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. 

 

Brent Cabinet discusses vital report on implementing plans to tackle Black inequality in Brent

At 10am today the Brent Cabinet has a very important item on the Brent Black Community Action Plan.  It constitutes 10 detailed work streams on all aspect of the Council's work: 

1.    Early intervention: children, young people and families 
2.   Enabling and strengthening community leadership through capacity building  
3.   Developing community spaces – run and managed by local communities 
4.   Supporting the black community and voluntary sector - grant funding and procurement 
5.   Support for employment and enterprise 
6.   Accountability and engagement 
7.   Internal review of processes within the Council  
8.   Homes and homelessness 
9.   Tackling health inequalitieS
10. Embedding equality and diversity within the council workforce.

 Unfortunately there is a possibility that most publicity will be given to a parallel plan to review the names of  places in Brent associated with people involved in the slave trade, including Gladstone Park.  Although symbolically important and perhaps an 'easy win' the resulting furore may drown out the vital and more difficult work involved in tackling current inequalities in education, work, health and housing to name just some of the work streams.  As a veteran of the anti-racist campaigns in education in the 1970s I remember how the work we were undertaking in schools was derailed by rows about whether 'Baa, baa black sheep' should be banned. Slave trade names are important but have to be kept in perspective.

As an example of the detailed work this is Workstream 1 - Early Intervention: children, young people and families:

1.Working with schools to influence school curricula to:

·      support young black boys with developing self-esteem, self-worth and confidence in the classroom, and through coaching and mentoring in schools

·      ensure positive Black History is being taught.

School Effectiveness officers will continue to work with schools to encourage the teaching of black history. Good practice examples in Brent include schools, which have been awarded the United Nations ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’, reducing inequality and promoting inclusive societies.

Officers will ensure schools maintain a focus on the progress of priority groups & will continue to support the ‘Raising Achievement of boys of Black Caribbean heritage’ project, building on the success in improving outcomes in Year 1/2 of the project.

2.Recruitment drive for black school governors. This includes encouraging schools and Governor training to include unconscious bias and anti-racism training. Recruitment processes for school governors are ongoing. A recent focused campaign resulted in 25% of recruited governors identifying as being Black/Black British. The governor training offer will be developed to include unconscious bias and anti-racism training.

3.Creating an assured way of life for young black people by enabling them to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations relating to education and work through:

• enabling young people to explore and express their aspirations, which will include making them aware of opportunities available to them. This could also include confidence-building and making them feel ‘accepted’ and that
• they do not have to work twice as hard as their non-black peers to achieve the same levels of positive outcomes for themselves
• supporting parents with their own aspirations and to understand the aspirations of their families and children, and how they can enable their children to thrive
• institutions, including FE colleges, reviewing their support to ensure it is enabling young black people to discover and achieve their aspirations and removing structural racism and unconscious bias and barriers.

Looking at the pinch points in a young person’s life (birth, starting school, transitioning from primary to secondary school, selecting GCSE subjects and beyond) we need to look at ensuring:

•  that the institutions and individuals who are influencers in a young person’s life at various stages possess the cultural competence to understand and respond to the context, pressures and barriers young black people can encounter at every critical stage in their lives. Training will be essential.
• young people are enabled and given the ability to prepare for and handle situations. This includes developing personal resilience skills and creating spaces to have difficult conversations, possibly in school. These conversations could be trauma felt or experienced, directly or indirectly
• that institutions deploy trauma training for professionals working with young people to support them with trauma and other issues faced
• space and opportunity for young people to act as leaders and influencers
• opportunities for young people to learn about black history which can enable self-worth and aspirations to grow
• opportunities to celebrate achievements, for example, through an annual Youth Pride of Brent Awards evening hosted by the Council.

Actions in this section will align with actions in work stream 5 regarding support for employment and enterprise. Parents will be supported to access early years entitlements and the 30 hours free childcare offer through the Progress for All project.

Family Wellbeing Centres will provide parents and carers of 0-18 year olds with access to support services and programmes to develop their confidence and life skills.

