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Malaria Consortium established an office in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, in December 2014 as part of its ACCESS-SMC project. Malaria is highly seasonal in Burkina Faso, with an estimated 60 percent of malaria cases occurring between July and November. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is one method that prevents malaria in children from 3 to 59 months (who are the most at risk of contracting the disease) during the rainy season. ACCESS-SMC was a UNITAID-funded project, led by Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, to bring SMC to seven countries across the Sahel in order to reduce malaria transmission. Through other funding streams, Malaria Consortium will continue to ensure that children protected under the project receive SMC and work to reach more eligible children living in Burkina Faso.
Find out more about Malaria Consortium's work in Burkina Faso here. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Riding down the slopes for one time on your very back, the Zipfel between the legs and all with a top speed. If you want to experience that, then you should join our Zipfelbob race. No matter if you are young or if you feel young, you are welcome to start on Sunday the 31st of March 2019, in teams of four, as a family or individually. Do not worry, we will not send you down the hill as amateurs. From 10.00 o'clock you can complete some training runs at Alp Nargens and you can spy on your competitors. Since safety is as important as fun, there is a general helmet requirement for the race. The categories are rated in children, families, teams of 4 as well as female and male single starters.
The legendary Zipfelbobs can be rented on Alp Nagens. But you are also welcome to bring your own vehicle, as long as it has a "Zipfel". There will also be a raffle among all starters. The musical setting for a colorful afternoon is formed by DJ Rex David and the band "The Acoustic 4". These dedicated musicians delight with their acoustic craft the hearts of the audience and enchant the audience with songs from various decades. From the Beatles to U2, Jimi Hendrix to the Foo Fighters and Coldplay, there's something for everyone.
For all those who are spontaneous, registration is possible until 12.00 on the spot. The starting signal will be at 12.30. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
A popular shopping site among males across a wide age range. The site offers price and deal comparisons, updated daily, on a extensive variety of products from merchants across the internet. Slickdeals.net's motto is 'We provide you with the hottest deals every day.' Though the site offers deals on items such as apparel, bedding, and shoes, electronics, the latest tech gadgets seem to make up most of the deal links. The site is made up of links to the deals and coupons, therefore, when you click on an item, it takes you to that merchant's site. Slickdeals.net has a section on store reviews listed in alphabetical order. Shoppers can read reviews or post a review of their experience with online retailers, after free registration. On the forums page, users can find information on freebies, contests and sweepstakes, and a place to post the deals they may be looking for. The forum is a favorite page for users citing that most freebies are found there. Visitors also agree that the site is relatively difficult to navigate. Slickdeals also offers coupons and rebates on many products. Shoppers may opt to have 'Deal Alerts' sent to their mobile phones with Slickdeals Mobile. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);
namespace Go\Tests\TestProject\Application;
use Go\Tests\TestProject\Annotation as Aop;
class Main extends AbstractBar
{
private $privateClassProperty;
protected $protectedClassProperty;
public $publicClassProperty;
/**
* @Aop\Loggable()
*/
public function doSomething()
{
echo 'I did something';
}
public function doSomethingElse()
{
echo 'I did something else';
}
public function getFilename()
{
$reflectedClass = new \ReflectionClass($this);
return $reflectedClass->getFileName();
}
}
| {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
} |
We bring the fine dining experience to your very own kitchen, at home, work or anywhere in between.
We cater for business, private functions, celebrations, weddings and much more.
Your wedding is the most important day of your new life. We ensure the food goes down a storm with a tailored wedding menu to satisfy the most discerning of tastes and expectations.
Bring Michelen Star quality to your guests for an unforgettable dining experience. Our menus consist of only the finest local produce. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
There are more than 100 billionaires in China's legislature and its top advisory body, including the CEOs of Tencent, JD.com, Baidu and Xiaomi.
Their combined net worth is $US624 billion, twice that of Ireland's GDP.
President Xi Jinping vowed to fix income inequality and eradicate poverty by 2020, a deadline that is two years away and 40 million people are still struggling.
A new global rich list has tallied 104 billionaires in the upper echelons of China's leadership.
Released this week, research from Hurun Report, found China minted 206 billionaires in the last year, taking the country's total to 819 billionaires 40% more billionaires than in the US.
But its the number of billionaires within senior arms of the Communist Party, according to more data from Hurun Report, that's drawing attention.
The National People's Congress (NPC), which serves as the country's legislature and will be responsible for voting on scrapping presidential term limits in about two weeks, contains 45 billionaires.
And there are a whopping 59 billionaires in the party's top advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The CPPCC includes entrepreneurs, academics, and even celebrities, who advise the government and legislative arms.
While this only accounts for 2% of the roughly 5,000-odd members, their total net worth amounts to $US624 billion. That's more than double Ireland's GDP, and more than three times that of New Zealand's.
The billionaires includes the founder of one of China's biggest online retailers JD.com, the CEO of smartphone maker Xiaomi, and the CEO of search giant Baidu. Also included in the National People's Congress is the country's richest man, Pony' Ma, the CEO of Tencent, who is worth $US47 billion.
With some workers lucky to earn a few hundred dollars a month, the net worth of these leaders illustrates China's vast income inequality.
A third of the country's wealth is owned by 1% of households, and 25% of the poorest households own just 1% of China's wealth, according to a study from Peking University.
Since becoming president, Xi has spearheaded initiatives to double all 2010 incomes by 2020 – to make China a "moderately prosperous society" – and has also set that as the target year to eradicate all poverty.
And while state media has reported that millions of people now have better working and living conditions, 40 million people still live in poverty. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
La dix-huitième étape du Tour de France 1997 s'est déroulée le entre Colmar et Montbéliard sur un parcours de 175,5 km.
Cette étape est remportée par le Français Didier Rous.
Parcours
Récit de la course
Classement de l'étape
Classement général
A la suite de cette étape de transition, pas de changement au classement général. Arrivé au sein du peloton, l'Allemand Jan Ullrich (Deutsche Telekom) conserve son maillot jaune de leader devant le Français Richard Virenque (Festina-Lotus) avec toujours un peu plus de six minutes d'avance et un peu plus de dix minutes sur Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno) troisième.
Classements annexes
Classement par points
A la suite de cette nouvelle étape de transition, l'Allemand Erik Zabel (Deutsche Telekom) est toujours en tête du classement par points. Avec 314 points, le porteur du maillot vert devance le Français Frédéric Moncassin (Gan) de 106 points et le Néerlandais Jeroen Blijlevens de 146 points.
Classement du meilleur grimpeur
Au cours de cette dernière étape de moyenne montagne avec beaucoup de points au programme, le Français Richard Virenque (Festina-Lotus) conserve la tête du classement du meilleur grimpeur et augmente une nouvelle fois son avance. Il devance toujours le leader du classement général l'Allemand Jan Ullrich (Deutsche Telekom) qui pointe maintenant avec un retard de plus de 230 points. L'Italien Francesco Casagrande (Saeco-Estro) suit toujours en troisième position avec plus de 260 points de retard sur le leader.
Classement du meilleur jeune
Toujours leader du classement général, l'Allemand Jan Ullrich (Deutsche Telekom) l'est également au classement du meilleur jeune. Après une étape sans écarts en tête de classement, il devance toujours l'Autrichien Peter Luttenberger (Rabobank) avec d'une demi-heure minutes d'avance et le Néerlandais Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) de plus de 55 minutes.
Classement par équipes
Après une étape ayant engendrée peu d'écart parmi les leaders, pas de changement au niveau du classement par équipes. Le classement est toujours dominé par l'équipe allemande Deutsche Telekom qui possède près de douze minutes sur sa dauphine l'équipe italienne Mercatone Uno et 34 sur l'équipe française Festina-Lotus.
Notes et références
18
1997-18
1997-18
1997-18
1997-18 | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
} |
We have all traveled 60 or so miles to a new Hotel for two more days of touring in a new area. The weather is very good with most people driving without jackets. We had three good food stops on the way to this latest hotel. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Need a Dumpster Rental in San Francisco?
We have the commercial and residential dumpster service you need in San Francisco.
At Dumpsterator, we strive to bring you the best service at the best price available. We have a wide selection of dumpster sizes in stock in San Francisco, CA, with flexible & timley pickup and delivery. Give us a call today for all your dumpster rental and roll off needs. Looking for dumpster rental in other cities? We have you covered as well!
Your roll-off dumpster in 94142 is only a phone call away. Don't delay!
Dumpsters are available* in San Francisco.
In the event that home improvement is the best raison d'tre, that's most likely reflected in your landscaping. Very best intentions absent, Dumpster Rental in 94142 can cause havoc together with your carefully beautiful lawn along with smoothly thorough driveway-and we're not even going to talk about what it can do for your flower furniture! The question and then becomes, how will you handle your own waste convenience issues without completely wrecking all your hard work? The best way to get started is to begin with the simplest way of search. Look over your local cellphone directories for Dumpster Rental in 94142 and see just what comes up. If you are living in a small city, there may be virtually no businesses that totally advertise underneath that service. You might try looking through your local metropolitan place to see if you will find any firms that will rent long-distance. Make sure and look through the paper as well. If you cannot find something that immediately jumps out at you, go around along with take a look at several of the dumpsters in your area. Check if they have a business name on the side. If so, find the data for that corporation and give them a call. They may be able to give you a hand.
Roll off of dumpsters can commonly be delivered at from any area you desire given that it isn't leading to injustice to help anyone else locally. It is important to be aware of correct size and time frame that the dumpster are going to be needed so that you can inform your neighbours and or other businesses in advance. I must say, spin off dumpsters are certainly not the most appealing piece of equipment and so letting other neighbors realize is once again extremely important. The trash company where you choose are able to set up a time for you to either acquire and or switch the dumpster should you uses up space.
When you have your home decluttered and arranged, you need to keep a watchful eye available for your undesirable habits. Your cluttered mess didn't occur immediately the first time, as well as slowly find their way back in for your life if you aren't careful! Throw away junk mail as it pertains in. Maintain your home clean and organized. Think about every so often in case you really need several of the things that have been collecting dust. With a bit of vigilance, your house will stay clutter-free.
An important step in the actual rental process is selecting a quality along with trustworthy corporation to work with. The largest mistake nearly all customers create when renting a dumpster is not making clear specific costs. Make sure the corporation has no hidden fees that can potentially increase the price of the actual rental by an astronomical amount. Some hidden prices include: fuel/environmental payment, delivery impose, disposal payment, etc. Charges just chosen can potentially stop mentioned when coming up with a rental, and may really add together at the end of your own leasing time.
Waste developed through these projects is higher, improper treatments for the developed waste is actually contaminating soil, water, fresh air and property. Releasing this kind of fact, many of the project entrepreneurs are looking available for effective ways of rubbish disposal like recycling the actual generated waste or garbage dump disposal. Waste disposal with eco-friendly manner are going to be an expensive methods to get rid of rubbish if you are not clever enough to regulate the developed waste.
There's a great threat being posed to humanity for failure to take care of the environment. It's led to several people and companies creating an goal of creating a much more conducive and clean setting. Use of bins and other types of dumpsters has become very well liked especially one of several city people. Whether you need one for your household, office on the streets, you will find enough for those.
Dumpster rentals are very effective for getting rid of off construction waste since rental companies present you with a wide selection of disposal units to accommodate the individual require. Construction companies can thus get the disposal piece measurement that suits their waste containment requirements without having to bear costs in connection with having a single specially designed to serve their requirements. It would commonly be quite expensive for get a disposal item designed especially if it's going to be used for very little time of time. Saving the disposal container if it is not in use would certainly also be a good challenge with regard to construction companies who shift sites with different jobs. Additionally it is not possible to find out that the specific disposal system will meet the waste requirements of the subsequent construction task.
First, know what size dumpster you'll want to help take off the waste materials and debris remaining from your makeovers. Placing many debris inside the dumpster on a regular basis helps keep the remodelling site tidy and clear the time. Excellence is noted in the way anyone handle the internet site of the remodelling as well as in marketing campaign results. You can exhibit a project that is the beautiful demonstration of excellence by using a dumpster delivered directly on site from the beginning of the project. All sub-contractors should be asked to dispose of their waste items inside the bin each and every evening before leaving the site and additional materials should be assigned an area on the site for just a later project or to possibly be donated.
By simply renting a dumpster you'll get the do the job done quicker and slowly move the dumpster right off on the property hence leaving a great and clear yard.
With all the weekly collections that they provide the large amount of waste that is made in an apartment difficult will never be in a position to build up. Your initial meeting between your building and trash cab will ensure which the needs tend to be discussed and arranged. Getting a professional workforce of waste disposal specialists is always favored when you want a good job done.
For many who can require their own garbage away a new Dumpster Rental in 94142 can be the best thing. They will throw their trash inside the dumpster and the dumpster company will come carry it off for them. This could be a lifestyle saver for an older particular person or pair who are unable to do what they have to used to can and so a new Dumpster Rental in 94142 can help them keep from having trash accumulated around the home. Dumpsters rentals have many employs but after the day they're just designed for trash disposal.
It is actually super easy to locate a Dumpster Rental in 94142 company as there are a great deal of websites on the internet. These websites give details on several of the many companies that provide dumpsters and rolloff bins for hire. Due to there like a lot of providers that offer these types of services it is a wise decision to compare the costs as well as the real services which can be found. The job you are actually performing will have an effect on the real services that you want. It is best to pick the most suitable company that fits your own requirements. Before getting a dumpster, just be sure you are allowed to possess a dumpster in the area you are planning to apply it. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Providing Reliable, Clean Energy since 1883.
Roanoke Gas Company originated in 1883, one year after Roanoke became a city, and was founded by a group of key business leaders in the area. Such a proud tradition is very enviable and serves to further define the heritage the Company has enjoyed as one of the oldest businesses in Roanoke.
Roanoke Gas Company began producing manufactured gas to replace the usage of oil and kerosene to light the city's lamps and continued to grow as demand increased, eventually spreading to Salem and Vinton. In 1950, Roanoke Gas Company moved from producing manufactured gas in local plants to tapping into natural gas pipelines in the region for distribution. Today, we serve approximately 55,000 households and deliver around 10 million decatherms each year. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
1. Learn Responsibility – Horses will teach your child responsibility very quickly. Make sure that your child does all the work involved in caring for the horse. Everything from feeding, cleaning stalls, grooming, saddling and riding. Children will want to ride but they may not always be eager to do the work. However children almost always fall in love with the horses that they handle and they will want to take as good care of them. Once they know that the horse depends on them and that in order to ride they have to take good care of the horses, they will learn to be more responsible in other aspects of there life.
2. Learn Trust – Horses must be able to trust their handlers. One of the first things that your child will learn about handling and riding horses is to be trustworthy and dependable, because if the horse doesn't trust its handler it will not obey him/her. This can be a very valuable life long lesson for your child.
3. Learn to be Open Minded – Every horse is different and will have to be handled differently. A good horseman never stops learning, even experts and trainers will admit that they learn something new everyday from their horses. Horses will make your child realize that learning is an on going process that never ends. This can transcend into other aspects, such as school and relationships.
4. Build Confidence – Horses are large and intimidating, so naturally it takes a lot of confidence to be able to control one. Letting a your child handle a gentle horse will do wonders for their confidence. Most people are naturally a little bit timid, especialy a child of horses because they are so big. By handling a gentle horse children will overcome their fear and learn that they can safely handle and control the same animal that they were once had great fear of. The better your child learns how to handle the horse, the more confident he/she will become. When children do well with the horses that they handle, their confidence goes up and their self esteem improves. They now realize that this huge creature they were once afraid of is a beautiful and loving animal.
5. Learn Patience – Horses are like children themselves, and training a horse is much like teaching a child. When your child has become a confident and skilled rider, letting them help train a horse will be an excellent experience for them. Horses require a lot of patience because training a young horse involves a lot of repetition and time. This is a lesson that will follow them in all aspects of life.
6. Self Discipline – Horses take a lot of time and work, so your child will have to be dedicated to learning how to ride and handle horses effectively. I have found that dedication is rarely something that children lacks when it comes to horses. People, especially young people, have a natural attraction to horses and enjoy spending time with them. However, because horses are a lot of work your child will soon learn self discipline. For example, instead of sleeping in in the morning, they will be up and out feeding and cleaning. Horses must be fed twice daily and have access to fresh water at all times. Their stalls must be cleaned regularly and they must receive regular exercise. This will take a lot of time, but most people find that it is worth it for the time they get to spend riding, or just being with horses.
7. Teaches Sensitivity – Horses can be very sensitive creatures. They have keen senses, and can sense if someone is afraid, angry, happy, etc. They communicate with body language and are very sensitive to their handler's body position. Because horses are so sensitive, the handler must be also. The handler must be able to tell how the horse is feeling and why it is behaving the way it is. The handler must learn to interpret the horses body language and to communicate effectively with the horse using its own language. When a horse misbehaves, the handler must decide whether or not the horse is doing so out of fear, stubbornness, anger, pain etc. and must respond appropriately.
8. How to Learn From Our Mistakes – When your child first starts learning to ride and handle horses they will make a lot of mistakes and will learn quickly not to make the same mistake twice. That is what horsemanship is all about. When a rider makes a mistake he/she cannot deny it. They must acknowledge the mistake and correct it. The rider must move on after correcting the mistake and not dwell on it. Handling and riding horses will teach your child to use their past mistakes to improve their future horsemanship skills and this will tanscend into other aspects of your child's life.
9. Learn Respect – Children will learn to respect their horses and themselves. Horses are large, dangerous creatures and they demand respect, yet in order to be handled safely they must also respect their handlers. By learning how to handle a horse, children will become more respectful of there horse and its nature. By being trustworthy, confident and responsible your child will earn the respect of there horse.
10. To Have Fun – Last but certainly no least, your child should have fun and enjoy being apart of the horse life style. You don't want to put too much demand on your child, you need to let them have fun with there horse as well as know when its time to be serious.
horses are very strong so when you do something bad or something to hurt them, they will win every time. so the point is to be patient and stay calm. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
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Be the first to comment on "Eileen Fisher Bedding Lovely Fisher Bedding Fisher Bedding Soft And Elegant With A Hint Of Luster This Soft Eileen Fisher Bed Sheets" | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Assessment requests are for teachers who are going for promotions, re-appointment, tenure or awards. You may submit your request via the below form.
Please submit request prior to start of the term, rotation or elective that you are teaching in.
Please allow up to 10 business days for request to be processed.
Reports will be released only if 4 or more learners submit assessments of your teaching.
Reports are released at the end of each term in Years 1&2 and at the half way mark and end of the year in Years 3&4. If you require your report earlier than the scheduled reporting periods please specify in comments below. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
You can follow the discussion on LUKS: Linux Hard Disk Data Encryption with NTFS Support in Linux without having to leave a comment. Cool, huh? Just enter your email address in the form here below and you're all set. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
I came across a Technet blog recently that described an issue where boot performance on newly imaged workstations with Windows 7 and Solid State Drives was inhibited because the Windows System Assessment Tool was disabled in the image. As a result, WinSAT did not detect the presence of the SSD and treated the drive as a normal hard disk (one with platters). This turned out being a big find because our future Windows 7 also had WinSAT disabled. Read about it here: Windows 7, Solid State Drives and Why A WinSAT Score Matters.
This entry was posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Inside Windows. Tagged: Hardware, Performance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest & Martyr
Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr c. 1577–1622 April 24—Optional Memorial Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of lawyers and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples His murderers cut a leg off his dead body in bitter retaliation for his many journeys To understand the historical and religious context for today's saint, consider an event that took place fifty years before he was born. On January 5, 1527, in Zurich, Switzerland, a young man named Felix Mantz was taken hold of by local officials, had his hands and feet bound to a pole, and was rowed out in a boat to the deepest part of the local river. With a large crowd watching from the shores, he was tossed overboard into the dark water and immediately drowned to death. Felix Mantz's crime? He believed only adults should be baptized, not children. Mantz was not killed by the Inquisition, the Pope, the local Bishop, or a Catholic mob. His cruel drowning, which mocked his views on baptism, was carried out by dissenting Protestants. The Protestants of Zurich believed in infant baptism while rejecting almost all other Catholic beliefs. And they allowed absolutely no dissenting from their own dissenting from Catholicism. Felix Mantz was the first Protestant martyred by other Protestants. Heretics killing other heretics for not conforming to their heresy captures the chaos, intellectual dissonance, and cultural confusion in some regions of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. This total meltdown is known as the Reformation. Today's saint, Fidelis of Sigmaringen, walked right into this still-raging storm of violence in the early seventeenth century, suffering a fate similar to the Protestant Felix Mantz, though for contrary reasons. Its very existence challenged by Protestantism, Counter-Reformation Catholicism swelled like a great ocean, lifting up scholars, monks, abbots, nuns, priests, and bishops who overwhelmed Europe with their teaching and witness to the perennial truths of Jesus Christ. Saint Fidelis was just one priest-monk among that great tide of the Counter-Reformation, but he was one who became a martyr. He was born as Mark Roy in the town of Sigmaringen in Prussia, in Northern Germany, and raised in the Faith. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1603 and degrees in civil and canon law in 1611, yet over time he became disillusioned with his career in the law. He had always been an exceptionally ardent Catholic, so he entered the Capuchin Order and was ordained a priest in his thirties. He took the religious name of "faithful"—in Latin, "Fidelis." Fidelis was intelligent, disciplined, ascetic, and committed. His abundant human and spiritual gifts were amplified and sharpened when put in the service of the King of Kings, and he rose to positions of leadership within the Capuchin Order. Having become locally well known for his fervor and holiness, Father Fidelis was appointed by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome to preach, teach, and write in present day Switzerland, with the goal of exhorting the people to return to the embrace of the Mother Church which had given them birth. Father Fidelis desired martyrdom, and it came for him soon enough. In Switzerland, his zeal and example brought some prominent Calvinists back to the true Faith. This made him an official enemy of the Calvinists who controlled much of that land. One day, when traveling between two towns where he was preaching and saying Mass, Fidelis was confronted along the road by Calvinist soldiers led by a minister. Fidelis had recently caused an uproar in a nearby town and had barely escaped with his life. The soldiers knew exactly who was before them. They demanded that he abandon his Faith. Fidelis answered, "I was sent to rebuke you, not to embrace your heresy. The Catholic religion is the faith of all ages, I do not fear death." His skull was then cracked open with the butt of a sword, his body punctured with stabs, and his left leg hacked off in retribution for the numerous journeys he had made into Protestant territory. Saint Fidelis died at the age of forty-five, ten years after entering religious life. He was canonized in 1746. Over three hundred miracles were attributed to his intercession during his canonization process. Saint Fidelis was faithful in life and continues to intercede faithfully in death. Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, through your intercession before the throne of God, we ask you to fortify all teachers and preachers of the faith to remain faithful to the truth, even to the point of embarrassment, inconvenience, suffering, and death to self. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
Like you'd expect with any Royal family member, their wardrobes only contain the most exquisite and finest of clothing and accesories. This means even on the odd occasion where they're pictured more dressed-down than usual, they're still donning designer pieces and are always looking trendy.
Although the Duchess of Cambridge does look great in her stroll-through-the-park wear, here we are going to recap five of her most recent, very glamorous gowns.
Last week, Kate Middleton attended the 100 Women in Finance gala dinner at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In case you missed it, Kate was photographed extensively in a beautiful, fit-for-a-princess, pink Gucci gown.
According to the royal fashion fan account @MiddletonMaven, the raspberry-coloured clutch, which matched her blush gown belt was a Prada piece, and the sparkly heels were by Oscar de la Renta.
The gown that got everyone talking was this stunning white Alexander McQueen number. The one-shoulder couture piece featured a fitted waist, billowing skirt and subtle floral detail.
As if the dress wasn't enough to wow the crowds, the Duchess finished the look with the addition of a pair of sparkling silver Jimmy Choo heels, a pair of pearl earrings which once belonged to Lady Diana, and a diamond bracelet which was on loan from the Queen.
What makes the tribute to Lady Diana even more fitting, is that these are believed to be the same earrings which the Princess of Wales wore to the same venue (London's Royal Albert Hall) back in 1991.
Back in November last year, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the 6th Annual Tusk Conservation Awards.
The couple, who looked happy as ever, also looked very glamorous too. Of course, the attention was mainly on Kate, who wore a beautiful Jenny Packham gown in aqua green, which fell to the floor.
Chic heels, dazzling dangling earrings and a matching teal-coloured clutch purse were the key accessories to this incredibly elegant outfit.
The Queen's State Banquet in October saw the Duchess of Cambridge in a beautiful powder blue floor-length dress by Alexander McQueen.
An event which welcomed King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Kate adhered to the regal dress code, adding princess-esque statement accessories to her already majestic look.
The Duchess only gets the tiaras out on rare and special occasions, and this, so it seems, was one of them. As well as the stunning tiara, Kate wore Princess Diana's Collingwood pearl earrings, Queen Alexandra's wedding gift necklace, and the Royal Family Order - a special gift from the Queen.
Pregnant with Prince Louis at the time, Kate Middleton decided to go against the black dress code which was encouraged to female attendees, to take a stand against sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the entertainment industry.
However, the Duchess wore a shade of dark green. The reason? Because members of the Royal family are meant to remain neutral towards political movements. Although, we're sure Kate supports the movement privately, she wasn't allowed to explicitly do so through her clothing.
Nonetheless, Kate looked beautiful in her Jenny Packham gown, which may have been a subtle nod to the honor the suffragettes, keeping in theme with the female empowerment heavily present on the night.
She carried a black clutch bag and wore exquisite jewels on her neck to accessorise the glamorous gown. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
URL-Hijacking ist die Entführung einer Domain aus dem Index verschiedener Suchmaschinen. Dieses Problem basiert auf einem Missverständnis zwischen einer Website und einer Suchmaschine hinsichtlich (insbesondere dynamisch generierter) Weiterleitungen. Die Folgen für die gehijackte Seite sind fatal: Sie taucht in den Suchergebnissen nicht mehr auf und bekommt keine Besucher mehr über entsprechende Suchmaschinen.
Technischer Hintergrund
Problematik der permanenten und temporären Weiterleitungen
Im Internet gibt es verschiedene Möglichkeiten, Anfragen an eine bestimmte Adresse an eine andere Adresse weiterzuleiten. Ein Beispiel: Ruft man https://de.wikipedia.org/ auf, so wird man auf https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Hauptseite weitergeleitet. Solche Weiterleitungen verfolgen unterschiedlichste Ziele, beispielsweise seien genannt:
Dauerhafte Weiterleitung auf die korrekte Adresse der Hauptseite (wie im genannten Beispiel).
Dauerhafte Weiterleitung auf die korrekte Domain bei Tippfehlern (Beispiel: googel.de → google.de) oder nach einem Domainwechsel/Umzug.
Dauerhafte Weiterleitung, wenn Inhalte einen neuen Dateinamen bekommen haben (Beispiel: /home.html heißt ab jetzt /index.html).
Vorübergehende Weiterleitung, wenn Inhalte zunächst unter einer anderen Adresse, in Zukunft aber wieder unter der aufgerufenen oder möglicherweise einer ganz anderen Adresse zu finden sind.
Für die beiden Haupttypen solcher Weiterleitungen (dauerhaft, "permanent" genannt, und vorübergehend, "temporär" genannt) wurden in HTTP 1.0 zwei HTTP-Statuscodes definiert: 301 (Moved Permanently) für permanente Weiterleitungen und 302 (Found) für temporäre Weiterleitungen. Eine dritte Möglichkeit stellt die Weiterleitung über einen sogenannten Meta-Refresh dar, aus dem nicht ersichtlich ist, ob es sich um eine permanente oder temporäre Weiterleitung handelt.
Suchmaschinen halten sich meist genau an die Definitionen des HTTP-Standards. Verweist Adresse A also mittels einer permanenten Weiterleitung auf Adresse B, so geht die Suchmaschine davon aus, dass die Inhalte in Zukunft immer unter Adresse B zu finden sind. Folglich wird Adresse B in den Index der Suchmaschine aufgenommen, während Adresse A aus diesem gelöscht (bzw. nicht aufgenommen) wird. In aller Regel ist dies auch der gewünschte Effekt. Problematisch hinsichtlich URL-Hijacking ist die zweite Variante. Verweist Adresse A mittels einer temporären Weiterleitung auf Adresse B, so gehen die Suchmaschinen davon aus, dass die Inhalte momentan unter Adresse B zu finden sind, in Zukunft aber (wieder) unter Adresse A. Folglich wird Adresse A in den Index der Suchmaschine aufgenommen, Adresse B wird gelöscht oder gar nicht erst aufgenommen. Dieser Effekt ist gewünscht wenn die Inhalte tatsächlich nur vorübergehend eine andere Adresse haben (siehe Punkt 4 in der Liste oben), jedoch unerwünscht wenn Adresse B die eigentlich korrekte ist.
Technik des URL-Hijacking
Temporäre Weiterleitungen stellen in dem Moment ein Problem dar, in welchem dieser "vorübergehende Adresswechsel" nicht den Tatsachen entspricht. Verweist Adresse A mit einer temporären Weiterleitung auf Adresse B, obwohl beide Adressen nichts miteinander zu tun haben (beispielsweise gehört Adresse A zu einem Webverzeichnis, Adresse B ist eine dort eingetragene Website), so nehmen Suchmaschinen an, dass Seite B irgendwann wieder unter Adresse A erreichbar sein wird, denn Suchmaschinen können weder erkennen, um welchen Typ von Website es sich handelt (ein Verzeichnis), noch, dass hier eine falsche Art der Weiterleitung verwendet wurde.
Beispiel
Das folgende Beispiel erläutert aus Sicht der Suchmaschine, warum eine gehijackte Adresse aus dem Index entfernt wird.
Die Suchmaschine indiziert Website A
Sie stößt auf einen Link zur Seite A1
Sie ruft A1 auf und erhält die Antwort, dass es sich um eine temporäre Weiterleitung auf Seite B1 handelt
Sie wird die Adresse von A1 speichern, da dies die vermeintlich korrekte Adresse ist
Sie wird B1 aus ihrem Index entfernen, da die Seite dort vermeintlich nur vorübergehend erreichbar ist
Fehler oder Standard-Konformität?
Dass URL-Hijacking überhaupt möglich ist, wird oft als Programmfehler in den Suchmaschinen bezeichnet. RFC 2616 schreibt in Section 10.3.3 jedoch vor:
Folglich handeln Suchmaschinen eigentlich standard-konform, da sie davon ausgehen müssen, dass es sich bei der aufgerufenen Adresse tatsächlich um eine veraltete Adresse handelt. Trotzdem handelt es sich um eine Sicherheitslücke in der Suchmaschine, da Webmaster Einfluss auf fremde Websites nehmen könnten.
Auslöser
Es gibt verschiedene Gründe, warum Webmaster Weiterleitungen auf fremde Inhalte erstellen statt direkt zu verlinken. Das Weiterleitungs-Programm (der Dereferrer) kann verschiedene Aufgaben übernehmen, zum Beispiel die Klicks auf den entsprechenden Link zählen oder sicherheitsrelevante Informationen wie Sitzungs-ID der aktuellen Website verschleiern.
Gefährlich sind insbesondere dynamische Links, die man zumeist an einem "?" in der URL erkennen kann (z. B. http://www.example.com/?id=12345) und die aus entsprechenden Datenbanken generiert werden. Die populäre Skriptsprache PHP verwendet, sofern der Programmierer nicht explizit einen Statuscode angibt, standardmäßig 302-Weiterleitungen. Von der Suchmaschine Yahoo ist bekannt, dass sie einen Meta-Refresh als 301-Weiterleitung wertet, wenn die Weiterleitungsverzögerung nur sehr kurz ist, bei längeren Verzögerungen wird 302 angenommen.
Vielen Webmastern ist nicht bewusst, dass sie selbst solche Weiterleitungen verwenden und somit anderen Seiten elementaren Schaden zufügen können. Bei einigen Fällen von Hijacking werden die Weiterleitungen aber auch mit Absicht missbräuchlich eingesetzt, wodurch die Originalseite an Rankings verlieren kann oder sogar aus dem Index verschwindet. Dieses Vorgehen ist besonders typisch für sogenanntes Black Hat SEO. Auf diesem Wege soll die eigene Website im Ranking der Suchmaschine steigen. Derartige Hijacking-Praktiken zählen als kriminelle Handlung und können geahndet werden.
Ein Hijacking ist umso wahrscheinlicher, je höher der PageRank der verlinkenden Website im Vergleich zur "Opferseite" ist. Ein hoher PageRank erhöht die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der linkenden Website, sodass Suchmaschinen davon ausgehen, dass die Standards richtig angewandt wurden und es sich tatsächlich um eine vorübergehende Adressänderung handelt. Weiterhin wird die Website mit dem höheren PageRank als relevanter angesehen und bleibt daher ohnehin im Index.
Lösungsansätze
Ob eine URL Opfer von URL-Hijacking ist, lässt sich durch eine Site-Abfrage (site:meine-seite.de) bei der betroffenen Suchmaschine ermitteln. Bei dieser wird die Hijacking-Seite angezeigt. Eine weitere Möglichkeit ist eine Cacheabfrage (cache:http ://www.meine-domain.de). Auch hier wird die Hijacking-Seite anstatt der ursprünglichen Domain angezeigt.
In HTTP 1.1 wurde der zusätzliche Statuscode 307 (Temporary Redirect) eingeführt. Dieser kennzeichnet temporäre Weiterleitungen, bei denen die alte Adresse weiterhin gültig bleibt.
Webmaster, die selbst Weiterleitungen verwenden, sollten – sofern sie auf Fremdinhalte weiterleiten und es wirklich nötig ist, überhaupt eine Weiterleitung zu benutzen – immer mittels des Statuscodes 301 Moved Permanently weiterleiten, um versehentliches URL-Hijacking zu vermeiden. Weiterleitungen, die durch ein Content-Management-System (CMS) automatisch generiert werden, sollten mittels eines Dienstes wie Web-Sniffer entsprechend geprüft werden. Ist eine Weiterleitung nicht zwingend notwendig, so ist ein gewöhnlicher Link in der Regel die bessere Wahl.
Betroffene Webmaster sollten den hijackenden Webmaster kontaktieren und ihn auf den Fehler hinweisen.
Gegebenenfalls kann der betroffene Webmaster die Betreiber der Suchmaschine kontaktieren und um Wiederaufnahme bitten.
Ähnliche Formen
Eine ähnliche Variante des URL-Hijackings wird vornehmlich von Erotik-Websites vorgenommen. So kann es geschehen, dass Menschen zu ihrem Namen in der Suchmaschine Google in Verbindung mit pornografischem Material gebracht werden. In den Suchergebnissen wird meist ein Inhalt mit dem Namen der Person als auch eine spezifische URL angezeigt. Beim Klick auf die Webseiten gelangt man jedoch nicht auf die vermeintlichen Inhalte zu dieser Person, sondern wird zumeist auf Übersichts- oder Kategorieseiten der Portale weitergeleitet.
Weblinks
Affiliate und Recht
heise.de
Einzelnachweise
URI
Suchmaschinenoptimierung | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
} |
If you are looking for the trendy clothing this season, then go for KQUE Clothing. We have the latest collections of dresses, kaftans, knits, tops, shirts, jackets, skirts, pants, shorts, accessories and jewellery for women. Romance with colours at KQUE Clothing. Here at us, you will get the favourite colours for the dress you want to buy. Designed and stitched by the top Australian designer, you would get the best deals online for cotton Kaftans,and Abelle Kaftan. We are one of the reliable and budgeted online clothing shops in Australia presenting you the chic and elegant animal print designs for your collection of skirts- Zahara, Pixie silk chiffon frill, and silk chiffon frill.
Buy from us the shirt of your choice- neck frill, Talia Tie neck frill, and Bella Batwing. Visit our online store for the latest collection. Get free shipping for all orders above $150. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
On Tuesday a New York Times feature on U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) revealed that he might have a slight rift with President Donald Trump.
With the government shutdown extending into a month, McConnell has been scrutinized for being relativity silent and not pushing negotiations forward. The report details the differences between McConnell and Trump. It describes Trump as a man not well versed in understanding the history of America or how governments operate.
"It would be hard to find two people by personality, or any inclination, that are more diametrically opposed than the president and Senator McConnell," Roy Blunt, who heads the Senate Republicans' policy committee told The Times.
The report also explained that McConnell's wife could not confidently say that Trump and McConnell get along. She paused for four seconds before dodging the question. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Published on March 21st, 2019 | by gareth
Mortal Kombat 11: Closed Beta Details And Trailer
The Mortal Kombat 11 closed beta begins next week on Wednesday, March 27 at 8 a.m. PDT in North America and will run through Sunday, March 31 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. All players who pre-order Mortal Kombat 11 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One or Xbox One X at select retailers will receive access to the closed beta, which features five different characters, each with unique abilities and Fatalities, including fan-favorite fighters Baraka, Jade, Kabal, Scarlet and Scorpion.
Players participating in the closed beta will experience a preview of the all-new Custom Character Variation System, which will offer nearly infinite customization options to personalize fighters with a variety Skins, Gear, Special Abilities, Intro and Victory Cinemas, Taunts and Brutalities Gameplay modes offered in the close beta will include online multiplayer matches, along with Towers of Time, a single-player mode where players can test their skills through various challenges, providing more ways than ever to continue the Mortal Kombat 11 experience.
View and share the Mortal Kombat 11 – Official Beta Trailer.
View when the Mortal Kombat 11 closed beta will go live in each region here: Mortal Kombat 11 Global Closed Beta Schedule
Please note, a PlayStation Plus subscription or Xbox Live Gold membership is required to participate in online multiplayer matches during the closed beta. These subscriptions are not required to enjoy the Custom Character Variation System or Towers of Time content.
Mortal Kombat 11 is the latest installment in the critically-acclaimed franchise, developed by award-winning NetherRealm Studios, and will be available beginning April 23 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Nintendo Switch and PC. Pre-order now to receive the in-game playable character, Shao Kahn.
The growing roster of confirmed playable fighters in Mortal Kombat 11 includes Scorpion, Raiden, Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade, Skarlet, Baraka, Geras, Kano, D'Vorah, Kabal, Jade, Johnny Cage, Cassie Cage, Erron Black, Jacqui Briggs and Kotal Kahn, with more exciting reveals coming in the weeks ahead.
To keep up with the latest Mortal Kombat 11 news and upcoming reveals, check out NetherRealm's popular Kombat Kast livestream on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Mixer.
To learn more about Mortal Kombat 11, please visit www.mortalkombat.com or join the community conversation on Facebook (MortalKombat), Instagram (@MortalKombat), Twitter (@MortalKombat), Twitch (NetherRealm), YouTube (Mortal Kombat), Mixer (NetherRealm, Discord (MortalKombat) or Reddit (MortalKombat).
New Borderlands 3 Trailer →
Operation Apocalypse Z Comes To Call Of Duty: Black Ops IIII →
The Walking DeadL The Telltale Definitive Series Trailer And Details →
Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time VR Comes To SDCC → | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
Q: Did I scam myself an extra reputation point? I hit the rep cap today, and then downvoted a question. Somebody upvoted one of my answers, so I was back at the cap again. Then I removed my downvote - I'm still left with that +1 I got in the meantime. I triggered a recalc, but it didn't change. Something there doesn't seem right to me.
Edit: My total rep seems to have just gone down by one, but the reputation page and the summary I get by clicking my name at the top bar are still showing this extra one.
| {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
} |
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"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Sindangkasih is een bestuurslaag in het regentschap Ciamis van de provincie West-Java, Indonesië. Sindangkasih telt 8833 inwoners (volkstelling 2010).
Plaats in West-Java | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
} |
This week I've to deploy an ASP.NET application containing about 20 reports that have been created with the Crystal Reports Basic Runtime which is included in Visual Studio 2008. (By the way, the application also contains a lot of AJAX-Functionality. It uses the "AJAX Control Toolkit-based" MultiColumnDropDown that I've described in a previous post).
The installation is very simple. You doesn't need to click anything, simply run the .msi and you see the window below. Just wait until it closes.
There's also the possibility to include the msi in your setup-application. For more information on that take a look at this thread in MSDN-Forums. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Q: Placing text on top of a image I've been looking on several threads on stackoverflow, but cant seem to make it work. What i've found out is that i need to apply relative position on the parent div and then absolute on the child text, but this is not working? what am i doing wrong`
.the-image {
position: relative;
border: 1px solid;
width: auto;
}
.the-h3 {
z-index:100;
position:absolute;
color:white;
font-size:24px;
font-weight:bold;
left:150px;
top:350px;
}
.the-h3 span {
color: #ffffff;
letter-spacing: -1px;
background: rgb(0, 0, 0); /* fallback color */
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7);
padding: 10px;
}
<div class="the-image">
<img style="height: 200px" src="http://i.imgur.com/w15Db.jpg"></img>
<h3 class="the-h3"><span>TEST</span></h3>
</div>
A: You are giving the h3 a top property which is more than the image is high.
Simply lower that value to something more fitting:
.the-image {
position: relative;
border: 1px solid;
width: auto;
}
.the-h3 {
z-index:100;
position:absolute;
color:white;
font-size:24px;
font-weight:bold;
left:150px;
top:10px;
}
.the-h3 span {
color: #ffffff;
letter-spacing: -1px;
background: rgb(0, 0, 0); /* fallback color */
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7);
padding: 10px;
}
<div class="the-image">
<img style="height: 200px" src="http://i.imgur.com/w15Db.jpg"></img>
<h3 class="the-h3"><span>TEST</span></h3>
</div>
| {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
} |
New Zealand Journal of Public History – New articles by Malcolm McKinnon and Evan Roberts
We are delighted to share that two new New Zealand Journal of Public History articles for the 2022 issue are now available to read on the PHANZA website here.
Malcolm McKinnon is a Wellington historian. He is the author of Independence and Foreign Policy:
New Zealand and the World Since 1935 (1993); New Zealand and ASEAN: A History (2016); and 'Lines
on the Map: The Decline of Maori Autonomy 1840–1900', in Brad Patterson, Richard S. Hill and
Kathyrn Patterson (eds), After the Treaty: The Settler State, Race Relations and the Exercise of Power in
Colonial New Zealand (2016), among other works. His article is titled ""Extended by Iron Ruthlessness": Anthony Trollope, the Waikato War, and Empire in the Teaching of New Zealand History and International Relations.
Evan Roberts is an Assistant Professor in the History of Medicine and Population Studies
programs at the University of Minnesota, with research interests in health and work since
the nineteenth century in New Zealand and the United States. Evan grew up in Wellington, and
graduated from Victoria University with a BA(Hons)/BSc before completing a PhD in History at
the University of Minnesota in 2007. His article is titled "Measuring the Anzacs: Lessons from Digital History Writ Large." | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
It is the Wednesday, so that means it's time for another edition of Daily Turismo's weekly game of oil stain bingo also known as Mid Week Match-Up! Last week we found the a Chinook camper for Laura, and had many good suggestions from readers. Today, we hunt for another specific car, this time a Manta Mirage like the one featured here in Jan of 2014, for Chuck a former McLaren M8E racer.
This request comes from Chuck who says he is one of the only surviving McLaren M8E drivers still on this rock. He sounds like someone I'd love to help and has been searching for the elusive Mirage for a while. The best I could find is a recently deleted listing that still lives on in an advanced google search -- it was listed in Denver on Nov 11 for an unknown amount of cash.
Help Chuck find a Manta for his garage. Comments below.
Well holy crap I don't think I've ever remembered anything about the Manta, what a cool creation. I would like one also, and a few other guys here might as well, so lets just get down to business and build a dozen more, maybe even with a lot of carbon fiber now too.
Cool idea, someone has to own the original molds!?!?
Like getting Adidads knock-off shoes from the friendly street vendor. The Manta Montage. VW 1300cc, 15x12 rear wheels, needs an interior. Only $12,000.
On a serious note, it seems that one sold recently on eBay out of Alpharetta GA if this is accurate.
I believe there's a find in Beverly Hills @ Milton C. Hardcastle's mansion. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
ATLANTA – Phillies manager Gabe Kapler issued a challenge Wednesday to Vince Velasquez, a few hours before the righthander would pitch the first six innings of a 7-3 loss to the Braves. He wanted Velasquez to pitch with intensity and fervor. He wanted him to challenge hitters with confidence.
"I'm going to attack with my fastball. I'm going to attack with my secondary pitches. And when I'm in the zone with them, I'm going to still be on the gas pedal," Kapler said of the approach Velasquez needed. "It's this thing that you want to throw a strike, so you're a little bit finer, a little bit softer, with your delivery.
If there is one thing that Velasquez does not lack, it is intensity. But sometimes the pitcher fails to properly channel that mindset on the mound, seeming to show too much caution to opponents and falling into deep counts, racking up high pitch totals.
Wednesday night's outing offered some promise. He attacked with his fastball — which touched 96 mph in his final inning — and used it for 60 percent of his pitches and five of his seven strikeouts. He utilized a sharp slider and countered with a troubled curveball.
But Atlanta third baseman Ryan Flaherty, who failed to make the Phillies in spring training, jacked a three-run homer in the fifth, as he sat on Velasquez' first-pitch fastball.
It was a blip on a night that showed some promise and displayed why the Phillies are willing to see whether Velasquez can develop the mindset his manager challenges him to have. Velasquez has a 2.41 ERA in his last three starts, with 20 strikeouts and three walks over 18 2/3 innings. He attacked.
"I think it's just the mindset that you have to have," Velasquez said. "I changed my approach and am just attacking hitters. That was one of the biggest things, going after guys and attacking the zone and utilizing all of my pitches.
The Phillies dropped two of three at SunTrust Park but still secured their first winning road trip (4-2) since 2016. The Phillies return home Thursday winners of nine of their last 12.
A series-winning victory seemed within reach when the Phillies trailed by two runs in the eighth, but Kapler elected to keep lefthander Hoby Milner in against righthanded hitters after facing two lefties. It was a curious move, because Kapler had used Milner almost exclusively against lefthanded hitters. Milner gave up three runs, and the game was out of reach.
"That was the right time to save our bullpen and put them in a good position to succeed going forward," Kapler said.
The Phillies were on the verge of a rally in the seventh, when Maikel Franco walked and Andrew Knapp reached on an error, putting runners on first and third with no outs. Carlos Santana, out of the lineup for the first time this season, pinch hit and grounded into a double play, and J.P. Crawford struck out.
Franco scored on the double play but the inning fell short of its potential.
Rhys Hoskins walked to start the ninth and scored on a double by Aaron Altherr, but that's as close as the Phillies got.
Edubray Ramos, in relief of Velasquez, gave up a homer to Dansby Swanson, the leadoff batter in the bottom of the seventh. It was the righthander's first earned run of the season.
The Phillies' first run came in the fifth, when Velasquez ripped Brandon McCarthy's curveball up the middle to drive in Knapp. McCarthy threw his opposing pitcher five pitches; three were breaking balls. McCarthy failed to attack, and Velasquez made him pay.
Velasquez moved to second on the throw home and looked into the Phillies dugout. His teammates were cheering, and Velasquez gestured back. Even at bat, Velasquez had attacked. There was some promise.
"All night long, he was attacking hitters," Kapler said. "That was why we had the confidence to send him out for the sixth. He was pretty aggressive with all of his pitches, which is exactly what we asked him to do. He had that fastball working up to 97 [mph] at times. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
#ifndef TENSORFLOW_LITE_PROFILING_BUFFERED_PROFILER_H_
#define TENSORFLOW_LITE_PROFILING_BUFFERED_PROFILER_H_
#include <vector>
#include "tensorflow/lite/core/api/profiler.h"
#include "tensorflow/lite/profiling/profile_buffer.h"
namespace tflite {
namespace profiling {
// Controls whether profiling is enabled or disabled and collects profiles.
// TFLite is used on platforms that don't have posix threads, so the profiler is
// kept as simple as possible. It is designed to be used only on a single
// thread.
//
// Profiles are collected using Scoped*Profile objects that begin and end a
// profile event.
// An example usage is shown in the example below:
//
// Say Worker class has a DoWork method and we are interested in profiling
// the overall execution time for DoWork and time spent in Task1 and Task2
// functions.
//
// class Worker {
// public:
// void DoWork() {
// ScopedProfile(&controller, "DoWork");
// Task1();
// Task2();
// .....
// }
//
// void Task1() {
// ScopedProfile(&controller, "Task1");
// ....
// }
//
// void Task2() {
// ScopedProfile(&controller, "Task2");
// }
//
// Profiler profiler;
// }
//
// We instrument the functions that need to be profiled.
//
// Profile can be collected by enable profiling and then getting profile
// events.
//
// void ProfileWorker() {
// Worker worker;
// worker.profiler.EnableProfiling();
// worker.DoWork();
// worker.profiler.DisableProfiling();
// // Profiling is complete, extract profiles.
// auto profile_events = worker.profiler.GetProfiles();
// }
//
//
class BufferedProfiler : public tflite::Profiler {
public:
explicit BufferedProfiler(uint32_t max_num_entries)
: buffer_(max_num_entries, false) {}
uint32_t BeginEvent(const char* tag, EventType event_type,
uint32_t event_metadata) override {
return buffer_.BeginEvent(tag, event_type, event_metadata);
}
void EndEvent(uint32_t event_handle) override {
buffer_.EndEvent(event_handle);
}
void StartProfiling() { buffer_.SetEnabled(true); }
void StopProfiling() { buffer_.SetEnabled(false); }
void Reset() { buffer_.Reset(); }
std::vector<const ProfileEvent*> GetProfileEvents() {
std::vector<const ProfileEvent*> profile_events;
profile_events.reserve(buffer_.Size());
for (size_t i = 0; i < buffer_.Size(); i++) {
profile_events.push_back(buffer_.At(i));
}
return profile_events;
}
private:
ProfileBuffer* GetProfileBuffer() { return &buffer_; }
ProfileBuffer buffer_;
};
} // namespace profiling
} // namespace tflite
#endif // TENSORFLOW_LITE_PROFILING_BUFFERED_PROFILER_H_
| {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
} |
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"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Data Analysis Made (Somewhat) Easier
Peter Coffee
Numerical libraries for C# and Java attack one of the least appreciated but most important problems of the enterprise application developer: Data analysis applications are more difficult than they look.
Beyond the equivalent of counting on electronic fingers, computer-based mathematics quickly becomes a quicksand of flawed formulas and unscalable algorithms. Even if calculations are correct, the application can be useless without convenient data entry and informative presentation graphics and reports.
Its no surprise, then, that so much analytic work winds up being done—often inconsistently, almost always inefficiently—in a spreadsheet instead of in a task-focused tool. Developers gain considerable leverage, though, in their efforts to build better enterprise analytic solutions with libraries such as Visual Numerics JMSL 3.0 Numerical Library for Java development and the same companys IMSL C# Numerical Library.
Written entirely in Java and C#, respectively, each package represents a substantial improvement in programmer convenience over alternative approaches such as writing a Java or C# interface collection to a library of routines in FORTRAN or C. Each library includes extensive online documentation and unexpectedly full-featured demonstration code.
I was especially impressed by the advanced analytic capabilities (including neural-net analysis) and charting tools (including the visually intuitive Heat Map chart) in the Java library, which was updated to Version 3.0 last month. I was attracted by the prospect of deploying platform-neutral analytic tools to any Java-capable browser.
The product is priced in proportion to its power, at $3,495 for a floating single-seat license. However, many developers will be more drawn to the Visual Studio integration and .Net Framework access that comes from working in C# and by the value proposition of the IMSL C# package that made its debut this past September, at $1,695.
Whatever their language of choice, developers should remember that doing the math right is not the same thing as doing the right math.
Its easy to demonstrate this with one of the JMSL samples, which shows alternative methods of spline-fitting data: A periodic fit to data on coffee sales versus number of installed coffee dispensers produces ridiculous results (yellow curve), while an alternative method yields a much more reasonable projection. There are many subtler but equally dangerous math traps awaiting developers. No library can keep a developer out of these traps, but it can at least free more time for guarding against them.
More information is at www.vni.com.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis in programming environments and developer tools.
Peter Coffee is Director of Platform Research at salesforce.com, where he serves as a liaison with the developer community to define the opportunity and clarify developers' technical requirements on the company's evolving Apex Platform. Peter previously spent 18 years with eWEEK (formerly PC Week), the national news magazine of enterprise technology practice, where he reviewed software development tools and methods and wrote regular columns on emerging technologies and professional community issues.Before he began writing full-time in 1989, Peter spent eleven years in technical and management positions at Exxon and The Aerospace Corporation, including management of the latter company's first desktop computing planning team and applied research in applications of artificial intelligence techniques. He holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University, he has held teaching appointments in computer science, business analytics and information systems management at Pepperdine, UCLA, and Chapman College. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
Ask JackTechnology
Your questions about upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10, or vice versa
The whens and hows of upgrading Microsoft Windows 7 to Windows 10, or going back to Windows 7
Have you upgraded to Windows 10 and regretted it? Photograph: Simply Signs / Alamy/Alamy
Jack Schofield
Thu 17 Dec 2015 04.37 EST
Last modified on Tue 21 Feb 2017 12.40 EST
How long have I got?
I'm thinking of upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I'm told the free upgrade is only for one year, and after that you have to pay £80 for it. Is that the case? Robert
You have one year from the launch to accept the free upgrade to Windows 10, so you must do it before 29 July 2016. After you have accepted the free upgrade, there is no further charge for the life of the device. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will offer any deals after the deadline, but Windows 10 costs £99.99 or $119.99 from Microsoft. Other suppliers may sell it for less.
Can I download now and keep it for later?
We are currently using Windows 7. Can we download Windows 10 now and install it later? And why or why not? Tracey
Windows 10 is "Windows as a Service" and it is frequently updated from the cloud. You can download Windows 10 and keep it on a DVD or USB stick, which is handy if you need to upgrade several PCs. However, the download will soon be out of date, so that is not a long-term solution.
Windows 10 has a cloud-based authentication system, so you must install the upgrade before 29 July 2016. If you miss the deadline, Microsoft's servers will not authenticate the free upgrade and you will be asked to pay.
Can I keep Windows 7?
I am running Windows 7 at the moment. Can I download Windows 10 and have both systems on my machine? John
No, Microsoft is not giving away copies of Windows 10, just offering to upgrade existing licences for Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 for free. If you want to run two versions of Windows, you have to buy two licences.
Can I move it to a new PC?
I own an Asus laptop with Windows 7 installed, but I am going to be building a new gaming rig very soon. Is there any way I can use my existing copy of Windows to get the upgrade on my new desktop? Not being able to use the laptop afterwards is not a problem. Håkon
Sorry, no: see above. Cheap pre-installed copies of Windows are locked to the PC on which they are pre-activated and shipped. Only the more expensive retail version can be moved from one PC to a different PC. And to reply to Chris: when you upgrade your retail copy of Windows 7 to Windows 10, it will retain its rights. That means you will be able to move your copy of Windows 10 to a different PC. (Obviously you can only run it on one PC at a time.)
Getting authenticated
I was having a blue screen problem with my Gateway laptop running Windows 7. I installed Windows 10 from USB and that has resolved my issue. So now I am sitting with this lovely operating system, but I know I will require a product key for it soon enough. Can I email Microsoft and beg for one, or is there an easier way? Mike
The correct procedure is to install Windows 10 as an in-place upgrade, after which Microsoft's online servers will authenticate it automatically. Once Windows 10 has been authenticated, you can do a clean installation from a USB stick or DVD, and that will also be authenticated automatically. (There is a possible workaround.)
However, following user complaints, Microsoft changed things with Windows 10 version 1511, the Fall Update released last month. This can be activated using the Windows 7/8/8.1 key from your laptop: it's probably on a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker.
To check, go to Settings, select Update & Security, and then Activation. If it says, "Windows is activated" then you are OK. If not, change the product key to your old Windows 7 key. If the worst came to the worst, you would have to ask for a phone activation, or re-install Windows 7 from a backup and then install Windows 10 again.
Upgrading from Vista via Windows 7
My laptop hard drive died. My data was backed up so no big deal. However, I had purchased an upgrade disk to go from Vista to Windows 7, and this tells me that it only works as an upgrade [to Vista]. I don't have a copy of Vista. Brian
If you had made a full backup of Windows 7 – which is easy using the built-in backup software – then you would be able to restore that to the new hard drive, and then upgrade to Windows 10. However, you could try installing the Windows 10 Fall Update from a DVD or USB stick and then entering your Windows 7 product key, as explained above.
Alternatively, you could download the Vista code from Get Into PC, and use your original Windows Vista product key to activate it. That's probably on the COA sticker on your PC, if you didn't record it anywhere else. Once Vista is activated then you can use your disk to upgrade to Windows 7, after which Windows Update will offer to install Windows 10.
Can I go back to Windows 7?
I had Windows 7 and loved it. I accepted the free Windows 10 upgrade and I am sooo sorry. Is there a way to get Windows 7 back? Barbara
Yes, if you act within 30 days. Go to Settings, select Update & Security, and click Recovery. This allows you to go back to your previous operating system, which has been stored in a "Windows old" folder. Windows eventually deletes this to save space.
Note that the Windows 10 Fall Update is a new version of Windows 10. When it's installed, the earlier version of Windows 10 becomes the new "Windows old". After that, you can't simply go back to Windows 7/8/8.1.
Can I downgrade a Windows 10 laptop?
A friend has bought a laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed. He is quite homesick for Windows 7, and longs to get it back. Can he get Windows 7 free? Barry
Pro versions of Windows include downgrade rights. If your friend's new laptop has Windows 10 Home then he would have to buy an upgrade to the Pro version before making the downgrade. Microsoft describes the process in an article, Understanding downgrade rights.
Unfortunately, there's no obvious way to get a legal copy of Windows 7, unless the PC manufacturer agrees to provide one. Yes, you can download it from Microsoft, but you have to enter a valid Windows 7 product key to get it.
But I wouldn't bother. The upgrade to Windows 10 Pro costs £99.99, so your friend would be better off making a complete backup of his current system, then buying a discounted copy of Windows 7.
However, a Windows 10 laptop may have been designed for and tested with Windows 10. It may not have been tested with Windows 7, and there is no guarantee that all the right drivers will be available. If it goes wrong, your friend must be able to restore Windows 10 from his backup.
• Ask Jack has had about 850 questions about Windows 10, which is too many to answer personally. If yours isn't answered here, see Microsoft Windows 10 free upgrade: five questions answered, Microsoft Windows 10 free upgrade: 10 more of your questions answered, Microsoft Windows 10 free upgrade: seven more questions answered, Microsoft Windows 10 free upgrade: the last roundup, and Microsoft Windows 10 free upgrade revisited: seven more of your questions answered.
Have you got another question for Jack? Email it to [email protected]
This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
# **A Generation of Radical Educational Change**
How much have teachers and their pupils benefited from the top-down, Westminster-led control of policy held in place by a powerful national inspection regime?
_A Generation of Radical Educational Change: Stories from the field_ is an exploration of the revolutionary impact of the greater and continuing involvement of central government in education policy making, which began in 1976 and was accelerated by the 1988 Education Act and subsequent legislation.
In the book, a dozen distinguished contributors from a wide range of sectors explain and reflect on how they worked to do their best for their schools, teachers and pupils in these years of great change. They understand the reasons, explained by Lord Baker in his early chapter, for a National Curriculum in 1988, and also the reasons for a more effective national inspection system. Yet their stories accumulate to become a powerful critique of the top-down policies of the last two decades. These policies, they say, have been too numerous, short-term, incoherent and partisan; governments have been indifferent to professional opinion and serious research, and have relied excessively on measurable outcomes and simplistic Ofsted judgments. Our current system is narrower and less democratic than it was, but evidence is hard to find that English pupils are doing any better in international comparisons.
The combined reflections in this volume are timely in these years of lively educational debate, as are the suggestions for future policy. _A Generation of Radical Educational Change_ is an invaluable read for current and aspiring headteachers, policy makers and those with an interest in education policy and how it evolves.
**Richard Pring** is currently Professor of Education at Winchester University, UK, and was previously Director of the Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, UK (1989–2003).
**Martin Roberts** was appointed to the headship of The Cherwell School, Oxford, UK (1981–2002). At present, he is a member of the Academic Steering Committee of The Prince's Teaching Institute.
# **A Generation of Radical Educational Change**
Stories from the field
_Edited by
Richard Pring and
Martin Roberts_
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
_Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business_
© 2016 Richard Pring and Martin Roberts
The rights of Richard Pring and Martin Roberts to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
_Trademark notice_ : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
_British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data_
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
_Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data_
Names: Pring, Richard. | Roberts, Martin, 1941–
Title: A generation of educational change: stories from the field/edited by
Richard Pring and Martin Roberts.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge is an imprint of
the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015019499| ISBN 9781138941892 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138941915 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315673417 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Education and state – Great Britain – History – 20th century.
| Education and state – Great Britain – History – 21st century. | Educational
change – Great Britain – History – 20th century. | Educational change –
Great Britain – History – 21st century.
Classification: LCC LC93.G7 G46 2016 | DDC 379.41 – dc23LC record
available at <http://lccn.loc.gov/2015019499>
ISBN: 978-1-138-94189-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-94191-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67341-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sans
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
# **Contents**
_List of contributors_
_Foreword_ _by Baroness Estelle Morris_
_Background_
**PART I Introduction: setting the scene**
**1 History and overview of changes 1976–2014**
_Martin Roberts and Richard Pring_
**2 The revolution begins**
_Lord Kenneth Baker_
**PART II Schools**
**3 The early years**
_Wendy Scott_
**4 Primary education: can we escape the legacy of elementary education?**
_Tony Eaude_
**5 Secondary education 1976–2015: a shire county view**
_Martin Roberts_
**6 A view from the island: a very personal story**
_Kenny Frederick_
**PART III Higher and further education**
**7 Evolution of teacher training and professional development**
_Richard Pring_
**8 The evolving idea of a university**
_Richard Pring_
**9 Further education and the case for vocational preparation**
_Geoff Stanton_
**PART IV Accountability, examinations, qualifications**
**10 Assessment: the need to 'do nothing'**
_Tim Oates_
**11 Accountability and inspection**
_Pat O'Shea_
**PART V Reflection on policy matters**
**12 From 'optimism and trust' to 'markets and managerialism'**
_Sir Tim Brighouse_
**13 Schools: a shifting landscape**
_Margaret Maden_
**14 1944–2015: towards the nationalisation of education in England**
_Sir Peter Newsam_
**PART VI Role of the media**
**15 Media and education in the UK**
_Peter Wilby_
**Conclusions**
**16 Stories from the field – summarised**
_Richard Pring and Martin Roberts_
**17 The way forward for the next generation**
_Richard Pring and Martin Roberts_
_Appendix: major education acts and reports_
_Subject index_
_Name index_
# Contributors
Lord Kenneth Baker had a distinguished political career as a minister in first the Thatcher and then the Major governments. From Minister for Information Technology in 1981 he was promoted first to the Environment and then from 1986 to 1989 to Education where he initiated the decisive reforms that are the main subject of this book. He then became Chair of the Conservative Party and after that Home Secretary. As a life peer, Lord Baker of Dorking, he joined the Upper House in 1997 and with the late Lord Dearing set up the Baker–Dearing Trust, which currently promotes energetically University Technical Colleges (UTCs).
Sir Tim Brighouse started teaching in schools and was a deputy head by the age of 26. He then moved into educational administration becoming CEO of Oxfordshire via posts in Monmouthshire, Buckinghamshire and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). After achieving great success as CEO of Birmingham he then, as Chief Commissioner, led the transformation of London's schools through the London Challenge. He was knighted for services to education in 2009.
Tony Eaude is Research Fellow at the Department of Education, Oxford University, and an independent research consultant. After working in special and primary schools he was for nine years headteacher of a multi-cultural first school in Oxford. He has written widely on primary and early years education, notably Thinking through Pedagogy for Primary and Early Years (2011) and How Do Expert Primary Classteachers Really Work? (2012).
Kenny Frederick spent her teaching career teaching in inner-city schools. She has just retired after 17 years as headteacher of George Green's school on the Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets. She is passionately committed to an inclusive education for all pupils whatever their needs. A former member of the Executive of the National Association of Head Teachers, she has written frequently for The Guardian and commented on educational issues both on television and radio.
Margaret Maden became a deputy head aged 31 at a time when men dominated senior positions in secondary schools. She soon became headteacher of Islington Green School, and later director of the Islington Green Sixth Form Centre, gaining a national reputation for her achievements. From there she moved first to Warwickshire as Chief Education Officer and then to Keele University to run the Centre of Successful Schools. She has written many articles and books. From 1999 to 2002 she was a member of the National Commission for Education.
Sir Peter Newsam started his working life as a civil servant before spending a few years teaching in Oxford. He then moved into educational administration. Chief Education Officer of the Inner London Educational Authority from 1975 to 1981, he then chaired the Commission for Racial Equality. In the early 1990s he directed the London Institute of Education, before becoming Chief Schools Adjudicator. He was knighted for his services to education and to racial equality. His papers and other publications are now held at the Institute Library and London Metropolitan Archive
Pat O'Shea, from teaching English in a Kent comprehensive school, became a lecturer at the Oxford University Department of Education, and subsequently Deputy Head of Peers School, then nationally famous for its innovative curriculum. She then became a headteacher, first of Bottisham Village College in Cambridge and second of Lord Williams' Thame in Oxfordshire. A much respected LEA adviser and SIP adviser, until recently she was an Ofsted inspector. Jointly with two former headteachers she now runs an education consultancy.
Tim Oates is Director of Assessment, Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment and was appointed in 2011 by the Coalition government to lead the National Curriculum Review Expert Panel. His career has been in educational research at the London Institute of Education, the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. His many publications have won for him an international reputation. His 'Could do better – using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum' has been particularly influential. In recognition of his contribution to education, he was honoured with the CBE in 2015.
Richard Pring retired in 2003 as Director of Oxford University Department of Educational Studies after 14 years, having previously been Dean of the Faculty at Exeter University, lecturer in Curriculum Studies at the Institute of Education, teacher at Goldsmiths College and a London comprehensive, and Assistant Principal in the Ministry of Education. From 2003 to 2009, he led the Nuffield Review of 14–19 Education and Training for England and Wales. Richard Pring is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College Oxford, where Sir David Watson was Principal from 2010.
Martin Roberts was headteacher of The Cherwell School in Oxford for 20 years, in which time it changed from a struggling ex-secondary modern to one of the best-regarded schools in the county. He then helped to create the Prince's Teaching Institute, which is now the leading provider of subject-specific training for secondary teachers. He has written articles and books, the latest of which is in collaboration with Michael Young and others, 'Knowledge and the Future School', 2014.
Wendy Scott, OBE, is currently honorary president of TACTYC (Training, Advancement and Co-operation in Teaching Young Children). Headteacher of a nursery school, she then moved to Roehampton Institute as senior lecturer in early years' education. From district inspector first for ILEA and then for Kensington and Chelsea, she became a registered Ofsted inspector. She has also been Chair and Chief Executive of the British Association of Early Childhood Education and an adviser to the Department for Education.
Geoff Stanton worked for 20 years in FE colleges, as a teacher and subsequently as an FE teacher trainer. For eight years he was Director of the Further Education Unit (FEU), which pioneered pre-vocational courses. He was also Special Adviser to the Commission on Adult Vocational Training and Learning. He is currently a member of the Qualifications Committee of the OCR Examination Board of the Council of the City and Guilds. In the last 15 years he has been engaged in numerous research and development projects, leading to a range of publications.
Peter Wilby helped to run a university newspaper while still a student at Sussex University. He began his adult career at The Observer in 1968, becoming its Education Correspondent four years later. He has become one of the country's leading education journalists, writing also for the New Statesman and The Sunday Times. He has had periods of editing The Independent on Sunday and the New Statesman. Nowadays he writes as a columnist for the New Statesman, The Guardian and The Observer.
# Foreword
Baroness Estelle Morris
Many people teaching today will have witnessed the present education revolution since its start; others will have joined along the way. The careers of longer serving teachers frame the years of this period of change in schools. They will have qualified before the days of the national curriculum, national testing and inspection, and will be able to remember when local authorities, not central government, were at the centre of what happened.
They are the generation who have seen the changes at first hand, but, if change is to be an ally and not a threat, all of us need to understand its context and the journey we are travelling.
The contributors to this book have played key roles at important times in different parts of the education service. Some have been champions of change, others would have preferred a different route, all have had to try to make the changes work. In this sense, these chapters set out the often conflicting views and opinions that have been the background of education policy and practice for three decades and in doing so they come together to build a narrative of the times.
Anyone looking back at this period could describe it as a time of upheaval. School and college structures, curricula, inspection frameworks, qualifications have all been introduced, amended, and often discarded before there has even been time to properly assess their impact. Sometimes the reasons for change have been badly explained; often the initiatives have seemed relentless.
Yet there have been strong strands of continuity as well. The principles of greater autonomy, a national framework offering an entitlement for all young people, the need for teachers to be held to account, the importance of school and college leadership and the impact of high quality teaching have been threads that have stood the test of time.
Education doesn't exist in isolation, and the pressures for change come as much from outside the system as within. It is no coincidence that a period of great change in education has been also a time of significant change in the wider society.
Greater demands on services, less tolerance of failure, the belief that everyone must succeed and the freedom to exercise choice, all characterise the present public attitude to key services – and these too have been some of the pressures for change.
Equally, the speed of development in communication and the opportunities offered by digital technology have transformed our understanding of how children learn, and schools must reflect this if they are to remain relevant to those they teach.
Education has at times led change – the achievement of ethnic minorities, for example – yet in other areas it has been slow to change. Schools embraced educational technology long after most other sectors and they are only just beginning to give it the importance it deserves.
These are not easy times for those who teach but, at its core, education remains the greatest route to freedom, self-respect, fulfilment and social justice. It will always attract the attention of others who share the ambition to change the world for the better and, as a result, it cannot and must not stand still.
Although change will be an ever-present force for those who work in education, we must get better at how we lead it, manage it, evaluate it and take others on the journey. This book is not only a testament to the past but a most valuable source of wisdom for the future. We should all learn from it.
Editors' note: Virtually all the text of this book was written in the months before the General Election of May 2015. We have left it unchanged since, in the few months since then, the Conservative government, which replaced the Coalition, has left the main thrust of educational policy-making unchanged, as exemplified by its drive against 'coasting schools' and its continuing pressure on schools to become academies.
# Background
The 1944 Education Act introduced secondary education for all in a 'maintained system' – that is, a system maintained by local education authorities in partnership with the voluntary bodies (mainly the churches) who owned many of the schools, along with the teaching profession and with central government (which had overall responsibility for ensuring there would be sufficient schools and teachers).
The 70 years since this major Act of Parliament have seen considerable changes:
* to greater government control in the partnership between central, local government and schools;
* in the evolving structure of 'secondary education for all' up to 16 (then education or training for all up to 18);
* in the creation of a teaching profession (through initial and continuing professional education) appropriate for these changes and higher aspirations;
* in the development of a national curriculum;
* in developing systems of testing and examining to reflect the achievements of all;
* in the increasing accountability of schools and of the system; and
* in the world of employment and higher education into which pupils are to enter.
Throughout this period, there have been considerable demographic and economic changes to which schools, colleges and the system have had to adapt, some more successfully than others.
More recently, many of the principles of the 1944 Education Act have given way to a system that:
* puts much greater power in the hands of the Secretary of State (diminishing thereby the powers of local authorities);
* has introduced voluntary, private and for-profit organisations into the control of schools; and
* made accountability much more focused on measurable targets.
The changes since 1976 are very substantial, therefore – indeed, revolutionary.
Much has been written about these developments, but in a fragmented way. What too often are lacking are concrete examples, which give life to successes and difficulties as schools, colleges, teachers, education establishments, examination boards and local authorities navigate their way through the changes.
This book, therefore, seeks to provide cases of the hopes and fears, the successes and failures over four decades in response to national policies. Then, drawing on these accounts and learning lessons from them, the book looks to the future, making a number of proposals for the way forward.
# [Part I
Introduction](content.xhtml#bck_part1)
Setting the scene
# [1
History and Overview of Changes 1976–2014](content.xhtml#bck_Ch01)
Martin Roberts and Richard Pring
## Introduction
The last 40 years have witnessed such radical changes in the educational and training system that few who are now engaged in teaching, and few among the general public, can have much conception of where the system has emerged. But it is important that they should do so. It is important to see how and why a system has changed in order to understand it critically and to see how it might be changed yet further for the better.
This book therefore seeks to provide an account of those changes, not simply through a historical narrative (although such a narrative permeates the chapters and is explicitly provided in this introductory chapter), but also through the experiences of those who have lived and worked through the changes and who have had to adapt, often critically, to them.
In Chapter 17 we draw together some of the major themes that emerge from the following chapters and make some recommendations for the next generation.
## Setting the scene
In particular, the 1944 Education Act preceded our history by several decades. But reference to it is necessary for two reasons. First, it shaped the educational system for 30 years, and the period covered in this book reflects the gradual erosion of that post-war political settlement. Second, such a reference shows starkly how matters have changed.
The 1944 Act created 'a national service locally administered'. It established a partnership between central government (which had ultimate responsibility for overall expenditure), local education authorities (which provided education to all children 'according to age, ability and aptitude'), the voluntary bodies (that is churches and non-denominational bodies that provided many of the schools now entering the national system) and the teachers. The Minister had two major responsibilities – to ensure there were enough school places for all pupils and to ensure there were enough teachers to teach them. The Minister had no control over what was taught or how it was taught – these were regarded as too important to be put in the hands of politicians. After all, a war was being fought against totalitarian governments whose government ministers controlled the schools and what was taught in them.
The Act never dictated how 'according to age, ability and aptitude' should be interpreted. That was in the hands of the local education authorities (LEAs) and the teachers. Most LEAs interpreted this for the new secondary system of education in terms of three types of school fitting (in the words of the 1943 Norwood Report) three types of adolescent, namely, grammar schools for the few capable of abstract thought and interested in ideas; technical schools for those interested in and capable of the application of ideas in technology; and secondary moderns for the majority who were more concerned with practical activities and the immediate environment. However, some authorities – London County Council, West Riding of Yorkshire and Leicestershire – decided to develop schools attended by children of all abilities and aptitudes as comprehensives.
Subsequent years saw the gradual questioning of this threefold division of adolescents and therefore of schools – a questioning that was evolving significantly during the period covered by this book.
Hence, this chapter provides an outline of the political and social changes that impacted on educational institutions between 1976 and 2015, as these have affected the 'national system locally administered'. Our contributors illuminate many of them in the following chapters.
## The political context
### Labour and Conservative governments 1945–2015
In the 70 years since the Second World War, Labour formed governments for 30 years, the Conservatives, including a Tory-dominated coalition, for 40. In our chosen period since 1976, Labour governed for 16, the Conservatives for 23. The sequence was as follows: Labour 1945–1951 (Attlee), Conservatives 1951–1964 (Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home), Labour 1964–1970 (Wilson), Conservatives 1970–1974 (Heath), Labour 1974–1979 (Wilson, Callaghan), Conservatives 1979–1997 (Thatcher, Major), Labour 1997–2010 (Blair, Brown), Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition 2010–2015 (Cameron).
The 1970s were a watershed in British politics. The quadrupling of the oil price after 1973 led to extraordinary inflation, which hit a record 25 per cent per annum in 1975. Simultaneously destructive industrial unrest caused the British economy, already weak, to lurch from crisis to crisis. In 1976, Denis Healey, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, had to negotiate a huge loan from the International Monetary Fund. The implicit consensus between the two main parties began to break. The final breaking point was the 'winter of discontent' in 1979 when public sector workers, fighting the attempt of Callaghan's government to sustain a pay policy, went on strike. Rubbish piled up in the street. Schools closed. A public sense that something was badly wrong helped Mrs Thatcher to power. Conservative policy after 1979 consciously shook off the One Nation Toryism of Macmillan and Heath. Similarly Blair's New Labour, which emerged in the 1990s, distanced itself in policy as well as in name from the Labour values of Wilson, Callaghan and Attlee, further developing policies initiated by Mrs Thatcher.
### The pre-1970s consensus
In 1954, The Economist coined the term 'Butskellism' to describe the common features of the policies of Butler, the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Gaitskell, his Labour counterpart. They both accepted the main achievements of the Attlee government, particularly the welfare state (which meant comparatively high and redistributive taxation) and the nationalisation of the country's major industries. They believed in a mixed economy with both private and public ownership. They were Keynesian in that they believed that the state should increase public spending in times of crisis to sustain overall demand and avoid significant rises in unemployment. They accepted that trade unions mattered and believed in the effectiveness of local authorities.
### The Thatcher/Blair consensus, 1979–the present
The Thatcher government rejected Keynesianism, which it considered to be the cause of serious inflation and the enemy of private enterprise. Influenced by Friedrich Hayek who argued for a diminished role for the state and by Friedman who considered inflation a greater threat than unemployment and whose monetarist doctrine stated that inflation was best reduced by the government controlling the amount of money in circulation, the Conservative government managed to bring inflation under control but at the price of high unemployment, which reached 3.2 million in 1985. Rather than a mixed economy it proved a firm believer in the superiority of private enterprise over public ownership. Major industries were privatised, for example British Gas and British Rail, and where possible market forces were given ever-greater freedom. The 'big bang' of 1986 deregulated the financial markets of the City of London and made possible, for good and ill, the rapid expansion of the City as a major player in global finance.
The Centre for Policy Studies, founded by Sir Keith Joseph in 1974 together with Margaret Thatcher and Alfred Sherman, argued the case for a Social Market economy and privatisation of such public monopolies as education and health – more deregulation and liberalisation. It considered 'educational vouchers' but thought that too big an undertaking. The philosophical thinking of Hayek and Friedman thereby entered into the management of public services in general and education in particular. It was cogently expressed by Sir Keith Joseph, later to become Secretary of State for Education, that:
the blind, unplanned, uncoordinated wisdom of the market is overwhelmingly superior to the well-researched, rational, systematic, well-meaning, cooperative, science-based, forward looking, statistically respectable plans of government.
(Joseph, 1976)
Thatcher's government kept a strict control over public expenditure, capping the funds it made available to local government, which it regarded as bloated and too close to the unions. As for public services, where she could not privatise, Mrs Thatcher centralised.
A new 'management language' was emerging in a series of Government White Papers that straddled the Thatcher/Blair years. The shift in the control and management of public services was explained in a series of Government White Papers from HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office: Modern Public Services in Britain: Investing in Reform (1988, Cm. 4011); Public Services for the Future: Modernisation, Reform, Accountability (1998, Cm. 4181); The Government's Measures of Success: Outputs and Performance Analyses (1999, Cm. 4200); Modernising Government (1999, Cm. 4310). One important consequence of these White Papers (and thus of the 'modernisation' of public services) was what was referred to as 'public service agreements'. These were agreements over funding from HM Treasury, first to Departments of State in terms of overall targets, which were then 'cascaded down' in more precise forms, to the institutions that were the responsibilities of the respective Departments. In education, this was spelt out partly in terms of the pro portion of students at different schools achieving so many GCSEs at different grade levels. But that gradually emerged as a way of rewarding teachers through 'performance-related pay'.
Where possible Thatcher's government cut income tax (for example, Lawson's 1988 Budget, which reduced the tax on the rich to 40 per cent and on everyone else to 25 per cent). As for the trade unions, breaking their power was a Thatcher priority, broadly supported by public opinion. Here 1984 was the key year when Scargill, the Marxist leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, who had humiliated Heath's government a decade earlier, called an all-out strike to end pit closures. The government was well prepared with plenty of coal stocks and police effectively deployed to prevent aggressive picketing. After a year the miners went back to work, totally defeated. The government passed a series of laws that severely restricted the power of the unions.
The Conservatives were able to stay in power for 18 years, but not because their policies were particularly popular. In the general election of 1987, when Mrs Thatcher was at her strongest, she won only 42 per cent of the vote with a turnout of 75 per cent of the electorate. Labour's problem in the 1980s was that it was dominated by the Left and the trades unions, and its moderates had split away to form the Social Democratic Party, which was to merge with the Liberals. Social and economic changes had undermined Old Labour and its traditional working class support in declining industrial areas. More voters thought of themselves as middle class. If Labour was ever to gain power, Blair with his small group of allies – Brown, Mandelson and Gould – decided that the party needed to be rebranded as New Labour and to accept the main Thatcherite policies of privatisation, low taxes, friendly towards business, cool towards the unions and local government, and centralising where public services were concerned. With the UK needing to compete in an increasingly global market, Blair and Brown saw no alternative but to encourage free enterprise. Blair, though he thought Mrs Thatcher a bit dotty, had much respect for her achievements, and she came to regard him as her real successor.
Like Thatcher, Blair's popularity was less well-rooted than it seemed. The main reason for New Labour's success in 1997 was the unpopularity of the Conservatives. He won only 44 per cent of the vote, less than Attlee and Wilson, and the voter turnout was lower too, at 71 per cent. His popularity declined in 2001 to 42 per cent of the voters, with 59 per cent voting. In 2005, his share of the vote had further declined to 35 per cent, with 61 per cent of the electorate voting. Throughout these years of radical reform neither Conservatives nor Labour had the explicit support of more than one in three of the electorate. After 2001 it dropped to one in four. More and more young people did not bother to vote.
Though in many ways the New Labour government had its distinctive policies, particularly with regard to relieving child poverty and support of minorities, the main thrust of its economics was similar to that of its predecessor, so much so that Peter Riddell writing in The Times commented that 'an economist from Mars would conclude that the same government had been in charge throughout the second half of the 1990s'.
## The implications for education of this dramatic political change post-1979
### Erosion of the political consensus
What did this mean for education? Before 1976, the political consensus accepted that schools should have freedom over the curriculum and gave LEAs the funding and discretion necessary to develop systems that best met local needs. Broadly speaking, it supported the end of selection at 11 plus and the spread of comprehensive schools. In the early 1970s Mrs Thatcher, as Secretary of State for Education, oversaw an accelerating comprehensive programme. The Schools Council, an advisory council on curriculum development and examinations, dominated by teachers but abolished by the Tory Sir Keith Joseph in 1984, was set up in 1964 by the Tory Sir Edward Boyle. The universities, expanding after the Robbins Report of 1963, were independent of government controls, their funding coming mainly through the independent Universities Grants Committee (UGC). Further Education (FE) too was expanding but remained the responsibility of LEAs.
However, when Callaghan spoke at Ruskin College in October 1976 this consensus was disintegrating. Within a few years, governments reduced education spending, the powers of local government and the independence of teachers. They encouraged the market through greater parental choice and a variety of schools (for example, Grant Maintained, City Technology Colleges, Specialist Schools, Academies, Free Schools and University Technical Colleges). The main criterion of the success of the education sector was to be seen in the extent to which it contributed to the economic success of UK plc. Ofsted would ensure accountability. And that accountability was expressed and conducted increasingly in the new language of management, that is, in terms of targets and performance indicators.
The key legislation, of course, was the 1988 Education Act, which in effect replaced that of 1944. Now the government was in charge of pupils' learning, establishing a detailed National Curriculum with ten levels of assessment, and funding directly (by-passing the LEAs) the new City Technology Colleges. From a 'national system locally maintained' was evolving a 'national system nationally maintained'.
The Conservatives had a deep-seated distrust of what they tended to describe as the 'education establishment', which in 2013 the Coalition Secretary of State, Michael Gove, referred to less decorously as 'the Blob'. This distrust had in the early 1970s been reflected in the Black Papers, edited by Cox and Dyson (1967–1972) for the Centre for Policy Studies, which attacked in particular the growing attachment to comprehensive schools. They were particularly suspicious of university-based teacher training, as reflected in Sheila Lawlor's paper 'Teachers Mistaught' (Lawlor, 1990).
By the Higher and Further Education Act of 1992, both higher and further education passed under greater government control. Mrs Thatcher distrusted university teachers as much as schoolteachers. A Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC) replaced the UGC and made sure that universities directed their efforts towards national priorities as defined by the government that, again like schools, were to increase the economic competitiveness of the UK. As for further education, the polytechnics became independent of LEAs, were renamed universities and funded through the HEFC. Other FE colleges also passed out of LEA control and were funded through the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) until the new Learning and Skills Council took on its functions in 2001. Both the Labour and Conservative parties in the twenty-first century came to believe that Higher Education (HE) and FE fees were unavoidable, though they argued about the fees' level.
New Labour accepted the main thrusts of Tory education policy, Choice and Diversity (the title of John Patten's White Paper in 1992) becoming a mantra. Blair thought teachers were among the forces of conservatism hampering him in his mission to modernise Britain, as set out in the White Papers referred to above. LEAs fared no better. When New Labour introduced its Academies programme in the 2002 Education Act, they would be directly answerable to the Secretary of State. In other ways New Labour was even more centralising than the Conservatives, enacting many laws and regulations and creating quangos. It was stronger too on accountability, Ofsted swelling in its size and authority after 1997. The influential teacher unions of the 1970s, particularly the National Union of Teachers (NUT), declined, especially after the protracted but fruitless strikes of 1985–1987.
Again there was considerable continuity when the Coalition took over from Labour in 2010. Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State, accelerated the Academies programme, introduced academy chains to establish many more academies run by churches, charities and for-profit companies such as Serco and Capita, and increased diversity and choice by introducing Free Schools. He continued the custom of Secretaries of State, if with unusual passion, to intervene in the curriculum and assessment.
As more women were working and keen to return to work after child-bearing, early years and nursery education gained a higher profile. One of the last Acts passed by John Major's government was the Nursery and Grant-Maintained Act of 1996, the aim of which was to encourage the expansion of nursery schools. A major and valuable initiative of New Labour was the Sure Start Programme, aimed at families living on benefits. It was intended not only to give potentially deprived children a better start in life but to help their mothers back to work. Since 2010 the Sure Start local programmes have become Sure Start Children's Centres and have the theoretical support of the main parties. Furthermore, the Labour government's 2004 Childen's Act Every Child Matters set out five outcomes for all children (be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution to society, and enjoy economic wellbeing). However in the post-2008 austerity, many of the Centres have suffered cuts.
### Examinations and examination standards
GCE O- and A-Level examinations started in 1951. In 1976 schools could choose from syllabuses offered by eight independent boards, which had started as university-run enterprises and had university teachers actively involved in the setting and evaluation of papers. They could also choose CSE syllabuses for their less academic pupils. The Certificate of Secondary Education was introduced in 1962 (first sat for in 1965) to provide a final examination goal for secondary modern students originally intended for the next 40 per cent of the ability range, after the 20 per cent who took O Level. It is worthy of note that, until this time, there were no publicly funded examinations for those not taking O-Level examinations. The CSE was conducted by many regional boards. However, as more schools went comprehensive, this dual system became increasingly clumsy and the two systems merged, with the first exams sat in 1988. GCE boards also merged and so now there are four main ones – AQA, Edexel, OCR and WJEB. Active involvement by university teachers is less. A new examination between GCSE and A Level, AS, was introduced in 2000. Much to the irritation of teachers, pupils and their parents, ministers tinkered frequently with exam details, for example, coursework and the recent proposal to decouple AS Level from A Level (see Chapter 10 for a deeper understanding of these changes).
The English and Welsh exam system has chalked up some impressive achievements. It caters for ever-increasing numbers, setting and marking to a tight timescale each year. Standards appear to be rising substantially over time. In 1976 only 23 per cent of pupils gained 5 A-C O-Level passes and 15 per cent of school leavers gained no grade at all. In 2014, 69 per cent reached the equivalent GCSE score with hardly any candidates failing to get at least one grade. At A-Level in 1976 only about 70 per cent gained at least one pass. In 2014 it was 96 per cent.
However, the question of whether or not present examinations are as difficult as their predecessors is hard to answer. Where A-Level pass rates are concerned, comparing 1976 with 2014 is impossible because in 1976 the results were norm-referenced, allowing only a fixed percentage to pass. In the 1980s the Boards introduced criterion referencing – that is, meeting specific levels achieved, not determined by formerly agreed norms. Some critics ascribe the striking improvements in grades to changes in the format of the exam papers. The syllabuses specify in greater detail how marks are allocated, and teachers have become evermore skilful in getting their pupils to concentrate on these specifications. Many of these critics would then argue that 'teaching to the test' in such a way is not obviously good educational practice. Recently teacher confidence in the reliability of the marking has lessened and the Boards have had difficulty in finding well-qualified markers. Moreover, in the attempts to bring equivalences between different sorts of examination within a single system, a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was established in the 1990s, superseded by the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) in 2007, intending to show how the myriad of vocational, prevocational, GCSE and A-Level qualifications related to each other in terms of equivalence in standard, even though they were radically different in content and purpose. By deft use of equivalences, schools' GCSE results rose dramatically, as did their place in the league tables.
In 2008 New Labour set up Ofqual to supervise the whole system. Successive governments have used this apparent (though, as indicated above, severely questioned) improvement in exam results, especially at GCSE, to argue that their reforms are working. The jury is out on this case. Not until the late 1990s did the Education Reform Act (ERA) reforms bed down. GCSE results improved rapidly from their start in 1988. Would they not have continued to improve if schools had been left to get on with the job?
### Vocational education and training
In 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, Britain was the leading industrial power whose inventors, engineers and technical prowess were the envy of the world. Soon that status was challenged, first by the USA and Germany and latterly by Asia. Since the nineteenth century, the inadequacy of our technical and vocational education, particularly in comparison to continental Europe, has been a frequent refrain. The Royal Commission on Technical Instruction articulated it strongly in 1884, so did the Spens Committee in 1938. The 1944 solution to the problem, new technical schools, failed because the near bankruptcy of the immediate post-war years meant that only a handful were ever built. Between 1945 and 1976 the best vocational education occurred in some secondary modern schools or post-16 colleges offering examinations provided by the City and Guilds of London Institute (CGLI) and by the RSA.
An important thread of the 1976 Ruskin speech was the need for the education system to respond more directly to the needs of the world of work. The collapse of manufacturing during the 1970s and 1980s and the jump in unemployment as a result of the first Conservative budgets after 1979 made technical and vocational education a priority of every government since then. A priority it may have been but, of all the unequivocal policy failures of the last 40 years, the inability to create a thriving vocational offer for 14–19-years-olds must rank among the worst.
Therefore, to promote more vocational education in schools, the Department for Education established the Further Education Unit (FEU) to develop general education courses and qualifications based on occupation-related interests. The FEU published a series of papers, beginning with A Basis for Choice and Vocational Preparations. These led to a series of ever-changing qualifications – CGLI 365, succeeded by CPVE, succeeded by DoVE, succeeded by 14–19 Diplomas, succeeded by nothing yet.
The Conservative government did get off to a good start in 1982 when it announced TVEI, the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, which tied in with these pre-vocational courses. Run not by the DfE but the Manpower Services Commission, established in 1974 so as to by-pass LEAs in the promotion and financing of employment-related activities in colleges and schools, it funded local projects where schools, colleges, LEAs and businesses developed their own schemes. The Education Reform Act (ERA) in 1988, with its emphasis on a new National Curriculum, effectively scuppered TVEI, which by 1997 had petered out. The Thatcher government also set up the National Council for Vocational Qualifications which established a system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and employer-led Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) to take responsibility for local youth training needs. In 1995, Major's government called on Sir Ron Dearing, who had already 'slimmed down' the National Curriculum, to bring some coherence to a messy range of academic and vocational qualifications. He recommended three pathways, (i) GCSEs/A Levels, (ii) GNVQs (General NVQs) and (iii) NVQs.
New Labour set up a new quango, the Learning and Skills Council, to provide a more coherent approach to education and training. However, in its short life of nine years that coherence eluded it. There were simply too many national, regional, local organisations and business interests competing for student-led funds. Experts clamoured for a new approach that would bring 'parity of esteem' between the academic and vocational pathways. In 2004 the Tomlinson Report on the 14–19 Reform seemed to find a way forward with its plan for an overarching Diploma. However, despite its widespread professional support (and the Secretary of State, Ed Balls' claim that this would be the qualification of choice for all 14–18 year olds), Prime Minister Blair vetoed it as electorally too risky as it might seem to challenge the A-Level gold standard. A new big idea of Advanced Diplomas sank under the weight of its ambitions. The essence of the British problem with vocational education was, as Alison Wolf put it in 2002, that it was 'a great idea for other people's children'. The many attempts to design an effective vocational pathway were for the most part designed by civil servants and advisers who themselves had little experience of industry and business and had no thought of encouraging their own children to follow such a pathway. Most pupils, looking at the world around them, decided that their life chances were better if they stuck to GCSEs and A Levels.
The Coalition government abolished the Learning and Skills Council and called in Alison Wolf to review the existing state of vocational qualifications. She recommended a cull of many of the Applied GCSEs and other qualifications that had emerged over the years, endorsed BTEC as an A-Level equivalent and apprenticeships as a good way forward (Wolf, 2011). The government accepted her recommendations. Nonetheless our technical and vocational provision remains poor compared with much of the developed world.
## Social contexts
### Female empowerment
The first challenges to the many post-war conventions, which were to change British society irrevocably, occurred in the 1960s. These conventions included the importance of marriage, the disapproval of sex outside marriage and of divorce and only a limited number of jobs being regarded, at least by the middle classes, as suitable for women. In the 1970s, the pace of empowerment quickened. Germaine Greer's Female Eunuch was published in 1970 and feminist attitudes proved infectious. Also in 1970, the Labour government passed the Equal Pay Act, following the 'Made in Dagenham' strike of female machinists at the Ford plant. The contraceptive pill became available on the NHS in 1975. Women increasingly believed that the opportunities which men had always taken for granted should be also open to them and that they could organise their lives to seize them.
This new ambition was expressed particularly clearly in education. Girls had always done better than boys at 11+ but in the 1980s they did better at GCSE, continued into the sixth form and then on to university. By 1996 women applicants just about outnumbered male ones but, by 2014, when a record number of students (about 40 per cent of the cohort) entered university, women significantly outnumbered men. There remained an issue about choice of subjects, with physics and technological subjects still being male-dominated both at school and university. Nonetheless, though full equality had yet to be achieved, the transformation of British society has been great. Britain had had a female prime minister. Whereas in the 1979 election, 11 women had been elected to Parliament, in 2010 it was 142. Many of the country's outstanding headteachers were female, and England's women's cricket, football and rugby teams often did better on the international stage than their male counterparts. For the most part, schools and universities (even the once proudly segregated Oxbridge colleges) contributed positively to this change.
### Immigration and race relations
Another socially transforming trend has been immigration. Starting after the war with immigrants from the West Indies, others from the Indian sub-continent soon followed. By 1956, the new immigrant population was assessed at about 180,000 and rapidly increased during the 1960s. Governments quietly approved of immigration as its mainly cheap labour boosted the economy. However, immigration caused public disquiet, which was extravagantly though popularly expressed in 1968 by the Conservative MP Enoch Powell in his 'rivers of blood' speech. Successive governments have tried both to limit immigration by a series of Immigration Acts and to encourage racial harmony by such measures as the Race Relations Acts of 1968 and 1976. Efforts to limit numbers have failed. In 1981, the immigrant population had reached more than 2 million, about 4 per cent of the population. According to the 2011 census, the proportion of whites had fallen to 86 per cent, with ethnic minorities rising to more than 10 per cent. They tended to be concentrated in conurbations, especially London and the West and East Midlands. This increase has been due partly to legal immigration (though much unquantifiable illegal immigration has taken place) and people seeking asylum from trouble spots like Somalia, and partly to the higher fertility rates of immigrant families. In recent years, immigration from countries of Eastern Europe that are members of the EU, particularly Poland, has risen sharply. In 2013, though the Coalition government was trying to lessen it to 'tens of thousands', net migration into the UK was c.212,000.
Relationships between the races have often been difficult. Serious race riots occurred in 1981 in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side (mainly against the police), in 1985 in Brixton and Birmingham, and in 2001 in some northern towns. The Ouseley Report in 2003, Community Pride, Not Prejudice, made strong recommendations on the important role of schools. The worst riots of all in 2011, which started in London and spread to other cities, had racial elements. They were sparked by the police shooting of a black man who they suspected of gun crime, and more than half the rioters were black youths. However, many white youths attacked the police and property, making the rioting more anarchic than racist.
A low point in race relations came in 1993 when a black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, on his way home from school, was murdered by a white gang. The Metropolitan Police botched the inquiry and failed to bring the suspects to justice. The subsequent Macpherson Report accused the Met of institutional racism.
The DfE, LEAs and urban schools have responded to this immense challenge impressively. The impact of London Challenge on the performance of these schools in particular has been impressive. But, much previously, the Wilson government started Section 11 funding to help ethnic minorities. This funding continues as the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG). Almost without exception schools have committed themselves to an explicit anti-racist agenda.
### Religious trends
English people, though most still call themselves Anglican, have largely stopped being practising Christians. Barely 10 per cent attended church regularly in the 1970s and that number has steadily fallen. Though the Church of England remains the national Established Church, it came to look increasingly anachronistic, especially because of its protracted debates about homosexuality and whether women could become priests. On the other hand, it should be noted that the 1944 Act, in order to create a national system, had to include within it 'voluntary controlled' (Anglican) and 'voluntary aided' (Catholic) schools that, at that time, provided education for the majority of pupils. The national system was, and remained until recently, a partnership between the government, the local education authorities and the churches.
Paradoxically, within education, Christian and other 'faith' schools have flourished. In 1976 the only 'faith' schools were Christian or Jewish. They proved popular and tended to show up well in the league tables that appeared in the 1990s. Their supporters argued that their religious ethos gave their schools extra cohesion and purpose; their critics, that they did better simply because their admissions procedures favoured able pupils. By 2014 not only were there more Christian schools (one of which taught the 'creationist' explanation of evolution) and Jewish ones, but in addition 18 Muslim, eight Sikh and four Hindu. Blair's New Labour government particularly encouraged new 'faith' schools though many warned that they were potentially socially divisive.
Governments still required all non-faith state schools to have a daily collective act of worship of a broadly Christian character, a requirement that most, supported by their governors and parents, ignored. When in 2014, a few schools in Birmingham with predominantly Muslim pupils, some 'faith' schools, some not, developed distinctly Islamic traits, the Coalition government quickly drew up a list of 'British' values that all schools had to be seen to foster. The list of values was unexceptional, including respect for English laws, individual freedom and the toleration of other people's beliefs. They do not include any mention of Christianity.
### Minorities
Britain became a more tolerant society. As well as more accepting of different races and religions, the disabled got a better deal. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 aimed to ensure that disabled people were treated in a fair and equal way, especially with regard to shops, facilities and services. Wherever possible, disabled people should feel integrated. The Warnock Report of 1981 about Special Needs reflected the same philosophy. Physically disabled pupils and those with learning difficulties should attend mainstream schools. Although the subsequent Special Needs regulations have been strongly criticised by many, including Baroness Warnock, schools and colleges have fulfilled the aims of the report.
Another area of human activity to which Britons generally have become more tolerant is sexual differences. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967. 'Coming out' grew more common. Eventually, though the Tory Right and many religious groups opposed it, the Coalition government legislated for same sex marriages.
### Inequality, poverty and class
Britain remained one of the most class-conscious nations in the world. Though the class system was more porous and more people thought of themselves as 'middle class' and lived what was seen as a middle-class life style in housing, taste and holidays, an upper or upper-middle class continued to dominate. With the decline of the trade unions, the Labour leadership became more meritocratic while the Tories retained a leadership with independent school and Oxbridge backgrounds. One clear consequence of the Thatcher revolution was increasing inequality. Comparatively high levels of unemployment left many working-class people in poverty and dependent on benefits. Wealth did not obviously trickle down from the rich to the poor, and London and the South East obviously prospered more than the North. Blair and Brown certainly tried to tackle inequality after 1997 but by and large they failed. The 2008 crash and following recession, the worst since the 1930s, made matters much worse, and the popular perception was that the austerity measures of the Coalition after 2010 hit everybody hard except the rich.
That inequality was reflected particularly in education where 7 per cent of the pupils are educated in independent schools, many of which are much more lavishly resourced than those within the state system, reinforcing the class divide.
In education, New Labour tried a number of policies of which Sure Start proved the most lasting. It set up Education Action Zones (EAZs) in 1998 as part of a New Deal for Communities. These to some extent were modelled on the Education Priority Areas that had been created in 1962 and that enabled resources and extra teachers to be directed at schools in deprived inner-city areas. Another initiative, Excellence in Cities, aimed at inner-city schools, was launched the same year as the EAZ's. The EAZ's foundered after a few years but Excellence in Cities proved more effective. Initially New Labour aimed its new Academies at poverty stricken areas. For its part, the Coalition has created a 'pupil premium' aimed at disadvantaged children in order to reduce the attainment gap between them and their peers. Though the evidence is mixed, a combination of such initiatives, of others like the London Challenge of 2003 and the success of many individual schools serving deprived areas, seem to have improved examination results, and more importantly, raised the aspirations of many of our most disadvantaged pupils.
### Youth culture
Youth culture is an amorphous topic but one that obviously affects schools. Often it is defined by activities that interest the media, social problems that schools are expected to solve – drugs, alcohol abuse, knife crime, teenage pregnancies, early sexualisation, lack of respect for authority, racism and so on. Other trends may be more important since they could affect pupils' attitudes more generally: for example, excessive interest in celebrities, consumerism and interactive mobile phones and tablets, disinterest in national or international politics in local clubs and societies, or more positively a greater commitment to educational success. In his Education in Britain 1944 to the Present (2003) Ken Jones detected 'a new student culture emerging in which successful examination performance had a central part'. Pink Floyd's 'We don't need no education' of 1979 resonated less.
However, accounts of education usually neglect the importance of the Youth Service, which serves young people still at school. According to the National Youth Agency in 2010, 28 per cent of all 13–19-year-olds were in contact with some form of youth service, many of them from the most desperate backgrounds in terms of family breakdown and potential abuse. But youth centres suffered worst from the cuts to the education budget at the beginning of the Coalition government. In Greater London, eight of its thirteen youth centres were closed. In some other local authorities there was 100 per cent closure.
### National identity
Britain joined the European Union in 1973. As the years have passed, critics of the EU have grown more vociferous and gained greater public support. Governments have granted greater devolution to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Should England and its regions have greater autonomy is a live question in 2015, so too is how healthy is British democracy? Ethnic minorities, notably Muslim communities, seem to be retaining their own cultural values. Governments have expected schools to contribute to a sense of national identity, whether it was the Conservatives requiring more British history in the National Curriculum, or New Labour introducing compulsory citizenship education, or the Coalition insisting on 'British values' being taught. Such initiatives pose difficult philosophic questions for teachers in a free society.
### The digital revolution
Currently education systems are grappling with the implications of this technological revolution, which began in the late 1970s and has accelerated since then. British governments were swift to respond to it. From 1981 to 1984 the Thatcher government gave £8 million to schools through its Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP). Both primary and secondary schools purchased in large numbers the BBC Acorn computer and Research Machines (RM) products. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) became part of the National Curriculum. New Labour strongly supported greater investment in ICT. It set up the British Education Communication and Technology Agency (BECTA) in 1999 and made £230 million available to schools. ICT and Computer Science courses proliferated. However there were problems. For headteachers, investment in the best technology posed significant problems, partly because of the cost, partly, in the early years, because of reliability and partly because of the pace of innovation. Pupils too often had more sophisticated equipment at home than their schools. Teacher training lagged behind the investment in hardware and in the early twenty-first century pupils reported being bored with their ICT lessons, which focused on the introduction of comparatively undemanding computing skills. The numbers taking GCSE and A-Level courses fell. The Coalition government abolished BECTA in 2010 and in 2014 had the National Curriculum in ICT revised so pupils would gain a deeper understanding of computer technology through learning, for example, what algorithms are and how to create and debug computer programs.
In most schools digital technology is now ubiquitous, with electronic white-boards, iPads and other tablets, an array of computers in staff rooms and departmental offices, and linking parents to the school. As yet the impact on learning remains unclear. Most teachers agree that used well, digital technology improves motivation and is an immediate help with individual project work. It seems to be proving a real help for pupils having difficulty with basic literacy and numeracy. There are however no obvious signs yet of digital technology superseding the teacher at the heart of the learning process.
## Conclusion
Consequently, there have been 40 years of radical political and economic change and of far-reaching social trends, to which schools, colleges and universities have had to respond. The central question on which the contributors to this book reflect is the extent to which the Thatcher-Blair-Cameron consensus has created an educational policy framework that has enabled our teachers to help their pupils flourish to their individual benefit and to the advantage of their country.
## References
Jones, K., 2003, Education in Britain 1944 to the present day, Oxford: Blackwell.
Joseph, K., 1976, Stranded on the middle ground?: reflections on circumstances and policies, London: Centre for Policy Studies.
Lawlor, S., 1990, Teachers Mistaught, London: Centre of Policy Studies.
Wolf Report, 2011, Review of Vocational Education, London: DfE.
# [2
The Revolution Begins](content.xhtml#bck_Ch02)
Lord Kenneth Baker
## Introduction
In 1976 James Callaghan, the Prime Minister, startled the educational world by making a speech that dared to question the quality of education being provided in many schools. Prime ministers were not meant to do this; they should not trample in the sacred vineyard of a school's curriculum. Callaghan's views were strongly opposed by virtually all the different bodies in education: teachers, teacher unions, schools, colleges, local education authorities and the departments of education in universities. Indeed his own Secretary of State, Shirley Williams, opposed his views and so little was achieved, but by the 1979 election he had started the ball rolling.
When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979 it was expected that there would be new and innovative ideas introduced on education and some were tried, like school vouchers, but after a short time they were withdrawn. The Assisted Places Scheme gave state pupils a scholarship to attend certain private schools – this was the first measure to be scrapped by the Labour government in 1997. But there were no major radical steps in the development of a national curriculum and by 1985 there was a general feeling that little had been achieved. Indeed Oliver Letwin, an adviser in No. 10 to Margaret Thatcher and who was later to become a cabinet minister under David Cameron, sent a minute to the Prime Minister in 1982 when Letwin was returning from politics to banking, which started, 'Dear Prime Minister, You have failed in education'. He could have softened his minute by saying, 'Your ministers have failed' or 'Your government has failed' but no, he attributed it to Margaret's own personal lack of interest in making significant educational changes.
The whole education scene in the mid-1980s had been dominated by a teachers' strike that had been ongoing for 18 months. In 1986 Margaret decided that she really had to make a change – Keith Joseph, her education minister whom she admired enormously and listened to a great deal, said he wanted to step down. I was lucky enough to be asked by Margaret to become the Secretary of State of Education and Science at a time when British industry was highly critical of the output of schools: many students on leaving school were barely literate or numerate and many were ill-disciplined for the world of work.
## Secretary of State of Education and Science
When I went to see Margaret Thatcher on my appointment in May 1986 I expected to be given a list of things that she wanted done, but that wasn't how it happened. She said to me, 'Kenneth we have the teachers' strike and we must try and resolve it as soon as possible, but as regards policy go away and work up some ideas and come back to me in a month's time'. This was just what I wanted because I had my own ideas as to what needed to be done. She warned me about the Department for Education (DfE) and I remember her saying to Keith Joseph in 1983, 'You have an awful Department'. I set about shaping the changes with discussions, always roundtable, with senior civil servants, the other ministers, and my political adviser Tony Kerpel to agree what changes we would like to see.
There were two changes in particular that I wanted to introduce. I had come to realise that a national curriculum was necessary as the current arrangement meant that every school shaped its own curriculum, and so when you had a good headteacher you had a good curriculum; with a mediocre headteacher a mediocre curriculum; and with a poor headteacher a poor curriculum. Moreover there was tremendous inconsistency all over the country so when a family moved from, say, Northumberland to Devon their children joined a very different almost foreign system of education. I agreed very much with the phrase that Rab Butler once used, that all children should go through 'the common mill of education'. That was the really inspiring justification of the National Curriculum.
I also wanted to establish Technical Schools. Back in 1981 when I was the minister of Information Technology I had visited a college in Notting Hill that specialised in taking 16-year-olds who had left the education system with no certificate whatsoever and training them in computing. It was very interesting to see young people, particularly black students, sitting at computers, enthusiastic to learn and paying great attention. They knew among other things that to make music well they had to master a computer. In the wake of the Brixton riots in April 1981 we established a network of such colleges called Information Technology Centres (ITechs) across the country and I saw real transformation in the experience and life opportunities of their students. I had talked about the possibility of establishing such colleges with Keith Joseph on several occasions but never really got anywhere.
I compiled a list of proposals for the Prime Minister that included:
* The establishment of a national curriculum in a number of basic subjects.
* The provision of testing the achievement of students at the ages of 7, 11 and 14.
* The publication of the results of schools – league tables.
* The establishment of colleges independent of local authorities – City Technology Colleges – focusing upon computer technology, being funded partly by business.
* A system whereby schools as a result of a ballot of parents could move to become grant-maintained, independent of local education authorities.
* Polytechnics to cease being controlled by local authorities and become independent education institutions.
* Probably one of the most important changes: to devolve the management of a school's budget from the local education authority to the management of the head and the governing body. A trial in Cambridgeshire had shown secondary schools could do this and I built on this; and
* Per capita funding for schools and universities so that money would follow the student.
After many ministerial discussions this list was approved and it featured in the 1987 Conservative election manifesto, running over nine pages. It was the most systematic and thorough overhaul of education since 1945. After the election it fell to me to put flesh on the bones. I knew these proposals would be controversial, even to many Conservative local education authorities, so I was at great pains to balance the various working groups with a complete range of views and opinions from Left to Right, from top to bottom. I hoped that some curriculum groups would be free of controversy, like maths, but not at all. Feudal armies seemed to march in favour or against students being allowed to use calculators, to learn tables by heart, or to teach calculus below 16. It took some time to get agreement. I knew that history would be controversial so I took pains to get an outsider involved – Commander Michael Saunders-Watson who owned a stately home with a large educational wing attached to it and who was later to become chairman of the National Library. On English I appointed some of the people on the Right who had written the Black Paper series – very controversial and critical papers of the educational system – in the hope they would come up with a rigorous proposal, but I was to be disappointed – they were not concerned with basic punctuation or grammar. I set up another group, headed this time by an engineer, to produce a much more down-to-earth curriculum.
I also set about selling the idea of City Technology Colleges to groups of businesses. I went to see all the large companies likes Rolls-Royce, ICI, and Shell but they were not interested at all. They wanted the basic state system to be improved, but none were clear how that might be done. Then I turned to entrepreneurs like James Hanson, Harry Djanogly, John Hall, Phil Harris, Stanley Kalms, Geoffrey Leigh and Peter Vardy, who were prepared to put £1 million towards sponsoring a school and get involved with a curriculum that aimed at improving the quality of education and life chances of its students. Eventually, long after I had left the Department, some 15 City Technology Colleges existed, the first of the academies and still some of the most successful schools in the country.
It was clear that the comprehensive system imposed by the Labour government in the 1960s was failing our children. All-ability classes were holding many back and the staying on rate at 16 was one of the lowest in the developed world. Only 12 per cent of our 18-year-olds went on to higher education. The remaining grammar schools, together with the private schools, were creating an elite of very well-educated students. What I wanted to achieve was for state-funded schools to strive to do as well and give to parents the greater choice in deciding which school was best for their children.
The Labour Party said they were opposed to virtually everything I had introduced and they promised to repeal them once in government. It was important therefore for the Conservatives to stay in office as long as possible to ensure that the reforms had bedded down. In the event there was not a general election that Labour could win until 1997 and that allowed the National Curriculum and the other reforms to be established. I am very glad to say that Tony Blair, his first Education Secretary David Blunkett, and their education adviser Andrew Adonis kept intact 90 per cent of the reforms I had introduced. In fact Tony Blair came to develop academies using the City Technology College as his model. He wanted more schools to be independent of local education authorities, and Andrew Adonis encouraged Blair to announce in 2004 that Labour wanted to see a target of 200 academies established. When Labour left office in 2010 there were in fact 273.
The changes were so radical that many Conservative authorities did not like them and sought to continue running their own schools. There was always a number of backbench MPs who tried to weaken the changes, by example setting a very high level of support in the parental elections for Grant Maintained Schools. Throughout Margaret Thatcher gave me her full support and that's what you expect from a great leader supporting one of her embattled ministers.
The overall impact of my proposals was to devolve as much power as possible to the individual schools and colleges. The metaphor I used at the time was that I wanted to move things out from the hub of the wheel to the rim, because at the rim schools could be independent and use their own inventiveness and creativity. I was often accused of concentrating too much power in the centre by creating the National Curriculum but I was quite prepared to defend it – the government was right to create the basis of core knowledge that pupils should follow, and I never attempted to tell teachers how to teach it. There was sufficient choice within the National Curriculum for schools to be as varied and creative as they wished to be.
The big regret I have from that time was that I was unable to extend the teaching day by at least one period. I did not bring in that change because in the eventual settlement of the teachers' strike I had to agree the number of hours that a teacher spent a year teaching. If it was increased by 45 minutes I would have opened up a huge new Pandora's Box of debates with the unions and I was not prepared to undertake another battle with them.
So what did I learn as an education reformer?
* First, if you want to change fundamentally the performance of traditional schools, you must create an institution that can show that it will lead to a better result for students. Parents, students and the local community must be able to see the new institution actively working. We had to get a City Technology College up and running. It was not easy as local authorities were not willing to create competition by releasing an empty school. One of the few education authorities held by the Conservatives was Solihull and they offered a failing and closing school in Kingshurst, and we were lucky to find an outstanding head, Valerie Bragg. The Kingshurst CTC soon became one of the most successful schools in the country, a position it holds to this day. This CTC became an exemplar for a further 14.
* You cannot secure reform alone. To develop CTCs I appointed Cyril Taylor, an independent education expert, who injected dynamism into the team that I had set up in the Department. Tony Kerpel, my personal and political adviser, became a key figure particularly by ensuring that my intentions were understood by the key officials in the Department.
* You do need allies. The educational establishment in the universities was hostile to any politician who wanted something fundamentally different. The teacher unions were predictably hostile, but I remembered Keith Joseph's advice to me: 'Don't make the mistake I made of attacking the teachers'. I decided to get the parents on my side. The publication of school results was key since it gave to parents essential information that could allow them to exercise choice for the education of their children. Parents were also given a vote to decide whether their school should be Grant Maintained. A new variety of schools gave parents for the first time an opportunity to choose.
In 1997 I left the House of Commons and I was pleased that Tony Blair's first government, David Blunkett his first Education Secretary, and Blair's main educational adviser Andrew Adonis decided to accept the reforms that had been implemented since the passing of the Education Reform Act in 1988. The only significant change was the abolition of Grant Maintained Schools, which had to be brought back under the control of local authorities – it was Labour's sop to the Left, but even that was partially reversed with the later introduction of Trust Schools.
## University Technical Colleges
Over the years I had kept in touch with Ron Dearing whom I had first met when he was the Chairman of the Post Office and after his retirement I was the first to offer him a post in education with the Council for National Academic Awards, the body that regulated polytechnic qualifications. The position launched him in a very influential post-retirement career in education – he produced several key reports on student fees, curriculum reform, technical qualifications and foreign language in primary schools, quite apart from actively supporting new Christian academies. We met up again in 2007 and decided that the one thing that was missing in the English education system was good technical high schools.
The model Ron Dearing and I developed we called University Technical Colleges. They were for students from 14 to 18 and we both agreed that Mike Tomlinson's report to the Labour government supporting a 14–18 curriculum was absolutely the correct direction for English education. UTCs operate from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 40 weeks of the year. This extended day and shorter holidays added a whole extra teaching year over the four years. The curriculum would devote 40 per cent of the teaching time for 14–16-year-olds to practical, technical, vocational hands-on learning, and 60 per cent to the basic GCSE subjects – English, maths, the three sciences, a foreign language and a humanities subject. The other key features were that a university would be asked to sponsor the UTC – this meant that the university would go into the UTC to help with teaching and to introduce students to the resource riches of a university. The university would also be partly responsible for shaping the specialist curriculum. In this it would be helped by local companies and employers who knew what skills were needed locally. The Baker Dearing Educational Trust (BDET) expects employers not only to help shape the specialist technical curriculum with the university, but also to provide projects for the students and then help with teaching them.
The BDET is grateful to the Edge Foundation for granting us £150,000 to get started. We used the grant to print a brochure explaining UTCs and to commission Exeter University to produce a report on how all the schemes and proposals to improve technical education since 1870 had failed.
Ron and I then went to see the Schools Minister Andrew Adonis who immediately liked the UTC idea and said that he would provide financial support for two. We were buoyed up by this generous support and decided that I should begin by approaching a university. I rang up Julia King, the Vice Chancellor of Aston University, one of our leading engineering universities, and who is herself a qualified engineer. Julia liked the UTC concept very much and committed her university to support us. We then won the support of Birmingham Council, where the education director and leader of the council, Mike Whitby, provided an empty site very close to the university. We met with several local employers – national and small – who wanted just this sort of school: the Aston University Engineering Academy is today over-subscribed.
Ron Dearing and I then had to make a big decision. Should we proceed with the two UTCs for which we had the government's support by getting them open in, say, two years and then measuring their success after a further three or four years? This would mean if the UTCs were successful we would not find out until 2014–2015. We agreed that the demand for such schools was so pressing we must get as many going as soon as possible, but we also recognised that such a policy had real risks. These were novel and unique schools blending technical and academic education, and while some would succeed there could also be failures. Undaunted we decided to go flat out to establish as many as we could. We managed to get five groups interested to establish the first five UTCs, and sure enough two ran into difficulties. But the next 12 UTCs were infinitely better – some are now outstanding – it was a reminder that the path of reform is never a faultless road.
As an election was approaching in 2010 it was necessary to win the support of the other political parties. I met David Cameron, the Leader of the Opposition, George Osborne, and Michael Gove all of whom liked the UTC idea and committed an incoming Conservative government in their manifesto to establish 12 UTCs. David Cameron picks up new ideas very quickly and saw how UTCs could certainly help with his 'Broken Society' by engaging the disengaged 13–14-year-olds who were fed up with the education they were getting in their comprehensives. I am glad to say that UTCs have gained all-party support: created under Labour and expanded under the Coalition.
The target of all UTCs is to ensure that when students leave at 16 or 18 none should join the ranks of the unemployed – no NEETs. It is a target that we meet. UTCs are major agents of social mobility: we provide opportunities for thousands of young people that they would not have had if they had remained at their previous schools.
One of the extraordinary features of the UTC movement is that it has been left to a charity, the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, to be the main promoter of UTCs and also to help them to become properly established as well as to ensure they meet the criteria of their specialist technical curriculum. This requires our charity to retain a significant team of ex-headteachers and inspectors, and to maintain a constant relationship with officials in the DfE and in some cases with local education authorities. If it had been left to the DfE to promote UTCs I do not believe that by now as many as 60 would have been approved.
# [Part II
Schools](content.xhtml#bck_part2)
# [3
The Early Years](content.xhtml#bck_Ch03)
Wendy Scott
## Introduction
It has been extremely interesting to reflect on the radical change in education over two generations. The trajectory of changes in early years education, as this chapter will show, though as radical as those affecting primary and secondary sectors, is different and more complicated.
I must immediately acknowledge the deep and lasting value of the Froebel training that I undertook between 1958 and 1961. Having refused to go to Cambridge and instead entering the Froebel Educational Institute (FEI) with the intention of teaching secondary maths, I was waylaid by the early years programme. It was taught socratically, and included the philosophy, psychology, sociology and history of education. During the three-year course, we also had lectures from health and social services professionals as well as artists and artisans. Molly Brearley, the FEI Principal, had a strong influence on Children and their Primary Schools, the Plowden Report, which was published in 1967.
Although more recent research has questioned some conclusions of the Report, Plowden's central tenet remains as true for effective education of young children in 2015 as it was in 1967: 'At the heart of the educational process lies the child'. In the early years, children have not yet learned to be pupils. They bring such varied expectations and experience with them to school, that teachers must pay attention to each individual in the context of their families and cultures. The most radical change in education policy since the 1980s is that individual children's needs and broader potential achievements have become secondary to the current standards agenda, directed by political ideology that is aligned with a simplistic economic model.
## Teaching 1976–1981
In 1974, I returned to teaching after seven years at home looking after my two young children. I was appointed to open a new nursery class during the brief period of expansion of nursery provision in Education Priority Areas, introduced by Margaret Thatcher when she was Secretary of State for Education. Given a headteacher with little awareness of or interest in the early years, and a demountable classroom across the playground from his office, I had complete autonomy on curriculum and organisation and was able to work closely with parents and also with health visitors and the probation service. This freedom continued throughout the time I was teaching, up to the mid-1980s.
## Headship 1981–1986
I then became the teaching head of a demonstration nursery school on a university campus. This role involved full curricular, pastoral and management responsibilities in addition to full-time teaching. As headteacher, I had total freedom to design and implement the curriculum in collaboration with outstanding staff, and had control of the budget, apart from the costs related to the premises and staff salaries. The nursery built strong links with lecturers: I believe it was the first school in the country to introduce philosophy seminars for four-year-olds, and our ground-breaking work with the BBC B computer and the remote-controlled 'turtle' was made possible through additional expert support from the college. We welcomed many students and visitors from around the world; at this time, there was global interest in the enlightened British approach to primary and early years education.
Because of the advantages the nursery school enjoyed, we were able to specialise in the education of children with language difficulty and delay, and worked closely with other services. A speech therapist agreed to hold her clinic in an adjoining tutorial room. There she was able to observe her clients in a naturalistic environment through the one-way windows and advise on children where there were concerns. A school doctor came in regularly to undertake health checks. The publication of the Warnock report on Special Educational Needs (SEN) in 1978 provided a framework for our commitment to work on SEN.
I was fortunate in having a headship at a high point for nursery education and consider that this was the time in my career when I was able to have the most effective influence on children, their families, students and other colleagues through respectful reciprocal relationships.
## Some of the main developments in nursery education and the early years curriculum
I left headship in 1986. As I moved to a variety of non-school posts, it will be useful at this stage to outline some of the main national policy shifts in both nursery education and the early years curriculum.
### Nursery education
Historically, the provision of nursery education has been patchy across the UK. The Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) study showed that highly qualified early years staff make a crucial difference to children's achievement, at least up to the end of Key Stage 2, but although they have by far the highest proportion rated outstanding by Ofsted of any part of the education system, the number of maintained nursery schools in England since the 1990s has fallen by more than 20 per cent. They are often the preferred setting for inclusion and social care referrals for vulnerable children and their families. Sixty per cent of nursery schools in England already offer funded places for disadvantaged two-year-olds and more are in the process of setting this up. Given the difficulty of finding sufficient high-quality places for the two-year-old programme, these placements are a vital resource. Nevertheless, maintained nursery schools are facing an uncertain future as a result of reducing budgets and the drive to a Single Funding Formula across providers in each local authority (LA). Nursery school headteachers now have to manage very complex demands, especially where the school forms part of a Children's Centre. In common with primary and secondary education, the role of headteacher has changed considerably, not least because of the high levels of accountability. The particular demands of work in disadvantaged areas, where outreach to parents is a high priority, are not generally recognised, although the recent introduction of the Pupil Premium, albeit at a much lower level than for school-aged children, will go some way to addressing these problems.
In 2013, the Education Select Committee recommended that government should 'set out a strategy for ensuring the survival of those [maintained Nursery Schools] that remain'. The government response to this recommendation failed to address the issue and showed a worrying lack of understanding of the distinctive qualities of nursery schools led by specialist headteachers.
### Key government initiatives from 1989
Just after the introduction of the National Curriculum for children of statutory school age, the DES published guidance on The Education of Children Under Five, written by HMI in 1989. It provided illustrations of a play-based curriculum expressed through nine interlinked areas of learning and experience, which offered
a broad, balanced, differentiated and relevant curriculum which takes into account the assessment of children's progress, promotes equal opportunities irrespective of gender, ethnic grouping or socio-economic background, and responds effectively to children's special educational needs life.
The Rumbold Report (1990) provided an authoritative guide to provision for the early years, which remains pertinent to this day and informs the principles of the current Early Years Foundation Stage. These are hard to sustain given the increasingly demanding expectations of school readiness and other accountability measures.
In 1992, the government commissioned a discussion paper, Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools, which recommended among other things that the teacher should be an instructor rather than a facilitator and that there should be a more direct emphasis on subject teaching. Written by Robin Alexander, Jim Rose and Chris Woodhead, it became known as 'The Three Wise Men's Report'. Tricia David, Audrey Curtis and Iram Siraj-Blatchford (three wise women), concerned by the focus on instruction and the likely negative effect of this on the early years, countered in 1993 with a well-referenced booklet Fostering Children's Learning in Nurseries and Infant Classes.
In 1996 the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority identified Desirable Outcomes for Children's Learning before Compulsory School Age (DLOs). This was the first time that outcomes had been specified in early years and there was considerable unease among practitioners who feared that teaching would be unduly influenced by expectations of outcomes rather than being seen as extending children's learning in a developmentally appropriate way.
The DLOs were replaced by the Labour government that came into power in 1997, who instead put in place Early Learning Goals as part of the Foundation Stage, introduced in 2000.
As nursery provision expanded through Sure Start (see below), which drew in younger children, Birth to Three Matters was published in 2002 to provide information, guidance and challenge for all those with responsibility for the care and education of children up to the age of three. It valued and celebrated babies and children, recognised their individuality, efforts and achievements, and acknowledged that all children have a need to develop learning through interaction with empathetic people and exploration of the world around them, from birth. The Framework took the child as its focus, steering away from subjects, specific areas of experience and distinct curriculum headings.
The Birth to Three Matters Framework, though based on a thorough analysis of the literature and welcomed across the sector, was discontinued in 2012, following the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the Early Years Profile (the assessment at the end of the Foundation Stage) undertaken by Dame Clare Tickell in 2011. This resulted in a simplification of the Profile, and combined regulatory standards and guidance for children from birth to the end of the reception year. Higher expectations were introduced for literacy and mathematics. These, combined with the downward pressure from the Year 1 phonics check, are leading to a significant increase in teacher-led instruction, making it more difficult to respond to spontaneous events and children's existing knowledge and interests.
The simplified EYFS Profile may become voluntary from 2016, although the Study of Early Education and Development (SEED) project, recently commissioned by the DfE, relies on Profile data for the 5,000 children they are following through to the end of Key Stage 1, and assessments undertaken by the health service are linking with it too. Annual entry to primary school means that a whole class is admitted in the September of the year in which children become five, although the statutory age of entry is the term after a child's fifth birthday. Many children are thus only just four on entry to school. Pre-schools and nurseries, which have proliferated in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector since 1997, lose the influence and example of the older cohort of children, and the children themselves, particularly the youngest in the group, have a major adjustment to make when they enter their reception class.
PVI nurseries and pre-schools are staffed by people with generally lower levels of qualification than obtain in nursery and reception classes in primary schools; this divide between the maintained and non-maintained sectors is a continuing issue. In 2011, the Coalition government commissioned a review of early years qualifications from Professor Cathy Nutbrown. Foundations for Quality was published in 2012. Among other things, it recommended that a specialist qualification should be established for early years teachers, equipping them to work with children from birth to seven. The government response to this was to establish entry qualifications comparable to those for teacher training and to re-badge as Early Years Teachers the cadre of Early Years Professionals who had a graduate-level qualification, without granting them Qualified Teacher Status. This is causing considerable frustration and confusion.
The split in provision for the Foundation Stage in the UK is unusual; most other European countries have a coherent early years curriculum, offered in one setting, typically for children up to the age of six or seven, and staffed by professionals well qualified in early years pedagogy. Downward pressures for more formal approaches are increasing in England. The phonics check in Year 1 and the drive for narrowly defined school readiness as well as the raised standards in the EYFS Profile are resulting in unrealistic expectations of what children know and can do, achieved at the expense of more effective approaches to learning with understanding. Summer-born and premature children are particularly at risk of misdiagnosis of special educational needs. Proposals for on-entry baseline assessment designed to enable measurement of school effectiveness are causing concern as they will take teachers away from their first priority of settling up to 30 new children into school. Accountability is increasingly to a system, rather than to children.
## LEA Inspector and Adviser 1987–1990
In 1987, I became a District Inspector for the Early Years with the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). I had been impressed by papers on the impact of race, class and gender on achievement published by ILEA in the 1980s and was delighted to join the Authority. My role offered unequalled opportunities to learn from expert colleagues and to observe a wide range of practice across nursery schools and classes in four London Boroughs. It involved the line management of an expert group of advisory staff; the induction of up to 100 newly qualified EY teachers annually; links with specialist teachers' centres and experience of inspection as a professional and constructive way of working with schools. It offered the capacity to support new initiatives as well as to make proactive intervention where necessary. ILEA recognised that work in the early years requires specialist expertise and funded any primary teacher who converted to nursery teaching for a term's re-training. Secondary teachers were required to undertake a year-long course.
The unjustifiable abolition of ILEA resulted in the loss of considerable expertise, including specialist Teachers' Centres, among them the Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE), which is now an independent UK charity with a global reputation for the quality of its research into literacy and teaching. For many years CLPE pioneered approaches to formative, observation-based assessment, creating the Primary Language Record (PLR). The PLR was recommended by the Cox Committee, which developed the English National Curriculum as a model for a national system of record keeping and is now in use in widely differing systems throughout the world.
## Unitary Authority Inspector/Adviser 1990–1993
In 1990, I was appointed as the primary and early years' inspector in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). This role demanded broader responsibility across the primary age range, working with specialist subject inspectors on the National Curriculum; supporting and moderating the introduction of Standard Assessment Tasks in Key Stage 1; a strong focus on professional development; and implementation of the Children Act 1989.
It was instructive to move from the largest Education Authority in England to RBKC, one of the smallest. Links with Social Services were close, although the Director of Education at the time turned down the innovative possibility of a combined service. Given the complexity of the role of current Directors of Children's Services, he was perhaps wise, although the implementation of the Children Act would have been more effective given joint working. The Borough was served by two health authorities that had radically different approaches to collaboration. Regrettably, professional boundaries still persist in some areas, in spite of the opportunities offered by Sure Start, and growing political awareness at local as well as national level.
It was during the three years that I worked in RBKC that Standard Assessment Tasks at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 were introduced. The first tasks for seven-year-olds were designed around active learning, providing challenges to children to design a maths game and to have first-hand experience of scientific experiments. This required a learner-centred way of working, which was better aligned to children's interests than more formal approaches. Although complex to administer, it gave multi-layered opportunities to show what each child understood and could do and was arguably a more informative assessment than current, more limited tests. I learned a great deal in my role as moderator in this and in assessing children's progress in reading and writing.
It is a source of concern as well as regret that the role of local authority advisers and inspectors is now seriously undermined due to the introduction of academies and free schools, as well as heavy budget cuts.
## Ofsted Registered Inspector and Nursery Inspector and Trainer 1993–1998
The establishment of Ofsted in 1992 meant that many local authority inspectors became redundant. I was fortunate to be offered early retirement, as having a pension released me to do voluntary work as well as to undertake Ofsted training as a Registered Inspector and also a Nursery Inspector and Trainer. My first experience as a member of an Ofsted team was the inspection of a large primary school under the guidance of an HMI who led eight of us through a five-day inspection. He insisted that the inspection team and all the staff met together before the inspection started, and explained in detail what we would be doing. His final remarks to the teachers were: 'If you don't feel you have had the best professional development for free by the end of the week, then we will have failed'. As a Registered Inspector myself, I always remembered his words and still consider that it is unprofessional and wasteful not to build constructively on the detailed observation involved in inspection. For several years, I chose to tender for inspections of maintained nursery schools in differing local authorities across the country, as I was interested to see how this non-statutory service was supported, both professionally and politically.
Since then, Ofsted has become a data-driven organisation, which is particularly unhelpful in the early years when assessment and evaluation need to be holistic and judgements must be nuanced, taking into account many aspects of children's lives. Given that inspections are now brief, usually with one unmoderated inspector, it is worrying that Ofsted is deemed to be the sole arbiter of quality across the early years. For a while, early years was not reported on separately in Section 5 school inspections. This has now been reinstated, but there are concerns about the lack of knowledge and relevant experience of some inspectors. It is to be hoped they will be guided by the definition of teaching given in Ofsted's evaluation schedule for inspections of registered early years provision:
Teaching should not be taken to imply a 'top down' or formal way of working. It is a broad term which covers the many different ways in which adults help young children learn. It includes their interactions with children during planned and child-initiated play and activities: communicating and modelling language, showing, explaining, demonstrating, exploring ideas, encouraging, questioning, recalling, providing a narrative for what they are doing, facilitating and setting challenges. It takes account of the equipment they provide and the attention to the physical environment as well as the structure and routines of the day that establish expectations. Integral to teaching is how practitioners assess what children know, understand and can do as well as take account of their interests and dispositions to learn (characteristics of effective learning), and use this information to plan children's next steps in learning and monitor their progress.
## Voluntary organisation
From 1994 to 1997 I was Vice-Chair and then Chair of The British Association for Early Childhood Education (BAECE, now known as Early Education), then Chief Executive, from 1997 to 2000.
Moving to freelance working enabled me to offer voluntary support to Early Education. At that time, Cheryl Gillan, then a junior minister in the Department for Education and Employment, opened discussions on the need for childcare, and plans to introduce nursery vouchers were announced. On behalf of Early Education, I gave evidence to the Education Select Committee on the undesirability of the scheme, which would have made planning and quality control difficult.
## New Labour 1997–2010
In 1994, the RSA published Start Right, a report written by Sir Christopher Ball, which strongly endorsed the importance of the early years, recommending that all children should have access to high-quality nursery education, which should also support parents. With the election of a Labour government in 1997, a strong policy of expansion of provision for young children was introduced that gave powerful impetus to Early Education's work. The growing recognition of the value of investing in the early years enabled the appointment of a Development Officer in each of the four countries of the UK and also a Chief Executive, thanks to grant funding.
When the research into the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) was announced in 1997, I was invited to join the consultative group and am very pleased that they took up my suggestion of including some maintained nursery schools in the project. These emerged consistently as offering the highest-quality provision, with a positive influence on children's later achievement at least until the end of Key Stage 2.
My involvement in the selection of Early Excellence Centres, which were introduced as models for joint working, drew on my varied experience. I also attended meetings in Westminster as a 'Friend of Sure Start', where possibilities were discussed as the Labour government shaped its thinking about early years care and education. It was an exciting time, full of possibilities for improving provision for young children and their families. Day-care mattered, but the focus was very much on children's learning and on supporting parents, in recognition of the crucial importance of the home learning environment.
## 1999 Chair of the Early Childhood Forum (ECF)
Dame Gillian Pugh, the first director of the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children's Bureau, saw the need to bring together different services with varying perspectives so that they could learn to understand each other and to collaborate. She instituted the Early Childhood Education Forum, now the Early Childhood Forum (ECF) in 1993. This brought together the major national organisations concerned with the care and education of young children from the PVI and the maintained sectors. Services for children with special needs, parents, governors, inspectors and local authorities from across the UK were also represented. The over-riding purpose was to speak with a united voice in pursuit of agreed aims. The ECF grew to a total membership of nearly 40 organisations with an interest in early years; observers from the Departments of Health and Education and from Ofsted attended meetings. It was highly influential in the development of Sure Start, and I was honoured to become the first elected chair.
The ECF worked on proposals for an approach to the early years curriculum for some time and published Quality in Diversity in Early Learning in 1998. This is a major piece of work directed by Vicky Hurst, which involved practitioners and academics from all sectors across the country, who put together an agreed framework, influenced by New Zealand's inclusive Te Whariki curriculum, as a guide to provision for children from birth to six. This was superseded by the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, a government-imposed framework, developed in consultation with expert advisers. In spite of this child-centred guidance, the prescriptive Literacy and Numeracy Strategies introduced into primary schools in 1998 resulted in pressure on nurseries and pre-schools to begin to do more formalised work in these areas of learning.
Since the Coalition government came into power in 2010, there has been strong ministerial control of the curriculum and assessment across all key stages. The revised Early Years Foundation Stage sets statutory standards that all early years providers, in the PVI sector as well as in maintained schools, must meet.
An EYFS Profile must be completed for each child at the end of the reception year in primary school. The main purpose is to provide a rounded and accurate assessment of individual children's levels of achievement at the end of the EYFS. The profile describes each child's attainment against 17 early learning goals, together with a short narrative about their learning characteristics. It is increasingly being used by health professionals as a measure of children's achievement, and is included in the SEED (Study of Early Education and Development) research project as a baseline measure, so current proposals that it should become voluntary are of concern, especially as this is allied to the introduction of a baseline measure for all children on entry to the reception year.
The current emphasis on progress rather than on simple measures of achievement is welcome, but is resulting in counter-productive demands on staff due to simplistic expectations of linear progression, which must be evidenced in detail for each child. Assessment now rules practice, and teachers no longer have scope to apply their professional judgement and to ensure that children have a rounded educational experience. The prime areas of learning, namely personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, and physical development are being sidelined in the push for academic achievement. This is disastrous in the early years, where the focus should be on broader intellectual growth.
## Sure Start
Sure Start was one of the most radical policy initiatives undertaken in this country. Norman Glass, who was Deputy Director (micro economics) in HM Treasury between 1995 and 2001, was the person who brought it about, alongside Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Children. I never imagined that I would attend consultations in the Treasury, let alone meet a civil servant with such sympathy with the aims of the programme and grasp of the issues. As his obituary in The Independent noted, Norman chaired the Comprehensive Spending Review that led to the setting up of Sure Start. He ensured the programme was based on good research evidence and underpinned by core values. He was keen that childcare not be 'captured' simply as a route towards the greater employability of parents: it should be both cost effective and socially just, to ensure that children had the best possible start in life.
Glass went on to lead the Interdepartmental Review, which resulted in the creation of a Cabinet Committee on Children and Young People and a cross-departmental Children's Unit to coordinate policy and administer the proposed Children's Fund. He chaired the official steering group to implement the Sure Start programme, which was designed to narrow the gap in achievement between more and less advantaged children, now an increasing problem.
## Adviser to the Department for Education and Employment 2000–2002
I attended several meetings of the Friends of Sure Start after Labour came into power in 1997 and was appointed to the DfEE in 2000 as part of a team working with the newly established Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) across England, helping to develop effective multi-professional collaboration and planning for growth.
The expansion of nursery classes under Thatcher had been short-lived, and provision for non-statutory early years education across the country remained patchy, depending largely on political priorities in different local authorities; indeed, the Pre-school Playgroups Association (now the Pre-school Learning Alliance) was founded in 1962 in order to fill the gaps in the availability of nursery schools and classes. Historically, independent and private providers have also been part of the mix. When the Labour government decided to expand provision, giving an entitlement to 12 hours of nursery education to all three- and four-year-olds and allowing choice as to sessions attended, it relied on PVI nurseries to fill the gaps. The push towards collaboration and multi-agency working was expressed through EYDCPs in each local authority. There was a wide range of existing provision, which was very scarce in some areas. The qualifications of staff in the PVI sector were generally lower than in maintained nursery schools and classes, although staffing ratios were better. A recent proposal to trade improved qualifications for lower ratios of adults to children was rejected by the sector.
As well as considerable professional challenge, this period gave me deep insights into the very different approaches to early years care and education across the south east of England and the influence individual politicians, local authority officers, or practitioners could have, at both micro and macro levels. I also learned a lot about the complexities of a government department.
I already knew that any proposal that took up more than a single A4 sheet of paper was unlikely to be considered and that long-term strategic thinking had little traction as each government made its own decisions. Criticism was not welcome unless accompanied by proposed solutions. I discovered that the timeframe for policy change was shorter than a parliamentary term, as it was conditioned by finances. A Comprehensive Spending Review, when the Treasury allocates funding to each Ministry, takes place every two years, so planning is tied to that. However, the Education Department sees an annual battle over spending priorities between the various divisions, for example schools, special needs, FE and so on. A new initiative such as Sure Start must show that it is effective very quickly, or lose further investment. This explains the rushed implementation, not just of Sure Start, but of other initiatives, for example the Neighbourhood Nurseries or the current push to make provision for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The Sutton Trust has recently advised that this policy should be slowed down until enough places of good enough quality are available, but it is nevertheless proceeding, with schools encouraged to take these very young children into a less than ideal situation.
I saw little evidence of corporate memory in the Department, partly because of the career structure in the Civil Service, where people tend to move on every two or three years. This churn means that continuity is compromised. Governments claim that evidence-based policy prevails and that consultations are meaningful, but my experience, endorsed by subsequent observation, suggests that decisions are largely ideologically based and the use of evidence may be selective, even when drawn from research commissioned by the government itself. I checked recently on consultation procedures, and the DfE confirmed that each submission counts as a single response, even if it comes from a large group. I was told that some are read more carefully than others. It is admirable that an analysis of responses is now put up on the DfE website, but the clear statement that a proposal will happen, although only a minority of people agree, is not very reassuring. It is disheartening that the Minister who advocates direct instruction grounded in prescribed phonics programmes has no experience of the complexity of literacy teaching and is advised by people who gain financially from the policy.
It was refreshing to spend the following year working with the Early Excellence Programme and its evaluation. Just over a hundred Centres were identified as models of good multi-professional practice. In every case, there was dynamic, determined and visionary leadership, and a sympathetic and enlightened local authority also contributed to their success. These Centres were important in addressing the underlying aim of Every Child Matters (ECM), introduced in 2004 with the aim of safeguarding children and giving each one the best chances in life. Now that ECM has been withdrawn and the Department for Children, Schools and Families has become the Department for Education, one has to wonder whether every child does still matter. Recent cuts mean that Children's Centres have been closed, or are accessible for very short hours and only able to offer signposting to declining family support and other services.
## Working as a consultant in China and the Maldives as well as the UK 2000–2007
A very interesting career development emerged just before I moved to work with the government in 2000. I was asked to welcome a high-level delegation of visitors from China who wanted to find out about the British approach to early years education. A professor from the Normal University in Beijing had looked around the world and decided that our approach was what was needed to enable China to broaden its provision so that children could be more expressive and creative. The British Council funded several such delegations over five years and also supported annual visits of English Early Years experts to different parts of China. I have subsequently worked for UNICEF in a post-tsunami programme developing early years provision in the Maldives, where there is a similar acknowledgement of the value of our heritage of high-quality early education. The tragedy is that we are losing our focus on quality in England, as the prime aim of support for children's learning and development is being displaced by the push for affordable childcare, and the pressure for ever-earlier formal teaching is resulting in the loss of children's confidence in themselves and of their disposition to learn.
## Conclusion
The erosion of overarching educational values and ethical principles at policy level means there is no longer a proper context for constructive, reasoned debate. Unrealistic expectations and inappropriate top-down pressures are undermining the stated principles that underpin the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2012), which covers the education and care of all children up to the end of the reception year. Teachers of all age groups need scope to customise education to individual pupils, not only in order to accommodate cultural differences, but also to take account of the changes and chances that are part of life for us all.
In 2008, Graham Allen MP advised the government on ways of eliminating or reducing costly and damaging social problems for individuals. His report examined how this could be done by giving children and parents the right type of evidence-based programme, especially in the children's earliest years. Allen warned:
If we continue to fail, we will only perpetuate the cycle of wasted potential, low achievement, drink and drug misuse, unintended teenage pregnancy, low work aspirations, anti-social behaviour and lifetimes on benefits, which now typifies millions of lives and is repeated through succeeding generations.
The report stresses that only early intervention can break the inter-generational cycle of dysfunction and under-achievement. Socially and emotionally capable people are more-productive, better-educated, tax-paying citizens who can help our nation to compete in the global economy, and make fewer demands on public expenditure.
In 2010, Frank Field endorsed Sure Start by saying that investment in the Foundation Stage and support for families and parents are the most effective ways of ensuring that young people are able to break through economic and social barriers to achieve in later life.
All political parties appear to be committed to investment in the vital early years as a means of equalising children's life chances at a time when poverty and inequality are increasing. The current political climate and blame culture, the deliberate rejection of expert advice from specialists who have dedicated their professional lives to education, and the highly selective use of evidence are demoralising staff and harming children's life chances. Nevertheless, teachers, with support, can do much to help create a more equal society.
Advice to future policy makers:
* Implement in full the recommendations of the Nutbrown Review of early years qualifications, and provide mentoring for all working in the early years.
* Reform the accountability system, ensuring that it is primarily to children and families, and convert inspection into a positive opportunity for improvement and professional development.
* Take decisions on the curriculum away from politicians and recognise teachers and other staff as professionals.
## Notes
1 Ofsted 2013 Evaluation Schedule for Inspections of Registered Early Years Provision, guidance and grade descriptors for inspecting registered early years provision p. 7, footnote 8.
2 Graham Allen MP, 2011 Early Intervention: The Next Steps, Independent Report to the Government, Ref: 404489/0111 Department for Work and Pensions and The Cabinet Office
## Further reading
Association of Teachers and Lecturers (2002) Inside the Foundation Stage, a report on practice in reception classes. London: ATL.
Blakemore, S.-J. (2000) Early Years Learning: The POST Report. London: Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
David, T. et al. (2003) Birth to Three Matters: A Review of the Literature. London: DfES Publications.
Department for Education (2014) Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. London: DfE Publications.
Early Years Curriculum Group (1995) Four-Year-Olds in School: Myths and Realities. Oldham: Madeleine Lindley.
Gopnik, A. (2000) The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Goswami, U. (2015) Children's Cognitive Development and Learning. CPRT Research Survey 3.
Save Childhood Movement, www.savechildhood.net/ and www.toomuchtoosoon.org/. TACTYC Occasional Papers, www.tactyc.org.uk/occasional-papers/.
WAVE Trust (2013) Conception to Age 2 – The Age of Opportunity. London: DfE Publications.
# [4
Primary Education](content.xhtml#bck_Ch04)
Can we escape the legacy of elementary education?
Tony Eaude
## Introduction
My career as a primary teacher started in a suburban school in 1976, a few weeks before the speech in which Prime Minister James Callaghan launched what came to be called the 'Great Debate' and about ten years after the Plowden Report (1967), which represented a vision of primary education very different from that of elementary schools before the 1944 Act, where:
* the curriculum involved a narrow emphasis on what Alexander (2010, p. 242) calls Curriculum 1 ('the basics'), with little time for Curriculum 2 ('the rest');
* teaching was mainly based on instruction and transmission of content knowledge; and
* teachers were poorly qualified.
In 1980 I moved to a large school in a new town, becoming deputy head in 1983. I was appointed as headteacher of a first school in 1989, just after the 1988 Education Reform Act, and left that post in 1998 to study for a doctorate. Since then, I have worked independently, mostly researching and writing about young children's education and working with teachers in primary schools and teacher educators. So, my professional life falls neatly into three main periods, with cut off points in 1989 and 1998.
The next three sections describe the key changes in these periods in the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, accountability and school structures and reflect on less tangible aspects such as how these changes were perceived at the time. I then provide an overview of these four decades of change in relation to primary education. The final section suggests lessons for those concerned with policy and practice, if primary education is to escape from the enduring legacy of elementary education.
## From 1976 to 1989
As a primary class teacher, in the 1970s and 1980s, I had considerable autonomy over the curriculum. Teachers were expected to hear children read regularly and do mathematics, much of it practical and working through text books. There was a strong emphasis on art, physical education and what was usually called topic work. I was able to choose a topic for a half-term or a term. The idea of 'good primary practice' was prevalent. Although never clearly defined, this often involved starting from a first-hand experience or an artefact and children writing, drawing, measuring and finding out more about it.
Teachers could, within the constraints of breaks, assemblies and hall times, structure the timetable as they wished. I adopted an integrated day with some separate lessons, especially for maths and handwriting, but most of the timetable was not divided into separate lessons or subjects. The day usually ended with me reading a story. Children were expected to organise their own time, often over a few days. For example, I recall two boys spending most of two days completing a beautiful painting of a fish. My teaching involved relatively little direct instruction and was largely what Alexander (see Eaude, 2011, pp. 14–) calls facilitation, underpinned by a philosophy that children should be allowed to develop at their own pace and that this should involve a broad range of experiences.
The curriculum was largely a matter for the school to decide, prompted but not determined by national policy. The early 1980s saw a greater emphasis on science. Increasingly, from the middle 1980s, our school developed an approach to teaching reading based on 'real books' (as opposed to a reading scheme). Following the Swann Report (1985), which called for schools to cater more for the needs of an ethnically diverse society, my largely white school undertook a great deal of work about racism, resulting in my doing the DES 20-day course on ethnic diversity.
There was little detailed lesson planning and no expectation, except in the first year or two of teaching, that one's plans would be scrutinised. I was on my own for most of the time at my first school, teaching all subjects except music. At my second, team-teaching meant that two teachers were responsible for two classes between them. Support from learning support assistants was usually for only one or two sessions a week, with their role often washing paintbrushes or hearing individual children read. Teachers had no expectation of non-contact time.
There were no external tests. Some teachers tested times tables and spelling regularly. I did neither, though was, at my first school, encouraged to concentrate more on children learning their times tables. Nor was there regular monitoring or inspection. I recall attending a conference in around 1980 on accountability addressed by an HMI, who gave little indication of what this might involve in the future. In 1981, when HMI came to inspect the school, no one seemed worried, and teachers did not change how they worked. The inspectors did not seem to have a clear plan. For instance, I remember one asking a colleague to point him towards any science. I thought that we would be criticised for an approach to teaching reading that left many of our children – mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds – poor readers. No report was published, and no individual feedback was received, though the head said that the school had been judged to be in the top 10 per cent nationally. Nothing seemed to change as a result.
The 1981 Education Act meant that schools were required to identify, and make provision for, children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), helping to provide more consistent assessment of need and provision. The middle 1980s were characterised by industrial unrest, in which I, as the local secretary of the National Union of Teachers, was heavily involved, but there was very little direct interference from government or the Local Education Authority (LEA) affecting how I taught.
I, and my colleagues, worked hard but felt that we were largely in control. Teaching was enjoyable despite all the frustrations inherent in the task. We were fairly sure that what we were doing was on the right lines, and primary education in England was highly regarded. There was a sense of optimism that in hindsight seems more like naïveté. It now seems remarkable the extent to which teachers and schools were trusted and given autonomy, how untouched by external events most teachers were and how little most of us working in primary schools in the 1980s saw what was coming.
One should always be cautious of generalising from personal experience, but my experience illustrates a few wider trends. The research (for instance Alexander, 2010, p. 30 and Campbell and Neill, 1994, p. 177) indicates that progressivism was never as prevalent as often thought and nationally provision was very uneven, with a lack of consistency across the system and low expectations in several respects. The curriculum was largely dependent on the school's, and the headteacher's, priorities. Reading, writing and mathematics were emphasised, but the importance of a broad range of experiences, creativity and catering for 'the whole child' was recognised. There was little external pressure on schools and almost no structural change. Teachers were trusted and mostly left alone, though whether that trust was justified is arguable. It was the age of what Hargreaves (2003, pp. 125–9) calls 'permissive individualism'.
## From 1989 to 1998
In 1989, I became the headteacher of a multi-cultural first school in East Oxford with some 300 children. The first two years were ones of relative calm, although the implementation of the 1988 Act was starting to change primary education. Then, on 15 June 1991, one of the two buildings was severely damaged by fire. As a result, we worked on a split-site with most of the school in temporary accommodation for two years, while the school was rebuilt. I then stayed for another five years. So the second period of my career was as a headteacher, roughly from the 1988 Act until just after the election of the Labour government in 1997.
A key principle underlying the introduction of the National Curriculum was that of entitlement, to try and ensure greater consistency of provision. The 1990s also saw a move towards inclusion, with more children with special educational needs educated in mainstream schools. My main recollection of the first National Curriculum is the huge number of ring binders containing a very detailed, subject-based set of requirements. Primary teachers struggled to understand these and find ways of integrating the contents into coherent plans and topics. Soon, it was clear that the National Curriculum and assessment procedures were absurdly top-heavy. The 1994 Dearing Review led to a slimming-down of content but the structure, based on separate subjects, remained unchanged.
Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) were introduced in English, mathematics and science, involving a mixture of tests and Teacher Assessments, in our school only for seven-year-olds. My most vivid memory is of the chaos of trying to assess how well individual children understood the idea of 'floating' by placing oranges in buckets of water. As a school, we struggled for some while with a cumbersome method of collecting evidence for Teacher Assessment. With the governors' support, I refused to return the school's data, on the grounds that these were simplistic outcome measures which did not reflect what really mattered most, but after two years then complied.
I was not inclined to introduce significant changes in pedagogy to a school that was both popular and good, though some teachers were inevitably better than others. I wanted to retain a cross-curricular approach and trusted and tried to support teachers, recognising and accepting that they had different strengths. In 1995 or 1996, Robin Alexander challenged those attending a headteachers' conference to define good primary practice, reflecting Simon's (1981) and his own (2004) belief that teachers are extraordinarily reluctant to discuss pedagogy. My (silent) response was that of course I could, given a little time. However, increasingly, pedagogy was affected by external demands, based on raising standards of attainment in Curriculum 1.
The most significant changes came in external accountability, particularly with Ofsted inspections and published reports. As headteachers, we were ill prepared for what inspection involved and the consequences of not meeting what was expected. One nearby school, inspected early in the cycle, was unexpectedly put into special measures. As a result, other headteachers took more notice of how to satisfy the demands of inspection teams, with a strong emphasis on (often hastily prepared) written policies. In 1998, my school was inspected and received a reasonably favourable report. However, I remember feeling very resentful that an inspection team who know little of the complexity of the context could produce so definitive a report based on a three-day visit, on criteria with which I disagreed, when I had worked there for nine years and many colleagues for far longer.
The introduction of Local Management of Schools (LMS) affected me as headteacher considerably. The funding formula continued to reflect historic patterns, where primary schools were funded less generously than early years (rightly so) and secondary and tertiary education (for reasons that are less obvious). The workload implications were considerable, not least because this coincided with the time after the fire. Initially, managing the school's budget was exciting, and much of any 'spare' money was spent on employing more support staff, but the process became far more time-consuming and difficult with increasing pressure on school budgets.
The change of culture that accompanied LMS was evident, even at the time, notably with the money that accompanied a child on the basis of being on the register on one day in January. Early on, I delayed the transfer of a child for a few days to help a neighbouring school that was struggling. Once, on the day itself, I suggested that a child transferring to us should start that same afternoon. Worst of all, I remember doing a quick calculation of the financial benefit over several years if a family of four joined the school, though this had no influence on my decision whether to admit.
Structural changes, such as grant-maintained schools, outside local authority control, as part of a policy based on parental choice, affected primary schools less than secondary schools. Locally schools continued to try and preserve the role of the LEA, which had, in my own situation, been very supportive at the time of the fire and subsequently. However, it soon became clear that the LEA's role was changing, with a reduction in advisory services and advisers moving into a more inspectoral role.
As a headteacher, my energy was for most of two years taken up with the aftermath of the fire, when the emphasis was on rebuilding the school and maintaining staff morale. However, my main focus was always based on meeting the needs, as I perceived them, of a varied, ethnically diverse, school community. For instance, this led to the introduction of halal meals, which proved largely uncontroversial. However, when single-sex swimming was introduced to accommodate the wish of Muslim parents, this proved much more so. While national policies were important, local issues remained my main concern, except when inspection was imminent.
The 1990s were a time of frequent, and often exciting, exhausting and unwelcome, change – in the curriculum, in funding, in accountability – all of which had implications in terms of relationships, identity and beliefs. While I tried to remain true to my philosophy, this became increasingly difficult as external demands became more insistent in an age of greater regulation.
## From 1998 to 2015
In 1998, I left headship to undertake a masters' degree and then a doctorate, looking at how teachers of young children understand spiritual development. Since 2003, I have worked independently, researching, writing and working with teachers and teacher educators, mostly in areas associated with spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and primary teachers' pedagogy and expertise. I continued to teach young children until about two years ago. The third period of my career has spanned the 13 years of Labour governments and the five years of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition, in various roles, mostly outside schools.
The most obvious change in relation to the curriculum and pedagogy has been the level of government involvement, with the explicit rationale (see Barber, 2005) that primary teachers needed to be told how to teach, as a route towards 'informed professionalism'. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies were introduced in 1998 and 1999, respectively, prescribing not only content but how it should be taught. For instance, the Literacy Hour was based on a model of instruction, with each lesson divided into discrete sections, with teachers expected to plan and follow a largely pre-planned script. A subtle but important change of emphasis occurred from 'pupils should . . .' in the 1988 National Curriculum to 'teachers should . . .' in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. The Strategies were amalgamated in 2003 into the Primary National Strategy. While adopting the Strategies was not compulsory, only a brave minority of schools did not adopt them.
These initiatives were followed by Excellence and Enjoyment (DfES, 2003) and Every Child Matters (TSO, 2003), which led to the Children Act of 2004. The former called for learning to be more enjoyable, arguing that a dichotomy between that and standards of attainment is false. While this may, in principle, be true, the remorseless pressure for results meant that this was greeted with scepticism. The emphasis on the whole child and interagency collaboration in Every Child Matters was widely welcomed. The 2006 Rose Review on reading signalled the start of a greater emphasis on phonics. The number of new initiatives – and this list is far from complete – was considerable, leading to initiative fatigue.
The Coalition government has given mixed messages, continuing to intervene and exercise control, while saying that headteachers and teachers should have greater autonomy. So, for instance, the prescriptive nature of the 2013 National Curriculum in English and mathematics and the introduction of the phonics test for six-year-olds indicate how reluctant politicians are to trust professional judgement, especially in the primary sector. Teachers are required to use one particular method (systematic, synthetic phonics) of teaching reading and are increasingly exhorted to adopt methods from countries in East Asia to teach mathematics. Academies and free schools, outside local authority control, are not required to teach the National Curriculum, on the basis that this will encourage innovation. However, if so, it seems incomprehensible why this should not apply in all schools.
Since 1997, primary education has been increasingly driven by the demand to raise children's scores in English and mathematics, resulting, to some extent, from the international comparisons in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). The result is a focus on what Ball (2003) calls 'performativity' and is linked to accountability mechanisms where Ofsted judgements are heavily influenced by the data. Assessment of pupils has become very 'high-stakes' and when talking to headteachers and teachers the discourse is often dominated by what Ofsted have said, or will say next time they visit.
The years from 1997 to 2010 saw much more money allocated to young children's education. This was particularly evident in relation to the early years, less so for primary schools, though they are significantly better funded than before 1988. Teachers were entitled to 10 per cent of their time for planning, preparation and assessment and became used to having a second adult to provide additional support. A huge investment in computers was often wasted because teachers were unsure how best to use them to enhance learning.
My interest in recent years has been in trying to answer the question of what really constitutes good primary practice, based on research about how young children learn. In Eaude (2011, 2012), I discuss issues related to pedagogy and expertise, indicating that teaching a class of young children is much more complex than any assessment of one lesson, however 'outstanding', can capture and requires highly qualified teachers and sustained professional development.
The last 17 years have seen government, of whichever party, increasingly legislating and trying to micro-manage, not only the detail of the curriculum, but how it is taught, based on techniques, programmes and 'what works'. Yet ideas such as effectiveness and 'what works' only make sense in relation to aims and depend heavily on context. What works in one respect may have damaging consequences in another, for instance where an emphasis on decoding words may improve test scores but militate against reading for pleasure. Any suggested alternative to a remorseless emphasis on raising scores in literacy and numeracy is treated with scorn and the indication that this implies low teacher expectations. This was epitomised by the immediate dismissal by the government of the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2010) when it was published in 2009.
The language has increasingly been one of military metaphors and education as a commodity; of standards, targets and delivery, reflecting a greater emphasis on teaching than on learning, and on children as vessels to be filled rather than eager learners to be encouraged. Teachers have been subjected to greater regulation and surveillance through a prescriptive National Curriculum and data on attainment being made public. Accompanying this has been an emphasis on performativity and what the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2010) calls a culture of compliance – 'just tell us what to do and we'll do it'. Fear permeates the system.
## Looking back
Reflecting on four decades of change risks the dangers of nostalgia for a golden age that never existed and of over-generalising, when the extent and impact of change, inevitably, vary between contexts. My experience is far from typical but illustrates some wider trends.
