We all know that the government has been driving advertisement campaigns to encourage more people to take up teaching as a profession and now it appears that it has paid off. This year has been the first year in which the number of people joining teacher training courses has exceeded the government’s targets.

This may be due to the recession and the fact that people are now re-thinking their careers, or others wanting to stay in education for a bit longer until the worst of the recession is over. Whatever the reason these courses are not only seeing an increase in numbers but also an increase in the quality of candidates. In the subject of Maths alone the government’s target has been exceeded by 8%.

This can only be a good thing for things for school pupils ensuring that the quality of teachers remains high. However it remains to be seen how many of the people starting these courses will complete them and go on to stay in the teaching profession without being put off by the increasing number of other government targets set for teachers. The government may be able to get people to take up the profession but getting them to stay there is another matter.

Children in Need celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, and managed to raise even more money than last year on the night. This is a real achievement, especially as we are currently in a recession, proving that the British Public really do rise to the challenge and continue to give generously to worthy causes.

Children love getting involved in fundraising and if you’re a teacher looking for fundraising ideas for your school, a great way to raise money over the coming month is to get your pupils to be creative and create Christmas cards which can then be sold to the local community in order to raise money for charity. Creating Christmas Cards are a great way for school children to have fun, and express their creativity as well as raising money for good causes, whether it s for Children In Need or their own school. People like unique Christmas cards and during the season of good will be happy to know that by buying one of these cards they will be helping others. The Cards can be created cheaply; All that’s required are some crayons, paint, and perhaps a little bit of glitter. It couldn’t be easier; The kids will have a great time and your school could benefit from the money raised.

Teachers have a hard time lately. They have more targets to hit than ever before and are having to cope with an increase in the number of unruly children in the classroom, but the government are set to make things even tougher. From 2010 every newly qualified teacher will be given a license to teach. After five years this license will expire and a teacher will need to re-apply for their license. This is part of the government’s aim to boost the profession’s status. However Ed Balls the Education Secretary is due to receive over 11,000 postcards from teachers protesting about these plans.

Teachers already face routine assessments as part of teacher training and Ofsted inspections so will this new policy put yet more pressure on them resulting in a detrimental effect where more teachers leave the profession or where young people are put of taking up the profession altogether?

In these days of equality it seems that faith schools are lagging behind. This criticism comes from the National Secular Society who are arguing that current government legislation discriminates against well qualified capable teachers who are non religious.

They state that teachers who are not religious are refused jobs or promotions over those teachers that a members of a faith.

The School Standards and Framework Act of 1998 means faith schools are able to take into account an applicant’s religion or lack of it to ensure that any teachers employed at the school follow their religious ethos, and this is what the National Secular Society are angry about.

Surely this goes against equality, and in my eyes a good teacher is a good teacher whether they are religious or not. For me the compromise would be to ensure that a religious teacher takes classes on Religious Education in Faith schools, while non religious teachers carry on with all the other lessons.

Bullying has always been a problem in schools, but now children are suffering from it out of school hours in the form of cyberbullying. Cyberbullies use the internet or mobile phones to bully other children, and with the rise of social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace the problem is only getting worse.

One of the main problems is that many children are able to go on the internet in their home unsupervised by their parents. Also, many parents are allowing their children to have mobile phones at much younger ages.
Cyberbullying is becoming a big problem, and both schools and parents need to do more to stop this.

If you are a child that is worried about cyberbullying or you are worried about your child suffering from this then there are steps that you can take to help things:

• Don’t give out details such as your email address or phone number online
• If you are being bullied, keep the evidence so that the culprit can be caught
• Regularly check your friends list to make sure that you only have the people you want on there
• Most important of all, if you are being bullied it is important that you let someone you trust know. This could be your parents, a brother or sister, or a teacher at school. Once they know about the problem they will be able to do something about it.

Every child deserves to get a good education, and every parent wants their child to go to a good school. The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be enough god schools to go around. With this problem, the best schools are finding that an increasing number of parents are lying to win their child the school place they want. This has involved lying about a child’s religion as well as lying about where their child lives.

This is very unfair on those parents who follow the rules and who miss out on getting their child a place at their school of choice because other parents have cheated the system, but now the government are planning to do something about it.

Ed Balls the schools secretary, revealed this month that he will be recommending tougher penalties for those parents who try to cheat the system. These sanctions have not yet been decided upon, but Ed Balls has already stated that he will be backing the use of lotteries to allocate some school places, and will also be recommending that twins should be entitles to go to the same school, even when places are scarce.

It seems to me that a better option than penalising parents who are only trying to do the best for their children would be to ensure that all schools are of a high standard, so that every child gets a good education.