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Ofsted on PE, GCSE English regrade rejected and other educational news
Ofsted, the draft National Curriculum, and the High Court’s rejection of a GCSE English regrade – get all the latest news, brought to you by the TES editorial team.
13th February 2013, 3:08pm
Will a new scorecard system help Haringey schools to join London’s stellar cast? - 15 February 2013
Hot on the heels of news that Ofsted will be poking its nose into local authorities where schools are underperforming, Haringey Council has announced this week that it will be accepting a raft of recommendations to improve itself and its 80 primaries and secondaries.
A commission led by former Hackney primary school head Dame Anna Hassan (and including TES editor Gerard Kelly) has put forward a number of proposals to ensure that every school in the borough is judged “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted within the next three years. Among the most eye-catching of the recommendations is a plan to introduce scorecards for every school, giving parents more accessible information about their children’s places of learning. According to the report, the scorecards would provide parents with a range of information, including Family of Schools data, which will compare a child’s school with others of a similar makeup elsewhere in the borough and across London. “The scorecard would also provide parents with advice about how they can best support their child’s learning and so help improve overall school results,” the report states. The commission also suggested bringing in new “pupil passports”, which would give essential information to schools on a child’s attainment as well as other strengths and weaknesses. The data could primarily be used when a pupil moves school, particularly when transferring from primary to secondary, but could also be utilised when they are moving between key stages. Much of the rest of London has been described as a beacon of excellence for dramatically improving results over the past 10 years or so. The likes of Westminster and, particularly, Tower Hamlets have shown how, despite their demographics, impressive results can be achieved. It is fair to say this say this is part of Haringey’s bid to catch up. It will be interesting to see if it works. Richard Vaughan Today’s Ofsted report on PE and sport in schools comes at an awkward moment for the government. Ministers are expected to make a long-awaited announcement on funding for school sport in the next few weeks, and the conclusions all over this morning’s news will have heaped additional pressure on the civil servants ironing out the details. The Ofsted PE report is clear that ministers must find funding for a new school sport scheme or risk failing to capitalise on the sporting legacy left by last summer’s Olympic Games. It also reopens old wounds over school sports partnerships, which were killed off by education secretary Michael Gove not long after the coalition government was formed in 2010. It was, the report says, “clearly evident in the vast majority of schools visited” that the initiative increased regular competitive sport - something that Mr Gove and Prime Minister David Cameron have said they want more of. It goes on: “A commitment from the government to invest in a new strategy for PE and school sport is needed if [the Olympic] legacy is to be maintained. This survey confirms that national funding over the past four years has led to considerable improvements.” It is clear that a lot is riding on the funding announcement - expected not long after next week’s half-term - for both schools and their political masters. No pressure, then. Richard Vaughan - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think The alliance that made a legal bid to change grade boundaries, rejected this morning, did so because it believed it was the only means of redress for the more than 30,000 pupils believed by their schools to have been unfairly awarded D rather than C grades in GCSE English. Ofqual issued two reports last year on the controversy, but its critics would not accept that the watchdog - an active participant in last summer’s grading - was sufficiently impartial. They pointed out that when a similar A-level grading scandal had erupted in 2002, a speedily convened independent inquiry led to nearly 10,000 papers being regraded. This time, ministers merely pointed to the Commons Education Select Committee, which had held only one hearing on the subject and issued no reports. So it was court or nothing and now, more than five months later, we finally have a verdict. But for the pupils involved it is far too late anyway - they either re-sat in November or just got with their lives, D grades and all. The judgment emphasises that the court was ruling on the specific question of how Ofqual and the exam boards “sought to deal with the [grading] problems once they had materialised”. The judges acknowledge they have not dealt with the problematic modular structure of the GCSE or the fact that, as TES revealed, Ofqual had anticipated those problems years in advance but failed to act. Changes to English GCSE grading next year and the end of modular GCSEs should prevent any exact repeat of last summer’s problems. But details that have emerged during the affair have not been kind the exam system as a whole. Read more about the GCSE