In this podcast, Dave Jobbings interviews Carlton Midgley, the coordinator of the Halifax Excellence Cluster to gain some insight into effective support to secure improvements in a group of 27 schools in the Metropolitan District of Calderdale, West Yorkshire in England. Carlton Midgley took up his post in January 2004 after a successful period directing the work of the Halifax Learning Zone. Not only has Carlton experience of secondary headship, he has a wide range of expertise in inspection and advisory services at a senior level. He also works as an educational consultant with national organisations, schools and colleges. In the UK, all of the Excellence Clusters are funded by the Department of Education and Skills. The Halifax Cluster is the largest and started operation in January 2004 and is funded until March 2008. Read an overview of the Halifax Excellence Cluster.

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Work in education and schools in the UK is in full swing now that the New Year is well under way. In this podcast: subject conference reports from the Office for Standards in Education, covering the period 2004-05, and a leaflet about the next steps where provision at a childcare and/or nursery is judged to be "inadequate" changes to GCSE Mathematics from September 2006 from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority the National College for School Leadership publishes further details about the primary SIP programme draft proposals on professional standards for teachers from the Training and Development Agency for schools the Achievement and Attainment Tables are published by the Department for Education and Skills government funding provides the opportunity for all state schools to provide a Computer Clubs for Girls

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In this podcast, Dave Jobbings interviews Sue Mansfield, the headteacher, to gain some insight into the effective school improvement that has taken place at a school where the GCSE results had been fluctuating for a number of years prior to 2002. Sue Mansfield took up her headship in September 2002. On her arrival, the GCSE results had just dipped to their lowest ever level with only 29% achieving the recognised standard of five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C. Sue took steps to stabilise and improve performance, to build the confidence of staff and parents and to raise the profile of the school within the local community. Salt Grammar School is an 11-18 non-selective school with over 1400 pupils on roll and more than 200 in the 6th form. This specialist school in maths and computing, is located in Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, the UK. More details about Salt grammar School: The school's website at www.saltgrammar.co.uk The school's OFSTED report, published in January 2005 (a PDF document to download) An overview of the school's performance in the DFES tables

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Half term is over for most schools in the UK and a lot has been happening as usual! In this edition, the DFES have published the much heralded White Paper and have also launched consultation on SEN Support and Outreach Services. The QCA have published a booklet on the future directions for subjects and OfSTED have published the Annual Report from HM Chief Inspector for 2004-05. Finally, nominations for the Teacher Awards for 2006 are now being taken.

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This special edition is an interview with David Kershaw C.B.E., an accredited School Improvement Partner (SIP). the SIP programme is part of the New Relationship with Schools agenda of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Since retiring as a very successful head teacher, David has worked in a wide range of secondary school improvement activities for the benefit of the students. He talks about the SIP pilot, shares his experience of assessment and training and outlines the type of work he has undertaken with three pilot schools. Further details about the SIP programme, including links to the key websites, are provided at www.recap.ltd.uk. Comments and feedback are most welcome via our website.

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It's back to school for teachers in the UK after the long, summer holidays. So to start the new term here are five educational news items to get you started! The first is a DFES e-consultation on creating a single inspectorate; three reports from OFSTED on the Early Years; the proposed merger of the PANDA and PAT information for schools; the test dates for Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Year 7 progress tests from the QCA and some case studies on using performance data.

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News items still appear during the summer holidays and August 2005 is no different! In this podcast from RECAP Digital Radio, a report is published by the NCSL on "Gender and headship in the 21 century"; two publications from the LSDA about partnerships that work and business links with education; and, the DFES announce progress with the Music Manifesto after the launch over 12 months ago.

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As the end of term approaches in the UK, more educational news items via this RECAP Limited podcast. From the NCSL an on-line training package for head teachers and governors as well as an associate report on the impact of e-communication for head teachers of small schools. A range of new publications from OfSTED about improving behaviour and attendance, drug education and promoting health minds. The final item is the publication of the Youth Matters Green Paper by the DFES earlier this week.

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There are two items each from OFSTED and NCSL in this edu-news podcast. From OFSTED a report on the writing of bilingual learners at Key Stage 2 as well as some guidance on writing a school self-evaluation form. The NCSL announces on-line collaboration for subject coordinators and leading teachers in primary numeracy, literacy and science. NCSL also announce that new software, called Matrix, is available on-line to help with school self-evaluation and action planning.

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This edu-podcast includes a series of leaflets and publications from OFSTED about the new inspection arrangements, information on special education needs and 'low attaining pupils' from the DFES and, finally, materials on self-evaluation for schools from the NCSL.

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Items in this news podcast include a report from OFSTED on implementing modern foreign languages entitlement in Key Stage 4, information published by the DFES on permanent and fixed term exclusions for 2003-2004 and also from the DFES, information on school attendance for the Spring Term 2005.

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In our education news podcast, items include a conference on Networked Learning Communities being held in Birmingham (UK) on 23 June, a guidance pack for schools on P scales (QCA) and the first meeting - today - of the expert group on behaviour and discipline.

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Items this edition include a Computer Club for Girls network, to be funded by the DfES and two new publications from OfSTED. The first OfSTED report is research on the relevance of education to the workforce, the second is a study of work-related learning for 14-19 year olds in Denmark, the Netherlands and New South Wales, Australia.

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This podcast includes a newly published materials from NCSL on learning-centred leadership, the DFES review of synthetic phonics in reading, an OfSTED publication of a new course on SEN for mainstream schools and the DfES launch of the extended-schools prospectus.

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A booklet about Investors in People with case study examples, on-line SEF demonstration and tutorials are provided on the OfSTED website, the DfES announce a leadership group to look at pupil discipline, an article about exploiting the educational potential of podcasting.

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OfSTED makes available a draft of the new framework for school inspections, the DfES launch an e-consultation on vetting following the Bichard enquiry, a BBC correspondent review of the education policies in the manifestos of the three main political parties for the election.

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OfSTED makes available the self-evaluation form (SEF) for schools, a new booklet from the NCSL on leading personalised learning and an OfSTED announcement on the go-ahead for the new inspections.

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A DfES publication about an e-Strategy for the next five years, a DfES prospectus on Education Improvement Partnerships and information from the NCSL about on-line materials for learning-centred leadership.

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A DfES initiative on the teaching of modern foreign languages in primary schools, a publication from OfSTED/DfES on using self-evaluation in school improvement and a project launched by the QCA about the future of English in the curriculum.

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This podcast is a brief introduction to podcasting via RECAP's on-line digital radio and briefly outlines what future episodes will contain an Education Newsround (UK), items on teaching and learning and items on school improvement.

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