Grammar Schools – A system to create second class citizens out of the less academic.

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Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsYou need to read this book!

By Mystic blueport on 19 Oct. 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

In this autobiographical account of his life as Head Teacher of Beverley Grammar School, Chris takes us through many of the failings of the post-war education system to the much superior, more flexible teaching of the twenty-first century. Along the way, he enthuses about rock music, leadership vs management, and – particularly – the kids. If you can make every lesson fun, every child feel cared for, and every staff member nurtured, attendance and results will pretty much look after themselves. You can pass every Ofsted inspection with flying colours, and your school can become best in class (no pun intended).

I was at college with Chris, and it didn’t seem to me then that he was destined to be a head teacher of a secondary school – a music critic, more like. He has done education a great service by showing you can be a rebel and get results too. I hadn’t expected to enjoy this book as much as I did; it has extraordinary energy and a lust for achievement. Every teacher should read it! 8/10 (October 2014)

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5.0 out of 5 starsEmpathic approach to education

By Pete 2 Sheds on 5 July 2015

Format: Paperback

If you have any interest in the education of your child this book is essential reading. Having studied and worked in education myself I find Mr Goodwins insights and experiences very thought provoking. It deserves a place on the shelves of every educational establishment and needless to say a few people at the ministries and especially the minister for education should read this and maybe, just maybe, we could move forward and improve the educational standards of our children where they have been slipping on a global level.
Mr Goodwin shows, his Ofsted scores prove the point, that civility and empathy rather than antiquated regimented regimes can be extremely effective.

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5.0 out of 5 starsCrusade for True Education

By Amazon Customer on 10 April 2016

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

As an retired teacher and Head of Department I found this book a joy to read. It is many things – personal biography, passionate polemic, practical handbook, education history, inspirational text, you name it – woven together in a natural, organic way which really gives you the feel of school life. The author knows whereof he speaks and in friendly fashion takes you, the reader, by the hand on a headlong and often exciting journey through the maze of modern education. His vision is clear and compelling, he knows what works and what doesn’t, he wants you to share his profound sense of the human potential which we can unlock if only we get our schools right. He articulates a philosophy which puts the whole child at its centre and explores the relationships underlying the magic of educational development. The book is written in a direct, heartfelt, jargon-free style and is packed with amusing anecdotes which illuminate his principles, unlike many dry books on the subject. Passionate and humorous and unafraid of controversy, it certainly gets you thinking. I found it a real page-turner and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in good education, whether outside or inside the teaching profession. For anyone connected with school management, in any capacity, it is essential reading. A unique and valuable voice.

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5.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent and informative book

By Alexander on 24 Oct. 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

An excellent and informative book of Mr Goodwin’s time at the Beverley Grammar School. As a former pupil, it is hard to believe what was going on behind the scenes, however he kept it together and carried on securing the school an outstanding rating from Ofsted in both 2008 and 2010.

Grammar Schools – Do we really want to fail 90% of our children?

Posted on by Opher

A passion for education cover

As a retired Secondary School Headteacher I know that every parent wants the best education for their child. Every parent believes their child is special and deserves the best.

Grammar schools are elitist, divisive and detrimental to all our children.

Unfortunately selection at the age of 11 years of age is a very blunt tool. Many very able children are missed.

Selecting 10% of the children for a grammar school education means that 90% of our children are labelled as failures.

Most of the parents who imagine their child getting into a grammar school and gaining a superior elite education would be disappointed. Their children would not only not get in but would then suffer an inferior education.

If you label children as failures most of them will behave according – they will give up trying.

Not having role models for that 90% would put them at a huge disadvantage.

Unfortunately children who are not so academic are not always ‘good with their hands’. If brains are working efficiently they tend to be effective in all areas. Many academic children are also good with their hands and at sport, and at art, and at creativity etc.

Surely all our children are equally important? Surely it is best for our children to have the experience of the working with children of all abilities? Surely sacrificing 90% for the benefit of the top 10% is not a good idea?

My own experience of working in a comprehensive school showed that it is perfectly possible for children of all abilities to reach their potential in such a school. 80% of the boys in my school achieved 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE. 100% gained 5 GCSEs. Nobody left my school without being able to read, write and perform basic mathematics. A number of my students went to Oxford and Cambridge each year.

There is no sound education reason for Grammar Schools. They are elitist, divisive and detrimental to all our children!

Featured book – A Passion for Education – The Story of a Headteacher – some reviews

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I haven’t heard a single negative comment about this book.

Featured book – A passion for Education – The Story of a Headteacher – the blurb

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One of my readers commented that this was the most important book on education since Summerhill. Quite a statement.

A Passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher

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This book tells the inside story of Headship at A secondary school in England. It tells the story of how I worked to made it a top school – no holds barred.

Free Schools – The comic scenario – you couldn’t write it!

