Katie was going to Capital City Academy‘s Open Evening tonight and I tagged along – very curious as to what lay inside that lovely new building. A little background – when I was going to Secondary School, it was known as Willesden High. A failing school, put under special measures by Ofsted, it consisted of horrible grey 60s blocks and shadowy reports of the behaviour inside.
The transformation has been incredible. It’s an absolutely amazing school inside now, growing in confidence with talent shining from the walls. Now I have issues with the ways City Academies are funded – in case something awful like this happens – but at its heart is the comprehensive ideal of a non-selective (they do select 10% at Academies but hey), high quality, mixed ability school free for everyone.
And as I’ve been arguing in the comments here the investment is needed. That school has just turned around completely, and improved countless numbers of lives. How dare the right say that the money is wasted? Maybe if they got out of their pathetic private schools and took a look around they’d see the improvements being made by this government verses the utter contempt Thatcher\Major showed towards education.
Choice in which state school you go to, choice in the type of qualifications you do, choice in individual learning styles. Meanwhile the Tories push for private schools to divide those who can afford to ‘choose’ to pay and those who can’t. They love selection by a test at 11 years old. They’re the tightwads who don’t think investing in schools is worth it, and then they crow about standards of testing when results improve.
But now the joke’s on you lot. Hahaha.
