Tag: Labour Party

Another SNP education failure: the OECD Review

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The SNP’s decision to postpone releasing the OECD’s review into Curriculum for Excellence till after the elections in May 2021 has merely led to heightened speculation about its contents. The Socialist Educational Association Scotland has its view on what will either be missing or edited out. The SEAS’ views were not invited to participate in the Review. When we approached either Scottish Government or the OECD  our views were not sought as a contribution either.

The SEAS welcomes the review. Any curricular system benefits from a process of review. This is  not necessarily permanent revolution but some form of  built-in renewal and change. Such renewal should not have to wait for a crisis and the need for a new normal or even building back better. Planning for a decade long change would be beneficial till we renew once more.

Talking of the pandemic one of the key elements in discussing the new future is taking account of a year of radical change. In the year from last March to March 2021, in countries across the globe and particularly where the impact of the pandemic was poorly managed (i.e. here); society was effectively de-schooled. 

In part, for too many children and young people, this led to a “schooling loss” the impact of which is yet to be fully measured.  Some young people never missed attending a school building that much and with their teachers adjusted to forms of online teaching and learning.  Other children and their families found ways to engage in home learning that compensated for missing their school. 

All of this means that there has been a radical consciousness-raising exercise about the value of attending school education, or as a neighbour’s P1 child had it in early March 2021 being “back at proper school “.  The opportunity is being missed to re-engage with Scottish society about a renewal of Curriculum for Excellence drawing on the past two decades as well as the range of experiences over the past year. 

Below are the proposals from the first National Debate. In 2002, the Labour-led Scottish Executive Education Department launched a national debate on schools for the 21st century. The debate elicited over 1500 responses and it is estimated that 20,000 people took part. It is a shame that that the views of the Scottish people have not yet been put into practice fully two decades after they were proposed. 

It is not too late to engage in a National Renewal Debate to match the thousands of contacts and the model of civic participation in education policy-making from the national debate at the start of the century. We need a new future now shaped by the Scottish people not the OECD, not just the Parliament, definitely not the international advisors and not solely the professionals. It takes all of us to raise a child. 

Letting Glasgow flourish

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Screenshot 2019-07-28 at 13.06.51SEAS responds to “An Ambitious Glasgow ” a Glasgow Labour Party Challenge paper on education.  We think Glasgow can  celebrate some of its great achievements over the past decade and flourish in the future with a social justice agenda.

In Scottish terms,  Glasgow has the unique education system. It’s the largest local authority. It has the greatest numbers of children and young people,  schools and centres,  teachers and staff.  Never mind that it also faces unique challenges too.

SEAS notes the progress Glasgow’s students have made in their attainment in the last decade.  In terms of attainment the recent Education Scotland (2019)[1]report focused on attainment.  It noted that over the past 4 years “Glasgow performs consistently better than its virtual comparator but remains below the national figures. It can also be seen that Glasgow is closing the gap with the national figures.”  Glasgow’s own report to councillors noted the major increase since 2007.

The SEAS recognises that under Labour Glasgow’s achievements in the city’s education system in the 21st century have been far wider that attainment progress. By the way, the progress in Glasgow’s education system predated any claims of success from the SNP.

 Wider achievements 

Since 2000, Glasgow and its education system have responded positively to making provision to refugees and asylum seekers. Glasgow has become a city with more languages spoken than ever among its citizens.  Our comprehensive schools have ensured significant progress being made in an inclusive city.  Glasgow’s inclusive and welcoming approach to ethnic minorities has led to this diversity being a real strength.

Now, in Glasgow, the highest attaining groups in the city are girls from ethnic minority backgrounds.  The in-school provision of bilingual support in local schools has benefitted all Glasgow’s children and young people.  In particular the SEAS admires the quality of provision within Glasgow’s primary schools, many of which work together with all the families and  their diverse communities so very successfully. The SEAS would wish such inclusive approaches were extended even further to those with additional support needs and disabilities.

Glasgow as well as being inclusive of its diverse school population has also worked very well to promote equality education through tackling sectarianism in projects such as “Sense Over Sectarianism”.  This project which Glasgow initiated is a model of effective practice for promoting and embedding equality education in Scottish education.

