Tag Archives: schools

Willie Rennie showcases Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors’ work on housing, jobs and schools

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 21st March 2012 - 8:55 am

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie recently travelled round Scotland to showcase the achievements of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors. Says Willie:

If you want someone to stand up for jobs and housing, schools and the environment and you want someone who will focus on your community, then the Liberal Democrats are for you. We get results.

Posted in News | Also tagged Council elections, jobs housing, Karen Clarke, paul edie, Peter Barrett, Scotland and willie rennie | Leave a comment

Labour’s new approach to education: ‘Evidence, evidence, evidence’. What can the Lib Dems learn from this?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 9:15 am

I’m going to do something now I haven’t had cause to do in a good few months: praise a Labour policy. Here’s why.

On Tuesday night, I went along to listen to Stephen Twigg, Labour’s shadow education secretary, deliver a speech to a ProgressOnline debate on raising standards in education. (The event was in parliament’s Grimond Room, so I felt reasonably at home.) The theme was ‘Evidence, not dogma’, and Mr Twigg stayed true to the spirit of it, announcing a heavily-trailed proposal that Labour will establish an Office for Educational Improvement. You can read his speech here, and …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, featured, labour party, pupil premium, sarah teather and stephen twigg | 20 Comments

LibLink: Mr Clegg Goes to Peterbrook

By NewsHound | Sun 29th January 2012 - 5:55 pm

We’ve not often LibLinked through to the ‘Breaking News’ section of Peterbrook Primary School’s website. In fact we never have before. But their report of Nick Clegg’s visit, alongside local Solihull MP Lorely Burt, deserves a wide audience, and here’s a snippet:

Together with Solihull M.P Lorely Burt and an entourage of press and media broadcasters, Mr. Clegg came from London to see us so that we could share with him our curriculum developments using ‘Pupil Premium’ funding to support the learning and personal development needs of all pupils, with a specific focus at times, on those pupils who are eligible

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged lorely burt, nick clegg, pupil premium and solihull | 3 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should welcome Michael Gove’s proposals for the ICT curriculum

By Charlotte Henry | Fri 13th January 2012 - 11:15 am

Earlier this week, Michael Gove announced that the ICT curriculum in schools will undergo a revolution, with a new emphasis on programming. Some announcements from the Education Secretary have prompted anguished discussion within out party (what other kind do we have?!) but this is a move by him that we should welcome warmly.

For one of the most exciting, creative, and essential parts of our curriculum, the way we deal with IT in schools is outrageously tedious and uninspiring. Gove hit the nail on the head when he spoke of pupils “bored out of their minds being taught …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged curriculum and michael gove | 10 Comments

Opinion: Saving School Transport

By Sarah Osborne & Antony Hook | Fri 11th November 2011 - 8:55 am

County councils all over England are making deep cuts to school transport that Liberal Democrats are right to fight against. School transport cuts are bad for child safety, bad for working parents and bad for congestion on local roads.

The cuts, which mostly have come into effect this term or will over the next 12 months are, in most cases, to reduce school transport to the very least permitted by statute. That means it is being axed for everyone who is not on free school meals or who lives more than 3 miles (2 for primary children) from their nearest …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged annette brooke, michael gove, norman baker, tim loughton and transport | 4 Comments

What Lib Dem members think about ‘free schools’ and who should have most power

By Stephen Tall | Fri 23rd September 2011 - 3:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

42% of Lib Dem members reject ‘free schools’

LDV asked: “Free Schools” are new state schools set up by parents, teachers or voluntary groups which are outside the control of local authorities. Which of the following statements best reflects your views on free schools?

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged education and free schools | 10 Comments

Opinion: Schools should suit working parents

By Rachel Coleman Finch | Wed 13th July 2011 - 10:18 am

Like many parents of four-year-olds right now, I’m preparing for the big move to primary school this September. Our new school is doing a great job of easing the transition from nursery for our son; but as full-time working parents the difference between nursery and school is deeply stressful.