Trauma-informed practice training will continue to be provided for professionals working with young people. Schools and colleges will be supported to access training in areas of cultural competence, unconscious bias and anti-racism.

Working with YBF and the Beckmead Trust, integrated youth activities will be provided around the new Alternative Provision school at the Roundwood Centre from January 2021. Youth engagement through a series of podcasts exploring issues and concerns for young people.

With The Beat London, the council recently commissioned a special 

• ‘Time to Talk Covid-19’, phone-in to discuss why the BAME community is disproportionately affected by Covid-19
•  Brent Youth Parliament gives young people who may feel marginalised the opportunity to have a voice.

Alll the work streams can be accessed by following these LINKS

NEU's 10 Point Recovery Plan for Education ticks lots of boxes

While the government bungles the National Education Union has put some thought into what needs to be done for a recovery of children's education in the Covid19 crisis.

Unprecedented unity as education unions call on Government to step back fron June 1st starting date to enable talks on safe return

In a significant development over the conflict on whether schools should re-open at present the TUC issued the following statement this afternoon.  In Brent concerns were expressed at an on-line meeting of Chairs of Governors with Brent's Strategic Director for Children and Young People. yesterday afternoon.  Next week there will be a meeting between education unions the Chief Education Officer and the Director.

Education unions’ statement on the safe reopening of schools

Unions with members in the education sector are today (Wednesday) publishing a joint statement on the safe reopening of schools.

Today’s statement follows a longer statement to the Secretary of State on Friday (8 May), which set out in full detail the principles and tests necessary for the safe reopening of schools. It is signed by AEP, GMB, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, NSEAD, Prospect, UNISON and Unite.

Full text of today’s statement:

“We all want schools to re-open, but that should only happen when it is safe to do so. The government is showing a lack of understanding about the dangers of the spread of coronavirus within schools, and outwards from schools to parents, sibling and relatives, and to the wider community.

“Uniquely, it appears, school staff will not be protected by social distancing rules. 15 children in a class, combined with their very young age, means that classrooms of 4 and 5-year olds could become sources of Covid-19 transmission and spread. While we know that children generally have mild symptoms, we do not know enough about whether they can transmit the disease to adults. We do not think that the government should be posing this level of risk to our society.

“We call on the government to step back from the 1st June and work with us to create the conditions for a safe return to schools based on the principles and tests we have set out.”

The principles and tests include :

· Safety and welfare of pupils and staff as the paramount principle

· No increase in pupil numbers until full rollout of a national test and trace scheme

· A national Covid-19 education taskforce with government, unions and education stakeholders to agree statutory guidance for safe reopening of schools

· Consideration of the specific needs of vulnerable students and families facing economic disadvantage

· Additional resources for enhanced school cleaning, PPE and risk assessments

· Local autonomy to close schools where testing indicates clusters of new covid-19 cases

Brent faces up to the challenge to plan for the next 20 years - details of report going to Full Council on November 25th

Brent Council, with partners, has faced up to the formidable challenge of devising an 'Inclusive Growth Strategy' for the next 20 years.

The report on the Strategy which is to be discussed at Full Council on November 25th  states:

The Inclusive Growth Strategy (IGS) is a long term strategy that identifies choices available to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of growth over the next 20 years. Broader in scope than a Regeneration Strategy, the IGS is supported by a detailed evidence base drawn up in-house by officers across all the council service areas, with early support provided by the LSE Cities programme. The IGS builds on the medium term Borough Plan and takes a longer term scan of the horizon of different futures. Headline growth trends and impacts considered in the IGS include: 

Brent’s population projected to grow 17% and reach 400,000 people by 2040

Brent’s population over 80 years old projected to double by 2040

Automation placing a third of jobs in Brent at higher risk

Employment growth in creative and circular economies 

Rise of older workers driving demand for retraining and flexible employment 

Increasing housing unaffordability, as house prices outstrip wage growth 

Private renters increasing to be 40% of London’s households by 2025 

Growing water demand and widening deficit versus available water supply

Sewer capacity at critical levels by 2050 in north and west parts of Brent 

Transformation of Brent’s energy mix to reach zero carbon by 2050 – requiring fossil fuel use reduction of 80% and increased renewable energy use of 500% 

Ageing population, obesity levels and increased risks for black and minority ethnic groups, driving even higher levels of diabetes in Brent’s population 

Continued decline in traditional retail and greater high street diversification

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The full report with an attached Action Plan is a hefty 73 pages and embedded below for convenience. Click bottom right square for full page view.

