Education
Gavin Williamson is right to call out educational snobbery
Politicians give speeches all the time, but with differing levels of significance. Can you think of a genuinely important political…
Rhyme and reason
‘It’s no go my honey love, it’s no go my poppet; Work your hands from day to day, the winds…
Sorry state
The private school advantage has never been greater
Playing tag and Pooh sticks
We live in an urban world. It’s a statistical fact. The great outdoors for most of us is a thing…
A class apart
The lockdown is widening the gap between rich and poor pupils
Class divide
It would be a tragedy if one of the legacies of Covid-19 — a disease which hardly affects children physically…
My only home-schooling success
‘What is the point of learning maths? When do you ever actually need it? How does it ever affect your…
Barometer
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…
