DfE press officers were unusually busy yesterday, with several announcements made to coincide with the Secretary of State’s speech at the NAHT conference in Liverpool – not a professional association solely for primary leaders, as some seem to imagine, but for leaders in all schools.
One of the most important announcements was that of the formation of a Workload Advisory Group to be chaired by Professor Becky Allen, the director for new Centre for Education Improvement Science at UCL’s Institute of Education. The appearance of senior representatives from the teacher associations among the membership makes this look like a reformation of the former body that existed under the Labour government. Assuming it produces proposals that are accepted by the DfE, then this Group should help Ministers restore some morale to the teaching profession by signalling that they are taking workload concerns seriously.
Announcements about the treatment of so called ‘coasting’ schools and forced academisation may well sound, if not the death knell, then certainly a slowing of primary schools opting to become academies. Why give up relative independence under local authority administration for the uncertain future as part of an Academy Trust, where the unelected trustees can decide to pillage your reserves and move on your best teachers and there is nothing you can do about the situation. That’s not jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but taking the risk of walking out of your house and leaving the front door wide open.
Hopefully, the Secretary of State is starting to move towards resolving the twin track governance system that has emerged since Labour and the Conservatives jointly decided to have a fit of collective amnesia about the key importance of place in schooling and also demonstrated a complete lack of the need for any democratic oversight of local education systems. My Liberal Democrat colleagues that demonstrated no opposition to academisation during the coalition government are, in my view, almost as equally to blame as the members of the other two main political parties for not recognising the need for significant local democratic involvement in our school system.
The Secretary of State might now be asked to go further and adopt the 2016 White Paper view that in-year admissions for all schools should be coordinated by local authorities; a local politician with responsibility for schools should also once again have a voting position on schools forum rather than just an observer role, especially as the NAHT have pointed out the growing importance of the High Needs Block and SEND education where links between mainstream schools and the special school sector is a key local authority responsibility. http://www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/funding-news/naht-analysis-of-high-needs-funding/
The idea of a sabbatical mentioned by the Secretary of State was discussed in an earlier post on this blog, but there was little else on teacher recruitment in his speech.
If you want to listen to my thoughts on the present state of teacher recruitment, then Bath Spa University have just published a podcast in their Staffroom series where I answer a series of questions. You can access the podcast at https://soundcloud.com/user-513936641/the-staff-room-episode-10-crisis-in-recruitment and my interview is followed by a discussion between leading staff at the university on the same topic.
John Howson 
Also to blame for releasing the academization juggernaut are those heads and governing bodies of secondary schools and large primaries (mostly headed by those feted by Michael Gove) who jumped at the perception of more money and the false promise of more ‘freedom’. They acted with no thought of the consequences of their actions on local authority funding and on smaller schools which don’t have the resources to benefit from any economies of scale or to hire admin staff to cope with increased bureaucracy.
Janet,
You shouldn’t be working on a bank holiday, but I agree the perils of academisation weren’t fully considered by the governing bodies of these schools. The fact that both Labour -see recent funding debate speeches in HoC – and Conservatives supported the policy meant many LA governors went along with the idea after years of LAs being told they were part of the problem and not the solution. most heads and diocese don’t like democracy in action as it often threatens their quiet life and control of the school. The greater good means just the greater good of my school and not the system as a whole.
But, democracy works in North Oxford, where more than 50% of residents voted in last week’s election even though the result in 3 wards was probalby a forgone conclusion. But, only 19% voted in one ward in the East of the city -bring back Citizenship lessons?
John