Education
Ministers vs the curriculum
David Cameron has not sought to seek personal or political capital from the Olympics, for which he deserves much credit. It doesn’t take much to imagine how Gordon Brown would… Continue reading
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An endangered species
Last night the BBC aired a brilliant horror-movie (viewable on iPlayer) called ‘Young, Bright and on the Right.’ It followed two young men, one at Oxford the other at Cambridge,… Continue reading
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Henry Kissinger’s education
Only America, a friend of mine once insisted, could produce the New Criterion. This friend happened to be American, but his point stands nonetheless. America alone is sufficiently large, wealthy and… Continue reading
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Academies to be allowed to employ teachers without formal training
The pace of reform in education has been stepped up again today. The model funding agreement for all new academies has now been changed by the Department for Education to… Continue reading
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Why I’m backing my local free school
Last night I attended a public meeting to discuss the successful bid by parents in north London to set up a free school in East Finchley. The Archer Academy is… Continue reading
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Combing over school inspections
Ofsted reports are a waste of time. Schools are notified three days ahead of any visit from the inspectors. At my school this gives our headmaster plenty of time to… Continue reading
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Tennis and the rise of the ‘mediocracy’
The discussion of Britain’s latest tennis nearly man has turned inevitably to the culture of a sport which, in this country at least, remains laughably exclusive. Asked on the Today… Continue reading
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LA gangs, Arab feminists, and learning Classics
‘There are more people teaching Ancient Greek in China than there are in Britain,’ declares Professor Edith Hall from the distinctively academic chaos of her study at King’s College, London.… Continue reading
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Is Michael Gove the government’s only true radical?
I have been waiting more than two years for this government to say or do something really radical. By this I don’t mean taking the Blairite revolution to its logical… Continue reading
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Penny’s non-violent clash with Starkey
The self-styled enfant terrible of the new radical left, Ms Laurie Penny, has taken her one-woman revolution to the heart of the establishment. Yesterday, she caused quite the ruckus at… Continue reading
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Obstruction overruled
The Spectator’s Schools Revolution conference is being held on Tuesday next week. One of the speakers, Mark Lehain, writes below about his experience setting up a free school. Other speakers… Continue reading
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The game is up
Michael Gove’s plan to scrap GCSEs and replace them with a beefed-up O-Level are, as Brother Blackburn observed earlier, threatened by the Conservatives’ coalition partners. It seems quite probable that… Continue reading
4 Comments The yellows imperil Gove’s schools revolution
Michael Gove has caused a storm this morning, with his proposal to split GCSEs. The Mail has the scoop, but, essentially, this is in a bid to improve standards —… Continue reading
46 Comments More pupils, fewer schools
On Tuesday next week, The Spectator will hold its third annual Schools Revolution conference. On the agenda will be the striking failure of new ‘free schools’ to keep pace with… Continue reading
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Repeat after me…
The fuss stirred up by the mere suggestion that poetry might be part of the school curriculum was extremely suspicious. Just as George Osborne quietly announced his u-turn on the… Continue reading
2 Comments The schools revolution
This time next week, we’ll hold the third Spectator School Revolution conference, and it’s our best-ever lineup. If any CoffeeHousers are in the world of education, or know anyone who… Continue reading
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The ideological quandary over Gove’s curriculum reform
Primary school children studying subordinate clauses and foreign languages? What an outlandish but suddenly very real idea. Michael Gove announced earlier this week a curriculum reshuffle to restore rigour and… Continue reading
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Labour’s education dilemma
The Labour Party has a problem with education. On the one hand, it recognises that the academies programme which it inaugurated is very popular with parents. But on the other… Continue reading
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The plot against public schools
Matthew Parris has launched a critique on the charitable status of public schools in this morning’s Times. Matthew is not opposed to private education, just to the arrogance of the… Continue reading
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Social mobility — more than a political battle over universities
Nick Clegg wants to make social mobility his big theme in office. This is an ambitious target and one unlikely to be motivated by electoral consideration given that visible progress… Continue reading
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