Category Archives: Education

Which counts most 16-18: disadvantage or prior achievement?

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

What are the respective impacts of socio-economic disadvantage and prior achievement on student success post-16? We now have measures which help us to understand and compare both. These data are very useful at institutional level to establish the difference between … Continue reading →

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Market madness #6 Students as commodities: premium, discount and remaindered

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Originally posted on Eddie Playfair:
Enrolment is always a challenge. We come back from our holidays to an empty college. Like someone organising an open house, we’ve stocked up on a range of snacks and drinks for our guests but…

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Market madness #5 Qualifications as currency

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #5 Qualifications as currency. All economies need a currency which we all use to represent the value we give to things and which can be exchanged for real things. … Continue reading →

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Investing in East London’s future

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Our annual analysis of the university destinations of our students always makes impressive reading. While we can’t guarantee that every former NewVIc student who progresses to a degree level course will get a graduate level job in a few years’ … Continue reading →

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L’inspection en Angleterre

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Comment fonctionne l’inspection des établissements en Angleterre? Comment est-elle ressentie par les enseignants et les chefs d’établissement sur le terrain ? Le bilan du système anglais est-il plutôt positif ou négatif ? Si vous êtes enseignant en France vous aurez peut-être rêvé … Continue reading →

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Gramsci’s grammar and Dewey’s dialectic.

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

James Donald’s ‘Dewey-eyed optimism’ Over 20 years ago I read a short review article which re-examined the relationship between knowledge, skill, vocationalism and a broad liberal education. It helped me see that progressive educators could value knowledge and tradition as … Continue reading →

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Exam success boosts the economy by £1.3 Billion?

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Simplex and Sapiens are discussing the latest press release from the Department for Education. Simplex: Have you seen the latest figures for GCSE results under this government? They’re truly amazing! Sapiens: You mean the proportion of 16 year olds achieving … Continue reading →

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Labour’s disappearing National Bacc

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Has Labour ditched its commitment to a National Baccalaureate for 14-19 year olds? According to the party’s Education and Children statement, Labour will ‘establish an overarching National Baccalaureate framework for all post-16 students which would include high quality academic and … Continue reading →

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Building the Bacc from below

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

I was delighted to attend the National Baccalaureate summit on 28th November held at Highbury Grove School and hosted by Tom Sherrington, the headteacher. This was an opportunity for a range of people to take stock of the various baccalaureate-like … Continue reading →

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Education as a whole and in its parts

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Creating a successful learning community Our college mission is to ‘create a successful learning community’. While this only applies to our small part of the education system it’s not a bad aspiration for the whole system. So what would be … Continue reading →

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Better inspection for all?

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A critical evaluation of the proposed new Ofsted inspection framework The current Ofsted consultation “Better inspection for all” proposes a new common inspection framework for schools, academies, colleges, training providers and Early Years settings to provide greater coherence in our inspection … Continue reading →

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Alison Wolf on education and the economy

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

NewVIc autumn lecture: 12th November 2014 Alison Wolf is Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London and the author of the ‘Wolf Report’ commissioned by Education minister Michael Gove in 2010 to ‘consider how we can improve vocational … Continue reading →

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A sixth form college manifesto for 2015

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The Sixth Form College Association has published its manifesto for the 2015 general election. It will join the manifestos of many other organisations in politicians’ in-trays, no doubt prompting many warm words but few cast-iron promises. This was evident in … Continue reading →

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The fruits of democracy

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Reclaiming Education (Nov 15th 2014) The theme of the excellent Reclaiming Education meeting in Birmingham on 15th November was ‘priorities for the next government’ and one of the key questions raised was: how do we ensure that our education system responds to … Continue reading →

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The bitter fruits of autonomy

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

In his speech on 12th November, schools reform minister Nick Gibb restated some of the key themes of this government’s education strategy and expressed his delight at seeing the ‘full fruits of autonomy in all their vivid abundance.’ To those … Continue reading →

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