A very interesting white paper was released by the government in March

[Mark182]

Opportunity for all Strong schools with great teachers for your child. PDF

 

I'm very interested in Chapter 4: A stronger and fairer school system and this line 'By 2030, all children will benefit from being taught in a family of schools, with their school in a strong multi-academy trust or with plans to join or form one'

[paulkerton]

I'm very interested in Chapter 4: A stronger and fairer school system and this line 'By 2030, all children will benefit from being taught in a family of schools, with their school in a strong multi-academy trust or with plans to join or form one'

Yes, by 2030 all schools are expected by the current government at least, to join a MAT to have formed a MAT or be in the planning process for joining one. This was also planned for 2022 during Nicky Morgan's time in the DfE but didn't happen. They also plan to let Local Authorities create their own MATs (with caveats) so if a schools relationship with it's LA isn't particularly strong they'd be wise to get themselves into a MAT of some form soon before the LA snatch at them!

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-established-mats-registration-of-interest

[AlistairB1983]

As someone who is involved with the Exams department, it's much more interesting (see: alarming) when an official DfE White Paper talks about an aim being to increase the average GCSE English & Maths grades!

 

GCSEs are marked on a curve, so the same (approximate) percentage of students will achieve each grade each year. So if they want the average grade to increase, there's nothing schools/teachers/students can do to achieve this - they need to tell the exam boards to change their grading boundaries!

 

Almost comparable to a previous Education secretary who claimed they wanted to see "all schools achieve above average results"

[Ditto]

As someone who is involved with the Exams department, it's much more interesting (see: alarming) when an official DfE White Paper talks about an aim being to increase the average GCSE English & Maths grades!

 

GCSEs are marked on a curve, so the same (approximate) percentage of students will achieve each grade each year. So if they want the average grade to increase, there's nothing schools/teachers/students can do to achieve this - they need to tell the exam boards to change their grading boundaries!

 

Almost comparable to a previous Education secretary who claimed they wanted to see "all schools achieve above average results"

GCSE examinations are standards based and whilst *some* grade boundaries are extrapolated or interpolated, it isn't true that grading is determined by ensuring the same percentage of pupils get certain grades (known as norm-referencing). In practice, with a large entry subjects, the numbers come out similar regardless of approach as statistically with that large a number of pupils, it's extremely unlikely to see a cohort performing much better than the year before. With smaller entry subjects, you are more likely to see variation from year to year. So, whilst the idea of schools achieving 'above average' grades sounds odd, seeing an increase with standards based assessment, it is a realistic goal against the current average compared to future averages.

 

I spent just shy of 15 years in the examinations sector and lived through the period where 'grade inflation' was the talk of the press and it became hotly debated. Was there politically influence? Maybe, but a) we can't talk politics, but b) the statisticians, researchers and subject officers I worked with were passionately committed to the concept of standards based assessment. So, we are left with the question of why ever increasing numbers of pupils achieved higher grades? Perhaps worthy of a thread of it's own, but my view is that, no, kids were not becoming ever more intelligent, but the teaching did get better, focus on the curriculum became clearly, support from the exam boards improved - in essence, the pupils were better trained in exam technique and focussing on content likely to come up in the assessments. There was another influence as a result of modular exams, but that's largely gone now. In terms of education of subject expertise, I doubt has changed much, possibly reduced as result of such intense focus on performance tables.

 

All of the above is also true of A-levels. I also had a couple of years in vocational examinations and you might find a different situation there.

[Ditto]

Opportunity for all Strong schools with great teachers for your child. PDF

 

I'm very interested in Chapter 4: A stronger and fairer school system and this line 'By 2030, all children will benefit from being taught in a family of schools, with their school in a strong multi-academy trust or with plans to join or form one'

An interesting read. On page 50 it states:

 

"Workforce – trains, recruits, develops, deploys and retains great teachers and leadersthroughout their careers, proactively engaging in Initial Teacher Training and the EarlyCareer Framework, supporting staff development by using National ProfessionalQualifications and other evidence-based professional development and providing themwith opportunities to progress. Deploys the best staff in the schools where they areneeded most and prioritises staff wellbeing."

 

That's great and absolutely commendable for teacher, but approximately half of school employees are not teachers and I think that is so often forgotten and is one of the reasons the 'devalued IT jobs' thread is so active. I believe it's equally true for other support roles, especially for teaching assistants. How about

 

• £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the very best... - (see page 8 of the report)

 

for IT technicians and other support roles?!