Mark Lehain is Head of Education at the Centre for Policy Studies.
Yesterday saw another set of free school projects approved by the Government.
Much attention was on the projects involving Eton and Star Academies. The most famous school in the world and the top group of state schools are opening three elite sixth forms in areas of educational underachievement. That is, whichever way you look at it, a big deal. Eton is also putting millions of pounds of extra cash into these institutions’ budgets, from its own endowment, to enable them to provide a whole load of additional opportunities to the youngsters who attend.
If I was a family in Teesside, Oldham, or Dudley right now, I’d be excited about the future. These projects aren’t just about new provisions but aim to transform the local education ecosystems of these areas. Eton and Star are going to work with local schools to help raise standards and pupils’ ambitions. And so whether or not children go to the new sixth form they should benefit from its creation.
It’s a perfect example of what great policy can achieve. Often, however, I think we overlook the success we’ve had with our school reforms since 2010.
It’s perhaps understandable given everything the country has faced in recent years. Industrial disputes and rows over grade inflation have also recently overshadowed the Conservatives’ general educational record. But all the same, there has been undeniable and tangible progress – whether it’s in reading, where our primary school pupils are now the best in the West, or wider changes to the curriculum and exams, such that GCSEs and A-levels are once again a “gold standard”, with T-levels coming on line to do the same for technical and vocational courses.
Free schools and academies have been a vital part of the improvements. Readers of ConservativeHome will undoubtedly be familiar with Katharine Birbalsingh and Michaela Community School. But the truth is that they are a tiny part of a much bigger reform movement with many other amazing but less high-profile successes.
Reach Academy Feltham. Great Yarmouth Charter Academy. Ark Greenwich Free School. Dixons Trinity in Bradford – indeed the whole chain of Dixons schools, plus those of Outwood Grange, Delta and Northern Education trusts, and Harris, United Learning, Star, Advantage Schools. The list is extensive. We’ve created a system that for the first time can systematically set up great schools where they’re needed, or turn around schools that had struggled for generations.
We shouldn’t underestimate how hard it has been to get here. On top of the practical challenges that reform brings, nearly all of these successful changes were opposed by the Lib Dems, Labour, and their union supporters. I do occasionally worry that we have become a bit too blasé about it all.
We can’t overlook how the momentum to shift schools from council-control has ebbed and flowed, and that the number of free school projects approved this week – fifteen – is tiny compared to the glory days of 2016 and 2017 when over 100 were approved in each of two batches.
None of the above could have happened under anything other than Conservative-led governments – just look at how school standards have collapsed in Wales under Labour, and in Scotland firs under them, and then the SNP, and Wales under Labour. And whilst Labour still hasn’t said too much in detail about what it would do in England if it got into power, what they have shared is worrying.
They’d remove the original and most important academy freedoms – what to teach and how to employ staff. They’d undertake a complete curriculum and assessment overhaul and make what schools have to teach a lot more woolly and woke. And they’d make it a lot harder for parents and others to know how well a school is doing by scrapping Ofsted grades and introducing a “scorecard” which could allow weak schools to claim they’re doing well by pointing at the bits they score better at and ignore the rest.
On the structures front, they’ve said they’d not reverse academisation, but it’s clear they’d not encourage the remaining maintained schools to join multi-academy trusts and benefit from all that this brings.
And what about possibly the biggest government policy success since 2010 – free schools? Labour has said it would keep the process – but can you really imagine them signing off more partnerships like the Eton/Star one, or allowing iconoclasts like Katharine Birbalsingh to challenge the system to do better?
I remain optimistic that there is all to play for regarding the next General Election, but the Government could and should do more now to further embed successful reforms and make our schools even stronger – by getting more schools into great trusts, and signing off another wave of free schools where they can shake things up.
This week’s approvals remind us of what can be achieved when power is put in the hands of people on the front line. The Government must make the most of every day between now and the election to do more of this. Our children deserve nothing less.
