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Newcastle school closed for three weeks over safety concerns

2023-11-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/10/newcastle-school-closed-for-three-weeks-over-repair-bill-wrangling

Jesmond Park Academy in repair bill wrangling after Storm Babet caused steel panel to fall from covered walkway Legal wrangling over repairs to one of England’s largest schools has led to more than 2,000 pupils being shut out of their classrooms for more than three weeks. Leaders of the Gosforth Group academy trust in Newcastle closed Jesmond Park Academy over fears that pupils and staff were in danger from metal panels falling off the school’s building after Storm Babet hit on 18 October. A spokesperson for the Gosforth Group said it was taking legal advice over who was responsible for paying for repairs to the school, with the building maintained under a private finance initiative (PFI) contract. George Snaith, the trust’s chair, told parents that “complicated legal relationships” were behind the school’s prolonged closure, and he warned of “catastrophic” consequences if the large metal fascias were to fall during school hours. While pupils have been kept off the site, parents said that external groups have continued to use the site outside school hours for private events. The school’s buildings are maintained under the PFI contract by Equans, a services company owned by the French multinational Bouygues, which last year had operating profits of about £2bn. Equans did not respond to questions from the Guardian about its role in the school’s closure, or why it continued to allow the buildings to be used by third parties. Jesmond Park Academy is the latest in a string of school closures forced over safety concerns this year, including schools affected by the deterioration of “bubbly” reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), and several newly built schools abruptly shut because of construction flaws. Catherine McKinnell, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North and Labour’s shadow schools minister, said: “Every day of education matters to the life chances of young people, yet for over three weeks, 2,000 children have had their education severely disrupted. “Following hot on the heels of the Raac crisis, this latest disruption is symptomatic of a Conservative government for whom education simply isn’t a priority.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The safety of pupils is our top priority. The Department for Education is supporting the academy, trust and local authority to ensure face-to-face learning can resume as soon as it is safe to do so.” On Friday the school announced it was aiming for a phased reopening from next Thursday, beginning with Year 11 pupils taking GCSEs, once “protective walkways” and scaffolding had been erected to allow safe access to the building. The initial closure was on 19 October, after Storm Babet appeared to cause a steel panel to fall from a covered walkway. But a survey by the PFI contractor was not completed until last week, leading Snaith to tell parents: “Our conclusion is that we cannot be sure the building is completely safe. The safety of our students and staff is paramount and we will not take any chances.” Parents said the school failed to explain how long the closures could continue, and that the remote learning used as a stopgap measure has been inadequate. Anna Abbott, the mother of a Year 8 pupil at the school, said: “The worst thing has been the total uncertainty about whether the school would be open or not the following day.” The parent of a Year 11 pupil, who did not want to be named, said the uncertainty was “worse than during Covid”, with parents relying on texts sent by the school each afternoon, and assurances that reopening was “just around the corner”. Year 13 pupils, who are preparing for A-level and BTec exams, have been able to get assistance at another school in the Gosforth Group. A spokesperson for the group said: “The safety of our staff and students is paramount and we understand the frustrations and anxieties that students and their families are feeling, as a result of the school being closed. “There is no substitute for face-to-face learning and we are very aware that parents desperately want their children back into the classroom. We equally want children back into school and we are doing everything we can, in challenging circumstances to ensure that that happens.”

Impact of pornography not taught enough in schools in England, survey finds

2023-03-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/02/impact-porn-not-taught-schools-england-survey

Three years after mandatory sex education introduced, results show issue of unsafe relationships also not taught sufficiently Students are not being taught enough about the impact of pornography and dangerous relationships, even as the threat of online misogyny increases, according to a survey. Three years after the government introduced relationships and sex education (RSE), the survey reveals that young people feel they have seen no improvement in the quality of sex education they receive, and current teaching fails to tackle modern harms. Lucy Emmerson, the director of the Sex Education Forum, an umbrella body RSE charity, said the government had failed to deliver on promised national investment and training and there was an urgent need to listen to young people who were not getting the information they needed for healthy sexual relationships. She said “enormous progress” had been made in introducing mandatory sex education into schools, but the research, carried out for the forum by Censuswide among 1,002 students in England, showed young people did not think they were getting the lessons they needed. Of the 16- to 17-year-olds surveyed, 58% thought the issue of power imbalances in relationships was being either completely missed or not taught sufficiently, with the same percentage thinking this was also the case for pornography. More than half (54%) said teaching about healthy relationships, including online relationships, was missing or not good enough, and 55% thought they were not taught enough about attitudes and behaviour of boys and men towards women and girls. Research by the children’s commissioner for England revealed earlier this year that one in 10 children had watched pornography by the time they are nine years old. Four out of five (79%) of those surveyed have seen pornography involving violence by the age of 18, while one in three young people had actively looked for depictions of sexual violence such as physical aggression, coercion and degradation. “The urgency of providing that education to young people just couldn’t be clearer,” said Emmerson. She said the charity was hearing “alarming reports” about the appeal of misogyny to some young men as well as widespread access to pornography among children. “As the years go by, seeing violent sexual acts in pornography is having a knock-on effect on their own behaviour,” she said. “And yet we know from the research evidence, that relationship and sex education will reduce sexual violence. So we can’t wait.” Research from the Sex Education Forum suggests sex education works – and that children who receive good RSE are more likely to report abuse, delay having sex, have consensual sex, use contraception and have fewer unplanned pregnancies. “We’ve got the research, we’ve got the evidence, we’ve got the policies. We have to make sure they’re happening in the classrooms, and that teachers have the support they need to be able to do that,” said Emmerson. The government has promised to review its mandatory guidance on relationships, sex and health education in 2023. Emmerson said the government needed to stick to its promise of funding better sex education. In 2019 the schools minister Nick Gibb said £6m had been allocated to “deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education”, but an answer to a written question by the Labour MP Sarah Champion in February revealed that only £3.2m has been spent. A government spokesperson said reference to £6m of investment was based on the estimated maximum costs for a package of support. The government would publish further guidance this year on how to teach about sexual harassment, sexual violence and violence against women and girls, while the online safety bill would make children safer, they added. “All children deserve to grow up in a safe environment, which is why we have made relationships, sex and health education a compulsory part of the school curriculum and invested in support materials to help schools teach these issues well,” they said. Andrea Simon, the director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said its recent research showed that 80% of girls thought schools needed to do more to support young people’s sex and relationships education, and to tackle sexual harassment in schools. “Schools are not equipped with the training and resources to deliver quality relationships and sex education, even while they have been left to clean up the mess created by tech companies profiting from content by misogynistic influencers like Andrew Tate,” she said.

Gillian Keegan at odds with Home Office plan to restrict overseas students

2023-02-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/11/overseas-students-restriction-home-office-plan-gillian-keegan

Education secretary says UK ‘should be very proud of’ university sector, amid briefings with Suella Braverman Gillian Keegan has signalled that she disagrees with the Home Office’s plan to cut migration by targeting overseas students, adding the financial boost from international students to British universities was “hugely valuable”. The education secretary has said the university sector is something Britain “should be very proud of”, amid briefings that the home secretary, Suella Braverman, is considering looking at cutting the number of international students coming to the UK, or changing the terms of their stay. In an interview with the Financial Times, Keegan said: “It’s world-leading, a great advert to our country. We have a strategy which is very much focused on growing the revenue.” She said she wanted to expand the amount of money Britain gets from education export revenues, programmes that take place outside the UK through partner institutions, distance learning or international campuses, from £26bn to £35bn by the end of the decade. The number of students enrolling for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at UK universities rose to 680,000 in 2022, higher than the government’s target of 600,000. It represents about a fifth of all students in higher education. It is thought that it may form part of a push by a government mired in the small boats crisis to cut immigration numbers. The FT reports that Keegan and Braverman met this week to discuss options, which include the automatic qualification of international students for a two-year work visa, where they do not have any requirement to get a job. Under Braverman’s proposals, this would be reduced to six months, reports have claimed. They also examined the current ability for students on supposed “low-value” courses to bring dependants to Britain, according to officials who were briefed on the meeting. Keegan, who was appointed to the role by Rishi Sunak in October 2022, said she wanted to ensure a high-quality “course offer” remained for students, but added she would help the Home Office root out any abuse of the system. While the number of student visas fell sharply during the Covid pandemic, it rebounded strongly to post the highest total since 2005. It comes in a week where new figures from Ucas showed that applications from China to UK universities have fallen for the first time in more than a decade. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The Times reported applications had decreased by 4.2% this year, after growth year-on-year for the past 10 years. The number reached a peak of nearly 29,000 in 2021, but data for applications to start in September 2023 showed it had decreased. Many universities are financially heavily reliant on fees coming from international students, who often will pay more for courses. The decline comes amid a chilling of UK and China relations, after the “golden age” of a relationship in the middle of the past decade. Overall, the number of international candidates has grown by 3.1%.

Almost half of multi-academy trusts in England in deficit, accountants find

2024-02-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/06/almost-half-of-multi-academy-trusts-in-england-in-deficit-accountants-find

Trusts say costs, such as teacher pay and energy bills, increasing faster than funding Pressure on school budgets from rising energy bills and staff costs drove almost half of multi-academy trusts into deficit last year, according to a financial health check on more than 2,300 schools in England. The benchmark report by the accountancy network Kreston UK, based on studying the accounts of 279 trusts representing more than 2,300 schools, found that 47% were running in-year deficits – spending more than their allocated revenue for the financial year ending in 2023. “Trusts don’t know what additional income streams they will receive from one year to the next,” said Kevin Connor, head of academies at Bishop Fleming – one of the accountancy firms in the Kreston network. “Will they receive more money to cover energy costs? How much will be offered to cover pay review and pension contributions?” The accountants found that many more schools would have been in deficit but for ad hoc grants averaging £60k for primaries and £200k for secondaries, as well as £447m in “energy efficiency” grants awarded by the Department for Education last year. Connor added that trusts had been “extremely effective” at controlling costs but that did not alleviate a sense of uncertainty in the sector. Benedicte Yue Vincent, the chief financial officer of the River Learning Trust, said: “Most trusts in the sector have done everything that the government has suggested to control costs – reviewing class sizes and curriculum to optimise staffing ratios, procurement and other areas that allow us to improve efficiencies. But the simple fact is that costs are increasing faster than funding and schools are constantly asked to do more with less.” The news comes after the Department for Education admitted in October to bungling its funding figures for state schools in England, revealing a £370m error in previous announcements by ministers. The mistake means that mainstream primary and secondary schools will be given at least £50 less for each pupil than originally forecast, forcing school leaders to redraw their budgets for 2024-25. Trusts say there are several costs that continue to place pressure on their finances. Energy costs are still high, the teacher recruitment and retention crisis has led to the use of costly agency staff, and the cost of food has increased, which affects the price of school catering contracts. Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “CST wants to see a fair per-pupil settlement that is sufficient, sustainable and equitable and includes weighting for disadvantage. We need a longer notice period for funding decisions to enable good strategic planning. Teachers deserve to be paid, but the last announcement of the teacher pay award came after all budgets had been set for trusts and schools. “The quantum of funding for capital projects is not enough. We need a proper strategy for our schools, so they are safe places to learn for young people. It is essential that the next government addresses this.”

Teachers facing redundancy as record number of English schools fall into deficit

2024-02-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/10/teachers-facing-redundancy-as-record-number-of-english-schools-fall-into-deficit

Heads warn of ‘broken system’ as staff are laid off or not replaced to balance the books Schools across England are warning they will soon be unsafe because they are having to cut teachers and support staff to save money, with record numbers now in deficit. With escalating behavioural problems, soaring numbers of children with special educational needs, and increased pupil numbers, schools say staff are already stretched to the limit. Yet heads across the country say they now have no choice but to plan redundancies or not replace leaving staff in order to balance their books. One in eight local authority maintained schools were in deficit in 2022-23, the highest number on record since schools took control of their own bank balances in 1999, according to data released by the Department for Education at the end of January. This was a big jump from one in 13 schools the year before, fuelled largely by spiralling energy costs and fully or partially unfunded staff pay rises. There has been a steady upward trajectory of schools being pushed into the red since the Conservatives came to power in the coalition government of 2010. In 2011 one state school in 20 was in deficit. The National Education Union is predicting that deficit figures for this year will be “much worse” when they are released by the DfE next January and shedding more staff will be “the only way out” for many schools, leading to larger class sizes and more stressed staff leaving the sector. The headteacher of a small primary school in a deprived area of Yorkshire, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alarming parents, told the Observer: “We are approaching a time when it isn’t safe to open. There will be children who are being violent and there won’t be enough staff to manage.” The head said she has not been able to justify replacing teachers and support staff who have resigned over the past year. In September she will be forced to merge a year of children containing many who are vulnerable and have additional needs with the year above, because they are losing another teacher. “You have to do it to make your budget work, but what about the impact on the children? We keep asking ‘can the children cope?’” she said. The head said staff are also struggling to find time to help impoverished families with no one else to turn to as a result of public service cuts. “We’ve got families sofa surfing with nowhere to live, children living in a house with boarded-up windows, children who have been to someone else’s house and been amazed that they were given tea,” she said. “The less staff we have the less we can do to try and help.” Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, a network of more than 1,000 schools across the region set up by headteachers, told the Observer: “It’s grim. If you’re a small rural school or a secondary school with no reserves to fall back on you have no option apart from not replacing staff when they leave. That’s an issue for safeguarding and learning.” A new survey of 84 primary schools in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, shared with the Observer, found half had made reductions to teaching staff, 84% hadn’t replaced staff who left and just under half were planning to make further staff redundant. Sue McMahon, a retired teacher and spokesperson for Calderdale Against School Cuts, the local campaign group that carried out the survey, said: “Schools have been left dangling in a broken system, clinging on to the hope it will improve. But you can’t run a school on hope.” McMahon said a number of heads feared their school would soon be unsafe because of insufficient staff. One primary head told the Observer: “We said goodbye to a teacher at Christmas. His pupils have been absorbed into other classes which are now overflowing.” Two teaching assistants won’t be replaced when they leave, and two classes will have no support person. He has warned staff further restructuring may be on the cards. Many staff aren’t sleeping because they fear for their jobs. “Staff morale has never been so low,” he said. “They feel they are failing because they can’t meet the needs of all the children.” Mungo Sheppard, head of Ash Green school in Halifax in Calderdale, said: “Heads are forced to balance the books rather than saying ‘How many staff do we actually need for our children?’ It’s terrifying.” He said some local schools are having to cut pastoral roles as well as teaching jobs, and many no longer have enough classroom support staff “to cater for the ever-growing needs of children”. Sheppard said that despite being oversubscribed his school will have a “large” deficit by April next year and “other local schools are already in perilous situations, running out of money”. Calderdale is a microcosm of what is unfolding nationally. Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said that primary class sizes are now the highest in Europe, secondary class sizes are the highest since records began almost 50 years ago, and more than 1 million children are taught in classes of more than 30 pupils. He added: “The government’s disregard for the quality of education the state is prepared to fund is a clear dereliction of duty.” A spokesperson for the DfE said: “We have record numbers of teachers in our schools, up by 27,000 since 2010, and this year school funding has increased by £3.9bn.” She said funding will rise by a further £1.8bn next year.

A-level students have been failed by Tory ineptitude | Letters

2023-08-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/20/a-level-students-have-been-failed-by-tory-ineptitude

Leo David Crown says pupils are being treated as a statistical experiment and Alexander Cameron says the education secretary should be sticking up for the exam system, not undermining it. Plus a letter from Jim Maloney Last Thursday, I was one of the many students who received their A-level results (Editorial, 17 August). Although I didn’t achieve the exact grades I needed, I still managed to get into my first-choice university. But I would like to comment on the way that the government has treated my year group. The last proper formal exams I sat before my A-levels were my Sats in year 6. To expect a group of children to go through a pandemic and suffer all the consequences – a lack of proper education, mental health problems, huge disruption to our normal lives – and then sit full A-level exams seems extraordinary and cruel. When you do your A-levels, a lot of the time you’re still using skills and knowledge developed during your GCSEs. So having missed out on big portions of this during the pandemic will definitely have had an impact on us. For the government to disregard this and treat us almost like some sort of statistical experiment in order to return to 2019 levels is appalling. Far too many students will have fallen through the large gaps created by the pandemic and left to widen by the government. I feel let down by a government that doesn’t seem to care for its state schools. Leo David Crown Matlock, Derbyshire The education secretary shows crass insensitivity in her remark that no one would be interested in pupils’ exam results 10 years after the event (Thousands fewer students in England awarded top A-level grades, 17 August). Gillian Keegan should surely be sticking up for the value of the government’s assessment and qualifications system, not undermining it. The A-level has been proclaimed as the “gold standard” qualification and the route to higher qualifications, better employment and higher earning potential. By suggesting that no one will care about the results in 10 years’ time, Keegan has undermined the whole notion, and dismissed the anxieties and stresses of students awaiting their results. There are thousands of young people who will go no further in their studies than A-levels, who will need the best grades they can get to ensure continuity of access to the best employment opportunities. Bear in mind, too, that most of those who achieve well in any examination look back with pride on that achievement long after 10 years have elapsed (Keegan’s Wikipedia page proudly notes that she was the only pupil to get 10 O-levels at her school). Alexander Cameron Scarborough, North Yorkshire It would be Hercules’ 13th labour to plumb the depths of Tory ministers’ hypocrisy, but the education secretary’s words about how soon A-level grades will be forgotten would leave even him gasping. Would she have wanted to repeat them in front of students, parents and tutors at a local sixth form college where students – no less able than their predecessors – were in tears, bewildered by the results? They are the victims of a cynically executed statistical manipulation: these are the first public exams they have taken under what might be termed “normal conditions” and yet they have to suffer the consequences of another piece of Tory chest‑beating. They are old enough to vote – I hope they don’t forget what happened.Jim Maloney Appley Bridge, Lancashire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Can the minister for children deliver the government’s flagship early years scheme?

2023-11-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/29/can-the-minister-for-children-deliver-the-governments-flagship-early-years-scheme

Following the announcement of a £400m funding package, David Johnston conducts a charm offensive over its delivery In the Rascals Day Nursery in Leigh-on-Sea the man tasked with delivering England’s biggest childcare expansion to date crouches down to speak to a group of preschoolers intent on their crafting. “What are we doing here?” he asks. Conducting a charm offensive, may be the most accurate answer. With a little more than four months to go until the first part of the government’s new flagship childcare offering kicks in, David Johnston, minister for children, families and wellbeing, is now in charge of making sure it actually happens. It will not be easy. In recent months, an influential coalition of early years educators warned that a staff recruitment and retention crisis risks undermining the scheme, which will provide 15 “free” hours of childcare during term time for eligible working parents of two-year-olds from April, and 30 free hours to all eligible children from nine months to five years by September 2025. In a tightly-packed meeting room away from the happy noises of the nursery, Johnston did not guarantee that all parents will get the hours they want, but says he is confident. “I think it’s always risky for a politician to guarantee anything,” he says carefully. “What I can guarantee, absolutely, is that this department is doing absolutely everything to ensure that we do meet that commitment for all parents.” On Wednesday the government announced a £400m funding package for the sector, which will cover the increase in the minimum wage, but providers argue that the funding rate given to local authorities – who then pay providers – falls a “long way short” for three- and four-year-olds. And they say that providers are still in the dark about the final amount they will be paid by local authorities – even as they are being inundated with inquiries from eager parents. A recent Early Education and Childcare Coalition report found that more than half of staff they surveyed were considering leaving the sector. Does he think there will be enough places? “I do. Yes, I do.” Everywhere? “I do. I do.” Johnston says government research shows the workforce is stable. Recent changes to the early years foundation stage (EYFS) framework (described by Early Years Alliance CEO, Neil Leitch, as an “incredibly concerning direction of travel for early years policy”), coupled with grants for childminders and a “big national recruitment campaign” in the new year will make it easier for them to be able to operate and recruit, he says. One thing the minister and the sector agree on is the need to elevate the status of the – mainly women – working in it. Exactly how to do that may be a point of differentiation. “We are talking all the time about what we can do to raise the status and the way people look at this sector,” Johnston says. The notion that it is “babysitting” has to be replaced with a message about the “great impact you’re having on children in their first five years,” he adds. Wouldn’t that be best achieved by higher rates of pay and better career progression? Johnston says the increase in the minimum wage will help. But providers say without better wages further up the chain workers with long experience can sometimes be paid little more than new workers. Without committing, Johnston says introducing a career framework similar to that in schools is being “talked about” but has to be balanced with flexibility. Other critics of the scheme argue that, because the hours are only available to working parents, the poorest children – who research suggests benefit most from early years education – are being “locked out”. The minister – who was chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation for a decade – says he doesn’t accept this, pointing to the 15 hours available for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, a 50% increase in the amount of universal credit parents can claim, and the fact these parents can now claim 85% of their childcare payments upfront. “On the very first day I arrived in a department I said, ‘Whatever you bring me, I want to know what the impact is for disadvantaged children’,” he says. The OBR has estimated that the expansion will see 60,000 people enter the workforce by 2027-28, does he expect that to happen? “I certainly hope so,” he says. “When I knock on the door locally [people] really welcome this offer. They want it because it will make their working lives easier or enable them to go back out to work.”

Further education should be for the many, not the few | Letters

2022-02-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/feb/22/further-education-should-be-for-the-many-not-the-few

Readers on the elitism of selective sixth forms and the need for properly funded colleges and courses for all Thank you for drawing attention to the ongoing neglect of the “other half” of 16- to 18-year-olds, those not on A-level courses in school sixth forms (Editorial, 20 February). I have been watching with dismay successive examples of this in my local area. Our young people used to be served by a tertiary college that offered both A-level and vocational courses. Then the local authority spent many millions from its reserves to create sixth forms in all the local secondary schools. All chose to be selective. When the authority scrutinised the effect of the changes in 2018, it only reported on how the sixth forms were doing. Nothing was said about the college. This was of course not under the control of the council, but neither were the schools, all academies by then. In 2020, officers prepared a report for committee on “post-16 provision and outcomes”, but the only outcomes mentioned were A-levels. In 2021, financial problems at the college caused it to propose a merger with two others some distance away. Despite the potential significance of this for the “other half” of local 16- to 18-year-olds, officers responded to the required consultation without troubling the relevant committee. The creation of the sixth forms might or might not have been a good use of council money, but the consequences in terms of political attention paid to the “other half” have been profound. Geoffrey StantonLondon Your editorial states that “the mixed-ability principle was never extended to higher education, which continues to be highly stratified”. The answer to any inequality-reducing strategy does not simply rely on creaming off students at 16-plus on the basis of academic achievement. You rightly point to the hugely significant role that could be played by local further education and tertiary colleges in improving access to both higher education and vocational education and training. The case for increased funding and support for colleges is a strong one. I continue to be surprised that little or no attention in this debate has been given to the truly comprehensive model of tertiary colleges. They provided a natural progression for the primary-secondary-tertiary model for comprehensive state education.Graham PhillipsHenley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire The government’s notion of elite sixth forms is indeed a gimmick, but your editorial is mistaken in suggesting that in England there is a straightforward division between a hierarchical system of higher education and an egalitarian system of schooling. Leaving aside that most children of the rich and powerful do not attend state schools, the truth is that the state education system is nowhere near egalitarian. Not only does it continue to maintain a formal system of selective secondary schooling whose malign effects reach further than the number of such schools might suggest, but the doctrine of “parental choice” ensures that all schools exist in a market-driven hierarchy in which the least “desirable” children are concentrated in the least “desirable” schools and vice versa. The Augar review does not address the deeper need for all forms of post-16 education to have equal status. Our inability to shake off our obsession with hierarchy means we are stuck with an educational model designed for the 1930s, which does not augur well for our future. Michael PykeLichfield, Staffordshire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Reviving Sure Start would be a vote-winner for Labour | Letters

2024-04-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/11/reviving-sure-start-would-be-a-vote-winner-for-labour

John Bercow says the early years programme was a crucial life enhancer for millions of children and could be a key election battleground. Plus letters from Prof Gary Craig, Deborah Hayter, Keith Reed and Ian Wrigglesworth As a sinner who long ago repenteth, may I echo the call by Gordon Brown and the three former Labour education secretaries for an election pledge by Labour to revive the Sure Start programme (Senior Labour figures call for ‘life-transforming’ Sure Start policy, 9 April)? Newly elected as a Conservative MP in 1997, I followed my then party in opposing the programme, before realising how wrong I was. For millions of children, especially the most disadvantaged, Sure Start was a crucial life enhancer, providing invaluable socialisation and, to children with special educational needs, the precious advantage of early intervention. In the ever-lengthening chargesheet against the worst Conservative government in living memory, the destruction of this progressive programme must rank as one of its most cardinal sins. Of course, the cavalier ruination of the British economy and dismemberment of public services by the Conservatives confronts Labour with hard choices: there is much to do and little money with which to do it. The criteria for selecting priorities must surely be policy and politics. Sure Start is a sound policy, with compelling evidence to support it. It can be a vote-winner too. In terms of ground on which to fight an election, early years education under Labour versus tax cuts favouring the affluent under the Tories is about as fertile as it gets for the opposition.John BercowSpeaker of the House of Commons, 2009-19 Calls for a Labour government to create a new Sure Start programme, echoed in your editorial (9 April), are welcome. However, there is a big “but”. I was very belatedly tasked to lead a team as part of the national evaluation that examined the role of ethnicity in the original programme. We found that there was no clear requirement to focus on ethnicity in the national programme or its evaluation (which distinguished simply and inappropriately between white, Black and Asian children). As a result, most local projects made no specific provision for minority ethnic children, despite them being disproportionately represented in the poorest areas where Sure Start was targeted. We hope Labour will recreate Sure Start, but it must ensure that there is a clear requirement for local projects to identify and respond to the needs of minority ethnic children and their families.Prof Gary CraigYork Everyone involved in early family intervention and support knows that help in the early years makes an enormous difference to long-term outcomes. Cutting Sure Start’s preventative work meant prioritising short-term savings over long-term benefits. There are still around 180 Home‑Start schemes across the UK. These are independent charitable organisations working to a common model, with thousands of trained volunteers who last year supported over 43,500 families with almost 79,000 children. Many families say that their lives have been transformed by Home-Start’s help, and social workers in many areas rely on their local scheme to prevent family difficulties escalating. As your editorial points out, the new family hubs are too meanly funded. Would it not make more sense to make use of an organisation already working in the field and with proven expertise?Deborah HayterPatron, Home-Start Banbury, Bicester and Chipping Norton As former Labour secretaries of state point out, toddler development is in decline after a decade of disinvestment in Sure Start. But two years ago, a similar programme – Start for Life – was launched. The funding was much lower, with just £500m over three years. But the new programme is now providing crucial support to babies and new parents at a time when councils are cutting back on preventative services. It has funded new community-based services that help parents to overcome trauma and care for their babies. A new Labour government must avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Call it Sure Start or call or Start for Life if you prefer. Either way, we need to invest more in babies.Keith ReedChief executive, Parent-Infant Foundation I was delighted to see the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ findings on the success of Sure Start. I think it has been one of the most effective innovations to help the less well-off in recent decades. In my view, it is an essential part of any successful regional policy. That policy has been dominated over the years by the development of the built environment. Development of human capital in the regions is now more important, and Sure Start is the most effective way of doing it. If budgetary constraints restrict its expansion in the whole country over the next few years then focus its extension in the regions, and then we’ll really see some effective levelling up taking place.Ian WrigglesworthLiberal Democrat, House of Lords Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Holey shoes and abscessed teeth: Oldham school sees impact of cost of living crisis

2023-09-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/07/holey-shoes-and-abscessed-teeth-oldham-school-sees-impact-of-cost-of-living-crisis

At Beever primary, staff regularly step in to give children breakfast or provide uniforms Katie Greaves is the pastoral lead at Beever primary school in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and sees first hand the impact of the cost of living crisis on her pupils and their families. Usually on the first day of the new school year, children arrive kitted out in smart new uniforms. This year it was different. “You would normally see children very smartly dressed on the first day of term, with brand new shoes. We’ve got children that have not come back with new shoes on – they’re definitely old shoes,” said Greaves. Some of them have holes, are scuffed and are coming apart at the seams. “Shoes are a big issue. It will be down to cost because they are expensive. Beautiful new shiny shoes for September – it’s just not happening.” Another change Greaves has noticed is that more children have signed up for the breakfast club. “We have some items for free and some that are not. The free options [cereal, bagels, milk or water] always go first.” As well as the food on offer at breakfast club, Greaves spends her own money so she can ensure that any child who hasn’t eaten can enjoy a “Miss Greaves special” breakfast at the start of the day. “If they come in late to school and they have not eaten, we can’t send them to class without breakfast. “It’s definitely getting worse,” she said. “You used to get one or two children a week coming to me saying, ‘Miss Greaves, I’ve had no breakfast. Please can I have something.’ Last year it had gone up to six or seven a week. Some families just don’t have anything in.” Greaves said she had also seen an increase in the number of parents struggling to provide uniforms. There was huge demand when the school arranged a “uniform rehoming” where parents bring in outgrown items and replace them with bigger sizes. A charity also gifted new underwear and socks for the school to hand out. During the long summer holiday, Greaves remained in contact with a number of vulnerable families. “These families don’t stop having these issues when it’s not term-time.” Then, before the start of the new term, she did a ring-round to make sure they had everything they needed ahead of school starting. “If they do need food, or last bits of uniform, I’ll see if we can source that for them, so there’s not that added anxiety.” Personal hygiene and dental health are also big concerns. “I’ve got quite a few children that are in need of a dentist, but can’t find one. They’re getting repeat abscesses and now need teeth extracted.” In some cases it’s not just one or two teeth, but five or six. “Families have not got the resources to cope. They’ve not got toothpaste or toothbrushes. They come to school having just rolled out of bed and put their uniform on.” Greaves has restocked her bottom drawer with supplies: face cloths, soap, deodorant, baby wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes and bobbles, and sanitary products for some of the older girls. The community the school serves is disadvantaged – 57% of the 220 pupils are eligible for additional pupil premium funding – and some of the housing is poor. “We have families coming to us whose children have been awake most of the night due to rats and mice scratching in the walls,” said Greaves. “We had one family who had to have their kitchen ripped out and replaced because of rats – it was infested with them. “It’s the disturbance to sleep which is the biggest factor for our children. If they are not well-rested and they come in to school tired – that’s an awful thought, to be lying in bed hearing rats and mice scurrying around.” Oldham council was approached for comment.

Trying to choose a school in England? Don’t rely on Ofsted reports

2023-11-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/04/trying-choose-school-england-dont-rely-ofsted-reports

School leaders say parents should do their own homework to build an accurate picture of which is best for their child If Ofsted inspection reports do not paint an “accurate picture” of schools in England, how are parents able to choose one that suits their child? Headteachers and existing research suggests Ofsted judgments may not play as large a role as its defenders think. Chris Ashley-Jones, the executive head of Hitherfield primary school in Streatham, south London, said he had shown 100 parents around the school during recent open days. “Not a single one of them mentioned Ofsted,” he said. Hitherfield primary has been rated as “good” by Ofsted since 2013 and is popular with local parents. But Ashley-Jones said the school had an unhappy short inspection earlier this year that left some staff members in tears. “We feel that the inspection system is past its use-by date,” said Ashley-Jones, a head for 18 years. His advice for parents is not to rely on Ofsted and instead do their own homework. School leaders who spoke to the Guardian had the following tips: All school leaders agreed that there was no substitute to visiting schools and asking questions of teachers and especially of school leaders. School open days are the most obvious opportunities, but most schools are willing to accept visitors at other times if they book an appointment in advance. Resistance to arranging visits or meetings with the leadership team could be a warning sign in itself. Parents of children with special needs will want to speak to a school’s special needs coordinator. Location and transport links are also an important consideration. Another obvious method is to talk to parents with current or recent pupils at a school. But asking if it is a good school or not is not enough – more specific questions about the school’s behaviour policy are more helpful. Examples include its policy on hair and uniform, and frequency and length of detentions. Also ask about the school’s communications with parents, as well as the types of food served at lunch. Exam results do not tell the full story, whether for Sats in primaries or GCSEs in secondaries. The Department for Educations’s performance tables include a wider range of information, including (for GCSEs) the school’s progress score, showing how much the average pupil improved compared with their peers nationally or in the local authority. The tables also have details about staffing and school finances, as well as size and governance. Some heads said that while a school’s behaviour policy and practice might be difficult for outsiders to gauge, one proxy measure was the school’s attendance rates – because research suggests a link between general levels of behaviour and pupil absenteeism in secondary schools. But they cautioned that the Covid era may have weakened that link, with rising levels of absence in recent years. Rather than ignore Ofsted, parents are advised to read what Ofsted has produced critically, looking beyond a single phrase such as “good” or “outstanding”. The first question is how old the report is. Inspections carried out four or more years ago are unlikely to be relevant. Similarly, a change in headteacher since the last inspection will also dilute its relevance. This article was amended on 6 November 2023 to correct a misnaming of Chris Ashley-Jones as “Ashley-Hughes”.

UK government prioritising savings in review of post-18 education

2022-02-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/feb/24/uk-government-prioritising-savings-in-review-of-post-18-education

Analysis: As well as funding reforms Augar review marks a shift away from the idea of university as the best choice for all students When the Augar review of post-18 education and funding in England was announced by former prime minister Theresa May in February 2018, it was seen by many as a kneejerk response to Labour’s better than expected performance in the 2017 general election, buoyed up Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to scrap student tuition fees. It was a time of mounting concern about spiralling levels of student debt and the loss of maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged. But while those concerns rightly persist today, the overriding drive behind the reforms unveiled by the government on Thursday will undoubtedly have been to lower the cost to the Treasury of financing England’s increasingly unwieldy student loan system. The figures are eye-watering. According to the Department for Education, the value of outstanding loans by the end of March 2021 was £161bn and it is forecast to rise to half a trillion pounds by 2043. To help tackle the debt, the student loan repayment period will be extended to 40 years and the repayment threshold lowered to £25,000. It will hit graduates – particularly lower earning graduates – hard, but will save the Treasury and the taxpayer billions. But behind the long-awaited finance reforms, there has also been a shift away from the idea of university as the best choice for all students and a rowing back on earlier Labour ambitions to get 50% of 18-year-olds into universities. A new consultation on a minimum qualification requirement to access loans to go to university has already been branded an attack on social mobility and disadvantaged students. Under the proposals, students who fail to gain a grade 4 GCSE pass in maths and English, or two E grades at A-level, will be blocked from accessing student loans and therefore going to university. In 2021 fewer than 5,000 students entered higher education without GCSE passes in English and maths. In a briefing to the media, higher and further education minister, Michelle Donelan insisted it was not a “definite” direction of travel: “But it is something that I think it’s right that we explore as an option. We used to have an entry requirement in this country of two Es,” she said. “We all know that there are young people that get three Es every year that feel compelled and pushed to go to university before they’re ready, and I think that that is doing them a disservice.” The government will also be keen to use its reforms to crack down on what they describe as “low value” courses which they say saddle students with debt while doing little to increase their earnings – and crucially their ability to pay off their loans. The government is keen for students to study the kind of degrees which will guarantee graduate earnings. There is also a new consultation seeking views on a lifelong loan entitlement for people to retrain flexibly at any time in their lives, worth the equivalent of £37,000, or four years of post-18 education. According to one sector insider it could be “the most significant education reform of the 2020s so far”, though it may well end up being significantly watered down. While the headlines will focus on changes to loan repayments and minimum entry requirements, the government’s reforms also include interesting plans to cut the cost of foundation year courses and a new national state scholarship to support high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds access higher education, further education and apprenticeships. “Overall, people who hate the government will claim today’s package lets students, graduates and universities down,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and a key government adviser when the current loan system was set up. “Meanwhile, those who love the government will claim it is a bold set of reforms. In reality, it is a quite carefully balanced package that sends some powerful signals about the government’s priorities.”

Soaring special needs school transport costs ‘unsustainable’, say councils

2023-11-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/18/soaring-special-needs-school-transport-costs-unsustainable-say-councils

Local authorities fear service cuts or even bankruptcy as costs jump from £400m to £700m in five years Soaring costs of school transport for children with special educational needs is causing councils in England to warn of service cuts and potential insolvency, according to local authority leaders. The County Council Network (CCN), which represents mainly rural local authorities in England, says its 37 members are spending more than £700m a year on school transport for 85,000 children with special education needs and disabilities (Send), compared with less than £400m five years ago. Councils have blamed the sharply rising costs on an acute shortage of Send school places and lack of competition for specialist transport contracts. A report by the network forecasts that spending on special needs transport could triple within a decade, to more than £1.1bn by 2027. Increasing numbers of children with complex needs have meant a surge in individual travel arrangements, so that 31,500 children are now travelling by taxi or car service, while 31,900 are transported by minibuses within the 37 areas, including rural counties such as Cumberland, Devon and Norfolk. Roger Gough, the children’s services spokesperson for the CCN, said that while councils were working hard to provide transport services, the reality was “a mounting tide of costs in Send transport, exacerbated by long distances travelled in large rural areas, complex needs and parental expectations”. Gough said: “The costs we are facing now are simply unsustainable and threaten council finances in the short term. That’s why we are calling on the government to provide an emergency injection of resources at next week’s autumn statement.” The CCN said the cost pressures were contributing to a £4bn total projected deficit over the next three years, with one in 10 councils “unsure or not confident” they could avoid insolvency this year. Hampshire council, which has said it is facing a “financial meltdown”, described special needs school transport as “currently the most significant area of financial risk” that it faced, with a £9m overspend on its budget. “This is largely attributable to an acute shortage of [special needs] school places and lack of competition for specialist transport arrangements within the provider market. This is currently resulting in price pressure of around 13% per year,” the council’s cabinet was advised last month. Hampshire is considering reducing its service to the statutory minimum to save money. One cheaper option is providing minibuses to schools that can find their own drivers. The increase in demand followed the government’s 2014 Send changes, after which the number of children eligible for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) more than doubled, from 105,000 to 230,000. Many EHCPs specify that a child should attend a particular school, making councils legally obliged to transport tens of thousands of young people over long distances across large, rural counties. The CCN said the number of children travelling to special schools had increased by 24% in the last five years. Many parents with children with qualifying EHCPs say local authorities can be reluctant to advertise or provide transport services. In June, the Department for Education (DfE) issued new guidance on school transport that forced local authorities to clearly state their transport policies and to be aware of their duties under the Equality Act not to discriminate on the basis of disability. The DfE said every child deserved to have access to education, and its recent Send improvement plan, published in March, aimed to make sure parents did not have to struggle to get support. “We are also putting significant investment into the high needs budget, which is increasing by a further £440m for 2024-25, bringing total funding to £10.5bn – an increase of over 60% since 2019-20,” the DfE said.

