Condition matters: pupil voices on the design and condition of secondary schools

This research was produced by Sheffield Hallam University. The project aimed to inform the creation of a national schools Facilities Management network and an ongoing programme to research and benchmark the impact of school condition and design on pupils

Probability models for the failure of fibres and fibrous composite materials.

Probability models are developed for the failure of parallel brittle fibres embedded in a relatively soft plastic matrix. A loss of load-bearing occurs in the region surrounding a fibre break, resulting in a concentration of stress in neighbouring fibres. These stress concentrations cannot be measured directly, but by assuming them to be a chosen function of unknown parameters, the failure of the composite may be modelled. It is then shown how the stress concentration parameters may be estimated using the method of maximum likelihood. The technique is illustrated using experimental data for different materials, and in particular, it is shown how the stress concentration parameters vary with fibre spacing. The appearance of breaks along a fibre is, in nature, a point process. Load-sharing between two fibre processes will lead to a degree of nearly coincidental breaks. The degree to which 'coincidences' or 'matchings' occur in two independent point processes is examined. An unusually high degree of matching can be defined, and used to infer that processes are not independent. The exact analysis for a fibre-break process is intractable, but several approximate alternatives are studied, and compared with real and simulated data. The probability models for composite failure rely on assumptions about the underlying strength of the fibres. Principally, the 'weakest-link' property is assumed, frequently characterised by use of the Weibull distribution. A non-parametric test of this property is devised, and specially designed experiments show that weakest-link is apparently open to considerable doubt. It is shown that the existence of different causes of failure, all of which may not be present all of the time, give rise to some new types of failure model. It is demonstrated that these do not have the weakest-link property, even when based on the Weibull distribution, and that they are consistent with some experimental results

The role of the Initial Teacher Training Coordinator in the school based element of partnership: to what extent does the Co-ordinator undertake supervision of aspects of quality assurance?

Over the last 14 years, Universities and colleges have organised school placements and award qualifications whilst teachers, acting as mentors take the lead in guiding, supervising and assessing students on lengthy teaching placements. Partnership developed quickly in response to legislation and Sheffield Hallam University was among the first of the Universities to 'sign up' to the new partnership model in 1992. The Partnership Survey 2006 reported on in this paper has focussed on the Senior Liaison Tutor with a view to finding out their views on their role, and perceived contributions to the quality assurance of the partnership. The survey focussed on some of the key issues identified in previous studies and meetings of the Partnership Management Board.</p

The role of the initial teacher training co-ordinator: secondary headteachers' and ITT co-ordinators' perspectives

The roles of ITT co-ordinator (ITTC) and CPD co-ordinator have become well established in secondary schools in England. However there is usually a separation of responsibilities for these areas within schools. The introduction of a new Standards Framework and other government policies such as the remodelling of the workforce in schools (DfES, 2003, TDA, 2007a) provide schools with opportunity to revisit these roles. A consequence of remodelling has been a rapid expansion of support staff in schools to assist teachers and one aspect of this contractual change is that support staff are taking on administrative tasks, formerly done by teachers. A further aspect is that CPD Coordinators now have responsibility for staff development cross the wider workforce. During 2007, Schools have used remodelling as an opportunity to review their management structures throughout the school including the organisation of staff development and how the school is contributing to the training of new teachers. In this paper we consider how the role of the ITTC is changing using data from interviews with Head Teachers and ITTCs from a sample of secondary schools that are in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University. Data collection took place in April and May 2007.</p

Australian anemones final report accompanied by attribution database of Australian anemones (on CD rom): prepared for the Department of Environment and Heritage, Heritage Division

This Final Report accompanies the "Attribution Database of Australian Anemones" on CD rom. The two works complete the project "Literature Review and Attribution of Australian Anemones" contracted to the Museum of Tropical Queensland. An Interim Report was submitted in February 2004. The report summarises findings from an investigation of specimen holdings of Australian anemones at seven major state museums in Australia. The findings are presented fully as line data in the accompanying attribution database for the Heritage section of the Department of Environment and Heritage. Sea anemones are marine animals related to corals and jellyfish. They occur in most habitats from intertidal to deep sea and have the potential to be used for recognition of Australian marine bio-regions. Their economic value includes biomedical potential, toxic properties, symbiotic relationships and the iconography of tropical coral reefs. A Checklist and Bibliography of Australian Anthozoa, developed by Museum of Tropical Queensland for the Australian Biological Information Facility (ABIF), documented the published occurrence of 84 valid species of anemones from 19 families in Australian waters. Our Interim Report singled out 23 of those 84 species for priority documentation as part of the present contract. Dr J. Wolstenholme targeted these and all other identified specimens from Australian waters in visits to the seven museums. This report includes descriptive profiles of the 23 prioritised species, in a format adaptable to web-page presentation, including brief description and picture, notes on behaviour and ecology and published references. This report notes that specimens and accompanying data for the 23 prioritised Australian anemone species and 38 of the 84 known species are held within the museums visited. The report records that specimens and data for 26 additional species not formally recorded from Australian waters were located within the museums, bringing the tally of known Australian anemone species to 110. The list of Australian anemones is expanded to include this information. This report records that the Attribution Database includes 730 specimens with 427 specimens confidently identified to species and 4 tentatively identified to species, with the remainder identified only to genus, family or class. This report also updates the following components of the Interim Report: background, species descriptions in web-page format, species list, classification and bibliography

Developing enterprise culture in a northern educational authority in the UK: involving trainee teachers in learning-orientated evaluation

In this paper we discuss our use of innovative methods - at least in the context of regeneration evaluation - to help evaluate an enterprise project in northern England, paying particular attention to the involvement of trainee teachers. We discuss the methods used and critically appraise the methods and methodology, present some emerging findings from the trainee teachers strand and conclude by discussing the place of what might be termed 'learning-orientated evaluation' in relation to the currently dominant output-focussed evaluation paradigm.</p