Andy Burnham’s message of hope will defeat Reform if Labour delivers the New Deal for Working People in full, says JOANNE THOMAS
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We need a class analysis of the control pedagogies now emerging in our schools
Award-winning teacher PHIL BEADLE argues that the way the most authoritarian moves in education, like the bizarre practice of ‘silent corridors,’ are mainly inflicted on working-class pupils has dark overtones of fascistic logic
Pedagogies that seek to control the way students sit and their right speak, and demand they move from classroom to classroom in total silence are prevalent — and increasingly, dissent against these methods is not tolerated.
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
We need a government that invests in saving lives not destroying them, argues SOPHIE BOLT
HENRY FOWLER outlines the GFTU’s new 2026-27 education programme and argues that investing in trade union education is essential to building worker power, developing leaders and strengthening collective action
PAOLO SANTALUCIA reports on how an Italian region defies US pressure to end a Cuban doctors programme
I HAVE had the honour, in my 27 years of working in classrooms, of working in all sectors of education (except nursery for which I don’t have the skillset). I’ve worked in the independent sector in other countries and count senior figures in that sector as friends. They are unfailingly polite and are nice erudite people. I still think their schools should be dismantled, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a friendly discussion.
What I have learnt in my time in that sector is that the children of the sometimes wealthy (not all are), are subject to schooling that is characterised by an enlightened liberalism, and their curriculum offer is filled with arts provision, replete with drama and music.
If you could put your political integrity to one side, you might want your children to experience such a curriculum. Generally, the teaching is a little less skilled, but there are some very well-educated people and charming people in the independent sector.
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April 9 1928 – July 26 2025