A forum fizzing with big ideas
With controversial plans to expand grammar schools in England officially scrapped after the Conservative policy was omitted from the Queen’s Speech last week, this year’s Festival of Education took place against a backdrop of that vote, says Harry Yorke
Once a year, the education sector’s blue-sky thinkers flock to Wellington College, nestled in the heart of rural Berkshire. For two days, they congregate on the immaculately kept lawns that girdle the Victorian spires of one of England’s best-known public schools. They come for the Festival of Education – a hub of ideas and debate – and as the event winds down, Châteauneuf-du-pape.
The festival is as much a celebration of talent as it is a guide to the future of the English education system and government ministers are often in attendance. But amid the smorgasbord of bold ideas on offer, one suspects that this year there is little appetite back in Westminster for all this progressive thinking. For when the order of the day is Brexit, what hope does education have of getting a look-in?
The festival began with Roland Rudd, chairman of Open Britain, hosting a discussion on Brexit a year on from the referendum. Joined by Henry Mance, correspondent at the
Financial Times, Mr Rudd lamented the campaign promises made by leading Brexiteers, including chief protagonist Boris Johnson, whom he accused of peddling “absolute waffle”. As former treasurer of the Remain campaign, Mr Rudd was more than forthcoming about the deficiencies of Team Leave. But as he sat, berating his opponents beneath a towering Festival of Education banner, it seemed as though Britain’s arch-remainer had forgotten the purpose of his own discussion.
For the 2.3 million students currently enrolled at British universities, one suspects that the spectre of losing European research funding, increased restrictions on international student visas and the end to the Erasmus exchange programme, might seem more pressing than where best to point the finger.
Outside of a string of Education Select Committee hearings, to date, there has been virtually no public debate on how Britain should negotiate on behalf of its leading universities, no meaningful discussion on how to “make a success of it”. While Mr Rudd and his Remain compatriots continue to ruminate on the past, perhaps next year’s address may focus less on past mistakes, and more on progress made.
The festival moved from one major contention to another: grammar schools. It was at this point that I was placed in the driver’s seat, chairing a panel joined by Graham Brady MP, the chair of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee, Lord Lucas, the editor of The Good Schools Guide,
Mary Curnock Cook, former head of UCAS, and Laura Mcinerney, editor of educational magazine Schools Week. Between them they thrashed out the subject’s major disputations – the impact on social mobility, the need for “uncoachable” entry tests and that grammars do not undermine the performance of existing secondaries – yet none landed a decisive blow.
A straw poll of the audience at the end of the debate proved inconclusive. Many were teachers and against new grammar schools; others were parents and in favour. But back in Downing Street, the debate seems to have been settled already. With Nick Timothy, Mrs May’s former adviser and grammars “champion” gone – resigning following a calamitous election campaign – there are few soldiers left to fight the cause.
Following a short lunch break, a large audience returned to listen to Katharine Birbalsingh, an uncompromising headmistress who has turned Michaela Community School, Wembley, into an outstanding free school in an area that has, until recently, troubled educationalists. Awarded top marks in her latest Ofsted inspection, Ms Birbalsingh claims the secret to her success is firm discipline.
“Our pupils move between lessons within minutes – silent, eyes straight ahead,” she says. A stripped-down, back-to-basics curriculum is accompanied by a “candour star chart” in the staff room, which rewards teachers who tell others what they really think of them. While Ms Birbalsingh has divided opinion within the teaching profession, she has united ministers in praise for her no-nonsense approach; it was Michael Gove, no less, who backed her when education secretary, and who sanctioned the school’s opening in 2013. Now that Mr Gove has been returned to the Cabinet, the Conservative Party must be desperate, surely, to bring some of Ms Birbalsingh’s much-applauded “candour” into the administration?
There were, of course, other notable mentions. Dr Joanna Williams posed new questions around schools becoming overly “trans-focused”, while Government behaviour tsar Tom Bennett did battle with peace-loving counsellor Maria Arpa over how to discipline badly behaved pupils (or not at all, as the latter seemed to recommend).
Gyles Brandreth, writer and presenter and a former Lord of the Treasury, summed up the mood of this year’s proceedings. It is amazing, he noted, how the meaning of words change over time. The adjective “terrific”, for example, is now used to describe something that is “positive”, when once it was not. “Language is power. Language is what defines us. Words define people.” Words such as “strong and stable”, perhaps.
Forgive my cynicism, for this was truly a festival of ideas. But when set against a Government paralysed by its own making, these pearls of wisdom seem almost certain to go unheeded.
Last Wednesday, the Queen’s speech managed just 56 words on the subject of education. If these blotches on the parchment are anything to go by, then those attending this year’s event, searching for glimpses of educational reform, may have left feeling rather more dispirited.
As one commentator remarked to me at Wellington: “the Brexit bandwagon is definitely in motion, it’s just a shame that all the wheels have fallen off along the way.”