Thursday, 26 April 2018

P4 + M3 - My Article Topic and Primary and Secondary Sources + Extra Secondary Sources


My Article Topic

Is Deyes High Overcrowded

Students Suggest that Deyes is too full and that the situation is only getting worse.

My article will be about if the school is becoming too overcrowded and weather it is a problem for student’s educations in the lower years of the school.
I will be able to discuss the number of students in comparison to the other schools in the UK and Maghull, I will also be able to discuss the amount of students that come into the school recently and how the size of the school’s years are becoming larger, putting a stress on the amount of teachers.
Perhaps talk about some students concerns with how big their class is or if they feel like it’s fine.

Primary Sources

Here are some of the Primary sources that I could possibly use in my Article. Primary Sources are sources that I have collected by myself, these for example can include a questionnaire or some small interviews.

Questionnaires

A Primary Source that I could use would be to survey some children in each year to find out if they think they receive enough time with a teacher, and if they have classes that they believe are too large. I think interviewing the younger years would also be a good indicator as to which year has the largest class sizes.
A good year to interview would be the Year 13’s as it is the smallest year in numbers, and also being the top of the school making sure that the classes are not too big as they have the largest amount of work to do.

Interviews

A good person for me to interview would be Mr. Ellis, as he is in charge of creating all the time tables for the schools lower and higher years, I could ask him about
• Difficulties trying to create the time tables that the school uses, 25 lessons a week, needing a certain amount of math, English and science as well as with the amount of teachers that are needed.
• As him if there has been an increase in class size since 2011, as the main point in the article will be that the school is taking on more and more children each year in year 7.
• Another question I could ask Mr. Ellis would his thoughts on how the amount of teachers per student has decreased, and the repercussions of larger classes.
Perhaps I could talk to someone like Mr Delaney who is the head of Sixth Form, he would be a good person to answer as he knows how many students have come and gone through the sixth form and he could talk about the increase in size for the sixth form years, since 2011-2018. Another question I could ask him would be to ask him about the negative repercussions of having a large year, and what stresses it causes with things like allocating teachers and lessons.

Another good Reason to interview Mr Delaney would be to get his opinion, as he is quite an important member of the College @ Deyes, making sure to get important people’s opinions would be a good idea to show the credibility of the Article.
I could also possible conduct some smaller interviews with students to get a more detailed opinion on the subject at hand, such as if they believe the school is overcrowded, and what the school does to make sure that they have a good education.

Secondary Sources

Some secondary sources I could use would be some recent studies into the growth of the younger generation Z and the increase in large numbers of children being born in the north west. These children being born will need somewhere to learn and be educated so the massive amounts of children will obviously cause strain on an already strained system.
To the side the Secondary Sources that I have found could be used to show the state of UK schools and then I would apply it to Deyes High

BBC Article About the Size of Schools in the North

“According to the latest school census, in 2016 there were 17,780 state secondary school children in 2016 being taught in classes with 36 or more pupils. This is the highest number for a decade. In comparison, in 2011 the number was 6,107” This is a good Statistic as it backs up the point that the size of classes is growing in the UK and that there is a problem with classes of over 36 children in the UK, which is unacceptable.
It also says that about 90% of children who attend state schools in England are taught in classes with 30 pupils or fewer. However, teachers' unions warn growing pupil numbers and shrinking budgets are placing strains on the system. This shows that there have been inquiries into the problems with overcrowding in UK schools, launched by the Teachers Union

Telegraph Article About Overcrowding

Around £15 billion is needed over the next four years to guarantee every child a place in a safe school environment, according to research published by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services last month. This Article shows more statistics and the cost of making sure that all UK children can get into a Primary or Secondary School

NUT Article

The Teachers Org is a good place for me to look for information because it is main written in the UK so that means that I won’t have trouble finding relevant statistics if I want to use any in my article. It also gives some other opinions from people who work in and around schools, it is a good place also for more statics about the amount of schools available and how much room they have.

PDF File About Mental Health

This PDF clearly States that there is a link between “Overcrowding in Schools, that could have a Limited Effect on students in the Classroom” This could tell us that the amount of students in a classroom can affect how much education a student receives as the large number of students lowers the amount of one on one time with a teacher or someone that is teaching them.

GOV.UK Article

In 2017 the overall number of pupils in secondary school increased for the second year, reaching 2,797,000. This is primarily because increased births from 2002 onwards means there are now larger numbers entering secondary schools at age 11 than are leaving them at age 16. The rate of increase is projected to increase in 2018 to 2.4% and to remain high until towards the end of the projection period.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627388/SFR31_2017_Projections_Text.pdf

Extra Secondary Sources

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8086642/100000-pupils-crammed-into-overcrowded-state-schools.html - This is an Article by the telegraph that shows some more statistics about the amount of students coming into primary and secondary schools in the UK over the next few years and it details their reasons and some problems that I could write about.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/groups/llta/resources/telc/strategies/ - Here is an article talking about the some of the problems with the larger class sizes that could be seen in Deyes High in the future, as well as some of the problems for the students and the teachers in the class in relation to the work that they have to do as well as things like the marking of work and the distribution of the school’ supplies. As well as some of the ways teachers can relive the stress of a larger class.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED532900.pdf - This is an article about how some countries have tried to combat the effect of overcrowding in school classes such as limiting the amount of students in lower years to a maximum of 30 students per class and also some other ways different countries have fixed the issues.

https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/Published/C00000133/M00002674/AI00003381/$Classsizepaper.docA.ps.pdf – Here is another PDF that can be viewed to find out some more problems with the large class sizes that could be coming to the UK due to the recent baby booms and the larger birth-rates, due to things like immigration and a better standard of living after the recession as thing are improving.

Moral Panic

One of the main problems that I could cause would be resentment of the lower years of the school, if I accidentally suggested that the schools lower years were too large and that they were somehow ruining the school for the higher years it could cause friction between the years. To avoid doing this is must make sure that only include statistics that I have found or created myself, and I will try not to insinuate anything that could be take negatively

Hyperbole

I could create moral panic using Hyperbole to describe how crowded school is, perhaps I could use adjectives that exaggerate the truth, adjectives like Crowded, Crammed, Stuffed and other adjectives to simulate claustrophobic feelings would be a good way to make the reader feel as if there is a larger problem with the amount of students in comparison to the amount of teachers that are available.

Emotive Language

Using emotive language would probably entail me suggesting that the school’s staff are at ‘breaking point’ and that there is ‘no more room’ this type of language would make it so that the reader feels apologetic and grief in the fact that the poor teachers can’t provide enough education to the students of Deyes High.
Another way I could spin the article would be to use emotive language that could be read by the children’s parents. ‘Deyes High sorry for the lack of spaces available for new year 7’s’ this article could spell outrage as it would possible strike a nerve with some parents who are trying to place their child her in year 7 and have possibly been rejected.

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