Date: 18/06/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the government’s decision to invest only 10% of the funding needed to implement the recommendations of Sir Kevan Collins, the Education Recovery Commissioner, on how schools can ‘catch up’ over the next few years.  A key question is how lost time for learning can be made up. One suggestion has been to extend the school day, perhaps making it 8am to 6pm for secondary schools. This is popular with many politicians but as recent surveys suggest, it is not so popular with parents with over 50% strongly against. 

It’s easy to see why having a longer school day seems attractive. Despite the best efforts of schools and families, all pupils have experienced over a year of disrupted education. It seems logical to add more time to the school year by extending the school day, so that pupils can catch up on some of the work they’ve missed. 

If we were to extend the school day, firstly there would be massive additional costs involved to employ all of the extra staff required to make this happen. This alone would take up the majority of the £15 billion cost of recovery identified in Sir Kevan’s report, but this isn’t even the main problem. 

The key issue would be that if longer school days mean more teachers, where would they come from? 

Although this year’s recruitment figures are more encouraging, there has been a national shortage of applicants for teacher training for many years, meaning recruiting teachers for secondary subjects such as Chemistry, Physics and Maths has been very difficult. Even those who have graduated with degrees in those subjects take a year or more to train and qualify, but if we really want to improve the supply of teachers in shortage subjects, we need to persuade more pupils to take the right A levels and complete the right degree course, meaning a minimum of four years before this can have a real impact. 

I would also be concerned about the impact of these extended hours in the classroom on the many clubs and organisations which do great extra curricular work with children after school. Even if these are held later in the day, I’m sure that a longer school day would impact on attendance at these clubs, reducing their capacity to support children in sports, arts, music, etc. 

Extending the school day will only work if it is planned strategically and properly funded. It has to be done working with schools and families and not just imposed upon them. Done properly, there could be a great opportunity to involve the types of clubs and organisations I’ve mentioned above in delivering part of the extended school day, giving more of our pupils the opportunity to take part in a range of activities. This is a vital part of the recovery from Covid-19 – giving pupils the chance to take part in activities to learn new skills, improve their fitness and be part of a team, opportunities they were denied during lockdown. Of course there may be extra tuition sessions to help pupils who are struggling academically but I would argue that enrichment activities are at least as important for most pupils to support their mental health and general sense of wellbeing. It would also mean that far fewer teachers are needed to extend the school day, saving billions of pounds.

Some very careful thought needs to be given to the impact on families where pupils have some caring responsibilities. If the secondary day is longer than the primary day, this could cause problems where secondary pupils may help look after a younger brother or sister. It is also easy for those making decisions to forget that there are also a proportion of pupils who are in the role of a young carer for an older family member. All of this needs to be considered when looking at making any extension compulsory. Conversely there will be other families where extending the school day could help significantly in providing wrap-around childcare. 

If planned carefully, properly funded and ‘done with’ rather than ‘done to’ schools and families through proper consultation, extending the school day could potentially be a positive development. However, if it means a rigid model imposed directly from Westminster then I worry that it just won’t work for pupils, schools and families.

Date: 11/06/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

Last week, Sir Kevan Collins, the highly respected Education Recovery Commissioner, resigned following the failure of the government to implement most of his recommendations on how schools can ‘catch up’ over the next few years. Sir Kevan’s very public resignation raises many questions and the key question is how much do the government value our children?

Sir Kevan’s report recommended spending around £15 billion to support catch up, while the government has actually committed £1.5 billion. Both figures are huge sums, but to put an individual perspective on this, £1.5 billion works out at £50 per pupil, meaning that what Sir Kevan asked for was £500 per pupil.

The school system in the USA gets a lot of criticism for a lack of investment, but President Biden has committed an extra £1,500 per pupil for Covid-19 catch-up, while the Dutch government has allocated £2,000 per pupil. All of this makes our Government’s investment seem poor by comparison, especially where it has managed to spend £37 billion over the last two years on the Test and Trace system, which a recent House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Report described as having an “absurd cost and failures”.

As I’ve said previously, I don’t take a party political view and I have some sympathy for those in Government making difficult decisions. However, I will speak out against injustice and when it comes to investment in education, it does seem that those controlling the funding, in the words of Oscar Wilde, “know the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has reported that the educational impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain could lead to our pupils losing 30-40% of future lifetime earnings. Nationally this adds up to lost earnings of £350 billion and this would mean over £100 billion less tax revenue to spend on public services and pay off national debt. Others have predicted that the total impact of pupils failing to catch up could be the loss of over £1 trillion to the UK economy in future decades. As usual, the greatest impacts will be on children and areas with the highest level of disadvantage.

When faced with figures like these, it makes far more sense to me to see the £15 billion as an investment in our children’s futures rather than see it as a cost. The actions the government takes to support pupils catching up on their education will be judged by future generations as how much the government values our children, particularly those who are disadvantaged.

Date: 27/05/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

There have been a number of times in recent years where it looked as if all schools were going to be pushed to become academies. Without a parliamentary majority, previous governments haven’t had the ability or support to make this happen, however, it looks as though this might be about to change…

It has become clear in recent speeches, interviews and publications that the Department for Education has a strong aspiration that all schools will join a strong MAT over the next few years. So what is a Multi Academy Trust and what are some of the advantages of joining?

