Radio in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

There are over 250 radio stations in the United Kingdom. For a more comprehensive list see List of radio stations in the United Kingdom.Contents [hide]

1 BBC Radio

2 Commercial radio

3 Community radio

4 See also

[edit]

BBC Radio

Main article: BBC Radio

The most prominent stations are the national networks operated by the BBC.

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts mostly current pop music output on FM and digital radio, with live music throughout the year

BBC Radio 2 is the UK's most listened-to radio station, featuring presenters such as Chris Evans and Terry Wogan, and playing popular music from the last 5 decades as well as special interest programmes in the evening

BBC Radio 3 is a classical music station, broadcasting high-quality concerts and performances. At night, it transmits a wide range of jazz and world music

BBC Radio 4 is a current affairs and speech station, with news, debate and radio drama. It broadcasts the daily radio soap The Archers, as well as flagship news programme Today

BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts live news and sports commentary with phone-in debates and studio guests

The introduction of digital radio technology led to the launch of several new BBC stations:

BBC 1Xtra broadcasts rap, RnB and drum'n'bass

BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcasts comedy, drama and shows which extend or supplement popular programmes on its sister station, Radio 4, including The Archers spin off Ambridge Extra and archived episodes of Desert Island Discs

BBC 6 Music transmits predominantly alternative rock, with many live sessions

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra - a companion to Five Live for additional events coverage

BBC Asian Network - aimed at the large South Asian community in the UK (also available on AM in some areas)

The BBC also provide 40 local radio services, mainly broadcasting a mix of local news and music aimed at an older audience.

[edit]

Commercial radio

Also available nationally are three national commercial channels, namely Absolute Radio, Classic FM and talkSPORT. As with the BBC, digital radio has brought about many changes, including the roll-out of local stations such as Xfm, Kiss 100 and Kerrang Radio to other areas of the UK.

Commercial radio licences are awarded by Ofcom, a government body which advertises a licence for an area and holds a so-called beauty contest to determine which station will be granted permission to broadcast in that area. Stations submit detailed application documents containing their proposed format and the outcome of research to determine the demand for their particular style of broadcast. Original 106 (Aberdeen) was the last radio station to be granted a licence by Ofcom.

Most local commercial stations in the United Kingdom broadcast to a city or group of towns within a radius of 20-50 miles, with a second tier of regional stations covering larger areas such as North West England. The predominant format is pop music, but many other tastes are also catered for, particularly in London and the larger cities, and on digital radio.

Rather than operating as independent entities, many local radio stations are owned by large radio groups which broadcast a similar format to many areas. The largest operator of radio is Global Radio which bought the former media group, Gcap Media. It owns Classic FM and London's most popular commercial station, 95.8 Capital FM. Other owners are Bauer Radio and UTV Radio, which mainly own stations that broadcast in highly populated city areas.

Many of these stations, including all the BBC stations, are also available via digital television services.

[edit]

Community radio

Community radio stations broadcast to a small area, normally within a 3 mile (5 km) radius, and are mostly not-for-profit organisations, owned by local people, on which the broadcasters are volunteers. They are recognised under the Communications Act 2003 as a distinct third tier of radio in the UK. The community radio movement in the UK was founded in the mid-1970s, broadcasting through Restricted Service Licences, the internet and cable.

An Access Radio pilot scheme gave fifteen stations, including Resonance FM and ALL FM, full time licences, and this has blossomed into a lively sector, directed by the Community Media Association.

The broadcasters are predominantly based around an easily defined racial community such as Asian Star FM in Slough, or a geographically defined community such as Speysound Radio & The Bay Radio.[citation needed] They can also be based around religious groups, such as Christian radio station Branch FM in Yorkshire.

Independent school (United Kingdom)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Independent school (UK)) This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (September 2011)

In the United Kingdom, an independent school (also referred to as a private school, and in certain cases a public school) is a school which is funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and is not subject to the conditions imposed by accepting state financing. There are around 2,500 independent schools in the UK, which educate around 615,000 children (just over 7% of all British children, rising to around 18% of pupils aged over 16).

A select group of about 10% of the independent schools in the UK which are in general older, traditional and are members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference,[1] are known as "public schools".Contents [hide]

1 Origins

2 Present day

3 Inspections in England

4 Scotland

5 Selection and conditions

6 Preparatory schools

7 Criticisms

8 School type and eventual degree class

9 See also

10 Notes

11 External links

[edit]

Origins

Warwick School, one of Britain's oldest independent schools.

See also: List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom

Some independent schools are particularly old, such as The King's School, Canterbury (founded 597), St Peter's School, York (founded c.627), Sherborne School (founded c.710, refounded 1550 by Edward VI), Warwick School (c.914), The King's School, Ely (c.970) and St Albans School (948). These were often established for male scholars from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds; however, English law has always regarded education as a charitable end in itself, irrespective of poverty. For instance, the Queen's Scholarships founded at Westminster in 1560, are for "the sons of decay'd gentlemen".

The transformation of free charitable foundations into institutions which sometimes charge fees came about readily: the foundation would only afford minimal facilities, so that further fees might be charged to lodge, clothe and otherwise maintain the scholars, to the private profit of the trustees or headmaster. Also, facilities already provided by the charitable foundation for a few scholars could profitably be extended to further paying pupils. (Some schools still keep their foundation scholars in a separate house from other pupils.) After a time, such fees would eclipse the original charitable income, and the original endowment would naturally become a minor part of the capital benefactions enjoyed by the school. In 2009 senior boarding schools were charging fees of between £16,000 and nearly £30,000 per annum.[2]

The educational reforms of the 19th century were particularly important under first Thomas Arnold at Rugby, and then Butler and later Kennedy at Shrewsbury, the former emphasising team spirit and muscular Christianity and the latter the importance of scholarship and competitive examinations. Edward Thring of Uppingham School introduced major reforms, focusing on the importance of the individual and competition, as well as the need for a 'total curriculum' with academia, music, sport and drama being central to education. Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, and came to play an important role in the development of the Victorian social elite. Under a number of forward-looking headmasters leading public schools created a curriculum based heavily on classics and physical activity for boys and young men of the upper and upper middle classes.

They were schools for the gentlemanly elite of Victorian politics, armed forces and colonial government. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a public school as a mark of participation in the elite. Much of the discipline was in the hands of senior pupils (usually known as prefects), which was not just a means to reduce staffing costs, but was also seen as vital preparation for those pupils' later roles in public or military service. More recently heads of public schools have been emphasising that senior pupils now play a much reduced role in disciplining.

To an extent, the public school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire, and recognisably "public" schools can be found in many Commonwealth countries.

[edit]

Present day

As of 2011 there were more than 2,600 independent schools in the UK educating some 628,000 children, comprising over 6.5% of UK children, and more than 18% of pupils over the age of 16.[3][4]

Most of the larger independent schools are either full or partial boarding schools, although many are now predominantly day schools; by contrast there are only a few dozen state boarding schools. Boarding-school traditions give a distinctive character to British independent education, even in the case of day-pupils.

Most independent schools, particularly the larger and older institutions, have charitable status. The Independent Schools Council say that UK independent schools receive approximately £100m tax relief due to charitable status whilst returning £300m of fee assistance in public benefit and relieving the maintained sector (state schools) of £2bn of costs.[5] The Charity Commission is currently formulating tests of public benefit for charitable schools as required by the Charities Act 2006.

[edit]

Inspections in England

The Independent Schools Council (ISC), through seven affiliated organisations, represents 1,289 schools that together educate over 80 per cent of the pupils in the UK independent sector. Those schools in England which are members of the affiliated organisations of the ISC are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate under a framework agreed between ISC, the Government's Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). Independent Schools not affiliated to the ISC in England may be inspected by either School Inspection Service or Bridge Schools' Trust. Independent schools accredited to the ISC in Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland or others in England out with the inspectorial bodies listed above are inspected through the national inspectorates in each country.[6]

[edit]

Scotland

See also: List of independent schools in Scotland

Fettes College is one of Scotland's most famous independent schools.

