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.

Not a penny at ours….

Ummm - we need to be in front of CUSTOMERS and CLIENTS???

I agree that we need to invest in the arts. However, this government are not committed to education in the arts. Quite the opposite.

“the government announces that it has scrapped the music Initial Teacher Training (ITT) bursary. While the government announced bursaries for other subjects including chemistry and maths, it has provided no bursary for music or any creative subject for the 2026-27 academic year.”

https://www.ism.org/news/government-scraps-music-bursary/

Their funding for training is at odds with today’s announcement. There are bursaries for foreign lamguages (which will no doubt decline once the EBacc is dropped), but there are no bursaries for music or creative subjects. There is a serious lack of joined up thinking.

They are piloting free instrumental lessons for children and all sorts of other things. I can't get too worked up about the ITT bursary to be honest.

No, she wasn’t a teacher. After doing history at university, she apparently worked for her local city council, then for a women’s charity which her mother set up. She then became an MP. As far as I can tell, she has no experience of education whatsoever, apart from as a pupil herself.

There are some good ideas in the curriculum review, more clubs isn't one of them.

Surely we need more music teachers if we are going to improve music education though.

I actually think the policy is very good, provided people are paid to do it - internal or external - as per most things though the devil is in the details- my son certainly did best at schools that did a lot of ‘non school’ things.

And as a parent… she has two kids, who I’m sure are treated exactly like any other child and don’t have any special perks or attention because mummy is the education secretary…

… i wonder how staff at her school are taking the news!

Is there evidence that there is a shortage of music teachers. There will be in the future if we don't bring them through the system. But as far as I am aware there is not a shortage of PGCE music applicants (though there ight be a shortage of places).

Music teachers are currently having to teach other subjects. The situation is even worse for drama teachers.

One of the reasons that I am no longer a teacher is because I value my time.
I will no longer do more for less, or in this case no increase in wages.

Your example of homework is only valid to some subjects, it had no impact on mine.

And yes I did do an extra curricular club. 2 hrs per week, just contact time, another couple of hours planned and prep, god knows how many hours sourcing funds, external grants and suppliers.
And then the unpaid weekends during which I was responsible for the group of children, their accommodation and the events that we went to. All unpaid

To take your response of "we all do extra at work", if you were to do anything like this for your customer or client you would either be paid extra for it, or it would be taken into consideration of your normal salary.

If you were doing this with children you would be volunteering to do it through scouts, girl guides or another organisation.

Whatever your thoughts on this, a voluntary activity should not be a requirement to get a passing grade for a government quango that failed its own review.

Yes but not 30 at a time, and those clients aren’t likely to generate work that needs the same amount of time commitment as it took to run the actual class, if not more. You don’t have to concern yourself with their mental health, accommodate their additional support needs, look for safeguarding concerns, deal with bullying and relationship dynamics. While also trying to get them to learn things that they need to know while not yet understanding why they need to know it.

I presume your boss isn’t suggesting you facilitate a photography club for those clients in your lunch hour?

I’m not a teacher and I’m not saying teachers have the hardest job of them all but there are pressures unique to teaching where yet another government initiative just adds more pressure in a system with absolutely no wriggle room.

“We all do extra work unpaid” sure, but it’s your work.

Doctors are being asked to do more doctoring, not to put on a clown outfit and do a dance to cheer up sick children as an expectation. But it would cheer up the sick children and possibly help them get better faster so why shouldn’t we be expecting this of doctors?

what’s the obsession with school staying open super late? My child’s school ends at 3:15 exactly the same time the primary school I went to in the 00s/10s finished.
That with the current obsession with breakfast clubs and fines for going on a
little holiday ? Family life being eroded

Because parents are at work?

A 3.15 finish is great if you don't work. The obsession with before and after school care is because people have jobs.

Yes but as the op says philipson is apparently unhappy schools staying open way open post 330? A lot of families are old school and have just the dad as the breadwinner or they have alternative childcare arrangements that don’t involve the school so are you saying every child and the teachers should stay later so as not to inconvenience you?

A lot of families are old school and have just the dad as the breadwinner

Not true. Over 75% of mothers with dependant children work.

or they have alternative childcare arrangements that don’t involve the school so are you saying every child and the teachers should stay later so as not to inconvenience you?

Where did I say that? I pay for before and after school care which is hosted at the school but run by an outside company. I was responding to you asking why there was an obsession with school staying open later than 3.15.

Is this really a policy issue though or a funding/time issue? I can see why it's been introduced, some of that should be included in the every day curriculum imo (I think all schools should do forest school for example).

75% of mothers working doesn’t mean they’re all working full time. A lot of that will be part timers or mothers of secondary age so still dependent but don’t need picking up and taking to school etc

1. 15 or 3.30 is still not until 5pm.

What about teachers with children?

And? Are you really suggesting that wraparound care isn't needed because lots of families are 'old school' as you put it?

Great idea, both my dds learnt so much from after school clubs and throughly enjoyed them. I can’t believe schools don’t provide them!

This argument would make sense in a context where pupil need and school budgets have stayed constant. They haven't. Additional learning needs and MH needs have skyrocketed and budgets slashed with schools needing to reduce staffing numbers. I see this argument all the time- 'teachers keep moaning that things are getting worse... therefore I'll take it LESS seriously.' It's illogical. But a handy way to bury your head in the sand. Just try a teaching or TA job. We've worked other jobs- we know how unrealistic the expectations of this one is.

Wraparound that is optional is one thing forcing all the other children and teachers to stay later than necessary is another. Like I said I went to primary school in the 00s and 10s and it finished at 3:15 my child’s current primary school also finishes at 3:15, where are all these schools staying open past 3:30?