Much has not changed a great deal. Children of primary age are taught for most of the week by one teacher in a class of about 30, though there is more adult support. Most children behave well most of the time and spend a large part of the week reading, writing and doing mathematics, though the emphasis on these is now much greater. Teachers continue to try and meet the broad range of children's needs, taking account of policy, though they are much more driven by external expectations.
There have been improvements. The National Curriculum has helped to provide a level of entitlement and been welcomed by most teachers and parents/carers. Mathematics – or at least numeracy – is certainly taught better, and children with disabilities, bilingual children and looked-after children are, mostly, catered for much better, largely as a consequence of the move towards entitlement and inclusion. There is little doubt that primary teachers plan more carefully – they certainly spend much longer doing so – and collaborative planning is more common.
Much has, in my view, got worse. The focus on performativity reflects, and leads to, an over-emphasis on measurable results and content knowledge. Paradoxically, the scope of the curriculum has shrunk while its size has increased. Particularly damaging for young children has been the loss of breadth and balance, with reduced time and importance for the humanities and the arts. One may question whether such a curriculum is genuinely inclusive if many children are not engaged with what interests them. This is exacerbated by the tendency towards adopting instructional and transmissive teaching methods at an increasingly early age, to try and cover curriculum content within a set time and achieve short-term results. For many children, notably those with special educational needs and/or not attaining well, the curriculum is fragmented, with a plethora of interventions designed to 'drive up' standards. Planning is often inflexible, focused on literacy and numeracy and dominated by content, based on 'scripted instruction', leaving little space for 'disciplined improvisation', to use Sawyer's (2004) terms. The rhetoric of setting teachers free remains hollow if assessment and accountability mechanisms are so high-stakes that these determine what happens in the classroom.
For me, teaching a class of young children has always been hard work, but also enjoyable – at least most of the time. However, there is far less enjoyment, for teachers and children, with more pressure for results. The last four decades have seen a move from permissive individualism to regulated surveillance, affecting everyone from teachers to headteachers to local authorities. This is evident in the tendency of many headteachers and teachers to try and guess what will help them most in the next inspection, rather than basing their decisions on evidence or professional judgement.
The last 25 years have seen continual political interference and attempts to micro-manage, resulting from a short-term desire to achieve measurable results. Policy is based on, at best, a sketchy and partial view of evidence from research, and frequently on the political complexion of the government, or even the whim of a minister. The result has often been selective policy borrowing, despite the well-attested difficulty, and potential danger, of doing so (see Phillips and Ochs, 2003), with claims often based on data of questionable reliability and validity.
The culture of primary schools has changed profoundly but gradually, with considerable consequences for teachers as well as children. Ball (2003) argues that what he calls the terror of performativity requires teachers to organise themselves in response to targets, indicators and evaluations and to set aside personal beliefs and commitments. Initiative fatigue and a culture of compliance have altered many teachers' ideas of professionalism, moving broadly from one based on autonomy towards one based on compliance. Nias (1989) argued that the close link between primary teachers' professional and personal identity meant that they were affected particularly strongly when asked to act in ways that conflicted with their beliefs.
Two major difficulties with an approach based on prescription are that:
* the context of the primary classroom is so fluid that teachers require a wide repertoire of pedagogies and the judgement to respond appropriately; and
* prescription inhibits rather than encourages the development of expertise, especially in a context where immediate, measurable results are required.
Whereas the amount of legislation and guidance has massively increased, many structures designed to support schools have fragmented. While LEAs were often frustrating and bureaucratic, their demise has had serious consequences for primary schools, because most are too small to have the necessary specialism and advice. In other professions, from medicine to law, accounting to engineering, there is a long period after qualification akin to an apprenticeship where people are still learning. Yet, in teaching, especially in primary schools, there is too often no expectation of, or coherent structure for, sustained professional learning.
As a teacher and headteacher, I relied mainly on short courses and a very sketchy knowledge of Piaget and Vygotsky. Students – both in initial teacher education and at masters' level – engage with research far more than I did at comparable stages of my career. However, serious engagement with research findings, as opposed to responding to data, is too often absent among those teaching in schools, in part because of the pressure to meet requirements in terms of attainment. The lack of a solid research basis for pedagogy has made the profession vulnerable to political interference, affecting primary schools especially because this opens the door to simplistic, but inappropriate, models of how to teach young children.
The importance of primary education continues to be downplayed, with primary schools' role often seen as mainly to ensure that children are 'secondary-ready'. This reflects a lack of vision among policy makers and politicians of primary education being about much more measurable outcomes in literacy and numeracy and what can be measured. Although primary schools are far better resourced than in the 1980s, funding is still skewed against primary schools. And initiatives such as the Strategies, and suggestions that teachers of young children do not need to be qualified – as with what came to be called 'Mum's army' in the 1990s – reflect an ongoing belief that those who teach young children do not have, or require, a similar level though different type of qualification and expertise as those teaching older ones.
Despite many improvements, the focus on Curriculum 1 and models of teaching that rely heavily on instruction mean that primary education has not escaped the legacy of the elementary school. While education has been a greater political priority, politicians seem not to have learned that top-down imposition has huge limitations. Long-term improvement requires a partnership where politicians establish the framework and trust teachers to teach and not always to be accountable for their every action. The implications are considered in the next section.
## Looking to the future
Much of this chapter may seem very remarkable to those whose experience of primary schools is only in the last 20 years. However, there must be, and is, an alternative to the narrow legacy of elementary education, neither harking back uncritically to the period before 1988 nor falling into the prescription and micro-management since.
There is a growing consensus that major policy decisions must not be dependent on political short-termism. For instance, Bell (2015), previously Her Majesty's Chief Inspector and a senior civil servant, recently argued for 'trusting the frontline' and less political interference. While he was referring to science teachers, this is no less true in primary education. As Fullan (1991, p. 117) claims, 'educational change depends on what teachers do and think. It's as simple and complex as that'. But the policy context within which teachers work affects what, and how, they teach. So, there is a strong argument for a body independent of government to provide an evidence-based and long-term view of the curriculum and assessment.
It is too easy just to blame politicians and policy makers. If the profession is to avoid being open to political interference, teachers, both as a group and individually, must articulate what constitutes good primary teaching, across the curriculum, drawing on both experience and an increasing knowledge of how young children learn and how adults can enable this.
Neuroeducational research provides some promising evidence, though one must be wary of thinking that knowledge of how the brain works is easily translated into practical applications and of neuromyths such as that everyone is either a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learner. The Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP, 2006) argued for the importance of learning relationships in all phases, and Mercer (2000) and many others have highlighted the centrality of children's talk, emphasising the social and active nature of learning. Both are especially important when working with young children. Gardner (1993) and Dweck (2000) have rightly challenged simplistic notions of intelligence and fixed ability, which underlie much of the current policy. In particular, both teachers and policy makers need to take account of the evidence (see Alexander, 2010, chapter 14) that a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum leads to higher standards of attainment in the long term. The humanities and the arts must not just be an add-on when the serious work of literacy and numeracy allows. A world of constant change requires more emphasis on qualities, attributes and dispositions – in children and teachers – such as resilience, creativity and criticality and on procedural knowledge, if young children are to learn actively through experience (see Eaude, 2011, pp. 62–5) and if schools are to be genuinely inclusive.
Teachers, and children, must recapture a sense of risk, adventure, creativity and enjoyment. Expectations must be broad as well as high. Because context is so important, more flexibility and reliance on teachers' judgement is required, if learning is to be reciprocal. For instance, technology offers many opportunities, but interactive white boards can, paradoxically, lead to a transmissive style of teaching. While subject knowledge is important, the challenge for primary class teachers is to develop pedagogical content knowledge (see Shulman, 2004, p. 203) in many subject areas and a wide repertoire of pedagogies, so that links can be made across subject boundaries. This emphasises the importance of formative assessment and of primary teachers having a deep understanding of child development, and for policy to be focused more on improving teacher quality and expertise. As Hargreaves (2003, pp. 127–9) suggests, this requires a move away from individualism and towards collaboration within professional learning communities.
If such developments are to occur, policy must enable rather than make these difficult. Politicians have to recognise that they can set the framework but not try to micro-manage what happens in classrooms, either by dictat or using indirect levers. Funding is important, but even more so is a culture of less change and interference, with:
* a reduction in the current obsession with grading of schools, teachers and children;
* a revision of accountability mechanisms, to end the culture of compliance and encourage greater trust in teachers' judgement and professionalism;
* a more coherent set of structures to support schools and teachers; and
* a greater emphasis on teacher education as a continuum, with structured opportunities, especially in the years soon after qualification.
These are necessary in all phases. But, to escape the legacy of elementary education, primary education requires a clearer articulation of its aims, recognising that the standards agenda is too limiting and that we must build on improvements made in recent years while not forgetting broader lessons from the past and from research. This will be hard and may take another 40 years. We will need to be optimistic but without being naïve, 'living without illusions without being disillusioned', as Gramsci wrote, if we are to create a system of primary education to meet the broad range of young children's needs, now and for a future of constant change.
## References
Alexander, R. (ed.) (2010). Children, their World, their Education: Final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review. Abingdon, Routledge.
Alexander, R.J. (2004). Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 34 (1), 7–33.
Ball, S.J. (2003). The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18 (2), 215–28.
Barber, M. (2005). Informed Professionalism: Realising the Potential. Presentation to a conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, London.
Bell, D. (2015). Science education: Trusting the Frontline, via www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR618539.aspx.
Campbell, R.J. and Neill, S.R. StJ. (1994). Primary Teachers At Work. London, Routledge.
DfES (Department for Education and Skills) (2003). Excellence and Enjoyment: A Strategy for Primary Schools. Nottingham, DfES Publications.
Dweck, C.S. (2000). Self Theories: Their role in Motivation, Personality and Development. Philadelphia, Psychology Press.
Eaude, T. (2011). Thinking Through Pedagogy – Primary and Early Years. Exeter, Learning Matters.
Eaude, T. (2012). How Do Expert Primary Classteachers Really Work? A critical guide for teachers, headteachers and teacher educators. Critical Publishing: www.criticalpublishing.com.
Fullan, M. (1991). The New Meaning of Educational Change. London, Cassell.
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. London, Fontana.
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity. New York, Teachers College Press.
Mercer, N. (2000). Words and Minds – How We Use Words to Think Together. London, Routledge.
Nias, J. (1989). Primary Teachers Talking: A Study of Teaching as Work. London, Routledge.
Phillips, D. and Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of Policy Borrowing in Education: Some explanatory and analytical devices. Comparative Education, 39 (4), 451–61.
Plowden Report (1967). Children and their Primary Schools – A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England). London, HMSO.
Sawyer, R.K. (2004). Creative Teaching: Collaborative discussion as disciplined improvisation. Educational Researcher, 33 (2), 12–20.
Shulman, L.S. (2004). The Wisdom of Practice – Essays on Teaching, Learning and Learning to Teach. San Francisco, Jossey Bass.
Simon, B. (1981). Why no pedagogy in England? pp. 124–45 of Simon, B. and Taylor, W. (eds) Education in the Eighties: The central issues. London, Batsford.
Swann Report (1985). Education for All – Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups. London, HMSO.
The Stationery Office (TSO) (2003). Every Child Matters. London, TSO.
TLRP (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) (2006). Improving Teaching and Learning in Schools. London, TLRP (see www.tlrp.org).
# [5
Secondary Education 1976–2015](content.xhtml#bck_Ch05)
A shire county view
Martin Roberts
## 1976–1988 Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire: powerful LEAs, new comprehensives, curriculum freedom
### Sandy Upper School to 1980
LEAs responded to Tony Crosland's 10/65 circular at different speeds. Bedfordshire, then Conservative controlled, did not rush to reorganise. Rather it carefully husbanded its resources and introduced a three-tier system that made best use of its existing schools in a predominantly rural county. Where there were gaps in the secondary provision it built new 13–18 upper schools. One of these new schools was in Sandy on the A1. When I was appointed in 1974 as Deputy Head I was one of 11 teachers responsible for creating a new 13–18 Upper School and Community College. We started with 130 Year 9 pupils in temporary accommodation in the grounds of the old secondary modern. By 1980 we had grown to 1300 pupils and 75 staff in buildings, that had risen around us.
It was a marvellous job. My own background was highly selective – independent schools and Oxford with my first post teaching history at Leeds Grammar School – but I had become convinced, like so many of my generation, that social justice demanded the end of selective schooling. Within the framework provided by the LEA, which in the case of Bedfordshire was relaxed, we could create the kind of school we believed in.
What was that? Such a school would enable its pupils to get the best possible jobs, lead fulfilling lives and become good citizens. A new comprehensive school would do all those things better than the old selective system. In particular it would raise the aspirations of all its pupils. What did we need to be successful? A good headteacher: that we had in John Francombe, intelligent, essentially traditional in much of his thinking, strict and fair. A good staff: getting a new school started enabled us to attract some able teachers. Good discipline: strong heads of year created an effective pastoral system alongside a strict code of behaviour held in place by detentions and sometimes the cane (corporal punishment was not abolished in English state schools until 1987). A general ethos that pupils and their parents appreciated: we had replaced a small secondary modern and with our new buildings, which were open to the community in the evenings, we had no difficulty winning local support.
An appropriate curriculum: Sally Tomlinson, in her Education in a Post-Welfare Society (2001) describes how the new comprehensive schools approached the construction of their curricula. Some tried to maintain the old grammar school academic offer for their more able pupils and a more vocationally directed 'secondary modern' provision for the rest. Though at Sandy Upper we were building on a secondary modern base, we constructed a common curriculum for all in the Third Form (Year 9), which was based on a range of subjects, some academic, such as French, and some more practical, such as woodwork. In Years 10 and 11 we had a core of English including literature, maths and science plus options examined either through GCE O Levels or CSEs. Initially our only clearly vocational courses were RSA Secretarial Studies and CGLI courses run by our Technical Department.
We appointed heads of department on a subject basis and then allowed them considerable freedom. For support, they could look to the local LEA. For example, we found the history adviser Cynthia Cooksey excellent. She was an enthusiast for the Schools Council History Project as were we. Staff could look to other professional support through subject associations such as the ASE for science and NATE for English.
As for accountability, we measured our performance primarily through our GCE and CSE results. John used to have an annual meeting with Heads of Department. In an era before appraisal and performance management we aimed to have a professional ethos where all staff would do their best and expect to be chased by the senior team if they did not. HMI came the term after I left and gave the school's performance a thorough, supportive analysis, confidential to the staff and governors.
Central government did not impinge upon us except through two major committees of enquiry – Bullock on Language for Life and Warnock on Special Needs. Curriculum advice came from the Schools Council.
### The Cherwell School, Oxford 1981–1988
#### The downs and ups of being an LEA school
When I told Ernest Sabben-Clare, the kindly headmaster of Leeds Grammar School (then quasi-independent with 'direct grant' status), that I intended to join the state sector, he tried to change my mind. LEA bureaucracies, he told me, suffocate good teachers. I remembered his advice in my first years in Oxfordshire as I negotiated over the telephone about staffing levels, getting leaky roofs repaired, securing new buildings and defending our exceptional if maverick RE teacher from the RE adviser who wanted to be sure that he was following the Agreed Syllabus. My first success as a new head was to get my district officer to agree to increase the school's staffing allowance for 1981–1982 from 36.2 to 36.4!
The situation in the City of Oxford in 1981 was significantly different to that of rural Bedfordshire. Oxfordshire had reorganised piecemeal in the sixties and seventies and its Conservative-controlled council had botched the reorganisation of the city by creating, on the cheap, a three-tier system with seven small to medium-sized upper schools. This was at a time when school rolls were beginning to fall and for these upper schools to be able to run viable sixth forms, their number needed to reduce by at least two or possibly three. The LEA began a consultation about which schools were to close that was to run indecisively for the next two decades, creating harmful uncertainty for its schools during that period.
Against such a background, my priority had to be increasing our pupil numbers and strengthening the sixth form. Unlike rural Bedfordshire, in Oxford parental choice was already a reality. Cherwell, with 633 pupils, was an ex-secondary modern, in inadequate buildings with a poor local reputation. It sits in the heart of North Oxford, a suburb of the city that has the highest concentration of graduates of anywhere in England, with possibly the exception of Hampstead, and in easy reach of numerous independent schools. (It also contained two among the most deprived wards in Oxfordshire.) We needed urgently to win the confidence of this well-educated and generally prosperous neighbourhood. That determined our curriculum offer: broad and balanced, including strong art, drama and music. Once results were on an upward trend and discipline secure, our roll increased steadily, which led to more frustrating discussions with the LEA. Its statistics department continued to forecast incorrectly that our roll would fall, and so our only additional accommodation came in the form of temporary classrooms. By 1990, we had 1,000 pupils, with a sixth form of 250. A third of our accommodation was in huts. I used to teach Y9 history in one of them in a gloomy corner of the site. It was too cold in winter, too hot in summer and showed wear and tear only too quickly.
To be fair to the LEA, financial restraints in the 1980s and 1990s gave it little room to manoeuvre. After a high point in 1975, education's share of government spending fell back, only rising again under New Labour. It needed a clever deal, initiated by an architect governor, involving the sale of some surplus land for undergraduate accommodation, which enabled a substantial building programme to proceed in the early 1990s.
There were, though, many compensations working for Oxfordshire. The CEO was Tim Brighouse, at an early stage in his remarkable career (see Chapter 12). He was brilliant at strengthening an esprit de corps among Oxfordshire schools. The Oxfordshire Secondary School Head Teachers Association (OSSHTA) flourished and decamped annually to Bournemouth to confer with Tim and his LEA team. Brimming with ideas, he got most of us to sign up to a joint scheme with Leicestershire, the Oxford Certificate of Educational Achievement (OCEA). Tim realised that academic attainment was just a part of the achievements of young people and that, if an accredited recording of personal achievements could be made, such a record would both motivate less academic pupils and encourage schools to value highly extra-curricular activities. An innovator himself, Tim encouraged us to innovate.
The LEA also had a sensible self-evaluation process that encouraged staff and governors to evaluate their own performance and then discuss the evaluation with their local councillors. With my lively governors I found this a stimulating activity.
Nationally, the takeover of education by the Thatcher government was beginning. In 1982 Sir Keith Joseph had funded and supervised, not by the DES but by the newly created Manpower Services Commission (MSC), projects that would improve areas where the government considered the existing system defective. One of these was TVEI, the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, in which LEAs competed to win MSC money. Tim Brighouse identified Oxford City as the local area most likely to benefit from TVEI. Our 1984 bid succeeded. Led by LEA officers and involving the College of Further Education and local businesses we made considerable progress collaborating to devise new vocational courses accessible to 14-year-olds in the city. In 1986, Tim engineered a year's secondment for me to plan the 16–18 phase of TVEI which I finished in 1987. Nothing came of it. In Westminster the DES and MSC had been battling for the control of education. The DES won and in 1988 proceeded with the introduction of the National Curriculum, fatally undermining TVEI nationally. So a turf war between politicians and civil servants destroyed an important and timely vocational project.
The worst year of my headship was 1985–1986 when the teachers' strikes were at their height. The claim for better pay was in many ways justified, but the tactics of the teacher associations were uncoordinated and counterproductive. The government was in no mood to negotiate, and media and public opinion grew more hostile the longer strike action lasted. I had to deal with three associations following different kinds of action while minimising the harm to the pupils. Each day I had to decide how many classes could take place, how could adequate supervision be organised at break and lunchtime and how to keep hard-pressed parents informed about what was going on. The harm done was great and lasting. Many teachers who had worked to rule during the strikes refused to resume the extra-curricular activities that formerly they had led. For example, Drama at Cherwell, which had previously been brilliant, was not to recover for a decade. By the Teachers Pay and Conditions Act of 1987, Kenneth Baker, who had succeeded Sir Keith Joseph as Secretary of State, abolished the previous pay negotiating procedures and put in their place an advisory Pay Review Board. Teachers now had to work 1,265 hours per year at the direction of the headteacher, a ruling that led to endless discussions about what should be within 'directed time'. These strikes greatly weakened the teacher associations and strengthened the government's conviction that teachers needed policing.
## Revolution, the Education Reform Act (ERA) of 1988 and its aftermath: powerful central government, weakened LEAs, more autonomy for schools
Then in 1988 came the Education Reform Act. Insofar as it affected secondary schools like Cherwell, its main elements were the National Curriculum, open enrolment giving greater parental choice of school, the opportunity to create schools independent of the LEA (Grant Maintained schools) and Local Management of School (LMS), which required LEAs to delegate a substantial part of their education funds to schools on a per capita basis, giving heads, with their governors, new powers to manage the school's budget.
### Seen as a headteacher 1988–2002
Though I had a keen interest in politics and education policy in particular, I somehow missed the changing mood in Westminster. I had read the Black Papers and the headlines about William Tyndale but thought them right-wing sensationalism. I do not remember the Ruskin speech, or being upset by the abolition of the Schools Council, or realising the political novelty of TVEI. Substantial extra funding was then more than acceptable, whatever the source. So when the outlines of ERA appeared in the Conservative manifesto for the 1987 election, which Mrs Thatcher won with an increased majority, I was amazed how radical it was. It transformed my role as a headteacher. By and large I had gained promotion because of my interest in creating effective curricula. ERA took that curriculum responsibility away and instead made budget management and marketing the school my prime responsibility. The shift of funding through LMS inevitably altered the relationship between schools and the LEA, substantially weakening the latter.
In theory, I supported a National Curriculum, but, because it was implemented top-down and driven by distrust of teachers, its introduction was needlessly controversial and chaotic. The content of three 'core' subjects and seven 'foundation' subjects had to be defined as did ten levels of performance. Ring-binders of 'interim' then 'final' reports of the subject working groups piled up on my desk. Secretaries of State came and went in quick succession – Baker, Macgregor, Clarke, Patten. In 1993, teachers boycotted the new Key Stage 3 tests. The original NC plan was too detailed and had to be slimmed down considerably. During these years of chaotic change I had to keep bewildered and often angry staff teaching their existing courses well. Then once decisions were made centrally about the new courses and the timetable for their introduction I had to ensure that they were introduced smoothly.
## History in the National Curriculum: a case study
Of the NC subjects, history caused the most controversy in which I became involved, as in 1988 I was Chair of the Secondary Committee of the Historical Association (HA). The right wing of the Conservative Party disliked much of the history being taught in schools. It particularly disliked the influential Schools Council History Project (SCHP), which built its course on the methodology of history including empathy (the skill of getting inside the culture and minds of people in a particular period). The Conservative Right thought SCHP too short on facts, especially on British history, and too long on skills, particularly empathy. Backed by much of the national press it declared war on trendy history teachers who spent too much time on soft skills and not enough on the great achievements of Britons over the centuries. English teachers faced a similar challenge from the Conservative Right, who wanted the canon of great English literature to be the essence of the NC English.
A dilemma we faced at the HA was that, unlike any European country other than Albania, history in England was not compulsory to 16. We regarded the subject as central to any serious understanding of the world in which young people were growing up and had as our priority safeguarding its new foundation subject status. Professor Ralph Davis, President of the HA, and I co-authored a draft core curriculum that included 50 per cent British history, which might prove helpful to those empowered to create NC history. We had underestimated how strongly many of our colleagues felt about any prescription in general and prescription by a Tory government in particular and met considerable criticism. Baker then set up a Working Group, chaired by a member of the landed gentry, Commander Saunders-Watson. In the circumstances it did a brilliant job, managing to combine enough British history with enough of the elements of the SCHP. Mrs Thatcher hated it, but after considerable debate, including in the media, it was finally agreed. Professor Davis and I then did our best to rally history teachers behind the Working Group. However, our efforts were in vain. Sir Ron Dearing, called in to sort out the emerging unworkability of the original overcrowded Baker National Curriculum, decided that history, geography, art and music should become optional at 14. Another Working Group had to rewrite the original 11–16 versions to fit the 11–14 age range.
This episode demonstrated a number of things – the lack of a coherent philosophy underpinning the National Curriculum; the dangers of partisan politicians interfering with curricular details; the malfunctioning of the Department for Education; the low esteem in which teachers were held by the Conservative administration; the role of the press unhelpfully simplifying and sensationalising complex issues, for example the teaching of varying historical interpretations; and the time, energy and money wasted by political in-fighting.
It was all to happen again 25 years later when the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, an enthusiastic amateur historian (he was an English graduate), decided to write the review of National Curriculum history in 2013. It was so idiosyncratic and unworkable that some of us thought that he and friends had put it together one evening aided by an excellent bottle of whisky. Along with 20 others I was summoned to Westminster to a meeting chaired by Gove himself and asked to come up with something workable. This a number of us did. Our version seemed acceptable to history teachers who had been outraged by the original Goveian version. Our revision was not that different to the one Professor Davis and I drafted in 1988.
### Parental choice, GM schools and LMS
Parental choice was already active in Oxford, but the open enrolment clauses in ERA intensified it. By 1988 Cherwell was already over-subscribed, but that over-subscription increased. The correlation between a school's popularity and the desirability of its location became evermore obvious.
No secondary schools in Oxfordshire went GM. I think that this was largely due to the Brighouse factor, though Tim had left by then and was on his way to Birmingham. There was a sense of loyalty to Oxfordshire and the belief that local democracy was worth preserving.
I found LMS liberating if initially terrifying, the financial responsibility of the governors and myself now being measured in millions of pounds rather than thousands. The ability to appoint additional staff when needed was the crucial benefit plus being able to redecorate and make minor improvements to the premises. Once we had LMS I could see no reason to leave the LEA.
### Tests, targets and league tables
By 1993, when the tumult of ERA had subsided, I had been in post for 12 years. Parents seemed happy with the way the school had progressed, and I was disinclined to allow national politicians to blow us off course. Our governors agreed. They were broadly left of centre – my Chair of Governors was a former educational journalist. We came to live with the publication of each year's exam results, which the local press immediately turned into league tables. Of 36 Oxfordshire schools we were usually sixth or seventh at GCSE and first or second at A Level. As long as we stayed close to these positions I avoided pressurising the staff to give greater emphasis to improving examination performance per se rather than teach in a stimulating way. Concentrating on exam grades at all costs leads to a Gradgrind, deadening, essentially anti-educational culture. I had the same attitude to externally set targets. On the whole we were slowly improving on most measures, as a consequence of internal policies that were shared by governors and most staff. When appraisal and performance management became a national requirement, I worked with staff to find a 'modus operandi' with which they were comfortable. Nowadays, Ofsted would doubtless class me as complacent and insufficiently directive.
### Specialist schools
One effect of the government's many interventions in the curriculum and the assessment was to dissuade schools from innovating themselves but to get involved in government projects that had funds attached. Of the many initiatives pouring out of Whitehall the major one we took on was to become a specialist school, not because we saw any merit in the specialism concept, but funding continued so tight in the 1990s we needed the linked funds. We opted for the science specialism since it would mean the minimum alteration to our curriculum. In due course we succeeded. It was during the application that I became aware of the 'gaming' schools, which were now having to play to hit the targets set out in their application. We had an external consultant advising us. I commented that the GCSE improvement targets looked demanding. He advised me not to worry but to change from our traditional courses to the new Applied GCSEs, which were easier. When I indicated that such a change would not be in our pupils' interest, 'then you will have problems' was the gist of his comment. With the proliferation of new GCSEs and vocational courses, 'equivalences' between courses became a live issue about which Whitehall found consistency difficult. As for the specialist initiative, the Coalition government killed it in 2010. As an approach to secondary education it had won only a few adherents among teachers and parents.
### Ofsted
As with the National Curriculum, I thought that the introduction of a reformed national inspection system was desirable. Taxpayers paid for state schools, which should therefore be accountable. I assumed that the previous HMI system, which took schools as it found them and was respected for its thoroughness and quality of its advice but did not inspect frequently enough, would be streamlined but visit schools more often. What emerged was very different, driven by the Conservative belief that teachers needed policing. Schools would be inspected every four years by teams of private inspectors supervised by reformed HMIs. Ofsted's Chief Inspector became a major public figure. Two, notably Chris Woodhead and Michael Wilshaw, gained reputations as scourges of weak teachers and schools. Cherwell experienced two inspections before I retired in 2002. The first in 1993 to my surprise was a team from the LEA led by an adviser I knew well. It was a tame affair but not unhelpful. The second, which came in 1999, was very different. In the intervening years Ofsted had become more number-crunching and the 1999 team arrived with some inaccurate data that indicated that the school was going rapidly downhill. Its information omitted the existence of two units in the school, one for autistic pupils and another for the visually impaired. We had not helped our cause by ignoring the NC regulation to make technology and MFL compulsory to 16. I failed to achieve any rapport with a humourless Lead Inspector and was only able to turn the inspection round by arranging a lunch half-way through the inspection for him and some of my best-informed governors. Eventually we emerged as a good school with some outstanding features, which in the circumstances was a relief. I was angered though, not only by the team coming misinformed, but by how disruptive it was. Staff had put so much into the late January inspection that it was not until March that the school was back to normal.
### New Labour and 'education, education, education'
My immediate reaction to Tony Blair's election in 1997 was that a new era had dawned. Disillusion followed swiftly. What Blair meant by education was an intensely focused enterprise, directed from Whitehall, which would produce pupils trained to enable Britain to compete successfully in the international struggle for economic competitiveness. As Michael Barber reiterated, there needed to be a 'step change' in the culture of most schools. School leaders needed to concentrate 'relentlessly' on school improvement as measured by exam results in order to achieve 'world class' standards. Target-setting and Ofsted were the major agent's to achieve this step change. The DfE and Ofsted number-crunched more remorselessly. Lip service was paid to other vital elements of schooling like creativity and ethics, but they were peripheral since their outcomes were qualitative and immeasurable. The stress on international performance was not new to Labour. When first I became a headteacher, we were found wanting in comparison with Japan, then it was Germany and later, thanks to PISA and TIMMS, with South Korea and Shanghai.
### The reorganisation of the three-tier to a two-tier system in Oxford
My last years were spent working with the LEA to replace the 9–13 Middle Schools. It was a difficult exercise as some of the Middle Schools were much loved, especially the one immediately across the road that Cherwell was to absorb, and only successful because of a determined CEO, Graham Badman. Hardly anyone now doubts that it was a vital step to take in the interests of future generations, but I do wonder now, as all the Oxford secondary schools and some of the primaries are academies, how such a desirable city-wide reorganisation could ever occur.
## Looking from outside 2002–2015
In 2002, I helped establish a new Prince of Wales charity, the Prince's Teaching Institute (PTI), which has given me a new perspective on recent changes in thinking at national level about curriculum design. PTI organises subject-centred Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for state school teachers. It first ran annual residentials for teachers of English literature and history, then, because of teacher demand, added maths, science, geography, art, music and MFL. We now have a project-based scheme known as the Schools Programme, annual headteachers conferences and a programme for beginning teachers, which has expanded over three years from 150 to 700 participants. Nationally, one secondary school in five now takes part in PTI activities. Research indicates that good teachers must be subject experts and subjects must be central to any secondary school curriculum. Consequently, we link our university experts to excellent experienced teachers who lead workshops on key topics. From the start our courses have been designed by teachers for teachers. Happily independent, we concentrate on what constitutes inspiring subject teaching and avoid getting embroiled in immediate concerns like how to do well at Ofsted. Our teachers tell us that we are filling a CPD vacuum, as most other CPD concentrates on generic school improvement, getting better exam grades or preparation for Ofsted.
What kept me involved in PTI activities was a growing realisation that, among university-based educationists and within the DfE of New Labour, subjects were regarded as obsolete. What really mattered were transferable skills like the 'competences' of the RSA Opening Minds project and Information Technology, which should make knowledge acquisition an individual web-based exercise. The teacher should stop being 'the sage on the stage rather the guide on the side'. I have been strongly influenced by Michael Young's Bringing Knowledge Back In (2009), which argues that the central function of all schools is to pass on powerful subject-based knowledge to all pupils. If only elite schools offer well-taught subjects to their pupils, and the less advantaged take the skills and competences route, a new bipartite school system will emerge with the life chances of pupils being directly affected. Powerful subject knowledge for all is essential for social justice.
Obviously, the impressions I have gained from 13 years of PTI conferences are anecdotal, stemming from conversations I have had with hundreds of teachers. The first is that a succession of Westminster initiatives has left teachers reeling. Whatever Michael Gove's virtues, his whirlwind approach to policy making without regard for teacher opinion took ministerial interference in the details of education policy to a new extreme. The second is that Ofsted has for most teachers become an ogre, distorting the activities of too many schools. Many headteachers are obsessed with the extraordinary amount of data now available to them through the statistical tool RAISEonline, which is inevitably quantitative rather than qualitative. Another obsession is how to get into the 'outstanding' category and, once there, stay there. Third an increasing number of teachers are losing confidence in the examination system, especially GCSE. So detailed are the specifications and the mark schemes that desiccated 'teaching to the test' is too often the norm. Warwick Mansell's brilliant Education by Numbers, the Tyranny of Testing (2007) confirms this depressing trend. A fourth is that many schools have allowed the DfE to do their curriculum thinking for them. Perhaps most serious of all, government busyness militates against teachers being able to think about what should be their priorities – for their pupils, the extent to which their school best meets the needs of their communities, and innovation. Fifth and last, for a variety of reasons, headteachers are increasingly reluctant to allow teachers time out of school for any CPD that is not directly linked to gaining better exam grades or impressing Ofsted.
As a way out of the present turmoil, the idea of a Royal College of Teaching has emerged from PTI discussions. Over the last two years, Chris Pope, Co-Director of PTI, has worked hard and skilfully to persuade the major teacher organisations that such a college, the immediate responsibilities of which should be CPD and ITT, is well worth considering seriously.
## Reflections
Great improvements have occurred in these four decades. One of the most important has been the integration of young people with special needs, their greater opportunities and the greater tolerance of other pupils. The advances made by women both at school and as teachers have been remarkable. At Cherwell, only physics and technology remained male-dominated by the time I retired. In 1981 there were only a handful of female headteachers in Oxfordshire, mainly heads of girls' only schools. Now there are more women heads than men. The quality of classroom management in most schools is much better, partly because of changes in ITT but also the greater direct monitoring of individual teachers by Senior Leadership Teams. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of pupils going on to university and FE.
These changes, however, have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The revolution that is the subject of this book has been in the comparatively sudden takeover by central government of control of educational policy making between 1988 and 1993 and its ramifications.
There have been benefits. We needed a national curriculum and now have one, though why it is not required of all the schools in the land is a mystery to me. We needed a national system of inspection. We now have one of the strictest in Europe that, whatever its faults, provides parents with useful comparative information about all the state schools in their locality. We have fewer failing schools. Exam results have generally improved, but to what extent is a matter of fierce debate. Education is a political priority and the Secretary of State for Education a senior figure in the Cabinet. Coverage of education in the media is much more extensive. Consequently, more parents and their pupils know that education matters. Teachers' pay and working environments are better.
Harm, however, has been done. Politicians have proved both partisan and inconsistent. Inconsistency is demoralising to teachers and a waste of money. I could cover pages with examples of initiatives that have come and gone since 1988. Here are some of the most grievous. In 1988 Professor Higgenson reported on A Levels. He had achieved a professional consensus that the country needed more and leaner A Levels. Mrs Thatcher vetoed it. For her the existing A Levels were 'the gold standard' of the English system. In 2004 Mike Tomlinson, again with the backing of key professionals, recommended a radical reform of 14–19 with an overarching diploma that would cover both academic and vocational subjects. Tony Blair, anxious about a potentially hostile national media, would have none of it. We have seen how TVEI came and went and how specialist schools lasted little more than a decade. Twenty years later came the Advanced Diplomas, which Ken Boston, head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) described as the most important educational reform in Western Europe since 1945. The planners were over-ambitious and out of touch with school and college realities. The initiative was already in trouble by 2008 and cancelled by the Coalition government in 2010. 'Connexions', launched with a fanfare in 2000, was intended to transform the careers advice for young people. It was flawed from the start as its designers were never clear whether it should be a universal or targeted service. I represented the Oxfordshire headteachers at fruitless meetings when Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes attempted to get the new service going. Again, over the years, the initiative withered. The Learning and Skills Council was set up in 2001 to give the existing 16-plus system a good shake-up. New headquarters were found in Coventry. Nine years later it was disbanded.
The big issue is teacher autonomy. My main responsibility as a headteacher was to recruit the best quality teachers I could find and then give them considerable freedom. I only interfered when I thought things were going wrong. The more professional freedom teachers have, both in relation to their pupils and assisting in the direction their school is travelling, more often than not their pupils will benefit. But what limits should governments place on that freedom? In 1976 these limits were too weak. In 2015, because of the revolution in government controls described above, they are too strong, suffocating inspiration, initiative and innovation.
Since 1988, the politicians have distrusted teachers. So many mistakes could have been avoided if politicians and teachers could have achieved a workable partnership. However, neo-liberals advising Mrs Thatcher maintained that the professions were a self-serving cartel that prevented the market bringing progress. Tony Blair remained suspicious, if in a more pragmatic way. Most politicians thought that they knew enough about education from their own and their families' experience that they would be intelligent policy makers. The increasing interaction of Westminster politics and the 24/7 media (see Chapter 15) encouraged them, thinking frequently about the next election, to dream up some headline-grabbing initiative, the serious sustained viability of which was not an immediate consideration. By being told what to do for nearly two decades, teachers have been de-professionalised. They have not, however, helped their own cause. For decades four teacher unions and two separate headteacher associations have competed for membership, and their apparent readiness to prioritise their members' pay and conditions over pupil welfare has contributed to politicians' distrust.
### What then is to be done?
Politicians must step back and trust teachers more.
Responsibility for curriculum and assessment should pass to a genuinely independent body in which the government should have representation and which should regularly review the NC and public examinations every ten years or so. Such a body should encourage innovation.
Ofsted should cease inspecting most schools. Rather it should concentrate on those schools clearly struggling. Other schools should self-evaluate regularly using their own criteria. Ofsted should monitor those self-evaluations.
A Royal College of Teaching should take responsibility for teaching standards and the development of both CPD and ITT. Once it has established its credibility it should also take national responsibility for monitoring performance management in schools.
The really difficult issue is how to revive local democratic involvement in education. The sustained attack by both the Conservative and Labour parties has virtually destroyed LEAs. Appointed regional commissars are no answer. With the present interest in 'localism' and the delegation of Westminster powers to cities or regions, a Committee of Enquiry should consider how to create new forms of local government of education.
## References
Mansell, W., 2007, Education by Numbers, London: Politico's.
Tomlinson, S., 2001, Education in a post-welfare society, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Young, M.F.D., 2009, Bringing Knowledge Back In, London: Routledge.
## Further reading
I found these books particularly helpful in writing this chapter and when reflecting more widely on contemporary issues in education:
Ken Jones: Education in Britain, Polity (2003)
Arthur Marwick: British Society since 1945, Penguin (2003)
Robert Phillips: History Teaching, Nationhood and the State, Cassell (1998)
Alison Wolf: Does Education Matter, Penguin (2002)
# [6
A View from the Island](content.xhtml#bck_Ch06)
A very personal story
Kenny Frederick
## Preparing for headship
I could never be described as a careerist as I spent the first 16 years of my working life working in two schools. I can't help but get emotionally attached to a school and have never been good at flitting from school to school. Even after 16 years I was not particularly ambitious and was enjoying my role as Head of House in a school in Haringey. However, I decided to apply for deputy headship after being told by a senior manager, during a heated argument, that I would never be a senior leader because I was too emotional. This gave me the impetus to move on. Subsequently I moved to become Deputy Head in a girl's school in Hackney in January 1990. A major part of my role was working with the business community and the work-related curriculum. One of the important initiatives at the time was Compact, which was a partnership between business and schools, and a lot of work was done to make sure students were ready for the world of work. Another responsibility was preparing the school for Investors in People (IIP) accreditation, which helped me to learn more about leading and managing people, who are our greatest resource. When I did move on to headship, I used the IIP framework to help me plan my strategy for making the most of our human resources.
About two years into my role as Deputy Head, I realised that I needed to keep my options open and, therefore, needed to learn more about leading schools. Despite my earlier reticence, I acknowledged that I did want to become a headteacher at some point in the future. Working alongside a headteacher who could be (putting it mildly) described as 'autocratic' helped me to make up my mind. I completed my Masters degree at East London University (part-time over two years) in Educational Leadership, where I discovered Tim Brighouse and lots of other education academics, who helped me develop my own vision for a school I would lead (see Chapter 12). Tim's writing was practical and real, and his appreciation for the people he worked with shone through. In addition, I also did a number of leadership courses in preparation for senior leadership, which I funded myself and often completed during the weekends and always in my own time.
I was given little or no encouragement from my headteacher at the time, who started to see me as a bit of a threat and was cross that I had the cheek to think I could put myself on to the same level as she. My life was made even more difficult from that point. After four years in post I decided that I needed to start the application process to get out before I was pushed out! I was successful in securing the headship of George Green's School on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets in April 1996. I was 43 years old with around 22 years' experience in schools. I was delighted but somewhat daunted at the prospect of becoming a headteacher.
Prior to my appointment as Principal of George Green's School I had been seconded to a boys' school in Hammersmith and Fulham for about six months. This was a school in trouble when the new headteacher had arrived and his one deputy had had a heart attack and his partner who was on the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) was also on long-term absence. An imminent Ofsted visit was expected, and most of the teachers were supply staff. This was swift learning ground for me but it meant that I had little time to do my homework in terms of schools I was applying for. If I had done so, I might have decided against applying for George Green's. Looking back now I am thankful I didn't, as ignorance is often a good thing. I had always worked in the inner city and assumed that the Isle of Dogs would be much like Hackney and Haringey. This it most certainly was not! It was unique.
## Tower Hamlets – the Isle of Dogs
What I had not realised upon appointment in 1996 was that the first BNP (British National Party) counsellor to ever be elected in England was in November 1993 on the Isle of Dogs. He only lasted a couple of months before he was ousted and replaced. However, the people who had elected him were still there when I arrived in April 1996. The discontent of the white population was blamed on the housing policy of Tower Hamlets Council who placed a large number of the incoming Bangladeshi population on the Isle of Dogs. This caused resentment locally and resulted in a very divided community. This spilled into the school, where many students and their parents felt it was appropriate to express overt racist comments and attitudes. It was a difficult time and took many years to overcome and to change attitudes. Bringing the community together so that we could get on with the business of teaching and learning in a safe environment took a great deal of resilience on my part and on the part of my staff.
Therefore, the diverse ethnic background to the school was a crucial consideration in the policies that needed to be adopted and that, as the Principal, I pursued. According to the UK government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation, Tower Hamlets in 2006 ranked as the most deprived local authority in the country, with high levels of unemployment, poverty and poor health. Fifty per cent of the residents were from the black and minority ethnic communities (33 per cent Bangladeshi). Almost 100 languages were spoken locally. The school of about 1,200 boys and girls aged 11–19 reflected that ethnic and linguistic mix. About half the pupils were white (British mainly, but also Irish and other), a third Asian (mainly Bangladeshi), around 20 per cent Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Somali and other African background. About one in sixty pupils arrived at the school with little or no spoken English. Over 50 per cent of the pupils were eligible for free school meals – more than three times the national average (14 per cent) for secondary schools.
Therefore, one of my first jobs as Principal was to work with staff, pupils and parents to develop our Equal Opportunities Policy and our motto 'All different. All equal'. Getting the community to understand that equal opportunities is not about treating everybody the same but is about meeting individual needs. This helped me counteract the accusations that I was treating different children 'differently', for instance by providing EAL pupils with additional help with their English. This policy remained firm and informed every other policy we developed over the year and it eventually became ingrained into the hearts and minds of our pupils. However, this aspect of our work took many years.
## Dealing with the racial tension
The horrors of 9/11 in New York in September 2001 increased racial tensions further, and we had a particularly difficult situation in November 2001 only a few months after the tragic events unfolded. Islamophobia was rife, and The Guardian (20 November 2001) described one of the most difficult situations we went through when a group of parents leafleted the island to gather support on a Sunday evening following a fight at the school gates on the previous Friday afternoon. Waiting for this group to arrive was frightening but we had no option but to let them in and let them vent their anger. I was the focus of this anger but I had no opportunity to speak calmly to them or tell them what the school was doing to resolve the racial tensions. They screamed at me for about 30 minutes and left. The local newspaper described the school to be in a state of anarchy – which it certainly was not. While this was a horrible experience, it only strengthened my resolve to hang on in there and sort it out!
During this time, when racial tensions were at their highest, we were (mostly) able to keep a lid on the situation while pupils were in school, but we began to hate unstructured time and home time. My staff were having to lead different groups of pupils home at the end of the day (to avoid fighting in the street and local park). Having very narrow corridors, one minor scuffle during lesson changeover would polarise the school along racial lines and would spread out into the streets at the end of the day. Needless to say we were doing lots of work in our curriculum to address the issues at the same time. However, it was very exhausting and was not conducive to good learning. At this time one of our Bengali TAs (teaching assistants), who had by his own admission been a local 'youth' in his time, came up with the idea of taking our 'most extreme' pupils to Belfast to see what a divided community looked and felt like. After a short discussion with my senior team we decided to go with the idea. We had to do something and do it quickly!
It was agreed we would take 40 pupils and these should be those with leadership qualities and the capacity to change their views. We spent time on choosing this cohort and were so surprised that so many wanted to go. Most saw it as a free trip abroad and a week out of school! Once the group was chosen we looked at the staff who would accompany them and work with them for the week. Without a doubt I sent my most talented and experienced teachers and support staff who had good relationships with the pupils. It was a huge risk, and I had nightmares worrying about what might happen on the journey or when they were in Ireland.
The TA, whose idea it all was, sorted out the details of the trip, and they went to the 'Share Centre' in Fermanagh where they lived in 'Big Brother' style houses in mixed groups and where they had to cook for each other and get to know each other properly. My expert staff got them to confront their own racism and ingrained prejudices and to understand what had been going on. They also went to see the 'peace wall' and were shocked to see a city divided by a physical wall. However, the greatest change came after our pupils had the opportunity to meet other students, both Catholic and Protestant, and to spend time with them. Our pupils found it hard to understand what the argument was all about – they are all white and all Christian, what are they fighting about? After a number of history lessons and discussions with these youngsters, our pupils were shocked that many of those they met (not all by any means) were happy with the status quo and did not want to change. They liked things as they were.
When our pupils returned to school they formed the 'Unity Cru' and were led by my TA who went on to become a community manager in later years. They worked together as a mixed group of 40 individuals who were able to influence the whole school population. They learned to mediate and negotiate and to make presentations at assembly and elsewhere, but most of all it was the work they did with 'the youngers' in the playground that made the biggest difference in changing the culture of the school. When small incidents were in danger of exploding into bigger ones, the Unity Cru were there to intervene. We took different groups back to Northern Ireland for a number of years to reinforce the work that had been done there and, as the racial tensions ceased and gang warfare (!) blossomed to replace them, we were able to do useful work on restorative justice that helped to diffuse situations on the island.
The trip to Belfast was an extreme and expensive answer to a very difficult problem. It was just one of the many risks I took during my time as Principal. It was a risk well worth taking and taught me that procrastination is no use to anybody. I had to take a decision and take it quickly. I did not have the money to pay for the first visit but we went anyway and I raised the money from sponsorship afterwards. The trip to Belfast was used as a case study and was written about often. There was a lot of interest in our story, which is fine after the event, but not while you are in the middle of it!
## Responding to government initiatives
During my 17 years as Principal, risk taking and change were constant. Much of this change was a result of government initiatives, but many of the changes were of our own making. Some were in response to what was happening to us (see above) and others were about school improvement. Schools, especially those in challenging circumstances like mine, cannot stand still and need to keep moving forward. In fact we often felt like we were frantically treading water, just to keep our heads above it. While this was exhausting it was also very exciting and created a dynamic can-do culture where there was no problem we could not find a solution to. This is the reason why I have always worked in the inner city in schools on the 'edge'. I am naturally positive and optimistic, which certainly helped me to become very resilient and allowed me to cope well with the stress that comes with the job. Furthermore, I surrounded myself with senior staff and teachers who had a similar attitude.
Changes imposed by the Labour government in their 12 years in power (1998–2010) – (see Chapter 1, p. 16) were largely positive and were not 'new' in the sense that we were not being asked to do very different or very difficult things. Many of these policies were designed to help schools share good practice and were an attempt to develop a more coherent approach to school improvement. I made sure I got involved in various advisory and focus groups and encouraged my staff to do the same. This way we felt we could inform policy change and be done 'with' rather than be done 'to'. This was and is an important fact to consider if we want schools and teachers to embrace change. Imposing changes on schools does not work.
The numerous changes to the Ofsted framework took up a lot of time and energy and have, I believe, stopped many schools taking risks and developing a curriculum to suit the needs of their students. The anxiety about the next Ofsted inspection is never far away. This was particularly true when we were judged as NTI (Needs to Improve) category in September 2008 when our results dropped unexpectedly.
When I first took over as Principal, I found myself in a financial deficit situation. I'd had very little experience of dealing with a budget as my previous head had kept that knowledge to herself. Thankfully, I had governors who had a great deal of expertise and experience in managing finances. We went immediately to asking for voluntary redundancies and found that we were able to get rid of the deficit without too much pain. However, funds were short, and I found myself along with a couple of other colleagues teaching RE (without any previous experience or expertise), as we could not afford to employ a new RE teacher.
As a new head, I discovered that the relationship between my predecessor and senior team and the rest of the staff had been a difficult one. The Ofsted inspection in 1993 (one of the first inspections in England) described 'an atmosphere of distrust between senior leadership and staff'. The situation had gotten so difficult the headteacher had refused to write personal references and instead provided a bland document saying exactly what individuals had done, without any comment about the quality of their work. I, of course, had no knowledge of this and I naïvely expected staff to follow my lead and work alongside me. Thankfully they did.
## 1997: changes under Labour
There was much joy when Labour won the general election in 1997 and 'Education, education, education' was the strapline. Funding increased, and there were many new initiatives. Most of my headship (12 years of it) was under a Labour government and I certainly think we benefited from this. Tower Hamlets was and still is one of the poorest boroughs in England, and, therefore, our schools received almost 60 per cent more resource per pupil than the national average, and we had higher levels of resourcing than almost all other London boroughs. This did not always go down well with heads in other boroughs and counties and I can understand their resentment. However, this high level of funding certainly contributed to the success of the borough, making it one of the most successful in the country. It allowed us to increase the number of teachers and support staff and to provide additional resources for our students.
The Excellence in Cities (EIC) initiative was introduced in March 1999 with the aim of raising standards and promoting inclusion in the inner cities (see Chapter 1, p. 15). We were delighted to embrace this initiative, especially as it was so well funded. The requirements of EIC were clear but not prescriptive, and we were able to decide exactly how we would introduce and shape the different strands into our own schools. This was a challenge we welcomed because we felt it would help us to improve the quality of our school. There were four main strands of EIC. These included:
* Learning mentors
* Learning support units (LSUs)
* Provision for gifted and talented pupils
* City Learning Centre and Education Action Zones
We had already started adding to our workforce and led the way as far as workforce reforms went. Most of these new employees were working as Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), back office staff and finally Learning Mentors. Most of these came from the local community, which really helped to bridge the gap between the school and the community. Learning Mentors proved to be valuable in helping us support some of our most vulnerable children of whom we had many.
The development of the new LSU caused much discussion in our school, and many urban myths spread across the staff, students and parents. 'Swimming with dolphins' was quoted many times and the notion that children were being rewarded for being naughty! However, as with most things, we got over that hurdle and the LSU proved to be very successful in supporting some of our most difficult and hard-to-teach students. The Behaviour Improvement strategy arrived around the same time, and I received a call one day from the private office of Stephen Twigg, Minister for Schools (2004–2005), to see if they could visit for the day and see how we managed behaviour! Of course we agreed to this as we felt that civil servants who were developing behaviour policy ought to see what we were dealing with on a daily basis.
The focus on Gifted and Talented pupils made us think more about this group who had probably been neglected up to now. We could not live with the title Gifted and Talented as it was so difficult to come up with a clear definition of what this meant. Therefore, we settled on More Able and Talented and set about developing a support programme to develop and challenge this group. This involved tracking this group carefully, providing enrichment activities and individual mentoring. What it did not involve was a concentration on teaching. When I look back now and still see the same model in many schools I visit, I am sorry that we did not focus more specifically on strategies for raising achievement in the classroom.
Putting together a bid to become a small Education Action Zone (see Chapter 1, p. 15) with our primary feeder schools on the Isle of Dogs under the EIC banner was something that was very worthwhile. We already had strong relationships with our feeder primaries and we supported each other in any way we could. However, the small Action Zone provided the structure and funding to develop a strategic action plan to work together on improving teaching and learning. We had to go through a very vigorous process in putting our bid together, and I remember a rival group of schools (who were bidding against us) being very angry when we were chosen as the successful cluster. However, the Action Zone group are still working together in a coherent way to get to grips with the many changes that they are expected to make.
The EIC programme ran alongside the Leadership Incentive Grant, of which we were quick to take advantage. I noticed an advert asking for schools interested in taking on a Trainee Head for a year as a training opportunity and could not resist the opportunity to have a free member of SLT for a year! We were lucky to have had three trainees over three years who all went on to be headteachers. They brought three different sets of eyes and added much to our school. My senior team was always welcoming and open and we subsequently went on to host many Future Leader participants in the following years. In addition, we opened up our team to a number of Associate Assistant Heads who were middle leaders, and they also brought a great deal of expertise and ideas to the table. My aim has always been to demystify headship and to encourage others to think of themselves as leaders in the future. I had never been encouraged in this way and used to believe that senior leadership was out of my league.
The Labour government introduced Every Child Matters (ECM) in 2004 (see Chapter 1, p. 15), which was in my opinion the most important and relevant development that I can remember. In fact I wrote my MBA thesis on the subject. The notion and reality of different organisations working together to ensure the needs of our children were ground breaking and worked very well for us. In fact it was the way we were already working but in a very informal way, where my staff had persuaded individuals from other child-centred professions to work closely with us. ECM made these partnerships more solid and provided a framework for brokering relationships and partnerships. We became a designated Extended School, which allowed us to provide a range of services for vulnerable children and their families. For instance, it was much easier to get vulnerable families to come to school for their CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) appointment rather than go to the centre that was a bus ride away. We were open from 7.30 a.m. for breakfast (provided by Morgan Stanley) and provided activities and childcare (The Place to Be) until 6 p.m. After that, the school sports facilities were used by the community until 10 p.m. at night. The community team and Sports Trust (a charity set up by governors some years before and run largely by sixth formers and ex-students of George Green's) made sure that local people could hire the facilities at a low cost while the business community paid premium prices. The Sports Trust was, and still is, self-funding and is a very efficient way of organising school lettings. ECM made perfect sense to us. It brought together all strands of the school, and we were horrified when the Coalition government decided to change the name of the DCSF (Department of Children, Schools and Families) to the DfE – families were (it seemed) no longer our problem!
## Youth Services
Later on (2006) we were commissioned to deliver Youth Services on the Isle of Dogs and we readily took on this role, despite the fact that it caused so much additional work. We were keen to take this on because as a school we had spent years bringing the different communities together in school only to find they went off to different parts of the island when they left school. The youth clubs were very segregated, and white and black boys went to one club, while Bengali boys went to another. Girls did not attend any youth clubs because they (and their parents) did not think they were safe. The quality of youth services was very poor and when problems occurred in the streets, as they often did, the clubs chose to close rather than work with young people to sort them out. Staff working in the Youth Service at the time were used to working in a particular way and were not used to being led and managed. This had to change, and the process was difficult. However, the outcomes were hugely successful. Clubs were no longer segregated, girls were now participating, and the number of youngsters attending youth clubs rose dramatically, meaning youths were no longer hanging around the streets causing problems. We developed and delivered a relevant curriculum, staff were well trained and well led, and youth clubs were not closed without due notice. It was another big risk that paid off.
## Vocational courses
Many new vocational courses equivalent to GCSEs started in schools in around 2002 (see Chapter 1, p. 11), but this was something we never went in for. Instead we stuck to the more traditional curriculum, including every child doing a humanities subject and a language. At the time we felt that this was the right thing for our pupils, as it gave them all the opportunity to study a wide range of subjects and would enable them to move on to the pathways they chose in the future.
This was a mistake, as the traditional curriculum did not suit lots of our children, and we should have taken more risks with the curriculum. We saw schools around us embrace GNVQs (which we did not feel were of much value), and their results soared. I believe this lift in attainment gave pupils confidence and self-belief, and these schools then went on to climb up the league tables. It was our mistake not to follow suit. However, in 2008, we did revise the curriculum so that it offered more appropriate pathways for all our young people. This development was too late to save us from plummeting results in 2008, followed by a subsequent Ofsted inspection that took us into a 'requires improvement' category. A lesson learned the hard way!
## Inclusion
At some point in 2002 I was invited to a meeting at the local authority to discuss piloting the Index to Inclusion (produced by Tony Booth and Mel Ainscow). As a school we were already well down this road, as we were working so hard to include all members of our community, including those with special needs. The borough (like many others) was keen for schools to include youngsters with physical disabilities and learning difficulties to attend mainstream schools and we were very happy to be part of that movement. The Index to Inclusion was a very helpful document in helping us to audit our school and to find the gaps in provision. I often recommend it to colleagues today. Although our building was totally unsuitable (on seven floors with one unreliable lift), we were designated as the 'inclusive' school in the borough. We had the will and were able to find the way of including young people with a wide range of children with additional needs. Some years later we were able to convince the DfE to fund adaptations to make movement around the school and for the provision of more disabled toilets and other facilities. We gained a reputation for inclusion and it was a reputation we were very proud of. Though the subsequent Special Needs regulations have been strongly criticised by many, including Baroness Warnock, schools and colleges across the country have developed inclusive policy and practice, while many others, who are often those lauded as examples to us all, have rejected inclusion and those children who will use lots of resources and who may not achieve the benchmark re GCSE results. Admission policies need to be more rigorously applied so that those who want to attend a mainstream school have that opportunity. However, the new SEN Code of Practice (see Chapter 1, p. 15) and new funding arrangements are making it more difficult for schools to be fully inclusive.
## Concluding comments
The change of government in 2010 was not a happy time for those of us in education. Policies introduced under the Coalition were more difficult to manage and caused great anxiety. They were seen to be punitive and targeted at schools with challenging intakes and fighting against the odds. My teachers were constantly re-writing schemes of learning and finding new ways to implement new initiatives and changes to exam syllabi. Change was imposed and not based on evidence that it (whatever it was) worked. The worst part was not being consulted or involved. The feeling that we were being 'done to' caused a great deal of resentment. Keeping staff morale high and keeping them positive was a great challenge but was one we managed most of the time. Teachers were blamed for all the ills of society and were constantly being told they were not doing a good job. The workload increased, although we had thought this was not possible. The autonomy of headteachers was a piece of fiction, as we had never been so tightly controlled by central government. The Local Education Authority, who had always been so supportive, lost most of their funding and subsequently most of their personnel. The Ofsted framework continued to change, and the exams criteria changed, making it more difficult for many pupils to gain the qualifications they needed to move forward.
At this point I had reached the ripe old age of 60 and decided it was time to retire and give someone else a chance to lead the school.
# [Part III
Higher and further education](content.xhtml#bck_part3)
# [7
Evolution of Teacher Training and Professional Development](content.xhtml#bck_Ch07)
Richard Pring
## Introduction
The preparation and continuing professional development of teachers have been in constant evolution ever since the 1944 Education Act, that great Act of Parliament which, in the aftermath of the war, created a 'national service locally administered'. Such a national service required of the Minister to ensure, first, there were enough school places for all school-age children, and, second, there were enough teachers trained to teach them. Not for the Minister to say what should be taught or how it should be taught. And not for the Minister to say how teachers should be trained or how their continuing professional development, if any at all, should take place.
That subsequent evolution reflected the changing understandings: of the place of teacher education within a unitary system of higher education; of the place of schools and the profession in that training; of the content of the training and professional development; and of the responsibilities of government. In this last respect, we have seen the autonomy of the profession and indeed of universities increasingly eroded by political intervention.
One might see that historical evolution in terms of positive developments, arising (through public deliberations and subsequent White Papers and Acts of Parliament) from responses to perceived difficulties regarding low standards in many schools or the ideological beliefs of the teacher trainers. The name 'blob', as such an establishment has been called by some politicians, reflects a political concern about the influence of those whose ideas permeate the training of teachers, especially the social and philosophical critiques within colleges and universities. Was John Dewey, taught in our university departments of education, mainly responsible for all the problems of our schools, as I was told by a Secretary of State and a Minister of Higher Education? Much better, it is thought, that attention should be directed more effectively and efficiently to the improvement of learning as that has come to be defined from outside the teaching profession, ever since the 1988 Education Act.
In what follows, I examine that evolution more closely, drawing upon historical record and personal experience – as teacher in training, schoolteacher, teacher of students on the new BEd degree, university lecturer on professional diploma courses, professor helping to bring about the first merger between a prestigious college of education and a university, and finally Director of the Oxford University Department of Educational Studies, when after 100 years that university finally thought the study of education was worthy of a professor.
## Prelude: do teachers need to be trained?
There once prevailed the Platonic idea of the sort of education in which, 'in a place set apart', the guardian class would receive a special sort of education, partly through what was taught but partly through the initiation into a particular tradition, social ethos and network. This was accessible to relatively few (what the nineteenth-century philosopher and poet Coleridge referred to as the 'clerisy') brought up, if not on gymnastics and mathematics, then at least on the classics and games. Prep school, public school and Oxbridge would provide the right kind of educational background. Indeed, this was argued to the Bryce Commission in 1895 by Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen College Oxford, when discussion was conducted on whether the University of Oxford should be concerned with the training of teachers. The student who has read Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics and Ethics has whatever theory is necessary for the practice of teaching. But in addition it would be helpful:
that a young man who has passed through an English public school, more particularly if he has been . . . a prefect has had experience in keeping order and maintaining discipline. Thus the average Oxford man, more especially the classical student, ought not to require so long an additional training, either in theory or practice, as is sometimes necessary for students elsewhere.
(Bryce Report, 1895, v. 257)
Indeed, this message was reiterated by Mr Raleigh of All Souls, also to the Bryce Committee, reminiscent of John Stuart Mill's inaugural address at St Andrew's, in which he argued that the university is not a place for professional education (Mill, 1867). According to Raleigh:
It is not the office of the University to train men for teaching, or any other profession . . . his special training must be left to those who are engaged in professional work. Almost any honours man will make a good teacher, and if he has the luck to fall into the hands of a good headteacher.
(Bryce Report, 1895, v. 22)
This view may seem antiquated, but it continues to hover around the corridors of power and in many schools. Training, of whatever sort, is no longer a requirement to teach in schools released from the bonds of local authorities, as well as those that remain in the private sector. It is regarded that, with the right sort of subject knowledge from the university and with the right sort of character, training is unnecessary. Ignorance of what is referred to as the 'disciplines of education' (philosophy, sociology, psychology, history) might indeed be a bonus. One might, as with Teach First, just as well go straight into school where one will be nurtured by mature teachers. The result is that there is a rejection of those developments, especially after the Robbins Report in 1963 (to be explained below), which have shaped teacher education for 50 years and through which I have been engaged with teaching and teacher education.
The question continues to be: Do the training and development of teachers need to be made academically respectable through the support of universities, on the one hand, and, on the other, can the academic respectability of the universities be practically relevant?
## Academic respectability and practical relevance: a fading example
In 1964, I quit the Ministry of Education in Curzon Street, where I had been an Assistant Principal working in my final year in the newly established Curriculum Study Group, which was the forerunner of the Schools Council and which initiated a range of papers in preparation for the new Certificate of Secondary Education. The Schools Council, established in 1964, was a shrewd combination of local education authorities, and representatives from teachers (who were the majority members), HMI, community, and employers and government. The first Joint Secretary, Derek Morrell (the civil servant who in effect created the Schools Council), argued that it aimed to support and to enhance the professional aspect of teaching:
to democratise the processes of problem-solving as we try, as best we can, to develop an educational approach appropriate to a permanent condition of change. . . . this democracy must also be locally organised, bringing together teachers, dons, administrators and others for the study of common problems, some local and others national in their implications.
(Morrell, 1966)
Later in the lecture Morrell spelled out the particular nature of this partnership between teachers (at the centre, not periphery, of these deliberations) and the research interests of the universities to which the teachers might in various ways be attached – not as neighbours knocking on the door of theory but as partners in a shared enterprise.
One influential example of such a partnership was that of the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia, led by Professor Lawrence Stenhouse. Its Humanities Curriculum Project was founded on Stenhouse's scholarly research into the idea and practice of 'culture', developed in schools by teachers, rigorously evaluated by the university, and supported and promoted by the Schools Council. It gave rise to the tradition of 'action research', putting teachers at the centre of research and supported by research traditions within the universities – described by John Elliott (1991), a member of the Stenhouse team, in his book Action Research for Educational Change. However, there were many examples of such a partnership in the development of curriculum projects – History 13–16, Geography for the Young School Leaver, Design and Technology, Nuffield Sciences, for example.
Much inspired by the ambitions of the Schools Council, I started teaching in a London comprehensive school in 1965. Nothing in my teacher training year at a London college of education prepared me for 1x. When I asked the headteacher in July for my timetable so that I could spend my vacation in preparation, I was told to come in early on the first day of Autumn term. He asked what I had studied at the university. When I replied philosophy, he said he thought so and said I was to have the slow learners – the fifth stream of a five stream comprehensive school. I struggled. But it was the Schools Council that came to my help. The Council saw the need for professional support for teachers through the partnerships established across schools and with university-based curriculum projects. Its Teachers' Centres, throughout the country, provided that support, and it was to the Centre in Highbury and Islington that I went for support, professional engagement, and introduction to relevant thinking and research.
Unfortunately the Schools Council ceased to be granted government support in 1984 and closed. The early fears held by the teachers' unions of government desire to obtain control of curriculum proved correct. Four years later there was the 1988 Educational Reform Act.
## Academic respectability
The nineteenth-century training of teachers took place in training colleges run mainly by the Church of England, though a few emerged from the Catholics and Non-conformists to support their growing number of schools. But, with the extension of secondary education to all, following the 1944 Education Act, there was a need for many more training places and for a deeper, more academic preparation. No longer were they to serve elementary schools that offered a limited education for the poor. A first step was to change the name in 1960 from 'training colleges' to 'colleges of education', and to attach them to regional universities through Area Training Organisations (created in 1955 following the proposals of the 1944 McNair Report).
The aim, following the 1963 Robbins Report, was to bring the colleges within a unitary system of Higher Education, ignoring the objections from those who, believing in a restricted pool of ability, opposed such an expansion. Indeed, the judgement of Mr Raleigh (quoted above) still prevailed in many quarters: 'it is not the office of the University to train men for teaching'. The colleges would not be granted university status. But they would be either linked to universities and thereby be able to take the newly proposed BEd degree (initially a three year Ordinary Degree, then later a four year Honours) to be awarded by their respective universities, or linked to polytechnics with degree awarding powers given to the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), established in 1965. The Institute of Education of London University, for example, had 30 colleges under its academic wing, from as far away as Canterbury (later to become Canterbury Christ Church University). The training of teachers would be firmly within the university sector – thereby gaining 'academic respectability'.
That, however, gave rise to the need to make the study of education academically respectable. That was not easy. The university lecturer in education was, in the words of Professor Richard Peters of the University of London Institute of Education:
so often like the distraught Freudian ego – at one moment at the mercy of the ids in the classroom, unruly little boys and girls, insatiable in their demands and beyond the control of reason; at another moment feeling the disapproving gaze of the superego in the philosophy, psychology or sociology department, whose discipline is tough, but seemingly disconnected from the world of unreason which teachers have to inhabit.
It was as a result of such doubts and criticisms that attempts were made to make educational studies respectable. At a conference of the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education in Hull in 1964, studies for the professional development of teachers were dismissed by Peters as so much undifferentiated mush. Hence began a purposeful attempt to inject an academic rigour that respectability in the eyes of the universities demanded. There was an exponential growth of theory in what were called the 'foundation disciplines' – the philosophy, sociology, psychology and history of education, and finally comparative and curriculum studies.
This I witnessed first hand in my PGCE year. On Friday afternoons the postgraduate trainees would go from their respective colleges to hear the stimulating lectures from Richard Peters in philosophy of education, Basil Bernstein in sociology of education, W.D. Wall in psychology and A.C. Beales from Kings College London in history of education. Peters' book The Ethics of Education (published 1965) became deservedly a textbook on BEd courses, stimulating consideration of the aims of education and of the ethical basis of what is taught in schools. He was accompanied by Paul Hirst whose influential paper on 'the seven forms of knowledge' provided a philosophical background to the study and value of curriculum subjects (Hirst, 1965).
I joined a group of aspiring philosophers and signed up to study for a part-time PhD under the University's Philosophy Board, supervised by Professor Peters. That and similar groups in the other disciplines were most important within the development of educational studies worldwide.
First, the development of the BEd required university teachers – people who could teach philosophy, sociology, psychology and history. The newly developed diploma courses at the Institute were intended to provide these. Hence, college lecturers and schoolteachers were recruited to the courses, made into philosophers (sociologists, etc) and then dispatched to the far corners of the kingdom as missionaries. A series of books was published by Routledge and Kegan Paul (RKP), whose authors were mainly from the Institute of Education. New journals were established (for example, The British Journal of Educational Studies and The Journal of the Sociology of Education). Learned societies were set up, such as the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, whose Proceedings published the papers given at the annual conference, which took place at the Beatrice Webb House in Surrey from 1967 and subsequently at the Froebel College.
Second, however, this became a worldwide movement. Israel Scheffler at Harvard University (whose 1958 book Philosophy of Education included papers from Peters and Hirst) published The Language of Education, which analysed in detail the use of 'definitions' in education, 'educational slogans' and 'metaphors', the meaning of 'teaching'. The prevailing Oxford tradition of analytic philosophy had entered into educational thinking, and thereby attacked mercilessly the words and assumptions of, say, the Plowden Report (1967) on primary education – for example, children's 'needs', 'creativity', 'growth'. In a visit to Melbourne University in the 1970s to give the Victor Cooke Memorial Lecture, I witnessed the impact of this literature on teacher education – the almost monopoly of reading material from the philosophers (Peters, Hirst, John and Pat White, Ray Elliott, Robert Dearden) of the London Institute of Education.
## The death of the college
More was required to achieve the respectability to emerge from the Robbins' ideal of a unitary system of higher education. The 1972 James Report: Teacher Education and Training recommended the total abolition of monotechnic teacher training courses and the merging of them into institutions with other undergraduate studies. It recommended three cycles of continuing education, namely, a two-year Diploma in Higher Education, a two-year professional training and then professional in-service provision. It was regarded as inadequate to finish teacher preparation with no more than the successful completion of initial training. However, despite these recommendations, the 1972 White Paper, Education: a Framework for Expansion, dismissed the DipHE and postponed the inservice proposals and thereby the hope of much needed opportunities for continuing teachers' professional development.
By 1976, of the original 151 voluntary and municipal colleges of education, five had merged with universities, 33 were locked in with polytechnics, 63 had amalgamated into 44 newly created institutes of higher and further education, and 21 were earmarked for closure. The changes in institutional provision for teacher preparation were immense: it had become a degree-based profession; it had its own professional degree (Bachelor of Education) and it had become an intrinsic part of higher education within the 'binary system' – not the unitary system envisaged by Robbins, since, except in the case of the few that had merged with universities, colleges were not funded by the University Grants Committee. However, academic autonomy was preserved through the CNAA, which oversaw academic standards in the burgeoning public sector of higher education (including the polytechnics).
But the changes to a unitary system of higher education continued apace through more mergers and through the gradual acquisition of university status. In 1978 I was appointed to Exeter University and engaged in the merger between St Luke's College of Education and the university. The new School of Education, soon to be the largest in the country outside the Institute of Education in London, remained on the St Lukes' site. It was joined there by the staffs of the now former University of Exeter's Department and Institute of Education. Ted Wragg succeeded Michael Brock (appointed as Principal of Nuffield College Oxford) as Director. The success of the new school, in integrating within it the erstwhile separate institutions and in integrating the school within the wider university, owed much to his dynamism, reputation with schools, and combination of practical know-how in the classroom with a grasp of educational theory.
Members of the St Luke's staff had been appointed to the college first and foremost because they were excellent teachers who knew their subjects, though few had higher degrees. Their profiles did not match those of Exeter University's Department and Institute of Education. How could they fit into the academically motivated ethos of a university? There were, therefore, some nervous new members of the university. But, as I wish to develop later (and even conclude), there is a danger in the disdain for 'practical knowledge' – in not seeing the importance of the practical as the basis for the theoretical, not the other way around.
For example, on the BEd primary course, students were taught mathematics by an excellent team of mathematicians for the three or four years of their BEd, and were well prepared for the classroom once they had graduated. Compare this with the present situation, following the demise of the BEd, where only about one in ten of new primary school teachers have more than grade C in GCSE mathematics, following which they have done no mathematics during the next six years prior to their PGCE qualification. It is not surprising that many young people have been ill-prepared for their study of mathematics when they enter secondary school.
A further example would be that of teaching physical education. After the war, the Principal Smeales was determined to bring fame to St Luke's and to do so by creating the best rugby team in the country. He went to Wales to recruit for the training college the best players he could persuade to become teachers, including several internationals. One benefit that the University of Exeter saw in the merger was to have a great rugby team. I have no doubt that the new School of Education produced possibly the best-trained physical education teachers in the country, though (as we were constantly told) rivalled by Loughborough.
As educational studies were made increasingly to look like other undergraduate studies, I see the demise of the professional degree for preparing teachers as a grave mistake. Physical education gradually morphed into sports science. Drama disappeared from most teacher training places. Whereas I entered teaching (even in 1x, the lowest stream in a five-form Year 1) without any knowledge of the different kinds of learning difficulty to be encountered, those who studied for the BEd at the two universities where I was employed (Goldsmiths College and Exeter University) had clear and practical introductions to them.
Students who studied at Goldsmiths College in the late 1960s recall that the BEd degree was made academically respectable through the support of universities and practically relevant through an appropriate curriculum that provided academic knowledge and hands-on experience throughout the four-year programme. A four-year programme enabled students to be academically able and practically skilled, as there was time to address all aspects in sufficient detail. There was a balance of educational studies and specialist subject teaching that was on a par with the BA or BSc course. In addition they were taught how to identify and support children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, by attending stimulating lectures, visiting institutions that specialise in specific learning needs such as epilepsy, dyslexia, autism and Down's syndrome, and by carrying out work experience at an allocated specialist centre. This was followed up by a written assessed dissertation. For example:
We did an intense study on dealing with children with special needs. We all visited a Centre in Kent regarding epilepsy and how to deal with it. Then we had lectures on dyslexia, autism and Down's syndrome, etc. We were required to write an in-depth study with reference to special needs and were required to include work experience. I focused on Down's syndrome, another on children with polio. I spent 2 to 3 weeks as a volunteer at a Centre for children with Down's syndrome over one summer break. This type of study is not included in courses today unless doing a special course.
Such rigour, depth and breadth of preparation over a four-year period are not mirrored in teacher training programmes today. Much preparation and thought was put into the BEd degree by educationalists at that time, and as a result emerging teachers felt supported and prepared for their future careers.
Over time either all colleges merged with universities (e.g. Keswick Hall with East Anglia), or joined a polytechnic, which eventually became a university (e.g. Lady Spencer Churchill and Oxford Polytechnic becoming Oxford Brooks University and later subsuming Westminster College), or evolved slowly into universities (e.g. King Alfred's College becoming the University of Winchester), or simply went out of business. But problems remained.
## Government control
It would have seemed that, in shelving teacher education firmly within the university sector, the preparation and continuing professional development of teachers would have remained safe from government interference. Universities were autonomous institutions. Though receiving money from the government, that money was channelled through the University Grants Committee, established after the recommendations of Robbins to ensure freedom from interference in academic matters. But the government believed that assurance over the quality of teacher training was as necessary as assurance over the quality of teaching in schools. Just as HMI were empowered to enter schools, so should they be empowered to enter universities for this particular set of courses.
In 1983, the government produced a paper, Teaching Quality, spelling out four phases of a teaching career. In 1984, it gave HMI powers of approval on teacher education courses.
Staff Inspector Pauline Perry came to Exeter University to announce the intention. But would the university allow it? It did so because otherwise the government grants would be withdrawn. There was indeed a rearguard action from the redoubtable Ted Wragg. For the first inspection he insisted that he be notified beforehand of the team of HMIs. Following his perusal of the list, he insisted that one of the team be removed because of his known insobriety on a previous occasion and because we could not allow bad influences to be imported into the high level of professional training for which Exeter was noted. The HMI was removed from the team.
In 1988, the government published The New Teacher in School. No doubt on the basis of the now numerous HMI inspections, it criticised the weaknesses in teacher education, especially in terms of the lack of sufficient preparation in the organisation and preparation of learning and of poor assessment and recording of pupils' progress. Had the pursuit of academic respectability diminished practical relevance?
However, 'quality' is an elastic term. It can be stretched to cover many more things than actual performance in the classroom or subject knowledge. There had long been a suspicion from the right wing of politics that educational theory was promoting a left-wing agenda, blaming poor performance, for example, on cultural and social backgrounds rather than on ineffective teaching. In 1969 the first two of the seven Black Papers on Education, edited by Cox and Dyson, were published: Fight for Education and Crisis in Education. These, together with other papers from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), identified a cause of the perceived problems in schools to arise from the prevailing theoretical assumptions that, especially following the Plowden Report on Primary Education, permeated education departments – the espousal of child-centred theories of progressive education in particular. Typical was Sheila Lawlor's Teachers Mistaught: Training in Theories or Education in Subjects? (1990) which argued that 'any plan designed to improve the quality of teachers should concentrate on ensuring those in the profession have a mastery of their individual subjects' rather than over the non-subject of education.
The villain of the piece was the American philosopher John Dewey. Anthony O'Hear, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford and appointed by Margaret Thatcher to chair a committee on teacher training, wrote for the CPS the monograph Father of Child-Centredness: John Dewey and the Ideology of Modern Education, and a paper to the Applied Philosophy Society in 1980 that dismissed Dewey as subverting the central aim of education which was the initiation into the cultural richness we have inherited (O'Hear, 1987). These had considerable influence on the Conservative attitude to the 'ideologues' of university education departments. It was shortly after my arrival as Director of the Department of Educational Studies of Oxford University (1989) that I was invited to share a platform with the now retired Lord Keith Joseph at a conference at Wolfson College. Seated next to me at dinner, he ascertained that my name was Pring and then told me that I had caused all the problems in our schools. When asked what led him to that belief, he replied that it was I (or people like me) who had introduced teachers to John Dewey. At roughly the same period I was invited to be interviewed by Melanie Phillips on the radio as to whether we taught John Dewey. The Daily Mail sent a reporter to me to ask whether we taught John Dewey and whether we would promote child-centred education. I was cross-examined by another reporter who made the excuse that he was visiting the department to leave some books to the library. I felt chuffed that I should be seen as such an influential person, though concerned by the increasing political suspicion of teacher education. Should a university department bend to such political pressure? It would not do so in the philosophy or psychology departments – such is the value attached to academic autonomy.
The criticism, however, came also 'from within the fold'. Professor David Hargreaves upset the education academics gathered at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association in Belfast in 1990 by attacking the value and standards of the research that, to lay claim to be educational, should be serving the training and professional development of teachers – which clearly, he argued, it was failing to do. Despite the enormous amount of money spent on research and the large number of people who claimed to be active researchers, there was not the cumulative body of relevant knowledge that would enable teaching to be (like medicine) a research-based profession; for it to be so it would be necessary to change, first, the content of that research, and, second, the control and sponsorship of it.
This criticism of theory and research in the now university-based teacher education was cumulative – harking back to that made by Lord Skidelsky to a debate in the House of Lords concerning the proposal to transfer responsibility for the funding of educational research from the Higher Education Funding Council to the Teacher Training Agency:
Many of the fruits of that research I would describe as an uncontrolled growth of 'theory, an excessive emphasis on what is called the context in which teaching takes place, which is a code for class, gender and ethnic issues, and an extreme paucity of testable hypotheses about what works and does not work'.
