Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 18 October 2024
- Welcome to Education Eye, a regular update detailing the policies and stories happening in UK education, compiled by Steve Besley.
What's happened this week?
Important stories across the board:
One standout education policy headline this week.
It came at the start of the week in the shape of a new ‘ambitious and targeted’ modern Industrial Strategy.
In other headlines this week, the parents’ body Parentkind reported on some “shocking findings” from its 2024 survey of UK parents, the Education Policy Institute compared FE and HE funding and concluded that FE remained the poor relation, and the Institute of Student Employers pointed to a ‘challenging’ recruitment market for graduates.
And never far away, Budget buildup has continued to excite the headlines with the Chancellor handing in her final draft homework this week and news circulating that some departments are unhappy about ‘tight spending plans.’ Education, or at least schools, is not thought to be among them.
But back first to that latest Industrial Strategy.
“A credible 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high growth sectors that will drive our growth mission.”
That’s how the government described its ‘modern industrial Strategy,’ launched for consultation at the start of this week as part of its tub-thumping International Investment Summit.
The focus was clearly ‘growth.’ As the New Statesman indicated, the word is mentioned 276 times in the Strategy’s 60+ pages. “This is considerably more,” the journal noted “than the number of times “war” (184) and indeed “peace” (63) are mentioned in all 1,200 pages of War and Peace.”
This growth is to come initially at least from eight listed sectors ranging from Advanced Manufacturing and Digital/Tech to Life Sciences and Professional and Business Services.
In the report’s rather arcane language, further subsets will be identified from within these sectors “for which there is evidence that policy can address barriers to growth,” along with targeted Sector Plans.
These, like other aspects of the Strategy, remain open for views and comment with the aim of publishing the full Strategy and Sector Plans alongside next spring’s major Spending Review.
We’ve not been short of Industrial Strategies in the past, albeit the last one was seven years ago and much of the industrial base has moved on since then. Either way, the government is establishing a statutory Industry Strategy Council to steer the whole thing and to avoid too much chopping and changing, or as the report puts it “put an end to the policy merry-go-round.”
Both the CBI and TUC offered their support. The TUC, for instance, said “with this industrial strategy, the government has a chance to press the accelerator.” While the minister who launched the last Industrial Strategy in 2017, former MP Greg Clark, described it as showing ‘serious ambition and deserving cross-party support.’
Many will be hoping the Budget provides a positive context for this.
On to those other stories this week starting with school news.
Here, as indicated, Parentkind published the results of its 2024 survey of 5,000+ parents across the UK suggesting it amounted to ‘a wake-up call.’
The responses certainly point to worries over the cost of living (“all the little extras demanded by schools quickly add up,”) smartphones (“almost half of all families are now regularly arguing over the amount of time children spend on them”) and school attendance (“just three quarters of parents agree that every school day matters,”) to take just three examples.
The report ends with a number of calls for action from listening to parents more, to introducing a Bill to ban smartphones, to rethinking the case for homework.
The media has picked up on one of the issues, that of getting cheaper holidays during termtime, but there are a lot of other concerns expressed in this report and the government would do well to take heed.
One of those concerns was smartphones and this week Labour MP Josh MacAlister presented his Private Members’ (Safer Phones) Bill aimed at restricting the use of mobile phones for under 16s and making it a legal requirement for schools to be mobile free zones.
‘Seatbelt legislation’ for children’s social media use was how he described it, although it seems at present that the government is not backing a blanket ban with ministers arguing that schools ‘already have powers to ban phones.’
This all came incidentally in a week in which calls for Ofcom to speed up the publication of its restrictions on social media companies following the passing of last year’s Online Safety Act grew more strident. There’re not due to be published until the end of the year and to take effect from next summer. Some groups want faster action.
Elsewhere for schools this week, GL Assessment reported on another familiar concern – maths anxiety. "It's a mindset - even very young children will say, 'I'm rubbish at maths. My daddy's rubbish at maths, my mummy was rubbish at maths and so was my granny, and that's why I'm rubbish at maths,” as one primary school teacher described it in the report. Girls, it seems, suffer from this condition more than boys.
The report makes a number of soothing noises about help and resources available including GL’s own ‘child-friendly’ maths test.
And eligible primary schools were invited to bid for capital funding as part of the first round of funding for school-based nurseries. Some 70,000 places may be needed to meet next year’s expansion of hours.
