Academisation failing to boost miserable standards in the North

[noblegiraffe]

Sir Michael Wilshaw, ex chief of Ofsted has made a speech slating the government's record on school improvement in the North of England, saying that the academies programme has been a failure there.

"Speaking in Leeds on Friday, Sir Michael said: “Academisation doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference in the North and the Midlands. Doncaster, where every secondary school is an academy, has a miserable attainment score and progress scores.”
He added that: “Practically all the worst performing academy trusts preside in the North and in the Midlands, with a dozen or so so bad that they have effectively been closed down, with their constituent schools handed to other trusts.”"

I heard George Osborne talking about this on the radio the other morning. Yes, George Osborne talking about education in the North. I don't recall hearing much from Justine Greening about it even though she's from Rotherham. I guess some of her opportunity areas would count.

What can Damian Hinds do about it? Wilshaw suggests that he should set up shop in the North instead of hanging around London like the rest to at least show willing.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/wilshaw-academisation-failing-boost-miserable-standards-north

A lot of these schools mentioned though aren't in areas where even those jobs exist. They are in ex industrial or mining communities that have been decimated by the closure of pits, car plants, aerospace factories.

Doncaster as an example has high levels of unemployment, there isn't any big industry that employs people. The nearest places to work in government or finance are a considerable commute away. So those people love to Leeds or Sheffield and then problem in Doncaster persists.

some 2 bed flats are £1m in London! There are opportunities for a good standard of living in the North

Every time I visit one of my children in a northern university I ask myself why he needs to come south on graduation. As you say, London house prices are obscene now.

Doncaster is a Metropolitan Borough which has jobs. It has the NHS which has jobs. It has schools which clearly have jobs. It has pleasant villages in which to live. If people wanted to make a difference in Doncaster, they could live pretty well on a government salary.

We do have to get away from our industrial history and move on. The mines have been closed for 25/30 years. It’s gone and the idea it’s coming back post Brexit is fanciful. However I do think excellent people can make a difference in other fields. Some companies won’t move to an area without a decent workforce and places like Doncaster needs to enthuse children. Not only that, if Sheffield and Leeds are more bouyant, it’s not far to get a job in those cities. But children won’t if they haven’t got the qualifications and the enthusiasm to do it.

Loads of working young people in London just rent a room. Obviously buying in most areas, even outer Boroughs, is expensive.

viques Thanks for that. I googled it too. My article suggested 2 things: 1. The London Challenge has been cited by experts as a significant (and some suggest the most significant) factor in raising standards in London schools, beyond factors such as funding and gentrification. The key issue was good leadership. 2. A few experts have suggested that raised standards in Primary schools, coinciding with the National Literacy Strategy might be a factor.

I was familiar with the Beacon Schools initiative, which was similar, earlier, and aimed at Primaries - though I think it had less administrative back-up and organisational support at governmental and LA level.

It seems the London Challenge was rolled out beyond London - it became the City Challenge, in Greater Manchester and the Black Country. I wonder if it's had an effect there?

I have to say, my experience, in London, is that schools are still organised into hubs, sharing good/best practice. I assumed that was the case across the country. Is that not so?

I think it could be good to encourage really good teachers with a proven record of increasing attainment to move north- financial incentives for this might help.

They tried, no bugger wanted to do it. It was called the National Teaching Service.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38172256

I think one of the problems is that experienced teachers tend to have partners and families. It's all very well offering an incentive for a teacher to move to Blackpool, but if their partner can't get a job there, then it's not going to happen.

They start by stopping the hemorrhaging of teachers currently leaving the profession. A lot of those are experienced teachers, being replaced by NQTs and in lots of academies unqualified teachers.

We are in a situation where good schools in Nice areas are struggling to retain staff, so some of these places have no chance. And despite what the government say, it isn't about money. Its never really been about money.

Its about workload and spending time with your own kids, over observation and scrutiny, paperwork for the sake of paperwork, behaviour that isn't dealt with, performance related pay (when you can't completely control all the outcomes).

As a head in a school in the North where progress was excellent but from such a low base that outcomes were still below floor standard said to me: "If nobody in your family has worked for 4 generations, because the last large local employer closed down long ago, then why should a child see getting good GCSEs as useful? There is nothing they can do even if they have those qualifications, and nobody from their family has ever lived anywhere else."

That head did wonders - the school got its first successful Oxbridge entrant as a result of their work - but the total lack o support for education from the vast majority of families made it impossible for the school to mend all of the town's ills.