Academies are state-funded independent schools and unlike most other types of schools, they are controlled by a Trust Board rather than the local authority. A Multi Academy Trust (like NCEAT) is a where a group of academies work in partnership with each other under a single Trust Board.

There are many advantages to working as a group of schools within a MAT, such as sharing costs for support services, staff working across schools, sharing facilities, joint curriculum planning and training. The core purpose is to advance education across the group of schools within the MAT by allowing school leaders to focus on the quality of education.

The Government has made it very clear that they see MATs as the best structure for schools going forward and they also want Trusts to grow so that they can get the greatest advantages from their size both in education and finance.

So what does this mean for NCEAT?

As a MAT, we’ve already seen growth having welcomed Warkworth C of E Primary School into the Trust last September. This has been a positive experience for both Warkworth and the Trust and has demonstrated how by working with schools who share our ethos and want all of their pupils, staff and communities to “let their lights shine”, we can continue to grow while maintaining our values and improving the education of all of our children, which is exactly what those of us working in education should be aspiring to do.

Date: 06/05/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

The link between literacy and success in qualifications is pretty clear. One of the sharpest examples of this is the reading age which is required to access GCSE exam papers. The exam papers are designed with a reading age of 15 years and 6 months, to match the age of the youngest pupils in Year 11 taking the exams that year. For any pupil whose reading age is less than their actual age, there is an instant problem as they may not fully understand questions and instructions in the exam paper. Inevitably, this significantly reduces their chances of getting good GCSE grades, which impacts on their options for further education and career aspirations.

This week, we’ve started work on developing a Trust Literacy Strategy for all of our schools. This is aimed to bring together lots of existing good work in areas such as reading and writing, as well as create new opportunities for our pupils to develop their skills in other areas. We are defining literacy as developing reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar and oracy (the ability to speak clearly, confidently and express yourself well). We believe that developing each of these areas across all age groups will massively improve our pupils’ life chances.

We aren’t starting from scratch here, and there is a lot of great support already in place across our schools. What we are looking to do is make it clearer for pupils and parents/carers what we will be doing at each stage from Early Years to GCSE in order to support our pupils. It’s also about making it clearer exactly what families can also do to support their child(ren) with this. One of the positives to come out of the pandemic is the much greater level of interaction and communication between schools and parents and we aim to build upon this.

Developing literacy isn’t just about improving educational opportunities; the positive impacts run much deeper than that. Children who enjoy reading are three times more likely to have good mental wellbeing than those who don’t enjoy reading. Having good oracy skills improves self-confidence and self-esteem, while reducing anxiety and helping to manage disagreements with others more effectively (helping parents and school staff alike!).

I hope that you think that our plans for a more strategic approach to further improve literacy will be a positive development for our schools and I would love to hear your views on this. If you would like to provide feedback on this proposed strategy, please email marketing@ncea.org.uk.

Date: 22/04/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

I can’t imagine many people would argue that having good subject knowledge isn’t important, or that achieving the best possible qualifications in English and Maths aren’t essential for success after school. However, I would argue that the current system of examinations and the expectations for school performance tables and inspections is very narrow in its focus, leading to vocational qualifications often being seen as the poor relations to the ‘academic’ ones.

There is too much emphasis on a small range of subjects favoured by the government and too much resting on ‘all or nothing’ final exams, which require pupils to recall a huge amount of subject knowledge. It feels like we are stuck with a model from 19th Century schools in the 21st Century. What is missing are more opportunities for practical learning and assessment throughout a course, not just at the end. Many universities get this and use this as the assessment model for degrees. I think that the current systems forced upon schools means we are missing an opportunity. We need change and that can only come if enough of us agree and make our voices heard.

Firstly we need to return to a system where much more of the assessment for the final grade happens throughout a course. An exam can still take place at the end of the course but shorter tests, project work and practical assessments over a two year period would take away a lot of the stress for pupils, who are often faced with two exams per day for a number of weeks at the end of Year 11. Changing from this would also give pupils the chance to build up a portfolio of evidence about their success in a subject.

Secondly, we need a system that gives much more flexibility with the curriculum and creates a parity of esteem for vocational subjects. This would mean that pupils would have much more choice in their options and schools wouldn’t be punished in the performance tables for allowing more pupils to take vocational courses, whether these are GCSEs or an alternative such as BTECs. Having a common or at least more easily comparable grading system would also help here.

Finally, there needs to be reform to English and Maths qualifications, with a greater focus on an initial functional qualification in each, which can then be built upon with further qualifications. This would allow pupils to master and demonstrate their competence in communications and numeracy before moving on.

I once had a group of pupils who were going to be forced to take GCSE Geography because of the school’s curriculum model. They were a challenging group, so I spent some time talking to the pupils and their parents about what they really wanted to learn about; it turned out that most had an interest in careers in leisure. We agreed to offer these pupils the option of a vocational GCSE in Leisure and Tourism instead. I then worked with a range of employers such as EasyJet, Marriott Hotels, local leisure centres and English Heritage to provide a course full of practical experiences.

The class worked incredibly hard for the two years of the course. As two thirds of the assessment was through portfolios, they each built up files of evidence of their practical skills and knowledge. Work experience and practical sessions were a key part of this. They organised their own events to show skills such as managing a budget, event planning, marketing and customer service. Many of my colleagues couldn’t believe that a group of pupils, most of whom had previously been in a lot of trouble at school, could take on so much responsibility. The answer was to give them an option which they enjoyed, focused on their practical skills and helped them towards their career aspirations.

