59 FOUR Schools Ruth Lupton, Stephanie Thomson and Polina Obolenskaya The situation on the eve of the crisis Throughout this book, 2007 is referred to as the last year of the ‘warm climate’ for social policy that Labour enjoyed. In schools policy, it also represents a turning point, with Ed Balls taking over as Secretary of State for Education and beginning to take policy in new directions. The Labour programme for schools up to 2007 had four key themes. The main policy emphasis was on pushing up standards of teaching and learning. National Strategies were
53 THREE Schools in communities I think the schools are improving. They get better and better each year, basically. There is much more profile on education than there was before. Nowadays you see, especially in this area, so many kids going to university. Well years ago, it would never have happened in an area like this. (Barbara, East Docks) Introduction: Why schools matter Families talk a lot about schools because they play such a dominant role in family life, and children’s development, enriching the social life of communities, particularly in low
185 ELEVEN school choice Kirstine Hansen and Anna Vignoles introduction In 1988, the Education Reform Act for England and Wales strengthened parents’ rights to choose the school their child attended at primary and secondary school levels. Similar legislation was applied in Northern Ireland. The 1988 Act was introduced to encourage competition between schools, as they sought to attract pupils, with the idea that this would lead to higher standards of teaching and children’s achievement. Despite obvious policy interest in the extent and consequences of school
PART II Schools’ perspectives
Introduction This book is based on research undertaken in three contrasting schools in one city in the South of England during the academic year 2014/2015. The research was mixed-methods combining an initial survey of pupils in years 7, 9 and 11 in each school, with subsequent semi-structured qualitative interviews with a sample of pupils and careers advisors (n=60) alongside field observations. This chapter introduces the three case study schools: Grand Hill Grammar 1 (an independent fee-paying school), Einstein High (a ‘high performing’ state school in a
There is an enduring belief amongst some that segregation is worsening and undermining social cohesion, and that this is especially visible in the growing divides between the schools in which our children are educated.
This book uses up-to-date evidence to interrogate some of the controversial claims made by the 2016 Casey Review, providing an analysis of contemporary patterns of ethnic, residential and social segregation, and looking at the ways that these changing geographies interact with each other.
The processes for allocating places at secondary schools in England are perennially controversial. Providing integrated coverage of the policy, practice and outcomes from 1944 to 2012, this book addresses the issues relevant to school admissions arising from three different approaches adopted in this period: planning via local authorities, quasi-market mechanisms, and random allocation. Each approach is assessed on its own terms, but constitutional and legal analysis is also utilised to reflect on the extent to which each meets expectations and values associated with schooling, especially democratic expectations associated with citizenship.
Repeated failure to identify and pursue specific values for schooling, and hence admissions, can be found to underlie questions regarding the ‘fairness’ of the process, while also limiting the potential utility of judicial responses to legal actions relating to school admissions. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach which makes it relevant and accessible to a wide readership in education, social policy and socio-legal studies.
Policy & Politics vol 31 no 1 371 © The Policy Press, 2003 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: PFI • schools • control procedures • value for money Final submission 12 September 2002 • Acceptance 2 October 2002 Policy & Politics v 31 n 3 371–85 Controlling the PFI process in schools: a case study of the Pimlico project Pamela Edwards and Jean Shaoul English This article explores how the control procedures designed to ensure value for money in the context of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), operate in the context of schools, using the case of the Pimlico
93 CHAPTER 6 Inclusion in schools Introduction Chapter 2 established a conceptual framework for understanding wellbeing and its relationships to other concepts on a Deleuzian ‘plane of consistency’. In Chapter 5, we explored the relationships between flourishing, happiness and wellbeing, and how these concepts are used interdependently to cross-refer to each to provide an understanding of wellbeing and, as far as measurement of the concept is concerned, its operationalisation as a concept. In a similar way that flourishing, happiness and wellbeing are
Introduction Religion and belief are not simply the preserve of RE in schools, though they may be most obvious there. They also appear in the requirement of the act of daily worship, as well as in the right to withdraw – a right belonging only to this sphere and to sex education, apparently two areas in need of more than usually sensitive handling. However, religion and belief are implied, and have implications, throughout the whole life of schools. The muddle spills over throughout. A number of spaces complement, supplement, overlap with and even colonise
