tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79975673257629282872024-03-10T02:46:19.829+00:00What doesn't kill you...A collection of random musings about life, loosely connected with learningHugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09697133865158489682noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-42962949097793586482023-06-14T07:59:00.001+00:002023-06-14T07:59:28.037+00:00British devaluation<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have always tended to agree with Samuel Johnson that, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" and I get itchy when we rush for our banners and flags. But I was depressed yesterday when in a conversation with one of my colleagues about Ofsted and British Values I recalled a short satirical email I wrote almost 10 years ago,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">"We are committed to promoting the core values of Britishness which are clearly demonstrated by our current government</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Arrogance - everything good has happened because we made it happen and everything bad was someone else's fault (either foreigners or Marxists who are everywhere)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Narcissism - we are brilliant and the best and if only everyone else was more like us the world would be a better place</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Xenophobia - there is no problem big or small that cannot be blamed upon bloody foreigners (see above arrogance)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Self interest - we will pontificate about others not following our example whilst shamelessly filling our pockets when we think no one is looking</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Laziness - never do anything positive or productive when you could spend the time moaning and blaming someone else for the problem"</span></li></ul><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I wrote that before Brexit before Boris Johnson and Liz Truss...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">It now looks prophetic. How sad that satire plus time becomes tragedy.</span></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-41434240977856555442023-06-09T20:22:00.000+00:002023-06-09T20:22:35.503+00:00Keyboard warriors<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Last week I was invited to comment on the rise of parental complaints by SchoolsWeek in an article published under the title “<a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trust-hopes-code-of-conduct-for-parents-end-abuse-complaints-social-media/" target="_blank">Trust hopes code of conduct will end abuse”</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the entirety of my response which bears release given the limited quote included in the article.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">“Dear xxx</span></p><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Further to your text, I can confirm that we have seen a significant rise in parental complaints since the pandemic. My Legal Director feels that we are running at about two to three times the 2019 volumes of complaints made direct to the Trust. </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In light of this, the first two hypotheses should be (1) that our schools are somehow worse than they were before the pandemic and/or (2) that parents are less happy with them. But neither stack up. Ofsted judgements maintain their upward trajectory with 86% good or better and SATs scores show a good recovery of the learning lost to Covid. Likewise, I have been running stakeholder satisfaction surveys since early 2021 and parental positivity has not declined significantly over the whole period (average of 81% positive or strongly positive)</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So what is behind it?</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I postulate three things. </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">First, disadvantaged communities feel very disenfranchised. There is a lingering resentment towards the state about lockdown, about Brexit, about inflation and the cost of living crisis. They don't feel listened to or represented. This anger needs to come out somewhere and schools are the closest lightening conductor.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Second, as a society we have become more used to doing things online than we were before. Previously where a parent had a concern or was upset, they would have had a conversation with their child's teacher or headteacher. Now, because they are angry, they skip this step and send a strongly worded email to the Trust, to Ofsted, to their MP often all three at the same time. </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Third, we have become professional complainers. Where previously a parent might have been upset about another child's behaviour towards their child, now they have 'safeguarding concerns' or allege 'racist' or 'sexual abuse' in the deliberate knowledge that these are words which trigger processes (as they should). Often this verbal escalation comes from social media groups that share short-cuts on how to complain effectively.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Put all of this together and you have a pressure cooker that needs a serious release of steam. Because behind all this heat and noise will be genuine safeguarding issues that risk being missed. The only solution I see is for schools to do even more, to lean into their communities and make them feel more valued and heard. But this is exceptionally difficult when the school leaders we are asking more of are the ones who feel the most under direct attack from this army of keyboard warriors.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ofsted and the ESFA must also get much better at redirecting parents back to the first step of the school's complaints policy when they have skipped to Level 3 ALL-CAPS OUTRAGE!”</span></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-79353663980293550022023-03-31T12:50:00.005+00:002023-04-03T12:58:24.832+00:00Ofsted is not the bogeyman... we are<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Social media continues to debate Ofsted’s role in the recent death of a headteacher with much sound and fury. It is not for me to intrude upon the grief of her family, friends and school community, nor to speculate on the reasons. But after almost 60 inspections over the last 11 years, I think I am entitled to comment about Ofsted.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I did not want to write this piece. I had hoped that sense and compassion would prevail in the wake of a private tragedy. As ever with social media, the argument polarised almost instantly as people made this about themselves and projected their own sense of injustice into the space. But this has very little to do with Ofsted.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Ofsted is not a regulator. Ofsted is not the employer. Ofsted does not end people’s careers. Ofsted is merely the inspector, no more no less. The trouble with Ofsted is the rest of us and what we do with its inspection ‘judgements’ and how our often gross overreactions and over-simplifications affect school leaders’ lives.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Let me state this simply. The responsibility for the broken and dysfunctional psychological contract between school leaders and society lies with us, the employers. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I am not saying that many school leaders do not live in semi-permanent fear of an unfair or unreasonable Ofsted judgement. I am not saying that headteachers do not fear for their livelihoods and even their sanity. They clearly do. But the reason that they fear a rigged accountability system is because we have not done our job. We have not told them regularly that Ofsted is merely an audit, an input amongst many others about the effectiveness of the education system. We have not reassured them through our actions that an unfavourable judgement leads to support and reinforcement not exile and shame. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Unfortunately, because we have fragmented our education system so completely over the last 13 years, all that is left is accountability. If I were to be cynical, I might observe that it is much simpler and cheaper for the government to blame someone else for failure than to engage in the complex, messy and expensive process of improving public services.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This sword of Damocles looms so menacingly above headteachers because the idea of accountability is so reductive and so pervasive. Having found the person to blame for a school not being good enough, why would we look any further or deeper into the root causes? A school has been found to be underperforming its children and its leader has been held to account. All is well in the world…</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But if we want a fairer society, we must accept cost and nuance. If we are to stand shoulder to shoulder with school leaders whose schools could do better, then we need to genuinely know our schools. To be able to look the world in the eye and say, yes this Ofsted report highlights some areas of concern that must be addressed but this school is getting better as quickly as it can and it would be ill served by a change of leadership. This headteacher needs our trust and support not our judgement.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the problem of leading system change. If you want to improve a system (as opposed to merely giving the appearance of caring) you only have two inputs. You pick the team and you set the direction. And one of the core elements of setting the direction is making a judgement call about how much change the people in your team can cope with. An organisation cannot get better faster than its people can cope with change. Poor leaders either underestimate tolerance for change and accept underperformance or they overestimate it and break the whole organisation. Keeping the organisation in the sweet spot between complacency and recklessness can only be done with detailed knowledge of the components of the system. If you only know how well a school is performing through an Ofsted report every five years, then you do not know the system you are running.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Ofsted is not perfect, far from it. However, unlike most instruments of government, it knows this and does not pretend to be. It is probably the least broken bit of our education system and is respected internationally. In the main, Ofsted is staffed by people who are both knowledgeable and passionate about education and who want to improve our education system as a whole. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Of the 59 school inspections and one Ofsted MAT review, in which I have been on the receiving end, only one was genuinely inaccurate and even then we didn’t dispute the grade, just the tone of the report. We made it clear to the senior leadership concerned that we saw the judgement in the broader context of all the progress that was being made and that they should not worry. That probably equates to an error rate of 1.5% or less.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The rest of us need to step up. It is a failure of governance in both maintained schools and academies if we continue knee jerk responses to single inspections. We need to place ourselves between headteachers and an unthinking bureaucracy. We need to create the psychological security for school leaders and teachers to be able to take the risks necessary to improve education.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves”- Julius Caesar</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-78825201804560344262023-03-15T14:03:00.001+00:002023-03-15T14:03:05.287+00:00Should we be worried about a national scheme of work?<div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A journalist asked me yesterday about the Ofsted involvement with Oak National Academy. Before I returned her call, I tried to order my thoughts a little. This is a complex space and the following thoughts occured to me...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Le Courbusier said that a house was a, "Thing for living in". It is defined by its function not its attributes or contents. A school is a thing for learning in. A good school is one in which we all learn well. This depends on lots of things. But on nothing more than on good teaching.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Oak National Academy is a collection of schemes of work. Schools often use schemes to scaffold, when teacher quality or subject knowledge is less than desired. But, like any scheme of work, it is no substitute for or guarantee of good quality teaching.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Governments are often frustrated by the cost and time required to improve the quality of teaching. But a grail quest for the perfect text book helps no-one, because the perfect text book doesn't exist. There are no shortcuts to deep subject knowledge and acquired classroom craft. Neither of which is improved by a scheme of work, however good or well intentioned.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Oak National Academy is concerning only if it is the thin end of a wedge. It could be seen as the beginning of a national scheme of work. This might herald a new era of performative compliance. Whether you see it as such or not, probably depends on your existing political and professional bias.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Does Oak National Academy in and of itself improve the quality of teaching? I don't know. There is sometimes a danger that overly scaffolded schemes of work impair rather than improve teacher development. Becuase they do not, in and of themselves, enforce the reflection necessary to deepen teacher subject knowledge and craft. But I suppose we'll have to wait and see.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">It is a tool and its success depends entirely on those who wield it, and the intent with which it is used.</span></div></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-82243440751172045862022-11-09T13:11:00.000+00:002022-11-09T13:11:29.485+00:00Governance revisited...<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have complained before about the guff written about governance despite also being guitly of contributing to it [1]. But the debate is so clouded by the conflation of arguments that I feel compelled to revisit. Emma Knight's</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> recent </span><a href="https://www.nga.org.uk/News/Blog/September-2022/Governing-in-a-multi-academy-trust%C2%A0%E2%80%93-three-debates.aspx" style="font-family: arial;">blog from the NGA</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> is a prime example of an argument that purports to be about governance but is essentially an attack on academy trusts and ignores the only element of governance that matters. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The function of governance is to ask one question, "Is it working?" This can be qualified by supplementary questions such as, "Is it getting better quickly enough?". But ultimately the first question is the one that matters. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The trouble with the arguments presented in the NGA blog is one of framing. The blog seeks to question the effectiveness of academy governance by contrasting it with the governance of maintained schools and asserting that 'localness' is the thing that is missing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">First and foremost, the governance of local authority maintained schools is not the yardstick. Local does not equate to good and central does not automatically equate to bad. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Whether you support or oppose academies [2], maintained school governance is average at best and in the main absent. Its weakness was why academy reforms were implemented in the first place. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When a school is good, or even better, the source of its success is more often the school leader than the governing body. The DfE has known this for years but doesn't say it publicly. Because it doesn't want to piss off all the good people who volunteer to be school governors and because the DfE knows that it lacks the capacity to actually govern the schools itself. Indeed many schools are good despite their governing bodies; whilst most schools that are weak are so because of their governing bodies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For clarity I am not claiming that Academy Governance is any better, only that it tends to be more centralised. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When a school is not working and is not getting better quickly enough it is often the governing body that is resisting the need to improve either by rejecting the need or by excusing the progress. Whilst academy 'freedoms' were largely bullshit peddled to get new and vigorous 'business people' involved in bringing efficient 'corporate governance' to schools, the one freedom that academy trusts do have is the freedom to dismiss ineffective local governors.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Emma's assertion that, "The evidence tells us local governance is here to stay" is perhaps the most dangerous in her blog. First she cites no evidence. She alludes only to opinion and preference. But the question to be asked by and of governance is, "Is it working?" not, "Is it local?". The things we should be examining are which models of governance work, not which ones we like or affiliate with politically.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now before you think I am lobbying for centralised control, I should point out that I am a card carrying fan of subsidiarity. I firmly believe that decisions should be made as close to the people that they impact as the capacity of the people making the decision allows. But that does not mean that local is automatically best. I would not expect a Teaching Assistant to set the budget for a school any more than I should be allowed to design the curriculum for a school which I might visit no more than once as year. The decisions should be made where the knowledge of the people impacted is balanced by the professional expertise required to make the decision. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And doing that does not automatically require local governing bodies. What it does require is better stakeholder engagement in all schools.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are two practical things we could do to encourage this change. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">First government could require that MATs consult children, parents and stakeholders regularly for their views and publish their responses in their annual reports.We poll our staff and parents every half term and publish their opinions twice a year.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Second, and I have been suggesting this for years, Ofsted could decouple its leadership judgement from its governance judgement. It would very quickly become apparent which schools have governing bodies and SLTs woking together in alignment and which have school leaders furiously coaching their governors the night before inspection.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">[1] Here is one of my <a href="https://d180ur4pf89izg.cloudfront.net/uploads/asset/attachment/5490/Elliot_Plain_English_Governance_v2_.pdf" target="_blank">previous attempts to simplify the subject</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">[2] I am on the record as stating that the manner in which this government and its predecessors have implemented academy reforms is nothing short of cultural vandalism</span></p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-12788975752244003122022-09-20T16:15:00.005+00:002022-10-07T09:28:11.189+00:00Bloody grammar schools again<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have written before about the trouble with grammar schools. This <a href="http://hughgreenway.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-blog-of-two-halves-about-grammar.html">post from six years ago</a> still stands up. It is depressing that despite all the evidence, it is such a persistent idea in this country's politics. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was on a zoom call today where colleagues mused that given the recent ministerial appointments made to the DfE, which are as much a metaphorical middle finger to the profession as the actual middle finger given by Andrea Jenkyns to protestors outside Downing Street earlier this year, a policy adjustment to expand selection at age 11 is almost inevitable.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There were some rational people on the call, who reasoned that rather than ignore this policy as a distraction from our core purpose, we should at least engage with it to attempt to mitigate it with a least worst option.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But something inside me snapped.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is as far as I can go...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">You can have your expansion of grammar schools but only if you:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Publicly drop the "levelling up" policy and admit that it was a lie</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Explain that the reason for expanding selection is that you want to spend less on state education whilst pretending to support a meritocracy and also state that it is your policy ambition for many schools in the areas affected to be worse than they are today</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Require all new grammar schools to accept only 50% by academic selection with the balance being allocated by lottery regardless of ability</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Force all MPs that support the policy to send their children to secondary modern schools regardless of ability</span></li></ul><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"></ul><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;">People who win rigged lotteries tend to support lotteries. They are also disinclined to examine the extent to which they were rigged.</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-38453407028833017782022-03-10T12:09:00.002+00:002022-03-16T08:38:36.380+00:00Power is nothing without control<span style="font-family: arial;">I first met Sam Freedman in the winter of 2011/12 at the DfE when Caroline Whalley and I and a small bunch of volunteers were setting up the Elliot Foundation. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Over the years since I have sat opposite him at multiple think tanks and education events and occasionally exchanged tweets. But Twitter is not really my thing in the way that it is his. I have found him to be an interesting and deep thinker about education. I have been surprised by how often I have agreed with him and even when I don’t, how much I respect his approach. </span><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Last month he published a paper through the Institute for Government entitled, "<a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/gove-reforms-decade-on.pdf" target="_blank">Gove reforms a decade on: what worked. what didn't, what next?</a>". I know there are much more important things going on but if we want to make the world a less stupid, selfish and dangerous place, then education policy is important. It is particularly important now as there is a government white paper about to be published and almost all eyes are looking elsewhere.</span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">General background points</span></h3><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The founding idea of school trusts was to create organisations (charities), liberated from stifling bureaucracy and ineffective local government, with the single purpose of improving education for all. My concern about Sam's recommendations in their entirety is that they appear to recommend the reattachment of multiple levels of bureaucracy and the reconnection to local government, which is more ineffective now than when academies were originally conceived. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">If you want to improve the education system you have to rebuild capacity, coherence and clarity. Organisational groupings of schools (LAs and MATs) have to become legally equivalent and operationally compatible. To be more explicit 250-500 school operating organisations regulated by a single entity split into 10-15 regions would make the role of each regional regulator possible. I have long argued that LAs should be allowed to run MATs before they lose any more of their system knowledge and capacity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But the difficulty of this proposed end state is that it would cost a significant amount to achieve. And we have spent most of our school improvement budget on the transaction costs of transferring 50% of schools to academy status. This is the equivalent of spending your entire system improvement budget on a new name for the project.</span></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Premises on which we agree</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The education sector is not in an ideal state. The impact of fragmentation was entirely predicted. I have written elsewhere on the challenges of incoherent, overlapping and occasionally contradictory regulation (<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Education-System-Design-Foundations-Consequences/dp/0367203804/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=marilyn+leask+sarah+younie&qid=1622205711&sr=8-9" target="_blank">Education System Design: Foundations, Policy Options and Consequences, Nov 2020</a>). There has been marginal improvement in both the academy and LA maintained sector but nothing significant. There are good MATs and good LAs but equally there are poor MATs and poor LAs. However, the overall incidence of schools requiring improvement or worse <a href="https://public.tableau.com/views/Dataview/Viewregionalperformanceovertime?:showVizHome=no#/Tab/?percentageType=1&remit=3&deprivation=0&providerType=7&judgement=1&provisionType=0&year=2015-03-31&areaType=1&regionId=0&similarDate=2015-03-31&regionOne=0&regionTwo=0&eightRegions=false&tabName=LocalAuthorityFocus&_=1437568136006" target="_blank">has not moved outside the 13-15% bracket</a> for the last decade.</span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Premises on which we disagree</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Sam seems to feel that there is insufficient clarity around educational expectations, a lack of authority holding trusts to account and powers missing to intervene where necessary. On this we disagree. There is no shortage of authority. School Trusts are amongst the most regulated parts of the public sector. The problem is not the absence of power it is the absence of coherence and intelligence in the system to use its abundant powers with discretion.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The ESFA and RSCs between them have the power to take schools away from trusts and close trusts entirely in the event of contractual breach. If a school trust fails to improve outcomes across its schools as a whole, then it is failing to meet its core purpose. By definition this is a failure of governance. The statutory powers to intervene already exist they are just not being used very well. The reason for this is the gearing ratio between RSCs and the level below them. There are simply too many organisations, all of whom will plead special circumstances when challenged, for the RSCs or the ESFA to act confidently. RSCs have less than ½ a day per year for each organisation over which they have oversight.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In the 1990's Pirelli ran a print ad of American Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis in red high heels with the strap line, "<a href="https://www.fondazionepirelli.org/en/activities/power-and-control-in-one-shot-and-what-a-shot/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Power is nothing without control</a>". Legislators legislate and this is our danger. Adding more powers into a fragmented system will only cause more damage as they will be used without insight. You don't put a jet engine on a wonky bicycle and then act surprised when you're picking up teeth from the road.</span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Central recommendations from,"Gove reforms a decade on" with annotations</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I have taken the 15 recommendations from the IFG paper and sorted them into three categories with rationales for each.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-3ec4074b-7fff-3d11-4f82-0a3fede9ecf1"><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="margin-left: -3pt;"><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="211"></col><col width="208"></col><col width="207"></col></colgroup><tbody><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="background-color: #999999; border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Support </span></h2></td><td style="background-color: #999999; border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Discuss further </span></h2></td><td style="background-color: #999999; border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; white-space: pre-wrap;">Challenge</span></span></h2></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Establish a single arm’s length regulator for academy trusts, merging the academies responsibilities of regional schools commissioners and the Education and Skills Funding Agency</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">" </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Completely agree! Create clarity and consistency. But separate out the Funding Agency from the Regulator to avoid perverse incentives and conflicts of interest. And most importantly ensure the regulator has the capacity to to perform its functions with discretion.</span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. "Create a proper statutory basis for academies, MATs and academy regulation." </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We don't need more statutory powers. We just need the clarity of structure and purpose for the powers that already exist to become useful. </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Publish a high-level framework setting expectations for MATs against which they can be assessed by the regulator. All assessments should be transparent. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You don't need a new framework to exercise power with discretion. The success or failure of a school operating organisation is directly inferred from the performance of its schools in their contexts. An ‘angels on a pinhead’ league table would be a waste of time and money on which no one would agree. Why create independent organisations whose sole reason for existence is to improve outcomes for children and then tell them how to do it?</span></p></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give local authorities the power to ask the regulator to direct academies to increase or reduce their published admissions number (PAN), if they can make a case that they will not otherwise be able to meet their sufficiency duty effectively.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Provided that this power was reciprocated and MATs could ask the regulator to adjust their own PANs up and down in the face of LA intransigence (which is as common as the MAT awkwardness implied by this recommendation)</span></p><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give the new regulator powers to intervene to close or merge MATs for both financial/compliance failures and failure to provide adequate educational support."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would argue this is not needed as it already exists. They already have the power to intervene on educational underperformance through their powers on failure of governance. They also have significant coercive powers. There is danger of creating an accountability revolving door here.</span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give local authorities control over all schools’ admissions policy to ensure fairness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm beginning to suspect that Sam has been captured by the LGA lobby. LA control does not necessarily equate to fairness. This would also set quite a lot of hares running with faith schools...</span></p><br /></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give local authorities the right of access to MAT data, including attendance records.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">" </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see no problem in this. We are public bodies funded by public money. We should be transparent and connected to local government.</span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give MATs a duty to set out their forward plans for expansion and to discuss these with local authorities.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> " </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MATs already have a duty in company and charity law to set out and publish their plans. Just make us write better annual reports</span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider if further powers for local authorities are necessary in light of the ongoing DfE review of SEND provision</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Absolutely not!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> They don't need more power. They need more money. Otherwise they will simply transfer the problem to schools and blame them for failure in the same way that central government currently does to them. The challenge here is where in the overall education settlement we find this money for SEND as the treasury will not support otherwise. See <a href="http://hughgreenway.blogspot.com/2021/10/send-and-moral-decline.html" target="_blank">earlier blog on SEND funding</a>.