Damian Hinds speech at Confederation of School Trusts conference
Education Secretary speaks at launch of Confederation of School Trusts to praise the diversity and accountability of academies.
Good morning everyone. I am delighted to be able to join you for this historic conference 바카라 사이트“ the official launch of the Confederation of School Trusts.
Together you have long been a strong and essential voice for the power of setting school leaders free when it comes to raising school standards.
As the Freedom and Autonomy for Schools National Association, for some years now you have worked alongside government to make sure more schools and school leaders have the freedom to make the best decisions on behalf of their pupils and their communities.
Under the leadership of Leora Cruddas, I know the next few years will be just as productive. And I know 바카라 사이트“ new name aside 바카라 사이트“ you will continue to be an important voice for the autonomy and for the benefit of multi-academy trusts.
Today, it is more clear than ever that your voice is needed.
Our country has a long and complex history when it comes to the status and structure of our schools.
If you just look at the last few decades we바카라 사이트™ve had the introduction and then ending of grant maintained status followed by the City Technology Colleges 바카라 사이트“ really the genesis of academies, then the first academies under Tony Blair, followed by their massive expansion under this government.
Slowly and surely, most have come to accept a fundamental point: it is heads and school leaders that should be in the driving seat for deciding what is best for their schools, accountable to their pupils and parents.
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Today I want to re-make the case for freedom, for diversity, and for accountability in our school system.
For going forwards, not backwards, as we strive to achieve a world-class education for every child, whatever their background.
It바카라 사이트™s worth, first of all, underlining just how far we바카라 사이트™ve come on improving our schools these last eight years. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our teachers and school leaders.
There are 163,000 more six-year-olds now on track to be fluent readers than in 2012.
A reformed curriculum and qualifications.
We have seen the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers narrow across all stages of education.
But the job isn바카라 사이트™t finished.
I want every child, in every classroom, in all parts of the country to have a world-class education.
No one left behind, whatever their background. That is what I will strive to achieve.
And I바카라 사이트™ve said many times since I took this job that education is a people business. There are no and there can be no great schools without great teachers and great leaders바카라 사이트¦
As you know, in everything we바카라 사이트™ve been doing to improve education these last few years, we have put a strong focus on handing power back to schools, back to school leaders 바카라 사이트“ recognising that you are the ones best placed to make the right decisions for your pupils, your communities.
It바카라 사이트™s when you give good people the power to make their own decisions that you unleash their creativity, allow them to drive improvements based on what they know works.
To this end we have opened hundreds of new Free Schools, drawing in talent and expertise from different groups and backgrounds, giving local communities and parents more freedom and choice, so every child can go to a good local school that suits their needs.
Take the Reach Academy, Feltham, a small school set up in an area of high deprivation by a group of teachers who felt that pupils don바카라 사이트™t always flourish in larger educational settings.
The size of the school allows teachers to work closely with parents and pupils they have high expectations for what every child can achieve. And the results are impressive, Ofsted rated the school 바카라 사이트˜outstanding바카라 사이트™ in 2014, and the school was one of the top performing schools nationally for progress in 2017.
We have also helped many more schools become an academy and join a Multi Academy Trust.
The vision behind Multi Academy Trusts is a simple one. It바카라 사이트™s about schools coming together to achieve more than they can on their own.
Whereas in the past schools could be trapped in poorly-performing Local Authorities that lacked the capacity to help them improve. Now there is real choice for schools 바카라 사이트“ they바카라 사이트™re not just prisoners of their geography they can join a Multi Academy Trust and get the support they need to improve.
And the support they need to innovate.
Take WISE Academies in the North East, which 바카라 사이트“ since 2012 바카라 사이트“ has taken on nine sponsored academies all of which previously had significant performance concerns.
This trust has reduced teacher workload through more efficient lesson planning and the creation of shared learning resources they have introduced new ways of teaching such as maths mastery techniques brought over from Singapore.
What is the result? Every school that has been inspected since joining the trust has been judged as 바카라 사이트˜good바카라 사이트™ or 바카라 사이트˜outstanding바카라 사이트™.
Going back further, there are schools like King Solomon Academy, which opened as a new academy as part of the Ark network in 2007.
Serving a highly diverse community in one of the most economically disadvantaged wards in London, Ark King Solomon has twice been judged 바카라 사이트˜outstanding바카라 사이트™ by Ofsted. While the Academy바카라 사이트™s Progress 8 scores in 2016 and 2017 were among the best in the country.
