I am of the opinion that having a uniform provided many benefits. Not the 'looking smart' at all times benefit touted by the righteous but the more common sense benefits of everyone saving their own clothes from damage and dirt, everyone getting a sense of being part of a group not a team but simply a group of people which to me has huge benefits for young minds trying to find their place in the world and reducing the damaging 'fashion competitions' amongst impressionable teenagers which are won or lost on the depth of parents pockets.
Here's the article
Scottish school league tables - a brief analysis
The Herald has them here...
What
they show is that factors held to be important, like uniforms, 'ethos'
and religion, aren't. You'll find religious schools with uniforms in
the top fifty but you'll also find some bumping along the bottom too.
This is because the factors that we are told aren't
important clearly are. One religious school in Glasgow, for example,
had precisely zero percent of S5 pupils passing more than five Highers.
It could be their 'ethos' isn't up to scratch but I would have thought
the fact that it is in one of Scotland's poorest constituencies, with
around a third of pupils in receipt of free school meals, might just
have something to do with it.
I'll look forward to the usual commentary arguing that it's the other way around.
This leaves the question: why do private schools do so well?
It's because not everyone goes to them.
No, it is that simple.
I have to agree 'ethos' is a complete load of rubbish. A school doesn't need an ethos to succeed in giving kids an excellent education. Concentrating on 'ethos' masks other failings in my opinion.
In my opinion religion has no place in most schools. If religious people want to send their children to schools run by religions that is a matter for them but I am all for kids being allowed to grow up and make their own decisions on what religion they want to follow, if any, when they are adults rather than have them indoctrinated in the ways of 'religions' in school. The French approach to secular education has much to commend it.
So we are left with the perennial issue of money.
Sad as I am I have dug deep into how this town is 'sold' to government, fake charities and quangos and as far as the County Council and the Borough Council are concerned it is one of the most deprived towns in the country.
You have to understand that the people behind this intention really see themselves as 'righteous' evangelicals bringing succour to the poor people of Barrow. Trouble is they are wrong.
The worst bit is that this constant overplaying of the deprivation card keeps businesses away from the town. The righteous then try to blame geographical isolation or the state of the place as the reasons why business stays away. They really are that moronic. And it's not just the councils, the local and regional quangos (I have discovered there are around 25 and there will be more yet to find) play the same game.
There may be quite a bit wrong with Barrow at present but I for one don't feel deprived or poor and judging from the number of new cars on the road, recently built houses, etc, etc neither do the majority in this town.
I would like to see the Academy management and sponsors in 2010 stop banging about the uniform, the ethos, the personalised learning and instead get on with ensuring each child that has been forced to attend this school, by the removal of choice in secondary education, gets as good an education as they individually possibly can.
Ignore the tick box brigade, ignore the governments targets, ignore the social engineering agenda, yes there really is one in play and look instead to developing the individual. It is incumbent upon those who brought it into being and those who are in the managing not to fail the individual child.
Here's hoping
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