A Great Education for All

The Headteachers’ Roundtable

POLICY PAPER:

TACKLING UNDERACHIEVEMENT AT THE SOURCE

Education Election Manifesto 2015

Media contact: Ruth Whymark ruth.whymark@cranmer.merton.sch.uk

@ruth_whymark

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

2

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 didn’t 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.

It’s that simple.

Ten Policies towards a Great Education for All

1a: 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.

1b: To implement the blueprint for the Royal College of Teaching.

2a: To introduce a National Baccalaureate framework following the Headteachers’ Roundtable

model.1

2b: To introduce progressive qualifications in English and mathematics up to Level 3 to

facilitate continued study to 18 for all learners.

3a: To implement an Intelligent Inspection Framework.

3b: To stabilise Performance Measures.

4a: To harmonise freedoms across maintained schools and academies.

4b: To Introduce Transition Standards Grants to incentivise innovation towards systematic

primary- secondary progression.

5a: To develop a National 0-5 Parent Support Strategy.

5b: To establish a National Recruitment Fund.

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

3

Tackling Underachievement at the Source

The Pupil Premium, whilst welcome, has so far had a very limited impact upon raising the educational

outcomes of the socio-economically deprived. The key intervention to tackle underachievement

needs to be aimed at the families of the very young because the die is cast by the time children reach

school age. If we do not tackle this issue at source we will never properly eradicate the cycle of

generational underachievement. On that basis, it makes sense to re-direct some Pupil Premium

resources towards this area of policy. The other major issue which needs addressing is how we

attract high quality Headteachers and leaders to lead under-performing schools. At the moment

there is no incentive for good Headteachers or leaders to take on the difficult challenge of leading a

school in special measures because failure can mean the end of their careers: the personal cost of

failure is too high. There is a similar issue surrounding the recruitment of English and mathematics

specialists, as well as middle leaders.

POLICY PROPOSAL: To develop a National 0-5 Parent Support Strategy

We need to develop with some urgency a national inter-agency strategy supporting all parents to

create an optimal home learning environment for under 5s. Whilst recognising that families in socio-

economically deprived communities will have the greatest need, our aspiration should be to establish

universal entitlements to services that help all parents maximise their childrens’ health, well-being

and learning in the period before they arrive at school, whenever that may be. Parents who need

support to develop their child’s language development, self-esteem, school readiness and broader

aspirations should have access to education-orientated services in their communities. Building on the

evidence from research in this important field, we propose funding a series of extensive pilot projects

that work with parents, schools, health and social services to explore the most effective way to

deploy resources. This is a long-term strategy that will require cross-party commitment before the

results are seen; however it is unacceptable to ignore it any longer and we need to make start.

Within five years, we should be looking towards the implementation of a National 0-5 Parent Support

Strategy characterised by:

• Access to a funding stream that will allow an inter-agency strategy working within socio-

economically deprived areas where funding is targeted towards the most vulnerable families;

• The acknowledgement that this type of intervention is long term, beyond the electoral cycle

of government, with cross party political support for what will be a 20 year project or longer;

• Funding for evaluative research into the impact of the initiative upon the life chances of our

children, with published outcomes.

It is well known that by the time children arrive in school, affected from experiences and trauma in

their early childhood, their developmental impairment is already established. Attachment disorders

lead to symptoms which often can merge with diagnosed conditions such as ADHD and ASD. Adverse

childhood experiences have a clear correlation to negative adult outcomes, particularly those not

addressed or overcome before adolescence.

Attachment is the deep connection established between a child and care-giver that profoundly

affects a child’s development and ability to express emotions and develop relationships. Attachment

4

disorders are the result of negative experiences in early relationship. Caught in infancy, attachment

problems are often easy to correct with the right help and support.

Children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit

still, harder to rebound from disappointments and harder to follow directions, all of which have a

significant impact on the success of children throughout their school careers and into their adult

futures.

If families in poverty, with clearly identified risk factors such as family breakdown, addiction and

dysfunctional parenting, were supported appropriately through early intervention by health care

professionals and educationally-orientated services, the impact on learning readiness would be

immense.

