An academy school is a fairly new term, but we are seeing an increase in these types of schools opening up. The main difference between a community school and an academy is that a community school is financed by a local council where as an academy receives it’s funding from the government.

The main benefit for a school becoming an academy is an improvement in their financial situation. All academy schools will be given a twenty five thousand pounds budget for improvement initially. They will also receive as much as a 10% increase on their budget allowing them to invest more in the areas they need to.

Academies have the right to set their own pay scales, saving money in some areas or increasing the pay for good teachers allowing them to hold on to them. If the academy can source services more cheaply, then they are allowed to buy them in themselves.

It is easy to get carried away when you are involved in learning. This may be at school or university or maybe in a job. This is especially true if you enjoy what you are learning about as you may not mind spending your own time delving in to books and swatting up on the subject matter.

This is a great way to boost your education, but also you must ensure you have regular breaks. Not only should you be taking breaks roughly every 4 hours to allow your mind to switch off for a bit, but it is also good to take a few days or a week away from work completely. This down time will allow you to release any stress and also you often find when returning to learning after a break, you can pick things up better and quicker.

When taking a lunch break, try and move away from your desk as it is very easy to start to get back in to work or get dragged in to a conversation with a colleague not giving you that switch off time.

A child’s education starts at home. They start learning from a very young age and progress as their brain develops. I recently started helping my 3 year old to start to do some basic sums using a number of methods that I had found on the internet. It was very surprising to see how quickly see picked it up and within only a few weeks was doing simply addition sums in her head.

From speaking to a number of teachers, they have confirmed that if a child has a good understanding of colours, shapes, counting and letters when they start school and then they seem to quickly advance to the next stage.

Education at home does not have to be something to worry about, even simple counting games such as counting up the stairs or counting out raisins can all help aid a child’s learning and give them a great start at school.

When you start secondary school, very quickly you will find that you are asked to choose the subjects that you want to take for your GCSE’s. There are some mandatory subjects such as Maths, English and Science (plus others depending on where you go to school) and then you have the option to choose additional subjects.

When I chose mine, we were only allowed to pick two subjects out of each box meaning that my first choice was not possible. It can be very hard for someone that is only 14 to make decisions that could potentially affect what they do in the future.

When choosing your subjects, do not get too held up on it as you can always do another course later on in life if you decide you want to do a different career.

A career advisor will be able to talk you through your options should you need any advice.

If you are passionate about education and you’d like to pursue a career around it there are a few different paths that you could look into as possible career options.

The first and arguable most obvious choice would be to become a teacher, either at primary school level or in higher education. You could take up more of a support function such as a TA (teaching assistant) as this requires less qualifications but that is reflected in the pay scale that you would get.

If you are keen on one particular subject then you could become a college lecturer, in this role real world experience of the subject that you are teaching will help you no end as you can explain to your students how the things that you are teaching them will translate in the working world.

If you are looking for a higher paid role that is more involved with overseeing of education establishment and systems then you may be better suited as a school inspector, however most of these roles will require you to have had some teaching experience.

So what exactly is a Supply Teacher?

A supply teacher is a teacher that takes place of the main teacher for a class; they are also commonly referred to as a substitute teacher in the United States. When the main teacher is sick or has to be absent from work for other reasons, whether the time is for a short period or for a long period, a supply teacher will be used in their place until they come back. You may end up having the same supply teacher each and every day while your main teacher is out or you can have a few different ones based on the schedules of the supply teacher’s’.

Being a supply teacher is very easy to do; you need to love working with kids, you need to enjoy spreading knowledge and maybe even learn new things while doing so. The credentials and requirements for becoming a supply teacher versus a normal teacher do vary; they are a lot stricter when it comes to the main teacher because they will be there everyday year after year doing the same subject whereas a supply teacher comes and goes from classroom to classroom helping out wherever they are needed. In one day a supply teacher can possibly cover history, art, music, science and more and not just history or just art all day long. (more…)

The mental health and wellbeing of children of a school age has been the subject of a recent study in the effects that modern society has on a child’s mental health.

The study looked at effects such as prolonged computer use, limited face to face social interaction and the effects of the stresses that children of a school age are put through.

Out of all of the variables that they looked at the one that most effected the mental wellbeing of the child, and therefore their education was pressure applied to them whilst at school. The study picked up on the way that children feel pressured to revise and study outside of school hours and the build up of nerves and stresses as the exam period approaches.

75% of the children surveyed said that they had problems sleeping and eating due to stress during the exam period and a shocking 58% of children expressed feelings of anxiousness or depression due to the fear of failure. This study really needs to be an eye opener as to the stresses that young people go through with the current exam process and discussions need to be had about what we can do to improve the mental wellbeing of our children who surely should not be so stressed out at such a young age.

Supply Teaching in Sutton Coldfield can save a lot of time and effort for both the schools and the teacher applicants. As a matter of fact, for both schools and teachers, getting in touch with a supply teacher agency does have its advantages. For schools, rather than having to search through hundreds of teacher applicants in the area yourself, an agency will do this difficult task for you. It can really make life much easier to register with a specialist teacher supplier. Whether a school needs a teacher for a short time, such as a couple of days per week or for a longer period of time, a good agency for teachers in this location can get the position filled. There are several reasons to register for a supply teaching agency, both for schools and for teachers. (more…)

With a recent report about the stress levels of teachers in the UK soaring we have to ask ourselves the question, are we putting too much pressure on our teachers?

When a teacher gains their qualifications at university they then become a NQT (newly qualified teacher) once employed at a school they are then subjected to many classroom assessments and lesson observations where their work is scrutinised and graded accordingly. Add to this the pressure the school faces during the lead up to an Ofsted inspection and you have a recipe for one very stressed out teacher.

The education system as it stands is demanding more and more of a paper trail to evidence all lesson planning, individual child assessment plans and development programs for each child however teachers are not being given any additional time to get all this paperwork done, which results in long working hours as well as teaches having to do school work over a weekend.

Until we take a serious look at reforming the current education system and our expectation of teachers, we are going to continue to lose good teachers due to them being under too much pressure and not coping with the stress it causes.

It’s often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and for children this is particularly important. Breakfast starts of the body’s metabolism and get the mind active ready to learn, the process of breaking the food down provides energy to the child helping them to concentrate and work more effectively.
It’s important not only that children have breakfast but also what they have for breakfast as some sugar-rich cereals can actually make children have sugar highs then lows having an effect on their behaviour. Study have shown that the best breakfast for children to have is something with slow release energy such as porridge oats or whole grain seeded bread that will give children energy evenly throughout the day until then next eat at lunchtime.
Many schools are trying to encourage pupils and parents to ensure that children have a good breakfast before coming to school with some even offering breakfast clubs before the school day starts to give children and busy parents the opportunity for their child to sit and have a healthy breakfast every day.