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Educational use of the Internet forms one of the cornerstones of Labour government policy, primarily via the construction of the 'National Grid for Learning' which aims to connect every school in the UK to the Internet by 2002. In this paper we report on the extent to which schools are already buying into information and communications technology (ICT) and in particular the Internet, effectively examining the foundations upon which the Learning Grid is being constructed. Via an empirical study of 150 current school websites we will argue that schools adopt a variety of approaches to the Internet and Worldwide Web depending upon the technological and institutional capital of the school, and that far from being utilised solely for educational purposes, the Internet provides an additional tool through which schools seek to reaffirm or reconstruct their existing institutional identities with varying levels of success. The paper concludes by adopting a semiotic framework for analysing the differential use of the Internet by educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the two annual conferences related to education. The annual conference for 1978 was held in King's College, London, England, on 15 December 1978. Registrations for the Conference had numbered 84 and among those attending the larger sub-groups were from Universities and Colleges of Education or Colleges and Institutes of Higher Education . Discussion group activity continued after lunch but participants met again for a plenary session in the latter part of the afternoon, not to receive conventional reports of discussions but to develop the points of special interest which had been raised and to exchange views more widely. The Standing Conference on Studies in Education will hold its annual conference on 14 December 1979 at King's College, London, England. The theme will be Individuality in Education. Circulars concerning participation in the conference will be sent to members of the Standing Conference on Studies in Education in the autumn but non-members who would like to take part in the conference should get in touch with James Scotland, Secretary, Aberdeen College of Education, Hilton Place, Aberdeen, Scotland.

The past decade has witnessed the publication of a growing number of important ethnographic studies investigating the schooling experiences of Black students. Their focus has largely been upon student--teacher relations during the students' last few years of compulsory education. What they have highlighted is the complexity of racism and the varied nature of Black students' experiences of schooling. By drawing upon data from a year-long ethnographic study of an inner-city, multi-ethnic primary school, this paper aims to compliment these studies in two ways. Firstly the paper will broaden the focus to examine how student peer-group relations play an integral role, within the context of student--teacher relations, in shaping many Black students' schooling experiences. By focussing on African / Caribbean infant boys, it will be shown how student--teacher relations on the one hand, and peer-group relations on the other, form a continuous feed-back loop; the products of each tending to exacerbate and inflate the other. Secondly, by concentrating on infant children, the paper will assess the extent to which these resultant social processes and practices are also evident for Black pupils at the beginning of their school careers--at the ages of five and six. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed development of extended schools in England is part of an international movement towards community-oriented schooling, particularly in areas of disadvantage. Although on the face of it this movement seems like a common-sense approach to self-evident needs, the evaluation evidence on such schools is inconclusive. In order to assess the likelihood that community-oriented schooling will have a significant impact on disadvantage, therefore, this paper analyses the rationale on which this approach to schooling appears to be based. It argues that community-oriented schools as currently conceptualised have a focus on 'proximal' rather than 'distal' factors in disadvantage, underpinned by a model of social in/exclusion which draws attention away from underlying causes. They are, therefore, likely to have only small-scale, local impacts. The paper suggests that a more wide-ranging strategy is needed in which educational reform is linked to other forms of social and economic reform and considers the conditions which would be necessary for the emergence of such a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the reforms made to the quasi-market in school-based education in England that occurred between May 1997 and May 2001. It discusses the changes that have taken place in relation to parental choice, admissions to schools, school diversity, funding and examination 'league tables'. The Labour Government can be seen as having embraced the quasi-market with a similar enthusiasm to that of its Conservative predecessors although it has tended to emphasise social inclusion as opposed to competition. While it has attempted to soften the edges of the quasi-market it has not tackled some of its major deficiencies such as the power that schools that are their own admission authorities have to distort the admissions process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore some of the keywords around which the practice of school inspection is ordered in England. As part of a project that explores the role of inspection in governing schooling in England, Scotland and Sweden, we have examined some of the key sources through which Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) publicly announces its role and purpose. In considering these texts, we have turned to Raymond Williams' conception of "keywords" (1988) to frame our analysis. We suggest that these sources are marked by the presence of a series of such keywords that underpin and legitimise the practice of school inspection by Ofsted. We conclude by considering some of the changing terminology that followed from the Coalition Government that took office in the UK in 2010 and which made education reform a centrepiece of its first period in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Numeracy Strategy was introduced in England in 1998 to reform mathematics teaching in all primary schools. The strategy has been widely implemented and this paper investigates some of the changes that are evident after the first five years. Reporting a comparison between studies in 1998 and 2003 of pupils’ calculating strategies for division, this study shows a small improvement overall but lack of the uniformity that may be expected from a national Strategy. Structured written recording, progressively developed from more intuitive understanding, was not evident in