Monday, April 06, 2009
SATs BoycottThe joint call for a boycott by the largest teachers’ union (National Union of Teachers) and the main headteachers organisation (National Association of Headteachers) represents the most credible threat to the Key Stage 2 tests.
Almost every educational organisation and academic, across the political spectrum, has called for changes, if not outright abolition, of testing and league tables. Reports, enquiries and research papers must be straining every shelf in the misnamed Department for Children Schools and Families.
Last year Unicef reported on international comparisons of children’s welfare. Out of the twenty-one wealthiest industrialised countries the UK came bottom. Other studies have shown how children’s self-esteem is now linked to their academic ability. Scotland has never used SATs testing at 11 and Wales abandoned them in 2005. After last year’s marking fiasco the Key Stage 3 SATs in England were scrapped.
And yet, and yet, reasoned argument has failed, the government still clings on to Key Stage 2 SATs. There’s been so many letters written, calling for abolition that if quills were still in use every available bird would be denuded of feathers. The government’s response is always ‘standards’, this, despite the fact that when the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) remarked a sample of Key Stage 2 SATs papers, 22% of the English grades were incorrect.
So there it is, unpopular tests that are unfair and completely inaccurate.
The boycott call by the NUT and NAHT is a reprise of the NUT’s campaign in 2003. However, the problem then was, what did they mean by a ‘boycott’, who would be responsible for it, what would the action comprise of? Already there is the danger that it will be mired in legal technicalities, Phil Revell, chief executive of the National Governors’ Association has warned headteachers that any boycott might lead to disciplinary action.
A boycott could lean heavily on headteachers and the Year 6 teachers, who are usually members of senior management. The campaign should involve all members of staff in primary schools; personally I’d like to see a strike on one or more days during the SATs week. That way it would be a collective decision by all teachers to boycott testing, it wouldn’t isolate a few members of staff.
80% of primary heads are members of the NAHT. I’m sure there are older heads who can remember times, if not the Elysian Fields or a millenarian golden age, when children weren’t tested to destruction and phoney league tables weren’t used to judge schools. As retirement beckons there’s many who will be saying ‘sod it, let’s scrap the tests’. As for younger heads? They will be graduates of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) this is the course that ensures schools are run by cloned, dull, conformist, automatons.
Local authorities employ teams of School Improvement Officers who constantly ‘monitor’ schools, any ‘under-performing’ heads are liable to get the Alan Sugar treatment. So just how many of them will be willing to participate in a SATs boycott and commit career suicide?
To its credit the NUT has led the campaign to abolish SATs. The only reason the ballot failed in 2003 was that the turn out was only 34%. It is though one thing to pass a conference resolution and another thing to get the members to participate. Most primary schools don’t have a union representative and many of the union branches are moribund. Before last year’s strike I visited some of our local schools, in some the reps had done a good job and the school was closed, in another the union posters were on the staffroom notice board but this was because a diligent school secretary opened the post and made sure they were displayed. In others I rang the intercom and asked to speak to the union rep, ‘we don’t have one’, could I speak to any union member, it was about the strike. After a few minutes the door would open slightly, enough to reveal one eye, a reluctant hand would appear, grasp the leaflets, hand and eye would retreat, door closed.
The National Association of Schoolteachers (NAS) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have, a year before it is muted, condemned the boycott call. This must take the proverbial, stale, mouldy staffroom biscuit. As part of the government’s ‘social partnership’ the two unions have signed agreements that replaced Management Allowances (MAs) with Teaching and Learning Responsibilities (TLRs) thereby reducing the pay of thousands of teachers; introduced performance management criteria that allow maverick heads to use our old friend test results to limit teachers movement up the pay scales; allowed teaching assistants to replace teachers in front of the class and when the government wanted to change teachers’ pensions in 2004, every union was calling for strike action, apart from the NAS, only a rare conference revolt brought them into line.
Just to look at TLRs in more detail, the old Management Allowances gave extra money to teachers involved in things like pastoral care, the new TLRs only provided extra cash for work involved with increased test scores. In about 100 schools where the union(s) were strong there was strike action by the NUT and or the NAS. ‘Look we are a union! We organise strikes!’ Well, even the state controlled unions in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia organised the odd strike, if they hadn’t they would have lost all credibility. The NAS signed the national agreement that replaced MAs with TLRs, despite the rearguard action in few schools, that did in the main win concessions, nationally, according to the School Teachers’ Review Body, 30,000 teachers lost pay. The NUT as usual talked a good fight, but refused to organise national action.