Teach US students about Holocaust, experts say, amid rise in antisemitism

2023-02-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/08/us-education-holocaust-antisemitism

Multiple states in recent years have enacted laws mandating Holocaust education but there is no federal requirement Amid an alarming rise in antisemitism in the US and increasing push back from some conservative groups, experts are urging the implementation of Holocaust education among young people at American public schools. Multiple states in recent years have enacted laws mandating Holocaust education across their public schools to varying degrees, but there is no federal requirement on Holocaust education, let alone that of other genocides. Yet, enacting legislation on Holocaust education marks only the first step in genocide awareness, experts say. For the handful of US states that have passed bills specifically requiring Holocaust education, some struggle with funding and the absence of oversight committees that would help reduce disparities in the material and frequency surrounding Holocaust teachings. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2020, American teenagers’ levels of Holocaust knowledge is similar to that of adults without post-secondary education. The survey conducted among teenagers aged 13-17 revealed that more teens know when the Holocaust occurred (57%) and what Nazi ghettos were (53%) than how many Jews were murdered during the Holocaust (38%). Moreover, only 33% of teens know the circumstances surrounding Adolf Hitler’s rise to power as Germany’s chancellor. Coupled with the fading memory of the Holocaust is a staggering spike in antisemitism and hate crimes. An audit by the Anti-Defamation League last August found that antisemitic incidents in the US reached an all-time high in 2021 since the center began tracking in 1979. The 2,717 antisemitic incidents counted by the center in 2021 marked a 34% increase from the 2,026 incidents in 2020. Moreover, as education bans on critical race theory, gender and history sweep the country, many schools are seeing a growing push from rightwing conservatives on the need to teach the genocide’s “opposing” perspectives. In Seattle, a school district employee argued last year that if the district wanted to carry books on the Holocaust, it would have to include a “book that disputes the Holocaust”. Meanwhile, an Ohio lawmaker last year called for the Holocaust to be taught “from the perspective of a German soldier”. Currently, at least 18 states have legislation that specifically requires Holocaust and genocide education. Yet despite the legislation, each state’s Holocaust education policies are implemented and funded to different extents. In 2021, the Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, signed a bill that requires lessons about the Holocaust and other genocides to be integrated into social studies education from grades five to 12. When the law was passed, some educators in the state had never taught the subject before. As a result, the Milwaukee-based Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center (Herc) has been working alongside various groups including the Wisconsin department of public instruction on delivering proper training to educators via workshops. “Holocaust education can be daunting for educators who have never taught the subject,” Herc’s executive director, Samantha Abramson, said. “We made the decision early on when the law was passed that we would send our professional staff on the road across the state, to bring these workshops and resources to regions and districts in need. In some cases, the educators we trained not only were learning about some of this history for the first time, but they were also meeting a Jewish person for the first time,” she said. Herc also developed TeachHolocaust.org, an online platform that offers lesson plans divided into various topics including political roles, medieval anti-Judaism and international complicity. Educators are able to select from lesson features including multi-media, primary and secondary sources, grade level and class time. Arkansas passed a similar bill in 2021, mandating curriculum changes for the 2022-23 school year that will require its public schools to incorporate Holocaust education from fifth to 12th grade. The state’s senate education committee also approved a bill to establish Holocaust Education Week across public schools. If signed into law, the bill will designate the last full week of classes in January as Holocaust Education Week. In Arizona, a law passed in 2021 requires students to receive instruction in the Holocaust and other genocides at least once in either seventh or eighth grade and at least once in high school in their social studies courses. But despite the state mandate, there is currently no statewide office overseeing the education, thus leaving organizations such as the Phoenix Holocaust Association (PHA) to develop their own resources for educators. “We do not have funding, nor do we have any body or office overseeing it to find out what schools are doing … Yes, we have a mandate and I am very proud of Arizona that we have a mandate. I have no idea, though, how many schools are teaching it. Where is it being taught? How is it being taught?” Sheryl Bronkesh, president of the PHA, said. As many states with recently enacted Holocaust education laws implement the subject in classrooms, experts are urging educators to refrain from teaching the Holocaust from an exclusively historical perspective. “We have to have a whole of society approach and I think part of that includes education but it also includes the soccer coach. It also includes the community leaders, particularly local ones. I think what this will say to students will not only enlighten them about civics but also history, psychology and governance,” Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, said. “When you teach people about prejudice, stereotyping, conspiracies and disinformation and how to go through those weeds, it is like teaching someone to fish. They carry that for a lifetime,” Levin added. With about only 50,000 Holocaust survivors in the US and a widening generational gap between young people and the Holocaust, the need to preserve their legacy is more urgent than ever. In her experience, San Francisco’s Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center director, Morgan Blum Schneider, noticed that students connect most deeply with primary sources, especially first-person testimonies from Holocaust survivors. “The power of testimony is really something phenomenal … [The students] may not remember the specific historical date that France was invaded. They may not remember the number of people in a specific concentration camp but they will remember the specific story of the individual,” Schneider said. In addition to hosting Holocaust survivors and their descendants, Schneider’s center also hosts genocide survivors from Cambodia, Rwanda and Sudan. Like Levin, Schneider advocates for Holocaust education to not only be taught alongside other genocides but also in tandem with some of today’s immigration stories, if people coming to the US are fleeing trouble in their home countries. “A student must be able to see themself in the material … when we can make the connections and have the students see the patterns of dehumanization, the patterns of propaganda … [and] discrimination, then they can connect with the material that may be from decades in the past,” she said.

Low pay ‘forcing teaching assistants out of UK classrooms’

2023-05-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/may/14/low-pay-teaching-assistants-uk-classrooms

Three quarters say they feel undervalued and are thinking about quitting, charity warns Schools will undergo a “crisis of support” without urgent action to improve pay and training for teaching assistants, a charity will warn in a report to be published this week. The NCFE, an educational charity that also provides qualifications for those in the teaching sector, carried out a snapshot survey of 150 teaching assistants (TAs) across the UK and found that three-quarters had thought about leaving in the past year. Only one in 10 felt it was a well respected and valued role. Annual pay for TAs can be as low as £12,000 a year, for term-time only contracts. A TA who supports children with special educational needs (SEN) in a secondary school in West Yorkshire, and who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said her pay did not reflect her role or skills and was not enough to live on. “A few times I’ve had to use a food bank that my child’s school runs,” she said. The single mother, who works in the school holidays, also has a second evening job as a youth theatre leader during term-time “because I wouldn’t be able to pay rent otherwise”. She said when her child finished school in two years she would be reconsidering her options despite loving her job. “The students we are seeing are in dire need of emotional support – Covid has really affected them,” she added. “It is becoming more and more difficult not to burn out with the things we deal with.” A second TA, who supports SEN children and teaches a phonics class in a primary in the north of England, said: “I had to turn down more hours at school because I’d have had to pay a dog walker more than my wage.” She added that without her husband’s earnings there would be “absolutely no way” she could continue her job. “Another TA I work with has just applied to Sainsbury’s. It’s the same everywhere and it’s a massive loss for schools.” Jen Winkley resigned last year after eight years as a TA in a primary school in West Sussex and now earns considerably more working in customer services. She worked five practically full school days a week as a TA, but still did not earn enough to pay tax. “It was hard to walk away. I cried for three days after I left,” she said. “I got to know the children really well. “To start with, the job feels brilliant as it fits around your children, but then you realise you can’t even afford to take them on days out in the school holidays.” Winkley and her husband live in a two-bed flat with their three children and felt they would never be able to upsize on her school salary. “I have a shared ownership flat and almost all my wages went on paying the rent.” Stewart Gynn, headteacher of Bishop Bronescombe CoE primary in St Austell, Cornwall, who contributed to the NCFE report, said his school relied heavily on TAs to support children with additional needs who would otherwise be shut out from learning, as well as providing backup for teachers during lessons. One is leaving at half term due to the low pay. He said: “My concern is that we will just lose these people. It used to be a big selling point for mums that you didn’t have to work in the holidays, but now some supermarkets are saying the same thing and paying more.” Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the headteachers’ union NAHT, said: “TAs do an incredible job – they are the unsung heroes of the education system, providing the support for vulnerable children that is so vital.” He added: “There’s a knock-on impact for the whole classroom if teachers’ time is taken up with things they usually rely on TAs to do.” Angie Rogers, subject specialist in teaching and learning at NCFE, said: “There’s a real risk of skilled TAs being forced out of education and into other sectors. Relying on passion alone is not sustainable.” The Department for Education said: “Schools have the freedom to make their own decisions about budgets and are able to recruit teaching assistants, according to their own circumstances.” It said they could set their own pay and conditions, but most mirrored local government pay scales. This article was amended on 18 June 2023 to add text related to the annual pay of teaching assistants.

Sarah Guthrie obituary

2023-09-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/26/sarah-guthrie-obituary

My wife, Sarah Guthrie, who has died aged 80, was involved in setting up a pioneering lunchtime theatre project in the 1960s before home educating our four daughters and establishing an organisation to help other parents do the same. She went on to teach young asylum seekers and children unable to attend school while simultaneously maintaining a career as a cartoonist for various magazines. Sarah was born in Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire, to Neville Evans, an oil broker, and his wife, Barbara (nee Bruce). Her father’s work took the family first to the West Midlands, where she went to Bromyard grammar school, and then to Wimbledon, south-west London, where she attended the Ridgway school. At 17 she dropped out of school and went to France to study at the Alliance Française in Paris, returning to London to become an editorial assistant on Harper’s Bazaar magazine before leaving in 1964 to work on an early listings magazine, Theatre Perimeter. In 1966, with two colleagues at the magazine, Bryan King and Paul Adams, she set up London’s first lunchtime theatre – Theatrescope Original Lunch Hour Plays. A ticket would buy a pilchard roll, a banana and a seat in the Little Theatre Club in Garrick Yard, off St Martin’s Lane – with a play by writers such as Harold Pinter, Bertold Brecht and John Mortimer, or improvisation with Keith Johnstone. After later collaboration with Ed Berman, Theatrescope folded in 1969 and Sarah and I married. Four children followed, all home educated before further and higher education. Sarah also studied for a humanities degree at the Open University, which she gained in 1979. Having for years drawn cartoons for family amusement, in 1978 Sarah began producing them professionally (using the initials SEG) for magazines such as Peace News, Mslexia, Prospect, Independent Monitor and, for 20 years, Ethical Consumer. She also had a regular strip in the newsletter of an organisation called Education Otherwise (EO). EO had been established by Sarah and others to support the emerging home education movement with legal and practical advice. After we moved to Thrandeston in Suffolk in 1977, she was an area coordinator for EO and started local home education activity groups. We had frequent brushes with the local education authority about our own family’s home education, but in the end Suffolk county council actually recruited Sarah to home tutor children who were unable for any reason to attend school. In the early 2000s she taught young asylum seekers at the Norwich International Youth Project. Theatre came back into her life more recently when she and two friends put on white coats and entertained at street fairs and other events with mock inspections of irrelevant details, such as the tilt of someone’s hat or the length of the mayor’s chain of office. Sarah was a keen linguist: fluent in French, conversational in Italian and with some basic Russian. She is survived by me, our daughters, Joanna, Alice, Lydia and Nina, and granddaughters, Bonnie and Lori, and her siblings, Sue and Bob.

NSW Catholic school sparks four-day week debate with ‘learn from home’ Mondays for senior students

2023-11-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/16/chevalier-college-nsw-catholic-school-four-day-week

Opportunity to learn from home will ‘set students up for success’, principal of Chevalier College says Parents at a regional Catholic college in New South Wales are welcoming a proposed change to the school week that would mean seniors spend Mondays at home. Chevalier College, based in the southern highlands, has announced a proposal that would see students in years 10 to 12 learn and work from home on Mondays, a move the principal says would “set students up for success”. The proposal would see students set work that would “consolidate learning” from the week before and plan for the week ahead, with participating students needing to complete a “micro-credential course” before being able to take part. The change has been praised by many of the pupils’ parents, who took to social media to congratulate Chevalier College on rethinking the school week. One parent, Tonia Pezzella Krebs, told Guardian Australia she trusted the school and did not believe some media reports of parents criticising the changes. “I welcome any new ideas. In this world we must all evolve, yet education is often stuck in the dark ages,” she said. “I have total faith in the school to do the right thing by my children. I have nothing but praise for the school and for Principal Miller and I am excited that my son can experience learning the modern way.” The move is part of a broader program the school is introducing that they hope will actually increase face-to-face learning with teachers, where Mondays are for students to prepare by “engaging in surface level tasks” so there is more time for “deeper learning” during the rest of the week. The changes include additional options for elective subjects, more collaborative projects, weekly “embedded wellbeing time” and space for greater student agency. The school’s principal, Greg Miller, said the reforms were designed to help students develop a sense of independence through self-directed learning. “There is a focus on self regulation … and in particular [students’] ability to manage their time and plan ahead, set goals, consolidate their learning … that’s a lifelong learning capability that we want to enhance in our students,” he said. “We are talking about increased opportunities for autonomy, something that is demanded of our students once they graduate.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Students and parents were involved in developing the changes, Miller said, with a survey held earlier this year on what “education could look like in 3-5 years”. Multiple community forums were also held throughout the year, all focused on educating the school community on the new program. Parents have “overwhelmingly” supported the move, Miller said. “We have been inundated with messages of congratulations and encouragement to press forward. “Parents see that the world is changing, and they believe in an approach that will better prepare their children for a rapidly changing future.” In a statement on their website, the school said only four families indicated they were leaving the college because of the changes. There are 900 students at the school, which is an independent co-ed Catholic high school in Bowral owned by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. A spokesperson for the NSW education department said there were no plans to expand the program across the state. “In consultation with parents and carers, individual NSW public schools have flexibility to vary their starting and finishing times,” the spokesperson said. It comes after the Queensland education department released a policy outlining how schools could make changes to school hours from 2024, which included guidelines for altering the number of school days or changing school hours by more than 30 minutes.

‘It’s alarming’: school forced to close over crumble-risk concrete

2023-09-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/01/alarming-school-forced-to-close-over-crumble-risk-concrete

Willowbrook Mead is one of more than 150 schools found to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete Willowbrook Mead primary academy on the outskirts of Leicester was a hive of activity on Friday morning as staff moved tables, chairs and bookcases from brick buildings into a nearby portable building. But the activity is not the usual hustle and bustle of a new academic year. Just two days into the new term, Willowbrook Mead has been forced to close its doors to students while safety works are carried out. It is one of a number of schools that have had the beginning of term plunged into chaos after the government found more than 150 schools contained buildings made from potentially dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which has been assessed as being at risk of collapse. “It was a bit of a surprise, the kids have just gone back to school, and we just found out yesterday,” said Mohammad Younis, who has a 10-year-old daughter at the school. “It is alarming if something like this is there in a lot of schools and it’s taken them this long to reach the conclusion that it can be dangerous. But I’m sure they are sorting it out so the kids can go back soon.” The school, which has about 450 pupils and is run by the Mead Educational Trust, said it had been contacted by the Department for Education warning that part of its site contained Raac. On Friday morning a stream of staff could be seen moving chairs and tables and boxes of learning materials from an affected building into a portable cabin on site, while other items, including sports equipment, were being loaded in to vans. Workers were at the school, climbing on to its flat roof buildings and drilling, although staff declined to comment on what work was being carried out. Sarah Ridley, the chief executive of the trust, said: “The safety of pupils and staff is our first priority so we are taking every precaution so that no one is put at risk.” A number of families stopped by the school, on the Thurnby Lodge estate in east Leicester, at lunchtime to pick up free packed lunches for their children, and pupils are being taught online while the building remains closed. But the last-minute closure has caused problems for some. “I’m not able to go to work because I can’t take my son with me, I’ve had to take time off,” said one mother, who asked not be named. She has two sons aged eight and nine at the school and said she first found out about the closure when she picked them up from school on Thursday. “The kids had been kept outside the classroom since 1.30pm,” she said. “A mum in the playground said: ‘Are the kids happy?’ and I said: ‘What, to be back at school?’ and she said they were closing again. I was like: ‘You’re joking?’ Especially with them just having six weeks off as well. “And it’s as frustrating for the kids as it is to us. I don’t see how they’re going to be able to sort it out quickly.” The news that a collapsed beam at another school over the summer prompted the government to issue warnings and close schools has caused alarm among some parents. “Something could have fallen on them. If it’s that bad that they’re closing the school, anything could have happened. It is quite scary,” said the mother. “It does feel a bit like we’re back in Covid but we’re OK,” added another parent. “But you can already see work happening on site and it seems as if they’re trying to fix it as soon as possible.”

The value of studying alongside international students | Letter

2024-02-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/29/the-value-of-studying-alongside-international-students

Dr Angus Holford, Dr Greta Morando and Dr Julián Costas-Fernández respond to news about falling numbers of overseas students coming to Britain The focus of recent articles on international student numbers (Warnings of economic damage to UK as international student numbers fall by a third, 29 February; Are international students taking over UK universities? No – in fact, they’re propping them up, 31 January) has been on their overall value to the UK economy or to universities’ financial positions, or their impact on opportunities for British students. But it’s also fair to ask what impact they have on the British students that they study alongside. Our recent peer-reviewed study looked at the entire English higher education system and found that having foreign peers has zero impact on how likely home students are to graduate or how well they do in their degree, and no impact on their chances of finding employment afterwards. British students with top A-level grades even get a salary premium on average from studying alongside international students. So in this regard also there is no reason to restrict international student numbers.Dr Angus Holford University of Essex; Dr Greta Morando University College London and University of Bath; Dr Julián Costas-Fernández University of Surrey Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

State school pupils at a disadvantage from tougher exams | Letter

2023-06-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/08/state-school-pupils-at-a-disadvantage-from-tougher-exams

Camilla Cox wonders if her year 11s realise that many of their private school peers sit IGCSEs, where up to 50% of the mark can come from coursework As a teacher with more than 15 years’ experience in the state sector, I read Zoe Williams’s article with interest (Exam season makes everyone unhappy. Why do we put up with it?, 5 June). No one seems to be aware that not all exam seasons are equal. As I watch our year 11s tumble out from the exam hall each day, giddy with relief that another gruelling, 100% exam GCSE is done and dusted, I wonder if they know that their wealthier, private school peers are sitting “international” GCSEs where, in subjects such as English and history, up to 50% of the mark can come from coursework. I know because I, like many state school teachers, used to enter our students for these “easier” qualifications. In 2013, state schools had caught on to the private schools’ game and entries for IGCSE English, for example, soared from 18,000 to 78,000. Cutting them from the league tables in 2015, Michael Gove forced state schools to adopt the reformed, more rigorous GCSEs, and unwittingly created a two-tier education system that added disadvantage to already disadvantaged children. Today, private schools continue to reap the benefit, securing swathes of top grades by doing so. I welcome the rigour of the reformed GCSEs, but if private schools don’t have to do them, then the disadvantage gap will continue to widen. As one of my teenagers would say: “Miss, it’s not fair!” And it really isn’t.Camilla CoxLondon Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Rishi Sunak’s planned A-levels revamp could include baccalaureate

2023-09-21

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/21/rishi-sunaks-planned-a-levels-reforms-could-include-baccalaureate

PM wants pupils in England to study a wider range of subjects including maths and English until they are 18 The A-level system in England could be overhauled with a new style of British baccalaureate in which children would study more subjects after the age of 16, according to reports. The proposals include English and maths becoming compulsory up until the age of 18, the Times said. Students would also be required to study a wider range of subjects in post-16 education. A Conservative source told the paper that Rishi Sunak was determined to press ahead with the plan, having initially suggested the idea during his unsuccessful leadership campaign against Liz Truss last year. The Tory source added: “He came back from the summer with a series of things he wanted to move on. A-level reform is a critical part of it.” In 2021, the EDSK education thinktank concluded that A-levels were too narrow and should be replaced with a three-year “baccalaureate” that covers all academic, applied and technical courses. Its report said students should be required to study English and maths up to the age of 18, in line with other developed nations. The EDSK report warned that the dominance of A-levels in the English education system had relegated applied and technical courses to second-class status. About half of 18-year-olds in England take A-levels, meaning they typically sit exams in three subjects. Rather than narrowing down choices, the baccalaureate would in theory allow students to retain more breadth in their studies and only gradually specialise over the three-year programme. A senior government source told the Times that options were being looked into and no final decision had been taken. Robert Halfon, the former chairman of the education select committee, has previously backed the idea of a British baccalaureate. He said: “The advantage of the British baccalaureate is it will mean that students have a much wider curriculum so they get the skills that they need and employers want.” A-levels were first awarded in 1951 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and until the early 1960s, the qualification was awarded only at the grades of pass and distinction. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Since 2010 we have made huge progress in driving up school standards and giving young people the best start in life, with record funding for schools and more full-time teachers than ever before. “We have already taken steps to reform the post-16 qualifications landscape, including reforming technical education and delivering millions of new high-quality apprenticeships. “Alongside this, we have set out bold plans to ensure that every young person studies some form of maths up to the age of 18 to give them the skills they need to succeed in the jobs of the future.”

University students more at risk of depression than non-students – study

2023-09-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/29/university-students-more-at-risk-of-depression-than-non-students-study

Higher levels of poor mental health in England could be linked to worries about money and academic achievement, findings suggest University students are more at risk of depression and anxiety than their peers who go straight into work, according to a study, suggesting mental health may deteriorate due to the financial strain of higher education. The research is the first to find evidence of slightly higher levels of depression and anxiety among students, and challenges earlier work suggesting that the mental health of students is the same as or better than their peers. The first author of the study, Dr Tayla McCloud, a researcher in the psychiatry department at University College London (UCL), said the fact that the link between university and poor mental health had not been established in earlier studies could mean that it is due to “increased financial pressures and worries about achieving high results in the wider economic and social context”. As well as grappling with rising costs due to inflation, university students this year are facing unprecedented rent rises averaging at 8% and far outstripping the average maintenance loan in many cities. McCloud said she would have ordinarily expected university students to have better mental health as they tend to be from more privileged backgrounds, making the results “particularly concerning” and requiring more research to pinpoint the risks facing students. The lead author, Dr Gemma Lewis, associate professor at UCL’s school of psychiatry, said poorer mental health at university could have repercussions in later life. She said: “The first couple of years of higher education are a crucial time for development, so if we could improve the mental health of young people during this time it could have long-term benefits for their health and wellbeing, as well as for their educational achievement and longer term success.” The research paper, published in the Lancet Public Health and commissioned by the Department for Education, states that by the age of 25 the difference in mental health had disappeared between graduates and non-graduates. The analysis suggested that if the potential mental health risks of attending higher education were eliminated, the incidence of depression and anxiety could be reduced by 6% among people aged 18-19. The researchers used data from the Longitudinal Studies of Young People in England, which includes 4,832 young people born in 1989-90, who were aged 18-19 in 2007-9, and 6,128 participants born in 1998-99, aged 18-19 in2016-18. In both studies, just over half attended higher education. Participants completed surveys about their mental health to investigate symptoms of depression, anxiety and social dysfunction at multiple points over the years. The researchers found a small difference in symptoms of depression and anxiety at age 18-19 between students and non-students, even controlling for factors including socioeconomic status, parents’ education and alcohol use. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Their findings were echoed in research from King’s College London that found reported mental health problems among university students had almost tripled between 2016-17 and 2022-23, rising from 6% to 16%, and were especially prevalent among female and non-binary students. A significant part of this increase occurred in the last 12 months, coinciding with the cost of living crisis. The research found that among students considering dropping out of university, the proportion citing financial distress rose from 3.5% to 8% between 2022 and 2023. The research also found a small gradual increase in the rate of mental health difficulties as studentsundertook more paid work during term time.

High costs and discrimination: US study details obstacles for Black students

2023-02-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/10/black-students-higher-education-study-low-completion-discrimination

Research finds that Black students have lowest completion rates for post-secondary education than any other group Black students have lower six-year completion rates for any kind of degree or certificate program than students in any other racial or ethnic group, a new study has found. According to the study by Gallup and Lumina Foundation, which was released on Thursday, Black students must contend with various challenges to completing post-secondary programs including high costs and racial discrimination. Black students in the least racially diverse programs are more likely to feel discriminated against or physically or psychologically unsafe, the study found. Among all post-secondary institutions, 21% of currently enrolled Black students said they “frequently” or “occasionally” felt discriminated against. Black students’ perceptions of discrimination varied depending on the type of credential they were pursuing, the survey found. Among students in short-term credential programs, 32% said they felt discriminated against at least occasionally. In contrast, 16% of Black students in associate degree programs and 14% of Black students in bachelor’s programs said they experienced discrimination at least occasionally. According to the study, the experiences of Black students depend on the type of institution they attend. Among Black students at private for-profit schools, 34% say they experience discrimination frequently or occasionally, compared to 23% in private not-for-profit institutions and 17% at public institutions. Researchers said this was especially concerning because Black students make up a larger share of the student population in private for-profit institutions than in public or private not-for-profit universities. The survey also found that Black students in four-year bachelor’s degree programs are more likely to stop coursework than students from other racial and ethnic groups. Black bachelor’s students are twice as likely – 36% to 18% – as students from other groups to have additional responsibilities such as caregiving or full-time work. The survey found that 15% of Black students were caregivers for adult family members or friends, compared to 8% of other students. Eleven per cent of Black students were parents or guardians of children younger than 18, compared with 7% of other students. Twenty per cent of Black students were employed full-time, compared to 11% of other students. As a result, Black bachelor’s students with multiple responsibilities were more likely – 46% v 34% – to say they had considered stopping coursework in the past six months compared to those without multiple responsibilities. According to the survey, Black bachelor’s students are also more likely than others to cite the importance of flexibility in schedules and course delivery in their ability to stay enrolled. Fifty-nine per cent said greater flexibility in their work or personal schedule was very important to remaining enrolled, compared with 37% of other students. Moreover, 47% of Black students said flexibility in course delivery such as remote learning options was very important, compared to 29% of other students. In order to help Black bachelor’s students remain enrolled, the study recommends institutions “continue developing best practices in integrating in-person and online course options” and offer clear access to counseling services. The survey also suggests the need for greater regulatory oversight and more accountability measures to stop for-profit colleges targeting minority groups with “inferior program qualities and predatory lending practices”. Courtney Brown, Lumina Foundation’s vice-president of strategic impact and planning, told CNN: “If Black individuals aren’t able to access these programs because they’re being discriminated against, that’s not good for the individual and it’s not good for our society.”

Pupils in England face missing five school days as NEU backs more strikes

2023-04-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/04/pupils-england-miss-five-school-days-neu-votes-more-strikes

Delegates at union’s annual conference approve further industrial action over pay and school funding Pupils in England face missing five days of school next term after the National Education Union approved further strike action over pay and school funding for the summer, as well as the possibility of more stoppages in autumn. Delegates to the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate voted for three further strike days to take place in late June or early July, to follow two days of strikes already scheduled for 27 April and 2 May. The conference also backed a fresh ballot of NEU members to authorise further strikes once the current ballot expires, which if passed by members would allow the union to extend the action into the new school year from September. The development is an escalation of the dispute over pay and school funding, after the NEU and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) decisively rejected the offer by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, of a one-off payment of £1,000 and a pay rise of 4.5% from September for teachers in England. Keegan has said the rejection means no negotiations will take place until next year’s pay recommendation by the independent school teachers’ review body. Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “As this education secretary appears not to care about the run-down and demoralised education system, the NEU will be stepping up our campaign for fair pay for teachers. Wales and Scotland have both reached settlements on teacher pay. It is about time that the Westminster government gets serious and gets back round the table to resolve this dispute. “Parents and the education profession will be in no doubt that if further industrial action needs to be taken, the blame for this will lie squarely at the government’s door.” The dates for the three days of strikes in June and July will be timed to come after the end of A-levels and GCSEs, to avoid further disruption for pupils taking exams. Amendments calling for strikes to take place during the exam period were not taken up, after speakers urged delegates to “keep the moral high ground”. “The press will have a field day if we go out on strike during exam weeks. They’ll say: ‘Look, they don’t care,’” Wendy Hardy, a member of the NEU’s executive, told the conference. If the dispute is not resolved and strikes go ahead over the summer term, teachers belonging to the NEU will have been on strike for nine days since the start of February. Rejection of the pay offer was fuelled by the government’s insistence that the bulk of the 4.5% pay rise should come from existing school budgets. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion In the ASCL ballot, 87% of members rejected the pay offer, with most referring to the “inadequacy” of funding for the 4.5% pay rise. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the ASCL, said: “Talks with the government were immensely frustrating and it took an eternity to inch towards this lacklustre set of proposals. Ultimately, all we could do is put it to members and let them decide. It is no surprise that they have overwhelmingly rejected the offer.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “After costing children almost a week of time in the classroom and with exams fast approaching, it is unforgivable that the NEU is re-balloting for more strike action up until Christmas this year.” The DfE said its pay offer included “major new investment” worth more than £500m: “NEU and ASCL’s decision to reject this offer will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers.” This article was amended on 6 April 2023. The member of the NEU executive quoted is Wendy Hardy, not Harding as an earlier version said.

Rishi Sunak’s A-level overhaul plan is undeliverable gimmick, says Labour

2023-09-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/22/rishi-sunak-a-level-overhaul-plan-undeliverable-gimmick-labour

School leaders say funding and teacher shortages are far more urgent than a ‘British baccalaureate’ Rishi Sunak’s desire to overhaul A-levels was denounced as an “undeliverable gimmick” by Labour and met with scepticism by school leaders who said funding and teacher shortages were far more urgent concerns. A series of news reports claim the prime minister is planning changes to what students in England are taught after GCSEs, including compulsory maths and English classes as part of a broader “British baccalaureate” qualification. But although it has been mooted several times in the past year, few details have emerged to flesh out what may end up as a policy in the Conservative party’s election manifesto. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, accused Sunak of creating uncertainty: “I think many parents hearing this will be saying: look, at the moment we don’t have enough maths teachers in our secondary schools. At the moment many schools are closed or not functioning properly because the roofs might fall in.” Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “This is just the latest undeliverable gimmick from a weak prime minister and a dying Conservative government with no serious plan for improving standards of education for young people.” So far discussions over what a sixth form baccalaureate may contain appear confined to Downing Street, with little or no involvement from the Department for Education or Gillian Keegan, the education secretary for England. James Kewin, the deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the government’s biggest priorities should be increasing investment and improving teacher recruitment rather than radical curriculum changes. “Grand plans with no detail are difficult to take seriously, particularly when they appear to be driven by electoral rather than educational considerations and are reannounced on a regular basis,” Kewin said. “The post-16 curriculum in England is narrow by international standards but that partly reflects the chronic underinvestment in sixth form education in recent years – 15% lower in real terms than it was in 2010.” Critics say extra maths and English classes would conflict with the government’s newly introduced T-level qualification, a two-year vocational course equivalent to three A-levels with a heavy curriculum and extended work placements. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the government had “spent a fortune” developing T-levels, and that it was difficult to see how a baccalaureate could be reconciled with other qualifications. “There is merit in looking at increasing subject breadth in post-16 education but the idea of a ‘British baccalaureate’ is no more than a sketchy slogan, with the prime minister’s rehashed plan for compulsory maths until the age of 18 bolted on,” Barton said. “Would the British baccalaureate replace A-levels, T-levels, BTecs and existing functional skills qualifications, incorporate them, or be layered on top of them?” Other pitfalls could include private schools choosing to ignore a baccalaureate and continuing with the “gold standard” A-levels, as many have done with the government’s overhauled GCSE courses. Harry Quilter-Pinner, the director of engagement and research at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, said: “A British baccalaureate is an interesting idea but Rishi Sunak should walk before running. “Crumbling schools, a recruitment and retention crisis with teachers, and a postcode lottery of standards are just some of the immediate issues that need to be dealt with.”

The school reports are in – and they’re not good

2023-12-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/10/eva-wiseman-the-real-reason-why-schools-are-failing

Far from being places of safety, fun and enlightenment, many children just don’t see the point of school any more When I was very little, I excelled at school. I loved it. I was the one given a notebook to “write my poems in”, while my classmates learned to copy their names. I marched through the warm biscuity corridors like a kind of king. Time passed. I became average and then less than and then bad. By the time I got to secondary school I had six or seven chips on my shoulder and had forgotten how to learn a thing. I was the only Year 7, they told me, stiffly, who’d got a detention in their first term. I hated school. It was a grim place for me, disappointments and panic, and hysterical boredom, and the smell of Dewberry body spray covering all manner of adolescent horrors. But it never occurred to me to stay at home. Perhaps this was a lack of imagination on my part, or a fear of authority, or maybe I just kept on going because keeping on going was just what you did. Something since has changed. The Chief Inspector of Schools in England claims that parents and pupils now disregard rules they once took for granted, like attending daily, and headteachers say they agree. The Department for Education’s adviser on behaviour policy said it was Covid that “broke the spell”. When I read this, for some reason I felt shivers. There are so many spells, growing up. So many social contracts we must tacitly adhere to. Some are important, some are bizarre, some need reviewing, and some, it’s clear, are so flimsy they can be broken in a matter of months, dissolving like soap. A series of stories about the state of schools has revealed quite what terrible trouble they’re in. More than 700,000 pupils are learning in classrooms that need “a major rebuild or refurbishment”, according to a parliamentary inquiry. Rates of absence have increased dramatically since Covid – more than a quarter of all secondary pupils are now defined as persistent absentees, missing at least 10% of classes, while numbers for primary school are similar. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said this persistent absence “represents one of the gravest threats to children’s life chances”. And teachers are struggling, too. An inquest is investigating the death earlier this year of headteacher Ruth Perry, who killed herself shortly after Ofsted’s inspection of her primary school, downgrading it from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. Her sister, discussing the pressure and mental toll these inspections place on staff, said, “We had to speak out, because Ruth was not the first headteacher to take her own life after an Ofsted inspection.” The pressure is also coming from inside the walls: one school in Kent has experienced such a deterioration of pupil behaviour that teachers went on strike over fears for their safety, complaining of assaults and threats of violence. When the education secretary called for a phone ban in schools to improve said behaviour, school leaders said the announcement was a “smokescreen” distracting from real problems, like underfunding, teacher recruitment and providing for pupils with special educational needs. In the summer it was reported, without much surprise, that teachers in England were abandoning the profession in record numbers: 40,000 teachers resigned from state schools in 2022, almost 9% of the teaching workforce, and the highest number since the Department for Education began publishing the data in 2011. Teaching unions blame poor working conditions and the long-term erosion in wages. Since Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement, Rishi Sunak has promised to recruit extra teachers, but failed to specify how he’ll pay for them. Meanwhile, private schools receive tax breaks estimated to be worth more than £3bn a year. Schools are now places nobody wants to be. But these are places – these are meant to be places – where children learn not just how to count or spell, but how to make friends and become curious, become a person, how to build a society. To see schools failing like this seems to reflect what’s happening in the wider world – the most vulnerable pupils being failed or forgotten, the bonds within communities weakening, a kind of social crumbling. And when a person drops out – when they crash, or falter, or get ill, or get it wrong, or when the system fails them in any number of tiny but devastating ways – there is nowhere else for them to land. The spell truly has been broken. I don’t know how to fix it – as I mentioned, I haven’t had the answers (nor the poetry) since late 1990 – but it seems crushingly clear that our government has failed a generation of children, with their response to the teachers’ pay dispute, their dismantling of arts education and welfare services, their vacuum of funding for pupils with additional needs, their inability to fund a Covid-recovery package and, of course, the buildings where concrete roofs are falling in, a metaphor too blunt to bear repeating. It seems clear that pupils should be listened to. What would a good school look like to them? What do schools need to do to rebuild trust with families? What would it take to help pupils want to show up? I was no genius at school, but even I can see how to join the dots. Email Eva at e.wiseman@observer.co.uk or follow her on X @EvaWiseman

England’s schools to be given less money after DfE admits bungling figures

2023-10-06

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/06/englands-schools-to-be-given-less-money-after-dfe-admits-bungling-figures

Amount schools receive for each pupil will be lower, forcing headteachers to redraw their budgets for 2024-25 The Department for Education has admitted to bungling its funding figures for state schools in England next year, after revealing a £370m error in previous announcements by ministers. The DfE’s mistake means that mainstream primary and secondary schools will be given at least £50 less a pupil than originally forecast, forcing school leaders to redraw their budgets for 2024-25. For a typical secondary school the loss equates to a teacher’s salary. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the miscalculation “speaks volumes about the chaos at the heart of government”. “School leaders will be rightly angry that basic accounting errors may force them to rethink already tight budgets as a result of the erroneous figures they were provided. Many may now have to revisit crucial decisions around staffing or support for pupils as budgets are reduced,” Whiteman said. The mistake appears due to an underestimate of pupil numbers by DfE officials, meaning that while the £59.6bn core allocation will be unchanged, the amount schools receive for each pupil will be lower than previously announced. In a letter issued on Friday evening, Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, said her department had issued revised figures under the national funding formula (NFF) for schools. “I apologise for this error. The secretary of state [Gillian Keegan] has asked me to conduct a formal review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the NFF, with independent scrutiny,” Acland-Hood told Robin Walker, the chair of the Commons’ education select committee. Acland-Hood added: “I would want to express my sincere apologies that this error has occurred, and reassure you that rigorous measures are being put in place to ensure that it will not be repeated.” When the funding figures were announced in July, ministers told parliament that mainstream funding would rise by 2.7% a pupil between 2023-24 and 2024-25. But the revised DfE document issued at 5pm on Friday says the rise will now be just 1.9%. Minimum funding levels under the NFF will also be lower on average, with primary schools seeing at least £45 a pupil less, and secondary schools £55 less. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “Children’s education has already been crushed under the weight of a failed pandemic recovery programme, crumbling buildings and the cumulative effects of 13 years of Conservative government, and now leaders are faced with yet more uncertainty for schools and families.” The revision will increase pressures on school budgets. This week the Institute for Fiscal Studies had warned that the purchasing power of school spending a pupil in 2024-25 would be about 3% lower than in 2009-10 because of rising costs. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is important that there are no similar mistakes in the future. It is also important that ministers urgently review the education budget to make sure all schools receive enough funding to meet all cost pressures.” The DfE said schools have not received funding allocations for 2024-25, so addressing the error will not result in any clawback. Final allocations will be based on pupil numbers from October’s school census, which has not yet been published.

