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    #51
    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

    No. It's that I didn't recognise it as having been written in English.

    Comment


      #52
      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

      In other news, College of Social Work closed. Power handed over to KPMG.

      http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jun/19/profession-in-shock-as-the-college-of-social-work-forced-to-close?CMP=share_btn_tw

      Profession in shock as the College of Social Work forced to close

      In a strategic review with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Health, the college made the case for taking on responsibility for other key functions, such as post-qualifying training, in line with the responsibilities of other professional bodies. The government rejected these proposals, and awarded the accreditation of the new approved child and family practitioner role to KPMG and Morning Lane Associates instead.
      I know I would say this, but Private Eye and others went to town in their "all the same" way about Labour getting advice from PWC about tax. No idea who they were supposed to ask. Perhaps employ tax people permanently on Big 4 salaries or something.

      Labour came out with some good anti-avoidance stuff which seemed to surprise everyone. We're looking instead at accounting firms running social work training.

      Comment


        #53
        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

        Guy Potger wrote: No. It's that I didn't recognise it as having been written in English.
        Ah right. I factor that in as a given on the subject of academies.

        Talking of which, anyone noticed that when someone speaks up with a generalization about education (something bad) it's "too many schools are..."? More than likely a significant chunk of the "schools" that are failing will be academies.

        Eat yer heart out Orwell.

        Comment


          #54
          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

          Nicky Morgan in nationalization shock!

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33198707

          Ofsted is ditching 1,200 school and college inspectors after assessing them as not good enough to judge schools.

          The move by England's education inspectorate is part of its plan to improve quality and consistency, and bring inspections in-house.

          Ofsted had been using about 3,000 additional inspectors, contracted through inspection service providers.
          Sensible in itself. But you might wonder whether it was wise to give these inspectors such power over the destiny of schools in the first place.

          Mike "The Sheriff" Wilshaw ought to be sacked over this revelation. Worst public appointment ever.

          Comment


            #55
            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

            http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/11734648.print/

            Ofsted inspectors have questioned the quality of secondary education in Sandwell’s schools, the majority of which are academies, and have demanded council bosses step in.
            Spot the problem?

            Comment


              #56
              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

              Another bit of farce. Academies, who the government say are wonderful and how all schools should be have had the following general condition:

              The Academy Trust must ensure that the curriculum provided to pupils up to the age of 16 is balanced and broadly based, and includes English, mathematics and science
              So English and Maths, plus Science.

              But from September, all schools have to offer Maths, English, Science, Hist/Geo and a Modern Language. Morgan has said she basically wants every child to take those 5.

              Less than 3 months before that starts, there's a shortage of 2,000 modern languages teachers.

              Comment


                #57
                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                Nicky Morgan has been smashed all over the park in Education Questions.

                A "coasting school" seems to be a school that one of her academy mates wants to take over, even though it isn't obviously failing.

                The "coasting schools" development is particularly pernicious because at least before it had to be argued that the previous school had problems and there'd be some work for the white knight academy chains to do.

                "Turning round" a "coasting school" is complete money for old rope.

                Comment


                  #58
                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                  This is how fucked the system is. An Ofsted Report from last month. The school "Requires Improvement".

                  The school accesses support from the local authority, which works regularly with the school. The local authority has an over-generous view of the school’s provision. It is aware of improvements that need to be made in achievement and teaching but accepts the school’s view around behaviour and leadership, which is too optimistic. Because of this, the local authority is not challenging the school strongly enough.
                  The school is an academy.

                  Left the LA in 2011. And the LA is getting blamed 4 years later. How kind of "independent" Ofsted to reach that conclusion.

                  Comment


                    #59
                    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                    Reminder of ongoing pernicious rubbish. Flavour of the month Schools Direct to be the main training programme. Universities to fill in the gaps.

                    http://schoolsweek.co.uk/nctl-registration-changes-pit-teacher-training-providers-against-each-other/

                    Chris Husbands, director of the Institute of Education, said: “The immediate likelihood is the further expansion, despite the challenges, of School Direct.

                    “The recent hints are that school and school group bidding for School Direct places for 2016-2017 will account for the vast majority of (initial teacher education), with very loose regional monitoring of demand.

                    “Essentially, this means higher education allocations will be residual, mopping up numbers not allocated to schools, which is in turn likely to be the hard to recruit areas.

