Valuing and Engaging the Profession

A presentation to the education forum

Mary Bousted / Brian Lightman

Coming in praise..
I believe that teaching is a noble profession, the most important vocation in the country Teaching is physically and emotionally demanding and given the problems with poor pupil behavior and the importance of continuity in learning, teachers deserve strong employment protection. We want a school system in which teachers have more power and in which they are more accountable to parents not politicians. Michael Gove

Policies to raise the status of the profession

High status profession Freedom and autonomy (but questions about for who)? Permissive legislation Reducing bureaucracy Supporting schools in achieving good behaviour. Raising standards further Valuing qualifications (but undermining those we have) Improving social mobility Reducing numbers of NEETs

Good, but.
There will be underperforming schools that have fewer and fewer numbers. That will compel their leadership and the local authority to ask: Whats wrong? Michael Gove Guardian 22.5.11

Name and Shame..(weve been here before)

Failing secondary schools placed on list of shame Secondary schools that fail to stretch the brightest children are to be named and shamed as part of a drive to stop comprehensives playing the league table system, the schools minister warns.

Performativity
Nick Gibb: The game is up for schools that put league tables before real learning.

Performativity
Michael Wilshaw:
I was a head and therefore I was driven by the league tables. And the league tables have changed considerably. I was focusing before I left on the English Baccalaureate. If the Government, in its wisdom, said we will also introduce a league table which shows progression to university, and particularly to the Russell Group and Oxbridge, I would be driven by that. So there are all sorts of drivers, I think. Ofsted is a driver but so is Government.

Performativity
Graham Stuart: I appreciate Sir Michaels honesty and openness on these issues. We know that the Governments laser-like focus on five good GCSEs can drive teachers to focus on the borderline students who are the most likely to be successful. This means that not nearly enough attention is given to both high and low performing pupils.

Its tough at the top..

There are headteachers who have been peddling the wrong sort of approach to teaching for too long, who are going to lose their jobs. Michael Gove

Its tough at the bottom.

Telegraph 22 February More teenagers will fail A-levels and GCSEs as exam system toughened up, warns Michael Gove

Its all change..

9 February In his first speech as head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw said that unless schools had outstanding teaching, they could be stripped of an overall outstanding rating.

Tough love.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, The Guardian 2 February I'll ensure our schools have no excuses for failure "focus minds and ensure headteachers make more effort".

 Schools that fail to provide a good standard of education will be graded "requires improvement", and no school will be allowed to stay in this category for more than three years "However, around a third of schools failed to meet this level at their last inspection. There are too many coasting schools not providing an acceptable standard of education."
17 January Sir Michael Wilshaw Downing St speech

Basically, its a mess

Let's be honest. We don't have a good enough schools system yet. Almost a third of the schools in England were not judged to be good by Ofsted at their last inspection. Three thousand schools, educating a million children, were judged "satisfactory" at both their last two inspections. Previous chief inspectors have identified the same problem of too much stubbornly satisfactory, mediocre provision, yet we haven't made enough progress

And the PM thinks so too.

David Cameron 17 January "Last year I spoke out about the scandal of

coasting schools the ones that are content to muddle along without trying hard to improve. These might be schools in leafy areas that get above-average results, or schools in inner cities that have seen flatlining poor results; what links them isn't the scores they're getting, but the complacent attitude that says things are OK just as they are. This year we're doing something about it.

And just in case you havent got the message.

We need to raise our sights beyond ok.

Nick Gibb 7 Feb DfE PR Stockwell speech

Just in case you really havent got the message..

ICT in schools is a mess

Michael Gove BETT exhibition 11 January

Theres no such thing as society, or inequality, or deprivation; theres only the school

Mr Gove said: "The same ideologues who are happy with failure - the enemies of promise - also say you can't get the same results in the inner cities as the leafy suburbs so it's wrong to stigmatise these schools. 4 January

 Professional standards Stiffer exams Narrow national curriculum, written by civil servants Performance related pay and poor pay progression The end of national pay scales

The kind of teaching needed today requires teachers to be high level knowledge workers who constantly advance their own professional knowledge as well as that of their profession. But people who see themselves as knowledge workers are not attracted by schools organized like an assembly line, with teachers working as interchangeable widgets in a bureaucratic command-and-control environment. Andreas Schleicher, Preparing Teachers & Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century

Letter to Mary Bousted

I am writing to inform you that I have decided to quit my teacher training course. I enjoyed being in the classroom and teaching, but the ridiculous amount of unnecessary paperwork finished me off.
Thank you for all your help and support along the way. Alan Grace, Student member, March 2012

Lesson plans should be simplified to encourage teachers to consider the central question: what is the key learning for pupils in this lesson and how can I bring it about?
Ofsted, Moving English Forward, March 2012

You cannot threaten, shame or punish people into top performance.

Ben Levin, How to change 5,000 Schools Canadian academic & ex-education minister

A high status profession:

Is trust by policymakers Is listened to Is given true autonomy over professional matters Is allowed to hold itself accountable in partnership with external regulators Is a partner in policy development Has systems to deal professionally and quietly with underperformance.

Valuing and Engaging the Profession

A presentation to the education forum

Mary Bousted / Brian Lightman