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Plan for children being unveiled Play and learning children's plan
(about 8 hours later)
The government is unveiling its 10-year "vision" for children, which includes proposals to ask schools in England to provide wider services for parents. The Children's Plan, a £1bn 10-year strategy for education, welfare and play, has been set out by ministers.
This could include help with housing, benefits, parenting skills and health within school-based centres. It includes changes to the primary school curriculum and the possible end of the Sats tests in England by 2009.
It is also planning to make millions of pounds available to refurbish playgrounds in an attempt to increase play opportunities for children. The wide-ranging plan promises 3,500 playgrounds, flexible school starts for summer babies and more information for parents about children's progress.
But heads have warned schools cannot "correct all the ills of society". Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the mission was to make "our country the best place in the world to grow up".
The 10-year Children's Plan will also call for more information for parents about their children's learning and behaviour. The Children's Plan draws together the government's proposals to improve children's learning and well-being by 2020.
And it will propose a review of the primary curriculum in England and a shift to a more flexible form of testing. Right to play
Commercial pressure It promises more safe places for children to play - with £225m for upgrading 3,500 playgrounds and the creation of an extra 30 supervised adventure playgrounds.
There will be moves to protect youngsters from excessive commercial pressures - including advertising that makes children worry about their appearance and weight or which "sexualises" young girls. KEY POINTS play spaces for "tweenagers" (aged eight-13) with £225m to build or upgrade 3,500 community playgrounds end to "no ball games" culture - bringing importance of play into public spaces and planning £160m for positive activities for young people in sport, drama, art 20,000 two-year-olds from disadvantaged families to get free childcare "stage not age" testing in schoolsreview of primary curriculum, including more help for summer-born childrenreview of child and adolescent mental health servicesreview of sex education better contact between schools and parentsparents' council in every secondary schoolpublic services to engage both the father and mother in decisions about their childbetter support for parents and children during and after family breakdownmore help for children with special educational needsall new teachers to be able to study for a Masters degree
HAVE YOUR SAY Let the education professionals do their job, and keep the politicians out of education Dr Martin Moxham, Hoddesdon class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=3920&edition=1">Send us your comments The importance of children having somewhere safe to play outside will also be emphasised. "We want to move away from the 'No Ball Games' culture of the past so that public spaces in residential areas are more child friendly," says the plan.
The consultation that led to the plan particularly recognised the need for spaces to play and let off steam for eight to 13-year-olds. For older children, there will be £160m for refurbishing or building new youth centres.
Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls is expected to press for an end to what he calls the "no ball games here" culture. The plan makes clear that a current pilot for a different type of test for 11-year-olds "could lead to the end of the key stage tests by 2009". But Mr Balls emphasised that school league tables would continue.
Welfare centres There are also tougher targets for primary schools - with the aim of 90% of 11-year-old pupils reaching the expected benchmarks for English and maths.
Hundreds of millions of pounds in government grants to modernise playgrounds in every neighbourhood are expected to be made available over the next three years. To achieve this there is to be a "root and branch" review of the primary school curriculum - including making modern languages compulsory.
The plan, to be announced on Tuesday by Mr Balls, will mark a further move towards schools becoming centres for family welfare services as well as teaching pupils. Weak teachers, whose "competence falls to unacceptably low levels", face the threat of being removed from the profession.
Schools are increasingly being seen as one of the few agencies that can effectively reach families facing difficulties - and their role is being expanded into areas once associated with social services. How independent can a review be when it is given such a specific remit? class="" href="/1/hi/education/7139278.stm">What will the review mean? Children born in August, who would be the youngest in a school year, could have a more flexible entry date for school - with the option of starting a year later.
For pupils, there are already mentors and counsellors and "extended" schools offer breakfast in the mornings and childcare activities into the early evening. There will be £200m for extra childcare provision for two year olds for 20,000 families in deprived areas.
But the government now wants schools to do more to support parents - with the type of family services on offer in children's centres being extended to schools. The plan emphasises the need for more support and information for parents - including updated progress reports on children's learning and behaviour, using mobile phones and the internet.
'Overload' When schools are being built or refurbished, the plan says that they should include accommodation for advice services for parents - in areas such as housing, benefits, parenting skills and health.
Social services information and welfare support for parents will be located in school buildings, along with counselling and advice for helping with their children's behaviour or health problems. There will be £167m to fund parenting advisers and to improve "family learning".
There have been concerns that parents of secondary school pupils feel cut off from finding out about their children's progress and there will be initiatives to make information more available to parents. The transition into secondary school will also be improved by pupils having an individual member of staff as a contact point for parents.
This could include using websites and e-mail to keep parents in touch with teachers and a "parents council" for parents to have more say in schools. Youth offending
The plan will also propose a "parents panel" which will advise the government on family policy. There is also a shift in youth justice - with the introduction of an option for "restorative justice", in which offenders, rather than being taken to court, will be taken by the police to confront the damage caused by their actions.
But the Association of School and College Leaders, representing head teachers and senior staff, has cautioned that schools could become "overloaded" by such expectations. HAVE YOUR SAY Let the education professionals do their job, and keep the politicians out of education Dr Martin Moxham, Hoddesdon class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=3920&edition=1">Send us your comments class="" href="/1/hi/education/7138816.stm">Children have their own ideas The importance of children having somewhere safe to play outside is also emphasised.
The heads' union says the government increasingly sees schools as a "lever" to achieve its social policy, but it warns that if this is overused it will leave schools facing an unachievable number of competing demands. Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said this had "really great potential" because teenage offenders often "don't have a clue about the impact of their actions".
A pilot restorative justice project had seen a substantial reduction in youth re-offending, said Ms Hughes.
There will be £44m spent on raising teaching standards, with the aim of making teaching a "masters-level profession", with all new teachers encouraged to take a masters-level qualification.
The plan marks a much wider remit for the Children, Schools and Families Department than the former education department - with policies for family life that reach far beyond the classroom.
It also sets out a vision of schools as centres for social services and child welfare far beyond their traditional role of teaching children and preparing them for qualifications.
'Missed opportunity'
The Shadow Children's Secretary, Michael Gove, dismissed the plan as a "missed opportunity" which was "an underwhelming collage with items stuck on any old how and no underlying vision".
"Instead of a broad and deep vision we have had a disappointingly hesitant and patchy programme, which betrays an itch to intervene but no grasp of the real problems," said Mr Gove.
The Liberal Democrats' children's spokesman, David Laws, rejected this "mouse of a plan" - saying it was "nothing more than a hotchpotch of reviews, recycled policies and gimmicks - with the unifying theme of a belief in top-down big government solutions".
The National Union of Teachers welcomed the move to make teaching a masters-degree profession - saying that it was "an idea whose time has come".
The Institute of Directors cautioned that the "government's record on long term policy plans is chequered. This one has to deliver if we are actually to have a world class education system, rather than just talk about one".
The CBI's director-general, Richard Lambert, said that employers welcomed the plans to improve the basics of literacy and numeracy, warning that "too many people currently leave school without mastering these basics".