A strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy: the PSCC scheme

This paper focuses upon a long-term strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy within secondary schools. It utilises a tiered colour-coded concept to monitor the progress of pupils within the groups and subsequently take the appropriate action. The PSCC scheme combines attainment and attendance data collected from pupils' primary schools with monitoring and enhancement strategies within the secondary school. The scheme enables schools to tackle their long-term absentees and erratic attenders as well as those who have learning and/or special needs. Over a five-year period, properly implemented, the scheme has the potential to help to transform the prevailing culture within low attendance schools. The PSCC model utilises school change strategies in a dynamic manner in order to improve the attendance, behaviour and learning support needs of pupils which, in turn, can help to raise standards and attainment levels. It can also help to improve parents' attitudes towards their children's school. Finally, it provides a managerial focal point for staff to combat pupils' absence utilising a whole school approach.     

The Implications of Every Child Matters and the Children Act for Schools

This article explores the implications of the publication of the Green Paper on Every Child Matters , which proposes the most radical changes in services for children and their families since the Children's Act, 1988. The Green Paper focuses upon improving every level of professional support for children perceived to be vulnerable and in need. The legislation and subsequent changes will bring about a whole new agenda and philosophy that will directly or indirectly involve every school, teacher, paraprofessional and educational support service. It will also involve changes in supporting parents and carers, and lead to earlier intervention, more accountability and integration between services as well as enhancing workforce reform. In conjunction with the Anti-Social Behaviour Act, 2003, it will provide a new impetus for tackling truancy and disruptive conduct. It is also likely to lead to a rethink about the wider role of schools and aspects of pastoral care practice. Its implementation will require a reassessment of the continuing professional training needs of all teachers and senior professionals working in schools and in related activities such as education social work. The legislation will mean that schools are likely to become all-the-year-round community centres with amended opening hours in order to meet the needs of disadvantaged youngsters and their families.     

Transactions in primary physical education in the UK: a smorgasbord of looks-like-sport

Background: Crum proposes the term ‘movement culture’ as a means to best understand the relationships between PE and wider movement practices. Learning within movement culture is practical and embodied, and integral to the cultural and institutional contexts within which PE is situated. Purpose: Using visual data gathered from PE lessons within a UK primary school this paper aims to identify movement cultures across the observed PE lessons, and understand how these movement cultures are shaped and maintained by analysing how teachers and pupils' actions-in-on-going-events make the movement cultures something ‘in-common’. Participants, research design and data collection: A mixture of Year 5 and 6 PE lessons were video recorded within a primary school in the West Midlands. Careful attention was paid to the ethical considerations involved in the collection and storage of the data. Data analysis: By dissolving the dualism between an individual and their environment, Dewey and Bentley's (1949/1991) transactional theory of learning supports an analysis of action in context. Application of this theory enables the researcher to explore actions-in-on-going activities and understand how this action shapes the movement culture within which it occurs. In this process we did not use theory to deduce the participants' intensions or potential changes in their cognitive structures; rather it was the functions' actions constituted in the observed situation, which lead the analysis. Findings: The existence of a multi-activity idea of sampling different sports within this study of primary PE amounted to eating from a smorgasbord where the flavours of the dishes initially looked different, but actually tasted the same. Each dish was differentiated by the use of contrasting equipment, physical locations and named activities. In reality what was realised was a diluted, repetitive and overriding flavour of looks-like-sport. Pupils were tasked with actions which functioned to produce a stage managed show of controlled activity. This was supplemented by their compliance to strict behaviour codes and by attempting to make highly cooperative tasks and games work. This was aided by the adoption and acceptance of different roles. Succeeding within this movement culture demanded an implicit understanding of the need to coordinate actions with others cooperatively. Conclusions: The standout flavour within this smorgasbord involved gymnastics, where the removal of competition and provision of space for pupils to re-actualise their knowledge, created an interesting blend of pupil engagement, sustained physical activity, creativity, inclusion and cooperation. These interesting flavours may have been curtailed by a need to replicate movements acceptable to doing gymnastics-for-real and suggests that other forms of looks-like-sport may have the potential to elicit similar action. Continued investigation of the directions of actions-in-context-in-PE-settings would aid our understanding of the creation, nature and reproduction of learning experiences within this looks-like-sport movement culture. More specifically, analysis of the educational content and pedagogy of the recorded PE lessons within this school would support our understanding of how teachers and pupils negotiate the complex mix of educational, sport and health discourses that constitute the looks-like-sport movement culture.     

‘Learning the basics’: young people’s engagement with sexuality education at secondary schools

School-based sexuality education remains a key response to the HIV epidemic. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study, this study explores how young people engage with sexuality and HIV- and AIDS-related education as it is delivered through the Life Orientation (LO) learning area in South Africa, in order to understand the dynamics that support or hinder engagement. Focus group discussions were held with Grade 9 and 11 learners (aged 14–18 years) from 16 randomly selected public secondary schools across three provincial districts. Results show that enjoyment of LO education was related to perceived relevance and distinctiveness, informal lesson delivery, subjective assessment standards and seemingly minimal effort. However, the perception of reduced effort tarnished the status of LO and young people’s motivation to participate. Learner engagement is influenced by a variety of cognitive, affective and behavioural pathways including internalised discourse around HIV and AIDS, gender and sexuality; the quality of youth–educator relations and teaching competencies; peer pressures; and broader cultural dynamics. The cultivation of a learning environment in which young people share and debate their views promotes engagement and critical thinking. In-service and pre-service educator training, structured activity plans and monitoring are recommended to advance the content knowledge and pedagogy of educators.     

Jordanian and British Primary Schoolchildren's Attitudes Towards the Environment

The paper explores the important but neglected field of primary schoolchildren's attitudes towards the environment using a specifically designed scale in Arabic and English. It reports attitude differences towards the environment and three domains -- pollution, waste and animals and plants -- according to nationality and gender. Overall the findings show that environmental education programmes produce only slightly positive attitudes. Consideration is given to the further research required to enhance such programmes.     

Hidden treasure: successful international doctoral students who found and harnessed the hidden curriculum

This paper draws from an institutionally-funded phenomenological study of international PhD students’ academic acculturation, which focuses on the distinctive strengths, challenges, and hidden opportunities facing this cohort within the context of their transition from one academic culture to another. The first section introduces the theoretical base employed in the study and is then followed by exploring the conceptualisations of the hidden curriculum and its associated concepts: ‘the third space’ and ‘darkness in higher education’. Drawing upon our study findings, the second section illustrates practical exemplars of finding and harnessing the hidden curriculum. Without discounting the wide range of formal and informal institutional support provisions designed to facilitate international PhD students’ acculturation to a new academic setting, our study findings strongly endorse that students themselves have a crucial role to play in their complex transitional journey. Our study also offers a unique insight, i.e. if found, the hidden curriculum is an effective tool not only for international PhD students’ coping and survival but even more importantly, in thriving in new societal and academic contexts.