In FE, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) examined funding disparities between FE and HE reckoning that too often FE is treated as the poor relation. “Compared to their higher education counterparts, more further education providers are in deficit, their deficits are larger, and they are less able to meet those debt obligations.”
If the government wants to move to ‘a holistic system of post-18 education,’ as many including the college sector believe it should, then the EPI concluded ‘both sectors need to be financially sustainable.’ It’s not known if the Chancellor is listening.
Moving on for FE, the skills minister hosted a reception to mark Team UK’s ‘remarkable successes’ at the recent WorldSlills event in Lyon.
NOCN added its thoughts on the ever-growing skills debate, putting forward in a new paper seven principles for ‘a more ambitious vision and system.’ At its heart was the prioritisation of national upskilling but also a recognition that education and skills need to be treated differently. “Education” for new entrants and “skills” for an adult workforce, although linked, are not the same,” it argued.
And the SMF highlighted what they called the “glaring inequalities” in assumed knowledge by many disadvantaged young people about how the system for progressing into the world of employment or HE works. “One uninformed decision at aged 16 or 18 can impact young people into adulthood,” the report noted.
ASCL endorsed the findings saying the processes were often seen as “esoteric.” Recommendations included statutory work experience, extended careers guidance and embedding career thinking into the curriculum.
In HE, the Institute of Student Employers painted a pretty challenging picture of the graduate job market in its latest annual market report.
“The digital and IT sector was found to be the most competitive of all, with 205 applications per vacancy, followed by the financial and professional services, which had 188 applications for every position,” according to the Institute writing in the THES this week.
Changes to visa rules, different recruitment practices including the use of AI and a flattening jobs market, all seem to have some effect. “I’ve estimated that graduate recruiters are sending out at least three million rejection messages a year,” the Chief Executive wrote in Wonkhe.
In other news, the OfS published the results of its commissioned review into the latest phase of its Uni Connect programme.
Long term funding for the programme remains an issue but for the present, most parties gave it a thumbs up with for instance 91% of school staff surveyed ‘agreeing that it would lead to improved confidence among young people.’
It currently runs until next summer.
Elsewhere, Advance HE published a comprehensive set of case studies on developing best practice in assessment, Oxford announced the full list of runners and riders, 38 in all, for the post of University Chancellor, and the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Students held its inaugural meeting of the new parliament this week. No update at the time of writing.
Links to most of these stories below starting with the week’s headlines.
The top headlines of the week:
- ‘MP bids for school mobile phone ban to become law’ (Monday).
- ‘Phillipson urges patience on SEND reforms’ (Tuesday).
- ‘Private school VAT rules not fit for purpose’ (Wednesday).
- ‘Record competition, lower salaries in ‘tough’ graduate job market’ (Thursday).
- ‘UK innovation will be undermined by science dept Budget squeeze, industry leaders warn’ (Friday).
General:
- PM’s Investment Summit address. The PM addressed the government’s International Investment Summit where he highlighted the importance of growth and investment for the UK and set out four reasons why investors might want to invest in the UK including the existence of a new stable environment, evidence of strong strategic planning, enhanced global standing and reduced red tape.
- Chancellor’s Summit announcements. Rachel Reeves announced the reformatting of the UK Infrastructure Bank into the National Wealth Fund along with the development of a new British Growth Partnership as part of the British Business Bank as she rounded off the government’s Investment Summit.
- Industrial Strategy. The government published its Industrial Strategy Green Paper, describing its as a 10-year plan to drive growth with a focus on eight growth driving sectors such as Clean Energy and Life Sciences, inviting comments and views ahead of a planned publication next spring.
- Labour market. The ONS published its latest figures on the labour market, largely in estimated form and showing a slight rise in employment and slight falls in unemployment and economic inactivity over the last few months, with wages easing but concerns remaining about youth unemployment.
- Back to work. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) pointed to three challenges the government might face in getting people off incapacity benefits and into work, pointing in particular to the fact that many have been off work a long time, the incentives may be minimal and they may have ‘limited capacity’ to even prepare for work.
- Modern Britain. The Policy Exchange think tank published a new ‘Portrait of Modern Britain’ using data from the 2012 Census and looking in particular at religion and ethnicity, concluding that while improvements can still be made including for instance in pupil attainment for both various non-white and while groups, “modern Britain has made significant strides in terms of racial equality.”
