our schools’ future - new statesmansep 05, 2011 · john carpenter house john carpenter street...

OUR SCHOOLS’FUTURE

Round table on how we get from here to there

Head teachers cover:Statesman supplements 30/08/2011 12:38

SPONSOR’S INTRODUCTION

Autonomy & Accountability

Welcome to our supplement ontrust and school improvement,developed in partnership

between the New Statesman and theNational Association of Head Teachers.

The current government has mademuch of trust in the teaching profes-sion. It has suggested that heads andteachers know best, and that govern-ment should get off their backs. Yet it isalso very clear that with greater auton-omy comes greater accountability.

Schools should be accountable.They are public assets, spending public funds to achieve precious out-comes. Nobody, really, wants to returnto the bad old days of autonomy with-out accountability. It wasn't healthy forteachers, let alone students – it’s morefun being successful. Nor do teachersoccupy a privileged position in the de-bate on the outcomes and goals of oureducation system. What our schoolsare “for” is a topic for all of us to decide.

There are, though, concerns aboutaccountability that have nothing to dowith shirking responsibility. The first of these is what schoolsare accountable for. You cannot meaningfully hold someoneaccountable for things they cannot control – schools shouldbe accountable for the work they do, not for the quality oftheir intake, or the failings of society.

A second issue is the way performance is measured. We are obsessed with data in our education system, andmanage our schools through statistics and league tableswhich capture only a very narrow portion of what matters.Any result you choose to measure in such a high stakes fash-ion will inevitably go up. The question is what gets sacrificed?People are increasingly worried about ’gaming’ in the educa-tion system where schools allegedly boost their league tableposition by steering pupils towards so-called “soft” subjects,which may seem easier to pass, or concentrating on gettingborderline students across a threshold rather than investing

time and effort in encouraging giftedor under-achieving children to performbeyond expectations. But any systemwhich only measures a school’sachievements by the simplistic and of-ten misleading data of school leaguetables is asking for this to happen. We need a better way of judging schoolperformance than simply listing how many pupils pass an arbitrarythreshold.

Finally: accountability to whom? Thepolicy shift is that we should publishmore data but that it should not all beused by government to categorise andjudge schools, rather it should be avail-able to parents to help them chooseschools. The awkward fact aboutparental choice is that not all parentsare able or willing to exercise suchchoice, and the risk is that market-based solutions to school improve-ment will widen rather than narrow thedivide. How can we become more focused on the needs of parents andpupils without widening inequality?

Clearly, we need a more subtle debate on the balance between autonomy and accountability, and the round tablediscussion captured in this supplement begins that process.It explores both the moral and practical implications of thegovernment’s agenda. As the oldest and largest associationof school leaders in the country, the NAHT is proud to beworking with the New Statesman on raising these questions.

It is a debate that the round table can advance but not, ofcourse, complete. If you have a view, why not come along toour fringe events at each of the party conferences or submita question in advance? You can find details at the back of the supplement.

Russell Hobby General SecretaryNAHT

The current governmenthas made much of trust inthe teaching profession

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Contents5 September 2011

Head to head: getting down to the real issues 4 The view from here: what will new legislation bring? 6

Articles 4 Take-your-pick schools with do-it-all heroes Francis Beckett charts 30 yearsof tinkering and relying on charismatic leaders

6 Freedom or accountability? Rafael Behr and a panel of 12 experts, includingthe Children’s Commissioner, assess life after the new Education Bill

The New Statesman is printed on 100 per cent recycled eco-friendly paper

From “failing” to “outstanding”The Education Bill currently making its way through parliament promises to createa system that delivers consistently betterstandards for all children, with a focus onaccountability, discipline and the removalof bureaucracy.

School inspectors will be instructed toconcentrate on four areas: achievement,teaching, leadership and management, and behaviour and safety. In addition, theSecretary of State will be given powers tointervene in schools that are failing while“liberating” outstanding schools andcolleges from routine inspection.

Notwithstanding the merit or otherwiseof the changes the legislation will bring, theimplications for head teachers expected

to implement it are significant. In such acomplex and demanding world, it is not easy to make the best choices.

Among the questions raised are: at whatlevel should education standards be set?What is the best way to reach them? What arethe benefits and challenges of collaborationwith other schools? What impact will thegrowing number of academies have on thestate system, particularly in a world ofincreased parental choice?

The NS and the National Association ofHead Teachers brought together a panel of experts to provide some of the answers.The round table, which begins on page 6, is essential reading for those who want to find out how to get from here to there.

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First published as a supplement to the New Statesman issue of 5 September 2011.© New Statesman Ltd. All rightsreserved. Registered as anewspaper in the UK and USA.

This supplement, and other policy reports, can be downloaded from the NS website at newstatesman.com/supplements

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Head teachers contents p3:Statesman supplements 30/08/2011 12:27

4 | NEW STATESMAN | 5 SEPTEMBER 2011

Tinkering with structures and relying oncharismatic heads is not going to solve the

difficult issues, argues Francis Beckett

Take-your-pickschools with

do-it-all heroes

Thirty years ago, state school head teach-ers and aspiring heads knew exactly whatthe job was, for better or worse. Theyknew what they were responsible for,and what the local authority dealt withfor them, and they could move to anotherschool or a new part of the countryknowing that they would face roughlythe same responsibilities.

Three decades of incessant govern-ment-ordered changes to the system,mostly with the aim of reducing the roleof local authorities and increasing that ofthe private provider, has left a patchworkof different systems. Being the head, say,of an academy, or one of Michael Gove’sfree schools, carries very different re-sponsibilities from those still in a local authority family of schools, and runningone of the remaining 164 grammars is an-other job again. And there are differenceswithin these categories. A head in anacademy run by Oasis has fairly wide re-sponsibilities, but his or her counterpartin a United Learning Trust (ULT) acad-emy is so centrally controlled that one ofthem once told me he needed to “get permission from head office” beforespeaking to me.

