Friday, November 17, 2006
School catchment
The idea that schools should not necessarily be constrained in their admissions policy by geography is one that deserves serious consideration.
One of the latest ideas to come out of the Conservative policy review is that schools in poor areas suffer from the flight of those more able to afford to live in more properous areas and so are able to send their children to academically higher achieving schools.
It is one of the blights of this Labour Government that school attainment has gone down rather than up. Of course every year exam results improve, but the truth is that exams are getting easier to pass. I have been, at times, forced to employ school leavers who are barely capable of writing a sentence in coherent English and yet they have a grade C at GCSE English. One of the reasons why the Independant sector is capable of maintaining high standards is that they can recruit from a wide catchement area, making their student body as diverse as they wish it to be.
LEA's run by socialist authorities are terrified of choice because parents invariably do not wish to choose to send their children to schools that they run. They are not fooled by the rhetoric and ideology that replaces pedagogy with child-centred learning. Theirs is a "do as I say not as I do" mentality, or else why else whould firebrand socialist MP Diane Abbott spend so much tmie denouncing independant schools but choose to send her son to one rather than the sink school her politics creates?
Of course there are risks that accompany the rewards. Schools freed from geographic recruiting boundaries must ensure that they cater for the communities they find themselves in. That is not the same as saying that it should be difficult for parents from outside that community to successfully apply to send their child there if they choose to do so. But schools should be able to compete with one another. It is the best way to ensure that successful schools remain successful. Regulated competition would see schools be able to join forces in managament take-overs just as in commerce. Teachers should be encouraged to develop professionally and be exposed to best practice, and those who fail to make the grade should be removed from the classroom. Interestingly it was the left-wing fabian Society that a few weeks ago observed that poor classroom discipline was often as a direct result of boredom brought about by indifferent, or uninspired, or incompetent teaching. Some students took a decision on whether to truant based on which teachers they were likely to have that day. Permanent recruitment plays a significant factor in this as a constant turnover of supply teachers can be both damaging and demoralising for both teacher and pupil as neither is able to build up a rapport or plan ahead in such uncertainty. The quality of this generation's students will most certainly influence the quality of the next generation of teachers.
I am in favour of school specialisation and this government should now consider the next logical step in that process and not necessarily limit access to students who show aptitude in a given area because of geography. It does not benefit the acdemically gifted child to not have the option of applying for a grammar school place when he or she is forced to attend a school with specialist sports college designation because they find themselves constrained by catchment area. Many FE colleges and Universities specialise and recruit from all over (and do very well out of it also), so there is little argument from preventnig schools from doing the same.
One of the latest ideas to come out of the Conservative policy review is that schools in poor areas suffer from the flight of those more able to afford to live in more properous areas and so are able to send their children to academically higher achieving schools.
It is one of the blights of this Labour Government that school attainment has gone down rather than up. Of course every year exam results improve, but the truth is that exams are getting easier to pass. I have been, at times, forced to employ school leavers who are barely capable of writing a sentence in coherent English and yet they have a grade C at GCSE English. One of the reasons why the Independant sector is capable of maintaining high standards is that they can recruit from a wide catchement area, making their student body as diverse as they wish it to be.
LEA's run by socialist authorities are terrified of choice because parents invariably do not wish to choose to send their children to schools that they run. They are not fooled by the rhetoric and ideology that replaces pedagogy with child-centred learning. Theirs is a "do as I say not as I do" mentality, or else why else whould firebrand socialist MP Diane Abbott spend so much tmie denouncing independant schools but choose to send her son to one rather than the sink school her politics creates?
Of course there are risks that accompany the rewards. Schools freed from geographic recruiting boundaries must ensure that they cater for the communities they find themselves in. That is not the same as saying that it should be difficult for parents from outside that community to successfully apply to send their child there if they choose to do so. But schools should be able to compete with one another. It is the best way to ensure that successful schools remain successful. Regulated competition would see schools be able to join forces in managament take-overs just as in commerce. Teachers should be encouraged to develop professionally and be exposed to best practice, and those who fail to make the grade should be removed from the classroom. Interestingly it was the left-wing fabian Society that a few weeks ago observed that poor classroom discipline was often as a direct result of boredom brought about by indifferent, or uninspired, or incompetent teaching. Some students took a decision on whether to truant based on which teachers they were likely to have that day. Permanent recruitment plays a significant factor in this as a constant turnover of supply teachers can be both damaging and demoralising for both teacher and pupil as neither is able to build up a rapport or plan ahead in such uncertainty. The quality of this generation's students will most certainly influence the quality of the next generation of teachers.
I am in favour of school specialisation and this government should now consider the next logical step in that process and not necessarily limit access to students who show aptitude in a given area because of geography. It does not benefit the acdemically gifted child to not have the option of applying for a grammar school place when he or she is forced to attend a school with specialist sports college designation because they find themselves constrained by catchment area. Many FE colleges and Universities specialise and recruit from all over (and do very well out of it also), so there is little argument from preventnig schools from doing the same.
# posted by Sherington Tory @ 3:31 PM 
