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‘His safe space is at home’: parents on why their children are absent from school

2023-06-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/28/his-safe-space-is-at-home-parents-on-why-their-children-are-absent-from-school

After councils England cited a shortfall in mental health support as a factor in reduced attendance, parents describe their struggles About 18 months ago, Jane’s 13-year-old daughter Anna* was referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) after her GP said she was exhibiting clear symptoms of stress and anxiety. But as another school year draws to a close, Anna still hasn’t been told when she may be offered treatment. Her attendance this year has sunk below the 90% threshold at which absence is classed as persistent. Often on a Monday morning, Jane says, her daughter claims to have a headache, and when told she has to go in throws “the most incredible tantrums”. Jane is one of hundreds of parents who told the Guardian about the issues keeping their children off school, as local authorities in England cite increased anxiety and a shortfall in mental health support as factors behind stubbornly high absence levels post-pandemic. It wasn’t always like this for Anna. She was “always really eager” to go to her primary school, says Jane, a communications manager in London. But she didn’t cope well with lockdown, which came into force when she was in year 5. “There was lots of resistance to do school life at home,” Jane says of her child, who is now in year 8.“She was always quite strong-willed but it went through the roof during the pandemic. She couldn’t meet friends, had no social interaction. It was really tough for her. I think she forgot how to be with other kids.” Jane believes the lockdowns “made missing school permissible for many kids. They were forced to spend so much time at home when they should have been socialising … Many don’t want to leave the security and safety home offers.” While Anna does well academically, Jane worries that continuing absence will affect her education. “I think if she could talk to a third party about how she can find ways of managing what she feels, that would really help make her feel heard.” Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) are among those with reduced attendance levels: in England, 30.6% of pupils who receive Send support were persistently absent in autumn 2021, compared with 21.5% of pupils who do not. Jo, a hairdresser from York, says that with her nine-year-old son Alex*, who has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia, school attendance has become “very unpredictable” over the last two years. Alex has always struggled with school. “His safe space is at home – he struggled in mainstream because there were so many kids in class. From year 2 he would have to be dragged into classroom. I thought I was doing right thing, but looking back I think it was the worst thing I could have done.” Pupils with Send who had education, health and care plans were among those permitted to attend school during national lockdowns. Although Alex didn’t have one in place at the time, Jo pushed for the school to allow him to come in during the second lockdown and Alex fared better then due to reduced class sizes. “When it went back to normal, things went rapidly downhill,” Jo says. Alex was having “daily meltdowns” after he returned to a class of typical pupil numbers. Alex’s attendance fell below 70% in year 4 and Jo withdrew him from the mainstream school in May 2022. “I couldn’t get him through the door and was constantly having to pick him up – it was a complete nightmare,” she says. The disruption meant she had to leave a job she loved as a functional skills tutor last December, which she had been doing alongside hairdressing. After almost a year at an offsite provision of a pupil referral unit on a reduced timetable, Alex will be moving to a specialist school about 30 miles away in September. Jo is now fighting to get transport funded. “What about those who don’t know how to fight the system or don’t have suitable schools in a close radius? It’s a full-time job to have a child with special needs and fight to get them the education that they deserve,” she says. The rising cost of living and its impact on families is another factor behind school absences, according to the charity School-Home Support, which also reports that poor housing is increasingly a barrier. While some parents who contacted the Guardian mentioned that awareness of rising costs was causing their child stress, others spoke of the struggle to afford transport. Caroline, from West Yorkshire, says she has had to cut back on the quality of food she buys and on heating in order to drive her son Tom*, who has a physical disability, to school. Caroline, who is unable to work due to disability, says that while she has been able to prioritise Tom’s transport, she knows of others locally who are unable to afford the bus fare. Caroline emphasises the structural issues behind school absence figures. “Politicians are acting as if the parents are at home going ‘yeah, love, whatever, just play on your Xbox’. That’s not it at all. There’s all sorts of problems going on in the background – the lack of investment in children’s services and in making accommodations for children so that they can attend school.” As well as exacerbating mental health difficulties, another impact of the pandemic has been on physical health. Many parents said increased illness was driving up school absences, with some citing long Covid while others mention their child appearing more susceptible to sickness. Helen, an engineer in Devon, says that since contracting Covid for the second time in February 2022, her daughter Lily*, who has asthma, has been unwell more frequently. After being ill for three weeks with Covid, she has been sick every few months, Helen says. “Since then, any time she is ill she is in bed for about a week – her immune system is really low at the moment. Most recently she was off school for two weeks with flu and bronchitis.” Helen says the school is sending her letters about Lily’s attendance. She has started keeping copies of prescriptions as evidence of her daughter’s illness. Helen took Lily, who is 13, to the GP and a checkup found no underlying health issues. “He said he sees loads of kids that are always sick now,” she says. Lily’s attendance has fallen below the 90% threshold. “This wasn’t happening before Covid or at primary school. It’s worrying and makes life stressful for all involved,” Helen says. “I’m worried if it continues she’ll miss vital lessons in the GCSE years.” * Some names have been changed.

‘It’s about the future’: parents on the school strikes in England and Wales

2023-01-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/31/its-about-the-future-parents-on-the-school-strikes-in-england-and-wales

Five parents give their views on the strikes that begin on Wednesday and discuss how they will be affected Members of the National Education Union (NEU) will strike in schools across England and Wales on Wednesday in the first of seven days of industrial action that is expected to impact tens of thousands of schools. A poll of teachers by the surveying app Teacher Tapp suggests that up to three in every five schools in England could be closed or partly closed on Wednesday. Five parents share how they and their children will be affected by school closures, and their views on the strikes. “We’ve had an email from my children’s (ages three and six) school today to say they will be closing on Wednesday. We are very privileged in that my wife’s parents don’t live too far away, and have agreed to look after them. I would have been prepared to take a day off if not – I can’t really work with them at home. “In my experience teachers are some of the most dedicated, caring and hard-working of public sector workers. They consistently go above and beyond and have been rewarded with many years of poor pay, poor conditions and increased workloads as well as the risky and highly stressful situation they were placed in as a result of the pandemic. It’s shameful that the government have placed them in situation where they are forcing teachers to strike.” Matthew Rodriguez, 43, social worker in London “I have two children, a six-year-old and a nine-year-old. My youngest is having lessons as normal, but my eldest will be off school all day. I’m having to miss a full day of work, which I’m more than happy to do to support the teachers. I had the choice between taking it as holiday or losing a day’s wages – I decided to lose a day and save my holiday for family time instead. “Teachers are underpaid, unappreciated, and don’t have the support or tools they need. In 2020, we were calling them heroes for working through Covid. They have been constantly underfunded while private schools get tax relief and cuts. I have friends who are teachers, they do their prep and planning from home, marking from home outside their hours, they tell me they can’t slow down for the ones that need help and can’t speed up for the ones that are achieving. They shape the future for our children and they are being let down.”Benny, 35, cybersecurity apprentice in Newcastle Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “My daughter is 10 years old and currently preparing for her SATs. Her school is going to close tomorrow. She’s struggling a little in maths and has been put in additional groups so she’ll be missing out on that as well. I’ve got a tutor to support my daughter in the run-up to the SATs and hope that this is enough to get her through – we’ve asked him to do more hours because of strikes. “I’m a former lecturer in further education and I went on several strikes regarding pay and working conditions. I’m in complete support of the strike – teachers have been ignored for far too long, working under less than fair conditions. It’s just unfortunate it comes at such a crucial time. Her school will also be shut for three days in March. I know it seems small but it’s also the extra hours of [maths] support that are provided for those who are struggling. I have had to take annual leave on Wednesday, and have cancelled a few appointments in March.” Dr Mine Conkbayir, 42, early years author and consultant in London “My seven-year-old son’s school has confirmed they will be closed tomorrow, unfortunately. It’s every parent’s nightmare. I’m a single parent working six days a week. I own my own business and can’t take the day off – it would be a lot of money to lose as the business would have to close for the day and there’s longterm effects on losing customers. “Luckily I’ve managed to get my mum to look after him on Wednesday – she had to take time off work from her job as a tailor. If it happens again, I don’t know if she’ll be available. I also won’t be able to do any school work with my son, he’s going to be behind if this happens – it’s so worrying.”Marjan Sangsefidi, 40, owns a barbershop in Leeds “My ten-year-old’s school will remain open on Wednesday as far as we know, but they won’t know for sure until the day. I’m a widow and have no childcare support so will be balancing work commitments with looking after my child. “I’m lucky, I would possibly be able to work from home – I might look at taking an impromptu day’s leave. It wouldn’t be ideal – I’m in a very small team with another lone parent with two small boys. “But I fully support the teachers. This isn’t about my being inconvenienced, nor about my child being glum and bored for a day or two. This is about the future. This is about preserving good teaching staff in the profession, paying them well and valuing them. Schools are so important in the community – they pick up so much slack from other underfunded agencies. If they need to strike to be heard, then so be it.” Rebecca Strong, 49, reporter in Gosport

UK should embrace foreign students or lose them to rival countries, warns Ucas chief

2023-08-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/14/uk-should-embrace-foreign-students-or-lose-them-to-rival-countries-warns-ucas-chief

Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said. The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students. UK universities say the value of the £9,250 tuition fees paid by domestic students has been eroded due to inflation. As a result, many institutions have become increasingly reliant on international tuition fees, which are significantly higher, to help cover costs. Clare Marchant, the chief executive of Ucas, tried to allay concerns at a webinar hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute on Monday. Asked whether there was a bigger trend this year in universities offering courses in clearing only to international students, Marchant said it was broadly consistent with previous years. She conceded, however, that there may be changes in recruitment on individual courses at particular institutions. “The proof in the pudding in terms of competition will come on Thursday afternoon [A-level results day], as some of those courses are taken out of clearing as they get filled up.” A report in the Telegraph on Monday said overseas students were being offered places on “hundreds more undergraduate degrees” in clearing at Russell Group institutions, including Durham and Liverpool, than their British counterparts. Experts in the sector said the clearing process – by which universities recruit for unfilled places – was still fluid and it would be premature to draw any conclusions. “It’s too early to tell yet,” said Mark Corver, the founder of DataHE, “Universities will be working through their offer holders’ results now.” Dan Barcroft, the director of admissions at the University of Sheffield, said there were limited places available in clearing for both UK and international students across a number of courses at his institution. “We’ve seen an increase in our applications from UK students this year and we’re aiming for this to be reflected in our admissions,” he said.“International students play an important role in UK universities and don’t negatively affect the opportunities for UK students. As UK tuition fees have remained static for many years, fees from international students are used to cross-subsidise both teaching and research.” Recent analysis by the Guardian found that £1 in every £5 received by UK universities last year came from international students, while at some institutions tuition fees from international students make up a third or more of the total income. Marchant, who is due to leave Ucas to become vice-chancellor of Gloucestershire University this year, said about 13% of placed applicants were international students. “And broadly, that percentage we don’t expect to change hugely come Thursday, or the end of the cycle in October either.” The majority of international students in the UK are on postgraduate courses, rather than studying for undergraduate degrees. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, international students accounted for 22% of the total student population in 2020-21, while 15.7% of undergraduates and 39.1% of postgraduates came from overseas. Marchant said: “As a country, we need to be welcoming to undergraduate international students who want to come and study here, as we’re aware that we are competing in a global market where students are also attracted by study in countries such as Australia, Canada and the US.” Students awaiting their A-level results on Thursday have endured significant disruption to their studies due to Covid and have been told to expect far fewer top grades as the government attempts to get grades back to pre-pandemic levels. Marchant said she felt sympathy for them. “These are individuals who haven’t gone through an external exam before so of course there is going to be a level of anxiety when it comes to Thursday.”

Lack of diversity in teaching in England means minority ethnic pupils miss out

2023-08-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/29/lack-diversity-teaching-means-minority-ethnic-pupils-england-miss-out

Exclusive: Pupils in north-east and London most likely to never have a teacher of similar ethnicity, study finds Pupils in parts of England are likely to never have a teacher of the same ethnic background, in part because minority ethnic applicants are less likely to be accepted on to teacher training courses, research has revealed. The north-east has the least diverse teaching workforce in the country, with students of Pakistani or black-African origin likely to never have a teacher of similar ethnicity in their classrooms. Researchers at Durham University’s evidence centre for education also found that while London has the most diverse teaching workforce, it lags so far behind the capital’s minority ethnic pupil population that the gap is the widest in England. Prof Stephen Gorard, the centre’s director, said the low numbers were partly the result of minority ethnic applicants to teacher training being more likely to be rejected, with a “considerable impact” for pupils. “The evidence is quite clear that not being taught by someone who sounds and looks like them could affect pupils for things like suspensions and exclusions, the categorisations for special needs, their absence and their happiness, expectations and aspirations,” Gorard said. Gorard called for Ofsted, which inspects teacher training courses, to start looking at the acceptance rates for initial teacher training by ethnicity and querying any “startling differences” at individual institutions. The new research found a wide gap in acceptance rates for teacher training hopefuls based on ethnicity. Minority ethnic applicants to initial teacher training are substantially less likely to be accepted, with applicants recorded as black having the lowest acceptance rate and substantially lower than those for white applicants. Minority ethnic groups undertaking initial teacher training have lower success rates at each stage, including a much higher rate of failing to progress from gaining qualified teaching status to getting their first teaching job. The study did find that the number of teachers from black-Caribbean backgrounds had risen and was now proportionate to the number of pupils of black-Caribbean origin nationally. Jabeer Butt, chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation charity, said the evidence on racial disparity in recruitment was “not surprising” but was still “deeply disappointing”. He said despite public commitments in response to the murder of George Floyd, an African-American man who was killed in the US by a police officer in 2020 sparking international protests, “substantial change” was yet to be seen. Butt said: “Worryingly, the lower chance of being recruited is part of a wider picture of poorer career progression for black and other ethnic minority teachers, including in securing headteacher roles. “Government needs to act by adopting a meaningful race equality strategy, with each department asked to adopt a plan of action and report on it to parliament on an annual basis.” Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said Durham University’s research was in line with the union’s own surveys. “There is a serious problem of under-representation of black communities in the teaching force. Teacher training institutions will have to look hard at their recruitment procedures,” Courtney said. “In some cases, the school environment is a place of discomfort for black teachers, and while a great number feel supported by their managers there are still too many who do not.” The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, used data from England’s school workforce census as well as Ucas data for teacher training applicants and evidence from international teaching and learning surveys. In the north-east of England, 89% of teachers and 86% of pupils identified as white British. While children of black-African origin made up only 1.3% of the student population, just 0.1% of the teaching workforce in the north-east identified as black-African. Ethnic Pakistani children made up just 1.5% of pupils, with only 0.27% of teachers having the same ethnicity. “It is clear that ethnic disproportionality is real, probably has many possible determinants, and creates damage for the education system in a number of ways,” the study concludes. “Addressing it is not currently a hot policy issue in England, unlike the ‘underachievement’ of white working-class boys has been in recent years, for example. This needs to change.”

Sustained rift with China would harm UK universities, report warns

2023-09-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/13/sustained-rift-with-china-would-harm-uk-universities-report-warns

KCL study finds many leading UK institutions remain highly dependent on Chinese students UK universities would be hugely damaged by a sustained diplomatic rift between Britain and China, according to a report that predicts difficulty in replacing the Chinese students who now take up more than one in four international PhD places. The study, co-authored by the former universities minister Jo Johnson, found that many leading institutions remain highly dependent on Chinese students for tuition fee income as well as to fill postgraduate research courses in subjects such as economics, science and technology. A sudden inflaming of tensions between the UK and China – recently a parliamentary researcher was arrested for allegedly spying for China – could see the pipeline shut off, leaving UK universities with few viable alternatives after the collapse in EU student numbers coming to the UK since Brexit. Johnson, a visiting professor at King’s College London’s policy institute, said: “The sector continues to follow a ‘cross your fingers’ strategy that decoupling is in the future never necessary for China, in the same ways it was for relations with Russia in February 2022. The China question therefore to a great degree remains unanswered. “The government must urgently help universities with a framework for how to maximise the benefits from research collaboration and student and academic mobility while managing the downsides, including the risks to national security from bad-faith actors and the dangers of over-reliance on a single country.” The KCL report says the single most effective way for the government to reduce the reliance on Chinese students would be to raise tuition fees for UK undergraduates in line with inflation for the first time since 2016, when fees were set at £9,250 a year. “Teaching UK students at this level will be loss-making for many higher education institutions, leaving them with few options other than to recruit international students whose fees are unregulated,” the report concludes. In 2021-22, more than 3,100 Chinese nationals enrolled in the first year of a doctoral programme at UK universities, far above the 2,000 combined from the three next largest countries – the US, India and Saudi Arabia. “With large emerging countries such as India unlikely to be plausible substitutes for the foreseeable future, finding alternatives to China that reduce its importance in the UK knowledge economy remains no simple undertaking,” the report says. In the space of five years, the proportion of international PhD places held by Chinese nationals has risen from 17% to 28% while the number of EU doctoral students has fallen by 42%. International students take up just under half of the total PhD places at UK universities. The KCL report also notes that Chinese doctoral students are concentrated in leading research centres: the most recent figures show 80% were studying at universities belonging to the Russell Group. Nine Russell Group universities had more than 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from China in 2021-22, and University College London alone has more than 10,000 Chinese students in its student body of 44,000. Last week it was revealed that a parliamentary researcher had been arrested under the Official Secrets Act, leading Rishi Sunak to confront the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, at Sunday’s G20 summit over China’s “unacceptable” interference. The researcher has said he is “completely innocent”. A report by a House of Lords committee castigates the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator for England, for failing to prepare the sector for the financial instability that the withdrawal of Chinese students would cause. The report by the industry and regulators committee says there is a “worrying complacency” over the dependency on international student fees, which it says fails to take account of the “risks of geopolitical shifts”, especially involving students from China. The committee held a series of hearings during its investigation into the OfS’s operations and its final report is highly critical, arguing that the OfS “lacks independence from the government and its actions often appear driven by the ebb and flow of short-term political priorities and media headlines.” Clive Hollick, the committee’s chair, said: “At a time when the higher education sector faces a looming crisis caused by financial instability, increased costs, industrial action and reduced EU research funding, it is vital that the sector’s regulator is fit for purpose. “However, it was evident throughout our inquiry that the OfS is failing to deliver and does not command the trust or respect of either providers or students, the very people whose interests it is supposed to defend. We were surprised by the regulator’s view that the sector’s finances are in good shape, which is not an assessment that we or most of our witnesses share.” James Wharton, the OfS’s chair, said in response that his organisation was “alive to significant risks, including the impact of a fixed undergraduate tuition fee, cost pressures and an over-reliance by some on international students. Our important work in this area is often not publicly visible.”

Bernardine Evaristo joins calls to save Goldsmiths’ Black British literature MA

2024-04-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/10/bernardine-evaristo-joins-calls-to-save-goldsmiths-black-british-literature-ma

Booker-winning author says course ‘shouldn’t be seen as dispensable’ as university seeks to cut 130 academic jobs The Booker prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo has criticised the “amputation” of Black British literature and queer history courses at Goldsmiths University in London, as part of a cost-cutting programme in which 130 academic jobs are to go. Evaristo, along with former students and writers, issued a plea to Goldsmiths to reconsider the removal of “pioneering” postgraduate courses after plans were announced to cut the jobs in 11 departments. Evaristo, who won the Booker in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other, criticised the “threat” posed to the world’s first master’s in Black British literature, which has been hailed as groundbreaking, and said it should be “protected from cuts at all costs”. She said: “Compare this with African American literature, which is widely taught at all levels throughout academia in the States … conversely, British universities have historically only offered token gestures to include Black British writers on the curriculum. “Yet this field is expanding exponentially and deserving of focused critical attention, with many talented new writers emerging every day in a continuum that extends back to the slave memoirs of the 18th century. “The MA in Black British literature shouldn’t be seen as dispensable but as an essential course that is intellectually and culturally enriching for academia, the college and society.” The master’s degrees in queer history and Black British literature attracted much attention when they were announced as world firsts in 2017 and 2015 respectively. The MA in Black British literature also received praise from writers and authors including Zadie Smith, Farrukh Dhondy, Gary Younge, the Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah, and Jackie Kay, a former poet laureate of Scotland. Angelique Golding, who completed the master’s in Black British literature in 2019, said the course had “expanded my horizons”. “I had never encountered many of the authors on the MA reading list – who had, unfortunately, been hidden in plain sight,” she said. “To lose such an important degree will be a backwards step that will impact future scholars and scholarship and work, once again, in the service of undermining the Black voice and presence in the UK.” Margaret Busby, a publisher and editor, also raised concerns about the future of the master’s in Black British literature. Dhondy, a fiction writer and playwright, said: “It may be that in decades or generations to come, the study of ‘Black’ literature and its critical appreciation and placing will pass into the general considerations of lit crit, but at present, with such literature being at best half a century old, it stimulates and necessitates in its historical context a specialist approach. “My plea is to reconsider the amputation of this dynamic and not yet adequately explored contribution to world literary culture.” The views expressed about the future of the master’s programmes are one aspect of broader unease regarding proposed cuts in the departments of arts, humanities and social sciences at Goldsmiths. Members of Goldsmiths University and College Union (GUCU) have also threatened strike action in protest at the planned cuts, including a marking and assessment boycott on 19 April. Catherine Rottenberg, a professor in the department of media, communications and cultural studies, and a member of the GUCU executive, said: “The college has already made huge savings with a voluntary severance programme and a jobs freeze. “These cuts will wreck the lives of committed academics and will cause untold reputation damage to an institution that claims to support social justice and inclusive education.” A spokesperson for the university said: “We are consulting on proposals with the union to deal with the unprecedented challenges that Goldsmiths and other universities are facing from a funding system that is no longer fit for purpose. “The proposals are part of a wider plan aimed at ensuring that Goldsmiths continues to be a beacon for radical research and innovative teaching as well as an entry point for students who are the first in their family to go to university.” They added: “We’re proud to have widened scholastic learning with the introduction of the MAs in Black British literature and queer history and are committed to both protecting and enhancing arts and humanities subjects in the best way we can.”

Fifth of UK universities’ income comes from overseas students, figures show

2023-07-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/14/overseas-students-uk-universities-income

Guardian analysis highlights how dependent sector has become on countries such as China and India One in every five pounds received by UK universities last year came from international students, according to Guardian analysis that reveals the scale of the sector’s growing dependence on overseas tuition fees for financial survival. With the annual dash to allocate university places for the next academic year about to begin, there are fears UK students could lose out to their overseas counterparts, whose higher fees have become critical to university budgets. Tuition fees from international students now make up a third or more of the total income at some institutions, with many universities registering sharp increases in the proportion of their income from overseas students in recent years. A dozen universities have seen growth of more than 15 percentage points, while the number of international students has increased in about 80% of UK universities since 2016-17, with 30 institutions recruiting double the number of overseas students. At renowned specialist institutions, such as the Royal College of Art (RCA) and the University of the Arts London, tuition fees from EU and non-EU students made up more than half (54%) of total income in 2021-22, up from just over a third in 2016-17. Meanwhile, the University for the Creative Arts, which also specialises in art and design, and the University of Hertfordshire have registered the biggest increases in international tuition fee income share, rising from 13% to 33% of total income in six years. Prof Quintin McKellar, Hertfordshire’s vice-chancellor, said: “Overseas students bring vibrancy and energy to our universities. They support courses which we would be unable to offer to our UK students without their recruitment and they greatly support our university finances.” The Guardian’s analysis of the latest data from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (Hesa), covering 155 universities, comes amid mounting concern about the growing reliance of the UK university sector on income from international students. Universities can charge overseas students significantly higher tuition fees. An overseas undergraduate pays on average £22,000 a year, according to estimates by the British Council, which is used to offset the decreasing value of domestic fees that remain capped at £9,250, having barely increased since they were introduced in 2012. Mark Corver, the managing director and co-founder of dataHE, which helps universities use data, has calculated that, taking inflation into account, domestic tuition fees are now worth about £6,000 in 2012’s money. “Universities have lost a third of their money to inflation since 2012, and most of that loss has been in the last 18 months,” he said. “I know [the universities] would like to take more UK students, but the finance directors will be saying it doesn’t add up. In practice, they need a higher and higher proportion of international students each year.” Tim Bradshaw, the chief executive of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, which attract large numbers of overseas students, said international fees are reinvested into education and research to benefit all students. “However, with government per-student funding falling, this revenue is now being asked to cover increasing deficits in both domestic teaching and publicly funded research.” The number of international students choosing to study in the UK – many of them postgraduates – has risen by 48% in six years, with some of the largest increases from India and Nigeria, where recruitment agents have worked hard. Numbers coming to study from the European Union have dropped by 14%, while China continues to dominate, accounting for close to a quarter of all international students. Earlier this year, England’s higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), wrote to 23 universities with the highest number of Chinese students, asking to see their contingency plans in case of a sudden interruption to overseas recruitment. The chief executive, Susan Lapworth, said the OfS remained concerned that some universities had become too reliant on fees from international students, particularly where large numbers come from a single country. “Universities must know what they would do if international recruitment fails to meet expectations,” she said. Tuition fees from overseas students have increased by 71% in six years, from £5.4bn in the 2016-17 academic year to £9.7bn in 2021-22. As a result, more than a fifth of UK universities’ total income came from payments from EU and non-EU students (21.5%) last year, up from 15.6% in 2016-17. “It’s the only thing that makes really serious money,” said Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Over the same period, the proportion of universities’ total income derived from UK students fees decreased slightly from 30.8% in 2016-17 to 28.8% in 2021-22. The increase in the RCA’s overseas student population comes largely from China, with six times more enrolling last year than in 2016-17; more than 1,100 compared with 180. Robert Gordon University recorded close to five times more students from Nigeria than six years ago; 1,700 compared with 365. An RCA spokesperson said: “As the world’s leading art and design university, the RCA attracts students both from the UK and over 70 other countries, and we are proud to have many successful Chinese alumni. “Our numbers of UK and non-Chinese international students are increasing and forecast to continue to increase in future academic years. Overall, our financial position is healthy and includes research, philanthropy and corporate partnerships.” The Chinese student population at the University of Central Lancashire has however decreased by 57% in six years, while there are 24 times as many from India than in 2016-17. Chinese student numbers have also dropped by 68% at Sheffield Hallam University, while Nigerian and Indian nationals combined are seven times higher than in 2016-17. India has become the second largest nationality in UK universities, accounting for 18% of all the overseas students, up from 4% in 2016-17,- followed in third position by Nigeria with 7% of all international students. Universities UK, which represents 140 institutions, said UK students still constituted the majority of undergraduates, making up 85% of students, and that 39% of all postgraduates were international students. “International students enrich our universities and communities, and the government’s 2019 international education strategy, which committed to increasing the number of international students, recognised this,” a spokesperson said. Bradshaw said: “Universities will always work to run as efficiently as possible and maximise other revenue streams so they can continue to deliver the best possible student experience. However, as costs rise and deficits grow, universities’ ability to mitigate the impact on quality and choice for students is limited. “That is why we are calling for a more sustainable approach to funding higher education that can offset the impact of inflation on per-student funding, is fair and affordable for students and the taxpayer, and protects the pipeline of skills to support innovation and economic growth.” The first graph in this article was amended on 17 July 2023. An earlier version incorrectly showed the total income of the universities in millions instead of billions of pounds.

Disruptive behaviour in English schools worse since Covid, says outgoing Ofsted head

2023-10-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/06/disruptive-behaviour-in-english-schools-worse-since-covid-says-outgoing-ofsted-head

Amanda Spielman says children are walking out of class, or registering but not attending lessons Behaviour in schools in England has deteriorated since the pandemic, with pupils refusing to comply with rules, talking back to teachers and walking out of class mid-lesson, the head of Ofsted says. Suspensions for physical assault, threatening behaviour and verbal abuse have increased, with even primary schoolchildren being defiant and refusing to follow simple classroom instructions, such as to get out their books. In some cases, children are turning up at school for registration but, despite being on the premises, failing to attend any lessons, the outgoing chief inspector of schools in England, Amanda Spielman, said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. Poor behaviour and disruption in the classroom were contributing to anxiety and poor mental health among some pupils, she said, which was, in turn, adding to high levels of absence in English schools. More than two out of five teachers (42%) who took part in a recent Ofsted survey on pupil behaviour said it had worsened since the pandemic. Initial findings from new Ofsted research, due to be published next year, show the three most frequent behaviour issues are persistent low-level disruption, cited by more than two-thirds of staff (67%), refusal behaviour or passive non-compliance, where a child ignores an authority figure (67%), and talking back at teaching staff (64%). “This is across the system,” said Spielman. “There’s definitely some real challenges for schools to manage at the moment. Schools are having to deal with things like more children just walking out of classes, or being registered at school but failing to show up in lessons.” Spielman will address some of these issues in a speech to the Confederation of School Trusts on Friday, when she is expected to say: “I know how hard it is for many of you to deal with challenging behaviour at the moment. But poor behaviour can make other children anxious about school. “Clear rules and expectations, consistently applied, and with known consequences for breaking them, are, of course, an important element of a proven approach. But it’s not enough just to set the rules and sit back. Children need to be taught behaviour and routines explicitly, and be given time to learn and practise meeting those expectations.” The government’s own figures show the number of temporary suspensions went up to more than half a million (578,280) in 2021-2 – the latest year for which figures are available, an increase from 352,454 in 2020-21 – when schools were severely disrupted by Covid – and 438,300 in 2018-19, before the pandemic. The most common reason for a temporary suspension was persistent disruptive behaviour. Spielman blames the increase in disruptive behaviour on the loss of socialisation as a result of Covid. “A lot of people have had a lot less of that socialisation. Many young people have not had as much of the experience and opportunity to practise as they normally would have done.” The chief inspector was speaking shortly after the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, addressing the Conservative party conference, announced new guidance to ban mobile phones throughout the school day in an effort to reduce distraction, disruptive behaviour and bullying. Spielman said the ban could help with behaviour issues but was not “a magic bullet”, adding that the damage done by Covid lockdowns would take years to repair. “I don’t want to be over-optimistic, nor do I want to be apocalyptic. I just want to acknowledge this is a multi-year challenge.” The chief inspector, who is due to step down at the end of 2023 after seven years in the job, also called for the government urgently to issue its long-awaited transgender guidance for schools, which Rishi Sunak promised to publish earlier this summer but which has been subject to lengthy delays. She said the issue was taking up “disproportionate” amounts of school time as headteachers struggled to navigate complicated issues on a case-by-case basis, relying on ad hoc materials from various groups. “I don’t believe it’s fair or realistic to expect every school to make decisions individually, in the absence of a clear framework,” Spielman said. “It’s something that is taking up disproportionate amounts of school time, at a time when management capacity is absolutely at a premium. So let’s make the job easier for schools by getting that guidance out.” In a wide-ranging interview, Spielman also rejected criticism of Ofsted, especially over the death of the Berkshire primary headteacher’s Ruth Perry, saying the inspectorate was merely carrying out government policy and if people wanted a different Ofsted, it was up to the government to change it. Perry’s death is the subject of an inquest hearing next month, but her family have said she killed herself after a devastating Ofsted inspection. Spielman said it would be inappropriate to comment, saying only: “I totally understand that it’s been a very difficult time for the family and we have to leave the inquest to do its job.” Sir Martyn Oliver, chief executive of the Outwood Grange academies trust, has been confirmed as the next chief inspector of schools. The Department for Education said: “Poor behaviour disrupts lessons and has a profound effect on teachers. We are determined all pupils learn in a calm environment, which is why just this week we have banned mobile phone use in schools. “This is on top of our ongoing £10m behaviour hubs programme, which is supporting up to 700 schools to improve their behaviour. We are also supporting schools through our recently expanded attendance hubs, mentors programme and by setting up the attendance action alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and allied services.”

Former Ofsted chief: school inspections should change after headteacher’s death

2023-06-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/16/former-ofsted-chief-school-inspections-should-change-after-headteacher-death

Sir Michael Wilshaw says he now thinks differently about use of one-word headline grades in England The former chief inspector of schools in England Sir Michael Wilshaw has said Ofsted’s style of school inspections needs to change after the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry. Wilshaw, who led Ofsted until 2016, said Perry’s death, following an inspection that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, had changed his mind over the use of one-word headline grades to rate schools in England. “I’ve thought about it since this whole tragic episode took place. This is a woman who had the confidence of parents, raised achievements – educational provision was good – who fell down on one judgment,” Wilshaw told Tes magazine, adding that change was “inevitable”. “I think this made everyone think, and it’s made me think. And it’s made me change my mind.” Perry’s family say the popular headteacher of Caversham primary school in Reading killed herself earlier this year after being told by Ofsted inspectors that her school was to be rated as inadequate because of procedural flaws in safeguarding training. Ofsted inspectors issue a summary school grade of “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement”, or “inadequate”, depending on their findings in several categories. Schools with inadequate safeguarding procedures are automatically given an overall grade of inadequate despite their performance in other areas such as behaviour or leadership. Wilshaw said reports that highlighted what needed to be urgently fixed “would have been better than calling someone inadequate”. The former head of Mossbourne academy in east London now supports proposals put forward by Labour to replace single-term judgments with a “report card” summary aimed at parents, having previously voiced his support for the existing system. “I’ve reflected on it. And I’ve changed my mind. I think it is a good idea, as long as they run quite a lot of pilot inspections where they learn the lessons and make sure that inspection is as challenging as it’s always been,” Wilshaw said. While Ofsted judgments had “been a lever for government to intervene in schools”, Wilshaw said: “I think you have to do it in a more nuanced way now.” Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has defended the use of one-term judgments since Perry’s death, saying: “I think one-word assessments are there to make sure it’s easy for parents to navigate them.” However, recent polling by YouGov found just 28% of British adults had confidence that Ofsted ratings were accurate, while 50% were not confident. Another YouGov poll found that 90% of teachers had an unfavourable view of Ofsted. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Sir Michael Wilshaw’s endorsement of Labour’s plans to reform Ofsted shows yet again that Labour is leading the way in education while the Conservatives offer nothing but drift. “We need better than a system of accountability that’s high stakes for staff but low information for parents.” Amanda Spielman, who succeeded Wilshaw as chief inspector, said the government was ultimately responsible for any major changes to school inspections, as she sought to explain why revisions announced earlier this week had failed to placate critics. “We inspect as we find and then the government decides, based on the outcome, whether a school needs any support or intervention,” Spielman said in an article in Schools Week. “These consequences of inspection undoubtedly raise the stakes for schools and are baked into the grading debate. But as grades are an integral part of how it regulates the sector, any changes would rightly be a matter for the government.” The changes proposed by Ofsted were criticised by school leaders as failing to tackle the underlying problem and the emphasis on single-term judgments. The Department for Education said that one-word inspections “succinctly summarise independent evaluations on the quality of education, safeguarding, and leadership which parents greatly rely on”, while the government uses inspection grades as part of its wider accountability system.

UK parents: is your child being affected by teachers leaving the profession?

2023-06-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/23/uk-parents-is-your-child-being-affected-by-teachers-leaving-the-profession

We want to hear about how pupils are being affected as teachers quit in record numbers A record number of teachers in England are leaving the profession, according to figures published by the Department for Education. High numbers of teachers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are also reported to be considering leaving the sector. If you are a parent in the UK with school-age children, get in touch to tell us about the situation in their school. What are turnover rates like? What is the teaching like? How much consistency is there in your child’s education? How are they being affected? We are also interested in hearing from students about how they’re being affected. If you’re 18 or above, please do get in touch to share your experience.If you are a teacher, you can share your experience here.

Virginia seeks to strip transgender school students of protections

2022-09-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/19/virginia-transgender-students-schools-glenn-youngkin

State education department issues guidance reinstating bathroom and locker room restrictions and curbing pronoun changes Virginia is attempting to roll back major protections for school students who are transgender, according to the latest set of guidelines announced by the state’s education officials. The state’s department of education announced on Friday that it had rewritten a number of policies around the treatment of transgender students, issuing guidance for school districts to follow that ease up accommodations from the previous administration. Under the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, the policy reversal would require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex, the Associated Press reported. The new policy also makes it more difficult for students to change the names and pronouns that are used for them. Students who are minors must now be referred to by names and pronouns listed in official records unless a parent gives their approval. The most recent guidance will go through a 30-day public comment period, which will begin later this month. Afterwards, the state’s education department will go through comments and submit a final version approved by the state’s superintendent, according to the New York Times. The proposed policies are a stark contrast from protections passed under former Democratic governor Ralph Northam’s administration. Last year’s policies told schools to call students by names and pronouns that reflected their gender identity without “any substantiating evidence”, the AP reported. The previous guidelines also allowed students to participate in any programs or facilities that matched their gender identity and cautioned schools to consider a student’s safety and health before sharing information with parents. But many school districts did not implement Northam’s more LGBTQ+ friendly policies, with no state enforcement mechanism if school districts failed to comply, the Virginia Mercury reported. A representative of Youngkin’s office has said that the adjusted policies are about preserving parental rights, but advocates have criticized the new guidance as harmful to transgender students. Anthony Belotti, a 22-year-old queer and trans college student who attended high school in Virginia, told the Washington Post that during his time attending Stafford county schools, he was banned from using the men’s bathroom, having to wait hours to use the restroom at home. As a result, Belotti now has chronic kidney and urinary tract infections. Belotti warned that rolling back protections will be especially harmful for transgender students who have gotten used to previously established accommodations. “This is going to mean less protections from bullying,” Belotti said. “It’s going to be especially devastating for students who know what it is like to have access to support and respect, and now have that taken away from them.” There is also confusion on how much power Youngkin has to enforce certain provisions in the updated school guidelines, particularly given federal protections for transgender students that mandate they access the bathroom that matches their gender identity. In the past year, states across the US have passed or proposed legislation targeting trans minors, inside and outside the classroom. The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, told the state’s child protection services to investigate parents providing their children with gender-affirming care, calling those actions “abuse”. In March, the Republican governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, signed a bill into law that banned trans girls and women from participating in high school and college sports, despite critics saying that the bill was discriminatory. Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, allowed a similar legislative ban to become law by not vetoing it despite also not signing it. Edwards is a Democrat, but Louisiana’s legislature is controlled by Republicans.

Social segregation is the biggest problem facing Australian schools. Can we balance choice and fairness? | Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor

2023-07-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/commentisfree/2023/jul/20/australian-schools-public-private-segregation

Our dual system of schools – some public, free and inclusive, and others private, fee-charging and exclusive – is internationally unique. It doesn’t have to be like this In the lead-up to the next four-year school funding deal, the federal education minister Jason Clare has commissioned a review into a better and fairer school system. In its recently released consultation paper, the review asked “What contributes to poor performance?” Its first answer? “Australia’s schools are highly segregated along socio-economic lines.” The review stated that Australia has one of the most socially segregated school systems in the OECD; concentrations of disadvantage are increasing; and this is harming student learning outcomes. It pointed to evidence that a child from a disadvantaged family who attends a school surrounded by similarly disadvantaged peers will be three years of learning behind a child from the same background who attends an advantaged school. This finding is not new. In fact, the Gonski review said exactly the same thing. So has the Australian Council for Educational Research and many education researchers. And when you think about it, the reasons are obvious. In a classroom where most of the children are from disadvantaged backgrounds, there will likely be a much greater demand on teacher time and therefore less individualised attention. Behavioural issues and low student engagement tend to reduce time on task, and make it harder to create a strong culture of learning. This all shapes how lessons and units are designed, and academic subjects are less likely to be offered. It all takes a toll on teacher morale, hence these schools find it much more challenging to recruit and retain teachers. Why does Australia have a highly socially segregated school system? Because we have an internationally unique dual system of schools – some public, free and inclusive, and others private, fee-charging and exclusive. They all get public funding, but ever-increasing fees inevitably restrict the access of low-income families to the private schools. Additionally, selective enrolment practices in a variety of schools exclude low-achieving students, while resource advantages enable some schools to attract high-performing students. To make matters worse, governments have chosen to provide much greater funding increases to nongovernment schools. This gives private schools a huge marketing advantage, allowing them to advertise smaller class sizes and flashy facilities, and lure those who can afford the fees away from the public system. At the other end, the overwhelming majority of disadvantaged students are lumped together, producing all the problems policymakers know too well. But it doesn’t have to be like this. If you walk into a Catholic school in Ontario, Canada, you will find that it is as Catholic as any Australian Catholic school in terms of its curriculum, ethos and governance. But it will also be as public as any Australian public school in that it is free and it enrols students on an inclusive basis. Because all schools are fully publicly funded and don’t charge fees, Canada’s schools are much more socioeconomically mixed. Canada consistently outperforms Australia in standardised tests. Disadvantaged Canadian students express a much stronger belonging at school and more optimism about their future than their Australian counterparts. In other words, Canada offers an example of a better, fairer system where social disadvantage is much less concentrated – and schools are more focused on lifting the achievement of the students they have than on attracting the custom of the most able and advantaged. We propose a similar common framework for all Australian schools. In return for public funding, all schools should meet corresponding public obligations. All schools, government and nongovernment alike, would be fully funded on a needs basis but prohibited from charging fees or applying selective enrolment practices other than to preserve their special religious or educational ethos. In other words, we can balance choice and fairness. If debates about schools in Australia are any guide, such a proposal might seem impossible. After all, we’ve long believed that funding private schools creates a saving for the taxpayer. But many private schools receive more taxpayer funding than equivalent public schools. It would only require modest additional expenditure to meet the total cost of fully funding all nongovernment schools. However, our proposal will require a significant amount of good faith and mutual trust in a space where there has not been an abundance of either. A good first step would be for Australian governments to explicitly articulate a clear, contemporary rationale for our dual system of public funded schools. This rationale should define the goals of our present approach, how they can be balanced and how they should be measured. After all, if the goal of public funding of private schools is to increase choice then why do fees keep increasing far in excess of inflation? If the goal is to save taxpayers money, then why do many private schools receive more taxpayer funding than comparable public schools? If the goal is to lift all schools, why is that not happening? And why do we allow social segregation to widen the achievement gaps. Defining and measuring our goals is the first step to acknowledging that we are not achieving them. Once we have done that, we will be in a better position to move towards a system that is more fair, provides more genuine choice and enhances equity, effectiveness and achievement at the same time. Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor are co-authors of Choice and Fairness: A Common Framework for all Australian Schools published by Australian Learning Lecture, and Waiting for Gonski: How Australia failed its schools

Boarding schools have a devastating impact on society, says Charles Spencer

2024-03-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/17/boarding-schools-impact-charles-spencer

Brother of Diana reveals he was sexually abused as a child at Maidwell Hall and that a nanny would beat him and his sister Charles Spencer, the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, has said the brutalising effect of boarding schools on people who have come to power has been devastating for society. Spencer was speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme after the release of his memoir, A Very Private School, in which he revealed he was sexually assaulted as a child at the boarding school Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire. In an extract, the 59-year-old detailed the sexual assaults and beatings he experienced at Maidwell, saying they had left him with lifelong “demons”. He said he was abused by an assistant matron at the school when he was 11, leaving him with such trauma that he self-harmed over the notion that she might leave the school. Elsewhere in the book, Spencer suggested the impact of public school culture had made a difference to some of the people who lead the country. When asked about this, he told Kuenssberg: “When it goes really wrong, as it did in Maidwell in the 1970s, you’re going to come out very damaged, and I know I did. And I actually say in the book, you know, to survive that, a small but important part of me had to die. And I think that’s true, you know, there was a softness that had to be trampled on, because otherwise it would be too painful. “So if you extrapolate that and think of the damage it’s done to other people who have ended up in powerful positions – and I’m talking over the centuries, not just contemporaries – they have to have had their view of what’s acceptable behaviour, what other people mean in terms of empathy, they have to have been brutalised. “And I cannot think that all of the effects of these schools can have been good for society, or for the empire, or whatever we were in control of at the time. I think it’s been devastating in some ways.” In the wide-ranging interview, he revealed that his and Diana’s childhood nanny would “crack our heads together” if they misbehaved, with a “cracking crunch” that “really hurt”. He said it emphasised the “disconnect of parents”, but he did not criticise his mother and father, saying it had been “normal” to “leave it to the nanny to deal with”. He claimed that another nanny punished his two older sisters by “ladling laxatives down them”. In his memoir, Spencer described reliving his experiences at boarding school as “an absolutely hellish experience”, writing: “I’ve frequently witnessed deep pain, still flickering in the eyes of my Maidwell contemporaries.” On the matron, Spencer wrote: “There seemed to be an unofficial hierarchy among her prey … She chose one boy each term to share her bed and would use him for intercourse. “Her control over mesmerised boys was total, for we were starved of feminine warmth and desperate for attention and affection.” As a result of the experience, Spencer said, he lost his virginity to an Italian sex worker at the age of 12. “There was no joy in the act, no sense of arrival, no coming of age,” he wrote. “I believe now that I was simply completing the process set in motion by the assistant matron’s perverted attention.” He also said he was beaten with the spikes of a cricket boot by the school’s Latin master. In a statement, Maidwell Hall said it was “sorry” about the experiences Spencer and some others had had at the school. “It is difficult to read about practices which were, sadly, sometimes believed to be normal and acceptable at that time,” it said. “Within education today, almost every facet of school life has evolved significantly since the 1970s. At the heart of the changes is the safeguarding of children and promotion of their welfare.”

