make any comment about the future, which is rather often. But for the farmer, who spends his life rubbing shoulders with cows, to say it so often represented a linguistic landmark. If the farms of England are now going forward, then there is no turning back for any of us.

Lucy Kellaway
When someone says 'going forward' it assaults the ears just as, when a colleague starts slurping French onion soup at a neighbouring desk, it assaults the nose

Hear Radio 4's A Point of View

I know I'm on slightly shaky ground talking on the radio about how badly other people talk on the radio. I'm also feeling a bit chastened having recently read a column by Craig Brown in the Telegraph consisting of spoof letters from language pedants. One of them went like this:

"Sir - Listening to my wireless, I heard a song with the chorus, 'She loves you yeah yeah yeah'. Later in the same song, insult was added to injury with yet another chorus, this time, 'She loves you yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah'. Whatever happened to that good old-fashioned word " yes"?

What was even funnier than his column was the readers' response to it on the Telegraph website. Most of them had quite failed to notice that they were being laughed at, and seized on the opportunity to voice their own concerns over declining standards of modern English. One took issue with the preposition "on", wailing over its use in "on the weekend" and "on the team". Another despaired over "for free". A third deplored "different to".

You could say this orgy of pedantry was not only tedious, but also pointless. Language changes. End of. - to use a particularly annoying new phrase. Yet protesting feels so good. Not only does it allow one to wallow in the superiority of one's education, but some words are so downright annoying that to complain brings relief. When someone says "going forward" it assaults the ears just as, when a colleague starts slurping French onion soup at a neighbouring desk, it assaults the nose.

Flinch mob

We all have our own pet hates - I don't particularly mind "for free": I think it's quite comic. Neither do I mind the preposition "on". But "up" - now that's another matter altogether. To free up and to head up, both deliver a little jolt of irritation whenever I hear them. And as for heads-up, as in give me a heads up, that is utterly maddening.

Beatles
'Sir: Whatever happened to the old fashioned word 'yes'?'
In any case, pedantry has a fine tradition.

Writing in The Tatler in 1710, Jonathan Swift complained, "I have done my utmost for some Years past, to stop the Progress of Mob... but have been plainly born down by Numbers, and betrayed by those who promised to assist me." Instead of saying mob, they should have used the proper Latin term mobile vulgus, mobile meaning changeable or fickle and vulgus meaning common people. Yet here I think Swift was being a fussy old bore in objecting to a harmless little bit of shortening. One syllable is surely a lot more manageable than five, so I really can't see what his problem was. And the word mob is so good it has survived the next three centuries with meaning unchanged.

By contrast there is so much more to object to in "going forward". It clings to the tongues of speakers compelling them to utter it again and again. It is a grown up equivalent of the word "like", which seems to trip off the tongue of the average teenager every two or three waking seconds.

Like "like", "going forward" is as contagious as smallpox. It started with business people, and now has not only infected farmers, it has reached epidemic proportions with footballers.

Hippie hangover

When asked if he was going to be the England captain again after his triumph with Trinidad and Tobago, David Beckham came out with the gnomic reply "Going forward, who knows." It seems that the less one has to say, the more likely one is to reach for a going forward as a crutch. Politicians find it comforting for this reason. "We are going forward" poor Hillary Clinton said just before the last, fatal primary last month when it became indisputable that she was going nowhere of the kind.

One of the big banks is seeking 'passionate banking representatives to uphold our values' - this is a lie. It wants competent people to follow instructions and answer the phones
Yet more than all this, the really lethal thing about the whole language of business - is that it is so brainlessly upbeat. All the celebrating, the reaching out, the sharing, and the championing in fact grind one down. Several decades too late, it is as if business has caught up with the linguistic spirit of 1968. The hippies got over it, but businessmen are holding tight.

The reason that the talk jars so much is that the walk doesn't match. The reality is that business is the most brutal it has been for half a century. If your company is not better than the competition, it goes bust. If you aren't good, or aren't thought to be good (which is a slightly different thing) you get pushed aside.

For nearly a decade I wrote a fictional column in the Financial Times about a senior manager who spoke almost entirely in business cliches. Martin Lukes talked the talk. Or rather, he added value by reaching out and sharing his blue sky thinking. At the end of the day he stepped up to the plate and delivered world class jargon that really pushed the envelope. After eight years of being him I came to accept the nouns pretending to be verbs. To task and to impact. Even the new verb to architect I almost took in my stride. I didn't even really mind the impenetrable sentences full of leveraging value and paradigm shifts. But what still rankled after so long were the little things: that he said myself instead of me and that he would never talk about a problem, when he could dialogue around an issue instead.

Misplaced passion

Many of Martin's favourite phrases have recently found their way onto a list of 100 banned words that has been sent by the Local Government Association to Councils with the instruction that they are no longer to use them. It's a nice try, but I fear they are just as likely to succeed as I was with going forward.

Apprentices
Plenty of passion, yet no sign of a crucifixion
Yet what no list of words can get at is the new business insincerity: a phoney upping of the emotional ante. Last week I got an e-mail from someone I had never met that began by saying "I'm reaching out to you" and ended "warmest personal regards". As her regards had no business to be either warm or personal, the overall effect was somewhat chilling.

But this incontinent gush is nothing compared to an e-mail sent by an extremely powerful person at JP Morgan encouraging his investment banking team to be more human. In it he said: "Take the time today to call a client and tell them you love them. They won't forget you made the call." Indeed. I'm sure the client would remember such a call for a very long time.

If love has no place in the language of business, neither does passion. Passion, says the dictionary, means a strong sexual desire or the suffering of Christ at the crucifixion. In other words it doesn't really have an awful lot to do with a typical day in the office - unless things have gone very wrong indeed. And yet passion is something that every employee must attest to in order to get through any selection process. Every one of the candidates in the final rounds of interview on the Apprentice solemnly declared that they were passionate about being Sir Alan's Apprentice.

It's not only when you're trying to impress nine million viewers on national TV. Even to get a humble job in a call centre passion is required. One of the big banks is currently advertising for such workers saying "we seek passionate banking representatives to uphold our values." This is a lie. Actually what the bank is seeking is competent people to follow instructions and answer the phones.

The biggest lie of all in business speak is about ownership. In order to make it appear that there is a strong bond between customers and companies there is My e-Bay and My EasyJet and - most successfully of all - Your M&S. At the risk of being as pedantic as Jonathan Swift, I'd like to point out that it isn't my M&S. It isn't yours either. Neither is it even Stuart Rose's M&S. The company belongs to its shareholders.

Though, just for the record, the knighthood Sir Stuart was given last week by the Queen really was his. Yet even that he deemed to be owned more broadly. It's not really for me, he said, it's for all M&S employees. I'm not quite sure what he was saying here, unless it was that everyone who works at Your M&S can call themselves Sir and Lady, going forward.

Extent of school failure disputed
Anonymous pupils entering school
The committee report claims over 1,500 schools are under-performing
Claims that nearly one million children in England attend poorly performing schools are being disputed by teaching unions and the government.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee says 1,557 schools do badly despite the £837m spent on raising achievement.

But unions say this is "misleading and damaging" as exam results often reflect a school's intake.

Meanwhile, Ofsted figures show that 32 schools shut due to poor performance in 2005/06 - compared with 25 in 2004/05.

'Apples with pears'

The government said claims that many of the schools referred to in the committee's report were failing were "insulting".

Schools minister Jim Knight said the report "compares apples with pears", mixing together schools which were failing with those which simply performed less well at exam time.

"A significant proportion of these schools are not failing," he said.

"In some, 60 to 70% of pupils get five good GCSEs and many others are improving very quickly thanks to incredibly dedicated staff and excellent leadership."

He added that, since 1997, standards had risen across the board. The number of schools with under a quarter of pupils gaining five good GCSEs had dropped from 616 in 1997 to 110 in 2005.

In his monthly press conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair said school results are improving - but some schools were not performing as well as they should be.

There had been a 50 per cent drop in schools on special measures, he said.

