CITIZENS

24 October April/May 2015 2011
Education
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Summer babies to
be given delayed
school start
By Rosie Quigley
Minister of State for Schools,
Nick Gibb has called for the
need for changes to school
admission rules aimed at children born
in summer. In a recent open letter, MP
Nick Gibb announced that a new set
of rules would allow for children, born
between 1st April and 31st August,
to begin reception a year later if their
parents believe this to be beneficial.
Parents of children born within the
specified dates will be given the right to
postpone their child’s school start for a
year, without the child needing to skip
an academic year to catch up.
The current Schools’ Admissions
Code requires a decision to be made
by the admission authority based on
the best interests of the child. The
Code also requires that the admission
authorities provide admission of all
children on September following their
fourth birthday; this is usually the
time when the parents feel confident
in their child’s ability to cope with the
classroom environment. However, in his
letter, Gibb describes the current Code
as ‘flawed’. He describes the concerns
of parents who have experienced
difficulties with the current Code and
the implications it has for their children:
“It is clear, however, that this system
is flawed, with parents and admission
authorities often failing to agree on
what is in the child’s best interests.” The
consequences of this, Gibb says, is that:
“They either feel forced to send their
child to school before they are ready and
before they are required to do so, or else
miss out on their reception year at school
where the essential teaching of early
reading and arithmetic takes place.”
A 2013 report compiled by the
Institute for Fiscal Studies shows stark
differences in academic capability
between students born at the beginning
of the academic year and those born
at the end. The report states: “Augustborn
pupils are 6.4 percentage points
less likely to achieve five A*–C grades
in GCSE or equivalent exams, which
is the standard typically required for
young people to continue into further
or higher education. Such differences
may therefore have potentially serious
consequences for young people’s postcompulsory
education decisions.”
It is for this reason, then, that Gibb
has decided to amend The Code and its
rules regarding academic admissions in
what can only be assumed as an attempt
to provide the best start for students who
are at risk of underachieving. Gibb says
that the current Schools Admissions
Code is to be amended so that, “summer
born children can be admitted to the
reception class at the age of five if it is
in line with their parents’ wishes, and
to ensure that those children are able to
remain with that cohort as they progress
through school, including through to
secondary school.”
For the time being, Gibb’s proposed
amendments are still awaiting
Parliamentary review for approval and
a public consultation is soon to be
launched.
Gender Gaps
in Higher
Education
By Fergus Coltsmann
There are a number of prominent
‘gender gaps’ at play in the Higher
Education (HE) sector in the UK.
Women are currently more likely to
enter HE than men. Women made up
55% of the 2014 intake to undergraduate
courses. Women aged 18 were around
a third more likely than men to both
apply for and enter university, and by
19 years old 44% of women were in HE
compared to 35% of men. Women from
disadvantaged areas were 50% more
likely to enter HE than men from the
same areas.
The second big gender gap in HE,
which has received some prominent press
attention recently, is the sort of subjects
that men and women take and the lack
of women choosing STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and maths)
subjects. For example, more than 85% of
intakes onto engineering and computer
science courses in 2014 were men. This
gap is further illustrated if we examine
a couple London universities. Imperial
College London, one of the world’s
best science institutes, is predominantly
male – men represented 66% of its
2013 intake. Compare this with the east
London artsy Goldsmiths, where 66% of
its 2013 intake were women. There are
some STEM areas where women lead
though, for example in ‘subjects allied
to medicine’ – which includes nursing
and midwifery – 81% of the 2014
in-take were women. However many
commentators are quick to suggest that
the crucial point of this issue is that there
are some subjects, such as the STEM
ones, which are seen as ‘traditionally
male’, and others, like education and
other arts, which are seen as ‘traditionally
female’; and that it is this perception
which should be tackled.
Does this gender gap in HE play
out further in life? While only 6 of the
CEO’s of FTSE 100 companies are
women, it does appear that a prevalence
toward the arts is not the reason for
this. Of the six, only Imperial Tobacco’s
Alison Cooper studied the sciences at
university, reading Mathematics and
Statistics at Bristol. However, according
to the app ‘Where do CEOs come from’
using data from July 2014, BAs are the
most common qualification for leaders
of FTSE 100’s, followed by MBAs and
then BScs – with fifteen CEOs having
a BSc as their highest qualification.
Economics (which varies between
being a BA and a BSc from institution
to institution) followed by Business
Administration were, as you might
expect, the two most popular courses.
Westminster Uni
invests in iPads
The University of Westminster is
equipping over 2000 of its students
with iPads. The second and third year
students, studying with the Faculty of
Science and Technology, have been given
the iPads to use until their graduation,
along with 250 members of staff.
The pilot, costing over £1 million,
is a part of the university’s ‘Learning
Futures Project’, one of which’s aims is
to eventually lead to a paperless learning
environment, and is self-described as
“a dynamic new programme which has
been set up to develop new forms of
learning and teaching”.
With the tablets, students and staff
will be able to share content across the
tools available on the iPad, and interact
through the use of video and audio
content on a single platform. The hope
is that by providing students with iPads
it will allow them to interact closely with
lecturers. Students and staff are receiving
training in how best to use the devices.
Professor Jane Lewis, Dean of the
Faculty of Science and Technology said
of the project: “Students today require
a more technologically focused student
experience that enables them to learn
anywhere, anytime; and at the University
of Westminster we are committed
to providing this dynamic learning
environment. Mobile learning has been
a core part of our existing strategic plans
to improve student learning experiences
and their interaction and collaboration
with staff. It reflects our commitment
to advancing our teaching methods and
ensuring that we are at the forefront of
developing and implementing cutting
edge learning through the use of
technology. Being one of the first UK
Universities to launch such a wide scale
push for mobile learning is a testament
to our focus on enhancing the learning
experience for students and making it
relevant in a rapidly changing digital
landscape.”
Photograph © Westminster University