Let’s get a move on with air-con grants 🆒 Despite Labour approving grants for air to air heating and cooling systems last year, 4 heatwaves later and they still aren’t available… Why? Because agencies haven’t approved an accreditation scheme 😐 It’s time to get it done👇

I (cautiously) welcome the move to a more devolved democracy. With this comes the opportunity to review curriculum through a local / national / world lens . Most existing curriculum areas are suited to such a lens (some more than others) I suspect there is a change required to give it best chance

Apropos of braindead slop on LinkedIn as much as current policy debates, I think this stands up pretty well, with the exception that Ukraine is now thankfully doing much better: open.substack.com/pub/jimlaude...

A curriculum for the future?

Lots of commentary about the curriculum assumes a future that might well not happen

open.substack.com

One reason I'm so opposed to early selection is it means the sorting process is essentially done in advance by teachers/parents and so kids aren't even given a chance on the route that leads to the high status and well paid jobs.

If I wanted to protect the most prestigious and highly paid jobs for the social groups who usually hold them I'd probably design an education system that discouraged poorer children from studying the entry qualifications for these jobs as early as possible..

Solid little thread here. I'm so worried for our education system right now.

Jim Lauder@mrjlauder.bsky.social · 3d ago

No concrete proposals as yet, so we'll see. Closer links with employers has a lot of potential. But the kind of rhetoric Powell is using (ed isn't preparing kids for modern economy, pen and paper needs to be replaced by collaborations and presentations) usually presages education policy disaster.

Lucy Powell doubling down on this in today's Times. As the Times points out, if this is the case it is a mystery as to why the NEETs issue is as bad if not worse in Scotland and Wales.

Jim Lauder@mrjlauder.bsky.social · 3d ago

First, on this bit, Reeves and Starmer are culprits more so than Tory edu ministers - min wage hikes, emp NI, new workers' rights (all stuff I agree with in the abstract) all piled on at once... Yes, you're going to get a NEETs issue. That's pretty basic economics.

What this piece brought home was how lousy a job those of us who have spent years talking to each other about ed on social media, going to confs, blogging etc have done of communicating to anyone outside of teaching. Leaves the field wide open to stuff like this. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘Tiger mum’ Lucy Powell on Labour’s vocational skills drive: ‘It’s about ambition for everybody’

Lucy Powell says it is ‘false trade-off’ by critics to suggest schools in England can’t pursue academic excellence alongside technical skills

theguardian.com

She was shadow ed sec previously and is pretty knowledgeable of the brief. But she is also classically a global big-view person when speaking on policy, she’ll usually give a specific grounded example (herself, her kids, someone she met recently) and then go big and vague. Expect more of this.

I can understand why Lucy Powell doesn't frame the issue this way, but it would be useful if the wider Labour world did: the current NEET crisis exists in part (and is being made worse by) multiple very deliberate policy choices made in the first two years of this government.

Jim Lauder@mrjlauder.bsky.social · 3d ago

First, on this bit, Reeves and Starmer are culprits more so than Tory edu ministers - min wage hikes, emp NI, new workers' rights (all stuff I agree with in the abstract) all piled on at once... Yes, you're going to get a NEETs issue. That's pretty basic economics.

NEET numbers are primarily a labour market issue not an education one. We know this as numbers have also risen in Wales and Scotland which have different education systems.

Jim Lauder@mrjlauder.bsky.social · 3d ago

First, on this bit, Reeves and Starmer are culprits more so than Tory edu ministers - min wage hikes, emp NI, new workers' rights (all stuff I agree with in the abstract) all piled on at once... Yes, you're going to get a NEETs issue. That's pretty basic economics.

New Ed Sec Lucy Powell has an interview in the Guardian. It's pretty thin, not sure if that's just how non-sepcialist interviews go or if it's reflective of LP being new to role. Couple of thoughts: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘Tiger mum’ Lucy Powell on Labour’s vocational skills drive: ‘It’s about ambition for everybody’

Lucy Powell says it is ‘false trade-off’ by critics to suggest schools in England can’t pursue academic excellence alongside technical skills

theguardian.com

I've weighed in on the great vocational education debate. From what we can see of the govt plans, I think they will repeat mistakes of the past. Also, we need to retire the phrase "parity of esteem". It's not helping. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/the-proble...

The problem with "parity of esteem"

Vocational education at age 14 is not the answer

substack.nomoremarking.com

Area man devastated one of his favourite places has adopted the bucket of warm milk approach to flat whites.

