Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Educational mobility

A new report on education mobility in England recently published by the Sutton Trust found that educational mobility in England has increased significantly since 1958. However, England lags behind Australia, Germany and the US in the international comparison.

The…

Fears of ‘bogus’ students in pre-election season

Following Labour’s promise to reduce the number of student visas granted this year by 40,000, critics of the UK Border Agency’s Points Based System (PBS) are pointing to recent immigration figures as evidence that ‘bogus’ students can ‘manipulate’ the system…

Manifestos, tuition fee revolts and selection

The education news this week was, hardly surprisingly, dominated by the election campaign. What set this week apart was that we were finally able to see the parties’ pledges in black and white in their manifestos. Labour was first, and…

The Red Tape Peril

Interesting to read that the state sector is also blaming red tape and overzealous child protection policies for the decline of foreign exchange trips (see Telegraph article ‘Foreign exchanges ‘axed over security fears’). The independent sector has been equally worried; more…

Why Schools are Charities

Most of us will have opinions about independent schools. It’s also very likely that we think we know what charity means.  Put together these two preconceptions, and it’s easy to see why there is such a spectrum of views about whether schools…

ContactPoint goes live

Last week the Government’s £224m ContactPoint database went “live” across 17 Local Authorities in the north west of England. By the end of the year almost 400,000 people will have access to data on every child in England.

If you…