Should free schools only be allowed where there is such a shortage of school places that the existing schools, however bad, have nothing to fear? A pretty typical comment on Newsnight from Gerald Meehan, the Strategic Director for Children and Young People on Halton Borough Council, made the case as follows: What I'm interested in […]
Cllr John Cherry of Chichester District Council has resigned from the Conservative Party after comments he made opposing a state boarding school opening in his area. Cllr Cherry says: "My remarks about Durand Academy, as reported in the Mail on Sunday today, were plainly wrong. They were thoughtless and extremely foolish. I unreservedly apologise and […]
By Andrew GimsonFollow Andrew on Twitter “No.” This was the instantaneous reaction of my 13-year-old son on hearing at breakfast today of Michael Gove’s proposal to cut the length of the summer holiday from school. Many adults will have the same instinctive reaction. We recall our summer holidays as a wonderful expanse of time, the […]
John Bald says the demise of discredited Quangos offers the prospect for the improvement of language tuition Since the mid-sixties, government policy on modern languages in state schools has been dominated by a series of quangos, notably the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, founded by Anthony Crosland, the Schools Council and the […]
John Bald says the unions should complain about excessive paperwork not teaching hours Every year, the teachers' unions try give the government a long Good Friday, and every year they hurt themselves instead. This time, they were doing well until the last minute. The ATL had its leader's "castigation" of Michael Gove. The NUT, marshalled […]
John Bald writes Michael Gove's critics of last week gave university addresses, but one is also a teacher completing a higher degree. She posted this on the Guardian website after school yesterday: I had a child today tell me, when I gently pulled his bag to pull him away from another child he was leaping […]
John Bald writes You can choose your friends, but sometimes your enemies choose you. In the age of the internet, at least you can find out about them quickly, so googled Michael Gove's academic critics yesterday, and reached personal websites for all but one (Karen Grossman, of the London Institute of Education). Quotes here […]
John Bald writes Two cheers for Michael Gove. The first is for reducing his department's expenditure on propaganda – sorry, information – from £54m to £1m. This seems about the right amount, and should be set as a maximum for all other departments unless they have good reason to spend more, for example, on anti […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter George Osborne is getting a very similar message from his Conservative and Liberal Democrat colleagues: Lift the ringfences. Liberal Democrats are telling the Chancellor that they won't accept further cuts to welfare if he isn't willing to cut richer pensioners' benefits and, potentially, also "gently trim" the budgets for […]
John Bald writes Last week's report on international maths standards from the London Institute of Education met with this response from Elizabeth Truss: “This report is a damning indictment of Labour's record on education. Based on data from between 2003 and 2009 it shows that our top pupils actually lose ground as they get older, […]
Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in out Town Halls This week's Champion Council is Lewes District Council. After coming under Conservative control at the beginning of last year, following 18 years of Liberal Democrat administration, the council has undergone a number of major changes to get the council working in […]
John Bald says the new history curriculum has some of the most intellectually ambitious goals he has seen Not for the first time, opponents of the National Curriculum have chosen to concentrate their fire on history, describing the draft proposals as narrow, fifties-nostalgic and designed to replace thinking with rote learning. It's interesting, therefore, to […]
Pupils in state schools are legally required to be taught for a minimum of 190 days a year (independent schools don't have this requirement and pupils are normally taught around 170 days). However, state school teachers are required to work for 195 days a year. These extra five days are Inset Days – In-service training […]
John Bald says the education reforms are still on track My promise to review of technical and vocational education this week has been overtaken by events, so first congratulations to Michael Gove on his good press this morning, and on a wonderful defence and explanation of his educational reforms to the Social Market Foundation on […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter The terms of the debate on education policy used to be presented as Labour championing equal opportunity while the Conservatives were defenders of priviledge for the minority. Labour attacked the gramar schools on the grounds that the children who failed the 11-plus were "written off." Labour also attacked independent schools […]