Latest news with #Ebacc
The Guardian
15-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Primary school Sats ‘working well' but Gove Ebacc needs scrutiny, review chief says
National tests for primary school pupils will be backed by the government's curriculum review, but it is likely to call for an end to a policy introduced by Michael Gove for students taking GCSEs, the head of the review has suggested. Prof Becky Francis, the chair of the curriculum and assessment review, said its interim findings would be released 'exceedingly soon', and that England's education system was performing well despite the strains caused by the Covid pandemic. While unions and parents groups had lobbied for the review to curtail testing done in primary schools, including national assessments in year 6 and the phonics test in year 2, Francis said the review was satisfied with the current structure. 'Our appraisal is that our education architecture, such as the key stages and our national assessments and qualifications, are broadly working well, including the phonics screening check, the multiplication tables check, national tests at the end of the key stage two, GCSEs, A-levels, T-levels and some wider general qualifications at 16 to 19,' Francis told delegates to the Association of School and College Leaders' annual conference. However, Francis said there were concerns the English baccalaureate (Ebacc) measure, announced by Gove as education secretary in 2010, restricted choices at GCSE level by prioritising academic subjects at the expense of subjects such as music. She said: 'We've identified that some features of the current system make the delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum challenging. 'Responses to the call for evidence and advocates for some subjects suggest that the Ebacc may constrain choices, impacting students' engagement and achievement, and limiting access to, and time available for, vocational and art subjects.' Francis was appointed last year by Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, to head the sweeping review of England's school and college curriculum and assessment system. Francis said the review 'recognises the hard-won successes and educational improvements of the last quarter century, and we share the widely held ambition to promote excellence. But in practice, high standards too often means high standards for some. Our ambition is high standards for all.' She added: 'We must therefore drive high aspiration and raise standards for the significant groups of young people for whom our current curriculum and assessment system creates barriers to their progress, in order to ensure the best life chances for all young people.' Tom Rees, the chair of the government's expert advisory group for inclusion, told the conference that he backed calls to reform the way children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) are supported. 'I think we need to just acknowledge that it's a bad system,' Rees said. Rees explained that the growing number of children with special needs, including fast-growing diagnoses of ADHD and autism, meant the school system needed to adapt. He said: 'If we're talking about 40% of a school population, that's such a big number in a classroom, that's 12 children out of 30. We've got to think about how we can make sure that schools and classrooms are able to better deal with this variation of need.' Rees added that the 'medicalised model' of Send as a prescriptive label was no longer useful, given the wide range of needs and abilities it covers. 'I'd like to see a world where we can retire the label of Send because we've become much more precise in our understanding of different needs,' he said. Neil O'Brien, the shadow education minister, accused the government of 'dumbing down', adding: 'Ministers need to start being honest. They want to get more time for arts subjects by chopping back rigorous content in the core academic subjects.'
