All posts tagged: policies

The 12 policies schools need to know

The 12 policies schools need to know

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Ofsted has set out a raft of changes today following the biggest consultation in its history. These include notifying leaders of forthcoming inspections on a Monday, reforming its inspection framework ahead of the rollout of report cards and new safeguarding letters. It comes after ministers yesterday axed single-phrase overall grades for schools with immediate effect. Oliver The ‘Big Listen’ consultation sought the views of school staff, education organisations and parents on schools, safeguarding, SEND, teacher training, social care and further education. Some 16,033 people responded to the consultation, including feedback from 10,000 teachers, leaders and other professionals who work in schools. Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said: “You have spoken, we have listened, and now it is time to act.” Here is what you need to know… 1. ‘The call’ will come on Monday A key change will see Ofsted give leaders notice of all routine, graded and ungraded, inspections on a Monday, in new a approach set to be piloted over Autumn term. So, heads will know …

Why UK government policies have failed to recruit enough teachers for years

Why UK government policies have failed to recruit enough teachers for years

Published by skeptic

England has faced years of teacher shortages, especially in some secondary subjects such as maths, science and technology. Successive governments have tried – and failed – to address these shortages. The Return to Teaching programme, introduced in 2015, was intended to tempt ex-teachers back into service to teach certain subjects at secondary school. The Department for Education spent nearly £600,000 recruiting 27 teachers who met this aim. This was followed by the National Teaching Service, intended to place 1,500 teachers in underperforming schools in areas struggling to recruit teachers. The pilot scheme, implemented in September 2016, was scrapped having recruited only 24 teachers. The 2018 Troops to Teachers scheme, which offered ex-service personnel £40,000 to train as teachers, recruited just 22 people in its first year. Other direct measures to attract people into teaching have included providing new routes into teaching, such as school-led and employment-based training. The government currently offers upfront payments for new teachers in the form of bursaries and scholarships, as well as student loan reimbursement. In 2023-24, £196m is expected to …

4 policies to put ‘schools at heart’ of Sure Start 2.0

4 policies to put ‘schools at heart’ of Sure Start 2.0

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Ofsted should focus equally on how schools are meeting the “holistic needs” of pupils as they do on results, a new report which sets out how classrooms can be at the heart of a new Sure Start revolution has said. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed Sure Start – a network of ‘one-stop shops’ for families with children under five years old – “greatly improved disadvantaged children’s GCSE results”. At its peak under the last Labour government, spending cost £2.5 billion per year, but has since fallen by more than two thirds with many closed, or integrated into family hubs. Revitalising the programme is understood to be something Labour is seriously considering, but with a bigger role for schools. A report today by the Centre for Young Lives, run by former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield, and the Child of the North project, looks at how that might work. Here’s what you need to know … 1. National strategy with schools at heart The report says schools are …

Youth transgender care policies should be driven by science

Youth transgender care policies should be driven by science

Published by skeptic

In the U.S., 23 states have passed legislation to ban medicalized care for minors with gender dysphoria, or the experience of distress that can occur when a person’s gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. On the other hand, 12 state legislatures have introduced laws to protect access to youth transgender care. Such care can include puberty blockers, which are medications that suppress the body’s production of sex hormones, and cross-sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen that alter secondary sex characteristics. It also may include sexual reassignment surgery in rare instances. U.S. policies on both ends of the spectrum are not science-driven but rather emanate from polar-opposite ideologies. Unlike in Europe, there doesn’t appear to be room for a non-ideological process for determining what the best care is that weighs the emerging clinical evidence and adjusts policies accordingly. As reported in Axios, state efforts to restrict various forms of transgender medicine are being fueled by religious groups that aim to shape policy based on their strongly held beliefs around the …

Facebook political ad policies often ignored in India election

Facebook political ad policies often ignored in India election

Published by Sam

Many political ads running on Facebook in India during its current election season are backed by organizations that hide their identity, according to civil society groups and recent studies, threatening the integrity of a process intended to enforce transparency in a system full of emotional appeals. The world’s largest election and one of its most expensive, India’s voting season began last month and runs through June 1. Facebook has hundreds of millions of users in the country, which is the social network’s largest market, and is reaping a significant portion of an estimated $16 billion in campaign spending. Source link

Private Equity Firm Accused of Buying Life Insurance Policies on Old People to Profit From Their Deaths

Private Equity Firm Accused of Buying Life Insurance Policies on Old People to Profit From Their Deaths

Published by skeptic

Image by Vernon Yuen / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism In a new lawsuit filed in Delaware, the equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc has been accused of “carrying out a widespread fraudulent human life wagering conspiracy.” Translation: the company was, as the estate of one alleged victim claims, taking out life insurance policies against the lives of the elderly in hopes that they’d die soon and they could collect big — and, as the suit details, going out of its way to hide it, too. This scheme, as the estate of the late Martha Barotz details, was “designed to not only hide its involvement, but to create the false appearance that the policies it owns are somehow legitimate.” As the Financial Times explains in its reporting on the suit, the Barotz case goes all the way back to 2006, when the then-70-something woman allowed a company called Life Accumulation Trust III to take out a policy in her name. In exchange, she was given $150,000, or three percent of the policy’s multi-million dollar total …

With a final flourish, United Methodist conference eliminates all anti-LGBTQ policies

With a final flourish, United Methodist conference eliminates all anti-LGBTQ policies

Published by Sam

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (RNS) — United Methodists concluded their General Conference on Friday (May 3) by removing the last barriers to full equality of LGBTQ+ members in the life of the church. After repealing a 52-year-old declaration on Thursday that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” delegates on Friday went further, eliminating a passage in their Book of Discipline, or church law, that states: “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.” They also eliminated provisions that would have charged clergy with immorality if they were not “faithful in a heterosexual marriage” or “celibate in singleness.” Instead, delegates supported adding a requirement of integrity in all personal relationships.  Earlier in the week they dropped a ban on the ordination of gay clergy. Most of the measures passed by a 3-1 margin. The effect of all those measures was to expunge from the rulebook all punitive measures against LGBTQ+ people, a striking change for a denomination. The reversals came in the …

‘There is despair’: fears for Scotland’s green policies as power-sharing ends | Scottish politics

‘There is despair’: fears for Scotland’s green policies as power-sharing ends | Scottish politics

Published by skeptic

From the collapse of its ambitious target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, to the mothballing of a world-leading deposit return scheme for drinks containers, the much-heralded environmental objectives of the Scottish government appear to be falling apart. As political opponents gather to exploit the fallout from Humza Yousaf’s departure as first minister, amid admissions he mishandled his Green party coalition partners, more long-term but pressing climate and environmental policies risk being sidelined at best, and buried at worst. Patrick Harvie, who, along with his Scottish Green party co-leader Lorna Slater, was dumped unceremoniously from the power-sharing government by Yousaf, said many key environmental bills were at risk, including the natural environment bill to restore and regenerate biodiversity across Scotland by 2045; the introduction of more and better public transport; and the heat in buildings bill, to move all homes and businesses to a clean heating system by the end of 2045. As a result, the optimism that greeted the 2021 SNP power-sharing deal – which put the Green party into ministerial positions …

Who are the top candidates for London mayor, and what are their policies?

Who are the top candidates for London mayor, and what are their policies?

Published by skeptic

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan urged young people to vote on May 2 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) PA Wire Mayor since 2016, previously Labour MP for Tooting. Former lawyer, married with two adult daughters. Political pugilist who finds it hard to resist a verbal punch-up with the Tories. Often deflects criticism of his record by blaming the Government. Seeking to be first London mayor to serve three terms. Policy: Free school meals for primary school children What’s achievable? Introduced as a one-year “emergency” measure to ease the cost of living crisis, the £140 million annual cost — currently drawn from City Hall reserves and business rates — could push up council tax bills in future. Policy: Ruling out pay-per-mile road charging What’s achievable? “Khan claims that the “success” of Ulez means he can hit “net zero” targets by 2030 without pay-per-mile. But the impact of its expansion on air quality is as yet unknown. Policy: Tube and bus fares freeze What he promises: “Freeze TfL fares until at least 2025 and continue to freeze fares for as …

The Uncomfortable Truth About the UK’s Climate Policies

The Uncomfortable Truth About the UK’s Climate Policies

Published by skeptic

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feels like a really pivotal moment in this narrative. In the autumn of 2022, energy prices in the UK were skyrocketing, and yet the response of Liz Truss, prime minister at the time, was to double down on oil and gas exploration and refuse to ask people to cut down their energy usage. It was the absolute opposite approach to many European nations facing the same problem. At the time [the invasion] happened, it was obviously a genuine crisis and I thought climate was going to come down the priority list. But in my technocratic mind, I was also thinking this was going to create the incentive to get off high-carbon fuels—if you want to know what the world looks like with a high carbon price, we’re about to find out. What I didn’t expect is that the green arguments were too late out of the blocks because the fossil arguments stepped in immediately to say, “This is why we need a domestic fossil fuel supply.” That really important argument, to …