Nursery is run for working parents: open 8-6, three meals a day provided, flexible arrival and departure time, and one itemised monthly bill. School is very different: closed 14 weeks of the year, and finishing around 3pm the other 38. A whole mini-industry of breakfast clubs, after-school clubs, holiday clubs and summer schools has grown up to fill the gap for families who can’t have an adult at home so much of the time. Each one has its own waiting list, hours, costs, payment methods and reputation for quality … or not. Even school dinners are paid for separately. With less than 2 months to go, we’ve a lot of arrangements still to sort out.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged open public services | 46 Comments

Opinion: LEA governors under threat

By Alex Feakes | Tue 28th June 2011 - 11:23 am

The debates about schools and education so far in this parliament have largely focused around free schools and academies, with occasional diversion into the content of the curriculum and the E-Baccalaureate. I’ve touched on some of these issues before, but just whilst there’s still time (just!) for a change in the Education Bill as it passes through the committee stage in the House of Lords, I wanted to highlight the threat posed in the Bill to school governors appointed by Local Education Authorities. I should say at this point that I have been an LEA appointed governor …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education bill and lea | 7 Comments

John Howson’s review of education policy

By John Howson | Sun 20th March 2011 - 10:15 am

As we approach the end of the first year of coalition government it is worth assessing the balance sheet in respect of education. Can we as Liberal Democrats be pleased or dismayed at what has happened in education?

The two obvious big events provide contrasting pictures. On the one hand there has been the tuition fees debacle, and on the other, the Pupil Premium success. But, there has been much more to consider; new forms of academies; additional schools; changes to the ways schools are funded; abolition of EMAs; and of Quangos such as the GTCE and TDA; provision for deprived …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academy, education, higher education, pupil premium, STEM, tuition fees and universities | 12 Comments

Opinion: fix our school system and stop uni-bashing

By Ed Long | Thu 13th January 2011 - 11:01 am

As a former constituent and activist in Bermondsey and Old Southwark I greatly enjoyed campaigning on behalf of Simon Hughes and have a lot of respect for his approach to policy and the hard work he puts in, especially meeting face to face with local voters and community groups. I was shocked, however, to read quotes from Simon on the front page of Saturday’s Guardian calling on universities to ‘cut intake’ from independent schools in order to match nationally ‘representative’ proportions: 7.2% was his quoted figure for the proportion of students we ought to aim at coming from an …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged admissions, education, oxbridge and university | 34 Comments

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 3)

By Alex Feakes | Fri 31st December 2010 - 12:09 pm

In the last part of my series of articles on The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper published by the government last month, I want to look at the proposals for changes to the measurement of schools’ performance. The first two pieces were on exclusion and the range of languages included in the proposed English Baccalaureate.

Contextual Value Added

The value added by schools is in many ways more important that the actual raw results achieved – is a school good because its students have got the results commensurate with their potential when they entered the school, or because …

Posted in News | Also tagged contextual value added, cva, education, importance of teaching, schools white paper, value added and white paper | 2 Comments

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 2)

By Alex Feakes | Thu 30th December 2010 - 12:05 pm

In my earlier article, I looked at the new proposals for dealing with school exclusions set out in The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper, published by the government last month. Two other areas of concern in Paper, which otherwise contains some good ideas, relates to the curriculum changes and the measurement of schools’ performance.

Curriculum – the broad academic core

The White Paper gives some welcome attention to the breadth of the curriculum students study. Although the freedoms proposed for schools elsewhere in the paper allow them to adopt their own route, it is proposed to encourage the …

Posted in News | Also tagged baccalaureate, education, foreign languages, importance of teaching, languages, modern foreign languages and white paper | 3 Comments

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 1)

By Alex Feakes | Wed 29th December 2010 - 12:30 pm

In the first of a series of three, school governor Alex Feakes looks at elements of the recent education white paper.

The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper published by the government last month has lots going for it and has attracted the qualified support of many in the teaching profession. As a discussion paper, however, there are still quite a few wrinkles to be ironed out. Here’s one:

Exclusions

Like many secondary school governors who have been on disciplinary panels, I occasionally have had to confirm the headteacher’s decision to permanently exclude a student from the school. If the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged exclusion, importance of teaching and white paper | 1 Comment

Improving schools systems: the international lessons

By Mark Pack | Tue 14th December 2010 - 8:55 am

How does a poor school system become good or a good school system become excellent? Those are the questions asked in a recently published McKinsey review of twenty school systems around the world, including both developed and developing countries.

