"Newham primary schools top national league tables"

 

What fantastic news! Hat tip to Sally Patterson at @NewhamRecorder

"Newham schools have topped the league tables in the Sunday Times' best primary school rankings.

St Antony's Catholic Primary School in Forest Gate and East Ham's St Stephen's Primary School ranked at number one and two respectively, with the former also crowned the Times' State Primary School of the Decade.

The prestigious annual report, published on Friday - December 3 - is based on pre-pandemic examination outcomes from 2017- 2019.

St Antony's headteacher Angela Moore told the national paper that she wants her pupils to be "socially well adjusted" and conscious of how they can make "the society they live in a better place".

The head - who took over in 2014 - has taken a primary school marooned to the bottom of the league tables to the pinnacle in less than a decade..".https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/education/newham-primary-schools-top-sunday-times-league-table-8545200?

"Middle classes relying on housing benefit"

Quote from the Tory supporting "The Times" (2 October 2014). Not sure that earning £20k per year makes you "middle class" though? Stuff about the waste of money on housing benefit instead of being used to build new homes at decent rents is telling.

"A study by the National Housing Federation shows an increasing number of middle-class households are having to rely on housing benefit to pay their rent. The research shows middle-income households earning between £20,000 and £30,000 a year accounted for two-thirds of all new housing benefit claims in the past six years, whilst the proportion of households seeking benefits despite being in work has doubled to 22% since 2008.

The Times states that in the 1970s, 80% of government housing spending went on building homes, with 20% on housing benefits but now, with the annual housing benefit bill stood at £24bn a year, the proportions are the other way round. (The Times, Page: 2"