Mike Baker (@mikebakeredhack) chaired the Demos event yesterday at which Andy Burnham outlined the direction of Labour's policy review on schools. In his blog, Baker picks out the 10 themes he finds most interesting:
- Labour's approach will reject the current nostalgia for Latin and rote-learning or what Burnham called the 'back to the future' approach. The ebacc will not be applied universally.
- The policy review will take a broad view of education, including an emphasis on creativity.
- It will seek clarity for those students taking a vocational route.
- There could be a UCAS-style 'clearing' process for those seeking to enter apprenticeships, with the best opportunities going to those who work the hardest.
- League tables will be reformed, using value-added or contextual value-added measures.
- A minimum entitlement for all pupils (eg to one-to-one tuition) is being considered, as is an expectation that every student should achieve a grade C at GCSE in maths and English.
- Labour will take a more ambitious view of the role of work experience and placements to encourage social mobility.
- An updated version of Tomlinson will be brought back, introducing a true, broad baccalaureate.
- Teaching may become an all masters-degree profession
- Local authorities will be given a clearer planning role and a role to encourage collaboration between school.
But is Labour likely to rip the Gove vision to shreds? Not exactly, says Baker:
"Perhaps the most significant aspect of the speech was what Mr Burnham did not say. There were no promises to overturn the coalition government's new free achools or academies."
Still, Burnham himself (@andyburnhammp) is in combative form on Twitter this morning:
"Scathing criticism of English bac by experts this morning. It's made us the 'laughing stock' of the world, said CEO of Curriculum Foundation."
Education news from the Guardian
• Sue Learner's story about nurture groups is receiving a lot of attention on social networks. Ofsted has praised the strategy of taken children with troubled home lives and consequent behaviour issues out of their class and into a small and highly structured nurture group for a few terms. Unfortunately cuts are forcing many schools to close down these life-changing groups.
• Cursive handwriting is on its way out in some US schools, all of those in Indiana for starters. Pass notes puts pen to paper and provides a joined-up response.
• Church schools are not the same as "faith schools". In fact they cater to all segments of the community, Nick Baines argues on Comment is Free.
Education news from around the web
• More than two-thirds of councils are scrapping or scaling back advice services that support parents through school admissions, a Children & Young People Now survey has revealed, leaving providers anxious about how marginalised families will navigate the system.
• The definition of "persistent truancy" is about to change, says the BBC. The Department for Education has decided "persistent absence" no longer means missing 20% of lessons; from now on, it'll be enough to miss 15%. Behaviour tsar Charlie Taylor says:
"As a teacher, I know how the poor attendance of pupils can disrupt their own learning and that of other pupils."
The ACSL warns against arbitrary targets, saying children with medical issues should not be labelled persistant absentees, and Pooky Hesmondhalgh (@creativeedu) analyses the reasons for truancy on her blog.
• Susan Young (@susanyoung_) says we should expect an announcement about the first 100 "teaching schools" imminently. Her blog paints an interesting picture of how they might change the education landscape.
Pick of the blogs
• Jonathan Webber (@jonathanwebber), a Cardiff University philosophy lecturer, blasts the "student-as-consumer" approach in the New Statesman:
"Employers do not treat employees as consumers. Spending three years as a consumer will not prepare you for the world of employment."
He comes up with an alternative model - apprenticeship:
"If the government is serious about graduate employability, then it should abandon the consumerist objective. Students should be seen as apprentices in their disciplines, through which they develop hardy perennial skills. Academics should be recognised as the experts training these apprentices in these skills. It should be accepted that this involves regularly stretching the students beyond their comfort zones, an experience they might not all enjoy. Above all, it requires accepting that student enjoyment is not a reliable indicator of quality of education."
• Patrick Watson (@pwatsonmontrose) has blogged about a study on how to get disadvantaged children to perform against the odds. It's based on government-funded research that has been following 3,000 children since 1997. Watson summarises its recommendations, which include recruiting great teachers, identifying problems early and providing extra support, getting parents on board and building "learning communities" in classes.
Tell the Guardian about your school's A-level and GCSE achievements
The Guardian would like to highlight your pupils' GCSE and A-level success this summer. We are asking schools to respond to a few quick questions about their pupils' results as soon as you receive them - on 18 August for A-levels and 25 August for GCSEs. Please take a note of the following web pages and return to them to fill in your results on those days:
We want to tell our readers how well your pupils have performed and are looking forward to mapping the success of young people across the country.
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