Labour promise of free breakfasts ‘first step on the road to rebuilding childcare’

2022-09-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/28/labour-promise-of-free-breakfasts-first-step-on-the-road-to-rebuilding-childcare

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson to announce plan to fund breakfast clubs in every primary school Labour will rebuild a new childcare system to ease the pressure on parents from the “end of parental leave right through to the end of primary school”, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said, starting with a pledge on free breakfast clubs. Phillipson will announce on Wednesday that fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England would be funded by the revenues raised by restoring the top rate of income tax to 45p, if Labour were elected. But in an interview with the Guardian, Phillipson said breakfast clubs were only “the first step in the road” in what would be an extensive childcare offer ahead of the next election, and that childcare would be one of the issues on the party’s pledge card. Phillipson said that there was a new understanding of how lack of investment in childcare was holding back growth, as well as how it would benefit child development and parents’ careers and wellbeing. “The cost of living crisis has particularly exposed the really difficult choices that parents are facing right now. It is usually women, sadly, who end up giving up work because the childcare that they need isn’t available, and that has to change.” Phillipson said the party’s offer by the time of the election would mean “thinking very differently about childcare … it’s a really important part of the support we give to families and how we grow the economy. This is the first step towards the modern childcare system we need to see.” Speaking after spending the morning with children at Holy Cross Primary school in the centre of Liverpool, Phillipson said breakfast clubs could be delivered “quickly and straightforwardly” but that parents were either having to pay to access them or they were subsidised by school budgets, which were shrinking. New data from Labour suggests at least 800,000 children do not have access to early morning provision – a fifth of schoolchildren in England – and those that do often face barriers because of costs or limits on numbers able to access the breakfast clubs. Phillipson said there were still huge gaps in provision for early years childcare, with parents only able to access very limited taxpayer support before children turn two. Phillipson said the cost of living crisis was exacerbating that problem. “We’ve seen in the last year a big drop in the number of women going back to work after having after having their first child,” she said. “That’s a personal tragedy for those women who desperately want to go back to work, but it means as an economy, we’re losing brilliant, talented people. And that comes at an economic cost too. “You can’t grow your economy unless you invest and have the right support in place around childcare.” Phillipson, who has been shadow education secretary since November last year, will face two key challenges over the coming months in her brief – a drive by Liz Truss to increase child to staff ratios in early years childcare and moves by Conservative backbenchers, tacitly backed by Number 10, to allow new grammar schools to open. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion She said Labour would oppose both of those measures, saying changing ratios “will drive down quality, will not lead to a reduction in costs for parents, and it’s not what parents want.” She said Labour’s childcare package over the coming year would include a workforce plan for the sector. “Those who work in our childcare settings are often not properly supported, don’t have access to professional development and are among the most poorly paid workers in our society,” she said. “But they’re doing the most important jobs in terms of giving our children the best possible start in life. “Teachers couldn’t do their job without the amazing school support staff that provide that and they’ll be a big part of making sure we can deliver those breakfast clubs in every school.” Over the coming year, Phillipson will focus on honing Labour’s plan for primary and secondary schools including a more rounded curriculum, which Phillipson has previously talked about when setting out the party’s post-Covid catchup strategy. “The curriculum in particular has become far too narrow. We’ve seen music and sport and drama just completely squeezed out. And it means that particularly for those children whose parents can’t afford additional clubs and activities, they don’t have access to those enriching activities that are part of what makes childhood a wonderful time for children, but it’s also absolutely vital in terms of children’s development.”

Almost 600 schools in England undergoing urgent structural checks

2023-06-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/28/almost-600-schools-in-england-undergoing-urgent-structural-checks

Many more unaware of danger of collapse posed by crumbling concrete, report finds Specialists are carrying out urgent checks on almost 600 schools in England identified as being at possible risk of structural collapse because of crumbling concrete, with many more not aware of the danger of their buildings, a new report finds. The Department for Education (DfE) has identified 572 schools so far where it believes reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a building material that deteriorates over time and is susceptible to sudden failure, may have been used during construction. RAAC has been confirmed in 65 schools after 196 surveys, of which 24 required emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO). The danger has been considered so great that a number of schools have had to close, either fully or partly, while others have required emergency propping up owing to fears of collapse. The total number of school buildings at risk is expected to increase significantly, as the DfE does not yet have a full picture of the prevalence and condition of RAAC in schools. The dangers have, however, been apparent since a sudden roof collapse at a primary school in Gravesend, Kent, in 2018. Earlier this month it was reported in Schools Week that the DfE had told four schools, in Essex and the north-east, to close after RAAC was found in their ceilings, with pupils being taught remotely or on alternative sites. The schools were named as Mistley Norman Church of England primary school and Hockley primary school, both in Essex, and two schools in the north-east run by the Bishop Bewick Catholic education trust. RAAC, which is a lightweight form of concrete used in the construction of schools and other public buildings between the 1950s and mid-1990s, is seen as the greatest risk to safety across the ageing school estate in England. The DfE has assessed the possibility of a building collapse or failure causing death or injury as a “critical and very likely” risk since 2021. According to the NAO, it has not yet been able to reduce that risk. More than a third (38%) of school buildings (24,000) are past their estimated design lifespan, according to the NAO, which reports that 700,000 children are being taught in schools that require major rebuilding or refurbishment programmes, where poor conditions are directly affecting pupil attainment and teacher retention. Stephen Morgan, the shadow schools minister, said: “Labour has repeatedly raised the risk to life that school buildings pose to children and staff but have been met with a wall of silence from the Conservative government. “Children won’t receive a first-class education in second rate buildings. It’s time for ministers to come clean and tell parents what they know about the state of school buildings and reassure them that children are being educated in buildings that are safe.” The DfE is focusing on 14,900 schools built during the period when the use of RAAC was widespread in construction. Of these, 42% have confirmed they have undertaken work to identify RAAC, but potential risks are yet to be identified in the remaining schools. “The DfE is working with the bodies responsible for all schools with RAAC to confirm that mitigations are in place to ensure pupil and staff safety,” the report says. “It has allocated £6m to undertake 600 assessments by December 2023.” The report does not list the schools known to be affected by RAAC, but where there is a known problem headteachers will be aware, and that is likely to have been passed on to parents, especially if a school has closed as a result. There are also concerns about 13,800 “system-built” blocks in schools – almost all containing asbestos – of which about 3,600 are thought to be susceptible to deterioration. The department has approved plans to assess 200 of these blocks but has yet to appoint specialists to carry out inspections. Unison’s head of education, Mike Short, said: “Staff and pupils are spending the school day in buildings that could be on the verge of collapse. The government needs to get a grip before someone is injured or worse.” Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said: “Parents have a right to know that their child is safe at school. Yet this report shows that hundreds of thousands of children are learning in crumbling school buildings. To make matters worse, the government is flying blind without a clue about how many schools pose a danger to our children.” Natalie Perera, chief executive at the Education Policy Institute, described the findings as alarming. “Continued under-investment in school buildings and under-resourcing of urgent maintenance issues has led to possibly the highest risk the department has ever carried. Despite knowing about the risk of RAAC since 2018, still only a third of schools that are potentially affected by it have been investigated. “It is inconceivable that the department is tolerating a risk that could ‘very likely’ cause death or serious injury to children and teachers.” The DfE said the government was investing in 500 projects for new and refurbished school buildings and had allocated more than £15bn since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational. “It is the responsibility of those who run our schools – academy trusts, local authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who speak to their schools’ day to day to manage the maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building. We will always provide support on a case by case basis if we are alerted to a serious safety issue by these responsible bodies.” Ministers have launched a UK government-wide inquiry into the use of crumbling concrete in public buildings, and every Whitehall department has been ordered to assign a civil servant to identify the use of RAAC across the £158bn government estate.

US veterans defrauded by for-profit universities fight to restore benefits

2023-05-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/26/us-veterans-education-gi-bill-fraud

Private colleges have preyed on veterans for years – but they finally have recourse thanks to two legislative efforts in Congress When Antonio Luna enrolled in DeVry University, he thought it would launch him into a career in technology. Luna, then just leaving the marines, could use his military benefits to pay for a bachelor’s degree. DeVry touted eye-popping job placement numbers, and because college staff had previously been invited on to his base in North Carolina to speak with students, Luna thought they could be trusted. But after graduating in 2018, Luna couldn’t find employment in his field. It wasn’t just him. The Department of Education has concluded last year that the job placement statistics DeVry provided were highly misleading and canceled the federal loans of students like Luna who enrolled there. But Luna didn’t use federal loans to pay for his education, he used federal GI Bill benefits that he earned through his military service. And though he was misled by DeVry, he can’t get those benefits restored. “I thought that since they came to our base, they’re not going to defraud us,” he said. “It felt like I wasted four years in school for nothing.” Education benefits are one of the major reasons that young people enlist in the US military. Veterans are entitled to essentially four years of tuition and fees paid for by the government. But when colleges target and prey on veterans, the students have little recourse. Now, two legislative efforts in Congress, one in each chamber, are aiming to change that, restoring GI Bill benefits to veterans who were victims of fraud. “It will provide a way for myself to get some closure after being defrauded,” Luna said. The office of Representative Delia Ramirez, who is sponsoring the House effort, believes at least 60,000 former students could stand to benefit. Other legislative efforts have tried to achieve similar measures, but left gaps in eligibility. “We still haven’t addressed the longstanding problem,” Ramirez said in an interview. “This bill to me really does a job at addressing predatory for-profit schools and creating parity for veteran students.” The origin of the problem lies in jurisdiction. Although the Department of Education may find a college has tricked students, it has no say over GI Bill benefits, which are administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA has no legal authority to restore benefits or to claw money back from bad actor colleges. “When the Department of Ed finds out there was wrongdoing, that actually has no bearing on whether the students who are veterans are going to get their money back, because they’re using GI Bill dollars,” said Will Hubbard, vice-president for veterans and military policy at Veterans Education Success, a non-profit organization. “Veterans shouldn’t be left out.” Other efforts at restoration have been too strict, said Patrick Murray, legislative director at Veterans of Foreign Wars. “This is hopefully finally closing the loop to make sure that we cover everybody that we can,” Murray said. “We’ve slowly chipped away at it. We believe this will hopefully be the last time that we can finally make veterans whole.” Though colleges in all sectors have sought to enroll veterans, for-profit colleges like DeVry for many years faced specific regulations that incentivized veteran recruitment. These colleges must receive 10% of their revenue from sources outside the Department of Education’s loans and grants. Until recently, GI Bill funds could help a college meet that target. Brian Whitehead attended another for-profit college, ITT Technical Institute. Whitehead, who has campaigned in support of the legislative efforts, left the army in 2005. The support he would receive when getting an education was the main reason he enlisted. “You’re always told that you need a bachelor’s degree or some kind of degree to really advance. I wanted to learn more,” Whitehead said. “My goal was always to go to college. The military became an avenue to get to my goal.” He used his benefits to pay for an associate degree program at ITT Tech, but found the education alarmingly substandard. He never used his degree to get a job and other colleges wouldn’t transfer his credits. Though his federal loans were canceled, he’s lost his military benefits for good. “I’ve gotten the money taken off of my federal loans, but I still don’t have the opportunity to advance myself education-wise,” Whitehead said. ITT closed in 2016 after several federal sanctions. If the benefits are restored, it’s unclear how many eligible veterans will end up taking advantage of the new law. In 2018, after benefits were restored to veterans whose colleges closed, the Military Times reported that only 20% of eligible applicants had applied for restoration after nine months. “We have to make sure that the organizations that veterans trust, a lot of these [veterans service organizations], and other groups that they already work – direct social service agencies in their communities, their churches and their partners – that they are partnering with the VA to provide the information necessary and even help them and assist them in filing their claim,” Ramirez said. For Whitehead, restoration is a government responsibility. “We’re trusting that the schools that are agreed upon for you to go to are going to do the right thing by us. When they don’t, there should be a restoration process,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to show veterans they still care about the things that happen to us.”

Industrial Revolution began in 17th not 18th century, say academics

2024-04-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/05/industrial-revolution-began-in-17th-not-18th-century-say-academics

Researchers find shift from agriculture to manufacturing first gained pace under Stuart monarchs The Industrial Revolution started more than 100 years earlier than previously thought, new research suggests, with Britons already shifting from agricultural work to manufacturing in the 1600s. Seventeenth century Britain can be understood as the start of the Industrial Revolution, laying down the foundations for a shift from an agricultural and crafts-based society to a manufacturing-dominated economy, in which networks of home-based artisans worked with merchants, functioning similarly to factories. The period saw a steep decline in agricultural peasantry and a surge in people who manufactured goods, such as local artisans like blacksmiths, shoemakers and wheelwrights, alongside a burgeoning network of home-based weavers producing cloth for wholesale, according to University of Cambridge research. Textbooks typically mark the Industrial Revolution as beginning around 1760, when mills and steam engines proliferated and technologies such as the spinning jenny were created, yet according to the most detailed occupational history of a nation ever created – built from more than 160m records and spanning over three centuries – the UK was emerging as the world’s first industrial powerhouse during the reign of the Stuarts. The University of Cambridge’s Economies Past website uses census data, parish registers, probate records and more to track changes to the British labour force from the Elizabethan era to the eve of the first world war. Prof Leigh Shaw-Taylor, the economic historian who led the project, said: “A hundred years has been spent studying the Industrial Revolution based on a misconception of what it entailed. “By cataloguing and mapping centuries of employment data, we can see that the story we tell ourselves about the history of Britain needs to be rewritten. “We have discovered a shift towards employment in the making of goods that suggests Britain was already industrialising over a century before the Industrial Revolution.” In fact, by the early 1800s, when William Blake was writing of “dark satanic mills”, many parts of Britain were even deindustrialising as manufacturing declined in favour of coal mining, the researchers discovered. In the 19th century the service sector almost doubled in size – a boom often thought to have begun closer to the 1950s – which spurred growth that has continued for nearly 300 years. These included sales clerks, domestic staff, professionals such as lawyers and teachers, as well as a huge increase in transport workers on the canals and railways. “The question of why the industrial age dawned in Britain is a much-debated one, with coal, technology and empire all major factors,” said Shaw-Taylor. “Our database shows that a groundswell of enterprise and productivity transformed the economy in the 17th century, laying the foundations for the world’s first industrial economy. Britain was already a nation of makers by the year 1700.” The website sheds light on changes in the workforce. It observes that as much of Europe languished in subsistence farming, male agricultural workers in Britain fell by over a third (64% to 42%) from 1600 to 1740. At the same time, from 1600 to 1700, the share of the male labour force involved in goods production rose by 50% to reach 42% of all men. This means that the share of the British labour force working in manufacturing rather than agriculture was three times that of France by 1700, Shaw-Taylor calculated. “The English economy of the time was more liberal, with fewer tariffs and restrictions, unlike on the continent,” he noted. Adding pre-19th century data for female workers is a major next step for the project, though the researchers estimate that labour force participation for adult women was between 60% and 80% in 1760, and went back down to 43% by 1851, only returning to mid-18th century levels in the 1980s. The website also allows users to track rates of child labour after 1851. For example, the booming textile mills of Bradford saw huge numbers of young girls put to work, with over 70% of girls aged 13 and 14 working in 1851. Sixty years later, this figure was still over 60%. Over 40% of girls in Bradford aged 11-12 were also working in 1851, but this had fallen to nearer 10% by 1911, by which time education had been made compulsory for young children.

Jamie Oliver calls for free school meals to be extended across England

2023-09-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/jamie-oliver-calls-for-free-school-meals-to-be-extended-across-england

Chef’s comments come as state-funded primary schools in London roll them out to all pupils Jamie Oliver has called for free school meals to be extended across England after their universal rollout in London state-funded primary schools for the new academic year. The celebrity chef and longstanding child nutrition campaigner insisted it was “time to prioritise our children’s health” and for it to be “put above politics”. His comments came as state-funded primary schools prepared to rollout free school meals for all pupils for the 2023/24 academic year. A survey suggested that the majority of both Conservative and Labour voters are in favour of extending free school meals to more children in England. Only some children nationwide currently qualify for free school meals, including those whose parents are on universal credit or whose household income is less than £7,400 a year. Research for the School Food Review group, a coalition of 30 organisations including charities, educational bodies, unions and academics, found that 82% of prospective Labour voters and 53% of prospective Conservative voters were in favour of extending free school meals immediately to all children from families receiving universal credit, followed by a future expansion to all pupils. The survey of 3,011 members of the public across England at the end of June and beginning of July found that 71% of all respondents believe the current income threshold is inadequate or should not exist at all. Oliver is one of the backers of the Feed the Future campaign, which is calling for a cross-party commitment to expand eligibility for free school meals to all children in England. It is backed by a coalition of organisations including the National Education Union and Save the Children. Oliver said: “We know that nourishing young minds with nutritious food is an investment in their future, boosts our economy and our health. Sadiq Khan has recognised this by giving all primary school children a free school meal and now we need politicians across all parties to put child health above politics and act now.” The polling suggested that 65% of prospective Labour voters would be more likely to vote for the party if it committed to extending free school meals, while 23% of 2019 Conservative voters and 18% of those who intend to vote Conservative said they would consider switching to Labour as a result. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion A government spokesperson said: “Over a third of pupils in England now receive free school meals in education settings, compared with one in six in 2010 and we have extended eligibility several times to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. “This includes introducing new eligibility criteria for families receiving universal credit, to ensure even more children were eligible for a free school meal.”

Children referred to social care twice as likely to fail GCSE maths and English

2023-08-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/22/children-referred-to-social-care-twice-as-likely-to-fail-gcse-maths-and-english

Research found 53% of teenagers in England who had been referred to services did not achieve a pass in both subjects Children in England who are referred to social services at any point in their childhood are twice as likely to fail GCSE maths and English, according to new research published ahead of results day on Thursday. Analysts looked at 1.6m pupils’ exam results over a three-year period and found that 53% of teenagers who had been referred to social care – as detailed in the Children in Need census – did not achieve a grade 4 pass in both English and maths GCSE. In contrast, 24% who were not the subject of a referral failed to achieve a level 4 in both key subjects, according to researchers who called on ministers to tackle what they described as a “worrying attainment gap”. The analysis by the children’s charity Action for Children, with data consultants FFT Education DataLab, looked for the first time at GCSE outcomes for all children with a referral, rather than just those who were supported by the social care system. About 318,000 children a year are referred to social care in England, often because their family is struggling to cope, or because of neglect, abuse or risk of harm. Many will not end up receiving support because, for example, they don’t meet the threshold, yet their GCSE attainment still suffers. Joe Lane, head of policy and research at Action for Children, said: “Our analysis shows that poor English and maths GCSE results fall hugely unequally on those who experience challenges outside the school gates. “It highlights a worrying attainment gap that needs urgently addressing. Some of the children could have been referred to social care years before they took GCSEs, yet that disruption in their childhood has had a lasting impact on their education.” He went on: “All political parties talk about wanting to address poor attainment. To do that though, they need policies that tackle the root causes of challenges young people face outside school.” A government spokesperson said: “At the heart of the government’s agenda is an ambition to improve outcomes for all children and young people. We are investing £16.6m per year for the next two years for virtual school heads to provide dedicated educational support to children with a social worker. “We have also raised benefits, including universal credit by 10.1%, increased the national living wage and are helping millions with a £3.5bn package to break down barriers to work, including the largest ever expansion of free childcare.”

Worries over confidence and periods hitting UK girls’ enjoyment of PE

2023-10-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/11/worries-confidence-periods-hitting-uk-girls-enjoyment-pe

Survey finds less than two-thirds say they enjoy PE in schools, down from 74% in 2016 Girls’ enjoyment of physical education in school has declined over the past six years, with a lack of confidence, concern about periods and anxiety about their appearance holding them back, according to research. Less than two-thirds of girls and young women (64%) who took part in a survey this year by the UK charity the Youth Sport Trust (YST), said they enjoyed PE, down from 74% when the poll began in 2016. Enthusiasm decreased as girls got older and was lowest among secondary school girls, where just 59% said they enjoyed PE, resulting in a growing gender “enjoyment gap”, with boys’ enthusiasm remaining high at 86%. The Olympic pole vault bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw, who has experienced the barriers described by young women in the survey, said she was not surprised by the results and called on teachers and others working with girls and young women in sport to listen to their concerns and allow for flexible solutions. Bradshaw, who has worked with YST’s girls active programme, said: “It’s not surprising but it is disappointing to see that so many girls still lack confidence to really enjoy PE and physical activity at school. “I can really empathise with their worries about being watched and judged by others. I too have struggled with body confidence issues whilst competing for Team GB, particularly after facing online abuse in relation to my body shape.” Bradshaw has campaigned for more choice around kit for girls, “so that they can wear something which feels most comfortable to them, allowing them to focus on the activity, and not what their body looks like. The priority has to be supporting more girls to be active in a way that works for them.” Almost 25,000 pupils, made up of more than 18,000 girls and 6,000 boys aged between seven and 18 took part in this year’s survey, and although 64% of the females who participated said they would like to be more active in school, they are held back by familiar barriers. They would like to be trampolining, swimming or playing netball – the top three choices for girls – but are put off because they do not feel confident, they may have their period, they do not like being watched by others and are concerned about how they look, the survey found. Ali Oliver, the YST chief executive, said more must be done to address the barriers holding girls back. “Not only should this research raise alarm bells about future adult activity levels and the consequences of this, but it is devastating for the physical and mental health of young women today. “At a time of unprecedented low levels of social and emotional wellbeing, we know getting things right for girls in PE can be life changing.” In March, the government said schools should deliver at least two hours of PE each week and pledged £600m over the next two academic years to help improve the quality of PE and sports in schools for girls and boys. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Despite the progress made in championing women’s sport – through things like the success of the England women’s football team – there are clearly deeply ingrained societal barriers around issues such as body confidence which deter girls and women. “We have to redouble our efforts to overcome these challenges and ensure that girls are able to enjoy and benefit from the vital part that PE plays in health and wellbeing.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Building on an inspirational summer of British sport, including the success of the Lionesses in this year’s Women’s World Cup, we want to ensure all children have the opportunities to follow in their sporting heroes’ footsteps.”

‘An absolute nightmare’: teachers and parents shocked by concrete closures in England’s schools

2023-09-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/01/aerated-concrete-england-schools-buildings-parents-teachers

From Essex to Cumbria, many are dismayed by timing of the government’s action on aerated concrete in buildings On Thursday, the emails that have left headteachers reeling started to arrive. A ruling from ministers in the Department for Education said their schools, built using potentially dangerous concrete, would need to close or partially close. Within hours, parents and children had been informed. Many were left angry and confused by the timing of the announcement, just before the start of a new school year. Schools across England were left with days to improvise temporary classrooms from marquees or empty office buildings, or arrange to share space with unaffected schools. The majority of schools will open as usual but for tens of thousands of pupils the new academic year will start like no other. By the end of Friday, the list of affected schools ranged from Hampshire to Cumbria, with many others still waiting to discover if they also need urgent repairs. “It’s been extremely stressful,” one teacher at an affected school told the Guardian. “An absolute nightmare.” Kingsdown school in Southend-on-Sea, a special educational needs (SEN) establishment that educates children with complex needs including cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, and autistic children, was told on Thursday to close its main building, leaving staff to urgently phone parents. Lydia Hyde, a Labour and Co-operative party local councillor, said the families of pupils at Kingsdown had been thrown into chaos. “It’s difficult enough to get babysitting arrangements, but for children with additional needs it’s virtually impossible. We’re going to see parents not being able to go to work, siblings where parents would have taken them to school might not be able to, she said. “There is specialist and bespoke equipment, specifically designed for a child’s needs, which at present cannot be retrieved because we are not allowed into the building.” Hyde said the timing of the decision was baffling, not least because DfE inspectors were aware of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at the school in the spring. “There will be big questions asked about how this was allowed to happen, why the families have been thrown into such chaos. When you have a school with pupils dealing with such complex needs, surely, once you know there is Raac, the government should have a contingency plan in place? This has come as a huge shock to parents and teachers. The question is: why on earth wasn’t there a plan?” Southend-on-Sea council said it had been working with the school and DfE to discuss and develop contingency plans. Louise Robinson, the headteacher of Kingsdown school, said: “Instead of preparing to welcome our students back to class, we’re having to call parents to have very difficult conversations about the fact the school is closed next week. We’re hoping that a solution can be found that allows us to open the school, at least partially, but that entirely relies on ensuring the safety of our pupils and staff, and approval by DfE.” Across Essex, where at least 65 of the Raac-identified schools can be found, parents are scrambling to find out if their children will be able to go to class next week. Parents at St Andrew’s junior school in Hatfield Peverel, Essex, have been left reeling by the decision on Thursday to close the school because of an unsafe roof. One father of a child at the school said: “The school has not made any alternative provisions to use any other building in the area, although we do not blame the school for this situation. “They have ordered some temporary classrooms which may arrive by mid-September. We are hearing that our children will have to use remote learning again, which is heartbreaking for children still getting over the Covid lockdown.” Another parent of a child at the same school said: “We want answers from the government – why leave it so late before telling everyone that the schools had to be closed?” The government has refused to reveal the 104 education facilities that have been told to shut buildings, and critics have said the problems with Raac could be far wider. The frustration of parents and teachers has prompted senior Conservatives to demand clarity and answers. Priti Patel, the former home secretary, whose constituency of Witham includes St Andrew’s and four other schools affected by Raac, said: “Ministers need to explain why the decision to close schools was not taken sooner so schools and parents could plan and why provision had not been made sooner, which would have prevented the disruption to learning and teaching which we are now about to see. “The government must act quickly and effectively to address this problem, make our school buildings safe and respond to the questions and concerns that have been raised.” Another Essex MP, who asked not to be named, said: “School closures are a real vote loser not least because it forces parents to take time off work. This particular crisis adds to the idea of a government which is in freefall. I think Rishi Sunak will be aware of that, and will have to get a grip, and quickly.” Three hundred miles north of Southend, parents of pupils at Cockermouth school in Cumbria have been told that the start of term will be delayed by a day to deal with the Raac issues. In correspondence shared with the Guardian by Cumberland council, the headteacher and chair of trustees at the school said four corridors, the library and the sports hall – where alumnus Ben Stokes, the England cricketer, took lessons – would be off-limits. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion A Cumberland council spokesperson said: “We are aware of one school which has been identified as having some elements of its structure made by Raac. Cumberland council are working with the school and the Department for Education to provide support where necessary. The school are in contact with parents directly.” Kenneth Hope’s 11-year-old daughter was due to begin secondary at Ferryhill school in County Durham, on Tuesday – until the family received an email informing them that the school would not be open until 11 September. Hope, who has six children, said the short notice had put his family in a difficult position. “My daughter just wants to get there, she’s been a bit apprehensive about starting secondary school,” he told the BBC. Bradford council has had to restrict access to parts of two its local authority-maintained primary schools where Raac has been identified: Crossflatts primary school and Eldwick primary school. Only qualified concrete specialists will be able to access these areas to assess and carry out the required remedial works. At least eight teaching spaces across both sites have been lost, alongside other staffing facilities across both sites and the loss of the kitchen at Crossflatts. Education provision will continue at the schools in the short term with alterations to the safe areas so that all children can be accommodated on the school sites. A longer-term plan is in place to provide temporary classrooms on both school sites, the authority said. The temporary classrooms have been ordered and, after relevant ground works on both sites, should arrive within the next 8-10 weeks at Crossflatts and 14-16 weeks at Eldwick. In Leicester, three schools were told they had buildings affected by Raac and that those buildings needed to be taken out of use: Parks primary, Mayflower primary and Willowbrook Mead primary. In the case of Parks and Mayflower, which are both local authority-maintained schools, the notification came before the summer holidays and alternative accommodation was found to ensure in-person teaching could continue as quickly as possible. But on Thursday the DfE also identified Willowbrook Mead, an academy-run school, as having buildings which needed to be taken out of use. Some schools made decisions to close or partially close before the mass contact from the DfE. On 18 August, Corpus Christi Catholic school in Brixton, south London, said it would temporarily relocate 200 students at the start of the new school year while remedial work is carried out on the roof where the offending concrete was discovered. Ben Kind, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for children and families, said: “Like parents, schools and councils across England we are concerned about the way information on this has been shared. The absence of a published list of affected schools and the slow release of information from the Department for Education simply fuels public concern and causes further speculation about what is actually going on.” Nick Gibb, tThe schools minister Nick Gibb has attempted to respond to concerns over the timing of the announcement. On Friday he insisted he had done so “as soon as the evidence emerged”, saying experts’ advice about the risks of Raac had changed over the summer. “It’s in 156 schools. There may be more after that as these questionnaires continue to be surveyed and we continue to do more surveying work,” he told GB News.

Harvard board backs president amid calls for removal over antisemitism testimony

2023-12-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/12/harvard-board-backs-president-antisemitism-row

Claudine Gay and presidents of UPenn and MIT faced backlash over responses on campus policy at congressional hearing The Harvard Corporation, the highest governing body at the university, has backed the university’s president, Claudine Gay, to remain in post after calls for her removal following controversial testimony over antisemitism on campus. Gay and the presidents of University of Pennsylvania and MIT faced backlash for their remarks at a congressional hearing into antisemitism on college campuses. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik demanded a “yes” or “no” response to her question of whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their university’s code of conduct. The presidents’ various responses were criticized for not being unequivocal enough in their condemnation of calls for genocide. More than 70 lawmakers called for the three presidents to be removed following the hearing, with Harvard donors and some faculty echoing calls for Gay’s removal. The Harvard Corporation: “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay.” https://t.co/stSvH4t1BP The House committee on education and the workforce has announced an official congressional investigation into antisemitism at Harvard. Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned following the backlash, though she had been facing criticism before the hearing. Gay issued an apology for her response during the congressional testimony in an interview with the Harvard Crimson. More than 700 faculty members signed a petition backing Gay in response to the calls for her removal. The Harvard Alumni Association’s executive committee also announced its support for her. On 12 December, the Harvard Corporation issued a statement of support for Gay’s presidency. “As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the Harvard Corporation said in a statement. “In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay. At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated. Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work.”

GCSE results expected to confirm widening of north-south attainment gap

2022-08-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/24/gcse-results-expected-to-confirm-widening-of-north-south-attainment-gap-tory-leadership-education

Tory leadership candidates called on to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in education This year’s GCSE results for England and Wales are expected to confirm a widening north-south education gap, prompting a prediction that the government will miss one of its key levelling-up targets if it continues to hold back pupils in the north of England. A coalition of school leaders, charities and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership has written to the Conservative leadership candidates urging them to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in education. They predicted Thursday’s results would show 24.4% of pupils in the north-east of England achieving GSCE grade seven or above, compared with 37.8% in London. The forecast followed “stark” regional disparities that were exposed in A-level results last week, with the top grades falling faster in the north-east compared with the south-east. The joint letter told Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss that the government’s levelling up target of increasing exam standards in the worst performing areas by a third by 2030 would not happen unless “place-based challenges, such as health and housing” were also addressed at the same time. The letter by the Northern Powerhouse, Schools North East and the education charity Shine, said: “Regional disparities in attainment are getting worse, not better.” It added that the disproportionate effects of the coronavirus pandemic had worsened existing regional disadvantages, and that failures in implementation of the national tutoring programme, which is aimed at making up for lost learning during the pandemic, had only exacerbated the problem. Only 58.8% of target schools in the north-east benefited from the programme compared with 96.1% of those targeted in the south-east and 100% in the south-west, the letter said. Labour accused the government of failing children in deprived areas. The shadow schools minister, Stephen Morgan, said: “Young people receiving results have worked incredibly hard, but 12 years of Conservative governments has left a legacy of unequal outcomes that are holding back kids and holding back communities.” Labour said that last year in Knowsley, a deprived area of Liverpool, fewer than 40% of pupils achieved a GCSE pass in English and maths, compared with more than 70% of pupils in affluent areas such as Trafford in Greater Manchester, Kingston upon Thames in south-west London, and Buckinghamshire. Henri Murison, the chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and co-signatory of the letter, said despite the government’s rhetoric about levelling up, its record in office had only increased regional differences. “The government was doing more on educational disparities in the poorest areas before levelling up was invented than they are now,” he said. “The mismanagement of the national tutoring programme and issues with the laptop scheme, have created an inbuilt problem across all year groups. That means we will get even worse outcomes in the north of England than we’ve been getting for the last 10 years.” Murison accused the Department for Education (DfE) of “deliberately levelling down … by abolishing opportunity areas and replacing them with central budgets with no local control and no guaranteed funding. This is a scandal for individual children and for families in those deprived neighbourhoods.” He said: “The reason A-levels, and we expect GCSEs, have been so disappointing across the north of England, is because the most disadvantaged kids in society have been failed by this government. Someone needs to be held accountable for that. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “The incoming chancellor, should simply bypass the DfE entirely when it comes to this problem and spend the money directly in local places. “Before the pandemic there was already a big gap in grade 7 and above between London and the north-east, Yorkshire, and the north-west. We are predicting that that will increase significantly in Thursday’s results.” The quality of teaching in the north was not the problem, Murison added. “In the north-east of England, 10% of kids in schools are on free school meals the whole time they are in secondary school. In outer London it’s only about 2%. If the schools in London had to teach the kids in the north-east, they would get very different results.” The DfE said: “We have set out a range of measures to help level up education across England, including targeted support both for individual pupils who fall behind and whole areas of the country where standards are weakest. This is alongside £5bn to help young people to recover from the impact of the pandemic, including £1.5bn for tutoring programmes. “Pupil Premium funding is also increasing to more than £2.6bn in 2022-23, whilst an additional £1bn is allowing us to extend the recovery premium for the next two academic years – funding which schools can use to offer targeted academic and emotional support to disadvantaged pupils.”

Pens away, laptops open – pupils told to type, not write, GCSE exam answers

2023-10-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/17/pens-away-laptops-open-pupils-told-to-type-not-write-gcse-exam-answers

Examining board AQA says parts of Italian and Polish courses will be assessed digitally in 2026 It’s a scene that can still have the power to terrify, even years after the event. Rows of hunched backs, bent over exam papers, with barely a sound other than the chewing of pens or frantic scribbling on scores of sheets of paper. The way many students sit exams could look very different in future, however, after an announcement from England’s biggest exam board that it will begin testing GCSE students on laptops for some courses beginning next year. Parts of the GCSE Italian and Polish courses will be assessed digitally in 2026, AQA announced on Tuesday, with other subjects – potentially including English – likely to be included by 2030. “Technology and change are two constants in education,” the exam board said. “Moving to digital exams is the next step of this evolution.” The pupils will still be supervised in an exam room, AQA said, adding: “Students’ devices will be offline in the exam hall; they will not be able to search for information on the internet, nor will they be able to access artificial intelligence tools.” Headteachers have welcomed the move, and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said it was “very encouraging” that new ways of assessing ability were being explored beyond the “outdated” reliance on pen-and-paper testing at the end of a course. But what about old-fashioned penmanship? Does a move to test pupils on laptops mean a step towards the demise of handwriting? And if so, does it matter? Adults may use handwriting less than they used to, but ensuring children learn properly to write by hand remains extremely important, said Mellissa Prunty, a reader in occupational therapy at Brunel University London, who also chairs the National Handwriting Association, a charity that promotes handwriting and keyboard skills. “We know that there is a deeper level of processing for reading and spelling at age four, five and six [when they are writing by hand],” said Prunty. “When kids are learning how to read and how to write, they match the sound of the letter to how a letter looks, and then the movements that are required in writing that letter. When you have to write by hand, you have a deeper level of encoding.” Research shows that what is key to fluency in writing – via keyboard or pen – is the speed at which you are able to do it, said Prunty. “Whether you handwrite or you type, you have to be speedy, you have to be practiced. It’s not something that you can just roll out and think it’s an inclusive measure. You have to be teaching it, and kids have to be practising it.” “There’s a lot of research to show that, when we read on screen, all of us, we skim and scan more. So it’s probably harder to do deeper reading comprehension on screen,” said Daisy Christodoulou, director of education at an organisation called No More Marking, which uses comparative assessment to benchmark students’ work. Christodoulou, a former English teacher, said both handwritten and digital assessment have pluses and minuses – but, importantly, they cannot be treated as if they were the same, and certainly cannot be marked against each other. When you change the medium, she said, “it’s like a different exam”. “My personal take would be I can see the benefits [of digital assessment] for some subjects, but I would always want to see there to be some kind of handwritten element,” said Christodoulou, “because you think in a different way when you read on paper or write with a pen. I think those modes of thought are valuable.” Colin Hughes, AQA’s CEO, told the Times a handwritten element would be retained in all subjects: “I do not see us in any sort of foreseeable future throwing out the notion of asking people to pick up a pen or pencil.” “Writing is a massively important skill that children need to be able to communicate with confidence,” said Lee Dein, a former speech therapist and dyslexia teacher whose company Magic Link offers handwriting courses to children and adults. “There are a lot of adults whose writing is so bad, they will do anything to avoid writing … but you can’t just get on to a keyboard and never write again, because it will always be needed.”

180 pupils a day in England given special needs support plan

2023-06-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/21/england-pupils-special-needs-support-plan-local-authority-deficits

Local authority deficits reach ‘unmanageable levels’ as half a million pupils get support The number of pupils in England issued with a special needs support plan has more than doubled in the last eight years to 180 a day, driving up deficits in local authority budgets to “unmanageable levels”, according to analysis. A record half a million pupils have an education, health and care plan (EHCP), a legal document setting out a child or young person’s special educational needs, the support they need, and the outcomes they would like to achieve. Councils say government changes unveiled earlier this year to address the growing crisis in the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system will do nothing to “stem the tide of demand” that is busting their budgets. Lawyers, meanwhile, say too many children are still not receiving the specialist support to which they are entitled. With thousands of young people approaching councils for specialist support, the number of pupils on EHCPs in England stands at 517,026 – more than double the total in 2015 (240,183), according to analysis by the County Councils Network (CCN), which represents 20 county councils and 17 unitary councils. Last year, 66,356 children and young people started new EHCP plans – the largest ever number – according to the CCN, which equates to an average of 182 children each day. The child’s school is required to pay the first £6,000 in support, with the local authority financing the rest, which can be extremely costly. Last year the deficit accrued in local authority Send budgets stood at £2.4bn, with councils in county areas accounting for half of this. Left unchecked, the national deficit for all 152 councils in England is expected to rise to £3.6bn, the CCN says. The government’s long-awaited Send improvement plan, published in March, sets out new national standards to clarify the support available to children and their families and promises thousands more specialist school places. Ministers are also working with individual councils as part of its “safety valve” programme, providing funding to reduce deficits while implementing Send changes locally. Council leaders say, however, the proposals still do not address core demand and cost issues within the system Cllr Liz Brighouse, CCN spokesperson for Send, said: “Despite the government’s reforms package for Send services outlining some important changes which are beginning to be implemented, demand has continued to rise sharply, with councils under extreme pressure to ensure every child gets the support they need, with 182 EHCPs starting each day on average in last year compared with less than half that number in 2015. “We remain concerned that these reforms will not stem the tide of demand that local authorities are facing, and whilst the legislative changes in 2014 were right in that they expanded eligibility and raised parental expectations, councils have increasingly been left to pick up the bill, which has increased their deficits to unmanageable levels. “Action is needed urgently to address this, and we are calling on government to fully fund these reforms and ensure that councils do not continue to accrue significant deficits that would be impossible to pay down without insolvency.” Catriona Moore, policy manager at Send legal advice charity Ipsea, said too many pupils with Send did not receive the support they needed and to which they were entitled. “It’s problematic to talk about ‘demand’ for special educational provision and support for children who need it,” she said. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “The law is clear that children and young people with Send have the right to receive support that meets their needs and enables them to receive an education. The issue isn’t that too many children and young people with Send are receiving costly provision that they don’t need, but that too many aren’t receiving the support they do need. “The government’s Send improvement plan promises transformation but is not transformative. The key to resolving the Send crisis lies in making sure that local authorities fulfil their statutory duties to children and young people, and that schools and colleges become genuinely inclusive.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision improvement plan, published earlier this year, committed to a wide range of actions to make sure education, health and care plans are available in a timely way for those who need them. “We’re creating bespoke plans with almost half of all local authorities to improve their Send services, building new special schools where they are needed, cutting bureaucracy in the education, health and care plan process, and improving mediation for when families disagree with a local authority decision.”

