Stories + Views
Of left and right hands…
In her excellent piece in today’s Observer on Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the inner city school that has received so much positive press attention in recent times, journalist Carole Cadwalladr quotes the headteacher of EGA, Jo Dibb, on her frustration at the failure of so many well off families in Islington to send their children to schools like EGA.
Cadwalladr herself describes the school as ‘ a brilliant example of what an inner city institution can achieve’ and echoes Dibb’s puzzlement, as well as enormous pride, that no less a figure than Michelle Obama had “ ‘bought into the ethos of this school’, where difference is embraced and celebrated, and yet the middle classes of Islington so far, had not.”
Of course, the Obamas educate their own daughters at an exclusive private school in Washington, Sidwell Friends, a school that even the Washington Post describes as ‘pricey’ – so there is no actual evidence that they, as parents, would support such a school as the EGA should they be living round the corner.
But lack of middle class support for inner city schools can also – sadly – be traced to coverage in newspapers like the Observer itself.
In March this year, in a major interview with maverick Katherine Birbalsingh in the Observer, journalist Andy Anthony referred to the fact that Ofsted currently judges 60% of schools to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ . However, Anthony concluded, pretty much on the basis of Ms Birbalsingh’s say-so alone, that “it’s safe to to say that ‘mediocre and poor’ would seem a more appropriate verdict.”
A number of us - all campaigners for comprehensive education and fair coverage of comprehensive schools – wrote a letter in protest to the paper. However, the letter was not published.
I reproduce it below for interest of LSN readers
3 March 2011
For the Letters page:
We were sorry to read the subtly uncritical interview with Katharine Birbalsingh in last Sunday’s Observer giving succour to her unbalanced views on state education.
Your interviewer referred to the fact that Ofsted currently judges 60% of schools to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ and then goes on to make the astonishing claim that “it’s safe to to say that ‘mediocre and poor’ would seem a more appropriate verdict.”
Birbalsingh herself has gone on record praising the quality of state schools she has previously worked in.
Your interviewer offered no challenge to Birbalsingh’s absurd generalisations concerning differences in teaching and learning in independent and state schools. He did not seem to know that the pro comprehensive movement has consistently suggested reforms to our schools, including an end to academic selection, smaller class sizes, more freedom and support for teachers and enhanced parental involvement.
Birbalsingh conveys her views in a dramatic, personal and inconsistent manner that clearly appeals to the press. Could the Observer now give equal space to the decidedly less sensational views of heads, teachers, parents and students daily involved in our state schools?
Most of these will have a very different perspective on current problems in education, including the damaging role played by current government policy and the continuance of a powerful independent and selective sector hindering the development of first class comprehensive education and genuine social mobility?
Francis Beckett
Melissa Benn
John Edmonds
Adrian Elliott
Francis Gilbert
Richard Harris
Paul Holmes
Fiona Millar
Professor Peter Mortimore
Professor Richard Pring
Margaret Tulloch
Michael Sterne
Other tags
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, Islington, Katharine Birbalsingh, Michelle Obama, Observer Newspaper, OfstedRelated posts
Comments, replies and queries
Reply
The alibis with which so many wriggle out of the sending their children to the community comprehensive! All that bad faith. In their strident, unnuanced voices in Broadsheets! Most teachers will tell you – quietly – that what we need are community comprehensives – with small classes. Any fule kno. But that doesn’t seem to make headlines. Why do the flash mavericks get so much space?
How dare the Observer cast doubt on an Oftsted report, and side with Birbalsingh in talking down our education system.
I for one have full faith in the Oftsted findings, and am proud that we live in a country where only 40% of schools are poor.
From the 2010 report of Ofsted’s Chief Inspector:
“Overall, 13% of schools were outstanding, 43% good, 37% satisfactory and 8% inadequate”
Tom’s assertion that 40% of the country’s schools are poor does not hold up. Satisfactory means the schools satisfied the criteria. That does not equal poor even though the Chief Inspector herself lumped the satisfactory and the inadequate together to produce a misleading figure. Only 8% of schools inspected in 2010 were judged inadequate. It should also be remembered that Ofsted took a more “risk-based” approach to inspection in 2010 – choosing to inspect fewer good or outstanding schools.
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/News/Press-and-media/2010/November/The-Annual-Report-of-Her-Majesty-s-Chief-Inspector-of-Education-Children-s-Services-and-Skills-2009-10
Can’t resist pointing out what one of the founders of the Local Schools Network said about the reliability of OFSTED reports:
“…if a school has been wonderfully politically correct, it can get away with a good report – but it may be a hotbed of bad behaviour and indiscipline.”
I am extremely disappointed the Observer never published your important letter from 3rd March drawing attention to Andy Antony’s astonishingly disparaging assertion that the 60% of schools Ofsted currently judge as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, would be better labelled ‘mediocre and poor’ . Having had 20 years experience of children in inner city state schools, I’ve had nothing but extremely satisfactory results. With the majority of my contemporaries and family having educated their children privately, I’ve watched with interest over the years to see if mine get left behind. I’m pleased to say that with one daughter about to go to Edinburgh University to study English and the other completing a language degree at Sussex – my children have ended up with just as good results, if not better, than the rest of them. It is quite shameful the way politicians and certain sections of the media keep pedalling this old myth that children are consistently failed by comprehensive education.
Thank you for speaking up for your state schools Marina. There are many parents out here who feel the same way but whose views are rarely heard in the media, which is dominated by editors and columnists who have NO first hand experience of state education.
As someone who has spent 20 years of her life teaching in comprehensive schools (only 2 admittedly) I also get sick and tired of having our work and efforts rubbished. I am also based outside London and find the endless media (and political) focus on London education particularly depressing. The London/big city experience is simply not shared by the majority of children and parents up and down the country.
In my experience the middle class people most desperate to get their kids out of the local comprehensive are teachers who have taught in comprehensives. You can’t blame the media for that.
Objective research is difficult to come by but the TES did a survey in 2005 which showed that one quarter of the respondents (who claimed to be state teachers) would send their children to private schools. That would mean three out of four would send their children to state schools.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article737604.ece
So? As I said, teachers are very good at getting their kids out of the local comprehensive. If they manage that without going private then they are unlikely to say they would go private.
I would be interested in seeing your evidence, Andrew.
After all, just as you assert that teachers are ‘desperate to get their kids out of the local comprehensive’, I could equally easily assert that none of my teacher colleagues or relatives have had their children privately educated. What I say would be true but I don’t expect you to believe it just because I say it.
I would believe you. After all, you wouldn’t have bothered inventing the straw man position that all teachers send their kids to private schools, if you then had to lie to argue against it.
With regard to my actual point of whether teachers in urban comprehensives send their kids to their local comprehensive: I don’t expect anyone to believe they don’t just because I say so. I would expect anyone to have found this out for themselves before they start spouting forth opinions on the quality of comprehensive schools or making crass generalisations about the gullibility of parents who don’t send their kids to the local comprehensive.
Again, Melissa just like Fiona you completely erase out facts & fudge statistics with regards to this school. I should know I use to go it!
Why don’t you mention how much money was invested to “rebrand” the school since 2006? Due to the fact it was not a very popular school choice among many in the area.
Why do you think Michelle Obama was asked to visit that school? in 2009 & 2011? when there are better schools in the Capital.
When I was there the uniform was basically on the level of being a maroon P.E uniform but with the choice of skirt or trousers of course.
Majority of the students there are not locals! since most the middle-classes in Islington specifically that catchment don’t want to send their children there even working-class families try to avoid inner city schools like EGA by using the Church as a safety valve. I don’t blame them.
The irony is it’s not even that bad of a school (there are worse) but still that only shows the standards of state education is not very high. No shiny expensive buildings is going to change that.