Gove is twat

[AgaPanthers]

What a fucking vacuous prick:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2557584/Simon-Cowell-send-child-British-state-school-says-Michael-Gove-offers-tour-X-Factor-mogul.html

Cowell is incredibly wealthy. He can pay to send his child (still in utero) to any school he wants in the world. What is Gove trying to prove by suggesting that he can show him around 'hundreds' of fantastic state schools? That money buys you access to state schooling too?

Shame for those of us that can't afford to buy our way into Gove's handpicked top schools.

"I don't think he will find a better school to send his child to than the British state schools that I can show him."

So how many parents actually have access to these schools? Or is it just a chummy thing thing for multimillionaires?

Fuck off Gove.

when did you last - I'm not sure people really do just focus on raw or value-added data when deciding which are the 'best' schools. Apologies for singling you out, camilamoran, but your earlier post sums this up quite well:

*A state school can never be as good as a private school. By definition, private schools have more money.

Comparing my daughter's school to the private school down the road, the private school has:

Smaller classes
Bigger playing fields
More attractive buildings
White peacocks wandering around the ground

In addition, if you can afford the private school, you are paying for your child to be in company with children whose families are as well off as you.

It is impossible for the state school to compete.*

Nothing there about data or performance, but instead a feeling that the private school must be better because of the playing fields, nice buildings, like-minded families, etc.

Well if you look at exam results, the best schools are all private. The raw results data are there, if not value-added.

Well, it is a very odd article. Why on earth tell Simon Cowell he should come over to the UK before his child starts school just so that he can enrol his child in a local UK state school? It is a bit weird.

Amber, I really take your point about the 'best' schools and in fact I agree with you - but from the point of view of private school parents, such things as lovely old buildings, small classes, and social class of the other pupils, do all factor in. Those are among the reasons people choose to go private, along with more sensible things like massive sports fields, private theatres, wrap round care, or a genuinely independent outlook. None of these are things where state education can or should compete.

'Schools can prioritise based on faith but they cannot exclude non-faith applicants. '

Whether or not faith schools actively exclude children from a different or no faith is a moot point really. They can prioritise children who practice the faith in question and those are from a different or no faith may, with justification, FEEL excluded just as much as they would if the school were for white people with some black people allowed.

Plus research indicates that ANY barrier to a school disproportionately affects children on FSM.

Camilamoran
why do you say state schools SHOULD not compete with those aspects of private schools like wrap around care or genuinely independent outlook?

Pukkapik: because we cannot afford it and there is no point talking about state schools being 'as good as' private schools in that sense. People who go private are not going to be lured back by changes in education policy and it is a diversion to talk about education policy in those terms.

Well if you look at exam results, the best schools are all private. The raw results data are there, if not value-added.

Well of course private schools do well on raw scores. They're nearly all selective! They seem surprisingly coy about providing value-add data, though - wonder why that might be?

Amber, there are (super-)selective state schools too. And they have the major competitive advantage of being free.

I guess parents don't understand/care enough about value-added for them to have to add it. Parents just go for GCSE/A Level results, and university destinations.