Along the way there was also a bonfire of quangos, a test boycott, the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowances, a new Education Secretary, and even a coalition government.

Indeed, 2010 had more twists and turns than “Strictly Come Dancing”.

In my many years reporting on education only two other years have matched this intensity of change: 1988, when Margaret Thatcher turned her radical zeal towards schools, and 1997, when Tony Blair began his “education, education, education” blitz.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12074454

Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year to all readers of this blog – thanks for visiting over the past year and I hope you’ll continue to find these pages useful in 2011.

If, like me, you’re now needing a break from over-eating, over-shopping, and too much TV – and if you’re getting frustrated with the Christmas jigsaw/instruction manual/your football team losing again – then why not sit back and revisit the highs and lows of “education 2010″ in my BBC Review of the Year at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12074454

As space was limited, there are plenty more notable events I’d like to have covered. What would you have included? And what about hopes/fears/predictions for 2011?

Send me your thoughts and – if there are enough suggestions – I’ll add them on these pages.