What makes a good education?

More often than not I see kids who learn their textbooks off by heart and churn them out onto an exam script, achieving A-grades left, right and centre. Not until university (if they ever get there) are they provided the opportunity to actually think. This isn't intelligence.

Unfortunately, even worse, there are plenty of kids who fall through the gaps having not had the opportunity or drive to even learn and churn. That is possibly the greatest failing of the education system in many developed countries. In pockets of the country schools consistently deliver poor results, only contributing to sunken social problems and writing children's future for them. For many, it becomes a post code lottery.

What has inspired me is the work of Toby Young. You may be familiar with Toby's work as a journalist, novelist and producer. He's written successful and very funny books as well as worked for Conde Nast tremendously unsuccessfully. Now, he's turning his attentions to politics, following in the steps of his father in (as Tony Blair would say) the pursuit of noble causes by setting up the West London Free School.

The school will be the product of a board of parents, all unhappy with the education provided in Acton, West London. They aim to build a school for highly motivated individuals who live in the area and are interested in achieving. I wrote to Toby about his ideas and shared my experiences of switching from a public school to a state system - discussing how to set the correct environment (I don't have answers, I was merely interested in his views). He agreed in the concept that a sense of elitism is required to deliver a focus, which is lucky, as if he'd disagreed I wouldn't be posting about it!

Their vision is to provide a new learning environment. Before this sounds very liberal and 'arts college', the basis of the education will be pinned on the rigorous curriculum of a public school - including Latin.

Anyway, the project is admirable, and if you're interested you should check out the website here.