The report looks at the 500 top performing state schools (excluding grammars) following on from similar reports in 2005 and 2006 looking at ‘high attaining schools that were more socially exclusive than the national average and other schools in their areas.’

The Trust has decided to revisit the issue for two reasons. Over the last three years, the ‘new schools revolution’, explicitly directed at improving the chances of poorer children, might have been expected to ease this problem. At the same time, other reports, principally from the OECD, has found that the UK continues to have one of the most socially segregated education systems in the world.

This time, then, the Trust has widened its remit: to look at 500, not 200, schools: and it has included the new Ebacc measure ( 5 A-C’s in a prescribed/proscribed group of subjects) to assess the social selectivity of local schools.

The Trust’s key findings won’t come as an enormous surprise to anyone used to the English schools scene:

*95% of the top 500 comprehensives take fewer pupils on free school meals than the total proportion in their local areas, including almost two thirds (64%) which are unrepresentative of their local authority area with gaps of five or more percentage points.

*Schools controlling their own admissions policies are over-represented in the top 500. 75% of the top 500 comprehensives are their own admissions authorities, compared to 61% of the same types of school nationally. Voluntary-aided schools ( the vast majority of them faith schools) making up 24% of the top 500, and converter academies, making up 37%, are the most over-represented.

*The average FSM rate at the top 500 schools when ranked by the EBacc measure is even more socially exclusive than the top 500 ranked by the 5A*-C including English and mathematics.

So no real change from 2005/6, but instead an intensification in the kind of practices that allow some schools to ‘flourish’ while others ‘struggle’.

A few thoughts:

*The Trust report helpfully highlights the example of three schools in the top 500 that buck the trend; these have impressive results and high numbers of children on FSMs. One can draw hope from the extraordinary achievements of schools like these. Judging from their individual Ofsted reports, each has an exciting, varied curriculum: an unswerving commitment to every child, whatever their attainment on entry or presumed ability: good – but not military style – discipline. Children who are falling behind in core subjects are often taught in small groups until they catch up, and can rejoin the mainstream curriculum; there is due emphasis on creative subjects and on oral, performing, participatory and leadership skills.

* Is the answer to unfair admissions policies really random allocation or anonymous balloting? Is this not merely emphasising the idea of school access as a form of desperate competition, as the excellent Dr Helen Jarvis, reader in social geography at Newcastle University, argued on the Today programme this morning. “I am very sceptical that balance will help address these deep-seated inequalities – this is working with grain of flawed system not challenging it. It’s not going to be addressed just through allocation policies.” And what of the children left behind in the so called ‘ not so good’ schools?

Surely the answer lies in removing schools’ rights to doctor their own admissions in the first place? If all schools were required, not just in law, but in practice, to have genuinely fair and balanced admissions policies, and this were coupled with the kind of pedagogical advances that we are now seeing in so many areas, our school system would take a major leap forward in terms of class- based fairness.

* A final word about public/political language. These 500 schools are clearly ‘selective’ in many ways. But why call them ‘selective comprehensives’? Why not call them ‘selective faith schools’ or ‘selective academies’ or ‘selective CTCs’? That would be nearer the truth, judging by the detail of the report itself.

Following on from this, why do media/political leaders and commentators so rarely emphasise the far more selective elements of grammar or private schools in our public discussion? Too often, these schools are lauded for their ‘independence’, not for their transparent selection on grounds of social class or academic potential or both ( given the complex interrelation between the two.)

It is this pyramid of selectivity, starting with the private schools, some charging an eye watering £30,000 a year, that creates our disgracefully segregated educational system. Those in power do not like to dwell on it, for a number of reasons. Instead, they prefer endlessly to dissect the ‘social selectivity’ of ‘comprehensives’ – a form of easy political meat.

In this respect, the Sutton Trust report does not help advance the argument.

These are anecdotes but are offered to show that Middlemarch is difficult. Michael Gove suggests that parents should be impressed if their 17 year-old daughter (sic) was reading Middlemarch. But literature isn’t about impressing other people. If someone picks up Middlemarch it should be because they expect to enjoy it not because they regard reading the book as intellectual one-upmanship.

