Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 13 May 2011.

Michael Gove today welcomed the contribution that independent schools can play in supporting or sponsoring academies. Speaking at the Wellington Academy, he also said that academies offer high quality training and professional development for their teachers.

658 schools are now academies. A third of all secondary schools are either already an academy, or on the way to becoming one. More than 40,000 teachers now work in academies.

Speaking about the role of independent schools he said:

Independence has made Britain’s private schools the best in the world. Greater independence will ensure more of Britain’s state schools become world class as well. That’s why it makes sense for private and public to work together.

Commenting on the benefits to teachers he will say:

There are still those who continue to criticise our policy of letting schools choose to become academies. They claim that academy status is a threat to staff pay and conditions. This is nonsense.

Academies, more than others, know how important it is to attract and keep good teachers. That is why they place a high premium on providing excellent development opportunities for staff.

It is time that the opponents of academies recognised that the landscape has changed. Every month more and more great professionals are teaching in academies, and despite scare stories, those teachers are getting a great deal.

Some of the benefits to teachers include:

• Average pay for full-time classroom teachers in academies is higher than that for maintained schools. £35,700 compared to £34,700. Teachers in academies also tend to be younger.
• Teachers in academies have more freedom over how they teach – as academies have freedom over the curriculum.
• Academies place a high premium on good training and development for their staff. Including:
  • training days at Oxbridge and other top universities
  • giving them access to MAs both in the UK and at Harvard
  • opportunities to work with successful businesses
  • learning from classroom observation, often in specially fitted classrooms designed to help observation
  • bonus awards, private medical cover, interest free loans for season tickets and bicycle purchase
  • working with teachers in other schools to share skills

He will say that unions in particular should welcome these opportunities. For years they have demanded better opportunities for staff development, and better pay. Academies are providing just that.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 13 May 2011.

Sir,

It is true that we are only selecting the very best applications from groups who want to run new, taxpayer-funded free schools (‘Most applicants to run free schools are turned down’, 11 May 2011).

The fact that we have had such a strong response to free schools and academies shows a clear demand for more good local schools, where heads have control – not bureaucrats or ministers. Figures released this week show that more than 1,000 schools have applied to become academies, and nearly a fifth of all secondary schools now enjoy academy freedoms.

Children from the poorest backgrounds have been let down the most by inequalities in our schools system. So I am delighted that excellent new free schools will be set up in disadvantaged areas like inner-city Bradford and Edmonton, London.

Our reforms are about creating a generation of brilliant schools, free from meddling and prescription, that provide more children with the type of education previously reserved for the rich.

Lord Hill of Oareford

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 12 May 2011.

The government today announced plans to ensure that more young people leave school or college with a good grasp of English and maths.

It means that those who have failed to get a C or better in GCSE English or maths will study the subjects until they get good qualifications.

The move will address concerns that standards of literacy and numeracy among young people are not good enough.

This year’s annual skills survey from the CBI found that more than two-fifths of firms are not satisfied with the basic literacy of school and college leavers. More than a third are unhappy with levels of numeracy. In 2010 only 55% of young people managed a C or better in GCSE English and maths.

The recommendation was among those proposed by Professor Alison Wolf when she published her review of vocational education in March.

All her recommendations were today accepted by Education Secretary Michael Gove as the government published its response to the review. Professor Wolf has agreed to take a formal role within the government to help implement them.

In her report Professor Wolf proposed a package of radical reforms designed to overhaul the current flawed system. She said that:

• thousands of 14- to 16-year-olds are on vocational courses which the league table system encourages but which do not help children progress
• more than 300,000 16- to 19-year-olds are on courses which do not lead to higher education or good jobs
• high-quality apprenticeships are rare and an increasing proportion are not offered to those aged 16 to 18
• the current funding system should be revamped because it offers perverse incentives that work against young people’s best interests
• too many young people leave school or college without good English and maths

Education Secretary Michael Gove said today that the Government will:

• ensure all young people study maths and English to age 18 until they get a good qualification in those subjects. Ideally this will be a C or better at GCSE but high-quality alternatives will be identified following a consultation this summer
• reform league tables and funding rules to remove the perverse incentives that have devalued vocational education. This will mean more young people take the high-quality qualifications that lead to university and good jobs
• consult with employers, schools, colleges, universities and Ofqual this summer to define the criteria that the best vocational qualifications must meet
• introduce a new measure to assess the performance of both higher- and lower-attaining pupils. This will ensure schools and college do not focus only on students on the C/D grade borderline
• consider paying businesses which take young people on to high-quality apprenticeships. Apprenticeships will also be simplified and made easier to offer
• support 14- to 16-year-olds enrolling in colleges so they can benefit from the excellent vocational training available there
• offer training to maths teachers so they continue improving and learning once qualified. This will be in place by this autumn.

When Prof Wolf published her review, the government immediately accepted 4 recommendations:

• to allow qualified further education lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified school teachers. This requires a change in the law
• to clarify the rules on allowing industry professionals to teach in schools. This will be ready for the coming academic year
• to allow any vocational qualification offered by a regulated awarding body to be taken by 14- to 19-year-olds
• to allow established high-quality vocational qualifications that have not been accredited to be offered in schools and colleges in September 2011.

Michael Gove said:

The weaknesses in our current system were laid bare by Professor Wolf’s incisive and far-reaching review. The changes we will implement as a result of her report will take time but will transform the lives of young people. I am pleased Professor Wolf has agreed to work with us to implement them.

For too long the vocational education system has been devalued by attempts to pretend that all qualifications are intrinsically the same. Young people have taken courses that have led nowhere.

Good qualifications in English and maths are what employers demand before all others. Young people must be able to demonstrate their understanding of these subjects.

