Slugger O'Toole

Latest comments from Justin (see all)

Justin has commented 9 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Some secondary schools get better results than selective grammar schools
   on 5 February 2012 at 10:48 pm

   Peter, it does no such thing. A Grammar school with a spread of A to C grades with the Ds filtered for Rugby, music and the teachers’s kids is not a mixed ability school.

   We need a proper value added approach before we can say one school is better than another.

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2. Comment on Some secondary schools get better results than selective grammar schools
   on 5 February 2012 at 10:31 pm

   On the measure of 5 A* – C grades (including English and Maths) the top performing non-Grammar (totally non-selective school in 2006) school is St Mary’s College Ballymena (actually St Mary’s College, Clady, Portglenone).

   I can’t wait to tell my form class tomorrow.

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3. Comment on Some secondary schools get better results than selective grammar schools
   on 5 February 2012 at 10:17 pm

   Alan, it is not only a matter of grammar and non-grammar, some of the schools listed operated a bilateral system where some places were allocated through the selection system. I assume the idea was to ensure that the intake reflected the whole ability range. When journalists report on this story they should classify the schools as Grammar, Bilateral and non-Grammar.

   See Link to a previous article by Kathryn Torney

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4. Comment on #AE11 Open Thread: North Antrim (#nan11)
   on 2 April 2011 at 9:57 am

   I feel that I’m intruding on someone else’s conversation but I would like to correct one point.

   I certainly was obsessed by hurling when I was at Queen’s but I was not lining out for Dunloy – I was not that good a hurler.

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5. Comment on Orange celebrate the green
   on 17 March 2010 at 6:05 pm

   I agree FJH, and as for PJ Maybe’s comment, I was at Queens at roughly the same time, Brian did a Politics Degree and then got a job working for Queens. I’m back at teaching at ‘school’ so will you make a smart arse comment implying that I’m still a student?

   I think your comment is more motivated by snobbery that a working class man could go to Queens as a mature student and get himself a job there when he finished.

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6. Comment on “with as much transparency as is possible to achieve without compromising our operations”
   on 5 March 2010 at 4:46 am

   Alex is right to highlight these issues. Mi5 are currently trying to coerce young men in the South Derry area to work for them (and may be implicated in Kieran Doherty’s death) yet cannot be held accountable for their actions.

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7. Comment on “Saville is pointless (so is any question on it)”
   on 4 March 2010 at 6:25 am

   To be fair the fault does not ultimately lie with David Ford who is a pawn in other’s games but with those who conspired to exclude a nationalist from the job. What sort of message is sent to young nationalists when the DUP tell us that they cannot accept an SDLP justice minister? There are other voices out there telling young people that nothing has changed since the 60s, it’s time that the DUP started treating us as equals.

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8. Comment on “Saville is pointless (so is any question on it)”
   on 4 March 2010 at 5:48 am

   Not only did David Ford show contempt for the Saville report, he also demonstrated the Alliance Party approach to politics, if he can’t stand up to Woodward, how on earth can he stand up to Robinson and McGuinness?

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9. Comment on By election for Ballymoney?
   on 6 July 2009 at 7:18 pm

   “If the DUP vote was split in two with the TUV then Sinn Fein would look very likely to get the seat.”

   In different circumstances maybe, in this case the DUP-TUV fight will ensure a healthier turnout for unionists than might normally be expected in a by-election.

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