He said: "When we came to office in 1997 there were many London boroughs with an average of 25 per cent of good GCSEs. Today there is not a singly borough in London - not one - that has not got a record of over 40 per cent of five good GCSEs."

The Association of School and College Leaders said the committee's conclusions were based on a "flawed" report by the National Audit Office, issued last January.

Disadvantaged communities

General secretary John Dunford said: "Many of these so-called failing schools serve disadvantaged communities where the school is so often the only place that improves young people's life chances.

"School leaders devote their lives to educating and supporting such children and their families and will bitterly resent political games being played with these misinterpreted statistics."

Dr Dunford said it was wrong to assume that because a school was in the bottom 25% it was failing.

"There will always be 25% of schools in the bottom quartile, no matter how good their results, just as there will always be 25% of schools in the top quartile," he said.

The PAC report comes after Sir Cyril Taylor, head of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said about 500 secondary schools were seriously underperforming based on GCSE results.

Teaching groups called Sir Cyril's comments unhelpful and demoralising.

The PAC report, Improving Poorly Performing Schools in England, acknowledges that fewer schools now under-perform.

Newly released Ofsted figures show that 32 schools were shut due to poor performance last year - compared with 25 the previous year.

The figures show that in July 2006 14 schools were classed as underachieving.

In addition, 208 were in special measures and 117 had "serious weaknesses".

This compares with 49 underachieving in July 2005 - when 242 were in special measures and 286 had serious weaknesses.

'Severe consequences'

Additionally, in July 2005 the Department for Education classed 402 schools as "low-attaining" and 578 as "under-performing".

Conservative MP Edward Leigh, the committee chairman, said: "To waste so much human potential in this way is a tragedy.

"The consequences in the long term for the pupils themselves and, more widely, for our society, will be severe."

The report highlights the crucial role played by head teachers in setting the ethos for a school and calls for measures to attract more talented candidates to fill increasing numbers of vacancies for heads.

It also warns that the new "light touch" inspection regime introduced by Ofsted last September is not right for under-performing schools.

Shadow education secretary David Willetts said children in those schools suffered a "huge disadvantage" and raising standards "must be the priority".

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Sarah Teather said a good head teacher was central to a successful school.

"The government is creating the problems of tomorrow by not tackling failing schools today," she said.

Schools enjoy jobs 'golden age'
Teacher in classroom
Schools can select the cream of the crop when recruiting staff
Secondary schools in England are experiencing a "golden" period for staff recruitment, research suggests.

The quality and quantity of candidates applying for vacant posts means schools can select from a talented field.

It is a reversal of the trend less than a decade ago when there were teacher shortages, says Education Data Surveys.

The downside is that newly qualified teachers and experienced returners face stiff competition for jobs.

This is especially true in the North, where the workforce is shrinking fastest alongside pupil numbers.

It is a golden age and possibly the best it has been for a generation
John Howson,
Education Data Surveys
Many now face the prospect of having to move south to find a job.

But schools are reaping the benefits and finding most vacancies attracting a pool of strong candidates.

"It is a golden age and possibly the best it has been for a generation," said John Howson, director of Education Data Surveys.

"In 2001, you had shortages of trainees because there weren't training enough teachers.

"But now schools have never been as well off for selecting teachers who are keen to work in their establishments," he added.

Science gaps

One such school is Rooks Heath High in Harrow, north west London.

This year the comprehensive had four vacant posts to fill, one of them in science - a subject which has faced recruitment challenges in recent years.

The post was filled by the only candidate to apply, who then pulled out. A second round of adverts produced two strong candidates, one of whom was appointed.

Head teacher John Reavley is encouraged by recent trends in recruitment, but not complacent.

He said: "I've found the situation has got better, but not across the board.

"I know of one or two schools around here who have had trouble recruiting in the science area."

Stepney Green School - a comprehensive in East London - had three posts to fill this year.

Head teacher Paramjit Bhutta said: "I would agree that there has been a turnaround.

"Every time we place adverts we get a good pool of candidates - a very strong field."

