Datasets:

HiepLaa

/

GuardianNews

like 1

Classes in character do little to narrow gap in pupil outcomes, says study

2023-12-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/19/classes-in-character-do-little-to-narrow-gap-in-pupil-outcomes-says-study

Focusing on poorer children’s social and emotional learning barely helps their results catch up with those of better-off peers Teaching character, grit and resilience in schools is valuable to children but is unlikely to play a major part in eradicating the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers, according to research. In recent years, policymakers in England and elsewhere in the world have focused on social and emotional learning, and the importance of developing character, determination and self-belief as a way of improving learning, particularly among children from lower income backgrounds. A study by academics from the universities of Cambridge, Zürich and Tübingen, however, has found that the relative underperformance of disadvantaged pupils has little to do with them lacking the character, attitude or mindset of their wealthier peers. Researchers analysed data collected by the 2018 programme for international student assessment (Pisa) from more than 240,000 15-year-olds across 74 countries and found the average difference in science results between the top and bottom 25% of pupils in terms of wealth was a huge 70.5 points, equivalent to almost three years of schooling. Although children from wealthier backgrounds were found to have higher levels of socio-emotional skills on average, the impact of the discrepancy on the overall achievement gap was modest. Researchers calculated that if disadvantaged pupils had the same social and emotional skills as their wealthier peers and the academic effects were exactly the same, the gap would close by just 9%, probably less. The lead author, Dr Rob Gruijtersof the University of Cambridge, said: “Educational inequality cannot be solved through social and emotional learning. The idea that children can overcome structural disadvantage by cultivating a growth mindset and a positive work ethic overlooks the real constraints many disadvantaged students face, and risks blaming them for their own misfortune.” His co-author Nicolas Hübner, an assistant professor at the Institute of Education at the University of Tübingen, added: “Developing social and emotional skills is hugely valuable for children, but the evidence suggests it has little to do with why low-income students are more likely to struggle academically. According to our results, it is not a magic bullet for tackling the socioeconomic achievement gap.” The authors urge politicians to focus instead on the structural reasons for lower attainment among poorer children, including the difference in the quality, resourcing and funding of the schools they attend and fewer out-of-school opportunities compared with their wealthier peers. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Schools do a great deal to try to mitigate the effects of disadvantage upon their pupils, but they cannot address the underlying drivers of poverty nor nullify all the impacts it has on children’s lives.” Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, added: “It is absolutely critical we address stark socioeconomic gaps in social emotional skills, not because they help children pass exams, but because working with others, showing empathy, being resilient are all essential for flourishing in life.” He said new research for the Nuffield Foundation, out next year, would demonstrate that social-emotional skills are just as important for life prospects as academic skills. “We need to acknowledge that human talents come in many forms – creative, vocational, sporting, social and emotional as well as academic – and value and celebrate these in all our children.”

The arts are heading into a doom loop | Letters

2023-12-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/01/the-arts-are-heading-into-a-doom-loop

Alan Davey thinks less money, less certainty in funding, and hostility to ideas leads to less risk taking and new work. Susan Jones sets out how Labour should take action Charlotte Higgins outlines a profound truth in her stirring and timely call to save the arts (Culture is not trivial, it’s about who we are. That’s why Labour needs a plan to save the arts, 26 November). After 13 years of being a punchbag in culture wars or a punchline in sneers at the elite, cultural life and what it means for civic society and its contribution to the economy is in danger. Incremental cuts to public investment have been bad enough, and at a scale which will be hard for a new government to reverse. But we are approaching a doom loop where less money, less certainty in future funding and a hostile environment to inquiring ideas leads to less risk-taking and new work. That in turn leads to declining new audiences, smaller box-office receipts and a less compelling cultural economy. At the same time, Brexit brakes on touring, inflation and the hangover of Covid closures are making it harder for arts organisations to plan for the future. The elimination of music and arts education in schools is depriving them of the next generation of talent and of potential. A reforming government should take a whole-system approach to its thinking on the arts – enabling not only an artistic renewal, but also ensuring that culture is baked into plans for new towns, high-street regeneration, civic pride and economic growth, bringing great art within the reach of everyone. The Arts Council’s first chairman, John Maynard Keynes, wrote that the duty of a public cultural body was to offer “courage, confidence and opportunity”. All three are lacking today in the arts, but, as in 1945, they can all be revived by a government of serious intent.Alan Davey Former CEO, Arts Council England; former controller, BBC Radio 3 Charlotte Higgins is spot-on in her analysis that saving the arts must be an incoming Labour government priority. But let’s hope the new team quickly sets aside the trickle-down mentality of arts policy that has proved to be the root course of arts’ and artists’ precarity. The livelihood prospects and multiplicity of contributions of literally thousands of artists at the arts grassroots have been marginalised over the last decade, in particular by the Arts Council’s risk-averse, siloed and inflexible ways. If human flourishing through arts participation by all in society is the goal, our current building-centric arts ecology warrants a more radical policy solution. The future of equity and inclusion in the arts (as elsewhere in society) lies in a government that truly animates the concept of levelling up by ceding power, funds and decision-making to localised democracies in which everyone contributes and everyone gains.Susan JonesRowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and on our Saturday letters spread in the print edition.

Tories under fire after dramatic fall in school sport in England

2023-08-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/20/tories-under-fire-after-dramatic-fall-in-school-sport-in-england

New figures undermine Rishi Sunak’s claims to boost PE ahead of Women’s World Cup final The number of hours young people spend doing PE and sport in secondary schools in England has fallen by more than 12% since the 2012 London Olympics, despite promises by ministers that the games would “inspire a generation” and kickstart a massive expansion of sport in the state sector. The fall is recorded in the latest figures released by the government, which show a drop from 326,277 hours in 2011/12 to 285,957 in 2022/3. Although the total went back up after the pandemic, it then fell again over the last year by more than 4,000 hours. In a speech as prime minister in 2012, David Cameron said it was vital that the London Games spurred his government to improve the provision of sport in state schools, which he admitted had been underfunded for far too long. Cameron insisted there was “one area in particular where the Olympic spirit of taking part can make a real difference to young people. And that is school sport and helping to drive participation in sport itself.” His words were greeted with scepticism at the time by sports organisations, not least because his education secretary, Michael Gove, had systematically dismantled a network of school sports partnerships set up by the Labour government, in order to save money, as one of his first acts at the Department for Education. Amid the mounting excitement before Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final, in which England play Spain in Australia, Labour insists that the government should get no credit for the team’s successes, having presided over the erosion of school sport during the past 13 years. Despite the fall in PE hours ministers say they have injected more than £2bn extra into school sports. Lucy Powell, the shadow digital, culture, media and sport secretary, said the “entire nation” was behind the women’s team, whose success was “giving all girls the chance to play football” and helping the women’s game “go from strength to strength”. But she warned against people being taken in by the attempts of Tory ministers to cash in on the team’s success. “The government can take no credit given their woeful record on school sport and getting young girls playing football,” she said. Football analysts put the extraordinary success of the women’s game in England down to the rise of the Women’s Super League, which has allowed elite female footballers to become professionals, combined with a growing focus on girls’ and women’s football from governing body the Football Association. These factors, rather than government intervention or policies, have been seen as the catalyst. As part of Labour’s mission to “smash the class ceiling” in educational opportunity, Keir Starmer’s party has pledged to conduct a curriculum and assessment review to ensure girls and boys do not miss out on sport in school. Writing to Sarina Wiegman, the manager of the England team, prime minister Rishi Sunak – who is not attending the final in Sydney but has sent foreign secretary James Cleverly – reiterates the pledge to deliver for girls on sport. He also acknowledges the struggle that women have had as they have battled to gain equality of access and recognition. Sunak tells the England boss: “This weekend, like millions of others, I will be watching and cheering you on. But whatever the result, I want you to know that you have already secured a lasting legacy: that every girl in this country will have equal access to all school sport, including football. When you won the Euros last summer, you could have chosen merely to celebrate an unprecedented achievement. But you saw that success as the beginning of your mission, not the end. “For many of you, the honour of putting on that England shirt was earned against the odds. It should never have been like that. At times, some of you were even stopped from playing. But you faced down outdated attitudes and fashioned your own opportunities to play. “So when you walk out with pride to play for England, you are not just making memories that will stay with us as part of our history, you are playing for a different future.”

Teachers reveal scale of pupils’ hunger as 100,000 frozen out of free school meals

2022-11-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/10/children-not-eligible-for-free-school-meals-going-hungry-say-teachers

Exclusive: Call for FSM income cap to be raised as children in England come to school with mouldy bread or even nothing ​​ How families on the breadline are ineligible for FSMs​ Hungry children miss out on FSMs – and schools can’t help ‘The benefit is massive’: the school offering FSMs to all Children not eligible for free school meals are coming to school with mouldy bread, empty wraps and in some cases nothing at all, according to teachers who told the Guardian they had never seen such desperation in the communities they serve. The harrowing accounts of widespread hunger in classrooms come as analysis by the Liberal Democrats found more than 100,000 children in England may be missing out on free school meals (FSM) at a time when costs have soared. “The government is snatching school lunches away from children by stealth,” said Munira Wilson, the education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats. She argued that, had the £7,400 limit on household earnings been increased in line with inflation, it would now be set at £8,575, making up to 110,000 more children eligible. School leaders say they are shocked by the pitiful packed lunches they are seeing in classrooms as desperate parents struggle to feed their children. One pupil brought in a cupful of left-over plain rice, and another brought nothing but a small tub of dry breakfast cereal. Others come to school with a single chocolate bar, after parents give them a pound to buy something for lunch, while many from low-income families arrive in class tired and listless because their stomachs are empty. “I’ve been in education now since 2006 and I’ve never known anything like it,” said Sarah Livesey, the headteacher at Oasis Academy Leesbrook in Oldham, Greater Manchester. “We are in the worst situation we have ever been. Even with Covid, I think this is our most challenging time.” Livesey’s school is in an area with one of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. Some families are new arrivals seeking asylum for whom language and internet access are obstacles to applying for free school meals. Others are on universal credit and are struggling to make ends meet, but still do not meet the criteria for FSM. “Some of our families will sacrifice their own meals in order to ensure their children can eat,” said Livesey. “Some are struggling to provide breakfast, so we provide breakfast for all of our children.” Children arrive early for the free, unlimited breakfast, with the hungriest pupils devouring three bowls of cereal and two bagels. “So if they’re not entitled to free school meals, and their packed lunch is not as substantive as we would like it to be, at least they’ve had a decent breakfast,” said Livesey. Jamie Oliver and Marcus Rashford are among a growing list of celebrities campaigning for wider access to free school meals, the most recent being the former One Direction singer Zayn Malik. He relied on free school lunches as a child growing up in Bradford and is now an ambassador for the Food Foundation, backing its Feed the Future campaign that would extend free lunches to the 800,000 children from families on benefits who don’t currently qualify. In England, children from reception to primary year two receive universal free school meals. The Scottish and Welsh governments have gone further and are committed to rolling it out to all primary school pupils. According to the Liberal Democrats, new figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show that 1.07 million children aged five to 16 in England live in households below the current income ceiling of £7,400 after tax and benefits, but had it increased in line with inflation 1.18 million children would be under the threshold. “Every year that ministers keep this callous policy, thousands of children in hard-working families, struggling to make ends meet, lose out,” said Wilson. “Freezing the threshold is morally, economically and politically bankrupt, trapping families in poverty as the cost of living crisis bites.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We understand the pressures many households are under. That is why we are supporting more children and young people than ever before. “Over a third of pupils in England currently receive free school meals in education settings and we are investing up to £24m in our national school breakfast programme, which provides free breakfasts to children in schools in disadvantaged areas.” School leaders say parents are not only struggling to feed their children; keeping school uniforms clean is also a challenge, with some pupils arriving in damp blazers because it their homes are too cold to dry washed clothes. Teachers discreetly take wet clothes away and dry them during the school day. At OA Leesbrook, there are industrial-size washing machines available for parents who need them, regular coffee mornings to provide warmth, a cup of tea and a biscuit, as well as English language and cooking classes to try to help parents support their families. 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 Elsewhere, teachers said some parents were struggling to raise their children in substandard housing. At one Oldham primary school, a mother who had reported a mouse infestation was sent to accident and emergency by school staff after her baby was bitten on the ear and hand while the family slept. Meanwhile, head lice is rampant because parents cannot afford to buy treatments. Greg Oates, the headteacher at Beever primary school, in Oldham, since 2001, said: “The vast majority of our children are eligible for free school meals and a lot of the children who are not on FSM are very, very close to the threshold. “We are getting children coming into school maybe not having breakfast. Sometimes the packed lunches are a bit sparse – there’s not much in it. “We’ve seen a number of times a child opens their packed lunch and the bread’s mouldy. The parents are trying to make a loaf last as long as possible. We’ve spotted it and taken it away and given them a school dinner. I would love them all to be able to access the school dinners and I’d like the school dinners to be funded a lot better.” With prices rising, the cost of a school lunch has risen from £2.50 a day to £2.70. In the past, parents have got into debt over lunches, so the school is now more proactive, trying to ensure parents don’t get into arrears. “In the past we’ve had to write things off. We’ve just had to carry the cost of that as a school.” Oates remembers a time when there was more funding available, when children’s centres and early intervention were making a difference to vulnerable people in the community where he works, with children being seen by school nurses and by specialists where required. Things have changed. “What we are seeing is the eradication of public services,” said Oates. “As a school we’ve become the focal point for everything. We are going well above what should be the remit for a school. For me it’s symptomatic of how society is falling apart.” Stephen Morgan, the shadow schools minister, accused the government of “abandoning families”, and pledged that a Labour administration would fund free school breakfasts for primary school pupils. “The ongoing scandal of so many children coming to school hungry is the grim real-world impact of the Conservatives crashing the economy,” Morgan said. Amanda Chadderton, the leader of Oldham council, said: “Food poverty is at crisis levels for many people in Oldham. For some children, free school meals are the only hot meal they get in a day, and the very thought of school holidays have parents in panic. “When I became leader of Oldham council I made children and young people one of my top priorities, along with tackling the cost of living crisis. “But whatever we do, it’s unlikely to be enough. So on behalf of Oldham’s residents, I urge the incoming government to do more to help our children and parents who are grappling with food poverty and prevent more families falling on to the breadline.”

Sats exams ‘designed to be challenging’, DfE tells aggrieved parents and teachers

2023-05-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/12/sats-exams-designed-to-be-challenging-dfe-tells-aggrieved-parents-and-teachers

Ministry responds to reports of children upset and teachers baffled by reading test for 10- and 11-year-olds Ministers have said that tests for year 6 pupils in England are “designed to be challenging” after concerns from a headteachers’ union that this week’s Sats exams had left some pupils “in tears”. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said some staff struggled to understand the questions and it planned to raise concerns about Wednesday’s reading exam for 10- and 11-year-olds with the schools regulator, Ofqual. The difficulty of the paper prompted a flurry of complaints online from parents and teachers, with one person saying on Mumsnet that her daughter found the paper “awful”. However, on Friday, the Department for Education defended the difficulty of the tests. A DfE spokesperson said: “Key stage 2 assessments are key in identifying pupils’ strengths and where they may have fallen behind as they head to secondary school. “Test development takes many years, with questions rigorously trialled with year 6 pupils and reviewed by education and inclusion experts to ensure appropriateness. “The tests are designed to be challenging in order to measure attainment across the ability range, including stretching the most able children. Schools should always encourage pupils to do their best, but preparing for primary assessments should not be at the expense of children’s wellbeing.” Sats, or Standard Assessment Tests, are used to measure children’s English and maths skills in year 2 and year 6, and consist of six 45-minute papers. Sarah Hannafin, the NAHT’s head of policy, said: “We are very concerned about reports from our members about the Sats reading paper. “Members have told us that the choice of texts was not accessible for the wide range of experiences and backgrounds children have and the difficulty was beyond previous tests, leaving children upset, with even staff struggling to understand the questions. “We will definitely raise these concerns with the Standards and Testing Agency and also the Ofqual National Assessments team.” Kerry Forrester, a headteacher at a Cheshire primary school, has written to her local MP expressing concern about the “negative impact” of the exams on the “mental health and wellbeing” of her pupils. In a letter she shared on Twitter, Forrester said this year has seen “the most negative impact on our children that we have ever experienced”. “Tears flowed from our most capable readers and stress levels rose amongst all others,” she said, adding that “this was the most challenging reading test I have seen in my 29 years as a teacher”. 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 Today was not acceptable. I cannot believe what we put our 10 and 11 year old children through for the government. SATS must go. Today I have written to my MP and urge you to do the same. @NAHTnews @NAHTCheshire @simonkidwell @edwardtimpson pic.twitter.com/xmWbzjxfAT The National Education Union (NEU) also raised concerns about the “punishing experience” for staff and pupils this week. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the union, said: “This is not a system that is concerned about children and their learning. “There are better ways of assessing pupils. There are better forms of school accountability. It is about time the government started looking at them.” PA Media contributed to this report

How the death of Ruth Perry has reignited Ofsted inspections row

2023-03-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/21/how-the-death-of-ruth-perry-has-reignited-ofsted-inspections-row

Analysis: Tragic story struck a chord with other headteachers increasingly disillusioned with grading regime Last week, the head of Ofsted and chief inspector of schools in England, took to Twitter. “The ad for my successor is out,” Amanda Spielman wrote. “I’ll be leaving this amazing job at the end of 2023, and if you think you have the experience, the energy and the commitment it needs, and want to work with our fantastic staff, apply here.” Seven days later, the organisation she has led for six years has found itself at the centre of a public outcry. A headteacher has killed herself, according to her family, after an Ofsted inspection downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. The family of Ruth Perry has acknowledged that the reasons behind someone taking their own life are never simple. Her story however has struck a chord with headteachers across the country, and has fuelled demand for change at Ofsted. The National Education Union, which believes the inspectorate should be abolished, will this week hand in a petition to the Department for Education with over 40,000 signatures from across the profession demanding that it is replaced. “It’s time we urgently prioritise the welfare and wellbeing of the leaders and staff working so hard with children and young people in their community,” said NEU joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted. “We need a system which is supportive, effective and fair.’’ Whether applications continue to roll in for this most exposed of jobs remains to be seen. The inspectorate, which was created in 1992 to inform parents about the performance of a school and help raise standards, has long been criticised by school leaders who argue it places them under “intolerable pressure” in a high-stakes system that can result in them losing their job. There have however been key developments in recent years which have added to the pressure the system brings to bear on those who lead our schools, many of whom live in fear of “the call” that comes the day before an Ofsted visit. One is the pandemic, which led Ofsted to suspend inspections – much to the relief of many in the profession – only for them to be reintroduced in the summer of 2021 with an expedited timeline to ensure that all schools and colleges are inspected by summer 2025. “Every headteacher feels as though they could be inspected at any moment,” said one school leader. This is at a time when schools are struggling with high absence rates and development/learning delays in children more severely affected by the Covid disruption. Another significant factor, which appears to be relevant in the case of Ruth Perry’s Ofsted outcome, is the decision to end the exemption to inspection for schools that have previously been judged “outstanding”. As a result schools are being inspected for the first time in 10 years or more, which has resulted in many being downgraded. This was the case at Perry’s school, Caversham primary school in Reading, which was downgraded after 13 years without an inspection. Ofsted judged the school good in every category apart from leadership and management, where it was found to be inadequate as a result of concerns about safeguarding, bringing the overall judgment down to the lowest possible category. It was also being judged against a new inspection framework, introduced by Spielman in 2019 and welcomed by many school leaders because of its shift of emphasis away from results and data, and a new focus on the curriculum and “the substance of education”. It did however change the criteria for being awarded “outstanding”, which made it more difficult to achieve. There have also been concerns about the way in which the new framework has been applied, which some headteachers complain has led to inconsistency and unpredictability because judgments are more subjective rather than data driven. Overshadowing all these concerns however is the grading system, which awards a school “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement”, or “inadequate”. “If you removed that graded judgment, a huge amount of that pressure would disappear pretty much overnight,” said one head. “If you remove the grade, heads would feel better about a lot of what Ofsted currently do.” Labour has said it plans to scrap school ratings and replace them with a “report card”. Shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, says Ofsted’s current system “is high stakes for staff but low information for parents”. Labour would also introduce annual reviews of school safeguarding as part of its Ofsted changes, to avoid potentially long gaps between inspections. The teaching unions say that Ofsted is losing the trust of the profession. Spielman’s replacement will have certainly have their work cut out.

Scottish exams pass rate falls for second successive year

2023-08-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/08/scottish-exams-pass-rate-falls-for-second-successive-year

Dip comes after grading for National, Higher and Advanced Higher exams made stricter following Covid pandemic The exams pass rate in Scotland has fallen for the second successive year after the grading system became stricter after the Covid pandemic. More than 144,000 school students received their National, Higher and Advanced Higher exam grades on Tuesday, with pass rates for Highers falling from 78.9% last year to 77.1%. Even so, this year’s results were better than in 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic led to extensive changes in the grading of exams, including teacher-led grading, a lighter workload and a heavy emphasis on extenuating circumstances. Those changes resulted in pass rates soaring in 2020 and 2021. Unlike exam authorities in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Qualifications Authority had kept some of those modifications in this year’s grading system, which helped lift Higher passes above the 74.8% pass rate in 2019, with 32.8% getting A grades this year. Fiona Robertson, the SQA’s chief examining officer, said this “sensitive approach” to marking was justified, as it gave students “the best chance of performing to the best of their abilities”. “This year does not mark a return to normal for learners and educators,” she said. “But it marks another significant and positive step on the path back to normal awarding, following the years of disruption to learning and teaching caused by the pandemic.” There was a similar effect for National 5s, the Scottish exams equivalent to GCSEs in England, with an overall pass rate of 78.7% this year compared with 78.2% in 2019. Pass rates for pupils from Scotland’s most deprived neighbourhoods, and for children with disabilities, also continued to improve. Although the gap with pupils from the most well-off areas remained significant, it shrank slightly compared with 2019. For pupils in the poorest 20%, the overall National 5 pass rate this year stood at 70.8%, which was two percentage points higher than in 2019, with 25.7% achieving A grades, 4.6 points more than in 2019. But for those in the wealthiest 20% of neighbourhoods, the overall pass rate stood at 86.4%, up by 0.6 points on 2019, while 52% of those achieved A grades, 3.3 points up on 2019. The overall gap in A-grade passes between the two demographics shrank from 27.6 points in 2019 to 26.3 points this year. There was a similar trend for overall passes in Higher exams, with the gap in performance between this year and 2019 shrinking by 0.9 points. However, that trend went into reverse for A grades – the grades needed for the most competitive university courses. Here the proportion of wealthier pupils getting As at Higher grew by 1.5 points. Jenny Gilruth, the Scottish education secretary, said there was “much to celebrate” in this year’s results, adding that additional money would be spent on closing the attainment gap. “While we know that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds, these results show that the gap in attainment levels between the least and most deprived areas remains narrower than it was in 2019. “We are determined to build on the progress that has been made and we are investing a record £1bn in the Scottish attainment challenge during this parliamentary term,” she said. Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson, congratulated successful pupils but said the attainment gap remained significant and unacceptable. For children of Pakistani or African, black and Caribbean background, the rates of progress had stalled – overall pass rates for both groups at National 5 fell slightly compared with 2019, although A grades figures jumped markedly, by approximately 5 points. “The data published this morning shows that the poverty-related attainment gap is still persisting across subjects and that pupils from more deprived backgrounds continue to be failed,” Duncan-Glancy said. “The fact is that after over a decade and a half of SNP rule, progress on tackling the attainment gap for people from deprived backgrounds, people with ASN [additional support needs] and minorities is stalling.”

Sue Berridge obituary

2023-11-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/06/sue-berridge-obituary

My friend Sue Berridge, who has died aged 70, was a drama teacher of prodigious talent and energy admired for giving her all to her profession and her local community. From 1995 until her retirement in 2014, Sue was head of drama at Coleridge community college in Cambridge, where the school’s annual shows, which she produced and directed, were spectacular. Her production of My Fair Lady in 1998 was of very high quality and was followed the next year by Like We Were Then, co-written by Sue and a parent, Mike Levy, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the college. In 1999 she helped pupils to produce a film of a mock prime minister’s questions that won the Y10 Motorola parliamentary video competition in the East Anglia region. As an accredited examiner of her subject from 1978 to 2010, she brought an extra dimension and knowledge to her teaching, but she will also be remembered by Coleridge students for the superhuman efforts she made to save the school in 1997, when it was threatened with closure due to falling pupil numbers. Acting as the college’s press officer, she set up a campaign that involved students, parents and the local community, and which persuaded the education authority to change its mind. Born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, Sue was the daughter of Margaret (nee Burton), a primary school teacher, and Ken Bell, a telecommunications engineer. She attended King James grammar school in the town, where she made lasting friendships. She went on to study drama and English at Homerton College in Cambridge and began her teaching career in 1974 at Longsands school (now Longsands academy) in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. She married Graham Berridge in 1975, and after taking a few years’ absence from teaching to raise their children, in 1985 she returned part-time to the classroom at Melbourn Village college, near to their home in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. She also became chair of the governors of Sawston primary school. After separation from Graham (they divorced in 1997), a serendipitous meeting in a cinema queue in 1995 led to a long and happy partnership with Glenn Thwaites. Following Sue’s retirement in 2014 she ran the weekly quizzes at her local pub – a masterclass in managing a room full of argumentative quizzers. She also joined a local walking group and volunteered as a steward. Not long before her death she qualified as a town guide in Clare, Suffolk. She is survived by Glenn and her children, Sophi and Alex. This article was amended on 9 November 2023 to correct the spelling of Melbourn Village college.

More teacher strikes in England look inevitable, union leaders say

2023-02-15

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/15/further-strike-action-in-england-looks-inevitable-education-union-leaders-say

NEU joint secretary says teachers will ‘not back down’ as pay negotiations with government reach stalemate Schools in England look set for further disruption over the coming weeks after talks to avert planned strike action by teachers ended in failure, with no new offer on the table. Union leaders met the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, on Wednesday morning, the latest of a series of meetings. Though they remarked on a new urgency about the talks, there was still no progress on pay. As things stand, further strike action by members of the National Education Union (NEU) planned for later this month and into March looks inevitable, one leader said. There are also warnings of a potential escalation, with other unions now considering next steps. More talks are expected to follow, and the NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said his members would not back down. “Nothing in this meeting gave us anything we could work with to justify suspending the next day of regional strikes on the 28 February,” he said. “Gillian Keegan and the government need to be aware that teachers will not back down on this. Decades of an education system being run into the ground and below-inflation pay increases over the past decade have left the profession utterly demoralised.” After the teachers’ strike on 1 February which closed thousands of schools, NEU members in the north of England, Yorkshire and Humber are due to go on strike on 28 February, followed by a day of action in the Midlands and east of England on 1 March, and one in London, the south-east and south-west on 2 March. Another two days of action on 15 and 16 March will involve all eligible NEU members in England and Wales. “We cannot go on like this,” said Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, whose members have voted in favour of a formal ballot on industrial action. “While the tone of today’s talks signalled a greater sense of urgency on the part of the government, we have to report that once again there is no new offer to improve the inadequate pay settlement which has sparked the ongoing dispute. “Unless there is tangible progress towards an improved offer, the prospect of further strike action by NEU members is inevitable, and will lead to members of our union, and other education unions, also concluding that industrial action is the only option left. We have held off from that step and tried to resolve the dispute through negotiation. However, there is a limit to how many times we can come out of a meeting with the education secretary without progress being made.” Barton said the Welsh and Scottish governments had made improved offers. “Those offers might not be perfect and won’t satisfy everyone. But they are a great deal better than anything managed by the government in Westminster, which has put nothing on the table so far despite having far more resources at its disposal,” he said. NEU members in Wales had been due to strike on Tuesday but their action was suspended to consider the Welsh government’s new offer of an additional 1.5% pay rise plus 1.5% as a one-off payment, which they rejected. The strike will now go ahead on 2 March. 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 Scotland’s biggest education union, the EIS, is considering a revised offer including a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April. The next national strike is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March. NEU members are striking in pursuit of an above-inflation pay rise funded by the government rather than out of existing school budgets. The government announced last summer that most teachers would receive a pay rise of about 5%, with starting salaries up by 8.9%. A Department for Education spokesperson described the talks as constructive, adding: “The education secretary instructed officials to hold further detailed talks with unions and committed to more talks ahead of planned strike action.”

Headteachers in tears at stark choice: keep staff or feed hungry pupils

2022-10-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/22/uk-headteachers-in-tears-at-stark-choice-cut-staff-or-feed-hungry-pupils

School leaders’ mood turns to despair at funding crisis amid growing poverty Jonny Uttley, CEO of the Education Alliance academy trust, which runs seven schools in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, was shouting and swearing at the television news on Wednesday evening. The fracking vote in the Commons had descended into noisy chaos, with allegations that Tory backbenchers were being manhandled into voting with Liz Truss’s ailing government. The contrast between the Westminster circus and what was happening in his primary and secondary schools couldn’t have been starker. Earlier, Uttley had met his headteachers to make an impossible choice: should they keep vital teaching staff or feed hungry children who weren’t entitled to free school meals. “Do you hold reserves back ready for government spending cuts to avoid cutting staff, or do you feed hungry children by setting up breakfast clubs and subsidising meals?” he says. “That is the discussion we were having.” Uttley’s schools are seeing “a significant rise in real poverty” as the cost of living crisis deepens. He worries that, particularly at secondary school level, it can be hard to spot the young people who are skipping meals because their families are struggling to pay for food for the first time. He points out with heavy irony that his trust is one of the lucky ones because it has strong reserves, which he will raid this year to manage huge energy bills and a necessary, but unfunded, pay rise for teachers. He has cut spending on maintaining buildings and IT. But he has no idea how his schools will survive if additional funding cuts are announced at the spending review in a week’s time. “There comes a point where we simply run out of money,” he says. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the mood among heads has shifted “from anger to desperation”. He has just returned from a trip around the country, talking to union members, and reports: “At each of these meetings there was at least one head in tears.” He says that most school leaders won’t usually speak out about underfunding, leaving that to the unions because they don’t want to “talk their school down” or scare the families they serve. “But right now they are shouting ‘Crisis!’ loud and clear. That means we’re in real trouble.” Suzanne Best, headteacher at Great Kingshill, a Church of England primary academy in Buckinghamshire, has been a head for 10 years and prides herself on being good at financial management. But she admits: “Right now I’m telling my senior team I don’t know what to do.” She says schools like hers are finding themselves in deficit “because they didn’t have a crystal ball”, and the government is doing nothing to help them. A £75,000 reserve was more than wiped out by the teachers’ pay rise, then came energy bills that rocketed from £12,000 to £48,000 for gas, and £6,000 to £22,000 for electricity, plus higher costs for everything else they buy. She is now facing deficit cuts. “We can cut back on photocopying, resources and school trips, but ultimately that won’t be enough and it has to come down to staff cuts,” she says. “As people leave, we won’t replace them and that will affect the children.” Best says she wouldn’t be surprised if there is an exodus of broken school leaders from the system over the next year. “The new heads coming in are overwhelmed,” she explains. “And many heads who were just hanging on after the pandemic can’t take much more.”

Higher education’s casual approach to employment | Letters

2021-11-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/nov/01/higher-educations-casual-approach-to-employment

Vicky Blake and Robyn Orfitelli on the extreme precarity of workers in the sector, and Teresa Rodrigues on the difficulties of finding academic jobs In your article ‘My students never knew’: the lecturer who lived in a tent (30 October) several workers in higher education share their stories of extreme precarity, including a young woman who had so little money she had to live in a tent while doing her PhD. Instead of expressing empathy and a commitment to address the brutal reality of insecure work, the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) responded by downplaying the amount of casualisation in this sector, and attacking the University and College Union (UCU) with the claim that we have “repeatedly reject[ed] opportunities to work with employers in this important area”. This disappointing response reveals the dismissive attitude that the employers’ representatives bring to collective bargaining. Since the UCU was created, we have campaigned and reported on the shameful stain of precarity in higher education: currently, 68% of research-only academics are on fixed-term contracts, as are 44% of teaching-only staff, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have always striven to work with employers in this area, via collective bargaining. When they feel ready to join us to discuss serious proposals, they will have our full attention. And if strike action is what it takes to get them to do so, then we will stand up for our members, and all higher education workers.Vicky Blake UCU President, Robyn Orfitelli UCU HE negotiator In the early 1990s, on returning to this country, my husband was an unemployed academic for six years, having had tenure both in the UK and New Zealand. For two years he taught supervisions for various Cambridge colleges from a mobile home in Waterbeach. I remember his embarrassment when an undergrad turned up at our door with an overdue essay. So much for the image of bookish gentility in a comfortable college room. He was informed of these teaching opportunities by the husband of a leading Conservative thinktanker.Teresa RodriguesCrediton, Devon Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Put Ofsted in special measures and rethink school inspections | Letters

2024-01-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/09/put-ofsted-in-special-measures-and-rethink-school-inspections

Readers reflect on an inspections system not fit for purpose, and suggest improvements I was glad to hear that Ofsted inspections have been halted pending retraining for inspectors (Ofsted school inspections to restart on 22 January after mental health training, 6 January), but sad to hear they will be back. They are not necessary, and will still be a regime of fear and harmful to teachers, the last people in the process to be considered. Imagine something different: you as a teacher have mentors you respect, and best practice champions to support and encourage you. You assess yourself honestly and dare to reveal your areas for development. A framework of peer assessment and guidance by mentors and coaches is offered. This is how you improve and grow people, in an atmosphere without fear and stress. With Ofsted, even the new improved version, you will be judged by someone you have never met. You will be drilled and pressed by the school to conform to arbitrary standards. You will live in fear and misery, preparing to be inspected for many months, if not years, and in total stress for the weeks the inspection is due. You may be bullied by your managers, who are also subject to stress. You will be focusing on paperwork rather than your students’ learning. It’s not “fit for purpose” when dealing with human beings. Could we dare to rethink the whole miserable thing?Paula GriersonNorwich Sir Martyn Oliver’s decision to suspend inspections in order to train assessors in wellbeing is a welcome sign that Ofsted is beginning to take the negative effect of inspections on teaching staff seriously. However, it is going to take a lot more than training in wellbeing to make the changes that are needed to make the inspections fit for purpose. The Ofsted inspection regime needs to change from its original purpose of “naming and shaming” to helping schools improve the teaching and learning of all children. Schools should be accountable to the government and parents for their pupils’ progress. This should be achievable through regular discussions and communication with schools in a way that minimises the levels of stress for teachers, with Ofsted working with schools, rather than, as has traditionally been the case, against them.Rosemary WalshRetired primary school teacher, London The decision by the Ofsted head not to want an adversarial approach to school inspections is welcome, but can only be a beginning. A transition from archaic teaching and the emphasis on rewards and punishment is long overdue. Teachers report shocking behaviour in schools, and children’s unhappiness and disinterest. In the 1970s, exciting new classroom methods and pupil assessment under the aegis of the reforming Schools Council sparked the flowering of truly interesting and popular children’s work. The emphasis was on personal skills rather than simply knowledge, problem solving rather than memorisation, confidence in speaking and writing, reflection rather than speed, and group rather than individual achievement. Cooperation, taking the initiative, self-reliance and leadership were encouraged. Self-confidence was uppermost. Sadly Kenneth Baker’s “reforms”, in the Education Reform Act of 1988, put a stop to it all.Stan RobsonMiddlesbrough, North Yorkshire The surest way of bringing about rapid and real change in the punitive system of school inspections would be for all those members of the teaching profession, including headteachers and deputies, who have chosen to apply and undergo the training and now work as Ofsted inspectors to resign and return to their former posts full-time. Eventually, their colleagues would be grateful and might even welcome them back.Bernard ClarkeOxford 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.

UK university staff make breakthrough in strike dispute with employers

2023-03-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/15/uk-university-staff-breakthrough-strike-dispute-employers

Unions and UCEA declare agreement ‘on terms of reference for detailed negotiations’ on pay and conditions University staff have made a breakthrough in their months-long dispute with employers during which lecturers have gone on strike, worked to rule and refused to cover for absent colleagues across the UK. A group of five higher education trade unions and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) announced agreement “on terms of reference for detailed negotiations covering a review of the UK higher education pay spine, workload, contract types and equality pay gaps”. UCEA, representing 144 higher education employers, had last month made a pay offer of between 8% and 5% from August 2023 with a proportion of that to be paid from February, about six months in advance of the usual pay uplift date. Both sides will consult with their members on the wider package. The University and College Union (UCU) said strikes planned for next week remained scheduled to continue “whilst members are asked whether they wish to stand down action to formally consider the offer”. On Wednesday, 70,000 UCU members went ahead with another day of nationwide industrial action, with the London Underground also closing in a dispute over working conditions and pensions and schoolteachers across England striking over pay. BBC journalists also went on strike just after 11am for 24 hours in protest against proposed cuts to the broadcaster’s local radio output. The UCU said the terms of reference “pave the way for the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension to be restored by April 2024, to end the use of involuntary zero-hours contracts in higher education, and to agree new standards, frameworks and principles to tackle other forms of casualised contracts, reduce workloads and close equality pay gaps”. “Today, on our 10th day of strike action and after weeks of intensive negotiations, university employers have finally agreed to put forward a set of proposals on pay, conditions and pensions,” said the UCU general secretary, Jo Grady. “This breakthrough is down to the strength, determination and sacrifice of university workers who have stood on picket lines. The proposals will now move through our union’s democratic processes, and strike action will continue until our 70,000 UCU members have had the chance to have their say.” The other unions involved are GMB, Unison, Unite and the Educational Institute of Scotland. Raj Jethwa, UCEA’s chief executive, said: “We welcome this important progress following the constructive meetings and genuine determination from all parties to conclude the terms of reference for the priority issues of the pay spine restructuring, workload issues, contract types and pay gaps negotiations. Despite ongoing strike action attempts and further threats of disruption, employers have remained committed to these talks over essential terms of reference for key non-pay issues.” University and college staff paused strike action last month to restart negotiations following talks at the conciliation service Acas, but after there was no initial resolution, UCU members at 150 UK universities went ahead with the first of six days of strikes that were due to run until 22 March. 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 deal came amid fresh hopes of a settlement of the separate pay dispute between schoolteachers and the government. The strikes on Wednesday were expected to disrupt schools across England into Thursday, but pay negotiations between teachers and the government could start in earnest as early as next week. The National Education Union (NEU) was going ahead with its final planned two days of strikes in England, which will mean many pupils missing school or working from home, despite an offer by Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, to open talks if it called them off. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the NEU, told Times Radio: “We have suspended our strike action in Wales today and tomorrow because we had a new offer and we’re consulting members on it. It is Gillian Keegan who is out of step – she just won’t sit down and talk with us and make offers to resolve the dispute.”

