Is Andreas Schleicher still on Gove’s Christmas card list?
In January 2011, Michael Gove famously described Andreas Schleicher of the OECD and mastermind of the PISA tests as “the most important man in English education”. It’s just possible now that after the...
View ArticleDrop the aspiration tax
The government has announced that funding for 18 year olds studying in colleges and sixth forms in England is to be cut by 17.5% per student next academic year. Among those affected will be a large...
View ArticleWhy we shouldn’t jump to Ofsted’s defence against the Govites
It must have been something of a surprise for Michael Wilshaw to come under sustained attack from his right flank. Two right wing think tanks it seems are gunning for Ofsted. It was enough to send HMCI...
View ArticleCouncils need to rise to Ofsted’s challenge and show they make a difference
There’s a lot of debate and a lot of uncertainty about what a future Labour government would mean for the education role of local authorities. Think tanks have spent the last couple of years trying to...
View ArticleThe Blunkett review and education’s democratic deficit
The Blunkett review is to be welcomed and its implementation would clearly help recreate an education system where there is none. However, it does not fully address English education’s democratic...
View ArticleDoes Richard Walden have a point? Are testing and league tables driving out...
Richard Walden was not, it has to be said, until recently a household name in the world of education. He’s head of a small independent primary school in Shropshire – though it would want to call itself...
View ArticleShould schools promote “British values” – a debate?
One response to the accusations of extremism against some Birmingham schools has been to revive calls for schools to teach “British values”. Michael Gove has issued draft changes to the funding...
View ArticleSchool admissions should be part of Labour’s campaign for a fairer society
A central theme of Labour’s 2015 campaign is the idea that our country is increasingly dominated by the privileged and by powerful interest groups at the expense of the rest of us. This can be, for...
View ArticleThe Conservative Manifesto – a bleak and dispiriting vision for the future of...
There has been a lot of debate in left education circles about the adequacy or otherwise of Labour’s education policies as we approach the election. With the publication of the Tory manifesto however,...
View ArticleIs a new vision for local government quietly emerging?
Over the past 30 or more years, successive central governments have done everything they can to demolish English local government. Powers and functions have been seized by ministers for themselves or...
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