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Free schools policy fuels social segregation
The prime minister’s announcement that, if re-elected, he will open 500 new free schools in the next five years, has catapulted this dismal policy initiative back into the headlines. Most commentators had assumed that David Cameron would keep quiet about free schools because it is generally acknowledged that they’ve been a bit of a disaster […]
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Academies are an expensive red herring. Here’s how you really improve school standards
How many times must academies be discredited before policymakers look at the proven but less headline-grabbing solutionn but less headline-grabbing solution? The prime minister’s announcement today that, if elected, the Tories will force “mediocre” schools to convert to academies was important for a couple of reasons. First, it indicated that the government wants to make […]
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Academy plan to use untrained teachers is an outrage
Why is Michael Gove instituting this policy when he has praised countries like Finland where teachers are intensively trained? The news today that the education secretary is to remove the requirement for academies to employ qualified teachers sent a shudder down my spine. For a teacher like me, who has taught for more than 20 […]
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The special needs system is open to abuse
Assessment of educational needs should be overhauled, as parents may be encouraging misdiagnosis to access resources (This article was first published by The Guardian) Plans to change the “special needs” system in schools will have a big impact upon teachers like me, as well as millions of pupils and their parents. That said, the system does need an […]
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I blame the free market for exam board cheats
For secondary school teachers like me, training sessions run by the exam boards are invaluable. And I’ve attended plenty of meetings where there have been strong hints about upcoming questions, similar to those exposed by the Telegraph this week. I’ve never heard an examiner being so open about the sorts of topics that the exam […]
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The government is wrong to devalue vocational qualifications
Vocational courses help students develop key skills employers are crying out for. League tables should reflect this The government’s decision to drastically downgrade the value of vocational qualificationsis deeply troubling for teachers like me, and must be sending many schools and colleges into a tailspin of despair. At the moment over half a million teenagers are […]
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Demobbed soldiers in the classroom: a deeply nostalgic policy
The education secretary, Michael Gove, is seeking to put more ex-soldiers in the classroom. He has outlined plans in his education white paper for the taxpayer to fund ex-army personnel to be trained as teachers. The subtext of his plans is that our classrooms are so out of control that drastic military action is called […]
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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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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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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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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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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 […]
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Teaching school texts by txt
Teachers should relax about pupils’ mobile phones – they can boost standards and liven up the lesson if used imaginatively It appears lots of teachers like me are up in arms about pupils using mobile phones in the classroom. Teaching unions are terrified that if schools don’t ban them absolutely, chaos will ensue: the […]
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Michael Gove’s ruinous plans for education
Today’s speech showed a party committed to micro-managing schools, using policies that have no empirical backing Michael Gove delivered a speech at the Conservative party conference which played to the prejudices of his audience. His oration was peppered again and again with talk of how the Labour party has failed the country in creating schools […]
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Labour ripped the heart out of education
Scratch beneath the surface of successful GSCE figures and you’ll find a morass of ‘robot teaching’ that fails our children So the first generation of students to be entirely educated under New Labour has just got its GCSE results. On the surface, the government’s achievements look fabulous: boys have caught up with girls in maths; […]
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Teachers’ pets win prizes
Are there far too many teachers’ pets in England? Do too many teachers from England unfairly favour certain students over others? A survey supervised by researchers at the University of Birmingham, in which 14,000 14- and 15-year-olds from England, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Japan, Italy and France were questioned, suggests that English teachers are the […]
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Schools are for learning, not imprisonment
A father’s refusal to allow his son to be punished in a school’s "isolation room" has focused the public’s mind on this form of punishment. According to the father, Andrew Widdowson, Ridgewood school in Doncaster has a darkened, poorly lit room where naughty children are sent which is "like Guantanamo Bay". His son was ordered […]
We need to reform the academy system – and stop the power-hungry super-heads
Our schools have become joyless, stressful places, run by principals who behave like football managers obsessed by tables. Why do we put up with it? This week’s Newsnight investigation into greedy “superheads” of academies coupled with headline claims about other heads involved inmoney-grabbing and cronyism has thrown a spotlight on to the role of headteachers. […]