- Waiting times. The Children’s Commissioner called for a more child-friendly system with earlier identification and more family support, as she published research showing that some 400,000 children in England who’d been referred with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions were still waiting to be seen.
- Access to childcare. Ofsted published the findings from its review into access to childcare in England over recent years ‘concluding that this has declined in the past 4 years but that regions are affected at differing rates,’ suggesting that this has an important bearing on when parents consider returning to work.
- Childcare. The government agreed to refer to its early childcare entitlement offer as ‘government-funded’ rather than ‘free,’ given that the latter wording had raised unrealistic expectations.
More specifically ...
Schools:
- Mobile phones. Labour MP Josh MacAlister presented his Private Members’ Bill which could see schools legally required to become mobile phone free zones, stronger regulation on the use design and supply of mobile phones for under 16-year-olds and greater powers for Ofcom over protection for children generally.
- Appliance of science. The DfE announced the creation of a new Science Advisory Council of 12 ‘experts’ who will advise the dept on science-related matters like SEND, mental health, online safety and the use of AI.
- Parent Survey. The national parent body, Parentkind, published the results of its 2024 National Parent Survey focusing particularly this year on some of the challenges parents face, listing coping with the cost of living, helping children with their schoolwork and their ‘enjoyment’ of school, concerns over social media, mental health and basically the whole ‘managing the balance of work and family life,’ as among the top pressures.
- Anxious about maths. GL Assessment published the results of its commissioned survey into attitudes about maths, reporting that maths anxiety, especially among girls, was the biggest reported barrier to learning cited by teachers along with a lack of relevance and lack of home support.
- School-based nurseries. The government invited eligible primary schools to apply for capital funding up to £150,000 to revamp spare capacity into additional nursey places, with funding due to be allocated early next year.
- Cyber security. The National Cyber Security Centre encouraged schools to sign up for its free cyber defence service which prevents access to websites known to be malicious and which follows a successful initial rollout of the PDNS (Protective Domain Name System).
FE/Skills:
- FE as the poor relation. The Education Policy Institute examined how FE fared against HE on a number of financial metrics, concluding that when it comes to debt, deficits and financing generally, FE gets a raw deal compared with HE and would need equitable funding if as the government hoped, a tertiary system were to be created.
- Transitioning to employment. The Social Market Foundation highlighted the challenges faced by many disadvantaged young people who often lack assumed knowledge of ‘how the system works’ when seeking to progress to employment or higher ed, calling as a result for formal two-weeks work experience, extended careers guidance and further embedding of necessary skills to help.
- Skills system. Charity and skills body NOCN argued for education and skills to be treated differently as it put forward proposals for a more collaborative skills system based around three ‘core linked change pillars’ of education and foundation skills, productivity and growth skills, and collaboration and devolution.
HE:
- Budget submission. The Russell Group reinforced its call to the Chancellor, set out in its Budget Submission last month, to invest in university-led R/D and to support university-business collaboration, particularly in light of the new Industrial Strategy’s focus on growth.
- More Budget thoughts. Universities UK called on the government to use the Budget to increase the tuition fee cap in line with inflation, improve the maintenance package for disadvantaged students and introduce ’an ambitious GDP-based R/D intensity target’ as it reiterated the value of universities to both government and wider society.
- Graduate jobs. The Institute of Student Employers published its latest annual report on the graduate recruitment market, pointing to a competitive scenario with more applicants per job, widening job criteria, the growing, and not always popular, use of AI in the recruitment process, and in the case of international students, visa restrictions.
- Uni Connect. The Office for Students (OfS) published the findings from its commissioned review into its Uni Connect outreach programme which has been focused on developing attainment-raising programmes particularly for pre-16 yr olds, concluding that it seems to have been well received by schools with sessions on study skills and metacognition notably popular.
- All about assessment. Advance HE published its latest compendium on assessment development and best practice, with extensive case studies covering assessment in a digital era, industry assessment and guides for feedback.
- Oxford Chancellor. Oxford University published the full list of applicants along with their statements of interest for the post of University Chancellor, with online voting due to commence from 28 October and the five leading candidates due to be announced in the w/commencing 4 November.
Tweets and posts of note:
- “Mock exam season is looming and I’m dreading the marking load already. One simple thing leaders could do during this season to help their staff is cancel all other unnecessary after school events and yet, they do not” -@TeacherBusy.
