Tim Sanders Warwick Mansell

School leaders offer telling answers to DfE questions

Warwick Mansell is a freelance education journalist and founder/writer of educationuncovered. co.uk

WHAT is the one thing that policymakers could do to make the education system more supportive of schools, as they seek to recover from the pandemic?

Some credit should go to the Department for Education (DfE) for commissioning a research study asking this question, as part of a survey of school leaders, to which more than 1,000 responded. Sadly, though, it seems unlikely that the answer will lead to the change those responding were seeking. For what most of these respondents wanted was the reform of school accountability measures.

Some 77 per cent of primary school leaders described this as a high priority, while the figure was 69 per cent in the secondary sector. Some 90 per cent across both sectors said it was a high or medium priority.

Summing this up, the authors of this DfE-commissioned study reported that respondents had sought “changes in accountability measures, with concerns that inspections and ratings may not adequately recognise the complex challenges faced by pupils and schools following the pandemic and extended home schooling”. Ofsted, then, was clearly in the firing line.

One primary school leader warned: “I am concerned that those schools that bust a gut in order to make sure… children are mentally stable in order to access learning – that could be misconstrued as a school not having high expectations of their children in terms of learning.”

Others ventured that Covid offered the chance of a rethink of how education policy worked, one saying this was “a really exciting opportunity to press pause and ask is our education system fit for purpose, is Ofsted fit for purpose?”

However, there are few signs of the Government offering such a radical change of course. ‘Normal’ Ofsted inspections resumed last September and, although the reports now include statements such as “inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with school leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation”, evidence of a fundamental change of approach seems limited.

Indeed, in the teacher education sector, which ministers are reforming, the inspectorate even embarked on a fresh programme of inspections last spring which saw some providers marked down dramatically. Former inspectors warning that this drive lacked empathy for those who had “turned themselves inside out” in response to the pandemic.

Overall, the DfE-commissioned research suggests school leaders, exasperated by the failings of the Government’s handling of Covid, are crying out for less top-down pressure and more support, with some respondents seeking “further public and government recognition of the wide-ranging and vital role schools have played… and more supportive and positive government and media messaging for pupils and parents”.

But will fundamental change come? Sadly, as ever with this and previous governments, I would not bet on it.

n School recovery strategies: year 1 findings is available at bit.ly/3HXQ839