Conservative education policies: you asked the questions
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Version 0 of 1. Why should I, a teacher, vote Tory? I see absolutely no reason to. Ben Pritchard, assistant head for inclusion, Montem primary school, London We believe schools succeed when teachers are free to teach. That’s why setting schools and teachers free has been central to our plan, and why we’re going to do more. Just recently in response to the Workload Challenge I outlined an action plan that will give teachers more time to focus on teaching and strip away a lot of the additional burdens that mean England’s teachers work some of the longest hours in Europe. After a huge number of essential changes in recent years, we now need a period of stability to allow the changes to bed in and spread throughout the system. The last thing we need is to throw everything up in the air and create more turbulence when the reforms of this last parliament are clearly delivering results. We will also ensure schools continue to receive the investment they need. Our plan means we will spend more on schools in the next parliament than any other party has promised. Related: Labour’s education policies: you ask the questions What are you going to do about the fact that 40% of teachers leave the profession within five years? Craig Parr, secondary school teacher, London I think this is partly about ensuring teachers have the freedom to get on with the job. It’s about tackling unnecessary workload, which I’ve already talked about and is something I’m committed to doing, and ensuring the profession is valued and recognised. It’s important to note though that the latest figures show the teacher vacancy rate has been around 1% or below since 2000, while the number of new entrants has risen to 53,000 with more top graduates joining the profession than ever before. My home city will soon no longer have a secondary school under local authority control. What do you recommend for parents, such as myself, who reject the academy model? Lynsey White, further education teacher, Norwich I’m curious about your nervousness. I think what matters is what a young person sees as they walk out of the school gate, not the name they see on the way in. If they see a bright future then that’s far more important than whether they went to an academy, maintained school or anything else. The academy programme was the product of the pioneering work of the Labour peer Lord Adonis, who understood the potential. The reason we have dramatically grown his programme from the 200 academies Labour left behind is because the evidence from at home and abroad is that the twin principles of freedom and accountability work to drive up standards. That’s what’s really at the heart of the programme, freedom for schools to do things their way and for teachers to teach, combined with a strong set of performance measures that mean they are held to account. This is why academies are outperforming the old council-run schools. What matters is what works, and academies are helping to drive up standards for all. Sats, league tables and Ofsted have created a target-oriented, competitive, fearful atmosphere in schools, with bullying, job insecurity, ridiculous workloads and stress. What are you going to do to improve teachers’ morale? Johanna Dennis, lecturer, London Tackling unnecessary workload is one thing. I made this a priority when I first arrived at the DfE and have already brought in some decisive measures, such as pledging not to make changes to qualifications during a course, introducing a minimum lead-in time for significant changes, and securing Ofsted’s agreement that it will not make substantive changes to the school inspection handbook or framework during the academic year. Accountability is essential. It’s right that parents should have a range of sources to assess how a school is performing, but I accept that this can lead to increased work and stress for teachers. That is an issue of leadership and management. It’s important to say though that teaching remains an attractive and popular profession, with more top graduates entering teaching in recent years. I want to continue to raise the status of the profession, which is why I am backing a new independent College of Teaching, to place teaching on an equal footing with high-status professions like law and medicine. How will you ensure schools view the apprenticeship programme with the same prestige as the FE/HE route? Paul Cooper, 16- to 18-year-old apprenticeship and traineeship development manager, Stockport We have been able to deliver a record number of apprenticeships in this parliament, with over two million new starts since 2010, which are helping give our young people the skills to succeed. But we do want and need more young people to think about going down this route. The new school careers and enterprise company aims to ensure that every school can bring in the best advice and provide pupils with the full array of options. Apprenticeships are a crucial part of this. Related: Ukip’s education policies: you ask the questions How can the latest curricular and examination reforms help increase the very low take-up of foreign languages? Martha Wörsching, German studies lecturer, Loughborough University Between 1998 and 2010, the proportion of GCSE pupils taking a modern language fell from 77% to 43%. We have done a lot to turn that around, with perhaps the major change being to include foreign languages in the new EBacc performance measure. We have also made languages a compulsory part of the national curriculum at primary school to lay the foundation for further language study in secondary school. Children are being exploited and groomed, cybersex and sexting are on the rise, children’s mental health is suffering and our teen pregnancies are the worst in Europe. Why does the government still refuse to make PSHE statutory and train new teachers to support our children’s welfare? Melonie