Work with schools, not against us, ASCL Cymru tells minister

At its annual conference today (Thursday) in Cardiff, ASCL Cymru will call on the Welsh government to work with school leaders to create a confident, self-improving education service rather than one based on ‘naming and shaming’.
 
ASCL Cymru Secretary Gareth Jones will say in his address today:
 
“ASCL’s position has always been that the degree of challenge and support should be proportionate to the context of the school. In general, the strategies selected by the minister are moving the education service in the right direction. His determination to close the funding gap and to improve local authority support for school leaders is to be applauded. However, given the diversity that exists across 22 local authorities, it is difficult for the DfES to be certain what specific support is needed in each school.”

“ASCL Cymru urges the minister to remember two fundamental ingredients in leading change. First, good timing is crucial and there is the real danger of putting the cart before the horse. Second, it is essential to build self-confidence in the profession which will equip it to cope with the risks which change generates. Enabling the media to engage in the naming and shaming of schools by means of a pseudo-league table before consortia are in a position to provide meaningful support is potentially bad timing and destructive of self-confidence.”

“The school profile, made up of 12 metrics to assess performance, will assist school leaders in benchmarking the performance of their schools and identifying priorities for improvement. However, condensing the outcome of the point score on each metric into a single grade is a step too far and gives rise to the probability of unintended consequences.”

“The laboratory of England demonstrates only too well what the consequences are likely to be – challenging yet improving schools criticised for being at the bottom of the league tables; school leaders being dismissed like football managers for the failures of the system; and perverse incentives to focus only on those things that can be measured as opposed to broader elements which prepare young people for life, citizenship and employability.”

1 December 2011