WIREDGOV

- Guarantees for parents and pupils, strengthened home school agreements and new parental powers to demand 1-2-1 tuition -

- Smarter accountability for new report cards and 2010 testing contract agreed -

-New powers for local authorities and Secretary of State to raise standards in schools-

- Ministers to write to local authorities with National Challenge schools with inadequate results -

- Ministers accept the National Challenge Reviews and implementation plans for Gloucestershire and Blackpool and announce a review in Dudley -

More powers to parents and pupils; more freedoms for schools; and clearer and smarter accountability for all are key proposals put forward by Ed Balls and Vernon Coaker today as they published the Children, Schools and Families Bill.

For the first time, this Bill will set out what parents and pupils can expect from the schools system. There will be specific entitlements for parents and pupils and a means of redress if those expectations are not met.

Alongside these greater rights are greater responsibilities. Parent guarantees will include strengthened Home School Agreements setting out expectations on parents and making clear their responsibilities for their child’s behaviour. The Bill will give schools stronger powers to enforce these agreements when parents do not.

Ed Balls also sent a clear message to parents that every child in need of extra catch-up will have personal tuition. Where schools cannot provide this provision parents will now have the right to demand local authorities provide this support, outside of their school if required, to ensure every child has the opportunity to progress.

The Bill gives schools more freedoms. They will have greater flexibility in how they spend their budgets, so they can pool their funds and resources and work in partnership with other schools and local agencies, and get greater value for money.

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker also set out plans to intervene where schools are still not making adequate progress and today announced further action to maintain the pace of improvement in National Challenge schools.

To ensure that parents have a full picture about the performance of their child’s school, Ed Balls set out further details on the new report cards which will give parents a broader picture of schools performance and ensure that all schools get full recognition for their hard work.

In line with the Expert Group’s recommendation that tests should remain in place, Ed Balls today approved QCDA’s choice of preferred test operations contractor for delivering English and maths tests for 11 year olds in 2010.

Responding to recommendations made by the Expert Group to strengthen teacher assessment and following discussions with key stakeholders, he also announced that from 2010 he intends to publish primary schools’ teacher assessment data for pupils in year 6 in English, maths and science alongside test data for English and maths in our Achievement and Attainment Tables

Today’s Children, Schools and Families Bill outlines plans for:

• Pupil and Parents Guarantees including a right to receive one to one catch up tuition for pupils that need it most;
• curriculum reforms – introduction of the new primary curriculum and making PSHE compulsory;
• Licence to Practise – a new professional standard for teachers;
• 21st century schools – in future schools will work more in partnership and have greater flexibility in how they spend their budgets;
• making it easier for strong schools to sponsor academies;
• new powers for local authorities and Secretary of State to intervene to raise standards in schools;
• supporting the introduction of the new School Report Card – this will provide more information for parents and a more intelligent and well-rounded assessment of school performance;
• safeguarding the vulnerable – strengthening the powers of local authorities and others with regards to registration, inspection and intervention including setting up a new home education registration system.

Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said:

“This Bill builds on our progress, continues our investment and reform, backs our head teachers and teachers and guarantees high quality public services that are tailored to families’ needs.

“The Bill will ensure every parent is guaranteed to have a good local school, a balanced curriculum, tough home school agreements and catch-up support for those who fall behind so that every child and young person can get a good education and make the most of their talents.

“The schools system has been transformed over the last decade but it is right to ensure that parents and pupils have a clear set of expectations about what education they should receive. It is also right that they play a full part in working with schools to ensure their children behave. This will give head teachers the authority they need to say parents must play their part.

“The new primary curriculum and greater flexibilities on budgets will also devolve more freedom to schools, so that they can tailor their education to the needs of their pupils and work with other schools and local services to provide broad curriculum choices, joint working and ensure greater value for money.

“Alongside these freedoms comes smarter accountability and the School Report Card will provide a better and broader assessment of how a school is performing. This is better for both parents and schools.

“This Bill will make a reality of our vision for a 21st Century school system. It will take parental engagement and responsibility to a new level, and give schools the freedoms, high quality teachers and intelligent accountability they need to help them deliver for pupils and parents.

“This Government has had a relentless focus on driving up standards with the National Challenge and Academies programme transforming our state schools. But there is still more to do and this new legislation strengthens the powers of local authorities and the Secretary of State to intervene when necessary.”

National Challenge

As part of the ongoing National Challenge programme Vernon Coaker announced further action to maintain the pace of improvement in our schools.

