VOICE: White Paper full of contradictions

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 12:00 AM

Voice: the union for education professionals has commented on the reported key issues of the Education White Paper published today (24 November 2010).

General Secretary Philip Parkin said: "The Department for Education seems to be driven by competing and conflicting ideologies - centralise with inflexible targets yet undermine national pay and conditions for school staff; raise teaching standards but propose the employment of unqualified teachers in free schools; promote a traditional national curriculum but exempt its favourite type of school (academies) from following it; allow teachers freedom to teach but tell them how to do it - not so much a mass of contradictions but a mess of contradictions."

Commenting on specific areas, Philip Parkin said:

Former troops will be offered sponsorship to retrain as teachers

"This is an old chestnut that's been doing the rounds for a number of years. While schools need good teachers from a variety of backgrounds, whether that is military or elsewhere, and we do need more men in teaching to act as roles models, schools are not the army and children are not troops. There is more to discipline in schools than bawling children into submission.

"Politicians should be doing more to encourage people to enter the teaching profession from a wide variety of backgrounds - including the services - as long as they understand that education and schools are not the military.

"Yes, there are discipline problems in some schools, but the vast majority of children in this country go to well-disciplined, well-organised schools - it's only the ones where there is a problem that tend to make the news.

"Voice's evidence to the Commons Select Committee Inquiry pointed out that while persistent low-level disruption in classrooms was probably not getting worse, more severe incidents of "extreme aggression", although rare, were increasing in number. Disability-related disorders, like psychiatric disorder or attention deficit disorder are where there is deterioration in behaviour. Deeply disturbed children need specialist handling not parade-ground-style screaming sergeant majors haranguing, intimidating and humiliating them.

"This chauvinistic concentration on masculine discipline and the army is just pandering to the hang 'em, flog 'em, 'bring-back-national service', 'things were better in my day' brigade.

Targets for numbers of GCSEs and new national standard for primary schools

"Such centrally-imposed national targets fail to take into account the circumstances of individual pupils in individual schools and variations between different areas and from year to year.

"Call them 'milestones' if you like, they are still 'targets'

Ending modularisation of GCSEs and moving towards a single final exam

"While Voice would welcome fewer exams in total, there are advantages to modular exams and to coursework. They give a more accurate assessment of where pupils are at different parts of a course and encourage pupils to focus throughout a course rather than just prepare for exams.

School inspections.

"A less bureaucratic and burdensome system would be welcome. Ofsted's remit has become too broad and lacking in proper focus.

Disciplinary powers and physical restrain of pupils

"Greater disciplinary powers and clear guidance on their enforcement would be welcome, both to improve pupil behaviour and to protect staff.

"However, it is essential that funded training is provided on physical restraint and that the training is consistent in terms of who provides it and what it involves. It is crucial that staff, pupils and parents know what the powers, and that they are interpreted and used in the same away across the country, to avoid accusations being made against staff or litigation threatened by parents.

"Searches of pupils should be undertaken by trained and willing staff - ideally security staff. The guidance needs to be absolutely clear that staff cannot be required to undertake searches. Widening the scope of searches could potentially lead to staff being put at risk of confrontation or even assault or injury."

Anonymity for teachers being investigated for inappropriate behaviour to protect teachers from malicious allegations

"Voice has been campaigning for the right to anonymity unless and until charged with a criminal offence. We would like to see support staff protected, too.

"Children need protection, but those who work with them - both teachers and support staff - are entitled to protection too. Careers can be blighted by false allegations.

"The lives and careers of innocent people have been ruined by false allegations of abuse, even after they have been acquitted of any offence. Being falsely accused and suspended can cause severe personal distress and long-term career damage. Members have left the profession and suffered damage to their health.

"Publishing someone's name in a newspaper because they have been accused of something but not charged is trial by media. A small paragraph on an inside page weeks later reporting that the charges have been dropped is not acceptable. Mud sticks.

"Police forces must be included in the loop on guidance as interpretation of existing guidelines, procedures for investigation and interview, and the general conduct of officers have varied considerably between forces.

Plans to scrap rules limiting head teachers' ability to observe teachers' lessons to three-hours each year

"The current three hour rule is for performance management purposes and head teachers can already observe teachers more under certain circumstances. The three hour rule should be maintained. It was negotiated by the unions because it is a reasonable amount of time in which to judge a teacher's performance. In most schools, performance management is working well.

