Glossary

City and Guilds is the only awarding body solely dedicated to vocational learning, with a portfolio ranging from construction and engineering to beauty therapy, retailing and English language.

Chronological age.

Computer-Aided Design and computer-aided manufacture software is used in design and technology classes, often allowing pupils to design, make and adapt products using the same computer.

Computer-Aided (or Assisted) Learning.

Also known as the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), Cambridge Assessment incorporates three examination bodies, including OCR.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services provide high quality, multidisciplinary mental health services to all children and young people with mental health problems and disorders.

The school buildings and grounds. Sometimes also referred to as the school estate.

Spending on building projects and equipment above a designated value.

A young person who has previously been looked after by a local authority. The local authority has a duty to keep in touch with care leavers until they are at least 21.

A bank loan designed to help adult learners pay for work-related learning. CDLs are available through an arrangement between the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and three high street banks.

A person named by an LA to care for a child for whom the Social Services Department has parental responsibility, such a child who is the subject of a care order in a residential or foster placement.

An additional vote to be used by the chair of governors if an equal number of votes are cast for and against a motion.

A defined area around a school, within which some admissions authorities give priority to children who live there.

Childcare Partnership - see Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP).

Creative Development is one of the six interdependent areas of learning and development which make up the Foundation Stage.

A Career Development Loan is a bank loan designed to help adult learners pay for work-related learning. CDLs are available through an arrangement between the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and three high street banks.

The Community Education Development Centre merged with Education Extra in October 2003 to form ContinYou.

Careers Education and Guidance. A framework for advising students about the range of careers open to them on leaving school. Secondary schools must provide curriculum-based careers education for all pupils.

The Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre, based at Durham University in north east England, provides confidential indicator systems to schools and colleges.

The Centre for Educational Leadership (CEL), based at the University of Manchester, offers 23 leadership, team and organisational development programmes.

The CPP is a unit set up to encourage schools, colleges and other education providers to spend public money more efficiently.

Chief Education Officer.

CfBT Education Trust is an education consultancy and service organisation which aims to provide education for public benefit both in the UK and internationally.

The Centre for Public Scrutiny exists to promote the value of scrutiny in modern and effective government in order to improve the quality of public services.

City and Guilds of London Institute

The Charity Commission is established by law as the regulator and registrar for charities in England and Wales.

The support society for Children of Higher Intelligence is a support organisation for the benefit of the young and intellectually gifted.

A means-tested allowance for parents and carers of children or young people who are still in full-time non-advanced education or approved training.

The ChildcareLink national website provides childcare and early years information collected from over 170 English and Scottish LAs, with sign-posting information from the Welsh National Assembly.

This is defined under section 17(10) of the Children Act 1989. See the SEN glossary for a detailed definition.

A centre providing help and advice on health, education, family support and care for parents of young children.

A programme which provides funding for child protection schemes and support networks.

The Childcare Information Service is the database system that manages childcare data between the local Children's Information Services and the ChildcareLink website

CILT, the National Centre for Languages, is the Government's recognised centre of expertise on languages. It aims to promote a greater capability in languages amongst all sectors of the UK population.

A policy statement issued by a Government department, which does not have the status of law, but which gives guidance on interpretation and implementation of the law.

The Construction Industry Training Board aims to initiate, improve and facilitate training and develop training standards used in the construction industry.

The three inter-related components that should run through all education for citizenship are social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy.

CLCs provide ICT-based learning opportunities for the pupils at the host school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools and for the wider community.

Copyright Licensing Agency / Copyright Licensing Agreement. The CLA is a non profit-making company that licenses organisations for photocopying and scanning from magazines, books and journals.

The management of student behaviour and learning activities by teachers. This is done through designing activities in ways that structure relationships to support learning, such as the use of rewards and sanctions.

A process by which students who wish to progress to higher education and have not met the required grade for their first-choice institution sift through a bank of courses which still have vacancies.

Communication, Language and Literacy is one of the six interdependent areas of learning and development which make up the Foundation Stage.

Chartered London Teacher status was launched in September 2004, and is designed to recognise and reward the skills and expertise of London teachers.

Children Missing Education.

Classroom observation and feedback on specific aspects of practice by colleagues or by external CPD providers.

Cognitive Assessment Tests are produced by GL Assessment (previously National Foundation for Educational Research). CAT3 tests reasoning abilities and provides indicators of future results in national tests.

Coordinators of Governor Services largely operate on a regional level. Nine regional groups in England and Wales act as professional networks for LA providers of services to school governors.

The Central Office of Information aims to enable central Government and public sector bodies to secure policy objectives through achieving maximum communication effectiveness and best value for money.

In terms of school governing bodies, this is defined as two or more bodies arranging for any of their functions to be discharged jointly by holding joint meetings and/or having joint committees.

Helping children make connections between subjects and transfer their learning from one subject to another is an essential part of successful curriculum planning and making learning more coherent.

When pupils transfer schools, the CTF is used to ensure that specific information about the pupil is transferred from the old to the new school.

CLLD provides guidance for all those involved in early literacy development to ensure all children experience best practice in the teaching of early reading and phonics aligned to the recommendations of the Rose Review.

It is a statutory requirement for all notices for a new school to include a description of what the proposals are intended to deliver in terms of community cohesion.

Community schools are very similar to former county schools. The LA employs the school's staff, owns the school's land and buildings and has primary responsibility for admissions arrangements.

A secondary school for pupils of all abilities.

The act of willing or wanting, as defined in Bloom's taxonomy of thinking skills.

Documents which explain the working agreements between different Government departments and agencies involved in education, learning and skills.

Confederation of Children's Services Managers. It was replaced by Association of Directors of Children's Services in 2007.

The Connexions Card allowed 16-to-19-year-olds to collect reward points for learning, training and volunteering. The scheme closed in February 2007

A view of learning in which learners are seen as building or developing their own understanding of how the world works from their experience and interaction with people around them.

Continuing Professional Development for school staff is a balance of personal and professional development, attendance at nationally accredited courses and small-scale school-based activities.

Drugs which are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (also known as illegal drugs).

As of 2005, LAs are required by section 48 of the Education Act 2002 to coordinate school admissions in order to eliminate, as far as possible, parents receiving multiple offers of school places.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. Using chemicals or other hazardous substances at work can put people's health at risk. The law requires employers to control exposure to prevent ill health.

See 'community school'

Centres of Vocational Excellence are specialist areas of vocational provision linking providers, employers and the wider community.

Continuing Professional Development for school staff is a balance of personal and professional development, attendance at nationally accredited courses and small-scale school-based activities.

The Centre for Procurement Performance is a unit set up to encourage schools, colleges and other education providers to spend public money more efficiently.

The Careers Research and Advisory Centre provides information and advice on further education and lifelong career development.

From 1 October 2007, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights took on the role and functions of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

Producing new ideas or thoughts. Imaginative thinking aimed at producing outcomes involving synthesis of ideas or lateral thinking, or thinking that is not analytical or deductive. Also known as divergent thinking.

A pupil living in one local authority (LA) area, but attending another LA's school is part of a cross-boundary flow 'out' of the area. A pupil at a school who lives in another LA is part of a cross-boundary 'in-flow'.

City technology colleges are free, independent, all-ability, private-sector sponsored schools. Their purpose is to offer pupils in urban areas the opportunity to study a curriculum geared towards the world of work.

The terms curricular, link or specific-subject governor are often used for governors who are given responsibility for specific subjects.

The Curriculum Online website was created to provide an online repository of free and costed electronic learning resources. The site was intended to be used by education professionals to source and purchase resources using electronic learning credits (eLCs). The site was launched in late 2002 and closed at the end of August 2008.

Contextual Value Added aims to take account of factors such as deprivation, or special educational needs, when measuring the effectiveness of a school or the progress made by individual pupils.

An aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.

The Classroom Quality Standards (CQS) for Gifted and Talented education is a tool to support teachers and other classroom practitioners to reflect on their own practice and to plan further development and action research. See also: Gifted and Talented (G&T), Institutional Quality Standards (IQS), Local Authority Quality Standards (LAQS).

A measure of pupils' progress. For instance, it is possible to see how many pupils in school ‘convert’ from level 4 or 5 as they move through Key Stage 3. The main objective of intervention in Key Stage 3 is to achieve conversion from level 3 to level 5. Intervention will also be appropriate for pupils who enter at level 4 and make little or no progress.

Units of work for English and mathematics that are designed to accelerate the progress of a whole teaching group towards reaching the expected level.

The areas identified from data and other information, in which whole classes, groups or individual pupils need to make progress if they are to achieve the level targeted for them. The scope of a curricular target is similar to that of an assessment focus or a Framework key objective. Once identified, teachers need to focus their teaching to these curricular targets and pupils' progress needs to be explicitly tracked to ensure they are confidently and independently applying the skills taught.