via guardian.co.uk
Students with purple ties are gifted and talented. All the children at Crown Woods college in Greenwich, south London, know that. They are taught in separate colour-coordinated buildings, play in fenced-off areas and eat lunch at separate times.
At 11 years old, all pupils at the college are streamed according to ability in what the headteacher argues is the only way to survive in the brave new world of market-driven education.
This is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in a while. If the head insists on it, shouldn’t the teachers be made to wear ties like the students, colour coded by effectiveness and competence?