Are there examples of trusts where things have gone wrong and children have been let down? Yes.
Should we accept that? No, not for a moment. Rare as these cases are, I바카라 사이트™ll be talking more about how we prevent them from happening again in a moment.
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Each and every year there are new examples of leading Multi Academy Trusts turning around languishing schools and improving results.
And, in addition, we바카라 사이트™re seeing trailblazing schools and school trusts seizing the chance to innovate. It should not surprise us that the majority of academy schools choose to become so.
But let바카라 사이트™s step back a moment. What would happen if this was reversed? And we took power away from heads and school leaders?
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At the end of key stage 4, pupils in secondary free schools have made more progress on average than pupils in other types of state-funded schools.
Today, in the Academy Programme, more than half a million children now study in a good or outstanding sponsored academy, which typically replaced underperforming schools. Of the schools taken out of local authority control and made into a sponsored academy, by the end of last year, 65 per cent of those which had been inspected saw their grades improve from inadequate to either good or outstanding.
The other great thing about our system today is that it addresses failure. In the past, schools that failed were allowed to stay under local authority control for far too long. The academies changed all that.
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Consider Beaver Green Primary School in Ashford, Kent 바카라 사이트“ a school judged Inadequate by Ofsted in 2013 and with a long history of underperformance. It became an academy in 2015 and last year the school was Ofsted-rated Good in all areas, with the Early Years Provision being rated as outstanding.
Or how about Newfield Secondary School in Sheffield 바카라 사이트“ it was inadequate from 2006 until October 2010.
But when the school became an academy it really started to improve.
And it was inspected in March 2017 for the first time as an academy and was judged Good.
What I hope is clear from me is that my strategy is to trust you to get on with the job.
Let me give you an example. Take mobile phones.
We heard a couple of months ago how France would be banning mobile phones in schools.
Please be in no doubt what I think about mobile phones.
I firmly believe that kids in schools should not be on their phones. I strongly support schools that ban phones.
But when people asked me if I was going to follow the example of France and impose a national ban 바카라 사이트“ I said no.
Because that바카라 사이트™s autonomy in practice. Heads know best how to run their schools and achieve the objectives they want without any unintended consequences. And meanwhile we have given teachers the powers to confiscate phones if necessary, and also to investigate cyber bullying that goes on beyond the school gates.
There are other areas where I want to proactively stress schools바카라 사이트™ autonomy.
One thing I바카라 사이트™ve realised doing this job is that too often schools get told that my department or Ofsted expect them to follow the latest fads and fashions in the sector, no matter how time-consuming for teachers and how little evidence there is that they actually benefit the child바카라 사이트¦
I바카라 사이트™m talking about things like excessive progress monitoring, annotated seating plans, triple marking, deep marking, DIRT marking, colour coded marking, you-name-it marking. All things that have added, quite unnecessarily, to teacher workload over the years.
That바카라 사이트™s why I asked Professor Becky Allen to chair a workload advisory group, to understand why schools are drowning in data and make recommendations to change this. Their report will be published soon, and will set out actions to give schools greater flexibility in the choices they make about how data is used.
And that바카라 사이트™s why Amanda Spielman, myself and others recently made a video stressing that schools are free to follow their own judgement when it comes to lesson plans, the data they collect, the marking policies. I say it again: you don바카라 사이트™t need to do any of this for me, for DfE, for Ofsted.
So what next for our school system?
Earlier in the year I launched our latest round of applications to become a free school 바카라 사이트“ specifically targeting areas where there is a real demand for good schools.
And yet again we바카라 사이트™ve had a great deal of interest바카라 사이트¦ I바카라 사이트™m looking forward to launching the next wave soon.
And from Monday we will start receiving bids to open special and alternative provision free schools. We are also inviting applications from our best universities to open new maths schools.
In 2015, there were around 3,200 Academies and Free Schools in Multi Academy Trusts. We have now around 6,200 this year and I think that바카라 사이트™s a trend which will continue. In the last 12 months, we have received 600 applications to convert to an academy.
At the same time there will still be diversity 바카라 사이트“ this is one of the strengths of our education system.
Ultimately a good school is a good school 바카라 사이트“ and that바카라 사이트™s what we바카라 사이트™re encouraging, whether academies and free schools, the maintained sector, comprehensives, grammar schools, faith schools and more.
We바카라 사이트™re also encouraging more people from different professions and backgrounds to sign up to be governors and trustees.
We have already had some success in recruiting trustees from business and industry through our Academy Ambassadors programme to sit on boards.
