Clik here to view.
Let me Object to the Creation of The Temple Learning Academy, Leeds
The article on the Temple Learning Academy in YEP [2.10.14] is disheartening. All the more so for its matter of fact tone. Since a law was passed in 2011 that local councils were not allowed to open...
View ArticleNew Academy in Town?
Here's a quote from the latest Anti-Academies Alliance newsletter. Academy conversions cost English councils £22m between 2011 and 2013 according to the Local Government Association. When schools...
View ArticleClik here to view.
People versus PFI. Why We Should All Care.
People formally joining campaigns usually do so because they feel so strongly about the issue that not to join the campaign would leave them feeling wanting. Thus, for me with Anti-Academies Alliance,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Took my Russian degree, teacher-trained in English but got awards for...
So, teacher-training only in your specialism! Here's my educational story which proves, I like to think, that a teacher can teach just about anything:I was 5 when I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I was...
View ArticleAcademies should return to public control
Thanks to Yorkshire Evening for printing my letter, which just about sums up what academies are, and why they are a bad thing. YEP Letters: March 508:08Thursday 05 March 20150HAVE YOUR SAY Check out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tale of the last 3 Schools Standing
I wrote this for John Baron in Leeds Guardian in 2010. Thanks to private education company [Education Leeds] and to PFI, three little jewels in the Leeds education crown quite destroyed, but at this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Academies, the dismantling of our state education system?
My guest blog for John Baron in Leeds Guardian in 2010. And things have only got worse.Opinion: Academies, the dismantling of our state education system? Guest blogger and Leeds schools campaigner...
View ArticleHow PFI New-Builds Drain the funds from our School System
When the late unlamented Education Leeds began its cruel and pointless destruction of Leeds schools, I thought, Blimey, have they got shares in construction companies? But I dismissed the thought...
View ArticleMaking a Profit from Education: Buzzers, Gates and Locks
Well, after academies, PFI, free schools, there are many other little interesting mechanisms pickpocketing the parents' purses. This one started as a result of an awful shooting in a Scottish school. I...
View ArticleThe Platitudinous One let loose on Any Questions
This is the letter that I wrote to Any Answers, but forgot to send:Your panel appeared to know very little about the mechanics of education, and the disaster that academisation has brought. It is not a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'There has been an unprecedented attack on our wonderful profession'
I, and many others loved this letter. As they say, He is only saying what others are thinking. but don't have the courage.'There has been an unprecedented attack on our wonderful profession' -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spelling v Out of Tuneness SWYP with txtspk
SWYP with txtspkSpelling v Out of TunenessThis is in response to a TES article October 2015. As a seven-year old aspiring musician I was told by my class teacher that I was singing out of tune, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DYA looses its grip. Is that Brilliant, Chris?
I originally wrote this in response to the news that GCSE results at the David Young Academy, Leeds had dramatically dropped, and that observers declared behaviour a massive issue. Then I went to see...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Academies Should Choose their own Students. No.
In response to the bizarre suggestion that schools, or rather academies, can "manage their own admissions policy", i.e. choose the kids they want to get the grades that make them look good, here are a...
View ArticleAcademies. No such thing as a good one
My reply to Debra Kidd's article on academies. I agree with a lot of this, but have two observations: 1. Good academies are not good, in my opinion, because they are academies and 2. Converter...
View ArticleAcademisation is a misnomer. It offers nothing
A teacher friend just asked me what were my first three objections to academisation. Here are the first five, off the top of my head:Objection 1 is philosophical and political. Education should be a...
View ArticleThe Great Education Struggle - Don't Be a Jumper
My letter in YEP on Tuesday [Our Education Struggle]. Not printed are the bits in italics.Nicky Morgan, for no good reason is the government education secretary, using her position to carry out the...
View ArticleSchools being put in hands of privateers
My letter printed in full by Yorkshire Evening Post:If Teresa May thinks she has called her election in time, then based only on the situation in education, she is surely wrong. Parents have now seen...
View ArticleNo academy on Fearnville Fields
This is the letter I wrote to the Yorkshire Evening Post a few weeks back:I understand that there has been a proposal to build a new academy (a private state school in which the state provides the...
View ArticleThe strange case of a primary school teacher who is filled with dread of SATs...
Letter sent to the Guardian 19 April 2019 for their consideration:The article in the Guardian of 18 April (“I am a primary school teacher and Corbyn’s plan to scrap SATs fills me with dread”) makes me...
View Article