All of that group passed their GCSE with at least C grades, for many of them, this was the best grade achieved in any subject. Almost all of them went on to work, apprenticeships or further study related to leisure and tourism, including working in five-star hotel and for airlines. The success of these pupils convinced me that we can get the best out of all of our pupils if we can offer them an appropriate curriculum and assessment system which recognises a wider range of skills and applied knowledge rather than largely testing the recall of knowledge.

Getting this to replace our current system will only happen if enough people are willing to come together and support the case for change. This brings us back to the original question; what do we want for our children from our education system? If football supporters can bring down the proposed European Super League in 48 hours then why can’t we raise our voices to challenge the current system?

Date: 22/04/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

This week we’ve seen the power of those who are passionate about something (in this case football) coming together to defeat a change (the proposed European Super League) which they felt would harm the thing they love. It’s shown that acting together with a united voice can actually lead to a significant change for the better. This has made me think about the positive changes we could achieve in education if we can unite people around something that we all want to achieve.

There are many things we could look to change, but one of my priorities would be to create an education system which places equal value on the full range of qualifications and subjects, not just a small group which causes schools to narrow their curriculum. In particular, it would be fantastic to raise the status and availability of vocational subjects.

Setting out a favoured range of subjects and judging secondary schools on how pupils perform places a straightjacket around the curriculum which schools can offer. Although this is typically a secondary school measure, it also shapes the curriculum in primary schools, as primary OFSTED inspections now focus very much on the subjects which are part of this closely assessed framework, known as the “English Baccalaureate” or “EBacc”, such as Geography, History and Science.

Schools are no different to any other organisation; if something is going to be measured and used to judge your effectiveness then it will become a major focus and driver of your work. As there are no vocational subjects included in the EBacc framework, then it inevitably sends a message to schools not to focus as much time and energy on these as the ‘academic’ subjects. This is a great shame as it unintentionally downplays the importance of vocational qualifications, meaning that pupils and schools don’t always have their achievements recognised and many pupils who would benefit from a more vocational curriculum don’t have access to one in-school, as schools are forced to focus on the EBacc subjects instead.

I believe that if school leaders were better at explaining how some Government policy decisions force schools to follow a narrow curriculum, which they don’t feel meets the needs of their pupils as effectively as it could, then parents would be asking a lot more questions about these policies.

A report issued this week suggests that 48% of parents would prefer their child to get a vocational qualification over going to university or work when they leave school. This shows that there is a strong demand for a greater recognition of vocational qualifications and the creation of an equal playing field with ‘academic’ qualifications. This is something that is a key part of other successful education systems, such as in Germany.

This support for vocational qualifications encourages me to think that many people would welcome a radical review and overhaul of our school curriculum. This week’s astonishing overturn of the European Super League proposal by collective action tells me that if we can get enough people to agree that change is necessary, then we can make it happen. The challenge here is convincing enough people that we can’t continue with the current damaged system. Perhaps a reset after the impact of Covid could be this opportunity?

To be continued in next week’s edition of Lighthouse…

Date: 25/03/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

We’ve heard a great deal in the past few months about the need for all pupils to ‘catch-up’ with their learning. This is something that needs a great deal more thought than some people think.

Firstly, thanks to the amazing efforts of pupils and their families, and the high quality of remote learning, there are some pupils who have done exceptionally well and are more or less where they should be. Some pupils have also made huge progress in their use and application of ICT, which would not have happened without remote learning.

As the lockdown was national, all pupils across the country have had to get used to a different way of learning. Remote learning is never going to replace face-to-face teaching in classrooms, but the notion that entire year groups of pupils have ‘lost’ entire months of learning is nonsense and it is a negative narrative that helps no one. Some pupils have struggled more than others and this is where the knowledge of the pupils from school staff and their skills in supporting them will be vital over the next year or two.

Schools are all too often judged only on exam and test results. I don’t think that anyone would argue that results aren’t important, but if that is the sole focus of a school, then I think that is letting down pupils, families and communities. Much of what we learn in school isn’t just about the ability to recall information and apply it in tests. Just as important are the social skills and learning to get along with others, and it is this that pupils need to catch up with just as much as the academic side of things.

It has been wonderful to have our schools full again over the last three weeks. It would be very tempting to set a large amount of homework over Easter to keep up the momentum from the return on 8th March. However, my message to our pupils is that over the Easter break, they should focus on their wellbeing rather than worry about how quickly they are catching up with their academic work.

Easter is always a time when many of us think about the hope that is offered to us in its message. This year, it will also fall just after another partial relaxation of the lockdown rules. This will mean that we can meet another family, or 5 people in the rule of six, outdoors and it also means the restart of outdoor sports. As this also coincides with increasing daylight and (hopefully!) warmer weather, it is a great chance to get outdoors, meet with people we’ve missed and get back to doing some of the things we enjoy.

I think that this is the type of catch up we should be prioritising. Schools across the country have found that the second national lockdown has had more of an impact on pupil wellbeing than the first one did. Much of this is probably linked to the fatigue of enduring a full year of restrictions, but also because the colder weather and longer nights has meant fewer chances to spend time outside. So, within the rules, I think that spending time outdoors, playing sports and meeting family and friends should be what we focus on during the holiday.

I wish all of our pupils, parents, carers and staff a very Happy Easter!