Sometimes this compulsive tinkeringhas looked a bit like an alternative to themore difficult task of helping heads to do

better. The former schools adjudicatorPhilip Hunter once told the then NS edi-tor, Peter Wilby, that he had inventedfoundation schools with a colleague in20 minutes in the National Gallery tearoom, adding: “It’s very easy to invent anew kind of school. You come up with aname, play around with the governingbody, decide who owns the land and ap-points the staff, and decide how fundinggets to it. That’s it.”

That easy task is what the past few governments have chosen to do. If thereis a silver lining, it must be that we havemore models of headship than we knowwhat to do with, and we can see whatworks and what doesn’t. Are heads em-powered by having greater responsibili-ties, or weighed down and diverted bymanagement tasks that have nothingto do with teaching children? Who dothey like to be responsible to – the localauthority’s education committee, theirown governors, the head office at a chainof schools? If the latter, does a religiousorganisation, such as those behind OasisCommunity Learning or ULT, offerthem the best support, or should they be looking at one of those chains of fee-charging schools that have seized onacademies as a source of regular income?Or should they simply be finding a

commercial company that knows noth-ing about education, but a lot aboutmanagement?

The dangers of the additional responsi-bilities devolved upon heads since Ken-neth Baker’s landmark 1988 EducationReform Act were illustrated by RussellHobby, general secretary of the Na-tional Association of Head Teachers, at aNAHT/NS round-table discussion heldrecently, an edited transcript of which ispublished across the following ninepages. Heads need to focus unrelentinglyon teaching and learning, he said, but, in-creasingly, they are being distracted: “Iwas at a meeting of secondary heads up inYorkshire last week, and the amount oftime they spent writing press releases wasscary.” As the consumer of many of thesepress releases, I can tell Hobby that mostheads write very bad press releases. They

COMMENT

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Head to head: Janet Moffat talks with one ofher students at Melcombe Primary, westLondon, a formerly “failing” school that hasbeen turned around


have neither the talent nor the training forit. Writing a good press release is not oneof the skills required for school leader-ship. If they are having to spend a lot oftheir time doing it, that’s truly scary.

But, if they are responsible for marketingtheir school and the services of the local authority PR department are no longeravailable to them, and they must competewith academies and free schools, theyhave no choice. John d’Abbro, a headteacher at the New Rush Hall Group,which educates young people with emo-tional and social difficulties, thought it was“sad that we have spent the past 20 yearsgetting schools to work against each otherrather than working with one another”.

Writing press releases isn’t the onlytask keeping heads away from what theyought to be doing, said Hobby. He spokeof the head of an infant school going

for academy status, who had taken sixmonths out of the lead ership of the schoolto manage its academy application.

You wouldn’t expect a panel of expertsto come up with a definitive answer, oreven to focus squarely on the question,and they didn’t. There are too many inter-esting questions in a head teacher’s life,offering too many diversions. I inter-viewed 14 successful heads for my bookHow to Create a Successful School and theone thing they all agreed on was that thejob is an endlessly fascinating one. Thestructures, the tiers of accountability –which, strictly speaking, is what this dis-cussion should have been about – is notalways the subject that engages them

most. In fact, Warwick Mansell, author ofEducation by Numbers: The Tyranny ofTesting, argued: “I am not sure how thingschange when a school changes from acommunity school to an academy. Itchanges the governance structure, butwhat parents are surely looking for is whatactually happens in the school.”

So the discussion ranged over most ofthe dilemmas that heads face. How doyou define standards? How do you raisethem? And how much does it matter?What standards are we talking about, anyway – the floor standards, beneathwhich no school should be allowed to slip,or the ceiling standards to which some, orperhaps all, schools ought to aspire?

Is the concept of a “hero head” – acharismatic leader who comes in andsweeps away all the dead wood – eitheruseful or relevant? The concept of the

hero head was very popular in the earlyyears of New Labour, when it fitted wellwith the political atmosphere. Tony Blairwas himself a sort of superhead, who ap-parently believed he was there to sweepout all the rubbish his party had accumu-lated in a century of muddling alongwithout him. And the trouble with thehero head is exactly the same as that trou-ble with Blair: that, in order for him or herto shine as bright as possible, the school’spast has to be painted as black as possible.

And are we still excluding some chil-dren from the benefits of education?Maggie Atkinson, Children’s Commis-sioner for England, is sure that we are.“Who is being told, ‘Well, we don’t dealvery well with your sort of child, MrsJones, but they do around the corner’?Who is being told: ‘You don’t fit in, doyou? Don’t come back after half-term –but we won’t make it formal’?” she asked.In our new competitive education sys-tem, with its league tables, few heads canhonestly say they have never participatedin that sort of conversation. That’s whyour education system, which ought to bea route out of poverty, turns, for somefamilies, into a poverty trap.lThe writer is the author of ‘How to Createa Successful School’

“Writing press releasesand applying for

academy status can bebig distractions”

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Rafael BehrWelcome, everyone, and thank you forjoining us today. Almost as we speak, thegovernment’s Education Bill is beingsteered through the House of Lords.Perhaps, to kick things off, Dr Sidwell,you could outline for us the changes youthink head teachers will notice mostwhen that becomes law?

