The Government’s Children’s plan will be judged on its results - ATL

11 December 2007

The children’s plan will not be judged on good sentiments, but on hard outcomes, says Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

Mary Bousted said:  “We congratulate the Government on its ambitious attempt to put young people at the heart of its policies and the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) for organising and investing in children's services to children can arrive at school better prepared to learn.

“We are pleased the Government is planning a dedicated health strategy for children and to review the inadequate child mental health services.  For too long teachers have been left with little help to deal with the low health esteem and poor behaviour of children who have been mentally and emotionally damaged by their fractured home lives, poor parenting and poverty.

“But unless the Government puts in more funding it will fail to meet its target to end child poverty by 2020s.  This would be a grave misjudgement because poverty is the single biggest factor behind poor achievement and stunted lives.

“Although we are keen for the key stage two SATs to be abolished, testing when ready is not the answer.  It will simply result in more tests and yet more inaccurate test results.  Over-testing stresses children, narrows the curriculum, and puts needless pressure on teachers – it is not the way to raise education standards.

“A radical overhaul is over due for both the primary and secondary curriculums - neither is fit for purpose.  Instead we want a skills-based curriculum with understanding in place of regurgitation of facts.  We propose a national framework setting out the skills pupils will need in adult life, with the exact content being decided locally by teachers with input from parents and the local community.

“Why does the Government continue its blind obsession with academies in the face of all the evidence?  Even Ofsted accepts that specialist schools do not lead to better teaching and learning, so why does the Government continue to champion them with desperate determination.  We want good local schools with balanced pupil intakes – not schools divided by social class with the poorest and most vulnerable children concentrated in the least well performing schools and forever condemned to second-class status.

“And we don’t believe increasing the diversity of schools will help the Government’s aspiration for no schools to have fewer than 30 per cent of pupils achieving five good GCSEs within five years.

“We will work as a social partner to develop the proposal to give all newly qualified teachers access to continuous professional development (CPD) to masters level.  It is important to recognise that each NQT has different training needs so some will need practical skills to improve their classroom skills and behaviour management, rather than more academic training.  We will work with the DCSF to ensure the proposal has proper funding, support and planning so access to CPD is fair and not based on a funding lottery. 

“We are enthusiastic about the initiative to make schools carbon neutral, but schools will need guidance, support and funding to help them become greener.  And we hope all schools in the building schools for the future programme include carbon neutrality in their planning.”

For further information please contact the ATL press office on 0207 782 1589 or visit our website www.atl.org.uk.