Where is there a teaching profession to counter the installation of a businessman to run Ofsted? He has no experience of teaching and restrictions have been placed on a chain of schools in which he has been involved. Teachers – you should unite and support one another to keep ex-teachers and others out of the …
Quote received today, Sir Peter’s 68th birthday, from a radio interview a few years ago. A lady interviewed him concerning guns and children. This is a portion of an ABC radio interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military headquarters. FEMALE INTERVIEWER: So, …
Why we Brits like Aussies – Happy Birthday, Sir Peter Cosgrove Read More »
Today I looked at the web site of an examination board to see a new English language syllabus and was invited to look at a promotional video, complete with shots of the board’s web site pages and pictures of English teachers reading solemnly from prepared texts. Over several minutes they tried to tell me how …
Said it this morning on BBC Radio Essex. We don’t need a Secretary of State for Education any more than we need a minister to tell us to buy clothes. Education Secretaries legislate without debate or vote in Parliament. If you accept what you like from this source you must be prepared to accept what …
This morning on Radio 4 an NUT spokesman said that one reason for today’s teachers’ strike was the increased imposition of bureaucracy. This, he claimed, reduces the time which teachers can devote to teaching children. Fine, if these things do detract from education, we should ask why teachers undertake them in the first place. Rather …
Teachers – don’t strike – just ignore government stupidity Read More »
According to The Times last Saturday, the Prime Minister intends to hand over some policing powers to the EU. This is the Prime Minister who could do nothing for a number of individuals who have been extradited to the US under a treaty that politicians have now condemned. Have we lost the confidence to police …
EU policing powers – who needs another special relationship? Read More »
A gum shield was suggested yesterday by The Guardian’s football correspondent. A gum shield might just manage to fall out during a game: dentures could be handed over to the ref, with great ceremony, at the start of each game.
How on earth would head teachers impose fines? How would they check whether parents are reading regularly to their children? How could schools continue with the pretence that some parents really want an education for them, rather than a cheap child-minding service – an easy way of carrying out their statutory obligation to ensure that …
Head teachers to fine ineffective parents? Have teachers learnt nothing? Read More »
Saturday’s headline on The Times front page – “Every child to read and write.” 15% of children in the UK leave primary school unable to read and write. Today , June 9th 2014, BBC 4 reports that government will not get anywhere near the promise made in 1999, by the prime minister of the day, …
Promises, promises – why do we believe politicians and experts? Read More »
Last week the unelected EU commissioners asked member states to cough up 1.8 billion Euros to find unfinished projects and now they are trying to tell the UK government to raise taxes. The EU gives no account of the use to which it puts our money and its commissioners are bullies. The best response to …
