It’s been quite a week. We’re no strangers to change in this sector, but the last couple of days have seen a particularly dramatic shift in the education landscape as we know it.
Today the Department for Education (DfE) published a new white paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere. Aside from a pleasingly alliterative title, the paper offers an insight into what the government has in store for schools over the next five years. And it's quite the shake-up.
It seems we’ll be saying goodbye to several well-established features of England’s education system.
In a nutshell:
The local authority maintained school will become a thing of the past as all schools become academies. This means that a compulsory national curriculum will also go. It also means the end of a national pay and conditions framework for teachers. On both fronts, academies are free to determine their own.
[caption id="attachment_8209" align="alignnone" width="800"] Photo by Andrew McKeever, our acting director of research and content[/caption]
We’re also bidding farewell to qualified teacher status (QTS), which will be replaced with a “stronger, more challenging accreditation”.
At the moment, academy trusts have to reserve places for parents on governing boards; but not for much longer, as the white paper has done away with this requirement too.
Speaking of trusts, the paper mentions that single academy trusts will become a rarity as most schools will be encouraged to join a multi-academy trust (MAT).
There’s talk of scrapping the separate graded judgement on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, but we won’t know about that one until Ofsted has consulted on it.
So a “fundamentally different education system” indeed, and a lot for school leaders to get their heads around. We’ve studied the white paper and are constantly updating our website with the very latest information to help you keep on top of the changes and find out what they mean for you.
Want a summary of the white paper? Click HERE if you're a governor, or HERE if you're a school leader.
What does the white paper say about academisation? Find out HERE.
Click HERE to see what the white paper says about teachers and school leaders.
We are publishing new content throughout the day, so check back HERE if you're a governor and HERE if you're a school leader for the latest information. (Log-in required.)