Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 September 2010.

The Education Secretary has commissioned a review of 14 to 19 vocational education to make it fit for purpose.

The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has asked Professor Alison Wolf to carry out an independent review of vocational education.

Professor Wolf will look at the organisation of vocational education and its responsiveness to a changing labour market, and will consider ways to increase incentives for young people to participate. The review will also take explicit account of good practice in a selection of developed economies.

Professor Wolf will examine:

institutional arrangements
funding mechanisms including arrangements for who bears the cost of qualifications
progression from vocational education to work, higher education and higher-level training
the role of the third sector, private providers, employers and awarding bodies.
She is due to submit a final report in spring 2011, which will include recommendations on how vocational education can be improved.

Further information
The letter from the Secretary of State to Alison Wolf is available to download.

If you have any questions about the review you can contact the Review Secretariat at wolf.review@education.gsi.gov.uk.

Further information about a call for evidence will be made available shortly on this site.

Written ministerial statement on vocational education
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove): For many years our education system has failed to value practical education, choosing to give far greater emphasis to purely academic achievements. This has left a gap in the country’s skills base and, as a result, a shortage of appropriately trained and educated young people to fulfil the needs of our employers. To help support our economic recovery, we need to ensure that this position does not continue and in future we are able to meet the needs of our labour market. I am today announcing an independent review of vocational education which will be chaired by Professor Alison Wolf.

To enable us to achieve this long-term aim, the government is currently developing a new approach to qualifications, considering all routes which are available to young people, to ensure that the qualifications that they study for are rigorous, relevant and bear comparison with the best in the world. As part of this I have asked Professor Wolf to consider how we can improve vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds to support participation and progression, specifically: how vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds can be improved; what the appropriate target audience for vocational education is; what principles should underpin the content, structure and teaching methods of the vocational education offer and how progression from vocational education to positive destinations can be improved. The review will not be considering the detailed content of specific qualifications, but will be focusing on the effectiveness of the overall structure of the vocational offer.

I have asked Professor Wolf to report to me by spring 2011, and to make practical recommendations which will ensure real change and have regard to current financial constraints.

I have today placed a copy of the letter I have sent to Professor Wolf in the library of the House.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 September 2010.

Education Secretary Michael Gove today announced a major independent review of vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds, which is to be led by Professor Alison Wolf of King’s College London.

Mr Gove said that for too long vocational qualifications had not been properly valued and that a gap had been left in the country’s skills base as a result.

Professor Wolf will look at the organisation of vocational education and its responsiveness to a changing labour market, and consider ways to increase incentives for young people to participate. The review will also take explicit account of good practice in a selection of developed economies.

Professor Wolf will examine

institutional arrangements
funding mechanisms including arrangements for who bears the cost of qualifications
progression from vocational education to work, higher education and higher level training
the role of the third sector, private providers, employers and awarding bodies.
She is due to submit a final report in spring 2011, which will include recommendations on how vocational education can be improved.

Michael Gove, who today announced the review in a speech to the independent education foundation, Edge, said:

For many years our education system has failed properly to value practical education, choosing to give far greater emphasis to purely academic achievements. This has left a gap in the country’s skills base and, as a result, a shortage of appropriately trained and educated young people to fulfil the needs of our employers. To help support our economic recovery, we need to ensure this position does not continue and that in future we are able to meet the needs of our labour market.

To enable us to achieve this long-term aim, we are currently developing a new approach to qualifications, considering all routes which are available to young people, to ensure the qualifications they study for are rigorous, relevant and bear comparison with the best in the world.

Professor Wolf is highly experienced in this field and has all the credentials required to lead this review.

Professor Wolf said:

Our current arrangements for 14-19 education are highly bureaucratic and inflexible. They also make it very difficult to encourage excellence in anything which is not conventionally academic: writing about people doing things gets rewarded more than actually doing them.

Rigid systems are particularly undesirable at a time when the labour market and the economy are in a state of constant change. We need to make it possible for vocational education, and educators, to respond easily to the real requirements of the labour market. I hope this review will identify principles and institutions which promote this and help all young people to progress in the world of work, throughout their lives.