However, if wily teenagers (or anyone else) pick up Eliot to impress then that can easily be achieved by tucking a copy of an easy read into the covers of Middlemarch and googling a summary which would probably be something like this:

“Middlemarch: set in provincial town during coming of railways. Passionate Dorothea marries bookworm Casaubon. Casaubon dies. His will prevents Dorothea from marrying handsome but penniless artist, Will Ladislaw. But Will was cheated out of inheritance by Bulstrode, now a Middlemarch banker (hiss!) and respected pillar of society. Meanwhile, marriage of idealistic Dr Lydgate to materialistic airhead Rosamond ends in tears. Spoiler alert: Bulstrode disgraced when drunken ghost from past returns. Dorothea marries Will. Brother-in-law, Sir James, once in love with Dorothea, is not happy. But Dorothea does good things and the world is a better place for her being there.”

Of course, this doesn’t do the novel justice and certainly not the moving ending. Here is Eliot describing Dorothea in the final paragraph:

‘. . . the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

It took me three attempts to reach that ending. My advice: don’t read Middlemarch just because it might impress others. Read it because you genuinely want to. If you find it hard going then leave it. Return to it later.  There’s a lifetime to enjoy literature – you don’t have to ingest the whole lot while you’re at school.  Life would be poorer if great books were abandoned at the classroom door.

And before you pick up Middlemarch – watch the BBC adaptation. And look out for the dress shop.

*This is not a representative sample. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as an accurate survey.

Note: Read the reviews first if you buy Middlemarch on Amazon. Some of the editions are not, as one reviewer put it, “Middlemarch-as-she-was-wrote”.  Yes, I know that’s not grammatically correct but it makes the point succinctly.  Some editions contain American spellings and one edition had pages missing.  And perhaps the time is right for the BBC to broadcast a repeat of the dramatisation.

These words from William Blake’s poem The Schoolboy were spoken by today’s guest on Desert Island Discs, David Almond.

Almond, ex-teacher, award-winning author and Guest Artistic Director for the Telegraph Bath Festival of Children’s Literature 2013 , said learning can be stifled by an over-prescriptive curriculum and an emphasis on testing.

It’s not the first time Almond has railed against such practices. When he accepted the Carnegie Award in 1999 for his book Skellig, he made a speech calling for ten per cent of the school year to be freed from national curriculum restraints. He accused the then Labour government of being obsessed “with tests, grades and levels of homework which are killing joy and creativity in childhood… The exhaustive chase after what we are told are higher standards has become a national obsession, an established religion.”  Almond was immediately attacked by the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett, and PM Tony Blair who both misrepresented what Almond said.

Almond predicted that this “madness” would be laughed about in 50 years time.

But 14 years on this obsession shows no signs of abating. It’s got worse. We are now at a critical time in English education, says ex-HMI Colin Richards. Unless the proposed primary National Curriculum is opposed, then schools will find themselves having to ditch the “liberal, humane values of primary education” in favour of a “soulless bottom line of the politician”.

What kind of kill-joy, ignorant of how children develop, could produce a 221 page document laying down in minute, crushing detail what children should learn and when? When most European children don’t start formal education until age 7, English Year 1 pupils will be expected, among other things (much, much more other things), to “use the grammatical terminology in Appendix 2 in discussing their writing”*.

This pedantic approach will indeed “kill joy and creativity”. And in 50 years people won’t be laughing. They’ll be crying in despair.

*Grammatical terms to be taught to English 5-6 year-olds: word, sentence, letter, capital letter, full stop, punctuation, singular, plural, question mark, exclamation mark. In Finland, top-performer in PISA tests, children are not expected to learn about capital letters and terminal sentence punctuation until Grade 1 (age 7-8).

A longer description of the reaction of Blunkett and Blair can be found on pages 54/55 of  The Unfinished Revolution:  Learning, Human Behavior, Community, and Political Paradox by John Abbott and Terry Ryan.

I am a 16 year old girl, at the start of my AS Levels. I have been going to a comprehensive school in Caerphilly, South Wales for the entirety of my secondary education, and am staying there to do my A-levels. I love the school, the teachers, the staff, the ethos, however the school took a big knock a few months ago when it was rated the 5th worst in Wales.

The school now has a bad reputation, but for no just reason. The school’s A*-C percentage including English and Maths is improving, the year that included my results (2012) over 45% of girls achieved that standard. I’m pleased to say I am part of that group, and was thrilled with my results of 11 A*s, 1A and a Disitinction in Additional Maths. I am not here to blow my own trumpet, I am here to celebrate my school, and I hope my results are a testament to it.

