Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Free school in Haringey
Apparently, there is a new free school called Eden opening in Haringey. Does anyone know anything about it? I couldn't find anything on the web.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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Watching the appallingly childish level of ad hominem argument Julie has chosen to use to support her opinions, I was put in mind of a speech delivered by the NUT representative at a TUC conference I attended a few years ago. The NUT speaker harangued us from the lecturn on the subject of how to solve all the financial difficulties being experienced by this country. To set us back on an even keel, she fumed, all we had to do was "tax the rich", who were responsible for all our problems. It was as easy as that.
It is difficult to describe the feeling of utter despair that washed over me as I reflected that this simple-minded ideologue was a working teacher, employed by some local authority (certainly by no private school) and in charge of the developing minds of children.
Anything that dilutes the influence of people like that has to be worth a try.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The usual way you got out of a debt crisis in the past was to have a debt write-down, i.e. creditors take a hit. Those rich creditors are telling us the world will cave in if that happens. The teacher was half right and given the restrictions of the national curriculum I doubt she managed to infect the minds of her students to any great extent.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Perhaps, John, you are missing the main points of Lydia's comment.
Suppose I give my own view that we should have a far more equal society. There are a several recent and influential books such as The Spirit Level and Dannie Dorling's work which support my view. When I go on to say that one way is by by raising taxes on the rich, as you know, in economics textbooks this is known as "progessive taxation". In the numerical sense of having a system where the incidence of taxation is greater on those individuals with a higher ability to pay. And on corporations - the view of UK Uncut.
Obviously, reading my views onscreen people can't tell if this is a "harangue", or just a "fume".
However, the really odd thing about the pro-free schoolers on HoL is a failure to engage with the substantive arguments. Because, even though I am an extremely simple-minded ideologue, I also have a desire to know what facts and evidence support or contradict the views of supporters and opponents of free schools.
Since I haven't space for a full Sunday morning rant, let's take one issue. Is it true or untrue that money and resources are being diverted inequitably from the State's education budget to free schools?
(Labour councillor Tottenham Hale)
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Like any opted-out school, it will end up being about who your kid does not have to sit in a class with.
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Even here in N15, there is a huge variation in what I will for shorthand call family values. Plenty of families have kids who want to learn and who see the value of education. Plenty don't. I have no idea what to suggest, but I'm not surprised that the former want to opt out.
Selective schools are all about who you don't get to be with. Forget the quality of teaching, or religious indoctrination styles, or whether or not you have the colour black in the room.
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I may have been missing the main points of Lydia's comment but I was also mindful not to take it too far off track. I think she was just getting stuck into Julie and the NUT so I stayed out.
I'm not going to deny that money is being spent on 'Free Schools' that would otherwise have been spent on the existing state system, whether this is inequitable or not I think only time will tell. The Free Schools could be a good thing, although not if they're all going to be in Muswell Hill and religious.
Think like the local landlords, increase my council tax and appeal forever when it goes to court.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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I wondered about the wisdom of taking the last week of my wife's school holidays far away from the cut-and-thrust of Harringayonline's world of wandering cats and stray parakeets - but ah! the relief at what I've missed till now! As Matt suggested, just throw in a mix of schooling and religion, politics and pisstaking and HOL shakes off its sleepy summer torpor.
Hope you've all read the Eden Scripture, as linked by Lorna Reith. Their logo of the lion lying down with the lamb, led by a child, seems a bit optimistic given Judaism's own internal squabbles - though it might be a good recipe for a peaceful HOL discussion.
And those of you feeling banished and hard done by living East of Eden, send your kids up there. Think of the advantages: no uniforms for a start, not even a fig leaf. And school trips East of Gaza. All free! Shalom.
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Good article by Zoe Williams this weekend on a collective madness: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/09/scramble-school-pla...
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