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Penstocks have been used in the water industry for flow control since the Victorian expansion and consolidation of clean water and wastewater networks. However, the Victorians were the first to use grey cast iron (GCI) castings to manufacture large scale penstocks. Most of these ageing assets are still in operation; however, engineering assessments are necessary to determine a structure’s fitness for service. Even today, penstocks in the sewer system tend to be made from GCI, due to ease of manufacturing, resistance to corrosion and cost. One characteristic property of GCI is the graphite flake structure in the material, contributing to its low toughness, inconsistency in material strength and brittle behaviour, despite exhibiting slight hardening properties. Finite element analysis (FEA) is a numerical method which allows the analysis of complex structures by splitting it into finite parts and solving them with a computer processor. Despite the versatility of FEA, appropriate considerations and assumptions are necessary due to the difficulty to obtain data from inspection and unique material behaviour of GCI. The article shows concerns for an analysis of GCI penstocks using FEA, which extends into the application of fracture mechanics approaches for defect assessments.

Grey cast iron water pipe networks have been installed around the world, often 100–180 years ago. Cohorts (which can be defined by age, size, casting technology and geographical location, to specify but a few groups) degrade at different rates due to environmental and in-service issues, which can lead to a significant loss in mechanical performance. Hence, the management of these assets can be extremely problematic in terms of identifying priorities. The current paper considers the causes of such degradation, the consequences for defining accurate and up-to-date condition assessment protocols and hence the type and urgency of rehabilitation strategies. It follows that understanding the integrity/life expectancy of water networks requires non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of large-diameter cast iron trunk mains, with particular reference to the kinds of defects that are likely to be present and the issues that make assessment difficult. From this, recommendations are outlined for asset managers required to specify NDE protocols, based on an understanding of the nature of the material and conditions in the field.

Poverty and disadvantage are claimed to be some of the most important barriers to educational progress and evidence suggest that schools with higher levels of free school meals generally do less well than those with lower levels. However, the increased levels of achievement in many disadvantaged schools show that they might have undertaken radical reprisals of pupil potential.

The Specialist Schools Trust offers schools a framework for a fair way of evaluating their GCSE performance. The suggested framework uses three measures, namely the percentage of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades; the average key stage 2 points score of the GCSE cohort; and the gender composition of the school. The framework provides a fair evaluation of a school's performance based on what was expected and what was achieved.

Issues concerning the improvement in standards and increased subjects on offer to children attending specialist schools in the United Kingdom are discussed.

Organic−inorganic hybrid nanoparticles, derived from silica precursors with different organic functionalities (methyl, ethyl, vinyl, and phenyl) synthesized via a modified Stöber method have been investigated. These particles are intended as modifiers for polymers and polymer matrix composites. Therefore, the characteristics of a polyester matrix have also been determined, and the likely interactions with the particles have been proposed. Particles have been characterized using inverse gas chromatography (IGC), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The particles show two different sets of characteristics, with methyl, ethyl, and vinyl modified silicas showing one type of behavior and the phenyl modified silica behaving rather differently. The methyl, ethyl, and vinyl groups exhibit the appearance of uniform coverage, as they are comparatively small and tightly packed, which will prevent interaction of matrix resin with retained silanol groups. The phenyl group, which is comparatively large, is not able to pack as closely, which results in a reduction of the presence and availability of silanol groups, compared to an unmodified fumed silica, but not complete inaccessibility as far as the matrix resin is concerned.

For much of the eighties progress in the UK towards the establishment of comprehensive frameworks for judging schools' performance has been patchy. In the late eighties, however, a variety of proposals have been made for remedying these deficiencies and the creation of systematic frameworks for performance evaluation look a realistic possibility for the coming decade. In this paper we explore some of the lessons to be learnt from previous efforts and the steps that will need to be taken if the education service is to avoid merely replicating the patchiness of the eighties on a grander scale.

Examination results for fifth-year pupils in six different local education authorities are analysed with a view to establishing what differences in their performance can be assigned to the schools they attend. Using multi-level models it is shown that, whilst in general the differences between schools are relatively small, the actual size in examination points is certainly not trivial. These differences are estimated for the schools in each LEA. Distinctions are drawn between explanatory models based on information about pupils' background as opposed to prior attainment; the latter are shown to be more appropriate for comparisons between schools. Amongst the 11 data sets analysed there was little evidence that schools were differentially effective with different groups of pupils.

