alliance for inclusive education’s briefing december 2010 › uploads ›...

Alliance for Inclusive Education’s Briefing December 2010

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Dear Friends

The Government has now published the Schools White Paper, ‘The Importance of Teaching’. It contains proposals for reforms in teaching and leadership; school discipline and behaviour; curriculum, assessment and qualifications; the new schools system; accountability; school improvement; and funding arrangements.

These reforms will be a considerable setback for schools which strive for excellence in inclusion practice and disabled children’s achievements. Increasing numbers of schools will be labelled as failing if they do not reach the Government’s annual targets.

School leavers will be deemed as failures if they do not achieve five GCSEs, including Maths and English at Grade A*-C, which are likely to be assessed solely in the form of end-of-course examinations linked to international standards.

This threat of failure may mean that schools are tempted to exclude more children with special educational needs and arrange segregated alternative provision without the pupils or their parents being protected by the Special Educational Needs legal Framework. This will also weaken their right to appeal or access to legal aid.

We believe that many of these reforms will make it hard for good schools to maintain an inclusive ethos or for schools to comply with

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their equality duties with respect to all pupils, regardless of whether or not they achieve the Government’s benchmark standards.

The slashing of legal aid budgets will also mean that no legal assistance will be available for education-related cases. This is alarming because many education-related cases are decided in favour of the parents. The leading inclusive education case involving a disabled child with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties label was taken by an applicant who qualified for legal aid. Parents need access to legal assistance, especially when the local authority and tribunal get it wrong.

We are still waiting for the Green Paper on Special Educational Needs (SEN) to be published.

All it leaves me to say is a happy Christmas and a good New Year to you all.

In solidarity

Simone Aspis

(Policy and Campaigns Coordinator)

Content

• The Schools White Paper 2010 Page 3

• Legal Aid Reforms 0

• Jargon Buster Page 22





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The Schools White Paper 2010

‘The Importance of Teaching’, White Paper continues with the Government’s programme of reforms by giving more maintained mainstream and special schools the right to apply for academy status. Schools and their teaching staff will have greater autonomy and power to innovate, drive up academic standards, deal with school discipline and pupil behaviour, and improve their performance.

The White Paper signals a radical reform of our schools. We have no choice but to be this radical if our ambition is to be world-class. The most successful countries combined a high status teaching profession; high levels of autonomy for schools; a comprehensive and effective accountability system and a strong sense of aspiration for all children, whatever their background (from the Foreword by David Cameron and Nick Clegg)

The White Paper contains major reforms in teaching and leadership; school children behaviour and management; curriculum, assessment and qualifications; new school organisation, accountability, school improvements and school funding.

Teaching and Leadership

The quality of initial teacher training can impact on a teacher’s confidence to support disabled children in an inclusive learning environment. If teachers lack confidence in supporting disabled children in





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mainstream classroom settings it often means that those children’s needs are not being met, which can lead to ‘challenging behaviour’ labels followed by possible permanent exclusion.

The Government will introduce greater flexibility in teacher training, whereby graduates can learn the ‘craft’ of teaching on the job rather than being based in a university. This would be similar to undertaking an apprenticeship. Whilst the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) will remain, teacher training courses will focus on developing practical teaching skills, including those required for early reading and maths, behaviour management, and responding to children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

A second-class degree will in future be the minimum requirement for funding for PGCE students. In addition to the new minimum requirement, PGCE applicants may be required to complete assessments of aptitude, personality and resilience. These assessments are part of a selection process developed by the charity Teach First as a way of identifying trainee teachers who are suitable for placements in state-funded schools in disadvantaged areas. Teach First will be given a large grant to assist in the recruitment of more than 1,000 trainee teachers.





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There will be greater emphasis of trainee teachers being required to pass numeracy and literacy assessments if they do not hold the minimum standard of GCSE Maths and English Grade C

Teacher training will be undertaken and supported by a network of teaching schools, which will be based on the model of teaching hospitals. This will give outstanding schools a role in the training and professional development of teachers and head teachers.