Cllr Duffy launches consultation on improving Brent Council's environmental services

Previously published on Wembley Matters 0 Springtime flytip Chalkhill

Cllr John Duffy (Labour, Kilburn) has returned to the fray over Brent Council's policy on the environment and particularly fly-tipping and littering enforcement.

He is starting a consultation with residents which he says will try and improve environmental services and hopefully stop or change the £35 bulky waste charge and start a schools initiative. All parties are welcome to comment.

He has publicised his initiative on his blog Kilburn Calling LINK and this is an edited version.

In an email to all Brent councillors he says:

Dear All,

I am asking for your input into improving the environmental services available in Brent. I wonder have you a moment  to comment on the issues below.

From my observations Brent Environmental services are often very good, but are very inconsistent and have lacked direction.

It is also clear that the Cabinet continues to waste precious resources and I believe they have no enforcement strategy or are aware of the tactics needed to ensure implementation of an enforcement strategy. The Brent cabinet believe it’s easier to pick the ratepayer’s pocket, than look for solutions. The cabinet have struggled to make environmental enforcement against fly-tipping a priority and relied on unnecessary price increases to cover -up their lack of direction. I find it astonishing that the cabinet continue to Laud over their Zero -tolerance(ZT) policy which waste £100k of precious resources boosting they have issued 6000 FPN ( 99% on fag butts). They do this while concealing  the fact  Fly -Tipping went up by a staggering 32% at the same time.

I am sure I can speak for many resident in Brent when saying if the local police started a ZT policy against burglaries in Brent and arrest 6000 burglars, and at the sometime burglaries when up by 32%. No one would think that was a success most people would call it a failure, however the Cabinet seem to think the opposite.

I believe we need to re-prioritise Brent’s enforcement policy from the sound bite Zero-Tolerance (ZT) into what used to be called Smart Enforcement  which means the policy will be judged by improvements in cleansing out comes (less fly-tipping) not by how many FPNs have been issue.

Enforcement needs co-ordinating of all resources available from the council, the contractor and residents. It is important we seek Value for money to protect and improve the Environment and the cabinet should not treat the residents as a Cash Cow.

The cabinet have continually raised environmental taxes, if you have a Green Bin you pay an extra £20 and an extra £35 for bulky waste collections (allowing for only one collection PA) is £55.That is the equivalent of a 4% rise in council tax this year alone. Some costs are reasonable but other are needless and wasted on paying private contractors to sit outside tube station fining people who drop dog -ends before they get on a train. Instead the cabinet should be investing in a intergrated Environmental Enforcement strategy.

One of the biggest mistake the cabinet made was having no consultation with residents or councillors

What I am suggesting is listed below.I am putting forward these suggestions for consultation with residents. Once  the consultation is complete I hope to gain enough support to call a special meeting of the council in November/December to discuss and implement some of the suggestion and hopefully reconsider the £35 cost for Bulky Waste collections.

ENFORCEMENT AND ANTI  FLY-TIPPING STRATEGY 

(1)      MAPPING    

Firstly we have to analyse the 17000 fly-tips we had last year and remove any duplication, we then have to map the hot spots in each ward (or Village) where the there is consistent fly-tipping dumping.

(2)      SIGNAGE / WARNING LETTERS / ENFORCEMENT NOTICES 

Our no Dumping Signs,Warning/Information letter and Enforcement Notices need overhauling and updated. All information needs to be A (Accurate) B (Brief) C (Clear) with a Direct Enforcement contact email and telephone number should be showing. All correspondence   should seek to be ABC.

