For the ICT project I had quite a few ideas about what theme I could use for 'A sense of place'. I was thinking about doing something personal, such as 'My life' but then struggled to find different paths I could take with that theme. I thought maybe I could do my family, friends, University, hobbies, job etc but then nothing that I feel I could go into depth with.
Another idea which I quite liked was 'Memories'. However with this theme I thought it would only rely on my own memories and I would struggle to find enough detail in terms of what they mean to different people. The theme of 'Home' also came into my mind but I felt as though it would be quite a restricting idea to do a project on.

I also asked people what they thought of when I say a sense of place. Most people said places such as home, or somewhere significant in their town which I felt was not the right theme for me to do my projecto on. I needed something more deep, meaningful to me and can make almost anyone feel as though they have their own 'A sense of place'.

Olive Hopker

13^th February – Olive Hopker

Olive Hopker, the Head of planning and development at the University introduced collaboration. She started by saying that the Welsh Government is promoting the benefit of collaboration in education covering Higher Education, Local Education Authorities, Further Education/6^th Forms and Schools.

Olive gave examples of current collaboration such as validation panel membership where the course has been approved and also competition examples in terms of collaboration such as student recruitment.

There are many benefits of collaboration. There are shared expertise and knowledge so that you can talk to people maybe about courses or tasks. There is greater efficiency, cost saving and greater effectiveness in terms of additional products/services. It can also enhance reputation as well as giving you the value of an ‘external eye’ so that someone else can perhaps give you advice to do something better. The competition benefits include promoting efforts to do better and also provide choices of alternative products/services.

Olive Hopker compared the benefits and limitations of small Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Large Higher Education Institutions. For small HEI the benefits would be direct management control, simple structures, small classes etc. The limitations however are the small resource base and limited choice. The benefits for large HEI are a large resource base, significant buying power, more opportunities for staff career moves and wide subject base and range of course. The limitations are the remote management, complex structures, large classes, rigid procedures etc. This highlights the fact that collaboration can lead to both positives as wellas weaknesses.

Steve Gullick

6^th February - Steve Gullick

Steve provided further information on Governing bodies.

Job interviews - Governors do not have to be at job interviews, but usually have 2-5 of them in an interview. Governor’s vote is valued as equal to the Head teacher.

Informal visits to schools - You cannot stop inspectors and governors from going to schools when they want.

Celebrations, e.g. school concerts and productions – Governs will always be at these events, usually sat at the front.

Presentations at governing body meetings – Teachers can be asked to make presentations by the Governing body at the next meeting.

Link governors and their visits – A SENCO will be present at every school and one governor will be a SENCO governor. However there have been questions about this as to how a governor, that is not an expert in SENCO, know if it is adequate? Or know who/what SENCO is?

Staff Disciplinary committee meetings – Governors discipline staff. There are always 3 or 5 governors on the staff disciplinary committee. At the meeting, the teachers are told that they can bring a friend, who is usually someone from their union. There is also a clerk at the meeting who cannot speak but writes down what happens at the meeting, they cannot be a governor however.

Governors are highly concerned with Health and Safety matters. For example overnight school trips involve a working party of 3 governors and 2 teachers to produce a checklist for teachers to go through before they take an overnight trip.

Governors do not deal with the day-to-day aspects of the schools. So for example if a parent complained to a governor that their child rarely brings texts books home to do their homework, then the governor can only ask the parent to ask the teacher as this is something that they don’t have control over.

Steve Gullick

23rd January - Steve Gullick

Steve Gullick introduced the Governing body. He talked about the roles of the governing body and the areas they have to cover in terms of education. One of their main ‘jobs’ focuses on conducting the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement. This means that their main priorities should be looking at the best outcome for achievement and standards at the school. They set appropriate school targets for pupil achievement at Key stage 2, 3 and 4. The Governing body much take general responsibility for the way the school in run such as school uniform, times in school e.g. 9-3. They also have a large responsibility of managing the schools budget and making sure the curriculum for the school is balanced and broadly based in particular that the National Curriculum and religious education are taught. They are responsible for the staff complement and pay policy for the school, participating in the discipline of staff and appointment of the head teacher etc and also drawing up an action plan after an inspection.

A governing body mainly consists of parents followed by the local educational authority, teachers, staff, the community and sometimes the Head teacher. It can consist of anyone who is an expert or who have a ‘stake’ in the school.

One major question concerning Governing bodies, is the decision of whether they should be paid, or have it kept as voluntary work.   

Dr. Russell Grigg

16th January - Dr. Russell Grigg

Dr. Russell Grigg introduced Estyn which is the inspecting body in Wales. In terms of what Estyn does, it covers many areas. Its main purpose is to inspect the quality and standards in education and training providers in Wales, including school based environment and independent and special schools;

Nurseries

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Pupil referral units

Further education

Adult community learning

Local authority education services for children and young people

Teacher education and training

Work-based learning

Careers companies

Offender learning

Estyn also provides advice to the Welsh Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales and promote the spread of good practise in education and training.

There are three-fold purposes;

Accountability

Improvement

Inform the development of national policy by the Welsh Government

There are 2 types of reports;

Reports on institutions

Thematic reports

There are 4 judgement (levels) in Estyn; Good, Excellent, Adequate and Unsatisfactory.

Estyn looks at achievement, how well you are doing as a person and attainment, how well you are doing compared to others.

Ken Jones

Due to changes to the 'What is Education? Policy and Practise' section of our course, we were told that our assignment for this module would be based on different aspects of education taught by guest lecturers.

The first lecture we had was with Ken Jones, Dean of faculty of Humanities at the University. He talked about the role of the Government in Education and some of the statistical facts about our Education in Wales. In terms of geography of the country, he said that 50% of the population live in South and South East Wales. He also mentioned that there are small rural schools in the North and South West of the country. He stated that 20% of primary pupils and 15% of secondary pupils have welsh as sole or main medium of istruction, which ultimately seems to be quite low. He also mentioned that the number of pupils in local authority maintaned schools has decreased year on year.

Ken Jones talked about the 2006 Pisa results. He said the OECD said they wanted to compare how different countries are doing in terms of education, so they had children sit tests so that they could gather this information. It was found that Wales was not doing as well as expected.
In 2008 came the School Effectiveness Framework (SEF) from the Welsh Government (2008). This was introduced to improve children and young people's learning and well-being throughout Wales.

The 2010 PISA results indicated the development between 2006-2009. In terms of reading in Wales, it had a decline of -5, maths -12 and science -9, indicating below average results from other countries. 

The New minister (Leighton Andrews), spoke in February 2011, highlighting that 'Teaching makes a difference' and is focusing on trying to make the educational situation better for in Wales.