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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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Tag Archives: poverty
Children and the bedroom tax
The “bedroom tax” is a cut in benefits to families who are deemed to live in too large a house. Not like this of course just a bit bigger than the Government believe needy families deserve, calculated on the expectation that … Continue reading
Blame poverty, not schools part 2
In part 1, we brought together statistics that showed how seriously poverty impacts on attainment. Government ministers are constantly trying to divert us from this fact by pointing to variations between schools. While there are some differences, they are often … Continue reading
Posted in Social Justice, Uncategorized
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, Ofsted, politicians, poverty
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Making children poorer
The Conservatives’ attempt to re-invent themselves as the ‘party of working people’ is unravelling fast. The reality is that their Austerity politics are a device for creating a more unequal society and for punishing the lower-paid. Osborne’s cleverest move in … Continue reading
Posted in Social Justice, Uncategorized
Tagged Austerity, child poverty, disadvantage, politicians, poverty
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Blame poverty, not schools part 1
This is the first of a series of reports summarising key research, and based largely on official statistics. English schools are ‘held to account’ by a draconian system of bullying by numbers, reinforced by Ofsted. The constant targeting of less ‘effective’ … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Social Justice
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, poverty
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Predicting children’s “potential”: science or alchemy?
by Terry Wrigley, Visiting Professor, Northumbria University Victorian politicians were untroubled by the fact that children largely entered an occupation and class position similar to their parents. In fact, it was intended that this should happen, and the school system … Continue reading
Posted in Curriculum, Social Justice
Tagged genetics, intelligence, IQ, potential, poverty
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Children get hurt while the rich get richer
It is no wonder business leaders are keen to continue Austerity politics. Britain’s superrich have done very well out of Austerity: in fact they’ve doubled their wealth in five years, from £258 to £519bn. A recent study shows how heavily … Continue reading
Posted in Social Justice
Tagged disadvantage, early education, nurseries, poverty, school finance, Sure Start, welfare
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A Welsh mining community 30 years on
It is 30 years to the day since the Miners Strike ended. The legacy remains in the poverty and loss experienced in many parts of Britain. Gabrielle Ivinson’s research concerns the lives and feelings of young people living in the … Continue reading
Posted in Social Justice
Tagged community, disadvantage, poverty, youth unemployment
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No genes for literacy
A report on new research The idea that poverty is passed down from generation to generation in our genes is the last refuge of scoundrels. For a conservative elite, it is clearly convenient to claim that welfare and education spending … Continue reading
More PISA myths about top-performing school systems
A recent article circulated by the head of PISA Andreas Schleicher claimed to dispel “7 big myths about high-performing school systems“. These include “the myth that disadvantaged pupils are doomed to do badly in school”. Expressing the issue like this … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, GERM, Social Justice, Uncategorized
Tagged accountability pressures, disadvantage, PISA, poverty, Shanghai
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Are apprenticeships a real alternative to university?
by Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Schools have been criticised by government ministers and Ofsted for not doing enough to promote apprenticeships, but do they serve as a real alternative to university? Our research shows that most apprenticeships are low-skilled … Continue reading
Posted in Social Justice
Tagged apprenticeships, disadvantage, poverty, Vocational education
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Reclaiming Schools 