ALLFIE’s COMMENT

Whilst welcoming the inclusion of responding to children with SEN as a practical skill in teacher training, nevertheless we believe that this will not be sufficient unless there is time set aside to understand how inclusive practice can be developed. The Government is wrong to sideline theory,

because theory informs practice – for example, the medical model of disability focuses on segregation and integration whilst the social model focuses on inclusion. There is also no requirement for trainees to learn how to respond to children with SEN in mainstream school settings.

Raising the entry requirement for teacher training does not automatically mean a better quality of teacher. It does mean that many disabled graduates who struggle to get a third-class honours or an ordinary degree will not get government funding to undertake teacher training courses. Many of these requirements are based





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on what non-disabled people should achieve or how they should respond. We are concerned the numeracy and literacy tests may be another unnecessary barrier which may make it harder for disabled people with maybe dyslexia or dyscalculia to become teachers. We recognise that teachers teaching GCSE Maths should be able to teach algebra and geometry. However there is no need for this level of mathematical ability to teach subjects like History, a foreign language or performing arts. This may result in disabled children having fewer role models and encounters with adults who may empathise with their life experiences.

School Discipline and Behaviour Management

Any changes to schools’ authority and power over discipline and behaviour management are likely to affect disabled children. The Government will give teachers the authority and power to

• Search pupils and confiscate items which may be used to cause harm to others or to break the law.

• Use reasonable force including physical restraint if necessary to maintain order in the school.

• Give immediate punishments, including same-day detention.

• Deal with ‘prejudice-related’ bullying through educating pupils about the differences between different groups of people and





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creating a culture of respect and understanding.

• Deal with discipline and behaviour management of pupils outside the school gates. Heads will have power provided by statutory guidance to punish behaviour that takes place outside the school gates, such as bullying on the way to school.

• A school which excludes a pupil may be required to find and contribute towards alternative provision for that pupil if the Independent Exclusion Panel upholds the appeal. The excluded child’s results will still appear in the school’s performance report after the exclusion.

The Government says that there have been some occasions when teachers have felt undermined with respect to exclusion decisions when the Independent Appeals Panel has ruled that an excluded pupil should be reinstated. These panels will no longer have the power to reinstate excluded pupils. Their power will be limited to requesting that the school reconsider its decision, and failure to do so may result in the school having to contribute towards the costs of additional support or alternative provision for the excluded pupil.

Ofsted will have a clearer role and additional time when inspecting how well children behave throughout the school (classrooms, corridors and play areas), and how protected and safe they feel with respect to bullying. Inspectors will want to see evidence of good standards





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of behaviour and conduct being maintained at all times. Ofsted will ask parents, pupils and teachers about behaviour standards, including what does and does not work with respect to bullying in their schools. These surveys will be used as part of Ofsted’s inspection process. In addition, parents will be able to raise concerns about behaviour and school discipline directly with Ofsted, and this may result in further inspections.

Children in alternative provision (i.e. not attending full-time school) are currently only entitled to a few hours of education per week . The Government wants to change this so that all children are entitled to full-time education in a school in alternative provision such as a pupil referral unit or a programme of supervised activities. The Government is looking to ‘open the market’ in alternative provision by encouraging more providers such as new special academy and free schools to provide educational opportunities for children who have been excluded from mainstream schools.

ALLFIE’s comment

ALLFIE strongly opposed to parents and children not having the right to appeal against exclusion decisions. Getting “tougher” on behaviour management and school discipline may lead to increasing numbers of children with undiagnosed SEN being excluded, especially if a school chooses not to pay for specialist support or a local education authority fails to issue a statement.





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ALLFIE is not convinced that making schools take responsibility for arranging alternative provision will prevent exclusions. We fear schools may find it an easier and cheaper option to exclude a child and shift the responsibility to another provider, because parents of an excluded child will no longer have access to an independent appeal process or the Special Educational Needs framework legal protection There has also been no mention of parents having a right of appeal if they do not like the segregated alternative provision being offered by the school.