                    “It’s unlikely higher status universities will remain in this highly uncertain market for long, which means the de facto transfer of teacher supply to several thousand competing small businesses. Recent evidence suggests that the outcomes are likely to be unpredictable.”

                    Comment


                      #60
                      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                      Drawn to my attention by E10's muckers on Facebook.

                      http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/23/national-curriculum-is-damaging-childrens-creative-writing-say-authors

                      children are taught “not to use simple words such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘small’ or ‘big’ but to always find other more ‘interesting’ words to replace them – such as ‘wonderful’, ‘terrible’, ‘minuscule’ or ‘enormous’”.
                      Pretentious talk they barely understand- remind anyone of the politician who brought this drivel in?

                      And of course, academies don't have to do it.

                      Comment


                        #61
                        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                        http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/stephanie-ogrady-headteacher-sacked-amid-5943577

                        A headteacher has been sacked amid scandalous claims pupils' answers were CHANGED after their test had finished.

                        Maths results for 11-year-olds were struck out at a high-flying Birmingham academy following a probe into the 2014 test.

                        The annulment at St Patrick's CE Primary Academy is understood to have meant none of the 30 Year 6 pupils were given their received maths grades before starting secondary school.

                        St Patrick's confirmed that former head Stephanie O'Grady had been sacked because of the incident.
                        I'll only half gloat that this is an academy. The "one set of bad exams and you're sacked" culture doesn't help anyone.

                        She won't be the only one who's done it.

                        Comment


                          #62
                          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                          One for Tubby - a storify on the Hewett School in Norwich, set up by campaigner Lynsey White: https://storify.com/LynseyAnneWhite/future-of-the-hewett-consultation-or-insulting-con

                          Comment


                            #63
                            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                            You sure posted it in the right place for me.

                            Thanks.

                            Comment


                              #64
                              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                              I like her style.

                              And I went on the telly about it... and gave the man from Policy Exchange a small bollocking
                              Really good to see Policy Exchange in the frame.

                              Comment


                                #65
                                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                I'll let you know where and when the documentary mentioned is shown too.

                                Comment


                                  #66
                                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                  Didn't have a clue who Nicky Morgan was until yesterday, when I was invited to the House of Commons to be told I'm doing a good job (not just me, others were invited to hear the same message) before she rushed off to another engagement. She seemed quite nice.

                                  House of Commons is a bit shabby and free booze was cut off rather promptly following Morgan's exit.

                                  Comment


                                    #67
                                    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                    Here’s another one for you Tubby.

                                    http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/06/25/telford-schools-crisis-it-is-the-greatest-fiasco-of-my-career/

                                    I live in Shrewsbury, so I don’t know much about these schools, but I know two people who used to work at the Phoenix (A SENCO and a TA). Set in a socially and economically challenging area it was considered pretty good.

                                    Both of these people are surprised how quickly it has gone downhill since becoming an academy....

                                    Comment


                                      #68
                                      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                      Cheers, Nick.

                                      This is a good place to start- the pre-academy Ofsted reports.

                                      http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/123576

                                      2013- Requires Improvement, take as you will. Can't find the social intake but the school is told off for not stretching the more able- that can be a sign there's a difficult intake and the teachers have enough on their plate with the rest.

                                      Not the worst by any means, and a few good appointments and support could have got it to Good- it would have been re-inspected in 2 years, a surprisingly sane timescale for Gove/Wilshaw.

                                      Looks like it went Academy, and it's gone really wrong- now Inadequate in all categories. I think that's pretty rare.

                                      Several failing academies in one area? Hmm, what could the answer to that be?

                                      Will look at the letter.

                                      Telford would have been one for my Govey Marginal Seat Disaster Tour thing. Except I've now realised nobody cares about Education in elections. The Tories actually gained Telford.

                                      The new MP looks different to most Tories, longstanding interest in children's affairs and been directly involved at board level. We'll see soon if this was proper experience or CV building. I noticed before 2010 that a fair few of Cameron's New Tories had done stints as school governors. Cuddly Forest of Dean MP, Mark Harper, wasn't a neo-con pal of Liam Foxy but a local school governor etc.

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                        This is very pertinent, from the letter:

                                        Despite assurances back in September that there were many sponsors who would be delighted to take over our schools we were visited by just two.

