to entirely agree with Michael Gove's laudation of Lord Harris

[longfingernails]

Though I think it's a waste of time for Gove to go chasing Guardian readers, he makes an excellent point:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/29/hero-conservative-millionaire-saving-schools

Lord Harris has done more to transform the prospects of the working class than any number of Labour union stooges. The way Labour treated education (pre-Blair/Adonis) was sheer evil in my view; they ripped up the life chances of millions of children just to keep incompetent teachers and the unions which backed them happy.

I agree but you will find very few people who concur on here! The teaching unions are one of the most damaging forces in this country, they need to be broken.

I disagree. And much strength to the teacher unions.

Do any if you in agreement have a child in a Harris academy?

No agreement from here either. Only the unions look after us teachers, the Minister for Education doesn't. Go and work in a Harris Academy for 6 months, then you can comment from a more informed viewpoint.

I don't feel I'm in a position to judge as I have no first hand knowledge. However, I live in SE London and I know before Harris took over Waverley Girls' School in Nunhead/Peckham, it was not doing well at all. Now it seems to be transformed.

It isn't the Minister for Education's job to look after teachers! How about teachers look after themselves by being good at teaching, and the Minister for Education concentrates on reforming the system so that we don't have kids leaving school unemployable?

didn't labour introduce the concept of the Academy for which lord Harris is being lauded by Gove, or have i got that wrong?!

On the other hand -

Harris Academy, Rugby: in special measures
Harris Academy, Coleraine Parks: complaints about rough treatment of very young children
Falconwood Harris Academy: teacher found to have cheated over GCSE coursework
Harris Academy Chief Executive part of Ofsted inspection team that finds London Nautical School to require improvement, thus putting in the frame to be taken over by an academy chain. London Nautical School just happens to be surrounded by Harris Academies. Turns out to be the only inspection said Chief Executive has done.
Croydon councillors looking into claims that Harris academies have been weeding out GCSE candidates thought unlikely to get good results
Roke Harris Academy: SEN support cut
Harris Academies found to have artificially boosted results by using GCSE equivalents - where other qualifications were claimed to equate to two, three or four GCSEs. When they were taken out of the equation, their results fell by 14%, way above the national average.

In other news:

Gove has approved spending of £45 million for the Harris 6th form Academy in Westminster - £90,000 per pupil.

Lord Harris has been very generous indeed to a certain political party. Guess which one?

Tucsongirl - How do you feel about the fact that Harris academies now own the deeds to the land their academies are on, meaning that billions of pounds of land have been effectively given away to private companies. I'm yet to be convinced that this is going to benefit future generations.

How about the Minister for Education pays teachers properly, lets them keep the pensions they have paid into, drops the work till you're 68 idea, and does something to prevent a sizeable proportion of the greenhorns entering teaching leaving after 5 years? How about the Minister of Education doing something to make teachers' workloads manageable? How about the Minister for Education making OFSTED more accountable and less punitive? How about the Minister for Education stop provatising education by the back door? I'll stick with the NUT, thanks all the same. The sooner Gove goes, the better.

privatising. Stupid tablet thingy.

Yes, Blair/Adonis introduced academies (though a large part, probably a majority, of the Labour party saw them as traitors for doing so). It was one of the best things that Blair did - though it in no way atones for his disastrous policy in Iraw - but as Blair himself acknowledged, he did not go far enough. Gove has gone further than Blair in battling local education authorities, the teaching unions, and the rest of the 'blob' (and fully acknowledges his debt to Blair) but still has not gone nearly far enough.

Gove is a twat, don't kid yourselves the man is doing anything positive for education.
Anyone can bullshit that sort of Tory claptrap of an article; claiming 40% pass rate is 'miraculous' is contemptuous at best.
I can't abide this sort of shit bollocks about teachers and teaching. Sick of hearing utter shite on here about education. Enough.

The way Harris took over Roke primary was disgusting.

There's a bizarre situation brewing in East Dulwich, London SE22, which already has two Harris Academies. Dulwich Hospital is the only site for miles around which could be used for a new secondary school. Charter School and Haberdashers' Aske's Federation are both bidding for it to use for a new free school. Gove and his civil servants have apparently stepped in to say 'Hang on a minute, we had this earmarked for the new Harris Primary Free School!' Does the right hand know what the left hand is doiing at the Dept of Education?

My chidren are likely to get a Harris academy come secondary. It's one of the main reasons we're considering going private. The ones by us are terrible schools, for all their outstanding Ofstead status.

I heartily agree with stopmithering. Especially the second paragraph. Enough is enough.

BoomBoomsCousin Why are they awful, and were those factors introduced since the conversion to Harris Academy status, or did they pre-date it?

I despair. they system is wrecked by Gove and his cronies, but it's all Ok because we can afford private. I want to hang myself.

The thing i find interesting is that academies do not have to follow on Gove's personal agenda national curriculum.
And Land is a huge huge part of why businesses are so involved.
Not just the Harris academies, London nautical was surrounded by inadequte concrete playgrounds yet sold half of that off to a developer who built high end flats.

How can you read that Gove Tory arse-licking, crony big-upping crap article and take it seriously?
This is why I have little faith in referenda; people clearly believe any old shit they read.

Gove isn't wrecking the system. It was already wrecked; he's repairing it (or at least trying hard). He's one of the very best things about this otherwise lacklustre government; of course the establish establishment hate him - indeed, it's one of the inevitable side-effects of his reforms.

Every time I see some union non-entity flailing about hopelessly to try to defend the increasingly absurd PGCE qualification, it cheers my heart to know that Gove has no respect for it whatsoever.

Do you work in teacher training?

Anyone who thinks that turning education in to a business is a good thing is an idiot.

Anyone that believes that technology colleges were the forerunner of academies is deluded.