Friday 13 October update – last week’s blog is rather kindly validated by Professor Alan Smithers’ letter in today’s Times newspaper –

Readers who have engaged with my writings over the years know that, where I can, I give credit where credit is due. Education is deeply indebted to the Thatcher government’s reforms of the 1980s, most notably to Lord Baker who as Education Secretary at the time led the change from the tripartite system of O’Levels, CSEs and other stuff through to the development of the GCSE programmes we now have in our schools. Move on 15 years, and Education becomes indebted again to the reforms led by David Blunkett in the Blair government period, tightening up GCSEs, widening the 16+ curriculum, funding new school developments and releasing local school managements from the very tight strictures of local authority management.

“Be careful what you wish for” I hear you say, because of course between the 2 decades of progress we have also enjoyed the ‘reigning back’ by more conservative politicians, most recently by Michael Gove from 2010-14 and his reforms subsequently supported by 9 Education secretaries that have followed, current incumbent being Gillian Keegan, appointed in October 2022, just coming up to the end of he first year of tenure, so that means of course that she’s due to be replaced some time soon.

Of course there are some that might believe that my school would be much better off if I (and my brother Hugh) would choose to retire now, having just completed 42 years in charge. The good news for those who know Claires Court, is that leadership here has been of the matrix kind before I joined in 1975, my parents before me working with colleagues who were also heads in leadership. Legends in our life time have included Karen Rogg, Trevor Sharkey, David Course, Ann Pitts, Andy Giles, Jeff Watkins, Liz Green, John Rayer, Steph Rogers, Paul Bevis, Maggie Heywood and the current amazing colleagues, Leanne Kirby, Gary Hope and Steve Richards. That sense of continuity and institutional knowledge holds us in very good stead. The school was set up to offer for each child the opportunity to be the best they can be, and it remains that to this day.

We seem to be in full swing for the various party conferences, and I certainly don’t envy Gillian Keegan as Secretary of State for Education, arriving in Manchester shortly. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to wonder out loud whether or not he should be changing A levels for a new approach now is as disturbing as it has been for those running transport policy as he suggest now might be the time to cancel HS2 north of Birmingham.

Here’s the simple education situation in terms of accountability to research methods. When you change a system, you need to run it for at least 5 years to see whether the changes have been worthwhile and added value. A levels and GCSE changed 6 years ago for most subjects, but of course we lost 3 years of data because of the Covid pandemic. The country has implemented T levels, a vocational alternative, with the first cohort graduating this Summer, and that too will need a further 4 years of research data before we tinker further.

That’s not of course stating that we should not consider additional changes, but that we need to bear in mind that every change bears a cost and causes unforeseen circumstances. Currently, we have the most efficient process for permitting students to excel in their subjects at 18, and then release them to University to graduate in 3 years time. We are the most successful country in graduating students through their degree in a specified time, and the methodology for charging has been proven on balance to work well.

If we reduced the depth of understanding at 18+ in favour of a broader curriculum, such as the IB, we then are asking students in many disciplines such as Medicine and Engineering to study a further year at University. And in turn, we don’t provide for our amazing expert teachers for A level the opportunity to carry out the depth study work they wish in their graduate discipline – there is no guarantee that such specialist A level staff would be willing to switch to a different grade of teaching and learning. These choices have existed for decades, and through care and evolution we have managed in the 3 home countries of England, Wales and Northern Island to keep ‘home’ education in schools to age 18. Scotland’s different choice continues not to play in its favour, offering a less standardised approach at secondary school, though covered by the general principles of their ‘Curriculum for Excellence’. Introduced in 2014, CfE was flagged at increasing breadth and choice at secondary level, and actually the reverse has happened, and the narrowing of the curriclume has also led to a drop in overall standards as well.

A much similar outcome would be from a decision to remove GCSEs at 16+, because the Core and Options choice at 14+ would disappear straight away. Over the past 12 or so years DfE has tried to impose a Baccalaureate approach for this phase, with every one following History or Geography and a Foreign Language. Of course the EBacc is one approach, but my RS staff would argue that the elements of Philosophy and Ethics they teach would genuinely benefit all students, as of course would all the other artistic, creative, design, business, musical and technical disciplines too. I’m currently leading a school-based initiative to introduce AI, Coding and Drone-led Computer Science here, and for those with a real interest in this area, for them its clearly of more value than an MFL. Indeed whilst we can argue that A levels are a ‘Gold Standard’ there are certainly not the only way to assess performance and competence at 18+, with BTECs being a popular alternative, including more coursework assessment at the point of completion.

The news currently is dominated by international issues such as Climate change and the Ukraine conflict, about which we can do little. Other really important issues are such more straightforward; HS2 is a plan to link the North to the South, and there’s no point in beheading it. Border controls, Prison security, Justice delivery and even National Heath and Care services can only function well if they are valued, well-led and supported. The fragmented and fractious approach since the demise of the Blair-Brown governments commenced with the Osborne’s austerity cuts of 2010, a classic example of a plan utterly failing, when we are now spending more public money than ever. It seems that politicians simply can’t stop cutting off their own nose to spite their face, most recent example being that the costs to the NHS to cover the current nurse and doctors strikes has cost them more than the initial pay rise requested.

Those that know my school are very aware of the encouragement we have offered to mature entrants to the profession, with many now in middle and senior levels of management having had careers elsewhere first. The government sets targets for teacher recruitment, aiming to attract for example 20% of Maths graduates to join the profession, which is a really tough ask given the salary levels used by industry to attract these skills their way. The job of teaching Maths though needs more than just ‘nous with sums’, and the mature entry incumbents have such real life experience to offer as well. Trouble is, those with such life experiences simply won’t put up with the cannon-fodder approach schools and colleges have adopted, with 40,000 teachers quitting for other employment last year.

So to conclude, there are a number of orthodoxies I am promoting that politicians could learn by.

• Evolve not Revolve;
• Invest in people first, and do keep abreast of what technology can do;
• Don’t overspecify on physical infrastructure investments, we can often to just as well with less;
• Maintain breadth, depth and diversity, though we need the core skills of English, Maths and Sciences, other methods to encourage engagement and reasoning are just as valuable;
• Be careful what you wish for – suggesting the French Bacc and education system are to be admired is not borne out by reality;
• As with politicians, encourage those entering any of the professions to have gathered a good deal of experience elsewhere first, and value that experience on the entry pay grade.
• And for goodness sake, celebrate and make education in schools fun – it’s the consumers’ childhood and we mustn’t lose sight of that!!!