Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
How do we decide if we ‘need’ a new school
Published in Guardian Education today How should we decide what constitutes ‘need’ for a new school? This, I predict, will be one of the most furiously contested issues of the next few years. Giving any willing group the chance to set up a school may sound appealing on paper, but the devil will be in […]
To Miss With Love – fact of fiction?
Katharine Birbalsingh , the teacher who spoke at last year’s Tory Party Conference condemning our state schools, has given her latest interview to the Observer. Several parents, teachers, pupils (including me) and one politician were given the opportunity to respond here. Here is my initial take on the book , To Miss with Love, that […]
Alberta – a high achieving but very different vision for schools
One of the international examples that Michael Gove likes to use in support of his policies is the state of Alberta in Canada – the highest performing English speaking region in the world when it comes to education. However the policies of the state of Alberta aren’t quite as Mr Gove likes to suggest, as […]
Time for the Lib Dems to step up to the plate on schools plan
Link to original article in Guardian Education It is almost exactly five years since the last Labour government introduced its controversial Education and Inspections Bill. It followed a highly contested White Paper which promised to create a system of independent non fee paying schools. Companies, faith groups, charities and parents were going to set up […]
Some free legal advice on academies!
Some months ago I posted a legal opinion about the Academies Bill, written by David Wolfe , a barrister from Matrix Chambers, in London, who has been involved in many cases on behalf of parents concerned about their schools changing status. Following the news that parent campaigners at Tidemill Primary School in South London had […]
The row about BSF has obscured the real story on school capital funding
Much of the attention of the coalition governments funding of English maintained schools has focussed on the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future programme. Almost no attention has been focussed on another aspect of capital funding that will affect all schools – that of Devolved Capital Funding. This is the annual allocation to […]
Cameron’s schools policy will damage, not encourage, integration
So David Cameron is taking a firm stand on multi-culturalism and doesn’t want “different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream”. Yet when it comes to schools his ministers are encouraging quite the opposite. The requirement on schools to promote community cohesion is going and the free schools/academies policy will […]
Academy ‘spin’ not quite as it seems
So the Tory government’s academy movement has apparently reached a ‘’tipping point’. Well not quite. Unlike many friends and colleagues, I thought last week’s announcement about the apparently extraordinary number of academies opened since the General Election smacked more of mild desperation rather that triumph. Isn’t it only six months since there were going to […]
Comprehensives can do much more than just get bright pupils in to good universities
First posted on the Local Schools Network I think I am going to enjoy Simon Hughes period as the university access Tsar. He so desperately wants to brand himself as a progressive firebrand that he can’t help shooting from the hip, then he invariably rows back and doesn’t quite deliver ( ie fulminating, then abstaining […]
