Meeting targets. The New Labour Way

New Labour has set itself a target of 200 City Academies by 2010, costing us a cool £5bn.

How do you think the Government plans to achieve this rather arbitary target?

One-year warning for weak schools

Failing schools in England that do not improve within a year could face closure, the Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly has announced.

No? Well it's either that or shut down schools that are actually doing well, as seen here:

Another angry teacher is Gordon Potter. The former deputy head at Coulby Newham School in Middlesbrough, one of two schools closed in 2003 to make way for a city academy, is equally sick of reading about what a rotten school he used to run. In a recent interview with a local paper, the principal of King's Academy, Nigel McQuoid, claimed that it had "inherited 1,000 pupils and 130 staff from failing schools - and all the baggage that came with them".

The two schools were not failing. "We had six times the national average of special needs pupils and 35 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals - the other existing school had 50 per cent on free school meals," Potter says. "We had the best Key Stage Three results in Middlesbrough in 2002." That year, Ofsted inspected Potter's school and stated that "the school provided a good quality of education, a good climate for learning, and good management and efficiency". Knowing that Coulby Newham was doomed, the inspectors recommended that the new city academy should learn from how its predecessor did things. That did not happen. Instead, King's Academy fosters the myth that Coulby Newham failed.

What I want to know is: Does Ruth Kelly's plans to close schools that show no improvement in 12 months extend to existing City Academies?

One of the Government's flagship city academies has recorded a 2% points drop in the number of students gaining five or more GCSE A* to C grades.

The Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough was opened as part of government plans to improve education in inner cities.

But earlier this year it was placed in special measures after being given a damning report by Ofsted.

Staff at the school said they were "disappointed" but not surprised at the results after a year of turmoil.

On Thursday it was revealed that the number of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grade GCSE passes was 15%- a points drop of 2% on last year.

Joe McCarthy, chairman of the Academy Trust, said: "I will not pretend that these figures are anything other than disappointing and unacceptable.

I guess they will have to tear it down and build a new one.

Filed under: Politics, New Labour Spin