The NUT/NAHT SATs boycott is a ray of hope. One of the NAHT leaders described the SATs tests as, ‘child abuse’. I don’t believe that was hyperbole. Thousands of children leave primary school as ‘Level 3’s’ saying ‘I’m thick’.
We also need to get the support of parents. What about an alternative vision for Year 6?
· Learn a foreign language
· Improve the link with secondary schools for Year 7
· Write a short story
· Learn to play a musical instrument
· Go on an adventure holiday
· Put on a play
· Undertake a community project
Labels: heads, Testing, Unions
Monday, February 23, 2009
OCD HeadI was on a course the other week. What did we do during the break? We swapped horror stories of course. The worst example was the OCD Head.
Detailed planning had to be in every Monday morning, with notes for all the groups on guided reading. The Head was constantly patrolling the corridors and ‘popping in’ to watch/observe and criticise teachers.
When she got a new computer she gave the old one to a teacher. All the old files had been deleted… however, when the teacher looked in the Recycling Bin, there were all the Head’s old files.
Every Friday afternoon the Head organised a tea party in her office for that week’s star pupils. On the computer was a folder – ‘Minutes of the Friday Tea Party’. It contained the following gems –
· Nora Delaney told me that Year 5 hadn’t had home readers all week
· Peter Smith said homework in Year 3 was far too easy
· Jane Jones seemed confused about the Literacy Hour, must follow this up
Yes, the ‘Tea Party’ was an opportunity to get unsuspecting pupils to snitch on their teachers.
All the experienced staff had left the school and there was a constant turnover of Newly Qualified Teachers, after a year they left as well.
Surprising how many OCD Heads there are. Just wish there were more Mike Kent’s.
Labels: heads
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Ketchup in their veinsAnd Lo! The National Council for Educational Excellence that contains some private sector top bosses have spoken. What were they advising schools on? The ruthless pursuit of profit, their ‘concern’ for the environment or how to transform a state basket case like Railtrack into a model for safe practise?
No, they are worried about ‘variability’ between schools and how to ensure ‘consistency of performance’. So McDonald’s have offered training for school leaders. Managers with ‘ketchup in their veins’ will run courses on leadership, team building and stress-management.
Now I know they have done a great job turning shopping centres into ‘clone towns’. But somehow the prospect of McSchools, every pupil in the same uniform, studying the same curriculum in identical schools just doesn't appeal.
Maybe they could start by explaining why McDonald’s annual staff turnover is over 60%?
Labels: heads
Monday, October 08, 2007
The Knowsley ‘Stampede’The Knowsley ‘Experiment’ rolls on, this is the plan (under Building Schools for the Future) to close eleven secondary schools and re-open them with seven ‘Learning Centres’. The old curriculum is being jettisoned, classrooms are being replaced by ‘Learning Zones’ and teachers will become ‘facilitators’. Instead of boring old local authorities supplying services private sector companies will do the job.
National adverts have appeared for headteachers (One hundred lines ‘I must not be a Luddite’)… sorry ‘Learning Centre Leaders’. Two internal candidates have been appointed but two other headteachers who applied weren’t up to scratch, so five positions were externally advertised.
Naturally you would assume that there would be a stampede of ‘blue sky thinkers’, ‘innovative leaders’ and ‘visionaries at the cutting edge of new technology’ desperate to become ‘Learning Centre Leaders’.
I’m sure the applicants were high quality… it’s just… well… OK since you ask only eight people applied for the five posts. What put people off? Possibly the prospect of ‘jack the results up or here’s your P45’.
Still with all the shiny new computers in place the brand new buildings who needs teachers or headteachers? (200 lines ‘I must not be a Luddite’) Sorry ‘Learning Centre Leaders’.
It can’t fail. Can it?
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Read this health warning first!The glossy adverts for the headteacher posts (sorry ‘Secondary Learning Centre Leaders’ – what an old Luddite) are nestling there in the pages of the education press. The enticing appeal from Knowsley pupils is ‘Make us feel like VIPs’.
All ten Knowsley secondary schools are being closed and replaced by seven ‘learning centres’ built under the auspices of BSF. Two of the existing heads applied for jobs at the new ‘learning centres’ but were rejected. What hope is there for Knowsley teachers when they apply for their jobs?
I had an interesting post from ‘anonymous’ during the holidays. Maybe potential applicants would like to read it?
‘I read with interest your comment regarding the appointment of headteachers to the new learning centres in Knowsley, but was dismayed by your assumption that headteachers have complied with the BSF programme.
