Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for November 18, 2008 NCLB...BRITISH STYLE

Gotta luv the way those Englishters talk...

It's refreshing to read such an onerous topic written in another language, make comparison to our own trials and tribulations.

And, evidently a previous article "from across the pond" that I took the liberty of reprinting in CAT Tracks was NOT an April Fool's joke...

The English Education Department still has Balls! Yes, indeedy!!

The article below quotes Ed as affirming...

"National challenge advisers" will work with headteachers and local authorities to "broker the support schools need to boost grades", Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said last week. They will be employed by local authorities, "have proven experience in school improvement", and visit the schools they advise for 20 days each academic year.

The government has announced yet another layer of advisers to be flown in to underperforming schools. But how helpful are they?

Jessica Shepherd
The Guardian

'On my gravestone will be written, 'He died of consultancy,'" says one headteacher. "In any one week, I'm taking around and explaining the circumstances of my school to a small army of advisers."

This "army" includes literacy and numeracy consultants, parent support advisers, a school improvement partner (Sip), the local authority's subject advisers and, of course, Ofsted inspectors.

The head admits his school needs help - it's on the government's hitlist of "national challenge" schools where fewer than 30% of pupils currently get five A*-C grade GCSEs, including maths and English. Just, he says, not this kind of "help".

"I can't see the value in any of these advisers," he says. "They just slow me down. I want to get on with improving my school. Instead, I'm spending an awful lot of time helping advisers catch up with where the school is at.

"What my school urgently needs is to recruit very well-qualified maths and English teachers. That's the nub of our difficulties, and we need more money to do that. But for all the advisers - and tens of them come through our doors every week - we've not seen an extra pound. And all they've suggested so far is to recruit parent support advisers."

Unfortunately for this headteacher, and others experiencing "death by monitoring", the government has just confirmed another layer of advisers for schools deemed to be underperforming. "National challenge advisers" will work with headteachers and local authorities to "broker the support schools need to boost grades", Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said last week. They will be employed by local authorities, "have proven experience in school improvement", and visit the schools they advise for 20 days each academic year. About 140 have already been appointed.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) denies that these new advisers will add yet another layer of bureaucracy. Every school, whether in difficulty or not, already has a Sip employed by the local authority, who works with their allocated school for five days a year. The new advisers will simply replace these for national challenge schools, the department says, and coordinate the schools' other advisers.

But many headteachers and others with responsibility in schools greeted the announcement with a heavy sigh. "They'll serve no useful purpose and may overburden schools," says Phil Revell, chief executive of the National Governors' Association. "These advisers will not know the school. No matter how skilled they may be, it will take some time for the head to brief them." And time, heads say, is what they don't have.

Heads of national challenge schools have been told they must either up their game or close to re-emerge as academies or trust schools. Heads of schools in special measures, Ofsted's most serious category of concern, receive inspection visits every term and are set a tight deadline - about two years - by which they need to have turned the school around.

Northfields technology college in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, has just come out of special measures and is a national challenge school. Kevin Brown, its headteacher, has had his first meeting with his national challenge adviser. "It took an afternoon to show them around and explain a bit about the school. To be honest, it was all very time-consuming, but I think we've got a good one," he says.

Martin Ward, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says much of the advice given to heads is "of little practical help" and "some amounts simply to further pressure".

"Even where support is genuine, there is little coordination," he says. "Schools can find themselves spending far too much time informing and deferring to a sequence of advisers, and trying to balance often conflicting advice."

Even Ofsted inspectors say they aren't surprised when some headteachers are overwhelmed by the number of advisers. Deana Holdaway, assistant divisional manager for Ofsted in the Midlands, says: "It's true that too much intervention can distract and confuse school leaders. Sometimes you see a local authority suggest a literacy consultant and a numeracy consultant when the school might just need one of those."

Unwelcome distractions

An Ofsted report on schools in special measures, published in June, found that, for some schools, the meetings set up by consultants and other advisers in the early stages of special measures "distracted the headteacher and sometimes the senior leaders from the core purpose of moving forward". As one headteacher says bitterly: "If the school, with all its advisers, doesn't improve, the consultants ride off into the sunset and the headteacher is left to carry the can."

On this point, Holdaway disagrees. Ofsted inspectors interview a school's advisers on an inspection, and if they are not helping, inspectors will write to tell them so, she says.

