http://www.naht.org.uk/deputyandassistanthead.rss I'm just learning how to use Twitter, one of those new-fangled social networking sites, and boy, it lets you know some odd things. Put very simply, you sign up to “follow” the Twitterings (and that's often a very apt description) of people or organisations that interest you. And then you get all sorts of stuff coming your way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, politicians and government departments are very keen on using this new method of making us feel in the loop. So.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=191 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:27:19 GMT 20090930182719 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:27:19 GMT 20090930182719 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:17:40 GMT 200910261751740 Postal workers permitting, NAHT and NUT members will be getting an important document over the next few days which just might have some far-reaching consequences. You'll probably know it's about the possibility of taking action over the KS2 tests: would you like to see them abolished; would you be willing not to administer the tests next summer; and would you like to see their phased abolition? Answering yes to the above doesn't yet commit you to.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=204 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:10:37 GMT 20091103151037 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:10:37 GMT 20091103151037 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:12:07 GMT 200911031531207 I've done more headscratching than usual over today's blog (and before you ask: not, it's not nits). You're all busy doing the stuff school leaders do in the thick of the autumn term, with perhaps more than one eye on Rose review curriculum changes, or considering how to answer the indicative poll on a possible boycott of next summer's tests. And the politicians, mercifully, have gone all quiet since Ed Balls's foray into sex ed last week. Though that was.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=209 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:44 GMT 20091110115044 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:44 GMT 20091110115044 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:44 GMT 2009111011115044 You can often learn a bit more about Government policy by the audience they've chosen to tell about it. We've had an interesting example this weekend, where Ed Balls got into bed with the Sunday Telegraph – probably not, one would suspect, his newspaper of choice. The Telegraph was happy to accept (and edit) Mr Balls' honeyed words about how he plans to chastise local authorities which have failed to get improvement plans sorted in 50 underperforming.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=223 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:56:01 GMT 20091116115601 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:56:01 GMT 20091116115601 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:56:01 GMT 2009111611115601 Howling wind, hammering rain, more floods possibly on the way… and in Cumbria school heads are calmly opening up for business. Every workplace in the area is going to be suffering from many of the same logistical problems – but it's different for schools, where the role is to provide normality for upset or even traumatised children and their families, and work around the difficulties faced by staff. So it was fantastic to hear a report from All Saints primary in Cockermouth.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=224 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:56:17 GMT 20091123155617 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:56:17 GMT 20091123155617 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:56:17 GMT 200911231535617 Years ago, when I was a national newspaper reporter, I interviewed a really interesting American bloke whose job was to analyse what people said, usually for the police. I can't now remember his name, but I do remember his central message, which is that people always tell the truth – somehow. What they really mean will sneak out despite their best endeavours, although you might need an expert like him with a tape recorder and a very astute ear and questioning method to help.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=228 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:32:20 GMT 20091130103220 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:32:20 GMT 20091130103220 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:32:20 GMT 2009113010103220 Who'd be a head? Not many teachers, according to new research. The National College found that just nine per cent of teachers fancied trying for headship within the next three years. Even among middle leaders, currently being groomed for headship, only 40 per cent actually wanted the job. You could pick holes in the questions – if teachers wanted to become heads in the next three years, for instance, they should probably already be a middle leader or on the NPQH course..... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=232 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:21:41 GMT 20091207162141 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:21:41 GMT 20091207162141 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:21:41 GMT 200912071642141 Excellent news that some sense has been seen in the vetting and barring mess, and that some of the loonier regulations have been loudly amended. But would it pass the Santa test? You can just see the official checklist, can't you? Elderly man, visiting child's home once a year to bring presents. Well, it's just once a year so it's not frequent contact (but it is regular). But that's every child in the world in one night, so does it mean he needs to be.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=235 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:04:10 GMT 20091214150410 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:04:10 GMT 20091214150410 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:04:28 GMT 200912141530428 So. Three days to do your Christmas shopping, now, eh? That'll be a test of your organisational abilities… and you'll be experiencing exactly how other organisations deal with their customers at a time of stress. Many of the best shops sharpen their act by hiring “mystery shoppers” who find out what the customer experience is really like. I shouldn't suggest this while Ofsted inspectors seem to be on the rampage trying out their lovely new.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=237 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:39:48 GMT 20091221103948 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:39:48 GMT 20091221103948 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:39:48 GMT 2009122110103948 Here you are: an awards ceremony you can attend in your slippers and dressing gown. Or your Christmas jumper. Well, you've got to wear it somewhere… The Chris Woodhead prize for tact and motivation: The judging panel took about five seconds on this one. It goes to Mr Ed Balls for his remarks on schools saving money, and his suggestion that it might be better to have fewer heads and spread them around a bit. The Victor Meldrew prize for most remit-expanding.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=239 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:03:19 GMT 20091229210319 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:03:19 GMT 20091229210319 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:03:19 GMT 200912292190319 You can tell we're into an election campaign as everyone's spin machine moves up a few gears. I delayed getting down to writing this week, as a series of excitable news reports on Sunday indicated that we were going to get a big educational announcement on Monday. One particularly favoured organisation was able to reveal, breathlessly, that this would include a promise to teach Mandarin Chinese to tots as young as seven. Phew! So I waited patiently. And because I missed breakfast.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=241 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:32:24 GMT 20100105123224 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:32:24 GMT 20100105123224 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:32:24 GMT 2010010512123224 Sorry, but I want to talk about snow today. I know everyone in the media and politics has been banging on about school closures and snow and 'elf n safety for the best part of a week now, but it seems to me that they're all skating around on the surface. As usual, you might say. So, I've got a few observations to make. The first is that I wonder about the precise role being played by PFI contracts in the problems schools have faced with clearing snow. From a few quiet,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=242 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:06:09 GMT 20100112100609 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:06:09 GMT 20100112100609 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:06:09 GMT 2010011210100609 It's Monday morning so there must be a new educational policy being announced somewhere by one of the political parties. This week's is certainly eye-catching… but the more I think about it, the more it seems to unravel. The basic premise is simple: the Conservatives are promising that they would entirely prevent graduates bearing anything less than a 2:2 degree from PGCE courses. Maths and science graduates from “top” universities, however, will practically be.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=245 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:40:50 GMT 20100118114050 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:40:50 GMT 20100118114050 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:40:50 GMT 2010011811114050 So the ballot on SATS-stopping action is actually going ahead. Is it striking fear into the Government? Well, the most recent announcement from the Department for Cushions and Soft Furnishings since is the easily misread Tweet, “Ed Balls launches sex & relationship guidance.” (My first thought: ugh. Second though: oh, that's not what they mean, is it?) Anyway, back to the crux of the matter, which is the ballot. Presumably the Government is.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=249 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:22:14 GMT 20100125222214 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:22:14 GMT 20100125222214 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:22:14 GMT 2010012522102214 Monday again, and you can't get through the morning news programmes without politicians boasting about how they're going to make it a fairer society if you vote for them. Ed Balls was notable by his absence this morning. Instead, we had a BOGOF of Michael Gove and Nick Clegg, both basically singing from the same hymn sheet (which itself bore more than a few similarities to the Balls version). The motherhood and apple pie bit is that we need to become a.