A-level students in England may miss out as stricter grading returns

2023-08-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/17/a-level-students-in-england-may-miss-out-as-stricter-grading-returns

Headteachers say return to pre-pandemic marking process means fewer top grades will be awarded A-level results – latest updates Students in England opening their A-level results on Thursday morning should be braced for disappointment – especially as many will be those who enjoyed a bumper set of GCSE results two years ago. The bulk of this year’s school-leavers receiving their results are those whose GCSE grades were awarded by teacher assessment after exams were cancelled in 2021, with a record-breaking 30% of those entries receiving top 7s, 8s and 9s grades, equivalent to As and A*s. The higher GCSE grades meant a bigger proportion of students qualifying to take A-levels in more subjects. But the more generous grading of two years ago has been replaced by a policy of returning grades to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, meaning a steep fall in the proportion of top grades awarded compared with the last three years. Headteachers who spoke to the Guardian said they feared there would be “tears for a few students” who might have been expecting better results. Experts at the FFT Datalab education consultancy said the rollercoaster ride of pandemic-era GCSE grades and pre-pandemic A-levels could disproportionately affect disadvantaged students who in previous years would not have sat A-levels but were encouraged to do so this year. “We don’t have the figures yet but these unusual circumstances might well mean that a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils went on to enter A-levels this year than in a typical year,” Natasha Plaister, a statistician at FFT Datalab, said. But top grades will fall across the board compared with the last three years, as the government in England has imposed a return to pre-pandemic grading despite the lingering effects of Covid and school closures, with FFT Datalab noting that disadvantaged students missed more classroom time during the pandemic. In 2021, 44.3% of A-level entries in England received As or A*s, while those who sat A-level exams last year saw 36.4% of entries awarded the top grades. By contrast, in 2019 just 25.8% received As or A*s. Some forecasters have predicted that up to 50,000 students are likely to miss out on the top grades that they would have achieved had they taken their A-levels last year rather than this spring. A-level results will also be published in Wales and Northern Ireland, where regulators have taken a more lenient approach. Qualification Wales said exams would be graded more generously to reflect the “long-term impact” of the pandemic, with a return to pre-pandemic levels next year. The expected fall in top grades is especially concerning for those applying for university places who need to meet their offers. A survey by PA found that 130 universities had 22,521 courses with vacancies for UK applicants on Wednesday, similar to the number of vacancies at the same time last year. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary in England, said: “I’m incredibly proud of all students receiving their results today. For many, this will have been the first set of formal exams they have ever taken, having faced unprecedented circumstances in the years building up to this summer.” But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called for the government to make employers more aware of the changes that have taken place to grades between 2020 and 2023. “This will feel like a bitter pill to many in this year’s cohort as they also suffered disruption during the pandemic, and those in disadvantaged circumstances were adversely affected in particular. It is essential that everything possible is done to support these young people,” Barton said.

UK universities paying millions in agent fees to secure international students

2023-11-18

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/18/uk-universities-paying-millions-in-agent-fees-to-secure-international-students

Student recruitment industry has rapidly expanded as universities become increasingly dependent on income from overseas Education agents are earning record commissions finding international students for UK universities, with one institution spending £28m on agent agent commissions and related costs last year alone. The figures obtained by the Observer give an insight into the lucrative student recruitment industry, which has grown rapidly amid a rise in international student numbers and increasing dependence by some universities on the income they provide. In the past year, just under 500,000 sponsored UK study visas were granted – 23% more than the year before, and double the number in 2019. A fifth of income received by UK universities now comes from international students, a recent Guardian analysis found. Tuition fees charged to international students are higher than domestic fees, with the British Council estimating that international undergraduate students pay £22,000 a year on average, with postgraduate students charged even more. To incentivise agents, some universities pay generous referral fees – typically either a flat rate per student or a percentage of the first year’s course fees. The figures from universities that provided data suggest the agents receive between £2,000 and £8,000 per student. A decade ago, the figure was estimated to be £1,000. Data obtained by the Observer reveals that the University of Greenwich spent more than £28.7m in 2022/ 23 on education agents and associated taxes – up from £18.3m in 2021/22 and £3.3m in 2017/18. The money related to the recruitment of 6,572 students over the year, suggesting the London university spent an average of £4,368 per student. Another university, De Montfort in Leicester, paid £17.1m in commission to agents last year – up from £10.5m in 2021/22. The payments related to 4,457 international students, suggesting the average per student was about £3,829 – up from £2,388 five years ago. The spending was revealed through freedom of information requests to UK universities. Most refused to disclose their spending, citing commercial sensitivities, while others – typically the most prestigious ones, such as Oxford and Cambridge – said they did not work with education agents at all. Of the 20 that supplied detailed figures, most reported a rise in spending – including Leeds Beckett, which spent £9.5m in 2022/23 compared with £871,000 five years ago, and Manchester Met, which spent £4m compared with £650,447. Universities UK, which represents 142 institutions, said spending on agents had risen due to the growth in international students coming to the UK. “More students are choosing agents to help navigate the application, selection and visa processes,” it said, adding that most agents were “trusted and valuable partners” for universities, which had “rigorous processes” to “prevent abuse”. But in the wider education sector, the reliance on agents has fuelled concerns about alleged unethical practice, including reports of agents directing students towards certain courses due to incentives. Kishore Dattu, general secretary of the Indian National Student Association, which represents Indian students in the UK, said: “Sometimes what the agent does is irrespective of whether it’s the right fit for the student. They even try to lure some students with offers, like: we’ll give you a laptop or a phone.” Lord Jo Johnson, former universities minister, warned earlier this year that a key risk to universities’ licences was from “rogue agents”. Some gave students fake bank documents or “recycle the same funding” to help them circumvent visa regulations that require a minimum amount of savings, he said. He called for the Office for Students to maintain a register of agents and publish performance data relating to visa refusals as well as course completion rates, broken down by agent. There is not currently any formal regulation of education agents operating in the UK, although agents can subscribe to an ethical code of practice. The British Council maintains a register and offers training The universities identified in the Observer’s research all said they had stringent measures in place to ensure agents were operating ethically, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by intermediaries on their behalf. They cited a number of reasons for increased spend on agent fees, including a rise in student numbers driven by the introduction of the graduate visa route in 2019. Greenwich said its surge in spending was a result of “significant growth” in international student numbers, which have risen 179% since 2019/20, “in addition to growth in students from inside the UK”, and that its base commission rates had not changed. It added that it worked closely with UK Visas and Immigration to ensure regulatory requirements were met and that its processes and agent partners were audited regularly. De Montfort said agents supported overseas students with applications, visas and accommodation and were “essential” for building relationships with educational institutions abroad. It said fees paid to agents were “proportionate to student tuition fees”, which have risen for EU students. “This has naturally led to agents receiving more money,” it said. It added that it conducted “due diligence on all agents prior to issuing any contracts”, adding: “If the high standards we demand are not met, we will end the partnership.” Leeds Beckett university said payments to agents were “commensurate with growth” in international student numbers, and “stringent measures” were in place to manage agent partnerships. International students are estimated to have added £42bn to the UK economy in 2021/22, up from £31.3bn in 2018/19. This article was amended on 8 February 2024 after we were notified by Greenwich University of an error in the figures it provided to us. An earlier version said the university spent £28.7m recruiting “2,986 postgraduates and 500 undergraduates over the year”, which was “an average of £8,235 per student”. However, Greenwich had given student numbers only for its September intake, rather than the full-year figure of 6,572, making a per-student average spend of £4,368. These numbers have been corrected, and a further revision made to reflect that the £28.7m includes tax and other associated costs.

‘It redefined my values’: should you go on a year abroad?

2023-09-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/10/it-redefined-my-values-should-you-go-on-a-year-abroad

Most universities now offer students opportunities to study, work and live abroad, no matter what course you’re studying. For Sonya Barlow, studying in Rome was the best experience of her life. Now a BBC presenter, she believes spending part of her business degree in Italy in 2013/14 “made me who I am”. “I had never lived away from my family home but suddenly I was living alone in a different country. It redefined my values and allowed me to be me: I explored Italy, focused on studying, balanced that with fun and laid great foundations for moving into the world of work,” she says. By her second semester in Rome, Barlow was able to take her classes in Italian: “It was hard, but stepping out of my comfort zone set me up for success.” Lots of students might think that the doors to study abroad closed after Brexit, as the UK had to leave the European Union’s Erasmus+ study abroad programme. But that’s not the case – it’s still a great time to study abroad, and thanks to funding opportunities it can be a cheaper way to see the world than a gap year. The UK government set up the Turing scheme to take the place of Erasmus+ when the UK left the EU. It has some differences: Turing is globally focused rather than just on Europe. Colleges and universities apply for funding on behalf of their students and then use the money to support their studies. Universities and colleges abroad are expected to waive their fees under the scheme. “Losing Erasmus was a huge blow but I believe most feedback about the Turing scheme has been positive,” says Carlos Howarth, a study-abroad specialist with the graduate careers charity Prospects. “On the upside, there is the widened geographical scope of the funding and opportunities,” he says. “One downside is that the Erasmus+ programme sets out its funding six or seven years in advance, while UK universities now have to apply for funding through the Turing scheme on a year-by-year basis, which can create a feeling of uncertainty.” Howarth says that his organisation is finding that individual universities are increasingly working together to plug any gaps left by the Turing scheme. This means that UK and international institutions are forging new partnerships and exchange programmes to facilitate studying abroad. Howarth cites the University of Essex, which now offers the option to study abroad with every course, including vocational degrees such as law. King’s College London and Universitat Pompeu Fabra offer a course that allows students to spend two years in London and two in Barcelona and qualify in English and Spanish law. While a year abroad might be seen as the standard, growing numbers of universities are offering shorter and more flexible options, such as summer schools and individual semesters. Howarth cites the University of Bath as one of many top institutions committed to allowing “most subjects” to study abroad for a portion of their degree. There are also huge numbers of courses taught in English in countries where English is not the first language – more than 28,000 of them worldwide. This makes them more accessible to British students as well as students from elsewhere who speak English as a second language. Some courses will offer the choice of learning in the local language or English. “British students are desirable to unis abroad because the US and UK have the largest concentration of highly ranked universities, so it’s harder to entice them to move away with that on their doorstep,” Howarth explains. “Attracting a diverse range of foreign students also helps the foreign unis move up in the international rankings.” Working abroad as a student or recent graduate and studying abroad are both valuable ways of broadening your life experience and making yourself more employable, and, according to Howarth, studying abroad is seen particularly favourably by employers. “Studying abroad is viewed as an impressive and serious thing to do. It really changes the perception of somebody – it’s quite a brave step to take and is perceived as that. You will gain new academic perspectives, experience a different culture, and be viewed as more open-minded and better able to cope with change.” Lots of students say that the opportunity to broaden their horizons and have new, unexpected experiences is their favourite thing about studying abroad – so if you go, grab the opportunity with both hands. “It is a rare, privileged experience, so use it to have fun and travel around,” says Sarah Kearns, who spent a year studying literature in Berlin and took “really cheap” trips to Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland and Hungary, as well as taking advantage of the opportunity to try different modules. “My friend Bella and I took a class on collaging - cutting up magazines and glueing them back together. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a classroom.”

Government’s £6.5m early years plan for England a ‘drop in the ocean’

2024-02-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/02/governments-65m-early-years-plan-for-england-a-drop-in-the-ocean

Nursery leaders say recruitment drive comes too late and does not go far enough A £6.5m recruitment campaign to encourage people to work in the early years sector as the first phase of the government’s flagship childcare expansion plan has been criticised as “too late” and a “drop in the ocean” by sector leaders. A trial, which will take place in 20 local authorities in England from April, will also give new recruits and returners to the early years workforce a £1,000 cash payment shortly after they take up their post. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced in March last year that eligible families of children as young as nine months in England would be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week. Under the plans, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare from April. This will be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from September. From September 2025, working parents of children under five will be entitled to 30 hours’ free childcare each week. The children and families minister, David Johnston, said: “One of the things that people in the sector say to me is that too often people feel that they’re seen as babysitters rather than what they actually are, which is early educators who are playing a vital role in a child’s first five years. “So what we’re trying to do both with the financial incentives – but more with the big national campaign – is get people to understand just how important these roles are and the difference you can make in shaping young lives at the earliest stage.” He added that the government wanted to test out the £1,000 “golden handshake” in some areas to see if it did encourage people who had worked in the sector to return, as well as increase new starters. The recruitment campaign by the Department for Education will look to increase recruitment across the sector by highlighting different childcare career routes and progression opportunities. Purnima Tanuku, the chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said: “It’s important to stress that this campaign comes too late to support nurseries with the first phase of the childcare expansion, which begins in two months. Campaigns like this take time to have a positive impact and the sector needs qualified and experienced staff now.” She added: “The sector needs thousands more staff so we hope that the tax-free incentive will form part of a comprehensive workforce plan if the pilot is successful.” Joeli Brearley, the founder of charity Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “These plans are undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but they’re a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. The sector needs tens of thousands more early years professionals if it is to meet the demand for places. “A one-off payment doesn’t deal with the fundamental issue that early years professionals leave the sector because the pay is dreadful and the work can be hugely stressful. The only way to sustainably solve the staffing crisis is to increase wages.” The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “This is a startling reminder that the Conservatives have offered a childcare pledge without a plan. “Childcare staff are leaving in their droves, leading to nursery closures right across the country. Cheap bungs to new staff when existing workers are turning their back on this key industry will not magic up new places for parents.”

High court upholds top London school’s ban on prayer rituals

2024-04-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/16/london-school-katharine-birbalsingh-prayer-rituals-ban-not-unlawful-high-court

Muslim pupil loses case against Michaela community school, run by former government social mobility tsar Katharine Birbalsingh A high court decision to uphold a prayer ban at one of the highest performing state schools in England has been welcomed by Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch, who described it as a “victory against activists trying to subvert our public institutions”. The case against Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, which is famous for its strict discipline code, was brought by a Muslim pupil, known only as TTT in court proceedings, who claimed the ban was discriminatory and breached her right to religious freedom. In a written judgment handed down on Tuesday, Mr Justice Linden dismissed the pupil’s arguments against the prayer ban on all key grounds. Commenting in a post on X, Badenoch, the equalities minister, said: “No pupil has the right to impose their views on an entire school community in this way. The Equality Act is a shield, not a sword and teachers must not be threatened into submission.” Her comments were later criticised by a senior Muslim leader who accused her of sensationalising the case, while the Runnymede Trust, an independent race equality thinktank, warned the ruling set a dangerous precedent. Also on X, the trust posted: “It targets Muslim students and cannot be removed from the ramping up of Prevent and recent govt extremism definition. No child should be policed for the peaceful practice of their faith.” The judgment followed a two-day hearing in January at the high court in London, which heard the prayer ban was introduced in March last year by the school’s founder and former government social mobility tsar, Katharine Birbalsingh, after the school found itself the target of death and bomb threats over its approach to religious observance. Birbalsingh, who is often called “Britain’s strictest headteacher”, defended the policy, arguing it was vital in order to “maintain a successful learning environment where children of all races and religion can thrive”. However, the pupil claimed the prayer ban had fundamentally changed how she felt about being a Muslim in the UK. It was “like somebody saying they don’t feel like I properly belong here”, the court heard. She also argued that the ban “uniquely” affected her faith due to its ritualised nature, and that Michaela’s policy on prayer was the “kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”. Linden ruled the prayer ban did not interfere with the pupil’s religious freedom as they could have moved to another school that allowed prayer at lunchtime and said it was justified, given the secular ethos of the school. He added: “The disadvantage to Muslim pupils at the school caused by the prayer ritual policy is in my view outweighed by the aims which it seeks to promote in the interests of the school community as a whole, including Muslim pupils.” The prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The PM welcomes the judgment. The Michaela community school is an outstanding school with a history of excellent outcomes for pupils. The government has always been clear that heads are best placed to take decisions on what is permitted in our schools. And this judgment supports that.” Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Wales, told the PA news agency he was disappointed the court had failed to defend a “very well-established British principle of freedom of religion”. “It’s not looking for preferential treatment, it’s looking for fairness in schools. It’s looking for the basic religious freedoms which have long been a part of the British public sphere.” Commenting on Badenoch’s statement, he said: “I think unfortunately the minister’s comments are sensationalising this case and playing into a culture war and a rhetoric which doesn’t reflect the reality of what’s happening on the ground.” After the judgment, the pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was disappointed, but added: “Even though I lost, I still feel that I did the right thing in seeking to challenge the ban. I tried my best, and was true to myself and my religion. Being involved in this case has not been easy for me. My main focus now is my GCSEs.” The pupil’s mother, who also cannot be named, said: “I’m profoundly dismayed by the case’s outcome. The case was rooted in the understanding that prayer isn’t just a desirable act for us – it’s an essential element that shapes our lives as Muslims.” Birbalsingh welcomed the court’s decision as a victory for all schools. She said: “A school should be free to do what is right for the pupils it serves. Schools should not be forced by one child and her mother to change its approach simply because they have decided they don’t like something.”She warned against a false narrative about Muslims being an oppressed minority at Michaela. “They are, in fact, the largest group. Those who are most at risk are other minorities and Muslim children who are less observant. If parents do not like what Michaela is, they do not need to send their children to us. Can it be right for a family to receive £150,000 of taxpayer-funded legal aid to bring a case like this?” A representative for the family said Birbalsingh’s figure was incorrect and the capped legal aid costs were “a fraction” of that sum. The case could have implications for other state schools in England amid renewed discussion about whether faith and religion should have any role in the education system. Humanists UK chief executive, Andrew Copson, said: “Today’s high court judgment requires serious thinking from the government about how to protect the child’s freedom of religion or belief while also making sure our education system is fair and inclusive to all. Schools shouldn’t be left alone to deal with this.”

700,000 pupils being taught in schools in England that need major refurbishment

2023-11-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/19/pupils-being-taught-in-schools-in-england-that-need-major-refurbishment

A damning parliamentary inquiry has revealed hundreds of thousands of children are learning in potentially unsafe buildings The state of disrepair of some schools is so bad that 700,000 pupils are learning in classrooms that need a major rebuild or refurbishment, according to a damning parliamentary inquiry into the school estate. This year’s crisis over crumbling and potentially dangerous concrete means that other schools in dire need of an overhaul will not be included in the government’s current rebuilding programme. MPs on the powerful public accounts committee, which examined the state of school repairs, also warned of a “shocking and disappointing” lack of basic information from the government on the concrete crisis in schools. It said that there were now unacceptable numbers of pupils learning in “poorly maintained or potentially unsafe buildings”. It states that the government’s School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) has become dominated by concerns over the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). The committee said many of the 100 schools still to be selected for the programme will be chosen due to serious Raac issues, leaving other run-down schools in limbo. An estimated 700,000 pupils attend the 1,200 schools considered for the SRP. “The images of classroom ceilings collapsed on to empty school desks released in recent months are not just searing indictments of a deteriorating school estate,” said Dame Meg Hillier, the committee’s chair. “They are chilling reminders of absolute catastrophe averted through sheer luck. Given the poor condition of so many of these buildings, the government’s prime challenge now is to keep the safety of children and staff absolutely paramount.” Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said it “beggars belief” that ministers still lacked a clear plan to deal with deteriorating school buildings. “We urgently need clarity from ministers on when Raac will be dealt with and a proper long-term plan to ensure the school estate is fit for purpose, both backed by the significant new funding that will be needed. This should be a top priority for next week’s autumn statement.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We do not accept the committee’s assessment – the government has taken swift action, responding to new evidence, to identify and support all schools with Raac to ensure the safety of pupils and teachers. We have now gathered questionnaire responses from all education settings in the affected areas. The vast majority have no Raac and continue to provide full-time face-to-face education for all pupils. “Where school buildings are found to contain Raac, we are working closely with them to ensure that remediation work is carried out and disruption to learning is minimised. Our School Rebuilding Programme is continuing to rebuild and refurbish school buildings in the poorest condition, with the first 400 projects selected ahead of schedule.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion This article was amended on 19 November 2023 to correct a mistake in the headline, where an extra nought was mistakenly added. This has been corrected.

Risk level of school buildings collapsing in England raised to ‘very likely’

2022-12-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/19/risk-of-england-school-buildings-collapse-very-likely-says-dfe

DfE annual report lays bare state of dilapidated education estate built during postwar shortages Officials have raised the risk level of school buildings collapsing to “very likely”, after an increase in serious structural issues being reported – especially in blocks built in the years 1945 to 1970. England’s dilapidated school estate has been a cause of growing concern, but the dangers were laid bare in the Department for Education’s (DfE) annual report, which highlights school building safety as one of six key risks. At time of publication there was no imminent risk to life, the report states by way of reassurance, but the situation was said to be “worsening”. As a result officials have escalated the risk level for school buildings collapsing from “critical – likely” to “critical – very likely”, with the issue now so urgent it is being overseen by a board of permanent secretaries from across government departments. Other risks being managed by the DfE, according to the annual report, include loss in public confidence in the fairness of public exams, concerns that children and young people will not recover from the impact of Covid leading to a widening attainment gap between pupils, high needs cost pressures and cybersecurity. The DfE’s annual report says: “There is a risk of collapse of one or more blocks in some schools which are at or approaching the end of their designed life-expectancy and structural integrity is impaired. “The risk predominantly exists in those buildings built in the years 1945 to 1970 which used ‘system build’ light frame techniques. At the publication there are no open schools or college buildings where we know of an imminent risk to life.” The report says the risks are “unlikely to reduce in 2022”, as there was no agreed increase in condition funding or in the scale of the rebuilding programme at the 2021 spending review. Labour urged the government to tell parents which buildings were affected and to reassure them they are being made safe. “This Conservative government is risking its most basic duty: to keep our children safe from harm,” the shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, warned. The DfE says the life expectancy of buildings can however be extended by careful monitoring and maintenance. The department has also opened the next round of its school rebuilding programme, which plans to rebuild buildings at 500 schools over the next decade and will prioritise those schools for selection “where there is clear evidence this risk is present”. Last week it announced 239 schools that will benefit. Many of the structural problems are associated with postwar construction techniques developed as a result of budget constraints and material shortages after the second world war to expand the school estate and growing pupil numbers. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Phillipson said: “The secretary of state needs to come to the house as soon as possible and tell parents where these buildings are and that they are urgently being made safe.” A DfE spokesperson said the safety of pupils and staff was paramount, adding that one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys of school building conditions in Europe was under way to assess and manage risk. “We prioritise buildings where there is a risk to health and safety, and over £13bn has been allocated since 2015 to maintain and improve school facilities across England, including £1.8bn in 2022-23.

Strictest academy schools in England suspend 30 times more pupils than the national average

2023-12-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/16/strictest-academy-schools-in-england-suspend-30-times-more-pupils-than-the-national-average

200% suspension rates at ‘zero tolerance’ trusts in England could affect highly vulnerable children, experts warn The suspension rate at some of England’s strictest academy schools is 30 times the national average, with experts warning that this is affecting some of the country’s most vulnerable children. An Observer analysis of the latest Department for Education (DfE) annual data on suspensions has found that dozens of multi-academy trusts had suspension rates that far exceeded the national average in a number of their schools in 2021-22. Two of the country’s biggest trusts, Astrea and Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT), had schools with a suspension rate of about 200% of their pupil numbers – although some pupils were counted several times because they were suspended repeatedly – compared with a national average of 6.9%. Meanwhile, new analysis has shown that suspensions across England hit a record high in autumn term 2022, with nearly a quarter of a million suspensions involving some 135,000 pupils. Exclusion rates were nearly back to pre-pandemic highs, with 3,104 pupils permanently excluded from school that term, according to analysis of DfE data by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) thinktank. The CSJ also uncovered data using the Freedom of Information Act showing that pupil referral units (PRUs), where excluded pupils are often placed, are over-subscribed. This summer there was an excess of more than 800 pupils enrolled in PRUs than there were places. Maureen McKenna, a former education director at Glasgow city council who has been hired by London’s Violence Reduction Unit to drive down exclusions, said: “The most common reason for suspensions and exclusions is persistent disruptive behaviour, but in some schools that starts with not bringing your pencil or refusing to take your jacket off.” McKenna oversaw a drop of 90% in suspensions over 14 years in Glasgow, which coincided with violence halving in the city. She argues that while some suspensions are necessary, in some schools they have become an “easy option” rather than “helping young people to make better decisions”. While many academy schools had suspensions at or below the national average in 2021-22, some of England’s most well-known “zero tolerance” trusts consistently far exceeding it. Astrea, which runs 26 schools and is considered an effective turnaround trust by the government, had a suspension rate of 255% at its Woodfields academy in Doncaster, 37 times the national average. The school, which is rated “Good” by Ofsted, suspended the equivalent of 33% of its pupils more than once. Other schools in the trust also made exceptionally high numbers of suspensions. Teachers at Astrea’s St Ivo academy in Cambridgeshire walked out last month in protest over the trust’s behaviour policy, which includes silent corridors and silence in class “unless given permission to speak”. A spokesperson for Astrea said after the pandemic it had seen a “significant increase in unsafe and inappropriate behaviours” and had had to “work hard to reset expectations on how young people behave”. Suspensions at Woodfield were down 29% this autumn, compared with the same term last year. Meanwhile, OGAT – whose chief executive, Sir Martyn Oliver, will take over as Ofsted’s chief inspector in January, had nine schools whose suspension rate was over 75% in 2021-22. The rate at OGAT’s Ormesby academy in Middlesbrough was 202% and Normanby academy in the same town had a rate of 198%. OGAT, which runs 41 schools in the north, has attracted criticism for its strict behaviour policies, including the use of isolation booths. Former teachers made allegations in 2019 about assemblies in which pupils were routinely humiliated and made to cry to enforce discipline. At the time OGAT said they did not “recognise the culture described”. An OGAT spokesperson said: “Among our trust are schools in areas of high deprivation which had been underperforming for years and were some of the most challenging in the system when we took them on.” The spokesperson described suspensions as “a last resort” so that “the majority of children who want to come to school to learn do not have their education disrupted”. Frank Norris, education adviser to the Northern Power Partnership, said: “This data is revealing a lack of tolerance to some of some of the most marginalised children in the country.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Anne Longfield, chair of the Commission on Young Lives and the government’s former children’s commissioner for England, warned that poorer children and those with special educational needs were more likely to be suspended or excluded, but “it also depends on the school you go to”. She said: “Young people who end up being excluded are vulnerable to being exploited by criminal gangs, and their life chances are diminished.” Longfield was also concerned that so-called “off-rolling”, where schools move more challenging pupils off their books, is now happening much more “covertly”. “A really common pattern we’ve encountered is that something happens and parents are told their child is at risk of exclusion but if they don’t want it on their record they could always withdraw them,” she said. Julie Price Grimshaw, a former Ofsted inspector who now advises schools, said: “In my experience, some academies would have much higher exclusion rates if they counted the parents who had felt pressurised to leave because their children kept being suspended.” A spokesperson for the DfE said: “We back heads to use suspensions and permanent exclusions where required as part of behaviour management, so they can provide calm, safe, and supportive environments where both pupils and staff can work in safety and are respected.” This article was amended on 16 December 2023 to remove a reference to St Ivo’s imposing an “automatic detention for forgetting a pen”. Astrea has told us detention is not automatic; pupils are given a warning first. Also the other trust featured in the article is Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT), not “Outward” as an earlier version said.

Fried rice, omelettes and pasta: cooking skills to learn before uni

2023-09-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/14/fried-rice-omelettes-and-pasta-cooking-skills-to-learn-before-uni

A little practice – and having a few easy recipes up your sleeve – is the best way to ace it in the kitchen My chief piece of advice to anyone embarking on higher education this year is to relax; you’ve done the hard bit. Cooking has nothing on all those exams you took to get here – in fact, feeding yourself is often a lot of fun, even the bits you get wrong, like attempting to boil pasta in a kettle (do not do this, I speak from experience). The more you practise in the kitchen, the better you’ll get, so think of this as a lifelong project, with delicious perks. To this end, identify a clutch of relatively simple dishes you already enjoy before you leave home; just as you wouldn’t expect to be able to tackle the Ramayana after a couple of Sanskrit lessons, if you’re new to Thai cooking you’re best off starting with khao pad and working up to massaman curry (for example). As well as fried rice in its infinite variety, I’d consider things like omelettes (or, for vegans, Korean yachaejeon pancakes), which are quick, cheap and versatile. If you can make an omelette you can make a frittata or a Spanish tortilla. Minimal pasta dishes like spaghetti aglio e olio (with oil and garlic) can quickly be turned into e peperoncino (with chilli), or indeed alla puttanesca (with olives, tomatoes and anchovies) or even, thinking laterally, chow mein. Fliss Freeborn, the award-winning writer behind the blog Student Cuisine for the Gloomy Teen, reminds me of the wise words of Mary Poppins: “find the fun, and snap! the job’s a game”, before strongly recommending YouTube for help figuring out how to recreate your favourite dishes with minimal fuss. Practise them, or at least run through them once, in a familiar environment with help at hand if possible. Charlotte Pike, author of the excellent Hungry Student Cookbook series, which includes vegetarian and baking books, says that “having some idea of what to make and how to do it will save precious time and headspace when term begins”. This initial repertoire should also help you decide what equipment might be useful – the list will differ depending on your tastes, but Pike suggests a chef’s knife (I’d add a sharpener and a blade guard if you’re transporting it from your room to a communal kitchen), chopping board, frying pan and baking tray. A saucepan is essential if you enjoy pasta, rice or soup and a microwaveable bowl always comes in handy. Freeborn (whose new book Do Yourself a Flavour, certainly ought to be on your packing list) advocates for a more communal approach, based on her own university experience, so you might want to wait until you’ve arrived before stocking up. “This avoid[s] a lot of territory wars about dishes and whose they are – if everything is shared, then everyone has an interest in keeping things usable. A little bit of communism goes a long way in halls, and once you’ve figured out sharing equipment, you might as well split domestic costs like bin bags, washing-up liquid, toothpaste and salt too,” she says. Freeborn also points out that food is more than just fuel for study and socialising: “Eat together when you can, be that with friends or flatmates. It’s essential for building friendships and maintaining good mental health.” Last, once the dust has settled on freshers’ week, take a bit of time to explore your local shopping environment. The convenience store on campus is almost certainly not your cheapest option. Hunt down independent shops, markets and superstores – and work out when they start getting out the yellow discount stickers each evening so you can bag yourself a bargain. Good luck!

Self-care to support: how to look after your mental health at university

2023-09-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/15/self-care-to-support-how-to-look-after-your-mental-health-at-university

University life can feel overwhelming. But there is a lot of help out there to keep the pressure under control. Luis Davies, a history student at Northumbria University, started university feeling positive about his experience. But after spending time alone during lockdown, he began to feel increasingly anxious. First he stopped going out, then his grades took a tumble. Feeling lost, Luis went to the doctors, where he was prescribed sertraline, an antidepressant. Another doctor then recommended he try counselling. He had a vague memory Northumbria had sent an email about the university’s mental health support, so he searched his inbox, which led him to the wellbeing team. “The help I received seemed to work much better for me, so much so that I was able to stop taking the medication. The advice that I received continues to help me now, even though I no longer go to counselling,” he says. Luis is now emphatic about the benefits of contacting your university if you’re struggling, and trying out counselling or therapy. Dr Dominique Thompson, a GP who has written a book on student mental health, agrees. “Universities provide a whole range of help and support, and many have a close working relationship with a local GP practice. University counselling services are usually easy to find, and will often work alongside disability teams, mental health advisers, wellbeing teams, and even the university faith teams or residence staff will often be trained to support student mental health.” Students looking for help should start by talking to someone at the university they can trust, and looking up “student support services” on their institution’s website as well as more general advice on mental health charity Student Minds’ Student Space website, she recommends. Even if you don’t feel you’re struggling, it’s important to look after yourself at uni to prevent problems from arising. “The first thing that helps is connecting with other people to create a new social network of support, for example through your course, your accommodation, your clubs and activities or through volunteering,” Thompson suggests. She also recommends building self-confidence by trying new activities and experiences, from cycling everywhere to working part-time or even cooking a new recipe. Getting enough sleep is also vital – probably aabout eight to nine hours. It’s also important to be kind to yourself. Students starting university in 2024 will have experienced disruption to their education and social life during the pandemic, which has affected many young people’s confidence. “Many feel more worried about going to new places, or being somewhere new, and some have developed eating issues or other serious problems,” Thompson says. Now, more than ever, the current cohort of students need to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing as well as achieving good grades. Jenny Smith, policy manager at Student Minds, recommends putting time into your schedule for self-care, whether that’s sleep, eating nutritious meals or exercising. She also recommends developing a support network of existing family members and school friends to turn to when times are tough. Ellen Smith, head of student mental health and wellbeing at Northumbria University, suggests that new students make a wellbeing plan before they arrive at university. “This should include thinking about what they currently do to help them to manage their wellbeing – how can they continue to do those things in their new environment? What routines are helpful and what activities do they enjoy?” She adds that students should think about the independent living skills they need and how they can learn them, ideally before term starts. All students should familiarise themselves with their university’s support offer as soon as they arrive – especially those with existing conditions, Smith says. The support offered by universities can take many forms, including one-to-one advice or therapy, online self-help and cognitive behavioural therapy programmes, 24/7 helplines and wellbeing apps, accommodation representatives and personal tutors, she says. It’s important to be aware that if you don’t immediately feel you’re having the time of your life, you’re not alone. Maureen McLaughlin, academic registrar and director of student services at Northumbria University, says that lots of students she encounters struggle with “pressure and anxiety” about grades, as well as with the transition from home to university, along with financial worries. This cohort are facing particularly heightened anxiety, she says, with the long-term effects of the pandemic combining with stress around the cost of living, alongside the usual challenges like “impostor syndrome, concerns about the work being too difficult or not quite what you thought it might be in terms of interest and challenge”. “Always remember you are good enough to be here and you deserve the opportunity,” she says. “There is no such thing as a daft question – ask and keep asking! Whatever you are going through you are not alone, reach out and seek support and help.” Growing numbers of young people are getting diagnosed as neurodivergent, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and autism. For those starting university, it’s important to be aware that there is plenty of support. Most universities have support services specifically for disabled students, says Jenny Smith. These can help with arranging reasonable adjustments; accessing the disabledstudents’ allowance (DSA), which can fund specialist software and equipment, if you are eligible; and finding other local support. She also recommends seeking out informal support networks through the student union, such as a committee or society for disabled and neurodivergent students, “which could be a great way to meet students with experiences similar to yours”. Thompson adds that “if you think that you might think differently or see the world in a different way to other people then the best thing is to explore this in a safe and non-judgmental place like the university wellbeing or disability services”. Bliss Jayme, a biochemistry student at Kingston University who was diagnosed with autism at the end of her first year, says an early diagnosis will enable you to take full advantage of the support – and it could influence where you choose to study. She was assigned a disability mentor to discuss adjustments with; lecturers received a report of her needs, for instance time to speak outside the classroom; and she is able to do her exams in smaller venues and with additional time. Hannah Pereira, student mental health manager at Kingston University, notes that many universities offer fully or partly funded diagnostic screenings and assessments. This can help students access specialist study skills support to enable them to learn the best techniques and methods. “This can make a big difference to supporting neurodiverse students to reach their potential at university.”

Teachers’ strikes: school closures in England and Wales explained

2023-01-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/31/teachers-strikes-school-closures-in-england-and-wales-explained

First of seven days of industrial action by members of the National Education Union begins on Wednesday Teachers in England and Wales are to strike on Wednesday in the first of seven days of industrial action by members of the National Education Union (NEU), which is the largest education union in the UK. As well as teachers, the NEU says its members in sixth-form colleges in England, who were balloted separately, will also be striking, as will support staff in Wales. The union estimates that 23,400 schools will be affected over the seven days of action, but each school will be affected for a maximum of only four days. The next strike action will be taken by NEU members in Wales on 14 February. On 28 February, members in the north of England, Yorkshire and Humber will go on strike, followed by a day of action on 1 March in the Midlands and east of England, and on 2 March in London, the south-east and south-west. The final two days of action on 15 and 16 March will involve all eligible NEU members in England and Wales. Strike action is also under way in Scotland, where members of the Educational Institute of Scotland are walking out in two local authority areas a day until 6 February, followed by national strike action on 28 February and 1 March. In Northern Ireland, most teachers will walk out for half a day on 21 February. Yes, some schools will close, particularly those with high levels of NEU membership, while many more schools will close partially to groups of pupils. The government has said it wants schools to remain open where possible, especially for vulnerable children and those approaching public exams, but the final decision lies with the headteacher. A poll of 8,200 teachers by Teacher Tapp, a daily surveying app, suggested that as many as one in seven schools could be forced to close – 14% of those who took part said their schools would be closed to all pupils, while 44% said they would be partially closed. Secondary schools are more likely to be affected than primaries – more than half of secondary teachers (53%) who took part in the survey said their school was closing for some pupils, compared with 35% in primaries, while 30% said their school was not planning closures of any kind. Striking teachers are not required to give advance notice, so many schools may not have a full picture until early on Wednesday morning. Some headteachers have told parents to check first thing on Wednesday morning to see if their child can come to school. Others have already informed parents the school will be closed to most pupils, allowing them to arrange childcare, take annual leave or work from home. Striking teachers do not have to set work for strike days and will not be delivering lessons remotely. Some schools have told parents that teaching will go online, but with many staff absent due to strike action, it could be patchy. NEU members are striking in pursuit of an above-inflation pay rise, funded by the government rather than out of existing school budgets. The value of teachers’ salaries has fallen over the past decade, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis in schools. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, senior teachers have experienced a 13% real-terms drop in salaries between 2010 and 2022, equivalent to a £6,600 pay cut. The government announced last summer that most teachers would receive a pay rise of about 5%, with starting salaries up by 8.9%, but with inflation in double digits, NEU members have rejected the offer and voted for strike action.

