Schools to be judged on their extra-curricular activities. Get in the bin, Bridget.

[noblegiraffe]

"The Department for Education will publish a new set of enrichment benchmarks for schools across five categories: civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities and developing wider life skills.
Ofsted will consider whether schools are meeting the expectations as part of its inspections, with information made available to parents through new school profiles, the Department for Education added."

This is nothing to do with the curriculum review that has just come out.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/another-expectation-schools-to-be-judged-on-enrichment-benchmarks/

Fuck off. Extra-curricular activities are put on by teachers for free and in our own time. They cannot be an expectation when they are voluntary and unpaid. Should we publish a league table of how MPs meet benchmarks of volunteering and charity work on a weekend and in their holidays?

And if you are cutting school funding (schools are going to be told they have to fund future teacher pay rises out of their budgets by making 'efficiency savings' like there are any possible savings left to be made after the Tories cut everything), then you cannot demand that we do more.

Phillipson is apparently also unhappy that some schools are closing before 3:30pm. Yes, because they can't afford to keep the lights on that long.

You want extra stuff, you have to pay for it.

Exactly. Whilst offering extra curricular activities may seem like a good idea, they’re assuming that pupils/parents will make use of them. It’s like many Sure Start groups. In many areas (not all, admittedly), they were filled with better off parents and children from more deprived backgrounds didn’t attend.

Anyone, anyone who says that teachers should do this 'for the children' should sign up to run these extracurricular clubs for free themselves otherwise they can shut the fuck up.

And that includes Bridget.

If you’re working for free then it is charity.

Absolute nightmare for small rural schools with 2-4 teachers, which Ofsted makes no allowances for. I've also found a lot of parents don't really value free clubs and their children don't always turn up for them which is very frustrating.

My school has a strong focus on serving disadvantaged students well. Our data shows these students will not attend after school clubs. It's not just cost and equipment (we'd figure those out) but because they're more likely to work and/or be responsible for home and younger siblings.

Therefore we need to run most clubs at lunchtime.

Middle class students like my DD do not need schools to organise extra curricula activities for them. Sure it's nice, but that's what her parents are for.

Please, NHS workers are your allies, no race to the bottom! Not so many teachers phoned at 3am…your school sounds good. My daughter has just started at a massive comp, with seemingly lots of after school clubs but seems so far very low attendance by pupils. I’m not sure if the kids are being enriched out of school by external clubs, or just going straight home.

You could always do a lunch time drop-in club for grammar support or something similarly enthralling. That would probably guarantee you peace and quiet to eat your lunch.

Most of Phillipson’s education ideas seem to be about providing wraparound childcare supplied by teachers on a forced voluntary basis.

I wonder how she is getting on with recruiting those Physics teachers.

This is a logical development in a clear 'pit parents against schools' strategy. Week 1 Bridget made a token 'listening to the profession' gesture by holding a webinar. That was as far as it went. She clearly paid no attention during the strikes. There was widespread understanding from parents of the need for strikes to protect their underfunded understaffed schools. Families know how much staff in their schools do and how insanely hard they work. They get it.

Quite a lot of teachers I know are running extra curricula stuff outside of school themselves too.

Just thinking around friends and family: sports coaching and refereeing; youth theatre chaperoning; guides, brownies, scouts; trustees for other schools; allotment events; race marshaling. I used to tutor kids in my subject for an hour a week via a charity.

Bridget has gone from 'we need to reduce teacher workload' to 'teachers aren't doing enough work'

I saw said in the paper yesterday that 25% of secondaries have no-one qualified in Physics, OMG!

Yep. When my children were in primary a couple of years ago the headteacher explicitly made it clear to parents that they were welcome to come and discuss starting clubs, bringing in community groups to run them etc. But the teachers wouldn't be doing it as they work hard enough. She was badass- protected her staff and had outstanding staff retention which made the continuity and culture of the place, including long term relations with children and families, so much better.

I don't think that quote suggests the broader enrichment will be outside of normal school hours, but thar schools will be expected to demonstrate those things within their normal school day, which tbh the better ones, the ones are doing already.

A fair reading but I don't think it's as clear as that in the context of messages about increasing school hours and providing more after school care. Definitely a lack of clarity.

And if it does refer to curriculum, that doesn't help unless schools are told what they can spend LESS time on. The ones with a more middle class intake who don't have to worry about phonics screening checks, times tables checks will be able to broaden their offer, the others won't. Which will attract more middle class parents, and the gulf widens.

Join a union. If you’re in a high tech field, the CWU are good, or UCU for academia and related areas. I think anyone can join Unite.

A union will have your back and help you when the company you’ve sacrificed your evenings and weekends to decides they don’t want you back after mat leave. Or when you get into a traffic accident and they won’t make adaptations to let you return to work. Or you have to care for an elderly relative who is dying.

This devil-take-the-hindmost attitude is all very well until the next accident of life. No company will ever really repay your loyalty, even if they do buy you dinner if you stay late (something else teachers don’t get!)

Doesn’t say that schools need to be providing these things for free, just that they are available. We paid for activities like music lessons, orchestra, choir, Duke of Edinburgh etc and some clubs like gardening club were run by parents (and a grandparent in this case)

My friends DDs Secondary does this sort of thing on a Wednesday afternoon instead of lessons. A lot of children use school transport so they do it within the school week instead. Maybe more schools could try that.

My own DDs Secondary has a lot of clubs and other opportunities and the staff seem enthusiastic about them. I don't think they are paid or compelled to do it... but they do seem to enjoy it.

Join a union.

Don't do what "everyone else does". What are you, an infant?

Should we publish a league table of how MPs meet benchmarks of volunteering and charity work on a weekend and in their holidays?

oooooo - yes. We need to work out how to do this!

Excellent post. Right on the money.

Did you mean to be so rude?

It is categorically exploitation -

noun

1. 1.
2. the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.

DS's school runs 1 day each half term where the pupils are taken off timetable and instead focus on a topic. Architecture, poetry, sports competitions. I assume this would count. Yes the teachers have to plan and run the days but it's a focus shift not additional work.

At our state primary school there was an afterschool club or 2 every day:
French - parent run
Ballet- parent run
Football- outside provider
Netball- Head mistress
Drama- Parent run
Swimming - Run by lunch time supervisor

All cost around £2-3

Our school has lots of clubs but they are external providers and we pay. I like the range of activities to choose from.

We have an abundance of clubs put on by the teachers and it is absolutely amazing spread of sport, music, art, drama and enterprise groups. It really enriches the school day. But we are in an academy - so it's the wrong type of school according to Bridge.