(3)      ZONAL IMPROVEMENT PATROL (ZIP)

The government legislation allows us to keep all income we receive from fines, with that income we should fund at least two ZIP team this team will deal with consistent areas of dumping. These teams will be on top of existing officers  and should be self funding via the income from the FPNs. 

All zone one (High streets or roads with a transport hub) with a time -banding collections service should be visited at least twice a week  for inspection and where possible at least one of those should be the week-end where the foot-fall is higher 

(4)      OFFICERS TRAINING

All officers should be generically trained to deal with enforcement. The service over the last year has had the wrong priorities and has been side-tracked away from Fly-tipping have concentrated on Section 87/88 of the EPA (Littering FPN)

Officers should also be trained and use

Section 33 (Depositing waste)

Section 34 (Duty Of Care)

Section 59 (Private Land )

Section 46 (Domestic Bins)

Section 47 (Commercial Bins)

Section 90 (Litter Controls Areas)

or any legislation which has replaced them

This will give Officers the knowledge to deal with a wider range of problems of areas behind shops Neasden, Edgware Road, Hassop Rd and Waterloo passage as some examples.

(5)      Follow -up enforcement

Many of the problems are reoccurring problems. Brent’s officer’s do a good job on their initial visit and clear -up the fly-tips and many issue FPNs to perpetrators. However where they often fail is the follow-up monitoring, it is important we have re- inspections on persistent hot spots and they should be carried out once a week for the first 6 months and once a month for the following 6 months, before the job is signed off. Its is important we do not just temporarily remove the problem, its important we solve the problem.

(6)      Schools and Education 

One of the great failures of the Cabinet and the Labour group is the neglect of environmental education of our young people. Whether it be on issues from graffiti, litter, air - quality or recycling , they have been neglected . This is clearly a wasted opportunity. What I am proposing is a yearly environmental award. This award will paid for by a community chest of say approx £25k PA and will be funded by contractors who have environmental contracts with us. The Brent Environmental Award (BEA)  involve all schools all schools would be sent a Environmental bundle ( litter pickers, tabards, environmental books etc) the older students would become “Brent Environmental Champions” and offered (Environmental) work experience with our contractors or the council along with other rewards and opportunities .The Younger ones would become “Litter Detectives” and learn about their local environment  and how they can improve it. I attach  a poem that was sung by some London schools (including one from Brent) which I produced some time ago.

We need to work with our Head teachers to draw out how the (BEA) can be used in the classroom , schools are also major resource to spread information, to get out anti-littering and fly-tipping and general environmental information out to parents.

(7)      Bulky Waste 

The decision of the cabinet to introduce a cost for a bulky waste collection needs to be reviewed. I believe this decision is bad economics and bad for the environment. It would appear that the decision is purely to raise money and to cover up the inefficient service and the cabinet failure to monitor it. The fact is the residents had already paid for a free service in the street cleansing contract . At a time when fly-tipping is going up by 32% PA, residents need to understand the logic of how this policy will help control fly-tipping or increase income.

(8)      Recycling 

Again this is one of the areas the cabinet have neglected. It was once the holly grail of environment but has been ignored .The council moved from a once a fortnight collection to a once a week collection and the recycling tonnage has hardly increased and overall our tonnage is down. This again is about the cabinet making the environment a priority. Tonnage can be improved by a number of ways, but mostly i believe it by information and reward. We need to analyse the wards that are failing to recycled and target them.

(9)      Street Cleansing.

Street cleansing performance is in my opinion of a good standard, however we need to be more open and have independent surveys  carried out. At the moment we are self-monitoring. The council and the contractor carry out monitoring. Monitoring of our high streets is not done out of hours or at the weekend when the service often fails. I believe we need to employ an independent company like the Tidy Britain Group or another Council to monitor our services and provide us with independent surveys.

