Education Update – September – December 2014

Education Update – September - December 2014

Selected items from the national scene as reported by TES

12^th September 2014

New Education Secretary

Nicky Morgan denied reports that the Conservative Manifesto would call for classes to be set by ability.  There is unlikely to be a change from Gove’s policies re national curriculum levels and tougher GCSEs.  She has announced a controversial policy requiring secondary schools to enter all pupils for GCSEs that are part of the English Baccalaureate performance measure.  She argued that universities and employees “look out for” these so it will give more options to students.  Ms Morgan also wants to improve careers advice and establish better links between business and schools, as well as a greater focus on the mental health of pupils.

19^th September 2014

Ofsted changes its focus

Concerns that too much emphasis is being placed on English and Maths in Primary schools are causing Ofsted to reconsider their focus to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum, Ofsted’s national director of schools, Mr. Michael Cladingbowl, reported to TES.  Greater weight will be placed on the wider curriculum in both Primary and Secondary schools.  A new national curriculum for both sets of schools was introduced this month.

New Report on Pedagogy

A new report on effective teaching published by Pearson will explore key attributes of excellent teachers.  The report, ‘Exploring Effective Pedagogy in Primary Schools’ is available at https://research.pearson.com/articles/explore-eppse.html

The report identifies five skills of importance to be excellent teachers.  They are: 1) ensuring a positive classroom environment, including good behaviour 2) being organised 3) tailoring teaching to individual students 4) using open questions 5) providing opportunities to explore new concepts.  The report has drawn observation from many research papers.

New C of E Report

An internal review of RE in Church of England schools has discovered serious problems in RE standards with the majority of Primary schools failing to reach ‘good’ standards of teaching.  Among 30 primaries visited, only 12 had ‘good’ or ‘better’ RE provision; only one was judged ‘outstanding’ and the teaching in five was judged ‘inadequate’.  The survey revealed confusion about the relation of RE to the wider curriculum and a lack of access to effective training.  However, the report described a very positive picture of RE in Secondary schools where inspectors judged 21 out of 30 secondaries to be ‘good’ or better at teaching RE and 7 schools were ‘outstanding’.

26^th September 2014

School Direct: a mixed result

School Direct, the government programme enabling schools to recruit their own trainees, has had mixed results, according to research by Prof. John Hawson, a teacher recruitment specialist.  It is not effective in ICT, Music, RE and Biology.  Design & Technology and Physics are also ‘at risk’.  Some other subjects are meeting targets e.g. History, Languages, PE and Chemistry.  If the pattern continues, Prof. Hawson forecasts ‘a teacher supply crisis of a magnitude not seen since the early 2000s.’

Secondary Measure: progress 8 affecting less able students?

Prof. Simon Burgess, who devised the new key performance measure which will replace the benchmark of 5 A*-C GCSE grades, believes it could cause schools to ‘ignore low performers’.

Teach First

An elite group of private schools, including Eton College and Harrow School, is devising its own version.  The group, The Headmasters’ and Headmistresses Conference (HMC) will hand-pick graduates from Oxbridge and Russell group universities.  The group has fears that the provision of quality teachers through traditional university training routes could be under threat.

Safeguarding

An exclusive poll of 1200 plus headteachers, teachers and support staff by TES and Children’s charity the NSPCC has warned that two thirds of teachers have reported safeguarding issues in the past 12 months.  School leaders have warned it is often difficult to involve local authorities in cases of child neglect.  Staff in Primary schools were most likely to raise concerns.  The main issues experienced by teachers were related to low-level neglect, making assessment difficult.

NSPCC launches a new resource to help schools re: Safeguarding

The NSPCC children’s charity has launched a digital resource (Safeguarding in Education Self-assessment Tool) to help schools review their safeguarding arrangements. It is the first of its kind and aims to help teachers with advice on everyday issues and useful checklists and training materials.  To access this tool visit esat.nspcc.org.uk.

3^rd October 2014

Very short notice inspections

Inspections of private schools are likely to be made more rigorous through the increase of no-notice and short-notice inspections.  The Private Independent Inspectorate sector is being encouraged to adopt the same criteria as Ofsted but this is now being changed to cut the notice period given to independent schools, which is currently 4-5 days.  2,400 private schools operate in the UK and Ofsted inspects about half of them.

