14-19 UPDATE AND ISSUES TO CAMPAIGN ON

1. 14-19 UPDATE AND ISSUES TO CAMPAIGN ON January 2012

2. 16-19 Funding Structures • Department Education (DfE) to simplify and streamline the structure and processes relating to 16-19 funding. There will no longer be a requirement for local authorities to form Sub-Regional Groups and Regional Planning Groups. • The Education Funding Agency will be responsible for making financial payments to general Further Education (FE) colleges, Sixth Form Colleges and other training providers. School Sixth Forms will continue to be funded by local authorities. • National Commissioning Framework disbanded.

3. 16-19 Funding Structures (cont’d) • The Union’s 16-19 Funding Campaign – this will be underway with organisations such as the NUS, NUT, Unison and UCU. The campaign will be to fight against cuts in 16-19 funding. The campaign will highlight the impact of the cuts in 16-19 funding and emphasise the loss of skills and opportunities amongst young people if these cuts are not revised. • It is anticipated that there with be an eighteen per cent cuts to sixth form colleges and school sixth forms.

4. Diploma Entitlements • Diploma entitlement abandoned. • Diplomas to be left to market forces. • The bureaucracy and ‘unnecessary’ cost associated with the requirement that every school offers access to every Diploma line removed. • From 2012 onwards, there will be no requirement to obtain approval from the DfE before delivering new Diploma subjects.

5. The National Curriculum The Review of the National Curriculum • Call for evidence – April 2011. • September 2012 – new programmes of study for the core subjects made available to schools. • September 2013 – teachers of new programmes of study for core subjects to become statutory. • September Early 2012 – public consultation on Phase One recommendations including draft programmes of study for core subjects in KS1-4. • 2014 – teaching of new programmes of study for all other subjects will become statutory.

6. Ministerial Statement December 2011 Initial Findings and Recommendations • The Expert Panel’s initial recommendations advocated that the approach to assessment and pupil progression used in ‘high performing jurisdictions’ such as the most successful South-Eastern Asian education system should be ‘a lesson’ that England replicates. • That is, that every pupil ‘masters’ the subject content before a class moves on to tackle the next part of the curriculum.

7. Ministerial Statement December 2011 (cont’d) • There should be ‘higher expectations’ of pupils in maths, English and science. Examples from Singapore, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Poland include: – pupils expected to know all their timetables and related division facts by the end of Year 4; – pupils expected to learn about plant and animal cells in Year 6, including how cell division forms the basis of growth (this is not done until secondary schools in England); – a separate section on grammar in the curriculum with ‘clear standards’ which must be met; – ‘high expectations’ in recommended reading, including Homer, Chekhov and Shakespeare.

8. Ministerial Statement December 2011 (cont’d) GCSE Reforms • More radical reforms of GCSE qualifications. New Timetable Changes for the Curriculum • New curricular for English, mathematics, science and PE for all subjects to be introduced in 2014.

9. National Curriculum : Conference Resolution • The NUT will continue to campaign against the curriculum being a party political football. • No further changes should be made to the curriculum unless they are based on genuinely independent evidence and evaluation prior to full implementation. • Campaign for the Union’s alternative to the current testing regime and focus on forms of teacher assessment which are under teachers’ control. • Promote a broad and balanced curriculum that is not heavily prescriptive in content with a narrow focus on traditional subject areas.

10. The ‘Driving Up’ of Standards Agenda – A Levels • More rigour at A levels – A* grade. • The intention to abandon AS levels. • More focus on academic qualifications – review of A levels - linear A levels. Rules to be changed so that resits are prevented. • International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE). • University entrance examinations for schools/colleges/ more Pre-U examinations.

11. Raising the Participation Age All young people will continue in education until 17, from 2013, and to 18, from 2015. What will their options be? • Full time education – school or college? • Part-time education or training if employed, self-employed or volunteering for more than 20 hours a week? • Training places – employee release? What about employers who do not offer training to their employees? • Funding for students to support young people staying on in education and training. • Bringing funding levies for school sixth forms in line with college funding will be financially inadequate in order for this initiative to succeed.

12. Raising the Participation Age (cont’d) • More apprenticeships for young people. New youth contract which will include at least 40,000 financial incentives for small businesses to take on a young apprentice.

13. Higher Education – Raising of Fees? Leading universities have demanded the power to charge unlimited fees in order to maintain their world-class reputation for teaching and research. Already some HE institutions have increased fees to £9,000. • This undermines efforts to widen access to Higher Education for all young people. • How does Higher Education value a wide range of entry qualifications? • Aim Higher initiative has been targeted for funding cuts. This was an initiative that supported outreach work between universities and schools to encourage students from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider applying to university.

