Daniel Lilley is the Head of Youth at the Centre for Social Justice.
Last Monday morning, as teenagers up and down the country sat their English literature exams, all was not well at Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, east London. As reported in the Telegraph, by 8:15am, a hundred girls and their parents had gathered at the school to protest a crisis that risks undermining their life chances.
The crisis: their own teachers.
Since April 21, in the middle of exam season, at the defining moments in their pupils’ education, several key teachers have been on strike. A picket line has been set up in front of the schools where a motley crew of radical activists have assembled to campaign against redundancies, racism, Reform, and – of course – to carry the torch for the Palestinian cause.
Naturally, their focus being on the future and education of our country’s children – or something like that – National Education Union campaigners have stepped to support the striking teachers. Vigilantly backing their comrades in ensuring the ruination of the teenage girls’ education.
This tragic, if darkly humorous, story illustrates the context in which so many crises have festered across our education system.
England’s schools are currently languishing in overlapping absence, exclusions, and behaviour crises. Too many children aren’t turning up to school – for the first time ever, in the most recent data over 180,000 children were absent for over half of school time. It was 66,000 in summer 2019 and used to hover around 30,000 in the early 2010s. Missing just a tenth of school increases a child’s risks of becoming not in education, employment or training (NEET) by six times – these children are missing more than half.
Worse yet, the soaring number of exclusions in our schools reveals an education system that is in disarray. Analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) last week revealed that primary school exclusions are at a record high, driven by assault of adults. These are under 11s.
But this highlights broader warning signs of an education system that has failed to get back on track even six years on from successive lockdowns. Fewer than half of secondary school pupils say they feel safe ‘every day’. A quarter of lesson time is lost to bad behaviour. A recent Tes survey on teacher wellbeing found that the challenges with pupil behaviour have ‘shifted from managing isolated incidents to navigating a daily environment of persistent disrespect and shifting cultural attitudes.’ An urgent review of behavioural standards is needed.
But conduct like that of some of the teachers at Connaught School for Girls undermines everything. Two in five parents of secondary school parents agree that trust between home and school has ‘broken down’. In the same survey, almost half agreed missing one in every ten days is fine. It is near impossible to emphasise the necessity of school attendance from a picket line: how can you tell children their education is essential if you’re more interested in far-left activism than providing any? Even on the less extreme end, teacher absence itself has been drifting up for years now.
We at the CSJ regularly speak to conscientious, hard-working teachers pulling their hair out at the suspicion and disrespect with which some parents treat them. They are bewildered at the hostility when they are devoting their lives to their children’s future. But too many of their colleagues are letting them down.
Rebuilding this relationship must be a priority for the government, and this will need to have sharp edges. We cannot – for the sake of the children whose future is at stake – tolerate the negligent parenting that is driving up poor behaviour, nor irresponsible teachers. But we also need to have a better, more positive story for how we raise our children in this country.
The first way is through sport. Sport has been shown to improve attendance, and to be superbly effective at engaging parents – especially dads. It is one of the greatest relationship builders. And foundational for a child’s health and development, linked to better physical and emotional wellbeing as well as improved engagement.
With Laura Trott and Lord Nash forcing the government into accepting some restrictions for under-16s on social media, what better way to replace screen-time than with extra hours of after-school sport and outdoor play for every school pupil?
The second is through putting parental engagement at the heart of a school’s ethos. The relationship with parents can be make-or-break for children and needs to be treated as a priority accordingly. This means face-to-face contact, ensuring partnering with parents is in both initial teacher training and professional development, and managing transitions into secondary school carefully.
There are foundations to build on. The rise in standards driven by resolute ministerial leadership have been mostly maintained. But we must also be clear-eyed and know that an education system where teachers picket during their pupils GCSEs is one that, without urgent remedy, is headed for disaster.