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Latest Blog Posts
- School reopening? top scientists say not yet May 25, 2020
- Sending England back to work and back to school? May 11, 2020
- Too early to reopen schools : look at Europe April 30, 2020
- Ofsted : unreliable, destructive, beyond repair December 5, 2019
- PISA: no victory for Michael Gove December 4, 2019
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Categories
Tag Archives: local authority
Academies and local authorities: what a Labour government should do
by Richard Hatcher, Birmingham City University We know that the policy of academies been a disaster for education. The question is what should be done about them? Angela Rayner’s speech at Labour Party Conference in September was mainly about academies. … Continue reading
Posted in Governance
Tagged academies, free schools, local authority, local democracy, politicians, privatisation
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
What business do universities have in academy schools?
by Nadia Edmond, University of Brighton first published in The Conversation (4 Jan 2016) There has been a transformation in English education in the last decade – the academies programme has brought private trusts and corporate sponsors into the schools system. … Continue reading
Posted in Governance
Tagged academies, free schools, local authority, privatisation, universities
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A future going backwards (part 2)
by Professor Sally Tomlinson, University of Oxford What a complex and fragmented collection of schools existed in 19th Century England. Voluntary philanthropic initiatives, struggles between the Anglican church and Dissenters, middle class reformers, business interests, and public schools for the … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Uncategorized
Tagged academies, comprehensive schools, history, local authority
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