International students boosted UK economy by £42bn in 2021/2 – study

2023-05-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/16/international-students-boosted-uk-economy-by-42bn-in-20212-study

Report finds economic benefit to UK rose by a third in three years, making overseas students a significant contributor to economy The economic benefit international students bring to the UK has jumped by a third in three years, boosting the economy by an estimated £42bn in 2021/2, according to new analysis. The report, by analysts London Economics, said the economic benefit to the country rose from £31.3bn in 2018/9 to £41.9bn three years later as growing numbers of international students choose to study in the UK. The research, published on Tuesday, comes at a time when the government is considering imposing restrictions on international students coming to the UK as part of its efforts to reduce the net migration figure. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is said to be braced for a record increase in net migration this month. Some reports estimate that the figure could reach close to a million, up from 504,000 last year. Among the measures ministers are thought be considering are visa restrictions for international students’ dependants and reductions in their post-study work visa rights, both of which would act as a deterrent to potential overseas students. The report, The Costs and Benefits of International Higher Education Students to the UK, is published by Universities UK International (UUKi), the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and Kaplan International Pathways, in collaboration with London Economics. Jamie Arrowsmith, UUKi director, said: “We should be proud that our universities continue to attract students from all over the world. It is vital that the UK remains an open and welcoming destination for international students, and that their contribution is recognised and valued.” There has been a 68% increase in the number of new international students from non-EU countries since 2018/9 – the number of EU students has however plummeted post-Brexit – and universities have become increasingly dependent on them and their higher fees as the value of domestic tuition fees falls. The study, which focuses on the cohort of international students who started higher education in the UK in 2021/22, estimates that each of the UK’s 650 parliamentary constituencies is £58m better off as a result of them, equivalent to approximately £560 per citizen. International students studying in Glasgow, London, Sheffield, Nottingham and Newcastle are among those to deliver the greatest financial boost, according to the report. Even when taking into account dependants and the cost to public services, which it estimates at £4.4bn, the study says international students are a huge net contributor to the UK economy, providing a total net benefit of £37.4bn. Dr Gavan Conlon, partner at London Economics, said international students put nearly 10 times more into the economy than they take out, boosting both local and national economic wellbeing. “International students also allow universities to undertake world-class teaching and research that would not otherwise be possible.” Hepi director Nick Hillman added: “If there were to be further changes to the rules on international students, then it is vital that these are based on evidence rather than whim. So this report is designed to strengthen the existing evidence base.” Mark Corver, director of DataHE, said: “This type of analysis, with generous economic multipliers on tuition fees and rents paid, will inevitably generate startling large figures for economic benefit. “Similar calculations for UK students, particularly if it took into account their longer duration post-graduation work, would likely generate even larger figures for ‘impact’ on the economy.”

Heads accused of ‘throwing colleagues under a bus’ by naming striking staff

2023-02-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/25/heads-accused-of-throwing-colleagues-under-a-bus-by-naming-striking-staff

Unions and fellow headteachers have condemned school leaders in England who have ‘named and shamed’ teachers for striking Unions and headteachers have hit out at school leaders who have “thrown colleagues under the bus” by naming striking teachers in letters to parents or employing agency staff to keep classes open on strike days. As teachers across the country prepare to strike again this week, local union branches are reminding any staff who are being pressured by unsupportive heads or trust chief executives that they do not have to declare whether they are striking in advance. The National Education Union (NEU) condemned “naming and shaming” those taking action as an “appalling” attempt to put pressure on teachers not to make a stand on pay. Vic Goddard, co-principal at Passmores academy in Essex, said: “It is unfathomable to me why some leaders have done this. Why would you throw colleagues under a bus, knowing that if you name teachers they will be dragged through social media by some parents?” Goddard voted for industrial action himself and stressed he did not receive a single complaint from parents about the first day of strike action earlier this month. He said: “I can’t stand by and watch education funding being cut, children being made more vulnerable and being taught by staff without the right qualifications due to teacher shortages. Enough is enough.” The NEU says the vast majority of school leaders have been supportive of striking staff, with some headteachers giving up a day of their own salary and sharing it among staff who forfeited their pay. Others turned up at pickets with coffee and biscuits. But Mary Bousted, general secretary of the NEU, said: “There are heads who have been swayed by very heavy guidance from the Department for Education that they must keep schools open at all costs by employing agency staff.” Some teachers have also complained on social media that their heads have tried to put pressure on them to set online work for strike days. A teacher at a primary school in the Midlands, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described feeling “very let down” when she and two other striking teachers were named by the head in a letter to parents about which classes would be closed on the first day of strikes. “I definitely felt exposed,” she said. “I understand the senior leadership team felt the need to tell parents, so there are no moans, but the strike is meant to cause disruption.” The school asked her to declare by Friday if she would be striking this week. Bousted said such pressure, which is being reported at a minority of schools across the country, was “intimidation and bullying”, adding: “Publishing the names of striking teachers is invidious. It is appalling behaviour. This teacher shouldn’t tell her head anything.” The head of a primary academy in the north of England, who also asked to remain anonymous, said: “I’ve seen school leaders actively naming and blaming their staff in letters. They are throwing them to the lions. It’s deeply unpleasant.” He said he also knew heads who had made sure they had covered every class on strike days, going “against the whole spirit of the strike”. He warned that this might backfire, with teachers unwilling to take a job or stay at schools that did not support strikers. He added: “Remember, these teachers are giving up a day’s pay in a cost of living crisis, when they are already struggling, because they feel so passionately that things must change.” Dan Beeston, a year 5 teacher at Robin Hood primary school in Nottingham, said it meant a lot to find an envelope on his desk before the strike with money in it from the head to buy a coffee or a McDonald’s for the picket. He said he felt guilty about classes being closed, but added: “Ultimately, I am striking for the children. I see them going without resources and support in school. Cuts have impacted on our classrooms and I had to make a stand.” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders union, said: “We’ve advised members that however fraught things might feel now, you need to make sure that relationships with your staff are good in the long term. Most have followed that.”

One in 10 childcare providers in England likely to close, official report finds

2023-05-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/25/one-in-10-childcare-providers-in-england-likely-to-close-official-report-finds

Experts say years of government inaction have created ‘catastrophic’ situation as carers struggle to cover costs One in 10 childcare providers in England is facing closure and more than half are struggling to cover their costs, according to the government’s research into the impact of the cost of living crisis on the sector. The findings will fuel concerns about the capacity of the sector to grow to meet the government’s £4bn expansion to its free childcare offer, which was outlined in the budget this year. Currently, parents who work more than 16 hours a week and earn less than £100,000 are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week for three- and four-year-olds. The government has pledged to expand the scheme to include all children over the age of nine months by 2027-28. Neil Leitch, the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said rather than piling more pressure on the sector through ever-bigger promises of free childcare, the government should focus on fixing problems in the current system, created through years of underfunding and neglect. The Department for Education (DfE) report, based on a survey last November of 1,857 providers, found 10% of those who took part thought it was “likely” they would have to close due to cost pressures, while 2% said they planned to close in the next six months. Almost half (47%) said their income was not sufficient to cover their costs, up from just over a third (35%) in winter 2021. Staffing costs and energy bills were the main drivers of growing cost pressures. Three out five providers (62%) had put up fees to help ease cost pressures, while nine in 10 (89%) tried to cut costs, with 70% reducing spending on food, materials, or equipment and 56% cutting energy consumption. The DfE report also highlighted the recruitment crisis facing many in the sector. Two-thirds (64%) of providers who took part in the survey said they had experienced staffing issues in the past year, with the vast majority having to spend more time and money on finding staff. The research was published on Thursday as another report by two national charities, Coram Family and Childcare and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, warned the government’s childcare reforms would disproportionately benefit higher income families and risked worsening outcomes for disadvantaged children. The report says: “The current proposals to expand childcare prioritise the provision of more care to support working parents but do not support disadvantaged children or improve childcare quality. “Funding is spread too thinly to enable the step change in quality that is needed and is unfairly targeted towards higher income families.” Leitch said the DfE research showed “just how risky the government plans to expand the so-called ‘free childcare’ offers are”. 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 went on: “When nearly half of providers say their income is not covering costs, one in 10 say imminent closure is likely and the vast majority are reporting staffing challenges, then it’s clear that the existing system simply isn’t working. “Worse still, as the report highlights, despite providers’ very best efforts, continued cost pressures and an urgent need to reduce costs are now starting to impact the quality of education and care they are able to offer. “While it’s true that providers have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis, there’s no doubt that it is the years of government inaction that have created the current catastrophic situation.” A Department for Education spokesperson said only 1% of providers left the industry last year once new joiners were accounted for, and the number of places available has remained broadly stable since 2015. “We will continue to closely monitor the sufficiency of childcare places as we roll out our single biggest investment in childcare in England ever, set to save the working parent using 30 hours of childcare up to an average of £6,500 per year.”

Teachers say Gavin Williamson pandemic texts reveal ‘secret contempt’

2023-03-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/02/teachers-gavin-williamson-pandemic-matt-hancock-texts-secret-contempt

Teaching unions react with fury to leaked Matt Hancock messages they say show ‘appalling lack of respect’ Teaching unions have reacted with fury to leaked texts sent by the former education secretary Gavin Williamson at the height of the Covid pandemic, saying they reveal the UK government’s “secret contempt for teachers”. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the exchange between Williamson and the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, exposed “the chaos and duplicity at the heart of government”. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it showed “an appalling lack of respect for teachers” at a time of national emergency when unions were trying to engage constructively with government. The messages, leaked to the Telegraph, appear to show Williamson accusing teachers of looking for an “excuse” not to teach during the early stages of the Covid pandemic. In another WhatsApp exchange in October 2020, after Williamson announced a delay to exams for the following year, Hancock praised him for his “cracking announcement”, adding: “What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are.” Williamson replied: “I know they really really do just hate work.” The former education secretary faced heavy criticism for his handling of the Covid crisis in schools, in particular the 2020 exams fiasco and a number of embarrassing U-turns. “It was an absolute shambles and the two individuals involved in these snide insults were at the heart of that shambles,” said Barton. “We constantly had to sense-check and disentangle the reams of confused guidance they issued, and were often wrongfooted by bizarre policy decisions which were then followed by an inevitable U-turn.” The timing of this latest leak will not be helpful to the Department for Education. It came to light as members of the National Education Union (NEU) in London and the south of England prepared to strike in the latest day of industrial action in teachers’ long-running dispute with the government. Commenting on the lockdown messages, Whitehouse said: “How can any trust develop when the secret contempt for teachers and the teaching profession is laid bare like this? We must not forget Covid was rampant in schools and the whole school community was managing life-threatening risk in the most difficult of circumstances.” Dr Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the NEU, defended the role of teachers and education staff during the pandemic, saying they worked tirelessly, listening to the science and acting to protect the school community when the government was doing neither. “Government dragged their feet over providing laptops for children most in need, while it took the footballer Marcus Rashford to shame them into free school meals provision during the school holidays. Evidence that could have curbed the impact of Covid, resulting in wider lockdowns, was ignored, and they gave consistently late information to headteachers on the latest measures being imposed by government on schools and colleges. It was nothing short of a shambles,” she said. “The education secretary was clearly out of his depth and, we now hear, contemptuous of unions and teachers. Given the current dispute with the Department for Education over teacher pay, we sincerely hope Gillian Keegan does not share this attitude and gets around the table to discuss a resolution to the pay dispute.” The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the leaked comments were “a kick in the teeth” for teachers who stretched every sinew for children during the pandemic. “They add insult to injury at a time when fewer people are joining the profession, and when teachers are leaving classrooms in their droves. The Conservatives have shown us today exactly how much they value our teachers.” The Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, said: “Gavin Williamson was a disgraceful education secretary and these comments solidify his place in history as one of the worst ministers ever to grace government.” 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 schools minister, Nick Gibb, attempted to defend Williamson. He told LBC: “Gavin’s own wife is a primary school teacher – I’ve worked with Gavin for two years; I know he holds teachers in the highest regard. We all in government hold teachers in the highest regard, both during the pandemic and in normal times as well. People say things in the heat of the moment on WhatsApp that they don’t really believe.” On unions, he said: “I think they work hard for their members. I wish they were with us now negotiating pay and all the other issues that we want to talk about with the teacher unions, so we wouldn’t be having the strike that’s happening in London and the south-east today.” In a statement on Wednesday, Williamson said: “Further to reports in the Telegraph and other outlets, I wish to clarify that these messages were about some unions and not teachers. As demonstrated in the exchange, I was responding regarding unions. “I have the utmost respect for teachers who work tirelessly to support students. During the pandemic, teachers went above and beyond during very challenging times and very much continue to do so.” Speaking after the publication of the leaked WhatsApp messages, the former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield, who held that post during the pandemic, said children were not prioritised as they should have been. “I spent an awful lot of time putting forward the kind of policies that needed to be thought about if children were going to get the support they needed during this very, very uncertain time for them,” she told Sky News. Most children were out of school for six months, and since then anxiety has increased and mental health has “plummeted”, she said. “So children are living with the impact of what happened during that time right now, today. “It’s very clear to me that children were not given the priority they should have been. There was not enough discussion about the impact of decisions on children’s wellbeing and as a consequence it feels they were quite overlooked often, in terms of the big decisions that were made.”

Harvard professors defend president amid calls to resign after statements on antisemitism

2023-12-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/11/harvard-professors-defend-president-claudine-gay

Petition to Harvard Corporation, which has authority to fire Claudine Gay, urges it not to bend to lawmakers’ demands At least 570 professors at Harvard have defended the university’s embattled president, Claudine Gay, as she faces calls to resign following statements on campus antisemitism that have already triggered the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania president. The faculty submitted a petition to the 13-member Harvard Corporation, which has the authority to fire the president, asking it not to bend to political pressure to remove her. Appearing before a congressional inquiry last week, Gay, along with Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, and Liz Magill, the president of University of Pennsylvania, answered more than five hours of questions over their response to antisemitism on their campuses. Frequent student protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict have triggered accusations that some of the rhetoric has crossed into antisemitism. Gay, Kornbluth and Magill all declined to provide a definitive “yes” or “no” answer to the Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their university’s code of conduct. More than 70 US lawmakers signed a letter demanding all three university presidents be removed in response. Magill resigned, as did the University of Pennsylvania’s chairman of the board of trustees. “One down. Two to go,” said Stefanik – one of Trump’s most vocal defenders, who has echoed the antisemitic “great replacement” theory of immigration – after Magill’s resignation. Gay apologised for her congressional testimony in an interview with the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. “There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” Gay said. “Let me be clear: calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.” The letter signed by faculty urged the Harvard Corporation “in the strongest possible terms to defend the independence of the university and to resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay”. “The critical work of defending a culture of free inquiry in our diverse community cannot proceed if we let its shape be dictated by outside forces,” it added. The backlash over her testimony has seen the House committee on education and the workforce announce an official congressional investigation into antisemitism at Harvard, the rabbi David Wolpe resign from an advisory group established to combat antisemitism on Harvard’s campus, and the billionaire hedge fund CEO and Harvard donor Bill Ackman, one of Gay’s most vocal critics, claiming to have cancelled billions of dollars of pledges. Four undergraduate students at Harvard are facing disciplinary action for leading or playing a role in a pro-Palestine “week of action” in November. During a walkout on 29 November, two students are accused of entering and leading students out of classrooms while chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and “free, free Palestine”, according to the Harvard Crimson. One of the four students who face new disciplinary cases denied playing an organization role, or being a member of any of the groups involved in the walkout. “It feels as though the school is caving to the pressure of rightwing politicians to discipline peaceful pro-Palestinian speech and protest on Harvard’s campus by targeting outspoken pro-Palestinian voices like mine,” Syd Sanders wrote in response to the disciplinary case.

Strong rejection of pay offer in England shows teachers’ fury, says union

2023-04-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/03/strong-rejection-of-pay-offer-in-england-shows-teachers-fury-says-neu-union

NEU says vote by 98% to 2% sends clear message that government’s offer is insulting and will not do Anger among teachers in England over pay and school funding is hardening after what union leaders hailed as an “unprecedented” rejection of the government’s latest offer. Nearly 200,000 National Education Union members voted by 98% to 2% to reject the government’s offer of a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.5% pay rise next year. It was the highest rate of opposition in the union’s recent history, higher even than the 90% vote in favour of strike action in the NEU’s formal ballot in January. After the result was announced, delegates at the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate taunted the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, chanting: “Come on Gill, pay the bill.” Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “The strength of this vote is completely unprecedented for a teaching union in the UK in modern times. There was anger in September, when the NEU’s campaign began, but I think this vote shows a step change to fury. It reflects a determination among teachers that things cannot go on as they are. “This result cannot be batted away with glib dismissals from the Department for Education. This is a very clear, unambiguous message from almost 200,000 voters. This is the profession telling the education secretary that her offer is insulting and will not do.” Meanwhile, staff belonging to the University and College Union have voted to renew their union’s ballot for industrial action, creating the possibility of more campus strikes over the next six months. UCU members voted for industrial action over pay, working conditions and pensions, which could affect 150 UK universities. The result puts the NEU on a collision course with the government, with Keegan and Downing Street saying the vote means the £1,000 payment will be withdrawn and next year’s pay deal will be set by the independent School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations to the government. The result will also trigger two more days of strike action, likely to close schools around England, on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May. The annual conference will debate a motion calling for a ballot on further strikes in the autumn, which seems almost certain to pass given the strength of feeling among delegates. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “With a week of classroom time already lost and with exams fast approaching, it is extremely disappointing that the NEU have called for more strike action. The decision will also result in less money for teachers this year, with the independent pay review body now looking at pay for next year only, whereas with the government’s deal they could have had an extra £1,000 in their pay packets.” The union said its school representatives would work with headteachers to ensure that year 11 and year 13 students preparing for exams would not be affected by the strikes. Students begin sitting GCSE and A-level exams on 15 May. NEU members said teachers’ increased opposition was driven by the inadequate pay offer in the face of high inflation, and by the government’s failure to fully fund higher pay, meaning that the bulk of increased wages would come from already overstretched school budgets. 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 In a sign of the hardening mood, the union said it had enrolled 57,000 new members since the strike result was announced in mid-January, with suggestions that members were switching from other teaching unions. “The responsibility for these strikes lies with the government,” Courtney said, listing the education secretaries that the NEU had tried to negotiate with since last year. “We’ve been trying to talk to them since we wrote to Nadhim Zahawi in July, we wrote to James Cleverly in August, we wrote to Kit Malthouse in September, we wrote to Gillian Keegan in October. They didn’t meet with us until 9th January, then they refused to talk to us while we had strikes on. “Then, when we did get a meeting with them, after the strikes, they make a ridiculous offer that has been rejected by 98% of members. So the responsibility lies with them.” Three other unions – the NASUWT, Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association of Head Teachers – are also balloting members on the pay offer, the results of which are expected later this week.

Uniforms have no place in schools today | Letters

2023-09-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/28/uniforms-have-no-place-in-schools-today

Readers respond to André Spicer’s article on the traditions and enforcement of school dress codes Re André Spicer’s article on school uniforms (Not even bankers wear ties and blazers any more. So why should schoolchildren?, 25 September), I attended an all-girls grammar school in the 1960s and we were governed by a strict code regarding uniforms, with infringements punished. I was reported to have been seen outside school wearing my beret inappropriately (stuck on the back of my head). I was required to report to the headmistress, and on leaving in the afternoon to wear my beret in the prescribed fashion. Needless to say, this did not change my behaviour and it did not restrict my academic performance.Jennifer MackieAboyne, Aberdeenshire As the chair of governors of a secondary school who has always voted for the abolition of school uniforms, but been in a minority of one when fellow governors have discussed the issue, I support André Spicer’s arguments. I can add two others – abolishing uniforms would result in saving an incalculable amount of teachers’ time and frustration in policing uniforms, and in an equally incalculable amount of improvement in student motivation and goodwill.Prof Colin RichardsFormer HM inspector of schools, Spark Bridge, Cumbria School regimes that rely on punishment and exclusion to enforce petty rules, without any rights to question injustice, instil a model of coercive control. They teach students to be bullies, victims or helpless bystanders. How does this prepare them to have healthy adult relationships or to be active, inclusive, democratic citizens?Prof Priscilla AldersonUCL Institute of Education When allowed to decide for themselves how to dress, children learn how to make choices, exercise judgment and discover their likes and dislikes. They learn how to discern what’s appropriate in different settings and to balance self-expression and practicality. Above all, they learn not to judge people by how they look.Daniel OwenTorrington, Devon When we had non-uniform days at my school, we used to joke that all the pupils looked the same.Mike HarrisonBath 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.

Provocative education committee report will come as no surprise

2021-06-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/21/terms-like-white-privilege-may-alienate-people-facing-hardship-report-says

Analysis: successive reports claim education has been a success story for ethnic minorities despite contradictory evidence In one of the most provocative sections of the government’s landmark report on racial disparity this year, it argued that education has been the single most emphatic success story of the British ethnic minority experience. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) report stated that children from many ethnic communities largely do as well as or better than white pupils, with black Caribbean students the only group to perform less well. It continued that over the past half-century, new arrivals to Britain had “seized” on the “opportunities afforded” by the state school system and access to university. “The story for some ethnic groups has been one of remarkable social mobility, outperforming the national average and enabling them to attain success at the highest levels within a generation,” it found. Now another new controversial report has warned that terms like white privilege are “divisive” and may have contributed towards systemic neglect of white disadvantaged communities, whose children persistently underperform compared with disadvantaged peers in other ethnic groups. Repeatedly referring to the CRED report, the new publication states that the term white privilege is “used in the context of discrimination and racism and the challenges that people from ethnic minorities face”. It raises concerns that the phrase may be alienating to disadvantaged white communities, and it may have contributed towards a systemic neglect of white people facing hardship who also need specific support. “White privilege also fails to acknowledge the damage caused by other forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and the marginalisation of people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds,” it states. The content of this latest report will come as no surprise to some. Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, who is mentioned in the report, has previously warned that schools that teach pupils that “white privilege” is an uncontested fact are breaking the law. Badenoch has said the government does not want white children being taught about “white privilege and their inherited racial guilt”. “Any school which teaches these elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law,” she said during a commons debate on Black History Month. The tone of both reports is in marked contrast to a Guardian investigation into race and UK education. Through interviews, freedom of information requests, testimonies and extensive research, the Guardian found UK schools recorded more than 60,000 racist incidents in the past five years with the government accused of failing to meet “basic safeguarding” measures by not legally obliging schools to report racism. More than 680 police officers are currently working in British schools, with most being assigned to campuses in areas of high deprivation. Their activities range from being a point of contact for teachers to more intensive interventions such as stop and search and surveillance of children suspected of being gang members, with critics saying it could have a disproportionate effect on children of colour. Exclusion rates for black Caribbean students are as much as six times higher than the rates for their white British peers in some local authorities with Roma children nine times more likely to be suspended in some areas with experts calling it an “incredible injustice” for schoolchildren from minority ethnic backgrounds. Many critics of the CRED report described it as stark, contentious and a means of igniting a culture war. At the time, Adriana Salazar Méndez, speaking on behalf of the Black, Asian & Minority Network at Durham University, described it as an insult to all people of colour. “Today we have woken up to another instance of gaslighting and injustice to which we cannot remain silent,” she said. Today’s report is likely to provoke similar responses.

Schools deserve better than this Ofsted inspections regime | Letters

2023-04-30

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/30/schools-deserve-better-than-this-ofsted-inspections-regime

The current process to evaluate schools is not fit for purpose, say readers Re your editorial (The Guardian view on Ofsted inspections: not fulfilling their purpose, 24 April), in 1992, Ofsted was set up by statute to assess the quality of education in each school. It was not established primarily or directly to improve schools or the system generally. It aimed to provide impartial, independent, professionally subjective judgments to assist leaders, governors and teachers in evaluating their policies and provision so as to help determine priorities for development. It was for schools to consider the inspection findings and commendations, not to necessarily accept them all. That original limited but valuable purpose has been forgotten, even corrupted, and overtaken by more grandiose claims. Ofsted is now viewed by its leaders and supporters as providing authoritative, “objective”, incontestable findings and recommendations that have to be acted on. Its detractors contest these claims as unwarranted and overblown. Any reform of the system would do well to recognise the value of the limited purposes set out in the original legislation.Prof Colin RichardsFormer HM inspector of schools, Spark Bridge, Cumbria Your editorial says “parents should have a metric for gauging what happens inside a school”. They already do – the opinions and judgment of other parents with children who attend their local schools. A starting point for reform should be to put into effect the practices developed by Prof Tim Brighouse when, as chief education officer in Birmingham and subsequently in charge of the London Challenge school improvement programme, he promoted a local approach. Groups of schools in a local area were encouraged to work together, sharing problems and solutions. The results in the achievement of improved performance and pupil attainment were dramatic in Birmingham and London.Martin WillisMalvern, Worcestershire It’s rare these days that, as a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years in practice, anything outside of the work sphere really tweaks my clinical interest. But the recent observations from Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, did make my professional jaw drop (Ofsted chief admits to ‘culture of fear’ around England’s school inspections, 23 April). For the head of Ofsted to be apparently so unaware of the nature of childhood trauma and the serious vulnerabilities that accompany such experience is beyond surprising. For readers who may not be aware, adverse childhood experiences are much more common than we used to believe, and they have serious and lasting consequences that are made worse by stressful environments. This is stuff that most people who work in education rightly already know something about. Children do not do well in a stressful environment – Spielman should know that and should be very concerned that the organisation she is leading is, by her own admission, responsible for creating such a culture among teachers in some schools.Dr Christopher RobinsonClinical psychologist, High Peak, Derbyshire 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.

Jenny Warner obituary

2023-06-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/06/jenny-warner-obituary

My friend Jenny Warner, who has died aged 87, was a speech therapist and one of the three founding members, in the mid-1970s, of the faculty in speech pathology and therapy at the University of Manchester. There she combined clinical practice with lecturing and writing academic papers and practical works. Born in Kuala Lumpur in Malaya (now Malaysia), Jenny escaped the Japanese occupation of the country with her mother, Winifred (nee Herbertson), a secretary, at the age of six. After making their way to Singapore, they secured passage to Britain on the last evacuation ship to leave, in January 1942. Her father, Stanley Warner, who served in the RAF, rejoined the family in August of that year but was killed a few months later during a German bombing raid while he was a patient at the RAF officers’ hospital based at the Palace hotel in Torquay, Devon, in 1942. Having had no formal education up to that point, Jenny became a boarder at Christ’s Hospital school in Hertford, later studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Afterwards Jenny worked for Birmingham city council as a speech therapist (1957-60) before returning to the Central School of Speech and Drama (1960-1975) as a lecturer in speech pathology and therapeutics. While there she also took on part-time speech therapist roles at St Thomas’ hospital and with the Inner London Education Authority’s autistic unit. In 1975 she spent a year as the full-time chief speech therapist at St Thomas’ before joining the new faculty in speech pathology and therapy at Manchester University, where, among other things, she wrote manuals for various charities, including Mencap, for whom she provided guidance on the feeding challenges faced by parents of children with learning disabilities. Jenny was elected as a fellow of the College of Speech and Language Therapists in 1992 and subsequently, just before her retirement from Manchester in 1998, she made British Council funded trips to Tanzania and Kenya, training people in geographical areas where speech therapy services were then seriously restricted. She also served as a governor for two special needs schools in the north-west of England. Though a naturally modest person, Jenny was a terrific raconteur. Friends enjoyed her sharply observed stories, which she sometimes embellished with her mastery of regional accents. A cat lover, she also cherished her garden, along with the birds and other small animals that visited it regularly.

English councils holding back millions of pounds of free childcare funds

2023-05-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/10/english-councils-holding-back-millions-of-pounds-of-free-childcare-funds

FoI requests reveal at least 90 councils top-sliced childcare budget to offset deficits or add to reserves MPs have expressed concern that local authorities in England are failing to pass on government funding for free childcare places to nurseries, after research showed councils were holding back millions of pounds to offset deficits or add to reserves. Freedom of information requests submitted by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) revealed that more than 90 of the 150 local education authorities that responded underspent to the tune of almost £46m in total last year. Fifteen LEAs underspent by at least £1m each, while five of those underspent by a similar amount in two of the previous three years. The NDNA calculated that over the past four years there had been a £229m underspend of funds intended for providers of free childcare. The issue was raised on Tuesday by MPs on the education select committee who are holding an inquiry into support for childcare and the early years, looking in particular at the government’s plans to extend free childcare, announced in the spring budget. Currently, parents in England who work more than 16 hours a week and earn less than £100,000 are entitled to 30 hours’ free childcare a week for children aged three and four. There are different schemes in place for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The government has promised to expand the scheme to offer places to working parents of all children over the age of nine months. Providers have long complained, however, that the scheme is chronically underfunded. The fact councils are not passing on all funding provided by the Department for Education is a source of additional frustration. Claire Coutinho, the minister for children, giving evidence to the committee, acknowledged it had been a challenging time for the childcare sector, but said the government was putting in an additional £4bn to fund its childcare policies. She told MPs that current guidance allowed councils to top-slice 5% of the funding from government, to allow flexibility for children coming into the system at different times. She said the department saw returns showing how much funding councils were retaining, and “on average it’s less than 5% at the moment. It’s something we keep a careful eye on but the vast majority is passed on and is well spent.” Purnima Tanuku, the NDNA chief executive, said: “This is our fourth year investigating underspends in early years funding and once again, the results are shocking. NDNA has been calling for this money to be ringfenced so it can only be used for early years places. “At a time when providers will be under pressure to get ready to deliver funded places for all two-year-olds in less than a year’s time, they should be better supported by councils. This system needs fixing and reforming now if the early years sector is going to have a hope of delivering the government’s new plans.” The Local Government Association, which represents local authorities in England and Wales, said its members fully understood the financially challenging situation providers were in, and were doing what they could to support them. “However councils often face challenges in relation to when money is received from government and have to manage this to ensure providers receive funding. Where this is an underspend, this is also often reallocated according to local need, such as to support children with additional needs, so the money is still invested in early years provision.”

Childcare cash boost in England ‘grossly underestimates’ needs, say providers

2023-07-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/07/dfe-early-years-funding-gross-underestimate-needs-providers

Government told its ‘largest ever’ investment in wraparound childcare does not come close to easing pressure on sector A £204m fund described by the government as the biggest investment in childcare ever “grossly underestimates” what early-years providers need to keep their doors open, representatives of the sector have said. The increase, announced in March’s budget, comes as the government also announced plans for a “wraparound” childcare plan for England. Sixteen councils have been selected to develop the plans for parents of primary school-age children in England in the Department for Education’s “largest ever” investment in childcare. The introduction of the scheme, which will provide care between 8am and 6pm as part of efforts to support more parents to return to work, is to begin next summer. Local authorities from Barnsley to Wiltshire have been selected to work with the government on the scheme, described by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, as a step forward that will be “transformational for working families and will help grow our economy”. But the announcement was criticised by Rachel Carrell, the founder and CEO of Koru Kids, a childcare company that previously featured in a conflict of interest row over Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, having shares in the firm. While Carrell gave a qualified welcome to the announcement, she said she was disappointed that it was “totally unclear” who was going to deliver the wraparound care, adding there was a lack of crucial detail. “Above all, I really hope that the government isn’t going to assume that what’s needed is a massive expansion of one-size-fits-all ‘after school clubs in the school hall’. One size does not fit every child, or every family. Some children can thrive with a long day – others can’t cope at all.” Meanwhile, the separate confirmation that broader hourly funding rates for each child will increase from September 2023 from an average of £5.29 to £5.62 for three- and-four-year-olds, and from an average of £6 to £7.95 for two-year-olds, was described by the Early Years Alliance as “another disappointment”. “Given that government’s own figures show that there is a £1.8bn shortfall in the existing three- and-four-year-old offer, how can anyone argue that a mere 6% increase in funding will come anywhere close to easing the pressures facing the sector, especially in the face of sky-high rates of inflation?” said Neil Leitch, the CEO of the lobby group. “Clearly, the government has grossly underestimated what early-years providers need to both keep their doors open and continue to provide high-quality education and care. While we recognise that the plans for funding the new one- and two-year-old offers have yet to be confirmed, the fact is that funding must be adequate across the whole early-years system for the sector to be able to remain sustainable, and from today’s announcement, it is clear that this simply isn’t the case.” The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said: “I know the cost of childcare can be a real struggle for parents and can become a barrier to work. That’s why we announced the largest ever expansion of free childcare at spring budget, and today we’re increasing hourly funding rates to make sure the system is ready to deliver, including uplifting rates for a two-year-old by a third. “These reforms will be transformative, and ensure that we build a childcare system comparable to the best.”

‘I feel disgusted and ashamed’: Bristol student camp one of many protesting at university ties to Israel

2024-05-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/04/i-feel-disgusted-and-ashamed-bristol-student-camp-one-of-many-protesting-at-university-ties-to-israel

Staff offer support to protesters as locals donate food, drink, bedding and books The collection of 12 tents pitched in a soggy garden at the heart of Bristol university’s campus is on a much smaller scale than the Palestine solidarity encampments sweeping the US. But the outrage at what this new generation of student activists regard as the complicity of education institutions in Israel’s assault on Gaza is just as raw. “It makes me feel sick to my stomach,” said Olivia [not her real name], a second-year student at the university, outside the camp on Friday. “I feel deeply disgusted and ashamed. This protest is absolutely the least I can do for someone studying at a university that is so complicit.” Like many of the students involved in the protest, she doesn’t want to share her name. “There could be academic repercussions [for students taking part]: anything from being banned from university buildings to suspensions and expulsions,” she said. “This has happened in the UK, but not at this university so far.” At least seven similar encampments have sprung up at British universities in the past week, including Warwick, the first to pitch tents, Newcastle, Sheffield, and a “village” in Manchester, where there are more than 50 tents. All are demanding universities cut ties with companies activists claim are arming Israel. The campus protests come after a string of occupations of university buildings. Goldsmiths senior management on Friday agreed to offer scholarships to Palestinian students and will review the university’s ethical investment policy after a five-week occupation by students. The mood on British campuses remains very different from that of American universities, where officers have broken up protest camps and arrested more than 2,000 activists. The Bristol camp is opposite the university’s security services office but there is almost no security presence. “The university asked us to leave [on 2 May] but they haven’t made any other threats,” said Olivia. “The police came to look but they haven’t spoken to us.” However, the leader of the Commons, Penny Mordaunt, and Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson have both indicated they would support action to quell disorder or harassment. Mordaunt said UK protesters should be met with an “extremely strict response” if they copied US campus tactics, which she claimed were violent. This worries some Bristol univer­sity staff backing the camp. Prof Colin Davis, who dropped by on Fri­day to support the students, claims the government is stoking ­conflict. “[Mordaunt] called on ­universities to respond to these protests severely. This could lead to the kinds of scenes we’ve seen in Columbia and UCLA replicated here, which is just appalling.” Davis backs the main demand of the camp. “It is feasible that research that goes on at this university helps make the weapons that are dropped on people in Gaza … it is deeply shameful.” Bristol university has longstanding links to BAE Systems, which has four sites in Bristol, including collaborating on research projects. A report by the Campaign Against Arms Trade claims BAE Systems partially manu­factures F35 fighter planes, which have been used by the Israeli military in Gaza. Jewish students have expressed alarm at the rising levels of antisemi­tism they face. Last week, Edward Isaacs, president of the Union of Jewish Students, wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that “as Jewish students muster the resilience to begin sitting their end-of-year exams, campuses take another step forward in increased toxicity towards [them]”. He added that, although the UK was not seeing the same scenes as the US, “the rhetoric emanating from these [UK] encampments is increasing in hostility”. Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion Isaacs called on universities to do more to stand with Jewish students: “Time and again, since 7 October, universities have been unwilling to effectively stand in allyship with their Jewish students and ensure they can be fully included in campus life. “Now is a bellwether moment for university administrations as to whether they will muster the moral courage to stand in allyship with Jewish students, and ensure campuses are places where they can study free from hatred.” The Bristol students deny claims that Gaza solidarity encampments create a toxic and hostile atmosphere for Jewish students. The organisers pointed out that some of the campers are Jewish. “We are not here to make Jewish students feel unsafe,” said . “We are here protesting the university’s complicity in the war machine that is providing Israel with the weapons to commit atrocities.” Phoebe, who has spent two nights in the camp, said she felt she had to take action: “There is an unprecedented amount of insight into this genocide. It is harrowing. I’ve cried watching videos [from Gaza]. I don’t think I would like myself if I was doing nothing about it.” The camp has been inundated with donations from other students, university staff and locals. There are bags filled with food and drinks under a gazebo, where a huddle of students are sheltering from the drizzle. Some well-wishers have brought hot food, including a bean chilli and soup. One lecturer arrives carrying bags of cutlery, bedding and books to read. “These students are doing something historic,” says a lecturer who wished to remain anonymous. “Not since the South Africa anti-apartheid movement has there been a global student movement that has demanded divestment from a settler colonial state.” On Friday, a rally of about 100 students and staff gathered nearby to demonstrate support for the encampment. Dr Eldin Fahmy, a lecturer, said: “We are all inspired by events we are seeing in the United States. The resistance of students [there] has been magnificent.” Paolo Gerbaudo, an academic at King’s College London, who studies social movements, suggested: “The US has a far heavier footprint in terms of its support for Israel, hence US students feel a stronger burden of responsibility for what is happening in Gaza.” A University of Bristol spokesperson said: “We fully respect the rights of our students to peacefully protest within the law. We recognise the distress and impact on all staff and students at the university of the ongoing conflict in Israel-Gaza. It is more important than ever that we sustain our shared values of mutual respect, support and compassion for each other, whatever our individual views.” BAE Systems said it operated under the tightest regulation and complied fully with all applicable defence export controls: “The ongoing violence in the Middle East is having a devastating impact on civilians in the region and we hope the parties involved find a way to end the violence as soon as possible. We respect everyone’s right to protest peacefully.”

‘Where am I going to send my children?’: anguish as schools close across England

2023-05-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/29/where-am-i-going-to-send-my-children-anguish-as-schools-close-across-england

In Lewes, a catholic primary may shut as parents are driven out by lack of affordable housing while parents of London school face ‘terrible decision’ Sonia Tann says she has woken in tears every morning since parents were informed that her local school, St Pancras Catholic primary in Lewes, East Sussex, could be forced to close next year. A final decision will not be taken until the autumn, but with a daughter in year two and a son due to start at the school in September, she now faces the agonising decision of whether, and when, to move them elsewhere. She says: “Where am I going to send my children? Do I pull them out now? Do I wait for the official decision in November? But then I will have started my child for one term, and then relocated him.” The letter parents received in mid-May kicked off a three-month consultation period. But closure appears to be the only option for the one-form entry school – and she and fellow mother Caroline Clark say it is symptomatic of the changing character of the picturesque Sussex town. “I used to run [local restaurant] Bill’s, and life changes, and I’m now currently a single parent of two children on benefits – and you can’t afford to live in Lewes,” says Tann, who has also run a local food bank in recent years. Birthrates have declined across the UK in the past decade; but in Lewes the number of reception-age children enrolling at state schools has fallen by more than a third, from 212 in 2014-15 to 138 in 2022-23. Clark, a writer and translator, grew up in the town, attending St Pancras herself, and had always hoped to return with her children. But when she was looking to return 10 years ago, she says: “For all my dreams of coming back, I suddenly realised what Lewes had become.” She and her husband just managed to buy a home on the edge of town – but, she says: “We would never be able to afford it now, and I just know my children will never be able to afford it.” Both women – who are governors at the school, but spoke to the Guardian in a personal capacity – say parents are being driven out by a lack of affordable places to live. “Lewes is really community spirited, but what can you do to fight the rising prices?” says Clark. “Families go to Eastbourne, families go to Seaford.” “There won’t be anything left except the people who are commuting through,” says Tann, who lives with her children in a council flat next to the school. “They’ve maybe got some work in Brighton for a couple of days so they’ll Airbnb in Lewes. You’ve got Glyndebourne, they’ll go and enjoy that.” A quick search of home rental site reveals more than 130 Airbnb properties for rent in the desirable South Downs town, which is just over an hour from London by train. The consultation document issued to parents said: “St Pancras has a high level of surplus provision. Preferences for the school have fallen acutely in the last few years” – adding that it had been under-subscribed for the last seven. It also pointed to guidance from the Department for Education suggesting new schools should aim for at least two-form entry – taking in 60 pupils a year – to be financially viable. In recent years it had already had to teach children from more than one year group in some classes. Clark and Tann argue that the small scale of St Pancras is a significant part of its appeal, as well as the fact it has a diverse socioeconomic mix. “There are some children that need to be in a small school,” says Tann. A spokesperson for the diocese of Arundel and Brighton said the diocese and East Sussex county council had “taken every possible measure to ensure the viability and flourishing of the 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 The anguish of St Pancras parents is being repeated across the UK as councils wrestle with declining pupil numbers – most pressingly in London, where, as in Lewes, the issue is exacerbated by eye-watering house prices. The Guardian spoke to a reader whose nine-year-old son’s school, St Dominic’s in Camden, north London – also a Catholic primary – is closing this summer. A resident of nearby social housing, she did not want to be named, but echoed some of the sentiments encountered in Lewes. “We got a letter home in the book bags on Friday to say they were planning to close the school. People were literally opening up the letters and standing there with looks of astonishment on their faces,” she said. “It was a consultation with only one option. “We and other parents had to make a really terrible decision: once we realised that there was no option but closure, everybody started to leave because a scramble for places began.” Her son has now found a place at another primary, a mile away, but his friends have been scattered across the borough. “He loved his school. The day that he left and a couple of his other friends were leaving, the headmistress was in tears, the caretaker was in tears, the music teacher was in tears,” she said. Like other central boroughs including Hackney, Camden is in the process of closing several schools as pupil numbers drop. For Catholic schools, the slowdown in arrivals from Catholic countries such as Poland after Brexit may be a factor, though data is scarce as yet. Back in Lewes, Tann and Clark accept that it is too late for St Pancras – though they believe parents could have worked together to launch a recruitment drive, if they had realised how perilous its situation had become. When Clark told her eight-year-old daughter about the school’s impending closure, she said: “But it’s my home. I feel safe there.”