One of those A*s, in Geography, was an after-school class that was put on every Wednesday and Thursday after school by my brilliant Geography teacher specifically for 11 of us who wanted to study the course (mostly because the teacher is so brilliant), but were unable to because there was not enough of a take-up across the school. The teacher put in a huge amount of time, and we all really, really appreciated it. My Additional Maths qualification was also done after school, with my inspiring maths teacher, who agreed to teach 10 of us the work that she believed was good preparation for AS-level (now that I am studying for my AS-level Maths, I quite agree!). For a school with below average results in maths, 7 out of the 10 of us received Distinctions, with the other 3 receiving Merits, another testament to the commitment of teachers in the school to push the academically able as well as putting huge amounts of effort into improving the A*-C %, which the government puts so much focus on.

Another reason why I am incredibly proud of my school is our amazing commitment to charity. The catchment area is very deprived, but we still manage to raise a huge amount of money for Children In Need, Red Nose Day, HIV/Aids charities and a variety of others. One that I am intimately involved in is the Anti-Bullying team within school who have 30 trained pupils mentors ranging from Years 9-13 who offer counselling and support in our special mentoring room every lunchtime. It is initiatives like this one which make our school a community, and a place where pupils can grow into young adults, I feel I certainly have in my time.

The reason I feel so passionately about the subject is I have not always been in state education, and neither have my siblings. From the ages of 4-6 I was educated in an ex-pat school in the middle east, and my sister (whom is the same age as me, as I am a triplet) has just received a scholarship to go to a prestigious boarding school, something I have very mixed emotions about.

She is amazingly intelligent with a thirst for knowledge, she has done incredibly well at GCSE level, also receiving a string of A*s and As. Her decision to go to boarding school was based around her wanting to do the International Baccalaureate, and her education is being funded by the Girls’ Day School Trust.

She is enjoying many elements of the IB but finds the style of teaching and learning very different. It is the mixture of people she misses, she says. She finds the pupils to be insular without understanding for those less fortunate themselves, essentially all of the suspicions one has about boarding school girls confirmed.

Though I am saddened that she is now in such an elitist institution, I am glad that she spent most of her secondary education at my comprehensive school I watched her benefit from all the different people that you have to learn to mix with, I saw her make great relationships with staff and pupils alike, generally a great foundation of people skills and a knowledge of society that will stand her in great stead, something I fear her boarding school counterparts will never gain.

The audience groaned. I heard teachers repeating this remark as I walked around the Festival. “Gove says if it can’t be assessed, then it’s play.” The voices were not in agreement – they were angry.

Gove’s dismissal of any education which can’t be rated by an end-of-course test demonstrates why he should not be in charge of reforming the English exam system. He seemed to have no idea of the importance of formative assessment in raising pupil performance. For him, assessment is a final, sudden-death test.

Later in the day, in the debate “Do exams have a future?”, speakers made it clear that the purpose of exams was to support learning. Restricting discussion to terminal exams, which Gove is doing, is avoiding the more difficult debate of what education is for. This is a debate which increasingly needs to take place as the argument that passing exams leads to a better economic future is wearing thin. The curriculum should drive exams, not the other way round. The National Curriculum for Key Stage 4 has yet to be published (a copy leaked to the TES failed to impress) yet Gove is pushing for new exams at 16 before this is in place. Tina Isaacs explained the ridiculously tight timescale for the introduction of EBCs which were expected to be taught from September 2015 – the audience gasped.

Geoff Barton was in inspirational and rebellious mood. He said heads should use their freedom (and he spoke as the head of a community school not an academy) to have nothing to do with EBCs. There were other exams that schools could choose which would be better for their pupils – if they didn’t count towards league tables, then so be it.

Keri Facer described in dizzying detail how new technologies would allow people to “quantify the self”. Visual representation could take the place of a portfolio of achievement. Pathways towards goals would increasingly be decided by people themselves throughout their lives – they would also decide the way they recorded these achievements.

Michael Gove should have been present at this debate – perhaps he would at last realise that his exam reforms are unimaginative, backward-looking, and out-of-touch. Worse even than that, he seems to value only what can be measured instead of measuring what is valued. To him, anything that can’t be measured is mere play.

It is important that people think about what this document is proposing and respond, not only by answering the very limited questions it asks but by debating publicly those that it doesn’t.

