Policy and Practice Guest lecture number 1

Last week we had our first guest lecturer for policy and practice. In the lecture we spoke about the Policy of education in Wales and how it differs from that in the other British countries. Within Wales 20% of primary pupils and 15% of secondary pupils have the Welsh language as the sole or main medium of instruction. However, there is now a potential shortage of Welsh-medium headteachers with The NPQH qualification. This is possibly because 50% of the population live in the South or South east of Wales. In the North, Central and South West there are only small rural schools which suffer as there is not enough access for teachers to develop in leadership. In Wales there were previously 8 local authorities. Following a re-organisation in 1999, there are now 22 unitary authorities. As a result there is an issue of size and capacity of the local authorities. The response is to move into 4 consortia. The Welsh assembly Government response to the 2006 PISA results was to set up a school effectiveness framework. This "Represents the commitment of the Welsh Assembly and the Local Authorities to apply this knowledge in the particular circumstances of Wales..." They Sought to change system leaders, there would be a localized focus through professional learning communities. They believed that this would bring teachers together on one particular area such as maths etc. Nevertheless, in the 2010 PISA Wales had dropped in Maths, Reading and Science compared to the 2006 results and were now bottom out the Home Nations. In February 2011, the new Minister for Education in Wales, Leighton Andrews stated "Teaching Makes a difference." We will now wait and see what the Education system and policies will look like over the next year.

Last ICT lesson

In Todays ICT session we were introduced to the Graffiti creator online. This website allows you to insert any word you like and create your own graffiti design of the word.
I have really enjoyed developing my ICT skills and knowledge with Mandy this year, and look forward to next years lessons.

Fast Forward to 2012

Well its been a busy couple of weeks! As you can see i have not blogged in a while. But fear not i am back! During the run up to Christmas and New Year i had to complete a 2000 word essay on, what is education? Even though it was a struggle to finish i was pleased with the completion of my first uni assignment! On the week of the 6th of December we went out on work experience. I went to Cwmdare primary school for my placement and enjoyed every minute. I was given many art based tasks to do at the school, such as helping the children to make Christmas cards and calenders. I have now also seen the Christmas play enough to last me till the end of 2012! Whilst at the school, i noticed  a wide range of technology in nearly every classroom. There were interactive white boards in every classroom, including the nursery class which was put into full use for the kids to draw on. In the year 4 class i placed in for two days, the teacher would use the interactive white board for many tasks. He used it for maths games, History, reading stories and also for the Christmas quiz! The school also had a computer suite which was always in use!! We were set tasks by our tutors to complete on our work experience which opened my eyes to a lot of things regarding the classroom and the relationship between the teacher and pupils. All in All i had a great week! Christmas and New year was brilliant as always and i am now looking forward to see what the new year brings! :D