clear commitment to putting schools in the hands of those who can make them
better, and taking them from those who cannot.
This also avoids the need for Labour to plunge into the curriculum controversy again:
the lesson of the National Curriculum is that, regardless of what the government says,
the curriculum is determined by what teachers actually do. The best lever for
controlling what happens in the classroom is the quality of leadership at a school. The
best guarantor of excellent leadership in the long-term is excellent governance. The
spectacular successes in improving the outcomes in London, by focussing on better
leadership, should be offered to the rest of England.
“The successes in improving the outcomes in London, by focussing
on better leadership, should be offered to the rest of England”
To deliver this over the whole system will, however, require more highly-trained
managers than presently exist in teaching. Labour needs to be clear that it is on the
side of teachers who are ambitious to make a difference. The party must facilitate
teachers to make real step-changes in schools, by helping them acquire the skills in
leadership and management that they are only haphazardly trained in at present.
The quality of professional development courses for teachers varies wildly from oneday bore-a-thon lectures to highly-regarded masters degrees; teachers need more of
the latter, and that will require improved rights of access and offers to fund both the
courses and necessary time-off.
Labour’s offer on schools should be as radical as it is responsible: if we can exceed
the dynamism of the present government, as well as offering more effective systems
for delivering change, we will clearly be the better option for education in 2015.
revolutionise.it
22