Ministers try to rescue free childcare scheme with last-minute ‘workaround’

2024-01-22

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/jan/22/free-childcare-rollout-last-minute-workaround-early-years

Early-years providers say plan will do little to address staffing crisis affecting number of available places Ministers have found an 11th-hour “workaround” to address parents’ concerns about accessing new free childcare hours, in an attempt to get a grip on chaos surrounding the scheme’s introduction. On Monday, the prime minister admitted there were “some practical issues” with his expansion of access to free childcare but insisted it would go ahead as planned in England. Last week the Guardian revealed that the scheme had been beset with problems, such as with the allocation of funding for nurseries and staff shortages. There were also technical issues preventing parents from accessing the code they need to get the support promised by the chancellor in last spring’s budget. The Guardian understands that after a week of frantic discussions in the Department for Education (DfE), charities and groups representing the early years were called to an emergency meeting on Monday morning to hear the department’s attempts to solve the crisis. Parents of two-year-olds who qualify for free childcare in April are now to be given an automatic code to allow them to access funded hours. But early-years providers said it would do little to address a staffing crisis that would limit the number of places available to parents. The government workaround comes after a flash survey from the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed revealing that only one in 10 eligible parents had the code they needed to get the free hours. Thousands of parents using the tax-free childcare scheme, which gives eligible working parents who do not qualify for current free hours a 20% saving on fees, reported being unable to get the new code they needed in time. Speaking on Monday from the National Film and Television school in Buckinghamshire, Rishi Sunak said the government was committed to delivering “the biggest expansion of childcare in our country’s history”. But he admitted the introduction of the scheme had faced difficulties. “Many families have been able to sign up and it’s all working fine, but there are some practical issues that certain families are facing,” he said. “I just want to reassure all of those people that those issues are being resolved as we speak. All of those families will get the childcare that they are eligible for.” From April 2024, eligible working parents of two-year-olds can apply for 15 hours of free childcare, with the 15-hour offering extended to eligible parents of children aged from nine months to three from September. From September 2025, eligible parents of under-fives will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare a week. Early-years organisations said many nurseries were still unaware how much they would be paid by local authorities for each of the places on offer. There have also been repeated warnings about a staffing crisis in the sector, fears about the mass privatisation of nurseries and preschools and criticism that the poorest and most vulnerable children are locked out of the £4bn scheme. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson MP, raised an urgent question in parliament in which she asked the government to clarify whether parents would miss out and branded the scheme a “shambles”. David Johnston MP, the minister for children, families and wellbeing, said the government was “confident we are going to deliver rollout as planned”, with tens of thousands of families already successfully enrolled. “No parents should worry they may lose out,” he said. Those parents whose tax-free childcare reconfirmation date falls between 15 February and 1 April – who have faced challenges proving their eligibility – would receive a letter telling them what to do, he added. Asked about the uncertainty facing nurseries, Johnston said that most were already aware of the money they would receive from their local authorities, and that only “a small number” still had not been told. He said the government was working with these areas and was “confident they will be in the right place” by April. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Asked about the cost pressures which have led to a 5% fall this year in the number of providers, Johnston said ministers were “doing what we can to help providers meet funding pressures”, with the funding rates based on consultation with nurseries. He acknowledged that more staff needed to be recruited, but noted that the scheme had been deliberately phased to achieve this, with a nursery recruitment drive scheduled for the coming weeks. Despite nursery closures, there were more places and 4% more childminders overall, he said. Sarah Ronan, the director of the Early Education and Childcare Coalition welcomed the workaround but said issues persisted. She said: “The fault doesn’t lie with civil servants in DfE who have been working hard to get this up and running. The fault lies with politicians who rush out policy that is designed to meet their own election timetable but not the needs of the families using the service or the providers delivering it.” A spokesperson from the DfE said thousands of parents had already applied for free hours in April, but those who could not get the code they needed before late February or March would automatically get a code from HMRC before the middle of February. They said: “A pre-existing feature in the tax-free childcare system, where parents reconfirm their eligibility every three months, is impacting a minority of parents when combined with a small number of providers who are asking for codes much earlier than April. “Parents who can’t reconfirm online until the second half of February or March will therefore automatically receive a letter with a code from HMRC before the middle of February, without needing to take any action.”

Teachers’ strike: ‘majority’ of schools in England and Wales will open, says Keegan

2023-02-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/01/teachers-strike-schools-england-and-wales

Education secretary says some schools may open with restrictions, as more than 100,000 teachers go on strike The “majority” of schools in England and Wales will remain open, the education secretary has claimed, as more than 100,000 teachers joined the picket line for the first time in six years. Gillian Keegan said on Wednesday that some schools may open with restrictions, while others were open to everyone, but expressed her disappointment that any were closing at all. Teaching staff are taking part in a day of coordinated strikes involving up to half a million civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers. The UK’s biggest teaching union, the NEU, has predicted that 85% of schools will be affected, with one survey suggesting that up to one in seven schools will be closed to all pupils, rising to a quarter in London. When asked on Wednesday how many schools would stay open, Keegan struggled to estimate how many pupils would not have their education disrupted. She told Sky News: “We don’t know that, we’ll know later today. We have done a survey that a lot of headteachers have responded to … the majority of schools will remain open. Some will open with restrictions, some will open to everyone. But we’re very disappointed that any are closing.” Teachers are not required to tell their schools in advance whether they will be going on strike, leaving many parents braced for severe disruption. Keegan said she had been surprised to learn that teachers were not required to say in advance if they were taking part in Wednesday’s industrial action. She said the legal position would remain “under review”. “It was a surprise to some of us that was in fact the law. I did write to everybody urging them to be constructive, to let their heads know, and I am sure may teachers will have done that,” she told Times Radio. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “There are discussions around minimum service levels, minimum safety levels, around hospitals around rail – education is part of that bill as well. “We are hoping not to use that, we are hoping to make sure we continue with constructive discussions and relationships but these things will always stay under review.” Keegan met four education unions earlier this week, but talks to stop Wednesday’s strike action collapsed. The NEU said it was keen to reopen negotiations to avert strikes planned for later this month and March, even though there appears little hope of a breakthrough, with the Treasury in effect blocking progress.

Wellbeing of school staff is as vital as pupils’ progress | Letters

2023-06-19

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/19/wellbeing-of-school-staff-is-as-vital-as-pupils-progress

Mark Shannon, Michael Bassey and Paul Clarke on changes to the Ofsted inspection system Regarding your editorial (The Guardian view on Ofsted: radical change is needed, 12 June), as a parent of two children who attended Caversham primary school until last year, I can attest to Ruth Perry’s dedication and strong leadership. Our children had an overwhelmingly positive experience at the school. My view of the Ofsted system is that it is too focused on treating schools like service providers to “customers”, ie children and parents, and not concerned at all with the wellbeing and resource health of the school itself. If Ofsted’s objective is to care about educational quality and child safety, it should be as concerned about staff as it is about pupils – without the staff there is no school. The state education system should not be treated as a marketplace of competing providers – we need all schools to excel in their communities. Ofsted inspections should consider staff morale and resources, and work with schools to resolve problems. Audits in other professions lead to major and minor nonconformances being identified, which results in actions to be completed in a certain time. Only then is a final judgment on compliance published. Ofsted could adopt a similar approach. Judging a school as inadequate, then, six weeks later, re-evaluating it as good is not helping portray an accurate reflection of the school. Ofsted inspections are punitive and distressing for many staff. Heads are particularly vulnerable due to the managerial isolation that the role brings. If the head is lucky, they have supportive governors, but could otherwise have no one to professionally support them. Children receive a school report on their performance in key areas and are expected to appreciate how they are doing from it. Surely, parents are also capable of making a similar judgment. Mark ShannonReading, Berkshire Your editorial stating that proposed reforms of Ofsted “do not go far enough” itself does not go far enough. Ofsted should go. The government should disband it and redistribute funds on inspector/adviser teams in local authorities. Schools aren’t factories and don’t need tick-box inspections; they need dialogue with experienced fellow professionals. That can come from local authority advisers who understand local problems and from colleagues in neighbouring schools on the basis of self-evaluation. Schools improve from the inside through staff collegial discussions, parents’ input, community support, local governors and fellow educators, not from the outside by fear of in-and-out visits by Ofsted.Michael BasseyEmeritus professor of education, Newark, Nottinghamshire Your report (Ofsted school inspection reforms ‘nowhere near enough’, 12 June) highlights the retention of the grade “inadequate” despite minor modifications to the inspection procedure and its outcomes. The reason for the retention of this key term is ideological. Since April 2016, a school judged “inadequate” can be issued with an academy order and moved out of local authority control into the waiting arms of an academy trust, through a process of forced privatisation. Staff wellbeing and pupils’ progress are trumped by the conviction that two legs are good and four legs bad, so there can be no place for diversity, a duty of care or local democratic accountability. The public have woken up to the effects of privatisation on our rivers and beaches. Perhaps the time has come to consider its impact on those who study and work in our schools.Paul ClarkeHorsham, West Sussex Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Jamie Oliver to meet education secretary over school food plans

2022-01-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/26/jamie-oliver-education-secretary-school-food-plans

Nadhim Zahawi responds to letter from chef and school leaders urging action over child obesity rise in Covid pandemic The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and campaigners aiming to improve the quality of school lunches are to meet with the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, after Oliver teamed up with the leaders of hundreds of schools urging the government to tackle the rise in child obesity since the Covid pandemic. Oliver’s charity Bite Back 2030, with headteachers and academy trust executives, wrote to Zahawi to lobby for changes to the government’s planned food strategy, and to call for schools in England to publish annual food reports showing what progress they have made in meeting standards on health and nutrition. Oliver – who helped start a national debate over unhealthy school lunches when he exposed the spread of Turkey Twizzlers as part of the 2005 TV series Jamie’s School Dinners – said the quality of food was unreliable in too many schools and still needed to be improved. “Whether your child gets good food at school is currently a postcode lottery. That’s why I’m supporting a growing army of teachers, young people and charities who are all calling on Nadhim Zahawi to make it policy that every school publishes their annual plan so every child gets healthy nutritious food at school, no matter where they live,” Oliver said. The letter drew a quick response from Zahawi after Oliver tweeted about the issue on Wednesday, with the education secretary thanking him “for raising this important issue” and offering to arrange a meeting. The letter was backed by executives representing many of England’s largest multi-academy trusts – including Ark, Star Academies and Ormiston Academies Trust – totalling more than 600 individual schools. “We know that a major driver of poor Covid-19 outcomes in the UK has been our spiralling obesity rates,” the letter to Zahawi states. “The causes of childhood obesity and health inequalities are of course complex, but we believe – as school leaders – that with young people in school 190 days of the year, schools should be supported to do everything we can to set the stage for dietary health. That means government taking the opportunity – as it formulates its levelling up strategy and food strategy – to rethink, review and reform how the school food system works in England.” The letter follows a recent report compiled by Bite Back that highlighted the vastly different experiences of food offered at secondary schools, with pupils on free school meals reporting they were given fewer choices. One student said: “There aren’t any healthy options, to be fair. My school used to do salad bowls and fruit bowls, but they’ve stopped that now and it is literally just junk food.” Critics say one reason for the decline in food quality and choice has been the Department for Education’s failure to increase payments for school food, including infant free school meals available for all children in the first years of primary school. The government pays just £2.34 for each child’s food per day, a rate that has barely changed since 2011.

Picnics to potluck suppers: building friendships through food at university

2023-09-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/12/picnics-to-potluck-suppers-building-friendships-through-food-at-university

Cooking for coursemates might seem daunting, but it’s one of the cheapest and easiest ways to expand your social circle. In my second year at university, three of my pals turned up unexpectedly at the doorstep late one evening, having just pilfered a biblical quantity of mackerel from the murky depths of the North Sea. They were looking for somewhere to gut and fillet everything in one go, so we cut a deal: in return for temporarily turning our flat into a fish factory, my flatmates and I would keep a few for the freezer and get a second dinner that night. An hour later, as I squeezed bottled lemon juice over a plate of deep-fried goujons, it dawned on me that this was probably not a typical university social activity – but it definitely beat an evening sinking pints at the pub. Mackerelgate, though particularly memorable, was just one example of the ways we used food as an excuse for a social event during my student days. In fact, meeting and eating seemed to be my peer group’s preference: from mass pizza or pancake gatherings, picnics at the park during the summer, chaotic suppers, and impulsive group feasting whenever one of us found a joint of meat with a big yellow sticker on it. The relationships I built and maintained over food became far stronger than those that arose just from getting plastered. That’s not to say we didn’t drink at all – oh, we very much did – but it was always cheaper, and often a lot more inclusive, to simply put “dinner at ours tomorrow, bring pudding/wine” in the group chat, than fritter away hard-loaned cash at the pub. Of course, this seems like an easy thing to do once your friendship group has established itself, but actually, using food as a way to fast-track those friendships in the first place is the real secret to building a strong community around you while away from home. So, if you’re thinking about going to university and forming some robust relationships through the medium of food, here’s some advice from someone who still regularly overfeeds the same friends, two years after graduating. Fostering good vibes – ie trust and openness – with your immediate flatmates from the start is key to making sure your kitchen is a nice place to hang out in. Happily, this costs nothing except a little bit of communication and the belief that what goes around comes around. Although none of us from my halls ended up living together afterwards (four were exchange students, and Jenny had a sudden career epiphany and dropped out after term ended), we had a great year together, helped by sharing lots of baked goods and potluck suppers, plus agreeing to split basics like oil, vinegar, salt and washing-up liquid from day one. Additionally, and somewhat uniquely I think for halls, we quickly implemented a “help yourself but if you break it, you replace it” agreement. This meant we could use each other’s crockery, cutlery and gadgets, rather than guarding individual forks or plates with a gollum-ish “my precious” attitude, which has always baffled me. We also kept things civilised when it came to stuff like flour or sugar: an ask-first policy worked if we needed to use or borrow something, which would be replaced as necessary. This mutual generosity of resources contributed to a nice, homely community feel, and avoided the “who stole my ketchup” culture that seemed to plague other people’s halls of residence. (I once saw padlocked food cupboards when visiting a different university. It nearly made me cry.) You’ll work out pretty quickly what is and isn’t cheap when you have limited funds. You’ll be able to feed yourself more than adequately on a budget of about £25 a week – the cheapest, healthiest meals are dals, root vegetable soups and stews, veggie chilli con carne and tomato-based pastas. The beauty of lots of these dishes, most notably soups, stews and curries, is that it is cheap to add to them or expand them, if you have extra guests coming. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who studied how people ate in France in the 1960s, called this quality “elasticity”. For example, you can add another tin of lentils to a dal, or for a soup, perhaps another three or four chopped potatoes to feed more hungry mouths. Of course, having the confidence to cook these dishes in the first place is key, as is asking people about their dietary requirements, or allergies, before they come over. Often, I’ll just cook something plant-based and gluten-free to cover everyone. And if you don’t have the resources to cook for others at all, simply sharing picnic-style meals with a generous spirit of hospitality is a great way to ensure you’ll never be short of friends in the long run – and maybe you’ll even get the odd bit of fresh mackerel out of it too. Fliss Freeborn is Fortnum and Mason’s cookery writer of the year, and author of Do Yourself a Flavour, 75 Recipes to Feed Your Friends, Your Flatmates and Your Freezer.

Chicago graduate makes history by earning doctorate at 17

2024-05-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/15/youngest-doctorate-arizona-state-university

Dorothy Jean Tillman II, whose grandmother was a civil rights activist, is now the youngest Arizona State University student to get a doctorate in her field A Chicago teenager walked in her university’s commencement program after making history for earning a doctorate degree at the age of 17. Dorothy Jean Tillman II celebrated the rare accomplishment, describing commencement week as “surreal” and “full of reflection and inspiration”, in a post to Instagram. “I got a chance to meet many of my classmates in person as well as professors,” she said. “To get the opportunity to speak on the stage in front of 20,000 people live and 3 million online was truly an honor.” Tillman first began her collegiate career at the young age of 10, while most of her peers were still navigating middle school and awkward adolescence. Tillman, who was home schooled in childhood, began taking college classes through the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, about two hours outside of Chicago. She earned her associate’s degree in 2016 and finished her bachelor’s degree at Excelsior University, an online degree program based in Albany, New York, in 2018. After completing a master of science degree in 2020, Tillman was accepted into the Doctorate of Behavioral Health Management program at Arizona State University in 2021 – at the age of 15. Tillman successfully defended her dissertation in December, joining her classmates in person at ASU’s spring commencement on 6 May. Leslie Manson, the associate professor who oversaw Tillman’s dissertation through ASU’s online program, said Tillman was the youngest person to complete a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health at ASU. “It’s a wonderful celebration … but this is still something so rare and unique,” Manson said. “She has innovative ideas and motivation, which is wonderful, and truly, I think what is inspiring is that she embodies that meaning of being a true leader.” Tillman credited her family as one of her biggest inspirations to complete her graduate studies. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “Seeing my mother consistently work so hard to continuously uphold our family’s legacy and be that person that everyone was able to go to, if they needed anything … always seeing [her] like Wonder Woman definitely made me want to grow up [into] an accomplished person,” Tillman said to Good Morning America. Tillman is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Tillman, the former Chicago alderwoman who was involved in the civil rights movement. “People in my life like my grandmother, who was part of the civil rights movement, she of course harped on the importance of education and consistently learning something always,” Tillman said. With her degrees now done, Tillman told GMA that she plans to continue reflecting on what her specific goals are as well as focus on other interests, including public speaking and a leadership institute she created. “I’m really just grateful that the world is my oyster, and that I’ve done so much so young,” she said. “And I have time to kind of think that through.”

Third of England’s teachers who qualified in last decade ‘have left profession’

2023-01-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/09/third-of-englands-teachers-who-qualified-in-last-decade-have-left-profession

Exclusive: Labour analysis of DfE figures comes as party hopes to shift political focus to education Nearly a third of teachers who qualified in the last decade have since left the profession, according to Labour analysis that has been released as the party attempts to shift the political focus on to education. With the results of strike ballots by teaching unions due in the coming days, Labour intends to use a Commons vote this week to push their plan to impose VAT on private school fees, which they say would help pay for new teachers in the state sector. The party wants to use an opposition day on Wednesday to pass a motion – intended to be binding – that would set up a new Common select committee to look specifically at the issue of VAT on private school fees. According to a Labour analysis of Department for Education statistics, of just under 270,000 teachers who qualified in England between 2011 and 2020, more than 81,000 have since left the profession, or three in 10 of the total. More recently, 13% of teachers in England who have qualified since the last general election in December 2019 quit in the subsequent two years, about 3,000 in total. Three teaching unions representing staff across England and Wales are balloting members on strike action, while a fourth is considering this. While the disputes are primarily about pay, there is also considerable disquiet about staff shortages, overwork and stress, identified as a key reason for people leaving the profession. Labour is planning its opposition day motion next week as part of a wider attempt to focus the political spotlight on investment in schools, especially over staffing, and the pledge on VAT, which the party says would raise £1.7bn a year. The Conservatives argue the policy would simply cause some private schools to close, accusing Keir Starmer of waging “class war”. But Labour believe the policy will be popular, with Starmer using a recent prime minister’s questions to say it would raise £10m from Rishi Sunak’s former school, Winchester, alone. Labour said it estimated there are 350,000 qualified teachers not currently teaching in the state sector, and that money from the VAT policy could pay for 6,500 extra teachers, as well as training for existing staff. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “This dangerous exodus of new teaching recruits could result in even greater teacher vacancies in years to come and ultimately to lower standards in our schools. “A decade of Conservative neglect of our schools is already forcing experienced teachers from the classroom – for more recently qualified teachers to be leaving the profession is a worrying double whammy. “Labour believes excellence is for everyone: that is why we will end tax breaks for private schools and use the money to recruit 6,500 new teachers as part of our national excellence programme.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The tactic of trying to make an opposition day motion binding is a common recent tactic used by Labour to force the government to make its MPs vote down an issue, rather than ignoring the process. A Labour source said: “Conservative MPs voting against our motion are voting against higher standards in state schools for the majority of children in our country.” A government spokesperson said the number of teachers “remains high”, with 24,000 more working in state schools than in 2010, while bursaries and levelling up premiums were helping attract new entrants to subjects like maths, science and computing. They said: “We are also making the highest pay awards in a generation – 5% for experienced teachers and more for those early in their careers, including an up to 8.9% increase to starting salary.”

There’s no need for a British baccalaureate | Letters

2023-09-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/27/theres-no-need-for-a-british-baccalaureate

Readers respond to Rishi Sunak’s plan for radical changes to the post-16 curriculum and qualifications While Rishi Sunak’s plans to reform post-16 education are welcome news (Rishi Sunak’s planned A-levels revamp could include baccalaureate, 21 September), I can’t help but feel that valuable resources could be saved by utilising a tried and tested education framework that students are already benefiting from. The international baccalaureate (IB) diploma enables students to study six subjects including mathematics, English and a foreign language until the age of 18, providing a broader and more rewarding syllabus compared with that of the UK’s national curriculum. The development of a “British baccalaureate” will be costly, and funding this new vision will be a concern to many, particularly for state-funded schools that are already overstretched. In the UK, the IB is often seen as only accessible to independent schools, but with some creative budgeting and timetable management, a comprehensive IB programme can be delivered by state schools. We have been offering the IB at the state-maintained Impington Village college for more than 30 years as we believe it places our students in the best position to succeed in the global workplace. Adapting the current curriculum framework is going to be lengthy and costly. The IB represents a proven alternative that can give students the broad range of skills required to thrive in the future.Victoria HearnPrincipal, Impington Village College and Impington International College If Rishi Sunak had suffered the slings and arrows of trying to teach young people one thing when they wish to learn another, he might think twice about his proposals for secondary education. If he had witnessed the disenchantment of the secondary school population, as I have as a retired teacher, he would understand that his baccalaureate is not the answer. Students at this level wish to shed useless subjects, not take on more. And maths at this level is only good for you if you wish to pursue it. To add it as yet another compulsory subject would provide just one more burden for young people to resent and rage against. Allen Marsden Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester Half a dozen government commissions on improving education since the second world war have all recommended moving to a broad six- to eight-subject curriculum up to the age of 18, with a baccalaureate-style examination. Each proposal foundered because our three-year university degree course depends on specialist preparation in the sixth form. If a four-year course is necessitated, does the prime minister think adding another £9,000 to the cost of a degree would be a good way of helping the less well off? Hugh BurkhardtEmeritus professor of mathematical education, University of Nottingham While in principle the proposal to have a broader post-16 curriculum is to be welcomed, it is unlikely that Rishi Sunak will have the opportunity to carry it out. The more pertinent question is what a Labour government would do. Labour’s fifth mission, “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”, expresses support for separate T-levels, retaining the artificial divide between vocational courses and A-levels. Vocational qualifications will continue to be regarded as second-class. This division is counter to the mix of cognitive, creative and technological skills that the world of work is increasingly demanding. Chris Pratt Author, Building a Learning Nation Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Daphne Gilbert obituary

2024-04-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/23/daphne-gilbert-obituary

My mother, Daphne Gilbert, who has died aged 80, was a respected mathematics professor. She defied the expectations foisted on most women of her generation, successfully combining an outstanding career in teaching and research with bringing up four children. Having married at the age of 19 in the early 1960s, Daphne put her work ambitions on hold for many years until her children had become teenagers. Restarting her education, she went on to become a maths lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, later moving to Ireland to be head of pure and applied mathematics at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), where she was awarded a professorship shortly before her retirement. In a field dominated by men – still only about 11% of mathematics professors in the UK are women – she was a trailblazer. Daphne was born in Woking, Surrey, the second child of Nicholas Mansergh, a historian, and his wife, Diana (nee Keeton). At the Perse school for girls in Cambridge she fell in love with maths, developing a particular interest in geometry and noticing patterns in nature on her country walks. Despite being pushed towards domestic sciences by her parents, she insisted on studying A-levels in maths, further maths, physics and chemistry. In 1961 she began a mathematics degree at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), Cambridge, but within a year she married Paul Gilbert, a philosophy student. Although he was always supportive of her ambitions, she immediately gave up her studies to concentrate on looking after her family. Paul subsequently took up a lectureship at Hull University, and after being a full-time parent for 15 years, in 1977 Daphne began a maths degree at Hull, quickly followed by a PhD and several research associateships in mathematics at the same institution. Together with David Pearson, her PhD supervisor at Hull, she developed the Gilbert-Pearson Theory of Subordinacy of Schrödinger Operators, research that became an established tool in spectral analysis and paved the way for many developments in the field of mathematical physics. In 1990 she joined Sheffield Hallam University, where she developed new degrees and masters’ programmes, and then moved to DIT in 1999, rising to be a professor and, on her retirement in 2008, emeritus professor. She continued her mathematical research and travelled widely to conferences at home and abroad. Paul died in 2022. She is survived by their four children, Benjamin, Hester, Matthew and me, and nine grandchildren.

GCSE results fall in England after anti-grade inflation plans forced through

2023-08-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/24/gcse-results-fall-england-anti-grade-inflation-plans

Top grades down more than four percentage points on last year, leading to disappointment for many pupils Tens of thousands of teenagers have been forced to rethink their future options after GCSE results fell in England as ministers forced through plans to eradicate grade inflation accumulated during the pandemic. Top grades in England were down more than four percentage points on last year’s results, leading to disappointment for many pupils – with 22.4% of results for 16-year-olds at grade 7 or above, equivalent to an A. Results were expected to fall after the government announced plans to return grades to 2019 levels, though this year’s results still hovered slightly above pre-pandemic levels when 21.9% of grades were 7 and above. At the peak of grade inflation in 2021, 30% of entries were awarded top grades. In English and maths – both compulsory for 16-year-olds in England – boys performed surprisingly well compared with pre-pandemic results. For boys, substantially higher proportions of entries gained grades 7 and above in English, up by two percentage points to 14.5% compared with 2019. The proportion of girls gaining a grade 4 pass or better fell slightly to 77.5%. In maths it was a similar picture, with boys outperforming their 2019 benchmarks and girls doing slightly worse in the proportion gaining grade 4 or above. While 72.6% of 16-year-old boys gained a 4 or better in maths, only 71.9% of girls did the same. The record decline in top grades was not as sharp as in last week’s A-level results, where grade inflation during the pandemic was greater than at GCSE level. The number of GCSE results registering a fail grade also returned to pre-pandemic levels. The proportion of entries receiving a grade 3 or below – prompting a retake in English or maths – increased to 30% this year, similar to the 30.1% seen in 2019, which is five percentage points up on last year’s figure of 24.7%. State schools in England, including academies, comprehensives, secondary moderns and grammar schools, outperformed their pre-pandemic results in top grades and in pass rates in most cases, while independent schools results were worse than 2019. Grammar schools saw 59% of their entries gain 7 or above, while only 46% of entries from private schools gained the same. However, most independent schools take a mix of GCSE and other equivalent qualifications that are not included in Ofqual’s data, making comparisons difficult. Among 16-year-olds in England the three science subjects, chemistry, biology and physics, all had slight falls in pass rates and in top grades compared with 2019, as did Spanish language. While the top 10 most popular subjects remained the same, entries for business studies increased by 14.8%, while computing went up 11.6% and Spanish 11%. Overall, GCSE entries to modern foreign languages increased by 5.1% compared with last year, and 9.2% compared with 2019. Among the high flyers, 1,160 16-year-olds got all grade 9s in England, two-thirds of them girls, while 120 pupils managed 11 or more 9s. This year’s results also highlighted widening regional differences, with pupils in London once again outperforming those in the north of England. In the north-east, 17.6% of entries were awarded a grade 7 or above, up from 16.4% in 2019. In London 28.4% of entries were awarded top grades, up from 25.7% before the pandemic. Headteachers expressed concern about the impact on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, who were disproportionately affected during the pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is likely that the outcomes for many of these young people will be affected by these factors and this may also impact on the results of schools which serve disadvantaged communities.” He added: “The government has failed to grasp the gravity of this issue. It did not invest sufficiently in education recovery from the pandemic – causing its own recovery commissioner to resign in protest – and it has failed to address the high level of child poverty in the UK. We are concerned that this will lead to a widening of the attainment gap between rich and poor.” In Wales, which adopted a different approach to grading this year, there were falls in the proportion of 16-year-olds getting A and A* grades, dropping from 26% of entries last year to 22% this year. Northern Ireland recorded a 2.5-point fall in top grades. Jeremy Miles, Wales’s minister for education, said: “It’s inspiring to see what our learners have achieved. These learners have had to face immense challenges impacting on their learning opportunities over the past few years as they’ve progressed through their secondary schooling and on to their GCSEs.” In England, much of the additional support put in place last year for the first cohort to sit exams after the forced interruption caused by Covid was stripped away this year, though in maths and some science papers, students were given formulae and equation sheets. More than half a million students in England picked up their results for GCSEs, while more than 390,000 certificates across 130 vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) were awarded. According to England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, there is still some grading protection in place and allowances have been made where the quality of student work is a little weaker than before the pandemic. The overall improvement in England’s maths and English results was boosted by Ofqual’s decision not to apply feedback from its national reference tests, which it uses to calibrate annual grade changes. This year’s reference tests showed significantly lower results in English than previous years, while results were also slightly lower in maths Ofqual defended its decision, saying: “While outcomes in English are statistically significantly lower than in 2017 at grade 4, the chief regulator decided not to implement a downward change because this would be counter to the wider policy intent of providing protection for students.” Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator, said: “Today’s results mark the second year in a two-step process back to normal. We’re back to normal.” In England GCSEs are graded using a numerical system from 9 to 1, rather than from A* to G, with 9 being the highest grade. A 4 is roughly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is an A. In Northern Ireland and Wales, traditional A* to G grades are used. In Scotland, results for national 5 qualifications published earlier this month showed the pass rate was 78.8%, down from 80.8% last year but still up from 78.2% in 2019.

Crumbling concrete is a metaphor for Tory rule | Letters

2023-09-03

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/03/crumbling-concrete-is-a-metaphor-for-tory-rule

David Forster, Jeremy Grant, Louise Campbell, Ron Brewer, Chris Turner, Sue Kellaway, Dr Nick McAdoo and Dr Dave Allen on the emerging scandal about the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete used in public buildings It is no surprise that all the schools threatened with closure because they contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) are in the state sector, and not the private fee-paying schools that the Tories send their kids to (Schools in England seek alternative spaces amid fears concrete crisis could affect 1,000, 1 September). Although they have known about the problem for at least five years, the government didn’t give a monkey’s about it until they were forced to act at the last minute and at the most inconvenient time. From Grenfell to the Bibby Stockholm, the Tories continue to house, educate and detain the most vulnerable people in potentially lethal accommodation. This combination of malice and incompetence has typified government for the last 13 years, and it is time the Tories were driven out of office not just for the next five years but for ever, perhaps to reappear at some future time in the Horrible Histories series as The Uncaring Conservatives.David ForsterLiverpool The crumbling concrete in schools, hospitals and courts is an apt metaphor for Tory rule – years of neglect of basic public services. If the country were their home, they’d invest in it: mend the gutters, fix the tiles on the roof. But the Tories do not see the country as their home. To them, it is a playground for profit and market forces. I said all this to my wife and son in the car on the way home, and my son (who is nine) said I should write to the Guardian. What good it will do I don’t know.Jeremy GrantWoodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire The Building Research Establishment (BRE), a government body responsible for testing building materials and techniques, was privatised during the dying days of John Major’s government in 1997. During the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry, it emerged that some staff at the BRE may never have received “impartiality training”. In 2022, the Fire Brigades Union called for the BRE to be renationalised. Given the present alarm about Raac, there is a pressing case for creating an organisation independent of the building industry. Louise CampbellLeamington Spa, Warwickshire When I started my first job at the Building Research Station (as the BRE was then called) in the 1960s, we were testing the properties of reinforced autoclaved concrete slabs. This is not a new problem.Ron BrewerOld Buckenham, Norfolk Dodgy concrete was used in schools and hospitals. But there is no mention of its use in shopping centres, apartment blocks, multi-storey car parks and office blocks at Canary Wharf. That’s curious, isn’t it?Chris TurnerManchester While our schools, built with this form of concrete 30 years ago, crumble away, the Colosseum in Rome, built 2,000 years ago with Roman concrete, still stands. Do we learn nothing from history? Sue Kellaway Highcliffe, Dorset So this concrete “has an estimated 30-year lifespan”. Didn’t that allow 30 years to plan ahead?Dr Nick McAdooLondon I do enjoy your fantasy house hunt feature, but can you confirm that the schools near Saturday’s five houses are still open for business (Fantasy house hunt: English homes for sale within walking distance of schools, 1 September)?Dr Dave AllenPortsmouth Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Catholic and C of E primary schools in England ‘take fewer Send pupils’

2023-10-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/02/catholic-and-c-of-e-primary-schools-in-england-take-fewer-send-pupils

LSE research suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter disadvantaged children Church of England and Roman Catholic primary schools take fewer pupils with disabilities or special needs than other local schools in England, according to research that suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The findings led the author, Dr Tammy Campbell of the London School of Economics, to conclude that faith schools “serve as hubs of relative advantage” for children from more affluent families who were less likely to have special needs. More than one in four primary schools in England are administered by the Church of England (C of E) or Catholic church, with popular primaries able to admit children on the basis of religious affiliation, often requiring evidence of baptism and family church attendance. Campbell’s research, published in the Oxford Review of Education, looked at reception class admissions between 2010 and 2020. It found that Catholic and C of E schools were less likely to admit children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) compared with maintained community primaries. In 2020, Catholic schools admitted 24% fewer children with Send and C of E schools 15% fewer. It also found that a child with Send and free school meal eligibility was estimated to have a 22% chance of attending a faith school, compared with a 29% chance for a child with no FSM eligibility or Send designation. Schools run by the two religions were also less likely to admit children with education, health and care plans (EHCP), which certify higher levels of special needs or disabilities, even after adjusting for school location and other influences. On average, Catholic schools admitted 15% fewer children with EHCPs, while C of E schools administering their own admissions admitted 11% fewer. Campbell said faith schools are often supported by politicians as offering choice and diversity. “So this [research] emphasises the need to question properly the function of faith schools in contemporary England,” she said. But Nigel Genders, the C of E’s chief education officer, said its schools “exist to serve the whole community, including people of all faiths and none” and were committed to prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable. “While the research gives no strong evidence that arrangements by admissions authorities for C of E schools are a barrier to Send applications, the church is taking active steps to promote equal educational opportunities through our national professional qualification programmes, which train leaders in evidence-based Send practice, and supporting schools through trauma-informed practice and Send networks for leaders,” Genders said. A spokesperson for the Catholic education service said national figures showed Catholic faith schools admit a higher proportion of pupils from deprived areas and fewer pupils from affluent areas. “Catholic schools welcome children with Send, and parents will want to choose the school that is best for their children’s needs,” the spokesperson said. “For a child with an EHCP, it is the local authority, not the school, that makes the decision about which school the child will attend, based solely on the child’s needs. “If parents decide that the local mainstream Catholic school is not the best fit for their child’s particular needs, they might instead opt for another school, such as a Catholic special school or a Catholic school approved for [special needs] pupils, of which there are 26 in England and Wales.” Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said the research illustrated how religious selection “acts as a form of socioeconomic segregation”. “It’s more evidence that faith schools are failing to serve our diverse communities in the 21st century. Religious agendas must no longer be prioritised above the education and welfare of our most vulnerable children,” Evans said.

Parents in England no longer see daily school attendance as vital, report finds

2023-09-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/21/parents-in-england-no-longer-see-daily-school-attendance-as-vital-report-finds

Research finds breakdown in parents’ social contract with schools since Covid lockdowns and cost of living crisis Parents in England no longer subscribe to the view that their children need to be in school full-time, according to new research which says there has been “a seismic shift” in attitudes to attendance since the pandemic. For decades, attendance at school by all pupils every day throughout term time has been part of a social contract between schools and families, but the report says this is no longer the case. The disruption first caused by Covid, then compounded by a cost-of-living crisis and an epidemic of mental ill health among young people, has led to what researchers describe as a profound breakdown in the relationship between schools and parents from across the socioeconomic spectrum. As a consequence, some parents no longer believe it is their responsibility to ensure that their child is in school every day, triggering “a full-blown national crisis” in school attendance that will require “a monumental, multi-service effort” if it is to be reversed, the report states. Overall absence in schools in England has risen more than 50% since 2019, while persistent absence – when pupils miss 10% or more of sessions – has more than doubled, prompting widespread concern and a range of interventions by ministers. The report, compiled by the public policy research agency Public First, draws on focus group conversations with parents from different backgrounds across the country, which shed some light on why children are not always in lessons. “Pre-Covid, I was very much about getting the kids into school: attendance was a big thing,” said one parent in Manchester, with two children aged five and 10. “Education was a major thing. After Covid, I’m not gonna lie to you, my take on attendance and absence now is like I don’t really care any more. Life’s too short.” Some of the ways in which schools delivered learning during lockdowns also changed perceptions of the importance of attendance. “Over Covid, they sent home an hour and a half of learning every day. So that’s clearly what they’re being taught every day. One and a half hours. It’s not going to kill anybody,” said a Bristol parent with children aged 11 and four. Term-time holidays, meanwhile, have become socially acceptable across all socioeconomic groups, the report says, while recent strike days by teachers have helped further undermine the “every day matters” narrative on attendance. A parent from Long Eaton, Derbyshire, with two children aged 13 and 17, said: “I think particularly this year, with all the teacher strikes, parents have been more lax and think: ‘Well, the teachers aren’t in, so if I want to take my kid out for a couple of days, I’ll do it because they’ve done it.’” The report suggests fines for non-attendance should be reviewed and potentially abolished as they are deeply unpopular and only serve to further alienate parents. It also highlights that the pressures on special educational needs and mental health services play a part in the attendance crisis and suggests investing in these two areas will improve attendance. Ayesha Baloch, a policy adviser from the youth education charity Impetus, said: “We know that regular attendance at school is vital for success, and that young people who receive free school meals are persistently absent [about] double the rate of those not eligible. But until we understand what’s behind this rise in absence, we can’t adequately tackle it.” Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, added: “The government really does need to redouble its efforts and commit the necessary resources to tackle this issue. In particular, there needs to be greater investment in specialist teams which work directly with pupils who frequently miss school and their families.” The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “This is stark, alarming evidence that under the Conservatives the relationship between schools and families has catastrophically broken down. Labour knows that education is central to breaking down barriers to opportunity and smashing the class ceiling.” A Department for Education spokesperson said ministers had increased the number of attendance hubs and attendance mentors. “We have also brought together an attendance action alliance of leaders from across education, social care and health to discuss the importance of the issue and its many factors.”

Schools in England face ‘significant squeeze’ on budgets, IFS report finds

2022-12-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/12/schools-in-england-face-significant-squeeze-on-budgets-ifs-report-finds

Annual survey reveals further education and sixth form colleges could experience particular hardship Schools in England still face a “significant squeeze” on their budgets despite extra funding from the government, while colleges, universities and early years provision will have to account for rising prices without any additional help, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The IFS’s annual look at education spending reveals that further education and sixth form colleges could experience particular hardship, with rising numbers of students after steep cuts in funding until 2019, which have only been partially reversed by the government. The funding situation for colleges and sixth forms is projected to worsen as the number of 16- to 18-year-old students increases by an estimated 200,000 by 2030, with the government scaling back Department for Education (DfE) spending plans after 2024. College spending per student in 2024 will still be about 5% lower than in 2010, while school sixth-form spending per student will be 22% below 2010 levels. Luke Sibieta, the author of the report, said colleges and sixth forms are “in a much worse position” than schools with pupils up to the age of 16. “They saw bigger cuts in the last decade, which are only being partially reversed. Unlike schools, they received no additional funding in the autumn statement for higher-than-expected costs,” Sibieta said. Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said: “The Conservatives’ economic mismanagement means that both college students and our youngest children are yet again being forgotten and ignored. Parents are already facing eye-watering childcare bills, yet today’s report shows that early years providers face three more years of soaring costs.” University undergraduates have also seen less spending, after successive freezes in the cap on tuition fees reduced spending per student in England by about 11% in real terms between 2017 and 2021 – taking spending back to the same level as 1990. “This is projected to go lower still due to policy commitments to freeze tuition fees up to 2025,” the IFS said. While the government gave an additional £2.3bn to schools in England for each of the next two years, the extra funding takes spending in 2024 back to the same levels as in 2010. It follows real-terms cuts of 9% per pupil between 2009 and 2019, the steepest reduction in more than 40 years. The IFS calculated that total spending on education was about 2% lower in 2021 than in 2010. “While the share of total spending on education has been falling, the proportion of the UK population in full-time education has risen from 18% in the early 1980s to an all-time high of 20% during the 2000s, where it remains today,” the IFS noted. “In sharp contrast, as the share of the population over 65 has risen, the share of total spending on healthcare has more than doubled from just over 9% in the late 1970s to over 20% today.” A DfE spokesperson said the government was working on “ambitious” reforms designed to improve economic growth. “In recent years we’ve transformed the skills landscape, introducing new high-quality T-levels, skills bootcamps and Institutes of Technology backed by £3.8bn over this parliament. In the autumn statement we announced Sir Michael Barber will be advising on skills implementation to drive forward delivery of these reforms. “This is alongside a significant £750m boost for our world-class higher education sector,” the DfE said. “We are committed to improving parents’ access to affordable, flexible childcare and are currently exploring a wide range of options to do this. We have already increased funding to local authorities to increase the hourly rates they pay to childcare providers and invested more than £20bn over the past five years.”

Covid changed parents’ and pupils’ relationship with school | Letters

2023-11-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/27/covid-changed-parents-and-pupils-relationship-with-school

Andrea Dow thinks the bond with school needed to be broken and Dan Thompson says schools must acknowledge what’s happened to rebuild trust. Plus a letter from psychologist Dr Helen Care A Department for Education adviser on behaviour policy says that the pandemic era lockdowns “broke the spell” of children and parents building their lives and habits around going to school (School leaders in England feel lockdown ‘broke spell’ of bond with parents, 23 November). I argue that, for many, this was a spell that needed breaking. Lockdown was notoriously unequal in its effects. Some vulnerable children were more exposed to harm in the home, and for others, removing the school routine opened a window on a different kind of learning, driven by curiosity and self-direction. This window has slammed shut. Most have reverted to the view that school attendance should be mandatory and that education can only take place inside school. The law states that every child must have an education, not that they go to school. Our daughter attends the local comprehensive that is beset by the usual problems – underfunding, understaffing, lack of special needs support, classes not covered by subject specialists. The atmosphere is frequently chaotic and not conducive to learning. Most teachers are committed, but struggle in a system breaking down from chronic underinvestment and a focus on exam results at the expense of curiosity and love of learning. Up to 180,000 children were estimated to have been homeschooled in 2023. So why, with so many turning away from school, is it assumed that when a child does not want to go, it is the child in need of fixing?Andrea DowRothesay, Isle of Bute While Ofsted and teachers are quick to blame parents, we mustn’t forget the changed relationship follows a time when many pupils and parents were badly let down by schools and the government. During Covid, not only exams were disrupted, but all normal school activity stopped. So a student who joined a school in 2019 or 2020 missed the usual bonding experiences such as school shows and trips. Home learning often happened with no support (those laptops for poorer pupils never did arrive here in Kent). There was the chaos of lockdown tiers and ill-conceived school bubbles. There were no chances for parents to meet teachers face-to-face. And then students were pushed back into schools as if nothing had happened. Schools need to acknowledge what’s happened to rebuild trust, and co-create a different – and better – contract with parents.Dan ThompsonRamsgate, Kent As a clinical psychologist working with young people, and as a parent of primary school children, I think it is important to acknowledge that lockdown broke not just the spell for parents but also for children. Prior to lockdown, when I worked with children who were struggling to attend school due to anxiety, the motivation to return to school was rarely hard to find. School was what you did, therefore we were working on how to make it happen. Now, young people view school as optional, and to get them back through the door, I first have to work on why they would want to go. We have to seize this as an opportunity to recast the “spell” better and stronger, so that school works for everyone. Start by bringing some joy into schools – for children, parents and educators. It would go a long way to making it easier for young people to see what the point of it is. Dr Helen CareOxford Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and on our Saturday letters spread in the print edition.

British students not being ‘squeezed out’ by overseas applicants, say universities

2024-01-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/28/british-students-not-being-squeezed-out-by-overseas-applicants-say-universities

Claims that overseas students are admitted with lower entry requirements than domestic students denied Universities have rejected claims that British students are being “squeezed out” by international applicants, including allegations that overseas students are admitted with lower entry requirements than those required for domestic students. University leaders said the claims were “mendacious” because the reporting by the Sunday Times ignored figures showing rising numbers of UK students enrolled at Russell Group universities and unfairly compared entry requirements on non-degree courses with those of mainstream undergraduate courses. A spokesperson for the Russell Group of universities said foundation year programmes, designed to prepare students for further study, “are different to degree programmes, have separate admissions processes and, crucially, different entry requirements”. Foundation programmes for international students typically include English-language lessons and charge fees of about £16,000. Those who pass usually then progress to a mainstream undergraduate degree course. “Foundation year programmes have long proved to be effective pathways to university for both international and UK students. Most of our members also run foundation courses specifically for UK students, with similar entry requirements, designed to support students from underrepresented groups to access higher education and bridge the gap between different educational backgrounds,” the spokesperson said. “Entry to main degree programmes from these courses is not guaranteed.” The Sunday Times report also included claims by agents recruiting for various Russell Group universities, who were recorded appearing to say the foundation courses offered easier entry. Universities contacted by the Guardian said they were investigating the comments and were not able to immediately comment. Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, representing vice chancellors, said: “The Sunday Times story fails to distinguish between entry requirements for International Foundation Years and full degrees. “International Foundation Years are designed to prepare students to apply for full degree programmes. They do not guarantee entry to them.” University leaders also rebutted claims that domestic students were being squeezed out of places in higher education by pointing to data showing record numbers of UK residents enrolled on first-year undergraduate degree courses in 2021-22, while the number of non-UK students slumped by more than 10,000 compared with the previous year. While there are rising numbers of students from countries such as India, the number of undergraduates coming from EU countries has collapsed in the aftermath of Brexit, from more than 30,000 to about 13,000 a year. “The latest Ucas data shows domestic student numbers at Russell Group universities are rising faster than international student numbers,” the spokesperson said. The University of Exeter, a Russell Group member, recruited fewer non-UK students last year than in 2019, while the number of undergraduates from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland increased by 865 during the same time. Universities have become reliant on earnings from international students. Domestic undergraduate tuition fees in England have been frozen at £9,250 since 2016, and have since been eroded by high inflation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that as a result, funding for UK students will be at its lowest since 2011 in real terms. However, universities are free to raise international student fees, meaning they make up an increasingly high proportion of their income. A Guardian investigation last year found that international students accounted for one in every five pounds in income received by UK universities. Last week, the government officially confirmed that tuition fees in England would remain frozen for a further year, while maintenance loans for students in England would rise by 2.5%. The Department for Education’s own equality impact assessment – released late on Friday – concluded that the 2.5% increase “will have a negative impact for students”, because an increase of at least 15% would be required to keep pace with inflation. It also found that women, mature students and those from low-income backgrounds would be disproportionately affected.

How to afford university: loans, scholarships, budgeting and more

2023-09-13

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/13/how-to-afford-university-loans-scholarships-budgeting-and-more

Paying your way through uni, or even just earning some beer money, is essential. Just don’t let it get in the way of your studies While the courses on offer will be top of your list when choosing between universities, it’s also worth thinking about the cost of living while you are there – particularly if you plan to move away from home. According to the latest Natwest Student Living Index, released annually, Bournemouth was the most affordable city for undergraduates in 2023, followed by Cardiff, Lincoln, Portsmouth and Newcastle. Before applying, check how much the universities you’re interested in charge for student halls. The price can vary widely depending on location and quality of the accommodation. You could also check the average cost of a student flat in your university town ahead of second or third year using websites Rightmove or Zoopla. Students don’t pay council tax and utility bills are usually included in the rent at university halls of residence. Some universities offer catered halls, meaning certain meals will be included in your accommodation fees. Make sure you take this into account when comparing costs. According to the 2023 Save the Student accommodation survey, the average cost of student housing is £535 a month, therefore living at home is often the cheapest option. However, the course you want to do may be better at a university away from your home town, or you may worry that living at home will make it harder to make new friends. Check what bursaries and scholarships are available for different courses and institutions. Individual university websites provide information on what extra financial help they can provide and the selection criteria. According to Ucas, 80% of students who received a scholarship or bursary found out about it from their university or college. The Scholarship Hub provides a free search tool to find funding opportunities for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Turn2Us has a tool that allows you to search for grants from charities and organisations. Ruki Heritage, head of student experience at the University of Bedfordshire, says it’s worth doing your research, as many universities have a welcome scholarship or bursary available for new students. “Don’t just presume you won’t be eligible, which is something I hear many times from new students,” she says. How does the student loan work? The part of your student loan that covers tuition fees will be paid directly to the university. The other chunk is the maintenance loan, which is usually paid in three instalments directly into your bank account. The amount you get depends on your parents’ income as it is assumed they will contribute financially. Therefore it is reasonable to ask your parents to help you. How should you budget when you get to university? In a poll of 7.2 million members of student discount app UniDays, more than 50% reported that they were not confident about how to budget and three in four said their student loan never or rarely lasted for the full semester. Budgeting apps are available to help students to manage their finances, such as Emma, Money Dashboard and HyperJar. Monzo and Starling have budgeting tools built into their accounts, while Save the Student offers a free spreadsheet template. Donny McCormick, director of student support services at the University of Roehampton, says: “Plan each month in advance. Many students will be on very fixed incomes in their years of study, so plan ahead to ensure that all outgoings are accounted for.” Meal prepping can help you reduce your supermarket spending. Websites such as BBC Good Food and Mob Kitchen are a good place to look for batch cooking recipes. Share essentials with flatmates as buying in bulk is usually cheaper. You can use Splitwise, a cost-sharing app, to help you keep track of your finances when splitting bills with housemates. Avoid shopping at convenience stores as these are often more expensive. Also, keep takeaway orders to a minimum. Psychology graduate Tabitha Ajao, 25, helped to set up a community pantry at her university. “It is a place where our students can come and receive free groceries and other products, like sanitary items and toiletries. It’s a great initiative to help students during the cost of living crisis, and it’s worth seeing if your university has something similar.” Student cards unlock access to discounts at cinemas, gyms, restaurants and shops. Totum, which used to be known as NUS Extra, is free to use online or costs £24.99 for three years with a physical card and a Tastecard membership, for discounts on meals out. Students can also sign up to UniDays for online shopping and your university-issued student card will be accepted in many high street stores. Meanwhile, student nights at local bars and clubs will offer drinks deals and discounts, while the student union (SU) bar is often a good starting point for a cheap pint. Recent research by TonerGiant found that SU bars at Durham University, Imperial College London and Queen’s University Belfast were the cheapest, with a pint of Carling costing just £2.80. Yasmin Payne, 22, a postgraduate sports student, says: “Another tip is to use the facilities the university provides for you, such as an on-campus gym or free shuttle bus to town, so you don’t waste money.”

UK students: do you plan to live at home during university?

2023-08-08

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/08/uk-students-do-you-plan-to-live-at-home-during-university

We want to speak to students who are living at home this year amid rising costs, as well as about other changes they are making to save money With more than 90% of higher education students saying they are worried about the rising cost of living, we want to hear about the changes students are making as they gear up for the new academic year. We are interested in speaking to students in the UK who are heading to higher education this year about whether they are considering living at home. Are you planning to commute in? Or are you going to live on campus? Are there other ways you plan on saving costs?

Peter Mallaby obituary

2023-09-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/26/peter-mallaby-obituary

My friend and former colleague Pete Mallaby, who has died aged 62 of Parkinson’s disease, was a teacher at Holland Park school in west London for 20 years. He completed his PGCE at the Institute of Education in London (now UCL Institute of Education) and began teaching at Stockwell Park school in 1982. The following year he moved to Holland Park, where he and I met as young, inexperienced but enthusiastic teachers. Pete rapidly established himself as a well-respected, and one of the first, school teachers of computing and IT. It was an exciting but politically charged time to be working for the Inner London Education Authority. Pete was a proud, openly gay man and an advocate for gay rights. His comfortable manner and sense of social justice made him a compassionate and insightful teacher. He taught with ease and without ego. If pupils were curious about his sexuality, he would always respond simply and truthfully. His honest answers provided a safe space for young people questioning their own sexuality. The introduction of clause 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, banning the “promotion” of homosexuality, created a hostile environment that Pete navigated with dignity, helping colleagues to understand this challenging legislation and its implications. It coincided with the HIV and Aids epidemic and a period of immense sadness in Pete’s personal life as friends became ill and died after contracting Aids. Pete was a valued staff member at Holland Park, a teacher-governor, a union representative and a member of the social committee; using his natural gifts as a socialiser to include each and every one of us. In 2000 Pete was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. It was a devastating diagnosis that he bore with fortitude, eventually taking medical retirement from Holland Park in 2003. It is a testament to his charm that TfL employees made sure he arrived safely at Notting Hill Gate station each morning by ringing ahead to alert transport staff that he was on his way from Brixton. In 2007, following his civil partnership with Shane Wood, he underwent deep brain simulation surgery, which brought some short-term relief from debilitating Parkinson’s tremors. Pete was born in Stockton-on-Tees. County Durham, to Harold and Rena (nee Fraser), who were both office workers. Following secondary education at Ian Ramsey Church of England School, he completed a data processing degree at Leeds University in 1981. As a young boy, he was a regular truant, self-educated in the local library, where he developed an encyclopedic general knowledge. Later he became a quiz show fanatic and won an array of competition prizes. In later years, with Shane, he regularly campaigned for Parkinson’s research and development, hoping that if he could live long enough, a cure would eventually come. He will be remembered for his friendliness, razor-sharp wit and love of a good night out. He is survived by Shane.

Former inspector says Ofsted statement that most England state schools are good is ‘nonsense’

2023-10-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/24/former-inspector-says-ofsted-statement-that-most-england-state-schools-are-good-is-nonsense

Sir Michael Wilshaw says Ofsted’s headline judgments ‘provide parents with false comfort’ The former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw has poured scorn on Ofsted’s judgment that almost nine out of 10 state schools in England are “good”, describing it as “complete nonsense”. According to the latest official statistics, 88% of schools were judged to be either “good” or “outstanding” by the schools inspectorate as of the end of last December, but Wilshaw told MPs that having visited some of those awarded a “good” rating by Ofsted, he did not agree. Wilshaw, a former headteacher who led Ofsted between 2012 and 2016, was giving evidence to MPs on the Commons education select committee which is holding an inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools. One of the issues MPs are looking into is Ofsted’s use of headline judgments which label a school outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate at the conclusion of an inspection. Headteachers say the classifications are too simplistic, and the Labour party has pledged to replace them with a report card system. Wilshaw said he thought the days of the one-word judgment were coming to an end. “I was a big supporter of it,” he told the hearing on Tuesday, “but I’m not any more. They are not giving parents an accurate picture of what’s happening in schools. It’s providing parents with false comfort.” He went on: “Ofsted says that nearly 90% of schools are good. That’s nonsense. That’s complete nonsense. Having seen some of the schools judged good over the last few years, I would not say [they] were good. “When I’ve been in to some of these schools and then I’ve seen the [Ofsted] report, I’ve felt like going to Specsavers and getting another pair of glasses because they were not good and it’s giving false comfort to parents.” Wilshaw also accused Ofsted of moving too far away from data and he said inspection judgments were becoming much more subjective. “We’ve got the ridiculous position of schools with really low progress scores – minus progress scores – and terrible outcomes getting a good judgment.” According to Ofsted, the proportion of schools judged good or outstanding was unchanged at 88% since August 2022 when it increased from 86% the year before. The proportion of good and outstanding primary schools has increased from 89% to 90% since August 2022, whereas for secondary schools the proportion has remained unchanged at 80%. The work of Ofsted has come under intense scrutiny since the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. Her family say Perry killed herself after a “devastating” Ofsted inspection. Her death is the subject of an inquest due to take place next month. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “One-word inspection grades succinctly summarise independent evaluations on the quality of education, safeguarding and leadership, which helps to give parents confidence in choosing the right school for their child.”

London secondary school applications down by 4,000 after fall in birthrate

2024-03-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/01/london-secondary-school-applications-down-by-4000-after-fall-in-birthrate

Eight in 10 nationally get first choice of school while capital’s falling numbers are likely to squeeze budgets London’s secondary schools are following primaries in being hit by an outflow of families from the capital, with 4,000 fewer children applying to start in September. Admissions figures released on national offer day in England also show that 70% of families in London received their first choice of school, compared with more than 80% nationally. The fall in applications for year 7 places mirrors a decline in the numbers of children entering reception classes, which the umbrella group London Councils has attributed to a declining birthrate along with changing patterns of migration, family location and the effects of Brexit. While London’s 32 boroughs collectively saw a 2.5% fall in secondary school applications compared with last year, to 90,300, London Councils forecast a fall of 4.3% in entries – 4,040 places, roughly equivalent to 134 classes – ovre the next four years. Other major local authorities in England said applications were little changed or slightly higher than in 2023. Birmingham council had 14,787 applications for year 7 places, up from 14,449 in 2023, and 71.5% got their first preference. Essex received its highest ever number of applications, 17,039, slightly higher than in 2023, with 84% receiving their first preference. In Kent there was a decrease to 22,479, and 79% got their first choice. Outside the south-east, families were more likely to receive their first preference, including 97% in East Yorkshire, 94% in York and 88% in Oxfordshire. Parents can rank their preferences for between three and six schools, depending on the area, with places decided by algorithm using each school’s oversubscription criteria so that each child is awarded the highest preference for which they are eligible. London boroughs had some of the lowest success rates in the country, with only 62.5% of children in Hammersmith and Fulham and 63% in Lewisham getting their first preference. In Barking and Dagenham, 82% got their first choice, and in the City of London the figure was 78%. London’s fall in secondary school applications follows several years of declining primary school enrolments in the capital. Ian Edwards, London Councils’ executive member for children and young people, said: “Boroughs have worked diligently with schools to ensure there are sufficient places to meet the demand for school places across the capital, particularly in the context of falling school rolls and the impact this is having on some schools. “London’s population has always ebbed and flowed, so it is likely that the birthrate will pick up in due course. “However, it is difficult to predict when and if this will happen, so local authorities will have to work closely with communities, schools and other local services in the meantime to ensure that we don’t lose vital assets, such as schools, that we may need in the future.” He added: “We remain keen to work with government to respond to pressures surrounding secondary school places, ensuring that all London pupils have the best start in life.” The falling numbers are likely to squeeze school budgets, which London Councils said could mean “narrowing the curriculum, offering fewer after-school clubs or reducing the number of teaching and support staff”. A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “Delivering good quality school places is a top priority for this government.” More than four out of five children receive their first preference when councils distribute state school places in England. But every year some do not receive a place at any of their choices, or are otherwise unhappy. The good news is that there are options before the start of the school year in September. The headteacher of a school in central London said: “Parents shouldn’t panic. Don’t begin by rejecting any offer of a school place, even if it was not one of your preferences, because that means you’ve taken yourself out of the system.” Waiting lists Add your child’s name to waiting lists for other schools you’d listed, even if you also accept another offer. One head said: “Especially in cities, there’s lots of movement up to September. Families with places can move, they could take up a place at another school or opt to go to a private school.” Research shows that after offer day there is a significant increase in children getting a place at their first preference or a higher preference school, especially in London. Appeals Parents who are unhappy can appeal to an independent panel under regulations set out by the government, with details available from each local authority. Parents will need to show evidence that their child should have been awarded a place under the school’s oversubscription criteria or that there is some other compelling reason, such as an education, health and care plan for the child or severe transport difficulties. Second thoughts Headteachers recommend that parents take a close look at the school they have been offered, by visiting it or even reading Ofsted inspection reports. “Some parents can be put off by local gossip or outdated images of a school. Visiting a school is the best way to see for yourself,” said one head.

Chris Williams obituary

2024-05-15

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/15/chris-williams-obituary

My friend Chris Williams, who has died of a heart attack aged 61, was a historian of Wales and its radical traditions who rose to be head of the school of history, archaeology and religion at Cardiff University and then head of Celtic studies and social sciences at University College Cork. He also wrote about Welsh history, including in his book Democratic Rhondda (1996), but was perhaps best known for his editing of the posthumous diaries of the Welsh actor Richard Burton. His 2012 edition of the diaries did not please those who wanted them to include only tittle-tattle: typically, Chris aimed to ensure that Burton’s life and background were thoroughly explained and contextualised; it was the work of a real scholar. Chris was born in Newport, in Gwent, to Josephine (nee Rogers), a music teacher, and Peter, a bank manager. He went to Churchfeld school in Swindon (now known as the Lawn Manor academy) before joining the army with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment. But he disliked the military life and left after a year to study modern history at Balliol College, Oxford, by which time his politics were already of the left. At Oxford he met Siobhan McClelland, another Balliol historian; they married in 1985, had a son, Harri, and Chris also became a father to Philip, Siobhan’s son from a previous relationship. After Oxford Chris took a doctorate at Cardiff University under the cultural historian Dai Smith, whose imaginative, wide-ranging interpretation of Welsh culture and history profoundly influenced him. His first job, in 1986, was as an associate lecturer at the Open University, after which he briefly became a lecturer at Coleg Harlech, an adult education college in Gwynedd, before moving to Cardiff University in 1988, rising to be a senior lecturer there. He remained at Cardiff until 2001, after which he was a sociology professor at the University of Glamorgan (2001-04) and Swansea University (2005-13) before returning to Cardiff. In 2017 Chris moved to University College Cork, where he remained until his death. Chris’s other books included Capitalism, Community and Conflict: the South Wales Coalfield, 1898-1947 (1998), and Labour Party in Wales 1900-2000 (2001), which he co-edited. He was also a co-editor of, and a contributor to, volumes four and five of The Gwent County History (2009 and 2011). His interests were wide, also including the history of mountaineering and political cartoons. He leaves unfinished books on both subjects along with an incomplete study of Newport in the 19th century. Chris was a man of great warmth and fun, a loyal friend and remarkably down-to-earth. His marriage to Siobhan ended in divorce in 1993. He is survived by his second wife, Sara (nee Spalding), whom he married in 2003, and their two sons, Samuel and Owen, and by Harri and Philip.

‘Smashed it’: GCSE results bring surprise smiles for post-pandemic year group

2023-08-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/24/gcse-results-bring-some-surprise-smiles

At Burnage academy pupils are celebrating – but there is also anger at ‘bizarre’ decision to grade at 2019 levels Joshua Chabala clutched the envelope containing his GCSE results in his hand with a smile on his face. “I was so scared coming here today, I was shivering. It was all the ‘ifs’. ‘What if you fail?’ It’s just relief now,” he said. “It’s pretty much better than I predicted.” Many of the students at Burnage academy for boys, in Manchester, were opening their results privately, going round the corner of the school building or outside the grounds, unwilling to allow their teachers or peers to see their reaction until they had had time to digest their grades. It was a momentous day, a culmination of years of hard work, which has not come easy to year 11 students who took their exams in the aftermath of the pandemic. Top grades have fallen more than 4% on the previous year after ministers announced a return to pre-pandemic grading levels. “I think I did all right,” said Yousaf Babar, who got the grades to get into college. “I’m a bit disappointed on one but I’m going to get it remarked. It’s a bit of hope, innit? Overall I think I smashed it.” There were few who were disappointed with their results and the teachers even managed to get smiles out of the boys, who have done better than expected. Shahir Shafqat was one of those celebrating – with a 5 in maths, higher than the 3 he had been expecting; he would not have to do resits. “It’s over! No more maths!” he laughed. Omar Shehata, who arrived in the UK from Egypt with his family in 2008, got 8s and 9s in his GCSEs and also received an A* in A-level maths this year. He said: “I’m going to celebrate, maybe with brunch with my family.” The college he plans to attend has an Oxbridge programme, which he hopes will help him get to Oxford. His father, Mohamed, said his son had always been academic and studious. “I’m very proud. I don’t push him at all, he’s naturally talented and has made it easy for me,” he said, beaming. He said coming to the UK had been an “amazing opportunity” for his family, including his older son who had just received top A-level grades. “We’re really appreciative,” he said. The pupils come from inner-city south Manchester, many from very deprived areas, and speak 45 languages. For most of the children at the school, English is not their first language. As well as learning a demanding curriculum in the aftermath of the pandemic, some children are learning English as they go. Burnage academy is 37th in the UK for progress on boys’ education, making it top in the north of England. It is rated outstanding by Ofsted. The school was keen to emphasise that academic results were only part of what the boys were there to learn. “Helping each other, being kind, those are attributes we want them to have,” said Helen Carter, deputy head at the school. “The results are really positive, which is testament to the hard work of the students.” But she said the government’s decision to return grades to 2019 levels was “bizarre”, as students taking their GCSEs had been severely affected by the various lockdowns – which were more severe and prolonged in Greater Manchester than most other parts of the country – in years 8 and 9. “Those really are building blocks for their GCSEs, and narrowing the results to pre-pandemic levels ignores the learning impact of the pandemic.” The headteacher, Karl Harrison, agreed. “They’ve worked damned hard. They were massively impacted by the pandemic and now they’re having their grades reduced down. It’s almost like the pandemic didn’t matter. It would be nice if this didn’t become the forgotten year.” Harrison said the number one thing schools needed from the government in the future was autonomy. “Schools need to be able to take our own decisions and school leaders are best placed to understand their individual school,” he said. “Everyone went to school so everyone has an opinion – we’re constantly told ‘this isn’t right’ by people who have never worked in education.” He added: “Professional respect, that would help.”

A-level results 2023: top grades fall more steeply in England than other parts of UK – as it happened

2023-08-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2023/aug/17/a-level-results-2023-england-wales-northern-ireland-latest-news-updates

School leavers in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will also receive their results today A-level grades awarded to students in England have shown their biggest drop after results plummeted across the board in line with the government’s policy of enforcing a return to pre-pandemic grading. Five thousand fewer students in England gained three A* grades than in 2022, while the proportion of top A*-A grades shrank from 35.9% to 26.5% within a year. Headteachers said they were alarmed to see that in some cases grading was even more stringent than the last set of A-level exams taken before the pandemic, with the proportion of A*-C grades this year lower than those awarded in 2019 because of a sharp increase in the number of lowest grades. For the first time, more than one in 10 entries in England were awarded an E or U (unclassified), a 10% increase on such grades in 2019. The increase is likely to be the result of more students taking A-levels based on their GCSE results awarded by teacher assessment when exams were cancelled in 2021. England’s results also showed a large gap in top grades compared with Wales and Northern Ireland, where regulators have taken into account the long-term impact of the pandemic through more generous grading. Northern Ireland awarded A*-A grades to 37.5% of its A-level entries, while Wales awarded 34% – in stark contrast to the 26.5% in England. A-level results in England showed biggest drop on record A-level grades awarded in England have shown their biggest drop after results plummeted across the board, in line with the government’s policy of enforcing a return to pre-pandemic grading. Private and grammar schools had the largest drop in top grades compared with last year – however it has not made up for the disproportionate boost in grades those types of schools had during the pandemic. Exam chiefs confirmed there were 67,000 fewer A/A* grades this year, compared with 2022, but 26,000 more than in 2019. Jo Saxton, the chief regulator of the exams regulator Ofqual, defended this year’s results and the decision to bring them back roughly to 2019 levels, but expressed sympathy for students who have suffered during the pandemic. Social mobility charity warned of “growing disparity” between the most and least well-off. The gap between private and state schools in England closed but private pupils are still far ahead. Results show sharp regional disparities. While London and south-east England recorded a greater proportion of top grades compared with 2019, there was a fall in the north-east England, and Yorkshire and Humber regions. There was an 8 percentage point gap between students getting A*-A grades in south-east England and those in the north-east, wider than the 5 percentage point gap in 2019. Mathematics remained the most popular subject for this year’s students, while economics replaced geography in the Top 10 most popular subjects, with more than 39,000 students taking the subject. English literature went up in popularity, after two years of declining entries, while computing recorded the highest increase with 16% more entries this year. We are closing this A-level liveblog now, thanks for joining in and congratulations to everyone who got their A-level and T-level results today. And if you didn’t quite get what you want, good luck for the next few days and months ahead – and remember Jeremy Clarkson only got a C and 2Us … and he’s got his own brewery. Lovely video this: “I’ll finally have a restful sleep!” Nice story from Pontypridd in Wales, where a budding quantum physicist got four A*s and secured a place at the University of Oxford. Jacob Jones, 18, got four A*s in physics, maths, further maths and chemistry after studying at Coleg y Cymoedd (meaning college of the valleys), and will study physics at Oxford’s Jesus College in September. Apparently, despite being academic, he didn’t think that he was “Oxford worthy” until he received outstanding grades in his AS-levels, making him think that applying was worth a shot. He went to two four-day residential summer schools – one research-focused programme at University College London (UCL) and another more hands-on scheme at Oxford, where he lived on site and attended lectures like an undergraduate. Jacob was part of the Seren programme while at college – a Welsh government funded scheme aimed at supporting Wales’s brightest state school learners, regardless of their background or financial situation. He said: Although I got good grades in my GCSEs, I hadn’t thought about going to Oxford before. It’s got such a high reputation so I didn’t think I would be good enough to go there. […] I worked so hard to prepare for my interview and admissions test and the support I had from my college and the Seren programme really helped make a difference. I still couldn’t believe it when I got my place though as I had struggled with one of the exam questions and I’d lost hope after that. “I’m now so excited to start university now. I picked Jesus College because it’s known as the ‘Welsh college’ – moving to Oxford will be a big change but hopefully being there will provide a sense of home. Looking ahead, the young man said he is open-minded about future careers but was interested in quantum physics. He added: I want to learn everything there is to learn about the subject. I hope to get my master’s and eventually a PhD, and then maybe go into a research-based role. Lovely story from Pontypridd, where a budding teen physicist has bagged 4 A*s and is off to @UniofOxford despite not thinking he would be "good enough". Well done Jacob Jones! #ALevelResultsDay2023 pic.twitter.com/hur4gTRb6O The Royal College of Nursing has analysed Ucas acceptance statistics and found a 13% drop in the number of people accepting places on nursing courses in England. RCN deputy director for nursing, Dr Nichola Ashby, said: The UK government has stumbled at the first hurdle of their NHS workforce plan, with 13% fewer people expected to take up nursing courses this year in England. These numbers are not just a sad story for today, but a story for years to come of how the ministers baked future nursing shortages into the NHS. If the NHS workforce plan is to succeed, the UK government must start providing details on how the plan will begin to deliver the students the NHS needs to see for the future workforce. It must fund more university places for nursing students and remove the burden of student debt and tuition fees from prospective nurses. After the biggest drop in A-level results on record, the prime minister owes students an apology, says Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson. She said: Congratulations to all those students who received their results today, whether that was A-levels, AS-levels, T-levels or BTecs. For many the exams they took were the first formal exams they have ever sat and they also endured the full brunt of the pandemic on their education. While every single student should be immensely proud of the results they have received today, there are thousands who will have missed out on the grades they hoped for. To those students, Rishi Sunak must apologise for the 28 million days of lost learning during the pandemic and for his refusal to invest in Covid catchup programmes. No child should be left behind or forced to miss out on a university place because of this government’s incompetence. After weeks of speculation about the scale of the drop in top grades at A-level this year, exam chiefs confirmed there were 67,000 fewer A/A* grades this year, compared with 2022, but 26,000 more than in 2019. Jo Saxton, the chief regulator of the exams regulator in England Ofqual, defended this year’s results and the decision to bring them back roughly to 2019 levels, but expressed sympathy for students who suffered during the pandemic. She told a virtual results briefing: You know our hearts go out to students who since 2019 have been through so much and shown so much resilience. This has been a two-year-plan. There are no surprises here, and the changes in grading that we’re seeing are very similar to the changes that we saw last year. And these results are above those of 2019 so these students have absolutely had the protection that they deserve, given everything they went through. Saxton also played down the variation in results between the different nations in the UK and any impact that might have on university admissions. There have been differences between qualifications across the devolved administrations for as long as there’s been devolution.Because we worked hand in hand with universities and employers this is well understood. Although the number of A-level entries are up overall compared with last year, some subjects have seen large drops.Modern foreign language subjects have been particularly affected, with the total number of entries across French, Spanish and German down by 12.8% compared with last year.Entries had held steady since 2018 and throughout the pandemic, but this year’s figures mark a record low since at least 2010. Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, has urged students receiving A-level and T-level results to be “quick off the mark” when considering their next steps. She said: University is still the best thing for many but earning while you learn on high-quality and debt-free apprenticeships is an increasingly sought after option too. Standards are so much higher now employers design them with IfATE support. Young people are clearly becoming more aware of this so it’s vital we now support them in understanding the full range of choice. There are over 670 to choose from and all are showcased on our occupational maps. As well as all the traditional trades, they now train economists, nurses, aerospace engineers, countryside rangers, brewers, laboratory scientists, graphic designers and even archaeologists. Satisfaction rates are well over 80% and they are definitely worth serious consideration by all school leavers. Girls outperformed boys when it came to the very top grades in England ... just. What follows is a potted history of the (sometimes chaotic) results of recent years.In 2019, when most of us were blissfully ignorant of the word Covid we had exam-based results with boys and girls almost neck-and-neck in terms of A* and A grades (25%). It’s fair to say that 2020 was a fiasco, when the original algorithm-based results were later ditched and replaced with teacher-assessed grades. Because girls tend to do better on coursework than male students the gender gap widened to 3.1 points. In 2021 the A-levels were teacher-assessed from the get go and the gap widened even further: 46.4%(!!!!) of girls’ grades resulted in an A* or A compared with 41.7% of boys, almost a 5-point gap.Last year they reverted to exam-based for the first time post-pandemic, but grade boundaries were set a bit higher leading to reduced grades and closing the gap to 2.2 points.This year we are almost back to normal and the gap is practically nonexistent. So don’t be surprised if boys outdo girls next year for the first time since 2019. Private and grammar schools saw the largest drop in top grades compared with last year – however it hasn’t made up for the disproportionate boost in grades those types of centre had over the pandemic.Independent school including city training colleges (CTCs) saw 47.4% of exam entries get an A or A* – down a massive 10.6 percentage points from last year. However, that’s still up 2.6 points on 2019: a larger gain than any other type of school or college over the same period.Selective schools saw a similar trend - 39% of grades achieved A* and A: down 12 points compared with 2022, but up two points on 2019.Meanwhile 25.4% of entries from academies achieved A* or A – up 1.4 points from 2019. Top grades at six form colleges were up only 0.6 points compared with 2019, while free schools were up only 0.5 points. Further education colleges have lost out over the period of grade disruption – As and A*s were down 2.3 percentage points compared with 2019. This year’s A-level results reveal a “growing disparity” between the most and least well off, the head of a social mobility charity warned. PA reports: Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: The overall picture today is one of growing disparity between the most and least well off young people. There are significant regional differences in attainment, with top grades falling most in the North East while they have increased most in London and the South East, in line with patterns of regional prosperity. Likewise, the gap in those achieving top grades has widened between those at independent and state schools. Comparing this year’s university acceptances to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the gap between the most and least deprived pupils has widened and is now at levels last seen a decade ago. However, it has narrowed slightly since last year. The large increase seen in university acceptances for students eligible for free school meals is in line with the huge jump in FSM eligibility since 2019, as more and more families have fallen into poverty during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis.

Primary schools in England close, merge and shrink as pupil numbers fall

2023-12-16

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/dec/16/primary-schools-in-england-close-merge-and-shrink-as-pupil-numbers-fall

London boroughs among hardest hit due to falling birth rate and family struggles with Covid and rising costs Primary schools are being closed, merged and shrunk as councils across England respond to falling numbers of pupils due to the falling birth rate as well as family upheaval triggered by rising costs, Brexit and Covid. London boroughs are among the hardest hit, with thousands of school places being lost, but the closures and cuts extend to other cities and areas as they adjust to fewer children being born or moving into their catchment areas. In the past week, the London boroughs of Hackney and Lambeth have announced proposals for substantial cuts and closures, with Lambeth’s plan amounting to more than 4,000 fewer primary school places in the borough after seven years. A spokesperson for London Councils, which represents the city’s 32 local authorities, said: “Boroughs are working hard to support their local schools and to find solutions for keeping them financially viable. In some circumstances, when all other options have been exhausted and demand is forecast to remain low, school closures will be necessary. “Boroughs are determined that all children in London have access to high-quality education. In the face of demographic changes and funding pressures, we are keen to work with the government to ensure this happens.” Hackney said it planned to close four primary schools, with two shutting outright and two more disappearing in mergers with other schools. Anntoinette Bramble, Hackney’s deputy mayor and cabinet member for education, said it was “an incredibly difficult decision” to close schools treasured by parents. “This is the only way to ensure that we can minimise the long-term negative impact on Hackney education and more widely on the council’s budget, at a time of extreme financial pressure. None of this is due to any fault of our schools, their leadership teams or staff,” Bramble said. Lambeth council said the borough “has experienced a one-third drop in the birth rate since 2009 and the cost of living crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit have led to considerable migration”. Ben Kind, Lambeth’s cabinet member for children and families, said: “We have a really successful network of schools across our borough and we are working hard to protect them in the face of this huge challenge. We are seeking to avoid significant interventions, such as closures as a worst-case scenario, but such interventions will increasingly have to be considered should schools decide not take a shared, boroughwide approach.” London Councils says almost 15% of school places in the city are now unfilled. It is forecasting a further 7% decrease in new pupils between now and 2026-27, equivalent to about 243 classes of children. Inner London boroughs such as Haringey have been cutting places since 2019, but the council is still seeking to halve entry numbers at three primaries, in part because “more families are now moving out of the London area than was predicted”. Islington, which aims to merge and close two primary schools and cut 150 reception places, stated in its latest school organisation plan: “Anecdotally, families who rode out the pandemic outside London have stayed: families have continued to move out of London and fewer graduates came to London for jobs during this period, with more workers choosing to live further away from central London due to remote working.” But boroughs in outer London such as Barnet are also seeing fewer enrolments, which the council attributes to “changes in migration patterns” as well as the birth rate. Even on the fringe of London’s commuter zone, local authorities such as Hertfordshire are proposing cuts, while Brighton and Hove aims to close two primaries and reduce entries at nine others. A survey by the Guardian of councils currently holding consultations over school places shows that most local authorities are aiming to shrink individual school intakes rather than undertake full closures. Analysis by the Guardian found that 88 primary schools in England were more than two-thirds empty last year, leaving them in danger of closure. Overall there were more unfilled places than at any time since 2010, the equivalent to 570,000 missing pupils or 11.5% of school capacity. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said falling pupil numbers was a concern for many school leaders. “It would be a huge mistake to allow schools to close, only for there to be a renewed places crisis further down the line. Local councils and central government need to keep an eye on the long term here and ensure schools are supported where there are short-term reductions in pupil numbers,” Whiteman said. Rather than allowing primary schools to contract, Whiteman said it was “an excellent opportunity” for smaller class sizes and more targeted support for pupils to help them recover from the recent Covid and cost of living crises.

