As I was trawling through The Economist audio archive, I came across a rather fascinating interview with Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of School, presumably to mark the publication of his new book A Desolation of Learning. The lion – it’s the luxuriant curls! – may have lost a few teeth but he can… Continue reading The Woodhead alternative.
The Tory plans to publish past exam papers has obviously ruffled the feathers of the government, who, in their ever greater desire for transparency, have so far refused to offer them for public scrutiny.According to this morning’s BBC report, Michael Gove says: “Now the government treats exam papers like state secrets and refuses to publish… Continue reading You may now turn over your papers.
Picking up on the Politeia Report, this week’s Economist magazine gets in on the act of reporting on the quality of the teachers in education.The organization Teach First is busy this summer training five hundred graduates to teach in some of the most challenging school environments. Named as the Education and Training Charity of the… Continue reading Them as can, do!
It’s the silly season and there’s precious little to report. There was a posting on the Reading Reform Foundation from Jim Curran, who flagged up a piece by one of Australia’s leading proponents of phonics, Kerry Hempenstall. In his article ‘The Whole Language-Phonics Controversy: A Historical Perspective’, he outlines, as the title suggests, the history… Continue reading The Reading Wars – again.
Thanks to Microsoft for the pic.
The BBC reports of the last two days highlight in stark terms what a bunch of interfering busybodies government ministers are. If proof were wanted to bear out everything the Policy Exchange report of a few months ago stated, it’s all here.As the BBC news channel reported yesterday morning, far from being blameless for last… Continue reading SATs scores spun, science sidelined.
It was nice to get one in before the Beeb yesterday! They managed to catch up this morning by reporting the ‘Teachers “are scared of numeracy”‘ story.Of course, the report has been rubbished by the DCSF, who spun it by claiming that the degree is a ‘well-respected three year education degree’ and by talking about… Continue reading Auntie gets in on the act!
Here’s one that will shock everyone… I think. It is reported in the Guardian today that primary teachers in England are ‘among the worst qualified in Europe’. Politeia, a right-wing think tank, claims that all primary teachers should have passed A-level maths and English, as a minimum, before being unleashed on eight- to eleven- year-olds.At… Continue reading Standards required to teach.
Here’s a thing from the Indie yesterday. You really couldn’t make it up, could you?
Anyone familiar with the work of David Crystal will already know what a prolific author on all questions to do with the English language he is. If a single year doesn’t bring at least two new publications, I begin to wonder if he is at last beginning to slow down. So, it was with particular… Continue reading David Crystal – a diamond geezer!