The paper should also note the significant decline in children and young people from Glasgow referred for offending behaviour to the Children’s Hearing System.  In 2006, 2842 children from the Glasgow area were referred and by 2017 this had declined to 441 children[2].   Glasgow’s education services have played their part in such reductions as during the period there has been a significant decline in exclusions from school. There is evidence from the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice[3]that exclusion from school education is one of key factors predicting offending behaviour.

Scottish government under SNP would do well to ensure closer attention to these education successes in Scotland’s largest city.

Glasgow Labour Party’s challenge paper on education Ambitious Glasgow highlights areas where further progress can be made.

Early years

Glasgow’s Labour Party makes early years the key priority for tackling educational disadvantage.

UNICEF’s paper “Early Moments Matter for every child” (2017)[4]placed its number one priority as being

‘Invest urgently in services that give young children, especially the most deprived, the best start life in life.”

The SEAS sees the need to consider greater flexibility in starting ages beyond 5 and greater flexibility in the curriculum to ensure more play and experiential learning across 0-7 years.  Many children will benefit from a flexible school start.   It would be better than too-early and too-formal approaches of schooling such children seated in rows, rigid groupings based on some notion of “ability” and overly-strict timetabling of the school day.  The SEAS proposes greater flexibility in starting ages.

The OECD recent report, “Starting Strong” (2017)[5]supports the idea of more flexible support proposing better quality in early years. It emphasises the benefit of educational interventions at early childhood for those disadvantaged children compared to well-off children.

We need to make our schools more ready for all our children, not get children ready for schooling.  SEAS supports continued improvement in early child development service to offer high quality learning and care with staffing weighted towards areas facing disadvantage.   We note the challenges faced by the underfunding of early years by Scottish Government as highlighted by Audit Scotland report “Early Learning and child care” (2018)[6], referenced in the SEAS motion passed by Scottish Conference in March 2018[7].

The SEAS is aware that council provision is generally of the highest quality in Scotland.  We recognise the vital role of third sector and other partners at this stage and encourage the Labour Party when in power to work in partnership with other partners to improve the quality of provision in private and voluntary provision.    As a priority, the SEAS supports investment in quality early learning with access to staff trained in integrated approaches, improving access to teaching. We should ensure more challenging and enjoyable experiential learning through play within early level of Curriculum for Excellence.

Schools and attainment

SEAS would encourage Glasgow Labour Party to consider a social justice agenda for our schools raising achievement and not solely focused on attainment.  While Glasgow over the past ten years has improved attainment outcomes as measured by exam performance, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged remains.   Inclusive education with a focus on social justice would do more to narrow such gaps and raise achievement outcomes for those in our most disadvantaged areas.  The SEAS would welcome moves to ensure teaching of the highest quality taking place in the areas of disadvantage.

Glasgow as the largest local authority can do more to “grow our own educators”, encouraging child development learning, supporting peer educators and establishing Aspiring Educators Groups in every secondary school to mentor young people towards working in learning and education.

We want Scotland to aspire to global best practice by being a world leader in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4[8]and its targets and realising children’s rights to inclusive education.

Schools should embed equality education to challenge stereotyping and reduce bullying against those different, including class, gender, disability, race, sexual orientation religion of belief with greater attention to sustainability, global citizenship and equality education.

We should invest in and foster real inclusion for those with additional support needs and plan for progressive inclusion with a new role for special schools and specialist services to reduce segregated education and support inclusive schools.

Positive destinations, skills and lifelong learning

At the Senior Phase collaboration among schools, education authorities, communities, unions and businesses is needed to give greater value to skills for life, learning and work including digital skills, particularly for working class young people. We can do better in offering personalised pathways to prepare young people for future careers in technical and vocational learning.  Municipal socialism within education at the Senior Phase must involve a collective and collaborative effort across the city to improve outcomes for all our young people.

We call on Glasgow to eliminate any public support or subsidy to private fee-charging schools in Glasgow and seek to phase out private fee-paying schools.  Glasgow schools and young people will benefit from educating all our young citizens in local inclusive comprehensive schools.

