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LIVERPOOL
COLLEGE MOVE TO ACADEMY STATUS WILL CONTRIBUTE TO TRANSFORMATION OF
EDUCATION ACROSS MERSEYSIDE
LIVERPOOL College is to
become a publicly funded independent Academy. The change in the
College's status, which will end fee payments and expand pupil
numbers, has been approved to proceed by the Secretary of State for
Education, and will take place in September 2013. The process will
involve an expansion of the College from 730 to 1,126 pupils across
a transitional period of five years alongside a widening of
curricular choice. The transitional period will see the Mossley
Hill-based College adopt a new model for secondary education that
will comprise a Middle School for Year 7 to 9 pupils (11 to 13 years)
and an Upper School for Year 10 to 13 pupils (14 to 19 years).
The transition to independent Academy status is the culmination of
an intensive seven month long process that has seen the governors
assess future options for the development of the College, alongside
the needs and aspirations of communities and families across the
area. Its governors believe that the move is the one that best fits
the ethos of the College, and one that will also enable it to renew
its central role in the provision of a rich and diverse education
for children from across and beyond Liverpool.
The move, which will see Liverpool College strive to achieve a
balanced intake of mixed abilities, will also focus on ensuring that
pupils possess the appropriate aptitude and attitude to thrive
within the College's distinctive culture and work ethos. The
curriculum will be extended to include mandatory extended project
qualifications, Imagineering and enterprise education. Pupils will
be able to participate in a broad series of activities including
competitive sport, Combined Cadet Force, the Duke of Edinburgh Award
Scheme, and other subjects offered through the College's partner,
the University of Liverpool.
Liverpool College's Chair of Governors Ian Evans said that the move
to secure publicly funded independent Academy status with the
Department for Education was a proactive and strategically
constructive step forward in the history and development of the
College.
"Liverpool College was
founded in 1840 and it has played a central role in the development
of education across the city ever since. It is our job as Governors
to safeguard and evolve this long standing role, and this means
looking to the future and assessing how we are best placed to
contribute to education across and beyond the region. We have taken a prudent long-term look at the
choices for our future development, and this process has culminated
in us securing an agreement with the Department for Education to
convert into a publicly funded independent Academy. The Government's programme
for educational change provides opportunities for independent
schools to play an active part in the reform of education and
curricula generally, and specifically in improving educational
opportunities for all. This also includes
developing educational models that lead to better outcomes for all
pupils. We very much see this as a partnership between Liverpool
College and the Department for Education to build on a proven, high
performing academic establishment in a way that will transform
access to high quality education for families across the area.” said
Mr Evans.
Principal, Hans van Mourik Broekman, said that the changeover to
independent Academy status would enable the College to build on its
distinctive and effective approach to teaching. "The
development of both the intellectual potential and the personal
character of pupils will continue to be at the core of how we teach.
In particular, the development of our Middle School will provide an
enhanced first stage secondary experience that will better support
the vital primary to secondary school transition, and our new 'Upper
School' for 14 to 19 year old pupils will better reflect student
aptitudes and preferred learning styles. Further, our conversion to
independent Academy status means that we will be able to extend and
deepen our close strategic partnerships with other educational
institutions, especially The University of Liverpool. We're very
much looking forward to being able to maximise the potential of many
more children, from all areas and from all backgrounds in the years
ahead; it's going to be an exciting time for everyone involved.”
Increased threat
to UK from cyber attacks
IT is shocking, we are
getting massive amounts of Fake Emails as of late, many with virus
attachments on, so it was no supplies to hear that MI5 boss Jonathan
Evans has warned that companies in the UK are fending off an
'astonishing' level of cyber attacks. he told the UK media
on Monday, 25 June 2012 that state-sponsored cyber-espionage and
cybercrime and commercial attacks. Both the UK and US are
increasingly seeing attacks on personal and business networks. MI5
is involved in investigations of cyber attacks on more than a dozen
major companies and many small businesses are now being targeted as
well. "This increases the potential for mischief and leads to
risks of real-world damage as well as information loss."
