Education the focus for campaigning this weekend

The National Union of Teachers will be out in force this weekend campaigning for the best education for all children and arguing for investment in schools and measures to reduce child poverty and inequality.

Saturday also sees a Labour offensive against the government's proposals on grammer schools with journalist Owen Jones and Tulip Saddiq  Mp for Hampstead and Kilburn due to campaign at Kilburn tube station from 11am on Saturday.

NUT prepared to work with other unions for SATs boycott in 2017 if government does not make changes

From the NUT
 
Commenting on the publication of provisional 2016 Key Stage 2 results, Kevin Courtney, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said:

Today's provisional 2016 KS2 results need to be taken with a large pinch of salt. They are the outcome of a chaotic process of assessment, hastily introduced and badly designed. A system in which nearly half of those assessed are told they have not met the expected standard is not a system which is working well for pupils. A system in which the relative performance of local authorities varies so widely from one year to the next will not command public confidence.

The data tells us little about educational quality that we can trust. Yet it will be used to judge the performance of schools, and in hundreds of cases to judge them as failing. This is completely unacceptable. Teachers and head teachers believe that there is no case for intervention, action or ranking of schools on the basis of data which is meaningless as a measure of quality.

The case for a complete rethinking of assessment in primary schools is overwhelming - this deeply flawed system must not be allowed to do further harm to pupils and to teachers in 2017. The National Union of Teachers calls for the suspension of current arrangements for testing, and for the development of alternatives which can command public and professional support. If the government is not prepared to make the changes needed, then the Union is prepared to work with other unions to boycott both KS1 and KS2 SATs.

Labour's leadership candidates answer NUT's questions on education policy

An emergency motion has been tabled for Green Party Conference this weekend on Jeremy Corbyn's proposal for a National Education Service:

The Green Party notes that Labour are proposing a National Education Service. Conference desires that the Education Policy Working Group (EdPWG) set up a monitoring group that will evaluate and criticise the detail of Labour’s plans in line with GPEW Education Policy. External Comms will defer to this group on an ongoing basis regarding official GPEW comments on Labour’s National Education Service proposal.

The NUT, which is not affiliated to any political party has put questions to the two Labour leadership candidates to help inform union members who have a vote in the leadership elections. Corbyn elaborates on his proposal which so far has been quite sketchy.

Questions for Jeremy Corbyn from the National Union of Teachers

www.jeremyforlabour.com

I have called for the establishment of a National Education Service that will deliver the highest quality education to every person in the country, from young to old, free at the point of delivery. Education has never enjoyed the loyalty and commitment at the national level that has been enjoyed by the National Health Service. The National Education Service would ensure that, as the NUT says, education is and is seen to be a human and civil right and a public good. As such it is vital that education spending and investment do not suffer cuts but must be at a sufficient level to ensure that all children and young people (and indeed older people) have access to a good quality education, which allows them all to reach their potential. Real terms funding cuts for schooling are damaging and short-sighted; by ensuring education is held in the same regard as our NHS, we will make sure that future governments cannot so easily push through cuts in funding, and we are committed to reversing this government's austerity measures, recognising education spending as vital for future prosperity and individual's own well-being.

Would the Labour Party under your leadership argue for increases in overall school funding which would avoid real terms cuts in funding per pupil?

Yes. We will not repeat the error of this present government in imposing cuts on real terms schools funding since the 1990s, since it is very clear just how damaging this is. The National Education Service will ensure that properly-funded, high-quality education is delivered for all our

What will Labour's position be towards the national funding formula which will lead to increased funding for some areas, but cuts in funding for other areas?

In terms of funding, there is a discussion to be had about a national funding formula to ensure that the education service is well funded everywhere. However, any funding formula must be about levelling up and not cuts.

Following this year's SATs chaos, would you support an independent and research-informed review of curriculum and assessment in primary schools?