Parents forced to step into the educational breach | Brief letters

2021-11-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/nov/25/parents-forced-to-step-into-the-educational-breach

Home education | Motivational speeches | Parthenon marbles | Channel 4 | Ancient food The government cuts, cuts, cuts, and underfunds schools and special education needs provision, and then the authorities are surprised when home education numbers rise (Councils in England report 34% rise in elective home education, 24 November)? Your headline might better have read: “34% increase in dedicated parents mopping up government failings”.Clare QuarmanWindsor, Berkshire It was impossible to watch the prime minister’s speech (The politics sketch, 22 November) without being reminded of David Brent’s motivational speech to a similar audience of stony-faced business people in The Office.Andrew HopeOxford Repatriation of the looted Greek sculptures (Parthenon marbles should never have been removed, Boris Johnson wrote, 23 November) would surely prompt the headline: “Johnson has lost his marbles”.David FeintuckLewes, East Sussex John Beck asks for suggestions of a broadcaster that holds power to account (Letters, 24 November). Channel 4 News does just that, repeatedly.Rod WarringtonUpton-by-Chester, Cheshire Like many readers (Letters, 24 November), I have some elderly foodstuffs in my cupboard, including a tin of duck cassoulet, bought in Paris in the 1990s. I plan to eat it before I die. Probably just before.Liz FullerLondon Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Increased funding has left private schools better able to attract teachers, public principals say

2023-07-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/19/gonski-review-funding-gap-private-schools-better-off-than-public-hiring-teachers

Funding gap since Gonski review is playing out in hot competition for teachers, federation says Increases in funding to the private education system have enabled it to attract teachers, despite a nationwide shortage, due to its ability to bump up salaries, according to the head of the New South Wales Secondary Principals’ Council. Craig Petersen, who represents the principals of public schools across the state, said not only do public schools not have the budget to compete, but they were also restricted from lifting teachers’ salaries above the award wage. “If you’re trying to fill a position at your nongovernment school, you can offer five to 10 to $20,000 bonuses, and you can provide other perks for them,” he said. “It’s really hard for someone to knock back that opportunity.” It comes as Guardian Australia revealed funding to independent and Catholic schools has increased almost twice as much compared with public schools in the decade since the landmark Gonski review, which set out a roadmap to fund schools according to their need. Petersen said teachers were also struggling under the strain of a public school system underfunded to deliver to the needs of its students. “Our classrooms are incredibly complex because of the diversity, because we’re not adequately funded, and because we never got those final years of the additional Gonski funding,” he said. The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, agreed the consequences of the funding increase divide between public and private schools was playing out in the hot competition for teachers. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup He pointed to the principal of Sceggs Darlinghurst, an independent school in Sydney, saying at the Sydney Morning Herald’s schools summit earlier this year that the school paid “top of the scale” teachers $135,000. The top bracket in the public education system is currently $117,060. “The answer to this lies in governments fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure every classroom has a qualified teacher, and that must be through competitive salaries and manageable workloads,” he said. Graham Catt, the chief executive of Independent Schools Australia, said the 1,200 independent schools across Australia had vastly different resourcing and operational capabilities, with some likely being in a better position to attract and retain teachers than others. For other independent schools which are focused on providing the lowest fees possible for parents, he said they would struggle to find the revenue to provide teachers an additional pay rise. “The workforce issues is across every sector, and I think it’s by working together and through the review of the [National School Reform Agreement] that we have our best chance of solving that,” Catt said. Petersen said the finding that public school funding had not increased as much as private schools was an “enormous disappointment”, but he was not surprised. “It’s no surprise to me because this is exactly what we’ve been warning against for well over a decade,” he said. 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 Patrick Murphy, the president of the Queensland Association of State School Principals, said he was also seeing a downgrading of facilities across the state’s public schools, from the loss of art and music programs, to sport and language. “Those programs get dropped because they can’t afford the teachers, where others can,” he said. But it also meant schools have limited ability to provide other crucial staffing resources which can help build a child’s learning capability for the rest of their lives, such as psychologists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists. He said this was a resource most critical in schools located in rural and remote areas where these services were limited compared with metro areas. Murphy said he was also seeing the consequences of state governments not reaching their obligation to fund public schools at 80%. “The disappointing fact is the Queensland government has not lifted from 89.6% of the school resourcing standard for students in Queensland,” he said. “When Naplan results are not moving, we shouldn’t be blaming schools, we should be blaming a system that underinvests.”

From Covid to poverty: why pupil absence in England is rising

2023-06-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/28/covid-poverty-pupil-absence-england-schools-social-economic-pandemic-families

Social and economic upheaval since the pandemic has resulted in many more families struggling The reasons for increased levels of pupil absence in England are multiple and complex. Some were an issue before the Covid pandemic closed schools and disrupted the education of millions, but all have become more acute since, affecting huge numbers of pupils and their families. They include: While poor mental health among young people was a growing concern before the pandemic, it has deteriorated since. According to NHS Digital, 18% of children aged seven to 16 had a probable mental disorder in 2022, up from 12.1% in 2017, meaning already overstretched NHS mental health services are unable to cope with rising demand. In evidence to MPs investigating school absence, councils said they believed increased anxiety and lack of mental health support were driving a steep rise in pupils missing school, with some children struggling to leave home at all. Children are missing lessons while they await assessment and treatment. At school, meanwhile, cuts to pastoral support mean there is less help available for the many pupils who are struggling but not yet in crisis. Deprivation and poverty have always been barriers to school attendance, but the upheaval caused by Covid and the cost of living crisis that followed has resulted in many more families struggling. Pupils eligible for free school meals – a key measure of disadvantage – have higher absence rates. In 2020-21 the absence rate for these pupils was more than double the rate for non-eligible pupils (7.8% compared with 3.7%). Schools and charities say some parents cannot afford to ensure their child has a clean uniform or pay for bus fares every day. “With inflation and the cost of living crisis, their focus is around are they going to be able to feed their children at the end of the week,” said one charity worker. Given a choice of food or school, food wins. Insecure, poor-quality housing is increasingly a barrier to children going to school, according to the education charity School-Home Support (SHS), which works with persistently absent pupils and their families to improve school attendance. SHS says 19% of the pupils it works with now cite where they live as a significant barrier to school attendance, up from 11% last year. Typical problems are that families who are moved into refuges because of domestic violence, or into emergency accommodation after an eviction, can find themselves long distances from their school, making journeys expensive. Also, children in cramped, unsuitable accommodation have nowhere to do homework, which can make it challenging for pupils to engage with their studies and attend lessons regularly. As well as absence as a result of being sick with Covid, children who missed out on a lot of social mixing during national lockdowns have not had the same exposure to common germs as previous generations, so have potentially been more susceptible to illness since, which has also contributed to increased school absence. Government statistics for autumn 2022 show that 24% of pupils were persistently absent between September and December, missing at least 10% of sessions. The majority of those absences were caused by illness, with a rise in December linked to seasonal infections and the continued impact of Covid. More than 12% of pupils were classed as persistently missing because of illness. Absences may have also increased since Covid as a result of the heavy-handed public health messaging associated with the pandemic, which has meant that post-pandemic rather than sending children into school with mild coughs and colds, parents are now more likely to keep them at home. This week, the schools minister, Nick Gibb, told parents they should send their children to school with a cold to boost attendance rates. 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 New working patterns, including hybrid and home working, have made it is easier for some parents to be at home to look after children who are unwell, unable or unwilling to go to school. Some experts detect a “slightly more relaxed” attitude among parents. Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, told the Commons education committee that since Covid there has been a peak in pupil absence on Fridays when many parents were working from home. “We’ve had evidence from kids: ‘Well, Mum and Dad are at home, stay at home’. We’re seeing slightly different attitudes in the post-Covid world.” It is well known that children with special educational needs and disabilities are more at risk of absence from school, and that link has become more pronounced since the pandemic, which took a particularly heavy toll on many of these pupils. While some children were unable to attend because of healthcare appointments, more often their absence was because the school was unable to deliver the required adjustments or provide a suitable learning environment, the children’s commissioner said. With Covid and national lockdowns, there is a theory that families and children lost the routine of going to school. After years of unquestioningly following a regimented timetable of getting up and off to school every morning, some families facing other challenges lost the habit and the capacity. During lockdown, families were able to arrange their own time. Getting back to those old routines has been hard for some pupils. “They have lost important bits of their childhood and important bits of learning about getting yourself organised,” said one family support worker.

‘The government hasn’t listened’: teachers in England criticise pay offer

2023-04-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/03/government-hasnt-listened-teachers-england-criticise-pay-offer

Delegates at NEU conference are angry that school budgets would be expected to fund most of wage rise Charlotte Lawrence has been a primary school teacher for 14 years and has one word for the government’s latest pay offer for teachers in England: insulting. “The government hasn’t listened,” said Lawrence, a delegate at the National Education Union’s annual conference in Harrogate. “When the strike ballot was carried, I thought the government would see that teachers are serious and start to negotiate. But it just hasn’t happened.” Lawrence and other teachers at the conference say pay alone is not what drove 98% of nearly 200,000 NEU members to reject the offer. What has angered them is that school budgets would be expected to fund most of the pay increase – forcing teachers to choose between their own spending and resources and staff for their pupils. Teachers outside the conference chanted: “Hey, Gill, now it’s time to pay the bill,” in a message to the education secretary, Gillian Keegan. “I know a school in Portsmouth that has 10 pencils to last until the end of the academic year,” said Lawrence, who worries that some school budgets are so tightly stretched that having to find even part of the pay rise promised by the government would be too difficult. “As a profession we need well-remunerated teachers and well-funded schools. We should be able to have both.” Laura Beckham, a special needs teacher in Consett, County Durham, said it was insulting that any pay rise was not being fully funded, especially for schools that were already struggling. Her school’s building is badly in need of refurbishment and expansion, having 100 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities despite having capacity for 64, with wheelchairs having to be stacked in the corridors to make room. “If it’s an unfunded pay rise then I’m going to lose teaching assistants,” Beckham said. “I can’t afford to lose teaching assistants.” The government’s pay offer was a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year, and a pay rise for 2023-24 that amounted to 4.3% for experienced teachers such as Beckham and Lawrence, but more for newly qualified teachers, with starting salaries rising to £30,000. But only the one-off payment and a small portion of the pay rise from September would be funded by new money from the government. The rest would be from existing budgets, which the government argues have room to afford it because of the additional £2.4bn being allocated nationally in each of the next two years. Natalie Perera, the chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, said that even after the extra funding, the government’s analysis showed there was only just about enough headroom to cover the current pay offer and the increased school costs arising from inflation, while other services are being slashed. “It’s likely that school leaders and teachers are not just worried about their pay, but also about having enough resources to support pupils’ education and wellbeing, particularly for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged,” Perera said. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We remain open to further discussions but we felt this was a fair and reasonable offer. As it stands, now that the membership with the NEU have voted against it, talks on pay or the setting of pay will fall to the independent pay review body.” But Lawrence, like many of her colleagues in Harrogate, was buoyed up by the overwhelming vote against the government’s offer: “The message is that we are united – and we don’t have a choice.”

How families on the breadline are ineligible for free school meals

2022-11-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/10/families-on-breadline-ineligible-free-school-meals

Households in England must earn less than £7,400 a year before benefits and after tax to qualify, excluding 800,000 children in poverty ​ ​Teachers reveal scale of pupils’ hunger​ Hungry children miss out on FSMs – and struggling schools can’t help ‘The benefit is massive’: the school offering FSMs to all ​ On the face of it, Brian and his teenage daughter are textbook survivors of poverty and food insecurity. He is a single parent with a long-term health condition; he cannot work and claims a health-related unemployment benefit. His income is pitifully low, and the family food budget a constant, intense struggle. But he has been told they cannot claim free school meals. Mel, 44, is in full-time work and six months ago earned enough to come off universal credit, the first time in her adult life she hasn’t relied on benefits. But only once during that time was her household income temporarily low enough for her children to claim free school meals. It’s nice to be off benefits, she says; but with things as they are it doesn’t really make the problem of affording school lunches easier. Stacey, 36, has two school-age children, works full-time, and is on universal credit. One is still young enough to qualify for a universal free school meal, but in less than a year she will join her older sibling in having to pay for school lunch. Stacey is not sure if it will be possible to stretch to the £5-a-day or so cost of two school lunches, and if so how. But she is not eligible for means-tested free school meals. The stresses articulated by Brian, Mel and Stacey (all participants in the Changing Realities project tracking the experiences of people on low incomes) are driving calls for an extension of free school meals. They are seen as a neat way of extending help to low-income families caught by accelerating food insecurity and soaring energy bills – the cost of living crisis described by Stacey as “a cyclone you just can’t get out of”. To be eligible for free school meals in England a household must earn less than a threshold of £7,400 a year before benefits and after tax. That means 800,000 children currently in poverty are deemed too well off to qualify. The threshold has been frozen since 2018, while prices have risen by 16%. Had it risen in line with inflation, 110,000 more children would be eligible. Even if you do qualify, the system creates a cliff edge where even a marginal uplift in household income – extra hours or a new job – means you may lose the free lunch, and struggle to afford its replacement. A single parent with three kids for example, would lose £1,410 a year from losing free school meals, according to the Liberal Democrats, but would have to earn an extra £3,133 to recoup the cost of the meals. However, some transitional protections exist to enable individual children to retain free school meal eligibility, even if their household income subsequently improves and takes them above the threshold. Hence school lunchbox horror stories, of kids who are too poor to bring a healthy lunch, but apparently too rich to get a free meal, turning up at school with a single chocolate bar for lunch, or slices of mouldy bread, or even an empty lunchbox (ashamed of their poverty, they try to fake lunch). One in five UK school lunchboxes typically lack vegetables or salad, and 50% lack fruit, a recent academic study found. 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 These lurid tales suggest the free school meals safety net could be a big help to many more families. Why not expand provision to the children of all parents on universal credit (or equivalent benefits) the argument goes. This would pick up households in poverty, guarantee the children a vital nutritional boost and give hard-pressed parents a financial and mental breather. Mel says her family is better off than they were but still sometimes struggle financially to stretch to every school lunch; even if the government were to extend free school meals to everyone on universal credit they would not be eligible. Why not give every pupil a free meal, regardless of income? It makes sense, she reckons. “If you don’t have food in your child’s belly they can’t learn, and this is a benefit that is going straight into your child’s belly.” Brian and his daughter have been in the cost of living storm for some time. During Covid he didn’t qualify for the £20 a week uplift because he was on a “legacy” benefit. He exists mainly on sandwiches, and skips meals so his daughter can take lunch money to school and cook a plate of pasta some evenings. Breakfast is two slices of toast. He keeps a biscuit in the cupboard to help manage his diabetes. The heating stays off, and so do the lights, mostly. “I don’t even drink tea and coffee,” he says. Slightly bewilderingly, the household does not qualify for free school meals. Some years ago he says he was advised by the Department for Work and Pensions that his daughter was ineligible for free school meals because of the nature of the benefit he receives (contributory employment and support allowance). A charity seems to have subsequently confirmed this. He is now going to get fresh advice. It would be worth about £430 a year, which he says, with understatement, “would be very helpful.” Stacey’s well-drilled shopping routine (only fruit and vegetables are non-negotiable purchases) means they get by for now, only just, especially when her salary fluctuates. Her kids get a cooked meal “most of the time” which is more than a lot of other kids. But it can be a close-run thing. Why not make free school meals universally free to all, at least at primary school age, she asks. Things are now so tough even better-off families are struggling, and that sad state of affairs, she says, “does not feel like it is ever going to change or ever end”. This article was amended on 11 November 2022 to correct a detail about the findings of the academic study on UK school lunchboxes and to refer to transitional protections for retention for free school meal eligibility.

Adult education, mental health and democracy | Letters

2021-03-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/adult-education-mental-health-and-democracy

Readers respond to a Guardian editorial about the vital role that adult education plays in society and the threats it faces Your leader rightly deplores the severe reductions in adult education and part-time learning provision in recent years (The Guardian view on adult education: bring back evening classes, 21 March). This has numerous negative consequences, not only for potential adult learners themselves but also for wider society. One key aspect of such education, which has now virtually disappeared, is critical liberal adult education. In my view, this is a foundational aspect of a vibrant, participative democracy, which requires an informed, socially aware and tolerant citizenry. Adult education is thus a key element in civil society. Some years ago, Raymond Williams argued that the primary task of the adult educator was “to critique the prevailing common sense”. University extramural departments and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and other similar organisations provided the space where such critical education was provided – much of it for adults who had had no opportunities for education since leaving school at the minimum age. Moreover, from this symbiotic relationship between adult students, with rich life experience, and tutors, with academic expertise, emerged such seminal works as EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class. Unless and until we recreate, in appropriate contemporary forms, such critical, “social purpose” adult education, we are at real risk of undermining our democracy.Richard TaylorFormer director of adult education and lifelong learning, universities of Leeds and Cambridge; former chair of trustees, WEA In your editorial on adult education, your argument rightly concerned improving literacy and training for reskilling. However, if lockdowns have taught us anything it is surely that tuition is essential for developing leisure skills. Lockdown with furlough pay has been mentally scarring for some, but consider what retirement on less income is like. I was fortunate that in my 30s to 40s I was able to try painting (I hadn’t got much colour sense) and pottery (the clay wouldn’t stay where I put it) without a large outlay on equipment, as it was shared between a large community. Sculpture, woodworking and metalworking came next, and wine-tasting. Now, retired, I can explore these skills and supplement them with writing, music and photography. Lockdown? I hardly noticed it. But it is essential for the mental health of future generations that leisure skills are available as subsidised topics at evening classes for all.Donald HawthornRuddington, Nottinghamshire During the 1980s and 90s I taught Norwegian at evening classes, first in London and then in Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland. Some came for family reasons, some because of work, but many came because they had met Norwegians on holiday. Since almost all Norwegians speak English it is certainly not necessary to learn it, but they wanted to be able to talk to their friends in their own language and understand a bit about their culture. For many of my students this was the first time they had tried different sounds, different ways of expressing themselves and above all, different ways of looking at things. They enjoyed learning, they gained confidence, and they enjoyed their encounter with Europeans and a wider world. Cutting down evening classes has had a massive effect in making this country more insular – and less good at thinking.Dee ThomasSt Albans It was great to see your editorial on the benefits lifelong learning can bring. We at Birkbeck, part of the University of London and the only constituent college with a part-time focus, have been pursuing this agenda for nearly 200 years – supporting working Londoners through evening teaching. We know the government has raised the profile of this issue through the “Skills for Jobs” white paper, but further support is needed for part-time higher education. With increasing numbers of graduates (in fact pre-pandemic London had a 50% graduate workforce), for some the only way will be to reskill rather than upskill. This may mean studying, part-time, at a similar level to the qualification they already hold. To that end we would ask the government to further support part-time study through its strategic priorities grant in the next spending review. This will increase opportunity and choice for all.Prof David LatchmanVice-chancellor, Birkbeck, University of London As a longtime tutor in adult education (creative writing), I would point out another important factor: the helpfulness, for retired people, of getting them together with other people, exchanging ideas, and exercising their brains. Many of my students were retired; some had long ago been told by their teachers that they were bad at writing, and were now excitedly using their imaginations for the first time; some were taking a much-needed weekly break from caring responsibilities; some were writing their life history and often coming to terms with past pain. The utility of this goes way beyond employment, which was what the 1990s government changes to adult education wanted us to focus on. As you say, this probably led to wider savings in health. I used to feel that by participating in my classes these admirable people were protecting their mental health; maybe also their physical health. I would add that I feel privileged, still, to have been able to work with them.Lesli WilsonReading, Berkshire Your editorial on adult education highlights the urgent need for initiatives to be provided in a wide variety of settings for adults with previously limited educational opportunities. Prior to major cuts in all forms of adult education, there were a number of projects which focused on developing this provision. For example, between 1982 and 1986 Leeds University adult education department organised 343 ‘‘courses’’ which attracted 4,000 participants. These were organised with working-class groups in Leeds, Bradford and subsequently Teesside, and held in many different venues such as community centres, church halls and working men’s clubs. Courses were organised for unemployed people, older adults, women and BAME groups. Community groups, local voluntary organisations and tenants’ associations were centrally involved in these initiatives. Close links to the TUC’s network of 210 Unemployed Workers’ Centres led to regional day schools and national residential courses (held at Ruskin College for many years). Education for the “missing millions” was a key issue in the 1980s. It’s a tragedy that it is even more needed now.Kevin WardLeeds In your leader you note the erosion of adult education and emphasise its importance in allowing people a second chance. I grew up in Risca in south Wales, a small town which had a thriving adult education centre – Oxford House. In 1972 this was catering for some 1,600 students and acting as a social, cultural and educational centre for the area. Most of its classes were not vocational. They met a wide range of interests such as Welsh, geology, psychology, car maintenance, amateur dramatics, dressmaking and industrial archaeology. Over time, the funding of adult education courses became dependent on them leading to qualifications – which most of these adult learners were not seeking. Many of the general interest classes got squeezed out. A revival of adult education must go beyond providing training for “skills”. It needs once again to feed that hunger for learning for its own sake.John BoalerCalne, Wiltshire “Hear! Hear!” to your leader. In the early 1960s I taught French conversation evening classes once a week at Risinghill school, run by the much-lamented ILEA. Among my students were Charles Weekley, son of Frieda Lawrence, (later married to the novelist DH Lawrence) whose first husband was the eminent linguist Ernest Weekley, a retired Welsh miner, a chef and a retired office cleaner. They had all come to learn for pleasure – no tests or exams. Charles, whose French was fluent and better than mine, entertained us with stories of the Lawrence household, the chef described mouth-watering dishes, the miner talked about his life in the mines and the cleaner told us about some interesting habits of the occupants of the houses she cleaned. With this this heady mix of sex, food, politics and social mores, we had hugely enjoyable evenings – and I hope they felt that their French improved!Eva TutchellTeddington, London I did not go to a conventional university, instead training and working as a nurse and midwife during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. But I did achieve a degree, in a wide range of social science subjects, with the admirable Open University, at a modest cost. More recently, I have studied, and would thoroughly recommend Future Learn, the totally free offshoot of the OU . Again, a wide range of subjects, in the arts, sciences, and other subjects; short courses, totally free, and with, to me, one of the most interesting elements – the ability to correspond not only with tutors, but with students all over the world doing the same course. On completion, students may obtain a certificate of achievement at a modest cost. I have just finished a course on sustainable futures, after several other climate change-related courses, in preparation for a greater understanding of Cop26 in November. If anyone is still in lockdown, and looking for something useful, interesting, and relevant to the world today, then just sign up for Future Learn. Just Google it.Rose HarvieDumbarton

UK private schools rush to expand overseas as profits soar

2023-03-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/12/uk-private-schools-rush-to-expand-overseas-as-profits-soar

Forty schools took in record £29m in 2020-21 from satellites, including in developing countries English private schools are rushing to open lucrative satellite academies abroad, including in some of the world’s poorest countries, to funnel back millions of pounds in profits to pay for their charitable obligations. Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam are among the latest targets for English private schools aiming to expand overseas, in many cases in partnership with property developers looking to build luxury developments or even entire cities. Some private schools say they are motivated to increase their revenues by fears that an incoming Labour government will add VAT to school fees and strip them of charitable status, creating financial difficulties for them. Research by the Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) has found that private schools with charitable status are making record-breaking profits from their overseas subsidiaries and satellites, with 40 British schools taking in £29m in 2020-21, compared with £1.6m in 2011-12. A spokesperson for PEPF said: “This research shows that private schools are using their profits from operating in mainly developing countries to maintain their status in England. Given that only 1% of places in private schools are free for poorer pupils, and the average fee is now around £17,000 a year, the ethics of such a model may be seriously questioned by policymakers.” Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said: “As schools look for ways to reduce their reliance on fee-based income, some have taken up opportunities to establish international campuses and partnerships. The money generated is invested back in education in the UK, usually through bursaries and scholarships.” But Francis Green, a professor of work and education economics at University College London who has studied the operations of private schools, said: “The ethical implications of returning large profits to Britain from developing countries may come to be questioned, and the practice resented, by foreign governments and their peoples.” Tom Fryer, a researcher at the University of Manchester’s institute of education and lead author of the report, said revenues from overseas satellites had rocketed in the last decade, and showed no signs of slowing as more new branches were announced and more schools joined in. In the last five years, the number of overseas satellites operated by English charitable private schools has doubled to more than 100, and Fryer estimated there were advanced plans for at least 28 new satellites to open soon. While more than half of the current satellite schools are concentrated in the UAE, China and Hong Kong, the competition for new markets has seen English schools opening branches in Kenya, Indonesia and Cambodia, while India and Vietnam are seeing a rush of interest. Brighton College, which has associated schools in Thailand, Singapore and the UAE, will this year open a school in Hanoi, the first of a chain of seven it plans to run in partnership with the local company Vincorp, the operator of 39 private schools in Vietnam. Haileybury, the boarding school in Hertfordshire, has two “partner schools” in Kazakhstan and in August will open a satellite in Bhaluka, Bangladesh, followed by a fourth satellite, in Malta, in 2024. The Bhaluka satellite, billed by its website as “the finest school in Asia”, will charge senior school fees of £29,000 a year – more than 10 times Bangladesh’s per capita income of £2,300. Haileybury’s charitable accounts note: “The process has been so successful that a second school in Bangladesh is being considered.” Profits from the satellites are often generated by taking a percentage of the fees paid by students or by the English schools charging fees for consultancy and use of their brand by a local partner. 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 earnings are then repatriated using subsidiary companies, which donate the funds to the parent school in England, using gift aid to avoid paying UK corporation tax on the profits the subsidiaries would otherwise have reported. Fryer estimated that the 40 private schools – 37 in England and three in Scotland – used gift aid transfers to benefit from tax breaks worth more than £5m in 2020-21, with several schools raising more from their overseas satellites than they gave out in means-tested bursaries. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has confirmed that the party’s next election manifesto will pledge to add VAT to mainstream private school fees in England and end their charitable status, with the revenue to be used to hire 6,500 teachers for state schools. Private schools have been drawing up strategies to respond to a Labour victory. Haileybury’s most recent accounts state that “political risk such as the imposition of VAT or the removal of rates relief have been considered and contingency plans are in place to allow the school to offer the same standard of education”. Tristan Bunnell, a senior lecturer in international education at the University of Bath, said there was surge in satellite school openings after the last Labour government’s attempt to change private schools’ charitable status in 2006. “There may be a fear that an incoming Labour government might ignite that debate again,” Bunnell said. “There might be an urgency to create alternative revenue streams as a means to get ready for paying more taxes. This is clearly ironic, with Labour putting pressure on private schools in Britain and inadvertently increasing their presence in countries such as Vietnam.” The ISC attributed the growth in satellite schools to international demand for British education and the success of earlier ventures. “It takes years to plan and set up satellite schools, so the idea that this is a kneejerk reaction to Labour’s policy is definitely wide of the mark,” a spokesperson said.

Headteachers may refuse Ofsted entry due to fears for teachers’ mental health

2024-01-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/06/headteachers-may-refuse-ofsted-entry-due-to-fears-for-teachers-mental-health

New chief Sir Martyn Oliver announces pause in visits but schools claim training for inspectors on alleviating stress is not sufficient Headteachers have told the Observer they are considering refusing entry to Ofsted until the inspectorate commits to significant change, after a coroner’s warning that the inspection system risks contributing to future deaths. In December, a coroner concluded that an inspection contributed to the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry and issued a prevention of future deaths notice to the government and Ofsted, outlining a number of issues to address urgently. Last week, Sir Martyn Oliver marked his arrival as the new chief inspector by announcing a two-week pause to inspections until 22 January, while inspectors received “immediate training” on alleviating stress. Initial training will consist of a half-day mental health awareness webinar on Monday, including sessions with Mental Health First Aid England. Oliver described the training as “a first step – but for me a critical first step – in reassuring the sectors we work with that we’re serious about change”. Leaders of headteachers’ unions said that while it was “early days”, they had a constructive first meeting with him on Friday, discussing how to make the system “less punitive and fairer”. But angry heads are warning that these promises are hollow. The head of a school in a deprived area, who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said: “We are just expected to go back to normal after this short pause, but nothing is really changing. I think I am well within my rights to say: ‘You’re not coming in.’” Although inspectors have statutory rights of entry, the head has spoken to governors about barring Ofsted on health and safety grounds, and said they support the move. “Things are really hard and I feel strongly that I shouldn’t be letting them in if we get the call, as I have no control over the process and how it could impact my staff’s mental health,” the head said. Unions and heads have been further angered by the Observer’s discovery that Ofsted made the decision to pause January inspections in mid- December, but chose not to give anxious teachers waiting for “the call” a more relaxing Christmas by telling them this. One inspector, who asked not to be named, confirmed: “I knew back in December about the pause but I think they wanted to hold off the announcement until Sir Martyn started.” Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Ofsted is prioritising fanfare for the new chief inspector over the wellbeing of school staff. How can the sector take his so-called changes seriously, knowing that?” Flora Cooper, the primary school headteacher in Newbury, Berkshire, who caused waves in March last year by attempting to refuse entry to Ofsted after news of Perry’s suicide, said she was waiting to see whether Oliver would take “real action”. But she warned: “If he doesn’t go far enough, he will have heads who will either resign or stand together in solidarity to try to make change happen.” Cooper added that it was unclear how many heads “will be brave enough”. “I know from my own experience that trying to refuse entry is terrifying,” she said. Last March, teachers she had never met offered to jump on board trains and support her, but Ofsted declined to accept her risk assessment, and the inspection went ahead. This weekend, she stressed that heads “absolutely want accountability”, but said the “us and them” culture of Ofsted had to end. “We want accountability that is about driving improvement.” Paul Garvey, a former Ofsted inspector who now advises schools, said the coroner’s report meant that “the pendulum has now swung towards schools saying no to Ofsted coming in”, but added that most cash-strapped schools would be frightened off by the costs of a legal challenge. Ben Davis, headteacher at St Ambrose Barlow RC high in Salford, said: “If school leaders are considering, as some clearly are, not letting Ofsted in, they will be breaking the law. But on the other side, they risk not discharging their duties when it comes to health and safety legislation.” Prof Lucy Easthope, an adviser on disaster recovery, said: “The traumas we are seeing as a result of inspections – fainting, being unable to speak, being sick – mirror the reactions of families being given the worst news in a disaster recovery centre.” She added: “You can’t learn how to address that in half a day.”

Black people who were labelled ‘backward’ as children seek justice for lifelong trauma

2023-02-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/21/black-people-labelled-backward-as-children-seek-justice-for-lifelong-trauma

Exclusive: Group brought up in 60s and 70s want redress for ‘educationally subnormal’ label applied disproportionately to black children Black people wrongly labelled “educationally subnormal” as children in the UK before being sent to special schools have launched a campaign demanding an apology and compensation from the government. They say their lives have been ruined by their early experiences during the 1960s and 70s. They were told they were “backward” or “slow” or “a dunce”, and placed in schools with no curriculum, no exams and no qualifications. The consequences have lasted a lifetime, blighting their confidence, self-esteem and life chances. Some of their stories were highlighted in a 2021 BBC TV documentary called, Subnormal: A British Scandal. Since then however, more victims have come forward to share their experiences and are working with lawyers to try to secure compensation for negligence and post-traumatic stress. The documentary described how, from 1945, children thought to have limited intellectual ability were described by a new term, “educationally subnormal” (ESN). A leaked report by the Inner London Education Authority revealed it was applied disproportionately to black children, often based on IQ tests that were biased. “The trauma has been lifelong for those who were robbed of an education,” said the Labour MP Kim Johnson, who is supporting their claim. Those affected were children of the Windrush generation. Noel Gordon’s parents arrived in the UK from Jamaica in 1960. He was born six years later, then at the age of four his family discovered he had sickle cell disease. His parents were told there was a place for him at a special school – a state boarding school – where a matron could keep an eye on his health. It turned out to be what was known at the time as an ESN school. He suffered racist abuse and had little formal, academic education. “It was soul-destroying,” said Gordon. “All the things I could have learned and didn’t because there was no curriculum, there were no exams. I couldn’t punctuate, I couldn’t spell. Normally, when you go to school, year after year, you’re getting tested and you build your confidence up. I didn’t have any of that. I felt inadequate.” He has spent a lifetime trying to catch up, completing a range of qualifications including a degree in information systems and a PGCE, and writing a children’s book, but the stigma remains. “There are many that will not talk about their experiences because they feel ashamed. “The most damaging thing about being in a special school is the lack of self-belief and confidence. That was sucked out of us. I left the school a blank template. I had to pick up the pieces and start again.” Maisie Barrett also ended up in a special school at the age of six. “They told my mother I was backward.” Thirty years later she was diagnosed with dyslexia, but the damage was already done. “When a Caribbean parent heard the word ‘special’, they thought they were lucky. In fact, I didn’t learn anything.” Her mother later sought a second opinion from a social worker, who carried out an assessment. “She said to my mother I was intelligent. That was the first time I had heard the word intelligent.” At the age of 13, Barrett was transferred to a mainstream school, but it was too late. She had missed too much. “My brain, all those years, had not been stimulated. Other children thought I was quite weird. I was a big girl and I could not read or write. I became a loner. I convinced myself I was useless. I could not learn. There was nothing I could really do.” Marriage and motherhood seemed her only option, but she was ill-prepared for that too. She says her children have suffered as a consequence. “I didn’t have any confidence or self-esteem because of the educational background I had,” Barrett said. “Up to this very day, it’s affected my whole life.” She went to study for a degree in Caribbean studies and creative writing, and is writing her third book, but “it’s been a great struggle”'. Ann-Marie Simpson, who came to England from Jamaica at the age of nine after little formal education, also ended up in a special needs school after being excluded from the mainstream for getting into fights. “I recall having an assessment by a psychologist and my mum was advised I needed special education. But I don’t know what my special needs were.” 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 Of her new school, she said: “There was no proper curriculum. I never sat an exam. It was more like containing. At the time I was very, very embarrassed. I would not tell anyone where I went to school.” She has since studied via evening classes and access courses, and is now a social worker. Frances Swaine, a consultant solicitor at Leigh Day who is working with the group, said potentially hundreds of people were affected by the ESN scandal. An event is being held in the House of Commons on 1 March to highlight the campaign. A petition calling for justice for those affected has also been set up. “Each individual client is very severely damaged by what happened to them,” she said. “There are a lot of people who feel very ashamed about themselves. They did not realise the lack of education they suffered was not their fault. “Our case is the fact they should never have been sent to these schools in the first place. If a proper investigation had been done, they would have been properly placed within a mainstream school.” She said her clients did not have the kind of disabilities that required a place in special school. In some cases, children ended up there because they had a strong Jamaican accent, or because teachers thought the best way to “keep them under control” was to put them in a separate setting. Others underwent an IQ test that was culturally biased and included questions they could not possibly answer because of their different experiences, but it was put down incorrectly to low IQ. “In quite a number of cases what we see is a bias and systemic racism towards a group of children who were very vulnerable,” said Swaine. “It’s very clear for a lot of them that wrong or careless decisions were made.” Swaine is representing eight clients, but there are likely to be more. “A lot of them have kept their school reports, the way everybody does, so there’s quite a lot of history there. And local education authorities also have not destroyed their records,” she said. According to Swaine, there are precedents for this kind of action, which falls beyond the normal time limits, with the infected blood inquiry, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse and the Windrush compensation scheme. Johnson, who sits on the Commons education select committee and is hosting the 1 March event, believes there are parallels today with the disproportionate numbers of black children put in lower sets, affected by fixed-term exclusions and sent to pupil referral units. She would like to see an inquiry into race in education. “The persistent exclusion of black children from mainstream schooling presents a crisis situation. Unlike the 60s and 70s, we know the scale and nature of the problem today. There needs to be a sense of urgency and not delay from the Department for Education on how to put an end to the routine exclusion of black children from education.” The DfE said: “Racism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place in our schools or society, and the Equality Act makes it clear that any discrimination against pupils on the basis of their race is unlawful.”

Young people in the UK: tell us why you decided against university

2023-05-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/22/young-people-in-the-uk-tell-us-why-you-decided-against-university

We’re interested to hear from young people in Britain who have opted to not attend university, or are considering to give it a miss We’re keen to hear from young people in the UK who have decided against going to university recently, or are currently thinking about whether to skip higher education. Whatever your reasons were or are, we’d like to hear about why you feel university may not be for you. If you have decided against university a while ago, we’re also interested in how you’ve been faring with your decision so far.