14. Eighty six per cent cuts to teaching budgets in Higher Education. Unrestricted recruitment of higher achieving students to universities for those scoring the equivalent of AAB grades or above at A level. Higher Education – Raising of Fees? (cont’d)

15. Enrichment Activities for 16-18 year olds • Funded guided learning hours for the ‘entitlement curriculum’ (enrichment/tutorial) will be cut by 75 per cent to 30 hours – could lead to a 10 per cent cut in over all funding nationally by 2013. • ‘Enrichment’ in colleges and schools generally means opportunities for students to take part in music, theatre, dance and sports activities, volunteering and charity work. • Major cuts which will reduce activities such as sports, music, dance and drama. • Annual Conference Resolution 2011 called for a campaign for the restoration of the entitlement fund for post-16 students.

16. Young People Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) • One in five 16-24 year olds can be classed as a NEET – 1.16 million young people classified as NEETs. • The number of young people, 16-24, out of work is approximately one million – one in five young people. • This year, record numbers of school leavers are expected, many of who will be competing for university places, which will leave thousands of young people without a degree course. • The number of additional student places to be halved at universities this year.

17. Young People Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) (cont’d) • What will happen to the previous pledge of a further £55 million to ensure that every young person leaving school in Year 11 has the option of a ‘suitable’ place in learning? Will this now be honoured? • ‘Positive for Youth’ is a new approach initiated by Government published in December 2011 for a cross Government policy for young people aged 13-19 in England. This sets out how councils, schools, charities and businesses can come together in partnership to support families and improve outcomes for young people, particularly those who are most disadvantaged or vulnerable.

18. Young People Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) (cont’d) • The Government intends to ‘facilitate’ local reform, including: – clarifying its expectations on local authorities through revised statutory guidance to be published shortly for consultation of their duty to secure activities and services for young people; – empowering young people by enabling them to inspect and report on local youth services and setting up a national group for them to help ‘youth proof’; – investing £320,000 for improved projects to bolster business brokerages; and

19. Young People Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) (cont’d) – expanding National Citizen Service to offer 30,000 places to young people in 2012, 60,000 in 2013 and 90,000 in 2014. • Many young people face a future of graduating with huge debts and scarce work opportunities.

20. Youth Unemployment • 150,000 school and college leavers unable to obtain a place at university despite many achieving maximum grades. • Could be one million young people seeking work by the end of the summer. • The Government’s austerity measures have put youth unemployment at an all-time high, while university fees are set to treble. UK unemployment rate is 7.9 per cent. For 16-24 year olds, however, the rate is 20.3 per cent – the highest level since records began in 1992 and among the highest in Europe. • Conference resolution states that the Union should campaign vigorously with all TUC affiliates, especially with UCU, for economic policies that put reducing youth unemployment at the centre of the political agenda.

21. University Technical Colleges • University Technical Colleges (UTCs) appeared in the Coalition programme for Government. These are backed by firms including Blackberry, Toshiba, Boeing and Rolls Royce. • The aim of these colleges is to improve the quality of vocational education, including increasing flexibility for 14-19 year olds and creating new Technical Academies as part of plans to diversify schools provision. • The first new 600 pupil school will be opened in September 2012 in the West Midlands, sponsored and run by Aston University.

22. University Technical Colleges (cont’d) Thirteen UTCs to offer highly technical subjects to teenagers. Silverstone motor racing circuit is to house one of the first colleges. There will be one in Newcastle to focus on engineering; one in Liverpool specialising in life sciences, backed by the pharmaceutical firm, Novartis; one in Plymouth backed by the Royal Navy. 14-19 year old students will take GCSEs in core subjects, including English, Maths and Science, along with practical courses such as engineering and manufacturing.

23. University Technical Colleges (cont’d) • The idea of a Technical Baccalaureate has been refuted by Professor Wolf: “The only real reason for having a Technical Baccalaureate in reality and practice, would be as a consolation prize for the people who you think cannot do the English Baccalaureate”. • There is a move to set up a national network of 100 UTCs in the next four or five years. • The proposal harks back to Technical Schools, which opened alongside grammar schools and secondary moderns under the 1944 Butler Education Act that created the tripartite secondary education system.

