This government still doesn't give a shit about schools or your kids

[noblegiraffe]

I've posted before about this government's catalogue of failure when it comes to our children and schools and unfortunately it's still going on.

Sir Kevan Collins, the government- appointed schools catch-up tsar has just resigned over their complete failure to accept his recommendations and their pitiful offer of a programme worth only one tenth of what he said would be necessary to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on children's education. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

Holland are spending £2500 per child for their catch-up programme, the US £1600. How much do you think the Tories value our children? It works out at £50 per head, and some of the proposed 1.4 billion is going on teacher training rather than tutoring initiatives so won't have an impact for years.

For the much vaunted national tutoring programme, have the government hired experts to provide this? No, according to Sam Freedman, former education advisor to Michael Gove "The DfE have also ballsed up the procurement of the National Tutoring Programme by scoring quality too low vs price so it's going to be run by a Dutch outsourcing firm called Randstad. They undercut all the orgs who actually understanding tutoring. So a lot of the high quality UK charities and organisations providing support to the tutoring programme will now likely pull out. Proper shitshow."

At the same time they have been cladding new and refurbished schools in Grenfell-style cladding www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/30/dozens-of-new-school-buildings-in-england-have-combustible-insulation, and have rejected calls from fire safety experts to install sprinklers in new school buildings. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

In January, Johnson unexpectedly announced the cancellation of exams for Y11 and Y13. There was no plan for what would replace them and the buck was passed to Ofqual. By March, Ofqual admitted that they had no idea what to do, and so it fell to teachers and individual schools to set, mark and grade GCSEs and A-levels - tasks normally done by exam boards who are still charging exam entry fees this year for doing what appears to be very little. Scotland is paying teachers £400 each for this extra work, England is, of course, paying nothing. Parents are reportedly already gearing up to appeal teacher assessed grades while the government dodges the blame for the impending fiasco.

As I have posted about before, the government have cut Pupil Premium funding by millions, so in practical terms the most disadvantaged children now receive less per pupil than in previous years when there wasn't a pandemic. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area

And on top of everything else...GAVIN WILLIAMSON IS STILL ED SEC. It's inexplicable, he is widely regarded as completely useless and yet while others involved in education resign around him, he gets to keep his job.

YABU: This government really cares about education and children

YANBU: This government do not give a shit. Not just incompetence, they really don't care.

Does Clav want to defend the Grenfell cladding and lack of sprinklers or the cuts to pupil premium funding?

Longer school days seem like a good idea then -

With what funding?

I’m glad to see this being discussed on here, but do you know what is depressing? My husband is a teacher and he has tried to raise the issues particularly around assessment and grading workload with the union reps at his school, but they only want to hear about masks. Teachers have been trying to talk about these problems, which were obvious from the start, but the masks issue has dominated - which isn’t to say it doesn’t deserve attention, just that all other concerns have been drowned out.

Flipflops85
The government has recently committed to increasing spending on schools in England, which the IFS calculates as amounting to £4.3bn extra a year by 2022. It said the extra money will “just about reverse” the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009.

Sounds like a positive turn around to me. The Spending Review later this year is likely to boost schools funding as well.

My husband is a teacher and he has tried to raise the issues particularly around assessment and grading workload with the union reps at his school,
He can go straight to his borough rep and then to his regional rep to be heard. It’s sad if his own union rep doesn’t want to speak for one of their members but I guess being an unpaid volunteer for the role means that there is not as much consistency as there should be.

Yes he has done what is required. Hasn’t stopped the masks stuff drowning everything out.

Longer school days?

Are you kidding me, mine fall asleep regularly on the way home from school since going back. There’s no way that would be constructive time.

What is ridiculous is that the pupils haven't necessarily "missed" anything except for what they're trained to be tested on. The pressure will be on kids who've lost a year of their lives to 'catch up' but on what? Actual knowledge or ticking boxes to protect league tables? Schools are exam factories and this has needed to be changed for a bloody long time.

@Clavinova

Flipflops85 The government has recently committed to increasing spending on schools in England, which the IFS calculates as amounting to £4.3bn extra a year by 2022. It said the extra money will “just about reverse” the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009.

Sounds like a positive turn around to me. The Spending Review later this year is likely to boost schools funding as well.

