Policy

Pre 16 education

Key Stage 2 tests
At the Association of teachers and lecturers annual conference on 6th May 2009 teaching union conference, Ed Balls announced that KS2 tests are not set in stone and he would work with parents and teachers to reform them. He also published findings from a new Ipsos MORI survey of parents from England who have children of school age which shows parents support and value the tests: "70% of parents place value on the tests in providing information about how their child's school is performing" (DCSF website, 8th April 2009). The KS2 tests and report cards are considered to be good approaches to strengthen schools' accountability, and good indicators of schools' performance and achievements.

The National Association of Head Teachers' (NAHT) Parental Survey of Assessment, however, reveals 85% of 10,465 parents surveyed want to replace league tables and national testing with teacher assessment. Findings will give hope to the many educationists and parents who believe teacher assessments rather than external national tests should be used to track pupils' progress. Christine Blower, the NUT's acting general secretary, said: "This ought to be the last year of the SATs. There is a tide of opinion among teachers, parents and experts saying that key stage 2 testing should go."

The Conservative party has since announced that they will abolish SATs for 11 year olds if they were to win teh general election next year.

Report cards
Report cards that will give schools an overall grade based on a range of measures including exam results, has been promoted by Ed Balls to revolutionise accountability in schools so they will be measured on the progress of every child. Inspired by balanced scorecards in the US, the school report cards could include parents' and pupils' views, Ofsted ratings and measures of pupil health and safety, enjoyment, and the school's success in narrowing the attainment gap suffered by disadvantaged pupils. Crtiics, however, have highlighted serious flaws: "There is a real danger that the introduction of the report card will simply reduce schools' work to a checklist of indicators, which does not capture or simply ignores the real work, often innovative, that schools have been doing for some time now to improve the life chances of their pupils" (Union representative, Times Educational Supplement, 6th February 2009). John Dunford, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, expressed the view that school performance was too complex to be reduced to a single score. The debate continues.

Fast track teaching and headship programmes
The fast track graduate teacher programme to encourage City high flyers to become teachers has been criticised by teachers' unions and other stakeholders. The six months' training is considered to be an unrealistic timescale and does not reflect the skills and knowledge required to deliver high quality teaching. A National Association of School Based Teacher Trainers' representative was quoted in the Times Educational Supplement (20th March 2009) as saying that very few undertaking 6 months training are successful and those that finish the school based course quickly have prior knowledge of education.

DCSF also announced the Accelerate to Headship programme which has a clear pathway with competitive entry to enable outstanding people to progress to school leadership in four years. The programme will develop people with the potential to be outstanding school leaders to make swift progress to school leadership positions. This is again a controversial move, with some arguing that limited experience cannot make a solid foundation for Headship

Funding for Diplomas
£50m of funding has been allocated to Diplomas as new figures from DCSF show that over 97 percent of local authorities will be offering the new qualifications by September 2010 and numbers of students registered to study Diplomas is likely to triple this year to at least 40,000. The £50 million will enable local areas to invest in setting up and delivering the qualifications including helping to prepare teachers and trainers, establish timetables and more general development of local infrastructure.

Measures to deal with 'disruptive' pupils
Ed Balls wants parents to share the responsibility for maintaining discipline in schools. He has announced that schools rated as 'satisfactory' by Ofsted are to receive help from teams of behaviour experts. Following on from Sir Alan Steer's report, Learning Behaviour: Lessons Learned, a Review of Behaviour Standards and Practices in our Schools (2009), Balls welcomes greater use of parenting contracts, £50 penalties for those who condone truancy, and introduction of "withdrawal rooms" to remove a disruptive child from a class until behaviour improves. He also calls on schools to use their powers to punish bad behaviour outside the school gates, including incidents on public transport. A NASUWT survey (2009) revealed that teachers in primary schools lost an average of 30 minutes of teaching time every day because of pupil misconduct in the classroom.

Association of Teachers and Lecturers' General Secretary Dr Mary Bousted, however, expressed concerns about the report's failure to acknowledge the negative impact of current national tests, target-driven assessment system within schools and its relation to curriculum narrowing, and pupil de-motivation and disengagement. Voice General Secretary Philip Parkin said: "It seems that the review examines how to tackle the symptoms of poor pupil behaviour, not the deep-rooted causes."

Post 16 education and training

The Apprenticeship, Skills and Learning Bill
The Bill was introduced on the 4th February 2009 and presents a range of measures including:

• Right for employees to request time away from their duties to undertake training
• Statutory framework for apprenticeships and a right to an apprenticeship for all suitably qualified 16-18 year olds
• Transfer of responsibilities for planning, commissioning and funding 16-19 education and training from LSC to local authorities, supported by a new body, the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA)
• Transfer of responsibilities for funding adult education and training from LSC to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA). It will oversee a new demand-led approach to adult education and training provision which is better tailored to the needs of businesses and learners
• Creation of Ofqual, a new regulatory body for qualifications, to carry out the non-regulatory functions currently performed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.