How have recent governments attempted to improve schools?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8933641/the-true-cost-of-our-substandard-schools/

Gove U-Turn on EBC Feb 2013 round up

summary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21363396

expert opinion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19561148

explanation and looking ahead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21365373

Mid term review Jan 2013 Coalition and Education

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969488

SCHOOLS

Original coalition agreement pledges:

• Shake-up of state school system to allow "new providers" to start schools
• Additional funding for schools with poorer pupils
• Help schools to reward good teachers and tackle underperformers
• Anonymity for "teachers accused by pupils"
• Increased flexibility in the exam system

What coalition says it's achieved:

• 80 new "free schools" opened and a further 102 due to open in 2013
• 60% of schools have already become academies or are converting
• The "pupil premium" means that schools receive £623 per pupil on free school meals
• Simplified Ofsted school ratings
• Creation of English Baccalaureate
• Strengthen right of teachers to impose discipline

Labour's verdict on coalition so far:

• GCSE system has been in "chaos"
• New curriculum too "narrow", failing to equip young people for job market
• Government responsible for "biggest cut to education funding since the 1950s"

Coalition's mid-term 'to do' list:

• Pupil premium to increase to £900 per pupil by 2014
• Extra funding to help 11-year-olds with maths and English
• Funding for a further 100 free schools and academies
• GCSEs to be replaced by English Baccalaureate
• "Restore the reputation" of A-levels
• Performance-related pay scales for teachers
• Expansion of parental choice in special needs education
• Train 2,000 exceptional graduates as teachers by 2016

BBC education correspondent Sean Coughlan says: The promise of new providers and greater school autonomy has seen the emergence of dozens of free schools, with numbers set to rise. These are part of a wider shift away from local authority control of schools, which has seen a majority of secondary schools become academies. The targeting of school funding at deprived children - the pupil premium - has been implemented against a background of tightening budgets.

Young Vs. Millar over coalition education policy

Toby Young and Fiona Millar are two educational campaigners on opposite ends of opinion over the coalition. Toby Young is famous for his journalism and his comic novel How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (adapted for screen starring Simon Pegg). However he is more recently known as a pro-Free Schools campaigner who actually setting up the http://www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/.

Fiona Millar is an an educational journalist and campaigner who is married to Blair's famous 
spin doctor Alister Campbell.  She is an ardent critic of Gove, Free Schools New Academies etc. 

Here is a vitriolic Young attack on Millar from a couple of years ago:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100063414/five-questions-for-fiona-millar/

Here are links to Millar's Guardian articles


http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/fionamillar

Both of these characters are excellent suggestions for synoptic knowledge for education policy in this unit. 

Pupil premium and profit making schools?

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/09/the-pupil-premium-and-profit-making-schools-could-be-a-winning-combination/

Ofsted: pupil premium 'failing to raise standards'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9553852/Ofsted-pupil-premium-failing-to-raise-standards.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9553852/Ofsted-pupil-premium-failing-to-raise-standards.html

Clegg apologies

Clegg’s attempt to repair tuition fee damage http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/09/cleggs-attempt-to-repair-tuition-fee-damage/

Education policies videos. Very useful!

http://www.schoolsworld.tv/taxonomy/term/857

Excellent old series looking at various aspects of Education policy. VERY USEFUL.

Includes free schools, academies, discipline, New Lab, Coalition 

Academies' success and the problems of evidence?

Letters: Facts get in the way of academy success story http://gu.com/p/3aeke

Two articles on testing six-year-olds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/9337352/Thazz-spron-and-fape-the-new-reading-test-for-six-year-olds.html

Michael Rosen's letter from a curious parent | Education | The Guardian:

'via Blog this'

Leader of National Association of Head Teachers attacks Gove and testing of six-year-olds

Steve Iredale: 'I won't be telling six-year-olds that they're failures' - Schools - Education - The Independent:

'via Blog this'

Gove on GCSE grading scandal and why he thinks the modular system is to blame

listen to ‘Gove: 'Inherent problems' with GCSEs’ on Audioboo

Too many targets spoil the effect

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=364943

Critique of New Labour's "obsession" with targets from 2002.

New Labour and Thatcher's legacy in education policy

Thirty years after Mrs T's arrival, the Government is still strengthening, rather than dismantling, her education reforms

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6011956

Blair and the choice agenda

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/oct/12/publicservices.politics

Summary of some of Gove's education reforms by a Politics teacher

Back in 2010, Michael Gove promised a series of major reforms to the education system; which he felt had been overly bureaucratised by Labour. An overhaul of the national Curriculum was first on the agenda, involving a large slimming down of its framework. By focusing on Science, Maths and English in particular Gove’s aim is to give schools more freedom in subjects they teach. Gove also has advocated more teacher power in disciplining students and called for reforms in teacher training. In order to remove the bureaucracy started by Labour, Gove plans to tighten up league tables in an attempt to prevent teachers’ inflating rankings – Schools rewarded based on achievement in 5 core subjects, instead of all subjects.

Read the rest here:
http://alevelpolitics.com/micheal-goves-education-reforms/#more-154

Academies given powers to hire unqualified teachers

Michael Gove tells academies they can hire unqualified teaching staff http://gu.com/p/39bj8

Guardian columnist defends Cameron!

David Cameron's inner Maoist | Ian Birrell http://gu.com/p/38kvc

Francis Gilbert vs. Toby Young

Interesting critique of proposal to return to O-Level/CSE split in Telegraph