Thursday, 26 April 2018
P4 - Interview Audio and Write Up
Interview Write-up
Interviewer: As I
know you have to do the timetables correct.
Mr Ellis: Yes
Interviewer: So have
you noticed since 2010 -11 oh wait you started in 2012, the year after, so have
you noticed that there are more kids every year from when you started to now.
Mr Ellis: Its similar, your particular year group had less
students in it than your year group had 210 students, generally year groups
have around about 235 students in there, currently year 7 have about 242 in
there, I think a couple of people appealed and there were extra places
allocated
Interviewer: Would
you say that there’s more people trying to get into the school though?
Mr Ellis: Depends where you are, Deyes yes, Deyes is over
subscribed
Interviewer: Yes
Mr Ellis: There could be approximately, between 400 and 500
applicants, to get into Deyes, that’s not the case in every school, some
schools will be undersubscribed
Interviewer: Yes
Mr Ellis: Some schools have closed, looking forward there
has been an increase in birth-rates, so looking forward there will be a
requirement going forward I presume for more school places.
Interviewer: So has
it got more difficult to allocate teachers to different lessons because I
assume you’ve got to like get the teachers, figure out what lessons they can do
when they can do it and if there’s a mix and match and stuff.
Mr Ellis: what do you mean by that exactly?
Interviewer: so is
there like, the more kids that there are, the harder it is to find teachers for
them, supply and demand.
Mr Ellis: We have the same amount of classes as we did
beforehand so there’s only roughly an extra seven or eight students in year 7
to what there would normally be, or what we designed it for, the challenge is
in instead of having 30, 30, 30 in the top three sets and having 20 in the set
4 group, you might have more like 27 in the set 4 group. The difference between
having 20 and 27 in a group isn’t major, and academic research, shows that
there’s little difference in in terms of reducing the class size to the outcome
on students.
Interviewer: So do
you have any rules that you have to follow when you’re making timetables like a
certain amount of students?
Mr Ellis: Yes, Yes, so the challenges would lie in the more
practical lessons
Interviewer: So like
science?
Mr Ellis: Things like P.E, Science, Technology, because
there’s health and safety aspect around there, so science is only so many
seats, so many Bunsen burners, so many gas stations. In technology there’s so
much going on you might have a circular saw might have other things and make
sure that the health and safety briefing is appropriate. There’s other lessons
that are challenging such as ICT because you might only have certain resources
by that I mean there might only be 30 computers in a room, or 24 computers in a
room, so we’ve got two classrooms with 30 computers and 2 with 27-28 and a
couple with 24, which means that if you’re having 30 students in each group
from L1 to M4, where are the rooms to fit all those students? You have to make
adjustments, you’re either having to provide laptops, pay to set up new
computer rooms, or for extra computers and that comes at a cost when school
budgets are being reduced.
Interviewer: Yea
that’s a problem, so would you say that there’s a lack of stuff that you can
give to children?
Mr Ellis: It’s about making sure that everyone has the right
amount of resources, so we need to plan ahead if there’s going to be a lack of
computers in a certain computer room, and we need to react to that proactively
address that, so for example this year A22 has been converted into a computer
room, because we knew that was something that was going to happen, so that now
we can accommodate all those classes, so it takes careful planning to make sure
that we can foresee an issues and if we can foresee the issues we can address
them, before they become apparent.
Interviewer: So do
you have any things that you may need to do before you set up time tables or
classrooms or things that you haven’t mentioned yet?
Mr Ellis: What in particular are you thinking?
Interviewer: I don’t
know … if there are just any other problems when setting them up?
Mr Ellis: Not particularly.
Interviewer: I can’t
really think of anything.
Mr Ellis: Generally, all the classrooms are set
up so all the maths rooms have 32 seats in for example and realistically what
you would do is ... the heads of departments all know who is going into which
set so when it comes to getting the correct teachers and the correct rooms and
the correct class sizes that is something the heads of the department would
work on because they will know the rooms better than what I know the rooms so
If I try to do it all myself I could make a mistake or put people in the wrong
place so I rely heavily on them.
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
P5 - News Article Draft #1
P5 - News Article
Is Deyes High Overcrowded?
