Evaluation of the primary behaviour and attendance pilot: the school improvement strand

Poor attendance and disruptive behaviour in primary schools have a negative impact on learning and teaching. For those children whose attendance is continuously disrupted or behaviour is particularly difficult there can be a substantial impact on subsequent life chances. Improving attendance and behaviour in school depends on addressing a range of inter-related issues at the whole-school level, in the classroom, and in relation to individual pupils. Evidence suggests that schools with high levels of communal organisation, adopting a whole-school approach, show more orderly behaviour. The Primary Behaviour and Attendance pilot took place from 2003-05 and involved 25 Local Authorities. The pilot had four strands, a CPD strand, a school improvement strand, a curriculum materials or SEAL strand, and a small group strand. The LAs selected to participate in the programme were those which were not eligible for other funded programmes. They were LAs with above-average levels of social deprivation, often bordering EiC areas with significant numbers of schools where behaviour was likely to be a key issue. The school improvement strand of the pilot aimed to develop and test out models of LA support where behaviour and attendance were key school improvement issues. Each LA was funded to employ a ‘teacher coach’ to work with existing services (educational psychology and behaviour support) in schools experiencing difficulty, using a systematic process of audit, action plan, and professional development that included on-the-job solution-focused coaching.The focus of the enquiryThe evaluation aimed to test out the effectiveness of the school improvement strand in relation to: • improvements in behaviour, attendance and attainment for individual children; • teacher skills and confidence; • and the promotion of effective whole school approaches to positive behaviour, attendance, and improvements in attainment.Emerging best practice, particularly for the more innovative measures, was identified as was their sustainability within schools and LAs, and transferability to other LAs.The research methods:Multi-methods were adopted to undertaken the evaluation of the school improvement strand. Interviews were undertaken with LA co-ordinators and teacher coaches. Field visits were made to 9 schools implementing the strand and interviews were undertaken with head teachers and other staff. Twenty-eight head teachers and 31 teachers completed questionnaires following the completion of the programme and data relating to pupils’ attendance and attainment were analysed

Recent Archaeological Research in Western Australia

A description of the general archaeological investigations in Western Australia. The article covers sections on general investigations and regional investigations

The incidence and make up of ability grouped sets in the UK primary school

The adoption of setting in the primary school (pupils ability grouped across classes for particular subjects) emerged during the 1990s as a means to raise standards. Recent research based on 8875 children in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 25.8% of children in Year 2 were set for literacy and mathematics and a further 11.2% of children were set for mathematics or literacy alone. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top set for literacy or mathematics were whether the child was born in the Autumn or Winter and cognitive ability scores. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to be in the bottom literacy set. Family circumstances held less importance for setting placement compared with the child’s own characteristics, although they were more important in relation to bottom set placement. Children in bottom sets were significantly more likely to be part of a long-term single parent household, have experienced poverty, and not to have a mother with qualifications at NVQ3 or higher levels. The findings are discussed in relation to earlier research and the implications for schools are set out

Ability grouping practices in the primary school: A survey

In 1997, the DfEE suggested that schools should consider 'setting' pupils by ability as it was believed that this would contribute to raising standards. This survey of primary schools aimed to establish the extent to which primary schools, with same and mixed age classes, implement different grouping practices including setting, streaming, within class ability and mixed ability groupings for different curriculum subjects. Schools were asked to complete a questionnaire indicating their grouping practices for each subject in each year group. The findings showed that schools predominantly adopted within class ability groupings, either mixed or ability grouped, for most subjects. Ability grouping (within class and setting) was most common in mathematics, followed by English and science. Its implementation increased as pupils progressed through school. The type of setting adopted, same or cross-age, tended to reflect the nature of the class structures within the school

Secondary school pupils' preferences for different types of structured grouping practices

The aim of this paper is to explore pupils’ preferences for particular types of grouping practices an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5,000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). Pupils responded to a questionnaire which explored the types of grouping that they preferred and the reasons for their choices. The majority of pupils preferred setting, although this was mediated by their set placement, type of school, socio-economic status and gender. The key reason given for this preference was that it enabled work to be matched to learning needs. The paper considers whether there are other ways of achieving this avoiding the negative social and personal outcomes of setting for some pupils