The opening paragraph of the document claims that the proposed changes will restore rigour and confidence to the examination system at 16 ” which has been “undermined by years of continued grade inflation”.

Scant evidence is provided to justify these claims. The consultation notes evidence of grade inflation in some subjects, but by no means all. There is the usual vague reference to the ‘international comparisons” – presumably this is the PISA data that the Secretary of State has recently had his knuckles rapped for misusing – and a nod to a YouGov opinion poll saying people believe exams have got easier, which is not really surprising since we are told this on almost a daily basis by politicians and newspapers that should know better.

Overall the evidence is not compelling enough to damn genuine school improvement  and as my colleague Henry Stewart points out here grade inflation may be more myth than reality. Moreover If there is a problem with some GCSEs – that could be dealt with directly without the reforms that are proposed.

But be warned; this is an intensely political, and partial, document and it is hard not to avoid the conclusion that Michael Gove got his fingers burned with his botched leaking of the O level/ CSE story in the summer, so he is just going about getting the same result in a different way.

And there are several problems with the new key proposal for a set of exams in core academic subjects  – English, mathematics, sciences, history, geography and languages. Each will be known as an English Baccalaureate Certificate. Achieving all five will mean the student is awarded something known as the full English Baccalaureate

The first is that even though their stated aim is to restore confidence by ending the perverse incentives created by the current system, the new qualifications will simply set up another set of perverse incentives.

The accountability framework that will accompany them hasn’t been settled, even though one would have thought the two were inextricably linked. But paragraph 1.4 of the consultation states: “We intend to use the school and post-16 accountability frameworks to incentivise schools and colleges to teach these new qualification both at KS4 and post-16”. So it seems clear where we are headed.

The EBC may well end the perverse incentive schools have to use less exacting GCSE equivalent qualifications in preference to GCSEs in more traditional subjects. But in return it is bound to lead to insufficient alternative pathways and a whittling away of creative subjects like the visual and performing arts and some technology subjects, subjects that are not just part of a rounded and rich education, but vital to the British economy.

There is NO mention of vocational education in the consultation, nor any mention of art, drama , music, IT or DT. As a number of prominent figures in the arts have noted this is likely to leave these subjects as the preserve of the independent sector.

Then there is the time scale and the change of name. Schools are to start teaching these new English Baccalaureate Certificates in English mathematics and sciences from 2015. The first exams will be taken in 2017 and the government floor targets recalibrated accordingly. There is no mention of piloting the new qualifications.

It could be chaos but perhaps equally worrying is that the way the new qualification will be introduced and branded means that pupils taking the last remaining GCSEs in the intervening years are effectively being told they are studying for a second-class qualification. The consultation makes it clear that there must be no confusion between a grade awarded in respect of GCSEs and one awarded on the basis of EBCs

” We do not believe it would be fair on students if we continued to use the title GCSE to describe the new qualifications, ‘reads the consultation. “With different expectations, and different grading, it would be unfair not to distinguish clearly between the results achieved by students in 2016, the last year of the current GCSE, and in 2017, the first year of the new qualifications”

So eat your heart out current Year 8s, you now have to spend three and a half years working for a set of exams that your government believes are worthless while your peers in Year 7 can hold their heads up high because they will get the more highly valued EBCs – a “clean break with the past and recognised as an academic foundation which provides secure base on which to build further study”

Or rather they will be able to hold their heads up if they are able to take this new qualification that will be un-tiered, free of re-sits, coursework, teacher assessment and only awarded after single externally marked terminal exams.

And that is a big IF, which should ring  alarm bells. Apparently lower attaining students (no real indication of how many that category may be) who are unable to manage this type of assessment will get no qualification at all but a “letter of achievement”, a sort of consolation pat on the back.

The current lower tier GCSE papers are condemned for ‘limiting progression routes’ but in their place will come something which offers no progression route at all with clear shades of the old grammar /secondary modern divide.. No wonder parents and teachers in the SEN sector are fuming.

The fourth problem with this proposal is that it isn’t actually a baccalaureate, at least in the sense that most people understand that concept from the high status International Baccalaureate

You can read the IB learner profile here but the key phrase for me is the following:

“The IB programmes promote the education of the whole person, emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth through all domains of knowledge. By focusing on the dynamic combination of knowledge skills, independent critical and creative thought and international mindedness, the IB espouses the principle of educating the whole person for a life of active, responsible citizen ship.”

In short a bit more that five three hour exams….

The DFE is also proposing an end to competition between exam boards when it comes to provision of qualifications in the five core academic domains English, mathematics, sciences, history, geography and languages.

They are right to point out that the marketisation of the exam system has brought with it another set of perverse incentives as the awarding bodies inevitably have a conflict between the integrity of their qualifications  and the commercial need to make their qualifications more attractive to schools than those of their competitors.

But if competition, marketisation and commercialisation of the exam system is so distasteful, why should we have to tolerate it in the rest of the public services, where competition and for profit institutions are now being heavily promoted as the answer to under performance?

Finally there are the questions that aren’t asked. The consultation doesn’t delve into how the fine detail of these qualifications will work and how they will be graded. As I pointed out here, the fiasco over the GCSE results this summer illuminated just how this process works now and will do over the next few years.

A rough estimate of what any year group should achieve based on their KS2 SATS results is made, and if they exceed it, the numbers have to be brought back into line, making it very hard for pupils to actually exceed the target that has been set for them. Or rather some pupils can, but only if others don’t, making a nonsense of the Ofsted framework and aspirations for schools to demonstrate that their pupils can make exceptional progress.

Is there in fact to be a fixed number of pupils permitted to achieve certain grades or a fixed standard beyond which all children are potentially be allowed to go? We don’t know, but that seems to be quite an important subject.

Nor does it ask what I would have thought it the most important question of all: “Do we actually need qualifications at 16 if all young people are to stay on in education and training until 18?

Should we be moving towards a system with one final qualification at 18 which measures not only academic achievement but also credits a wider range of skills than simply the ability to rote learn and pass exams, alongside an accountability system that values the creative arts, practical skills, personal development and citizenship and allows education to become a more stimulating, liberating process than this narrow little document envisages.

Some head teachers, like this group the HeadsRoundtable that I wrote about in the Guardian three weeks ago, are already thinking more radically and have drawn up their own consultation to mirror the DFE’s. It is here and I urge anyone who cares about the future of our schools to read it and respond.

But also respond to the DFE consultation if only to point out the flaws in their plans. This is a moment when parents, teachers, heads and governors can push back. There is even the potential for schools to just say no. They could either continue to teach a broad range of subjects and to give young people the chance to pick and choose the qualifications that suited them.

Or they could go one step further. There is no legal requirement on schools to enter pupils for GCSEs, but most, whether academies or maintained schools, do so because of the accountability system. What would happen if some schools started to teach the real Middle Years Baccalaureate and did no exams at 16? The league tables would quickly start to become meaningless.

We do need to hold schools to account, ensure rigour, high quality teaching and tell parents how their children are progressing. But there are many more exciting innovative ways of doing this than the DFE consultation allows. This document asks the wrong questions and provides the wrong solutions.

Could people power force a re-think?

One of its members, Darren Henley, Chairman of the Music Manifesto Partnership Advocacy Group and Managing Director of Classic FM, was commissioned by Secretary of State for Education and the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries to produce a report recommending how the government can ensure the ambition that every child should experience a wide variety of high quality cultural experiences, ensuring both quality and best use of public investment. Published in May 2012, there is much to admire in The Henley Review of Cultural Education, which amongst other things, called for:-

• Cultural subjects to be recognised for their intellectual rigour and practical skills and their inclusion in the National Curriculum and English Baccalaureate

• A set of minimum expectations for every child’s cultural education experience, set out by age

• The creation of a National Plan for Cultural Education

• The creation of a Cultural Education Partnership Group (CEPG) which could include Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute, the Big Lottery Fund and English Heritage. This would ensure that their individual strategies/plans in the area of Cultural Education cohere in a way that adds up to a single over-arching strategy in line with the government’s stated ambitions.

Upon publication, the government initially responded in a positive way by announcing that it would invest £15m over three years to lay the groundwork to make Mr Henley’s recommendations a reality. Initiatives included a new national plan for cultural education, a new youth dance company, a new cultural education partnership group and supporting teachers to improve the quality of cultural education in schools.

However, when this investment is viewed within the broader context it is clear that it cannot replace the resources that have already been stripped from the system: education funding is due to drop 13% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15; £10 million was lost from the Museums, Library and Archives remit when it moved to Arts Council England from the MLA; and £7 million from the Booktrust budget between 2010 and 2012. The £15 million also falls into sharp contrast when viewed alongside the £1 billion investment that was recently made into school and community sport.