In 2017 the overall number of
students enrolled in secondary school increased for the second year, reaching
2,797,000. Schools in the UK have seen a large increase in the amount of
students being enrolled in secondary education places. According to the school
census in 2016 there were 17,780 state secondary school children in 2016 being
taught in classes with 36 or more pupils, this has been the largest amount of
students in this position ever recorded. In comparison to the 2011 census the
number was only 6,107 which has almost tripled. Students being taught in
classes of 36 students or more is a large problem for many reasons, such as the
cost to train and hire teachers, cost for new facilities and equipment as well
as the stress on teachers and
In Deyes high there are currently
1,444 students enrolled in the secondary part of the school. On January 2012
there were 3,268 state-funded mainstream secondary schools in England, of which
1,226 had between 1,001 and 1,500 pupils meaning that Deyes High is slightly
above the average of students, (which we can assume that these numbers have
risen since the study was taken). A recent interview with Mr Ellis who is responsible
for creating Deyes High’s timetables, he was asked about how the school is
coping with the large amounts of students in the North West and the Whole of
the UK. He said that “generally the year groups have around about 235 students”
and that “currently year 7 have about 242” meaning that there are only an extra
7 students to what there would normally be as a couple of people appealed and “extra
places were allocated” He suggested that Deyes is “oversubscribed” suggesting
around “400 to 500 applicants” However some of the sixth form students believed
that the school was overcrowded, in a survey of 20 people 17 believed that the
school was overcrowded whilst only 3 said that it was fine.
When Mr Ellis was asked about the
cost of maintain a large school he said that the “challenges would lie more in
the practical lessons” stating that subjects such as “P.E, science and
technology” are harder to maintain as there is a certain “health and safety aspect”.
Health and safety has to be “appropriate”. Another problem that he talked about
was that there are “only so many seats, only so many Bunsen burners, so many
gas stations” Showing that there is only a certain amount of resources. One
example that he gave was that “there might only be 30 computers in a room” and
that you have to “make adjustments” one of the adjustments made this year was
that the room “A22 has been converted onto a computer room, because we knew
that that was something that was going to happen, so now that we can accommodate
all those classes”
Another problem with having
larger classes is that the teaching may suffer, many sources suggest that
teachers are being overburdened. One teacher said that “I have too much homework to mark. It becomes almost impossible to give
effective feedback for everyone." This certainly shows the strain that
teachers have when marking and reviewing work. Teachers feel a responsibility
for checking all of their students' work. However, there are many ways around
having teachers mark all their students work, some of these ways are things
like peer reviews which promote the class to think of the solution to the
problem when done correctly. More things like this will be implemented more
often as we see the growing number of students increase in the UK. One of the
major problems when it comes to larger classes is that the teachers may not know
who is learning what and what needs to be re-taught as interaction with each
and every student may be impossible. When talking to Mr Ellis about the
problems with large class sizes he said that “instead of having 30, 30, 30 in
the top three sets and having 20 in the set 4 group you might have more like 27
in the set 4 group” and that there is “little difference between having 20 and
27 students in a group”
Overall the reason that College @
Deyes students believe that the lower years are larger is that primarily the
class of 2016 and 17 were smaller year groups than normal so it seemed that
there was a larger disparity, due to the lack of the baby boom until 2002 and
onward. Creating a false illusion that the years were getting bigger.
Tuesday, 17 April 2018
M4 - Structure of My Article and Mode of Adress
M4 - Structure of My Article
For my article I have tried to
structure it in a way that makes sense and that makes the article flow in a
comprehensible manner. When creating my article, I created some sub headings
that I would use to help plan out the article, these sub headings were as
follows
· UK General
· Deyes Comparison
· Affected Learning
· Conclusion
Making these subheadings really
helped out as I was able to categorise all the information, primary and
secondary sources under one of these headings and pick out quotes or statistics
that I could use to tell the article to the reader. I started off by looking at
the UK as a whole as it allowed me to talk about the growing number of children
being born in the UK and when the baby boom started, as well as the amounts of
secondary schools in the UK and the average class sizes for all of the schools.
Next I talked about how Deyes
High compares to the national average, suggesting that Deyes was an average
sized school based upon some secondary research. This was so that the reader
could align Deyes High with the national averages, so that I could show that
the school is slightly oversubscribed. I used the interview that I had
conducted with Mr Ellis to show that the school is oversubscribed as he told me
in the interview. I had the opportunity to talk about some of the areas in
which the school does well and some places where the problems arise.
Affected learning is when I
compared what Mr Ellis said about the school and the children learning in a
class larger than 30, to what secondary sources said about learning when in a
class larger than 30. This section is
mainly for parents who will be able to see if the school believe there is a
problem with the size of the classes, to generate their own opinion on the
subject.
The Conclusion acts as a final statement where I get to explain my point of the article, as I had an opinion that I wanted to get across during the article, so having a closing statement in the conclusion is a good idea as it leaves the reader something to think about.
Mode of Address
I have made sure to use the correct mode of address to
complete the article. I have only used 3rd person when writing, to
make it seem as if it were a conversation between the writer and the audience. I have only used third person when writing the article, when there are quotes I
have left them in the first person as it is what the person interviewed said.
