SNP disregards manifesto with major tax rises

The SNP has broken a major election manifesto pledge and raised taxes for nearly half the Scottish population compared to the rest of the UK. A million Scots earning as little as £26,000 will pay more income tax than if they lived in England following the radical overhaul of the levy.

THE best teachers should be put in reception classes to have the biggest impact on a child’s education, a study has found.

Children who were taught well in their first year of school went on to achieve better GCSE results in English and maths, according to researchers at Durham University’s Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring.

The research paper analysed the development of 40,000 children in England at age four until age 16.

Prof Peter Tymms, who led the research, said that the study highlights the “lasting benefits” of good-quality educational provision.

“Boosts in attainment from effective classes in Key Stages 1 and 2 also had long-term benefits, but not as large as those seen in the first year of school,” he said. “There should be a focus on the placement of high-quality teachers to ensure that all children experience an effective first year of school.”

It is already widely accepted that high quality early years and pre-school provision is crucial for a child’s development. However, this study demonstrates the long-term importance of good teaching in the first year of school.

The researchers measured children’s reading and maths development at age four, and then again a year later at the end of the first reception, then at ages seven, 11 and 16. A range of social and economic factors that could have skewed the results were taken into account, such as children’s age, term of starting school, sex, ethnicity, special needs, English as an additional language and deprivation.

The study, titled The Long Term Impact of Effective Teaching and published in the journal School Effectiveness

and School Improvement, concluded that the first year of school is a crucial opportunity to have an impact on children’s long-term academic outcomes.

Mike Parker, director of the Schools North East network, said: “Heads have to think carefully about how they deploy their star performers because the quality of teaching disproportionately impacts disadvantaged pupils. This research should also act as a catalyst to government to greatly improve the provision and uptake of high quality early years provision in less affluent areas.”

The study also looked into whether schools are able to reduce the gap in attainment seen between children from wealthy and poor backgrounds, and concluded that there was no significant evidence that schools in England were reducing the attainment gap between rich and poor children.

The study comes as Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, launched her new social mobility strategy, which says that education is crucial for tackling inequality. Speaking yesterday at a conference hosted by the think tank Reform, she said the Government will “relentlessly target” resources at schools and nurseries in deprived areas to close the gap between rich and poor.

“The reality is that in modern Britain, where you start still too often decides where you finish. This really is a defining challenge for us as a nation,” she said. ”