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Padraic Finn |
‘ACADEMIES ARE FAILING'
Town Hall turns to government inspectors to overhaul schools
TWO former education ministers are plotting a radical overhaul of Westminster’s education system amid claims that the government’s academy programme has failed.
Conservative Baroness Gillian Shephard and Labour peer Baroness Estelle Morris – both former Secretaries of State for Education – are part of a prestigious education commission aiming to raise the ambitions of pupils in Westminster’s struggling academy schools.
Despite attempts to boost performance by transforming all its secondary schools into privately run academies, the council now admits it must find new ways “to radically improve the life chances of children” and has called in the panel of experts.
Padraic Finn, secretary of Westminster National Union of Teachers, said the need for the exercise was was proof the academy programme – whereby sponsors decide how every aspect of school life is run – had failed.
“Academies have not improved results in Westminster – at Westminster Academy results have got worse,” he said. “I think this looks like the council thinking again about academies. They have had little success from them and they are looking for another option.”
He added: “If they want to know what’s going wrong in schools they should just talk to the teachers and not have more inspections. Schools are over-monitored as they are. The last thing teachers want is another bunch of people coming in and asking questions.”
The commission will meet once a month – the first session is later this month – and visit schools in teams. All the members are working for free.
While the council insists average grades are improving year on year in most schools, it is clearly concerned about “social mobility” and that academies are not providing an obvious stepping stone to university.
Panel chairman Professor David Eastwood, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England which sets funding for all colleges and universities in this country, said: “Our goal is to investigate and explore how to increase the achievements and progress of children and young people in Westminster’s schools.
“Our work will help shape the social mobility and economic productivity of Westminster’s future adult population.”
Conservative councillor Sarah Richardson, Westminster’s cabinet member for children’s services, added: “In throwing open our schools to external scrutiny and by setting up the commission we are placing ourselves at the very heart of one of the most important debates of our time: how we can radically improve the life chances of children in today’s society.”
Alongside Baroness Morris and Baroness Shephard, the influential members of the commission will include the Dean of Westminster, Dr John Hall; director of family and education at think-tank Civitas, Anastasia De Waal; King’s College education professor Philip Adey; former headteacher of Westminster School, Tristram Jones-Parry; headteacher of Hurlingham and Chelsea School, Philip Cross; a former President of the NAHT, Dr Rona Tutt and research director of education charity the Sutton Trust, Dr Lee Eliot Major.
The commission’s first meeting is in City Hall on March 20. A final report is due in September. |
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