grading scandal here and in this Friday’s TES magazine. William Stewart - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think High Court judges have roundly rejected the arguments of campaigners seeking “justice” over last summer’s GCSE English grading fiasco. Lord Justice Elias and Mrs Justice Sharp gave their judgment at the High Court in central London this morning. An alliance of hundreds of pupils, schools, local authorities and teachers’ and heads’ unions argued at a hearing in December that exam boards AQA and Edexcel had unfairly pushed up the boundaries for GCSE English in an act of “illegitimate grade manipulation” involving exams regulator Ofqual. The judges were told that an estimated 30,000 pupils who sat the exams last summer had unfairly missed out on the all-important C-grade. Barristers acting for the campaigners said they were dissatisfied with Ofqual’s two reports on the scandal last year and turned to legal action in the absence of any independent inquiry. In a statement released after the result, Ofqual chief regulator Glenys Stacey said: “We welcome the decision of the court that, faced with a difficult situation, Ofqual did the right thing and the fairest thing, for the right reasons. “It’s clear from the judgement that if we had followed the course of action called for by the claimants, the value of GCSE English would have been `debased’, to use the judge’s own word, and many students would have received grades that they did not deserve.” Read more about the GCSE grading scandal here. More reaction will follow later this morning. - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think With its pound;30,000-a-year independent schools and yawning chasm between rich and poor, Britain was never likely to score well on any new social equityachievement gap scale. The OECD group of industrialised countries shone a spotlight on this issue today, releasing an analysis highlighting how poor children in the UK are less likely than those in many other member states to perform as well in school as their richer peers. While overall our pupils score a little above average in the reading tests, the gap in achievement between rich and poor children is considerably above the norm. We occupy the same territory as France and the US on the scattergram of (in)equity. New Zealand performs better in the tests but the gap in performance is roughly the same. We’re by no means the worst - Germany, Belgium and Hungary have similar test results and bigger gaps in achievement - but this surely should not get us off the hook. But can school systems alone fix this? Education secretary Michael Gove believes that a proliferation of academies and free schools should do the trick. In these, academic rigour and teachers with nothing less than the loftiest ambitions for their unruly charges will transform society. No one should be under any illusions about the size of the challenge. A data analysis by the Financial Times, published in February last year, showed a direct and strong correlation between schools’ overall GCSE performance and the socio-economic background of pupils. It may seem like a no-brainer to teachers, but it’s poverty, not schools, that is holding children back. Another 2011 OECD analysis found that the gap between rich and poor had grown faster in Britain since 1975 than in any other of its 34 member states. So the fundamental point remains that this not really an educational issue; it is societal. Perhaps we Brits need to attempt to make our country more like Finland as a whole. But without the snow. Irena Barker - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think The wait has been tortuous. But an alliance of pupils, schools, teaching unions and local authorities will learn this week if its legal challenge over last summer’s controversial GCSE English grades has been successful. High Court judges are expected to give their verdict on Wednesday, potentially deciding the fate of thousands of pupils who took Edexcel and AQA exams last year. It will be the culmination of a battle that has dragged on for more than six months. The alliance took the case to court because of its members’ serious concerns about the increase in grade boundaries between January and June 2012. They say it resulted in thousands of pupils being awarded D instead of C grades and many secondaries failing to reach government targets. The campaigners were dissatisfied with Ofqual’s two reports on the scandal last year and turned to legal action in the absence of any independent inquiry. The judicial review took place in December. Many pupils, teachers and heads will experience a sleepless night this Tuesday. It is a very big deal indeed. NB. Here is some GCSE grading scandal background reading. Irena Barker - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think At the end of an extraordinary week for English education, here is a quick round-up of all the content we’ve produced to help you get your head around the proposed national curriculum reforms. Our subject advisers have been hard at work, picking out what they feel are the main curriculum talking points from their specialist areas. Head over to the landing page to find out what the main changes are in primary, English, maths, science, MFL, history and geography. Alessio Bernadelli, TES’s science adviser, has even put together a downloadable document allowing you to