“Large minority” of state schools not entering students for “traditional” academic subjects

Interesting to learn from several media sources yesterday that “traditional” academic subjects are not being offered at A-level at a “large minority” of state schools.
Obviously the large raft of 11-16 schools are unlikely to be doing A-levels at all, except perhaps a few gifted and talented students who took GCSE early and have already moved [...]

Church schools lead the Primary Schools league table

League tables for Primary Schools are published today showing the results of the curriculum tests for children aged 11 taken last summer.   The tests examine progress in English, Maths and Science, and the measure looked for is a Level 4 pass as that is the standard believed necessary to do well at secondary school.
The bad news [...]

Were there good reasons for a high-achieving grammar school to be put in special measures?

Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education writes today about the OFSTED report on Stretford Grammar School, which has been put into special measures, the first grammar school to suffer this fate.    Nick’s piece is on Conservative Home, here, and tells us quite a bit about OFSTED’s findings, which seem to concentrate on those [...]

Douglas Carswell outlines his thoughts on a Conservative education policy

“This country has a serious problem:  a large number of people leave the education system functionally illiterate, lacking the basic skills they need to lead an ordinary contented life.”   This was how Douglas Carswell began his recent talk to the Conservative Education Society.
Douglas Carswell is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Harwich, is a member [...]

Diplomas – Have your say

The introduction of Diplomas for the 14  – 19 age group looks like being one of the biggest changes in the education world in the next couple of years.  Recognizing this, CNES is to disuss the subject in depth at a meeting shortly, but we are making a start now by asking for your views on [...]

Conservative Conference Fringe Meetings

The Conservative National Education Society will have two Fringe Meetings at Blackpool, thanks to the sponsorship of Cambridge Assessment and the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education.
The first meeting will be on Monday 1st October
5.45 to 7.00 pm    in Arena 2 at the Winter Gardens.
(The Arena is the refreshment area alongside and on the same floor [...]