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Latest Blog Posts
- What curriculum do young people need? July 23, 2020
- 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
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Category Archives: Governance
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
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Academy law jettisoned but pressure still on
A few days ago the Government formally dropped legislation that would have forced all schools to become academies. This is clearly still the ongoing aim of this Government, but the overt pursuit of this strategy has become untenable given one … Continue reading
Posted in Governance, Uncategorized
Tagged academies, free schools, local democracy, politicians, school finance
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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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Robin Alexander on Ofsted’s new boss
Michael Wilshaw too progressive? Whatever next! A few days ago news appeared that the Chief Inspector is so out of favour with the Government that they are not renewing his contract. This is not entirely surprising given his opposition to more grammar schools, … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Governance
Tagged academies, accountability pressures, inspection, Ofsted, politicians
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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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How lay governors make better schools
Nigel Gann offers a more democratic vision of school governance. The second edition of his book Improving School Governance: How better governors make better schools has just been published. School management is often about measurable things – getting the data … Continue reading
Reclaiming Schools 