tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post115727559497268419..comments2023-10-08T16:13:53.045+03:00Comments on The Last Ditch (Archives): Sunday AMTom Painehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254163054362676487noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157450256611497392006-09-05T13:57:00.000+04:002006-09-05T13:57:00.000+04:00The policy of Comprehensives was adopted when Labo...The policy of Comprehensives was adopted when Labour won the 1964 election. However, various LEAs had already experimented with comprehensives at an earlier date.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_school" REL="nofollow">Wikipedia states the first as being at Holyhead in 1954</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157408879582312232006-09-05T02:27:00.000+04:002006-09-05T02:27:00.000+04:00Quite. A few years after we left the Academy, the...Quite. A few years after we left the Academy, the Rector retired and the new man was ideology-driven. His first act was to write to the local families who funded the school prizes, and tell them to keep their money - "so divisive, prizes". Can you imagine - in rural Scotland, an anti-education school Principal. The school is now just a bog-standard comp: its good days lasted about a decade. deariemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06654632450454559188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157386851067847342006-09-04T20:20:00.000+04:002006-09-04T20:20:00.000+04:00That's not quite the same as the ideology-driven b...That's not quite the same as the ideology-driven bog standard comps now is it? Our experience in those (three of them between us as pupils, hard to say which was worst, four of them for my wife as a teacher, ditto) was enough to convince us not to have children until we were sure that we could educate them privately.Tom Painehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254163054362676487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157385771039976942006-09-04T20:02:00.000+04:002006-09-04T20:02:00.000+04:00Scotland: in a burgh too small to support two scho...Scotland: in a burgh too small to support two schools. (Mind you, to get my daughter a schooling that was anywhere near as good, I had to fork out for a private school. And a family of Scots socialist neighbours has done just the same.)deariemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06654632450454559188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157355085412094712006-09-04T11:31:00.000+04:002006-09-04T11:31:00.000+04:00I am glad I checked on Armstrong's school before c...I am glad I checked on Armstrong's school before commenting then! But I don't understand. I understood (because our Labour LEA claimed so with pride) that the Comprehensive I went to (converted from a Secondary Modern the year before and with largely the same staff) was one of the first - and I was born in 1957. Where was your pioneering Comp?Tom Painehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254163054362676487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157320637704060782006-09-04T01:57:00.000+04:002006-09-04T01:57:00.000+04:00Your excellent investigation may be based on a fal...Your excellent investigation may be based on a false premise: I was born in '46 and went to a Comprehensive.deariemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06654632450454559188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11461767.post-1157282680530934532006-09-03T15:24:00.000+04:002006-09-03T15:24:00.000+04:00Perhaps Labour really understands that it is the "...<I>Perhaps Labour really understands that it is the "Losers' Party" and wants to ensure as many future losers as possible?</I><BR/><BR/>It has known this for many years: hence the advent of comprehensive schooling. The result is a generation of people who neither know nor care what is being done to them; and even if they did, they're so badly educated that they couldn't do a damned thing about it.D. C. Warmingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14558167181352609635noreply@blogger.com