Nicky Morgan has given her first interview since schools have started, and has talked about considering for-profit education. She acknowledges that many people would not be happy with the idea, but says she has “left the door open to the introduction of for-profit schools, saying it was a policy on which she was happy to take further advice’
She has also denied the leak that appeared on the Guardian website that suggested that schools would be forced to set children by ability in order to be graded as outstanding by Ofsted. This was attacked by teacher unions and by Tristram Hunt. Opinion is divide on mixed ability teaching but research from the Education Endowment Foundation “concluded that, overall, grouping in sets appears to benefit higher attainers but can be detrimental to the learning of mid-range or lower achievers”. Daniel Moynihan of Harris academy trust has said:
‘That mixed-ability teaching had been all but scrapped in Harris academies in favour of a system of setting and streaming because it is “almost impossible” to teach children of differing academic ability in the same lesson’
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