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    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

    I won't swear at her because she does seem to be making an effort not to wind up teachers. Shall we put Education stuff here and let Gove's new stuff go on his personal thread?

    The ground is being laid to get rid of the pupil premium (which, to be clear, the Lib Dems didn't invent, but at least they protected it).

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11592701/Grammar-schools-starved-of-funds.html

    Grammar schools have been forced to drop subjects, make redundancies and even face threat of closure as the Government is giving "disproportionate" funding to poorer schools where English is not the first language, headteachers claim.
    Teachers say they are not getting enough funding because they are in areas where there are less deprived students and a result less money filters through from Government.
    As ever, Marklu has brought this to my attention.

    #2
    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

    Who is this marklu please?

    Comment


      #3
      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

      Poster below the line on the DT, and one of my "sources".

      He reads the DT Education pages so you and I don't have to. Good place to spot future policy muck ups.

      Comment


        #4
        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

        Who'd have guessed it?

        The chair of governors at Princess Birbalbollocks' free school in Brent has turned up as Tory MP. For Fareham.

        Free schools- all about taking out the politics and putting local parents in charge.

        Comment


          #5
          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

          More on the latest farcical Education policy from the excellent Laura McIerney.

          http://schoolsweek.co.uk/why-morgans-plan-to-fire-heads-probably-wont-solve-coasting-school-problems/

          Things we know:

          – As soon as a school is identified as ‘failing’ the Regional School Commissioner will intervene immediately.

          – If the school does not have a ‘credible plan or capacity’ for turnaround then the government will make more moves.

          – Headteachers, and other senior managers, will be sacked if necessary.

          – Squads of ‘super heads’ will be sent to the school in order to turn it around.

          – Maintained schools will be encouraged (possibly forced) to become academies. Those who are already academies will have their academy sponsor switched.
          You're an ambitious young teacher/school manager.

          You'd go nowhere near one of these struggling schools, would you?

          As Laura says, there are schools which "failed" under the LEA, became academies, failed again, transferred to other chains, and are failing again.

          Not that Wales and Scotland are without problems in their schools, but if I were a school manager, I'd be looking to move there.

          Comment


            #6
            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

            So what do you reckon of OCR's decision to get rid of a wide range of Home Language qualifications Tubby?

            Comment


              #7
              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

              Don't really know anything about it.

              Comment


                #8
                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                Good chance of carnage next year at KS2. New SATS are being set which will be based on the KS2 curriculum, more rigour, markedly more challenging content etc. etc. Only problem is the kids that will sit them have only been taught this stuff for 1 year out of 3 they were in KS2 as the Gove driven new curriculum was finally published in June 2014 for adoption in Sept 2014. Given that school floor targets are going up from 65% to 85% and the grading is moving to pass/fail it is pretty likely that large numbers of Primaries will fail unless some form of phased introduction is applied but as far as I am aware this has not been suggested.

                Suspect that this fits neatly with the mutterings that have come out of government about the "disappointing" number of primary schools that have become academies. They may get swept up in huge number next year. Given the plans for super heads etc. etc. I would be very worried if I were the head of a LEA primary school.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                  Oh yes, they're really eyeing up primary schools for academy conversion. Whereas they bribed secondaries successfully, they haven't come up with a method yet for primaries. They've instead got into expensive forced academisations, which are so unpopular that even David Lammy got involved in fighting one of them.

                  I think you're right that these silly floor targets are the weapon of choice now, though you can't rule out bribes too. Osborne will overspend if he needs too, like this time.

                  In the meantime, another fraud at an academy.

                  http://schoolsimprovement.net/head-of-finance-stole-120000-from-academy-to-fund-her-love-of-designer-clothes-and-handbags/

                  Interesting comments made there:

                  This seems deeply worrying on several levels:

                  First, yet again a large amount of money has been stolen from a school which was undetected for years – despite (according to the full report) several audits.

                  Second, even when detected, the school appears unable to reclaim the money and has lost out in additional ways financially.

                  Third, and perhaps of most concern, it appears the job in the academy was targeted by Kathryn Nethersole precisely to allow her to steal money. If this is the case, and those with professional knowledge of finance recognise schools as a soft touch, how many more examples of this might be happening that we are ignorant of?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                    Here's the latest from our little group, on testing at four. Astonishing, in this age of looking after the finances like any prudent housewife, that we're prepared to spunk money to the private companies running these tests for an easy rake-in.

                    I wonder if anyone involved in formulating education policy has met an actual child before. If so, they certainly didn't pay any attention to them.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                      The spirit of Gove lives on!

                      All 'failing' schools to become academies. And faster, too!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                        Beat me to it, Vixter. Not surprising but incredibly grim all the same.

                        What I'm waiting to see is how they put the academies even further beyond the reach of the public. They had to be careful before, with David Laws about- by Gove standards, Laws was a public sector leftist, wanting the state to open schools and inspect academy chains.

                        That's all gone now.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                          Credit to OP.

                          satnav wrote: I understand from a colleague that within the next couple of weeks there is going to be a brief pause in OFSTED inspections to allow all OFSTED inspectors to undergo 're-training' I'm guessing that part of this 're-training' will involve moving the goalposts so that it will be a lot easier to label a school as failing or in need of improvement. This will then drastically speed up the push towards forcing more schools to become academies.

