Blogs

Diary of a headteacher: ?Unethical and immoral

We have a moral duty to our students, and school leaders must resist the temptation to change the curriculum just to score well under Progress 8

The external pressures placed upon headteachers are significant. Education has been beaten with the stick of accountability for far too long and the pressure of delivering results has, in some cases, contributed to questionable decision-making and unethical behaviours from school leaders.

Gone are the days when schools enforced entire cohorts through vocational qualifications that equated to the same currency in accountability terms as four GCSEs. But gaming has never gone away, it’s just become more difficult and less obvious.

More recently we have had the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) delivered for whole cohorts to boost Progress 8 scores, but where does this stop? Now the ECDL tactic has been stripped away, what other strategies will be used to game the accountability system?

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