Cameron launches Party’s Draft Manifesto for Education

The Conservative Party has launched its Draft Manifesto on Education and here’s what David Cameron had to say about it:-

David Cameron: We need urgent action to improve our schools

Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Monday, January 18 2010   

Since the New Year, we have been setting out our argument for the election. We want to make this the year for change. We can’t go on like this, and we need change to get the country back on its feet – change based on the values of responsibility and aspiration.

A better NHS; an aspirational economy; a big society; a new politics. If we make these changes, then this country will have a great progressive future. A future that is fairer, safer, greener – and where opportunity is more equal.

DRAFT MANIFESTO

To show everyone how we will make this vision a reality, we are publishing chapters of our draft manifesto. It’s in draft form because we want to open it up to the millions of people it will affect – and let them have their say on the changes they want to see.

Two weeks ago, we began that process by publishing the chapter on our number one priority: the NHS. Soon, George Osborne and Ken Clarke are going to publish their plans to build a strong, lasting and sustainable economic recovery.

This week, we’re focusing on the central task I have set our party: mending our broken society. We all know what I mean. Mending the crime, the disorder, the drug addiction, the alcohol abuse, the family breakdown, the entrenched poverty, the educational failure, the sink estates, all those things that make life for too many in Britain, far too grim.

To mend our broken society, four areas of policy will be subject to our unremitting focus: Fixing the criminal justice system, school reform, strengthening families and stimulating social action in our communities. That’s because if we get those things right, we will tackle the causes, and not just the symptoms, of the big social problems we face.

SCHOOLS TODAY

Today, we’re publishing our plans for one of those reform priorities: schools. Getting on in life is almost impossible without a decent education. It gives us confidence and purpose, teaches us responsibility and discipline, and shapes our whole outlook on life.

And as we enter a new decade, in a century in which the most valuable skill anyone can have is knowledge, we need to renew the promise of a good education for all in our country.

That promise exists at Walworth Academy. This is an impressive school with a record of achievement. It shows what can be possible. And it leaves me optimistic about our future.

But let’s also be honest. The straightforward truth is that there aren’t enough good schools in our country, and we’re failing far too many of our children.

Four in ten children leave primary school unable to read, write and add up properly. Half of pupils do not get five good GCSEs including English and maths. And we’re slipping down the world league tables in maths and science.

We can’t go on like this. If we carry on excusing this kind of failure, we face a future of where our most stubborn social problems get worse, not better, and where our economy gets left behind, as countries out-educate and out-compete us. So nothing else will do: we need big change in the way we do education in our country.

TEACHERS

The question is: what sort of change? We all engage in important arguments about money, standards, structures, curricula – and getting these things right is absolutely vital. But we must also acknowledge something else.

When a child steps through those school gates for the very first time, the most important thing that will determine if they succeed is not their background, or the curricula, or the type of school, or the amount of funding, it’s who the teacher is.

We all know this to be true from our own experience. Everyone remembers a teacher that made a difference – who through sheer force of personality and infectious enthusiasm sparked an interest, instilled a love of learning and set a life on its course. And the evidence backs that up.

A series of studies by American academics has revealed that quality of an individual teacher is the single most important factor in a child’s educational progress. Those students taught by the best teachers make three times as much progress as those taught by the least effective. Research here in the UK confirms this – with children in with the best teachers learning four times as fast.

But today, we don’t act on our instincts and this evidence. We’ve made our teachers lives more difficult, undermining their judgement, curbing their freedom, telling them what to do and how to do it. We send them into some chaotic environments with little protection or support, leaving them feeling demoralised and under-valued. And we don’t reach out for the very best talent.

If we want to give our children the best – it’s time we made our teaching the best. That’s why we’re committed to a comprehensive programme of reform to elevate the status of teaching in our country. We want to make it the noble profession – the career path that attracts the best brains, is well-rewarded and commands the most respect. And this is how we propose to do it.

HIGHEST QUALITY TEACHERS

We’re going to begin at source – at recruitment – and make sure we get the best people into the profession. At the moment, not enough of our brightest people consider going into teaching, especially those in the subjects we need – like maths, and in the schools that would benefit most from their knowledge – tough inner-city ones. In some cases, people with a good degree who would make great teachers think instead about the civil service, the BBC, maybe the Bar.

We can get round this problem – we just need to learn from abroad. Finland, Singapore and South Korea have the most highly qualified teachers, and also some of the best education systems in the world, because they have deliberately made teaching a high prestige profession.

They are brazenly elitist – making sure only the top graduates can apply. They have turned it into the career path if you’ve got a good degree. And in America, President Obama is offering financial incentives to attract more science graduates into teaching. We should be equally bold here.

