Once upon a time, the Scottish education system was the envy of the world but its reputation came crashing down when the OECD PISA ratings came out late last year. They showed that in 2018 Scotland’s attainment in maths and science had taken another dive – following on from the falls also seen in 2015…
Last week a survey of parents revealed that a large majority measure a school’s success on how happy the children are. Meanwhile, a very small percentage said they took SATs results into consideration when judging where to send their child to school and 73% said they thought their children were under too much pressure from…
A study last week has claimed that social background has more bearing on whether you go to an elite university than which school you go to – especially when comparing state schools. The research from the 1970 British Cohort Study found that when you compare pupils from similar social backgrounds grammar schools offered no advantage…
This week several large MATs came out to attack Ofsted’s new framework as too “middle class”. Their main gripe appears to be that they can no longer sacrifice the teaching of more creative subjects in favour of more focus on the core subjects and teaching to exams, whether that be SATs or GCSEs. Some schools…
In its annual report, published this week, Ofsted said more apprenticeships are urgently needed to meet the needs of the economy. This is something I have been calling on for years. Apprenticeships are vital for the economy and also better fit the vast majority of students. We have become degree obsessed when most young people do…