- “I mainly work with 4 1/2- to 9-year-olds. Mostly from inner city schools. Teach them. Explicit instruction works. It works incredibly well. AND it can be made fun too” -@Kathy_Rice.
- “The thing about having been in education for 22 years is that I get a bit bored with others trying to tell me what works in my classroom. Sometimes you read tweets and it's like who made you the messiah of education. Open dialogue not dichotomy for me” -@engteacherabro2.
- “My child’s mental health means more to me than exams. I never thought we would be in the position where she sat ANY GCSE and here she is, expected to get 4s & 5s in most. Focus on love. Support. Wellbeing. The rest will come if your child is happy” -@Teacherglitter.
- “As I said to one of my staff once: "There's a hyphen in micro-managing" -@Matt_Twist.
- “Overheard in Sainsbury’s; “Do you have any halloumi”? “All the Halloween stuff is on aisle 3” -@karenfthompson.
- “Do you like similes? No, I’ve got analogy to them” -@IMcMillan.
A selection of quotes that merit attention:
- “We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment” – the PM tells global investors that he will take on needless bureaucracy.
- “Most importantly, our Industrial Strategy will be driven by what business needs to succeed” – the government launches a green paper on its ‘modern’ Industrial Strategy.
- “Services will have to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by children and once the Protection of Children Codes have been finalised by summer 2025 put in place the appropriate protections” – the government writes to Ofcom to reinforce the importance of getting guidance and protections in place under the Online Safety Act.
- “Modern Britain, for all its flaws, is a place that has witnessed meaningful progress when it comes to providing opportunity and security for its ethnic and religious minorities” – Policy Exchange reports on race and religion in modern Britain
- “This analysis shines a helpful light on the relatively worse financial challenges that colleges have had to face over the last 14 years compared with those facing universities now” -@ the AoC responds to the Education Policy institute’s report comparing FE and HE funding issues.
- “Long waits for assessment and diagnosis are delaying children getting any help” – the Children’s Commissioner reports evidence of delays for families with children with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions.
- “We need a national conversation on how homework can help children to learn but avoid causing family conflict” – a heartfelt plea from Parentkind’s latest survey of UK parents.
- “It directly places increasing numbers of children in poverty; it does not appear to impact family planning decisions to any substantial extent; and it penalises not only those who have new babies after its introduction, but those whose financial situations worsen for reasons beyond their choice or control” – the Education Policy Institute condemns the two-child limit.
Not-to-be-missed numbers of the week:
- 1.7%. The CPI inflation figure for the year to September, down from 2.2% previously largely due to falls in transport costs although food inflation remained high according to the latest figures form the ONS.
- £63bn. The amount of private investment confirmed, or in some cases re-confirmed, for the UK at this week’s International Investment Summit, according to the government.
- £32,000. The average graduate 2024 starting salary, higher than last year but lower than 2020/21 and varying by sector and region according to the Institute of Student Employers.
- £5+bn. The amount that the Student Loans Company reckons its paid out in tuition fees and maintenance loans so far this academic year, according to a Co news briefing.
- 6.9%. The overall absence rate for pupils in England for the autumn term 2023 and spring term 2024, down from 7.3% on the year before but still above pre-pandemic levels according to latest government figures.
- 50%. The number of teachers surveyed who reckoned that girls make slower progress in maths as they lack confidence and work more cautiously, according to GL Assessment.
- 4m. The number of families surveyed who reported that homework was a cause of arguments, according to research from Parentkind.
Everything else you need to know ...
Other stories
- Out of hours. France has had laws about it for some time, Portugal added theirs more recently while Australia confirmed theirs just this year. These and many other countries have all implemented laws allowing employees to switch off from work/not answer messages or emails outside work hours. The right to disconnect/switch off, as it’s sometimes called, has generally been recognised as helping to create a healthier work-life balance, particularly in an era of constant contact. It’s back in the spotlight in this country with Labour’s proposed new Employment Rights Bill. The Bill doesn’t propose legislation in this area, as had been originally thought, but does indicate that some form of guidance or perhaps Code of Practice will be introduced in due course. The Institute for the Future of Work has a useful blog on the matter here.
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Steve Besley
Disclaimer: Education Eye is intended to help colleagues keep up to date with national developments in the education sector. Information is correct at the time of writing and is offered in good faith. No liability is accepted by Steve Besley or EdCentral for decisions made on the basis of any information provided.