Balancing act

The new golden era of teacher recruitment may be good news for schools, who can pick and choose the cream of the crop, but in some cases newly qualified teachers, especially from the north, are having to compete with more than 100 others for the same post.

Some are considering moving south to find a post, where the higher cost of living swallows up most of their modest starting salaries.

Education Data Surveys' concern with the recruitment pendulum swinging in favour of schools, is that it may not be sustainable.

Prof Howson said: "As much as possible needs to be done to get the market as close to balance as possible because extremes either way mean someone is going to be disappointed.

"The risk is that it swings back the other way. We don't want people to be put off training to become teachers because they won't get a job."

Evidence suggests this is already happening, however, with graduate teacher training applications down this year.

Prof Howson says if this accelerates, the supply position could deteriorate rapidly, but it might take years for the government to notice.

Education Data Surveys' conclusions are based on tracking 32,000 secondary school vacancies across the country in the 2006-07 academic year.

Brown threatens 'failing' schools

apprentice with spirit level
Brown said raising aspirations was the key

PM's speech

Gordon Brown has pledged to eradicate failure from England's schools, saying those which let children down will be taken over or closed.

He said local authorities would be encouraged to use new powers to intervene in "failing" schools.

Britain needed to do more to close the achievement gap between children from different backgrounds, he said.

And he announced plans to overhaul the apprenticeship system to make training more widely available.

Minimum standards in England's schools would be raised over the next five years, with all schools needing to have 30% of their pupils achieving five high grade GCSEs by 2012-13 including English and maths, the prime minister announced.

We can no longer tolerate failure
Gordon Brown

Apprenticeship drive

Schools which failed to meet that target could face being taken over by interim management boards, or by other successful schools including independent schools, or being turned into academies.

"We can no longer tolerate failure," he said.

KEY POINTS
all schools must have 30% of pupils achieving five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths, or face intervention and possible closure
raise status of teaching, with more opportunities for professional development to have the best teachers in the world in a generation
single biggest determinant of a child's educational achievement is parental engagement so schools must do more to maximise this
every child should aspire to an apprenticeship or to higher education, with new grants and placement system for advanced apprenticeships.

He outlined his vision for education: "No longer acceptable for any school to fail its pupils, no longer acceptable for young people to drop out of education without good qualifications without us acting.

"No more toleration of second best in Britain - no more toleration of second best for Britain."

He said the number of failing schools has dropped dramatically in the past decade.

In 1997 more than 600 secondary schools in England had fewer than 25% of children getting five or more good GCSEs including English and maths. Now there were only 26.

But statistics showed there were still 670 schools where fewer than 30% of pupils attained this benchmark level.

He promised: "We will put in place a systematic plan of ever tougher measures for eradicating failure".

Parental involvement

Mr Brown talked of the need for greater parental engagement with schools and children's learning.

That was the "single biggest determinant" of a child's achievement at school, he said.

Parents walking with children
Parental involvement in schools is key to pupil success, Brown said

Schools would be encouraged to give more feedback, through regular e-mails, meetings and more parents' sessions at key transition points for children, such as discussing the next stages in learning or new goals.

Mr Brown also outlined his aim to have the best teachers in the world in a generation, with a new focus on recruitment of the brightest and best, and continuing professional development.

He pointed to countries seen as having top education systems - such as Finland and South Korea - and said Britain could learn lessons from them.

Apprenticeships

Gordon Brown highlighted a drive to increase vocational training.

He said every child should aspire either to an apprenticeship or to higher education, and that whatever choice they made, they would receive substantial financial support from the government.

He said there would be a new scheme to match students to potential employers offering apprenticeships, working along the lines of Ucas, the university places body.

Every young person should know that they have something to aim for in their education
Gordon Brown

Every 18-year old who found a prospective employer to take them on for an apprenticeship would be entitled to an advanced credit to meet the costs of their training, from £3,000 for some skilled jobs up to £15,000 for a high-cost sector like engineering.

The money would go to employers to fund the apprenticeships.