Labour calls for inquiry into English schools £370m budget bungle

2023-10-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/14/labour-calls-for-inquiry-into-english-schools-370m-budget-bungle

Opposition calls for independent investigation by watchdog to prevent repeat of funding errors Labour is calling for an independent investigation into the government’s £370m bungle over school budgets in England, with the shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, warning of growing mistrust among school leaders towards ministers. Phillipson has written to the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, to request an investigation by the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, to ensure the “extremely concerning” errors in funding for schools in England would not be repeated. “Headteachers and school staff are rightly alarmed at the news that the funding allocations published in July are incorrect, with an average primary school now expected to be over £12,000 worse off next academic year and an average secondary more than £57,000 down,” Phillipson said in her letter to Case. “This is creating yet more stress and pressure for headteachers, affecting staffing decisions, judgments about school purchases and additional support that can be made available to pupils.” One local authority, Norfolk, is said to be receiving £5.6m less for its schools as a result of the revisions, while headteachers across England have had to redraw budgets and make difficult decisions for next year. Phillipson has asked for the investigation to look at whether publication of the error was held back to avoid embarrassing ministers during the Conservative party conference that week. She has asked Case to determine when the accounting hole was discovered and when Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, and those outside the DfE were first informed. “Coming just days after the conclusion of the Conservative party conference I hope you will be able to provide assurance that the communication of this error was not delayed by the conference,” Phillipson told Case. The £370m accounting error was revealed last Friday evening in a letter from Susan Acland-Hood, the Department for Education’s permanent secretary. Acland-Hood told Robin Walker, the chair of the Commons’ education select committee: “I would want to express my sincere apologies that this error has occurred, and reassure you that rigorous measures are being put in place to ensure that it will not be repeated.” Keegan has asked Acland-Hood to hold “a formal review of the quality assurance process” into the calculation of the national funding formula (NFF), after the errors meant schools will receive at least £45 less per primary pupil, and at least £55 less for each secondary pupil in 2024-25. Phillipson said an external, independent review was necessary, telling the Guardian the funding debacle was “another hammer blow to the relationship of trust between schools, families and government”. “This crucial relationship is cracking dangerously under the weight of crumbling buildings, a recruitment and retention crisis and growing persistent pupil absence. “Labour will make it a priority to reset and rebuild the crucial relationship between schools, families and government, drive high and rising standards in our schools and break down the barriers to opportunity,” Phillipson said. The DfE said schools had not yet received their funding for 2024-25, meaning the error would not result in any clawback from their budgets. A spokesperson for the DfE said: “The NFF allocations for schools have now been updated and published. The permanent secretary has taken full responsibility for the NFF technical error. “The secretary of state [Gillian Keegan] has asked the permanent secretary to carry out an external and independent evaluation of the quality assurance process for the NFF and improvements have already been identified to ensure that similar mistakes are not repeated.” Separately, the general secretaries of England’s four main teaching unions have written to Keegan asking her to restore the £370m to school budgets or break the government’s commitment in the House of Commons when the original figures were published. “In light of this, we call on your government to meet that commitment to invest in education, by honouring the commitments your minister made,” their letter said.

Only half of required number of trainee secondary teachers in England recruited

2023-09-12

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/12/only-half-of-required-number-of-trainee-secondary-teachers-in-england-recruited

Figures show government is well short of 26,360 target amid crisis in teacher recruitment and retention Only half of the required number of trainee secondary school teachers in England have been recruited as the academic year gets under way, analysis shows. The figures, obtained by the National Education Union (NEU) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), show ministers are on course to miss their recruitment targets by 48%. Numbers in all subjects except for history, PE and classics are below the government recruitment target, the National Foundation for Educational Research has said. “Without an urgent policy response to make teaching more attractive, schools will face increasingly intense shortages over the next few years, which are likely to impact negatively on the quality of pupils’ education,” said Jack Worth, the NFER’s school workforce lead. Government figures for last month – the final month before teacher training courses get under way – show there were just 13,788 recruits, well short of the target of 26,360. The NAHT and the NEU will host a joint debate on the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention at the TUC’s annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday. Paul Whiteman, the NAHT general secretary, said the shortages meant more children were being taught either by teachers with no qualification in the subject, by teaching assistants or by supply staff. “The government must rip up its failed recruitment and retention strategy and replace it with a new vision which restores education as a career graduates aspire to,” he said. “That means at the very least immediate action to tackle crushing workload and fundamentally reform Ofsted, as well as a plan to reverse more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts.” Daniel Kebede, the NEU general secretary, said: “This is not a sustainable situation, and the reasons behind it are all too clear. Chronic underfunding, some of the longest working hours in Europe and real-terms cuts to pay are driving many out of the profession. Not enough are coming into teaching because less stressful and better-paid jobs are available elsewhere.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “Teachers will get a 6.5% pay award beginning in September and starting salaries are now at least £30,000, which recognises the hard work of teachers and leaders.” The DfE said there were a record number of teachers in schools, up by 27,000 since 2010. The unions point out, however, that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England has risen at almost double the rate of the teaching workforce.

Margaret Morris obituary

2024-04-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/28/margaret-morris-obituary

My grandmother, Margaret Morris, who has died aged 93, was a historian, university lecturer, letter-writer to the Guardian and a socialist campaigner. For 47 years, Margaret was married to the educationist Max Morris, a former Communist party executive member and president of the NUT (1973-74). Max and Margaret met in Hampstead, north London, through a shared interest in leftwing causes, and they became close friends when Margaret stood as the Labour candidate for Hornsey council in 1959; they married in 1961. They were well known in political circles and their parties were widely celebrated. Margaret’s campaigning targeted housing problems and access to higher education. Later, having joined the Communist party in the early 1960s, she represented the UK abroad with the Women’s International Democratic Foundation and accompanied Max on foreign delegations. Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Margaret was the only child of Edith, a secretary, and Reginald Howard, a civil servant. She won a scholarship to George Dixon grammar school, where her early socialist views were inspired by her history teacher. She studied history at Birmingham University, attaining a first; then she took up a postgraduate scholarship at Oxford University. Two formative events shaped her life: being evacuated to Shropshire aged nine during the second world war and receiving extensive hospital treatment for tuberculosis while at university. Her experiences were drawn upon by her friend Linda Grant, the novelist, in The Dark Circle (2016), which depicted life in a TB sanatorium. Margaret worked as a researcher for the Wiltshire Victoria County History at the London University Institute of Research, and at Westfield College, London. In 1976 she published a book on the General Strike of 1926. From 1974, for more than a decade she was a lecturer in modern history at the Polytechnic of Central London, and then in the mid-80s she became director of modular studies at the City of London Polytechnic (later London Guildhall University, and now London Metropolitan University). In 1993, she granted permission for Joy Gardner, an overseas student, to continue her studies there, and was shocked when Joy died a few days later after the police attempted to arrest and deport her. Following retirement in 1995, Margaret remained involved in local politics and was a key figure in the Socialist Educational Association. Between 1997 and 2002 she served as a lay chair of NHS complaints panels. She was also a governor at West Green primary school, Tottenham. Independent-minded, a voracious reader, formidable bridge player, connoisseur of vintage wine and a francophile, Margaret enjoyed summers with Max, friends and family, in Menton, France. Although she became fluent in French, she spoke it with an English accent. Max died in 2008. Margaret is survived by her daughter, Georgia, two grandchildren – my sister, Natasha, and me – and four great-grandchildren.

Move to improve education outcomes latest part of levelling-up plans

2022-02-01

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/feb/01/move-to-improve-education-outcomes-latest-part-of-levelling-up-plans

Numeracy and literacy targets for primary school pupils part of ministers’ push on standards Ministers are to unveil measures to raise educational standards in 55 English target areaswith persistently poor outcomes, including the promise of elite sixth-form colleges for talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The new “education investment areas” will form part of the government’s levelling-up white paper and will see resources focused on schools in the north, the Midlands, the east of England and the south-west for the next decade. Ninety-five per cent of the areas that have been identified for “intensive support” are outside London and the south-east, and will include Rochdale, the Isle of Wight, Hartlepool, Walsall, Knowsley, Bury, Leeds, Luton, Norfolk and Sunderland. Labour’s education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, accused the government of recycling its 2017 opportunity areas policy. “The government is desperately trying to distract from the utter chaos at the heart of Downing Street by recycling old announcements, which shows the limits of the Conservatives’ ambition for Britain.” According to the plans, published on Tuesday, the government will also set a new goal of ensuring that 90% of children leaving primary school reach expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030 – in 2019 the figure was just 65%. Funding for the government’s plans is expected to come from the existing spending review settlement. Other measures will include retention payments to help schools keep high-quality teachers in priority subjects. Education investment areas will also be prioritised for new specialist sixth-form free schools “to ensure talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to the highest standard of education this country offers”. In addition, schools in these areas that have been judged less than good in successive Ofsted inspections could be moved into multi-academy trusts, subject to a consultation later in the spring. The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said: “This white paper sets out our blueprint for putting skills, schools and families at the heart of levelling up. “It focuses on putting great schools in every part of the country, training that sets you up for success in a high-skilled, well-paid career, and ensuring no one misses out on opportunities simply because of where they live or their family background.” The package will also include a £560m “national youth guarantee” to provide young people with access to clubs, activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities, an extra £200m for supporting vulnerable families, already outlined in the spending review, and skills training for an additional 200,000 people Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Identifying 55 communities for intensive additional support sounds promising and we look forward to seeing exactly how this will work. We are not so sure about the idea of setting up ‘new elite sixth forms’. “This sounds like they will serve children who already do very well and could put pressure on existing provision when the simplest solution would surely be to improve the lamentable state of post-16 funding.” Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Many of the areas now targeted for support have been among the hardest hit by education cuts over the last decade – on the government’s own watch, and entirely of its own making. “If the government was serious about levelling up education, then it would restore all the money it has cut from these schools.” Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI) thinktank, said: “It will be important to closely scrutinise the criteria used by the government for selecting its education investment areas, and how it intends to deliver ‘intensive’ support over so many areas.”

Rather than scare stories of ‘ghost children’, let’s face the facts | Letters

2023-08-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/23/rather-than-scare-stories-of-ghost-children-lets-face-the-facts

Readers on the complex reasons why some children stop attending school, and the lack of support and understanding from authorities Thank you to Lola Okolosie for lifting the lid on the government’s “ghost children” narrative in response to the current school attendance crisis – and its attempt to blame and criminalise parents when a compassionate response is needed (I’m a teacher: don’t be fooled by Tory scare stories on the ‘ghost children’ missing from school, 16 August). Two years ago, I was the parent of a so-called ghost child – my son, who became unable to attend school, or leave the house at all. It was a mental health crisis that we were not equipped to deal with. As a family we were in uncharted territory – we reached out for support and instead found ourselves blamed, even facing legal repercussions. When help did come, it was through peer support groups such as Not Fine in School. I started a petition with a fellow parent lobbying for vulnerable families to be protected from fines and prosecutions. We met the schools minister, Nick Gibb, and the Department for Education in May to share our petition – and recommend that they incorporate lived-experience perspectives into guidance. This is currently missing. Ultimately, the ghost children narrative will fail, because it’s not true; it’s time the government stopped trying to scare us with it.Name and address supplied As a disabled single parent with a child in year 10 who has autism spectrum disorder and severe mental health difficulties, I have been struggling with schools, the local authority and the NHS to get support for my daughter for years. She has not been in school since the Covid lockdown. It is like being trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare with no light on the horizon. My daughter has an education, health and care plan, but her special educational needs and disabilities (Send) officer ignores my emails and the local authority refused to even put my request for education out of a school setting to the decision panel, even though it was backed up by a letter from mental health professionals. Mainstream secondary schools are too big, or too unwilling, to accommodate Send children and there are not enough places in specialist schools. I am exhausted from the stress of it all. Name and address supplied Lola Okolosie’s piece overlooks a key vulnerable group: children involved with social care services. Based on the most recent government figures available, we estimate that 54% of secondary school pupils involved with social care services were persistently absent in 2021-22, compared with 28% of their classmates. As well as missing out on education through high levels of absence, children with social workers are much more likely to be expelled or suspended, according to our research. Children with social workers are also more likely to be removed from the school rolls early. To address the accumulation of higher rates of non-enrolment, suspension, expulsion and absence, which mean that children with a social worker face disproportionate barriers to accessing education, we must shift our focus from the individual to the root causes of these problems. We agree that schools must be adequately funded to meet the needs of all their pupils. However, increased funding must also be coupled with innovative policy reforms to create a truly inclusive education system.Dr Matthew Jay and Dr Louise Mc Grath-LoneUniversity College London Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

‘Hundreds, not thousands’ of English schools at risk from concrete, says No 10

2023-09-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/hundreds-not-thousands-of-english-schools-at-risk-from-concrete-says-no-10

Rishi Sunak is facing questions about lack of funding for rebuild schemes when he was chancellor Downing Street has insisted that “hundreds, not thousands” of schools are likely to be affected by crumbling concrete panels, as the focus shifted to Rishi Sunak’s role in the crisis when he was chancellor. As Sunak struggled to get a grip on an issue, which has caused dismay and chaos as millions of pupils in English schools start the new academic year, the prime minister insisted ministers had acted “as swiftly as possible” once new information emerged about the risks in schools built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). In a sign of the pressures faced by ministers in tackling a problem known about for years and which places students and teachers at risk, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, was filmed on Monday saying others had “sat on their arse” rather than act. Speaking to ITV’s reporter, Daniel Hewitt, after a TV clip, but with the camera still rolling, Keegan said: “Does anyone ever say: ‘You know what, you’ve done a fucking good job, because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing.’ No signs of that, no?” It was not clear who Keegan believed had failed to act. In his first comments since it emerged that thousands of pupils would have to start the term from home or in temporary classrooms, Sunak told a broadcast clip: “Of course I know the timing is frustrating, but I want to give people a sense of the scale of what we are grappling with here. “There are around 22,000 schools in England and the important thing to know is that we expect that 95% of those schools won’t be impacted by this.” This would amount to about 1,100 schools being affected. Sunak’s official spokesperson said later: “We expect the numbers to be in the hundreds, not thousands. While we are still waiting for some schools to return their surveys and confirm their specific situations we can’t be more definitive. “Obviously there is significant work going on – we’ve increased surveyor capacity, we’re calling schools, we are using every possible means of communication to get that information as a matter of urgency.” The former head civil servant at the Department for Education (DfE) said Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from concrete panels. After the DfE told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020. Conservative ministers more widely believed building new free schools was a greater funding priority, Slater told Today on BBC Radio 4 on Monday. “For me as an official, it seemed that should have been second to safety,” Slater said. “But politics is about choices. And that was a choice they made.” Slater said two surveys of Raac in schools had uncovered the extent of work needed to remedy a building method supposed to be time-limited to about 30 years of use, with a risk in some cases of sudden and catastrophic failure beyond this. He said it was “frustrating” the Treasury would fund only between a third and a quarter of the work needed. “With the Treasury, of course, you’ve got a concern that there’s never enough money for everything, but we were able to present really good data,” Slater said. “We weren’t just saying there’s a significant risk of fatality, we were saying [there was] a critical risk to life if this programme is not funded.” While he was permanent secretary, in 2018, a concrete block fell from the roof of a primary school, Slater added, “so it wasn’t just a risk. It was actually starting to happen.”

Staff crisis hampering children’s pandemic recovery, says Ofsted

2022-12-13

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/13/staff-crisis-hampering-childrens-pandemic-recovery-says-ofsted

Children who have special education needs among those worst affected, says England watchdog’s chief inspector Children’s recovery from the pandemic is being held back by a workforce crisis in schools, colleges and early years, with children who have special education needs among those worst affected, according to England’s schools inspectorate, Ofsted. Publishing her annual report on Tuesday, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said the Covid pandemic continued to “cast a long shadow” over children’s education and social care, and despite teachers’ best efforts, recovery was “far from complete”. Staffing problems at all levels of children’s education and social care were compounding problems that stand in the way of a full recovery, Ofsted said, with schools struggling to recruit teaching assistants to help with lost learning, and nurseries losing early years workers to better paid jobs in retail and hospitality. Children are also losing out on sports, drama, music and other enrichment activities, as schools continue to experience staff absence due to Covid, and intervention for children who need additional help has been delayed due to fewer support staff. Pupils with the most complex needs were often the least well served, the report said, with support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) under even greater strain during the pandemic from which it had not recovered. Ofsted said demand for specialist services had grown significantly, with an additional 77,000 children identified as having SEND taking the overall figure up to 1.5 million pupils, meaning speech and language therapy and mental health support were not always available and there were delays in assessments for education, health and care plans. Launching her sixth annual report since taking over the role, Spielman said: “The pandemic continued to cast a shadow over education and children’s social care for much of the past year. And the energy crisis and economic pressures have brought more turbulence in recent months. “Across all age groups in education, careful thought has been given to making up lost learning. However, achievement gaps are still wider than before the pandemic, meaning the recovery is far from complete. And it’s clear that in education – and in children’s social care – staffing issues are compounding problems standing in the way of a full recovery. “We owe the current generation of young people as much security and certainty as we can provide for what remains of their childhood. And we must offer them the education, training and opportunities they need to secure their future. To do that, it’s vital that education and social care providers are able to recruit, train and retain talented and capable people.” Overall, however, the report said inspections suggested an “improving picture”, with 88% of all state-funded schools now judged good or outstanding – up nearly two percentage points from 2021 – and 70% of schools previously judged to require improvement now up to good or outstanding after inspection last year. In an online press conference, Spielman said workforce issues were across the board, with a third of children’s home staff leaving in the year up to March and 44% of staff newly hired, while foster carers have fallen to their lowest number in years. On SEND, she said the increase in the number of pupils identified as having special needs was partly down to the pandemic, so it was often an issue of catch up more than a long-term special needs issue. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Spielman also raised concerns about the government’s decision to drop its schools bill which included new powers for Ofsted to tackle illegal schools and a register for children who are out of school. She said both should be prioritised by the government. The Ofsted report highlighted the growing use of part-time timetables in schools as an alternative to exclusions, which Spielman said was fine if used in the short-term to handle a crisis, but could lead to a children “sliding out of education altogether” if used indefinitely. And while high levels of pupil absence have fallen, the chief inspector said there were still problems with persistent absenteeism. “For a minority of families, the social contract around schooling – attendance in return for education – has become fractured, perhaps tested by periods of lockdown,” Ofsted said. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, described Ofsted’s latest report as “shocking” and testimony to “over a decade of neglect” of education and the services needed by children with SEND, looked after children and others who need individual help. A Department for Education spokesperson said the government had invested £5bn in education recovery, with over 2 m tutoring courses now started, and school budgets set to be boosted to their highest ever level in real terms by 2024/25. Councils have also been provided with £4.8bn to help support children’s social care and children’s homes.

‘I’m going with the flow’: how to navigate dating at university

2023-09-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/09/im-going-with-the-flow-how-to-navigate-dating-at-university

University is a great place for both casual flings and lifelong love. So should you try Tinder Uni or see who you meet at house parties and bars? Finding love doesn’t count towards your final grade at university, yet for many it’s an integral part of the experience. With students often living in halls and then moving to adjacent streets in second and third year, there is plenty of opportunity to meet people and enjoy some local, old-fashioned romance. But according to Tinder, 18- to 25-year-olds are embracing a no-pressure style of dating, with 80% saying that their own self-care is their top priority. With a surplus of options available online, is anyone keen to settle down on campus? And if they are, is it worth investing time and energy in a long-term relationship during these precious years of self-discovery? Where to meetAlthough freshers are more likely to meet people in halls or on their course (which can be ill-advised because you’re stuck with them for three years), it’s rare for students to meet in a real-life setting, like at a club night or house party, and enter into a long-term relationship. Most people just use apps. Students often match online but never say a word to each other. Perhaps it’s too awkward or you don’t know what to say, but the upside is you’ll both know that you find each other attractive if you bump into them when you’re out. If you do end up arranging to meet, be aware that your date might cancel at last minute – so confirm the meeting time and place on the day. “You decide to go for drinks at a set date and time, but literally, right before, just ghost and don’t reply. I’ve done that,” says 21-year-old Louis Rudnicki, who studies English and drama at Manchester University. Don’t take it personally – dating is fun, he says, but it can be hard psyching yourself up to sustain conversation with a stranger when it could go really horribly. Endless scrolling can leave you feeling disillusioned. Rudnicki says there can be a sense of detachment with dating apps where people are just in it for casual flings and there is “no real desire” to get to know someone. Take a break if you need it. Alternatively, meeting through extracurricular pursuits is a way to avoid this. Northumbria student Liv Bird, 24, met her boyfriend of four years, Tom, at the musical theatre society. “It’s a place to meet like-minded people. A lot of my friends have found relationships this way.” Be open-mindedStudents often find themselves in situationships, which are informal relationships without commitment. Erin Botten, a 22-year-old second-year history and sociology student, says casual dating like this can be a change from having a boyfriend or girlfriend in sixth form. “If you ignored someone or got with someone else, you’d be held more accountable in a year group of 200. At uni, no one cares. Everyone carries on hanging out with them.” With many more people to choose from, it’s also easy to be put off by minor things, but there’s value in keeping an open mind. “There’s this whole ‘ick’ culture,” says Rudnicki. “I absolutely hate musical theatre and if their profile says ‘my ideal date is going to watch Wicked’, then I’m immediately going to say no. But say we met at a bar, I wouldn’t know that or could overlook it.” Stay safeIf you do end up going on a date with a stranger, then a lot of trust is involved. Meet in a public place and tell a housemate or friend where you are. “One guy tried to walk me back to his flat with no mention of it,” says Botten. Some students allow their friends to see their location on Snapmaps or Find My Friends. Although it means you can see if someone has stayed somewhere they shouldn’t, it also enables your friends to look out for you. Be mindful of how many people, and who, have access to it. Most universities also offer consent training and talks on topics such as female pleasure, as well as having anonymous reporting tools for inappropriate behaviour on and off campus. Be careful, too, of drugs and alcohol, as they can create situations that feel out of control. Amanda Major, head of service quality and clinical practice at Relate, says although life is there to be experienced, make sure it’s on your terms. “Whether you’ve had loads of sex before you go or nothing, don’t be rushed by anybody.” Find your communityIn-house dating options, such as Tinder Uni, make it easier to connect with other students and Hinge voice notes and prompts (short questions that allow you to showcase who you are) can be a fun way to meet people with the same sense of humour or interests. For queer students who don’t feel confident going on dates outside campus, which can be especially hard at rural universities, LGBTQ+ societies are safe places to be your authentic self. Look out for queer spaces in your town or city too, including non-drinking options such as queer yoga, LGBT gyms and book clubs. For support, Jay Brown, president of Queen Margaret University students’ union, recommends engaging with wellbeing services. “They will listen without prejudice.” Go at your own paceAccording to Rudnicki, there can be a fixation with finding a partner towards the end of the third year. “The panic sets in of ‘oh god, I haven’t really had a proper relationship’, I’ve got my dissertation happening. It’s time for me to settle down.” For Rudnicki, who saw second year as purely for having fun, this approach has worked out. “I’ve got a girlfriend, Hinge is deleted on my phone and I’ve just graduated. I’m fully committed.” Others think if you’ve got a connection with someone, there’s no point waiting until the end. “I got with Tom halfway through my degree and although it’s fun to meet new people, it’s nice to have someone who helps motivate you, someone to go to the library with and have that person that you can rely on,” says Bird. Botten, who is casually dating, says she’s just going with the flow. “If it turns into something then great, if it doesn’t then it’s not the end of the world. I’ll get a better sense of self by the end of it, no matter how well or badly it goes.”

University of the Arts London: a creative champion rising up the rankings

2023-09-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/09/university-of-the-arts-london-a-creative-champion-rising-up-the-rankings

University of the Arts London brings together some of the most reputable art schools, and it’s soaring up the league table. A university that specialises in the creative arts, and recruits nearly half of its students from overseas, sounds like a place designed to irk the science-promoting government ministers who want to turn away international students. But James Purnell, vice-chancellor of the University of the Arts London, says the answer is to use UAL’s strengths to steer clear of political turbulence. “We need to have our destiny in our own hands. Obviously we think about government policy, but in the university sector if you’re able to have a strong reputation and recruit strongly, then what the government does is important but it doesn’t stop you from getting on with your mission,” Purnell says. A former Labour MP and culture secretary in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, since 2021 Purnell has headed the sprawling institution that includes some of the creative arts sector’s most famous names among its constituent colleges: Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, the London College of Fashion, Camberwell College of Arts, London College of Communication and Wimbledon College of Arts. While other creative and visual arts institutions have struggled in a political climate that has cut specialist funding and prioritised Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects and graduate employment, UAL has flourished, growing to more than 21,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from 130 countries across its six colleges. At the same time, UAL’s position has risen in the Guardian University Guide, progressing from 45th four years ago to 26th, 19th and now 15th, its highest ever. Its latest position – above Russell Group luminaries such as Bristol, Southampton and King’s College London – has been driven by sector-leading staff-student ratios and spending. Matt Hiely-Rayner, the director of Intelligent Metrix, the data consultancy that administers the guide’s tables, says UAL’s ranking has been particularly helped by an increase in student entry grades as well as lower drop-out rates than in previous years. At subject level, UAL’s creative focus is rewarded with top rankings in interior design and animation and games design, as well as expected strong performances in fine arts and textiles and design, followed by graphic design and product design, with its marketing and public relations course another high point. With a new campus for the London College of Fashion about to open in Stratford, east London, and with only Oxford and Cambridge spending more on each full-time student, the question is how UAL can afford this with domestic tuition fees frozen since 2016. According to Purnell there are two factors: “We created a financial formula which basically hypothecated money to teaching and learning, so we’ve increased that as a proportion of our income every year. It’s been partly about tough discipline and where we focus our money. “The other factor is because we have significant international recruitment, we have a higher unit of resource. International students pay more than home students, so on average we have also been able to have more money in absolute terms, and put more of that money into teaching and learning.” When politicians talk about international students taking away places from UK students, Purnell says: “I find it very frustrating because exactly the opposite is true. International students are actually making the current system possible. “At UAL the cost of delivery for a course is about £12,000 so we make a financial loss of £3000 on every UK student, and we’re able to offer the education that we do because international students pay more. They’re making it possible for far more people to get to go to university. “Essentially, international students are paying for quite a lot of the cost of our university system, which would cost British taxpayers more and British graduates more if they weren’t there.” Prof Roni Brown, UAL’s deputy vice-chancellor for education, says the university has used its position to support as many students as possible through the cost of living crisis, through increased hardship funds and bursaries, and tackling the high cost of materials for arts students. Despite the costs and difficulties facing students in London, it doesn’t appear to deter applicants. “We have a very competitive intake, we now have 60,000 applications for just over 9,000 places, so that competition is increasing alongside the hard work we are doing to improve student experience, opportunities and success,” says Brown. “We offer a unique model of education at UAL through our curriculum. We believe it supports creativity that leads to innovation and a better world. There is good growth and good opportunities here for our students, that’s what we want to emphasise.”

Schools in England told to be ready to evacuate buildings at risk of collapse

2023-08-30

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/30/dfe-urges-schools-make-contingency-plans-crumbling-concrete

Officials urgently ask school leaders to draw up contingency plans to handle problems caused by crumbling concrete Officials are making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete, the Guardian has learned. Department for Education documents show that staff have been instructed to contact leaders of England’s schools and academies to check they are prepared to evacuate buildings constructed from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) at short notice, and relocate pupils to alternatives such as portable accommodation or even other schools in their area. While the dangers of ageing RAAC buildings have been highlighted since a 2018 roof collapse at a primary school in Kent, the DfE’s ring-round comes only a few days before the start of the new school year in England. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “This is shocking evidence of a department in disarray. With days to go before the start of term and despite knowing about the potential risks posed by reinforced aerated autoclave concrete for months, [ministers] are now phoning schools to ask them if they are ready to close, further disrupting children’s education. “The education secretary needs to tell parents how many schools are affected, whether their children are safe at school, and just what on earth is going on.” Julie McCulloch, the director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The fact that officials are rushing around days before the beginning of the new term making calls to schools about contingency plans in case buildings collapse is symptomatic of the government’s neglect of the school estate. “The government needs to provide the necessary investment to make all school buildings safe and to replace those that are not fit for purpose.” A spokesperson for the DfE said the safety of pupils and teachers was its “utmost” priority. “We have been engaging with schools and responsible bodies about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 and subsequently published guidance on identifying and managing it. “As part of this work schools have been asked to inform the department if they believe RAAC is present on their estate. Where we confirm it is present, we work with individual education settings on how to manage RAAC and develop contingency plans to minimise any disruption to education.” The internal documents seen by the Guardian reveal the DfE’s urgent efforts to prepare schools for upheaval if their buildings have been found to include unstable RAAC, amid fears the lightweight concrete commonly used in construction between the 1950s and mid-1990s is at risk of collapse. The decaying concrete has been found in 65 schools in England after nearly 200 completed surveys, with 24 requiring emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The number of schools at risk is expected to increase when the results of surveys of 572 schools with suspected RAAC are published by the DfE. Four schools were shut in April and June after RAAC was discovered in their buildings. The DfE’s script tells school leaders that “all spaces with confirmed RAAC – even if they are assessed as ‘non-critical’ … must have adequate contingencies in place”. “This should include preparations for the eventuality that they are taken out of use and vacated at short notice until mitigations are in place for the spaces to be made safe.” A Q&A section of the script includes the question: “Will we have to evacuate all buildings?” The DfE response is: “We want to make sure all responsible bodies are prepared for this eventuality, but we are not giving this advice at present.” School leaders are told that proposed emergency measures “in some cases require school year groups to be displaced across multiple schools”, and that they should be considering moving IT equipment and making transport arrangements. The DfE advises school leaders to “use your existing network of contacts across local schools and the local authority to assist in managing the impact of multiple closures”. The document’s background notes say the DfE “has serious concerns about the integrity of RAAC panels”. It describes three stages of disruption: short term, of up to one month, which “could include school closure and remote learning as a last resort”; medium term, which could involve temporary accommodation for up to three years; and long term, possibly involving schools being rebuilt. The RAAC fears follow revelations that the DfE has ordered three recently built schools to close buildings over safety concerns involving modular, off-site construction methods. Mike Short, the head of education at Unison, said: “For months the government has done all it can to avoid providing parents and staff with information on the dangers in many schools. “The government needs to get a grip on this issue and apply as much effort to fixing schools as it puts into hiding their parlous state.”

Is it worth going to university? We ask the experts

2023-09-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/09/is-it-worth-going-to-university-we-ask-the-experts

With a cost-of-living crisis, lecturers’ strikes and higher fees, is university still worth it? The answer from the experts is a resounding yes. Sixth formers in England looking at the state of higher education, as they plan what to do post A-levels next summer, might be forgiven for thinking that universities are at a low ebb. A funding squeeze because of the falling value of tuition fees, disruption due to long-running industrial action, and rows over free speech and so-called “low-value” degrees, mean much of the media coverage has been negative. Talk to current students and recent graduates however, and the picture is different. There are difficulties – none greater than the cost of living crisis – but there are also multiple hidden gains. One enthusiastic student, just back from a year abroad as part of her degree, says: “I’m only realising this now I’m home, but I worked out so much about myself and my place in the world while studying there. I did things I never thought myself capable of … It awoke so much in me and solidified a lot of my interests and life ambitions.” It’s not all about the course or the individual university, or the improved job and earnings prospects, though all these things matter. It can also be an opportunity to change direction, learn new skills which cannot be measured by assessment and shape your destiny in a way you might not have previously imagined. “University is an amazing arena to perfect your people skills. Meeting new people, building friendships over extended periods of time,” says Henry Lucas, 22, a recent graduate from the University of Birmingham. “It’s also one of the only small windows you might get in your early years to start completely fresh. If you want, you can completely flip the script.” Talk to higher education experts, and they too paint a more positive picture. If the over-arching question facing year 13s is – is it still worth going to university? – then the answer from Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, is an emphatic “Yes, definitely. All the evidence for decades has shown that degrees act as an insurance policy against unemployment. They give you a much wider choice of roles in the labour market.” He acknowledges the cost of living crisis is hitting students, but notes that many were responding by getting a part-time job – 55% according to a recent survey. Hillman adds that students need to have “tricky” conversations with their parents before applying. “They need to make sure their parents know what the government is expecting them to contribute, so parents have time to prepare.” Changes to student loans which come into force from September and will extend repayments from 30 to 40 years, as well as reducing the threshold at which repayments begin, won’t put most people off, Hillman thinks. “Most people who go to university will be better off than if they’d never gone, even after the loan repayments have been made.” Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert is more concerned however. “The scale of change in September 2023 seems to have slipped under the radar,” he warned earlier this year, adding that it will “increase the cost [of university] by over 50% for many typical graduates and double it for a few”. Lucas is not bothered by the cost of his loan. “I’m viewing it as a tax rather than a debt. I do feel frustrated though that I paid a full £9,250 in course fees during my first year. I had two in-person seminars and that was it.” Contact hours do vary hugely depending on the course, so this is worth researching. Hillman says information is not as easily available as it should be. “I would urge applicants to ask those questions on open days, or message boards where you can communicate with existing students. It’s also true that higher education is partly about independent learning. It’s not meant to be ‘big school’.” This might also leave you feeling tempted by Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), which tend to have more contact hours than arts and humanities courses. The importance of these subjects has also been stressed in government rhetoric – yet experts say students should pursue their interests and passions. “It’s really important that young people follow their hearts as well as their heads,” says Hillman, “because nobody knows what the labour market is going to look like. But if we were to have a rough guess, actually all the human skills the humanities deliver are probably the things that AI and computers find hard to replicate. Employers very often snap up humanities graduates, because they [value] people who can think creatively, can make connections, can write well.” He adds: “Young people should remember – what are they passionate about? What are they going to be happy to do for the next few decades? What excites them? That really matters too.” Industrial action may also be worrying some young people, particularly after the University and College Union (UCU) announced it plans further strikes by university staff in September. Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, which speaks for 142 universities, claimed that just 2% of the total student population was affected by the UCU’s assessment boycott. “It is a small proportion, so for those students starting a new university programme this year, and thinking about it for next year, I think it’s important to put it in context.” Stern adds that there is still a good return on investment from going to university. She cites research which shows that men will be £130,000 better off on average by going to university after taxes and student loan repayments, while for women, this figure is £100,000. “It’s also this opportunity to acquire what I think is the most important skill a human being can have at this time in our history, which is the ability to learn and adapt and acquire new skills. The better you are able to change and grow, the more able you are likely to be to adjust as the labour market changes around us,” she says. It’s worth thinking about the longer-term benefits because, as Chloe Field, vice-president (higher education) of the National Union of Students, points out: “The current situation for students is pretty much at rock bottom right now. The big issues are 100% rent, and industrial action was quite hard on students (though the NUS supports the UCU). I had a mixed experience – some parts were really amazing. I met so many like-minded people. But it was difficult – there were feelings of loneliness sometimes and then also the pressures on finances. The maintenance loan doesn’t even scratch the surface.” Mary Curnock Cook, former CEO of the university admissions service Ucas, is concerned about accommodation costs and shortages for new students, especially those who apply later or during clearing. There is such huge pressure on beds in some cities that students are being put up miles away, which can compromise their university experience. She recommended that students prioritise institutions which give accommodation guarantees. She adds: “The whole experience has got slightly less affordable so it’s got to be a very deliberate and considered decision to go to university. At the end, if you’ve decided that’s what you want to do, then I think it’s worth it. If you go into it in a half-hearted way, there are a few headwinds that might just tip it from being a great experience into something you maybe wish you hadn’t done.” Some of the best advice about university comes from those closest to it – students themselves. From our student just back from her travels: “Go on a year abroad if you have the chance – be as adventurous as possible, as you will likely gain more from travelling than in lectures.” Lucas, who has already graduated, says: “You do not need to know exactly what to study. It doesn’t have to be your burning desire, your ultimate passion.” And finally, from another graduate: “Enjoy the freedom to do whatever you want to do. The only cardinal rule is to always rinse your bowl after having Weetabix.”

John Foggin obituary

2023-07-26

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/26/john-foggin-obituary

My friend and former colleague John Foggin, who has died aged 80, was head of English at Boston Spa school near Leeds before becoming a local education authority adviser on English and then moving on to train teachers of English and literacy. In retirement he forged a new identity as a writer of powerful and evocative poetry. Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, to George, a woollen spinner, and Marjorie (nee Terry), a mill worker, John attended Batley grammar school before graduating in English from Durham University in 1964. An inspirational English teacher who had a striking impact on pupils and colleagues alike, he began his career at Middlesbrough boys’ high school before moving to Northern Counties College in Newcastle upon Tyne. He went on to be head of English at Boston Spa, where he and I met, from 1975 to 1985 before becoming English and drama adviser at Calderdale local education authority in West Yorkshire. One of his first tasks there was to devise the English paper for the authority’s 11-plus exam, an irksome responsibility for an advocate of comprehensive education. In 1993 he switched to teacher training at Bretton Hall College of Education (now part of Leeds University), where he successfully persuaded a generation of trainee teachers that there was more to teaching English than SATs and the national literacy strategy. Retirement in 2008 allowed him to give more attention to Batley’s rugby league team, which he had supported since childhood, and to make more frequent visits to the Isle of Skye, which he loved. He often said that if the island had possessed a rugby league team, then he would have moved there for good. With more time on his hands John also focused on writing his poetry, which won a number of national prizes and was published in two collections, Advice to a Traveller (2018) and Pressed for Time (2022). In 1992 he suffered a personal tragedy when his son, David, took his own life, aged 21 – a circumstance on which he reflected movingly on his website, The Great Fogginzo’s Cobweb, which he set up in 2014. John is survived by his wife, Joan (nee Rogers), whom he married in 2022 after more than 35 years together, three children, Julie, Michael and Andrew, from his first marriage to Nina (nee Large), which ended in divorce, a son, Morgan, from Joan’s previous marriage, and 10 grandchildren.

