A leading London private school has been downgraded by education watchdog Ofsted for placing more weight on teaching “social justice” than on learning “subject-specific knowledge and skills” while some pupils felt their views were “suppressed” in lessons. The Evening Standard has the story.
The American School in St John’s Wood, which charges £32,650 a year, was downgraded from “outstanding” in its previous inspection to “requires improvement”.
In a report from an inspection from December 2021, Ofsted noted that leaders of the school, which educates pupils from age four to 18, had high expectations and “gives strong importance to equality and inclusion”.
But it added: “Sometimes, however, teaching places much more weight on the school’s approach to social justice than on learning subject-specific knowledge and skills.”
The report said that the school provided opportunities for pupils with different characteristics to discuss issues affecting them.
“However, not everyone felt that they are able to express their views freely in class,” it added.
“A significant number felt that their voices are not encouraged, or in some cases, are suppressed.”
In November 2021, the Times reported that non-white pupils had been recruited to affinity groups for people of colour, which some parents felt was discriminatory towards their children.
Parents also expressed concern about the teaching of concepts such as “white fragility” to their children.
Former headteacher Robin Appleby left the school in January.
The report praised the school’s music curriculum, which it said was “broad and balanced” but added that “in other areas of the curriculum, the approach is not as balanced”.
“This is particularly where teaching places more emphasis on the school’s social justice programme than on the acquisition of specific subject content,” it added.
Ofsted said that in the school’s lower school curriculum for social studies, pupils “spend much time repeatedly considering identity (including analysing their own characteristics) rather than learning, for example, geographical knowledge”.
Makes a nice change to see the Blob doing something anti-woke and curbing some of the ideological excesses.
Worth reading in full.
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Let me get this straight. We (mankind) are not doing enough research into new antibiotics to combat existing bacterial infections. The only solution is to create a new* bug and research antibiotics against that? Looks like research funding is being misdirected again.
*Yes, I know the article is about an ‘old’ bacterium but if it’s new to science it’s ‘new’.
It’s like they’ve taken the lid off the Pandora gain-of-function sweety jar and simply don’t want to put it back on. Until we’re all dead.
It might be a good idea to put the money to better use and start filling in the thousands of potholes in the countries roads..
I don’t want my tax money filling in potholes in roads in any other countries, thanks.
Potholes in my own country’s roads, OK, maybe.
Well I was talking about the UKs.. what country are you talking about.. haha
I could name a good few things that might fill the potholes. We have them here too. If I was a conspiracy thinking type, I’d think that there is an agenda to run down the road system and damage the car stock…
Yes and we certainly don’t want to fill the potholes with money.
“Neanderthal bacteria” never went away. Neanderthals still exist. I mean this seriously, by the way, and not as a term of reproach for people like, say, Matt Hancock.
All I can say to these In Q Tel people is “please GOFROC yourself.”
It’s like suggesting that we move the planet into the path of all the planet-killing comets and asteroids out there to look at what killed off the dinosaurs.
Gawd, scientists are a pessimistic bunch aren’t they? Surely we have all bases covered nowadays in terms of antibiotics, antivirals, many other medications, nutraceuticals plus advanced medical technology and healthcare in general. We’re hardly going to fare as badly as in the Middle Ages when the Black Death ravaged the globe and people had basically nothing to fight it with, so I think the amount of expense and all round faff involved in this endeavour cannot be remotely justified. Scientists just like tinkering and generally mucking things up, which demonstrably results in a massive crapfest. Leave zombie viruses and bugs dormant and where they can do no harm…or safely in the fictitious plots of sci-fi books/movies.
Seconded Mogs.
Next step, digging up the bodies of Black Death victims to analyse the Black Death… just in case. Application to the Wuhan lab!
Now, now Dom, no giving Billy ideas.
Am I the only person who got the ‘take home message’ from the film ‘Jurassic Park’..?
Gingers are ginger because of the Neanderthal gene, allegedly. Explains a lot.
Dammit, that face is so intelligent! He’s got a knowing look about him that I could warm to, although he’s not blessed with conventional good looks.
I could do without his bugs, though.
There’s no antiviral in the world that would make it worth doing this stupid thing just to prove that they can. We’ve got plenty of drugs already – they just keep banning the things as soon as they go off-label.
I’m developing a strange interest in Barbara O’Neil’s old-wife remedies: I doubt you’d get serious side effects from sticking an onion poultice on your ear if it ached.
And have you seen her video about cayenne pepper? First aid in the event of heart attacks?