I like football and I am a big West Ham fan. Though not a season ticket holder, I go several times a year, and have even followed the team abroad on our recent European adventures to places as cool as Athens and as unexpected as Viborg (it’s a small town in Denmark). I say this […]
Westminster politicians have announced more hubs in recent years than we’ve had housing ministers. An entire article could be filled with examples of public services hubs: 75 local authorities are part of the family hubs programme; the DWP has youth hubs as part of it’s Youth Offer; in education we have maths hubs, and behaviour […]
Throughout our lives, where we come from will exert a huge influence over our identities. Hometowns have inspired music as diverse as Adele’s first single and Iceland’s fictional Eurovision entry in the film The Story of Fire Saga. My Essex roots shape this Croydon resident’s interest in both West Ham United and Essex cricket. (I’m […]
What is the point of it all? This isn’t some adolescent existential whine, but a pretty fundamental question when it comes to policymaking. Take Labour’s announcements on education and young people this week, which tee up Keir Starmer’s speech on his fifth and final ‘mission;, opportunity. Last weekend, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Philipson set the […]
The House of Lords starts each day with questions, generally discussed for 10-15 minutes each. Today’s order paper features two that that caught my eye. First, Baroness Thornhill is asking about a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on reforming Universal Credit to ensure recipients can afford their defined list of ‘essential items’ – an Essentials […]
It may be Autumn outside, but our politics reminds me much more of Spring. With the pandemic receding, the new Conservatism is beginning to bloom. The recent Budget and comprehensive spending review are the latest flowerings of the Party’s new ideas. But not everything is rosy – there are a few weeds starting to sprout […]
“A week is a long time in politics” – but it will have felt even longer for those in education, waiting for crucial exam grades this summer. The DfE’s pre-emptive attempt to head off the kind of controversy we have seen in Scotland failed, and England joined Scotland (and Wales) in switching to using teacher […]
“All things in moderation” is a cliché. But it’s also quite an important principle if you want to design a fair system for awarding qualifications to around one million young people in the midst of a pandemic. Across the UK, the coronavirus has seen exams replaced by a system built on teacher predictions. They are […]
