The schools revolution in action

Fatbloke on tour

Trevor

You miss out the basic point TB started at the bottom.

Smurf's Q+D repainting exercise is a free for all for the pushy and gob by middle class to entrench themselves in the best state schools.

Finally any chance you could do some numbers of the numbers of free school meals on the go - before and after the change.

Best way to grade any school is to add the percentage of achievement to the percentage of school meal recipients to get the magic education number.

Archibald

It's fairly strong backing to much of the talk around the riots and how inner city poor are being failed by an education system based on the ideology of the left first and the education of these people so they have some chance in life a very poor second. Why there is not a national outrage about this I will never know - surely the Tories must seize on this as a root cause of social unrest. It's just so depressing that the aims of a well-meaning group can be so far removed from the outcome when ideology triumphs over doing the right thing for the students. Thank God for the likes of IDS and Frank Field, who'd have thought putting the country first would be such a rare trait amongst the political classes.

JohnOfEnfield

Sometime soon, Ed Miliband AND ED BALLS will have to accept that the unions are wrong — and that Blair, Adonis and Gove (and Laws, Baker and Keith Joseph) were right.

Balls is the most dangerous politician around at present, ruthless & without principle - all in the name of Socialism.

Trem

I'm curious to see how these schools score on Gove's proposed English Bacc index.

A lot of LEA and non-LEA schools use courses that are "equivalent" to GCSEs to bump up their grades.

Frank P

Always provided that the exam criteria and stats aren't rigged. Hope your optimism is justified and that something is at last being achieved. The coming generations have to become smarter than the previous generations to get themselves out of the mess they have been left for them to clear up and your graphs will be therefore tested for accuracy in the coming years.

Lonesome Dave

...and the teaching trade and their unions said it would never prove effective.

Time for a radical clear out of their second rate trade.

Holly ......

It has disturbed me for many a year that pupils from poorer backgrounds or deprived areas have been labelled as 'less bright' by Labour and the snivelling union bods.

They are just as bright, smart and, street wise to boot and indeed knock the spots off prissy bods like Toynbee, who would happily see the not so well off stay that way so her prissy little circle can lecture them on the evil's of the Tories and their nasty poshness.

To ANY pupil reading this...Go for it!!!
You ARE perfectly capable of learning what a 'rich kid' can learn and, nothing to lose but the miserable existence on welfare.

If your school is still in the cr@p league
use your library, charity/book shops...Daft as this may sound try The Puzzler & buy a thesaurus!

RMH

Fraser - you quote the lesser of the two stats. The better being 29% to 100% of kids getting 5 x Gcses at a-c.

Its 75% with English and Maths.

A M A Z I N G

Sarah

Why are you of the view that a change in management requires a change in status? Also the 2010 NAO report into Academies found that they changed their intake, taking fewer students on free school meals and that the gap in attainment between more disadvantaged pupils and others grew wider in Academies than in comparable maintained schools.

michael

Middle class : Those on the make and not on the take... Which is just about every family.
Aspiration to achieve is the driver, it's absolutely not a divider, unless you're spinning socialism, in which case you are driven by the aspiration to box people according to usefulness for 'The Cause'.

Yosemite Sam

I suspect that the Free School experiment will be a flash in the pan, but the Academy programme will prove to be the lasting change which will improve our schools for the future. I have been associated with a school that is moving to academy status. It has always been a good school, but in recent years the staff and management have become demoralised by the devious incompetence of the education authority. This has had its effect on parents and children. Since the move to academy status, there has been a burst of enthusiasm amongst staff and parents - they can see a future in which teaching and learning can be the objective. The staff have not been militantly unionised. On the other hand, I live close to a large failing school. A new headteacher has been trying to pull the school round. The head has been opposed at every step by elements of the staff. The head and governors have decided to go for academy status and the unions have been waging a campaign locally to prevent this - including flyers that are so misleading as to verge on the mendacious. The sooner all schools are academies the better.

Tiberius

Why do you persist in giving New Labour credit for anything, Fraser? The whole project was just a veneer to hold power.

Blair abolished the assisted places scheme shortly after coming to power, and if Academies were an admission of regret over that, all it shows is that Blair just bends in the wind. Never was a man so straw.

It is also worth pointing out that Fiona Millar is the the other half of Alastair Campbell, who as we all know, was Blair's right-hand man, and helped the Mentalist out from time to time.

If Adonis (and John Hutton for that matter) are serious about improving the lot of the people that their brief covered, they should leave the party of the Grand Deception behind.

But brilliant news, of course, on the success of Gove's efforts.

Archibald

Is it not compulsory to do English and Maths at GCSE level? It surely should be.

As for the suggestions that intake has been altered, that may well be true, but unless people on free meals (a) always fail and (b) made up well over half the schools' intake before and now make up barely any, let's not try to distort clear fact with ideology-based drivel, Sarah and Fatbloke.

Fatbloke, you are to be commended, you personify all that is worst about the partisan nature of politics in this country, so even when confronted with hard facts your response is 'no, I think what I think, thanks very much.' The irony being most left-leaners believe themselves to be open-minded individuals unlike the evil right they so despise. Well, this ain't a game Fatty, it's lives were talking about above, so why don't you pedal off and peddle your tripe elsewhere until you've grown up.

TGF UKIP

A question for you Fraser.

Via Graeme Paton, one of Gove's spinners had a story on the front page of the DT today, that marks were to be deducted in future GCSEs for sloppy spelling and grammar.

Now that's fine, mighty fine, but who is going to teach the teachers correct spelling and grammar, given that most of the current crop were educated in what Lynne Truss accurately characterised as "the dark side of the moon of British education" when such niceties were cast aside as outdated and unimportant irrelevancies.

So come on Fraser, you're a mate of Gove - who is going to teach the teachers?

Philip Whittington

One of the best (and most heartening) blog posts I've read in a long time.

I think it's important to praise Blair and Adonis here, both because their prevailing against Brown and Balls is a considerable achievement and, politically, it shines a spotlight onto academies' current enemies, the unions. Figures on the centre-Left can make a positive contribution to public services provided they're prepared to put users of those services before the producer interest.

Nicholas

There was a geography "teacher" on the 'Pointless' quiz programme yesterday, who being unable to identify the author of 'The Pickwick Papers' went on to say that despite obtaining an 'A' grade at A Level in English Literature he had done so without actually reading any of the books set for course work - a fact he seemed rather proud of. When it was pointed out that this was perhaps not the best public role model message for his own current GCSE pupils he admitted that he "might not have thought that through".

dorothy wilson

If the unions are "wrangling legal aid to cover their battle" that is one more reason why legal aid needs reforming.

Gawain

There is one element missing in this comprehensive and interesting analysis. No mention is made of Grammar schools. These are the most successful state schools, yet they are not being allowed to form expanding "chains" of schools. This is a criminal tragedy, particularly for boys. Academies are proving a success but I suspect that as more and more become academies and the unions get a grip on them the initial successes will diminish. If you really want a true choice of schools and to set up models of well managed schools, with a strong academic ethos that have proven track record of motivating and educating boys you will have a Grammar school in every town in addition to the academies. It is nothing but trendy leftie fear of academic selection that stops this.

I write this from experience as a father of three teenage boys, all sate educated, one of them at a Grammar school. One of the worst aspects of much of education policy and the media analysis at the moment is that it is written by people with primary school age kids. The statistics are very nice but in reality you will find that kids grow up scarily quickly and the best approach for a parent is to go with the best choice you can get. My experience is that fir academically able boys Grammar schools are streets ahead of any other schools.

ndm

Fraser Nelson writes:

-- It's increasingly and horribly clear that pupils are not the key concern of the unions.

It's increasingly and horribly clear that students are not the the key concern of the Conservative Party which has massively and horribly increased fees for university students. Rather than invest in Britain by ensuring a good education for the youth of today, the Conservative Party would rather lard its wealthy friends with tax breaks. The Consrvative Party does not hate poverty it hates the poor.

william

You might mention that Phil Harris is an immensely successful businessman,who has poured millions via his charitable trusts into worthy causes,as well as devoting many hours of his time into these schools.

Robbo

You should have given John major the credit for the City Technology Colleges. Blair's contribution was to rename them academies and to significantly water down their powers and independance.

DataMan

I'm a Data Manager in a school.

There is a "rival" academy locally. They offer GCSE equivalents including fishing. We offer two lots of "IT" courses equivalent to up to 4 GCSEs each. By IT I mean *basic* laying out and/or making of simple flash movies. Students are given a list of what is needed for each grade. Almost all students take them. Other equivalents: Hair + Beauty (3 gcses), Construction (4).

Students can be entered for *many* Math GCSEs. I've heard of up to 5. Different linear papers from different exam boards and a couple of goes at a terminal paper in modular (note: each "go" means you get another grade - automatic cash in).

Oh, and those GCSE math papers. A 1 hour paper would take most people above the age of 25 about 20 minutes. If you're bright you can get full marks in 5.

We had an extremely bright student. He caused an awful lot of trouble. Why? He was bored, unstimulated by the content. He's done brilliantly where he actually turned up to exams.

Education is broken. No-one wants to fix it because "everyone else is playing the game so we have to". It's a joke.

All education has done for at least a decade is dumb down and increase dependency on the state. The future's dim.

Holly ......

ndm.5.27.
The Conservatives have not increased the fees, they have simply taken the burden from the general taxpayer and given it to the user.

*The user will not begin paying fees back until earning £21k*.

The user will give more thought about their next steps in their education and, what their choices will gain them in their future
years in the workplace.

Students are many things, but stupid should not be one of them.
Go on a Mickey Mouse course and get nowhere,
or pay and get something worthy of your future earnings.
If they want to be high earners and are not afraid to put in the work/money they will succeed.
If they want to be high earners, but take the easy option, they will be disappointed.

Look at it as a great decorating job...if you don't do the preperation right, you get a rubbish finish.
Like wallpapering over woodchip or artex...
You just wouldn't do it!

Jeremy Poynton

What we once again confirmed is that, for the Left, ideology is more important than the well-being of young people.

ndm

Holly ...writes:

-- The Conservatives have not increased the fees, they have simply taken the burden from the general taxpayer and given it to the user.