Contemporary medical television and crisis in the NHS

This article maps the terrain of contemporary UK medical television, paying particular attention to Call the Midwife as its centrepiece, and situating it in contextual relation to the current crisis in the NHS. It provides a historical overview of UK and US medical television, illustrating how medical television today has been shaped by noteworthy antecedents. It argues that crisis rhetoric surrounding healthcare leading up to the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has been accompanied by a renaissance in medical television. And that issues, strands and clusters have emerged in forms, registers and modes with noticeable regularity, especially around the value of affective labour, the cultural politics of nostalgia and the neoliberalisation of healthcare

Salinity effects on nutrients uptake, biochemical content and growth response of Blue Panic (Panicum antidotale Retz) and Silage maize (Zea mays L)

Les cultures alternatives tolérantes à la salinité développent des mécanismes complexes dans les conditions biosalines. Nous avons étudié l'effet de l'eau salée sur l'absorption des nutriments et les paramètres physiologiques et biochimiques du bleu panicum (Panicum antidotale Retz) et du maïs d’ensilage (Zea mays L). Des mésocosmes ont été établis en quatre répétitions pour chaque espèce de plante dans une conception orthogonale avec différents niveaux d'eau d'irrigation saline comme traitements donnant T0 = 0.9 dS.m-1 (eau du robinet), T1 = 3 dS m-1, T2 = 6 dS m-1 et T3 = 10 dS m-1, pendant 8 semaines. L'augmentation de la salinité a provoqué un effet dépressif sur le maïs d’ensilage, conduisant à une réduction significative de la croissance (jusqu'à 37%), de la biomasse aérienne sèche (jusqu'à 58%) et racinaire (jusqu'à 87%) par rapport au témoin. Ainsi qu'une diminution de la chlorophylle a (jusqu'à 71 %), de la chlorophylle b (jusqu'à 77 %) et des caroténoïdes (jusqu'à 49 %) par rapport au témoin. Pour le bleu panicum, la salinité n'a par contre pas affecté les paramètres physiologiques et biochimiques étudiés. L'absorption de l’azote, du phosphore, du potassium et du calcium, du maïs d’ensilage a diminué avec l'augmentation des niveaux de salinité pour être significative pour une eau d'irrigation avec une conductivité électrique ≥ 6 dS m-1 par rapport au contrôle. La teneur en sodium dans les différentes parties du maïs d’ensilage (feuille, tige et racine), par contre, a augmenté significativement avec l'augmentation de la salinité. L'accumulation du calcium, du potassium et de l’azote a légèrement augmenté chez le bleu panicum, mais n’était significatif que dans des parties distinctes de la plante. Dans l'ensemble, notre étude indique que le maïs est plus sensible aux conditions salines (notamment celles ≥ 6 dS m-1) par rapport au bleu panicum qui tolère bien un environnement de salinité élevé ≥ 10 dS.m-1. Nos résultats suggèrent ainsi que l'introduction du bleu panicum comme culture alternative sur les sols affectés par la salinité, comme le périmètre irrigué de Foum El Oued à Laâyoune au Maroc, résulterait en des rendements élevés meilleurs que les rendements des cultures traditionnelles comme le maïs d’ensilage et améliorerait donc le revenu des agriculteurs locaux.Saline-tolerant alternative crops develop complex mechanisms under biosaline conditions. We investigated the effect of saline water on nutrient uptake, physiological and biochemical parameters of Blue Panic (Panicum antidotale Retz) and silage maize (Zea mays L). Mesocosms were established in four replicates for each plant species in an orthogonal design with different levels of saline irrigation water as treatments giving T0 = 0.9 dS m-1 (tap water), T1 = 3 dS m -1, T2 = 6 dS m-1 and T3 = 10 dS m-1, for 8 weeks. Increasing salinity caused a depressive effect on silage maize's physiological parameters, leading to a significant decrease in growth (up to 37%), aboveground (up to 58%) and root (up to 87%) dry matter biomass compared to control. As well as a decrease of chlorophyll a (up to 71%), chlorophyll b (up to 77%) and carotenoid (up to 49%) compared to control. For blue panic, salinity did not, however, affect the studied physiological and biochemical parameters. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium uptake, of silage maize, decreased with increasing salinity levels to be significant in irrigation water with electrical conductivity ≥ 6 dS m-1 relative to control. The sodium content in different parts of silage maize (leaf, stem and root), on the other hand, increased significantly with increasing salinity. The accumulation of calcium, potassium and nitrogen increased slightly in the blue panic, but this was only significant in separate parts of the plant. Overall, our study indicates that silage maize is more sensitive to saline conditions (particularly ≥ 6 dS m-1) compared to blue panic which tolerates well high saline environment ≥ 10 dS m-1. Our results, suggest therefore that the introduction of blue panic as an alternative crop on salt affected soils, such as the irrigated perimeter of Foum El Oued in Laâyoune in Morocco, would exhibit high performance better than traditional crops as silage maize and therefore would improve the local farmers’ income

