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Education

Increase in free nursery hours at risk, warn Scottish councils

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Government’s planned rise from 600 to 1,140 hours per year will bring ‘no better gains for children’, argue primary headteachers

The Scottish government’s “most transformative infrastructure project” in this Parliament is in jeopardy because of a failure to plan how it will work financially and practically,  councils have warned.

Local authorities are calling for the government to set out “a clear delivery plan” detailing how it will meet its ambitious target to increase free nursery hours from 600 to 1,140 hours per year by 2020.

Ministers claim the move will help to close the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.

But without a clear programme of implementation, the councils’ umbrella body Cosla has told TESS, the SNP manifesto commitment is at risk.

Headteachers’ groups have also expressed concerns over the impact, in terms of finances and workload, on schools, many of which have nurseries operating on their sites.

They have warned that school leaders will need “additional and protected management time” to organise nursery staff shifts to cover extended hours during holidays, weekends and after school. Teachers and school leaders work a 35-hour week and the change must not rely on “goodwill”, they have told the government.

‘We don’t have a plan’

David O’Neill, Cosla’s president, said: “We need a plan and we don’t have a plan. The potential consequence is a manifesto commitment made to the public might not be delivered.”

The Scottish government recently announced in the draft budget that £60 million will be made available in the coming financial year to pay for the additional workforce and infrastructure. But funding beyond 2018 has not been confirmed, with the government yet to calculate how much the change will actually cost – although it has committed to fully funding it. The previous move from 475 to 600 hours has cost the government £329 million over the past three years up to 2016-17.

Frank McAveety, the leader of Glasgow City Council, has called on the government to “put their money where their mouth is”.

Primary headteachers’ organisation AHDS, meanwhile, has said that it is opposed to the increase in free hours. It is “a very expensive intervention” that will lead to “no better gains for children than part-time” and prioritises quantity over quality, the body said.

The school leaders also accused the government of planning the expansion of free nursery based on a low-paid, overwhelmingly female workforce. The government has said its hopes that workers in the sector will be paid the living wage of £8.25 an hour but there has been no commitment to funding the move.

The Scottish government said work had already begun on planning for the expansion but it needed to consult before taking “final decisions on implementation”. A government consultation on the expansion closed this week.

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Councils must be allowed to intervene in suspected illegal schools, government adviser warns

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

child-studying.jpg

Councils must be granted powers to intervene in suspected illegal schools in order to protect vulnerable children, a government adviser has said.

Alan Wood, who is tasked with reviewing the future of local government in education from next year, said radical changes were needed in order to safeguard pupils outside mainstream schools who could be learning in unsafe environments.

Speaking to TES, he said the issue of illegal schools, as well as unregistered schools, was one that was “growing and will not go away unless it’s dealt with”.

He also suggested that new arrangements allowing individual councils to investigate each school could be brought in to help tackle illegal practices more efficiently.

“I certainly don’t think we can continue on without clear guidance as to how local authorities can ascertain what’s happening to children,” he said.

At present, parents can say they are “home educating” a child and are under no obligation to give any further details, or “comply with any of the questions of work or where the education takes place”.

Mr Wood’s call for change follows comments from outgoing Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw that it was “bizarre” that local authorities had no powers to find out what is happening to children not in school.

 Sir Michael said he feared people were “lining their pockets” looking after vulnerable and excluded children outside of authority.

Ofsted has repeatedly warned of the growing numbers of children being taught in illegal schools, which they say pose risks such as unsafe and unhygienic premises.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL teaching union, said that academisation meant more children fell through the cracks into illegal schools. “How can local authorities take responsibility for all children if they can’t get the numbers excluded from academies?” she said.

The Local Government Association has called for councils to be handed powers to enter people’s homes if they decide to home educate their children.

Last year Ofsted inspectors investigated 162 suspected illegal schools, 32 of which were run by charities or businesses.

It is believed there are many more illegal schools that remain undiscovered, however, and the schools watchdog has estimated there are 1,000 boys currently being taught in unregistered ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Unregistered schools are illegal and unsafe. We have given Ofsted additional resources to root them out and take action through the courts.

“Where children are being put at risk or not receiving a suitable education, local authorities and police have clear powers to intervene.”

[Source:- independent.co.uk]

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Education

Councils call for more powers to help struggling schools

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Ofsted

Regional Schools Commissioners don’t have the capacity to oversee school improvement on a wide scale, local councils say

Town halls are better at raising education standards than government-appointed officials, the body representing local councils has said.

