I recently wrote that the relief I felt after Bridget Phillipson was sacked as Education Secretary might be short-lived with the appointment of Lucy Powell as her replacement. I was right. The first few utterances of the new Minister have brought home my worst nightmares. She has claimed the spelling test for primary school leavers…
The former MP Douglas Carswell – now CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy in the US – has highlighted a crucial difference between the American and British education systems. He says: “As a parent, there is one striking difference that no one seems to talk about. It is so much easier in the…
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson strikes again. Her latest wheeze is to introduce ‘V Levels’, which the government said will: “replace many existing qualifications, simplifying the current system and open up more high-quality routes for young people. “These reforms will make sure that whatever a student’s interests or strengths, whether academic, technical, or vocational, there’s a…
Evidence. It is something that we teachers encourage our students to find and weigh-up before coming to a conclusion. In science, if the evidence does not back the theory, the theory is wrong. Pretty basic stuff, you’d imagine. But not for our Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. She came into office with left-wing education theory, having…
Danny Finkelstein, writing recently in the Times, correctly reported on the improvement in schools in England. He noted how we had risen up the league tables in reading and maths – so much so that we are ‘attracting admiring visits from foreign policymakers keen to see what England is getting right.’ He praised the efforts…