Prior to the 1980s, education was very much a local issue set within the context of the 1944 Education Act. A move to comprehensive schools in the 1960s was arguably the major event. How times have changed. Like many people of my age, I have been honed, damaged and shaped by an era of increasingly pernicious accountability and the confused autonomy granted to us by successive governments. Continue reading
This is the month when secondary school headteachers age quickly. It’s not just last year’s examination results playing on their mind or the start-up of the year; their haggard look is from numerous evenings making presentations to parents on the annual primary school merry-go-round. Continue reading
Christopher Logue invites us to “come to the edge”. It can be a frightening or exhilarating place to stand; it depends on whether you think you are about to plummet or fly. Continue reading