Media appearances
Radio and TV stations and programmes in which I’ve been asked to take part as a commentator or interviewee.
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Why are three in ten teachers bringing in food for hungry pupils?
58% of households in the bottom fifth of incomes have cut down on or skipped meals, or gone hungry because there was not enough money for food. That is 3.4 million households. Poverty-stricken households would form one of the biggest cities in the UK.
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Why it’s good news that sex education is being made compulsory in schools
This blog post contains a video of me being interviewed on Channel 5 news about the introduction of new sex education guidance by the government.
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Lines of Work: Francis Gilbert on Rousseau’s Emile
This is the transcript of the Radio 3 Essay I wrote and read in May 2016. You can find the podcast here. Rousseau’s Emile and my life I’m a young English teacher, it’s my second year in an inner city school in London, and I think I’m doing well with my tutor group, a class […]
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What makes good teaching and how can we encourage it?
I appeared on Newsnight last night discussing the teaching profession with presenter Kirsty Wark and Sean Worth, who is a Fellow of the think-tank, Policy Exchange, which was set up by a few people, including Michael Gove. We were talking about Michael Gove’s comment on Newsnight the previous night that outstanding teachers supported his reforms […]
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Greedy exam boards favour rich private schools and disadvantage state schools with little money
Channel 4 ran an interesting item last night, which I appeared in, about the ways in which the different exam boards have increasingly been grabbing taxpayer’s cash, thereby favouring schools with big pockets and seriously disadvantaging cash-starved state schools. Exam fees went up 8.5% last year, and over the last decade have gone up 113%, with […]
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Why local schools are the solution to knife crime
Brooke Kinsella, the Eastenders’ actress, whose relative, Ben Kinsella, was stabbed to death in London recently has produced a report for the government arguing that we must have lessons in school on knife crime. This is an idea I supported in my book,Yob Nation, but since then my thoughts have developed, having examined a great […]
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Why I don’t believe in Academies anymore!
When I sent my son to a private school, I used to think the whole concept of academies was a good idea. Back then, I felt that “freeing” schools from state control would yield fantastic results because it would mean schools would be “free” to do what they wanted, to admit more pupils if they […]
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Are too few incompetent teachers being sacked?
Some commentators have felt that there are as many as 17,000 incompetent teachers in our schools, and yet only a handful of them have been sacked officially. A recent Panorama programme suggested that these teachers are passed from school to school because headteachers are too frightened to sack them. It’s basically easier for a head […]
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Why did a teacher get taken to court for accidentally hitting a pupil with a Pritt Stick?
There doesn’t really seem to be much explanation as to why a teacher got taken to court for accidentally bashing a pupil with a Pritt Stick. This case along with the Peter Harvey case, where Harvey was acquitted for hitting a pupil with a dumb-bell after severe provocation, shows that teachers are being unfairly victimised […]
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Why do so many people feel sympathy for a teacher acquitted for attempted murder?
The Peter Harvey case has come at a particularly interesting time, just before one of the most turbulent elections of recent times, and at a point where there is a crisis of confidence in our schools. Peter Harvey battered a pupil of his with a dumb-bell, fracturing his skull, while saying “Die, die, die!” Harvey […]
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Why boycotting SATS for 11-year-olds is not a good idea
The Standard Assessment Tests for 11-year-olds, while not perfect, are necessary. There are three reasons why teachers shouldn’t boycott these tests. Firstly, the tests as they stand do help drive up standards in reading, writing and arithmetic. Extra lessons are put on for those children who are not up to scratch and pupils who are […]
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Should teachers be censured by the authorities for being drunk?
The new General Teaching Council’s Code of Conduct states under Rule 6, which is “Work as part of a whole-school team”, that teachers should “recognise the important role of school in the life of the local community, and take responsibility for upholding its reputation and building trust and confidence in it.” This guideline is very […]
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Are standards getting worse in our schools? What is education for?
It depends what you mean by standards. Exam pass rates have gone up, but does that mean standards are higher? I argued on Newsnight that teachers like me are now like foreman in factories; supervising, cajoling, bribing, lecturering children to pass exams. The net result is that children are getting better at passing exams, but […]
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Should teachers use force to break up pupils who are fighting?
The question is a tricky one. As a young teacher, I got into trouble for pulling two pupils apart while they were scrapping on the floor. One of the pupils claimed I’d manhandled him and complained to a senior member of staff. Luckily, my manager knew what the child was like and didn’t believe his […]
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Should we get rid of exams?
There’s a lot of evidence that exams actually help children learn if they are properly designed and executed. The problem at the moment is that there are far too many exams and what’s being tested is far too narrow. I think we should set more real tests in our exams, using ‘real-life’ facilities. For example, […]
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Should the school day be extended to 10 hours?
I asked my pupils this and EVERYONE of them said that it shouldn’t! Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? However, there are plans afoot for some schools to imitate certain American schools, Charter Schools, and run a school day from 7.50am-5pm. The idea is that the children from the poorest neighbourhoods don’t have good […]
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Should parents shun the state sector and go private?
Having been there and done it, I feel now that parents are usually best off sending their child to the local school as a government adviser recently suggested. Having helicoptered my child into a private school and seen him subjected to rote-learning and the barbaric, pointless competition of the private sector, I decided to pull […]
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One of the most important books of the Noughties
It’s getting to that point when we’re all looking back at the decade and thinking about what are the really important books. My vote goes to Sathnam Sanghera’s The Boy With A Top Knot, a brilliant memoir about Sathnam’s quest to find the truth about his father’s madness. Satnam grew up in Wolverhampton in the […]
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Child Neglect — Is the problem getting worse?
A new report suggests that child neglect is a growing problem. A new report from Action for Children suggests that we’ve got a worsening situation on our hands. Health professionals, nursery teachers, midwives, doctors, primary teachers and social workers are reporting a rise in child neglect. But what precisely are the indications that a child is […]
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Should parents take their children out of school during school time?
I argued on BBC Breakfast that they should not. I cited the example of ‘Katie’ (not the pupils’ real name) who had missed weeks of school because her parents were taking her out regularly of school during term time, going on cheap holidays. They lied to the school and said that she was ill. There […]
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Should parents pay for solicitors to help them get the school of their choice?
Emphatically not! You’re far better off reading a school’s admission criteria very carefully and reading books like my Working The System. A BBC investigation has revealed that parents are paying lawyers thousands of pounds to get into the school of their choice. I appeared on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 5 Live and explained that […]
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Should a teacher be sacked for writing about his/her pupils?
Leonora Rustamova was suspended from her post as English teacher this January because she wrote a book about her pupils. At first glance, it sounds monstrously unfair: a teacher tries to motivate the disaffected teenage boys in her class by writing a book about them. Initially, her headteacher was very supportive of the plan, but then had […]
Talking beats confiscating
The new teachers’ powers are welcome, but it’ll take more to instil discipline in our classrooms My pupils seem to carry an increasing number of devices that clink, chime, crash, and even fart of their own accord in my classroom. If the offending gadget makes a particularly loud sound, the intrusion can ruin a peaceful, […]