‘She wants to go to school’: parents of unwell child fear truancy prosecution

2024-04-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/15/parents-unwell-child-fear-truancy-prosecution

The Beaks are among the families in England and Wales who have faced fines over health-related school absences Chloe Beak lives with chronic, debilitating migraines that leave her unable to attend school for days at a time. But instead of receiving support from her school, her parents have been fined by the local authority for her truancy. The family’s current fix is to send their daughter in with a migraine until she gets sent home, meaning her absences are registered as authorised. If they do not, the school will consider her a truant as it believes she has emotionally based school avoidance. The Beaks are anticipating a further fine and worry they will have to take the matter to court to avoid risking a criminal record. Her mother, Kerry Beak, said: “Me and my husband were so stressed out we just thought it would be easier to pay it. But £120 is a lot of money. We’ve been down every avenue with the school, but they’ve not really been a huge support. We’ve given so much evidence that it is a medical need. Chloe is bright. She’s not a truant, she wants to go to school and do well – that’s the hardest thing.” Beak has had to give up her job as a dental nurse to bring Chloe home from school when she is unwell. “It’s very stressful as a parent. I think they need to give parents a bit more of a chance. It’s not considerate of what a child’s going through mentally or physically,” she said, adding that she was now on anxiety medication to help her cope. Beak is one of many parents whose children have missed school due to mental or physical health problems, and have battled with their school over unauthorised absences amid wider pressure to improve attendance. In some cases, schools insist on diagnoses that can take years to obtain, or they assert that attendance will improve the pupil’s wellbeing, despite parents feeling differently, research by the House magazine has found. Like Beak, some parents in England and Wales have fallen foul of a fast-track legal process known as the single justice procedure (SJP). Introduced in 2015, it handles about 40,000 cases a month, or approximately half of all prosecutions for less serious crimes such as speeding violations, non-payment of the licence fee and less serious truancy cases. Under SJP, the courts write to defendants, giving them 21 days to respond. If the defendant pleads not guilty, the case goes to an open court. However, only about one-third of defendants respond, according to government data. This could be because they missed the letter, think it is easier to pay the fine, or there are administrative errors processing the response. For cases that do not go to court, a magistrate typically has a very brief window of time with scant information – often not detailing any extenuating circumstances – to determine the outcome. The Magistrates’ Association, which represents more than 12,000 magistrates in England and Wales, has said the SJP needs reform “if it is to be seen as fair and transparent”. Its members have said there are “flaws in the way it operates” and that this can “harm … some of society’s most vulnerable people”. The association’s proposed solutions include requiring prosecutors to hear all pleas and mitigations from defendants before the cases are heard by the magistrate and eliminating time-pressured decisions. Ellie Costello, the executive director of Square Peg, which campaigns for truancy law reform and works with 53,000 families who feel they have been unfairly prosecuted, said: “We’ve got families who don’t even know that they’ve been prosecuted. Families who open a letter to be told their case has been through the system, they’ve lost and have to pay £900 in costs and fines and have been put on community service.” She added that in theory families whose children had special needs should be able to access support from the council that would exempt them from truancy laws, such as an education, health and care plan (EHCP) or alternative provision, but in practice there was such a backlog that these could take up to three years to obtain. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Only uncontested and non-imprisonable offences are dealt with under the single justice procedure – magistrates are always assisted by a legally qualified adviser and defendants can choose to go to court if they want to. “Sentencing decisions are made by the independent judiciary who consider the facts of each case including any mitigating circumstances. In any cases where a defendant was unaware of the proceedings taking place, they can make a statement to void them and start the process again.”

Today’s grammar schools are for a bourgeois elite | Letter

2022-09-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/20/todays-grammar-schools-are-for-a-bourgeois-elite

Sarah James on the privatisation of state education for those who can afford it In 1968, I was lucky to pass my 11-plus and benefited from a better funded and higher aspirational education than my contemporaries who went to secondary moderns. There wasn’t much opportunity, beyond a prep school education, to train for these exams. So in theory it was an equal opportunity for young people to get into grammar school (Editorial, 18 September). In reality, this was far from the case. As female students disproportionally scored higher, it was deemed acceptable to discriminate against them. Middle-class pupils were much more able to understand the questions. In short, it was middle-class access to privileged schooling. But today’s grammar schools are more seriously inequitable: we no longer have a compulsory 11-plus exam in year 6. Coaching for entry to a grammar school starts in year 5, when parents have to decide if their child should do the entrance exam, which they have to pay for. If their child is successful, they will have to pay for expensive uniforms and potentially for transport to school. This can be as much as £1,000. This is privatisation of state schooling for those who can afford it.Sarah JamesMonmouth Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Competition for leading UK universities ‘could be tougher’ this year

2023-07-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/31/competition-for-leading-uk-universities-could-be-tougher-this-year

President of Universities UK says ‘massive expansion’ of applicants after Covid will make places harder to secure Students could face tougher competition for places on some courses at leading universities this year after a “massive expansion” of applicants in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the president of Universities UK has warned. As A-level students await their results on 17 August, Sir Steve West said places on research-intensive courses such as medicine and dentistry at Russell Group universities could be harder to secure, after student numbers jumped over the past two years. “In the first round of Covid, what you saw happening was universities had made offers, students then achieved the offers so there was very little drop-off and therefore research-intensive universities expanded significantly their undergraduate student population,” he said. He added: “Now that’s put pressure on their infrastructure, their staffing, and what they’re trying to do is just to rebalance that back into some sense of normality.” The Russell Group, which represents 24 leading universities including Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics, recently warned that universities in England are having to subsidise students by an average of £2,500 a year, because of funding constraints. Asked whether the squeeze on resources could mean greater competition than in previous years at Russell Group institutions, West said: “Possibly in some subject areas where there may be pressures on accommodation or type of teaching spaces, environments or staffing. “Science, medicine and dentistry are the obvious ones because of workshops and laboratories. Some research-intensive universities will be limiting numbers into other areas and that’s purely and simply because of capacity in the institutions.” Students did not sit formal A-level exams in the summer of 2020 or 2021, with results based on a more generous system of local assessment that led to record top grades. West, who is the vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England, said: “There’s been massive expansion because of the difficulty in predicting grades.” With grades set to return to the pre-pandemic norm this year, Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, played down the risk of a scramble for places. “While competition for places at top universities remains high, there is a welcome increase in the proportion of students holding a firm offer from their preferred university this year. This reflects increased confidence in offer-making by institutions as school exam grading returns to the pre-pandemic profile,” he said. Some academic experts have warned that restoring GCSE and A-level grading to the pre-pandemic pattern will disadvantage a cohort of students whose education was badly disrupted by school closures. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Earlier this month, a joint letter from the universities application service Ucas, and exams regulator Ofqual, warned students to be “mindful,” that places on the most selective courses “do get filled quickly”, after results day – and to “get ahead” by researching their options. The letter to students acknowledged, “there will be competition for higher education places again this year”, due to an increase in the number of 18-year-olds in the population. A-level students who fail to get the grades they need for their first choice or reserve university can find a place at another institution through the process of clearing. Ucas data from last year showed that of 21,000 students who did not have a place after getting their grades, 58% went on to secure on elsewhere. Separately, a survey of more than 3,500 graduates has found that people who were the first in their families to go to university have a higher average starting salary than those who were following in their parents’ footsteps. The research, carried out by Universities UK, found that graduates without a family history of higher education earned on average £30,111 a year in their first job – almost £3,000 more than the average for peers whose families had degrees.

Universities call for return of maintenance grants for students in England

2022-09-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/08/universities-call-for-return-of-maintenance-grants-for-students-in-england

Steve West, head of Universities UK, urges government to deliver new model of higher education funding Vice-chancellors have called for maintenance grants to be brought back for undergraduates in England, warning that otherwise there will be a “significant” impact on student health and wellbeing as well as their education. Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England, told the Universities UK annual conference in Leicester that the new government “needs to face up to the cost of living crisis now faced by students and staff. It is hitting them hard”. West, the UUK president, said the maximum maintenance loan available to students in England this year would be £1,000 less than a job paying the national minimum wage – the biggest gap between the two since 2004 – putting higher education further out of reach for those from deprived backgrounds. The maximum support loan for studying outside London and living away from home is now £9,706 for students from households earning up to £25,000 a year. While universities “have once again stepped up to support students,” West said that emergency aid was not a replacement for long-term backing. “We also need government to take action. In our conversations with new cabinet members and ministers in the coming weeks, we will urge them to provide additional government money for hardship funding and reinstate maintenance grants for those most in need,” West said. “Failure to engage with this will lead to significant health and wellbeing challenges as well as educational impacts.” West said university leaders also needed to make a case for sustainable financing in order to teach their students, as inflation eroded their income from tuition fees. “Universities are already doing more with less. We have all invested significantly in rising pay and pensions costs, digital innovations to enhance learning and modernised facilities to meet student demand. We have all also invested significantly in support for student mental health and wellbeing to keep pace with demand,” West said. “I, of course, recognise that this government has many spending priorities that are urgent and pressing. But it is vital that we start to move forward on this issue.” Vivienne Stern, UUK’s incoming chief executive, told the assembled vice-chancellors that they currently faced “serried ranks” of policy challenges. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “I could list them, but I’d just depress you,” Stern said. Warning that the Treasury is “not particularly worried” about universities, Stern said the new government’s spending review was a potential risk for research budgets, especially funding a replacement for the UK’s membership of the EU’s £80bn Horizon Europe research programme. The conference heard results of new research into attitudes towards UK universities. The survey of more than 2,000 adults found that concerns about universities “were not front of mind”, with the public more worried by lack of funding for schools. Holly Wicks of BritainThinks, which carried out polling and focus groups for the study, said “debt” was the word most associated with higher education by the public. Earlier research in 2018 found that “expensive” was the word most commonly identified. The survey found that 61% of parents would encourage their children to go to university, down from 66% in 2018.

My school is getting creative with a private partnership for its arts provision | Letter

2023-06-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/28/my-school-is-getting-creative-with-a-private-partnership-for-its-arts-provision

The head of a state school describes how his students are teaming up with their counterparts at a nearby private school As a state school head in one of the most deprived areas of the country, I fully recognise Tristram Hunt’s comments (‘Horrible’ disparity emerging in cultural education in schools, says V&A head, 26 June). At the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham, our mission is to tackle exactly these socioeconomic problems, and our answer has been close partnerships with the private sector. Bucking the national trend, we are introducing music and theatre studies A-levels alongside our growing art department, through teaching from our lead educational sponsor, Highgate school, and facilities provided by Tottenham Hotspur FC. Many of our alumni are embarking upon academic studies in creative fields, which can lack representation from communities such as Tottenham. Next week, our students are running an educational conference on social mobility, working with their counterparts at Highgate. “Bridging the Gap” will engage speakers from across the political spectrum, including David Lammy MP and the education minister Robert Halfon. I am hugely proud of our students’ commitment to breaking down boundaries.Jan BalonHead, London Academy of Excellence Tottenham Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Teachers’ pay cut by £6,600 since 2010, says Institute for Fiscal Studies

2023-01-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/12/teachers-pay-cut-by-6600-since-2010-says-institute-for-fiscal-studies

IFS says pay erosion helps explain why traditionally moderate teaching unions are considering strike action Senior teachers in England have in effect had their pay cut by £6,600 since 2010, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that comes as strike action over pay is likely to close schools. The independent economics research institute calculated that long-serving and senior teachers – accounting for nearly a third of those working in England – would have earned the equivalent of £50,300 in 2010. But below-inflation wage increases over the past 12 years has meant their pay in 2022 was just £43,700. Experienced teachers have experienced similar real-terms cuts across the national pay scale, meaning that half of the teaching workforce has had the value of their annual earnings fall by thousands of pounds compared with what they would have earned in 2010, when the Conservative party came into government. Luke Sibieta, an IFS research fellow, said the erosion in pay for long-serving staff was one reason why teachers were leaving the profession. “With inflation running at 10%, most teachers will see a 5% real-terms fall in their salary this year,” Sibieta said. “Combined with past real-terms cuts dating back to 2010, more experienced teachers will have seen a 13% real-terms drop in salaries between 2010 and 2022. “Given this, it is perhaps unsurprising that applications to teacher training have continued to disappoint and that schools report increasing problems recruiting and retaining staff.” In contrast, average earnings across the whole economy are thought to have increased by about 2% in real terms during the same period. The figures help explain why traditionally moderate teaching unions such as the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) are considering strike action. Geoff Barton, the ASCL general secretary, said dwindling pay was one of the main reasons for the government missing recruitment targets, and why it faced shortages in specialist subjects such as physics, which were forcing schools to rely on non-specialists to plug gaps in classrooms. “Nearly a third of teachers then leave the profession within five years of qualifying,” Barton said. “This desperate situation is a direct result of the way in which the government has eroded the pay and conditions of teachers and devalued the profession. “This report should serve as a much-needed wake-up call for the government to provide teachers with the meaningful and fully funded pay award they deserve.” Results of ballots on industrial action are expected this week from NASUWT and the National Association of Head Teachers, while the National Education Union (NEU) is expected to announce that its members voted to strike when it reveals the results of its ballot on Monday. Teaching unions in Scotland, including the NASUWT, are holding strikes, including two days of school closures this week. This week Gillian Keegan, the education secretary for England, held talks with the leaders of the four unions in an effort to avoid strikes. A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said the talks were “constructive” and that Keegan had “expressed the importance of working together to avoid strike action especially given the significant disruption due to the pandemic over recent years”, while offering to hold further talks. “These discussions build on previous meetings and correspondence, including where unions called for an extra £2bn uplift for schools [in England] next year and the year after, which the government delivered in the autumn statement,” the DfE said. Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “We don’t want to go on strike, but we may have to. We want the government to make a correction on teacher pay, to protect the profession and to protect the education of the young people in our schools.”

Invest in arts subjects to protect our children’s futures | Letters

2023-02-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/14/invest-in-arts-subjects-to-protect-our-childrens-futures

There is a harmful disconnect between the Tories’ education policy and the country’s economic and social needs, says Michele Gregson. Plus letters from Mike Tucker and Dr Reg Orsler As your editorial (The Guardian view on arts education: a creativity crisis, 7 February) made clear, the creative arts are a cultural, social and economic success story for the UK, and yet they have been under attack for more than a decade. The essential contribution that the arts make to the health, wealth and wellbeing of the UK is clear, well documented and tangible, but this government continues to sabotage and harm our national interests with a myopic approach to education and cultural investment. Now, scientific and technical innovations are hailed as the key to economic growth with the creation of a new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology last week, while the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been “refocused” and reduced. The “arts premium” funding promised in 2020 did not materialise, we have a national curriculum that is unfit for purpose and we are still waiting for a cultural education plan. Why is there such a harmful disconnect between education policy and economic and civic needs? With a 40% fall in GCSE arts entries since 2010, how exactly does the government intend to secure the talent pipeline into our vital creative industries? Arts subjects are disappearing from the curriculum in England at a frightening rate, and we should all be alarmed. The damage goes far beyond the economic; it requires a long-term coherent plan and investment in creative arts education. We know that governments often struggle to value what they can’t easily measure. This government appears to be incapable of valuing even the things that it can. Michele GregsonCEO, National Society for Education in Art and Design The widening arts deprivation gap between the most disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers, highlighted in your editorial, should be a cause of great concern. Creative expression has a fundamental impact on children’s communication skills, wellbeing and confidence, as well as raising aspirations. Squeezing arts out of the core curriculum at a time when many families are struggling to afford heating bills, let alone enriching extracurricular activities, will damage the future prospects of today’s children. Our experience of running the world’s largest youth drama festival shows us that arts opportunities provided through schools can be life-changing. Teachers often tell us that participation in the festival impacts children’s entire education, with improvements in literacy, school attendance, behaviour and motivation. But the real power of the arts resonates over a child’s lifetime. These children will become better problem solvers, critical thinkers and leaders – things we need more than ever. Mike TuckerHead, Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation Once again you imply that creativity is the sole preserve of the arts, saying that “state schools are facing a creativity crisis”. Our society is built on the creativity of many disciplines, usually after an understanding of the discipline concerned. Such is the nature of the human race. How else did aeroplanes, cars, televisions, computers, mobile phones and medicines etc come into being for the benefit of all? Dr Reg OrslerPrinces Risborough, Buckinghamshire

Pupils in England sent to churches and village halls as crumbling schools close

2023-06-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/29/pupils-in-england-sent-to-churches-and-village-halls-as-crumbling-schools-close

Unsafe buildings force thousands of children into temporary spaces or remote learning Pupils across England are being taught in church and village halls, temporary classrooms and remotely at home, as crumbling school buildings are ordered to shut because of to safety concerns, an investigation has revealed. In some cases, where an entire school has been forced to close, hundreds of pupils are split across neighbouring schools to take their lessons, while others are sent home to resume online learning, as they did during the pandemic. After the immediate crisis of finding alternative accommodation, pupils and teachers can find themselves in temporary classrooms for months, if not years, while school and local authorities try to come up with a long-term solution. The findings reveal the disruptive impact that school closures because of unsafe buildings have on pupils, whose education has already been interrupted by Covid. They also come just days after a highly critical report by the public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, said an estimated 700,000 children are being taught in unsafe or ageing school buildings that needed major repairs. It also revealed that more than a third of school buildings were past their estimated design lifespan, and specialists were carrying out urgent checks on almost 600 schools at possible risk of structural collapse because of crumbling concrete, with many more schools unaware of the danger lurking in their buildings. Ministers admitted earlier this year that 39 schools had partly or fully closed since 2019 owing to unsafe buildings, including structural and general condition problems, such as roofing and boiler failures. A freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrats has now revealed the location – though not identity – of each school, and how pupils have been affected. They say the true number of affected schools may be far higher, as schools are not obliged to report building-related closures to the Department for Education (DfE). In one school in Hertfordshire, which had to close its entire site permanently in February 2022, all pupils were sent home to study remotely for three weeks. Face-to-face lessons resumed in a church hall for some children while others went to neighbouring schools, a situation that continued for three months, after which pupils were moved into temporary classrooms while waiting for a long-term solution. In another case, an Essex school, which the Liberal Democrats have matched to local reports of King Edmund School in Rochford, closed in November 2022 after traces of asbestos were found in the rubble of a demolished building. Pupils were sent home to learn online for two months while the site was made safe. And a school in Sunderland, identified in local reports as Burnside Academy in Houghton-le-Spring, closed in March 2021 because of pumping and drainage issues. Pupils were bussed to neighbouring schools for almost eight months, then returned to lessons in temporary classrooms until the school reopened earlier this month. In other examples, two mobile classroom blocks at a school in North Somerset were declared unsafe within nine months of each other, while pupils at one Devon school took classes in the local village hall for a week and a half after their school was forced to close temporarily in June 2022. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, called on ministers to clear the backlog of repairs so parents could be certain their child’s school was safe. “Each shut school is a concrete sign of years of Conservative neglect of our school buildings. “Conservative ministers should apologise for the months of disruption that thousands of pupils have had to their learning. Whilst successive Conservative prime ministers cut capital spending on education, pupils have been forced to study at home, in church halls or were bussed miles to other schools.” The DfE has been contacted for comment but previously said: “We are investing in 500 projects for new and refurbished school buildings through our school rebuilding programme. On top of this, we have allocated over £1bn since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8bn committed for 2023-24.”

Schools urged to adopt maligned National Tutoring Programme

2022-05-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/may/02/schools-urged-to-adopt-maligned-national-tutoring-programme

The education secretary pledges support for 40% of schools struggling to use post-Covid education recovery scheme The education secretary will write to schools this week to urge them to use the government’s flagship national tutoring programme (NTP), which has been criticised for failing to help disadvantaged pupils. The department for education (DfE) also announced it would publish data showing how each school is using the programme, and that this would be shared with Ofsted. It said that during this academic year, an estimated 40% of schools are yet to offer any tutoring sessions through the NTP, a key part of the government’s £5bn post-pandemic education recovery programme. In a letter to schools, published on Monday, Nadhim Zahawi wrote: “Starting this week, my department will contact those schools yet to offer tutoring support to discuss their plans and offer further support to ensure they can offer tutoring to their pupils this term. “As part of my desire to ensure greater transparency of the impact of the programme, I am planning to publish data on each school’s tutoring delivery at the end of the year alongside the funding allocations and numbers of pupils eligible for the pupil premium.” The tutoring programme has previously been criticised as “dysfunctional”, with schools and tuition providers reporting problems accessing the scheme managed by Randstad, a Dutch human resources firm awarded £25.4m to run it. It links schools with approved tuition providers via a platform that many schools have struggled to access. More than a million tuition courses have been started during the 2021/22 academic year, but just over 100,000 of these were started through the Randstad route. The majority were through the schools-led tuition route, where schools were awarded funding to spend on tuition directly. In March the government severed its contract with Randstad for the next academic year, with the DfE announcing schools would instead receive direct funds for tutoring to “simplify” the programme, something headteachers had been calling for from the outset. A total of £349m has been allocated for the NTP for 2022/23. The government has previously said it aimed for its tutoring programme to help 90% of pupils leaving primary school to meet expected literacy and numeracy targets by 2030, as set out in its Levelling Up paper. A “parent pledge” announced in the Schools white paper also assured parents that any child falling behind in English and maths would be given targeted support. A report by the education select committee in March said MPs had “huge concerns” over Randstad’s ability to meet the targets it was set and that the NTP is said to have reached just 15% of its overall target so far. Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner, said the report showed the government’s response to Covid catchup had been “haphazard, unambitious and mired in bureaucracy”, with deprived and vulnerable children at risk of being left further behind.

UK university students facing ‘unprecedented rent rises’

2023-09-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/27/uk-university-students-facing-unprecedented-rent-rises

Maintenance loan failing to keep pace with rising rents, which have jumped by more than 8% since last year University students in the UK are facing “unprecedented rent rises” amid record demand for accommodation, while the value of the maintenance loan designed to cover living costs stagnates, according to a report. Many students are struggling to find affordable rooms, as rents have jumped by more than 8% overall this year compared with 2022-23, a survey by the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield says. In some cases, the increases are significantly higher, up by as much as 27% in one case. There has been an increase of almost 390,000 students in need of accommodation over the last decade, and this combined with rising operational and development costs, high inflation and a declining rate of new bed delivery is sending rents soaring. The average private sector rent outside London has gone up to more than £7,600 a year, which accounts for 77% of the maximum student maintenance loan allowance. According to Cushman & Wakefield, fewer than one in 10 beds in major university cities are now affordable to the average student in receipt of maintenance loans and grants. Durham, Exeter, Birmingham and Nottingham are among the major university cities with minimal or zero bed spaces priced below the average maintenance loan. Rental growth in private-sector purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) was 9.4%, though far higher in some cities, including Glasgow, which registered an increase of more than 19%. Student maintenance loans, meanwhile, have increased by just 2.8% over the same period. David Feeney, partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s UK student accommodation team, said: “Affordability stands as the biggest challenge to the UK’s student housing market, with maintenance loans and grants failing to keep pace with rising rents. “Persistent inflation means that any loan and grant increases still represent a further real-terms cut. This in turn impacts the UK’s development pipeline, with much-needed beds for students significantly impacted by affordability considerations.” A survey by the National Union of Students, meanwhile, found a growing culture of part-time work among students, with more than two-thirds (69%) taking on part-time jobs, with nearly all working more hours this year to help cover spiralling costs. Almost one in five of those who worked were on more than 20 hours a week and more than a third (34%) said it had a negative impact on their studies. The NUS vice-president for higher education, Chloe Field, said: “Maintenance loans must be brought into line with inflation, and a rent freeze and rent controls are needed.” Martin Blakey, the chief executive of student accommodation charity Unipol, said where there have been persistent accommodation shortages in cities like Manchester and Bristol, the situation had slightly worsened this year. In Bristol, he said one private hall of residence had put up rent by 27%, with fees jumping from £9,532 last year to £12,138. All the rooms have gone. While the growth in international students has played a part in the student housing crisis, they too are affected by cost. “We are seeing quite a lot of international students who are staying with friends or with extended family members,” said Blakey, who said he knew of students commuting from Birmingham to Leeds to keep costs down. Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said when interest rates went up, the traditional model for building new purpose-built student accommodation (ie borrow, build, pay down the costs of borrowing via rent) began to break down. “The costs of borrowing are now too high,” he said, adding that the shortages were being compounded by landlords of on-street housing taking properties out of the student rental market to either sell or put on Airbnb.

Thousands of UK students face financial hardship as costs rise

2022-10-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/10/thousands-of-uk-students-face-financial-hardship-as-costs-rise

Black, working-class and mature students most at risk of being forced out of higher education by financial pressures The cost of living crisis is placing nearly 300,000 UK students in financial peril, with a disproportionate number of older, working-class or Black students likely to drop out, according to analysis by a university group. The MillionPlus group – an association of modern universities in England and Scotland educating more than a million students – said national governments and regulators including the Office for Students (OfS) and the Scottish Funding Council should take immediate action to alleviate the severe financial pressures facing students. Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of MillionPlus, said: “We must challenge the narrative that all students are 18-year-olds and are able to rely on parental support – increasingly, with household budgets being squeezed, this is not a lived reality. “For mature students, those who are from low participation areas, first-in-family or commuter students, the cost of living crisis seriously risks forcing them out of higher education and damaging their future prospects.” The MillionPlus research identifies more than 300,000 undergraduates across the UK who will be hardest hit financially in the coming academic year because of rising costs of food, transport, rent and energy. “These students are more likely to belong to groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education. Black and mature students are the two groups most at-risk of immediate financial hardship,” it stated. The largest at-risk groups include 44,000 mature students aged over 25, along with up to 43,000 Black students and about 50,000 students from working-class backgrounds. Additionally, up to 68,000 “commuter students” who live off campus are expected to face financial difficulties. “Given the close links between thoughts of quitting, mental health problems and financial difficulties, universities face significant rates of attrition in the coming months,” the report stated. The group calls for student maintenance loans or grants to be increased, and for the OfS and Scottish Funding Council to expand hardship funding allocations for universities. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The report comes as universities are trying to help more students through innovative programmes. The University of East London is to boost grants for students on the verge of dropping out because of financial difficulties, while others are subsidising the cost of food and household products sold on campus. The University of Bolton is giving food vouchers and discounted travel to students, while the University of the West of Scotland has started offering free breakfasts. Many students were unlikely to benefit from government support being offered to households. Full-time students are already exempt from council tax and few are eligible for means-tested benefits, meaning they cannot access the government’s household support fund. Students in university accommodation will not benefit from energy rebates, and few are likely to benefit from tax cuts. The report comes as representatives of school catering organisations warned that rising prices are leading to lower-quality school meals, with caterers seeking to cut costs through smaller portions or cheaper ingredients.

‘We’re not here because it’s fun’: UK university staff join picket lines

2022-11-30

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/30/were-not-here-because-its-fun-uk-university-staff-join-picket-lines

Rallies in Leeds, London and across UK demand better pay and pensions amid cost of living crisis “Get your arse out of your chair, get down here and speak to the people who matter,” a union leader urged university bosses, as hundreds of striking staff gathered in Leeds on Wednesday to fight for improved pay and pensions. A large crowd of pickets spilled from the steps of Leeds University’s distinctive Grade II-listed Parkinson Building, flooding on to the pavement below with banners reading “staff working conditions are student learning conditions” and “cold and hungry staff can’t support you”. Despite temperatures dropping, about 800 university workers turned out for the Leeds rally – part of a series of long-running national strikes at more than 150 universities. Three unions at four universities across the city were joined by sympathetic students to march the mile-long route to Leeds town hall, in one of dozens of rallies across the UK. Jo Westerman, chair of the Leeds University branch of Unite, said she bumped into a colleague working as a cleaner in the train station, having taken a second job to survive financially. Westerman, who has been at the university for 40 years, said it was not just about pay but health and wellbeing too, particularly for staff who worked through the pandemic. She called on university bosses to get their “arse out of your chair” and urged them to negotiate. “Get down here and speak to the people who matter,” she said. She added: “We’ve got tired staff, we’ve got demoralised staff. We’re not out here because it’s fun, we’re out here because we want them to come back to the table and speak to us.” In London, University and College Union (UCU) brought the concourse at King’s Cross to a standstill in what it described as its biggest rally in history. Jo Grady, the UCU’s general secretary, was joined by the RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, whose members are taking part in rail strikes throughout December. At the University of St Andrews, the author Margaret Atwood declined to attend her graduation in solidarity with the striking workers. The Handmaid’s Tale writer was due to pick up an honorary degree but the ceremony has been rescheduled. Some things hit you hard 🥹The wonderful @MargaretAtwood will not be attending graduation at St Andrews tomorrow out of solidarity for our picket lines. Thank you. This means so much to our members 💚#ucuRISING For Unison, whose members include administrators, cleaners, library, security and catering workers, it was the 23rd university strike day this year. The Leeds event saw public support, with speeches interrupted by beeping horns from passing cars and buses. Xiangruo Dai, a master’s student in economics at Leeds University, told the workers: “They lie that students do not support the strikes. That’s not true – we do.” University support staff rejected a 3% pay rise from the Universities and Colleges Employers Association ​(UCEA) back in May, which is less than a third of the current rate of inflation. Unions are negotiating with theUCEA and in some cases with individual universities. Raj Jethwa, UCEA’s chief executive, has previously said UCU’s demand for a 13.6% pay increase was “unrealistic” and would cost institutions in the region of £1.5bn. Unions argue a genuine pay rise is affordable – the UK university sector generated record income of £41.1bn last year, according to UCU, with the 150 vice-chancellors facing action collectively paid an estimated £45m. On top of the pay battle, a large part of the dispute for UCU members is over pensions. The University Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension fund was said to be in deficit, requiring steep cuts in retirement benefits, but the latest figures released this week show the fund is back in surplus, suggesting that benefits could be restored affordably. “I don’t have the possibility to save,” said George Dixon, an admissions officer at the University of Leeds earning £24,000. “We’ve not been using food banks like some staff but the last week of the month tends to be all on credit cards.” Her partner, Oscar Smith, who works at the university as an energy analyst, agreed. “Lots of staff just want to be able to go out for a meal occasionally, or not have to be financially supported by a partner.” Cleaning services worker Lynn Jones, who earns just over £10 an hour and whose partner is a self-employed joiner, said: “We couldn’t survive on my wage. We’re not buying as much food, we’re not going out. I’m walking to work sometimes instead of getting the bus.” The University of Leeds said pay rates were negotiated at a national level, though it had offered cost of living payments to staff on lower pay grades in July and December.

Reading ability of children in England scores well in global survey

2023-05-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/16/reading-ability-of-children-in-england-scores-well-in-global-survey

Literacy of nine and 10-year-olds in England was ranked fourth in world in Pirls study, with teachers praised England’s nine and 10-year-olds have taken fourth place in a major international literacy study comparing the reading ability of children of the same age in 43 different countries, up from joint eighth place last time assessments were carried out. The results saw English pupils leapfrog those in high-performing countries like Finland and Poland in the rankings, while pupils in Singapore topped the league table, followed by Hong Kong in second place and Russia coming in third. Despite the improvement in ranking, England’s score remained virtually unchanged since the last round of assessments in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), which took place in 2016, with its average actually dropping marginally from 559 to 558. Other countries, however, saw their scores fall significantly over a period in which there was widespread disruption to education due to the Covid pandemic. Only 11 of the 43 countries that tested pupils of the same age in Pirls 2021 managed to avoid significant declines, including England. Finland’s score went down from 566 in 2016 to 549, while Poland’s dropped from 565 to 549, still well above the international average of 520 and the European average of 524. At the top of the table Singapore achieved an average score of 587, Hong Kong 573 and Russia 567. Tuesday’s results were welcomed by Rishi Sunak, who said: “Driving up literacy rates is central to our plan to grow the economy, one of my five key priorities, so it’s great to see England move up to fourth in the international rankings for reading.” The government also highlighted a narrowing in the attainment gap between highest and lowest performing pupils, and between boys and girls, though this appeared to be mainly down to a slight fall in girls’ average scores. “While there is always more progress to be made, pupils and teachers across the country should be incredibly proud of this achievement today,” said the prime minister. The schools minister, Nick Gibb, said England’s success follows the introduction of the phonics screening check in 2012 and in 2018 the English hubs programme, a scheme designed to develop expertise in teaching reading in schools. Asked about the decline in girls’ reading scores, Gibb said it was minimal. In England, girls had an average score of 562, compared with the boys’ average of 553, compared with 566 for girls and 551 for boys in 2016. Dr Dirk Hastedt, the executive director of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), which administers Pirls, said the latest results reflected England’s improved performance in reading since 2006. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion “Overall, we have to admit that teachers in England obviously did a good job despite Covid,” said Hastedt. “They were able to teach students so that they were among the countries without losses. That’s a significant achievement, so we can definitely congratulate teachers and schools for the amazing job they did during Covid-19.” Jon Andrews, head of analysis at the Education Policy Institute, said: “Today’s Pirls results resonate with our own findings that outcomes in reading have been recovered to their pre-pandemic levels. However, our analysis also suggests that in maths, primary school pupils remain around one and a half months behind pre-pandemic norms in their learning.” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “This is a badly needed piece of good news for an education system that feels beleaguered. These excellent results in reading standards of nine-10-year-olds are testament to the hard work, skill and dedication of primary school teachers and leaders.”

Choosing a university foundation year to kickstart a degree

2022-09-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/24/choosing-a-university-foundation-year-to-kickstart-a-degree

From classics to Formula 1, and from hating education to loving it, a foundation year can turn your life around Becky Reavell was in the crowd at Silverstone watching a Formula One race with her father when it dawned on her that she didn’t want to study English at university and be a journalist. What she really wanted was to study engineering for a career in motor sport. Her sixth-form teachers were supportive, but the problem was her A-level choices. She was already deep into studying English literature, classics and economics, not maths and physics, the subjects usually required for engineering. But she didn’t give up. With her grades – A*A*A – she found a place on a studies in science foundation year course at Leeds University, which led to a three-year engineering degree. In August, she began work as a composite design engineer for a F1 team. Foundation years are an extra preparatory year before the start of a bachelor degree and are usually linked to that course – such as BSc psychology with a foundation year. Students apply in the usual way, through Ucas, for the year plus the three- or four-year undergraduate course. “Before the sixth form I was at a different school, an all-girls school, and I never really thought about engineering,” says Becky, 25, from Essex, who has been chosen to join the Women’s Engineering Society’s Early Careers Board. “The foundation year really helped. It was a pretty daunting thing to do as I hadn’t studied maths or science since GCSEs, but the lecturers were very supportive and, even after I started my degree, they were in contact in case I needed help.” Becky was awarded a first-class BEng, automotive engineering at Leeds, then a distinction for an MSc in motor sport engineering at Oxford Brookes University. The English exam system requires students to make subject choices at 13 for GCSEs, then again at 15 or 16 for A-levels. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, students are more likely to be re-thinking what they want to do with their lives. Others may have missed out on the grades they deserve due to family illness and bereavement or the disruption to schools. A foundation year, which leads to a three- or four-year degree programme, opens up options for those who change subjects or miss out on the grades they need, says Ray Le Tarouilly, a National Careers Service adviser. “They can also be a very good bridge for mature students who have been out of education because they introduce them to university life. More universities are offering them in more subjects but entry can be competitive, especially in medicine and the biological sciences.” Most courses cost the same as a year of an undergraduate degree – £9,250 – though some universities, such as York and Manchester, offer fee reductions or bursaries for the extra year. Students are eligible for tuition fee loans and living costs in the same way as for undergraduate degrees, but it will mean higher debt, Le Tarouilly says. “That’s the downside. However, graduates won’t be paying any more each month once they start work because repayments are based on income, not the level of debt,” he adds. Foundation years differ between universities.Some offer them only to “widening participation” students from disadvantaged home or school backgrounds; others offer courses as widening participation; and others as open entry. Leeds takes background into account for its foundation years, except for its very popular studies in science year. The university describes that course as “a conversion course for applicants with strong A-levels – ABB or above – who wish to progress to a scientific discipline, but have not studied science or maths at A-level.” Science and engineering are also popular choices for foundation years at UWE Bristol, but the most competition is for places on health courses, such as nursing or art and design. Andrew Carter, UWE’s head of admissions, says some students apply directly through the normal Ucas round for a degree with a foundation year, but others go onto them because they have not achieved the required grades for their chosen undergraduate degree course. Another group of students are those who change career direction. “There is pressure to make decisions at an early age, which could impact opportunities later in life. A foundation year opens up options for them,” he adds. There are also lots of foundation year students who missed out on education first time round, such as Hollie Baker, from Weston-super-Mare, who is studying for a BSc in computer science with a foundation year at UWE. Hollie, 24, is visually impaired and struggled at school and then, again, trying to catch up at a further education college. “There was very little support for me. I couldn’t keep up because I couldn’t read the material. If anyone asked me about education, I’d say I hated it. Now I love it. UWE has changed my view of education. I want to find ways to use the technology to improve things for others like me,” says Hollie, 23, who uses they/them pronouns. It was a taster course at the University of Bristol that gave them the confidence to apply for the foundation year at UWE. “This year introduces you to university life in a more relaxed, supportive way. If you get into a panic, they say, ‘Just take a breath’, and help you find a solution.” Hollie says they benefited from being “eased into a degree”. “A foundation year is a great opportunity because you learn all sorts of general skills and ones specific to your degree, so when you go into year one of the actual degree you don’t feel you have just been dropped into it.”

Pay rise of 6.5% would end England’s teacher strikes, union leader suggests

2023-07-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/07/pay-rise-stop-teaching-strikes-england-union-boss

Mary Bousted urges ministers to publish recommendation from pay body, thought to be 6.5%, and fund schools to pay it Ministers could ward off potential teachers’ strikes in the autumn term in England if they accept a salary increase recommended by the teachers’ independent pay review body, the head of the biggest education union has said. Teachers who belong to the NEU continued industrial action on Friday. Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the union, said: “This could stop. What the government must do is publish the independent pay review body recommendations.” The School Teachers’ Review Body is understood to have recommended a 6.5% increase in pay for teachers – larger than other public sector pay rises – because of concerns over the challenges faced by schools. Its report was leaked in May but has still not been made public. The 6.5% recommendation for 2023-24 is more than two percentage points higher than the 4.3% average offer that ministers made to teachers in March, alongside increasing starting salaries to £30,000. The offer was roundly rejected by union members. Bousted told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If it is 6.5%, they must fund schools in order to be able to pay that. And if that were the case, I believe that this would stop, so it is in the government’s hands. “I apologise now to parents and pupils whose activities are disrupted,” she said, adding that exemptions had been given for school trips. But she said it was “essential” to remind the government “that this is a profession in crisis and they will not stay – they’ve already lost 9% of teachers, that is just unsustainable”. Historically ministers have used pay review bodies’ recommendations to justify refusing to grant rises that match inflation. The government has now indicated that it would be prepared to block pay rises recommended by public sector review bodies. Bousted said it was “just not acceptable” for ministers to reject the recommendations and that before they received them, they had “proclaimed proudly that this was a government which had always accepted the pay review body’s recommendations”. She added: “The one year when the review body actually does exercise its independence because the evidence of a crisis in the profession is so great, suddenly it becomes doubtful whether the award will be paid.” On a media round on Friday morning, the skills minister, Robert Halfon, refused to give an answer on whether the government would accept the recommendations. He said he could not answer as he had not seen the report, though it was given to the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, in May. When asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the government had backtracked on the concept of accepting independent advice on pay, Halfon said: “I’m not quite clear why you’re saying there is a backtrack. I’m saying that the prime minister, the chancellor and my boss, secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan, will be looking at that report and once that report has been published, then they will make a decision. “That has always been the way in the past. It is nothing different to what has happened in the past, but they’ve got to go through the report properly.”