To add to headteachers' annoyance, there are rumours that national challenge advisers will be paid £1,000 for each day they spend with their allocated school. The government will not confirm whether this is true. A DCSF spokesman would only say: "Payments for national challenge advisers will be decided by local authorities, which will recruit from pots of money we will give them." The umbrella organisation for local authority children's services departments says it "does not hold the information" about the salaries of national challenge or other local authority advisers in schools.

Putting aside the cost to the taxpayer of these advisers, their growing number and the time heads spend with them - is their advice any good? Education Guardian asked headteachers of national challenge schools and those in special measures. Ofsted inspectors were generally highly praised, while local authority advisers were criticised.

"Few local authority advisers have had experience of running a school in special measures," says one headteacher. "The perception is that many of the advisers are covering their backs and need to be seen to be doing something," says another.

Norma Cadwallader, spokeswoman for the Association of Directors of Children's Services, says this is unfair. "The inspection and improvement process can be daunting for heads and staff, but it is a necessary part of the local authority's role to drive up standards," she says. "We would question that most heads found local authority advice unhelpful. Many credit their removal from special measures to the help that they received."

Local authorities and advisers recognise that too many advisers can hinder, rather than help, schools to improve, says Cadwallader. She says they do try to coordinate their efforts in order to reduce duplication. "This is harder when regional and national field forces are also providing advice, and we certainly believe that the impact of those advisers needs careful evaluation," she says.

With so much advice of varying quality, headteachers need to sift through it and select what works, Holdaway suggests.

But it takes a brave head to ignore advisers when a school must urgently improve. "The fear is that if you ignore one piece of advice, that will be the stick that beats you if your school doesn't improve," says one head. "We didn't feel we had that luxury. I'd have to be very, very strong-minded to do that. I'm clear about what I want for the school and our values, but that kind of thing takes great courage."

The help that heads of these schools do treasure is not the kind that comes from advisers appointed by the local authority, they say. It comes from other heads who know what they are going through.

Tricia Sheard is headteacher of St Catherine's Catholic high school in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The national challenge school has been in special measures since September 2006. Sheard took the helm in January. Local authority advisers and Ofsted have been "very helpful", She concedes. But the best advice has been from her own informal contact with other headteachers.

"I personally feel that it is important to identify one individual you can trust and rely on who understands and empathises with your position," she says. "This person has to be your own choice."

For Sheard, this is Stuart Todd, head-teacher of the nearby Ridings school. Todd has taken the Ridings, once dubbed "Britain's worst school" and "Grange Hell", out of special measures and transformed inspectors' criticism into high praise. Even this hasn't saved the school. It will close next summer to be replaced by an academy in 2010. Todd boasts he's had "more Ofsted inspections than any head in the country". "I must have had over 20," he says.

Pick and choose

In his 25 years as a head, Todd has taken charge of three schools in special measures. He says he has learned to pick and choose from the advice he's been offered. "It would be a very challenging thing for a head with less experience to do," he concedes. "Go first on what Ofsted recommends," is his advice. "The other layers of advisers come behind them." And, he says, accept that some advice may be wrong.

But a headteacher's list of contacts can depend on experience and luck. The National College for School Leadership has attempted to address this by creating a network in which headteachers share their experiences of and strategies for working in challenging circumstances. These "national leaders of education" work under contract to local authorities.

Advisers like these are not a cheap option, says Ward. "But they could be afforded if the plethora of advisers and consultants were cleared away."

Who's who of advisers:

• School improvement partners (Sip) - Paid for by the local authority. Work closely with the head and leadership team.

• Numeracy and literacy consultants - Employed by the local authority. Help teachers with lesson plans, for example.

• Local authority subject advisers - Employed by the local authority. Give teachers help in subjects not covered by literacy and numeracy consultants.

• Local authority advisers - Should be the same person as the Sip. Sometimes they aren't, although role is the same.

• Parent support advisers - Work with children's services. Help parents tackle poor behaviour and low achievement, and act as mediators between parents and teachers.

• National challenge advisers - Appointed by local authorities for schools where below 30% of pupils gain five A*-C GCSEs, including maths and English. Work with heads to boost grades.

• Executive or interim headteachers - Heads who have worked in schools in challenging circumstances. Work under contract to local authorities as coaches, consultants or interim heads.