A welcome education manifesto from Rescue Our Schools

The Rescue Our Schools LINK campaigning group has published a manifesto which should be of interest to parents and teachers. It brings together many issues which have become prominent in later years. It has much in common with Green Party education policy:

It’s time for a new vision for education fit for the 21^st Century

Young people in 21^st Century Britain need the skills to ensure they can thrive in an increasingly automated world. We need an education system that encourages them to think creatively, critically and confidently,  and nurtures a more cohesive society. Rescue Our Schools believes we must overturn many of the education strategies successive governments have adopted.

Here is our Six Point Plan for a 21^st Century Education System:

1. INVEST IN ALL OUR FUTURES
2. PROVIDE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR ALL
3. PROMOTE EDUCATION OVER EXAM FACTORIES
4. DEVELOP CREATIVITY IN ALL ITS FORMS
5. LET EXPERT EVIDENCE INFORM POLICY
6. ENSURE LOCAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ALL SCHOOLS

        1 . INVEST IN ALL OUR FUTURES

• All children have the right to the best possible education we can provide. A successful education system should reduce inequalities and promote fulfilment. Better educated, more fulfilled children become better educated, more fulfilled adults. This benefits the individual, society and the economy in the long term.
• There must be enough money in the new funding formula so no school or child loses out.
• Teachers and school leaders must be valued as highly skilled professionals. Their workload should ensure a healthy work-life balance. A well-motivated workforce benefits everyone.
• Schools should be encouraged to collaborate and share resources in order to work in the best interests of pupils and the local community. Making schools compete in an artificial market creates winners and losers. No child benefits from being in a losing school.
• Local Authorities must have sufficient funding to retain expertise and provide schools with the support and challenge they need to thrive.
• Learning isn’t limited to school. Our vision is for an education system that provides free, universal access to learning from early years onwards.

2. PROVIDE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR ALL

• Parents and carers want good schools for everyone, not just some. The world’s most successful education systems have no selection and there’s no evidence it improves standards or life chances.
• Children with special education needs deserve the same opportunities as other children. Specialist SEN provision should match local need, taking into account the views of parents and professionals. Children with disabilities or difficulties in mainstream schooling have a right to additional support in the classroom and their funding for this must be ring-fenced.
• Good early years support narrows the educational equality gap; it should be properly funded and supported, and available to all.

3. PROMOTE EDUCATION OVER EXAM FACTORIES

• Pupil assessments must be for their benefit. Linking assessment to school accountability puts inappropriate pressure on staff – which in turn can be passed on to parents and pupils. League tables based on SATS and GCSE results say nothing more than how good schools are at getting children to pass exams.
• We need a truly independent review of primary assessment and its purpose in our children’s education. SATs are damaging primary school children and teachers, narrowing the curriculum and forcing schools to teach to the test. The government’s proposal for “baseline” tests on four year olds will be a judgement on parenting, without reducing inequality.
• We need a secondary level assessment system that allows students to demonstrate all their talents, not just academic. A General Certificate of Secondary Education should be a general assessment of what a pupil has achieved during their time in education. Other more successful education systems do this; so should we.
• School Inspections should consider the quality and breadth of students’ understanding across many areas, how well schools support emotional and physical wellbeing, and staff retention. Judging schools only on test results is harmful for everyone involved.

4. DEVELOP CREATIVITY IN ALL ITS FORMS

• Children need time to learn how to learn. Evidence shows that effective, play-based, early years education helps children acquire vital life skills such as how to communicate and work in groups.
• Children need a broad ranging, engaging and balanced curriculum. Make space for creative and vocational subjects as well as sport. Research shows these help children’s wellbeing and learning across all subjects. High-stakes testing is pushing out music, art, drama, sport and more creative approaches to learning. Let’s give schools genuine freedom to innovate.

5. LET EXPERT EVIDENCE INFORM POLICY

• 21^st Century education policy-making must be evidence-based, not dominated by the ideology or school experiences of government ministers.
• Rescue Our Schools is calling for an independent, expert-led review of all education provision from early childhood to early adulthood. Its goal would be to recommend the best possible curriculum, assessment and structures for the 21^st
• Education and mental health experts should join forces with regular national surveys to find out what is causing the rapid rise in wellbeing issues among children and young people, including the possible impact of high stakes testing and ‘boot camp’ schooling.

6. ENSURE LOCAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SCHOOLS

• Parents and carers need to know who to turn to when things aren’t right. Lines of accountability within schools must be clearly set out.
• Schools should be rooted in their communities. Parents and communities should be empowered, through governing bodies, to influence change when it is needed.
• There is no evidence that the academy structure improves educational or financial performance. Government should stop wasting millions handing over schools to multi-academy trusts which are not accountable to families or local communities.
• Local Authorities should be given back the ability to plan school places, opening and maintaining new schools when and where they are required. The Free Schools programme should be abolished.

'Rescue Our Schools' looks forward to a busy 2017 as they stand up for parents, pupils and communities

I have received this update from Rescue Our Schools, a campaign which made a big impact in 2016, and thought it worth sharing.

 Dear All,

What a year 2016 has been for education. We thought it was time for a quick sum up of the key events and what Rescue Our Schools has achieved in our inaugural year, before we look forward to 2017 and steel ourselves for still more battles to rescue our schools from dogma and cuts. So here goes with ….

The 2016 Schools Report: Department for Education

A Shocking White Paper unleashes a wave of Parent Activism

March 2016: The government unveils its White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere” and so-called Fair Funding Formula for schools. The plan is to force all schools to become academies and to get rid of the role of an elected parent governor. Within weeks we form Rescue Our Schools, juggling it with parental duties during the Easter holidays. Parent group Let Our Kids be Kids forms at the same time, and within weeks thousands of families support the May children’s strike against the test-driven curriculum in primary schools, driving out creativity and ushering in stress and anxiety for young children in its wake. It’s time to get not party political, but parent political. This was Rescue Our School’s rallying cry as we spoke publicly for the first time in front of 20,000 people in Trafalgar Square, at the People’s Assembly Rally. Wow! We are out there! Next stop the Parents Defending Education conference, where star turn Fiona Forrest speaks alongside Michael Rosen against the prison routine in her daughter’s school. The Guardian covers the story and within days there is regime change at the South London secondary.

Morgan gets her alphabet muddled, and presents an S bend as a U turn

…because it was never really a U turn re forced academisation. The announcement in June that this policy was to be abandoned came alongside a continued commitment to force schools in predominantly academy-run areas to join the club. Likewise, if they were deemed to be failing, they would be forced to become academies. Anyone who cared to read the small print could see the government was still ideologically driven to remove local authorities from education. It goes without saying that there was still no evidence that becoming an academy improved education… That said, we like to think that Rescue Our Schools helped usher in this concession of sorts. Forced academisation was one of the key reasons why we set RoS up. We also contribute detailed evidence to the Commons Select Committee on Education on our deep reservations about multi academy trusts.

Back to the Future with Grammars…

July 2016: Nicky Morgan is sacked as education secretary as Theresa May becomes prime minister. Justine Greening takes over at the Department for Education. Despite being the first comprehensive-educated education secretary, within weeks it’s announced that the government wants to bring back grammar schools.  Another campaign group, the Fair Education Alliance, is set up to fight grammars amid a near consensus that selection will worsen social mobility and damage education for the majority of students.  Discontent among Conservatives is widely reported on at the party conference in October.

Autumn Brings a Hint of Backtracking..

The March White Paper is quietly dropped.  The government is no longer proposing to drop the role of elected parent governors. This is another victory for Rescue Our Schools: we fought strongly against getting rid of parental involvement. However the government is still pushing hard for multi academy trusts, and their governing structures often give parents little opportunity to be actively involved as governors. RoS founding members are all too aware of this from personal experience. Meanwhile, Justine Greening announces small concessions on SATS and a government-led consultation. Parents and professionals remain unconvinced and set up More than A Score with Rescue Our Schools as a key coalition partner.  The aim of the alliance is to phase out SATS and other standardised tests and bring back a more creative approach in the primary curriculum. Meanwhile, we submit a detailed response to the government consultation on grammars, pointing out that the government’s priority should be funding  and the teacher recruitment crisis, not more piecemeal meddling in school structures. We also speak at the World Transformed festival in Liverpool, alongside the Labour party conference, and at anti-cuts events in both Parliament Square and outside the Department for Education in London.

But the Battle Lines are drawn against Cuts..

Finally, in December the government unveils its proposals to redistribute schools funding. Some areas that have traditionally been underfunded are due to get more money (but by no means all of these areas). Meanwhile, London in particular is due for a 3 per cent hit.  It has achieved better results through greater funding and increased collaboration between schools: both these approaches are under attack from this government. Local campaign groups spring up to fight for investment in our children’s education. At Rescue Our Schools we will support the effort in whatever way we can.

Some wise words for the New Year

Our children are, as ever, our future. Under this government they are being scandalously shortchanged. But there are 14 million households in England with dependent children. That is a lot of voters – and a lot of increasingly disgruntled voters. So, politicians, it’s time to wake up and realise that the more you damage our children’s education, the more we as parents and teachers will damage you at the ballot box. You have been warned…

For all our lovely Rescue Our Schools supporters…

We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas - and thank you for supporting us and believing in us in our launch year. RoS is up and running, engaging parents across the country, and is a partner in key campaigns. All up we have spoken at demos across England and at numerous local campaign meetings against unwanted free schools, multi academy trusts and other ideological intrusions into communities. We expect 2017 to be an equally busy year. If you can spare a few hours a week to our campaign please get in touch at info@rescueourschools.co.uk. Remember: We're not party political but we want you to get PARENT POLITICAL! From the Rescue Our Schools team

'Almost overnight our school became a brutal exam factory' - Rescue Our Schools speaker

This passionate speech was made by a parent at the Parents Defending Education conference at the weekend. It sums up the limitations of the academy model which the government wants to impose on all schools.

Thanks to Rescue Our Schools for this video:  http://www.rescueourschools.co.uk/