Government urged to act as nine in 10 schools in England in need of repair

2022-07-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jul/31/schools-england-in-need-of-repair

Government urged to tackle crumbling school buildings as National Education Union expresses shock The government needs to urgently tackle England’s crumbling school buildings, teachers have said, as figures show nine in 10 schools have at least one part of their buildings needing repair or replacement. The National Education Union, which represents more than half a million teachers, said it was “shocking” that of 20,000 school buildings inspected between 2017 and 2019, a total of 19,442 had at least one building component that had “major defects” or was “not operating as intended”. The union added that the £1bn the government is investing into what it called “state of the art” refurbishments of 61 schools was “a drop in the ocean”. Analysis by the Liberal Democrats also found more than 5% of building components, such as roofs, windows, doors, electrics and light fittings, across all of England’s school estates – 240,000 items – were found to be defective, so were graded “poor” or “bad” by surveyors. Officials estimate that it would cost £11.4bn to carry out all the necessary repairs. The City of Durham was the constituency with the highest percentage of school building components – almost 12% – graded poor or bad. In the South West Norfolk constituency of Liz Truss, the Conservative leadership candidate and foreign secretary, more than 91% of schools had at least one building component graded poor, ie exhibiting major defects. Fourteen schools had at least one component graded bad, requiring immediate replacement. In Richmond in North Yorkshire, the constituency of Truss’s leadership rival, Rishi Sunak, the situation was similar with 91% of schools having at least one “poor” grade component. Meanwhile, 21 schools contained at least one building component graded “bad”. The figures were published by the Department for Education in response to a parliamentary question tabled by the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said it was a “shocking fact” that 90% of school buildings in England require major repairs. She said: “All children deserve to learn in high quality, safe and comfortable buildings. But in 2022-23, capital funding is £1.9bn less per year in real terms than it was in the last years of the Labour government. “Capital spending was the largest cut to education and was imposed immediately after the 2010 election. If the government had not cut Labour’s school rebuilding programme, £2bn more would have been spent on school and college buildings. “The government’s recent announcement that £1bn would be invested in the rebuilding or refurbishing 61 schools is a drop in the ocean. “The government needs to show much more ambition and urgently address these issues in a strategic way to demonstrate that they really believe in investing in our pupils’ futures.” Wilson said: “These shocking statistics show that the Conservatives have neglected our school buildings for far too long. “When Liz Truss was in the Treasury, dozens of schools in her own constituency needed urgent repairs and before Rishi Sunak quit as chancellor, the government cut this year’s school maintenance budget in real terms. “Liberal Democrats believe that education is an investment in our children’s future. Rather than bickering about the past, the Conservative leadership candidates should explain how they will protect schools from sky-high energy bills coming this winter.” A Department for Education spokesperson said the figures were not new, adding: “The safety of pupils and staff is paramount. We have one of the largest and most comprehensive condition data collection programmes in Europe, and this helps us to assess and manage risk across the estate. “Buildings where there is a risk to health and safety will always be prioritised and we have allocated over £13bn since 2015 to improve the condition of school buildings and facilities, including £1.8bn this financial year. In addition, our new school rebuilding programme will transform the learning environment at 500 schools over the next decade, prioritising schools in poor condition or with potential safety issues.”

Government sets out plans to overhaul special educational needs system

2022-03-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/mar/29/government-sets-out-plans-to-overhaul-special-educational-needs-system

Proposals will require mainstream schools to become more inclusive of children with Send and disabilities Mainstream schools in England will be required to “change their culture and practice” to become more inclusive of children with special educational needs and disabilities, under government proposals designed to end the current postcode lottery. The government will set out plans to overhaul the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in a green paper published on Tuesday, including proposals to beef up accountability and boost earlier intervention to ensure that children’s needs are better met in local settings. The paper will also propose the introduction of new national standards across education, health and care to better support children with Send, plus a legal requirement for councils to publish inclusion plans to provide greater clarity about responsibility across the different sectors. The introduction of an “inclusion dashboard” to help parents understand what is available in their area is also among the proposals, as well as a simplified, digitised education, health and care plan for those children with the greatest need to reduce bureaucracy and help parents choose from a list of appropriate placements. The proposals also include plans for a new national framework for banding and tariffs for children requiring different degrees of support to help put the system on a financially sustainable footing. Under the current regime, parents often have to engage in lengthy battles to try to secure the right provision for their child, in a system that is heavily bureaucratic and adversarial. Some specialist provision is only available out of area, leading to costs amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds for the most needy children. Ahead of publication, the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said: “We want to end the postcode lottery of uncertainty and poor accountability that exists for too many families, boost confidence in the system across the board, and increase local mainstream and specialist education to give parents better choice.” The plans are outlined in the government’s long-awaited green paper, which comes at the end of a cross-government review launched in 2019. Publication will be followed by a 13-week consultation. It will also incorporate alternative provision for children who are unable to access mainstream school for a variety of reasons, including special educational needs, in its vision for a single, national system. Before the full detail of the paper was published, there was early support from within the sector for some of the proposals, though teaching unions stressed that schools were already inclusive, but children were struggling to access support because of cuts. They called for extra investment. Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, agreed that many pupils are not able to access the support they need and are entitled to. “This is not due to failures on the part of school staff, who are working tirelessly to do their best for these pupils,” he said. “The government has to recognise that cuts to funding for specialist services and real-terms reductions in school budgets have contributed to long waiting lists for assessment and reduced levels of support available for pupils.” Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of Ambitious about Autism, said that while some of the proposals were welcome, others may be ringing alarm bells for parents. “Plans to strengthen accountability in the system and provide more support to help young people bridge the gap from education to employment are a positive move to improve outcomes for autistic pupils. “However, proposals to introduce a new framework for banding of higher-needs support will need to be closely examined. Autistic young people and their needs do not easily fit into a neat box or band.” Jo Hutchinson, a director at the Education Policy Institute, said: “The devil will be in the detail and, most crucially, the implementation. Families across the country will rightly only believe in better Send provision when it arrives.” The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, added: “This paper has been delayed three times, taken nearly 1,000 days to put together, yet it still fails to deliver the transformation in support needed to change this picture.”

Jewish students sue Harvard over charges of antisemitism

2024-01-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/12/harvard-lawsuit-jewish-students-antisemitism

Plaintiffs accuse the university of tolerating harassment, assault and intimidation of Jewish students Several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of becoming “a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment”. The lawsuit filed earlier this week mirrors others submitted since the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel, including legal action against the Art Institute of Chicago, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. In the Harvard lawsuit, the plaintiffs include members of the Students Against Antisemitism. They accuse Harvard of violating Jewish students’ civil rights and allege that the university tolerated Jewish students being harassed, assaulted and intimidated – behavior that has intensified since the 7 October mass killing. The Hamas attack sparked a huge military response from Israel, which continues to bombard Gaza, killing more than 24,000 Palestinians, in a bid to, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged, “destroy Hamas”, the Iran-backed, Islamist controlling group of Gaza. “Mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty have marched by the hundreds through Harvard’s campus, shouting vile antisemitic slogans and calling for death to Jews and Israel,” according to the lawsuit. “Those mobs have occupied buildings, classrooms, libraries, student lounges, plazas, and study halls, often for days or weeks at a time, promoting violence against Jews.” It was unclear what the mention of mobs in the lawsuit refers to, but the university has been rattled by protests since the 7 October attack. At one point, pro-Palestinian students occupied a campus building for 24 hours. Marc Kasowitz, a partner at the law firm that brought the suit, Kasowitz Benson Torres, said in a statement that the litigation was necessary because Harvard would not “correct its deep-seated antisemitism problem voluntarily”. A spokesperson for Harvard said the school does not comment on pending litigation. About a dozen students are potentially facing disciplinary charges for violations of protest rules related to pro-Palestinian activities, but the spokesperson said the school could not comment on their cases. Fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has roiled campuses across the US and reignited a debate over free speech. College leaders have struggled to define the line where political speech crosses into harassment and discrimination, with Jewish and Arab students raising concerns that their schools are doing too little to protect them. The issue took center stage in December when the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT testified at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. Asked by Republican lawmakers whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies, the presidents offered lawyerly answers and declined to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Their answers prompted weeks of backlash from donors and alumni, leading to the resignation of Liz Magill at Penn and Claudine Gay at Harvard. The US Department of Education has repeatedly warned colleges that they are required to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses or risk losing federal money. The Associated Press contributed reporting

GCSEs in England hit by high absence levels and mental ill health, heads say

2023-08-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/21/gcses-england-high-absence-levels-mental-ill-health-heads

School leaders tell of abnormal levels of pupil anxiety amid plan to lower grades back to pre-pandemic levels High levels of persistent absence and mental ill health have undermined pupils’ GCSE results to be published later this week, headteachers have said, as education experts warn of 300,000 fewer top grades being awarded in England this year. School leaders who spoke to the Guardian said they experienced unprecedented numbers of pupils failing to turn up or walking out in the middle of exams. The government in England has already warned that GCSE results released on Thursday will fall significantly this year, as part of its plan to bring grades down abruptly to pre-pandemic levels after three years of generous grading. But headteachers warned schools had been struggling with abnormal levels of anxiety as well as the aftermath of Covid and the effects of the cost of living crisis hitting disadvantaged families in particular. Evelyn Forde, the headteacher of Copthall school for girls in Mill Hill, north London, said: “This is not a normal year. I know we are all trying to get back to normal, but there are things like the mental health crisis which mean it isn’t normal. “We had more students absent from exams than we’ve ever had before. We had more students walk out of an exam than we’ve ever had before. I think that’s to do with the whole stress and anxiety they are facing. “School leaders have tried as much as we can to prepare them, but for some of them, mentally and emotionally, they just found it too much.” Earlier this year the Guardian reported that one in 10 pupils taking GCSEs in year 11 were absent from school in England each day, an increase of 70% since before the Covid pandemic. Forde said high absence rates among teachers and the pupils facing exams were likely to depress GCSE results. “Some of my girls had not had a substantive science teacher for the whole year. We’ve got three unfilled science posts,” Forde said. Ben Davis, the head of St Ambrose Barlow RC high school in Swinton, Greater Manchester, said high absence rates and the severe disruption caused by Covid had made it difficult to embed good learning habits in the lead-up to this year’s exams. “I think this year is the one where people are most nervous and most uncertain. They’ve definitely been impacted more than previous year 11s, that’s very evident in the absence statistics,” Davis said. “Most schools are carrying a large number of pupils who have been persistently absent and that will impact on their overall figures. The immediate concern is for the young people themselves, because they’ve not had the adjustments that previous years have. “What we’ve seen is a significant impact on young people’s mental health and wellbeing and we think that will play out in their results. Young people who are at some kind of disadvantage because of social or family circumstances, or special education needs are more at risk, undoubtedly. “A lot of schools have really struggled to do their best by their pupils because the system has worked against them. We’ve all done our absolute level best but it’s been difficult.” Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said this year’s results would affect how schools in England were treated by Ofsted and in league tables despite so many factors being outside their control. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “This could lead to reduced life chances for these young people and to schools serving disadvantaged communities being penalised by the government’s accountability regime,” Barton said. “The government has failed to provide young people affected by these factors with sufficient support and it has failed also to reform the school accountability system to make it less punitive and more supportive. Both things need to happen.” While regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland have opted to be more lenient in the way exams are graded this year, the government in England has pressed ahead with enforcing pre-pandemic grading on this year’s GCSE and A-level results. Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said last week’s A-level results – with a record fall in the proportion of top grades issued – was a “strong pointer” that the exam regulator Ofqual would carry through the plans. Smithers said the return to 2019 outcomes would mean a record drop in 7, 8 and 9 grades, equivalent to A* to A, affecting an estimated 100,000 students. “Although the percentage changes may not look much, given the huge number of entries it amounts to a major change, resulting in about 300,000 fewer top grades,” Smithers said. “This will come as a shock to young people and their parents but it is necessary to restore the value, precision and accuracy of the grades, which got out of hand when examinations could not be held.” In 2019, 20.6% of entries in England were awarded grades 7 to 9. But with exams scrapped during Covid, the proportion rose to 28.5% through teacher assessment in 2021, before falling back to 26% when exams returned last year.

One in four school-starters in England and Wales not toilet-trained, say teachers

2024-02-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/28/one-in-four-school-starters-in-england-and-wales-not-toilet-trained-say-teachers

School staff report worsening school-readiness with teachers devoting more time to child-support work that parents once did One in four children starting school in England and Wales are not toilet-trained, according to teachers who now spend a third of their day supporting pupils who are not school-ready, a report has found. The early-years charity, Kindred2, polled 1,000 primary school staff, half of whom said problems with school-readiness have got worse in the last 18 months, with schools doing more of the work to prepare children that parents would once have done. Nearly half (46%) of pupils are unable to sit still, 38% struggle to play or share with others, more than a third (37%) cannot dress themselves, 29% cannot eat or drink independently and more than a quarter (28%) are using books incorrectly, swiping or tapping as though they were using a tablet, according to the survey. As a consequence, school staff are on average diverting 2.5 hours a day away from teaching and towards supporting children who are not school-ready, which has a knock-on effect on pupils who lose around a third of learning time each day. Schools say the additional pressures are also affecting staff retention. Almost half (47%) of teachers who took part in the survey said they are considering leaving their role and nearly a quarter (23%) plan on doing so in the next year. “I feel like we’re not teaching as much in the first year now as we used to,” one teacher told researchers. “It’s more babysitting … teaching them basic skills … It’s like being the parent for them.” The report exposes a sharp divide in parental and teacher views. A parallel poll of 1,000 parents of reception-age children found the overwhelming majority (91%) think their child was school-ready. Only 50% of parents think they are solely responsible for toilet-training their child, while one in five parents think children do not need to be toilet-trained before starting reception. More than two-thirds (69%) of school staff think parents need more guidance earlier about child development milestones – two out of five (43%) didn’t hear about school-readiness until their child was already four. More than one in five (22%) of parents had received no visits from a health visitor before their child started school and the majority (63%) had two visits or fewer. Kindred2’s director, Felicity Gillespie, said: “The shocking findings in this year’s report should be a watershed moment for schools and parents because we know that children who are behind before they begin reception are more likely to struggle throughout life. The 40% attainment gap we see at GCSE is already evident at age five.” Cathie Paine, chief executive officer of REAch2, the largest primary-only multiacademy trust in England, added: “We are determined to work with families to ensure that children make the best possible start at school. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “However, as a large trust we are witnessing first-hand the many challenges that schools face with young children’s readiness – this includes not yet having been toilet-trained, lacking some basic skills or simply having had limited exposure to experiences such as looking at books or basic counting. “Being clear about what we mean by ‘school-readiness’ and then knowing the best way to support families is an important challenge for the sector, but one that we cannot shy away from if we are to live up to our promise of improving children’s life chances.” A Department for Education spokesperson told PA Media: “We recognise that children’s early years are crucial – which is why we are providing a package of training, qualifications and expert guidance for early-years workers, which includes support for them to improve children’s speech, language and communication skills. “Parents can also access support to help with their child’s development via the government’s family hubs and Start for Life programme. This is part of our £300m investment to transform services for parents, carers, babies and children in 75 local authority areas across England.”

Teaching assistants quitting schools for supermarkets because of ‘joke’ wages

2022-10-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/09/teaching-assistants-quitting-schools-for-supermarkets-because-of-joke-wages

Headteachers fear impact on children of unfilled vacancies as support staff say rising bills force them to leave jobs in education Headteachers across the country say they cannot fill vital teaching assistant vacancies and that support staff are taking second jobs in supermarkets to survive because their wages are “just a joke”. Schools are reporting that increasing numbers of teaching assistants are leaving because they will not be able to pay for high energy bills and afford food this winter. And with job ads often attracting no applications at all, heads fear they will be impossible to replace. They warn this will have a serious impact on children in the classroom, especially those with special educational needs, and will make it increasingly hard for teachers to focus on teaching. Sam Browne, headteacher at Radnage Church of England primary school in Buckinghamshire, said one of his most highly skilled TAs resigned a week ago in tears because she loved her job but wasn’t earning enough to manage. “She has a child in nursery and by the time she has paid for childcare fees she is making £10 a day,” he said. “That was difficult before, but now she can’t survive.” He added: “The pay for TAs and support staff is just a joke.” Heads say they will struggle to fund the £1,925 pay rise for support staff, offered by local authorities with no extra cash for schools at the beginning of the summer. But they also argue it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Long Furlong primary school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has been advertising for over a year for a TA to provide one-to-one support for a vulnerable child with special needs. They have two similar vacancies and are on their fifth round of advertising. Carol Dunne, the school’s headteacher, said: “I have just posted the ad on social media again, alongside an ad for the local Aldi which pays £11.40 an hour. Our position pays £10 an hour. So they will get more working in a supermarket.” Dunne added that one good candidate pulled out recently when she realised that she would be “worse off working at the school than on benefits”. Claire Pegler, a full-time TA in a primary school in Gloucestershire, currently does evening and weekend shifts at a supermarket to keep her head above water. She told the Observer: “I’m on the edge and don’t know what to do. I don’t want to leave the school, but I’m considering whether I will be able to cope better working full-time at the supermarket.” Two of Pegler’s TA colleagues at the school have interviews next week for additional supermarket work. Her school has been advertising for TAs since April last year, and recently took on two apprentices as they had no applications. “I love my job, but I understand why people aren’t applying,” Pegler said. “Unless you’ve got a partner supporting you on a good wage, the pay isn’t survivable.” Steve Howell, headteacher at City of Birmingham School, a pupil referral unit for pupils aged five to 16, said: “Five years ago, we would advertise for two TA posts and get 150 applicants. Now you are lucky to get three or four. We’re advertising for 10 TAs now and there is very little interest.” Most of Howell’s pupils have behavioural needs and are “disaffected and disengaged from school” when they enrol. Howell employs a larger than average number of TAs to support the children, and says they are “the lifeblood of the school”. “They are often the people who kids go to when they are angry or upset,” he explained. “They de-escalate behaviour issues, so that teachers can go on teaching.” As well as being unable to recruit, Howell says hanging on to TAs is a “massive problem”. “It’s the first time in my 10 years of school leadership that support staff are saying they just can’t afford to keep doing their job any more. Working in a shop pays you more,” he said. Mike Short, head of education at the union Unison, said support staff were leaving schools “in droves” as a result of “chronic low pay”. He said: “Dedicated, experienced workers can’t make the sums add up as household bills soar. And schools can’t recruit new staff, which is a disaster for children’s education.” A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are grateful for the work of all support staff in education, and we recognise that schools – much like wider society – are facing cost pressures.” She added “it is for schools to set the pay of their support staff”, but said that the government was “increasing core school funding by £4bn this year, as well as capping their energy bills”.

Robert Knecht obituary

2023-12-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/10/robert-knecht-obituary

My friend Robert Knecht, who has died aged 97, was a historian of 16th-century France. A lecturer and later professor at the University of Birmingham from the late 1950s until his retirement in 1994, he was the author of 20 monographs, and his book The French Renaissance Court (2008) was awarded the Enid McLeod prize by the Franco-British Society in 2009. He was also a co-founder and early president of the Society for the Study of French History. Born in London, Bob was the only child of two French citizens and as a result he could speak French without any trace of an English accent. His mother, Odette Mioux, was a housewife, and her husband, Jean Knecht, worked at the French consulate. The second world war disrupted Bob’s secondary education: his school, the Lycée Français in London, was evacuated and he spent time at Salesian college in Farnborough, Hampshire, where he consolidated the pursuits and temperament of a sociable loner. Before the war ended he began studying history at King’s College London, graduating in 1948 before doing postgraduate work on Cardinal John Morton, in whose household Sir Thomas More was brought up. Once his studies had finished, he undertook various pieces of work that involved historical research, including for Richard Lonsdale-Hands Associates, the History of Parliament Trust and the Institute of Historical Research. He also travelled around Europe, often cycling and occasionally leading guided historical tours; his adventures on those trips providing ample material for stories that he delivered with characteristically Rabelaisian wit. Eventually, in 1959, Bob settled down as a history lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his career, rising to be a senior lecturer (1968-1977), reader (to 1985) and then professor of history. On his retirement he was appointed emeritus professor and honorary research fellow. In 1982 Bob wrote Francis I, a study of the reign of François I between 1515 and 1547. The book was dedicated to his first wife, Sonia Hodge, whom he married in 1956; he nursed through a long illness until her death in 1984. A revised and enlarged second edition, published in 1994 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the monarch’s birth, was dedicated to his second wife, Maureen White, whom he married in 1986 and from whose death in 2021 he never fully recovered.

Crumbling England: from schools to hospitals, how bad is the current crisis?

2023-09-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/03/crumbling-concrete-uk-schools-hospitals-how-bad-is-it

Ministers have known of the risks for years, so questions will be raised about whether they have mishandled the problem Parents and pupils across the country preparing for the new school term face uncertainty and disruption over the crumbling concrete in the country’s schools. It is a building scandal which has been unfolding for decades – and does not just affect school buildings. Why announce the risk from crumbling concrete in the country’s schools just days before the start of the new term? Ministers have known for years that the cheap and lightweight building material called reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was at risk of structural failure. The Department for Education had identified 572 schools by May this year which might contain Raac, and work was under way to ensure measures were in place for pupils and staff. The collapse of a single beam at one school prompted the safety alert. Schools minister Nick Gibb told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “A beam that had no sign that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed.” There were also other incidents of the ageing material failing without warning. Has the government mishandled the crisis? Ministers will be challenged over whether they should have acted more quickly to assess the scale of the problem in schools. The risk from structural failures in Raac, which was widely used from the 1950s to the 1980s, has been known for more than three decades. The Building Research Establishment published an information paper in 1996 which identified cracking in Raac roof planks. It recommended regular inspections to mitigate the risk. In 2018, part of the roof of a primary school in Gravesend collapsed one weekend. Structural engineers said it was a “near miss”. Despite the partial collapse, it was not until March 2022 that the Department for Education sent all responsible bodies a questionnaire to understand what work they carried out to identify Raac in their schools. The DfE focused on nearly 15,000 schools with buildings constructed between 1930 and 1990. Since summer 2021, the DfE’s corporate risk register, published in its annual report, shows as “critical and very likely” the risk of a building collapse which could cause death or injury. What other public buildings may be unsafe? NHS England wrote to all hospital trusts in 2019-20, asking them to assess their buildings for Raac. A National Audit Office (NAO) report published in July said the survey found 41 buildings at 23 trusts contained the material, including seven hospitals with Raac present throughout. The NAO report said the government has committed to eradicate Raac from the NHS estate by 2035 and allocated £685m over five years up to 2024-25 to mitigate immediate safety risks. West Suffolk hospital, a district general hospital in Bury St Edmunds, was built with Raac beams, and over four years has spent £65m installing safety measures. Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, said heavy patients were treated on the ground floor of one hospital because it was considered unsafe to have them on higher floors. The government said in July that it identified six buildings in the HM Courts & Tribunal Service estate containing Raac. Could offices, shopping centres and residential blocks be at risk? The Local Government Association says it believes municipal architects mainly used it in schools and offices, but it has been found in a wide range of buildings including shopping centres and homes. Extensive surveys will be required because there is no central register of its use.

No improvement in school attainment gap in England for 20 years, report says

2022-08-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/16/no-improvement-in-school-attainment-gap-in-england-for-20-years-report-says

‘Overwhelming evidence’ education system leaves too many poorer students behind, despite decades of policy focus The attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off class mates is just as large now as it was 20 years ago, according to a damning new report which says the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have increased the inequalities in education The landmark study, based on research carried out for the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, found that disadvantaged pupils start school behind their better-off peers, and those inequalities persist through their school years and beyond – eventually having an impact on earnings. The authors state there is overwhelming evidence that the education system in England leaves too many young people behind, and despite decades of policy focus, there has been little if any shift in the gaps in educational attainment between children from different backgrounds. The report said: “Despite decades of policy attention, there has been virtually no change in the ‘disadvantage gap’ in GCSE attainment over the past 20 years. While GCSE attainment has been increasing over time, 16-year-olds who are eligible for free school meals are still around 27 percentage points less likely to earn good GCSEs than less disadvantaged peers.”At the start of their educational journey, just 57% of English pupils eligible for free school meals reached a good level of development at the end of reception in 2019, compared with 74% of their better-off peers, the report notes. Failure is “baked in” at an early age, the authors say. Fewer than half of disadvantaged children reached expected levels of attainment at the end of primary school, compared with nearly 70% of their better-off peers. Of those who do achieve the expected level, just 40% of disadvantaged pupils go on to receive good GCSEs in English and maths, compared with 60% of better-off students. Perhaps the biggest failure of the education system, the report suggests, is that for those leaving school with poor GCSEs, there is a lack of a clear path and “second chances”, leaving millions disadvantaged throughout their lifetime. The report finds the relationship between family background and attainment is not limited to the poorest, but educational performance improves as family income goes up. Just over 10% of young people in middle-earning families gained at least one A or A* grade at GCSE, compared to a third of pupils from the wealthiest tenth of families. These inequalities lead to vast gaps in earning, the report says, pointing out that by the age of 40 the average UK employee with a degree earns twice as much as someone qualified to GCSE level or below. “These challenges are set to become more acute,” the report concludes. “The Covid-19 pandemic put the education system under enormous strain, with significant learning loss overall and a huge increase in educational inequalities. “Perhaps even more damaging in the longer term will be the social, emotional and behavioural impacts of missing out on classroom learning and formative experiences during the lockdowns.” Imran Tahir, a research economist at IFS and an author of the report, said: “We can’t expect the education system to overcome all the differences between children from different family backgrounds. But the English system could do a lot better. “If the government is to meet its mission to have 90% of pupils attaining the expected level at the end of primary school [as stated in its recent schools white paper], it needs to prioritise the education system and especially the disadvantaged pupils within it.” Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Some 12 years of Conservative governments have utterly failed to tackle inequalities across the education system, which are letting down our children and holding back young people’s opportunities and life chances. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “200,000 primary schoolchildren do not have access to a good or outstanding school, teachers are leaving our schools in record numbers, GCSE grades among children on free school meals are going backwards. The Tories are messing about with school structures, not improving children’s outcomes.” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, added: “Government policy is in a rut of meaningless targets, empty rhetoric and pitiful levels of funding. “We need to see investment in early years education, better support for schools which face the greatest challenges, funding for schools and post-16 education which matches the level of need, and a rethink of qualifications and curriculum so that they work well for all learners.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Since 2011, we have narrowed the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers at every stage of education up to the pandemic, and recent figures show that a record proportion of the most disadvantaged students are progressing to higher education. “As part of our work to level up opportunities for all we have invested nearly £5bn to help young people to recover from the impact of the pandemic – with over 2m tutoring courses now started by the pupils who need them most – alongside an ambitious target for 90% of children to leave primary school at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030.”

Cold, damp, unsafe: record number of UK schools refused funding for repairs

2024-03-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/31/cold-damp-unsafe-record-number-of-uk-schools-refused-funding-for-repairs

DfE allocates £450m to 826 building projects at 733 schools, a fall of almost 60% – in terms of total projects – compared with 2020-21 A record number of schools have had bids for building repairs turned down by the government, with experts warning that buckets on desks, freezing classrooms and power cuts are all becoming commonplace. The Department for Education (DfE) announced on Tuesday that it had allocated £450m to 826 building repair projects at 733 schools through its annual condition improvement fund (CIF), which is designed to help academies and small academy trusts keep buildings “safe and in good working order”. But this is a fall of nearly 60% – in terms of total projects – compared with 2020-21, when the government awarded £563m to 2,104 repair projects. The Observer has seen evidence of schools deemed by experts to be in urgent need, and whose bids were turned down last week, with collapsed ceilings, leaking roofs, derelict boilers and outdated electrical systems. Tim Warneford, a building consultant who helped write bids for many academies, said: “There are now many hundreds of schools whose staff and pupils will return after Easter to buildings that are unsafe, cold and damp.” Some of his schools had children learning in mittens and coats but still failed to secure funding to fix the heating. “It’s now common to go into classrooms with buckets on desks and windowsills,” he said. One London primary school he worked with lost its bid for cash to fix an elderly boiler that has been breaking down frequently. In its application, seen by the Observer and classified “highest priority need”, the academy trust CEO said: “Teachers have witnessed children unable to write because their hands are shaking [from cold].” The CEO said children were finding it hard to focus because they were cold. Emails from teachers at the school, included in the bid, described classrooms that, even with electric heaters, didn’t get warmer than 11C or 12C all day. One wrote to the head: “Sitting in [this cold classroom] all day is not a nice experience, and the children are really noticing it. They take it in turns to stand in front of the heater.” Parents were advised to send their children to school in tracksuit bottoms, extra jumpers and coats. The emergency electric heaters also frequently shorted the outdated electrical system, leaving classrooms without lights and power, as well as heating, until it could be fixed, the bid said. Warneford said: “It’s ridiculous. How much more urgent do things need to be before the government will step in?” A DfE spokesperson said: “It is the responsibility of those running our schools such as academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies to ensure their schools are safe, well-maintained and compliant with relevant regulations.” They added: “Schools and sixth form colleges will benefit from £1.8bn to help maintain their buildings, taking the total amount of funding to over £17bn since 2015.” A small rural primary in the south-west had a bid to fix its badly leaking roof turned down, even though the ceiling had collapsed in the children’s cloakroom. The school was forced to cordon off a staircase because the ceiling above it was also at risk of possible collapse, Warneford said. Young children now have to go outside and walk around the building to access the toilets. He said: “There was plaster on the carpet because the ceiling fell down, but it still wasn’t funded. The roof area is soaking wet, so other areas are vulnerable.” Kit Andrew, headteacher of a primary academy in south London, was awarded £2m to replace the school’s failing boiler and electrics, which were both put in when the school was built in 1976, and now leave the school in frequent danger of having to close because there is no heating, hot water or power. However, with no money awarded to replace the badly leaking roof, he told the Observer that the new electrical work is likely to be damaged by the rainwater coming through the ceiling. “Water is running through the light fittings when we get bad rain,” he said. The school is currently relying on strategically placed buckets. Andrew said the boiler is so old that they have been ringing retired engineers, trying to find someone who knows how to fix it, as well as sourcing defunct spare parts from scrap merchants. To increase his chances of winning the bid to replace it, Andrew put forward 10% of the total cost, which wiped out the school’s reserves. He said he is now “staring down a deficit budget”. He added: “I’m losing a teacher in May and won’t replace her until September to save money. A much-needed teaching assistant retired this week, and I now can’t replace her at all.”

How asbestos could slow efforts to fix crumbling concrete in English schools

2023-09-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/03/how-asbestos-could-slow-efforts-fix-crumbling-concrete-english-schools

Work to tackle Raac could expose asbestos that remains in buildings despite being banned in the 1990s The crisis over crumbling aerated concrete in English schools could exacerbate the lingering problem of asbestos in public buildings, creating an even bigger headache for the government and causing the re-emergence of a long unresolved issue. More than 150 schools have been found to contain buildings made from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which has been assessed to be at risk of collapse after exceeding its 30-year lifespan, with many closing because of safety concerns. The material was used extensively in construction from the 1950s to the 1990s, which was also the boom time for asbestos use until it was banned due to the health risks from inhalation. This means it is possible asbestos will become exposed in buildings affected by crumbling concrete and could slow down remediation works, extending school building closures by months. Despite asbestos being banned more than two decades ago, the material remains in at least 300,000 non-domestic buildings in the UK. However, sources believe many of the public buildings affected by Raac are asbestos-free. Campaigners and teaching unions have been ringing alarm bells for years, with the last official figures published by the Department for Education in 2019 showing that asbestos is present in four out of five schools (81%) in England. In July, the teaching union NASUWT called for the urgent prioritisation of removing asbestos from school buildings, criticising the government’s “lack of urgency” and saying it was “passing on a potentially deadly legacy” to current staff and pupils. The latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data showed the number of female teachers dying from asbestos related lung cancer was increasing, and it reported there were more than 5,000 asbestos-related deaths in 2019 across the UK. Asbestos is the general name given to several naturally occurring minerals that have crystallised to form fibres that are strong, heat- and chemical-resistant and do not dissolve in water or evaporate. Before being banned – partially in 1984 and completely in 1999 – the material was used in many products, including insulation material for buildings, boilers and pipes. It is not considered harmful when in large pieces and undisturbed, but when moved or exposed it can release smaller fibres that can be breathed in or swallowed, and can lead to cancers including mesothelioma (a type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs). The process of assessing and removing the affected concrete panels in school buildings could disturb asbestos material, which may be present in ceiling voids or in the coating of the panels themselves. But robust monitoring and management regulations mean such buildings would remain shuttered while the material is disposed of. All public buildings are required to have an asbestos register identifying the location of any use of the material, although the HSE has raised concerns about non-compliance among schools in keeping this up to date. A work and pensions select committee report published in April 2022 urged the government to introduce a 40-year deadline for the removal of asbestos from non-domestic buildings, focusing on high-risk settings such as schools first. The government rejected the proposal, arguing that setting a deadline “would increase the opportunity for exposure” when the risk is low where asbestos can be “managed safely until planned refurbishment works”. “There also remains a concern that introducing a deadline would stimulate poor removal and disposal practices with a further risk of increase in asbestos exposures,” the government said in its response to the report. The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.

More than 90 English primary schools to close or face closure for lack of pupils

2023-05-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/29/more-90-primary-schools-in-england-to-close-or-face-closure-for-lack-of-pupils

Guardian analysis lays bare effect of dwindling pupil numbers and associated funding amid rising housing and childcare costs More than 90 English primary schools – many of them in cities and towns – are to close or are at risk of closure because they are more than two-thirds empty, according to Guardian analysis of government data. A combination of falling birth rates and the urban exodus of young families in the face of rising housing and childcare costs, mean many primary schools are having their numbers – and associated funding – drop, with some struggling to keep their doors open as a result. The analysis showed 88 primary schools in England were more than two-thirds empty last year, leaving them in danger of closure. On average, the vacancy rate – the proportion of unfilled places – recorded by the 156 schools that have closed since 2009-10 in their last year of operation was 66%. A further four primary schools were already proposed to close. The analysis deliberately excludes schools that opened in 2021, as the process to fill places at a new school can take some time. Across England, there were more unfilled primary school places than in any year since 2009-10, the equivalent to 570,000 pupils, or 11.5% of total capacity. The Department for Education (DfE) is expecting the number of pupils at state-funded schools to decline by 944,000 over the next decade. Jon Andrews, the head of analysis at thinktank the Education Policy Institute, said the number of pupils was already starting to fall in primary schools. “That peaked in 2019 and it’s fallen by about 0.5%,” he said. “In secondary schools it will peak in the next academic year and then start to fall after that. “Most of the funding that schools get is on a per-pupil basis, so when numbers start to fall, their overall funding falls. Government will still be able to say, we’re maintaining per-pupil funding; but that doesn’t make much difference if you’re a headteacher who’s lost £30,000 a year.” The problem was most pronounced in urban centres: close to half of the at-risk schools identified in the analysis were located in cities and towns. A quarter of them were in rural villages and a further one in six in more isolated parts of the country. Local authorities across the UK are wrestling with how to manage falling pupil rolls. Birmingham city council recently announced plans to cut the number of primary school places by more than 300 from September 2024. It plans to achieve this by reducing the number of classes, rather than closing schools. The Local Government Association said the challenges were compounded by the fact that local authorities had no direct control over academy schools. An LGA spokesperson said: “Councils should be given powers to reduce the size of, or close academies – as they do with maintained schools – where there is evidence of a significant drop in demand and a need to ensure a school remains financially viable. “Councils should also be given the responsibility for in-year admissions, and powers to direct all schools to accept local children on to their roll, where appropriate.” Most of the schools with high vacancy rates were in the south-west and south-east. Across England, the number of children enrolled had fallen in more than a quarter of primary schools, with some schools (80) registering decreases of more than 50% in pupild since 2009-10. Almost half of the schools in inner London and a third of those in the south-west of England had fewer pupils in 2021-22 compared with 2009-10 (or the first year for which data is available). In contrast, two-thirds of the schools in the north-west and the West Midlands had had an increase in pupil population. The vacancy rate is not the only indication of the risk of closure, as some schools may not have had problems filling their places but decided to close for other reasons, including the size of the reception year. The number of reception-year pupils had fallen between 2019-20 and 2021-22 in almost half of the primary schools that offered places, with about 2,000 of them (13%) below the replacement rate, meaning the number of children in reception is smaller than their year 1 and year 2 cohorts. Since 2009, about 160 primary schools had closed and about 570 had merged, analysis of the DfE figures showed. During the 2021-22 academic year there were 16,791 primary schools in England. It is estimated that the number of pupils enrolled in the reception year will decrease by 5% across England by 2026-27, with some local authorities seeing their youngest pupils down by almost 20%. These include Lambeth in London, Brighton and Hove, York and the Humber. In some areas it is estimated the number of reception-age children could halve within the next five years. A DfE spokesperson said: “We have created almost 1.2 million places since 2010, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations, and work closely with local authorities to make sure they offer a school place to every child in the country and support the long-term viability of their schools.”

Tricia Tyler obituary

2023-08-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/26/tricia-tyler-obituary

My friend Tricia Tyler, who has died suddenly aged 60, was a journalist and former editor of the Nursing Times who later worked as a lecturer and assessor in further education. After a postgraduate course in publishing and production at the London College of Printing, she embarked on her journalistic career in 1988 as a feature writer at West Indian Digest, and the following year became co-editor of Caribbean Times, before moving in 1991 to Pulse, the medical magazine. In 1993 she became features editor of Nursing Times and was promoted to deputy editor in 1996 and then editor in 1998. In 2002 she gave that up to teach young people about journalism as a lecturer at Harlow College, Essex. Trish continued to work as a freelance journalist and for two years was editor of a health employment magazine. From 2013 she was a project coordinator and assessor for Keyed Up Training, and from 2015 also for the Skills Company, both independent training providers in the Greater Manchester area. At the time of her death she was working as an assessor at Tameside College, Ashton-under-Lyne. Born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Patricia was the youngest of four children of Rachel (nee Skelling) and Daniel Reid, a tug boat chief engineer. Her father died when Trish was seven. Her mother married Hendry Niven, who helped to raise Trish and remained a key figure in her life. The family moved to Bridge of Weir, near Paisley, where they lived in a house built by Hendry called Dun Tannin’. He, his brother and father had all worked in the local leather factory. Trish excelled at Park Mains high school, Erskine. When the family moved to Blackpool to open a B&B, Trish helped out in the kitchen and served at tables while studying for her A-levels at Blackpool Collegiate high school. She went on to study English at Sheffield Hallam, the first in her family to go to university, graduating in 1984. Tricia met Chris Tyler when they both volunteered at the Schoolhouse alternative education project in Deptford, south London, in the 1980s. When Chris left to teach circus children at Roberts Brothers Super Circus, Trish journeyed far and wide to be with him at weekends. They married in 1994 and settled in Harlesden, north London. In 1997 they moved to Ware, Hertfordshire, and in 2006 to Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, where they raised their two sons, Euan and Rory. Tricia loved the outdoors, was a keen walker and enjoyed tending her allotment. She was also a theatregoer, an avid reader and had a passion for Roman history. She loved arts and crafts, and painted a number of acrylics, including a triptych of the view from her home on Hough Hill. She volunteered for the Stalybridge Town Team, which runs projects to reinvigorate the area. Trish had an enormous sense of fun and a fierce determination, never letting obstacles deflect her from any goal. She is survived by Chris, Euan and Rory, by Hendry, and by her sisters, Rachel and Sandra.

Andy Kuczmierczyk obituary

2023-12-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/25/andy-kuczmierczyk-obituary

My friend Andy Kuczmierczyk, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was professor of clinical psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, and also a life coach and a poet. Starting out on his career in the late-1970s, he studied cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) at Middlesex hospital in central London, under Victor Meyer, a founding father of CBT. Andy deployed adventurous techniques including “flooding”, which involves people with phobias being exposed immediately and directly to the things they fear most. Moving to the US in 1981, he completed a doctorate at the University of Athens, Georgia, and taught in various medical schools, becoming professor of clinical psychology at the University of New Orleans. On his return to London in 1995, Andy lectured at City University and served the NHS as a consultant clinical psychologist. Appointed professor at the University of Hertfordshire in 2013, he had many academic publications to his name, as well as an unfinished book about the healing power of forgiveness. He was born in London to Polish parents, Irma (nee Zembrzuska) and Antoni Kuczmierczyk, who had been wartime refugees. Irma was awarded Poland’s Cross of Valour for her heroic role in the Warsaw uprising of 1944. In 1957 they moved with their two small children, Andy and his sister, Hania, to Munich to join Radio Free Europe, broadcasting to communist Poland. However, Andy and Hania returned to Britain for their education, staying with their grandparents in Highgate, north London. The siblings remained a close, unbreakable unit. During school holidays in Munich, they spoke Polish with their parents, German in the street and English with friends. At St Aloysius’ college in Highgate, a Catholic grammar school where most pupils were of Polish, Irish or Italian origin, he met several lifelong friends, including me. Andy went on to study psychology and sociology at Keele University, graduating in 1976. His Christian faith remained strong, and he believed passionately in social justice. Intensely proud of his heritage, he was saddened by the rise of populism in Poland and the divisions of Brexit. Andy was a total romantic at heart, and a talented musician, linguist and songwriter. He wrote four collections of poetry in English and Polish, including Transitions of Love, Hope and Faith (2009). A keen tennis player, in his youth he looked like Björn Borg. Immensely popular, he lived life with an infectious enthusiasm, and threw memorable parties at his home in St Albans. He was a great listener, at his happiest helping patients, friends and family face life’s challenges. His work continued right up until he went into hospital in August after his cancer diagnosis. While working in the US, he met and in 1988 married Jola Pasikowska. They divorced in 2003. Andy is survived by their two children, Ala and Alex, Hania and his nephew, Danny.

Parents and school staff in England: is your building made of aerated concrete?

2023-08-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/31/school-leaders-in-england-is-your-building-made-of-aerated-concrete

We want to speak to staff and parents at affected English schools as around 150 may be forced to shut over safety fears Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken. The guidance from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools and colleges just days before the start of the new school year. Of those institutions, 52, already have mitigations in place. We want to speak to school leaders and staff at affected schools or colleges in England. Does your building contain aerated concrete? What are you planning to do? What communications have you received? How will this affect you? We’d also like to hear from parents who have children at affected schools. What are your concerns? If you are aware or have concerns about other buildings outside of school settings, we’d also like to hear from you.