compare the exact changes in wording between the current and the proposed science curriculum. On Monday, we’ll be hosting a webchat with TES Primary subject adviser Colin Hill and TES magazine’s primary correspondent Helen Ward. This is your chance to ask any questions or air any opinions you may have about the reforms proposed by the government. It kicks off at 6pm. As well as all this extra content, don’t forget to keep an eye on this blog for all the breaking news and opinion on the national curriculum reforms. Sarah Cunnane - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think TES English subject adviser Chantel Mathias has made an interesting and subtle observation after trawling through the new curriculum. She has spotted that whereas in the current programme of study you will repeatedly find the phrase “Pupils should be able to”, in the new one you find “Pupils should be taught to”. This, she thinks, is telling. Why? Well, here is her analysis: “Pupils should be able to” “Pupils should be taught to” So will this damage creativity in the classroom? Chantel is actually rather optimistic. “Teachers are particularly adept at ticking statutory boxes,” she says. “They can do it with this, too. Will teachers lose their creative teaching approaches? Will they abandon the exciting, creative elements of the current programme of study? No: as ever, they will find creative ways in, around and across the circle.” Let’s hope Chantel is right. Don’t forget that TES’s subject specialists have been analysing the new programmes of study. Their thoughts on the national curriculum are here. It didn1t take long for people to start scrapping about specific content details of the new national curriculum. This morning the internet has been alive with concerns about the idea of five-year-olds being taught computer programming and algorithms. Interestingly, these concerns have mainly centred on fears that pupils will know more than their teachers. This latest Department for Education move on programming is part of a wider policy arc. Last year, education secretary Michael Gove announced he was scrapping the ICT curriculum in favour of a more rigorous computer science subject. But the new computing curriculum published yesterday has led to experts voicing their fears that there will be a “significant challenge” when it comes to teaching the new programmes of study because many teachers just don1t have the subject knowledge. For example, Miles Berry, senior lecturer of ICT education at the University of Roehampton and chair of ICT subject association Naace, said the new curriculum would be a “big step” for many ICT teachers. “It [the new curriculum] won1t be such a challenge for the pupils but it will be a huge issue for teachers,” Mr Berry told TES. “This will be radically different for many teachers because they will never have been taught this stuff themselves at school. “It means there will be massive challenges in terms of CPD and how teachers will teach this stuff. I have no doubt that you can teach programming as badly as you can teach PowerPoint.” Expect this kind of skirmish to take place in just about every other subject area in the weeks and months ahead. Don’t forget that TES’s subject specialists have been analysing the new programmes of study. Their thoughts on the national curriculum are here. Richard Vaughan - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think There will be a lot of serious points to make about the curriculum changes once teachers have analysed it fully. But here are five things that are just quirky or curious: 1. It doesn’t mention Hitler anywhere. Of course, it doesn’t need to as he will inevitably be mentioned in history lessons on the Second World War. But conservatives kicked up a big fuss when Hitler and Churchill were not explicitly named in the 2007 curriculum, saying that schools were being forced to “dump” them from lessons. Michael Gove has been banging on about getting Churchill back into the curriculum - and has succeeded - but are we to assume that schools are still being blocked from mentioning Hitler? (No.) 2. It does mention Spencer Silver, the inventor of Post-it notes. He is one of the figures suggested for discussion in the Year 6 science curriculum. Actually, that is brilliant: the story of how his work to create a strong adhesive went wrong, but he then found a use for it on a little bits of yellow paper, could be a excellent lesson not just for science, but for teaching pupils about how apparent failures can lead to success. 3. Teenagers will be taught to Google properly. OK, it doesn’t mention Google specifically. But the key stage 3 computing curriculum specifies that pupils “understand simple Boolean logic (such as AND, OR and NOT)”, “use Boolean logic in search queries” and “appreciate how search engine results are selected and ranked”. Conspiracy theorists may point out that Gove has frequently mentioned Google’s approval of the new computing curriculum, but these are modern skills it is actually very sensible to include. It is surprising how many young people are just as bad as adults at using search engines effectively. 