From golf and football to Formula One, the kingdom uses unprecedented investments in global sport to divert attention from its persecution of journalists, dissidents and women, write BELLA KATZ and ROGER McKENZIE
Error message
An error occurred while searching, try again later.An end to the academy school gravy train?
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability
With trade wars backfiring, allies resisting military demands, and approval ratings plummeting, Trump’s dangerous pursuit of colonial ambitions threatens to end the ‘American century’ with catastrophic conflict, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
As Britain plans to increase military spending to 2.6 per cent of the GDP while health services face devastating cuts and drug costs soar, working-class Scots urgently need united resistance, argues DREW GILCHRIST
MAT COWARD recalls the occasion when the first man in space paid a visit to our shores in 1961
Shocking institutional racism in the schools system was exposed in a 1985 report highlighting the over-representation of black children branded ‘educationally subnormal.’ Four decades on the fight for justice continues, writes JAYDEE SEAFORTH
Communist Party of Ireland Statement on International Working Women’s Day 2025
Despite the harsh conditions they face, Iranian women have proved to be vanguards in the struggle for fundamental changes in our country, says Dr AZAR SEPEHR
THERE is perhaps no more controversial figure in education than Katharine Birbalsingh, the head teacher of Michaela Free School in Wembley Park. Birbalsingh was the darling of the Gove-led Conservative education team and once boasted of having a framed letter from him on her office wall. So revered by Conservatives was she that she was invited to speak at Conservative Party conferences and was even appointed chair of the Social Mobility Commission.
Birbalsingh was the poster child for conservative education reform. Although she describes herself as a “small-C conservative,” her pedagogy is deeply connected with the Conservative Party. Her school, while an excellent exam factory that produces impressive results, is run like a military boot camp. Children sit in silence, walk down corridors in silence and sing God Save the King.
The question here is, first, do the ends justify the means? Second, who decides that the end result is what we really want anyway? Pupils excel in public exams based around a narrow curriculum focused on recalling knowledge, but is this the only metric that matters?
More from this author
ROBERT POOLE reports back from his mission to Cuba delivering aid and learning from Cuban educators
After an inspiring meeting in Bolton Socialist Club addressed by a visitor from the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education, teacher ROBERT POOLE reflects on what we can learn from the education system in Cuba
As the NEU meets for its annual conference, teacher and union rep ROBERT POOLE reflects on the most intense period of industrial action in his teaching career
Teacher ROBERT POOLE reflects on the year past and the year to come, as education staff prepare to fight the government not just for their rights, but for the future and purpose of schooling itself