Low pay, high workload and an eroding of professional autonomy are huge retention challenges – but there is hope, says Julian Stanley

I was struck recently by an observation made by UCL Institute of Education’s Professor Ian Ball that the latest education reforms have in fact taken England’s school system back into the 19th century.

Giving a lecture at the British Academy, sponsored by the John Cass Foundation, this isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound.
The professor of sociology of education argued that the current system is looking increasingly similar to the way schools were organised before the introduction of local school boards in 1870.

The “performance by results” culture is in addition, he added, putting teachers and children “under undue pressure”.

Last year marked 140 years since Education Support Partnership’s founding charity – the Teacher’s Benevolent Fund – was created.

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