Methodology behind the Guardian University Guide 2023

2022-09-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/24/methodology-behind-the-guardian-university-guide-2023

The compiler of the Guardian university league tables explains the technicalities of the process We use nine measures of performance, covering all stages of the student life cycle, to put together a league table for 66 subjects. We regard each provider of a subject as a department and ask each provider to tell us which of their students count within each department. Our intention is to indicate how each department is likely to deliver a positive all-round experience to future students and in order to assess this we refer to how past students in the department have fared. We quantify the resources and staff contact that have been dedicated to past students, we look at the standards of entry and the likelihood that students will be supported to continue their studies, before looking at how likely students are to be satisfied, to exceed expectations of success and to have positive outcomes after completing the course. Bringing these measures together, we get an overall score for each department and rank departments against this. For comparability, the data we use focusses on full time first degree students. For prospective undergraduates who want to know where institutions rank in relation to one another, the Guardian scores have been averaged for each institution across all subjects to generate an overall university league table. What’s changed for 2023?The structure and methodology of the rankings has remained broadly constant since 2008 but, for the first time since 2014, this year’s guide follows a review of the subjects for which we calculate rankings. Managing the discontinuity in subject classifications has led to some exceptional methodology adjustments while other changes have been made to accommodate changing data availability. Subject changesThe 2022 edition had 54 subjects but this edition has 66. The changes have come about as follows: 31 subjects have not changed whatsoever. 3 subjects have been renamed but otherwise stay the same. 8 subjects have seen changes to their composition, usually with this reflected in their title. 7 subjects have had one or more major area of activity removed to become a subject in its own right. The remaining subject has sometimes had an adjustment to its title. 2 subjects have been amalgamated into one. 2 subjects have been discontinued. Finally, 16 subjects have been created. Our handling of the transitions varied by subject and by metric. The 49 subjects that had retained their identity, albeit with some adjustments to their composition, remained connected to their prior year data for value-added scores, meaning that two-year averages were available when needed for these subjects. The newly created subjects were not able to draw on data from previous years. Because the continuation metric always uses at least two years of data, a broader connection was needed to connect data from previous years. New subjects were associated with the most relevant subject from previous years in order to pick up continuation data from those years. For subjects that had changed, the continuation methodology was adjusted to create multi-year averages that were not weighted by the number of first years in each academic year. This is a temporary change to methodology. Career prospects data for 2018/19 was commissioned according to the new subject boundaries, though these first needed to be expressed using JACS codes instead of HECOS. Data was again aggregated across years in an unweighted manner but this is intended as a permanent design feature rather than as a temporary means of handling the subject transition. Tariff scores were not affected by the transition as they do not use multi-year averages. SSRs operate at the cost centre level and were mainly unaffected by the changes to subject boundaries, though the amalgamation of subject pairs that have distinct cost centres did necessitate the creation of two aggregated cost centres. NSS data picked up the new subject mappings for all years and no extraordinary adjustments were needed. Career ProspectsAfter delays prevented the 2022 edition from using the data for the 2018/19 academic year, the data for 2019/20 was released in time for this year’s edition. This enabled us to use two years together, though care was taken to make sure that the results were averaged in an unweighted manner rather than as a simple aggregation. This was because there were some signals that the graduating cohort of 2018/19 were more adversely affected by the pandemic than the 2019/20 cohort were. ExpenditureThe spend per student metric depends on information about how much each university spends on academic services and on subject delivery. Release of this information was delayed until 14 July 2022 which was too late for the data to be processed. Data from 2019/20 was used for a second year. Average Entry TariffOur average entry tariff metric takes the tariff points held by young entrants and divides them by the number of young entrants with non-zero tariffs. In previous years there was an additional rule that the majority of entrants with tariffable qualifications had to be young (under 21) on entry. This year we have removed this rule but replaced it with extra conditions concerning the number of young tariff-bearing entrants relative to the total size of the department. Value AddedThe value added scores work by assigning each qualifying student a probability of being awarded a 1st or a 2:1 and then using this likelihood to produce a value added score if they are successful. When the continuation metric was introduced it used a similar concept, but was more sophisticated in how it assigned probabilities, often taking exact grades into account along with the age of the graduate when they started their course. This more sophisticated approach was transplanted into the value added score methodology for this year’s guide but the data received from HESA/JISC failed to differentiate BTEC and non-BTEC students when assigning probabilities. The results used are correct and meaningful but the additional enhancement to recognise BTEC students has been postponed to next year. Entry standardsThis measure seeks to approximate the aptitude of fellow students who a prospective student can anticipate and reports the observed average grades of students joining the department – not the conditions of admission to the course that may be advertised. Average tariffs are determined by taking the total tariff points of first-year, first-degree, full-time entrants who were aged under 21 at the start of their course, if the qualifications that they entered with could all be expressed using the tariff system devised by UCAS. There must be more than seven students in any meaningful average and only students entering year 1 of a course (not a foundation year) with certain types of qualification are included. This metric contributes 15% to the total score of a department, and refers to those who entered the department in 2020/21. Student-staff ratiosStudent-staff ratios seek to approximate the levels of staff contact that a student can expect to receive by dividing the volume of students who are taking modules in a subject by the volume of staff who are available to teach it. Thus a low ratio is treated positively – it indicates that more staff contact could be anticipated. Staff and students are reported on a ‘full time equivalent’ basis and research-only staff are excluded from the staff volume. Students on placement or on a course that is franchised to another provider have their volume discounted accordingly. At least 28 students and three staff (both FTE) must be present in an SSR calculation using 2020/21 data alone. Smaller departments that had at least seven student and two staff FTE in 2019/20, and at least 30 student FTE in total across 2019/20 and 2020/21, have a two-year average calculated. This metric contributes 15% to the total score of a department. It is released at HESA cost centre level, and we map each cost centre to one or more of our subjects. Expenditure per studentIn order to approximate the level of resources that a student could expect to have dedicated to their provision, we look at the total expenditure in each subject area and divide it by the volume of students taking the subject. We exclude academic staff costs as the benefits of high staff volumes are already captured by the student-staff ratios but recognise that many costs of delivery are centralised: we add the amount of money each provider has spent per students on academic services such as libraries and computing facilities per student, over the past 2 years. This metric is expressed as points/10 and contributes 5% to the total score of a department. It was not updated in the 2023 guide due to delayed data availability of financial information for 2020/21. ContinuationTaking a degree-level course is a positive experience for most students but is not suited to everybody and some students struggle and discontinue their studies. Providers can do a lot to support their students – they might promote engagement with studies and with the broader higher education experience - and this measure captures how successful each department is in achieving this. We look at the proportion of students who continue their studies beyond the first year and measure the extent to which this exceeds expectations based on entry qualifications. To achieve this, we take all first-year students on full-time first-degree courses that are scheduled to take longer than a year to complete and look ahead to the first of December in the following academic year to observe the proportion who are still active in higher education. This proportion is viewed positively, regardless of whether the student has switched course, transferred to a different provider, or been required to repeat their first year – only those who become inactive in the UK’s HE system are counted negatively. To take the effect of entry qualifications into account we create an index score for each student who has a positive outcome, using their expectation of continuation up to a maximum of 97%. To calculate the score there must have been 35 entrants in the most recent cohort and 65 across the last 2 or 3 years. This index score, aggregated across the last 2 or 3 years, contributes 15% to the total score of non-medical departments and 5% to those of the medical subjects. However, it is the percentage score – also averaged over 2 or 3 years - that is displayed. Student satisfactionThe National student survey asks final year students for the extent to which they agree with 27 positive statements about their academic experience of the course and support that they received. Responses are on a 5-point Likert scale (1. definitely disagree to 5. definitely agree) and we take the responses from full-time first-degree students registered at the provider course to produce two statistics: a satisfaction rate and an average response. The satisfaction rate looks across the questions concerned and reports the proportion of responses that were ‘definitely agree’ or ‘mostly agree’ while the average response gives the average Likert score between 1 and 5 that was observed in the responses to those questions. To assess the teaching quality that a student can expect to experience we took responses from the 2021 and 2022 NSS surveys and aggregated them for the following questions: Staff are good at explaining things Staff have made the subject interesting The course is intellectually stimulating My course has challenged me to achieve my best work The overall satisfaction rate for each provider is displayed, and the average response is used with a 8% weighting. To assess the likelihood that a student will be satisfied with assessment procedures and the feedback they receive we took responses from the 2021 and 2022 NSS surveys and aggregated them for the following questions: The criteria used in marking have been clear in advance Marking and assessment has been fair Feedback on my work has been timely I have received helpful comments on my work The overall satisfaction rate for each provider is displayed, and the average response is used with a 8% weighting. To assess the overall satisfaction of students with their courses we aggregated responses from the 2021 and 2022 NSS surveys for the question “overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course”. The overall satisfaction rate for each provider is displayed, and the average response is used with a 4% weighting. Data was released at the CAH (common aggregation hierarchy) levels of aggregation and we used details of how these map to HECOS (Higher Education classification of subjects) to weight and aggregate results for each of our 66 subjects, prioritising results from the most granular level. Our aggregation rules required that 2022 results are available and that the total number of relevant respondents across the two years was 23 or more. Value addedIn order to assess the extent to which each department will support its students towards achieving good grades, we use value added scores to track students from enrolment to graduation. A student’s chances of getting a good classification of degree (a 1st or a 2:1) are already affected by the qualifications that they start with so our scores take this into account and report the extent to which a student exceeded expectations. Each full-time student is given a probability of achieving a 1st or 2:1, based on the qualifications that they enter with or, if they have vague entry qualifications, the total percentage of good degrees expected for the student in their department. If they manage to earn a good degree, then they score points that reflect how difficult it was to do so (in fact, they score the reciprocal of the probability of getting a 1st or 2:1). Otherwise they score zero. Students completing an integrated masters award are always regarded as having a positive outcome. At least 30 students must be in a subject for a meaningful value added score to be calculated using the most recent year of data alone. If there are more than 15 students in both the most recent year and the preceding year, then a two-year average is calculated. This metric is expressed as points/10 and contributes 15% to the total score of a department. Career prospectsUsing results from the Graduate Outcomes survey for the graduating cohorts of 2018/19 and 2019/20, we seek to assess the extent to which students have taken a positive first step in the 15 months after graduation, in the hope that similar patterns will repeat for future cohorts. We value students that enter graduate level occupations (approximated by SOC groups 1-3: professional, managerial & technical occupations) and students that go on to further study at a professional or HE level and treat these students as positive. Students report one or more activities, and for each of these give more detail. If students are self-employed or working for an employer, we treat them as positive if the occupation is in SOC groups 1-3, if they have either finished a course or are presently taking one then we look at the level and treat them positively accordingly. Students who have no activity that is regarded positively, but who either reported that they were unable to work, or only partially completed the survey leaving details of an activity incomplete, are excluded from the metric. The metric refers only to students who graduated from full-time first-degree courses and we only use results if at least 15 students in a department responded in each of the two years or if at least 22.5 students responded in the most recent year. Partial responses are used if the respondent provided details for any of the activities that they reported undertaking. We exclude the responses if, for an activity, we are unable to determine if it should be treated as a positive outcome. We have always avoided averaging results across years for this metric because the national economic environment that leavers find themselves in can have such a big effect on employment and this is especially true when a pandemic affects the economy. Unfortunately, response rates for the graduate outcomes survey are not high enough to maintain this stance. We therefore average the career prospects statistics across the two years in an unweighted manner, in order to avoid any advantage or disadvantage for a department that had a higher response for a cohort in which economic conditions were better/worse. In situations where only the most recent year of data meets the threshold for usage we have applied the year-on-year sector difference observed for the subject concerned in order to simulate what a 2-year average might have looked like given changing economic conditions. This metric is worth 15% of the total score in all the non-medical subjects. First of all, we determine if a department has enough data to support a ranking. Often individual metrics are missing and we seek to keep the department in the rankings where we can. An institution can only be included in the table if the weighting value of any indicators that are missing add up to 40% or less, and if the institution’s relevant department teaches at least 35 full time first degree students. There must also be at least 25 students (FTE) in the relevant cost centre. For those institutions that qualify for inclusion in the subject table, each score is compared to the average score achieved by the other institutions that qualify, using standard deviations to gain a normal distribution of standardised scores (S-scores). The standardised score for student: staff ratios is negative, to reflect that low ratios are regarded as better. We cap certain S-scores – extremely high NSS, expenditure and SSR figures – at three standard deviations. This is to prevent a valid but extreme value from exerting an influence that far exceeds that of all other measures. For metrics in subjects where there are very few datapoints we refer to the distribution of scores observed for a higher aggregation of subjects (CAH1). We also set a minimum standard deviation for each metric and make adjustments to the mean tariff that is referenced by departments with students who entered with Scottish highers or advanced highers. Although we don’t display anything, we need to plug the gap left in the total score that is left by any missing indicators. We use a substitution process that firstly looks for the corresponding standardised score in the previous year and then, if nothing is available, resorts to looking at whether the missing metric is correlated to general performance in that subject. If it is, the department’s performance in the other metrics is used – effectively assuming that it would have performed as well in the missing metric as it did in everything else. If not, the average score achieved by other providers of the subject is used. Using the weighting attached to each metric, the standardised scores are weighted and totalled to give an overall departmental score (rescaled to 100) against which the departments are ranked. The institutional rankingThe institutional table ranks institutions according to their performance in the subject tables but considers two other factors when calculating overall performance. First, the number of students in a department influences the extent to which that department’s total standardised score contributes to the institution’s overall score. And second, the number of institutions included in the subject table determines the extent to which a department can affect the institutional table. The number of full-time undergraduates in each subject is expressed as a percentage of the total number of full-time undergraduates counted in subjects for which the institution is included within the subject table. For each subject, the number of institutions included within the table is counted and the natural logarithm of this value is calculated. The total S-Score for each subject – which can be negative or positive – is multiplied by these two values, and the results are summed for all subjects, to give an overall S-score for each institution. Institutions are ranked according to this overall S-score, though the value displayed in the published table is a scaled version of this, that gives the top university 100 points and all the others a smaller (but positive) points tally. Each institution has overall versions of each of the indicators displayed next to its overall score out of 100, but these are crude institutional averages that are otherwise disconnected from the tables and give no consideration to subject mix. Therefore these institutional averages cannot be used to calculate the overall score or ranking position. The indicators of performance for value added and for expenditure per student are treated slightly differently, because they need to be converted into points out of 10 before being displayed. Therefore these indicators do read from the subject level tables, again using student numbers to create a weighted average. Institutions that appear in fewer than eight subject tables are not included in the main ranking of universities. Course directoryThe KIS database of courses, to which institutions provide regular updates to describe courses that students will be able to apply for in future years, is the data source of the courses that we list under each department in each subject group. We have associated each full-time course with one or more subject groups, based on the subject data associated with the courses. We gave institutions the freedom to adjust these associations with subjects and also to change details of the courses. We include courses that are not at degree level, even though such provision is excluded from the data used to generate scores and rankings.

Ofsted school inspection reforms ‘nowhere near enough’

2023-06-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/12/ofsted-school-inspection-ruth-perry-sister

Sister of Ruth Perry, who killed herself after her primary was downgraded, ‘disappointed’ single-word judgments not removed Changes by Ofsted to the way it inspects schools have been criticised as “nowhere near enough” to reduce the resulting high levels of stress involved, which were linked to the recent death of a popular headteacher. The reforms announced by Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, are intended to ease the burden felt by school leaders such as Ruth Perry, 53, the head of a primary in Reading who killed herself earlier this year after an Ofsted inspection lowered her school’s grade from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. Despite the national outcry over Perry’s death, Spielman and the Department for Education (DfE) have refused to budge on the most contentious issue: the labelling by Ofsted of schools in England with a single overall grade, such as “inadequate”. Perry’s family and teaching leaders said Ofsted’s proposals fell well short of the overhaul needed to make school inspections fairer and less devastating for the school leaders involved. Prof Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, said: “I am disappointed that no mention is made about removing harmful and misleading single-word judgments. I can understand the need to provide clarity and simplicity for parents about an inspection but too much is hidden or lost behind a headline judgment of just one or two words.” Waters added: “Ruth was not the first headteacher or teacher to take her own life following an Ofsted inspection. I am determined that she should be the last.” The biggest change announced by Spielman would allow schools rated inadequate solely because of errors in safeguarding procedures to be re-inspected by Ofsted within three months, giving school leaders an opportunity to quickly fix concerns. Such a policy may have benefited Perry’s school, which would have been rated as “good” but for the procedural errors. The changes would accelerate Ofsted’s complaints procedures, allowing schools to appeal to its independent ombudsman more quickly. Ofsted would also offer more support to school leaders during the inspection process, with heads able to externally consult a senior inspector for advice. Schools will also be given a broad timeframe for their next inspection of between a term to a year, but will still only receive one day’s notice of the exact date. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: “It has taken far too long for the government and Ofsted to announce this relatively modest set of measures, and school leaders remain immensely frustrated at the lack of urgency and ambition being shown. “While the government insists on consigning schools to simplistic single-word judgments, the system will remain fundamentally flawed and put unnecessary pressure on school leaders.” Spielman said: “Since the sad death of Ruth Perry, there has been considerable debate around Ofsted’s work and I want to reassure people that we are listening to their concerns, and thinking carefully about how we can revise aspects of our work without losing our clear focus on the needs of children and their parents. “We have listened to many voices in this debate. I’m particularly grateful to union leaders, other sector representatives and the secretary of state for the constructive discussions we’ve had over the last couple of months, which have helped us with this package of measures.” Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, endorsed the changes, saying: “I have committed to continuing our work on improving the way we inspect our schools with Ofsted and the family of Ruth Perry following her tragic death.” Last week Keegan met with Perry’s family and friends, and discussed the changes being proposed. Waters said she had been encouraged by the discussions with Keegan after the death of her sister but that much more still needed to be done. “I welcome any changes that ease some of the burden on headteachers undergoing what can feel like inescapable, ritual humiliation. But these changes do not yet go far enough,” she said “Parents, pupils and teachers deserve an inspection regime that they can trust and which supports schools to do the best for every child. ‘Trial by Ofsted’ must end. “Having listened to the outpouring of anger, distress and outrage towards Ofsted’s current inspection regime in the past couple of months, since we first spoke out about what happened to Ruth, I do not believe these proposals adequately address the many problems that the system creates.” Waters did praise Ofsted’s proposal allowing headteachers to share provisional inspection results with staff and governors before a final report was published, which she said “could certainly have helped to alleviate the terrible burden that Ruth was forced to bear alone” for 54 days, unable to discuss it with others. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, of which Perry was a member, said “more extensive and fundamental changes” were needed to limit Ofsted’s damage to teachers’ wellbeing. “We need a reliable system, built on fairness and support, not surveillance and jumping through hoops,” Bousted said. * In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

‘Racist, vicious’: academics decry rightwing attacks on Claudine Gay

2024-01-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/03/racist-rightwing-attacks-claudine-gay-former-harvard-president

As the right celebrates the resignation of the Harvard president as ‘victory’, concerns rise over equality initiatives in universities On Tuesday afternoon, Claudine Gay resigned from her post as president of Harvard University, making her six-month tenure the shortest in university history. In the aftermath of her departure from the position, many argued that the aggressive nature of the campaign against her was motivated not by questions about her academic integrity or about her response to campus controversy, but by her race. Pressure on Gay to resign grew following her 5 December congressional testimony, where she, along with the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, answered questions regarding allegations of on-campus antisemitism related to the Israel-Gaza war. Shortly thereafter, plagiarism allegations published on conservative website the Washington Free Beacon mounted against Gay, ultimately leading to her resignation. Janai Nelson, the president and direct-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Attacks against Claudine Gay have been unrelenting & the biases unmasked. Her resignation on the heels of [UPenn president] Liz Magill’s set dangerous precedent in the academy for political witch hunts. The project isn’t to thwart hate but to foment it thru vicious takedowns. This protects no one.” Ibram X Kendi, the founder of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, wrote: “Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism. What these racist mobs are doing should be obvious to any reporter who cares about truth or justice as opposed to conflicts and clicks.” In her resignation letter, Gay acknowledged the racism she experienced following her congressional testimony. And though she issued additional citations to her doctoral dissertation and other papers following the backlash, she also used the letter to defend the integrity of her work. “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor – two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am – and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” she wrote. The Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, issued a statement in support of Gay, condemning the racist vitriol she experienced. “While President Gay has acknowledged missteps and has taken responsibility for them, it is also true that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks,” the statement reads. “While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls. We condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.” The attacks against Gay and the open admission by some rightwing pundits and activists to execute similar plans across higher education could have larger implications. Roopika Risam, an associate professor at Dartmouth, wrote: “While no one owes Harvard pity, we’d be remiss to not see this as an attack on higher ed, like ones in states like Florida and South Dakota (and and and…), laying the groundwork for ongoing dismantling higher ed – especially public higher ed, where states hold the purse strings.” Risam may have been referencing the efforts of people like Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who led the campaign against Gay. Last month, Rufo posted on X: “We launched the Claudine Gay plagiarism story from the Right. The next step is to smuggle it into the media apparatus of the Left, legitimizing the narrative to center-left actors who have the power to topple her. Then squeeze.” 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 Following Gay’s resignation, Rufo posted: “Today, we celebrate victory. Tomorrow, we get back to the fight. We must not stop until we have abolished DEI ideology from every institution in America.” Elise M Stefanik, a representative from New York and Harvard alum, led one of the most aggressive lines of questioning during the congressional hearing. On 2 January, Stefanik posted on X: “TWO DOWN,” a reference to the resignations of both Gay and the University of Pennsylvania president, Elizabeth Magill. Gay will remain on the Harvard faculty following her resignation. But conservative lawmakers and pundits have indicated that the academic purge that began with efforts to overturn diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and swept up both Gay and Magill, will continue.

Education needs a total overhaul, not just new faces and minds | Letter

2021-07-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/26/education-needs-a-total-overhaul-not-just-new-faces-and-minds

Helen Parker says brilliant teachers of all ages are ground down by the numbers and by administrators who lack imagination, courage and leadership As a recently retired head of department who taught English for years beyond retirement age, I wanted to agree with the idealism and conviction that emerged in many of the articles and letters published on teaching (‘Have I chosen the right career?’: Three new teachers reflect on their first year). But the reality is that brilliant teachers of all ages are ground down by the numbers and by administrators who lack imagination, courage and leadership. Teachers are overwhelmed by class size and the marking, especially in the humanities, that follows. We read about studies showing that student results don’t improve in smaller classes. What “results”? Over how many years? An enlightened head at my school reduced class sizes from 25 to 20. Three years later we were to drop to 15 in a class. Under a new head, we spent money on computers for every student and a new building, which resulted in a gain of one classroom and computers that couldn’t enable critical thinking. With 20 students in a class, in a 40-minute lesson, each student might, perhaps, enjoy one-and-a-half minutes of individual attention, three times a week. The situation is even more impossible at upper levels. It’s heartbreaking to know how much more you could enable a student to think about what writers are getting at, how they do it and why it matters, whatever the subject. Education needs more than new faces and minds. It needs a complete overhaul: only the brightest and best, selected from their speciality, apprenticed for a significant time to highly successful teachers and remunerated accordingly. I’m glad Lucy Kellaway’s career change has started the discussion again. Helen ParkerNew South Wales, Australia Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Columbia president assailed at highly charged antisemitism Congress hearing

2024-04-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/17/columbia-university-president-testimony

Minouche Shafik appeared beleaguered as House members grilled her over reported upsurge in antisemitism on campus The head of a prestigious US university clashed with members of Congress on Wednesday in highly charged hearings over a reported upsurge in antisemitism on campus in the wake of Israel’s war in Gaza. Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, appeared beleaguered and uncertain as one Congress member after another assailed her over her institution’s supposed inaction to stop it becoming what one called “a hotbed of antisemitism and hatred”. Wednesday’s hearing follows months of rising tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the Columbia campus, amid disputes over what constitutes antisemitism and controversy about whether it should encompass anti-Zionism and opposition to Israel as a Jewish state. The hearing of the House of Representatives’ education and workforce committee is being staged under the emotive title of “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism”. A group of Jewish academics at the university denounced the hearing in advance as heralding “a new McCarthyism”. At the hearing Shafik was repeatedly asked to explain the continued presence of one faculty member, Joseph Massad, after he had reportedly praised Hamas’s attack last October that left nearly 1,200 Israelis dead. In one particularly aggressive line of questioning, Elise Stefanik, a Republican representative from New York, pushed Shafik to commit to removing Massad as chair of an academic review committee. Stefanik also pressed a harried Shafik, who became Columbia’s president last July, into changing her testimony after she earlier told the Democratic representative Ilhan Omar that she was not aware of any anti-Jewish demonstrations at the university. Pressing relentlessly, Stefanik effectively drove a wedge between Shafik and her three fellow senior Columbia colleagues, David Schizer, Claire Shipman and David Greenwald – all members of the university’s antisemitism taskforce – by leading them to testify that there had in fact been aggressive and threatening antisemitic statements in campus demonstrations. Earlier, Shafik – trying to straddle between condemning antisemitism and permitting statements that some defined as free speech – struggled when confronted by Lisa McClain, the Republican representative from Michigan over the slogan “from the river to the sea” and support for a Palestinian intifada (uprising). “Are mobs shouting from the River to the Sea Palestine will be free or long live the infitada [sic] …antisemitic comments?” McClain asked. “When I hear those terms, I find them very upsetting,” Shafik responded. “That’s a great answer to a question I didn’t ask, so let me repeat the question,” McClain persisted. Shafik answered: “I hear them as such. Some people don’t.” “Why is it so tough?” McClain pressed. In answer, Shafik said: “Because it’s a difficult issue because some hear it as antisemitic, others do not.” She eventually appeared to fold under pressure, answering “yes” and laughing nervously after McClain posed the same question to the president’s fellow Columbia staff, all of whom agreed that it was antisemitic. The hearing was something of a reprise of the committee’s previous cross-examination of the heads of three other elite universities, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, last December. That hearing led to the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Elizabeth Magill, after she gave what were deemed to be over-legalistic answers to pointed questions from Stefanik over whether her institution’s rules on free speech permitted slogans that supporters of Israel interpret as calling for genocide. It also intensified the pressure on Harvard’s then president, Claudine Gay, whose responses to Stefanik were similarly criticised. Gay survived the immediate outcry over the hearing but stepped down weeks later over plagiarism allegations. Columbia has set up a taskforce on antisemitism but its members have declined to establish a firm definition. Rightwingers have painted the university as a hotbed of antisemitism, while opponents have accused the institution’s authorities of disproportionately punishing pro-Palestinian students who criticise Israel. The university last year suspended two groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, over their protest activities. Shafik – an Egyptian-born, British-American economist and former deputy governor of the Bank of England – had reportedly prepared assiduously for Wednesday’s event in an effort to avoid the pitfalls of her fellow university heads. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on the eve of the hearing, Shafik said legitimate expression should occur “within specific parameters”. “Most of the people protesting do so from a place of genuine political disagreement, not from personal hatred or bias or support for terrorism,” she wrote. “Their passion, as long as it doesn’t cross the line into threats, discrimination or harassment, should be protected speech on our campus. “Calling for the genocide of a people – whether they are Israelis or Palestinians, Jews, Muslims or anyone else – has no place in a university community. Such words are outside the bounds of legitimate debate and unimaginably harmful,” the op-ed continued. Her remarks appeared aimed at avoiding the criticism drawn by Magill and Gay over their appearance before the committee, when both responded to Stefanik’s questions about theoretical calls for genocide by referring to context. In an effort to bolster Shafik, 23 Jewish faculty members wrote an open letter published in the campus newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, criticising the premise of the hearing. “Based on the committee’s previous hearings, we are gravely concerned about the false narratives that frame these proceedings to entrap witnesses,” they wrote. “We urge you, as the university president, to defend our shared commitment to universities as sites of learning, critical thinking, and knowledge production against this new McCarthyism.” The academics also questioned the credentials of Stefanik – an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump – on antisemitism, saying she had a history of “espousing white nationalist policies”. As Shafik and her colleagues testified, the unrest that has characterized university life over the past six months was on display on Columbia’s campus, where students set up approximately 60 tents on the campus’s south lawn in the early hours of Wednesday. The tents, many of which were covered in signs that read “Liberated Zone” and “Israel bombs, Columbia pays”, were set up to urge the university to divest its ties from Israel. The university perimeters were lined with metal barricades and a heavy police presence, and the campus, which is usually accessible to the public, was restricted to Columbia ID holders. Members of the media were prohibited from entering the university, instead restricted to a barricaded pen near a bus stop outside the campus as student chants could be heard from inside the grounds. “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here,” some students chanted, according to the Columbia Spectator. A handful of protesters also crowded around the university’s main gates, with many shouting: “We say no to genocide!” At least 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s latest war against Hamas following its 7 October attack. This article was amended on 17 April 2024 to correctly identify the school where Elizabeth Magill resigned as president last year. The school was the University of Pennsylvania, not Pennsylvania University.

Ofsted has much to learn after the Ruth Perry inquest | Letters

2023-12-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/12/ofsted-has-much-to-learn-after-the-ruth-perry-inquest

A school governor, a former headteacher and a former Ofsted inspector write in response to the verdict on the death of the former headteacher As a former headteacher, I can’t read about Ruth Perry without being tearful (Ofsted inspection contributed to headteacher’s suicide, coroner rules, 7 December). To have your whole life’s work nurturing others swept away in one damning word of judgment is unspeakably cruel. As an adviser now, I have realised two other unintended destructive consequences of the way Ofsted operates. First, several headteachers have confided that they will retire earlier to avoid another inspection – not because they are failing, but because they have little faith in the fairness of the judgment, do not want to live through the stress involved again, and know how damaging a fall in rating can be, even when it is from “outstanding” to “good”. So Ofsted is encouraging the loss of the experienced and successful leaders that it should be celebrating. Second, Ofsted judgments set schools into competition with each other. When I started in education 40-plus years ago, schools in a town frequently worked collaboratively. The impact of an Ofsted grading creates a powerful disincentive for such collaboration. Particularly in the secondary sector, schools have become closer to rivals, the school with the higher Ofsted grading winning out in terms of recruitment of students, staff and funding. How perverse to run an inspection system in a way that damages the service being judged. Name and address supplied I am the chair of governors of a small rural school. We have a headteacher, two class teachers and the equivalent of two full-time teaching assistants. Attainment is good and our children consistently achieve above the national average. We had an Ofsted inspection that finished on the day the coroner gave her verdict on the death of Ruth Perry, who killed herself after her school was downgraded from outstanding to inadequate. I have watched the exhaustion and frustration on the faces of our staff. The Ofsted framework is clearly not fit for purpose when two inspectors, who were personable and polite, are sent into such a small school for two days, when the same number of inspectors would be sent into a school of 2,000, with more than 10 times the number of teachers, for the same time. The net result was that staff were under constant surveillance for two days. As I left the school after the inspection, staff were talking of Perry and how they understood how she felt. Their feelings had nothing to do with the inspection itself, but the process they had been put through while trying to teach and keep the school day on track.Name and address supplied An old-school and long-retired inspectorate tutor gave me two invaluable pieces of advice. First, always do good as you go, and second, always leave the school in a better place when you leave. Both are possible, even in the most challenging situations, and in my experience are something that the vast majority of inspectors try to do. The sad loss of Ruth Perry might have been avoided if the inspectors (and it is a team) had itemised the administrative failings in the initial meeting, and then (given that there had apparently been no safeguarding concerns) suggested that the school rectified them by lunchtime of the final inspection day, before making that all-important grading decision.Dr Henry John MoretonFormer inspector and senior adviser, Ofsted 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

The government must step up to give early years pupils the best start in life | Letter

2023-02-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/02/the-government-must-step-up-to-give-early-years-pupils-the-best-start-in-life

If the government does not step up, nursery closures will affect children for decades to come, writes Steve Brine MP I read with interest your report on recent research from the Department for Education and Durham University on the importance of the early years to the future earnings of children in England (Good early years teaching may boost earnings of children in England – study, 26 January). As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for childcare and early education, and as the husband of an early years practitioner, I know that we only have one chance to give all children the best possible start in life. It is encouraging to see the Department for Education taking this seriously, but more must be done to ensure the infrastructure is there to deliver it, starting with funding. Research by Prof John Heckman shows that investment in the earliest years pays dividends for children, families and society, with every pound spent before the age of five delivering a 13% return on investment in the future. However, Ofsted’s latest figures have shown that there has been a consistent reduction in the number of early education and childcare providers in England. Providers are facing huge pressures to continue to deliver outstanding quality to our children, and yet those in the private, voluntary and independent sector continue to receive next to no support from central government. The overwhelming message I hear from parents and practitioners in the sector is that our early years provision is in crisis. The all-party parliamentary group is continuing to call for a review of childcare in England, and looks forward to hearing the findings of the education committee’s current inquiry into the early years sector as a starting point. It is clear that, if the government does not step up, we will see the impact of nursery closures and lost hours of learning on children for decades to come, negatively affecting life chances and opportunities for children across the UK.Steve Brine MPConservative, Winchester

Quarter of a million children enter secondary school without basic maths and English

2023-02-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/12/quarter-of-a-million-children-enter-secondary-school-without-basic-maths-and-english

Government set to fail target of 90% of pupils in England reaching set standard at age 11, research finds Rishi Sunak has been warned that a target to boost the number of children entering secondary school with the expected standards of reading, writing and maths is “a far cry from reality”, amid new evidence that 275,000 pupils a year are leaving primary education without the right level of skills. Ministers have set a target of ensuring 90% of children achieve the national curriculum standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary education by 2030. However, after several years of slow progress, attainment has slipped back to levels only slightly above those of 2015-16. The slump means that in 2022, 41% of year 6 pupils in England left primary school without meeting the expected standards in literacy and maths – 275,000 11-year-olds, according to researchers at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) thinktank. That is 50,000 more than in 2019. It comes amid concerns that the impact of the pandemic, and long periods of lost learning, is being felt in classrooms, particularly among children from poorer households. The report states that the attainment gap in education – that between the poorest and most advantaged – is at its widest level for a decade. Similar recent research by the speech and communication charity I CAN found that skills in speaking had also fallen, with 1.5 million children across the UK estimated by teachers to be suffering from underdeveloped speech and language skills following the pandemic. Inside the classroom, concerns are being expressed by teachers about their chances of reversing the slide, given their current working conditions and resources. Only two-fifths of primary teachers believe their pupils will hit expected standards in foundation subjects, according to a poll of teachers by the Teacher Tapp app, commissioned by the CSJ. Just 32% of teachers working in schools in the areas of highest deprivation were confident that most of their pupils would meet targets in numeracy and literacy skills this academic year, compared with 51% in more affluent places. “The progress made in improving overall attainment has been largely reversed,” the report states. “School shutdowns had an immediate and detrimental impact on primary educational outcomes. In the first full year after school shutdowns, 41% of all year 6 pupils left school without reaching expected standards.” The CSJ, which was co-founded by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, states that “radical plans” are needed to reverse the slide. It calls on ministers to turn to parents in an attempt to boost performance in basic subjects. However, others have pointed to the refusal by the Treasury in the summer of 2020, then led by Sunak, to sanction the full programme of post-pandemic catch-up funding that was called for in a government-backed review. A £15bn plan for recovery was rejected. “The idea that 90% of children will achieve expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030 is a far cry from reality,” said Alice Wilcock, the CSJ report’s author. “Teachers told us they are worried that most of their children won’t meet these standards this year. We need a bold plan for education reform if the government wants to improve educational standards for all children.” Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said the failure to equip all students with basic foundational skills was “the biggest scandal of our educational system”. He called for a scheme urging greater parental participation in encouraging basic reading and maths skills. “New thinking is required,” he said. “There are many other sensible proposals in this report, including those aiming to attract and develop teachers. But for me, a national parental participation strategy would be a potential gamechanger. “The government can publish all the ambitious targets for maths and English it likes. But failing to embrace this core education truth will mean they turn into unfulfilled dreams – condemning hundreds of thousands of pupils to leave school lacking the foundational skills needed to get on in life. “It’s time for us to take a bold step and embrace the power of parent participation in education.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The pandemic had a huge impact on pupils’ learning. Our education recovery programme, backed by £5bn, has delivered nearly three million tutoring courses. We are investing more than ever before in our schools, including in literacy and numeracy programmes –helping us meet our ambition for 90% of children leaving primary school to reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030.” This article was amended on 16 February 2023 to clarify the I CAN report’s finding of 1.5m children with underdeveloped speech and language skills is based on teachers’ estimates.

Ofsted fuelling ‘football manager culture’ of firing school heads, says report

2023-11-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/20/ofsted-fuelling-football-manager-culture-of-firing-school-heads-says-report

Thinktank calls for simplistic inspections to be replaced by reports tailored more towards parents and pupils Ofsted is contributing to a “football manager culture” of firing headteachers to improve results and needs to be overhauled to help schools improve, according to the latest criticisms aimed at England’s schools inspectorate. A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank said an “over-reliance on punitive control” was driving teachers out of the profession and distracting schools from making real improvements. “Overly simplistic inspection judgments – outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate – often trigger abrupt changes to management, fuelling a ‘football manager culture’,” it said. IPPR said Ofsted’s use of single-phrase judgments should be scrapped and replaced by reports tailored more towards parents and pupils. Criticism of Ofsted’s inspection format has grown this year following the death of Ruth Perry, a primary school headteacher in Reading, which Perry’s family has said was suicide related to an inspection that downgraded the school from outstanding to inadequate. The report argues that school inspections have been dominated by policies known as “new public management”, which try to replicate market forces through the use of league tables, targets and incentives. The report states there is little evidence the policies can drive high levels of improvement in schools, and says Ofsted’s role needs to be dramatically changed, with judgments replaced by reports on whether schools are meeting expected standards. Efua Poku-Amanfo, a research fellow at IPPR, said: “The status quo isn’t working. Tactics like league tables and targets have run out of road, we need a new approach to helping schools improve. We propose a new system which empowers schools and teachers to innovate, utilising their experience and expertise.” Under the system, Ofsted would recommend on the intervention required for schools needing improvement, including the provision of external support or immediate action such as the replacement of a school’s governing body. Ofsted’s inspection reports would also be split into two parts: a narrative version for parents and a technical improvement report aimed at school leaders and regulators. A separate report, compiled by the Beyond Ofsted inquiry and chaired by the former schools minister Jim Knight, calls for Ofsted to be removed from direct contact with schools, with inspection reports instead produced by external “improvement partners” such as serving headteachers. It said parents would receive “more readable and useful information on areas of a school’s performance and practice, in the form of a narrative rather than a single-word judgement,” while Ofsted’s role would be confined to inspecting the effectiveness of academy trusts or local authorities in improving the schools they managed. “The evidence is clear. Ofsted has lost the trust of the teaching profession, and increasingly of parents. There is now an opportunity for transformational change,” Knight said. “There is good evidence that a long-term relationship with an external partner of improvement builds trust and drives improvement. It allows that person to get to know the school’s unique context and advise accordingly.” A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “Our reports are more than just one-word. We look at all the things that are important to parents, including the quality of the education, behaviour and how safely and well the school is run. “After every inspection we ask schools whether they believe the inspection will help them improve. Nine out of 10 say it will.”

Most schools in England and Wales to shut for several days if teachers win strike vote

2023-01-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/07/most-schools-to-shut-for-several-days-teachers-win-strike-vote

February and March closures will mean biggest shutdown for years if union ballots for action this week Most state schools across England and Wales will have to close completely on several days in February and March if the country’s biggest teaching union votes for industrial action this week, the Observer has been told. In what would represent a dramatic escalation of the chaos sweeping the public sector, and affect millions of working parents, the National Education Union (NEU) expects a ballot of its members, which ends on Friday, to approve action that would trigger the biggest shutdown of schools for many years. The NEU’s general secretary, Kevin Courtney said action by its members alone would be enough to cause many schools to close. Other teaching unions including the NASUWT and the headteachers’ union, the NAHT, will also receive results of ballots on strike action in the next few days. The unions are understood to be coordinating strikes and strike dates. Courtney said he was confident that those who voted in the ballot would be overwhelmingly in favour of strikes, but that he could not yet be certain that the threshold for industrial action would be met. Under legislation introduced by the Tory government in 2017, union ballots must have a turnout of at least 50% and the action must have the support of at least 40% of all members, not just those who voted. For example, if turnout is 50% that means an 80% vote in support of strike action is needed. Courtney urged all NEU members who had not voted so far to do so before Friday’s deadline. An announcement of the result will be made on 16 January. “We are urging all members to use their democratic right to vote,” Courtney said. “I think we are going to pass the threshold, but there is a chance we won’t. I would urge every member who has a ballot form to return it.” In the event of a vote for industrial action, Courtney said: “We will call on members in all schools in England and Wales to strike – many would have to close.” He said the union was aware of the need not to alienate parents and believed most would understand the action teachers were taking: “I think parents are starting to pick up the day-to-day situation in schools – that their child’s maths teacher might never have acquired a maths qualification, that there is such a rapid turnover of teachers all the time, that there is a lot of disruption. “We are preparing leaflets to go to parents, getting parents to do videos. Information will be circulated via Facebook. Leaflets will be distributed at school gates. There will be lots of campaign events.” It is believed that the NEU, which has more than 450,000 members, is planning several days of action from the start of February until mid-March, in a first phase. These would involve a mix of national days of action, and days when strikes would be confined to regions. The NEU is looking for a pay rise of 12% rather than the 5% offered so far by the government for most teachers. The unions says teachers’ pay has fallen by about 24% relative to inflation since 2010. In July last year, the government said teachers would benefit from pay increases of between 5% and 8.9% from September 2022, after fully accepting the recommendations of the independent School Teachers’ Review Body for this academic year. A key factor in the dispute is how much of any increase would have to be met from existing school budgets. The government is currently refusing to offer any extra funding to cover pay rises, pushing thousands of schools across the country into deficit and forcing headteachers to contemplate sacking staff. It is understood that the NEU would be willing to talk seriously about an offer closer to 9% if this were to be “fully funded” by government. 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 Courtney insisted that there was still time for ministers to “put money on the table” and hold meaningful talks over pay. If they did so, the strikes could be suspended while negotiations took place. In 2016, a strike by the National Union of Teachers’ – the forerunner of the NEU – left an estimated 7,000 of England’s 22,000 state schools closed or partly closed for the day. The strike was in protest at teacher workload pressures as well as pressures on funding that led some schools to lay off staff despite pupil numbers rising. After a week of chaos on the railways and with nurses planning a new wave of strikes, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced on Friday that all departments had invited unions in their sectors to meetings on 9 January to discuss pay. But government sources said these meetings would concern only next year’s pay award, not the disputes over this year’s offers. Teachers in Scotland are expected to walk out this week after the latest talks with the government broke down. The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), which is the sister union of the NEU, the NASUWT and SSTA organisations are due to strike on 10 and 11 January after rejecting an offer that would have seen the lowest-paid members receive a 6.85% pay increase.

