UK Eduscape Briefing Paper on the Labour Party's Education Policy Review groups

The UK Eduscape briefing paper on the Labour Party's dual running education policy reviews  is now available here.

As you will know Andy Burnham finally announced the membership and remit of the review panels the Labour Party has set up to overhaul its education and children's policy on Saturday.

Although the inclusion of high profile figures such as Professor Tanya Byron, Sir Tim Brighouse and Rod Bristow of Pearson generated a raft of initial media coverage, it struck me that there isn't a comprehensive guide to the full membership of the policy review panel anywhere that I can find on the internet.

I have at least finally tracked down a freely available transcript of Andy Burnham's speech which is available from the Labour Teachers website.


Using this and based on conversations with contacts, I have over the course of Sunday and Monday pieced together a briefing paper which looks at the remit, headline messages and composition of the review panels.  I've included some extracts from Andy Burnham's speech in the paper, which can be accessed here.

Professor John Stannard CBE and Richard Gerver are two the panellists who weren't really highlighted in media reports but in my view their presence represents a real coups for Mr. Burnham. You can read more about them in my guide, but both have very strong degree of insight into what works in raising core standards and sustaining improved performance over time.

The manager's primer - 101 top tips for leading

For those of you who don't want to shell out £20-30 for a snazzy book by yet another leadership or management guru, there's a very useful and free to access list of simple but powerful observations and tips about how to manage yourself and others more effectively on InsideCRM.com. 

The advice is categorised into different sections such as body language, meeting deadlines, communicating with clients and resolving problems without creating future ones. 

It's really a quick read as the lessons apply to both private and public sector management context can be read in full here.

Tony Thornley argues that schools should carry on SEFing to stay ahead of the game

This month's Leader Magazine, published by ASCL, has a typically good feature article by Tony Thornley a former head teacher, inspector and the author of the Guide to self-evaluation.

In it he explores the future context for extended reflection and structured self-evaluation by schools in light of the Government's decision in the Schools White Paper to spell out that Self Evaluation Forms are no longer a compulsory element of the Ofsted inspection process.

Technically the completion of an Ofsted issued Self Evaluation Form by a school prior to inspection was never a statutory requirement for schools but, as Thornley points out, it would take a very brave school leader which would ignore Ofsted's preferred working model in advance of an inspection, no matter how cumbersome it may have been.

His advice to leaders is that even as the SEF disappears as a core element of the inspection system, its in their own best interests to continue to maintain robust self evaluation frameworks as a tool to shape and align improvement strategies within the school:

"I would argue that you should maintain a slimmed down SEF. It makes you track the most important aspects of your work, it’ll be simpler than the old one, it shows governors and inspectors that you evaluate and know what you are talking about and, finally, it’s a very good prop if you’re inspected."

There's a good article from September 2010 in Sec Ed Magazine on the withdrawl of SEF that's also worth checking out.

Lastly while on the subject of Ofsted, there's a good presentation by ASCL's inspection specialist Jan Webber available online here, which looks at the way the revised Ofsted school inspection framework being introduced from September 2011 may operate in practice.

Recommended education themed films: Confucius (2010)

The other night myself and my wife Ching (who's Malaysian Chinese coincidentally) were arguing over what DVD to watch.

Eventually we settled on a mutual favourite which came out in 2010 and has already been proclaimed by many as a modern classic retelling of an ancient story of the transformative effect that education can have in improving the quality of government and the vibrancy of civil society.

I am of course referring to Confucius - a Chinese cinema industry epic from 2010. It is a powerful dramatisation of the extraordinary life of a bueraucrat of modest birth who in turn came to be celebrated as a philosopher, human rights champion, legislator, minister, war strategist and peace campaigner!

You can read review of the film at Amazon but just briefly it stars Chow Yun Fat in the title role and covers his ascent from being a local Mayor to Minister of Law and then military commander in the first half of the film.

It's the second half of the epic that really grips you however - although he delivers stunning military and diplomatic coups for his state, Confucius is toppled by jealous politicans (although some historians argue he was disenchanted with power and engineered an excuse for an exit) and chooses to put himself into long term exile.

AQA's Centre for Education Research and Policy launched in Parliament

On Wednesday this week, I was a guest at the annual parliamentary reception of the exam board AQA which was very enjoyable and well attended by Parliamentarians and educationists from a variety of different backgrounds.

