Education letters

Monday, January 31, 2011

Education letters

Children's Manifesto, education policy, teaching challenges and local authorities

Little voices

Last week, Dea Birkett invited children to give us ideas for a new Children's Manifesto, 10 years after our competition called The School I'd Like. She wondered whether grown-ups listen to children more today.

Who cares what the kids want? Who is in charge here? You don't ask your kid his or her opinion on what car you should buy, what house you should live in. Nor do you ask them how late they want to stay up. They're kids. They don't know what they want. That's what our job is.

Joe3945 via EducationGuardian.co.uk

? Children's requests [in the competition 10 years ago] for more fast food and no dinner ladies are basically saying "we want school dinners that taste nice/ our school dinners are disgusting, we know we like fast food so can we have that?" And "our dinner ladies aren't nice to us/ we don't like them". It would be stupid to bring in fast food, but is there something in the request that the food be brought up to a higher standard and the dinner ladies/pupils relationship be worked on?

LuisaM via EducationGuardian.co.uk

Poor policy?

The article by Estelle Morris (Gove shouldn't inflict his schooldays on other people's children, 25 January) is a fine analysis of this Tory-led government's thinking on education policy. The life experiences of Cameron's cabinet, overwhelmingly rich and privileged, inform their attitude to public services, particularly for the most vulnerable. They've been raised on public bad, private good ideology. They wouldn't recognise need if it smacked them in the face.

Gordon Vassell, Hull

Manchester vibe

I have no argument with Professor Mel Ainscow's idea that "moving knowledge around" can improve schools ('We don't look the same, but we have the same vibe', 25 January). However, the suggestion that the Manchester City Challenge is responsible for improved GCSE results in inner-city secondary schools is an insult to many hardworking and dedicated teachers.

The staff and students involved in the partnership you featured have doubtless benefited enormously. However, as a teacher working in an inner-city secondary school during the birth of the challenge, I would argue that this is a fairly isolated success story, rather than the norm. GCSE results in Manchester have indeed risen. But that was down to the hard work and dedication of teachers and children, and in many cases the challenge deserves none of the credit.

Sarah Warden

Prestwich

Bonkers methods

Let us hope that teachers in other sectors read the further education section of Education Guardian last week. The article (Bonkers? Maybe. Successful? Definitely) on Harlow College shows what can and has often happened in the FE sector since the removal of a democratic element embodied in the local education authorities.

What FE colleges became years ago were in fact "academies". And that is how management can act in education when they lose LEA restraint. Beware academies, teachers.

Dave Nicholson

Windsor

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds