The Department for Children, Schools and Families published its autumn 2009 performance report, showing progress in achieving its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2009, Cm 7759, Department for Children, Schools and Families/TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Dec
A new book said that educational policy and debate were increasingly dominated by the 'confused ideology' of egalitarianism. It criticized the use of education as a tool for promoting wider social equality.
Source: David Cooper, Illusions of Equality, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Dec
The government published a Children, Schools and Families Bill. The Bill was designed to strengthen the government's powers to intervene in and close failing schools; and to provide new guarantees for parents and pupils in respect of contact with teachers, and school policies to tackle bullying. All local education authorities would conduct an annual survey of parents on the provision in secondary schools – where parents were unhappy, local authorities would be forced to intervene. The Bill also provided for a new primary curriculum, starting in September 2012. The Bill would make personal, social and health education (PSHE) – including sex education – mandatory in primary schools for the first time.
Source: Children, Schools and Families Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Impact assessment | DCSF press release | MOJ press release | ATL press release | Voice press release | GTC press release | BHA press release | DEF press release | SPUC press release | LGA briefing | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Nov
Campaigners said that selection by schools at age 11 could be phased out within 10 years. They set out how this could be done without disruption to children's education, or to parents and teachers, or with any significant expenditure.
Source: Ending Rejection at 11+, Comprehensive Future (020 8947 5758)
Links: Pamphlet | Comprehensive Future press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Sep
An annual report provided comparative data on education systems in developed countries. Per capita spending in the United Kingdom on primary and secondary pupils was above the average. Demand for higher-educated individuals had fallen, with a preference among employers toward younger individuals over older ones with below tertiary education when filling skilled jobs.
Source: Education at a Glance 2009: OECD indicators, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (+33 1 4524 8200)
Links: Report | OECD press release | DCSF press release | UUK press release | GuildHE press release
Date: 2009-Sep
A paper examined the key concepts, images, and theoretical bases of the 'policy story' surrounding education and training policy in England, and the implicit and explicit assumptions that drove policy 'discourses' on skills.
Source: Ewart Keep, The Limits of the Possible: Shaping the learning and skills landscape through a shared policy narrative, Research Paper 86, Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance/Cardiff University (029 2087 5568)
Links: Paper
Date: 2009-Aug
An article examined 'personalized learning' within education policy and practice in England. It highlighted some of the tensions, ambiguities, and apparently 'uncommon' trajectories in contemporary education policy, including its association with the 'de-schooling' movement.
Source: Jessica Pykett, 'Personalization and de-schooling: uncommon trajectories in contemporary education policy', Critical Social Policy, Volume 29 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Aug
The Department for Children, Schools and Families published its research strategy for 2009-10, describing the main data developments and analytical work planned, and highlighting how previous research had informed policy objectives and contributed to departmental strategies and independent reviews.
Source: Analysis and Evidence Strategy 2009-10, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0845 602 2260)
Date: 2009-Jul
A new book examined the legacy for education policy of the first ten years of the Labour government.
Source: Geoffrey Walford (ed.), Blair's Educational Legacy?, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Jul
A new textbook examined the role of the government in education and schooling. It considered government policy in a series of key areas, including the curriculum, market forces, educational inequality, and race. It analyzed the political and economic factors in education policy, and its role in the context of the general direction of government policy – making links with other policy areas such as health, social services, and home affairs.
Source: Stephen Ward and Christine Eden, Key Issues in Education Policy, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Jul
The government published a plan for Britain's future, describing it as 'a radical vision for a fairer, stronger and more prosperous society'. It included proposals under which parents would be guaranteed access to an education individually tailored to their child, including a personal tutor for every pupil at secondary school, with catch-up and one-to-one tuition for all those who needed it.
Source: Building Britain's Future, Cm 7654, Prime Minister's Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | Cabinet Office press release | NASUWT press release | TUC press release | Conservative Party press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Local Government Chronicle report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Jun
A new book (by a former chief inspector of schools) said that the Labour government's education policy was based on a 'misguided and questionable' vision of a social utopia, and on a misguided linking of educational attainment and economic well-being. Schools needed to be free of bureaucratic constraint; and parents needed to be empowered, through the implementation of a voucher scheme, so that a genuine educational market might be established.
Source: Chris Woodhead, A Desolation of Learning: Is this the education our children deserve?, Pencil-Sharp Publishing, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465521)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
An article examined recent documents and policy statements on education policy from the two main opposition parties. Although New Labour and Conservative pronouncements on education were 'more or less interchangeable', the Liberal Democrats had made a 'genuine attempt' to forge a distinctive and progressive policy of their own.
Source: Clyde Chitty, 'Opposition education policies', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 51 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jun
The government published a White Paper on the schools system in England. It said that the White Paper was based on three principles – new guarantees for pupils and parents, a significant devolution of power to school leaders, and an 'uncompromising' approach to school improvement. Parents would have legally enforceable guarantees in relation to school provision, including access to one-to-one and small-group teaching for children who had failed to reach the expected levels in English and maths. From September 2010, newly-qualified teachers would need a licence to work in the classroom, which would have to be renewed every five years. Under plans for a new school 'report card', schools would be given a single grade – A to D – based on measures including test results, the social background of their intake, pupils' views, attendance, and pupils' well-being. High-performing schools would be encouraged to take over their less successful neighbours, creating chains of schools with a shared 'brand' identity. Centrally controlled national strategies, which included the literacy and numeracy hours, would be abandoned.
Source: Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future: Building a 21st century schools system, Cm 7588, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: White Paper | Summary | Parent guarantee | Pupil guarantee | Report card prospectus | Hansard | DCSF press release | NASUWT press release | Voice press release | ATL press release | NAHT press release (1) | NAHT press release (2) | ADCS press release | NCB press release | 4Children press release | Conservative Party press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report | Community Care report | TES report
Date: 2009-Jun
The Department for Children, Schools and Families published its annual report for 2008-09, showing progress against public service agreement targets.
Source: Departmental Report 2009, Cm 7595, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jun
A new book examined the extent to which education policy could be derived from research, and the kind of evidence which should inform policy.
Source: David Bridges, Paul Smeyers and Richard Smith (eds.), Evidence-based Education Policy: What evidence? What basis? Whose policy?, Wiley (01243 779777)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-May
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to reform the skills system. Every suitable young person who wanted an apprenticeship would be entitled to one by 2013. The Learning and Skills Council would be replaced by two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. The former would service adult education and training. The latter would support local authorities, which would be given responsibility for funding education for young people aged 16-19. People were to be given the right to ask for time off from work to do training, although employers would not be required to grant a request. Children's trusts – bringing together social services, schools, family doctors, and police – would be placed on a statutory basis.
Source: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 5 May 2009, columns 25-138, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2009-May
An article examined the controversy over choice in the English secondary school system. Opponents of choice had been influenced by concerns over the supposed negative effect that consumer choice had on the equity and quality of service provision. But school choice could, in principle, form part of a socially progressive educational project by redistributing power to service users and helping to maintain popular support for public provision of education.
Source: Mark Goodwin, 'Choice in public services: crying "wolf" in the school choice debate', Political Quarterly, Volume 80 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Apr
The opposition Conservative Party said that all primary schools in England would be free to apply for academy status within two years of a Conservative government taking power.
Source: The Guardian, 25 April 2009
Links: Guardian report | Conservative Party press release | Voice press release | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2) | BBC report
Date: 2009-Apr
A think-tank report set out a blueprint for creating real school choice, drawing lessons from the introduction of school choice reforms in Sweden and the United States of America. Successful reform would mean combining elements from each system and building on the academies programme. There was strong evidence that allowing independent providers into the state education system and giving schools greater freedoms 'dramatically raised' educational standards.
Source: Daisy Meyland-Smith and Natalie Evans, A Guide to School Choice Reforms, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Mar
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill was published, and given a second reading. The Bill was primarily designed to reform the skills system. Every suitable young person who wanted an apprenticeship would be entitled to one by 2013. The Learning and Skills Council would be replaced by two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. The former would service adult education and training. The latter would support local authorities, which would be given responsibility for funding education for young people aged 16-19. People were to be given the right to ask for time off from work to do training, although employers would not be required to grant a request. Children's trusts – bringing together social services, schools, family doctors, and police – would be placed on a statutory basis.
Source: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 23 February 2009, columns 23-123, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links:
Links: Text of Bill | Summary and Impact Assessments | HOC research brief 1 | HOC research brief 2 | Hansard | DCSF press release | DIUS press release | NUT press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)
Date: 2009-Feb
The Liberal Democrat party published a policy paper setting out plans to narrow the gap between the state and private education sectors, raise funding for the most disadvantaged pupils to private school levels, and deliver extra money to cut infant class sizes to 15.
Source: Equity and Excellence: Policies for 5-19 education in England's schools and colleges, Liberal Democrats (020 7222 7999)
Links: Paper | NUT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Feb