The sense that the government went through the motions to tick the cultural box without any genuine commitment to attempt to put into practice the recommendations set out by the Henley Report, best summarised as recognising Cultural subjects for their intellectual rigour and practical skills and including them in the National Curriculum and English Baccalaureate is reinforced by Michael Gove excluding them from the Ebacc. He mentioned Art & Design and Design & Technology as being subjects that may necessitate ‘practical work which could not be completed in a time-limited exam’. He also said that Music should be ‘better recognised’ in modern schools.

The clear message from the coalition is that they place little value on arts and cultural learning. In his speech announcing the Ebacc, Michael Gove used the word ‘rigorous’ very often, alongside the words ‘core’ and ‘academic’; very clearly distinguishing the Ebacc suite of subjects from others and from ‘vocational’ learning. Yet surely every subject is equal in rigour and value to others and that all involve a good mix of both practical and theoretical learning opportunities?

Here is the case for cultural learning:-

• Taking part in drama and library activities improves attainment in literacy

• Taking part in structured music activities improves attainment in maths, early language acquisition and early literacy

• Schools that integrate arts across the curriculum in America have shown consistently higher average reading and mathematics scores compared to similar schools that do not

• Studying arts subjects increase confidence and motivations – things that equip students to learn

• Participation in structured arts activities increases cognitive abilities

• Students from low income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree

• Employability of students who study arts subjects is higher and they are more likely to stay in employment

• Students from low income families who engage in the arts at school are twice as likely to volunteer and are 20% more likely to vote as young adults

• Cultural learning enables children and young people to form a richer sense of themselves, their communities and the world around them by entering the limitless worlds of drama, fiction, art, music, design and film. The experience the emotions that have motivated artists and writers and be inspired to explore their own.

• Creativity helps to bind communities. At a time when the economic crisis is mirrored by turbulence on our streets, now is not the time to restrict the opportunities available to children and young people by further narrowing their imaginative horizons.

• According to UNESCO, the UK is the world’s largest exporter of cultural goods. When have we been the world’s largest exporter of anything recently? And this is achieved with a tax payer investment which is 0.1 percent of the recent HBOS bailout. With this tax payer investment, we generate more economic activity than tourism, and we do this without a bonus culture, and without a ‘talent drain’.

• The creative industries are straight forwardly, unequivocally, vital to our economy. 6.2% of the UK’s local income comes from the creative industries, the arts provide over 2m jobs and are mentioned by 8 out of 10 tourists as a reason for their visit.

Cultural learning is under threat both from the financial retrenchment affecting cultural institutions and from the coalition’s changes to the education system that will lead to a further decline in cultural opportunities, especially for the most underprivileged and vulnerable in our society.

The Cultural Learning Alliance has produced a booklet ImagineNation which succinctly sets out the case for cultural learning and I urge everyone, especially anyone who supports the downgrading of creative subjects in our schools and exams system, to read it.

“Culture is the way we come to know the world, individually and collectively. It is as rich and diverse as the traditions that stand behind its making. It is the active engagement with the creation of our arts and heritage, and the expression of what and who we are as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. The quality of that culture is a measure of the way we live. At a time of social and economic stress, the case for
cultural learning is stronger than ever.”

• Drama and Performing Arts have been withdrawn in 23%
• Art has been withdrawn in 17%
• Design Technology has been withdrawn in 14%

The English Baccalaureate consists of Maths, English, Science, a language and either History or Geography. Given that most students take two English GCSEs and at least two Sciences, this takes up seven of most student’s GCSE choices – with many students only take 8 GCSEs. This site was one of the first to warn that this could crowd-out other subjects like art, music and design and reported a year ago that funding for art and design was being cut. Nicolas Serota, Director of the Tate, recently warned of the dangers of arts subjects being excluded from Gove’s new curriculum. Now the DfE’s own research confirms that this is the case.

The report also reveals the confusion that the uncertainty around the ebacc has caused: ”Some schools told pupils it would be an essential requirement for elite universities, others said it would not matter to universities, and other schools acknowledged they did not know….. This uncertainty led in some cases to pupils taking the EBacc ‘just in case’ it proved important in the future.”

