Education
Who leads the global 5G market?
In the beginning How did Britain mark its entry into the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973? There were no…
British universities are a modern-day racket
One of the great myths of Scottish higher education is that it’s free. Outside observers can be forgiven for making…
Letters: Why have the Conservatives decided Chesterfield is a lost cause?
Given up on Chesterfield? Sir: Matthew Parris makes some interesting and accurate points about growing Tory support in the north…
What have the Anglo-Saxons ever done for us?
It has been a while since I’ve considered the vexed question of Byrhtnoth’s ‘ofermod’. More than 30 years, in fact.…
Must try harder: Labour wants to reverse a decade of progress in education
If education rather than Brexit or the NHS was the biggest issue in this election campaign, the Tories would be…
Asians are doing too well – they must be stopped
Riddle: when is discrimination against a historically disadvantaged racial minority perfectly legal? Answer: when they do too well. The first…
General de Gaulle’s advice to the young Queen Elizabeth
There were so many ear-catching moments in Peter Hennessy’s series for Radio 4, Winds of Change, adapted from his new…
When did English A-level become a science?
Now that my youngest has got her A-level grades, I’m finally free to say just how much I have loathed…
My daughter’s gone to Magaluf, and it’s hard not to worry
At the Leavers’ Ball held to mark our daughter’s last day at boarding school, there were only two topics of…
The fanatical thinking that’s on its way to British schools
For anyone who isn’t following the long march of racial self-flagellation through America’s institutions, last week’s revelations about the excesses…
In defence of a liberal education
A good decade or so ago I wrote a fairly vituperative article in response to a piece by the writer…
An inconvenient truth: white children are underperforming everyone else in UK schools
The Department for Education (DfE) published its finalised data on the 2018 GCSE results last week, revealing that, for the…
Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family might well be the oddest TV show of recent times
Last year on Who Do You Think You Are?, Danny Dyer — EastEnders actor and very possibly Britain’s most cockney…
Brexit is about renewal, not just leaving the EU. And there’s no time to waste
None of us can predict the potential fallout from Brexit, good and bad. What began as a vote of confidence…
Why are the middle classes so obsessed with schools?
One thing I love about my adopted country is the widespread cultural contempt for dullness. Unlike North Americans, intelligent British…
Requiem for the Common Entrance Exam
So farewell, then, to the Common Entrance Exam, bane of a million schoolchildren’s lives since it was introduced in 1904.…
Don’t tell the parents: the official guidance to teachers of ‘trans children’
How can we help transgender children? This is a question greatly exercising politicians and many are confused about what to…
Men and women are born equal but different. Deal with it
I was delighted to see Claire Foy win an Emmy award for her portrayal of the Queen in the fine…
Vocational schools are not to be sneered at
When I was 16 I failed all my O-levels, bar a grade C in English Literature, and concluded I wasn’t…
![Pupils at Ampleforth in 1952 [Getty]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2018/08/pupils.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
The sorry demise of Benedictine education
Twenty years ago, Douai, a monastic boarding school in West Berkshire, shocked parents with an announcement that it was ‘no…
What the education system needs is more marketisation, not less
Towards the end of 2009, shortly after I announced my intention to set up England’s first free school, I debated…
Letters: Rod Liddle is right, Toby Young is wrong and Bruce Anderson must stop
Campaign for real cricket Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s splendid article ‘Cricket, unlovely cricket’ (28 April) remonstrated against the threat to Test…
Why do British charities want to shut down private schools in Africa?
Why would anyone who claims to care about the world’s poorest children try to shut down their schools? It’s strange…
Low-cost private schools are transforming lives in the third world
Private schools in the United Kingdom are affordable only to those on the highest incomes. But surprisingly to many, this…
How to get your child into the best state school: an insider’s tips
Monday was ‘national offer day’, which means that more than half a million parents across England were notified about which…
