The latest political slogan to enter the education lexicon is “high and rising standards”.
In the tiresome way of these things, you will see this phrase pop up in press releases, speeches and sundry other government communications with monotonous regularity.
Nobody would argue against this ambition, of course, but what does it actually mean – and how are we going to achieve this?
Let’s start with what high and rising standards might look like. They could be an improvement in test and exam results at key stages 2, 4, and 5; a narrowing of the disadvantage gap in outcomes; more schools achieving positive Ofsted ratings; improved rankings in international PISA tests; and/or fewer young people who are classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET).
But we don’t really know whether the government has all of these in mind, or some of them, or something else entirely.
That then leads on to the question of how high and rising standards might be achieved.
With the best will in the world it is hard to see how the provisions set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will do this. The policy requiring primary schools to provide breakfast clubs is probably the closest the Bill gets to something which might arguably boost standards.
If all children are ensured of a nutritious meal at the start of the day then it stands to reason that they will be in better condition to learn. But the proposed funding rate of 60p per-child, per-day is so ridiculously low that it cannot possibly achieve that objective.
Another flagship policy which the government believes will lead to “high and rising standards” is Ofsted’s plan to introduce report cards with a new five-point grading scale.
However, this has the potential to go badly wrong. It is unlikely that inspectors will be able to consistently and reliably apply a five-point grading scale over multiple areas in a two-day inspection, and the enormous pressure such an approach will place on schools to jump through a new set of hoops is likely to worsen recruitment and retention.
What then would secure “high and rising standards”? First, I think it is fair to say that our schools already perform well and that most of our students attain a good set of qualifications.
But there is a problem. About one-third do less well and often have constrained life chances and opportunities. Many of these students are from disadvantaged backgrounds or have SEND. The wider social and economic implications are severe – a society which is fractured and a nation which lacks the skills-base it needs for future prosperity.
“High and rising standards” then must mean improving the fortunes of this third of young people. Doing so will improve all those measures that I set out earlier. Achieving that goal is not easy – and it is not cheap – but it is obviously necessary not only for the students themselves but for the country as a whole. Here are a few things that we could do.
The alarmingly high rate of child poverty in the UK has a profound impact on both the welfare of the children affected and their capacity to learn. We await the outcome of the cross-government Child Poverty Taskforce, but it is surely obvious that the two-child benefit cap must be scrapped, and that eligibility for free school meals should be extended to all families in receipt of universal credit.
To provide more support to these young people the Pupil Premium should be paid at a higher level for children in persistent poverty and it should be extended to 16 to 19-year-olds.
The SEND system is on its knees with increasing demand and inadequate resourcing. We are promised that a government plan will be forthcoming. But we know what needs to be done. The government must write-off local authority high needs deficits, put in place adequate funding to meet demand, address critical shortages of specialists like educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, and provide clarity over its aim of more SEND support in mainstream settings.
Meanwhile, the qualifications system as it stands creates a miserable cliff-edge around the Grade 4-plus benchmark in GCSE English and maths, with the third who fall below that benchmark then compelled to relentlessly resit them in post-16 education.
We need to stop ranking students against one another and introduce a new approach – proficiency qualifications which operate more like a driving test where students are able to show they have reached a pre-determined standard.
And finally, we need teachers! That really should not need saying but unfortunately the recruitment and retention crisis is severe, persistent and is often particularly felt in schools which are struggling. The government has a stated ambition of recruiting 6,500 new teachers but this is still short of how many are actually needed and we have yet to learn how this will be achieved.
Look, I recognise that being in government is not easy, and that what I have set out costs money – which is in short supply – but I cannot see how we will secure “high and rising standards” without at least making some in-roads into these issues.
I am sure that we all agree with the government’s ambition – but it simply must be more than a slogan.
- Pepe Di’Iasio is the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/pepe-di-iasio/