Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 02 February 2024

Some familiar headlines this week with Ofsted, pupil exclusions and international students all hitting the news.

Ofsted first.

This cropped up at the start of the week with the Education Committee publishing its report into Ofsted’s work with schools.

The case for an independent inspectorate, it seems, remains but as the Committee put it “We repeatedly heard that Ofsted has lost the trust of a significant chunk of the teaching profession, and leaders.” So what now?

The general consensus among both MPs and schools is that Ofsted remains at a significant moment in its history and much may depend on how it uses its Big Listen exercise to respond to concerns. As the Committee put it, “the appointment of the new HMCI provides a crucial opportunity to reset and restore trust..”

The Committee picked up on most of the current issues including concerns about the use of single-word judgements, how best to assess safeguarding, the burden let alone the toll of inspections on many staff and put forward a number of helpful recommendations.

Unions appear ready to give it a chance. ASCL talked of “grounds for cautious optimism” although the NEU was more forthright. “We need Ofsted to be replaced altogether by a system of inspection which is supportive, effective and fair. The inspectorate in its current form is none of these things.” That’s how things stand at the moment.

Next, pupil exclusions, never an easy topic, and the subject of two reports this week from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank. 

For many people, school closures during the pandemic have had a dire effect on many families and young people. Pitch in the cost-of-living crisis and associated surge in mental health cases and it’s no wonder that the reports talk of ‘an alarming trajectory’ in terms of numbers suspended or excluded. “The suspension rate has surged in the wake of the pandemic, reaching the highest level on record. Permanent exclusions mirror these trends, returning to their pre-pandemic highs, with no sign of abating.”

As Edward Timpson MP, who carried out the last major review of exclusions just before the pandemic and who wrote the Foreword to both reports said, ‘exclusions from school have profound and lasting impacts on the lives of young people.’ They also raise questions about what role mainstream schools should play, the availability of alternative provision, the vulnerability of certain groups and so on.

The reports conclude with a number of recommendations, some to tackle the pressure on schools, some to support teachers and families and some to help providers and agencies operate more effectively but it all remains a challenge and future governments will need to give it priority treatment,

And third, international students, a story that’s been rumbling around again this week following last weekend’s Sunday Times claim that Russell Group universities were lowering grades for international students who pay higher fees to land places, in some cases using agents to actively recruit such students.

Part of the issue as university bodies were at pains to explain is that the article refers to foundation or bridging courses which may have lower entry grades and are used to prepare people from all backgrounds for academic study. These are not new and have been important for many universities for some time but, as the Russell Group explained, have been incorrectly conflated with degree programmes in the article.

Either way, the story touched a number of raw nerves and raised questions again about entry arrangements, the impact of international students on the domestic market, the role of recruitment agents and university funding generally.

Both the Russell Group and Universities UK issued firm rebuttals and as former universities minister and part architect of the current system, David Willetts said, entry routes are never tidy. The issue as he went on to say is that universities are scrambling for cash, so need proper funding. He suggested linking fees to inflation or some other such formula. How far this will appear in party manifestos remains to be seen.

In other news this week, the Levelling Up Committee reported on the dire state of local council finances. “There is an out-of-control financial crisis in local councils across England,” said the Chair of the Committee. Demands for services such as special educational needs and adult social care has resulted in ‘rocketing costs’ according to the Committee. It called for an immediate bailout and longer-term review of local funding.

Elsewhere, MPs previewed next week’s children’s mental health week with a debate on the matter. ‘Our plan is working,’ claimed the minister, others were less sure. “The challenges facing the mental health of our young people have never been greater,” claimed the Labour member introducing the debate.

Earlier in the week, education ministers faced a range of issues including persistent pupil absentees, school buildings, early years and apprenticeships, under education questions but it was largely routine stuff.

And the government remained tight lipped as the International Monetary Fund’ issued its latest Economic Outlook downgrading growth for UK and urging it not to go for more tax cuts. The Chancellor did however admit he didn’t have much ‘headroom’ for tax cuts’ later in the week when talking about the forthcoming Budget. Most of the education and skills organisations have now submitted their wish lists to the Treasury ahead of the Budget on 6 March. The ASCL, AoC and AELP have been among those doing so in recent weeks.

In schools this week, the government published a new ‘combined framework’ for trainee and early career teachers and set out the final sets of figures and performance data on last year’s exams.

The Think tank EDSK published an interesting report on school system reform arguing that the current dual model of state and academy schools had become confusing and costly. “The language of ‘academies’ and ‘academisation’ has become politically toxic and also means little or nothing to parents.”  It called for a more collaborative and transparent system of School Boards in its place.

The education endowment foundation announced a new teacher-driven research project to evaluate the impact of ChatGPT on teacher workloads. “This is an extraordinarily exciting project – one of the first of its kind to look at how generative AI could be used to lighten their significant workload,” according to the foundation’s boss, Becky Francis.

And London councils warned of what it called “disruption and impossible choices as London experiences a continued drop in demand in school places.” A falling birthrate and swingeing housing costs are being blamed leaving parts of inner London hollowed out.

In FE, the government published the latest list of some 70+ established qualifications that could have their funding withdrawn because they overlap with T levels in subject areas such as animal care and media. Awarding organisations have until 26 March to appeal.

An immediate concern for many has been the ‘sudden’ decision to drop T levels in barbering and hairdressing. Work on developing these qualifications had been going on for some time so the snip did not go down well. The AoC called it ‘a huge shock’ and in a letter to the minister called for a meeting to settle issues over implementation and funding.

Elsewhere for FE, Ofqual and the AELP both had reports out on functional skills this week, no changes but still an area of concern for many.

And the Prince’s Trust published its latest annual survey of young people, 16 – 25-year-olds reporting that “happiness in work, education, qualifications and money were at all-time low. On the plus side, though, many (68%) appeared determined to get the right qualifications, get a good job and secure their futures. “Working has changed my life for the better, my mental health, my drive, my ambition and my hope,” as one put it.

And for HE this week away from the headlines about international students, there’ve been plenty of other talking points.

One has been the build-up to the general election where the NUS launched its manifesto wish list of five key asks starting with ‘lift every student in the UK out of poverty and give us all hope for the future.’ And where HEPI director Nick Hillman also blogged about the tortuous issue of fees and funding, its role in past elections and the context for the coming one, ahead of a series of events that HEPI will be hosting on the matter in the coming weeks.

And also of interest this week has been the report from the HE Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kortext on student attitudes to AI. In a word, just over half of students surveyed have used it to help with their studies, although over a third of them aren’t clear when the information produced is fake, most don’t support its use in assessments and think their institution could spot such usage, and most favour a set of clear ground rules for the future.

Links to most of these stories below starting with the headlines.