Thursday 19 June 2008

Reaction to Ed Balls speech


Although Ed Balls generally recieved a positive reception, with many headteachers commenting on his confident delivery without a single sheet of notes, there were also some reservations...



Hasan Chawdhry of Crowland School, Haringey comments



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with Hasan Chawdhry's analysis of Ed Balls speech - he is very impressive, but there were some issues. Having heard him speak equally eloquently a few weeks back at a Children's Centre leadership conference on the importance of early intervention I was really disappointed that he didn't give any emphasis to this today, and that he did indeed seem to imply by default that education starts at 11. I also couldn't understand how NCSL's filtering of questions came up with such a secondary focus - was that really what was coming from us all?

Anonymous said...

I completely agree. We all acknowledge how important Secondary education is and work hard with transition. However, the best schools are looking at the Primary model to ensure smooth transition, and innovative Primaries are using Foundation Stage approaches to deliver a creative curriculum driven by basic skills. Although his delivery was impressive, I do feel he could have anknowledged the depth and breadth of all areas of education including special provision.