Date: 18/03/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

Over the last year, we’ve seen some huge U-turns by the Department for Education, such as schools “must stay open”, reversed after one day in January and “exams must go ahead”, changing to “all exams are cancelled”. I certainly don’t envy the government in having to make some very difficult decisions, after all, the last year has brought each of us challenges we could not have imagined. However, sometimes decisions are made which seem to completely ignore the views of those who are then directly impacted by that decision.

I never publicly take a party political view, as I don’t think that this is appropriate for school leaders, and we also need to work with everyone from across the political spectrum. What I have no problem with, however, is calling out injustice and decisions which directly impact on the life chances of the young people we have the privilege of educating.

The Pupil Premium is widely regarded as one of the best education initiatives introduced in the last decade. It gives schools additional funding to improve the attainment of pupils who are eligible for free school meals, either currently or who have been at any point in the previous five years. This means that for each eligible pupil, schools receive an additional £1,345 for primary pupils and £955 for secondary pupils. The money is spent on a range of strategies aimed at removing barriers to education and improving outcomes, such as funding additional teaching assistants, speech and language support and reading intervention programmes.

This funding has become vital to most schools, but the amount that schools receive is under threat because of a change in how the Department for Education allocates Pupil Premium funding.

Previously, funding has been based on the number of pupils eligible in January each year. However from April, this will be based on pupil numbers from the previous October.

This might seem like a minor change, but there has been a large increase in pupils who are eligible for free school meals in the last few months, due to the impact of the pandemic on jobs. This could result in a considerable loss of Pupil Premium funding for schools, which has been estimated at £250 million nationally. It means that a pupil who became eligible for free school meals on 1st November 2020 would not attract the Pupil Premium funding until April 2022.

Unfortunately this change could wipe out the impact of the additional funding given to schools for Covid recovery, making it feel like school funding is being given by one hand and taken away by another. Schools, Trusts and local authorities have asked the Department for Education to review this decision, as it will impact directly on the support available for disadvantaged pupils.

Let’s hope that there is a rethink from the Department for Education and they perform another U-turn to make sure that schools don’t lose vital funding to help disadvantaged pupils at such a crucial time.

Date: 11/03/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEA Trust.

I’m delighted that all of our schools are fully open again. After the challenges of ‘homeschooling’, I’m sure that many parents share this sentiment! Despite some of the gloomy news stories that have being doing the rounds in the media, our pupils have returned with smiles and are very happy to be back in school. As I’ve said before, children are very resilient, they are positive about being back and are just getting on with their school work and activities.

Being fully reopen means that we can now focus on creating a bright future for our pupils. This will be through a carefully planned curriculum, which allows pupils to consolidate work covered in home learning, but that also introduces new content to make the curriculum interesting and exciting. The return also means that we can start to work on some longer term changes intended to further improve the education provided by NCEAT schools.

This week we launched a public consultation on a plan to change Bishop’s from one huge primary school into five separate primary schools – one at each of the existing campuses. The key reason for making this change is we believe that it will bring each school closer to its local community, while retaining all of the strong partnership work. There would also be a very significant funding increase through making this change, which would allow more investment in IT, books and other resources.

The consultation is the first part of a process set out by the Department for Education (DfE) for schools who wish to make a significant change. If the consultation shows parental support for the change, then we then will prepare a business case to submit to DfE. If you would like to know more about the consultation, click here.

We will also soon start an exciting programme to bring Mandarin and Chinese culture lessons to pupils in all of our NCEAT schools. We will be working with the Swire Chinese Language Centre in Newcastle to deliver lessons to pupils in every school. I hope that this will be the first step towards eventually offering GCSE Mandarin at Duke’s.
I want NCEAT to have the highest aspirations for our pupils and to give them great opportunities for learning and enrichment. Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, yet only a very small number of pupils in England have the chance to learn it. China is the world’s second largest economy and as Britain looks to increase its trade with China, knowledge of Mandarin could give our pupils a huge advantage for future employment.

Swire Chinese Language Foundation will very generously provide resources and fund the teaching initially; we will have four days of teaching time across our schools for the rest of the school year. All of our pupils will have the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and participate in some fun, educational activities such as learning to write their name in Chinese characters and learning some Mandarin words and phrases. If this is successful we will expand the programme in following years, with the ultimate aim of some pupils taking GCSE and having the opportunity to visit China as part of their course. I’m delighted that we can bring a learning experience to our pupils that previously has only been available in a handful of schools.

While the immediate future for all of us might be uncertain as we wait to see how well the government’s roadmap out of lockdown works, one thing for sure is that at NCEAT, we’re taking nothing for granted and we’re now firmly looking forward.

Date: 04/03/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

This is a question that I’m sure we’ve all heard, asked and answered many times. Quite often the answer is “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”. I think these are both absolutely fine as responses, because many pupils genuinely don’t have an immediate career in mind when they are at school, or frequently jump from one idea to another. Sometimes it’s easier to say what you definitely don’t want to do. Personally, I told my school careers advisor I definitely didn’t want to be a teacher – I didn’t change my mind on that until much later!

I think the most important role that schools and families can play in careers advice is to make children aware that there are huge range of options available for different careers. As they get older, this extends to helping them understand the skills, aptitudes and qualifications that are needed for different careers options and how these match to their interests and aspirations.