(quoted in Bassey, 1995, p. 33)
Meanwhile, in the course of my 14 years as Director of the department at Oxford, the inspection regime, as in schools, became increasingly more specific. Following the DES Circular of 1989, Initial Teacher Training: Approval of Courses, it set precise 'performance indicators' in preparation for the 'audits'. It became a question then of writing what we wanted to be judged on in the terms of the inspectorate without sacrificing what we believed in.
## Academic respectability and professional relevance: can they be reconciled?
Despite the doubts expressed by Heads of Houses to the Bryce Committee in 1895 about the university being a suitable place for the training of teachers, there was one voice from Oxford that expressed a different opinion. Mr Haverfield of Christ Church foresaw the possible integration between theory and practice and between the academic concerns of the university and the practical purposes of the schools.
The object seems to me to be to get the future teacher thinking about teaching; then, being (on the whole) an educated and capable man, he will probably be able to take his own line.
The dualism between theory and practice, condemned by the aforesaid John Dewey, is surely indefensible. Intelligent practice embodies theoretical perspectives – about aims of education, motivation of the learners, levels of understanding, logical connection of key concepts, impact of cultural backgrounds. Making such implicit perspectives explicit and enabling the teacher to subject them to informed criticism are as central as is the constant critique of theory against practical experience. The theorist needs the practice as much as the practitioner needs the theory. The development of teaching quality in both initial training and professional development requires this interrelationship and the critical attitude in their marriage. One problem with the merger of the colleges with the universities has been the danger of seeing theory (what the universities are good at) imposed upon the practice (which the teachers are good at) without recognising the experiential knowledge that is embodied in that practice.
It was in recognition of that problem that my predecessor as Director of the Department of Educational Studies, Dr Harry Judge, together with the Chief Education Officer of Oxfordshire, Sir Tim Brighouse, created the Oxford Internship Scheme to which all Oxfordshire secondary schools belonged. Eight or more trainee teachers were attached to each school, which was thereby transformed into a 'training school'. Each member of the department was attached to a school as General Course Tutor, linked to the school's Professional Course Tutor, covering the topics that concerned the trainee teachers. Each week they would jointly lead the school-based seminar. At the same time, parallel links were created between the curriculum tutors in the department and the subject teachers in the schools. In addition, subject-based seminars were held back in the department, which brought together the subject tutors from the different schools. Professional development was integrated with initial training. Theory was tested against practice. Practice was informed by theory.
How far can this now be maintained in a modern university, given the changing pressures on them? Should we not learn from Chicago? There the once prestigious School of Education, under pressure to produce world class research, found less and less time to be in schools. It joined the university's School of Social Sciences. The social scientists did not care much for the research of the erstwhile educationists. Educational studies, without friends in schools and without friends in the university, closed down.
Is not the same happening here? Every four years the Research Excellence Framework assesses the quality of research, based mainly on publications in highly cited peer reviewed journals. Each subject department's finances and prestige in the consequent league table affect not only the income for the next four years but also the readiness of the respective universities to maintain particular subjects. The intensive partnerships with schools, so necessary for the quality of teacher education in universities, are less and less reconcilable with the devotion to writing research reports in journals, many of which are rarely ever read. We are likely to see many education departments closed in the coming years, thereby reversing the evolution that has taken place over the last 60 years.
## And in its place?
We are already seeing the consequences of the issues I have raised:
* suspicion of the 'ideologues' (the 'blob') in the university departments of education;
* slow death of the professional degree as a route to Qualified Teacher Status;
* by-passing of the universities by those who have already gained degrees as they enter school through Schools Direct, TeachFirst and indeed 'Troops to Teachers';
* the closing of university departments of education (already begun) and, even when they survive, the closure of particular PGCE subject courses (in Autumn 1914, 27 English, 9 history and 11 geography courses lost funding);
* the continuing suspicion that 'education' is not an appropriate subject for the university. Thus Mr Raleigh of All Souls would have been pleased that, a hundred years later, his advice to the Bryce Commission was being listened to. Is it not once again believed that 'almost any honours man will make a good teacher, and if he has the luck to fall into the hands of a good head teacher'?
And yet is there not a crisis looming in the recruitment and retention of teachers? For the third year, the government is set to miss its target figure for teacher recruitment – a shortfall of 27,000 predicted by 2017. Between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within five years. Two-thirds of secondary school heads had difficulty in recruiting maths teachers, according to a poll by the Association of Schools and College Leaders. Concern over teacher supply has been exacerbated by Schools Direct filling only 61 per cent of the places allocated in 2014 – places that otherwise would have been allocated to universities. The problems will be exacerbated in an expanding economy that offers other attractions for would-be teachers. Reasons given for leaving are, among others, the constant teacher bashing and the high-pressure accountability, the excessive workload and relentless pace of change (TES, 30 January 2015). Will it not be necessary to establish once again that partnership between schools and universities in initial training, continuing professional development and research?
But what about professional development – the third phase of the James Report's recommendations? We have seen the central importance of such development in the years following the Schools Council in the 1960s and 1970s. Teachers were in charge, though utilising the knowledge and research to be found in the universities. The Oxford Internship Scheme was a unique partnership between university and schools, as such professional development arose from the shared responsibility for initial training. I am sure there are many other excellent examples. But increasingly, so-called professional development is geared to courses on how 'to meet the standards' imposed by government – a far cry from the autonomous profession experienced by most contributors to this volume when they first started to teach.
However, there are interesting examples, afforded by social media, of teachers once again asserting their professional autonomy. Increasingly, teachers are systematically using the Internet for the professional interactions through which they might advance their professional knowledge and practice. Grass-roots organisations of teachers have arisen such as 'Teachmeet'.
Teachers are doing it for themselves, using social media for professional development and advocacy. . . . In the face of increasingly centralised policy agenda, social media has created spaces for teachers to talk to each other, share . . . learn for each other.
(Hardy, 2014)
## Notes
1 Quoted from my inaugural lecture Academic Respectability and Practical Relevance, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992.
2 This quotation is from a letter sent to me by a retired teacher, a former student, who does not wish her name to be disclosed.
3 Bryce Report, 1895, v. 167 (In ref: Bryce Report, 1895, Royal Commission on Secondary Education).
## References
Bassey, M., 1995, Creating Education Through Research. Newark: Kirklington Moor Press.
Bryce Report, 1895, Royal Commission on Secondary Education.
Elliott, J., 1991, Action Research for Educational Change. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Hardy, E., 2014, Forum 56(2).
Hirst, P.H., 1965, 'Liberal education and the nature of knowledge', in P.H. Hirst (ed.) Knowledge and the Curriculum. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
McNair Report, 1944, Teachers and Youth Leaders. London: HMSO.
Mill, J.S., 1867, 'Inaugural address at St. Andrews', in F.A. Cavenagh (ed.) 1931, James and John Stuart Mill on Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morrell, D., 1966, Education and Change. London: College of Preceptors.
O'Hear, A., 1987, 'The importance of traditional learning', in British Journal of Educational Studies 35 (2), 102–114.
Peters, R.S., 1965, Ethics and Education. London: Geo. Allen and Unwin.
Plowden Report, 1967, Children and their Primary Schools. London: HMSO.
Robbins Report, 1963, Higher Education. London: HMSO.
Scheffler, I., 1960, The Language of Education, Springfield, Illinois: Charles Thomas.
# [8
The Evolving Idea of a University](content.xhtml#bck_Ch08)
Richard Pring
## Sir David Watson
It had been hoped that Sir David Watson would write this chapter. Unfortunately, he died suddenly in January. He would have been the ideal author since his own professional life (spent entirely in higher education – 'my trade for 40 years') had to cope with the evolving idea of a university and, indeed, contributed richly to that idea. Moreover, the thanks of the present author are due, not just to his many writings on this subject, but in particular to his most recent book, The Question of Conscience, which outlines what he referred to as the successive 'frameworks' imposed on the UK since the Robbins Report of 1963 – coinciding with the period covered in this book. As he claims at the beginning of the book, 'the system has been radically reconfigured for every third or fourth new cohort that has entered it' (Watson 2014, p. xxii).
What follows, therefore, arises very much from Sir David's 'mapping' of that 'reconfiguring of the system', reflected in his own professional life.
His senior management career in higher education began at Oxford Polytechnic before the dramatic reorganisation of higher education in 1992. That followed (finally) the Robbins Report's recommendation for a unitary system of higher education, thus getting away from the 'binary line' that had divided polytechnics and institutions of higher education from universities in terms of financial resources and degree-giving powers. Brighton University was one of the first of the polytechnics to join the university club, and that demanding process took place under the leadership of David Watson, who was Vice-Chancellor from 1990 to 2005. Here we see an instance of that changing idea of a university pioneered within a much expanded system. As Theodore Zeldin wrote in the Foreword to The Question of Conscience,
Sir David demonstrated in Brighton how a university could raise professional training to a higher level and become a catalyst for local community innovation. His advocacy of lifelong learning is bearing fruit.
Thereafter, David Watson became Professor of Higher Education Management at the University of London Institute of Education and then was appointed in 2010 Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford University's newest college, reinforcing the important role which that college has in linking the academic teaching and research of a university to the professional training of medics, teachers, business leaders and other professionals. But that distinctive contribution to the idea and the practices of the university, reflected in his achievements at Brighton, continued to be developed in his publications, in particular Managing Civic and Community Engagement in 2007 and The Engaged University in 2011.
## The idea of a university
As David Watson demonstrated, it could be misleading to speak of the idea of a university when, under that title, there are many different kinds of institution and when we have witnessed in the period covered by this book a gradual evolution and diversification of that idea within the UK. Indeed, it would be wrong to freeze the idea as defined at a particular moment of time, for universities or institutions of higher education are part of a wider network of social and educational institutions, which itself will constantly be changing in response to changing economic and social factors. But there comes a time, and surely that time is now, when the shift in meaning has been such that particular institutions of higher education should not be seen as universities, even if that title is being claimed or has been bestowed upon them.
A key reference has frequently been John Henry Newman's Idea of a New University where he argues for it as 'a place of teaching universal knowledge'. This is qualified by the claim that its objects are intellectual, not moral, and the 'diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than the advancement'. By 'universal knowledge' is meant those different logical forms of knowledge (defined by their distinctive concepts, modes of enquiry, procedures for verifying the truth) by which we have come to understand the physical, social and moral worlds we inhabit. There is an inheritance of knowing, reasoning, appreciating which needs to be preserved and passed on to future generations. Such an institution (the university), therefore, would need to be broad in terms of the different disciplines of thinking that it offers, and thereby a 'liberal education which viewed in itself, is simply the cultivation of the intellect, as such, and its object is nothing more or less than intellectual excellence' (Newman, 1852, p. 25).
Universities, through their teaching and scholarship, would guard the intellectual inheritance and preserve it through its transmission to the next generation – or, in the words of Michael Oakeshott (1962), introduce such a generation to 'the conversation between the generations of mankind' as they come to appreciate the 'voices' of poetry, literature, history, science. Again, as Anthony O'Hear argued in defence of traditional learning, 'the proper and effective exercise of learning must take place against the background of inherited forms of thought and experience' (1987, p. 102). It is important, in understanding this 'idea', to identify certain conditions for its practical adherence in those institutions established to promote it.
The first was autonomy, that is, freedom, particularly from the state, in deciding what such excellence was, how it might be pursued, who should be selected to engage in it. Inevitably, there are limits to such autonomy, because the pursuit of scholarship and its transmission need resources. And we have seen over 40 or so years how such dependence has shaped the idea of a university.
The second was a certain disdain for usefulness or relevance as the purpose of a university. The preservation, promotion and enrichment of the world of ideas constituted an end in itself – the maintenance of a distinctive form of human life. John Stuart Mill, at his inaugural lecture at St Andrews, agreed that universities should not be places of professional education as:
their object is not to make skilful lawyers, or physicians, or engineers, but capable and cultivated human beings [for] what professional men should carry away with them from an university is not professional knowledge, but that which should direct the use of their professional knowledge, and bring the light of general culture to illuminate the technicalities of a special pursuit.
(Mill, 1867, p. 133)
That seemed to be the idea of the university when I studied philosophy at University College London – three years of exploring ideas, engaging with key texts, interacting with such philosophers as A.J. Ayer, Stuart Hampshire, Bernard Williams, Richard Wollheim and others whose main mission seemed to be that of 'teaching universal knowledge'. Usefulness or 'professional knowledge' never came into it, but I received what Mill would have regarded as 'the general culture to illuminate the technicalities of a special pursuit'. And so I did what several in such circumstances did – I joined the Civil Service as an Assistant Principal.
## Robbins Report, 1963
At the beginning of our period was published the Robbins Report, Higher Education, as significant for higher education as the 1944 Act had been for schools. The Committee took three years to report and it shaped the considerable expansion and pattern of higher education for the next 30 years. It questioned the assumed 'restricted pool of ability', which had limited the number of universities (and thereby access to them). The general principle for entry was that 'the courses in higher education should be available for all those who are qualified by ability and attainment to pursue them and who wish to do so' (Robbins Report, 1963).
That inevitably required a considerable expansion of universities, but also an extension of the idea of a university. Professional usefulness had thereby also become relevant. Thus the Report proposed bringing universities, teacher training colleges, colleges of advanced technology (CATs) and regional technical colleges into a growing 'unitary system' of higher education, with the CATs re-designated as universities. But the distinction was still there between universities and those other institutions of higher education, which were geared to professional preparation and practical usefulness – a 'binary divide' was upheld. However, the higher learning of these non-university institutions needed to be recognised, and thus the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) was recommended with degree-giving powers, thereby enabling regional technical colleges and training colleges to offer degree courses, albeit lacking the autonomy of universities. The CNAA was established in 1965. How this played out with the training of teachers is explained in some detail in Chapter 7.
Therefore, one might say that the Robbins Report extended the 1944 principles of publicly funded (and thereby free) secondary education for all pupils to further and higher education.
One further recommendation must not be forgotten. A characteristic of the university idea was academic autonomy. How does one reconcile the massive investment of public money in the expanded universities with the maintenance of autonomy? The University Grants Committee (UGC) was to be established with general oversight over the 60 or so universities in Britain, and it would act as the independent buffer between the government as the source of finance and the universities who were to spend it as they saw fit in the pursuit of their aims.
## The binary divide and its final demise
The attainment of Robbins' 'unitary system of higher education' was slow but gradual from the establishment of the CNAA finally to the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, when polytechnics were re-designated universities. More new universities were created. But, no doubt arising from concern over such expansion, a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) was established, one of whose functions was to define 'graduateness'. Universities were under inspection (light though it might seem at first) for quality, thereby impinging somewhat on the autonomy criterion of the university idea. When I arrived in Oxford in 1989, I was on a CNAA panel checking the quality of Oxford Polytechnic's education degree. I also was engaged in the negotiations over the future of Westminster College of Education in the new 'unitary system' – Oxford University validated its professional degree, the BEd. Eventually there was a merger between the polytechnic and the Westminster in the new Oxford Brookes University.
However, the path to the unitary system was a thorny one. The 1972 White Paper, A Framework for Expansion, sought to continue the binary divide in the expanded higher education system – the pursuit of excellence in a disinterested way sat uneasily with the more practical and professional development purposes of colleges of education, colleges of technology, and business and law schools. But there should be, it was argued, a two-year professional diploma that could lead to the CNAA degree (as in the case of the new BEd). In 1981, Shirley Williams' Green Paper on Higher Education proposed three types of university for the sake of appropriate funding – R,X,T, that is, 'research universities', 'teaching universities' and 'research/teaching universities'. Again, this led to nowhere, except that the idea of research and teaching universities seems to have emerged gradually as a result of the RAE (Research Assessment Exercise), later renamed the REF (Research Excellence Framework). A differentiated idea of the university, linked to competition for certain sources of funding, was beginning to emerge.
Nonetheless, the gradual dismissal of the binary divide took different forms: the incorporation into specific universities of erstwhile independent colleges, as in the case of St Lukes College being subsumed within Exeter University (see Chapter 7 for a brief account); the slow handing over of powers to colleges that had been supported by their local university, as in the case of Canterbury Christ Church College, which, under the Collegiate Board chaired by the University of Kent, gradually developed as independent Canterbury Christ Church University. What characterised many of these new universities so developed was the promotion of professional degrees in education, social work, nursing and such like – somewhat removed in essence from the pre-Robbins idea. Finally, in this 'road to independence', the 1988 Education Reform Act enabled polytechnics to become semi-independent corporations free from the control of local education authorities.
However, in preparation for this expansion and differentiation of purpose, there inevitably emerged a gradual erosion of independence. Reference has been made to the establishment in 1992 of the Quality Assurance Agency. But also a University Grants Committee was to be replaced by the University Funding Council, with increased powers to determine the conditions under which universities were to receive funding, thereby opening up the possibility of 'contract funding' and an increase in the number of representatives from outside the university on the councils and governing bodies. Was this the end of the 'dons' dominion', as Professor Halsey called it?
### The Engaged University
This title of David Watson's book, published with colleagues in 2011, points to a development of our idea of universities much influenced by the expansion referred to above, and reflected in the pioneering work at the new University of Brighton, which, under his leadership, 'developed essentially as a confederation of professional schools, created at different times by a community perceiving different needs' (Watson et al., 2011, p. 102).
Thus Coffield and Williamson (1997, p. 2) argue that 'the old elite model has run its course and needs to be replaced'. Such sentiments were reinforced by the 1997 Dearing Report, Higher Education in the Learning Society, which argued that 'higher education is now a significant force in regional economies, as a source of income and employment, in contributing to cultural life, and in supporting regional and local economic development' (Dearing Report, 1997, p. 228).
This was not simply an observation – a recognition of what in fact was the case – but part of Dearing's approving acknowledgement of what universities could and should become. There had been a shift in how we value the kind of knowledge that universities should both develop and teach. The Report spoke of a 'new compact involving institutions and their staff, students, government, employers and society in general'. Such a compact would involve:
* wider access, thereby transforming an erstwhile elite system into a mass system, requiring a more practical and 'useful' orientation;
* a framework of qualifications and programmes, providing for lifelong learning of people who start from different positions and have different aspirations;
* greater relevance of programmes to the social and economic needs of the local and national communities.
Dearing's 'new compact', therefore, made universities beholden to a new set of demands affecting the degree both of internal autonomy and outside accountability in shaping aims, values and indeed governance. And that coincided with 'modernising government'.
## Modernising government – the growth of bureaucracy
The gradual incursion of government into the conduct of universities coincided with a shift in the control and management of public services generally (e.g. regarding schools, in the creation of a National Curriculum and National Assessment), and with the 'language of management' through which those services were to be controlled – the language of targets, performance indicators, audits and delivery. All this was explained in a series of Government White Papers from HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office: Modern Public Services in Britain: Investing in Reform (1988, Cm. 4011); Public Services for the Future: Modernisation, Reform, Accountability (1998, Cm. 4181); The Government's Measures of Success: Outputs and Performance Analyses (1999, Cm. 4200); Modernising Government (1999, Cm. 4310).
As an illustration of this shift in the underlying understanding of public institutions, one might refer to the change in language and practices in universities, following the 'efficiency review' of the Jarratt Commission, established by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors in 1984.
The crucial issue is how a university achieves the maximum value for money consistent with its objectives (2.12). Each department should maintain a profile of 'indicators of performance' to include standing costs of space, utilities (telephones, etc), market share of applications, class sizes, staff workloads, graduation rates and classes of degrees (3.33). A range of performance indicators should be developed, covering both inputs and outputs and designed for use both within individual universities and for making comparisons between institutions (5.4). The headships of departments . . . ideally should be both a manager and an academic leader (4.27).
This is clearly a very different language from that which is met in the writings of Newman or Oakeshott. Indeed, it would seem incompatible with them, namely, that open engagement with key texts, the pursuit of excellence, the fostering of critical enquiry, the struggle with difficult ideas, the entry into the conversation between the generations. The more recently developed professional studies departments were the first to suffer as the government laid down multiple and detailed 'standards' (meaning 'targets') for the newly established Ofsted Inspectorate to check and tick off. My period as Director of the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford coincided with this transition. During the soon-to-pass time of Her Majesty's Inspectorate, I was asked, over lunch in the Rose and Crown, of the 'management system' in the department. Struggling to answer, I finally referred to the regular Friday evening open meetings in the Rose and Crown. Their final report expressed appreciation of 'the light management touch'. Once Ofsted assumed the inspectorial job, there was a change, and time was spent translating the language of education into the language-speak required of the new regime.
The management language has in many ways taken over our understanding of the conduct, governance and understanding of universities. Having a Masters in Business Management is seen as a useful qualification for being a Vice-Chancellor. The newly appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Aston Business School, Professor George Feiger, speaks of universities having to adapt to the marketisation of education with fee income following student. They operate as businesses, though not having shareholders. Therefore, there is the swelling of bureaucracy and thereby a change in the now corporate governance of universities. At the time of my arrival at Oxford in 1989, the proportion of central administrators to established academics was 1:2. That has now been reversed. And there are many tales of the salaries that top administrators receive compared with those of top academics, although Freedom of Information was recently refused at one university on the grounds that such information was 'commercially confidential'.
## The impact of research exercises
When I was an undergraduate in the 1960s, the university was principally (in Newman's words) 'a place of teaching universal knowledge'. Of course, those who were teaching were engaged in scholarship, and they published significant articles and books. But none had to meet targets or publish in journals that rated high on, for example, the Social Science Research Index. The UGC annual grant was given to each university for purposes of both teaching and research, irrespective of the nature and depth of that research. Research or scholarship was seen, in the main, as supporting the main function, namely, that of teaching.
However, the 1990s changed all that. A substantial amount was withdrawn from the central grant only to be returned on the basis of the quantity and quality of research.
Indeed, some are referred to as 'research universities', meaning that research is a major activity within them, supported by external grants for so doing. It is the case that most universities in the UK would now see research to be an important element in the duties of academic appointments.
Such an emphasis was intensified internationally as a result of world league tables of 'top universities' based mainly on the quality of research. In the UK the RAE (now the REF), which takes place every four years, has reshaped the idea of the university and the nature of academic life. Until the 1980s, universities were funded to teach and to devote time to the research and scholarship that would support that teaching. An academic was not pressurised to produce research of 'international standard'. He or she would not be penalised for concentrating upon teaching. The RAE changed that. The third of government funding supposedly to support research and scholarship was withdrawn and then redistributed on the basis of the quality of research – subject by subject. That sum of money is increasingly distributed to fewer and fewer universities, with considerable financial consequences.
The effects of this are several, changing the idea of the university and of the role of academics within them.
First, there is a growing hierarchy within the university sector – at the top of which are the 'research universities' – on the basis of international and national reputation and, therefore, of the greater income from research and from the attraction to overseas students. Further down the scale are 'teaching universities', where scholarship is pursued but much within the context of their teaching responsibilities. What Shirley Williams' White Paper proposed has become real.
Second, within the respective universities, there is an increasing division, between those who do research and those who just teach, on different contracts and different rates of pay. Only those are submitted for the REF whose published work is judged to be of national standard. It is a brave academic who, harking back to the nature of the university only a few decades ago, feels able to focus on the quality of teaching, and not to be intimidated by the need to produce four publications preferably in the reputable journals. Such is the pressure that more and more teaching is handed over to part-time teachers or to post-graduate students, raising doubts as to whether the university is seeing teaching (as with Newman) as its prime purpose.
Third, the competition between universities for league table rankings inhibits the collaboration between disciplines within a university and between universities, a point clearly made by Sir David Watson. A good-quality research paper, arising out of collaboration between more than one department or university, cannot be attributed to more than one person for the purposes of the REF. Better, therefore, to keep the research 'within house'.
## Funding
The quite massive and rapid expansion of universities clearly had an effect on their funding. According to the Dearing Report, the decline in the unit of resource had been 40 per cent in the period of 20 years. According to the Taylor Report (2000), New Directions for Higher Education Funding: Final Report of the Funding Options Group, that decline had continued, but more slowly. No longer could funding depend purely on government grants (as through the UGC, which had been replaced in 1988) and, given the extra public funding, no longer could the management expenditure be handed over exclusively to the decisions of the university. The Report, therefore, spelled out four options: (i) increased public funding; (ii) deregulation of fees so that each university could charge whatever the market could bear; (iii) income-contingent student loans; and (iv) institutional endowments.
The government opted for (iii) income-contingent student contributions through payment of government fixed fees and through a system of loans. This radical development in funding was extended further as a result of the Browne Review into Higher Education in 2010, which recommended undergraduate fees up to £9,000, instead of any government block grants, together with student contributions up to £9,000 to be repaid, once the student earned over a certain amount, over a 30-year period. Furthermore, there would be targeted funding of specific initiatives that, in the view of the government, would support its economic and social agenda.
In other words, there were now 'funding levers', used with considerable impact within research through, for example, the demand from Research Councils for evidence of economic and social relevance and through the search for investment as, for example, from the Science Research Investment Fund or the Joint Research Equipment Initiative. This new dependence both on research and on 'funding levers' (both public and private) inevitably affects the idea of the university as in terms of accountability, autonomy and the disinterested pursuit of excellence. The words 'stakeholders' and 'client satisfaction' enter into the language of universities.
## Online and distance learning
It would have been difficult, before the Robbins Report, to foresee how radical the changed conception of a university could be. The 'idea' of a university once included the notion of a community, interacting through debate and questioning. 'Conversation' would have been seen as an essential element in the development of knowledge and critical enquiry. But such communities became increasingly difficult to maintain as universities expanded to the sizes that prevail today. The pressure for widening access, the rising costs, the employment and family demands on those who sought access, wider conception of its purposes, and the development of communications technology have all led to the most radical solution of all.
Why should courses leading to degrees require congregation in one place and community over a restricted time?
Britain's Open University was founded in 1968, whereby part-time students, scattered far and wide, matriculated to take their degrees in a range of academic disciplines. The Open University pioneered the distance learning mode of higher education. This required a different pedagogy in order to maintain the standards of learning expected of an institution calling itself a university. In the 1970s I was invited by the Open University to write material for one of its courses, with relevant exercises and stringently assessed by panels of academic experts. Weekly sessions were backed up by radio and television recordings; personal supervision was organised through correspondence.
The Internet has transformed that. In 2013–2014, of the students studying for both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in the UK, 150,000 were with the Open University. Students and teachers meet in 'virtual' theatres and laboratories. Discussions and tutorials take place online and in forums. MOOCSs (Massive Open Online Communication Systems), provided by world-standard universities such as Stanford, Harvard and Michigan, cater for many thousands of students.
Furthermore, the Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS), following the 1998 government paper, The Learning Age, should have been fully functioning by 2003, though it raised problems over the autonomy for the specific institutions taking part and a shift to a more modular system. However, 'transferable credits' may well be the way forward in a changing and more global world.
## Private and for-profit universities
Universities obviously need funding in order to pay for staff and resources. Traditionally, this has come mainly from governments, charitable donors, though increasingly from research grants and student fees. Government support was adequate at a time when only 5 per cent or 6 per cent of the relevant cohort of young people went to university, as in the UK in the 1960s. But now the aspiration is for 50 per cent to attend university. There is, therefore, an increase in fees, to be paid by the students, financed principally from loans that have to be paid back over a period of 30 years.
But such an expansion has given rise to the private and for-profit organisations to offer university education.
The year 1983 saw the foundation of the first private university in Britain, namely, the University of Buckingham, now well established and universally recognised. The university is a not-for-profit institution with charitable status. Its teaching income depends entirely on student fees. It is aligned to the Quality Assurance Agency, which gives assurance on the quality of its teaching at university level.
However, there is now a growth of institutions, some accredited by universities abroad (such as Richmond, the American International University in London, or BPP University, whose parent company is the US Apollo Group). Others are single subject professional training institutions, such as Ashridge Business School and the College of Estate Management. The quality of some of the new arrivals has been severely questioned. As a result, a group of eight for-profit institutions with award bearing powers (including the ones just mentioned and referred to as the 'Russell Group of the private sector') has been set up to disassociate its members from the 'dodgy for-profit' colleges now attracting students, many from abroad.
This raises the question, which remains constant in the face of the changing idea of the university, concerning the compatibility of the pursuit of profit with the idea of a community of learners, teaching universal knowledge and exercising academic freedom.
## Looking to the future
This chapter has outlined the many ways in which universities have changed from some ideal type of 'teaching universal knowledge' in response to changing social and economic circumstances.
First, we saw the widening of purpose and the relevance of university education to community engagement, enhancing the quality of local economic and cultural life – as pioneered by Sir David Watson's University of Brighton.
Second, greater importance came to be attached to research in terms of funding and prestige, leading to a hierarchy of universities (Russell Group research universities, on the one hand, and teaching universities, on the other – and often leading, too, to demarcation within the academic community).
Third, the gradual encroachment on the early, carefully protected autonomy of universities through funding and governance has led to a burgeoning cost of administration.
Fourth, the funding has become increasingly dependent (especially through research grants and 'impact') on relevance to economic and social needs, and to employment.
Fifth, we are witnessing the growth of private and for-profit institutions.
Finally, there is massive development of part-time, online and virtual learning, together with credit accumulation and transfer of qualifications.
It is necessary to ask how far these changes can develop before the title of 'university' is used purely equivocally, bearing few of the qualities and virtues normally associated with that name. For example:
* Is a university still a university when it loses its academic autonomy?
* Is a single-faculty university (e.g. a business school) really a university?
* Should an institution be classed as a university when it has no faculty of humanities or social studies?
* How can independent quality assurance be assured in all these developments, especially where universities are globally spread or when they are in the hands of for-profit corporations?
In an age of credit transfer on a global scale, universities and employers will need to be assured of the standards of those 'universities' from whom they are receiving their students and employees.
## References
Coffield, F. and Williamson, B., 1997, The Repositioning of Higher Education, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Dearing Report, 1997, Higher Education in a Learning Society, London: HMSO.
Jarratt Report, 1985, Higher Education, London: HMSO.
Mill, J.S., 1867, 'Inaugural address at St. Andrews', in F.A. Cavenagh (ed.), 1931, James and John Stuart Mill on Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Newman, J.H., 1852, The Idea of a New University, London: Longmans Green (1919 edn).
Oakeshott, M., 1962, 'The voice of poetry in the conversation of Mankind', in M. Oakeshott (ed.) Rationalism in Politics, London: Methuen.
O'Hear, A., 1987, 'The importance of traditional learning', British Journal of Educational Studies, 35(2), 102–14.
Robbins Report, 1963, Higher Education, London: HMSO.
Taylor Report, 2000, New Directions for Higher Education Funding, London: HMSO.
Watson, D., 2007, Managing Civic and Community Engagement, London: Open University Press.
Watson, D., 2014, A Question of Conscience, London: Institute of Education Press.
Watson, D., Stroud, S., Hollister, R. and Babcock, E. 2011, The Engaged University, London: Routledge.
Zeldin, T., 2014, 'Foreword', in Watson D, 2014, A Question of Conscience, London: Institute of Education Press.
# [9
Further Education and the Case for Vocational Preparation](content.xhtml#bck_Ch09)
Geoff Stanton
## Further education – the unknown sector
This chapter cannot trace all the changes that have occurred in the English FE system during the last generation. They are too many, and too complicated to explain briefly to those not already versed in the system. At least with regard to schools and universities most people understand roughly what they do and for whom. But the same cannot be assumed for FE colleges, despite their catering for over 3.1 million people annually.
When attempting to answer well-meant queries about FE I find myself in 'Yes, but . . .' mode. Are most FE students over 19 and part-time? Yes, but more 16–19 year olds attend colleges full-time than attend school sixth forms. Are most FE courses vocational? Yes, but one-third of all 16–18 A-Level students attend colleges. Are most FE courses below degree level? Yes, but 64 per cent of colleges teach foundation degrees. Do colleges prepare people for work? Yes, but colleges also provide 30 per cent of 19+ entrants to higher education.
There are also powerful myths. For instance, some argue that colleges cannot offer the pastoral care available in secondary schools. In fact, colleges are more socially inclusive than school sixth forms. Of those who were receiving free school meals when they were 15, nearly twice as many go on to colleges than are admitted to their own sixth forms, and colleges also have a higher proportion of learners from ethnic minorities. Furthermore, and as I shall describe, integrated courses managed by course teams can offer close support.
Also, many current politicians seem to believe that, for those young people who do not go on to take A Levels, apprenticeships are the primary alternative. The best apprenticeships are excellent, but they vary in quality, and participants have to be employed; they can only be offered by employers, not government. So if a given class of employers is missing in a locality then training in that sector is not available via the apprenticeship route. Most crucially, the number available to young people (as opposed to those over 19) has not increased for a decade. So, despite being massively oversubscribed, apprenticeships still cater for merely 6 per cent of 16–18 year olds. On the other hand, something like 40 per cent of the cohort attend colleges on full-time vocational or pre-vocational courses.
Diversity of provision in the student body is one of the constants for FE. This has attracted criticism, on the grounds that it can result in a lack of focus and is one of the things that hinders public understanding of what colleges do. The Foster Review (2005) of FE concluded that 'FE lacks a clearly recognised and shared core purpose' and argued that this should be 'supplying economically valuable skills'. However, the very next paragraph of the report compromised this clarity by adding that 'the primary focus on skills does not exclude other significant purposes such as promoting social cohesion and facilitating progression'. As if to prove this point, FE was later given a major role in promoting Adult Basic Skills, following the Moser Report (1999). At the time of writing and following the Wolf Report (2011) into 14–19 vocational education, colleges are being asked to ensure 16 year olds who have not attained at least Grade C in GCSE English and maths do so within their first college year. Some colleges are finding this a struggle, but it needs to be remembered that the individuals concerned have often left school because they were not welcome in the sixth form without these grades.
Perhaps colleges have been too responsive and flexible in meeting new demands and target groups, but the irony is that it is the willingness of colleges to do this that has enabled sixth forms and universities to keep relatively stable roles and purposes, and to benefit from greater public recognition as a result.
Lack of recognition is one thing. Invisibility is another. Consider this quote from a speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair talking about plans to raise the participation age:
No dropping out at 16, every young person either staying on in the sixth form or on a modern apprenticeship or job-related training leading to a good career. . . . So substantially more academies, specialist schools, better post-16 provision in 6th forms and 6th form colleges.
(Labour Spring Conference, 2004)
No mention of FE colleges, where most of the new learners were likely to be.
This phenomenon was not new. In 1997 Helena Kennedy wrote in a report for the newly formed Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), 'There is an appalling ignorance among decision makers and opinion formers about what goes on in further education. It is so alien to their experience' (Kennedy Report, 1997). And as recently as 2014, a minister claimed that he was advised by civil servants that he should respond to austerity by 'killing off FE since nobody will really notice' (Vince Cable, as reported on the BBC, 6 October 2014).
So, lack of understanding and invisibility create a problem in writing about changes that FE has undergone in my working lifetime. Therefore, what I shall do is focus on a relatively short period when the ability of FE staff to take professional responsibility for what they taught was probably greater than in a secondary school, and to trace some of the factors that resulted in this being reversed, and centrally sponsored turbulence becoming, if anything, greater than for schools and certainly universities.
In doing so I shall be mostly talking about just one of FE's many client groups. This group shares the invisibility of FE itself. I was recently pleasantly surprised to see them mentioned in an Ofsted Review published in 2015. One of its section headings read 'Where can young people, who do not have five GCSEs or are undecided about their career pathways, go?'. The report continued:
Inspectors . . . found that this issue was exacerbated by school sixth forms, academies, colleges and providers who set high entry requirements . . . This could prevent many young people, often the most vulnerable, from following career pathways that may well be within their grasp with a little more time and effective learning support.
(Ofsted, 2013/2014, para. 66)
What Ofsted does not mention is the fact that since 2014 full-time education has been fully funded only until the age of 18. After that, the rate of funding reduces, reportedly on the assumption that it is mainly used for those repeating A Levels. However, many more learners need the extra year because their school attainments mean that they need three years rather than two to reach level three, and more teaching time rather than less.
All this highlights an issue that I have, over the years, spent some time investigating, namely the process of selection that takes place at 16, even within institutions that are non-selective at 11. Of course, performance indicators and inspection grades are likely to be more favourable if the recruitment of challenging learners can be avoided. There are other ways in which the development of policy has damaged their interests. The shift towards central control and top-down qualifications-led development has brought with it a set of assumptions about what counts as good and rigorous programmes. It is thought that they should be made up of free-standing and recognised academic subjects and assessed in writing at the end. However, during a period when practitioners were able to develop their own approaches, they found that alternative curriculum designs were more effective – for instance, integrated programmes focused on a work-based theme, assessed though the ongoing observation of performance.
In what follows, I concentrate on pre-vocational education, with which I have been closely associated through the Further Education Unit in the 1970s and 1980s.
## Teacher training: a biographical diversion
My first teaching experience was that of teaching physics in secondary schools, at a time when a teaching qualification was not required. However, I learned that knowledge of a subject was not enough to make me a fully effective teacher of it. More than that, while teaching in a large inner London comprehensive I discovered that there were things to be understood about the design and content of learning programmes, as well as pedagogy. Like, I suspect, most grammar school products, I had no concept of the range of attainment and motivations in the population as a whole. When my 15-year-old average attainers asked me why I was teaching them about specific gravity in the way I was, I realised that I had no answer. Or rather I had an answer that was very uncomfortable. Although the structure of secondary education had changed, the curriculum design had not kept up. We were offering a diluted grammar school curriculum – one that was not designed to develop a delight in science, but rather to enable pupils to gain access to the next level up and thence to university. But there would be places there for fewer than 10 per cent of the age group, and my students knew full well that this did not include them. There were things that could have been done about this, but not – as I naïvely imagined – by just being more competent and accessible than some of my own teachers had been.
As a result of this experience, I became more interested in learning about the needs of different kinds of learner, rather than the intricacies of teaching different subjects. Arrogantly, I even wrote to some well-known teacher-training colleges asking to explore this, but was always told that I first had to decide on a subject, then an age group. Then I heard about the teaching of general studies in technical colleges, where it was possible to design at least part of the curriculum in light of the personal needs of the learners, who were otherwise following a course leading to a specific occupation. I obtained a place at Garnett College, which just taught potential FE teachers. I enjoyed this course, not least because I already had a list of issues I wished to explore – another important lesson. The following five years I spent at a technical college in Cheltenham – by far the largest college in the town, but by no means the most well known. This was my first lesson in the relative invisibility of FE.
Later I returned to Garnett College, as a member of staff. All those learning to be teachers there either had a degree or had substantial experience of the working world, or both. This made for groups that were fascinating to teach. I would pick out two features that have implications for current educational issues.
First, since not all students on the course were graduates, they could not be awarded a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) on successful completion, but instead gained the lower-status Certificate in Education. So, people such as experienced chefs or retired merchant navy captains, who had not been to university but had managed very complex situations in the real world, were treated as if they had entered teacher training as school leavers. This was not because they had learned different things or were assessed in a different way from PGCE students. The distinction was made on the basis of the academic qualifications they arrived with. This gave me the first inkling that the hierarchy of levels that feature so strongly in English education might be problematic. There was clearly a prejudice in favour of some kinds of achievement, and some definitions of progression.
Second, while all students had to learn what was called 'general method' (that is, the techniques of questioning, structuring and differentiating relevant to all kinds of teaching), the 'special method' for vocational teachers included a whole raft of other requirements, such as understanding how practical skills could be developed and how industry-standard workshops or kitchens could be designed and used for teaching purposes. Garnett College had such teaching facilities, but my fear is that these days most vocational teacher training is generic, with special methods left to be acquired on their college placement, under the guidance of staff, some of whom do not have the time or resources of their equivalents at Garnett. Inspectors and research confirm that this is the most variable component of FE teacher training (see, for example, Gatsby Foundation, 2015).
The main content of vocational courses was clearly laid down and accepted, and was derived from qualifications produced by awarding bodies such as City and Guilds of London Institute (CGLI) or the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) who had well-established mechanisms for consulting employers and teachers in deciding on a syllabus. In the case of general studies, however, the curriculum had to be designed by the teachers, and varied with the needs of the learners, which were in turn influenced by their age, previous attainment and the occupational areas they were preparing to enter. It also had to be negotiated with the learners themselves, who frequently had to be persuaded of its value. It was no coincidence that, when in later years colleges had to cater for learners with no clear vocational or academic pathway ahead of them – many of whom were unemployed – it was often former general studies teachers who took a central role.
## The negotiated curriculum
I saw this in operation in a later job, as head of the 45-strong Communications and Liberal Studies Department at a large London College. Youth unemployment was escalating. Initially, the college had no fewer than three engineering departments (production, mechanical and electrical). But the economy was changing, and four years later there was only one. Sadly, many otherwise excellent staff found it difficult to adapt. They were used to being able to select students on the basis of their previous achievement and motivation, and were apprehensive about their ability to cope with new groups, many of whom had poor basic skills and were only there because they would lose their unemployment benefit if they did not attend. On the other hand, staff in the communications section of the department had developed, partly through innovative methods promoted by the Local Authority Inspectorate, such devices as learning workshops that were based on activities rather than formal lessons. All teachers of a given group were part of a course team that met as often as weekly. It could monitor how different parts of the course related and make changes if required. The agenda for the meetings was usually a cross-subject review of individual student progress and problems. This differed from my experience of secondary school where staff were grouped together on the basis of shared subjects in a way that made such learner-centred planning impossible.
## Rise and fall of UVP schemes – a case study
In 1976 the government announced the intention to test out approaches to what it called Unified Vocational Preparation (UVP) – 'unified' because the schemes were to be jointly planned and provided by education and training services. The rationale for the programme was that about half of those entering the labour market at 16 received no structured education or training. So UVP was aimed at these employees, rather than the unemployed.
In the same report (Unified Vocational Preparation: A Pilot Approach) the government announced the creation of a unit to undertake the development and review of further education curricula. It was argued that the FE system was 'largely responsive to perceived vocational needs', but that it was 'not well designed to respond to the curricular needs of those who enter further education as full-time students without a specific vocational commitment'. This unit became the Further Education Unit (FEU), which I joined as one of its first two development officers.
The issues that both FEU and UVP were asked to address have not gone away. But what has changed is that now the aim suggested by policy makers would be 'qualifications reform', rather than responding to 'curricular needs'. In developing guidance for UVP schemes my brief was to visit a range of locally developed schemes and to identify factors that led to success in very different contexts. This also contrasts with current approaches, in which change comes from the top down, rather than bottom up.
The UVP pilots were immensely varied, but they all focused on the needs of young people who had entered work at 16, but, because of a lacklustre school career, did not have qualifications necessary to enter a formal training programme, such as an apprenticeship. Because of this they also tended to miss out on the personal support that might come from having a tutor.
I can best illustrate some of the issues with an anecdote about a scheme involving production line operatives. It was run by the training manager, who was – significantly – also a volunteer youth worker. He ran informal group sessions on one afternoon a week, usually focused on how they were finding the adult and working world. One afternoon he noticed a youngster looking particularly glum, and gentle probing revealed that he planned to resign, 'because his supervisor had taken against him'. The previous week the young man had been unwell, and was unable to get to work. But when he did return, far from being sympathetic, his supervisor had been irritated. 'But I had really been ill, and took in a note from my mother to prove it.' When this situation was unpicked, with the help of the rest of the group, it became obvious that the problem was that the young man had not telephoned to report his absence on the first morning. As a result, the start of the production line was delayed. Perversely, if the young man had been an apprentice, his absence might have had less impact, but as an operative who only needed a day's training, he was important from day two. At school and as a reluctant learner, his absence might well have had little impact, and he naïvely adopted the school practice of a subsequent note from his mum.
This was talked through, and the young man was encouraged both to see the point of view of the supervisor, and to think about how bridges might now be mended. But should not correct protocol have been explained earlier? It turned out that it had been, along with what must have seemed a thousand other things on that first confused day. The group leader's youth worker training had enabled him to realise that it was often 'ineffective to offer solutions to problems that the young people had not yet got'. We now talk of teaching 'employability skills', which hardly covers the issue.
Similarly, a tutor on another UVP scheme introduced herself disarmingly as the 'sums lady'. Her analysis of conventional maths lessons was that learners were sitting untroubled in class when someone like her came in and gave them problems they otherwise would not have had. She attempted instead to offer maths as a series of solutions. She therefore ran a drop-in centre, to which young people on the scheme could come whenever they hit a problem in the workshop, or when they were attempting to work out how many more instalments they owed on a motor bike.
It became clear that a common factor on many successful schemes was a process of accompanying people through new experiences, helping them to reflect on them, and only then offering the learning that was demonstrably required. This 'experience–reflection–learning' process was the reverse of the pattern most participants had found in secondary school, where there was a well-intentioned attempt to offer the learning up-front, so as to pre-emptively improve the experience. But this required a degree of compliance and tolerance of boredom that many people do not have – quite understandably. I came to see it as the 'You'll wish you'd listened to me' syndrome. It also means that it is often a serious mistake to require young people to succeed at a broad-based academic programme before allowing them to engage with the adult and working world. Once confidence has been gained through success, even on a narrow front, ambitions widen.
Of course, tutors were not passive when it came to ensuring that learners had experiences that would be fruitful. Many UVP schemes included a brief residential course, often run by organisations such as the YMCA, which ensured that participants were taken out of their comfort zone. This had a powerful effect on apparently streetwise young people. It became apparent that much aggressive or dismissive behaviour was a means of avoiding the unknown.
## Using qualifications as a trigger for funding
Although UVP was never a large-scale scheme, many of the lessons learned were applied to programmes for the young unemployed. But a major problem was that they were approved and funded individually. As schemes grew in number because of the recession, an administratively simpler approach to funding was needed. It was decided that the newly arrived National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) could be used to define the required outcomes, and funding would be triggered by their achievement. At the same time there was (justifiable) pressure to increase efficiency in colleges. The net results were that only what NVQs measured was funded.
Traditionally, education and training programmes were defined in syllabus terms, as a series of topics, and taught over a specified period of time. It required an analysis of past papers to determine the kind of performance required, and only by following a prescribed course was it possible to gain the qualification. NVQs, on the other hand, based their approach on an analysis of what counted as effective performance in an occupational role. If assessment showed that this performance had been achieved, then it mattered not how this had happened.
This enfranchised many experienced workers who had acquired their skills 'on the job' and who did not have the time or resources to enrol on a formal course in order to gain the qualification their skills deserved. But the use of NVQs for courses for the young unemployed provided what has been called 'thin gruel'. In all too many cases the list of competences was treated as a learning programme. This did not allow for issues of transition from school to work, nor facilitate progression. The use of NVQs as triggers for funding and as performance indicators for providers – purposes for which they were not designed – only made things worse. For instance, it resulted in the demise of the short residential courses that contributed so much to social and team development. I cannot help comparing this cheeseparing to the importance we still attach to undergraduates going away to university, despite what this costs.
## Central funding and TVEI as a model for development
Another feature of these initiatives that cast a long shadow was the source of funding, the Manpower Services Commission (MSC). One reason for using this mechanism was that it enabled central government to direct resources to its destinations of choice, and to monitor their use. At that time the Education Department could only make a contribution to the rate support grant received by local authorities, with the request that they use it appropriately. Local politics determined where it actually went, which was often not towards disadvantaged or low-status groups. The MSC, on the other hand, could issue specific contracts and refuse to pay up if their requirements were not met.
I saw some advantages of this approach later when working as the vice-principal of Richmond tertiary college, which provided both academic and vocational education for all local residents over the age of 16. The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) of 1983 was aimed at providing a new element to the curriculum of all 14–18-year-olds, which in our case meant working with our 11–16 secondary schools, and I acted as the TVEI co-ordinator for the area. The officials working at a national level for TVEI were clear about the aims we should work towards, but did not attempt to prescribe the best way to achieve these in our local circumstances. Instead we were asked to submit our own proposals. We did this in a hurry, and when interviewed about them were tactfully but firmly told that they did not pass muster, as we ourselves came to realise. We were, however, given the chance to re-submit, which we did successfully, largely by drawing on the ideas of the more lively of our teaching staff. Six months or so after the start of our scheme we were visited again by TVEI officials, who checked that we were still on track against our own plan, before signing the next cheque – though we were allowed to modify the plan by agreement and in the light of experience.
It has to be admitted that a lot of the most energetic development activity took place immediately before a visitation, at which time it became possible for the relatively junior staff, who had the ideas, to break though institutional inertia. TVEI has had a mixed press, often because of its diversity being perceived as a problem, but I still think that the balance it struck between the setting of national priorities and allowing for local initiatives and adaptation is something from which we could learn.
## The rise of pre-vocational education
In the late 1970s many colleges began to respond to a demand from young people for whom A Levels were not appropriate, and did not as yet have a firm vocational commitment, but who wished to stay on as full-time students in order to improve their basic education and to explore vocational options. A survey commissioned by the FEU from Garnett College identified over 30 different responses to this demand, and argued for some rationalisation. The one form of response that was seen to be inadequate was the one-year course that repeated school examinations, since this had a high failure and drop-out rate. An alternative approach that seemed to be more promising was what HMI called 'the creation of task-oriented (though not necessarily job-specific) learning situations'.
These were integrated courses, focused on a general occupational area. They were different from the school curriculum in not being subject-based, though they could be designed to achieve similar learning outcomes. In a sense they followed a primary school approach of teaching through topics, but whereas 'the Romans' might be a suitable topic at that stage, for 16–18-year-olds, something that helped with the transition to adult working life was much more appropriate. They became known as 'pre-vocational' courses or as 'vocational preparation'.
The FEU set up a study group, and its report, A Basis for Choice (ABC), recommended a flexible programme that could become more vocationally focused and job-specific as the year progressed, but that would share a core curriculum with similar provision. This core was a result of 'curriculum development by interview', in that its content and methods were culled from a variety of schemes already in operation. The core curriculum was not the same as what subsequently came to be known as 'key skills'. Instead it was expressed in the form of a checklist of:
* those experiences from which students should have the opportunity to learn; and
* the nature and level of performance students should be expected to achieve.
The aims of the core curriculum included literacy and numeracy 'adequate to meet the demands of contemporary society', but also 11 other areas including careers education, physical and manipulative skills, study skills and problem-solving, the acquisition of relevant moral values, and economic and political literacy. Taken as a whole this was perhaps over-ambitious, particularly as different occupational skills had to be added depending on the focus of the course, but at the time something similar was supported by a spectrum of opinion ranging from teacher unions to the CBI, and all the individual elements were being done successfully by somebody somewhere. Also, the term 'checklist' was intended to allow flexibility. For instance, careers education could take the form of job sampling, and not just visiting lecturers.
Currently, our ambitions for a continuation of general education post-16 have been reduced to requiring English and maths in the form of the GCSEs designed for 15-year-olds. The argument for this is that only GCSEs have currency with employers, but the problem is, of course, that the currency derives from the fact that not everyone gets them. They can therefore be used as a selection device, to reduce an impossibly long shortlist. It is not always that the content is what employers want for the jobs they have in mind.
What was recommended in ABC was a course design, rather than a qualification, though reporting by the use of a learner profile was suggested. Attempts subsequently to convert it into a Certificate of Pre-vocational Education (CPVE) were not entirely successful, but it remains an interesting example for a number of reasons:
* It was curriculum- and practitioner-led, rather than driven by a centrally designed qualification.
* It specified learning experiences, and not just outcomes.
* It proposed continuing general education via a vocational interest, rather than setting up general and vocational in opposition to one another.
* It emphasised the value of an integrated programme in which utility of one area of learning (e.g. mathematics) could be demonstrated by its application to another topic.
My view is that an approach that could have benefited many young people has been hindered by the power of an academic paradigm that means that integrated vocational courses are converted into isolated vocational subjects, assessed by methods that privilege certain forms of excellence. Also, the use of a vocational interest as a vehicle for continuing general education, and as a means of providing active careers guidance and smoothing the transition to adult working life, has been confused with the important but different need for more strongly vocational courses that meet specific employer needs. An unfortunate example of this is the Wolf Report of 2011 about 14–19 vocational courses that, while making pertinent criticisms about false equivalences and the malign results of funding individual qualifications rather than whole programmes, also judged pre-vocational courses as if they were intended to be a substitute for apprenticeships.
## The role of advisory bodies and the move to central control
When I first worked at FEU, and then returned there as CEO, the Board of Management was in the form of a representative body. The Chair was appointed by the Secretary of State, but other members were nominated by other organisations. There were members chosen by an employers' organisation (CBI) and by the TUC. Two education officers were proposed, respectively, by the Metropolitan Authorities (assumed to be left-leaning) and the County Councils (assumed to be Conservative). A college principal was balanced by someone from the teaching union. The inspectorate and the Education Department were each represented, but, despite all funding coming from the Department, it was accepted that approval for the programme of work and publications was a matter for the Board as a whole. The assumption at the time was that the curriculum had to be kept a non-political matter, and that, while a central agency might spread good practice and give guidance, the development process – and as we have seen the funding priorities – should be devolved. My sense was that there were still powerful if unspoken memories about the damage to civil liberties that could be done by totalitarian regimes, of the Left or the Right, if they could control what people learned.
The advantage of a representative system was that members usually arrived well briefed on agenda items by officers from their organisations, and could advise and challenge FEU staff on the basis of evidence. A disadvantage was that there was always a chance of members being there just because it was their turn.
The first sign of a changed climate came during the Thatcher government, when the Secretary of State objected to the appointment to the FEU Board of the nominee from the Metropolitan Authorities. The fact that there should be a nominee was still accepted, but the individual concerned was thought to have 'unhelpful' views. The next step was to decree that a new board should all be appointed in an individual capacity by the Minister, so – it was said – as to avoid the 'buggins turn' syndrome. Then, after the FEU began to be funded by the newly formed FE Funding Council (FEFC), I received a call asking about their procedure for approving FEU research reports. I had to explain that despite the source of our funding it was our Board that authorised publications, as well as agreeing which areas should be prioritised for R&D.
The basis for this prioritisation was extensive canvassing of views, via advisory groups and a network of regionally based officers. Also much of FEU's human and limited financial resources went into collaborative work involving college staff, which provided a good deal of useful intelligence. But FEFC thought that these co-workers should be seen as customers, and that FEU's independence was in fact a 'licence for the FEU to choose for itself what to become involved in and whether or not to be helpful'. The answer to the question 'helpful to whom?' turned out to be the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ), whose roll-out of the new qualifications were going more slowly than planned. Although FEU had published a number of guides on the curriculum implications of NVQ-type competence-based qualifications, the colleges also needed help on other things that were not part of NCVQ's agenda.
The assumption was that customer requirements would be demonstrated by the workings of the market, rather than through consultation. However, when the time came, FEFC did not create such a market by providing funding to colleges themselves to commission R&D. Instead, FEU's successor organisations have been funded by direct grants from a central agency plus individual government contracts for specific activities. In effect this made government itself the customer, and this is now the current pattern, so that an agency can be closed by a simple withdrawal of contracts.
Another mechanism by which power over educational development has been drawn to the centre is the constant reorganisation of bodies that might otherwise develop a will or a culture of their own. The FEU existed for 15 years, a remarkably long period by modern standards. Five successor organisations have been, and four of them gone again, in the succeeding 20 years.
Since its creation, the FEU as an advisory body had been joined in the educational firmament by other much more powerful organisations. The NCVQ had been set up in 1986 to regulate vocational qualifications. In 1988, the National Curriculum Council (NCC) was set up with the authority to specify the content of school curricula, alongside the Schools Examinations and Assessment Council (SEAC), which oversaw the qualifications system. Personally, I valued the lack of a legislative role for the FEU. It meant that the Unit's influence on practitioners could only be based on analysis and evidence. For government, the Unit could usefully go fly kites. If an idea proved valuable, government could adopt it as its own. If not, it could be disowned.
## Balancing curriculum and qualifications development: the case of core skills
There was a brief but interesting period during which all four organisations mentioned above worked together to formulate a 'core skills' policy for 16–19-year-olds in the areas of communication, problem-solving, personal skills, numeracy, information technology and a modern foreign language. Note that this list is closer to the FEU's suggestions for a 'core curriculum' than the current narrower definition, which concentrates on the subjects of English and maths.
In 1989, government (namely, John Mcgregor, Secretary of State for Education) asked NCC to lead the work. My observation of the process was that sometimes the FEU and NCVQ formed an alliance to emphasise the special features and needs of vocational students, and sometimes FEU and NCC formed an alliance to emphasise the need for curriculum-led as well as assessment-led development. Structuring the learning for pedagogic purposes led to different patterns from when content was structured for assessment purposes. Not all that could be assessed could be equally easily taught. Conversely, there were learning experiences that were known to develop some important qualities that could not easily be assessed for qualification purposes. This core-skills initiative eventually ran into the immovable barrier of A Levels. I attended many meetings where it became clear that it was felt that studying A Levels, particularly in the humanities, was itself a guarantee of a broad education. Once again the academic paradigm was at work. Core skills were needed for vocational students 'because they were only studying one subject'. In fact they were following one vocational course, which might cover, among other things, the social and economic impact of the vocational sector in question, the underpinning science, the numeracy and literacy skills required to succeed as an employee, and the history of the sector's development – a broader programme than some A-Level combinations.
The development process itself, where a useful tension existed between things being curriculum and assessment-led, has since become almost entirely replaced by a focus on qualifications reform. More than this, qualifications design has become centralised, not only with little initial involvement of teachers, but even without a feedback loop that would allow them to modify the design subsequently, in light of their knowledge of learners and their needs.
This has resulted in a series of what I call, by analogy with the motor industry, a series of 'product recalls'. The pattern is remarkably consistent. A product is issued without piloting and without the involvement of those with experience of curriculum design and delivery, often because they are defined as being 'part of the problem'. More recently, even examining bodies have been denied initial involvement, because employers or universities must be 'in the driving seat'. The development process is seen as being linear, and not iterative, as it would be in any other field of development.
Within a very few years the product is discovered to be over-complex, too expensive and failing to achieve its original purpose. Then there is a fundamental review, usually conducted by one of the great and the good from outside the responsible organisation. But this was not planned into the process, and comes after many students have been used as guinea pigs.
The National Curriculum itself was reviewed in this way by Dearing, NCVQs by Beaumont, A-Level reform (misnamed 'Curriculum 2000') by Tomlinson, GNVQs by Capey, and Modern Apprenticeships by Cassells. Sometimes, a product launched with great fanfare is simply discontinued. This has happened recently to 14–19 Diplomas and to the Qualifications and Credit Framework. The more considered and collaborative development processes of other countries are sometimes criticised on the grounds of greater delay and expense, but this is to ignore the cost and damage caused by the need to review our programmes so soon after launch.
The example of 14–19 Diplomas also illustrates the ignorance of FE and its provision mentioned earlier. They were developed after Prime Minister Blair had announced that the recommendations of the Tomlinson Committee about the creation of a single 14–19 framework were not to be implemented, because of a perceived threat to A Levels. In evidence before a select committee, the then Secretary of State was briefed to say this about the proposed new qualifications:
It is the bit that is missing from our education system. We have had, on the one side, theoretical study and, on the other side, workplace training, job training, and there has been nothing that mixed the theoretical with the applied to any great degree.
(Hansard, 2006–2007)
Similarly, in an article published soon afterwards, the official responsible for overseeing our qualifications system claimed that, without the Diplomas, 'the alternative to GCSEs was training courses' (Boston, 2007), and in his select committee evidence the responsible civil servant even claimed that some 14–16-years-olds were 'spending perhaps half or two thirds of their timetable' on 'things that are clearly narrowly focused vocational training' (John Coles, Hansard, ibid.).
All of this was, of course, plain wrong, and ignored the previous government's own GNVQ initiative, let alone the long-established BTEC courses that preceded and then outlived both of the centrally designed schemes.
## Summary and conclusions
I have identified a number of factors that have remained relatively constant over my working lifetime: invisibility of FE and its courses; neglect of half the 14–19 cohort; the diversity of FE; and putting the blame on colleges themselves for this, despite the fact that diversity has protected the traditional role of universities and sixth forms.
Among the things that have changed are: a reduction in representative decision making bodies, and their replacement by individuals appointed by ministers; a shift from curriculum-led change to qualifications-driven 'reform', where qualifications are used both as performance measures and triggers for funding; and an increase in top-down developments and the influence of central government on content.
I am all too aware that I have illustrated these things by reference to a very small part of FE's activities: the area of pre-vocational education. For a broader perspective, see the 2011 Report of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning. But my work as a consultant in other areas of FE over the past 20 years confirms that they do have broader and current application. There are ways of addressing these issues. Development work should be iterative not linear, and both successful and abortive initiatives should be independently evaluated and lessons identified. 'Reform' should not be solely qualifications-driven but should be balanced by the need to identify suitable learning processes. Vocational qualifications should both embody national standards and allow some room for locally designed options to meet specifically local needs and opportunities.
Above all, the domination of the academic paradigm in definitions of excellence, curriculum structures and assessment methods should be recognised and reduced. The value to many of our citizens of continuing general education through a broadly defined pre-vocational programme as well as academic subjects should be recognised. At the same time, appropriately different definitions of excellence should be used for the more strongly vocational programmes being followed by those already committed to a defined career. This should include access to industry standard equipment and staff who are both skilled teachers and credible practitioners in their occupational area. Both will require regular updating. This will, of course, not come cheaply.
## Note
1 Vince Cable, quoted in Brian Wheeler, 'Officials wanted to axe FE colleges – Vince Cable', BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29496475
## References
Boston, K., TES, 30 March 2007.
Foster Review, 2005, Realising the Potential: A Review of the Future Role of FE Colleges. London: DfES.
Gatsby Foundation, 2015, Mentoring and Coaching for Teachers in the FE and Skills Sector in England. London: Gatsby Foundation.
Hansard, 2006–2007, House of Commons Education and Skills Committee. Fifth report of session 2006–2007.
Kennedy Report, 1997, Learning Works: Widening Participation in Further Education. Coventry: FEFC.
Moser Report, 1999, A Fresh Start: Improving Literacy and Numeracy. London: DfEE.
Ofsted Annual Report, 2013/2014. London: Further Education and Skills.
Wolf Report, 2011, Review of Vocational Education. London: DfE.
# [Part IV
Accountability, examinations, qualifications](content.xhtml#bck_part4)
# [10
Assessment](content.xhtml#bck_Ch010)
The need to 'do nothing'
Tim Oates
## Introduction: constant change
This chapter explores the role that assessment and qualifications reform has assumed in overall reform policy in England, focusing particularly on the period 1980 to the present day. The analysis will suggest that its role – already assumed to be substantial by analysts and educationalists (for example, Mansell, 2007) – has been more dominant than presumed.
To make this chapter into a listing of the myriad changes to qualifications and qualifications policy would be both to render it into a boring catalogue, but also to reproduce a historical record that is more meticulously produced by other sources (see Cambridge Assessment, 2014, Register of Change).
A brief look will be sufficient to indicate the constant change that has occurred. The year 1985 saw the end of the CEE (Certificate of Extended Education); 1988 the full introduction of GCSEs; 1994 A* grade introduced; in 1996 GNVQs were introduced, a heavily outcomes-oriented qualification influenced by NVQ developments, and then withdrawn in 2007; Advanced Extension Awards were introduced in 2002 and then withdrawn in 2009; key skills at Levels 1 and 2 were introduced in general education in 2000 and withdrawn in 2013; Diplomas were first taught in 2008 and all Diplomas withdrawn in 2013. A Levels were fully modularised in 2000, and then made linear from 2015. Merely some highlights.
And . . . tiering has been reconfigured at various times in GCSEs; calculators have been allowed and then removed from GCSEs on a number of occasions; coursework serially has been relaxed, tightened and transformed; modularisation has been adopted universally in A Level and GCSE and then abandoned. January sessions for general qualifications became widely used and were withdrawn in 2014. In 2015 there came the removal of controlled assessment; and also in this year, discussion by Labour of 'ditching GCSEs within ten years' (The Guardian, 22 April 2015).
Journalist Peter Wilby's broadside on New Labour thinking targets exactly the tendency upon which I want to focus in this chapter – educational reform policy and accountability arrangements that have undue emphasis on assessment and qualifications. According to Peter Wilby (The Guardian, 14 June 2011), it was Michael Barber who helped to write prime minister-to-be Tony Blair's first speech on education during the 1994 leadership contest and, in 1996, published The Learning Game, which was virtually a handbook for Labour education ministers. The phrase 'standards, not structures' was his, as was the focus on failure: failing councils, failing schools, failing pupils. 'Serious debate about failure', he said in 1995, 'is . . . a precondition of success.'
Michael Barber was right to home in on the huge disparities in attainment – for example in GCSEs – across the education system. In 1989 only 30 per cent of 16–17-year-olds were attaining 5+ GCSE grades A–C (Payne, 2001), with significant variation by school type, ethnic group and social background (Gillborn and Mirza, 2000). But a rightful focus on equity and attainment, using qualification outcomes as an indication of educational quality, became an exaggerated focus on assessment and qualifications as instruments of improvement and reform.
## Complexity of form and function
The use of qualifications and assessment as major instruments of government education policy is not new (see Sahlgren, 2014). Such use intensified in the 1950s, with the introduction of A Levels and O Levels, following the Education Act of the mid-1940s. Although major examinations at 16 and 18 have continued to be produced and owned by independent assessment bodies, successive governments have increased levels of state regulation of the form and content of the examinations, principally through the specification of codes and criteria, and development of increasingly elaborate national regulatory organisations.
But, despite this escalation of central control, it would be quite wrong to cast assessment and public examinations simply as a crude tool of government policy and, particularly, accountability policy. The reality is far more complex. Much of the complexity derives from the multiple functions that are carried by assessment. Other elements of complexity derive from who owns and drives the form and content of qualifications. Newton outlines 20 functions of national assessment (Newton, 2007), while Oates and Coles trace 40 functions of general and vocational qualifications (CEDEFOP, 2010). Some of these functions relate to curriculum intent – that assessment embodies and conveys certain curriculum intentions (e.g. to focus on specific knowledge, skills and understanding). Others relate to standards – assessment conveying 'improvement' targets, being used to monitor 'national standards' and so on.
I am not arguing for complete removal of this complexity. It is likely that the assessments will, in England as in many other nations, continue to carry multiple functions. Rather, I am arguing for recognition of the over-dependence in improvement and reform policy, on assessment and qualifications, and the relative neglect of other factors.
Qualifications and assessment have carried an enormous policy burden from 1988 to the present day. They have been principal instruments of the accountability agenda. Indeed, assessment has been far more dominant in accountability than has generally been recognised. Using public examinations in target-setting and for measuring teacher, school and national performance is an obvious example of assessment-led instruments of control. The role of national assessment at KS1, 2 and 3 in target-setting and performance measurement also was clear. Less obvious was the form of the National Curriculum itself. It is misleadingly titled – the term 'curriculum' is technically a misnomer – and this is no trivial matter. Used correctly, the term 'curriculum' actually refers to the totality of the experience of learning – it encompasses aims, content, methods, assessment, evaluation. Curriculum theory further explains the distinctions between intended curriculum, enacted curriculum and actual learning outcomes. It encompasses 'taught curriculum' and 'untaught curriculum' as elements of the experience of schooling. This is not an over-elaborated view of curriculum. Understanding these elements and the interaction between them is a vital part of understanding the performance of schools and of national arrangements. The National Curriculum obviously states content – the things that should be taught – and it does determine, to a degree, and in certain areas, the pedagogical approach. For example, requiring experimentation in science and development of phonological awareness in English does carry strong implications for pedagogy.
But the National Curriculum is not a curriculum. It is a framework of standards – of desired outcomes. Other countries use a far more accurate term, describing frameworks of outcomes as 'standards'. The moment this term is used, and the current arrangements for national assessment at KS1 and KS2 are added to the 'national standards', it can be seen that the National Curriculum is far more assessment-oriented than curriculum-oriented. It is a framework of standards and assessment that determines aspects of curriculum. It is not a curriculum, it is certainly not the 'School Curriculum' (Oates, 2010). Seen through this more accurate lens, Michael Barber's drive towards standards can be seen as policy pressure on schools that is fundamentally about assessment.
Only with the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies did government action around the National Curriculum begin substantial direct intervention in the form of pedagogy in schools. The Numeracy Strategy appears responsible for a minor elevation and peaking of mathematics attainment in Timss, but remains controversial in respect of curriculum control. John Bangs, the then NUT head of education, regarded the strategies as invaluable professional development support to teachers, while other educationalists regard it as inappropriate subversion of schools' autonomy (Whitty, 2006). As a non-statutory part of government policy, the Strategies do not detract from the fact that the main legislative instrument of government – the National Curriculum and its allied national testing – remains an assessment-oriented instrument; a framework of standards, accompanied by testing arrangements.
Research on the many advantages of having a National Curriculum (for example, Hopkins, 2001) shows many who cite a 'general culture of high expectations' as being an important part of the post-1988 era, with 'high expectations' intensified as a result of the New Labour focus on 'standards'. But while a general culture of high expectations also characterises other high-performing jurisdictions (OECD, 2006), the impact of a general concern for high standards in England has been moderated by the specific impact of detailed accountability measures and the focus on examination standards as the key metric for judging whether 'high expectations' are being met. In other words, the international evidence suggests that a general concern for high expectations is vital and can lead to a general elevation of attainment for all learners. This, however, can be distorted by an intense emphasis on specific measures, leading to a dysfunctional focus on specific learners and/or a very instrumental focus on a restricted set of outcomes (Mansell, 2007; Select Committee, 2008). This combination of assessment and account ability requirements has pushed the English system into a highly outcomes-focused educational culture – in other words, heavily assessment-biased.
During the late 1990s and first decade after 2000, the 'grade C/D borderline problem' emerged widely in the system: the focus on GCSE C/D borderline candidates (capable, with highly targeted support, of just getting into 5 A*–C territory) led to relative neglect of those well above the threshold and well below it (Mansell, op cit). At one time, the then Department for Education and Skills was advocating this focus on C/D borderline candidates as a key improvement strategy despite its known adverse impact on equity (Gillborn and Youdell, 2000). Government failed, for over a decade, to refine the measures into a more equitable form, despite the obvious nature of the emerging problems (Oates, 2014).
The second strong moderation of a general culture of high expectations was the distorting effect of highly instrumental teaching to the test (both in national assessment and public examinations). Again well documented (for example, in evidence to the Select Committee for Education, 2012), the impact has been wide ranging: general narrowing of the curriculum; dramatic rise in strategic retakes in both GCSE and A Levels; narrow assessment-driven instruction; and deleterious impact on both the relation between learning resources and qualifications and the quality of those resources.
'Curriculum narrowing' has manifested itself in a number of ways. 'Teaching to the specification' has increased dramatically through a combination of teacher imperatives to focus on outcomes in accountability and pupils' demands. The latter usually is expressed along the lines of 'Why should I do this?' – 'Because it's in the examination' and combines with a recognition that high grades are of increasing importance in entry to HE and in the labour market. And this narrowing of focus is taking place despite evidence that teaching beyond the syllabus enhances the chances of higher grades. The collapse of 'curriculum thinking' to 'qualifications thinking' within institutions has affected student demand (during the 2010 review of the National Curriculum, evidence cited the dominant lack of student motivation for uncertificated components of the 14–16 curriculum) as well as introducing undue narrowness into overall curriculum development in the 16–19 phase.
## Objective base to pedagogic approaches
In developing this thesis, I will need to spend a short time on the issue of an objective base to pedagogic approaches. Put simply, is there a means of establishing 'effective education', and what is the role of assessment in this? The argument frequently deployed in education is that it is complex, and thus forms of enquiry that seek to establish the superiority of one approach to teaching and learning over another are not possible (Stringer, 2007). It is clear that the complexity argument is correct (Oates, 2010) – education is affected by an interaction of natural phenomena (brain development, limits posed by working memory, etc) and social phenomena (dispositions to learn, parental support to learning, organisation of learning, etc). An issue such as class size is trammelled with this interaction and complexity (Blatchford et al., 2003). But it does not follow that there is no means of discriminating the impact, in specific settings, of specific approaches to teaching and learning, of identifying vital educational imperatives such as the early acquisition of complex language, and of identifying specific facets of educational provision, such as the subject expertise of teachers, as being associated with 'desirable outcomes' (Bell and Cordingly, undated). This is heavily contested territory. The conflict over the role of RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials) has highlighted the failure of our educational establishment to tackle effectively the question of 'what kind of system are we dealing with when we attempt to understand and manage education?'. This chapter is not designed to work through forensically the details of the debate; I am intending to extract matters associated with assessment, and with change in education. I am building an argument that asserts 'we need dependable assessment to determine the impact of what we do in education'.
Lapsing into 'nothing can be certain; all is relative' (an extreme version of post-modern sentiment) is not unheard-of in the education establishment – both from teachers and from academics. This, however, denies even the possibility of rational action and meaningful communication. A further, more moderated version is that the complexity of education renders systematic enquiry and discrimination between approaches impossible, or so heavily compromised that the endeavour is fruitless. Nowhere is this sentiment more evident than in the area of comparative education, when examining the features of different national systems in the context of PISA. But – although ruling out discrimination merely on contingent complexity rather than a matter of principle – this position denies the power of underlying method and of work that has shown us, for example, the importance of early language learning and high facility in reading (Sylva et al., 2003). If crude empiricism is inadequate, the pessimism of post-modernism is irrational, and the relativist leanings of much contemporary educational theory is less confident than it should be. What body of theory helps us with careful convergence on 'what works', and deliberate management of change in education, rather than a lapse into being passive victims of events?
## A 'critical realist' perspective
In my own work on review of policy development in England, and on comparison of national systems, critical realism has provided some important anchor points. It enables us to understand that, in natural systems, laws apply independently of human thought and action, while in social systems, our theories are part of those social systems, and affect the processes that arise (Bhaskhar, 1998). In natural systems, apprehended by our thought but independent of them, laws apply – Boyle's Law, the Beer-Lambert Law. In social systems, tendencies apply, not laws, and things will persist when all other things are equal – the ceteris paribus provision.
A simple but powerful example is the history of the education of women. Start with an assumption that women are not deserving of education and, as a result of being denied access to formal education, they will demonstrably not know as much of the standard canon as men – they are 'less intelligent'. This appears clearly to justify that they are not deserving of education, since they are apparently of 'lesser intelligence'. The theory about women's abilities actually significantly determines their abilities. But this is not a natural law, it is simply a tendency – one that can be utterly disrupted by adoption of another theory – for example, that women are equally deserving of high-quality education. The 'all other things being equal' principle is important for analysis of change in education. Women will appear less intelligent for the time that the idea of inferiority is dominant. Shift that view, and a lot of things change. What we think and do seriously affects the way in which the education system behaves – and education is affected by a diverse set of ideas and practices, determining the shape of its many features.
Now, a further illustration of ceteris paribus: all other things being equal or held constant. It is true that a specific system of schooling with a late age of starting does not need to be fraught with discussion about practices of how children acquire complex language, if the family culture has a strong tradition of literacy and ensures the majority of children acquire complex language before they start school. But if culture and practices in the family shift, for example because parents feel they need to work extended hours to maintain their standard of living, then schooling can make no assumptions, and had better respond, and fast. Responding to such shifts in complex systems is absolutely the stuff of effective domestic policy (Sylva, op cit).
'All other things being equal' is nowhere more evident than in vocational education and training, where attempts to increase volumes in employer-based training for young people constantly have been adversely affected by shifts in incentives and drivers, emanating from changes in the nature of production, the labour market, profitability and a raft of other economic factors. Vocational education and training also illustrate how 'all other things being equal' can highlight contradictions within the different arms of education and training policy: the drive to very high levels of participation in higher education sends strong messages that the vocational route from 16 is of lower status, and that it is more important to gain a higher education degree of any kind rather than to attend to alignment of learning with the labour market – thus undermining the drive to high-quality, long-duration, employer-based initial vocational education and training.
Because of the way in which our ideas about social systems actually are part of those systems, education is indeed bewilderingly complex. It is not only continually buffeted by external factors (social change, economic issues, demographics), it is also constantly disrupted by internal shifts in ideas and assumptions, theory and practice, where these ideas profoundly affect both the way education operates and the outcomes it achieves.
Critical realist perspectives help us to understand that some things are not arbitrary – the physiology of early and adolescent development, the importance of complex language in cognition – and that other things will only hold true while certain other things are held constant – ceteris paribus: all other things being held constant.
So . . . rather than lapsing into 'well . . . it's all so complex that we can't really know anything or predict anything, then . . .' or the assumption that we are condemned to endless conflict about ideas and to pendulum swings in practice, I want to place assessment in a special position. I believe that it can be and should be held more constant, and that this is an asset for policy makers, not withdrawal of a policy tool.
## Making control easier
Assessment IS easier to control than many elements of education systems. This makes it a very attractive target of reform policy – the first thing to which politicians and reformers turn when they wish to effect change in education and training arrangements. This ease of control stems from many aspects of assessment, but not least from the fact that when it is done, and how it is done are subject to greater regulatory control and social consensus than many other aspects of education. Pupils, parents, educationalists and employers have long agreed that exams should be administered in a highly consistent manner. The fairness and accuracy, that are at the heart of formal 'qualification', are predicated on such consistency. Dependability in recognition of achievement and in signalling attainment is essential to the very notion of 'qualification'. It can be controlled by policy makers since it is a tightly managed set of arrangements in which the participants 'follow the rules' and the controlling agencies have a commitment to and interest in ensuring that those rules are followed. The obvious temptation of policy makers is to use this established, highly proceduralised apparatus as a tool of transformation. With the (quite rational) notion that the washback from assessment is prompt and powerful, policy makers can impose relatively cheap and simple reform on arrangements. The Coalition government's use of the English Baccalaureate requirement (The Guardian, 17 October 2013) was entirely consistent with this approach to reform. Incredibly cheap – nothing more than a statement delivered from the centre regarding the set of GCSE results by which schools would be judged, with a re-casting of data already collected from schools – and with no legislative change required, the government effected a massive and overnight shift in the curriculum preoccupations of secondary schools (The Guardian, 11 January 2011). Timetables and option choices were re-cast, teachers were told that their subjects were no longer a priority. Entry patterns to GCSE underwent a seismic shift. Ministers were themselves shocked at the speed and extent of the re-alignment of arrangements. It appeared to be a strong confirmation of the power of assessment-led system transformation.
## Diversity of educational arrangements – the attraction of assessment
Let us now take a brief diversion into the peculiar diversity of education arrangements in England. It provides another element of the rationale for leaving assessment alone, and keeping it constant. The system in England is large – an annual cohort of over 600,000, compared with 70,000 in Finland and 40,000 in Singapore. But the diversity of arrangements is a feature of England that seldom is commented upon in analyses of reform and development. England has retained the 11-plus in some counties (Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent and other minor areas) while others have varying forms of comprehensive education. Some areas deliberately have retained small rural primary schools (Cambridgeshire) while others have embarked on a programme of closures (Worcestershire, Wiltshire). Some areas have retained and are committed to middle schools, some have seen growth in school sixth forms, while others have ensured the growth of sixth form colleges. The age of institutional transfer thus varies considerably across England. UTCs have introduced 14–19 as a new 'phase'. FE colleges are the location of around 30 per cent of A-Level provision and 10 per cent of HE provision (AoC, 2014). The academy and free school developments have increased variation in structural form. Preschool provision is highly diverse, with an increase in nursery provision in primary schools in a number of areas. Local 'economies' of education vary widely, depending on local 'market' composition (for example, in a given area, the existence of dominant independent schools with day school provision can strongly affect local institutional form and policy). The size of institutions varies greatly, as do governance and management forms (federated schools, academy chains, and so on).
The DfE website gives the following description of variants of state schools. The most common ones are (www.gov.uk/national-curriculum):
* community schools, controlled by the local council and not influenced by business or religious groups;
* foundation schools, with more freedom to change the way they do things than community schools;
* academies, run by a governing body, independent from the local council – they can follow a different curriculum; and
* grammar schools, run by the council, a foundation body or a trust – they select all or most of their pupils based on academic ability, and there is often an entrance exam.
And this does not include the many variants of independent schools or reflect the variation among the group of schools that includes Montessori, Steiner, Buddhist and others. And a careful look at the descriptions shows that important dimensions of variation are present in each of the categories – governance, form, curriculum restriction, etc.
Structural variations are joined by variations in curriculum requirement. Unlike Finland, English law does not stipulate the number of hours that should be devoted to specific subjects. The National Curriculum does not apply to independent schools, academies and free schools. But there is more. The 2010 curriculum review detected further dimensions of variation – profound variation running deeply into beliefs regarding the aims of education, models of and assumptions about ability, models of progression, use of teaching assistants, vocational versus academic provision, and other fundamentals.
It is thus hardly surprising that, for any given central innovation (Reading Recovery, Assessing Pupils Progress, the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, Diploma qualifications), impact is highly variable (Ofsted, 2002). Unlike teaching practice – action distributed across thousands of classrooms – the machinery and implementation strategy for qualifications reform are highly proximal to government – qualifications specifications can readily be reviewed and changed, and then fed into an established, highly structured implementation apparatus run by examination boards. In contrast, the means of directly affecting a system factor such as teacher quality in the existing teacher workforce requires sophisticated policy formation and a highly elaborate implementation strategy.
Such a high level of diversity is not present in smaller, high-performing systems such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland. Crucially, my own research in Singapore and Finland shows less diversity in ideas about education and children, particularly regarding ability and models of progression.
It is difficult to exaggerate the challenge that this many-layered diversity poses to policy makers – it ranges across the structure of schooling, the forms of schooling, organisation of learning and ideas about education. As Andy Green (2013) has pointed out, this variation is an enduring feature of the system in England deriving from the way in which modern schooling emerged in the country, and contrasts significantly with the form of emergence of education arrangements in France, USA and Germany. The acute and chronic diversity in arrangements is not going to go away, either overnight or in the near future – the pedigree of the diversity means that it is entrenched, and yet heavily contested (Aston et al., 2013). It poses a genuine challenge to centrally derived measures aimed at innovation and improvement. The effectiveness of improvement strategies tends to be heavily dependent on context. And context in England varies dramatically. Initiatives that reach deeply down into practice are expensive, complex to manage, and recently have been perceived, by both teachers and politicians, as intrusive – prime examples being the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies (Whitty, 2006). In the face of all of these factors, using assessment and qualifications and major instruments of reform looks, to policy makers, like a very attractive option – apparently cheap, and relatively easy.
## Change in assessment: a deceptively seductive option
So . . . cheap and easy, but I believe that change in assessment and qualifications is a deceptively seductive option for effecting change in key aspects of the system such as quality of learning, reduction of within-school and between-school variation and so on.
The first reason has already been outlined: the impact is variable and unpredictable, partly as a result of naïve dependence on a 'trickle down' effect – erroneous assumptions that educationalists always will respond in an optimum way to the challenges of new assessments, and partly as a result of the diversity of the settings into which the new assessment falls.
The second reason is of considerable importance. Assessment is one of the ways in which evidence of the impact of teaching and learning is created. Investigation of and experimentation on human cognition require measurement, as does investigation and development in education (see Mellanby and Theobald, 2014). It is no accident that, in the USA, it is the American Psychological Association that publishes The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (APA, 2014). We need to know the impact of educational development and improvement strategies – and measurement is a key element of this. I am NOT arguing that public examinations and related assessments measure all the outcomes in which we should be interested when investigating and enhancing learning. What I AM arguing is that, for the outcomes that are legitimately assessed by public examinations and assessments, consistency of measurement is vital.
For investigation of whether a change in approach to learning yields benefit, valid and consistent measurement of outcomes is an essential part of method. This is a tenet of psychological research, and is a methodological aspect of many experimental and evaluative studies in education (Mellanby, op cit; Sylva 1999). I believe that the same discipline should enter our thinking about routine educational assessment – public examinations and national tests. These are the means by which we can measure desirable improvements in our system, as well as producing dependable descriptions of what pupils know, understand and can do. This supports an evaluative function, and a communication or signalling function – the latter to be used in admission to programme decisions (e.g. for higher education), and labour market selection. If the measures constantly are changing, we limit our ability to make rational decisions about what works in our teaching and learning, and compromise the dependability of the information that is used in admission and selection.
Although it is far more difficult to reach deeply down into our system with sympathetic and effective innovation targeted directly at practice – innovation that will enhance children's reading, scientific understanding, creative thinking, and so on – it is possible to measure with precision the impact of such innovation if valid and consistent measures are used to detect improvement in outcomes. And this kind of consistent measurement needs to be available over an extended period of time, since educational transformation typically occurs over years, not months, and the improvement often is something that society wishes to sustain. This sustained consistency of measurement is an essential basis of PISA, Timss and PIRLS. In public examinations, Finland provides a fascinating foil to the relentless change in post-16 qualifications in England. Finland's high-stakes leaving examination at 18/19, the Finnish Abitur, has at its core four external examinations in subject disciplines, with one of these being in native language. These exams resemble A Levels extremely closely, in being highly discipline-focused. But the salient feature of the Abitur is that it has not changed in function or form, in any significant way, for over 100 years. Through the periods of relatively slow improvement and through periods of deliberate transformation of all other aspects of the education system, this key measure of outcome was kept stable. During the 1980s, throughout the move from highly selective education to wholesale, committed adoption of a form of Asian comprehensive education, the Abitur remained a consistent reference point in the system. Other aspects of the system – teaching approaches, educational resources, school form, etc – all were attended to directly, not assumed to be transformed through radical change in qualifications. This provides an extreme contrast with England, where assessment-led change has assumed such dominance, and difficult confounding has occurred as a result of assessment reform being used as the main stimulant of change while the assessments simultaneously are depended upon as the prime means of measuring outcomes.
## Problems of change
It is important to recognise that this does not condemn assessment and public qualifications to moribund ossification. Measurement through assessment can be introduced in new areas of disciplines and of human learning, existing measures can be updated, and new measures equated with old ones. But there are limits on this equating, as demonstrated profoundly by the controversial contemporary challenge of linking standards in the new suite of post-2015 1–9 GCSEs with the previous suite of pre-2015 A*-G GCSEs. The tendency in England is to change the entire suite of A Levels and/or GCSEs at the same time, rather than changing specific subjects according to their own necessary timeframe – for example, when new knowledge is introduced to a specific discipline (Oates, 2010). Equating and maintaining standards become highly problematic when wholesale reform of examinations is effected (Bramley, 2013). And the system has been subjected to repeated waves of this wholesale, general reform. Two key elements of 'national standards' – standards over time, and standards between awarding bodies – are threatened by wholesale change in qualifications – adversely affecting confidence in qualifications, the signalling function of qualifications, and the ability to measure the impact of reform measures outside assessment. The recent controversy over the sample assessment materials for reformed maths GCSE – with two of the three national bodies expressing concern that the 'race to the bottom' was opened up by the Regulator's chosen approval process for the new qualifications (The Times Educational Supplement, 6 March 2015) – demonstrates the serious risks posed by all-embracing, ambitious reform processes.
## A conclusion?
There is a strong philosophical, historical and practical rationale for stating this: that changing all things all the time, in a highly diverse education system, will result in chaotic, incoherent development. Of course specific assessments have to be designed well, operate effectively and be refined through evaluation. But endless arbitrary change seriously disrupts system coherence. The very ease with which assessment can be changed from the centre is actually a rationale for it being the one thing that is kept as stable as possible. Stability in assessment should be seen as an asset by policy makers. It should be viewed as an anchor point in a constantly shifting sea – an anchor point that enables us to understand and respond to all the other shifts that occur. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Without consistent measurement, policy makers will not have dependable intelligence on the system. Given the complexity and diversity of English arrangements, enhancing the quality of learning requires sophisticated transformation policies, sensitive to context. After three decades, assessment-led transformation policy has not yet delivered the step-change in system performance that preoccupies policy makers (see The Telegraph, 8 July 2013). Changing assessment has at the same time been ineffective in raising underlying quality and diminished the key quality essential to assessment – the ability to measure key educational outcomes with consistency and precision. Assessment change rips educational capacity from the system, as textbooks, teaching notes, 'polished' lessons all are discarded. As each transformation through assessment has failed to deliver, policy makers have not undertaken radical re-thinking of assessment-led change, they have lapsed into Soviet-style 'one more push'. It is time to realise that stability in assessment and qualifications is a crucial element of a balanced programme of system improvement.
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Mellanby, J. and Theobald, K., 2014, Education and Learning: An Evidence-based Approach. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Newton, P., 2007, 'Clarifying the purposes of educational assessment', Assessment in Education, 14 (2) pp. 149–70.
Oates, T., 2010, 'Could do better': Using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum in England, Report, Cambridge Assessment.
Oates, T., 2014, 'The qualifications sledgehammer: Why assessment-led reform has dominated the education landscape', in Sahlgren, G.H. (ed.) Tests Worth Teaching To. London: Centre for Market Reform in Education.
OECD, 2006, Education at a Glance. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Ofsted, 2002, The National Literacy Strategy: The First Four Years 1998–2002.
Payne, J., 2001, Patterns of Participation in Full-time Education after 16: An Analysis of the England and Wales Youth Cohort Study. Policy Study Institute.
Sahlgren, G.H. (ed.), 2014, Tests Worth Teaching To. London: Centre for Market Reform in Education.
Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families, 2008, Testing and assessment: Third report of session 2007–2008 Vol 1, GB, Parliament House of Commons.
Stringer, E.T., 2007, Action Research. London: Sage.
Sylva, K., 1999, An Introduction to the EPPE Project. Institute of Education.
Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B., 2003, The effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project – findings from the pre-school period, Research Brief RBX-15–03. Department for Education and Skills.
Whitty, G., 2006, 'Teacher professionalism in a new era', Paper presented at the first General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland Annual Lecture, Belfast.
# [11
Accountability and Inspection](content.xhtml#bck_Ch011)
Pat O'Shea
## Starting off as an English teacher
In schools in the early 1970s, accountability was not a word that often troubled us. I began teaching English in 1973 in what was then the only comprehensive school in Kent, a very large school whose families belonged to what was disparagingly referred to as 'London overspill'. As young teachers, our three major concerns were the impact of RoSLA (Raising of the School Leaving Age), the teacher recruitment crisis, and the Houghton pay award. The first meant that many 16-year-olds had to stay in school a year longer than they had expected and, even more alarming, be persuaded to take a public examination. The second meant that we started the school year four teachers short in the English department alone, and of those of us actually there, several were in our Probationary Year (NQTs). The third, Houghton, provided some succour, as in my second year of teaching our pay went up nearly 30 per cent at a stroke. (As a dampener to the excitement of this, inflation in 1975 was 24 per cent.)
As a young and inexperienced teacher I do not recall my teaching ever being observed. There were no appraisals, nor even any kind of review of my work. The avuncular head of department and his deputy supported as best they could with ideas and materials, but never watched us teach. The head of department was in any case somewhat distracted throughout 1974, as he stood as the Labour candidate in both the general elections that year. When I applied for this and later teaching posts, the selection procedure consisted solely of an interview with the headteacher. No governors were involved, but I did spend some time with the head of department and perusing the stock cupboard (the usual class sets of An Inspector Calls, Of Mice and Men, and Animal Farm – just as now, despite Michael Gove's aversion to English literature not from England). There was certainly no question of teaching a sample lesson or of meeting any students.
Teachers did not seem to regard examination results as a measure of accountability. At age 14, students were divided into three groups: those who would take no qualifications, CSE candidates, and those on track for the more prestigious O Level. The latter had been designed for the 20 per cent of young people in grammar schools, and could lead on to A Level and thence to higher education. CSE was aimed at the 'next' 40 per cent, so qualifications were deemed inappropriate for the remaining 40 per cent. (It was reading John Newsom's report Half Our Future, while I was supposed to be revising for finals, that made me go into teaching.) The syllabi for O Level and CSE did not overlap. After RoSLA in 1972, all students, more or less, had to take one or the other. This meant that a system of public examinations at 16 designed for the few became a universal point of assessment. This changed its nature, and made possible the later development of the whole apparatus of accountability through performance tables and examination outcomes at 16. It led the way to examination boards becoming businesses vying for custom, examination entry fees featuring heavily in schools' budgets, and the huge change in pace and focus that comes over secondary schools from May to July.
One version of the public exam at 16 was very attractive to ambitious and creative young teachers: the CSE Mode 3. Any teacher could design and propose a syllabus which would be marked and assessed by the teachers in the school through 100 per cent coursework. The course could reflect the enthusiasms and, indeed, political predilections of the proposer. The course and its assessment followed the teaching and its objectives, rather than the other way round. This put teachers in control of every stage of the process of the CSE public examination. We were participants in the Examination Board subject committees, setting syllabi, defining grade boundaries, and devising and developing the curriculum. We were driven by the need to make sure that the exams would suit our students' needs. It almost felt as though we were holding the Examination Board to account.
Although there was some external moderation, we were effectively taking in one another's washing, since we reciprocally moderated courses from other schools. I designed and taught a Mode 3 English syllabus. It included an independent art house film I liked and thought would appeal, some Bob Dylan, and Romeo and Juliet. It was not, to say the least, very coherent or rigorous. I am not proud of the fact that, for several of those who took it in the mid-1970s, it probably remains the only formal qualification in English they have. Complete freedom over the curriculum was no better for learners than excessive prescription.
## Deputy Head at Peers
My years as Deputy at Peers (1985–1992) saw the biggest changes to education and the organisation of schools affecting teachers and students until the current wave. Bob Moon, the inventive head who had come from the ground-breaking Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes, had introduced an innovative curriculum based on modular accreditation, similar to that now offered by many universities. Peers had a national profile. We regularly ran Saturday conferences for visiting teachers and heads who wanted to hear about the modular curriculum, and were often invited to conferences around the country to speak about it. We were proud of the work we were doing and its impact on the motivation and achievement of some very disadvantaged and hitherto underachieving young people. Students gained CSEs and O Levels and, from 1988, the new GCSEs, all of them continuously assessed by coursework and module tests. I sold off 300 examination desks, convinced that never again would a cohort of students sit down together to take a public examination. I was wrong.
While I was on maternity leave in 1987, Bob Moon came for tea, to inspect my son and to tell me two things: first, that he was leaving Peers for a chair at the Open University, and second, that when I returned in the autumn and before he left, we would have a full HMI inspection of the school. I received the first item of news with alarm and apprehension, but the second with complete equanimity, because I had no idea what it meant or that it was a serious business. It is said that at that time HMI inspections came round about once every 250 years, in any case at sufficient intervals for most teachers and headteachers to escape inspection throughout their careers. Bob, however, did know that our innovations were on the line, and that much was at stake. Now, those in schools are constantly aware of Ofsted's imminence; it presides implicitly or explicitly over much planning and evaluation; then, the notion of inspection was novel. For the first time I recognised that we were accountable for what we were doing, that we would be externally judged. (My infant son was judged Good with Outstanding features.)
## The HMI inspection
HMI were a cadre of highly experienced and mostly well-respected senior professionals. They were responsible for inspecting and evaluating a few individual schools, but the main part of their work was to provide information on education to the Secretary of State by carrying out and publishing national surveys, thematic studies, and evaluations of the teaching of particular subjects and aspects of school life across the country. About 12 HMI were in the school for most of the week. We took all this in our stride; we thought of the inspection as a kind of supportive professional review. We thought the HMI were interested in our modular curriculum and early use of records of achievement of our own devising (see also OCEA, discussed by Tim Brighouse), as was much of the rest of the secondary education world. On day three of the inspection one HMI was overheard saying to another: 'I have a little list – modular curriculum plus and modular curriculum minus. So far minus is ahead'. This sort of score-card tallying, rather than a more measured evaluative and reflective approach, seemed to us rather shocking.
The report was made available to the school and governors, but was not published until about a year after the inspection, by which time we had a new head and everybody had forgotten about it (HMI school inspection reports had only been published at all since 1983). Despite their misgivings about our unorthodox curriculum, we were relieved when the report was broadly very positive, on the teaching and on the curriculum offer. A significant concern was that the library was thought to be inadequate – this proved useful later when we were able to negotiate the creation of a substantial joint public library on the campus.
All of our curricular freedom was changed by the Education Reform Act of 1988. This legislation introduced parental choice, local management of schools, the National Curriculum, and Key Stages, with objectives for each. There was also provision for City Technology Colleges, which were maintained schools taken out of local authorities, the predecessors of academies. I remember a meeting of heads, deputies, and chairs of governors, at which Tim Brighouse, then Chief Education Officer for Oxfordshire, explained how the combination of these elements of legislation would exercise a vice-like grip on schools and local authorities, to the clear detriment especially of those in disadvantaged and economically deprived areas where educational achievement was low. (The introduction of grant-maintained schools posed a further threat to local authorities and their illusory 'control' of schools.) We were required to publish examination results to parents, although league tables did not begin until 1992, introduced by John Major's government after his surprise election victory. The stated aim then was to give parents the consumer information they needed, to create a free market in school choice. That 'choice' has only ever been patchy at best, varying wildly between rural and urban settings, by class, by faith, and by parents' willingness to undertake informed perusal of all the data. Performance tables, as instruments of accountability, also provide a lever whereby government can directly influence the school system and the curriculum: the later double-weighting of English and mathematics, the introduction of value-added to tackle high-attaining but 'coasting' schools, the down-valuing of vocational qualifications and ignoring any but the first shot at a subject examination, the invention of the EBacc: all provide examples of this.
## Warden of a Cambridgeshire village college
By the early 1990s I was in my first headship at a village college in Cambridgeshire. Because of the rich community dimension to these wonderful schools, headteachers were known as Wardens, an idea of the visionary bureaucrat who founded the village colleges, Henry Morris, CEO in Cambridgeshire in the 1930s. I greatly valued that title, carrying as it does the notion of guardianship of the whole learning community as well as of its young people. By now, the National Curriculum had settled down a bit: the 17 attainment targets and the 17 ring-binders that specified the science curriculum alone had been reduced to a more manageable number. SATs were firmly in place, and, for the first time, we knew how well the youngsters joining us in Y7 had performed against a national benchmark, however flawed.
We were subject to a new-style Ofsted Section 10 inspection in 1994. In contrast to the current approach, the focus was very clearly on the curriculum and its subjects. The inspection team comprised 25 mostly subject specialists from the school improvement service in a neighbouring local authority. Like every inspection team, there was also a lay inspector, a kindly, interested person with no professional experience in education. They were usually deployed to consider matters considered more peripheral than the curriculum, such as attendance, assemblies, and extra-curricular activities.
We had six weeks' notice of the inspection dates. During this time the deputy head spent many of his waking hours gathering data, information, evidence, and documents of every kind. His rather cramped office was stacked from floor to ceiling with dozens of green box files in which these were obsessively filed. Teachers, too, had six weeks to prepare the lessons they would teach during the inspection, and to become anxious about them. During the inspection every teacher knew they would be seen teaching at least once. By Friday afternoon an RE teacher who taught nearly 20 different classes in the school had still not been seen, and was in tears at Friday lunchtime knowing that her fate was closing in on her.
In contrast to the HMI approach at Peers, reports were now written to a common framework, and published within a month. For the first time, we were all clear what the criteria were, and the handbook included descriptions of what each of the seven grades looked like, from Excellent to Very Poor. This clarity was welcome. Inspection was almost wholly subject-based, with inspectors only coming together for large team meetings at the end of the day, in which findings were pooled. Several never met the head, nor understood how the school worked beyond the department they were inspecting. On Thursday the head of PE approached me with a concern about the PE specialist adviser who had made a number of comments revealing these limitations, including asking the head of PE, 'Who is this Warden person, anyway?'.
We had been reassured there would be no surprises in the report, and that proved to be the case. We had to draw up and submit an action plan within six weeks, but that was already there in our school development plan. Lesson observation by heads was not routine or formalised, but the deputies and I were confident we knew our teachers' strengths pretty accurately, from MBWA (management by walking about), and from having active antennae. I had begun at Peers to look at a teacher's results and manually compare what the same students had achieved in other subjects. I later learned to call the resulting measure a residual, when computers made this sort of analysis much easier, and school leaders acquired new skills in data and statistics. We were devising our own systems of data analysis before Raiseonline and FFT came along.
In my second headship, appraisal of teachers and school leaders became part of the annual gardening calendar of a school's work. The processes were somewhat cumbersome, but we tried to make them supportive of teachers' work and complementary to the planning of CPD. The unions were influential in this, and acted as guardians of teachers' interests, so that appraisal was developmental, and not linked to pay in any way. This was to change step by step in later years, with the introduction of pay thresholds, the need for clear evidence against published standards, moves away from a national pay scale, and the stealthy approach of performance-related pay – anathema in the 1990s.
Examination results days began to affect my family life and that of all heads, as holidays in Provence or Tuscany were curtailed so we could be in school on the third and fourth Thursdays of August, to celebrate A-Level and GCSE results with students, but also to issue carefully crafted press statements and begin to calculate what our value-added might be and where we might stand in the league tables. KS2 and KS3 SATs were also externally marked, but the tests were erratic in standard, and their marking was sometimes plainly inaccurate. I may have been one of the few heads who appealed against the KS3 SATs English results on the grounds that they were too high. I knew that if they stood, our GCSE value-added results two years later would look poorer than they should, and I would be held accountable.
## LEA adviser and SIP
After the turn of the century, I was working for a local authority. Oxfordshire LA, like many, had set up and run its own team of Ofsted inspectors, comprising the wide range of subject and phase advisers and inspectors working for the service. We had been inspected by just such an LA team in Cambridgeshire. LA services of this kind were beginning to have identity crises, reflected in the frequent changes of name. They were also grappling with cuts, as central government endeavoured to reduce the influence of local democracy and to introduce market practices. During my time, there were at least five reorganisations (restructuring, remodelling, re-alignment . . .) and at least five different names in as many years. Were we about advice, inspection, improvement, school development, raising achievement, effectiveness? All these words figured in the names of the service.
A further string was added to the accountability bow in 2004: the School Improvement Partner (SIP) scheme was introduced, as part of a so-called New Relationship with Schools. Experienced school leaders and local authority advisers like me could, through training and assessment, become accredited as SIPs. All schools had an SIP with whom they would have a 'single conversation'. The scheme was nationally funded and ran from 2004 to 2010. It was cut as a consequence of a change of government in 2010, despite evidence that it was effective, though not consistently so. As an SIP, I developed a working relationship with schools in a way impossible for an Ofsted inspector, so there was a perspective of evaluation and change over time. We provided external challenge as well as support; schools were accountable, as SIPs reported to their LAs, but could also deploy their SIP to support school initiatives. Discussions about target setting were informed by both comparative data and a knowledge of the context; they could be tough, and many heads valued a robust exchange with a supportive but external fellow professional. Many schools have chosen to continue to seek external support and challenge from former SIPs, but the free market in school improvement services has left schools able to choose not to seek and pay for external advice.
## Becoming an inspector for Ofsted
As I arrived at the LA, the Ofsted teams lost their remit, and six national companies ran inspections in England. (Later, only three companies – Tribal, Serco, and CfBT – won a competitive bidding process for contracts to run inspections across the country. Costs were cut.) In 2005 I trained as an inspector for Ofsted. The training was extensive and expensive. At the end, I spent a whole day sitting examinations in a large area of a posh hotel in Park Lane. It was an extraordinary experience to be sitting at an examination desk, one of a hundred candidates arranged in rows, doing written exams all day, complete with prowling HMI invigilators. Mysteriously, we were only allowed to use a pencil. The experience felt like a throwback: nervousness waiting for the results, relief at passing. We were tested on data analysis, evaluating evidence, applying criteria, writing clearly. It felt adequately rigorous.
As I began inspecting in 2005, the framework and the process were slimmed down enormously. Average-sized secondary schools now had nine or ten inspector days – a team of four or five for two days – and two days' notice of inspections. The emphasis on subjects and the curriculum disappeared, and with it the inspection of subject teaching by specialists in that subject. This was a major step in the decline of the place of the curriculum in the inspection framework. Apart from the growing emphasis on English and mathematics, subjects have been sidelined, and the quality of the whole curriculum, once graded separately, now merits one paragraph in the long list of aspects of leadership and management to which inspectors must attend. With my roots in curriculum development and subject expertise, this seems a significant loss.
Also in 2005, schools' self-evaluation became hugely important. Never compulsory, but always expected, the exercise of completing an SEF was onerous but arguably did much to improve the skills of school leaders, to gather evidence, to interrogate data, to plan improvements, and to evaluate impact. Heads and senior leaders began routinely to observe lessons and grade them, something rarely done before this. Comparative information about schools transformed beyond measure during this time. As deputy at Peers School in the 1980s, on open evenings for prospective parents, each year I scanned the results from the previous year with the aim of finding three things that had improved. I then designed graphs with extended vertical axes to give a visual impression of rapid and impressive improvement. In the 2000s, the accountability measures were plain to all and common across schools. Data dominated our preparation for inspection. Performance tables had been introduced in 1992 in the public domain, but gave only broad-brush data. In the 2000s, Raiseonline provided sophisticated information for school leaders, and for inspectors. For the first time it was easy to compare a school's outcomes with national figures.
Many schools and local authorities subscribed to the Fischer Family Trust. This gave a new perspective on data about progress and achievement in schools, using a complex formula including social and economic make-up, gender, incidence of special needs, deprivation factors, and ethnicity, so that there was more chance of comparing like with like. This provided a very helpful set of comparators but was never made routinely available to Ofsted inspectors. Schools offered it to the inspection team if they chose. Doubts crept in that the weighting of deprivation factors, for example, to give 'contextual value-added', might be seen as an excuse for low expectations, and the contextual part of value-added was removed from later versions of Raiseonline. The effect for us as inspectors was to remove the capacity to give due consideration to the enormous social and economic problems some schools were addressing. Social deprivation was not to be seen as an excuse, rightly so, but nor was it accorded any explanatory power. Schools were expected to compensate for the growing inequalities in society.
During this period, however, I felt that Ofsted provided a broadly accepted national standard of what good practice meant, and I used it as such when providing INSET. The evaluation schedule provided lists of the aspects of the school's work that inspectors must and should consider, in each section. There were also detailed grade descriptions of what constituted outstanding, good, satisfactory, and inadequate practice and outcomes. Ofsted was and is unpopular in schools; the process is often damaging. However, it was possible to argue that the evaluation schedule was a powerful handbook of good practice, and could be used for professional development and to help school leaders improve their schools. The descriptions of what constitute good teaching, good leadership and management, good governance, and what additional factors make them outstanding: all those in schools could draw upon these.
Despite this, there has always been some lack of clarity and evidence about whether Ofsted was an instrument of school improvement or merely its chronicler. Certainly, the motivation of many inspectors, mine included, was to help schools improve by providing an external focused view of what would make the school even better. 'Improvement through inspection' was Ofsted's strapline, though there was no mention of improvement in the Education Act 1992 that created it. Improvement could perhaps come through the action plan that schools (governors, in fact) had to produce and circulate to parents. The idea was that the governors would ensure that the school followed up the inspection, and that parents would hold the governing body accountable. The LA also had a role in ensuring action plans were fit for purpose and, for a while yet, in supporting schools to implement them. This closing of the loop has ceased, however, and the function of Ofsted in helping schools to improve has withered. Local authorities no longer have the capacity to provide practical school improvement support; many schools are not part of an LA or even an academy chain, and so schools seem to be left with judgements and only their own resources to work out how to respond to them. Gerald Haigh quotes American management consultant William Deming: 'You can't inspect quality into a process'. The separation of powers – of inspection from support for improvement – seems part of what has been called the 'decentralisation of blame'. In a climate of much-vaunted autonomy and freedom for schools and their heads, who is responsible if things go wrong, or into decline? Over time, Ofsted's expectations of governing bodies and the extent of their accountability have increased hugely, seemingly to compensate for the diminution of the LA's role as the middle tier. My increasing awareness of the gulf between inspection and school improvement led me to withdraw from inspecting at all. It has also become ever clearer that Ofsted creates unacceptable stress, fear, and pressure for teachers, and several of us could no longer be part of that.
Political imperatives surfaced from time to time in iterations of the Ofsted schedule, under both Labour and Coalition governments. Every Child Matters followed in the wake of the Victoria Climbié case, bringing together national and local leadership of education and the social care of children. Working in education in an LA, it often felt as though direction was lacking, as aspects of the education service were led by people with no background in education. The five priorities of this framework each had a paragraph in an Ofsted report. Inspections at this time became something of a scramble, as each individual inspector had to chase down evidence of our allotted ECM aspects, and also the four aspects of social, moral, spiritual, and cultural (SMSC) development. Inspecting school dinners became routine in order to have something to say about how well a school enabled children to Be Healthy. The five priorities had been developed through discussion with young people, and the aim was laudable, but the implementation became unwieldy.
Safeguarding too came to the fore after the Bichard report on the Soham case. Again, the cause was right, but the mechanism faulty, at least initially. Some schools failed their Ofsted inspection if there were minor administrative errors in the single central record. On one inspection it required several frantic phone calls to head office confirming that errors had been corrected within the hour to ensure that a strong and successful school did not go into special measures because of a typographical failing.
Community cohesion entered the lexicon in 2007 and became an inspection focus, in light of the fears about the rise of the far right and increase in racism. Nobody really knew what community cohesion meant, and the descriptors for it overlapped significantly with other elements of the Ofsted framework, especially SMSC, which had its own judgement grade in an Ofsted report. The new coalition government decided in 2010 that it was no longer important and abolished it, but later introduced a requirement to inspect the promotion of British values instead, in response to developments in some Birmingham schools.
These fluctuations in what schools were being judged on, and the consequent flurry of activity to produce evidence for the newest priority, have intensified under the Coalition. Increasingly, carrying out an Ofsted inspection is about checking for compliance, and chasing down evidence for aspects of school management that had never been subject to inspection before. The clarity of focus on learning and progress, on the quality of teaching and leadership, has been muddied by additions favoured by the Secretary of State. We are now required for the first time to inspect the use of one particular funding stream (Pupil Premium), examination entry policy (because 'early' entry might limit the highest grades), and salary progression and its link to appraisal (to embed performance-related pay). Changes to the accountability framework impose pressure on schools to offer a curriculum that will look well in tables, whether or not it motivates and meets the needs of students.
Increasingly, inspecting no longer felt like the exercise of professional judgement or the opportunity to work with schools to provide a helpful, informed external view. Rather, it felt like operating someone else's instruction manual. After the three national contractors took over, the day rate for Ofsted inspector was reduced by nearly 25 per cent. This major cut in the pay of additional inspectors opened up the gulf between salaried HMI and freelance additional inspectors. It appeared to me that quality also became more variable. HMI Lead Inspectors were almost all exceptionally skilled professionals for whom I had great respect. Increasingly, they were deployed to monitoring inspections, subject surveys, and work with schools in a category, and now lead almost no Section 5 inspections. I had only ever inspected infrequently, but now job satisfaction, never high, plummeted. Inspection provided none of the colleagueship and camaraderie that have been so rewarding through all my working life in schools. The pay cut was less important than the two experiences in 2014 that clinched my decision to stop.
First, additional inspectors received a memo from the Ofsted contract holders to emphasise that Ofsted had no preferred teaching style. It clarified the language it was permissible to use to describe teaching:
Please consider the use of the phrase 'independent learning' or similar phrases as banned with immediate effect . . . inspectors should focus more upon aspects of teaching which will be more readily understood by lay readers and parents such as:
* whether homework is purposeful and regularly set and marked
* whether lessons begin promptly
* whether classrooms are tidy and have stimulating wall displays.
The gulf between this instruction, and the model of a professional, rigorous, fair and consistent approach to helping schools develop seemed unbridgeable.
The second made even more plain the divorce of inspection from school improvement. I attended my final Ofsted training in September 2014. By careful questioning, a participant obliged the HMI leading the training to make explicit that Section 5 inspections had nothing to do with school improvement – this was a matter for monitoring visits and Section 8 inspections. We were to give only judgements, with no advice to teachers in lesson feedback, nor discussion of possible strategies to improve the school further with school leaders. I had already become disaffected with the work of undertaking Ofsted inspection. The territory held by the political agenda was increasing. We caused stress and distress to teachers and heads, who were under huge pressure. Fear does not improve schools for young people. My inspection life is over.
## Reflections
Writing this in the approach to the 2015 election, there is a broad consensus that Ofsted must change, or be replaced. The cost in teacher stress is too high, and the gains are not demonstrable. Ofsted is increasingly driven by political imperatives, is insufficiently rooted in the context of the school, and is intrusive in the demands the process makes. It labels schools, accurately or not, but makes little contribution to helping them move forward. A publicly funded system should, of course, be accountable to those who fund it, and a future model for monitoring and evaluating schools should have at least these features:
* local democratic accountability, through LAs or some other regional forum;
* self-evaluation rigorously tested by triangulation with other local schools;
* a focus on support for improvement, from a range of sources including local expertise;
* a developmental perspective, not a snapshot in time;
* high quality and consistency across the country, assured by a renewed HM Inspectorate or its equivalent.
# [Part V
Reflection on policy matters](content.xhtml#bck_part5)
# [12
From 'Optimism and Trust' to 'Markets and Managerialism'](content.xhtml#bck_Ch012)
Sir Tim Brighouse
It is arguable that are three definably different periods in education policy making in England since Butler's 1944 Education Act. The first lasted for nearly 30 years, the second for 15 between the late 1960s and early 1980s, and the third for another 30 almost to the present, when there are signs that it will give way to a fourth. Each is characterised by values and attitudes that reflect the wider social and economic context of the different periods. I shall argue that the first could be dubbed an age of 'optimism and trust'; the second, one of 'doubt, disillusion and un certainty' and the third, one of 'markets and managerialism', which is even now giving way to another period of transition. As with all 'ages' of history, activity characteristic of one period spills over to the next, but in the context of a different and less accommodating climate as new values catch hold. I shall end by speculating about the next age into which we are now entering, as the limitations of 'markets and managerialism' are being exposed.
My involvement over those 70 years has been as pupil, student, teacher, academic and administrator, progressively observing, writing, and commenting on and seeking to influence policy and practice.
## The age of optimism and trust
The first period, which caught the post-war spirit of optimism (and a determination not to return to the habits of the 1930s), lasted until the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was an age of 'optimism and trust', characterised by partners in education knowing their respective roles and exercising them energetically, as all were agreed that education was a public good and we needed more of it. They behaved interdependently confident that each would play their part.
The Secretary of State had but a handful of powers, the most important of which was the duty of securing a sufficient supply of suitably qualified teachers in different parts of the country. In the process of discharging this ministerial duty, meticulous planning was involved with the Local Education Authorities (LEAs), which supplied local knowledge and ran the Teacher Training Colleges through grants from central government. Likewise too with the Secretary of State's second main responsibility, namely approving the opening and closure of schools, and rationing the size of building programmes against national minimum standards. In this latter duty the Secretary of State initiated an annual bidding process from LEAs, which were expected to ensure that the bids they were all asked to produce were consistent with the 1948 Development Plan. London 'overspill' and unanticipated housing schemes, including the creation of new towns and a birth-rate induced 'bulge' in the number of children requiring schools, soon rendered these 1948 Development Plans redundant. Direct contact between DfE and LEAs mainly focused on buildings and teacher supply. There were few 'circulars' – that is to say, papers asking LEAs to consider action on a particular matter – and no legislation followed the 1944 Act until the early 1970s. Taken together, these ministerial duties and powers were intended to ensure that all children would have a fair deal in terms of their teaching and learning environment.
There was much else to be done in this first post-war period, apart from the need to train teachers and build schools. All the many other matters requiring attention could safely be left to the LEAs. This first period was a golden age for LEAs – their responsibilities, duties and powers legion and varied. Colleges of further education had to be created and staffed to respond to the long-felt need to provide further education and training for 'vocational' students. Every LEA responded to this need, guided by Regional Advisory Councils on which Industrial Training Boards were represented and which were charged with securing a fair spread of accessible courses according to employment needs. Nor did it stop there. Using the same mechanism of 'pooling' of resources, local authorities established advanced further education opportunities through Colleges of Technology and Arts whose degrees were accredited by CNAA (a Council for National Academic Awards) and were later to become polytechnics and universities in the wake of the Robbins report, which also saw the establishment of a wave of new universities in the 1960s. As I have noted, Teacher Training Colleges – later Colleges of Education – were run by LEAs and their work planned through Area Training Organisations (ATOs), and a dozen or so rural LEAs used a similar pooling mechanism to establish Colleges of Agriculture.
Local Education Authorities were busy in this age of post-war reconstruction and expansion. All established a Youth Service and a Youth Employment Service – later called a careers service – and many bought old country mansions and set up adult education residential centres where they ran courses for their local citizens, as well as outdoor pursuit centres for their schools to use. Local advisory or inspection services were established to give advice to schools, whose control of the curriculum and how it was taught was regarded as sacrosanct. Recruited from schools, LEA advisers attempted to persuade school colleagues of the advantages of different approaches to subject teaching and primary school practice, but adoption of the ideas was down to schools. Teachers' Centres, financed by LEAs, ran twilight and weekend courses for teachers whose conditions of service were general and limited solely by convention and tradition.
This brief description captures some of the features of this first period – the age of 'optimism and trust'. Despite a huge national debt, public services were established for all: indeed, a career in the public service, together with what might be called public service values, were regarded as an uncontroversial 'good thing'. This regard for the public service, which seems so odd to modern eyes, was doubtless bolstered by the twilight of Empire, which was run by copious supplies of people from public schools, but perhaps also by the nationalisation of so many services – water, electricity, steel, coal, buses, railways – and by the establishment of the new National Health Service. All classes – upper, middle and working – had careers within public service. It was the main home of professions – architects, planners, lawyers and accountants.
In education, it was for the Secretary of State and national government to set out general policy and for the LEAs to flesh it out in a way appropriate to local circumstances and then implement it. In setting out and formulating policy, the Secretaries of State were advised by civil servants and HMI; they would also consult in depth with William Alexander, the Secretary of the Association of Education Committees (AEC), the representative body of the LEAs, each of which sat within a broader democratically elected set of local authorities. They would also consult with the teacher unions, then dominated by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and its General Secretary Ronald Gould. In practice, for many of the post-war years, Alexander and Gould could heavily influence most policy. Secretaries of State and local councillors came and went. Continuity was provided by Alexander, Gould and the senior civil servants. They were, of course, direct protagonists in terms of Burnham Committee negotiations over teachers' pay but that did not prevent them co-operating to further their common interests. School budgets were determined locally by local authorities through the rates supplemented by the Rate Support Grant, and since the early part of this period was one of low inflation – pay deals were for two-year periods for example – the issue of money was not contentious.
Within most local authorities in this first period, education was seen as the 'cuckoo in the nest' of local government, greedy of resources, consuming 60 per cent or more of most local spending, and a 'law unto itself'. There were no Chief Executives and, in all but the cities, no real party politics: many councillors were Independent. The position of the Chief Education Officer was seen as important. Many of them had distinguished war careers and some of them used their position in very creative and influential ways. For example, Newsom in Hertford-shire, Clegg in the West Riding, Morris in Cambridgeshire and Mason in Leicestershire were all in different ways innovators and extended our ideas of what education could do. The impact of their achievements is still with us, not just in education, but in our wider lives. It is arguable, for instance, that Clegg's influence on the arts has a direct link to that thriving sector today. Locally, every education officer saw it as his – and they were all men – duty to ensure that schools were well staffed, resourced and supported, and they competed with each other in extending what an LEA could and should do to discharge its limited 1944 Act duties.
My experiences in those years lie in five years after VE day in a three teacher primary school in Leicestershire, a brief six week school-phobic inducing spell in a direct grant grammar school and then seven blissful years in a relaxed 'county secondary school' where the prizes were given out by the Education Officer of the Excepted District of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk LEA, whose Chief Education Officer, Leslie Missen, preferred directing his creativity to writing books on 'after dinner speeches' rather than administration. On a full grant, I received the modern-day equivalent of £100,000 for tuition and my living expenses at university. After training to be a teacher and jobs in grammar and secondary modern schools, I became an assistant in Trevor Morgan's Monmouthshire LEA office in charge of sites and buildings. My first week's task, clearly an induction test of my powers of analysis and initiative, was to give a 'school by school' description of what would need to be done if Monmouthshire were to raise the age of transfer to 12, as both a response to the Gittins Report – the Welsh equivalent of Plowden – and the need to go comprehensive suggested in Tony Crosland's circular 10/65. My exercise was academic. Trevor Morgan had no intention of raising the age of transfer to 12 and needed quite a bit of persuasion, as did all in South Wales, that going comprehensive was a good idea. My main responsibility, both there and in my next job, in Roy Harding's Buckinghamshire, was to persuade the DfE to give us large loan consents for school building in the annual bidding round and then brief architects with the resulting work in what were called 'major' and 'minor' building programmes. In Buckinghamshire, there was a new city to be planned, as well as raising the age of transfer to 12. This change enabled selective Buckinghamshire to provide more grammar school places and accommodate the raising of the school leaving age to 16 while still living within the ban on building more places in grammar schools, which central government had imposed in an attempt to pressurise LEAs to end selection. Almost all were primary building projects to accommodate the extra age group at 11 rather than 15. At that time, Buckinghamshire faced an expansion of schools places to respond to house building in south Buckinghamshire, Aylesbury and the creation of Milton Keynes, where the County Council made an exception to its selective stance and, to the astonished dismay of the headteacher of Bletchley Grammar School, approved comprehensive reorganisation. Fortunately, the most influential Conservative County Councillor for that area, Lady Markham, approved of comprehensive schooling. It is hard to see how Buckinghamshire would have received approval for new secondary schooling for the new population within the new city, had they not held their noses and done in one small area what they would never contemplate in the other more affluent areas of their County. Their pragmatism enabled me to help plan Stantonbury Campus, an 'educational village' in Milton Keynes that excited the DfE Architects and Buildings Branch which throughout this first period issued Building Bulletins in an attempt to influence, rather than prescribe, the design of new school buildings. Their favourite secondary examples stemmed from the designs of Countesthorpe in Leicestershire, Sutton Centre in Nottinghamshire and the Abraham Moss in Manchester. In that pre-national curriculum age there was room for innovation and experimentation. At Stantonbury, Roy Harding, Buckinghamshire's CEO, took a calculated risk and appointed Geoff Cooksey, Assistant Secretary from the Schools Council, to run it. It was immense fun, and Cooksey, who might be called a 'progressive', attracted and appointed a remarkable staff, whose deeds have reverberated for decades as teachers from those pioneering years have taken up posts elsewhere.
As a teacher I had experienced the absolute freedom schools enjoyed over the curriculum and how it should be taught. It was a freedom not uniformly exercised. Stantonbury was the exception rather than the rule. For example, the curricula in many grammar schools, and their timetables too, were much the same from year to year. There was more use of the freedom in secondary modern schools, either created for new populations or arising out of the national decision to discontinue all-age schools. Primary practice varied much more, as the teachers were influenced by strong advisory services in a few LEAs: so the West Riding, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire became synonymous with progressive primary practice.
The freedom teachers were encouraged to exercise in this period is best illustrated by the Foreword written by the minister to 'Story of a School', first issued in 1949 and re-issued in the 1950s as the sole central advice to primary schools about what they should do. In effect, schools were 'encouraged to experiment as the head who had written the pamphlet had done'.
Perhaps the last national expression of this period's optimism was Margaret Thatcher's White Paper 'A Framework for Expansion' of 1971. It outlined the most ambitious plans for nursery and pre-five education ever contemplated. It was still-born, cut down first by economic crisis and then a change in beliefs on economic policies.
## The age of doubt and disillusion
By the time I left Buckinghamshire at local government reorganisation in 1974, the first age of optimism and trust was giving way to one of doubt and disillusion. The causes were many and varied. The year 1968 witnessed student unrest; 1969 the publication of the Black Papers casting doubt on the progressive methods of teachers and schools and Leila Berg's 'Death of a Comprehensive School', the story of the rise and fall of 'progressive' Risinghill Secondary School in Islington, where later there was a parallel primary school failure – 'William Tyndale' – which led to the Auld Inquiry. And of course there was the oil crisis, which contributed to cutbacks in public services amid massive inflation.
The settled educational world of a 'national service locally administered' was disturbed on other fronts too.
William Alexander and his beloved AEC were sidelined by the creation of the Council of Local Education Authorities (CLEA), a body representing two of the local authority associations, the Association of Metropolitan Authorities (AMA) and the Association of County Councils (ACC). In effect they were the usurpers of the AEC. Newly created Chief Executives and their political leaders in councils where political allegiance to one party or another was the rule, were determined to put over-mighty Education Officers and their committees in their place. I had left Buckinghamshire to join the ACC as Under-Secretary for Education and my tasks included making a fist of CLEA and proving that education, even in the new world of reorganised local government, would still be a force to be reckoned with. At first there were fraught meetings with the AEC and its beleaguered secretary, whose supply lines had been cut off by all the newly created authorities paying their dues to the AMA or the ACC rather than a subscription to the AEC.
Of course, as a young administrator I had known of Alexander's influence. He wrote a 'weekly' column for the journal Education, edited by Stuart Maclure. This was compulsory reading, as was The Times Educational Supplement's leader when Maclure moved to be editor in 1969. Both these characters were wont to have lunch at their club, the Athenaeum, with ministers and senior civil servants on a regular basis. I could tell from Trevor Morgan and then Roy Harding that they each rated Alexander highly and were pleased to be advisers to meetings of the AEC. So Alexander's demise left them and most of their Chief Education Officer colleagues with mixed emotions. The old and trusted lines of influence were broken.
New ones would have to be forged through the AMA and ACC. For me it was an opportunity to see how policy was made at close quarters, albeit at a time of retrenchment and decline. School rolls were falling, and money was in short supply as a result of the oil crisis and hyperinflation. My life was spent in reading and commenting on drafts sent by the DfE to the AMA and ACC prior to public announcement; in writing reports for the ACC education committee, both on these issues and on those raised by members' authorities; and in sitting on various bodies such as the 'Pooling Committee' or the 'Inter-Authority Payments Committee'. These two had arcane rules and procedures intended to ensure a level playing-field for all authorities. If the rules of the first of these were understood there was room for individual officers to have huge influence on policy, practice and the speed of expansion of services. It was through 'Pooling' that advanced further education in the Colleges of Advanced Technology and the polytechnics expanded to form a base for the expansion of higher education over the remainder of the century. It was also to provide me with insights that were to come to my rescue in my first Chief Education Officer's post in Oxfordshire. But that is to anticipate.
Some of my time at the ACC was also taken up in negotiations with the teacher unions, on behalf of the employers, about conditions of service, and in sitting at the Burnham Committee to witness increasingly influential government observers advised what was affordable.
Of course, at this time of inflation, falling school rolls and diminished resources, expenditure was a contested issue. The work of the Expenditure Steering Group for Education (ESGE) was key to budget settlements. In my role at the ACC I attended, along with half a dozen CEO advisers, Treasurer advisers from local government and Treasury and DfE officials who acted as hosts. Key to decision making at this time was the annual report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector Sheila Browne. She was almost Robespierrean in her sea-green incorruptibility: she certainly had integrity and a nerveless capacity to tell the unvarnished truth as she and her inspectorate saw it. It was policy making in a world where the old certainties had evaporated and everything was open to question. Policy was forged no longer through a comfortable debate among a powerful few, as civil servants tried to work out where the power lay in reorganised local government, which still was a vital engine of translating broad policies into practice. I suspect it was then that civil servants began to form a mistrust of local government, which has grown with the years.
In both the first and second ages, the influence of HMI on policy and practice was enormous if unobtrusive, both at the ministerial table and in the classroom. One has only to look at their publication record of national surveys during the late 1970s and early 1980s to see how they were attempting to influence the direction of the education debate.
Of the whole of my career, this period at the ACC was the least enjoyable, although formative and valuable, as I could see at close quarters how policy was made nationally. Within two years I had secured the exciting position of one of three deputies to Peter Newsam, who had become the Education Officer of the Inner London Education Authority, having been deputy to the legendary Alec Clegg in the West Riding, which had been abolished in 1974. I was back at the local scene and closer to the schools where I have always gained my energy and enthusiasm for what might be possible. But by then nationally 'Doubt and Disillusion' were in full flood.
For me, two incidents epitomised that doubt and disillusion. Both were speeches, one by Sir Ashley Bramall, the leader of the ILEA, when he charged his Education Officer, Peter Newsam and his team (of which I was by then a member) to make budget cuts with the words that it was 'time to get rid of some of the expensive horses in the ILEA's many stables, as not all of them are winners'. This was in the same year (1976) as Jim Callaghan's Ruskin speech, the impact of which was to be long lasting and the tone of which signalled the end of the unqualified trust and hope afforded to educational professionals for so long. The curriculum once dubbed a 'secret garden' by a Minister of Education was soon to lose its professional mysteries.
Both these speeches made me realise only too clearly that the post-war consensus was well and truly over. It hadn't yet given way to a third age, as it would in the mid-1980s, of 'markets and managerialism'. But doubt and disillusion were pervasive.
When I took up post in Oxfordshire in 1978, LEAs received another circular enquiring forensically into their curricular oversight. It was clearly a precursor to other action. I set out from a local position to try to influence the direction of national policy. At first it was as a result of an apparent crisis, which we were able to turn into an advantage.
On arrival from the ILEA – an unlikely source for such an appointment by a Conservative-dominated council – the chairman of Oxfordshire's Education Committee, Brigadier Streatfeild, charged with making large cuts, informed me that in his view the best way of doing this was to dismiss 200 teachers. This was where my knowledge of what was called the 'uncapped pool' came in handy. I knew there was no limit on the number of teachers who could be seconded for a term or a year at approved courses at the polytechnics or universities. To the superficially informed, an impenetrable barrier seemed to be that the sending LEA had to pay for a quarter of the salary costs of the seconded teacher. It was possible on closer examination to see that, if an LEA seconded a senior teacher, the costs of a quarter of her salary plus a temporary allowance for the person replacing her, together with the salary costs of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) – or Probationers as we called them – were less than leaving the teacher where she was. With natural turnover from retirements and teachers moving on, it was easy to see that seconding senior teachers to such courses would solve our financial problems, provided that we could ensure that teachers could continue to live at home. Brigadier Streatfeild, once convinced of the arithmetic, needed no further persuading. Discussions quickly followed with the Oxford University Department of Educational Studies where Harry Judge was Director and with Brian Tongue, the Deputy at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University). Each was willing and inventive in creating new courses that might be suitable for curriculum thinkers among the teaching profession.
It was all very well to solve a local financial crisis, but I wanted to use it to change national policies in directions that would benefit children's experience of school. In one sense it would do so, in that nobody previously had tried to breathe reality into the recommendations of the James Committee (of which Harry Judge had been a member) that the Continuous Professional Development of teachers should be taken seriously and that, among the measures to achieve this, teachers should have an entitlement to 'sabbaticals'. In effect that's what our solution to a budget cut would ensure, but we wanted more. A couple of years earlier, Michael Rutter had published '15,000 hours: secondary schools and their effects on children', which was the first substantial piece of research that showed that schools and how they are organised make a difference to children's achievement. Oxfordshire secondary heads at the time were very interested in finding ways to improve what was going on. Feeding the intellectual curiosity of teachers through engaging them in self-chosen study in groups and on topics relevant to practice would help. Notwithstanding the cuts and falling rolls, causing the LEA to close some schools, heads and teachers in Oxfordshire recall this period as a golden one, probably as a result both of the secondments and of the sometimes orchestrated purposes for which the teachers took part. Take two examples. Keith Joseph, when Secretary of State, upset local government by announcing that he would top slice up to one half of 1 per cent to fund nationally determined initiatives. He would start with two schemes: one the Technical, Vocational, Educational, Initiative (TVEI) and what was called the Low Attainment Pupil Project (LAPP). Oxfordshire succeeded in a joint bid with Somerset for the latter, and, with Barry Taylor, their
CEO, we focused in part on Feuerstein's work in what we called the 'Thinking Skills' project. Taylor was intrigued by our capacity to add to the scheme by supporting seconded teachers who engaged in action research while carrying out their courses at the polytechnic or the university department.
Once the finances of the pooling device were shared with Taylor and his counterparts, Andrew Fairbairn and Bob Aitken, in Leicestershire and Coventry, respectively, we discussed an ambitious attempt to revolutionise what we saw as a divisive and limiting secondary exam system of GCEs and CSEs. What if such a system could be seen within the context of a broader assessment of pupils' achievements in what we would call the Oxford Certificate of Educational Achievement (OCEA), which would be accredited by Oxford University through its Delegacy of Local Examinations – then a GCE board, on which I sat as a delegate by virtue of holding my post? It would have three parts, one a 'G' part focusing on graded assessments of skills that could be assessed; another, an 'E' part containing records of exam success; and a third, a 'P' section attempting to record personal development. We could second teachers to Harry Judge's department and have them working with the Delegacy in devising the detail.
I simultaneously worked with two colleagues, Gordon Hainsworth (CEO of Gateshead and then of Manchester) and Bill Stubbs, a former colleague in ILEA and Peter Newsam's successor as its Education Officer: they too were promoting, with the Northern and London GCE boards, respectively, developments similar to OCEA. We thought it would be irresistible as it appeared simultaneously in different parts of the country. In practice it was taken over by DfE and ruined by imposition as a National Record of Achievement (NRA). In the process of universal prescription it lost the energy of its teaching progenitors.
Harry Judge was effectively my mentor in those years; a better or wiser one it would be hard to find. He had other plans for affecting policy through local innovation. He had long been doubtful about the effectiveness of the university model for PGCE. Impressed by medical analogy and some models elsewhere, he launched the Internship scheme, which effectively turned the PGCE into a partnership with schools, all of whom through their participation were inclined to focus anew on teaching and learning and staff development. In the years that were to follow, the Oxford Internship scheme shifted the balance of theory and practice and of university and school.
All these exciting ventures were happening at a time of cuts in the age of national 'Doubt and Disillusion'. In short, some of us were behaving as though the virtues of the previous age – strong LEAs and partnerships with heads and teachers in exciting development of the curriculum – still existed. Of course we could read the runes of a new age, but we enjoyed ourselves as we searched for the characteristics of the age that would emerge.
## The age of markets and managerialism
Margaret Thatcher's election in 1979 ushered in an economic policy that set the defining features of this age, which was taken on by New Labour when they were elected in 1997. All the White Papers contained mantra words – 'choice', 'autonomy', 'diversity'; much mention too of 'accountability', with some exhortation towards 'equity' and of course 'excellence'. If the state was going to unleash market forces, it realised it had to regulate.
Just prior to my arrival in Oxfordshire, the council formally resolved 'to publish exam results so that parents could make a better choice of school' – 15 years before publication became a national requirement, and 3 years before parental preference became a required feature of admission to schools arrangements. Encouraged by Brigadier Streatfeild, I had supper with John Redwood, formerly a councillor and shortly to be head of Mrs Thatcher's Policy Unit. His views – to privatise everything and create a quasi-market in education – seemed bizarre at the time and certainly eccentric to the Brigadier, whose background was steeped in public service. The Brigadier encouraged me to think of ways to head off the worst possibilities of accountability. I rejected the idea of local inspectors, because it seemed unlikely that LEA advisers would walk the tightrope of being a 'critical friend' by avoiding the Scylla of 'hostile witness' or the Charybdis of 'uncritical lover'. Instead, we set up a four-year cycle of 'School Self-Evaluation' backed by a stimulating set of questions, 'Starting Points in Self-Evaluation', with the schools involving their staff and a selected outside professional. The outcome was their presenting to a small group of councillors, including the member local to the school.
Finally, I encouraged teachers, parents and governors to respond to Kenneth Baker's 1987 consultation on the 1987 Reform Bill. Local Management of Schools (LMS) seemed long overdue, as the practice of stipulating what a school should spend in great detail seemed antiquated. Removing from schools power over what is taught seemed to me entirely wrong. I wrote a 600-word piece, 'First Steps on a Downward Path', for The Observer, comparing the government with the 'authoritarian church states of the 16th century' and, conjuring 'images of brown and black', I worried 'for my grandchildren'. It provoked a strong reaction, including my having to sit through a Conservative censure motion in the council chamber that was lost, because the council was by then 'hung'. I could not continue to lead a community when all I had fought for seemed lost. I was no longer credible as a leader who could make sense of the external world to the teachers.
I accepted a job at Keele University as Professor and Head of Education Department to start in 1989. So it was from this academic vantage point that I saw LEAs lose their Colleges of FE, Polytechnics and the Colleges of Education. GCSE results were published as league tables, as would be Key Stage 2 SAT results for primary schools in due course. Ofsted was created, and the outcomes of regular inspections of schools were published, as was the name of the first 'failing' school. Meanwhile at Keele, I introduced the Oxford model of the PGCE, taught in schools and the university, supervised Masters and Doctorate students, founded a Centre for Successful Schooling, read voraciously, wrote about school improvement that was fascinating me, and campaigned for a movement called 'Towards a New Education Act' (TANEA). However, if one wanted to influence national policy, being in a university wasn't a good place to be effective.
In 1993 I started a ten-year period as Chief Education Officer in Birmingham. With no responsibility for further and higher education as a result of government action, and with responsibilities for the youth service, adult education and the libraries given to other chief officers, I focused on pre-school and schools, which were my first loves in any case. Armed with a set of recommendations for improvement from an independent enquiry and report chaired by Ted Wragg, and with excellent data, we set about transforming expectations and outcomes in the city. This was not something confined to the professionals: the whole city was caught up in our determination each year 'to improve on previous best'. We harnessed the considerable 'common wealth' of the city – art galleries, music, universities and other performances and the like – to establish a set of experiences or entitlements that we asserted all children should have. Schools were the guardians who would make sure they had them. Simultaneously with teachers and heads we shared a common language and map of school improvement and set targets for improvement from the 'bottom-up' rather than, as the government later imposed, the 'top-down'. We were determined to change the culture of a city, at least so far as education was concerned. After a couple of years, the data (which we collected meticulously and used imaginatively to encourage 'school-to-school' learning) suggested we were succeeding, although, in our efforts to improve, we were hampered by the DfE's inability or unwillingness to give us comparative data by ethnic and socio-economic groups. Instead, we used anecdote to help us search out what might be better practice in other LEAs. Schools enthusiastically embraced the agenda and co-operated one with another in a quest for ever-better practice and outcomes. Between 1993 and 1997, we did this largely unnoticed beyond the city, but one of the local MPs, Estelle Morris, invited David Blunkett frequently for discussions, and I was part of a small group that helped him and Tony Blair prepare their education priorities for government. Indeed, after their election, Blunkett had wanted me to work full-time in a post eventually given to Michael Barber. I had refused, partly because I knew the work with Birmingham was not yet fully rooted, partly because I loved the city and its people and partly because I knew I would fall out with David Blunkett over method. He was inclined to national prescription and imposition, which seemed unlikely to work in somewhere as vast as England. My experience suggested it would breed professional resentment and a loss of teacher energy, which is so vital to school success. In the years after 1997, both David Blunkett and Estelle Morris would tell me when I complained of their agenda that all they were doing was what they had learned worked in Birmingham. In vain did I explain that the agenda – well, most of it – might be fine, but the language (always emphasising failure and 'zero-tolerance') and the method of introducing it were counter-productive.
It is hard to overestimate the excitement of having a government that put education at the top of its agenda. I was offered the Chair of the Standards Task Force by David Blunkett, who withdrew the offer on the grounds that, for it to make a difference, he needed to chair it, but I could be vice-chair. He then made a big request that I should be joint vice-chair with Chris Woodhead, HMCI and head of Ofsted, which, as I thought then and have done ever since, needed total reform. He and I did not get on, as any glance at newspaper coverage of our fairly public disagreements at that time will testify. But I accepted to help in what I saw as a huge opportunity for education to make the difference it could when put centre stage of public policy. I soon saw, however, that the Task Force had little influence and wasn't sorry to resign when Woodhead's 'pilot' inspection of LEAs was taking place in Birmingham and was going to demand all my time to handle, if damage was to be avoided.
I had anticipated, wrongly as it turned out, that New Labour would re-establish 'planning' as a watchword to accompany and limit 'choice', 'diversity', 'autonomy' and 'accountability' in the mantra lexicon of the new government's policy and practice. Certainly they emphasised 'equity' and took many measures designed to make the schooling system less unequal and unfair, especially in the early years where they introduced and exceeded all the measures contained in Mrs Thatcher's stillborn Framework for Expansion White Paper of 1971. Nevertheless, we were still in an age of 'markets and managerialism': indeed, New Labour consolidated their influence. The first 15 failing schools were named and shamed, and 'literacy' and 'numeracy' hours introduced. Their legislation gave yet more powers to the Secretary of State who, from 1945 to 1980, had but three and, by 2015, had added another 2,000 powers, with over 3,000 schools run by direct private contracts with him.
## The London challenge
By 2002, with a second LEA inspection behind me, it was time to retire. But Estelle Morris, by then Secretary of State, had other ideas. London had become synonymous with all that was wrong in education, just as Birmingham had been a decade earlier. Neither reputation was deserved and was more the result of a bad press. Would I be interested in becoming Commissioner for London School and running the London Challenge? It was an irresistible temptation. I was to be given a 'more or less free hand'.
I had written a no-holds-barred attack on markets and managerialism as the Caroline Benn–Brian Simon memorial lecture in 2002, 'Dreams and Nightmares', speculating about two possible scenarios of ever-widening hierarchies of schools in urban areas, on the one hand, the product of market competitions, and, on the other hand, of partnerships of schools in an area, working interdependently and committed to pooling their ideas, skills and knowledge and being judged as a group. What I was witnessing was ever-harsher Ofsted regimes, a use of language that emphasised failure, challenge and 'zero tolerance' of whatever undesirable feature one was trying to eradicate. I asked all ministers to read it and only approve my appointment if they did not think it would embarrass them.
The measures put in place and expertly framed in the London Challenge prospectus and carried through by Jon Coles, the ablest civil servant of his generation, included school-to-school support, a Families of Schools database to support learning from each other, a focus on Continuous Professional Development through the Chartered London Teacher scheme and a small group of part-time expert experienced school advisers who would work with schools that elsewhere (and up to that point) DfE classified as 'failing' because of low GCSE results. We dubbed such schools 'Keys to Success' – a subtle but important change of language intended to contribute to a change in culture. After all, if these schools could transform standards, any school could. Name, blame and shame might make good headlines but it set back the chances of improvement, and I was granted some latitude in London, where my experience as deputy to Peter Newsam meant I was remembered, by teachers now leading schools, as somebody who probably understood their circumstances.
In short, in London we were allowed to try a distinctive set of practices that were tailored to London's needs but within national educational policies. What we tried to encourage was professional trust and schools learning from each other, backed by a database that enabled them to see in forensic detail what other schools in similar circumstances were doing. We talked the language of partnership and, by speculating on different solutions working in different contexts, tried to counter the belief in 'one size fits all', which was then prevalent in policy making.
There remained, however, a belief in the overall efficacy of the 'market', as expressed through creating autonomous competitive quasi-independent schools. This had first surfaced with the Grant-Maintained School, which was abandoned as a model by New Labour in 1997 but was about to make a come-back through the Academies movement.
Ten years on, as politicians celebrate the extraordinary success of London schools, and as researchers seek to explain the phenomenon, the seeds sown then are beginning to surface, and the questions crowd in. Agreement about London is by no means the only political pointer to the direction of the educational weathervane. The main parties, presumably aware of the unreasonable pressures on heads and teachers and the imminent shortage of candidates for both, are agreed that Ofsted is no longer fit for purpose and needs reform, that there should be a Royal (or National) College of Teaching, and that the autonomous independent school is an inadequate and unreliable model on which to plan a successful schooling system. Are perhaps partnerships of schools for very clearly stated purposes – including of course school improvement and teachers' continuous professional development – essential? If so, how should they be funded and held accountable? In the age of creativity, which makes new and different demands on schools, are we holding schools themselves accountable for the wrong things?
In short, there are plenty of signs that the Age of Markets and Managerialism may have nearly run its course and may be succeeded by one of Partnerships and Intelligent Accountability, where democratic influence is regional rather than national and where policies are more overtly based on research evidence tempered by an understanding of context rather than on anecdote and personal opinion.
# [13
Schools](content.xhtml#bck_Ch013)
A shifting landscape
Margaret Maden
## Islington Green Comprehensive School
In October 1976, Prime Minister James Callaghan criticised schools, mildly but firmly, in his Ruskin Speech. I was then in my first year of headship at Islington Green Comprehensive School, part of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). I was already conscious of growing doubts about schools, not least through a nearby school's headteacher, Dr Rhodes Boyson, and the part he played in the 'Black Papers'. These raised questions about 'progressive' teaching methods, many of which I supported through Schools Council projects such as history, geography for the Young School Leaver, music and humanities. Through these, teachers developed learning materials and pedagogy alongside university curriculum specialists. They were properly trialled and amended in light of classroom experience. The 'progressive' nature of these appeared to be the ambition to democratise more contemporary scholarship and emphasise the modes of learning particular to each discipline. In the hands of able and motivated teachers, Schools Council projects were demonstrably raising standards of thinking and investigation on the part of pupils. Insufficient evaluation of their impact probably aided those who valued, above all else, more traditional syllabi and rote learning.
Several teachers at Islington Green welcomed the more comfortable challenge-free implications of the Black Papers, something not intended by their authors. The rhetoric at this time now seems naïve. It was, of course, in a context when the secondary school curriculum was primarily determined by examination boards. In primary schools there was no equivalent framework, and one of my main feeder schools, William Tyndale, deepened my anxiety levels about the mounting worries of many parents. I roused the wrath of NUT friends by expressing public condemnation of its teachers barring access to inspectors and 'unacceptable' school governors. None of its antics helped me at all in my determination to galvanise teachers at my school, not through idle polemics but through hard graft and appointing teachers, once the pupil roll increase permitted, who were imaginative and optimistic about their pupils' capabilities.
In 1977, I was invited to address one of the regional conferences in 'The Great Debate', the response of the Secretary of State, Shirley Williams, to her Prime Minister's expressed concerns about the nation's schools. To my best recollection, this was the first and last time I received, as a headteacher, any communication from central government. How very different now. The outcome of the 'Great Debate' was an advisory Circular in which local education authorities were to devise a 'core curriculum' for their schools and the accumulated knowledge of the Schools Council would be 'considered'. Compared with what followed in the 1980s, this was all 'business as usual' and a bit of fudge. Even at the time, it was clear that significant interest groups, including employers' organisations, were dissatisfied with many school leavers. It was quite common for a mere 20 per cent of 16-year-olds to continue in full-time education and training at the end of their time in a comprehensive school. The gap between high achievers and low achievers was not only greater than today but also seen by many as unbridgeable. Primary schools varied from creative brilliance and impressive outcomes to those characterised by an unstructured lack of challenge.
## The Local Authority – London
So that many more 16–19-year-olds could voluntarily and usefully continue their studies, a changed approach was needed. In Islington, better A-Level teaching was provided through a combined approach, with its ten secondary schools working through a sixth form centre. This evolved from a loose federation to a larger college based in former London County Council Board schools. An initial student enrolment of 300, mainly part-time and still formally enrolled in one of 11 local schools, rose to over 500 in its first year, and increasingly, students were full-time as they consciously opted for the more adult ethos and better outcomes. Economies of scale plus high-level teaching skills meant that a wide range of needs could be supported. This is where the role of the local authority proved positive. It quickly located empty buildings, and its architects did wonders with unpromising conditions, making the physical provision both attractive to staff and students and appropriate in terms of specialist facilities.
The ILEA was an odd mixture of brilliance and frustration for its schools. In quickly and imaginatively responding to post-16 inadequacies in Islington, it was at its best, aided and abetted by a new head of service, Dr William Stubbs, and a new Leader, Councillor Frances Morrell, the latter being a resident of Islington. Additionally, Dr Stubbs ensured that I, as Director-designate, visited successful community colleges in the USA and sixth form colleges in England so as to raise aspirations and strengthen organisational planning. Likewise, money was found so that a core of excellent teachers could be appointed as heads of faculty, with teachers from local schools teaching on a sessional basis.
All schools and colleges benefited from the ILEA's Research and Statistics branch. This generated high-quality data about us and our performance and, equally, promoted good practice exemplars of both a qualitative and quantitative kind. With a powerful inspectorate, subject centres were a godsend, where teachers could immerse themselves in the best of their specialisms and meet each other, irrespective of their headteachers' predilections. In 1979, 15,000 hours (Rutter et al., 1979) was published, a rigorous study of how secondary schools in the ILEA with similar pupil characteristics were highly variable in outcomes and, crucially, why. 'Nowhere now to hide' as one head said. This was a project led by Professor Michael Rutter, leading a team of University of London researchers, including Peter Mortimore, who soon afterwards became Director of the ILEA's Research and Statistics Branch. This kind of expert systemic support and challenge represented the 'middle tier', between central government and individual institutions, at its best.
However, in other regards, the ILEA was cumbersome and aggravating. Limited autonomy for headteachers meant that I could not get into my school unless the school-keeper (janitor) allowed it, neither could I require the school bursar to arrange her holiday leave at a time that made sense to the school; both reported to line managers somewhere else in the ILEA firmament. I was keen, with leading governors and teachers, to develop Islington Green as a community school, combining school and adult education, 'open all hours', which I believed would improve our educational relationship with parents and neighbours. It would also enlarge our students' sense of the value and potential of education. However, I was stopped by the ILEA's Youth and Adult Education service which saw our proposal as a threat and its youth club in the school premises five evenings a week (term time only, of course) as sacrosanct. Visits to Leicestershire's community schools merely made me feel worse. When I managed to get funding from the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) for a School-Work Liaison Officer, several leading ILEA councillors complained, saying 'every school will want one if she gets one'. Only the intervention of senior officers secured this, but the time and angst wasted were absurd. The extension of our successful sixth form centre to other inner London boroughs was likewise stymied by the authority's FE lobby. That successful provision depended on the skills and knowledge of FE colleges as well as schools seemed to be lost in the struggle.
## The Local Authority – Warwickshire
The reconstruction of educational systems, accountabilities and powers proceeded at breakneck speed through the 1980s and beyond. GERBIL – the Great Education Reform Bill – took up hours of angry debate among the traditional 'partners' in the education service. At the end of that decade, I was appointed to Warwickshire County Council as its County Education Officer. Councillors took a calculated risk in appointing an LEA novice, a woman at that, with London experience, but they sniffed the prevailing air and decided that headship experience was a more timely criterion. The education department wit expressed widespread surprise at my appointment, commenting that this was like 'Maradona being appointed to Port Vale'. That Warwickshire staff saw themselves as Port Vale spoke legions about this 'Middle England' local authority. Later accusations of local authority 'control' over schools were and are laughable.
My recent experience as a headteacher and Sixth Form Centre Director was certainly helpful in working constructively with headteachers and governors in this shire authority. Initially, I set up working groups of officers and headteachers to prepare a series of proposals for the council and schools as a response to GERBIL. Not all headteachers welcomed the autonomy that was offered, nor the 'freedoms' associated with devolved budgets. The role of officers and inspectors actually became stronger and more creative as school autonomy increased. From my ILEA days, the setting out of a larger vision, backed up with visiting luminaries from the education world, made many of the 380 schools feel more positive about their possible futures. Some were amused, though worried, to hear Peter Wilby, an experienced education correspondent, tell them that he felt that the new National Curriculum was, in effect, 'Mr Baker's dimly remembered prep school timetable', 'Mr Baker' being the Secretary of State responsible for the new structures being put in place.
It soon became apparent that the amiable days of government circulars were over. Schools were to be more publicly scrutinised and reported on. Quantification and grading were soon the main means of 'quality control'. In most shire counties all this was unheard of, as was any kind of local authority inspection. Advisers were important in encouraging the adoption of newer curricular and pedagogic approaches, but the kind of Quinquennial Review, a local school system inspection that I had experienced in London, was unheard of. The Warwickshire advisory team of 11 was developed as a local inspectorate with a brief to help schools work through and, hopefully, thrive in a quite new world. Some of the traditional advisory work persisted: the art adviser arranged visits for teachers to great galleries, home and abroad, and the music adviser ensured that the County Youth Orchestra was open to all, irrespective of family income, and arranged teacher excursions to major Birmingham concerts. In-service training was increased with a new Professional Centre in Leamington Spa. Helping headteachers and classroom teachers confront a rapidly changing context was our main objective, but not at the cost of some traditional customs and practices. Subject Associations were important and the nearest equivalent, for secondary teachers, to the well-resourced subject centres in London. Before budgets were almost entirely devolved to schools, we paid teachers' subscription costs to these vital national associations.
Nonetheless, the early 1990s were an unsettled period of fear and uncertainty in Shakespeare's leafy county, as a raft of central government reforms were absorbed. The appointment of a rather brilliant hands-on deputy, Eric Wood, settled initial rumblings from the teacher unions, both within and beyond the council. Five further education colleges were largely 'autonomous', irrespective of legislation, although it was clear that an expert County Treasurer's department was still needed for both capital and revenue oversight. There was no evidence that a new government quango, the Further Education Council, improved this situation. The profound changes arising from government reforms were made manageable and largely positive as much by informal exchanges and chat across and between officers, county councillors, governors, union reps and teachers as by hundreds of hours of scrutiny of central government documents and more formal council meetings. These less formal exchanges and insights strengthen the real, rather than posited, 'checks and balances' required in the proper management of public bodies . . . and money. Whitehall doesn't always know best.
## School re-organisation
My final four years in Warwickshire were not easy, certainly in terms of my popularity, but hugely important for the county's 244 primary schools and 37 secondary schools. After witnessing a series of failed attempts to close individual under-subscribed schools and the negative reaction to Labour councillors' proposals to 'comprehensivise' the county's five grammar schools, I increasingly worried about the lack of overall strategy with regard to 'surplus places'. Over 20 per cent of our school capacity was surplus to needs, and this meant that we were asking more fully subscribed schools to pay for empty school desks elsewhere. We could gain more than an additional £2 million annually for schools with a more rational system and this, in turn, would trigger capital spending on improving a rather lacklustre set of buildings to the tune of £29 million. Additionally, as the National Curriculum unfolded with its key stage assessments at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16, it was increasingly apparent that our first, middle and upper school system, which applied overall – except in the south of the county – was inappropriate. This system had transfer ages that cut across the new key stages, and it would be clearer to everyone – parents and governors, as well as teachers – if key stage assessments were aligned, for accountability purposes, to one school for each child's educational phase: primary, then secondary.
A massive planning exercise, based on accurate birth data from the Area Health Authority, housing development information from District and Borough Councils and cost analyses from our own County Treasurer, was further supported by work from Price Waterhouse Coopers, our external auditors. We first consulted on basic principles and objectives, then trialled a range of formative proposals in one of our local divisions, North Warwickshire. Over 30 consultative meetings were held, all with predictable results. 'Go away' was the general message. The local Labour MP wanted me sacked. A former NUM member who was the Education committee's Deputy Chair voted for the proposals, even though two of 'his schools' were lined up for closure. He lost his seat at the next local elections because of doing what he believed was right for children. There were threats to 'opt out', as schools sought an escape route through grant-maintained status in order to evade the 'County Plan'. Secondary schools supported the proposals, as they would acquire an extra year group of pupils from the middle schools, as well as new buildings to support these. Over the following three years, as the whole county was involved, some 400 consultative meetings were held. Highly effective officers led these and took a whole load of stick. Senior officers, myself included, alongside leading councillors, attended many meetings under a vow of silence, concentrating on listening to the arguments as they raged on. At one such meeting, the Permanent Secretary from the DES sat silently at the back of the village hall, commenting later, 'I was surprised at the intensity of feelings expressed'. Indeed. On another occasion, when leaving a particularly heated consultative meeting, I saw that the tyres of my car had been cut. On a welcome Saturday break in Stratford-upon-Avon's Jaeger shop, I was concluding a purchase of clothes when the assistant looked at my VISA card and shrieked, 'Oh you're that awful woman who's trying to close all our schools'.
Final approval had to be secured from the Secretary of State for Education. A delegation of leading councillors and myself were able to present our case to the then Minister of Schools, Robin Squire, and sitting there was the Secretary of State, Gillian Shephard. We were courteously treated and on leaving, Gillian Shephard said to me, 'My husband sends you his warmest regards'. Thank goodness her husband was a former headteacher and knew me through that oddly masonic clan. We were fortunate that she was in office and not her predecessor, John Patten. As she had warned me, 'I'll have to let a few go GM you know', and indeed, of the 197 schools for whom legal notices had to be issued for restructuring purposes, five were allowed to 'opt out' and become grant maintained, outside the Local Authority. Actual site closures amounted to 30. These were hotly disputed and they were primarily very small rural schools. We learned that an inverse ratio operates: smallness and rurality of school equal largeness and fury of objections. The Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education and Science later told me that the Warwickshire school re-organisation scheme was the largest the Department or former Ministry of Education had received since the 1944 Act first established the ground rules.
The local passions roused and expressed are now avoided in that local authorities no longer close or open schools. The presumption is that new schools will either be Academies or Free Schools with sponsors, not needing to survey the intricate needs of localities or regions. Whitehall has assumed for itself the boring-sounding but vital business of ensuring that there are sufficient school places for children, ideally, in locations helpful to parents, but all this is done without deep local knowledge. The escalation of performance tables and Ofsted reports means that many parents 'shop around' much more, and so it is that a 'rational' approach to the location, size and type of school is impossible. School closures are assumed to result from market forces, which also encourage the promotion of 'Free Schools', which parents and particular local interest groups set up, irrespective of 'basic need' or the connections to, or impact on, other schools. The growth of multiple faith schools is also evident; that our Warwickshire proposals were underwritten by both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Authorities was important. I was immensely gratified when the Bishop of Coventry came with me to persuade the Conservative MP in Stratford-upon-Avon to support our plan. We failed totally.
Neither in-depth consultation rooted in locality nor value for money is now considered. By value for money, I mean securing whatever funds are available for classroom work and the finest buildings possible for schools and colleges. Warwickshire's early 1990s re-organisation provided much better buildings across the county and increased spending per pupil, much more equitably spread. Warwickshire's administrative costs as a local education authority remained modest at 73 per cent of the English county average. Hard though the consultation exercise was, it represented public debate at its best, with significant modifications to the officers' original proposals emerging from those long, tortuous exchanges.
## National Commission on Education
In 1991, following Sir Claus Moser's British Association for the Advancement of Science presidential speech, the National Commission on Education was established. A two-year investigation, equivalent to earlier government-sponsored enquiries, was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. I was one of the Commission's 16 members, and we were asked to investigate and take stock of the rapid changes, which had been set in train during the 1980s in particular. However, the main task was to look ahead some 25 years and think about educational goals and training needs in a way that responded creatively to both economic and social circumstances and 'the needs and aspirations of people throughout their lives'. Our Chair was Lord Walton of Detchant, with much medical educational experience, and other members represented all sectors and phases of education as well as industry and commerce.
The final report, 'Learning to Succeed' (National Commission on Education, 1993), was well received, primarily because our analysis and recommendations were powerfully argued and substantiated with evidence. High-quality research was commissioned, so that the report was rooted in empirical findings, not just from within England and Wales, but also from international studies.
That large-scale, well-resourced and researched commissions of enquiry are now consigned to history is depressing. The current pace of change and rapid reform are not inevitable and are often damaging to those who provide and receive education. Frequent initiatives and shifts of policy require an evidential base as well as every effort to involve and win over the support of teachers, in particular. Germany bucked this trend when it investigated and took action on its low ranking in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tables, and this was a ten-year exercise (2002–2012). It stressed that 'a much improved research establishment has now fed into teacher training so that teachers are enabled to analyse and diagnose their students' specific problems' (OECD, 2011). In all high-performing systems, there is a similar emphasis on a strong relationship between universities and schools and colleges. In England, Free Schools are allowed, perhaps encouraged, to employ unqualified teachers. However, in Scotland, headteachers are to be required to continue their understanding and knowledge through Masters' courses, and the Scottish government's review of teacher training in 2011 stressed that, for teachers, 'the values and intellectual challenges which underpin academic study should extend their own scholarship and practice, equally' (Scottish Parliament, 2011).
