Stories + Views: Admissions

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Allan Beavis: Jamie Oliver criticises Gove for allowing Academies to serve unhealthy food

Two weeks ago I had lunch in my local maintained school. The food was very good, excellent even, when you consider that the kitchen prepared hundreds of covers every day, including hot food, salads, sandwiches, wraps and vegetarian options. The queues were a bit long perhaps, the children a little unruly and desperate to quickly eat and get out to ... read more and comment →

31 comments

Latest comment by Allan Beavis: "And, according to the report, 9 out of 10 Academies are offering unhealthy food to their students. It seems that Gove's trust in Academies to offer nutritious food to their students is misplaced and so his reassurances that Academies can ......"

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Melissa Benn: Let’s have ‘no excuses’ on admissions, for a change.

One of the interesting things about education debate is about how certain issues come to the fore, then fade and then rise in prominence again. To take but two of these - the question of admissions policy, and the relationship between private and public education-; both have resurfaced in an excellent piece by Ron Glatter in the Guardian this week. Using ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Ben Taylor: "Melissa I am not here under a pseudonym and it is really my picture. I appreciate being able to use this website. My only involvement in WLFS is that I think it is a good idea and support it philosophically, as ......"

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Dave Prodrick: The best community schools will never be given a fair judgement under this current system.

It is becoming increasingly impossible for excellent community schools to be judged fairly under this current system. Yes we need a fair admissions system, but we need to move away from this narrow academic way of measuring what makes a school good. I work in a school that is a seamless part of it's local community with a superb Head ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Dave Prodrick: "Thanks Sarah New to this site how do I go about getting your email from LSN is it through their contact us page? Dave..."

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James Hargrave: Is choice always a good thing? The story of the Towneys, the Burbs and the Sticks.

There is a lot of talk about "choice" in education at the moment. Parents should be able to "choose" which school they want to send their children to. Choice is automatically seen to be a good thing and what people want. That is just assumed. But is it? Imagine the following scenario. It's a few years down the line and the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Finbar Murphy: "Finland is a much more ethnically and socially homogeneous society than Britain, or less divided if you prefer. That might have something to do with their success. Btw, don't bother to call me a racist, as it's water off a ......"

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James Hargrave: We are the conservatives now. The fight to save good local schools

Gove is having to look for nasty sounding rhetoric to describe opponents of his free schools and academies policies. So we have been described as "enemies of promise" and even "trots". The reason for the use of this language is simple. It would be hard to mount a huge attack on people who just want good locally managed schools for ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by For the Benefit of the Conservative Party – “FOR SALE – Local Hospital and Schools “ | Think Left: "[...] We are the conservatives now – the fight to save good local schools: Local Schools Network [...]..."

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Janet Downs: Who checks the admission codes of free schools? And what sanctions, if any, are in place for schools that flout the code?

Free schools, in theory, have to abide by the Admissions Code. But who censures the schools when their admissions criteria either flout or bend the Code? Free schools are forbidden to give priority to independent feeder schools. But Langley Hall Primary Academy in Stroud gives priority to children attending the paid-for, attached nursery, Wellingtons, after children whose home is in an ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "UPDATE The Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) has emailed me to say that the information on their website which I quoted above is incorrect. OSA had not updated the page after the new Admission Code came into force. ......"

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Fiona Millar: Support Labour action against sneaky changes to the Admissions Code

The School Admissions Code and regulations are now in Parliament. Labour has ‘prayed against’ them by means of an Early Day Motion number 2618. This should mean that these regulations will have to be debated rather than go through without debate. The Government is making much of the extension of the right to object to the Adjudicator  in the new Admissions ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Ben Taylor: "Hamish I would think variation in selective admission tests MIGHT be a good thing since the schools could potentially structure 11+ to be less "learnable" through tuition, and instead be designed for potential. There is no incentive to race for the ......"

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Fiona Millar: Allison Pearson needs to do her homework

In the Daily Telegraph today journalist Allison Pearson claims that a return to selective education would restore the UK “to the premier league”. She trots out the usual misinformation about the so called ‘golden age’ of pre comprehensive English education in which“children from modest backgrounds” were able “ to compete with offspring of the wealthy for university places, thus breaching ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by David Birch: "My experience of teaching in a London grammar school in the 70s bears this article out. It was virtually taken for granted that the bottom of the three forms of entry would not perform well at O Level; at the ......"

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Lilly: WLFS – exemptions from Admissions Code

Just last week Toby Young tweeted a request for the text for the Admissions Code text for 2013. Today I saw a document about the consultation for the 2013 Admissions for West London Free School. In it, the oversubscription criteria stated that children of the Founders were given priority admissions – just behind looked after children but ahead of children ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rosie Fergusson: "Regarding access to annual accounts from trusts and academies Nick Gibb has responded to a written question in Parliament ( i hadn't noticed the accounting clause in any funding agreement but haven't really looked) http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-01-19a.90228.h&s=speaker%3A10225 TEXT Hilary Benn (Leeds Central, Labour) To ......"

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Allan Beavis: How effective can Gove’s school reforms be if the government fails to tackle child poverty?

There has been much fighting talk from Education Secretary Michael Gove in recent weeks, perhaps to quash increasing criticism of his education policies and to give some much needed spin to the ideologies that he is convinced will raise standards in our schools. According to him, anyone who opposes his reforms are happy with failure and this attitude is typical ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Even minor differences between children’s home lives can have a significant impact on pre-school development, says a report from the Resolution Foundation which featured in TES (13 Jan 2012). The analysts rated households by their before-tax household income* as follows: low ......"

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