Posted by Editors Academies, EdReform, In The News, Labour, Mike Baker, Politics, Schools, Tories Monday, June 22nd, 2015
BBC News, August 2010 “In education, if you wait long enough, most ideas come full circle. This week saw Royal Assent for the Academies Bill, one of the fastest pieces of education law ever enacted. But while it could have far-reaching implications, the Academies Act actually turns back the clock to a reform brought in […]
Posted by Editors Academies, EdReform, Free Schools, In The News, Labour, Politics, Schools, Teach First, Teacher Training, Tories Sunday, March 2nd, 2014
The question to be addressed in this short post is prompted by statements made on a number of occasions by Tristram Hunt, Labour’s shadow Education Secretary. Mr. Hunt has recently made a number of public remarks about how the Tories have been wrong to allow schools to employ unqualified teachers (E.g. here, here, and here). […]
Posted by Editors Andreas Schleicher, Common Core, Daniel Willingham, EdReform, In The News, Michael Barber, Schools, Standards, Teach First, Teacher Bashing, Testing, Tories, Unions Monday, February 3rd, 2014
The Snob, n. – A person who admires and seeks to imitate, or associate with, those of higher social status or greater wealth; one who wishes to be regarded as a person of social importance. – A person who despises those whom he or she considers to be inferior in rank, attainment, or taste. First […]
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 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 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 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’?
Posted by Editors In The News, Teach First, Teaching, Tories Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
When you consider how desperate times apparently are in the UK, it would help that those with a democratic mandate were talking to each other. Last week, Ian Duncan Smith urged the recruitment of British workers, a few weeks before that Michael “The Governor” Gove decided to relax the rules regulating the employment of overseas-trained […]
Posted by Editors Academies, CfBT, Free Schools, In The News, Special Schools, Teach First, Tories Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
We have already written at some length about the new philanthropic organisations that appear to be doing the UK Tories’ dirty work and also the rather creative interpretation of UK charity commission guidelines that permit organisations like Teach First to operate as charities. CfBT Education Trust is another on-message charity. They claim to “provide education […]