Lord Baker, the Chairman of Edge, said:

We welcome this review; it is high time that we are able to ensure that all young people have both choice and quality in their education allowing them to pursue their own individual path to success. This start must include high-level vocational courses, ones that are taught to high standards in high class institutions. One such example is the university technical colleges, which will recruit young people at 14 and allow them to study a highly regarded, technically oriented course in a specialist college. We look forward to seeing the results of the review and playing our part in changing the educational landscape for the better.

Professor Wolf will conduct a public call for evidence, which will be made by the end of September.

 

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 7 September 2010.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb today said the pilot of single level tests was ending after three years of trials.

Mr Gibb said:

The pilot has run for three years and that has allowed us to gain a sufficient amount of evidence about single level tests that we do not need to continue the trials any further. This evidence, including evaluations of the pilot, will feed into the forthcoming review of assessment in primary schools.

The Coalition Government is committed to external assessment and a testing system that is robust, accurate and rigorous, gives parents and professionals the valuable information they need to gauge standards of our primary schools and their pupils, and plays a vital role in accountability.

I would like to thank all pupils, schools and local authorities who have taken part in the pilot for their hard work over the last three years.

Single level tests were developed in English reading, English writing and mathematics for pupils in Years 3 to 6. They are designed to assess knowledge, skills and understanding at a specific, single National Curriculum level (level 3, 4, 5 or 6). Teachers enter pupils for a test in December or June, when they judge that the pupil is ready, rather than waiting until the end of Key Stage 2. The pilot began in September 2007.

The 10 local authorities involved in the pilot are: Westminster, Bexley, Solihull, Liverpool, Calderdale, South Tyneside, East Sussex, Leicestershire, Essex and Gloucestershire. Each local authority has a pilot leader to evaluate, support and advise schools on all aspects of the single level tests.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 6 September 2010.

Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, has today laid a written ministerial statement informing Parliament that the first 16 Free School proposals are ready to progress to the next stage of the process and develop a full business case and plan.

The statement outlines the next steps in the process for the proposers and lists the proposals approved to go forward to business case and plan stage in full.

Innovation in Pupil Place Planning

Today I am announcing the first 16 Free School proposals to progress to the next stage of the process and develop a full business case and plan.

We need to reform our education system if we are to accelerate improvement to keep pace with the highest performing systems of the world and ensure that every pupil growing up in this country gets a better chance of achieving their potential. Free Schools form an integral part of the Government’s education policy to improve choice for parents and raise standards for all young people.

The proposals I have agreed to move forward to business case and plan stage today represent a diverse mix: there are parent-led, community-led, sponsor-led and teacher-led proposals; there are faith and non-faith proposals; there are proposals for large secondary schools and for small primary schools. All of these proposals have been driven by demand from local people for improved choice for their young people and I am delighted that so many promising proposals have come forward at such an early stage.

I hope that many of the projects progressing today will become the first Free Schools in September 2011. This is a challenging timescale, and some groups may decide that it is preferable to open at a later date for practical reasons. To support groups in meeting the robust requirements of the business case and plan stage, we will now be providing the proposers that progress to this stage with support co-ordinated by a named contact within my Department. At the next stage, proposers will need to make a fully detailed business case for the new school and set out their plans for opening and operating the proposed school. I will make an assessment based on this final business case on whether to allow a new school to be set up.

The proposals announced today are just the start of our Free Schools programme. My Department has received a number of promising proposals for 2012 and 2013 and we will be making further announcements about taking these forward in due course. New proposals are frequently being submitted to the Department. We want it to be open to a diverse range of groups to come forward with proposals which meet the needs of their local area, and for proposals to progress at the pace which is right for both proposers and for parents and young people in the local area.

The 16 proposals approved to go forward to business case and plan stage are (in alphabetical order):

Bedford and Kempston Free School, Bedford Borough
The Childcare Company, Slough
Discovery New School, West Sussex
The Free School Norwich, Norfolk
Haringey Jewish Primary School, Haringey
I-Foundation Primary School, Leicester
King’s Science Academy, Bradford
Mill Hill Jewish Primary School, Barnet
Nishkam Education Trust, Birmingham
North Westminster Free School (ARK), Westminster
Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School, Warwickshire
Rivendale Free School, Hammersmith and Fulham
St. Luke’s School, Camden
Stour Valley Community School, Suffolk
West London Free School, Ealing or Hammersmith and Fulham
Wormholt North Hammersmith Free School (ARK), Hammersmith and Fulham (to be known as Burlington Primary Academy)
I will update the House as these projects progress further.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 1 September 2010.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary, today announced that 142 schools have accepted the Government’s offer to become an academy since the Academies Act became law just over a month ago. These schools have made a commitment to work with other schools and share their expertise. This is the first wave of converters in a rolling process that allows schools to convert at any stage.

