From a science teacher in the north: T oday I discussed with an assistant principal ‘changes in Science’. He gave a cursory glance to my hand-crafted curriculum plan and within a matter of moments came to the decision that we would be doing away with KS3 (11-14 year old teaching content). The rapidity of this decision suggested to me that we had not made this momentous decision but that in fact they had come to this decision weeks ago. ‘Instead we shall prepare our students for GCSEs’, I was amazed, this was revolutionary! ‘We shall look at the GCSE content, we shall identify what will appear on this exam and we shall teach that.’ ‘We are an academy, we don’t have to stick to the national curriculum.’ Therefore, we won’t, apparently. ‘So what will we do?’ (I didn’t say ‘oh wise one’ but it was the moment for it) ‘We shall teach the GCSE curriculum in a simple way, this will take 2 years. We will teach it to a higher level, this will take 2 years. Then we ...

Young and feeling like getting involved in the wider Trade Union movement? Then have a read of this that's come through from the TUC. Dear Colleague, November is Young Workers Month, where we ask unions and young trade unionists to take some action to showcase the work of trade unions campaigning on issues that are important to young workers. The Young Workers Conference this year has prioritised campaigning on high quality apprenticeships and also the pay of young workers. Our research as part of our ‘Reaching Out to Young Workers’ programme has also highlighted a number of key concerns young workers have, including family friendly working for young parents, getting on and progressing at work and a lack of advice and career and skills guidance. The TUC published a new report at its Congress last month, ‘Getting by and getting on’ where you can find more information about young workers and key workplace issues and our earlier research listening to young workers, w...