The Labour Party’s Technical Baccalaureate would give a new emphasis to vocational subjects but it should not be seen as the English Baccalaureate for the more academic and the Technical Baccalaureate for the others. (This is not the Labour Party’s approach, as they plan to abolish all exams at age 16 apart from English and Maths.)

Creative subjects should not be seen as second class option for those not able to cope with traditional academic subjects. As Serota argued, the arts enable young people to express themselves, which is fundamental to achieving success in later life. ”There is a real risk that fewer and fewer schools will provide learning opportunities in the arts. The UK’s leading edge in creativity may be lost,”

Creative subjects like art, music, drama and design should not be seen as second-best compared to history or a language. Each is important in its own right, both for students own development and for the needs of the modern economy. Let us have a flexible curriculum that enables each student to play to their strengths, not be forced into the specific choices of a Secretary of State wanting to recreate the conditions of his own education.

My thanks to @theartcriminal, whose tweet alerted me to this report.

Highbury Grove has a model staff team, who, under the inspirational leadership of head teacher Truda White, have consistently enriched the lives of their students, of whom 50% are currently claim Free School Meals (71% in the last five years) – an indication of the need there is within our community for a school that can offer a top class education to all students. Highbury Grove occupies a new building, one of the last Building Schools for the Future projects in Islington, architecture that inspires learning, fit for purpose, with a running track and a swimming pool, which is made full use of after school hours by the local community.

Our year seven children are the schools’ first substantial intake who have attained level 5 in SATS, and first intake which is fully co-ed (the school was a boys school which had been converting to co-ed but as unpopular as it already was with local parents of boys, was still more unpopular with parents of girls). This intake represents a choice, made in a few cases by those who could afford independent schools for their children but have begun to think differently about education.

Truda White, the retiring head teacher who is credited with turning this school around, is an extraordinary leader whose vision was for the successful fully comprehensive local community school which she believes every child has a right to attend. She has achieved this by creating a curriculum that allows staff to flourish as well as students – which has ensured staff loyalty – and by simply sticking to her vision throughout this government and the last’s increasing demands on school leadership teams to implement an ever-narrowing curriculum and produce ever more measurable outcomes.

One of Truda White’s innovations and a factor in the school’s success is that Highbury Grove offers its year 7 students an unusual curriculum choice – when they arrive at the school they opt for a Friday specialist school, in which they participate in years 7, 8 and 9, which gives them the opportunity for in depth study at a high level in a subject that especially interests them. This promotes a high level of engagement. Students can choose from science and engineering, catering, music, sport, drama, art, and business. My child is in the music specialist school, (so I can ony talk about music with authority) – this means spending 4 hours every Friday playing in the orchestra, singing in the choir, using the practice rooms, having free orchestral instrument, singing and music theory lessons (with a free instrument thrown in). Its the best day of the week.

But any child, regardless of their specialist school choice, can play in several music ensembles in addition to the school orchestra, and all pupils learn a musical instrument whatever specialist school they opt for.

Secondary transfer students take their CAT tests in year 6, ensuring that they are in the appropriate band when they arrive at the school. Attainment levels are raised whatever they are on intake. See the end of this post for what students have achieved. Students enjoy a broad and challenging curriculum, including studying French in year 7 and two languages from year 8 – French and Spanish or Latin. As part of the enrichment (after school) programme, students can attend among many other choices, attend philosophy classes, use the school gym and learn sailing on a local reservoir.

HG nurtures its feeder primary schools and has developed partnerships with them, already providing specialist music teachers for these schools. Primary school pupils attend Music First sessions at HG and maths sessions for those in need of extension work. Similar partnerships for language teaching and sports in feeder primary schools are planned.

The school is in its second year of running the Highbury Grove Cricket Academy which aims to make HG the top state school cricket team in London. This year the team did exceptionally well.

HG is rightly proud of its students success in gaining university places. A teacher at HG started The Access Project, which is now a charity which helps motivated students from disadvantaged backgrounds win places at top universities. This is achieved through specialist one-to-one mentoring and coaching to help young people prepare for university interviews – a key support because a child on FSM is 22 times less likely than a privately educated pupil to enter a highly selective university. Highbury Grove is one the schools working to change this statistic.

There is so much on offer at Highbury Grove – this is what persuaded so many local parents to make the school their first choice. We believe that Highbury Grove will continue to provide experiences for inner city young people which ensure they don’t just take their place in our global society but they become active contributors who will make the world a better place for all.

