Damian Hinds promises to cut teacher workload and hours to improve teacher recruitment and retention

[noblegiraffe]

He is going to make a speech today pledging to 'strip away” pointless tasks to allow teachers to “focus on what actually matters'

You might be reminded of the 21 admin tasks that it was agreed that we shouldn't do under the workload agreement (that were removed from the pay and conditions document and replaced with a vague statement saying we shouldn't do clerical work).

But this time the focus seems to be on measures that school put in place for accountability purposes, and excessive marking "Because that’s what endless data cuts, triple-marking, 10-page lesson plans, and, worst of all, mocksteds are: a distraction from the core purpose of education. And a costly distraction at that"

The government will pledge not to make any changes to the curriculum other than those already announced (times tables tests) in the rest of this parliament (so 2022) - but we've heard that before and then they have made necessary changes.

And he has promised to work with the teaching unions and professional bodies specifically on recruitment and retention.

I guess the shit is finally hitting the fan at the DfE and they can't stick their heads in the sand any more?

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/damian-hinds-pledges-action-strip-away-teacher-workload

What noblegiraffe said.

And then they will require developmental rubrics.

That teacher will have to devise themselves.

Last few posts absolutely spot on.

The only reason I suggest a qca type thing (but far too little to late as we've all done it ourselves) is due to the uneven skill base in primary schools. And from my POV increasing lack of skills in some areas. At least a basic outline would help if you haven't a clue. And no one else in School does.

NSEAD produced a really good alternative detailed curriculum for art (primary art is effectively 3 sentences compared to 3 pages for history) - really helpful but only last year.

Mr P gives a good indication of some of the pointless tasks occurring in schools in this latest instalment of the Kipper books. (And how to wriggle out of a bit of it!)

www.facebook.com/IctWithMrP/videos/974340642729488/

I don't want exclusion to be much easier, but I do want there to be proper provision for children with additional needs. There are so many children with ADHD/ASD/Attachment Disorder/SEMH issues who find it incredibly hard to cope with the noise and bustle of being in a class of 30. If they are lucky enough to get a place in specialist provision, then they thrive (as I discovered when I was a TA in an EBD school, as it was then, before I did my PGCE). Why are we stacking the odds against these pupils and making it so hard for them to succeed?

Totally agree with you, toomuchicecream. Thank you for putting it so well.

Yes - I think there should be more proper provision, and much more flexible movement between settings (or co-location of settings to allow time in the mainstream classroom and time in a specialist environment, or nurture, or support involving the family as well as the child in a much more flexible manner).

Exclusion removes a child from a school, but that just moves the problem for the school, it doesn't solve the issue of the child's education or welfare.

If I ruled the world, all specialist oprovision would be co-located with a mainstream school, with children able to move freely between the two according to their needs, and expertise from specialist staff available to train and support mainstream teaching. I cannot be an expert in all the SEN or emotional or behavioural needs my pupils might have - how good would it be to have colleagues who were experts who could really help?

We can dream.

Agree -my last school had an Additionally Resourced Provision for 10 children with SALT EHCPs. So there was the flexibility for them to have their English and/or Maths lessons in the ARP in a small group with a specialist teacher, or to be in their classroom with their peers, with TA support if necessary. They could move in and out of the ARP for core lessons in line with their needs and also have the support of the speech therapist in school. Now imagine that scaled up, particularly for children with behaviour challenges, so that there's a safe space in every school for them to go to when the classroom gets too much for them. There's a thread in AIBU at the moment started by a Reception TA who's being attacked on a daily basis by a 4 year old. The cuts in funding mean that there are too many children not getting the support they need, which isn't fair on the child, the rest of the class or the adults in school.

We know students with SEN are far more likely to be excluded/expelled, with the hint that schools should be doing more to support them.

Damian, if you want to reduce School exclusions you need to start funding schools properly, allow them to be resourced to deal with these pupils (including specialist units) and in addition reduce the pressure on schools to produce results from all pupils at all costs.

We've been told that despite our Target Tracker thingy not working and spewing weird data, we STILL need to update it, populate a word doc with ARE-, ARE and ARE+ for R,W and M, highlight a target sheet for ALL the chn for writing (as well as the Target Tracker thingy which isn't working), AND complete a Target card for all of the parents for parent meetings. Pupil Progress is going to be fun. I'm tired and pissed off. I teach Y1 and no one in SLT has taught below Y3 so no practical understanding of how to teach 5 year olds with all the joys and woes. All I want is someone to recognise that we have taken a tricky cohort with all kinds of needs and got them to the point where they are settled, making progress and happy in school. No, our PP meeting will be a whirlwind of negativity and salary justification from the big wigs. Meanwhile, we'll go back to our lovely kids and quietly carry on. This to me is the retention crisis in a nutshell. What a waste of time, effort and professionalism....
Really interesting thread. Do you think Mr Hinds is reading?