We are also deeply concerned that teachers will have the power to use physical restraint without a legal duty even to inform parents.

Whilst we are pleased that ‘prejudice-related’ bullying has been mentioned, teaching pupils about difference and respect is not sufficient in itself. Keeping children segregated from one another in the name of the ‘choice’ agenda will breed prejudice.

It is only possible to combat bullying within a single inclusive education system that welcomes all children regardless of background, religion and belief, disability, sexual orientation and gender.

Curriculum, Assessment and Qualifications





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The national curriculum has given many disabled pupils an entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Before the national curriculum was put in place many disabled children had limited opportunity to study a range of subjects. In addition, assessment methods for qualifications have become more flexible in recent years and this has benefited many disabled children.

The Government wants to review both the Early Years Foundation Curriculum and the national curriculum and what it calls an “over-prescription” of course content. Instead of being a “whole school” curriculum, the national curriculum syllabus will focus on core subjects (Maths, English, Science and Physical Education) and it will be left to individual schools to decide which additional subjects they will teach. Academies and free schools will be allowed to depart from parts of the national curriculum. .

The Government wants Ofqual British qualifications are at the highest international academic standards. To achieve this, an English Baccalaureate .for all pupils gaining five GCSEs at Grades A*-C in Maths, English, Science, a foreign language and humanities. In addition, ‘A’ Levels and GCSEs will be reviewed with the possibility of returning to final course examinations and marking schemes that include spelling punctuation and grammar.





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The Government has commissioned a review of vocational qualifications keeping in mind that, while these are different from academic qualifications, they should have equal esteem . Professor Alison Wolf will report on what is needed to ensure that vocational qualifications are as robust as the established academic qualifications offered by schools and colleges and what measures need to be taken to ensure that young people with low attainment and SEN remain in education and training during 2011.

The Government wants all pupils’ achievements to be benchmarked against the performances achieved by 15-year-olds from around the world using the International Student Assessment tests in Maths, Reading and Science applied in the real-world context.

By 2015 all young people up to 18 years old will be required to be in training (with or without paid employment) or education.

ALLFIE’s Comment

Do we want to use international standards where ‘high’ levels of performance can be linked to emotional distress. By returning to end-of-course examinations, many disabled children will be prevented from demonstrating their ability through the variety of methods currently available when doing coursework.





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Keeping vocational and academic qualifications as distinct qualifications will do nothing to improve the parity of esteem between school leavers achievements

New Schools System

The Government wants to increase the number of state-funded schools that are independent from local education authority control. To this end, all maintained schools, including special schools and pupil referral units will be able to apply for academy status. Charities, parents and teachers groups and others will be encouraged to set up free academic or vocational free schools. Academies and Free Schools will have greater freedom over their management, including length and timing of the school day and holiday arrangements, specialist support for pupils, the curriculum delivery, and staff pay and conditions.

Local authorities will retain their strategic function to ensure that a high quality of school and pre-school provision is available for all children and parents in their area. Their role will include:

• Support for parents and families through promoting a good supply of strong schools, encouraging the development of academies and free schools which reflect the local community.

● Ensuring fair access to all schools for every child. ● Support for ”vulnerable” pupils – including looked-after

children and those with SEN.





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● Support for maintained schools that perform below a baseline standard to improve quickly or convert to academy status with a strong sponsor, and support for other schools which wish to collaborate with them to improve educational performance.

● Development of their own school improvement strategies – they will be encouraged to market their school improvement services to all schools, not just those in their immediate geographical area.

Local authorities will coordinate admissions for all schools, including academies and free schools. All schools will be required to comply with the Admissions Code and fair access protocols. Local authorities can give looked-after children and children with SEN priority of admission to a particular school requested by their corporate or birth parents. Oversubscribed high-performing academies and free schools can give priority to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the interest of fairness, local authorities will take responsibility for the funding arrangements for transport and SEN statements for pupils who are resident in their area.