‘From the beginning of the project headteachers have challenged many of the proposals in the BSF programme but have encountered the same vague responses to questions that you allude to. Heads have found themselves in an untenable situation, dealing with half-truths and unclear responses when trying to get information about working conditions, curriculum plans, hours of opening and career prospects for staff in secondary schools. Add to that the issues around loyalty to the communities of parents and young people that we serve and you should appreciate the lack of power and influence that has caused so much frustration.
‘ Heads who applied for jobs in the new schools did so in the belief that they might be able to salvage something from this disaster - by retaining quality staff in schools they could at least provide some stability and continuity for the young people who are the subject of this ill conceived experiment.
‘The appointments process for the leadership posts has ensured that critics of the BSF programme have been weeded out and the letter to all staff from the Chair of the Staffing Commission is also sending out a clear message. There is an LA mantra that the headteachers and teachers in Knowsley are not up to the job, despite the massive improvements in achievement and attainment over the last 5 years. Sadly the new “palaces of learning” will open with exactly the scenario you describe - I wonder how many of the BSF architects from the LA will be around to see this revolution happen?’
Monday, June 18, 2007
Guiding Principal?‘I feel it is wise to behave in her presence’. Unfortunately that set the tone for Leo Benedictus’ breathless profile of executive head teacher Catherine Myers in Saturday’s edition of Guardian Work.
Myers runs the Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in Tower Hamlets, it is one of the first ‘federated’ schools comprising separate girls’ and boys’ schools and a co-educational sixth form. With 1,500 pupils it has 40% of children on Free School meals and 27% are on the special education needs register.
During her fifteen years as head Myers claims to have ‘turned the school around’, certainly the test results are testimony to that, in 1992 only 13% of boys gained 5 GCSEs A-C, last year it was 86%.
There is of course that stereotype that journalists are just complacent hacks who faithfully regurgitate everything that is told them by people in authority without even bothering to research basic facts. I don’t actually know Leo Benedictus, but after reading his article I’m veering towards that particular character profile. How do many faith schools improve results? By selecting their pupils. The overall figure for Free School Meals in Tower Hamlets is 65.5%, some way above Bishop Challoner’s 40%, also an article in ‘The Times’ points out that the four church schools in the borough take only 3% Bangladeshi children, in surrounding schools the figure is 90%, so much for integration.
Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research compared the progress of pupils in 3,000 secondary schools in England with the social make-up of their local area. It found that faith schools were the least reflective of their local area. They were nearly 10 times more likely to have a higher proportion of able pupils than their local area might suggest.
Leo Bendictus’ interview carried some interesting insights into the regime at Bishop Challoner, Myers admitted that the target was king, “I set very hard-edged targets, yes. And I’m uncomfortable if things are not going right.” Every year, class and child have individual targets.
Myers reckoned that she worked 15 – 16 hours a day. The list of duties was frightening – meetings with staff, parents, builders, governors, psychologists, social workers, assemblies to run every day in two different schools, budgets and targets to set and manage, furniture to choose, caterers to handle, staff to hire, fire and review. Think they missed the children out but what the hell.
The article really should have come with a health warning, if the bold Leo had conducted some basic research on head teachers what would he have found? Head teacher vacancies attract on average only 5.4 applicants and then 27% of schools have to readvertise so poor are the potential candidates. Where are there record shortages? Catholic secondary schools in London.
A quarter of female head teachers live on their own and loneliness and isolation is a major factor in inhibiting women from applying and for early retirements. A survey by the General Teaching Council found that only 4% of teachers wanted to apply for a headship in five years time.
Former national president John Illingworth stunned the NUT Conference last year when he described how he had been forced to apply for early retirement as headteacher due to the effects of stress partly as a result of long hours. In an interview with the TES he revealed, “There were a few weeks at the end where I was really unwell, mentally I couldn’t take decisions, couldn’t prioritise. On one occasion I was almost tempted to grab hold of a kid. I was quite emotional at sometimes, and you can’t be bursting into tears when you’re dealing with a stroppy child. At my worst last winter, I couldn’t cope… I had to wait in the car park. My character changed from being easygoing to being quite difficult. One of my sons reckons it has been 10 years since I have been myself.”
Is Catherine Myers a good role model? For every Catherine Myers there are ten or twenty John Illingworths.
An interesting question is that now the hours that Myers works are well documented, if she suffers a mental illness, depression or alcoholism will she able to sue the governors? I’m sure any compensation lawyer would hold the article up in court and ask the governors why they failed to reduce her hours.
Unwittingly Leo Benedictus has written one of the definitive articles that explains why so few people want to be head teachers. As for the research – Could Do Better.