There has been impressive progress since the programme started 18 months ago with only 270 schools predicted to below the benchmark of 30 per cent of pupils gaining five good GCSEs including maths and English when results are confirmed in January, compared to 638 at the start of the programme and 1,600 in 1997.

Today’s action includes:
• accepting the Review and implementation plans for Gloucestershire and Blackpool;
• writing tailored letters to 30 local authorities with 38 National Challenge schools where results are 27% or below and there is no structural solution in place to ensure results reach at least 30% by 2011 and continue to rise thereafter. Some of these 38 schools are already on strong upward trajectories and will continue to improve without structural change, but where this is not the case, local authorities are expected to consider Academies and National Challenge Trusts and use the full range of powers available to them;
• of the 30 local authorities, four where our concerns are greatest have been asked to submit a plan by Christmas setting out how they aim to secure rapid and sustained improvements in their schools;
• announcing a National Challenge Review in Dudley because of concerns that their plans for lifting schools above the National Challenge floor will fail to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement. This review has been agreed by Dudley. Vernon Coaker said:

“We are pleased that both Gloucestershire and Blackpool have now agreed a clear way forward for their National Challenge schools and my thanks to Graham Badman and David Woods for their excellent leadership of the two reviews and for the way these authorities have worked with them.

“We have accepted the implementation plans put forward by the two authorities and we are confident that the solutions and funding will ensure that all pupils in these areas have the chance to go to good schools that will provide aspiration and the chance to succeed.

“While the majority of local authorities have grasped the nettle and are supporting and implementing radical action plans to help their National Challenge schools improve, we remain frustrated that some authorities are not. The time for indecision is over; we need definite and radical solutions.

“We are writing to 30 local authorities where we need further reassurances that they are doing all that they can, including making appropriate use of their powers, to secure improvement in our 38 most vulnerable schools.

“Some of these are certainly on the right path but we need to be convinced they are tackling the issues that face them quickly enough and grasping the many opportunities that are available to them to act. If this doesn’t happen, we have always made it clear that we will not stand by and let local authorities fail in their duties.”

Powers available to local authorities include proposing an Academy, a National Challenge Trust School or issuing a Warning Notice to formally set out the local authority’s concern and require the school to respond.

Of the 30, four local authorities are being asked for a plan by Christmas to secure rapid and sustained improvements in the schools where Ministers are most concerned.

If their plans are insufficient, ministers will take further action, which may include sending in expert advisers, using powers to request an Ofsted inspection or requiring the local authority to consider issuing a Warning Notice.

Along with publishing a new more flexible curriculum for primary schools and approving the QCDA’s choice of preferred test operations contractor for delivering English and maths tests for 11 year olds in 2010, Ed Balls said:

“In May 2009, I accepted in full the recommendations of the Expert Group on Assessment. They recommended that Key Stage 2 tests in English and mathematics should remain in place because they are vital for accountability and for providing information to parents about their child’s progress.

“They also made a number of recommendations to strengthen the quality of teacher assessment and said that: As these changes are made and as Chartered Assessors are introduced, DCSF should monitor progress in strengthening the reliability and consistency of teacher assessment, and in developing an infrastructure which provides assurance about this.”

“In line with the Expert Group’s recommendation that tests should remain in place, I have today approved QCDA’s choice of preferred test operations contractor for delivering English and maths tests for 11 year olds in 2010.

“Following consultations with key stakeholders and with members of the Expert Group, I have also decided to take a further step in recognising the value of teachers’ own assessments. From 2010, we will publish primary schools’ teacher assessment data for pupils in year 6 in English, maths and science. This will be published alongside test data for English and maths in our Achievement and Attainment Tables. It is also my intention, from 2011, to introduce a light touch local moderation process for this teacher assessment. We will consult with schools, local authorities, other stakeholders and the Expert Group on the introduction of a system that will best support teachers and strengthen their assessments.

“I have always said that the assessment and testing system is not set in stone and that what is important is that it works best for pupils and schools and provides parents with the information that they need. To that end from 2011, we are introducing the new School Report Card, which will be underpinned by the new powers we are taking in the Bill. We are currently consulting with stakeholders on the School Report Card, and we will consider data on teacher assessments as part of that consultation. These changes taken together are further evidence of our commitment to strong accountability.

“I am placing a copy of the correspondence between myself and the Chief Executive of the QCDA, Andrew Hall, concerning the contract for the 2010 tests in the library of both houses.”

Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
1. Copies of the Gloucestershire and Blackpool National Challenge Reviews and Implementation Plans can be found at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalchallenge/progress.shtml

2. Schools Minister Vernon Coaker has written tailored letters to 30 local authorities with 38 National Challenge schools where results are 27% or below and there is no structural solution in place to ensure results reach at least 30% by 2011 and continue to rise thereafter. Many of these 38 schools are already on strong upward trajectories and will continue to improve without structural change, but where this is not the case, local authorities are expected to consider Academies and National Challenge Trusts and use the full range of powers available to them.

3. The Apprenticeships, Schools, Children and Learners (ASCL) Act, which received Royal Assent in November, means that from January (2010) Secretary of State will have the power to direct a local authority to consider issuing a Warning Notice when they have serious concerns about a school’s standards, management and leadership. Where a Warning Notice has been issued but a local authority is not acting where a school fails to meet the conditions of that Notice, the Secretary of State will be able to appoint additional governors or establish an Interim Executive Board.

4. The Children, Schools and Families Bill includes the following legislation:

a. Pupil and Parents Guarantees
Pupil guarantees
• every pupil will go to a school where there is good behaviour, strong discipline, order and safety;
• every pupil will go to a school where they are taught a broad, balanced and flexible curriculum including skills for learning and life;
• every pupil will go to a school where they are taught in a way that meets their needs, where their progress is regularly checked and where additional needs are spotted early and quickly addressed;
• every pupil will go to a school where they take part in sport and cultural activities; and
• every pupil will go to a school that promotes their health and wellbeing, where they have the chance to express their views and where they and their families are welcomed and valued.

New Parent guarantees
• every parent will have opportunities, information and support to exercise choice with and on behalf of their child;
• every parent will have a Home School Agreement outlining their rights and responsibilities for their child’s schooling;
• every parent will have the opportunity, information and support they need to be involved and engaged in their child’s learning and development; and
• every parent will have access to extended services including support and advice on parenting.

b. New powers for local authorities and Secretary of State to intervene to raise standards in schools
This new legislation would strengthen the powers of local authorities and reinforce the Secretary of State’s back-stop powers in case there are any local authorities which still fail to act. The Bill will allow the Secretary of State to:
• direct a local authority to issue a performance standards and safety warning notice to a school where standards are unacceptably low;
• close a school where it is eligible for intervention as a result of failing to comply with a warning notice given for performance standards and safety or where it is in an Ofsted category of requiring significant improvement. Currently such a power can only be exercised where a school is in an Ofsted category of requiring special measures;
• create a system for accrediting high-quality education providers who wish to run Accredited Schools Groups and require local authorities to consider the use of these providers to tackle under-performing schools;
• the most vulnerable schools could be required by local authorities to become part of an Accredited School Group, led by a strong institution with the capacity, commitment and track record to deliver real improvements.
• the Secretary of State also intends to take a power to require the closure of a school that fails to meet the terms of a Warning Notice.

c. Licence to Practise
Improving teaching underpins every effort to deliver the best possible education for all pupils, and through a new licensing system this Bill will professionalise the workforce and provide teachers with the status they deserve. The License to Teach will guarantee minimum standards for teachers and also give them an entitlement to continuous professional development.

d. Academies
The Government’s commitment to Academies is also reinforced. We will make it easier for strong schools to sponsor Academies. Currently strong schools have to create a school company which then can set up an academy. This Bill will allow governing bodies to set up an Academy Trust directly. This change, alongside the new charities registration and accreditation system will make Academy and Trust schools expansion quicker, more streamlined and will allow the best schools and leaders to spread their excellence across the system.

e.Accountability
The Expert Group recognised the importance of teachers’ wider assessments of pupils’ progress and recommended that we should continue to monitor the effectiveness of teacher assessment. Schools are already required to assess pupils’ level of attainment in English, mathematics and science at the end of Key Stage 2 and 3. This information is reported to parents and is also published at a national level.

f. QCDA will make an announcement about the testing contractor in due course.

g. The Achievement and Attainment Tables are official statistics and subject to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The changes planned to the 2010 tables will be considered by the Department's Head of Statistics Profession as part of his responsibility for deciding on the content/format and timing of official statistic releases.

click here for letter from QCA to Ed Balls on 2010 Testing Contractor
click her for reply from Ed Balls to QCA on 2010 Testing Contractor

Contact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk