At this year’s Conservative Party Conference the Education Policy Institute (EPI) have partnered with Tes and NAHT to co-host a fringe event on school choice.
England’s education system has been designed to promote diversity, choice and accountability, whereby pressure is put on schools to perform at a high standard through parental choice. It is crucial our schools are held accountable for what they deliver, but does the current level of scrutiny have unintended consequences?
Ofsted reports and school performance tables are a key source of information for parents when choosing schools. These measures are therefore hugely significant to schools. An unfavourable report can have a lasting impact on the school’s reputation within local community, which in turn has an impact on their pupil intake and their ability to recruit teachers and leaders. Conversely, a favourable judgment can considerably reduce scrutiny, with schools graded as ‘outstanding’ having longer time periods between inspections. These high-stakes judgements have also been linked to worrying practices within schools such as unnecessarily increasing teachers’ workloads, and the growing prevalence of so-called ‘off rolling’.
Looking forward, this session will ask ‘Is school choice the right driver for change– and how can we remove perverse incentives from the system?’.
The event will take place on Monday 30th September 2019 between 16:00 – 17:30
Speakers include: Natalie Perera (Education Policy Institute), Paul Whiteman (NAHT), Lord Knight of Weymouth (Tes); Judy Shaw (NAHT), Rt Hon. Nick Gibb MP (Invited), Mark Lehain (PTE) and Cllr Phillip Broadhead (BCP Combined Council). The panel will be chaired by Ann Mroz (Tes).
** Note: This event will take place in the conference secure zone. To access the secure zone you will need to obtain a pass directly from the Conservative Party**
