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Henry Stewart: “Enablers of Promise”: a refreshing new approach

For years the teaching profession has been used to attack and criticism from the government - whether Labour or Conservative. Politicians and press regularly focus on what is wrong, in their view, with our schools. Instead Stephen Twigg said, in yesterday's speech, "we start from a position of strength" and described our education professionals as "enablers of promise". Too often the standard ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rosie Fergusson: "Did Twigg show his concurrentness by defending teaching assistants, or indeed provide any detail of policy or name and shame any of the charlatans in free schools instead of vague generalisations?. One example of Academy freedoms he might ......"

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Fiona Millar: Stephen Twigg’s speech .More detail needed but the direction is promising.

Stephen Twigg, the Shadow Education Secretary, made an important speech yesterday. Twigg has been on the receiving end of some criticism over the last year, not least from me, for failing to make a clear and robust argument against what the Coalition government is doing. But I have read the speech carefully and think it shows that he has been listening ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by agov: "Blunkett - seriously??? Read my lips...."

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Henry Stewart: Has Secrecy Returned to Academy Finances?

Cameron promised that academy finances would be freely available to parents. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) demanded data showing academy level expenditure. But go to the DfE Performance Tables and you will find full financial information for maintained schools and nothing comparable for academies. This is a step backward from last year, when the Department for Education published a spread-sheet of ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Neil Moffatt: "This is as appalling as it is, sadly, unsurprising. The DfE appear to treat any demands placed upon them with atrocious disdain. They act in the petulant, arrogant manner of the bully. They adore private ownership of schools, now in ......"

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Janet Downs: Two new reports confirm that state school pupils outperform independent ones at university

State school pupils outperform privately-educated pupils with the same A levels at university - that was the conclusion of two university internal reports discovered by the Guardian  using the Freedom of Information Act. According to the Guardian, one study from Cardiff University said: "All other factors being held constant, students from independent schools tend to do less well than students from comprehensive ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Roger Titcombe: "My reference to recreational drugs was an attempt at a joke. I was not implying any difference between state schools and independent schools in respect of use of recreational drugs. If the moderator wishes to delete that reference I would ......"

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Janet Downs: Maharishi Schools Trust falls foul of the ASA again

The Maharishi Schools Trust has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for using the term “outstanding” in its marketing material. The ASA ruled: “In the context of an ad for an education provider, the claim "outstanding academic results" was likely to be interpreted as referring to a current Ofsted rating; a rating which we understood had not been awarded ... read more and comment →

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Francis Gilbert: Why it’s important to applaud Toby Young for getting a genuine social mix in his school

I suspect some people on the site won't be too pleased with me for actually applauding Toby Young who has, let's face it, been horrible about all of the founders of the Local Schools Network at some time or another. However, I think credit needs to be given where credit is due, and I think it's clear that the school ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rosie Fergusson: "Aaahh I see..."

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Henry Stewart: Did Mossbourne get more funding?

Some years ago I visited Mossbourne, to learn from their remarkable success. Impressed by the huge range of extra after-school provision, I asked Michael Wilshaw how they could afford it. I remember his words well: "Because we get more funding than your school does. You should become an academy." When asked the same question on the BBC Today programme last ... read more and comment →

28 comments

Latest comment by agov: "Don't know why you now claim the context is out as it was provided by you. No-one has disputed that education in Hackney became a mess. Certainly the local council doesn't. It was the local council that, eventually, decided upon radical ......"

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Michael Dix: Contrasting approaches to educational reform in successful countries and England!

I have just spent three fascinating days at the National College for Teaching and Leadership annual conference - seizing success. Along with a whole range of expert speakers from inside and outside of education, I was fortunate enough to listen to two who have been at the forefront of raising the educational performance in their respective administrations. Sad to say, the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Michael - for Mr Gove it's not enough even to be an "outstanding" head. They must also be heads who support his policies. So the ones he frequently names are those who have set up free schools or ......"

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Janet Downs: Hidden in a dark corner of the DfE website: Gove’s latest thinking on assessment

Hidden away in the deepest recesses of the Department for Education (DfE) website is a general article called Assessing without levels. Assessment is a hot topic at the moment – the new GCSE proposals have been announced and the consultation about secondary accountability has just finished. So why was an article about primary school assessment hidden away? The article says Education Secretary, ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Clare Smith: "Thanks Janet - my printer had squashed the last lines. I had just written a long rant about this latest Gove piece of insanity, but the computer froze and lost it... perhaps a good thing in hindsight. My MA in ......"

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Henry Stewart: Why 3 Levels of Progress is a Very Silly Measure

Increasingly schools are being encouraged, by the Department for Education and by Ofsted, to focus on achieving three levels of progress for every student. (Three levels represents going from Level 3 at age 11 to a D at GCSE, level 4 to a C and level 5 to an A.) The flaw in this approach became clear this week when ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "I'm delighted to be able to withdraw my comment. The anomalies I was concerned about are most likely facet of the transition between SATS and GCSE results (with SATS results being broken down into sub-levels and GCSE results not ......"

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