The running total of schools that will become academies this academic year is 216 so far. The current breakdown is as follows:

• 142 schools converting to become academies: 32 are opening this week and a further 110 schools have had Academy Orders signed which means they are on track to convert to academies over the coming months.
• Of the 142, there are 7 primary schools which become the first ever primary academies to open. The Government has said that special schools will also be allowed to become academies from next year.
• 64 new academies replace failing schools this September plus a further 10 opening by April 2011.

This is record progress; it took five years for 15 city technology colleges to open, and four years for the first 27 academies to open.

Michael Gove said:

This Government believes that teachers and headteachers, not politicians and bureaucrats, should control schools and have more power over how they are run. That’s why we are spreading academy freedoms. This will give heads more power to tackle disruptive children, to protect and reward teachers better, and to give children the specialist teaching they need.

This year’s GCSE results saw academy pupils improving at nearly three times the historic rate of state school improvement.

Heads of new academies today welcomed their new freedoms:

Patricia Sowter, Head of Cuckoo Hall Primary School, Edmonton, said:

With the new academy freedoms we will continue to develop our autonomy and take the school forward in what is an area of London that faces significant challenges and disadvantage. We will now have the flexibility to adapt and extend the curriculum, target resources more effectively, deploy specialist staff and above all build sustainable capacity to ensure continued and long term outstanding educational provision, to best meet the needs of our children and wider school community.

Cuckoo Hall remains committed to supporting and working with other schools to improve children’s achievement. As an academy, Cuckoo Hall aims to build long term sustainable capacity to continue its effective work with other schools, and will seek to widen its impact on overall school improvement.

Greg Martin, Executive Head of Durand Academy, Lambeth, said:

Becoming an academy is so important for us at Durand. We are proud to deliver an outstanding education for our pupils, in an area with one of the highest levels of social deprivation in the UK. The freedom that academy status brings will allow us to deliver and develop a flexible curriculum to ensure that these children reach their full potential and achieve the very best. We look forward to using our academy freedoms to work with other schools to raise levels of attainment across the board.

David Hampson, Principal of Tollbar Business and Enterprise College, Grimbsy, said:

The benefits of becoming an academy will be enormous – less bureaucracy certainly but also more resources which we ourselves will be able to manage. We are very happy to embrace the requirement to associate ourselves with less successful schools and indeed we already have been working with a number of other schools locally and nationally, sharing our winning ways. In fact, Tollbar, as Tollbar Edge, are the sponsors of another academy which replaces a local school in special measures. We believe that we have already demonstrated our ability to run a highly successful establishment and this fantastic initiative will certainly help us to offer even more to the young people in our care.

Dr John Marincowitz Head of the Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet, said:

We are delighted with our new status as an academy. Greater autonomy brings significant beneficial opportunities. For example, greater freedom to decide the curriculum will enable Queen Elizabeth’s to secure a suitably academic curriculum that is geared more accurately to the needs of our pupils. Similarly, greater autonomy means we can now ensure that the resources and services we purchase are appropriate for the school and more closely aligned to the specific requirements of our pupils. We also look forward to bolstering the support we already provide to local schools as a specialist Training School and especially Northgate Hospital School with whom we have an established relationship.

Helen Hyde, Head of Watford Grammar School for Girls, Hertfordshire, and President of Foundation, Aided Schools and Academies National Association (FASNA), said:

I am very excited by the new challenges and opportunities that are created by becoming an academy. We will use the freedoms and autonomy to improve the educational provision for our students as well as form new partnerships with schools who would like to work with us both in the UK and abroad.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 26 August 2010.

Latest statistics for spring term 2010 show a decrease in overall absence rates in both primary and secondary schools compared to spring term 2009. This follows decreases in spring 2008 and spring 2009.