Evans told an audience at the Mansion House in London. You can help
and information about fighting computer crime can be got using the UK's
Action Fraud
getsafeonline.org for more
information. Also for
our US users, take a look at:-
ConsumerFraudReporting.ORG.
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Over 7million
(16%) Britons have lost track of their savings
NEW research from NS&I
identifies that, despite rising living costs, Britons are still
losing track of their savings:-
►7.66 million (16%) people think
they have investments and savings accounts which they have lost
track.
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40% of these people have not tried
to reunite themselves with their savings.
If reunited with their money, 23%
would use the funds to pay off bills or debts and 9% would use them
for day to day living costs
NS&I's findings reveal a lack of organisation and forgetfulness are
to blame for losing track of our finances in the first place. Of
those who have lost touch with their savings and investments:-
►
28% have misplaced their original
account details.
►
27% find it difficult to remember
all of the accounts they've opened in the past.
►
21% have forgotten to update their
address when they moved house and have lost track of their account
as a result.
►
24% were given savings or
investments as a child, but have never found out the full details of
the account.
NS&I savers can manage their Premium Bonds, Direct ISA and Direct
Saver online or by phone; making it simple to update your address
details if you move house. Premium Bond holders can now also
register to have their prizes paid directly into their bank account.
John Prout, Retail Customer Director, NS&I, said:- 'Even small
amounts of money can help with the costs of day to day living, so
it's important people keep a track of their savings no matter how
much they've previously put away. At NS&I we're making it easier to
mange our products online or by phone, which means customers can
easily stay close to their money and keep us updated if they move
house. NS&I to date, has reunited customers with more than £450
million through its tracing service and the website called:- MyLostAccount”.
60% of Britons who have lost track of their savings have made
efforts to recover them. Of those people 72% have successfully found
their money. These lost savings and investments could help people to
reach their savings goals, with 9% saying they would put any
newly-found funds towards a new home and 12% would put them towards
a holiday. A further 8% said they'd use the money to treat
themselves and 30% would save them for a rainy day.
Research 'red
tape' causing
life-threatening delays for heart patients
A damning report from the British
Heart Foundation (BHF) reveals how red tape is strangling medical
research that could save lives in the North West. The charity,
which funds around £100m of medical research every year, is calling
for the NHS to open up its data to the scientists it funds at
universities and hospitals across the UK, the North West.
Survey figures by the BHF show that 76% of adults in the North West
were not aware that the type of information held in medical records
has helped with the development of new treatments in the past. 65%
were unaware that medical records could help lead to new treatments
in the future.
The figures also show the public in the North West is supportive of
information from medical records being used in research. A YouGov
poll found that 76% of people in the North West would be happy for
their doctor to share some level of medical information about them
with health researchers to help develop new treatments.
The report claims that researchers experience delays in gaining
permission to access data, uncertainty about the rules governing the
process of approval, and an overly complicated system that can slow
potentially life-saving discoveries.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the BHF, said:-
"Our NHS records are a source of potentially life-saving
information and give us a unique opportunity to advance the
prevention and treatment of heart disease. Medical records from
people all over the country, including the North West, could help us
in the fight against heart disease.
While data protection is clearly an important issue, the researchers
we fund say they are caught up in unnecessary and inconsistently
applied red tape that slows them down by months or even years, and
costs them more in staff time and paperwork.”
The BHF says access to data in patients' medical records is a
crucial step towards saving more lives from heart and circulatory
disease, which claims around 191,000 lives every year. The types of
information that could help scientists make important breakthroughs
include details about what medication patients take, what conditions
they have been diagnosed with, or when and why they are admitted to
hospital.
The BHF is calling for clear legal guidance for researchers, a
single approval process to access patient data, and a workable
system for using records to find patients to take part in trials for
new treatments.
One of the most important benefits of access to patient data is to
pick up early signs of potentially important, unexpected side
effects of drug treatments.
Other research that relies on patient
data includes the search for substances in the blood that could
predict heart attack or stroke risk, and studies looking at whether
widely used drugs, such as statins for high cholesterol, could be
effective in wider patient groups, such as everyone over 50. |