And in June I issued a call to arms, urging individuals to sign up, and their employers to let them바카라 사이트¦ At the same time the National Governance Association launched their Everyone on Board campaign.
And since then we바카라 사이트™ve seen the number of people registering their interest to be a governor through our Inspiring Governance programme double 바카라 사이트“ with over 200 signing up every month.
I also want to say a few words about accountability.
Of course, autonomy can never be absolute. Otherwise we바카라 사이트™re talking about autocracy.
Clearly, accountability remains vital.
And, as I said earlier, children only have one chance at an education 바카라 사이트“ they all deserve the best.
That바카라 사이트™s why we have Ofsted, inspections and performance measures.
We now have a better assessment system for schools.
Whereas once we measured a school바카라 사이트™s performance by its A-C pupils 바카라 사이트“ now, through progress 8, everyone바카라 사이트™s progress counts, everyone바카라 사이트™s performance is measured.
This stops a disproportionate focus on the C/D borderline, to the detriment of others at both ends of the scale.
And it바카라 사이트™s fairer to those schools with the challenging intakes. It properly captures the progress they actually make on behalf of their pupils 바카라 사이트“ by taking into account where they started.
There바카라 사이트™s still improvements we can make.
First and foremost, I don바카라 사이트™t want our accountability system to stifle schools and drive workload 바카라 사이트“ I want it to be supportive, helping schools that need it to improve, intervening only where there바카라 사이트™s failure, and leaving the rest to get on with it.
To this end, I recently published a statement setting out key principles for how I see the accountability system working in the future, which we will be consulting on shortly. 바카라 사이트ƒ In the future, an Ofsted Inadequate judgement alone would lead to hard action to convert a Local Authority maintained school to an academy. And schools will no longer face those visits from Regional Schools Commissioners바카라 사이트™ advisers that can feel a lot like inspections.
On those rare occasions when a school is failing 바카라 사이트“ be in no doubt 바카라 사이트“ we will intervene fast and take the serious action necessary. We will also offer support to schools that need it sooner 바카라 사이트“ preventing failure before it happens.
What about MAT accountability?
Trusts clearly have an increasingly important role in our system and we need to make sure that our system of oversight and decision-making keeps up with this. 바카라 사이트ƒ Of course, as this audience is aware, we already hold MATs to account in many ways.
When it comes to finances, academies are in fact more transparent in their reporting than other schools, for example independent scrutiny of annual accounts.
It바카라 사이트™s because we have this transparency we know all about it when there are failures 바카라 사이트“ and we are well-placed to take swift action.
For example, recently strengthening the requirements in the Academies Financial Handbook on related party transactions and executive pay.
There바카라 사이트™s more we can do however. 바카라 사이트ƒ I want you to have confidence that our assessments are transparent and fair. And I want to make sure that schools and parents can easily access vital information about a particular trust, and the performance of the system as a whole.
I have also been clear that I do not want to introduce anything that would create more workload for teachers, leaders, and governors.
It바카라 사이트™s about getting the balance right between effective assessment 바카라 사이트“ without imposing new burdens with little benefit.
That is why I am working with the sector to figure out how this will work.
In particular I want to hear proposals from MAT and school leaders; your views are crucial.
So during this term we will be getting out and talking to the sector, unions and, importantly, school leaders themselves. We are convening roundtables and meetings with trust chairs and CEOs across the country.
I know that CST are thinking about what a new model of MAT assessment might look like and will be sharing that with us, so as members I encourage you to contribute to that.
Freedom. Diversity. Accountability.
That is the school system I believe in.
And I think it바카라 사이트™s the system you believe in too.
I have met many headteachers and many school trusts since taking on this job including those serving some of our most disadvantaged communities. And I know they are driven by a deep sense of mission and a moral desire to provide equality of opportunity to all pupils, wherever they are born and whatever their background.
To them, to you, I have a simple message: thank you.
Looking back on all the reforms we바카라 사이트™ve made these last eight years 바카라 사이트“ we바카라 사이트™ve come a long way. In particular, narrowing the attainment gap between children from different backgrounds. And yet 바카라 사이트“ that gap is still too wide.
Some places have seen dramatic gains, but others still need extra help.
We must keep going, spreading opportunity to the parts of the country where children are still let down by the depth and breadth of education available. Every child should be able to go to a great school.
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I want us to move forwards, together, working with organisations like yours. Listening to you and, yes, being challenged by you.
Working together to offer every child a world-class education.
Thank you.