Unqualified Teachers and Free Schools

A third of free schools have employed teachers who are non-qualified according to government research.

10^th October 2014

Still poor literacy levels for many secondary pupils

Expensive reading trials, which used 3 reading schemes involving coaching, free books and specialist teaching and were given £1 million funding to help improve the link between Primary and Secondary reading levels, have made no difference to children’s progress.

In 2014 33,444 commenced secondary education with readings skills two years behind the expected.  (TES Teaching Resources)

24^th October 2014

IGCSEs devalued

The DfE has ruled that IGCSEs taken this summer (2014) from AQA and WJEC exam boards will not be treated as GCSEs in performance tables.  This has angered many heads who entered pupils this summer as they were not informed.

Teachers’ Workload Challenge

Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has called on teachers to speak out about their workloads and has provided Workload Challenge via the TES website.  According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developmen,t teachers in England work an average of 48 hours a week with 1 in 10 doing 65 hours or more.  27,500 teachers responded in the first week.

Schools required to offer more extra-curricular activities

A government commissioned report from The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission recommended that no school should be judged outstanding by Ofsted unless it offers excellent extra-curricular activities, careers advice and work experience.  The report also says that by 2025 no child should leave Primary school without attaining expected levels in Literacy and Numeracy.

31^st October 2014

£2 million pledged to oppose homophobic bullying

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has pledged £2 million to charities to educate teachers and students on the effect of homophobic bullying to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

7^th November 2014

Teachers’ salaries fall by 10% in real terms

Figures released by the government show that in real terms teachers’ pay has fallen by more than 10% in the last decade.  However, Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, has called for average pay rises to be capped at 1%.

Guide for child Protection

Download this guide at bit.ly/NSPCC leaflet

14^th November 2014

Ofsted expectations swamping teachers

Headteachers warn that Ofsted inspections now decrease the grading of individual lessons and have increased teachers’ workload through their focus on assessment and marking.  The NAHT union is lobbying Ofsted to drop this emphasis as it puts additional pressure on teachers’ marking.

Jewish schools prepared to lose marks in exams

Rabbi Pinter, principal of the voluntary-aided all-girls school, Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School, has advised pupils not to answer exam questions on evolution, homosexuality and street culture because it is not part of the school’s ethos.  The children will lose marks but “Sometimes you pay a price for what you believe in,” he said.  A no-notice inspection caused the school, the largest Jewish school in Europe, to fall in its grading from outstanding to ‘requires improvement’.

21^st November 2014

London City is now the best in performance

Between 2003 and 2011 the capital city improved from being the lowest performing of England’s 9 regions to being the best.  London’s State-school pupils score approximately 8 GCSE grades higher than other parts of the country when related to their results at age 11 years.

Vision for a better Ofsted

Tim Brighouse urges a new focus for Ofsted.  He highlights the fact that there is growing disgust with the reliability of Ofsted.  He says: “I believe the time has come to give greater respect and trust to schools by shifting the balance of inspection to a rigorous self-evaluation” which would be still extremely scrutinised and validated.  He says: “we are the only developed country with such an elaborate system of school accountability, based essentially on professional mistrust.”  He believes 1) Ofsted should concentrate on assuring the quality of school inspection.  He asks: “Is the present model of school inspection fit for purpose?”  2) Ofsted should provide reliable evidence of the quality of schooling and standards in schools; 3) Ofsted should provide independent advice to the Secretary of State for Education when he or she is considering changes in policy.

Government review on English and Maths re-takes

The government is renewing its policy of requiring all post-16 students who do not receive at least a C in GCSE English and Maths to retake exams.

Teaching is a popular career!

Teaching ranks as 2^nd most popular career aspiration for school leavers, according to a new poll.  Over half of 500 London students were found to be confident of getting their ideal job.

28^th November 2014

Teaching and overtime

A survey of 800+ staff carried out by YouGov for TES shows that almost half of headteachers and a quarter of teachers regularly work more than 18 hours overtime each week.  Nearly 1 in 7 teachers work at least 21 extra hours in a typical week.

Michael Wilshaw defends Ofsted

The Chief Inspector of Ofsted believes criticism of it is overdone.  Figures show that over 100 inspectors who have each led 10 routine inspections in 2014 have not yet judged any school inadequate.