If you want to find out more about Highbury Grove, read on:

Here are some facts about our school:

• 1150 young people speak more than 50 languages
• Over 50% are currently claiming free school meals, but in the last 5 years 71% of those currently on roll have claimed this benefit
• Students make exceptional progress with the school in the top 7% nationally
• HGs Ofsted grading was outstanding in May 2010 with the Science department similarly outstanding in all areas in September 2011
• Leading Edge Partnership – HG was invited to join this small group of high performing, outstanding schools
• Artsmark Gold – 3 times
• HG is an Outward Bound Centre and from 2012 HG will be a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme centre
• For 2012, 39% of the Upper Sixth have an offer from a highly selective university, including Oxford and Imperial

Our Students

Case Study 1
Jesse – went to Oxford University to read Chemistry, 2011.
Jesse, who lives with his mum on Essex Road, Islington, earned the right to study chemistry at the oldest university in the world with an exceptional set of A level results; A*s in maths, biology and economics, and an A in chemistry.
He said: “I feel proud, really good about myself, although it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I phoned my mum to tell her and she was just shouting down the phone at me saying congratulations.”
Jesse, enjoys chemistry and wants to study for a PhD in the future. Jesse was a member of the Access Project at HG.

Case Study 2
Brook Tewelde, Year 13, (FSM)
Brook attended Highbury Quadrant Primary School Islington. His ability on entry was well below average and his behaviour in Year 9 was so poor he was at the point of permanent exclusion. Brook attended Saturday School at HG every week and his GCSE results were significantly above average. Brook was a member of the Access Project and is aiming to study medicine or physics.

Case Study 3
Sheldon Merritt, Year 12
Sheldon joined HG in Year 7 after being asked to leave a well known Hackney Academy and was subsequently excluded from HG for 5 days for aggressive behaviour.He is one of an extremely challenging group of young people. Sheldon is very involved
in sport – football, athletics, basketball and fitness and is now coaching these. He is the fastest boy in the school.
Sheldon was predicted to attain Ds and Es, but achieved 3 Cs and 2 Ds at GCSEs. As a sixth former he is employed as a lunchtime supervisor and he accompanied Year 9 on Outward Bound as a leader. Sheldon is currently at West Ham Academy but his aspiration after school is to become a PE teacher, not a footballer/

Cyan Koay Year 13
Cyan has an offer to read Music at Oxford 2012. Cyan had never picked up a musical instrument before joining Highbury Grove but she achieved Grade 8 with Distinction on flute after only 3 years of playing.

This year was a break with tradition. The Dancing moved from the village square, increasingly clogged with cars, to the playground. But everything else remained the same. Every class in the primary school took a turn to impress the audience of villagers, parents, grandparents, carers, friends and relatives. This year the theme was “Dancing through the Decades”. The playgroup poppets took this literally – they re-enacted the story of Sleeping Beauty. “The Princess lived for a hundred years, a hundred years…” played while the little princes and princesses cast their spells and one boy, overwhelmed, knuckled his eyes to stem the flow of tears. One class jived to “Rock Around the Clock”, another flashdanced to “What a Feeling”, Year One marched to “I am the Music Man”, but the climax was Year Six and the maypole.

It’s an annual ritual, the May Dancing. Some parents can remember when they, as Upper Juniors, danced round the maypole in the village square – a rite of passage before moving on to secondary school. It’s the same maypole, the same ribbons, but each year, a different group of eleven year olds.

What will these school leavers remember of their primary school? Not the Sats, or the time Ofsted came calling. No, they’ll remember the Christmas concerts where the infants always stage a nativity tableaux, the sports days and competitions, the school dinners (another rite of passage – Year Six pupils are given responsibility for a table), singing to the old people in the village hall, the “evacuee day” when they rode in a steam train with cardboard suitcases containing sandwiches of jam or spam (no crisps). And the May Dancing.

What will the future hold as they dance on to secondary school? Will they be valued for themselves or for their potential contribution to school league tables? Will they be judged for what they are or what tests say they can do? Will they develop a love of education which will stay with them forever or come to regard it as something to be swallowed and regurgitated on demand?

I hope not – I hope that these children will retain the enthusiasm they showed at the May Dancing when with aplomb and teamwork they averted disaster – and were rewarded with cheers.