For most children a normal education is far from the world of high achievement and selective admission that the Goves have chosen for their daughter
The Goves have got their daughter into Grey Coat Hospital School. First choice on their list. What do they want? Praise? A full 10 out of 10 for sending Beatrice to a state school, because as Mrs Gove, aka Sarah Vine, says, the private system is "built on principles of snobbery" and "the state doesn't care where its pupils come from"?
Give me strength. Grey Coat is the highest performing and most over-subscribed state school in Westminster (1,036 applicants for 150 places). It is religiously selective and single-sex and the Fair Admissions Campaign, which opposes faith-based selection, says the school is one of the least socially inclusive in the country. The Goves also had Holland Park as one of their choices, which might be one of the Cameron's choices, because Samantha's keen on a normal education for her children, apparently. It is now a "gleaming model of efficiency", says Vine, "so very different" from the old Holland Park. Here we go again, with the dreaded "turned around" narrative. Yes, it is very different now. "Now articles about the school tell us that 'creative anarchy has been replaced by uniform and discipline,'" says Ian Whitwham, who used to teach there. "It resembles a Manhattan ad agency,"An open-plan hell. With miles of glass – 'to encourage passive supervision and transparency". Or Big Brother surveillance?' But it used to have "real soul. A colossal energy," and an inspirational headmaster, Dr Derek Rushworth.
That's not what Gove is after. He wants "to push state schools further so that they would become indistinguishable from private schools". Well wouldn't that be marvellous? Does he mean that all state schools will have smaller classes, lovely big playing fields, well-maintained buildings? Will their pupils come from stable homes stuffed with books and the required technology, quiet rooms in which to do homework, regular, nourishing meals, and parents who can afford school trips, uniforms, and piano lessons? And will they all have "a strong Christian ethos", just like Grey Coat?
Is that the "normal" world in which the Goves and Camerons live? Are infidels and lefties allowed in? Where is it? Next to cloud cuckoo? Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.
The Goves have got their daughter into Grey Coat Hospital School. First choice on their list. What do they want? Praise? A full 10 out of 10 for sending Beatrice to a state school, because as Mrs Gove, aka Sarah Vine, says, the private system is "built on principles of snobbery" and "the state doesn't care where its pupils come from"?
Give me strength. Grey Coat is the highest performing and most over-subscribed state school in Westminster (1,036 applicants for 150 places). It is religiously selective and single-sex and the Fair Admissions Campaign, which opposes faith-based selection, says the school is one of the least socially inclusive in the country. The Goves also had Holland Park as one of their choices, which might be one of the Cameron's choices, because Samantha's keen on a normal education for her children, apparently. It is now a "gleaming model of efficiency", says Vine, "so very different" from the old Holland Park. Here we go again, with the dreaded "turned around" narrative. Yes, it is very different now. "Now articles about the school tell us that 'creative anarchy has been replaced by uniform and discipline,'" says Ian Whitwham, who used to teach there. "It resembles a Manhattan ad agency,"An open-plan hell. With miles of glass – 'to encourage passive supervision and transparency". Or Big Brother surveillance?' But it used to have "real soul. A colossal energy," and an inspirational headmaster, Dr Derek Rushworth.
That's not what Gove is after. He wants "to push state schools further so that they would become indistinguishable from private schools". Well wouldn't that be marvellous? Does he mean that all state schools will have smaller classes, lovely big playing fields, well-maintained buildings? Will their pupils come from stable homes stuffed with books and the required technology, quiet rooms in which to do homework, regular, nourishing meals, and parents who can afford school trips, uniforms, and piano lessons? And will they all have "a strong Christian ethos", just like Grey Coat?
Is that the "normal" world in which the Goves and Camerons live? Are infidels and lefties allowed in? Where is it? Next to cloud cuckoo? Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.