Oscillatory behaviour in a lattice prey-predator system

Using Monte Carlo simulations we study a lattice model of a prey-predator system. We show that in the three-dimensional model populations of preys and predators exhibit coherent periodic oscillations but such a behaviour is absent in lower-dimensional models. Finite-size analysis indicate that amplitude of these oscillations is finite even in the thermodynamic limit. In our opinion, this is the first example of a microscopic model with stochastic dynamics which exhibits oscillatory behaviour without any external driving force. We suggest that oscillations in our model are induced by some kind of stochastic resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, Phys.Rev.E (Nov. 1999

Changes in motivation as expertise develops: Relationships with musical aspirations

Recent models of musical motivation have recognised the complex interactions which occur between environmental (cultural, institutional, familial, educational) and internal factors (cognition and affect) in enhancing or reducing motivation. Much previous research has been small scale and not taken account of long term musical aspirations. This article aims to address these issues exploring changes in motivation as expertise develops with a large sample of learners. A total of 3,325 young musicians, aged 6–19 playing a wide range of instruments participated. They represented nine levels of expertise ranging from beginner to higher education conservatoire entry level. Level of expertise was established in terms of the most recent graded independent instrumental examination taken. They were asked to respond to a series of statements on a 7-point Likert scale. The statements focused on well-established elements of motivation including: self-beliefs; enjoyment of musical activities; enjoyment of performance; level of support received from parents, friends and teachers; attitudes towards playing an instrument and perceptions of its value; and beliefs about the importance of musical ability. Participants were also asked to respond to statements about their long term musical aspirations. An exploratory factor analysis provided the basis for the development of a motivational scale which included five sub-scales: social support and affirmation; social life and the value of playing an instrument; enjoyment of performing; self-belief in musical ability; and enjoyment of instrumental musical activities. There were linear trends for each of the five sub-scales in relation to level of expertise with the exception of social support and affirmation. The five sub-scales collectively predicted a composite score relating to aspirations with a multiple R of .64

Are there gender differences in instrumental music practice?

This research aimed to consider whether there were gender differences in the amount of practice undertaken by boys and girls, the practice strategies adopted and motivation to practise. A sample of 2027 girls and 1225 boys aged 6-19 years, ranging in level of expertise from beginner through to conservatory entrance level, playing instruments representative of the classical and popular instruments played in the UK completed a self-report Likert scale questionnaire. There were no statistically significant gender differences in weekly practice time or motivation to practise. Factor analysis of statements relating to practice revealed seven factors. There were statistically significant gender differences in relation to the adoption of systematic practice strategies (girls were more systematic), concentration (boys perceived they had higher levels of concentration) and immediate correction of errors (girls reported more immediate correction). There were no statistically significant gender differences in relation to the organisation of practice, the use of recordings and a metronome, the use of analytic strategies, and the adoption of ineffective practice strategies although for this factor there was a statistically significant interaction between gender and level of expertise