The SEAS is concerned at reports of children failing within Gaelic Medium Education in Glasgow and calls for language support particularly at the early years for children aiming to be bilingual in English and Gaelic. The good practice within Glasgow for English as a Second Language support can be successfully extended to support for Gaelic as a Second language. Children make better progress in two languages when their “mother “ tongue is supported too.

SEAS is not aware of evidence to support continued use of rigid inflexible grouping and setting in schools.  Too many schools utilise this approach particularly in the Broad General Education and recent evidence casts doubt on its effectiveness especially for children facing disadvantage (Education Endowment Foundation[9]).  In the Executive Summary p9 the OECD in Equity and Quality in Education (2012)[10]proposes that reducing rigid grouping, stratification and early setting leads to better overall outcomes for schools particularly in disadvantaged areas.

The role of Glasgow City Council in monitoring “Ambitious Glasgow”

Finally, we see these approaches taking place with greater autonomy and flexibility at community level. Schools are to be encouraged to work towards better collaboration within and between schools in their communities and beyond.  Professor Mel Ainscow has set out an agenda for a more equitable education system. [11]In this approach, given greater professional autonomy, the role of the local authority is key in monitoring, supporting and challenging schools.  In our view the local authority ensures schools work towards a more equitable system on a social justice strategy set nationally and secure inclusive education for all our children.

References

[1]Education Scotland Report on Glasgow City Council  2019

[2] Online statistical Dashboard, Scottish Children’s reporter

[3]  Making school a positive experience  Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice

[4] Early Moments matter for every child   UNICEF 2017

[5] Starting Strong OECD 2017

[6] Early Learning and care report  Audit Scotland  2017

[7]  SEAS motionto Scottish Labour Party Conference 2018

[8] Sustainable Development Goal 4 and its targets, UNESCO

[9] Education Endowment Foundation

[10]Equity and Quality in Education OECD (2012)

[11]“Towards a more equitable system” Fabians Education (2019)

 

All Things Socialist Education 2

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The Socialist Educational Association Scotland (SEAS) aims to energise debate and discussion about Scottish education. We see the need to extend the influence of the ideas underpinning a socialised comprehensive education system. The case for socialised inclusive comprehensive education tackling inequalities is being made not just by the SEAS but now across policy communities.  In our view there is now a clear “policy gap” between such ideas and the educational policies of the SNP, more and more often drawn from a Tory playbook supported by Tories in Holyrood.

Recently we met with councillors from Midlothian (Margot Russell, Jim Muirhead and John Hackett) to discuss with them their approach to a forward-looking agenda for education. Our “all things socialist education” follows a similar meeting with Springburn and Maryhill CLP.

SEAS opened the meeting with sharing key points from our policy paper and highlighted our five key priorities: –

  • idea of community-based collaboration exemplified by early years wrap round provision;
  • inclusive comprehensive schools based on children’s rights;
  • at senior phase collaboration leading to positive outcomes and destinations including development of quality vocational learning;
  • ensure more varied approaches to accountability and review end inspections of primary schools and promote self evaluation; and
  • eliminate overly supportive Government aid and hidden public subsidy to private schools

Within the meeting we

  • identified key challenges facing Labour Councillors in relation to education including the impact of cuts
  • talked about drawing on good practice in local education authorities with a view to shaping SEAS policy
  • shared views on Scottish Government proposals for education as outlined in Empowering Schools: A Consultation on the Provisions of the Education (Scotland) Bill.

In a wide-ranging engagement the following themes were touched upon:

