Mid term review Jan 2013 Coalition and Education

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969488

SCHOOLS

Original coalition agreement pledges:

• Shake-up of state school system to allow "new providers" to start schools
• Additional funding for schools with poorer pupils
• Help schools to reward good teachers and tackle underperformers
• Anonymity for "teachers accused by pupils"
• Increased flexibility in the exam system

What coalition says it's achieved:

• 80 new "free schools" opened and a further 102 due to open in 2013
• 60% of schools have already become academies or are converting
• The "pupil premium" means that schools receive £623 per pupil on free school meals
• Simplified Ofsted school ratings
• Creation of English Baccalaureate
• Strengthen right of teachers to impose discipline

Labour's verdict on coalition so far:

• GCSE system has been in "chaos"
• New curriculum too "narrow", failing to equip young people for job market
• Government responsible for "biggest cut to education funding since the 1950s"

Coalition's mid-term 'to do' list:

• Pupil premium to increase to £900 per pupil by 2014
• Extra funding to help 11-year-olds with maths and English
• Funding for a further 100 free schools and academies
• GCSEs to be replaced by English Baccalaureate
• "Restore the reputation" of A-levels
• Performance-related pay scales for teachers
• Expansion of parental choice in special needs education
• Train 2,000 exceptional graduates as teachers by 2016

BBC education correspondent Sean Coughlan says: The promise of new providers and greater school autonomy has seen the emergence of dozens of free schools, with numbers set to rise. These are part of a wider shift away from local authority control of schools, which has seen a majority of secondary schools become academies. The targeting of school funding at deprived children - the pupil premium - has been implemented against a background of tightening budgets.

Two articles on testing six-year-olds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/9337352/Thazz-spron-and-fape-the-new-reading-test-for-six-year-olds.html

Michael Rosen's letter from a curious parent | Education | The Guardian:

'via Blog this'

Leader of National Association of Head Teachers attacks Gove and testing of six-year-olds

Steve Iredale: 'I won't be telling six-year-olds that they're failures' - Schools - Education - The Independent:

'via Blog this'

Gove on GCSE grading scandal and why he thinks the modular system is to blame

listen to ‘Gove: 'Inherent problems' with GCSEs’ on Audioboo

Interesting critique of proposal to return to O-Level/CSE split in Telegraph

Proposed return to O-Levels/CSEs/Gove/Selection Controversy Summer 2012

I've left the controversy to bubble along for a few days to give the best articles some time to emerge. Here are a few....

Useful links here:
Guardian

• Original story
• Have GCSEs got easier?
• Clegg said neither he nor PM consulted by Gove 
• No. 10 says that the PM was consulted by Gove, Clegg made to look silly
• Criticism of the proposal
• Underlying personal and political reasons for Gove's proposals
• Clegg says he'll block the plan
• Excellent set of differing opinions in public letters. Guardian yes, but not always predictable in terms of opinions voiced (after all, anyone can write in to a newspaper).
• This article here is one of the best as it links in the underlying debate about the last 50 years of education policy regarding the grammar system VS. comprehensive system split. The author argues that Tory hardliners would love a return to the grammar system but that parents would not have it as it might leave their children behind. Gove, the author argues, is tapping into the Tory nostalgia for grammar school education. Remember Kent is a bit of an anomaly in that most of the country's education authorities scrapped the grammar school system and 11+ in the 1970s. Interestingly someone on Andrew Marr show this morning argued that the Tories knew that the LDs would block the o-level plan. The plan is, she argued, to 'dangle' tasty full-blooded Tory policies in front of Tory voters as if to say, "Look what we can give you if you give us a majority at the next election....Look how the LDs are holding us back."   Usually it is the LDs who take this kind of line hinting at the idea that the LDs are limiting the damage of a Tory government. This may be an example of the PM asserting the Tory position in coalition.
• Criticism of GCSE is nothing new and goes back many years.

Now for the Telegraph:

• Good blog post here
• The building of new grammar schools have been banned since 1998 but one way the coalition has tried to get around the ban without having to attract too much criticism for it, is by what some critics call the 'back-door' route. The grammar, to be built in Sevenoaks, Kent, will form an 'annexe' (add-on) of two existing schools in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge. So it won't be a school in its own right but that won't bother parents who have been campaigning for a new grammar school in the town. Could more be on the way? See here.
• An interesting article defending Gove and his plans.
• Another here questioning the whether Gove can really succeed.
• Useful opinions here in the Telegraph letters
• Interesting Telegraph blog here from right-wing ex-Labour candidate,http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100166721/michael-gove-and-o-levels-if-hes-really-bringing-them-back-he-deserves-to-be-prime-minister/ Oxford Professor of History and Kentish-rake Tim Stanley, arguing that Gove should become prime-minister! I guess Tim no-longer harbours ambitions of being a Labour MP as he did back in 2005.

New Labour's "City Academies" - good example - the famous Mossbourne Academy, Hackey

The Headteacher in the video (Sir Michael Wishaw) is famously 'tough' and is now head of Ofsted. On becoming head of Ofsted he famously said, "If anyone says to you that 'staff morale is at an all-time low' you know you are doing something right."

Testing & League Tables in Schools

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11947183
www.politics.co.uk/reference/testing-in-schools

April 2012: Gove on new powers for teachers to improve discipline

http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0076417/new-powers-for-teachers-to-improve-discipline-in-schools

The new primary curriculum

The school curriculum: it's the non-core bits that stay with you for life http://gu.com/p/38b7g

League tables controversial article

GCSE results: more turbulence on the way http://gu.com/p/345q6

Discipline in schools

It may be 'current affairs lite', but the Tonight show on ITV have summed up the discipline in education debate quite well. Also includes a look at an academy success story Mossbourne Academy, often pointed out as proof positive that academies are the panacea for the educational and social ills of the nation. Few mention the Unity Academy in Middlesborough. Both of these are of the original New Labour 'City' academies - distinct from the New academies.
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=281017
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2011/03/what-makes-mossbourne-so-good.html