School's out

After a quarter of a century, the wall is finally coming down. Islington Green, the school that has become entwined in the public imagination with Pink Floyd's 1979 non-conformist anthem "Another Brick in the Wall", is to close. It will reopen as one of the Government's vaunted academies - but, alas, the famous bricks are to be removed.

After a quarter of a century, the wall is finally coming down. Islington Green, the school that has become entwined in the public imagination with Pink Floyd's 1979 non-conformist anthem "Another Brick in the Wall", is to close. It will reopen as one of the Government's vaunted academies - but, alas, the famous bricks are to be removed.

Some will see this as the final vanquishing of the anarchistic ethos articulated in the song and use it as part of their propaganda war to argue that we must return to a "traditional" form of learning - one that involves corporal punishment, slide rules and short trousers. But we say: do not allow the fires of rebellion to go out so easily. Surely now is the time for the pupils of Islington's new city academy to re-record the Pink Floyd classic.

They'll obviously need to add a few break beats and change the lyrics slightly to reflect the spirit of the times, though. We suggest: "We don't need no lifelong learning, we don't need no thought control, no e-learning in our classrooms. Hey, teaching assistant, leave them kids alone. All in all you're just another brick in the privately sponsored city academy." Surely, a guaranteed hit.