Harvard professor who studies honesty accused of falsifying data in studies

2023-06-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/25/harvard-professor-data-fraud

Francesca Gino, a prominent Harvard Business School professor, alleged to have falsified results in behavioral science studies In an ironic twist in the world of behavioral science, a Harvard professor who studies honesty has been accused of data fraud. Over the last few weeks, allegations have surfaced against Francesca Gino, a prominent Harvard Business School (HBS) professor who has been accused of falsifying results in several behavioral science studies. On 16 June, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Max Bazerman, a HBS professor and co-author who published a paper in 2012 alongside Gino, said that Harvard informed him that it believed one of the studies overseen by Gino had falsified results. The paper in question is on findings published in – and later retracted by – the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and surrounds an experiment that asked participants to fill out tax and insurance paperwork. “Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of, eg, tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their financial self-interests at great costs to society. We test an easy-to-implement method to discourage dishonesty: signing at the beginning rather than at the end of a self-report, thereby reversing the order of the current practice,” the paper’s abstract read. The study claimed to have discovered that participants who were asked to sign truthfulness declarations at the top of the page were more honest than those who were asked to sign the declarations at the bottom of the page. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bazerman said that the university provided a 14-page document that included “compelling evidence” of data falsification, including the discovery that someone accessed a database and added and altered data in the file. He went on to deny any involvement in the alleged data tampering, telling the Chronicle: “I did not have anything to do with the fabrication.” A day later, a blog called DataColada and run by three behavioral science academics published a four-part series of posts that detailed extensive evidence of the alleged fraud in four academic papers co-authored by Gino. “We discovered evidence of fraud in papers spanning over a decade, including papers published quite recently (in 2020),” the blog authors, ESADE Business School’s Uri Simonsohn, University of California, Berkeley’s Leif Nelson, and University of Pennsylvania’s Joseph Simmons, wrote. “In the fall of 2021, we shared our concerns with Harvard Business School. Specifically, we wrote a report about four studies for which we had accumulated the strongest evidence of fraud. We believe that many more Gino-authored papers contain fake data. Perhaps dozens,” the scholars said. “We understand that Harvard had access to much more information than we did, including, where applicable, the original data collected using Qualtrics survey software. If the fraud was carried out by collecting real data on Qualtrics and then altering the downloaded data files, as is likely to be the case for three of these papers, then the original Qualtrics files would provide airtight evidence of fraud. (Conversely, if our concerns were misguided, then those files would provide airtight evidence that they were misguided),” they added. To the best of their knowledge, none of Gino’s co-authors carried out or assisted with the data collection for the studies in question, the scholars said. According to Gino’s HBS profile, she is currently on administrative leave. Speaking to the New York Times, a man who identified himself as Gino’s husband said: “It’s obviously something that is very sensitive that we can’t speak to now.”

Pupil protests across England and Wales spread by social media, experts say

2023-03-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/03/pupil-protests-across-england-and-wales-spread-by-social-media-experts-say

Disruption relating to issues such as rules on uniforms and use of toilets has taken place at a number of schools since last week A wave of pupil protests that has taken headteachers by surprise in schools across England and Wales has disparate causes but is being spread via social media, experts have said. The protests, which are being organised and shared on social media platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat, are often about strict uniform codes and rules restricting the use of toilets. Headteachers are particularly concerned because some protests have been supported by parents. The disruptive behaviour, which has resulted in large numbers of pupils being given fixed-term exclusions and the involvement of the police in some cases, has been linked to a reported increase in challenging behaviour in schools since the disruption caused by the pandemic and lockdown. Tom Bennett, the author of Running the Room: The Teacher’s Guide to Behaviour, and an adviser to the Department for Education, said however that he did not consider the protests to be genuine and there was no evidence of any link to lockdown or Covid restrictions. It was “mostly yobbish behaviour and disorder, jacked up by the kudos of filming it and putting it on TikTok”. “It’s copycat behaviour,” he said, “with more in common with fashions and fads than a more complex cultural phenomenon or expression of protest. Schools should take a firm line on this, and warn students that if they participate they will experience a serious consequence.” The flurry of protests began last week in schools in Southampton, Essex and Blackpool, among others, and has continued into this week with similar action in schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales and Cornwall. Pupils at Rainford high school in St Helens, Merseyside, held protests after girls were threatened with suspension over the length of their skirts. Footage on social media shows hundreds of pupils gathered in the hallways of the school in protest at the strict policy. One video on TikTok has been viewed more than 1.5m times. At Mountain Ash comprehensive in the Welsh town of that name, 34 pupils were excluded for a fixed period and an investigation is continuing after the fire alarm was set off repeatedly in a protest on Tuesday about the school toilets. In a letter to parents and carers, the headteacher, Samantha Evans, said that while some of the pupils were planning a peaceful protest, others had engaged in “serious antisocial behaviour”, which resulted in the entire school being evacuated several times. “We are also disappointed at some of the social media posts within our community, including posts by some of the parents of those involved, which have glorified and praised this appalling behaviour,” she said. Elsewhere parents have expressed sympathy for their children’s objections over what they see as pointlessly strict behaviour and uniform codes. A mother of a pupil at Rainford high school said: “This is a repressive regime. Education seems very low down the list of priorities. They are all missing time in education because of skirt lengths.” At Weston secondary school in Southampton, about 200 pupils took part in a protest over unisex toilets and restrictions on pupils leaving lessons to use toilets. One mother told the local paper: “I’m not being funny but the girls need their own toilets. Students should be allowed their freedom.” Bennett’s view is the protests are just fig leaves to allow children to muck about and miss lessons. He said pupils were making unreasonable demands to leave classrooms when they feel like it, and in some cases have even demanded vaping rooms. “These are safeguarding issues we can’t give way on. If a student has a legitimate concern, then they raise it with their parents and teachers and student council reps, not bunk lessons and disrupt the calm of the school.” As well as behaviour issues, schools are struggling to get attendance levels back to where they were before Covid, with more pupils absent than before the pandemic; some headteachers and school leaders are concerned there has been a “cultural shift” in attitudes towards school. Teachers say parents are more reluctant to send children to school and more resistant to efforts to encourage attendance. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said social media was an increasing problem for schools, with teachers recently targeted on TikTok by pupils making unfounded allegations of sexual misconduct and offensive insults, and schools frequently having to deal with the fallout from incidents on social media. “The protests appear generally to be about rules on uniform and the use of toilets, although in a number of cases there hasn’t actually been any changes in the rules. In any event, if students are unhappy about a school rule they should raise this through the normal channels, rather than staging protests which are inevitably disruptive, and the last thing that schools need at any time, but particularly when they are facing such a range of pressures as is currently the case.” He added: “There is a wider issue with an increase in challenging behaviour among some students since the Covid pandemic. It is difficult to categorically say why this might be the case but it does seem to be linked to the disruption that occurred to normal routines during the pandemic, increased levels of anxiety and depression among young people and their families, and the erosion of local support services for children and families over the past decade.” Bennett was dismissive. “There’s no evidence it’s been inspired by lockdown or Covid restrictions. While many schoolkids have heard of this, a tiny, tiny number of schools saw disorder as a result. We don’t have a lot of evidence to suggest schools have become worse or better behaviourally since Covid. There isn’t a lot of data beyond anecdotal – despite confident claims both ways.” TikTok said its safety teams were closely monitoring the school protest content to ensure it complied with community guidelines. A spokesperson said most of the content showed pupils engaging in peaceful demonstrations, which does not violate TikTok policies. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are concerned at the reports of disruption and will be in touch with all schools and local authorities to ensure they are supported at this time. “We will always back headteachers to take the action required to maintain calm and supportive classroom environments as they are best placed to work with their teachers, parents, pupils and local communities when developing and implementing policies.”

Education should be about lighting fires, not filling buckets | Letters

2021-06-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/10/education-should-be-about-lighting-fires-not-filling-buckets

Children will benefit most from more play, exploration and creativity, rather than trying to cram in extra hours of maths and grammar, writes Mary Gildea, while Jane Ichajapanich thinks schools should offer exam-free courses over the summer Why this panic about children catching up with lost learning (Letters, 3 June)? I have worked as a private tutor for over 23 years and, yes, I can see the gaps in children’s knowledge since the pandemic. But I can also see that children will benefit most from more play, exploration and creativity, whether that be from school trips, school plays, music, drama and art, rather than trying to squeeze extra hours of maths and formal grammar into their tired brains. Children can only learn properly when they’re happy. If we can cater for their emotional needs, they will catch up in their own time. Life and learning go way beyond the school curriculum. Education shouldn’t be about filling buckets, it’s about lighting fires. Let’s try to be more positive and inventive about this. Mary GildeaCharlton, London Re Simon Jenkins’ article (Ministers had a chance to improve young people’s lives – and flunked it yet again, 3 June), I am 82 years old and teach and attend a variety of U3A courses. My 16-year-old granddaughter asked me: “Granny, why do people of your age study when they don’t have to?” As a former teacher and headteacher, I found this a terrible indictment of our exam-bound education system. The same granddaughter has just completed her year 11 assessments that will replace normal GCSEs this year, and at the end of May her school year was over. This means that after more than a year of limited school attendance due to Covid, she will have three months out of school until she starts A-level courses in the autumn. And I believe that this is true for year 11 students in all local – perhaps even national – schools. Surely this would be an opportunity for schools to offer these young people a catch-up on exam-free education, and a break from social media, so that they might come to appreciate education in its wider and richer sense. Then my granddaughter might learn the answer to her own question.Jane IchajapanichCanterbury

Taking stock of ‘the student explosion’, 1966

2023-08-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/27/from-the-observer-archive-the-student-explosion-of-1966

The learning experience was changing fast in a year when eight new universities were created A new cohort of school-leavers contemplate their options this month, many of which are available thanks to the 1960s university boom that reshaped British higher education. In 1966, a year when eight new universities were created, the Observer investigated two facets of that ‘student explosion’. First was a day in the life of University of Essex student Jenny Simms, starting on the Clacton bus and ending playing bridge, but also ‘loud pop music’ in the rambling Victorian mansion she shared with other students. It was Simms’s second year of a Comparative Studies degree and the university’s second year of existence. The student population totalled an intimate 410 (today there are 13,000 undergrads). ‘I hated it at first,’ said Simms. ‘I wanted to be part of a big, impersonal mass.’ Now, though, she shared the collective nostalgia for the first year’s ‘country-club atmosphere’. The campus was a work in progress: the library was three Nissen huts, there was only one purpose-built hall of residence and ‘the students have to live and work surrounded by building site and mud,’ the article explained. ‘There’s never any quiet,’ Simms complained, but there were compensations: ‘The freedom is marvellous.’ With its diplomas poised to gain degree status, the Royal College of Art had less to prove. Alumni had already won over the likes of the Ministry of Transport (road sign design), Coventry Cathedral (stained glass) and London Transport (the Victoria line). The fine art department had incubated the whole Pop Art phenomenon (‘to the bewilderment of some of the staff’) and the ‘flamboyant and publicity conscious’, fashion department was on a mission to ‘pull the English trade out of dreariness’. Various famous RCA alumni got a namecheck – Peter Blake, David Hockney, Bridget Riley – but there’s another lurking in a pic of the painting school, back to camera in front of a canvas painted with SPIV in block letters. The caption reads ‘Third-year student Ian Dury, pictured on the left working on his “spiv”.’

Peter Mack obituary

2023-10-13

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/13/peter-mack-obituary

My friend, colleague and mentor Peter Mack, who has died aged 68 after a car crash in France, was a major force in the academic world. Widely known as the foremost scholar of Renaissance rhetoric – the art of persuasive argument, spoken and written – Peter was resourceful enough to combine erudite scholarship with canny and dedicated leadership. When he accepted the directorship of the Warburg Institute he helped it secure a court judgment against the University of London that recognised the Warburg’s autonomy and secured its financial security, while it remained part of the university. Born in Oxford, Peter was the oldest of four children of Hilary (nee Gardner), a nurse, and David Mack, a surveyor. His parents separated when he was 10, and he did much to look after his siblings, Carolyn, Brian and Katie. From St Lawrence college, Ramsgate, he went on to St Peter’s College, Oxford, where he gained a degree in English, and the Warburg Institute, where he completed his PhD on Rudolph Agricola and Renaissance rhetoric. He spent his entire career at the University of Warwick (1979-2018), teaching a wide range of courses in comparative literature, apart from his secondment at the Warburg (2010-14), a role he undertook out of loyalty and desire to see justice done, qualities that were evident throughout his distinguished career. Peter wrote a series of major studies of rhetoric and dialectic, showing how systems of education throughout Europe fostered a common culture that generated the extraordinary achievements of Renaissance writing. In his most significant works, Elizabethan Rhetoric (2003) and the comprehensive A History of Renaissance Rhetoric (2011), he was able to demonstrate the importance of rhetorical manuals, works that determined the superstructure of European thought from the 15th to the late 17th century. He enjoyed a late writing renaissance when he was able to leave behind the burdens of his many offices and commitments, producing a pithy guide to rhetoric that demonstrated its significance in modern as well as earlier writing; and Reading Old Books: Writing With Traditions (2019), which reminded readers in the digital age of the importance of literary history. In 1980 he married Vicki Behm, and they had four children, Johanna, William, Emily, and Rosy, and four grandchildren. Retirement was very good for him, and he was able to spend more time with his family, often at the house they had in Maiolati Spontini in the Marche region of Italy. He was never idle, and added to his impressive stock of languages, as well as producing a series of self-published pamphlets of miscellaneous essays, a guide to Italy and reflections on Russian literature that he distributed to his friends, all of which would benefit a wider readership. He is survived by Vicki, their children and grandchildren, and his two sisters and brother.

John Bradley obituary

2023-10-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/15/john-bradley-obituary

My father, John Bradley, who has died aged 93, was a specialist in eastern European and Soviet history and politics, contributing to more than 20 titles, mainly on Czechoslovakia, his native land, and Russia. John taught in the department of government at Manchester University from 1963 to 1981. During this time he published articles and books including The Illustrated History of the Third Reich (1978), his bestselling work. Wishing to develop his extra-curricular activities, he then took early retirement. After that, John enjoyed more than 40 years of living at a gentler pace, surrounded by his family. He continued to write books as well as teaching as a visiting professor at the Université de Bordeaux in 1983-84. The overthrow of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989 marked the realisation of a dream for him, but it came too late, as his parents had died and he did not feel he could start there again. In 1991-92 he taught politics at Palacký University Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, before living in Paris and London and eventually settling in Bergerac, Dordogne, in 2004. John was born Jan Nejez in Brno to Maria (nee Racková), a cook, and Jan Nejez Sr, a soldier and later chief controller of the Brno trams, who was arrested by the Germans for resistance activity in July 1940. In 1949 the young Jan became a student leader and was expelled from the Réalné gymnasium at Královopolská, Brno, for anti-communist activities. A few months later he scouted the border for an escape route and was himself arrested and sent to the Jachymov uranium mine, where he befriended a guard and escaped with another inmate, reaching West Germany in November 1949. As an undocumented 19-year-old refugee, the multilingual Jan spent six months as an interpreter before securing a travel document for England on a five-year contract to work in a steel mill. He changed his name to John Bradley to evade the attention of Czech secret services. Recruited as a spy by MI5 in 1953, John was quickly dropped when he refused to steal a target’s letters. To complete his education, he passed O and A-levels at North Western Polytechnic in Kentish Town, London, and studied philosophy, Czech and Russian at Cambridge University, gaining a first degree in 1955 and an MLitt in 1958. Travelling to Cambridge on a bus one day, he met Annie Barennes, a student from Bordeaux, and they married in 1954. In 1964 he obtained a doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris with a history of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914-20. John is survived by Annie, his sons Christopher and Nicholas, daughters Marie-Helene and me, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Up to 10,000 pupils in England missed whole autumn term last year, analysis finds

2022-01-30

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/30/up-to-10000-pupils-in-england-missed-whole-autumn-term-last-year-analysis-finds

Figures from education research group estimate 128,000 children withdrawn from state education in year to January 2021 lockdown Up to 10,000 pupils missed an entire term of school last autumn, according to new analysis that estimates 128,000 children were withdrawn from state education in England in the year up to the January 2021 lockdown. The figures, based on data from schools collated by the education research group FFT Education Datalab, comes as the government wants new measures to boost attendance, while Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, has vowed to track down missing children. But FFT found that the number of children being taken off school rolls was no different from years prior to the pandemic, with most being home-schooled, moving to private schools or to other parts of the UK or overseas, soothing fears that the pandemic had caused a surge in children being permanently taken out of school. FFT looked at attendance data from the rolls of more than 5,200 primary schools and 2,600 secondary schools – a third of the total state schools in England – and found that about 0.2% of children enrolled at the same school throughout last term did not attend a single session between September and the end of 2021. “These sorts of proportions would suggest something in the order of 10,000 pupils on the roll of schools who did not attend at all in the autumn term,” the analysis, by the FFT’s Dave Thompson, states. In total, 86,000 children who were on school rolls for at least a month in the autumn term were classed as “severely absent” after missing at least half of their time in school, including those absent because of illness. Those most likely to be counted as severely absent were pupils with special educational needs. Children with an educational health and care plan (EHCP) were many times more likely to have missed half of school in autumn compared with other pupils across all age groups. While politicians and de Souza have expressed alarm at the numbers of pupils withdrawn from school rolls during the pandemic, the data suggests that the overall numbers are similar to previous years. The FFT figures show that more than 128,000 children out of the nearly seven million of compulsory school age had been withdrawn from state school rolls in the year to January 2021 – slightly below the 129,000 withdrawn in the year to January 2020, before the start of the pandemic, and the same proportion as withdrew in the year to January 2019. Of the 128,000, 57,000 are estimated to now be home-educated, according to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, while a further 10,000 to 20,000 will have moved from the state sector to independent or private schools. The remaining 50,000 children may have rejoined schools in other parts of the UK, most likely Scotland or Wales, or moved overseas with their families. Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said he wants to “end the postcode lottery of how attendance is managed in different schools and parts of the country”, with a new duty for schools to publish their plans to improve attendance. Schools are also being asked to join a new data collection trial that will share daily attendance status for each pupil with the Department for Education. The DfE also said it “remains committed to a registration system for children not in school” and plans to publish a formal response shortly.

‘I would crank up the restrictions’: teachers on banning phones in school

2023-07-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/26/i-would-crank-up-the-restrictions-teachers-on-banning-phones-in-school

While many acknowledge they can have benefits for learning, the effect on pupils’ behaviour and attention spans mean others favour a full ban A UN report has suggested smartphones should be banned in schools globally to protect children’s mental health and improve learning. In many schools, smartphones are not allowed to be used during lessons and should be turned off but can be used for emergencies. Here, five teachers share their experiences on smartphone use in schools and how banning them affects teaching and learning. “In my experience as a secondary school science teacher, phones were nothing but a problem before they were banned at my school in 2018. The biggest issue I had personally was students getting their phones out in lessons and not doing what I was asking them to do. “The second issue was with safeguarding. For example, kids taking photos of each other or staff in lessons, or a fight breaking out in the yard and kids taking videos of it and putting it on the internet. Or if internet bullying was going on outside school on social media, this would be brought into the school with messages being sent during lessons. “The school leadership decided on an outright ban. This new rule was a battle for senior school leaders, with many complaints from parents. But they eventually realised that the school was going to take this policy seriously. “My lessons became much more manageable. I didn’t have to stop lessons to ask kids to put their phones away any more, and the kids seemed to interact better with each other and behaviour improved. It’s been the best thing we ever did. I think all schools should ban phones.” Bryan McConnell, 37, secondary school science teacher, Liverpool “I’m a teacher at an 11-18 secondary school with 1,200 kids, where I’ve been teaching since 2000. We don’t allow the use of smartphones except in certain open areas before school and during break time. There is talk of banning even that use. Most students adhere to these rules, but some don’t and two to three times a week I have to take the phone off someone and it escalates, which happens across the school. “My concerns about phones in the classroom are equity and practicality – you can’t plan lessons around smartphone use unless you’re going to make sure everybody has one, and it is charged up and there’s data available or it connects to the school network, or else you’re excluding pupils from learning. “We ran a trial, back in pre-smartphone days, with all of KS3 (11- to 14-year-olds) having cheap, subsidised PDAs – essentially smartphones without phones – with every subject having to build lessons around them. And every lesson three people wouldn’t have them, four people wouldn’t have charged them and five people would have random unsolvable issues, and the lessons were impossible. “I can’t see a blanket ban happening, pupils and parents would just ignore it. But I am concerned about smartphones in the classroom, also with regard to attention spans.” Adam Fletcher, 54, teacher at a secondary school in Wolverhampton “Our school banned them about five years ago – kids can bring them to school but they can’t use them at all. Before they were allowed to use them during break and lunch but the headteacher felt they weren’t being social with each other during break times, which I agree with. “We used them on a weekly basis in music before the ban – pupils could record things on their phones and play around with the recordings. It’s slowed down learning and I know subjects like dance and drama are similarly affected. “It’s a double-edged sword. Since Covid there are interesting ways to use technology in the classroom and it’s a missed opportunity to not use them. At the same time, kids can potentially share recordings in a harmful or bullying way.” Lizzie Martin, 38, head of music in a secondary school in Cheshire “In our school we allow phones as long as they’re switched off and put away, and we all know that’ll never be the case when dealing with teenagers. We don’t ban smartphones as children are permitted to be able to call their parents or guardian and let them know their whereabouts. However, we are now seeing an issue where children are addicted to vaping and the phone is used to plan when to bunk off to go and vape together. “When monitored, though, I do think smartphones and technology can be used in a positive way, and I’ve found that integrating some of the learning methods from Covid has been great. Sometimes when I’m writing down notes on the board the sixth-form kids just take a picture of all the content and this really helps them to have all the information in one place. “If I had the choice I would crank up the restrictions on smartphones and especially social media because they’re hindering students’ academic progress. The smartphones expose the kids to misinformation and it’s a learning distraction of course. There are many dangerous people online promoting self-harm and the safeguarding worries are huge.” Martin Devlin, 59, assistant headteacher at St Bernard’s Catholic high school, Barrow-in-Furness “Teenagers with cellphones don’t learn and use them and hide them under their desks. It’s a daily chore to walk around the classroom trying to collect them, especially when they say they don’t have them and put them in their pockets. “In Cambodia, where I have been a teacher for five years, students are allowed to answer their phone if their parents call. When I catch them using them in class, they’re often playing games or are on social media. Sometimes they even make TikTok videos. “Smartphone use definitely affects their learning as they’re not paying attention. It also means I need to change my focus from educating to discipline. I’m allowed to take their phone away but I think it would be just fine if they were put in their lockers in the morning and left there till the end of the day. I certainly think getting rid of them would help. Smartphones in schools are a problem.” Adam Lee Barrett, 47, English, maths and science teacher, Sihanoukville, Cambodia

UK schools minister promises to review Sats paper that left pupils ‘in tears’

2023-05-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/16/uk-schools-minister-promises-to-review-sats-paper-that-left-pupils-in-tears

Nick Gibb acknowledges concern after teachers and parents raise alarm about difficulty of test The schools minister, Nick Gibb, has promised to review a controversial Sats paper, which is said to have left some pupils “in tears”, after teachers and parents expressed widespread concern about the difficulty of the test. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said the English paper, which was taken by 10 and 11-year-olds in year 6 last Wednesday, was so difficult that teachers had struggled to understand the questions. The minister said he had not yet seen the paper, but acknowledged the concern expressed by schools and said he would look at it when it becomes available next week once the assessment window is over. Gibb, who was speaking to reporters during a school visit, said the papers were carefully checked to ensure they were age appropriate and designed to test a range of abilities, but he acknowledged the tests should not be “too hard” for children. Sats papers are compiled and delivered by the Standards and Testing Agency, an executive agency that works independently from the Department for Education (DfE). The difficulty of the reading paper prompted a flurry of complaints online from parents and teachers with one person saying on Mumsnet that her daughter found the paper “awful”. Kerry Forrester, a headteacher at a Cheshire primary school, wrote to her local MP expressing concern about the “negative impact” on the “mental health and wellbeing” of her pupils. On Friday, the DfE appeared to defend the difficulty of the tests saying they were intended to be challenging. On Monday, however, Gibb said: “I will certainly look at this, because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools. “They do have to test a range of ability to make sure we can show what proportion of children are exceeding the standards and so on. But we don’t want these tests to be too hard for children. That’s not the purpose. “The purpose is to test the range of ability and the Standards and Testing Agency is charged with making sure that these tests are appropriate for this age group.” 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 National Education Union (NEU) described the paper as a “punishing experience” for staff and pupils. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the union, said: “This is not a system that is concerned about children and their learning. “There are better ways of assessing pupils. There are better forms of school accountability. It is about time the government started looking at them.”

Education secretary wants ban on mobile phones in English schools

2021-06-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/29/education-secretary-wants-ban-on-mobile-phones-in-english-schools

Gavin Williamson launches consultation on behaviour, but unions say it is an attempt to distract from government’s Covid failures Mobile phones could be banned in schools as part of a government clampdown on poor discipline in classrooms in England. The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, said he wants a ban on mobile phones as he launched a consultation on pupil behaviour and discipline in schools. He said he wanted to make the school day “mobile-free” to help ensure that classrooms remain calm and pupils can overcome the impact of the pandemic. “Mobile phones are not just distracting, but when misused or overused, they can have a damaging effect on a pupil’s mental health and wellbeing,” the education secretary said. “I want to put an end to this, making the school day mobile-free.” Headteachers and teaching unions hit back, insisting that mobile phone policies were a matter for schools. They accused the education secretary of playing to backbench MPs and using the issue as a distraction from the government’s failures on education during the pandemic. Williamson is asking teachers, parents and other school staff for their views and policies on managing good behaviour in classrooms, before updating government guidance on behaviour, discipline, suspensions and permanent exclusions later this year. As well as mobile phone policies, the government is looking at the use of “removal rooms” in schools and so-called managed moves where a pupil is transferred to another school, often as a way of avoiding a formal expulsion. Announcing the six-week consultation on Tuesday, Williamson said: “No parent wants to send their child to a school where poor behaviour is rife. Every school should be a safe place that allows young people to thrive and teachers to excel. “In order for us to help pupils overcome the challenges from the pandemic and level up opportunity for all young people, we need to ensure they can benefit from calm classrooms which support them to thrive.” Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, accused the education secretary of being “obsessed” with mobile phones in schools. “In reality, every school will already have a robust policy on the use of mobile phones; it isn’t some sort of digital free-for-all. “Frankly, school and college leaders would prefer the education secretary to be delivering an ambitious post-pandemic recovery plan and setting out how he intends to minimise educational disruption next term, rather than playing to backbenchers on the subject of behaviour.” Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, added: “Talking about mobile phones is a distraction. Schools generally have very clear policies and will not see the need for another consultation.” Sarah Hannafin, senior policy adviser for school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Mobile phone bans work for some schools but there isn’t one policy that will work for all schools. Outright banning mobile phones can cause more problems than it solves.” Crackdowns on discipline and behaviour in schools play well not only with Conservative backbenchers, but are a favourite with the wider Tory faithful. Williamson’s latest call for evidence comes after a £10m investment in “behaviour hubs”, which will see leaders from high-performing multi-academy trusts working with schools where behaviour and discipline are poorer. The majority of schools already have policies in place limiting the use of phones in classrooms, and about half of secondary schools and most primary schools do not allow phones to be used at break or lunchtime either, but rules and sanctions are not always applied consistently. The education secretary has previously said that mobile phones can act as a “breeding ground” for cyberbullying, and earlier this month the head of Ofsted highlighted their use in the sexual harassment and abuse of schoolgirls. Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said there was a legitimate discussion to be had about the appropriateness of mobiles in schools. “We found they were frequently enabling harassment and abuse, through sharing nudes,” she said, acknowledging however that “banning phones in schools does not stop harassment and abuse going on outside schools”. Ofsted announced on Monday that it had updated its inspection handbook to beef up its oversight of schools’ handling of sexual harassment, abuse and violence among pupils, after the publication of its recent report, which found incidents were so common that many pupils did not bother to report them. From September, where schools do not have adequate measures in place to protect pupils, safeguarding will be regarded as ineffective and the overall grade is likely to be “inadequate”, Ofsted said. School leaders are expected to assume that sexual misconduct is happening in and around their school, even in the absence of any reports, and to adopt a whole-school approach. Ofsted will consider how schools handle allegations when they occur, and what preventative measures to put in place, including behaviour policies and the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum. Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national education director, said: “We will expect schools and colleges to have created a culture where sexual abuse and harassment is not acceptable and never tolerated. And where pupils are supported to report any concerns about harmful sexual behaviour and can feel confident they will be taken seriously.”

Sir Jim Rose obituary

2023-03-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/03/sir-jim-rose-obituary

Educationist whose work transformed the teaching of reading in primary schools In 1992 Jim Rose, who has died aged 83, was one of three educationists to produce a discussion paper on raising primary school standards in England and implementing the national curriculum. The education secretary, Kenneth Clarke, had commissioned Jim, a chief inspector for primary education, along with Professor Robin Alexander, then of Leeds University, and Chris Woodhead, then head of the National Curriculum Council, to draw on evidence from research and inspection. They laid down themes that still resonate today, placing quality teaching at the centre of school improvement. Although the report was controversial in some quarters, it was welcomed by the Conservative government, and its ideas re-emerged in Labour’s national primary strategy and Jim’s review of the primary curriculum, whose report in 2009 was accepted by Labour – with Ed Balls then as education secretary – but rejected by its coalition successor. As director of inspection at Ofsted (1994-99), Jim was responsible for a survey (1996) on the teaching of reading in 45 London primary schools. It drew attention to the lack of direct teaching of the subject and the insufficient attention to the teaching of phonics – matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. He was therefore the obvious choice to conduct what would become a landmark review of the teaching of early reading (2006), to interrogate the research, and critically appraise it in the light of classroom feasibility. The Rose review adopted what was called the Simple View of Reading, now familiar to all those who teach in the primary years. According to this model, reading with understanding is the product of two underlying skills: decoding and language comprehension. Jim argued that both are needed and instruction should be provided so that children do not have to “discover how to read for themselves”. A key recommendation was the introduction of systematic synthetic phonics – for instance learning the word “sat” by first learning the individual sounds that represent the letters “s”, “a” and “t” and then blending these sounds together to make the complete word. With this came the rider that phonics should be implemented within a curriculum rich in language. Jim knew that guidance alone would be insufficient to bring about a radical change in teaching methodology. Therefore the review produced a phonics curriculum – Letters and Sounds, consisting of six phases, each of which ended with an assessment of the child’s progress. While Letters and Sounds has now been replaced by a list of recommended phonics programmes (except in Australia, where it is widely used), the essentials of the guidance remain the same in the current primary reading framework. Moreover, phonic progression is assessed with the phonics screening check, undertaken by all children in England at the end of year 1. The next step was to consider how best to support learners with dyslexia – a condition whose nature, causes, treatments and even its name are debated. As a member of Jim’s advisory group I witnessed at first hand and with admiration his ability to gain the confidence of diverse “experts” and to balance their views with evidence from practitioners, families and others with “lived experience”. In consequence the review group agreed a working definition of dyslexia, recommended intervention without waiting for “diagnosis” and tiered levels of support and monitoring. Jim leveraged significant government funding to train specialist literacy teachers and set up the Dyslexia-SpLD Trust as an umbrella to bring together stakeholder organisations. According to the British Dyslexia Association, Jim’s recommendations in his report on the subject, his second in 2009, continue to hold sway: early identification, the development of core, advanced and specialist skills, accountability for adhering to the SEN (special educational needs) Code of Practice, parental engagement and the auditing of provision. In Jim’s view early education provided the foundation for later success and “for helping less-well-off children scale the rock face of disadvantage”. He held teachers in high regard and was keenly aware of the key role they play in improving children’s prospects. He argued that governmental appetite for systemic reform of education should be curbed and more attention paid to the professional development of teachers and those who support them in the classroom. Born and brought up in Leicester, Jim was the son of Kathleen (nee Crookes), a cutter in the hosiery industry, and Arthur Rose, a gas surveyor. For most of the second world war, Arthur, an army bandsman, was a PoW, and Jim spent much of his formative years with his mother, grandfather and a maternal aunt, who would read to him during air raids. While in the bomb shelter he would also write on the walls with the blackened ends of candles, frustrated when the raid was over. He attended Shaftesbury junior school in Leicester (later becoming its headteacher) before going on to grammar school and Kesteven College of Education in Lincolnshire. School reports indicated that Jim needed to try harder – his take on this was that teaching needed to change to be more engaging. It seems these early experiences, together with the poverty he witnessed during the war, underpinned his passion and firm belief in how education can empower children and make a difference to their lives. Following headships of two inner-city schools, Jim proceeded to become a chief inspector in 1986 and went to Ofsted in 1992, serving as deputy director of inspection and then director. Through retirement he continued as a government adviser, president of the National Foundation for Educational Research from 2008 and patron of the National Handwriting Association. He was the archetypal Mr Fixit, respected by the profession and politicians alike, speaking truth unto power but in a pragmatic way that made the powerful listen. He was appointed CBE in 1996 and knighted in 2007. In 1960 he married Pauline Russell; she died in 2021. He is survived by his daughter, Alison, and two grandchildren, Ben and Daisy. Jim (Arthur James) Rose, teacher, inspector and educationist, born 15 June 1939; died 9 February 2023

At least 39 schools closed in last three years in England due to unsafe buildings

2023-02-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/21/at-least-39-schools-closed-in-last-three-years-in-england-due-to-unsafe-buildings

Some state schools had to close down permanently due to extensive safety concerns At least 39 state schools in England have been forced to close either partially or entirely in the last three years because one or more buildings have been deemed unsafe, the government has confirmed. In three cases, concerns about building safety were so extensive that the entire school site had to be closed down permanently, with pupils moved off-site to alternative accommodation. Five schools had one or more unsafe buildings closed down on a permanent basis, while ministers confirmed that of 31 schools affected temporarily, 23 schools suffered the disruption of full-site closures and eight had partial closures. The government said the closures since December 2019 were due to a range of reasons, including structural concerns and general condition issues, such as roofing and boiler failures. “Where schools have closed, pupils have been relocated to existing spaces available on the school site or into alternative accommodation until a long-term solution is in place.” The details, revealed in a written answer to the Liberal Democrats, will fuel mounting concern about the crumbling condition of the school estate in England, highlighted by seven education unions that wrote to the government last week, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, which had also demanded urgent action. The Department for Education (DfE) acknowledged in its annual report in December “there is a risk of collapse of one or more blocks in some schools which are at, or approaching, the end of their designed life expectancy, and structural integrity is impaired”. Officials also raised the risk level of buildings collapsing from “critical” to “critical – very likely”. Nick Gibb, minister for schools, said in his written answer that authorities were not obliged to report building-related school closures to the DfE, raising the possibility of further closures on other school sites across England. MP Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, said: “Every school that shuts is another concrete sign of years of Conservative neglect of our schools and other public services. “These shocking statistics show how crumbling schools have now become commonplace. The government has been ignoring warnings from its own officials that some school buildings are unsafe, let alone fit for purpose. 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 “Successive Conservative prime ministers have cut capital spending on education and stood by whilst thousands of children’s learning has been disrupted.” Gibb said the government has allocated more than £13bn since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8bn committed this financial year. He also said the DfE’s school rebuilding programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade, prioritising schools in poor condition or with potential safety issues.

Denis Lawton obituary

2022-07-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jul/11/denis-lawton-obituary

My former colleague Denis Lawton, who has died aged 91, had a 40-year career at the Institute of Education in London, where he established its department of curriculum studies. Eventually he became director of the institute, bringing greater democracy to its decision-making and securing royal charter status for the organisation, guaranteeing its future as an independent school of the University of London. He also wrote 14 books and many academic papers, including on the history and politics of education, and chaired various national committees and examination boards. Denis was born in Maesteg, south Wales, the son of Ruby (nee Evans), a shop assistant, and William Lawton, a coalminer. When an accident left his father unable to work down the pit, the family moved to north London, where Denis attended St Ignatius college in Stamford Hill. After national service in the army he worked for two years as a civil servant before completing a degree in English, history and French at what is now Goldsmiths, University of London. He then taught English at Erith grammar school in Kent, before becoming head of English at Bacon’s secondary school in south-east London. In 1963 he was seconded to work as a research officer with the sociologist Basil Bernstein at the Institute of Education, and also undertook a PhD, after which he joined the institute full-time. In 1989 he chose to forsake his role as director and to return to his real love, which was teaching, which he did at the Institute until his retirement in 2003. He was a gifted lecturer who was able to entrance students with his note-free talks, but his greatest contribution lay in his skill as a supervisor of PhD students, to whom he would give systematic, detailed and highly positive support. Denis had married Joan Weston, a PA to a trade union official, in 1953. Towards the end of his career, when he developed age-related macular degeneration and lost his ability to read small print, Joan kept him up to date by reading academic papers aloud to him. He and Joan loved music and travelling, while Denis was an enthusiastic photographer, a lover of German shepherd dogs, a devotee of real ale and a keen swimmer in his own outdoor pool until a few months before his death. Joan died in 2014. He is survived by their sons, Mark and Ralph, five grandsons and two great-grandchildren.

Children as young as five in England target of new careers programme

2023-01-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/05/children-young-five-england-urged-think-about-careers

Scheme will teach primary pupils about jobs, training and skills Primary school pupils as young as five and six are to be the target of a new careers programme in England encouraging them to think about future jobs early, the government has announced. Children in years 1, 2 and 3, between the ages of five and eight, will be given age-appropriate lessons designed to introduce them to different careers, training and skills, and inspire them about the world of work. The £2.6m initiative will be introduced across 55 education investment areas, or “cold spots”, where school outcomes are the weakest, targeting 600,000 pupils in more than 2,200 primary schools. Pupils will get the chance to meet employers and “role models” from a range of industries, to try to raise aspirations and link learning to future jobs and careers they may pursue. They will be introduced to careers in the green economy, technology, engineering, construction, Stem, creative industries, aerospace, hospitality and healthcare. The Department for Education (DfE) said evidence had shown that children started to form ideas about their future when they began primary school, yet most careers guidance took place in secondary schools. In addition to the primary careers programme, the DfE also gave details of a new requirement for secondary school pupils to be given greater exposure to providers of technical education, so they know about alternatives to a traditional academic route. Under legislation that came into force at the start of the year, schools will be required to give all pupils in years 8 to 13 at least six opportunities to meet a range of providers of technical education, including apprenticeships, T-levels and higher technical qualifications. Robert Halfon, the minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, said good careers advice was vital to open up opportunities for young people from all backgrounds and create the future workforce the UK needed. “The changes we are making to boost our careers programme will raise ambitions from an early age for thousands of children in primary schools across the country, while providing opportunities to unlock talent, think about skills, engage with employers and discover different workplaces.” Oli de Botton, a former headteacher who is chief executive of the Careers & Enterprise Company, which will coordinate the primary careers programme, said: “Our new primary programme will bring careers inspiration to children early in their school life by connecting them with role models and showing them how different subjects relate to jobs.” 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 education charity Teach First will help train primary school teachers in disadvantaged areas where the scheme will be introduced. Dominic Wyse, a professor of early childhood and primary education at University College London’s Institute of Education, said the initiative’s success would depend on how well it was delivered. “It does worry me it could be terribly dull. There’s a real question – will it motivate children, will it motivate teachers, and is it the sort of push that’s needed right now?” Sarah Hannafin, a senior policy adviser for the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), whose members mainly work in the primary sector, said it was right that careers education should not be left to secondary schools. However, she added: “All schools must be provided with the resources they need to provide high-quality careers education, but current provision remains underfunded. Schools will find it challenging to meet increasing requirements and expectations with no additional resources to deliver them.”

