By John Hipwood at the Tory Party Conference
The Tories said today they would use the example of a successful Shropshire school to revolutionise secondary education and rescue under-performing schools from failure.
They promised to free hundreds of good comprehensives from bureaucratic control by allowing them to become academies - provided they help schools that are struggling.
Conservative officials said their policy would be based on how Thomas Telford School in Telford had established a foundation with the “the worst performing school in Telford”, Madeley Court School.
Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove told the Shropshire Star: “What’s happened in Telford is the absolutely perfect example of what I want to see happen across the country.
“This federation with Thomas Telford School transformed Madeley Court’s fortunes, with the number of pupils gaining five good GCSEs including English and maths rising from 16 to 48 per cent.”
Another shadow cabinet minister, North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, said the proposal to free up schools, invite parents and outside bodies into the state sector and allow greater independence from the local education authority was directly applicable to Shropshire.
“The commission set up to look at possible school closures should not even think of closing schools at this time,” he said.
“If we win the next election, Michael Gove’s policy is one of the first things we should do.”
Mr Gove told the Conservative Party conference that independent academies would become the norm under a Tory government.
“We will give the best of our comprehensive schools the chance to free themselves from bureaucracy to enjoy full academy freedoms,” he said.
“We expect to double the number of academies currently planned. Independent state schools will become accessible to every community, open to all but committed to excellence, free to pursue tougher discipline policies, free to pay good teachers more, free to innovate, experiment and drive up standards.
“In return, for greater freedom, we shall ask excellent schools to use their new powers to help under-performing schools.”
Mr Gove also pledged a Conservative government would give teachers new powers, adding: “Under a Conservative government, heads will be captains of their ship, authority will be respected, discipline will be restored.”
10 Comments
typical tory tosh ,what is that quote about the blind respect of authority being the greatest enemy of truth and justice? its simply sickening that there is no real alternative to tories or “socialists”
No No No No. again a Tory MP has looked at Telford and got the wrong answer from a straightforward question.
The reason Thomas telford does so well is because it has a selection criteria only the most intelligent pupils from telford go to Thomas telford.
Madeley, Sutton Hill, brookside all have what are termed as bad schools due to the parenting of the pupils in attendance at those schools.
The pupils who go to Thomas telford have parents who want them to succeed, who help them with homework take a interest in there children.
However in the less well off parts of Telford Madeley, Sutton Hill, brookside etc many parents do not take a interest in there children and prefer the if your not annoying me do whatever you want to form of parenting.
The schools are not at faults.
The parents are at fault.
The Government should bring in a test and license for parents to take if they want to have children. If they pass the good parenting test they get access to tax credits, child benefit etc. If they do not pass the test those benefits are denied them.
Y Mab - you’re completely wrong about Thomas Telford taking only the most intelligent pupils. They have an assessment test to see which ability range each pupil falls within, and take their pupils from across those ability bands. I understand that this year they took only a handful from the highest ability range.
Locally, Newport Girls High and Adams Grammar are genuinely selective, relying upon
the 11-plus exam or something similar to select.
I think it’s true to say that the parents of children at any of these schools are committed to their kids getting a good education (which isn’t to say that parents of children at other schools aren’t!). I think the advantage of Thomas Telford and these other schools is that they have successfully either separated disruptive or uninterested children from their ranks, or in some case found a way to spark the missing levels of interest.
I do have some concerns about some of the privately-sponsored academies we’ve seen in recent years however - especially those that are trying to teach the nonsense of Creationism under a science banner - I fear we’ll see more of this.
‘Y Mab Darogan’
Glad to see that you are not in a position of power with such a ridiculous suggestion like that.
Get a life and stop commenting on what other people should or should not do! I bet your life isn’t squeeky clean!
Sense - what is wrong with my suggestion. You need a license to drive a car? As some people would be dangerous driving a car. You need a licence to own guns, even to operate chainsaws and dangerous animals.
YET we allow unsuitable people to become parents! And to damage the upbringing of a young child!!!.Surely people should be made to undergo education and gain a license in order to have children.
If I was to be more draconian I would suggest each child is sterolized and then when they are over the age of say 18 they can gain a license to obtain a parent license if they pass the operation is reversed.
Madness!!! and then we pay these unsuitable parents benefits to have even more children and in some cases these benefits are not spent on the children but on the parents smoking, alcohol habit.
This is why we see feral youngsters roaming the streets of Telford and Shrewsbury.
The parents simply do not care enough to find out where they are.
The state welfare system of our country has a lot to answer for.
Thomas Telford may not be ’selective’ in the old grammar school sense, but it is true that many of their outstanding results (and ensuing league table position) are enhanced through not entering the less able students for examined courses and entering those that will achieve for multiple award courses (BTEC etc). This is becoming more common in most schools and parents aren’t really aware of this. Headline figures mean nothing.
The aim of this government, is the wholesale sell-off of this country’s schools delivered initially through the ‘National Challenge’ programme and then handing them over to the private sector/interest groups under the guise of Academies. Conveniently, this will remove the burden of responsibility away from the State.
there is an alternative to the tories and new labour but they are way behind in the polls. the lib dems were doing well under charlie kennedy, he was a good leader and some of his fellow shadow cabinet were and are brilliant. vincent cable would be a brilliant chancellor, menzies cambell brilliant foreign sec, to name 2.
why not try the lib dems, they were the only party to oppose the iraq war. perhaps another lib lab government would work. the libs talk so much common sense, if they have a fault they are too near to europe for my liking
I agree totally with Y Mab, the rest of you are just playing the ignorance is bliss card. The parenting of today is what is letting children down.
y mab, you are also completely wrong about parents in areas such as madeley sutton hill and brookside not taking an interest in their childrens education.
you are a snob with an elitest attitude and maybe we send our children to a local school because we feel they should go to school in the area of the other children they have grown up with..
Y Mab Daroagan.
I’ve said this before … and here it is again..
If Thomas Telford School was to select prospective pupils on spelling and grammar, then YOU wouldn’t get anywhere near the front door !
“Their” as in “owned by someone”, you spelt incorrectly as “there”, that is you might say: “Thomas Telford school is over “there”, and “over there is where their ball went”
And you suggested: Children should be “sterolized”, whatever that is, when what I think you meant to say was “sterilised”.
And Why do you keep using lower case letters for names of towns and places?
I think that maybe you should checkup on your use of english before you speak too loudly about others!