A report last term from Edurio confirmed that teachers are more positive about support for planning, marking and assessment than at any time since 2021.
However, students’ interest in learning has fallen by a third from 42% to 28% in the same four-year period. Meanwhile just 47% say they are happy to be learning at their school and only 30% would be likely to recommend their school to someone else.
The report (Jackson & Haslewood, 2024) states: “Levels of interest in learning, overall happiness at school, and likelihood to recommend the school have significantly worsened over time.”
This is bad news for those who believe in the power of a well planned lesson and the findings should be ringing alarm bells about the fundamentals of school life.
Bearing in mind the turmoil in schools between 2021 and 2024, the implementation of a new Ofsted framework, new specifications and decreasing resources as well as Covid, this slight improvement in teacher positivity may be even more positive than it first appears.
The student decline though is as alarming as it is unsurprising. If teachers are more confident and better resourced, why are students significantly less happy?
To my mind, there are three plausible causes:
- Curriculum: Content is more challenging and students have a greater quantity of information to master.
- Social issues: Post-Covid changes relating to literacy, SEMH and general attitudes to school.
- Generational changes: Gen Z expectations of life and learning.
None of these causes is under the control of schools but perhaps this is a moment of opportunity to take control of what is.
With a new inspection system on the horizon and with Covid-cancelled assessments in primary schools having led the Department for Education to grudgingly drop Progress 8 scores for 2024/25 and 2025/26 (see DfE, 2024), schools have an unusual opportunity to lead the agenda.
Imagine if Ofsted’s judgement was as important to us as an MOT. An MOT result does not bring into question our sense of value as a human being. Ofsted is very different.
I met someone recently who said his acute health condition faded to nothing, once he stopped being a school leader. Ofsted cannot be blamed for all of that but school leadership has become overwhelming and we need to return to a sense of proportion.
Initial responses suggest that proportion is something teachers feel is as lacking in the proposed Ofsted report card reforms as it was before. Inspection is necessary but its dominant place in our thinking is making us and our system sick
On my office wall is the phrase: “We use work to help people grow rather than using people to get work done.”
It reminds me that we run schools for students and that what we do should improve their lives as well as those of the adults around them.
When that is not happening we need to listen to what young people are telling us. We need to pay less attention to the mechanic and listen to our passengers, not only students but staff and parents too, so we can judge for ourselves why students are so unhappy with learning.
Stakeholder surveys might be the starting point to shine a light on each of the issues above and refocus diminishing resources on really helping people grow.
Knowing whether students are unhappy because of content or learning issues, or because school is just not what they expect any more, would give us licence to ask the difficult questions which follow.
Are we willing to change our curriculum based on student feedback? Two years without Progress 8 scores might be a time to find out, without implications for performance tables.
Social concerns might indicate the need to consider new forms of support while generational expectations could change our approach to teaching and learning forever. Whatever the surveys reveal, now might be the time to change our way of measuring our success.
Regular stakeholder surveys give us insight into the satisfaction of the people who really matter and put the views of Ofsted into perspective. Once we get over the instinct to respond to every individual opinion we can see the vital information surveys show us.
Google Forms can yield results and analysis in a few hours, while interrogating the results with staff, students and parent groups adds flesh to the bones.
Students say, for example, that they do not find learning interesting. The question is really about engagement. Do students want to come to school? Or maybe we should ask, of all the possible schools in the world, how much do you want to come to this one?
Students are young, not stupid. They know school cannot be Hogwarts but they also know whether they feel welcome, safe and catered for when they enter the building and if there is something about school they look forward to. Whether it is a club, a particular lesson or lunchtime, you want to know that each student has a reason to feel this is the school for them.
Measuring staff development might also be a better way to ensure that staff are growing themselves and contributing to the growth of the school. Development is as applicable to an early career teacher as to the headteacher and a developing staff can be content and effective.
Parents too should feel included and confident that their children are happy at school. The most telling question for all three is: would you recommend this school?
There are all sorts of risks with data. You need to ask who has completed surveys and look at how different sub-groups are responding. Balancing the responses of these three groups is challenging and it is impossible to please everyone. But once the metrics have been chosen, the data analysed and bold action taken, surveys might just be the beginning of making our schools places people want to be part of. Isn’t that a better measure of success than Ofsted?
James Wood leads the Growth Network. He has worked for more than 20 years in secondary education, mostly in leadership. Find out more via https://thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com or email James via thegrowthnetworkuk@gmail.com
Further information & resources
- DfE: Secondary accountability measures, 2024: Click here.
- Jackson & Haslewood: Top education priorities, Edurio, 2024: https://home.edurio.com/resources/insights/high-quality-inclusive-education-report-2024/