5^thDecember 2014

Headteachers of good schools still want Ofsted Inspections

Despite Ofsted planning successful schools to be exempt, the NAHT headteachers union want outstanding and god schools to still have shorter monitoring inspections every 3 years.

Adopted children need more support

A survey of Adoption UK’s 10,000 members suggests that adopted children’s needs are not fully understood by teachers and, as a result, they are falling behind.  (See www.adoptionuk.org/fullpotential).  Only 49% reached expected levels at Key Stage 2 last year.

Independent schools launch a recruitment drive

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is launching the first sector-wide campaign to recruit trainees.  ISC represents over 1,200 of England’s private schools.  ISC says its campaign is a reaction to teacher shortages.  Concern is also expressed about the increase of teachers choosing to teach abroad.  Figures from December 2014 revealed that only 93% of teacher-training places were filled in September 2014.  Some subjects such as Design Technology only filled 44% of places.  ISC hopes more graduates will take up teaching posts in independent schools.

Positive reasons for training in independent schools include, according to ISC website:

• Good discipline and behaviour
• Small class size
• Excellent pastoral care
• Culture of higher expectation
• Range of extra-curricular activities
• Culture of valuing and respecting teachers
• Commitment to improving social mobility

Support for pupils who have faith

Schools need to do more to create a culture where diversity is respected and pupils who have strong religious beliefs do not get bullied for them.  The plea comes from a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.  Schools are now under increasing pressure to advocate religious tolerance since the ‘Trojan Horse’ plot was exposed in Birmingham.  Changes to GCSE RE means that all students (including faith schools) will have to study at least 2 religions in depth.

12^thDecember 2014

Blended learning

Sir Michael Barber (previous adviser to Tony Blair) believes traditional education is being replaced by globalisation and new digital technology, because of the failure of standards.  Blended learning allows pupils to spend a good part of their day learning online.  Blended learning is due to be used in a Free School to be opened by the academy chain ARK.  Sir Michael believes less staff will be needed through using top quality professionals.  He also argues computer-based assessment will remove the stress of marking.  However, other professionals believe nothing can or should take away the relationship of pupil and teacher and that, while technological resources can help, there will be big issues of training.

New GCSE Science

Any assessment of pupils’ practical skills will be removed under the new GCSEs through new plans of Ofqual.  The Campaign for Science and Engineering emphasised the danger that such plans will lead to a further erosion of practical science experience and skills”.

Government endorses plans for an independent professional body

A College of Teaching, which is independent from politics, could eventually become responsible for managing teacher-training and qualification.  Plans for a ‘royal college’ of the profession were backed by ministers and endorsed by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan announcing that funding could be made available.  A public consultation asks for interest from organisations supportive of the proposal.  The DfE said that such a college could take on responsibility for ‘professional standards and CPD’. In 2012 all 3 main parties agreed with the Education Select Committee’s recommendations for such a college.  It would be self-governing, being run and regulated by its members and offering an independent voice.

Lessons still count in Ofsted inspections

Whilst Ofsted will no longer be grading the quality of teaching in individual lessons, inspectors will still be making judgements on behaviour and achievement in every lesson.  Ofsted will be putting together an overall picture of teaching; talk to students in lessons; examine exercise books; use parent comments.

19/26^thDecember 2014

Teacher recruitment crisis?

According to a poll by the Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) two-thirds of secondary headteachers have been unable to recruit enough Maths teachers and almost half have difficulties recruiting staff for Science and English.  The poll of 800 headteachers in England and Wales shows 25% of schools have 1 vacancy in Maths, 23% have shortage of Science teachers and 20% are short of English teachers.  One in four are having difficulty in recruiting staff in the mandatory new science curriculum and one in ten struggle to fill roles in geography, modern languages and design and technology.  The headteachers believe workload, high-pressure accountability and ‘teacher-bashing’ by Ofsted and the Government are factors affecting the problem.  Government statistics on initial teacher-training reveal that the School Direct route only filled 61% of places allocated to it this year.  A DfE spokesperson said it was “untrue to suggest there is going to be a shortage of teachers.  The teacher vacancy rate has remained low at around 1% or below since 2000.”