Chop chop
As part of my postgraduate diploma in education and social justice, this week’s assignment was to watch the “Education” episode from the Small Axe series aired on the BBC in 2020.
Directed by Steve McQueen, this episode set in the 1970s chronicles the disturbing practice of removing Black children from mainstream schools and placing them in so-called ‘special schools’ that were, in reality, schools for the ‘educationally subnormal’ (ESN).
As someone who frequently discusses intersectionality – particularly the intersection of race and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – I found it both enlightening and deeply unsettling.
These are not just historical issues; they are still very pertinent today, as outlined through this campaign led by the Diana Award: #TakeRacismSeriously.
Crisis consultants
SEND in general seems to be constantly in the news, with headlines frequently focusing on crisis. But as Schools Week pointed out last week, there is a worrying dearth of solutions.
We might have expected some to arise from this week’s public accounts committee meeting, but in the end, X user and parent John Harris neatly summed up the experience of watching this as someone with experience of the system.
As a local authority inspector and advisor, I see first-hand the challenges schools face around meeting these demands, especially in their efforts to be more inclusive, which fundamentally means meeting their basic statutory duty towards students with special needs.
One of the government’s central planks for dealing with this crisis seems to be Ofsted reform. However, I question how the inspectorate can truly challenge school leaders around inclusion if inspectors are not given more training around SEND themselves.
Meanwhile, an enlightening blog from Matthew Keer for Special Needs Jungle offers a dispiriting update on the state of the SEND and AP change programme that began under the previous government.
Reinventing the wheel
There are change programmes that don’t seem to change much, and then there’s the political pendulum model of change – all one way, then all in the completely opposite direction with each new government. So it seems to go with school improvement.
The local authority I work for has a team of over 40 inspectors and advisors. This means we can implement a rapid response model of targeted support for schools. This might be triggered by their bi-annual partnership review, an Ofsted inspection, or simply by request.
I believe this approach is why most of our schools (457 out of 530) are still locally authority maintained. DfE should look no further for a model for their proposed RISE teams.
What’s clear to me is that these teams should be composed of school leaders who can evidence a truly inclusive approach to school improvement, not just those who know what to say when Ofsted calls. To evidence this, we must listen to the people we serve, our students and their parents/carers.
If the DFE does take this approach, more school leaders will be optimistic about RISE, but I also suspect there will be challenges against them, as this blog by the legal firm Browne Jacobson highlights.
A sense of direction
Finally, I managed to join one of the curriculum and assessment review regional roadshows, where I heard Professor Becky Francis talk about her commitment to social justice in education.
I found that heartening, and the more I work with school leaders and school improvement leads, the more I realise how much this drives the profession.
So I remain hopeful that Labour’s reforms will steer the system in that direction, and not just for students but for teachers too.
As reported recently, golden hellos are increasingly turning into tainted goodbyes as teachers recruited overseas find they are being treated unfavourably in comparison to their white colleagues.
Crisis, leading to exploitation, leading to more crisis. Here’s to a change programme that really changes things.
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