As I have said before many of Brent’s services are street cleansing are often good but can be improved. The issue above are some of the areas we can improve in. I would appreciate any input you can put into this If you can reply to CLLR.JOHN.DUFFY@BRENT.GOV.UK. and call the email IMPROVING SERVICES.

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.

London headteachers fear for the future of high quality education in the face of budget cuts

From London Councils
 

London is experiencing a school funding crisis that is damaging the quality of education schools can provide, research commissioned by London Councils has revealed. Headteachers face huge challenges in coping with reducing budgets, recruiting and retaining teachers, and managing teachers’ workload so that they can deliver the best quality education for our schoolchildren.

Talking Heads, a survey of nearly 400 London head teachers and senior school leaders, lays bare the negative impact of insufficient funding on teacher and teaching assistant numbers, curriculum options, learning resources such as IT equipment and textbooks, and the upkeep of school buildings.

Another key challenge addressed by the report is recruitment and retention of high quality teachers. London headteachers are finding it increasingly hard to recruit and retain teaching staff due to the challenges of the profession as well as high living costs and house prices. Primary schools are struggling to fill classroom teacher vacancies, while secondary schools are struggling most with recruiting subject leaders.

Cllr Peter John OBE, Deputy Chair of London Councils and Executive member with responsibility for education, said:

Our research paints a bleak picture of the financial challenges threatening the future of London’s education system from the perspective of the head teachers and school leaders who have worked to transform the capital’s schools into the best in the country.

Headteachers fear that young Londoners will not be able to receive a top-quality education in the years ahead due to increased costs and inadequate funding for schools.

The UK is on course to leave the European Union in 2019 and ensuring young people have the skills to succeed and contribute to the growth of the economy has never been more important.

We’re calling on Government to recognise that schools are facing significant additional cost pressures, and to protect school funding in real terms to address these pressures. This would give head teachers the freedom to focus on helping children to realise their potential at school so they respond positively to the challenges and opportunities that spring from Brexit.

Download the report HERE

Headteachers' review of the education policies of the three main parties

Ahead of tonight's Education Question Time at 6.30pm tonight at Queens Park Community School it is worth reading the National Association of Headteachers review of the three main parties education policies. It is a great pity that they do not consider the Green Party's views.

New reports comparing the general election manifestos from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Education Policy Institute are published today. 

Commenting on these reports, Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT said:

Education continues to be an important issue for voters in this election. Anyone with the best interests of children and young people at heart will be glad to see that all the major parties have devoted space to education in their manifestos. 

There are clear differences in policy and priority for the parties, so there’s plenty for parents, teachers and school leaders to think about. Older pupils, who may be voting for the first time, will also have a view.

Thanks to continued pressure by parents and schools, there is now cross-party recognition that school budgets are at breaking point. This is not a moment too soon because our research shows that seven out of ten school leaders believe their budgets will be untenable by the 2019/20 academic year. However, there are elements in all of the manifestos that will leave voters wondering how proposals will be funded and whether they will achieve the benefits to pupils that the parties claim.

NAHT had been focussing on five key priorities which we believe all parties should sign up to:

• To fund education fully and fairly, reversing the £3bn real terms cuts that schools are facing and providing enough money to make the new national funding formula a success.

• To put forward a national strategy for teacher recruitment and retention that recognises teachers as high-status professionals and guarantees enough teachers for every school.

• To adopt fair methods to hold schools to account, recognising that test and exam results are only part of the picture when judging a pupil’s success or a school’s effectiveness.

• To value a broad range of subjects in the school day so that pupils’ opportunities are not limited and they are properly prepared for adult life.

• To make sure that schools are supported by health and social care services to allow schools to fulfil their role to promote pupil wellbeing rather than making up for cuts to other services.

So far over 150 parliamentary candidates have signed up including Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Angela Rayner, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party. Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader has also signed up. To date, no Conservative candidates have signed up. The list of signatories is continually being updated, and can be found here. 