School uniforms may be barrier to physical activity among younger girls

2024-02-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/15/school-uniforms-may-be-barrier-to-physical-activity-among-younger-girls

Fewer pupils of primary-school age meet WHO minimum in countries where uniforms are the norm, Cambridge study finds Restrictive uniforms could be preventing primary school pupils, especially girls, from being physically active, research suggests. In countries where most schools require students to wear uniforms, fewer young people reach the World Health Organization’s minimum recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity a day across a whole week, according to a study by University of Cambridge. There was a greater difference between girls and boys of primary-school age in countries where uniforms were common. The finding was not replicated among children of secondary-school age. This may be because of the incidental exercise that younger children get throughout the school day, for example, through running, climbing and active play at break and lunchtimes. The findings confirm earlier evidence that girls feel less comfortable participating in active play if they are wearing certain types of clothing such as skirts or dresses. Dr Mairead Ryan, a researcher at the faculty of education and MRC epidemiology unit at Cambridge, said: “Schools often prefer to use uniforms for various reasons. We are not trying to suggest a blanket ban on them, but to present new evidence to support decision-making. School communities could consider design, and whether specific characteristics of a uniform might either encourage or restrict any opportunities for physical activity across the day.” The study, which was published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, drew on large-scale statistical evidence about the participation in physical activity of more than 1 million five- to-17-year-olds internationally, combined with newly collected data on how common school uniforms were in these countries. The researchers said the results did not definitively prove that school uniforms limited children’s physical activity, but they noted that this had been indicated in previous, smaller studies, and that further research was needed to establish causation. A 2021 study in England found that the design of girls’ PE uniforms deterred students from participation in certain activities, while the England hockey player Tess Howard has proposed redesigning gendered sports uniforms. Other studies have suggested girls are more self-conscious about engaging in physical activity when wearing uniforms in which they do not feel comfortable. Dr Esther van Sluijs, senior author and MRC investigator, said: “Girls might feel less confident about doing things like cartwheels and tumbles in the playground, or riding a bike on a windy day, if they are wearing a skirt or dress. “Social norms and expectations tend to influence what they feel they can do in these clothes. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting physical health, that’s a problem.” The WHO recommends young people get 60 minutes of at least moderate-intensity physical activity a day. The Cambridge study confirmed previous observations that most children and adolescents were not meeting this recommendation, especially girls, who have a gap of 7.6 percentage points with boys. The median proportion of all students who met the recommendation in the three-quarters of countries where uniform-wearing was the norm was 16%. This rose to 19.5% in countries where uniforms were less common. There was a consistent gender gap in physical activity levels, with boys 1.5 times more likely than girls to meet WHO recommendations across all ages. In countries where school uniforms were less common, the gap was 5.5 percentage points, while in those where uniforms were the norm, the gap was 9.8 percentage points. Sarah Hannafin, the head of policy at the school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Physical activity, PE and sport are an important part of the school day and curriculum for pupils. Schools do much to help ensure all pupils are healthy and physically active and break down barriers to participation, including among girls – and this includes considering the uniform choices available for children.”

Meet the people who took an evening class… and changed their life

2023-01-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/08/meet-the-people-who-took-an-evening-class-and-changed-their-life

Whether you are stuck in a rut or have ambitions you’d still like to pursue, adult education gives you a second chance. Six people tell Michael Segalov how taking a course inspired them I studied biology in Iraq for my undergraduate degree and worked in a pathology lab. In my 20s, I fled the place where I was born and raised, when Islamic State were advancing. I arrived in the UK in 2014, only intending to stay for a week, but I became a refugee. Living in London I took a job working for the NHS. I loved being part of the health service, starting as a lab assistant before moving on to train doctors and nurses. Like most people who move to the capital, I flat-shared. I often cooked for my housemates and my colleagues, too. It was a way to show love and to express my creativity. Plus, my mum is a very good cook. I grew up eating wonderfully. In London, I’d spend my weekends making Iraqi meals to share with the guidance of my mum on FaceTime. The smells and flavours of Iraq filled the kitchen. When I missed home most, cooking and food helped me stay in touch with my heritage. At first, cooking casually was enough. But I wanted to try and learn more. So, at 27, I took a few days off work and approached some restaurants about doing some work experience. A new Middle Eastern restaurant offered me a gig helping them develop dishes and design the menu. From then I did bits of freelance food work on the side, all the while still working at the hospital. That’s when I heard about the School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire and their annual refugee scholarship with a charity called Tern. I studied for a diploma there, an intense, six-month commitment. Most of the course was baking – patisserie and viennoiserie, too. Baking made total sense to me, far more than the fast-paced speed of restaurant kitchens. It’s a humble craft, which takes patience and time. It slowed me down, changing my perspective on cooking. It’s there that I met Neil, now my business partner. He was on my course, having previously worked in construction. Once my studies were over I was working in an east London bakery when Neil called to say he and a friend were taking over a bakery in Manchester – did I want to be part of it? After one visit I said yes and moved up north. That was three years ago. It hasn’t always been easy. At Companio, we’re a small neighbourhood business with a real community feel. We do all sorts – sourdough, pastries, lunches. And we supply businesses from little cafés to a Michelin-starred restaurant. Developing new recipes is still my favourite responsibility. Opening the doors was a challenge, then lockdown came along. Now, we’re grappling with energy and food prices, and the economy. But I have not a single regret. My family is of Assyrian heritage, have been through a lot and are spread all over the world – before Isis we were fleeing genocide. We’ve learned how to create home in ourselves, rather than relying on a specific location. Through my recipes and our bakery that continues.schoolofartisanfood.org; companiobakery.co.uk My parents were always clear – ours was a family where the children would go to university and enter academic professions. With no room for negotiation, that’s what I did. Born and raised in Nigeria, I came to the UK to study for a master’s in business administration. From there, I started to work in IT. I enjoyed the job, sure – planning and delivery suited my personality. Yet there was something missing, an itch to be creative and independent in my work. Back at home my mum worked in food. I’d always imagined one day I might return to Nigeria and follow in her footsteps. Still, life happens: I got married here, had a son, made a life and took on responsibilities. Then one day it dawned on me – why not try to create a food business here instead? Food had always been a passion, taking up most of my headspace. When throwing dinner parties I’d often lose whole days in the buildup. Most of my friends came from different backgrounds. When they’d eat my food, they’d always comment on how the flavours of west Africa excited them. Maybe, I thought, I could turn this into a business with legs. My USP? A fine-dining restaurant exploring and elevating the food of west Africa. I signed up for a 10-week evening course at Leiths cookery school. It was full on – three nights a week I’d head to classes right after work. I learned the fundamentals of a kitchen and how a restaurant works. It gave me the confidence to take the next steps. I turned my house into a development lab and test kitchen, working with consultant chefs to take recipes from home – the food of my mother and aunties. We used grains of paradise, yam and plantains; ehuru (African nutmeg) too. We served jollof rice, suya and miyan taushe. Investors were hard to come by, they saw our concept and cuisine as risky. Landlords were reluctant to take a punt on someone so new to the food industry, too. And I hadn’t gone the traditional route – I didn’t spend years in culinary school, I never worked inside other people’s businesses. I did it my own way. It has been a real challenge, but I made it happen. And tonight? Well, we’re fully booked again at Akoko – my restaurant just off Oxford Street, which serves a tasting menu of west African food.leiths.com; akoko.co.uk It’s been 10 years since I did my floristry course. I started out my working life as a teacher before moving into interior design in London. I returned home to Jersey and continued working, though soon it had to be juggled with single parenthood and three small daughters. Out of the blue, circumstances meant I had to leave my job and turn my attention solely to the children. It was a challenging time, raising my family, unable to work. I was at home all the time, so people started to leave their dogs with me when they needed caring for – my mum, a neighbour, the vicar. I set up a small dog hotel business, Pet and Breakfast, in our home. My own career aspirations took a back seat, but it suited my parenting setup. Although I was able to provide for my family, it was soul-destroying not being creative – and having my home trashed by dogs regularly. Once the girls reached nine and 11, I knew I had to make a change. I knew I wanted to work with flowers. It just made sense really. When I was little, my parents had a beautiful garden. I’d steal their roses and make potions in the bathroom. As a young adult I’d stand in the doorways of flower shops transfixed by what I saw. I researched hard looking for a place to train and settled on the Tallulah Rose Flower School. There was a four-week course on offer, which – due to my childcare responsibilities – they agreed to squeeze into three if I worked hard. The preceding years had been tough. A bleak time, professionally and personally. On this course, I could breathe again and came back to life. I was taught business and pricing, caring for and processing flowers, and the mechanical elements to floristry. But mostly we were left with a bucket of flowers and encouraged to explore and create. Through that I found my own style. Back in Jersey I got my business going. Now I also have a shop and a small team. Every day I’m grateful for the opportunity that course gave me. Tallula Rose Flower School at tallulahroseflowers.com and Wild Thyme at wildethyme.com I left school at 16 with barely any qualifications. Most work I could find paid very little, so I did all sorts, then I found a job as a porter in a hospital geriatric ward. Music was my life back then, but I’ve never played an instrument. I wanted to find a way to feel part of the scene. I picked up a camera with little thought – a cheap point-and-shoot job – to try and cement a role for myself, taking pictures. It was on a whim, really, that I decided to try and learn more about photography. That’s how I stumbled upon a local college course. I went to classes one evening a week and learned the basics. My first course lasted 10 weeks – before the end I’d enrolled on another. Each one focused on a different skill – there was aperture and composition, darkrooms and exposure. I enrolled on a daytime course in another part of town, part-time, when I’d completed all the evening options available. Dad was a plumber, Mum was a bookkeeper and lollipop lady. I’d never done anything artsy before – there hadn’t really been an opportunity. Meeting other students on the course – from all backgrounds, with all sorts of experiences – made me realise maybe I did have something to express, ideas to explore and share. I was still working in the hospital through this time. Management gave me free rein to take pictures in its buildings. In my spare time I was learning all about documentary photography and at the hospital I put it into practice. Photography became my world. Two years later I took the plunge and set up shop as a full-time photographer. My practice grew from there. Ten years after I first attended night school, I had a conversation with my old tutor. He was planning to leave and thought I might be a good fit to take over. A decade after I’d first stepped foot in the college, I found myself standing at the front of the classroom. I’ve continued to teach ever since, studying for my own MA in fine art along the way. Adult education is a gift, it changes lives. But in recent years cuts have seen access to it decimated. By 2025 there’ll be £1bn less in adult education than there was in 2010. Not everyone grows up in an environment full of options, others take a while to find their calling. Something has to change, and rapidly, or else someone like me would never have the opportunities to do what I’ve done.alanjwilkinson.com It’s still new to me introducing myself as “Deborah Brett, ceramicist”. I used to have to list all sorts of things to explain what I did for a living – finding the right descriptors was a real task. I started out as a fashion editor. I worked as a stylist and writer. After having my third child, nine years ago, I’d been in fashion for almost two decades. I could do it with my eyes closed. I needed a new challenge – the next frontier. As a parent you look at your kids and think, what is going to ignite their passion? How can I help them find it? We actively expose children to new opportunities. As adults we deny ourselves this, falling into a pattern of do and repeat. I decided to create the same space for myself. I gave myself a year to try all sorts of new things: printmaking, flower-arranging, baking. You name it, I gave it a go. By figuring out what I didn’t like I thought I might stumble upon what I could love. I must have been mumbling about all this in front of my parents-in-law because for my birthday they bought me a short ceramics course. I went along and over a few evenings fell in love. I promptly bought another course, then the next one. It snowballed. As my interest developed I found a new set of night courses at a local adult education college. Soon, my tutor was suggesting I do a BTec. I was tentative, signing up for a year-long, two-days-a-week course on top of a job and parenting. But it was phenomenal. Under the tutelage of Nam Tran – of Great Pottery Throw Down fame – I immersed myself in this world, learning from scratch a totally new skill. In lockdown I made my first collection for a hotel on my kitchen floor. Since then I’ve built my own studio in the garden. I’d be in there every day if I could, experimenting with shapes and glazes. I launched my own range of tableware, working with a factory that handmakes the pieces. I now have a website where I can ship all over the world. And there’s so much more. My brain is constantly buzzing. It wasn’t just the craft I’ve found myself exploring. As adults we learn to be jugglers, always balancing responsibilities and priorities. For a long time I saw multitasking as a superpower. Now I think it’s one of the worst things I can do. Ceramics has taught me to focus on one single thing at a time, to give each moment my undivided attention. Without that ethos, no piece will prevail. And even then most of what you make won’t work so you really must learn to embrace failure. There’s something liberating in teaching yourself to let go.dbceramic.co.uk The days are long if you’re a cheesemaker. By 5am, I’m driving to a nearby farm to collect milk in our trailer from a neighbouring farm. By 7am, it’s warming while we have breakfast as a family. By 3pm, however, most of the process is complete. I worked in accountancy before we started Curlew Dairy – both jobs have their challenges. But making something of our own and doing it on our own terms? Now I’ve tasted the freedom I’d never go back. I grew up on our family dairy farm in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. It was a run-of-the-mill affair – 60 or 70 cows – nothing compared to modern factory farms. I studied agricultural business management at university although my heart was never in it. I spent the next seven years working in the Manchester office of a major accountancy firm. I’ve no regrets about that time – it’s where I met my wife, Samantha. When we started to contemplate starting a family, though, I knew I couldn’t stay. Deep down I wanted to be working with my hands. Instead, I was behind a desk 12 hours a day. I had all these memories of my dad being around at breakfast and lunch when I was growing up, doing the school run, making the business work around family life. I wanted that, too. So we returned to Yorkshire. We needed to find a way to diversify, making the farm sustainable. When I started sounding out advice from others locally, there was a suggestion we turn to Wensleydale cheese. Seven odd years ago, Sam (while heavily pregnant with our first child) and I enrolled on a one-day cheesemaking course at the Courtyard Dairy in nearby Austwick. The course was a springboard for so much afterwards. It was the network of support we left with, really, which was the greatest education – the expertise of our tutor, Andy, and our fellow students starting out on similar cheesemaking journeys. It’s a world away from the cutthroat nature of finance I’d previously known. With the support and generosity of our community – locals and the people we’d met on our course – we set up Curlew Dairy. We make a traditional, unpasteurised Wensleydale out of our garage. It’s hard work, undoubtedly, and keeps both of us busy. But whenever I need to, I can step out and spend time being a dad. Courtyard Dairy Courses at thecourtyarddairy.co.uk and Curlew Dairy at curlewdairy.co.uk This article was amended on 8 January 2023. A previous version misspelled the bakery Companio as “Campanio”.

Teachers’ strikes: NEU accuses government of refusing to negotiate

2023-04-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/27/teachers-strikes-neu-accuses-government-of-refusing-to-negotiate

Union co-head apologises to parents on fifth day of England and Northern Ireland strikes, saying it is ‘not what members want’ Teaching unions have accused the government of stonewalling and refusing to enter into negotiations, as teachers in England and Northern Ireland started a fifth day of strikes on Thursday. Dr Mary Bousted, a co-head of the National Education Union, apologised to parents facing another day with their children not in school, but said teachers were striking for the future of education. She said there were strike exemptions for vulnerable children, and for children in years 6, 11, and 13 who were preparing for exams. “I apologise to the parents and say that this is not what the National Education Union wants to do, it’s not what its members want to do,” she said on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “But I think parents have to consider that every day now, there is an ongoing crisis in our schools.” She added: “This is not an education service which is able to function properly any more because of the ongoing crisis in our schools. Members would not be taking strike action, when they’re already inadequately paid, if they felt there was any alternative. We want to negotiate. We want to end this dispute.” Bousted said class sizes in secondary schools were the highest on record, while those in primaries were the highest in 40 years. Heads were facing a staffing crisis, with teacher vacancies 37% higher than they were last year and 93% higher than in 2019, she said. Children’s lives and health were being put at risk in “deteriorating and dilapidated school buildings”, she added. “It’s not any longer a question, actually, of fairness for teachers. It is a question of supply and demand – and we have lost teacher supply,” she said. The government has offered teachers in England a one-off payment of £1,000 and a 4.3% pay rise, and the starting salary for teachers in England is due to rise to £30,000 a year by September. All four teaching unions have rejected this offer and more strike action is planned in the coming weeks. Bousted said unions wanted to negotiate, but the government was refusing to come to the table. “We’ve asked for an above-inflation pay rise, but we’d be prepared to negotiate a decent pay rise for teachers,” she said, adding that unions would consider a multiyear deal. “Let’s look at teacher workload. Let’s look at the role of inspection. Let’s look at terms and conditions … It’s all up for negotiation. All we have to do is get in the room, negotiate, [and] that’s what the government’s not doing.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Any strike action is hugely damaging. We have made a fair and reasonable pay offer to teachers recognising their hard work and commitment. Thanks to the further £2bn we are investing in our schools, next year, school funding will be at its highest level in history.”

One in three young teachers in England skipping meals to make ends meet

2023-04-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/05/one-in-three-young-teachers-in-england-skipping-meals-to-make-ends-meet

NEU survey also finds one in five teachers aged 29 or under have taken on a second job as pay fails to keep up with cost of living One in three young teachers in England are skipping meals and spending less on food because their pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, while others are taking second jobs, a survey has found. More than 8,000 state school teachers in England contacted by the National Education Union revealed that 34% of teachers aged 29 or younger said they have been forced to skip meals to make ends meet, with one in five saying they have taken on a second job in addition to teaching full-time. The results underline the vote by NEU’s annual conference for a further five days of strike action this summer, and a ballot to authorise further strikes in autumn, in an effort to wring improved pay from the government for state school teachers in England. More than one in 10 young teachers said they expected to no longer be working in education in two years’ time, with an excessive workload, a lack of trust from the government as well as pay among the main reasons for leaving the profession. “The constant goodwill required in order to do the job is no longer viable, I feel like I’m constantly living on the edge of a breakdown but I have no choice but to carry on. My wage no longer lasts the month and I am constantly overdrawn,” one member reported as part of the survey, taken in February. Mary Bousted, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “It is a stark reality for current education staff that so many are having to take on a second job in order to survive. That so many should be leaving the profession or intend to do so in the very near future, can come as no surprise. This doesn’t prevent it from remaining a tragedy, and a waste of talent.” One NEU member said: “I regularly use food banks because my salary doesn’t cover my outgoings, including rent, electric and gas bills. It’s embarrassing that I’m a teacher, thought to be a respectable well-paid job, but I can’t afford to live.” The National Association of Head Teachers became the third teaching union to overwhelmingly reject the government’s pay offer. In an online ballot, 90% of NAHT members voted not to accept the offer, with almost all saying the offer was “unaffordable” for school budgets. Teachers also reported severe problems with recruitment, with some vacancies unable to be filled or needing to be advertised multiple times, resulting in posts being empty for extended periods and classes being taught by non-specialists or cover teachers. “We have gaps trying to be filled everywhere across the school. This was not the case five years ago,” one said. Another reported: “We cannot fill our posts; kids are taught by different short-term supply [teachers] for multiple subjects, including GCSE students.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Thousands of both experienced and newly recruited teachers are leaving classrooms in their droves, while too few new teachers are coming in to replace them – and our children’s education is paying the price.” Around one in 10 school support staff, including teaching assistants, who were surveyed by the union, said they were on benefits such as universal credit to supplement their income. NEU members said teaching assistants were often arriving early at school to keep warm and staying late to charge appliances because of soaring energy costs.

Alan Smith obituary

2022-10-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/16/alan-smith-obituary

My dad, Alan Smith, who has died after a heart attack aged 81, was an artist, designer and bon vivant at the heart of the “swinging London” scene of the 1960s, before embarking on a career in art education that culminated in him becoming principal of Bradford Art College. It was while at Goldsmiths College, south-east London, studying fine art in the early 60s, that Alan became part of a bohemian scene of artists, publishers and poets drinking in pubs around Bloomsbury. Alan took on the role of driver for the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh when he stayed in London. He designed book jackets for the publishers Sidgwick & Jackson, and the fabric used for a dress worn in the 1967 film The Jokers, starring Oliver Reed and Michael Crawford. Oliver and my dad became drinking buddies, and my brother Ollie is named after the actor. He also designed a 45ft high caricature of Ted Heath for John Lennon’s 1971 exhibition at Alexandra Palace in north London, and helped to define the look of the band Genesis, creating trippy posters, set designs and merchandise for their 1972 UK tour. Born in Bootle, Merseyside, to Flo Gerrard, a millworker, and Fred Smith, a cinema projectionist then electrician, Alan was the first in his family to pass his 11-plus, going to St Bede’s grammar school in Bradford, and the first to go to university, to what is now Goldsmiths, University of London. He would make it his life’s work to encourage others to transform their lives, regardless of their background. After graduating in 1962, he did voluntary service overseas, including one project where he drove a Land Rover overland to Mali. In 1968, Alan got his first lecturing role at West Sussex College of Design. This was followed by visiting and staff lecturer posts at Harlow School of Art, London College of Printing and Winchester School of Art. Meanwhile, in 1970, he had bought a semi-derelict farmhouse high up on the Pennines, and over the years transformed it into a fabulous house and garden, the scene of many parties. He taught at Halifax School of Art (1972-74), Cleveland College of Art and Design (1977-79) and Huddersfield Polytechnic (1979-84), as well as working as a graphic designer for North Yorkshire county council (1976-77), and as an educational advisory officer for BTec from 1988. The same year, he was made principal of Bradford Art College, where his contemporary David Hockney had studied. He left that post in 2001 to be a founding partner of Kendall Smith Design. In 2013, Alan came out of retirement to head up the IMS Design and Innovation Academy in Noida, India. However, he resigned in protest just over a year later, after a dispute about unpaid wages. Alan adored fine food and drink, and music from Puccini to Prince Buster. He was married twice, first to Lesley Rogers, a TV producer, with whom he had two sons, Hugo and me, and then to Bev Kendall, a textile designer, with whom he had three sons, Alexander, Oliver and Sholto. Both marriages ended in divorce. Alan is survived by his children and by five grandchildren, Niamh, Binks, Gus, Oscar and Milo.

Just two in five pupils in England always feel safe in school, survey finds

2024-04-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/26/two-in-five-pupils-in-england-always-feel-safe-in-school-survey-behaviour

Teachers say behaviour getting worse as survey also shows parents getting less supportive of school policies Only two in five children in England say they always feel safe at school, according to a government survey, and teachers from across Britain have told the Guardian they have seen pupils’ behaviour deteriorate over the last two years. Teachers said violence and abuse aimed at school staff and other students had increased alongside displays of homophobia, racism and sexism, with women in particular bearing the brunt of aggressive sexual remarks. The findings come as authorities in Wales considered their response to Wednesday’s attack at a state school in Carmarthenshire, where a pupil has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after allegedly stabbing another pupil and two teachers. A 15-year-old boy has also been arrested after police received reports about messages on social media referring to the stabbing. While violent incidents involving weapons in schools remain extremely rare, the survey carried out for the Department for Education (DfE) found significant differences between the views of headteachers, classroom teachers, pupils and parents over school behaviour. Asked how often they felt safe at school, only 39% of pupils said they had felt safe every day of the previous week. In contrast, 69% of headteachers and senior staff said their school was safe every day. Similarly, 35% of secondary school leaders said their school had been “calm and orderly” every day of the previous week, but only 16% of secondary school teachers and 13% of pupils agreed, with all responses lower than those recorded in the DfE’s 2022 survey. The survey also revealed that parents have become less supportive of school behaviour policies, with 24% of secondary school staff saying parents disagreed with their school’s rules, compared with 20% in 2022. Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The vast majority of pupils are well behaved, and schools remain overwhelmingly safe and positive environments. However, there has been an increase in poor behaviour among a minority of pupils, which is posing a challenge for school leaders and teachers. “We would like to see the DfE carry out work to establish the reasons for this increase in poor behaviour, but the disruption caused by the pandemic and the ongoing difficulties in supporting pupils with mental health and special educational needs are likely playing a part.” The survey chimed with the responses of teachers who told the Guardian of their experiences in the classroom. One teacher from Lincolnshire, who has taught for more than 20 years, said: “The rise in aggressive and defiant behaviour is unprecedented. Pupils as young as eight using abusive language, physically threatening staff, hurling objects at fellow pupils and treating their peers and staff appallingly. “Personally, I have found my stress levels have rocketed and [it] has led me to consider whether I can continue in my present career.” The teacher blamed cuts in funding and the Covid pandemic for reducing the support available for the most vulnerable children. “Normally pupils with these extreme needs would be in a pupil behaviour support unit but due to cuts there are no places,” they said. A reception class teacher from east London said: “Last year I was physically attacked by a child every single day. I was bitten, kicked, slapped, had chairs and tables thrown across the room. Sadly this behaviour is also seen, to a lesser extent, in so many children. They are starting school with very low levels of emotional regulation, not able to express their feelings appropriately, so they have constant meltdowns. “I’m not entirely blaming Covid as it was definitely getting worse before, but the noticeable differences since then are parents don’t trust schools and don’t listen to teachers. So we try to talk to them about their child’s behaviour and they laugh it off or even say we are lying.” A secondary school teacher from Scotland said she had seen extreme behaviour among a few students slowly becoming the norm. “One of the biggest problems is truancy during the day: some students just refuse to go to class and try to wander around the school. The pastoral staff are so overworked and shockingly underpaid, I don’t know how or why they show up every day,” she said. While many teachers said there had been a noticeable change in behaviour and attitudes since Covid, some were concerned that it had grown worse in the current school year. One primary school teacher said: “It was as if they all returned after the summer as different children.” A secondary school teacher in the West Midlands said: “The behaviour of children arriving from primary school is horrendous. They have not learned basic social behaviour.” A spokesperson for the DfE said: “Good behaviour in schools is key to raising standards, which is why we are taking decisive action to ensure all schools are calm, safe and supportive environments and are providing school leaders and teachers with the tools to improve behaviour. “Not only have we banned mobile phones in schools to reduce disruption, our £10m behaviour hubs programme aims to support up to 700 schools over three years to improve behaviour. Data from our behaviour hubs acts as a benchmark of the standards we expect so we make sure support is targeted where it is needed most.”

Pat Coombes obituary

2023-12-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/28/pat-coombes-obituary

My mother, Pat Coombes, who has died aged 89, was a course coordinator at the Open University (OU), where in the late 1970s she helped to create a groundbreaking social sciences foundation course known as D102. When, in the early 80s, the Conservative government’s secretary of state for education, Keith Joseph, attacked the OU for having a Marxist bias, D102 was one of the courses in the firing line, and Pat supported colleagues and students through the resultant turmoil. She later went on to help set up a distance learning MSc programme at Soas University of London, a module that aimed to support employees of newly formed governments in developing countries. Pat was born in Detroit in the US, where she had a difficult childhood. Her father, Warner Secord, a clerical worker at Ford Motors, died from the effects of the early use of radiotherapy treatment when Pat was eight years old. For a time afterwards her mother, Claire (nee Gladden), a telephone operator, found life difficult, and Pat spent some time in foster care. At Cooley high school in Detroit she was introduced to Marxism by a teacher who was clearly not deterred by 50s McCarthyism, and she remained a Marxist for the rest of her life. Later she went on to study English literature at Columbia University in New York, although she dropped out in 1958 in protest against racial discrimination there. Afterwards she began working as an assistant editor at Oxford University Press (OUP) in New York. Pat spent two years at OUP before moving on to the Henry Z Walck publishing company, and it was while in that job that she met Jim Coombes, an English research scientist who was studying in the city. They were married in 1959 and travelled that year to the UK on the RMS Queen Elizabeth. Settling first in London, after two years they moved to Canterbury in Kent, where Jim had secured a job with Pfizer. They had four daughters in quick succession and Pat spent a number of years raising their young family – until in 1970 she began working at the University of Kent, producing a magazine for staff and students. In 1973 the family moved to Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where Pat joined the OU, initially as a student and then, having obtained a first in social sciences, as a course coordinator in the social sciences faculty. It was in that post that she helped to develop the controversial D102 course. While at the OU Pat also took an MA in history at Birkbeck, University of London, and in 1990 she moved to Soas to set up a distance learning MSc programme in financial economics with a colleague from the OU. She retired in 2000, but continued working for Soas as an academic editor well into her 80s. Her marriage to Jim ended in divorce in the late 1980s. She is survived by their four daughters, Karen, Anne, Jennie and me, and eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Les Jones obituary

2023-12-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/03/les-jones-obituary

My friend and mentor Les Jones, who has died aged 90, was an economics teacher at schools in Oxfordshire and Shropshire, but also had a side existence as an organic farmer during the 1980s and 90s. In 1982 Les bought a 25-acre smallholding, The Hollows, in the Stiperstones hills in Shropshire, where – while still teaching – he raised sheep, goats, geese and chickens and grew organic courgettes, beans and potatoes. He was also involved in setting up Bishops Castle and South Shropshire Credit Union. Although he loved working on the land, the smallholding sucked up a lot of Les’s money, and in 1996 he sold it to facilitate a move to the village of Cwmbelan in mid-Wales, where he looked after a smaller plot and an allotment while also teaching part-time at Coleg Harlech. Les was born in Coedpoeth in north Wales, the youngest of the four children of Theresa (nee Davies), a housewife, and Llewellyn, a coalminer. After attending Grove Park county school for boys in Wrexham, he went to work as an engineering apprentice at Bersham Ironworks, where he developed the socialist beliefs that remained with him for the rest of his life. After studying locally with the Workers’ Education Association, he was offered a place at Ruskin College in Oxford, where he took a course in economics and politics. In 1964 Les won a scholarship to study politics, philosophy and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he was taught by the historian AJP Taylor. Shortly after graduating in 1968 he began his career as an economics teacher, working over the years at three Oxfordshire schools – Chipping Norton grammar, Bicester school and John Mason school in Abingdon – as well as at Holsworthy school in Devon and Madeley Court school in Shropshire, where he taught me. He took early retirement in 1987, after which he worked part-time at Ludlow Sixth Form College until 1993. He had his paintings exhibited in local galleries, remained a stalwart of the Labour party, and also became a Quaker. An early marriage ended in divorce. In 2000 he married Eileen Laycock, a social worker whom he had met in 1988. Eileen died in 2011, and while the Covid lockdown was tough for Les, he continued to teach online, including by preparing students for their Oxbridge interviews. He lived on his own, and independently, until a fall led to a move to a care home shortly before his death.

Wife of financier who called for Harvard head’s exit faces plagiarism allegations

2024-01-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/06/neri-oxman-bill-ackman-plagiarism-accusations

After Claudine Gay was ousted amid accusations of plagiarism, Neri Oxman was accused of copying from Wikipedia in dissertation The wife of Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire who accused Claudine Gay of being a plagiarist and led calls for her resignation as Harvard president, is now facing allegations of plagiarism herself. Neri Oxman, a prominent former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has apologized after Business Insider identified multiple instances in which she lifted passages from other scholars’ work without proper attribution in her 2010 dissertation. She also pledged to review the primary sources and request the necessary corrections. Business Insider on Thursday initially labeled four passages of Oxman’s dissertation as plagiarized – without any attribution – from Wikipedia entries. But by Friday, the outlet had found at least 15 such passages, a turn of events that was similar to that which led to Gay’s ouster from the Harvard presidency. Business Insider also identified research papers written by Oxman that contained plagiarism, including a 2007 paper – titled Get Real: Towards Performance Driven Computational Geometry – and a 2011 paper named Variable Property Rapid Prototyping. The 2011 paper contained more than 100 words lifted from a book without any attribution or citation, included two sentences from another book verbatim without any attribution, and pulled material from a 2004 paper without citing it, according to Business Insider. In response to Gay’s resignation, Ackman published a 4,000-word post on X – formerly Twitter – in which he criticized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as well as complained about “racism against white people”. He also complained that Gay, a Black woman, was allowed to remain on Harvard’s faculty. Gay had faced plagiarism allegations over her 1997 dissertation, but she requested corrections and was cleared of academic misconduct by a three-member independent review board. Ackman struck a different tone on X when addressing the plagiarism allegations against his wife. He wrote on X: “It is unfortunate that my actions to address problems in higher education have led to these attacks on my family. This experience has inspired me to save all news organizations from the trouble of doing plagiarism reviews.” He went on to promise to lead plagiarism reviews against all current MIT faculty, board and committee members, and its president, Sally Kornbluth. Ackman additionally criticized Business Insider and the reporters at the publication who authored the story investigating Oxman, saying he would spearhead plagiarism reviews against the outlet’s staff. Previously, Ackman was a donor to the Democratic party. But the New York Times reported that the billionaire’s campaign against Harvard came because he resented the fact that years’ worth of donations to the university did not yield him more influence there. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Conservatives have seized upon and supported Ackman’s complaints about Harvard. Meanwhile, Oxman has also been criticized for accepting a $125,000 gift from the late Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex trafficker and disgraced financier. Oxman responded to the donation by sending an art gift to Epstein. Oxman was a tenured faculty member at MIT before leaving the school and moving to New York City in 2020. Some consider her a celebrity in the field of architecture and design, and her new company – named Oxman – was in the middle of a soft launch when she issued her apology in response to Business Insider’s reporting.

Tutoring not a long-term plan to help English pupils catch up, say teachers

2023-06-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/21/tutoring-not-a-long-term-plan-to-help-english-pupils-catch-up-say-teachers

School leaders are considering dropping out of the government’s post-pandemic scheme as it prepares to cut funding Almost half of school leaders say the government’s national tutoring programme (NTP), set up to help pupils in England catch up after Covid, is not cost-effective, according to a new survey. Most senior leaders who took part in the poll (58%) said they did not regard tuition as a long-term solution to closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils. Those who have already quit the scheme or are considering doing so blame costs as the government’s subsidy goes down, while problems sourcing tutors and the administrative burden of the scheme are also deterrents. Overall, seven out of 10 said their school was either currently using the NTP (52%) or had previously used it (18%). Of those still participating, almost two-thirds said they plan to continue in the academic year ahead, while a further 18% said they were planning to stop at the end of the current year. “This means that among the 70% of senior leaders who reported that they were currently or had previously used the NTP, more than half (51%) are likely to have dropped out by the end of the current academic year,” the report said. That could change, however, after the government’s recent decision to increase the subsidy from 25% – as planned for 2023-4 – to 50%. But it still falls short of the 75% paid by the government in 2021-2, at a time when school budgets are tight. Three-quarters (76%) of school leaders currently using the NTP believe it is improving the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils, but more than half of those surveyed (61%) think other types of support are more effective. Dr Ben Styles, the head of classroom practice and workforce for the National Foundation for Education Research, which carried out the poll among 400 senior leaders from primary and secondary schools, said: “School leaders mostly believe the NTP is helping disadvantaged pupils, but many feel this support comes at too high a cost in terms of finances and administration. “Tutoring is not yet embedded in schools. Long-term financial support is needed alongside reductions to the administrative burden on staff. Overcoming these barriers is vital if tutoring is to win the hearts and minds of schools and be seen as a sustainable way of helping to close the attainment disadvantage gap.” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools struggle to afford these costs because of years of government underfunding of the education system. As the government intends to reduce the subsidy next academic year – even though by less than it initially planned – the programme will obviously become unaffordable for an increasing number of schools.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As this report shows, our national tutoring programme is helping those pupils most in need of support, with over 3 million courses started to date”. “Since the evidence from this survey was collected in March, we have announced that the subsidy will increase from 25% to 50% next year, having listened to feedback from schools. On top of this, we will also be supporting them more widely through a £2bn boost in school funding which will be at its highest level in history – in real terms.” The results of the poll have been published in a report called Tutoring Sustainability: Understanding the views of school leaders.

‘The tragic cost of under-investment’: asbestos blamed for 150 deaths of school and hospital workers in England

2023-04-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/16/150-deaths-school-hospital-workers-blamed-on-asbestos

Unsafe buildings could still be putting staff at risk of cancer through contact with the material, warn unions, experts and MPs Fresh concerns have been raised about the amount of asbestos remaining in dilapidated schools and hospitals, after new analysis found that almost 150 health and education workers were recorded as dying from cancer related to the material in recent years. According to official data, there have been 147 deaths among health and education workers since 2017. Experts believe the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate because of the way someone’s profession is recorded on death certificates. Some 94 education professionals and 53 healthcare professionals in England died of mesothelioma, according to an analysis of death certificate data recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Mesothelioma is a form of cancer usually linked to prolonged exposure to asbestos. It comes amid growing complaints from within the NHS and among headteachers over the state of hospital and school buildings, with concerns that the budgets for both have been relentlessly squeezed since the austerity drive beginning in 2010. The figures were supplied by the ONS after a request by the Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, who has been examining the state of school buildings. Of the 94 education professionals, 39 worked in primary and nursery schools, 21 in secondary schools and 21 in further and higher education institutions. The remaining 13 include special educational needs staff, senior education professionals and Ofsted inspectors. Among the 53 healthcare professionals to have died, 36 were nurses or midwives, two were therapists and 15 were classed as “medical professionals” which includes a range of professions, such as doctors, psychologists and radiographers. The government is already under pressure from Labour and other parties to release secret data relating to the state of school buildings. The Observer revealed last year that internal government documents suggested some school buildings were a “risk to life” due to their disrepair. It follows a decision by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last year to launch a programme of inspections across Great Britain into how schools are managing the risks from asbestos. Attempts are being made by scientists to launch studies into the ongoing effects of asbestos on teachers and students. Statisticians have detected a rate of mesothelioma deaths that “borders on statistical significance” among teachers born between 1955 and 1974. Unions are planning to work with Professor Julian Peto, who has studied the issue for many years. Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, called for a major programme of investment in school buildings. “Capital spending on school buildings has collapsed since 2010, with a decline by 50% in real terms,” he said. “This simply stokes up problems for the future and fails to address the widespread asbestos in schools, which should have been dealt with years ago. It is a catalogue of neglect which must be addressed urgently with a new focus on retrofitting education buildings to make them safe and sustainable.” Wilson said the continuing issue with asbestos could still be leading to unnecessary deaths. “These devastating figures show the tragic human cost of years of under-investment in our school and hospital buildings,” she said. “No teacher or nurse should have to put their health at risk when they turn up to work each day. “The government should be acting urgently to identify and remove asbestos from high-risk areas such as corridors and stairwells. Instead, schools are having to skip routine maintenance to balance the books. Each crumbling school and hospital stands as a concrete sign of years of Conservative neglect of our public services.” Jon Richards, Unison’s assistant general secretary, said: “Too many school and hospital buildings are riddled with asbestos. But the absence of a national register means the true picture is obscured. Extra government funding for more safety inspections is a must, as is speeding up the removal programme. Public buildings need to be free of the fatal fibres. “The solution is a properly funded building programme. Pupils, patients and staff should no longer have to put up with unsafe, unpleasant surroundings. This would help kickstart the much-needed economic recovery too.” Ministers, the HSE and experts have said that simply removing all asbestos may not be the safest solution to the issue, as disturbing the material can lead to the greatest exposure. A government spokesperson said: “We take the health and safety of those who work in the public sector incredibly seriously. All local authorities, governing bodies and academy trusts should have robust plans in place to manage asbestos in school buildings effectively. To support schools, we have allocated over £15bn for essential maintenance and improvements, including the removal of asbestos, and are also rebuilding or significantly refurbishing 500 buildings over the next decade. “On top of this, we provided £4.2bn capital last financial year for the NHS to support local priorities, including to maintain and refurbish their premises – plus a further £8.4bn will be available over this and the next financial year.”

‘It all hinges on wellbeing’: UK school nurses’ crucial, underfunded role

2023-05-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/02/it-all-hinges-on-wellbeing-uk-school-nurses-crucial-underfunded-role

Annie O’Neill, who visits 33 schools a term, has noticed a huge rise in problems such as eating disorders Annie O’Neill has just finished delivering a session in which she has taught year 13 students to manage their anxious “glitter mind” with breathing exercises, CBT techniques and mindfulness. When the school nurse finishes, one of the students shyly shuffles up. After a long pause, she says: “I have a lot of pressure on me. All the time I have a voice in my head saying I’m not good enough.” The student is a high achiever with an offer at a top university and a supportive family, yet she cannot shake the feeling that although she spends so much time revising, nothing is going in. She has not spoken to anyone else about how overwhelmed she is feeling. “You say ‘I’m coping’ but really you’re like a swan, serene on the outside, with legs paddling frantically underneath,” says O’Neill, giving the tearful student a hug before she heads off, having agreed to speak to a teacher and a doctor. For O’Neill, this demonstrates the value of school nurses: they are trusted adults who are independent from the school, meaning students feel more comfortable sharing confidences with them. They can signpost services, and prevent today’s stress from becoming tomorrow’s mental health crisis. School nurses are having to do this more often. Mental health problems among children were on the rise prior to the Covid pandemic, and lockdowns have resulted in more behavioural problems, while teacher-graded GCSEs mean year 13s have never experienced exam stress. O’Neill used to work as a school nurse employed by the local authority, but five years ago she went independent after she became exasperated with only having time for child protection cases, and not preventive health and wellbeing work. She is employed by the Unity Schools Partnership and spends one day in each of its 33 schools every term. Nearly two-thirds of those schools appreciate her work so much that they claw shreds of funding from their pupil premium, PSHE and CPD budgets to pay for additional sessions. On this day, she is at St Edward’s academy in Romford, east London, where 27% of children are eligible for free school meals. Seeking to prevent pupils from being among the “lost children” who dropped out of school during and after the pandemic, its leaders are prioritising a preventive approach to mental health. O’Neill’s sessions for GCSE and A-level students teach them that stress is a natural response, and that negative thoughts about failure do not always reflect reality and dwelling on them can make them self-fulfilling by encouraging avoidant behaviours. “Where is the evidence it’s true?” she asks, asking students to think about their results in their mocks, what their teachers tell them about their abilities, and how much revision they have done, and then do something that makes them feel better, whether that is ice skating or playing video games. Anxiety is clearly a problem for all the students. When she asks a class of nine year 11s which of them are anxious, six raise their hands. She asks how many have had panic attacks, and the same number answer affirmatively. “There’s been a huge rise in eating disorders. Kids who don’t know what healthy relationships look like, can’t negotiate friendships, and romantic relationships, they don’t know what normal is because they’ve been consuming lots of stuff online,” O’Neill says. For younger children, O’Neill has been asked to put together a session on school readiness. “Children are coming into school in nappies, never having eaten solid food, still using dummies,” she says. She is also helping Unity with a research project around how to improve attendance post-pandemic, including persuading parents of school’s value. Jodie Hassan, the school’s headteacher, says hiring O’Neill was part of a concerted effort to “build back” after the pandemic and support children “who now feel ‘what’s the point?’. Who are disconnected and disenfranchised.” “During the pandemic, we put at the top of the list wellbeing,” she says. “The finances in any school are disastrous, it’s not that we have money we can spend, but we thought we can’t not spend the money … everything hinges on your wellbeing.” She adds that “we try to prevent as much as possible”, especially since her safeguarding teams who put forward children to child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) have seen “wait times have gone through the roof”. If money were no object, Hassan would like O’Neill and her business partner to be full-time members of staff, with a team of their own. “I’d put them in every classroom, walking the corridors, ready to look after any child or adult that needs it. If we had more [staff], we could pre-empt what was going wrong before it went wrong.”