Yes. The Tories' continual meddling with the schools system, and desire to push through testing that is counterproductive to good education, has created the chaos we've seen this year that quite rightly so many parents have protested against. I am on record as saying that all children and young people need and deserve a curriculum in which art, music, drama, PE and citizenship feature. A narrowing of the curriculum has been brought about by a focus on literacy and numeracy because of the testing regime. Our children and young people are amongst the most tested in the world. Added to this, the fiasco of this year’s SATs has shown that we are in urgent need of a review. I would support such a review and  would want to ensure the voice of teachers was heard prominently in it.

If you are elected leader, will the Labour Party support the restoration of national pay and conditions for all teaches, including in academies and end performance related pay?

Labour would recreate a system of national pay and conditions with all teachers employed in schools with the same governance structures. This, in combination with trusting teachers to use their professional expertise and judgement in developing both curriculum and assessment should begin to address the issue of teacher shortage. And of course every child deserves to be taught by a qualified teacher, a teacher who has achieved that qualification through both classroom practice and academic study as in the PGCE. I want to see teachers given sufficient opportunities to train and develop during their own careers.

Will Labour campaign for the end of testing and league table systems that skew the content of education and are turning schools into 'Exam Factories'?

I believe that parents as well as teachers want the eduction service to move away from the exam factory culture which has developed in our schools. Blanket testing and league tables linked to performance related pay and a punitive system of performance management for teachers has led to a real problem in recruiting enough teachers to work in our schools. Endless testing becomes counterproductive. We get the best results for our children and young people, and for our society, when they are given space to develop and their talents are nurtured.

Will Labour support giving local authorities back the legal powers they need to open new schools and have democratic oversight of schools?

Democratic control through local authorities bringing together and supporting schools is the way to oversee education. Local authorities should clearly have the right and responsibility to commission and build schools where they are needed. The market based Academy and Free School programme has not ensured a school place for every child and is the wrong approach to a national service and entitlement. In reimagining and recreating the education function of Local Authorities, Labour would see supply teachers once again properly employed, with access to both the teachers' pension and the public money currently going to agencies reinvested in the education service.

On the issue of grammar schools, a Labour Government would not sanction the opening of any further Grammar schools, and we will do all we can in opposition to oppose their extension by the Conservatives.

Do you support recent calls from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, David Anderson QC and the NUT for an independent review of the Prevent Strategy?

I am aware of the good work the NUT has done on anti-racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and of the Union's critique of the Prevent Strategy and the call from David Anderson QC for a review. The Labour Party under my leadership would support a review and would want to hear from the NUT and other professionals about an approach to keeping children and young people safe but securing space and time in the curriculum to be able to discuss difficult and contentious issues. If classrooms are not safe spaces for such discussions children and young people may be at greater risk.

Should Labour support the right of public bodies to make ethical decisions in how they spend and invest public money, for example, by not investing in companies complicit in Israel's occupation of Palestine?

I am also aware of the international solidarity work of the NUT. In the case of Palestine, the union has a clear public position that supporting the Palestinian case and cause is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. I agree with and fully endorse that position. Local Authorities should have transparent, ethical investment policies, decided locally.

What will the Labour Party do to redress the imbalance of funding generally in Wales caused by the inadequacies of the Barnett Formula? Will the Labour Party seek to implement the recommendations of the Silk Commission regarding the devolution of schoolteachers' pay and conditions? If so, what protections will the Labour Party implement to ensure Welsh teachers do not become the poor relations when compared to teachers in England?

There is currently an imbalance between education funding in Wales and England. Under my leadership, national pay and conditions for teachers would be consistent across England and Wales. There is a need to reconsider how the education service is funded in Wales so that the current gap might be closed. There is, of course a discussion to be had with the Party in Wales as to how best this can be achieved. 

Owen Smith's response is in PDF rather than Word format and thus less easy to copy and paste into this blog. The PDF is below:

NUT call for full DfE investigation into 'Panama to Kilburn' free school provider with off-shore connections

Wembley Matters covered the links between the Panama Papers and the Kilburn Grange Free School several weeks ago 'From Panama to Kilburn - time for some questions to be asked'  LINK

The NUT has now taken up the issue, uncovering further information which leads them to state that there are serious questions to be answered on the connection between Mossack Fonseca, Bellevue Education and Bellevue Place Education Trust, which among others runs Kilburn Grange Free School in Brent.

The NUT call for a full investigation and report by the Department for Education.

This is their dossier.  It is longer than normal articles on this blog but it is a thorough investigation that repays close study.  Brent Council currently has a policy of encouraging free schools in order to provide additional school places. They should pay particular attention and press the DfE about its due diligence in the free school application process.

Click on 'read more' to read the dossier in full.

Why the Green Party should endorse the NUT's Manifesto

The Green Party is the only one of the mainstream parties that challenge the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). The GERM seeks to move both the structure and content of education in a neo-liberal direction. It reduces the role of education to competition in an ever expanding global market and opens the system to private profit.

I have written about this in an article on the Open Democracy website LINK

The National Union of Teachers and the Green Party both recognise the need to challenge this threat and so there is underlying agreement on principles between the NUT Manifesto for the 2015 General Election and Green Party education policy.

I have published a paper on the Green Party members' site giving a detailed comparison of the two documents and here publish the main findings. I think there is sufficient overlap for the Green Party to broadly endorse the NUT Manifesto with some more discussion needed on particular aspects.

Here are some major areas of agreement:

VISION AND CURRICULUM

• Both want to develop an exciting new vision for education and move away from a narrow prescriptive curriculum. Greens reject market driven models of education that see  its role only in terms of international economic competitiveness  and preparation for work. they advocate a system that enable people to participate fully in society and lead a fulfilled life.
• Both want a broad, balanced and enriching entitlement curriculum with the Greens emphasising that learners and teachers should be able to develop their own content within this context.
•  The NUT and Greens agree on the need for 14-19 qualifications framework which give equal value to academic, vocational, creative and practical subjects.

ACCOUNTABILITY

• There is agreement on the need for a new approach to evaluating schools include much wider involvement of parents, teachers and community. The Greens would replace Ofsted with an independent National Council for Academic Excellence, linked with the NfER. This would work collaboratively with schools and local authorities on school improvement.
• The Greens want to abolish league tables and the NUT wants to replace them with national sampling. More discussion is needed on how the latter would work.

TEACHERS

• Both want to reclaim teachers' professional respect, responsibility and autonomy with the NUT citing the successful London Challenge.
• Greens and the NUT agree that all children should be taught by qualified teachers or those in training towards qualification and the need for quality initial teacher education and in-service  education and training.
• The NUT wants a recruitment strategy that reflects the diverse nature of school communities while the Greens emphasise education on diversity issues for teachers and other school workers and the effective equality and diversity monitoring of recruitment and staff development.
• The NUT wants to reduce teachers' workload, restore a national pay structure and professional levels of pay, and opposes the extension of the retirement age to 68. The Green Party promises  to work with the teaching unions to reverse the process by which teachers have gradually been deskilled and their professional autonomy eroded and will review pension arrangements and retirement age with then. The Green Party opposes performance relation Pay for teachers.

CHILD POVERTY

•  This is a concern for both the NUT and the Green Party and there is agreement on the immediate need for the abolition of the Bedroom Tax, high quality nursery education , restoration of the Education Maintenance Allowance or a similar scheme. The Green's proposal on a Citizen's Income could replace the allowance in the long term and would begin to tackle child poverty.
• Both agree on the urgent need to tackle youth unemployment.

SCHOOL PLACES

•  There is agreement on the need to strengthen local authorities' role in educational provision and in particular the need for the restoration of the LA's power to provide new school places though building new LA schools.

PRIVATISATION

•  Both Greens and the NUT call for an end to the marketisation of education and oppose schools being run for profit. Greens see education as a right and an entitlement that should be free at the point of delivery to people of all ages.
• Greens oppose the creation of more academies and free schools and would integrate them into the local authority school system. The NUT call for the end of approval for new free schools and support the right of all schools to return to the status of local authority schools. The Greens support parents and communities fighting the forced academisation of their schools.
• Both agree on the need for the restoration of funding to local authorities and their role in overseeing the quality of education in their locality.

INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION

•  The NUT calls for the restoration of education funding to at least 2010 levels in real terms. There is nothing explicit in Green Party policy but it is certainly something we should explore.