October 2015

The know zone

  • Worth the risk?
    Julia Harnden examines the value of spending precious leadership time and resources on risk management. More
  • Sea-change for ‘coasting’ schools
    The Education and Adoption Bill 2015-16 would give the Secretary of State (SoS) greater powers to act when schools are deemed to be ‘coasting’ and to create academies. Katie Michelon of Browne Jacobson LLP explains the changes. More
  • The taxman cometh
    Changes to the Lifetime Allowances limit are likely to mean more of us paying tax on our pensions, says Stephen Casey. More
  • Independents’ Day
    Barbara Stanley reports from ASCL’s annual information conference for leaders in the independent sector. More
  • Speakers cornered
    Attending conferences can be an excellent way for senior leaders to soak up a lot of important information in a relatively short space of time. More
  • A free new digital resource for schools
    Sport England is a public body, working to increase the number of people who play sport regularly with the aim of making their lives better through sport. Schools play a vital role in the provision of community sport with 39 per cent of sports facilities in England on school sites. More
  • Backing EBaccs?
    The government is proposing that every pupil should take EBacc subjects at GCSE . What are your views? Does your school already offer EBacc to all pupils? Do you agree or disagree with the government’s proposals and why? Here, ASCL members share their views. More
  • Leaders’ surgery
    Hotline advice expressed here, and in calls to us, is made in good faith to our members. Schools and colleges should always take formal HR or legal advice from their indemnified provider before acting. More
  • Last word
    Showing some appreciation can make a real difference to someone’s day, week, month or term. It’s cost-effective and all it takes is two little words… More
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The government is proposing that every pupil should take EBacc subjects at GCSE . What are your views? Does your school already offer EBacc to all pupils? Do you agree or disagree with the government’s proposals and why? Here, ASCL members share their views.

Backing EBaccs?

Increase freedom

I am proud to work in a school that includes Latin, classical civilisation and City & Guilds agriculture in our Key Stage 4 offer. GCSE history is our most popular option subject and a much greater percentage of students than nationally enter for triple science.

However, we also send about 15 per cent of our cohort out on day release vocational courses that show excellent progression post-16, resulting in very low Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) figures.

It’s called flexibility and diversity. It was fashionable briefly, but I fear that the pincer movement of financial restraint and performance table pressures will make it an endangered species.

Educational progress means fewer students getting good grades in the name of improved rigour. Welcome to the future.

Steve Gray - Head of School, Redborne Upper School, Bedford

Teacher shortages

Schools are finding it extremely difficult to employ modern foreign languages (MFL), geography and computing teachers. In a very challenging school, history teachers are also hard to come by.

Many children from deprived and challenging families desire a vocational skill not a very academic pathway. It’s hard enough to motivate many families and children anyway let alone making them undertake a subject grouping that has no relevance to them.

Surely, there is a skills shortage nationally not an academic ability shortage! I cannot even see how this is politically expedient – it’s just odd. Perhaps the ‘white’ working-class underachieving students should go to China to experience a love of learning!

Christian Wardlow - Deputy Principal, Rydens Enterprise School and Sixth Form College, Between Hersham and Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

Let students choose

We had one student who got 11 A* grades at GCSE but didn’t get the EBacc. Should we have told her that she should have dropped GCSE music to do geography? We had another severely dyslexic student who excelled in the optional subjects that he selected. Should we have told him that he can’t do GCSE art in order to do French?

A student’s GCSE choices should play to their strengths and allow them to enjoy what they study in school. What could be worse than asking students to follow courses that they find either uninspiring or inaccessible? For our weakest students, there is a worse possibility that they can follow courses that they find uninspiring and inaccessible!

The argument has been made that Key Stage 4 courses need to be rigorous, substantial and challenging. Does anyone really believe that the EBacc is not the sole preserve of these qualities? 

Francis Power - Head of School, The Fallibroome Academy, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Include the arts

I’m a musician so you’ll probably think I’m biased, but Britain plc earns huge sums from the arts. Of all downloads of music in the world, one in every seven is British in origin. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Royal National Theatre broadcast their productions to international audiences.

The movie industry acclaims British skills in acting and we are world-leaders in digital film technologies. Internationally, art galleries beg us to lend works for their exhibitions and our fashion designers compete successfully against the best. Tourists flock here to enjoy our cultural heritage. All this activity contributes generously to the UK’s economy.

If politicians do not value the human benefits of the arts, can they not at least grasp the fiscal argument that future employment from many young people is likely to be in this field?

Cutting them off from laying early foundations because arts are not part of the EBacc is extremely shortsighted.

Dr Janet Harvey - Senior Teacher Fellow, The University of Warwick, Coventry (A retired ASCL member)

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LEADING READING