Green Party Education Policy - at last, some sense about education from a political party

You can read the policy here:

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed.html

I stopped voting Labour as soon as I understood what a monster Tony Blair actually was.  But, as the head of one of the most challenged schools in the country, I also felt continually betrayed by Labour's undermining of state education.

After a lifetime of voting for a party that never delivered, I've decided to vote, for the rest of my life, for policies.  There's a brilliant website that allows you to judge a range of policies without knowing which political party is putting them forward:

http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

Give it a try.  As they say, you might surprise yourself.

Another humiliation for Govey

Following close on the heals his embarrassing GCSE/Ebac u-turn, come this damning criticism of his plan for A and AS levels:

Universities Attack A Level Reforms

These were the very institutions that he wanted to devise the Brave New World for him.

I have thought for sometime that education (like a handful of other areas like health) is too important to be left to politicians.  Since mad Govey emerged (from the world of journalism!) this thought has been reinforced every time he opens his  mouth.  I'm clearly not alone.  I understand that the Headteachers' Roundtable have suggested something like this.

I wouldn't want to give the impression, by the way, that I have any time for the elitism of the Russell Group.  A glance at the University League Table 2013 shows that a number of them don't make it into the top 20 whilst several more modern institutions do.

I wouldn't, of course, want to give the impression that I believe educational league tables are valid!

But they must do.

Gove and Truss

Gove and Truss are clearly cut from the same short planks, no matter how well they have mastered the art of appearing to have an average degree of intelligence.

Truss has announced that child carers who want a qualification will require a GCSE grade C in English (and maths, but let's not go there).  That a person has GCSE grade C in English bears absolutely no relationship to their ability to care for children and foster children's language growth.  Carers could, however, usefully be taught how young children actually learn language.  I'll give her a clue (since she doesn't have any)  -  it's not by being taught.

It seems somehow appropriate that Gove, who clearly wishes to roll the whole world back to the time when he was in his nice comfortable school where there were no discipline problems and everyone he knew studied Latin, intends to increase the rigour of maths lessons by putting more emphasis on 'imperial measures'.  But even he wasn't at school when we still had an empire.

The current curriculum merely asks that pupils are familiar with the names of imperial measures and know approximate conversions into the metric system.  Perfectly sensible.  Even more sensible would be to follow the advice of Lord Howe, the former Tory Cabinet minister, who earlier this year called on ministers to end the 'deeply confusing shambles' of using a mixture of metric and imperial measures.  He warned: 'The only solution is to complete the changeover to metric as swiftly and as cleanly as possible.'

There's a good article on Gove by Suzanne Moore in today's Guardian :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/30/michael-gove-destroying-school-system

Eventually someone will have to come along and pick up the pieces.

School Performance Tables....the truth!

Professor Harvey Goldstein, a leading authority on statistics, has written this straightforward 'health warning' published by the British Academy:

http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/School_League_Tables.cfm

(after following the link, you will find a brief description and then a link to the publication, a pdf file)

Normal service may be resumed

I haven't posted in a long time.  Two reasons: Gove's stupidity, demonstrated in the media almost daily, makes comment superfluous.  But it's still fun to highlight it.  The second and more significant reason is that I have been very preoccupied by family illness.

However I noted this exchange between Gove and an interviewer a while ago and thought that he had taken the art of ignoring the question totally to a new level (well, he has to be good at something):

Questioner: 'Did you overrule the committee?' 

Govey: 'Playing fields are better protected under this govt than at any time before'.

Teachers don't know what stress is!!!!!!

Humpty again. Wilshaw seems absolutely determined to alienate teachers by stupid remarks like these:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/may/10/teachers-dont-know-stress-ofsted-chief

I wrote an article quite a while ago that I hope sums up the effects of stress on too many teachers and also tries to celebrate the legacy of those teachers who have suffered 'burn-out':
http://www.philjtaylor.com/Not%20so%20much%20as%20a%20fond%20farewell.htm

Since the nineties, the stresses on teachers have undeniably become even greater. And this has happened despite the introduction of lunchtime organisers to allow most teachers to have a proper lunch break. Interestingly, this innovation was prompted by teachers' industrial action in the 80's which Wilshaw derides in the same speech:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/10/teachers-dont-know-what-stress-is-says-ofsted-chief-sir-michael-wilshaw_n_1505881.html

Still there are signs that even Gove, who is trying to row back on Wilshaw's plan for no-notice Ofsted inspections, is beginning to wonder what the Hell they've done in appointing someone who so clearly fails to appreciate that the whole education system depends on the dedication of teachers.

Stalin would have been proud

Michael Gove's chilling words in an article about schools being forced to become academies:

'No school is being threatened with academy status. Schools are being promised the benefits that come from being an academy.'

The closest thing to Stalin in U.K. politics?

Read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/cv5qx5n

An early day motion on this isssue in January (arising from events in Haringey) attracted 47 M.P.'s signatures  -  all Labour apart from Mike Hancock (Lib Dem  -  just about) and Caroline Lucas (I've never heard her say anything I disagree with). Not exactly the kind of response one would hope for.