ABSTRACT
Does anyone know what New Labour’s educational philosophy is? Having been a teacher and having written on education I still can’t fathom it out. Before someone from the DfES drowns me in sound-bites and jargon, yes I know all about diversity, aptitude and choice. There’s certainly plenty of choice: take your pick from specialist schools, city academies, training schools, CTCs, beacon schools and now a cadre of advanced schools. And then there were Estelle Morris’s schools that she ‘wouldn’t touch with a bargepole’, and Alistair Campbell’s ‘Bog Standard Comprehensives’.
