Wednesday, 6 November 2013

GCSE grades to change to help bosses select brightest pupils

 
 
The article is about how the gcse grading scheme is changing, as you get marked from 1 to 9 so that employers can spot the 'high-flying pupils'. This means that the exams will be changed to make them harder and seen as more respectable. The students will be expected to take the English bacculaureate - science, english, maths, history and a language. This will broaden their choices. They expect to see a "greater differentiation” between students.
 "The change comes in the wake of up to 40 per cent of pupils in some exams, notably in science, achieving top grade A* or A grade passes, " - By changing this it brings out more competition between students, and may cause them to be upset or disappointed by their grade.
 
 
Should children have best friends at school?

An article about how children shouldn't have best friends because it causes them to fall out with people, and feel ganged up and disappinted.


(from the article- '
A south London school has recommended that younger pupils try not to have best friends, and should have lots of good friends instead. Ben Thomas, headmaster of Thomas's school, Battersea, London, explained that cultivating a wide range of good friends can be healthier than becoming too possessive over just one and avoid painful episodes of falling out.
Did you have a best friend at school? Did you spend all your time with just one pal, only to be devastated when they teamed up with somebody else? Do you keep in touch with your first best friend, or did your lives drift apart? Can you ever match that first childhood bond? Tell us all about your first BFF (best friend forever).

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/02/best-friend-at-school



Schools must take account of girls' precarious friendships

'. These little girls, soon to face the crucial rite of passage to big school, seem bewildered by the reality of having friends. Asked about the positives of friendship, they have talked instead about the unhappiness it can bring. "Friends can be bullies to your other friends because they don't want you to be with them," says Naomi.'

'The dynamics change with greater maturity at secondary school, George notes. "One of the girls said that when she got to her new school she looked around and saw who the noisy group were, and kept away. Girls are better able to assess what's going on as they get older, they can see the potential for destructive situations, so they develop skills to make sure the painful things don't happen. They're more careful about who they make friends with.'

This article is about how girls friendship groups can be very nasty, and people gang up on others and often make them excluded, but as they grow up they mature and pick wisely who their friends are.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/22/schools-beware-girls-friendships-precarious

Drama improves pupils' self-esteem.
 This article is about how drama boosts self-esteem, and how it teaches skills, and valuable lessons such as team work as they are able to listen and speak publically. It talks about how it makes people have an intrest in the arts. 'Researcher Helen Turner said: "Our research highlights several key educational issues: how to make school more enjoyable, how to provide learning environments where different talents are recognised and valued, how to make literacy more exciting, how to encourage and promote creativity, and how to ensure cultural entitlement. '
 

 

1 comment:

  1. You are working well Abbie. Keep engaging with wider reading and this will help both the investigation and the exploration.

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