Schools face significant challenges, not least as we fight for Ofsted reform and for proper funding (and respect) for education from politicians in Westminster. But despite this and as he prepares to step down as ASCL general secretary, Geoff Barton remains optimistic for the future...
Optimistic about the future: Geoff Barton will step down as general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders in the coming weeks

For all the challenges in education, as spring emerges, it feels that change is in the air.

Over at Ofsted, where the new chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver is endeavouring to set a more collaborative, less oppositional, tone to inspection, there is the launch of a consultation exercise – the “Big Listen” (Ofsted, 2024).

The idea is to work with the profession – and all those with a stake in the inspection system – on what inspections should look like in the future.

It won’t address the biggest problem with the system as it currently operates – the single-phrase judgements that raise the stakes to a level that is damaging to the wellbeing of those on the receiving end and are counterproductive where negative judgements stigmatise schools. Only the government has the power to change that aspect of the system.

But the “Big Listen” feels like a genuine attempt to make inspections something which are “done with” the profession – with schools and colleges, and in the interests of parents and pupils – rather than something which feels more like being “done to”.

And there is, of course, a General Election in the air. We don’t know exactly when that will be yet – the rumour mill is in full swing. But it will mean – whoever wins – that there is an opportunity for a political reset, something which moves away from the bleak outlook for public spending imposed by the chancellor’s autumn statement and his recent spring budget, and towards something more realistic.

This must surely happen. No government will seriously want to be in a position of presiding over a collapse in public services, and a future chancellor will – I am sure – have to revisit the current spending plans.

In education there is, in fact, a golden opportunity to put finances on a more sustainable footing because of an expected reduction in the number of pupils in England’s schools by half a million over the next five years. Instead of raking the money that saves back into the Treasury, the next government should use it to improve the rate of per pupil funding and the pupil premium. This would be a huge improvement to education funding – without any additional cost.

And there is also – I feel – an increasing recognition that there needs to be a change of tone about the way that those in public life talk about education.

President of ASCL John Camp spoke about this in his speech to our annual conference in Liverpool last week. For too long schools have been used as a political football, with some politicians and commentators far too quick to take potshots.

This is deeply damaging, something which creates a climate of negativity, and which is totally at odds with what actually happens in schools – the great sense of positivity, of optimism, of teams pulling together, every day of every week, to do their level best for the children and young people in their care.

We need all of those in public life to talk up schools and colleges, leaders, teachers, classroom assistants and support staff, the education system as a whole. We need them to celebrate, publicly, the great work that goes on, and the importance of teaching as the great profession that we know that it is. We need politicians to work collaboratively with the profession, co-constructing policy, in the best interests of children and young people, with a sense of partnership.

Over here at ASCL there is also change in the air. In three weeks or so, I will step down as ASCL general secretary after seven years.

I’ll be handing over to Pepe Di’Iasio, currently headteacher at Wales High School in Rotherham, and a former president of our association. Pepe will take our organisation – which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary – to the next stage of our development, and he will do so at a time when the changes I have spoken about above are coming.

I know that in our schools and colleges, these are challenging times, and that there will always, of course, be challenges ahead. But I remain optimistic about the future – that there will be, indeed that there must be – a better deal for education.

And I am certain that our great profession, our fantastic schools and colleges, will continue to do what they do so well – transform lives, give children and young people, and our country, a great future, and serve as beacons of hope and light for communities across the UK.

 

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