24. University Technical Colleges (cont’d) • These technical colleges will be selection by the back door. Students will be channelled into narrow separate paths at the age of 14 – leading to a two tier system with technical schools being seen as the poor cousin (sponsored by universities). • Selection at 14 – English Baccalaureate and Technical Baccalaureate streams. • Labour seems to be backing the development of a new Technical Baccalaureate. The Baker Dearing Educational Trust will be promoting the development of this Baccalaureate. Support has come from the Awarding Bodies – AQA, Edexcel, OCR and City and Guilds.

25. Studio Schools Studio Schools are a new type of academy for 14-19 year olds which the Government claims will develop employability skills through a project based approach to learning. New Studios Schools set up to ‘bridge’ gap between schools and the world of work. They are small schools of around 300 pupils, with a 14-19 age range. They can be set up as a new whole school (though an existing school cannot convert to become a Studio School), or as a school within a school, or within a federation.

26. Studio Schools (cont’d) Twelve approved to open in 2012 – with input from employers like Glaxo, Sony, the BBC and Fulham FC. Six already open. Studio schools offer academic and vocational qualifications but teach them in a practical and project-based way. Study is combined with paid work placements with local and national employers that are involved in the school. Backed by local businesses and employers.

27. Studio Schools (cont’d) Twelve Studio Schools approved include: the Fulham Enterprise Studio School in Hammersmith and Fulham, engaged with employers such as the BBC, Fulham FC and Age UK: Liverpool: specialising in games development and digital futures; key employers involved include Sony as well as the backing of several universities; the Discovery Studio School in Stoke-on-Trent which has links with employers in the local ceramics industry including Emma Bridgewater: the Da Vinci Studio School of Science and Engineering in Stevenage, offering a curriculum-based on in-demand science, technology, engineering and maths backed by employers including Glaxo.

28. The English Baccalaureate • A new benchmark to measure academic success for those gaining A* to C GCSE grades in English, Maths, a language, sciences and geography or history. • Measure that was introduced has branded a large number of pupils as failures retrospectively. • Schools and students identified as failures for missing its targets. • Selective schools and independent schools have dominated the top ranking of the English Baccalaureate.

29. The English Baccalaureate(cont’d) • Annual Conference resolution was passed to campaign against the promotion of a hierarchy of subjects through introducing the English Baccalaureate. Subjects under threat such as Business Studies, RE, IT, etc. • 1.4 million on GCSE qualifications were achieved in subjects not related to the English Baccalaureate, including music, visual arts and RE. • This is a top-down measure.

30. The Careers Service – Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) • To campaign for a properly funded all age careers service that supports the ‘Raising of the Participation Age’. • A national careers service needs to be established. The intent to establish an all age service seems to have been abandoned. • At a time of growing youth unemployment, the series of cuts by many local authorities to the Connexions Services – risk exacerbating the damage to many young lives. • The cuts made by many local authorities to careers support for young people undermines the steps required to improve social mobility and the achievement of young people.

31. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) • Children who fail to get ‘good’ English and Maths GCSE will continue to study these subjects to 18. • High quality Maths and English GCSE alternatives will be identified. • Reform of league tables and funding rules to remove incentives that have ‘devalued’ vocational education. • The Government has accepted all of Professor Wolf’s recommendations.

32. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) (cont’d) • Consult with employers, schools, colleges, HE and Ofqual to define the criteria of what good vocational qualifications are. New strict rules to be introduced defining which vocational qualifications will count in performance tables. Vocational qualifications will only count if: – they offer pupils proven progression into a broad range of further qualifications or careers post-16, rather than ‘narrowing’ students’ options; – they should be the size of a GSCE or bigger;

33. – they have a substantial proportion of external assessment and require students to focus knowledge across their subject; – they have grades such as A*-G (those with simple pass or fail results will be excluded); or – only those qualifications that meet the DfE’s ‘rigorous’ characteristics will count in performance tables. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) (cont’d) • The introduction of new measures to assess the performance of both higher and lower attaining students so schools and colleges do not focus only on students who are on the C/D grade borderline.

34. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) (cont’d) • Support 14-16 year olds enrolling in colleges so they can benefit from good vocational training available there. • Independent evaluation of Foundation learning. • Allow FE lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified school teachers – this will require change to the law. • Majority of 14-16 year olds to be taught an academic core. • Young people not to specialise too early as this is a narrowing of their choices and limits their chance to secure further learning and employment in the longer term.

35. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) (cont’d) GCSEs • 16-18 year olds to have a coherent and well considered study programme – to follow a broad programme of study. Such a programme is likely to cover contact time, continuation/achievement of English and maths where appropriate, and qualifications that are of a substantial size and are rigorously assessed. • Reform of GCSEs to end modularisation and re-sitting. Spelling, punctuation and grammar to be strengthened in GCSEs (which was introduced in 2009). ‘Essential’ knowledge only in GCSEs.

36. Study programmes for these young people to offer high quality, genuine work experience with a focus on achievement in maths and English. Review of the 16-19 funding formula – move from a formula based on funding qualifications to one based on funding learners. This review will consider value for money and what weightings may be needed to reflect the content and related cost of courses. Support for University Technical College to offer full-time technically orientated courses (pre-16 students). Move pre-16 students to study in colleges. Vocational Education (The Wolf Review) (cont’d)

37. New Performance Measures • League tables to be overhauled to expand the number of measures on which schools are ranked – “to reform performance tables and funding rules to remove the perverse incentives which have served to devalue vocational education, while pushing young people into qualification routes that do not allow them to move into work or further learning”. • Figures will be published which shows for each school the difference between the lowest achieving pupils, the highest achieving and those performing as ‘expected’.

38. New Performance Measures (cont’d) • Recognise through performance tables those vocational qualifications which are most appropriate for the vast majority of 14-16 year olds. (Consultation to have taken place on this.) • From 2014, only GCSEs and ‘valued’ vocational qualifications that meet ‘strict’ new criteria will be recognised in performance tables. • Only the most ‘rigorous’ qualifications will count in league tables. Consultation out on what rules define ‘high quality’; qualifications.

39. New Performance Measures (cont’d) • Other qualifications, such as full course GCSEs, established IGCSEs and AS levels, will continue to count. Other qualifications count only if: – they have a proven track record - only if they have been taught for at least two years with good levels of take-up among 14-16 year olds; – they have been taught for at least two years with good levels of take-up among 14-16 year olds; – they have a substantial proportion of external assessment; – they have grades, such as A*G (those with simple pass or fail results will be excluded).

40. School and College Budgets • Education budgets are going to be tight for at least the next three years. • Schools and colleges will have to do with less and have to make their budgets stretch further. • Government intends to level school funding rates at post-16 down to those of other post-16 providers. • Assumption that current college rates are sufficient rates of funding. • Levelling down of post-16 funding will have a devastating impact on all schools, but particularly for those in rural areas.

41. Changes to the Admissions System • Anyone can object to the Schools Adjudicator admissions arrangements for state funding schools and academies. Now there will only be one route of complaint. • Children of staff given priority over school places – so that children of parents setting up Free Schools can be prioritised. • Changes to the Published Admission Number (PAN). New proposals give all schools the freedom to change the published admission number without first seeking the approval of the local authority. This will impact on class sizes. Further campaigning issue for the Union.

42. Changes to the Admissions System(cont’d) • Schools popular with parents are to be free to increase the Published Admission Number, allowing popular schools to take extra pupils from other schools. This will leave those schools not expanding with funding difficulties and will also make their fight to raise levels of attainment harder. Another way of closing down ‘improving’ schools? • The requirement on local authorities in England to set up an Admission Forum will be removed.

43. Changes to the Admissions System(cont’d) • The loss of Admissions Forums will mean that the fairness of arrangements regarding admissions at a local level will be difficult to challenge. How will fair admissions practices be determined locally? • Membership of the forums includes representatives of local schools, parents and the community. • Admissions criteria would no longer be agreed locally by a properly supported Admissions Forum. • If all schools become academies, there will be over 20,000 individual admissions authorities.

44. Campaigning on Education Issues • 2012 draft Conference Resolution on School Autonomy, Fragmentation, Accountability and Comprehensive Education and Secondary Education (see separate paper). • See 2011 NUT Annual Conference resolutions on 14-19 education (separate paper). • Working and campaigning closely with UCU on 14-19 issues. • Campaigning against the abolition of EMAs. The raising of tuition fees and the cuts to entitlement funding.

45. Campaigning against youth unemployment. (One in ten students are unable to find a job when they leave university; and one in five 16-24 year olds are jobless.) Campaign against countless cuts to local authority education support services. Campaign against University Technical Colleges, Free Schools and Studio Schools. Campaign against 80 per cent of University Teaching Budgets being cut. Cuts to school sports partnerships. Campaigning on Education Issues (cont’d)

46. Campaigning on Education Issues (cont’d) • Cuts to local libraries. • Connexions Services. • Youth Services • Campaign for a levelling up school/college funding and against the 18 per cent cuts to sixth form colleges and school sixth forms.