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=252 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:26:39 GMT 20100201152639 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:26:39 GMT 20100201152639 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:26:39 GMT 201002011532639 Holding two mutually contradictory ideas in your head makes it ache, as I've discovered today, reading round the wonderful world of British education for this blog. On the one hand… a large and well-attended conference at the National College ten days ago was considering how schools were going to cope with a small 0.7 per cent budget rise. And on the other is the Conservative party draft manifesto on education, which is promising heads the “power to pay good.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=254 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:49:22 GMT 20100209154922 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:49:22 GMT 20100209154922 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:11:20 GMT 2010021510101120 If you haven't opened your copy of the TES yet, here's a little health and safety advice before you do. Make sure you are sitting down and your mouth is empty. Put any hot drinks well away from you. Now open up, and on page 28 there's Chris Woodhead talking about Ofsted and about how maybe it should be abolished if it can't be reformed. Yes, I am talking about that Chris Woodhead, the man under whom Ofsted terrified an entire profession. The man who.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=256 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:22:53 GMT 20100215102253 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:22:53 GMT 20100215102253 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:22:53 GMT 2010021510102253 It wasn't quite the half term I'd planned, when Big Daughter wound up in our local children's hospital for an appendectomy. But, once the worries subsided, it was a fascinating experience. Read most newspapers and you'll be left with the impression that hospitals are filthy places where patients are left drinking their own flower water and leave with worse bugs than when they arrived. You know that every single hospital can't be like that,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=259 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:09:26 GMT 20100222110926 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:09:26 GMT 20100222110926 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:09:26 GMT 2010022211110926 I remember the phone call vividly. On the other end of the line was the late, great, Ted Wragg, the much-loved professor of education at Exeter who took great pleasure in taking a rise out of authority (particularly Ofsted and the Department of Education) whenever he felt it necessary. In other words, pretty often. Ted was never less than whole-hearted in any conversation, but he was particularly aerated on this occasion. “Falling rolls!” he said. “Huge.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=260 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:26:51 GMT 20100301112651 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:26:51 GMT 20100301112651 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:26:51 GMT 2010030111112651 Interesting to read the comments of new children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson in the Sunday Times yesterday. Until very recently a director of children's services, Ms Atkinson had made a chat with some local teenagers one of her final acts before moving to her new job. What did they tell her? That they had too much work to do. From this, she concluded that 8 GCSEs might be a better number for most teenagers to be taking than 10 or 12, taking off the pressure a.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=262 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:12:54 GMT 20100308101254 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:12:54 GMT 20100308101254 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:12:54 GMT 2010030810101254 You know that phrase about there being an elephant in the room, which everyone is politely ignoring? Well, I can see one now, and it's not even pink and floating. Rather it's grey, very large, and faintly terrifying. My particular elephant is financial, and more particularly what any incoming government is going to have to do to balance the country's books this summer. I know there have been various political promises that education and health will be.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=269 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:23:59 GMT 20100322132359 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:23:59 GMT 20100322132359 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:23:59 GMT 201003221312359 I got thinking about school policies this week, for unashamedly personal reasons. Middle daughter will start secondary school in September, and I'd dutifully sent back the enrolment form giving contact and medical details, and so on. The uniform one I parked for a week, on the grounds that I was going to check what outgrown clothes we already had lurking in her elder sister's cupboard. This is probably why I managed to miss the other bit of paper, about the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=270 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:25:27 GMT 20100329162527 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:25:27 GMT 20100329162527 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:25:27 GMT 201003291642527 There won't be much mourning among heads – or teachers, or home-educating parents – if the current education bill going through the Commons has to be eviscerated because of the election campaign. It's a bigger mystery why the Government has been staunchly persisting with bits of new legislation which just about every head in the land and many others beside had loudly complained was unworkable. And good on the opposition parties for listening, and.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=272 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:13:38 GMT 20100406121338 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:13:38 GMT 20100406121338 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:13:38 GMT 2010040612121338 If this academic year isn't an annus horribilis for school leaders, then frankly I don't know what is. First it was the snow, the school closures and all the sniping about school closures (and in some cases, school openings) from people with an entirely different set of priorities and pressures. For primary heads, there's the fun and games of a new primary curriculum – or not, since the Rose reforms were snatched away in the final “wash.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=283 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:15:43 GMT 20100420121543 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:15:43 GMT 20100420121543 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:15:43 GMT 2010042012121543 Being an education journalist is a terribly Green calling – wait long enough and the stories just recycle themselves. So I wasn't terribly surprised by this week's story in the TES about a couple of advanced skills teachers who fear they're going to lose their jobs as part of a money-saving exercise, and that this may be part of a bigger picture. There were dire warnings about the consequences when local management of schools started (rather.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=284 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:04:34 GMT 20100426160434 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:04:34 GMT 20100426160434 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:04:34 GMT 201004261640434 At this point in an election campaign – especially this election campaign – it's images which tend to stick in the mind. The weekend's NAHT conference told the story of heads chucked on to the scrapheap because of a single Ofsted report, of heads with only 18 months' life expectancy if they are still in the job at 60, and of children who introduce themselves by SATs level. In a sane world, none of these things are.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=301 Mon, 03 May 2010 23:32:41 GMT 20100503233241 Mon, 03 May 2010 23:32:41 GMT 20100503233241 Mon, 03 May 2010 23:32:41 GMT 2010050323113241 Wouldn't you just love to be in Sanctuary Buildings at the moment? (That, by the way, is where the Government's education department lives. Given the number of name changes that Ministry gets, it's probably the safest way of referring to it) As a hack, I'm delighted that the Department for Children, Schools and Families is no more. It was a devil to type and remember – the only way I could ever do it was as the department for cushions and soft.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=304 Fri, 14 May 2010 15:04:44 GMT 20100514150444 Fri, 14 May 2010 15:04:44 GMT 20100514150444 Fri, 14 May 2010 15:04:44 GMT 201005141530444 Stick two political parties' education policies in a head-on car crash with each other, and what survives the wreckage? That's the way I feel picking through the interestingly terse 33-page coalition document which presumably provides the bare bones for next week's Queen's Speech. Each party's headline policy has made it intact: the Lib Dem pupil premium is there, alongside the Conservatives' parent-led free schools and off-the-shelf academies. And.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=307 Fri, 21 May 2010 17:05:12 GMT 20100521170512 Fri, 21 May 2010 17:05:12 GMT 20100521170512 Fri, 21 May 2010 17:05:12 GMT 201005211750512 Right now, I wish I had a crystal ball which would give me an idea of precisely how many schools will take up the new Government on its kind offer of academy status. Last time round, when the then Conservative government invented grant-maintained schools, many secondaries jumped at the chance, not least because of the extra cash on offer. As the financial inducements dried up, so did the numbers of new schools wanting to join in the party. At the time of writing,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=308 Wed, 26 May 2010 14:58:19 GMT 20100526145819 Wed, 26 May 2010 14:58:19 GMT 20100526145819 Wed, 26 May 2010 14:58:19 GMT 201005261425819 Not too sure what it is about education which ensures that more heat than light is generally thrown around during debates, but that rule is holding true once more as the new Government's plans for extending academy status to any outstanding school which wants it come closer to reality. Following the arguments over the last week or so, your average Martian would have come to some very odd conclusions about the English education system. Depending which bit of the British.