A Great Education for All

The Headteachers Roundtable

POLICY PAPER:
COHERENCE IN A FRAGMENTED SYSTEM

Education Election Manifesto 2015

Media contact: Duncan Spalding
dspalding@aylshamhigh.norfolk.sch.uk
@duncanspalding

We are a non-party political group of Headteachers operating as a think-tank,

exploring policy issues from a range of perspectives. Our goal is to provide a vehicle
for people working in the profession to influence national education policymakers so
that education policy is centred upon what is best for the learning of all children.
Twitter: @HeadsRoundtable
Find us at: http://headteachersroundtable.wordpress.com
Contact us at: headteachersrt@hotmail.co.uk

A Great Education for All

Less is always more. If we try to change too much we often end up changing very little and
damaging what we didnt want to change in the first place.
Our ten policy proposals are a modest collection of coherent ideas which, if implemented fully,
would result in a huge improvement to the education system of this country.
Implementing our proposals will take the will of politicians and a commitment to investing in
education; without investment, growth is very difficult to establish.
If we are going to grow great teachers and provide a great education for all, we have to invest in
improving the quality of education in this country.
Its that simple.

Ten Policies towards a Great Education for All

1a:

1b:
2a:
2b:
3a:
3b:
4a:
4b:
5a:
5b:

To introduce the entitlement to a professional development programme leading to QTS for

all teachers after a maximum of two years induction and a masters-level professional
qualification after five years.
To implement the blueprint for the Royal College of Teaching.
To introduce a National Baccalaureate framework following the Headteachers Roundtable
model.1
To introduce progressive qualifications in English and mathematics up to Level 3 to facilitate
continued study to 18 for all learners.
To implement an Intelligent Inspection Framework.
To stabilise Performance Measures.
To harmonise freedoms across maintained schools and academies.
To Introduce Transition Standards Grants to incentivise innovation towards systematic
primary- secondary progression.
To develop a National 0-5 Parent Support Strategy.
To establish a National Recruitment Fund.

http://headteachersroundtable.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/htrt-english-baccalaureate-trial-update-jan-2014/

Coherence in a fragmented system

Recent reforms have seen the education system in England become increasingly fragmented as the
landscape has become populated with a growing diversity of school types. With this growing diversity
has come a narrative of freedom and of autonomy. It would appear, though, that some schools are
freer than others. Whilst we recognise and endorse wholeheartedly the need for greater autonomy for
schools, with decision making power lying in the hands of school leaders and teachers, it is increasingly
clear that the drive towards a school-led system can only be successful if schools are able collaborate
as genuine peers. The real strength of the Headteachers Roundtable is the diversity of the schools
whose voices are represented. Our core purpose is to help shape policy so that it benefits all schools
and learners and encourages meaningful, effective collaboration. If we are to collaborate as equals we
should have the same freedoms irrespective of school type. If we are to collaborate as equals we must
have clear and transparent arrangements for any middle tier in education. If we are to collaborate as
equals and build increasingly strong learning foundations for all our children, we need to improve the
way in which primary and secondary schools work together. This Policy Paper will seek to add a little
more depth to our thinking on how we bring coherence to a fragmented system.

POLICY PROPOSAL 4a: To harmonise freedoms across maintained schools and academies
We should introduce legislation to harmonise school freedoms such that children in any school can
access the same broad curriculum entitlements and opportunities, regardless of their schools
accountability and financial structures. School funding and access to capital grants should be
harmonised regardless of maintained or academy status. The level of school autonomy in relation to
delivery of the National Curriculum should apply to all schools equally. Freedoms and constraints
surrounding pay and conditions, including a decision to implement performance-related pay or not,
should apply to all schools.
Freedom for All
In a recent interview, linked to the publication of his latest annual report, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector
of Schools conceded that there was no discernible difference in inspection outcomes for schools as a
result of their type or status. Furthermore, two recent reports one from the Education Select
Committee2 and another from the Public Accounts Committee3 support this view, with the former
concluding that, Current evidence does not allow us to draw conclusions on whether academies in
themselves are a positive force for change. It is fair to say then that, to date, there is no clear
evidence to suggest that particular school structures improve outcomes for young people, in particular
those from disadvantaged backgrounds. What there is, however, is clear and powerful evidence to
2

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/25802.htm
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/reportsshool-oversight-and-intervention/
3