                                        Only one remains in the running after Ormiston, one of the larger academy chains, walked away.
                                        With a few exceptions, academy chains want easy options, schools already at a decent level or improving. And perhaps Telford isn't where superstar edubusiness folk see themselves working.

                                        Comment


                                          #70
                                          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                          Well like I say I don't know much about the schools, but I believe the Phoenix has a lot of pupils that need extra support. Not just pupils with a statement or an EHCP, but those kids with social problems and emotional needs too.

                                          I was told they had a lot of TA's and not just for the statemented kids either. There is, or was a lot of support staff in what is a tough and diverse area.

                                          In short it's expensive, but of course it's more nuanced than that.

                                          Comment


                                            #71
                                            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                            That sounds about right- perhaps that 2013 Ofsted could have been more understanding about the difficult circumstances.

                                            The academy chain who took over look to have been totally incompetent. Just as the academy stars don't want to know about the school now, perhaps the field of potential sponsors then was pretty thin.

                                            Morgan's got a much harder job on her hands that Gove, with Cameron having effectively told her to academize every school. Gove was able to cherry pick, but even so made an incredible pig's ear of it.

                                            Comment


                                              #72
                                              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                              Tubby Isaacs wrote: This is very pertinent, from the letter:

                                              Despite assurances back in September that there were many sponsors who would be delighted to take over our schools we were visited by just two.

                                              Only one remains in the running after Ormiston, one of the larger academy chains, walked away.
                                              With a few exceptions, academy chains want easy options, schools already at a decent level or improving. And perhaps Telford isn't where superstar edubusiness folk see themselves working.
                                              Hewett being one of the exceptions, because of it's land. It's low OFSTED rating was obviously nothing to do with the fact it had it's funding cut over the last couple of years.

                                              Tubby Isaacs wrote: Cheers, Nick.

                                              This is a good place to start- the pre-academy Ofsted reports.

                                              http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/123576

                                              2013- Requires Improvement, take as you will. Can't find the social intake but the school is told off for not stretching the more able- that can be a sign there's a difficult intake and the teachers have enough on their plate with the rest.

                                              Not the worst by any means, and a few good appointments and support could have got it to Good- it would have been re-inspected in 2 years, a surprisingly sane timescale for Gove/Wilshaw.

                                              Looks like it went Academy, and it's gone really wrong- now Inadequate in all categories. I think that's pretty rare.

                                              Several failing academies in one area? Hmm, what could the answer to that be?

                                              Will look at the letter.

                                              Telford would have been one for my Govey Marginal Seat Disaster Tour thing. Except I've now realised nobody cares about Education in elections. The Tories actually gained Telford.

                                              The new MP looks different to most Tories, longstanding interest in children's affairs and been directly involved at board level. We'll see soon if this was proper experience or CV building. I noticed before 2010 that a fair few of Cameron's New Tories had done stints as school governors. Cuddly Forest of Dean MP, Mark Harper, wasn't a neo-con pal of Liam Foxy but a local school governor etc.
                                              She's been elected to the Education Select Committee

                                              http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/06/25/telford-mp-lucy-allan-elected-to-education-select-committee/

                                              Comment


                                                #73
                                                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                                Hewett being one of the exceptions, because of it's land. It's low OFSTED rating was obviously nothing to do with the fact it had it's funding cut over the last couple of years.
                                                Even with land sometimes there can be a problem finding half-credible academy trusts in the area. But Hewett's land looks particularly juicy. And as bad luck would have it, Theodore Agnew is already swallowing up East Anglia.

                                                The Tory MPs on the select committee were generally good last time. One of them is the new chair. She'll probably be OK. The problem is they then vote for stuff they know is rubbish.

                                                Comment


                                                  #74
                                                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                                  I see now Hewett's latest (Section 8) inspections were done by Serco.

                                                  Wonder if the inspectors who did it have been taken on by the DfE? 40% of outsourced inspectors weren't.

                                                  To be fair, it sounds like a constructive inspection, with things improving. That's another academy chain trick, getting schools already improving. I might have said that before.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #75
                                                    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                                    Norfolk County Council call the Inspiration Trust's bluff on the Hewitt land; Inspiration Trust whine about it.

                                                    http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/council_tells_government_give_us_the_hewett_school _s_land_1_4129044

                                                    Comment

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