Reform of teacher training, including special 'teaching schools'

"There is currently a good balance between theory and practice in initial teacher training. Students studying to become teachers at higher education institutions spend a significant part of their time learning the practicalities of teaching on school placements.

"Improvements could be made to course content and to the selection of students, but it is a model that has served us well and continues to do so. There have been a number of employment-based routes into teaching for quite a long time. This is nothing new. There have also been designated 'training schools'. These models have served well in producing limited numbers of trained teachers.

"To move the bulk of initial teacher training onto schools would add a significant burden to the work of schools. We must not forget the purpose of schools - to educate their pupils. Focus on this propose has already been lost in recent years with additional duties and responsibilities being placed on schools, many of which have neither the capacity, resources nor desire to take on the burden of additional responsibilities.

"There is undoubtedly an attraction in 'growing your own teachers' but the practical difficulties of ensuring equality and quality of provision across a wide range of individual training institutions would be difficult, bureaucratic and expensive. There is great danger in destroying a system which works well - and could be made to work better. Once it has gone it won't be brought back if the alternative proves less effective. Plans for more assessments of teacher training applicants, including tests of character and emotional intelligence.

"We need to be very careful to avoid trying to create identikit clones of the 'perfect' teacher. I am not convinced that psychometric tests, for example, would be a very reliable way of selecting candidates. There has been much criticism of their use in other sectors and doubts raised about their reliability, objectivity, fairness and whether they take account of social or cultural backgrounds. Candidates might be tempted to try and give the answers they think employers are looking for rather than giving 'true' answers.

"I understand that they are used less in industry these days because they are viewed as ineffective.

"I believe that the system of tightly structured interviews, plus role play lessons and group activities operated by Teach First is a much better model.

Overhaul of league tables and new 'English Baccalaureate'

"League tables are a crude indicator of a school's performance. They give a limited view and fail to give credit to the wider progress individual children have made. Good schools support the development of citizens who can offer much more to the wider community than examination results alone. We remain convinced that league tables have no place in recording the performance of a school.

"The so-called 'English Baccalaureate' is pointless. Giving 'recognition' for something you've already got, at what was once 'ordinary' (O) level, the same name as a challenging advanced-level qualification raises false expectations and risks debasing and devaluing not only the term "baccalaureate" but this country's internationally respected and sought-after qualifications system.

Slimming down the national curriculum

"A slimmed down curriculum would be welcome but what's the point of a national curriculum if the academies that the Government is so keen to promote don't have to follow it?

"A return for 'traditional' subjects should not restrict teachers from exploring cross-curricular issues with their pupils. Teaching and learning cannot always be easily compartmentalised and I fear this desire for 'tradition' could be a conservative media-driven attempt to return to a past golden age that didn't really exist.

Reading text for six-year-olds

"Although phonics - pure sound - is often the best way to teach children to read effectively, there are some children - particularly those with special needs - for whom phonics is not successful. Not all children learn to read in the same way and the good teacher needs a variety of methods in order to meet the needs of every child.

"The Government is only 'promoting' the use of phonics in schools yet wants to test all pupils on them.

"The proposal is for a decoding test for individual words taken out of context - not a reading test, which puts words in to sentences and tests comprehension - so this is a fairly blunt instrument and any competent teacher would certainly have recognised by then that phonics were not working for certain individual children and would be using other approaches.

"If the Government genuinely wants to leave teachers to teach, then it shouldn't prescribe how they should do it!

Overhauling the way funding is allocated to schools nationally

"We are pleased that it seems that plans for all state schools in England to have their funding set directly by central government, bypassing local authorities, have been dropped.

"A fairer and more transparent system that gives head teachers more of a say would be beneficial. However, why would ministers, mandarins or quangocrats in Whitehall have a greater insight into the needs of schools hundreds of miles away than those schools' local authorities based only a few miles away and with all the benefits of local knowledge?

"One size cannot fit all across the country when there are so many local variations. A one-size-fits all policy would be likely to cause chaos if it were to be implemented quickly and that the numbers of winners and losers in such a situation would need to be determined first."

ends

Contacts: Voice Press Office (pressoffice@voicetheunion.org.uk) on 01332 372337 or 0794 871 0413 or General Secretary Philip Parkin (philipparkin@voicetheunion.org.uk) on 01332 372 337 or 077 259 601 32.

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Voice: the union for education professionals
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