Aibu to hate Michael Gove?

No matter what you think of MGs policies, no one person created the SEND/overdiagnosis crisis. Do you think 2 year olds with iPads is irrelevant?

Phonics can work for many children. However, alternatively, many children, especially those who are dyslexic, would be better being taught whole word recognition but many schools primarily focus on phonics.

And the idea of ‘mixing it up’ in terms of multiple methods for maths is extremely confusing for students for whom maths does not come quickly. Being taught one method until they master it and then adding a different method would be less confusing. Gove’s advisors (curriculum specialists or not?) are also to blame in this sad affair with their assumptions that children can manipulate numbers like an adult does.

Stephen Hawkins’s math teacher had them bake cakes and took them outside to look at leaves and snail shells for weeks using these experiences to talk about how maths worked in nature and in practice before any classroom work at all. But he worked at an independent school and had freedom to vary the curriculum and teaching methods.

As a parent, I just saw relentless pressure and rapid pace going from one day to the next, leaving many children struggling to keep up. Homework became part of school, not in addition to. Driven by an egotistical Head.

Edited to add: our curriculum in primary schools is formed on Gove’s whim rather than pedagogy and robust research - wasn’t it Gove who had "enough of experts"? Did Gove not use any or did he cherry pick them to reflect his own elitist views.

You are absolutely spot on @merrycola. Michael Gove and his then advisors have an awful lot to answer for.

I left teaching in 2015 after 20 years. My own ds was one of the “guinea pig” cohort of year 2s going into year 3 when the new curriculum was implemented. It was shocking how developmentally inappropriate the curriculum had become. Then we get the damage Gove did to the GCSE English curriculum.

What’s even more shocking is that this current Labour govt don’t seem at all prepared to take this on.

Thousands and thousands of children are being failed because our curriculum in primary schools is formed on Gove’s whim rather than pedagogy and robust research. Making children learn concepts that they are not ready for developmentally does not maketh a more academic child. It makes a child switch off.

He fucked up everything he touched. This is also the wanker who buried Building Schools for the Future program and who continuously insulted and demonised architects - stupid little prick.

Re schools - I think current behaviour and attendance policy is also a massive fuck up and does not help anyone. I agree kids need to go to school but instead of investigating WHY they are not at school the family are just being fined/ kids excluded. Stupid. Also re: behaviour - how the fuck can you "fail" detention? I know of kids suspended because of "failing" several sanctions in a row (for something stupid like talking or not doing enough work) and ending up suspended when the original punishment was for something like being inattentive in class. In my days suspension was for something serious, like assault, drugs, etc. Not for messing around in maths.

My white child did extensive work on Benin in KS3 history, in a diverse secondary after coming from an all white primary. It was eye opening for her and really expanded her knowledge and cultural frame of reference. It literally gave her the cultural context.

I don't recognise this description of grey children at any of our local schools.

My parents were teacher/headteacher. I think every single education secretary is universally hated. I recall the consternation in the late 1980s when the National Curriculum was introduced under then-bogeyman Kenneth Baker and the massive curriculum files my mother used to bring home.

When ‘real reading’ became a thing (basically a form of reading unschooling), she just rebelled and carried on teaching phonics as she always had - and is amused that phonics is now back in fashion again.

SATS were another cause of great outcry but I don’t see anything inherently wrong with having a standardised national curriculum and a cohesive approach to measuring outcomes.

My father retired in the mid-90s at 50, at the same time I did my GCSEs - at a time when a whole cohort of heads jumped ship (think it was something to do with pension changes). My mother retired a few years later, but continued doing supply/maternity cover for a while. Neither of them could possibly hack teaching under today’s conditions - they found change difficult enough back then.

I recall my exchange trips to Germany and the matter of fact approach to the gymnasium/hauptschule/realschule system. Nobody seemed to give a toss about who went to which school and everyone socialised at the same pub. I think it would be great to have a system like that in this country, but there’s enough snobbery about grammar schooling and selectivity as it is - I don’t think our society would cope. It is such a shame as I think children could really do with more clearly defined and respected career paths to aim for and methods of teaching that are geared towards them.

So on this thread we have:
*people wanting bespoke pathways for all children, a move away from one sized fits all education system, but not happy with selection
*wanting a child-led curriculum whilst in the same breath bemoaning what a disaster the Curriculum for Excellence and Welsh education systems are
*high standards but not acknowledging that Gove reforms have lead to an increase in England's standings in PISA
*complaints about teacher workload whilst also complaining about academies that mandate lessons be delivered in a particular, pre-planned style
*people objecting to data informing parents and the community on whether teachers are actually being effective
*people decrying phonics despite it being far and away evidenced as the best method to teach the vast majority of children to read.

The whole thing is a disaster. I taught for many years - schools are places of fear for so many children and adults now. There's no joy, no passion and no allowing for individuality.