It is utterly stupid to assert that the Conservatives have not increased the fees.

The fee increases imposed by the Conservatives will make it much harder for poor people to participate in the higher education process. It will make it much easier for wealthy people to get into Russel Group universities - which is, of course, the central idea of allowing them. The Conservative party is showing that it intends once again to be the party of privilige not the people.

Holly continues with another stupid argument ...

-- Go on a Mickey Mouse course and get nowhere, or pay and get something worthy of your future earnings.

There is an easy argument to be made that a humanities degree at Oxford is pretty Mickey Mouse - after all it is apparently less useful to Britain than an electrical engineering degree from the same institution. But then the electrical engineer whiz kid still needs a product manager And let us not forget that the current Prime Minister worked in public relations. I suspect there are some people who would have liked to get a PPE at Oxford ended up doing a public-relations degree at some lesser institution - and then lacked the privilege and connections David Cameron gained at Oxford.

Archibald

FYI for those interested in this sort of thing, Toby Young was on Radio 4 earlier, "the house I grew up in". Catch it on BBC iPlayer. Fascinating. Obviously it's just his opinion, but his view of his father's ideology and its relation to Toby's own education - well, listen in, it's a very short show.

Archibald

ndm - are you a teacher by any chance? Only I notice you don't let the pesky facts get in the way of your ideology. Not that your point is even relevant to the actual post - what's your view on the content of that, or will you have to go and ask your team leader what you're allowed to say? This isn't blue good, red bad. This is people. But then even your Uni argument is full of holes, not that you've actually done any research into it, you've just believed whatever crap you've heard on the news. Now I happen to think what Clegg and the Lib Dems did with their Uni stuff was a total disgrace, as they made a promise and they should have insisted they couldn't move on that when the coalition was formed. But that aside I can still look at the new policy and see many benefits if you read it and listen, especially for poorer students. There's an argument to be had there, but it's on on balance I actually think the coalition got right.
However, for you to talk of the Tories being the party of privilege rather than the people when the above article is pretty much 100% the opposite of that claim is nothing short of pathetic. Grow up, wake up and shut up. You know what might help you, listen to Toby Young on radio 4 earlier, it will be on iPlayer. His upbringing made me think of Ed Miliband, difference being Ed hasn't managed to think for himself yet. We can only hope that one day you will, rather than continue to spout tired partisan drivel.

terence patrick hewett

As far as I am aware the Univ. of Oxford does not do an Hons. degree in electrical engineering; or for that matter any other sort of engineering. They do however do a course in engineering science(presumably engineering for persons who do not wish to become engineers). Engineers go to Southampton.

donpatrico

Archibald: thanks for the tip re T. Young on iPlayer. Telling evidence of BBC bias, though: Young "shamelessly" promotes his school - and why should he feel shame, exactly? "The Concern is" that the school will be a haven for the middle class - whose concern exactly, and why is this concern dignified with the definite article?

Dan Grover

I graduated in 2009, after starting university in 2006 - the first year of the 'top up fees'. I come from a low-income family (I now, at 23, earn far more than my father ever has, and he was a 'single father' to my brother and I). I put my relative success down entirely to my school - my grammar school.

Incidentally, ndm, I'd have much rather paid the fees as they will be next year. I'd much, much rather pay less when I graduate at the expense of paying it for longer. Going on the assumption that my salary will, by and large, only go up from this point, it seems to me to be infinitely preferable to pay less each month, meaning your initial years of low-salary are easier and your later years - when you presumably earn more than ever - are there to take some of the burden. They both have the same barriers to entry (ie none), so I really don't understand the idea that this punishes the poor. The only disincentive the poor have to go to university is if they're misinformed about the impact of the fees - misinformation that you're doing your best to spread, ndm.

(One last thing: I did a very mickey mouse degree - 3D Animation (animation! Mickey mouse! Geddit?!) and whilst it's a good course, the truth is that due to London being a global hub for the creative industries, competition is wildly fierce and 80% of my coursemates have ended up on the dole or working in something totally unrelated. That said, I don't really care about other mickey mouse courses anymore. So little of the cost of them is coming from the state that, if people want to spend their money on it, go for it.

John Thomas

Yes, if only you could take the (party-) politics out of education, or if you could organise education so that politics, and political ideologies, could not influence it. If you could, then you'd mend education, and serve children, and the future ...

Minnie Ovens

Fiona Millar is the the other half of Alastair Campbell

God, Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley would have loved them at the Algonquin vicious circle meetings.

PeeJay

Baker was rubbish, Laws wouldn't have been remarkable.

Gove has done nothing but inherit a good policy and expanded on it, he's on the right path but he would be seen as an accelerator rather than an innovator if the history were written today.

Henry Page

I would be more inclined to believe the statistics above regarding past 'A' level results under the LEA and those under the new Academy status were it not for the fact that the Academies - by the above definition - always achieve better results. That simply isn't possible, in the same way that no school in the world can genuinely produce above 90% success in 'A' level results without marginalising academically weaker students. They are playing politics with our children's education.