Authorised absence rates decreased in both primary and secondary schools. Unauthorised absence rates increased in primary schools and decreased in secondary schools.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said:

The small fall in the overall absence rate in all schools, and in unauthorised absence in secondary schools, in spring term 2010 is very welcome, but the level of absenteeism in schools is still too high.

The Government has committed to tackling the underlying causes of absenteeism, raising academic standards and ensuring every child can meet their potential, regardless of their background. It’s crucial that children are not missing out on valuable lessons that could leave them vulnerable to falling behind. We are putting in place a series of measure to raise standards of behaviour, to put head teachers and teachers back in control of the classroom, and to get tougher on parents and pupils who do not abide by the rules.

We are also introducing the first ever pupil premium to provide additional funding for more disadvantaged pupils so that they benefit from the same opportunities as their more affluent peers. We need to ensure that all pupils have the basic skills of reading, writing and maths before they reach secondary school.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 6 August 2010.

Education Secretary Michael Gove today announced the go-ahead for a series of new school projects. 33 local authority ‘sample’ school projects in 14 council regions will now proceed in Barking and Dagenham, Blackpool, Camden, Derby City, Ealing, Halton, Hartlepool, Hertfordshire, Lambeth, Oldham, Poole, Somerset, St Helens and Wandsworth.

Another 119 academies – schools being given new sponsors to raise attainment for the most disadvantaged – are also intended to go ahead. Ministers have been working with sponsors to ensure they can move forward with their academies, each designed to raise standards in areas of particular need. The 44 academies at the most advanced stage in their capital planning with Partnerships for Schools will receive capital now. Capital allocations for the remaining 75 will be decided in the Spending Review. Sponsors of these academies will be working with the Department to reduce costs over the next few months.

To ensure best value for money in school projects, the Government has begun working with major companies from the construction industry to help reduce building costs, which, alongside the independent capital review will provide a genuinely robust, efficient and fair system for future school building projects.

As the Coalition Government has made clear, deficit reduction and continuing to ensure economic recovery is the most urgent issue facing Britain. That’s why the Government has taken the difficult decisions necessary to equip Britain for long-term success. In the long term, and following the wider capital review, the Government wants money to reach a local level quicker, so that money reaches the schools that need it the most.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary, said:

I’m delighted that the sample schools and academy projects are going ahead, and I hope that local authorities and schools will welcome this news. This is good news for those schools.

I know how hard councils and schools have worked on these projects and I have been anxious to ensure we can do everything we can, in difficult economic times, to support the crucial work of raising educational standards. Planning for these projects is well advanced and we are keen they should proceed without further delay. I’m determined that we press ahead with the Academies programme and want all those schools identified as future academies to enjoy the freedoms and benefits academy status brings.

We will also work with councils, sponsors and the construction industry to ensure we bear down on costs and bureaucracy so every new school is built in as cost-effective and efficient a way as possible, and I am delighted that they have already responded so positively to this challenge.

Speaking today, John McDonough, of Carillion plc, said:

The private sector welcomes the opportunity to apply its experience and skills to demonstrate how it can reduce costs and improve value for money in the delivery of public sector building projects in the future, and we look forward to sharing our knowledge and experience with the Capital Review Team.

Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools, said:

I am very pleased that today’s announcement means the continuation of all the Building Schools for the Future sample schemes. Schools, local authorities and the private sector have worked hard to progress these projects and this will be welcome news for communities across the country.

Major academy sponsors also welcomed today’s announcement, saying they stand ready to take on more projects over the next few years.

Dan Moynihan, Chief Executive of the Harris Federation, said:

We know from direct and hard-won experience that the current method of getting new school buildings is unwieldy, over bureaucratic and too expensive. We welcome the Government’s commitment to getting better value for money from the process and we are delighted that ministers are pressing ahead with the Academies programme. Academies have a great track record in turning round under-achievement and today’s announcement means more children will benefit from the freedoms and excellence academies embody. We look forward to the programme going further and faster in the months ahead.

Sir Ewan Harper of the United Learning Trust said:

The Government have been working closely with us and other academy providers to raise standards and get better value for taxpayers’ money.

We’re in a position now to go forward, giving more children in disadvantaged circumstances a better education at a faster pace than ever.

