Open contempt…

The government is increasingly emboldened in showing its contempt for parents, the teaching profession – the public in general – and in its lack of regard for evidence.

In pushing ahead with Mrs May’s obsession with reintroducing grammar schools, it ignores a wealth of evidence and even staunch opposition from its own side. The arguments have been well-rehearsed and the evidence widely discussed but just consider this one aspect. If it can’t be introduced ‘at a stroke’ (which it obviously can’t) a piecemeal, ‘free-for-all’ will have a destabilising effect as better-off families seek to bus their children to a new grammar ‘over the border’.

Furthermore, will there be a standard ‘entrance’ like the totally discredited 11+ of old (based on the faked results of Birt’s research) and what will the ‘second tier’ of schools be called, that replace the old secondary moderns? Many questions begged – so many that one guesses it’s not going to happen – but then again, they seem to be pressing ahead.

‘Free schools’, UTCs and ‘studio schools’: increasing evidence of these schools failing and closing, and of public money wasted. Yet, the government is again, pressing ahead with more ‘free schools’. To most of us, the evidence is damning but to the ideologues of the right, the failures and closures are entirely consistent with a free market. On the High Street, we are used to businesses opening and closing with regularity so why not in the ‘market’ of education? Well, we can see why but to THEM it’s just the way the market operates and ‘the best’ will survive. Trouble is, on the High Street, it’s the odd entrepreneur who loses his/her money and goes under, often to try again somewhere else, some other time – with schools, children lose out on their one chance of a good education.

Meanwhile, there is a funding crisis in schools, the combination of Cameron’s cash standstill in spending and rising prices, including rises in NI contributions for staff and the requirement to pay the apprenticeship levy. Heads, governors, parents are all providing testimony of shrinking budgets necessitating drastic action: cuts in support staff, cuts in teaching staff, cuts in curriculum offers, desperate requests for donations from parents to help fund the basics of teaching. The government’s only response is to keep repeating the record amount being spent on education. This ignores the extra that this funding is required to do including not only teach more children but fund the expensive ‘white elephant’ ‘free schools’, UTCs etc – and of course the inflated salaries of some of the Trust CEOs.

Perhaps voters will show their disdain for Conservatives’ actions on education at the ballot box in the forthcoming local elections.

Education Conference this Saturday

https://www.facebook.com/events/1084716951650743

Anne Western and Russell Hobby – in Matlock, this coming Saturday (4th). Click through for details.

NUT’s Louise Regan speaking in Nottingham

Notts Momentum’s next meeting is on July 5th at 7pm at the Mechanics Institute and we will be discussing what a Labour Education policy should be, with Louise Regan, Vice President of the National Union of Teachers.

Venue – The Nottingham Mechanics Institute, 3 North Sherwood St, Nottingham NG1 4EZ
http://www.nottinghammechanics.com/find-us.htm”

I’ve contacted Momentum to say we are trying to get Hands Off Our Schools activities up and running again and to see if Hands Off Our Schools members could attend this meeting. They are happy for us to come along and contribute to the discussion – you don’t have to be a Momentum supporter.

I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to catch up on NUT activities/campaigning against current government policies/debate around influencing Labour’s education policy.

I don’t generally like meeting in pubs, but we could perhaps have a quick HOOS meeting after this meeting eg in the Orange Tree pub around the corner from the mechanics?

Please let me know if you think this is a good idea. I’m going to go to this meetings but am happy to organise a HOOS meeting in Beeston later in July if people aren’t generally happy with suggestion to meet fairly informally on Tuesday 5th after Momentum meeting.

 

Andrea

The election, schools, pupils, teachers – and HOOS

This Hands Off Our Schools group has no party-political affiliation. We are under no illusions that, had Labour won the election, the picture would have been rosy and we could have cheerfully disbanded! Labour had not seriously opposed some of the Coalition’s biggest reforms to education, whilst in opposition. During the election campaign, they rubbished the ‘unqualified teacher’ nonsense and said they would halt new ‘free schools’, although they also had plans for something that sounded remarkably similar. ‘Academisation’ would no doubt have become entrenched. Education did not play a large part in the campaign and it’s doubtful that many people voted Conservative because of their policies on education.

Still, the Conservatives have won an overall majority and can therefore claim a ‘mandate’ for those policies, even if most voters would probably be unable to tell you what they are. The ‘opting out’ of community schools to become academies will probably now accelerate – perhaps some were hanging back to await the outcome of the election – and with continued undermining of local authorities’ finances and the cut to school funding promised by the Conservatives (Cameron pledged a cash-terms protection of school finances, meaning a real-terms cut), schools will desperately seek ways of improving their finances, as they see it.

There will be greater pressure for ‘failing’ schools to be ‘taken over’ by more ‘successful’ schools. The judgement of which schools are ‘failing’ and which are ‘succeeding’ will be based on unreliable data, which in turn will be heavily relied upon by a flawed and often inconsistent inspection regime. In addition, there will be pressure, both political and of necessity, for standalone academies and ‘free schools’ to join chains, thus furthering the vision of a ‘market’ of schools run by unelected edu-businesses, many of which will be headquartered abroad. Perhaps we can expect legislation eventually allowing these chains to be run for profit, or maybe the current rules are so lax that those involved can make enough from the various scams available within the rules to mean this won’t be necessary. It is perhaps worth emphasising here that there is no evidence that academies perform better than community schools, and even, in fact, evidence pointing the other way. This has never been about improving outcomes, but about ideology.

Cameron has promised 500 more ‘free schools’. His arguments that the existing ones perform better and have a positive influence on other nearby schools – about the only mention of education, early in the campaign – has been soundly rubbished by Henry Stewart at Local Schools Network. Again, with the uncertainty before the election now over, we may see the flood gates open for proposed new ‘free schools’ all over the place. Opposing academisations is hard enough since the rules on consultation and openness are so vague as to mean it has nearly happened before anyone out side the school governing body really knows about it, as we have seen recently with Beeston Fields. ‘Free schools’ are even harder to campaign against because, not only can they keep plans secret and consultation is ‘lip service’ only, but there is no ‘parent body’ to galvanise into opposition.

The effect on teachers of increased pressure from inspections, uncertainty engendered by cuts, changes of governance which could, in turn lead to worsening of conditions of service as governors seek ‘efficiency saving’, has already been seen in a looming teacher supply crisis, as more and more older teachers take early retirement and younger ones leave after a few short years. In a ‘market system’, the theory goes, when something is in short supply the price goes up, however, we do not expect that logic to apply to teachers, unless it’s through a ‘divide-and-rule’ plan for golden hellos and retention bonuses in shortage subjects which, of course, we have seen before. There are unlikely to be any even ‘cost of living’ salary rises in the future. The demoralising pressure on teachers and the failures to recruit suitably-qualified ones in some areas will be bound to have a negative affect on teaching and learning and ultimately on pupils. Teachers and schools already struggle to make up for the difficulties many children and their families face as a result of other policies of the Coalition government, which are likely to be exacerbated under a Conservative-only majority government. It is rumoured that even the cosmetic ‘pupil premium’, a LibDem ‘trophy’ policy, is under threat, effectively another cut.

Hands Off Our Schools – and its work to campaign for democratically-accountable schools – must continue. We firmly believe – as implied by our name – that these schools are ‘ours’, meaning, they are funded from public money, they belong to the public and they should ultimately be accountable to us, the public. Anything else risks our education being run by and for the profit of unaccountable individuals and companies. Such people have already shown they can find ways of syphoning off our money – by ‘consultancies’, inflated salaries and extra, managerial posts, unjustified ‘expenses’ and by providing goods and services from their own companies, quite apart from the illegal frauds one or two have perpetrated.

It won’t be easy, but we will continue to oppose them because they are wrong, and we will continue to campaign for a better school system.

Demolition of OFSTED by local school governor

Professor Moriarty of Nottingham University, writes on the physicsfocus.org blog: a devastating demolition of OFSTED’s use of data, following training he received on becoming a school governor.

http://physicsfocus.org/lies-damned-lies-ofsteds-pseudostatistics/

‘A Charter for Primary Education’ this Saturday

East Midlands Primary Conference – Saturday 22 March, 11am – 4pm.

At Friends Meeting House, Clarendon Street, Nottingham NG1 5JD.

Speakers include Alan Gibbons, author; Dr Terry Wrigley, Leeds Met Uni.;

Prof Howard Stevenson, Nottingham Uni.; Mark Jennett, trainer & writer;

Jess Edwards and Sheena Wheatley, NUT.

To reserve a place email louise.regan@ntlworld.com or phone 07739489609

Register online at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-midlands-primary-charter-conference-tickets-10658250113

Free schools not the answer, says NAO

The National Audit Office has highlighted the looming problem of a shortage of primary school places, which shows how inappropriate a ‘market approach’ to schools is. Successive governments have sought to link funding to school places when, obviously, schools can’t suddenly add or subtract places by shutting down classrooms or putting up new ones. The NAO also commented that the addition of free schools is doing very little to alleviate the problem. Many free schools are opening in areas where there is no shortage and of course, not all are primary schools.

Read the story in the Independent here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/number-of-primary-pupils-in-classes-of-31-or-more-doubles-in-five-years-8535216.html

Academy teachers’ low morale

Everybody recognises that one of the key factors affecting the quality of education a child receives is the quality of the teacher in front of them. So it ought to worry all of us that a survey of teachers carried out by YouGov has found teacher morale is currently very low (click image to read the full story in the Guardian). A Department of Education spokesman tried to put a brave face on it but there can be no doubt that teachers believe they are not valued by this government and oppose all its major policies including academies, free schools, the EBACC Certificate and, less surprising perhaps, changes in teacher pensions and the abolition of national pay negotiations. 

Visit and sign the EBACC petition

Not strictly about academies but Michael Gove’s hurried plans to change the examination system – and replace GCSEs in the main subjects with his ‘EBACC’ – are all part of the same overall strategy. This petition requests only that the consultation period be extended.

http://www.ebaccpetition.org.uk