Keir Starmer’s attack on private schools is not only unfair but hypocritical because his school went private while he was there – and he stayed on. He benefited from a private education. And there are others on Labour’s benches who sent their children to private schools but now want to deny that opportunity to others.…
After more than a year of children experiencing disrupted schooling, they now have a six-week holiday – a chance for them to get even further behind. Many parents of those going up to secondary school have asked me what they should be doing to ensure their children know as much as they ought to. This…
Primary school children should be taught basic numeracy and literacy when schools resume in September. The lockdown inevitably means many children will be behind, and knowing these basic building blocks is vital. Even for those who are on top of the subjects, a refresher term is no bad thing because numeracy and literacy are so…
For many years I have been calling on successive governments to place greater emphasis on vocational and technical education. Slowly but surely, the government appears to be moving in that direction. This week saw the announcement of how T-levels – the new technical alternative to A-levels – will be rolled out and marked. The government…
August saw one of the education success stories of the year. You may have read about the Michaela Free School in London and its inspirational headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh recording GCSE results any grammar school would be proud of. Michaela, which is based in the deprived area of Brent, saw more than half (54%) of its students…