Elizabeth SidwellHead teachers are being put to the front.The Secretary of State for Education,Michael Gove, is very clear that he wantsto hand decision-making over to heads.The appointments within theDepartment for Education of myself, aformer head, as Schools Commissioner,and of Charles Taylor, the behaviour guruwho is a head teacher in west London, asan Expert Adviser will help head teachersfeel that there are people involved inpolicy-making who understand thesituation they are in.

I would say that primary heads are alittle worried, so a big job is to go outthere and talk to them. We also havespecial school heads, who have a slightly

differently to the “freedom” agenda thansecondary school heads. They have adifferent relationship with the localauthority; they have fewer resourcesinside the school to support them. Manywonder if “trust”, “empowerment”, andso on, are just other words for sharperaccountability. In fact, they are, in somerespects – or, at least, the two go together.

They also feel that on some things theyare trusted, on other things they are not.One of the big dangers about coming outwith a “trust” agenda for schools – whichthis government did, and has not,perhaps, had the response that it wouldhave anticipated – is that, when you tellpeople that you trust them, they expectyou to trust them on everything. Theyexpected to be trusted. And, actually, nogovernment can do that – or should dothat. You can only trust people on certainthings. For example, you do have tomonitor what is going on in schools.

In addition, this government has fixedviews about how things will be done,from phonics as an early-literacy strategyto subject-based delivery of lessons. So it is a fairly conflicted position.

Freedom oraccountability?

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ROUND TABLE

different position as well. The importantthing is that not all heads are the same.

Rafael BehrSometimes it is about empowerment.There are different ways of empoweringpeople. There is empowering peoplefrom the bully pulpit by saying, “Werespect your right to do this”. But thereare also statutory changes. I want to pinyou down on the latter point.

Elizabeth SidwellIn terms of behaviour management, it isgoing to be easier. Heads do feel they aregoing to be listened to. They feelreasonably positive although also a littlebit wary. We have to get the message outthere that we are supportive.

Russell HobbyThey are probably slightly more warythan positive at the moment, because“empower” means different things todifferent people. It can be enough rope tohang yourself with. It is good we haveraised the issue of primary schools,because their heads respond very

As parents and teachers face up to the coalition’s education agenda,the National Association of Head Teachers and the New Statesman

gathered experts to debate the changes ahead

Head teachers roundtable p6-14:Statesman supplements 30/08/2011 12:01


ALA

MY

Leading from the front: schools are being given more discretion to choose how they educate. Will this benefit underperformers as well as the strong?



Julian StanleyI was talking to a group of primary headsin Cambridgeshire recently. Many werefeeling very stressed because they feltthey were being expected suddenly tobecome much more managerial in theirapproach – which is not necessarily bad –but they did not know who was going tosupport them in doing that.

In secondaries in Bedfordshire,meanwhile, they are talking about theproblem of being expected to be eithercharismatic heads, who lead the way, ormanagers, who devolve to teams anddevelop a different internal structure.The problem with charismatic heads isthat, if they leave, people are leftfloundering. We hear a lot about thosekinds of individuals.

Maggie AtkinsonWe should not forget who the end userof education is. It is the child. I amagnostic about who runs schools. What Iam bothered about is the deal childrenand parents get when they walk throughthe door. Who is being told, “Well, wedon’t deal very well with your sort ofchild, Mrs Jones, but they do around thecorner”? Who is being told, “You don’tfit in, do you? Don’t come back after half-term – but we won’t make it formal”?Who is going to hold the moral compassthat takes the system forward for thevulnerable kids, who are almost alwaysfrom difficult, fractured backgrounds?Where they are articulate, parents insome parts of the country may well holdschools to account. Come with me to anestate at the rough end of Barnsley andI’ll show you – because I grew up there –the parents who will not. So who will?

Elizabeth SidwellNo one has mentioned governors yet,but they do need to be brought into thepicture. They are very important. Weneed to support them.

Gerard KellyThe subject of governors is one of the bigareas of education that is always left out.

We are appointing a bunch of well-meaning and very committed, but

essentially amateur, volunteers toresponsibilities for which they may not

have any experience whatsoever. are. Itis not a great idea to have what is, ineffect, a non-executive body for everyschool. A paid-for or, at least, semi-professional chair would be

exam results, and which have massiveconsequences for schools that do,including closure and enforced Academystatus. That does not look like freedomto me. The schools with better results,which are being freed up from Ofstedinspections as well, have a very differentexperience from others that are stillfeeling incredible pressure to improve.

Rick MuirAs part of a centre-left think tank, I findmyself in the strange position of agreeingwith the government on at least some ofwhat it is doing in this area. I was veryconcerned when it first announced itsagenda around free schools, particularly

about the emphasis on competition andautonomy. I felt there would not besufficient minimum standards. I thoughtthe last government had quite a strongapproach to minimum standards, withthe National Challenge if schools werenot doing well. But I have been veryencouraged by the current government’sintroduction of a higher threshold.

The international evidence is thatwhen you want schools to go from goodto great to excellent, autonomy is the bestway to achieve it. You allow people toinnovate, you give freedom to headteachers. With the schools that arestruggling, however, central governmentmust step in to make sure those kids geta decent chance.

There is a problem, though, with theaccountability framework: things areconfused. We have some secondaryheads looking at the five A*-to-C-gradeGCSE minimum floor target.We have other heads lookingat the English Baccalaureate(EBac) as a kind of goldstandard. We have people inthe middle wondering whichof these to follow.

Anastasia de WaalWould you say that part of it is abouthaving had a buffer removed, in terms ofaccountability? Do you think there issuddenly this idea that heads,particularly primary heads, are going tofind that accountability is now a centralaspect of scrutiny? It is almost as if thehead teacher has become the face of theschool on an accountability level – butwithout the support network they need.Is that one of the things that is makingprimary school heads nervous?

