What do we think of Wilshaw's new plan?

[BatmanLovesCheese]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9331846/Ofsted-chief-to-tackle-anti-school-culture-in-poor-areas.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159873/Schools-simply-plug-gaps-left-societys-failings-Ofsted-inspector-warns.html

He wants to revive an initiative that was around in the 70s, sending children from homes without a learning culture to boarding school.

Now, the idealistic, societal side of me thinks good, it's not the children's fault if they grow up in homes that are not aspirational. I've taught secondary pupils who will be the third and even fourth generations of benefits claimants - with so many of them you could see that spark, that energy that if only they had support from home they could achieve so much.

BUT

A part of me also thinks - my out of work friends earn SO much more on benefits than me (and want to work, but are sort of stuck now, because any job they take would lose them money) -how would I feel if their sons were given a place at a fee-paying school as well? (Obv this wouldn't happen because they believe education is important). My extremely clumsy point here is - where's the motivation to change people's perception of education? Throw more money at a chosen few? Or overhaul the system a bit to discourage those who milk the system?

I'm not talking about those who find themselves on benefits through circumstances (I've been there), but those who have never ever even tried.

Not exactly a "new" plan, though it is? Nor did it die off in the 1970s, it's happening now. Is this (yet another) case of dressing up a mild expansion of current practice in New Clothes so it looks as if you are Doing Something?

Children can (and are) already placed in boarding schools by SS, and some councils fund boarding schools (was it Lambeth or Southwark who were in the news last year about this, when they funded a boarding prep?)

And first article doesn't mention boarding at all. It does report a speech marking the beginning of a new investigation by OFSTED into reasons for continuously underperformance in some schools (follow up to the 2003 report on similar theme).

Now, as it's OFSTED doing this, I am a little cautious about their general competency, but if this is done well, it is something very much to be welcomed.

Yes - part of me really agrees with it, and I'm really glad if it's still happening now.

But a little bit jealous also, which I know is crazy, because even though my children don't have the benefit of private education, they have had the best start in life I can give them, unlike so many kids I see