Education
The lessons of exam results season (and what to do about them)
Every year without fail, as the trees start thinking about losing their leaves, the papers are full of the same…
How to help black boys afraid of ‘acting white’
Black British boys are being held back by fear of betraying their background. Immigrant children know how to deal with that
Just how tough a sentence was 14 years for Libor-rigging?
Rogue traders Former UBS trader Tom Hayes was jailed for 14 years for rigging the Libor market. How long could…
Even the Chinese can’t teach British teenagers
Watching a group of unruly children make mincemeat out of a well-meaning teacher has become a television staple and Are…
The Proms is taxpayers’ money well spent: it’s a national asset like fish and chips and the royal baby
Make no mistake: the Proms, whose 2015 season was launched last night, would not, could not, exist without the BBC,…
Would the return of the drachma mean a bonanza for banknote printers?
Bank job Should we buy shares in companies which print banknotes in expectation of one getting to print millions of…
Must all Children’s Laureates be tedious lefties?
Unless you’re an avid reader of the Guardian, you’re probably blissfully unaware that Britain has a new Children’s Laureate. His…
The best way to end the ‘poshness test’
There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on…
Call me insane, but I’m voting Labour
Quite often when I deliver myself of an opinion to a friend or colleague, the reply will come back: ‘Are…
A rebellion among Rugby schoolboys proved perfect training for its ringleader in putting down a Jamaican slave-rising in later life
The public schools ought to have gone out of business long ago. The Education Act of 1944, which promised ‘state-aided…
A lesson in bias on private schools
What aid experts and academics don’t want to hear about private schools in developing countries
I’m working to make education fairer. But I’m still not sure what ‘fairer’ means
Civitas has just published an interesting book called The Ins and Outs of Selective Secondary Schools. Edited by Anastasia de…
James McAvoy is wrong – the arts are better off without subsidy
The season of cringe-making acceptance speeches at arts awards ceremonies is nearly over, thank heavens. But it hasn’t passed without…
The teachers who (quietly) miss Michael Gove
Meet the teachers who are (quietly) grateful to the former education secretary
Immigration, not money, will improve Scotland's most deprived schools
I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…
Female bishops are very, very old news
Female bishops The Reverend Libby Lane was ordained as Bishop of Stockport, the Church of England’s first female bishop. —…
The Tories have one real success in government – and they’re scared to talk about it
Schools are the one area where this government has made a real, positive difference – but it’s scared stiff of saying so
Come on, Tristram Hunt, if you think you’re hard enough
For a brief moment earlier this week, I thought education might become an issue in the general election campaign. The…
Why tomorrow’s parents won’t want their children to go to university
Why being a graduate is about to lose its prestige
How the Romans taught Latin (N.M. Gwynne would not approve)
Barely a week passes without someone complaining about the teaching of English or foreign languages, usually because it involves too…
Nicky Morgan vs Socrates
After the Philae space-lab’s triumph, one can see why Education Secretary Nicky Morgan should have hymned the ‘Stem’ subjects (science, technology, engineering…
If you want an argument against state-school-only Oxbridge colleges, just look at me
I read with some interest the proposal for Oxford and Cambridge to set up state-school-only colleges in the Guardian this…
The reopened V&A Cast Courts are a fabulous spectacle of Victorian theft and reverence
The great municipal museums are products of the 19th-century imagination, evidence of lofty ambitions and cringe-making limitations. They are exact…
Letters: In defence of Italy, and the rise and fall of the military moustache
Italy’s to-do list Sir: You would expect a long letter of rebuttal by a piqued senior diplomat in response to…
Russell Brand and Nigel Farage remind me of myself five years ago
I’m often asked by other free school proposers what lessons I’ve learnt over the past five years. Any pearls of…