Labels: heads
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
One School, One HeadFaced with an alarming shortage of headteachers the completely predictable has come to pass, the government are calling for ‘federations’ and a ‘chief executive’ to oversee four or five schools. Yes, you can just imagine the scenario, there is a lightning visit from Ofsted, the chief executive is ‘on a course’ and the deputy head has to deal with it. So no prizes for guessing where the next recruitment crisis will manifest itself.
At the National Association of Head Teachers Conference (NAHT) their chosen messenger of the glad tidings was the chief executive of the National College for School Leaders (NCSL), Steve Munby. Regular readers of the blog will know that Steve does have a bit of ‘previous’, despite never being a head he did work for a few years as a teacher – when the government think heads don’t need any teaching experience let’s be grateful for small mercies.
Munby made his name as Chief Education Officer of Knowsley, through judicious use of GNVQs, GCSE results went up from 23% in 1999 to 43% in 2005. A few months after Munby left Knowsley for the NCSL the Government, aware of the GNVQ scam, reconfigured the GCSE league tables to include passes at Maths and English. Knowsley plunged to the bottom of the national league table, below that regular whipping boy Kingston-upon-Hull. Still as Frank Sinatra used to say, ‘timing is everything’.
In his speech to the NAHT Munby blamed heads for ‘trying to do everything themselves’, ‘refusing to admit their weaknesses’ and that the ‘hero head was no longer viable’. This from the people who organise conferences on ‘The Courage of Leadership’ with inspirational speakers who have ‘lead from the front’. This must be the most blatant example of the criminal blaming the victim.
Why don’t teachers want to become heads? You could start with workload, targets, ‘initiatives’, paper work and Ofsted. Rather than deal with those issues the government have come up with the idea of ‘federations’ or secondary schools ‘taking charge’ of primary schools.
Was there ever a golden era? Maybe in the 1970s when the Plowden reforms were working their way through, most LEAs had abolished the 11 plus there weren’t any league tables and LEAs employed former heads as advisors. Becoming a head teacher was viewed as the pinnacle of your career, albeit that in a profession 70% female, 70% of heads were men.
Let’s be honest people don’t exactly shout from the rooftops that they want to be a head teacher, they might mumble or half suggest it, but they know the reaction, the looks of incredulity, does this person harbour a death wish, is this the first sign of impending insanity? Step forward all workaholics, insomniacs, people with personality disorders, Billy No Mates and megalomaniacs. It really shouldn’t be that way…
See also - Why no one wants to be a head teacher
Labels: heads
Friday, February 16, 2007
NAHT and McDonald’sI’ve received the following comment from the National Association of Head Teacher’s (NAHT) Commercial Development Manager (no less) John Randall,
“On behalf of NAHT, I would like to make clear that McDonald's are not sponsoring the Association's 2007 annual conference. This followed a decision made at our 2005 conference.”
John, this is what you should have said and done,
“I’m sorry about this we’ve made a mistake, messed-up. We might be headteachers but we’re not infallible. We can only apologise for getting involved with an organisation like McDonald’s. I’ve watched ‘Super Size Me’ and I can tell all you children out there that eating lots of greasy burgers and chips is not good for your health. McDonald’s can have their money back and the people who signed this deal are going to work on an organic farm as punishment.”
If you would like to tell the NAHT what you think about their 'decision' the e-mail is - info@naht.org.uk
Labels: heads, PE and Health
Monday, February 12, 2007
NAHT and McDonald’sI’m stunned and raging in disbelief at that Faustian deal where the National Association of Headteachers has allowed the fast food giant McDonald’s to sponsor its national conference. No weasel words from any self-appointed spokes-person can justify this appalling decision.
Sponsorship is not a neutral action, for this reason most organisations have given a wide berth to tobacco companies, the armaments industry and BNFL. Exactly which part of guilt by association does the NAHT fail to understand or comprehend?
Just to acquaint the NAHT with McDonald’s record it– has sold copious amounts of junk food by opening restaurants in close proximity to schools; pays just above the minimum wage in spite of generating huge profits; refuses to recognise trade unions; is intolerant of dissent – they spent millions pursuing two unemployed environmental activists (Helen Morris and Dave Steel) in the notorious McLibel trial.
We try to educate children to make the right choices in life, one of them is to choose a healthy diet – despite the competing pressures from the billion pound advertising industry. We also use as examples those individuals who stood for truth and justice against overwhelming odds – Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King. Just what principle was the NAHT demonstrating – every organisation has its price?
Maybe the General Teaching Council could prove it does have its uses by arraigning the leadership of the NAHT before one of its disciplinary committees. The charges? -dereliction of its duty to children and gross moral turpitude.