This week is National Careers Week and schools have been raising awareness of the range of careers options available. Over the last few years, there have been huge improvements in careers guidance and information in England’s secondary schools and now increasingly in primary schools. The Gatsby National Good Career Guidance Benchmarks have supported this improvement. Duke’s Secondary School was one of the pilot schools for this and is also a Lead School in the Ambition Careers Hub supported by the North East Local Enterprise Hub.

In all of our schools, there is a focus on engagement with local businesses to support careers development and to help raise awareness amongst our pupils (and their families) of the range of employment opportunities available now and in the future. We are always looking to develop this and welcome any offers of support from local business. Although this year’s National Careers Week has been virtual, we hope that we will get back to face-to-face events, such as our ‘World of Work Week’, later in the year.

Schools and Trusts are now much more proactive in seeking to make links with businesses. Last week I had a meeting with representatives of British Volt, who are planning to build a huge lithium battery factory in Blyth, to make links that I hope will create opportunities for pupils in our schools. Understanding the requirements of local employers is critical for schools to plan their curriculum, particularly for GCSE and Sixth Form. However it is also about ensuring that the ‘soft skills’ needed by employers such as teamwork, resilience and good communication are developed at every stage of a pupil’s education.

The Government is planning some very significant changes to post-16 education over the next few years, which will have a huge impact on progression to employment. Basically, they intend there to be three main pathways, the traditional A level route leading to university, apprenticeships and finally the new T level qualifications which are being piloted at the moment. The Government would like T levels to replace most of the existing vocational qualifications in Sixth Form, such as BTECs. However T levels are very different: they are the equivalent of 3 A levels, 20% of the time is spent on a placement in industry and the courses are very specific to particular careers. This may require pupils to make a much earlier decision about career aspiration than at present. While ensuring that pupils with a clear career aspiration get a quality vocational experience and qualification is good, this will not suit others who don’t want to make this decision at age 16.

Such a major change will require a new approach and potentially much more collaboration between schools, colleges and employers to get this right. Whether the change is ever fully implemented (in 30 years in teaching I’ve seen a number of similar plans fall apart) a more collaborative approach between education and employers can only be a good thing and will further improve the quality of careers education available for our young people.

Date: 25/02/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

Over the last few months, there have been more newspaper headlines about schools than I can even remember. However this week must have broken the record, with daily headlines.

The great news is that our pupils can finally return to school from March 8th and we can’t wait to have them back. We will be fully open in Bishop’s, Castle and Warkworth from Monday 8th. However, the headline from the Prime Minister’s speech of “all schools back on the 8th” was not entirely accurate, as given the requirement for testing, it is almost impossible for any secondary school to be fully open straight away.

I understand that when politicians make a pledge about a particular date, they will be attacked in the press and probably by some of their supporters if they fail to make it. To avoid the Government being seen not to achieve the target of having all schools back on 8th March, the problem has been passed on to the schools themselves. The Government have required all secondary schools to Covid test pupils before they are allowed back into school, one of three Covid tests which secondary schools must complete on all pupils before Easter.

This is a very significant logistical problem even for an average sized secondary school, such as Duke’s, to perform on almost 1000 pupils, as well as the twice weekly tests for around 150 staff. I can only imagine the discussions taking place in some of the larger secondary schools around the country, which have 2000 or more pupils to test. Each individual test takes a minimum of 4 minutes per pupil…

However, although this is yet another “over to you…” problem given to schools to deal with, we are putting together a plan to get initial testing completed as quickly as possible to get pupils back into lessons as soon as possible.

The other big announcements have been about extra ‘catch up funding’ for summer schools, etc., which is very welcome, and at last having some certainty about exams. We will share our plans for the catch up funding in the next few weeks. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that our ‘catch up’ plans are as much about making up for missed extracurricular and social experiences as they are about academic catch up. The vast majority of our pupils have engaged with online learning very well. Of course they will have some gaps to be addressed but they have also missed out some crucial opportunities to take part in sports, arts, music, visits, etc. so our ‘catch up’ strategy will also be focusing on this.

It is good news that we have a clearer idea on how GCSE, A level and BTEC grades will be awarded. In many ways, it is similar to the Centre Assessed Grades used in 2020, but without the link to a school’s previous results. In many respects, OFQUAL and DfE have come up with the ‘least worst’ solution, where schools will determine grades using a combination of mock exams, coursework and essays. There will also be optional assessments set by exam boards for all subjects, but they don’t need to be taken in exam conditions. Each school will have until June 18th to submit grades, which have to be agreed by at least two teachers and senior leaders before being signed off by the Principal.

Schools will have their internal quality assurance processes signed off by exam boards prior to grade submission. In June and July, exam boards will randomly pick schools to sample the evidence they used. Results days have also been moved to August 10th for A-levels and August 12th for GCSE. An infographic has been included below to summarise the process.

For all pupils in Years 11 and 13, the next few weeks in school provide a fantastic opportunity to improve grades. Unlike last year when grades were determined by before the March lockdown, any assessments that pupils complete over the next few weeks gives them the chance of improving their grade. The message has to be that there will almost certainly never be another opportunity like this, where grades won’t be based on all or nothing exams nor have predetermined proportions. The final grades for each of our Year 11 and 13 pupils are very much in their own hands and those who work hard and put their best efforts in over the next three months will get the grades they deserve.

