Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

From Laura McIerney. This is a cracker.

Regional Schools Commissioners decide if a coasting school’s improvement plan is credible enough to save it from forced academy conversion. Regional Schools Commissioners are evaluated on the number of schools they turn into academies.

Conflict of interest, much?

This is up there with people running probation recalling people to prisons that they also run.

[E10 Rifle]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Corruption there, utterly embedded in our government

[Antepli Ejderha]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

The MPs just put out their list of interests, I wonder how many had ARK, Harris and Oasis on them? How much money do they donate* to the Conservatives.

*by donate I mean bribe obviously

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

But surely, the real enemy within is Common Purpose.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

I should put it on Hunt's thread, but this is worth of the DfE.

There's an agency that's going to check money isn't wasted in health.

The employees are all temporary staff.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Scene: Number 10 Downing Street.

-Knock Knock

-Who's there?

- Rachel

-Rachel who?

-Rachel Wolf. I used to be Gove's Spad, then headed up a fake charity. I've got a new job with David Cameron.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/01/ofsted-inspectors-rate-two-free-schools-inadequate

Two Inadequate free schools today (in Leominster and Cinderford).

But, also an Outstanding Free School in Plymouth. That's the sort of place that's been let down by complacent LEA types for years.

Who runs it?

The school is sponsored by Plymouth University, Cornwall College and Plymouth City Council

Oh.

You couldn't make this shit up.

[David Agnew]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

At the Hewett School IEB meeting in May, Inspiration Trust CEO Dame Rachel de Souza said that the Trust should receive the taxpayer-owned land worth £60million.

https://twitter.com/LynseyAnneWhite/status/616543720779960320/photo/1

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Dame Rachel sniffs a rule change on what they can do with the land, I think. Isn't she supposed to be an "inspirational headteacher"? More cuddly that old Theo Agnew, I suppose. No wonder she's fronting this out.

Riffing on my last post: not so much Kafka-esque as scripted by the man himself.

Council needs to set up a school. It's perfectly able to set up good schools. It's barred from doing so.

So it works with some partners to set up a school that makes an excellent start. But it's called a free school, and used to "prove" that councils shouldn't be setting up schools. Thus diminishing Plymouth City Council's powers even further.

The logic of all this is that the best thing councils can do is set up bad free schools deliberately.

[NickSTFU]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Where's all this research, time and effort leading Tubby? A book? A paper?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

I nick most of it off about two people- Roger OThornhill (Cif) and Marklu (BTL on the DT).

But very kind.

Appreciate what you've found too, as have others when I've posted it in other places.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Just had a very nice talk with a woman from Norwich, David.

Mentioned an academy primary school a friend of her's kid attends. Parents are stopped right at the school gate and let know in no uncertain terms that they aren't welcome inside without express permission.

Brave New World.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Here's one for you. Credit to OP.

Can you spot which of the four witnesses at the committee this week was knighted by the Coalition for running an academy chain?

Q 21 Kevin Brennan: I will ask one question ... In dealing with an inadequate school, is academisation the only way to bring about satisfactory improvement?

Malcolm Trobe: No.

Sir Daniel Moynihan: Yes.

Emma Knights: No.

Richard Watts: No.

[E10 Rifle]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

I've just been reading that (I suspect, from the same source). The answer to Question 17 in that, basically admitting that Free Schools do jack to raise standards, is a good'un.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

From our mutual friend? He is outstanding, isn't he?

Don't know how much you'd seen of Nick Gibb before. An absolute militant. Gove without the charm.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Ha ha ha ha ha. Look at Moynihan here.

Q 48 Bill Esterson: Sir Daniel, do you agree that local authorities should be able to take over if they are high performing?

Sir Daniel Moynihan: I don’t, actually. No.

Q 49 Bill Esterson: Okay. So we are not interested in high quality.

Sir Daniel Moynihan: It depends. How do you define local authorities as high performing? They are not directly responsible for the management of their schools, so what does that mean? If the schools in a local authority are doing well, does that mean the local authority is high performing? I think the headteachers of those schools would have something to say about that; their view would be that they have delivere

Utter cant.

[NickSTFU]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

In local(ish) news, I found out today from the ex - TA who worked at the Phoenix that the board of governors/directors of the trust never visited the school.

Not sure how that works.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

The "bureaucrats as governors" thing is very odd, if you take Gove and all at their word- that they work because bureaucrats get out of the way. Chains routinely stuff governing bodies with head office placemen.

But bureaucrats as governors who never turn up, that's a new one on me. Sounds like the worst of both worlds.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Actually, Nick? Did I understand you right there? The governors were academy chain people? Or they weren't, but neither the governors nor the chain people showed up?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

You have to fair to the Prime Minister and Nicky Morgan. With this "coasting schools" thing, they've opened an exciting new front in Education reform.



Hang on, those graphics look a bit dated.

It's a plan from the Labour government from 2008. And apparently it looks at "coasting" in terms of progress rather than bludgeoning all schools that fall below an arbitrary floor, hence shitting on schools with poor intakes.

I'm told it's not bad, and looked at teaching and learning. But I'm sure it was lefty liberal rubbish worthy of being chucked in the bin by Hero Gove so he could get on with academizing.

(h/t Laura McIerney)

[NickSTFU]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

I saw her again this morning and she confirmed that the governors covered all three schools. So I assume they are chain governors, which are surely directors really.

Like I say I'm not sure how that works.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Probably exactly as you say. Chains like to saturate the governing bodies. Gove helpful reduced the number of parents who need to be on it.

You might notice this rather contradicts "putting parents in charge" and "no more bureaucrats running schools".

Perhaps these bureaucrats took the second bit to heart.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Non-political Education charity the New Schools Network has a new boss.

It's one of Theresa May's old Spads.

They're laughing at us.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Remember the problems with Birmingham schools?

If so you might remember the name Perry Beeches Trust. These were the "good guys" raising standards without "Islamizing" like Park View and others.

Nice easy solution- give these good Perry Beeches guys more schools.

Oh dear....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-33450881

Perry Beeches III into special measures.

What a merry go round farce. Whatever the problems at Park View, they were competent. Putting in a couple of experienced secular governors would have probably sorted it out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

Interesting stuff in the local rag.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/perry-beeches-iii-superhead-liam-9623780

Chair of governors and top 3 school leaders all departed. This is football manager stuff.

But it was a family, apparently.

Had he noticed any signs of trouble?

“Not at all,” he insists. “Darren had been in the Perry Beeches family for eight years, he knew the Perry Beeches way inside out.”

And he claims a series of “independent” reports he commissioned ahead of Ofsted’s inspection had indicated the school was on track for an “outstanding” rating.

Paying people to do inspections so you can impress Ofsted. Is this really what it's come to?

I'd ask them for your money back.