Independent schools in Scotland educate about 31,000 children and are called Private Schools. Although many of the Scottish independent schools are members of the ISC they are also represented by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, recognised by the Scottish Parliament as the body representing private schools in Scotland. Unlike England, all Scottish independent schools are subject to the same regime of inspections by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education as local authority schools and they have to register with the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate.[7][8] The large private schools in Scotland include the High School of Glasgow, The Glasgow Academy, Kelvinside Academy, St. Aloysius' College, Hutchesons' Grammar School, George Heriot's School, Stewart's Melville College, Dollar Academy, Strathallan School, Glenalmond College, Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh Academy, Robert Gordon's College, George Watson's College, Loretto School, Gordonstoun, St Leonards, and Fettes College.

Historically, in Scotland, it was common for children destined for private schools (usually sons of the upper classes) to receive their primary education at a local school. This arose because of Scotland's long tradition of state-funded education, which was spearheaded by the Church of Scotland from the seventeenth century, long before such education was common in England. Independent prep schools only became more widespread in Scotland from the late 19th century (usually attached to an existing secondary private school, though exceptions such as Craigclowan Preparatory School and Cargilfield Preparatory School do exist), though they are still much less prevalent than in England. They are, however, currently gaining in numbers.[citation needed]

[edit]

Selection and conditions

Independent schools, like state grammar schools, are free to select their pupils, subject to general legislation against discrimination. The principal forms of selection are financial, in that the pupil's family must be able to pay the school fees, and academic, with many administering their own entrance exams - some also require that the prospective student undergo an interview, and credit may also be given for musical, sporting or other talent. Entrance to some schools is more or less restricted to pupils whose parents practice a particular religion, or schools may require all pupils to attend religious services. Nowadays most schools pay little regard to family connections, apart from siblings currently at the school.

Only a small minority of parents can afford school fees averaging over £23,000 per annum for boarding pupils and £11,000 for day pupils, with additional costs for uniform, equipment and extra-curricular facilities.[2][9] Scholarships and means-tested bursaries to assist the education of the less well-off are usually awarded by a process which combines academic and other criteria.[10][11]

Independent schools are generally academically selective, using the competitive Common Entrance Examination at ages 11–13. Schools often offer scholarships to attract abler pupils (which improves their average results); the standard sometimes approaches the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) intended for age 16. Poorly-performing pupils may be required to leave, and following GCSE results can be replaced in the sixth form by a new infusion of high-performing sixth-form-only pupils, which may distort apparent results.[12]

Independent schools, as compared with maintained schools, are generally characterised by more individual teaching; much better pupil-teacher ratios at around 9:1;[13] longer teaching hours (sometimes including Saturday morning teaching) and homework, though shorter terms; more time for organised sports and extra-curricular activities; more emphasis on traditional academic subjects such as maths, classics and modern languages; and a broader education than that prescribed by the national curriculum, to which state school education is in practice limited. As boarding schools are fully responsible for their pupils throughout term-time, pastoral care is an essential part of independent education, and many independent schools teach their own distinctive ethos, including social aspirations, manners and accents, associated with their own school traditions. Many pupils aspire to send their own children to their old schools in their historical buildings, over successive generations. Most offer sporting, musical, dramatic and art facilities, sometimes at extra charges, although often with the benefit of generations of past investment.

Educational achievement is generally very good. Independent school pupils are four times more likely to attain an A* at GCSE than their non-selective state sector counterparts and twice as likely to attain an A grade at A level. A much higher proportion go to university. Some schools specialise in particular strengths, whether academic, vocational or artistic, although this is not as common as it is in the State sector.

Independent schools are able to set their own discipline regime, with much greater freedom to exclude children, primarily exercised in the wider interests of the school: the most usual causes being drug-taking, whether at school or away, or an open rejection of the school's values, such as dishonesty or violence.

In England and Wales there are no requirements for teaching staff to have Qualified Teacher Status or to be registered with the General Teaching Council. In Scotland a teaching qualification and registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) is mandatory for all teaching positions.