Date: 11/02/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

During the last week, we’ve had plenty of headlines about the need for our children to ‘catch up’ with their ‘lost education’. It’s very easy for politicians to get a headline with what is seen as an easy solution, such as longer school days or shorter holidays. Suggestions like these can be seen as common sense and a good remedy to the problems created by the partial closure of schools during the pandemic.

However, if I’ve learned one thing in my time as a school leader, it is that the biggest waste of time and resources is delivering a solution without a proper understanding of what the actual problem is. In business, this might be described as a ‘root cause analysis’.

It’s very easy for a government to impose a national strategy for improving education or healthcare, but all too often this is based on a particular political or populist view on what is seen as the obvious solution to a problem. Unfortunately many such ‘solutions’ are based on a flawed understanding of what the problem actually is, nor do they consider the unintended impacts of their ‘solution’.

I’ve said in previous blogs that while I am naturally concerned about the impact of the pandemic on our children, I am much more hopeful than many politicians that this can be overcome. This is largely because I know that children are much more resilient than they are often given credit for and also because I know that many of our pupils have worked very hard during lockdown and haven’t spent a year with no learning. Teachers are also very skilled in identifying gaps in learning and can help our pupils bridge the gaps, so that they get to where they need to be.

In my humble opinion, what politicians need to focus on firstly is giving schools the additional resources, such as funding for more teachers, needed to help the pupils who have found it most difficult to engage with remote learning. This would allow schools to increase the strategies we know work best with their own pupils, such as one-to-one or small group tutoring. This will help schools tackle the biggest impact of the pandemic, which is the uneven impact on learning between pupils.

Secondly, the government needs to hold an urgent review of the way that pupils are assessed for exam grades. The last year has demonstrated that placing all of the emphasis on a set of exams at the end of a course is too open to disruption, which is a disaster when there is no ‘plan B’. If effective teacher assessment systems are put in place, coursework reintroduced and more frequent chances to take shorter exams during the course are brought in, there would be many benefits. Firstly it would avoid the ‘all eggs in one basket’ situation we currently have, but more importantly it would benefit the mental health of our pupils by ending the intense weeks of stress with two or more exams per day.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, there is a need to recognise that it isn’t just English and Maths that our pupils need to ‘catch up’ with. Of course these are important, but so are the soft skills that pupils learn through attending school: teamwork, listening to other points of view, self-discipline, the chance to discuss their ideas with their classmates, learning new skills etc. This can’t be underestimated. Being introduced to athletics at school improved my wellbeing and gave me opportunities I would almost certainly never would have had otherwise. We must not underestimate the social aspects of learning and recognise that this isn’t just through lessons but also the extracurricular and enrichment activities on offer.

Those who propose extending the school day and term time need to recognise that ‘catching up’ isn’t just about more lessons, it’s also about the social learning opportunities that pupils have missed during lockdown. They also need to remember that schools already offer a great deal outside of normal school hours, so a key part of any ‘catch up’ solution has been funding to invest in more sports, drama, arts, music, and etc. rather than just more lessons.

Let’s hope that our Government takes the time to fully understand the problem before deciding on the solution to ‘catch up’.

Date: 28/01/21

By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

I’m sure that all of us have struggled with the uncertainty of when we will begin to move out of lockdown. With the impact of the pandemic worse now than during the first lockdown, I don’t think that anyone will be too surprised that schools will not fully reopen after February half-term. Even the new target date for reopening of 8th March is conditional on vaccination targets being met and hospital cases reducing. However it does give us the hope that we can at least extend opening then and take the first steps towards having all of our pupils back in school.

Although we will need to wait until February 22nd for the government to confirm their plans, rest assured that our schools are already preparing for a smooth return to school for our pupils and supporting them with catching up. This won’t be an overnight thing, but the curriculum will be carefully planned to balance consolidation of work set during lockdown along with introducing new content.

Catching up to where pupils would be if schools had remained open as normal may seem daunting, but it can be done. During my career, I’ve had the privilege of teaching a number of pupils who have missed very significant periods of school, which could have made a huge impact on their results. In some cases this was for severe and life threatening illnesses, for others it was arriving in the country as a refugee or asylum seeker. For some pupils this meant missing school entirely for over a year, as well as coping with the trauma of war and having to quickly learn or improve their English. Not only did these pupils catch up, many achieved even better results than they had hoped for.

This experience taught me that it is possible to rapidly catch up with missing work and get to where you want to be with determination, commitment and focus. The support and encouragement of family also makes a huge difference to the ability of children to make rapid progress. One of the few positives of Covid-19 and ‘home school’ is the great engagement and support from our families and the way they have worked with our schools to support their child’s learning.

I very much hope that the return planned for March 8th will be for all of our pupils in each school, but it is possible that it may be a phased return. If we look at how this was managed at the end of the last lockdown, the government priorities were Key Stage 1 and Year 6. With the uncertainty around how exam grades will be awarded this year, I would image that Years 11 and 13 will be prioritised at the end of this lockdown. Schools are in a much more difficult position than last year for teacher assessment, as last year’s exam groups had completed most of their courses and we had lots of assessment data, such as mock exam results.

The present Year 11 and 13 pupil have missed so much more time in school, covered less content and have experienced far fewer assessments. The current proposals for awarding grades include the use of some nationally agreed ‘mini-exams’ so it is vital that we get our pupils back in school as quickly as possible so that they are properly prepared for any assessments.

