Tag Archives: competition

People’s College and Top Academy: which is best?

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Imagine two colleges, let’s call them People’s College and Top Academy. We want to compare them, so we turn to the national performance tables which tell us that the average A-level point score for People’s College is 200 (C-) compared … 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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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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The oath and the compass

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

It sounds like the title of a medieval thriller; the brotherhood of educators send their top monks out to roam the world having sworn to serve learning and they solve all sorts of intractable problems with the help of a … Continue reading →

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

Posted on September 9, 2014 by 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 we can’t really be sure … Continue reading →

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Comparing like with like

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

There’s been a lot of hype about the A-level results of our neighbouring 16-18 free school and there’s no doubt that their students have achieved some very good outcomes. But their claim to have the “best ever results by a … Continue reading →

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Market madness #4 A good system can help schools improve

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #4 A good system can help schools improve. Whenever I am asked to explain English secondary education to foreign visitors I usually start by saying that there is no … Continue reading →

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Post-16: education’s wild frontier

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Sixth form education in England has become the wild frontier for selection and marketisation with a plethora of new providers, whether 11-18 academies or 16-18 free schools trying to outdo each other in setting ever more exclusive entry requirements and competing … Continue reading →

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Meeting the widening participation challenge

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

My contribution to the Westminster Higher Education Forum seminar on 1st July 2014. Thank you very much for inviting me and I’m going to keep it short. I think my take home message is probably the same as Les Ebdon’s … Continue reading →

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Market madness #3 The well-informed educational consumer

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #3 The well-informed educational consumer. An ideal market requires well informed consumers who are in a position to make choices between products based on accurate information about the things … Continue reading →

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Sixth forms working together against the tide

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Opening speech to the Sharing Good Practice conference at St.Angela’s school, Stratford, 4th June 2014. We are all here today because we are committed to providing the best possible educational opportunities to young people aged 16-18 and because we think … Continue reading →

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Market madness #2 “Choice and diversity”

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #2 “Choice and diversity” “Choice and diversity” was the last government’s euphemism for marketisation in public services, putting a positive spin on something which is not particularly popular with … Continue reading →

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Market madness #1 Oversubscribed?

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #1 Oversubscribed? “6 applicants for every place”…”heavily oversubscribed”. These sorts of claims are often used to establish how popular, and by implication successful, schools and colleges are. They should … Continue reading →

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Don’t be young!

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

It’s a tough time to be young. Since 2010, young people have taken quite a battering from policies and cuts which have narrowed their opportunities and limited their prospects of becoming active, fulfilled members of society. All this in a context of … Continue reading →

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