EXPERIENCE This second child is supported to develop in this environment and doesn’t move to the relative anonymity of a larger high school until the end of Year 8, having come to terms with their new self and having prepared for the challenges ahead. It’s not all swings, there are roundabouts too, of course. Yes, there is more specialist teaching in key stage 2, which is great for developing a broad and balanced curricular experience, however, there can be more nonspecialist teaching in key stage 3 as a result. That said, specialist subject leadership from upper key stage 2 onwards goes quite some way to mitigating this, especially with a CPD programme that values department-led approaches to school improvement. The school system in England has never been more diverse than it is right now, with free schools, academies,
local authority schools, special schools, alternative provision, first schools, infants and junior schools, primaries, secondaries, faith schools, large MATs across wide geographic areas, small MATs made up of local pyramids, some of which include middle schools. Being a minority in such a diverse sector, most middle schools subscribe to the National Middle Schools Forum. The National Middle Schools Forum works hard to ensure practice in the three-tier system is discussed and developed to be reflective and improving. They work with the DfE and Ofsted to ensure the middle school experience is more widely understood by those that make policy. So, how do middle schools hold up to scrutiny in an accountability system they don’t sit so neatly with? It turns out, despite the two transitions (or perhaps because of them) that middle
schools perform well. The proportion of middle schools deemed to be good or better by Ofsted has remained stable over the last 5 years at 83%, comparing favourably to secondaries (75%) and not far short of primaries (87%). (Taken from NMSF Middle School report card 202) While performance of middle schools at KS2 has been comparable with that of primaries, progress measures have been less favourable. A report into baseline assessments (Treadaway, 2015) provides a good analysis of why this is the case and the concerns that this raises for the wider system. Advocates of the three-tier system will always point further down the line at later outcomes as evidence for the effectiveness of the system: this table from 2018 data is typical of performance comparisons at KS4.
This bears further scrutiny before claiming that we should have a national three-tier system – for example the results might better be compared with area with similar socioeconomic profiles. However it tells a compelling story and makes a case for considering what other benefits the three-tier system might have, and the circumstances in which it might improve outcomes for children.
6 2 // H W R K M AG A Z I N E // N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 1
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