</span></p></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Set a strong expectation that all schools will join a MAT. Use incentives and clear messaging to encourage the shift to a single system rather than forcing schools to comply</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. “</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes absolutely.</span></p><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create an additional package of legal powers for local authorities to be triggered when all their schools are academies, including the right to hold public hearings of MATs and a limited right to insist academies co-operate with integration of local children’s services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think this is dangerous. Yes, we need to incentivise a move towards a coherent system. But I suspect this would incentivise the wrong behaviours. Some LAs would kick all their schools out and then judge them in what looks like a kangaroo court. You would simply have a revolving door of suppliers overcharging and getting fired for not improving anything.</span></p><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create a mechanism whereby an individual school can make a request to the regulator to move to a different MAT, if they can make a strong case that they would benefit educationally.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the most dangerous idea of the lot. All you have to do is ask yourself how will people behave if this happens? First it allows schools to opt out of school improvement if they don't like their MAT. Second it requires legal contortions to apportion rights to a body that no longer exists. Third it will incentivise charities to act against their charitable purposes and give oil to squeaky wheels. And most importantly fourth it will create the situation where rather than act to improve outcomes for children, MATs will use public money to promote and market themselves to their school leaders, as it is much cheaper to get people to like you than to improve a system. All to address a problem which doesn't exist, to whit the false notion that regulators lack the power to take schools away from MATs that are failing them.</span></p></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inject significantly more capacity-building funding into high-performing small MATs and provide funding to new strategic and high-potential MATs. This should include organisations spun out of local authorities, many of which already exist to provide support services.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe talk to some of the larger MATs who have done this already amongst the chaos of the last decade and could help. Giving money to small MATs who don't know about growth risk and organisational design is dangerous. And please don't ask the DfE about this as they do not know.</span></p><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15. "</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This would require legislation to give a group of representatives associated with each school a legal status independent of the MAT so that a body existed that could make the request.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">" </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is just an additional point which tacitly recognised the silliness of point 14 and creates a process so bureaucratic as to negate its own purpose.</span></p></td></tr><tr style="height: 0pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>13. "Empower the new regulator to create regional MATs to take on schools that cannot find another MAT to work with. It may be necessary to create several of these with different functions (for example, to cover small rural schools). "</i></b>
This has already been partially done and isn't exactly flying as an idea. It also completely subverts the whole idea of school trusts. If the regulator you propose conceives, commissions, directs, manages and dissolves, then it is not a regulator. You have just subsumed the entire school system back into direct administration by the DfE, which I have already shown lacks the tacit knowledge or capacity to perform this role.</span></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Summary</span></h3><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-634f237b-7fff-2b61-34f5-7fe7c688331a"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We should not legislate on the basis that we haven't done so for a while. And before we do, we should ask the question, if we create these new rules, how would different agents in the system behave? </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09697133865158489682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-49416761651546938562022-02-24T16:51:00.007+00:002022-02-25T09:19:39.637+00:00A bang and a whimper<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, it seems important to put down some contemporaneous thoughts. I am no expert and my opinions deserve no more attention than they merit. I am entirely prepared to listen to and even concede to other people's opinions, particulary when they are more informed than mine.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am deeply saddened and not at all optimistic about how this will play out. To mangle a metaphor, these are chickens coming home to roost, whose antecedents stretch back many years in many directions. Yet we seem to have little regard for how we got here. The internet is full of people screaming certainties at each other with little regard for nuance or the contradictory and multiple truths. The first casualty of war is the truth but we’ve been killing the truth for some time now.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Before you assume that, given my time spent in Russia in the 1990s, this is an apology for Putin, it is not. Putin is a grubbly little narcissist <span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span>. But he is significantly more intelligent than Johnson or Macron. Like all narcissists, rather than confront his own shortcomings, he attempts to reshape the entire world to fit his view of himself. Unfortunately, he may be clever enough, his opponents naive and fickle enough, and his timing fortuitous enough to benefit significantly. I suspect much will depend on how far China sees this as an opportunity to advance its own position.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">First to the idiots like UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who yesterday said, "<a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-02-23/uk-has-kicked-the-backside-of-russia-before-and-can-do-it-again-wallace-says">we'll kick Putin's backside", like the Scots Guards did in the Crimea in 1853</a>. It's charming that Ben was literate enough to read his regimental history when he served in the Scots Guards. But I suspect he struggles with any real history or his own departmental papers. The relative strengths of the British and Russian armed forces in 1853 bear no relation to today. You probably only need primary education to understand the differences. This is the empty bluster of English exceptionalism. We are not a first rank world military power anymore, we are barely a first rank economic power. Although it is an established principle of international law that might is not right, we should have had that argument when Russia invaded the Crimea much more recently in 2014. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Second to those on the left including the Corbyn and the Stop The War Coalition, who blame NATO and Western aggression for provoking Putin. If you oppose imperialism you need to be consistent in your opposition because Putin seeks nothing more or less than the restoration of a lost empire, as George Monbiot <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1496796328910802949?s=20&t=1v8IK-z1DMroaAt_SXO80A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">commendably pointed out</a> earlier today.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Third to those on the right screaming 'imperialist aggression' at Putin, check your own recent history before proceding. The second Iraq war was almost certainly imperialist and economically, opportunistically aggressive. Likewise Putin has at least as much, if not more, claim to sovereignty over Ukraine as the UK has to the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar. Unless you want to stand on the principle of self-determination.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Fourth, to the libertarian little Englanders on twitter who claim we have no role in this crisis and that Putin is entitled to invade Ukraine; equating its relationship with Russia as being that of the Isle of Wight to the UK. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">If the Isle of Wight or the Falkland Islands or Scotland, Wales or Northern Island for that matter wished to secede from the United Kingdon as independent states, then they can. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It would appear that the majority of the 44 million Ukranians do not wish to be reattached to the Russian yoke. The Ukranian identity reaches back to the 9th century at least and its relationship with Russia and the Rus is fractious, complex and equally long. If you do not know what the Holodomor is, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">look it up</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Surely there is a moral obligation to defend another sovereign country's right to self-determination? That is after all what most of the people holding this view used as their justification for supporting Brexit.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Fifth, to those who cry moral outrage, nothing can justify this aggression. What did you say when the World Bank and IMF made Russia grovel at the end of the Cold War? Russia was humiliated by the West. Instead of taking the farsighted nation building of the post WWII Marshall Plan (arguably one of America's greatest contributions to world peace) we effectively bankrupted Russia and destroyed its burgeoning and outward looking middle class twice. The parallels between the vindictiveness at the Paris Peace Conference and the subsequent rise of National Socialism are alarming. And I use the term National Socialism deliberately as Hitler's appeal was to nationalism, unreasonable poverty and unjustified shame.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sixth, we have no place making moral arguments when we have been money launderers in chief to the Russian kleptocracy for the last 25 years. We have no place making moral arguments when our own Prime Minister is a moral vacuum.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But where does that leave us. If we are not strong enough to challenge the idea that might is right on behalf of the vulnerable. If we have no right to cast a stone against imperialist aggression when we are amonst the most aggresive imperialists of all. If we have no moral place to stand because we have no morals...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The only path is a multilateral one. However difficult or slow or painful. And to take it we must accept our share of blame for letting this happen. We must allow multiple conflicting and contradictory views to co-exist rather than rushing to oversimplify or blame.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As has been said many times in the Northern Ireland peace process, there is no hierarchy of suffering, there is no difference in a mother's tears.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">______________________________________________</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">[1] Johnson and Macron are probably the ranking narcissists of the current UN Security Council after Putin but I breathe a huge sigh of relief that Trump is a former rather than current President of the USA. This relief is immediately tempered by the dread realisation that Johnson is perhaps the least suited or capable of British Prime Minsters of the last hundred years to deal with this crisis, with the possible exception of Anthony Eden.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-28210382961765537232021-10-25T15:02:00.006+00:002021-11-04T15:02:00.927+00:00SEND and moral decline<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Populist politics undermines truth; preferring certainty over doubt and simplicity over complexity. This is visible in three word slogans like, “Get Brexit Done” or the many variations of “Build Back Better”. The oversimplification conceals dangerous trends that rarely get discussed. In particular the education provision to children with SEND, which is in crisis.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">The complexity starts with a pincer movement of legal obligations. Although the education system has fragmented under successive governments, Local Authorities retain the statutory responsibility for pupil place planning. This means that LAs have to ensure there are enough school places of specific types to meet the needs of the population in their areas. </span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">For mainstream schools, this is simple. You need to ensure that, across a region, you have sufficient primary, secondary and FE classrooms to accommodate the needs of the population. For efficiency, you want your schools to be as full as possible. Below an average of 24 children per class, it gets more difficult to provide ‘good’ education.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">When you start to think about children with SEND, the other arm of the legal pincer is revealed. The Equality Act (2010) says that you cannot discriminate against anyone with a protected characteristic. This includes disability and the penalties for non-compliance are significant.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Most educators are inclusionists. They believe that if a child can be in mainstream schooling then they should be. Those who support grammar schools or talk about selection are not talking about improving education. They are describing ways to limit opportunity for some. Because it is too expensive to give the same chances to all. This selection process is dressed up as something else, otherwise it falls foul of the Equality Act.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">In an ideal world public education would be tailored to the needs of each child. But any rational person can see that the costs of this are prohibitive. The minimum funding guarantee for English primary schools in 2021-22 is £22 per child per day (or £4,180 per year). But for young people with profound and complex needs, the cost of special schools can reach 20-30 times as much. If there isn’t enough money in the system to give everyone their entitlements, all you can do is:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Keep people in the dark about their entitlements</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Delay people’s access to their entitlements</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Add barriers to people obtaining their entitlements</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Shift responsibility onto someone else and blame them</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Illegally redefine people's entitelments and</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Hope that the number of times you are found guilty in court of any of the above costs less than doing what the law requires</span></li></ul><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">...this is exactly what many Local Authorities are being forced to do.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england" target="_blank">The government’s own data</a> shows that the incidence of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has risen from 2.8% in 2015-16 to 3.7% in 2020-21. Despite the fact that over the same period the threshold of needs (the fifth bullet point on the list above) has also risen. At least one LA no longer issues EHCPs for Down’s syndrome; many LAs make families wait over two years for EHCPs; and most issue significant numbers of EHCPs without any additional funding for schools. </span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Before you start getting angry at LAs, the blame is not theirs to shoulder alone. Over the last decade, <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/local-government-funding-england" target="_blank">LA funding from central government has halved</a>. High Needs Funding is based on historic levels and has not adjusted to increased demand. Moreover, LAs are not allowed to use funding for other purposes to meet this rise in SEND needs. The DfE restricts them to a maximum of 0.5% of virement (to be taken from the schools funding block) in any given year. If they break these rules they are required to sit on the financial 'naughty step' and submit regular budget refinancing plans. And remember this is to meet their legal obligations not spending on 'nice to haves'.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Despite next year's increase of 8%, central government funding is still inadequate to address the scale of debt run up by most LAs. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021" target="_blank">Equally, the £2.6bn announced in the Chancellor's autumn spending review</a>, to create additional places for SEND children, sounds like a lot. But it is only capital funding to build the new schools or extra classrooms. There is no commitment to pay for the education that the children taking up these places will need. Some LAs have between 50-100 children with EHCPs requiring specialist provision but with no named special school. These same LAs are being shamed for overspending their High Needs allocations. They are being encouraged to cut other services such as refuse collection, social care or early years provision.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">The government has created a situation that encourages LAs to sweep the problem under the carpet. LAs are being forced to ignore or misdiagnose need. But they retain the risk if they are caught doing so in the courts. And an increasing number of them are being cuaght. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021" target="_blank">In 2019-20 SEND Tribunals were up 13%</a> on the previous year and LAs lost 95% of the claims brought against them. Indeed LAs have lost 91% of all actions brought against them since SEND reforms became law. This strongly suggests that the claims which come to tribunal are likely to be the tip of the iceberg with many thousands more children and families being deliberately kept in the dark and denied their entitlements.</span></p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">This is further evidence of a nation in moral decline.</span></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-533107158173844212021-09-23T07:36:00.000+00:002021-09-23T07:36:00.791+00:00Prisoners of our past<p><span style="font-family: arial;">We are all prisoners of our past. We view events through the lens of our previous experiences and often project onto others opinions and motivations they simply do not have. These imperfections in our understanding of the world around us are exacerbated rather than mitigated by social media and the internet.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Evolution has favoured pattern recognition skills over complex analysis. Consequently, we are vulnerable to seeing things as we think they are rather than in their complex, messy and contradictory reality.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Mark Twain said, "I've lived through some terrible things, some of which actually happened", succinctly highlighting the unreality and unreliability of both anticipation and memory.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There was an interesting example of this last week when HMCI Amanda Spielman attempted to articulate complexity, </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoybXZkBI6KAydKTLC0U3VHYktzr-V7hhmQZSLvHN-RqW7aIeD6sI3VAURp00RPF-It6BoXcBxIAxW5ADLiZN2G272E7x8X-Y6vzybFjjaMtGj4fG1uOLw23TiXc9ofxifPcLTHIAAw/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="634" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoybXZkBI6KAydKTLC0U3VHYktzr-V7hhmQZSLvHN-RqW7aIeD6sI3VAURp00RPF-It6BoXcBxIAxW5ADLiZN2G272E7x8X-Y6vzybFjjaMtGj4fG1uOLw23TiXc9ofxifPcLTHIAAw/w330-h400/Screenshot+2021-09-21+at+16.43.03.png" width="330" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Her thoughts were 'reported' by TES and 'rereported' in the Twitter echo chamber, which jumped on this as further evidence of 'horrible Ofsted' not caring about hungry children or not caring about teacher workloads or just not caring. I suspect she was trying to say something much more nuanced.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It is perfectly possible to care deeply about all of the following:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the loss of learning from Covid</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the loss of livelihoods from Covid</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the dispropotionate impact of both of the above on those already disadvantaged</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the huge and unjustifiable variation in education offering between schools in similar contexts, largely due to an absence of planning at both governmental and local authority level but also at school level</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the impact of all of the above on teacher workloads</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">the sheer scale of the recovery work needed over the coming years and the complete failure of the DfE to acknowledge and fund this</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: arial;">These are not mutually exclusive or contradictory ideas. In fact they are largely interconnected. The messy truth is that s</span><span style="font-family: arial;">ome schools prioritised support to their most vulnerable families, some schools prioritised remote learning, some schools did both, some schools did neither, some schools prioritised in school support to key worker and vulnerable children and some schools prioritised the wellbeing of staff. But all children have lost significant amounts of learning and all schools must be involved in the long and slow process of rebuilding for all children.</span></div><p></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-7905022663446505352021-05-28T14:01:00.000+00:002021-05-28T14:01:09.723+00:00Schrodinger’s appraisal<span style="font-family: arial;"><div>As far back as 2009, I wrote an article for the Training Journal about the ineffectiveness of appraisal processes in organisations being rooted in their compression ratios. We try to compress a year's worth of work into an hour's worth of feedback and fail because this is beyond the tolerance of human communication. </div><div><br /></div><div>Appraisals don't work because appraisees arrive as a hot neurotic mess of hyper-vigilance, </div><div><br /></div></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;">"Do you love me? Tell me you love me. Purlease.... tell me you love me. Oh God, you hate me, don't you?!" </div></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div><div>They over-interpret every available clue whether visual, verbal or otherwise from their line manager until they decode the central message as either good or bad. At which point they stop listening. If they perceive the negative, they either turn in on themselves in an auto-perpetuating spiral of self-loathing or they launch a counter offensive to rewrite the wrong that their manager is peddling. If they perceive the good they also stop listening and bask in self-satisfaction or start positioning for a pay rise.</div><div><br /></div><div>Compare this with lesson observations for trainee teachers. Feedback sessions almost always occur directly or soon after the observed teaching. The feedback can sometimes take longer than the observed teaching itself. The student knows that they can improve and actually wants to be helped, so often the feedback doesn't feel like criticism and is thus welcomed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The difference between the two approaches has parallels with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat" target="_blank">Erwin Scrodinger’s famous thought experiment involving a cat, a radioactive source and a flask of poison</a>. At the risk of an epic oversimplification only possible from a historian talking about quantum mechanics, Schrodigner’s cat inter alia articulates the superposition, in which the cat is both dead and alive at the same time. It is only when we open the box to observe, thus collapsing the waveform, that we establish the reality of whether it is alive or dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the common or garden annual organisational appraisal described above, the appraisee tends to collapse the waveform very early on in the appraisal into the binary choice of either good or bad. Contrastingly, in the trainee teacher feedback session both trainee and mentor tend to maintain the superposition of both good and bad at the same time for much longer.</div><div><br /></div><div>When we feedback about teaching we tend to reinforce and amplify positive behaviours e.g. “It was really good when you did X Y Z, you could also try using that approach in the following situations…”. We also tend to suppress negative behaviours with positive substitutions e.g. “Did you notice it went a bit flat when you did A B C, next time you could try D E or F”. The conversation holds onto the idea of both good and less than good teaching behaviour as being present in all lessons.</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s odd that we don’t always take what we know from one domain to another.</div><div><br /></div></span>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-12897711299928212522021-04-15T12:25:00.089+00:002021-05-28T13:00:45.477+00:00Mistaking authority for control<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was unsurprised but nonetheless disappointed to read that giving evidence to the Education Select Committee yesterday the National and Regional Schools Commissioners argued that there was <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/regional-schools-commissioners-6-key-findings-from-the-education-select-committee/" target="_blank">no need for Ofsted to inspect MATs because, together with the ESFA, they are in control.</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In fact the converse is true, there is every need for Ofsted to inspect MATs precisely because RSCs and the ESFA are not in control. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The reasons the RSCs and the ESFA are not in control I have set out at length in the chapter I co-wrote for <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Education-System-Design-Foundations-Consequences/dp/0367203804/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=marilyn+leask+sarah+younie&qid=1622205711&sr=8-9" target="_blank">Education System Design: Foundations, Policy Options and Consequences</a> (Hudson, Leask, Younie et al) last year. But in short the gearing ratio is too high. RSCs have less than half a day per year to think about (</span><span style="font-family: arial;">let alone act upon or seek to improve) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">each of the different organisations over which they have authority. As a result all they can do is perform a bureaucratic function that points at failure. Pointing at failure is Ofsted's job, one which it does well and, on the whole, fairly. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The ESFA is currently the principle funder and primary regulator of the academy sector a dual position it cannot and should not continue to hold if we seek a self-improving system. Regulation must be separated from funding if you want your system to function. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is not the first time the RSCs have made a grab for the reins of the ESFA but it should be resisted because</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> it further confounds the process of accountability and improvement. Regulation and accountability are by their nature process-heavy functions. Whereas system improvement requires flexibility, innovation, experimentation and fleetness of foot. These ideas were part of the genesis of the academies' movement but have long since been on the wane.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-29732594993914756952021-01-14T12:02:00.000+00:002021-01-14T12:02:48.849+00:00Slow down and do it better<span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Although a significant number of the posts in this blog over the years have been "Get it off my chest" rants, so that I can keep on doing the job, I am at heart a postive and optimistic person. It's just that sometimes it is hard to find the appropriate voice for constructive critcism in the education sector. Speaking the truth to power is essential but when power doesn't really listen for the best part of a decade, frustration can creep in.</span><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">The DfE contains highly skilled, highly motivated and highly dedicated civil servants who have been rushed off their feet throughout Covid trying to issue guidance to support school</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Unfortunately due to the massive fragmentation of the education sector, the DfE no longer actually knows what is actually going on in schools [see many other posts on this blog on fragmentation]</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Political leadership at the DfE and in No. 10 appears to believe that the role of the department is to strongly assert certainty and ‘best practice’ when only uncertainty and emergent practice exist </span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">This is why there have been so many ‘U-turns’ as information comes to light that overtly contradicts the department’s over-confident assertions</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Consequently, much of the department’s ‘guidance’ serves only to shift blame for failure from itself on to school and Trust leaders and in doing so creates work with significant opportunity cost to children and communities</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">The purpose of this blog is to highlight the importance of focusing on quality and not speed when issuing education guidance during Covid by constructively reviewing its latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-your-remote-education-provision" target="_blank">Framework for reviewing remote education</a>. So let's quickly and superficially identify what is wrong or insufficiently thought through:</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;"></span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">As a whole the framework adds little value and much confusion, it is effectively a self-assembly noose with instructions to, “Insert neck of responsible officer here”</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It's based on a false premise as we simply do not know which are the better ways to deliver remote learning to children not in school yet, so we should be seeking first to understand before we rush to measure</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It is confused about whom it is for and confuses governance with operational management throughout</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It imposes a self-assessment grading system without evidence base or terms of reference and although it (optimistically) asserts it will only take “approximately 1 hour” to complete fails to show how this will achieve anything other than the creation of a piece of paper marked 'remote learning self-assessment'</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Having been drafted at speed for multiple audiences, it is less than clear over who is responsible for what and fails to even mention Trustees from whom authority must be delegated in MATs for some of the decisions it mentions</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It <b>wrongly and dangerously attempts to make schools and Trusts responsible for the safety of the home learning environment</b> when this can only ever be a parental responsibility</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Although it is merely repeating the line from other guidance, the requirements are stated in terms of quantity (hours per day) not quality when the role of remote learning is not to fill time but to help children learn</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It appears to add a requirement to provide real time both way communication ‘school community events’ which are likely to be safeguarding nightmares</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">It lobs a reminder about GDPR in at the end just to keep us on our toes</span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">And its last line is one of the best “There are clear rules for behaviour during remote lessons and activities. Pupils know them and teachers monitor and enforce them.” </span></li><li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">Anyone who has attended Google hangouts, MS Teams or Zoom meetings in the last year will immediately understand the impossibility of controlling behaviour of primary school children remotely. NB the Spanish councillor or other example of carelessness and stupidity whilst online</span></li></ul><span style="color: #444444; font-family: arial;">So far so easy and so negative. But what would better and more succinct look like? To which I offer the following:</span></div><div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflective framework for considering remote learning</span><span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-4a27bfb5-7fff-39ae-a5a4-c9e3ac8645b6"><span style="color: #444444;"><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leadership</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Accountability, responsibility and decision making authority</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schools and academies have statutory and contractual obligations that are different as are their mechanisms of governance</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For mechanisms of governance in both sectors the question is, “Is our organisation meeting its legal duties and are we making a difference?”</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For LA maintained schools the LA is the employer and bears the responsibility for health & safety and safeguarding, the governing body is the responsible body and must appropriately authorise remote learning plans drawn up by the Headteacher</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For academies, the Trust is the employer and the Trust board is the responsible body who must authorise or delegate authority to the CEO to draw up and implement plans for remote provision, the Trust board must also decide how where the responsibility for curriculum and outcomes sits (either at the individual school or Trust level)</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to address</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Has the scheme of delegation been followed? Or have operational leaders temporarily exceeded their authority? How can you balance the need to make quick decisions with the appropriate involvement of governance? Could you explain this in two sentences to an HMI? If you have temporarily delegated authority to a HT or CEO how is this balanced by the provision of risk management information and data back to the governing authority?</span></p></li></ul><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remote education context and pupil engagement</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How far does organisational responsibility extend into the home?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schools and Trusts cannot accept responsibility for safety in the home</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They can only be responsible for that which is within their control</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are no longer </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in loco parentis</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when a parent is present and primary age children should not be left alone at home - </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we are not digital babysitters</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to ask</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can you work with parents to improve the quality of the home learning space? What reasonable steps can be taken to mitigate for the most disadvantaged children? Do you know how many children don’t have decent access to the platform? If you can’t afford or cannot procure sufficient devices what mitigating steps can you take?</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Curriculum planning and delivery</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are children going to learn and how will it be taught?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The digital learning space is comprehensively different to the classroom with significant loss of control by the teacher of the learning environment</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That said we should aspire to the highest possible standards without killing teachers through overwork</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to ask</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do leaders and teachers have a shared understanding of how children will gain success in their learning (are we setting children up for success)? Do we have clear expectations in terms of what makes a high quality lesson/sequence of lessons in the Virtual School? How can we use systems which will help in terms of teacher workload</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e.g. automated marking?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is the curriculum broadly in line with our expectations in our ‘physical’ classrooms and relevant to the community that the school serves? </span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Capacity and capability</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Retraining your teachers as digital delivery experts</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lots of teachers are feeling insecure and unsupported in their new roles as digital learning providers we should not forget how tiring it is to be an NQT nor how hard it is to acquire the skills and confidence needed</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to ask</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you know how your teachers feel? How do you know? How are you communicating your expectations of teachers? Have you created networks for peer support? Which networks external to your organisation have you connected to or referenced in your work? How are you reassuring your staff that you will work with them to grow their skills?</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Managing parental expectations - restoring reasonableness</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The SOS has set parents against schools with his recent comments which is unhelpful</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to ask</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can you moderate unreasonable parental expectations whilst retaining the highest possible expectations of progress for all children? How often are you communicating with parents? How much are you telling and how much are you listening? How are you helping parents to create a positive environment and empowering them to encourage and motivate their children?</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Safeguarding and wellbeing</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What this is really about: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keeping children and staff safe</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LAs and MATs are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of children and staff when they are in school</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LAs and MATs retain responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of their staff when they are working from home</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schools and academies </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are not</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> responsible for the safety and wellbeing of children when they are learning from home</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions to ask</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What mechanisms are in place to escalate and report safeguarding concerns about children when they are learning from home? How does your organisation determine when lack of engagement in online learning meets a threshold for safeguarding concern and how can these decisions be made consistently? How are you monitoring and moderating online behaviour? How are you prioritising scarce resources e.g. what are you taking off the priority lists for teachers as many are now teaching in two schools simultaneously?</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-1131759132098433742020-11-04T10:02:00.002+00:002020-11-04T11:30:10.177+00:00Postpone all formal examinations for the forseeable future<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The government and Ofqual and some education bodies are currently arguing furiously over how we will be able to run examinations in 2021 if Covid continues unabated.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">They are entirely missing the point. It is like arguing over what colour to paint the lifeboats whilst the ship sinks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There is a limit to what an examination system can tell you. No amount of brute force trauma on next year's exam statistics will be able to redress the unfairness in the learning already lost to Covid since March. Exams are not impossible. It is perfectly possible to design a comparatively safe way to conduct them next year. But why would we bother? We already know beyond any doubt that they will be irrelevant and fundamentally unfair.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Exams are merely a proxy for what we think young people may or may not be able to do next. They are effectively passports or letters of introduction which say, "You can trust the bearer of these results to be able to..."</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Study 4 A levels with a reasonable chance of passing them</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Reasonably hope to complete a BTech</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Cope with the academic rigour of a university course</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Thrive in this apprenticeship</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Etc etc</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Surely as a sector we can come up with some form of emergency letters of transit that equate to a letter from their current school that says, "Peter could reasonably have expected to have achieved between x & y GCSEs at grade q or above had he not lost six months of school in the last year". The next institution can accept Peter onto its programme of study or work; perhaps with a novel probationary period, if it turns out that Peter can't actually keep up with the demands of his new programme.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the only way that massive regional and economic unfairness is not further baked into an already divided country. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This emergency process need only be for the duration of Covid and the only risk is that we admit a small number of people onto programmes of work or study that are too challenging for them. Well, what is wrong with that? Provided we treat them fairly and supportively, we can say, it looks like this course is a little too hard for you why don't you try 'x' instead.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The three arguments that the government has used thus far to defend its absurd attachment to exams under Covid are:</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">To do any different undermines the credibility of the exam system as a whole</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">It is unfair to those in previous and future years</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">It risks promoting people beyond their capabilities</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The first point only matters if you are trying to protect the myth of a meritocracy. And can you really tell me that anyone in the current cabinet other than perhaps Rishi Sunak is there on merit?</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">On the second point if you could find me one person from the past or the future that says, "No we shouldn't err on the side of kindness to this year's cohort, whose education was ripped away from them by Covid. No. Let's mark them down because it's unfair on me". I'd say you'd managed to find an idiot and a heartless one at that.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And on the third point, see my answer to the first point.</span></div><p></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-7976251459662873742020-10-29T15:13:00.000+00:002020-10-29T15:13:00.548+00:00What is a school?<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> As you already know, dear reader, I am a classical liberal educator. Unfortunately, we live currently in a period of deliberate endarkenment. But there is always hope...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I sincerely hope that America gets rid of Donald Trump next Tuesday. But there is nothing I can do to make that happen. Closer to home and in a field where I might have a tiny bit of influence, I sincerely hope that the Covid pandemic impact on the operation of schools will lead to a re-examination of the process of education that is to the benefit of the learners themselves. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Wilhelm von Humboldt said, "We cannot teach language, we merely create the environment in which it is learnt". And with the rolling ongoing closing of schools I hope that we can deconstruct what we understand by a "learning environment".</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As I have written before, most people have strong opinions about education because most people at least attended a school and thus believe they have received or suffered an education. But the extent to which most people, including many politicians, actually think about or understand the process of learning is tiny. We tend to conceptualise the process of educating through its machinery, namely schools.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Education is done to children - in classes - by teachers - in schools - run by headteachers - held to account to a greater or lesser extent by local or national governments. Even the late <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en" target="_blank">Ken Robinson in his famous TED talk</a> used the metaphor of a factory to explain what he saw as wrong with education, when he asked if "schools were killing creativity".</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But as Le Corbusier famously described houses as being, "things for living in" then schools should be "things for learning in" and here we can see that the process of education, or 'schooling', is not defined by the physical school or classroom itself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Indeed children can and do learn at home, in the park, online, in the playground... anywhere in fact. Equally as schools are forced to send more and more children home to learn "remotely", they must realise that they have lost control of the learning environment, if indeed they ever had it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Much of the flurry of Covid remote learning has been the creation of pre-recorded lessons in video format that children can watch at home. But however much care is given to the platform through which teachers communicate, test and feedback to children, I don't think anyone has got the technology to tell whether any particular child actually watches the videos with the sound turned on and pays attention.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I suggest a school should be determined by its output. A school is the thing which creates, in the mind of a child, sufficient trust that appropriate risks can be taken from which learning may occur. Schools should create learners. If they do not, then they are not schools, they are merely childcare facilities.[1] </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This in turn poses questions about how you measure whether learning human beings have been created by our schooling process but that is for another post.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p>Footnote</p><p>[1] The Covid pandemic has revealed that our current government cares more about schools as childcare for workers than it does as instruments of social progress</p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-47284109978184478892020-10-19T17:24:00.000+00:002020-10-19T17:24:02.960+00:00Centrist Dad's lament - provoked by looming no deal<blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span> <i>"If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain" </i></span> </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For much of my adult life I have misattributed the above quote to Churchill. A superficial web search throws enough doubt for me to be unsure of its true origin and slightly embarassed to have been wrong for so long; Churchill having famously left the Tories at age of 56 to join the Liberals for a two-decade stint.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I suspect the reason I have not questioned its origin is because it appears to be so self-evident. As we get older, we have more to protect. The most obvious corrolary is, "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas". And yet maybe I should start examining the things I believe to be obvious in more detail as 2020 seems to have more than a little topsy-turveyness about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have felt disenfranchised for the best part of a decade, if not longer. My political choices have generally been choices between the least dreadful. I cannot remember voting for someone I genuinely trusted to do right by society. In my youth I despised Margaret Thatcher at least partly because I was young and to do so was fashionable. Looking back now, although I still disagree with most of her policies and grieve at the damage done to communities and society, I can at least respect a values-led politician.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">John Major is a man to whom history has been surprisingly kind, although his fondness for cricket and Europe are probably behind my affection. And what wouldn't one give to have politicians of the stature of Clarke and Hesseltine more involved in government now?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It is odd that I feel most let down by Blair. Not because of the Iraq war. I have to admit that I did not oppose it at the time, so I will not fly that flag of convenience now. But because of the lost opportunity. New Labour could have done so much more and in the end was brought low by its squallid compromises. Brown I suspect, like Major, will weather increasingly better with the passing of time as the importance of his role in avoiding genuine global financial collapse in 2009 becomes more apparent. But timing was against him as was his slightly awkward style and he paid for his predecessor's crimes</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I flirted briefly with the idea of Clegg, despite having probably been a possible Lib-Dem for many years before his accession. But I cannot really forgive the degree to which he enabled a government so much worse than the one that he claimed to have mitigated. He was so comprehensively outmanouvred that his party was consigned to irrelevance.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Whilst Boris probably only make's the 8th level of Dante's Inferno [i] but with claims to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th (<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=7th+level+of+hell+dante%27s+inferno&rlz=1CAIYPJ_enGB916&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=sCx2jh8Ny04T4M%252CTY6Cw5OeBuJbMM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTAqM04JriirDMvXTz--2tfLwsDIg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxz-WpjcHsAhVLT8AKHZ4KDgIQ_h16BAgNEAU#imgrc=sCx2jh8Ny04T4M" target="_blank">go on look them up it's fun</a>), David Cameron I condemn to the 9th. He must go down, amongst some stiff competition, as the worst leader this country has had in centuries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I already have some sympathy for Teresa May but the sooner we are done with Boris and all who sail in him the better. Society is coming apart at the seams because of the box that David Cameron arrogantly flung open and I'm not sure that there's much hope left at the bottom. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The damage we have done to our country over the last decade borders on vandalism.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Would that the Greens had a little more pragmatism... [ii]</span></p><p><br /></p><p>Footnote</p><p>[i] I do not believe in hell so this a merely a thought experiment in ranking catastrophic leaders</p><p>[ii] <a href="https://www.politicalcompass.org/" target="_blank">My political compass</a> appears to have moved a click or so to the left since I last checked but I'm still quite libertarian (in American terms)</p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-29762370506232394892020-08-29T10:14:00.002+00:002022-03-10T12:11:04.053+00:00Rip it up and start again<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Earlier this week, on an innocuous phone call, I vocalised what I realised I had been thinking for a while; it's time to get rid of the Department for Education. In the immortal words of Orange Juice, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzPh89tD5pA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rip it up and start again</a>". The government as a whole has not had a good Covid but No. 10 and the DfE are the bottom of of a particularly sticky pile escaped, perhaps only, by the treasury and Rishi Sunak.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">One of my colleagues asked me yesterday, "What would be worse if the DfE ceased to exist tomorrow?" Neither of us could think of a single thing and that is why it is time for a reboot. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">By releasing this evening at 8pm on a Bank Holiday weekend </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">their latest guidance</a><span style="font-family: arial;">, and then at 9.30pm amending </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">their previous guidance</a><span style="font-family: arial;">, they have jumped their own blame shifting shark. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The lion's share of the work of getting children back into schools during Covid has been done by Multi Academy Trusts, Local Authorities and by schools themselves. Covid has starkly revealed that government and the DfE in particular no longer even understand, let alone have any control over, what goes on day-to-day in most schools. It has been revealed as the most cavalier of absentee landlords who has let the entire building rot without realising or caring. I</span><span style="font-family: arial;">t is clear that it cannot be shaken out of its self-defensive and bureaucratic torpor.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Education needs to be completely reimagined from first principles. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Whatever replaces the DfE needs to re-learn and re-examine the system for which it is accountable; so that when it speaks it does so with an earned authority. It needs to listen to the profession and give the impression that it cares in order to rebuild a modicum of trust without which it will achieve nothing. It needs to invest in its own people and trust them so that they can speak truth to power, when power needs to be told it is talking out of its arse. It will be helped greatly if it refrains from issuing guidance without first asking itself, "How will this help children and schools?". Then and only then when it has an actual understanding of what goes on in schools and the spaces between them (because the education system is much much more than just the sum total of schools) coupled with an informed, motivated, self-confident and self-critical staff can it think about redesigning structures of accountability, which are its current sole obssession. The fixation with accountability is easy to explain; if you have someone to blame for failure, you don't actually have to do anything difficult or expensive. But we should aspire to more for our children.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have written here and elsewhere about the pernicious consequences of the fragementation of our education system over the last decade, which has bordered on vandalism. But the gap between education policy makers and practioners must be addressed as a matter of national importance. Society is formed at the gates of primary schools but teachers can no longer bear the burden of maintaining a civil society on their own. I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Any half decent school improvement professional will tell you that all successful schools prioritise their children and familes and most failing schools prioritise their senior leadership and staff. The first of the seven <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nolan Principles</a> is "Selflessness" and yet I would be amazed if a member of the current government or indeed any preceding government could spell that let alone live it. Governments prioritise the pursuit of power. Most schools prioritise the wellbeing of their children and families.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Whom would you rather trust?</span></p><p><br /></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-74276147306940980552020-07-05T11:00:00.002+00:002020-07-16T06:55:51.411+00:00Treated with contempt<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><font face="arial" style="text-align: left;"><i>"Primary pupils do not and have not needed to be kept apart in the classroom"</i> </font><font face="arial" style="font-size: small;">From </font><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "google sans", roboto, robotodraft, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual; text-align: left;">24 June – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers</span></div><span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">With the 15 words</font><span style="font-family: arial;"> above</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> in an update email today, the DfE has shown in just how much contempt it holds the teaching profession. As a Chief Executive of a Multi-Academy Trust, I am not trusted with details. So I cannot tell whether this contempt originates from Downing Street or from Gt Peter Street, although I suspect the former.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">To get the detail out of the way early, the innocuous clause above contains an outright falsehood. The DfE is trying to suggest that it has always maintained that social distancing was not necessary in Primary Schools. </font><span style="font-family: arial;">This is not a cock-up, this is a re-writing of history (one of my colleagues has pointed me towards a good</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-rewriting-history-over-claims-schools-have-never-had-to-keep-pupils-2-metres-apart/" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">SchoolsWeek article highlighting exactly this</a><span style="font-family: arial;">). </span><span style="font-family: arial;">When challenged, it is going to fall back on the only sentence in the hundreds of pages of guidance it has issued to schools over the last 15 weeks that contains anything even close the idea that it does not want and has not repeatedly asked for social distancing measures to be implemented in primary schools. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">That sentence, issued on June 1st says,</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><font face="arial">"We know that, unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff. In deciding to bring more children back to early years and schools, we are taking this into account.</font><span style="font-family: arial;">"</span></i></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">Acknowledging that something is probably impossible amongst hundreds of pages of encouraging people to strive for it nonetheless is not the same as pretending that you never asked for it in the first place.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">What follows is speculation but as this is a blog, I am allowed to speculate. I encourage anyone who can correct errors in my guesswork to point me towards evidence that I am wrong.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">I am told that SAGE, when modelling the scenarios for Covid, always assumed that social distancing in primary schools would be impossible. This is not an unreasonable assumption. Small children like physical contact. But if this were the case, it would have been nice for them to tell us. Conversely everything that issued from the DfE over the Covid lockdown was about the paramount importance of 2m+, islolation, test and trace, 72 hours to leave contaminated spaces, PPE and all the rest.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">The stress under which the primary school system was placed was immense. I would not be surprised if headteachers have died from the stress, although I must be clear that I do not know that this has happened. </font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">Behind all this lies a really difficult political choice. Whilst the impact of allowing the Covid virus to progress largely unchecked through the UK will cost tens of thousands of lives, it is also possible that keeping the UK economy locked down might cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The UK government has a choice to keep schools closed and society locked down to contain the spread of the virus and with that condemn this country to a recession it has not experienced since the Black Death in the 14th century. Or ease the restrictions to allow the economy to recover and by doing so allow people to die.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">There is something really terrifying in that phrase, "Allow people to die". It has echoes of WWI and "Lions led by donkeys". But the greatest good of the greatest number is the principal responsibility of government and no-one said it would be easy. But if hundreds if not thousands of dead teachers and support staff, of which many BAME, is the price that we need to pay to avoid hundreds of thousands dying through a terrifying recession, then the very least we can do is tell them the truth about the risks they are taking.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial">If you want to have moral authority, you must first have morals.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><p></p><p></p>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-64758746771057951172020-06-07T10:47:00.000+00:002020-06-07T10:47:04.536+00:00The endarkenment chapter IV: a new hope<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">How intriguing that I haven't blogged for four months... [1] It's almost as if there have been some unforeseen events that society has had to deal with. I trust my reader will forgive me. Although he or she may not forgive me jumping from, "<b>Endarkenment II</b>" to, "<b>Endarkenment IV</b>" just so I can make the weak Star Wars gag in the title. Shall we assume that <b>III</b> would have had too much Jar Jar Binks in it and leave it at that? [2]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I was talking recently to my rather wonderful and unlawyerly lawyer <a href="https://www.brownejacobson.com/our-people/about-our-people/people/mno/nick-mackenzie">Nick Mackenzie</a> for a <a href="https://edinfluence.podbean.com/e/s02e06-rising-to-the-challenge-looking-forward-with-optimism-part-1/">Podcast</a>, in which he asked me to find a positive from the Covid-19 crisis; to look for hope at the bottom of the box. I answered that maybe the pandemic would finally dispel the myth of control. I know it doesn't look possible now, as we are </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">globally </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">beset with moronic 'alt right' leaders who demand our fealty above everything. As their incompetence and bluster is exposed, they clutch tighter to the idea of of command and control as the only solution; banging the drum of flag, tradition and tribe. Let's pray it crumbles to dust in their ever tightening grasp.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My hope is that if we can help the scales fall from enough people's eyes, then maybe we can make education and society better.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What most people and still too many educators are yet to grasp is that whilst the requirement for social distancing remains our schools can probably only receive 44-51% of pupils back into classrooms, depending on school size and staffing. This means that education as we understand it will fail. We will simply not be able to get enough children back into schools in the traditional 30 bums on 30 seats way. This in turn will force us into some form of innovation involving digital technology. Whether it be splitting years groups into A & B cohorts for week on/week off schooling with the off weeks supported by virtual lessons at home, or the extension of the school day and school year into holidays and weekends to allow for catch up, or exam year groups being prioritised back to schools, while others learn from home. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All of the options require a massive contribution from Ed Tech.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">If we are moving to a space where the average pupil to teacher ratio in school is going to drop from just over 20 to just over 10 (in the primary sector with and without social distancing), then this can only be solved by a massive influx of teachers or a significant re-imagining of how pupils can learn when they are not in school.</span></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">I use the verb "learn" deliberately because when children are not in school we cannot "teach" them. However upsetting this will be for the starched collar, new-Edwardian, uniform, discipline, Empire and repetition brigade. We cannot metaphorically throw a board-rubber at a child at home who has got bored of the tedious video their teacher has sent them and is looking out of the window. We have lost control...</font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Likewise headteachers, who have been ground into submission by decades of accountability without authority, clinging to their false 'autonomy', need to realise that the only way we can make the system work is by children from their school having access to subject matter specialisms from teachers in other schools. And I don't mean the wet superficial collaboration that our sector bleats about where 'experts' with a badge drop in on another school for a day or two to lord it over their less fortunate peers. I mean genuine co-innovation at a system level. </font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">We need to start thinking seriously about the creation of inspirational learning environments outside of school that draw on the deep knowledge held by teachers about their pupils but also look for efficiencies in content creation and curation. </font><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We must avoid </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">absolutely t</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">he 21st century equivalent of plonking the children in front of the TV to watch an 'educational programme', even if that programme is high quality and based on a curriculum sanctioned by Minister Gibb himself.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with all virtual learning is it spends too much time and money at the curriculum end of the challenge and almost none at the delivery end. If the only reason that children were learning in classroom is because you've metaphorically locked them in, how are you going to cope if they can play Fortnite instead?</span></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Unfortunately, as a nation we are in about the worst possible place for this to happen having blown up our school system into the structurally incoherent mess it is today. If ever there was a moment for school trusts, groups and cooperatives to step up and show how the creation of a learning environment goes way beyond sitting up straight in class and listening to teacher but into the minds of each child, it is now.</font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">'Education is the lighting of a fire not the filling of a pail'</font></div><div><br /></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Let's start building learners.</font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">*********************************************</font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Notes<br /></font><div><div><div>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[1] I started writing this blog before the rant I published on Friday</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[2] Yes, I know that Jar Jar Binks only had one line in 'Revenge of the Sith' but that was one line too many.</span></div></div></div></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-85664485798346987702020-06-05T16:47:00.003+00:002020-06-10T09:44:19.762+00:00How bad does it have to get to change your mind?<font face="arial">In a week when one day the UK "<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8387971/Britain-announces-coronavirus-deaths.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Covid deaths exceeded the whole of the EU put together</a>" and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/george-floyd-trump-biden.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">President Trump plumbed new depths stoking racial tension</a> in the US, I am forced to wonder just how bad does your leader have to be before you disavow him (or her)?</font><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">I know that it is only human to believe that one makes good choices. In exactly the same way that nearly all of us believe that we are better than average drivers. This is ordinary cognitive bias. I also understand the most of our political opinions are emotional rather than rational. We retrospectively allocate reason to defend positions we instinctively already 'feel' are correct.</font></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">But surely there comes a point when you say, "OK this is nuts, that's enough" </font></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">For those </font><span style="font-family: arial;">still </span><span style="font-family: arial;">clinging to the idea that Boris Johnson is doing a good job, how can you read that headline above (specially selected from a rabble rousing right wing red top) and not have your brain try to escape from your head? </span></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">You can't read that and hang on to, "It's too early to make international comparisons" or, "You can't compare as the UK's population is much denser" or "We're the only people accurately recording our death rates, the others are hiding things".</font></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">That's some fairly extreme mental gymnastics. If you have to create an alternate universe in your head where simple rules of mathematics no longer apply and the entire world is engaged in a conspiracy against the plucky Brits, who are the last bastion of truth and decency...</font></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">Then you deserve this bloody shambles of a government. Better still, why not buy some cammo gear and an assault rifle and move to America. You'll fit right in.</font></div><div><font face="arial"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial">I gave up on Labour less than a week after Corbyn took over and he never saw power. These guys are letting people die.</font></div>Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-11516065423669364912020-02-27T10:21:00.000+00:002020-02-27T12:02:03.008+00:00The Endarkenment II: Ideological trench warfare<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the things that working with Dr. Caroline Whalley has taught me is the value of revisiting old ideas. The below are ideas for a think piece I put together for the Times Ed just over a year ago that got forgotten about and never saw the light of day. Although the angle on the ideas is now 'out of time', in that the parallels with WWI don't work, the ideas are still relevant.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ideological trench warfare</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">December 2018</span><br />
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Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">More than a century after the end of the, “War to end all
wars” it is alarming to note the increase in trench warfare. Although today’s
trenches are metaphorical, the degree to which political debate has descended
to the defence of positions in defiance of reason is entirely analogous. We no
longer sacrifice the youth of a continent in the mud of no man’s land, we
merely sacrifice truth and morality in the grime of ignorance, dishonesty and
self-interest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">That’s a grandiose opening. How the hell am I going to
relate this to the UK’s education sector? Well, if we wish to save the
enlightenment, we need to get out of our trenches. To get out of them, we need
to recognise that we are all digging them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ideological Trench #1 - There is never enough money</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">There will never be enough money to provide the quality and
diversity of education that most educators believe all children deserve. But if
the noise in the sector is anything to go by, we are about to compound this
problem by having a big fight about funding when no-one has any money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is disingenuous of the government to maintain its current
position that we currently spend more on education than we ever have or that
per pupil funding is more than twice what it was in 2010. Yes, we do spend more
in total but only because there are more children in school than ever. Yes, it
is true that we spend more per pupil than in 2000 but unfortunately it is also
true that we spend less per pupil in real terms than we did in 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But for the unions to choose now to fight this battle is equally
disingenuous. The impact of Brexit is guaranteed to be negative on the public
purse, the only thing that is unsure is how big the ensuing recession will be.
This is a pointless fight unless someone wants to make a big political leap and
reallocate money from the Defence, Environment or Justice departments to
education, which I suspect is not on the cards.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">If we reframe the question as, “Can we find efficiencies in
education without sacrificing pupil outcomes or breaking teachers?”, then we might get somewhere.
And in the spirit of getting out of my trench I will venture that this is what
Lord Agnew was trying to say, albeit failing gloriously, when he recently bet
the profession a bottle of champagne that he and his team could find savings in
any school. But it should go both ways, I bet I could find efficiencies in the
DfE and ESFA and I wouldn’t need a team to help me find them. You could start
with regulatory overlap and the duplication of audit and ESFA costs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ideological Trench #2 - Burn
the straw men<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">If I may be permitted to mangle a metaphor, ‘The Blob’ was a
straw man. Together with ‘the enemies of promise’ it was the exaggeration of an
opposed position for rhetorical purposes. The Blob didn’t actually exist any more
than evil Tories slashing funding for education exist. The problem with using
straw men in debates is that we end up fighting enemies who simply aren’t
there. They also antagonise those with whom one might otherwise work to improve
a system.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Despite my disagreements with politicians to the right and
to the left, I do not doubt their commitment to improving outcomes for
children. But we often expend too much energy being angry at people with whom
we don’t entirely disagree.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Your enemy is not your enemy.</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it
so.” [Hamlet 2.2]</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Improving outcomes for children is hard work. In
disadvantaged communities it can feel like a Sisyphean task. Every September
the boulder has rolled back down the hill and each of us is 'another year older and
deeper in debt'. It can be easier to bear if one has someone to blame for this
unfairness. I’ve lost count of the times when I have railed against a faceless
bureaucrat-jobsworth and found some comfort in the idea of an evil plan to
frustrate all the good I have convinced myself I am trying to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But that evil plan does not exist either. Between cock-up
and conspiracy, you should always favour cock-up. It is simply more human. Even
if you don’t get the satisfaction of self-righteous anger.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ideological Trench #3 No
battle plan survives contact with the enemy - Nothing is that simple<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I don’t know Nick Gibb MP, although I have met him once. My
instinct is that his mental model of the education system is oversimplified. In
my head, his persistent championing of synthetic phonics and Singapore maths is
an oversimplification of a terribly complex problem. My Nick Gibb homunculus is
on a grail quest for the perfect text books. Get these text books right and he
will scaffold weak teaching in a way that all the CPD and training in the world
could never achieve. He has copied and pasted approaches from Singapore without
understanding the context in which they appear to work. Consequently, he
mistakes better practice for best practice and stretches it beyond its domain
of applicability. This will only lead to an absurd concentration of power and
risk at a ministerial level that ultimately fails the poorest in society.
Because when the minister choses the text book, what happens when he picks the
wrong one?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I like to believe that my approach is better. Keep expertise, money and
decision making as close to children as possible. Manage education as a complex
adaptive system....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But here’s the thing. People whose opinions I respect have
told me that Nick Gibb is not like this at all. This is deeply inconvenient for
my mental model. Maybe I’m the one who is oversimplifying, projecting my own
bias onto someone who is equally committed to improving outcomes for children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</h3>
Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-13244613323980634642020-01-20T09:27:00.000+00:002020-01-20T09:27:10.778+00:00At the bottom of the box<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I wrote this a fortnight ago but forgot to hit 'publish' </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had an interesting exchange with an old friend at Christmas, who wished me "hope and optimism" for 2020. I told him that I hadn't found the hope at the bottom of the box yet as I was too busy dealing with the demons unleashed by Pandora's Brexit.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But on reading <a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/">that blog post</a> by Dominic Cummings, in which he sets out his plans for the revolution in the Cabinet Office and invites assorted weirdos to come and join his team, perhaps I discern the first glimmer of hope.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The blog post is classic Cummings, confident, opinionated, vigorous and chaotic. I have long worried that given the keys to power, he will do as much harm to the country as a whole as, together with Gove and other SPADs, he was allowed to do to our education system in 2010. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In his non-traditional job advert, Cummings appears to highlight a decline in civil service capacity over the last decade, which he is addressing with his call for, "wierdos". The slant towards maths, programming and AI post-grads who will push forward evidence-based decision making should be welcomed. We have seen the damage that overconfident and superficially competent PPE graduates can do. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provided that it is genuinely evidence-based decision making that is sought as opposed to massively complex post-hoc data taken into the basement and beaten until it agrees with the ruling narrative. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I remember many years ago being taken into the confidence of the stats team at the DfE who told me that any time they had to 'retire' a statistic as being patently untrue, they were under standing orders to 'produce' two stats that sounded at least as good. All of which goes to support the old adage that you can get statistics to tell you anything you like if you torture them long enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But as the transparency on education data has significantly improved over the last few years both with the <a href="https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/">compare schools</a> and the <a href="https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/">financial benchmarking sites</a>, I am going to chose to believe this is a sign of hope.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The trouble is that there is a whole world of difference between being able to identify a problem and being able to solve it. This is what happened in 2010 when identifying an ineffective and inefficient education system, the half-implemented solution was to blow it up and start again.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-49649714412768736342019-11-08T15:46:00.000+00:002019-11-11T16:11:18.477+00:00Raising the debate (or trying to)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I started writing a response to a post on Facebook this morning about the election but it got a bit long so it turned into a blog post.</span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">The
bit about truth and belief:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">Ah
Danny and Paul, here lies the problem. Elections are not about truth. They
never have been. Elections are about what you can get enough people to believe
enough. And as you both know, “A lie told 1,000 times becomes the truth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">So,
I’d like to politely challenge some of the beliefs in this thread and elsewhere
on social media. For each challenge below, I will submit evidence and indicate
where there is also challenge to that evidence. If you would like to persist
with your beliefs because they make you feel better, that’s fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">But
at least I tried.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Uncontrollable
and uncontrolled immigration is not and has never been the problem</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Labour
didn’t break the economy and the Tories haven’t fixed it</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
Tories' election promises are as financially unreliable as Labour’s</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brexit
<b style="text-indent: -18pt;">did not</b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> receive the biggest mandate in UK electoral history</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brexit
is <b style="text-indent: -18pt;">not even in the top 5 </b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">problems currently facing the UK</span></span></li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">The
evidence bit<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Uncontrolled
immigration is not and never has been the problem</span></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Research <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759376/The_Fiscal_Impact_of_Immigration_on_the_UK.pdf" style="text-indent: -18pt;">commissioned
by the current government</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> demonstrated that EU migrants are net contributors to the UK and they contribute more to our economy per head than native UK citizens</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">So they aren’t coming over here
stealing our jobs and services</span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> they are coming over here and propping up our
economy, paying our taxes and keeping us alive as anyone who works in the NHS
knows (</span><a href="https://static.guim.co.uk/ni/1390829680973/NHS_staff_graphic.pdf" style="text-indent: -18pt;">where 1
in 5 doctors come from outside the UK</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> – although I accept that other
