Author Archives: Eddie Playfair

About Eddie Playfair

I am a Senior Policy Manager at the Association of Colleges (AoC) having previously been a college principal for 16 years and a teacher before that. I live in East London and I blog in a personal capacity about education and culture. I also tweet at @eddieplayfair

The GCSE retake challenge.

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Imagine a year when all our efforts to improve sixth form students’ English and Maths worked for nearly everyone. A year when the English and Maths skills of all those post-16 students who achieved grade 3’s at school improved to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged achievement, criterion referencing, curriculum, Education, exam results, GCSE English, GCSE Maths, GCSE retakes, norm referencing, skills | Leave a comment

Easing student debt won’t cut it.

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Apparently, the prime minister is considering ways to ease the burden of student debt (story here). That sounds like a good idea; she might also take the opportunity to consider how the tuition fee and loan system has changed the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy, Politics | Tagged Education, Labour party, marketisation, politics, student debt, student loans, Universities, university fees | Leave a comment

Challenging IQ.

Posted on August 20, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Behavioural genetics; the clue to the difficulty is in the name. As with Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology before it, the squashing together of two very different levels of understanding into a single discipline creates a real problem. Genetics and psychology … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Science | Tagged behavioural genetics, determinism, Education, emergence, genes, heritability, intelligence, IQ test, Leon Kamin, neuroscience, neurotrash, reductionism, Richard Lewontin, Science, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Rose | 1 Comment

NewVIc results 2017

Posted on August 19, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Students and staff at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) are celebrating another year of improvement in A-level pass rates and top grades, all of which have continued to increase faster than nationally. NewVIc’s A-level pass rate is up 1% on … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, NewVIc | Tagged A levels, comprehensive education, Education, exam results, Newham, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, NewVIc alumni, university progression, vocational education | Leave a comment

The NewVIc class of 2016

Posted on August 16, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

As we prepare to celebrate the achievement and progression of our 2017 leavers on their results day, it’s worth looking back at our most recent previous cohort and where they progressed. As usual, the class of 2016 was a brilliant … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, NewVIc, Students | Tagged Education, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, Russell group, university, university progression | Leave a comment

Newham’s outstanding record of widening participation

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Disadvantaged young people in Newham are more than twice as likely to progress to university than in England as a whole and their progression rate is the 4th highest of all local authorities in the country. The ‘disadvantage gap’ between … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, NewVIc | Tagged aspiration, disadvantage, disadvantage gap, Education, England, free school meals, London, Newham, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, Social mobility, university progression, widening participation | 2 Comments

Edgar Morin on ‘Thinking Global’.

Posted on August 6, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

How do we understand the difference between the behaviour of an individual and that of a society, between a small group of like-minded people and a political movement or between the ecosystem of a few acres and that of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics | Tagged complexity, Edgar Morin, emergence, global citizenship, Hegel, Penser Global, reductionism, thinking, Thinking Global | Leave a comment

10 things which could improve education

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

I’d like to offer the following tentative 10 point charter to improve education at all levels as an initial contribution to the debate about the future of education in England. 1. Build a comprehensive system rooted in equality: We should … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy | Tagged citizenship education, comprehensive education, Critical thinking, Cultural heritage, culture, curriculum, Democracy, economy, Education, education system, employment, England, Equality, future, global citizenship, knowledge, learning, liberal education, National Education Service, research, Social cohesion, Solidarity, values | Leave a comment

The last Corsican.

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

“I’ve decided to keep this diary because I’m going to die in the next few days…I am condemned because, having refused to be evacuated with the others, I will be annihilated by the incendiary bombs which are systematically ravaging the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction | Tagged Corse Noire, Corsica, Jacques Mondoloni, Le Dernier Corse, The Last Corsican | 1 Comment

Matisse in Corsica.

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The great artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was inspired to use colour in radical new ways during his first visit to Corsica. After their wedding in early 1898, Matisse and his wife Amélie Parayre spent their honeymoon first in London and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged Ajaccio, Amelie Parayre, Art, Corsica, culture, Fauvism, France, Henri Matisse, Hilary Spurling, painting | 1 Comment

Giving young people a stake in their future

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

In the wake of the general election there’s been a lot of talk about the youth vote and young people’s renewed commitment to the political process. At the same time, there is evidence of young people’s pessimism about their future … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy, Politics, Students | Tagged citizenship education, civic service, Education, National Citizens' Service, politics, Solidarity, tuition fees, volunteering, voting, young people | Leave a comment

Reconstruction in an age of demolition

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

A national project is always a ‘work in progress’ as implied by the title of Carol Ann Duffy’s brilliant performance piece based on the words of people across the country during the EU referendum campaign. So what sort of work is … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy, Politics | Tagged Carol Ann Duffy, citizenship education, Education, Labour party, marketisation, My Country; a work in progress, National Education Service, Post-16 funding, SEA, selection, vocational education, young people | Leave a comment

The best of things

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

We were delighted to officially open our new building on 30th June in the company of our guests of honour: Greater London Assembly member for City and East London Councillor Unmesh Desai and Fred Jarvis as well as a number … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, NewVIc | Tagged Fred Jarvis, library, new building, Newham, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, theatre, Unmesh Desai | 2 Comments

More area reviews?

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

More area reviews of post-16 education? We’ve only just got through the last lot and that took up loads of everyone’s time for very little benefit. Surely this can’t be a serious suggestion… Well, it might not be guaranteed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy | Tagged Area-based Reviews, collaboration, Colleges, efficiency, partnership, quality, school sixth forms, schools, Sixth form, sufficiency | Leave a comment

Equality at the heart of our values

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The more we discuss and explore ‘British Values’ with our students, the clearer it becomes: equality needs to be at the heart of our value system. We cannot teach these values without placing the idea of equality at their core … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged British values, citizenship education, Equality | Leave a comment

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