John Bald: Higher education should be free to everyone who gets the grades
Grammar school expansion should be focused on extending their sixth forms and opening them up to qualified entrants from other local schools to widen opportunity.
Posts by John Bald
John Bald began teaching in 1973, and has extensive experience as an adviser with Essex and Hackney, as a trainer of new and experienced teachers and as an Inspector. He has written two books on the teaching of reading and spelling.
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John Bald: Teachers are still groaning over the time they have to waste producing fake data
Conservative policies to date have done little to improve the situation, and have sometimes made it worse. These bureaucratic impositions must be lifted.
John Bald: How South Cambridgeshire was lost
The key issue was planning, and our fate was sealed before the first leaflet was delivered. Developers would steamroller the council to get unwanted schemes approved.
John Bald: Social mobility and education’s Angry Brigade
Rather than allowing the greatest opportunity for each individual to excel, the educational establishment want to hold them back – in the interests of “levelling attainment”.
John Bald: Yes, we need education research – but it must be competent
The Education Endowment Foundation is not impartial. It was an error to set it up and it should receive no more public money. Others are better suited to the challenge.
John Bald: Why is the Government wasting £100 million on a Quango that backs mixed ability teaching?
Free schools and academies have found that setting improves standards. It’s time to stop giving huge public funds to academics who disregard this evidence.
John Bald: Mixed ability teaching has come very close to killing the learning of foreign languages
Tougher exams are not to blame. Too often children’s time for the first three years of secondary school is wasted.
John Bald: The chance for a better system for teaching pupils with dyslexia
My advice to parents seeking help from local authorities is not to bother – as it would probably be worse than useless. Their methods ignore the way the brain works.
John Bald: Greening is not to blame for our unpopularity with teachers
Too much of teachers’ time is still spent away from the classroom on paperwork and invented data.
John Bald: The alternative to phonics is guessing – which does not work
Not only can we teach our children to read but we can also defeat illiteracy in our prisons.
John Bald: How to stop the nonsense in teacher training
Give trainee teachers much more experience of working with individual children, so that they learn to focus on the person in front of them, and not on what someone else tells them to do.
John Bald: Progressive educationalists ignore how the brain works
The evidence of improved standards shows that a knowledge-rich curriculum is the best way to enable each person to achieve the best of which he or she is capable.
John Bald: What about the children at the bottom of the system?
“Alternative Provision” for disruptive children is still not good enough – as Justine Greening has recognised.
John Bald: The Conservatives have tangible achievements in education
The phonics check for six year olds and the free schools programme are genuine breakthroughs.
John Bald: The Government should stop wasting teachers’ time
Pointless paperwork, excessively detailed planning, and over-marking need to be addressed by Justine Greening.