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Worse than the Tories': cultural figures question Labour plans for arts in schools
Leading cultural figures have expressed doubts about the government's commitment to restoring the creative arts in English schools, with one warning that Labour has 'lost the plot' and 'the current signs are they are worse than the Tories'. When Labour won the election, it promised to expand opportunities for working-class children by broadening the school curriculum to include more drama, art, music and sport alongside the core academic subjects. The plans were welcomed but new government proposals to let artificial intelligence companies train their models on copyright-protected work without permission have shaken confidence in Labour among artists and creatives. Lee Hall, the award-winning writer of Billy Elliot and an ambassador for Arts and Minds, which campaigns for all children to have the right to study creative subjects and full restoration of arts funding in schools, said: 'I am deeply worried that the government is going to sideline the arts, because they clearly don't understand them. 'The Labour party are currently making a fundamental attack on all artists with proposals to suspend copyright protections to allow AI companies unlicensed free use of all copyrighted work in the UK past and going forward. It's such a fundamental and crucial blow to all writers and artists, it feels like the Labour party have lost the plot over the arts and creative industries. Certainly the current signs are they are worse than the Tories.' The government is said to be considering concessions on its proposals after a backlash. It is also due to publish an interim report on its curriculum and assessment review imminently. A key demand from critics has been the scrapping of the English baccalaureate (Ebacc), which requires children to study a suite of highly academic subjects and excludes the arts. It is also the bedrock on which a school's progress 8 score is based. This determines its place in performance tables and therefore acts as an incentive to eschew the arts and focus on Ebacc subjects. GCSE and A-level entries for arts courses have plummeted since the Ebacc was introduced in 2011 and critics say the arts have increasingly become the preserve of the privately educated. The artist Bob and Roberta Smith (real name Patrick Brill), who runs workshops for children interested in studying at London Metropolitan University, said: 'Very few of the kids I have worked with are doing arts GCSE and even fewer are doing the A-level. In Tower Hamlets last year, in the whole borough there were less than 30 kids doing the A-level. Just a disgrace. 'Labour must ditch the Ebacc and get rid of progress 8. Without showing leadership in this area it's all just warm words that will betray our creative children.' The writer Michael Rosen was also sceptical about Labour's promises. 'Based on what's happened over the last few months, I think it is reasonable to expect that this Labour government will not do what it said it would do,' he said. 'When it comes to education policies, Labour governments of recent years tremble in the face of what they imagine is the giant monolith of rightwing educational theory.' As a result, he said, they have ended up producing policies that are 'cunning attempts to out-Tory the Tories'. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Another Arts and Minds ambassador, the actor Jamie Kenna, said it was much harder now for children from a working-class background like him to study and work in the creative arts. 'The arts should be accessible to every child,' he said. 'The opportunity to follow your passions and dreams should not be determined by your wealth and status.' Arlene Phillips, a choreographer whose career took off after her local council awarded her a grant to study at the Muriel Tweedy dance school in Manchester, said: 'The arts feed the soul and the realisation that your life can be in the arts is the biggest gift for young people that desire it. To give everyone that chance through their school life will be life-changing for so many.' Smith said: 'We all pay taxes. All our voices should be seen and heard in the arts. Very few artists have an estuary accent. Viva the estuary, protect the sea gulls!' A government spokesperson said: 'High and rising standards are at the heart of this government's mission to break down barriers to opportunity and we are committed to ensuring art, music and drama are no longer the preserve of a privileged few. 'To help achieve this, our curriculum and assessment review will seek to deliver a broader curriculum. The budget also delivered on the government's commitment to put education back at the forefront of national life, including by putting a further £2.3bn into school budgets next year.'
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Young people say they'd elect a 'strong leader'. I say give more of them the vote
