The Register, the online IT magazine, has a detailed report on the case of John Pinnington, a deputy head teacher who was fired from his job when an enhanced criminal records background (CRB) check registered allegations of abuse, allegations that were demonstrably weak. Pinnington took his case for judicial review, arguing that mere accusations should… [Read More]
This morning on Radio 4’s Today, Barry Sheerman MP and the author Ian Rankin discussed the problem that one in five 14-year-old boys have reading ages below that expected of 11 year-olds. The discussion is well worth listening to but there are a few talking points worth tackling. The first is that, while the widening… [Read More]
This week has been the first week at secondary school for some – how will they have coped in a new secondary environment? Gathering from the an article in today’s Times Education Supplement magazine, many will find the adjustment hard. Why? Because of the large size of many secondaries. Statistics show that since 1997, the… [Read More]
Yesterday saw the publication of two conflicting accounts of how educational standards have fared under the present Labour administration. According to one account, standards had risen; according to the other, they had fallen. One account was that of Government ministers responsible for education. The other account was that of employers and university admissions tutors. Test… [Read More]
Superheroes are back with a vengeance. Following the recent spate of blockbuster movies, superheroes are sexy again and no longer the exclusive territory of geeks and superhuman-timewasters. However, the originality required to keep demanding audiences engaged has seen the definition of “superhero” extended to distortion…
Last month, Anastasia de Waal, Head of Civitas’ Family and Education Unit, undertook a nationwide telephone survey of secondary school teachers to ascertain how reliable and useful they considered current Sats tests (Standard Assessment Tests) taken by pupils in the final year of their primary schooling. The results of the survey were published today and… [Read More]
On the day the Key Stage 2 Sats results are released, a new report from independent think-tank Civitas, Fast Track to Slow Progress, based on a nationwide survey of 107 secondary schools, reveals that 9 out of 10 secondary school teachers cannot rely on them: 90% of secondary school teachers surveyed have found the Key… [Read More]
Commuters this morning faced the Metro’s frontpage screamline that British Gas has just put its gas prices up 35 per cent and its electricity prices 9 per cent. At the same time, MPs are calling for a windfall tax on energy profits. The price rises (and profits) are, of course, ridiculous but it would be… [Read More]
While the DCSF’s priority currently is to make all schools “zero-carbon“(an ambition which always somehow reminds me of Pol Pot’s “year zero” objective), this amusing take on today’s announcement that each school shall have the option of having a policeman on hand reminds us what schools were for before the state got too involved. A… [Read More]
‘It’s simply not possible to transform health care to meet the needs of the 21st century without strong initiatives that focus on the demand side; no matter how good the regulator is’, opened Mark Britnell at the latest in Civitas’ series of debates on NHS reform. The NHS’s history, he put it, has been one… [Read More]