  • aspects of good practice in Midlothian Education Services – continuous improvement in educational attainment; strong LA management team; engagement of parents and community e.g. Money Advice; targeted intervention with support and resources to areas of greatest need; very good early years provision;
  • concerns regarding SNP’s Regional Improvement Collaboratives (RIC) and Scottish Government’s agenda in disempowering local authorities and centralising control. With RICs there are particular issues for smaller authorities due to time officers are spending on RIC which could be spent on front line support; failure of Government to recognise that collaboration has always taken place across authorities to share good practice; pressure on headteachers and the associated administrative burden etc.
  • concerns re need for greater collaboration across Labour Councillors in Scotland (SEAS outlined proposal for a conference to share good practice).   Reflections on the leading role COSLA took in the past in terms of strategic thinking and promoting the sharing of good practice through Portfolio holders and senior officers.
  • Scottish Labour should share information based on a skills audit of elected members and Party members. The Party’s Socialist Societies have a key role in sharing socialist perspectives on services that goes beyond the producers’ perspective yet can engage workers, consumers and users.
  • challenges of financing of local government: raising council tax; engaging parents and communities and explaining the challenges to them through community consultation; engagement of Party members in the budget process.
  • opportunities presented by shared campuses as community campuses: several examples of good practice shared. Agreed that Case Studies would be helpful. SEAS to reconsider challenges inherent with private schools, segregated special schools and faith schools and open debate and dialogue in these areas.

SEAS remains keen to engage further with CLP, council groups, party members on pushing forward with a socialist education agenda based on community collaboration.

 

SEAS welcomes (re-) appointment of Iain Gray MSP as education spokesperson

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SEAS welcomes Iain Gray’s appointment as Education Skills and Science spokesperson for Labour in the Scottish Parliament.  The SEAS are pleased to welcome Iain’s  continued leadership in this area to challenge the unwelcome, regressive changes of SNP and to build an agenda for real change in education that will deliver for our schools and children and young people. Indeed we remember that back in the day the SEAS were one of the first groups in the Labour Party to support his nomination as MSP (back in the last century!).

 

 

 

“All things socialist education”

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Maryhill and Springburn CLP invited the Socialist Educational Association Scotland to one of their meetings in Possilpark, Glasgow to share a discussion on “All Things Socialist Education” this week.

SEAS opened the discussion seeking members’ views on the key principles of a socialist education system.

CLP members outlined a series of essential characteristics of our socialist education system and areas for continued progressive development. All children and young people should be assessed on their potential, truly assessment for all. Concomitant with this would be a highly qualified workforce, continuing raising the standard of our teaching profession.   In general the SEAS values our teachers and we can further develop our trust in their qualities, serving within public education.

Members were convinced of the need to treat children and young people as individuals and take account of and support those with differences such as children with autism. People with conditions such as dyslexia, autism or other additional support needs should not be seen as a problem as they were in the past. Members’ personal experiences of large class sizes in secondary and setting and streaming were raised. Speakers spoke of that feeling of being sorted out and devalued by a system that can seem just to reproduce and reinforce inequalities.   Children and young people are now identified with their support needs. Yet SNP cuts in education, particularly to support for learning teachers and classroom assistants, means many children with support needs do not get the support they are entitled to or that they need to benefit from school education. In some schools there is clearly a level of disengagement of working class young people at secondary stages.

Aligned to this were cited the words of Jimmy Reid

“Look at these housing estates and high-rise flats – look at all the windows. Behind every one of these windows is somebody who might be a horse-jumping champion, a formula one racing champion, a yachtsman of great degree, but he’ll never know because he’ll never step on a yacht or formula one car – he’ll never get the chance.”

Small changes taken forward with effective leadership can make significant differences to schools and push forward in a positive fashion schools, that had a poor profile previously among their community. There is value in supporting the early years more as well as a breadth of experiences across music, arts and sport.

The factory system of schooling should be ended and ways found through shared approaches and mentoring schemes to address the disparity in social and cultural capital between middle- and working-class communities.

The SEAS spoke to their five point agenda of investment in early years, the promotion of play and personalised pathways with children being able to start school at 5, 6 or 7.

Inclusive education can address the sorting and streaming of children by ensuring support for difference whether social class, gender, additional support or disability, ethnic minority or sexual orientation. Instead of cuts we need to invest more and consider changes to school organisation.

The SEAS recognises the need to promote successes in vocational approaches ending the academic/vocational divide and equipping young people with the skills for life and work.

The SEAS would also like to see the end of all state support for private fee-paying schools and centres. They should not receive any public support either indirectly as charities or free support from Scottish Government and education Scotland. Even though their numbers are declining we want that decline to continue.