[edit]

Preparatory schools

Main article: Preparatory school (UK)

In England and Wales a preparatory school, or prep school in current usage, is an independent school designed to prepare a pupil for fee-paying, secondary independent school. The age range is normally seven to eleven or thirteen, although it may include younger pupils as well. An independent school which only caters for under sevens is a "pre-prep" and the junior departments of prep schools which cover the first years of schooling are also called "pre-preps".[14][15]

The Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) is the prep schools heads association serving the top 500+ independent prep schools in the UK and Worldwide. IAPS is one of seven affiliated associations of the Independent Schools Council.[14]

There are 130,000 pupils in over 500 schools of all types and sizes. Prep schools may be for boys or girls only, or may be co-educational; for instance, one of the leading prep schools, Clept Esten in wales is a small school open for girls only. They may be day schools, boarding schools, weekly boarding, flexi-boarding, or a combination. They fall into the following general categories:[14][15]

Wholly independent prep schools, both charitable and proprietary

Junior schools linked to senior schools

Choir schools, which educate child choristers of cathedrals and some other large religious institutions; they all accept non-chorister pupils with the exception of Westminster Abbey Choir School; these schools are usually affiliated to Anglican churches, but may occasionally be associated with Catholic ones such as Westminster Cathedral

Schools offering special educational provision or facilities

Schools with particular religious affiliations

[edit]

Criticisms

Independent schools are often criticised for being elitist and such schools are often seen as outside the spirit of the state system. However, the treatment of the state sector as homogeneous in nature is difficult to support. The spectrum of state schools, their intake and performance is enormous, going from 'super selective', selective, right down to what Newsam referred to as 'sub secondary modern'.[16] Many of the state grammar schools are highly selective and state funded boarding schools require substantial fees, which may introduce further barriers to entry. Even traditional comprehensive schools may be effectively selective because only wealthier families can afford to live in their catchment area and it may be argued that the gap in performance between state schools is much larger than that between the better state and grammar schools and the independent sector. Smithers and Robinson's 2010 Sutton Trust commissioned study of social variation in comprehensive schools (excluding grammar schools) notes that 'The 2,679 state comprehensive schools in England are highly socially segregated: the least deprived comprehensive in the country has 1 in 25 (4.2%) of pupils with parents on income benefits compared with over 16 times as many (68.6%) in the most deprived comprehensive' [17]

Nevertheless, many of the best-known public schools are extremely expensive, and many have entry criteria geared towards those who have been at private 'feeder' preparatory-schools or privately tutored. Going some way to countering the charge of exclusivity, a large number (c. one third[citation needed]) of independent school pupils provide assistance with fees. The Thatcher government introduced the Assisted Places Scheme in England and Wales in 1980, whereby the state paid the school fees for those pupils capable of gaining a place but unable to afford the fees. This was essentially a response to the decision of the previous Labour government in the mid-1970s to remove government funding of direct grant grammar schools, most of which then became private schools; some Assisted Places pupils went to the former direct-grant schools such as Manchester Grammar School. The scheme was terminated by the Labour government in 1997, and since then the private sector has moved to increase its own means-tested bursaries.

The former classics-based curriculum was also criticised for not providing skills in sciences or engineering, but was perhaps in response to the requirement of classics for entry to Oxbridge up until the early 1960s, as well as a hangover from the pre-20th century period when only Latin and Greek were taught at many public schools. It was Martin Wiener's opposition to this tendency which inspired his 1981 book English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit: 1850-1980. It became a huge influence on the Thatcher government's opposition to old-school gentlemanly Toryism. Nowadays, independent school pupils have "the highest rates of achieving grades A or B in A level maths and sciences" compared to grammar, specialist and mainstream state schools, and pupils at independent schools account for a disproportionate number of the total number of A levels in maths and sciences.[18]

Some parents complain that their rights and their children’s are compromised by vague and one-sided contracts which allow Heads to use discretionary powers unfairly, such as in expulsion on non-disciplinary matters. They believe independent schools have not embraced the principles of natural justice as adopted by the state sector, and private law as applied to Higher Education.[19]

