The Government's White Paper on 21st Century Education is something of a mixed blessing, a real 'curate's egg'. It opens up areas for consultation and debate but fails to indicate how schools will be able to afford to meet some of the changes it heralds. Promising parents and pupils treasures to come without putting in the necessary additional funding is only half the story, an unfinished symphony of proposals. For schools, the continued unsatisfactory imbalance of emphasis between parents’ rights and responsibilities will be disappointing.
Measures such as the School Report Card have the potential to be a useful tool for schools and their whole communities but not if the broader, more representative outcomes which are recorded are to be reduced to a single, meaningless "grade". This is 'reductio ad absurdum' in its most extreme form.
Commenting on the notion of licences for teachers, Mick Brookes, General Secretary, pointed out that this needs far more clarity. "It is vital that any revalidation process does not become overly bureaucratic and an undue burden on head teachers faced with administering it. If the licence is to be taken seriously, it needs to be built around a wholly professional approach."
Schools improvement is a major element of work for schools and the Association welcomes the review of the role of School Improvement Partners (SIP), including the move to allow governing bodies an element of choice over the appointment of the SIP. The idea of Accredited Schools Groups is one which bears further careful examination. It is important to guard against the potential for a restrictive ‘cartel’ approach.
The move towards greater trust in schools and school staff is welcomed and something that the Association has been calling for, for some considerable time. The fact that the National Strategies approach has been recognised as no longer necessary begs the question, "why are we still faced with KS2 SATs?". Greater trust and stronger accountability for schools can be achieved more effectively by other, more accurate and less pernicious means. The Association once again calls on the Government to recognise the logical conclusion to the measures announced today, including the new Progress Check in Year 7, and abolish national tests at KS2.