Antisemitism definition used by UK universities leading to ‘unreasonable’ accusations

2023-09-13

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/13/antisemitism-definition-used-by-uk-universities-leading-to-unreasonable-accusations

Report says IHRA definition has led to 40 cases against people and groups – of which 38 were cleared – and is stifling academic freedoms An antisemitism definition adopted by most UK universities has come under fire in a report, which ​says it has led to 40 cases being brought against students, academics, unions, and societies – 38 of whom have been cleared. The remaining two cases have yet to conclude, meaning that none of the allegations – all based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition – have been substantiated, according to the analysis by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (Brismes). The IHRA definition has been adopted by a majority of universities, with the former education secretary Gavin Williamson in 2020 threatening them with funding cuts if they failed to do so. But critics have said the definition, which has no legal effect in the UK and includes 11 illustrative examples – seven of which relate to Israel – stifles criticism of Israel and has a chilling effect on free speech. The report, published on Wednesday, echoes criticisms previously voiced by the leading lawyers Hugh Tomlinson KC and Geoffrey Robertson KC, and the retired lord justices of appeal Sir Stephen Sedley and Sir Anthony Hooper. Neve Gordon, the chair of Brismes’s committee on academic freedom and a professor of human rights law in the school of law at Queen Mary University of London, said: “What has been framed as a tool to classify and assess a particular form of discriminatory violations of protected characteristics, has instead been used as a tool to undermine and punish protected speech and to punish those in academia who voice criticism of the Israeli state’s policies.” The 40 cases were recorded by ELSC, which provides legal support for Europeans advocating for Palestinian rights. Although none have been proved, the report says allegations in themselves have a debilitating effect on the accused, including damaging their education and/or future career prospects, and preventing legitimate debate about Israel and Palestine, for example through the cancellation of events. A separate report published by the Community Security Trust in January found a 22% increase in university related antisemitic hate incidents over the past two academic years. The ELSC and Brismes report’s authors say they are “committed to the struggle against antisemitism and all forms of racism”. However, Giovanni Fassina, the director of the ELSC, said: “Not only does the documented pattern call into question the compliance of UK universities with their legal obligation to protect academic freedom and freedom of expression, but it is leading universities away from their core mission of nurturing critical thought, facilitating unhindered research and encouraging wide-ranging debate.” The ELSC-Brismes report calls for the UK government to retract its instruction to universities to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism “as it is inappropriate for higher education institutions, which have legal obligations to secure academic freedom and freedom of speech”. The report said: “Accusations of antisemitism levelled against students and staff in UK universities are often based on a definition of antisemitism that is not fit for purpose and, in practice, is undercutting academic freedom and the rights to lawful speech of students and staff … University staff and students are being subjected to unreasonable investigations and disciplinary proceedings based on the IHRA definition.” In 2021, the University of Bristol sacked the sociology professor David Miller, who was accused of antisemitic comments. The case was not included in the report because the scope of the investigation and exact reasons for its conclusion were confidential, with the university saying only that he “did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff”. He is taking the university to an employment tribunal. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “TheIHRA definition is a vital tool in tackling antisemitism and does not conflict with protecting freedom of speech. A report by the independent taskforce on antisemitism in higher education showed no universities that had adopted the definition said it had in any way restricted freedom of speech or academic research.” A Universities UK spokesperson said members should consider adopting the IHRA definition “whilst also recognising their duty to promote freedom of speech within the law”.

Unions ask Sunak for extra £4.4bn a year to fix crumbling schools in England

2023-09-25

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/25/unions-sunak-extra-44bn-fix-crumbling-schools-england-raac

Eight unions and school governors’ body write to PM saying Raac crisis highlights chronic underfunding Eight unions representing teachers and school workers, as well the body for governors, have written to Rishi Sunak demanding an extra £4.4bn annually to ensure buildings are safe for children in England. They say the crisis involving reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which has cast a shadow over the start of the term and has been found in 174 schools in England so far, has exposed the chronic underfunding of school buildings in recent years. Unions say many are unsafe and not fit for purpose. The additional funding would bring total annual investment in the ageing school estate up to £7bn, which is what officials at the Department for Education (DfE) have previously recommended. The deteriorating condition of the school estate has long been a concern, but the DfE has failed to secure necessary funding from the Treasury. The unions are hoping the decision by Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, to suddenly close all school buildings with Raac before the start of the autumn term will force the chancellor to stump up more cash in his autumn statement on 22 November. Unions met Keegan last week but are concerned there is still no timeframe for when all schools at risk from Raac will be investigated by structural engineers and no deadlineto clear Raac from every school. While the lifespan of Raac was known for years, and the potential risks, the alert followed a series of sudden failures of Raac-built structures in recent months, which forced large numbers of headteachers and schools to make alternative arrangements. The union letter says: “Parents, school staff and children and young people have been alarmed to hear – at the start of the new academic year – about crumbling school buildings and the deterioration of the school estate, which could present a very serious risk to their safety. “The crisis involving reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete has shone a broader light on the crippling underfunding of our school buildings, which has left many unsafe and no longer fit for purpose.” It says parents and teachers have long complained about “crumbling school buildings, asbestos, leaking roofs, and temporary accommodation that had long outlived their intended lifespan”. It continues: “It is the duty of the UK government to protect the safety of pupils, teachers and other school workers. Moreover, your chancellor stated that the government would ‘spend what it takes’ to deal with the crisis. “If these words are to become reality, we call on the government to invest at least an extra £4.4bn annually to upgrade school buildings at the upcoming autumn statement, bringing the total yearly spend to the £7bn your own officials have previously recommended. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “This will help ensure this crisis never happens again and show the government is prepared to spend whatever it takes to keep children safe in education.” The unions signed up to the letter are the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers, the NASUWT teachers’ union, the National Education Union, Unison, Unite, Community, the GMB and the National Governance Association. A DfE spokesperson said: “We have allocated over £15bn to improve the school estate since 2015, including £1.8bn in 2023-24. All schools where Raac is confirmed will be provided with funding including emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe. The department will also fund longer term refurbishment or rebuilding projects to rectify the issue in the long term.”

Ian Sutherland obituary

2024-03-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/27/ian-sutherland-obituary

My father, Ian Sutherland, who has died aged 75, was a secondary school teacher for more than 25 years. Between 1989 and 2017 he taught history and English literature at Perronet Thompson school (now Kingswood academy) in Hull, and then at Andrew Marvell school (now the Marvell college) in the same city. He was an academic everyman – highly educated and an avid bookworm, yet someone who swore like a trooper, never took himself too seriously and loved the humour of Blackadder, Reeves and Mortimer and Billy Connolly. Born in Hull, Ian was the son of Elsie (nee Martin), who worked as a nurse before becoming a housewife, and Donald, a trawlerman. After his education at Francis Askew school in Hull, Ian worked in warehouse roles and as a bus conductor. It was only on becoming the librarian of David Lister school in Hull that he realised he wanted to enter the world of teaching. He obtained a degree in combined studies from Humberside College, followed by a teaching qualification and then his first teaching job at Perronet Thompson school. During his retirement years Ian slept as little as possible in order to make the most of each day. He enjoyed taking photographs of old buildings and greenery, which he used as subject matter for sketches, ink drawings and paintings. Many of his works were displayed in open exhibitions at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, and he had his own exhibition during Assemble Fest in 2015 along the city’s Newland Avenue. When not at his drawing board, Ian would watch the latest films on his home cinema system and listen to all kinds of music from across the decades, everything from the Beatles, the Moody Blues and the Stranglers to Elbow, Ben Howard, Oasis, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. When the weather allowed, he would spend entire days in his garden, which he nurtured from scratch over the course of a decade into a colourful, calming sanctuary lined with bamboo. He also enjoyed PlayStation games, a pint of Guinness in the local pub, and reading Folio Society books, the Guardian and the poetry of Wilfred Owen. Ian’s 1981 marriage to Susan (nee Adamson), ended in divorce in 2003. He is survived by their two sons, me and Dave, his older sister, Ann, and his younger brother, Donald.

Is the Russell Group still relevant?

2023-09-10

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/10/is-the-russell-group-still-relevant

The prestigious cabal of top universities want you to think they will always be on top. But in the real world, things may be changing Primary school headteachers have been known to tell parents of four-year-olds: “If your child comes here, they will go to a Russell Group university.” That might be an enticing marketing pitch for a school, but is the Russell Group of universities worthy of it? What started in the early 1990s as an informal club of prominent universities – so-called because their vice-chancellors met at a hotel in central London’s Russell Square – has evolved into a category of 24 universities that attract high numbers of undergraduate applications from across the UK and around the world. The abundance of applicants allows Russell Group universities to be academically selective, requiring higher grades for entry. But as one vice-chancellor told the Guardian: “The Russell Group has successfully stage-managed the position that it is seen as comprising the best universities. Some are and some aren’t, but by and large this is nonsense. However, parents increasingly say they want their child to go to one.” A glance at the Guardian University Guide shows that while Russell Group members dominate the top 10 places, other members of the same are further down the table. The top 10 this year sees the University of St Andrews, a non-member, once again in first place, while the University of Bath sits above Russel Group stalwarts such as Durham and University College London. The reason is that the Guardian University Guide is aimed at undergraduate applicants, while the Russell Group is often defined as “research intensive” universities, meaning that substantial proportions of their activity revolves around research, which carries no weight in the Guardian’s rankings. Asked to explain the group’s popularity, a spokesperson for the Russell Group says: “Our universities specialise in research-informed education, co-designed and delivered by world-leading researchers. This allows students to benefit from the very latest thinking in their field and access world-class facilities. As active participants in their learning experience, students are encouraged to pursue new knowledge and develop critical thinking skills. “Our members pride themselves on providing students with the highest-quality teaching and learning experience, and that is reflected by the high continuation rates, progression to skilled employment and future earnings for students of all backgrounds who study at Russell Group universities.” But figures compiled by the University Alliance group – which represents professional and technical institutions – found that satisfaction levels recorded in 2023’s national student survey were higher in university groups outside the Russell Group, where satisfaction was below the sector’s average. “We know that young people and their parents or guardians feel incredibly anxious about choosing the ‘right’ university. What ‘right’ means is an important distinction, and one which we in education need to better explain,” says Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of University Alliance. Wilson notes that university type makes surprisingly little difference to graduate outcomes: “It is categorically untrue that you must study at a highly selective university to secure the career you want – 85% of all university graduates are in meaningful work or further study just 15 months after graduating. This figure is almost exactly the same for all groups of universities: from the most highly selective universities to professional and technical universities, to specialist institutions like conservatoires.” Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of the MillionPlus group of modern universities, says: “It’s not that some universities are lesser versions of other universities, it’s that there are universities that offer different things. That means there are great options for students across the whole system.” Hewitt says that the strengths of the universities she represents became apparent during the Covid pandemic, when members of her group were able to “support students who had challenges through the pandemic, because they are used to supporting students from all sorts of backgrounds”. She adds: “That strong support for students is built-in, ensuring all students go on to succeed.”

Hostility between parents and schools has grown since Covid, says Ofsted head

2023-11-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/23/ofsted-report-england-schools-social-contract-absenteeism-amanda-spielman

Annual report on England’s schools highlights absenteeism, disruptive behaviour and parental challenges to rules The “unwritten agreement” between parents and schools in England has broken since the Covid crisis, according to Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, with pupil absences remaining stubbornly high and disruptive behaviour now more common. Delivering her final annual report in the role, Spielman said she had noticed a disturbing “shift in attitudes” among pupils and parents. “This breakdown is feeding into a troubling shift in attendance, in attitudes, in behaviour since the pandemic. Absenteeism has become a stubborn problem. Some of that is down to illness, including mental health problems, but nevertheless disruptive behaviour has become more common. “It’s a problem in colleges as well. And it’s clear that there’s more friction between schools and parents, who are increasingly willing to challenge school rules.” Spielman, who steps down as chief inspector next month after seven years, said parents were partly to blame for the disruption because of growing hostility towards school rules over discipline or uniform requirements. Parents were “a little bit less willing to support schools, and a bit more willing to find fault”, she said, with Ofsted recording increased numbers of complaints from parents but no increase in complaints that required action. Asked if parental complaints were becoming more vexatious, Spielman said: “There are times, for example, during inspections when it’s obvious that parents are wanting to use the opportunity to give Ofsted input in ways that reinforce some kind of campaign, and inspectors are very good at recognising when that’s happening.” Spielman urged parents to first address their concerns to school leaders or governors. “It clouds things when people press the button on an Ofsted complaint before they’ve talked to the school or been to governors about it. That should always be the path that people take, except in the most serious whistleblowing-type cases.” Spielman said she was optimistic that learning by pupils was recovering from Covid, with 89% of schools in England now rated as good or outstanding. However, the report says high demand for special education needs and mental health services is straining the limited resources available. The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said: “I welcome Ofsted’s recognition that we’ve recovered more quickly than expected from the pandemic, although I know many challenges remain, especially around attendance, which is why making sure every child is in school every day is my number one priority.” Spielman also called for headteachers to be given more guidance from the government on “delicate choices” over the teaching of relationships and sex education and the handling of transgender and other identity issues. “There needs to be greater central guidance, for several reasons: for more consistent treatment of children and young people in different contexts; to support schools and others under pressure; and to make sure that what is and isn’t accepted in schools isn’t simply driven by the loudest voices,” Spielman said. The chief inspector said schools should beware of accidentally bringing antagonism into the classroom through discussion of controversial issues or current events. “If people are running political campaign stalls in schools to enlist people to support things that are clearly contentious, that does have potential to make children feel isolated, unhappy or uncomfortable,” Spielman said. Since the 7 October attacks on Israel and the invasion of Gaza, Spielman said, inspectors had found “a very small number” of complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobic behaviour. “I want to emphasise they are relatively few at the moment and I very much hope it stays that way,” she said. The annual report makes no mention of Ruth Perry, the Berkshire headteacher who her family said killed herself earlier this year after her primary school was downgraded by Ofsted inspectors from outstanding to inadequate. The controversy over Perry’s death has increased calls for reforms to the way Ofsted inspects schools. Spielman responded indirectly to some of the critics, saying: “It is Ofsted that has to make the tough calls when provision of any kind is not good enough for children, and some contention will always flow from that.” A survey published on Thursday by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) found that four out of five school leaders in England thought Ofsted’s inspection grades were unreliable, and only a fifth felt they provided useful information for parents. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT, said: “This is a pretty damning indictment of how far Ofsted has lost its way. Far from driving school improvement, inspections are seen as inaccurate, unreliable, and of little use to parents or schools. Ofsted is clearly no longer fit for purpose.”

Bolton graduates miss out on top jobs because of prejudice, says vice-chancellor

2023-10-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/17/university-of-bolton-graduates-miss-out-on-top-jobs-because-of-prejudice-says-vice-chancellor

George Holmes says employers favour applicants from better-known institutions, as he plans to change university’s name Students from non-Russell Group universities miss out on high-powered jobs because of prejudice by employers, the vice-chancellor of the University of Bolton has said as he prepares to rename it the University of Greater Manchester. Prof George Holmes, the UK’s longest-serving vice-chancellor, said graduates from Bolton struggled to be hired by prestigious law and accountancy firms as employers favoured recruiting from better-known universities that they or their family and friends had attended. “There is an enormous amount of historical legacy associated with people’s perspectives and perceptions on universities, and it leads to thinking: ‘Oxford and Cambridge good, Bedford and Bolton bad’, just because they’ve not heard of us before,” said Holmes, who has been Bolton’s vice-chancellor since 2005. Although the university traces its roots back to the Bolton institute, founded in 1825, Holmes said: “We still get the ‘is there a university in Bolton?’ question. Even after all this time, we still get that nonsense. “And I genuinely think it affects our graduate outcomes … with the traditional ‘golden triangle’ of jobs in terms of the big consulting houses, the accountancy houses, the legal houses. I think they’re working to be better but … never underestimate the sad power of prejudice associated with these sorts of decisions.” The university, which is ranked in the top 30 by the Guardian University Guide 2024, has also started the official process of changing its name to the University of Greater Manchester, by applying to the Office for Students. Holmes said the idea originally came from students, including the last three union presidents, who said Bolton was not easily identified within the UK or abroad. “They want a qualification that’s instantly recognised, and everybody in the world has heard of the city of Manchester and the region of Greater Manchester. So they’re thinking about it very clearly in terms of future recognition of their degree. “In many cases, Bolton has not been heard of. When I go on holiday, when they ask me where I live, I say Manchester or Greater Manchester. I never say Bolton, because if you say Bolton the next question will be, where is it? So you might as well cut out the question and just say: actually, it’s Greater Manchester,” Holmes said. He added that more than two-thirds of Bolton’s local students had home addresses in Greater Manchester rather than Bolton alone. The institution also has locations in Trafford and Manchester city, alongside branches in London, Greece and Dubai, educating the equivalent of 10,000 full-time students. The Office for Students, the higher education regulator for England, will consult on whether the proposed name change would be misleading or confusing. Holmes said two universities had already registered their opposition but was adamant: “We are in Greater Manchester and our students are from Greater Manchester and we’ve got sites across Greater Manchester. So that’s not misleading.” As for confusing, Holmes points out that there are 17 universities in London that include the capital in their title, “and that seems to work perfectly well in London”. Holmes attended the Labour party conference in Liverpool last week, and said he was “very impressed” after meeting Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, and Matt Western, the shadow minister for higher education, by their willingness to engage with universities and promote the sector. That, said Holmes, was in contrast to ministers in the current government. He referenced Rishi Sunak’s speech to the Conservative party conference that talked of “rip-off degrees”. Holmes said he told his students: “There’s no such thing as a rip-off UK degree, it just doesn’t exist. It’s a nonsense.” But the government thinks it is on to something, and has tasked the Office for Students with identifying courses with high dropout rates and substantial percentages of graduates who don’t go on to professional careers. Holmes argues that a university education has benefits far beyond purely economic ones, and describes Bolton students who go into the voluntary sector and make substantial contributions to society. “We have lots of students here who are going to do things with their degree afterwards which aren’t necessarily an immediate return on investment decisions, they are societal return on investment, that’s really important,” he said. But as inflation erodes the value of domestic tuition fees – frozen at £9,250 a year since 2016 – Holmes foresees universities in England having to endure budget deficits for several years, no matter which party is in government. “There isn’t an easy solution to this, because just asking for more money at a time when the public is struggling is not a smart move,” Holmes said.

Flood of English and maths resits expected amid tougher GCSE grading

2023-08-23

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/23/flood-of-english-and-maths-resits-expected-amid-tougher-gcse-grading

Call to change policy of forced retakes as nearly 40,000 more pupils in England likely to miss grade 4 in one – or both – subjects Schools and colleges in England are expecting a flood of “demotivated” young people forced to retake their GCSE English and maths exams next year, as nearly 40,000 more students are thought likely to fail to get the minimum grade in at least one of the two key subjects. Students who have not gained at least a grade 4 (equivalent to a lower grade C) in English or maths have to resit the subjects until they are 18 and remain in full-time education. The numbers are likely to rise this year as GCSE grading returns to tougher, pre-pandemic levels. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those whose education was most disrupted by the Covid pandemic are expected to be most affected, with school leaders and teaching unions calling on the government to revise the requirement. Last year’s GCSE results in England saw the widest gap in results for a decade between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers, a trend that is expected to continue this year. Headteachers have said many pupils this year have struggled with high anxiety in the aftermath of Covid, as well as the effects of the cost of living crisis. Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Forcing resits is demotivating for many students and the low pass rate is a clear sign of policy failure. Educators know the weaknesses of the current system and have suggested many alternatives, from functional skills tests to modular assessments. The government should rethink this outdated policy.” Fewer students were required to resit English and maths courses in recent years, as GCSE grades were awarded by assessment in 2020 and 2021 and more generous grading was applied last year. In 2022, 75% of pupils taking GCSE maths gained a grade 4 or above, while 77% gained a grade 4 or better in English. Applying 2019 grade proportions would mean both pass rates would drop by several percentage points, so about 37,000 fewer pupils would pass English and 25,000 fewer would pass maths than in 2022. In 2022 only one in five of those retaking their maths GCSEs passed. Prof Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham University’s centre for education and employment research, said: “It must be soul-destroying to continually have to retake exams that you have failed in, perhaps several times, and to be denied entry to apprenticeships and much else if you cannot pass them. Surely, there is an urgent need for a policy rethink.” Smithers has forecast that about 100,000 pupils in England will receive fewer top grades this year than in 2022, which will have significant consequences for those applying for further education or sixth form courses. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said it was “possible” that some sixth forms and colleges would lower the GCSE grades required for entry compared with last year. “I think entry-level requirements compared to the last two years might be flexed to accommodate people who have got lower grades than they would have got in the last two years,” he said. “But what no one wants to do is to raise false hopes by saying: ‘Oh, you’ve got 3s and 4s in your GCSEs. I’m sure last year they would have been 4s and 5s, so let’s put you on an A-level course.’ “Because the bottom line is if you do that, you risk a young person being overstretched and very unhappy.” Gillian Keegan, the education secretary for England, said: “Grading is returning to normal, which means a pupil who would have achieved a grade 4 before the pandemic is just as likely to achieve that this year.”

UK universities face more strikes unless employers resume talks, union warns

2023-08-14

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/14/uk-universities-face-more-strikes-unless-employers-resume-talks-union-warns

University and College Union is preparing a new ballot that could lead to marking boycott continuing and strikes lasting into 2024 Universities across the UK will face another round of strikes next month unless employers agree to return to the negotiating table, the University and College Union has warned. A marking boycott that has left tens of thousands of students without their degree result this summer will continue, the union said, while preparations will get under way for a new strike ballot to renew the union’s mandate. If successful, the UCU’s long-running and increasingly acrimonious dispute over pay and conditions will continue to affect campuses well into 2024, with no end in sight to the stalemate after talks with employers broke down. The UCU announcement on Monday evening came after a meeting of senior officials to decide next steps in the dispute. Previously, higher education minister Robert Halfon wrote to both sides, urging them to resume negotiations to bring an end to the boycott and further industrial action. Announcing the latest action, UCU’s general secretary, Jo Grady, said: “Our higher education committee today agreed to hit universities with multiple days of strike action at the start of the coming academic year if vice-chancellors refuse to return to negotiations. “We will not be bullied into accepting gig economy universities, nor will we accept employers imposing punitive pay deductions. While we have agreed to requests for a joint review of sector finances, employers have made no attempt to compromise on the key issues.” The union said it would confirm the number of days and dates of strike action at a later date. The marking boycott, meanwhile, which has affected students at 145 universities since it first began in April, will go on. UCU members have refused to mark final exams, dissertations and coursework as part of their dispute, and many have suffered pay cuts as a result. Universities have issued provisional results or certificates to allow students to graduate on time, and affected students have been told their degree class will be issued when assessments are completed in several months. Members of the union voted to reject a pay offer for 2023-24 worth between 5% and 8%. “The UK higher education sector presents itself as a world leader, but it is riddled with casualisation, insecurity and low pay – our members have no choice but to stand up for themselves,” Grady said. “Therefore, the marking boycott will continue, we will call more strike action in September and we will now begin plans to reballot university staff so we can take further action in the coming academic year.” Raj Jethwa, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), said it was extremely disappointing. “UCU must be honest with its members about the fact that there is no possibility of a further pay uplift in the 2023-24 pay round and that these aspects of the talks are complete. “However, UCEA awaits a formal response from UCU and all the unions to our proposal last week for an independent review of sector finances, followed by further talks on the important pay-related matters raised by the UCU and the unions.”

Therapy project yields ‘dramatic’ rise in Sats results at London school

2024-01-22

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/22/nurture-therapy-programme-dramatic-rise-sats-results-london-school-camila-batmanghelidjh

Nurture programme devised by Camila Batmanghelidjh to be rolled out to more primary schools after pilot success A therapeutic programme for primary schoolchildren that was designed by the Kids Company founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh, is to be rolled out to more schools after a pilot scheme showed a dramatic improvement in test results. The Nurture programme, which supports children who face multiple adversities in their lives, has been running in a single primary school in central London. Not only do Sats results appear to have gone up, attendance and attention have improved and there has been less disruption in class, the school says. Batmanghelidjh, who died earlier this month, had devised the programme after joining forces post-Kids Company with the Oasis charity, which runs more than 50 schools in five regions of England, often in areas of severe disadvantage, as part of its work. Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis, said there had been a 40 percentage point increase in key stage 2 Sats results for 10- and 11-year-olds at Oasis Academy Johanna in Waterloo, where the trial has been running. Now in its third year, the programme will be rolled out to other Oasis primaries and a Nurture guide will be made available to schools across the country. It would be Batmanghelidjh’s “living legacy”, Chalke said. “It was Camila’s idea. It’s taken Camila’s philosophy of a child-centric, child-first approach. Camila had a completely unique way of understanding what should sit at the heart of education.” Nurture is an attachment theory-based programme aimed at supporting children who, because of challenging situations in their lives, find school hard to relate to and can behave in destructive ways, harming themselves or distracting others, Chalke said. Rather than punishing children who “kick off” in class, Nurture helps them to “connect to themselves and others and, in this way, to become more resilient whenever something upsets them or makes them anxious”. The programme “is not a quick-burst diagnostic intervention to respond to medical or mental health conditions but instead a longer-term programme, enabling children to rebuild trust, often damaged where attachments have been impaired”. Children are linked with a trusted adult – someone other than a teacher – who provides a safe space for children to express themselves. Then, using art, play and music, children are helped to explore and communicate their anxiety. One parent at the school, Claire, who did not want to give her full name, has two children at Johanna and said she had seen first-hand the impact of the programme. “I have to say it genuinely has made an enormous difference to my kids as individuals, but also to the whole feel of the school,” she said. “It’s basically therapy, but the kids don’t realise. Both of mine have been miles more happy. It doesn’t sound like it would make a massive difference but it really has.” Chalke said the programme continued Batmanghelidjh’s work at Kids Company, the south London children’s charity which closed in controversial circumstances in 2015. She, however, was reluctant to play a prominent role, concerned that Oasis would be “dragged down” by its connection with her. She even used an alias – “Ali Mac”, Camila written backwards – to stay behind the scenes. At Johanna, where more than half of pupils are eligible for free school meals, Nurture’s impact had been “dramatic”, Chalke said. “Not only did the school’s key stage 2 Sats results for 2023 increase by more than 40 percentage points, but it became the highest-ranking Oasis primary academy, with combined reading, writing and maths outcomes far above the national rate of 59%, at 82%.” In the next academic year, the programme will be rolled out to five more Oasis primary schools – one in London, two in Birmingham and two in Bristol. “We will expand Nurture to cover six schools. The year after, more,” Chalke said, “as we successively roll it out over the years ahead.” Batmanghelidjh’s funeral took place on Saturday, drawing large numbers, including many children she worked with. Chalke said her work would continue through the Nurture programme. “It’s the future of education,” he said.

Michael Morpurgo backs call to ensure poorer children have access to books

2024-01-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/17/michael-morpurgo-backs-call-to-ensure-poorer-children-have-access-to-books

Leading children’s author says deprived children in UK are missing out on lifetime of reading for pleasure Deprived children are being robbed of a lifetime of reading for pleasure, by governments that are “simply blind” to the benefits of loving literature from an early age, according to the author Michael Morpurgo. Morpurgo and a coalition of leading authors, including Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and Cressida Cowell, are backing a call by BookTrust to ensure that every child from a low-income family has access to books and reading activities by investing in a programme across schools and nurseries. “We have to acknowledge the right of every single child in this country to have access, physically, intellectually and emotionally, to reading. And that will not happen unless the books are there, and it will not happen unless books are shared early,” said Morpurgo, the author of well-loved classics such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion. Morpurgo said the UK had a “division of opportunity” between children with access to books, whose lives and education were “massively enriched” as a result, and those from deprived backgrounds that did not. “Any government that doesn’t recognise this is simply blind,” said Morpurgo. “We do have a hugely divided society, particularly at the moment when we have so many millions living in poverty, and these are the very children who are exposed to this lack of commitment to passing on what is arguably the greatest asset we have in this country, our literature from this remarkable language we have got. “These are also the most likely children to be suffering from mental health issues, from lack of self-worth and from family problems at home. These are the very children who most need to find the pathway to fulfilment and achievement that books can bring.” Research by BookTrust has found that only half of children aged between one and two from low-income families are read to every day. Morpurgo is one of the 12 past and present children’s laureates who have signed the BookTrust’s letter to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, as well as to the first ministers and opposition leaders in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Library closures by local authorities were particularly likely to affect disadvantaged families, according to Morpurgo, by closing off a vital source of access to books. “We should never, ever, in this country close down a library again,” he said. “I live in the middle of Devon, where the nearest library is a long way away, we’re talking about a 35-minute drive if you have a car and a lot of people haven’t. There’s no local bookshop, even if you had the money. The library is the last lifeline to reading.” Morpurgo also called for government to allow schools more time to encourage reading for pleasure, rather than as tools for passing exams. “That’s what we have got to get away from, the idea that English literature and books are just something to study. They’re not. They are there to enjoy and become part of your life, not just to be studied and quizzed on,” Morpurgo said. “That is where governments can help. In schools, teachers complain all the time that there is no room in the curriculum, there’s no room for just sitting and telling and reading a story. “When I go to schools, time and time again teachers say it’s so important but there isn’t time. Well, the government can provide that time and recognise that the enjoyment of a story when you are five, six or seven is so important, not just for your education but throughout your life.” Morpurgo said the call by BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust applied across the UK’s national boundaries. “We are part of the same society, and it’s important for our democracy in all our countries that we understand truth. There is great truth in literature – it sound ridiculous but fiction is rather a wonderful way of accessing truth. “What do you learn from the plays of Shakespeare or the books of Dickens? You learn about how deceitful and wretched and vile people can be, you learn about the spread of humanity – it’s so important that children are exposed to this, and quite young too, so it means something to them and not just something they study at school.”

Larry Rudling obituary

2022-11-17

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/17/larry-rudling-obituary

My friend Larry Rudling, who has died aged 71 of pancreatic cancer, was a teacher and administrator in adult education, notably in Devon. Larry (Larraine) was born in West Bromwich in the West Midlands, to Kay (nee Herrick), a nurse, and her husband, Denis Jones, a car factory panel beater. She went to John Wilmott grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, followed by teacher training at Bedford College of Education, with geography her main subject, and then a BEd at Girton College, Cambridge. Her working career began in 1973 as a geography teacher at Wellfield secondary modern school in Leyland, Lancashire, before in 1976 she transferred to adult education by becoming a tutor at Beauchamp College in Oadby, Leicestershire. Later she switched into an office role at the college, providing administrative support to adult education teachers. In 1979 Larry moved to Totnes, in Devon, to take up a post as head of adult education for the Totnes area at Devon county council, helping to create a vibrant community of teachers and learners that was second to none in the south-west of England. After five years there, Larry set up Bishopsteignton House, near Teignmouth, as a residential adult education centre. When her two business partners suffered ill health three years later, the project closed down, and she returned to Devon county council, where, among other things, she developed an access to the arts course aimed at helping adults into higher education. Larry retired in 2000 and with her husband, Laurie Rudling, a teacher, whom she had married in 1987, moved to Norwich. There she relished going to concerts, the theatre, art galleries and the bird lands of Norfolk, while also taking frequent trips to Orkney and France. Despite being diagnosed with MS in her late 20s, Larry spent 28 years in full-time public service. She rose above her condition to the point where it was easy to forget her physical dependence on her mobility scooter and her sticks. Immaculately turned out and ever-cheerful, she was always ready for the next concert, theatre trip, archaeological visit or restaurant meal. She raised the spirits of all who met her. Larry is survived by Laurie and by her brother Matthew.

Thousands of pupils may have to start term online as over 100 schools affected by crumble-risk concrete

2023-08-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/31/thousands-of-pupils-may-have-to-start-term-online-as-over-100-schools-affected-by-crumble-risk-concrete

Students and teachers at dozens of schools in England will need to be moved off site – with schools told to foot bill for alternative spaces Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely or in temporary buildings after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete that is liable to sudden collapse. The order from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools, school nurseries and further education colleges on Thursday, plunging the start of the new academic year into chaos for teachers and pupils. The Health and Safety Executive has said the widely used material is now “life-expired” and could collapse with “little or no notice”. School leaders responded with anger when the DfE said it would not fund emergency measures needed to keep teaching going, placing extra pressure on stretched school budgets. The National Education Union (NEU), representing teachers, described the situation as “absolutely disgraceful” and warned of “massive disruption to the education of thousands of children”. The latest development represents a sharp escalation of a building safety crisis that has been brewing for years after the weaker, lighter version of concrete was widely used in schools from the 1950s to the 1990s. It has an estimated 30-year lifespan. The government stated that regardless of the assessed risk of a school building made using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) blocks, they should be “taken out of use and mitigations should be implemented immediately”. Several recent sudden collapses of RAAC roof panels that appeared to be in good condition are among cases that “have made us less confident that buildings containing RAAC should remain open without extra safety measures in place”, the government said on Thursday. The sudden change of strategy comes 11 months after the Cabinet Office’s government property section launched a search for the material in the wider £158bn government estate, including health buildings and police stations. On Thursday night the Cabinet Office confirmed that 34 other public buildings had also been found to feature RAAC. Investigations are continuing but so far these include 24 hospitals sites with RAAC plank construction in whole or a significant part of their estate. Seven of these need a full replacement and will be rebuilt before 2030. One court building has been taken out of use and six others are being managed “in accordance with the guidance”. The Department for Work and Pensions found four buildings affected. One has been divested and the rest are being managed. The government told schools of the closures: “This may come as a shock and is likely to cause disruption, but the safety of pupils, students and staff is our priority.” In up to about two dozen schools, the amount of RAAC involved means students and teachers will need to be moved offsite to temporary accommodation. Children could be sent to neighbouring schools, sports classes could be moved from affected facilities to public leisure centres and remote online schooling could be restarted “as a last resort”. The DfE said it was taking a “precautionary and proactive step”, adding: “This decision has been made with an abundance of caution.” Schools will have to pay for emergency accommodation and transport. Headteachers said this was an “absolutely ridiculous expectation given the huge pressures on school budgets” and vowed to fight back. Such are the concerns that schools are being told not to drill, cut or disturb anything they think might be RAAC and that any spaces containing RAAC “should remain out of use until appropriate mitigations” are in place. Buildings previously ranked low risk should now also be shut. Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said: “Nothing is more important than making sure children and staff are safe in schools and colleges, which is why we are acting on new evidence about RAAC now, ahead of the start of term.” The mitigations can include shoring up the structure with supports, moving students to other parts of the school or, in some cases, setting up portable buildings in playgrounds. It could involve students having to take lessons from home for anything from a few days to up to two weeks. Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the NEU, said it was “a sign of gross government incompetence that a few days before the start of term, 104 schools are finding out that some or all of their buildings are unsafe and cannot be used”. He added: “There are 156 schools with confirmed RAAC but how many more where it has not yet been identified?” Unison, which represents more than 200,000 non-academic school staff, said the situation was “nothing short of a scandal”. Its head of education, Mike Short, said: “The DfE and government have squandered valuable months hiding this crisis when they should have been fixing dangerous school buildings.” Of the 156 affected institutions, almost all of which are schools, 52 already had mitigations. In others, the RAAC blocks were already not being used or only constituted small sections, officials said. All 104 affected schools were contacted on Thursday. Guidance sent to the schools just days before the new term begins said caseworkers would help them find either emergency accommodation, such as a local college or nursery, cabins, or longer-term sites. The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that officials were making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete. Now schools are being told to take buildings out of use straight away, in what appears to be a response to advice to proceed with greater caution. Schools are being told the government will help them implement contingency plans quickly to “keep disruption to face-to-face education to an absolute minimum”. Decaying aerated concrete had been found in 65 schools in England after nearly 200 completed surveys, with 24 requiring emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The number of schools at risk is expected to increase when the results of surveys of 572 schools with suspected RAAC are published by the DfE. Four schools were shut in April and June after RAAC was discovered in their buildings. On Wednesday, a DfE spokesperson said: “We have been engaging with schools and responsible bodies about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 and subsequently published guidance on identifying and managing it.” Regarding the closure of schools, the department said it would provide funding for “essential immediate works” and “support the provision of temporary buildings for schools and colleges affected”. The Association of School and College Leaders said the rush to establish contingency plans in case buildings collapsed was “symptomatic of the government’s neglect of the school estate”. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said it was “shocking evidence of a department in disarray”. NAHT, the union representing school leaders, said it had repeatedly raised concerns, so while “this news is shocking, sadly it is not hugely surprising”. “What we are seeing here are the very real consequences of a decade of swingeing cuts to spending on school buildings,” said Paul Whiteman, the union’s general secretary. “There is no escaping the fact that the timing of this couldn’t be worse, with children due to return from the summer holidays next week. This will put school leaders under tremendous pressure as they have to scramble to organise alternative accommodation.” The Institution of Structural Engineers warned this year that cracking and spalling were risks in roof and floor panels made from RAAC. Many roof panels have been installed with insufficient bearing on structural supports, resulting in a “significant risk” to the material’s integrity. Some panels have become saturated by water ingress, making them heavier than they were designed to be.

