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Author Archives: Melissa Benn
Is the 11-plus a form of child cruelty?
One Kent head teacher thinks so. Although other heads in selective areas cannot speak so openly about the divisive effects of the grammar/secondary modern divide, many share this view. Continue Reading
Ending rejection: news from Labour Party Conference
Spoke last night at full and very lively fringe meeting at Labour Party conference on the importance of ending selection or, as we in Comprehensive Future call it, rejection at 11 plus.The other speakers were Vanessa Everett, the head of both a comprehensive school and a small secondary modern in Kent, and Aaron Porter, Vice… Continue Reading
A tough conference call
The party conference season is as much a fixture in the national autumn calendar as the new school term and Guy Fawkes night. It briefly takes the spotlight off Parliament and the TV studios and for a few heady days illuminates both top and bottom of the political parties that claim the right to govern… Continue Reading
Answering Conor Ryan on the academies
Read Melissa Benn’s blog post answer, on the Public Finance website, to a piece by Conor Ryan, former adviser to Tony Blair and David Blunkett, concerning the academies: In his last PF blog, Conor Ryan suggests that union opposition to academies is based largely on uncertainty about performance; oh, and just a smidgen of carping… Continue Reading
The grammar conundrum
We are at a strange crossroads on selective education in this country. At no time have the main political parties been more united that selection should play no part in any future development of English schools. Yet neither party has concrete proposals for how they might eliminate selection in the many places it still exists.… Continue Reading
Divide and rule begins at school
Three cheers for Lucy Mangan, writing in today’s Guardian Weekend on the ‘pernicious’ private/state school divide and the hail of criticism she faced when once daring to express her opinion on this issue on our broadcast media. Perhaps articles such as these might kick start a widespread campaign in defence of state education on a… Continue Reading
Divisive, unjust and ineffective
With the Tories apparently converting to all-ability schools, despite internal opposition, the debate on academic selection seemed one argument that had run its course, despite the continuing existence of 165 grammar schools, that no government dares touch. Not so. The argument rumbles on, boosted by recent publication of Alan Milburn’s study on social mobility: the… Continue Reading
Maya centre meeting: update
For those of you following the campaign to promote government funding for long term psychodynamic therapy as opposed to merely offering everyone quick fix CBT, particularly for those on low incomes, you might be interested in a rather lyrical summary of aspects of the spring meeting, which I chaired, at the Houses of Parliament, and… Continue Reading
Fame at last!
Read my blog profile/interview on Normblog posted on Friday July 24th. Continue Reading
Latest writing
THE CRISIS OF THE MERITOCRACY
The crisis of the meritocracy: Britain’s transition to mass education since the Second World War PETER MANDLER, 2020 Oxford: Oxford University Press 361pp, hardback, £25, ISBN 9780198840145 Cambridge historian Peter Mandler has a fundamentally optimistic story to tell about the growth of universal education in Britain over the last seventy years and one can sense… Continue reading…
Latest news & events
A Cold War Tragedy
Melissa will be in conversation with Anne Sebba about her new book, ‘Ethel Rosenberg – A Cold War Tragedy.’ Weds 15th September 2021, 5-6pm, in the Robert Graves Tent at the Wimbledon Book Festival. More information here. Continue reading…
