After a rushed passage of the bill through parliament the Academies Act 2010 was bought into force today. All state schools in England can become academies, publicly-funded but having a greatly increased degree of autonomy. 

The SEA Annual Conference at Stafford.

Michael Gove announces a major change to school structures.  A bill, to be published tomorrow, will make it easier for thousands of schools to become academies. It will remove local authorities' power to veto any school's desire to become an academy. Top schools will no longer require a sponsor.

A typical comment from the teachers’ unions is this, from Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL: “The process for turning outstanding schools into academies is totally bizarre and undemocratic. We are appalled that there is no requirement for the school governors to consult anyone – parents, staff or the local community – before becoming an academy. It cannot be right to allow a self-selecting group of a school’s governing body to be handed control of a public asset. “When the Coalition Government is cutting public spending right, left and centre how can it possibly find up to £75 million to bribe outstanding schools to become academies?”

The SEA NEC looked at the Conservative Party manifesto along with the LibCon agreement and made an initial assessment of the challenges ahead for education. An interesting discussion about the merits or otherwise of Co-op Trust Schools was led by Mervyn Wilson, Chief Executive, The Co-operative College. Motions and other aspects of our forthcoming annual conference in Stafford were considered.  The results of the NEC election results were announced; we have a new Chair (Sheila Dore) and a new Treasurer (Mike Newman).

The Department for Education was formed, responsible for education and children's services,   Michael Gove MP is Secretary of State for Education.

The results of the general election were a disappointment for the Labour Party but the SEA congratulates all newly elected MPs who support progressive policies in education, in particular our Vice President, Kelvin Hopkins, and, in her first election to parliament, Julie Hilling.

The Cambridge Primary Review has drawn up a list of eleven post election policy priorities for primary education. The first and key priority is "Accelerate the drive to reduce England's gross and overlapping gaps in wealth, wellbeing and educational attainment"

This advertisement by CASE appeared in the Times.

Key policies in the Education Bill have been abandoned in order to push through legislation before Parliament is dissolved on Monday. The proposed reforms, blocked by the Tories, include the proposed registration scheme for home educators, guaranteed one-to-one tuition in English and maths for 7-11 year olds and compulsory sex education. The SEA did have some success, however, in getting the ‘License to Practise’ proposal removed from the bill (see HOME page).

Who should run our schools?  Results of an Ipsos Mori poll show that the public want state-funded schools to be run by local councils/local authorities in preference to any other type of provider, including universities, groups of parents, charities or private companies

Local Democracy in Education: Richard Hatcher as guest speaker, and Eddie Playfair whose paper [see COMMENT] contains clear recommendations for a new national democratic settlement, led the morning debate at the SEA NEC meeting in Stratford, London. This subject is regarded by the SEA as of highest importance and it will feature strongly at the SEA National Conference. The election priorities for the SEA were agreed. Other matters discussed were membership recruitment and retention, Home Education and SEA's relationship with other organisations with similar views like Compass and the Anti Academies Alliance.

In an announcement by the Higher Education Funding Council for England it was revealed that more than 100 universities will face a drop in their government grants in the next academic year. HEFCE said it had tried to protect money for core teaching and research but the total teaching grant of £4.7 billion represents a real terms cut of 1.6 per cent.

Publication of OFSTED report on tackling the NEET problem – how local authorities are getting young people back into education, employment and training.

According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters Labour's target of getting 50% of young people to go to university has driven down standards and devalued degrees – and the next government should abolish it. It also called for a phased increase in top-up fees. The NUS branded the AGR's proposals offensive. UCU said the report was out of touch.

The Tories say they will scrap local authorities' power to veto a school turning into an academy. Michael Gove said he would deny parents the chance to ballot on whether they wanted their child's school to convert. He added that under a Tory government, an academy would not need a sponsor and would not have to change its governing body.

DEMOS publishes the report of its 1-year research project on children’s disengagement from education. Early intervention in the underlying causes – poor literacy and numeracy etc - is crucial. The 334 page report EX CURRICULA sets out recommendations in the areas of parenting and early years provision for 0-5 years, behaviour and exclusion, special educational needs and spreading evidence-based, preventative practice in schools.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights publishes its report on the Children, Schools and Families Bill. The SEA is with the other members of the ACCORD Coalition in its concern that the amendment to the Bill, tabled by the Secretary of State Ed Balls, would permit state-funded “faith schools” to teach PSHE, which includes Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), “in a way that reflects the school’s religious character”.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition, said, ‘It is astonishing that the government plans to deny young people of their right to accurate, balanced PSHE and Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), and allow state funded schools to teach the subject from one religious viewpoint. By taking this position, Ed Balls is implicitly condoning homophobia in schools and undermining attempts to tackle homophobic bullying. After Labour has done so much for equality, this looks like a 21st century Section 28.’