Generally political attacks on private schools have been opposed by concern that there should be no totalitarian state control of education.[citation needed]

In 2006, pupils at fee-paying schools made up 43% of those selected for places at Oxford University and 38% of those granted places at Cambridge University (although such pupils represent only 18% of the 16 years old plus school population).[3][20] However, the progression of pupils to Russell Group universities, including Oxbridge, is complex. For example, many independent schools (and most of the prestigious schools) take pupils at thirteen, so they would be expected to attract the strongest applicants from many feeder schools. In effect the system 'distills talent' so that a higher probability of progression to the most selective universities would be expected: as noted above, the increased probability of Oxbridge entrance is roughly (43 to 38)/18 or about two to one.

A major area of debate in recent years has centred around the continuing charitable status of independent schools, which allows them not to charge VAT on school fees. Following the enactment of the Charities Bill, which was passed by the House of Lords in November 2006, charitable status is based on an organisation providing a "public benefit" as judged by the Charity Commission.[21] Pending the Charity Commission publishing its definitive guidance on "public benefit" at the end of 2008, there remains an incentive for independent schools to share their sporting, musical and other facilities with the public or local state schools, and supplement their charitable endowments with an increased number of subsidised scholarships and bursaries.

[edit]

School type and eventual degree class

In 2002, Jeremy Smith and Robin Naylor of the University of Warwick conducted a study into the determinants of degree performance at UK universities. Their study confirmed that the internationally recognized phenomenon whereby “children from more advantaged class backgrounds have higher levels of educational attainment than children from less-advantaged class backgrounds"[22] persists at university level in the United Kingdom. The authors noted “a very well-determined and monotonically positive effect defined over Social Classes I to V” whereby, for both men and women, “ceteris paribus, academic performance at university is better the more advantaged is the student's home background.” but they also observed that a student educated at an independent school was on average 6% less likely to receive a first or an upper second class degree than a student from the same social class background, of the same gender, who had achieved the same A-level score at a state school. The averaged effect was described as very variable across the social class and A-level attainment of the candidates; it was "small and not strongly significant for students with high A-level scores" (i.e. for students at the more selective universities) and “statistically significant mostly for students from lower occupationally-ranked social-class backgrounds”. Additionally, the study could not take into account the effect of a slightly different and more traditional subject mix studied by independent students at university on university achievement. Despite these caveats, the paper attracted much press attention. The same study found wide variations between independent school, suggesting that students from a few of them were in fact significantly more likely to obtain the better degrees than state students of the same gender and class background having the same A-level score.[23]

A subsequent study led by Richard Partington at Cambridge University[24] showed that A-level performance is "overwhelmingly" the best guide to what class of degree an undergraduate was likely to achieve at Cambridge. Partington's summary specified that "questions of school background and gender"... "make only a marginal difference and the pattern – particularly in relation to school background – is in any case inconsistent."

A study commissioned by the Sutton Trust[25] and published in 2010 focussed mainly on the possible use of US-style SAT tests as a way of detetecting candidate's academic potential. Its findings confirmed those of the Smith & Naylor study in that it found that privately educated pupils who, despite their educational advantages, have only secured a poor A level score, and who therefore attend less selective universities, do less well than state educated degree candidates with the same low A-level attainment. A countervailing finding of the same study was that for students of a given level of A-level attainment it is almost twice as difficult to get a First at the most selective universities than at those on the other end of the scale. In addition, and as discussed in the 2010 Buckingham report 'HMC Schools: a quantitative analysis', because students from state schools tended to be admitted on lower A-level entry grades, relative to entry grades it could be claimed that these students had improved more [26]. It is also worth noting that given that independent sector schools regularly dominate the top of the A level league tables, and that their students are more likely to apply to the most selective universities, especially the ones requiring 3 A or A* grades at A level, independent sector students are particularly well represented at these institutions, where they are disproportionately competing with each other and where only the very ablest of them are likely to secure the best degrees.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-02