Will the Coalition’s planned reforms to training, pay and inspection inspire a new generation of outstanding teachers? Unlikely, says Sam Ellis.

Reform's black mark?

When, on 19 June, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the emergency budget would be “when the rubber really hits the road” Alf Dobbins sprang to mind.

Alf taught me A level physics. He was a diamond. He could get you to join the dots in even the most obscure parts of the syllabus. I remember spending time doing a range of mad investigations and being gathered into groups of three and four by Alf to have my thinking challenged and for him to explain yet another key idea. Alf would doodle on a piece of paper in the centre of the table with his Parker 51, starting with his catchphrase, “Well, the thing is...”

Alf taught me what happens when the rubber hits the road. It either slides or it doesn’t and the difference is to do with friction.

If you try to stop a car or change its direction too quickly you will skid. The friction when you skid is less than when you roll to a halt, so skids are intrinsically dangerous: you go further and you may crash.

How fast can school funding and variables associated with it change course without a crash? We may soon find out.

If Coalition ministers had been taught by Alf, they would understand key concepts like momentum and critical and chaotic variables, and that the key catalyst is the teacher who challenges misconceptions and supports you in constructing an effective concept framework.

Alf’s barmy experiments, Parker pen, piece of paper and off-the-wall explanations were timeless. They would be as effective today as they were in the 1960s. It is a good teacher that makes the difference.

I have no idea if Alf had a 2:1 and, quite frankly, I don’t care. He could communicate, inspire and make things make sense. How that fits with the Coalition statement “We will seek to attract more top science and maths graduates to be teachers” I do not know, but I would prefer a good teacher to a top graduate in front of a class any day.

So what price for Alf in the current climate? There are various financial factors all of which may be critical variables as we skid to a financial halt.

Cutting university training budgets may be unwise. Early experiences of the classroom are critical and a poorly supported start will lead to many potential Alfs not sticking with teaching as a career. Will schools have the capacity – and expertise – to provide on-the-job training? Just because I can swim and ride a bike does not mean I can teach someone else to do so, even if I have the time. Proposals for training in the Coalition document need modelling, preferably in consultation with those who have the relevant experience.

The Coalition document states: “We will reform the existing rigid national pay and conditions rules to give schools greater freedoms to pay good teachers more.” If that produces a pay free-for-all, I fear many schools will find themselves outbid for the services of an Alf and a few will have the benefit of being able to afford outstanding teachers. This in itself will produce a highly polarised, self-fulfilling system.

Pay is only one factor. There are softer issues which do not feature in the target-driven numbers game. Ethos, the sense that what you are being asked to do is both worthwhile and possible, and the absence of fear that you may be unfairly judged by a formulaic inspection regime, are just three of them.

The Coalition document again: “We will simplify the regulation of standards in education and target inspection on areas of failure” and “deal with poor performance.”

In my 36 years in secondary schools I had to deal with some poor performance but it was hardly a frequent problem. Where there was under-performance it was often due to the production demand being well above an individual’s production capacity. I fear that a shift in funding, not carefully modelled, will produce the skid and crash that turns potential Alfs away and marks those who remain as apparent failures.

The current financial situation requires the system to change. But it is people like Alf who will make whatever system we end up with work. Some informed modelling to support that idea is preferable to skidding down a helter-skelter slope of free schools, new style academies, and other ideas which, taken as a whole, could easily destroy many who travel in the vehicle known as secondary education, not least the students.

• Sam Ellis is ASCL’s funding specialist

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