We will reform league tables, the funding system and regulation so children are given honest information and take the right courses. We will make sure that employers are more involved in the system. We will encourage them to offer more high-quality apprenticeships.

Our reforms will ensure that vocational education is again given the high status it deserves.

Professor Alison Wolf said:

For 20 years we have toyed around with vocational education but succeeded only in creating a bureaucratic and expensive system that limits the life chances of too many young people.

There are many excellent vocational qualifications, teachers and institutions – they are the examples that should be the norm. They prove that vocational education is a great choice for many young people.

I am delighted that the government has agreed to implement the changes I have proposed. They must be made if vocational education is to be a great choice for all young people, as it is in so many other countries, and I look forward to working with the government in taking them forward.

Skills Minister John Hayes said:

Vocational education matters because it enriches lives, inspires ambition and builds economic prosperity. But, as Alison Wolf has detailed, many qualifications offered to young people fail to provide progression to higher learning or employment.

Today we have outlined how we will take forward key recommendations in her report; spreading opportunity by encouraging and supporting all that is excellent in vocational education, including apprenticeships, helping us produce a new generation of craftsmen and women capable of building Britain’s future.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 May 2011.

The CBI has today published their annual Education & Skills survey 2011, which shows that many employers are concerned with the basic skills levels of school and college leavers.

Responding to the survey, a Department spokesman said:

The CBI is absolutely right to raise concerns about the standards of English and maths of so many of our young people.

45 per cent of young people did not get a C or better in GCSE English and maths at 16. And just 4% of those who fail then go on to achieve this from 16 to 19.

Yet it is good qualifications in these key subjects that employers demand before all others – that’s why we are prioritising them.

The recruitment of specialist maths teachers, introducing a phonics-based reading test for 6-year-olds and restoring the rigour of GCSE and A level exams are all part of the overall package to raise participation across the board.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 28 April 2011.

The Department for Education is looking at the induction arrangements for newly qualified teachers to see how they can be refined, improved and updated to better meet the needs of teachers and schools.

Qualified teachers who are employed in maintained schools in England must, by law, have completed an induction period after their initial training. The induction period usually lasts for 3 terms.

The current regulations and guidance on statutory induction were last updated in 2008, run to more than 70 pages and are based on the needs of the school system in 1999. Some schools say that current process is bureaucratic and can be a barrier to recruiting and retaining good teachers.

The department will informally consult with key stakeholders such as headteachers, induction co-ordinators and newly qualified teachers.

It will consider things like:

• how induction can support and challenge newly qualified teachers to improve their confidence and quality of teaching in their first year of practice;
• the level of regulation needed in induction and whether schools should play a greater role in induction arrangements than they currently do;
• the role of new teaching schools in future induction arrangements;
• how quality assurance of new teachers can be secured for all schools including academies, free schools and independent schools.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

The countries that provide the best education are those that value teachers most highly and train them to the highest standard. We have some of the best teachers in the world, but it is vital that their training and development keeps pace with what schools and pupils need.

Our schools white paper ‘The Importance of Teaching’ sets out how we will do this by reforming initial teacher training, creating new teaching schools and improving professional development.

This is the first step towards a less bureaucratic and more fit for purpose induction programme for our newest teachers, to set them on the path to a successful career.

The department will formally consult on new regulations for the statutory induction period in the autumn term. The consultation will run for 12 weeks. We expect that new arrangements will come into force by September 2012, along with the revised Teachers’ Standards.

The changes to induction arrangements will apply to maintained schools in England. They will also apply to independent schools, academies, free schools and other settings that wish to provide statutory induction for their newly qualified teachers.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 21 April 2011.

Following a number of stories in the media about public sector pensions, a government spokesperson said:

Former Work and Pensions Secretary Lord Hutton has made it clear that change is needed. People are living longer – in the early 1970s life expectancy of a 60-year-old was around 18 years: now it is around 28 years. This has meant that the value of public service pensions has increased, with most of these costs falling to employers and taxpayers. The Government has accepted Lord Hutton’s recommendations as a basis for consultation with public sector workers and will set out proposals by the autumn that are affordable, sustainable, and fair to both the public sector workforce and taxpayers.

In addition, when addressing the ATL Union Conference on 20 April 2011, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said about pensions:

…We have already been clear that we don’t want to see a race to the bottom in pension provision – and that public service pensions should remain a gold standard.

A good pension has long been an important part of the overall reward package that teachers expect.

Our priority is to ensure that continues to be the case. Opt out rates from the Teachers Pension Scheme are extremely low and we want to keep them that way. But we won’t be able to achieve all of this if we ignore the realities of the cost pressures that all pension schemes are facing as life expectancy increases.

The combination of more teacher pensioners and the increase in their life expectancy has meant that the cost of teachers’ pensions increases every year. In 2005 to 2006, the cost of paying teachers’ pensions was around £5 billion. By 2015 to 2016, the cost is forecast to rise to almost £10 billion.

This is why long term reform of public service schemes is needed – and why teachers and other public service scheme members are being asked to pay a higher pension contribution from April 2012.

From the start, the Government has made its commitment to protecting accrued rights absolutely clear. All the benefits that have been built up in a teacher’s pension will not be affected by any reforms recommended by Hutton. This means there is absolutely nothing to be gained by teachers seeking to retire earlier than they have planned.

The Government has accepted Lord Hutton’s recommendations as the basis for discussions with all the trades unions. There have already been some constructive discussions between the TUC and the Government. The aim is to agree a package of principles for pensions reform by the end of June. I fully understand the strength of feeling here in this room – but I strongly urge the ATL to wait for the outcome of those discussions before deciding on whether to take further action…