Russell HobbyAccountability is uncomfortable. Somepeople thrive on it, but sometimes it isnice not to be in the spotlight. If you arein the wrong, it helps for accountabilityto be fudged now and then, but it is notgood for the system or the children, sopeople do need to be accountable.However, people need to understandwhat they are accountable for; and it isimportant for this not to change toofrequently. So, at the moment, thereneeds to be clarity more than freedom.

Louise StollThere is also the issue of heads’ capacity tobe responsive. A head teacher yesterdaydescribed to me this so-called “lettinggo” as “the most fundamental shift of thelandscape” he had known since 1987,when he first came into education. In hiswords, it was “potentially seismic”.There has to be a commitment tocollaboration, and to peers being able toprovide that accountability system. So,for example, if there were further shiftsto the Ofsted system, or whatever – interms of head teachers being involved inevaluating their peers – there would be awhole skill-building exercise to be done.It’s the issue that Anastasia mentioned,about who is going to be the middle tierand who is going to support schools?Even in the most successful schoolssystem, when there is peer networkingthere is still external support.

Warwick MansellIn terms of this “seismic” shift, whatkind of school was this head running?There is a difference in terms of what isgoing on in schools at the bottom ofleague tables and those elsewhere. Thegovernment is continually reproachingthe previous government for having thefloor standards, below which schools arenot allowed to fall in terms of test and

t

“Articulate parentsmay well hold schools

to account. But come toa rough Barnsley estate

and I’ll show you –because I grew up there– parents who won’t”

Maggie Atkinson

ROUND TABLE



helpful. We have focused so much on thequality of heads and teachers, andignored the quality of governorship.

Anastasia de WaalPerhaps this white paper should havebeen called “The Importance ofManagement”, rather than “TheImportance of Teaching”. We have seenacademies with executive principals,which is moving much more towardsengaging professional managers. Therecould be a conflict here, when, on the onehand, we are trying to inspire theprofession in terms of teaching and, onthe other, heads need to run budgets.

Mike CladingbowlI want to offer an observation around thequality of good governance. It does existin some schools. There are some fantasticgovernors out there doing a fantastic jobin some fantastic schools. Schools areaccountable to parents, although parentshold schools to account in different waysand to varying degrees. You need someautonomy in order to be accountable.But head teachers, both primary andsecondary, have had considerableautonomy for a while. Certainly, Ofsted’sinspection framework recognises theimportance of head teachers, and inparticular, the quality of the teaching; andof ensuring that all the other componentsare there. The new inspection frameworkwill put greater emphasis on how wellteachers are supporting improvementsto teaching and learning in a particularschool. It is also right that inspectionsare targeted to where leaders andmanagement have been less successful.

Rafael BehrThat is an important point. And leads onto the issue of underperforming teachers.I have heard people from the Institute ofEducation say the single biggest thingyou could do to improve schools wouldbe to sack the bottom third ofunderperforming teachers. That’s apolitically toxic thing to say, but it issomething we ought to discuss.

Warwick MansellI wonder whether schools, in the drivefor better results, neglect the needs ofsome children. There are stories aboutschools easing out difficult kids becausethey bring down their statistics. If thewhole system is predicated on the idea ofpressurising the school to raise its results, t

ROUND TABLE

somehow you have to align the child’sneeds to that system. You could arguethat the “results” pressure has a goodbackwash effect on children, but youcertainly have to look at the impact indetail and not just assume that, becausethe numbers are rising, this is good.

John d’AbbroI am not opposed to schools beinginspected. I think we should havestandardised tests. But, if we are to put the child at the centre of the debate, we have to recognise thatstudents are different, schools aredifferent, and head teachers are

different. So one-size-fits-all is nevergoing to be the right way to measureattainment. I have no problem withmeasuring attainment, but let’s think ina way that is fair, that is just, and thatactually measures children’s abilities,rather than the current system thatleaves 40 per cent of childrendisadvantaged because they leaveschool without five A to C grades.

Rafael BehrLiz, how do you deal with those issueswhen there is national pressure todemonstrate that standards across theboard are going up?

Julian Stanley Group chiefexecutive, TeacherSupportNetwork

Dr ElizabethSidwellSchoolsCommissioner,Departmentfor Education

Dr MaggieAtkinsonChildren’sCommissionerfor England

Gerard Kelly Editor, TimesEducationSupplement

ProfessorAlison HalsteadPro-ViceChancellor(Learning andteachinginnovation),AstonUniversity

Rafael Behr(chair)Chief politicalcommentator,New Statesman

John d’AbbroHead teacher,New Rush HallGroup

Dr Louise StollVisitingprofessor,London Centrefor Leadershipin Learning,Institute ofEducation

WarwickMansellJournalist andauthor ofEducation byNumbers: The Tyranny of Testing

Anastasia deWaalDeputydirector anddirector offamily andeducation,Civitas

Dr Rick Muir Associatedirector forpublic servicereform,Institute forPublic PolicyResearch

CONTRIBUTERS

MikeCladingbowlRegionaldirector, Northof England, Ofsted

Russell HobbyGeneralsecretary,NationalAssociation ofHead Teachers


they can just cope with theworld, rather than seeking

academic attainment. So, indifferent social groupings, you

have different purposes. We arenot always clear what our education

system is about.

Elizabeth SidwellWe cannot be doing the social skillsrather than the education! My schools inNew Cross got students to Oxbridge, so Ido not believe that it cannot be done. Wehave to start when they are nought andgo to three. If they are coming in withdeficit, then we have to focus onchildren’s centres and make sure they areready to learn by the time they are five.

Russell HobbyI think there is a clear consensus thatunderperformance needs to beaddressed. There is not a consensus onthe way we measure performance. Wehave just started to become unearthed inthis debate, attainment versus progress.


and 6 per cent gain apprenticeships, sowhere the heck are the majority?

Gerard KellyThe problem is that variousadministrations and newspapers, inparticular, tend to assume that universityis for a certain type of person from acertain type of background. Some publicschools do push vocational training butthat tends to be rare, which is a shame.

Maggie AtkinsonOne of the things that is starting tobubble up for me around this table is thisnotion that a school cannot do it on itsown. Parents, children’s centres andcommunities – and all the other thingsthat go around the child – are important,because the child is only in school 25hours a week, 39 weeks a year; what theydo outside matters just as much. Myabiding concern remains that, when thechild walks through the school door,what they do not do is put down thebaggage that comes with them from theirlife somewhere else. It is not as if theschool is all that is going on in their lives.Whoever is running, owning,governing, managing and putting theirbadges on the schools, needs tounderstand that the cluster around thatschool, of health, of social care, of youthservices, of fire and rescue services,really, really matters. I will give you onestatistic and then I will shut up: nine outof ten incarcerated young offenders havebeen excluded from school.

Rafael BehrHow do we empower head teachers toconnect with that wider community?

Rick MuirThat is difficult because there is only somuch that heads can do. But there is a lotthat you can do in schools aroundhelping disadvantaged kids get access tothe social and cultural capital that middle-class kids perhaps take for granted.Things such as taking them on trips touniversities to raise their aspirations, andsaying, “This is the kind of thing youcould be doing”. All of that stuff aroundthe classroom is very important.

Warwick MansellI do not know how much emphasisOfsted is putting on that kind of input.A lot of people say we should look atstatistical outcomes but, actually, these

Elizabeth Sidwell What we are saying is thatthere’s a basic education –maths and English – thatevery child should have.We’re not saying that everychild should have the EBac. Ihave been into hundreds ofschools, of all types, and I haverarely found – if never – a schoolthat is not caring for the child. It is notthe case that schools are only chasingexam results.

Louise StollI have been working with schoolleadership teams, trying to help them beleaders of learning. We talk aboutunleashing some of the constraints, andhow they can help their teachers be morecreative. In areas where performance islow, the teachers are too fearful toexperiment and take risks.

Mike CladingbowlOfsted is keen to look at the progress thateach child makes from their own startingpoints. These can be very, very different,and our inspection frameworks reflectthis. Achievement is a mixture betweenattainment and progress. The key thing isthe distance travelled to a particular point.

There has been some discussion aboutwhether a school can be good if it doesn’tachieve average attainments. The answer,of course, is yes. The last annual report bythe Chief Inspector of Education, forexample, set out quite clearly that a fifthof all secondary schools judged to beoutstanding had pupils who broadlyachieved national expectations by thetime they left school, but had startedwith low levels of literacy and numeracy,all sorts of social difficulties, and so on.

Rafael BehrIf you are trying to compete in a difficultlabour market, it does not matter whereyou started. It matters what skills youhave when you apply for a job. Is there adanger of putting too much emphasis onthat sort of contextual value, when,really, it is standards that matter?

Julian StanleyWe come back to the purpose ofeducation. In poor areas, where there’snot much chance of people getting a job,or where they cannot get to college oruniversity, some teachers feel their moralpriority is to try to equip these kids so

“Achievement is amixture of attainmentand progress. Ofstedwants to look at theprogress each child

makes from their ownstarting points”

Mike Cladingbowl

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It is the case that the breadth of thecurriculum is impoverished for largenumbers of children in Year 6 andprimary schools, as they are drilled to thetests. It is also the case that we do notvalue every child equally in our system.The child who is on the edge of five A* toC grades is more valued than the childwho is either through it or further awayfrom it. All the incentives of ourmeasurement system push us in waysthat are unproductive for the equalityissue.

Alison HalsteadI think we have to address this “Everyoneis to go the university” and the constantdrive for academic performance. On thelatest statistics, only 32 per cent of our 18-year-olds actually go to university



inputs are really important for kids.Individual reports may comment onthem, but it is the statistics that aredriving inspection judgements.

Mike CladingbowlWe have just piloted a new inspectionframework in 150 schools up and downthe country and we have had somefantastic evaluation meetings with headteachers. Inspectors will evaluate thestandards attained by pupils by the timethey leave the school, how well theymake progress relative to their startingpoint, how gaps are narrowing betweendifferent groups of pupils in the schools,how well pupils are learning in lessons,what the quality of interaction andlearning is in the classroom, and so on.

Anastasia de WaalIf we are going to have autonomy thatis meaningful for schools, diversity inthe education sector, good-qualityschools and, crucially, be able torespond to the kids we have in front ofus, then we have to have anothermeasure alongside performance.Clearly, that is where Ofsted comes in.However, one of the big problemshistorically with Ofsted is that there hassimply not been enough time to go intoa school and understand what it is like.In contrast, although the IndependentSchools Inspectorate – which themajority of independent schools will beinspected by – certainly isn’t perfect,one of its benefits is that it spends quitea lot of time in schools. Ultimately, it ismonitored by Ofsted, but it decides itsown schedule. It is expensive but it isholistic, and that is going to be themillion-dollar question here. If we haveautonomy and diversity in schools, thenwe need a system that accommodatesand recognises this. My worry is that wedon’t have that.

