By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. These are early days, and only 15 out of the country's 81 Free Schools have both been inspected and had results published, but two thirds of these have now been judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted – which itself introduced a more rigorous inspection regime last September. Canary Wharf […]
Do you remember all those students tearing through London in protest at £9,000 tuition fees? Well, what would happen if tuition fees were extended beyond £9,000? And that’s not just a moot question, either. An intriguing story today’s Sunday Times (£) suggests that ministers are considering doing just that. Apparently, “Institutions whose graduates are likely to receive high salaries could be […]
John Bald welcomes Nevile Gwynne's book on grammar – but warns it will not guarantee moral virtue Gwynne's Grammar, commended by Michael Gove to his civil servants, is in fact two books – his own analysis of English grammar, and a reprint of The Elements of Style, published in 1918 by Professor William Strunck Jnr. […]
Yesterday, the BBC published an embarrassing leaked letter, sent by a Department of Education official, on the topic of internet porn filters. In essence, the letter asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to agree to a form of words which would exaggerate the level of protection offered – allegedly in order to allow the Prime Minister to […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter There is a good piece (£) in The Spectator this week by Sebastian Payne on the muddle Labour has got itself into over free schools and academies. Traditionally the Labour Party opposes independent schools. It used to favour banning them. It is still problematic for a Labour politician (as opposed […]
Many people, allies and enemies alike, think that the main purpose of Michael Gove’s education reforms is to bring back traditional teaching methods. Mr Gove himself gives that impression, giving schools greater freedoms, but at the same time using his authority to insist upon the kind of rigorous standards that traditionalists would surely applaud. All […]
John Bald on a revolution for rigour After what seems like endless toil, sweat, blood and a few tears, we have the final version of the revised national curriculum (NC), in the form of a draft parliamentary order here. The most important document is the Framework, downloadable from the right-hand side of the page, which […]
The delusion of the British right is that austerity isn’t happening. The delusion of the British left is that it doesn’t have to happen. The reality is of departmental budget cuts on a scale not seen since the 1970s – but with plenty more to come. The difference between between previous periods of austerity and […]
The Labour MP Margaret Hodge has attacked spending £17 million on the country's first free state boarding school. However she has refused to raise her concerns directly with those behind the project. Under Labour the average cost of a new secondary school was £25-£30 million. The new school would offer a fantastic opportunity for […]
According to physicists who measure such things, Michael Gove moves at hyperspeed. After three years of this Government, there are now over ten times as many academies as there were when Labour left power. Around 80 free schools have been established, with a further 90 set to open this September. And that’s before we consider […]
Ken Clarke and Oliver Letwin wrote earlier about the Deregulation Bill. It has a lot of small measures but cumulatively is an important piece of legislation. A thousand and one ways to get the state out of the way and to allow more independent decision making. One example is that local authorities would no longer […]
John Bald reports on the Festival of Education at Wellington College Wellington College, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is unusual as monuments go, as people do not normally have the opportunity to see it. Indeed, few realise that it is a monument at all. All credit, therefore, to Dr Anthony Seldon for […]
From a British perspective, Finland is one of the more obscure countries in Europe. There’s a Monty Python song about the country, suggesting that even Belgium has a higher profile. However, Finland is second to none when it comes to the performance of its schools. In fact, on the best-known system of international comparisons, Finland […]
It is been painful to watch the contortions the Labour Party has inflicted on itself with regards to its education proposals. The Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg has sought to reconcile two irreconcilable positions – being in favour of free schools and being against them. Still the media has a limited interest in policy – […]
The Labour Party and the teaching unions are soft on "surplus places" when it is a matter of closing or taking over an unpopular, failing school. However, when it comes to thwarting new schools from opening they suddenly become most concerned about the misallocation of resources. The problem with the Shadow Education Secretary, Stephen Twigg's, […]