Gove gets worse

[Blissx]

Came across this article:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24653574

I am rendered speechless....

After the Annaliese fiasco.

Can you credit it?

Moron.

Though why I am shocked....

Unbelievable. And unforgiveable.

Mr. Gove seems slightly unhinged where his pet project is concerned.

He never ever answers questions on matters like these. He is always away from parliament and gets his underlings to answer, always stock phrases. He was away in America during the teachers's strike and Al-Madinah Ofsted car crash. He grandstands to a carefully selected thinktank audience and gets the Daily Mail to publish his meaningless drivel. He is the master of the Big Lie. He is morally bankrupt.

Gove is just dangerous.

Please, please, please parents - do not send your kids to these Free Schools unless you are happy picking up the pieces when they implode.

I'm horrified, but unfortunately not surprised. This man really is the worst SoS for Education in history. My children will never, never, never, never go to a Free School.

I like the SOS. Definitely the signal we need to send to the powers that be. Not that they give a toss.

I just couldn't be bothered to type Secretary of State in full, but you hav a point - it's particularly apt.

It is totally crap, but suits his logic.

If you don't believe teaching as a profession clearly no one needs to be qualified.

An entire generation of kids lives are being ruined with his half-baked measures

And this.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24677371

More 'checks' failed.

It's one disaster after another with free schools, and Gove wants to cut down checks on them? Why on earth is he still in a job?

Disgusting. But will there be any accountability? No. The free school head should be sacked. And all his family 'employees'.

ermmmmm - funds were mismanaged at our local state primary school 4 years ago... the head was arrested, but nothing came of it .... happens everywhere - I don't get the hysteria...

(mine aren't going to free schools because I don't agree with the principles behind them)

But there are 20,000 primary schools and in the one example you have given the head was arrested. There were 79 free schools open last year which have been given £60 million in 'start-up expenses' and it is just coming to light with at least two of them -God knows how many more - are mismanaging funds AND giving jobs and contracts to relatives. Yet they have no LA to monitor them and the DfE has cut checks on financial oversight. And it's no big deal?!?!?

Ooooh, what a surprise. Get yourself a school and employ friends and family for a nice little profit earner. And on a larger scale, get your business a chain of schools, backed by your mates in government for a nice little profit earner.

I don't think "attendance at an assessment centre" is the right measure. That's process-driven box-ticking.

What is needed is a proper assessment, based on what the person is actually bringing to the job. You could propose bringing in the greatest ever Scandinavian superhead (or, in a RL example, the former head of Westminster) and have that overturned because of lack of the right attendance.

This change doesn't represent the abandoning of all checks. Just refraining from the enshrining of one course above all others.

What's particularly disturbing is the apparent cover up by the police and gove. These findings came to light in May (during an absolutely terrible ofsted report). Gove and the police covered it up. And I'm baffled as to how the police decided there was 'no case'?!!

Well, it smacks to me of getting rid of "process-driven box-ticking" and replacing it with, "What the hell, do what you think is right, what do we know about it, anyway? We'll just have Ofsted come in in a couple of years time, when they notice you haven't called them in and whistleblowers have started talking to the police."

Out of interest-has anyone noticed the OFSTED ratings for most of these schools? And more importantly read the actual reports...

I was just looking at a few and (with the exception of the Al-Madenha school) they all seem to come out with at least good? Strange as the stated strength and weaknesses for these schools are almost identical to the RI reports on many LA funded schools that I have looked at... (my school included.)

Well, since Ofsted employs all sorts of contractors to do its work for it, I seriously doubt anyone can say its reports are consistent in any way, even if not occasionally ideologically biased. Who inspects the inspectors?

No, this one was 'Needs improvement'

www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/137277

And it was founded by the headteacher who employed his family members. So while the financial director has blamed him, and the DfE may blame the governors, when leadership and governance are intertwined like this there is inevitable room for corruption. The real problem is that they are outside LA control. For the moment converter academies are out of the spotlight but they are established schools. There's no precedent for this much power and money to be given to individuals setting up schools.

How is ofsted getting the all important progress measures when the schools have been open for less than 2 years and don't yet have full intake?

Another deeply worrying thing is that half the Ofsted reports on free schools so far were conducted in the last couple of weeks of July. It's like someone ordered them to be done quickly so Gove could write self-congratulatory triumphalist articles but they knew about Al-Madinah and Kings Science Academy employment practices and financial mismanagement back then

It's a massive attempted cover-up.