show that strong leadership and governance, allied to a great school culture underpinned by good
discipline, great teaching and comprehensive CPD are crucial to helping students achieve better
outcomes. It does not matter whether you are a community school, a foundation school, an academy,
a UTC, a studio school or a free school; it's the quality of provision that counts.
Yet the current political obsession with school structures persists. Despite recent rhetoric to the
contrary, there is still an imperative to encourage schools to convert to academy status and take up
the much-vaunted 'freedoms' on offer. We believe strongly that if these 'freedoms' have the capacity
to have a genuine impact on standards then it is crucial that they are extended to all schools and not
simply academies and free schools. As long as it remains the case that autonomy is limited by school
type, any 'freedoms' offered smack more of an incentive to encourage schools to do what the
government wants and to convert to academy status rather than a genuine attempt to raise standards.
There is also a perception amongst many maintained heads that some of the less favourable reforms
that have come in have not applied automatically to academies and free schools. Take for example the
new national curriculum. Academies and free schools can opt in and out of it as they choose.
Maintained schools cannot. Trying to find a way around curriculum reform does not perhaps seem the
best reason to undertake a fundamental change of governance and accountability for any school.
As we know freedom is a synonym of autonomy and autonomy is very much at the heart of global
thinking around what makes for successful education reform. Findings from the most recent round of
PISA tests and surveys point to the value of school autonomy in helping schools and school systems to
improve outcomes for children. Autonomy however, only delivers real and lasting improvements if it is
enjoyed within a framework of meaningful and intelligent collaboration. Collaboration is always easier
to cement if schools are able to take part on an equal footing. The current policy of restricting key
freedoms to particular types of schools runs the risk of undermining the collaborative efforts of
colleagues to work towards shared school improvement strategies and sustainable change.
In order to address these issues we propose the following principles for action around harmonising
freedoms for all schools:
All freedoms linked to the National Curriculum should be open to all schools to ensure that
they are able to respond effectively to the needs of their students and to local priorities
School
funding and access to capital grants should be harmonised across all schools to ensure

that resources are well targeted and equitably distributed according to need. The continued
pursuit of a fairer national funding formula is critical and we support efforts to achieve this.
Any process for accessing capital funds should be clear and transparent and open to rigorous
public scrutiny. Particular attention should be paid to capital expenditure on new school
buildings and infrastructure in order to ensure that spending is not skewed in favour of
particular school types. This need has been brought into sharp relief by recent proposals to
spend what seem to be unjustifiable sums on single free school projects.
Any freedoms linked to constraints around pay and conditions should also be afforded to all
schools. A particular area of focus should be the ability for schools to decide whether or not to
implement performance related pay. It is more important to ensure that policies around pay

help to develop a world class profession where teachers are not only equitably rewarded but
also feel confident and secure rather than experiment with untried, untested and unproven
performance incentives.
The Murky World of the Middle Tier
With the recent reduction in influence of LAs, and the growing awareness that Whitehall can't run
everything, the importance of an effective middle tier has become an increasingly pressing policy
priority. The Coalition's response has been to introduce eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs).
Since their inception the RSCs role and remit has changed without discussion, consultation or
professional debate. They have gained increased powers over maintained schools and have also got to
strike an increasingly delicate balance between promoting academies and monitoring quality. In a
recent Academies Week (now Schools Week) article (Friday 19 December 2014) it was revealed that
the new RSCs' performance would be measured by the number of academies or free schools in their
area. Once again the danger is that the purpose of this emerging middle tier is muddied in the drive
and desire to grow the number of academies and free schools rather than drive improvement through
support, challenge and effective collaboration.
The work of the RSCs and Headteacher Boards forms part of the complex landscape of the Middle Tier
in English education. Alongside LAs, Teaching School Alliances, the growing number of Regional
Headteacher Associations, the RSCs and Headteacher Boards appear to be gaining a growing and ever
more powerful remit to decide upon the future of school commissioning in their areas. Unlike the
other bodies mentioned there is a real lack of clarity and transparency around the work of RSCs and
their Headteacher boards. A recent FOI request made by Academies Week (now Schools Week) to see
minutes of their meeting was rejected because a minister decided that any disclosure would "prejudice
the effective conduct of public affairs." The fact that the DfE refuses to inspect multi-academy trusts
(MATs) in the same way that it does LAs once again points towards an un-level playing field. Labour
and the Liberal Democrats have their own views on the middle tier and how it should be organised.
Clearly there is an urgent need for clarity. Rather than specifying any particular structure we would like
to put forward a set of principles that we feel should underpin any middle-tier arrangements:

Any middle tier should have as its primary aim the promotion of a sense of collective
responsibility based upon a culture of support and rigorous challenge. It should achieve this by
nurturing a spirit of collaboration.

The composition of any middle tier body, such as Regional Headteacher Boards, should be
representative of all schools types if it has oversight of those schools. If representatives of
these boards are to be elected heads from all schools should get a vote. Getting this wrong
could lead to a mistrust that would stifle all collaboration.

All decisions about school commissioning should be made through a clear and transparent
process and should be made in response to clearly defined local place needs. Decisions about
commissioning should be made as part of a coordinated and collaborative process between
LAs, RSCs and trust bodies. Any local competitions should be coordinated and managed locally
with DfE oversight.

 Decisions about interventions in schools in difficulty should also be made as part of a

coordinated and collaborative process between LAs, RSCs and governing bodies irrespective of
the structural status of the school.

Key performance indicators, for officers such as RSCs, should all to relate to school
improvement and not to the promotion of any structural agenda.