For God's sake don't give them the vote! Many people said that after a shocking poll published this week appeared to show young people rejecting democracy. But that's utterly wrong. On the contrary, this should prompt Labour to accelerate its manifesto pledge to give 16- and 17-year-olds the vote. They need more democracy, not less, and soon. The Channel 4 poll found that 52% of 13- to 27-year-olds think 'the UK would be a better place if a strong leader' were in change 'who does not have to bother with parliament and elections', and 33% thought the country would be better run 'if the army was in charge', among other dark impulses. I have doubts about the value of springing kneejerk, contextless questions on people. (Does anyone want a 'weak' leader? Was there a follow-up question: 'Do you want the right to get rid of a leader you hate?') Psephologist Peter Kellner reckons 'it's more a top-of-the-head response indicating a general sense of pessimism, disillusionment and disengagement than a thought-out view of how society should be organised'. It's a spasm, much like Peter Finch in the film Network leaning out of the TV studio window and shouting: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this any more!' But some working knowledge of politics matters. Citizenship education flowered briefly when David Blunkett as education secretary made it compulsory in England, with specialist teachers. But it was killed off by Michael Gove dropping it from his Ebacc, along with bursaries for teachers training in it. Officially, it's still compulsory for state-maintained schools – academies are not curriculum-bound – but it's often absent, left to form tutors, untimetabled. Ofsted barely checks, and what's not inspected gets ignored. Five times fewer pupils take the GCSE than 15 years ago, according to Liz Moorse, chief executive of the Association for Citizenship Teaching. This latest poll should spur the national curriculum review to restore it, when it reports in March. Forget memories of grim 'civics' lessons, citizenship is nothing like that. At Priory school in Southsea, Hampshire, headteacher Stewart Vaughan and his specialist citizenship teacher Helen Blatchford promote it enthusiastically, not just to study but as democratic practice running right through the school, with a school council, consultations on the curriculum and priorities for spending capital. Students there 'know they are heard', says the head, even if they don't get the final say. Blatchford has submitted her evidence to the curriculum review about the good effect of citizenship education on the whole school. Critical thinking is its core, which means learning about problem-solving, weighing evidence, making arguments and learning how to agree and disagree. Students run mock elections and take practical collective action with local councillors and voluntary groups. Teaching media literacy, debunking myths and identifying reliable online sources is not easy, says Vaughan. 'They are overwhelmed 24 hours a day by a volume of online material: we can't keep up. We only hope to equip them to filter unreliable sources, but schools can't do this alone. It needs families, and government regulation of these sites.' Difficult subjects are not ducked. Gaza arouses strong passions, so they discuss Middle Eastern history, conflict and identity, Vaughan says, 'with impartiality, listening to students' stories. They are opinionated, but respectful of arguments.' Where better to debate Andrew Tate's misogyny? Forty of the school's year 10s choose citizenship for GCSE. Plentiful studies show good effects rippling through schools that teach it seriously. Voting at 16 and 17 would affect schools and teenagers profoundly. Politicians eagerly pressing the flesh in care homes would turn to schools and colleges with equal solicitude for the young. In Scotland and other countries where 16-year-olds vote, Dr Christine Huebner of Sheffield University finds, they vote more than the 18-24s – perhaps because they live at home and are encouraged by their schools. But once 18-year-olds leave for colleges and universities elsewhere, registration plummets – their lives are disrupted and they move frequently, 'with crucial NI numbers often left at home'. Huebner wonders if that's exactly what David Cameron intended when he banned colleges and universities from registering all students: young votes 'fell off a cliff' with his individual voter registration from the 2015 election, she says. Voter ID rules passed by the Tories in 2022, another anti-youth gerrymander, allowed pensioners' travel passes for identity but not young people's travel cards. The ability of schools, universities and colleges to register students needs to be restored, alongside automatic voter registration, to stem falling turnout. Here's why voting at 16 is crucial: if someone votes once, it's likely to become a lifelong habit. Many of the never-voted secretly fear getting it wrong at the polling station because their literacy or English is poor, covering it with a bluff: 'They're all the same!' But if every pupil were taken to the school's local polling station by a teacher and everything explained (including the option to spoil their ballot), that habit would start right there. I would make the quid pro quo for votes at 16 a compulsion to vote that first time, but good citizenship education might make that unnecessary. Electronic voting is essential – and again, barred by the Tories to deter the young. There are too few 16- and 17-year-olds in any constituency to significantly shift the dial, even if they all voted for the same candidate (and they are as diverse as other age groups, says Huebner). But would George Osborne's austerity have targeted their educational maintenance allowances and their housing benefits, or closed youth centres, if MPs were soliciting their votes? Generation Z has grown up since the 2008 crash and knows only stagnation, dwindling life chances and vanishing home ownership, so no wonder 47% of them told the Channel 4 poll that 'the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution'. Citizenship education makes them more tolerant and more supportive of democracy and increases their intentions to vote, but it won't assuage that indignation. It should channel justified anger into political action to force Westminster's attention. The government says votes at 16 will definitely be law 'in good time ahead of the next general election': speed it up. If anyone thinks young people are too stupid, just spend a day out canvassing. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
