[Tubby Isaacs]

Additional Maths is harder.
It's an indicator of superior mathematical ability.
But its mission of "stretching the most able" sees otherwise straight A students getting Bs and Cs.

Some might argue this is good for the pupil, but bad for the school's image.
Which rather reflects on the school's ethos.
A place for development, or an exam factory?

Absolutely.

I did Add Maths(and French) and at the time thought, they were quite hard and satisfying. Would have been absurd to see my B grades in each as some sort of problem for the school. Same with the 3 separate sciences (B in all).

Under Michaela’s system, I would have learned a lot less but had results that looked better.

It’s a funny old game.

[davidjay]

When you've the likes of Braverman serving as governors, it's clear this isn't about the kids. This is a predetermined battlefield, as much as Orgreave was. The chaps vs the blob, spirited amateur vs dull professional bureaucracy. She can't be allowed to be seen to fail.

I'm not sure it's that premeditated but it certainly is another battle in the culture wars. Her constant repetition of you're only against me cos I is black and not a lefty is being parroted by the few supporters she has left.

[Bones McCoy]

Additional Maths is harder.
It's an indicator of superior mathematical ability.
But its mission of "stretching the most able" sees otherwise straight A students getting Bs and Cs.

Some might argue this is good for the pupil, but bad for the school's image.
Which rather reflects on the school's ethos.
A place for development, or an exam factory?

Absolutely.

I did Add Maths(and French) and at the time thought, they were quite hard and satisfying. Would have been absurd to see my B grades in each as some sort of problem for the school. Same with the 3 separate sciences (B in all).

Under Michaela’s system, I would have learned a lot less but had results that looked better.

It’s a funny old game.

Game, it certainly is.
League tables, ripe for gaming.
* Pick easier subjects from easier exam boards.
* Avoid the possibility of failure.
* Exclusions (is that what they mean by strict) the less able.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More from the non-political one.

Obviously, it's fairly broadbrush from Starmer (as it should be at this stage), but don't her rightwing pals keep telling us we need more skills? Maybe she's thinking "Oh shit, perhaps some parents will wonder why they can't do computing instead of RE"

[Watchman]

It's over 40 years since I read either, but even I remember that there's quite a difference between Lord Of The Rings and Lord Of The Flies.

A pet (no pun intended) hate; it’s “children”, kids are baby goats

[Tubby Isaacs]

Game, it certainly is.
League tables, ripe for gaming.
* Pick easier subjects from easier exam boards.
* Avoid the possibility of failure.
* Exclusions (is that what they mean by strict) the less able.

In my pre-league tables time, there were boards regarded as easier than others. In most subjects IIRC, my school chucked everybody in for Oxford and Cambridge Board, which wasn't regarded as one of the easier ones, to say the least. Doubtless that was good for people like me, but probably wasn't good for lots of other people because the marking was pretty punitive and people who engaged with the subject and understood a lot of it, could wind up doing barely any better than somebody who was hopeless. Latin O Level (a year before my time) was a particular horror on this score, spitting out people who did perfectly well in other subjects with Es and Us. You'd think they'd just pissed about in Latin, or had a particularly shit teacher, when that wasn't usually true. They just kept getting very precise distinctions (ones that barely mattered in English Language) wrong.

So I think there can be legitimate reasons for choosing easier boards sometimes, but it's very gameable too. Actually I expect everyone does it. The sort of teacher who stuck us all in for O&C because "it gives you a better base for studying the subject at a higher level" would be about 75 now, and I expect the Director of Studies or whoever would have long since said "Yeah, great, but can we just make sure they get good grades in the meantime?"

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's over 40 years since I read either, but even I remember that there's quite a difference between Lord Of The Rings and Lord Of The Flies.

A pet (no pun intended) hate; it’s “children”, kids are baby goats

Always been kids to me.

[Crabcakes]

So in a country with a skills shortage, she thinks teaching skills is a bad thing?

I understand that the Tories like a rote learning/exam heavy curriculum as it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling about miserable kids and only the best (or the best expensively coached) do well academically and the rest can be pigeonholed as scum at an early age, but are they so stupid as to think anyone not academically laden with a fistful of GCSEs is therefore an automatic whiz at carpentry, plumbing or data entry?

[Andy McDandy]

How do you fit a CDT workshop into a repurposed office block? It won't be easy for free schools to subscribe to this agenda, and it may well convince parents to give the comp a try.

[Crabcakes]

Turns out Katherine Birbalsingh is good chums with that other incompetence-prone, accountability-shy bully who loves abusing a position of power, Suella Braverman. What a surprise.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/11/brav ... dmistress/

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, Suella was involved with Michaela early on, though hard to see what expertise she brought to it.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Expwertise was never the selling point...

[Tubby Isaacs]

There were people involved who did have it though- wasn't Tony Sewell involved?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

There were people involved who did have it though- wasn't Tony Sewell involved?

Matter of opinion...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Belatedly, Michaela's very narrow curriculum is getting some attention.

I did Twitter today- I put it to a certain education blogger who strongly supports Michaela if his kids go to a school that do a curriculum this narrow. He hasn't answered yet.

[Philip Marlow]

Is this an example of somebody attempting to establish some popular culture cred, on the basis on near-zero knowledge.

Yes. As always.

As an absolute nobody with a Facebook page and a barely used Twitter account (fuck off Elon: I will not be purchasing a blue tick of mine own) it can be remarkably easy to get swept up in this stuff. A famous person dies; suddenly everyone you know seems to have something to say etc. These days I don't say owt unless I've got something to say.

I suppose the collective aspect of it could be comforting in a way. I remember telling a friend of mine who was a massive Bowie fan that when some of the people whose music means as much to me as his did to her finally hop the twig, no bugger - comparatively speaking - is going to notice or care.

[Bones McCoy]

Excellent point.

I feel I get more satisfaction posting to the community of 20-30 people here than to several million randos (algorithm dependent) on Twitbook.

[davidjay]

Another thing that's sort-of puzzled me over this story. The school has been open long enough to have former pupils in their mid-twenties yet I've not seen a single one of them talking about what it's like. They can't be that hard to find, surely.

[Bones McCoy]

Another thing that's sort-of puzzled me over this story. The school has been open long enough to have former pupils in their mid-twenties yet I've not seen a single one of them talking about what it's like. They can't be that hard to find, surely.

There's a similar syndrome with much of the right's influencer base.

You never hear from Farage's (or Trumps) school chums about what great friends they were, or about early glimpses of their natural leadership ability.
The likes of Darren Grimes or Sargon of Akkad, don't need friends when they've got paying patrons.
Ever wonder how they have fun at the Spiked office party.

I could make some lame comparison about "new Puritans", but it would be wrong on several counts.
What we have here are a clutch of seriously damaged people who place human happiness well down their list of priorities.

A good many regard happiness as useless flummery that cuts into "money time".
A toxic minority (Where the fuck are you going Jenrick, Birbalsingh, Braverman) appear to believe happiness is a sinful negative - to be crushed wherever it happens.

[Youngian]

You never hear from Farage's (or Trumps) school chums about what great friends they were, or about early glimpses of their natural leadership ability.

‘Boring’ Keir has had a long line of friends and ex-colleagues happy to vouch for him as did Blair. And he has hinterlands which he pursues with gusto reminiscent of serious big beasts of yesteryear like Heath, Jenkins and Healy. Farage even boasts he has no cultural life beyond golf.