Ditching of Schools Bill welcomed - let's concentrate on teaching, learning and pupil wellbeing

 The announcement by the Government that the Schools Bill is not to proceed is very welcome. It appeared that apart from concentrating on all the current issues in education, including pupil menetal health, that schools would have been diverted by the government's intention that they should all join or form multi-academy trusts.  This would have taken up much time and energy and remove schools further from local democrartic accountability.

Commenting on the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan’s announcement during the Education Select Committee that the Schools Bill will not be going ahead, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

 

The fact that the Schools Bill will not progress through Parliament is a relief as it has been widely discredited. The Bill focused on the wrong priorities, if we want school improvement or educational quality and the Government must accept that maintained schools are here to stay.

 

The NEU successfully disputed the evidence that the Government produced with its case for forcing every school to join a trust. The NEU’s challenge to the DFE data was supported by the Office for Statistics Regulation*. The Bill did not address the pressing challenges which both maintained schools and academy schools face. The urgent challenges are recruitment and retention of teachers, school funding, pay, and the unequal learning gaps created by Covid.

 

The Bill missed the opportunity to resolve the problems created through the fragmentation if the system, such as the lack of voice and choice for schools after they have joined a Trust. This is the second time the DFE have been prevented from trying to over-rule local communities en masse and lever forced conversions on them. As a result of the abandonment of this misguided Bill, leaders and schools can focus on collaboration, retaining staff and outcomes for their students, rather than structures and DFE dogma. Voluntary aided and community schools do not have to convert to academy status. Single-academy trust schools do not need to join a multi-academy trust. Multi-academy trusts do not have to grow to contain a magic number of schools directed by DFE.

 

The Government must recognise that structural change is not what schools and communities want and should also back away from the counter-productive pressure which it is putting on schools, predominantly those in poorer communities.

 

Parents and local councillors want an education system which is well-funded, responsive to local needs and which works for their local context, without pressure to join a mega-trust. Now that it has dropped the Schools Bill, Government has the opportunity to focus on the actual priorities and the real challenges around modernising assessment, identifying funding and addressing teacher retention.

 

Vix Lowthian, Green Party spokesperson on education and herself a secondary school teachers said:

 

 Great news that the much misguided Schools Bill has been dropped. It was badly informed and full of discredited views. But - what next for education? The current system - poor funding, huge pressures on staff and students, lack of SEND support - is letting everyone down.

Greens back teacher unions in opposition to White Paper proposals on forced academisation, increased hours, narrowed curriculum and oppressive targets

 The Green Party has responded to the government’s new white paper on education which calls for all schools to join a multi-academy trust by 2030 and to be open for a minimum 32.5 hour school week [1]. Greens are backing teaching unions in challenging the lack of ambition for young people in this document, the focus on academic targets without the extra resources and oppose the academisation of schools.

Green Party Education spokesperson, Vix Lowthion, who is a working secondary school teacher, said:

The government is using the disruption caused by Covid as a way to push through their damaging educational agenda of tough academic targets and more testing, rooted in a longer school week and Ofsted inspections.  

This White Paper also resurrects the previously unpopular policy to force the academisation of our schools, when there remains no evidence that academies and free schools raise standards overall. By contrast, there is plenty of evidence that multi academy trusts, in particular, are syphoning public money without the accountability offered by local councils.

This is not the way to support children and teachers to recover from the disruption caused by the pandemic. A comprehensive recovery plan would include a focus on the rounded needs of children and students and an inclusive, creative and collaborative curriculum. Instead, we will see even more pressure heaped on teachers and students to achieve higher targets in English and Maths, resulting in even more school hours spent away from lessons in music, PE, humanities, technology and the arts. Young people need to be offered a broad and balanced curriculum to learn, show their potential and to succeed.

Young Greens co-chair Kelsey Trevett said: 

A focus on maths and English means the government once again fails to recognise the value of creative and humanities-based subjects, creating exam factories for the sole purpose of preparing young people to enter an exploitative profit-driven workplace.

