Category Archives: education

State-funded brain-washing

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BBC: Catholic pupils ‘invited to sign anti-gay marriage petition’
Education Secretary Michael Gove is to examine claims the Catholic Education Service (CES) broke impartiality rules on the topic of gay marriage…

“Schools have a responsibility under law to ensure children are insulated from political activity and campaigning in the classroom,” said a Department for Education spokesperson. “While faith schools, rightly, have the freedom to teach about sexual relations and marriage in the context of their own religion, that should not extend to political campaigning.”

Rightly? Would it be equally right for so-called faith schools to have the freedom to teach the biological sciences, say, ‘in the context of their own religion’?

Highly relevant

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Guardian: Former public schoolboy dressed as lawyer before shooting drug feud rival

Rupert Ross and accomplice jailed for a minimum of 30 years for fatal gun attack outside Wandsworth prison.

Clearly, the fact that this murderer went to public school was highly relevant to the case, otherwise the Guardian would not have seen fit to mention it in the title of their piece. It seems strange, however, that they neglect to mention that he drank milk and watched Disney™ movies as a boy.

I wonder which soccer team he supports.

Lor’ blimey, guvna!

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Guardian: Word ‘school’ is out for new £4.7m Sheffield primary

A new £4.7m primary school in Sheffield is facing criticism for dropping the word “school” from its title after governors decided the term had “negative connotations”.

The headteacher of Sheffield’s Watercliffe Meadow, Linda Kingdon, said the south Yorkshire school, which is due to open on Monday, will instead be called a “place for learning”.

Words failurise me.

Actually, I think the word governors has very negative connotations. The phrase clueless twats seems far more appropriate.

What it takes

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BBC: Ofsted ‘can deter would-be heads’

Ofsted inspection pressures deter talented teachers from taking on the top jobs in schools, research suggests.

A National Association of Head Teachers survey of 500 members found 86% thought the impact of Ofsted meant potential head teachers were put off applying.

Yeah, and I could have been a great ballerina, if only I’d been prepared to lose a few pounds and go through the sex-change.

Stop bloody whinging. Dealing with Ofsted inspections is part of the job of being a head teacher. You can’t pick and choose which aspects of the role you want to fulfil. Managing a school requires an entirely different set of skills to overseeing a class of kids. If you don’t think you’ve got what it takes, don’t apply for the bloody job.

Simple as that.

Balls by name…

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My, this is scary:

BBC: Faith schools set for expansion

The government has pledged its support for the principle of faith schools – with the prospect of many more Muslim schools within the state sector.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls and faith group leaders have formed a partnership – endorsing faith schools as a force to improve social cohesion in England.

Social cohesion? Is that what they’re calling sectarianism these days?

Why not write to your MP and tell them how you feel about this? You might like to cc. the aptly named Ed Balls while you’re at it. (Not that writing to your MP ever made a shite of difference, you understand.)

Personally speaking, I am fucking livid.

Sectarianism

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A nice example of the lunacy of so-called faith schools:

BBC: Sikh girl in Catholic school row

The parents of a Teesside Sikh girl say they will convert her to Catholicism in order to get her into the best school in the area…

The Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, which oversees admissions policy at the school, said it was following correct procedures.

But Mr Singh said: “At the moment she has not got a religion. She follows Sikhism because we are Sikhs.”

Exactly!

Mr Singh’s daughter is four years old. How in the name of God, Buddha, Allah, Waheguru or Tinkerbell is she supposed to know which ridiculous belief system she might one day adopt? Or not, as I hope the case turns out to be.

What hope is there that kids from different cultural backgrounds will ever get on together if their parents are allowed to keep sending them to sectarian schools?

People’s religious belief, like which soccer team they support, is a highly heritable cultural trait: they tend to inherit it from their parents. To endorse religious sectarian schools makes as much sense as saying that we should have schools for the children of Manchester United fans.

Or special needs schools, as we call them in Liverpool.