White boys from low income families: good practice in schools

This report by Ofsted is based on a small survey of good practice in the education of white boys from low-income backgrounds. It is based on a study of six primaries, 10 secondaries, 3 special schools and 1 pupil referral unit.

Key points:
- Examples of good practice are grouped under the following questions that inspectors asked schools during the survey.
~ What teaching and learning strategies work best to raise standards?
~ How do schools promote the personal development and well-being of white boys from low-income backgrounds?
~ What do schools need to do to understand and meet the needs of white boys from low-income backgrounds?
~ How do schools support white boys from low-income backgrounds to become independent learners?
~ How should schools make use of increased flexibility in the curriculum to support white boys from low-income families?
~ How should schools seek to engage parents and carers?
~ How should institutions make the best use of resources?
~ What are the roles of others beyond the school in helping to personalise teaching and learning?

- Schools that are successful in raising the attainment of white boys from low income have these features:
~ an ethos which demonstrates commitment to every individual and which
treats staff and pupils with fairness, trust and respect
~ consistent support to develop boys’ organisation skills and instill the importance of perseverance; any anti-school subculture ‘left at the gates’
~ rigorous monitoring systems which track individual pupils’ performance against expectations; realistic but challenging targets; tailored, flexible intervention programmes and frequent reviews of performance against targets
~ a highly structured step-by-step framework for teaching, starting with considerable guidance by the teacher and leading gradually to more independent work by the pupils when it is clear that this will enhance rather than detract from achievement
~ a curriculum which is tightly structured around individual needs and linked to support programmes that seek to raise aspirations
~ creative and flexible strategies to engage parents and carers, make them feel valued, enable them to give greater support to their sons’ education and help them make informed decisions about the future
~ a strong emphasis on seeking and listening to the views of these pupils
~ genuine engagement of boys in setting individual targets, reviewing progress, shaping curricular and extra-curricular activities and making choices about the future
~ key adults, including support staff and learning mentors, who are flexible and committed, know the boys well and are sensitive to any difficulties which might arise in their home
~ a good range of emotional support for boys to enable them to manage anxieties and develop the skills to express their feelings constructively
~ strong partnership with a wide range of agencies to provide social, emotional, educational and practical support for boys and their families in order to raise their aspirations.

Professional Development of Teachers

This report by the think tank Policy Exchange considers how to recruit, retain and develop a new generation of talented, inspired and effective teachers to tackle educational inequality.

It argues instead that we should embrace methods more attuned to today’s graduates and the modern employment market. This involves allowing new teachers to ‘earn while they learn’, giving all teachers much more say over their ongoing training and freeing schools to develop remuneration schemes which are bespoke to their particular needs. These methods would lead to the creation of a dynamic, well trained and motivated workforce – teachers who are more appropriately qualified before they enter teaching and who become better teachers in the classroom.

Key points:
- Pay, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), recruitment and training should be linked and considered together.
- More on the job training, especially at the start of the career ("earn whilst you learn"), as this would help both new starters as well as experienced teachers.
- More flexibility in employment and pay scales, allowing some to "fast track" current systems.
- Teaching is considered to be similar to social work and nursing (by managers and graduates) but is seen as a noble profession and would be considered if flexibilities exist allowing for fast entry and exit.
- In shortage subjects the standards to accept new teachers are too low and hardly any applicants fail.
- Phasing out the BEd route, as it is the most expensive route and usually attracts the least academically able teachers.
- Far more CPD should take place in schools.

There are also recommendations on teacher pay and linking this to CPD.

Experiences of teachers, 2nd year in post

The Becoming a Teacher study is a six-year longitudinal research project (2003-2009) exploring beginner teachers’ experiences of initial teacher training, Induction and early professional
development in England. This report presents findings relating to beginner teachers’ experiences of their second year in post.

Key points:
- Primary school teachers were less likely to report teaching Year 6 classes (the year group associated with the Key Stage 2 National Tests) than other year groups within the primary phase. In contrast, the percentage teaching Year 11 (i.e. the GCSE year) was the largest across the secondary phase.
- Over two-thirds (68%) of primary school teachers reported being a subject coordinator during their second year of teaching. Those teachers who held this role were, on average, younger than those who did not.
- A quarter of teachers working in secondary schools reported acting as a form tutor during their second year of teaching and nine per cent as head of department.
- Teachers working in schools perceived to be ‘in difficulties’ were more likely to report taking on the roles of form tutor and head of department than those not working in such schools.
- Secondary school teachers were more likely than primary school teachers to report having ‘covered classes’ for other teachers, to have taken part in ‘extra-curricular activities’ and to have ‘taught pupils with challenging behaviour’ during the school year. Primary school teachers were more likely than those working in secondary schools to report ‘taking pupils on school trips as part of the curriculum’.
- Younger teachers were more likely than older teachers to report being involved in ‘discussions about the goals and policies of your school/department’, ‘formal discussions about the allocation of financial resources’ and ‘formal discussions on any whole-school issues with the head teacher’.
- Just under a third of teachers (30%) reported working up to ten hours per week on top of their (timetabled) school day, a third (32%) between 11 and 15 additional hours, and over a third (37%) 16 or more additional hours.
- Teachers working in schools reported as ‘high in the league tables’ were more likely than those not working in such schools to rate themselves as ‘very effective’ teachers (54% and 42% respectively).
- When survey respondents were asked who or what, if anything, had helped them in their development as a teacher during the year, four out of the five most common responses all related to specific individuals/groups of people. These were:
• ‘colleagues at school/college’ (mentioned by 49% of respondents);
• ‘head of department’ (14%);
• ‘contact with other teachers with a similar amount of experience’ (10%); and
• ‘head teacher/principal’ (10%).

