Lynn Watson Joanne Stronach
Lynn Watson Joanne Stronach The present climate in education today
SEND Conference - 7 November 2016 Hardwick Hall Hotel
Education Excellence Everywhere • The government has implemented a major Uturn, and has now dropped the bill that had the aim to convert all schools to academies.
• The original plans would have required every school to adopt academy status, or have plans to do so, by 2022.
Here she is
Academisation -The lost policy • Government plans to force all schools in “unviable or underperforming” council areas into academies is now stated in terms of schools ‘voluntarily converting.’ • Greening states there will be no further change to education legislation in this parliamentary session-summer 2017.
Academies growth Total number of Academies: ▪ Academic Year 10/11 272 ▪ Academic Year 12/13 748 ▪ Academic Year 15/16 1,633 ▪ Academic Year 16/17 1,713 NE schools in the process of converting - 27
New Green Paper • The Schools that Work for Everyone consultation asks how we can create more great school places in more parts of the country - including selective places for local areas that want them - and asks our independent schools, universities and faith schools to play their part in improving the quality of our state-funded schools. • Consultation ends 12th December 2016. https://consult.education.gov.uk/school frameworks/schools-that-work-foreveryone
.
Schools that Work for Everyone Consultation • Expecting independent schools to support existing state schools, open new state schools or offer funded places to children whose families can’t afford to pay fees • Asking universities to commit to sponsoring or setting up new schools in exchange for the ability to charge higher fees • Allowing existing selective schools to expand and new selective schools to open, while making sure they support non-selective schools • Allowing new faith free schools to select up to 100% of pupils based on their faith, while making sure they include pupils from different backgrounds
Consultation • How can Government better understand the impact of policy on the wider cohort of pupils whose life chances are profoundly affected by school but who may not qualify for free schools meals? (5 mins)
?????????????????? • What contribution could the biggest, most successful independent schools make to the state system? • What proportion of children from lower income families do you feel new selective schools should admit? (5 mins)
??????????????? • What other changes are necessary for the Government to secure its objectives? • How can DfE identify children who could thrive within an independent school environment? (5 mins)
However! • The DfE is expected to include elements of the old bill (EEE)when Schools that Work for Everyone is published in the Spring. • Parts of the bill expected to survive include the proposed revamp of initial teacher training and an overhaul of the National College for Teaching and Leadership. • Last week, Greening reversed an election pledge to make children who fail primary school reading and math exams resit them at secondary schools and offered a two-year freeze on new assessments.
LAs •The old bill would effectively have ended the role of local authorities in schools, placing school improvement in the hands of regional schools commissioners/Teaching Schools. •The government has already budgeted cuts of £600m for local authority schools services next year. Now local authorities have been left in limbo: they still have schoolimprovement responsibilities and no money to do it with.
Self sustaining school led system • Government ‘vision for our schooling system’ is to place education into the hands of head teachers and teachers rather than ‘bureaucrats’. • Over 700 Teaching Schools in England. • Funding changes to LA in 2018 will impact on improvement agendas. • Translating government policy “into coherent practice at school level”, to help shape future policy. • Evidence based approaches to learning.
Economy • The Technical and Further Education Bill takes forward the Government’s ambition to streamline technical education to ensure clear routes into skilled employment. • Extension of apprenticeship schemes with a 20% increase in funding.
Consultation • Introduce a school-level national funding formula where the funding each pupil attracts to their school is determined nationally • Implement the formula from 2017-18, allocating funding to local authorities to distribute for the first 2 years, and then to schools directly from 2019-20 • Consulting in parallel on proposals to introduce a high needs formula for children and young people with special educational needs. • Ensure stability for schools through the minimum funding guarantee and by providing practical help, including a restructuring fund.
New system 2018-19 • Responses to the first stage of consultation suggested the reforms were a “once in a generation opportunity for an historic change and that we must get our approach right. • Local authorities know that their per-pupil funding and cash grant would not be cut in 201718 from the level of the previous year. • Minimum funding guarantee would be maintained for 2017-18, meaning each school will not face a funding reduction of more than 1.5% per pupil next year through local authority funds.
Chief Inspector of Schools • Amanda Spielman
Could do better • This month Sean Harford repeated the watchdog’s intention to introduce frequent, shorter inspections of schools rated good, so that signs of decline can be spotted early and action taken.
Ofsted asking itself ‘Meaningless and outmoded’- likely to change. • Does a good school really need the same full inspection as a struggling school? And if we inspect a good school and find it has declined, have we not left it too late? • Are we focusing enough on the right things? Do parents, for example, get enough up-to-date information about their child's school? • What more could be done to make the impact of school inspection proportionate?
Still asking itself • Is it possible to reduce the high stakes nature of a "one-size fits all" inspection regime – and the unintended consequences that sometimes flow from it – while retaining the rigour and commitment to high standards that has been the Ofsted hallmark? • Ofsted are talking to school leaders, classroom teachers, parents, governors and many others who have a stake in us getting inspection right.
Accountability here to stay • What would you replace Ofsted with?
• Bespoke inspection vs one size fits all. (5mins)
Support • SCHOOLS NorthEast- partnership working to improve outcomes for children in our region. www.schoolsnortheast.com 01912048866 • FLSE-Federation for Leaders in Special Education. National overview of SENDhttp://flse.education/contact-2/ • Burnetts www.burnetts.co.uk 01228552222
SEND Conference - 7 November 2016 Hardwick Hall Hotel
Education Excellence Everywhere • The government has implemented a major Uturn, and has now dropped the bill that had the aim to convert all schools to academies.