Funding

Mr Hobby said: “Funding is still the number one issue in education, without sufficient cash, schools will always struggle to implement any new or established policies. The rest of the debate about education begins and ends with that fact. It is welcome, for instance, that both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have proposed to address the current reductions in real terms funding for post-16 education, which have left the 16 to 18 phase relatively underfunded compared to secondary school education. It is time for the whole education system to be given the investment it so desperately needs.”

Recruitment

Mr Hobby said: “Disappointingly, there is not much from any of the parties on how to solve the teacher recruitment crisis. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to abolish the 1 per cent public sector pay cap, which would certainly help, but the Conservatives have not made any commitments to remove the cap, which is likely to cause teacher pay to continue to decline in real and relative terms, making it a less attractive career choice. Guaranteeing enough high quality teachers for every school is a sufficiently complicated and important enough requirement to demand that the government takes overall responsibility for it by implementing a national strategy.”

Accountability

Mr Hobby said: “Whilst there are some areas of concern, England’s schools are overwhelmingly of a high quality. School leaders have earned the right to fair methods to hold schools to account, recognising that test and exam results are only part of the picture when judging a pupil’s success or a school’s effectiveness. Narrow, high stakes accountability causes activity damage. The Conservatives’ plans to increase accountability at Key Stage 3, demonstrate an unwillingness to build a fair system and will dismay many school leaders. Reducing the target for participation in the English Baccalaureate from 90 per cent to 75 per cent merely proves how arbitrary that target was and we will continue to campaign to see this dropped altogether. 

“Whilst all three parties are pledging to reform assessment in primary schools, Labour have made an explicit commitment to abolish any baseline assessments. As the EPI says, the development of a new baseline assessment does need to be handled with care, but it is disappointing that Labour have ruled out further examination of its possibilities, given its potential to provide a measure of pupil progress over the entire course of primary school. We would urge all three parties to build on the significant impact that our ‘Redressing the Balance’ report has had on the assessment and accountability debate.”

Mental Health

Mr Hobby said: “There is cross-party consensus of the need to make significant changes to children and young people’s mental health services, which is welcome. Although recognition must be given to the increasing contribution that schools are making to support the mental health needs of pupils, there can be no expectation on any school to provide health and social care services funded from the school budget. NAHT does not believe that it is fair for schools to be held to account for mental wellbeing when their efforts are so dependent on the quality and availability of other services that young people need.”

Students with Special Needs

Mr Hobby said: “In terms of the way the education system works for every student, regardless of who they are, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have also outlined strategies in their manifestos specifically directed towards the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). With a significant gap in attainment scores for SEND and non-SEND pupils, they risk being left behind. These commitments are therefore welcome. In contrast, the Conservatives have made no reference to the needs of pupils with SEND in their manifesto, which is extremely disappointing.”

Narrowing the Gap

Mr Hobby concluded: “All the main parties state that they want to improve things for pupils who come from less well-off families but their chosen methods are very different. Much has been made of the two most high profile Conservative Party priorities; the end of Universal Infant Free School Meals and the return of selective education. Ending the school meals entitlement for infants after only three years and without a proper evaluation of the project takes a much too short term view of the issue. Almost a million children will be affected, so we believe the entitlement should be retained. It is likely that ending the universal entitlement will reduce economies of scale and further damage school budgets. 

“The plans to offer free breakfasts instead have not been costed properly and do not include additional funding in order to meet upfront costs, increased demand and the need for additional staffing. Labour and Liberal Democrat plans to expand free school meals to all primary students are noble but will only work if funding is sufficient and the all the practicalities of simultaneously feeding a greater number of pupils have been taken into account.

“NAHT does not support any plans to expand grammar schools. As the EPI states in its report today, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are seriously under-represented in grammar schools and additional selective schools have no significant net positive or negative impact on pupil attainment - instead they modestly redistribute educational attainment towards the small number who gain entry to grammar schools and away from the much larger proportion of children who do not. Pupils from black and minority ethnic families are particularly ill served by grammar schools, which cannot be a good thing for social mobility of cohesion.”

You can read our summary of the main parties’ manifestos here. 

(Note it is a pity the NAHT did not include the radical Green Party policy for education here)