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=315 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:05:26 GMT 20100601120526 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:05:26 GMT 20100601120526 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:25:07 GMT 201006291642507 Well, the first month in to a coalition government and I suppose we should all be getting used to odd things happening. But it's all very peculiar. The current thing which is getting me scratching my head in bewildered wonderment is the very strong suggestion that in some form the Alexander primary review is on the official agenda. You will remember that this massive, intensively researched and overarching edifice of a document was rudely dismissed by the then.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=321 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:07:40 GMT 20100609160740 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:07:40 GMT 20100609160740 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:47:18 GMT 201006091644718 Don't know about you, but something doesn't seem right. Here we are into the second month of a new government, and there's only one bit of education legislation coming to the boil (potentially far-reaching, I'd agree – but definitely singleton). Michael Gove has committed a couple of swift knifings in that time as well, but neither Becta nor the GTC are going to be very much lamented, from what I can see. Ah, the GTC. What an extraordinary organisation..... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=323 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:01:47 GMT 20100614180147 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:01:47 GMT 20100614180147 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:01:47 GMT 201006141860147 Perhaps I'm missing something, but we still don't know just how bad it's going to get, do we? We've had the Budget, after weeks of warning that we we're all doomed. And while we know the household stuff, many of the big ticket items are still sitting in the shadows. The Treasury is warning that the only departments which will be ring-fenced come the spending review announcements in the autumn will be health and international development. Education,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=327 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:26:01 GMT 20100622232601 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:26:01 GMT 20100622232601 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:27:17 GMT 2010062223112717 Well, I've looked at the list. Have you? It's the one that's tucked away behind several different links on the DfE website and tells you the names of the schools which have “expressed an interest” in going for academy status. I'd guess many school leaders have gone through the list to see what neighbouring schools and colleagues are up to, in the same way that people used to read the TES jobs pages to work out who was moving on. My perusal was.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=330 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:35:51 GMT 20100628143551 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:35:51 GMT 20100628143551 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:25:41 GMT 201006291642541 Never has one man apologised so much in such a short space of time. Michael Gove makes Tiger Woods look like an amateur. Women? Pah! If you're going to apologise, clearly the best work is to be done when you've somehow produced a list of schools explaining which are going to be able to get the builders in… which turns out to be wrong. Exactly how they managed to do that was not explained, though someone who's been in the Department for.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=337 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:27:55 GMT 20100708122755 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:27:55 GMT 20100708122755 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:27:55 GMT 2010070812122755 I had my very own Dutch moment this weekend, and it didn't involve football. I found myself sitting next to a headteacher from Amsterdam at a conference dinner on Saturday night, and had one of those unexpected encounters when you learn a lot more than anticipated. (I have to declare an interest here: it was the annual conference of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS), whose members – practising heads and.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=341 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:01:28 GMT 20100712140128 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:01:28 GMT 20100712140128 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:01:28 GMT 201007121420128 Today, it was going to be all about the Academies Bill, and I've been spending a lot of time mugging up on Hansard accounts of the debate as the week has worn on. But despite the Government's desperation to get the thing onto the statute books and schools away from their local authorities, the parliamentary action doesn't conclude till Monday. So let's do it then instead. Which brings me to a much happier subject, and one I have a feeling that most Government.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=345 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:57:46 GMT 20100723145746 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:57:46 GMT 20100723145746 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:57:46 GMT 201007231425746 During the past week – and especially the past few hours – I've read huge chunks of the debates on the Government's academy bill. I've done so partly to keep myself up-to-date on education matters, and partly so you don't have to do the same. To nobody's surprise, the Bill has passed with very few changes. Not only is it a flagship bit of legislation (although certainly not part of the LibDem manifesto), shoved rudely through Parliament on an.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=347 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:30:43 GMT 20100728003043 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:30:43 GMT 20100728003043 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:31:48 GMT 2010072800123148 It's been haunting me for the last couple of days. It turned out, you may remember, that there are some 62 reasonably solid applications for Free Schools registered with the Department for Education. This has been compared unfavourably with the numbers claimed some weeks ago, which were, ooh, about 640 higher. This story seems to bear a certain resemblance to the academies figures, where something like 150 schools are actually primed to go ahead, compared with more than a.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=349 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:05:41 GMT 20100803000541 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:05:41 GMT 20100803000541 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:12:18 GMT 2010080300121218 We invented a new game in our holiday cottage in Cornwall. Middle-class bingo, it was called. And it was a hoot. You got ten points for a chintzy Cath Kidston beach bag, five points for Boden clothes on children and eight if you spotted it on parents. Breton tops? Lumbering four-wheel drives? Long shorts? Too ubiquitous for points. All with a village shop which sold fresh ginger, a zillion different New World wines, and the most chi-chi little bouquets I'd.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=350 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:43:02 GMT 20100810164302 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:43:02 GMT 20100810164302 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:43:02 GMT 201008101644302 I should probably put off writing this till tomorrow, when the GCSE results come out. But what's the point? It's one of those annual events where the script is written in advance and everyone reads into the figures exactly what they want. There will be the stories of kids getting 15 starred-A grades, eight year olds getting a top GCSE or two, and league tables of schools which will be required reading in estate agents' offices. Ministers will praise pupils for all.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=353 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:56:31 GMT 20100823185631 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:56:31 GMT 20100823185631 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:56:31 GMT 201008231865631 I've seen some spin in my time, but even I'm quite impressed by the the press release that's just arrived from the Department for Education. “142 schools to convert to Academy status weeks after Academy Act passed,” it proclaims. Gosh, how amazing, I thought, and opened the attachment containing the list. Which is where it started getting rather more complicated. Of the 96 academies opening this week, about two thirds are actually old-fashioned academies,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=354 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:32:18 GMT 20100901123218 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:32:18 GMT 20100901123218 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:32:18 GMT 2010090112123218 Apologies for the late blog this week, but I've spent the past three days at an extraordinary event in London which acts as a reminder of just how much importance people round the world attach to education. The event – which has been running for over 40 years – brought 450 people from 62 different countries to a hotel in central London. They are language travel agents, whose job it is to locate the best school, college or university for their clients to get the best.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=361 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:17:30 GMT 20100910141730 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:17:30 GMT 20100910141730 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:17:30 GMT 201009101421730 There's been a lot of sound and fury round the Ofsted report into SEN in schools, most of it rather predictable. You'll have come across either the line that the report is wicked and an excuse for the government to cut budgets for the “most vulnerable” children, or that schools are labelling any child who's not doing as well as they might for nefarious reasons to do with league tables or funding. Given that the report was actually commissioned by Ed Balls.