The key theme of this year's reception was the formal public launch of the AQA Centre for Education Research and Policy. AQA have today alerted me to a helpful transcript of the speech given by Dr. Michelle Meadows in which she gives a flavour of the current research and an indication of the future direction of travel for the Centre which she heads up.

The Centre's dedicated website is currently being developed, and in the meantime those who are interested can read this brochure to find out more about it.

One of the interesting things she pointed out in her speech is that a recent research evaluation AQA undertook of the "Stretch and Challenge initative" for A Levels showed the stark extent to which teachers and students are switched on, more now than ever, to the tactical gains that can be made from thoroughly reading past exam papers and mark schemes:

"Students described learning mark schemes and essay plans by rote, and intensively practising past papers. As one teacher put it students are learning, whether we like it or not, that education’s about taking exams. It’s easy to feel a sense of almost moral outrage when you hear of students learning mark schemes, but from another perspective, it is highly strategic, tactical use of resource! Haven’t we all taken short cuts at some point? We have to make sure our mark schemes are worth learning".

Dr. Meadows argues that all awarding organisations should be doing more to raise their game in terms of research led qualification design so that exams and assessments support high-quality teaching and learning rather than limit it:

"Some argue that teachers feel so under pressure to meet targets that pedagogy has become almost sterile, that teaching has become overly didactic, insufficiently crafted to individual learner’s needs. This raises the question of how well teachers are now able to articulate their needs. Awarding bodies must invest in research that investigates how qualifications can support pedagogy".

She goes on to cite an example of how AQA's research has impacted on practice:

"Early research into the old O levels and CSEs showed that the least able were being drilled in concepts they didn’t understand. So when the GCSE was created it was available at two levels – foundation tier and higher tier. This was to allow teachers to develop their learners’ understanding appropriately. But subsequent research found that pupils were now labelled and restricted in achievement. We are using technology to develop a solution. Rather than pupils taking a foundation or higher tier exam that makes presumptions about how they will perform, why not have pupils take short tests, or ‘testlets’ on-screen? These are automatically marked and as the pupil advances through the exam they are given easier or harder testlets. Not only is this fairer in opening up potential achievement, it allows teachers to be more flexible in their pedagogy. We have a programme of research leading to the development of such an exam in GCSE French. Teachers are incredibly positive about the initiative; we had nearly 11 thousand pupils entered for our most recent exercise".

Andrew Hall, AQA's Chief Executive, who joined last year having previously been the Chief Executive of QCDA, also spoke at the reception and did not shy away from arguing that a fundemental debate about the scope, rigour and format of GCSES, A Levels and other post-16 qualifications is needed. He laid out the case both for and against the AS Level and for limiting the opportunities students should have to resit modular exams that comprise their A Levels. AQA itself has already to reintroduce linear examination model versions a number of its 64 current A Level subject combinations.

Mr. Hall has shown courage in speaking out about the need for awarding organisations in both academic and vocational contexts to play a more active role in supporting policymakers and the frontline to raise standards and this interview in the TES from late 2010 is well worth reading.

There were also thoughtful remarks on the importance of research to shape policy and the need for a measured debate about any further reform of A and AS Levels on the day from Graham Stuart MP and Damian Hinds MP who chair and sit on the Education Select Committee respectively.

Mr. Stuart who mentioned that one his own children was currently waiting for a set of modular results as part of her A Levels, underscored the important point that policymakers must not treat the reform of qualifications as an abstract, technical debate and must take care to ensure that any reform of the current trend of extensive modularisation of A Levels doesn't end up damaging the opportunities of young people.

Turning back to AQA's new in-house evidence-led policy centre, I am given to understand, from speaking to senior staff at AQA, that the actual research function and team have been in place for quite a few years, but the organisation has never had a distincticve public channel for disseminating its research to shape education policy and debate.

In an interview earlier this week with E-Politix, Andrew Hall admitted that boards like AQA need to do more to boost the understanding of policymakers and politicans of the not only the operational role it plays but the trandformative impact that well desgined, high-quality assessments and qualifications have on the future educational success of children, young people and adults:

"Unfortunately, no. It is an area where we have found a very large bushel and hidden our light under it for a length of time. This is something that we are eager to change. Behind the scenes, AQA has given a lot of advice to the regulatory authorities and to educationalists, but we have never been vocal enough with parliamentarians, or indeed the general public, in promoting the evidence that we have".