Almost nine out of 10 council-run primaries and secondaries in England are rated as “good” or “outstanding” – more than than academies or free schools, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

In a new report, the LGA argues that the RSC system lacks the capacity and capability to oversee increasing numbers of schools as the government pushes ahead with plans for all schools to take on academy status.

These commissioners are already responsible for almost a quarter of schools in England – about 5,000 in total, the report says, with each of the eight working with nearly 100 that are judged to be failing or require improvement.

Local authorities perform better in school improvement, the report claims, with 89 per cent of council-run primaries and secondaries judged at least “good” by Ofsted.

A similar proportion of so-called converter academies – those that have converted to academy status – (88.5 per cent) are rated as “good” or “outstanding”, along with 62 per cent of sponsored academies and 82 per cent of free schools.

Richard Watts, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “Local councils have consistently proven themselves to be more effective at raising school standards than RSCs and this is no surprise.

“Each council is working with fewer schools, who they have good, longstanding relationships with, and they know what’s needed in their local areas.

“It is simply asking too much to expect RSCs to effectively turn around dozens of schools across a huge area.

“Placing more and more power in the hands of few unelected civil servants, who parents cannot hold to account at the ballot box, is out of sync with the government’s aims to devolve more decision-making and responsibility down to local areas and communities.

“With the government planning to end councils’ role in supporting school improvement and intervening in failing schools from next year, we have yet to be convinced that RSCs have the track record or the capacity to take on responsibility for another 13,000 schools.

“We would urge the government to re-consider its plans for full academisation and to focus on working with councils to ensure all our children get the excellent education they deserve.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said the claims were “nonsense” and the figures were “misleading”.

She added: “It is inevitable that councils oversee a higher proportion of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools as failing schools are taken out of council control and converted to academies, where after being paired with a strong sponsor they stand the best chance of breaking from their often long histories of underperformance.

“All academies operate under a strict accountability system – more robust than in council-run schools. Regional Schools Commissioners are an important part of that system and thanks to their oversight where issues are identified we will not hesitate to take swift action, something that the council-run system would fail to tackle for years.”

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Councils slam school standards plan

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Councils have hit out at government plans to remove their role in boosting school standards in England.

From next year, the civil servants who oversee academies and free schools will take over responsibility for raising standards in all state-funded schools.

But council leaders say regional schools commissioners lack the “capability and capacity” for the job and “could risk children’s education”.

The government called the claims “nonsense, and the figures misleading”.

Currently about a quarter of state schools in England are academies or free schools, run independently and funded directly from Whitehall rather than through local authorities.

This includes most secondary schools but only about one in six primaries.

The job of regional schools commissioners is to oversee academies and free schools in their areas, doing a job similar to that of local authorities for council-run schools.

Expanding role

Ultimately the government wants all schools to be academies, and the commissioners’ role is expanding as more schools convert.

In August next year, the government also intends the commissioners to take over from local authorities the job of supporting school improvement and intervening in failing schools.

But the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England, highlights official data it says suggests that, overall, council maintained schools out-perform academies.

According to that data, the proportion of schools rated good or outstanding by inspectors is:

  • 89% of council maintained schools
  • 83.2% of all academies
  • 62.1% of sponsored academies (taken over by academy sponsors after poor inspections)
  • 88.5% of converter academies (good or outstanding schools that choose to convert)
  • 81.8% of free schools.

However, at secondary level only, academies do better than maintained schools, with 79.6% rated good or outstanding, compared with 76.3% of council run schools.

Woman in classroom

The LGA says that almost 800 academies are currently rated “less than good”, which means that each of the eight commissioners already has responsibility for about 100 struggling academies.

Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s children and young people board, questioned whether the commissioners had capacity to boost standards in these academies, let alone take on responsibility for another 13,000 schools.

He said local councils had consistently proved themselves to be more effective at raising standards than regional schools commissioners.

“This is no surprise. Each council is working with fewer schools, who they have good, long-standing relationships with and they know what’s needed in their local areas,” he said.

“It is simply asking too much to expect RSCs to effectively turn around dozens of schools across a huge area.”

Liberal Democrat education spokesman John Pugh said the findings backed up “our long held concerns that the government’s obsession with turning every school into an academy will do nothing to drive up standards, not to mention completely undermining councils’ ability to deliver the education provision their communities need”.

But the government said the LGA was being disingenuous to claim local authorities were better at raising standards, as the government was taking struggling schools off their books by turning them into academies.

“It is inevitable that councils oversee a higher proportion of good or outstanding schools,” said a Department for Education spokesman.

Following conversion to academy status and “after being paired with a strong sponsor, they stand the best chance of breaking from their often long histories of under performance”, said the spokesman.