Government wants to amend the Admissions Code so that the guidance can be clearly understood by schools and parents alike.

Local authorities will still have the power to intervene in maintained schools which underperform, but they will have no power to intervene in the case of an underperforming





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academy or free school other than to raise their concerns directly with the school, Ofsted or the Secretary of State for Education.

Over time it is expected that local education authorities will have a strategic commissioning role rather than one of service delivery. They will be increasingly commissioning services for their schools rather than running the schools themselves.

ALLFIE’S comment

We have already heard about examples of academy schools refusing to accept disabled children in recent press reports, on the blog pages of our website and through our networks. We are not convinced that the safeguards for children with SEN are strong enough, despite all academy and free schools being required to admit children of different abilities. With the schools themselves having responsibility for arranging SEN support, we are concerned that many children will not get it unless parents go through the statementing process. We will need to make sure any amendments to the Admissions Code will not have an adverse impact upon disabled children and their parents wanting mainstream education.

Accountability

The Government wants to improve school accountability to parents through providing greater choice of schools and information about their performance, and reforming the league tables.





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Parents will be given more data on attainment in specific subjects, trends over time, class sizes, attendance levels, the make-up of the pupil body and financial information such as how the pupil premium is being used. Parents will also be able to create their own comparisons between schools, for example comparing the performance of children with SEN in specific subjects.

The Government wants to reform the school league tables so that schools cannot gain an advantage by entering pupils in unsuitable vocational examinations based on the points contribution in the league table. Also the contextual added values taking into account the overall school pupil intake which are broader than the proposed achievement measures for children receiving free school meals or having special educational needs. .

From autumn 2011, Ofsted will be required to focus on four areas — pupil achievement, quality of teaching, leadership and management, and behaviour and safety of pupils — when inspecting schools. A proportionate approach will be taken, with weaker schools being inspected more frequently than good ones. Additionally both parents and the schools themselves can request Ofsted inspections periodically.

The Government is imposing standard targets for all schools. In secondary schools, 35% of pupils will have to gain five GCSEs at Grades A*-C, including Maths and English, while 60% of primary school pupils must attain level 4 in Maths and English. Over time the Government will





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increase these targets for schools to meet.

The Government wants to move towards having smaller governing bodies which have the skills to oversee the strategic direction of their schools. The inclusion of two parent governors will be a minimum requirement.

ALLFIE’S comment

The biggest problem is that the school performance league tables say nothing about a school’s inclusion practice or its commitment to ensuring that every child fulfils their full potential, or its effectiveness in preventing temporary and permanent exclusions.

Using attainment standards set by non-disabled people for non disabled children can have a detrimental effect when determining whether some disabled children are performing well. Having such benchmarks is likely to label both children and their schools as failures.

Suggesting that academic qualifications are worth more than vocational qualifications in school performance tables will do little to





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promote parity of esteem between vocational and academic learning.

We are deeply concerned OFSTED may not have a role in inspecting mainstream schools for promoting equality and their inclusion of children with SEN

School Improvement

Schools will have greater autonomy over how to improve their performance. Instead of a centralised approach, individual schools will be able to receive support from the network of training schools or from national and local education leaders which have been identified as having relevant expertise.

To encourage collaboration between schools the Department for Education will have two grant programmes - an Education Endowment Fund of £110 million which will run throughout this Parliament and beyond for local authorities and schools to develop innovative projects to drive up school improvement and to raise the attainment of deprived children in underperforming schools. There will also be a grant fund of £35 million per year for stronger schools to work with weaker ones to





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raise attainment for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Network of Training Schools will work with other schools to improve their performance.

Schools Funding

School budgets are currently distributed to local authorities, which determine how much each school receives after retaining funding for central services such as behaviour support and educational psychologists. School funding per

pupil varied between just below £4,000 to well over £5,500 in a survey of secondary schools of a similar pupil intake outside London carried out this year for the preparation of the Government’s White Paper.

