September held a key date of personal pleasure for me.
On the 9th September my daughter, Sally, and her husband Dan, had their first child - a girl, Freya. My sixth grandchild came in to the world with a cute nose and bringing great happiness to the family. Val, Sally's Mum, would be overjoyed with both our girls now having their own families.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
September and SATs
The intensity of work as President has precluded writing for some time so I'm going to review September and October here and try to keep up thereafter if at all possible in real time.
September saw an external issue which needed the Association to take a clear view on.
My view of National Council is that it has members who are expert and experienced in school leadership. They represent all strands of opinion in the membership. Any organization of this type, size and responsibility has great challenges in synthesizing the vast educational landscape and it's effect upon school leadership into clear concise policies that can be communicated to members, the media, parents, other groups, and the wider society whilst having an influence on Government and an impact upon it's legislation. One key way forward to assist the very good work of the Officers is for Council to have thoroughgoing, well-informed debates with clear outcomes. This means in my experience speaking to precise Motions rather than allowing debates to have ambiguous outcomes.
At September Council it was decided that the major debates would involve the Association taking a position on SATs, and Operation of Council. Due to the length of debates, 'Free Schools' would be separately debated later in the year. The structural alterations to trial a new methodology of working of Council to streamline whilst providing quality information sessions, followed by debate and decision were passed. The key debate was as expected on SATs.
The Labour Government had failed to recognize the incendiary nature of this issue.
Conference had voted in 2009 by 94% to 6% to call for action if having exhausted all other avenues the Government had failed to act on removing the current SAT regime. Further Consultation had produced similar results and a ballot for Industrial action gave a clear majority. Despite many increasingly desperate attempts to pressurize school leaders 4005 schools took action with the well-wishes of many thousands more.
The new Government realized that this is a significant issue. Russell Hobby our new General Secretary underlined the need for a fundamental change to the SATs approach whilst still reaffirming that school leaders accepted a wider accountability. Following discussions with Russell and myself, the Secretary of State announced a full Independent Review of KS2 Assessment, but with a sting in the tail that SATs for 2011 would go ahead. This then was the background for National Council to take a considered decision on behalf of the membership. The detailed a far ranging debate covered all arguments and a range of positions. The outcome was decisive. By 34 votes to 2 National Council agreed not to call for action on the 2011 SATs.
There had been no motion to Conference on SATs due partially to timing with the boycott taking place ten days later. Even so, the key argument seemed to be that any Government should be given the chance to take the right action, and an Independent Review due to report in the Spring -although there would be no guarantee that this would come up with the desired outcomes - offered a sensible way forward. For some colleagues, who thought they would never see SATs again this was a bitter pill. The link we must make however is that there would have been no Independent Review without the action last May. Although the Secretary of State would not make such a link he has acknowledged the strength of feeling of School Leaders on this issue.
Part of encouraging Council to be decisive is then to communicate such outcomes to the Membership and media. Russell Hobby and I sent a letter to Members detailing the Council decision. Throughout September and October I have raised this issue at the several Branch and Regional meetings I have attended. This has led to a lively debate. My e-mail and postbag has also been fairly full. Most Members have responded positively once you are able to engage.
We now wait for the Chair of the Independent Review to be announced and work begin.
September saw an external issue which needed the Association to take a clear view on.
My view of National Council is that it has members who are expert and experienced in school leadership. They represent all strands of opinion in the membership. Any organization of this type, size and responsibility has great challenges in synthesizing the vast educational landscape and it's effect upon school leadership into clear concise policies that can be communicated to members, the media, parents, other groups, and the wider society whilst having an influence on Government and an impact upon it's legislation. One key way forward to assist the very good work of the Officers is for Council to have thoroughgoing, well-informed debates with clear outcomes. This means in my experience speaking to precise Motions rather than allowing debates to have ambiguous outcomes.
At September Council it was decided that the major debates would involve the Association taking a position on SATs, and Operation of Council. Due to the length of debates, 'Free Schools' would be separately debated later in the year. The structural alterations to trial a new methodology of working of Council to streamline whilst providing quality information sessions, followed by debate and decision were passed. The key debate was as expected on SATs.
The Labour Government had failed to recognize the incendiary nature of this issue.
Conference had voted in 2009 by 94% to 6% to call for action if having exhausted all other avenues the Government had failed to act on removing the current SAT regime. Further Consultation had produced similar results and a ballot for Industrial action gave a clear majority. Despite many increasingly desperate attempts to pressurize school leaders 4005 schools took action with the well-wishes of many thousands more.
The new Government realized that this is a significant issue. Russell Hobby our new General Secretary underlined the need for a fundamental change to the SATs approach whilst still reaffirming that school leaders accepted a wider accountability. Following discussions with Russell and myself, the Secretary of State announced a full Independent Review of KS2 Assessment, but with a sting in the tail that SATs for 2011 would go ahead. This then was the background for National Council to take a considered decision on behalf of the membership. The detailed a far ranging debate covered all arguments and a range of positions. The outcome was decisive. By 34 votes to 2 National Council agreed not to call for action on the 2011 SATs.
There had been no motion to Conference on SATs due partially to timing with the boycott taking place ten days later. Even so, the key argument seemed to be that any Government should be given the chance to take the right action, and an Independent Review due to report in the Spring -although there would be no guarantee that this would come up with the desired outcomes - offered a sensible way forward. For some colleagues, who thought they would never see SATs again this was a bitter pill. The link we must make however is that there would have been no Independent Review without the action last May. Although the Secretary of State would not make such a link he has acknowledged the strength of feeling of School Leaders on this issue.
Part of encouraging Council to be decisive is then to communicate such outcomes to the Membership and media. Russell Hobby and I sent a letter to Members detailing the Council decision. Throughout September and October I have raised this issue at the several Branch and Regional meetings I have attended. This has led to a lively debate. My e-mail and postbag has also been fairly full. Most Members have responded positively once you are able to engage.
We now wait for the Chair of the Independent Review to be announced and work begin.
Well what a Summer it was.
The first Coalition Government since 1945.
4005 Schools with KS2 cohorts boycott the SAT tests. These tests disfigure and distort Year 6 for our children, lead to school leaders being placed under intolerable and inappropriate pressure by inspection teams, and provide ineffective information for parents, secondary schools and national trends. There must be a better way. We hope the new Government will listen to reason on this.
The Government did move quickly on legislation to provide greater autonomy for schools -starting with those judged as outstanding by OFSTED. These were termed converter Academies and would be state-funded independent schools run by Trusts and leave local authority or similar control. They would receive their share of the local authority retained funding. This received the support of the NAHT providing such schools were socially inclusive.
Goddard Park began it's journey to a new freedom providing it remained in the family of schools, and retained and developed it's partnerships. This was the start of an extremely busy summer.
The first Coalition Government since 1945.
4005 Schools with KS2 cohorts boycott the SAT tests. These tests disfigure and distort Year 6 for our children, lead to school leaders being placed under intolerable and inappropriate pressure by inspection teams, and provide ineffective information for parents, secondary schools and national trends. There must be a better way. We hope the new Government will listen to reason on this.
The Government did move quickly on legislation to provide greater autonomy for schools -starting with those judged as outstanding by OFSTED. These were termed converter Academies and would be state-funded independent schools run by Trusts and leave local authority or similar control. They would receive their share of the local authority retained funding. This received the support of the NAHT providing such schools were socially inclusive.
Goddard Park began it's journey to a new freedom providing it remained in the family of schools, and retained and developed it's partnerships. This was the start of an extremely busy summer.
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