Stories + Views: local government

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sarah: School Improvement – Whose business is it?

The linked article draws attention to the creation of a new regional structure within the DfE which is apparently taking charge of school intervention work traditionally performed by local authorities as ministers respond to concerns about how they can possibly supervise thousands of newly independent academies. The DfE quietly set up last month what could be seen as a “middle tier” ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Guest: "Roger, Rebecca, Not a great story. Who is responsible for education across this area as these problems seem to have been going on for years across lots of schools...."

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Janet Downs: LSN supporter and blogger elected to Lincolnshire County Council

Sarah Dodds, outspoken critic of Lincolnshire’s policy of advising all its schools to become academies and opponent of attempts to merge Louth primary schools into one academy, has won a place on Lincolnshire County Council. True blue Lincolnshire took a knock in the local elections with UKIP winning a large number of seats. But in Louth North UKIP was pushed into ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Rebecca Hanson: "Thank you for this Roger. It just hurts so much. There are so many things I wanted to do to build a better society and now I'm not in a position to do them. I've also given 100% to campaigning ......"

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Neil Fletcher: Recollections from the last days of ILEA

It was almost 23 years ago and the coaches drawing up outside St Paul’s Cathedral were disgorging streams of Londoners, some very young, but older children and students as well as adults, into the massing crowds arriving from all directions for a final statement of loyal opposition to the government. The 24th of March 1990 was exactly a week before the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Geraldine Carter: "No analysis, or awareness, of the left-behind semi-literate children, absense of grammar, no knowledge of Alphabetic Code teaching for reading and spelling, no times tables, Latin scorned, 'ooh aah' science taught as amorphous whole, French taught through pictures. A social ......"

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Janet Downs: No-notice funding axe by DfE is “pure spite”, says former CEO of Children’s Services

“Now you see it – now you don’t!” appears to be the maxim of the Department of Education (DfE) regarding funding for the Children's Improvement Board. The Board was set up in 2011 as a sector-led initiative to help Local Authorities (LAs) improve performance on adoption, tackling child sexual exploitation and learning lessons from child abuse cases. It received £10.5m from ... read more and comment →

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Fiona Millar: Labour and schools

The Observer newspaper carried a couple of  articles at the weekend about an alleged mid-term wobble  for Labour. This seemed to be largely based on a slight drop in the opinion polls, a few attacks from  ageing Blairites and George Osborne's intervention in the welfare debate using the horrific story of the Derby benefit claimant who set fire to his ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Tubby Isaacs: "Indeed. Some of us might think the £300k Liddington paid himself was a bit like profit making...."

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Janet Downs: Only two LAs would greatly support a new Free School to meet demand for extra places, NAO found

Many Local Authorities (LAs), particularly in London, face a shortfall in the number of primary school places. Despite this, only 2 out of 122* LAs would support a new free school to a “great extent” to solve this problem, a National Audit Office (NAO) survey found. 50 LAs would support a new free school to “some extent” to provide extra places. ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by sarah: "Not only this but the DfE has told LAs that it should not rely on encouraging free schools to open as a means of meeting demographic demand and that the basic need capital they receive should be used for providing ......"

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Henry Stewart: Do Local Authorities Still Have a Role?

While the government seeks to reduce the role of local government in education to the minimum, Ofsted Chief Inspector Michael Wilshaw continues to argue for a key role for them. His plans to have Ofsted inspect school improvement services for the first time have been described as giving local authorities "responsibility without power". The Local Government Association had argued such inspections ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Henry - the Academies Commission found that some heads of academies in chains complained that they experienced more control from the chain's head office than they ever did when they were local authority maintained schools. No local authority insists of corporate ......"

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Janet Downs: Council angry at Academy Trust’s decision to close secondary school

You’ve probably never heard of Corby Glen. But you may have heard of the Luttrell Psalter, a sacred text decorated with pictures of everyday life in the medieval village of Irnham. Irnham is in the same parish as Corby Glen and pupils from the village’s Community Primary School recently did a project on the Psalter. Their work was exhibited in ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "According to the Stamford Mercury, Nick Boles has said there are alternatives including (a) Charles Read finding another sponsor, and (b) a group running Charles Read as a free school (but it would have to be viable). Option (a) ......"

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Fiona Millar: Following the public pound, or not, as the case may be.

Earlier this year I wrote this post about the Prime Minister's claim to Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, that academy funding was as transparent as funding for maintained schools. Mrs Hodge, also a member of the House of Commons Liaison Committee which interrogates the PM from time to time, had asked how it was possible to "follow the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Rebecca - Cuckoo Hall is one of the three primary schools (two of them are free schools) which make up the Cuckoo Hall Academy Trust (CHAT), a small academy chain which has been given the go-ahead ot open a secondary ......"

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Fiona Millar: In praise of Camden – proof that excellence isn’t the preserve of any one ‘type’ of school

I have written a piece today in the Guardian about my local schools in the London Borough of Camden, and about our local primary school in particular. Here is a slightly longer version of the article. It is coming up to Christmas so I am going to allow myself a touch of sentimentality. A few weeks ago I felt a stab ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Tubby Isaacs: "So those LEAs who were supposed to get out of the headteacher's way are now in trouble for not doing more? Utter farce...."

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