In school systems where there have been significant improvements in performance, McKinsey found that these were often achieved in six years or less from the start of the changes. In other words it is possible for a government to bring about improvements in time for the public to see the benefits before the next election. However, continuity amongst key educational officials (including politicians) is frequently beneficial, with improving systems usually having their educational leaders in place for long periods of time.

Many of those improvements were, according to the McKinsey analysis, brought about without significant changes in the structure of education systems or in the resources put in.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged education, McKinsey and michael gove | 7 Comments

LibLink: David Laws and Julian Astle – Coalition must not waste the pupil premium

By NewsHound | Mon 18th October 2010 - 6:58 pm

Over at the Financial Times today, former Lib Dem cabinet minister David Laws and CentreForum’s director Julian Astle write about the potential of the ‘pupil premium’ to transform the life chances of pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds — but argue that schools must be held accountable for using the money directly for this purpose. Here’s an excerpt:

The pupil premium, which for the first time will see a universal service underpinned by an explicitly pro-poor funding system, sits front-and-centre in this agenda.

At present there is additional school funding for young people from deprived backgrounds, but it is allocated in

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged centreforum, david laws, education, julian astle, pupil premium and social mobility | 4 Comments

Six Lib Dem MPs rebel on Coalition’s Academies Bill

By Stephen Tall | Tue 27th July 2010 - 10:20 am

The BBC reports:

MPs have approved legislation which paves the way for a radical overhaul of the school system in England. The Academies Bill, allowing schools to opt out of local council control as early as September, is now due to receive Royal Assent on Tuesday.

However, the Bill sparked a revolt among some Lib Dem MPs, with five defying the whips to back an amendment proposed by Southport MP (and former teacher) John Pugh allowing parents to be balloted if a school governor objected it to becoming an academy.

The five Lib Dems who supported John’s amendment were Annette Brooke …

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged academies, education, john pugh and mike hancock | 10 Comments

Lib Dems’ Moore praises Gove apology as schools building programme axe triggers coalition tensions

By Stephen Tall | Fri 9th July 2010 - 3:40 pm

The blunder in the education department which led to the publication of a list of axed school building schemes containing 25 errors continues to rumble on. Conservative education secretary Michael Gove has apologised and taken the rap for his officials’ mistakes.

The Lib Dems’ Michael Moore was sympathetic to Mr Gove’s plight on the BBC’s Question Time last night, commending the quick and full apology:

I think he did that with grace. I think he did it appropriately and he’s determined that that doesn’t happen again. Nobody would wish that had happened. It was a major mistake, it has been

…

Posted in News | Also tagged jonathan calder, michael gove and warren bradley | 64 Comments

The coalition agreement: public health and schools

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th June 2010 - 12:40 pm

Welcome to the seventeenth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here.

The public health section is very brief and rather anomalous as a section on its own, though given the length of the NHS section splitting this area off makes some sense. There is little of surprise in what there is of this section – public health is important (gosh), it should be improved (shock) and the government will be ambitious (crikey). Innovation is also good (well I never).

The details do however give a flavour of …

Posted in News | Also tagged coalition agreement, nick clegg, pupil premium and sarah teather | 1 Comment

Nick: schools should raise their game in exchange for funding and freedom

By The Voice | Sat 6th March 2010 - 6:40 pm

Here’s how the BBC reports Nick Clegg’s speech today to the Association of School and College Leaders conference:

Head teachers have been asked to “raise their game” as part of a £2.5bn funding deal proposed by the Liberal Democrats. Party leader Nick Clegg called on schools to reinvent the curriculum, raise results and close the attainment between rich and poor.

He told the Association of School and College Leaders conference: “We will find you extra funding, even while elsewhere there are cuts.” In return, the “greatest expectations” will be placed upon them, he said. The Liberal Democrats are proposing a

…

Posted in News | Also tagged pupil premium | 4 Comments

IFS on Tories’ pupil premium policy: one in 10 schools could suffer 10%+ budget cuts

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th March 2010 - 7:50 pm

The ‘pupil premium’ – the Lib Dem proposal to invest an extra £2.5bn in schools which could be used to cut class sizes, offer one-on-one tuition and provide catch-up classes – is a policy which Nick Clegg has passionately advocated for over seven years. It is now one of the party’s four key policies emphasising fairness – in this case, A fair start for every child – for the coming general election.

