Walk down the high streets of most English cities and you see the same chain stores appear again and again.
In some cities you will also see a mix of boutique stores and perhaps an artisan bakery or a free-range butcher. In others, though, you will see empty shops, boarded-up windows and a lack of that same sort of unique providers.
The difference between the two is usually driven by the affluence of a given area - a rich area can sustain the smaller traders, whereas a poorer area is generally only suited to businesses with the economies of scale to make operating in those cities viable.
While this may be the sharp end of how capitalism and market forces dictate the success or otherwise of businesses, there is a growing sense that this same situation is creeping into education with regard to schools.
Rich and poor schools
In some areas of the country, rich schools proliferate, with high pupil numbers and growing rolls, leading to greater investment in CPD and resources, better outcomes, a choice of high-quality teachers during recruitment and so on.
In other areas with low incomes, however, outcomes stagnate, money for CPD is reduced, admissions fall and teachers leave.
This rich-school/poor-school divide and the virtuous or vicious circle that schools enter as a result can have many causes - sometimes, admittedly, it may be due to poor financial decisions by the school.
But just as often it will be due to forces beyond a school’s control, from government funding changes or wider economic impacts to a fall in population in a local area that results in a school being below its pupil admissions number (PAN) criteria.
Indeed, with fewer pupils entering schools over the next few years, this is something that is going to affect even more schools in the near future, so we know that this situation, whereby funding falls and schools suffer as a result, will continue.
Making education work for everyone
For some schools the solution to these woes has been to join a multi-academy trust.
That, in itself, is no bad thing, but there are two key issues we must be wary of.
The first is that it could easily mean a school rushes into joining a MAT that is not right for them and ends up in no better a position than it was in before, if the ethos or cultures do not align. That is an outcome that serves non one well in the long run.
Secondly, there is no guarantee that a school’s financial situation will improve if it joins a MAT.
It will rely almost entirely on the MAT’s leadership and whether they see it as a moral or ethical imperative to ensure that the school is adequately supported when it joins the trust.
In a heavily capitalistic society, the idea of moving money from a successful school to a less successful one might sound like an anathema to many, but education should not see itself as entirely at the mercy of market forces and profit-and-loss balance sheets.
We must, therefore, recognise the increasingly important need to ensure that MATs and local authorities alike are prudent in managing funds.
The allure of costly, quick-fix CPD
And it’s not just in terms of school structures that we need to be aware of the impact of marketisation and capitalistic forces within education.
In CPD, for example, there are all manner of providers looking to sell themselves to schools. Many are well-meaning and worth using - but we must be mindful that the company with the best marketing does not necessarily have the best product or greatest impact.
Yet in a school system driven by heavy accountability metrics, an expensive CPD course or new product that captures the attention with the promise of a “quick fix” and rapid improvements can seem highly desirable.
Many will be worth using, of course, but it could be that a smaller “boutique” provider is more suitable, so we need to ensure that we have the will to find them, understand what they can offer and recognise the long-term benefit they may have.
We must also look around our school, explore our networks and see what skills exist down the road before we commit to something over 100 miles away.
Sometimes the best CPD is in a school within a few miles that is effectively doing what you seek to do to improve.
Building a rich ecoystem for all
If we can get this approach right, it will mean that when we walk down the high street of education, we are met not with a homogeneous type of school and provider ecosystem but a varied and thriving sector that gives all children, in all parts of the country, the best chance of educational success.
The rich-school, poor-school divide is something that policymakers must keep in mind, as the “market” of education evolves, grows and develops over the next few years.
We don’t want to take away the competition, innovation and marketing as it exists, but we must support those that are struggling to ensure they don’t become the victims of the success of their neighbouring school.
Sufian Sadiq is director of teaching school at Chiltern Teaching School Hub