"Our final goal for world class education will be 100% success for young people making the transition from school to college, university and skilled work, the Prime Minister said.

"Every young person should know that they have something to aim for in their education.

"So at age 18 or 19, each should graduate from school, college or an apprenticeship with good qualifications or an apprenticeship certificate."

Crisis

The need to raise aspirations of and for children was central to Mr Brown's speech.

Giving children good opportunities would only lead to greater achievement if they had high aspirations for themselves.

He told of a primary school in a former mining area where the head teacher - who had been at the school for 35 years - said in that time she could only remember six children eventually going on to university.

Head teachers represented by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said schools had been vilified by the language of failure for two decades and it was time for a change.

What does Brown's speech mean in practice? There he's more vague
BBC political editor Nick Robinson

Read Nick's thoughts in full

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the NAHT said: "We call on parents, children and young people to unite in getting behind their school to maintain their right to a good education which is crucial to life chances.

"Children must insist on their right to a learning environment that promotes success, and have zero tolerance of peers who try to take away that right by constant disruption."

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said he welcomed the Prime Minister's vision of success for all, but said teachers now wanted to see "more flesh on the bones".

"Arbitrary targets accompanied by threats of school closure demoralise not motivate. The target which inspires is eradicating illiteracy amongst all young people," he said.

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "It's good that Gordon Brown has finally admitted we have a crisis in our schools.

"However, Gordon Brown's promise of a crackdown on failing schools is unfortunately no more believable than his promises of a crackdown on illegal immigration.

"A decade of top down targets has failed to raise achievement but all he offers today is more of the same."

Turning failure into success
By Hannah Richardson
BBC News education reporter

The "poorest-performing schools" in England are being threatened with closure if they do not improve.

But why do schools fail? Do schools, like a rough pub, lose their way, gain a bad reputation which, no matter how hard they try, they find impossible to shake off?

Urban deprivation
Can schools overcome the poverty of expectation?

Is it the community they serve, with deprived neighbourhoods, parents with little formal education and a lack of desire for their children to learn?

Or is it down to the quality of the people who run schools and teach in them?

If there was a simple answer, there would be no failing schools.

Roy Blatchford, a former inspector with responsibility for failing schools, now works with struggling schools through educational charity the National Education Network.

He says schools which struggle are nearly always on what the Americans call "the wrong side of the tracks".

"It is rare to find a school in difficulties serving a catchment area that is truly comprehensive - as opposed to being skewed towards the poorer families."

And this brings with it a whole raft of other disadvantages.

It makes it more difficult to recruit the best teachers, particularly in shortage subjects like design and technology, maths and science.

Multiple problems

Recent government-funded research showed that schools with a higher proportion of children on free school meals had fewer teachers qualified beyond A-level in the subjects that they taught.

The parents vote with their feet and it becomes difficult to recover
Lesley Kirby
Head teacher of Shene School

"Conversely, there may well be teachers with a doctorate in a science department of a good school," says Mr Blatchford.

So the cards do seem to be stacked against the schools with the toughest jobs on their hands.

Lesley Kirby is head teacher of Shene School in Richmond, south-west London, where 21% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths last year.

She is the fifth head teacher at Shene in as many years.

Although the school is in an affluent London borough, 80% of its pupils are from outside Richmond and come from some of the poorest backgrounds in the country.

And yet the school is funded at the level of a leafy, green borough with lots of middle class pupils.

Downward spiral

"When a school goes into a spiral and falls into decline, a number of things hit it.

City academy
Academies have been launched to widen school choice in poorer areas

"The parents vote with their feet and it becomes difficult to recover," she says.

"With the loss of pupils comes the loss of cash and the loss of the staff needed to teach the pupils.

"But you still need to maintain the same number of buildings and facilities."

'Hill to climb'

Mr Blatchford says when a school drops into Ofsted's inadequate category or misses basic targets, it has usually been stagnating for a while.

"Those schools that are deemed 'hard to shift' have often been grindingly satisfactory for a long time. They have lowered their expectations and they no longer have high expectations for their pupils."