I have made it so that the news article is in an overarching
opinion of the question. As I am the gatekeeper for how the article is written
and how the audience will receive the news, I have been able to give my opinion
throughout with the choice of language that I have used.
I made the title a rhetorical question because I thought it
would spark interest for the reader because it makes them question if they
think Deyes is overcrowded. It also could be used to intrigue people into
wanting to find out if it is overcrowded if they don’t have an opinion already.
Overall this was a good thing to do as lots of news articles are either using a
rhetorical question, alliteration a pun or they are just a regular statement.
This mode of address is almost as if I were talking directly to the reader,
creating a sense of conversation around the article.
I have mainly used Elaborative Code as i wanted the article to be accessible for all as well as the article being seen as informative, I have chosen to write it this way because I wanted my article to act as an in-depth analysis of why the school may or may not be overcrowded. I didn't want to put an emotive spin on it as I just wanted to get the facts across. If I applied this mentality to another article I believe that the style of writing most likely represents that of a Telegraph or Independant News Article as I believe them to be the most likely to focus more on facts than sensationalising or using restrictive code to get a story across.
Monday, 16 April 2018
D1 - Sources Justification
Sources Justification
Questionnaire Results
I have created an anonymous questionnaire that I will be using to base my article in reality, as my article is asking the question, “Is Deyes High Overcrowded” I think it is safe to say that I had to ask the students inside the high school if they believed that the high school was overcrowded. This was an important questionnaire as it allowed me to see how many people had an opinion on the topic. I asked roughly twenty people and there was seventeen that said that the school was overcrowded and only three people that thought otherwise. This shows me that my article has a reason to be made as I can investigate whether the school is actually overcrowded and that I am not creating a news article that does not have a reason to be created as I believe that some people would want to know if the school is overcrowded.
Another reason that the anonymous questionnaire is a good source is that I can view the results then assume that it would be generalised with the rest of the school, this would allow me to talk about a percentage of the students in the school without having to interview them all as I can say that the questionnaire was a focus group and reflect their opinions onto the news article.
Interview Results
The interview was definitely a success as I managed to find out some important information and things that I had no thought about when creating the questionnaire that I had asked such as some of the problems when it comes to creating a good time table such as the required learning hours for lessons like English and maths as well as some of the problems when managing lessons such as the IT rooms and also the Technology and Science rooms as they need a large amount of equipment on a smaller budget, this means that the school has a harder time making sure that everyone has the correct equipment for the correct lessons, such as Bunsen burners and goggles.
Another thing about the interview is that Mr Ellis pointed me in the direction of another teacher who handles the school lunches and the dining at lunchtimes in the lower years. I cannot believe how difficult it must be to estimate how much food must need to be cooked per year, and when the school years may bring in packed lunches the expense of making large batches of food and then having to either throw some away because too much was made or having not enough for all the students to eat.
Secondary Sources Justification
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
This would be a good article to use as it would allow me to make sure that I am correct in saying that there is a larger increase in students coming to the north west and coming into secondary schools. It also has a large amount of statistics that could be used in the article to back up the supposed argument and counter what Mr Ellis had said as he believes the school is not overcrowded just yet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38506305
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
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8086642/100000-pupils-crammed-into-overcrowded-state-schools.html
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.
https://www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/school-places-crisis
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.
http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5073/1/138631.pdf
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.
Questionnaire Results
I have created an anonymous questionnaire that I will be using to base my article in reality, as my article is asking the question, “Is Deyes High Overcrowded” I think it is safe to say that I had to ask the students inside the high school if they believed that the high school was overcrowded. This was an important questionnaire as it allowed me to see how many people had an opinion on the topic. I asked roughly twenty people and there was seventeen that said that the school was overcrowded and only three people that thought otherwise. This shows me that my article has a reason to be made as I can investigate whether the school is actually overcrowded and that I am not creating a news article that does not have a reason to be created as I believe that some people would want to know if the school is overcrowded.
Another reason that the anonymous questionnaire is a good source is that I can view the results then assume that it would be generalised with the rest of the school, this would allow me to talk about a percentage of the students in the school without having to interview them all as I can say that the questionnaire was a focus group and reflect their opinions onto the news article.
Interview Results
The interview was definitely a success as I managed to find out some important information and things that I had no thought about when creating the questionnaire that I had asked such as some of the problems when it comes to creating a good time table such as the required learning hours for lessons like English and maths as well as some of the problems when managing lessons such as the IT rooms and also the Technology and Science rooms as they need a large amount of equipment on a smaller budget, this means that the school has a harder time making sure that everyone has the correct equipment for the correct lessons, such as Bunsen burners and goggles.
Another thing about the interview is that Mr Ellis pointed me in the direction of another teacher who handles the school lunches and the dining at lunchtimes in the lower years. I cannot believe how difficult it must be to estimate how much food must need to be cooked per year, and when the school years may bring in packed lunches the expense of making large batches of food and then having to either throw some away because too much was made or having not enough for all the students to eat.
Secondary Sources Justification
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
This would be a good article to use as it would allow me to make sure that I am correct in saying that there is a larger increase in students coming to the north west and coming into secondary schools. It also has a large amount of statistics that could be used in the article to back up the supposed argument and counter what Mr Ellis had said as he believes the school is not overcrowded just yet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38506305
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
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8086642/100000-pupils-crammed-into-overcrowded-state-schools.html
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.
https://www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/school-places-crisis
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.
http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5073/1/138631.pdf
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.
Sunday, 15 April 2018
P5 - News Article Draft #2
P5 - News Article
Is Deyes High Overcrowded?
In 2017 the overall number of
students enrolled in secondary school increased for the second year running,
reaching 2,797,000. Schools in the UK have seen a large rise in the volume of
students being enrolled in secondary education places. According to the school
census in 2016 there were 17,780 state secondary school children being taught
in classes with 36 or more pupils; this has been the largest amount of students
in this position ever recorded. In comparison to the 2011 census the number was
only 6,107 which has almost tripled. Students being taught in classes of 36
students or more is a large problem for many reasons, such as the cost to train
and hire teachers, cost for new facilities and equipment as well as the stress
on teachers and students.
In Deyes High there are currently
1,444 secondary school students on roll. In January 2012 there were 3,268
state-funded mainstream secondary schools in England, of which 37.5% had between
1,001 and 1,500 pupils. Deyes High falls slightly above average, (we can assume
that these numbers have risen since the study was taken).
At recent interview with Mr Ellis
who is responsible for creating Deyes High’s timetables, he was asked about how
the school is coping with the rising number of students in the North West and
the Whole of the UK. He said that “generally the year groups have around about
235 students” and that “currently year 7 have about 242”. This showed an
increase of 7 students due to successful appeals “extra places were allocated”
He confirmed that Deyes is “oversubscribed” attracting “400 to 500 applicants
each school year”. However, some of the sixth form students believed that the
school was overcrowded. In a survey of 20 people, 17 believed that the school
was overcrowded, whilst only 3 said that it was fine.
When Mr Ellis was asked about the
cost of maintaining a large school he said that the “challenges would lie more
in the practical lessons”. Subjects such as “P.E, Science and Technology” are
harder to maintain as there is a certain “health and safety aspect”. Health and
safety has to be “appropriate”. “There’s so much going on you might have a
circular saw, might have other things” Showing that the health and safety of
the students has to be considered heavily in these subjects.
Another problem that he talked
about was that there are “only so many seats, only so many Bunsen burners, so
many gas stations” Showing that there is only a certain amount of resources.
One example that he gave was that “there might only be 30 computers in a room”
and that you have to “make adjustments” one of the adjustments made this year
was that the room “A22 has been converted into a computer room, because we knew
that that was something that was going to happen, so now that we can
accommodate all those classes”
Another problem with having
larger classes is that the teaching and learning may suffer, many sources
suggest that teachers are being overburdened. One teacher said that “I have too much homework to mark. It
becomes almost impossible to give effective feedback for everyone." This
certainly shows the strain that teachers have when marking and reviewing work. Teachers
feel a responsibility for checking all of their student’s work. However, there
are many ways around having teachers mark all their students work, some of
these ways are things like peer reviews which encourage the class to think of
the solution to the problem independently and teach the students group work,
whilst also freeing up time for the teacher to focus on helping students who
are struggling. More strategies like this will be implemented more often as we
see the growing number of students increase in the UK.
One of the major problems when it comes to larger classes is that the
teachers find it difficult to keep on top of assessment and what topics need to
be consolidated as interaction with each and every student may be impossible.
When talking to Mr Ellis about the problems with large class sizes he said that
“instead of having 30, 30, 30 in the top three sets and having 20 in the set 4
group you might have more like 27 in the set 4 group” and that there is “little
difference between having 20 and 27 students in a group”. Some teachers may not
agree with this opinion, as it could depend on the subject or the teacher.
Subjects like Maths are generally quicker to mark and assess, whereas subjects
such as English can be quite time consuming.
Overall the reason that College @
Deyes students believe that the lower years are larger is that primarily the
class of 2016 and 17 were smaller year groups than normal so it seemed that
there was a larger disparity, due to the lack of the baby boom until 2002 and
onwards. The baby boom created a false illusion that the school years were getting
bigger.
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