Is England moving closer to having pupils taught maths through “state-approved” textbooks, modelled on those used in China and Singapore? That is the fear among some attendees of a meeting earlier this month, when the DfE told education publishers it wanted to see the introduction of a “quality framework” against which maths textbooks could be assessed.
One version of what this might look like has already been devised by the government-funded National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. Now, under pressure from ministers, publishing organisations are working on their own version.
The move is being driven by Nick Gibb, the traditionalist schools minister running curriculum policy, following a paper published last November by Tim Oates, head of research at the exam body Cambridge Assessment. Oates argued that the quality of England’s textbooks has declined since the 1970s. Favourably citing Singapore, where textbooks are “state-approved”, he seemed to advocate such a structure here, saying publishers would have to raise their game to fulfil government expectations of the quality of their materials.
Ministers, who have set up a network of “maths hubs” around England which are welcoming visiting teachers from China, are impressed by textbooks used in the Far East.
Publishers hope that a voluntary code will assuage Gibb, who wants English schools to match the Pacific Rim in global education league tables. But the threat of a formal government approval process for maths textbooks still also seems to be around in the background.
Playing fields ripe for development
Nearly 1,400 people have signed a petition demanding a say in whether one of England’s biggest comprehensives should be turned into an academy, under the sponsorship of an organisation which has a recent history of seeking to develop school land.
Under plans put forward by its governors, Oxted school, in the Surrey stockbroker belt, would become an academy under the Howard Partnership, which currently runs four schools and has been providing temporary management support at Oxted since 2013.
Campaigners are particularly focusing on the fact that Oxted intends to first become a “foundation school”, distancing itself from the local authority, then an academy. As the governors admit, foundation school status would give them more control over the land than they would have if the school became a conventional academy – there are large playing fields, a swimming pool and nine tennis courts which campaigners say would be of huge value to property developers.
Campaigners worry that this means part of the site could be sold off. They point to developments elsewhere in Surrey, where the Howard Partnership controversially put forward plans with a housing developer to build up to 295 homes on one of its school sites, and to erect a further education college building at another. “I don’t want the school’s land given to an independent organisation, which could then sell it – or large parts of it – as part of a wild experiment [in academies governance] by this government,” says Benedict Southworth, a former governor at Oxted.
Asked before half-term to respond, the governing body said: “We are listening to the views of staff, students, parents and the local community. No decision has been made.” The Howard Partnership was not available for comment. Governors have said that, under foundation status, they could not sell land without ministerial approval.
Learning village plans under threat
Meanwhile, a council is at loggerheads with the DfE over government plans to turn another local authority comprehensive, also on a large site, into an academy.
Officials at Norfolk county council were furious after Lord Nash, the academies minister, overruled the authority’s plan to set up an interim executive board (IEB) to run the Hewett school in Norwich. Separately, the council had proposed to use the school and site as the hub of a “learning village”, with enhanced early years, special educational needs, post-16, community and adult education provision.
Seven weeks later, on 3 February, Nash wrote vetoing the council’s chosen board in favour of five hand-picked appointees, ignoring, without explanation, the learning village plans, which would have kept Hewett as a local authority school.
The council says the move by Nash came despite DfE officials previously having endorsed four out of five members of Norfolk’s proposed interim board. The council was given two weeks to respond to Nash, a deadline which expired last week. We understand the local authority believes Nash has acted unreasonably and that an application for judicial review is possible.
A source in the campaign against academy status for the Hewett says: “Local people suspect that the government wants to hand over to an academy chain in order to exploit the site.”
A DfE spokesman says: “Following discussions with the local authority, it was felt that the council’s application for an IEB would not secure the necessary improvements at the school.“
Special measures and top accolade
Finally, parents unhappy with a local authority’s treatment of a previously successful primary school which was put into special measures by Ofsted last November, now do not know whether to laugh or cry. They have learned the school is in line for a national award for pupil achievement.
Bisham school in Windsor and Maidenhead was informed by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust that it was in the top 10% of schools nationally for pupil progress in reading, writing and maths.
The recognition is based on results of Sats taken in May last year. Yet Ofsted had found that these were not good enough in a judgment which led the local authority to suspend the long-standing head, Jim Cooke. In 2012 and 2013, schools minister David Laws also wrote to Cooke to congratulate him on Bisham’s Sats results. All very confusing.
