Sometimes I don’t understand this government’s way of doing things; this is one of those occasions. Last week, the department for children, schools and families released an excellent research report called Breaking the Link between disadvantage and low attainment – everyone’s business. http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/00357-2009.pdf In my opinion, this is the most convincing case that I have seen supporting the government’s claim that they have overseen a general improvement of schooling in the UK. In particular, it makes a strong case that significant progress having been achieved in overcoming the effects of social disadvantage within the education system. Yes, the report emphasises the successes and glosses over stubborn problems but it makes a very positive case for the success of past policies and identifies specific problem areas that now need considering. Most importantly, I think they make a convincing case that educational attainment in the most deprived areas of the country has shown the biggest improvement over the past 10 years. And yet this report is hidden away on the recent publications website of teachernet. I’d say if you are only going to read a single publication this year about schooling and disadvantage then this is it! In my opinion it should be up there in lights on the DCSF website and should have been the subject of a publicity offensive. Instead, the Minister got into a tussle over introducing American style report cards for schools and it was this that took prominence in the DCSF press release http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0057 and then worse, this minor idea dominated the newspaper coverage http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1161807/School-league-tables-scrapped-replaced-wellbeing-charts.html I guess we will have another shot at this subject with the publication of the White Paper in the spring. However, I think a more aggressive and positive campaign is urgently required if only to combat the common perception that education standards are worsening http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/02/education-standards-poll and that the great social divide shows little change http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1160314/Not-single-GCSE-nearly-half-UKs-poorest-children.html while there is evidence that private schools are doing better at A levels http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5871124.ece and more likely to study hard subjects http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4957568/Private-school-pupils-four-times-as-likely-to-get-straight-As-at-A-level.html I was surprised by the report that 1 in 10 parents may be using private tutors for their children http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4839415/Tutors-in-demand-in-race-for-grammar-schools.html negative news and analysis swamps all talk of improvement, this is a shame and not the full story.
Friday, 20 March 2009
2 Outraged of Westminster
A House of Commons Committee has expressed dismay at the slow progress of widening participation into university http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7911211.stm the full report can be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/226/9780215526557.pdf I think it worth quoting one of the findings “The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Higher Education Funding Council know too little about how universities have used the £392 million allocated to them over the last five years to widen participation.” However, in a more optimistic vein, a couple of ideas here seem to be worth a try http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7937527.stm The suggestion that students might study university courses at school illustrates how the shape of higher education delivery continues to change. Last week it was announced that “Newcastle College was on course this week to become the first English further education institution to receive more funds for its higher education teaching than a university.” http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6009793
3 Mentoring good practice
I came across these Transition Mentoring Good Practice Case Studies which the DCSF say ‘We have collected case studies that show how many agencies and partners are offering mentoring support to young people at times of transition to support them into further education or training.’ http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/14-19/index.cfm?go=site.home&sid=42&pid=456&ctype=None&ptype=Contents
4 Hogwart’s express
Would an expansion of state boarding school provision help disadvantaged students? http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/10/conservatives-private-schools I’m sceptical, especially the idea that it is fostered children who would especially benefit from a boarding school placement. This seems a bit hard on those who have just been received into foster care only to find themselves moved on again into a boarding school.
5 Child protection for slow learners
The Lamming review (again) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7938826.stm further reforms http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/more-training-for-social-services-bosses-after-baby-p-tragedy-1643084.html and a later report http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/13/child-protection-laming-babyp-report
I can remember 25 years ago, when working in a neighbouring local authority, being told that one in five children on the ‘at risk’ register had no allocated social worker in Haringey. Any reports or information about those unallocated children would be dealt with by whoever was on duty in the area office at the time. In short, there has never been an adequate child protection system in place in this area of north London; demand has always been greater than the social work resources available. While being a difficult area, Haringey was not extraordinary, its problems placed it at the end of a spectrum of difficulty but these problems were common to most urban social work departments in the UK. The present government came into office pledging to address this.
As with much government reform, the emphasis has been to seek to make the work processes of child protection more efficient, so that the existing staffing and expenditure would then be adequate to the level of demand. In management terms, this led to the adoption of a simple form of Taylorism, where you had only to define the one best way to do child protection work and then put in place a management and organisational structure to ensure that that this happened and you have resolved the problem. Hence the focus on procedures and managerial/organisational structures for last 12 years.
Unfortunately, good child protection work is more craft than science. Every effective child protection social worker I have known has worked differently. People develop their own style and ways of doing things. Try to do it by standardised procedures, painting by numbers as it were, and all you achieve is to do it badly. That is what Lamming and his government friends don’t seem to grasp, child protection work is volatile; families don’t go into crisis at convenient times or in a convenient sequence. For a social worker, their case load can be undemanding one week and then manic the next. In Taylorist terms, these differences are an undesirable inefficiency; but in social work terms this isn’t inefficiency, it is how people behave in the real world and that any work load has to include contingency time for the unexpected. There is no alternative to improved resourcing and lower case loads.
On a more optimistic note, some of the discussion of the baby P case would seem to show that learning is emerging from this debate. It is being said that senior managers should have some experience of child protection before being appointed (Sharon Shoesmith had none). This is an improvement, but who thought it wasn’t necessary when Sharon and half of her colleagues were appointed? Similarly, computer systems which demand standardised modes of work and standardised inputs are now being criticised. Fine, but Lamming was their loudest advocate. It does seem to be taking a rather long time for some fairly obvious child protection pennies to drop for our leaders.
6 Scottish cared for children
Report finds that “Students in care achieved, on average, two Standard Grade passes in 2008, fewer than pupils from even the poorest social backgrounds” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7934884.stm
7 Six months to train to become a teacher?
Departmental press release http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0048 and sceptical daily mail report http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1160835/Failed-City-staff-offered-fast-track-route-teaching.html I think it is interesting that this announcement met with a general scepticism that these recruits will be ill equipped to deal with the hurly-burly of a demanding student group as they simply won’t have adequately developed skills of classroom management in such a short training period. The example of an earlier migrant offers hope http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/17/ex-bankers-teaching-city
For life at the chalk face, this French film would seem to be worth a view http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/01/pupil-behaviour-schools-class-control and an article from the Times about how schooling can destroy even for the most confident: the headteacher’s tale http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5821872.ece Overall, while sharing some of the scepticism, I think the experience of previous recessions has been that the teaching profession benefits from an influx of individuals who in other times might well go elsewhere.
8 Science is important
The importance of science for economic recovery http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/10/roy-anderson-imperial-college-london it must be true, the prime-minister thinks it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7915233.stm he seems to be morphing into Harold Wilson.