"The Creative Generation" - Lord Adonis's mystery program for the top 10% - with a whiff of Abu Ghraib

"The brightest 800,000 pupils in England are to have vouchers to spend on extra lessons as part of a national talent search that starts next week." is the arresting opening sentence to a headline Daily Telegraph story today.

The curiously titled, Lord Adonis, the unelected (and maybe unelectable) Minister for Education is apparently the driving force behind this bold, new, and hitherto unpublicised and secretive policy. The Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), a non-profit education company, we are told, won a Government contract to run a programme this month which will require every secondary and primary school will be told to supply the names of 10 per cent of their pupils, who ... er ....best meet the new criteria for the gifted and talented programme when they fill in the January schools census.

Apparently this scheme is a result of the Government's disappointment (AKA Lord A's disappointment) with the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) for which pupils have to prove they are in the top 5% in order to gain membership and access to its activities. (Hands up those who are familiar with NAGTY)

About 30 per cent of secondary schools have failed to nominate any pupil to the academy, with many teachers ideologically opposed to singling out gifted children for special help.

Several questions arise - which result in some curious answers

1. Who are the The Centre for British Teachers ? Who funds them ? Who runs it ? Who governs it ?
2. How did the CfBT obtain this contract ? Was there competitive bidding ?

3. Who are their participating commercial companies - Hedra, CACI and TwoFour Communications ?

1. Who are the The Centre for British Teachers ? Who funds them ? Who runs it ? Who governs it ?

Established 40 years ago CfBT Education Trust is a not for profit charity (company number: 867944 and registered office: 60 Queens Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 4BS, UK and has an annual turnover exceeding £100 million and employs more than 2,000 staff worldwide who support educational reform, teach, advise, research and train.

CfBT Education Trust (previously "The Centre for British Teachers’" - name changed this year to reflect "being a symbolic statement of our renewed energy and our successful future.".)has 7 Trustees who make up the Council of Management , all of them have a solid background in the academic side of educational provision - but their biographies evidence little direct experience of teaching in schools.

One who has, is, Dame Mary Richardson a child of service people, who having trained as a teacher, immediately joined the Army and became a Head teacher much later in life. Her philosophy is expressed in a fascinating address she gave to the HSBC Forum in 2004 - small schools, small classes, discipline, hard work, politeness and co-ordinated effort.

The Annual Report for 2006 makes interesting reading. The Trust owns and operates Nursery Schools in Chorley, Bolton, Lancaster and Middesborough - the Manor Tree Group of five nurseries, three preparatory schools were absorbed in September 2005. in April 2006, Waverley, a co-educational school for three to 11 year olds in Finchampstead, Berkshire transferred to CfBT Education Trust.

The Trust also employs over 100 staff in teaching and ancillary roles in 2005/06 to improve the lives of under-18-year-olds and young offenders in the South East UK.

The Trust had an income of £145 MN in 2004/5 and saw a dramatic decline in 2005/6 to £85Mn due to a loss in "Strategies Turnover".

They also designed (?) and operate the creativegeneration website for the DfES (which exists to provide information, inspiration and support to teachers who work with and develop pupils who are gifted and talented in the arts) this is entitled "CREATIVE GENERATION " (and)"Is the arts portal bursting with regional and National information, designed specifically to support the teaching and development of Gifted and Talented students in the arts." ... which seems to be a list of local arts and entertainment and arts centres ... for example Manchester is represented solely by the Royal Exchange Theatre.

This site also contains Forum( ?s) ... which don't seem to be used - for example , when accessed it showed
2 members have made 0 Posts in 0 forums.
There are currently 0 Topics.
Our newest member is : admin Last Post 27 April 2006 16:30

There is also a site for "Success Stories" which when accessed shows ;

Success Stories

This is the section of the site dedicated to the successes of teachers, pupils and artists - use these pages as inspiration for your own work.

Feel free to submit your own case studies highlighting your own individual achievements by clicking the link to the left

If you choose to access the success stories that have been submitted ... er.. there aren't any.

Three graphic artists appear to endorse their aims - one Antony "Angel of the North" Gormley, pupil of exclusive Stoneyhurst College and child of a fabulously wealthy family.

It might also be added that this is a bafflingly complicated website, and would challenge the most talented child (indeed it could form part of a test of competence for joining the scheme) which has a search function that doesn't work - it would be fascinating to be told what it cost to set up / run the pointless website and how many hits it gets. One suspects very few.

2. How did the CfBT obtain this contract ? Was there competitive bidding ?

Very strangely this appiontment was publicised in a Press release on 13th December 2006 from the DfES - nobody seems to have found it of interest to publish anything until today... how very odd... it can be found here tucked away on the DfES site... this is the Introduction to it..