This week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies – the independent financial research institute often quoted by the party to validate its economic policies – published an …

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws, institute for fiscal studies, nick clegg and pupil premium | Leave a comment

Opinion: Tory school plans will give parents nightmares

By Chris White | Tue 2nd March 2010 - 2:37 pm

Monday’s Today Programme on Radio 4 majored on local government.

It was the usual shambles. We were told that local authorities were expecting to make cuts in services – hardly news. One reporter told us that libraries were not used by many people – in fact had she spent ten minutes on research she would have discovered that libraries are visited by half the adult population each year. This makes libraries far more popular than any if not all of the sporting events on which the BBC lavishes time and our money each year.

Another reporter told us that local authorities …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged academies, education, libraries, Local government and michael gove | 3 Comments

Nick puts schools at heart of vision for fairness

By The Voice | Mon 1st March 2010 - 10:45 pm

Nick Clegg today set out the importance of early years education in tackling inequality in a speech to the Salvation Army. Here’s how Politics.co.uk reports it:

Nick Clegg has placed inequality firmly at the centre of the Liberal Democrat’s education policy and attacked the Tories for not costing their plans for schools. In a keynote speech on education, Mr Clegg said his party’s ‘pupil premium’ policy would see disadvantaged children receive as much funding for education as private school pupil. Headmasters would then be able to spend that money on reducing class sizes.

Nick’s speech has earned the praise of Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers union:

The approach the Liberal Democrats have taken to education reform in a tough financial climate is genuinely refreshing. It would appear that the Liberal Democrats have understood that the last thing you do in times of financial hardship is cut back on the opportunities to boost support for education. Internationally the most far sighted countries are using their education system to prepare for the economic upturn. Nick Clegg appears to have understood this.”

Nick’s speech in full appears below:

Posted in News | Also tagged christine blower, education and nick clegg | 3 Comments

Labour teaches kids the new 3 Rs: Remand, Raw, and Recession

By Stephen Tall | Thu 27th August 2009 - 6:45 pm

Three stories today – see if you can spot the blatant connection.

First up, the first R: Remand. Lib Dem research today revealed that over a million kids have been convicted of a criminal offence over the last decade, with a further million cautioned since Labour came to power in 1997. Here’s the breakdown of figures as revealed in an answer to a Lib Dem parliamentary question:

* 1,033,454 children aged between 10 and 17 have been convicted of a criminal offence since 1997. This includes almost 30,000 10 to 12 year olds.

Posted in News | Also tagged crime, david laws, nick clegg, recession, steve webb and young people | 2 Comments

Laws: “Government’s truancy strategies are not working”

By Stephen Tall | Thu 27th August 2009 - 6:10 pm

Here’s a new one to add grist to I Hate Ryanair‘s mill – truancy rates are on the rise as more parents pull children out of school to take advantage of cheap holidays, reports the Telegraph:

Almost 68,000 pupils in England are missing classes every day, an increase of 7,000 compared with the same period last year, it was disclosed. The rise was fuelled by term-time holidays, suggesting more parents are looking for cut-price deals in the economic downturn. According to official figures, family breaks accounted for the largest number of school absences after illness.

David Laws, the Lib Dems’ …

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 4 Comments

NEW POLL: should BNP members be banned from teaching?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 22nd June 2009 - 9:45 am

Today’s Guardian reports that Labour’s schools secretary Ed Balls is seriously considering a possible ban on British National Party members working as teachers in schools:

A source close to the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said there had been several meetings on the issue with teaching unions which are lobbying for a change in teachers’ contracts to prevent them from working if they are members of far-right groups including the BNP. The issue was being “actively looked at”, the source said.

There are two things which are absolutely clear to me in all this. First, the BNP is a loathsome political party, …

Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged bnp | 24 Comments

Laws on the Sats’ fiasco: “The issue now is whether ministerial heads should be rolling”

By The Voice | Wed 22nd April 2009 - 12:03 pm

Ken Boston, former exam chief for England, has not minced his words when giving evidence to a committee of MPs on last summer’s Sats’ marking fiasco. The BBC reports:

Dr Boston, former head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, described ministers’ version of what happened as “fiction”. The marking of more than a million test papers taken by 11-year-olds was delayed for months when the company contracted to run the marking – ETS Europe – ran into problems. It later lost the contract. Results of the controversial tests are used to draw up the primary school league tables. Last year’s

