A NEWLY retired head teacher has blasted the education agenda and the 9-1 GCSE grading system as a ‘mirage and disaster’ for pupils and their teachers.

David Ellis, 56, stepped down from his headship at York High School in Acomb in July after more than a decade leading the school and 35 years in teaching.

In his personal blog Mr Ellis has expressed his anger about former education secretary Michael Gove’s agenda for change and likens it to the fairytale The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Of the GCSE changes he says he is pleased for the young people who have the talent and commitment to reach this new level of achievement.

But he adds: “For many of the young people that I have worked with in recent years and the tens of thousands of other young people like them, this new agenda is a mirage and a disaster for them and their teachers.

“It has been my unfortunate experience in the last few years to have to tell young people and their parents that vocational learning, continual assessment and practical examination are now unacceptable at age 16.

“As a consequence, the commitment, self esteem and to a certain extent the behaviour of many of my students have deteriorated and my school has suffered the inevitable Ofsted consequence.”

York High School was put in special measures after an Ofsted report and now joins Southbank multi-academy trust.

Mr Ellis added: “All of this, however, pales into insignificance when I see the faces of many committed and hardworking young people who open their GCSE results envelope and see grades which they and the school performance system judge to be failure.

“The idea that the changes initiated by the dressmaker Michael Gove are the beginning of the new golden age of English education are the Emperor’s new clothes. They are based on a belief that it is acceptable for young people to be labelled as failures and imply that ability to remember and regurgitate a myriad of facts is the only type of achievement worthy of recognition.”

Mr Ellis says that further, destroying the self esteem of children and castigating the professionals who work with them in the name of ‘higher standards’ is a recipe for social and economic disaster.

And he concludes : “We need a country that values a wide range of skills, a curriculum that develops good citizens and a strong society. We don’t need an education system that embeds advantage from generation to generation.

“I hope that my colleagues who remain in the system will recognise the emperor’s new clothes for what they are, an elegant well fitting outfit for the lucky few perhaps but for many they pose the risk of a very serious case of frostbite.”