The spokesman said accountability for academies was more robust than in council-run schools, adding that regional schools commissioners enabled “swift action” on problems “that the council-run system would fail to tackle for years”.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Councils call for greater powers to tackle illegal schools

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

school fence

Councils are calling for powers to enter houses and other premises, such as illegal schools, where home-educated children are being taught.

The Local Government Association says its ability to check if children withdrawn from schools in England and Wales are suitably educated is limited.

Currently, council officers can enter a premises only if they have specific concerns about a child’s safety.

The government said it was “cracking down” on unregistered schools.

Councillor Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said the vast majority of parents who home-educated their children did a fantastic job.

They worked well with their local council to make sure that a good education was being provided, he said.

‘Dangerous buildings’

Concerns have been mounting about children being taught in illegal schools – those offering 20 hours of lessons a week which are not registered with the Department for Education (DfE), education watchdog Ofsted or local authorities.

There are fears some schools may have links to extremists and that lessons may be taught in dangerous buildings.

The chief inspector of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, raised the issue in November 2015, and in February this year the DfE said it was investigating 21 such institutions in England.

In Wales, calls have been made for a mandatory home education register after an eight-year-old boy who had no contact with the authorities died from scurvy.

Any parent has the right to withdraw a child from mainstream education without giving a reason.

However, it is the duty of local education authorities to ensure young people in their areas are receiving a suitable education.

‘Limited powers’

Councillor Watts said: “In some cases, a child listed as home-schooled can, in fact, be attending an illegal school.

“With limited powers to check on the work a child is doing, however, councils are unable to find out whether this is the case.

“They work closely with their communities to help identify where illegal schools are, but the ability to enter homes and other premises and speak to children would go a long way towards tackling the problem.”

In May, Sir Michael said Ofsted was looking into 100 suspected illegal schools.

A DfE spokesman said it had “taken steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be”.

“We have announced an escalation of Ofsted investigations into unregistered schools, with additional inspectors dedicated to rooting them out, a new tougher approach to prosecuting them and a call to local authorities to help identify any settings of concern.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Councils ‘should monitor academy cash’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Academy budgets should be overseen by local authorities following a series of financial abuses, say council leaders.

Cash earmarked for education in England is too often “disappearing into the back pockets of those in charge”, says the Local Government Association.

Current scrutiny is ineffective, leaving the media and whistleblowers to uncover fraud, argues the LGA.

The government says academies and free schools are subject to greater scrutiny than council-run schools.

Council leaders are urging Education Secretary Justine Greening to restore local oversight of all school finances “providing democratic accountability so that parents and communities can be confident their children aren’t missing out”.

They say the Education Funding Agency, the official body responsible for the financial oversight of academies and free schools, lacks the capacity “to provide the level of scrutiny necessary to ensure value for money and catch out fraudsters”.

The LGA highlighted two scandals this year at:

  • Kings Science Academy in Bradford where two members were convicted of fraud for transferring £150,000 of government grants into their own bank accounts
  • and Perry Beeches Academy in Birmingham where the chief executive was paid a second salary through two separate companies

In April, a report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee raised concerns that the rapid expansion of the academies programme in England had made it difficult to keep track of spending and land.

In May, the government abandoned controversial plans to force all England’s schools to become academies.

The Department for Education says all academies operate under a strict system of oversight and accountability which is more robust than in council-run schools and ensures any issues are identified quickly.

“Unlike other schools, their accounts are scrutinised by an independent auditor and we have considerably more financial information about academies than we ever had for council-run schools,” said a spokeswoman.

“The academy programme puts control of running schools in the hands of teachers and school leaders, the people who know best how to run their schools.

“They also allow us to tackle underperformance far more swiftly than in a council-run system where many schools have been allowed to fail for years.”

Gove and Cameron at Perry Beeches
Image captionFormer Prime Minister David Cameron and then Education Secretary Michael Gove were at the opening of Perry Beeches III free school in 2013

Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “We are told that academies and free schools are subject to more financial scrutiny than council-maintained schools, yet we keep hearing that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, which has been earmarked to make sure our children get a good education, is disappearing into the back pockets of those in charge.

“The National Audit Office has raised serious concerns about the ability of the DfE to effectively monitor academy trusts’ spending, even before the planned expansion of the academy programme, and we don’t believe it can possibly have effective oversight of spending in more than 20,000 schools,” said Mr Watts, who is Labour leader of Islington Council in north London.

“Centralising control of schools isn’t working, oversight needs to be devolved down to local councils,” he added.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Academy trusts ‘no better than councils’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Exam hall

Academy trusts are no better than local authorities at raising school standards, researchers have found.

The Education Policy Institute think tank has produced a league table of academy trusts and councils in England.