Povery and inequality in the UK: 2008

This report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows why tackling child poverty is a difficult.

Some extracts:
- There was a small rise in poverty amongst families with children. As with overall poverty, this was not statistically significant, but it is the second year that child poverty has risen.
- Between 2006–07 and 2010–11, child poverty needs to fall by an average of 300,000 per year to meet the government’s targets. Although Budget 2008 announced a £0.9 billion package of measures to reduce child poverty, additional spending of £2.8 billion will be required to have a 50:50 chance of meeting the target.
- Child poverty has risen slightly since 2004–05 using income-based indicators, but it has fallen using the government’s new combined low-income–material deprivation indicator over the same period. Our own indicator of relative material deprivation is unchanged since 2004–05, showing that the living standards of poor families with children have risen since 2004–05 but have not caught up with those of richer families with children.
- Levels of material deprivation generally fall as incomes rise, but children in households with less than 40% of median income – so-called ‘severe’ poverty – are, on average, less deprived than those in households with between 40% and 60% of median income.
- Children in a working lone-parent family are less likely to be in income poverty than those in a one-earner couple family, but they are more likely to be in poverty using a material deprivation indicator. Also, they tend to have higher levels of deprivation than children in a one-earner couple family with similar levels of equivalised income.
- Families with children and disabled adults are less likely to be in income-based poverty than those without disabled adults, presumably because many receive disability-related additions to state benefits. However, they are more likely to be in material deprivation poverty

Welsh school transition planning

This report by Estyn (the inspectorate for children's services in Wales), evaluates the initial impact of transition plans and their use by primary-secondary school partnerships to improve the quality of learning and standards and includes case studies of good practice in key areas.

Transition plans are the means by which secondary schools and their partner primary schools formalise their arrangements to work together on curriculum, learning and assessment issues that relate to the 7-14 phase of education. This follows Welsh only legislation requiring schools to cooperate in this area.

Key points:
- While most schools have improved some aspects of transition, particularly pastoral support, only a few primary and secondary schools have comprehensive arrangements to secure effective transition arrangements, including:
• agreed approaches to managing and co-ordinating transition with partners;
• joint curriculum planning to ensure continuity and progression in learning;
• arrangements to achieve continuity in teaching and learning that build on primary school methods;
• ways to achieve consistency in assessment and to monitor and track pupils’ progress against prior attainment; and
• the means to evaluate the impact of transition arrangements on standards.
- As a result, pupils often slip back when they move from primary to secondary school because they do not receive teaching appropriate to their needs and abilities.
- Plans include information on how schools intend to improve arrangements in the five core aspects of transition. Nearly all plans also include arrangements in optional areas, such as pastoral links.
- The clusters2 of schools that have the best plans know what they have achieved so far and have identified specific priorities for improvement that they plan to address over the three-year period 2007-2010. Their transition plans are an integral part of their school improvement agenda and include measurable outcomes for learners.
- The common shortcomings in many transition plans are that they:
• are not evaluative enough;
• are not specific enough to inform planning over a three-year period;
• do not include, where appropriate, national or local initiatives;
• focus too much on processes and not enough on outcomes; and
• do not enable the cluster to measure the impact of planned action.

- The report lists 14 recommendations for schools, LAs and the Welsh Government

Parental views of schools

A representative sample of parents with children in English schools were consulted on their views of their child's education in January 2008 for this DCSF report.

Key points:
- Most parents were satisfied with the their child's school, with 73% being very or extremely satisfied:

- Parents who said they were dissatisfied were asked why they had said this. The main issues highlighted by these parents were poor quality teaching (mentioned by 37% of dissatisfied parents), problems with discipline, bullying or other forms of antisocial behaviour (34%), and poor academic standards or exam results (28%). Poor quality special needs provision was also an issue for a substantial minority of dissatisfied parents (21%).
- Parents were also asked how good they thought their child’s school was at dealing with parents’ concerns effectively. About three fifths (58%) of parents described the school as very good at this, with a further 29% saying it was fairly good.
- When asked for the most important factors when choosing a new school the majority of parents (59%) stated the location of the school or ease of getting to the school had been among the most important factors in choosing a school. A quarter of parents mentioned academic success or success in exams (25%) and a similar proportion mentioned the overall reputation of the school or whether the school had been recommended to them (23%).
- Seven out of ten parents (71%) said they felt they had had a choice of good state-funded schools within their own local authority area; a quarter said this had not been the case, with 10% of parents saying there was only one good state-funded school within their local authority area.
- The majority of parents supported a range of school types in their local area:

- The vast majority of parents seemed to endorse the idea of state schools forming partnerships with Further Education colleges (89% said this was a good thing), parent groups (88%) and universities and Higher Education colleges (87%), with only one or two per cent of parents indicating that they thought such partnerships would be a bad thing. Approval of the idea of partnership with other state schools and community groups was also strong, with 82% and 80% of parents respectively saying these were a good thing and again small proportions indicating disapproval. Three quarters (76%) of parents said they thought partnership with charities was a good thing and two thirds (65%) said the same about partnership with businesses. Parents as a whole were less sure about partnerships with independent schools.
- 37% of parents were mainly favourable or very favourable towards academies.