Cleggie Flexes His Muscles At Last

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24599458

Cleggie seems to be acting like the little boy in the crowd, in the story of the Kings New Clothes. Too little and too late perhaps but welcome anyway.

[Gromit]

A bit of a none event. There are lots of policies the Lib Dems and the Conservatives disagree on. If Clegg and the Lib Dems oppose this one, they should have stopped it 2 years ago.

The fact that they have waited all this tie, then pathetically made a squeak when the policy is seen to have failed, rather neatly sums up their role as the junior partner in the Coalition.

[emmie]

from 2011, has he changed his mind..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8739618/Nick-Clegg-to-claim-free-schools-triumph.html

[seadogg]

Bravo. Gromit. Anybody with nous could see that free schools were going to create more problems than they solved.

[naomi24]

Gromit, agreed.

[mikey4444]

On the button Gromit ! What a pity the Libs haven't put their heads up above the parapet more often over the last 3 years.

[emmie]

because from my link he seemed all for it.

[mrs_overall]

Well said Gromit

[jno]

Clegg is almost as powerless as Labour; that's how it is with coalitions, especially when you're very clearly the minority partner.

[Kromovaracun]

I despise Clegg. Gromit is right.

[mikey4444]

I have asked this question a few days ago. While I understand why the Tories would want to remove schools from local authority control, I just can't understand why they allowed them to employ unqualified people instead of teachers ? Also, Cleggie isn't happy about there being no set subjects or curriculum in these Free Schools. But is anybody ? When you send your kids to school, you expect them to be taught all the normal things that every school has always taught. I just don't understand the logic behind these daft schools.

[naomi24]

Mikey, I don’t understand why you say it’s a pity the LibDems haven’t raised their heads above the parapet before. Clegg has. Take a look at Emmie’s link. In the past two years he’s changed his tune completely. He’s a millstone around Cameron’s neck.

And actually, other schools employ people who aren’t qualified too. I know a maths teacher who teaches to A-level – unqualified to do so - and that's not right in any circumstances.

[jno]

any millstones are self-imposed because Cameron thought (correctly, I'm sure) that ruling without a majority would be worse.

[bazwillrun]

This makes me laugh.

i remember as a kid and into my teens there was a famous school in London, i believe theres a fair few more now, called JFS, Jewish Free School....I dont ever recall hearing any problems from it , about it, it wasnt on the news , it had a reputation for its high standards etc etc etc.

Yet since this recent free school phase the problems seem to be mainly muslims yet again, no surprise,...what is it with muslims !?

these schools should be made to follow the same curriculum that state schools have and should also only employ properly qualified teachers.

these schools exist for one reason only... the people that send their kids to them dont want to integrate or adopt our culture etc.

as for Nick Cleggg, about as much use as an escape hatch in a canoe or an ashtay on a motorcycle

[emmie]

i was given the impression that parents have been leading this directive alongside the coalition, so if the parents in a catchment area apply to get a free school up and running because there is an over subscribed school nearby or no adequate provision for their children, then parents have a large hand or say in it's start up. If there are unqualified people teaching at these schools, who has put them into the roles in the first place, and who sets the agenda for the school, it's curriculum and all the myriad day to day running of the school, they can't just be running them on parent school governor, body, surely. As to Clegg, why did he not object right from the off, he didn't and is doing it now, why? is he simply uneasy what they and the Tories have implemented, and indeed the many parents who seem to have a say in how the schools are run, and doesn't that happen in other schools?

[emmie]

Naomi no one read it presumably, he was all for it, and how long down the line has he come to his senses, or is it that there is an election to fight in the not too distant future and any things he said two, three years ago won't count, he will simply change his mind. Everyone has that prerogative of course, but why did he not express his opinions, alarms at the outset of the process of setting up free schools, he seemed from the link from 2011 to be totally in favour.

[naomi24]

jno, personally I think it was a big mistake, but there you are.

[emmie]

problem of course is that many schools over years and years have failed children, and you can't stick it all on the current lot.

[naomi24]

Em, I did.

[mikey4444]

Baz...you may be right about the school that is in the news at the moment, but most Free Schools aren't religion-based. I still can't understand why anybody would want to send their kids to schools that are rife with unqualified teachers.

Isn't there anybody here on AB that does use Free Schools and can tell us why ?

[jno]

the problems seem to be mainly muslims

Only because you turn a blind eye to non-Mulsim schools with problems.

This story from as long ago as Thursday

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/free-school-headmistress-with-no-qualifications-quits-after-four-weeks-8872081.html