Sending child to state secondary school costs UK families £39 a week, study says

2023-05-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/11/sending-child-to-state-secondary-school-costs-uk-families-39-a-week-study-says

Low-income families in England face highest costs compared with Scotland and Wales due to fewer benefits Sending a child to a state secondary school costs families at least £39 each week, and £19 a week for children at primary school, according to research based on a child’s minimum needs. The study by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) found that the associated costs of transport, lunch, uniform, school trips and learning materials combined amounts to hundreds of pounds a year for each child at a UK state school. Low-income families from England faced the highest costs, according to the research, compared with those in Scotland and Wales, because of fewer benefits available – such as free school meals and grants for expenses such as school uniform. Using interviews and focus groups, the researchers calculated that the annual price tag for going to secondary school was £1,756 per child and £865 for a primary school child in 2022. Over 14 years of a child’s education – at primary and secondary school – the cost would total more than £18,000 in 2022 prices. Adding wrap-around childcare for primary-age children adds an additional £5,000 a year to a family’s costs. The CPAG said its research revealed for the first time “the actual costs families face sending their children to school” based on what parents and carers with school-age children thought are the essential items every family should be able to afford for their child’s participation at school. Kate Anstey, head of the CPAG’s “cost of the school day” programme, said the figures highlighted the difficulties that families on low incomes faced in accessing free state education. “Parents are guilt-stricken when their kids are left out at school but when you can’t cover the electricity bill, how is a new PE kit affordable?” Anstey said. “Our research shows there’s a hefty and often hidden price tag for just the basic essentials needed for school. For struggling families, it can feel more like pay-as-you-go than universal education.” The programme, involving Loughborough University’s research into minimum income standards, found that transport charges such as bus fares for secondary school pupils were the largest single cost – at nearly £500 a year on average – and were the major reason why costs were higher for older students. Uniforms, including shoes, bags and required sports kit, were found to cost £482 a year on average for secondary school pupils, while the minimum cost for a packed lunch was found to be just under £350 for both younger and older pupils. The research found that families from deprived backgrounds faced widely varying costs depending on where they lived. Lower-income parents in England with primary schoolchildren are likely to pay about £30 a week for their children’s education, nearly double that of families in Scotland paying £16 a week, because the government in Scotland has wider provision of free school meals and more generous grants for uniform costs.

Vote to close 167-year-old school angers villagers in North Yorkshire

2023-05-30

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/30/vote-close-skelton-newby-hall-school-divides-villagers-north-yorkshire

Opponents claim Skelton Newby Hall school – which has just one pupil – is victim of ‘managed wind-down’ A 167-year-old village primary school in North Yorkshire with just one pupil is to be closed, with opponents of the move claiming it has been the victim of a “managed wind-down”. The school in the quiet village of Skelton-on-Ure, near Ripon, has had declining pupil numbers for several years. Skelton Newby Hall CofE school was founded by Mary Vyner, the local estate owner, in 1856. In 2021 numbers had dwindled to 15 pupils and it currently has just one on its roll, who is taught elsewhere. No first preference applications have been made for the next school year and no pupils have been allocated a place there, a report to North Yorkshire county council said. On Tuesday, a meeting of North Yorkshire’s executive unanimously voted to close the school. The decision came despite arguments by the parish council that the school should be retained to join the burgeoning forest school movement, an education concept that puts unstructured play and exploration at its centre. Guy Critchlow, the chair of Skelton cum Newby parish council, said government guidance was that decision-makers should presume against the closure of rural schools. He said it would be needed with 800 new houses targeting young families being built within five miles of the village and planning permission in place for more. Other primary schools were at or near capacity, he said. The parish council claims there have been failures of management and governance of the school, leading to the falling pupil numbers. Critchlow said there had been a “managed wind-down”. A report to councillors said school governors felt they had been active in trying to raise pupil numbers, including the distribution of flyers to new builds in the area. But Critchlow said: “Despite what is stated in council documents, our school has not been marketed to the local area.” The flyers may, he said, “have ended up in a hedge somewhere”. He added: “North Yorkshire council has a stated aim of putting ‘local’ at its heart. Closing our school would not be putting local at its heart but [would be] ripping the beating heart out of the local community.” The council’s Conservative leader, Carl Les, said decisions to close primary schools were always sad ones. Other councillors said they could see no option. The school was last inspected by Ofsted in 2020 when it was judged as “requires improvement”. That, one respondent to a consultation process said, “added to the exodus of children”. Officials in their report said there “appears to be no reasonable prospect of recovery for the school”. The councillor Greg White said: “A decision to close a school is really an unpleasant one to have to make. But this isn’t a difficult decision to make because there are no pupils and we can’t spend money on schools that don’t have pupils.” He said the building could become a school again in the future if there was a need.

Push for ‘kinder’ Ofsted in doubt as boss of strict academy chain tipped for top job

2023-07-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/18/push-for-kinder-ofsted-in-doubt-as-boss-of-strict-academy-chain-tipped-for-top-job

Sir Martyn Oliver heads Outwood Grange trust renowned for high rates of suspensions The head of an academy chain renowned for strict discipline and high rates of suspensions is in line to be Ofsted’s next chief inspector – dashing hopes pressure on school leaders may ease after the death of a headteacher whose school was downgraded. Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief executive of the Outwood Grange academies trust (OGAT), is reported to have been nominated as the next chief inspector of schools and children’s services in England, to take over from Amanda Spielman in January. The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, was said to have chosen Oliver from a shortlist of two recommended by a selection panel, after being impressed by his commitment to refocusing inspections on outcomes such as pupil attendance and exam results. The role has been in the spotlight since the death of Ruth Perry after her school was downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate” by inspectors. Perry’s family have blamed the harshness of the judgment for contributing to her death. Oliver’s service on the Sewell commission on race and ethnic disparities, which was heavily criticised for its misuse of evidence, is said to have boosted his candidacy over the more experienced Ian Bauckham, the chair of the exam regulator Ofqual. The final decision rests with Rishi Sunak. The Department for Education said: “No final decisions have yet been made on the new chief inspector of Ofsted.” An announcement is expected later this week. One headteacher told the Guardian: “We hoped that the new chief inspector might be willing to listen to headteachers but the fear is that Martyn Oliver is an old-fashioned disciplinarian, [and] not going to bring in a kinder, gentler Ofsted.” Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders and a former headteacher, said Oliver was a “highly experienced and effective” leader but that Ofsted’s overhaul should be high on his to-do list. “We will be seeking reform of the inspectorate to ensure that inspections are more consistent, supportive and fairer,” Barton said. “There is widespread support for the scrapping of blunt, single-word judgments. “We recognise that this isn’t a change that can be decided by the chief inspector – it is a government decision. However, we hope that the government will see sense and make this change, and we would certainly want to work with the next chief inspector on a system to replace graded judgments which works in the best interests of schools, parents and children.” Other school leaders have been impressed by Oliver’s work in reviving struggling secondary schools in the Midlands and north of England, where OGAT administers more than 40 state schools, and say Oliver is generous in sharing resources with other trusts. But some pointed at OGAT’s past record of persistently high levels of exclusions, and the trust’s reputation for strict discipline. A Guardian investigation in 2018 revealed OGAT academies had some of the highest suspension and exclusion rates in England, with Outwood academy Ormesby in Middlesbrough formally suspending 41% of its pupils for at least a day in the previous school year. The trust has also been criticised for targeting pupils with harsh sanctions. But Oliver, who has led OGAT since 2016, has defended the need for tough measures: “One school in Worksop was so bad that teachers used to lock themselves in their classrooms. The headteacher was assaulted three times in their first week. Pupils ran across tables during a lesson while we were doing due diligence,” Oliver said in an interview. This year the DfE threatened to transfer Outwood Ormesby from OGAT to another trust after Ofsted placed the school in special measures and cited its high rate of suspensions. A subsequent Ofsted inspection in April said the school “remains inadequate and has serious weaknesses” but inspectors praised a more moderate behaviour policy, saying: “Leaders have recognised that they need to change aspects of the culture at the school.” Some heads have queried OGAT’s exam results and limited subject offerings, with few pupils at some academies taking single science GCSE subjects such as physics. In some cases many pupils instead take alternatives described as “practical, vocational qualifications” such as health studies and “computer appreciation”. Many OGAT schools have been rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, and the trust says its schools are “in areas of high deprivation which had been underperforming for years and were some of the most challenging in the system when we took them on … We prioritise inclusion, with the proportion of students in our schools with special education needs well above the national average.”

Oxbridge must help pupils from state schools succeed, college head says

2024-03-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/10/oxbridge-must-help-pupils-from-state-schools-succeed-college-head-says

Helen Mountfield, principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, hopes to raise £100m to help improve outcomes Oxbridge colleges need to actively help their state school-educated pupils succeed, rather than hope a “magical sorting hat” will uncover their talent, according to the head of an Oxford college who is looking to raise £100m to do just that. Helen Mountfield, the principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, said her college was able to recruit 93% of its undergraduates from UK state schools and see them flourish because of the extra effort it put in. She said: “We pride ourselves on taking in people on what we see is their intellectual aptitude. Sometimes they haven’t had the maths coaching they need, or they haven’t had as much individual support in how to structure an essay, for example. “So if you come here, and you’re doing PPE or engineering, and you say: ‘I’m stuck on the maths,’ we want to be able to say: ‘Don’t stress about that, you’re a clever person.’ We’ll give you coaching in maths and we’ll get you back up to where you need to be.” “There’s a myth that Oxford works as a magical sorting hat, rewarding the most talented, but it’s not the case. We’re looking for talent from a broad range of backgrounds. “My assumption is that academic aptitude and interest is broadly spread in society, [but] opportunity to make use of it isn’t. The 93% isn’t a quota. We take people wherever they come from, we look at them on merit, and we try to find the people we think will most make best use of a place here and benefit from it most. “We’ve really tried hard to find people who we think have that aptitude. We don’t reduce our grades for people to get in, but when we’re looking at GCSE results we look at the context in which they’ve been obtained. We’re looking for future aptitude.” Mansfield’s recruitment from state schools is far higher than Oxford overall, with just 66% across the university. Mountfield said the wider talent pool has paid off in the college’s improved degree results. She said: “I think there is a correlation between what you can give students and how well they do. We’ve bucked the trend and shown we do really well with not very much [money]. But if you’re going to be part of this model, Oxford’s model, you do need to have the proper capital foundations. And that’s what we’re trying to do.” While older and wealthier Oxbridge colleges use their endowments to fund about a third of their spending, Mansfield does not have that luxury. Mansfield’s campaign to raise £100m began last week, boosted by the announcement of its largest-ever single donation of £25m, from Chris Foster, a former state school pupil from near Wigan who studied maths at Mansfield, before gaining first-class honours and becoming an investment banker. Foster credits his maths tutor at Mansfield with encouraging him to aim high, and said he thought it was obvious that Oxford should recruit students with backgrounds that broadly reflected society. He said: “Mansfield has been a pioneer in widening access, and I think deserves significant support as a leader. This campaign is about the college community coming together to say: ‘Yes, that place is important to me, I want to be a part of this effort.’” Mansfield outperforms the rest of Oxford and many other members of the Russell Group of universities in other ways, with a quarter of its students being the first in their family to go to university, and more than 10% having received free school meals. Mountfield said the fundraising campaign would allow the college to divert more resources towards specialist help for its students, as well as providing more accommodation, and helping meet its net-zero environmental commitments. Mountfield does not want to stop at undergraduate admissions, pointing out that postgraduate diversity did not get as much attention. “We need to make sure that we are opening the pipelines to academic life for people who just don’t have financial privilege in their background,” she said. But she said that with domestic tuition fees frozen, universities could not rely on additional government support. Mountfield said: “Whoever wins the next election, I’m not banking on significant public spending in the next five years. We need to provide an individualised focus, giving an education to people who really care about learning, and we can’t bank on it being funded publicly.”

NSW public schools are in disrepair but capital works funding is failing to materialise

2023-07-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/23/nsw-public-schools-are-in-disrepair-but-capital-works-funding-is-failing-to-materialise

A decade after the Gonski review said governments should boost school spending, the divide between public and private has only widened When a pitch for state funding for his daughter’s high school in Sydney’s north was accepted, James Wiggins thought he would finally see the dilapidated school redeveloped, and it would begin to claw back dwindling enrolments. It was hoped the money would, to name a few items off the wishlist, replace the gas lines used for experiments in the science labs which were too dangerous to use in certain classrooms; upgrade facilities that had not been updated since Wiggins graduated from the school in 1980; and replace the leaking roof, which has left mould and damp marks all over the walls. But Wiggins says the funding for Narrabeen sports high school was whittled down to a point where straight repairs are no longer feasible, let alone refurbishment. “They’ve eroded any opportunity or any ability to even result in a decent school,” says Wiggins, who is the head of the school’s P&C. “The students don’t want a five-star hotel, they just want an environment that respects them as human beings.” When the Gonski review was released in 2012, alongside setting a needs-based model designed to provide a baseline education to students by 2023, it recommended that governments boost their capital works spending on schools. The review found that poor infrastructure in public schools was affecting staff and teacher morale as well as school enrolments. But a decade on, Correna Haythorpe, the president of the Australian Education Union, says the public school system is still dealing with major infrastructure needs. Haythorpe says while the states have increased their capital works funding to public schools, it is not enough to cover the gap left by the commonwealth government scrapping its recurrent capital works contribution to public schools in 2017. That decision further deepened an already large divide between public and private school infrastructure, she says, as the commonwealth continued its recurrent funding of private schools. A 2021 report into school funding commissioned by the union found that between 2013 and 2018 for every dollar invested per child for facilities in a private school, a public school would get between 27 and 50 cents. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup In the 2023-24 budget, the Albanese government committed $215m to capital works for public schools, but Haythorpe says the government needs to restore a recurrent funding pool. “We want to see a permanent fund established,” she says. “It’s the right of every child to go to school in a high-quality teaching environment.” The independent member for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps, says she toured Narrabeen high school earlier this month after being invited by the school community. She was shocked by what she saw. “I just couldn’t believe there was a school that was like that in Australia in this day and age,” she says. “It was unsafe.” In 2018, Wiggins says the school made a combined pitch with the local primary school for upwards of $100m to repair the school, while the Coalition was in government in New South Wales. The school ended up with about half that, with the bulk of the money going to the primary school and the secondary school set to receive $19.5m. But the money is yet to materialise. A spokesperson for the NSW education minister, Prue Car, says the school community has a right to be “disappointed” about the project stalling under the previous government, and the new government is committed to delivering upgrades. Sign up to Afternoon Update Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Wiggins says the delay is having an impact on enrolments, with Narrabeen sports high school losing about 50 students between years 10 and 11 each year to other schools. It’s not all to do with the school’s state of disrepair, but Wiggins says it has spurred a self-perpetuating cycle. “Part of the overall perception is that because of the visual, the physical state of the school, the teaching experience or the learning experience must be better at a school that’s better maintained – and to be honest, there is some truth to that,” he says. “But it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because it means if our best students leave, we then have worse HSC results and it becomes a domino effect.” Craig Petersen, the head of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council, tells a similar story. “Wherever I go, it’s a similar conversation: our teachers are doing great things, we’re delivering the same curriculum, but parents are choosing to go past the local public school because it’s that standard 50-year-old boring box brick design – it looks run-down,” he says. “And they’re going down the road to the private school – and whether it’s a brand new nongovernment school, or it’s an old sandstone one, it looks impressive.” Wiggins says he is concerned many of his daughter’s school teachers were attracted by the promised redevelopment, and he fears it is wearing thin. “I’m scared all of those enthusiastic young teachers and the experienced older teachers are going to say, ‘well, it’s never happening, I’m leaving’.”

Hungry children miss out on free meals – and struggling schools cannot help

2022-11-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/10/hungry-children-miss-out-on-free-meals-and-struggling-schools-cannot-help

Families from ‘working poor’ omitted from scheme, and costs crisis leaves schools powerless to subsidise them ​ ​Teachers reveal scale of pupils’ hunger​ How families on the breadline are ineligible for FSMs ‘The benefit is massive’: the school offering FSMs to all ​ Headteachers say they have never seen anything like it: a “perfect storm” of rising poverty, higher prices and shrinking school budgets resulting in more hungry children in classrooms but fewer resources to help them. While the proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) in England has jumped from 15% in 2019 to more than 22% this year, headteachers say the numbers of “invisible hungry” – from families in poverty but not poor enough to qualify – has also increased. On top of the 1.9 million children eligible for FSM, mainly because they live in households receiving benefits and with an annual income below £7,400, the Child Poverty Action Group estimates that there are 800,000 children in families below the poverty line, on universal credit or other benefits but missing out on FSM. Rebecca Curtis, the principal of Ark Elvin academy in London, said: “FSM eligibility is such a blunt tool – it doesn’t define poverty in London. The vast majority of our children come from the working poor. After paying the rent, even a couple on £30,000 a year with children are living in poverty. “We see children who are not eating lunch, waiting until they get out of school so they can buy something cheaper than our school lunches – usually a piece of chicken and chips for £1.” Headteachers say the effects of hunger on their students is stark. “Children who come to school hungry are going to struggle to concentrate, struggle to learn and struggle to behave, and that makes our job harder,” said the head of a state secondary school in the West Midlands. “I’ve got growing 14- and 15-year-old boys who cannot get enough to eat, their parents can’t afford the £2.60 we charge for lunches each day, and that causes all sorts of problems – stealing food, stealing money, all because they don’t have enough to eat.” Even those receiving free lunches are often from what are defined as “very low food security” households, where family members have to skip meals or eat less because of no money or other sources of food. The problem extends to the wealthiest parts of England, such as Wokingham or Windsor, where about one in 10 pupils are eligible for FSM. But the numbers soar in more deprived parts of the country: Islington, Blackpool and Manchester have more than 40% of all children eligible. In the north-east of England, nearly one in three pupils are eligible, compared with about one in six in the south-east. But schools’ ability to help is hamstrung by the costs crisis that is affecting them as much as the families of the children they teach. Some secondary schools have seen their energy bills triple this year despite government assistance, while an unexpected increase in teachers’ pay has added hundreds of thousands of pounds to wage bills. “Everyone knows about the energy crisis, but MPs don’t understand that this year’s pay rises were unfunded [by government],” said Bryn Thomas, the headteacher at Wolverley CofE secondary school in Worcestershire. Kat Pugh, the headteacher of St Marylebone’s school in central London, said her school had planned to provide free breakfasts to all pupils who needed them, not just those receiving FSM. “The financial blow of the unfunded pay awards has challenged our ability to provide breakfast for free to other students, notably the estimated 30% of students who are also financially disadvantaged while not qualifying for free school meals,” Pugh said. “We cannot afford to do this and we are working hard with local businesses and partners to fundraise for it instead.” Councils, another source of funding for families and schools in difficulty, are themselves facing budget pressures, having already experienced more than a decade of retrenchment and cuts since the start of austerity policies in 2010. The Local Government Association estimates that rising prices and wages have added £2.4bn in costs to local authority budgets this year. The chef Jamie Oliver is among those backing the Food Foundation’s “feed the future” campaign for FSM eligibility to be extended to all children from families on benefits, with Oliver describing the policy in England as the “meanest” in the UK. The governments in Scotland and Wales have said they will extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren. In England, only infants in the first three years of primary school, from reception to year 2, receive free lunches across the board. The campaign headed by Oliver has drawn bipartisan support, with Richard Walker, the chief executive of the Iceland supermarket chain, who is bidding to become a Conservative MP, publicly endorsing a FSM extension as a “critical priority” for deprived children. Michael Gove, the former education secretary who introduced universal infant free school meals, has also endorsed an extension, saying last month: “What we can do is extend access to free school meals for every child in a family in receipt of universal credit” at a cost of £500m a year. Bridget Philipson, the shadow education secretary, has pledged that a Labour government would fund free school breakfasts for all primary pupils.

Children too anxious to attend school being failed by English councils – report

2022-07-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jul/07/children-anxiety-schools-alternative-education-ombudsman-report-english-councils

Ombudsman says children are going months and even years without proper alternative education Councils are failing to put adequate alternative education in place for the growing numbers of children in England who are unable to attend school because of social anxiety, according to a report by the local government ombudsman. Many have complex special educational needs and are unable to go to school because there are no suitable places available in their area, meaning they can go months and even years without any proper alternative arrangements, the report said. In one case, an autistic boy with extreme anxiety who was unable to attend his mainstream school was given just five hours a week online tuition in English and maths for a year, with no proper consideration for how he might study for the rest of his GSCE subjects. In another example, a teenager was without a school place – or proper alternative education – for almost 14 months after moving to an area in the middle of the school term, at a time when she too should have been preparing for her GCSEs. Parents have a duty to ensure their children receive a suitable, full-time education. Under the law however, where children are not in school because of illness, exclusion or otherwise, councils are required to assess and make arrangements to provide a proper alternative education where required. The local government and social care ombudsman, Michael King, warned children were being robbed of their potential to thrive because councils were failing to fulfil their responsibilities properly. Last year, the ombudsman upheld 89% of investigations into complaints on this issue. “We know getting an alternative education set up as soon as possible is crucial to ensure children do not fall behind their peers, but we see examples of councils trying to pass the buck, saying it is the school’s responsibility,” King said. “Parents need to know this isn’t right. Councils have a legal obligation to properly consider what alternative education is provided when a child cannot attend school, and it must be suitable to the child – not a token gesture of the minimum hours.” In a separate case highlighted by the ombudsman, a mother made a complaint about Dorset council after her son, who has special educational needs, missed out on his education for almost two years. The boy, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and traits of autism, became unable to attend school because of high levels of stress and anxiety. The ombudsman found the council failed to provide him with adequate alternative education and social support between February 2020 and November 2021. The family has been awarded £8,800 in compensation. “I am pleased Dorset council has readily agreed to the recommendations I have made to put things right in this case,” said King. “I hope the changes it will make to the way it keeps track of children out of school, and the services it provides for them, will ensure other children are not disadvantaged like this child.” Cllr Andrew Parry, portfolio holder for children, education, skills and early help at Dorset council, apologised for the council’s failings. “We have taken these matters seriously and have made a number of changes to our services so other families do not have to go through the same experience.” A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents more than 300 English local authorities, said: “Councils are committed to working with parents and carers to ensure their child attends a school where they receive the best possible support and education, and are doing everything they can to achieve this, within the budgets made available by the government.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places for all children in their area, and we have increased high needs funding for them to £9.1bn overall next year, to help them meet the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities. We encourage them to work collaboratively with parents and local partners so the right range of provision is available for all children.”

Lawrie Rose obituary

2023-11-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/15/lawrie-rose-obituary

My friend Lawrie Rose, who has died aged 71, was a primary school headteacher in Kent. Firm, fair and fun, he was a consummate professional and a strong advocate for taking greater care of young children’s mental health. Under his leadership, Sherwin Knight school in Rochester became the first in the county to work with the national charity Place2Be, which supplies counsellors to support struggling children. Lawrie was also a great storyteller, and brought music to the centre of his school assemblies, in which folk, rock, world and classical music were all featured. His non-competitive sports days, secular harvest festivals and Christmas pantos are still vividly remembered. Born in Glasgow to Phillip Rose, the managing director of an electrical accessories company, and Rita, a housewife, he grew up in Finchley, north London, where he attended Quintin Kynaston school. He always wanted to be a teacher and after leaving school he funded his course at the Philippa Fawcett Teacher Training College in Streatham by working in Habitat in central London, where he took delight in being in charge of the shop’s sound system. Lawrie began his career as a primary school teacher at Grove Park school in Sittingbourne, Kent, followed by a deputy headship at Luddenham school in Faversham, a headship at Graveney school (also in Faversham), and finally the headship of Sherwin Knight, where he worked for 20 years. After retirement in 2019, Lawrie became a teacher training supervisor and assessor at Canterbury Christ Church University, working there part-time until a couple of years ago. He was also instrumental in the running of an “Old Gits” group of former Kent headteachers, organising outings as well as speakers for their get-togethers. Often sought out for his opinions on education, he set up the Medway Consortium of Head Teachers to support people new to the job. Collegial, non-judgmental and conscientious, he was an instantly recognisable figure with his large bag over his shoulder, colour-coordinated wristwatches and Doc Marten footwear. An avid reader of the Guardian, he particularly liked the Other Lives section, as it gave him hope of seeing the achievements of “ordinary” people such as himself being celebrated. He is survived by his wife, Virginia (nee Ungar), whom he married in 1997, and by her daughter from a previous relationship, Tara.

Ofsted inspectors not given guidance on distressed headteachers, Ruth Perry inquest hears

2023-12-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/04/ofsted-inspectors-not-given-guidance-distressed-headteachers-ruth-perry-inquest

Berkshire coroner’s office hears there was one reference to managing stress given to inspectors before November 2022 Ofsted inspectors were not given specific written guidance about what to do if a headteacher becomes distressed during an inspection, an inquest has heard. Ruth Perry’s family have said she killed herself after a report from the schools watchdog downgraded her Caversham primary school in Reading from its highest rating to its lowest over safeguarding concerns. The inquest, at Berkshire coroner’s office on Monday, heard there was one reference about managing stress in the guidance given to Ofsted inspectors before November 2022. The guidance said that inspectors must take “all reasonable steps to prevent undue anxiety and manage stress” while conducting inspections. Giving evidence to the inquest, Christopher Russell, Ofsted’s national director for education, agreed that there was no specific written guidance as to what an inspector should do if a headteacher became distressed. “[But] we do feel that we train inspectors in a way that expects them to inspect in a way that minimises stress and anxiety,” he said. Russell added that the watchdog recruited inspectors “who work at a high level in the school system” and who would be experienced with managing stressful situations. “When we train inspectors we certainly talk about how to manage the situation in a way that reduces stress,” he said. Before Russell’s evidence, senior coroner Heidi Connor said she wanted to know if it really was possible to pause an Ofsted inspection, or if pausing was a “mythical creature”. Questions had been raised at the inquest about whether it was possible to stop an inspection if a headteacher became distressed. The inquest heard that inspectors were told that they could pause inspections for “public health or other reasons”. Russell said inspections were put on hold last year for concerns including headteacher illness, stress or broken water pipes. The inquest has heard that during the inspection Perry “looked extremely distressed and upset” and was unable to speak coherently within a few hours of the inspection starting. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Hugh Southey KC, on behalf of the family, asked Russell if there was written guidance that inspectors should be aware of the impact of the inspection on headteachers’ mental health. Russell said that he was “not aware” of a statement to that effect. He was also asked if there was written guidance that an inspection could be paused for mental health reasons. Russell said that the guidance “does not expressly say that”. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

A Portuguese lesson on free school meals | Letter

2023-10-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/20/a-portuguese-lesson-on-free-school-meals

Prof Rebecca O’Connell and Prof Julia Brannen on the urgent need for the reform of the UK’s school food policy and funding Your article showed the variation across Europe in school food (Pizza, plum cake and pickled red onion: how school lunches look across Europe, 13 October). Our European Research Council-funded study examined the difference school meals made to children aged 11 to 15 in low-income families in the UK, Norway and Portugal (not covered in the article). While Norway does not provide school lunches, Portugal provides all children with nutritious meals that are regulated according to national standards (fresh vegetable soup, meat and fish on alternate days, brown bread, and fruit or – occasionally – jelly). In Portugal, school meals play an important part in mitigating the effects of poverty on children’s diets via a three-tier payment system that results in all children from low-income families being entitled to a free school meal (FSM). This is in stark contrast to England, where around a third of children growing up in poverty are not entitled to a FSM under its stringent means-testing system. The young people we interviewed in Portugal had some complaints about the meals, but their mothers – the primary managers of poverty in families – were grateful. In contrast, in England, some young people who were not entitled to FSMs went without food at school, and some would hide in the library at lunchtime to avoid watching others eat. Some of those receiving FSMs said the allowance was not enough to fill them up, or described being publicly identified and shamed by being told they could not choose certain items from the cafeteria. Unsurprisingly, given standardised meals, none of the Portuguese children described being made to feel different. The Portuguese case shows the urgent need for the reform of our school food policy and funding. All children in state education should be entitled to a nutritious and inclusive meal at lunchtime. Prof Rebecca O’Connell University of Hertfordshire Prof Julia Brannen University College London Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Jason Arday to become youngest ever black professor at Cambridge University

2023-02-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/23/jason-arday-to-become-youngest-ever-black-professor-at-cambridge

Arday, 37, a sociologist, aims to inspire others from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds A renowned sociologist who was unable to read or write until the age of 18, and was working part-time in Sainsbury’s less than eight years ago, is to become the youngest black professor ever appointed at the University of Cambridge. Prof Jason Arday, 37, is a highly respected scholar of race, inequality and education, yet at three years old he was diagnosed with global development delay and autism spectrum disorder, and he did not learn to speak until he was 11. Next month he will take up the role of professor of sociology of education at Cambridge, and he hopes his extraordinary story will inspire others from under-represented backgrounds to progress into higher education. Arday will be building on his earlier work at the universities of Durham and Glasgow, addressing the paucity of black and minority ethnic people in higher education, their under-representation in academic careers, and the challenge of creating more equitable educational experiences and outcomes for all. “My work focuses primarily on how we can open doors to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and truly democratise higher education,” he said. “Hopefully being in a place like Cambridge will provide me with the leverage to lead that agenda nationally and globally.” He added: “Talking about it is one thing; doing it is what matters. Cambridge is already making significant changes and has achieved some notable gains in attempting to diversify the landscape, but there is so much more to be done – here and across the sector.” Arday was born and raised in Clapham, south London, and was one of four children. Until the age of 11 he used sign language, and much of his childhood was spent with speech and language therapists. His family were told it was likely he would need lifelong support, but he defied all expectations. After gaining two GCSEs in PE and textiles, Arday studied for a BTec at college, then completed his first degree in PE and education studies, after which he did two master’s qualifications, a PGCE to become a PE teacher, and a PhD at Liverpool John Moores University. He funded his studies by working part-time at Sainsbury’s and Boots. Ten years ago, while studying for his PhD, he wrote a set of personal goals on his mother’s bedroom wall. The third on his list read: “One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge.” On 6 March, that dream will become a reality. “As optimistic as I am, there’s just no way I could have thought that would have happened,” he said. “If I was a betting person, the odds on it were so long. It’s just mad.” The message of his story for other young people from under-represented backgrounds is that “everything is possible”, Arday said. “I knew I didn’t necessarily have huge amounts of talent, but I knew how badly I wanted it and I knew how hard I wanted to work.” It should not, however, be just down to individual endeavour – the system had to change too, he said. “At Cambridge there’s been some really, really useful and powerful pockets of good practice. But there’s still lots of areas of development, as there is across the sector. “A big part of the sector’s problem is that it does things in a very unsustainable way. It often leans on the labour of black and ethnic minority professionals and academics to do this labour unremunerated and unrecognised.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Instead, there should be collective responsibility, Arday said, and those working to advance equality, diversity and inclusion should be properly supported and paid. He also highlighted BBC research from 2018 which found that black and ethnic minority academics were being paid less than their white counterparts, with white academics receiving average salaries of £52,000 and black academics £38,000. “The final thing is recognising how violent some of these spaces can be,” he said, “and decision-makers recognising that to be a serious challenge towards the mental health and psychological wellbeing of black and ethnic minority people, particularly women of colour, and more specifically black women in the sector, who to be quite honest are treated differently. I think that is a stain on the sector, and that’s something we collectively need to think about, how we do better.” Arday said black women were among the lowest paid in the sector, and out of 24,000 professors in the UK, just over 160 were black and just over 50 were black women. If things were going to change, he said, “it’s going to take a sustained commitment by institutions to really think about how they engage with the politics of race”. Prof Bhaskar Vira, the pro-vice-chancellor for education at the University of Cambridge, said: “Jason Arday is an exceptional scholar of race, inequality and education. He will contribute significantly to Cambridge’s research in this area and to addressing the under-representation of people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those from black, Asian, and other minority ethnic communities. “His experiences highlight the barriers faced by many under-represented groups across higher education and especially at leading universities. Cambridge has a responsibility to do everything it can to address this by creating academic spaces where everyone feels they belong.”

Calls for watchdog to investigate delays to BTec results

2022-08-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/25/calls-for-exam-board-pearson-to-investigate-delays-to-btec-results

Further education and sixth form colleges ask why thousands of students have not received grades from exam board Pearson Further education and sixth form colleges are calling for the exams watchdog to investigate the reasons for delays to BTec results, which have left thousands of students in limbo. Exam board Pearson said there were 5,700 students who didn’t receive their grades for level two BTecs alongside GCSE results as scheduled on the morning of 25 August, plunging them into uncertainty over where they will be studying next year. This follows thousands of pupils failing to receive results for their level three BTecs from Pearson, and Cambridge Technicals from the exam board OCR last week. Pearson said the delays were due to problems with entries not meeting the “qualification criteria”, making them “ineligible” for grading. David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, urged Ofqual to launch “a full, thorough and open investigation into what went wrong to make sure this never happens again”. Labour has also called for an investigation, describing the delays as “a debacle”. Hughes said: “This cohort of young people has already suffered severe disruption to their learning due to the pandemic. That makes it even more unacceptable that these same students have faced extra stress with delayed results. Pearson and OCR’s systems simply did not deliver results on time to thousands of students, and they have badly let them down.” Hughes added that it had been difficult to communicate with Pearson, which has not been clear about the reasons for the delay, leaving “college staff to pick up the pieces without all the available information to hand”, although he said the awarding body was starting to open up. A spokesperson for Pearson said that 240,000 students received their results for BTecs and related vocational qualifications on time, and apologised to those who were still waiting. She said: “As of 10pm yesterday, there are 5,700 students registered for the qualification who are currently ineligible to receive their grade – meaning we need to work with schools and college to resolve queries, run eligibility checks and confirm if the student still wishes to claim a grade.” Pearson said BTecs were modular qualifications based on a combination of internal modules, assessed by colleges and schools, and external assessments, which Pearson marks. Unless it receives grades for all units, it is unable to assess the qualification. It said that changes made to account for Covid disruption had “added more complexity” this year. Colleges said there was always some human error involved in providing the unit results, but this would not usually result in comparable delays. John Thornhill, chief executive of LTE group, which runs several colleges in Manchester, tweeted his frustrations with the awarding bodies, warning that he would review the business relationship. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion He wrote: “This a third year in a row we’ve had abject disregard for students, & LTE Group as a customer, while paying them £millions”.Last week, thousands of students were left without their level three BTec results. Although colleges and universities promised to hold places for those with an offer, students who missed their grades were delayed from entering clearing, meaning there were fewer places still available. In an update to level three entrants published on Wednesday, Pearson said it had sent an additional 2,450 BTec results to the University and College Admissions Service to enable students to claim their places for further study, adding that 900 outstanding claims remained. OCR said that it had “now issued every [Cambridge Technicals] result for students with higher education progression needs” that it could identify, and that it was “very sorry for the additional stress to students over the past week”. Ofqual did not confirm whether it would launch an investigation, but a spokesperson noted that “it is important that, as regulator, we review what has happened to make sure that students in future years receive results when they expect them”. The headline and text of this story were amended on 25 August 2022; the original version incorrectly stated that there were calls for Pearson to investigate the delays, rather than Ofqual. The text was further amended on 29 August 2022 to add a clarification from OCR that had been omitted from an earlier version, noting that it has issued results for all students with higher education progression needs only where it knows that they have met the criteria for a Cambridge Technicals qualification.

‘The benefit is massive’: the school offering free meals to all students

2022-11-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/10/the-benefit-is-massive-the-school-offering-free-meals-to-all-students

Urswick school in Hackney says pupils are thriving under its policy, while another school offers evening meals to families ​ ​Teachers reveal scale of pupils’ hunger​ How families on the breadline are ineligible for free school meals​ Hungry children miss out on free meals – and struggling schools cannot help Headteacher Richard Brown grew up on free school meals. He remembers the stigma of having to queue separately. Now he runs a school where everybody gets a free lunch, regardless of their ability to pay. The Urswick school in Hackney is officially the most disadvantaged school in London. About 65% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM), but for the past eight years the school has provided all pupils with a free lunch, including those in sixth form. It started after a successful Ofsted inspection when the school celebrated with free burgers for all. “It was a lovely event,” said Brown. “I saw kids coming in for lunch who had never been in lunch before. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t about the burgers, it was the fact that the food was free that day to everybody. “For the vast majority of them, they weren’t coming in for lunch because they couldn’t afford it, not because they didn’t like the food. So I went to the governors and proposed that we made a universal offer to give every child a free school lunch.” The governors agreed, the policy was rolled out, and it has been in place ever since. On the menu on the day the Guardian visited was chicken curry with rice and peas, or Quorn stew with rice. There were four choices of sandwiches – sausage, chicken and mayonnaise, tuna and cheese. Pudding was blueberry yoghurt, with juice and bottled water to drink. All for free. “We think the benefit is massive,” said Brown. “I think kids are more likely to attend in the knowledge they get a free meal every day. We definitely have a high take-up on after-school revision clubs and classes, because kids have been fed at lunchtime. They’re not going home or going to the chicken shop. “I can’t quantify the impact of it on exam results, but we can measure by soft indicators. We are a thriving, happy community, with good relations between people. If we are always talking to kids about equality, we can put equality at the centre of the school by giving every child a free school meal regardless. That’s why the ethos of this school is so strong. I think it contributes massively to our sense of happiness as a school.” For Brown, the cost of providing a free meal for all pupils at his east London school is less than it would be in many other schools, because so many of his students are already eligible and the school is provided with funding for them. He pays for the additional meals, costing the school £80,000 to £100,000 a year, through lettings – renting out the car park and sports facilities – which is not something that would be available to all schools. But he says economies of scale and certainty about demand means it’s not as expensive as it might otherwise be. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “Lettings income has covered the cost, but there are other ways of generating money. If I thought we needed to, I would seek support from charitable organisations. It’s important to us. I’m sure there are things that other schools could do to avoid hungry children, which strikes me as the first moral imperative, alongside keeping them safe.” Food poverty has seen teachers at the Ark Elvin academy in Brent go further, offering evening meals to students and their families in partnership with a local food bank. Rebecca Curtis, Ark Elvin’s principal, said: “At the beginning of the term, I was struck by the level of need in the community and we were fearful about how much things could get worse in the winter months. We started thinking about how we could use the school’s space, not just to provide a hot meal and a warm place but also to break down the isolation that many people in our community have experienced since the Covid pandemic.” With more than one in three of the academy’s pupils eligible for free school meals, Curtis said that even one night a week could make a significant difference to struggling families, and she approached the Sufra food bank and kitchen in north-west London. The school provides the facilities and staff for the weekly meals, while Sufra organises the food and cooking, with funding coming from the Raheem Sterling Foundation, the charity founded by the Chelsea and England footballer who is a former pupil and grew up on a nearby council estate. The community evenings launched at the start of this month. Fahim Dahya, Sufra’s logistics and facilities manager, said the first evening was a success, with nearly 100 people coming along despite the event only being advertised to families at Ark Elvin and two local primary schools. “We were expecting small numbers but it was packed. It shows it was the right thing to do, that there is a need, that people want it and will come,” Dayha said. Curtis said the evening meals could become a community event, not just for families connected to the school but those in need, including the many refugees housed in hotels nearby. And she hoped to expand the evenings to include homework clubs, tutoring and other support for families. “What the pandemic showed is that if schools are properly funded, we can do so much more. We are trusted by our families because they see us every day,” Curtis said. Dahya said Ark Elvin’s experience could be a model for other schools around the country. “I want this to be a blueprint not just for Brent but the wider national community. If we can achieve this in one school, imagine what we can do in more schools, if schools can open their doors one night a week.”

Two in three state secondary schools in England teach just one foreign language

2023-06-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/29/two-in-three-state-secondary-schools-in-england-teach-just-one-foreign-language

Survey finds German is most affected by shift towards single-language offer in key stage 3 Two-thirds of English state secondary schools teach only one foreign language, research shows, undermining the government’s efforts to shore up the numbers of pupils learning modern languages. This year’s Language Trends report by the British Council surveyed state and private secondary schools in England about their linguistic provision. With growing evidence that state schools were cutting the number of languages taught, the 2023 report specifically asked for the first time if pupils learned more than one language. Whereas more than half (53%) of independent and private schools teach every pupil at least two languages in years 7-9 (key stage 3), fewer than one in five (16%) state schools do, with 66% teaching only one foreign language at key stage 3. Thirty-five per cent of state secondary schools teach German at key stage 3, and 38% to GCSE, the report found, compared with more than 85% offering French and more than three-quarters Spanish, suggesting German is disproportionately affected by this shift to teaching a single language in state schools. In contrast, three-quarters of independent schools teach German in years 7-9 and 80% at key stage 4. Language experts questioned whether the government’s new German promotion programme, launched this year as part of a £15m language hubs programme to tackle a systemic decline in the numbers taking language GCSEs and A-levels, had gone far enough. Katrin Kohl, a professor of German at the University of Oxford, said: “While the government’s language hubs and German promotion project are important and very welcome, these initiatives need more funding if they’re to have a real impact and counteract the continuous attrition in language learning we are seeing. “If we don’t act now, we could end up in a situation where vanishingly few state schools teach German. This would restrict the opportunity to learn German to independent schools, and effectively break the pipeline through to universities and teaching provision. School budgets are so tight that the number of languages taught is the first to go and German is too often the casualty. It’s easier to offer Spanish and French than to offer a non-Romance language.” Suzanne O’Farrell, a modern foreign languages consultant for the Association of School and College Leaders, said that in addition to promoting German and other languages, the Department for Education and Ofqual had to tackle “the severe grading of languages at GCSE and A-level, teacher recruitment and retention, funding and performance measures if we are to see a meaningful increase in the uptake of languages in our schools”. The British Council report also highlights just how far adrift the government is from meeting its Ebacc target that 90% of pupils study a GCSE in a modern foreign language from September 2024. Just one in 10 responding state schools said all pupils were taking a language for GCSE, compared with three in 10 independent schools. “We estimate that 250,000 more pupils would need to take a GCSE in a modern foreign language for the government to realise its [Ebacc] ambition,” said Ian Collen, a senior lecturer in modern languages education at Queen’s University Belfast and author of the report. Neil Kenny, a professor of French at the University of Oxford and the British Academy’s lead fellow for languages, said the limited choice reflected the self-reinforcing cycle of supply and demand. Declining pupil interest was resulting in schools having to offer fewer options for pupils interested in languages. Fewer pupils studying languages at school had resulted in fewer studying them at university, leading to a teacher shortage in languages. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “In our globalised economy, language skills add value and widen opportunities for individuals, communities and society and so it’s excellent to see in this report how popular Spanish has become as an A-level choice. The department is committed to providing high quality language teaching in schools, increasing languages uptake at GCSE and levelling up opportunities for disadvantaged pupils. “German is a strategically important language to the UK, particularly with regard to business and industry and so to boost take up of German in schools, there will be a distinct German promotion project within our new £14.9m Language Hubs programme.” Additional reporting by Rachel Hall

‘Children are holding a mirror up to us’: why are England’s kids refusing to go to school?