David Laws, former schools minister and the institute’s chairman, said successive governments had been “in denial” about failing academies.

The Local Government Association said it showed academies were no “magic bullet” for improving schools.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Our ambition remains for all schools to become academies.”

‘Rash and dangerous’

Mr Laws said that when he served as education minister in the coalition government there had been internal data showing weaknesses in academy trusts, but there had been a reluctance to publish such information when ministers were promoting academy expansion.

But the Education Policy Institute has now published its own rankings showing how local authorities compare with multi-academy trusts with at least five schools.

The findings show that academy trusts are among the most and least successful at improving pupil performance, at both primary and secondary level.

In between is a spread of success and underachievement, with the analysis concluding that there is little overall difference between academy trusts and local authorities.

The average for academy trusts and local authorities is described as “almost identical”.

Mr Laws says that it shows it would have been “rash and dangerous” to press ahead with forcing all schools to become academies, as it would have meant that some high-achieving local authorities could have been put into lower-achieving academy trusts.

The former education minister said that for successive governments there had been a “lack of political will to show that some academies are not doing well”.

Mr Laws, a former Liberal Democrat MP, said that a “lot of political capital has been invested” in presenting academies as the way to raise school standards.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has had to abandon plans to force all schools to become academies, but Mr Laws says their political protection went back to the early days of the first academies created by Labour governments.

Mr Laws said that they were seen by the government as “a small and precious flower that people wanted to stamp on”.

The comparisons produced by the think tank are based on how much pupils have improved, rather than exam results, as a way of measuring the effectiveness of local authorities and academy trusts.

Many academies operate as stand-alone schools, so these are not included in the rankings, which compare multi-academy trusts.

Mr Laws said that the findings highlighted the need to find ways to scrutinise and improve weak academy chains – but that did not mean that the principle of academies, with greater autonomy, was flawed.

But he suggested that it showed successful local authorities should be able to set up their own academy trusts, rather than have schools taken away from them.

Report author Jon Andrews also highlighted other factors, such as regional differences. Schools in London are higher performers – and he says that both local authorities and academy trusts are likely to do better if they have schools in the capital.

The Sutton Trust education charity has also published a report warning that too many academy trusts are not providing a good enough education for disadvantaged pupils.

It says that one in five academy chains is “performing substantially below the national average for attainment and improvement” for children from poorer families.

Lizzie Rowe, chief operating officer of the Education Fellowship, the lowest rated primary academy trust, said that trusts needed to be given time to make progress and that this was not always shown in immediate results.

“Data enables you to judge the pace and direction of a journey – data is not the journey. Some political powers forget this.

“Our strategy is very sound in developing leadership and enabling teachers to deliver outstanding lessons.

“Some of the most successful academies started well over a decade ago and were given millions of pounds to get established. We are a new trust working within an area of neglect and deprivation by all political bodies.”

She said: “We receive no support from our regional schools commissioner, only negative challenge.”

Roy Perry, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Councils have long been highlighting the fact that school structures are not a magic bullet to improve education, and what really matters is outstanding teaching and strong leadership.

“Every school and every community is different, and head teachers need the freedom to choose, in partnership with parents and councils, the structure that is most appropriate for them.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “These reports highlight many impressive multi-academy trusts that are driving up standards and delivering an excellent education to thousands of children across the country.

“They are playing a vital and increasingly important role in the school system – thanks to their ability to share resources, expertise and provide support to schools that are struggling.

“Our ambition remains for all schools to become academies with more schools joining multi-academy trusts – our evidence shows this is the best way to bring about sustained improvement.”

Top performing secondary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

1. Inspiration

2. Barnet

3. Merton

4. Southwark

5. Outwood Grange

6. Hackney

7. Kent Catholic Schools Partnership

8. Wokingham

9. Surrey

10. Peterborough

Lowest performing secondary academy trusts and local authorities

165. Salford

166. Stoke on Trent

167. Newcastle upon Tyne

168. Woodard

169. Wolverhampton

170. Greenwood

171. Oldham

172. Nottingham

173. Knowsley

174. College Academies Trust

Top performing primary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

1. Harris Federation

2. First Federation Trust

3. Redcar and Cleveland

4. Kensington and Chelsea

5. Greenwich

= Camden

= Newham

= CFBT Schools Trust

Hounslow

Waltham Forest

Darlington

LEAD

Reach2

Lowest performing primary academy trusts and local authorities, based on pupil improvement

212. Discovery

= Walsall

= Diocese of Leicester

= Diocese of Norwich

216. Rutland

217. Poole

218. Education Fellowship Trust

[Source:- BBC]

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