For all of our pupils, no one underestimates the impact that the pandemic could have on their education and their future prospects, but it is in all of our hands to ensure that this isn’t the same as the impact that it will have. This goes back to having the determination, commitment and focus I mentioned earlier. In a month which has seen a change of President in the USA, it’s worth remembering the words of one of the greatest Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt: “If we attack our problems with determination, we shall succeed.”

Date: 21/01/21

By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

In the week with ‘Blue Monday’, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, it would be easy to write another gloomy article this week. However, instead of writing about more frustrating U-turns by the Department for Education, I’m going to match the theme of this week’s edition by writing something positive instead.

Firstly, despite all of the challenges posed by online learning, it has been great to see some of the fantastic work being produced by pupils across our schools and campuses. For example, the work produced by pupils at Grace Darling Juniors and Josephine Butler for Martin Luther King Day on the theme of ‘I have a dream’. I also enjoyed some amazing art work by Duke’s pupils and seeing pupils get involved in the NCEAT Weekly Wellbeing Challenge, particularly some of the challenges undertaken by pupils from Castle School.

I’ve been impressed by the work of some of the pupils who are still attending school. The Year 5 and 6 pupils at James Knott looked as if they were having great fun making pizzas and I’m sure that they enjoyed eating the finished product afterwards!

I’m also cheered by the progress on the construction of the new modular early years, nursery and reception building at NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School. This is due to be completed by Easter, creating more spaces for nursery and two year olds, with both 15 and 30-hour care packages. We are also looking at whether it is possible for us to expand our provision at James Knott to offer two year old provision, as this is the only campus which is currently without this provision.

As I mentioned last week, the Secretary of State for Education encouraged parents who are unhappy with a school’s remote learning to complain to OFSTED, if they felt that the school hadn’t resolved their complaint. It has been a big morale boost for school staff across England to find out that instead, OFSTED has been inundated with emails from parents and carers praising their school for the quality of remote education. OFSTED has now received 13,000 emails praising schools since Gavin Williamson urged parents to flag remote education concerns, but only around 260 complaints.

In recent weeks, I’ve expressed my frustration with the Department for Education (DfE) at times. However, this has never been my default position and I will also give praise where it is due. This week DfE have published for consultation their plans to reform vocational education and training for post-16 students. This document definitely seems to be a step in the right direction, with recognition that the 50% who don’t go on to university need access to better funding for training and qualifications. There is also a promise that employers will have a much greater influence on vocational qualifications, with a strong link to the needs of the local jobs market.
While there is a lot of the detail to be worked out, this does seem like a positive set of proposals. Let’s hope what will be fully in place by 2030 offers new and exciting opportunities for our pupils who are currently in early years and Key Stage 1.

Date: 14/07/21

By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT

There is no doubt that switching to remote learning brings challenges for all of us. For pupils, it is engaging with a new style of learning in a different environment. For parents and carers, it may be about balancing working from home with the demands of home learning and trying to support your child with their work. For teachers, it is delivering lessons in a different way to normal and trying to find new ways of giving effective feedback to pupils to help them learn.

For all of us, we have no choice but to make it work as effectively as possible. The consequences of not doing so are unthinkable. Our pupils have missed so much school already and there is no guarantee of a return by February half term, so we have to maximise the opportunities that remote learning can bring.

This week OFSTED published a report on remote learning, based on looking at what schools have done since last March. What was very clear from the report is that there is no approach better than another when it comes to remote teaching and learning, with recorded lessons being just as effective as live lessons for example and clear support for using books and worksheets as well as online learning. What matters most is that we try to keep the content of the remote learning as close as possible to what our pupils would be completing in their classrooms.

All of our schools have slightly different approaches to how remote learning is delivered, based on the age of their pupils and the facilities available for pupils to work at home. However all of them are following the same principle of trying to deliver as much of our normal curriculum as possible at home.

There is no doubt that ‘home school’ can be really difficult for parents and carers, and we are really grateful for all of the effort that has gone into supporting our pupils with their remote learning. For those of you who aren’t sure about how best you can support your child, the key is encouraging them to engage as much as possible with the work being set by their teachers. I understand why some pupils find it difficult to engage with a new way of learning, perhaps feeling overwhelmed at times, and some pupils will also be struggling with missing seeing their friends. However it is absolutely vital to their long term chances of success that they engage with remote learning.

This is particularly important for those in the GCSE, BTEC and A level exam year groups. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Government’s handling of education since March was the failure to create a contingency plan for this year’s exams. Once again our pupils are left with great uncertainty over how their exam results will be calculated. We are promised that a plan for consultation will be published by the end of the week, so hopefully I will be able to explain more about this in the next edition of LIGHThouse.

I understand the anxiety of pupils and their families about how grades will be awarded, and as a parent of a Year 10 pupil myself, I know that it is not just Years 11 and 13 pupils who are worried about the impact of lockdown on the chances of success in exams in 2021 and beyond. What we do know is that the 2021 grades will be centre assessed, as they were in 2020. The best advice we can give our pupils is not to worry, to keep working as hard as they can and to complete as many assessment tasks as they can which their teacher can use as evidence that they are capable of achieving a particular grade. We will provide extra support and materials for this once we have details of how centre assessed grades will be calculated.

