16 Comments

Great piece Neil.

It is very regrettable that Labour are attempting to create a one-size fits all for education enforced with draconian powers to force compliance. Where I am Chair of Trustees our Trust serves some very disadvantaged communities, has created its own curriculum, improved 3 schools from RI to Good, 7/9 our our schools are at or above national outcome at KS2, is tackling head-on pockets of poor attendance, total commitment to inclusion, and finding innovative ways to deal with recruitment and retention issues. All achieved under the previous legislation.

Nothing in the School's Bill will take education forward and certainly not with Civil Servants calling all the shots.

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Brilliant piece unpicking the issues so well. Just lacking true scrutiny of the CNiS register.

It is a ridiculous piece of legislation. Families will have to register every person who is involved with their child's education... this could extend to the librarian, a kind neighbour so on and so forth. EHE families do not live in isolation. And then there's the 'optional' home visits which if you refuse a school attendance order will be issued. That isn't choice, that's coercion. Yet more threats of fines and prison for parents. Oh, and then listing every website you visit (the devil is in the detail) and you have only 15 days to do so before threats of school attendance orders follow. This is so unnecessarily cumbersome for families to keep on top of. The main task is educating not administrating.

Whilst I do not deny the achievements in recent years in education we do still have a key remaining issue, one size does not fit all, this huge drive for control in the name of safeguarding, limits choice even further for families than the attack on academies will do. We need a clear goal of a suitable education for all children, as already determined in law, for some reason we are obsessed with only a predetermined route being acceptable. It's an education children need and that is not a narrow thing.

It's also worth pointing out the elephant in the room. Not one home educated child has ever come to serious harm and been unknown to services. Yet again it's the failings of services not the lack of information. Let's stop with the pointless busy work and let professionals get on, as you rightly point out, with the freedom to do so.

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I can understand the concerns of Ofsted and the DfE that there has been an abnormal surge in children not in school.

From time spent of parental support forums, there are 100% children who are at home and not receiving any meaningful education.

This cohort is very different from the committed home educators I know - and much like children known to social services, most of them are already known to the system. They are the children whose school place has collapsed, before the parents deregistred.

Most of these parents would welcome help and support if offered. Trying to turn them into ‘proper’ home educators by demanding they produce evidence feels like a policy that will alienate truly elective home educators, while not producing any improvement in outcome for the children.

I don’t think the register is inherently a bad idea, if it compels local authorities to assess the gaps in provision in their area. But its scope clearly needs to be limited.

And that is one area where I think it is clear that school reform and academy policy has not succeeded. We should not be in a situation where thousands of children have spent months without a school place, nor is there sufficient parental choice to drive improvement. We should not have GCSE capable pupils being allocated places in schools only teaching Entry level qualifications due to lack of a suitable place.

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Great comment. I think the biggest factor at play here is that LAs used to have dedicated EHE teams. Many now do not or it's staff with multiple hats on. It's a real postcode lottery as to whether families get real help or a flea in their ear. LAs already have the power to deal with these very situations that you describe but what they don't have is either the resources or, quite often, the empathy.

Education as a whole needs an entire shake up.

The sort of approach being taken in this bill is very punitive. Take a look at Scotland's guidance released this month. By taking an approach of working with, rather than against, and you'll achieve both objectives namely protecting the genuine EHE families and helping those who have ended up lost at sea. A lot less judgement and more support goes a long way. The reality is that LAs have neither the funds nor the skill set (currently).

The legal term we really need is to notify. Ask EHE families to notify the LA is a whole different practice. As you rightly say these demands are overreaching. I for one do not want so much information about my family out there where the state's ability to protect that data is some what minimal.

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Here’s an idea. Why doesn’t the education secretary just sit on her hands and just DO NOTHING. Governments are constantly moving the goalposts and want to be seen to DO SOMETHING. Teachers and schools should be allowed to at least let the current system bed in. The new curriculum is the most pernicious part of this and is likely to create extra work for teachers and worse outcomes for students. Why is it that politicians always think they know better than us simple minded folk.

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Great article. It would have been nice to have some reflections on how much scope there was for further reducing the overheads on staff time further to create more space for curiosity-led learning by children. Enjoy...

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This is powerful. It’s also deeply depressing. Well done for raising the alarm, I hope resistance might develop. What is it about Phillipson? She is the enemy of achievement.

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This is a superb piece. I promoted specialist schools and later academies from 1994 through to the early 2000s in Parliamentary Brief. It educated parliamentarians as to the benefits of change. Seems like it is needed again.

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I’m a big supporter of parent choice. But how much over-supply of school places is needed to make it a significant pressure on school behaviour? And what would the over-supply cost the taxpayer?

I fear no government will ever be willing to do it. Parent vouchers might do the trick?

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I think that without oversupply, vouchers become as meaningful as the ability to ‘vote with your feet’ - in that in the current system, and certainly in the recent era of oversubscribed schools, many parents are compelled into taking poor or inappropriate places. It is very much a seller’s market.

Things might hot up as rolls fall.

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The misuse of freedoms in academies is limited to a minority and is already addressed through inspections and financial audits. Strengthening these existing oversight mechanisms, rather than enacting sweeping changes, could tackle the issues more effectively without undermining the successes of the majority of academies (85% perform well). Centralising control risks creating inefficiencies and losing the benefits of autonomy that have driven improvements in many schools.

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I would love to see a Steelman of this act, it sounds so completely vengeful against success.

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Me too - but there is so little attempt to even justify

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I remember when my local authority took away the 11+ ( late 60s ) in my area, so pupils had to ensure two years of assessment at a Comprehensive.

After two years in a poorly performing school I made it to a Technical High school.

But, my year, was the poorest performing year ever, no doubt due to the chaotic two years of having to endure a school which wasn't our choice, and mixed pupils of all abilities.

Those pupils who didn't want to work, disrupted those who did.

If we're ever going to compete with the highly educated pupils, who are coming off a conveyor belt in China, then pupils need the best education available.

It appears that Labour disagree.

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Great post Neil. I think people don't appreciate how much we - and Nick Gibb especially - had to constantly defend against this in government.

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Envy is a dangerous thing. A race to the bottom looms…

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