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‘I say,’ said Marmaduke SnudgelyCarruthers-Smythe, ‘these schools are terribly expensive things, what?’

‘They certainly are Marmaduke,’ the PM replied feeling a little weary of the interruptions

‘Why don’t we sell the bally things?’ Marmaduke SnudgelyCarruthers-Smythe suggested. ‘That would solve it!’ He beamed around at the cabinet.

The PM stared at him. Slowly a frown worked his way over his forehead as the idea gradually embedded itself. Finally he shook his head. ‘No Marmaduke. Nobody would buy them. They wouldn’t be able to make a profit.’ He turned his attention to his notes.

Marmaduke SnudgelyCarruthers-Smythe looked deflated and then suddenly beamed round at everyone. ‘But I say – we could tell them that they don’t have to employ real teachers. That would cut the bally costs!’

The PM looked back up with a look of shock. The lad had come up with something. There were hundreds of businesses that would give it a go if they could turn a healthy profit.

Marmaduke SnudgelyCarruthers-Smythe somehow noticed he had the PMs attention and warmed to the theme.  ‘I know a lot of those Muslim Wallahs who’d like to run schools,’ he waited while the PM mulled it over. ‘And I just had a call from the Ku Klux Klan. They’d like a few. And the creationists. They’d jolly well like to take them off our hands.’

‘You know Marmaduke I think you’re on to something.’

See what Opher Goodwin has to say about education. He should know. He was a successful Headteacher. Probably THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK ON EDUCATION SINCE SUMMERHILL!!

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Pete Smith’s Cartoons of genius – knowledge

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There are no facts. Every moment is new. We experience everything for the first time. No two moments are identical.

I used this cartoon on the front of school documents prepared for Ofsted. As with the previous drawing on the education sausage machine the cartoon was never commented on.

Too often the teaching of science has been the transmission of ‘facts’ and the learning of knowledge. Science should be the investigation of the wonders of the universe to find out how it operates and celebrate it, learn from it and utilise it.

The more we investigate the greater the mysteries we unfurl. We have accumulated a wealth of knowledge but underlying it all is an even greater mystery.

Science progresses by scientists disbelieving the theories they are presented with, challenging them and coming up with superior theories to test.

Science is creative.

Science is thought-provoking.

Science is fun.

Science is illuminating, expansive and exhilarating.

There are no truths.

Pete Smith’s cartoon of genius on education

Posted on by Opher

I used this one on the front cover of some of the documents at school that I prepared for our Ofsted Inspection. It summed up the philosophy of education that I was railing against.

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Pete and I had been put through an education system that we felt was a cram system. We were given ‘facts’ to learn and regurgitate for exams.

We both felt that education should be mind-expanding, investigating, exploring, fun and exhilarating. Children needed to be inspired and empowered. Teaching should develop creativity, lateral thinking and questioning.

No new discoveries ever come from mindless regurgitation of ‘facts’.

Pete and I felt that too many teachers presided over a sausage factory churning out mindless drones all knocked into shape by the system.

Tragically, after a period of freedom and wonder in education under Labour, we were back to the 1950s with a vengeance under the dreadful mindlessness of Gove and then the ‘just as bad’ floundering Nicky Morgan. Thankfully they are gone and we’ll reserve judgement on Justine Greening.

My New Poetry book – Rituals, Odes and Mystic Anxieties is now available as a paperback.

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Rituals, Odes & Mystic anxieties

My latest poetry book is now available as a paperback. For the sum of £4.17 you could have it to read and cherish.

It’s worth it for the cover! Let alone the poems and my prose! Ever topic of importance covered.

There’s nowt more original than an Opher.

 

My grave concerns for Ofsted and Amanda Speilman.

Posted on by Opher

ed tests PublicSchools whats-the-point-of-education1 work

As a former Headteacher of an outstanding secondary school I am extremely dismayed by the way Ofsted is being used to drive through Government Dogma.

The Government make the decisions on how schools will be judged. The result is a contracting of the curriculum, loss of creative subjects, originality and a tick-box culture. It seems that the only criteria to be judged are the academic results. It has become teaching by numbers to a limited agenda. Each lesson has to follow a moribund format. There is the move to greater pass and failure. Who needs failure? What do we do with all our psychologically damaged failures? Surely we want all students to achieve – to reach their potential.

Good grief – education is so much more that that limited agenda. We are not just producing fodder for the economy. We were in the business of turning on brains, opening minds, creating awe and wonder, unleashing imagination, unleashing lateral thinking, teamwork and creativity. It is not about statistics.

Amanda Speilman has just been appointed. She is good with statistics. She has never taught in a school. She ran academies. She is a very clever businesswoman.

I can already sense the agenda. Does the woman have a compassionate heart? Does she care about qualities and skills? Creativity? Lateral thinking? Or is she in the business of pushing a narrow statistical analysis?

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Looks to me like their putting a wolf in charge of the lambs.