The Welsh education system is engaging in a wide-ranging series of reforms and, as part of these reforms, is moving towards an accountability system that aims to work collaboratively with teachers and school leaders in a self-improving system. The aspiration is to move away from accountability structures that are built around high-stakes…

This article is a piece of "fiction written under oath." It reports two key findings of a doctoral research project, which investigated English teachers' reactions to the abolition of Year 9 SATs in England and in Wales. The research showed that in both countries, English teachers' pedagogical repertoires have widened as a result of the…

In Ireland and the UK it is accepted practice that agencies with formal responsibility for delivering school examinations allow examination candidates, and in many cases their teachers, to see their examination papers once they have been marked. Returned papers can carry various pieces of information; as well as the total score given for a…

This paper looks at Ofsted and particularly special measures regimes as part of a disciplinary mechanism. It examines issues such as school effectiveness theories, the increasing powers of Ofsted, and life under special measures and links it to performativity, discipline and surveillance using the metaphor of the panopticon. The change in…

Reviews the OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) school inspection system, based on interviews with 37 teachers at 6 Welsh secondary schools. Inspections emphasize judgment at the expense of advice and can be unnecessarily stressful. The process could be improved by giving shorter periods of notice, reducing required documentation, providing…

The (British) National Curriculum Council emphasizes the importance of cross-phase curriculum continuity when students pass from primary to secondary learning stages. This article summarizes results of a survey examining how primary-secondary school liaisons handled one cross-curricular theme--economic and industrial understanding--across years…

Reports on ways English primary teachers' work perspectives changed following the 1988 Education Reform Act, noting the significance of teacher professionalism as a mediating influence. Most teachers had changed their teaching approach, classroom practice, and role perceptions in ways they did not choose, resulting in pressure and loss of…

All British schools have been required since 1999 to have signed home-school agreements in place. Results of a national study that solicited stakeholders' responses failed to vindicate the government's view that such agreements provide a framework for improved home-school partnerships. (Contains 14 references.) (MLH)

Summarizes findings of a two-year study of two locally managed Welsh secondary schools' need for support and resources. Discusses resource needs resulting from expansion and diversification of the sixth-form curriculum. Discusses implications of encouraging students to stay on in the sixth form and the factors influencing their decision making.…

Interviews 50 primary school head teachers, 304 primary teachers, and 223 secondary department heads in England and Wales to evaluate the National Curriculum's impact. Reveals primary personnel's concern for increased assessment and recordkeeping and secondary heads' concern over language and science instruction. Discovers anxiety over curricular…