Remote learning may not be the ideal form of learning, but for pupils who fully engage with it and try their best, it will make a huge difference to their chances of success when we can all get back to school again. In the words of Zig Ziglar “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

Date: 07/01/2021
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

Where do I start? When I wrote the last Lighthouse article just before Christmas, the main challenge we were anticipating after the holidays was working out the logistics of mass testing for secondary school pupils and staff. After New Year, this then switched to dealing with the threat of industrial action in primary and special schools from unions, concerned with the safety of staff and pupils from the new strain of Covid-19.

On Monday, all of this was replaced by the news of the third national lockdown; the partial closure of schools and moving to remote learning, something few of us expected to happen so suddenly. People sometimes ask whether schools get advance warning of this type of decision, but I can confirm that we found out at the same time as everyone else when watching the Prime Minister’s announcement on TV.

As with the first lockdown, we had done some advanced planning just in case. In the same way that we plan for something like dealing with a fire or power cut; plans are put in place which we hope that we will never use. I wish the same could be said for the Department for Education (DfE) in their response to the decision to cancel exams. Since the summer, schools have been asking for a ‘plan B’ to be ready, just in case the 2021 exams were cancelled as they were in 2020. This happened in Scotland and Wales, so in both countries there was a clear plan so that everyone knew immediately how grades would be awarded. However in England, secondary pupils face uncertainty while a plan of how teacher assessment will work is quickly put together.

I was very glad to hear yesterday that the Year 6 SAT exams were also cancelled. Even in normal years, these are unnecessary; they don’t help the pupils, cause anxiety and can easily be replaced by teacher assessments. Cancelling them this year means that we can help our Year 6 pupils catch up with their learning and spend more time on transition activities for secondary school.

For the next few weeks, while most pupils will not physically be in school, we are determined to make sure that as far as possible they won’t fall behind with their learning. In March, remote learning was completely new to everyone but we now have systems in place and the experience to make this an effective form of learning. We didn’t need the Secretary of State to threaten schools with OFSTED to put high-quality remote learning strategies in place, we did it anyway because it is the right thing to do so that our pupils can continue to learn.

The first lockdown was a complete shock and none of us had experienced anything like it before. However, when going through a crisis you learn from the experience and develop resilience. We are much better prepared for this lockdown and are optimistic that vaccines promise us a return to a much more normal life later in the year.

The focus now will be on removing barriers to learning. We have more laptops than ever before and have been promised further deliveries by the DfE. We can offer some support with internet connections. We have staff allocated to provide help desks for anyone struggling with remote learning. We will continue to provide food for those pupils working at home and we hope that the promised national voucher system will be up and running soon.

We want all of our schools and campuses to be at the heart of their communities during the difficult weeks ahead and help to support our families. Even if we can’t provide the help directly ourselves, we work with other organisations who can instead. In the previous lockdown, we realised the importance of keeping contact between school and families. This will be regular during the current lockdown, but if there is an immediate problem then please don’t wait, just get in touch through the usual school and campus contact methods and we will do our best to support you.

You can also get in touch via email at communitysupport@ncea.org.uk if you or someone you know requires some confidential support with anything from financial to emotional issues.

Date: 17/12/2020

By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEA Trust.

We’ve reached the end of the first term back after the lockdown and partial closure for schools. Getting everyone back safely has been a massive challenge, but I believe that this has been a huge success for all of our schools. Children have been happy to return, staff have worked tirelessly to make everything as near normal as possible and parents/carers have shown great support. This year has certainly reinforced the need for everyone to work together to achieve common goals. Education is most successful when we can find ways of working together with parents and carers to support a child’s education.

For many of us, 2020 has been the most challenging year of our lifetimes. Although we have a long way to go and no doubt more to endure, we can all hope and pray that 2021 lives up to the promise we hold for a return to a much more normal life.

While for most, Christmas is a time of joy and celebration, for others it is the most difficult time of the year. I am very proud of the efforts of our pupils and staff in their fundraising and donations for charities which will help make Christmas a little better for some, such as Cash for Kids and the Wansbeck Valley Food Bank.

This Christmas, many of us are also faced with difficult decisions during the relaxation of the rules on social mixing, such as whether to see relatives we miss, but who are elderly or vulnerable. We can only hope that the brief relaxation of rules doesn’t bring another spike in Covid-19 cases in the New Year. The Department for Education have announced that mass testing will be available for secondary schools in January, which potentially could be a great help in not having pupils and staff self-isolating unnecessarily. However, we await guidance and support as to how we can safely manage a mass testing site within a school and to how this can be staffed without disrupting education.

In my previous job as a Headteacher, we ended the last day of term with a whole school Christmas assembly. For the school I led, that meant almost 1400 pupils and staff in the Sports Hall, something which would be unimaginable in 2020. When I closed the assembly, I always gave out the same message. I did this for two reasons, to remind everyone of the true message of Christmas but also because I was always acutely aware that there would be very different experiences on Christmas Day for some pupils compared to others.

My message was that giving at Christmas should be about more than presents and that simple acts of kindness mean so much more than you think. Whether this was offering to do the washing up after Christmas lunch, agreeing a ‘Christmas truce’ with the brother or sister you always argue with, or making a phone call to a lonely relative or neighbour.

It is lovely for all of us to give and receive gifts on Christmas Day, but for me the light that shines through the darkest time of the year comes from kindness and compassion towards each other. I hope that everyone in our school communities has a wonderful Christmas and that 2021 brings a much more hopeful and happier New Year.