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Latest Blog Posts
- Will anything but a boycott stop the tests? July 11, 2017
- Tower block tenants – the people who didn’t matter July 2, 2017
- A lesson from Sergeant Pepper June 28, 2017
- Back to the 1970s? I’ll vote for that May 21, 2017
- School cuts or taxing the rich? May 10, 2017
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Tag Archives: local authority
Progress 8 – another attack on working-class schools
Progress 8 was supposed to be fair. It has become just another way of hammering schools with the most disadvantaged students. Its designers clearly took care to avoid some of the problems with counting 5 A*-Cs, which often led to a concentration … Continue reading
The Scottish phonics miracle: myths and evidence
A major trigger for politicians insisting that synthetic phonics is the only good way to teach reading came from an experiment in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The work of Sue Ellis at Strathclyde University reveals serious exaggeration by politicians and the press. Gains in … Continue reading
Primary schools responding to diversity
New research by inclusion and SEN experts Mel Ainscow and Alan Dyson, in partnership with Lisa Hopwood and Stephanie Thomson, shows how a fragmented school system is affecting vulnerable children. It raises issues about the way diversity is understood primarily in … Continue reading
Academies: autonomy or asset stripping?
One of the main reasons Nicky Morgan gives for closing local authorities and turning all schools into academies is ‘autonomy’. To quote her recent statement to Parliament: “Test scores are higher when schools manage their budgets and recruit and select … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Uncategorized
Tagged academies, free schools, local authority, local democracy, politicians, privatisation
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Comment: A budget of dispossession
It’s time we stopped talking about ‘Austerity’. What we are really living through is a ruthless process of dispossession. Behind the pretence of ‘balancing the books’ (endlessly deferred), Osborne’s real project is to boost the wealth of the hyper-rich. Public services have been … Continue reading
Posted in Governance
Tagged academies, governors, local authority, local democracy, politicians, privatisation
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Chief Inspector condemns academy chain disaster
Today’s letter from Chief Inspector Michael Wilshaw to Nicky Morgan is a damning condemnation of the Government’s plan to turn all schools into academies. “Given the government’s clear intention to move to a fully academised system and, in the Prime … Continue reading
Posted in Governance
Tagged academies, disadvantage, governors, local authority, local democracy, Ofsted, politicians, poverty
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Bullying by numbers – its roots in neoliberalism
by Terry Wrigley, Visiting Professor, Northumbria University There is relentless pressure to raise standards – or rather scores – and it’s driving thousands of teachers to quit. The insatiable demands amount to bullying – bullying by numbers, reinforced by a … Continue reading