One-off payment ‘unlikely to avert teacher strikes in England and Wales’

2023-01-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/09/one-off-payment-unlikely-to-avert-teacher-strikes-in-england-and-wales-says-union

Union chief welcomes hour-long meeting with ministers on Monday but says ‘months have been wasted’ A potential government offer of a one-off payment to teachers is unlikely to be enough to prevent upcoming strikes in England and Wales, the head of the biggest teaching union has warned ahead of talks with ministers on Monday. Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said while talks with the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, were welcome, she was sceptical about what could be achieved. Unions representing teachers, medics and transport workers will be meeting with ministers on Monday, after the government formally offered talks last week. While ministers are insistent they cannot increase existing pay offers for the current 2022-23 year for a series of public sector workers on strike or balloting for strikes, including nurses and ambulance staff, they are considering a one-off payment to NHS staff. A similar offer to teachers would be “superficially attractive”, Bousted said, but was problematic because that increase would not be built into future pay. “Teachers have lost 24% of their pay in real terms since 2010. Support staff have lost 27% of their pay in the same period. And that is causing a workforce crisis in schools,” she said. “We haven’t met the secretary of state in person since she’s taken office. So we always welcome a meeting and it is good that she wants to listen to our concerns. Beyond that, I don’t know what the scope of the meeting is or what any further plans might be.” The results of a formal ballot of NEU members on strike action is due next week, with Bousted pointing out that the preparatory process for this had begun in early autumn. “There have been months which have been wasted, with the government not talking,” she said. “At least now we have a meeting, but I think we have to be realistic that this is an hour’s meeting with quite a few trade union leaders, where both sides are going to be setting out their positions, which are already well known.” Bousted said teachers were hugely mindful of the impact on pupils of a strike, but believed that the current situation with pay and resourcing, and the knock-on impact on teacher retention, was not tenable. 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 “Children are being harmed every day by the crisis of the workforce shortages in our schools. One in eight maths lessons are being taught routinely by non-specialists,” she said. “We want a pay rise which is incorporated into pay in a proper way. They’ve got to commit to proper negotiation, because this is not just a crisis about the cost of living, although that is a crisis. “The crisis has been building for 12 years, as we have seen teachers leave our schools. Children are left without the specialist teachers they need in order to fulfil their potential and the ones that are left have to work twice as hard because they’re covering classes. “It is a crisis. Parents know about it. They see what their children are going through. And so if we take strike action it is a last resort to say this cannot continue.”

‘Deeply sorry’ Ofsted chief rejects call for halt in inspections after head’s death

2023-03-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/24/ofsted-chief-amanda-spielman-sorry-ruth-perry-death

After Ruth Perry’s family demand urgent review, Amanda Spielman says she is open to debate about grading Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, said she was “deeply sorry” over the death of Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry, and backed “legitimate” debate over how Ofsted inspects schools in the future. But Spielman, in her first public comments since Perry’s family attributed her death to a harsh Ofsted judgment, rejected calls by local authorities and school leaders to suspend inspections, defending them as necessary to help schools improve. “Ruth Perry’s death was a tragedy. Our thoughts remain with Ruth’s family, friends and the school community at Caversham Primary. I am deeply sorry for their loss. “Ahead of the coroner’s inquest, it would not be right to say too much. But I will say that the news of Ruth’s death was met with great sadness at Ofsted,” Spielman said. Ofsted inspectors visited Perry’s primary school in Reading last year, and told her it would be downgraded to Ofsted’s lowest ranking because of gaps they found in the school’s safeguarding administration. Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, said her family were in no doubt she had taken her own life in January as a “direct result” of the pressure put on her by the Ofsted inspection, which downgraded the school from outstanding to inadequate. On Thursday the National Education Union delivered a petition with 52,000 signatures to the Department for Education in London, calling for an overhaul of school inspection. Niamh Sweeney, the NEU’s deputy general secretary, said: “It is clearly absurd that the whole of school life is condensed into a single-word judgment.” Perry’s family have also called for an urgent review of Spielman’s organisation, calling its inspection regime “fatally flawed”. One head teacher initially threatened to bar Ofsted inspectors from entering her school last week, while others have stripped Ofsted logos and inspection grades from their school publications in protest. Other heads have pledged to stage peaceful protests during Ofsted inspections, including allowing teachers to wear black armbands and display photographs of Perry. Spielman said: “The sad news about Ruth has led to an understandable outpouring of grief and anger from many people in education. There have been suggestions about refusing to cooperate with inspections, and union calls to halt them entirely. “I don’t believe that stopping or preventing inspections would be in children’s best interests. Our aim is to raise standards, so that all children get a great education.” Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the refusal to temporarily suspend inspections was “a terrible mistake,” describing Ofsted’s response as “tin-eared” and lacking in concern for the wellbeing of school leaders. “Ofsted has completely underestimated the strength of feeling among educational professionals. The warm words and sympathy they have expressed are welcome, but they are simply not enough,” Whiteman 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 “School leaders want to see tangible actions being taken to reduce the intolerable pressure that the current inspection regime places on everyone in schools, and they want to see those actions now.” Spielman suggested that changes were possible, saying: “The broader debate about reforming inspections to remove grades is a legitimate one, but it shouldn’t lose sight of how grades are currently used. “They give parents a simple and accessible summary of a school’s strengths and weaknesses. They are also now used to guide government decisions about when to intervene in struggling schools. Any changes to the current system would have to meet the needs both of parents and of government.” Spielman, whose term as His Majesty’s chief inspector expires at the end of the year, added: “We will keep our focus on how inspections feel for school staff and on how we can further improve the way we work with schools. “I am always pleased when we hear from schools that their inspection ‘felt done with, not done to’. That is the kind of feedback I want to hear in every case.” In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

UK research funding body in row with ministers over free speech and Gaza

2023-11-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/03/uk-research-funding-body-in-row-with-ministers-over-free-speech-and-gaza

Science minister Michelle Donelan requests UKRI cuts links with two members of panel she accuses of promoting extremist views The UK’s independent research funding body has become embroiled in a fight with ministers over free speech and diversity initiatives, with the body’s chief executive saying she is “fully committed” to defending her organisation. Prof Ottoline Leyser, the chief executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has been criticised for her response to demands by the science minister, Michelle Donelan, that UKRI cut its links with two academics that Donelan accused of promoting “extremist views” on the Israel-Gaza war. When Leyser opted to suspend the advisory panel linked to the two academics and hold an inquiry, she came under fire from the University and College Union, which accused her of “capitulating” to Donelan and issued an ultimatum to reinstate the advisory board or face calls for mass withdrawals by UCU members. Before the deadline, as many as 20 academics announced they would quit their voluntary involvement in UKRI advisory groups, while an open letter circulating among UKRI grant holders said its signatories “object in the strongest terms” to UKRI’s moves. Leyser said she wanted to make the UKRI leadership’s position “crystal clear” to its critics. “We are fully committed to the principles of freedom of speech within the law and equality, diversity and inclusion. These are the foundations on which research and innovation excellence is built. “I am determined to uphold these principles through the actions we are taking, despite the heightened emotions surrounding these debates at the current time,” Leyser said. UKRI is the umbrella agency responsible for channelling £3bn in higher education research funding, including to Research England, which is at the centre of the row after Donelan’s accusations regarding two academics on its equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) advisory panel. Last week Donelan wrote to Leyser to “express, in the most serious terms, my disgust and outrage at Research England’s appointment of individuals to an advisory group on equality, diversity and inclusion who, since October 7, have been sharing some extremist views on social media.” Donelan’s complaint relates to a retweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, and the posting of a Guardian article with the comment “This is disturbing”, regarding home secretary Suella Braverman’s call for the police to crack down on signs of support for Hamas. Donelan demanded UKRI “immediately” close the advisory group but suggested her real aim was UKRI’s commitment to equality, telling Leyser she was concerned that UKRI “has been going beyond the requirements of equality law in ways which add burden and bureaucracy to funding requirements, with little evidence this materially advances equality of opportunity or eliminates discrimination”. Leyser replied that she was “deeply concerned” by Donelan’s letter, saying the agency would use “an evidenced, principled approach to take appropriate actions” based on the outcome of its investigation. Jo Grady, the general secretary of UCU, said: “It is absolutely paramount to the protection of academic freedom that bodies that administer research funding are able to operate free from the whim of ministerial diktat. “UKRI’s actions over the last three days have given academics cause to think carefully about whether, given the politicisation of the organisation, they wish to continue to serve on UKRI bodies.” This article was amended on 5 November 2023. The post on X that was cited by Michelle Donelan described a news story about Suella Braverman’s call for police to crack down on support for Hamas as “disturbing”, not “disgusting” as an earlier version stated.

Students should be told of university course job prospects, says commission

2023-02-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/09/students-university-course-job-prospects-social-mobility-commission

Social Mobility Commission says students should be informed of ‘earnings implications’ of course choices Students should be given more details about how the courses they study after leaving school might affect their employment prospects, it has been suggested, as figures show near-record numbers of 18-year-olds applying to university. A review of research into the employment effects of higher and further education by the government’s Social Mobility Commission showed wide variations in earnings, with some courses failing to boost salaries, while the most lucrative courses for graduates often admitted few students in England from disadvantaged backgrounds. “Many of the more selective universities are top performers for boosting earnings but worst offenders for providing access to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Alun Francis, the commission’s interim chair. “To improve social mobility, we need these universities to do even more to improve access. “We need to ensure prospective students are aware of the earnings implications of all their higher education and further education options, so they can make an informed choice, before applying.” Commentary accompanying the literature review said selective universities “would seem to be hindering social mobility” by admitting few students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the report found that the most selective institutions – Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College London and the London School of Economics – had admitted many more state-educated students in recent years. The authors said it would take many years, until the most recent graduates reached age 30, to see what the long-term effects on their employment prospects would be. The report also highlighted earlier findings that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds were more often going to less selective universities than their better-off peers, even if they had the same exam grades, resulting in lower earnings in later life. “Of course, students may still choose these courses for other valid reasons but they need to be aware of the possible labour market implications,” the report stated. The latest figures from the Ucas admissions services show that sixth-form students remain enthusiastic about going on to higher education. Ucas said more than 41% of UK 18-year-olds applied for university places by its January deadline, slightly less than last year’s rate of 43% but higher than pre-pandemic levels. In January 2020, 39% of UK 18-year-olds had applied through Ucas for undergraduate courses. The total number of applications by 18-year-olds to start courses in autumn was nearly 315,000, compared with 320,000 in 2022 and significantly higher than the 275,000 applicants at the same point in 2020. Looking at England alone, the rate of applications by sixth-form pupils fell from 44% last year to 42% this year, with Clare Marchant, Ucas’s chief executive, saying that “a slight recalibration” was expected after bumper numbers applying during the height of the Covid pandemic. “Over the past five years the number of UK 18-year-old applicants has risen by 17% and we anticipate this upward trajectory will continue over the remainder of the decade,” Marchant said. Across all age groups there was growth in applications for computing courses, but steep falls in applications for nursing and education training. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, was critical of failures to encourage more women to take up apprenticeships in science, technology and engineering (Stem), citing figures that just 65,000 women had started Stem apprenticeships since 2016-17, compared with 522,000 by men. “Both the lack of science teachers in our schools and dwindling apprenticeship opportunities are denying women opportunities to build the Stem careers of the future,” Phillipson said. This article was amended on 9 February 2023. An earlier version said that the four most selective institutions had admitted many more disadvantaged students in recent years, citing an estimate given in the commission’s review that about 31% of students at the four universities were previously eligible for free school meals. The commission has now corrected this, saying its estimate is actually for students from non-state-school backgrounds. The article’s text has been changed accordingly, and references to 31% and free school meals deleted.

UK government launches campaign to tackle loneliness at universities

2023-09-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/18/uk-government-launches-campaign-to-tackle-loneliness-at-universities

Campaigners criticise ‘tokenistic’ initiative started after polling showed almost all students experience bouts of loneliness Millions of teenagers across Britain will arrive at university for the first time on Monday as freshers’ week begins. Almost all will experience bouts of loneliness with nearly half being worried they will be judged if they admit to it, according to a sample of 1,000 students, collected by YouGov for the government. To try to tackle the issue, the minister for loneliness, Stuart Andrew, has launched an awareness campaign. Partnering with the charity Sporting Wellness, Student Radio Association, Student Roost and Student Minds, he wants students to open up and talk to each other. “Going to university can be the biggest transition young people have faced,” he said. “We want them to enjoy their experience at university and excel in their education so we’re highlighting that it will help them to speak to other undergraduates about their feelings.” The government has said that tackling loneliness across the UK is a priority. Since 2018, it and its partners have invested over £80m in the issue, including over £34m in reducing loneliness caused by the pandemic. And £3.6m has been invested in Student Space, a mental health and wellbeing online platform offering online mental health support to all students in England and Wales until 2026. The campaign has been welcomed by Robin Hewings, the programme director of the Campaign to End Loneliness. “There is real value in this campaign,” he said. “Chronically lonely students are more likely to say that their courses are bad value for money and their expectations have not been met – they are about twice as likely to be considering withdrawing. Demographically, chronically lonely students are more likely be LGBTQ+, from DE social groups and females.” Concrete action, he said, “is largely best done by universities.” But Andrew’s campaign has been criticised by other experts and students for being tokenistic, pointing to funding for the campaign, which comes from the 2023 to 2024 marketing budget of £445,000. Paul Crawford, professor of health humanities at the School of Health Sciences at Nottingham University and a director at the Institute of Mental Health, said: “Loneliness has become a popular notion for politicians to talk about but it’s rarely followed by a promise of real money,” he said. “This campaign seems to be about creating something without any infrastructure – because all that has been destroyed by government cuts. “This campaign conveniently ignores the fact that the opportunity for these young people to meet and learn how to build relationships in their childhoods vanished when their libraries, youth centres, swimming pools were shut, and their public spaces became less well-maintained and less welcoming under the government policy of austerity,” he added. “If I was a young person, I would feel this campaign wasn’t actually about me. I would think it’s about managing trends in political debates and concerns,” he added. Dr Katie Wright-Bevans, a lecturer in psychology at Keele University, who has written about undergraduate loneliness, said that “anything that places responsibility on the individual to connect with others, without any meaningful infrastructure supporting that connection, is dangerous because it risks exacerbating existing loneliness and perpetuating a sense of blame. “It’s frustrating when politicians come out with these platitudes and place responsibility on the individual to do something about what is fundamentally a community ill and not an individual ill,” she added. Georgia Brakespear agreed that intervention requires investment in social and community level initiatives rather than “tokenistic attempts to advise individuals to simply connect with others”. A music therapist who researched and published the paper Young Adults Dealing With Loneliness At University after she suffered loneliness as an undergraduate, Brakespear asked how the campaign supports those suffering loneliness but who can’t talk to others or join a society or club. “I think this campaign could make students feel more angry than supported,” she said. “The government is recognising the situation but all they’re offering is something that conveniently happens to be completely free for them and requires no more commitment than a few speeches. That isn’t going to provide a long-term solution.” 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 But Dr Emily Long, who is working on an ESRC-funded project exploring loneliness and wellbeing among young adults, said the campaign was “a bit of a double-edged sword”. “On the one hand, talking about loneliness, acknowledging it as a problem, and working to reduce the stigma for young people/students is very helpful,” she said. “But on the other hand, loneliness isn’t an individual issue, and I’d be hesitant to pursue an agenda that puts the responsibility directly on young people themselves through strategies to improve social skills, for example. From our research, we know that close, supportive relationships matter for loneliness, so simply increasing social contact – by having students talk to each enough – isn’t enough.” Chloe Field, NUS vice-president for higher education, said the campaign was the latest example of the government “using mental health as a buzzword without doing anything practical about it.” “This is very basic level advice,” she said. “Students talk to each other all the time. The problem is that there’s no one to go to for counselling and there’s no therapy because of a crumbling NHS – and now university is so expensive that students have to work long hours in precarious part-time jobs, often late into the night after their studies. They’ve got no time to socialise and have fun. It’s no surprise they’re lonely.” The minister’s 10 point plan for reducing loneliness Spend time helping other people, such as volunteering with student groups or by offering a regular conversation to someone feeling isolated Keep in touch with friends and family over the phone Arrange something fun to do with your current friends Join a club or society at university to connect with others who have similar interests Do things you enjoy, such as playing sport, reading or listening to music Be open to everyone, as university is a great place to meet people from all different backgrounds Remember some people only share the good things happening to them on social media so try and avoid comparison Talk to someone you trust about how you feel Get in touch with the university’s student services about the welfare and support it can provide Remember that others may be feeling similar, so you are not alone

English schools warn of acute teacher shortages without ‘inflation plus’ pay deal

2022-06-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/23/english-schools-warn-of-acute-teacher-shortages-without-inflation-plus-pay-deal

Figures show impact of pay on recruitment as unions tell education secretary to compensate for inflation or face strikes Schools in England say they face an acute crisis over retention and recruitment without a significant pay increase, as the country’s biggest teaching union warned of strike action this autumn without an “inflation plus” deal. The threat came as new research shows that every 1% increase in pay gives a 2% boost to graduate recruitment in high-demand disciplines such as science, maths and technology. Trainee recruitment is down by 25,000 compared with last year and experienced teachers are leaving the profession at the fastest rate for more than a decade. The National Education Union, the country’s largest teaching union, sent Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, a clear warning that the government should support higher “inflation-plus” pay for teachers or face strikes in the autumn. But Zahawi responded by saying that new teachers will receive above-inflation increases to their starting salaries over the next two years, and hinted that strikes would “risk undoing” progress made by pupils recovering from the pandemic and school closures. The last national teachers’ strike was in 2016, by the NEU’s predecessor the National Union of Teachers. Combined action could lead to the largest joint industrial action since 2011, when the NUT and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the NASUWT and the National Association of Head Teachers all struck over pensions. The teaching and school leaders unions argue that the government’s submission to the independent School Teachers Review Body (STRB) last year is obsolete after the sudden leap in the rate of inflation, with the consumer prices index last month reaching 9.1%, the highest for 40 years. The STRB makes recommendations on teachers pay after hearing submissions from the Department for Education (DfE) and the unions, and is expected to report before the end of the school year next month. In its submission in December, Zahawi asked the STRB to raise the starting salaries of new teachers to £30,000 – a Conservative manifesto commitment – over the next two years. But the DfE’s submission had salaries for more experienced teachers and school leaders rising much more slowly, by between 2% and 3%, with all pay increases coming from existing school budgets. The letter to Zahawi from the NEU’s joint general secretaries said that “inflation has increased dramatically” since his STRB submission, while teacher pay has already fallen by a fifth in real terms since 2010, leaving average salaries at their lowest level compared to national average earnings in more than 40 years. “You must respond to the new economic reality of double-digit inflation and the threat this poses to teacher living standards. We call on you to commit to an inflation-plus increase for all teachers. It is not good enough to only propose higher increases for beginner teachers,” the letter stated. “We have to tell you that failing sufficient action by you, in the autumn term, we will consult our members on their willingness to take industrial action. And we will be strongly encouraging them to vote yes. “We can no longer stand by while you run both education and educators into the ground.” In response, Zahawi said: “We have proposed the highest pay awards in a generation for new teachers – 16.7% over the next two years – alongside further pay awards for more experienced teachers and leaders.” The education secretary also reacted to the threat of strikes, saying: “Young people have suffered more disruption to their education than any generation that’s gone before, and it’s the vital work of teachers that is helping them get back on track. “The last thing I – or any parent – want to see is anything that would risk undoing that progress. We will be considering the pay recommendations from the independent pay review body in due course.” The NEU’s letter follows a similar demand from England’s other major teaching union, the NASUWT, which said it would hold a national strike ballot if the government “does not deliver pay restoration for teachers”. New research by the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) found that the government’s pay offer and incentive schemes were “unlikely to result in an adequate supply of teachers in England in 2022-2025, particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths”, and would fail to recruit enough new teachers in physics and computer science. The study estimates that a 1% increase in the teaching starting salary, above graduate starting salaries outside teaching, would lead to a 2% increase in teacher training applicants, suggesting that an increase in pay could improve recruitment as well as retention. Jack Worth, a co-author of the NFER report, said if teachers’ pay rises continued to lag behind the UK average, maintaining the school workforce would be difficult. “The DfE’s proposal to target higher pay increases at early-career teachers is sensible but our analysis shows the overall financial package is still very likely to leave the sector short of the new teachers it needs,” Worth said. Louise Hatswell of the Association of School and College Leaders said the NFER report was “yet more evidence of the total inadequacy of the government’s pay proposals for teachers”, with its real-terms pay cut for experienced teachers and leaders likely to make retention worse and exacerbate teacher shortages. “The underlying problem is years of government-imposed real-terms pay erosion which has devalued the profession. This must be addressed by a significant improvement to pay in general which reverses this downward trend,” Hatswell said. “It is pretty obvious that it is impossible to raise educational standards if schools cannot recruit the teachers they need.” The government’s survey of the teaching workforce in England showed that 4,000 more teachers quit the profession last year than in the previous year, with just 11% retiring out of the 36,000 who left the state sector. It also found that vacancies were at the highest level since records began in 2010. Secondary school heads say they have struggled to find replacement staff this year, with figures showing a 14% increase in job advertisements this year compared with the period before the pandemic.

Schools’ Stem diversity problem needs systemic solution, say MPs

2023-03-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/24/schools-stem-diversity-problem-needs-systemic-solution-say-mps-england

Report finds students from black Caribbean backgrounds in England ‘acutely’ underrepresented in Stem Children and young people from black Caribbean backgrounds are “acutely” underrepresented in the study of maths, science and technology in England at all levels of education, according to a report by MPs. Fewer black Caribbean students studied triple science than students of any other background, the report said. It also highlighted the lack of diversity in the teaching workforce, pointing out that an additional 15,655 black teachers would be needed in order to bring teacher diversity in line with that of pupils. The report by the Commons science and technology committee also looked at female underrepresentation in Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths. Young women still make up only 13% of computing A-level students in England and 23% of physics. It suggested the national curriculum in England should be updated to reflect greater diversity. It also called on Ofsted to report on the disparities in subject take-up and attainment across gender, ethnic and socioeconomic background as part of its inspection criteria. The MPs’ report raised concerns about the lack of triple science GCSE provision – where pupils study three standalone GCSEs – in disadvantaged areas of England, where schools are less likely to have subject specialist teachers. It highlighted evidence given to the committee about diversity in Stem research that according to 2018-19 figures there was just one black male UK postdoctoral researcher in physics, “which should be rounded down to zero”, it says, adding: “A wider definition of postdoctoral researcher could increase this to a handful at most.” MPs said the bursaries currently on offer by the Department for Education were not “anywhere near sufficient” to address the crisis in recruitment for physics and computer science teachers. One witness told MPs “even if we recruited two-thirds of everyone doing a physics degree into teaching, we would only just hit the target”. For teacher trainees in 2023, the government is offering bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 in subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics to try to boost recruitment. The committee chair, Greg Clark, said despite many well-intentioned efforts from government, research funders, universities and civil society over the years, Stem still had a diversity problem. 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 “No one intervention can solve this, it is a complex challenge that requires a systemic solution. As well as better data, we need targeted interventions that really make a difference.” He added: “Diverse backgrounds, perspectives and ideas don’t just make business sense, they are essential to the fair and just society we want to live in.” A government spokesperson said: “The number of women and ethnic minority applicants to Stem subjects is increasing, but we want to go further. “That’s why we have invested £84m into a programme to improve computing participation at GCSE and A-level, particularly amongst girls, alongside supporting targeted initiatives to get more students from underrepresented groups into mathematics, physics, digital and technical education at GCSE and A-level.”

Cuts in school trips in England hitting children in poorer areas hardest, shows poll

2023-04-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/26/cuts-in-school-trips-in-england-hitting-children-in-poorer-areas-hardest-shows-poll

Survey shows large cuts to outings, teaching assistants and GCSE and A-level choices, reflecting ‘decades of government underfunding’ Half of school leaders in England say they are having to cut school trips and outings, with children in disadvantaged areas more likely to lose out, according to polling. Almost two-thirds (63%) of senior leaders who took part in the survey are having to cut teaching assistants, while a quarter are reducing sports, extracurricular activities and the number of GCSE and A-level subject choices available to their pupils. The survey of more than 1,400 state school staff, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of the Sutton Trust educational charity, indicates there has been a sharp increase in cuts to activities and support staff over the last year. The proportion of senior leaders cutting trips and outings has more than doubled since last year (from 21% to 50%), with 68% of leaders in the most deprived schools reporting having to make cuts, compared with 44% in the wealthiest. Those cutting the number of teaching assistants went up from 42% in 2022 to 63% this year, while the proportion having to make cuts to subject choices available to pupils went up from 17% for GCSEs and 16% for A-levels to about a quarter in 2023. Two out of five school leaders (41%) polled admit they are having to use pupil premium money – funding intended to improve the educational outcomes of the most disadvantaged – to cover shortfalls in their overall budget. The proportion has gone up from 33% last year and is the biggest since the Sutton Trust began polling for its Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey in 2017. Carl Cullinane, the director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said the survey revealed a “deeply concerning” picture. He said: “In the midst of a cost of living crisis and the continuing impact of the pandemic, schools are having to cut essential staff and activities for pupils. “Funding for poorer pupils through the pupil premium is more important than ever in the context of these pressures. It is deeply concerning that increasing numbers of schools report having to use their pupil premium funding to plug budget gaps.” Cullinane continued: “It is vital that this funding is used to narrow the gaps in progress that have opened alarmingly in the wake of the pandemic. The government must urgently review the funding given to schools, particularly those in the most deprived areas, in light of these trends.” The backdrop to the cuts is the long-running teacher recruitment crisis, which shows no sign of easing. Almost three-quarters (71%) of those polled said they were having difficulties recruiting teachers this year – with a quarter (26%) having faced difficulties “to a great extent” – up from 70% in 2019. The shadow schools minister, Stephen Morgan, said: “Children are missing out on the enrichment brought by school trips, sports, drama and are having their subject choices at GCSE limited because of the government’s continued neglect of our schools.” Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the Sutton Trust report exposed the impact of “decades of government underfunding”. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the crisis was severe and worsening. “The young people who are suffering the most are those in the most disadvantaged communities. The government’s insistence that an extra £2bn for school funding in 2023-24 will fix every funding problem is at odds with reality.” Members of the National Education Union are due to go out on strike on Thursday and again next Tuesday in pursuit of their fully funded, above-inflation pay claim, as industrial action threatens to spread to other teachers’ unions who have also rejected the government’s latest offer. A Department for Education spokesperson said school funding next year would be at its highest level in history in real terms thanks to an additional £2bn of investment for both 2023/24 and 2024/25, adding: “Every school in England is set to benefit from this boost, which will support schools with salary uplifts, as well as things like school trips and essential learning materials.”

Multiplication of teachers and funds needed for Sunak’s post-16 maths policy

2023-01-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/04/multiplication-of-teachers-and-funds-needed-for-sunak-post-16-maths-policy

Prime minister’s ambition for schools in England faces 5,000 shortfall in maths teachers and sixth form funding gap Rishi Sunak claims that England is out of step with the rest of the developed world by not requiring young people to continue studying maths until the age of 18 – but making his numbers add up will need large sums of money and teachers. Previewing Sunak’s announcement, No 10 argued that England “remains one of the only countries in the world to not to require children to study some form of maths up to the age of 18”, mentioning Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Finland, Japan, Norway and the US as those that did. But while some countries insist on children continuing with maths in some form until they leave school, some of the others cited only apply the requirement to those in particular strands of secondary education or do so only in the initial stages. A 2017 report commissioned by the Department for Education listed Russia, Japan and Sweden as among those where all children continued taking maths, with Canada, France and Germany as having “most” children, 81-94%, enrolled. Further down came Singapore and Hong Kong, countries that rank highly in international comparisons of maths attainment. In other countries, such as the US and Australia, curriculum requirements and compulsory education vary between states, making it difficult to form national comparisons. But what is certain is that England has a relatively low rate of school pupils continuing with maths past the age of 16. Roughly half of those who remain in English schools or colleges continue to take maths classes, split between those who take advanced “level 3” courses such as maths or maths-based subjects such as engineering or physics, and a larger group compelled to do so because they failed to gain a 4 or higher in their maths GCSE results. What that leaves is about 200,000 students in each year group who do well enough in GCSE maths but don’t take courses requiring any maths teaching in years 12 and 13. But that doesn’t include “all children” – Catherine Sezen, the Association of Colleges education director, says that about 15% of the post-16 year groups are in work, on apprenticeships or have dropped out of education, employment or training entirely. “It is right that the prime minister is taking an interest in education for 16- to 18-year-olds, but speeches are the easy part. Progress needs an implementation plan based on evidence, backed by appropriate funding and not ignoring huge swathes of young people,” Sezen said. Sunak certainly isn’t the first minister to consider the issue. In 2011 the government, with Michael Gove as education secretary, commissioned Carol Vorderman to head a taskforce on maths in schools. It recommended that some form of maths teaching remain compulsory until the age of 18. The government’s eventual answer was a new post-16 qualification for those who wanted it, known as core maths, focusing on topics such as statistics rather than the heavy mechanics of A-levels. But with no incentive to take the course, students have largely avoided it – just 12,000 entered core maths qualifications in 2021. 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 By 2017 the government had another report to consider, a review of post-16 mathematics by Sir Adrian Smith, a celebrated statistician who is now president of the Royal Society. “My clear conclusion is that we do not yet have the appropriate range of pathways available or the capacity to deliver the required volume and range of teaching” for students to continue past 16, Smith wrote, adding that substantial changes would be needed to make it possible within a decade. Five years later and those changes have not occurred: the problems Smith identified in a lack of resources and qualified maths teachers remain. As Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, points out, recruitment is 5,000 below the government’s targets over the past decade, with many shortages being filled by teachers lacking maths degrees. Meanwhile, funding for sixth forms and further education colleges – which would carry the heaviest load in extended maths teaching – remains 20% below those of other schools “for no good reason”, according to Sezen. Responding to Sunak’s announcement, Smith said: “If we want our economy to thrive and young people to be prepared for well-paid jobs, we need a radical overhaul of our education system that will include all young people doing some level of maths to 18 years of age. The prime minister understands this and today’s announcement is welcome.”

Pushing families into poverty will do nothing to stop school truants | Letters

2023-03-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/08/pushing-families-into-poverty-will-do-nothing-to-stop-school-truants

Michael Gove’s idea to cut child benefit shows how little he has spoken to parents and educators, writes Fran Morgan, while Derrick Cameron deplores the rightwing view of welfare I wonder what evidence the levelling-up secretary, Michael Gove, has for his theory that cutting child benefit will reduce persistent absence (Gove suggests parents of truanting children could have child benefits stopped, 28 February). It has already been proved that fines are discriminatory, make little difference, and that institutional parent blame is commonplace. The tired conflation of school absence with antisocial behaviour is well past its sell-by date. It’s also not about term-time holidays, nor uncaring parents who are naive about the value of education, or who are being manipulated by their children. The reason that rates of persistent absence continue to rise (1.6 million pupils out of a total of 7.2 million in England – 22.3% – missed more than 10% of school days in the combined autumn and spring terms 2021-2022) is that the education system has become too rigid, too narrow and has stolen too much time from teachers to do what they came into education to do – nurture the children and young people in their care. It’s no coincidence that books showing the reality of persistent absence are in Amazon’s bestseller lists, such as Can’t Not Won’t and Your Child Is Not Broken. Our own book, Square Pegs, features 54 contributions from educators, academics and lawyers highlighting the problems that have led to these levels of non-attendance (and offering solutions). A Facebook group set up to support the families of children and young people facing barriers to attendance now has 38,000 members. So here is my plea to Mr Gove. Talk to the parents, educators and organisations who are dealing with this issue day in and day out. Try a different approach of support and compassion. Children cannot learn if they are hungry, with unmet and unsupported educational needs, or in a mental health crisis. Educators cannot educate in an inflexible, underfunded system where success is measured in numbers and grades, rather than welfare and opportunity.Fran MorganFounder, Square Peg Michael Gove suggests that child benefit should be withdrawn from parents whose children persistently truant. The Tories see “welfare” merely as something to discipline the most vulnerable, rather than support those in need. Derrick Cameron Stoke-on-Trent 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.

NSW and Victoria to push Albanese government to close public school funding gap

2022-06-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/07/nsw-and-victoria-to-push-albanese-government-to-close-public-school-funding-gap

Education ministers say they will demand increase in federal investment to reach 100% of Gonski funding benchmark A fresh battle over the underfunding of public schools is brewing, with Victoria and New South Wales vowing to push the new Albanese government to lift its contributions to close an investment shortfall. The new federal education minister, Jason Clare, said boosting the results of Australian school students against international benchmarks would be one of his top priorities. Labor-led Victoria and Liberal-led NSW have joined forces to demand the new federal government close the 5% investment gap to tackle underfunding in education. NSW education minister, Sarah Mitchell, said the Coalition would ensure it continued to oversee its commitment to public school funding. “I will be seeking a commitment from the federal government that they will lift their funding contribution to NSW public schools by 5%,” she told Guardian Australia. Last month, Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, said he would engage with the new federal government to “pursue” the 5% gap. On Monday he said it was an “unacceptable inequity” that government schools only received 95% of their student resource standard (SRS) – the needs-based funding benchmark created in the Gonski reforms. “I’ve always said that I would prosecute this matter regardless of who is prime minister – and that’s exactly what I’ll do when the national school reform agreement negotiations commence this November,” he told Guardian Australia. The current state-federal four-year schools funding agreement is due to expire at the end of next year. Under the agreement, public schools receive 20% of the SRS benchmark from the federal government and 75% from the states, creating a gap of 5%. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Prior to the election, Labor’s former education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek said an Albanese government would increase funding for state schools by ensuring they were on a “pathway” to full funding, or 100% of the SRS. But the national teacher’s union criticised the pledge for lacking detail about the timeframe. The Victorian teacher’s union urged both the state government and commonwealth to ensure public schools reached at least 100% of their SRS as soon as possible. “At the moment our kids are missing out, and the longer they wait for the funding that they’re entitled to, the longer they miss out on the programs, the supports, that they need to get the highest quality education,” the union president, Meredith Peace, said. Peace said the union would urge the Andrews government to continue advocating for the commonwealth to lift its contribution by 5% and would campaign on the issue in the lead-up to the November state election. “Our view is that they should continue, regardless of who’s in government federally, to push for that,” she said. In mid-2019, Victoria became the last state to sign up to the Morrison government’s Gonski 2.0 education reform deal, after a stoush with the federal government that saw it threaten to withhold its share of school funding. Peace said the union also supported the abolishing of the 20% federal funding cap in the new schools agreement and the removal of a loophole that allowed state and territory governments to claim costs of up to 4% on measures like building depreciation and transport as part of their school funding contributions. These items were not originally deemed part of the Gonski SRS benchmark. Trevor Cobbold, an economist and convener of public schools advocacy group Save Our Schools, agreed that states needed to “lift their game” and not continue to claim such expenditures as part of their contributions. Cobbold said estimates by Save Our Schools showed closing the 5% gap would cost about $2.5bn a year. A spokesperson for Clare did not respond to questions.

Parents: share your views on the teachers’ strikes in Britain

2023-01-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/17/parents-share-your-views-on-the-teachers-strikes-in-britain

We would like to hear from parents with school-age children amid strikes by teachers in England, Wales and Scotland More than 100,000 teachers across England and Wales are striking on Wednesday, leaving many schools unable to open while others operate with restrictions. The National Education Union’s mass strike will be followed by regional stoppages. The union is striking for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise after the government said last summer that most teachers would receive a pay rise of about 5%. Meanwhile, in Scotland, members of the Educational Institute of Scotland began 16 days of strikes in early January. In two of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, teachers are striking each day until 6 February. We would like to speak parents in England, Wales and Scotland whose children are being affectedby the strikes. How do you feel about the action? What impact will it have on you – will you have to take time off work? We would also like to hear from students, aged 18 and over, about their experience. If you are 18 years or over, you can get in touch by filling in the form below or contacting us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding +44(0)7766780300. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. One of our journalists will be in contact before we publish, so please do leave contact details. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature. We will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy. If you’re having trouble using the form, click here.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson: ‘Life should not come down to luck’

2022-01-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/29/labour-bridget-phillipson-shadow-education-secretary-school-child-poverty

The shadow education secretary recalls how Labour’s investment in education helped her through school as a child in poverty When we meet in the chill of Westminster Hall, Bridget Phillipson is fresh from a morning round of media interviews about Sue Gray’s much anticipated report and “partygate”. A rowdy session of prime minister’s questions has just finished and the latest government scandal involving the emergency evacuation of animals from Afghanistan is starting to take off. She has taken over the role of shadow education secretary at a time of huge political turbulence, but Phillipson’s focus on her brief is laser-sharp and heartfelt, thanks perhaps to her own experiences growing up, raised by a single mother in a council house in Washington, Tyne and Wear. “Education is my real passion,” she says, “because the great education I had at local state schools just completely transformed my life.” She excelled in her exams, went to Oxford University, where she studied modern history, and in 2010 was elected as Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South. She wants every child to have the same opportunity to thrive – whatever their background – and believes education is the great enabler. Life was sometimes tough for Phillipson when she was growing up. It has previously been reported how a neighbour, having seen seven-year-old Bridget playing outside in a jumper in mid-winter, pushed an envelope of money through the letterbox marked, “For Bridget’s coat”. Her mother, who helped found a local domestic abuse charity, was a member of the Labour party and her daughter would play under the table when she took her to meetings. “My mam brought me up on her own, so life was often quite hard for her as a single parent. We didn’t always have it easy but I was from a family where I was supported to read, where education was valued and encouraged and I look back now and feel how fortunate I’ve been. But I don’t believe life should come down to luck. And that’s where government should come in. “I saw the constraining impact of poverty and how so many children and families were let down by a government that just wasn’t interested in their lives. Many of the people I grew up with didn’t have the same opportunities that I was able to enjoy. But all too often children are held back by virtue of where they’re born, their circumstances and family background, and my priority as secretary of state would be to see that change.” When Phillipson was in primary school, the Conservatives were in power. “That was the point at which in the 80s and early 90s school resources were under immense pressure, when buildings were in disrepair, and where child poverty and unemployment locally were incredibly high, and life was really tough for a lot of families.” She went on to St Robert of Newminster Catholic school (other former pupils include the England men’s football team’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and Hairy Biker Si King). When she was in year 8, Labour took office. A member of the Labour party from the age of 15, Phillipson says she began to see changes take effect as Tony Blair’s mantra of “education, education, education” started to make itself felt in schools across the country. “It was a really wonderful school,” she says. “We were really encouraged to aim high and we were valued as people, and I think that ethos of the school has always stayed with me. “I was one of those young people who received education maintenance allowance (EMA), which just made it so much easier to stay on and study. My mother would have killed me if hadn’t stayed on anyway, but for many young people I was at sixth form with it made all the difference. “It meant they were able to get to school, they could cover travel costs, they could afford equipment and to be able to go on trips. It made a massive difference.” EMA was scrapped by the coalition government in 2010. “But also the investment that started to filter through into our schools,” says Phillipson, “the resources, the support that was given to teachers, the priority that Labour attached in government to making sure that teachers were well supported, with chances to take on new skills and develop throughout their working lives.” Phillipson, who has two children of her own, aged 10 and six, wants education to be at the heart of Labour’s offer once again, and never has it been more urgent after two years of disrupted learning because of Covid, which has put the poorest children at even greater disadvantage. “Like all parents, trying to combine working and home schooling [during lockdown] was a bit of a juggle, but I’m fortunate in that we had access to technology and I was able to help. “But I know from my community that lots of families didn’t have access to devices, didn’t have access to broadband, and the government’s plans around that were far too slow and meant that [children’s] learning, particularly in those early months, wasn’t as it should have been.” The government says it has invested £5bn in education recovery, including the launch of the national tutoring programme. Labour, Phillipson says, has set out a far more ambitious plan for children’s recovery – a £14.7bn catchup strategy, including breakfast clubs for every child, mental health support, and more small-group tutoring for pupils who need it. For the Conservatives, she says, children have been little more than an afterthought during the pandemic. “If I’d been secretary of state on the day that schools closed to most children, I would have been completely focused on making sure we had a plan for what came next. And yet here we are almost two years on and parents tell me they don’t even know that there is any kind of catchup plan for their children and the tutoring programme is reaching a dismal number of children.” It has far-reaching implications, she says. “What is often overlooked in the discussion around children’s catchup is that it matters for individual children and families but it also matters for all of us as a country. The evidence is very clear about the longer-term damage that will be caused to our economy, to wider society, to the earning potential of young people, to their opportunities and life chances, if we don’t invest now and get this right, which is why we’ve said we will make this a priority. “The government, however, have vacated the field. They seem completely lacking in any real interest in putting in place that kind of plan. They point to gimmicks and headlines, but that’s not a proper plan for our children.” Phillipson says her priorities as education secretary would be to address the widening attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers, to tackle child poverty and the growing cost of living crisis for families, and ensure that every parent can send their child to a great local school. She is currently travelling around England, visiting schools and colleges to find out what is working and what is not – the day after our interview she is off to Blackburn. She is not keen to talk about selection and grammar schools, or interested in discussing school structures. On academies, she is concerned about accountability and transparency in multi-academy trusts, but is not in the business of causing upheaval where parents are happy with their child’s education, she says. She is committed to Labour’s promise to scrap charitable status for private schools, but unwilling to go beyond that. “All parents want the best for their children so I’m not going to criticise individual parents for the decisions that they make.” On school inspection, she would like it to be more collaborative than punitive. “Ofsted has an important role in driving up standards for all of our children but I think we need to look at getting the balance right.” And she is worried about schools having to step in to provide food parcels and wash children’s clothes as the cost of living crisis continues to bite. “It’s wonderful that they do that, but that is not a core function of our schools and I want teachers and staff to be able to focus on delivering that brilliant education that they came into teaching to deliver. “We’re going to see hundreds of thousands of young people leaving school this year having had next to no additional support provided by the government. Schools have stepped in. They are doing all they can to make up for as much time as possible, but they don’t feel the government’s got their back.” She says Labour would be different. “We recognise the value of education. We know how important it is to the success of our country and we will always make sure that our schools and the wider sector are recognised, valued and supported.”

Government ‘pushing England’s universities out of teacher training’ over leftwing politics

2022-05-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/may/28/government-pushing-universities-out-of-teacher-training-over-leftwing-politics-say-leaders

Higher education leaders say ministers think departments are full of ‘Marxists’, as top universities fail accreditation process Leaders in higher education said this week they believed the government was trying to push universities out of teacher training for political reasons because ministers thought their education departments were “hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism” and full of “Marxists”. Under changes announced last summer, all initial teacher training providers in England must be re-accredited by the Department for Education to continue educating teachers from 2024. However, two-thirds of providers, including some top universities, were told this month that they had failed the first round of the new accreditation process. The DfE said last week that just 80 providers, out of 216 who are understood to have applied, had made the cut. Those currently out in the cold include some from the prestigious Russell Group. The University of Nottingham, a member of the elite group, said it was “very disappointed and perplexed” to have been failed only two months after Ofsted rated it as outstanding, with inspectors praising the “exceptional curriculum taught by experts”. The University of Birmingham, which the DfE has chosen as one of the specialist partners for its new school-based National Institute of Teaching, also failed the first round of accreditation. The head of one university that failed, who asked not to be named for fear of deterring applicants, said: “Our staff involved in teacher education, who are excellent, were devastated by not being successful. They find it hard to believe because of our track record.” The DfE has said providers can reapply, but experts say some big universities are so outraged they may walk away from teacher training altogether, exacerbating fears about teacher shortages in many subjects. Cambridge University did not apply for the accreditation due to fears its curriculum would be compromised. Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “This was the brainchild of [former schools minister] Nick Gibb, who was obsessed with the idea that university departments of teacher education were hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism. I told him I didn’t know how to convey my frustration that he was coming out with this rubbish.” Prof David Spendlove, associate dean of Manchester University’s faculty of humanities and former head of initial teacher education, said: “As education secretary, Michael Gove talked about fighting ‘the Blob’ [the education establishment]. He and Nick Gibb had this idea that universities and teacher education departments were all Marxists. Their influence hasn’t gone away.” Manchester passed the accreditation, but Prof Spendlove believes the new process is “damaging the very bedrock” of university teacher education and it is now “harder to stay in it than to leave”. “People who have been doing this for a very long time are being told they aren’t fit for purpose, despite all the positive inspections they’ve been through. That’s a farce,” he said. Prof David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester University, which has a strong focus on teacher education, said: “Gibb had a clear agenda to remove universities from teacher training. Some officials may have remained faithful to his outdated perspective.” He said: “This new DfE system risks destroying much existing high quality teacher training. That would be a disaster for children who will be recovering from the educational devastation wrought by the pandemic for years.” Prof Spendlove said no university should celebrate its success in the first round, arguing that the next stage of the accreditation process, which focuses on the curriculum, means losing autonomy over what is taught. “It involves increased scrutiny of the content of courses and a review of curriculum materials, which is utterly bizarre,” he said. “The DfE is hoping people will be so desperate to pass they will just roll over and accept it.” This idea is worrying to many universities. Cambridge, which had more than 250 teaching entrants this year and is rated outstanding by Ofsted, said its decision not to apply was because of concerns about the government’s “highly prescribed curriculum” and its model of mentoring, both of which it said “do not look at all like what we do”. Bousted said: “Universities are right to fear the DfE trying to control their teaching curriculum. That is what is happening.” Teaching unions have been warning for many months that forcing providers to jump through new bureaucratic hoops risks damaging the supply of teachers. Teacher training applications are down 24% on last year after a brief Covid boom, with recruitment dropping below pre-pandemic levels. A report by the National Foundation for Educational Research in March said that a large range of secondary subjects would not meet teacher recruitment targets in 2022. These include shortage subjects such as physics, maths, chemistry and computing, but also those that typically recruit well such as English, biology and geography. Prof Chris Husbands, the vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, whose initial teacher training provision passed the first round of accreditation, said: “I think this is indeed intended to drive some providers out of the market. But the risk the government runs is driving out some of the people they should be aiming to keep.” He said universities were committed to teacher training “but not at any cost”. “Large organisations always have choices,” he said. “I don’t really understand why the government is picking this fight. The evidence from Ofsted inspections shows the sector is in pretty good shape. This doesn’t make any sense to me.” Nottingham was the first university to confirm publicly that it did not pass through the first round of accreditation. The news was met with anger in the sector. Green described the decision as “simply ludicrous”, coming so soon after Ofsted rated all aspects of Nottingham’s teacher education as outstanding. John Dexter, who was director of education at Nottingham city council until February and spent more than 30 years in teaching and school management in the city, tweeted that he was “baffled, cross and frustrated” about the result. He said: “It’s extraordinary. Getting an outstanding from Ofsted on ITT [initial teacher training] is pretty impressive.” He said the Nottingham course was good for helping students to understand the environment they would be teaching in. “I really don’t understand why the DfE is doing this.” The government announced on Thursday, after a year-long contract dispute thought to have cost hundreds of thousands, that its National Institute of Teaching would open in September 2023, led by a consortium of four school trusts called the School Led Development Trust. The DfE was approached for comment.

NASUWT teaching union calls for talks after members reject England pay offer

2023-04-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/08/nasuwt-members-reject-pay-offer-for-teachers-in-england

General secretary says vote against one-off bonus and 4.5% pay rise means strikes in summer term ‘could be’ on the cards Ministers have been urged to return to the negotiating table to avoid extended teachers’ strikes in England this summer, after NASUWT members voted decisively to reject the pay deal being offered by the government. NASUWT is the fourth teaching union to reject the pay offer, with 87% of its members voting against acceptance. It follows similar rejections by the National Education Union (NEU), 98% of whose members voted against, as well as the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Large numbers of NASUWT members also supported a formal ballot on industrial action, with 77% backing a vote to authorise strikes later this year. More than 52% of the NASUWT’s 130,000 eligible members in England took part. Patrick Roach, the NASUWT’s general secretary, said the vote meant that strikes in the summer term by his members “could be” on the cards, as well as coordination with the other teaching unions over strike dates. An earlier strike ballot by the NASUWT failed to reach the 50% threshold of members taking part, but Roach said there was rising frustration among members over the deal offered by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, especially over the 4.3% pay rise proposed for most teachers. “It didn’t help that teachers in Scotland and teachers in Wales got more. It didn’t help that there was more on the table for nurses and staff in the NHS. It didn’t help that fire officers effectively secured a 7%-plus-5% deal,” Roach said at the union’s annual conference in Glasgow. “What I’m saying to the government is: you’ve started a conversation, and it now needs to be finished. “You asked us, on your behalf, to consult with our members. We’ve done that. Now we need to have a conversation about it and how we move forward. So don’t start taking things off the table.” The government offered a £1,000 one-off bonus to teachers in England this year and an average pay rise of 4.5% next year, with more for early-career teachers. Only the bonus and a small portion of the pay rise would have been funded by extra cash from the Department for Education (DfE) and the Treasury, with the rest of the pay rise coming out of existing school budgets. The DfE said: “After costing children almost a week of time in the classroom and with exams fast approaching, it is extremely disappointing that unions are reballoting for more strike action. “The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, and helps tackle issues teachers are facing like workload. NEU, NAHT, ASCL and NASUWT’s decisions to reject this offer will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today.” 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 Last week the NEU announced five further days of strike action among its members working in schools in England, with the first two on 27 April and 2 May and three more to be scheduled in June or July. If NASUWT members also vote to take industrial action, it will be the biggest disruption to schools in England since 2011, when the two unions mounted a joint strike alongside the NAHT. As well as pay, a NASUWT survey found that long working hours were affecting teachers’ wellbeing, with more than four out of five saying their mental health had suffered over the last 12 months as their workload increased. Excessive workload was the biggest reason given for declining mental health, with the 8,500 teachers who responded saying they worked 54 hours a week on average, including evenings and weekends spent on marking, lesson planning and administration.

Labour look to force vote on ending private schools’ tax breaks

2023-01-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/11/labour-look-to-force-vote-on-ending-private-schools-tax-breaks

Opposition day debate seeks to establish committee to investigate reforming tax benefits enjoyed by independent schools Labour will attempt to force a binding vote on ending private schools’ tax breaks and use the £1.7bn a year raised from this to drive new teacher recruitment. The motion submitted by Keir Starmer’s party for the opposition day debate on Wednesday is drafted to push the charitable status scheme that many private schools enjoy to be investigated, as the party attempts to shift the political focus on to education. It comes as the party released fresh statistics highlighting the state of teaching staff, with Labour analysis of official figures from the Department for Education revealing that there were 36,262 teachers who left the profession in 2020/21, compared with only 34,394 starters on initial teacher training, leaving a shortfall of 1,868. Labour’s motion seeks to create a new House of Commons select committee on the fair taxation of schools and education standards to investigate reforming the tax benefits enjoyed by private schools and investing the proceeds on a new national excellence programme. Bridget Phillipson MP, the shadow education secretary, says the party will invest the money raised from tax breaks to hire 6,500 additional teachers, “reducing workloads and driving up to standards in all our state schools through our national excellence programme”. She adds: “Labour recognises that after 13 years of Conservative economic mismanagement, which culminated in the Conservatives crashing the economy last year, tough choices must be made to protect public finances – but the choice facing MPs today is easy. “Conservative MPs can either vote to deliver a brilliant state education for every child or they vote against the interests of parents across this country who aspire for better for their children, especially those in the very regions their party pledged to ‘level up’.” Labour will hope the motion will force the government to make its MPs vote down an issue, rather than ignoring the process. A Labour source has previously said: “Conservative MPs voting against our motion are voting against higher standards in state schools for the majority of children in our 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 A government spokesperson said the number of teachers “remains high”, with 24,000 more working in state schools than in 2010, while bursaries and levelling up premiums were helping attract new entrants to subjects like maths, science and computing.

Jane Mace obituary

2023-02-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/10/jane-mace-obituary

My mother, Jane Mace, who has died aged 79 following a stroke, was a writer, researcher and pioneering educator in the field of adult literacy. In her work in London – as director of the Cambridge House Adult Literacy Scheme in the 1970s; as head of Lee Community Education Centre, Goldsmiths’ College, in the 80s and 90s; and as senior lecturer in adult literacy education at South Bank University in the late 90s and early 2000s – Jane demonstrated an unwavering dedication to the idea of adult literacy as a social movement. Recognising that the UK of the 70s and 80s was neglecting huge sections of the population who lived with both poverty and poor-quality education, she put herself at the heart of developments in the teaching of reading and writing for adults. Importantly, she changed the conversation: when the learning of literacy was dominated by an emphasis on reading skills, Jane put equal weight on writing. She wrote prodigiously herself, publishing countless articles and multiple books, including Working With Words (1979) and The Give and Take of Writing (2002), engaging tirelessly with crucial and sometimes neglected aspects of literacy learning; challenging prejudices, and designing strategies that encourage people to believe that their voices are worth hearing. Later in her life, Jane discovered Quakerism. The strength offered by a community premised on the sharing of experience, equality and peace became very precious to her. The great significance of words in her chosen faith was a source of continuing fascination. She would often write, and speak publicly, with characteristic liveliness, about Quakers’ relationship with language. Her commitment to social justice, feminism and peace continued throughout her life, and she contributed to many campaigns and movements, including serving as an ecumenical accompanier in Palestine and Israel. She was also immensely creative. While in Oxford in the 60s, she was part of a group of singers, dancers and actors who were prepared to give any ideas a go, and see where they went, performing in several productions including Hang Down Your Head and Die. She carried this spirit throughout her life, developing late passions for learning Welsh and playing the cornet. A devoted mother, grandmother and friend, she had an infectious smile, and radiated determination, energy and curiosity about other people. Jane was born in Bournemouth, to Mary (nee Whiskard) and William Sommerville. Mary, an active community member, and William, a solicitor, settled in Bristol where Jane attended school. She then went on to study modern languages at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, before moving to London where she lived for 35 years. She married Rodney Mace, my father, in 1967; they divorced in 1999. In 2002, she moved to Gloucestershire where , in 2016, she met John Geale through the Quakers – he had also worked in adult education – and they were married shortly after. Jane is survived by John, and by the two children of her first marriage, Joe and me, five grandchildren, her sister, Anne, and her brother, Nigel.

‘My colleague had a heart attack in front of me’: horrific toll of Ofsted inspections

2023-03-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/26/colleague-had-heart-attack-in-front-of-me-horrific-toll-of-ofsted-inspections

In the wake of Ruth Perry’s suicide, headteachers speak out about the stress and fear that Ofsted visits can cause Senior teacher Rob Dyson* says his last Ofsted inspection remains a “trauma”. Drinking tea in the staff room of the academy in the north of England after the inspector left, having delivered the verdict that the school had plummeted from “outstanding” to “requires improvement”, he says everyone was “ashen faced”. Noticing that the deputy head had turned a “terrible colour” and looked unwell, Dyson ushered him into the toilets. “He started having a heart attack right there in front of me,” Dyson recalls. “It was absolutely shocking.” Dyson got home that evening, after his colleague had gone to hospital in an ambulance, and took the dog for a walk. “I stood on the riverbank and I was just looking at that river. I had this awful sense of injustice. Our school was warm and friendly; it was absolutely bubbling,” he says. “But I snapped out of it and came home.” He explains that this sort of “horrible” rating isn’t just crushing for the leadership team – it also sends the school into a downward spiral. “Your funding falls because parents don’t want to send their kids to you, and the staff you need to get you out of this hole start leaving,” he says. The school looked into appealing the rating, but Dyson says although they felt they had a strong case, “the legal costs were just too punitive”. Andrew Morrish, a former headteacher who co-founded Headrest, a helpline for heads in crisis, during the pandemic, says the pressure and fear surrounding Ofsted inspections has become “entirely too much”. “We have had calls from partners of heads saying: ‘They are going to end up in intensive care. They are having a nervous breakdown. Please talk to them and make them see a doctor.’” He insists that heads aren’t afraid of scrutiny. What terrifies them, he says, is how “inconsistent and flawed” these high-stakes inspections can be. He argues that heads in inner city schools in rundown areas with families in crisis and too few social workers have the odds stacked against them. He says they are ringing the helpline panicking because they know their safeguarding isn’t ticking all the Ofsted boxes. “They say: ‘I keep calling the local authority about referring this child and nothing is happening. They are kicking off in class, or showing sexualised behaviour copied from home,’” he explains. “If Ofsted turn up and see that, you’re in special measures.” Morrish argues that this is “crackers” and penalises heads for helping children: “These heads are keeping these children in to protect them, because no one else is there for them.” The recent arguments about the way Ofsted operates followed reports about the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life in January. Her family claims that her suicide was because her school was downgraded by Ofsted, an allegation that then prompted an outpouring of anger from teachers around the country. Yet most are too frightened to put their names to any criticism, paranoid that it will count against their school or that they might trigger “that call”, notifying them that the inspector is arriving tomorrow. The head of a primary in London, which had three inspections in four years because it had been downgraded, says the pressure of awaiting a call from Ofsted during that time “was unbearable”. Each morning he knew they might call before midday announcing their arrival the next day – only after 12.15pm could he breathe freely. “Sometimes I would just sit at my desk unable to do anything, waiting for the phone to ring.” On Friday Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, broke days of silence to express how “deeply sorry” she was about the “tragedy” of Perry’s death. She said the “grief and anger” expressed by many in education was understandable. However, commenting on “suggestions about refusing to cooperate with inspections, and unions’ calls to halt them entirely”, she stressed that stopping inspections “would not be in children’s best interests”. “Our aim is to raise standards, so that all children get a great education,” she said. However, the London primary head, who asked to remain anonymous, insisted that “schools are living in a culture of absolute fear”, which does nothing to help children. “Heads are coming together and saying: ‘Which hoops did Ofsted get you to jump through? What were they looking for?’” he says. “And I want to know: where are the children in all this?” The Observer spoke to three former Ofsted inspectors who have all recently handed in their badges because they felt deeply uncomfortable with the way the system worked. One director of education at an academy trust who was an inspector describes questioning a subject head in a school and realising “she was actually shaking”. He reassured her that any issues were minor and would not affect the overall rating – knowing that such reassurance was strictly against Ofsted rules – because he felt so uncomfortable. 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 “Even if people don’t get to the point where they are considering suicide, there is a very serious issue with mental health here,” he says. “I have no problem with accountability, but these high-stakes inspections are unbearably stressful.” He also worried that inspectors who were sent into primary schools often only had experience of secondary education and “scant understanding of what primary and especially early years education is about”. Another head and former inspector, who admits she signed up because learning the inside track on what Ofsted was looking for might “save my own school”, took part in an inspection where the head had been in post for just over two weeks. The school was put into special measures before the new head had a chance to turn it around. “The lead inspector tends to have a view before they arrive on what the verdict will be,” she says. “They make up their minds in 10 minutes, and everything else is about justifying that.” A third former inspector says: “It doesn’t matter how nice or nasty you are as an inspector – you still have to stick rigidly to applying the framework, and I fundamentally disagreed with what it was measuring.” She adds: “Judging schools with one word and making that public is simply wrong.” Cate Knight, who recently left teaching after 20 years to become a youth mental health worker, largely because of the “untenable” pressure created by Ofsted, agrees. “Imagine everything you’ve worked for over many years disappearing on the basis of just one word,” she says. “Schools and communities can be ruined on the basis of that word.” Knight couldn’t sleep or eat during Ofsted inspections. “I started losing my hair because of stress,” she says. “I’ve seen headteachers physically and mentally broken. I saw one man break down in tears and walk out. He was five years off retiring, but he didn’t ever come back.” This week more than 2,000 teachers responded to a tweet from a headteacher asking for their anonymous experiences of Ofsted. One deputy head posted about her recent inspection: “This is something I don’t want to experience again, so I have 4 years to work out what to do next. I love teaching, however I am not willing to allow my own mental health to be put at risk like that again.” Another said: “Horrific. After 12 years’ teaching at 33 years old I want to quit. I cannot put myself through Ofsted again. The interrogation and trauma felt like a court case.” Sinéad McBrearty, chief executive of Education Support, a charity focusing on teachers’ mental health, says Perry’s “tragic” death has galvanised the sector to push for change. “It’s particularly personal for heads,” she says. “People want to honour Perry’s memory by acknowledging that there is an issue with all this pressure and stress. “We have a duty of care to children to look after the people who are taking care of them,” she adds. “And right now I see a really bleak picture of a profession that is really in distress.” * Name has been changed 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.

‘Serious concerns’: UK education row as Israel-Palestine textbooks pulled

2021-06-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/08/uk-history-education-row-israel-palestine-textbooks-pulled

Fears children not being educated on conflict amid claims of bias in content of history textbooks The government has warned schools to ensure a balanced presentation of opposing views on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, which claimed more than 250 lives last month and sparked a wave of classroom protests in the UK. But teachers may struggle to comply because the only exam board to offer curriculum material and a GCSE history option on the region has withdrawn its two textbooks after being accused of favouring the case for Israel. It is the second time that the history books, published by Pearson, the education company that owns the Edexcel exam board, have been taken off the shelves. The first time – in October 2019 – was because Jewish organisations claimed the books favoured Palestine. Pearson undertook to make revisions suggested by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and UK Lawyers for Israel, but the revised editions caused a storm of protests and complaints, this time from the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (Bricup). The retention of the study option is seen as vital by historians who worry that only a tiny number of schools now teach about the conflict. Just 1,100 students in 27 schools, of which 26 are in England, have chosen it for this year, out of 148,678 taking history GCSE with the board and an age cohort of 600,000. The loss of the textbooks increases the risk that the Middle East will disappear from the curriculum, says Michael Davies, a former history teacher and founder of Parallel Histories, an organisation that provides material for students to understand conflicts from different sides. “Teachers don’t want to teach it and not because it’s not interesting, but because they are scared about being accused of bias. The other exam boards had already departed the scene and so Pearson, although getting pilloried over changes to the books, are the good guys here,” he says. The row is over the textbooks Conflict in the Middle East c1945-1995 for GCSE, published in 2016, and its IGCSE partner, The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change 1917-2012, published in 2017. In 2019, the Zionist Federation launched an online petition for their removal and Pearson commissioned Parallel Histories to examine their accuracy. Davies says its report suggested some changes in terminology but found “no overall bias”. However, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and UK Lawyers for Israel continued to protest, saying the books were “seriously biased against Israel”. The books were taken off the shelves while they engaged with Pearson over changes, especially cases where they felt a disputed viewpoint had been adopted without qualification. The UK Lawyers for Israel objected, for example, to the book’s description of the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948 as “one of the worst atrocities of the war” and the omission of the “massive improvement” in the living standards of Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israeli rule. The revised books were reissued briefly in 2020, but they have now been withdrawn following complaints from Bricup, which worked with John Chalcraft, a professor of Middle East history and politics at the London School of Economics, and James Dickins, a professor of Arabic at the University of Leeds, to compare the revised version of the books with the originals. The professors produced a report listing 294 revisions to the original books and say the vast majority are changes that favour the Israeli point of view. “The revisions have consistently underplayed and explained Jewish and Israeli violence, while amplifying and leaving unexplained Arab and Palestinian violence,” the report concludes. “They have extended or left intact accounts of Jewish and Israeli suffering, while downplaying and editing accounts of Arab and Palestinian suffering.” It is very important that this subject is taught, says Prof Chalcraft. “It is so clearly linked to the present and it’s vital to educate people through balanced material.” Parallel Histories provides a scheme of work used by 200 schools, among them Huddersfield grammar school, which gets students to debate the conflict from both sides, increasing their oracy skills along the way. Thomas Poulter-Dunford, its head of history, says there is value in tackling controversial subjects. “It opens students’ minds to see different perspectives, and also ensures they critically engage with evidence. I think it is also fundamental in confronting common misconceptions, in an era of misinformation.” He had used the original version of the disputed Pearson textbook with GCSE groups. “I didn’t notice anything majorly wrong with the wording, however, I do understand that certain words may come across differently to the two sides.” Chalcraft says that while the original version “reasonably describes Jewish settlers as those who live in new settlements built on the West Bank and Gaza”, the revised version defines them as Jews returned to villages from which they were expelled in 1948, among others. “This definition is a nonsense in regards to the overwhelming majority of Jewish settlers who were not expelled in 1948,” he says. “In the original book there is a photo of children wading through sewage in Gaza and in the new version it just says “children in Gaza”. Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, says Pearson did not accept all its suggestions but thinks the latest version of the books is less biased. The original definition of “Jewish settlers” was inaccurate, he says, because a significant number went to places that had previously been Jewish communities. “On the picture caption, we asked Pearson whether there was any evidence that the puddle of water shown in the photograph was sewage since it looked quite clear, with reflections of the children. Pearson responded by removing the reference to sewage,” he says. “The authors of the Bricup report and Bricup itself are biased against Israel and promote a boycott of all Israeli universities.” Chalcraft and Dickins both say they took great pains to be rigorous and unbiased when they reviewed the books. Chalcraft says: “I am a credible researcher and educator on the issue of Israel and Palestine and well qualified to comment on their history.” Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, says: “We are proud of work we undertook with Pearson to address serious concerns of bias in the two textbooks, including a lack of contextualisation and omissions of peace efforts and of the suffering caused by this conflict to all involved.” Pearson says it has “paused” distribution of the books while it reviews them once more. “We will gather a wider range of views and we will take action if there is more work to do to get that balance right,” said a spokesperson. In the meantime schools could use its topic guide, she said. “We would be happy to make a pdf of the guide available to any customer who wants it.”

How to dislodge the posh clique that rules Britain | Letters

2023-02-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/01/how-to-dislodge-the-posh-clique-that-rules-britain

Simon Bull asks for discrimination against the state-educated to be outlawed, and other readers write on Oxbridge and Eton domination Like John Harris, I went from a comprehensive school to Oxbridge, and my experience was very similar to his (To understand the Zahawi story and Tory sleaze, look no further than Britain’s posh cliques, 29 January). The consequences of this for all in society are becoming increasingly clear. It puzzles me very greatly that in an era when we have rightly banned direct and indirect discrimination in many forms, discrimination against the massive majority of the population who attended state schools remains lawful and (particularly in its indirect form) common. This form of discrimination affects far more people than any other. Why is the reception of a state education not made a protected characteristic under the discrimination legislation? Then former public school boys and girls would no longer be able to ensure their own gross overrepresentation in the ranks of those who hold positions of power and influence.Simon BullClaydon, Oxfordshire John Harris’s analysis of the “posh clique ruling us” is a powerful account of the way educational privilege is used to obtain positions of power and influence. He then tells us that in 1989 he went to Oxford University. Chris Elliott, then readers’ editor, dealt with this issue in 2011. A round robin of journalists on the Guardian and Observer garnered 178 responses out of 630 journalists. Of the replies, 67 went to either Oxford or Cambridge. That is 37% of the replies, or 10% of the total number of journalists – a significant chunk of Oxbridge graduates for any newspaper, let alone the Guardian. The issue that John raises of a posh clique infiltrating positions of power is important but complex. To imagine that Oxbridge is the fundamental problem is to ignore the significance of many other prestigious universities targeted by public schools. I fully support John’s argument for reform and positive discrimination. Where that leaves the Guardian is intriguing.Peter MartindaleCastle Bytham, Lincolnshire John Harris is so right about the posh clique of public school alumni and their malign influence. He then tells us about his education history. And yet he did not name the comprehensive school or the state-sector sixth-form college that he attended. Let’s hear it for state education and promote these schools in the way that Eton promotes itself.Janet MansfieldAspatria, Cumbria

Julie Davies obituary

2023-08-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/24/julie-davies-obituary

My mother, Julie Davies, who has died aged 67 of throat cancer complicated by Covid-19, was a teacher, trade unionist and Labour politician. In 1997 she was elected as branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Haringey, a year later joining the union’s national executive committee, and the General Teaching Council in 2010. She was released from her responsibilities as an English teacher at Northumberland Park community school in north London in 2000 so that she could work full time on behalf of NUT members – and campaigned fiercely against the government’s academisation agenda. Even in the most difficult times, she always fought for what she believed in and was an extremely effective caseworker. She later brought the same persistence to elected office as a Labour councillor in Haringey – representing St Ann’s ward from 2018 and Hermitage and Gardens ward from 2022 – and to her role at Haringey council as cabinet member for employment, skills and corporate services from May 2021, and for communities and civic life from May 2022. She relished these roles and combined hard-headed pragmatism with kindness. Julie was born in Romford, east London, to Eileen (nee Zimmer) and Frank Harris, a firefighter, and was educated at Great Baddow high school in Chelmsford, Essex. She later studied English and linguistics at University College London (UCL), where she met her first husband and interrupted her studies to travel with him to Iran. She taught English there, before returning to the UK during Iran’s 1979 revolution. They divorced soon afterwards. After travelling for a few months in the US with friends, she spotted an opportunity to teach English as a second language in Singapore. There, she met David Davies, and returned to London with him in 1982. After finishing her degree she took a PGCE at UCL’s Institute of Education, which enabled her to teach in primary and secondary schools including South Harringay school and Central Foundation girls’ school in Tower Hamlets. She and David married in 1989 and she started work as a teacher at Northumberland Park in 1992. Julie loved inviting people to her home to enjoy good food, drink and world music. David died in 2015. Julie is survived by her children, Ted and me, her siblings, Jennie and Michael, and her nieces and nephews.

A golden opportunity to reshape education | Letters

2021-02-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/15/a-golden-opportunity-to-reshape-education

Juliet Woodin says this is the time to take a radical look at the way school terms and holidays are organised, while John Binks suggests a way that the government can support the arts, sports and informal education sectors “This spring and summer should not be filled with extra lessons” (Call for ‘summer of play’ to help English pupils recover from Covid-19 stress, 13 February). Lockdown has reinforced the benefits of outdoor activity and contact with nature. This is the time to take a radical look at the way school terms and holidays are organised, with a view to permanent change in the future. The objectives would be to increase school holiday time during the warmer months (when time can be spent outdoors and UK holidays enjoyed), with more, shorter holidays rather than the current long summer holiday. The timing of GCSEs and A-levels has often been cited as an objection to such changes, but there is increasing support for university offers to be made after exam results are published, which will require the scheduling of exams to be looked at anyway. We have a golden opportunity to shape a different future. Juliet Woodin West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire Further to Sally Weale’s article, wouldn’t this be a good opportunity for the government to support the arts, sports and informal education sectors by inviting them to offer free places to children on courses they run within their specialisms, paid for by central government. This would provide a boost to local arts companies, theatres, sports clubs, outdoor education centres and similar organisations, while giving children supplementary educational opportunities to address some of what they have lost in the pandemic. It would also assist parents in providing some organised activities during the long holiday at no cost.John BinksYeadon, Leeds

Funding for lifelong learning shouldn’t lead to debt | Letter

2022-05-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/may/10/funding-for-lifelong-learning-shouldnt-lead-to-deeper-debt

Prof Jonathan Michie on the disastrous collapse in part-time education in Britain It’s good that universities oppose limits to education (Universities oppose plan for student cap and loans in England, 9 May). But when it comes to adult education and lifelong learning, the problem is not just limits on loan access – it’s debt itself. The disastrous collapse in part-time education in Britain caused by the coalition government’s tripling of university fees was due to its denial that getting into debt in later life is different from making a life choice of whether to go to university aged 18. For adult learners, it may be a choice between taking a loan to study or having a family holiday that year. Research published in Wonkhe this week confirms support for lifelong learning, but not for forcing adult learners deeper into debt. As the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning said in its response to the government’s consultation, the entitlement should be to lifelong learning, not to getting into debt. Funding needs to be made available for older adults to re-enter education – other than in the form of loans.Prof Jonathan MichieChair, Universities Association for Lifelong Learning Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Education department challenged over support for One Britain One Nation day

2021-06-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/22/education-department-challenged-over-support-for-one-britain-one-nation-day

Attempt to enlist schoolchildren in day celebrating British values criticised and ridiculed on social media The government has been criticised on social media after supporting a campaign encouraging schoolchildren to commemorate “One Britain One Nation” day on Friday. A tweet from the Department for Education said it was encouraging schools across the UK to celebrate the day and featured a link to onebritainonenation.com website. The campaign, led by former policeman Kash Singh who is chief executive and founder of One Britain One Nation (OBON), says it needs the support of schools to “celebrate the day in the spirit it is intended”. The site says “OBON is devoted to galvanising the efforts of people from all backgrounds to rejoice in their pride in Great Britain.” The campaign’s supporters include actor Joanna Lumley, MP Brandon Lewis, and former MPs David Steel and Norman Tebbit. The site says that schools should encourage children to clap for a minute to “pay tribute to all those people who helped during the Covid 19 pandemic crisis” and give a rendition of the OBON Day 2021 anthem. The song, which included the lyrics “We are Britain and we have one dream to unite all people in one great team”, has provoked particular ridicule on social media. 🚨 | NEW: The government is urging children to sing this song on June 25 pic.twitter.com/Sq8ZUUgvYf The song ends with the lyrics “Strong Britain, Great Nation” repeated four times. The Department of Education in its tweet said OBON day was “when children can learn about our shared values of tolerance, kindness, pride and respect”. One user on Twitter responded: “I don’t know where to start with this crap! “The fact that you claim it’s about those things and you’re encouraging kids to sing this song?! This is nationalistic crap! “Or that you’re actively using *schools* to try and campaign against Scottish independence! The whole thing is profoundly wrong!” Another tweeted: “Who decided these were “our values” and when?” Another tweet read: “Absolutely and utterly pathetic. This is not North Korea, for goodness sake. ‘Shared values of tolerance, kindness, pride and respect’ are a far cry from the current state of the UK.”

Strikes by university staff called off after pay breakthrough

2023-02-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/17/strikes-by-university-support-staff-called-off-after-pay-breakthrough

Move follows agreement from employers on lowest-paid workers and review of salary grades Strikes by university staff over the next two weeks have been called off after a breakthrough in negotiations over pay, pensions and working conditions, unions have announced. Five unions – Unison, UCU, GMB, Unite and EIS – issued a joint statement with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) confirming three days of strikes will be suspended following talks at the conciliation service Acas, though discussions will continue. It follows an agreement from university employers to give more money to the lowest paid in higher education and undertake a thorough review of the salary grades of all staff, according to Unison. The University and College Union said it had called off seven days of strikes planned to take place on 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 February and 1 and 2 March. But five days of campus strikes scheduled for later in March could still go ahead. Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, said: “To allow our ongoing negotiations to continue in a constructive environment, we have agreed to pause action across our pay and working conditions and pensions disputes for the next two weeks and create a period of calm.” Both sides have agreed to further talks to discuss pay grading as well as other concerns including zero-hours contracts. Unison’s head of education, Mike Short, said: “Improving the wages of the lowest paid university employees is a crucial step. Cleaners, domestic staff and others at the bottom of the pay scales have been in dire need of help. “The pay structure in the sector has been unfit for purpose for years, with far too many staff earning just the minimum wage with little chance to progress in their careers. “The fact that talks are to continue is a positive move. It’s vital that progress is made in improving the wages of everyone working in higher education.” UCEA, representing 144 higher education employers, made a final pay offer of between 8% and 5% from August 2023 with a proportion of that to be paid from February, about six months in advance of the usual pay uplift date. Raj Jethwa, UCEA’s chief executive, said: “UCEA accepted Acas’s services as the right thing to do in an attempt to reach a settlement and to meet our original objective of getting an affordable uplift to all staff sooner than usual. “Despite strike action and further threats of disruption, and in recognition of how inflation disproportionately affects lower-paid staff, employers remain committed to this early implementation. “Our intention is to see this is paid in March pay packets, backdated to February. It will be unfair to delay the early pay uplift to all staff any longer. 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 “While the impact of strike action continues to be low and isolated, this is about a final attempt from employers and trade unions to achieve an outcome upon which both parties can consult their members.” Meanwhile, Unisonthe UK’s largest union said the majority of ambulance staff at the East of England ambulance service (EEAST) had voted in favour of a strike. The union, which represents about three-quarters of workers at EEAST, said 87% of those who voted opted for industrial action. Earlier this month, EEAST staff joined a nationwide strike for the first time over staffing levels and pay when members of the GMB union voted for industrial action. GMB said its members would join national industrial action on 6 March.

Good early years teaching may boost earnings of children in England – study

2023-01-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/26/good-early-years-teaching-may-boost-earnings-of-children-in-england-study

Study reports one in 40 primary schools in England produce entire classes likely to earn more than their peers Never mind getting a place at Oxbridge – a child’s future earnings can be significantly improved by the quality of their teachers at the age of four, according to new research. The researchers used Department for Education (DfE) databases to connect adults’ earnings to the reception classes attended. The results highlight the outsized influence of early years’ education, finding that one in 40 primary schools in England produce entire classes likely to gain more money than their peers. The study, published by the DfE and Durham University, estimates that the top 2.5% of reception classes add higher lifetime earnings averaging between £2,000 to £7,500 a pupil, even after adjusting for factors such as family circumstances, ethnicity and language. Prof Peter Tymms, one of the authors from Durham’s school of education, said while previous research had shown that “exceptional teaching” in reception had a long-term impact on exam results, the new study predicted that advantage extended to earnings in later life. “Many will be surprised to see this but it shows the importance of great teachers working with young children,” Tymms said. The researchers used assessments of children at the beginning and end of their reception year to identify classes as “effective”, where children made significantly more progress in learning than average. They then used databases tracing pupils’ reception attainment to their GCSE results, linked to DfE data on GCSE results predicting adult earnings, to produce their findings. If accurate, the research suggests that more than 400 out of England’s 16,800 state primary schools with the most effective teaching give an additional boost to about 11,000 pupils each year. “In addition to the potential boost in earnings, the social and economic returns from investments in high-quality reception classes may also be much larger than the study’s estimates, especially for disadvantaged pupils,” the report concluded. The authors cautioned against “an overly strong causal interpretation” of the study’s results, despite their efforts to account for background characteristics such as social and economic class. They also admitted that making predictions based on historic earnings data may not hold up, “as the labour market in the coming decades could look very different”. James Bowen, director of policy for the National Association of Head Teachers, said the report showed how crucial the early years of a child’s education are crucial to their life chances. “While we should not be trying to ‘hothouse’ young children, it is clear that great teachers in reception classes make a real difference. 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, we also need to recognise that the years before a child enters reception are just as important, and the challenges some children face start well before they arrive at school,” Bowen said. “If children are to thrive in their first years in school, families need access to high-quality early years education for their children, as well as access to any support services they need. “Sadly, too many families are unable to access these vital services, meaning children don’t always receive the early intervention and support that could make such a difference.” A DfE spokesperson said: “Early literacy and numeracy can improve life chances and findings from this analysis report show the importance of investing in maths and English in primary schools. “Our approach as a government over the last decade has been on raising standards, particularly in primary schools, which is why we have introduced the phonics screening and multiplication tables checks, to improve children’s fluency in literacy and mathematics.”

Tens of thousands of teachers to strike in England, Scotland and Wales

2023-02-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/27/tens-of-thousands-teachers-prepare-strike-england-wales-schools

Teachers in north of England to strike on Tuesday followed by members in other areas over course of three days Tens of thousands of teachers will strike this week resulting in the closure of some schools as members of the National Education Union (NEU) take part in three days of industrial action. With little sign of a solution to the dispute on the horizon, teachers in the north of England will strike on Tuesday, followed by members in the Midlands and eastern regions on Wednesday. On Thursday, the industrial action moves to London, the south of England and Wales, as the standoff continues between the government and the NEU, which is seeking a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise. Kevin Courtney, the NEU joint general secretary, said he expected 200,000 teachers to take action over the course of the next three days, with numbers boosted by 50,000 new members joining since strike action was first announced in January. “I think a majority of schools will be affected by the dispute,” he said. “Some of them with full closures and many more with partial closures. Some secondary schools will be completely closed, others will have particular year groups in and a similar pattern in lots of primary schools.” In Scotland, many schools will close due to strike action by members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and NASUWT on Tuesday and Wednesday over their long-running pay dispute. This week’s action comes almost four weeks after the NEU staged its first day of strike action, which closed thousands of schools across the country – some partially, others entirely. The Department for Education said 9.3% of state schools in England were entirely closed by the industrial action and 44.7% were left partially open with restricted attendance. Fewer than one in five secondary schools (17.4%) were fully open, compared with just 52.1% of primary schools. Last week the government offered to move to formal talks on pay if the union agreed to suspend its planned strike action. The union rejected the offer, saying it would only pause the strike if there was significant progress. 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 Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said the government had made a serious offer to the leaders of both the NEU and Royal College of Nursing to pause this week’s strikes in return for talks about pay, conditions and reforms. “It is hugely disappointing the NEU has thus far refused this serious offer and has not joined the RCN in calling off strikes,” she said. “Instead of sitting round a table discussing pay, the NEU will once again cause disruption for children and families. “Children deserve to be in school, and further strike action is simply unforgivable, especially after everything children have been through because of the pandemic.”

Nick Levinson obituary

2023-08-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/20/nick-levinson-obituary

My friend and former colleague Nick Levinson, who has died aged 80, was a pioneering TV producer of Open University (OU) arts programming with the BBC, who helped transform public and academic interest in western art history and architecture. His work covered a range of subjects from the European Renaissance through to modernism and on to the contemporary art of Africa, India and First Nations Australia. For more than 50 years the inspirational impact of the OU and its public programming has reached into every part of British society, and much of that success was due to the creative talent of the first generation of academics and producers. Nick retained those personal characteristics until he retired in 1998, with 188 OU production credits to his name. Nick first worked in BBC music and arts as a researcher in the mid-1960s but discovered his metier when the OU was founded in 1969 and the BBC began recruiting production staff. He joined the fledgling enterprise at Alexandra Palace to create and develop, with academic colleagues at Milton Keynes, a new distance learning experience using TV and radio. Of the 22 OU arts courses on which Nick worked as BBC series producer, several, including history of architecture and design 1890-1939 (1975-1982), and modern art and modernism (1983-1992) are themselves now the subject of PhD theses. His filming took him all over Europe, to Africa, India, the US and Australia. Nick was born in London to Frank Levinson, a solicitor, and Sylvia (nee Schloss), a keen pianist. Brought up to have a wide interest in the arts, Nick went to St Christopher school, Letchworth, a frontrunner in progressive co-education founded on the tenets of theosophy, equality and vegetarianism. He then studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In 1966, just after he completed his BA, the river Arno burst its banks, flooding the heart of Florence and endangering its heritage. Nick joined the army of international volunteers that rushed to save what could be salvaged, spending months in mud, forging deep friendships and a lifelong passion for Tuscany. Nick met Deanna Hatcher, a production assistant, at the BBC and they married in 1971. She was a mainstay in his passions for renovating houses, collecting art, creating gardens and appreciating nature. Deanna died in 2022. Nick is survived by their children, Selina and Charlie, and three grandchildren, Arthur, Heena and Sheba.

Students can make provocative remarks if they do not break law, watchdog says

2023-12-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/14/students-can-make-provocative-remarks-if-they-do-not-break-law-watchdog-says

Arif Ahmed of OfS says universities that infringe rights to expression will face fines under new system University staff and students can make provocative statements on subjects such as Israel and Gaza as long as they do not break laws on incitement or harassment, under proposals by the government’s campus free speech tsar. Arif Ahmed, the newly appointed director for academic freedom of speech at the Office for Students (OfS), said universities and colleges in England that infringed the rights to expression of individuals would face fines under the new complaints process. Ahmed said he would not pronounce whether students or staff voicing support for a “global intifada” against Israel, or the use of slogans such as “from the river to the sea”, would be protected by the new rules before their introduction in August. “I’d be reluctant to say any particular phrase is always going to be acceptable or always not, because with many of these things it’s going to be depend on a variety of factors. I’m definitely not going to say: oh you can always say something or you can never say something, for that reason,” Ahmed said. “There’s always going to be the line between what the law permits and what the law doesn’t permit. Speech that amounts to illegal harassment, stirring up racial hatred, inciting violence, stirring up religious hatred – none of that would be protected.” The limits of free speech and antisemitism on campus have become controversial in the US after a congressional hearing in which the leaders of three elite universities appeared to equivocate over how to deal with statements supporting genocide against Jews. Elizabeth Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned shortly after last week’s hearing, in which she said it was “a context-dependent decision” on whether supporting genocide was bullying or harassment. Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, apologised for her remarks at the hearing but also faced calls to resign. Asked about the US examples, Ahmed said: “I can’t really get into individual cases. I will say, however, that speech that incites violence, speech that amounts to illegal harassment, speech that stirs up racial hatred, that will not be protected under any circumstances. And the reason that I can say that is because that fits into existing legal constraints.” Students, staff and others will be able to lodge a complaint with the OfS if they feel penalised by a university or student union for exercising their right to free speech. The provisions will cover visiting speakers whose invitations are cancelled. Ahmed said it was important that students and academics “be allowed to hear and discuss a whole range of views, including ones that they might find controversial or offensive, or distasteful or shocking”. He said: “All we’re concerned with is the protection of legal speech. That is, if your expression or view is within the law then it falls within the scope of our protections. If it’s not then it doesn’t.” The OfS has issued a consultation on applying its rules to student unions, which face regulation on free speech issues for the first time. One of the OfS’s first tasks will be to draw up a list of student unions in England that it will oversee, as well as issuing guidance on their duties under the law and monitoring their compliance including the creation of codes of conduct. A spokesperson for NUS Charity, which supports student unions, said: “Student unions understand they have an important role to play in maintaining campus cohesion, and that includes facilitating debates in a supportive, collegiate and equitable environment. “There is potential for these responsibilities to conflict and a delicate balance must be struck between them. We look forward to responding to the consultation and continuing to work with the OfS and other sector partners to ascertain exactly where that balance may lie, and to further promote freedom of expression.” Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said it would “carefully consider” the OfS’s proposals. “It is crucial that the OfS and the sector as a whole works together to ensure that everyone on campus feels able to share their lawful views and opinions,” a UUK spokesperson said. It has emerged that universities lobbied the government over a proposed amendment to the higher education free speech bill that aimed to reveal the sources of overseas donations above £50,000. An investigation by the OpenDemocracy news site found that the University of Cambridge was among those that lobbied against the proposal last year, telling the government it would “have a hugely damaging impact” on donations. Since 2017, Russell Group universities have received anonymous donations worth £281m, including those from overseas, the investigation found.

Parents ‘horrified’ by response to petition after suicide of Bristol student

2023-02-05

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/05/parents-horrified-by-response-to-petition-after-suicide-of-bristol-student

Government declines to act on call for legal duty of care for all students after death of Natasha Abrahart in 2018 The parents of Natasha Abrahart, who took her own life while studying at the University of Bristol, have reacted with “absolute horror” to the government’s response to their petition calling for a statutory legal duty of care for all students in higher education. The Abraharts are one of 25 bereaved families who helped launch a parliamentary petition last October, calling on ministers to pass legislation to better protect students and arguing that their mental health, safety and wellbeing should be a government priority. The government’s response says higher education providers already have “a general duty of care” not to cause harm to their students through their own actions. This has enraged families who have lost children to suicide, who say it is meaningless in the absence of a commitment to establish a statutory duty of care. Natasha’s father, Robert Abrahart, 66, a retired university lecturer, said he was horrified by the response and accused the government of ducking the issue. “If the government agrees with us that students deserve the protection of a legal duty of care then it should introduce a bill in parliament rather than making bland statements.” The government’s response, published last month, comes as a new campaign is launched to support bereaved parents’ demands. #ForThe100, named for the 100 students the campaign estimates are lost to suicide every year in the UK, will be launched on Monday to win wider support for the petition, which currently has over 15,000 signatures. Once 100,000 have been collected, it will be considered for a debate in parliament. According to the Office for National Statistics, the suicide rate for higher education students in the academic year ending 2020, the latest figures available, in England and Wales was three deaths per 100,000 students – 64 deaths – which is thought to be the lowest rate over the previous four years. A #ForThe100 statement said: “The duty of care being called for is similar to that prevailing under employment law, that universities should have a statutory duty of care to protect their students from reasonably foreseeable harm, caused either by direct injury or by failing to act. “In work, or in education, 18- to 21-year-olds are vulnerable enough to warrant this duty, and since providers are happy to take their fees, they should also take on this duty of care. This is not just about suicide prevention; everybody will benefit from improved decision-making within the sector.” Natasha Abrahart, who was in the second year of an undergraduate physics degree, suffered from severe social anxiety and took her own life in 2018, on the day she was due to face an oral exam in front of tutors and fellow students. A judge ruled that Bristol University failed to make adequate adjustments to how it assessed her academic work. Gus Silverman, a human rights lawyer who represented the Abraharts, as well as the families of other students who have taken their lives, said Natasha’s parents were able to get some measure of justice because the particular requirements of the Equality Act, in that her severe anxiety was a disability, were met in her case. “However, unless they are able to establish the existence of a duty of care in negligence, many families and students will find it very difficult to hold universities accountable through the courts, including where a death has tragically occurred. “The government now has an opportunity to clearly define in statute the legal duties owed by universities to students. Failing to seize this opportunity risks preventing access to justice through the courts.” A spokesperson for Universities UK, an umbrella organisation for 140 universities, said: “It is for government to decide the legal framework within which universities operate, but it is essential that any additional duty does not result in unintended consequences for students and improves mental health outcomes and safety for all.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Natasha’s story is truly heart-breaking and we offer our sincerest condolences to all of her loved ones. “The mental health and wellbeing of students, including suicide prevention, is of paramount importance to the government which is why we have asked the Office for Students to allocate £15m towards student mental health and asked the Office for National Statistics to provide a more regular analysis of student suicide data. “Since we appointed Edward Peck as higher education’s first ever student support champion, he has been speaking directly to bereaved parents, to understand how practice in this area can be improved. We are also backing the university mental health charter, led by Student Minds which supports universities to adopt a whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing.” This article was amended on 6 February 2023, updating the supplied quote from the Department for Education to make clear that the organisation it has asked to provide a more regular analysis of student suicide data is the Office for National Statistics, not the Office for Students as an earlier version indicated. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Calls to end one-to-one tuition after misconduct claim at Royal College of Music

2023-10-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/07/scrap-one-to-one-music-tuition-says-julian-lloyd-webber-as-professor-faces-misconduct-claims

Julian Lloyd Webber recommends teaching in groups after Royal College of Music professor is suspended following allegations All one-to-one music teaching of young students should be dropped by classical academies and conservatoires, according to the virtuoso cellist and campaigner Julian Lloyd Webber. He made his comments in reaction to news that a senior professor at the internationally renowned Royal College of Music in London has been suspended after allegations of misconduct. “There is no need for one-to-one tuition to continue,” said Lloyd Webber, who studied at the college in Kensington as a boy, following in the footsteps of his older brother Andrew and their father, the composer William Lloyd Webber, who was a professor there for many years. “I personally think groups of three are the best size now for any lesson. It would mean there was much more openness and accountability.” The suspension of Mark Messenger, 59, who has been head of strings at the RCM for 20 years, was confirmed on Friday after what it described as “complaints received”. Students in his department, which draws applications from around the world for its 220 places, were informed in an email that their professor’s period of leave would take effect immediately “for personal reasons”. Messenger, a professional violinist and conductor as well as a teacher, oversees the selection of students and then steers their education, recommending the most talented players for places in some of Britain’s top orchestras. The college, which opened in 1883, has educated many great British composers, including Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten, while King Charles has been its president for 30 years. Speaking anonymously to the Observer last week, a recent former student said that procedures for reporting and preventing alleged abuse and misconduct at the college had been criticised for some time. String players, she said, were often particularly worried about upsetting the teaching staff or being accused of causing trouble. News of Messenger’s suspension was first reported on the well-known classical music blog Slipped Disc. Lloyd Webber is a teacher himself, since he stepped back from his successful concert career. He was previously principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he still occasionally teaches, and he has also promoted wider access to classical music training through the In Harmony charity. He is distressed, he said, by the prospect of damage to the reputation of the RCM, whether justified or not, and added that he believes the conventional idea that one-to-one teaching is the gold standard is neither true nor helpful. “Often students can learn from watching each other gradually improve, as well as from their teachers. It is certainly not a disadvantage for anyone and I urge institutions to impose this rule of having at least three students together for a lesson,” he said. A spokesperson for the RCM told the Observer that the “welfare and development of our students is central to the Royal College of Music”, adding that “following complaints received by the college an investigation has been launched into issues that have been raised and a member of staff has been suspended”. Messenger is believed to deny the claims made against him but has made no public comment.

Rent-a-parent: worried your child will struggle at university? Buy them a bonus mother!

2023-09-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/20/rent-a-parent-worried-your-child-will-struggle-at-university-buy-them-a-bonus-mother

For a fee, a college ‘mom’ will make your kid’s bed, bring them food and advise on their course. Just don’t expect them to turn your offspring into a fully functioning adult Name: Rent-a-parent. Age: Still in its infancy, unlike its beneficiaries, rent-a-parent is apparently a product of the pandemic. Appearance: Motherly. What fresh hell is this? It is the latest gift from the decadent death throes of late capitalism in the US: parents are paying people – well, women – to provide parenting services to their college-age kids. Parenting services for uni students? Surely that means giving them the Netflix password, and sending cash bailouts, links to articles about the dangers of ketamine, and pictures of the cat doing something “funny”? Yes, once the ritual of driving your anxious fresher hundreds of miles in a car stuffed with duvets and laundry baskets, paying for one lavish big shop, then being summarily dismissed is over, that’s the traditional way of parenting a student. If you are really unlucky, you may have to respond to a laconic 3am WhatsApp a few months later that reads “got arrested lol”, but that’s it. Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, these “college moms” do far more. Services include setting up students’ dorm rooms in their preferred colour scheme; making beds; taking in parcels; organising and accompanying students to medical appointments; bringing over soup; and even advising on which courses and teachers to choose. Advice you say? We all know how much young adults love getting that from parents. Maybe it goes down better when you are not related? One college mom who was interviewed said she “has been around long enough to know, for instance, which instructors give an easy A”. I strongly object to the use of the word “mom” for this helicopter parenting by proxy. Yes, it’s maddening, if unsurprising and not entirely new. The concept of “sorority house moms” – employed to look after domestic matters and deal with emotional drama in those weird residential sisterhoods named after a Greek letter – is a well-established part of US college culture. The maternal load may never end, but it can be outsourced for $10,000 for an academic year (that’s how much Concierge Services for Students in Boston, which describes itself as “a mom away from home”, charges). Isn’t the point of university that it is a time of heady, chaotic independence – shrinking all your clothes, blocking the toilet, eating nothing but kebabs, never cleaning or refrigerating anything? That’s the real education. Yes, scurvy and salmonella definitely made us the people we are today. How will any of these kids become functional adults if they are treated like helpless babies? I expect the crushing disappointment of real life once these services are withdrawn at graduation will do the trick. Do say: “I’ve changed your sheets, ironed your jammies, cleaned the loo, popped on a load of washing and made you a lasagne, darling.” Don’t say: “That will be £450 plus VAT and any gratuity you feel is appropriate.”

Meet the rebellious researchers embracing rap, magic and circus acts

2022-06-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/04/meet-the-rebellious-researchers-embracing-rap-magic-and-circus-acts

Academics rise against the conventions of higher education, such as scholarly journals and conferences, in a new book Hip-hop poetry, magic and circus acts should be embraced by academics to make their work more effective and help them spread their findings among a wider audience, according to researchers calling for a “rebellion” against traditional forms of output. The group, which includes academics from the UK, Europe and Australia, is publishing a book that sets out how researchers can “rise up and rebel” against the conventions of higher education which make speaking at academic conferences and publishing articles in scholarly journals the main methods of disseminating research. The case studies in the book – Doing Rebellious Research in and Beyond the Academy, to be launched on Monday – include a University of Cambridge researcher who created podcasts to collect material on how students were affected by Covid and released an album of the results on Spotify. Slam poetry recitals were also used by academics to discuss young people’s experiences of social injustice, and high-wire circus acts employed to explore risk-taking and collaboration. Prof Pamela Burnard, one of the co-editors of the book, said there was an urgent need for academics to communicate more clearly and “be more engaging, more fascinating and more impactful”, or risk being drowned out by the cacophony of modern media. “I’ve got colleagues who don’t come to research seminars, because they just want to sit in their silo in research and just do what they’ve always done; they haven’t had to get out into the real world solving real-world problems,” Burnard said. “It’s actually about more than just reaching a wider group and selling more copies. It’s about putting forward new knowledge and new ways of knowing and, in doing that, actually relate to new solutions to societal problems. Why can’t academics speak to people who haven’t got a degree?” Burnard points to one of the book’s case studies, the rap artist and educator Breis, who runs workshops on creating verse and improving literacy skills through hip-hop. “Through the art of rap and movement, I was able to engage with hard-to-reach students. I got them creating raps around different topics,” Breis writes. This led to the students producing anthologies, music videos and performances that were a “huge success” with the children as well as their teachers and parents. Another example in the book is the Academy of Magic and Science, created by staff at the University of Cambridge and Judge Business School. Its magic shows introduce audiences to connections between diverse subjects such as engineering and psychology, and aim “to provoke curiosity and surprise” when presenting research. Similarly, Stockholm University of the Arts uses its Department of Circus to test human ability and self-control, and to study teamwork in high-risk environments. Simone Eringfeld, from the University of Cambridge, said she sought out non-traditional methods of presenting her research as she gathered evidence from students about their experiences of higher education during the Covid pandemic. Eringfeld created a podcast that attracted listeners and guests, and then used their data and testimony in poetry that she put to music and released as an album on Spotify, culminating in a tour to universities. “I wanted to reach audiences within and beyond academia. And by podcasting and with the album I produced, I was able to reach people who otherwise would not be reading journal articles,” Eringfeld said. “Tracks from the album, for instance, were played by the BBC and places like that. I suddenly have a lot of people showing interest in this work. They’re just not reading a journal article. That’s a very limited way of putting out research results because it’s only read by fellow academics. And this project was meant for a much bigger audience. “I had collected all these interviews, and people had spoken about their feelings, about their experiences during the pandemic – often in very emotional conversations. But when you transcribe it into written text, you lose a lot of the knowledge that is embedded in how we use our voices. “If you just read something, you don’t hear how someone is speaking those words, if they’re hesitating, if they’re silenced, if they’re angry, if they’re joking – you miss out on a lot of those layers.” “Research drabbling” is a technique used by Draw (Departing Radically in Academic Writing) in Australia, where postgraduate students summarise their thesis in 100 words of stream-of-consciousness. Students say it helps them make their work “more human” and focus on why they wanted to do the research in the first place. Helen Johnson, a psychologist at the University of Brighton’s Centre for Arts and Wellbeing, uses slam poetry and spoken word art to help marginalised young people talk openly about their experience of social injustice. She says that poetry can be used to challenge established notions “of what research and knowledge look like”. Cambridge’s Academy of Magic and Science is supported by the International Federation of Magic Societies. It aims to “innovate science outreach” by using magic as the springboard for learning about everything from chemistry and electronics to physiology and psychology, and helping people discover the scientific principles behind perceptions and biases. Finland’s Hallå Steam programme introduces students to the French mathematician Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis and the Swedish scientist Anders Celsius via a “performative recasting of history, science, art, language and education”. It explores the discoveries that resulted from their 18th-century expedition to Lapland, including Celsius’s experiments for a new thermometer and Maupertuis’s efforts to prove the shape of the Earth.

Services in England for children with special needs to be ‘transformed’

2023-03-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/02/special-needs-services-children-england-plan

Government’s long-awaited plan promises thousands more specialist school places and new national standards Services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England are to be “transformed”, with the introduction of new national standards and thousands more specialist school places, ministers have announced. The long-awaited changes are being introduced to end the postcode lottery that families currently face and ensure that children and young people with Send get “high-quality, early support” wherever they live, the government says. As part of its Send and alternative provision (AP) improvement plan, the government has identified local authorities in England where 33 new special schools will be built as part of the free school programme to try to ease pressure on special school places. New national standards will be drawn up so families know what support they should receive, who will provide it and who pays. In addition, the process for assessing children and young people’s needs through education health and care plans (EHCPs) will be standardised and made digital-first. Many in the sector were underwhelmed by the plan at first sight. Stephen Kingdom, campaign manager for the Disabled Children’s Partnership, said: “Parents have been waiting years for the government to fix the broken Send system, but the reaction of many to today’s plan will be, “Is that it?”. The government’s Send improvement plan will be published in full on Thursday, almost a year after its Send green paper and consultation, which prompted 6,000 responses, many from families who have struggled to get the support to which their children are legally entitled. It will give more detail on investment in expanded training for 5,000 early years special educational needs coordinators and 400 educational psychologists, plus the introduction of an apprenticeship for teachers of children with sensory impairments. “We are pleased to see a focus on workforce, and the plans to standardise EHCPs could be beneficial,” Kingdom said. “But, overall, this plan falls short of the urgent access needed to address the crisis in support for children with Send and their families, which has let down a generation of children. The Department for Education (DfE) said an additional £30m would be set aside to develop innovative approaches to short breaks to provide respite for families of children with complex needs. It will also fund local areas to develop new services, including play, sports, arts and independent living activities to give parents more time to themselves. Claire Coutinho, minister for children, families and wellbeing, said: “Parents know that their children only get one shot at education and this can have an enormous impact on their child’s ability to get on with life. Yet for some parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities, getting their child that superb education that everyone deserves can feel like a full-time job. “The improvement plan that we are publishing today sets out systemic reforms to standards, teacher training and access to specialists as well as thousands of new places at specialist schools so that every child gets the help they need.” Margaret Mulholland, Send and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, expressed concern about the length of time it will take to implement some of the policies. “More special schools are desperately needed, but will take years to build. “The promise of additional places in the future will be of no comfort to those missing out right now who have a special school named on their EHCP but who can’t get a place as the relevant school is oversubscribed. Nor will it help the mainstream schools currently struggling to meet the needs of these pupils. We are yet to see anything to suggest the government understands the gravity of the situation and the urgency with which they need to act.” Linda Cantrill, 53, from Exmouth, in Devon, has eight-year-old twins – Reddington, who has complex needs including hearing and visual impairment and is non-verbal, and Teddy. “All this time and the government is still ignoring disabled children’s needs,” 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 “Here in Devon we have been the guinea pigs for digitising EHCPs, and it is a disaster. The programme is not user-friendly and confuses professionals, let alone parents. We’ve had other children’s reports on our sons’ EHCPs. “Who is going to staff the new schools? There is a huge shortage of specialist staff. Children who fall between the gaps will still fall between the gaps. Stuck in alternative provision that bunches them together with untrained staff, they won’t be educated – they will be babysat. I despair.” The children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, said: “I am particularly pleased to see this plan’s focus on early help, which will prevent families from reaching breaking point, and the increase in specialist school places so that many more children are able to attend a great school, every day.” Jo Hutchinson, director for Send and additional needs at the Education Policy Institute, said: “These plans include some important incremental improvements but they fall short of being transformational. The government must set out a detailed assessment of how many additional special school places are required, of what kinds and where, and how its pipeline of new special schools will meet that need.” The shadow children and early years minister, Helen Hayes, said: “This unambitious plan won’t meet children’s needs or end the scandal of families facing lengthy court battles.” The Local Government Association, which represents councils – some of which have built up huge deficits in their Send budgets – was also critical. Louise Gittins, chair of the children and young people board, said the government’s measures “do not go far enough in addressing the fundamental cost and demand issues that result in councils struggling to meet the needs of children with Send”.

Poor housing a growing barrier to school attendance in England, charity reveals

2023-05-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/14/poor-housing-a-growing-barrier-to-school-attendance-in-england-charity-reveals

Exclusive: School-Home Support finds proportion of children citing such concerns has risen 73% year on year Insecure, unsuitable and poor-quality housing is increasingly a barrier to children going to school, according to an education charity that works with persistently absent pupils and their families to improve school attendance in England. School-Home Support (SHS), which tries to address the root causes of high absence rates through whole-family support, says 19% of the pupils it works with cite where they live as a major barrier to school attendance. The data comes at a time when ministers, policymakers and school leaders are increasingly concerned about higher levels of absence in many schools in England since the Covid pandemic, and are developing initiatives to try to get children back into class. The proportion of children citing housing concerns as an obstacle to attendance jumped from 11% last year to 19% this academic year, an increase of 73%, according to SHS, which says housing is now one of the top three issues for pupils it supports. The other two are feelings and behaviour, cited by 27% of respondents, and confidence and self-esteem, cited by 25%. The data is drawn from a cohort of 383 young people whom the charity worked with in the 2022-23 autumn and spring terms. The children it works with include those whose families may have been forced to move into temporary accommodation or an emergency refuge for their own safety, and suddenly find themselves a long way from school. Unsuitable housing, or poor housing where there is no space to study or do homework, also make it challenging for pupils to engage with their studies and attend school regularly, the charity says. Attendance data from the Department for Education (DfE) reveals that absences in the spring term this year were still 50% higher than before the pandemic, while in 2021-22 more than one in five secondary pupils were “persistently absent”, missing 10% or more of sessions. Increased anxiety and lack of mental health support are thought to be among other factors behind the increase in children missing school since the Covid pandemic, with some children struggling to even leave the house. In one SHS case study, Ben (not his real name) and his mother were living in a refuge after a domestic violence incident. The refuge was miles away from school and Ben’s mother was unable to afford the bus fare every day, so he missed one in five classes a week. The family was referred to SHS, which worked with them to secure council housing. Their support worker also encouraged Ben to join the school homework club to catch up on missed lessons and his attendance improved. 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 SHS’s chief executive officer, Jaine Stannard, acknowledged recent government efforts to improve attendance, but said schools needed dedicated funding to provide pastoral as well as academic catch-up support for those children struggling to engage. “Our remit is to improve attendance, but when practitioners start to work with a family, the priority is to find out what is going on for that family and dig a little deeper into barriers to school. “If you are living in temporary accommodation miles away from school or have spent the last night in a car, that needs to be the priority conversation. There are no quick fixes. Conversations about attendance can come later on. By addressing underlying causes of poor attendance early on, we can prevent issues from escalating.” A government spokesperson said: “Schools, trusts and local authorities should always work together with other local partners to understand the barriers to attendance and provide support for families where needed.”

Ofsted bows to pressure and halts inspections after Ruth Perry’s suicide

2024-01-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/02/ofsted-bows-to-pressure-and-halts-inspections-after-ruth-perrys-suicide

New leader Martyn Oliver says he will heed unions’ call, after coroner ruled inspection had contributed to headteacher’s death Ofsted inspections will be halted until assessors have been properly trained in protecting the wellbeing of school staff, the watchdog’s new chief has announced, after a headteacher’s suicide. Martyn Oliver becomes the chief inspector of education in England on Tuesday, and has pledged to launch an inquiry into Ofsted’s involvement in the death of Ruth Perry. Last month a coroner ruled the inspection of Perry’s school had contributed to her death, and issued a “prevention of future deaths” notice listing a string of issues for the body to address urgently. Unions later called for all inspections to be suspended in the interim. Oliver said he would heed their call until staff received “immediate training and support” on alleviating the stress put on teachers during inspections, with only emergency safeguarding visits going ahead when schools reopen this week. “We’re not going to start inspecting until that initial training has been put in place,” Oliver said. “But this training is not just a one-off, it is part of a series that will significantly upskill all of our inspectors in how to manage the wellbeing of those we’re inspecting.” He described how, as the former chief executive of a chain of academies, hearing of the death of a fellow school leader had come as a “great shock”. Perry’s family, including her sister Prof Julia Waters, said Ofsted’s handling of its inspection led to a fatal erosion in Perry’s mental health, after the school she had led for more than a decade – Caversham primary in Reading – was labelled inadequate. Oliver said responding to Perry’s death was a critical moment for the inspectorate and that Ofsted needed to make a “fresh start” by overhauling its procedures to win back the trust of the teaching profession and parents. “First and foremost, I give my heartfelt condolences to Ruth’s family. I’ve reached out and Ruth’s sister, Prof Waters, has agreed to meeting me very early in January. Under these dreadful circumstances, I look forward to meeting her and to listening to the family’s views,” Oliver said. He added: “The prevention of future deaths notice from the coroner is an important moment for Ofsted and one that it will, under my leadership, definitely take most seriously. It’s a critical report, and we need to respond to it fully. That means immediate training and support.” His predecessor, Amanda Spielman, came under fire last month after a briefing memo revealed Ofsted’s lead inspectors would spend just 90 minutes on a briefing to address concerns raised by Perry’s suicide. Oliver has worked for 28 years as a teacher and school leader in the east Midlands and the north of England, most recently as chief executive of the Outwood Grange academies trust based in West Yorkshire, which runs 41 schools. In that time, he said he had personally taken part in 96 Ofsted inspections, making him well aware of the impact Ofsted’s visits could have. Oliver said: “It’s really important that we have a fresh start. I accept that there are criticisms, and the coroner’s critical findings, that we must take action on. If we don’t have that moment of acceptance, we can’t possibly move forward. “And so I do think it’s important that we actually learn from this moment and that we do look at ourselves and conduct a review of our work. And that I listen carefully, not just to teachers but to parents.” Many schools in England were still affected by the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, he added, with teachers struggling with disruptive behaviour and poor attendance – as well as the cost of living crisis and mental health issues affecting children. “The moment of lockdown and then returning, for some children not fully returning to school, has broken that social contract with parents,” Oliver said. “Teaching is a really difficult job. If you’ve got a class of 30 and five children are absent one day and then the next day five other children are absent and you’ve got the first five returning, you’re trying to constantly manage that. That’s making a difficult job even more stressful. “And so I look at attendance, I look at behaviour, I look at the mental health challenge that we’ve got. You throw into that the cost of living crisis, the recruitment and retention challenge for teachers. You put all of that into the mix and, yes, it’s really hard right now for teachers.” 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

‘I’m worried about her safety’: parents voice fears over school’s concrete

2023-09-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/im-worried-about-her-safety-parents-voice-fears-over-schools-concrete

Parents outside a secondary school in west London describe impact of the alert over crumbling concrete The first day of secondary school is always a daunting experience – and it is especially so this term for year 7s in west London starting at a school with crumbling concrete panels. Parents outside the school gates at the Ellen Wilkinson school in Ealing, west London, said they had spent the weekend worrying for their children’s safety. Parents received an email on Friday saying there were concrete panels in the canteen, science block, old gym and a hall, and that the school would open as planned on Monday, but these buildings would be shut for repairs. “I’m worried about her safety – I really hope the other parts of the building are OK,” said Rebecca Hegarty of her daughter. “I don’t want her to get in any accident, so that made me dubious about sending her in. I heard that they were closing other schools and sending kids home. With her starting school, I’d prefer she got a full education.” Because the canteen was closed, busy parents had to make packed lunches for their children. Hegarty’s daughter is on free school meals, and although the school has said it will send out vouchers for food, Hegarty had not received one. “So that’s an extra cost,” she said. She was irked at the thought that ministers had known about the problems with crumbling concrete for some time. “If the government knew there was a problem, then we should have been informed.” Her views were shared by Melanie Momdjian. “I was concerned. I think they should have done something during summer instead of letting us know last minute. It’s another concern to add to everyday problems,” Momdjian said. Jacqueline Nuth said her family had chosen not to share the full details of the concrete problems with her granddaughter as she suffered from anxiety that they did not want to exacerbate. She said her granddaughter had been disappointed not to be able to use the school canteen and pay for her own lunch with a money card, which she felt was a valuable lesson in independence and responsibility. She said the need for a packed lunch was a “nuisance with the family dynamics”. “It’s lucky I’m available,” she said. Hanen Osman said she had been surprised to learn of the problems at such late notice, but not surprised that the issue had been rumbling on unaddressed, as she had observed crumbling buildings in her daughter’s former private school. “There has to be better health and safety, more checks before they open school – they have to contact parents. If they could have sent the email a week ago … A couple of days’ notice is not reasonable,” she said. Ellen Wilkinson school did not respond to requests for comment.

Push for civil servants to return to office backfires as DfE runs out of desks

2022-05-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/may/20/department-for-education-desk-shortage-staff-working-chaotic-conditions

Department for Education ordered workers to spend 80% of their time in the office leading to ‘chaotic’ conditions Downing Street’s demands that civil servants get back to the office has backfired for the Department for Education, where desk shortages have resulted in staff being sent home and others forced to work in “chaotic” conditions. Officials working in cramped corridors or sharing desks have led to protests from civil service unions to Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, who last month ordered an end to homeworking after pressure from the efficiency minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg. The extent of the chaos was revealed by Schools Week which reported that Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, had ordered staff to spend 80% of their time in the office – despite the DfE having twice as many staff as desks. Civil servants said the first week of the new policy was “chaotic”, with staff milling around trying to find space to sit and canteen tables being taken up. One described the DfE’s Great Smith Street office as like “a tube station in rush hour” after the new policy was implemented. One said they had attended a meeting on a landing, describing the atmosphere as “less like the West Wing, and more like The Thick of It”. According to Schools Week, the DfE has 4,200 desks for 8,000 full-time staff in its 12 offices across England, including just 95 desks for nearly 300 staff in Bristol, and 24 desks for 110 staff in Leeds. It reported that some staff at the DfE’s office in Sheffield had been sent home because of overcrowding, as nearly 1,500 staff tried to use the 790 desks. As with many government departments, working from home was widely practised at the DfE before the pandemic. About 60-70% of DfE staff typically worked from home or had flexible working patterns on a daily basis, and in recent years the DfE’s office space has shrunk to reflect that. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the union, said the new policy would affect recruitment and staff retention. “Our members have worked flexibly for many years and deserve to be treated with respect, not like naughty schoolchildren,” said Serwotka, who has written to Zahawi on behalf of his members. “To try to shame them back into the office when they have been working hard and successfully at home throughout the pandemic is bad enough. But when there aren’t enough desks – when it’s not physically possible – looks like the action of a bully.” The First Division Association, which represents senior civil servants, said it had been “inundated” with complaints from its members. “We are also aware of members whose pre-pandemic flexible working arrangements are now deemed unacceptable, which is impacting working parents and those with caring responsibilities,” the FDA’s Helen Kenny told Schools Week. Zahawi’s decision to push staff back into the office followed the DfE coming bottom of a league table of in-person attendance, compiled by Rees-Mogg. Last month, it was reported that Rees-Mogg had been leaving notes on empty desks in Whitehall, as part of an effort to shame civil servants back into the office. Stephen Morgan, shadow schools ministers, said: “Instead of acting as glorified hall monitors, ministers should be spending their time tackling the day-to-day challenges children and teachers are facing.” A government spokesperson said: “Ministers have been clear that departments should make maximum use of office space and progress is being monitored.”

Teachers’ unions promise new strike ballots if walkout numbers miss threshold

2023-01-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/15/teachers-unions-new-strike-ballots-naht-threshold

Results due from more unions tomorrow, as NAHT chief stresses that disputes over pay haven’t gone away Teaching unions are warning they will be forced to reballot their members over strike action in the coming months if ministers continue to resist a “sensible solution” to the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Three unions had been threatening walkouts over pay, which they say has led to teachers and teaching assistants making the “heartbreaking” decision to leave the profession. Last week it was revealed that despite about 90% of NASUWT members voting in favour of industrial action, the turnout, 42%, was below the required 50% threshold. Two more unions, the NEU and NAHT, will announce the results of their ballots on 16 January. While hopes within the unions remain high that the strike action will be approved, some unions are warning that the strong support already demonstrated for strike action means they will feel obliged to launch a new attempt for walkouts should pay talks fail to progress. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, told the Observer that heads and teachers would expect their unions to keep fighting. “I think it’s fair to say that just because a technical threshold hasn’t been met, the disputes don’t go away,” he said. “Members will still be expecting their union to find a solution with the employer. If a sensible solution isn’t reached, there’s always the possibility that members will vote in a second ballot, with those thresholds being met. If there is any relief the government might be feeling, they should think again.” Unions are already concerned that ballot papers may not have reached all members, and the effects of postal disruption will also be examined if the 50% turnout threshold is not met. Whiteman warned that the erosion of pay over a decade was now putting huge pressure on teaching staff’’s vocational drive, with “heartbroken” teaching assistants now regularly being offered major pay increases to move into retail jobs. “We’ve got this stupid situation at the moment in which highly skilled, very well-trained teaching assistants can garner more money working in a supermarket than they can looking after vulnerable children. Headteachers tell me that teaching assistants or support staff often bring them their resignation letter in tears. They have to leave the job they love and the children they love to support and are heavily invested in, because they can’t make ends meet. And supermarkets are able to pay them significantly more. “At the moment there are huge numbers of children who don’t have a subject specialist teaching them. We don’t have enough maths teachers, we don’t have enough physics teachers, and we are finding it difficult to replace headteachers. “The same crisis that you see in health is happening in education. The reason it isn’t so apparent or so dramatic is because people don’t die in school. But they don’t get educated either. If we don’t invest in that education, it has a very long-term impact on our country’s ability to be a major player on the world stage.” More talks are expected between teaching unions and the Department for Education this week, despite a lack of progress so far. Some hope ministers will use discussions over the coming year’s pay deal to resolve the ongoing dispute over last year’s settlement. Most state school teachers in England and Wales had a below-inflation 5% pay rise in 2022. The Observer has been told that most state schools in England and Wales will have to close completely on several days in February and March if the country’s biggest teaching union, the NEU, votes for industrial action. The NAHT’s ballot over pay is the first in its 125-year history. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “After two years of disrupted education for children and young people, families will be relieved that teachers from NASUWT did not choose to strike. The education secretary has arranged further meetings with union leaders to avoid harmful strike action. We have already met the unions’ request for a further £2bn for schools both next year and the year after in the autumn statement, and given teachers their highest pay award in 30 years.”