Another Sunday, another surfeit of education stories.
Will Hutton writing in today’s Observer seems to have divided many informed opinions on my Twitter timeline this morning.
Hutton is essentially advocating Sir Michael Wilshaw’s OFSTED reforms and extols the ‘no excuses’ mantra. Even if teachers find Sir Michael’s management style to be rather crass and authoritarian they ought to embrace his drive to improve educational achievement he suggests.
According to Hutton those who are set against these proposed reforms are of course the same old pantomime villains, the teaching unions. Chris Keates of the NASUWT is singled out and accused of behaving irresponsibly when she complains about Sir Michael and his relentless ‘trashing of the [teaching] profession’. This Hutton tells us is ‘puerile game-playing at the expense of schools, their teachers and pupils’.
The problem is that the truth and the solution probably lie somewhere between these extreme views and most teachers I know are taking this third way when they are working tirelessly to add value to every child they teach.
The one truism in this whole article is the admission from Hutton ‘that to try and make any progress in the face of swingeing cuts in capital budgets and frozen teacher pay is to ask close to the impossible’
In my own state school, where I am in charge of after school activities, it’s dedicated and selfless teachers who are making the real difference in transforming children’s lives. There is no extra cash or financial incentive to run these clubs or in providing catch-up sessions but they are happening and flourishing.
I’ll admit it, teachers do make excuses. But guess what, so do politicians. Hardly a day goes by without a coalition MP blaming everything on the last lot. George Osborne has turned this into an art form as the economy stutters on the brink of another recession.
What we need to do as a profession is to agree a ‘commitment target’ based upon pupils prior attainment. A target that is reasonably challenging and impressive (centred on literacy + numeracy) and one that we will all commit to and if we don’t meet it we’ll be putting our jobs at risk. In return we need a culture of trust and enduring confidence in teachers and a belief that every child, teacher and school matters.
Finally, if this new OFSTED framework is to redefine teaching and learning, we need an undertaking from parents (no mention of them at all in Hutton’s article) that they will give schools their total support. Primary socialisation happens in the home, not the school and good parenting is as important as good teaching.
