There has been an interesting exchange of views this week on Twitter following a post from Professor Becky Allen (@profbeckyallen) titled The Ungameable Game (which would be a good name for a Queen song by the way). In the blog, Professor Allen playfully suggests a system for school performance measures which is, by design, ungameable. … Continue reading The Market for Schools
Category: Education policy
Order and Chaos
The most difficult thing of all... was the lack of teaching. Students began the day by working on their own weekly plan, approaching teachers in the middle of the 'market square' for advice when needed. Uutiset News (Finland), 15.8.2019, 'Parents file complaints over "failure" of new school' Two contrasting news stories have caught my eye … Continue reading Order and Chaos
Elvis Impersonators and the Disadvantage Gap
20 ft. high on Blackpool promenade Fake royalty second hand sequin facade Limited face paint and dyed black quiff Overweight and out of date Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier, the Manic Street Preachers I once read a letter to The Times which made me laugh so much that I carried it around in my wallet for … Continue reading Elvis Impersonators and the Disadvantage Gap
Ofsted: The Lion that Mewed
Something has been bothering me recently about the messages coming out from Ofsted about the new inspection framework. I think the source of my concern is something to do with the external standard schools are being measured against. An expected standard is an attempt to set criteria against which an estimate of quality can be … Continue reading Ofsted: The Lion that Mewed
Is there a place for the profit motive in state schools?
I had a brief period in my career when I used to speak at lots of conferences and events. It was the era of specialist schools and of sufficient funding, and there was a real buzz around sharing innovative practice (if you're too young too remember then trust me, it really was like this for … Continue reading Is there a place for the profit motive in state schools?
Ethics is an economic problem
The grandly titled ASCL Ethical Leadership Commission have published their final report which sets out a moral framework for school leadership 'to support leaders in their decision-making and in calling out unethical behaviour'. This is a laudable piece of work. I am one of the voices, to which they refer, calling for a more ethical … Continue reading Ethics is an economic problem
The fall and rise of educational orthodoxy – 2018 revisited
Galled by my own predictable slavishness to the Gregorian calendar, I find myself reflecting on the year gone by. The whole New Year shebang is mawkish and overblown in my opinion. If we are going to celebrate new beginnings, let's make it Spring when the world is truly re-born and we can literally and figuratively … Continue reading The fall and rise of educational orthodoxy – 2018 revisited
The Punishment Book
CODE, SCHEDULE IV. I. - Every School must have:- (e) A Punishment Book in which all cases of corporal punishment must be recorded. I have the Punishment Book for our school. It resides, along with other archive documents, in my office; a reminder that we are mere custodians of the school's heritage. It begins on … Continue reading The Punishment Book
Wear the damn earrings
My wife doesn't wear earrings. She stopped wearing them 25 years ago when she met me. I was an opinionated young man (as opposed to the opinionated older man I am now) and made it clear that I had no time for jewelry and piercing. She should have just carried on wearing them anyway, but … Continue reading Wear the damn earrings
The toilet roll market
In the late 1990s, I worked at a school with a formidable Headteacher. Her reputation had been partly forged during the era of Thatcher cuts to school funding. Legend had it that, at the height of the crisis, she had announced at a meeting of staff that from this point on everyone must bring in … Continue reading The toilet roll market
Matthew Evans 