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=364 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:00:05 GMT 20100914150005 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:00:05 GMT 20100914150005 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:00:05 GMT 201009141530005 It's always interesting to see what happens when well-known journalists wade into areas that you know something about, which is why I watched John Humphrey's BBC2 programme on inequality in schools with some interest. The documentary had got a thorough plug on the Today show the same morning, complete with an interview with Michael Gove, who agreed politely with all his interviewer's points about problems in the system, before intimating that free schools and.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=367 Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:06:33 GMT 20100921130633 Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:06:33 GMT 20100921130633 Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:06:33 GMT 201009211310633 Brilliant news for NAHT members that the Government is commissioning an independent review on KS2 testing and the association has been invited to be “fully involved” in its workings. It's one of the few upsides of England's politicisation of education that there is the opportunity to drop duff policies without losing face when a new government arrives. (You generally also acquire a raft of equally duff new policies, but that's a different story.) Which is.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=371 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:23:04 GMT 20100929132304 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:23:04 GMT 20100929132304 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:23:04 GMT 201009291312304 Since I'd already had teeth drawn this week (well one puny wisdom specimen, anyway), watching yet another round of party conference speeches was going to be a doddle in comparison. But as the dentist's chair was far better than anticipated, so conference speeches are always more gruelling than you think they're going to be. And for the education section, we got six for the price of one. Not just Michael Gove, but an assortment of heads, academy CEOs and other.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=376 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:52:23 GMT 20101005165223 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:52:23 GMT 20101005165223 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:52:23 GMT 201010051645223 A week on from the Conservative party conference, and the education news agenda is fascinating. It's not the impact of the coming cuts, or potential problems with the Baccalaureat mark scheme. It's not even the report the Observer practically cleared its pages for, outlining how different groups fare very differently in life, and particularly in school. No. Education news stories for the past few days have revolved round three things: a London deputy head, the historian.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=379 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:22:06 GMT 20101011132206 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:22:06 GMT 20101011132206 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:22:06 GMT 201010111312206 I had one of those blinding flashes reading the newspaper last week. You know – you read something, and suddenly the fact you've just ingested puts something else into stark relief. Well, I was reading the Guardian's front page story suggesting that the Department for Education was going to lose around 30 per cent of its staff as a result of the upcoming cuts, and then the penny dropped. There may well be ideological reasons for the Conservative elements of the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=383 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:18:15 GMT 20101018111815 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:18:15 GMT 20101018111815 Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:08:36 GMT 2010101912120836 Well, the mists are beginning to clear in an interesting manner, now that the spending review is out of the way and the civil servants have a bit of time to do things other than wait to find out whose name is on the redundancy list. And I don't know whether to be more intrigued by the drip feed of information about free schools or the clarifying of exactly what the spending review means. But together and with other ramifications of the spending review, it's starting to look.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=386 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:55:53 GMT 20101025145553 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:55:53 GMT 20101025145553 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:55:53 GMT 201010251425553 John Prescott may have said that we're all middle-class now, but a swift look at the English education system is enough to prove him wrong. Class is the elephant in the room, disguised by the euphemisms we find for it. The middle classes become “pushy parents” whilst the old working class has been reborn as “white boys” or “the most vulnerable” or “the poorest”. It was therefore interesting to compare and contrast this week's.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=389 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:39:02 GMT 20101101013902 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:39:02 GMT 20101101013902 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:39:02 GMT 201011010113902 With all the talk of long-term unemployed people having to go out and do public service for a month, slashed housing benefit and lost child benefit, now was the time for ministers to don their own little hair shirts. Well, the 21st century equivalent, anyway. And, buried in the small print of the Department for Education website, the modern hair shirt comes in the form of endless Excel spreadsheets outlining sternly who received gifts or hospitality in the first quarter of the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=393 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:16:40 GMT 20101108171640 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:16:40 GMT 20101108171640 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:16:40 GMT 201011081751640 Tabloid journalists used to call it a “reverse ferret” when a newspaper's stance on some issue not only did an instant and improbable U-turn but simultaneously pretended it was continuing exactly as before. And that's exactly how current education feels at the moment, except there's absolutely no pretence that things aren't changing. But pretty nearly everything that's happened in education in the past 20 years seems to have been slammed into.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=398 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:13:32 GMT 20101117231332 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:13:32 GMT 20101117231332 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:13:32 GMT 2010111723111332 I was a bit of a porker as a schoolchild, and utterly loathed PE at my secondary school. You see, what we did was competitive sport. I was chubby, clumsy and so short-sighted that I could barely spot the difference between my team and the opposition, let alone whether the hockey ball was heading my way. I could at least see a netball, but I was always the last choice when the sporty types were choosing their teams. You get used to these weekly humiliations surprisingly.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=401 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:56:27 GMT 20101122145627 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:56:27 GMT 20101122145627 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:56:27 GMT 201011221425627 We learned last week the extent to which Michael Gove wants to change the landscape of state schools in England. What we don't know as yet, is how likely his dreams are to be realised, and how quickly the landscape might change. But I found myself getting a few glimmerings at a conference held the week before the White Paper was launched. Declaration here: it was an event organised by Belmas, a 300-plus group of academics and school heads who research educational leadership, and I.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=404 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:05:45 GMT 20101129150545 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:05:45 GMT 20101129150545 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:43:05 GMT 201011291534305 First off, let me confess. I haven't read all five volumes of Pisa's 2009 report into education in the OECD countries, but then it was only published this morning. Lots of it is clearly going to be worth mining in future, both by education journos like me and no doubt by political advisers keen to make capital. But what I have read is absolutely fascinating, with quite a lot of good news for anyone involved in education in the UK. You will have read that we've dropped.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=407 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:57:09 GMT 20101207145709 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:57:09 GMT 20101207145709 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:58:57 GMT 201012071425857 If you want to know what makes Michael Gove tick, then 90-odd minutes of watching him being lightly toasted by the Parliamentary Education Select Committee is a reasonably revealing exercise. And if you can think of better ways to spend that 90 minutes, I can offer a bit of a précis – subject, that is, to the odd gaps when my internet connection gasped to a halt. First off, he's an accomplished performer although he does have a tendency to flannel for a few moments.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=410 Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:17:09 GMT 20101214131709 Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:17:09 GMT 20101214131709 Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:17:09 GMT 201012141311709 News management is a wonderful thing. If Michael Gove had announced a few weeks ago that he was ending dedicated funding of School Sports Partnerships in summer 2011, and would be cutting the money it got in the meantime to £47m there would have been an outcry. His plan to spend a further £65m (unringfenced, as I understand it) to 2013 to free a PE teacher in every school for one day a week to promote pupil participation in sport – as happens now, but.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=414 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:07:06 GMT 20101221120706 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:07:06 GMT 20101221120706 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:07:06 GMT 2010122112120706 Two U-turns in a fortnight is the kind of thing most Governments hope to avoid. And the same scenario is something most individual politicians most definitely hope to avoid. It hasn't really been Michael Gove's month, has it? First of all there was the fun and games (or lack of them) over the school sports partnerships, their axing, and partial reinstatement, after a lot of yelling and screaming from schools and sports stars. Then—and you may have missed this one.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=416 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:50:04 GMT 20101228185004 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:50:04 GMT 20101228185004 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:50:04 GMT 201012281865004 OK, apologies are due before you read any further: what I am about to write on this occasion is gleaned from parental experience as much as the day job, which is something I usually deliberately avoid. But I've come across quite a few parents bleating about it, and am beginning to wonder if there's a bit of an issue here. It's the rather muddy issue of secondary school homework which involves, as it often seems to, a piece of research. And for those of you in primary.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=417 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:13:45 GMT 20110105121345 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:13:45 GMT 20110105121345 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:13:45 GMT 2011010512121345 The publication of the GCSE results this week threatens to be such a media event that it could even overshadow coverage of the first by-election to pass any sort of judgment on the coalition Government. This is a Government – and an Education Secretary – who are making no bones about being in a hurry to change things. Even by those standards, though, the decision to include the “English Baccalaureate” in this batch of league tables is an interesting one. After.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=418 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:28:28 GMT 20110110172828 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:28:28 GMT 20110110172828 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:28:28 GMT 201101101752828 If I've started something, I apologise. But there I was, perusing the Government's shiny new school spending tables, when I noticed something funny. No infant schools. I rubbed my eyes and tried again. There were secondary schools, primaries, juniors and infant-juniors. But absolutely no infant schools. I consulted the Frequently Asked Questions, which informed me that academies were exempt from the publication of this information. I snorted with derision. And then I picked up the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=420 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:31:08 GMT 20110118183108 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:31:08 GMT 20110118183108 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:31:08 GMT 201101181863108 Though it now seems extraordinary that we didn't have a National Curriculum more than two decades ago, it's never felt particularly satisfactory. Early versions had everything desirable shoved in there, to the point where the Government's educational Mr Fixit, the glorious Sir Ron Dearing, was wheeled in to “slim it down”. He did well enough to be lumbered with an even more ticklish problem, that of university funding, but did point out that his fix was.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=421 Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:40:05 GMT 20110125214005 Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:40:05 GMT 20110125214005 Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:40:18 GMT 201101252194018 Would you want to run a school in the Department for Education's central London headquarters? Well, the mandarin in charge of the DfE wants someone to do it, in order to concentrate civil servants' minds on their “mission” as they get to their desks every morning. David Bell is a nice man, and usually very practical. But having visited Sanctuary Buildings on more than one occasion, I'm left (unusually) speechless by this idea. Have you ever been there? For the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=424 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:48:28 GMT 20110131224828 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:48:28 GMT 20110131224828 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:50:10 GMT 2011013122105010 Having followed the first debate on the new Education Bill, I'm beginning to wonder if there's something strange in the Parliamentary water supply at the moment. It's a long time since I've seen a performance like this in the Commons, with mild-mannered Michael Gove behaving like a rugby player scattering the opposition as he charged up the field, with a range of cheery insults for anyone who managed to halt him momentarily. Mind you, the Labour big guns.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=425 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:52:34 GMT 20110209125234 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:52:34 GMT 20110209125234 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:53:14 GMT 2011020912125314 So Jamie Oliver's sorted out school dinners, restaurant apprenticeships, and cooking skills (or the pitiful lack of them) in Yorkshire and the USA. What now? Ah – obvious. Schooling. Who better than to affect the disaffected than the pukka father-of-four, who apparently left school with two GCSEs? Since the new telly series, Dream School, doesn't even start until next month, I'm not even thinking on commenting on the details. But I think there are some interesting.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=426 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:17:25 GMT 20110215151725 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:17:25 GMT 20110215151725 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:17:25 GMT 201102151531725 So how many of you are spending half term practising the lone warrior look in the bedroom mirror? Narrow the eyes a bit, walk with that certain swagger….but maybe leave the poncho in the wardrobe. Puzzled? Then you must have missed out on the talk from the Government's favourite headteacher, Sir Michael Wilshaw, on models for 21st century school leadership. According to the TES, the Mossbourne Community Academy head told the 100 Group of leading heads from both sectors that.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=427 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:25:20 GMT 20110221142520 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:25:20 GMT 20110221142520 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:25:20 GMT 201102211422520 The shouty bit of the education bill is over and done with for the time being, and the quiet, painstaking hours of work have just begun. Thanks to the joys of Parliamentary TV, it's now possible to eavesdrop on what the scrutiny committee is asking of the witnesses it decides to call. Boy, have they got a busy schedule – so busy that this morning the chaps in charge of the two heads' associations got a princely 30 minutes to give evidence, and were congratulated at the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=431 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:53:23 GMT 20110301185323 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:53:23 GMT 20110301185323 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:53:23 GMT 201103011865323 Though it's early days, there are some interesting snippets coming out about the Government's overhaul of the National Curriculum. According to an interview published in The TES with expert panel chair Tim Oates, there are “serious questions” about the key stages which have been a defining part of the curriculum since its inception in 1988. Instead, the panel are seriously considering moving over to a curriculum outlined by year – in some subjects at.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=432 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:58:42 GMT 20110307165842 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:58:42 GMT 20110307165842 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:58:42 GMT 201103071645842 Education news: what to choose today? We could go for the review of teaching standards, the Green Paper on special educational needs, protests about the EBacc, heads' worries about redundancies, the reported plan to allow the children of FreeSchool founder parents to jump the admissions queue, the Wolf review of vocational education, the developing curriculum review, or the (temporary) dearth of a national careers service. Phew. It's great for journalists who are restlessly.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=434 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:27:58 GMT 20110314142758 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:27:58 GMT 20110314142758 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:27:58 GMT 201103141422758 Michael Gove is a bright man. His journalistic background ought to mean that he has a wide knowledge of the world in general, and one would hope that recent events mean he's picked up a bit about the education world in particular. So how is it that he seems to think that all secondary schools have a sixth form? Twice in the past few days we've had pronouncements which would suggest so. First of all there was the story in the TES that ministers are “considering giving.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=437 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:27:23 GMT 20110321162723 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:27:23 GMT 20110321162723 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:27:23 GMT 201103211642723 Gosh, it's a great life being an education journalist, and spending the whole day trying to find, let alone understand, the Department for Education's newest (ta-raa!) parent-friendly school tables. I should point out that it was the whole day with some caveats: that I was finishing off some other urgent jobs and dipping in and out of the league table saga. But that still probably means I had a lot more time to devote to finding and reading the damn things than the average.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=440 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:00:12 GMT 20110331190012 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:00:12 GMT 20110331190012 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:08:53 GMT 201103311970853 For nearly a year the news agenda has been driven by Coalition policy. So although there've been fights along the way, the story has been about the raising of tuition fees, free schools, and the pushing of schools towards a more traditional curriculum. But events are now starting to take on a life of their own, and it's all starting to look pretty interesting. The Bew committee are keen to tell us that most respondents aren't in favour of the current version of primary.