## The Centre for Successful Schools
From the National Commission on Education (1996) came 'Success Against the Odds', a series of case studies of 11 UK schools where pupils demonstrating significant disadvantage had succeeded 'against the odds'.
In this project, well-respected researchers forensically examined the factors that seemed to explain the schools' successes. Published in 1996, it coincided with my move to Keele University as the Director of the Centre for Successful Schools, originally set up by Tim Brighouse. As I read more, visited scores of schools and was asked to speak about the 11 schools in the National Commission's study, it occurred to me that a follow-up study was needed. Five years later, the original team returned to the schools to check on their further progress and found a range of significant changes, with one school having effectively collapsed. Lessons from this school were as instructive as the others who had continued their upward progress, but in markedly different ways. Success Against the Odds: Five Years On (Maden, 2001) is still being widely read, mainly by practitioners in and around schools. This contrasted with increasing amounts of educational research, as I rapidly learned.
I worked at Keele on a half-time contract, but was there at least three days each week. It was an odd experience, after working in schools and a local authority. In the latter, there was a daily sense of collegiality, not always smooth or consensual, but nonetheless materially evident. Meeting and greeting from 8 a.m. or earlier, planned or chance encounters throughout the day all featured as 'work'. Gradual development, in Warwickshire, of 'working from home' was piloted as computers became more important. It was necessary in trialling this to define where and when face-to-face exchanges were needed and preferable. This emerged as an effective and welcome practice.
At Keele, there was not any tradition of day-to-day, hour-by-hour, 'social' working. The 8–9 morning start didn't exist. Many meetings with lecturers were arranged by students through an appointments system rather than through chance encounters. Staff didn't seem to work as a collegium, rather odd given the origin of that term. Increasingly, email exchanges predominated (now text messaging, no doubt). Starting in the late 1990s, more research was needed for the maintenance and improvement of the university's income and reputation. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), followed by the Research Excellence Framework (REF), increasingly dominates the work and ethos of university departments. However, when the bulk of 'output' is teachers and other education practitioners, this can sometimes lead to conflicts of interest. In some cases, an older practitioner-learning tradition has left some staff stranded, trying, as required, to produce more esoteric research and publications.
Ofsted now inspects university education departments, so that the vocational preparation of teachers is judged and ranked. With the rise of school-based teacher training through the newer First and Schools Direct schemes, these departments are thus under the additional strain of competition. This, combined with the pressures of the REF, has led some universities to question the continuing role and existence of their education departments' vocational training work. To date, Warwick, Bath and Sheffield have closed their Post Graduate Certificate of Education programmes rather than invest in their improvement along Ofsted lines, especially if the education research output is not helping to raise the university's REF ranking and income.
A welcome change to REF in 2014 was the requirement placed on universities to demonstrate the impact of research on practice, not simply in education. It is certainly in the interests of schools that practice and innovation should be rooted in research, often of an empirical kind. The opposing of practice and theory is extremely damaging. Medical education is rooted in research as well as in practitioner advances and reflection. The same should apply to teacher training and continuous professional development.
## Reflecting on the 'middle tier'
In 2003, the post of Chief Education Officer was abolished when the recommendations of the White Paper 'Every Child Matters' were put in place through Parliament. The reaction to the Victoria Climbié case in Haringey had led to understandable consternation about the public protection of such children, and subsequent events have confirmed this anxiety. Whether the removal of local educational leadership and co-ordination should have been wrapped up in this is a separate matter. I followed up my Warwickshire experiences by writing about 'the middle tier' in education and finding out how these matters were handled elsewhere.
Through my involvement in OECD reviews – Russia and Hesse, Germany – and a special study of Midi-Pyrénées in France (Maden, 2000), as well as attending Council of Europe and OECD seminars on school improvement, I tried to define why and how some kind of middle tier was necessary and helpful in the continuous development of schools and colleges. It was clear that greater 'school autonomy' was being thought about elsewhere, but it was seen as a high-risk strategy if taken too far, especially if a school's improvement halted or stuttered. Experience and expertise should be available locally, both to identify emerging problems and to advise and know where relevant support is to be found. Whether this person is in a local authority as currently organised is arguable, but there certainly needs to be a statutory body employing such advisers.
Related to this is the role of a local or sub-regional authority in tasks that even the best schools cannot carry out, but that affect how well children and young people thrive. Examples include high-level special needs assessment and provision, specialist arts and sporting facilities and instruction administering school admissions, and planning school places. I would argue that local democratic accountability is intrinsic to most of these for the qualitative reasons I have tried to describe in the Warwickshire planning exercise. Answerability to electors – and even to non-voting parents, if such exist – is a civic good and curbs, if necessary, the over-reaching power of headteachers, local-level officers or government civil servants. While I recognise that international visits and knowledge do not offer ready-made models to emulate, I continue to be impressed by the quality and citizen appreciation of local and regional government in, say, France, Germany and Italy. Our lack of a basic law protecting a middle tier of government from central government forays is damaging to the quality of our civic life.
Irrespective of the civic polity, monitoring school performance and encouraging schools to 'do even better' cannot depend solely on published performance data ('league tables') and popularity with parents on school choice. These indicators do not identify further potential or weaknesses soon enough. Neither will the vital institutional health of a well-motivated and skilled staff be assured through such data.
As a former headteacher, I increasingly question the Hollywood star model of headship – 'l'école c'est moi' now appears to be the underlying precept. The way successful orchestras work interests me, especially following my chairing of the Royal Opera House's Education and Access committee. The idea of supremely skilled, proficient instrumental players, often a bit stroppy, working at ever-higher levels of excellence under the right conductor fascinates me. The von Karajan 'dictator' model is recognisable but limited. The Claudio Abbado model is better: he's described as 'a catalyst', his most frequent urging in rehearsal is 'Listen, listen' (to other sections of the orchestra), and we're told that his work with his players is 'a tectonic generative approach to musical architecture, in which Abbado knows how each part relates to the other, how shifting weights and densities in one part of the score will affect and shape the whole landscape of the symphony' (Service, 2012).
This is a more appropriate model of headship than most others proposed by business leadership consultants. The important role of the audience is also greater than most of us imagine, a 'circle of listening' with orchestra members being clear that this dynamic affects their performance. The pupils and their parents in schools likewise affect outcomes and strategies. The sensitive 'ear' is needed, and we should be cautious about charismatic omnipotence as a worthwhile quality. Potentially excellent headteachers are lost to the profession because of this tendency to promulgate a Dragon's Den model of leadership and obtrusive dynamism.
In recent years I have been a school governor and have observed the intense pressures on headteachers as they worry about an unfavourable Ofsted inspection and the slightest downward shift in published performance tables. Public scrutiny is a good thing, even if occasionally uncomfortable, but when scrutiny overload occurs – as I believe is now happening – the development of teaching and of children's learning is adversely affected. The almost total lack of professional space for any kind of innovation is depressing. It is also self-defeating. The high-stakes model of intensive instruction in Shanghai or Singapore schools has been promulgated by recent Secretaries of State, and yet, more critical appraisals of these are side-stepped (Ravitch, 2014). Meanwhile, the steady teacher-centred Finnish model is ignored, even though its development over three decades has resulted in consistently high outcomes. In Finland, teaching is an enviable profession, with high levels of entry qualification, and turnover is very low, unlike in England. The potential of the teachers I see working now is great but unrealised. Headteachers watch their backs; so do teachers; so do governors. The following of laid-down rules from the centre is paramount. Yet measured outcomes are better than those two or three decades ago. Thus, a move towards more local innovation at classroom level and encouragement of the non-measurable in education should proceed, without losing the positive improvements of recent years. Without such a move, we will lose our best teachers.
## Postscript: the educational undergrowth
From my first job as a geography teacher in Brixton in the 1960s through to a professorial chair at Keele University in the early years of the twenty-first century, I have been conscious of informal networking influences on my professional journey. From early NUT days to The All Souls Group, based in Oxford, making contacts from beyond the particular workplace setting has been enlightening. Around the time of the James Commission, investigating teacher training in the early 1970s, some of us set up SPERTTT, the Society for the Promotion of Educational Reform through Teacher Training, and produced a Penguin Education Special for the good Lord James to savour (Burgess, 1971). Later, while at Islington Green School, the Deputy Chair of governors, Professor Maurice Kogan, asked me to join him in establishing The Ginger Group where, again, rambling discussions in a local restaurant led to publications across and between educational sectors and phases. In The All Souls Group, invited members from senior levels of the civil service, higher and further education, as well as local authorities and schools meet three times a year to listen to and discuss with leading practitioners and theorists. By straddling issues from early years to higher education and demonstrating the connections across and between apparently separate components, we enlarge our sense of what we should be trying to achieve. This is a powerful form of continuing education. Writing also helps to distil and analyse our thoughts and experience. What I am now concerned about is the increased separation of educational professionals into their specialist 'silos'. Quality and innovation are thus diminished.
Finally, over my professional lifetime, the position of women has been a marked characteristic of change, mainly improvement. Being rejected for a deputy headship at age 30 on the basis that a 'strong man' was needed was strange. This was followed by a much better post in an Oxfordshire comprehensive where, on this front, the main problem was my membership of the 'Oxfordshire Senior Mistresses Association', its title denoting the lack, until then, of any female deputy heads in Oxfordshire secondary schools. Inner London was used to doughty women, both elected to the authority and professionally, but my 1988 interview in Warwickshire was marked by elected members not being able to decide whether my student days' membership of the British Communist Party was a worse problem than my gender. In 1993, Jenny Ozga included me in her collection of case studies on women in educational management (Ozga, 1993). She interviewed me, then ruefully observed that my progression through the educational world appeared to have been founded on 'male patronage'. At least, this dubious phenomenon is far less likely to occur today for all those able and talented women who run the education world.
## References
Burgess, T. (ed.) 1971, Dear Lord James: A Critique of Teacher Education. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Maden, M. 2000, Shifting Gear: Changing Patterns of Governance in Europe. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Maden, M. 2001, Success Against the Odds: Five Years On. London: Routledge-Falmer.
National Commission on Education, 1993, Learning to Succeed. London: Heinemann.
National Commission on Education, 1996, Success Against the Odds: Effective Schools in Disadvantaged Areas. London: Routledge.
OECD, 2011, Education at a Glance, Country Note – Germany. Paris: OECD.
Ozga, J. (ed.) 1993, Women in Educational Management. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ravitch, D. 2014, The Myth of Chinese Super Schools. New York: New York Review of Books, November.
Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P. and Ouston, J. 1979, 15,000 Hours. Open Books, London.
Scottish Parliament, 2011, Teaching Scotland's Future. Edinburgh.
Service, T. 2012, Music as Alchemy. London: Faber and Faber.
# [14
1944–2015](content.xhtml#bck_Ch014)
Towards the nationalisation of education in England
Sir Peter Newsam
## Teacher and administrator
As a teacher for seven years, my main interest was with what happened inside schools: with the curriculum and in learning how to teach better. Since 1963, as a local education authority administrator in four different education authorities, three of them Conservative led, I was necessarily mostly concerned with what the local authority provided or managed outside the schools and colleges they maintained. Earlier, as a teacher in a grammar school immediately adjoining a secondary modern school, I had become directly aware of, as I saw it, the adverse consequences of the 11+ examination. It was the wrong examination at the wrong age, with damaging consequences for far too many children. It was in 1970, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, as Deputy to Sir Alec Clegg, that I became directly involved in discussions on ending selection in Harrogate; this was managed by a Conservative local authority with the widespread agreement of the parents, teachers and governing bodies concerned. As Deputy, from 1973, and then as Education Officer to the Labour-led Inner London Education Authority, ending selection at 45 grammar schools by 1977 proved rather more difficult. But the system of schools then created has provided the secure platform on which London's parents, teachers and governing bodies have since been able to build so successfully.
## The 1944 Education Act: a national system locally managed
Educationally, the Britain of 2014 is a very different place from when I left school in 1947.
In 1947, victory in two wars had recently been enthusiastically celebrated. Britain was close to bankruptcy, with large parts of its major cities and industrial areas in ruins. India's independence had just been achieved, and it was already evident that the further dissolution of the Empire, over which Britain had ruled and from which it had benefited for many years, could not long be delayed.
In the immediate post-war years, Britain was led by people who had lived through a war against totalitarian government. Many had experienced the war at first hand. They did not intend their hopes for the future to be crushed by apparently insurmountable debt. Britain's successful staging of the 1948 Olympic Games was an early statement of that intent, followed by the Festival of Britain in 1951.
At school, we learned of the proposal for a national health service and for an education system that would provide opportunities for all, of the kind that we had taken for granted. There was a widespread feeling among many of my educated-in-war-time contemporaries that we had a duty to play an active part in our country's future.
So much for 1947. Seventy years later, England, though not the rest of Britain, has moved a long way towards nationalising its education system, without its electorate ever having been invited to say whether it wants that to happen. Any account of how this has come about begins with the Education Act of 1944.
The 1944 Education Act was a continuation of earlier thinking. The terms of the Act were devised by an able group of civil servants, working with a small number of politicians of outstanding competence. In its final form, the Act was warmly welcomed by all the parties involved: Parliament, local authorities, teacher unions, the churches, the general public and even the press.
The first of the 1944 Act's two main achievements was structural. It established a, subsequently abandoned, division between primary and secondary education. Primary schools would cater for children up to the age of 11. Thereafter, all children would attend secondary schools up to the school leaving age, soon to be raised from 14 to 15, and beyond. As part of that restructuring, the Act created a secondary school system out of two very different types of existing school. The publicly funded elementary schools, which since 1870 had provided education for most of the population up to the school leaving age of 14, were combined with a group of mostly fee-charging secondary schools, provided by a whole range of denominational and charitable individuals or agencies, that educated children up to the age of 18.
Restructuring led to many long-established and independently managed secondary schools, some denominational but many not, joining the national system as voluntary aided (VA) schools. As they brought their land, their school buildings and their teachers into the national system, these VA schools were allowed to retain important elements of their independent status. VA school trustees formed the majority on the governing body, retained the right to appoint their own staff, to develop their own curriculum and to decide which children to admit to their school. The incorporation of many of these essentially independent schools into the national system for England and Wales was a great achievement. It made possible a stated aim of the Act: secondary education for all.
The 1944 Act's second main achievement was to establish a school system that reflected the values of a democratic society. The Act had been drafted during a war against totalitarian governments in which institutions like schools, and what was taught inside them, were directly controlled by the government. The civil servants and politicians who developed the Act and the Parliament that approved it were unitedly determined to create a structure that would make such a development in England impossible. To that end, the Act ensured that responsibility for the management of education in England and Wales would be shared between the government, elected by the national electorate, and local education authorities, elected by a local electorate. Accordingly, no publicly funded school could become wholly dependent for its wellbeing or its existence on either local or national government acting alone. Neither could open, close or change the character of any publicly funded school without the agreement of the other. Proposals for a new or significantly enlarged school had to be published locally, either by the local authority or by a group of proposers. Any such proposals were then subject to consultation locally. Proposals, with any objections to them, were then sent by the local authority to the Secretary of State. His role was to approve, amend or reject these proposals. For his part, the Secretary of State could not open, close or change the character of any school. He had to await a proposal to do that from the local authority that either already was or would be maintaining it. The 1944 Education Act made it impossible for any school in England or Wales to be directly controlled by an individual government minister or by any individual local authority, because neither could act without the agreement of the other.
The 1944 Act placed a general duty on local education authorities to provide secondary education in schools, 'offering such variety of instruction and training as may be desirable in view of their different ages, abilities and aptitudes'. The Act did not stipulate how this was to be done. It was left for local education authorities to submit their plans on how they intended to meet these requirements. The terms 'grammar school', 'secondary modern school' or 'technical school' do not appear in the Act, but the government had made known its preference for a secondary school system consisting of these three types of secondary school. At a time of acute financial difficulty, this preference for what became known as the 'tri-partite' system was understandable. It broadly fitted the structure of schools already in use and was widely adopted. Existing secondary schools became grammar schools that selected their pupils as they left their primary schools; elementary schools, once primary-aged children were provided for elsewhere, were adapted to become secondary modern schools. Technical schools were provided wherever that proved possible.
The preference of a government for a tri-partite system had no statutory force. Accordingly, several local education authorities, including the London County Council and the West Riding of Yorkshire, decided to meet the age, ability and aptitude criteria by combining in one school what the tri-partite system took to be three different types of pupil requiring three different types of education in three different types of school. Schools designed to meet the full range of the 'aptitudes and abilities' of pupils within one secondary school, rather than between three, became known as 'comprehensive' schools. The London School Plan of 1947 set out the London County Council's reasons for providing schools of that nature.
A second example of shared responsibilities between central and local government was the way in which school places were provided during the post-war years of sharply rising school numbers. Under the Act, the duty to secure sufficient and suitable school places was the responsibility of local government. Central government's role was to control the total amount of expenditure involved and to approve or reject major building schemes proposed by individual local authorities. Governments had to ensure that their own national priorities were met. The most important of these was ensuring that sufficient funds were available to provide 'roofs over heads', schools needed to cater for rising school numbers. Between 1947 and the mid 1960s, local education authorities and successive governments worked together to provide over five million school places within tightly controlled cost limits. The efficiency with which the Department for Education's Buildings Branch helped to make this possible was widely recognised within local government and nationwide.
A third aim of the Act had been to extend the amount and to improve the quality of technical and vocational education. In this, it failed. The cost of the school places needed to raise the school leaving age to 15 meant there was little money left to spend on creating the technical schools required or on the system of national part-time day release the Act had designed to provide continued training for those entering employment on leaving school. These constraints meant that the need to provide systematically for such training, first identified in the latter part of the nineteenth century and only partially developed following the 1918 Education Act, was still not dealt with successfully by the 1944 Act. Despite sporadic efforts to remedy this problem, notably by Kenneth Baker in 1988, it remains largely unresolved in 2014.
## The school curriculum
The 1944 Act deliberately did not deal with the school curriculum. It was not seen as the role of local or central government in a democratic society to require schools to teach pupils particular things in any particular way. Until the late nineteenth century, publicly funded schools in England had been required to work within a nationally prescribed curriculum. Teachers were paid on a set of measurable results achieved by their pupils. After some 20 years, there was general agreement that 'payment by results' had failed.
Under the 1902 Education Act, education became the responsibility of all-purpose local councils, as opposed to single-purpose school boards. In 1904, the Board of Education issued a Prefatory Memorandum, setting out the general aim of the elementary school. The Memorandum contained the following paragraph:
The only uniformity of practice that the Board of Education desire to see in the teaching of Public Elementary Schools is that each teacher shall think for himself, and work out for himself, such methods of teaching as may use his powers to the best advantage and be best suited to the particular needs and conditions of the school.
Subsequently, the Board provided a handbook of Suggestions for Teachers in Elementary Schools. These suggestions covered all aspects of the curriculum and reflected an unchanged approach of successive governments to the role of teachers that lasted until the late 1970s.
Suggestions for teachers in secondary schools were not considered necessary. It was left for a variety of examination boards, working with universities and schools, to cause teachers to adapt their teaching, so far as they thought this necessary, to the questions posed by the examinations themselves.
The 1944 Act did not change the government's attitude towards the primary school curriculum. In 1949, the foreword to the Ministry of Education's publication, Story of a School, simply reproduced the words of the 1931 Consultative Committee's Report on the Primary School:
Instead of the junior schools performing their proper and highly important function of fostering the potentialities of children at an age when their minds are nimble and receptive, their curiosity strong, their imagination fertile and their spirits high, the curriculum is too often cramped and distorted by over-emphasis on examinations subjects and on ways and means of defeating the examiners. The blame for this lies not with the teachers but with the system.
## 1960s: a period of major reports
In 1966, the Plowden Report on the Primary School broadly endorsed this approach to the primary school curriculum. Commentators with an insecure grasp of the history of English education interpreted what had been endorsed by successive governments since 1904 as an example of the supposedly collapsing standards of the 1960s. The evidence, contained in an appendix to the Plowden Report, of the marked improvement in reading standards over the previous 20 years was ignored.
The Department's circular Number 10 in 1965 is an often quoted, but evidently seldom read, example of the relationship between central and local government under the 1944 Act. The circular took the form of a request to local authorities to submit plans for developing comprehensive schools. Requests by circular lacked the force of statute; so local authorities could not be required to respond to the circular. Most did, but others did not. Those that did could not be required to carry out any proposals they had decided to submit.
The 30 years between the 1944 Act and the early 1970s saw little substantial educational legislation, but a succession of well-researched reports on primary, secondary and higher education were published. These included the Crowther (1959), Newsom (1963), Robbins (1963) and Plowden (1967) Reports. The research appendices of these reports ensured that administrators and politicians alike did not lack facts, as well as opinions, on which they could base their decisions.
The 1944 Education Act had staying power. It was based on widely shared principles of the place of education in a democratic society. Its provisions underpinned the expansion and improvement of the education service in England and Wales for some 25 years and created, in the words of Sir William Alexander, a national system locally administered. It was not until early in the 1970s, at which point Part 1 of this autobiography ends, that this balance of responsibilities between local and central government showed the first signs of developing into a national system nationally administered.
## 1972 to 1982: the decline of local authorities
It was during these years that the educational role of local authorities in England, either by accident or design, began to decline.
In 1966, the government had established a Royal Commission on Local Government outside London. In June 1969, the Commission's Report was presented to Parliament. So far as education was concerned, the Report made two crucial proposals and issued a warning. The first proposal was that, to be able to act as a full partner with central government, local education authorities needed to be much larger than many existing ones. The evidence from HMI, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, local authorities and the Department for Education all indicated that large education services performed better than small ones, some of which were doing poorly. The Commission therefore proposed the creation of 78 education authorities, outside London, with a preferred population of 500,000 and a minimum size of 250,000. These 78 would replace 124 existing education authorities and the 156 other local government bodies with some responsibilities for education.
A second proposal was that, even with larger local authorities, some elements of education, such as further education, would need to be dealt with at a provincial level. The Commission suggested that the newly formed local authorities should, to deal with these issues, appoint some of their members to form eight provincial councils. The Commission did not recommend that a provincial council should be an independently elected body.
In 1970, the government set aside the Commission's recommendations, notably on the need for some provincial local authority presence. Eventually, under the 1972 Local Government Act, 97 local education authorities were created instead of the 78 proposed. In Yorkshire, 13 local authorities, some of which have, predictably, since functioned poorly, were created in place of the five much larger ones proposed by the Royal Commission.
The Commission's powerfully stated prediction that, if local government was not reformed in the way it proposed, 'local government will be increasingly discredited and will be gradually replaced by agencies of central government' has since proved correct.
A second development that substantially reduced the capacity, even the will, of some local authorities to carry out a full range of educational functions was initiated by local government itself. The Bains Report of 1972 was produced by a group of local authority chief clerks. Historically, functional legislation was administered by functional government departments. So educational legislation was devised and administered by a national education department. Similarly, health, police, housing and so on were administered by separate government departments, each responsible for the legislation relating to their function. Until the 1970s, local government committees were organised in much the same way. Senior education officials in local government, working with their education committees, dealt directly with their opposite numbers in the national Department for Education. Similarly, political leaders of education in a local authority dealt directly with education ministers. Both had detailed knowledge of the legislation they were dealing with. Nationally, until the mid-1970s, leaders of local authority education committees and their senior officials formed the highly influential Association of Education Committees. For many of these years, Sir William Alexander, as its Secretary, was able to represent the views of local education authorities directly to senior officials in the Department and to its ministers.
From 1974, most local authorities outside London became corporately managed. Once received by local government, money provided or expenditure authorised by central government departments was, to a varying extent, distributed in accordance with local government priorities rather than those of the government department that was its source. The managerial logic of corporate local government is indisputable; its practical and political consequences for the education service were disastrous, culminating in 2010 in the government removing the word 'education' from the term 'local education authority'. Under the 1944 Act, the local management of schools was the responsibility of education-specific local authorities, with their own chief officer holding the statutorily required office of chief education officer. All that was set aside, and the management of education was no longer seen by politicians, few with any experience of either, as a specific function.
While local government became corporate, government departments stayed functional and could no longer rely on corporate local education authorities deciding to spend money on the department's national priorities. Having won money from the Treasury for one purpose, ministers and their officials were not content to see it used for some other purpose. As the Royal Commission had predicted, central government's reaction was to create organisations outside local government to perform educational functions that had hitherto been exercised locally. Combined with the failure to create local authorities of an appropriate size and in the absence of the Commission's proposed provincial arrangements, this led to the creation of government agencies such as the Manpower Services Commission, the Learning and Skills Council and, later, Connexions and a series of funding and other such agencies created to do what had earlier been done by local government.
Within local government, newly appointed and corporately minded chief executives saw no reason for particular departments, of which education was by far the largest, to retain direct access to any functional government department. Many actively prevented it. From being a central element of the local authority system, education officers, almost all with teaching as well as administrative experience, found themselves spending much of their time dealing with issues that had little to do with their area of expertise. It was during the 1970s that the role of local authority education officer became less attractive as a career. With the decline of that career structure went much of the expertise and understanding needed to manage even a diminished set of educational responsibilities. In 1977, the authoritative voice for local government's education service ceased with the demise of the Association of Education Committees.
My own direct participation in educational administration ends in 1982. By the end of the 1980s, the role of local authorities in education and, in some of them, even their commitment to the education service itself had been further weakened. In a few urban local authorities, irresponsible behaviour had strengthened the government's general distrust of local government.
## Nationalisation of the curriculum and schools
Between 1988 and 2014, two of the main changes to education in England have been the nationalisation of the school curriculum and, at an increasing rate since 2010, the nationalisation of its publicly funded schools. Nationalisation is here defined as a system under which all important decisions are exercised by a single government minister, accompanied by an actual or potential transfer of assets to the state. This process necessarily requires the elimination of local government and other independent institutions from anything more than a peripheral influence on decisions about the form and content of education, either locally or nationally.
The curriculum of schools in England was nationalised in 1988. This replaced the system whereby, since 1904, governments had provided advice on the curriculum, which schools were encouraged but not required to follow. From 1963, under arrangements originating with the Department for Education, a wider range of advice than in the past had been provided by the Schools Council. The Council's members included representatives of teachers, local authorities, universities, officials from the Department for Education and members of HM Inspectorate. The documents the Council produced, its advice, the research it undertook and the experimental work it supported were designed to encourage good practice. Most of what it produced was of high quality.
In 1976, a speech at Ruskin College by the Prime Minister pointed out that the government had a legitimate interest in the curriculum of schools, and that the balance between the role of local government and central government in dealing with this might well require adjustment. His carefully worded statement left open the question of how and to what extent this adjustment would be made. In the years following the Prime Minister's speech, elements in the Department for Education had come to believe themselves better qualified to deal with the curriculum than the Schools Council. They openly expressed dissatisfaction with the Council's work and commissioned a report on its effectiveness. When the report recommended that the Council should continue, in April 1982 the Secretary of State's response was to stop financing it. That left the way open for the nationalisation of the curriculum in 1988.
During the creation of a statutorily enforceable national curriculum, advice from all quarters on its scope and content was, with rare exceptions, ignored. A complex set of curricular requirements, with an accompanying apparatus for ensuring schools were accountable for meeting these effectively, was given the force of statute. The National Curriculum was poorly constructed and imposed in haste. It has since had to be regularly and expensively revised, with teachers having to be retrained to meet new requirements as these have arisen. In 2014, some schools are still required to comply with it while others are not. Its collapse has been gradual, in recent years punctuated by personal and often ill-considered interventions from government ministers.
The nationalisation of schools in England began, on a small scale, in 1988. Twenty-five years later, that process is well advanced. Nationalisation has gone through three stages, best identified by the ministers most closely associated with them. Each stage began with a good idea. The idea behind the City Technology Colleges (CTCs), promoted by Kenneth Baker, was admirable. New and forward-looking sponsors, with a strong commitment to technical and vocationally relevant education, were invited to create and lead a series of enterprising and self-managed secondary schools. The sponsors of these schools would control the governing bodies, appoint their own staff, develop their own curriculum, decide on which children to admit, and be responsible for the financial management of their school.
In creating these schools, Kenneth Baker was either unaware of or deliberately chose to ignore the fact that schools with almost exactly the same degree of self-governance as CTCs already existed as Voluntary Aided (VA) schools. Many of these had been developed as independent schools during the nineteenth century by city companies, the churches and by individuals such as Miss Beale and Miss Buss. To develop more of such schools with appropriate sponsors would not have been difficult. Two things had to be done. First, the 1944 Act requirement that proposers/sponsors of a new school of the kind required had to provide both site and buildings had to be replaced by the need to make only a token or even no contribution to the cost of the new school. Second, local authorities, in submitting their proposals for a new school in their area, as they had done since the 1944 Act, would have had to be required by the Secretary of State to include any proposal they received for a CTC. The Secretary of State would then have had to consider all such proposals on their merits and to decide which to accept, modify or reject. If he decided to approve a proposal for a CTC, it would then have been for the local authority to find the site and, as in the case of VA schools, convey it to the trustees. Within agreed cost limits, the trustees would then manage the construction of their school.
Kenneth Baker's decision to develop CTCs, in itself a good idea, as government schools instead of VA ones, maintained but not controlled by a local authority, was the first move towards replacing local government's role in education with control of individual schools in England by a government minister.
No prime minister since 1997 has been educated in a publicly funded school in England or later had any personal association with the management of any such school. This lack of understanding has made it possible for unelected and inexperienced policy advisers to play an increasingly important role in formulating educational policy. One such adviser, Andrew Adonis, later ennobled as Minister for Schools, had an excellent idea. This was to encourage enterprising groups of sponsors to run independently managed and newly built schools in areas of poor performance. Like Kenneth Baker, he was apparently unaware that the VA model could provide the legally established independent trustees and status that he believed to be necessary. That is presumably why the existence of VA schools is not mentioned in the account Lord Adonis has given of his struggle to develop, against fierce resistance, a type of school that already existed.
## The academy programme
In developing academies in the form of Kenneth Baker's CTC model of school governance, the Secretary of State was authorised, under section 65 of the Education Act 2002, to enter into a contract with 'any person' to 'establish and maintain' a school, at public expense. Contracts formed in this way are at the heart of the academy programme. As the governance structure of VA schools makes clear, academy 'freedoms' can be secured without any such contract. Although, in themselves, contracts serve no useful educational or administrative purpose, what academy funding contracts successfully do – as they are clearly intended to do – is place the minister concerned in ultimate control of the schools or groups of schools contracted to him. Contracts leave it to an individual government minister, the Secretary of State, to determine exactly how much money each school contracted to him receives to run itself each year. If the governing body of any school dependent on a single politician in this way believes itself to be 'independent', it runs a severe risk of deluding itself.
Labour's enthusiasm for contracts in the form of funding agreements has caused a clause to be inserted that reads: 'the Academy Trust cannot assign this agreement'. But the Secretary of State can, and some future one may well decide to assign many hundreds of his contracts to other agencies to manage.
Academies, as essentially government schools, paved the way for Michael Gove. His declared intention has been that all schools in England, willingly or otherwise, should have rolling 7-year contracts with him, terminable by either party after due notice. In giving a Secretary of State what amounts to direct control of an increasing number of England's schools, contracts potentially involve a huge transfer of assets to the state. On becoming contracted to the Secretary of State as an academy, the trustees acquire the site and buildings of any school built and paid for by a local authority. If the Secretary of State's funding contract with those trustees is terminated, that property reverts to the Secretary of State and not to the local authority that originally paid for it. The academy programme is a nationalisation of local assets process in waiting.
As an extension of its legislative approval of the Secretary of State's move to nationalise England's schools, Parliament has further legislated to allow nearly all important decisions about education in England to be made by or on behalf of the Secretary of State, without reference to anyone else, including Parliament itself. Parliament is not a party to the contracts that it has allowed the Secretary of State to make with any set of trustees he finds acceptable. His only evident criterion for establishing the suitability of trustees to run a school at public expense appears to be that they have not been elected by anyone.
The Secretary of State's uninhibited control of education now extends to the examination system, the training or lack of it of teachers, the structure of the governing bodies of academies, including the right to decide whether any of which he disapproves are to be allowed to remain in office, where, whether and at what cost new schools are to be built, and so on.
## What next?
Two consequences of this legislatively authorised control of education by an individual government minister have become evident. The first is that it is very obviously inefficient. Even the straightforward task of relating the number of school places provided to the number of school places required has been mismanaged. Public money is routinely spent on children and students who do not exist. Financial control of academies is defective. Schools are developed where new schools are not needed. This practice of creating extra school places where there are already spare places, apart from wasting money, almost always adversely affects what local schools with spare places can still afford to offer their pupils. Sixth forms are encouraged to proliferate at a time when sufficient teachers of high quality, available to teach a full range of subjects in many existing sixth forms, are lacking. Narrowly defined systems of accountability are created that give teachers perverse incentives for teaching badly. Bad practices are routinely imported from foreign countries. Over the past few years, the list of poorly structured 'initiatives' and ministerial incompetencies has become long and is lengthening.
Control of education by an individual government minister is also leading to increasingly totalitarian behaviour. As Lord Acton put it in 1887, power that verges on the absolute corrupts. The symptoms are unmistakeable. Ministerial hostility to all forms of real or imagined sources of opposition is loudly proclaimed. Enemies of 'reform', a term used to describe any ministerial initiative, however ill-considered, are said to be lurking everywhere. Local government, the universities, the judiciary, the churches, the BBC, non-conforming elements of the press and any form of independent thinking or action from teachers or their unions are all perceived as inherently pernicious. All are treated with contempt. Disciplined conformity, within schools and by everyone connected with them, is to be the order of the day.
The arbitrary and sometimes irrational behaviour of individual government ministers is just one instance of England's general retreat from its democratic past. Now that Parliament, with the notable exception of some of its select committees, has legislated away its ability to exercise effective control of the Executive, Parliament itself is widely perceived as little more than a noisy and largely irrelevant adjunct to the Executive. This has damaging consequences for England as a functioning democracy. It is becoming difficult for England's electorate to find good reasons to vote at parliamentary elections for individual Members of Parliament. Voters correctly perceive that few of the people they vote for have any influence on what the government of the day, once safely elected, then decides to do.
Within narrowing limits, resistance to the government is still permitted, but the form democracy has taken in England is increasingly reminiscent of the 'democratic centralism' proposed by Lenin in 1917. Under such a system, further developed in parts of Europe during the 1930s, people are still allowed to discuss issues and to march about with banners, provided they behave themselves. The deployment of second-hand water cannons would, in the opinion of at least one mayor, help to remind marchers of their duties in this respect. But there is little room left for alternative sources of decision making, even on important local issues. All important decisions in England are now taken by the small group in charge of the government. Intervention from subordinate bodies such as local government, professional bodies, independent researchers or even, other than grudgingly, from Parliament itself is rarely found acceptable. In the wings, another small group of much the same composition awaits its opportunity to replace the existing one.
Education in England has been particularly badly damaged by this nationwide retreat from the widely shared beliefs in what constitutes a democratic society that underpinned the Education Act of 1944. As Friedrich Hayek put it in that same year, 'Nowhere has democracy ever worked well without a great measure of self-government'. That measure of self-government is what the 1944 Education Act secured and has since largely been legislated away.
In 2015, one simple question about education needs to be asked: is England content to place a single individual, the Secretary of State of the day, in what is close to absolute control of all elements of this country's education system? If it is, no action is needed; that is what England's schools and other educational institutions are being frog-marched towards. If it does not, a second question arises: is any political party prepared to put that question to the electorate? That is the question that hangs in the air, awaiting an answer.
# [Part VI
Role of the media](content.xhtml#bck_part6)
# [15
Media and Education in the UK](content.xhtml#bck_Ch015)
Peter Wilby
Today, nearly every British national newspaper has an education correspondent, covering schools, colleges and universities. If the numbers are fewer than they were 20 years ago – when some papers employed as many as three such specialists – that is more a reflection of newspapers' increasing financial difficulties and journalists' higher workloads than of any diminution in education coverage. Some newspapers publish weekly sections devoted to education, though these, too, are much reduced from what they were even 10 years ago. For example, The Guardian's section, published on Tuesdays and branded Education Guardian, was once a separate supplement of 12 pages or more; now the section has gone, replaced by barely half as many pages within the main paper.
Yet education remains a far more high-profile subject than it was half a century ago. Before the 1960s, it was scarcely regarded as a news subject at all. Though the annual teachers' union conferences attracted attention even in the immediate post-Second World War years – mainly because they were (and are) held at Easter, when other news is in short supply – the 'popular' press particularly focused almost exclusively on teachers' pay, often linking it to difficulties in recruitment (Cunningham, 1992). More detailed coverage, particularly in the 'quality' press, tended to focus on universities (especially Oxford and Cambridge), then attended by less than 6 per cent of young Britons, and on fee-charging schools (such as Eton, Harrow and Rugby), rather than on the taxpayer-funded schools attended by the majority of the population.
According to one estimate, there were only three full-time education journalists at the beginning of the 1960s, excluding those working for specialist publications. An education correspondents group – formed to co-ordinate the reporters' access to ministers and other key sources of information – was not formed until 1962, whereas a labour and industrial correspondents group was formed in 1937, and a crime reporters' association in 1945 (Williams, 2009). By the early 1970s, the education correspondents group had around 50 members. In The Times, the number of articles on educational matters rose from 70 in 1960 to 184 in 1967 (Kogan, 1975). In 2013, a search on The Times website identified a total for the year of 439 articles devoted to education. Interviews with education journalists in the mid-2000s found that most of them saw education as 'one of the top specialist areas of reporting . . . comparable in importance to . . . health reporting, crime reporting and business/finance reporting'. Though few had sufficiently long memories to be certain, the general consensus was that it ranked higher than it did in the past (Hargreaves et al., 2007).
The main drivers of this growth in education coverage – on radio and television, as well as in the press – were the politicisation and centralisation of education. Politicisation started in the late 1950s and 1960s, as Britain began to abolish most of its grammar schools, which selected the most academic children after a competitive examination at 11, and to introduce 'all-ability' comprehensives instead. Though the division between the major parties on selective schooling was never a rigid one – Conservative local councils were among the pioneers of comprehensives, and, to this day, the official Conservative policy is that comprehensives should continue – Labour was always more eager to hasten the demise of the grammar schools, by central diktat if necessary.
Until the late 1970s, however, it was widely accepted that what was taught in schools and how it was taught remained a matter exclusively for teachers. The curriculum, as an education minister observed in 1960, was the teachers' 'secret garden', and 'parliament would never attempt to dictate the curriculum'. Or, as the Lancastrian George Tomlinson, education minister during Clement AttIee's 1945–1951 government, more colloquially put it, 'minister knows nowt about curriculum'. In Westminster and Whitehall, the curriculum was not a contestable subject. An education 'parliament' for curriculum and examinations, the Schools Council, was set up in 1965, but it had no formal powers of legislation or direction and was essentially a talking shop in which, though both local and national government were represented, teachers' unions and subject associations held most of the seats. Outside the classroom, nearly all the power in education resided with local councils. Though much of their funding came from central government, they controlled the distribution of money and decided which children should go to which schools. David Eccles, education minister from 1954 to 1957, complained that, 'having succeeded in getting Cabinet support for increased funds for education, he had no real say in how those funds should be spent' (Jarvis, 2014).
Education was covered more thoroughly, and often better, in local newspapers than it was in Britain's national newspapers, radio and TV. The national press, geared to receiving most of its information from Whitehall, Westminster and assorted bodies associated with central government, found it hard to derive significant news from the subject. A row over school admissions in Newcastle, it was thought, would not interest readers in Birmingham. Similarly, a curriculum innovation in Birmingham would not interest readers in Newcastle. Only in the 1960s did the growing numbers of specialist education reporters begin to present some local developments as being of national significance. Newly opened comprehensive schools, for example, might get national coverage. So might radical developments in internal school organisation, curriculum and teaching methods that went loosely under the heading 'progressive'. But universities and the fee-charging, private boarding schools (confusingly known by the English as 'public schools') continued to get more coverage, because both drew on a national clientele that was almost entirely the well-heeled middle classes, the most sought-after audience for advertisers, even in the more downmarket papers.
In this era, nearly all education journalists favoured comprehensive schools and 'progressive' teaching styles. A columnist in the right-wing weekly magazine The Spectator complained in 1972 that all but one of the 48 members of the education correspondents group were 'left-wing, some extremely so'. Even on Conservative papers, they could favour the 'progressive' cause, or at least give it an easy ride, mainly because their editors had little interest in education. C.B. Cox, a Manchester University professor of English, told a conference in Australia in 1981 that newspapers had played a leading role in persuading the public of the merits of 'progressive' teaching. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cox and like-minded colleagues brought out a series of 'Black Papers' – written by academics and teachers who favoured 'traditional education' – that deliberately attempted, as Cox put it, to 'shift the centre' of debate. They were written in a populist, jargon-free, accessible style and were heavily promoted to the newspapers. The Black Paper editors understood that they could maximise sympathetic coverage by sending the pamphlets to newspapers on Sundays – a thin news day and one on which most specialist reporters would be off work – for publication on Monday mornings. A Labour Education Secretary foolishly assisted them by branding their first publication as 'the blackest day in English education for over a century'.
The Black Papers – alongside their offshoots such as the National Council for Educational Standards, which, again to maximise media coverage, held its conferences on Sundays – turned the tide. The 'traditionalists' had no inhibitions about wooing journalists, making their leaders accessible to the press and trying to reach a mass audience. In contrast, the 'progressives' regarded populism with distaste and the 'capitalist' press with suspicion. The Campaign for Comprehensive Education, for example, had a spokeswoman who could be reached only with the greatest difficulty, took no trouble to conceal her hostility to journalists and insisted that she should never be named.
For all the efforts of the Black Paper editors and their media supporters, the rise of comprehensives initially continued without interruption: in the 1970s, despite the Education Secretary in the first half of the decade being none other than Margaret Thatcher, more were created than in any previous decade, with grammar schools surviving only in a handful of areas ruled by true-blue Conservative councils. The media have little power in education (or indeed in politics generally), at least in the sense of 'transformative capacity' as defined by the sociologist Anthony Giddens: 'the capability to intervene in events so as to alter their course' (Giddens, 1984). But they do create an agenda and a framework – sometimes a very restrictive one – for debate. In the 1970s, the media, influenced by the Black Papers, began slowly to change the agenda. Newspapers eagerly reported research showing the weaknesses of 'progressive' teaching methods – which were nothing like as ubiquitous as journalists suggested – and highlighted the case of a London primary school that, by any standards, had gone too far in its 'progressive' methods, with its teachers apparently training pupils to become members of a revolutionary vanguard while completely neglecting the basics of reading and maths.
Public interest in education was growing, and not just because the media debate was increasingly vigorous and polarised. For most of the twentieth century, education played only a minor role in the lives of the majority of the population. Most people left school in their mid-teens and never returned to full-time education. They took no exams and had no paper qualifications. Some returned to college, a day or two a week, to learn skills for a trade, but many learned skills on the job or found unskilled factory or labouring jobs that were then in plentiful supply. Even many white-collar jobs required only minimal qualifications. Journalism itself required nothing more than a rudimentary knowledge of shorthand and law.
In the second half of the twentieth century, however, career prospects – and, as heavy industry declined, the chances of getting a job at all – depended increasingly on length of education and particularly on credentials acquired at school. Education became a distributor of life chances and a source of growing anxiety to parents of all classes. This made it a subject of interest, not only to newspapers and their readers, but also to politicians.
From the mid-1980s, Margaret Thatcher's Conservative governments introduced dramatic changes in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate education systems, subject to separate regimes), which were largely accepted by Tony Blair's Labour governments from 1997 and then further elaborated by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010. Parents were allowed more choice of schools and more say in how schools were run. Schools were required to publish their examination results in standardised form. Local councils were required to distribute funds according to a national formula and to delegate spending decisions to schools, leaving governors and headteachers to determine, for example, how much was spent on books and how much on repairs to buildings.
Crucially, schools were given the opportunity to opt out of local council control and to become 'independent', receiving their money direct from central government; a majority of secondary schools have now taken this route. Private companies and voluntary associations were invited to set up new schools and take over existing ones. Through a new regulatory body, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), the powers of central school inspectors were greatly enhanced, and Education Ministers increasingly took it upon themselves to order a change of leadership or even closure for 'failing' schools. Most importantly, schools were required to follow a national curriculum, which different ministers determined in varying amounts of detail. Being mostly educated in the humanities, ministers were particularly anxious to specify which novels, plays and poems should be studied for English literature and which events for history. Labour dictated, not just curriculum content, but the methods used to teach reading and maths in primary schools, thus breaching what one professor of education has called 'the final frontier of professional autonomy', which, even as late as 1991, a Conservative Education Secretary declined to cross, saying that, 'questions about how to teach are not for government to determine' (Alexander, 2014).
All this led to an explosion of media interest. The secret garden was now open for everybody to trample over the flowerbeds. In the past, only teachers' pay disputes created the simple dramatic clashes of opposites on which the mass media thrive. These were only peripherally connected to educational issues; they were covered as simple employer–employee battles, similar to other labour disputes. Now, the disputes were about what was taught and how, with highly politicised debates developing about, for example, how the history of the British Empire should be taught and whether English lessons should focus on creative writing or on correct grammar and spelling.
The national media distilled such disputes into a simple opposition between mainly right-wing 'traditionalists' and mainly left-wing 'progressives'. The former favoured a strong emphasis on basic literacy and numeracy; academic subjects such as physics, chemistry, history and literature; formal instruction, with pupils sitting in rows at desks facing the front while the teacher told them what to learn; the 'phonics' method of teaching reading; selection by ability into different 'streams' within schools and, if possible, into different schools; old-fashioned written examinations, usually lasting three hours. The latter supported a more flexible curriculum that did not divide knowledge by rigid subject boundaries; informal or 'discovery' learning where pupils sat in groups and were encouraged by teachers to find things out for themselves; the 'whole word' method of teaching reading; comprehensive schools with 'mixed-ability' classes; and new-style examinations that involved continuous classroom assessment and projects completed in the pupils' own time. Most classroom teachers are pragmatists who do not fall into either camp. They prefer a balanced curriculum and a mixture of teaching and assessment methods. But the media wished to subsume almost every educational issue into the progressive–traditional framework: for example, it was thought desirable to give parents more choice of schools and the private sector more opportunities to run them, because both would bring schools 'back to basics'.
Politicians, working to their own ends, encouraged journalists and media commentators to report education in terms of this dichotomy. Indeed, politicians increasingly presented their policies in tabloid newspaper terms. When Michael Gove, Conservative Education Secretary from 2010 to 2014 and himself a former journalist, introduced a national curriculum that placed more emphasis on factual knowledge, he presented it as an attempt to wrest control of schools from what he called 'the blob': academics, teachers, school inspectors, advisers and local authority officials who were 'enemies of promise', guilty of 'valuing Marxism, revering jargon and fighting excellence'.
Unlike his predecessors, Gove was in a position to get his way. The decentralised governance of English schooling was long a source of frustration to both Westminster politicians and Whitehall civil servants. Education ministers frequently had ideas as to how to improve schools but found they had no levers to make anything happen. For example, when Sir Keith Joseph, one of the chief architects of what became known as Thatcherism, took over as Education Secretary in 1981, he wanted schools to create more pro-business, pro-free enterprise attitudes among young people. To his despair, he found himself powerless to insist on any such change. Like all previous education ministers, he was little more than a spectator, as the teachers' unions and local education authorities – among whom education journalists cultivated contacts as assiduously as they did among ministers, their advisers and civil servants – ran the system.
Largely because he had so little direct power, Joseph badly needed public support for his ideas in order to put pressure on those who were in charge. He wished, for example, to change teachers' working practices and to introduce regular assessment of their performance ('teacher appraisal', it was called at the time). But, since he did not himself employ teachers or determine what or how they were paid – though he did provide the money to fund pay increases – he needed to put pressure on the local council employers and the teachers' unions who, through a somewhat cumbersome machinery (known as the Burnham Committee), negotiated pay and working conditions. Public support and, therefore, press support would be crucial if he were to get his way.
He largely failed. The teachers' unions mounted a highly effective campaign highlighting teachers' poor pay, which required some to take second jobs, heavy workload and propensity to heart attacks and nervous breakdowns. Joseph, by contrast, was, to the despair of his department's press officers, 'unskilled and uninterested' in influencing the media. 'He was often reluctant to meet journalists, and conducted press conferences with ill-concealed distaste and indecent speed' (Wilby, 1986).
Only after Joseph left office in 1986 did the Education Reform Act, introduced by Kenneth Baker, begin to change the balance of power. Baker, like nearly all Joseph's successors (John Patten, Education Secretary from 1992 to 1994, was the only significant exception), was far more media savvy. He launched the first National Curriculum, the first legislation allowing schools to become 'free' of council control and the first experiments in persuading private sponsors to back state schooling. He also solved the problem that Joseph faced in influencing teachers' pay and working conditions by abolishing the Burnham machinery and giving himself power to determine teachers' terms of employment.
By the end of the 1980s, the media narrative was almost wholly focused on an apparent battle to the death between 'traditionalists' and 'progressives' (sometimes called 'trendies') and, after the Conservatives' centralisation of educational power, it had an increasingly political dimension. The events of 1991 showed how the narrative would now develop.
In that year, Leeds council published a report on the outcomes of a programme to transform its primary schools into exemplars of 'good primary practice', which meant – or was thought to mean – making them more 'progressive'. Normally, such a report from a provincial education authority would attract little national press attention. Nobody can be sure why this one was different. Perhaps it was just the date of publication: the end of July, when other news is thin. But some commentators suggested that the Conservative government, facing a tricky general election the following year, tipped off some of the London-based education correspondents, seeing an opportunity to discredit a Labour-controlled city council and associate their main political opponents with falling educational standards.
Whatever the explanation, the coverage of the report, written by Robin Alexander, professor of primary education at Leeds University, dealt a devastating blow to 'progressive' education, possibly the most serious in more than a decade. 'Progressive teaching in schools was £14m failure', was the Daily Telegraph headline. 'The education of millions of primary school children has been blighted in the name of an anarchic ideology', the paper explained. The government's reaction chimed precisely with this press coverage. John Major, who had recently succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Conservative prime minister, used the report to support 'a return to basics' and announced 'the progressive theorists have had their say and . . . they've had their day'. Later, in 1992, Alexander was invited by the government to join an official inquiry into 'the delivery of education in primary schools'. Also appointed to the inquiry were Jim Rose, the then chief inspector of primary education, and Chris Woodhead, the chief executive of the National Curriculum Council; the latter largely accepted the government and media narrative of sturdy traditionalists fighting a rearguard action against a mighty progressive juggernaut. Appointed just before Christmas, they were dubbed 'the three wise men' by the press. When they reported, newspaper headlines screamed: 'Call for return to traditional school lessons' (Alexander, 1997).
Yet, as Alexander pointed out, the Leeds report's main conclusion was that the Leeds project 'was an initiative well worth the Authority's investment', even though it found important weaknesses in some outcomes in some schools. 'A complex and carefully qualified analysis', Alexander wrote, 'was reduced to a simple pathology.' As Alexander saw it, the outcome of the 'three wise men' inquiry was similarly distorted, partly by Woodhead, who re-drafted what was supposed to be 'a discussion paper', partly by the Education Department's press release, partly by the press itself. For example, the report rejected a return to streaming by ability, a favourite demand of the traditionalists. When Alexander made public his reservations about a report that had appeared under his name, the press accused him of a U-turn and called him 'one rather unwise man' (Alexander, 1997). When, nearly 20 years later, Alexander headed an independent investigation into primary education (known as the Cambridge Review), his nuanced reports – which, as he put it, 'exposed the complexity of the data and the difficulty of making hard and fast judgements' – were simplified into headlines mostly designed to discredit an increasingly unpopular Labour government: 'Literacy drive has almost no impact', 'Primary pupils let down by Labour', and so on (Alexander, 2014).
The campaign against 'progressive' teaching was not confined to newspapers. Television played its role too. In the autumn of 1991, in the wake of the Leeds report, a prestigious BBC current affairs programme reported that 'experts with a mania for progressive education have spread a canker through Britain's classrooms'. To illustrate this thesis, the programme went to two primary schools where, according to one study, 'a small and unrepresentative sample of practice was filmed, an even smaller sample remained after editing and, stripped of much of its context, the material actually shown was employed . . . to portray progressivism in simplistic terms' (Wallace, 1993).
The narrative would change little over the next 20 years. Like the 'red menace' of the Cold War era, the 'progressives' were always lurking, never idle in their mission to subvert decent, common-sense, traditional values. The narrative was supported by the frequently repeated judgement that, while the Right won the economic wars (converting the whole world to free-market economics), the Left won the culture wars. 'Trendy' teaching methods, the narrative argued, were imposed for ideological reasons by an 'educational establishment' comprising some prominent heads and teachers, professors of education, teacher-trainers, local authority officers and advisers, and even Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools whose pronouncements were once treated as the Holy Grail. Even the advent of a Labour government in 1997 did not significantly alter the narrative, though some of the rhetoric was toned down, and Labour ministers made greater efforts to take account of teachers' opinions. The politicisation of schooling has gone to extraordinary extremes. Even the teaching of reading, essentially a technical matter, became a struggle between the 'phonics' method, supported by the Right, and the 'word recognition' or 'look-and-say' method, supported by the Left.
Politicians, meanwhile, have become hugely more sophisticated in using the media to their advantage. When they make policy, they think, not only of how well it will work, but of how they can 'sell' it to the media. All governments aspire to keep 'control' of the media agenda, and no departmental minister will survive for long unless he or she can feed the media with policy 'initiatives'. David Blunkett, Labour Education Secretary from 1997 to 2001, employed a special adviser (separate from the department's press office) who spent at least an hour a day on the media. In the early afternoon of each day, he would ring round the education correspondents and speak to them individually (Bangs, MacBeath and Galton, 2011).
But one effect of the increasing politicisation of education is that ministers often give news of what they regard as 'major initiatives' to the Westminster-based political correspondents, not to the education specialists. Since political reporters are by definition specialists in politics, not education (or health or policing or social services), policies rarely get expert scrutiny. Moreover, the growth in the number of columnists – nearly every newspaper has two or three of them each day – who express opinions on a large range of issues, and are employed for their ability to write provocatively and entertainingly, rather than for their understanding of a particular subject, further marginalises the role of expertise and informed critical scrutiny. Professors of education and other specialist academics are almost wholly excluded both from policy making and from newspaper coverage of education.
Most social media and Internet blogs multiply the amount of poorly informed comment. True, in education as in other areas, the Internet allows a few well-informed voices to bypass the press and to address directly a wide audience in a way that would once have been impossible. The Local Schools Network, for example, defends schools that are run by elected local councils and critiques the growing number of schools run by private chains with meticulously researched comment on its website.
But that is an exception. The narrative of 'progressives' versus 'traditionalists' continues to grip education, and no education minister has made more use of it than Michael Gove, Conservative Secretary of State in the Coalition government from 2010 to 2014. Successive governments, as one account puts it, have set up 'an object of derision' that they then pledge 'to exorcise' (Wallace, ibid). This perfectly suits the media, which has the clash of opposites that it craves and can put nearly all educational issues into this simple framework.
## References
Alexander, Robin (1997): Policy and Practice in Primary Education, 2nd edition. Routledge, London.
Alexander, Robin (2014): Evidence, Policy and the Reform of Primary Education: a cautionary tale, Forum, 6(3), Autumn 2014.
Bangs, John, MacBeath, John and Galton, Maurice (2011): Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching: From Political Visions to Classroom Reality. Routledge, London.
Cunningham, Peter (1992): Teachers' professional image and the press 1950–1990, History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society, 21: 1, 37–56.
Giddens, Anthony (1984): The Constitution of Society. Polity Press, Cambridge.
Hargreaves, Linda et al. (2007): The Status of Teachers and the Teaching Profession in England, Department for Education and Skills, Research Report 831B.
Jarvis, Fred (2014): You Never Know Your Luck: Reflections of a Cockney Campaigner for Education. Grosvenor House, Guildford, Surrey.
Kogan, Maurice (1975): Educational Policy-Making: A Study of Interest Groups and Parliament. Allen and Unwin, London.
Wallace, Mike (1993): Discourse of Derision: the role of the mass media within the education policy process, Journal of Education Policy, 8: 4, 321–37.
Wilby, Peter (1986): Press and Policy: teacher appraisal, Journal of Education Policy, 1: 1, 63–72.
Williams, Kevin (2009): Read All About It! A History of the British Newspaper. Routledge, London.
This chapter is a version of a paper that was first published in Revue internationale d'éducation, 66, September 2014.
# Conclusions
# [16
Stories from the Field – Summarised](content.xhtml#bck_Ch016)
Richard Pring and Martin Roberts
## Overview of contributions
The changes in the educational provision – from early years, through primary, secondary, further and vocational education, to higher education and the training of teachers – have been amply illustrated by the contributions to this book. They have shown especially the revolutionary shift from minimal central control over what goes on in schools to much greater political control, first, through a national curriculum and national assessments, second, through the decline in local authority powers and responsibilities. The recently arrived academies and free schools are contracted directly to the Secretary of State. But higher education, too, has not escaped. The autonomy once protected by a University Grants Committee has been eroded as government has exercised its powers through funding and research to ensure greater relevance to its perception of national needs.
The scene was set by Lord Baker, who, as Secretary of State, introduced the 1988 Education Reform Act, thereby creating the National Curriculum and National Assessment, as well as the local management of schools. These were revolutionary changes arising from a belief that standards were too low in many schools – an understandable belief shared by the preceding Labour government, which, as explained in the introductory chapter and referred to in other contributions, set the ball rolling with Prime Minister James Callaghan's Ruskin College speech in 1976 – a generation of 40 years ago. In particular, the endemic neglect of technical and vocational education, despite many reports on the crisis since 1851, would be challenged through the establishment of City Technology Colleges, directly funded by government and private sponsors, and in a way resurrected by the more recent University Technology Colleges.
What the contributions illustrate are the gains and losses as experienced by those with responsibilities within the system – for example, by the early years' headteacher and ILEA adviser Wendy Scott, who, not denying the need for greater accountability to ensure high standards throughout, regretted the impact of the emerging top-down, short-term interference, undermining the much needed child-focused work of good early years education.
Both she and the former primary school headteacher, Tony Eaude, pay tribute to the Plowden Report of 1967, which influenced primary schooling at the beginning of our era, encouraging the arts and creativity in different forms. However, in their experience, what was often referred to as the more child-centred approach to education was gradually undermined by rigid assessment and accountability. Even how to teach literacy and numeracy came to be directed by government in the 1980s and 1990s. The autonomy of teachers was eroded in a political distrust of their expertise.
Similar concerns were expressed by Martin Roberts, a former head of a large and successful comprehensive school in Oxford. He expressed concern, not about there being a national curriculum framework, but about its mode of implementation. During his period of headship, the National Curriculum was increasingly implemented through an outcomes-driven system of accountability and through growing dominance of the newly established inspectorate, Ofsted, which was data-driven and judgemental rather than, as in the case of the HMI (which it largely replaced in 1992), much more supportive. Kenny Frederick experienced a similar case during her experience of headship in a challenging school in Tower Hamlets. There was a need to transform the racist and islamophobic ethos of the social context that affected the school, thereby creating a very inclusive school. But she pointed to the changes that had come to make the task more difficult, especially the decline in local authority support. On the other hand, both Martin Roberts and Kenny Frederick were able to point to innovations that had made improvements possible – increase in funding, greater opportunities for women, positive approaches to pupils with special needs, and initiatives like 'Excellence in Cities'.
The changes over the half century have paradoxically reflected both mistrust in the professionalism of teachers and yet the transformation of teacher preparation into a university-based profession. Richard Pring gives an account of that transformation and at the same time its gradual erosion, first, through political criticism of the content of that university preparation and, second, through the different routes now available for aspiring teachers – while highlighting the crisis facing the next generation in recruitment and maintenance of teachers, in part resulting from changes in schooling. But higher education, too, has changed, as explained by Richard Pring in a following chapter – from a relatively small group of universities catering for a small percentage of students to a massive increase with much wider student access. It has shifted from a mainly government-funded public service to one dependent on student fees.
Further education, as explained by Geoff Stanton, is the unknown sector of education, much neglected and under-funded as a result, despite the fact that colleges of FE cater for over three million students annually. They have witnessed, too, considerable changes, partly in response to those occurring in schools, which pass on, as it were, the students unlikely to succeed along an academic route. The colleges have provided innovative responses, especially through the pre-vocational courses they developed, to the needs of such students. But there has been a failure of recognition and thus of financial support, together with a bewildering change of programmes and qualifications, known by the flow (or flash flood) of acronyms: UVP, NVQ, TVEI, CGLI365, CPVE, DoVE, GNVQ, NFVQ, QCF, OCEA (and that's just a start).
It is to this changing system of qualifications that Tim Oates turns in a dramatic contrast between the whirligig of changes in England and the stability in other countries (e.g. the post-16 qualification in Finland has not changed in form or function for 100 years). That constant change in form and range of functions that the exam system has to perform (reflected, for example, in the short lives of GNVQ, 14–19 Diplomas, modularisation of A Levels, AS Levels as part of A Level) is one of the most distinctive and frustrating features of the last 40 years – not encouraging for the longevity of yet further changes promised by the political parties. The use and role of examining have been distorted by its use as an instrument of government policy.
One such use is its employment as an instrument of accountability. Certainly, as Pat O'Shea recounts, prior to our period, accountability of schools and the system as a whole left much to be desired. But, once the regime of Ofsted and testing had been in place for some time, the earlier kind of accountability provided by HMI, which was geared to school improvement, became divorced from inspection. The scheme of School Improvement Partners provided good professional support, but, like so many innovations, it had but a short life of six years. Inspection was slimmed down to two days, making judgements with little knowledge of the social context and with a shift of emphasis from curriculum to leadership and management. This reduction in professional support coincided with the enfeeblement of local authority responsibility and support.
The following three chapters (Part V) are written by people who, as well as having taught in schools, have also been Directors of Education in local authorities, dealing with the changes imposed and the increasing centralisation of services. Peter Newsam, Education Officer for the Inner London Education Authority, points to the weakening of local authorities from their partner role in a 'national system locally managed', as had been established by the 1944 Education Act. Such weakness strengthened the power of the Westminster politicians, not only through the curriculum control and assessment regime, but also through the broader 'reforms' of local government. The new corporate model had no room for the once powerful defenders of local democracy and accountability in education, namely, the Chief Education Officers. That understanding is reinforced by Tim Brighouse, whose reign as Director in both Oxfordshire and then Birmingham enabled him to see the shift from the age of optimism and trust at the beginning of our period (as reflected in 'teacher-based school improvement'), through the growing doubt and uncertainty (as trust in teachers gave way to high-stakes testing and increased prescription), to that of markets and managerialism (reflected in the espousal of 'choice', the language of targets and performance indicators, and the contraction out to external bodies (some 'for-profit' companies) of these public services. Margaret Maden, whose career enabled her to witness these changes from the positions of teacher, headteacher, Chief Education Officer and university professor of education, saw the need to adapt to the changes arising from the Education Reform Act, but also the importance of preserving the role of LEAs' advisory services, county in-service training centres and the organisation of schools from the viewpoint of one who knew the local needs and context. Local education authorities may have been driven to near extinction, but the gaping hole thereby left in organisation of education demonstrates the need for a 'middle tier' of organisation.
Throughout these changes, and the professional and public perceptions of them, the role of the press cannot be ignored. Peter Wilby shows how political standpoints entered into the reporting at key stages, particularly in the early 1970s with the Black Papers railing against the prevailing 'progressive ideas' (Teachers Mis-taught being the title of one of those papers). Hence, with the increased politicisation of education, the media tended to subsume issues into the progressive versus traditional, especially at the time when grammar schools were being transformed into comprehensives. In order to keep control of the media, Secretaries of State have fed 'initiatives' to journalists who often were political rather than specialist education journalists.
Of course, our period follows the transformation of the system of secondary education from a tri-partite one into a largely comprehensive system, albeit with that demarcation between able and less able still enforced by the dual examination system at 16 of GCE O Level and Certificate of Secondary Education. It was only in 1988 that the two systems were merged into the one that still prevails, namely, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) – though for how long is open to question.
# [17
The Way Forward for the Next Generation](content.xhtml#bck_Ch017)
Richard Pring and Martin Roberts
Forty years have passed since Prime Minister Callaghan's Ruskin College speech. A generation of teachers, who commenced their careers then, are about to retire. When they commenced their careers, we had a 'national system of education locally maintained', as legislated in the 1944 Education Act. The Secretary of State had few powers, and those had nothing to do with the curriculum or how it should be taught.
One third of the time through the careers of this generation (13 years), the Education Reform Act radically changed that, giving the Secretary of State far-reaching powers over the curriculum (and its attainment targets and assessment), and over the establishment of schools no longer 'locally maintained' (namely, City Technology Colleges) but contracted to the Secretary of State.
Twelve years later, the City Academies Programme was launched, thereby opening up a system of schools (including the Free Schools) contracted directly to the Secretary of State, but maintained mainly through sponsors of various kinds.
Simultaneously, there has been an intensification of targets and performance indicators, of audits and league tables, by which schools, colleges and universities are held to account.
Therefore, these have been revolutionary times. But many aspects of that revolution are being seriously questioned, as the preceding chapters indicate. Furthermore, whatever the system, its success depends on the sufficient supply of good teachers. Yet there is a crisis looming in the recruitment and the retention of teachers. A shortfall of 27,000 is predicted by 2017, and between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within five years. Two-thirds of secondary schools had difficulty in recruiting maths teachers. Reasons given for leaving are constant teacher bashing, high-pressure accountability, excessive workload and relentless pace of change.
Therefore, the post-ERA education system seems now to be in much need of further reform. Although responsible for some necessary improvements, it has opened up a range of problems and is in danger, therefore, of doing more harm than good to many pupils.
Further reasons for questioning the efficacy of these years of continuous government-led reforms stem from international comparisons. One can debate the validity of the PISA tables, but they offer no evidence of England improving its position in recent years. Meanwhile, the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) shows us performing very poorly on adult literacy measures. Uniquely within the OECD, the literacy scores of our 16–24 age group are lower than our 55–65 one. Vocational education and training is a black spot. Only 32 per cent of our upper secondary pupils are following vocational courses, compared with the OECD average of 44 per cent. As the government's own advisory group, the Social Mobility Commission, noted in 2014, there is 'a lack of a plan to prepare young people for the world of work and support them through this complex transition'. Educational experts from both the OECD and North America are critical of the inconsistencies of over-centralised political control. In its Education Policy Outlook 2015, OECD analysts noted that, in England, 'rather than build on the foundations laid by previous administrations, the temptation is always to scrap existing innovations and start afresh'. They also comment that, 'the more the government is only one partner among several, the less vulnerable programmes are to being wound up after administrative or personality changes'.
Having seen the evolution of the system of education over the last 40 years, what, in light of the considerable problems emerging, should be the direction of change for the next generation of teachers? In what follows, arising from the contributions to this book, we make the following recommendations and are confident that, if implemented and sustained over many years, they would lead to significant improvements in English education.
## 1 Limit the power and control by central government
Problems arise from concentration of so much power in the hands of a Secretary of State, who is not accountable even to Parliament for many of the decisions made. Those problems include:
* constant changes to examinations and qualifications that have a limited time-span or need soon to be reversed – to the frustration of employers, universities and teachers. There need to be a pause and wide deliberation before further 'reforms' are proposed and the establishment of an independent Examination and Qualifications Council to organise that deliberation and to make final decisions;
* initiative after initiative made in relation to election-driven timetables or in response to 24/7 media interests, rather than to well-researched deliberations; and
* persistent tinkering with curriculum content, which should be left to subject and pedagogical experts.
## 2 Create a 'middle tier' between schools, colleges and government
The pursuit of 'choice' within what has become a 'market of schools', with the drastic weakening of local education authorities throughout this generation, has led to fragmentation of schools, to competition rather than collaboration between them, and to expensively created extra places in some areas, with a lack of school places in others (while pupil numbers are rising). There is a need, therefore, for a 'middle tier' of organisation with a real democratic element to ensure:
* there are the right schools and colleges in the right places;
* schools and colleges work in partnership to ensure a fair spread of scarce resources and staff; and
* those schools receive good advisory support when needed.
## 3 Create a more rational and uniform system of schooling
There is now a bewildering variety of schools ('free', sponsored academies, academy chains, grammar, UTCs, local authority community, voluntary aided, voluntary controlled), each with distinctive forms of governance, funding arrangements and control over admissions. Sense needs to be restored through:
* total transparency of funding, governance and admissions;
* not allowing once again the creation of secondary modern schools through the expansion of grammar schools, either as new schools or by expanding existing ones; and the
* restoration of local accountability of all schools receiving (directly or indirectly through charitable status) public funding.
## 4 Ensure equal funding for pupils across schools and colleges
One result of the many different types of school, arising from different forms of sponsorship, is that the unit of resource varies from school to school, often without educational or social justification. It is important that:
* an agreed common funding formula be established for all pupils at the different age levels, irrespective of type of school;
* grounds for exception (e.g. special educational needs) should be universally agreed and applied; and
* the deficit funding currently applied to post-16, especially to FE, should be rectified.
## 5 Trust the teachers more
The quality of teachers is essential to good education – well educated, well trained, well supported professionally, well respected and well paid. There is now, however, a crisis in recruitment and retention, as described above. Concern over teacher supply has been exacerbated by Schools Direct filling only 61 per cent of the places allocated in 2014. And the provision of training is now increasingly fragmented, as its traditional prevalence in universities is receding. It is essential, therefore, to:
* establish an independent college of teaching (similar to the Royal College of Medicine) as an independent professional body for the regulation and support of teachers, for the provision of guidance on the training of teachers, for advice to government and for the link between teachers and the Secretary of State;
* require all teachers to have Qualified Teacher Status following an approved training course;
* ensure all teachers are required to have regular 'Continuing Professional Development'.
## 6 Make accountability of schools and teachers supportive rather than punitive
Characteristic of recent years has been increased accountability through examination results, testing and data-driven inspection by Ofsted. This has created a climate of fear, teaching to the test, and failure to do justice to the wider range of educational aims and achievements. It is important, therefore, to revert to a system of accountability that:
* is based on professional judgement as well as quantitative data;
* supports teachers in their efforts to improve their teaching;
* reforms Ofsted so that its members help rather than punish struggling schools; and
* encourages self-evaluation, monitored by other teachers.
There is no compelling evidence that Ofsted is contributing to the overall improvement of English education, as it concentrates excessively on individual institutions and not enough on local and regional performance.
## 7 Promote curriculum development, not imposition
'There is no curriculum development without teacher development.' The curriculum, within a broad national framework (but bearing in mind terminal examinations), should be developed by the teachers who know their subject and know their pupils. It should not be controlled by whichever government comes into power and at the whim of the ever-changing Secretaries of State. To assist schools in this task there is a need to:
* establish a National Council for Curriculum Development whose membership should have wide representation from teachers, professional associations (e.g. the Historical Association), universities, employers, inspectorate, government, the wider community; and
* support curriculum development by research evidence, including teacher research, which could be part of CPD.
## 8 Reviewing examining and qualifications
Qualifications, and the examinations leading to them, have been in constant change, often with a short life and often reversed after initial experience. This makes life exceedingly difficult for the teachers who have constantly to change their courses, and for universities and employers who depend on the qualifications for recruitment. It is important to:
* differentiate the different functions of testing and examining (formative and summative, international comparisons, national standards, school performance, personal achievement, remedial needs); and
* establish an independent Council for Examinations and Assessment with wide representation. (It could be integrated with the proposed National Council for Curriculum Development – we have been here before – several times!)
## 9 Promote technical education and training
The country has constantly failed to respect and to provide good-quality technical education and training, as reflected in Acts of Parliament and government papers ever since the 1851 Great Exhibition. The creation of city technology colleges and university technical colleges, together with the 14–19 Diploma in Engineering, are recent attempts to rectify this. It is important:
* to maintain this momentum and to ensure such opportunities are available for all and included in any new curriculum framework, such as a Baccalaureate.
## 10 Restore pre-vocational education in schools and colleges
At a time when all young people are to be in some form of education and training until the age of 18, it is important to consider ways in which, for many, general education can be continued but based on more practical and occupational interests. Hence, there is a need to:
* examine again the thinking and practices that were developed through the pre-vocational initiatives which took place within the last 40 years; and
* ensure greater partnership between schools, colleges of further education and employers, essential for success.
## 11 Benefit from the revolutionary developments within this generation of ICT
ICT and the electronic revolution have opened up immense possibilities for the improvement of learning. It has opened up distance learning in higher education on a massive scale (e.g. MOOCS). In schools and colleges, it has made possible online tutoring and seminars and even virtual social areas and laboratories for the house-bound and excluded (e.g. NISAI). Teacher collaboration and curriculum development have been made possible across schools and colleges. Therefore, it is essential:
* to build urgently on what has been achieved so far through teacher professional development and ready access to the necessary resources.
## 12 Restore 'proper' apprenticeships
Vocational education is essential, but, as the Wolf Report showed, much was of low standard and did not provide the necessary link between the hopes of students and the needs of employers. Although there are many political promises to create more apprenticeships, it is important to preserve the high standard of skill traditionally associated with apprenticeships and improve the routes through apprenticeship to employment. To that end, there is need:
* not to let quantity diminish the meaning and quality of apprenticeships; and
* to make it easier for employers to take on long-term apprenticeships.
## 13 Prioritise independent and professional careers guidance for all
Although this issue did not emerge in the chapters, we believe that the provision of information, advice and guidance (IAG) to students from 14 upwards is patchy and limited, and yet is essential if they are to know about the availability of apprenticeships, the many different university courses and the subject choices necessary to proceed to the right course. Therefore, it is necessary:
* to ensure every secondary school and college of FE has ready access to a professionally staffed, independent and well-informed IAG; and
* to provide courses in school about the different routes that students can take to a chosen career.
## 14 Reconsider the nature, shape and funding of the higher education system
It is now half a century since the Robbins Report. The higher education system has grown and changed, partly as a result of specific reports (e.g. on funding), but in particular because of much wider access and differentiation of higher education functions. Particular issues, however, have arisen through the development of open access, the greater importance attached to research, the entry of foreign and for-profit providers, and the corporate nature of current universities. Therefore:
* this would seem to be the time for another major and comprehensive report – Robbins Mark II.
So, in the interest of the future generations of schools and universities, there needs to be a new Education Reform Act encompassing many of the recommendations of this book and the insights of those who have contributed to it, ensuring a better, positive, productive educational culture.
But, learn from the past! Successful legislation has always followed a long period of deliberation, consultation, open debate and reference to relevant research. Our final recommendation is therefore:
## 15 Pause, think and deliberate, preferably for two years, before further 'reforms'
In the past 150 years, successful and long-standing reforms have followed major and comprehensive reports by commissions established to address problems (e.g. on the future of higher education, on examination reform, on developing a secondary school system). In the nineteenth century, these were called Royal Commissions. In the post-1944 era, they were commissioned by the Central Advisory Committee. They took time to consider every aspect, before finally making recommendations and only then legislated. Therefore:
* a crucial recommendation of this book is that, before any more reforms, a public enquiry should be established into the range of issues raised in this book, representative of the many interested parties, and should collect evidence, institute relevant research, engage in public debate, and finally (after two or three years) report to government, making recommendations for reform.
N.B. While this book was at proof stage Dr Paul Cappon, an international expert appointed by the DfE in 2014–15 to undertake a review . . . which could inform deliberations within the Department', published his findings in Preparing English Young People for Work and Life. Many of his recommendations are similar to the above; e.g. the government tries to do too much on its own; our accountability system needs serious realignment; we should prioritise vocational education, create a new 'middle tier', a College of Teaching and a National Council of Learning. Cappon concurs with the Wolf Review that 'in England strengths occur despite rather than because of its systems and structures'.
# Appendix
# Major education acts and reports
1976 | James Callaghan's Ruskin Speech
Auld Report on William Tyndale School
Assessment of Performance Unit
---|---
1977 | Further Education Unit established. Published A Basis for Choice Taylor Report: A New Partnership for our Schools
1978 | Waddell Commission Report – proposing unified system at 16+
**1979** | **General Election: Conservative victory (Thatcher)**
1980 | Assisted Places Scheme
1981 | Warnock Report on Special Educational Needs A New Training Initiative: A Programme for Action
1982 | Abolition of Schools Council, replaced by the Schools Curriculum and Development Committee (SCDC) and the Schools Examination Council (SEC)
TVEI (Technical Vocational Education Initiative)
1983 | Youth Training Scheme
CPVE (Certificate of Pre-vocational Education)
1986 | NCVQ (National Council for Vocational Qualifications) City Technology Colleges
1987 | Curriculum 11–16 (HMI The Red Book) unified and common curriculum
1988 | Higginson Report on A Levels
1988 | Education Reform Act
National Curriculum Council (NCC) and Schools Examination and Assessment Council (SEAC) established
ILEA abolished
1990 | Rumbold Report (Early Years)
**1992** | **Conservative government victory (Major)**
Ofsted established
White Paper: Choice and Diversity
Further and Higher Education Act: ended binary line in higher education
1993 | Specialist schools encouraged
Technology Schools Trust (becomes the SSAT in 2005)
SCAA (Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority) created by merging NCC and SEAC (see above, 1988)
1994 | Dearing Report on the National Curriculum
1995 | FEU absorbed into the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) Dearing Report on HE – proposes fees for full-time undergraduates
1996 | White Paper: Self-government for Schools
(by now there were 163 grammar schools, over 100 GMS, 196 specialist schools, 15 CTCs, 30 language colleges, 151 new technology colleges, assistant places, whereby places in private schools were publicly supported)
**1997** | **General Election: victory for New Labour**
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) formed through a merger of SCAA and NCVQ
White Paper Excellence in Schools: benchmarks, targets, standards, performance management, rigorous inspection
Kennedy Report, Learning Works: Widening Participation in FE Effective Provision for Pre-School Education (EPPE)
1998 | National Skills Task Force (Blair)
Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) introduced, offering another route into teaching other than the well-established university-based PGCE
Education Action Zones (EAZs) established
National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies for primary schools introduced Sure Start begins
1999 | Excellence in Cities initiative
Moser Report, A Fresh Start: Improving Literacy and Numeracy
2000 | Introduction of city academies
2001 | Ofsted responsible for day care and childminding
Green Paper: Schools: Building on Success: raising standards, promoting diversity, achieving results
2002 | Citizenship added to the National Curriculum Education Act 2002 encourages the spread of academies Birth to Three Matters
2003 | The first Teach First graduates enter schools Ouseley Report: Community Pride, Not Prejudice
2004 | The Childrens' Act (Every Child Matters)
Tomlinson Report on 14–19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform Higher Education Act: variable fees, foundation degree powers to FEC
2006 | Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory standards for early years providers
Raising age for remaining in education and training to 17
2007 | Ofsted responsible for FE but not universities
2008 | 14–19 Advanced Diplomas introduced
**2010** | **General Election: Coalition (Conservative and Lib Dem) victory (Cameron)**
SSAT loses government support and becomes much smaller Schools Network
Many education quangos abolished – for example, QCA, which had become the QCDA
2011 | Wolf Report on the Reform of Vocational Qualifications Rationalisation of qualifications, many scrapped (e.g. Advanced Diplomas) Free schools and academies vigorously promoted EBacc added as a measure of school performance Nutbrown Review (Early Years)
2012 | GTP programme replaced by Schools Direct and School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT)
2014 | Regional commissioners introduced
2015 | Carter Report on ITT
Government refers a workload review after one-day strikes about pay and workload
## Changing acronyms for the Education Department
From 1964 DES, 1992 DfE, 1995 DfEE, 2001 DfES, 2007 DCFS, 2010 DfE
## Changing Curriculum and Assessment Agencies
From 1964, the Schools Council, 1983 SCDC and SEC, 1988 NCC and SEAC, 1993 SCAA, 1997 QCA, 2008 QCD(development)A and OFQUAL, 2010 QCDA abolished
# Subject Index
academic respectability –, –
accountability xv, , , , , , , , , , –, –, –, ,
AEC (Association of Education Committees)
apprenticeship , –, , ,
assessment , –, –,
Baker-Dearing Educational Trust
Bedfordshire
B.Ed degree , –,
binary divide , –
Birmingham LA –
Black Papers on Education , , , , –,
Brighton University , ,
British values
Bryce Commission , ,
Buckinghamshire LA –
Bullock Report
Cambridgeshire Village Colleges
Careers education ,
Centre for Successful Schools –
citizenship education
City Learning Centres
City Technology Colleges , , , , ,
CNAA , ,
Colleges of Advanced Technology
comprehensive schools , –, ,
core skills –
curriculum , , –, , –, –, –, , , , –, –, , ,
digital revolution –
disability –,
distance learning ,
DLOs
Early Excellence Programme
early years , –, ,
ECF –
Education Action Zone , ,
Education Acts: 1944 xv, –, , , , –, , , ; 1988 Education Reform Act , , , , , , , , , , , , ; 2004 The Children's Act, Every Child Matters , , ,
Education Priority Areas ,
education system , , , ,
elementary education , –, , , –
employers
equality/equal opportunities ,
ethnic minorities and diversity , , , –, , , ,
examinations and qualifications xv, , –, , –, , ; Advanced Extension Awards ; BTEC , ; CEE ; CGLI 365 , ; CPVE , , ; CSE , , , ; Diplomas – , , , –, , , ; DoVE , ; EBacc ; GCE-A level , , , , , , , , ; GCE-AS –; GCE-O level , , ; GCSE , , , , , , , , , , , –, ; GCSE Applied ; GNVQ , , , , , ; NVQ , –, ,
Examination Boards/Awarding Bodies , , , ; CGLI , ; OCEA ; RSA ,
Examinations and Qualifications Council
Excellence in Cities , , ,
EYFS ,
faith schools
Finland (abitur) , ,
Fischer Family Trust
foundation degrees
France
further education , –, –, , ; colleges , –, –
Further Education Funding Council , ,
Further Education Unit , ,
George Green School –
Germany
gifted and talented –
government (central) control xv, , , , , , –, , , –, , , , , , , , ,
Great Debate
Headship –, , , ,
higher education , , , , , , ; history in the NC , ; unitary system , , , , ,
HMI , , , , –, , –, , ,
Humanities , ,
ICT , , ,
Immigration –
Inclusion , , ,
Inner London Education Authority –, ,
international comparisons ,
Islington Green C.S.