A more sophisticated version of the Pupil Premium is needed to encompass families with children

from pre-birth to five. Already available data should be utilised to identify families, such as those in

receipt of housing benefit and who live in an area of deprivation, in order to enable further support

to be offered to allow children the best possible start in life.

We could develop a Profile Tool which identifies childhood trauma or special educational needs

linked to children’s Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Health Visitors and/or midwives could

utilise the profiling tool and could design family interventions for the most vulnerable, such as

attachment therapy, play therapy and parenting schemes. Other interventions could include a paid

mentoring scheme to raise aspirations for vulnerable families with funding streams redirected from

the Youth Justice programme and the Prison System.

POLICY PROPOSAL: To establish a National Recruitment and Retention Fund

In order to attract great leaders to areas of greatest need we should establish a National Recruitment

and Retention Fund which will provide well-targeted funding for areas of deprivation to attract and

retain talented Headteachers, senior and middle leaders as well as specialist English and

Mathematics teachers. There should be three to five year contracts with security of tenure for

talented leaders and teachers who commit themselves to working in schools in the most socio-

economically deprived areas of the country, with a guaranteed post once they have finished that

fixed-term contract. The retention of experienced school leaders, at every level, as well as specialist

classroom practitioners is widely acknowledged as one of the most challenging aspects of the school

workforce today. There also needs to be a national system of the identification and nurture of the

most promising future leaders in order for talented younger members of the school workforce to be

promoted.

As part of this ‘Retention’ strategy, school leaders and teachers should be invested in through

professional development opportunities; for instance, paid sabbaticals should be part of the standard

pay and conditions of service, as in other countries like Australia.

5

Schools in challenging circumstances often struggle to recruit and retain high quality staff, leaders

and governors. They often have falling rolls and therefore reduced budgets so that traditional

recruitment and retention strategies are not available to them.

Any additional funding available for recruitment and retention is not sustainable for the school

budget and so access to an alternative national recruitment fund is essential. Our policy is that

schools will be able to apply to the National Recruitment and Retention Fund in order that they can

offer remuneration which reflects the challenging circumstances of the posts being offered. There

has to be an acceptance that recruiting to challenging schools, or a school that is in challenging

circumstances, is difficult and costly.

Financial incentives from the National Recruitment and Retention fund should be used for

secondments, coaching models and school-to-school support so that capacity is built through the

system rather than drained from schools who are already struggling. High quality Chairs of Governors

should also be able to be seconded to schools in challenging circumstances in order to strengthen the

schools’ governing body.

Building internal capacity for sustainability will be supported through the National Recruitment and

Retention fund.

Applications to the National Recruitment and Retention fund will be available for the following:

• To enhance salaries to attract headteachers, senior and middle leaders;

• To fund the recruitment of governing bodies with the correct strategic skills and abilities;

• To fund relocation allowances;

• To enhance CPD packages including masters level professional development courses;

• To fund cross-school mentoring and coaching leadership support;

• To fund the early identification and support of aspirant leaders.

If we are going to improve the quality of teaching in all our schools we cannot, proverbially, afford to

continue to do what we have always done. We cannot just wish our schools in the most socio-

economically deprived areas of the country to be better; we need to follow what has happened in

London for the last decade, and invest extraordinarily in the leadership of our schools country-wide.

We have to tackle underachievement at the source.

6

The First 100 Days

We believe the following actions should be taken in the first 100 days of any new

government:

• To ensure that children and families eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant

(PPG) are identified centrally by the DfE, utilising existing data around

benefit entitlement. Schools should not have to rely on parent ‘self-

declaration’ method of identification of pupil eligibility. This accurate

identification of children and families eligible for the PPG would then ensure

that all 2 year olds eligible for the PPG have an entitlement to 15 hours of

free nursery provision.

• To establish a national Recruitment and Retention Fund for schools in

challenging circumstances and identify centrally schools eligible for access to

the fund.

• To review school teachers’ pay and conditions to ensure the issue of

‘retention’ is addressed, allowing for paid sabbaticals after a significant

period of service.

• To launch a national recruitment strategy for school governance.

• To create a national scheme to identify talented leaders and future leaders

to work in the most challenging circumstances.

Twitter: @HeadsRoundtable

Find us at: http://headteachersroundtable.wordpress.com

Contact us at: headteachersrt@hotmail.co.uk