2023-09-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/02/children-are-holding-a-mirror-up-to-us-why-are-britains-kids-refusing-to-go-to-school

For many, lockdown was a relief. Some never went back at all. As a new academic year begins, more children than ever are worried about returning. What’s being done to get them into the classroom – and is that always the best idea? Millie was seven years old when she started struggling with going to school. Her teachers weren’t too worried initially, her mother, Sarah, says: she was managing fine academically. But Millie, who is autistic and has a sensory processing disorder, seemed to find the busy classroom overwhelming. The following year, she began seriously to resist. “It would start the night before,” says Sarah, a children’s nurse. “She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat her dinner, then in the morning she’d be absolutely flat out – it was taking an hour to get her out of bed. I would have to dress her, she’d be like a rag doll. And all the time they kept saying, ‘Just get her in, she’s fine once she’s in.’ It got to the point where I was physically unable to carry her, she’d be lying on the floor kicking and screaming.” The first Covid lockdown in spring 2020 was, for Millie, a welcome relief. “You weren’t allowed to go to school, you weren’t allowed to leave the house, nobody was allowed to come round – it was good for her.” That September, Millie returned to school armed with an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP), a statement of her special needs, which was meant to guarantee specific support in school. But her mother says it wasn’t consistently followed. Millie began having panic attacks, and the following autumn “she just had an absolute meltdown, breakdown, whatever you want to call it. So she stopped going to school.” Sarah fought for a place at a special school with tiny classes, which could ease her daughter back gradually. But halfway through her first term, Millie broke down again. Now 12, her only education for nearly a year has been work sent home via a hospital tutoring programme for chronically sick children, and her parents have drastically adjusted their expectations for her. “If she’s alive, happy … there’s so much more that’s relevant in life than going to university,” Sarah says. “The difficulty is she wants to be doing things. She loves learning.” When Millie gets frustrated, she sometimes self-harms, pulling her hair out and picking at her skin till it bleeds. Sarah’s voice breaks as she discloses that her daughter used to say she’d rather be dead, so she didn’t have to go to school. “When she was saying those things, she was so young she didn’t even realise people can kill themselves. Now she’s older she knows suicide is a thing. That’s why we have to keep her safe at home.” The strain on the family is intense: Sarah has stopped work, her husband had a breakdown himself last year, and she feels judged by other parents. “People say, ‘Just tell them they have to go; shout at them, take their iPad away.’ And I say, ‘It’s not that they don’t want to go to school, it’s that they can’t.’” As a new autumn term begins, the biggest challenge for many headteachers is getting children through the door. After three years of constant interruptions to education, from lockdowns to Covid outbreaks and teaching strikes, attendance has crumbled. Persistent absence, defined as missing more than 10% of lessons, more than doubled from 8% of primary and 13.7% of secondary school children pre-Covid across England to 17% and 28% respectively in 2022-2023. Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner for England, calculates that of the 1.6 million children persistently absent during the autumn and spring of 2021-22, 818,000 were off for reasons other than the usual childhood illnesses. Many of these absentees are worryingly vulnerable: children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and children on free school meals are disproportionately more likely to be persistently off. But absence is a complex, many-headed hydra. Some parents have seemingly learned to treat education more casually, taking cheap term-time holidays or allowing “duvet days”. (The Instagram parenting influencer Molly Gunn recently confessed to letting her children take birthdays, “lounging days” and six weeks in Ibiza off.) At the other end of the spectrum are the “ghost children” supposedly vanishing from schools during the pandemic and potentially at risk of falling into crime or abuse. Though there are few reliable estimates for how many children have actually fallen off the radar completely, in the autumn of 2020 93,514 children were absent more than 50% of the time compared with just over 60,000 pre-Covid. But perhaps the most perplexing problem facing headteachers is an apparent wave of chronic anxiety in children, leading to what was formerly known as school refusal – now termed “emotionally based school avoidance”. For some children who found school difficult and craved the comfort of home, leaving the cocoon of lockdown was obviously tough. But for others, anxiety seems to have emerged only under the stress and isolation of the pandemic. And sometimes children’s own feelings can be hard to disentangle from those of parents anxious about mixing socially again. Whatever the cause, this autumn offers a critical opportunity for a fresh start. “September is the moment,” says De Souza, who fears that if absence isn’t solved now, then it may become baked in, with lifelong consequences for the most disadvantaged. “Every child, however difficult it is and for whatever reason they might be out of school, will think again in September.” The education secretary Gillian Keegan is also preparing an autumn offensive, appealing this summer for heads to fetch children in from home themselves if necessary. But parent groups such as Not Fine in School and Square Peg, representing families like Sarah’s, say crackdowns on nonattendance risk stigmatising those whose children genuinely can’t cope. They want better pastoral care and SEND provision in schools instead, and for children’s happiness to be prioritised. “All we’ve been measuring is results, tests, exams,” says Square Peg’s director, Ellie Costello. “I think our children have been holding a mirror up to us – the life we are asking them to live, the expectations on them, the pressures on them.” This isn’t just an argument about attendance – in part, it’s about the nature of childhood itself. Growing up in Middlesbrough, in a neighbourhood where, he says wryly, teenage boys could get up to all sorts, sport evidently helped keep Michael Robson on track. A former professional footballer – he signed to Sunderland straight from school but never quite made the big time – he is friendly but brisk, with an athlete’s iron self-discipline. He waves away the proffered sandwich lunch when we meet at Grangefield academy in the market town of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham. Robson is now a senior executive at the Northern Education Trust, which oversees this school and a scattering of other academies along the north-east coast, from the former mining community of Blyth down through Hartlepool to nearby Redcar. But before the pandemic, he was headteacher at North Shore academy, the trust’s other school in Stockton, where he oversaw an uncompromising approach to boosting attendance (since adopted trust-wide) dubbed “exemplary” by the schools minister Nick Gibb. (The trust’s CEO, Rob Tarn, now sits on the Department for Education’s Attendance Action Alliance, helping spread best practice nationwide via regional attendance “hubs”, or local clusters of schools who share strategies.) Here, then, is the government’s favoured recipe. Work starts well before the school day begins, with the attendance team visiting some children before they’ve even had a chance to bunk off. “We’ll knock on the door at 7.30am and say, ‘Don’t forget, you’re in school today,’” explains Andrew Murphy, Grangefield’s equally energetic executive principal. Lists of absentees are generated within minutes of registers being taken; all can then expect a phone call or knock on the door, even if parents ring in to report a child is sick. (Absence is considered a safeguarding issue, because for some children, failing to turn up could signal they are in danger, at home or elsewhere.) In the afternoons, staff might phone parents of children reported sick to ask if they’ll be back tomorrow, or visit hardened absentees who don’t answer a morning knock. And if it doesn’t work? “Keep trying – we go again,” Robson says. The trust’s ethos is the “no excuses” approach beloved of Michael Gove in his time as education secretary – which means no blaming challenging circumstances, even though these schools serve the kind of disadvantaged, mainly white working-class communities where attendance was historically difficult even pre-Covid. “We should be able to do it for the kids in this community, and we don’t expect less of them,” Robson adds firmly. All this costs money – Grangefield has access to five learning managers, an educational welfare officer and safeguarding officer, which Robson says is affordable only because they belong to a big multi-academy trust. And crucially, it also involves carrots alongside the stick. Walking round the school, the corridors ring to the sound of applause: children here are taught to clap good answers from classmates, and those who go the extra mile get their names written up on the classroom door. On every table sit boxes of equipment to which pupils can help themselves – not every family here can afford pens and rulers – and a strict uniform policy is maintained by ensuring nobody goes without. “If it’s a hardship, we’ll give them a blazer; if they’ve no shoes, we will give them shoes. If they’ve forgotten something, we’ll lend it,” Robson says. During lockdown the trust bought every child a laptop; anyone not logged on by the time online lessons started got a phone call or visit. Then there is the Bridge, a small nurturing unit designed to ease children back if they’ve been off with serious illness or are vulnerable for other reasons. “You might have a child who is out of school and the prospect of returning to a big cohort is terrifying. For some we’ll say, ‘You just need to come in at these hours and work with a teaching assistant or tutor in your own room,’” Robson says. In nearby Redcar, the trust tried taking severely absent kids to make things in the engineering department of a local college or on outdoor activities: anything to rebuild relationships with teachers. Yet for all this, attendance remains a “daily battle”: while it’s still above the national average at North Shore, it’s not yet back to pre-Covid levels. And, rather tellingly, that pattern isn’t just confined to children. In 2022, the year the pandemic officially ended, sickness absence among working adults was higher than in any year since 2004. Almost half of adults still work at least sometimes from home. In demanding children snap back to the old norm, society is arguably asking more of them than of grownups. What’s more, when schools minister Gibb was asked by MPs this year about a reported rise in anxiety among children, he said home working may have allowed some parents to keep at home anxious children who would once have had to go to school. There is still little hard research on how many children are experiencing sustained anxiety about school post-lockdown. The NHS found one in six children aged five to 16 had a probable mental health disorder in the summer of 2020, up from one in nine three years earlier. According to the schools insurer Zurich last year, a staggering 42% of parents felt their children experienced frequent anxiety. But it’s not always clear what that catch-all word “anxiety” means, especially given the long waits many children face for assessment by an NHS specialist. It’s a sensitive subject around which Robson treads audibly carefully. “I think society is better for being accepting of, ‘Look, it’s OK to say I’m struggling.’ I think we would all recognise that we are better off in a world where you don’t have to bottle things up,” he says, stressing that he doesn’t want to sound like a dinosaur. But still, it’s complicated. “Some young people are really, really struggling and need some help and support, and I don’t think anyone would deny that. Some young people might say that they’re socially anxious but not understand that this is perfectly normal, to walk into a room of 200 people and feel a bit anxious. You have not ‘got anxiety’, you are anxious.” He has, he notes, encountered children reportedly too anxious for school but seemingly comfortable enough in a crowd at Middlesbrough Football Club on weekends. How does a parent tell the difference between normal childhood worries and something more serious? It’s important not to over-medicalise children’s emotions, says Stevie Goulding, co-manager of the parent helpline at mental health charity Young Minds. Being anxious about exams, for example, is normal and even healthy: “It helps you to focus, to get that adrenaline pumping.” But if anxiety persists when exams are over, or lasts for more than four to six weeks with no obvious trigger, or spills over into home life and activities children normally enjoy, there might be cause for concern. If a child is actively resisting going to school, Goulding recommends sticking to the usual morning routine regardless. “Wake up with the expectation that they get up for school, have their breakfast, get their uniform on, while having awareness that they might not be able to leave the house.” Parents should try to establish exactly what’s worrying them – perhaps a particular lesson, teacher or friendship – and keep chasing any promised intervention by the school. Many children with special educational needs strive to maintain a normal facade in class and explode only when they get home, she points out, meaning teachers may not always realise how serious things are. Fourteen-year-old Dilly comes across as articulate, charming and chatty over Zoom from home in Essex. The only clue as to the effort that may be costing her is that we’re talking on a Sunday morning, because by the end of a school day she’s too tired. Dilly is good at “masking”, or disguising her autistic traits to fit in, but it wears her out. “A lot of the time I don’t realise how big an effort I’m putting in. I only realise when I’m exhausted later and don’t have any patience and can’t think about anything,” she says cheerfully. In a crowded room, she says, she will feel hyper-aware of things others wouldn’t register – “people’s conversations, people coughing, sniffing, everything” – which can make it overwhelming. Dilly’s school avoidance started at nursery. Can she describe how it feels? “Very anxious. I sort of build up in my head what it’s going to be – this is going to happen and if that happens, that’s going to happen – like a whole catastrophic thing.” Sometimes she starts worrying about the next day as soon as she gets home. “I’ll get stressed about what happens tomorrow, or I haven’t done this homework and the teacher’s going to get cross with me and then I’m going to get upset and this is going to happen. Sometimes there’s not a reason – most of the time there is.” Her ideal school would be “much more personal, shorter days, no homework and no tests”. Dilly now attends a tiny independent school of only 100 pupils, geared to dealing with her autism and dyslexia. Though it’s still sometimes hard to make herself go in, she’s motivated by wanting to get some qualifications and fulfil her ambition of becoming a film producer. But, as her mother acknowledges, she’s arguably one of the lucky ones. Stephanie Rocke’s son, Alton, was in year one when he stopped wanting to go to his Northamptonshire primary school. Always an anxious child, he began suffering what looked like panic attacks; his year two teacher suggested he might have some form of special educational need, though nobody was quite sure what (he’s since been diagnosed with ADHD and autism). Then, disastrously, lockdown hit. “He couldn’t engage at all in home learning,” Rocke says. “That’s when we started seeing the first signs of him hitting himself, calling himself stupid, getting frustrated. After a month we just gave up completely – it was too stressful for everyone.” It was only when school resumed that she realised how far behind he was. He has an EHCP now with a “list of provisions a mile long”, which Rocke says the school simply couldn’t deliver. “They just say, ‘If we don’t have the staff available … ’” Every September, he would start out optimistic, only to wind up withdrawn by Christmas and in meltdown by March. By the spring of year five, she says, he wasn’t eating, sleeping or interacting with the family. “We kept getting told that he should be going to school, should be getting an education – we knew he wasn’t learning, but we felt we’d got to keep doing the right thing and sending him in, even though it didn’t feel like the right thing. And he just kept getting worse.” This March, the couple removed him; they are waiting to hear if he has got in to a school specialising in autism. Rocke and her husband, who run their own business, have taken out loans to cover the cost of therapists, psychologists and solicitors to argue their case with the local education authority. Some SEND mothers she knows have given up work to home school. “That’s what happens – especially women, especially mothers. They have no career, no job, no lives outside their children because they care for them full-time. It’s shocking.” Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Suzie is one of those mothers. Her eldest, 16-year-old Amelia, started struggling in social situations in year three of primary. “She started describing herself as an alien on planet Earth: she’d hide in the loos,” Suzie recalls. It was the family GP who first mentioned autism. “She was having to put so much energy into holding it all together at school, it was like a Coke bottle that’s been shaken: if you take the top off, it explodes everywhere.” Moving Amelia to a small private school helped initially, but by year seven she was self-harming and saying she didn’t want to live. Just before the first lockdown, her parents began home schooling her. Meanwhile her younger sister Evie, now 13, was showing signs of distress. “Lockdown really unsettled her and she struggled to go back – we know now it was because she really liked the much calmer environment at home. It showed families there’s another way of doing this. We don’t have to put them through the hell of school every day.” When lockdown ended and Evie returned to school, she had trouble sleeping. Then she stopped eating. “In May 2022 she also turned round and said to us, ‘I don’t want to be here any more.’ School has driven both our daughters to be suicidal,” says Suzie, who gave up her job in the wine trade to watch over her daughters and hasn’t worked since. Both girls are now back in school. Evie, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, generalised anxiety disorder and autism, is well enough to attend the same small independent college as her sister and their local education authority eventually agreed to pay their fees on the grounds that no suitable state setting is available. “Every single step of the way we’ve either had to pay for the help we needed or fight horribly for it,” Suzie says. “I’m very lucky we don’t need me to rush back to work. We do have the resources to fight for our kids. But so many parents don’t and that’s why so many kids go missing. They can’t cope, there’s nothing else and nobody to help them.” All three families belong to a support network run by Square Peg and Not Fine in School, which swelled rapidly last summer ahead of the first term back with no allowances made for Covid – and pressure to get attendance back on track. “We had [then education secretary] Gavin Williamson saying, ‘We’ve relaxed the measures, everybody back to normal’ but you can’t treat a population like a machine that’s on or off,” says Square Peg’s Ellie Costello. More than a third of families in its Facebook group have children with SEND, she says, and some battled for years to get EHCPs, only to find the promised support isn’t forthcoming. Yet the law requires them to send their children to school anyway, or risk being taken to court for nonattendance (prosecutions brought by councils have doubled in less than a year, according to the Ministry of Justice, with fines of up to £2,500 – like speeding tickets, they can be issued by magistrates in the parent’s absence). While some heads argue that prosecution is a valuable deterrent for otherwise uncooperative parents, Costello points to hard cases such as the lone parent who contacted her after being fined in absentia while undergoing chemotherapy. “She got home to see that the hearing had happened and she owed £800 plus costs. If you don’t open your mail, or are on your own and struggling, these notices get lost.” Some of the parents she meets have been accused of being “difficult” or adversarial by their children’s schools, she says. “But why do people become these things? Because they’re not listened to, or they feel judged or blamed.” As children’s commissioner, it is De Souza’s job to listen. A warm, dynamic steelworker’s daughter from Scunthorpe, until early 2021 she ran an academy trust famous for its hard-driving “no excuses” philosophy. But the stories she has heard from children in this job seem to have shifted her perspective. Immediately after being appointed, she held a consultation about how Covid had affected children. “It’s really seared on my mind, some of the conversations I had going round the country in March 2021, talking to very socially confident youngsters who you would have thought would be fine but who said, ‘Basically my world stopped,’” she says. “I talk to hundreds of children every month, and they will all talk about this. We have really underestimated it.” Initially, she assumed any anxieties about returning to school would fade relatively quickly. But the more she studied attendance data in that first year back, the more it worried her. In hindsight, De Souza thinks children needed more help readjusting to the outside world. “We should have been concerned with children before it was, bang, back into the classroom, into exams. We should have been opening up school buildings, public buildings, got our youth workers and said, ‘Children have taken an unbelievable hit, we should be getting them out, having some fun.’ I never thought I’d hear myself saying that,” she says, laughing. “There’s room in schools for fun, for play, for thriving communities.” It’s not, she stresses, that she has abandoned the drive for educational excellence. “The golden thread right through my career has been ensuring kids from the most disadvantaged areas get the opportunities. It’s just how and what you need to do to achieve that. I have been able to see more widely, and see even better ways to do that. I realise that we’re not islands.” Over the summer she discussed with GPs, police and others how they could cooperate in getting missing children back to school. “We need the NHS not to be issuing children with multiple disabilities with appointments on four different days. We need all the services to be seeing attendance for what it is, a proxy for children’s wellbeing.” School is, she says, critical not just for educational reasons – children with good attendance records do better in GCSEs and A-levels than those without – but for mental health, with research suggesting teenagers in particular are happier when they’re around their peers. Sadly, it’s also critical for some children’s safety. She still wonders whether six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who died at the hands of his father and stepmother in lockdown, might have lived under a teacher’s watchful eye. Summarising her findings for MPs earlier this year, De Souza identified unmet special educational needs, mental health and young carers missing school to look after their parents as key problems with attendance. A recent government green paper on improving provision was full of good ideas, she says, but needs boosters under it: “My worry is the funding for that is two years down the line – we need it now.” Though government plans to train mental health leads in schools are welcome, she says, NHS children’s and adolescent mental health services aren’t coping with a rise in demand either: “It takes funding, it needs a proper plan.” (A spokesperson for the Department of Education said it recognised that the pandemic had affected children’s mental health and that some faced greater barriers to attendance than others, adding: “That’s why we are ensuring pupils with SEND receive the provision they require through new national standards and earlier intervention, alongside reforms to the SEND system that will give families greater confidence that their children will be able to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local area.”) But schools can help, De Souza thinks, by teaching strategies for managing anxiety. Visiting a secondary school in Bolton where a staggering 30 local parents had died of Covid, she expected to find the pupils traumatised; but instead they talked about how teachers had helped them support each other through tough times. “These children were in the worst situations and they were finding a way to grow through it and not let it hold them back.” The key, she argues, is fostering emotional resilience, or the ability to bounce back from difficult experiences. And that’s what lies behind a pilot project on attendance now under way in a deprived part of Liverpool, a city that has seen its share of hard times. On a sunny morning in Whitefield primary school, the playground is full. Three small girls are chalking pictures on the tarmac under headteacher Jill Wright’s window, while other children play handball or career around in toy cars. Wright introduced longer breaktimes after realising how much children had missed out on playing together during lockdown. But, crucially, her teachers don’t just supervise; they join in. “The staff here teach play,” Wright explains. “They go out and play to make those relationships with the children.” Relationships are key at Whitefield, a so-called trauma-informed school – one based on understanding how childhood trauma affects development – serving a proud but deeply deprived neighbourhood. Pupils speak 30 languages between them, a third have SEND and almost half are eligible for pupil premium; some have had difficult early lives. But Wright is fiercely ambitious for them and so, she says, are their parents. The school has above average attendance for the area. “I can’t think of any of our families who don’t want the absolute best for their children, who don’t have the same aspirations they’d have if they lived in the [more affluent] south end of the city. It’s that some face different barriers we have to support them to overcome.” As we walk through calm, orderly classrooms and corridors twinkling with fairy lights, she explains how the school has been geared to reduce anxiety levels. The year six classroom feels almost homelike, with padded seats and a comfy sofa. If a child is absent, teachers tell them when they return that they’re part of the school family and it’s not the same without them. There are no detentions for bad behaviour but, Wright insists, “That’s not to say everyone does what they like.” Instead her deputy Marie Beale has led a programme within school teaching children to regulate their emotions, helping them calm themselves when they’re anxious or angry and settle down to learning. Feelings are colour-coded – the red zone is for anger or fear, yellow for anxiety or over-excitement, blue for sadness – to help children identify emotions and understand that they can change zones by using simple strategies such as counting slowly back from 10, playing outside or discussing their feelings with a grownup. Last year Beale began training parents to use these strategies at home, funded by the Leeds-based charity Shine (which works with schools across the north to close the gap between disadvantaged and better off children). “Instead of coming in saying, ‘He’s really angry this morning’ they can say, ‘He’s in the red zone, I’ve tried to get him in, I don’t know what to do,’” Beale says. Previously, parents might end up shouting at children to go to school in desperation, but now they have other tools. “Parents who have done the work on emotions, they understand the children are not being awkward.” Yet as at Grangefield, the rules are very clear. Failure to call in and explain absence from school or its attached nursery prompts a call or home visit, and parents are fined for taking term-time holidays. If children are off sick, the school’s warm and motherly family liaison officer, Marguerite Young, will use her judgment on whether to call parents and gently try to find out if complaints of tummy ache might be masking something else. “If you know the child, you know the family, you can speak to Mum and say, ‘Do you think this is anxiety?’ and we will get to the root of it,” she explains. Sometimes she’ll offer to fetch a child herself in the morning, and some pupils sit with her for 10 minutes before the day starts, to calm themselves. The idea is to do whatever it takes to get anxious children in, so absence doesn’t become a habit; parents are reminded that lessons build on each other, so if a child misses one day, the next will be harder. But the key is winning families’ trust, Young says. “They know me and I know them, they can ring me on my mobile if they’re having a bad morning.” The whole approach, Wright adds, is to walk a mile in parents’ shoes rather than blaming them if they can’t get their children in. “It’s easy to sit in judgment and say, ‘You’ve got to do this, you’re the parent, it’s your responsibility.’ If you say that without underpinning it with support for the child or the parent, you’re just adding pressure to an already pressured situation.” While her methods could easily be caricatured as chalk to the more robust cheese offered by Grangefield academy, visiting both reveals not just the hidden nuances but how closely each approach is tailored to local need. Michael Robson acknowledges some communities might find his home visits intrusive; Jill Wright accepts what works in her small primary, where teachers can get to know all the families, might not suit a big, anonymous secondary. But primaries can, she argues, help secondaries by ingraining good habits early on. (Shine’s CEO, Helen Rafferty, says research shows children who attend nursery aged two go on to have better school attendance records when they’re older.) It’s by starting with the youngest children that attendance seems most likely to be cracked in the end. But that isn’t much comfort to the families falling by the wayside now. If Millie’s mother Sarah could write education policy, she says wistfully, she’d throw “all the money in the world” at training teachers in neurodiversity. As it is, she and her husband sometimes fantasise about dropping out of the system. “We go on Rightmove and say, ‘Let’s buy a plot of land in the middle of nowhere, just move there and give up on everything and everyone, and live our lives and be safe,’” she sighs. “But in reality, that’s not the way. It’s getting the people who have the power to make things change.” The headline of this article was amended on 4 September 2023 to refer to England rather than Britain.

Shortage of teachers will be a big maths problem for Rishi Sunak

2023-04-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/17/shortage-of-teachers-will-be-a-big-maths-problem-for-rishi-sunak

Prime minister wants pupils to study maths until 18, but government has failed to meet recruitment targets for a decade The prime minister’s ambition to ensure that all pupils study maths up to the age of 18, first outlined in January and reiterated in a speech on Monday, has attracted a variety of responses ranging from “laudable” to “shortsighted” and “misguided”. There is a consensus, however, that the key obstacle is the critical shortage of specialist maths teachers – among other subject specialists – which already threatens to undermine maths education in schools in England. As things stand, about one in eight maths lessons (12%) are taught by someone without a maths degree and almost half of all secondary schools are having to use non-specialist teachers for maths. It could be a geography teacher, a PE teacher or someone from the modern foreign languages department filling the gaps in your child’s maths timetable. Maths supply teachers to provide specialist cover are notoriously difficult to find. The shortage in maths teachers is partly due to the fact that the government has failed to meet its own recruitment targets for trainee maths teachers every year for more than a decade, despite the target being cut by 39%. It is also because of the high attrition rate among maths teachers, who leave to do other – often better paid – jobs. While the recruitment and retention of teachers is a huge issue across many subjects and most schools, maths is particularly affected. According to Jack Worth, an education economist and school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, in 2020 13% of maths teachers quit the classroom within their first five years, compared with an average of 9.3% across all subjects. Worth says one of the key challenges to any expansion of maths education is the sheer number of maths teachers already required in schools in England, where it is a compulsory part of the curriculum up to the age of 16. The other issue is the relative attractiveness of teaching to someone with a maths degree, who has the potential to earn a premium salary in banking or industry. “If you’ve got a maths degree, or an economics degree, or something quantitative, then your skills are quite in demand in the labour market,” said Worth. “So maths graduates and quantitative graduates tend to earn quite well in terms of starting salaries and career progression, which means that relative to what you could earn outside of teaching, teaching is less attractive.” So, improved pay is a key issue in any attempt to boost recruitment of maths teachers. As parents will be aware, teacher pay is at the centre of a bitter, ongoing dispute between the government and unions. Strike action by the National Education Union has already closed thousands of schools and further industrial action is planned for later this month and next. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, experienced teachers – including maths teachers – had a 13% real-terms drop in pay between 2010 and 2022, while average earnings across the economy have gone up 2% in real terms over the same period. Unions have rejected a government offer of a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.5% pay rise next year. There are no talks planned and there is no resolution in sight. There are some financial incentives already in place to try to attract subject teachers who are in short supply. The government says bursaries and scholarships worth up to £27,000 and £29,000 tax-free are helping to encourage talented trainees to subjects such as maths, physics, chemistry and computing. Early-career payments are also available in some areas, but given the shortages, the government offer does not appear to be substantial enough. The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has also floated the idea of higher pay for teachers in subjects where there are acute shortages. Could that work? “The economist in me says it’s a good idea because you’ve got supply and demand and there isn’t enough supply of maths teachers and demand is outstripping it,” says Worth. “So you’d want to put your resources where they’re likely to be most effective and where they’re most needed. “I guess the challenge comes at the school level. Schools don’t want multiple pay scales and complicated pay systems. And they worry about things like fairness and teachers feeling they’re valued across all different subjects.” And then there are working conditions, which have changed in many industries and sectors post-pandemic, with a mixture of time in the office and working from home. There is not the same flexibility available in teaching, which may also act as a deterrent.

Nice to teach you: Brucie can help boost children’s speech, says classics professor

2023-06-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/04/brucey-and-caesar-can-help-children-improve-oracy-says-classic-professor

Former teacher says learning classical rhetoric can help pupils become better communicators It has been employed for thousands of years, taking in everything from Julius Caesar writing veni, vidi, vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) to Bruce Forsyth greeting fans with “nice to see you, to see you nice”. Caesar, Forsyth and countless others, from William Shakespeare to Nicki Minaj, have used classical rhetoric, the ancient formula for crafting and delivering persuasive arguments. Now, an academic argues that teaching it in schools would improve the nation’s communication skills no end. Arlene Holmes-Henderson, a classics professor at Durham University, is leading a project to help improve the oracy of children in the north-east of England. If successful, the aim is to roll the scheme out across the UK. Holmes-Henderson is collaborating with three academic colleagues who have expertise in other areas – psychology, English and education – and who are all passionate about equipping children with skills to become effective communicators. “We want to empower young people to find and use their voice,” she said, adding that teaching rhetoric was just one part of the project but an important one. Holmes-Henderson is a former secondary school teacher and has seen first-hand the lightbulb moments when pupils realise that the latest Sony advert, for example, is a chiasmus. Famous examples of chiasmus include John F Kennedy’s “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind” and Forsyth’s “Nice to see you, to see you nice”. Holmes-Henderson said chiasmus was often used in political speeches but not always for the right reasons, and knowing about it helps audiences read between the lines. “If you don’t know about chiasmus, it is quite easy to be taken in, which is why it’s important for young people to have a rhetorical toolbox where they can deconstruct the communication of others,” Holmes-Henderson said. “They can also use it to construct their own communication in order to be as articulate and self-expressive as possible.” Other rhetorical devices include asyndetons (the deliberate omission of conjunctions), anaphoras (repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of neighbouring clauses) and alliteration (the repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase). The north-east of England is an area of particular “classics poverty”, said Holmes-Henderson. “Kids in the north-east have the least access to classics compared to children elsewhere in the country. I think we see a real difference between the private sector and the state sector in terms of preparing young people to find their voice confidently.” The original motivation for the project, titled “shy bairns get nowt”, is the disadvantage faced by schoolchildren in the north-east. Holmes-Henderson said one report found that pupils fell twice as far behind during the pandemic as their peers in the south-east. Improving children’s oracy skills has lifelong benefits, the researchers said. “Long after they’ve forgotten the rules of trigonometry or the imperfect tense in French, they retain the skills required to disagree constructively,” Holmes-Henderson said. Holmes-Henderson represents classics, while the English representative on the project is Prof Simon James, who led the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education. They are joined by the psychologist Thomas Vaughan-Johnston, who is an expert in vocal characteristics of persuasive speech, and David Waugh, an education professor who co-wrote the book Integrating Children’s Literature in the Classroom. The strength of the project was the mix of academics taking part, Holmes-Henderson said. “We have people who would not usually ever meet. I would not normally be having conversations with colleagues in psychology, English and education because academia is really siloed. “Together, we hope that we can create something that will have a significant impact across the north-east. The long-term aim is that our training and resources can be rolled out to other schools across the country.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The academics started meeting in April and are planning an international conference in Durham on the subject in September. They said any resources that emerged as a result of discussions would be produced with teachers. “We are not at all saying we know everything,” said Holmes-Henderson. “We want to collaborate with the teachers themselves because they are the experts in their classrooms.” Chiasmus “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind” – John F Kennedy addressing the UN general assembly in 1961. “Fair is foul and foul is fair” – the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. “Nice to see you, to see you nice” – Bruce Forsyth. Asyndeton “We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together knowing that we will be free one day” – Martin Luther King in his 1963 I Have a Dream speech “I came, I saw, I conquered” – Julius Caesar “I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive. I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise, to fly!” – Nicki Minaj

‘The task is impossible’: three teachers on why they are quitting

2023-07-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/05/the-task-is-impossible-three-teachers-on-why-they-are-quitting

Citing rising demands, low pay and budget pressures, teachers in England are leaving the profession in record numbers Max, in his 30s, a primary school teacher from southern England, is among thousands of teachers in England who will be striking on Wednesday to protest against the government’s offer of a 4.3% pay rise and £1,000 one-off payment. He will only be striking, though, he says, in solidarity with colleagues. “I have handed in my notice and will be leaving the profession in 10 days’ time. It is my third year as a teacher and it has been horrendous.” Max is one of hundreds of teachers who shared with the Guardian why they had decided to quit or are considering doing so. Many cited unacceptable, growing demands on teachers, stress relating to Ofsted inspections, and low pay as their main complaints, pointing out that unfillable vacancies mean class sizes balloon while the quality of lessons suffers. Dozens of respondents highlighted their struggles with increasingly poor pupil behaviour post-Covid and rising numbers of children with additional needs, at a time where school budgets are already stretched to the maximum. The latest workforce survey by the Department for Education (DfE) found that 40,000 teachers resigned from state schools last year – almost 9% of the teaching workforce, and the highest number since it began publishing the data in 2011 – while a further 4,000 retired. “For me, it was the way I was being treated, as well as the absolutely obscene workload: clocking up 50 hours a week and then having to do reports and other non-teaching related activities in your own time,” Max says. “Being verbally abused and in some cases physically abused by eight-year-old children. The school’s inability to provide for children with Send (special educational needs and disabilities) due to a lack of expertise and lack of support, coupled with really high pressure and high expectations that the school governors pass down.” In his class of 27 children, a quarter have complex special educational needs, he says. “Some of them have autism, but there is no additional support, it’s always just me in the classroom. Then you get grilled when some kids haven’t reached age-related expectations. The task is impossible.” Similar issues are being experienced by teachers in secondary state education. Lucy, a history teacher at a large comprehensive school in the south-west, will also be striking on Wednesday, although she is about to leave the state school sector just one year after qualifying. “I’m moving to a private school, something I never thought I’d do. So, while ‘teacher’ is still my job title, I will be part of the statistics for teachers who leave state education,” she says. “I fully support the teachers’ strikes, and not everybody at my school does. Class sizes of 27 to over 30 mean there is no chance for individual feedback or one-to-one time with pupils.” Lucy says five other teachers at her school who have only started their teaching careers within the past two years are also leaving. “I don’t feel that I am a teacher; I’m babysitting until 3pm, as pupils’ behaviour leaves no room for teaching. I found the attitudes to learning genuinely shocking. Pupils at my school – which has a mixed population of affluent and poorer families – frequently refuse to work, ignoring basic tasks such as ‘open your book’. “They come to school without equipment and I am expected to provide pens and pencils multiple times a day with no budget. I have had students swear at me, wreck display boards, throw things at me. “It’s a stressful and depressing way to see young people grow up. I’m very leftwing and chose the state school sector to do something good, but I now believe that, unless the government dramatically increases education funding, they should focus on giving kids who want to do well better options. That’s how bad I think it is.” Lucy says her job change will leave her with an effective pay cut, as the area she is moving to has a higher cost of living. “My pay will mean I can no longer afford a flat and will have to move back in with my family, but at the new school there will only be 15 kids per class, which is my main motivation. “I am a good teacher. I do not struggle with behaviour management unless it’s an extreme situation; I know how to engage learners. I can cope well with high workloads and am resilient. I simply value myself too highly to do this job, and I look around myself every day and think, ‘Why are you all still doing this?’ And soon, I expect, hardly anyone will be.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Her fellow teacher Andrew Draper from Chippenham has come to the same conclusion, and will leave teaching at the end of July. “I recently handed in my resignation, after eight years in the job,” the 50-year-old secondary maths teacher and head of key stage 4 says. “This was a difficult decision. The reasons are various, but the current strikes and government response have caused me to question my efforts and commitment to a profession I have enjoyed and supported. This profession is just not valued enough.” Like many of his colleagues, Draper says rising stress levels made it untenable for him to remain in post. “I regularly work a 55-hour week, and usually spend four hours every Saturday planning. My wife can’t understand how and why I devote so much of my time. Although my salary of around £42k is not the reason I’m leaving, it’s not enough for what I do. “Behaviour has worsened since Covid and more students are not attending class.” Draper also worries that staff shortages will mean even bigger class sizes, more non-specialist teachers and reduced subjects for students. “By the time the government addresses the issues, I fear too much damage will have been done to the prospects of our young people.” Since he handed in his notice at the end of May, Draper says, the school has received almost no applications for his position despite advertising. “A second maths teacher is also leaving, and the school is now in a very difficult position, which I feel bad about. “I will absolutely miss helping students with their social and educational development, but I will be moving on to an improved salary in engineering, and more importantly, I’ll be working a 37-hour week and not a minute longer.”

How to use the Guardian University Guide 2023

2022-09-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/24/how-to-use-the-guardian-university-guide-2023

Don’t be overwhelmed by the choice on offer – use this guide to help make a selection Welcome to the Guardian University Guide 2023. Life is feeling closer to normal after nearly three years of disruption, which means prospective students can look forward to enjoying everything university has to offer. That means working hard, but also making new friends, discovering new interests and – just as importantly – having fun. This guide is here to help you figure out what matters most to you. Unlike other league tables, the Guardian rankings focus on the things students care about, such as good teaching and job prospects, rather than basing them on academic research. We rank universities through nine different scores, which form a total out of 100. These include what students say about their teaching, feedback and the course itself in the annual National Student Survey. This year we combined 2021 and 2022 to reflect how universities responded to the pandemic. We also look at how big class sizes are through the student-to-staff ratio and how much universities spend on teaching per student, as well as students’ A-level grades and whether their academic performance improves at university (the value-added score), and how likely they are to continue with their course. There’s also data on how many students get graduate jobs 15 months after leaving university. This year, we used data from 2018/19 and 2019/20 to minimise the impact of the pandemic, although there is still some disruption relative to earlier cohorts. Any blank spaces mean there is data missing, so we focus on the other measures. In the guide, you’ll find our overall league table of UK universities as well as individual subject profiles and tables. This year, we have also added 12 new subjects based on the search terms students use, and to reflect their increasing popularity. We’ve also got lots of advice to help you make up your mind and start planning for university, from decorating your room to opening a bank account. The rankings change annually, and some universities may benefit from temporary measures such as funding boosts. Don’t forget that universities which languish at the bottom of the overall table can be top for certain subjects.

‘Anti-maths mindset’ costs UK a huge sum, Rishi Sunak claims

2023-04-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/17/anti-maths-mindset-costs-uk-a-huge-sum-rishi-sunak-claims

PM urges Britain to prize numeracy, but critics say such talk counts for nothing without a funded plan The UK possesses an inherent “anti-maths mindset” that is hampering efforts to improve numeracy, Rishi Sunak is to say as he relaunches his plan to make maths education until 18 compulsory. In a speech to students, teachers and others in north London planned for Monday, the prime minister is expected to argue that a failure to consider numeracy as basic a skill as reading is costing the UK economy huge sums. “We’ve got to change this anti-maths mindset. We’ve got to start prizing numeracy for what it is – a key skill every bit as essential as reading,” Sunak was to say, according to extracts of the speech briefed in advance by Downing Street. “I won’t sit back and allow this cultural sense that it’s OK to be bad at maths to put our children at a disadvantage. My campaign to transform our national approach to maths is not some ‘nice to have’. It’s about changing how we value maths in this country.” In another speech, in early January, Sunak first set out his plans to make it compulsory for everyone to study maths in some form up to the age of 18, rather than the current minimum of 16. Critics, including opposition parties, said the promise was meaningless without a coherent plan, including money to recruit and train more maths teachers. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said it was still not known how many extra maths teachers would be needed, as this would depend on the recommendation from a new expert advisory group that will help shape the content and decide if a new maths qualification was needed. Keegan said the government was confident it could recruit more maths teachers despite not hitting targets for existing recruitment, pointing to a bursary scheme for the subject and other incentives. “They are a relatively recent introduction,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “So you know they have been impacted by the pandemic but I still believe that they will work.” Another route, she added, was maths and physics teaching apprenticeships, saying: “That’s going to attract either those young people who want to earn and learn at the same time and not go away to university, or people who need to earn and learn who want to do teaching as a second subject as well.” Sunak is expected to point to statistics showing the UK is below average for numeracy among industrialised countries, with more than 8 million adults having maths skills below those expected in schools for a child of nine. “If we are going to grow the economy not just over the next two years, but the next 20, we simply cannot allow poor numeracy to cost our economy tens of billions a year or to leave people twice as likely to be unemployed as those with competent numeracy,” he is to say. “We have to fundamentally change our education system so it gives our young people the knowledge and skills they need – and that our businesses need – to compete with the best in the world. “We will not deliver this change overnight. We’ll need to recruit and train the maths teachers.” The government has pledged to set up an advisory group comprising mathematicians, education experts and business representatives to advise on the numeracy content needed, and whether to set up a new maths qualification for those aged 16 to 18. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Once again, the prime minister needs to show his working: he cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers. But after 13 years of failing our children, the Tory government repeatedly misses their target for new maths teachers, with maths attainment gaps widening and existing teachers leaving in their droves.”

