YP Comment: Take the politics out of school league tables

GIVEN the extent to which school league tables have been allowed to become a political football, it is important to remember that most children '“ and their teachers '“ are doing their very best and to celebrate this fact.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan meets pupils at a Leeds school.Education Secretary Nicky Morgan meets pupils at a Leeds school.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan meets pupils at a Leeds school.

It is not their fault that successive governments have repeatedly moved the goal-posts when it comes to official targets to such an extent that public confidence in this data has been undermined because like-for-like comparisons are invalid.

It is not their fault that schools still in LEA control pursue different curricula to those academies and free school outside the jurisdiction of local authorities, further undermining the merit of such tables.

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And it is also not their fault that politicians of all persuasions cannot reach a policy consensus so teachers can plan for the long-term with some clarity of purpose.

Even though there will always be a cohort who claim that GCSEs have been dumbed down, and which is clearly not the case, most pupils and schools are meeting the current benchmarks – the improved results accrued in Leeds are of particular note.

Yet, despite such successes, Yorkshire’s GCSE results are still the worst in the country and the Government cannot ignore the fact that the results of some academies, set up to replace failing schools, are very mixed.

The inconsistencies are not helped by the fact that there are three separate commissioners overseeing the performance of schools in Yorkshire at a time when this county needs to be following London’s example and developing an unified approach in order to drive up standards across the region – the mixed messages have to stop if students are to gain the skills which will allow them to prosper in a digital-first 21st century economy.

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Rather than blaming others, and hiding behind statistical variances which, ironically, make it impossible to compare the effectiveness of successive Education Secretaries, Ministers need to take the politics out of policy-making if they want to motivate students and teachers to strive to do even better in the future. Children are not professional footballers judged on results. Their futures are at stake and they are being let down by the own goals that arise from increasingly counter-productive political interference.

A corner turned? Rotherham Council and its broken trust

IT would be churlish not to acknowledge the progress made by Rotherham Council in a borough still traumatised by the failings which exacerbated the sexual grooming of children on an unprecedented scale. Finally rid of most of those politicians, and officials, who presided over this betrayal, the new council leader Chris Read and his team are beginning to restore some trust – and faith – in the troubled authority.

However this journey is only just beginning. Even though Communities Secretary Greg Clark has consented to the transfer of a limited number of policy powers back to Rotherham Council, he says independent commissioners should continue to oversee key services because significant challenges remain. His caution is prudent. Having left vulnerable children at the mercy of grooming gangs, it will be unforgivable if the safety of youngsters is put at risk by decisions being taken in haste. This will take time – it has taken Hull Council many years to recover from the many failures of governance which so besmirched its reputation – and Rotherham’s leaders need to realise that it will be very difficult for the authority to celebrate success when its citizens include so many victims who were let down by the authority, the police and all those who turned a blind eye to this vile and degrading abuse. Their needs must still come first.

Pub’s soap opera: Raising a glass to The Woolpack

THE woolpack pub at Esholt has become a Yorkshire institution since it first featured on Emmerdale Farm – now Emmerdale – 40 years ago. Yet what will the next four decades hold for such hostelries? For, while it would be impossible to produce a TV soap opera like Emmerdale, Coronation Street or EastEnders without a cast of characters propping up focal point bars like The Woolpack, the Rovers Return or the Queen Vic respectively, the pub industry is fighting for its future. Perhaps the producers of such dramas could consider this issue as a future storyline. It might lack some of the gratuitous violence and promiscuity which are integral to so many soap storylines, but it is very relevant to those communities losing their local pub or other amenities.