4. No Egyptians, Sumerians or Aztecs. The Greeks and the Romans are still in, but if you’re planning to teach about Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphs and the yucky processes involved in mummification, you’re out of luck. The heavy weighting towards British history means you can also forget the birthplace of modern civilisation, Mesopotamia. The Assyrians and Aztecs have similarly gone missing since the 2007 curriculum. (The history curriculum for primary would also be livened up with a decent space for dinosaurs - imagine how that would appeal to the target demographic - but historians tend to moan that such prehistory really belongs to paleontology.) 5. We are informed of the meaning of “conscience”. The extensive appendices at the end of the curriculum include a word list for Years 5 and 6, with a conspicuous footnote on “conscience”. “Conscience is simply science with the prefix con- added,” it explains. Without an explanation of what “con” means in Latin, teachers and pupils may be left thinking that the whole notion of conscience is hoax science. And perhaps it is - although that seems a surprisingly philosophical notion for a Year 5 word list. Michael Shaw - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think Our ever-brillaint behaviour guru Tom Bennett has been having a think about yesterday’s plethora of announcements on the National Curriculum and EBCs - and he’s decided the education secretary is doing a very good impression of the Keyser Soze, the shadowy mastermind from the Usual Suspects. Here’s an extract: Michael Gove may or may not be the legendary character from Bryan Singer’s 1995 noir thriller (although it would make a magnificent triple-twist) but something similar happened yesterday and I’m still pinching myself to check I’m awake. Everyone thinks Gove has slipped on a banana skin, when in fact, he’s dancing on the top branch of the tree, smacking his undercarriage with abandon, hooting at his nemeses. - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think The trawling is nearly complete. Michael Gove’s new national curriculum has been forensically read, analysed and chewed over. TES subject specialists across the land - teachers all - have taken their metaphorical microscopes to the 200-page document. The first to report back was our primary specialist, closely followed by secondary maths, English and science. The others will follow tomorrow. So we’ve pulled it all together for your delectation. Will this new curriculum really change your life at the chalkface? Take a look at these contributions - they may just help you decide. We really want to know your thoughts too, so please comment under each article. You never know; a minister or two might be reading them. Ed Dorrell If the idea was that today’s unveiling of new school accountability measures would help distract attention from the government’s embarrassing exams U-turn, then it has backfired badly. Instead it is the accountability proposals that have been largely ignored. But these rather dry-sounding technical measures stand to make the biggest difference to what is actually taught in state schools. Anyone who doubts the power of league tables need only look at what happened when the English Baccalaureate measure, focusing on academic GCSEs, was suddenly introduced a couple of years ago. There was no requirement for schools to take any notice of the EBac as it was not used by the government to measure its official targets. Yet it triggered an instant wave of collective panic among secondaries, which at its extremes saw pupils pulled off GCSEs mid-course and a real narrowing of the curriculum. Today’s proposals are the real deal and will mean new kinds of official “floor targets” alongside the biggest change to the “headline” measure since school league tables were first introduced in 1992. Out will go the main benchmark of five A*-C GCSEs (including English and maths) in favour of a points score indicator based on pupils’ achievements in eight qualifications.Because points will be awarded for every grade, schools’ “excessive focus” on pupils on the C-D grade borderline should end. Read more here. William Stewart - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think There can be no hiding Michael Gove’s humiliation today. Just 24 hours after setting out his case against the “educational establishment”, the education secretary has been forced to bow to their demands and abandon his flagship policy to replace core GCSEs with English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs). But look at what is being proposed instead and you begin to wonder whether the Conservative Party’s former golden boy could have spared himself some of his current embarrassment. Revamped GCSEs will see a reduction in coursework, with the qualifications assessed by linear exams taken at the end of two years. “Bite-sized” modules will go, there will be harder questions and the new qualifications will be measured against international benchmarks. Does that sound strangely familiar? Well it should, because the points above were to be the key features of EBCs. In fact, leave aside the dropping of exam board franchising plans (which we will come to later) and the majority of the EBC scheme appears to remain intact. One can only speculate about the internal coalition machinations that may have led Mr Gove to drop the EBC name - the decision that gave maximum prominence and negative publicity to the changes he has had to make. But it is only a name. Read more here. William Stewart Luckily for you, the editorial team here has this morning created a EBC bluffer’s guide to Michael Gove’s avalanche of announcements and u-turns. It is safe to say that Wales’ Labour education minister Leighton Andrews is feeling a little smug today following the U-turn over GCSEs in England. Last week the Welsh Government announced that it would not be following Westminster’s lead in scrapping GCSEs following a major review of qualifications last year.Not only would it keep GCSEs, it announced, but it would also introduce new GCSEs designed to improve literacy and numeracy. Mr Andrews has frequently pitched what he argues is his considered evidence-based approach to policy, in direct contrast to what he paints as Michael Gove’s ideologically driven stance. This morning he took to Twitter in triumphant mood, tweeting: “So, apparently Michael Gove is going to adopt some Welsh policies today.