So we will end the current system where people with third class degrees can get taxpayers’ money to enter postgraduate teacher training. With our plans, if you want to become a teacher – and get funding for it – you need a 2:2 or higher.

And we will also make sure we get some of the best graduates into teaching by offering to pay off their student loan. As long as you’ve got a first or 2.1 in maths or a rigorous science subject from a good university – you can apply.

But in attracting the best, we plan to go much, much further. Teach First is a fantastic programme, plucking some of our most exceptional talent and putting them into our schools. And we’re committed to extending their work.

It’s simply wrong that the Government doesn’t allow Teach First teachers to work in either primary schools or schools with the worst problems. Many want to – so we will change that immediately.

And today, we are announcing a new programme. At the moment, if you’re a twenty-something or thirty-something who has made it in another career but fancy giving teaching a go, the bureaucratic-odds are stacked against you. It’s hard to access what options are available to you, unless you already work in a school. And you have to go through the rigmarole of applying to individual schools.

We’re going to change all that and give high-flying professionals a fast-track into teaching. We will replace the Graduate Teacher Programme with a new one – Teach Now.

Modelled on Teach First, it will be a one-stop-shop for people who want to transfer into teaching. Only the best professionals with the best qualifications need apply. And after a rigorous application process, if you’ve made the grade, you’ll be put straight into a school.

This will make a huge difference to our children – they’ll be able to learn from those who’ve made it in business, in the arts, in the creative industries, and it’s a vital part of our plan to elevate the status of teaching in our country.

REWARD

Once we get the best teachers, we need to make sure they stay teaching, and that means making sure their reward is a fair reflection of how well they’ve done and how hard they’ve worked.

We need much greater flexibility than currently exists – flexibility over rewarding the best and yes, getting rid of the worst. So we will free schools to pay good teachers more. With our plans, head teachers will have the power to use their budgets to pay bonuses to the best teachers.

And because the evidence shows that schools that have the greatest impact in poorer areas are the ones that extend their hours into evenings and weekends, we will also give them the flexibility to reward teachers for longer hours.

But we also give head teachers greater powers in the other direction. Today, it’s far too difficult for them to fire poorly performing teachers. Head teachers aren’t given enough support to navigate their way through the complex procedures and bureaucratic hurdles. When people are not living up to expectations, every organisation needs a mechanism by which you can manage staff out.

Schools are no different. In fact, because of the vital role teachers play in influencing our young, it’s even more important. So we will do what we can to support our head teachers in removing poorly performing teachers as efficiently and quickly as possible.

DISCIPLINE

Of course, quite apart from issues of pay and reward, another big barrier to keeping the most talented people in teaching is discipline and behaviour. It doesn’t matter how bright you are or how much money you get, no one wants to put up with being assaulted or abused – as thousands of teachers are every year – in the workplace.

That’s why any plan to elevate the status of teaching in our country must also include giving them the powers and protections they need to keep order. Over the last decade, these have been slowly stripped away.

Great tomes of ‘Official Guidance’ and a litany of bizarre judgements by independent panels have robbed our teachers of the authority they need to maintain discipline. They are told they shouldn’t search pupils for dangerous weapons if they expect to meet resistance. They are discouraged from physically removing the most badly behaved pupils from their classroom – because they could be investigated. And when head teachers do try and stamp their authority and expel a pupil, they can get over-ruled. In one case, a pupil who was expelled for carrying a knife was sent back to the school by an appeal panel. We can’t go on like this.

It’s time we tilted the scales back into the favour of teachers. That’s what we will do. We’re going to say to our teachers, if you want to search for and confiscate any item you think is dangerous or disruptive- you can. If you want to remove violent children from the classroom – you can. And if you want protection from false allegations of abuse that wreck lives and wreck careers – we’ll make sure you have it.

We will also give our schools the final say over expulsion. No ifs, no buts. With a new Conservative Government, there’ll be no doubt where the authority lies in our schools. Not with the troublemakers. Not with the pupils. One hundred percent with the teachers.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Attracting the best. Flexibility over pay. Sorting out discipline. That’s our plan to make elevate the status of teaching in our country and make it the noble profession.

But this isn’t a one-way street. In return for these reforms, we’re going to demand greater transparency so parents can hold teachers to account. We will let every parent know how much their school receives to spend on their child’s education.

We will combine this information with details on the academic performance of local schools and of other schools with similar intakes and levels of funding. We will give parents the accurate information they want to challenge under-performance and the freedom they need take their children elsewhere if they’re not happy.

A COMPREHENSIVE REFORM PROGRAMME

Of course, these reforms to improve the quality of teaching our children receive take their place in a wider programme of reform which is set out in the document we’re publishing today and which I’ve spoken about on many occasions. I don’t want anyone to doubt the size, scope and scale of the changes we want to bring.