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=443 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:18:39 GMT 20110405191839 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:18:39 GMT 20110405191839 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:41:09 GMT 201104061534109 Industry and education: mind the gap Business leaders are occasionally given to accusing teachers of being snobbish about industry. I don't think it's so much snobbery as a yawning chasm between the two sectors. Yet it takes an unusual event to make us notice the gap, and we've had a couple of those in the last week. The first was the James report into schools' capital spending, which I had the pleasure of reading in full (and turning into an.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=445 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:50:30 GMT 20110412125030 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:50:30 GMT 20110412125030 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:51:41 GMT 2011041212125141 For years and years and years there's been debate about having a national funding formula for education. The current system is packed with inequities: the way the cash is distributed locally in the first place, as the lowest funded local authorities (they call themselves the F40) will tell you, and then the different ways in which the local authorities choose to pass on money to their schools. The funding system is probably as mad as the capital funding horror uncovered by the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=447 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:01:58 GMT 20110417230158 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:01:58 GMT 20110417230158 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:01:58 GMT 2011041723110158 If you're short of entertainment over the next series of bank holidays, may I recommend to you watching a rerun of the light grilling given to education minister Nick Gibb over the English Baccalaureate by MPs. Mr Gibb was invited to give evidence to the education select committee whose line of questioning suggested that they were less than convinced by the manner in which the Ebac was conceived or introduced, or how it will be used in practice. Adding to the faintly surreal.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=450 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:38:17 GMT 20110427153817 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:38:17 GMT 20110427153817 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:38:17 GMT 201104271533817 Just don't disagree with the new president of the NAHT is all I can say, after watching him receive a giant (and I mean giant) ceremonial gavel from a Dutch colleague as he chaired his inaugural session. It was just one of those joyously loony moments that national conferences always throw up. Journalists moan about them, a bit, but we all love them. You've got a hall full of dedicated people giving up a Bank Holiday weekend to support a really worthy cause, and a fair amount of.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=451 Sun, 01 May 2011 12:44:24 GMT 20110501124424 Sun, 01 May 2011 12:44:24 GMT 20110501124424 Sun, 01 May 2011 18:19:55 GMT 201105011861955 It feels like a bizarre week for education. Year six classrooms are full of kids concentrating and doing their best in tests which may be getting their last outing this year. Year 11s are going on study leave: younger secondary students are revising for mocks. Yet there are insistent questions arising of what it's all for. For starters, you wonder why we're making this particular cohort of 11-year-olds sit tests which may be on their way out, and when the first action of their.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=455 Tue, 10 May 2011 13:25:46 GMT 20110510132546 Tue, 10 May 2011 13:25:46 GMT 20110510132546 Tue, 10 May 2011 13:26:09 GMT 201105101312609 One of the current narratives among political journalists is the way in which the Lib Dems have been keen, since the debacle of the local elections, to demonstrate that they can flex their muscles in the coalition government. But any such rebellions have clearly not reached the Department for Education, where the Conservative Michael Gove and the Lib Dem Sarah Teather are said to have had a very friendly relationship from the start. It was quite educational to watch Ms Teather giving evidence.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=460 Fri, 20 May 2011 14:23:22 GMT 20110520142322 Fri, 20 May 2011 14:23:22 GMT 20110520142322 Fri, 20 May 2011 14:24:13 GMT 201105201422413 Ooh, exactly what we all needed on a windy Monday morning: an interview with Michael Gove in which he outlines his Next Big Educational Idea of allowing popular schools to expand their admissions. Let's get the old stuff out of the way first: this idea's been mooted at least twice in the time I've been working in education. And opposition hasn't been rooted entirely in those terribly egalitarian local authorities determined to keep their weaker schools open, either:.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=462 Mon, 23 May 2011 12:22:51 GMT 20110523122251 Mon, 23 May 2011 12:22:51 GMT 20110523122251 Mon, 23 May 2011 12:22:51 GMT 2011052312122251 Admit it, you'd pay good money to see Madonna's former mother-in-law grill schools minister Nick Gibb about sex education. Well, you don't have to. It happened in the House of Lords last week, and you can watch all the salacious details on House of Lords TV. Blimey, those Lords are vicious. Those ladies who make money out of humiliating football stars and high court judges in dark chambers could learn a trick or two from this lot. It's all perfectly.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=465 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:21:51 GMT 20110603102151 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:21:51 GMT 20110603102151 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:21:51 GMT 2011060310102151 Latin. One of those subjects which the Conservative bits of the Coalition government think is A Good Thing for children to learn in school. Latin is therefore a subject which counts towards an EBacc. But not always, it turns out. Believe it or not, the Coalition has managed to infuriate the small but enthusiastic band of Latin teachers operating in the state sector. Delightful people, not exactly life's natural militants: how on earth, you might ask, have Mr Gove and Mr Gibb managed.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=466 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:54:22 GMT 20110608115422 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:54:22 GMT 20110608115422 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:54:41 GMT 2011060811115441 Well, it's not great timing, is it? If I were Education Secretary (as if) and I were exhorting schools to significantly raise their game on GCSE results, I'd be thinking twice about doing it in the same week that two teacher unions vote to strike over pension reforms. Or would I? If I were really cynical, I'd be wondering about the brilliance of the timing of Mr Gove's speech, and his advance on it to The Guardian's political team (not, note, the education.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=468 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:46:34 GMT 20110616114634 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:46:34 GMT 20110616114634 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:46:34 GMT 2011061611114634 There is something almost provocative about the timing of the latest consultation from the Department for Education. Here we are, in the week that teachers are striking in protest at Government plans for their pension scheme, a situation further inflamed by Mr Gove's televised suggestion that parents might be able to volunteer to help keen schools running, and the DfE goes ahead with its plans for initial teacher training. The introduction (accompanied by a photo of Mr Gove smiling so.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=470 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:44:09 GMT 20110627154409 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:44:09 GMT 20110627154409 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:44:09 GMT 201106271534409 On a day when journalism has become the story, it's fascinating to see that one education tale has made it onto the news agenda: the Sutton Trust's research showing that four public schools and one state sixth-form college sent more teenagers to Oxbridge than 2000 state schools.More than all the pious talk of widening access to university, this bit of research with a point demonstrates that Oxbridge admission is a walk in the park for some kids and scaling the north face of the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=472 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:18:29 GMT 20110708121829 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:18:29 GMT 20110708121829 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:18:34 GMT 201107081421834 The first hundred teaching schools are apparently going to be announced imminently, which is why it was so interesting to hear a well-informed conference speech outlining the details at the weekend. Maggie Farrar from the National College gave the Belmas educational leadership conference a fascinating insight into how they see the teaching schools developing as part of a “self improving school system” as opposed to mini teacher-training outlets. It was an.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=474 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:11:00 GMT 20110712101100 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:11:00 GMT 20110712101100 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:20:16 GMT 2011071210102016 As the daily news bulletins get more and more surreal, I've found myself turning for sanity to the calmer world of education. Fat chance of sanity here either, just now. The latest outbreak of madness must be the boundlessly barmy marking of this year's SATs tests, swiftly marshalled by the NAHT before despairing heads went off on holiday. Over three quarters of the schools which took part reported problems with this year's marks, particularly in the writing test. Some schools are sending.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=476 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:52:52 GMT 20110719135252 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:52:52 GMT 20110719135252 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:52:52 GMT 201107191315252 I don't read many official reports in a playpark, but it's the summer holidays and we working mothers must take their pleasures where they can. So I learned what the Commons Education Committee thought of the introduction of the Ebac (or Ebacc – Mr Gove clearly trusts us enough to come up with our own nickname for his baby without official guidance) whilst surrounded by kids for whom five GCSEs is in the infinite future. Talk about damning with faint praise: that committee.