Concrew Training

Traditionally, the public sector has been seen to fall outside the scope of competition law – or be a very low priority for regulators. But, with the changing nature of education provision, this is no longer the case. The regulatory body is paying more attention to the sector and recent changes mean that it now has greater powers to intervene if it's not happy with how colleges or training companies are operating. Many further education providers are unfamiliar with the risks they face; More at: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/18/competition-law-common-pitfalls-colleges-further-education

A wide range of risks can be faced by any Board, Governing Body or Corporation in the public, private or indeed voluntary sectors. These risks may be summarised as: - Governance and management risks. - Operational risks. - Financial risks. - Environmental and external risks. - Compliance risks. Against this backdrop over-aching risks a wide range of equality and diversity issues need to be considered from both an employment and service delivery perspective, including: 1. The Business Consideration Do those at the top understand what is meant by the business or economic case for equality and diversity in terms of either employment or service delivery? What is the cost of doing something? What is the cost of not doing something? Success for an applicant in a tribunal can mean thousands of pounds being spent on preparation for the case and subsequent compensation. With the defeat often comes appalling local and national publicity damaging the corporate reputation of the whole organisa

Differentiation doesn't, however, matter quite so much with primary age pupils, says Alison Mackey, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in the States. "The younger children are, the less important individual differences are to their learning outcomes," she says. "Researchers think this is because the younger they are, the more they rely on their 'implicit' learning mechanism. This ties in with the idea that there is a critical, or sensitive period, during which young children have an advantage over other learners in terms of ultimate attainment in language acquisition." As children get older, she explains, and begin to switch from that early ability to absorb language naturally to a more explicit way of learning, "things like [needing to develop specific] strategies become important." http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/may/14/differentiation-language-teaching-primary-secondary-students Looking for hin

Recently launched by #Ofsted their school data base web site allows anyone to input a school name, town or school postcode to get an instant summary of the schools performance. Ofsted School Data Dashboard provides a snapshot of school performance at Key Stages 1, 2 and 4. The dashboard can be used by school governors and by members of the public to check the performance of the school in which they are interested. The School Data Dashboard complements the Ofsted school inspection report by providing an analysis of school performance over a three-year period. Data can be filtered by key stage or by topic: - Expected progress - Attainment - Attendance - Closing the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils - Context http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/

#ACAS claim 4000 people have used their reconciliation service in the first month, how many of the organisations involved would have benefited from #Concrew-Training workshop on Avoiding Workplace Disputes and Tribunals? http://concrew-training.co.uk/?page_id=552

Individual employment rights have really increased over these last five years and likely to increase still further; with this increase comes the associated increase in risk that employers will need to deal with an increase in grievance issues and potentially employment tribunal claims. Consequently it is important that all companies, businesses, organisations be they private, public or not for profit take every effort to ensure their managers, systems and procedures are sufficiently well developed to firstly minimise the risk of problems occurring, secondly to diffuse issues, quickly, if they arise and thirdly provide a robust defense if matters escalate to ACAS or a tribunal Clearly, the best way of minimising the risk of tribunal claims is to have a workforce that is completely engaged, happy and content in their duties and persuaded about real prospects of career development. In the real world however, even with the best will in the world, problems will inevitably arise and the pro

Scottish householders will be able to apply for grants of up to £7300 under a new phase of a scheme to make homes more energy efficient. Home owners, landlords and tenants will be able to apply for the funding from June until 2015. http://news.stv.tv/scotland/274738-15m-cash-pot-set-aside-to-help-households-become-energy-efficient/

Science and Maths are the pathway to a successful future. Yet fewer than 20% of 16-19 year olds take A-Level Maths, and half of mixed state schools had no girls study A-Level Physics in 2011. The Your Life campaign aims to change this, with an ambition to increase the number of students studying STEM subjects by 50% over the next three years. http://www.yourlife.org.uk/

#Ofsted should be able to inspect private schools in England, Education Secretary Michael Gove has suggested. He said Ofsted's chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, was "the person who is most trusted" on educational standards in England. Speaking at a conference at fee-paying Brighton College, Mr Gove was asked if he could foresee a single inspectorate. Brighton College headmaster Richard Cairns predicted a "lukewarm" response to the idea from many private schools. Currently private schools are inspected by various bodies. The biggest is the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27341805#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=ukedchat

Officials have warned Nick Clegg that his plan to offer free school meals to four- to seven-year-olds risks diverting money away from teaching in a way that is "wholly unacceptable" to Michael Gove, leaked emails reveal. In an escalation of the coalition row over the policy, correspondence handed to the BBC's World at One showed that the education secretary objected to the way the policy was costed, and warned in a letter to the Treasury that the government "must not risk forcing schools to subsidise meals by reducing their spending on teaching and learning". A further email from a senior official, hours before the deputy prime minister was due to speak publicly about the £1bn policy, was marked "NOT CLEARED" and warned that it would cost much more than originally thought to implement. "The gap between the deputy prime minister's figure and the Treasury funding will require our secretary of state to divert money from providing school places