Published in
In this section I archive features and articles that have been published elsewhere. I contribute regularly to the national press, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Daily Mail.
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Education white paper: an assault on schools
This week’s education white paper will seriously undermine standards of teaching in our schools On the surface the new education white paper, due to be published next week but widely leaked in the press today, appears to be all about promoting good teachers. Having a good degree and two decades of experience in the classroom,…
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The penny has dropped: scrap academic and social selection and opt for an ‘ecological admissions test’
How many teachers really know how the pupils sitting before them actually got there? If you’re teaching in a grammar school, are you aware of the hours of agonised torture your pupils endured preparing for the 11-plus? If you’re in a school that deals with its own admissions, are you aware of all the hoops…
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The Coalition’s Academy Plans backfire
A new report shows that the Coalition’s education policy of allowing all schools to become Academies has seriously backfired. The stated aim was to raise standards across the board, particularly in our most socially disadvantaged areas. A new report published by the Centre for Economic Performance shows that the majority of schools who have become…
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Is class the place for a ‘culture of love’?
It’s the role of parents, not teachers, to provide emotional nurturing for children Love is in the air. The latest big idea to emerge in schools during these summery months is that teachers like me should be loving their pupils more. The guru espousing this idea is Dr Andrew Curran, a practising paediatric neurologist in…
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Special needs is a fad that harms children
Pupils are being subjected to all manner of crank treatments in the name of helping them Twenty years ago, when I started teaching in a tough, inner-city comprehensive, only three of my pupils were labelled as having “special educational needs”. All three were extreme cases: one girl liked to throw chairs at her teachers, another…
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How to cope with secondary school trauma
It may be a year away, but parents need to act now to get their child into a chosen school There was an atmosphere of panic among the parents in the sticky assembly hall with all of us secretly worrying: would we find the right school for our children? Being the parents of Year 5…
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Talking beats confiscating
The new teachers’ powers are welcome, but it’ll take more to instil discipline in our classrooms My pupils seem to carry an increasing number of devices that clink, chime, crash, and even fart of their own accord in my classroom. If the offending gadget makes a particularly loud sound, the intrusion can ruin a peaceful,…
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Why do our politicians think American charter schools are so great?
As polling day nears, it’s dispiriting to see so little choice and diversity in the parties’ proposals to improve our schools – and I write as someone who teaches in a comprehensive. Labour, the Tories and even the Liberal Democrats seem to think that introducing a more free-market system will raise educational standards; but all…
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UK teachers on the edge: but who really cares?
The case of Peter Harvey, cleared of attempted murder, has refocused attention on the stresses faced by school staff nationwide I suspect many teachers, like me, are feeling relieved that Peter Harvey, the teacher who battered a difficult pupil about the head with a dumbbell, has been found not guilty of attempted murder. The…
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Tory free schools will spread inequality
The heads supporting Tory education plans have self-interest at heart. We need a fair system that gives children an equal chance Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the day after Tory councillors have been publicly criticising their own party’s education plans, a number of headteachers – many of them running selective schools –…
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Co-operative schools? The reality is a fright
An educationalist warns that the evidence suggests the Tory proposal for teacher-run schools would lead to chaos What a great wheeze! Just think, if the Tories come to power, my teacher chums and I could be running our own co-operative schools. For a teacher like me, having struggled to teach under the iron grip of…
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The worst classroom bullies? Politicians
A toxic brew of meddling and failure to teach the basics has set teachers against pupils Luke had his victim, another 13-year-old pupil, in an armlock and was smashing his fists against his face. Things weren’t going according to my lesson plan. I rushed over to the fighting boys and yanked them apart, yelling at…
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Gifts won’t make you teacher’s pet
More and more pupils are giving teachers presents, but the practice only creates insecurity in parents and staff The strangest present a colleague of mine received was a perfectly formed turd. Michael Whyte was teaching in Plaistow some years ago in a school that’s now closed, when sitting down to teach his first lesson of…
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The Common Entrance Automatons
Wellington College’s head knocks state ‘factory schools’, yet his entrance exams see children being drilled as early as year four Anthony Seldon is one of the most powerful figures in education today, so when he provides 20 recommendations for improving schools we should all take note. Given his ideological closeness with the Conservatives, he…
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School choice – an overrated concept
As a teacher for 20 years, I can tell parents that with their support children can flourish anywhere The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed.…
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What makes a great teacher?
David Cameron thinks a good teacher is all about having a good degree but, says one member of the profession, that couldn’t be further from the truth David Cameron’s proclamation that the Tories will be “brazenly elitist” about the calibre of candidates entering the teaching profession betrays the fact that he doesn’t know anything about…
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Don’t judge teachers by their degrees
I’ve seen too many graduates with first-class degrees die in the classroom. David Cameron’s ‘elitist’ policies would be destructive So what makes a good teacher? Suddenly, answering this question properly seems to be of crucial importance. Today, with much fanfare, David Cameron, trumpeted plans to stop graduates with poor degrees from so-called “poor” universities from…
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Truants, bullies and the recession
We must help families torn apart by truancy, not criminalise them – but the services that help troubled children are under threat The news that truancy rates are soaring won’t surprise many teachers like me. Figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that children skipped more than 8m days of school last…