Schools Policy discussion

Written by Jean Fooks on Mon 21st Jul 2008

Oxford West and Abingdon Lib Dems held a meeting, jointly with Oxford East, on 21st July 2008 to discuss schools policy with David Laws MP, Shadow Secretary of State for children, schools and families and Cllr James Kempton, Chair of the Schools Policy working party.

About forty members listened, contributed and carried on talking over supper, in the sober surroundings of the Wesley Memorial Church Hall in Oxford. Unsurprisingly, Oxford members have strong views on education!

Cllr Jean Fooks, shadow cabinet member for children, young people and families on Oxfordshire County Council, opened the meeting by welcoming David and James; they had rashly offered at Spring Conference to come to any local party - and Oxford is the only party to have taken them up on their offer.

James explained the mechanism of formulating party policy, with the intention of bringing a policy paper to Spring Conference 2009.

David Laws flagged up the big issues as he saw them. We have a tail of extremely high achievement at the top - but also a long tail of underachievement at the bottom end. This correlates with social deprivation and is getting worse, not better. Party policy is to target funding at areas of high deprivation , with the Pupil Premium designed to raise the funding for disadvantaged children to that provided in the private sector.

David suggested that we all agree on reducing the number of tests, Key Stage 3 tests to go first. Will the new diplomas for 14-19 pupils really help - with 17 new diplomas alongside existing A levels and GNVQs? There are questions on faith and grammar schools. School leadership is crucial.

As Oxfordshire has one fledgling academy already and one due to open in September, members raised concerns about how non-academic organisations could direct education, the problem of academies being outside local authority control when things go wrong, what safeguards are there about 'crackpot' religious ideas being promoted. If academies can improve outcomes by being innovative with the curriculum, why cannot all schools have that freedom too? Are schools afraid to innovate or do they feel unable to do so?

Fears were raised about academies excluding the 'difficult' children for others to pick up. It was felt that at least academies should be under the strategic control of local authorities, who should be able to hold their management to account.

Are we learning from other countries' experience? We were told that Austria, Hungary and Germany do not have failing schools - the teachers are better paid and respected. Sweden allows other providers into their system - other countries start formal education later than we do and achieve better results.

We recognized the tension between wanting to reduce the compulsory curriculum and yet wanting children to study, for example, languages. Can we encourage having gaps in the curriculum to have, for instance, sessions on science from non-teachers, to excite children?

Is teacher training meeting the need? Should much more be done in the classroom as 'student teachers'? Should they be paid while training - to encourage graduates with debts to pay off to go into teaching?

Is it really helpful to try to divide children into 'academic' and 'vocational' streams? Should the International Baccalaureate be more widely available?

Governors told how some children can be identified very early as likely to end up in the criminal justice system; what should be done to avoid this outcome? Parents need support early on; we cannot divorce education from social problems as there is a very strong correlation between deprivation and poor achievement. It was suggested that there might be a conflict of interest between a local authority holding the budget for statements and those deciding whether a child should have a statement of special educational need.

Final questions: should high quality teachers be paid more? Do we need to pay headteachers more to get the leadership qualities we need? And has the investment in teaching assistants at primary schools given best value for money?

Members took away copies of the Consultation Paper on schools policy. I suspect that David and James will get lots more questions as well as suggested answers. We all felt that we did have the opportunity to contribute and be listened to, in best Lib Dem tradition.

Related Link:

Lib Dem online consultation on schools policy.