02/11/2011 BBC Channel Islands News

Failing parents and children - calls for a radical shake-up of the

way Jersey schools' performance is measured.

Plus nose in, push back - what will a new parking system at Guernsey

airport mean for passengers? And from the sea to our homes - how

and why Jersey Water is going back There's growing pressure to change

the way the performance of Jersey's secondary schools is measured. It

comes as individual school GCSE results have been published this

week for the first time. They show two of the island's non-selective

secondary schools performed worse than almost all other schools in

England and Wales. We'll hear from one of those calling for a level

playing field in a moment, but first, here's Amy Harris.

On the face of it, it looks pretty good. Across the island, 58% of

pupils got five passes at GCSE, including maths and English. But

this week, for the first time, all the schools have published

individual figures. We must remember this is a very narrow

academic measure, so there is no surprise that certain schools do

better than others. For example, fee-paying schools got 96%. And a

selective school got 97%, but no surprises either that pupils at

schools who don't pay for their education scored poorly. In

particular, pass rates have dropped to just 13%. Those in charge,

though, say the results do not reflect the full story. Some of the

processes, systems, quality of teaching and learning in schools

are good. We know that those are strong at schools. But quite

clearly, if you reduce it down to a narrow indicator such as five

passes, then it doesn't bring out all the other good things. But the

selective system makes it tough for parents to compare the quality of

teaching at different schools. The one measure on offer is not ideal,

but at the moment, it is the only one universally available.

Well one former Jersey headteacher is calling for a radical shake-up

in the way the performance of all Jersey schools are measured.

Richard Rolfe retired last month after eight-and-a-half years as

head of Le Roquier. Over his 23- year teaching career, he has also

taught in the UK, where he thinks a better system is in place as it

assesses how every school performs in relation to every pupil. He came

into the BBC studios earlier to explain.

In terms of the assessment and progress, it is different in Jersey.

In the UK, they used to value added and contextual value added. In

Jersey, at the moment, it is all about a single measure of exam

performance. So the UK system takes into account at the level at

children start at? I absolutely. So if your are at a school serving

children in deprived areas, all you have children with literacy issues,

and you are hoping to educate them, they have a different starting

point compared to schools that have selected children on their ability.

So if you had improved the chances of a child who started off from a

low-income family, and they achieved good results at GCSE, what

you are saying is that improvement is a measure of the school's

performance? Absolutely. You have to measure that performance. You

want the best for each child, but as a measure of performance, you

could measure a school's performance on the basis of

aggregating all the schools, and then comparing what that cohort of

children do when they finished the school. If it sounds fairly

straightforward. So why isn't Jersey doing so well? Are I don't

know. It is a very simple measure to put in place. Even if they do

put it into place, it is very dangerous just to use one measure

anyway. You need a range of measure -- measures including attendance

and none exam subject. We should be measuring the performance across

the board such as the arts, music, and sports. But the measures are

simple to construct. Richard Rolfe talking to me earlier.

We tried to ask the current Education Minister why all

secondary schools aren't benchmarked in the same way as UK

schools but he has been in the States all day. We'll try again

tomorrow. A former politician has been jailed

by Jersey's Magistrates Court for failing to do community service.

45-year-old Stuart Syvret, seen here in the red tie arriving at

court this afternoon, lost his appeal for a Contempt of Court

conviction earlier this year. He agreed to do community service but

didn't turn up. He was taken away by a prison van tonight and he will

spend eight weeks in jail. Smoking in the grounds of

Guernsey's hospitals is to be banned. The Princess Elizabeth,

King Edward VII, and Castel Hospitals are to become smoke-free

except for designated smoking shelters or locations. The change

comes into effect in the New Year. It's believed to be the first ever

ban on smoking in an open public area in Guernsey.

Next tonight, "nose in, push back". The phrase may not mean much to you

now, but it could end up adding to the cost of a flight in or out of

Guernsey. It's a new system for aircraft to park on the airport's

apron, and it's coming in early next year. The States has agreed to

pay for it, but airlines are worried they will be the ones

footing the bill. Positioning itself for take-off,

this aircraft sell but manoeuvres from its stand on to the runway,

but from February, Ed -- airplanes will have to be towed backwards.

During the be development of the airfield, planes will have to park

nose in it like this, so they can fit all the aircraft on the apron.

It means buying new equipment and training staff, and during the

redevelopment, the States has agreed to pay for it. We are

severely constrained by the amount of space here. Any additional space

we can provide, would be good. not everyone is convinced this type

of parking is it necessary. Guernsey authorities have been well

aware of flight be's reticence to have nose in, push back, parking,

as well as other airlines, because we can see no advantage for

airlines to do this, and it would just lead to an increased cost,

which unfortunately the passengers would have to pay. A aircraft will

soon be parked like this at Guernsey Airport, but what we don't

know it is whether it will carry on after the redevelopment and who

will pay for it. There hasn't been enough rain to

fill Jersey's reservoirs this autumn, so today, the island

started turning the sea into drinking water. The desalination

plant near Corbiere hasn't been used for five years. It costs about

�4,000 a day to run, but can produce a third of the island's

supply. So how does it work, and what has happened to all our rain?

Our weatherman, David Braine, explains.

Water has always been a problem for and what islands, without Lakes or

river systems, we have a challenge to supply adequate drinking water.

One option is to take the sort out to sea water. Jersey water has used

a desalination plant since 1970, and a repair work has meant water

supplies are critical, but rainfall is also an issue. After a dry

period, rainfall has been a low. The blue light show what we would

normally expect to see, and the yellow what actually has happened.

It is a similar picture for Guernsey, with this is that --

substantial lack of rain in the last two months. Today, the

desalination plant will start to produce fresh water. It is a very

expensive operation. We try not to run the plant unless we really have

to. We last ran it in 2006, and 2003, so it is a standby plant used

only when necessary. With climate change and an increased demand in

water, how will we cope in the future? Desalination is one option,

but we might just need to be more careful with the water we have.

David Braine and Emily Wood there, explaining what the weather does to

We have a very large area of low pressure over the West Atlantic.

Quite breezy as well overnight with that heavy rain overnight. There

will be some dry weather in between, but the Friday, even though the

winds ease off, a chance of catching a heavy shower. But

tonight, it looks pretty wet for a time as the rain band makes its way

across. It does clear away during the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The southerly winds continue to bring in some fairly mild air. For

tomorrow, there will be some dry and bright weather, but the showers

at merging into a longer spell of rain. It is pretty wet for a time.

A fairly brisk breeze as well. Tomorrow's maximum temperature is

16 degrees. Occasional poor visibility. The winds south or

south-easterly. Times of high water tomorrow. High tide at St Helier.

High-tide will be at 1231. There is some fairly decent a swirl around

as well. Quite clean away this generally. The outlook: A fair

amount of wet weather, but there will be some of dry and sunny