We always recommend that you look at the original work.

This should give you a flavour of the report and whether or not it is of interest to you.

There is a link to the report at the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

 

The National Literacy Trust’s report: Children and Young People’s Reading 2023 is very interesting.

It is substantial research with over 71,300  8 to 18 year olds across 285 schools across the UK

The authors state that reading for enjoyment is at “a crisis point”, with 2 in 5 saying they enjoyed reading. This is seen as a wake-up call. It needs to be, because as researchers point out, positive attitudes are linked to higher levels of reading achievement.

 

Specific headings for the research are:

 

Reading enjoyment in free time

Enjoying reading in free time versus at school

Daily reading in free time

What children and young people were reading in their free time in 2023

What motivated them to read

What would make them want to read

What are their perceptions of their reading environment

 

The research digs deeper into details relating to gender, age-range, region and free school meal provision.

This uncovers some complex but fascinating insights.

For example, in 2023 fewer 11 to 14 and 14 to 16 year olds enjoyed reading than those of primary school age.

But whilst the number of 8 to 11 year olds enjoying reading has dropped by 11.3% since 2005, the percentage of 14 to 16 year olds enjoying reading has increased by 27.5%.

Clark, C. Pickton, I. and Galway, M. (2023). Childern and young people’s reading 2023. London. National Literacy Trust.

 

Before the term ECT became ‘official’ in September 2021,  it was often the case that new teachers got to the end of their NQT induction year and were ‘set free’.

In extreme cases some were left to sink or swim. You’re fully qualified, so you don’t need any more support.

This was clearly unhelpful, so the Early Career Framework was introduced. Apart from the obvious extension of professional support for another 12 months, other key aspects were added. It’s worth reading.

The report by Teacher Tapp points to some interesting reflections.

• ECTs would like more support from their school – especially with managing behaviour
• following the ECF has increased their workload
• there is not enough specialist subject/ phase training
• second year ECTs in particular didn’t think that timetabling prioritised the ‘least experienced’
• in that group, 19% thought that the ECF will make them less likely to stay in the profession
• 61% of senior leaders would like schools to have more flexibility in the way they provide support
• and this is worth putting in a different colour:

5% agreed that they “learned more from the ECF that they didn’t already know” (from experience or Initial Training)

We encourage everyone to Ask More Questions. So:

How well thought through is an initiative that adds to a newly qualified teacher’s workload?

Who is responsible for ensuring an appropriate timetable?

Where is the tailored provision? We work hard to provide it for our students, why not for our teachers?

Get into the detail here. Come to your own conclusions.

Quiet quitting (not a very accurate name for what it actually is) has been prominent lately.

Business Insider carried this article on 23 Aug 2022 . We are not sure of paywall or copyright so here is the gist of what Jacob Zinkula says is his piece.

Teacher Maggie Perkins decided that her pay wasn’t reflecting the effort she was putting into her job.

She was passionate about her job, but that didn’t top burn-out.

In 2018 she started to apply a plan to cut back on what she did. The plan is important, she says, because you don’t want to be caught out.

Scaling back slowly is important. She suggests that if you are the type of teacher that stays late and takes a load of work home, it will be obvious if you suddenly stop doing it.

Maggie looked into automating some of her grading and generally reviewed her assessment strategies.

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The article could certainly have done with more detail, especially for us in the teaching profession, but have a think about how viable this would be or you – if indeed you think it is a good idea.

We’re not in the business of spreading gloom, but when you come across issues that are affecting teachers across the globe we think it is worth looking at.

This report popped up in one of our feeds. It notes the high percentage of American teachers who are looking to get out of the job.

We spotted it at the same time as the recent pay claim by teacher unions in England picked up media coverage.

Recently Gabbie Stroud wrote this article for the Guardian about teacher shortages. This time in Australia.

We’ve got a lot of common ground. The problems are pretty much the same.

“Burn-out … high expectation”

Burn-out is mentioned a lot. However, let’s not kid ourselves that we are the only profession struggling with it.

Here you’ll see why 75% of software developers in the US are looking to leave. Yes, burnout is right up there.

Eira May lists the reasons why these professional are part of the Big Quit and there are similarities with us. Agreed, there are some fundamental differences, but as usual, we’d like you to draw your own conclusions.

From this publication:

Worth, J. and Van den Brande, J. (2020) Teacher
autonomy: how does it relate to job satisfaction and
retention? Slough: NFER.

 

 

 

KEY FINDINGS

Teachers are 16 percentage points less likely
than similar professionals to report having ‘a
lot’ of influence over how they do their job

 

38 per cent of teachers say that they
have ‘a little’ or ‘no’ influence over their
professional development goals

 

Teacher autonomy is lower among early
career teachers and higher among
senior leaders

 

Teacher autonomy is strongly associated
with improved job satisfaction and a greater
intention to stay in teaching

 

Increasing teachers’ reported influence over
their professional development (PD) goals
from ‘some’ to ‘a lot’ is associated with a
nine percentage point increase in intention
to stay in teaching

The ‘other professions’ include  ‘scientists, researchers,
engineers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, librarians’ p 08.