“This was a reference to the fact that Wales already uses the “value added” measure of performance in eight GCSEs per pupil in its secondary schools banding system that Mr Gove now plans to use in league tables in England. But just to set the record straight, Mr Andrews also tweeted a picture of the Independent’s front-page headline on Mr Gove’s “humiliating U-turn”, saying: “I just want to make it clear that I am not gloating. In any way, shape or form. Honestly.” Darren Evans - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you think Education secretary Michael Gove has performed a dramatic U-turn on his plans to replace GCSEs with controversial English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBC), it has emerged. The shock move has been welcomed by heads’ leaders and is being announced at the same time as changes to the national curriculum and accountability measures which will see the end of the five A*-C GCSE including English and maths GCSE benchmark. Mr Gove has also abandoned his plans to introduce a franchising system that would have given single exam boards exclusive rights to offer each EBC subject in an attempt to end competition among them, allegedly ending “the race to the bottom”. TES predicted the embarrassing reverse on the EBC and franchising policy last month. But it is still expected that exam boards will have to bid for a licence to run exams in each subject. Russell Hobby, general secretary of heads’ union the NAHT, said: “It is good news. It is pleasing that they have listened to the weight of opinion and evidence that has been put before them. It is also important to make sure that all the subjects that make a broad and balanced curriculum are adequately catered for. That is a positive step forward.” GCSEs will stay but will be radically reformed from 2015, with the first exams to be sat in 2017. Under the new plans: *Exams will be linear and taken at the end of two years, with the end of bite-sized modules *Extended writing questions will be introduced to subjects such as English and history, with more problem-solving in maths and science; *All pupils will answer the same harder questions *But the very brightest, on course for A grades, will be expected to take more challenging extension papers in maths and science Mr Gove is also reported to be unveiling a new “knowledge-based” National Curriculum. It will include a focus on multiplication tables and mental arithmetic in maths; grammar, punctuation, spelling and pre-20th Century literature in English; and a clear chronology of British and world events in history. In computing, references to how technology has changed lives will go, but children from five will be taught how to be safe online. There will be less emphasis on using simple software packages and more on practical experience of programming languages and understanding the fundamental principles of computer science. Primary pupils will be expected to design and write computer programmes. In science there will be more practical work and emphasis on maths. Evolution will be compulsory for primary pupils for the first time. William Stewart - Don’t be afraid to tell the blog’s editor Ed Dorrell what you thinkPressure mounts on government over imminent school sport funding announcement - 14 February 2013
Left with no alternative, the unsuccessful court case was the only option - 13 February 2013
GCSE regrade arguments rejected by High Court - 13 February 2013
We need to make Britain as a whole more like Finland, not just the schools - 12 February 2013
Judgment day looms for GCSE English fiasco - 11 February 2013
What a week that was for education. And you can read all about it here - 08 February 2013
Analysing the language of the new curriculum - 08 February 2013
The first real skirmish over new curriculum content is about primary computer science - 08 February 2013
Five vaguely quirky things about the proposed National Curriculum - 08 February 2013
`The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he didn’t exist.’
Everything you need to know about the new National Curriculum. All in one place - 07 February 2013
It’s the accountability measure that’s most revolutionary of all - 07 February 2013
What’s in a name: Are today’s EBC changes really a full volte-face? - 7 February 2013
Just what IS happening? An EBC bluffer’s guide - 7 February 2013
Wales’ Labour education minister basks in glory of Gove U-turn - 7 February 2013
Gove scraps plans for GCSE overhaul amid league table and National Curriculum shake-up - 6 February 2013
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