Making the grade

Schools – take the long-term view

THE EDUCATION of today’s children is too important to be left to chance, hence the publication of league tables, and the necessity of regular Ofsted inspections, to monitor the performance of schools.

They can make or break a school’s reputation. Top marks sees parents going to extraordinary lengths to secure a place at the school in question. A poor rating, however, can create a stigma that is difficult to overcome.

This is why there’s merit to Ofsted’s proposal to undertake further checks at schools deemed at risk of losing their ‘good’ rating before making a final judgment on its teaching and performance.

After all, the results attained by specific year groups could be skewed by the fact that some cohorts are more academic than others. It’s also said that the make-up of classes can make a difference, given how girls can out-perform boys, while a school will struggle if its more experienced teaching staff leave.

Yet, while early intervention is critical to ensuring that standards do not slip unnecessarily, the morale of teachers will improve significantly if their efforts – and those of their students – are judged over a longer time-frame to take account of the day-to-day stresses in the classroom.

Like the award-winning and inspirational Educating Yorkshire series several years ago, Educating Greater Manchester – currently being shown on Channel 4 – reveals how school staff are not just teachers, but expected to be social workers, and surrogate parents, because of the sheer number of children whose learning is affected by behavioural or family issues.