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | Leave a comment

Y Barcud Oren #5

By Gareth Aubrey | Tue 24th February 2009 - 10:31 am

And now on ITV 17, “Welsh Labour Politicians Say The Stupidest Things”…

Excuse Me While I Hate Myself

Our first clip comes courtesy of Rhys Williams, the Labour PPC for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. A strongly Welsh-speaking area, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr is fairly iconic for Plaid; it’s the successor to Gwynfor Evans’ old seat and is now represented by The Next Leader Of Plaid Cymru™ and The Minister For Smoking In The Eli Jenkins. Equally, having been held by Labour so recently, it’s also often identified as vital for Llafur in re-establishing its Welshness.

Nevertheless, Mr Williams went in all guns blazing in a magazine article, chastising the Welsh-speaking community for using the language as a weapon of exclusion. Not that he has any problem with individual Welsh speakers; that would after all be quite difficult as he is one himself…

In a competitive seat, it would indeed have been electoral suicide, but Plaid were already going to open a big can of electoral whupass on Mr Williams anyway, so for him the greatest consequence will likely be a reminder of his idiocy on BBC Wales’ election night coverage. In any case, no-hoper Llafur candidates saying stupid things quickly took a back seat as the professionals got into the game…

L’Etat, C’est Morgan

Posted in News and Wales | Also tagged cardiff, plaid cymru, ramesh patel, rhodri morgan, rhys williams and welsh assembly | Leave a comment

Jenny Randerson lodges official complaint against Rhodri Morgan with, erm, Rhodri Morgan

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th February 2009 - 6:19 pm

Jenny Randerson AM, Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, has today lodged an official complaint against Wales’s First Minister Rhodri Morgan amid concerns he may have broken the Ministerial code when discussing school closures in Cardiff. Her letter of complaint was sent by Jenny to Wales’s First Minister Rhodri Morgan because, as she noted in her letter:

My enquiries have shown that I have no alternative to write to you yourself over this issue as the Ministerial Code does not make provision for how to complain about the First Minister, only Welsh Ministers as a whole. I trust that

…

Posted in News | Also tagged cardiff, jenny randerson, rhodri morgan and welsh assembly | Leave a comment

Laws: schools focus on average pupils to ‘flatter league tables’

By The Voice | Wed 11th February 2009 - 6:26 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Schools are increasingly focusing on average pupils in an attempt to “flatter” official league tables, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. They are prioritising teenagers on the cusp of getting C grades – officially a good pass – at the expense of the very brightest, it is claimed. Figures show the number of pupils getting these grades in GCSEs has increased quicker over the last decade than in other areas. Focusing on so-called “borderline” candidates can dramatically improve schools’ positions in national rankings.

David Laws, the Lib Dems shadow secretary of state for schools and children, is …

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 11 Comments

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Tag Archives: schools

Willie Rennie showcases Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors’ work on housing, jobs and schools

Labour’s new approach to education: ‘Evidence, evidence, evidence’. What can the Lib Dems learn from this?

LibLink: Mr Clegg Goes to Peterbrook

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should welcome Michael Gove’s proposals for the ICT curriculum

Opinion: Saving School Transport

What Lib Dem members think about ‘free schools’ and who should have most power

42% of Lib Dem members reject ‘free schools’

Opinion: Schools should suit working parents

Opinion: LEA governors under threat

John Howson’s review of education policy

Opinion: fix our school system and stop uni-bashing

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 3)

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 2)

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 1)

Improving schools systems: the international lessons

Six Lib Dem MPs rebel on Coalition’s Academies Bill

Lib Dems’ Moore praises Gove apology as schools building programme axe triggers coalition tensions

The coalition agreement: public health and schools

Nick: schools should raise their game in exchange for funding and freedom

IFS on Tories’ pupil premium policy: one in 10 schools could suffer 10%+ budget cuts

Opinion: Tory school plans will give parents nightmares

Nick puts schools at heart of vision for fairness

Labour teaches kids the new 3 Rs: Remand, Raw, and Recession

Laws: “Government’s truancy strategies are not working”

NEW POLL: should BNP members be banned from teaching?

Laws on the Sats’ fiasco: “The issue now is whether ministerial heads should be rolling”