Uncertain times?

What are we going to do about the primary curriculum? What about SATs? What effect will the Academies have on the educational system?

And what about OFSTED!

It is clear that with the election of our new coalition government there is currently a lot of uncertainty within education. And I do not think that we should expect there to be clear direction and unequivocal guidance from the government for some time. It feels for all the world at the moment that the government is making things up as it goes along. And perhaps that is only to be expected. It was ever thus.

It would be easy to overplay the lack of clear direction from on top but the reality is that periods of uncertainty have been more the norm than the exception in my experience! As the national agenda moves away from ‘education, education, education’ to ‘economy, economy, economy’, we can expect the spotlight to move away from education for a while or at least reduce in intensity. And I for one do not object. For too long the previous administration have tried to manage the educational system through constant change and what many would describe as interference. The results have been mixed to say the least.

So what are schools to do in this era of uncertainty? My advice to schools and headteachers is to return to your aims. All schools have aims which are often regurgitated in school literature but perhaps have taken a bit of a back seat under the overbearing weight and glare of the previous government. Now is the time to get them out and dust them down. Are they still fit for purpose? Are they shared by all staff, governors and parents?

It is the school aims that will provide a sense of direction in these times and who knows, this period may provide a real opportunity for schools to grasp hold of their own destiny and enable them to secure the very best education to meet the needs of the children that they serve.

Ofsted -Raising the Bar?

The recent report from Ofsted about the outcomes of their inspections of Autumn 2009 sadly reflect a position NPH predicted in the same term. The number of schools being graded as inadequate has doubled to 10% and 50% are deemed either satisfactory or worse. In the new Ofsted double speak satisfactory would appear to be not good enough and as such only 49% are deemed good or better. Of course Ofsted and Ed Balls talks about raising the bar and the fact that when the last new framework was introduced the number of inadequate schools doubled as if it was expected. What organizations like Ofsted need to do is ensure, as we would in schools if introducing a new direction, that schools are adequately prepared and trained for the new expectations, not introduce them then somehow believe that more failure is to be expected, during some sort of ‘settling in period’. There was of course also a double whammy as at the same time as revising the framework they also revised the Self Evalaution Form (SEF). Schools inspected in the Autumn term had the twin pressure of a new framework and the need to present their information, if using the SEF, in a radically different way. This would be like changing the rules of football and the scoring system, then wondering why football seemed less flowing and more confused than usual.
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NPH Conference June 10/11th 2010

The National Primary Headteachers’ Annual Conference will take place on 10th & 11th June 2010. Click the link for full details.
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