Download full document: Schools that work for everyone: Government consultation
Launch date 12 September 2016 | Respond by 12 December 2016
This consultation sets out three areas of secondary school reform including Universities playing a direct role in improving school quality and pupil attainment.
CHEAD will be responding on behalf of our members. We have abstracted the section concerning questions relating to HEI sponsorship of schools into an collaboratively editable document here: — please add information on how this might impact your institution along with any additional comments to the collaborative document which will then be edited to represent the interests of the sector as a whole and submitted as CHEAD’s response on behalf of our members. If you prefer, email Paula Graham-Gazzard with your evidence and comments which can be added to our response.
Briefing: Along with the controversial decision to bring back Grammar Schools, the May government has also, somewhat hurriedly, announced a plan to make the HE sector effectively responsible for under-performing schools. The Schools that Work for Everyone consultation (adding to last academic year’s tsunami of consultations) proposes that Universities wishing to charge fees above £9000 should be obliged to sponsor or set up a school. It’s not clear whether Cameron’s target for 20% increase in BAME admissions is still on the table, however.
The evidence suggests that fair access issues are already being effectively addressed, yet successes may have limited effect on widening participation and the two cannot be elided together. The Cameron government commissioned Unconscious Bias Report 2016 which found that universities have a high level of awareness of the risks of potential bias in admissions decision-making, and are employing a range of successful strategies to combat these. Whilst the schools would be government-funded, there is no information about how the work by HEIs would be funded in the proposal for reform.
ADM HEIs already contribute significant outreach and free resources to secondary schools to help struggling secondary teachers update their skills in teaching creative subjects with almost no government support. There has been an enormous groundswell of campaigning following the publication of NSEAD’s 2016 report showing an alarming decline in ADM teaching, learning and CPD in secondary schools exacerbated by its exclusion from EBacc. See also the Cultural Learning Alliance campaigns.