The first education white paper since 2010 has been released by the government today. But what does it actually say?
I spent this morning picking through the 128 pages of ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ to find what the government is saying it will do. Small projects that were already announced have not been included. Likewise anything which was a vague aspiration rather than something concrete and feasible.
Here’s what we found:
1. Reform the National College for Teaching and Leadership
2. Create web tools enabling schools to advertise jobs (& new national website)
3. Reform allocation of teacher training places
4. Strengthen ITT content
5. Replace QTS with a stronger, more challenging accreditation
6. Develop new National Teaching Service
7. Ensure there is a sufficient supply of high quality CPD provision
8. Introduce a new Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development
9. Examine feasibility of incentivising teaching schools to publish their research and CP on an ‘open source’ basis
10. Support” college of teaching, peer-reviewed journal, and EEF
11. Design new voluntary National Professional Qualifications for leaders
12. Rebalance incentives in the accountability system to help challenging schools including Progress 8 AND giving taken-over schools THIRTY months before an Ofsted
13. Implement fair national funding formulae
14. Launch a new Excellence in Leadership Fund for best multi-academy trusts
15. For governors: “provide clearer info” about schools, “establish national database” of governors & bar “unsuitable” ones
16. Take new powers to direct schools to become academies
17. Launch a new online Parent Portal and new league tables site
18. Guidance on academy complaints, easier for parents to do so via DfE/ombudsman
19. Consider how parents can petition RSCs for their school to move to a different MAT
20. Streamline admissions objections and relax sixth-form admissions procedure
21. 300 new teaching schools & 800 more National Leaders of Education (NLEs)
22. If academies can’t organise school improvement support, RSC will do it and have an Intervention Fund to help
23. Teaching schools to be based on data (not Ofsted) and funding “better targeted”
24. Establish new and better means of brokering school improvement
25. Target a range of interventions toward Achieving Excellence Areas
26. Support schools to expand evidence-based, character-building activities & tracking
27. Publish a strategy for improved careers provision for young people
28. Reform alternative provision & make schools more accountable for excluded pupils
29. Ofsted will consult on removing graded judgments on quality of teaching, learning and assessment
30. Reduction in using Ofsted grades for choosing system leaders, teaching schools, etc
31. League tables for multi-academy trust performance measures
32. Improve effectiveness of pupil premium spending
33. RSCs able to “commission a pupil premium review”
34. Tools for improved school efficiency/budgets & offer financial health checks
35. Remove requirement for parent governors
36. Agree an understanding with church regarding relationship with commissioners
37. Redesign legal framework for academies/LAs (this means a new education bill)
Just words. All bollocks.