Busy, busy, busy! Michael Gove, Education Secretary, has spent January telling us his New Years’ resolutions. And what a long list it is! First off, Govey announced he would scrap rules that shield incompetent staff and allow them to be dismissed within just one term. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Gove said he wanted parents to go into classrooms to assess how well children are being taught. Nothing to fear there, of course. He could be really radical and allow teachers to carry our reciprocal observational visits to pupil’s homes to judge how well parents are performing, grade them accordingly, and publish the scores in
the school newsletter.
Govey wants to introduce a yearly assessment, with swift dismissal for failing teachers. ‘The whole procedure should now be telescoped into just a term – eight to nine weeks.’ I have to say I agree with him – up to a point. Govey asked, ‘Why is it that we tolerate underperforming teachers in the classroom?’ The answer is that it is extremely difficult and time-consuming to take action against a failing teacher. One recent case, of a local teacher who the head and governors considered was not able to do the job, showed clearly the difficulties of dismissal. Following three thick files of policies, procedures and guidance, and with the local authority’s human resources department giving constant advice and checking every action, the process, from the first warning, took over two and a half years, during most of which time the teacher was on periodic sick leave. The matter ended with the teacher’s resignation, so this case was never recorded as a teacher dismissal. It was, according to those involved, a long and stressful experience for all concerned. But the exhaustive procedures involving training, monitoring and assessment have been developed over the years to support teachers who, with additional training and support, could be more successful and also to protect teachers who are unfairly accused. Make no mistake – the number of successful cases where a teacher has sued for unfair or constructive dismissal shows all too clearly that not every headteacher is a glowing exemplar of fairness, justice and consideration. I fear Govey’s fast-track sackings will, at best, create masses of work for the teaching unions and their lawyers.
Two days later, Govey announced that around 4,500 vocational courses would no longer count as GCSE equivalents in school league tables. For example, an NVQ in hairdressing, currently worth the equivalent of five GCSEs at the highest level, would no longer count for anything in league-table scores. It seems clear that Govey wants a much more academic curriculum for all. He has said publicly that he wants all schools to be good and who could argue with that? The problem is that in OFSTED-speak and DES-speak, ‘good’ means ‘higher than average’. When Govey appeared before the Parliamentary Education Committee on January 31, to answer questions sent in via twitter, the chairman put this very point to Govey and asked how all schools being ‘good’ (higher than average) was mathematically possible? Govey relied, ‘It’s average for… um… by getting better all the time.’ The chairman asked if Govey was better at literacy than numeracy.
Anyway – at our small rural primary school, we school governors have to find a new headteacher. We’ve just started the process and last Monday we had a meeting to try to thrash out what particular qualities and talents we were looking for. We were, of course, looking for someone who would make the school ‘good’ i.e. ‘better than average’ for the benefit of the pupils and also to keep OFSTED and Govey off our backs. We had a productive discussion, helped by our local authority link adviser and we ended up with a list of abilities and characteristics which we felt would be desirable in a successful candidate. The only problem was, our vision of the headteacher we were looking for sounded like a combination of Superman, Mother Theresa, David Attenborough and Richard Branson. So if any readers reckon they fit this profile, and fancy a primary headship in September, drop me a line.
Anyone can apply because you no longer need the national training qualification for a headship. You probably didn’t notice among all the end-of-term chaos, and amongst all his other pronouncements, but, just before Christmas, Govey quietly abolished the requirement that any candidate for a Headteacher post had to have successfully completed this training. I’m not even sure you need to be a qualified teacher any more to apply for a headship. I can’t keep up with all of Govey’s rulings, but I’m sure he said somewhere that ex-military personnel would make excellent teachers. My favourite twitter question for Govey (which I don’t think was put to him) was, ‘What makes you so certain that soldiers who are trained to kill and obey orders without question will make good teachers?’ I’m sure he knows best so any readers who are ex-SAS, ex-SBS or former paras are welcome to apply. Relevant experience will be essential, preferably in Afghanistan
or Iraq.