Mike CladingbowlIn our two-day inspections ofmaintained schools, for example, we dotry to get a broad view of what goes on inthat school. That means we need to havegood, high-quality inspectors, and weare absolutely committed to that.Inspectors will always look to take awell-rounded view, exercising theirjudgement as to the quality of educationbeing provided in the school. That is thekey to it. That is the thing parents want toknow, and that is why we are there.

could focus on teaching, which is theirjob. You do head teachers down bythinking that they do not realise howimportant the enrichment activities are.In a group, you can sometimes afford todo something more than you could do onyour own. That is what I have seen andhave been able to do with day trips,musical instruments, and sport on theplaying field of another school. Thesethings are desperately important interms of raising a child’s opportunitiesand achievements.

Russell HobbyI agree that the unrelenting focus onteaching and learning is at the heart ofevery successful school, but heads aremore and more being driven away fromthat focus. I was at a meeting ofsecondary heads up in Yorkshire lastweek, and the amount of time they spentwriting press releases was scary. There isa huge focus on the press and what it saysabout their schools, and also on how tocompete with free schools that are goingto take their pupils. There was a head ofan infant school that was going foracademy status who had taken sixmonths out from the direct leadership tomanage the academy application. What awaste of six months. If they had been agood head teacher, they would have beenin the school.

Collaboration does drive improvement,because you need to learn from otherschools, not just from your owninstitution. However, the sense offragmentation – particularly aroundchanges to the admissions code, whereschools are being encouraged to poachpupils from each other – will affect this.

Maggie AtkinsonOn our website there is a report that Icommissioned from the NationalFederation for Educational Research: the NFER asked 2,000 childrenbetween the ages of 9and 16 whatmakes a goodteacher. Ofcourse, they saidsomebodywho listens,who is creative,who knows theirsubject. But thatwas not enough;they also wanted t

Louise Stoll If you are talking about empoweringhead teachers, you have to help buildskills. One of the things we know is thatgiving head teachers and teachersfocused opportunities for inquiry inother schools – and in their own school –is a tremendous developmentopportunity for them. The inspection-type approaches can add to that. Weknow that, in terms of improvingstudents’ learning, the most powerfulthing that head teachers can do is to focuson teachers’ learning.

Julian StanleyConsistently, in all the survey work wedo with teachers who use our services,the thing they come back to is that theynever have time for professionaldevelopment that allows them to look atother practice as well. That contributes tothe notion that there are many, manyunderperforming teachers. You have toremember, if you are a teacher, aclassroom teacher, you are facing kids,and parents and governors and heads ofdepartments, day in and day out. It is awonderful job, but it is hugelychallenging, and often stressful. Weunderestimate the impact of this on thehealth and well-being of teachersthemselves. And, if people are going tobe asked to work until they are 68, thatmight be an issue!

Elizabeth SidwellWe should remember that we have thebest generation of teachers ever. I havebeen in schools for 30 years, and they arefantastic. We need to let themconcentrate on teaching. When I was aCEO my job was to take away all thatstuff – whether the buildings lacked thisor that, the cleaning, or whatever – sothe head could focus on the staff, thekids and the parents; and so the teacher

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“We know that, interms of improving

students’ learning, themost powerful thingthat head teachers

can do is to focus onteachers’ learning”

Louise Stoll



me on this. I hate to stand up for leaguetables but is not the evidence fromWales, where they did away with leaguetables, that it has been a bit of a disasterand now they are bringing them back?

Russell HobbyThey are not bringing them back. Theyare going to banding in Wales. They arenot going to do SATs, they are going torely on teacher assessments still. So theyhave managed to resist the temptation.

Rick MuirThat is interesting. What the Welsh caseshows is that you do have to havetransparency. You do have to haveaccountability. The question of whetherit is the league table model or not isanother issue. We cannot have a situationwhere there is no accountability, notransparency and parents are not awareof how well schools perform. Thatwould be a retrograde step.

Warwick MansellI would not disagree at all; you certainlyneed accountability. The main studyon this is by academics at BristolUniversity. They looked at the results inthe two countries and said, “Leaguetables is essentially the only thing that isdifferent. England has them and Waleshas not. Results have gone up faster inEngland than in Wales, and thereforeleague tables are the reason”. I was notconvinced by this. The accountabilitysystem may be behind it, but I do notthink you can isolate league tables asthe factor.

Rafael BehrIs there a broader international lessonfrom this? The Swedish model is oftengiven as an example of a free school but,as I understand it, they rather had tochase an Ofsted-style accountability,having first diversified, because theyrealised they would need to bring backsome kind of central accountabilitymechanism.

Maggie AtkinsonBy bringing in free schools, we havetaken one part of the Swedish model.Inspectors in Sweden interviewchildren, with no adults present, abouthow well the school makes their livingtheir United Nations Convention rightsreal. If the school falls short, theinspectors are empowered to shut it.

Education is to empower new academiesand free schools, to give parents thepower of choice. Yet this will createcompetition for students, which willundermine collegiality.

Warwick MansellI am not sure how things change whena school changes from a communityschool to an academy. It changes thegovernance structure, but whatparents are surely looking for is whatactually happens in the school. So justhaving different categories andnames for schools is not necessarilyincreasing choice.

Julian StanleyThere is often such an emphasis on allthese structures, and then it seems tomiss the heart of what is being said aboutthe need to work collectively andcommunally. The best head teachers Isee are the ones that have a genuinehandle on their communities, are really

involved with them – and the kids arereally involved with them. There is thatkind of sense of everybody beingengaged with something shared. Thisemphasis on structures and free schoolstends to be divisive. In particularinstances, it might be healthy orbeneficial, but I am not sure it can workfor everybody.

