In recent months Parliamentary education debates have been a little, umm, staid? Gove has been in hiding, Hunt was still getting his head around the Shadow Education Secretary brief, and lovely Edward Timpson (who is great, but doesn’t have a schools role) was constantly wheeled out to pretend that policy walls built on quicksand were definitely not sinking. No-one was convinced.
Today, however, was better. Both sides debated with vigour. Gove spoke much more than in recent weeks. He (mostly) laid off the smart alec comments and focused on giving decisive answers with only a normal amount of swerving (for a politician, at least).
In response Labour held fiercely to a few lines: lack of transparency in the Free Schools policy, worries about failing schools, and enormous concern at the 17.5% funding cut for 16-19, which is reducing the funding available for students wishing to stay at college a third year. A third year which, up until now, has always been considered an important entitlement.
Is it ever too late to work on our Social Emotional Learning? In January, the BBC reported on research that links students’ mental health and drug or alcohol use to their chosen subject. As a former psychology undergraduate, I know that people sometimes comment on how choosing to study psychology is often motivated by students’…
Place-based policy and the ‘Levelling Up’ agenda ‘This [the UK’s] centralised [policymaking] approach has had several negative consequences for past efforts to level up. It under-utilises local knowledge, fails to cultivate local leadership and has often meant anchor institutions in local government have lacked powers, capacity and capability. These shortcomings have gone hand-in hand with…
It’s a Thursday, so after finishing work yesterday I headed over to a local community centre and spent the evening as part of a team running a weekly youth club. We ate sausage rolls, chatted about how everyone’s week has been and worked on a digital art project that the young people have been leading…
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