John Bald reports on the Festival of Education at Wellington College Wellington College, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is unusual as monuments go, as people do not normally have the opportunity to see it. Indeed, few realise that it is a monument at all. All credit, therefore, to Dr Anthony Seldon for […]
From a British perspective, Finland is one of the more obscure countries in Europe. There’s a Monty Python song about the country, suggesting that even Belgium has a higher profile. However, Finland is second to none when it comes to the performance of its schools. In fact, on the best-known system of international comparisons, Finland […]
It is been painful to watch the contortions the Labour Party has inflicted on itself with regards to its education proposals. The Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg has sought to reconcile two irreconcilable positions – being in favour of free schools and being against them. Still the media has a limited interest in policy – […]
The Labour Party and the teaching unions are soft on "surplus places" when it is a matter of closing or taking over an unpopular, failing school. However, when it comes to thwarting new schools from opening they suddenly become most concerned about the misallocation of resources. The problem with the Shadow Education Secretary, Stephen Twigg's, […]
John Bald finds evidence on a daily basis that Conservatives are winning the argument on education Last Monday, I saw a report in The Guardian of an assessment of the phonics check for six year olds, carried out in York by academics from Oxford and York Universities. After all of the criticism of the test […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter Yesterday the Daily Mirror reported that the Labour Party had dropped its opposition to free schools. One would think that faithfully regurgitating the Labour Party line would be one area where the newspaper is reliable. Toby Young welcomed the news at a conference at the West London Free School, held […]
Watching the US film Waiting for Superman I was struck by how similar much of the education debate is in America to hear. There is the desperation of parents who can't afford school fees to have the choice of a good school for their children. It takes particular graphic form there with the lottery as […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. In the latest edition of the Spectator, Toby Young studies the revolutionary tactics and moral zeal of Michael Gove. He cites the Education Secretary's fondness for adopting the language of Communism – be it in terms of "permanent revolution" or Gramsci's long march through the institutions – but crucially sees beyond […]
The Tiger Primary free school in Maidstone has a strong focus on teaching Mandarin. A survey by the British Council earlier this year found that only 3% of primary schools offering any Mandarin teaching at all. Those that do it's usually a few classes from the age of seven. The Tiger Primary School is much […]
The Bilingual Primary School, a free school in Brighton, is the first state funded bilingual English / Spanish primary school in the UK. Its basis is as follows: The Bilingual Primary School, Brighton & Hove is brought to you by the Bilingual Primary School Project which was founded in 2010. BLPSP is made up of […]
The Reach Academy, a free school in Feltham which opened last year, has a number of distinctive characteristics. It is fairly small – a maximum of 60 places for each year group.Indeed it was founded by a group of teachers who believe that large secondary schools are not right for all pupils – that sometimes […]
Often, free schools offer a pretty general, all round good education. That's fine. The more of them that open, the more choice there is for parents and the more competition there is – driving up standards in other schools. However, another aspect of the free school revolution is the scope for innovation. When the first […]
Interviewed on Sky News last year the Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg criticised free schools on various grounds. Mr Twigg claimed the new schools were not "value for money" – although the average cost for setting one up is £6 million while the average for new secondary schools under the Labour Government was £28 million […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter This morning sees another stage in the free schools revolution. 81 are already open. Another 109 were already approved to open, mostly due to start this September. This morning we have news of a further 102, mostly to open next year. When full, these free schools will have 130,000 pupils. […]
John Bald on Michael v Michael The key to Michael Gove's speech on Thursday, and to our opponents' furious response, lies in his use of this joke: As Dr Johnson once observed of two women arguing from the windows of houses on opposing sides of a street – ‘they will never agree, Boswell, because they […]