1 Raising the Education Leaving Age

The major education event of the past fortnight was the publication of a government green paper putting forward the proposal that all young people will be required to remain in education or training until their 18th birthday. I thought the press response to this announcement was low-key and largely focused on the narrow point of how to enforce the attendance of the disengaged. For a quick synopsis I recommend the executive summary as a better guide http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/6965-DfES-Raising%20Expectations%20Green%20Paper.pdf . Consultation on the green paper is open until the 16th of June. Do we have anything to say?

2 Poverty of Ambition?

When it comes to alleviating poverty, the blows to the government’s plans seem to just keep coming. Last week saw the announcement of a rise in child poverty at a time when it was supposed to be falling rapidly http://www.ft.com/cms/s/272983e8-dd92-11db-8d42-000b5df10621.html . Separately, another report highlighted the low birth weight and higher infant mortality of the children born in disadvantaged households http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6496253.stm. Some in government are now very gloomy about achieving major reductions in the levels of child poverty, let alone eliminating it by 2020. The feeling is that there is no chance of raising significant revenue by further tax increases and that too few single parents are showing signs of wanting to enter the workforce. Any views or ideas? I’m sure Gordon is listening.

3 Head Honcho

The Guardian carried an extended interview with Peter Lampl, founder and leader of the Sutton Trust, http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2043290,00.html . The Brightside Trust could be seen as aspiring to become a similar organisation. However, I think we are already evolving in a slightly different way; and, to continue the Darwinian theme, we will not be competing for the same feeding grounds.

Peter Lampl is one of those people who regrets the closure, in most areas of the UK, of the state grammar school system. He links this change to the reduction of social mobility seen in the UK in recent years because, although the grammar schools were mostly populated with middle class pupils, they did provide a stretching academic education for those brighter working class students who passed the 11+ exam. These students then went on to become socially mobile. He worries that the apparently more egalitarian comprehensive school system, which replaced the old system, merely sentences brighter socially disadvantaged pupils to languish in low quality schools where their talents are not drawn out.

As Sir Peter says in the interview "I totally agree that the bottom 40% are a bigger problem. But I can't do everything, I've got to specialise.’ Although Bright Journals, with its medical school aspirations for very bright socially disadvantaged students, might seem similar to a Sutton Trust type of initiative, I think that in our more recent ventures we are beginning to reorient towards that bottom 40%.

This process of target selection involves defining priorities, and this is in part linked to hard questions about a vision of a good society. I think Sir Peter is clear on this, he is a genuine meritocrat: he sees a good society as being one where people’s social mobility is decided by an individual’s talent and work, not by inherited or structural privilege. However, the Sutton Trust adopts a strategic orientation to facilitate this admirable aspiration, it focuses on the most talented; I don’t think The Brightside Trust should follow this lead. I think we can make a significant contribution by targeting those disadvantaged students who are perhaps not marked out for greatness, but given half a chance, could make a perfectly good contribution to a future society. Is this how you see it?

4 Sunderland Digital Challenge

The Brightside Trust is one of the partners in the recently successful digital challenge bid for Sunderland; see this article from the Guardian for a description of what this will mean http://society.guardian.co.uk/e-public/story/0,,2038428,00.html. I think it is worth noting how the program is to be driven by community involvement and demand. Although we are only specifically committed to delivering an e-mentoring project in a local school, I think the fluidity of the approach means that we could reasonably suggest other projects and initiatives and see if they find a favourable response. Have a look, any ideas?

5 He lives in your basement!

Well, perhaps not so much your basement, as the ground floor at number 1 London Bridge. The Guardian carried this interview with The Children’s Commissioner for England http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2037469,00.html. I think he makes a number of interesting points. We really ought to try to get to know him and his people. Maybe we could solicit an invite to their re-branding event?