Schools in England brace for more strikes as NEU rejects pay offer

2023-04-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/03/schools-in-england-brace-for-more-strikes-as-neu-rejects-pay-offer

Members overwhelmingly vote not to accept offer of £1,000 one-off payment and 4.3% pay rise for most teachers Parents in England face another wave of strikes and school closures after teachers belonging to the National Education Union decisively rejected the government’s pay offer. NEU members voted by 98% not to accept the offer of a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.3% pay rise for most teachers from September, triggering two further days of strikes in England on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May. More than 195,000 members voted in the pay ballot – two-thirds of the union’s active membership - with only 2% voting to accept the government’s offer. Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said in comments directed at the education secretary, Gillian Keegan: “We are saying to you that you need to make a better offer because this dispute is not going away.” When the result was announced at the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate, delegates broke into chants of “come on Gill, pay the bill”. Mary Bousted, the union’s other joint general secretary, noted that the government’s offer was worse than pay deals that recently resolved disputes in other countries within the UK. “Gillian, why do you think that teachers in England are worth less than teachers in Wales or Scotland?” Bousted said. “To parents we say that we have no wish to disrupt education, indeed our action is aimed at getting the government to invest in the education of this generation of children and the people who teach them. We are asking our school reps to plan with headteachers to ensure that year 11 and year 13 students have a full programme of education on the upcoming strike days”. Students begin sitting A-level and GCSE exams from 15 May. The NEU conference will this week debate an emergency motion to confirm the two further strike days, and to hold a fresh ballot next month that would authorise further strikes this summer. Keegan said she was “extremely disappointed” by the NEU’s decision to reject her offer, and would refuse further negotiations until the Department for Education had received pay recommendations for 2023-24 from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body. “The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, in addition to the record funding already planned for school budgets. The NEU’s decision to reject it will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today. Pay will now be decided by the independent pay review body, which will recommend pay rises for next year,” Keegan said. The rejection of the government’s offer, which could be followed by the other major teaching unions, is a setback for Keegan after she entered into six days of intense negotiations last month. The DfE’s offer also included the establishment of a new taskforce to reduce teacher workload. Keegan had said the offer was “final” and the one-off payment would be lost if teachers rejected the deal. The DfE had procured additional funding for the one-off £1,000 payment that would have been on top of the 5% pay rise already set out for the current school year, while the 4.5% overall offer was an improvement on the 3% the government had originally put forward for 2023-24. Three other unions, the NASUWT, Association of School and College Leaders and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are also balloting members on the offer, with the NAHT also asking if they would take industrial action if it is rejected. NAHT members were balloted in January but failed to get over the 50% threshold of members’ voting required for industrial action. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that even including the pay offer, salaries for experienced teachers would still be 13% lower than in 2010. Last month unions in Scotland accepted a pay increase worth more than 14% for most teachers. In Wales the unions accepted an additional 3% pay rise for the current school year and a 5% increase for 2023-24.

Can you solve it? Puzzles for blockheads

2022-11-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/28/can-you-solve-it-puzzles-for-blockheads

There ain’t half been some clever brainteasers UPDATE: You can read the solutions here Today’s questions come from this year’s Mathigon puzzle advent calendar. One of the many reason to be cheerful (Pt. 3) at this time of year. If you have a head for blocks, the first one is for you. 1. Hit me with your four cube stick 2. Timelines 3. Eight heavy adult females 4. Slice of orange .5. Bucket list All today’s puzzles were taken from the forthcoming Mathigon advent calendar, which presents a puzzle a day from Dec 1 to 24. Mathigon is a beautiful, incredibly engaging and free interactive website for the maths-curious. If you haven’t visited it before, I recommend a browse. And if you have, it’s worth a checking out again since new features are always coming online. PLEASE NO SPOILERS I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solutions. UPDATE: You can read the solutions here. I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me. I give school talks about maths and puzzles (online and in person). If your school is interested please get in touch.

GCSE students’ exam nerves were at a high this year, say headteachers

2022-08-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/23/gcse-students-exam-nerves-were-at-a-high-this-year-say-headteachers

Anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia reported by schools, suggesting education still not back to normal after the pandemic Pupils who sat GCSEs this year were so nervous about their exams that they suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia, according to headteachers. The heads also said they had never seen a year group face so much uncertainty over grades and progression to sixth-form. GCSE grades due out on Thursday are expected to be at a rough midpoint between those of 2019 and 2021 to represent a return to normality while reflecting the challenges of the pandemic. Heads who spoke to the Guardian worried that students from disadvantaged backgrounds who missed out on more learning would be disproportionately affected by grade deflation. “It’s the most disadvantaged students, those on pupil premium and free school meals, whose education has been most disrupted on top of the disadvantage they’ve already got,” said Raza Ali, the headteacher of Chalk Hills academy in Luton. “Every year you get nerves – it wouldn’t feel like results day without them, but this year there are a lot more nerves, a lot more anxiety, a lot more unknowns – nobody knows really what’s going to happen. What doesn’t help is that teachers are a bit bewildered as well,” he said. Ali said he did not believe that the additional difficulties of the past year had been factored in, including Covid absences, fuel shortages and a shortage of funding for catch-up learning. In his WhatsApp group of 100 heads who work with Teach First, a charity that tackles educational disadvantage, “everyone is genuinely worried”, he said. He added that he did not think the government understood the scale of the mental health challenge facing some schools. “I’ve never seen it at this level, it’s a huge problem, and it’s growing. This is going to trickle through society for a number of years to come.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Lots of his GCSE students had panic attacks on exam day, including four who vomited from stress. Others lost their appetite or developed insomnia in the runup to exams, and in some cases “that anxiety and stress is tipping over into borderline suicidal thoughts”, he said. Andy Webster, the headteacher of Park View school in Tottenham, north London, said the current GCSE cohort had been “more affected than any other so far” by Covid and inconsistent schooling, especially those who lacked devices and study space at home, or whose families could not help with online learning or afford tutors. “I don’t think the government has made the right decision in pushing through GCSEs this year,” he said, adding that he thought the focus for this age group should be on catching up rather than “fixating on numbers and grades”. He worried about how lower grades might affect his students’ futures, since they are especially at risk of becoming Neets – not in education, employment or training – if they are rejected for post-16 courses. “This set of results won’t tell colleges very much because there are two years’ worth of missed education.” Angela Wallace, the headteacher of Woodside school in Haringey, north London, said this was especially a problem for schools such as hers. “The whole process is unfair because they didn’t know how to do exams and they feel they’ve been robbed of a year of school. We don’t have a sixth-form so an awful lot rests on it. In this area, lots of sixth-forms have entry requirements, so it will influence their choices.” Although her school set two mock exams, she didn’t feel that pupils had the opportunity to develop revision skills and maturity, and many struggled to maintain momentum over the lengthened exam timetable. “The thing they tended to say was ‘there’s just so much to know’,” she said. James Eldon, the principal of the Manchester Academy, noted that “there’s a nervousness in Manchester” over results because of how badly the city had been hit by the pandemic. He said that in a multicultural school such as his, many pupils whose families do not speak English at home struggled with literacy after lockdowns. But he said many of his students saw exams as a promising sign that normality had returned, and he praised their “pragmatism and fortitude”. “We had our first year 11 prom for a few years this year and I sat and watched and felt incredibly proud.”

Up for a 4am supermarket shift, then lectures: the life of a UK student amid cost of living crisis

2023-12-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/05/uk-students-taking-on-jobs-to-make-ends-meet

Exhausted students fear their studies are being compromised as loans and grants fall far behind Five days a week, the sky is pitch black when George, a first-year student at Liverpool John Moores University, wakes up for work. No buses are available at that time, so he leaves the house at 2.45am to walk the 3.7 miles (6km) to work for his 4am shift. He has a quick sit-down before he begins a four-hour shift collecting items around the supermarket for delivery. Depending on whether he can afford the £2 fare that day, he will get a bus, or retrace his steps back to campus. Then it is time to go to lectures. Unsurprisingly, he feels exhausted, and sometimes struggles to stay awake in his morning lectures. “It leaves me tired and unable to concentrate. It’s hard studying along with work, but the main reason I’m here is to achieve my degree,” he says, explaining that he struggled to find other work with enough hours closer to campus. “I drink as much coffee as I can.” The 29-year-old from Cardiff receives £11,720 between his maintenance loan and a grant from the Welsh government. But after paying his £188 rent each week for a studio flat in university accommodation – the mature student was reluctant to share with hard-partying students a decade younger for a slightly lower rent – he still needs to work 20 hours a week to make ends meet. “The figures speak for themselves. There’s no question – you’ll have to get a job,” he says. “People always say students’ favourite food is rice and pasta, but I didn’t realise it would be rations.” Costs have had difficult consequences for the engineering student, who takes medication for anxiety and depression. After an unexpected dentistry bill, he was unable to pay for his prescription. “I’ve gone without meds for a couple of weeks because I’ve been unable to afford it,” he says, adding that the university’s wellbeing team is helping him to look into further financial support. He hopes to be able to buy a bike soon for the commute. “Building up to payday, after work I’ve walked home because it’s a case of either getting the bus or eating, as dramatic as that sounds.” The full-time student is far from alone in struggling financially. In a recent UK student survey half (49%) said financial issues were affecting their diets, while 55% said they were affecting their mental health. Save the Student’s 2023 National Student Money Survey found that the declining value of maintenance loans meant that on average, loans were falling short of covering living costs by £582 a month, up from £439 last year. Despite economic pressures, maintenance loans in England increased by just 2.8% in 2023-24, to offer a maximum loan of £9,978 outside London. Scotland increased its financial support offer by £900, to a maximum of £9,000, while Northern Ireland increased its offer by 40%, for a top rate of £8,136. Wales has stepped it up to £11,720 between loans and grants, a 9.4% rise. As well as loans and grants, universities also have hardship funds available to those facing unexpected financial problems, but this is usually a lump-sum emergency payment rather than sustained support. Jasmine, 20, a psychology student, is working overtime as a pub chef in Leeds to keep up with costs. “My friends who get financial support have a lot more time to be in the library doing uni work. There’s a bit of a divide – we’re having completely different times here,” says the second-year student at Leeds Beckett University. She does not see how getting an internship will be viable, since many are unpaid. “It’s getting a lot harder to see uni as accessible for people whose parents can’t help them.” Jasmine is on a 22-hour contract, but lately she has been working closer to 30 hours a week. She receives close to the maximum loan available to those studying outside London, but it is largely swallowed up by the £628 she pays each month for rent and bills. She is unsure how she will cope with the impact of longer hours once deadlines begin. “Towards the end of last year … It was a massive source of stress. I was worried that I’d hand work in late or not be able to do it at all. It’s one of the main things that impacts my mental health,” she says. Jasmine adds that her student mentor has advised her about university hardship resources and funding, but she has not felt the need to apply yet. “I wasn’t expecting to be so stressed about money so fast. I got the freshers’ experience that everyone describes – a week or two going a bit mad. But moving up north, everyone says how cheap it is … That’s not true any more,” she says. “Everyone describes uni as a bit of a break before real life. That’s not how me or friends would describe it.” Orla, a second-year student at Queen Mary University of London, is worried that, with piles of reading for her law degree, she may not achieve the marks she is aiming for. She works about 20 to 25 hours a week as a receptionist, involving a one-hour commute, up from 12 hours when she began the role last year. “It hugely impacts my [learning] – I can’t go to lectures,” she says, explaining that she misses at least a third of lectures each week. “I miss so much content, I constantly feel like I’m on a backlog to catch up.” As she studies in London, she receives a higher rate of student finance. But her £6,485 loan does not even cover half her rent – more than £900 a month, before bills. “You get a London premium, but it’s so insufficient,” she says, explaining that her parents provide some financial help. “Living costs in London are extortionate. “I’m paying £9,250 a year and I can’t concentrate fully on [my degree]. It feels like I’m not going to be able to succeed in the way I’d like. I’m concerned for the future. I can definitely feel myself slipping.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are supporting universities to help students who are struggling financially by making £276m available this academic year, which institutions can use to top up their own hardship schemes. This is on top of increases to student loans and grants. “Many universities have done a good job to support students who are struggling financially through a variety of programmes, and we urge students who are worried about their circumstances to speak to their university.” A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We understand the extra pressures on students due to the cost of living crisis. Our grants and loans for students have increased each year, with Wales having the most generous student support in the UK. The rate of maintenance support available to full- and part-time higher education students from Wales has increased by 9.4%. “All universities in Wales have hardship funds in place to help all students in financial difficulty, and have put extra cost of living support in place, which includes: crisis grants, free or low-cost food, free period products and free access to sports and activities. Anyone who’s struggling financially should contact their student union or student support services.” The spokesperson added that the Welsh government had recently provided additional funding of £2.3m “to help address the impacts on students of rising costs”.

Ofsted to urge schools to pause inspections harming mental health of staff

2024-01-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/19/ofsted-schools-inspections-mental-health-staff

Sister of headteacher who killed herself welcomes new direction but says single-word judgments impede real reform Ofsted is to urge schools to “pause” inspections that appear to be damaging the mental health of their staff, as part of its formal response to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. The schools inspectorate for England is also pledging to hold a public consultation with families and teachers where “nothing is off the table”, and will consider overhauling how it inspects and grades safeguarding. But Perry’s family and school leaders said they were disappointed that neither the Department for Education’s nor Ofsted’s responses addressed the use of single-phrase judgments such as “inadequate” to grade schools, which they said was an impediment to real reform. The plans by chief inspector Martyn Oliver form Ofsted’s response to a coroner’s findings into Perry’s death last year, after an Ofsted inspection was ruled to have contributed to the Reading headteacher’s suicide. “As the new chief inspector, I am determined to do everything in my power to prevent such tragedies in the futures,” said Oliver, who took over as head of Ofsted in the new year. He added: “We must carry out our role in a way that is sensitive to the pressures faced by leaders and staff, without losing our focus on children and learners.” Perry’s sister, Prof Julia Waters, said: “Ofsted’s new direction is encouraging. Had these reforms been in place just over a year ago, perhaps my beautiful sister Ruth might still be with us today.” Perry’s school, Caversham primary school, was downgraded from outstanding to inadequate over safeguarding issues during an Ofsted inspection that provoked a fatal deterioration in Perry’s mental health. At the inquest, the coroner criticised Ofsted for failing to have policies on how or when to suspend an inspection in the event of obvious distress among a school’s staff. Ofsted said: “Every inspector and every school leader must have clarity about when and how to pause inspections. We also want to give leaders confidence that a request for a pause will not affect adversely the judgments made about a school.” The inspectorate is to work with school governors, local authorities and trusts to make clear how school leaders’ welfare can be protected, as well as detailing how schools can raise concerns about inspectors’ behaviour. Other proposals include a wide-ranging “big listen” consultation process with those involved in Ofsted inspections, including children and parents. Both the National Association of Head Teachers and the Association of School and College Leaders said Ofsted’s proposals were positive steps but did not fully address their concerns. “This must be the beginning of a process for Ofsted and the government to improve the way in which schools and colleges are inspected – one that makes the system fairer, less punitive and more supportive,” said Geoff Barton, ASCL’s general secretary. But Barton warned it would “take time and energy to win the confidence of a sector that feels battered and bruised by an excessively harsh inspection system”. The DfE also sent its response to the coroner, with education secretary Gillian Keegan stating: “Ruth Perry’s death was a tragedy and the coroner’s findings made clear that lessons need to be learned. That’s why I have worked closely with Ruth Perry’s sister, former colleagues and friends over the past year, to listen and make important changes to inspections with Ofsted to secure a legacy for Ruth.” But Waters said: “I am disappointed that the government has opted to keep misleading and harmful single-word judgments. Whether these brand a school as ‘outstanding’ or ‘inadequate’, or the grades in between, these blunt verdicts obscure many of the important details. “As the coroner noted, Ruth was devastated by the impact of such language. “Parents, teachers, governors and others should be encouraged to engage with the details of inspection findings, and not just fixate on one or two words. Simplicity may be convenient for government bureaucrats, but it acts against the true interests of children, parents and teachers.”

John Lewis obituary

2022-06-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/14/john-lewis-obituary

My father, John Lewis, who has died aged 79 from a heart attack, was an educationist, beer and cider connoisseur, amateur military historian, railway enthusiast and lifelong supporter of the Labour party, for which he stood as a parliamentary candidate in 1997. Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, John Olaf was the son of Louise (nee Jorgensen) and Rhys Lewis, who had been evacuated from London during the blitz. John had an idyllic childhood, growing up at Easthampstead Park, Berkshire, a former stately home that became a teacher training college, where his father was a lecturer. From Forest grammar school in Reading he went to Aberystwyth University, and in 1963 gained a degree in geography and economics. Then he moved into further education (FE) as a lecturer at Staffordshire College of Commerce, where he taught business and economics. His career in FE took him all over the country, culminating in his appointment in 1988 as principal of Oldham College, from which he took early retirement in 1991. His retirement was however far from quiet as he threw himself into his many interests with gusto. He had always been an active member of the Labour party, and in the 1997 general election he stood as candidate for South Holland and the Deepings in Lincolnshire. In spite of the huge Labour landslide, this new constituency turned out to be one of the safest Tory seats in the country – but he was nonetheless proud to have played his part. He remained deeply loyal to Labour, despite misgivings about “New Labour” – a term he pointedly refused to use – and he continued to stand regularly for council seats, most recently at his new home in Rea Valley, Shropshire, in 2021. Aside from politics, he was an enthusiastic member of Camra, the real ale campaign, and in retirement he became an expert in cider, serving for many years as the manager of the cider bar at the Great British Beer Festival. To many in Camra he was known only as “Cider John”, as he developed an encyclopedic knowledge of cider to add to his expertise in real ale. Military history and railways were his other passions, and he pursued both with equal vigour. He visited almost all of the key battlegrounds of the world wars and he travelled on many of the most spectacular railway journeys of the world. At home, meanwhile, he was an active member of the Shropshire Railway Society and Railfuture (formerly the Railway Development Society). John was married three times, divorced once and widowed twice. He is survived by his three children, Mark, Rebecca and me, from his first marriage to Joan (nee Davies), which ended in divorce, and by five grandchildren.

Vocational T-levels offer England’s students poor value, Ofsted says

2023-07-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/20/vocational-t-levels-england-ofsted-report

Report criticises ‘range of shortcomings’ in qualifications intended to be equivalent to A-levels The government’s “gold standard” vocational qualifications, T-levels, have been strongly criticised by Ofsted for offering poor value, inappropriate work placements and having high dropout rates. The report, the first independent evaluation of T-levels commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), is highly critical of the complex teaching and industry placements required during the two-year courses, which are intended as a vocational equivalent to A-levels in England. The Ofsted chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said there were “teething issues” with T-levels that colleges and employers were working to overcome. “However, we saw a range of shortcomings which providers and the Department for Education will want to address,” Spielman said. Ofsted inspected T-level courses and interviewed teachers and students taking subjects such as healthcare and construction. It found that some colleges were struggling to recruit staff qualified to deliver the curriculum, with the high workload making it “particularly hard to teach everything in the time available”. Ofsted also found that while most students complete their T-level, “many leave before the end of the course, and the number of students who progress to the second year of T-level courses is low in many providers. In at least one provider, no students progressed from the first year of the T-level course to the second year.” The report concludes: “At worst, courses are not at all what students expected, and many students reported being misled and ill-informed about their content and structure.” A spokesperson for the DfE said: “We have already made good progress to address many of the areas highlighted in the report, but we know further action is needed. To support providers and ensure T-level delivery is a success, we are continuing to offer a range of support, including funding to help more businesses to offer industry placement and additional funding for facilities through the T-level capital fund, with £100m for over 100 projects in the latest wave of funding this month.” Only 10,000 students enrolled in the qualification in 2022-23, with colleges unable to fill courses in several subjects. A new T-level in catering, which was expected to be popular, has been delayed until 2025 after the original awarding organisation pulled out this year. Despite the problems, the government has pushed ahead with funding cuts for rival level 3 qualifications such as BTecs, which are taken by more than 200,000 students each year. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion James Kewin, the deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said Ofsted’s report “is clear that T-levels are not yet the gold-standard, mass-market replacement for BTecs the government believes them to be”. He said: “It also highlights the dismal record of the T-level transition programme, where the vast majority of students do not actually progress to a T-level, and the associated risk of relying on this initiative as way of boosting T-level participation. Ministers need to drop the rhetoric, face the reality and rethink their plans for qualification reform.”

Schools in England will not have to flag pupils asking about gender

2023-12-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/18/schools-in-england-will-not-have-to-flag-pupils-asking-about-gender

New guidance says parents should be told if pupils say they want to transition but stops short of blanket approach Teachers in England will not be made to automatically “out” pupils who come to them with questions over gender identity, despite a push from Conservative rightwingers for a blanket approach, government guidance due to be published this week will say. Schools will be expected to inform parents if children tell staff that they want to take any steps towards transitioning, but they will not have to flag conversations if children are just asking general questions, or in the event of safeguarding issues. The decision to keep some protections in place so that children are not automatically outed is likely to frustrate some on the Tory right who have been pushing for parents to be told in all circumstances. “Children can be very confused about these things and just want to have a conversation about it and what it all means with a trusted adult,” one government insider said. “That shouldn’t necessarily mean it is automatically flagged to parents.” Rishi Sunak had initially pledged to deliver the guidance by the end of the summer term but missed his own deadline after months of internal disagreements on the issue, including over whether the guidance would be compatible with equalities law. The government initially considered introducing an outright ban on social transitioning – when children change their names, pronouns and uniforms but have not yet embarked on a clinical path – but concluded it would require new legislation. Ministers had also hoped to include an absolute ban on primary school children transitioning in this way, but this also potentially breached equality law. Sources said the guidance would be “as close to a ‘no’ as possible” for younger children without running counter to legal requirements, while primary schools would be urged to take a particularly cautious approach. The fact that equalities law is preventing the government from going as far as it might will enrage the right of the party. However, Tory insiders suggested that Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, had no plans to change the law to drive through changes. “She would generally like to go further but can’t because she’s not prepared to take action on the legislation,” one said. “If you open up the equalities act then lots of other groups would want to make changes and you’re also likely to have people pushing for stronger protections on trans issues than we already have.” The guidance is expected to advise schools to maintain separate toilets, changing rooms and contact sports for girls and boys. Plans for children to have to see a doctor before being allowed to socially transition as part of a compulsory “clinical gateway” have been dropped after the NHS said it did not have capacity. Government sources said there was no longer any disagreement between Badenoch and the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, on policy, although they conceded there were differences in tone after Badenoch suggested schools were facing an “epidemic” of children saying they are transgender. The guidance will not come into effect in classrooms until the spring as there will be a 12-week consultation period first. It will be in place before the next general election, during which the Tories are expected to use it as a wedge issue with the Labour party.

Claire Widgery obituary

2023-06-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/29/claire-widgery-obituary

My partner, Claire Widgery, who has died aged 70, was for most of her life an exemplary teacher of drama, most recently to students at the Islington Sixth Form Centre in north London. She was also a feminist and an early innovator in a classroom approach to challenging gender norms. Claire trained on the teaching course at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, from which she emerged in 1973 with a distinction and a teaching post at Clissold Park school in Hackney. Within a year she was the youngest head of department in the Inner London Education Authority (Ilea). She quickly became an expert in the role-based approach to drama teaching espoused by Dorothy Heathcote, in which children were empowered to make their own decisions and find their own stories. She later promoted this immersive vision of drama teaching across the Ilea. In 1979 she took a job at Hackney Downs school: a boys’ school with a disadvantaged intake from a richly multicultural area. Working with her colleague Mike Davies, she developed Skills for Living, a radical new course addressing the challenges of the dominant macho culture. Claire and Mike taught lessons on cooking, sewing and housework, but it was in helping her pupils to soften their attitudes to women and childcare that the approach was most remarkable. Claire was born in Barnet, north London, one of four children of Margaret (nee Finch) and Jack Widgery. Her mother was a teacher and father a colour consultant to Dulux. When Claire was eight the family moved to Berkshire, and she went to Maidenhead high school for girls before returning to London to train as a teacher. She joined the Islington Sixth Form Centre in 1987 and remained there for almost 20 years. Latterly, as performing arts coordinator, she led a vibrant and loyal department of music, drama and dance teachers. They were all inspired by her empathy, expertise and fierce defence of those subjects in the face of the prevailing orthodoxy seeking to diminish the value of performing arts in education. For many years Claire endured a complex multiplicity of health conditions. One of her consultants was moved to write: “She bore her many illnesses with such courage, dignity and style, and I shall miss seeing her so very much.” She was a vocal defender of the NHS and all of those at Guys and St Thomas’ who devoted themselves to her wellbeing. She is survived by me, and our daughter, Katherine, two sons, Matthew and Ben, and four grandchildren, and by two sisters. She also had many devoted nieces, nephews and friends.

Ofsted can be summed up in one word: inadequate | Letters

2023-03-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/26/ofsted-can-be-summed-up-in-one-word-inadequate

Prof Colin Richards stands by his 1990s criticism of the schools regulator, Michael Pyke says it was set up to enforce a marketised system, and other readers give their views Twenty-six years ago, following a contentious departure from Ofsted, I wrote an article for the Guardian (The high price of inspection, 3 June 1997). Little did I realise how high that price would be in terms of teachers’ mental health, ruined careers, demoralised schools, retention crises and, in extreme cases, individuals’ suicides (Punishing Ofsted regime is driving us out of education, say school leaders, 24 March). Doubtless many schools did improve as a result of Ofsted inspections, but some did not. Some schools benefited from, and gloried in, Ofsted accolades, but many did not. In the many negative instances, both children’s and teachers’ interests were poorly served. I finished my article with: “There has to be a better way.” I still stand by that contention, and not just through removing misleading, simplistic overall grades. A better way can be found by drawing on the previous experiences of HM Inspectorate of Schools, abolished in 1992, and on inspection systems in other jurisdictions, including Wales. That will require political goodwill, as evidenced in Labour’s education plans, and determined but humane leadership once the current cloth-eared, ideological chief inspector steps down, or is forced to do so.Prof Colin RichardsSpark Bridge, Cumbria In her comments on the disastrous inspection of Caversham primary school (Should Ofsted behave like swooping hawks? How can schools thrive in a climate of fear?, 23 March), Gaby Hinsliff makes a lot of good points but misses the most important one. The creation of a “climate of fear” is not a matter of management style but is inherent in the way in which Ofsted operates. Ofsted was never set up to be an accountability mechanism for taxpayers, or a resource for school improvement, but to be an enforcer of government policy within the marketised system of schooling introduced by the 1988 Education Reform Act. The theory was that, alongside “league tables” of exam results and Sats scores, Ofsted reports would influence the exercise of “parental choice”, which in turn would force “failing” schools to “raise their game” in order to attract enough pupils to continue to function. The public humiliation of the leaders and staff of “failing schools” – overwhelmingly those that cater for the children of the poor – was and remains central to the project. The current chief inspector has just announced that the continuance of Ofsted inspections is “in children’s best interests”, but it is difficult to see how children’s interests are served by demoralising their teachers, of whom there is an increasingly short supply.Michael PykeThe Campaign for State Education I am deeply saddened by the death of Ruth Perry, the head of Caversham primary school. It was a tragedy waiting to happen to any dedicated member of the teaching profession. I am a veteran of 13 Ofsted inspections as a class teacher, a parent governor, a deputy head and a chair of governors, and I can honestly say that none of them did anything to enhance the education of the children involved. An inspection is only a snapshot of a school’s work, but often a flawed judgment of a school’s overall performance is made on the basis of that. It is time for this cruel, ineffective system to end. I am long retired, but I feel for the teachers, like Ruth Perry, who have done their best – day in, day out – for the children in their care.Wanda MaciuszkoScarborough, North Yorkshire A question for the head of Ofsted, lead inspectors and education ministers: would you be happy if your child’s school report was summarised by one of these headings: “Outstanding”, “Good”, “Requires improvement”, “Inadequate”?Pat JonesHolmfirth, West Yorkshire In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

University of York to accept some overseas students with lower grades

2024-01-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/11/university-of-york-to-accept-some-overseas-students-with-lower-grades

Staff told to take ‘more flexible approach’ in move university says will bring rules into line with those for UK offer-holders The University of York has told staff to take a “more flexible approach” to admitting overseas students with lower-than-expected grades, in the latest sign that UK higher education is facing severe recruitment and financial pressures. Staff at the Russell Group university were told: “In response to the current financial challenges, the university has decided to lower its tariff for all departments and programmes for overseas applicants,” according to an email reported by the Financial Times. While York maintains that a typical offer for undergraduate applicants requires A grades at A-level, the university will now admit some international applicants as undergraduates with the equivalent of B or C at A-level, while entry to postgraduate courses would require a 2:2 award or similar, rather than a 2:1. A spokesperson for York said the move would bring international student admissions into line with the approach it used for UK students. British universities increasingly rely on income from lucrative international student fees, with universities in England having seen tuition fees frozen for domestic students since 2016, and those in Scotland facing cuts in national government funding. Meanwhile, the UK government is looking to reduce the number of visas issued to international students as a way of cutting immigration. This year it has removed the ability for many overseas students to be accompanied by family members. A spokesperson for the University of York said: “The university has not lowered its entry grades for international students and they remain as advertised. “The change in ‘tariff’ refers to a more flexible approach we are adopting to international offer-holders who miss their grades. We already take a flexible approach for home students after we receive their results. “This enables us to remain competitive in a global market. It also allows us to take context and individual circumstances into account. This is important for both UK and international students, as we recognise that inequalities of place and background limit opportunities to evidence ability and potential.” York said it had put extra resources, such as additional maths support, in place “for all students who are joining us with grades lower than their offer”. A number of universities said they had had difficulties recruiting more international students as a result of the government’s policies, in the face of increased competition from rivals such as Canada and Australia. Coventry University is one of the latest to protest, stating in its annual report last month: “The UK government’s response to issues around migration and the economy in recent months has had an impact on the group’s recruitment of international students.” Russell Group universities say they lose on average about £2,500 in teaching UK undergraduates for fees frozen at £9,250 a year. As a result, many have increased international student numbers, whose fees are not capped and can be £10,000 or more higher than domestic fees. In 2022-23, University College London’s tuition fee income went up by 17%, to £929m, “with the rise almost exclusively driven by growth in the full-time international student base”, according to its latest financial statements. The University of Liverpool last year accepted an extra 1,500 overseas students compared with 2021-22, boosting its international tuition fee income from £113m to £151m – close to eclipsing the £165m it made in UK and EU student fees. But the income of institutions such as the Open University, which rely more on UK students, have been hit. The Open University recorded an operating deficit of £25m last year, but claimed an underlying surplus if pensions and other long-term costs were excluded. “The cost of living crisis and student behaviours post-pandemic meant a reversal of the growth in student numbers seen in recent years,” the Open University said, adding that it expected a further decline in student numbers this year.

‘It feels cynical’: how would Labour’s VAT policy affect private schools?

2023-05-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/31/small-independent-schools-on-labour-private-school-tax-policy

Party and many economists back fees tax but niche schools such as Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain say they could struggle Parents and children say they love Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain (the London Welsh school), the only bilingual Welsh language nursery and primary school in England. The only problem, according to the school’s chair of governors, is there aren’t enough of them. For 65 years Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain has been teaching Welsh language and culture to children of the Welsh diaspora. But since Covid, the tiny independent school in west London has become even tinier. The school began last year with 25 pupils, until the end of pandemic measures resulted in many of its families moving back to Wales. This year the London Welsh school has just eight pupils. “The problem we’ve got now is the younger children haven’t joined. And Covid had a part to play in that, because before lockdown families would make an effort to travel further and come to us. But because we were all told to stay local, of course children went to a local nursery and they then progressed to a local school,” said Glenys Roberts, the chair of governors, who has been involved with the school for 30 years as a parent and former teacher. “It’s not easy with such small numbers but the school is a happy place and full of love. We need some more children but we will carry on.” While wealthy and elite schools such as Eton and St Paul’s girls school come to mind when people think of fee-paying schools, a larger number of independent schools in England are like the London Welsh school – small, precarious and catering to a niche that state schools can’t provide for. Eton and Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain may soon have something in common: a future Labour government aims to apply VAT of 20% to the fees they charge pupils. Labour says adding VAT will raise about £1.6bn a year, with the shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, pledging to use the funds to recruit more staff in vital subjects such as maths and physics. “Excellence must be for everyone – that is why the next Labour government will invest in more teachers to fill these gaps and provide expertise, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools,” Phillipson told school leaders in April. The prospect of higher school fees has led to warnings of a sudden exodus of pupils from the private sector, with the extra cost to the government eating into the £1.6bn windfall. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, used last year’s autumn statement to attack Labour’s policy, citing predictions that it would “result in up to 90,000 children from the independent sector switching to state schools”. A survey of parents by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) found 20% said they would “definitely” withdraw their children from private school if VAT was added, costing the government about £600m a year in additional spending on state schools. But economists who specialise in education said they were highly sceptical that adding VAT would spark an immediate exodus. “I think the suggestion that there’s some sort of mass rush as soon as the policy comes in is incredibly unlikely. It’s not impossible, but it’s incredibly unlikely,” said Luke Sibieta, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. One reason, according to Sibieta, is that the willingness of parents to pay for private education is not directly related to its price. In economic jargon, demand for private schooling is “inelastic”, meaning that price increases do not lead to falls in pupil numbers by the same amount, if at all. “The only honest answer we can really give is that we don’t know what the effect will be. I think surveying parents is not really the best way to find out, because any parent who is asked ‘do you want to pay 20% more for your child’s education?’ is going to say no,” Sibieta said. “That’s not to say that if you put 20% VAT on fees there wouldn’t be an effect on demand, because there probably would be. But demand for private schooling is often shaped by things like culture, aspirations, whether you went to a private school as a child, so it’s the kind of thing that we probably think of as being quite inelastic. “But the truth is, we don’t really know what’s going to happen until it actually happens.” Economists said the impact of adding VAT depends on several interlocking factors, including how much of the increase is passed on to parents, as well as their income and ability to afford the higher fees, and their unwillingness to disrupt their children’s education by abruptly changing schools. Dr Jake Anders, an economist and deputy director of UCL’s Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, said: “The VAT rules are not that you have to take what your price is today and hike it by 20%. The schools decide what changes in price they are going to make in response, and that will be informed by their costs and their ability to trim those costs in order to keep the price from rising, as well as their knowledge of what is likely to happen to demand in response to fees rising.” Adding VAT to fees would allow private schools to offset costs by reclaiming VAT on their spending, which would knock several percentage points off any increase. Anders said private schools could also copy what state schools have done when faced with shrinking budgets: allow class sizes to rise, cut back on overheads, sell off assets and appeal for donations. Anders said his “gut feeling” is that there wouldn’t be a mass exodus of pupils. “Basically, it seems unlikely to me. Apart from anything else, it seems unlikely that private schools would just stand by and watch pupils leave and not do something about their price. Ultimately, they set the price.” Sibieta said many parents who could afford current fees of £15,000 to £20,000 a year were likely to be able to afford further increases, based on past behaviour. “What we do know is that fees have been going up inexorably for the last 20 years, you see the 5% increase in fees annually, on average, over the last 20 years. And still the share of pupils in private schools has not changed almost at all over time.” But while some well-established private schools have the resources to cope, including millions of pounds in endowments, investments and property, as well as profits from overseas branches in Asia and elsewhere, others such as the London Welsh school will struggle to cope with VAT being added to fees. The fees at the school are just over £4,000 a year – below the average per pupil funding at state schools and far lower than the £20,000 day school fees charged by ISC member schools in London. While some ISC members boast heritage buildings, science blocks and leafy playing fields, the London Welsh school holds its classes at the Hanwell community centre in Ealing. “The ethos of the school is not really ‘private school’. We are an independent school, we have to ask for fees, because we’ve got to run the school and we can’t run it on fresh air, unfortunately,” said Roberts, the London Welsh chair of governors. The school already keeps its fees low through donations from Welsh supporters and volunteering by parents. The Welsh government also gives an annual grant to promote the Welsh language, without which Roberts says the school would be in “dire straits”. “Our fees are modest and we keep them modest because of the nature of our families. So finding even our fees might be a challenge for some of our families. But yes, I feel a hike of 20% would make a difference. Whether it would put people off, it’s possible, but it would have an effect on our families,” Roberts said. The school’s fans include Ofsted, which describes it as an extended family and praises its teaching for pupils learning to read “with equal confidence and fluency” in both English and Welsh. Angela Kay, whose son is a pupil at London Welsh, described it as “amazing” but lamented: “It’s a shame people don’t know it exists.” The Department for Education lists 2,394 independent schools registered in England. Of those, 277 are members of the elite Heads’ Conference or HMC, representing the best known private schools including Westminster and Eton. HMC schools are also part of the Independent Schools Council, whose 1,343 members in England charge nearly £17,000 a year for day pupils and educate the bulk of the more than 580,000 children attending private schools. The ISC also includes a substantial number of privately owned schools, with more than 350 run by for-profit companies. Traditional family-owned private schools have been disappearing for decades, with recent years seeing overseas investors buying up private schools. The London Welsh school is one of the more than 1,000 independent schools that mostly sit outside the ISC and which in many cases are nothing like their nominal peers. About 600 are special needs schools that Labour says it will exempt from VAT, while the rest range from the French government-backed Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle to others offering alternative pedagogies such as Montessori schools. Many others are faith schools, mostly small Islamic, Jewish or Christian schools. They tend to be based in borrowed spaces within mosques, community halls or houses, with fees well below those of wealthier nearby private schools. Emmanuel Christian school on the outskirts of Oxford is an interdenominational nursery and primary school with just 55 pupils. Lizzy Nesbitt, the school’s headteacher, says its small size gives her the freedom to be innovative and “not feel bound to just follow what everybody deems to work, but to think quite creatively and thoughtfully and deeply” about how children learn as individuals. “We really want children to understand how amazing and vast and exciting the world is. Underpinned by that is a Christian view that this is a world made for them by God the father, and he wants them to understand it and enjoy it, and appreciate it in its diversity and beauty and wonder. That then gets worked into our curriculum so that we choose really interesting topics to do with them that lights them up,” Nesbitt said. Emmanuel charges £6,500 a year, a third of the fees for junior pupils attending a nearby prep school. Nesbitt said the school’s ethos and community meant both staff and parents were prepared to make financial sacrifices. “Part of what makes it very special is that all of us do not command the salaries that we would within the state sector. Nor do we have a teacher’s pension that we would have in the state sector,” Nesbitt said. “Whenever we send out the fee increase letter once a year, I always say to parents that this school is built by love and everybody gives in love. The staff give in love to make it more affordable, so that’s a sacrifice that staff make. Many of our parents are making sacrifices, because they’re not from high income families. We have very few families who are earning six figures, I think probably 10%. So many families are making sacrifices to send their children here.” Nesbitt said that while she was confident that the school would “prevail, regardless of government policy” if VAT was added to fees, she felt sad that the state would be in effect taxing the goodwill of both staff and parents. “I regularly have parents visit the school who say my child is doing OK [in a state school] but they don’t feel known, they’re getting lost,” Nesbitt said. “When these children come to us, we’re taking an obligation off the state to educate that child and the parents are taking on the cost of that child’s education from the state, often at great sacrifice, so their child feels better known and their needs might be more fully met. And it feels to me cynical to tax that parent, who is acting in love for the good of their child.”

Nearly 100,000 fewer top A-levels this year in grading plan, research suggests

2023-08-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/07/a-level-grades-results-students-england-uk

Tens of thousands of students face likely drop in As and A*s as ministers aim to return results in England to pre-pandemic levels Tens of thousands of A-level students face disappointment on results day next week, amid warnings that nearly 100,000 fewer As and A*s could be awarded as the government seeks to return grades to pre-pandemic levels. Up to 50,000 candidates this summer are likely to miss out on the top grades they might have expected last year, according to one estimate, throwing applications for the most competitive universities into doubt. The sharp drop in grades is in line with government plans to return A-level results in England to 2019 levels this summer, after the Covid pandemic led to an increase in top grades in 2020 and 2021, when results were based on teacher assessments instead of exams. To get back to 2019 levels, however, the percentage of A*s will have to fall from 14.6% last year to 7.8%, meaning 59,000 fewer A*s and 36,000 fewer As, according to the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at the University of Buckingham. Research by the CEER said: “Assuming a reduction in two subjects per person, this would mean about 30,000 students not getting the A* grades they could have expected last year, and nearly 50,000 not getting the A*/A grade.” Slightly different arrangements are in place this year in Wales and Northern Ireland, where information about the content of some papers was given out in advance, and Covid disruption was taken into account in the marking. In Wales, grade boundaries will be set midway between 2019 and last year’s results. England has taken the toughest line. Last week the schools minister, Nick Gibb, said results in England needed to return to pre-pandemic levels to ensure GCSE and A-levels carried weight and credibility with employers, universities and colleges. “A typical student in 2019 – given the same level of ability, the same level of diligence – the likelihood is that same student would get the same grades in 2023 as they would have done in 2019,” he told PA Media. Results peaked in 2021, when 45% of all A-level grades were either an A or an A*. This year’s set of results will be the culmination of a two-year process, with exams in summer 2022 graded midway between those of 2019 and those assessed by teachers in 2021, and a return to 2019 results this summer. However, there are doubts in some quarters about whether the government will achieve its target to return to 2019 grading levels, as well as concern about the effect on students. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the CEER, said: “My view is that the percentages of top grades will be reduced, but not to 2019 levels, because of the pain and upset it will cause to students and parents, because only England of the three administrations is seeking to do it this year, and because of the wider spread of A* across subjects, some of which used to have a lot, and others which didn’t.” According to England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, while the objective is to return to pre-pandemic results, additional protection has been built in this year that allows grade boundaries to be altered if senior examiners find countrywide evidence of a drop in standards compared with 2019. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This year GCSE and A-level grading is largely returning to normal, in line with plans set out by Ofqual almost two years ago, to make sure qualifications maintain their value and students get the opportunities they deserve. “This means national results are expected to be similar to those in pre-pandemic years, and a student should be just as likely to achieve a particular grade this year as they would have been before the pandemic. The number of top grades also has no bearing on the number of university places available.”