This article presents the results of a study, conducted in parts of Wales and southwest England, focusing on what literature is being taught to learners aged 11-14 years. By exploring this area, we gain insight into influences on teacher choices and the challenges faced by teachers. Our research, which included a survey of over 170 teachers as…

The Key Stage 2 Reading Standard Assessment Test (SAT) is a national test of reading comprehension taken by all 11-year olds in state schools in England. The results of this high-stakes test are used for accountability and comparative purposes. While it is acknowledged that these uses have a negative impact on both schools and pupils [Education…

There is growing concern about the mental wellbeing of young people, including how this is related to national tests. This is a particularly important policy issue in England, where it is claimed that the end of primary Key Stage 2 tests cause schools, pupils and teachers stress. I investigate this issue using data from the Millennium Cohort…

This study explores the integration of Design Thinking into the Key Stage 3 Design and Technology (D&T) curriculum at a school in North-West England, focusing on fostering 21st-Century Skills alongside subject-specific knowledge. The research draws on a multiple case study approach derived from the 'Solving Genuine Problems for Authentic Users…

This paper theorises empirical findings from a school in the north of England in order to contribute to theoretical understandings of racial microaggressions, particularly micro-assaults. In so doing, the paper argues that during the teaching of Black History, micro-assaults were articulated as racist humour and stereotyping, to increase tolerance…

Analyzes and compares children's interpretations of metaphors used in a science text and their teacher's use of explanatory metaphor to identify key processes in metaphor understanding and to suggest factors that contribute to successful use of metaphor in learning science. Adopts a Vygotskian socio cognitive approach to metaphor in discourse. (BT)

Examines the reading standards of eight cohorts (years 1989 to 1996) of Year 6 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority in England. Finds little movement in the mean scores of the eight cohorts over time and, in fact, there has been a slight but significant decline in mean scores. (RS)

The author proposes a design for science instruction in the middle school years, ages 9-13. (SJL)

The purposes of this paper are twofold: (1) to propose a dual perspective combining cultural and political concepts as a basis for developing sociological understanding of teamwork in school leadership; and (2) to apply this perspective to examples from the interim findings of the research into senior management teams (SMT) in English secondary…

The assertion that the guaranteed anonymity of the respondent is an essential aspect of the accurate measurement of attitude by means of questionnaires was tested among children in relationship to a questionnaire measuring attitude towards religion. No significant difference in attitude scores was found. (Author/GK)

Proposes that the gaps and contradictions in and between educational theory and practice, as seen in educational institutions, are a product of the social and historical location of middle schools, and that alternative conditions are therefore possible. Indicates, with reference to expressions of attitudes to middle schools made by those involved…

Are the children now attending primary schools and transferring to secondary education at 11 + necessarily at a serious disadvantage educationally as compared with their contemporaries who transfer at 8 or 9 (or even 10) to a middle school, and enter a secondary school at 12 or 13 (or even 14)? In attempting to answer this question considers the…

Seventy-two 11-year-old students were tested on 32 dictated words containing two levels of both visual and phonemic complexity. Students were grouped within sexes on their extraversion scores on the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory and quotients on the Raven's Matrices. Spelling performance was found to interact significantly with level of…

This paper examines the ways in which a small number of school principals in England and Wales are making changes in their management structures and processes to cope with an increasingly turbulent environment. Using evidence on a comparative basis from organizations outside education, this paper looks at the way in which a number of principals…

The central theme here is that the educational arguments relating to middle schools have been used as a front for economic and sometimes political expediency. Suggests that it is time to begin a more rigorous appraisal of the achievements and shortcomings of the various organizational patterns used to educate children during the middle years of…