Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 26 April 2024

Some important reports this week.

Four in particular. Two concerning schools and two wider government education policy.  

The two of direct interest to schools, starting with the government’s response to the Education Committee’s Inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools, which was published this week. 

It’s come at a delicate time for school inspections and the mood has not been lifted by the government’s continued commitment to the use of single-word judgements such as ‘outstanding’ or ‘inadequate’. 

'A source of sky-high stress and anxiety, damaging the wellbeing of leaders and teachers, sapping morale and causing many people to leave the profession', according to the Association of School and College leaders (ASCL). 'A succinct and accessible summary for parents', according to the government’s response. It’s no wonder the issue remained one of the big discussion points during the Inquiry and looks like remaining so now, particularly given the tragic consequences surrounding it. 

The Education Committee in its report earlier this year had called for the DfE and Ofsted 'to work together as a priority to develop an alternative to the current single-word overall judgement that better captures the complex nature of a school’s performance'.

In its response, the government said ‘it would rather look at ways to improve the current system than in developing alternatives to it’. 

There are plenty of other issues in the report on matters like the frequency of inspections, support for school leaders, and safeguarding, but it’s the fraught question of single-word judgements that remains the bone of contention. Much may now hinge on what comes out of Ofsted’s ‘Big Listen’ exercise which closes at the end of next month. 

The second major report out this week, and of particular interest to schools, takes us back to post-Covid recovery and the range of challenges that remain here. 

In a new Nuffield-funded study, researchers evidenced what they called ‘a double whammy to the educational progress of successive Covid cohorts’. “They are on course,” it argued, “for the biggest overall decline in basic GCSE achievement for at least two decades, and an unprecedented widening of the socioeconomic gap in GCSE prospects. This will impact on children taking GCSEs well into the 2030s.” 

Earlier research had suggested that learning loss from Covid amounted to some six months – eight months in the case of the more disadvantaged. There’s also the issue of the decline in socio-emotional skills which the report believes remains a major challenge. 

The study called for a national programme to measure pupils’ wellbeing and a national programme of trained undergraduate tutors to help pupils develop foundation skills. And, just as importantly, the report reminds us that many of the issues arising out of Covid for young people have not gone away.

Next a brief word on those two government facing reports.

The first came from the National Audit Office (NAO) which reported on preparations for the further rollout of the government’s childcare plans.

It concluded that 'significant uncertainties remain around whether the sector can implement the changes and be financially sustainable'. The issue is whether there’ll be enough qualified staff and thereby places to meet demand.  

The report came as the Education Under-Secretary updated MPs on what he claimed was “the successful first stage of the largest ever expansion of childcare in England’s history”.

 He argued that “since the expansion for April, no local authority is reporting that it does not have sufficient places. We will now work with them on the next stage of that expansion for September”. 

That work may well be crucial, with the NAO recommending the government set interim milestones and planning contingencies, given what it called ‘the challenging timetable’. The Early Years Alliance said it shared the NAO’s concerns.

The second report came from the ever-busy Public Accounts Committee which has been delving into the fractious issue of franchised provision in higher education.

It found, in its words, a lack of regulatory oversight, pointing to over £2m worth of fraud in the system last year. And concluded rather expansively that the system was 'open to exploitation to systematic and organised fraud and abuse'. 

It made a number of recommendations, including ensuring providers publish summaries of their franchised agreements – including how much of the money they’re hanging on to – as well as a rather bland call for the department to set out how it intended to strengthen its oversight. 

As Wonkhe’s David Kernohan put it, the report makes all the right noises, but is unlikely to shift the dial.

In other Westminster snippets this week, the Education Secretary met with the British Chambers of Commerce to discuss skills and labour shortages, and the deputy PM hosted a meeting with university leaders to discuss sector international security, with China on many minds. A consultation is promised.

Elsewhere, Rob Halfon, Charles Clarke, and Lord Layard appeared before the Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, discussing skills, apprenticeships, funding and more. The Committee went on to announce a new inquiry into skills policy, particularly around apprenticeships and training. 

And also launching a new Inquiry was the Education Committee, which announced it intended to look into why boys consistently underperform compared to girls when it comes to education. “My Committee wants to find out why it is that boys have historically underperformed compared with girls”, the Committee chair explained.

In other news for schools this week, both Ofsted and Ofqual posted position statements on AI following a call from government earlier this year. 

Ofqual, which has already done work with awarding organisations on the matter and is working on further guidance, said it was adopting a ‘precautionary’ approach. It doesn’t see AI as a sole remote invigilator or sole marker of student work – at least not yet.  

As for Osted, which already uses AI 'to make best use of the information we hold', it confirmed it was working in accordance with the five principles set out in the government’s regulation white paper. It won’t directly inspect the quality of any AI tools used by a provider, but would support any use that helps improve provision and would train inspectors accordingly.  

Ofqual also reported a broad thumbs up this week for the qualification system as it published its latest ‘Perceptions into Qualifications’ report. Most respondents saw qualifications such as GCSEs and A levels as valuable and a good preparation for further study. The use of onscreen exams continues, however, to provoke mixed views. 'Roughly equal proportions of respondents agreed (34%) and disagreed (31%) that onscreen examinations in GCSE and A level qualifications would be fairer for students than existing pen and paper examinations'.

Elsewhere in schools this week, the government announced incentive funds for teachers in some shortage subjects. ‘Tinkering around with recruitment and retention schemes’ and not addressing the wider problems of teacher recruitment, according to the NAHT. 

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition argued that the reasons behind pupils missing school can often be complex and 'cannot be viewed through a single lens'. ASCL agreed and reinforced the call for better mental support. 'Fixing the special needs system and ensuring mental health provision is widely available must be prioritised in order to improve school attendance'. 

And the Education Endowment Foundation published a new guide for effective implementation of change in schools highlighting the importance of behaviours, contextual factors and flexible processes. As chief executive Becky Francis explained: "do fewer things better by carefully selecting and embedding evidence-informed approaches".

In FE, the government published its latest Action Plan for T levels with accompanying learner data. 

From this September, 21 T levels will be on offer and the minister used his Foreword to the Plan to claim that ‘they are fast becoming a route to success for young people’.  They’re currently being taken by just over 16,000 learners, and the fit with BTECs and the Advanced British Standard (ABS) remains crucial. 

And talking of the ABS, the Edge Foundation held an important session this week looking into the extent of public support for a British Bacc for 16–18-year-olds. In line with recent surveys it found widespread support for a greater focus in schools and colleges ‘on developing essential skills for life and work’ for young people and some 68% in favour of something like the PM’s proposed ABS.

In HE this week, HEPI director Nick Hillman examined university student drop-out rates. "Endlessly discussed but poorly understood", he felt. The Times Higher reported on the growing number of institutions making redundancies as purse strings tightened. It reckoned it was now over 50. The President of the British Academy said it wasn’t football that needed an independent regulator but UK higher education. 

And JISC blogged about the use of generative AI in assessment taking a ‘snog, marry, avoid’ approach or in their words ‘avoid, outrun, embrace’. 

Its conclusion was to favour the embrace approach because 'it aligns most closely with preparing students for a future where generative AI is not just a tool, but a fundamental aspect of the workforce'.

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