• The original plans would have required every school to adopt academy status, or have plans to do so, by 2022.
Here she is
Academisation -The lost policy • Government plans to force all schools in “unviable or underperforming” council areas into academies is now stated in terms of schools ‘voluntarily converting.’ • Greening states there will be no further change to education legislation in this parliamentary session-summer 2017.
Academies growth Total number of Academies: ▪ Academic Year 10/11 272 ▪ Academic Year 12/13 748 ▪ Academic Year 15/16 1,633 ▪ Academic Year 16/17 1,713 NE schools in the process of converting - 27
New Green Paper • The Schools that Work for Everyone consultation asks how we can create more great school places in more parts of the country - including selective places for local areas that want them - and asks our independent schools, universities and faith schools to play their part in improving the quality of our state-funded schools. • Consultation ends 12th December 2016. https://consult.education.gov.uk/school frameworks/schools-that-work-foreveryone
.
Schools that Work for Everyone Consultation • Expecting independent schools to support existing state schools, open new state schools or offer funded places to children whose families can’t afford to pay fees • Asking universities to commit to sponsoring or setting up new schools in exchange for the ability to charge higher fees • Allowing existing selective schools to expand and new selective schools to open, while making sure they support non-selective schools • Allowing new faith free schools to select up to 100% of pupils based on their faith, while making sure they include pupils from different backgrounds
Consultation • How can Government better understand the impact of policy on the wider cohort of pupils whose life chances are profoundly affected by school but who may not qualify for free schools meals? (5 mins)
?????????????????? • What contribution could the biggest, most successful independent schools make to the state system? • What proportion of children from lower income families do you feel new selective schools should admit? (5 mins)
??????????????? • What other changes are necessary for the Government to secure its objectives? • How can DfE identify children who could thrive within an independent school environment? (5 mins)
However! • The DfE is expected to include elements of the old bill (EEE)when Schools that Work for Everyone is published in the Spring. • Parts of the bill expected to survive include the proposed revamp of initial teacher training and an overhaul of the National College for Teaching and Leadership. • Last week, Greening reversed an election pledge to make children who fail primary school reading and math exams resit them at secondary schools and offered a two-year freeze on new assessments.
LAs •The old bill would effectively have ended the role of local authorities in schools, placing school improvement in the hands of regional schools commissioners/Teaching Schools. •The government has already budgeted cuts of £600m for local authority schools services next year. Now local authorities have been left in limbo: they still have schoolimprovement responsibilities and no money to do it with.
Self sustaining school led system • Government ‘vision for our schooling system’ is to place education into the hands of head teachers and teachers rather than ‘bureaucrats’. • Over 700 Teaching Schools in England. • Funding changes to LA in 2018 will impact on improvement agendas. • Translating government policy “into coherent practice at school level”, to help shape future policy. • Evidence based approaches to learning.
Economy • The Technical and Further Education Bill takes forward the Government’s ambition to streamline technical education to ensure clear routes into skilled employment. • Extension of apprenticeship schemes with a 20% increase in funding.
Consultation • Introduce a school-level national funding formula where the funding each pupil attracts to their school is determined nationally • Implement the formula from 2017-18, allocating funding to local authorities to distribute for the first 2 years, and then to schools directly from 2019-20 • Consulting in parallel on proposals to introduce a high needs formula for children and young people with special educational needs. • Ensure stability for schools through the minimum funding guarantee and by providing practical help, including a restructuring fund.
New system 2018-19 • Responses to the first stage of consultation suggested the reforms were a “once in a generation opportunity for an historic change and that we must get our approach right. • Local authorities know that their per-pupil funding and cash grant would not be cut in 201718 from the level of the previous year. • Minimum funding guarantee would be maintained for 2017-18, meaning each school will not face a funding reduction of more than 1.5% per pupil next year through local authority funds.
Chief Inspector of Schools • Amanda Spielman
Could do better • This month Sean Harford repeated the watchdog’s intention to introduce frequent, shorter inspections of schools rated good, so that signs of decline can be spotted early and action taken.
Ofsted asking itself ‘Meaningless and outmoded’- likely to change. • Does a good school really need the same full inspection as a struggling school? And if we inspect a good school and find it has declined, have we not left it too late? • Are we focusing enough on the right things? Do parents, for example, get enough up-to-date information about their child's school? • What more could be done to make the impact of school inspection proportionate?
Still asking itself • Is it possible to reduce the high stakes nature of a "one-size fits all" inspection regime – and the unintended consequences that sometimes flow from it – while retaining the rigour and commitment to high standards that has been the Ofsted hallmark? • Ofsted are talking to school leaders, classroom teachers, parents, governors and many others who have a stake in us getting inspection right.
Accountability here to stay • What would you replace Ofsted with?
• Bespoke inspection vs one size fits all. (5mins)
Support • SCHOOLS NorthEast- partnership working to improve outcomes for children in our region. www.schoolsnortheast.com 01912048866 • FLSE-Federation for Leaders in Special Education. National overview of SENDhttp://flse.education/contact-2/ • Burnetts www.burnetts.co.uk 01228552222