Syrett, chartered PSHE teacher, London I think good PSHE teaching is essential. I simply don’t think making PSHE statutory and forcing schools to teach it in a set way prescribed by me in Whitehall is the answer. Schools and teachers should design and implement their own programmes that are right for them and their pupils and flexible enough to adapt to the changing social factors of their communities too. I prefer to help teachers deliver these lessons in the way they choose, which is why my department has agreed to work with the PSHE Association to ensure high-quality resources are available and to publish guidance that will help teachers do an effective job. Related: The Lib Dems’ education policies: you ask the questions How do you justify not awarding early years teachers with qualified teacher status, when research shows how important highly skilled and trained staff are for the youngest? Dr Ruby Oates, College of Education, Derby I agree that having highly skilled and trained staff is essential in early years. We have improved qualifications and raised the quality of those entering the workforce by imposing tougher entry requirements. Early-years teachers should be specialists in early development and trained to work with children from birth to five. The achievement of early years teacher status reflects this. It is the equivalent of QTS and the entry requirements are the same, but it reflects the fact that it’s a different job with a specific set of challenges and skills. I started teaching in 1970. In those 45 years politicians have insisted on taking greater central control of every aspect. When will you listen to those with experience and stop the fallacy that politicians have all the answers? Graeme Currie, West Midlands If you look at the changes we have made you will see that the driving principle has been that schools succeed when teachers are free to teach. The results speak for themselves. There are a million more children being taught in good or outstanding schools today. Related: The Green party’s education policies: you ask the questions But we have been accused of trying to micro-manage everything from Whitehall and also of leaving schools and teachers to flounder with no support at all. These criticisms can’t both be true. We have worked to create a school-led, self-improving system, which is something of which I’m proud. I don’t think we’ve “taken control”. I think we’ve given control to schools, and that’s as it should be. Will you introduce a minimum guaranteed lifespan for the new GCSE before schools have to invest in another flash-in-the-pan change to the way we assess our students? John Coleman, English secondary school teacher, Lee on the Solent What we need now is a period of calm and stability to help the changes of recent years to bed in and spread throughout the system. My thinking is very much the same as yours. We have made some significant changes in this parliament. That was the right thing to do. The need was urgent and I think schools and pupils are much better off as a result. But now we need to let those changes take effect. We need to stick with the plan that’s working and have the courage to see it through. Nicky Morgan is secretary of state for education and MP for Loughborough Key Conservative policies • Every 11-year-old must know their times tables and be able to do long division. • Children who fail to reach level 4 in their Sats in year 6 will resit at secondary school. • The “EBacc” subjects (English, maths, science, a foreign language and either history or geography) will be compulsory. • At least 500 more new free schools will be created. • All good schools, including grammar schools, may expand. • All schools judged to be failing or coasting will become academies. • A real-terms increase in the schools budget in the next parliament. • An extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers trained in the next five years. • The creation of 3 million new apprenticeships. David Thomas, maths teacher: Why I’m voting Conservative I’m really glad that I became a teacher after Michael Gove became education secretary because there’s been a culture shift. There’s now a “no excuses” approach to what children learn. No matter how disadvantaged, they’re not going to be stuck with a curriculum of rubbish equivalencies. They’re going to get a really tough curriculum that opens doors for the future. I don’t want schools to look at students from disadvantaged backgrounds and say “well, it’s going to be really tough to get you the best grades on the course that’s going to open doors for you, so we’re going to stick you on some easier courses and that’s going to look fine for us”. I would hate to fall back into a system where that was OK. It’s quite remarkable that Gove changed so much. Assessment has changed, the curriculum is completely reformed. The way we measure school success in terms of league tables has changed drastically for the better. We will now measure how well each students does, not how well schools hover around some C/D borderline. But I’m not confident that the job is done. A lot of the reforms are still to come into place, and they’re up against decades of previous culture. It would be so easy for a minister to come under pressure from a teacher union and change their mind. There have been suggestions [shadow education secretary Tristram] Hunt would do this with national curriculum levels. He said getting rid of levels was a “spectacular own goal” because teachers need more guidance. That displays a lack of foresight, vision and understanding about why we need them removed. It terrifies me that he would consider bringing them back. I am worried Hunt doesn’t have a real vision for what our education system should be like. I remember hearing him speak at an education event. He talked more about the Labour and Conservative parties than he did about school. It felt like it was just politics for him. Interview by Rebecca Ratcliffe |