Quality and equality for all in education

THE FRIDAY THING:
THERE is no doubting the excellent quality of Crompton House School and maybe those who so badly cocked up the list of pupils who were eligible to attend the school next year should be sent there to serve detention for their errors.

Some 27 children were told that they could go to Crompton House next September when, in fact, they couldn’t because they did not meet what is called the eligibility criteria and is based on faith, special needs or having siblings at the school.

The school’s standards and achievements are high partly because it is selective — and people will have different views on that — but does that mean that because of its preference for children who, along with their parents, attend Church of England services it attracts a more academically focused and better behaved set of students than other local schools?

How would children whose parents do not listen to church sermons every weekend and who are not regular attendees at services themselves fare in this academic hot-house?

It is plainly wrong to subject Crompton House to criticism for its success, however it is achieved, and the only pity is that other secondary schools across the borough do not enjoy a similar place in the sunshine of outstanding achievement. Despite the opposition of the teaching unions, most of us — and especially parents of young children — will hope that the switch to academies will bring equality of opportunity to all students being educated in the borough.


OLDHAM’S very own super scientist, Prof Brian Cox (he with a brain as big as Jupiter) says that life on Earth began millions of years ago when tons of bacteria and blue-green algae floating in space landed on our barren planet, then just a big hot boulder spinning in space.
Astrobiologist Richard Hoover (I wonder if he invented the vacuum cleaner) after 10 years research in the Antarctic says that a lot of the bacteria that landed in the frozen wastes in meteorites are from other planets and perhaps stirred up the chemical brew that kick-started life on Earth.

It proves, he says, that life is not restricted to here but exists outside our solar system. All this, of course, will be a blow to those who await the arrival of green men from Mars (notice, it’s always men, perhaps Mars is a pretty gay planet).

The truth (which is not only out there but is here, too) is that the aliens have already arrived.

It’s us. You and me and, looking around, it explains a lot...


FINAL WORD: Will taking cigarettes off shop and supermarket shelves really stop young people from starting smoking?
Cannabis, cocaine and other mind-altering substances are not exactly on display in Asda, Sainsbury’s or Tesco but it doesn’t prevent thousands of folk — young and not so young — from adding it to their recipe for a good night out.