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A CHAIRS’ NETWORK FOR WILTSHIRE
A CHAIRS’ NETWORK
FOR WILTSHIRE
A network? What for?To enable chairs of governors to:
•Share experience•Solve problems together•Learn from each other•Share and develop common resources and documents•Identify and communicate needs•Promote the benefits and enjoyment of being a chair
• “Coherence comes at the end of the process”: Michael Gove• LAs declining but not at same rate everywhere – year on year budget cuts;
focus on weakest schools• Local collaborative arrangements – education trusts, federations,
partnerships – school to school support and challenge• More Academies and Free schools outside LA control – responsible to
Sec of State• New executive agencies and merging agencies• Academy chains growing; varied approaches• Private companies providing services – for and not for profit• For profit companies running schools – Social Enterprise schools?• The Missing Middle – Robert Hill 2012
The national context
To start you thinking and talking…• Academies – the latest statistics and developments• Michael Wilshaw on governance• Shortage of school places• AS levels – a U turn waiting to happen?• Other issues
Facts: current situation
March 2013
March 2013
Facts: Wiltshire• Wiltshire has 25 secondary schools; 196 primary and 6 special• 20 secondaries are academies (80% of sec)• 12 primaries are academies (6% of pri)• 1 special school is an academy (17% of special)• 14.5% of all Wiltshire schools are academies• (as at 1st Jan 2013)
Increasing pressure
• Focus on failing 200 primary schools– plan was for them to be academies by end 2012
• David Cameron announces Nov 2012: “now we want to go further, faster, with 400 more under-performing primary schools paired up with a sponsor and either open or well on their way to becoming an academy by the end of next year.”
No let up• From 2014, primary schools will have to ensure that 65% of
their year 6 pupils gain a level 4 in English and maths, up from the current floor standard of 60%
• Those that fail to do this run the risk of being taken over by an academy chain
• Further changes include publishing data about the number of primary children who achieve a “good” level 4 in English and maths, and who are therefore deemed truly “secondary ready”. Pupils gain a “good” level 4 by scoring in the top two-thirds of the level 4 mark range
An inevitable conclusion?• The Department for Education Review Report by Chris Wormald,
(Nov 2012) suggested that “By March 2015 around one-quarter of schools will be Academies or Free Schools if conversion continues at its current rate.”
• This would mean the number of academies would double in the space of 2 years – but it would still take until 2030 for all schools to become academies at that rate
Chief Inspector • Good governors focus on the central issues which lie at the heart of
school improvement - the quality of teaching, the progress and achievement of their pupils, and the culture which supports this…The best governing boards get the balance right between support and challenge. They ask the right questions, whether they are governors in a maintained school, an individual academy or part of an academy chain.
• Poor governance focuses on the marginal issues and not the important ones. In other words, too much time spent looking at the quality of school lunches, and not enough on attainment in maths and English. Poor governance is either too accepting of the status quo or too unsupportive of the head who is trying to make a difference.
3 things that can make a difference• Firstly, we need a more professional approach in some
governing bodies, especially in our most challenging schools, often serving the most deprived communities.
• Secondly, given the increasing complexity of school organisation, we need to make sure governors are given the appropriate training.
• Thirdly, governors must have accessible information and data in order to ask the right questions and make the right decisions.
• The school data dashboard
On the other hand…• The state of Swindon academy, one of seven academies that
have had warning letters from Ofsted, suggests that having experts on the governing body is not always a guarantee of success. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector, has been complaining that some governors are not up to scratch, but Swindon has a line-up other schools might envy.
• Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, the university admissions service, has been a governor there for five years. The chair is Sir Anthony Greener, a former chair of the now abolished Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
On the other hand 2• Fellow governors include Colin Fraser, recently retired deputy
head of Marlborough College (£31,000 a year for boarders) and Marlborough's director of science, Nic Allott. From industry, there is Mike Godfrey, who until a couple of months ago was chief engineer at Swindon's Honda plant. He had worked for Honda for 27 years.
• The blame-hunters might direct their attention at United Learning, the academy's sponsor, which runs its schools from the centre. United Learning is now run by Jon Coles, a former senior civil servant at the DfE.
• Education Guardian 13 Mar 2013
Shortage of school places• Despite a net increase of almost 81,500 primary places from
2010 to May 2012, 256,000 new school places are still needed from May 2012 by 2014/15.
• Forecasts of future need are inevitably uncertain but the demand for school places is projected to increase beyond 2014/15.
• Capital funding for new school places: National Audit Office March 2013
AS levels – a U-turn waiting to happen?• The Secretary of State is proposing to change the structure of the
qualification so that students choose between a standalone one-year exam, an AS, or a two-year A-level. Currently AS comprises the first year of the two-year exams, so that most students do four AS-level subjects in their first year and go on to full A-levels in three of the subjects.
• The leaders of the associations representing England’s state and independent schools and colleges have joined forces to call on the Secretary of State to rethink his decision to change the structure of A levels.
• The letter states: “In recent weeks it has become clear that the 24 universities of the Russell Group are opposed to the abandonment of the current A-level examinations structure of AS-level and A2. On behalf of the great majority of all school and college leaders in England, maintained and independent, we are writing to express strongly a similar view.”
Other issues• Climbdown over EBC• NC reform• Performance related pay from September 2013• Effects of national funding formula
Your ideas• What’s at the top of your agenda?• What do you need to know more about?• How might this network help you?• How might you help this network?
Topics from BANES
• agree a common list of questions for governors re the new Ofsted inspection
• compare examples of GB meeting minutes
• comparing the way GBs organise themselves and how they work
• Governors' responsibilities re teachers' appraisal/PM and their welfare
• Governors' skills audits
• format of policies• succession planning• the chair's role in
governors' involvement in school life• sharing responsibilities and
communication with the GB• academies - inc feedback from those
who've been through or who are going through the process
• continuing feedback from schools who have been inspected recently
