Tag Archives: Russell group

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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‘Hindering’ subjects and ‘bad’ universities

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The way we talk about subjects and universities has changed dramatically over the last few years, and not for the better. The English Bacc with its favoured GCSE subjects has led to a secondary school subject hierarchy which appears to … Continue reading →

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My NewVIc story: Rumana Ali

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Rumana Ali, NewVIc class of 2014 and former Plashet school student. Achieved A-level grades A*A*A in History, English literature, Government and politics and an A in AS Economics and has progressed to study for a BA in History at St … Continue reading →

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How can we reduce educational inequality?

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Meeting organised by “working towards a national campaign for education” at the Mechanics Institute, Manchester on 23rd September 2014 during the Labour Party conference. Many thanks to Sarah Williams for her work in organising and promoting this meeting. Speakers: David … 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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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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The Oxbridge challenge

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Having successfully increased the number and proportion of our students progressing to the most selective universities, why is it that we have not seen a similar increase in the numbers progressing to Oxford and Cambridge? In a recent post I … Continue reading →

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How to achieve high university progression rates

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) in East London is a large comprehensive sixth form college serving one of England’s most socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Most of our advanced level students start with below average prior achievement. Yet we have university progression … 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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Guess what? Vocational students go to university too

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Zakiyah, Shah, Robyn, Natasha and Daiva all have something in common; they are high achieving vocational students who completed advanced courses at NewVIc last year. Together with many others, they achieved the highest possible grades. In their case in: construction, … Continue reading →

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