Jarratt Commission
key skills
Labour, Conservative and Coalition Governments overview –
labour market ,
league tables , , ,
Learning and Skills Council , , ,
literacy (strategies) , , –, , , –, ,
local (education) authorities xv, , , , , , , , , , , –, , , , –, –, , –, –,
local management of schools , –,
London Challenge , –
London Institute of Education ,
managerialism and language , , –, ; audits , , ; delivery, , ; Manpower Services Commission (MSC) , , ; performativity –, , , ; targets , , , , , , ,
markets , , , ,
Mathematics , ,
media (including 'social') , , –, ,
middle tier –
modular ,
National Commission on Education –
National Council for Curriculum Development
National Council for Vocational Qualifications , –
National Curriculum xv, , –, –, , , –, , , , , –, , , , –
National Foundation Vocational Qualifications
nationalisation of education –
National Qualifications Framework
National Youth Agency
New Labour , , , , –, , ,
Numeracy (strategies) –, , , –,
nursery education/provision , –,
NUT , , , ,
OCEA –, ,
OECD , , ,
Ofqual
Ofsted , , , –, , , –, , , , , , , , , –, , , , ,
Opening Minds (RSA)
Open University ,
Oxford Internship Partnership ,
Oxfordshire –, –,
pedagogy , , , , ,
Peers School, Oxford
performance management (appraisal)
PGCE , ,
physical education ,
PISA , , , ,
Plowden Report , , , , ,
policy/policy makers –, ,
political context –, –,
polytechnics , , , , –
post-16 education , ,
post-modernism
practical knowledge ,
pre-school
pre-vocational , , –, –, , ,
primary education and practice –, –, –
Prince's Teaching Institute –
private, privatisation, for-profit xv, , , –,
progressivism , –, –,
public service ,
pupil premium ,
PVI nurseries , ,
qualification-led reform , –, –
qualifications see examinations and qualifications
Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) , ,
Quality Assurance Agency , ,
race relation, racisms , , –,
reading , , , , ,
Reports (prior to 1976): 1884 Royal Commission on Technical Instruction ; 1938 Spens ; 1943 Norwood ; 1963 Robbins
research , , , ; Research Assessment Exercise , ; Research Excellence Framework , ,
restorative justice
Robbins Report on Higher Education , , , , , –,
Ruskin speech , , , ,
Sandy Upper School
School Improvement Partners
Schools: Academies , , , , –, , , –, , ; Community ; Comprehensive , , , ; Free , , , –, , , ; Foundation ; Grammar , , , , ; Grant Maintained , , ; Independent , –; Reorganisation –; Secondary Modern , , , ; Self-evaluation ; Specialist , ; Technical , , , ; Voluntary Aided and Controlled
Schools Council , –, , ,
Schools Direct
Schools Examination and Assessment Council (SEAC)
secondary education for all xv,
SEED Project ,
selection at ages and , ,
SIP
sixth forms ,
social class
social context –, , ,
special education needs (SEN) , , , , , ,
standards , , , , –, ,
Sure Start ,
Swann Report
Teach First , ,
teacher autonomy , , , ,
Teacher recruitment , , , ,
Teacher strikes ,
Teacher Training Agency
Teacher Training Colleges/Colleges of Education ,
teacher training/professional development , –, –, –,
teaching profession xv, –, , ,
technical and vocational , , ,
Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) , , –
testing xv, , , , ; teaching to , ,
Timss ,
Tomlinson Committee ,
Tower Hamlets , ,
Training and Enterprise Council (TEC)
unemployment
Unified Vocational Preparation (UVP) –
universities , –, –
University Funding Council
University Grants Committee (UGC) , , , , , ,
University Technology Colleges , –, , ,
USA ,
vocational education and training –, –, –, –, ,
voluntary bodies xv, , ,
Warwickshire LA –
world of work
youth service ,
# Name Index
Adonis, A. ,
Ainscow, M.
Alexander, R. , , , ,
Alexander, W. ,
Allen, G.
Baker, K. , , , ,
Ball, S.
Balls, Ed
Bangs, J.
Barber, M. –,
Beales, A.C.
Beaumont
Bell, D.
Bernstein, B.
Bhaskar. R.
Blair, T. , , , , –
Blunkett, D. , ,
Booth, T.
Boyle, Edward
Brighouse, Tim , , ,
Brock, M.
Cable, V.
Callaghan, James , , , , ,
Coleridge ,
Dearing –,
Dewey, J. , , ,
Dweck, C.
Eaude, T. ,
Friedman
Fullan, M.
Gardner H.
Gillborne, D. , ,
Glass, N.
Gove, M. , , , –, –
Gramsci
Green, A.
Greer, G.
Hargreaves, A ,
Hargreaves, D.
Hayek, F.
Hirst, P.
Jones, K.
Joseph, Keith , , ,
Judge, H. ,
Kennedy, H.
Kerpel, A. ,
Letwin, O.
Major, J.
Mercer, N.
Mill, J.S.
Morrell, D.
Morris, E. ,
Newman, J.H.
Newsom, J.
Newton, P.
Nias, J.
Oakeshott, M. –
Oates, T. , ,
O'Hear, A. –,
Perry, P.
Peters, R.S.
Piaget
Plato
Pugh, G.
Riddell, P.
Rose, J.
Rutter, M.
Sahlgren, G.H.
Shulman, L.
Simon, B.
Stenhouse, L.
Sylva, K. , ,
Taylor, C.
Thatcher, M. –, , , , , –, ,
Tickell, C.
Tomlinson, M.
Tomlinson, S.
Twigg, S.
Vygotsky
Wall, W.D.
Warnock, M.
Watson, David –, , ,
Whitty, G. ,
Wilby, P.
Woodhead,C. , ,
Wragg, T. ,
Young, M.
Zeldin, T. –
| {
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Recent news that New York State has taking steps to end solitary confinement for juveniles and pregnant inmates is heartening, even as it points to the larger problems facing the US corrections system—including wrongful imprisonment, inhospitable and overcrowded correctional facilities, extreme sentencing guidelines. To some people, solitary confinement seems a just punishment and to others it is cruel and inhumane treatment. Here at Shiller Preyar, we tend toward the latter. Either way, it's important to know what the key issues are in conversations about solitary confinement. | {
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Q: Renaming File Names Using Python Sorry if this question is too basic, I've been searching python and regex and haven't found exactly what I need.
I have a bunch of television show files with names that end in S01EXX like the following:
filename.S01E01.mkv
filename.S01E02.mkv
filename.S01E03.mkv
Each of this is actually a double episode, so the above three should be named with the form:
filename.S01E01-E02.mkv
filename.S01E03-E04.mkv
filename.S01E05-E06.mkv
so each should be the episode number times 2 minus 1, and the episode number times 2. I know how to rename and split with python, I just don't know how to go about parsing out the episode numbers and how deal with the leading zero that will disappear when we get to 2 digit episode numbers.
Any help is much appreciated!
A: If the position of the episode number is constant, you can extract it using a slice:
e = int(filename[-6:-4])
new_filename = '%s%02d-E%02d%s' % (filename[:-6], e*2-1, e*2, filename[-4:])
| {
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Rohullah Nikpai (; born June 15, 1987) is an ethnic Hazara taekwondo practitioner and two-time Olympic bronze medalist from Afghanistan.
Career
Nikpai started his training in Kabul, Afghanistan, at the age of 10. During the civil war over the capital city, his family left the city and settled in one of Iran's many Afghan refugee camps. He soon became a member of the Afghan refugee Taekwondo team after watching martial arts films. He returned to Kabul in 2004 and continued his training at the government provided Olympic training facility. At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar Nikpai competed in the flyweight division where he was defeated by eventual silver medalist Nattapong Tewawetchapong of Thailand in the round of 16.
Nikpai competed in the 58 kg category at the 2008 Summer Olympics, defeating two-time world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain to win the bronze medal, making him Afghanistan's first Olympic medalist in any event. He became a national hero, returning to Afghanistan and getting off the plane to be met with a crowd of many thousands. Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai immediately called to congratulate Nikpai. Karzai also awarded him a house, car, and other luxuries at the government's expense. "I hope this will send a message of peace to my country after 30 years of war," Nikpai said. In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Rohullah entered the 68 kg category, where he was defeated by Iran's Mohammad Bagheri Motamed; he eventually won his bronze medal at the Olympic Games after defeating Martin Stamper of Great Britain.
See also
Afghanistan at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Afghanistan at the 2012 Summer Olympics
References
External links
1987 births
Living people
Hazara sportspeople
People from Maidan Wardak Province
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Afghan expatriates in Iran
Afghan male taekwondo practitioners
Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Afghanistan
Olympic bronze medalists for Afghanistan
Olympic medalists in taekwondo
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2006 Asian Games
Taekwondo practitioners at the 2010 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Asian Games competitors for Afghanistan
World Taekwondo Championships medalists
Asian Taekwondo Championships medalists | {
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14. Everything in moderation - a failing proposition.
For diet and health, it does not work. It's a snappy saying and on the surface, it makes sense. However, it's too vague and does not have a meaningful definition.
Bottom-line: The notion that it's O.K. to eat everything in moderation is just an excuse to eat whatever you want. How about thinking in terms of occasional? In other words: Rarely or infrequently.
Check out the images below: The Cleveland Clinic's advice is different than well-known nutritionist Joy Bauer. If weight-loss is the issue, Joy Bauer is on target. | {
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} |
The Rainhill Trails
McGowan, Christopher
Little Brown
There are 2 copies of this book available.
Little Brown London, England 2004 First Edition Hard Cover 380 pages b/w illustrations Very Good/Good
The Rainhill Trials: The Greatest Contest of Industrial Britain and the Birth of Commerical Rail
Little,Brown London, UK 2004 First Edition Hard Cover 380 Pages with Black/White Illustrations and Line Drawings. Early on the morning of Tuesday 6 October 1829, a crowd of ten thousand spectators gathered at Rainhill, a small hamlet on the outskirts of Liverpool. They had come to witness the most remarkable event of the Industrial Age. The Trials were a fiercely competitive tournament and the prize for the winner was the lucrative contract for the Liverpool and Manchester railway. THE RAINHILL TRIALS describes the highs and lows of each contestant, whether it be the eventual winner, Stephenson's Rocket or the people's favourite, Novelty, and relives the incredible tensions of the trials. Christoher McGowan also gives us the background to the development of these stunning new technologies and includes lively pen-portraits of the engineers themselves - remarkable men who built remarkable machines in a remarkable age. Very Good/Good | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
} |
OSA Publishing > Optical Materials Express > Volume 2 > Issue 8 > Page 1095
Alexandra Boltasseva, Editor-in-Chief
Effects of growth pressure on erbium doped GaN infrared emitters synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition
I-Wen Feng, Jing Li, Jingyu Lin, Hongxing Jiang, and John Zavada
I-Wen Feng,1,* Jing Li,1 Jingyu Lin,1 Hongxing Jiang,1 and John Zavada2
1Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
2Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, New York, NY 11201, USA
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
I Feng
J Li
J Lin
H Jiang
J Zavada
Vol. 2,
•https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.2.001095
I-Wen Feng, Jing Li, Jingyu Lin, Hongxing Jiang, and John Zavada, "Effects of growth pressure on erbium doped GaN infrared emitters synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition," Opt. Mater. Express 2, 1095-1100 (2012)
Laser Materials
Fiber optic amplifiers
Optical amplifiers
Physical vapor deposition
X ray diffraction
Rare-earth-doped materials (160.5690)
Light-emitting diodes (230.3670)
Optical Materials Express Advances in Optical Materials (2012)
Er doped GaN (GaN:Er) p-i-n structures were prepared by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Effects of growth pressure on the optical performance of GaN:Er p-i-n structures have been investigated. Electroluminescence measurements revealed that the optimal growth pressure window for obtaining strong infrared emission intensity at 1.54 µm is around 20 torr, while the greater amount of Ga vacancies or non-raditive transitions were observed from the ones grown at lower or higher pressure. Our results point to possible applications in optical communications using current injected optical amplifiers based on GaN:Er p-i-n structures.
Erbium-doped a-plane GaN epilayers synthesized by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition
Talal Mohammed Al Tahtamouni, Xiaozhang Du, Jing Li, Jingyu Lin, and Hongxing Jiang
Opt. Mater. Express 5(2) 274-280 (2015)
Erbium-doped AlN epilayers synthesized by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition
Talal Mohammed Al Tahtamouni, Xiaozhang Du, Jingyu Lin, and Hongxing Jiang
Erbium doped GaN synthesized by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy
Dae-Woo Jeon, Zhenyu Sun, Jing Li, Jingyu Lin, and Hongxing Jiang
Current injection 1.54 µm light-emitting devices based on Er-doped GaN/AlGaN multiple quantum wells
T. M. Al tahtamouni, J. Li, J. Y. Lin, and H. X. Jiang
Opt. Mater. Express 6(11) 3476-3481 (2016)
Correlation between the optical loss and crystalline quality in erbium-doped GaN optical waveguides
I-Wen Feng, Weiping Zhao, Jing Li, Jingyu Lin, Hongxing Jiang, and John Zavada
R. Birkhahn and A. J. Steckl, "Green emission from Er-doped GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates," Appl. Phys. Lett. 73(15), 2143–2145 (1998).
A. J. Steckl, M. Garter, R. Birkhahn, and J. Scofield, "Green electroluminescence from Er-doped GaN Schottky barrier diodes," Appl. Phys. Lett. 73(17), 2450–2452 (1998).
R. Dahal, J. Y. Lin, H. X. Jiang, and J. M. Zavada, "Er-doped GaN and InxGa1-xN for optical communication," in Rare-Earth Doped III-Nitrides for Optoelectronic and Spintronic Applications, K. P. O'Donnell and V. Dierolf, eds. (Springer, the Netherlands, 2010).
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A. Koizumi, Y. Fujiwara, A. Urakami, K. Inoue, T. Yoshikane, and Y. Takeda, "Room-temperature electroluminescence properties of Er, O-codoped GaAs injection-type light-emitting diodes grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy," Appl. Phys. Lett. 83(22), 4521–4523 (2003).
S. Wang, A. Eckau, E. Neufeld, R. Carius, and C. Buchal, "Hot electron impact excitation cross-section of Er and electroluminescence from erbium-implanted silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor tunnel diodes," Appl. Phys. Lett. 71(19), 2824–2826 (1997).
J. T. Torvik, C. H. Qiu, R. J. Feuerstein, J. I. Pankove, and F. Namavar, "Photo-, cathodo-, and electroluminescence from erbium and oxygen co-implanted GaN," J. Appl. Phys. 81(9), 6343–6350 (1997).
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Akasaki, I.
Amano, H.
Aspell, J.
Banwell, T. C.
Barnes, P.
Baur, J.
Birkhahn, R.
Broser, I.
Buchal, C.
Carius, R.
Dahal, R.
DenBaars, S. P.
Detchprohm, T.
Eckau, A.
Eckey, L.
Evankow, J. D.
Feuerstein, R. J.
Fujiwara, Y.
Garter, M.
Heitz, R.
Heying, B.
Hiramatsu, K.
Hoffmann, A.
Hui, R.
Inoue, K.
Jayakumar, A.
Jiang, H. X.
Jopson, R. M.
Kapolnek, D.
Kaufmann, U.
Keller, B. P.
Keller, S.
Koizumi, A.
Kunzer, M.
Li, J.
Li, Y.
Lin, J. Y.
Loa, I.
Maier, K.
Meyer, B. K.
Mokhov, E. N.
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Nepal, N.
Neufeld, E.
Pankove, J. I.
Paoli, T.
Pressel, K.
Qiu, C. H.
Saleh, A. A.
Schneider, J.
Scofield, J.
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Speck, J. S.
Steckl, A. J.
Takeda, Y.
Thurian, P.
Torvik, J. T.
Ugolini, C.
Urakami, A.
Wang, Q.
Wang, S.
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J. Appl. Phys. (1)
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Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the MOCVD grown GaN:Er p-i-n emitter structure used in this study.
Fig. 2 I-V characteristics of GaN:Er p-i-n structures grown at different growth pressures from 10 to 40 torr.
Fig. 3 GaN:Er (002) XRD rocking curves of the GaN:Er p-i-n structures with varying GaN:Er growth pressures from 10 to 40 torr.
Fig. 4 Infrared spectra detected at 20 mA from GaN:Er p-i-n structures grown at different GaN:Er growth pressures from 10 to 40 torr. For GaN:Er growth pressure above 20 torr, the infrared emission intensity decreases significantly.
Fig. 5 Infrared spectra detected at 20 mA from GaN p-i-n structures without Er-doping grown at two GaN growth pressures of 10 and 20 torr.
Table 1 Summary of parameters of GaN:Er p-i-n structures grown under different GaN:Er growth pressures (P); FWHM of GaN:Er (002) XRD rocking curves; and the estimated series resistance (R).
(1) I= I sat exp( q(V−IR) ηkT −1).
(2) I dV dI =RI+ ηkT q .
Summary of parameters of GaN:Er p-i-n structures grown under different GaN:Er growth pressures (P); FWHM of GaN:Er (002) XRD rocking curves; and the estimated series resistance (R).
P (Torr)
FWHM (arcsec)
R (kΩ)
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We want all children and adults, who work in our schools to feel happy, safe and respected. Everyone in our school community is working together to make a difference in providing the right ethos and environment for this to happen. There is a joint responsibility in supporting every child to develop a positive outlook and behaviour in and out of the school community.
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High quality Golden Time rewards pupils from Year R to Year 2. Children in these year groups choose from a range of special activities run by staff.
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package org.osgi.service.blueprint.reflect;
import org.osgi.annotation.versioning.ConsumerType;
/**
* Metadata for a value that cannot {@code null}. All Metadata subtypes extend
* this type except for {@link NullMetadata}.
*
* <p>
* This Metadata type is used for keys in Maps because they cannot be
* {@code null}.
*
* @ThreadSafe
* @author $Id: 4c9fab2aad74af7e399ebd57adf3acbd705a81c1 $
*/
@ConsumerType
public interface NonNullMetadata extends Metadata {
// marker interface
}
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Ever So Close
October 26, 2019 October 13, 2019 by Gary Baines
Denver native Hubbard falls just short of first PGA Tour title, finishing career-best second in Houston Open
Mark Hubbard was born and bred in Denver, but he now lives in The Woodlands, north of Houston. A win on Sunday at the Houston Open would have been quite the story.
Alas, though Hubbard was very much in the race for the title — which would have been his first on the PGA Tour — until the 72nd hole, there was no fairytale ending for him.
Hubbard, who officially regained his PGA Tour card in August — through it was a foregone conclusion long before that, held the lead outright after 14 holes on Sunday in Humble, Texas. But a costly bogey on the par-5 15th hole — where he missed his only fairway of the final round and couldn't convert an 8-foot putt — led to a runner-up finish. That's by far his best showing ever on golf's top circuit, but a victory would have meant exempt status for two seasons after this one as well as berths in the Masters and the PGA Championship.
The Colorado Academy graduate and 2007 Colorado junior player of the year, could have forced a playoff with a birdie from 25 feet on No. 18 Sunday, but he missed the putt to the left. And Lanto Griffin, who was also looking for his first PGA Tour victory after likewise being on the Korn Ferry Tour last season, subsequently converted on a 6-foot par putt to win by one.
Lanto had taken the outright lead on No. 16 with a 33-foot birdie.
"Obviously, I'm bummed," Hubbard said in the Houston Chronicle. "But for two guys who have never won before, I thought we handled ourselves amazing. The putts we were making, the decisions we were making down the stretch, I feel like we played like we've been there before."
Hubbard, who won once on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, has had a stellar start to the season on the PGA Tour, where he played three previous seasons (2014-17). In five starts so far on the 2019-20 campaign, he's finished in the top 13 three times.
With Sunday's showing — worth $667,500 — Hubbard (pictured) moved up to seventh in the FedExCup standings. Five weeks into the 2019-20 campaign, he's already surpassed $1 million in season earnings.
Categories Archive, Featured Articles, Local Tour Players Tags Colorado Golf Journal, Denver native, Gary Baines, Houston Open, Hubbard best PGA Tour finish ever, Lanto Griffin, Mark Hubbard finishes second, PGA Tour Post navigation
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Discover These Architectural Masterpieces of the World
Ana Brdar
From the gargantuan structures that date back to the ancient world to the sleek skyscrapers that dominate modern metropolises, architecture has always possessed the ability to amaze, shock and inspire us.
To that end, we've curated a lists of some of the most fascinating architectural feats found around the globe.
Keep reading to find out what they are and where to find them.
Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau
If you're thinking "Disneyland", then you've guessed it right – this enchanting Bavarian palace served as inspiration for the famous Sleeping Beauty castle which is found in Disney's theme parks.
The original one was commissioned in 19th century by Ludwig II of Bavaria, who planned for the castle to be a retreat.
The highly stylistic palace was built in Neo-Romanesque style, which was typical of this period. It might be surprising that the design of the castle was criticized by many architecture contemporaries, however, today the Neuschwanstein represents a prime example of European historicism.
Perched atop of a dramatic hillside above the village of Hohenschwangau, the Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region, drawing over a million visitors each year.
Angkor Wat, Angkor
Angkor Wat, the symbol of Cambodia, is the largest temple complex in the world.
Spanning over 400 acres of breathtaking constructions and lush green spaces, this site is the most elaborate example of classic Khmer architecture and the most tangible proof of the Khmer Empire's enormous power, wealth and innovation.
Angkor Wat was constructed in 12th century on the orders of Khmer King Suryavarman II, who imagined it as an official state temple dedicated to Vishnu and a subsequent mausoleum.
The opulent structures were built mostly using sandstone and laterite; they also feature intricate decorative designs in shape of apsaras (divine nymphs), as well as many narrative scenes depicting ancient epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The most captivating element of Angkor Wat is undoubtedly the quincunx with a dominant central tower; a construction that symbolizes the five peaks of the sacred Mount Meru.
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Chances are, when someone says the word "Sydney", the image that immediately pops to mind is the city's stunning Opera House.
This magnificent building, which sprawls across the entire Bennelong Point on the Sydney Harbor, was designed by Danish architect Jørn Oberg Utzon.
After the constructions process (which lasted 14 years) was completed, the building was finally inaugurated in 1973 by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
It has since served as a multi-venue performance center for concerts, theater shows, comedy, talks and tours.
Perhaps the most striking feature of Australia's world-famous building are the so-called "shells", large concrete panels that form the roof of the building.
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
Towering over the city of St. Louis, the Gateway Arch is an emblem of the State of Missouri and the tallest man-made monument in the West.
The 192-meter-tall stainless steel construction was designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen. Its intent was to commemorate Thomas Jefferson and highlight the importance of St. Louis in the westward expansion in the United States.
The construction was completed in 1965 and the monument was opened three years later.
Today, the Gateway Arch is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and contains a visitors center that allows curious minds to ride all the way up to the observation deck in an enclosed tram.
Colosseum, Rome
The most famous building to hail from Ancient Rome, the Colosseum is nothing short of an architectural wonder.
Nestled in the central district of the Italian capital, this impressive amphitheater dates back to the 1st century AD, when Rome was ruled by Emperor Titus.
It was built using travertine stone that was brought in from Tivoli via roads made specifically for this purpose.
During the ancient times, this arena used to host all kinds of public events, including gladiatorial contests, theater performances and battle reenactments.
The Colosseum's oval is 527 meters in circumference and was able to hold between 50,000 and 80,000 people, making it the largest amphitheater ever constructed.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul
CJ Nattanai / Shutterstock.com
This modern edifice, located in the boisterous shopping area of Dongdaemun, features an eye-catching neofuturistic design characterized by smooth surfaces, curved forms and materials such as steel and aluminum.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a cutting-edge construction made out of 45,000 aluminum panels, a plaza and a landscaped park, was designed by the renowned architect Zaha Hadid, who envisioned the project as a fluid, continuous interplay between architecture and nature.
The bustling art hub hosts art exhibitions, fashion shows, forums and other cultural events.
The DDP (as it's known among Seoulites) is Korea's most instagrammed location, which is a testament to its impeccable, mesmerizing aesthetics.
Flatiron Building, New York City
NYC is known for its many dizzying skyscrapers that form the city's unique skyline.
One of the most architecturally intriguing ones is the Flatiron Building, a triangular structure that rests at the intersection of 5th Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street in Manhattan.
It was designed by the Chicago-based architect Daniel Burnham, while the construction was completed in 1902.
The iconic triangular steel skyscraper features Beaux-Arts aesthetic that gives the building an air of an Ancient Greek column.
The façade was made from limestone and glazed with terra-cota, contributing to Flatiron's rich visual appearance.
Today, the building serves as private office space, which doesn't prevent it from being one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York.
Cubic Houses, Rotterdam
Pinkcandy / Shutterstock.com
Rotterdam, a town situated on the coast of Netherlands, is one of the most architecturally intriguing cities in the world.
And among its most innovative designs are the Cube Houses, which were designed in the 1970s by the Dutch architect Piet Blom.
The Kubuswoningen, as they're known around Rotterdam, were built in an effort to revitalize the area of Oude Haven, which suffered tremendous destruction during World War II.
Blom came up with the idea to design tilted cube-shaped houses that were placed atop of hexagonal pylons. Each of these constructions represented a "tree", so a cluster of cubic houses was meant to symbolize a residential forest.
The interior of cubic houses was specifically designed to maximize on space, and it contains a living room, toilet, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Habitat 67, Montreal
This architectural curiosity was designed in an attempt to explore solutions for fusing the quality and comfort of suburban housing in an urban, high-rise context.
It was the work of Israeli Canadian architect Moshe Safdie for the World Exposition of 1967.
This brutalist housing complex is composed of 354 identical prefabricated modules that were stacked on top of each other in various geometric forms.
The apartments are connected through pedestrian paths and bridges, as well as three vertical cores of elevators, which connect the 12 stories.
Even though the jury is still out on the success of ideas promoted by Habitat 67, this piece of Canadian architecture remains hugely influential and important for the debates on urban planning and high-density housing.
Burj Khalifa, Dubai
Relegating Taipei 101 to second spot, the Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest man made building at an extraordinary 2,722 feet. Designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, it is inspired by the Islamic architecture of the region.
Construction of this multi-use development first began in 2004, with overall completion in 2009. Holder of 17 world records, the Burj Khalifa stands tall and proud, and is definitely a must-see.
St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow
Nothing says "Russia" quite like the vast Red Square and its centerpiece, the Cathedral of Saint Basil.
And yet, due to its unique design, this instantly recognizable building is one of its kind in both Russia and the world.
The construction of St. Basil's Cathedral began in the 16th century on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, a Russian Tsar, with an aim of commemorating he capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.
The shape of the building was imagined as bonfire reaching toward the sky. This effect was achieved by placing eight pillar-shaped churches around the central, ninth one.
The Cathedral's signature onion-shaped domes acquired the vibrant colors and patterns in the 17th century.
Nowadays, the church operates as a museum and it represents one of the most visited tourist sights in Moscow.
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
Often referred to as the "Giant Egg", the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing was inaugurated in 2007 with an aim to host operas, plays and concerts.
The NCPA was designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, who believed this structure would provide Beijing with an instantly recognizable landmark in contemporary style.
The building was constructed in the shape of ellipsoid dome using titanium and glass.
The entire structure is surrounded by a man-made lake that creates a serene, otherworldly setting for the building.
The interior and the NCPA's grand hall can be reached via an 80-meter-long Underwater Corridor, which stretches beneath the artificial lake.
Shah Jahan's ode to eternal love is one of the most recognized buildings in the world. History notes that the Mughal emperor commissioned the construction of this ivory mausoleum to house the body of his beloved wife, Mumtaz.
Occupying 42 acres, the Taj Mahal is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site and continues to attract more than 7 million visitors annually.
Sagrada Familia is an incomplete Roman Catholic church designed by the Catalan architectural mastermind, Antonin Gaudi.
Its construction began in 1882 under the supervision of Francisco Paula de Villar. A year later, he resigned and Gaudi took over the project, completely reimagining its form and continuing to oversee the works until his death in 1926.
The construction of the church had a very slow progress and, ultimately, the works were put to a halt due to the breakout of Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Since then, the construction process was resumed and the entire building is projected to be completed by 2026.
As it stands currently, Sagrada Familia fuses several architectural styles, among which are Catalan Modernism, Spanish Late Gothic, Art Nouveau and Noucentisme.
It features three elaborately adorned facades, out of which the Nativity Façade is the most illustrative of Gaudi's original design. It depicts various scenes taken from the Biblical story about the birth of Jesus.
Pyramids of Giza, Cairo
It is debatable whether any of buildings featured on this list would exist in the first place had it not been for the Pyramids of Giza, one of the oldest and most impressive architectural feats on the planet.
The Giza complex, which lies about 13 kilometers from the Egyptian capital of Cairo, is composed of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, as well as the Great Sphinx, which lies in the eastern part of the site.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest and the oldest of the three, as it was constructed around 2560 BC. Currently, its stands at 138 meters, although in ancient times it used to be 146 meters tall.
The pyramids were originally designed to treasure the remains of Pharaohs, ancient Egyptian rulers. It is also speculated they housed various objects which were believed to be needed for Pharaohs in the afterlife.
The Pyramids of Giza remain the only surviving Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
One of the most visited places on the planet, the Hagia Sophia has weathered many storms and seen many faces. Built in the year 537, it was first constructed as a Greek Orthodox basilica.
From 1453 to 1931, it was used as an imperial mosque. From 1935 to present day, it is a museum open to the public.
Not only is it a work of art, its cultural and historical value also makes it a visit of a lifetime.
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Often considered to be one of the most innovative examples of contemporary architecture, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao was designed by Canadian American architect Frank Gehry.
Sprawling alongside the Nervion River, the museum was officially opened in 1997, allowing the visitors to explore some of the most famous works of Spanish and international artists within its walls.
The structure of the building relies on three materials – stone, glass and titanium – which form random-looking curves that give an appearance of a ship, a nod to Bilbao's rich maritime past.
The resounding success of the bold style envisioned by Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum has influenced a wave of architects around the world to continue implementing innovative, boundary-pushing designs.
Between astonishing architectural feats of the past eras and the innovative projects unveiled in recent years, the world of architecture is only becoming richer and more diverse. The fact that contemporary architects are constantly finding new ways to push boundaries and strive towards innovative, yet aesthetically appealing solutions makes us excited for all the designs we'll get to see in the years to come.
Tagged: architecture, Destinations, Mediashelf, Travel, Travel Destinations, wonders of the world
About Ana Brdar
Ana Brdar is a writer and translator who splits her time working and travelling between Europe and Asia. She enjoys serene landscapes, Turkish coffee and figuring out how different languages work.
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} |
Shoe strings fit and look perfect. Definitely will order more.
I wish I could upload the photos, words don't do this pairing any justice. I put them in a pair of white Air max 95's that have Just Do It written all over them in black. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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I was going to make a tutorial, but then I figured that making a video would be a much better way to show this.
As for the code that you could grab from a tutorial, there's a link at the end of the post with all the code shown in the video demo.
The video demo covers how to create and run Unit Test classes for regular Java classes on Android, and also how to create and run Unit Test classes that test classes that depend on Android "Context" or "Activity" objects.
If your Android unit tests are not running because of frustrating error messages, the time spent watching this video will save you a lot of reading and headaches.
Uploaded by wedoit4you. – Explore more science and tech videos.
Wow. That was a bit more involved than unit testing could be! Apparently the Android Unit Testing in Eclipse was not developed using unit testing.
You gave a good presentation since I can take advantage of the pause button.
That was fabulous, thanks very for posting it. Would love to read about your prices of creating screen casts. | {
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Dr Alisdair MacPherson
MA (Hons), LLB, DipLP, PhD, Solicitor (Non-Practising), NP, WS, FHEA
work +44 (0)1224 272426
[email protected]
The University of Aberdeen Room C46F, School of Law, Taylor Building, Old Aberdeen, AB24 3UB
Alisdair joined the School of Law as a lecturer in June 2018, having previously been a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh since September 2017. Alisdair carried out PhD research at the University of Edinburgh on floating charges and successfully defended his thesis, "The Attachment of the Floating Charge in Scots Law", in December 2017. This research was supervised by Mr Scott Wortley and Professor George Gretton and has now been published as a monograph, The Floating Charge, in the Studies in Scots Law series.
During the course of his doctoral studies, Alisdair spent a year at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. Prior to commencing his PhD research, Alisdair qualified as a solicitor and notary public in Scotland. In addition, he holds an MA (Hons) in history, LLB and Diploma in Legal Practice, all from the University of Edinburgh.
Alisdair was a member of the Scottish Law Commission's Moveable Transactions Advisory Group. He is on the Law Society of Scotland's Board of Examiners as examiner for Scots Commercial Law and is part of the Ius Commune Research School. He is also a member of the European Law Institute.
Alisdair is a member of the Centre for Commercial Law and the Centre for Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen. He regularly responds to consultations and calls for evidence and co-ordinates submissions on behalf of the Centre for Scots Law. He is also a Writer to the Signet and the Honorary Secretary of the Aberdeen Student Law Review.
In 2020, Alisdair became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Personal Tutor
Corporate Finance and Law LLM Coordinator
Strategic Activity Lead for Public Policy Engagement (Centre for Scots Law)
Athena SWAN SAT Member
Library Committee Member
Employer Liaison Committee (2018-2020)
Deputy LLM Admissions Selector (2018-2020)
LLM International Commercial Law Co-ordinator (2019)
LLM Business Law and Sustainable Development Co-ordinator (2019)
Study Abroad Co-ordinator (2019-2020)
Digital Learning Representative (2019-2020)
Scots Commercial Law Examiner, Law Society of Scotland
Book Review Editor for Edinburgh Law Review
Member of the Scottish Law Commission's Moveable Transactions Advisory Group
Member of the Banking, Company and Insolvency Law Sub-Committee, Law Society of Scotland
Rights in security, insolvency law, company law, commercial law, property law, law of trusts, comparative law, modern legal history.
Alisdair would be interested in supervising research students working in any of these areas. He is currently supervising PhD research on the following topics:
The law of securitisation in England, France and Scotland
The balancing of interests in corporate insolvency
Financial security instruments for decommissioning liabilities
Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement
"The 'Pre-History' of Floating Charges in Scots Law", Scottish Property Law Discussion Group (28 October 2020)
"Consumer Sales Contracts: Transfer of Ownership", Scottish Law Commission Workshop on Consumer Contracts in Scotland: Reforming the Law of Transfer of Ownership (8 October 2020)
"The 'Pre-History' of Floating Charges in Scots Law", Scottish Legal History Group Conference (3 October 2020)
"Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective", Young Property Lawyers' Forum Experts' Meeting, University of Glasgow (5 June 2019)
"The Reform of Security over Moveable Property in Scots Law", Young Property Lawyers' Forum, University of Maastricht (28 May 2018)
"A Real Right Sui Generis? The Floating Charge in Scots Law", Young Property Lawyers' Forum, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg (23 September 2016)
"Floating Charges and Trust Property in Scots Law", Scots Law Discussion Group, University of Edinburgh (24 June 2016)
"The Floating Charge in Scots Law and its Attachment to Property", Modern Studies in Property Law Postgraduate Conference, Queen's University, Belfast (7 April 2016)
"A Tale of Two Mixed Systems: Assignation/Cession in Security in Scotland and South Africa", Young Property Lawyers' Forum, University of Groningen (23 November 2015)
"The Floating Charge Attachment and Ranking Paradox in Scots Law", Aktuelle Stunde, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg (21 October 2014)
A MacPherson, "Property and Insolvency Law: The Need for Multiple Perspectives", University of Aberdeen Law School Blog (29 October 2020)
A MacPherson and D McKenzie Skene, "Legislating for the Insolvency Impact of the Coronavirus Crisis", University of Aberdeen School of Law Blog (16 April 2020)
A MacPherson and D McKenzie Skene, "Debt and Insolvency Law in the Age of Coronavirus", University of Aberdeen School of Law Blog (23 March 2020)
A MacPherson and CS Rupp, "A Child of the YPLF: Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective", Young Property Lawyers Forum (10 July 2019)
A MacPherson and CS Rupp, "Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective", University of Aberdeen School of Law Blog (5 July 2019)
A MacPherson and D McKenzie Skene, "Back to the Future? The Partial Reinstatement of the Crown Preference in Insolvency", University of Aberdeen School of Law Blog (12 December 2018)
Teaching Responsibilities
LS2031 – Property Law
LS2525 – Commercial Organisations and Insolvency (Course Co-ordinator)
LS2533 – Business Law
LS3030 – Law of Equity and Trusts of England and Wales (Course Co-ordinator)
LS4067/LX4067 – Corporate Finance Law (Honours) (Course Co-ordinator)
LS501G – Comparative and International Perspectives on Company Law (LLM) (Course Co-ordinator)
LS503D – Financing of International Sales - Distance Learning (2019-2020)
LS503N – Introduction to Corporate Finance Law (Course Co-ordinator)
LS553L – Debt Finance Law (Course Co-ordinator)
LS553M – Equity Finance Law (Course Co-ordinator)
Filter by Publication Type Select Publication Type All Publication Types Books (5) Chapters (2) Articles (14) Reviews of Books, Films and Articles (5) Review articles (1)
Page 1 of 3 Results 1 to 10 of 27
Floating Charges
Macpherson, A., Wortley, S.
Gordon and Wortley's Scottish Land Law. 3 edition. W Green/Thomson Reuters
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
Involuntary Heritable Securities
Commercial Law in Scotland
Macgregor, L., Garrity, D., Hardman, J., Macpherson, A., Richardson, L.
W Green/Thomson Reuters
Books and Reports: Books
The Floating Charge
Macpherson, A. D. J.
Edinburgh Legal Education Trust, Edinburgh
Avizandum Statutes on Scots Commercial and Consumer Law 2020-2021
Macpherson, A.
Insolvency Set-Off, Discharged Debts and Protected Trust Deeds: Royal Bank of Scotland Plc v Donnelly
Macpherson, A., McKenzie Skene, D.
Edinburgh Law Review, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 262-268
Contributions to Journals: Articles
https://doi.org/10.3366/elr.2020.0631
http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/14327/1/AM_DMS_ELR_Donnelly_Case_Analysis_AAM.pdf
View publication in Scopus
Robin M White, Dundee Law 1865-1967: The Development of a Law School in a Time of Change
Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
Bleak Brexit
Zeitschrift für Europaisches Privatrecht, pp. 529-530
A Divided Kingdom? Insolvency Law in Scotland
2020 - Accepted/In press
INSOL International
Gerard McCormack & Reinhard Bork (eds), Security Rights and the European Insolvency Regulation
Show 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 results per page
King's College,
AB24 3FX
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No.SC013683 | {
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} |
Vehicle hits, kills bear
Kelly Gampel
[email protected] | @theSGphotos
Passengers who were in a car crash Sunday that killed a bear sustained minor injuries.
Kevin E. Hill, 39, hit the bear approximately 1,066 feet south of Beutertown Road. Hill was driving a 2005 Chevrolet Suburban south on U.S. Route 15 in Liberty, Pa., around 11:16 p.m. when a black bear crossed into Hill's path from the northbound lane, state police at Mansfield said in a news release.
The front portion of the vehicle was damaged, and the bear died from the impact, police said.
Hill and his five passengers — ages 37, 13, 6, 6 and 9, all of Liberty — were wearing their seat belts, police said.
Kristie L. Hill, 37, and a 13-year-old male were transported to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital by Blossburg Ambulance for minor injuries, police said.
Follow Kelly Gampel on Twitter@theSGphotos | {
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School Bus Conversion Resources > Skoolie Tech > Alternative Fuels | Electric, Propane, Wood Gasification, etc.
We just got our bus!!!!
Seats are out now the fun begins.
There are 3 battery boxes and none of them are deep enough for a propane tank, even a horizontal one. So where is the best place to mount the tank? And where to buy a bracket?
Rats one of the battery boxes was right close to where all the propane was going to be used. Not sure if I should try to modify the box. Seems complex to do that.
Post a picture! This sounds super cool.
I put a permanent 80 lb tank, and an additional 3 20lb portable tanks in the front compartment of my thomas RE safty liner. I used steel straping for the RV tank. They will fit under any normal bus.
I'm going to build a metal box tall enough for 20lb tanks and have it extend all the way back to the chassis, with holes in the bottom to prevent possible propane buildup. It'll be behind the rear axle between the water heater and a place to store a small generator. I'l also add mud flaps to prevent road debris from damaging these boxes.
I know there are also large ASME tanks that mount directly to the chassis, but everytime you fill it you have to drive the whole vehicle there and that's too much of a pain for me.
I'm sure most know this, but. . .
It's OK to store and transport vertical tanks on their side, but **never** operate them in a position for which they aren't designed.
It is possible to design and build tanks that will work in both positions, but that is not practical nor legal.
And horizontal tanks will be "keyed" to a specific point being at the bottom.
Some of NFPA 1192's stipulations are of questionable relevancy to self-converted buses, but its requirement to mount propane tanks or cylinders between the wheelbase makes sense to me. It always makes me very nervous to see, let alone drive anywhere near, RVs and campers with propane cylinders on the back bumper - what would happen in a collision there?
Please keep in mind to follow your local transportation of dangerous goods policies. In alberta canada you may have 5 tanks of propane on your vehicle as long as the stickers on the tanks are visible but any more after that you need stickers and warning placards on your vehicle.
I know the chances of you being stopped are slim though.
also know some ferries will not let you on if you have over 65 lbs of propane storage.
until i can afford to build under mounted storage to place horizontal tanks im simply planning on keeping them underneath the kitchen cabinet. i also plan on having a propane, carbon monoxide, and smoke detector combination unit just in case. | {
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Q: BeginCollectionItem new element not working with jQuery MVC 5 I'm trying to test whether content is in a text field, this works with initially loaded elements, but not the elements (which share the same class name) added using beginCollectionItem.
For example a textbox is added through bci and gets filled in, when filled in and focus goes elsewhere, the textbox will be given the 'makeitred' class.
What's wrong with the javascript I'm using?
partial using BCI
<div class="editorRow">
@using (Html.BeginCollectionItem("ispDetails"))
{
<div class="ui-grid-c ui-responsive">
<div class="ui-block-a">
<span>
@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.type, new { @class = "isitempty" })
</span>
</div>
</div>
}
</div>
Index segment calling partial - on page load elements the jQuery works, anything there after using the add button doesn't
@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<div id="editorRowsEQM">
@foreach (var item in Model.ispDetails)
{
@Html.Partial("EquipView", item)
}
</div>
@Html.ActionLink("Add", "ispManager", null, new { id = "addItemEQM", @class = "button" });
}
JS from the Index
$(function () {
$('#addItemEQM').on('click', function () {
$.ajax({
url: '@Url.Action("ispManager")',
cache: false,
success: function (html) { $("#editorRowsEQM").append(html); }
});
return false;
});
$(document).on('change', '.isitempty', function checkFill (e) {
if ($(this).val().length == 0) {
$(this).removeClass('makeitred');
} else $(this).addClass('makeitred');
});
});
| {
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} |
Quick Answer: Is Norwegian A Beautiful Language?
What language is mainly spoken in Norway?
What is the hardest language to learn?
What language is Norwegian similar to?
What is the primary language spoken in Norway?
What language is closest to English?
What is the most beautiful language on earth?
Can Norwegians understand English?
Is Danish easier than Norwegian?
Is Norwegian a useful language?
Is Norwegian hard to learn?
Why are Norwegians so good at English?
Are Norwegians Vikings?
Does Norwegian have genders?
How long will it take to learn Norwegian?
Norway is home to two official languages – Norwegian and Sami.
Norwegian is by far the language spoken by most people.
Like Swedish, Danish and Icelandic, Norwegian is a Germanic language derived from Old Norse.
There are, however, two ways of writing Norwegian – bokmål and nynorsk..
The 6 Hardest Languages For English Speakers To LearnMandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. … Arabic. Another of the hardest languages for English speakers to pick up is also in the top five most spoken world languages: Arabic. … Polish. … Russian. … Turkish. … Danish.
DanishDanish and Norwegian are the two languages that are the most similar, among the Scandinavian languages. As a group, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are all very similar and it is common for people from all three countries to be able to understand each other.
NorwegianNorway/Official languages
FrisianThe closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
FRENCHFRENCH – MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOKEN LANGUAGE With its unpronounceable "r", its nasal vowel sounds "en", "in", "un" and melodious intonation, it sounds extremely musical to the non-native ear. And let's not forget the strong cultural context which lends French the status of the most beautiful spoken language in the world.
English is widely spoken in Norway, and virtually every Norwegian can speak fluent (or understand a minimum of, this is mostly the elder people) English. Tourist information is usually printed in several languages. … Many Norwegians also speak or understand a second foreign language, often German, French or Spanish.
When it comes to Danish vs Norwegian, Norwegian is easier to understand. Their writing is the same, and there's not a lot of difference between vocabulary and grammar either. And for Swedish vs Norwegian, Norwegian wins again. It's a slight bit closer to English in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation.
The "advantage" of learning Norwegian is that it's probably one of the easiest languages for an English-speaker to learn, it sounds rather beautiful and, if you learn it, you will find you can communicate quite easily with Danes and Swedes without having to learn Danish or Swedish. Absolutely.
For English language speakers, Norwegian is much easier to learn than most other languages. This is thanks to a number of things including the fact that they are both Germanic languages. This makes it easier to learn as it means it features a lot of cognates, words you will already recognize.
Scandinavians Recognise the Benefits of Speaking English Outside of Scandinavia. The main reason Scandinavians push to become fluent in foreign languages is unsurprising. … As English is considered the main international language, there is a particular emphasis put on learning this language, above all others.
Vikings were the seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden) who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe, and explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland.
Gender of Nouns Norwegian Bokmål has three genders – feminine, masculine and neuter.
Germanic languagesAfrikaansabout 575 hours or 23 weeksDanishabout 575 hours or 23 weeksDutchabout 575 hours or 23 weeksNorwegianabout 575 hours or 23 weeksSwedishabout 575 hours or 23 weeksApr 18, 2018
Question: How Do Tou Know If You Have MS?
What should you do if you think you have MS?
Quick Answer: Why Am I Suddenly Getting Cavities?
Do dentists lie about cavities? A cavity is a cavity
Quick Answer: Is Abby And Brittany Married?
Did Abby and Brittany have a baby? However, that day
Question: Who Are The Native American Gods?
What is the oldest Native American tribe?
Why Did Vikings Put Blood On Their Faces?
Who was the most famous female Viking? The Most Legendary
How Many Girl Gamers Are There In The World?
Why are there no girl gamers? There arent really that | {
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Discover the fascinating science happening all around us at the UA Science Café Series, brought to you by the University of Arizona College of Science. Science Cafés bring the community together with UA scientists and graduate students in a casual setting. You'll learn about the latest research being conducted, get to know the faces behind the science, and have opportunities to ask questions and deepen your understanding. We have five separate café series at five different locations around Tucson, each with their own themes for fascinating science discussions. Come join the conversation!
Only one history of life has been recorded on our planet, but can we resurrect essential components of our planet's biological past? Is life a result of a fluke accident? What is the likelihood of life occurring elsewhere in the Universe? In this talk I will describe how my group uses molecular tools to unravel the conditions of our ancient planet and to explore life's possible existence elsewhere in the Universe. I will also discuss how the contributions of Lynn Margulis, a visionary biologist, impacted our understanding of the origins of complex life and astrobiology. | {
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Olobob Top is a British children's television series created by Leigh Hodgkinson and Steve Smith. The programme is narrated by Stephen Mangan.
Plot
The series follows a group of 3 animals called the Olobobs. Tib, Lalloo and Bobble live in a big forest and have fun playing, exploring and solving everyday problems. In each episode, with the help of Olobob Top,
they work together combining shapes, colours and patterns to create a new character, who joins in with the Olobobs' fun, while a friendly narrator encourages them to think for themselves, who suggests in each episode that it "looks like a trip to the...Olobob Top!".
Characters
Tib (voiced by Tom Aspinall) - The oldest brother, who is a rabbit
Lalloo (voiced by Elsa Hodgesmith) - The middle sister, who is a koala
Bobble (voiced by Sidney Hodgesmith) - The youngest brother, who is a hamster
Big Fish (voiced by India Newman) - A large pink-purple fish-like creature
Crunch (voiced by Veronica Painter) - A squirrel
Deeno (voiced by Ivar Davies-Seaton) - A green mole
Gurdy - A large snail
Grown Up (voiced by Barnaby Templer) - The local adult, only his lower legs and feet are seen
Leaves - 5 performing leaves
Lemon (voiced by Matilda Brookes) - A moose
Norbet (voiced by Finlay Pilfold) - A bear who is the local shopkeeper
Episodes
Series 1 (2017–18)
Series 2 (2019)
References
External links
Official site
Beakus's Olobob Top page
Cloth Cat Animation's Olobob Top page
Olobob Top on CBeebies
Olobob Top on ABC iView
2017 British television series debuts
2010s British animated television series
2010s British children's television series
British children's animated adventure television series
CBeebies
English-language television shows
British preschool education television series | {
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Q: Cannot manage Azure DevOps from Work Account, even I am the organization owner Currently my organization in Azure DevOps contains two users: [email protected] (Personal Account) and [email protected] (Work Account).
[email protected] (Work Account) is the organization owner. When I log into devops with this account, I cannot do anything without avoid the user being switched to the Personal Account automatically.
The personal account does not have permission to manage users nor change and organization settings. So I am kind of stuck.
My end goal is to link this organization to our Azure Ad tennant, that my Work Account is member of.
How can I fix that?
A: If you want to use the AAD identity of the same email address to access the organization, you first need to check whether the organization is connected to AAD like this in the Azure Active Directory of the organization settings.
Secondly, when you log in, please select Work or school account. This happens when you sign in with an email address that's shared by your personal Microsoft account and by your work account or school account.
*
*Select Work or school account if you used this identity to create
your organization, or if you previously signed in with this identity.
Your identity is authenticated by your organization's directory in
Azure AD, which controls access to your organization.
*Select Personal account if you used your Microsoft account with Azure
DevOps. Your identity is authenticated by the global directory for
Microsoft accounts.
In addition, you can open a private or incognito browsing session and sign in, which can avoid the influence of the identity cached by the browser.
Here is the document about troubleshooting access via Azure AD you can refer to.
| {
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A somewhat-literary Instagram account has earned thousands of followers for its book commentary — though the 'grammer behind it doesn't seem to have actually read any of the titles.
Snide Octopus offers witty commentary on books he finds in the library, taking pictures of the spines of books that have interesting titles and posting them regularly.
Then, using Snapchat, he adds captions to the images, dreaming up subtitles (or sometimes teasers or first lines) that take the titles of the books completely out of context.
The result is a series of funny subtitles that make the books seem a whole lot more interesting than they might actually be — though they can also be quite bizarre.
'Causing disturbances in libraries nationwide,' the witty jokster wrote in his Instagram bio. | {
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Represented large technology companies in negotiating and drafting cloud services agreements, managed services contracts, service level agreements and software licensing.
Handled Washington State's retailer litigation for international insurance company involving core and tender premises and general liability matters.
Represented five of the largest school districts in Washington State handling their core and tender general and premises liability matters.
Successfully litigated multiple premises liability matters, which ultimately resulted in positive arbitrations.
Defending a multi-party general and premises liability matter involving vendors and employees. Successfully obtained summary judgment dismissing three of the Plaintiffs.
Represented a major technology company and successfully defended against claims for racial discrimination.
Successfully defended and represented a private school against claims of wrongful termination.
Successfully negotiated workouts of defaulted loans for SBA backed loans with full principal payoffs.
Represented a real estate developer in the purchase and development of a mixed-use property as a public/private joint venture with the City of Tacoma. Responsibilities included assistance in identifying and negotiating a construction loan for the project, permitting, and investor relations. This was a $45,000,000 project.
Represented a real estate developer in the purchase, development and management of a large hotel and casino valued at $30,000,000, including assisting in the financing of the entire portfolio as well as investor relations and corporate management. The hotel and casino are tenants in common and have a comprehensive TI agreement with respect to use of the property and taxation issues.
Represented a chain restaurant in negotiating a long-term lease with the local port authority.
Prepared and negotiated with a city and port on a sublease of a distressed property to be used in a targeted employment area for investment and job creation purposes.
Prepared and negotiated and implemented complex master lease for a Fortune 100 Financial Institution for their retail banking locations.
Negotiated and drafted anchor tenant leases for a major oil company.
Represented a non-profit foundation in the purchase of land from the City of Seattle. | {
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A lot of people were talking about Erskine May recently, mainly along the lines of those two questions above. So who, or what, is Erskine May?
Erskine May is the name of a guide for parliamentary procedures in the UK, which was quite recently cited by Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow when stating why he wouldn't allow a third vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal if it weren't substantially different from the deal voted on twice previously.
So where does this unusual name come from? Quite simply, it's the name of the guide's original author, Thomas Erskine May (almost contains Theresa!) It was originally entitled A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament when first published in 1844. The name became progressively streamlined throughout the years and editions, understandably enough.
Around the early 20th century though, May became named in the title for the first time, and his name has remained as part of the title since, leading to the relatively minimalist title of the 24th edition: Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice. I think the presence of May's name can largely be chalked up to respect for the man, and the importance of his work.
I think it can also be attributed to the fact that Erskine's not a common name. When people talk about the book Erskine May, it doesn't really feel like you're using someone's name. It's not like if it were called John Smith or something.
As always with Brexit, the language of the whole mess is fascinating. Apart from Erskine May, and of course Brexit itself, there seems to be something new to learn every day. Like MV3. An abbreviation for Meaningful Vote 3, a hypothetical third vote on the Brexit deal. Oddly enough it's MV3 that makes me think the UK has reached a point of no return. It just sounds so un-British, so needlessly short. So, dare I say it?, American?
It's all just sad really, but at least Erskine May might save us from MV3 becoming a reality.
Did you see the clip of John Bercow arriving to work yesterday, in a scruffy stripy jumper, looking like a hobo? It was amazing. I had never seen him out of his robes of office. I love the fact that this unlikely hero shuffling down Westminster looking like tramp is the man who is putting manners on the farcical House of Commons.
It was fantastic to see, and I think a little down-to-earth common sense is what the increasingly farcical Brexit debacle needs.
I know that you've got Hansard as well, and foisted it on the rest of the Brittish world. I would love to see a Brittish flag on an old, crapt up Triumph or Brittish Layland that plays some Cromwellian ballad with some honorary Members of the House of Lords in it, the Dukes of Hanzzard. | {
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Dubbed "LEGO," the new user experience offers a much better looking, smoother search experience. As you can see in the demo video below, the search results now appear with a smooth animation rather than just popping in. A similar animation is used when selecting a knowledge graph card, and when in that card, users are able to scroll through the image results. | {
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Blood. 2016 Jun 16;127(24):3026-34. doi: 10.1182/blood-2015-12-686550. Epub 2016 Mar 30.
Genetic basis of PD-L1 overexpression in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas.
Georgiou K1, Chen L2, Berglund M3, Ren W1, de Miranda NF4, Lisboa S5, Fangazio M6, Zhu S7, Hou Y7, Wu K7, Fang W8, Wang X9, Meng B9, Zhang L8, Zeng Y8, Bhagat G10, Nordenskjöld M11, Sundström C12, Enblad G12, Dalla-Favera R6, Zhang H9, Teixeira MR5, Pasqualucci L6, Peng R8, Pan-Hammarström Q1.
Clinical Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden;
Clinical Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden; BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China;
Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden;
Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands;
Department of Genetics, Portuguese Oncology Institute, and Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute, Porto University, Porto, Portugal;
Institute for Cancer Genetics, Columbia University, New York, NY;
BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China;
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China and Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China;
Department of Lymphoma, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China;
Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY;
Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Sweden; and.
Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Rudbecklaboratoriet, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is one of the most common and aggressive types of B-cell lymphoma. Deregulation of proto-oncogene expression after a translocation, most notably to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus (IGH), is one of the hallmarks of DLBCL. Using whole-genome sequencing analysis, we have identified the PD-L1/PD-L2 locus as a recurrent translocation partner for IGH in DLBCL. PIM1 and TP63 were also identified as novel translocation partners for PD-L1/PD-L2 Fluorescence in situ hybridization was furthermore used to rapidly screen an expanded DLBCL cohort. Collectively, a subset of samples was found to be affected by gains (12%), amplifications (3%), and translocations (4%) of the PD-L1/PD-L2 locus. RNA sequencing data coupled with immunohistochemistry revealed that these cytogenetic alterations correlated with increased expression of PD-L1 but not of PD-L2 Moreover, cytogenetic alterations affecting the PD-L1/PD-L2 locus were more frequently observed in the non-germinal center B cell-like (non-GCB) subtype of DLBCL. These findings demonstrate the genetic basis of PD-L1 overexpression in DLBCL and suggest that treatments targeting the PD-1-PD-L1/PD-L2 axis might benefit DLBCL patients, especially those belonging to the more aggressive non-GCB subtype.
B-Lymphocytes/metabolism
B7-H1 Antigen/genetics*
Cytogenetic Analysis
DNA Copy Number Variations
Gene Amplification
Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
Genes, Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain
Germinal Center/metabolism
Germinal Center/pathology
Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/pathology
Up-Regulation/genetics
B7-H1 Antigen
CD274 protein, human
B-Cell Lymphomas - Genetic Alliance | {
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M6C/SOCOM Magnum Sidearm by fergal_kelly is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution - Non-Commercial license.
The M6C/SOCOM also known as the Automag, is a semi-automatic pistol and a variant of the M6C magnum sidearm.
It is used by UNSC special operations units. It is the secondary weapon of special forces Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and is used in operations that rely on stealth rather than direct engagements.
The M6C/SOCOM variant has an integrated sound suppressor and muzzle brake. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Stijn Dickel went for 10 days to Marrakesh to record sounds from the Medina. These recordings were used to aurally manipulate a group of people from another culture. The group of people who were treated, were people who stroll in a park during the Ghent Feast (2014). Stijn arranged four speakers in the park and with a controller he created another aural setting. With a database of Moroccan sounds he sent the listening of "the public" in different directions and after every 30 minutes of improvising he made an interview with the people.
This project was commissioned by Flemish Government, Trefpunt and aifoon.
In cooperation with Post X (Wouter Cox) and FoAM Stijn infiltrated with his concept of Audiohacking during a sensual dinner. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Sniff, A Film Noir Set In A Retirement Home, Will Star Morgan Freeman And Al Pacino
By Joshua Meyer/Sept. 7, 2021 8:20 pm EST
What do you get when you put Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Dame Helen Mirren, and Danny DeVito in a retirement community together? A film noir, of course. The four actors, all of whom have received Academy Award nominations or wins over the course of their illustrious careers, will appear in "Sniff," the latest film from director Taylor Hackford.
THR reports that "Sniff" is launching sales at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off this Friday, September 10, 2021.
Rian Johnson's "Brick" famously used a high school as an unlikely noir setting, and "Sniff" will be going to the opposite end of the age spectrum, framing its noir around septua- and octogenarians. It sounds like the spirit of Detective Somerset, Freeman's character in "Seven," and Alex Cross, his character in "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider," will live on in "Sniff" in the form of a retired police detective who gets drawn into a mystery.
Hackford, who served as president of the DGA (Director's Guild of America) and is known for his work in "Ray" and "An Officer and a Gentleman," happens to be married to Mirren and has directed her before in "Love Ranch." For "Sniff," he'll also be re-teaming with Pacino after "The Devil's Advocate," their 1997 supernatural thriller, in which Pacino squared off against Keanu Reeves.
A Wish List of Actors
Tribeca Productions
Deadline reveals that "Sniff" is penned by Tom Grey, a first-time screenwriter, and that the title is an acronym for "Senior Nursing Institute & Family Foundation." Hackford is reportedly a big fan of film noir, and because of his industry contacts and spousal connection with Mirren, this is one of those rare projects where the writer's wish list of actors all wound up signing on, making his dream come true.
The idea of a noir set in a retirement community is an interesting one, especially in a business that is as obsessed with youth and beauty as Hollywood is. If nothing else, it's good to see these actors getting some work and combining their talents in one project.
Hackford will produce "Sniff" through his company, Anvil Films, with Adam Goodman and Matt Skiena of Dichotomy Creative Group co-producing. Here's the synopsis via THR:
When two residents die under suspicious circumstances, retired detective Joe Mulwray (Freeman) is pulled back into the action by his former partner William Keys (DeVito) as they uncover a hidden underworld of sex, drugs, and murder in the high-end, luxury retirement community controlled by kingpin Harvey Stride (Pacino) and his femme fatale enforcer, the Spider (Mirren). | {
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} |
Hans Commenda ist der Name folgender Personen:
* Hans Commenda senior (1853–1939), österreichischer Geograph und Volkskundler
Hans Commenda junior (1889–1971), österreichischer Volkskundler | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
} |
Q: navigation inside complex object (js) I have an object with very complex structure :)
Like that:
{
"0":[ {} ],
"1" : [],
"2" : [],
"3" :
[
[
{"row" : 0, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 1, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 2, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 3, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 4, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 5, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 6, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10}
],
[
{"row" : 0, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 1, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 2, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10}, //here new count let be 20.
{"row" : 3, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 4, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 5, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10},
{"row" : 6, "name" : "Test","price" : 15,"count" : 10}
],
[],
[],
...,
[]
],
"4":[ { } ],
"5":[]
}
And i need to replace some of his values. How i can set new count in specified place?
| {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
} |
Notable for his Snapchat account Grizzlystuff, he is an all-around digital media influencer who is also big on YouTube and Instagram.
He registered for his YouTube channel in December of 2015.
He publishes boyfriend/girlfriend prank videos on his Snapking YouTube channel, which has 430,000 subscribers.
He has dated model Famke Louise. He has a younger brother named Dan.
He considers Kwaaivines and Joey Bravo as part of his friend circle. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
The Trump administration has released an American citizen who was captured and accused of being a member of ISIS, but never charged after more than a year in U.S. custody.
His release ends the long legal saga and questions over what power the U.S. government has to detain a U.S. citizen and what power the executive branch has to fight ISIS without explicit congressional authorization — questions that will now remain largely unanswered.
The man, who requested anonymity and was referred to as "John Doe" in court filings, was released on Sunday, a spokesperson for the ACLU confirmed to ABC News Monday. The ACLU, which represented the suspect in his battle with the U.S. government, said it could not disclose where he was released because of a confidential settlement agreement with the government, but a U.S. official confirmed he was freed in Bahrain, where his wife and daughter are living, according to the New York Times.
"This is a victory our client fought for long and hard. The victory sends a strong message that the president cannot take away an American's liberty without due process, and it shows the continuing importance of judicial review," ACLU senior staff attorney Jonathan Hafetz said in a statement.
"John Doe," whom the Times identified as Abdulrahman Ahmad Alsheikh, was originally detained in September 2017 by Kurdish forces of the Syrian Democratic Army, America's ally on the ground in Syria, who then handed him over to U.S. officials.
The U.S. government argued that because he was an "enemy combatant" who was captured on the battlefield working for ISIS, he could be detained indefinitely, citing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF)that gives the president the legal ability to go after al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their supporters.
But the ACLU and "John Doe" denied the allegations against him and argued that the AUMF did not cover the war against ISIS. They demanded that "John Doe" be charged or released.
Afterward, the U.S. instead proposed dropping "John Doe" in Syria near where he was first picked up, leaving him with his clothes, $4,210 in cash — the same amount he had when he was captured — a new cell phone, and "sufficient food and water to last for several days," according to a government filing.
Shortly after that, according to the ACLU, the government began settlement discussions with them, continuing to hold "John Doe" in detention in Iraq until his release Sunday.
The U.S. government accused "John Doe" of traveling to Syria in 2014 and again in 2015 to join ISIS as he used a Twitter account to promote and interact with the terror group. He told U.S. investigators that he worked for the group after he entered Syria in March 2015 in various administrative roles. But he said that he did so unwillingly as a prisoner after entering Syria as a freelance journalist, according to court filings.
Still, the government was allowed to detain a U.S. citizen for more than 13 months without charging him with a crime, a case that some legal experts warn sets a dangerous precedent.
ABC News's Luis Martinez contributed to this report. | {
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} |
Explore, Learn, Have Fun!: I love Black Spray Paint!
I took this stainless steel paper towel holder out on the deck, with some paper and my trusty can of spray paint.
and the next day, on the newly painted kitchen counters, here's how it looks!
I'm very happy with the results, and it fits in nicely with my other black accessories, too! Easy peasy to make anything new again with spray paint! | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Fans of great music, performed by an artist in a class by herself, should get their tickets now for An Evening Under the Stars with Patty Griffin. The Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter will be on stage for an intimate private concert at Abacus in Camana Bay on Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. She will be accompanied by musician David Pulkingham.
The event is being held to raise funds for Stay-Focused, an extraordinary organization that introduces teens with disabilities to the wonders of Scuba diving. Over the years, hundreds of teenagers have been flown to the Cayman Islands to experience the joy of exploring the world beneath the waves. Stay-Focused is celebrating its 15th year anniversary in 2018, so what better way to celebrate than with a little dinner, some wine and a lot of music? Each ticket includes a Prosecco welcome reception and a three-course dinner with half a bottle of wine per person.
She is an accomplished vocalist and plays guitar and piano and her songs have been covered by numerous musicians, including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Rory Block, Dave Hause, and the Dixie Chicks.
In 2007, Griffin received the Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, and her album "Children Running Through" won the award for Best Album.
David Pulkingham will be accompanying Patty Griffin on guitar.
David Pulkingham is a guitarist and songwriter, who David Bowie's producer Tony Visconti refers to as "the complete guitarist, one of the best I've ever worked with." In 2015, Pulkingham released his first singer/songwriter album entitled "Little Pearl." He is currently traveling internationally under his own name, and has toured with Patty for five years.
The vision for Stay-Focused is to create a unique leadership development organization for teens with disabilities that enhances their quality of life and provides the opportunity for continued growth. Scuba diving offers teens and young adults with disabilities an unparalleled opportunity to experience freedom from their disability, gain confidence, and realize their ability to set higher goals. Friendships formed during the program last a lifetime, and Stay-Focused alumni remain involved in guiding, and, eventually running, the organization.
Learning more about the beneficial aspects of Scuba diving for people with disabilities and assisting in developing appropriate guidelines is a priority for the organization.
The evening benefits the Stay-Focused organization, represented here by Roger Muller and Ryan Chalmers.
Tickets for this concert are $200 each, or $250 for VIP which include a meet-and-greet with Patty Griffin, a photo and a copy of her "Servant of Love" CD. Tickets can be bought at Abacus (623-8282) or on the Stay-Focused website at www.stay-focused.org. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
} |
Modelling has been a wee bit slow of late due to being off work on leave. The fact I'm not on shifts means I have more energy and coupled with the extraordinarily good July weather in these parts this results on my getting a lot of necessary jobs in and outside the house done that I'd normally feel a bit worn out and apathetic to do!
Nevertheless, last week I did get this model to more-or-less completion.
Another of the part-builds I acquired from my friend. I completed this Parkside ex-LMS, Fowler era brake, finished in unfitted early-mid 1950s er grey she will be a temporary stand by until the Stanier is ready.
The worst part of the whole job was making the handrails. I absolutely hate this job as however hard you try with measuring and bending the wire, there is invariably a discrepancy that means the rail is either slightly long or short sufficient to provide just enough visually jarring distortion in the rails and generating a generous amount of industrial language from this builder.
Nevertheless, I managed to survive the handrail phase in this one although some weird primer-related clumsiness on my part led to a hint of re-planking as viewed here.
It's not too bad though, I hope you'll agree! As standard with my builds this one has LMS Models buffers and EM wheels.
Share the handrail pain despite the advent of etched bending jigs. My Stanier – brakes can keep the moulded ones! | {
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} |
https://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/GSO-concert-and-other-things-to-do-in-Greenwich-14855734.php
GSO concert and other things to do in Greenwich
Published 3:00 pm EST, Friday, November 22, 2019
The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, featuring Mozart, Symphony No. 35 (Haffner); Brahms, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) with the Greenwich High School Select Choirs; and Schubert, Symphony No. 10. Concerts are at the Greenwich High School Performing Arts . Tickets are $40 per person, $10 for students. For more information, call 203-869-2664 or visit www.greenwichsymphony.org.
The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, featuring Mozart, Symphony No. 35 (Haffner); Brahms, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) with the Greenwich High School
Photo: File / Hearst Connecticut Media
For the latest events and activities happening in Greenwich, turn to For the record. To have your event included, submit a description, date, time, price and contact information. Photos are welcome. Drop us an email about your latest goings-on at [email protected].
Taste the Adventure
Connecticut has dozens of fantastic, award-winning wineries, with beautiful scenery, daily tastings, live music, and lots of special events. Get insider tips for exploring the CT Wine Trail with Michelle Griffis, a former writer for ctwine.com and an advocate of the CT Wine Trail, in a presentation from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Greenwich Library's Meeting Room. She will talk about the wine trail with a presentation that includes pictures from her travels.
The Greenwich Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. into the fall in the Arch Street commuter lot. Enjoy fresh Connecticut-grown produce all season. Over a dozen farm vendors will be in attendance. The parking lot at Arch Street and Horseneck Lane is off Exit 3 of I-95. For more information, visit www.greenwichfarmersmarketct.com/.
Local actor in play
Greenwich actor Byrne White stars as Mattie Conway in Clan na Gael Players' presentation of "Nobody's Talking To Me," at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Gaelic American Club, 74 Beach Road, Fairfield. Set in rural Ireland, it's the day of Mattie and Maggie Conway's 50th wedding anniversary. However, very few people know that the "happy couple" haven't spoken to each other for 10 years. When the parish priest arrives to surprise them and to renew their wedding vows all hell breaks loose. This comedy is suitable for all ages and seating is cabaret-style. Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling 203-685-6256 or emailing [email protected].
Churches celebrate merger
The new Parish of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Agnes will celebrate their merger with "founding of the parish" events beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday with a special prayer hour with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Agnes at 247 Stanwich Road. Adoration and silent prayer will continue from 6 p.m. throughout the night to 7 a.m. Sunday. A benediction is set for 7:30 a.m. Sunday to close the adoration and begin a 3-mile procession from St. Agnes to St. Catherine of Siena at 4 Riverside Ave. with the Blessed Sacrament. Parking will be available at St. Agnes, or join the procession by parking at the rear lot of the Capparelle Building at 551 E. Putnam Ave. Bishop Frank Caggiano will celebrate Mass at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Catherine, including a blessing for the new parish. A reception will be hosted in Lucey Parish Hall after the Mass.
The Little Enchanted Forest will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Greenwich Botanical Center at 130 Bible St., with many of the festive holiday touches that made the event a success for decades in the past. It is hosted by the Junior League of Greenwich. There will be a forest of decorated trees, a holiday boutique and a wreath-making workshop. The league is also setting up a children's giving shop, where kids can buy holiday gifts independently without family nearby and perhaps spoiling the surprise. The decorated trees and wreaths will be put up for auction. Santa Claus will also be back to hear holiday wishes and pose for pictures. For a full schedule and to buy tickets, visit www.jlgreenwich.org. The funds raised will go toward supporting the Junior League of Greenwich's projects throughout the community.
Greenwich Symphony Orchestra
The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, featuring Mozart, Symphony No. 35 (Haffner); Brahms, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) with the Greenwich High School Select Choirs; and Schubert, Symphony No. 10, which is the U.S. premiere of performance version by Pierre Bartholomee. Concerts are at the Greenwich High School Performing Arts Center, 10 Hillside Road. Tickets are $40 per person, $10 for students. For more information, call 203-869-2664 or visit www.greenwichsymphony.org.
Family gallery tours
The Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, host Family Gallery Tours from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Sundays. The tours are geared for kids ages 6-10. Free with regular admission, and no registration is required. Visit brucemuseum.org for more info.
Handler & Levesque in concert
Husband and wife duo Handler and Levesque, who have performed over 2,000 concerts together in the United States & Europe, will perform from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the Greenwich Library's Flinn Gallery. Their sophisticated and expressive arrangements blend classical, Brazilian, Latin American, klezmer, gypsy, jazz, Celtic and folk music influences to create a unique and extraordinary sound. This, matched with their impeccable musicianship, has won them a widespread enthusiastic following. Judy Handler plays the guitar, while Mark Levesque, is on guitar and mandolin.
Archery open shoot
The Cos Cob Archers will hold an Open Shoot from 8 a.m. to 1 p..m. Sunday as they open their club to the public and invite all to attend. Open Shoots are held once a month, generally on the last Sunday of each month; bad weather cancels. The club provides loaner compound bows, arrows and instruction for beginners. The cost — $20 for shooting adults, $5 for kids under 16, and $10 for non-shooting adults — includes lunch of grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks. The Club's trails cover 23 wooded acres with more than 40 shooting stations with both paper and "3D" targets. Cos Cob Archers is at 205 Bible St. For information, visit www.CosCobArchers.com.
Duplicate Bridge Games
Weekly open duplicate Bridge games are held at 12:15 p.m. Mondays at the Greenwich YWCA. The games are sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League, with masterpoint awards to top finishers. The card fee to play one session is $12. For more information, contact Steve Becker at 203-637-8927.
Bruce Beginnings
Bruce Beginnings is a program for children ages 2.5 to 5 with an adult at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Bruce Museum. Explore the museum collections and exhibitions through picture books and hands-on activities. This program takes place on the museum's free admission day and space is limited. See the visitor service desk upon arrival to secure a spot. Topics change weekly. Visit brucemuseum.org for more info.
A new drop-in conversation series for English Language Learners called "Time to Talk: A Conversation Series for English Language Learners" will be held from 6:30 to 8: p.m. Nov. 26 in the Byram Shubert Library Community Room. Come to improve your communications skills, learn more about American culture, and feel more comfortable in the community. Peer-to-peer conversations offer an opportunity to practice casual language in a less formal environment than a classroom. Volunteers facilitate conversations on everyday topics such as doctors visits, grocery shopping, and finding housing or work. This series is open to all adults. Beginners welcome. As the library will be closed, entrance will be downstairs at the program room.
Weekday Farmers Market
The Old Greenwich Farmers Market is held every Wednesday from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at Living Hope Community Church at 38 West End Ave. in Old Greenwich. The market runs through Oct. 30.
Perfectly Polite bridge
The Perfectly Polite Bridge Group has Duplicate Bridge games at the Greenwich YMCA on Wednesdays from 9:45 a.m. to noon for Relaxed Duplicate Bridge and from 12:45 to 2:45 p.m. for Relaxed Duplicate Bridge / Conventions. The cost is $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers. You do not need a partner to play. Only prepaid players are guaranteed a seat. There is also a Beginner Game/Class with relaxed play and discussion from 3 to 5 p.m. Seating is limited. If you are not on the email list, call Frank Crocker at 203-524-8032 to register.
Speakers at Retired Men's Association
The Greenwich Retired Men's Association offers a free program every Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 W. Putnam Ave., that is open to the public; no reservations required. Social break starts at 10:40 a.m., followed by speaker at 11 a.m. For info, visit www.greenwichrma.org or contact [email protected]. Future speakers include John Hamilton, president & CEO of Liberation Programs in Norwalk, on "How to Strengthen Resiliency in Families Facing Drug Issues" on Nov. 27.
Try Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a relaxing exercise that can loosen joints, improve balance and teach graceful movements to music. Fun and no pressure classes are held at 8 a.m. Wednesdays and at 9 a.m. Thursdays in the auditorium at the First Congregational Church Auditorium on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich, opposite Binney Park. The cost is $10 per one-hour session. Newcomers welcome. For info, call Joe at 203-504-4678.
Photography exhibition
A photo exhibit called "The Irish Travellers" by Mike and Sally Harris will be on display at the YWCA Greenwich at 259 E. Putnam Ave. through Nov. 29. The photos offer a revealing look at an Irish minority as they illustrate the Travellers and their fascinating culture. The exhibition is in the Gertrude White Gallery at the YWCA Greenwich.
Qigong at the GBC
Qigong expert Donna Bunte teaches classes at 10 a.m. Fridays at the Greenwich Botanical Center, 130 Bible St., Cos Cob. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy and martial arts, qigong is viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as "life energy." Qigong practice involves moving meditation, coordinating slow flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. For information, visit greenwichbotanicalcenter.org.
Meet Santa and his reindeer
Santa and his live reindeer — Dasher, Dancer and Prancer — are returning for the 11th annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa's Village for the holiday season. The event kicks off at Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North St., from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 29. The town tradition continues through Dec. 24. Visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and enjoy Santa's Village, train and carousel rides at the "North Pole on North Street." Parking is free. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive in the afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, face painting and balloon art and dance demonstrations. Hours for photos with Santa are noon to 6 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Dec. 22, but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more details, visit www.Greenwichreindeerfestival.com.
Tree and wreath sale
The First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich is gearing up for its annual tree and wreath sale. The popular sale will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1, then return the next weekend from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 7 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 14 if needed. The sale will take place on the front lawn of the church at 108 Sound Beach Ave., across from Binney Park. Proceeds will again go toward local charities. Want to get first pick? At 8 a.m. Nov. 30, more than 500 New Hampshire-grown trees will be loaded off a delivery truck and set out on the church's front lawn. Once the delivery is done, the sale will begin.