Young Greens co-chair Jane Baston added: 

These standards also place an extra burden on teachers, taking them over their annual hours and placing them under even more pressure within a system which only sees academic achievement and grades, not people.

Notes

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/mar/28/plans-for-englands-schools-include-national-behaviour-survey 

 

Green Party Trade Union Group gets behind NEU decision to advocate on-line learning for all but vulnerable and keyworker primary children

 

Vix Lowthian, a secondary school teacher, parent, NEU member and the Green Party's Spokesperson on Education  spoke at a Green Party Trade Union meeting yesterday on 'Covid, Schools and School Workers.' 

At the beginning of the meeting she was completing the signing off of  a press release backing the National Education Union's decision to advise members to not work in full classes due to the rise in Covid cases but instead teach on-line or in the small bubbles formed for chidlren of key workers and vulnerable pupils.

In Brent and the rest of London primary schools are closed to all but vulnerable and key worker children,  and teaching moved on-line. Tonight decisions are still bing made by individual schools, headteacher and local authortiies in other parts of the country.

The video gives a full acount of the issues involved.

 

Green Party backs teachers’ urgent call to close schools and move learning online

 

Vix Lowthian, teacher, NEU member and Green Party Spokesperson on Education

 

The Green Party has backed calls from teaching unions to take steps to protect the safety of staff and students by moving to online learning from Monday in order to reduce the spread of infection of the new coronavirus variant.

The move comes as Green Party-led Brighton & Hove City Council has written to primary schools in the city to advise them to move to remote learning until Monday 18 January.

Green Party education spokesperson Vix Lowthion, a secondary school teacher on the Isle of Wight, said:

It is right that schools should only reopen when it is safe to do so and that cannot be the case with new-variant Covid spreading out of control. We fully support those unions who wish to remind staff of their legal rights not to work in an unsafe environment. Gavin Williamson needs to change his position on the reopening of primary schools urgently.

If the government had provided disadvantaged students with what they needed in terms of laptops and connectivity earlier in the year, it would have made it much easier for all concerned to carry out learning from home now. This oversight must be rectified as soon as possible so that access to education is maintained to the best possible standards while ensuring safety for all.

This is an extremely difficult time for parents, teachers and children and young people and so the government must listen carefully to the experts and trust teachers when they say it is not safe. This crisis is not going away any time soon. Teachers must be supported to deliver planned, high quality and sustainable learning within an environment which prioritises the health of the community.

For once, we hope the government will stick to its own mantra and actually follow the science to protect communities and families across the country.

The Green Party has also repeated its call for all frontline workers, including teachers, to be prioritised for vaccination. 

 

Schools: Green GLA candidate slams 'chaotic and dangerous government' and backs Harrow Council's action

Emma Wallace

 

Reacting to yesterday's events Green Party GLA candidate for Brent and Harrow said:

Thank you to Harrow Council for taking decisive and sensible evidence based action, advising Harrow's primary schools that they can move to online learning from Monday. 

 

The government's decision to leave out Harrow, whilst all surrounding London borough's including Brent, Barnet, Ealing and Hillingdon having been listed as being able to delay their opening, despite having very similar rates of Covid-19 infection, was inconsistent and nonsensical.  

 

To find out that Gavin Williamson has announced a last minute U-turn advising that all primary schools can now close, except for vulnerable and key worker children, reveals once again the complete incompetence that we have now come to expect from this dangerous and chaotic government.  There is no evidence that the Conservatives are adhering to specialist medical advice or 'following the science' as they so proclaim.

 Vix Lowthian, Green Party Education Spokesperson said on Twitter on Labour Party nationally:

Labour must not ignore the unions, educators, parents and entire communities. Schools have been opened without adequate safety measures. Now as we reach a crisis, teaching must move to distance learning. Labour have to change tack - it's not about chaos, its about safety.

The National Education Union  Executive is meeting today to discuss their reaction to events as the Covid rates amongst young people continues to rise.  There will be a zoom meeting for all members on Sunday where thousands of school workers are expected.