Cllr Edward Lister, Leader of Wandsworth Council said:

We’re delighted that all the sample schemes now have the go-ahead. The Building Schools for the Future model has forced councils to waste millions jumping though bureaucratic hoops before any building work could get underway. At Wandsworth we have some very good ideas about how to meet the challenge of ensuring value for money for the taxpayer and are looking forward to giving evidence to the review team in the weeks ahead.

At the time of last month’s capital announcement all projects past the financial close stage of BSF were given the go-ahead to proceed, with other schools earlier in the process stopped.

A further group of schools and academies required more detailed assessment because they were at crucial points of development.

The sample schools, pilot projects in local authorities who have yet to commence wider building programmes, are BSF projects at an advanced stage which had not yet reached ‘financial close’.

These discussions have been bolstered by the positive contribution made by leading construction companies, who have agreed to ensure they bear down on building costs wherever possible over the next few years.

The Government has been clear that the end of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme does not signal the end of new school buildings. BSF accounted for just a third of all the money spent on education capital investments. The Government is committed to ensuring there is a fairer, more effective and more efficient system for allocating capital money to schools, to best meet the need of the schools system.

Last month the Government announced the creation of a capital review led by Sebastian James, Group Operations Director of DSG International plc, to look at all areas of the Department’s capital spending.

The aim of the review is to ensure that future capital investment is better value for money, less bureaucratic and more cost efficient. It will give priority to schools with the greatest need and seek to address rising primary school numbers.

Today, Sebastian James issued a call for evidence to inform his review. Views are being sought from all interested parties including schools, local authorities, construction industry and academy sponsors.

Sebastian James said:

I believe that there is a chance for us all to make a real difference to how hard we can make any available capital work for us, and the speed that we can change the learning environment for our children.

I am excited to be working with a team with great experience and commitment and the views that we can harvest from this call for evidence will be extremely helpful in shaping the thinking for the future. I hope that we will see a strong response from a wide range of people.

The call for evidence runs from 6 August to 17 September 2010 and can be accessed at the Department’s consultations website. The Capital Review Team will report to ministers in mid-September and a forward plan for capital investment over the next spending review period will be produced by the end of the calendar year.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 4 August 2010.

The Chief Executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, said that the Premier League is looking at Michael Gove’s education reforms and could envisage the day when there is a Premier League school.

Mr Scudamore commented:

I can envisage the day when there is a Premier League school or perhaps a sports school in London where a number of sports get together and have a school for elite athletes, whether it be swimmers, runners, rugby players or footballers. We are working with our clubs and we are taking a look at Michael Gove’s education reforms.

If you have an elite athlete why not work on their education? We need coaching, schools and schooling to be very closely embedded for football.

In response to Mr Scudamore’s comments on the Government’s Free Schools policy, which will enable teachers, parents and charities to set up schools in areas where there is local need, a spokesperson for the Department said:

We want every child to have a premier league education and would be very happy to talk to the Premier League about setting up schools in communities across the country, where there is a local need.

We would be delighted if they joined the hundreds of passionate and talented groups that care about raising standards for all children and are interested in setting up new schools.

Football clubs are already linked to a number of academies across England:

Watford Football Club is linked to the Harefield Academy. The sponsors are all former directors of Watford Football Club and the academy is also home to the Watford Football Club academy for young players. This means the talented youngsters have a sound education and all the students at the school benefit from world-class football coaching.

Bristol City Football Club is linked to the City Academy, Bristol, which specialises in sport and is sponsored by John Laycock, former Chairman of Bristol City Football Club. The City Academy, Bristol, is also the home of Bristol City Football Club. Together the partnership has made enormous strides in raising the attainment of young people.

Reading Football Club is linked to the John Madejski Academy Reading. The lead sponsor is John Madejski, Chairman of Reading Football Club. Its specialism is sport and the delivery of the whole curriculum is underpinned by a sporting ethos of participation, motivation, aspiration and achievement. In partnership with Reading Football Club, the Sixth Form offers a unique opportunity for elite footballers.

Free schools will enjoy the same freedoms as these and other academies, which are publicly funded independent schools, free from local and central government control. Other freedoms include setting their own pay and conditions for staff, freedom from following the National Curriculum and the ability to change the lengths of their terms and school days. All Free Schools will have to comply with the admissions code that governs all publicly funded schools.

Ministers welcome applications for Free Schools from a diverse range of groups.