Runners can register now for the ninth annual Greenwich Alliance for Education's Turkey Trot on Nov. 30. All proceeds directly benefit Greenwich Public School programs for students and teachers. Registration is available online at www.greenwichalliance.org and costs $35 per adult, $40 on race day, and $15 for children 14 and younger. Races begin and end at the Arch Street Teen Center and pace through the flat roads of Bruce Park. The one-mile Fun Run/Walk starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by the 5K at 10 a.m. Warm-up and stretching will be offered at 9 a.m. Snacks will be served afterward.
Giving gifts to kids in need
Every year Neighbor to Neighbor distributes joy and presents during the holiday season to its client's children. A collection box for donations will be set up at the headquarters of the Junior League of Greenwich, Funky Monkey Toys and Books, 86 Greenwich Ave., and Neighbor to Neighbor to accept new unwrapped toys to distribute to children from newborns to 16-year-olds. Funky Monkey will offer a wish list for kids from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11 and will also host a special day of shopping from Dec. 5 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., when a discount of 20 percent will be offered off everything in the store and with 10 percent of the sales donated to Neighbor to Neighbor.
Holiday Art Show & Sale
The Art Society of Old Greenwich will hold its 2019 Holiday Art Show and Sale at the Gertrude White Gallery at the YWCA of Greenwich, from Dec. 2 to Dec. 27. This festive show will offer fine artworks created by ASOG's member artists. All artworks, in a variety of media, will be available for purchase. The public is invited to the artists' reception and holiday party from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 6. View the artwork, meet the artists, and enjoy live entertainment provided by Dan Swartz of Kismet. Refreshments will be served. The YWCA is located at 259 E. Putnam Ave. For gallery hours, call 203-869-6501. Parking is available on the YWCA premises.
Tree of light
Greenwich Hospital will present the Tree of Light at Greenwich Hospital's Noble Conference Center at 5 p.m. Dec. 2. The Tree of Light is a nondenominational community tree-lighting ceremony to reflect and honor the lives of loved ones. This annual event features readings, music and a sparkling evergreen with hundreds of lights. All are welcome to attend. For more information, call 203-863-3702.
Auditions for students
Open Arts Alliance will hold auditions for its upcoming musical production of "Mary Poppins JR." Auditions will be held at 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 at the YMCA of Greenwich at 50 E. Putnam Ave. Students ages 8 to 18 are encouraged to come audition for this beloved musical about a family in turmoil and the magical nanny who saves the day. Performances of "Mary Poppins JR." will take place on April 24, April 25 and April 26 at Western Middle School. Required audition registration can be completed at www.OpenArtsAlliance.com by Dec 3. Auditioners need attend only one of the scheduled audition dates. Children auditioning should be prepared to sing a song of their choosing a cappella, and be ready to read from a portion of the script. For more information, call Open Arts Alliance at 203-869-1630 x304 or visit www.OpenArtsAlliance.com.
Sip & Shop Art Show
Stop by the Holiday Sip & Shop Art Show at Abilis Gardens & Gifts from 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 4. Enjoy wine, cheese and other refreshments while shopping with a 20 percent discount in the entire store. The Art Show will feature paintings and digital art created by adults who are supported by Abilis. To learn more, visit abilis.us/calendar. Abilis is a nonprofit organization that supports more than 700 individuals with special needs and their families annually from birth throughout adulthood.
Surviving holiday eating
Denise Addorisio, a registered dietitian, will discuss "Survival Guide to Healthy Holiday Eating" at Greenwich Hospital's Noble Conference Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4. Learn how to manage your weight through mindful eating and other techniques to make healthy food choices during the busy and tempting time of year. To register, call 888-305-9253 or visit greenwichhospital.org/events. Free.
Talk on art and climate change
"The Bruce Museum Presents," a series of monthly public programs, continues with "Can Art Drive Change on Climate Change? An Evening with Alexis Rockman" from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 5. Leading the conversation will be artist and climate-change activist Alexis Rockman, who will present his work and discuss how, and why, he uses his art to sound the alarm about the impending global emergency. Adding insight will be The Boston Globe's David Abel, who now reports on climate change and poverty in New England. Abel is working on a new film about the race to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction and is the host of a new podcast about climate change called "Climate Rising." Join this night of captivating conversation in the latest installment of Bruce Museum Presents, a monthly series of public programs featuring thought leaders in the fields of art and science. Doors open at 6 p.m. for a reception with light bites and beverages, followed by the panel discussion and Q&A from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Seats are $30 for Museum members, $45 for nonmembers. To reserve a seat, visit brucemuseum.org or call 203-869-0376.
YWCA's Holiday Family Fun Fair
In its third year, YWCA Greenwich will host its Holiday Fun Fair at its home at 259 E. Putnam Ave. on Dec. 7 to celebrate all the different holiday traditions that happen during the month. Holiday shopping will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the family fun will be from noon to 3 p.m. There will be music, games, arts and crafts, face painting, gymnastics, hot chocolate and cookies, meet and greet with Santa and his Elves, and other surprises. There will be 14 vendors whose offerings range from fine and costume jewelry, women's accessories, children's clothing, and Tupperware for sale. Parents can also find information about registration for YWCA Greenwich winter and spring programs. Free and open to the public.
One-man art show
The Greenwich Art Society will present "Glaser and the Grid," a solo exhibition by Scott Glaser from the artist's personal collection, from Dec. 7 to Jan. 3 at its gallery at 299 Greenwich Ave., second floor. The grid system is the common thread in Glaser's work, from cityscapes created from men's suit fabric, portrait mosaics made completely from Band-Aid-like bandages, neo-pointillist drawings, photorealist paintings or mixed media pieces. An artist's reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12. The paintings will be on view from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. All works can be purchased by contacting the Greenwich Art society at 203-629-1533 or [email protected]. For info, visit www.greenwichartsociety.org.
'Perpetual Motion' opening
C. Parker Gallery is showcasing an exhibit called "Perpetual Motion" through Dec. 8 at the gallery at 409 Greenwich Ave. Multi-dimensional and distinguished contemporary artist Rick Garcia, who has created works of art for some of the most highly visible organizations, events and causes, is holding his first solo show in nearly a decade. His accomplishments span across mediums and themes, from rock and roll to endangered species; encompassing photography, surrealist renderings on canvas and guitars and even an 1,800-square-foot fiberglass octopus sculpture. He has been selected as the official artist for the Grammy Awards three times. The exhibit includes acrylic paintings on canvas, 3D lenticular prints, screen prints and painted guitars. For more information, visit www.cparkergallery.com or call 203-253-0934.
Brushwork exhibit
The Bruce Museum is offering free admission to all visitors through Jan. 31 while the main gallery spaces are renovated. "Contemporary Artists/Traditional Forms: Chinese Brushwork" is on display in the Bantle Lecture Gallery through Dec. 8. It features the U.S. debut of 15 pieces of contemporary Chinese Brushwork gifted to the town of Greenwich as part of the 2019 U.S.-China Art and Culture Exchange. During the renovation phase, the Permanent Science Gallery will remain open, along with the Bantle Lecture Gallery, Education Workshop, and Museum Store. The galleries will reopen Feb. 1, with the installation of major new art and science exhibitions. Visit BruceMuseum.org for more information.
Auditions for 'Matilda'
St. Catherine's Players will hold auditions for its 2020 production of "Matilda The Musical." Open auditions will be held Dec. 9 and Dec. 10 in the Lucey Parish Hall of the church at 4 Riverside Ave. Roles are available for all ages — must be 9 and above. Callbacks, as needed, will be Dec. 11. Youth should arrive at 7 p.m.; high school students and adults should arrive at 8:30 p.m. Come with a prepared song and sheet music in your key for the accompanist. A group dance audition will be held each evening; wear appropriate shoes. In addition, bring a list of rehearsal and production date conflicts for January through mid-March. Rehearsals run Jan. 2 to Feb. 27, on Monday through Thursday evenings and some Sunday afternoons. (Not all cast members are called for each rehearsal and times vary by role.) Production dates are Feb. 28, Feb. 29, March 1, March 6, March 7 and March 8, with curtain times of Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For more information about roles, the production or to volunteer, visit: www.stcath.org or email [email protected].
Dr. Nora Miller, a reproductive endocrinologist, will discuss "Fertility 101: Your Family-Building Options" at Long Ridge Medical Center, 260 Long Ridge Road, Stamford from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10. Families are created in many different ways. Hear about options, new approaches for improving fertility, and how you may achieve your goal of becoming a parent. To register, call 888-305-9253 or visit greenwichhospital.org/events. Free.
Bruce Beginnings Jr.
This program at the Bruce Museum provides a welcoming and engaging museum experience for toddlers, ages 10 to 24 months, and their caregivers through hands-on play and exploration. Bruce Beginnings Jr. sessions are inspired by the museum's collections and exhibits. It is held from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month, next time on Dec. 12. This program is free with general admission but space is limited. See the visitor service desk upon arrival to secure a spot.
Quilt reception
The Cos Cob Library is showcasing the beautiful work of the Common Threads quilters for their biannual show through Dec. 14. The Community Room and turret is decorated with their creations and they will also be featured hanging from our rafters. Visitors to the library are invited to view the display.
Healing meditation
Registered nurse Roberta Brown, from integrative medicine, will present a lecture on"Self Care: Sound Healing Meditation" in Greenwich Hospital's Noble Conference Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16. Explore mindful self-care practices to quite the mind, calm the nervous system and restore the body. Experience a relaxing guided meditation, accompanied by the healing sounds of Tibetan singing bowls. Dress comfortably; bring a yoga mat if possible. Chairs will be provided. To register, call 888-305-9253 or visit greenwichhospital.org/events. Free.
'An American Story'
The Greenwich Historical Society at 47 Strickland Road, Cos Cob, is presenting an exhibition on the immigrant experience called "An American Story: Finding Home in Fairfield County" through Jan. 6. The exhibit includes stories of the grit and resilience of immigrants and refugees, including 12 who found home in Greenwich. The stories illuminated in this exhibition reach across the world from five continents, shining a light on the ways that refugees and asylum seekers find hope and persevere in the face of challenges for creating new lives in Fairfield County. It is presented in partnership with the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants. For more information, visit greenwichhistory.org.
League of Women Voters to honor leaders
For its 100th Anniversary Gala, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut will honor Indra K. Nooyi, a Greenwich resident and former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, and Juanita T. James, president and CEO of the Fairfield County Community Foundation. Nooyi will receive the Outstanding Woman in Business award and James will be recognized with the Outstanding Woman in Philanthropy award. The gala will take place Feb. 22 at the Italian Center in Stamford. For more information, visit www.lwvct.org.
SLS golf tourney
The St. Lawrence Society will hold its 29th annual Charity Golf Tournament on May 11. Enjoy a perfect day of golf, food and fun. Get your foursomes together and join the fun. Cost is $175 for everything: the luncheon, cart, golf, cocktail hour and dinner. For cocktails and dinner only, it's $100. Starts at 11:30 a.m. at E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course, with a 12:45 p.m. shotgun start, scramble format. Golf is followed by cocktail hour, antipasti and a prime rib dinner back at the Club. To RSVP, visit www.stlawrencesociety.com/events or call 203-618-9036. | {
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HomeNewsInventor of World Wide Web warns of threat to internet
Inventor of World Wide Web warns of threat to internet
September 29, 2014 Niamh Harris News, World 0
The inventor of the world wide web said he is fighting a growing battle to keep the internet out of the hands of powerful people who threaten its freedom.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he is up against "big companies" who want to tweak the laws to have "tremendous" control over the lives of web users.
The internet has come under increasing scrutiny surrounding privacy and censorship following revelations of data gathering by Government security services across the world and the EU's decision to allow individuals to ask search engines to remove links to information about them.
But he denied that his creation, now 25 years old, has been tainted by ever evolving obstacles, from spying to child pornography, describing it as a "neutral platform" which reflects all aspects of humanity.
The London-born computer scientist, aged 59, has been marking the quarter century of the revolution he started by campaigning for an online "Magna Carta" of rules which would enshrine the independence of the internet and the privacy of its users.
"It (the web) has got so big that if a company can control your access to the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have tremendous control over your life," he said.
"If they can spy on what you're doing they can understand a huge amount about you and similarly if a Government can block you going to, for example, the opposition's political pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves in power and if they can spy on you and find out the people who are really serious dissidents then they can round you up and put you in jail.
"So suddenly the power to abuse the open internet has become so tempting both for government and big companies.
"There have been lots of times that it has been abused so now the Magna Carta is about saying everybody using the web take this year to stand up and say I want a web where I'm not spied on, where there's no censorship.
"Generally everybody feels like that openness is really important, the only people who are pushing back are the lawyers in the big companies who realise that if they can make a play to take over control, that it will be so valuable that it's worth them spending a lot of money trying to tweak the laws to allow loopholes which will allow them to start abusing people."
Sir Tim attended the first day of the Web We Want Festival at London's Southbank Centre this weekend, a partnership between the arts centre in central London and Sir Tim's World Wide Web Foundation, which is encouraging all web users to think about how they want the internet to develop.
He added that it was an "important principle" that the web was able to reflect all of humanity, despite it enabling a "ghastly" side to exist.
"If I designed a web where you can only put nice things on it then you would have to be some central office of niceness where you would have to ask permission to put stuff up," he said.
"When you have something that is a neutral medium the web is not censoring what is going on then you're looking at humanity, you're looking at a mirror of humanity. You see some wonderful stuff and you see some ghastly stuff.
"That's an important principle that it can mirror humanity.
"Now some things are of course just illegal, child pornography, fraud, telling someone how to rob a bank, that's illegal before the web and it's illegal after the web."
Report By Talk Talk (Source Link)
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Obama Remains Silent On Evidence That Turkey Buys Oil From ISIS | {
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This Honda Project 2&4 looks a whole lot of fun
Like a go-kart on steroids
Remember the time when Honda used to be the Mazda of the car industry? Which is to say the era when the Japanese carmaker was exciting and fun. No? Then perhaps this little thing will remind you.
This is the Honda Project 2&4, so called because it celebrates the company's expertise in engine manufacturing for two- and four-wheel vehicles. Two and four...get it?
Honda recently held an in-house "Global Design Project" competition, in which more than 80 designers and creators participated. "The objective of this annual contest between Honda design studios is to challenge team and project members to share one goal and achieve high targets," Honda said in a statement. The Project 2&4 is the winner of said contest--conceived by Honda's motorcycle design studio in Asaka--and will be presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week.
Inspired by the Honda RA272 of 1965, the Project 2&4 measures 3,040mm in length, 1,820mm in width and 995mm in height, and weighs just 405kg.
"The exhilarating feeling created from the open cockpit is significantly enhanced by the driver's seat, uniquely suspended just above the road," explained Honda. "The floating-seat design places the driver as close to the action as possible, evoking the freedom of a bike and completing the immersion provided by the Project 2&4's extreme performance, 14,000rpm redline and unique engineering."
The most important part of the concept vehicle is its motor, especially since this project is being used to "celebrate Honda's position as the world's leading engine manufacturer, providing engines to 28 million people per year across two- and four-wheel automotive, power equipment, marine and aerospace applications."
And so, doing duty for this vehicle is the RC213V competition motorcycle engine, reported to have been modified to run on public roads. The 999cc V4 four-stroke unit is rated in this configuration at 212hp and 118Nm, and mated to a six-speed DCT gearbox.
No idea what it feels like to drive this thing. But one look at these pictures and you know it promises all the driving thrill in the world.
Ever thought of designing your own alloy wheels? BBS now makes it possible
Honda,
concept car,
engine,
Frankfurt Motor Show,
Honda Motor Company,
car engine,
Honda Project 2&4 | {
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Here is a simple and quick plant-based recipe you can serve your family or guests for a hearty breakfast. It even works great as a lunch or 'breakfast-for-dinner' recipe. Pair with toast, bagels, buns, pancakes, waffles, crepes, muffins, your favorite gluten-free alternative or simply with fresh fruit. You can even wrap this up in a tortilla with some ketchup, tahini-ketchup or siracha ketchup to make a tasty breakfast burrito!
It should be noted that commercial soy-based lunch meats or soy tofu dog products tend to be made with gluten as part of the ingredients, hence this recipe cannot be called gluten-free. However, if you are able to find an alternative gluten-free meat analog that you can use in this recipe, then this recipe would be gluten-free! Feel free to scale up this vegan, egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free recipe depending on the number you have at the family table.
A simple and quick vegan, egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free meal to satisfy vegans and non-vegans. Pair with toast, bagels, pancakes, waffles, crepes or your favorite gluten-free alternative.
Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, sauté the minced garlic and diced onions in the oil for 2-3 minutes, then add in the chopped soy lunch meat.
Let the soy lunch meat cook until browned and slightly crispy (about 5 - 7 minutes), stirring frequently to prevent sticking to the saucepan. Turn down the stove top heat setting slightly if needed.
While the soy lunch meat is cooking, cook a large potato in the microwave. To do this, poke some holes in a potato first with a knife or fork and sprinkle some water on the potato. Then heat the potato in a covered microwave-safe dish for 2-3 minutes at a time until cooked through. Remove the potato carefully from the microwave, let cool (or run the potato under cold water). Peel the potato and chop into cubes. If this is not enough to give you 2 cups' worth of cooked potato cubes, repeat this step to cook another potato in the microwave.
Chop up the rest of the ingredients while the potato and soy lunch meat is cooking.
Add the potato cubes, bell pepper and the remaining additional ½ tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Stir frequently for 5 minutes to let the potato chunks brown on most sides.
Add in the salt, ground black pepper and Cajun seasonings.
Add into the skillet the diced tomato and chopped spinach leaves. Stir and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
Taste the dish and adjust the seasonings as desired. Top the hash with some vegan 'cheese' shreds (optional) and serve!
Notes: If you don't have sliced soy lunch meat on hand, an alternative would be to chop up 3 soy-based tofu dogs (or other plant-protein based meat analog) instead. Feel free to add or substitute other veggies like chopped mushrooms and kale if you don't have some of the listed ingredients above. Taste and adjust the seasonings before serving to your taste (you may want to add more pepper, Cajun seasoning, or even cayenne pepper for a more spicy kick).
Tahini-Ketchup: simply mix one tablespoon of tahini with one tablespoon of ketchup in a 1:1 ratio.
For an oil-free recipe, use at least a ¼ cup of vegetable broth (more if needed) in a well heated skillet to sauté the garlic, onions and to cook the rest of the ingredients. | {
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Protests in Armenia: Democratic Death Throes or a New Dawn?
Days after a wave of protests won an enormous (and unlikely) victory by forcing the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargysan, his Republican Party still seems reluctant to let their grip on power slip away. Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan could be confirmed as the new prime minister in a parliamentary vote on May 8.
Time will tell whether Sargysan's resignation on April 23 was a genuine step away from one party rule or little more than a sacrificial offering to the protesters. Armenia's steps toward democracy are likely to be tortuous and fraught.
Russia President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump likely agreed to restrict intervention in the affairs of third countries at the G-20 summit. This agreement, however, contradicts Russian foreign policy. In Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, Russia seeks to curtail the ability of these governments to pursue independent foreign policies. A series of recent probes in the region demonstrate that Trump's agreement with Putin is worthless and that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of these states is meaningless from Moscow's standpoint. Russia feels free to intervene in their affairs at any time, threaten their compatriots in Russia, and regularly brandish military and other forms of power to intimidate them. Unless Washington, Brussels, and NATO step up their game, this region will either explode or be compelled to shelter under Russian power. The West cannot simply look away because European security is linked to the security of the South Caucasus.
It has been a long time since I have sensed any cause for optimism about the prospects of a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Indeed, Armenia and Azerbaijan nearly resumed full-scale war in April, when their troops clashed along the line of contact with a level of ferocity unprecedented during the twenty-two years since the previous ceasefire. As the dust has settled, however, two new openings have emerged, one rather unexpectedly from Russian President Vladimir Putin and another from a regional business leader. Both merit Washington's close examination and perhaps its embrace.
The events in Armenia from July 17 to July 31 in 2016 and what followed in the early weeks of August highlighted the deep economic, social, and political problems that are facing Armenia today. More alarmingly, they have confirmed without question the country's slide toward dictatorship and authoritarianism.
It all began with a takeover of a large police compound in downtown Yerevan—Armenia's capital—by thirty-one civil activists and veterans of the Nagorno Karabakh war who called themselves the "Daredevils of Sassoun"—taking the name from a medieval Armenian heroic epic poem. | {
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Visit Airpark on the web!
Airpark makes deconstructed pop music.
Inspired by minimalism, melody and groove-heavy percussion, bandmates Michael Ford, Jr. and Ben Ford launched the group in 2016, one year after their previous project, The Apache Relay, quietly called it quits. The Apache Relay had been a large band, staffed with six members and armed with a thick, wall-of-sound approach. With Airpark, the Ford brothers sharpen their focus and scale back their arrangements, focusing on songs that pack a punch with bold, basic ingredients.
It's a sound that targets the feet and the head. It's pop music for thinkers. It's dance music for wallflowers. And with the brothers pulling triple-duty as songwriters, multi-instrumentalists and co-producers, Early Works, Volume 1 — whose March 3, 2017 release arrives courtesy of the Fords' own label, Eugenia Hall Records — is their most forward-thinking project to date, pairing the band's growing ambition with musical chops to match. | {
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Hello to our dear friends and family. It has been quite some time since we last spoke. Well, we would like to do something about that. We have decided to resume our "conversation" with you. Gary has seen many ups and downs since we were last in touch. The good news is that he has remained stable. Grateful for that.
As we move forward on this wild ride we thought it would be helpful if we reconnected with our loving support community. So, you can count on hearing from us every now and then as our journey continues. Join us in fastening our seat belts and navigating this crazy ride. Much love, Marti. | {
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BTS to drop new album 'BE' in November
K-pop superstars BTS will drop their new album "BE (Deluxe Edition)" in November, the band's agency announced Monday.
"BTS's new album 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' will be released on Nov. 20," Big Hit Entertainment, the band's label-agency, announced on the group's online fan community BTS Weverse.
It said the upcoming album will be a special album "carefully crafted" by BTS, but did not elaborate on details.
"This album is made more special by direct involvement from BTS in not only the music, but from the concept and composition to design," it said. "You will discover throughout the album the thoughts, emotions and deepest reflections of BTS while experiencing an even richer musical spectrum."
"BE" will be BTS' second album of 2020, following "MAP OF THE SOUL : 7," the fourth studio album of the seven-piece act.
It recently shared its first English single "Dynamite" and became the first Korean band to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
From Monday through Friday, the septet will appear on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" for a weeklong special of "BTS Week." It will also hold the online concert "BTS MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E" on October 10 and 11.
Pre-orders of the new album will begin at 11 a.m. Monday, according to Big Hit. (Yonhap) | {
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'I Prefer Buhari, Obasanjo Keeps Deceiving People'- Oba Of Lagos
GC Posted On: May 01, 2018
The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu has said that he prefers the leadership quality of President Muhammadu Buhari to that of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
He pleaded with Nigerians to give Buhari another four years as the country's leader.
The monarch spoke at the opening ceremony of the 17th Lagos Housing Fair yesterday.
He stated that a second chance would enable the President to improve on the country's economy.
The traditional ruler added that President Goodluck Jonathan would also have been a better leader if he was not a victim of circumstance, who allowed some people to use him.
He said, "Buhari has to do more, I agree, but we all have to assist by giving him another four years and see where he will take Nigeria to . I am supporting what is good for Nigeria.
"In 2011, Buhari sent Tony Momoh to me that he was coming to meet the leaders of Lagos in my palace by 1 pm, he came by 3 pm and said he was delayed by bad roads and traffic.
"I told him he caused it because he cancelled the metro line of Lagos State in 1984 . I told him I would not tell Lagos people to vote for him.
"But in 2015 when he came, it was on a Friday, he came with my son, Bola Tinubu, and I noticed that for 20 minutes it rained. It occurred to me that God is going to favour this man.
"I prefer Buhari to Obasanjo. Obasanjo keeps deceiving people for what he is after. But if Buhari is given another chance and God gives him good health and he chooses the right people to work with, Nigeria will be a better place."
The Oba further called on the Federal Government to resolve the security issues in the country by reviewing all national security policies.
He, however, argued that the call by the National Assembly to sack all the security service chiefs in the country was not the solution to the problem.
"What the government was supposed to do 20 years ago , they did not do it . Many years ago, I suggested to them to revisit all national security policies.
"If you sack all the security service chiefs, the same set of people will still come back," he said.
The monarch said all Nigerians must work together in the fight against corruption and terrorism in the country
Omokri Sp...
'I
Deceiving
People'-
"No Need Deceiving Ourselves And Pretending We Are One, Divide Nigeria Into Six" – Fani Kayode Tells Buhari
Presidency Speaks On What Buhari Will Do To Obasanjo & IBB In 2019
Obasanjo Will Fail To Push Buhari Out If He Opposes PDP – Makarfi
$16b Power Project: I'm Ready For Probe, Obasanjo Dares Buhari
I'm Enjoying This Latest Brickbats Between President Buhari & Obasanjo – Governor Fayose | {
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Locos, Leprechauns split
Sports, Top Stories
Four-run rally helps Lima avoid sweep
By Tom Usher - [email protected]
The Lima Locos' Justin Wiley dives back to first base as Irish Hills' Adam Furnas receives the throw during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader at Simmons Field. See more game photos at LimaScores.com.
Levi A. Morman | The Lima News
The Lima Locos' Mark Castelblanco makes a throw from the outfield during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader against Irish Hills at Simmons Field.
The Lima Locos' Tyler Simon brings in a flyball during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader against Irish Hills at Simmons Field.
More Locos coverage
LIMA – The Lima Locos were in desperate need of an innings eater out of their depleted bullpen.
Enter one of the team's summer interns Cody Niewinski, who throws junior varsity ball at the University of Northwestern Ohio.
Niewinski pitched well and finished the final 4 1/3 innings in the Locos' 6-1 loss to Irish Hills in Game 1 of the doubleheader Saturday at Simmons Field.
In the second game, the Locos rallied late to knock off Irish Hills 5-4 for a doubleheader split.
In the second game, the Locos scored four in the home sixth to take a 5-4 lead.
Malik Spratling gave the Locos the 5-4 lead with a sacrifice fly to center.
Mark Castelblanco picked up the win, while Jordan Marks had the save.
"It was pretty fun," Niewinski said of his first outing. "I'd like to thank the coach (Jared Gaynor) for having faith in me. It was fun coming out and playing again.''
The Locos trailed 4-0 in the third when Irish Hills had the bases loaded and two outs.
That was it for Locos starter Troy Cordrey, who was making his first start of the year.
On came Niewinski, who dressed for his first Locos' game on Saturday. He usually performs a variety of game-day activities around the ballpark as an intern.
All Niewinski did was get Noah Suarez to pop up to short to escape the bases-loaded jam.
Not bad for someone who hadn't thrown competitively in two months.
"I was on a weighted-ball program and had been throwing all summer," Niewinski said. "My blood is always pumping. (Coming in with the bases loaded), I got on the mound and just wanted to get the job done. I got him out with an offspeed pitch. After that, I felt a lot better.''
Niewinski threw strikes with his fastball, change-up and breaking ball until the final inning.
"That's my job as a pitcher. That's what I do, throw strikes," Niewinski said.
Niewinski threw 3 1/3 shutout frames before he gave up two runs in the seventh and final inning. He ended up going 4 1/3 innings, giving up two runs, both earned, on three hits. He struck out one and walked two.
The Locos (23-12) are in first place in the Northern Division by two games over St. Clair.
Irish Hills is 17-17.
"You have to avoid a sweep," Locos coach Jared Gaynor said. "I was proud of our guys to come back and fight there.''
Irish Hills right-hander Sam Benschoter (Michigan State) used a fastball and change-up to baffle the Locos in the opener.
Benschoter gave up one run, earned, on six hits. He struck out six and walked two.
Benschoter threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes.
In the opener, Irish Hills scored two in the first and two more in the second to take a 4-0 lead.
The Locos got within 4-1 in the home fifth on a solo home run by Justin Wiley.
Niewinski will pitch on the UNOH varsity next year.
Gaynor said, "He pitched a great game and pounded the zone. He wasn't overpowering, but he changed speeds and was throwing strikes. You can expect him to be out pitching for us again.''
In the second game, Irish Hills scored two in the first to take a 2-0 lead.
Ryan Guckin's solo home run in the fifth gave Irish Hills a 4-1 lead.
In the sixth for the Locos, Wiley put down a bunt single and went to third on a double by Anthony Amicangelo.
Michael Diffley's two-run double brought the Locos within 4-3. Brad Croy's RBI double tied the game at 4.
That set up Spratling's game-winning sacrifice fly.
"We started to string together some hits," Gaynor said. … "Malik (Spratling) had a great at-bat to take the lead. He got down 0-2, then he was able to drive the ball deep to center to get the run in.''
Castelblanco threw 2 2/3 innings of relief for the win. He gave up one run, earned, on two hits. He struck out three and walked none.
"I felt really good throwing strikes," Castelblanco said.
Marks entered the game in the seventh with a runner on first and no outs. He walked Guckin to put runners on first and second with no outs.
Locos catcher Daniel Seres then fired to second after a failed bunt attempt and picked off Preston Pilat at second base.
"He tried to sac bunt and made a really bad attempt at it," Seres said. "That made it easy for me. I just had to get it out and throw as hard as I could. He jumped way off and I saw (shortstop) Tyler (Simon) get to the bag. I just threw it and he was out.''
Marks got the next two hitters and that was the game.
Locos notes: The Locos conclude their three-game home series with Irish Hills at 7 p.m. today at Simmons Field.
The Locos lost three more players for the year this week, pitcher Nate Witherspoon (Missouri State), second baseman John Privitera (Missouri State) and pitcher A.G. Ayala (Texas A&M Corpus Christi).
Privitera pulled his quad muscle at Lake Erie and was going to be sidelined a few weeks so he left for home. Privitera was hitting .349 with a team-high 14 stolen bases.
Lefty Ayala went home after he was shut down because of suffering tendinitis in his left forearm/elbow. Ayala was 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA.
Witherspoon had a neck injury.
The Locos have now lost 14 players from opening day.
The Locos added four players to the roster this week, including pitcher Evan Baber (Chattahoochee Valley CC), pitcher Jake Wojciechowski (Owens CC) and outfielder/pitcher Malik Spratling (Gulf Coast State). Spratling is the brother of Locos shortstop Tyler Simon. Also added was UNOH's Cody Niewinski.
The Locos rank fourth in the league in hitting (.294) and are third in ERA (4.95).
Brad Croy (Bowling Green) is second in the league in hitting at .410. Anthony Amicangelo (Johnson County) is eighth at .371.
The Locos are averaging 7.2 runs-per-game. They are giving up 5.5 runs-per-game.
https://www.limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2018/07/web1_Lima-Locos-vs-Irish-Hills-0137-1.jpgThe Lima Locos' Justin Wiley dives back to first base as Irish Hills' Adam Furnas receives the throw during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader at Simmons Field. See more game photos at LimaScores.com. Levi A. Morman | The Lima News
https://www.limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2018/07/web1_Lima-Locos-vs-Irish-Hills-0106-1.jpgThe Lima Locos' Mark Castelblanco makes a throw from the outfield during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader against Irish Hills at Simmons Field. Levi A. Morman | The Lima News
https://www.limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2018/07/web1_Lima-Locos-vs-Irish-Hills-0125-1.jpgThe Lima Locos' Tyler Simon brings in a flyball during the first game of Saturday night's doubleheader against Irish Hills at Simmons Field. Levi A. Morman | The Lima News
By Tom Usher
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Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Locos, Leprechauns split. Here is a link to that story: https://www.limaohio.com/sports/310255/locos-leprechauns-split | {
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MNX has been audited and our quality management processes have been certified compliant with the Quality Management Principles of ISO 9001:2015.
The standard is based on total quality management that includes a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement. To learn more about ISO 9001:2015, please visit the ISO website.
MNX is the first 3PL/logistics company to voluntarily subject itself to the strict quality control standards of the Aviation Suppliers Association ASA-100 accreditation program. MNX's warehouse facilities in Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, London and Singapore have received accreditation, with other locations progressively being audited.
According to the ASA, the ASA-100 emphasizes issues such as impartiality, competence, and reliability - all specific to the regulated needs of the aerospace industry. MNX's 3PL accreditation takes exclusion to the FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 00-56A.
MNX's global offices and operations have obtained Good Distribution Practices (GDP) certification. The following MNX facilities have achieved GDPMDS certification: Melbourne, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Frankfurt, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo.
MNX's global customers demand that their products are consistently stored, transported, and handled under strict and verifiable quality standards. To meet these criteria, MNX has responded by implementing a comprehensive quality system. This system includes appropriate operating procedures and processes, qualified personnel, validated facilities and equipment, as well as credible documentation demonstrating an internationally recognized level of quality assurance.
MNX is a partner with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) initiative.
In 2007, U.S. Congress passed the 9/11 Act, requiring all cargo transported on passenger aircrafts to be screened for explosives. MNX is part of the Transportation Security Administration's Certified Cargo Screening Program. | {
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August 22, 2017 Software Open Access
Cartesian coordinate robot for dispensing fruit fly food
Matt Wayland
JSON Export
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"description": "<p>The fruit fly, <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>, is one of the most important model organisms in biological research. Maintaining stocks of fruit flies in the laboratory is labour-intensive. One task which lends itself to automation is the production of the vials of food in which the flies are reared. Fly facilities typically have to generate several thousand vials of fly food each week to sustain their fly stocks. The system described here combines a Cartesian coordinate robot with a peristaltic pump. The design of the robot is based on the Routy CNC Router created by Mark Carew (http://openbuilds.org/builds/routy-cnc-router-v-slot-belt-pinion.101/), and uses belt and pully actuators for the X and Y axes, and a leadscrew actuator for the Z axis. CNC motion and operation of the peristaltic pump are controlled by grbl (https://github.com/gnea/grbl), an open source, embedded, high performance g-code parser. Grbl is written in optimized C and runs directly on an Arduino. A Raspberry Pi is used to generate and stream G-code instructions to Grbl. A touch screen on the Raspberry Pi provides a graphical user interface to the system. The system has capacity to fill two boxes of fly food vials at a time. Instructions for building the hardware are available on DocuBricks (http://docubricks.com/viewer.jsp?id=8652757760093769728).</p>",
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CNC, Drosophila, open-hardware, robot
Supplement to:
https://github.com/WaylandM/fly-food-robot/tree/v0.1.1
GNU General Public License v3.0 only
Version v0.1.1 10.5281/zenodo.846812 Aug 22, 2017
Cite all versions? You can cite all versions by using the DOI 10.5281/zenodo.846811. This DOI represents all versions, and will always resolve to the latest one. Read more. | {
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PUBLICATION POLICIES OPEN ACCESS POLICY ETHICAL POLICY PLAGIARISM POLICY COPYRIGHT TRANSFER CONFLICT OF INTEREST
DOUBLE-BLIND REVIEW AND EVALUATION PROCESS CHECKLIST FOR AUTHORS MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION SUBMISSION AND RETRACTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
25/4Current Issue Ahead of Print Archive Previus Issues Most Accessed Articles
ICMJE COI Form
MANUSCRİPT PREPARATİON
Manuscripts should preferably be written using the Microsoft Word program. The manuscripts should be typed in 12 point Times New Roman characters. Manuscripts should be written double- spaced on one side of the A4 (21x29.7 cm) white paper and throughout the entire manuscript (including headings, abstracts in Turkish and English, main text, references, tables and subtitles) and justified leaving 3-cm margin from both sides. They should be written in accordance with word processor's page layout settings.
Journal Agent Online Article Collection and Evaluation System is being uploaded online, Article and Abstract Information, Information about Institute, Author Information, Responsible Author Information, Article Title, Article Turkish and English Summaries of the Article, Turkish and English Key Words, NoteEdit, File Upload (Full Text - References – Table(s) - Pictures - Graphics – Notes to the Editor ) are recorded separately step by step in the system.
The authors are kindly requested to submit their ORCID numbers obtained the website from www.orcid.org and indicate them in the relevant area at this stage. Abstract and full text should not containinformation about the individuals and institutions participating in the study.
The files must be loaded in the following order.
The electronic article file (Full Text) should be named with the title of the article in capital letters. They should only include "Title (Turkish-English) - Short Title (Turkish-English)", "Introduction", "Materials and Methods", "Results", "Discussion", "Acknowledgement (if) - Conflict of Interest". Each of the sections should be presented on separate pages. The titles of the text sections should appear at the left of the page with capital letters. All pages should be numbered sequentially from the bottom right corner.
The file "References" should be recorded separately
Tables should be prepared and written double-spaced on a separate sheet, and the number and title of each table must be written on top of the table. If abbreviations are given in the table, these abbreviations should be written in alphabetical order as subheadigs. . When previously printed or electronically published tables are used, written permission must be obtained from both the author and the publisher, and it must be sent by fax or mail to the editor of the journal.
Figures, graphics, illustrations, photos and legends should be written double-spaced on a separate sheet. If the abbreviations are given in figures, graphics and illustrations, the expansions of these abbreviations should be written under the subtitle and in alphabetical order. When previously printed or electronically published figures, graphics and images are used, written permission must be obtained from both the author and the publisher, and this must be sent by fax or mail to the editor of the journal.
Authors must declare that all or part of the material in the manuscript has not been published and is not currently being evaluated elsewhere for publication. Each author must declare that he/she participated in the investigation enough to share the responsibility of its content.
This participation may involve the following issues:
Creation of concepts and designs of experiments,
Collection, analysis or expression of the data;
The preparation of the draft of the mauscript or the review of the scientific content
Approval of the final format of the manuscript ready for publication
Ethics committee approval letter
Original articles and review articles should not exceed 10, case reports 4, letters to editors 1 page (excluding references, tables and graphics).
In the manuscript, the sections and contents of the manuscript should be presented as follows.
Title: A short title should be used whenever possible. The title of the research, and review articles should not exceed 95 characters (each letter, space, and punctuation marks are considered as one character), in case of case reports, letters and presentations of surgical techniques it should not contain more than 80 characters. Abbreviations should not be used in the title. The title should be written in Turkish and English. A short title should be added as a subtitle which should not exceed 40 characters.
Funds and organizations supporting the research should be mentioned here, If the study is planned to be presented in any congress or if it has been presented before, the name, place, and date (day-month-year) of the congress should be written
The abstracts should not exceed 250 words in the research papers Headings should not be used in summaries (the English translation of the title should be written on the title page). Abstract in Turkish should consist of four subheadings as While abstract in English should include subheadings of Aim, Material and Method, Results, and Conclusion) In case reports and review articles donot contain these sections, and abstracts should not exceed 100 words. English title, and abstract should be. English title and abstract should be word by word translation of the Turksih abstract. Letters to editor, and Editorials do not require abstracts.
Use of abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible in summaries. If absolutely required, abbreviation should be used after its definition is provided in parenthesis at the first mention of the term. Reference should not be used in the abstract.
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Introduction: The general conditions of the study settings, the structure and significance of the problem, the specific objective of the study or research tested in the study or observation should be clearly indicated. The primary and secondary objectives of the work should be clearly stated and the predefined subgroup analyzes should be transferred. Only references related to the topic should be used and the data or results of the presented work should not be included in these references.
Material and Method: The informed consent of the patient and the approval of the ethics committee should be acknowledged. A statement must be added that the informed consent was obtained from each participant in clinical trials. It should be noted in experimental studies that all animals were subjected to a humane treatment in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html).
Definition of optimal working conditions, exclusion criteria and referenced population; the participants in the observational or experimental study must be clearly indicated. Since the relevance of the variables such as age and gender for the purpose of the research is not always obvious, the authors should explain the purpose of using these variables in a research article. The main principles that determine how and why the study is performed using such a method should be clear. References should be shown for established methods, brief descriptions should be given for new methods
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Statistical methods should be provided in sufficient detail so that the readers can reach the original data and evaluate the reported results. Findings should be measured as much as possible and the appropriate margin of error and uncertainty (such as confidence intervals) should be indicated. It is important to avoid relying only on the p-values ??of statistical hypothesis measures that are insufficient to convey important information about the dimensions of the effects. P values ??must be given explicitly. Statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols should be defined. In the last paragraph of this section, statistical analyses used, and the values given by the (±) sign after the arithmetic mean or proportion should be indicated.
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Conflict of Interest: The authors are requested to declare any existing commercial association that might potentially have a conflict of interest regarding their articles. (eg employment, direct payments, holding shares, holding, consultancy, patent licensing arrangements, or granting honorarium). All financial resources supporting the study should also be declared as footnotes
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There should be no frame around the graphics, no lines on its background, and the background should be white.
When using previously published or electronically published tables and graphics, written permission should be obtained from both the author and the publisher and they should be acknowledged. Permission should be faxed or mailed to the journal editor.
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Microscope magnification ratio and staining technique used should be explained.
When previously printed or electronically published figures, images, and photos are used, written permission must be obtained from both the author and the printing house and this must be sent by fax or mail to the editor of the journal.
When using the images of people whose face is not hidden and recognizable, written permission must be obtained from them.
References: One should be selective in the use of references, and should include references directly related to the study. Turkish sources should be also used and authors should be sensitive to this issue. Although referencing review articles direct readers to the proper essence of the medical literature, they do not always accurately reflect the original study. Therefore, readers should be provided with as much original research articles as possible. Avoid using summaries as a source.
Authors should compare references with original articles to minimize erroneous references that sometimes occur in published articles. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of refereces and their spelling.
If the authors can not specify whether they referenced a retracted publication or not, they are obliged to check that the references they cited do not belong to the retracted articles. For articles in the journals indexed on MEDLINE, ICMJE considers PubMed (http://www.pubmed.gov) as a reliable source of information on retracted articles. Authors may recognize the retracted articles in MEDLINE with the following search term in PubMed; retracted publication [pt] ( pt in square brackets stands for publication type).
Apart from collective and up-to-date review articles, encompassing reference lists unnecesarily occupy valuable space of the text. As a general rule, the number of references should be maximum 40 in research articles 15 in case reports, 80 in review articles, 80 in review articles and 5 in editorials.
Exchanges of information during personal contacts, unfinished articles, and other unpublished data should not be referenced.
References should be written double-spaced on a separate sheet of paper. References in the text, tables and figure legends are indicated by Arabic numbers. Only the references used in the table or picture subtitles must be numbered according to the order of their first appearance of the table, and figure in the text.
Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus. Year, volume, the first and last pages are indicated for referenced journals, while for referenced books only year, first and the last pages are stated.
The following rules should be followed when references are given in the text:
If the surname of the first author of the article to be cited is to be given, the abbreviation "et al." should be added followed by the reference number in superscript "[]", before completion of the sentence.
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If there are more than two consecutive sources exist, then the first and last ones should be indicated with a "-" sign between them, i.e: 1-3]; [14-18]; [8-14]
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The DOI number must be added at the end of the each reference
The format of writing the references should conform to the "Vancouver reference style". Except for the examples below, the web address should be checked in spelling.
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html)
References from International Journals:
Tosun Z, Akin A, Guler G, Esmaoglu A, Boyaci A. Dexmedetomidine-ketamine and propofol-ketamine combinations for anesthesia in spontaneously breathing pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 2006;20:515-19. doi:10.1053/j.jvca.2005.07.018
For national references
Toraman F, Ustalar Özgen S, Sayın Kart J, Arıtürk C, Erkek E, Güçlü P ve ark. Koroner arter baypas cerrahisinde fentanil ve midazolamın hedef kontrollü infüzyon (hki) şeklinde kullanımının anestezi düzeyi ve ilaç tüketimi üzerine etkileri. GKDA Derg 2013;19:113-17. doi:10.5222/GKDAD.2013.113
Additional Issue:
Solca M. Acute pain management: unmet needs and new advances in pain management. Eur J Anaesthesiol 2002; 19 Suppl 25:3-10.
Kahveci FŞ, Kaya FN, Kelebek N ve ark. Perkutan trakeostomi sırasında farklı havayolu tekniklerinin kullanımı. Türk Anest Rean Cem Mecmuası 2002; Kongre ek sayısı: 80.
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
Chapter in a Book
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
Gurbet A. Comparison of morphin, fentanyl, and remifentanyl with patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) following off-pump coronary artery surgery . (Dissertation). Bursa, Uludağ University, 2002.
Reference from Electronic Media:
United Kingdom Department of Health. (2001) Comprehensive Critical Care Review of adult critical care services. The web site: http://www.doh.gov.uk/compcritcare/index.html
Internet Address:
1996 NRC Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Available at:
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/contents. html. Accessed October 20, 2003.
The text should be controlled from the "Check List" before submission. This control will speed up the evaluation process of the manuscript (see Checklist)
Copyright © 2020 Journal of Cardio-Vascular-Thoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Society | {
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Харампур (устар. Харам-Пур) — топоним:
Харампур — деревня в Пуровском районе Ямало-Ненецкого автономного округа.
Харампур — река в России, протекает по территории Пуровского района Ямало-Ненецкого автономного округа. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
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Research on the undergraduate or higher study is required. Students do not sure that how they will reflect and expect to begin the writing process. Students must start writing the thesis very earlier. They must start planning the thesis at very early stages when this is assigned to them in writing. Students must write down the ideas on the notebook. Students must choose to write the assignment in order to develop the writing skills that will help them in writing their thesis.
You can develop the research stream by hiring dissertation writing service providers when you plan strategically. Students can define their research interest in order to extend the possible topic of the thesis. Students must choose their advisor or supervisor very carefully because they can help them to write their thesis. Old researcher suggests that students must consider someone that have skills and well reputed for getting help for thesis. Students can identify the well reputed supervisor by asking through the senior students about the faculty members.
Students must choose the advisor for this writing who can pay enough attention to the students who have enough time for the students. Students must also choose the topic for their thesis very wisely. They must take the advice from their supervisor for deletion if their topic. Students must keep themselves in touch with supervisor to seek their counsel. The supervisor might have the broader view about the thesis topic and their perspective. Before meeting with supervisors, students must make the list of questions in order to avoid the wastage of time of supervisor because they may get irritated.
Students must maintain the record of their thesis in many places so that if the files are corrupted from one place, then it can be recovered from the other files and work should be properly organized and follow the rules if the universities regarding the format of the thesis. Students must have confidence in themself because if students will think that he can not complete the particular work or they do not have enough abilities to complete their work then they will not able to do it. Therefore, they must try their abilities and start working on main body of thesis while taking the help form the seniors of their supervisors.
Students must also read the blogs and articles in order to get an overview and idea of writing the thesis and know how to write a dissertation. They must not be so much frustrated and overwheeld while writing the thesis. The effective strategy is also required for the successful thesis. Dissertation writing also requires the proper planning for the paper writing therefore, students must make sure to make the timetable. An outline to be followed because without having any outline students will not able to understand from where to start the work. The schedule and timetable should be settled to write the each part if the thesis. Makings an outline is not only important but to follow it effectively is also very important. They should assign the particular item for each part of the thesis so that it can be completed on time. | {
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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Currently viewing the tag: "change"
What is the biggest demographic trend in Virginia?
By Hamilton Lombard On December 28, 2017 ·
Every year the Demographics Research Group is asked to give presentations on Virginia's demographic trends, and this year, as is true every year, the demographic trends we explored depended on our audience's area of interest —school enrollment change for the Board of Education, population growth trends for the House Appropriations Committee, or population [...]
The U.S. Birth Rate is near an all-time low, and that may not be a bad thing
By Hamilton Lombard On July 6, 2016 ·
In June, the National Center for Health Statistics released the total number of births in the U.S. during 2015. Given that the economy has been growing for six years since the recession ended in 2009, most economists were expecting the number of births to increase. However, there were actually fewer births in 2015 than [...]
Population growth in Virginia is reversing decades-old trend, estimates show
By Hamilton Lombard On January 27, 2016 ·
Loudoun County, in Northern Virginia's outer suburbs, was Virginia's fastest growing locality in the 1990s and 2000s, nearly doubling its population each decade. Population growth in Loudoun, as in much of Virginia during the two decades was fueled by people moving out to newly built subdivisions on the edges of the commonwealth's largest metro areas. [...]
Virginians are leaving the Commonwealth, reversing trends
By Hamilton Lombard On September 16, 2015 ·
During the decades since the second World War, Virginia's population has been one of the fastest growing among states on the east coast. Much of Virginia's growth was fueled by an influx of migrants coming down the BosWash corridor from the Northeast into Virginia as well as from the Mid-West. In 1940, only [...]
Rural Virginia: Death in paradise
By Hamilton Lombard On July 13, 2015 ·
Most of Dickenson County's residents live along the many river valleys that flow down into the Russell Fork which cuts through Virginia's Cumberland Mountains to create the largest gorge east of the Mississippi. Yet despite its many scenic attractions and the bonus of a low cost of living, Dickenson has been steadily shedding its population, [...]
Richmond's quiet transformation
By Hamilton Lombard On April 7, 2015 ·
During most of the 20th century, the neighborhoods where people lived and worked in Richmond — even the boundaries of the city — were shaped by race. For decades after WWII, the city's leaders fought a well-publicized battle to maintain this system and prevent the city's population from becoming majority black. In recent years, Richmond [...] | {
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SMART Program Doubles Capacity
January 5, 2022 | Blog | By Kaoru Suzuki
On December 30, 2021, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued an order doubling the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program. The order extends the declining block incentive program from 1,600 to 3,200 MW of solar capacity – a move expected to create capacity for new projects and release a bottleneck of stagnant projects.
Energy & Sustainability Washington Updates — January 2022
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Energy & Sustainability Washington Updates - December 2021
Pricing Overseas Carbon: The Rise of Border Adjustment Mechanisms on Both Sides of the Pond
September 10, 2021 | Blog | By Kaoru Suzuki, Luke Haubenstock
In the past several months, lawmakers in both the United States and the European Union have introduced legislation to enact carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) in their respective jurisdictions. While the US and EU proposals face roadblocks to their adoption (in the US) and full implementation (in both the US and EU), these two landmark initiatives signal a potential shift toward the usage of novel legal and regulatory tools – in this instance from the field of international trade – to promote climate policy.
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Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) is a rapidly growing business model in which energy service providers offer an assortment of energy-related services to customers. In contrast to the traditional energy model of simply charging customers based upon the number of kWh of electricity used, EaaS business models can include services ranging from energy-related advice to energy equipment installations to energy management.
Energy & Sustainability Washington Updates - June 2021
Read the latest energy policy updates coming out of the Capitol, including critical energy provisions in the Biden administration's budget proposal
Washington Energy & Sustainability Updates - May 2021
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As Walsh Awaits Confirmation Vote, DOL Priorities Take Shape
February 16, 2021 | Blog | By Anthony DeMaio, R. Neal Martin
Last week, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted 18-4 to advance Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's nomination for labor secretary. The bipartisan approval signals a non-controversial confirmation vote of the full Senate. When that occurs, Secretary-designate Walsh will take over a department that is front and center in the nascent Biden administration. Executing White House priorities including the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, and reversing certain Trump era actions, will soon be Walsh's responsibility. His experience in Massachusetts politics gives a sense of how Walsh will approach his new post.
DC Circuit Vacates Trump Administration's Affordable Clean Energy Rule
February 3, 2021 | Blog | By Garrett Galvin
On January 19, 2021 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the "DC Circuit") vacated the Affordable Clean Energy Rule (the "ACE Rule"), a policy instituted by the Environmental Protection Agency (the "EPA") on June 19, 2019 that weakened emissions standards for power plants and empowered states to set their own energy standards.
Highlights of the Section 45Q Final Regulations
Energy & Sustainability: What to Expect from the 117th Congress and the Biden Administration
January 15, 2021 | Blog | By R. Neal Martin
After what felt like one of the longest election seasons in history, Washington is preparing to welcome the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, Capitol Hill adjusts to a dramatic shift in power as Democrats achieved an election night stunner by winning both Senate run-off elections in Georgia on January 5, sending Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to Washington and giving Democrats a 50-seat majority with the new incoming vice president casting any tie votes. In the House of Representatives, Republicans narrowed the Democrats' majority in November but are still in the minority and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been reelected to serve as Speaker of the House.
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During Biden Administration, SEC will require Climate Change Risk and ESG Disclosure
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Public companies will be required to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions under President-elect Biden's administration. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will institute rulemaking and guidance on the federal monitoring of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Renewables Tax Extenders Passed by Congress
Late on December 21, 2020, the Senate debated and approved a COVID-19 relief package and omnibus spending bill for 2021 that included, deep in its 5,500-plus pages, tax extenders for a selection of renewables tax credits, including a one-year extension for the wind production tax credit ("ITC") and a two-year extension for the solar investment tax credit ("ITC"), as well as a five-year extension for offshore wind projects taking the ITC. The bill, which was earlier approved by the House, is expected to be signed by President Trump later this week. | {
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You are here: Home / International Home Education / Religious Freedom In Sweden Under Threat
Religious Freedom In Sweden Under Threat
February 6, 2012 by Barbara
School Authorities Challenge Religious Education
Online school yearly reunion. Photo from COL. Front Photo: Haga Nygata, pedestrian street of city district Haga, Gothenburg, Sweden. Photographer: Erik of Gothenburg, EVL.
by S. Fridman – Gothenburg, Sweden
(Lubavitch.com) On January 26, Rabbi Alexander and Leah Namdar, Chabad representatives to Sweden, were served at their home with a notice by Gothenburg's school authorities: Four of their children presently studying at an international online school must be delivered to a Swedish school by February 1. Failure to do so may result in a fine of 16000 crown—the equivalent of $2400 per week.
The notice came following a change in Sweden's law January 1st that tightened restrictions on homeschooling, permitting it only in "extraordinary" circumstances. Religious reasons were explicitly excluded as a valid reason.
• Gothenburg's school authorities are challenging a Jewish family's right to a religious education
• School authorities threaten Chabad couple with hefty fines if children are not delivered to Swedish school
• Children are enrolled in established international online school, and participate in rigorous academic curriculum
• Children's parents must fight in court for the right to a Jewish education.
According to Richard Backenroth, the attorney representing the Namdars in their court battle against Gothenburg's school authorities, the case will be a critical test of Sweden's record on religious freedom. European law protects the religious freedom of its citizens, but with this action, Sweden is effectively denying the Namdars this right.
"This is a stain on the reputation of a country that takes pride in equality as a fundamental value," says Rabbi Namdar who, like his wife, regards education as their "highest priority."
Backenroth, who is appealing the notice and its "exorbitant fine" which came while the Namdars' case is still pending, told lubavitch.com that "Sweden's schools cannot possibly accommodate the needs of the Namdar children with respect to their religious requirements."
Moreover, the law, which challenges the right of parents to home school their children, should not be applied to the Namdar children, he insists, because they are in fact, being educated "in a normal online school along with 500 international students," as well as through private tutoring, yet Gothenburg school authorities are choosing to ignore this.
Guy Linderman, a Jewish citizen of Sweden who was active in politics supported the law when it was drafted years ago, but objects to its enforcement in the case of the Namdars. The law was originally motivated by concern for Sweden's immigrant children, he explains, "many of who were denied an education, and had grown up illiterate, incapable of signing their names."
But the Namdar children whom he has come to know well, have benefited from high educational standards. "They are more educated than their Swedish peers," he said, pointing out that all of them pursue careers in education.
Furthermore, as the only Orthodox Jews in the city, forcing them to go to a Swedish school where they would stand out, expose them to real danger. Swedish schools are notorious for their bullying problems, and the children would become a certain target for anti-Semitic harassment.
Leah Namdar sees this as one more in a pattern of challenges that she and her husband have been faced with in the course of the last 21 years since they have made their home in Sweden. Six of their 11 children now live and study abroad at Jewish high schools, teaching seminaries and rabbinical schools.
"We gave them an education that allowed them to integrate into the schools they have gone on to study at," Leah said. That is the same educational route the rest of her children are expected to pursue.
"They need this education through the international online school in order to continue their studies abroad," she said.
At their individual computers from 8:00 each morning to 1:15, five days a week, the children must master a full schedule of Judaic studies including proficiency in Hebrew. The afternoon is dedicated to English, Swedish, mathematics, geography, science, music, art, and gymnastics. All the children speak English, Swedish, and Yiddish fluently. They can read Hebrew by age 4 or 5, like other Orthodox Jewish children.
Their extra-curricular activities include community work with regular visits to the elderly, helping out with the Sunday Hebrew school classes for other Jewish children taught by their parents, and other educational activities. The online school also ensures the children benefit from a healthy social experience.
To read more go to: http://lubavitch.com/news/article/2034463/Religious-Freedom-In-Sweden-Under-Threat.html
"Hanging in the balance then, really, is nothing less than the religious freedom of Sweden's citizens."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Updated 30 January 2012: Life for Those Left Behind (Craig Smith's Health) page 6 click here
https://hef.org.nz/exemptions
Filed Under: International Home Education, Sweden | {
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NEW ELIZABETH COMMUNITY OFFICE OPENS IN SUPPORT OF NEWARK LIBERTY'S $2.7-BILLION TERMINAL ONE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Posted on May 17, 2019 by Travel PR News Editor
Elizabeth joins growing network of community centers supporting major Port Authority redevelopment projects at Newark Liberty, JFK, LaGuardia and the Port Authority Bus Terminal
New York City, New York, United States, 2019-May-17 — /Travel PR News/ — As part of its ongoing commitment to the local community in the development of the $2.7-billion Terminal One Redevelopment Program at Newark Liberty International Airport, the Port Authority, joined by local and state officials, opened an airport outreach office today (May 14, 2019) in Elizabeth.
Designed as a central resource for local job and contracting opportunities for the Terminal One project, the Elizabeth office will serve local residents and businesses while also focusing on communication and building stronger community engagement. Outreach staff also will assist in the recruitment of certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE), provide certification workshops and host job fairs.
The Elizabeth facility joins a growing network of community offices supporting major Port Authority redevelopment projects. Last month, an office opened in the city of Newark to support current and future Newark Liberty projects, and offices serving John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports and the Port Authority Bus Terminal also have opened in recent months.
"New Jersey's diverse cities and urban centers provide a workforce and business community that is second to none," said Governor Phil Murphy. "I applaud the Port Authority's efforts to engage the people of Elizabeth during Terminal One's development and construction, providing opportunities for small businesses and women- and minority-owned firms right in their own backyards."
"The Port Authority's commitment to keep our host communities involved in major construction projects is unprecedented in the agency's nearly 100-year history," said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O'Toole. "Opening community offices in the cities of Newark and Elizabeth will ensure local residents have direct access to the latest information and opportunities throughout the Terminal One Redevelopment Program."
"The opening of the Elizabeth outreach office today illustrates the Port Authority's commitment to the inclusionary process for minority- and women-owned businesses as subcontractors, vendors and consultants – not just for Terminal One, but for all of our projects," said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton.
"The new Terminal One at Newark Liberty International Airport will provide both residents and visitors to New Jersey a world-class experience and be a welcoming gateway to the Garden State. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I believe this important project provides needed jobs and significant economic benefits to the state and the region," said U.S. Representative Albio Sires (NJ-8).
"Having the Port Authority open an office in Elizabeth will give our residents and businesses a closer location to take advantage of the services and inclusive opportunities they provide for the new Terminal One Project," said Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage. "Our city is not only the fourth largest in the state, but one of the most diverse, so I applaud their efforts in creating pathways for success in our community."
Since November, the outreach offices have canvassed more than 1,300 local businesses with information on the Terminal One project with hundreds of local engagements with both businesses and community members. Through the end of 2018, the Terminal One project achieved 48 sub-contracts with MWBE firms totaling close to $200 million, and 56 sub-contracts with local firms, totaling about $630 million.
The Elizabeth office is located on the ground floor of 79 West Jersey Street, with hours of operation from Monday-Thursday, 1-5 p.m. (open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays). Appointments are recommended. For information and to schedule an appointment, outreach staff may be reached at 201-395-7421.
Terminal One is replacing the outmoded Terminal A. It will feature cutting-edge digital technology, superior dining and retail options in approximately one million square feet of space able to accommodate a projected 13.6 million passengers on three levels. The new terminal – which will have 33 common-use gates to handle larger aircraft and modernized check-in, security and baggage claim areas – is scheduled to be fully operational by 2022.
The $2.7-billion Terminal One Redevelopment Program is the state's largest design-build project and is expected to generate more than $4.6 billion in regional economic activity, create more than 23,000 job years and provide more than $1.9 billion in wages.
For information, job and contracting opportunities for the Terminal One Redevelopment Program at Newark Liberty, click here.
Founded in 1921, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey builds, operates, and maintains many of the most important transportation and trade infrastructure assets in the country. The agency's network of aviation, ground, rail, and seaport facilities is among the busiest in the country, supports more than 550,000 regional jobs, and generates more than $23 billion in annual wages and $80 billion in annual economic activity. The Port Authority also owns and manages the 16-acre World Trade Center site, where the 1,776-foot-tall One World Trade Center is now the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. The Port Authority receives no tax revenue from either the State of New York or New Jersey or from the City of New York. The agency raises the necessary funds for the improvement, construction or acquisition of its facilities primarily on its own credit. For more information, please visit http://www.panynj.gov.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
This entry was posted in Airports, Business, Travel, Travel Management, Travel Services, Travelers and tagged ELIZABETH, Kevin O'Toole, Mayor J. Christian Bollwage, Newark Liberty, Phil Murphy, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton. Bookmark the permalink.
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Payday Loans can be all about upside
Payday Loans can be a very good thing. Millions of people use them on a daily basis.
There is a lot of negative media coverage but payday loans have thousands of content customers who have used their loans correctly and found an ideal solution for the right reason.
There are many occasions when a payday loan really does work to improve a person's life.
When the Car Breaks Down
There are many times when we rely on our cars. We need them to drive to work and to provide for our families. When our cars break down, it really can be an emergency. Although the cost of maintaining a car has been coming down steadily, the costs can still be too high.
With so many of us living paycheck to paycheck, big expenses like these can often cause a crisis. If we don't have enough money to get our cars serviced what can we do? Instead of relying on a friend or family member, a payday loan can be the best way to smooth out the costs.
It can allow the bill to be carried over a few weeks or even months and in so doing becomes much more manageable.
Medical or Dental Emergencies
With the cost of dental work and medical procedures including medicines, accessing medical services when you are cash-strapped can seem impossible. But it's at times like these that being able to grab a payday loan can be the answer.
Unplanned Travel Needs
Changing jobs is something that thousands of us do every year. It is not uncommon to go for a job that is better than the one we have but sometimes, this involves traveling to an interview. With a payday express loan, this is no problem. We can simply take out a loan to pay for the travel so we can attend the interview.
This is an example of where a payday loan enables us to invest in ourselves. Of course, we have to pay back the loan with interest, but it may what is needed to give us access to a better job with higher pay. By taking out the loan, we may be better off overall.
Going Overdrawn
It is a fact that among the most expensive fees are the charges that are levied on our bank account if and when it ever gets overdrawn. Some banks even charge a daily fee when an account remains over its limit.
It is in situations like this when payday loans can actually be incredibly valuable because paying off an overdraft with a payday loan can mean lower fees overall.
Why Good Payday Loans Are Better Than Other Forms Of Lending
To some people, taking out a payday loan is the only option in certain circumstances. Without any other form of a credit line, people can find themselves bereft. If they cannot turn to family and friends then a payday loan can be a lifeline to enable people to cope with basic emergencies.
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Q: Can't create CSS from SASS using Webpack I've created a minimal file global.sass with the following contents (taken from here).
$font-stack: Helvetica, sans-serif
$primary-color: #333
body
font: 100% $font-stack
color: $primary-color
In my webpack.config.js I have added the following loaders to module section (the second one taken from here as sugested on Webpack's page here).
module: {
loaders: [
{ test: /\.js$/, loader: "babel", exclude: /node_modules/ },
{ test: /\.sass$/, loader: "sass-loader", exclude: /node_modules/ }
]
},
In my gullible hopes I thought that running webpack --progress would produce a CSS file but apparently, nothing like that occurs. I only get a new version of bundle.js but the contents of the global.sass file aren't anywhere in it. No CSS file's produced at all.
A: First of all, you need to require somewhere your style file.
For instance, if your entry file is main.js you can have something like this:
require('./global.sass');
/* or, if you're using es6 import:
import css from './global.sass';
*/
To clarify the process a bit: sass-loader process the .sass files and converts it to a valid css file (in memory, let's say so). Then, you'll have to chain (backwards) loaders to finally add the styles to your page:
A default configuration would be:
loaders: [
/* ... */
{
test: /\.sass$/,
loaders: ["style-loader", "css-loader", "sass-loader"],
exclude: /node_modules/
}
/* ... */
]
where css-loader resolves a CSS file and style-loader add a <style> tag at the bottom of your <head> with your style.
Before running that, make sure you've installed those packages:
npm i css-loader style-loader sass-loader node-sass --save-dev
You can, however, extract all your styles into a separated css file using the popular extract text plugin.
We can say, then, to summarize, that webpack does not generate a separated css file due to the style-loader (that adds a style tag to your DOM), unless you use the extract text plugin (very common in productions build).
| {
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Wednesday Wants: J. Crew Spring Arrivals & Farewell Jenna Lyons — Oh Wonderful!
Have you heard the news? Jenna Lyons is leaving J. Crew after 26 years. I am sad. Not like, "I must frame all of my favorite J. Crew pieces in a glass case so I can sell them on eBay one day," but rather, I'm slightly excited for what's to come. Let's be real—J. Lyons set the standard for what all of us could expect from J. Crew. I acutely remember when I was 10 and browsing through their catalog, mentally picking out my favorite shade from their candy-colored collection of cashmere sweaters, thinking to myself, "I can't wait until I'm older so I can buy one." I'm probably disappointing my 10-year-old self by instead buying a cargo jacket that I'll wear until it fades and toothpick jeans (which are the perfect median between skinny and straight).
I'm going to miss that classic (to me) that Jenna brought to the brand, from pairing tulle skirts with a chambray shirt to normalizing fuschia pink as a completely acceptable color to wear to the office, she really did wonders on J. Crew. Plus, let's not forget the multiple times that Michelle Obama wore J. Crew. Talk about America's brand.
1. Cold-shoulder top: I've been told that my rosy-pink/translucent skin tone really pops in poppy red. Plus, cold-shoulder tops are trending for spring.
2. Slim boyfriend jeans: Get you a new pair of light wash jeans this spring. A loose, but flattering fit like a boyfriend jean might even extend into fall.
3. Galaxy hoop earrings: Hoop earrings are my new spirit animal and I'm ready to step up my hoop game with a more avant-garde pair.
4. Lace-up popover top: I don't know if it's a good or bad thing if people start to think of you when they see a striped shirt. I'm going to go with the notion that it's a good thing, so I want to lace-up and go in this popover top.
5. Ruffle hem midi-dress: The minute I saw the red floral dress I was all *drool emoji*. Knowing my predictable dressing habits, I would probably wear this with tan heels and my favorite cargo jacket.
6. Seer-sucker jumpsuit: I'm a sucker for stripes and jumpsuits (and really anything I can wear a straw fedora with).
7. Signet bag in calf hair: I just want to live a pressure-free life and head out the door in a t-shirt, jeans and a bold bag.
8. Lace-up suede sandals: See what I said about tan sandals? It'll never end. | {
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Time to rewrite the dinosaur textbooks? Not quite yet!
Two possible branches of the dinosaur family tree Max Langer
Press release issued: 1 November 2017
The classification of the dinosaurs might seem to be too obscure to excite anyone but the specialists.
However, this is not at all the case. Recently, Matthew Baron and colleagues from the University of Cambridge proposed a radical revision to our understanding of the major branches of dinosaurs, but in a critique published today some caution is proposed before we rewrite the textbooks.
Every child learns that dinosaurs fall into two major groups, the Ornithischia (bird-hipped dinosaurs; Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Iguanodon and their kin) and the Saurischia (lizard-hipped dinosaurs; the predatory theropods, such as Tyrannosaurus, and the long-necked sauropodomorphs, including such well-known forms as Diplodocus).
Baron and colleagues proposed a very different split, pairing the Ornithischia with the Theropoda, terming the new group the Ornithoscelida, and leaving the Sauropodomorpha on its own.
Their evidence seemed overwhelming, since they identified at least 18 unique characters shared by ornithischians and theropods, and used these as evidence that the two groups had shared a common ancestor.
An international consortium of specialists in early dinosaurs, led by Max Langer from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and including experts from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain has now re-evaluated the data provided by Baron et al. in support of their claim.
Their results, presented today in the journal Nature, show that it might still be too early to re-write the textbooks for dinosaurs.
In this new evaluation, the authors found support for the traditional model of an Ornithischia-Saurischia split of Dinosauria, but also noted that this support was very weak, and the alternative idea of Ornithoscelida is only slightly less likely.
Max Langer said: "This took a great deal of work by our consortium, checking many dinosaurs on all continents first-hand to make sure we coded their characters correctly.
"We thought at the start we might only cast some doubt on the idea of Ornithoscelida, but I'd say the whole question now has to be looked at again very carefully."
Baron and colleagues believed their data suggested that dinosaurs might have originated in the northern hemisphere, but the re-analysis confirms the long-held view that the most likely site of origin is the southern hemisphere, and probably South America.
Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, a member of the revising consortium, added: "In science, if you wish to overthrow the standard viewpoint, you need strong evidence.
"We found the evidence to be pretty balanced in favour of two possible arrangements at the base of the dinosaurian tree. Baron and colleagues might be correct, but we would argue that we should stick to the orthodox Saurischia–Ornithischia split for the moment until more convincing evidence emerges."
Fabien Knoll, ARAID Senior Researcher and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, a member of the revising consortium, added: "Baron and colleagues formulated a stimulating proposition. However, like every new scientific hypothesis, it has to be critically evaluated by the community of scientists.
"It is only by weighing the arguments for and against it that it will eventually be adopted or disregarded as the most reasonable explanation of the evidence. We have just provided the first of these re-examinations, which shows that none of the major hypotheses of early dinosaur relationships is particularly secure."
Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, a member of the consortium, said: "Up until this year, we thought we had the dinosaur family tree figured out.
"But right now, we just can't be certain how the three major groups of dinosaurs are related to each other. In one sense it's frustrating, but in another, it's exciting because it means that we need to keep finding new fossils to solve this mystery."
'Untangling the dinosaur family tree' by Max C. Langer, Martin D. Ezcurra, Oliver W. M. Rauhut, Michael J. Benton, Fabien Knoll, Blair W. McPhee, Fernando E. Novas, Diego Pol, Stephen L. Brusatte in Nature
Student notices
All news feeds | {
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Alex is one of only a few Westie's running in flyball. Alex was actually recruited to the MAINEiacs because they needed a reliable height dog and he needed the speed of border collies! His body may not be built for flyball ball but every inch of his heart is, a true "go to" dog! He ran with them for 4 years and after becoming the first westie to earn an FMCh in 2009 Alex retired at the age of 12. He's always available for a back-up wheight dog though! Alex is also considering a go in the vets division but is enjoying retirement at the moment! Photo Courtsey of JPI Gifts.
Driver is a 3 1/2 year old German Shepherd dog, owned by Wendy Grandman of Double Impact flyball team, based out of Georgetown,Ontario Canada.
Driver came to Wendy almost 3 years ago, being a rescue dog, and after having been in 4 foster homes. Driver's inexhaustible energy level is certainly the reason he kept moving from home to home. Wendy compares his energy level to those of her border collies! Driver has just started his flyball career and when he is not racing down the flyball lanes, he is chasing his disc and performing at many shows as a Disc Dog Freestyler. Photo by Len Silvester.
aka TriHard�s Laser - FGDCH, eight year old Laser joined Karen Erz�s family as a fluffy, happy border collie pup ( Indy x Divot), and has not stopped smiling since. He is the happiest dog she has ever owned, and he has a wonderful exuberance for life. As much drive as he has, he is also a wonderful pet who can just chill out in the house.
Laser has been racing on Top Dog Racers his entire flyball career. A super easy dog to train, he took to flyball immediately. With his very consistent box turn, everyone on the team wants to have him as the dog they have to pass. Photo to Kyle Lehrmann.
aka Quicksilver�s All Aglow, is a two year old border collie bred by Deb and Julie Norman. She is by Angie and Lee Heighton�s Badger out of Deb�s Shiner. She (and her sister, Kohl) are some of the newest members of DogGoneFast Flyball in Raleigh, NC. She has run in three tournaments with a personal best so far of 3.880 and has earned her FDCh-G! Her favorite position is start so she can stare down the opposition before whipping off down the lane. Though her mom couldn�t attend, Halo recently traveled to the NAFA Can-Am Classic where she helped set a new club record of 17.5 seconds handled by her �Uncle� Geoff Brown. She is a very happy, silly girl who loves to meet new people and learn new things. If you ever meet Halo be prepared for lots of kisses; we recommend keeping your mouth closed when greeting her! She is owned and loved by Kate Wentz and lives with her spaniel friends, Basil and Godiva and couch potato lab, Lise in Raleigh, NC. Photo taken by Sam Bennett of Swift-Bennet Photography (www.swiftbennett.com).
aka Anchor Creek's Anarchy on Thunder Hill, FMX, WD, is a six 1/2 year old Leonberger and is one of the top giant breed dogs in NAFA. Havoc was a strong competitor throughout his flyball career and was notorious for his "opponent check" at the box that is captured in this wonderful photo by Sam Bennet. He ran in every position and with many different breeds of dogs in his career and posted a best time of 4.677 seconds in start. Havoc retired from flyball last spring and is currently enjoying water rescue and tracking as his retirement sports. Havoc and his handler, Mary Kline, would like to thank all their friends in Region 15 and Region 9 for their support and some wonderful racing. We were fortunate to find a home with Flash Point and send very special thanks to every dog and handler on our club - passing the 100+ lb dog takes courage! Havoc's photo is courtesy of Swift-Bennett Photography. | {
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Sorry, you missed 2019 Professional Women in ... at The City Club at Columbia Square.
Demand that The City Club at Columbia Square gets added to the next tour!
You missed 2019 Professional Women in ... at The City Club at Columbia Square.
We're generating custom event recommendations for you based on 2019 Professional Women in ... right now! | {
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What follows are photos of Round One on Monday. As I mentioned, Phil is not a welcome woodchuck and better stay hidden in his hole. This snow was beautiful: wet and fluffy and stuck to everything in sight, tracing all the tree branches in white.
Round Two which arrived in the wee hours of the morning this morning, was quite a different animal. Several times I woke up to sleet hitting the window, tink, tink, tink. The sight out the window this morning was not a welcome one. Yet another six inches of snow, but this time very dense and with an added something extra thrown in just to keep it interesting — a coating of an inch or more of ice. The only good thing I can say about the snow is that Rick did cancel his road trip to Maryland and is working from home today.
Here is what it looks like now.
The stuff is the consistency of snow cones. All I need is some colored flavoring and I could start a snow cone franchise.
Moving it was like trying to pick up concrete. I first had to break the top layer of ice and toss it before I took a shovelful. I think a nice soaking bath will feel pretty good tonight.
Bella is the only one who doesn't mind.
I don't think Round One or Round Two is going to melt before Round Three which is expected on Sunday through Monday with a predicted additional 6-12 inches with maybe an ice storm thrown in. It's still days away and too early to call yet, but that's at least what they are saying now. I can't wait.
Next entry: Rounds Three and Four? | {
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Ceiba's extensive fleet of trucks, trailers and vans is ready to get your group to and from the river. Our highly experienced drivers matched with top quality vehicles will ensure a hassle-free put-in and take-out experience for your next adventure.
Ceiba has the unique ability to move any and all combinations of river craft and equipment, from just your river gear/food to fully equipped Grand Canyon row rigs/inflated fully rigged motor boats and anything else your private trip desires.
For your comfort and safety, our vans are late model, air-conditioned 12 or 14 passenger vans. We haul our flat bed trailers with late model Ford, Super Duty, 4WD Quad-Cab trucks that can seat 5 of your party.
Be sure to contact us for the most practical and economical shuttle options for your group. We'll be happy to make it happen!
Ceiba can transport your dory trailer behind one of our vans for an additional $100 on each end of your trip.
Please keep in mind that it is not uncommon to tip our shuttle drivers. They are licensed commercial drivers that have years of experience, and are very knowledgeable, fun, easy-going people. Thank you for your consideration.
*The Hualapai Tribe charges a Diamond Creek Road usage fee per passenger, per vehicle, and per driver. This fee is in addition to above Diamond Creek shuttle prices.
If your group is interested in utilizing your own vehicles for your pre- or post-trip logistics, Ceiba can shuttle them for you. Please contact us for details, prices, and arrangements.
Ceiba has the ability to store your private vehicles in our locked & secure facility. We do charge $2/day per vehicle or $3.50/day per vehicle w/ trailer. Please contact us for further details.
Ceiba's 450 with 40′ S-Rig trailer and passenger van pulling 16′ kayak transport trailer.
Ceiba's 550-40′ trailer with 22ft. snout and 16′ aluminum osprey.
Custom Shuttles! One of our specialties!
Planning a wedding? Hosting a sporting event? Ceiba does non-river related shuttles for special events. All of our vehicles are equipped to travel on unpaved roadways to remote locations. | {
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Astrid B. Ongstad
Astrid Braaten Ongstad
On Saturday, April 10, 2021, Astrid Ongstad passed from this earthly life into the arms of Jesus, her Lord and Savior.
Astrid was born December 12, 1929 to Peter and Karine (Hegg) Braaten of rural Tioga on the farm her father homesteaded in 1902, after immigrating from Norway. Astrid was an only child who had more relatives in Norway than here in the United States! She was very proud of her Norwegian heritage and loved her three trips to Norway to visit her many aunts, uncles and relatives.
Astrid shared that when she started school, she spoke only Norwegian, but even so she made an incredibly special friendship that lasted 85 years and even involved a trip to China together. Astrid graduated from Tioga High School in 1948. While in high school, she worked for a local attorney as well as secretary to the superintendent of the Tioga Public School. Her "spare" time was spent helping her Dad on the farm. She become quite a "pro" at driving the tractor, seeding and cultivation. She loved her family farm and all the hard work her parents put into it. Following high school, she attended Augsburg College for a year and then transferred to Minot State Teacher's College where she obtained her teaching degree.
Astrid met the love of her life while at Minot and on July 29, 1951 she married Walter Ongstad. She taught school in Gladstone, ND for a few years but then her and Walt moved around ND and she held various jobs. They moved to Dickinson where she was secretary to the pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, Williston, Minot, Mandan and finally Bismarck. While in Bismarck, she worked for many years for the Memorial Mental Health Center, Governor Link and the ND State Highway Department. In 2014 she left her beloved Bismarck and moved to Devils Lake to be close to her daughter.
Astrid and her husband were very active in the Bismarck Sons of Norway and the Square-Dancing Club. She belonged to NSA (National Secretary Association) and was once selected Secretary of the Year. She was a member of the Toast Mistress while in Bismarck and also did volunteer work at her church, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Astrid and Walt loved to travel, going to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, Germany and Norway (three times!). They were "snowbirds" to Arizona for 20+ years. They loved traveling in their various motor homes all over and visited many National Parks and campgrounds.
Astrid is preceded in death by her husband Walter in 2000. She is survived by her son Dr. Curtis Ongstad and Kathy (Clow), New Richmond, WI and her daughter Vicki Harper and Craig, Devils Lake, ND. Astrid is also survived by her grandchildren and great grandchildren They were her greatest pride and joy; she shared her love for them with everyone who came into her room at Eventide Heartland Care Center to visit.
Grandchildren: Dr. Sarah Ongstad (Chris Falter), Lincoln, NE, Seth (Sarah) Onstad, Fargo, ND, Jordan Ongstad, New Richmond, WI, Joanna (Sean) Schneider, Fargo, ND, Ethan (Christina) Ongstad, Minneapolis, MN, Andrew Ongstad, Woodbury, MN, Emma Ongstad (Zach Bahr), Roberts, WI, Jeremy Harper, Grafton, ND, Karissa (Dylan) Holien, Williston, ND and Lacy (Matthew) Pye, Clover, SC; great grandchildren Emmett Ongstad, Edwin Ongstad, Charles Holien, Julia Ongstad and two on the way.
A Memorial Service for Astrid will be held at a later date with burial at the North Dakota Veteran's Cemetery, Mandan, ND. | {
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