We will make sure money gets to the frontline by cutting the waste that has infected our education system. We will create more good schools by breaking open the supply of education and letting anyone with a passion for giving children the best to set up a new school. We’re going to make sure the most disadvantaged get the best education, not the worst, by making sure more money follows the poorest pupils. And we’re going to reform our curriculum and qualifications, showing the most ruthless, relentless and uncompromising commitment to rigour.

I know these changes will make a massive difference. They will create more choice, drive up standards, and make a good education the right of the many and not the privilege of a few.

CONCLUSION

There is no limit to what a child can achieve with the strong and confident teachers, so there can be no delay to the reforms we have set out.

The best and the brightest talent. Fair reward. Disciplined learning environments. The new noble profession. A good education for all. A society on the mend. Let’s make this the year for change.

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Follow this link to read the Draft Manifesto page on the Conservative Party website, which includes questions on education submitted by members of the public.

New Year – New hope for Education

So here we are in 2010, General Election Year.

All being well, we shall be celebrating a Conservative Government, and the implementation of Conservative education policies, and that’s new hope for our education service.

Michael Gove to speak at CES meeting

Michael Gove MP

Shadow Secretary of State for Education

will speak to a meeting of the Conservative Education Society

on Wednesday 21 October 2009 at 6.00pm

at the House of Commons, (Room to be confirmed nearer the date)

We are delighted that Michael will be speaking to us following his excellent speech at the Party Conference

Fringe Meeting at Conservative Conference

Fringe Meeting at Conservative Party Conference, Manchester

Tuesday 6 October 2009  -  5.30pm to 7.00pm

In Exchange Room 3 at Manchester Central Convention Complex

“Let’s Make Education Better”

Dr John Dunford,

General Secretary of the Association of School & College Leaders, will speak on

“Exam results getting better  -  how can we tell?”

