Conservative plans to expand Academy schools

Unless we act now our children will lose out in the global race for knowledge. We cannot afford another five years of Gordon Brown, with five more years of indiscipline in the classroom, falling standards and hundreds of thousands of parents not getting their first choice school.

We need a new generation of independent state schools run by teachers who know your child’s name, not by politicians. If we win the election, we will act within days to raise standards. We will immediately change the law so we can set hundreds of good schools free from political interference and enable them to help struggling schools. We will enable them to re-open as Academies this September.


The choice is clear. Five more years of falling school standards, indiscipline in the classroom and a lack of choice under Gordon Brown. Or a new generation of independent state schools, with higher standards and the freedom to innovate under David Cameron and the Conservatives.

Comments

Anonymous said…
what an idiot. Gordon Brown is responsible for "indiscipline in the classroom".
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Chris Whiteside said…
Removed a comment asking "what's wrong with a school being called a school" because the second line contained foul language.

I don't believe it is in the interests of the children they teach for all schools to be identical. Children have different needs, it should be possible for schools to build on different strengths. Different names can reflect that.
Sackerson said…
Grammar schools, please. Most of the benefits of public school without the disbenefits (I've attended both, and many others besides - Dad was in the Army and frequently re-posted). (Sorry, but I have to say that it seems to me that the present shadow front bench suffers from some of the weaknesses of privileged public school education.)

Children are competitive and so the brightest must compete with each other, otherwise you fail to develop the technically educated elite that will find ways for our advanced society to keep feeding and clothing all its members. In a mixed-ability class, the bright will often (a) coast (laziness and not wanting to be picked on as the swot) and (b) ape - or defer to - the behaviour of those who get peer credibility by misbehaving.

I've taught since 1976 - primary, secondary, special, grammar, comp, middle-class and inner-city, so please, readers, don't think I don't know what I'm talking about.
Anonymous said…
So calling a school an academy is just rebranding, just like the ebranding of all the polytechnics as universities. I suppose it’s matterless, if you didn’t go to Eton you’re an oik.
Private schools can 'innovate' as much as they want, just don't expect the general public to pay for it. This is what Tory policy is all about subsidising the elite private schools.
Chris Whiteside said…
No, calling a school an academy does not have to be just rebranding, it should be done if it is part of a package and reflects the values and strengths in which the school specialises.

I didn't go to Eton and I do not regard myself as an "oik."

Tory policy is about improving all schools, not just the independent sector.
Anonymous said…
The Etonians regard you and the rest of us as oiks.
Chris Whiteside said…
I've met some products of famous public schools with that attitude - particularly when I was at university.

I have also met former pupils of such schools, including Eton, who were some of the warmest, friendliest, and least arrogant people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Sackerson - the grammar schools had some great strengths and the real challenge is to find ways of reintroducing into as many of our schools as possible the features which made grammar schools successful without simultaneously recreating Secondary Moderns.

I very strongly agree with your comments about children being competitive and the need to ensure that the brightest children are not allowed to coast. We need to ensure that children compete to do well, not to win peer admiration by being the most disruptive.

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