Tag Archives: Newham

Colleges and violent extremism

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

I work in a large inner city sixth form college with 2,600 students in London’s 3rd most socio-economically deprived borough where unemployment, poverty and homelessness are more common than average. Another way of describing the college is that it is also … 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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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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Can we celebrate success without rewriting history?

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The headteacher of the Newham-based 16-18 free school; London Academy of Excellence (LAE) in commenting on their A-level results to the Guardian last Thursday was quoted as saying: “In Newham, there were hundreds and thousands of young people who wanted … 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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A tale of two boroughs

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

I want to start by telling the story of 16-18 education in two London boroughs; a story which illustrates some of the things I think we should be concerned about. Borough A was an economically disadvantaged area where most secondary schools … Continue reading →

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Russell group offers: hype and reality

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Comprehensive sixth form college: 162 Selective 16-19 free school: 100 I wrote here about the misleading use of Russell group offer data to demonstrate the impact of a new 16-19 free school in our area. The fact that 100 students from … Continue reading →

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Young people between hope and despair

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Eddie Playfair

Young people’s natural reserves of hope are running low in the current recession. As a result, much of Britain’s youth now seem strangely suspended between hope and despair. In the London borough of Newham, reasons for despair are not hard … Continue reading →

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