The paper adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to the development of models of educational accountability. It combines educational, statistical and economic considerations in seeking to clarify the role, and scope for improvement, of quantitative models in assessing the educational performance of schools and local education authorities. By including expenditure in the analysis alongside socio-economic characteristics, questions of both educational and economic effectiveness can be examined within a common framework that explicitly recognises the trade-offs involved.The paper argues that the widely used existing quantitative technique of regression analysis has numerous deficiencies in this context. A promising alternative method, that of data envelopment analysis, is examined and compared with the results of regression analysis, in assessing LEA performance. The results are found to diverge in significant quantitative and qualitative ways.The paper stresses the importance of developing the interface between quantitative models and qualitative assessments by, for example, HMI and educational advisers, in which neither are alone sufficient to handle all of the complex questions that educational performance assessment and enhanced educational accountability raise.

The growth in importance of performance assessment in education over recent years has been linked with a concern to ensure that the service represents 'value for money'. To date the absence of a satisfactory analytical framework has meant that questions of 'effectiveness' and 'efficiency' have been kept separate. An additional problem has been that, whilst there are many different outcomes which are appropriate for education authorities to pursue, conventional models handle these only one at a time.In this paper we use data on the 96 English LEAs to show how an underlying model allows authorities to be compared in terms of 'efficiency' when facing different environmental circumstances and utilising different resource inputs. The technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is first described in the context of an explanatory model, and then the results of applying this to the English LEAs are presented.As distinct from a league table' analysis, DEA gives some indications of where improvements are to be sought. It allows for 'trade-offs' between outputs of different types and provides a small but distinct peer group of 'efficient' authorities to which an 'inefficient' LEA can be compared.The efficiency measure used is 'relative efficiency' which arises from comparing the actual performance of an inefficient authority with that of others which can be used to model its environmental circumstances and resource inputs.A number of case studies are described. The limitations of the technique, and the caution required in interpretation, are discussed.

It is widely assumed that some schools improve more rapidly than others. However, unlike the well-established finding that schools differ in their effectiveness, evidence that schools improve at different rates is sparse.Using data on pupils' examination results and prior achievements from five cohorts of pupils passing through over 30 schools in one LEA, the study considers three questions. First, the extent to which some schools improve more rapidly than others. Second, whether certain 'types' of school are more likely to improve. And third, whether there were any 'strategies' which substantial numbers of schools employed to bring about improvement.A multilevel model was employed to generate estimates of schools' 'effectiveness' and 'improvement over time'. The analysis showed that around 1 in 7 schools 'improved rapidly' over the 5-year period. Both 'less effective' and 'more effective' schools' improved. However, differences in schools' effectiveness remained substantial when compared with the extent of improvement; it would take several years, on this evidence, for a 'less effective' school to move into the pack and as long again for it to pull ahead. One reason why some schools were improving more rapidly than others could be attributed to the fact that they had increased the average number of exam subjects their pupils were entered for above the rate of increase across the whole sample. Other factors not explored in this study are also likely to have been influential.

The basic question we address in this paper is a straightforward one. How can 'fairer' comparisons be made between the results of individual secondary schools? This is a question which has preoccupied researchers of school effectiveness over much of the past decade. It is one, however, which has assumed still greater importance in the light of the recent requirement of the 1980 Education Act, in a climate of demands for greater 'accountability' in the public sector, that schools should publish their examination results.The paper explores some of the prevailing approaches to judging schools' effectiveness, with particular reference to the use and interpretation of public examination results as measures of school performance, and utilizes data that have been collected from a small number of local education authorities to demonstrate the current 'state-of-the-art'. It concludes that although judgements about schools' performance and effectiveness abound, appropriate frameworks for the comparison of their effectiveness have yet to be constructed in the vast majority of local education authorities. It follows from this proposition that judgements of the schools' and teachers' effectiveness in these authorities must, at present, be inappropriately grounded.

In response to Michael Follows' review of the book The Secret Science of Superheroes edited by Mark Lorch and Andy Miah.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "Union chiefs divided on move to boycott Sats" in the March 27, 2009 issue, "Lost Ground: the policy label that does stick" in the same issue, and "Funding delays raise doubts over masters degree for NQTs" in the March 13, 2009 issue.

Focuses on education-related issues in Great Britain, taken from different newspapers. Contention that failures in education cannot be blamed on parents; Views that bright pupils will do just as well at comprehensive schools; Article which contends that the army is right to recruit young offender.