Posts Tagged ‘Parents’
Why we should support the parents at Downhills Primary School
Earlier this week I went to speak at a public meeting at Downhills Primary School in Tottenham. The school is being faced with ‘forced academisation’ by the government even though according to several external indicators (HMI visit and league tables) it is starting to improve. Between 2009 and 2011 the schools KS2 SATs results increasing […]
What parents really want from schools
For the past few months I have taken some time out from the daily blogging and journalism and spent time travelling around the country for a project looking into school accountability and what parents really want from schools. It has been a fascinating experience. My first encounter with “school accountability” came in the early 1990s. […]
Why we need a ‘Better Bacc’
Link to original Guardian article When I was 18, I went to America for a gap year. It was the dark ages in terms of modern technology and I spent ten months without speaking to my parents, corresponding intermittently by post. True, I had left school, but this followed teenage years punctuated by equally rare […]
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 […]
A great local community school
Also posted on the Local Schools Network I am getting a bit fed up of reading about the wonder of the academies so I thought I would post something about my daughter’s school. Here is how the latest Ofsted inspection report, published last week, describes it. “Parliament Hill School is a large comprehensive community school […]
Why it is strong heads and teachers, supportive parents, good governance and accountability that matter
Last week I stood down as a governor of my local primary school. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I became a parent at the school in 1991. Our eldest son was offered his nursery place in the week Margaret Thatcher resigned. I became an elected parent governor when he joined the reception class […]
Is the New Schools Network fit to set up state schools?
Link to original post on the Local Schools Network Listening to Rachel Wolf, CEO of the New Schools Network, on Radio Four’s Today programme this morning, it was impossible to avoid the conclusion that this organisation is not really fit to set up new schools. Questioned about whether children should be taught by unqualified teachers, […]
Schools can’t make society fairer on their own
Is anyone is seriously surprised at the findings of the latest report from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. The conclusion of ‘How fair is Britain’? Our nation has glaring inequalities between men and women, rich and poor, and different ethnic groups. No wonder all our young political leaders are in a fight to the […]
Free schools – who really gets to choose?
Link to original article in Guardian Education I am not in the habit of reading the Spectator, but a few weeks ago someone alerted me to its front page story ‘The new school bullies’. I got an honourable mention for supporting legal challenges to academies. The gist of the piece was that similar ‘guerrilla’ tactics […]
