Please explain exam boards to me: why so many? Why doesn't the DofE do it?

@Wherehasthecatgone You are saying only atheists and secularists should be afforded that privilege on the state.

???? What a load of nonsense. Absolutely not. You talk as if I wanted state schools to peddle some kind of atheist ideology. I do not. I want state schools to be neutral.

Tell me, how would your religious rights be trampled in a state school which explains to children various worldviews, religious and non, without advocating any in particular?

Oh, and let's not forget that British values, which all schools should teach, include that people of the same sex can marry and cannot suffer discrimination for that. Both the Anglican and the Catholic Church oppose same-sex marriage. So both the Anglican and the Catholic Church oppose British values!!!

Admissions by faith are done to attract a parent group supportive of the faith.

Or parents who don't care about the faith but simply want their kids to go there, so stop attending church the moment their little Reginald gets in. There's also that, don't pretend otherwise. Remember the Sutton Trust report about faith schools being more socially exclusive.

It’s discrimination to impose your world view on schools like this just because you dont like the idea or agree with lots of faith teaching.

Your poor text comprehension skills are shocking.

I don't want to impose anything on anyone.
It's people like you who are imposing to all taxpayers that they fund schools which will discriminate based on religion.

In a free country, everyone should be free to believe or not believe in whatever deity or deities they wish (there are thousands to choose from...). But with their own money. They shouldn't get other people to fund their religion and especially not a crucial state-funded service that discriminates based on religion.
Again, we wouldn't accept it for hospitals.

If British Christians are truly so Christian, then maybe we should do like Germany, impose a Church tax (there it's about 9% of your income tax), and use that to fund faith schools. That would be fair. But I have a feeling many "Christian" parents would suddenly realise they aren't so Christian after all.

Strange how you have picked on every type of school now except Single Sex schiols. Do you have a problem with those too?

Again, shockingly poor text comprehension skills.

Complaining about the lack of accountability of academies and how that has enabled cases of emotional abuse is "picking"?

Thinking that crucial state-funded services like schools and hospitals, paid for with everyone's tax money, shouldn't discriminate based on religion is "picking"?

I would tend to agree more with @FourIsNewSix

Many families oppose admission by random allocation (which, sure, wouldn't work in the sticks, and wouldn't work for primaries, but would absolutely work for secondaries in cities like London) because the current system allows them to "buy" a place by buying or renting next to the school desired, and they don't want to lose that.

Many families opposed humanists' campaign against admission discrimination in faith schools, not because they thought that seeing a cross in a classroom is truly educational and important, but because faking belief by attending service gives them an edge over the families which won't do that, and gives them more choice than non-religious families

Many families could not give less of a flying f* if the 11+ system stresses children out, ignores that children develop at different paces, risks labelling 10-year olds as failures, because they think it benefits them, so sod everyone else.

It is like saying that working hard to get a good job or a promotion is depriving others.

No. The example you mention would (hopefully) be linked to merit. Admission by distance or by faith (faked or real) have nothing to do with merit, and a lot against it, actually.

We must have very different concepts of accountability, then.

The headteacher at Holland Park conveniently retired.
AFAIK, no one was held accountable.
No one was fired, fined, suspended, not even reprimanded

No one asked how Ofsted could have missed such a biggie, and how reliable their inspections are if they gave an outstanding to a school where that was happening under their nose.

The school "closed" and reopened under a different trust. All under the rug. Let bygones be bygones.

Is that your definition of accountability? It isn't mine.

At Mossbourne, a year has gone by and nothing has happened.

@Wherehasthecatgone So I am only allowed to ask about things which are my top priority?
Have you just made this rule?
tell me, what is the penalty for breaching it?

For the last time: I do not see exam boards as a priority.
I have no reason to think one is necessarily easier than the others (but I get it that opinions on this differ, as on anything).

On Mossbourne, you are prejudiced. You seem to have already decided a priori that either those accusations are false, or, even if they are true, the governors will adapt and fix everything. Well, what happened at Holland Park school shows that governors cannot always be trusted to do that.

Why make the investigation public? Well, I don't know, maybe for the same reasons why the results of Ofsted inspections are made public? Because if public money is used to fund a school which emotionally abuses its children, maybe it's in the public interest to know?

You are also hugely underestimating the complexity of changing schools. There is much less movement for secondaries than for primaries, so changing schools at secondary is much harder in densely populated areas where most schools are oversubscribed. I know families in London who had to wait 2 years before changing schools because the only other ones which had room were 90 minutes away on public transport

But if you are insinuating it is some sort of massive scandal like what happened in certain care homes or children’s homes in the past

I am not insinuating anything. I am simply stating that, when more than 200 individuals come forward all with the same accusations, then the accusations must be looked into - and not by an investigation commissioned by the accused themselves!!!

www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/15/academy-trust-england-safeguarding-review-mossbourne

@Araminta1003 Not being personally involved whatsoever, why would you expect me to take a stance officially on something pending review? Seems completely irrationale.

Because I wasn't asking you to opine on Mossbourne itself, but more generally on the model which allows this lack of accountability.
The model whereby the school has engaged a law firm to carry out an investigation, whose report will not be disclosed publicly.

@Wherehasthecatgone There seems to be some very rose tinted glasses here about council controlled schools.

You will notice I have never said nor implied that councils do a perfect job running schools. My key point is not that, it's that any model whereby there is little to no accountability and the entity running a school (be it an academy or a council) can mark its own homework is flawed.

@Araminta1003 When I pointed out that academies have no accountability, you replied that your academy is fine and that families can take their kids elsewhere. Do you agree that lack of accountability is a bad thing and that what happened at Mossbourne and Holland Park, with no consequences, should not happen?