That's interesting that you see it that way. To me, it sounds like sticking a poster up on the wall in order to cover up years of deep structural damage.

"Reversing" years of underfunding is nowhere near the same as keeping funding the same over those years. In fact, because of the deep damage caused due to underfunding, just "reversing" could never be enough to fix those problems.

To just about reverse the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009 is a positive turn around?

Talking about a race to the bottom.

I might also point out that US school days, and terms, are considerably shorter anyway.

To me, it sounds like sticking a poster up on the wall in order to cover up years of deep structural damage.

We literally do this in my school.

[quote HobnobbingAboutHobnobs]@Jennyfromtheculdesac I find it difficult to care much about TfL when I live in the south west with perhaps 2 buses a day in some of the villages my pupils live in. I appreciate that it will be a much bigger issue for those who live in/around London.[/quote]
Gosh you have twice as many buses a day that we get, you are very lucky.
Given that we are saving £350million a week by being not in the EU, you'd have thought they could probably scrape together more than 3 weeks worth of that for education.

It says ‘just about reverse’ so we’ve had 13 years of cuts, and this increase only ‘just’ reverses it. There is no increase.

We’ve struggled for books, staff, basic resources etc for over a decade! We need more than just returning to 2009 levels.

Sir Kevan's resignation letter is linked here www.tes.com/news/exclusive-sir-kevan-collins-resigns-over-catch-plan

I think it's particularly interesting that he criticises an 'incremental approach to recovery' saying that it represents a false economy as learning losses not addressed quickly are likely to compound.

Waiting for a spending review isn't good enough (and I bet they don't stump up the money, hoping that interest in recovery has waned by then).

@Clavinova

Flipflops85 The government has recently committed to increasing spending on schools in England, which the IFS calculates as amounting to £4.3bn extra a year by 2022. It said the extra money will “just about reverse” the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009.

Sounds like a positive turn around to me. The Spending Review later this year is likely to boost schools funding as well.

Does that mean the TAs we had to get rid of because of cuts they made in the first place, we can employ again? Does that mean I won't have to serve puddings at lunchtime like I have done for the past 3 years? Does it bollocks. It means nothing.

Williamson is still in post to make Johnson look good.
Plus it's a very shallow pool if he sacks him.

To just about reverse the 8% cuts in spending per pupil since 2009 is a positive turn around?

Yes - I would say so.

@campion

Williamson is still in post to make Johnson look good. Plus it's a very shallow pool if he sacks him.

The thing is if Williamson was sacked now, who would be sacked for this year's grades fiasco, or will he survive that as well?

So, Clav you would describe over a decade of school funding cuts under Tory rule as a bad thing then?

Interesting.

The thing is if Williamson was sacked now, who would be sacked for this year's grades fiasco

We all thought he'd be sacked after last year's grade fiasco but he did a photoshoot with his whip and remained in post.

So the entire pot of money is going to Dutch firm to deliver some form of tutoring!! Pathetic.
That money and more of it should be focused on reducing class sizes, employing more Teachers and TA’s and investing in the school buildings that are crumbling around our kids.

@noblegiraffe

The thing is if Williamson was sacked now, who would be sacked for this year's grades fiasco

We all thought he'd be sacked after last year's grade fiasco but he did a photoshoot with his whip and remained in post.

The nice thing about having Williamson in post is that when I have a really bad day I can remind myself that I am not as incompetent and useless as the Minister.

Why should they give a fuck, doesn’t impact on their kids does it? The Tories don’t do things that won’t benefit them and/or make them money. Funding our state education system does neither. You almost can’t blame them, they’ve never lied about who they are. What’s inexplicable is the state-educated (or those with children in state education) who continue to vote for them in such overwhelming numbers.

Thank you @noblegiraffe for such a thorough and well-written post. As a state school teacher I thank you for summing it all up so beautifully.

To quote the great poet Stormzy: fuck the government and fuck Boris (and Gavin fucking Williamson).

@Crispychillibeef

What is ridiculous is that the pupils haven't necessarily "missed" anything except for what they're trained to be tested on. The pressure will be on kids who've lost a year of their lives to 'catch up' but on what? Actual knowledge or ticking boxes to protect league tables? Schools are exam factories and this has needed to be changed for a bloody long time.

This is what I think too.