As far as I understand it the 3 films will be filled with content Tolkien hinted at in his appendixes in the LoTR. Look at the new scene with Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond as one example.

The film was all her idea. Had I known then how things would ultimately turn out, I'd have left her the taxi fare home and fvcked off after twenty minutes.

And now thanks to Gove's meddling it looks like NI and Wales will have a different examination system to England.

If he was in front of me now I think I would knock him out. It looks as though OFSTED have been briefed to ensure all non academy schools are deemed failed as soon as possible.

My daughter was informed at 10am yesterday that 3 OFSTED inspectors will be turning up at 8am today to do a 3 day inspection, targetting the SATS groups (SATS are this week as if they didn't have enough to contend with). They were given a list of things that the inspectors would need to see, which would include literacy and numeracy workbooks from 2 kids at, below and above the required levels, these books would have to be marked up and all paperwork complete up to finish of business yesterday.

Because these are not needed for this weeks SATS the teachers were going to do them over the half term closure (they no longer regard these breaks as holidays as they tend to work everyday of them), but she (and her colleagues) started to do them last night. At around 9:30pm her head teacher got in touch to say that the inspector in charge had rang to say that they now needed to see ALL numeracy and literacy workbooks at 8am along with a stack of other work that would generally not be required until after the next half term, which now means they will have to get into school at 5am to get this done.

Last year her school was given 'outstanding' status and my daughter was rated the same having averaged a 6 point improvement as an average across her kids, but because of the make up of the school very few had achieved 'expected levels' for their ages (over 70% are from overseas and have English as a second language, some of the girls from Islamic countries have had NO education whatsoever up until a few months ago). Gove has now changed the goalposts and ALL kids must be at the required level no matter what the circumstances, so my daughter will now be benchmarked against a teacher from a leafy, middle class suburb of Surrey and whose kids can probably read and write when they enter pre-school at the age of 4. Some of my daughters 6 year old hadn't heard a word of English until they enrolled at her school and a high percentage are in desperate need of an SEN assessment (which is refused most of the time).

She has been tapped up by a few schools where she would have an easier time of it in areas of mostly middle class families with little or no SEN needs, but she has always refused because she knows these kids she teaches need good teachers who care and she is reluctant to abandon them, but she fears that although they know they have maintained (or bettered) there standards since last year it is inevitable that they will be deemed a failing school under the new Gove directive and be forced (against the will of parents, teachers and governors) into academy status.

I am no educational expert, but I think Gove is a danger to the future of our kids, especially those at the bottom of the academic pile as these academies will be able to pick and choose who they want and a kid from a third world country who cannot speak a word of English and have some form of SEN such as autism will not be high on the agenda for a place.

The question being of course, what private limited company would see investment value in a school like your daughters ?

If you are paid by results then clearly you target the "cream" and disregard what remains.

On the other hand if you are paid by "improvement" then its in the sellers interests to downgrade the product as low as possible to make it attractive to a purchaser who can then claim an impressive "turnaround" after they purchase - bonuses all round.

Just to remind ourselves, these are children we are selling.

Just to make a memo to ourselves - check what jobs Gove is offered after 2015.

I've changed my mind.
I would happily punch the odious little turd until he lost consciousness.
Anyone who knows my posting history and so has a general feel for me will tell you that for me that is VERY strong.

Goves ideology will wreck english schooling.

Yep, and I think at least partly the fault of a packed full (and dull) curriculum that doesn't allow teachers and schools much, if any, leeway in how to teach.

I'd go with that to an extent.

Although I genuinely believe there is a core of subjects that all young people should have the opportunity to be introduced to. And unfortunately, it seems to me, we have lost sight of education in that kind of way, and replaced it with a strictly utilitarian version - not least as employers whinge about school leavers not immediately 'being ready', for the workplace.

I remember a year or so ago, the particular complaint was that school leavers did not have skills in dealing with customers. You do wonder how anyone in my generation ever coped. In the olden days, I don't think any employer imagined that a school leaver was absolutely ready for any job - they required training of some variety. But some employers increasingly seem to view that as the state's responsibility and not that of themselves.