The bill is to be debated next Tuesday, 23 February.

Wednesday 27 January 2010  

A government report commissioned by Harriet Harman confirms that the divide between rich and poor is greater than at any time since the Second World War. Children of pre-school age already show strong differences in educational attainment and these differences widen as they grow older. It is reckoned that each extra £100 a month in household earnings when children are very young is worth a month of cognitive development.

A report by the NUT entitled Opening Locked Doors recognises that class is just as important as race in tackling poor exam performance, and has a bigger impact than gender.

Meeting of the SEA NEC in Stafford. 

A list of 5 Things You Would Like to See in the Labour Party Manifesto was agreed [see under ISSUES].  This would be presented to the Socialist Societies manifesto meeting to be attended by cabinet ministers. 

Following a report of an unsatisfactory meeting with the minister Vernon Coaker around the relation between attainment and deprivation, it was agreed to produce a paper on the issues involved.

Eric Robinson's wish to oppose the proposal to remove responsibility for education at home from parents to the state was supported and it was agreed to propose Eric as a member of the Compass group. Eddie Playfair also expressed a wish to be involved in discussions with the Compass Education Policy Group.

The General Secretary's report to the NEC is here

The Commons schools select committee report on a year-long inquiry into the system of school inspections, league tables and targets in England. The report shows particular concern that Ofsted should become “unwieldy and uncoordinated” following the expansion of its responsibilities three years ago. 

Barry Sheerman, the select committee’s chairman, said: “We now have an accountability framework which is far too complex and which stigmatises and undermines struggling schools. What schools need now is a period of stability and a chance for their own efforts to improve performance to bear fruit.”

Peter Mortimore, former director of the Institute of Education, challenges politicians to tackle the remaining grammar schools:

”Selection remains a significant factor in 2010. Popular with parents who can afford years of coaching for their children's entrance tests, it underpins a hierarchy of status, promotes snobbery and prevents many schools from gaining a fair share of able pupils. Surely it should have no place in a country wrestling with so many other inequalities?”

Thursday 1 January 2010  

Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, is critical of government education policy. He says “There's a very long tail of under-performance. I think this is more than an educational issue, it's a social and cultural issue as well, Part of the story is the correlation between deprivation and poor academic outcomes, which are more marked in this country than we ought to be able to contemplate. We ought to be ashamed of the numbers."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, attacked Lambert's comments, claiming he was out of touch with modern schools. "The improvements in the education system over the last 20 years are remarkable. They dwarf the achievements of any major company," he said.

Tuesday 1 December  

Publication of the annual primary school league tables. As John Bangs, NUT head of education, puts it, they contain no surprises, showing that “results from local authorities with affluent populations are far higher than those from authorities experiencing high levels of social deprivation.”

Wednesday 25 November  

OFSTED Annual Report shows sustained improvement over the past four years, notably in schools of which 19% were now 'outstanding' and only 4% 'inadequate'. Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector, rejected criticism from local authorities and teachers' unions, saying she would not bow to vested interests.

Monday 23 November  

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), issues a document which is highly critical of OFSTED and the current inspection regime which, it says “is based on a flawed methodology, wastes time and resources and fails to describe local authority performance in a way that the public can understand.”

Tuesday 17 November  

Daycare Trust, the National Childcare Campaign publishes its new research

‘Quality Costs: Paying for High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care'.

It recommends that spending on childcare should double from the current £4.4bn to £9.4bn, taking spending up to approximately 1% of GDP, in line with OECD recommendations.

Saturday 14 November

The meeting of the SEA NEC in London included an extensive discussion on co-operation with other organisations supporting state education in the run-up to the general election and particularly with the AAA whose national secretary, Alasdair Smith, spoke to the meeting.

In the afternoon at The Institute of Education Eric Robinson, SEA Vice President gave

  this year's Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture. 

Richard Pring chaired the meeting. Eric introduced the lecture himself, recalling his co-operation with Caroline Benn, and Melissa Benn, representing her family, contributed a short piece. An exceptionally challenging question and answer session after the lecture was handled with characteristic humour and authority by the speaker.