Posts Tagged school choice
School choice: our best hope for equitable access to education
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 21/11/2007
The Conservatives have barely stuck their head above the parapet with their new education green paper but the backlash from the self-appointed champions of the disadvantaged has already begun. Fiona Millar attacks their policies as re-heated Thatcherism.
Admittedly, the Tories have left themselves open to this sort of criticism. Their policies are a bit of mishmash that combine suggestions for greater parent choice and hesitant supply-side reforms with centrally driven directives that threaten teacher autonomy every bit as much as the New Labour regime. These policies include targets to get every child reading by the age of 6 using synthetic phonics and more streaming by ability within schools. The problem, as we have commented before, is that no matter how well designed these ideas are, imposing them centrally often produces perverse consequences. The, originally Conservative implemented, National Curriculum is a case in point: centralisation leads to politicisation and the easy corruption of teaching by whatever ideologies are nested within Whitehall.
Academies for 2000 pupils: the DfES’s own school choice
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 09/05/2007
The Sunday Times reports that the new Thomas Deacon Academy has not found room for building a playground amongst its (mostly taxpayer) £46.4 million funding. Justifying this move is the claim that all the pupils of this school will be so enthused by the curriculum that they will not require playtime in which to let off steam (a situation that one teacher blogger considers to be without precedent). The project manager of the academy even makes the further claim that removing all unsupervised time from the school day will prevent bullying. True in the same way that stomach stapling can be pretty effective at tackling obesity.
Looking at the school on Peterborough’s official website, the situation doesn’t appear quite as horrendous as the Times article implies. There is indeed no playground but a combination of grass and artificial pitches are there for structured sports activities (more than many schools can offer) and in the not unlikely event of this no-playtime policy falling flat on its face, these areas could probably be used to kick a football around.