But I do also think that there needs to be a capacity to split children up into groups/classes/subjects that are appropriate to them.

And then a. Different sort of thing: I remember reading, two, the years ago, about a 14-year-old lad who just totally ed off with school - no interest - but found himself work as a gardener and absolutely loved it.

And there was a furore about trying to drive him back into formal education, which seemed, in that case, to not be appropriate.

Spot on, I agree entirely with having a curriculum but its just too full to allow teachers freedom to do something related but a bit different, or go on more school trips.
It's a ridiculous position many employers are taking at the moment. They appear unwilling to train employees on the job and want "the perfect candidate" whilst paying minimum wage.

You could be speaking of Alan Titchmarsh, left school at 15 and was lucky that his father knew one of the gardeners at Ilkley Town Council which by coincidence happened to be the only thing that the young Titchmarsh was interested in - three years later he was persuaded to go to college to study for a city & guilds but still wasn't keen on academia.

Many would look down on those who mow the grass in their local park though.

The sum total of Gove's idiocy

My daughter has just had her first day of OFSTED and she said that the inspectors asked for 12 literacy books for pupils who were NOT in the English as Additional Language category, to which she replied that she only had 3 (87% of her school is from an ethnic, non British born background). You would have thought that the inspectors would have turned up with some idea of the general make up of the school population.

She is still no wiser as to 'why' this was required.

Now there is one of my only two real annoyances with anything Harry Potter. The massive praise and hype lavished upon JK Rowling as a 'great' British author was IMO hugely disproportionate to the quality of the work, whilst Pratchett was the opposite by the general public/media at the time. I also think that it's incredibly sad that (even though his campaigning has been excellent and probably important for raising awareness for the issues) to most he is probably known for having Alzheimer's and being in favour of assisted suicide rather than his work.

Agree with most of that.

Again – I love the fact that the Potter books got people reading. And I've read a couple of them myself and enjoyed them. They''re a very easy read – and that does take skill.

But they're not great literature, any more than Enid Blyton's schoolgirl books (also great fun) were great literature.

Pratchett is way, way beyond that. I do also think that Sir TP does suffer from genre snobbery – the same thing can be said of crime fiction, although that's produced the likes of Raymond Chandler, whose work is literature too. The literary establishment in this country, like any other form of the establishment, can be incredibly staid. Personally, I think that much of what TP has produced is far better than much of what passes for English 'literary fiction' in recent years (some of which I have had to read for review purposes and little of which strikes me as much cop).

My one slight disagreement would be to say that, that in that sense, TP is far, far better known, and has a far, far wider audience than many of those authors, though. IIRC, he's one of the best-selling English authors of all time.

Okay, so whether everyone who reads his books 'gets' them as satire is a different question, but it's part of his genius that they can be read simply as comic fantasy – or as something more, which makes them particularly inclusive.

I own up to not having read any of Pratchett's books but I have met the man and a very good friend of mine is a business associate and also executor to his will.

Pratchett is very much his own man, the main reason he chose Sky over the BBC for televising his books is Sky never demanded artistic control. Bernard (my mate) was at Pratchett's house once when Spielberg telephoned him regarding the potential of filming a book. Pratchett declined what would have been a very lucrative offer because he would not cede artistic control. When Spielberg told him he could be a very wealthy man Pratchett replied: "I'm already very wealthy Mr Spielberg, I have far more money than I could hope to spend in my lifetime, what would I do with any more?".

Like him or not, Gove is arguably the most influential Tory politician of this generation. The fact that he currently occupies one of the less fashionable ministerial offices in education shouldn't provide any comfort. Indeed, I think it serves to highlight where the Tory Party (or, I should say, its benefactors) thinks the [ireal emphasis[/i is in terms of attacking public sector spending and, more importantly, re-tooling the national indoctrination programme. I mean, given the national disgrace that the British press amounts to it's the easiest thing in the world to drive through welfare cuts. Just sprinkle a few dozen half-truths or outright fabrications about such-and-such-a-body claiming dole whilst cruising the streets in a new Ferrari and Voila! - a mandate appears.