The objective of the new Centre is to shape best practice and public debate about the future of standards, qualifications and pedagogy, and I look forward to seeing how their programme shapes up in the months come.

Watch Michael Gove's lecture at the SSAT's Confucius Institute

As I previously blogged the Rt. Hon Michael Gove delivered the annual lecture of the SSAT's Confucius Institute on the 1st March.

For those of you disappointed that a full transcript of the speech hasn't appeared on DfE's website, there's good news. SSAT have now posted an online video of the lecture which is available by clicking the image below.

DfE's SEN and Disability Green Paper - reactions from the sector

Yesterday the Government published its long-awaited green paper on special educational needs and disability which sets out a range of proposals for widespread consultation with the sector.

The publication of the green paper – entitled “Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability - a consultation” – has been keenly awaited for many months.

According to sources in and around Government the green paper has been the indisputably dominant priority for Sarah Teather and her officials for the last 2-3 months, taking precedence at times even over the development of the Pupil Premium policy, which is a prized flagship policy for the Liberal Democrats.

This is in part a reflection of the considerable slippage in the publication timeframe - It is widely understood that DfE officials and ministers had initially been optimistic about the prospects of having the green paper out for widespread consultation by the end of December 2010, but the deadline has had to be repeatedly rolled back throughout the New Year.

The issues it focuses on are of course are complex in both policy and political terms to grapple with, and the consultation paper tries to walk a fine line in trying to build cross-sector support for a number of its key proposals around statementing, professional development and greater parental choice and co-production.

Once I’ve had a chance to read through the green paper’s key sections and some of the supporting documents - all available on DfE's website - I will, in the next few days, provide a short analytical commentary on the potential implications and likely shape of the policy debate across 2011.

In the meantime I’m publishing a brief round-up of what some of the key stakeholder organisations in the education, children’s services and disability sector are saying:

Brian Lightman, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders

“(ASCL) welcome the proposals in the green paper to simplify the statementing process. The current system is much too bureaucratic, creates unhelpful tensions between schools and parents and often doesn’t address children’s needs. A single SEN category has the potential to streamline the process and allow more time for identifying and accessing support.

“However there are still many unanswered questions about the future of local strategic planning for SEN provision. SEN provision is very expensive and highly specialised and the proposed reforms will need significant investment. Schools cannot work in isolation and a principle of free choice for parents would be extremely costly. SEN is one area in which local authorities have an essential role to play in planning and locating provision and coordinating admissions. It is unclear how special schools becoming academies will contribute to the development of coherent provision.”

ASCL’s response is available in full here.

Tara Flood, Director, Alliance for Inclusive Education:

“The proposals in the Green paper will not makes things easier for parents, in fact, things will be made a great deal worse as the fundamental framework of support for disabled children and those with SEN is dismantled with no workable alternative – these proposals are ill thought out and will take education back 20 years for disabled children and children with SEN."

ALLFIE’s response is available in full here.

Srabani Sen, Chief Executive, Contact a Family:

“Many of the principles such as giving parents more control are to be commended. But there are questions that need to be answered on how these proposals would work in practice. The consultation provides a very useful starting point for discussion.

“We welcome, for example, plans to give families greater control and co-ordination of their child’s care through personal budgets. However we need to see if enough funding will be available to families through personal budgets to meet the needs of their child.

“The introduction of a simplified assessment process has the potential to make lives less stressful for families. However the Green Paper is not clear about where responsibility lies to ensure that a joined up package of support is delivered for disabled children and their families, and that those carrying out assessments have the right skills and knowledge.

Professionals must be made accountable if they do not deliver and there is no clear indication of how this would work in the Green Paper.”

Contact a Family's response is available in full here.

Lorraine Petersen OBE, Chief Executive, NASEN:

“We are pleased to see a clear emphasis on training and development for staff in schools - building on the schools white paper. We need our teachers to be well trained and confident to identify needs and barriers to learning and provide the right support early on."

“We need to acknowledge that some parents will need more support than others in ensuring that they have and understand all of the information they need to make the correct choices for their child. With the reduction in key personal at local authority level Nasen has a concern that those advocates will not be available for parents to turn to.

There also needs to be very clear guidance on how the personal budget option will work for parents. What will happen if the child’s current provision costs more than the budget allocated to parents? What about transport costs? Nasen welcomes the drive the bring children and young people back into their community but there will be a need to consider local provision and its ability to meet the future needs of the children it serves.”'

NASEN’s response is available in full here.