The graphic on this page is interesting. On p 09 it is noted that “only state sector health professionals” have less autonomy than teachers.

p 11 reports that autonomy does not increase with length of experience/ age as it does in other professions.

“… in general, teachers who stay in the classroom after their first five years do not experience increased autonomy as their careers progress and are likely to only if they enter leadership roles.”

NFER found that  autonomy is significantly lower
for teachers in  School Trusts, compared
to local authority maintained schools.

 

Ofsted has identified 415 schools that have been in a cycle of low performance (i.e. less than ‘good’) for ten years or more. They are referred to as “stuck schools”. This is published in

Fight or flight? How ‘stuck’ schools are overcoming isolation.

The reasons Ofsted give for this is that:

• They are inundated with central and local government initiatives that failed to match up with the school needs. These are type A – “chaotic and change fatigued”.
• They often have a deep and embedded culture and an antagonistic union voice which makes them resistant to change. These are Type B – “resistant and embedded culture”.

 

It is pointed out (p.3) that in some areas, two whole cohorts of children have gone through all their primary or all their secondary school life without ever attending a school rated as ‘good’ school–that’s 13 years or more. [should this be primary and secondary school life, so that it adds up to 13?]

 

It is stated that these schools tend to be in deprived areas, but it is not an inevitability of poor communities because the majority of schools in the most deprived areas have shown that they can provide good or outstanding education despite their challenging circumstances.

Importantly it is noted (p.3) “that some of these good or outstanding schools have not always been so. Some of them have had difficult journeys with many different forms of intervention and support, and many different leadership strategies, finally coming together to make an impact.

The reasons that they have improved have been under-investigated and are therefore far from clear cut.”

So why do they think that some improve whilst others have been stuck for years?

Interesting and thought provoking comments from the report:

“Most stuck and unstuck schools stated that they had received too much school improvement advice from too many different quarters of the school system.” p. 4, pt 10. A reason for this: “a poor match between the problems of the school and the advice on offer.”

 

“Advice and support were perceived to have a greater impact when they were built into the school or MAT’s strategy and delivered internally. These schools, typically in MATs, also had stronger systems of accountability and oversight, which were a weakness among the other schools visited.” p. 4, pt 11.

“Five of the 20 schools invoked the phrase ‘dumping ground’ to refer to the children they had been given.” p.14, pt 62. Please read the comments from SLT of these schools. They talk about ‘dumping grounds’ and ‘the toilet of schools’.

Both stuck and unstuck schools were found to have three contextual similarities:

• poor parental motivation
• geographical isolation
• unstable pupil populations.

There is supporting detail to go with each of these.

 

p.15, pt 66 looks at Type A schools and suggests the problems lie in:

? unstable leadership

? unclear direction for school oversight

? inexperienced teacher workforce.

 

Again, there is supporting comment for each section, but this is worth highlighting here: “These stuck schools have very unstable leadership, with a change of headteacher on average every one to two years.” p. 15, pt 67

“One teacher in a stuck school commented: ‘In the last seven years, we’ve had four headteachers. We’ve looked like we’re joining three different MATs.’ (Teacher, School 8a)” p16, pt 71

 

For Type B schools, the impact of ‘antagonistic union voice’ is explored. It is stated that:

“… headteachers in unstuck schools have been prepared to have difficult discussions when needed,” whereas those in stuck schools were not engaging in the same way (and the possible reasons given).

 

p.20, pt 81 “Much of the literature on school improvement warns against schools trying to implement too many strategies at once. Research has instead concluded that focusing on a small number of core goals is more effective. Indeed, this was a main finding of our 2010 evaluation of the national strategies, which found that: ‘the frequent introduction of new initiatives, materials and guidance led to overload and diminished the potential effectiveness of each individual initiative.’”

On page 6 of the report:

“A skilled workforce can only be achieved with high quality and meaningful qualifications … Employers hold in high regard the combination of knowledge with the useful hands-on skills such as time management, communication, problem solving and planning …”

The balance of knowledge and soft skills continues to be highly valued.

Page 8 reports on new evidence of what employers want:

• Wider character, behaviours and attributes are considered to be the most important consideration when recruiting school and college leavers.

• Close to three-quarters (74%) of employers are satisfied with the academic knowledge of young people who have applied for jobs during the past 12 months.

• Being ‘work ready’ remains a priority, with two in five (40%) reporting that they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with wider character, behaviours, and attributes.

• One third (33%) are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied by the amount of relevant work experience young people have.

• Firms value all forms of qualification with almost a third (29%) looking for a mix of academic and technical.

• For firms that need employees with languages other than English, major European languages continue to be those most in demand, led by German (37%), Spanish (35%) and French (32%).

