Blog 19 reports on our recent London meeting. Academics and Speakers from Local Government have their say.
Ken Jones, Emeritus Professor in Education at Goldsmith:
Labour Must Challenge Austerity and the Tories’ ‘Jigsaw of Control’
Sir Kevan Collins’s failure to get anywhere near the funding needed for his Covid recovery programme (see TES 8th March) is indicative of the Treasury’s attitude to education. It had no trust in schools and teachers to deliver what was necessary for their pupils and failed to see education as an investment in the future well being and productivity of children. This myopic approach to education from the Treasury threatens to undermine initiatives Labour might want to put in place and points to continued austerity across the service. Labour must challenge the Treasury’s approach.
‘One test of a Labour government’s democratic credentials will be whether it possesses the understanding and determination to undo the system elaborated since 2010. This would mean taking a hard look at Labour’s own past. The habit of regarding teachers as a policy problem and the years of progressive reform as an educational disaster were solidly established in the Blair years, even if it took a Michael Gove to turbo-charge them.
Unless the achievements of the counter-revolution are challenged and reversed, the promise which the labour movement has always seen in education – one of individual fulfilment and social emancipation – will continue to be denied.’ (Ken in Labour Hub January 2024.)
Cllr. Antoinette Bramble Deputy Mayor LB Hackney, Chair LGA Labour:
Labour Must Give More Powers to Local Authorities
Labour’s policy commission document talks of returning schools back to the ‘heart of their communities’. Antionette asserted that implementing SEA policy on bringing schools back under local authority management would take complex legislation and in the meantime legislation, which over lays the academy system and gives local authorities more powers over schools in their areas, should be implemented. Local Authorities could reduce the competition between academies and get them to work together for the community. Controlling admissions and powers to plan pupils places in their areas are essential to this. Currently, as rolls shrink in authorities like Hackney, the council is forced to close its own schools whilst academies can maintain and even expand their role. Labour legislation should establish an overarching framework which enabled LAs to intervene when schools were struggling and to investigate complaints from parents. Councils are also in a strong position to develop teacher professionalism in their areas if they were given resources to run local professional development programmes. Furthermore they could provide a forum for parents’ voices to be heard as well as other local stakeholders.
Cllr. Zena Brabazon Cabinet Member for Education LB Haringey:
Labour Must Tackle the SEND Crisis by investing in Early Years and Reforming the System
The fragmentation of the service made provision of a coherent and inclusive programme for SEND pupils impossible. The current structures were adversarial pitting parents against cash strapped local authorities who cannot give everyone what they want. Half of LAs are massively overspent on SEND. There needs to be a focus on transitions for SEND students particularly when they leave the education system at 18. At this point funding ceases. There should be a national framework which links education to adult social care.
Social problems have become medicalised by the EHCP system. Behavioural issues caused by cramped temporary accommodation and poor diet are classified as ADHT for example.
It is time to tackle child poverty and turn the clock back to Sure Start. Strong universal provision in the Early Years would reverse the demand for SEND funding later.
Anna Wolmuth No More Exclusions:
Labour Must Tackle and Give Local Authorities the Powers to Challenge, Rising Exclusions and Zero Tolerance Behaviour Regimes
Anna spoke about MATS using zero tolerance regimes to ‘flatten the grass’. Many of the ‘isolation’ sanctions were a euphemism for child abuse. Often these spaces were cubicles where pupils were expected to stare at a blank wall and complete tedious tasks. These approaches were not evident anywhere else in Europe and beyond, but had originated in American charter schools. Many behaviour regimes e.g. City of London Academies, automatically escalated sanctions so that pupils spent more and more time out of school on suspension resulting in permanent exclusion. This could start with just fidgeting in a line up. Black, disadvantaged and SEND pupils were all disproportionately affected. Schools should be able to adjust curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of pupils and focus on building positive relationships rather than militaristic behaviour drills. Local Authorities who often have to pick up the pieces should have powers to intervene.
Diane Reay Professor of Education Cambridge University, SEA President:
Labour must end the confusion of multiple routes into teaching which is damaging recruitment and hand back responsibility for teacher education to universities
The current mainly school-based programmes deny teachers the professional knowledge in philosophy, sociology and psychology they need to understand their role. Teaching must return to being an unequivocally graduate based profession with universities taking responsibility for PGCE and three to four year B.Ed programmes. Teachers should be actively engaged in their learning not simply handed down lesson plans form Oak Academy. The mechanised routines and conveyor belt nature of teacher training is causing a lack of confidence in new entrants. One fifth are leaving after a year and Diane’s research revealed high levels of distress. There was a lack of diversity in new entrants because the removal of bursaries was a barrier to many potential working-class entrants. Labour should restore them. Teacher education should not just be about subject knowledge and behaviour but should focus too on the child and the social context of education. Universities could run more and better professional development programmes. Excessive pay given to MATS leaders should be capped to help fund this. Money flows upwards from the chalk face to the bureaucrats in MATS and Labour should ensure this is reversed.
Cllr. Alexa Collins Buckinghamshire and Comprehensive Future Activist:
Labour should stop selection by ability at 11 and open up remaining grammar schools to all pupils
Alexa made a plea for the abolition of the 11 plus and pointed out that pupil outcomes overall in selective areas were lower than in comprehensive ones. Only 20 % of pupils passed the 11 plus and it was not the forensic measure of intelligence its designers claim. The private sector runs primary or prep schools which boast about their success rates in the 11 plus. State primaries are not allowed to coach for this test or publish success rates. (Such schools thrive in London too getting pupils into grammar schools on its fringes). Alexa also commented on how league tables were designed for a mainly comprehensive system. When they are applied to grammar schools and the accompanying secondary moderns they reinforce the idea that secondary moderns are not worth the candle. Labour should finish the comprehensive project so that opportunities in selective areas are not denied to late developing pupils and comprehensive schools in adjacent authorities are not undermined.
Suzanne Beckley NEU Ofsted Commission:
Labour should remove OFSTED from school inspections altogether and introduce reviews based on self-evaluation
Suzanne was concerned that the so called ‘big listen’ being conducted by the new HMCI would not result in fundamental change. She referred to the report of the NEU commission on OFSTED which had produced the Beyond OFSTED report. She argued the pressure put on staff in schools and the one-word judgements they currently use were no longer acceptable after the Ruth Perry tragedy. Instead school performance reviews should have self- evaluation at its heart. This process should be led by an external school improvement partner. OFSTED would have a new role in evaluating partnerships and the work of trusts. Until these fundamental reforms have been implemented the NEU calls on school leaders and local authority staff to boycott working for OFSTED.
Conclusion
All attendees and speakers agree that the education service is now starved of resources and dominated by a regressive Conservative ideology. Radical reform is needed. The list above is not definitive and in some areas the SEA would argue we need to go further. Curriculum and assessment are huge topics which were not covered and we welcome Labour’s commitment to a curriculum review and we hope to have an input into that. If Labour were to implement what our speakers have demanded it would make a huge difference. It would signal the government is handing back autonomy to the sector , trusting teachers, and instituting a more humane socially equitable service.
These are the policies we need in Birmingham. There will be opportunities to raise them as the Education conference season approaches and in Birmingham Council meetings including the approaching annual report on School Performance. And for more from the SEA read:
‘A socialist manifesto for education and beyond’ by James Whiting and Ian Duckett
https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/forum/vol-66-issue-1/article-9882/
Birmingham Against The Cuts 