Derby Telegraph comment: Backdrop for city schools' revival cannot be conflict
DAVID Cameron told us yesterday that you "can't be tough enough on schools".
We know what he means but that type of macho language is not necessarily helpful in achieving the desired goal.
For Government ministers can be too tough – if they take a hard line and it proves to be the wrong one.
The Prime Minister shares the concern which all of us feel about unacceptably-low standards at some Derby schools.
Cheap Motor Insurance for Convicted Drivers with Insure365 - Call...
View detailsCheap Motor Insurance for Convicted Drivers with Insure365 - Call 01782 898188, Free Legal Expenses Cover Included valued at £25.00!
Terms: 1 Voucher Per Customer
Contact: 01782 898188
Valid until: Sunday, June 23 2013
Despite all the huffing and puffing in some quarters about how the picture is improving, performances still suggest that more needs to be done to significantly accelerate that process.
Doing nothing is certainly not an option, however comfortable the status quo might feel to some teachers, governors, parents and pupils.
We owe to pupils to bring about significant change and improvement.
These youngsters only get one shot at their education.
They should not have the millstone of proven inadequate teachers, methods or facilities as they seek to gain their qualifications make their way in the world.
As far as Mr Cameron and his Education Secretary of State, Michael Gove, are concerned, academies are the answer.
Making a school an academy removes it from local authority control.
Understandably, this raises the hackles of the city council, but since that authority – under the control of all three major political parties – has been found wanting over the last decade, it is on dodgy ground with its protests.
The Prime Minister insisted yesterday that "the evidence from academy schools across the country is that they have helped to raise standards".
Maybe. Whether this has been brought about by the first flush of change – much the same as a change of football club management often brings about an initial improvement – or whether it can be sustained over several years remains to be seen.
What has to be addressed, though, is the whole climate in which change takes place, as it must, in Derby's schools.
Talk of "being tough" is not really a help. We do not want our education system to be a battlefield, a setting for conflict between significantly different political ideals.
Resentful parents and teachers not fully committed to the cause will not create the atmosphere which is needed.
And then the victims – the group about whom our concern should always be focused – will continue to be the pupils.
Let us never lose sight of that.
Somehow – and nobody pretends this will be easy – an atmosphere of conciliation must be created to get everybody on board.
Comments
by Bernithebolt
Monday, January 07 2013, 2:32PM
“janine
The issue is about leadership! Most (but not all) Academies have much higher quality leadership and management. At the heart of this is higher quality non-executive governance who support the school but also hold it to account. Local authorities often struggle with this as there is nearly always a political dimension somewhere that gets in the way. Academy heads are often better paid, however, they are also more accountable and usually do a better job. Sixty years ago the issue was about getting an education to everybody. Today the quality of the service is the key issue. A different model is needed, times change sixty years ago telecommunications were public sector monopolies. Nobody would seriously consider that as a possibility now. Thank you local authorities it is time to move aside. Yes, there may be a role in commissioning the service but not in running the service because the local authority model is no longer fit for purpose. Derby City Council is just a lot slow on the realisation!”
by dianae
Saturday, January 05 2013, 1:19PM
“There is no way that a one strategy approach is enough - being tough in some ways on some schools is a good idea. But some schools have it so tough already - tough kids, tough parents, tough behaviour, tough state of buildings that actually they need ideas that work, not just political soundbites.
This country has loads of universities that conduct educational research - and other institutions like thinktanks also doing research - for goodness sake, use that research to put in place, policies that work - that get kids reading, wanting to learn, behaving well - don't jsut threaten schools with a big stick”
by janine2011
Saturday, January 05 2013, 11:36AM
“The only way turning the school into an academy is an advantage is taking it out of council control. Nothing else will change, the pupils and teachers will still be the same, as will as the areas in which the pupils come from. So other than the money aspect what will the excuse be if exam rates don't improve?”