Mark Lehain is Head of Education at the Centre for Policy Studies.
Yesterday saw another set of free school projects approved by the Government.
Much attention was on the projects involving Eton and Star Academies. The most famous school in the world and the top group of state schools are opening three elite sixth forms in areas of educational underachievement. That is, whichever way you look at it, a big deal. Eton is also putting millions of pounds of extra cash into these institutions’ budgets, from its own endowment, to enable them to provide a whole load of additional opportunities to the youngsters who attend.
If I was a family in Teesside, Oldham, or Dudley right now, I’d be excited about the future. These projects aren’t just about new provisions but aim to transform the local education ecosystems of these areas. Eton and Star are going to work with local schools to help raise standards and pupils’ ambitions. And so whether or not children go to the new sixth form they should benefit from its creation.
It’s a perfect example of what great policy can achieve. Often, however, I think we overlook the success we’ve had with our school reforms since 2010.
It’s perhaps understandable given everything the country has faced in recent years. Industrial disputes and rows over grade inflation have also recently overshadowed the Conservatives’ general educational record. But all the same, there has been undeniable and tangible progress – whether it’s in reading, where our primary school pupils are now the best in the West, or wider changes to the curriculum and exams, such that GCSEs and A-levels are once again a “gold standard”, with T-levels coming on line to do the same for technical and vocational courses.
Free schools and academies have been a vital part of the improvements. Readers of ConservativeHome will undoubtedly be familiar with Katharine Birbalsingh and Michaela Community School. But the truth is that they are a tiny part of a much bigger reform movement with many other amazing but less high-profile successes.
Reach Academy Feltham. Great Yarmouth Charter Academy. Ark Greenwich Free School. Dixons Trinity in Bradford – indeed the whole chain of Dixons schools, plus those of Outwood Grange, Delta and Northern Education trusts, and Harris, United Learning, Star, Advantage Schools. The list is extensive. We’ve created a system that for the first time can systematically set up great schools where they’re needed, or turn around schools that had struggled for generations.
We shouldn’t underestimate how hard it has been to get here. On top of the practical challenges that reform brings, nearly all of these successful changes were opposed by the Lib Dems, Labour, and their union supporters. I do occasionally worry that we have become a bit too blasé about it all.
We can’t overlook how the momentum to shift schools from council-control has ebbed and flowed, and that the number of free school projects approved this week – fifteen – is tiny compared to the glory days of 2016 and 2017 when over 100 were approved in each of two batches.
None of the above could have happened under anything other than Conservative-led governments – just look at how school standards have collapsed in Wales under Labour, and in Scotland firs under them, and then the SNP, and Wales under Labour. And whilst Labour still hasn’t said too much in detail about what it would do in England if it got into power, what they have shared is worrying.
They’d remove the original and most important academy freedoms – what to teach and how to employ staff. They’d undertake a complete curriculum and assessment overhaul and make what schools have to teach a lot more woolly and woke. And they’d make it a lot harder for parents and others to know how well a school is doing by scrapping Ofsted grades and introducing a “scorecard” which could allow weak schools to claim they’re doing well by pointing at the bits they score better at and ignore the rest.
On the structures front, they’ve said they’d not reverse academisation, but it’s clear they’d not encourage the remaining maintained schools to join multi-academy trusts and benefit from all that this brings.
And what about possibly the biggest government policy success since 2010 – free schools? Labour has said it would keep the process – but can you really imagine them signing off more partnerships like the Eton/Star one, or allowing iconoclasts like Katharine Birbalsingh to challenge the system to do better?
I remain optimistic that there is all to play for regarding the next General Election, but the Government could and should do more now to further embed successful reforms and make our schools even stronger – by getting more schools into great trusts, and signing off another wave of free schools where they can shake things up.
This week’s approvals remind us of what can be achieved when power is put in the hands of people on the front line. The Government must make the most of every day between now and the election to do more of this. Our children deserve nothing less.