Or natural selection...

This is simply dishonest (no surprises there). Headteachers already have this power.

I've just caught up on iPlayer with a programme about Toby Young's efforts to start up a free school in Ealing. I came to the programme with a genuinely open mind, never having come across Young before, and within 3 minutes was finding him annoying as hell. As time went on he became increasingly stupid. What particularly stuck in my mind was his claim that learning Latin teaches you to think logically. Having been made to learn it myself, I can state with authority that that is total bollocks.

At the end of the programme, the only ray of hope lay in the fact that he hadn't found any premises for his Dotheboys Hall. I have the most depressing suspicion that he is top of the list for one of the supposedly redundant Department of Education buildings that Gove is planning to palm off on free schools, because Gove will be absolutely desperate to make sure that none of the idiots volunteering to start free schools fall by the wayside.

What I can't understand is, if the DfE has redundant premises, why hasn't it sold them off or rented them out? Surely these should be a prime candidate for costs savings?

Cheers, Malcolm for that clarification. I recall my GCSE (1988) being chronological. The history before it wasn't really in any order. Has that changed now? I'm not convinced that it needs to be in chronological order at all. Some people like ancient history, some like medieval, some modern. You need to dip into different eras to see what you might like later.

I see Young's website has some newspaper articles on it. This is the sort of high quality stuff that you might be able to write if you attend his Free School:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mailonline

For anyone who thinks Young is just a parent trying to set up a school, why is that article there? It's clearly the frontier in an ideological battle.

Fozzy, I think Latin made a contribution to my logical understanding of language. I wouldn't claim anything more for it though. As I say, its purpose may be to scare off blacks.

The key phrase in the NC is 'broadly chronological'.

Last time I taught it:
Year 7: Romans, Medieval England (Saxons, Normans, Black Death, Peasants' Revolt), Islamic Empires
Year 8: Britain 1500-1700 (Tudors and shit), 1700 - 1900 (Industrial Revolution), Option.
Year 9: Edwardians (inc suffragettes), WW1 (inc local), WW2 (inc Holocaust)

Then GCSE, which was 20th century beastliness.

There was a good series on BBC2 recently by Professor Robert Bartlett about The Normans. Fascinating- I'd recommend it if it gets repeated.

Also look out for repeats of 1000AD - an excellent one-off.

I remember watching Simon Scharma's History of Britain. The first two series were good (so much so that I bought the accompanying book for the second) but the third was a bit to political for my tastes. I thought Andrew Marr made a better fist of that period.

_________________
'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

Are you sure it wasn't on Channel 5? Or Sky One?

Ah, we jumped around a fair bit. Gove is indeed talking total shit.

No deffo BBC2. Google BBC2 The Normans.

I'll check that 1000AD out if it gets repeated, cheers Malcolm.

You mean those people who just throw money at Jonathan Ross made the show?

I enjoyed the Normans. Have you seen Michael Wood's latest on BBC4 - tracing the history of a village (Kibworth I think) from pre-Domesday to the present through its documents and records? Fascinating stuff.

'Michael Wood's Story of England' - tonight at 9pm, BBC4. Ep 3: The Great Famine and the Black Death. Looks ace.

Wood's books are worth a look too.

Seeing these aren't known, I was surprised how good a writer he is.

What a surprise, lots of the pupil premium comes from other education money:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11615216

You mean it isn't just Gordon Brown who "stealthily" "gives with one hand, takes away with another"? I'm sure the Mail will summon its usual venom.

£500,000 of these cuts could have been saved if Gove hadn't donated £500k to the Free Schools Network.

Why though do Labour insist on attacking the Lib Dems more than the Tories? The Lib Dems have indeed got a more progressive use of education funds. They and the Tories have both cut it.