Commenting on the latest decision by Government to close all London primary schools until 18 January at the earliest, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, said:

 

It is welcome that, albeit in their usual last-minute fashion, ministers have corrected an obviously nonsensical position - one that it could not justify by evidence or sense.

 

But the question has to be asked: why are education ministers so inadequate and inept? Who is advising them? 

 

And what is right for London is right for the rest of the country. With the highest level of Covid-19 infection, and hospitals buckling under the tsunami of very ill patients, it is time for ministers to do their duty - to protect the NHS by following SAGE advice and close all primary and secondary schools to reduce the R rate below 1. 

 

It is time for the government to protect its citizens, and in particular its children, by shutting all primary schools for two weeks in order for the situation to be properly assessed, schools made much safer and children and their families protected.

Vix Lowthian, Education Spokesperson for the Green Party, will be speaking at a Green Party Trade Union Group Meeting at 4pm this afternoon. The meeting is open to all Green Party members. Email  yrrumuk@googlemail.com for joining details.

 

Greens: Extend lockdown to secondary schools and universities

The Green Party is calling for secondary schools, colleges and universities to be added to the list of closures from Thursday after a month-long lockdown in England was announced by the Government. 

Co-leader Jonathan Bartley is demanding this afternoon that common sense prevail, following the release of figures by Independent SAGE showing that a lockdown with schools remaining open will be significantly less effective than if they were closed.

“The government is fond of saying they are following the science, but this is an example of them doing the exact opposite,” says Bartley. 

“The figures are clear, a lockdown with schools open would need to be three times longer than if they were closed, to have the same impact. This lockdown is going to negatively affect huge numbers of people, so it has to be worth it. 

“Of course there are going to be exceptions - young people with special educational needs for instance should still be able to attend schools in person. But in general, this is the time to shut secondaries and universities, move to remote learning, give the support needed to curb the rates of infection where that can be done, fix the test and trace system which is still woefully underperforming. Use the time to make this lockdown worthwhile.” 

Green Party Education spokesperson Vix Lowthion said: “The government produced their own guidelines back in August which clearly stated that secondary schools must be on a remote learning rota or closed when the threat of the virus increases. Surely, that’s where we are now? 

“University teaching can move online during this heightened period and school teachers can focus on online learning plans whilst appropriate home-school rotas are put in place. Yes, it’s a huge challenge for our schools but so is working in a frankly unsafe environment where you’re not being given the back-up you need to keep yourself and your pupils out of harms’ way.

“Along with this there needs to be thought put into safeguarding for children at home, their physical and mental health and making sure they have everything they need to learn – the tech equipment and the support.

“The vast majority of children in secondary schools and young adults in higher education are able to learn from home with supervision from teachers. In the medium term this 'blended learning' will disrupt the economy less than a full shutdown including primary schools as in most cases older children have less need for intensive childcare provision.”

Greens call for overhaul of education system after results fiasco

Ahead of GCSE results later today, the Green Party has warned the recent fiasco over using an algorithm to determine results illustrates the failings of placing too much emphasis on national examinations and league tables over the learning needs of individual children.

The Greens have now called for an overhaul of the education system in order to  tackle the disadvantage and inequality within it and provide further opportunities to learn throughout life.

Green Party education spokesperson Vix Lowthion, who is also a secondary school teacher on the Isle of Wight, said:

The education system needs a complete overhaul to bring it into the 21st century.

The results fiasco is a clear example of how the current system is not fit for purpose. The mere idea of adjusting results by algorithm in order to fit in with league tables shows just how warped the system has become and how little it prioritises the most important aspect, the students.

As teachers we are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow and so we must stop limiting their potential through high stakes testing which creates unnecessary pressure and instead promote a system of continuous assessment to enhance the learning of each individual child. 