 

There is a lot about being ‘work-ready’. Although we can work out what that means, the comment:  “… three consistent themes […] unite every attempt to define ‘work readiness’ – knowledge, skills and character …” is helpful.

Page 22 defines Character, Skills and Knowledge. It says how important these are, but points out that there needs to be a blend of all three to prepare young people for the modern world.

Federated Schools: Common features of effective federation, published by Estyn, notes these points

The most most successful federations have:

• Senior leaders and local authorities with a clear vision of what they want to get out of federation process.
• Outcomes for pupils as the clear focus.
• Communication systems that inform staff, parents and pupils.
• Leaders that improve provision and outcomes for pupils by sharing resources, systems and good practice across schools.
• Good governors and an effective executive headteacher in place, which has a positive impact on leadership capacity at all levels.
• Budget efficiencies where capacity allows. This might see an increase in the role of administrative staff and the employment of a business manager to oversee budgets across the federation often results in further savings and efficiencies.

Some warnings/ shortcomings:

• Federations of smaller schools can be a challenge.
• Surprisingly, in most cases, federated schools do not use information and communication technology (ICT) effectively to support collaboration, and in particular pupil collaboration, across member schools.
• “… there are too few opportunities for headteachers to engage in professional learning that will prepare them to lead a federation or for senior leaders and staff of federated schools to network and share practice”. (p6)

A selection of ‘Estyn recommends’:

“R2 Develop leadership structures for the federation, including some non-teaching time for a senior leader on each site, to support effective day-to-day operation and good communication within and between schools.”

“R4 Develop the use of ICT to support collaboration by staff and pupils”.

“R7 Identify and evaluate the potential impact of any barriers to effective federation, such as geographical remoteness”.

“R8 Provide relevant professional learning opportunities for senior leaders of federated schools”.

The Welsh Government should:

“R12 Explore arrangements to help federated schools pool their resources”.

 

This is a useful document for anyone considering federation of any type.

 

The Education Commission  (a global initiative dedicated to greater progress on Sustainable Development ) is helping to create a route for reform and increased investment in education. In this report, it recognises that we need to apply robust evidence and analysis and engaging with world leaders, policymakers and researchers.

It has a  particular interest in ensuring inclusive and quality education and promoting lifelong learning for all.

The Commission argues that teamwork as a key to educating the world’s children.

It cites existing evidence and innovations from different sectors, including education. It suggests that there needs to be a rethink of how we structure the education workforce. Creating  quick responding , ‘collaborative teams and systems’ that respond to our rapidly changing world is seen as a way to equip our young people with the skills they need for the future.

The work centres around three visions:

Vision 1 –

Professionalise teachers (and others with key roles) with appropriate recruitment, training, professional development, career paths, and working conditions to enable them to be effective.

Vision 2 –

Develop collaborative teams focused on improving education outcomes in the classroom, within schools, and at all levels in the system to result in more effective teaching and better support for inclusion, on-the-job learning, and motivation. They suggest that developing these teams does not always mean having to take on new staff , but more considering how best to utilize  current colleagues by realigning roles and identifying the areas of greatest need.

Vision 3 –

This sounds intriguing: “Transforming an education system into a learning system,” that will  provide ‘paradigm-shifting change’ by harnessing teams to build networks of schools, professionals, and cross-sectoral partnerships that use data and evidence to transform education systems into learning systems that are self-improving and adaptable to change.

There is an admission that “Advancing these visions will depend on the political economy and financial support” (p46).

To give you a flavour of the report, this is copied from p48

“Box 3: Benefits of the learning team approach

• More effective teaching: Planning and teaching in teams; peer collaboration; coaching and mentoring; learning assistants and trainee teachers supporting proven teaching and learning strategies

• More instructional time: Learning assistants and trainee teachers supporting classroom management and routine/administrative activities task shifted to these roles; administrative support and technology

• Greater access to specialist expertise: Identifying gaps in subject and pedagogy expertise and devising solutions to provide needed expertise potentially across schools, harnessing technology where appropriate

• Better support for inclusion: Access to specialist inclusion expertise, classroom support for children with greatest needs, and better links to the community

• On-the-job learning and support: Planning and teaching in teams; peer collaboration; coaching and mentoring

• Improved workforce motivation: More team working, support, development, and variety of career opportunities.”

These are components that can apply across different aspects of a learning institution’s provision.

Details of each part of the process are found in these sections:

6.1 Develop innovative learning configurations to address individual learner needs

6.2 Develop school networks and harness system leaders

6.3 Leverage cross-sectoral partnerships

6.4 Encourage a research and development culture where high impact innovations are identified and scaled

6.5 Key shifts in the education workforce at each level in a learning system.

If this is something that interests you, then have a looks at Chapters 7 and 8

Chapter 7: How to make education workforce reform happen

7.1 Navigating the political economy of workforce reforms

7.2 Planning, costing, and financing the education workforce 

Chapter 8: Agenda for action

8.1 Call to action for policymakers and the education workforce

8.2 Call to action for international actors.