Latest news with #CurriculumandAssessmentReview
The Independent
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
We already feed, clothe and counsel suicidal kids – what more does the government expect from schools?
The joys of spring are absent from school staffrooms today, as school leaders try to parse the implications for children and families of the cuts to welfare provision included in the chancellor's statement. The lesson of George Osborne's austerity years is that shredding the welfare state always affects schools, even when their budgets are nominally protected. Increasing stress in the family home, less money for school supplies, insecurity of housing, rising hunger – all of these are felt, not only in raised tensions and lower morale in classrooms and corridors, but directly as calls on scant school resources. The key to understanding the potential impact of this spending review – in which, we understand, schools will not be protected – is to recognise the extent to which schools have long shouldered the weight of social support once shared across multiple agencies. Much of this forced burden was accumulated before the Covid-19 pandemic, but has grown heavier since. My own school is commonplace in feeding and clothing children whose families cannot; in subsidising, or paying outright, for children to travel to and from school; in providing counselling to suicidal adolescents whose councils lack provision; in truing up the often frankly mendacious estimates of support required to provide children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) with the education they deserve. All of this before paying teachers and despite funding per pupil that remains, for all schools, lower than it was in 2010. Services like these will be at risk in the coming spending review. They cannot be secured by hypothetical 'efficiency savings', already proffered as a source of funding half the recommended adjustment to teachers' pay scales. Headteachers will be forced to follow the example of councils in deciding who they can save and who they cannot. Expect the language of 'thresholds' – a euphemism for acceptable levels of pain already common in local government – quickly to permeate schools. As always, children from poorer families, who depend most on the state, will suffer quickest and suffer most from cuts in welfare spending. The situation will be felt the worst in poorer parts of the country, the designated educational 'cold spots' where schools are already battling a post-Covid epidemic of antisocial behaviour and truancy. But don't expect creeping miserabilism to spare Chelsea or Cheadle. Parents with any appreciable means are already meeting more of the costs of their children's education in the form on payments for school supplies, trips, and the like. This principle will increasingly embrace anything outside of classroom-based teaching. Along with children's wellbeing, family stability and community cohesion, welfare cuts will threaten the government's own stated vision for Britain. Take the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which aims to preserve students' access to as broad a curriculum as possible. The review panel's interim findings show how the Conservative government used accountability measures to browbeat state secondary schools into focusing on 'Ebacc' subjects, such as English, maths, science and modern languages, and to neglect creative subjects such as music and drama. But schools' curricula cropping was also motivated by cost pressures. The subjects that fared worst over the past decade, such as design technology, are the most expensive to deliver. Continued pressure on school budgets will drive these subjects further into the weeds and make the aspiration of a rich, rewarding schooling experience for all children all but unachievable. Further cuts will also undermine the government's stated aim to woo the middle classes away from independent schools. The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is fond of asking why state school kids shouldn't have access to the sort of theatre trips, orchestral performances and sporting trials that independent school kids take for granted. It's exactly the right question. But there is no honest answer that doesn't address the vast and growing differences in resources available to fee-paying schools and their publicly funded counterparts. Also at risk will be the government's ambitious agenda for national economic renewal. The Department for Education has already axed the advanced maths premium, top-up funding available to schools offering advanced maths qualifications such as further maths A-level. This will mean fewer 18-year-olds able to study computer science and similar subjects at university and, soon, fewer twentysomethings able to power the AI-driven industries which the government says will 'kickstart' Britain's sluggish economic growth. Headteachers tend to be realists. We are not 'cake-and-eat-it' types. We recognise the ruinous state of public finances. But schools and the communities they serve remain vulnerable. And there is no national renewal that does not begin by securing our children's education. Yale law professor Daniel Markovits says that advantage turns on effort, talent and investment. For most students, that investment comes from the public purse. Now is not the time to cut it off.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sheeran's call to improve music ed praised by school
The headteacher of Ed Sheeran's former secondary school has praised the singer's call to improve music education. Sheeran, backed by other artists including Annie Lennox, Harry Styles and Sir Elton John, has written to the government pushing for funding to offer children from all backgrounds musical opportunities. Philip Hurst, head of Thomas Mills High in Framlingham, Suffolk, said he had seen a "dismantling of county music services" over the past 30 years and believed in Sheeran's push. A government spokesperson said it was "committed to ensuring art, music and drama are no longer the preserve of a privileged few". Sheeran's letter called for a £250 million UK education package this spring "to repair decades of dismantling music". The letter cited a 2019 report from the British Phonographic Industry which found there had been a 21% decrease in music provision over five years in state schools. "Music in and out of school should be for all, not a few," the letter added. "We understand that there are many pressures. As artists, civil society and industry, we want to be part of the solution." Born in Yorkshire and raised in Suffolk, Sheeran has had 14 UK number one singles and eight UK number one albums, after beginning his career in 2004. "[Through] My career, which has spanned three decades, I've seen the dismantling of county music services - everything has to be about efficiencies," Mr Hurst told BBC Radio Suffolk. "Quite frankly, it seems to me that people think spending money on instruments is not efficient." He continued: "All those signatories to it, I think they are very powerful and it's good timing -the government are at a change with education. "We've got a national curriculum review going on, Ofsted have come under scrutiny and are looking to adapt their ways and practices. "It could just be that it makes people sit up and think, and it really should." A government spokeswoman said its Curriculum and Assessment Review would break down barriers to opportunity, while its new National Centre for Music and Arts Education would "promote opportunities" for young people to pursue artistic and creative interests in school. The government is set to put a further £2.3bn into schools' budgets, with £1bn for children and young people with high needs. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Ed Sheeran's school drop-in magical, say students Ed Sheeran surprises pupils at music careers event Music 'being stripped' out of schools Charity warns music education facing 'tragic' decline British Phonographic Industry Department for Education
BBC News
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Ed Sheeran's Suffolk school praises call for music education help
The headteacher of Ed Sheeran's former secondary school has praised the singer's call to improve music backed by other artists including Annie Lennox, Harry Styles and Sir Elton John, has written to the government pushing for funding to offer children from all backgrounds musical opportunities. Philip Hurst, head of Thomas Mills High in Framlingham, Suffolk, said he had seen a "dismantling of county music services" over the past 30 years and believed in Sheeran's push.A government spokesperson said it was "committed to ensuring art, music and drama are no longer the preserve of a privileged few". Sheeran's letter called for a £250 million UK education package this spring "to repair decades of dismantling music".The letter cited a 2019 report from the British Phonographic Industry which found there had been a 21% decrease in music provision over five years in state schools."Music in and out of school should be for all, not a few," the letter added."We understand that there are many pressures. As artists, civil society and industry, we want to be part of the solution."Born in Yorkshire and raised in Suffolk, Sheeran has had 14 UK number one singles and eight UK number one albums, after beginning his career in 2004. "[Through] My career, which has spanned three decades, I've seen the dismantling of county music services - everything has to be about efficiencies," Mr Hurst told BBC Radio Suffolk."Quite frankly, it seems to me that people think spending money on instruments is not efficient."He continued: "All those signatories to it, I think they are very powerful and it's good timing -the government are at a change with education."We've got a national curriculum review going on, Ofsted have come under scrutiny and are looking to adapt their ways and practices."It could just be that it makes people sit up and think, and it really should." A government spokeswoman said its Curriculum and Assessment Review, external would break down barriers to opportunity, while its new National Centre for Music and Arts Education, external would "promote opportunities" for young people to pursue artistic and creative interests in government is set to put a further £2.3bn into schools' budgets, with £1bn for children and young people with high needs. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, external, Instagram, external and X, external.