much of the pupils’ work. In some schools there was success with the new ‘chunking’ written method, identified in the Framework as ‘informal’, while in less successful schools, pupils continued to use various informal and inefficient strategies. While in 1998 success of boys and girls was not significantly different, in 2003 the boys were more successful. The boys made more use of informal working and mental strategies, while the girls relied on more structured written methods and in the schools where girls did better they used mostly the chunking algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging pupils to develop a sense of European identity is one of the implicit aims of the ‘European Schools’. This paper reports on a small case study that was carried out in 2004 that investigated how the European School at Culham attempts to develop in its pupils a sense of European identity. In particular, the study looked at the secondary school’s organizational features, its curriculum, extra-curricular activities and teachers’ conceptions of European identity. The research findings reveal that above all else, pupils’ sense of European identity is encouraged indirectly through the many opportunities the school provides for these children from diverse European backgrounds to integrate and interact with one another. Teachers at the school believe that it is through such interactions, which take place both in the classroom and through extra-curricular activities, that pupils learn about each others’ cultures and languages and develop a feeling of being European. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hampshire LEA has carried out two longitudinal studies: from reception intake to the end of Year 2, and from the end of Year 2 to the end of Year 6. A total, respectively, of 161 and 114 schools and about 6400 and 4700 pupil records have been analysed. Test scores at baseline (entry to reception), Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 have been used, together with pupil and school level variables. Multilevel models have been fitted and show that schools differ along several dimensions, both by curriculum subject and by prior attainment of pupil. The research sought ways of communicating the results to head teachers in ways which were meaningful without destroying the underlying complexity of the relationships uncovered. The paper describes how this can be done, in ways which can assist the process of school improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on case-study research at a high-achieving secondary school in London to illustrate how school experiences may influence drug use and reproduce inequalities in reconstructed ways in late modernity. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and observations. We focus in particular on the accounts of three female students expressing a shared counter-school identity and style to explore how drug use has become an important source of bonding, identity construction, coping and excitement for young women from disadvantaged families at high-achieving schools, including as part of strategies to resist the narrow focus schools can place on academic attainment, monitoring and discipline. We propose that, in late modern times, class-based counter-school cultures are being replaced with new consumer-based ones, but that secondary schools continue to act as sites for the reproduction of social stratification, as well as risk and harm relating to drug use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how 15-year-old white and Turkish students in two Inner London comprehensive schools, one in a predominantly working-class area (Millroad School) and the other in a more middle-class environment (Darwin School), construct their identities. Drawing on mainly qualitative data from documentary sources, focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the work points to a range of factors affecting identity formation processes, such as macro-political approaches and school dynamics. The research found that at Millroad School, which celebrated diversity and where students' conflict was ethnic or racial, young people found safety in their national(istic) identities. In contrast, at Darwin School, which tried to integrate students on the basis of common British citizenship and where there was only low-level ethnic conflict, young people developed hybrid ethno-national identities. This article raises important questions about how to create community cohesion in conflictual environments so as to promote both diversity and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the impact of New Labour policies - particularly the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies and the subsequent Primary National Strategy - on classroom practice at Key Stage 2 in England. Evidence is drawn from fieldwork conducted in 2003-2005 from a sample of 50 schools, replicating a study conducted a decade previously in the same schools. The data base consists mainly of 188 transcribed in-depth teacher interviews and fieldnotes from observation of 51 lessons. By comparison with other research studies on primary classroom practice from the 1970s through to the mid-1990s, our study suggests that there have been more changes in the last five years in teaching styles and in classroom organisation throughout the whole curriculum at KS2 than in the previous two decades. Such changes include a dramatic increase in whole-class teaching, the use of learning objectives shared with pupils and changes in pupil seating arrangements. Through compliance with centrally imposed changes in pedagogy, teachers' experiences have led them to change some of their professional values concerning desirable pedagogy. The article concludes by considering some of the implications of our evidence for theories of educational change and of teacher professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study of the changing geography curriculum illuminates the continuing struggles over subject knowledge at national level, and highlights more general issues about ideology and the politics of curriculum change 1991-2000. The investigation focuses on the processes and impacts of two National Curriculum Reviews and the changing policy trends and structures becoming apparent under New Labour. Three phrases of curriculum policy-making are tentatively recognised, raising questions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses key issues concerning the sponsoring and development of correspondence courses in the Netherlands and England in 1977. Key issues discussed include the key features of correspondence education, its benefits for those seeking basic qualifications, higher education or knowledge, a comparison of correspondence courses in the two countries, the potential correlation between correspondence courses and occupational advancement and the issues' implications for comparative education.