Tag Archives: vocational education

Debating the Liberal Arts

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The Future of Liberal Arts conference: The Liberal Arts and Schools I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the panel on ‘The Liberal Arts and Schools’ at the ‘Future of Liberal Arts’ conference organised by Martin Robinson (author … Continue reading →

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Learning to love liberal education

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Talk given at the The Future of Liberal Arts conference at King’s College London on 14th October 2014. A video of this talk is available here: http://www.newvic.ac.uk/futureliberalarts/ (select ‘Liberal Arts in Schools’ starting at 3:33) I want to start by saying that … 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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The forgotten 50% need a one nation education system.

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

A dialogue between Simplex and Sapiens, two education policy commentators: Simplex: You don’t need to be a historian to know the value of education. Sapiens: And history shows that we cannot achieve ‘one nation’ goals with ‘two nation’ policies. Sim: No … Continue reading →

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Finding Labour’s Education Mojo

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Less than a year before the general election, has the Labour Party developed winning education policies? Tristram Hunt’s latest speech ‘The Choice in Education’ was a bit like a pre-tour band rehearsal. A range of material was tried out, some … Continue reading →

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Labour’s vocational vision: two-nation thinking wrapped in one-nation talk?

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The Labour party wants to position itself as the party of skills and vocational education. Party leader Ed Miliband and shadow minister Liam Byrne have both made recent major speeches on this issue. Clearly, any party standing on a ‘one … Continue reading →

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My NewVIc story: Zakiyah Qureshi

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

It started with a dream. A dream come true! My name is Zakiyah Qureshi, I live in Tower Hamlets and I am currently studying Project Management in Construction at University College London (UCL). My journey started at Langdon Park School when I wanted … Continue reading →

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Election 2015: Labour’s draft education manifesto

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Will education feature as a significant campaign issue in the 2015 general election? Will the major parties be offering us distinct visions of the future of education? It’s clear that any incoming government will inherit a divided and incoherent non-system. … 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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16 year olds need a universal “sixth form UCAS”

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Nick Clegg’s announcement that the government wants to introduce a “UCAS-style one-stop on-line shop for 16 year olds who do not want to go to university” (BBC 27/02/14) is an interesting idea, even with all those hyphens. However, as presented … Continue reading →

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One nation education

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

“One nation under a groove … is what we’re funkin’ for” sang George Clinton’s Funkadelic in the late 1970’s. After I bought the single I had the tune in my head for weeks. It was funky and catchy and the lyrics … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Education policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments