Any sign of those emails?

Long grass.

Re: Steiner schools and anthroposophy - this is the sort of "medicine" they practice.
http://www.skepdic.com/anthroposophicmedicine.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... reputation
Basically a cross between homeopathy and reincarnation...

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"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

I wouldn't mind coming back again.
It's the extreme dilution I object to.

Not Gove himself but another battle plan from the leader of the DfE stormtroopers

Send children from problem families to boarding school to combat 'anti-learning culture', says Ofsted chief

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1xwXiQzT0


I think there is a lot to be said for filling the likes of Eton, Harrow, Rugby etc with children from problem families, not least the bumper crop of sad-faces that will turn up in the Telegraph and Times when the upper crust reveal that when they are paying for an 'exclusive boarding school education' the emphasis is firmly on the 'exclusive'. The fact that they can pay to have their children spend large amounts of time somewhere else is also attractive, the 'education' part is a nice bonus.

I used to work at a school that was, to put it bluntly, in a shithole. One of the most deprived parts of England and so on. But the then headmaster was a great believer in taking the principles of pulic school education and applying them across the board. Results were mixed.

We were 'partner' schools with a couple of public schools, one in London, another in Rutland. There were exchanges and kids from all three schools went on joint CCF camps and so on. While some kids responded very well to this (it helped many of them set their sights on getting good grades and aspiring to the life enjoyed by the London/Rutland kids), there was a certain amount of toff-bashing/oik-kicking going on as well. Perhaps that's to be expected, but with regard to this wheeze, I can see a lot of these 'proble kids' getting a lot of harsh treatment.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

True, it cuts both ways. The idea that the "posh school" kids will accept these children with open arms because they can see the bigger picture and the benefit it will have on their lives is somewhat naive I feel.

It is not simply the kids from bad schools who could be problematic, but it seems this has not been considered. And as we all know, if any parents aren't happy with something, it will filter down to the kids.

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"Now get those trousers off before someone dies!"

We've had a shadow defence policy (Werritty), a shadow culture policy (Smith). Now allegations of a shadow education policy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012 ... curriculum



This is a very serious allegation.

Whilst I'm sure some kids from dysfunctional families would benefit from spending time at a boarding school I do wonder if some of the teachers at Eton and Harrow would have the skills and experience to deal with kids from problem families. As far as I'm aware there is no requirement for teachers working in public schools to actually have any formal teaching qualifications, it's very easy to coast if you work in a school where pupils are fairly bright who don't have behavioural problems but there really is nowhere to hide when faced with a bunch of pupils with challenging behaviour.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that the next series of school drama Waterloo Road will see children taken from a run-down part of Rochdale to be educated in a privately funded boarding school in Scotland. Surely those lefty scriptwriters at the BBC have not been stealing their plot ideas from loony right wing think tanks!

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www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

When the LCC built the school I worked in (1956) they planned accommodation for staff and kids on the top floor, separated from the rest of the building, the idea being that 'difficult' or deprived kids would live-in. Practicalities meant that it never happened (it didn't occur to them that teachers and carers have rather different skillsets, or that teachers wouldn't be there in the holidays). But it shows their thinking over half a century ago.

Knighthoods for prominent Academy folk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18459553

Including this chap:



http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/201 ... ege-profit

So nice, august sounding title for someone pushing profit-making in schools. Well done, Gove.

And what's this?



Sounds like a bureaucrat running schools to me. I thought this was bad.

Suggested here that the Harris Academy schools aren't very good when you take out their GCSE equivalents:

http://antiacademies.org.uk/2012/03/har ... -sponsors/

And very enthusiastic expellers.

Now I want no laughing.

Mr Gove has set out his latest requirements for primary maths.

In Year 3 all children will be required to learn the Roman numerals I - XII (so that they can read the face of a clock)
In Year 4 they will learn I-C (1-100) No idea why.
In Year 5 they will learn I-M (1 - 1000) so that they can write the year in Roman numerals.

I said no laughing. Isaacs, I'm looking at you.

This doesn't mean that he has lost sight of the requirements he set out for slimming down the curriculum (not that this is a curriculum, it's a scheme of work) and removing unnecessary nonsense.

Abernathy - I won't warn you again. Stop giggling, boy.

He said the curriculum would only include the most essential items and concepts.

Somebody slap Storygirl on the back before she chokes, please.

genus dimisit

vale omnes

Wankus maximus.

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