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=477 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:33:02 GMT 20110729103302 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:33:02 GMT 20110729103302 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:33:02 GMT 2011072910103302 Transparency is the name of the game in Government at the moment, covering everything from teachers' pay through to exams taken and passed and what the inspectors thought. There's so much transparency washing round out there that it's hard to believe that any member of the public is going to spend much time wading through it, unless they've got a serious axe to grind. No problem with that, though: schools and governments with nothing to hide shouldn't tuck things away as a default.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=480 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:42:16 GMT 20110804104216 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:42:16 GMT 20110804104216 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:42:16 GMT 2011080410104216 As the clean-up of London begins after its third awful night of mob rule, you can see that what's happened here -- and in other cities -- isn't going to be put back in its box quickly. It's only three weeks till the start of term: what on earth are schools going to be dealing with on their return? Particularly if the violence continues. Younger children are likely to be traumatised in many areas. They'll have been woken by the sounds of the riot, or by parents preparing to get out of their.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=481 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:20:48 GMT 20110809102048 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:20:48 GMT 20110809102048 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:35:29 GMT 2011080911113529 The post-match analysis of the riots, as we might flippantly describe it, is almost as depressing as the events themselves. If you're on the right, then permissiveness is to blame. On the left, and it's deprivation and threatened youth cuts. Nuance? Forget it. Yet as we're beginning to learn more about the people ending up in court – who perhaps by definition are less likely to be the movers and shakers, but more the opportunists and followers – the more bizarre.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=483 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:50:52 GMT 20110815115052 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:50:52 GMT 20110815115052 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:50:52 GMT 2011081511115052 There's a different undercurrent around this year's GCSE results. No matter how well or badly every individual child has done, the sense of optimism and progression we've been used to during recent years has evaporated. What does the future hold for the class of '11? Or come to that, anyone currently in secondary education or college? Between them, the economy and the coalition government have created a perfect storm for the young. Tuition fees and tightly constrained.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=484 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:21:54 GMT 20110825112154 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:21:54 GMT 20110825112154 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:21:54 GMT 2011082511112154 This time of year is all about the big picture: getting everyone back into school, setting the ethos, ensuring everything settles nicely for the year ahead.But the bit that new heads can often struggle with is the details round the edge of the big picture where a little time can make an enormous difference.I was struck by a message on Twitter from Birmingham head Sue Robinson, whose list of accolades demonstrates that she knows a thing or two about the job. Dr Robinson's Tweet talked.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=487 Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:55:45 GMT 20110908115545 Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:55:45 GMT 20110908115545 Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:55:45 GMT 2011090811115545 Hunting around to find a copy of Michael Gove's famous speech which apparently suggests that outstanding schools shouldn't be allowed that status unless their teaching is outstanding, I happened upon what's been called his Gove Compare website.Which, frankly, was much more fun, especially once I'd managed to locate and read said speech which said nothing at all about outstanding schools. It was accompanied by the usual rider that it should be checked against delivery, and I suppose I could have.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=489 Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:39:09 GMT 20110915153909 Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:39:09 GMT 20110915153909 Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:39:09 GMT 201109151533909 So, was your first reaction on hearing about Nick Clegg's planned summer camps for deprived children:a) brilliant, just what we need?b) daft idea?orc) Haven't I heard that somewhere before? Being terribly elderly, I have to confess to the third reaction. I had this dim memory of hanging round a South London playground sometime in the summer holidays of 1997 as a beaming David Blunkett (the education secretary) told the assembled journalists that this was an example of the new government.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=490 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:46:32 GMT 20110921144632 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:46:32 GMT 20110921144632 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:46:32 GMT 201109211424632 The amount of heat being generated by an exam board's suggestion that a the quality of an university applicant's school should be taken into account along with exam results is quite staggering. "Headmasters" in the Daily Telegraph are horrified by the idea, but since we're talking independent school heads here, what else would they be? Michael Gove has weighed in as well with a good kicking for the idea in the Daily Mail (where else, you might ask?). His argument is that we shouldn't.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=492 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:35:12 GMT 20110930093512 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:35:12 GMT 20110930093512 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:35:12 GMT 201109300993512 Interesting speech from Michael Gove at the Conservative party conference this week, in that he was full of praise for the way things are going -- and resisted the temptation to announce a basketful of new policies. For veterans of these things, that was frankly astonishing. What we had was a quick, self-congratulatory whizz through differences his government has made to education, including (apparently) an 80 per cent rise in the number of students taking physics (not specified at what level),.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=494 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:16:48 GMT 20111005181648 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:16:48 GMT 20111005181648 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:16:48 GMT 201110051861648 U-turns are done quietly by governments, with the shouting and pointing usually coming from the opposition. Unless everyone's looking the other way, of course. And everyone seems to have been looking the other way last week when three members of the Lords quietly undid a clause in the Education Bill, which seems to be taking forever to wend its way through Parliament. The amendment -- tabled by Government minister Lord Hill, Every Child Matters instigator Lord Laming and Baroness Walmsley,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=496 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:01:40 GMT 20111012110140 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:01:40 GMT 20111012110140 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:01:40 GMT 2011101211110140 Spoilt for choice, this week, on what to write about. Should it be Nick Gibb's riveting YouTube video on why schools need to tackle the scourge of persistent truancy? (I know, I should get out more -- but so should quite a few other people. I was the fourth viewer -- when I went back for another look an hour later, the count was up to 53.) Or should it be the new checklist from headteacher Charlie Taylor, the Government's advisor on behaviour? That's an interesting one, too -- as far from the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=497 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:44:50 GMT 20111019144450 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:44:50 GMT 20111019144450 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:44:50 GMT 201110191424450 In a few years time, I think we'll be remembering this week as the date when the job of being a head took a significant lurch in a different direction. Broadly speaking, anyone who's come into the job during the last decade or so is used to dealing with a budget which tends to get bigger or at the worst case stand still. As the IFS report now makes clear, we've arrived in the era of shrinking education spending where the only state schools unlikely to get an enforced "haircut," as.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=499 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:15:38 GMT 20111027171538 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:15:38 GMT 20111027171538 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:15:38 GMT 201110271751538 So Sir Michael Wilshaw has jumped the final hurdle to becoming Chief Inspector for Schools, with the publication of the Education Select Committee report recommending him for the job. But frankly, it was a foregone conclusion, having watched the MPs and Sir Michael in action earlier this week. From the rather desultory line of questioning, and the large number of empty chairs, I'd guess the committee had rather felt that way as well. But sometimes interviews can be interesting without.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=501 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:43:10 GMT 20111103184310 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:43:10 GMT 20111103184310 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:43:10 GMT 201111031864310 What with all the current concentration on school status, bribing first-class physics graduates to become teachers, and elevating the classic GCSEs to league table sainthood, there isn't much talk of school development these days. Perhaps that's because schools aren't allowed to develop any more, only improve. So I was quite intrigued by the new book just published by Raphael Wilkins, an associate director at London University's Institute of Education and a chap with a wide background in.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=503 Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:46:28 GMT 20111111104628 Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:46:28 GMT 20111111104628 Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:46:28 GMT 2011111110104628 After the same gestation period as a baby elephant, the new Education Act has finally been born. It's been almost 11 months since the Bill's first reading in the House of Commons, and the thing has gone through 46 separate events and sittings in both houses during that time. Remarkably little has changed, but there's been a lot of debating and arguing around particular areas, with some significant movement on some of these. But reading through the main points once more, it feels as though.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=505 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:53:37 GMT 20111116135337 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:53:37 GMT 20111116135337 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:53:37 GMT 201111161315337 Prime Minister's Questions should be an entertaining watch next Wednesday, since Mr Cameron agreed with Tory MP Louise Mensch that where possible parents with childcare problems caused by the strike should take their offspring to work. Danny Alexander of the Treasury is apparently planning to do so. While this clearly won't work if the day job is in A and E, it's hard to see any reason whatsoever why MPs couldn't sort out their little local difficulties in this way. And it might even raise the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=507 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:04:19 GMT 20111125120419 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:04:19 GMT 20111125120419 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:04:19 GMT 2011112512120419 It's a bit of a sad indictment of our national interest in education that the best and widest-ranging discussions on education -- what it's for, how it's organised -- are often tucked away in a Commons committee room. This week the MPs' education committee was taking evidence from heads and college principles on 16-19 exams, in a lively discussion which ranged through the EBac and university technical colleges, through modular courses, through the plethora of exam boards and the continuing.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=509 Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:05:47 GMT 20111201140547 Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:05:47 GMT 20111201140547 Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:05:47 GMT 201112011420547 So the big story of the day is the strong steer apparently given by some exam boards to teachers going along to their paid seminars, and Michael Gove is demanding a full report on this practice within a fortnight. But it's not a new story. My colleague Warwick Mansell wrote all about this for the TES in 2007, and the BBC had another go at it a couple of years later. Why the furore this time? And why such a furore when the House of Commons education committee's current full enquiry into exam.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=511 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:52:23 GMT 20111208155223 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:52:23 GMT 20111208155223 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:52:54 GMT 201112081535254 You wouldn't expect a House of Commons committee session asking questions about exam standards to be a barrel of laughs, and you'd be right. But there was one utterly joyous moment in this week's session, when the discreetly glamorous head of Ofqual, Glenys Stacey, was answering questions about her view on the relative ease of different boards' exams. She had recently visited an independent selective girls' school and asked one teacher why they had decided to move boards. "She was very.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=513 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:34:55 GMT 20111216163455 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:34:55 GMT 20111216163455 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:35:51 GMT 201112161643551 f you've got a bit of time before the New Year, there's some interesting reading to be done on the new National Curriculum. As so often with these things, the spun version of the expert group's progress reports doesn't bear much resemblance to the roughly 300 pages, spread over three weighty documents plus appendices, of material which explains their research and thinking so far. I approached it in the knowledge that a) the whole project is so huge that it's been put back by a year, b) the.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=514 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:57:28 GMT 20111221095728 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:57:28 GMT 20111221095728 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:57:28 GMT 201112210995728 I am looking forward to finding out whether there was more heat than light generated by the newspaper story suggesting that primary schools are going to have to get a lot tougher on poor attendance. The nuggets of hard fact in the tale appear to be the new Ofsted framework, now just days away from a school near you, plus quotes from the Government's behaviour tsar Charlie Taylor, who's suggesting that nurseries should be chasing up early patterns of non-attendance. But it's such a grey area,.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=516 Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:22:29 GMT 20111230102229 Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:22:29 GMT 20111230102229 Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:22:29 GMT 2011123010102229 While it's not the start of a new year for schools, the early days of January often set the tone in a very different way. Such was probably the thinking of the education secretary, Michael Gove, when the decision was made for him to give a keynote speech on the academies programme in the first couple of days of term. It probably wasn't part of the plan that the tub-thumping speech was being delivered on the same morning that sentences were being handed down in the case of an 18-year-old.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=517 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:10:36 GMT 20120104171036 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:10:36 GMT 20120104171036 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:13:06 GMT 201201041751306 Talk about double whammies. From September, Ofsted inspectors can turn up without so much as a five minute warning, just as the ICT curriculum vaporises, to be replaced with -- what? It's enough to turn any headteacher into a gibbering wreck. Having read all the stuff on the DfE website about the disapplication of the curriculum, noted the twitterstorm of happy ICT-wallahs, and attempted to watch an (inaudible) live webcast of the Gove speech from someone in the second row, apparently.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=519 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:46:39 GMT 20120111154639 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:46:39 GMT 20120111154639 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:47:40 GMT 201201111534740 The black hole is a staple of science fiction films, as the plucky spaceship crew do their best to avoid getting sucked into it and dashed to oblivion. I had much the same feeling watching this week's instalment of the education select committee's enquiry into England's public exam system. The committee, bless them, are spending quite a bit of time testing the hypothesis that a single exam system might be the best answer to grade inflation, teaching to the test, over-helpful seminars by.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=520 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:26 GMT 20120119122826 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:26 GMT 20120119122826 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:30:00 GMT 2012011912123000 The new performance tables contain 400 per cent more information, according to schools minister Nick Gibb. At times it feels more like 4,000 per cent, with a diminishing chance of making anything sensible out of it all. The political message surrounding these new tables was that parents could now see how much progress children made at secondary school, based on their SATS results or whether or not they are disadvantaged. Presumably this is meant to help parents choosing a secondary, but.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=524 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:44:44 GMT 20120130104444 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:44:44 GMT 20120130104444 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:44:44 GMT 2012013010104444 If Michael Gove was a tennis player, I suspect Andy Murray would have yet another self-assured opponent to worry about. Watching him perform for two and a half hours whilst answering a selection of friendly, unfriendly and plain bizarre questions from the House of Commons Education Committee was like an object lesson in political confidence. He was even relaxed enough to ask for permission, two hours in, to leave the room for a wee. Perhaps he'd adopted the technique apparently favoured.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=525 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:41:16 GMT 20120131224116 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:41:16 GMT 20120131224116 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:41:16 GMT 2012013122104116 Embattled prime minister John Major gave a couple of gifts to the English language. The first was the tautological phrase "safe havens" which was initially derided but now in common usage. The other was the ringing phrase that we should "condemn a little more and understand a little less" when it came to criminals. I'm now wondering if that mantra is engraved on the desk of the Chief Inspector of Schools. Chris Woodhead was famous for loudly and frequently asserting that.... http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/comment/blogs/susan-young/?blogpost=527 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:48:15 GMT 20120206134815 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:48:15 GMT 20120206134815 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:52:12 GMT 201202061315212