                          Where as in the past the 5 good GSCE's was used as the main benchmark for secondary schools in future more emphasis will be placed on how much progress pupils make during their time in secondary school. This benchmark is somewhat flawed because many Primary schools are now spending 12 hours plus a week preparing pupils for their SAT's exams at age 11 but then when these pupils move to secondary school they will only do English for 3 or 4 hours a week. It is hard to see how pupils can keep making good progress in a subject if the amount of teaching time in that subject is reduced by two thirds.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                            Satnav also points out that the contentious changes re academies (even Tory MPs have been less than keen on academies in their constituencies) will be going into the same bill as policies on adoption which are likely to be less contentious.

                            You wouldn't want to hold up those adoption changes, Mr Backbencher now, would you?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                              via vicaria wrote: The spirit of Gove lives on!

                              All 'failing' schools to become academies. And faster, too!
                              On an interview later on Nicky Morgan said that that people who are protesting against their schools becoming academies, can't delay it for ideological reasons, because that's not a reason to affect a child's education. Because forcing a school to become an academy isn't ideological of course. (Academy schools aren't an ideological choice of course, it's just the cover for a land grab).

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                This is about one of the schools going through a "consultation" at the moment: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/mp_hits_out_at_education_bill_s_academy_moves_as_u ndemocratic_1_4099079

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                  David Agnew wrote:
                                  Originally posted by via vicaria
                                  The spirit of Gove lives on!

                                  All 'failing' schools to become academies. And faster, too!
                                  On an interview later on Nicky Morgan said that that people who are protesting against their schools becoming academies, can't delay it for ideological reasons, because that's not a reason to affect a child's education. Because forcing a school to become an academy isn't ideological of course. (Academy schools aren't an ideological choice of course, it's just the cover for a land grab).
                                  And to make profits, whether they're called that or "management fees" or charges for using a particular curriculum.

                                  Other non-ideological decisions taken purely for the sake of the children include banning the state from opening schools and banning Ofsted from inspecting academy chains.

                                  Plenty of chickens to come home to roost though. When a school's on to its second or third failed sponsor, questions will have to be asked.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                    David Agnew wrote: This is about one of the schools going through a "consultation" at the moment: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/mp_hits_out_at_education_bill_s_academy_moves_as_u ndemocratic_1_4099079
                                    Thanks for the link, Rob.

                                    Wow, what a surprise, look!

                                    Academy chains have welcomed the proposal. Ian Burchett, the executive principle at the Great Yarmouth Federation, which is run by the Inspiration Trust, said: “This is a decision that is being taken because schools are failing our communities and students, and that is unacceptable.
                                    Inspiration Trust set up by Theodore Agnew. Knighted by the Coalition. Trustee of Policy Exchange, which was set up by Michael Gove. Same Michael Gove put Agnew on the DfE board.

                                    Amazing that someone working for them should support Tory policy, isn't it?

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                      Anyway, what's an "Executive Principal"?

                                      Sounds like a bureaucrat to me. Albeit a very highly paid one.

                                      btw, Dame Rachel De Souza is the Chief Exec of Inspiration Trust. She was recently very lucky to escape the rap for knowing about Ofsted inspections in advance.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                        Usually means that they are in charge of more than one [strike]school[/strike] academy.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                          Bureaucrat then.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                            Yeah, usually one obsessed with Ofsted criteria and pupil progress data. Probably doesn't even know the names of all the teachers, let alone the children.

                                            It wouldn't surprise me if this guy actually has his eyes on adding the Hewett to his portfolio.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                              He and his ilk are going to become the main trainers of teachers too.

                                              Isn't it brilliant?

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                                Someone's had a word with Nicky Morgan.

                                                http://schoolsimprovement.net/nicky-morgan-heads-should-not-fear-for-their-jobs/

                                                “Where a headteacher – and I have been very, very clear on this – has a plan and capacity to improve then we will absolutely put in support and work with those in a position of leadership to make that difference,” she added.
                                                That's the sort of thing an "Enemy of Promise" like me would say.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Justine Greening/ Continuity Gove

                                                  https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/george-osborne-announces-fresh-cuts-education-budgets

                                                  Chancellor George Osborne has announced almost a billion pounds of in-year spending cuts to the budgets of the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

                                                  Mr Osborne said today that the DfE and BIS would each make an extra £450m of savings in the 2015-16 financial year, totalling £900m in reductions.

                                                  Few details of the new savings have been announced, but a statement from the Treasury said there would be “savings in higher education and further education budgets in BIS, and savings in the administration of arms lengths bodies in the Department for Education”.

                                                  It said the DfE savings would be from non-schools spending, adding that savings would come from Whitehall efficiencies and from “tightly managing departmental budgets in-year, so that instead of spending up to budget, departments deliver underspends”.
                                                  Yeah, that'll work. Complete new tier of oversight to come in, and more and more schools to oversee, free schools to set up, academy take overs to broker.

                                                  Reckon these savings/cuts will all come from the back office?

                                                  Me neither.

                                                  Comment

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