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.

LFN - Tories often criticise Labour for nanny state bossiness (i.e. not allowing poor people to actually starve or die for want of healthcare) but Gove beats any Labour politician into a cocked hat on that front.

Ofsted blunts creativity more than any PGCE. Wilshaw acknowledges that this is a major issue.

I've only been around the one my children are likely to go to for an open day and seen their GCSE results, so I can only infer the teaching/ethos etc. from that. But my impression was that standards were very mediocre and the school looked to get as many bare passes as it could, with little done to actually instil a love of learning.

The main things that stuck out when I looked around - the school seems to get a lot of students through 5 GCSEs/equivalents, but almost none of them get A/A*s. I talked with some of the girls who were engaging in/demonstrating sports (soccer) and they said they didn't play the offside rule because it was "too difficult", they must have been 14. I asked one of the teachers what they did about encouraging interest in STEM subjects and she looked at me blankly then started talking about food tech (seriously!).

London schools (which is where Harris has flourished) were turned around in the last decade+ by the London Challenge, I think Harris just grew at the same time and has glommed on to the success of the capital as a whole.

Wantsunshine teaching unions are not there for the benefit of children's education. They are there for the benefit of teachers. Seeing as we appear to have the village idiot in post as Minister for Education, us teachers need our Union. I'm proud to be a Union member.

Academies can set their own terms and conditions and don't have to recognise unions. Why it's felt that the unions "need breaking" goodness only knows.

So once most schools are academies and free schools Gove will have achieved what he set out to do.

He might be better off looking at why teacher retention is such a problem.

I live in the Borough that Lord harris has taken over. I can't lie that he seems to have had a positive affect. Peckham Academy which was originally Peckham Girl's, then Warwick Park has transformed. Waverly school which my father refused to send me to in the early eighties (such was it's reputation) has been transformed. The old site for Friern School is Harris academy for boys. My two nephews plus two cousins go there and they thrive.
All of the schools are in areas with a mostly low socioeconomic population mixed with the smattering of middle class. Lots of the schools were dumps.
Oh, I forgot. I've got a nineteen year old cousin doing a year in Japan as part of his degree. I have no doubt that if he attended the old Warwick park, he wouldn't have even thought that this would be an option in his life.
I was "politically" wary of Lord Harris. I may have even cynically thought that he was carpetbagging off of the death of Damilola Taylor. However, I am not like a lot of liberals (even though I'm "left") who seem to resent working class people "making it" monetarily and maintaining dignity, I appreciate that Lord Harris has not only come from the endz and made it, he has transcended that and given back in a tangible life changing way for many and their future children.
Yesterday, I was wondering why the comment section wasn't open on Gove's article in The Guardian. I know I would have enjoyed the swivel eyed liberal lunatics grudging disadvantaged children a good start in life just because it didn't fit in with their politics (which ironically seems to be about the improvement of the life chances of the poor). Anywho, I'm off to see if any comments have opened and if lady Galaxina has found another reason to come down on the "mouth frothers".

Unions are there to protect teachers working conditions and pay, they are not in charge of education, but they are standing up for it.

Lets just list a few things that Gove has done since being in this job...

1. Decided thatt all students should all study academic subjects - not all children have the capability to do this
2. Decided that onky English text should be in the curriculum - ignoring great works written by different nationalities
3. Decided that no student can have any authorised absences - just look throuh the hundreds/thousands of thread on mn!
4. Changed the curriculum for all subjects, at all key stages whilst ignoring advice from experts in such a short time frame and without any funding for schools to implement these changes

I could go on, but I'm getting angry just thinkinh0g about the horrible joke of a man