Excellent article that drills into detail about why generic skills - sadly likely to feature in England's new national curriculum in some form - do not exist. Thanks @daisychristo.bsky.social www.aei.org/research-pro...

Totally agree. The alignment of this can have major intergenerational Impact in communities facing real challenges. A great opportunity for the Community sector to help connect . Seeing DWP next week on local ideas .

This whole package is potentially quite exciting, especially if DWP support can be effectively devolved and integrated with other services.

Schools Week@schoolsweek.bsky.social · 6d ago

Breaking: Mayors will be handed control of sixth form funding in a radical break from England’s Whitehall-run post-16 education system schoolsweek.co.uk/mayors-to-ta...

Think all of this, and grasping nettle on social care generally, is very good

Frances Ryan@francesryan.bsky.social · last wk.

Bloody hell, have Labour started talking to disabled people?? Burnham says any move to allow assisted dying should not happen until the government funds better social and palliative care.

It's been fun watching in real-time the PM using the bully pulpit to make an argument and the legacy media mostly falling into line (even if I have reservations about the substance). Goes to show, again, how useless the last guy was.

For me the right answer is grow the economy and fund FE. What we're seeing here is governments (of both kinds) struggling to run the economy since 2016, and consequently looking for politically easier answers elsewhere - in this case, with the education system.

Ben Newmark@bennewmark.bsky.social · last wk.

Fwiw I think the right approach won't be found in formal assessment itself but outside it. We need more second chances, other routes to decent jobs and lives that aren't academic. Which I get is what AB like many others have tried is trying, but won't work because as @stephenkb.bsky.social says..

Fwiw I think the right approach won't be found in formal assessment itself but outside it. We need more second chances, other routes to decent jobs and lives that aren't academic. Which I get is what AB like many others have tried is trying, but won't work because as @stephenkb.bsky.social says..

Started writing on Andy Burnham’s education proposal thinking “not sure about this”. Realised in writing “no, I am sure: it sucks!”

Education is not to blame for England’s Neet crisis

Andy Burnham’s schools overhaul risks throwing babies out with the bathwater, as changes will probably require cuts elsewhere

ft.com

This is sadly true - a big test of Burnham's changes will be if it's possible to engage employers enough to avoid this. New funding for a cadre of people who have linking schools and employers as their job is vital. Even then it will be tough.

James Handscombe@jameshandscombe.bsky.social · last wk.

Yes - and so most “vocational” education ends up being quite general computer skills with the main difference being lots of coursework and the ability to retake. Which ends up being objectively easier than, say, History and so not valued as highly.

6.. finally, always important to remember English education is a success. Kids are more literate and numerate as a result of the changes over the last twenty years. These are the most important "employment skills" of all and anything that might risk this is dangerous.

This is entirely correct and the piece I wish I'd written had I not been so end-of-term tired and had too much other stuff to do (hoping to stop working tomorrow🤞). Well worth reading.

Schools Week@schoolsweek.bsky.social · last wk.

'Parity of esteem cannot mean asking poorer children to narrow their horizons earlier. The most progressive education policy remains the simplest: give every child access to powerful knowledge and allow them to decide for themselves what they will become' schoolsweek.co.uk/no-andy-burn...

A few thoughts on what sounds like MBacc for all. This could be positive, depending on the how it fits with a balanced curriculum. But knowledge, skill and expertise in different fields depends on mastering basics. 1/

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · last wk.

Burnham looks to cut welfare bill by linking up schools and employers ft.trib.al/HSiRgy9

Inshallah Bluesky will keep Blueskying. Lovely stuff.

The Provost / سيدة الفتنة@msentropy.bsky.social · 2w ago

This shit right here. Example: The Spanish colloquialism “ojalá” (meaning “hopefully”) derives, by way of Old Castilian, (“oxalá”) from “inshallah.” This usage dates back to 1424, and demonstrates Arabic’s lasting influence on Spain — well after the so-called Islamic Golden Age of Al Andalus.

Properly funding FE (in the context of devolution?) = great, yes please Messing about with curriculum and assessment pre-16 beyond the very sensible recommendations of the CAR = not for me thanks www.thetimes.com/article/f6ff...

Teachers fear disruption if Lucy Powell rips up curriculum review

The education secretary could dismantle her predecessor’s work by expanding vocational routes and Andy Burnham’s alternative baccalaureate

thetimes.com

Good grief the amount of Educational phlogiston crawling out of the woodwork over on LinkedIn

Not said enough in recent weeks that Bridget Phillipson was the cabinet minister who did the most to secure the abolition of the two-child benefit cap (cited by Starmer as his proudest moment).