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Articles by Will Orr-Ewing
Let’s give parents back control
We need a more pluralistic childcare sector In the heart of Deptford lies a nursery with an unusual history. Opened by passionate Christian Socialists in 1914, it was set up to remedy the appalling deprivation suffered by local families at the time in which many children had rickets, tuberculosis and anaemia. The cure? Allow parents living in slum accommodation to drop their children off during long shifts of factory work and make the whole setting open air.
A Matter of Choice
Despite record-breaking increases in spending, parents continue to find the current childcare system inflexible and expensive. The status quo fails to work for families with flexible working patterns or who have low or irregular income. Despite increasing funding, the childcare sector itself is also under strain, and childminder numbers are at an all-time low.
Birbalsingh vs the blob
Labour’s education policy is simply concessions to special interests When a fight erupts in school these days, the action is typically filmed, turned into digital content and amplified through social media for days or weeks following. These aftershocks are often more significant than the original flashpoint. A similar dynamic seems to be at play in the ongoing ruckus between Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson and the headteacher of Michaela Community School Katharine Birbalsingh.
The virtues of habit
As I finished my lunch, the children on my table practised their Appreciations. “I want to thank Mr.. Mr … how do you say your name again?” I was visiting Katharine Birbalsingh’s Michaela School and was about to witness one of their famous set pieces: a short period after lunch when pupils stand to give thanks in front of their teachers and peers.
Breaking the smartphone spell
“Forest” is a productivity app that helps you “stay away from your smartphone and stay focused on your work”. So called because users grow a virtual forest the longer they stay away from their phones, it perfectly captures the unreality of our times. It was one of many typical recommendations made to parents by headteachers this summer on how to “manage children’s screen time”.
Rage against the machine
“The next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.” — Wendell Berry I dragged my wife to our first school open day last week. I’ve worked in education for fifteen years, but it was my wife who first noticed it: “What’s with all the screens?” We were shown around by an 11-year-old, who looked up occasionally from his iPad to gesture at a classroom here, a dining room there.
Have schools lost their true purpose?
Schools have become too focussed on training talent in service of the economy to the detriment of individual and collective flourishing What is school for? This was the question at the centre of a recent ResPublica panel which included Britain’s strictest headmistress and one of its most eminent philosophers last month. Titled “A new path for schooling in the UK”, the event addressed the fundamental question of whether or not schools are serving their true purpose.
You can’t ‘level up’ Oxbridge
It is high time we ally elite education, irrespective of background, with the service of the public good Leading independent schools saw the number of their pupils offered places at Oxford or Cambridge seriously reduced this year, testimony that the government’s desire to “level-up” has an educational dimension too. The aim of levelling up is apple pie and mother’s love – undeniably good.
In praise of post-liberalism
Michaela Community School is unique in its robust defence of tradition, truth, belonging and other conservative instincts Is “post-liberalism” just a fashionable new term for social conservatism? Mary Harrington was asked this question during a recent webinar hosted by ResPublica and drew a helpful distinction: “Post-liberalism is what you get when you have conservative instincts but there’s nothing left to conserve… and so you have to start rebuilding.
Transforming the elite
When Jeremy Corbyn resigned, private schools breathed a sigh of relief. No longer would they suffer the harassment of a party pledged to their abolition; their charitable status would be safe; the question of their ‘public benefit’ put to bed. But can they be so sure?
The National Tutoring Programme: the most radical education policy yet?
(Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) How will increased 1-on-1 learning fit into the future of education? Last week the government announced a new £1bn package for schools. £350 million will pay for the establishment of a National Tutoring Programme, which will give schools access to subsidised tutoring sessions. The rest will be spent whichever way headteachers best believe will catch their pupils up on education missed during the pandemic and might itself be put towards further tutoring.
Decolonising the curriculum
The social unrest that has spread across the world in response to the killing of George Floyd shares many similarities with the violent protests of the past. And of course targeting statues is nothing new: after all, they are the most obvious physical personifications of different times, their values embodied in human form. Their aggressive removal challenges a society’s cultural memory, forcing us to debate who we were, are, and wish to be.
Germany’s Red Army Faction: Ominous parallels between 1970s West Germany and Britain today?
Ulrike Meinhof’s manifesto “The Urban Guerrilla Concept” began and ended with two interesting quotes. The first read: “we must draw a clear line between ourselves and the enemy.” The second read: “Either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution.” The first was attributed to Mao Zedong, whose policies had starved millions in the Great Leap Forward and whose Cultural Revolution was killing hundreds of thousands.
Old school reformer
Sir Eric Anderson was Head Master of Eton 1980-1994, then Provost, and teacher of three prime ministers.
The best of Heads
Sir Eric Anderson was Head Master of Eton 1980-1994, then Provost, and teacher of three prime ministers. Guy Walters recalls a stern and awe-inspiring figure while Graham Stewart asked colleagues, friends and former pupils, including Tony Blair, for their memories of a hugely influential educator We used to call him “Big Balls”.
Rescue specialist
Sir Eric Anderson was Head Master of Eton 1980-1994, then Provost, and teacher of three prime ministers. Guy Walters recalls a stern and awe-inspiring figure while Graham Stewart asked colleagues, friends and former pupils, including Tony Blair, for their memories of a hugely influential educator I first met Eric when he was Head Master. At that time Martin Charteris was an engaging and convivial Provost and Eric was clearly completely on top of the job. There was a terrific sense of confidence.
Private Education and Public Benefit
Why private schools must leave liberalism in the dustbin Institutions inextricably bound up with their localities. National treasures with long histories of public service. Sites of collective memory and ritual, loyalty and love. What’s a communitarian not to love about private schools? Regrettably all too much. In recent decades, these schools have diluted their historic commitment to the public good and fallen prey to the ever more ardent individualism demanded by their high-paying customers.
Open justice? Case closed
The law governing the reporting of family court hearings should be relaxed for the sake of transparency In 1971, the county courts of England and Wales were closed down by a seven-week postal strike. Low-value civil cases, including a compensation claim I had brought against my local laundry after it lost a rather fine shirt, were simply put on hold until the strike ended. Other courts were less reliant on the post and struggled on. All courts have now been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
About The Critic
The Critic is Britain’s new monthly magazine for politics, ideas, art, literature and much more. Co-edited by Michael Mosbacher and Christopher Montgomery, The Critic exists to push back against a self-regarding and dangerous consensus that finds critical voices troubling, triggering, insensitive and disrespectful. The point is not provocation or trolling. The point of honest criticism is to better approach truth, not deny its possibility.
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