The Playing Fields Myth
Find me the 2012 Olympic medallist who owes their sporting success to wet afternoons…
Going for (Economic) Gold
I never had any doubt that Danny Boyle’s Olympic celebration of proud, multi-cultural, contrarian…
Goodbye Bush House
Long before globalisation, there was Bush House. Home to the BBC World Service –…
Letter from Spain
If, as Mahatma Ghandi said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats…
Phailed School Policy?
Why is Education Secretary Michael Gove setting children up to fail? His highly prescriptive,…
The not-so-Big Society
Who’s in charge of Britain these days? I don’t mean who’s in power, or…
Posh Lunch: Social graces for social mobility
The excited Year 3 children began by introducing themselves to each other. They’d already…
Looking for the “real” UK?
The phone rang about an hour after I’d completed my online order. The woman…
The perfect public library
I have seen a future for the public library – in the centre of…
Ofsted and the teaching unions: The kids deserve a truce
Why can’t teachers and school inspectors play nicely together? In theory they share the…