Category Archives: education

Does Trump have a point?

Posted on May 10, 2025 by odeboyz

. “I used to invigilate exams at a well-known university and recall my strangest session: invigilating a student who required two extra desks to accommodate the 33 soft toys needed to ensure ‘emotional security in a stressful environment’. I still … Continue reading →

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Four Outstanding Schools and Disadvantaged Students

Posted on May 7, 2025 by odeboyz

In the 2022 to 2023 school year….25.2% of disadvantaged pupils and 52.4% of all other pupils got a grade 5 or above.1 The attainment gap disadvantaged children suffer is a chasm. Those schools which reduce the gap are adding value … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Wes Streeting ~ One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry up: A memoir of growing up and getting on (2023)

Posted on October 9, 2024 by odeboyz

To be honest I was repelled by this book before reading a page. I assumed he was presumptuous.1 I believed he was careerist student politician who’d got lucky. Wrong! Streeting is fascinating. He comes from a working-class background. (Most Labour … Continue reading →

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Kier Starmer’s Cabinet ~ Shirkers and Strivers, October 2024

Posted on October 2, 2024 by odeboyz

George Osborne divided Britain into ‘Shirkers and Strivers’.1 Keir Starmer is a Super-Striver, who has had two stellar careers. Firstly, as a senior lawyer and latterly as Prime Minister. He’s a Super Striver but what is his cabinet like? The test: … Continue reading →

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Disadvantaged Students and Educational Innovation

Posted on February 14, 2024 by odeboyz

“…in 2014, only 36.5 per cent of disadvantaged pupils achieved 5 A*-C including English and maths GCSEs, compared with 64.0 per cent of other pupils.”1 Bright Futures Educational Trust2 controls South Shore Academy, Blackpool. Achieving 5 Grade ‘A*-Cs’ is remote … Continue reading →

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Woody Allen quip

Posted on November 18, 2023 by odeboyz

“I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.”

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A Paul Merton quip

Posted on October 25, 2023 by odeboyz

“My school days were the happiest days of my life, which should give you some indication of the misery I’ve endured over the past 25 years.”

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Two footballing greats comment on modern footballers

Posted on October 12, 2023 by odeboyz

“I have to adapt to what young players are now. Lampard at 23 was a man. Players now at 23 aren’t men, they’re brats.” Jose Mourinho   (2)  Today’s young players think first of cars, contracts with their sponsors, and … Continue reading →

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Sex education in the 1950s

Posted on October 9, 2023 by odeboyz
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Education, Education, Education

Posted on October 9, 2023 by odeboyz

Ask me my three main priorities for Government, and I tell you: education, education and education. Tony Blair’s speech at the Labour Party Conference, 1 October 1996 “[Gove] apologised, however, when the list of terminated school-building projects he had released … Continue reading →

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