Rick MuirThe government seems to want both. Itwants federations and chains, to give youthe sort of collegiality, and then it wantscompetition as well, so you have freeschools opening up, and schools beingallowed to expand, and all that sort ofstuff. That is one issue.

However, I just want to return to thismatter of league tables, and I am sureWarwick will completely disagree with

teachers to tell them what the ruleswere and then stick by them, and not tomake promises they could not keep, andso on and so on.

I had a great experience in Novemberlast year in a County Durhamcomprehensive school on Takeover Day.Thousands of schools do Takeover Day;it is what it says on the tin, and it isfantastic. In that school, pupils had hadto make formal applications with a CV toteach for two days. They put theapplications to the teachers they wantedto shadow, and the teachers interviewedthem for the jobs, in front of a formalpanel. If they got the job, the teacher didthe normal preparation, the kid taughtthe lesson and the teacher was aclassroom support assistant. One teachersaid: “You were gobsmacked at theirdedication, their creativity, their abilitywith technology, their risk-taking. Andthen you realised that they see tendifferent teaching styles a week, whilewe only see our own.” The kids said:“We will never kick off in class again. It issuch hard work. We had not realisedhow many hours they put in on Sundayafternoon.” It is about bravery. Youempower the adults in your school bytruly empowering your children andyour pupils, and giving them a voice.

Alison HalsteadOn empowering staff and leadership: wehave models that we know work. But thisis not solving the problem because we arenot sharing the practice, and we are notworking in the communities, withemployers and other schools.

John d’AbbroIt is sad that we have spent the past 20years getting schools to work againsteach other rather than working with oneanother. I know from some of the workwithin the London Challenge, which Iwas part of, that when you can getcommunities and schools to worktogether, you can do things. I am notsaying we should not do all the testingstuff but, if we abolished league tables,with one quick swoop we would bringabout a much greater sense of collegiality,and find that schools are prepared tosupport each other because they are notin competition.

Rafael BehrI am intrigued by this. The agendacoming out of the Department for

t

“The best headteachers are the oneswith a genuine handleon their communities.There is a sense thateveryone is engaged

with something shared”Julian Stanley

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a head teacher, and there was one thingyou could grab to take to the checkout –what would that thing be?

Gerard KellyI was going to pick up on the pointaround accountability and internationallessons. The trouble with it is that itdepends on your educational system’sdevelopment, where it is in the cycle, andthe context. For instance, if you look at“target-itis”, which was bigger underLabour, you could say it was necessaryfor a period of time but then it outlivedits usefulness. If you look at Sweden,certain things are useful, others are not. Itis very difficult to draw acomparison.

Russell HobbyHold schools accountable forwhat they can control andinfluence, and hold themfirmly accountable for that.Measure them on quality and noton the statistics. So go in and find out


what is really happening inside theschools; do not rely on proxy measuresfor that. Once you have done it, keep itstable for a while, so that people knowwhat they are working under.

Elizabeth SidwellI would go back to where I began andsay: empower heads. The amount ofbureaucracy that heads are on thereceiving end of is far less than I had; thatis good. Yes, we talk about free schoolsand structures, but, actually, they are allacademies, that type of school, and theyhave freedoms. They are well rehearsed,the group of freedoms you can have. So Ithink we can go forward on that. I have

been really interested to listen toeverything, and I will certainly do

my best to take people’s thoughtsback.

Mike CladingbowlEvidence tells us that

leaders and managers make thedifference in schools, and it is right,

Alison HalsteadTalking about international models andalso engineering, vocational andtechnical education, I think everybodywould say Germany and Austria do wellin this area. I was over in Austria recently,because we are looking to partner there,and we said to them, “What is it aboutthis system that makes it work?” Whatthey said was, “No ministerial,governmental interference in themodels of education in that country”.They have had them since the late1800s – I have not got the date right –and it has never been interfered with. Inthis country – it is not a party thing, it iswhoever gets in – they mess with thesystem. If we just trusted, empoweredand let it run, it would be an awful lotbetter than trying to solve problems thatalmost do not exist; put the learner at thecentre, trust the staff.

Rafael BehrIf you could imagine that you werewalking through a sort of Powers R Us as t

“It’s about being brave”: Maggie Atkinson, Children’s Commissioner (third from left), says teachers are empowered when pupils are truly given a voice

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therefore, that we involve leadersand managers in our inspections. Wewould always argue that all schools canimprove a bit, and it is right that wehave high expectations of the childrenin the schools. So, within that, good-quality inspections and good-qualityinspectors matter, and they can make adifference.

Julian StanleyAccountability is critical, for headteachers in particular, whether it is tocommunities or to their own governors.Those relationships need clarity andstrengthening. I also think much moreemphasis is needed on supportingleaders and teams of leaders in schools.

Rafael BehrWhat about this dereliction of parentalresponsibilities in some situations,which can affect what teachers do.What is the broader function thathead teachers are supposed to have intheir communities? Is your headteacher supposed to be walking downa high street, fulfilling the kind offunction that a 1950s bobby on his beatwould have?

Julian Stanley“Visible and present”.

Rafael BehrThat sounds a bit like the sort of role thepeacekeepers have in certain war zones,so there may be a slightly alarmingcomparison.

Rick MuirI am on the board of a children’s centre.One of the functions of a children’scentre is doing an incredible amount ofwork with families in really difficultcircumstances, trying to help them.Whether that is done through theschool, the children’s centre or whatever,the state, at some level, needs to bedoing that – to help empower parentswho are in really difficult circumstances,so that they can help their kids. That isvery important.

In terms of the head teacher’s role,continuous professional development ishugely important. It sounds incrediblydull, but is vital to ensure that teachersare learning and improving their ownteaching. That is a crucial role for headsin schools.