The Green Party has issued a five point plan to overhaul the education system and encourage learning for life:

• Trust teachers and take into account regular centre assessed grades at fixed points throughout the course for GCSE and A level
• Reinstate opportunities for coursework and modular assessment, which was removed by Michael Gove’s reforms
• Scrap league tables of exam results, and instead focus on reporting to parents on a mix of academic, practical and cultural achievements and opportunities for students in our schools
• Evaluate the purpose of education, which is not merely to pass exams, but to equip young people with practical and academic skills for the 21st century. Students do not need a curriculum for the office workers of the past, but to become problem solvers of the future
• Support educational opportunities outside of schools including home learning, adult learning and distance learning

Schools should not reopen until coronavirus tests have been clearly met, says Green Party

The Green Party has urged local authorities not to fall in line with the Government’s timetable for reopening schools until the conditions for easing lockdown have been clearly met.

Green Party education spokesperson Vix Lowthion, who is also a teacher on the Isle of Wight, has said the health and wellbeing of staff and pupils is being put at risk by reopening schools before it is safe to do so.

Lowthion said:

Reopening schools on Monday will have an enormous impact on the health and wellbeing of thousands of families across the country, and so it is vital that any decision to do so is based on clear scientific guidance.

Unfortunately, while the Prime Minister claims that the five tests for easing lockdown have been met, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser has said that the ‘R rate’ is still near 1. This simply does not make sense and it is not right that we are putting the lives of children and staff at risk based on such conflicting advice. 

The Independent SAGE group has also set out clearly why it is too soon to be opening schools.

The government’s own five tests have a glaring omission of ensuring there is an adequate test, trace and isolate operation as recommended by the World Health Organisation. We are simply nowhere near that yet and until that is in place it is not safe to reopen schools.

We know there are real issues with inequality and some young people falling behind, but this is about weighing up the risks and putting people’s health first, while doing everything we can to ensure those pupils who need more support can receive it in other ways.

We are working with local Green parties and councillors across the country to put pressure on their local authorities not to fall in line with the Government’s timetable on schools reopening. Local decision making is vitally important, particularly if authorities need to be able to respond to local lockdowns in the future.

Rally Against School Cuts October 24th

From the National Education Union

Join parents, heads, teachers and support staff and community leaders at a rally to call on the government to reverse school cuts and fairly fund schools. Show your support for the mass lobby of MPs which has been organised to put pressure on the chancellor to take action on funding ahead of next month's budget. The rally starts at 10.30 but if you simply want to show your support at the rally, there will be further events at 12.30.

The Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3DW 

At the morning rally we have the following speakers:

 
- Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education
- Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education
- Vix Lowthion, Green Party Education Spokesperson
- Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, National Education
- Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union
- Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT

At 1pm, the programme of speakers will include:

 
- John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Sir Vince Cable MP
- Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, National Education
- Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union
- Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT
- Vix Lowthion, Green Party Education Spokesperson

 
More TBC

Because of shortfalls in funding, 88% of schools are still facing real-terms cuts despite Government announcements about more money going into the system.

That means less for our children and young people, bigger classes, fewer teachers and staff, a reduced curriculum and parents plugging the gaps.

Hundreds of parents and school staff will be lobbying their MP on the day. To find out how, see https://neu.org.uk/funding

Three key pledges from the Greens to create an inspiring education system

 Kenmont primary school pupils, many from Brent, demonstrate against education cuts

Vix Lowthian, Green Party Education  Spokesperson announced three key pledges this morning to create an inspiring education system:

1. Invest £7bn to fill funding gap
2. Abolish SATs
3. End academies programme and bring existing academies under local authority system

The Green Party want to create an inspiring education system that transforms lives and transforms Britain.

But that can’t happen without the very basic foundations being in place and this Government has been removing those foundations brick by brick.

Since 2015 £2.2bn has been taken out of the education system and between now and 2020 the Government plans to take out a further £3bn. That’s over £200,000 for every school or £1000 for every pupil. The academies programme has taken schools out of the hands of local authorities and parents and given them over to private businesses. That means that if a school isn’t performing a commercial interest, it can be shut down at will by the owners, leaving pupils without a school to go to.

At the same time as schools are getting less resources, more is being asked of teachers and pupils. Children are now being tested from age 7 onwards, with their results affecting the classes they are put in and their chances of getting into a decent secondary school. Asking children of that age to learn, revise, and test their knowledge has sapped all the fun, creativity, and inspiration out of going to school. The fact that teachers too are assessed on how well they drill their pupils for these exams - with the shadow of Ofsted hanging over them - means they have no time to do the thing they are meant to be at school for: teaching.

We believe in creating an inspiring education system. First and foremost we must make up for the enormous shortfall, the massive neglect, in our education system. Greens will ensure the education spending deficit of £7bn is plugged, laying the foundations for a transformative education system. We will scrap SATs so that pupils are no longer subjected to pointless, pressurised testing. And we will put an end to the academies programme and bring existing academies back under local authority control so that our children’s education is in the hands of teachers and parents, not businesses.

Theresa May’s grammar school plan would brand many children as failures - Green Party

Back to the future with the Tories

Theresa May’s plans to allow new grammar schools would create an unfair education system which leaves too many young children branded as failures, the Green Party has warned.

There is clear evidence LINK that selective schools primarily benefit the already advantaged, while failing to serve the needs of those who most need support and assistance.

The Green Party is committed to fighting inequality and believes the Prime Minister’s plans to lift the ban on grammar schools, reported in the Sunday Telegraph LINK, would create a more divisive education system.

Vix Lowthion, Green Party spokesperson for Education, said grammar schools do not increase social mobility.

She said:

Selection based on academic performance in 11 plus style tests will not be based on raw ability but on which pupils are coached to pass these tests.

And coaching costs money and time and that only certain families will have.

Research by the Sutton Trust LINK found less than 3% of children at grammar schools are entitled to free school meals, while in contrast almost 13% did not have state-school backgrounds, coming mostly from independent schools.

Ms Lowthion, a secondary school teacher on the Isle of Wight, added:

Selective schools would condemn the vast majority of our 11-year-olds to feeling like they are academic failures before their high school career has even begun.

Grammar schools are not the solution. High expectations and the best education for every single child is what education policy must be.

The Green Party wants to see current grammar schools integrated into the comprehensive structure to make a fairer education system.

Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, said schools should prepare children for more than just exams, and joined calls for May to rethink the plans.

This is not a positive sign of the direction of education policy. We had hoped to see an end to Gove’s era of ministerial whim and outdated ideas of the purpose of education, when the ideology of privatisation dominated.

I speak in many schools, universities and colleges, and I know that young people feel failed by a system that prepares them for exams, not life, and that is being increasingly scarred by cuts to funding for essential provision.

Greens back campaign against over-testing

Revolting childfen and parents yesterday

Vix Lowthian is the Green Party's spokesperson on education. She posted this on her blog on Monday LINK

 Thousands of parents of six and seven year olds will be keeping their children at home on Tuesday May 3^rd as a protest against the government national SATS exams.

The Green Party are very clear on this – we would abolish external SATS, and trust the professional judgement of teachers to assess their pupils in a much less pressurized environment. As Green Party national spokesperson for Education – and also a parent of 3 primary-aged boys and a working teacher – I have every sympathy with parents making the tough decision to withdraw their children from school.

Education at primary school level must be about a broad, child-centred curriculum with a wide variety of experiences and opportunities which will engender a love of learning and equip them for life. This over-emphasis on external testing is zapping the creativity out of our teaching and learning, thereby stifling the inquisitive nature of our children and limiting their future prospects.

The Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign has led the strike, saying that English children are ‘over-tested, over-worked and in a school system that places more importance of test results and league tables than children’s happiness and joy of learning’. It is a clear message to education secretary Nicky Morgan and her department that enough is enough, and we should not put our children through such a narrow and high-stake learning experience.

I fully support families getting behind our main teaching unions who have repeatedly called for an end to the over testing in our schools. Even the head of the usually moderate NAHT (Headteachers’ union) Russell Hobby has criticised the tests: “Testing has a role to play in the assessment of children, but the poorly designed tests and last-minute changes we have seen this year do not add value to teaching.”

I back the campaign against over testing of our seven year olds. I know that those children out of school on May 3^rd will have a happy and enriching experience away from mock tests and box ticking.
The government needs to listen.