Refreshments Provided

~~~~~~~~~

Preparations for a Conservative Education Bill

News stories published this week say that the party has begun drafting its first education bill ready for a rapid move by a new Conservative Government.

It will include, it is alleged, plans to fast-track new academies, to lessen the restrictions of the national curriculum and to do away with national pay deals for teachers.   A team of lawyers is said to be scrutinising recent Labour bills, and dafting a new bill which will set out the first parts of a reform programme for the education system.

While some in the national press will slam this as taking the election result for granted, it must surely be good management to be well prepared for what seems more and more likely to be a Conservative Government after the General Election.   It seems the education front bench team is trying to do as much as possible before the election so that they don’t have to spend a year working on these things once in government, but can proceed to legislation without undue delay.

The Party’s policy includes:-

making it easier for parents, charities and businesses to set up academies, including enabling them to use buildings such as former banks and offices;

Reforms to scale back the national curriculum and to move Sats from primary to secondary schools.

The scrapping of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and other quangos.

Allowing all schools to have freedom to set pay and conditions for teachers as academies do now, and making it easier for headteachers to dismiss under-performing staff.

The lawyers helping the Party have been asked to convert the policy into a bill and to identify existing legislation which will need to be scrapped to achieve it.

The Party is also drawing up guidance to schools on policies which will be withdrawn at once by a new Conservative Government.   An independent organization has already been set up to advise and help potential education providers on setting up “new academies”.

Officers re-elected at AGM

At the Annual General Meeting of CES held this summer, Chairman, Robert Pettigrew, was re-elected for a second year.   Vice-Chairman, James McMurray, and Hon Treasurer, Chris Everest, were also re-elected.

Reform Please – by John Redwood

John Redwood MP has kindly allowed us to reproduce this piece which he published on his own website yesterday.   As ever, he comes up with some views that are worthy of further thought and comment.

“Let me upset all those of you who think the state should carry on delivering services badly so we can all carry on grumbling about it but never fix it. As some of you are wedded to your poor badly run congested rip off state roads, how wedded are you to your state controlled LEA driven comprehensive schools?

I want everyone to go to an independent school. Of course I want free education for all, as we have today. I also want to end the huge divide between public school and state school. Money can buy rich families a better education. The way to tackle that is not to prevent all but the very very rich buying their way out of the state system, but to improve the free schools.

I would say to all state schools that they are to be freed of national and local government control. They could become educational charities, not for profit companies, teacher co-ops, ordinary companies or whatever they like. They would take over the buildings and equipment, and run them as they saw fit, as long as they carried on providing school places.They would only need state permission and face loss of their property or have to give the state its money back if they wanted to move out of education and do something else. Schools would rise, flourish and expand based on their own energies and success, attracting pupils as they showed how good they were. Bad schools which failed to attract pupils would change their management or close.

All pupils of school age would receive a grant to pay the fees, up to agreed maxima. This would be enough to guarantee a place at a good school. Some schools say they value the services the Local Education Authority provide. In that case they could buy them from the LEA out of the enhanced per pupil money they received. All the money would go through the school, instead of being routed via the LEA. That way they will buy the bureaucracy and back up they want, not be forced to take the bureaucracy Councils think they must have.”

Reproduced courtesy of John Redwood MP.

Read the original piece and more articles on John’s website here

 

“Large minority” of state schools not entering students for “traditional” academic subjects

Interesting to learn from several media sources yesterday that “traditional” academic subjects are not being offered at A-level at a “large minority” of state schools.

Obviously the large raft of 11-16 schools are unlikely to be doing A-levels at all, except perhaps a few gifted and talented students who took GCSE early and have already moved on to A-levels.   But no doubt the compilers of the figures only considered schools taking pupils post 16.    

The 2007 data forms the subject of the analysis as it is the latest year available.

One in seven schools, (264) did not enter any pupils for geography and a similar number did not enter anyone for physics.   10% of comprehensives did not enter any pupils for chemistry, 7% for biology, and 6% for maths.   8% did not enter anyone for history.

Now probably geography is not a top choice, but it seems strange that there are not more budding geographers.   The sciences and maths seem even more strange.

Since these figures are of schools rather than students one is forced to the conclusion that there are a significant number of schools where the teachers do not consider they have any pupils capable of passing an A-level in these traditional subjects.   If that is so, it is shaming since it implies that, although comprehensive in structure, there is no mix of student ability.   It also means that, having concluded they do not have suitable students, the schools are frightened to enter for these subjects since poor results would affect the league tables.

As a result, so the media sources claim, students are entered for “soft” subjects, which are listed as media studies, law and healthcare.   I suggest that law should not be in this list.   Clearly A-level law is not professional law or degree standard law, but neither would it be a “soft” subject.

Modern day Biggles flies into tree

Good friend of CES, Vince Hagedorn, ended up in hospital in Scotland after an amazing escape when his aeroplane crash landed.

Vince who spearheaded the groundbreaking mentoring scheme at Chelmsford Prison, which resulted in men who had never learnt to read and write being able to write to their families and to be trained to mentor others, came to one of the CES Saturday meetings to talk about the project, and has since taken a great interest in what the Society is doing.

Vince, who is a keen pilot, was on a trip to Scotland in his light aircraft last week when he was forced to crash land in a tree on a Dundee golf course.   One of his other loves is the Biggles adventure stories, and he drew on the plot of one of the books as he remembered how his fictional hero had run low on fuel in bad weather, and had managed to land safely.

Vince had planned to land at RAF Kinloss, but had to divert after encountering changeable weather conditions along his route.  He thinks several altitude changes he had to make may have increased the fuel consumption.  He tried to put down at Dundee Airport but that was not successful, so he found himself left with no choice but to make his first emergency landing at the golf course.  It was then he remembered the Biggles story, where our hero ends up with no height over a wood.  He flies into the wood, and as he does so he pulls the stick back to “pancake” on to the trees, so that’s what Vince did too.

Police, fire service and ambulances all rushed to the scene, and firefighters put a 44ft ladder against the tree to reach the stranded pilot, who was taken to hospital for a medical assessment but found to have only a minor head injury.

Tayside Fire and Rescue said the pilot was very lucky.  When they reached him he was conscious, able to speak and helped as much as he could with his own rescue.   Golfers on the course praised him for ensuring the aeroplane did not come down on nearby houses and roads.

Vince told TG:  “I feel I’m very lucky to walk away, but if I had an aeroplane, I’d be up there again tomorrow.”   He went on, “I know, I know, you all think I’d do anything for publicity!”

Lower entry standards might destroy whole university system

Over the last few days the question of standards for university entry has hit the headlines again.

Now Dr Andrew Cunningham, who is an English teacher and the former editor of “Conference & Common Room”, the magazine of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, has said that lower entry standards might destroy the whole university system. 

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, here, he says that the government’s new plans could mean that discrimination becomes embedded in the entire process.   Lord Mandelson wants students from poorer backgrounds to gain places on popular courses with much lower grades than candidates from high-performing schools. In his latest vision of access for all, disadvantaged applicants could be given a two-grade head-start.

But Dr Cunningham maintains that the route to a fair system of entry for higher education is to raise academic standards in all schools, including “bog-standard” comprehensives.   He says it is a crime that after a decade of Labour prioritising education, so many teenagers still lack essential skills in English, maths and science – let alone are capable of achieving the all-round excellence required for university courses.   He believes the government, instead of playing party politics and pandering to its core vote with phoney schemes like these, should be doing its utmost to ensure school standards are raised across the board.  Then the university system truly would be open to all.