Jim Knight on plans to close schools that fail to get a third of pupils thro...

via guardian.co.uk Education on 18 August


Schools Minister Jim Knight on plans to close schools that fail to get a third of pupils through five good GCSEs.


Read the full article (NB: I read it when I first picked it for blogging but it wouldn't link when I edited.)


Hazel's comment:
The Minister has pledged: "By 2011, all our schools will be at the required level". Excuse my cynicism but just how does he expect to achieve that? By closing all schools that don't reach the required standards and .... what?
One answer that is being bandied about is that they'll all be turned into Academies but by 2011? I doubt it.
Merge schools so that school A disappears but becomes a campus of the new school AB where B was already meeting the requirement? I can't see how that will do anything except reduce the average for the new school AB.
Accept the fact that there are children congregating in one geographic area or school who are not going to reach the required standard without removing all the "it's because s/he is black, a refugee, comes from a broken home" and start expecting that young people will achieve but not if schools are labelled failing when they aren't. They are doing the very best that they can under difficult circumstances but can't improve by attracting good staff if they're labelled in this way.

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