We’re busy working on our election manifesto – J4MB staff will be taking no weekend breaks during this critical period – and continuing to develop proposals in the area of education. We’ve found plenty of solid information on the website of the Campaign for Real Education – a voluntary organisation founded in 1987 – and this essay (published in 2006) struck us as particularly interesting. It was written by Irina Tyk, then as now the headmistress of Holland House, an independent preparatory school for boys and girls between the ages of four and eleven. How lucky the pupils are to have such an estimable woman in charge.
Though I would like to see more male teachers I think it is so far gone that changing the gender balance in schools is a long project. So I think thee should be clear targets for current schools and teachers to drastically improve boys reading, writing and maths at primary and improve GCSE performance. There also needs to be a close look at teaching skills where “exclusions” are rife as I suspect these are used instead of effective discipline in the classroom/school environment. The school workforce should be held to account for performance.