This certainly seems to have been the situation in at Shene School, which was rated "unsatisfactory" by Ofsted in September 2007.

"The past instability has been unsettling for most students and resulted in a lack of motivation and commitment to learning," the report says.

It talks of a "legacy of underachievement" but recognises the fresh energy of the new head teacher and her staff.

"Now staff and students' morale is high, and they speak of the different atmosphere in the school as the behaviour and attitude of students improve," Ofsted continues.

But Ms Kirby has a hill to climb. Some children still turn up to school without a pen or paper.

"These students often come from homes where education isn't valued or the child isn't cared for in the proactive way that you and I might think they should be," says Ms Kirby.

A key part of the fight back has to be winning back the support of the local community, many of whom can afford to send their children to private school.

Perhaps the local authority's current plans to turn it into an academy sponsored by an organisation called Edutrust, partly funded by businessman James Caan, will help.

Bob Dore, the principal of Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough, has overseen a gradual rise in examination results over the last few years.

The school was in special measures when he arrived, even though it was already a city academy, but is now considered by Ofsted to be satisfactory.

Last year some 12% of pupils got five good GCSEs including English and maths, and this year he hopes that 20% will make the grade.

He hopes that 40 or 50% will get five good GCSEs not including these two core subjects.

But situated in an area of substantial economic deprivation, with a third of pupils having special educational needs, further improvement will be a substantial challenge.

'Improve, improve'

Many students enter the school with very weak basic skills, especially in literacy, according to Ofsted.

This is why Mr Dore has arranged for his teachers to start working with local primary schools to improve their literacy standards.

However, the school has just been recognised as being one of the five best performing city academies in England.

"Getting pupils reaching five As to C is one of our concerns. We also have to ensure our children are healthy and their home life is stable.

"We are all about giving child a really good experience between the age of 11 and 16.

"They've got to want to come to school and want to come to lessons," Mr Dore says.

For Mr Blatchford, a sensitive inspection regime is key to raising standards in the 638 schools deemed failing by the government.

'Lifting horizons'

"It has to be one that both weighs and nurtures the baby," he says.

"Some of these schools have had too much done to them. People get fed up at being told improve, improve, improve.

"Outside intervention which makes people feel better about what they can do can lift their horizons."

But Carmel Littleton, head of young people and learning at Tower Hamlets Council, which has the most improved GCSE results in the country, says the relationship between a local authority and a failing school also has to be robust and open.

"It's not good enough for schools to make incremental changes because in the meantime children will still be going through a failing system and coming out without the appropriate qualifications.

"Change has to be pacy," she says.

Raising the bar on school results
By Gary Eason
Education editor, BBC News website

Labour's 30% "floor target" for attainment in England's secondary schools is the latest in a series of demands related to the notion of "five good GCSEs".

The requirement - announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last autumn - is that at least three in every 10 pupils in each school achieve at least a grade C in five GCSE or equivalent qualifications, including English and maths GCSEs.

On the most recent exam results - those from last summer - this catches out 638 schools in 134 of the 149 local authorities in the country that have state-maintained secondary schools.

Click here for a table of the 638 schools

The arbitrariness of the target can be seen in the fact that, on a different reading, 631 schools are affected.

This is because the government uses two measures of secondary school performance: attainment by those aged 15 at the start of the school year, and attainment by those at the end of Key Stage 4 of the national curriculum - which can be a little later.

Its preferred measure is usually Key Stage 4, but for this target it is using 15-year-olds - so seven more head teachers are feeling the heat.

(The 15-year-olds are of course almost all 16-year-olds by the time the results are published each August).

The head of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, said: "I cannot understand the logic of saying that 29% of pupils with five GCSE A*-C represents failure and 31% signifies success."

But the government is quite deliberately "raising the bar" in an effort to drive up performance and, in Mr Brown's words, "eradicate failure".

First targets

After Labour took over the government, in October 1998, GCSE targets were set for the first time.

The aspiration then was that by 2002, at least half of 16-year-olds nationally would be achieving five good GCSE passes (in fact 51.5% did so).

Then in March 2000 a new challenge was set relating to each school: that at least 25% of its pupils would have five good GCSE passes by 2006.

The then education secretary, David Blunkett, said there were 530 schools on or below that target level.

At the time, the "five good GCSEs" (or vocational equivalents) did not include English and maths.

'Gold standard'

In fact at first things were made easier for schools by the inclusion in the definition of "equivalents" a much wider range of qualifications.

But they were made significantly harder for many when those core subjects of English and maths became part of the benchmark, in the 2006 performance tables.

This proved a significant hurdle for some schools which had apparently been doing well on the previous measure, under which any five GCSE subjects counted.

Last year nationally 46% of pupils managed the new "gold standard". But in 638 schools, less than 30% did so.

And it was those schools on which Mr Brown turned his guns last October, in a speech in which he promised to "eradicate failure" from the system by 2012.

Their local authorities are now being given until the end of this term to come up with action plans to make sure this happens.

Fifteen authorities have nothing to do, therefore.

But in some areas most schools fall below the 30% threshold.

It raises the question whether the government can be serious about carrying through the ultimate threat to close those which do not make the grade.

School improvement around the UK

The Westminster government's approach to school performance is markedly different to those of the devolved administrations elsewhere in the UK.

SCOTLAND

League tables were abolished in 2003. There is no equivalent to the English targets or threats.

Poorly performing schools are dealt with through the inspection regime.

This has been tightened up and inspections, which used to be up to 20 years apart, now take place every six to seven years.

Unpopular and/or failing schools are also more likely to be closed down than in the past. Falling rolls is often a trigger for this.

When a significant proportion of school places are unfilled, the local authority will step in and "rationalise" the school provision in an area by reducing the number of schools and closing the unpopular one.

WALES

The idea of performance targets is anathema to the education culture here.

Under devolution, national curriculum tests and school league tables have been abolished.

Schools inspectorate Estyn has said, however, that standards would improve if more schools and local authorities made systematic use of exam results to analyse and "compare systematically" how well they were doing.

Estyn can label schools that are causing concern as requiring either "significant improvement" or "special measures" (i.e. failing).

The local authority then has to come up with an action plan and a timescale, which is submitted to the education minister; the schools are then re-inspected each term.

Most are removed from these categories within two years.

A spokeswoman for the Welsh Assembly Government said the minister's powers of intervention had never been exercised.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Northern Ireland's starting point is higher average exam results in GCSEs and A-levels than in England or Wales.

It has had a 10-year-old school improvement programme, with literacy and numeracy targets for primary school leavers and targets for GCSE and A-level performance.

A consultation on a review of this policy has just been conducted, under the banner Every School a Good School.

This said the existing approach did not have sufficient emphasis on improvement for every school.

"There needs to be much more emphasis on both 'raising the bar' and 'closing the gap' in terms of standards and outcomes in schools."

The core of the proposed replacement is "self-evaluation leading to sustained self improvement".

The hard edge to this is to be a formal improvement process for those schools where progress "is not what it should be" as determined by inspection findings.

Schools below 30% GCSE target

This table lists the 638 secondary schools in England below the government's "floor target" of 30% of 15-year-old pupils getting at least five good GCSEs including English and maths, in last year's results.

Click the name of any school for a page detailing its results over recent years in the performance tables.

Click the name of any authority to see all the schools in the area. (In 15 areas no schools fall below the threshold).

As well as GCSE results, the table shows each school's "contextual value added" score (CVA), a measure of the progress children have made: broadly, above 1000 is better than average and below 1000 is worse.

A key to the types of school and specialist subjects is below the table.

Type:

CY community: run by local authority
VA voluntary aided (usually faith school)
FD foundation (usually formerly grant-maintained)
AC academy: independent state school with outisde sponsor

Speclialist subjects:

A arts
B&E business & enterprise
E engineering
L languages
M&C mathematics & computing
Sp sport
Sc science
T technology
H humanities
Mu music
V vocational
Ts Training School
LEPP Leading Edge Partnership Lead School