Posts Tagged ‘Grammar schools’

Just say no to more grammars

If I were Michael Gove, the decision I would least relish at the moment would be having to rule on the fate of the Sevenoaks grammar school. This little time bomb was lobbed into the Secretary of State’s court around 18 months ago when the county council in fully selective Kent decided to approve the […]

Education Mon 2 Apr

Labour should subvert the Tory academy programme to end selection

A shorter version of this article appears in the Guardian today I am sure I wasn’t alone in feeling a profound sense of gloom on hearing that the go-ahead has been given for what will effectively be a new grammar school in the Kent town of Sevenoaks. For the last fifteen years too many people, […]

Education Thu 3 Mar

Children not disadvantaged by comprehensive education

Interesting new study here , published in the  British Journal of Sociology . It is based on the fifty year long National Child Development Study, and paints a very different picture about the success of comprehensive education than the one we usually see. Authors Vikki  Boliver and Adam Swift take head on the frequently made […]

Education Sat 18 Dec

Reforming admissions – now that would be radical

Link to original article in Education Guardian Change, versus more of the same, is possibly the hardest worked political slogan of recent years.  So talk of more radical school reform grinds on, following last week’s  PISA report, when what is on offer is a just dull continuation of the past. Is there anything in the […]

Education Tue 14 Sep

Fairer admissions for poor children? Let’s start by ending selection

So Michael Gove wants the admissions system to benefit poor children. Excellent. But rather than given a few schools the option of prioritising children on free school meals, he should start by ending academic selection, and all the other covert methods many schools use to hand pick the affluent children most likely to succeed. And […]