The Government is looking at reviewing a number of education funding policies including:

a national schools funding formula based on the needs of the pupils;

16-18 year provision;

pupil premium

special educational needs.





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A pupil premium fund of £2.5 billion will be available for schools which admit children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Government is proposing to replace the Young People’s Learning Agency with the Education Funding Agency, which will distribute funding directly to all academies, free schools and 16 to 18-year-olds who are attending further education colleges, sixth form centres or independent provision.

ALLFIE Comment

All funding initiatives should include improving inclusive practice between schools for all children, not just those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Capital funding

The Government has cut off the main core of the Building Schools for the Future programme. With a 60% cut in capital spending, its focus will be on improving existing school buildings and increasing the number of school placements.

ALLFIE comment

Funding should be focused on improving school buildings to make them fully accessible for disabled pupils. Funding should be available for installing lifts and loop systems, changing colour schemes and other improvements.





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Legal Aid Funding

The Ministry of Justice has published its proposals for the reform of legal aid in England and Wales. Its key proposal is to slash legal aid funding, which pays for legal costs on a means-tested basis. Legal aid will only be available for fundamental issues such as an individual’s immediate physical safety or liberty. Legal aid will no longer be available for education–related casese. The legal aid reforms consultation document states:

“Because of the need to design an affordable legal aid scheme which priorities spending on issues of the highest importance, we have taken the view that education issues are relatively less important than cases concerning more fundamental issues such as an individual’s immediate physical safety or liberty and that funding can no longer be justified. In addition, for those cases before the Tribunal, individuals (or, in the case of children, their parents) should be able to present their case themselves without legal assistance, and we note the availability of other forms of advice and help, and the likelihood of alternative sources of funding for meritorious damages claims. We therefore propose to exclude all education cases from the scope of legal aid. As with other areas of law, we recognise the





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importance of being able to challenge public authorities’ decisions on such matters via judicial review, and this will remain in scope.”

ALLFIE’S comment

It is not true that parents can easily represent themselves at special educational needs and disability tribunals. Many parents do not have the confidence or experience to present their cases. It will create an even more unequal situation in which only local education authorities will have legal assistance.

ALLFIE is deeply concerned that the Government intends to withdraw legal aid funding for education. Some of the most helpful inclusive education legal cases decided by the Court of Appeal have been taken by parents using legal aid funding. We cannot allow justice to be restricted to people who are rich enough to pay for it.

Consultation document (Close date: 14 February 2011)

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/legal-aid-reform-151110.htm


http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/legal-aid-reform




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Jargon Buster

Academy School

Schools which have decided to get its money from the Department for Education rather than the Local Authority

Capital Funding

Government money being spent on schools

Independent Exclusions Panel

A panel of three people decide if a child can be sent back to the school which the head teacher has excluded

Free School

Schools which have been set up by parents, charities and others. The school gets its money from the Department for Education.

School Exclusion

Head teacher does not allow the child to return to his / her school. Usually the reason is because the child is behaving in a difficult way

GCSE

Exam which many school children take at 16 years of age before either leaving school or going onto further education

Green Paper

Government asks us for our views on laws and policies they may want to make





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Legal Aid

Government gives money to poor people who need legal advice and help with going to court

Ministry of Justice

Government department which makes decisions about justice and going to court

OFQUAL

Body which regulates and checks qualifications / exams

Pupil Referral Unit

They are usually places where children with emotional and behaviour difficulty labels go to if they are being stopped from going to a school.

Pupil Premium

Government gives schools more money if they take on poor children

School League Tables

Schools get points for their pupils performance in tests and exams. Some schools will get more points if they take on pupils from poor backgrounds and those who are disabled.

Special Educational Needs

Children who ALLFIE would say were disabled

White Paper

Government policy which is very likely to become law




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