MATs should be subject to exactly the same inspection arrangements as LAs to reduce the
potential for mistrust to affect collaboration between maintained schools, academies, free
schools and academy chains. Recent changes have gone some way to addressing this
inequality. However, the Coalition have stopped short of publishing judgements for MATs in
the way that they do for LAs. If Las can be deemed effective or ineffective so must MATs.
Harmonising freedoms is all about ensuring that schools can work together on an equal footing on the
things that matter; great teaching and great leadership.

POLICY PROPOSAL 4b: To Introduce Transition Standards Grants to incentivise innovation towards
systematic primary-secondary progression
We think all schools should be required to participate in processes that secure sustained progress for
all children as they make the journey from primary to secondary school. Teachers and school leaders
should exchange information routinely on students, standards, curriculum and assessment across
Years 5 to Year 8; this should include spending time in classrooms and examining student work and
assessments. Given that some excellent practice is already in place and there is a risk that a
government-prescribed system would be overly bureaucratic, we propose to stimulate innovation in
this area through access to Transition Standards Grants. In addition, schools will need to demonstrate
to OfSTED that they have excellent institutional knowledge and evidence of student tracking derived
from their engagement with cross-phase processes.
Crossing Boundaries
Throughout the country there are excellent examples of work taking place to help children make a
successful transition from primary to secondary. In many instances this transition ensures that children
arrive at secondary school knowing what to expect and emotionally prepared for the journey ahead.
There is a clear focus on making sure that the emotional and social aspects of transition are strong and
as seamless as possible. This is often achieved through detailed and careful liaison between partner
schools. This work on emotional support with transition is absolutely vital for our children. The real
challenge, however, is to blend the best aspects of this emotional preparation with longer-term and
deeper academic transition to ensure that the learning gains made at primary are not lost or at worst
unpicked during the transition period to secondary. Similarly there also exists a window of opportunity
where children who have not thrived at primary can be reconnected with learning. Seizing this chance
can make all the difference to a young persons life, not only at secondary school but also beyond.

We believe that a renewed focus on primary-secondary transition is crucial. What we do not want
though is some form of national transition strategy, with centrally mandated processes and
bureaucracy. Rather than encouraging creativity it could stifle already excellent practice in this crucial
area. Some work may need to be done on facilitating the sharing of data effectively prior to transition.
The establishment of Transition Standards Grants should, we believe, help schools to innovate and to
develop strong case studies around transition that could be used to help shape strategy across a range
of different contexts nationally. The rich landscape of different cluster, trust and federation
arrangements that exist as well as multi academy trusts and all-through schools should make this a
really fertile area for exploration and research.
With the removal of levels and the changes to the national curriculum it is imperative that colleagues
collaborate more and more across phases; it is evident that we need not only to share curriculum
expertise and specialism but also a clear understanding of what it means to make the journey from
pre-school to A level and beyond. By developing a collaborative approach around understanding
assessment, knowledge acquisition and development and through sharing key data, we should be able
to garner real successes in the area of transition and ensure that the pace of learning is not checked or
appropriate challenge lost at this key point in a childs education.
Whilst we recognise that the competitive world of secondary transfer often means that partnerships
and clusters are not always easily defined, we still believe that meaningful engagement in this area is
crucial if we are going to be able to ensure that all pupils make the progress that they should with their
learning, irrespective of their background or geography. As such primary to secondary transition
arrangements should feature as an area for exploration in any inspection process. Not in a heavy
handed or simplistic fashion but as part of gaining an understanding of how learners are tracked and
assessed prior to joining secondary school. It should also seek to capture how a shared understanding
of pedagogy and practice is developed across phases to ensure the best possible teaching.
What this policy proposal has at its heart is a strong principle of collective responsibility across all
phases. For far too long different phases have kicked the can back along the road to account for why
youngsters may or may not have been successful. This is for the most part a product of our
accountability measures and the need for schools to use certain data to prove whether they are
outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Employers are equally guilty of shifting
blame when they lament that they cannot find the workers with the skills they need. Intelligent
collaboration is the key. Not buck passing. Improved primary to secondary transition is a great first
step on the road to a different, more positive way of thinking.

The First 100 Days

We believe the following actions should be taken in the first 100 days of any new
government:
1. To extend all freedoms available to academies and free schools to all
maintained schools especially freedoms linked to the national curriculum.
2. To develop a clear, open and transparent set of competition rules and
processes around the commissioning of new school provision.
This should see decisions about new provision made by a
representative group of middle-tier partners (LAs, RSCs, Headteacher
Boards etc.) in consultation with the DfE. This will be crucial to
addressing pressing school place issues. It must reflect local needs and
strengths.
3. To establish a fund and bidding process to support the development of
cross-phase working with an initial focus on developing primary-secondary
transition.
This work must focus on ensuring progression and should involve
rigorous research methods in order to establish a clear evidence base
around impact on progress throughout secondary school. Explorations
of collaborative working arrangements between groups of secondaries
should be encouraged, especially in areas where transition
arrangements are subject to intense competition that might impede
effective transition work.

Twitter: @HeadsRoundtable
Find us at: http://headteachersroundtable.wordpress.com
Contact us at: headteachersrt@hotmail.co.uk