CfBT Education Trust to manage National Programme for Gifted and Talented Education 13th December 2006

Schools Minister Andrew Adonis (NOT Lord Adonis) has announced today that CfBT Education Trust will manage England’s National Programme for Gifted and Talented Education (NPGATE).

CfBT Education Trust was selected from a competitive field following a tendering process for the newly created role.

From January 2007, CfBT will manage the National Programme to improve the education of gifted and talented children and young people aged three-19 years old in schools and colleges throughout England.

No financial cost given - in fact precious little detail ... except "Contract clarification is currently under way, with a view to completion by February 2007." The BBC story now (20.00 GMT) is quoting a total cost including "management" of £64 MN which will produce a "voucher" of £80 per "gifted pupil."

3. Who are their participating commercial companies - Hedra, CACI and TwoFour Communications ?

The initial notification on the CfBT website (There is no Press release available) has links to Hedra and TwoFour Communications ?...but not to CACI.

Hedra plc - 60 Trafalgar Sq. London WC2N 5DS

"....a management consulting and technology service company. We are the largest independent consultancy working for both the public and private sector. Our clients come from Central Government, Local Government, NHS, Ministry of Defence Aerospace, Utilities and Energy, and a wide range of public service agencies."

They have an alliance with CSC who might be better remembered as Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) who were awarded a $1.7 billion (973 million pounds sterling), Local Service Provider contract on December 23, 2003 to run until 2013 with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) as part of the NHS’ national program to improve healthcare service for patients in the North West and West Midlands of England.

President is Lynton Barker, chairman of the Management Consultancies Association last year, with 28,000 mebers - he supports both Burnley (as does Alastair Campbell) and Manchester United.(Any relation to Anthony Charles Lynton Blair ?)

TwoFour Communications 5th Floor 6 - 7 Cross Street London EC1N 8UA

A First rate outfit that use "the power of TV and technology to help businesses and public sector organisations manage, educate,sell, entertain and build brands." Showreel here

CACI (acronym for California Analysis Center, Incorporated, CACI adopted 1985)

CACI is a fascinating US company with a UK offshoot. Their main website claims ,

" a company wide commitment to support our nation's vital national priorities....from victory inn the war on global terrorism to security for our people and homeland...". Readers of the report into the abuse at Abu Ghraib by Major-General Antonio Taguba will remember he reserved some of its harshest criticism for CACI employees, whom he accuses of being among those giving the orders in Abu Ghraib and described the abuses as "systematic"..

Notably Mr. Steven Stephanowicz and Mr. John Israel who apparently in April 2004 were still at work there, although Taguba singled out for dismissal .. see more here

and Justin Raimondo "Who is John Israel? He could be one of the secret masterminds behind the Abu Ghraib outrage"

and also here

"In 2004, a major Philadelphia law firm, the Center For Constitutional Rights, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago School of Law, and a handful of volunteers a group of lawyers in the United States brought a civil suit on behalf of Mr. Saleh and the hundreds of others Iraqi prisoners abused and tortured by American contractors working for CACI and Titan. The thirty one count complaint accused CACI and Titan of a whole host of common law torts (such as assault and battery), as well as violations of international human rights, and a RICO (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations ACT) conspiracy. The essential theory of the case was that CACI and Titan had a financial motive to increase the amount of interrogation they conducted. The longer the "interrogations" went the more they got paid. By 2004, Titan was earning 96% of its revenue from government contracts." (The indictment runs to 64 pages)

OK it's a stretch from Abu Ghraib to teaching the next generation of viola players and Turner Prize winners and CACI UK ..who are remarkably coy about their US origins and ownership on their website - they have after all featured previously in posts by Lord Patel - especially in relation to CACI being involved with EU telecommunications compliance (Telcos having to retain call data in a form for immediate access by secret services) - CACI selected as partner for the SenSage / EMC EU Data Retention Directive product - also ofshoring warrantless surveillamce operations in welcome new EU nations BUlgaria and Romania.

See Lord Patel Thursday, October 12 2006 - EU telephony details available on demand - terrist threats ... see both items

Now Lord Patel will go and lie down in a darkened room. He apologises for the lengthy and discursive post but this is a complicated subject - truly this story can be said to have "emerged".

One is left wondering (In the absence of prior, debate, discussion or demand for this service) quite why this has been set up.... and apparently still subject to ... "Contract clarification is currently under way, with a view to completion by February 2007." ..... How very, very odd.

Be sure to look at the Creative Generation website.

UPDATE 30th Dec

"the new criteria for the gifted and talented programme" .. when we find out what this means we will let you know ...or if you know what it means please contact us.