Finally the SEAS is clear that accountability needs to be reshaped to ensure greater accountability to communities whether in school or around a school.  Accountability needs to be broader than high-stakes inspection.  The SNP are reducing democratic accountability by removing responsibilities from local councils to bureaucratic regional collaboratives and taking away teacher democracy through removing elections to the General Teaching Council of Scotland.

Bill Butler, chair of SEAS summed up the views and set an agenda that takes account of the strengths of Scottish education yet identifies where we need to do better. He challenged the SNP to retract their cuts in education. He noted the SNP seems to be no friend of accountability and democracy in Scottish education.

We Need to Talk About Private Schools

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Seems now we just can’t keep those exclusive private schools out of the glare of poor publicity. Given the present context, the SEAS supports the call for a consideration of the governance and safeguarding issues in the private fee-paying sector in Scotland. Maybe even ask the question do we really need them?

We do need to be mindful that schools in the private sector, face a context of significant challenges. Their challenges include decade-long declining numbers, continual concerns about safeguarding in independent schools yet a softly, softly approach from the SNP Government and Her Majesty’s Inspectors to Scotland’s elitist autonomous schools.

Firstly let’s be open and honest about private schools. They are in decline. They are unable to reverse a decade-long decrease in numbers and most worrying for them this is marked at the primary stages with about a 10% fall since 2007. Scottish parents have continued growing confidence in the state system’s very good inclusive primary schools to deliver the capacities of a broad general education better than the private sector.

We know from basic economics that decreasing demand for commodities like private schooling leads to price reductions. Now in Scotland we have the introduction of “no frills” education. It will be interesting to see how numbers shake-up in the private sector. The “no frills “ approach of the recent potential new entrant to private schooling in Scotland was welcomed by the Tories education spokesperson as something ”imaginative and creative.” While Tories and SNP cut education budgets and support private schooling the Labour Party would reverse such cuts and invest in inclusive approaches.

Secondly, recent concerns about safeguarding in private schools are not one offs or individual attacks launched on a school as the principal of one of Edinburgh’s schools viewed complaints. In 2017, HM Inspectors published their review of the Scottish education system from 2012-2016. There was only one sector among primary, secondary, special schools and prison education where concerns about care and safeguarding were expressed. It was stated in the sector report on independent schools that

“inspectors identified weaknesses in approaches relating to child protection and safeguarding in a few schools. This included staffing issues such as disciplinary procedures and safe recruitment practices.”

During this period one private school Hamilton School in Aberdeen was closed by Scottish Government’s registrar of independent schools. According to the BBC report, the now unavailable HMI report stated

“Due to the extreme and serious management failings, along with the endemic, negative ethos within the school, HM Inspectors are not confident that children at the Hamilton School and Nursery are safe.”

Others schools outwith the state system, like Merchiston Castle or Donaldson’s School have had reports highlighting weaknesses in care and welfare and safeguarding of children. The SCIS annual report for 2016 managed to skip over such concerns. The SEAS wonders if care and safeguarding are accounted for in the new imaginative, creative no frills private sector.

The third factor compounding all this is Scottish Government’s and Education Scotland’s over-supportive and positive acclamation of this divisive sector. John Swinney this year was a key speaker at the council of independent schools and wanted independent schools to collaborate more with state schools. It seems the shared agenda would be around governance (backing SNP moves away from accountability of local councils) and testing.

Due to cuts in numbers of inspectors, Scottish schools in general across the state sector are less inspected than previously. However it looks like there is a deliberate policy of not inspecting and over supporting the independent sector. Over a four-year period only 10 private schools were inspected but 25 had support visits.

Under SNP, in addition every private school is supported by one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors who acts as the Link Inspector for that school. No local authority receives such a high level of support.   This softly softly approach seems to be very well received by the private schools. The SEAS believes no charge is made for such civil service time.

This level of backing is before we discuss tax avoidance and their charitable status. The SEAS fully supports the Scottish Labour Party ending their charitable status and tax exemption from VAT. We’d like to see them lose the charitable treatment from the SNP and HMI too.

SEAS sees private schooling as only reinforcing inequality. Indeed there is no better representation of the impact of inequity in education than that of private schooling. It highlights a divide in society and a marked difference in how Scottish Government is too willing to support not the many but the few.