Sex is a taboo subject in India. If I can change that I’ll make women’s and LGBTQ+ lives better | Leeza Mangaldas

2023-01-04

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/04/sex-taboo-india-change-women-lgbtq-leeza-mangaldas

The education resources I provide will, I hope, lead to greater equality and improved sexual health and rights ‘Are you a doctor, or are you a porn star?” When I first started creating judgment-free sex education content online, I got asked this question almost every day. In India, an ordinary woman talking about sex – knowledgably and without shame – felt unfamiliar, even transgressive, to most people. Sex remains a taboo topic in India. Victorian social norms and laws, established during British colonial rule, remain central to public attitudes. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in 2018. In 2022, marital rape is still legal. Premarital sex remains frowned upon. And marriage still feels unavoidable, especially for women. Less than 10% of Indian men use condoms, according to recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data, placing the burden of family planning on women. It’s hard to escape the message that anything outside this oppressive and narrow framework, particularly unmarried women having sex, queer sex, paid sex, sex with more than one partner, and even masturbation, is bad, dirty, weird, punishable. We’re discouraged from even talking about sex, let alone questioning these beliefs, because, well, “log kya kahenge?” That phrase means “what will people say?” and it encapsulates a preoccupation in Indian society with reputation and social standing. A fear of being judged dictates the personal lives of millions of people. Representations of sex in the media still tend to be either medicalised and scary, such as news stories focused on disease and violence, or scandalous and explicit – celebrity relationship gossip, and (now, technically banned) internet porn. Sex is rarely presented as normal, a topic that we all can and should be able to talk about honestly. At school, if you’re lucky, you get a cursory half-hour lesson on the reproductive system in biology class. A teacher might point to diagrams of the penis and the testes, the uterus and the ovaries. Erection, penetration and ejaculation might get a mention. You never see a diagram of the clitoris. For women, the message is clear: sex is about having babies, not orgasms. Gender identity beyond the binary and sex acts other than intercourse go unacknowledged. As a young, unmarried Indian woman trying to navigate my own sexuality, sexual health and relationships, there was no easily accessible and culturally relevant information about sex. This was what inspired me to start my digital sex-education platforms five years ago. Today, my videos reach millions of young Indians every day. But short-form video and audio formats have their limitations. I wrote The Sex Book: A Joyful Journey of Self-Discovery because I wanted to create a more comprehensive, culturally contextualised, inclusive, pleasure-focused sex education resource for young Indians that felt friendly and honest rather than preachy and text-bookish. Sign up to Her Stage Hear directly from incredible women from around the world on the issues that matter most to them – from the climate crisis to the arts to sport after newsletter promotion The combination of the societal shame and stigma with the lack of accurate information at best results in generations of clueless young people left to figure out everything for themselves, from how to have safe sex to how to have an orgasm. At worst, it results in women being killed for not bleeding on their wedding night, and queer teens being sent to quacks to be “cured” by conversion practices. Fortunately today, an increasing number of people, mainly women and those identifying as LGBTQ+, are beginning to create education, art, activism, cinema, comedy and music that challenges dominant heteronormative, sexist, endogamous ideas. I’m proud to be part of this growing community. But even with significant changes to the law, such as the decriminalisation of gay sex, as well as globally significant movements like #MeToo, changes in the Indian mindset are rarely radical. They tend to be slow and incremental. My hope is that our society and government begins to grasp that comprehensive, inclusive sex education is central to greater gender equality, to improved sexual and reproductive health and rights, to ending sexual- and gender-based violence, and to achieving a safer, kinder, more joyful world. Leeza Mangaldas is a sexuality education content creator and author of The Sex Book: A joyful journey of self-discovery

Len Moore obituary

2022-12-27

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/27/len-moore-obituary

My friend and former colleague Len Moore, who has died aged 89, was an industrial scientist turned academic who worked to create wider access to higher education. Born in Derby, he was the son of Leonard, a school caretaker, and Ethel Moore, a homemaker. Though he showed academic promise, his father made him leave Derby central school for boys at 15 to start life as a paint technician so that he could contribute to the family income. Len was resolved to better himself by gaining academic qualifications, which he did initially by studying part-time and gaining a higher national certificate in chemistry at Derby Technical College in 1959. He met Christine Halliwell at their local church youth club while still in his teens, and they married in 1958. After their marriage Len was awarded a bursary to complete a doctorate in physical chemistry at Durham University, which led to a lecturing post at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University). In 1972 he went to Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now a university), where he became the dean of a faculty that incorporated education, the arts and social sciences, retiring 20 years later. Len initially lectured in chemistry, but he increasingly became concerned with the social responsibilities of science and scientists, which led him to study for an MSc in the social responsibilities of science at Aston University. When Wolverhampton Polytechnic was expanding student numbers in the 1980s, Len proposed and developed new approaches and courses for mature students, becoming the leader of the influential Centre for Curriculum Innovation. The task was to create new routes into higher education, especially for people who were able to benefit from it but did not have the formal entrance qualifications to do so. After his retirement, Len became a Labour councillor for the Graiseley ward of Wolverhampton for six years, and a political agent for Jenny Jones, the Labour candidate and MP for Wolverhampton South West. He was also a co-founder of Wolverhampton’s University of the Third Age (U3A), in 1996, and facilitated the creation of a Shropshire Network of U3As that still thrives today. He established a social issues interest group, which I took over in 2016, and regularly attended a number of other groups, as well as remaining a committed cyclist and walker until illness took its toll. Len is survived by Christine, their children, Richard and Rebecca, his sister Brenda, and three nieces and a nephew. This article was amended on 29 December 2022. Liverpool Polytechnic became Liverpool John Moores University, not Liverpool Hope University as an earlier version said.

Council-maintained schools in England outperforming academies in Ofsted ratings

2023-08-02

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/03/council-maintained-schools-in-england-outperforming-academies-in-ofsted-ratings

Research for Local Government Association renews questions over government’s ‘academisation’ policy Council-maintained schools in England continue to outperform academies in Ofsted ratings, according to research, prompting renewed calls for councils to be able to open their own schools. Research conducted on behalf of the Local Government Association (LGA) found 93% of council-maintained schools were ranked “outstanding” or “good” by Ofsted as of 31 January 2023, compared with 87% of academies that have been graded since they were converted. In 2022, council-maintained schools also outranked academies, with 92% rated “outstanding” or “good” by Ofsted in January and 85% of academies graded the same since they converted. The study also found only 57% of academies that were already an academy in August 2018 managed to improve standards from “inadequate” or “requires improvement” to “good” or “outstanding”, compared with 73% of council-maintained schools. The findings bring the longstanding dispute over what school leaders have called “forced academisation” into the spotlight, as the government announced ambitions for all schools to join multi-academy trusts (Mats) by 2030 as part of the main policy for school improvement in the schools bill. About 73% of academy schools voluntarily chose to become academies. However, schools which have received an “inadequate” rating from Ofsted are also legally required to become academies, and schools that have received two or more consecutive ratings below “good”, known as “requires improvement”, could also be converted into academies. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has previously said the move towards academisation could penalise the nearly 50% of all pupils taught in locally maintained schools who already receive a good education. The government should instead focus on properly funding and resourcing all schools, he added. The research has prompted many others in the sector, including the National Education Union, to question the evidence for a move away from council-maintained schools. Currently 80% of secondary schools and 40% of primaries are academies. Councils were last able to open maintained schools in 2012. Between August 2018 and January 2023, 72% of council-maintained schools retained their “outstanding” rating, compared with 60% of “outstanding” academies that did not inherit grades from their former maintained school status. About 40% of academies which did not inherit a grade fell by at least one grade, compared with 28% of maintained schools, which the LGA said showed councils should be seen as effective education partners. Louise Gittins, a councillor and chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “Our research is a reminder of the superb performance of council-maintained schools, and yet further evidence of why councils should be allowed to open their own schools again. Academisation can be the right choice and a good choice for some schools, and we fully recognise the positive progress schools that became academies have made. “Councils want to ensure that every child gets the very best education and schooling in life. That is why it is vital they are given a central role in providing education and that [the] government recognises councils as the excellent education partner they are.” Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the findings demonstrated the “value of a democratically organised and supported school system”. She added: “The LGA’s recommendations are sensible and important. Allowing local authorities to open new maintained schools would boost their ability to respond to demographic changes by opening quality provision. There is also a pressing need for greater local democratic oversight and coordination of admissions. “Giving councils the power to direct all schools including academies to take in pupils would make our system fairer and more equitable and help ensure vulnerable pupils’ needs are met.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Academy reforms have played a major role in increasing the proportion of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools from 68% in 2010 to 88% last year.“The best academy trusts transform outcomes for pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, and deliver improvements in schools and areas where poor performance has become entrenched.“Sponsored academies are usually former local authority maintained schools which were transferred to an academy trust in order to drive improvement following a poor Ofsted outcome, which is why these figures are completely misleading and wilfully ignore the real progress that academy trusts have made.”

English schools told to close buildings made with crumble-risk concrete

2023-08-31

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/31/english-schools-told-to-close-buildings-made-with-crumble-risk-concrete

A week before start of term, DfE says buildings should be taken out of use regardless of assessed risk More than 100 schools are facing the immediate closure of buildings constructed from potentially dangerous aerated concrete panels, plunging the beginning of term into chaos for thousands of pupils. The government has found that 156 schools in England have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) materials but only 52 have put mitigations in place against risks including collapse, it admitted on Thursday. Engineers have warned the material is at risk of cracking and spalling and of “shear failure”. The Department for Education (DfE) has told schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken. Official communications seen by the Guardian acknowledge that “this may come as a shock and is likely to cause disruption” but say “the safety of pupils, students and staff is our priority”. In an escalation of the schools building safety crisis, the DfE has issued new advice – believed to have happened as recently as Thursday – stating that regardless of the assessed risk of a building made using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) blocks, such buildings should be “taken out of use and mitigations should be implemented immediately”. The department is understood to be planning to make a statement imminently and education unions said they had been told a formal announcement was due on Thursday afternoon. The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that officials were making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete. Now schools are being told to take buildings out of use straight away, in what appears to be a response to advice to proceed with greater caution. Schools are being told that the government will help them implement contingency plans quickly to “keep disruption to face-to-face education to an absolute minimum”. Decaying aerated concrete had been found in 65 schools in England after nearly 200 completed surveys, with 24 requiring emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The number of schools at risk is expected to increase when the results of surveys of 572 schools with suspected RAAC are published by the DfE. Four schools were shut in April and June after RAAC was discovered in their buildings. On Wednesday, a DfE spokesperson said: “We have been engaging with schools and responsible bodies about the potential risks of RAAC since 2018 and subsequently published guidance on identifying and managing it.” The Association of School and College Leaders said the rush to establish contingency plans in case buildings collapse was “symptomatic of the government’s neglect of the school estate”. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said it was a “staggering display of Tory incompetence”. “Dozens of England’s schools are at risk of collapse with just days before children crowd their corridors,” she said. “Ministers have been content to let this chaos continue for far too long.” Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the union had repeatedly raised concerns about the dangers and “while this news is shocking, sadly it is not hugely surprising”. He said it was the result of “a decade of swingeing cuts to spending on school buildings”. “The government is right to put the safety of pupils and staff first [but] … the timing of this couldn’t be worse, with children due to return from the summer holidays next week. This will put school leaders under tremendous pressure as they have to scramble to organise alternative accommodation.” Unison, which represents more than 200,000 non-academic school staff, said the situation was “nothing short of a scandal”. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “The DfE and government have squandered valuable months hiding this crisis when they should have been fixing dangerous school buildings,” said its head of education, Mike Short. A DfE script that appears to be for use by officials contacted by potentially affected schools states: “As RAAC has been identified in your school/college/nursery, we are recommending you vacate all the areas with confirmed RAAC – even if they are assessed as ‘non-critical’ unless mitigations are already in place.” It asks school leaders to confirm if propping, failsafing or strengthening works have been undertaken, how many affected spaces have undergone mitigations, and whether the school can fit pupils into spaces that are unaffected. With just days to go before next week’s start of term, it tells them: “Ahead of the start of term you should plan to take any RAAC affected space that do not have mitigations out of use and timetable accordingly.” The Institution of Structural Engineers this year warned that cracking and spalling were risks in roof and floor panels made from the aerated concrete products that were often installed from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many roof panels have been installed with insufficient bearing on structural supports resulting in a “significant risk” to the material’s integrity including “shear failure”. Some panels have become saturated by water ingress making them heavier than they were designed to be. It said to fix the buildings “it may be appropriate to apply remedial action only to the affected panels [but] this may be applied to all panels within the building being assessed”. In 2010 a long-planned £55bn schools rebuilding programme, Building Schools for the Future, was scrapped by the then education secretary, Michael Gove, during the first months of the coalition government. He has since said he regretted the decision. The Liberal Dem0crat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, said: “This shocking admission is a concrete result of years of Conservative neglect of our school buildings. Parents, teachers and pupils will be horrified that children have been taught in unsafe buildings and cannot return to school next week. Instead pupils face more misery learning in temporary classrooms or being bussed miles to local schools. Pupil safety is paramount but for this to come out just days before term starts is totally unacceptable.”

‘Don’t let ‘impostor syndrome’ hold you back’: Student tips from Guardian readers

2023-09-11

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/11/dont-let-impostor-syndrome-hold-you-back-student-tips-from-guardian-readers

Going to university is an amazing experience, but it can feel daunting. Here are some words of wisdom and handy tips from Guardian readers who’ve done it all before Get to know your flatmates – it makes life easier. I wish I’d known just how important getting settled with my flatmates would be. I wasn’t as open to them as they were to each other, and before I knew it they had organised a flat agreement for the next year without me. I suppose it’s my fault, but it did make searching for accommodation for this year much more difficult. Thankfully, I’ve secured a place in a flat, although it did take a lot of effort scrambling across every letting agent in town to find it. Elijah O’Reilly, 20, student at Aberystwyth University Be ready to work over the holidays. For most students I know, myself included, maintenance loans don’t cover the rent, so you may need to find ways to cover it. About halfway into my first term, there was a sudden pressure to find a house for my second year [which can include paying a deposit]. This was a struggle. I am lucky it has all turned out well, and I’m fortunate that rents are reasonable here (I’m paying £115 a week for second-year accommodation), but for anyone living in a big city or down south, prices are much higher. Heidi, 19, student at Lancaster University Work out whether you’re a city person or a campus person. For some, the more secluded campus environment is perfect, especially if you’re uninterested in the more intense city lifestyle. On the other hand, city universities are more active, spontaneous, and electric. When it comes to applying for universities, make sure you do your research and ask mutual friends for their advice. The lifestyle around your education is far more influential on your university experience than you think. Harry, 22, master’s student Ask your lecturers and professors for help. I was really nervous to ask for help or knock on office doors because I was so intimidated, but now I wish I had. If you’re passionate and interested in your subject, pursue it while you have the chance. I wish I’d started building that confidence earlier. Don’t let “impostor syndrome” hold you back – especially if you’re working-class and state school educated. You deserve to be there as much as anyone. Charlotte, 24, PhD student at Manchester University It’s not embarrassing to have hobbies. I wish someone had told me this. Do all the clubs and societies and go on all the trips. I also wish I had known that cooking with people or for other people makes life so much better. Offer to cook something one night and you’re essentially having a dinner party. Food brings people together! Also, every single person you meet has something interesting to say and probably isn’t as scary as they look. Eleanor, 21, postgraduate student Look for opportunities to travel. If you’re interested in a year in industry or a year abroad, speak to relevant departments at your university to see how feasible it is. Many people don’t know about it, or apply too late. During my studies I got a chance to go to university in Singapore for a year and it was amazing. Liza Karandeja, 21, finance graduate from Queen Mary University of London Freshers’ week doesn’t matter. When I applied to university, the idea of living in halls made me nervous, as a relatively shy person. I don’t particularly enjoy clubbing and this is what it seemed like everyone did at university. It wasn’t until Christmas that I started to feel as if I had some established friendships. Freshers’ week can be a very fun time, but a lot of people are feeling the exact same. Take your time to find friends, and don’t worry if you are feeling lonely the first week, month, semester or even year. Despite the initial awkwardness when you first talk to someone, most people will usually be thankful if you invite them out for a coffee after lectures or a study break. All it takes is one brief moment of courage to introduce yourself. Caitlin, 18, English literature student at the University of Liverpool

Hundreds of children thrown out of school in English county lines hotspots

2023-08-29

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/29/hundreds-of-children-thrown-out-of-school-in-english-county-lines-hotspots

Gangs target minors who are out of school and BBC report shows rise in exclusions and suspensions in biggest drug-exporting areas Hundreds of extremely vulnerable children at risk of being recruited by criminal gangs are being thrown out of schools in county lines hotspots. Figures obtained by BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme revealed there were more than 1,200 exclusions and suspensions of children assessed by social services to be grooming targets in England’s four largest drug-exporting regions between 2021 and 2023. Exclusion is widely regarded by child protection experts as a trigger point for criminal exploitation as pupils removed from classrooms lose the structure of the school day and the oversight of teachers. Some are left unsupervised at home and others are sent to pupil referral units, where gangs often recruit. The data – which came from 37 councils in London, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Merseyside – showed rising numbers of children at risk of criminal exploitation are being pushed out of mainstream schools. At least 600 vulnerable children were removed from classrooms either temporarily or permanently in 2022-23, up from 512 in 2021-22, across the 31 areas that provided figures for both years. The former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield said the figures were deeply alarming. “These are the children who’ve already been identified and assessed as being very, very vulnerable,” she said. “We absolutely should use the knowledge that those children are vulnerable to make sure they get that ring of protection they need and that means they need to stay in school.” Children with special education needs are five times more likely to be excluded in England. Will (not his real name), a 13-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was deemed to be at risk of criminal exploitation by social services last year but was left without a permanent school place for well over a year after 15 suspensions for disruptive behaviour. He told the programme, which will air on Tuesday evening, that he did not get the support he needed. ADHD can make it hard to focus, sit still or follow instructions. “I’m very much one of those students that deal with things in a different way. If they were just to listen or talk it out, I think it would be better,” Will said. Ofsted inspectors recently found that the school he attended did not look at the underlying causes of misbehaviour. They also noted that permanent exclusions and suspensions were extremely high. Will, who is being assessed for autism, was threatened with a permanent exclusion, so his mum, Jess (not her real name), felt she had to take him out of school. “Once you are excluded and it’s put on your record, [it’s harder to] get back into another school and I didn’t want that for him,” Jess said. While he was outside the education system, Will was targeted by a gang. “They wanted me to go to a bando [a drug house] and sell for them,” he said. “It’s never near you. It’s always like Manchester, Tottenham, London, all of that. You go there for a few weeks, maybe have a couple of people with you. And you sell all types of drugs to all types of people that come around. As long as you’re getting the money, it’s fine. But if you lose something, you’ve got a big problem. You could have people on to you for debt or could have people wanting to kill you and all that.” This comes as schools struggle to cope with a wave of post-pandemic mental health and behaviour problems, without the vital support services lost during a decade of austerity cuts. Many youth clubs and children’s centres remain closed. Early intervention and family support services have been pared back. Pupil referral units have warned this year that they are full because so many children are leaving mainstream education. Official figures, which lag a year behind, showed suspensions hitting new highs and exclusions heading back toward the levels seen before Covid struck and schools closed for most pupils. Longfield called for more support to be provided to vulnerable pupils struggling to behave in classrooms. “We exclude too many children in England, and much of this comes down to the will to support children in our education [system],” she said. A Department for Education spokesperson said permanent exclusions should always be a last resort and should not mean exclusion from education. “To support schools to do this, we have issued updated guidance on suspensions and permanent exclusions and are clear that initial intervention should be put in place where children are at risk of being permanently excluded and entering alternative provision,” they said.

Private school students in England twice as likely to earn top A-level grades as state pupils

2023-08-20

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/20/private-school-england-twice-as-likely-top-a-level-grades

This year’s results show attainment gap is widening, despite Tory pledges to close it Pupils in private schools are more than twice as likely to achieve A or A* grades as those in the state sector, according to official figures that expose a widening attainment gap in education in England after more than 13 years of Conservative government. The statistics, released by the regulator Ofqual, follow last week’s A-level results and come despite repeated pledges by ministers to close the divide by driving up standards in non-fee paying schools. In 2019, Michael Gove, the Tory education secretary from 2010 to 2014 who pushed expansion of Labour’s academies programme, insisted it remained his hope that educating children privately would become unnecessary and viewed as unusual. “I would have hoped we would have been able to make sending your children to a private school, as it is in Europe, an increasingly eccentric choice,” Gove said. The latest A-level results, which saw thousands of students miss out on top marks as the government enforced a reversal of post-pandemic grade inflation, highlight the continuing advantages in terms of grades enjoyed by pupils at private schools. While 47.4% of pupils in private schools achieved at least one A or A* grade, only 22% did so in secondary comprehensives, 25.4% in academies and just 14.2% in state further education institutions. Although the government insists that academies have driven up standards, the gap between the percentage of pupils achieving the top grades in private and state schools has widened since 2019. In that year, 44.8% of pupils in private schools received a top grade against 24% in academies. Ahead of a week when the government plans to focus on schools policy, the shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, accused ministers of being “more interested in protecting tax breaks for private schools than raising standards in state schools”. Calling on the education secretary Gillian Keegan to “stop toadying to private schools and start delivering for working-class children”, Phillipson said: “The best way she can do that is by adopting Labour’s plan to recruit thousands more teachers, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools. “Labour will drive high and rising standards in state schools to ensure that background is no barrier to children getting on in life.” Labour has proposed a package of policies to remove tax exemptions from private schools, which includes levying VAT on fees. The revenue raised would then be used to increase state school spending and would be targeted at pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated that levying VAT on fees would raise about £1.6bn a year. The report found that average school fees across the UK were £15,200 in today’s prices (net of bursaries and scholarships). This was £7,200 higher than state school spending per pupil, which was £8,000 in 2022–23 (including day-to-day and capital spending). The IFS said the gap between private school fees and state school spending per pupil had more than doubled since 2010, when the gap was about 40% or £3,500. In addition to its plans to recruit thousands more teachers, Labour said it would introduce a requirement to hold or be working towards qualified teacher status for all new teachers, offer bonus payments to new recruits completing early career training and simplify the complicated network of incentive payment schemes to keep more “world-class” teachers in the classroom. Writing online in today’s Observer, Lee Elliot Major, social mobility professor at the University of Exeter, says: “Sadly for education’s have-nots, the dials are all pointing in the wrong direction. The stark academic gap between private and state schools is now wider than it was before the pandemic.” He adds: “For all the talk of levelling up, geographical divides have also widened: students in London and the south-east have pulled further away from their peers in the rest of England when it comes to securing highest grades. Yes, more pupils on free school meals have entered higher education in 2023; but this is merely a product of the rising tide of child poverty pulling more students into hardship – hardly something to celebrate.” Elliot Major predicts more “ill tidings” with the release of GCSE results on Thursday. “Around a third of teenagers will have failed to secure the basics in their English and maths exams after 12 years of schooling – a statistic that has scarred the education system for decades.” The government today announces a “Brit School for the north” to nurture the “next generation of creative talent” and provide opportunities for rising stars on stage and screen. Located in Bradford, the new free school will be based on the award-winning performing arts Brit School in south London, which has helped to launch the careers of artists and actors including Adele, Amy Winehouse, Tom Holland and Jessie J. Keegan said: “This announcement will mean more young people will be able to reach their potential and follow in their footsteps, at the new Brit School in the north. We are broadening opportunities so more of our children can access this springboard to success in the UK’s growing creative industries.”

Letter: Rita Austin obituary

2023-11-07

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/07/letter-rita-austin-obituary

The account of Rita Austin mentions the time she spent teaching before holding posts with a series of public institutions. Fifty years ago she was my tutor at an evening class in Cardiff. Her passion and her inspirational lectures gave me the confidence to go back into education. She saw something in me and provided my “second chance”. I never looked back and I’ve never forgotten her.

‘Year 10 was a write-off’: the pupils at the sharp end of England’s teacher recruitment crisis

2023-07-13

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/13/how-teacher-shortages-in-england-are-affecting-pupils

Parents tell of combined classes, non-specialists and self-teaching as rising vacancies take a toll In the run-up to her GCSEs this year, Ruby*, 16, from south London, turned to YouTube for learning because of staff shortages at her school. “We spent a lot of time going [online] and trying to find the person who most knew what they were talking about,” says her mother, Helen. The teenager was left to teach herself some of the material for a final exam after a turbulent year of teachers quitting, non-specialists covering lessons, and classes being combined in a hall with a single teacher in charge of up to 60 pupils. Students fared better in combined classes than with non-specialist cover teachers, her mother says. But the situation was far from ideal. “She appreciated the fact there was a specialist in the room, but the problem was you couldn’t ask any questions because of the sheer number of students.” Still, Helen reckons her daughter is one of the lucky ones. “Her grade profile is 8s and 9s [equivalent to A* under the old grading system]. She’s smart and can just get on with it. But most can’t. Some of her friends have given up – they say there’s no point as long as we just pass. These are students who are bright and should be aiming higher.” Helen, 48, does not blame the school. “They’re always trying to do their best with what seems like a rubbish situation.” A record 40,000 teachers in England – almost 9% of the total – resigned from state education last year, the latest workforce survey by the Department for Education (DfE) shows, while about 4,000 retired. Dozens of parents told the Guardian that their children’s education was suffering because of teachers being forced by vacancies to teach outside their specialism, and some said certain subjects were no longer offered at their school. Teacher vacancies in England doubled in two years, from 1,100 in November 2020 to 2,300 in November 2022. Recruitment is especially an issue in secondary schools. Meanwhile, staff sickness is up, with the average number of sick days taken increasing from 4.1 in 2018-19 to 6.3 in 2021-22. Alex*, 15, recently failed his first ICT BTec coursework module. “He wasn’t surprised – he’s consistently said he’s confused and that nobody knows what they’re doing,” says his mother, Jane, 52, who works in digital skills in Bristol. For several months last year, the class was taught by supply teachers. “He no longer sees the value of education; it’s a massive struggle to get him to do homework as many of the others don’t do it,” Jane says. A teacher with training has recently taken over the class, which Jane is more hopeful about. Alex will have a chance to resubmit his coursework, Jane says, but there will be a lot of catching up to do. Before this, they had been working independently from online materials and handouts. Classroom behaviour suffered, Jane says. “Particularly if you have supply teachers, children will play up. They call them babysitters.” As a maths teacher, David, 56, from the West Midlands, knows just how acute the staff retention crisis is. Like many others, his daughter Jess’s* school has been unable to recruit maths teachers and the bottom sets have been taught by non-specialists for large parts of the last two years. In year 10, Jess was taught maths by a non-specialist – predominantly, David understands, by a PE teacher. “The lower sets get anyone who can fill the gap,” he says. Having a maths teacher for a father meant Jess benefited from teaching outside school hours. “Some of her friends were getting tutors, those that were lucky enough to afford it. Year 10 was a write-off. She said the class was a waste of time.” Teaching improved in year 11, he says, with a specialist teaching some lessons. David says the social problems exacerbated by pandemic and the cost of living crisis have played a role in the staffing crisis, as well as the long-term problem of unsustainable workloads. “Particularly in key areas like sciences and maths, there’s no quick fix unless you can get more graduates to train and stay in the profession. If you’re a graduate, you’re being recruited by banks and financial institutions straight out of university. There’s no obvious plan to solve this.” He worries that the staffing crisis is affecting students’ futures. “There’s a whole slice of kids who will come out below grade 4 [equivalent to a C], who if they had been given proper teaching by qualified staff would have got a grade 4 or higher. No doubt about it.” *Names have been changed. This article was amended on 14 July 2023. Owing to an editing error, an earlier version said grade 8 and 9 results at GCSE are equivalent to A* and A grades. They are in fact equivalent to A* only

Labour says government has created ‘perfect storm’ in England’s teaching workforce

2023-02-24

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/24/labour-says-government-has-created-perfect-storm-in-englands-teaching-workforce

Labour analysis shows recruitment down by third outside London compared with 2019 Labour has accused the government of creating “a perfect storm” in England’s teaching workforce, after analysis revealed the scale of the crisis, with teachers old and new quitting the classroom and too few replacing them. A teacher who qualified in 2010 is 15% more likely to have left teaching within a decade than one who qualified in 2000, according to Labour’s analysis of the most recently available official figures. There is also a concerning gap between the number of teachers quitting the profession and those entering it, Labour says. Its research found 36,262 left the teaching profession in 2020/21, compared with 34,394 who joined via initial teacher training, leaving a shortfall of 1,868. The government’s own teacher training statistics, published in December, revealed recruitment down by a fifth, which was described as “catastrophic”. Fresh analysis by Labour, however, found that outside London recruitment is down by nearly a third compared with 2019/20. Labour says the recruitment crisis threatens to jeopardise the quality of pupils’ education and harm the life chances of children, particularly in the north of England and the Midlands. It is also at the centre of talks between government and unions, who say the erosion of teacher pay has made the job less attractive. Barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, the National Education Union is due to hold its second day of strike action next Tuesday in the northern, Yorkshire and Humber regions in pursuit of its claim for a fully funded above-inflation pay claim. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “The Conservatives have created the perfect storm in our teaching workforce, with teachers old and new leaving and with too few replacing them. “Our children will reap the whirlwind of lower school standards and worse life chances in years to come unless the Conservatives get to grips with the dangerous exodus of teachers that began under their watch.” She went on: “Labour will recruit an additional 6,500 teachers to fill vacancies and reduce workloads on our overworked, overstretched and undervalued teaching workforce and drive up standards of education.” Further analysis by the Liberal Democrats showed the government has missed its recruitment targets every year for the last five years in maths, physics and modern languages. The total shortfall over the five years is 3,112 maths teachers, 6,367 physics teachers and 3,519 modern-language teachers. The Liberal Democrats are also concerned that too many secondary-school pupils are not being taught by subject specialists because of recruitment and retention problems. In physics, for example, where the shortage of specialist teachers is most critical, 40.6% of teachers don’t have a relevant post-A-level qualification, up from 37.3% five years ago. Liberal Democrat analysis also reveals the scale of burnout among young teachers. In the last five years, a total of 102,588 teachers have given up teaching before reaching their 40th birthday. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Munira Wilson, education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said: “The Conservatives are failing our children badly. They are missing their own recruitment targets and driving thousands of young teachers out of the profession, leaving millions of children to be taught by someone who isn’t an expert in their subject.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The number of teachers in the system remains high and there are now more than 465,000 teachers working in state-funded schools across the country, which is 24,000 more than in 2010. “Our bursaries and scholarships worth up to £27,000 and £29,000 tax-free are helping to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as maths, physics, chemistry, and computing. On top of this, these teachers can receive a levelling up premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free in years 1 to 5 of their careers. “As well as making the highest pay award in 30 years – 5% for experienced teachers and more for those early in their careers, including an up to 8.9% increase to starting salary – we are having ongoing conversations with unions on issues concerning recruitment and retention.”

Rishi Sunak attacks Labour plan for VAT on private school fees

2023-09-28

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/28/rishi-sunak-attacks-labour-plan-for-vat-on-private-school-fees

PM accuses Keir Starmer of stoking a ‘class war’ and Tories seek to portray Labour as flip-flopping on policy Rishi Sunak has accused Keir Starmer of stoking a “class war” by maintaining his vow to add VAT on to private school fees if Labour wins the next election, a move that Sunak said would “punish” affected parents. The prime minister said Labour’s approach “illustrates that they don’t understand the aspiration of families like my parents who were working really hard”. Sunak said his parents “wanted to do something for their kids that they thought would make a difference to them. Labour’s approach to that is to clamp down on it.” He added: “They don’t understand the aspiration that people have to provide a better life for their kids. They want to punish them for that as part of some class war. I don’t think that is right.” The attack on Labour’s policy came after the opposition party clarified that it intended to raise about £1.5bn through tax changes such as adding VAT to school fees, without stripping them of charitable status as Starmer and other shadow ministers had previously suggested. The Conservatives are seeking to use the change in policy stance to accuse Labour of flip-flopping. But a Labour source said polling was “actually supportive of the party’s current policy so we’re happy we have the opportunity to explain our offering to the public”. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, defended the decision on not removing charitable status, saying it was “not necessary” for the party to go ahead with its VAT plans in government. “I’ve always been focused on how we end the tax breaks and how we then use that money to deliver higher standards in our state schools. Ending charitable status was not a necessary part of doing that,” Phillipson said during a Q&A session hosted by Mumsnet. “We can press ahead with ending the tax breaks relatively quickly and then put that money into delivering better outcomes for children. So the policy is unchanged in that regard.” Labour sources say changing schools’ charitable status would be time-consuming, involving legislation and potential court challenges, while applying VAT to school fees would be relatively straightforward. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that adding VAT to private school fees could raise a net £1.3bn to £1.5bn a year, which Labour has said it would use to recruit 6,500 more teachers. Phillipson said there was “ample room” in England’s state schools if higher fees led to an exodus from the independent sector, and suggested that private schools could cut their costs rather than pass on the full 20% of VAT. “Private schools are not required to pass on a VAT to parents and I think they could choose to make different choices themselves about how they offer different kinds of provision,” she said. “Everyone in recent years has had to make cutbacks. Many of the people who are taking part in this discussion will be facing difficult choices every day about what they can and can’t afford in the middle of a cost of living crisis. I think private schools are no different and perhaps they should reflect on where they could be making savings.” The headteacher of Starmer’s former school, Reigate grammar, joined the criticism of Labour’s plan, claiming it would not “solve any education problems”. Shaun Fenton told Times Radio: “You can’t solve the problem of the country’s education system by taxing 7% of the children. And in fact, it won’t be 7% of the children being taxed, will it, because thousands and thousands will leave independent schools and go to state schools. “So you’re then taxing, let’s say, 3 or 4% of the children. Everyone knows this isn’t really going to raise any money and it’s not going to solve any education problems. And we’d be the only country in Europe doing this.” Starmer joined the school in 1974, when it was a grammar, after passing the 11-plus entrance exam. Two years later it became a private school, and it now charges fees of more than £22,000 a year. Sunak attended Winchester College in Hampshire, where fees for day pupils are more than £36,000 a year and boarders pay almost £50,000.

‘I’m better off at home’: UK commuter student says moving out not an option

2023-08-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/10/im-better-off-at-home-uk-commuter-student-says-moving-out-not-an-option

Aimee Morley, 19, who studies in Birmingham, is happy with her choice to live away from campus Aimee Morley has lived at home in Coventry while studying English and journalism at Birmingham City University, a 20-minute train journey away, and says she has enjoyed the experience despite its ups and downs. “It wasn’t financially possible for me to move out – I work multiple different jobs and work in retail as well, I will probably be living at home throughout uni, it’s just easier,” said Morley, 19, who will start her second year in the autumn. “I thought I’m better off living at home, I have a job in Coventry, I have multiple sources of income there, so it was easier to stay. If I moved I’d have to up sticks and I didn’t want to do that. “I know a lot of people find that invigorating for uni, the newness and the new beginning. But I wanted an education and to meet new people and I wanted to keep my connection to home because I’m quite close to my family.” Despite living away from the campus, Morley says she feels she has not missed out on student life. “I’m not a clubbing person, but you could say I missed out on loads because I couldn’t just walk back to my student accommodation really late at night. But I can do all that in Coventry, so I wouldn’t say I’ve missed out on the stereotypical student experience, because I’ve still made friends for life and really enjoyed it. “The whole concept of leaving your home is very interesting. In other countries people live around their family their whole life. In the future I would love to explore but for now, I live with my mother. It’s just been me and her for many years, and I get along with her really well and I have a very positive relationship with her. She’s always been very supportive. Some people might want to move out because they’ve got a toxic family or are not supportive.” Morley says she considered other universities and courses but decided early on to stay in the West Midlands. “For me it was a no-brainer, I loved the course and I loved the way Birmingham is such an up-and-coming city in terms of media. The BBC are building there, Birmingham is the place to be. “Sometimes the best course is closer to home and that was the case for me. Why would I move to Birmingham when I live so close, what would be the point in that? “I do like being a commuter student, and I’ve had a positive experience. But sometimes when it’s eight o’clock at night and you’ve just done a full day at university and you’re getting on the train to go home and there’s been a train strike, it’s not exactly glamorous. “There’s good days and there are bad days – and I’m sure students in student accommodation have a similar feeling when their flatmates are being messy or there’s drama in the flat. Every experience is not going be sunshine and roses.” Jo Norry, director of student services at Leeds Beckett University, said the approach of students such as Morley was becoming more common. “At our kind of university, a regional university, we’ve always had a proportion of students living at home. But what’s been striking in recent years is how many more there are. “For those students, the very top reason is money – it costs so much less if you don’t have to pay for accommodation, and that makes a massive difference for some students.” While Leeds does not have the accommodation shortages that plague other university centres, Norry said rents have still increased sharply. “There are no cheap options any more and student maintenance loans have risen hardly at all. It’s pretty much impossible for a student to live on maintenance loans alone.” But the impact of the pandemic has also meant more students want to stay closer to families and friends. “Post-Covid, they may be more reliant on support networks, and don’t want to have to reinvent those networks of supportive friends that know them well,” Norry said. “Since the pandemic, those networks have become more important in terms of mental health and looking after yourself.”

England’s university free speech tsar says role is not to conduct ‘culture wars’

2023-10-09

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/oct/09/englands-university-free-speech-tsar-says-role-is-not-to-conduct-culture-wars

Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom. Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator. “This is not about culture wars, or anything like that. We have no interest in culture wars. We have no interest in this or that particular topic,” Ahmed said. “There’s absolutely no question whatever of us proposing a particular political point of view about what universities do, what’s taught, said, researched, questioned by students, staff or academics in universities. We have zero interest in that. “Free speech is too important to take any one political side. What we’re concerned with is making sure universities are places where these debates can be conducted in a vigorous and free way.” The legislation that created Ahmed’s role as the OfS’s director for freedom of speech and academic freedom also imposes a duty on English universities to take “reasonable steps” to promote free speech, or face sanctions by the regulator including possible fines. Ahmed said his first step was to create a complaints procedure to launch in August next year, allowing individuals to complain to the OfS if they feel their rights to free expression have been violated on campus. In a speech on Monday, Ahmed is to say there are “widespread concerns that many in higher education are being silenced, either by the activity of the university or by its inactivity”, but he will stress that he plans to take a “ broadly viewpoint neutral approach” towards complaints. “It makes no difference at all what side you take on statues or pronouns or colonialism, or abortion or animal rights, or Ulez. You can castigate the monarchy or defend it. You can argue that Britain is fundamentally racist or that it never was. You can speak or write as a Marxist, a post-colonial theorist, a gender-critical feminist, or anything else, if you do it within the law,” Ahmed will tell his audience. Asked if he had any personal experience of such issues, Ahmed said he did not want to comment on specific cases but said as an academic he had felt unable to express his views during tutorials or seminars. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “There are threats to free speech and academic freedom, they are a threat to higher education in England and across the world. We do have evidence of this,” Ahmed said. Ahmed pointed to the most recent national student survey, which found that 86% of students in England said they felt very or fairly free to express their ideas, opinions and beliefs during their studies. Only 3% said they felt “not at all free”, with the remaining 11% saying they felt “not very free” to do so. “It seems that one in seven are not free to express their own views, according to the survey. That is a matter of concern for us, because it means essentially that one in seven students is not free,” Ahmed said.