A mollycoddled ‘snowflake’ generation of children rely on teachers to bail them out ahead of crucial exams by running free booster classes. They are increasingly depending on staff putting on sessions after school and during holidays to get them up to scratch. This is leading to some lazy pupils believing they do not have to work during lessons because staff will routinely do their revision preparation for them. Read more
For reasons that are not entirely clear the natural and proper scepticism towards religious principle has morphed, in Britain, into uncontrolled paranoia. A leader can’t voice their religious faith without being thought of as a ‘nutter’, as Tony Blair memorably put it. Plural, secular, Western politics is, or should be, a God-free zone. But is it time we started taking the faith of our political leaders seriously? Read more
Earlier this week, the Co-op hosted the first ever Northern Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers Launch, celebrating and showcasing organisations that are going above and beyond their corporate social responsibility to capture diverse UK talent, and becoming more competitive as a result. A variety of industries across the Northern Powerhouse are set to take a fresh look at how inclusion is viewed and open a broader conversation surrounding the diversity agenda. Read more
If a pupil’s family background tends to be important when it comes to predicting their academic results, and if pupils’ academic results are important in Ofsted judgements, then how surprising is it that schools with poor pupils get worse Ofsted results, on average, than those with fewer disadvantaged pupils? If Ofsted cannot disentangle the contribution of a school from the background of its pupils, then it’s dangerous to draw conclusions from its reports. Read more