I ended up teaching primary but when I taught secondary music many moons ago, my area was a haven for some of the children. The same for many other curriculum areas. Now everything is designed to tick boxes. There's no space in the overcrowded curriculum for I wonder... What would happen if... How many ways... Even PE is no fun any more. Children are grey and miserable. Teaching Ancient China or Benin to children who have no cultural context whatsoever is pointless and deadens a love of learning. I'm so pleased my children are long out of the school system.

That's because it hasn't got up to your level yet. It's working its way up the years.

You make some good points but I think you are over-simplifying a complex issue that's been building for 20 years. It can't be solely laid at the feet of MG, it's much more multi-layered than that. It's societal, it's environmental, it's political, it's about social contagion to a degree, it's about how children's lives have been impacted by the internet age to a very large degree, it's about how parenting has changed to a more 'gentle' child-led model, it's about the way our school places are allocated, it's about how the benefits system rewards and incentivises parents financially to seek diagnoses, it's about the hangover from COVID, it's about so many more things than just MG's education reforms.

Every education secretary since could have undone it. But none of them have, because reversing course would mean admitting the whole framework was wrong and that it’s been harming children for over a decade.

This makes no sense to me. If we still had the same government as when MG brought in his reforms then it would be easy to agree. But we don't. We have a Labour government and that would usually mean they'd be only too happy to reverse any course set by a Tory that they patently disagreed with and saw as responsible for failure. If they aren't making a song and dance about wanting to reverse these things then put very simply, they secretly agree with them and are happy to keep them.

Oh at last someone on here says it, hallelujah! Look at all the posts on here about the misery it causes. Yet they have totally swallowed the symptoms not the cause, and that their child must be diagnosable rather than the system being wrong and excluding them.

There are about 10,000 civil servants working in the department of education. Presumably they also hated working in schools or they would still be in them. Maybe they could apply their imagination to thinking up ways to make them happier places that teachers and students would enjoy.

YANBU Gove & Cummings have ruined the education system.

I think the issue is that the curriculum is much harder with more content to cover. That might actually be good for very academic children. But there’s nothing for those who are more interested in practical, more vocational subjects. DS chose Sport BTEC & has just done lots of computer lessons completing his coursework & classroom lessons covering content for the written paper. Surely there should be more actual physical sport on offer? I think DT is mostly written tasks rather than making a product. There appear to be no GCSEs where they can do anything that involves moving around.

Lots of GCSE content used to be AS level topics & so GCSE is harder to access for less able students. I don’t think you can make GCSE so difficult without providing a more accessible pathway.

https://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/We-used-to-have-it-all-April-2025-1.pdf

I think fining people for taking holidays has created a very toxic environment. Parents blame teachers & it’s nothing to do with them. That started in 2013.

I believe there is a direct correlation between Gove & school refusal & a decline in mental wellbeing.

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I don’t disagree with you at all. The LA I used to teach in also dealt with the double whammy of closing specialist provision so children who would have been high need in a mainstream setting lost the resources to actual higher needs children and became the forgotten middle, which exacerbated their struggles. All at the same time Gove tinkered with the curriculum.

That being said, having taught the NC in England and then moving to teach in Scotland I am absolutely horrified at how low the standards are here. The writing in P6 (ages 9,10,11) is similar to my old year 2s (ages 6, 7).

And the pupils getting the worst of it are those from impoverished homes. The Scottish education system is really entrenching inequality.

Was he responsible for the online SPAG homework that my child had to do in primary?
An absolute abomination. My, very able, child still needed to be reminded about capital letters, but that pile of xxxxx was his homework 🤬

It’s not all about education though. Or one former Secretary of State. Lots of the issues are genetic.

Because you children did well doesn't mean it works for society as a whole. Clearly they are very bright. Bright children from stable and supportive homes tend to do well under any system.

The other thing this has led to is an explosion in the tutoring industry.

Michael Gove is a sleekit treacherous b*** and a toilet stain on humanity.

I thought that might be the case. I am so grateful someone came in and reinstated some standards, even though I totally understand why teachers hate it. The foundation of knowledge my kids have now is joyful.

As any aside he was a shocking Minister for Justice too, disliked by the Judiciary with absolutely no idea how the systems worked!
( Prior to retirement I worked in this field)

I have to disagree I'm afraid. All my children did well with the reformed GCSEs. My DS got a 9 in maths the first year they did 9-1. Initially struggled with English but with some tutoring he managed to get decent grades. Then he smashed his A-levels 2 years later.

All my other DC have gotten mostly 9s at GCSE with the occasional 8 or 7 and then get As or A*s at A-level. All then thrived/thriving in higher education.

I would like to add- he was responsible for actioning Pupil Premium funding ( I think it was a Lib Dem proposal).
That is an excellent legacy.

Me too. Not those big long dashes, though - I don't know how to do them, and can't be bothered to learn.

I don’t disagree overall from a society point of view and would support curriculum change for that reason, but equally I am delighted with the level of education my children have achieved in lovely nurturing school where they still do all the subjects allegedly dropped universally like dt, music and art.