But education, like the NHS, is an altogether harder proposition. Which is [iprecisely the reason[/i Gove, a man both financed and supported by, the most radical elements of the American Neo-conservative movement - including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle etc. has been given the job. It's typical political sleight-of-hand (something we fall for every time). Work the electorate into a creamy lather over welfare whilst stealthily reaching behind your back to filch the contents of your wallet and make all manner of questionable changes. Further spending cuts are a certainty and given the company Gove keeps so is wholesale privatization. After all, Rumsfeld & Cheney presided over the biggest privatization bonanza in history with the US armed forces, the Pentagon, CIA etc.

Spending cuts and privatization are bad enough. But after my experiences in teaching I'm more worried about his plans to not just continue where his predecessors left off in undercutting what educational benefit remains in the national curriculum but [iaccelerating [/ithe process.

I never fail to be amazed at people's unlimited willingness to ascribe anything other than [iconscious intent[/i to the actions of politicians despite affording, say, ethnic minorities, benefit claimants etc. no such free latitude.

For weeks the media has been prattling on about how "stupid" Gove's reforms are. How increasing the number of exams, force-feeding every child the plays of Shakespeare (!), quantifying every moment of school time in order to derive endless streams of meaningless league tables which rank everything up to the cleanliness of the loos will further "dumb down" education. Well, D'uh!

Depending on which media narrative you subscribe to Gove is either a "visionary" (the BBC especially loves to introduce the word "visionary"icon_wink.gif whose reforms will deliver unto us a new Athenian generation or a blundering yet fundamentally honest fool who will leave Britain further behind the burgeoning Asian tigers.

Completely missing from both the media and the public's critique is the possibility of [iconscious intent[/i. Gove drafts the kinds of policy which we already know leads to declining standards ergo [iGove intended to attack standards[/i.

Given that today's predominantly service-sector economy no longer necessitates the abundance of highly-skilled (and relatively highly paid) craftsmen Britain needed fifty years ago is this such an impossible suggestion?

Gove's policies form the closing parenthesis to the Tories' initial education target - university education. At the time it was thought too many people were applying for university - especially as the number of highly skilled jobs in Britain has been diminishing for years. It is a fact that educated employees are more likely to demand higher wages, leave without notice, exercise their rights under the law etc. and Big Business (which, pulls the Tory strings) wants no part of that.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if we were only returning to education as it was, say, fifty years ago which at least attempted to counterbalance academic with vocational. Alas it seems the future is one in which the Marmadukes and Ruperts of this world will have their pick of any number of intellectually stimulating and challenging educational opportunities whilst the rest of us are forced to eat cake - and then have our access to the NHS withdrawn for unhealthy living.

The conservatives have stitched us up royally. And, sans one or two voices of sanity and reason, they've achieved their no-less radical aims than those of the Thatcher government sustaining little more than a few cuts and bruises. Meanwhile the Guardianistas and such like have pretty much mirrored the hopelessly ineffective American liberal class, which also failed to recognise that the business lobby, after taking a brief kicking during the 60s and 70s, has re-invented itself in a leaner and far, far meaner aspect and is currently playing for every last marble on the table.

In response to Mugwump's epic:

1. It looks like we're about to get, pre-election, a huge privatisation - part of the government's stake in Lloyds Bank. Bigger privatisation than British Gas which the Tories feel won them an election in the past.

2. Gove - love him or hate him he's probably the most (nay, only) competent Tory minister at present.

3. I think his education programme is a mixed blessing:

a. A return to something like the old system will give bright kids from disadvantaged backgrounds more opportunity. Even Diane Abbot agreed on that - Gove apparently saying "I love you to her" when she intejected in the Commons.
b. I have long argued that we should fully fund the intelligent at university. Hopefully, this is a step towards that and to moving back towards a world class universtity system. The current state of affairs is unsustainable on so many levels and must be turned around quickly.
c. Slightly against what I have said, we need to be careful to keep the up the aspirations of the non intellectually-elite pupils. The one good thing about the system of recent years has been that more kids are engaged with the idea of aspiring to get on and have a go. They are being let down though by becoming highly indebted for no real future reward.

