Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Education Wed 21 Jul

Not exactly a ‘schools revolution’ Mr Gove!

Today the Anti Academies Alliance publishes for the first time the list of schools seeking academy status by September 2010. We believe that there are around 24 schools that have passed governing body resolutions and a further 11 who may be starting the process of transferring staff to the new employer without passing a resolution. […]

By Alasdair Smith 3 comments
Education Tue 20 Jul

Unaccountable bureaucrats to run new academies and ‘free’ schools

There has been a lot of loose talk in the media about academies receiving their funding directly from the Secretary of State for Education. Though this was true under the last government it is no longer the case. That responsibility has now been transferred the Young People’s Learning Agency for England, otherwise known as the […]

By Guy Dixon 1 comment
Education Mon 19 Jul

Swedes pass new legislation to control ‘free schools’

Today the government starts the process of forcing its Academy Bill through the House of Commons, using emergency legislation that has only previously been deployed to rush through the Dangerous Dogs Act. How ironic that at the same time the Swedish government, on whose education reforms the Coalition’s policies are based, has had a re-think […]

Education Mon 12 Jul

Join the fight back on BSF and Gove’s pet projects

Once upon a time there was a Tory Secretary of State for Education called John Patten. He was generally thought to be a hapless disaster, whose time as a Cabinet minister in the early 1990s was taken up with trying to get as many schools as possible to opt out of local authority control. He […]

Education Sun 11 Jul

David Cameron is wrong about London state schools

So David Cameron claims to be ‘terrified’ of the secondary school choices available to him as a parent living in London. He needs to get out and about a bit. I must declare an interest. I am chair of governors of two London schools, I was educated in London state schools and have three children […]

Education Sun 4 Jul

Not so happy in ‘Nappy Valley’

Here is an interesting microcosm of the new education landscape – ‘Nappy Valley’ is an affluent enclave between Wandsworth and Clapham Common in South London. To give you an idea of the residential geography – an online search of house prices suggests not much change from £1million for a two bedroom house. Lots of those […]

Education Wed 23 Jun

Most parents happy with their children’s schools

Guess what?  You won’t read it in the papers but most parents are happy with their children’s schools. A research review, carried out by RISE (Research and Information in State Education), looked at evidence gathered over three years, covering over 20,000 parents.The vast majority (over 90%) were satisfied with their children’s schools and over three […]

Education Wed 23 Jun

Policy on the back of an envelope

Three cheers for Mary Gibson, the Islington head whose robust defence of her school’s community school status made headlines in her local paper earlier this month. She has taught in the North London borough of Islington for 40 years, runs an outstanding school, was awarded an MBE recently and is defiant: ’This school will become […]

Education Sat 19 Jun

School reforms face set-backs

Oh dear. Michael Gove’s school reforms seem to have hit choppy waters already. For a start there is clearly no money to build all his  ‘free’ schools. The IT fund he hoped to raid for capital investment in this financial year is partly spent and, according to the Guardian, the Treasury is less than happy […]

Education Fri 18 Jun

How much extra money will academies really get?

There is currently considerable confusion in relation to the funding that schools that become academies under the current bill before parliament will receive compared to what they currently receive. This confusion seems partly the result of comparisons with what happened when the Conservatives were last in power and Grant-Maintained schools were considerably advantaged both in […]

By Guy Dixon 4 comments