Labels: heads, PE and Health
Sunday, February 11, 2007
HeadsThere’s always a tendency for people to look back through rose-tinted spectacles and mythologize, embellish or burnish the past, one thing is clear though, in retrospect, the embattled survivors will not view the dawn of the new millennium as a millenarian golden age. Heads of primary schools are rushing to retire early and there are precious few new recruits to replace them.
Teachers aren’t falling over themselves to get into management. On average there are only 5.4 applicants for a headship. Twenty seven per cent of schools reject all applicants and are forced to re-advertise. In the largest LEA, Kent, there are 473 primary schools, in 2005 there were 23 schools with temporary headteachers last year it has risen to 50.
“My name is John, I have a mental illness.” Former national president John Illingworth stunned the NUT Conference last year when he described how he had been forced to apply for early retirement due to the effects of stress. In an interview with the TES he revealed, “There were a few weeks at the end where I was really unwell, mentally I couldn’t take decisions, couldn’t prioritise. On one occasion I was almost tempted to grab hold of a kid. I was quite emotional at sometimes, and you can’t be bursting into tears when you’re dealing with a stroppy child. At my worst last winter, I couldn’t cope… I had to wait in the car park. My character changed from being easygoing to being quite difficult. One of my sons reckons it has been 10 years since I have been myself.” After his speech at the Conference he had over 250 emails, letters and calls, but nothing from his LEA.
Why aren’t teachers becoming Heads? One reason is that the job has become more administrative, managerial and bureaucratic, Heads teach an average of 3 hours per week, but that covers small rural schools where they may teach half the week through to larger urban schools where they may never or very rarely teach. Heads spend hours trawling through accounts, buried beneath mountains of circulars, reports and correspondence; blinking into the daylight contact with staff or children is often limited.
Heads can become remote from their staff, but that is often the accepted and preferred model. However, isolation, not being able to confide in or trust other people is a significant contributor to stress. In 2000 the National Association of Headteachers conducted a survey of 300 members in Warwickshire – 1 in 4 reported serious health problems including high blood pressure, chronic insomnia, eating disorders and excessive drinking; half claimed their families life had suffered.
With workload and hours a major issue it probably wasn’t brilliant timing to demand that prospective Heads have to pass the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers. Its supporters claim that it’s a rigorous course that will prepare candidates for the managerial qualities needed in a modern education system. An alternative view is that that the paper-laden NPQH is there to churn out a line of lobotomised robots who will uncritically implement every directive from the DfES rather than produce excellent pedagogues who can inspire and enthuse a new generation of teachers.
Training for Heads comes courtesy of the National College for School Leadership (opened in 2000) their programmes contain titles like ‘The Courage of Leaders’ and ‘Leading from the Front’. Inspirational talks are delivered by businessmen, sports people and those self-obsessed explorers who usually manage to get themselves lost and have to be rescued at enormous expense by their back-up team. Teamwork is out, instead we have the cult of the ‘super-head’, failing school – parachute in a super-head, problem solved.
The fear of failing an Ofsted inspection is another powerful factor inhibiting teachers from becoming heads. It’s seen as a personal failure, there’s the football manager syndrome – poor results sack the headteacher. Fail your Ofsted inspection and you become virtually unemployable, “and your last school was…?”
Maybe it’s something to do with an increasingly feminised workforce - 98% of infant and 83% of juniors teachers are women. Those with young families choose not to work the crippling long hours that goes with being a Head (one quarter of female Heads live on their own). The General Teaching Council carried out a survey and found that only 4% of teachers were thinking about becoming heads in the next five years. Could it also be there’s a rejection of the macho cult of the leader that emanates from the NCSL? And are existing Heads a great role model? There’s that stressed-out, alcohol-dependent, divorcee – “Yes my child all this can be yours.”
Faced with this recruitment crisis you might have expected that hours would be cut, stress levels reduced and the testing regime side-lined. Instead of that New Labour’s ‘Blue Sky Thinkers’ have come up with the idea of Leadership Consultants who would be responsible for 5 or 6 primary schools. The only problem here is that someone has to be on hand when little Johnny or Jane runs out of school, an irate parent demands to be seen, or a mass brawl breaks out at break time and who will answer when Ofsted come calling? So responsibility will be devolved down to Deputy Heads – no prizes for guessing where the next recruitment crisis will manifest itself.
One little vignette from the TES sums up the crazy world of the primary Head. In Hull (one of our worst performing LEAs) Heads have been under constant pressure to improve test results by whatever means necessary. Thirteen out of seventy have resigned or asked for early retirement. At a recent meeting one Head rose up out of his seat and said, “I have lost the will to live!” He left the hall doing the Morecambe and Wise final dance.
Labels: heads
