The government should be “moving heaven and earth” to ensure that schools “can keep doors open”, rather than taking “frankly appalling....cheap shots”, a heads’ union leader has told the education secretary in a letter today.
Signed by the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) general secretary, Geoff Barton, and its president, Evelyn Forde, the letter responds to Kit Malthouse’s speech at the Conservative Party conference yesterday afternoon.
The education secretary said in his speech that he wanted the government to be “much more assertive about intervention and standards” and that education needed “constant pressure” in order to “drive it forward”.
“We need to reflect on the fact that there is nothing quite as persistent as people hanging on to mediocrity,” he added.
Today’s letter from the ASCL says the union was “frankly appalled” at Mr Malthouse’s contention that people leading and working in England’s schools and colleges are “hanging on to mediocrity” and require continued pressure from the government to improve.
The union says that close to 90 per cent of schools currently carry a “good” or “outstanding” Ofsted rating, despite the “extreme pressures” faced by leaders, teachers and support staff.
The letter also suggests that Mr Malthouse and the Department for Education “should be moving heaven and earth to provide schools and colleges with the funding they need to keep their doors open”.
School funding plea to Kit Malthouse
They should also be focusing on children with “increasingly complex needs” and securing a “functional pipeline” of teaching talent,” rather than “taking “cheap shots” at a profession already “on its knees”, it says.
“Anything else is mere posturing,” the letter adds.
The ASCL also highlights data from a recent survey, showing the reasons why staff are being driven away from schools:
- Exhaustion or fatigue (cited by 68 per cent of respondents)
- Unsustainable workload or working hours (67 per cent)
- Salary (59 per cent)
- Lack of recognition or respect from government (57 per cent)
- Stress (53 per cent)
- Wellbeing (52 per cent)
- Accountability measures (50 per cent)
- Government education policy (50 per cent)
- Pressure from funding restraints (49 per cent)
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Mr Malthouse’s speech on the penultimate day of the conference recognised that “vast progress” had been made to improve England’s schools but that there were “pockets” that still required attention.
The minister did not mention any plans for new grammar schools or say what the government’s plans were for the existing Schools Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords.