Also, as a system, we need to get better

Rafael BehrIs there a motion to scrap league tablesaround this table?

Alison HalsteadI would reconstruct them.

Gerard KellyThey are terribly flawed but, if you donot have them, all you have is reputation,and that can be just as dangerous.

Louise StollYes. Have a much broader and fairaccountability system, and evaluate whatwe value, as well as what is just easilymeasurable. Stimulate collectiveresponsibility through professionallearning communities; ensure adequatesupport for heads and teachers; and giveincentives for innovation, with carefulevaluation.

John d’AbbroI must just say something about Sweden.I am very concerned about the suicidefigures among young people in Sweden.

The OECD [Organisation forEconomic Co-operation andDevelopment] did some work aroundChile. Chile has gone from being about200th to, I think, 24th in educationalperformance. They agreed to have nopolitical involvement in their educationsystem for ten years. I wonder if there is acorrelation?

And, then, finally – you would expectme to say this, given the sector I work in –I still believe the biggest determinant ofeducational outcomes is the quality ofrelationships within the institution –whether that is between teacher andteacher, between student and pupils,pupil and teacher, etc. Where there areeffective relationships, to me, there iseffective learning.

Alison HalsteadSchools and learners: we should all,collectively, be striving for excellence,and we should all be learning together.We all need to exhibit self-discipline, and everyone in schools should bea leader.

Rafael BehrThis has been a high-level panel,and I feel completely intimidatedby the level of knowledge,expertise and insight in theroom. Thank you to you all.l


at sharing. There is this focus now onnarrowing the gap – the pupil premiumis being introduced – but we need to getbetter at sharing practice betweenschools about what works to lift kidswho are at the bottom attainment-wise.

Anastasia de WaalI think it’s important to remember,perhaps slightly counter-intuitively, thatto empower heads is not to put all youreggs in one basket: because they workwith a lot of teachers. There has been anobsession with leadership for a long time.But an empowered head is also going tohave empowered teachers.

The ultimate, really, is about havingaccountability that does what it issupposed to do, which is aboutproviding quality assurance. To achievethat, you need broad accountabilitymeasures. Really effective inspectionlooks at the whole provision. It isabout having a range of indicators, andones that are meaningful. And thatmeans that the government needs toinvest in inspection.

Warwick MansellI would emphasise anything that can bedone to get children to read for pleasure.If you look at the evidence, the numberof books a child has in their house isstatistically associated with how wellthey do in tests.

If I had to change the accountabilitysystem in one way, I would stop theemphasis on league tables, and makeinspections the main school-by-schoolmeasure. But I would make theinspection system much more roundedthan it is at the moment, much morealong the lines of the IndependentSchools Inspectorate.

Just generally on continuingprofessional development, I would saysupport subject associations andsupport networking.

t

“We need to get betterat sharing practice

between schools aboutwhat works to lift kidswho are at the bottom

attainment-wise”Rick Muir

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at the Party Conferences 2011Fringe events

If you are unable to attend please email your question to [email protected]

Tuesday 20 SeptemberHow can we empower head teachers to improve our schools?Speakers: Dan Rogerson MP Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Education Committee Russell Hobby General secretary, NAHTProfessor Alison Halstead Vice chancellor, Aston University Professor Stephen Gorard Professor of education research, University of BirminghamRafael Behr, Chief political commentator, New Statesman (chair)6.15pm-7.30pm Novotel, Burne-Jones Room,Central Birmingham

Wednesday 28 SeptemberHow can we empower head teachers to improve our schools?Speakers: Andy Burnham MP Shadow secretary of state for educationRussell Hobby General secretary, NAHTJulian StanleyChief executive, Teacher Support NetworkJohn D’AbbroHead teacher, New Rush Hall GroupRafael Behr Chief political commentator, New Statesman (chair)1pm-2pmPan Am Restaurant, Albert Dock

Sunday 2 OctoberHow can we empower head teachers to improve our schools?Speakers: Graham Stuart MP Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee Russell Hobby General secretary, NAHTEmma Knights Chief executive, National Governors’ AssociationToby Young Broadcaster, journalist and free schools campaigner Rafael Behr Chief political commentator, New Statesman (chair)4.30pm-5.30pmGreat Hall, Manchester Town Hall

Liberal Democrat Birmingham Labour Liverpool Conservative Manchester

and

Following on from the publication of this report, the New Statesman, in association with the NAHT, is hosting a series of fringe debates

at this year’s party conferences.

All three debates are outside the secure zones and free to attend. Please come and give your point of view.

Have your say...

The NAHT is the largest association of

school leaders in the UK.

We represent 28,500 school leaders in

England, Wales and Northern Ireland,

covering virtually every special school,

85 per cent of primary schools and more

than 40 per cent of secondary schools, as

well as many early years, further education

establishments and other settings.

Hold schools to account for what they do, not where they are

“School leaders should be accountable for sustained performance

on the difference they make to children’s progress,

as measured across a range of factors.”

Value the achievement of every child

“Behind the tables and statistics are human beings.

Every child counts, not just those on the borderline of some threshold.”

Use judgement as well as measurement“If we only value what we can measure, we will create an

impoverished education system, without room for creativity or character;

we will not only permit but encourage gaming.

Data provide questions, not answers.”

P a s s i o n S u p p o r t P r o t e c t i o n V o i c e C o n n e c t i o n

Smarter and fairer accountabilityraises standards

1 Heath Square, Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1BL

Tel: 01444 472472 Email: [email protected] www.naht.org.uk

our schools’ future - new statesmansep 05, 2011 · john carpenter house john carpenter street...

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