Menu Close

School's out

Displaying 11 - 18 of 18 articles

Al-Furqan Muslim school in Birmingham has been grant-maintained since 1998. David Jones/PA Archive

Faith schools are part of the answer, not the problem

It would take a “bold secretary of state” to argue for more faith schools in Britain, wrote Newsnight’s policy editor Chris Cook commenting on the so-called Trojan Horse storm about Islamist extremists…

On the subject of subjects

Subjects need to be seen once again for what they are. They are divisions of human knowledge made in order to advance knowledge in universities or to teach existing knowledge in schools. Academics and…
Tributes to Anne Maguire were left outside Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Anna Gowthorpe/PA

Pupils with weapons should not induce moral panic

The stabbing to death by a 15-year-old pupil of Anne Maguire, a much loved teacher who had worked at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds for more than 40 years, has attracted much attention across…
Haven’t you read Plato? Abee5

The 50 great books on education

I have often argued that I would not let any teacher into a school unless – as a minimum – they had read, carefully and well, the three great books on education: Plato’s Republic, Rousseau’s Émile and…
Now kids, I call this the applied science theory. Shutterstock

Who should teach the teachers?

Who should teach the teachers? The answer seems obvious. The best teachers should teach the teachers in the way that the best cooks teach the cooks. That’s the apprenticeship, the craft or “sitting with…
Al-Madina free school governor Abdullah Shahjan was told his school was disfunctional. Rui Vieira/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Can an Islamic education produce critical thinking?

The closure of the secondary section of the Al-Madinah free school in Derby will be celebrated by those who oppose free schools and what are euphemistically labelled “faith” schools. Whatever the stated…
Dangerous thinking. dreamerve

Can kids do Kant?

Philosophy was always dangerous, as the life and death of Socrates taught us. He was, need I remind you, executed not by an authoritarian regime but by a caring democracy. Times have changed however, and…