Posted by Editors EdReform, In The News, Management Consultants, McKinsey & Co., Media Watch, NASUWT, NUT, Ofsted, Politics, Social Enterprise, Teach First, Teach for America, Teaching Saturday, July 27th, 2013
Given recent political limelight-sharing speeches, and education news media puff pieces, we thought it important to restore some balance to the current largely light-touch media debate on Teach First. We also thought that it would be useful to collect all the various arguments for and against Teach First in one place. What follows therefore is […]
Posted by Editors Andreas Schleicher, Common Core, Daniel Willingham, In The News, Media Watch, Michael Barber, Research, Tories Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
“Our curriculum is based on years of analysis of the world’s most successful school systems, from east Asia to Massachusetts, and is backed by leading academics such as scientist Daniel Willingham” (Elizabeth Truss MP, Conservative Minister for education) “Antidote to Twitter idiocy: The science behind Gove approach on curriculum: http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2013/02/the-science-in-goves-speech.html” (Tory education news @toryeducation) “I […]
Posted by Editors GCSEs, In The News, Policy, Schools, Tories Thursday, September 20th, 2012
With much anticipation, we listened yesterday afternoon to England Education Secretary, Michael Gove’s, statement to the House of Commons on his proposed reforms to the current nationwide GCSE examination. We were listening not only for the predictable bitchiness that accompanies any statement Gove makes to the Commons but also for anything that educationalists like ourselves […]
Posted by Editors EduBusiness, In The News, Labour, OECD, PISA, Teach First, Teaching Monday, May 14th, 2012
The BBC report that the UK Shadow (in the broadest sense of the term) Secretary for Education, Stephen Twigg, believes “England’s schools should learn from Japan”. He obviously hasn’t been reading the Economist recently. “THE yells of children pierce the night, belting out the elements—“Lithium! Magnesium!”—as an instructor displays abbreviations from the periodic table. Next, […]
Posted by Editors IfL, In The News, Tories Thursday, March 29th, 2012
We cannot contain our joy that the Institute for Learning/Leaving (IfL) set up in 2002 to ‘professionalise’ the UK’s Further Education and Skills Sector teacher pool but widely credited with alienating already disillusioned teachers and causing much confusion and unnecessary anxiety along the way has been given its own pink slip and told to clear […]
Posted by Editors EdReform, Events, Exams, HE, In The News, Labour, Policy, Politics, Schools, Teaching Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
For those who think Gove or any other politician is the answer to our educational problems (whatever they may be), perhaps excerpts from the text of the speech by Prime Minister James Callaghan, at a foundation stone-laying ceremony at Ruskin College, Oxford, on October. 18 1976 will make you think again. The speech proved to […]
Posted by Editors Academies, ASCL, EduBusiness, Events, Free Schools, In The News, League Tables, Managerialism, Ofsted, Standards, Teach First, Teacher Bashing, Testing, Tories, Working Conditions Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Michael Gove, UK Ed Sec, spoke at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference on the the 24 March 2012 so we thought we’d run through the justifications he could come up with for alienating both teachers and headteachers with his needless reforms. There was a defence of free schools and academies. There […]
Posted by Editors Andreas Schleicher, Events, In The News, OECD, Politics, Teacher Bashing Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
For those of you who don’t know, the ISTP – 2012 International Summit of the Teaching Profession is being held today and tomorrow in NYC, USA. Our initial reaction to these events is always that they are a good opportunity to see the world, have a few dinners at taxpayer expense and pontificate on matters […]
Posted by Editors In The News, League Tables, Politics, Standards, Teacher Bashing Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
The BBC reports today that Labour education spokesman Stephen Twigg has called for the creation of an independent office to raise standards in education in England. On so many grounds this is a mistake. We have written at length about standards in the past but it is clear that Time Warp Twigg, new to the […]
Posted by Editors In The News, Tories, Unions Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Below, and just in case any UK public sector worker needed further motivation to take strike action tomorrow (November 30th 2011), a ‘striking’ Michael Gove. A case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’?