I'm sure I could conduct a more recent poll of teenaged about Goves comments and get a more mature response.

I'd suggest privatisation was no greater vote-winner than lucking-out with oil in the North Sea, or the post-Wilson fallout which destroyed the Labour Party. But then, Tories have never allowed the truth to overshadow self-spun myths of glorious self-determination. In any case, the days when Tory Prime Ministers set the agenda for public-sector sell-offs are now a dim ember in memory. I mean, Cameron may currently possess the freedom to pick [iwhich[/i public assets will be sold for a fraction of their true worth - but, unlike Thatcher, he may not choose to refrain altogether. That hard won freedom now belongs to a handful of giant investment banks, the United States Federal Reserve etc. - and they won't exercise such any time soon.



"Competent" ministers aren't courted by the elite group of the Republican Party, insanely rich industrialists, media barons etc. The truth is Gove is an ambitious, talented and highly resourceful politician who achieves results - [ifor the class he represents. [/i



Much as a mercifully swift death beneath the headsman's axe was a mixed blessing to those sentenced to excruciating torture under the Inquisition.

Whilst Gove's reforms are unquestionably bad for all but the affluent, let's not pretend things were ever that good to begin with.

State-regulated eduction confuses even the brightest of pupils. It disgorges vast amounts of incoherent information which kids must memorise in order for them to not be judged failures. Aside from testing it is very similar to TV in that it fills up a child's free time with overwhelming content forgotten in the same week.

It teaches kids to accept their class affiliation without question. It strips them of their individuality and leaves them not just emotionally but intellectually dependent. It teaches children a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts and discourages them from challenging authority figures (an act which is necessary to any functioning democracy). Lastly, it teaches them to acquiesce within an environment where you are constantly supervised and there is no opportunity to hide.

Pinning the blame on "bad teachers" is a cynical but nonetheless effective means of diverting attention from the fact that compulsory state education was never meant to truly educate. It was created to tackle the first great problem posed by the Industrial Revolution - encouraging vast numbers of people living agrarian lifestyles to take jobs they didn't want in the cotton mills, metalworks, mines etc. Life in the country was hard - but it was unimaginably more enjoyable than the hazardous mind-crushing "wage slavery" in filthy overcrowded cities. Worker revolts were commonplace and many people simply quit and went home.

The solution was found by Prussian sociologists who discovered that it was possible to create a largely docile, complaisant workforce from young by extending childhood into the teens (a period then labeled "adolescence"icon_wink.gif and stunting emotional development. This could only be achieved by forcibly separating kids from the traditional (and vastly more beneficial) teaching apparatus then provided by the family and placing them into a rigidly controlled and monitored authoritarian environment with continuous assessment.

Well over a century later little has changed.

Anyway, seems that student debt will be privatised - but to do so will require upping the interest rates the poor buggers are paying. Nothing like taxing the strivers is there?

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cash-for-classrooms-michael-gove-plans-to-let-firms-run-schools-for-profit-8682395.htmlGove considering leting schools run for profit[/url

It now looks like the prat is seriously considering allowing hedge funds and vulture capitalists to take over or open schools. So we are basically comoditising our children's education.

As each day goes by, I despair if we will ever get to the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm frankly amazed that the British public now seem to have become so emasculated that they blindly follow the Judas lamb onto the slaughterman's knife

It will improve education standards by introducing competition and will mean it doesn't soak-up tons of taxpayer's money.
You know, like it did on the railways and water provision.

I did wonder yesterday if this business of MPs being "unable" to reject the recommended pay rise would actually be that. While we're all taking one for the team, they aren't joining us.

If Waterloo Road has taught us anything, it's that the philanthropy model of education doesn't work.