CONTRIBUTORS
What will become of standards in primary schools?
This month NAOMI HOWELLS, Managing Director at recruitment specialists Class People and regular Education Today columnist, discusses mounting concerns regarding a drop in standards of primary education as schools face budget pressures
}The annual Sutton Trust school funding survey has highlighted a growing list of concerning changes in primary schools, fuelled by a shortfall in funding. Alongside a reduction in the number and type of activities being offered to children, 74% of primary schools have cut teaching assistant numbers, at a time when SEND needs are increasing. It is leading many to warn of the
potential ‘rapid deterioration’ of standards in primary education, as rising costs collide with erosion of school funding.
As well as 74% cutting the number of teaching assistants, (up from 47 per cent in 2021), the proportion of senior leaders reporting cuts in teaching staff (32 per cent), teaching assistants (69 per cent) and support staff (46 per cent) has risen too. Despite a promise by the government to return budgets to 2010 levels, The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that the government would need to provide an additional £3.2billion in additional funding on top, to offset the reduction in the purchasing power of school budgets. The same analysis by IFS has also highlighted that the average annual expenditure per pupil has fallen from £5,000 per year in 2015 to just under £4,700 and that schools in England will be £2bn poorer in 2020 than they were in 2015. A report available on the
gov.uk website highlights that 13.1% of schools had a deficit i.e. a negative cash balance last year; the highest levels to date and up from 8.8% the previous year.
These figures are startling, and while most school leaders are loathe to undermine the backbone of education – teaching and support staff – the reality of dated infrastructure and rising costs leave many with staff reduction as the only viable option.
Necessity is the mother of invention
As a specialist education recruiter, working alongside hundreds of primary and secondary schools to provide candidates on a supply or permanent basis, we are privy to many of the innovations that schools are employing to overcome the latest challenges. Many have made the news recently, from St Peter’s Catholic School in Solihull who will be giving teachers one working day off in ten from September, to All Saints Catholic College in London who are switching to 12-hour days to improve pupil’s soft skills and life skills, and provide time for better interaction. It is clear that schools are embracing atypical approaches.
For me, perhaps the most concerning factor of staff cuts is the amplification effect this is having on the already concerning industry brain drain. The sector is losing some of its best and most experienced teachers to other sectors with more ‘favourable’ employment terms, so actively reducing available roles and encouraging redundancy does nothing to mitigate that. Instead, we need to look at how we work together as a sector to retain the talent we have, and to ride out what will hopefully be a temporary shortfall in much-needed funding. In the meantime, we are working with schools to look at how they can change the traditional timetabling model to offer better work-life balance, move non-teaching responsibilities into more affordable labour pools, and rework their supply teaching schedule to reduce annual costs.
June 2024
Helping our ECTs build a professional identity
In his column for Education Today this month, GARETH CONYARD of the
Teacher Development Trust explains how a new iteration of the Early Career Framework can help, not hinder
The Early Career Framework (ECF) is one of the most important reforms to hit the teaching profession in decades, at least since teaching was made a graduate profession in the early 1980s. We now have the first set of teachers who have passed through the extended induction period offered by the ECF and the Government is in the midst of procuring providers to deliver a revised framework from September 2025. The policy has achieved the Holy Grail of government initiatives: sustained funding and improvement, all the more remarkable as the government cuts funding elsewhere. It looks like the ECF is here to stay – and that is a good thing.
But it doesn’t mean we should be uncritical of the ECF, not least because although it is now firmly established as part of the induction experience, it is still relatively new in policy terms. It would be inconceivable that we have not learned ways in which it can be improved, both in terms of content and implementation. One good question to pose is whether the ECF is doing all it can to build a sense of professional curiosity amongst early career teachers, creating a platform for new teachers to begin to explore their new craft not just during the induction phase but throughout a hopefully long and successful career. We should remember that the birth of the ECF was in a consultation document on strengthening Qualified Teacher Status and creating development opportunities throughout a teaching career; the ECF was developed alongside reformed NPQs. In the introduction to that consultation document (released in 2017), then Secretary of State Justine Greening said, “A strengthened induction should help to support a career-long commitment to improving practice and learning new skills.”
How does the ECF measure against that question? In some ways remarkably well, not least through the creation and delivery of a clear, structured programme of learning that helps those new to the profession to establish themselves in the role. For example, the focus – from the very start – on the role of the mentor not only provides a better experience for new teachers but demonstrates the value placed on more experienced teachers engaging with evidence and sharing their knowledge. But there are challenges. As our own study of the ECF (generously supported by the Gatsby Foundation) recently showed: “There should be a recognition that [early career teachers] are developing professionals and that mentors are their examples in this, who together can be trusted to make informed decisions and adapt approaches based on their context and individual needs.” It is no small thing to introduce a new, nation-wide approach to induction, to secure the funding, to mobilise and scale-up implementation. It is an impressive achievement and a more rigid approach has perhaps been needed to establish the ECF. But now that it is, we should think carefully about how it can respond to the professional judgements and needs of both early career teachers and the mentors who guide them. After all, the biggest prize is not the short-term benefit from the training and development itself (important as that is), but rather early career teachers are inspired to keep on learning, keep on improving, and stay in the profession they have grown to love.
Gareth Conyard is co-CEO of the Teacher Development Trust, the charity working to raise awareness of the importance of professional development for the schools’ workforce.
https://tdtrust.org/
www.education-today.co.uk 19
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