Your recent article on the "shocking levels of sexual harassment in public and at school" to which girls are subjected included another very important point about our state schools. It said, quite rightly, that the government is "making it harder, not easier, for schools to support their pupils". How true this is.
Another recent news item emphasised the point further, that state schools, especially those in the more disadvantaged areas, simply can`t win! After years of Ofsted`s criticism for their examination results not being as good as those of their middle-class neighbours, often after doing really well in terms of pupil progress, with excellent teachers working very hard, these underfunded and often understaffed state schools now are getting accused of gaming the system. Why? Because of trying everything to improve GCSE grades, a strategy now described as delivering "success without substance". Terrified of having bad Ofsted reports, with the additional threat of going into "special measures", many schools started their GCSE courses in year 9, simply to improve examination results and the future prospects of their pupils. Ofsted are now criticising them because of having too narrow curricula!
In the private sector, where there really is a "gaming of the system" taking place, schools are allowed, without ever receiving criticism, to avoid the newly-reformed and more rigorous GCSEs and A-Levels by taking IGCSEs, and examinations mostly set and marked by independent school teachers, called Pre-Us. Whatever happened to equality of opportunity and level playing fields?
Having different rules for state and private schools, and even having different routes into our state-funded universities, is simply not on!
I await with interest to hear what the Labour leadership candidates think about this, and the future of Ofsted!
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