sources <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7783">cite this as lower</a>)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The idea that EU migration is uncontrollable
is a myth. The UK already has the power to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=460&langId=en" style="text-indent: -18pt;">repatriate EU
nationals if they don’t find work within 3 months</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">. It doesn’t use this
power because it knows a) and b) above and also because it would cost too much to
implement</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite having this power, the current
government and its coalition predecessor have done nothing to limit immigration
and <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/february2019" style="text-indent: -18pt;">net
migration has rise</a>n. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you follow the evidence above you
should be asking yourself why. The simple answer is that EU and the
perception of uncontrolled immigration was a convenient stooge on which to
blame all the ills in society</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Labour
didn’t break the economy and the Tories haven’t fixed it</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is not the place to explore the causes
of the 2008-9 financial collapse <a href="http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-books-about-the-financial-crash.html" style="text-indent: -18pt;">many
whole books have been written on the subject</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I think it is safe to say that the
Brown-Obama approach of Quantitative Easing to shore up Western capitalism
<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b5b764cc-d657-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e" style="text-indent: -18pt;">averted a significantly greater disaster</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Labour handed a <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-debt-to-gdp" style="text-indent: -18pt;">net debt burden of 63%</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">
to the Tory-Lib Dem government in 2010 (it having risen 14 points from 49% that
year)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite professing a preference for
austerity the <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-debt-to-gdp" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Tories
have taken net debt to 82%</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> (although it has reduced slightly from its high
of 84%)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And yet we still talk about the memo
Liam Byrne left at the treasury saying there is no money left because it plays to our beliefs</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
Tories election promises are as financially unreliable as Labour’s</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most people, even die hard Momentum
members, will realise that John McDonnell’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/50325432" style="text-indent: -18pt;">£400bn spending plans</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> represent
the “moon on a stick’ to get you to vote Labour</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But even though his rationale that
borrowing that much money to spend in order to grow the economy sounds like
going on a credit card binge and expecting it to increase your salary. There is
significant evidence that public sector <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/acceleration-principle.asp" style="text-indent: -18pt;">borrowing
for infrastructure investment does promote GDP growth</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the same time <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/11/07/javid-vows-300bn-investment-spree-tories-tear-spending-rules/" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Sajid
Javid has laid out plans for £300bn</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> but his sums are as creative as
McDonnell’s economics is optimistic. He is not spending anywhere near that much
as he has compounded multiple years. Moreover, the promised education spending is
going mostly to Tory marginal seats and not to the most disadvantaged communities</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bluntly they are as bad as each other</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brexit
did not receive the biggest mandate in UK electoral history</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am so fed up of shameless will-to-power
morons like Boris and Jacob parroting the, “biggest mandate in UK history” in
their, “will of the people” dog-whistling</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes 17.4m people <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results" style="text-indent: -18pt;">voted to leave
the UK in the 2016 referendum</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results" style="text-indent: -18pt;">turnout was only
72.2%</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Very interestingly, if you look at the
voter turnout over the last hundred years, you will see that <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8060%23fullreport" style="text-indent: -18pt;">every
single post war election in the 20<sup>th</sup> century bar two had a higher
turnout</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And hence a bigger mandate than Brexit (a
larger percentage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_history_of_John_Major#1992_general_election" style="text-indent: -18pt;">UK
electorate voted for John Major</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> for Christ’s sake)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Equally interestingly, <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8060%23fullreport" style="text-indent: -18pt;">voter
turnout has collapsed in the 21<sup>st</sup> century</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> and it is this
disenfranchisement that is behind Brexit and our current troubles</span></span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brexit
is not even in the top five problems facing the UK at the moment</span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is just an argument that allows a
very small political group to draw a different dividing line through the
electorate to increase its chance of obtaining power from a minority position</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You must know that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-single-market-brexit-campaign-customs-union-2018-1?r=US&IR=T" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Boris doesn’t actually believe in Brexit</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> – it’s just his way of obtaining and retaining the keys to No. 10</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you don’t, just ask yourself the following
questions:</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Brexit more important than the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3bc316c0-5f6c-11e9-a27a-fdd51850994c" style="text-indent: -18pt;">social
care crisis</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> in our country</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Brexit more important than <a href="https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget?" style="text-indent: -18pt;">rebalancing
the NHS for the 21<sup>st</sup> century</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Brexit more important than the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-emergency-scientists-emissions-letter-climate-change-a9185786.html" style="text-indent: -18pt;">global
climate emergency</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Brexit more important than <a href="https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/rev/google_vis.php?title=Recent%20UK%20Education%20Spending%20As%20Percent%20GDP&year=2000_2019&sname=United_Kingdom&units=p&bar=1&stack=1&size=800_600&spending0=4.37_4.55_4.75_4.80_5.08_5.19_5.25_5.19_5.49_5.31_5.73_5.69_5.24_4.91_4.75_4.58_4.44_4.26_4.16_4.20&legend=Education-total&source=a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_e" style="text-indent: -18pt;">rescuing
our education system from a decade of neglect</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Brexit more important than <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/policy-campaigns/campaigns/criminal-justice/" style="text-indent: -18pt;">fixing
the criminal justice system</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">?</span></span></li>
</ul>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">Because you know that it isn’t. And you know that Brexit has nothing to do with those problems whatsoever. It’s just because you
voted for it and you think you should get it. All the rest is noise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">Brexit
is simply not important. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: AppleSystemUIFont;">But
this election is... and I’m buggered if I know who I’m voting for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-89655593246528538202019-10-16T14:31:00.001+00:002019-10-16T14:31:19.944+00:00False dichotomies and false premisesReflecting on a number of recent conversations with people in the education world I rediscover the importance of starting points in debate and just how much opportunity to improve a system is lost by failing to examine the premise.<br />
<br />
The challenge is best illustrated by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008y8z">Andy Zaltzman joking about Brexit on BBC Radio 4's News Quiz recently</a><br />
<br />
"Is reducing massively complex political and economic issues to oversimplified binary choices right or wrong?"<br />
<br />
But this is not a blog about Brexit, I've done more than enough of them. It's about solving social problems and getting beyond everyone's initial endowment bias and confirmation bias - the entirely natural human traits or [1] overvaluing your own beliefs and ideas when compared to other people's and [2] tending to notice or even look for data that confirms your existing beliefs rather than challenge them.<br />
<br />
What this means in practice is that we often start discussions in the wrong place. I start with my prejudice and lived experience and you start with yours and we take an average between the two positions and then have at each other. When this happens often, between lots of different people, we create argumentative habits. We repeat these short-cuts (or tropes) over and over again to the extent that they become worn paths in our minds and they prevent us from properly listening to each other.<br />
<br />
One of them exists in the academy space and is a revisiting of the old Keynesian dilemma, can the private sector be trusted to deliver a public good? It's also known as the "<a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/1626/economics/free-rider-problem/">Free rider</a>" problem.<br />
<br />
This plays out as follows:<br />
<br />
<b>A) Those who swing to the left</b>:<br />
There is no place for profit in education. Business can't be trusted to deliver for the vulnerable and the poor. Greedy fat cats will fill their own pockets and cut services siphoning money into offshore accounts and their friends' pockets. Those that most need support from the system will get none. Teachers will be forced to fill the gaps without proper funding or support.<br />
<br />
<b>B) Those who swing to the right</b>:<br />
How long can you keep pouring taxpayers' money down the drain without delivering any improvement? Government cannot be trusted to improve education because all civil servants do is create endless regulation and red tape that achieves nothing. If you want to improve outcomes all you need is robust accountability.<br />
<br />
Group A see the academy sector as confirming all their worst fears about the sell off of public assets and the undermining of support to the needy. They see education being taken over by business people who know nothing about teaching. They see increasing high profile cases of misuse of funds as proof of endemic corruption and moral vacuum. They see Group B (and most of the academy sector) as heartless, greedy Neo-Cons.<br />
<br />
Group B see the academy sector as a breath of fresh air bringing energy, conviction and purpose to a sector desperately in need of reinvigoration. They see long term under-performers leaping ahead and negative vested interests being challenged. They see group A (and most of the previous education sector) as moaning Marxists uninterested in children and pursuing their own narrow political aims.<br />
<br />
Although both groups are partially right, they are also significantly wrong in what they chose to see. Consequently as their mistakes compound each other nearly all debate is in the wrong place. To whit:<br />
<br />
<b>Academies introduce profit to education:</b><br />
<b>No they don't.</b> It is illegal for multi academy trusts to make a profit from their charitable work. They are also tightly bound to proving they spend public money properly<br />
<br />
<b>Business people who know nothing about education are taking over</b><br />
<b>No they aren't.</b> The vast majority (probably >95%) of Trust Leaders are serving or former headteachers.<br />
<br />
<b>Some high profile cases of fraud are proof of systemic corruption</b><br />
<b>No they aren't.</b> They are the product of a higher regulatory standard than that which exists in maintained schools. So more people get caught. This is evidence of system working not failing<br />
<br />
<b>Local authorities were failing children for too long</b><br />
<b>No they weren't.</b> They were dealing with immensely complex issues at the same time as dealing with massive funding cuts.<br />
<br />
<b>Academy reforms have introduced freedom and energy to a stagnant sector</b><br />
<b>No they haven't.</b> They have massively fragmented a sector that was largely successful (if inefficient in some areas). There is almost no freedom as the programme is excessively over-regulated due to the concerns of group A above<br />
<br />
<b>Academy reforms have led to significant improvements in long term under-performers</b><br />
<b>It is far too early to say</b> whether the improvements delivered are sustainable or scalable or significantly above normal regression to the mean. There is some evidence that the sector has become marginally more efficient but most of the savings have been taking in reduced government spending rather than increase in performance.<br />
<br />
The challenges are not addressed by Group A and Group B screaming at other across a divide. The system is much more complex than that. And if the last two years are anything to go by, the less politicians are involved in education the better.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08313004913482408177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997567325762928287.post-54721209440052469782019-09-11T08:20:00.004+00:002019-09-11T08:20:39.511+00:00The burden of optimism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teaching is an optimistic profession. The endeavour is predicated on a construct that things we do today will yield a better tomorrow for all to enjoy. It is not easy. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those working in challenging communities September is difficult because we have to start again all the way back at the beginning. Children, many of whom will have been malnourished and neglected over the holidays, arrive back at school behind where they were at the end of July. And deprivation is writ large across the rising percentages of children who start their reception year non-verbal and still in nappies.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teachers and school leaders who confront these challenges with optimism and positivity, who don't blame the parents or the wider society for the extra work, deserve better from their politicians. I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">t's hard enough already in education to build a better tomorrow without the fault-lines and fissures in society being nakedly exploited to the pursuit of power.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to think that I have some empathy but I simply cannot compute how anyone could watch Boris Johnson on the news and not see him for the shameless, deceitful opportunist that I perceive him to be. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the same time I understand just as many others look at Dominic Grieve, Yvette Cooper and John Bercow and see the 'enemies of the people' as they are portrayed by the tabloids. I also know that these divisions are being deliberately exploited to allow smaller and smaller extremist groups at the right and left of British politics to drown out the reasonable centrist voices.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if to help us that there may be a political equivalent of Occam's razor - which simply states that where there are two possible explanations for something you should prefer the simpler. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where there are two politicians suggesting contrasting ideas we should prefer the more selfless.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Hugh Greenwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09697133865158489682noreply@blogger.com0