Schools
Pupils versus trade unions
Catching up on my reading. This from the Washington Post last month is interesting on the movement among Democratic mayors in America for schools reform, often striving to overcome opposition from teachers’ unions.
There are two big battles. One over tenure: the guarantee of a job for life for most teachers, which makes it hard to [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 29 April 2013 at 2:23 pm
“We won’t win without crossing some boundaries”
John Blake of Labour Teachers has responded on his personal blog to Michael Gove’s recent praise of him, and to the depressingly predictable reaction of some of his fellow Labour supporters:
I am passionately committed to the Labour Party and the achievement of a Labour government as soon as possible and for as long as possible. [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 28 April 2013 at 4:56 pm
Blake’s 14: bipartisan schools reform
I was intrigued by a line in Michael Gove’s speech to teachers and headteachers today:
I’m also an admirer of John Blake of Labour Teachers, who has transcended party politics to praise all schools which succeed for their pupils, even if they are academies or free schools…
I hadn’t come across Blake before, but I was sure [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 25 April 2013 at 10:01 pm
Socialist Intentions
India Knight in The Sunday Times (pay wall) on Michael Gove’s curriculum reform:
Gove, rightly, calls his proposals “fundamental building blocks”. These will result in children learning fractions from the age of five, knowing their times tables by the age of nine and learning to recite poetry from the age of five, with an added emphasis [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 24 March 2013 at 6:04 pm
The “Ability to Think”
I am writing to warn of the dangers posed by semi-literate academics writing letters to national newspapers warning of the dangers posed by Michael Gove’s not being as left-wing and right-on as they are. This is the third sentence of their letter:
This mountain of data will not develop children’s ability to think, including problem-solving, critical [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 11:13 am
Secondary schools are too big
This is a repeat of an old blog post of mine, from about three years ago, I think, in which I agreed with Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, that the expansion of secondary schools in the 1970s and again from 1990 to 2005 was an educational and social disaster.
These figures, “Average size of UK [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 24 February 2013 at 4:43 pm
Gove’s “Liberation Theology” Speech
One reason Michael Gove will never be prime minister is that he cannot resist a good joke. His speech to the Social Market Foundation yesterday was a joy to read, partly because his mockery of right-on attitudes was so pointed.
Those who enjoy wealth and power in our society – however bohemian their lifestyle, artistic their circle [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 6 February 2013 at 5:35 pm
Do students have a right to be consulted about issues affecting their schools?
We need to ask the question of whether students are being given an adequate say in the changes taking place within their learning establishments. The truth is, they are not.
By Liam Young | Notebook, Opinion | Friday, 2 November 2012 at 4:15 pm
School drama doesn’t need GCSEs – or Ebaccs, for that matter
As soon as Education Secretary, Michael Gove speaks, most of the education establishment is so busy automatically loathing him and finding fault with his every word that they forget to listen to what he is actually saying.
By Susan Elkin | Notebook | Wednesday, 19 September 2012 at 10:58 am
When Andrew Adonis nearly joined UKIP
Lovely passage in Andrew Adonis’s brilliant new book, Education, Education, Education. He tells the story of how the academy schools programme was threatened by legal action in 2006, one of many devices used by supposedly egalitarian opponents of the policy, that turned on whether academy sponsorship was governed by EU procurement law:
The prospect of Brussels [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 13 September 2012 at 1:07 pm
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