Corbyn can get things right.

[Workingman]

He did it today when he attacked the government's ideologically driven plans to turn all schools into academies. He was right when he said that that renaming a school an academy did not automatically improve educational outcomes. He was also right to say that those running academy chains and paying themselves massive salaries were effectively asset stripping the education budget.

Calling all schools Academies will be no more effective than calling all schools Comprehensives was. And let us not forget that there are more than a few failing academies and academy chains.

What has always been needed in secondary education is different schools for different types of intelligence. We cannot all be bankers any more than we can all be bricklayers yet we shoehorn every pupil into taking the the same curriculum. If Corbyn can do something about that I will be right behind him.

[Kaz]

I have a lot of time for Corbyn x

[TheOstrich]

But is it so much Corbyn "getting things right" as the Conservatives getting things massively wrong, though?

I fully agree with the sentiments of your OP, WM - this Academies initiative is ideological privatisation via the back door (witness Morgan's latest comments, especially regarding parent governors), and has more potential to harm than improve the education system. One size cannot not fit all as the Tory system suggests; individual schools need to be geared to the pupil's academic qualities at secondary level and the old Technical Colleges for the appropriate pupils to learn a skill and a trade were as important as the Grammar schools for the academic high-flyers. Successive Governments have been too blinkered to see that.

Here in Birmingham, they have been trumpeting on about the much-feted Perry Beeches Acadamies for a number of year - they have been held up as shining beacons of light. Well, the media sharks are now circling round a story of gross financial mismanagement and back-handers re contractors. I'll see if I can add a link, think it broke in the Gruniad yesterday ....

http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... guidelines

But as for the Marxist Corbyn - sorry, Kaz, but I have no time for him at all - or his left-wing cohorts like Abbott, Watson and McDonnell. It's a given that I will never vote Tory, but I wouldn't ever consider voting Labour, either, not even as a protest!

Just mark me down as "disillusioned"!

[Kaz]

I never let politics come between good friends Ossie

[cromwell]

I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan of Corbyn's but I have respect for those in politics who actually believe what they say; and I think Corbyn believes more of what he says than your standard mainstream politician who would say anything if it got them a vote. And when Corbyn talks of heads of Academy trusts who pay themselves a six figure salary whilst cutting teacher's pay and conditions, he is right on the money.

The Tories are growing arrogant, I reckon. They never expected to win an outright majority and it has gone to their heads.

Academies initiative is ideological privatisation via the back door (witness Morgan's latest comments, especially regarding parent governors), and has more potential to harm than improve the education system. One size cannot not fit all as the Tory system suggests; individual schools need to be geared to the pupil's academic qualities at secondary level and the old Technical Colleges for the appropriate pupils to learn a skill and a trade were as important as the Grammar schools for the academic high-flyers. Successive Governments have been too blinkered to see that.

I agree. This is ideologically driven, and the Tory idea of education as a an academic sweatshop a la the far East is anathema to me and many others.

Corbyn has an open goal here.

[Aggers]

The old Technical Colleges, for the appropriate pupils to learn a skill and a
trade, were as important as the Grammar schools for the academic high-flyers.

I absolutely agree. That's the route I took, and it did me proud - better than a university degree in my opinion.

[Workingman]

The old Technical Colleges for the appropriate pupils to learn a skill and a trade were as important as the Grammar schools for the academic high-flyers

.
No, no, no, no, no!

Grammar schools were far too elitist and it was necessary for their pupils and parents to be brought down a peg or three.

Technical Colleges and Secondary Moderns were an abomination where all the pupils were 'written off' before they had got anywhere near the ladder never mind of the first rung. The teachers were second rate and the pupils were frequently told that they were worthless.

None of it was true, but the propaganda led to the creation of 'one-size-fits-nobody' Comprehensives. These have been failing pupils at both ends of the spectrum for decades so we are going to rename them as Academies and set the World to rights.

[Aggers]

No, no, no, no, no!
Grammar schools were far too elitist and it was necessary for their pupils and parents to be brought down a peg or three.

Technical Colleges and Secondary Moderns were an abomination where all the pupils were 'written off' before they had got anywhere near the ladder never mind of the first rung. The teachers were second rate and the pupils were frequently told that they were worthless.

.

I don't follow you here, Frank. Are these statements really your personal views now, or are you assuming
that these were other peoples views at that time?
I was recommended to take the 11+ exam for the local grammar school, but I declined for personal reasons.
When I started work I went to a Technical College (evenings and day release) and obtained qualifications
which I understood were equivalent to a University degree. In no way can I accept the Technical College
being described as "an abomination".

[TheOstrich]

Frank is employing irony - at least I hope he is!!

Aggers, I suggest you make a note in your diary to remind yourself to give him a slap when you see him at the Birmingham meet .....

[Workingman]

John. I was being ironic to try to make a point, sorry if it was confusing.

I was in secondary education at a secondary modern when Comprehensives came in to full force. Those were the silly sorts of propaganda used by the anti-selection zealots in order to make Comprehensive education a Utopian ideal. As far as I remember things nobody ever told our generation that we were worthless, and some of our secondary teachers were outstanding, but the outlandish propaganda was effective in killing selection in most parts of the country.

When it came to Grammar and Technical schools the old secondary modern that I attended had parts of those in the same building using setting and streaming. It was probably the ideal way, but it was on the cusp of change.

The R stream did a mix of O Levels and those CSE subjects where pupils were expected to get grades of level 1 or 2. The next three streams were at the core and did all the core subjects. The pupils were expected to get a mix of grades across the board.

The last two streams did more practical subjects, but at greater depth. Pupils still did Maths, English and Science but at a level they would find more useful in the world of work. Depending on their strengths pupils could move between sets and streams for individual subjects.

That all went to the wall when the school became a Comprehensive. Nominally there were still sets, but they were of mixed attainment, streaming disappeared.