Select Committee on Education and Skills Second Report


SECOND REPORT


The Education and Skills Committee has agreed to the following Report:

SECONDARY EDUCATION: VISITS TO BIRMINGHAM AND AUCKLAND

Introduction

  1. In summer 2002, the Committee decided to undertake an extensive inquiry into secondary education. Following our recent work on Higher Education and Early Years Education, we decided that the Committee would devote a substantial period of time to examining four major issues in secondary education, namely: diversity of provision, pupil achievement, teacher recruitment and retention, and schools admissions. We are examining the Government's policy of encouraging diversity of school type, in particular the specialist school programme, the evidence about why pupils from certain backgrounds perform poorly at school, the factors affecting teacher retention rates and the development of schools' admissions policies.

2. As a preliminary phase of our inquiry, we decided to spend time in two cities, one in England and one overseas, to get to grips with the issues facing secondary education and to look at different approaches to them. At home, we chose to look at Birmingham. Birmingham's local education authority was one of a very small number of LEAs described by Ofsted as an example to all authorities of what can be done, even in the most demanding urban environments.[1] The visit was not intended to evaluate the quality of education in Birmingham but to provide us with the opportunity to listen to the teachers and educationalists, partly through visits to schools and partly through formal evidence (much of what we learned in Birmingham was outside formal evidence sessions).[2] This groundbreaking, intensive visit took place between 16 and 20 September 2002.

3. Overseas we chose to look at education in New Zealand. Our visit in October 2002 was principally to Auckland but we also spent time in Wellington talking to the Ministry of Education, to parliamentarians and to others. The visit to Auckland was intentionally similar in structure to the Birmingham visit to enable the Committee to draw useful comparisons between the two education systems. Auckland and Birmingham are of comparable size and face similar educational issues. We did not take formal oral evidence in New Zealand; but we were able to discuss secondary education with teachers, students, parents, educationalists, ministers and parliamentarians.

4. We would like to thank warmly the many people who contributed to our wide ranging and extensive programme, while in Birmingham and Auckland. The successes and challenges of secondary education observed in two contrasting cities will inform the Committee throughout its work this year.

5. This Report highlights our key observations from the many discussions we held in schools, colleges and universities, the formal evidence we took in Birmingham and the extensive meetings we held with policy makers and educationalists. The Report outlines the approach for the secondary education-based inquiries this year. The oral evidence taken by the Committee in Birmingham is published with this Report, and the programme for both visits are annexed to the Report. We found many common themes in the challenges which face educators in Birmingham and Auckland. There is a great deal to learn from sharing experience of the many initiatives and policies which aim to raise standards of achievement in schools here and in New Zealand.

Birmingham and Auckland

  6. Birmingham is a city with a population of over a million. It has the largest urban local education authority (LEA) in the UK. Birmingham includes areas of high deprivation; it is the 23rd most deprived local authority district out of the 352 districts in the UK.[3] Since the 1970s Birmingham underwent major urban regeneration. This regeneration highlighted the poor skill levels among the population and the lack of investment in education. In 1993 Birmingham took the unique step of setting up an Education Commission under the Chairmanship of Professor Ted Wragg to review the present and future needs of its education service. The Commission recommended a number of specific measures to be taken by the Education Department to raise achievement. Professor Tim Brighouse was appointed Chief Education Officer in Birmingham in September 1993 to implement the programme of reform.[4]

7. The LEA has worked hard with its schools to overcome the educational effects of this high degree of social and economic disadvantage. The recent Ofsted assessment of Birmingham's LEA indicated that since 1997 the attainment of pupils has risen, at almost all levels, at a rate faster than the national average.[5] Mike Tomlinson, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, said: "too often, challenging circumstances are cited as grounds for indifferent performance. However, this LEA has built on its earlier Ofsted report, the excellent work of its officers and members and the outstanding leadership of its chief education officer to use that challenge to deliver educational improvement. Birmingham, the second city, has a first class LEA."[6]

8. Much of the success of education in Birmingham has been attributed to imaginative political leadership and the dynamic personal leadership of Professor Brighouse. Ofsted had noted that "the leadership provided by the Chief Education Officer is outstanding, and has contributed significantly to the 'can do' and aspirational culture demonstrated by headteachers and others interviewed during the inspection, without which such a good rate of improvement is unlikely to have been achieved".[7] The timing of the Committee's visit to Birmingham allowed us to take formal oral evidence from Professor Brighouse before he left his position as Chief Education Officer.

9. In 1989 New Zealand radically altered the local and national arrangements for managing its schools and evaluating their performance. The educational reform abolished the regional education boards (similar to the British local education authorities). The resulting education system places responsibility for the governance of each school in New Zealand with that school's board of trustees, largely composed of parents, representing the local community.

10. Auckland is a large commercial city situated on the North island of New Zealand. Auckland, like many large cities, faces a series of educational challenges. It has a population of approximately 1 million - similar to the size of Birmingham. Auckland has a large ethnically diverse population. Unlike Birmingham, education in Auckland is not supervised by a local education authority. Auckland's schools work directly with the Ministry of Education and its agencies. We were particularly interested to examine the differences in the administration of education in both cities.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

  11. PISA is an international study to assess the skills and knowledge of 15­year­old students in literacy, mathematics and the sciences. It was first conducted in 2000 and will be repeated every three years. The study was commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co­operation and Development (OECD) and 32 OECD member countries took part.

12. We travelled to Paris in March 2002 to take formal oral evidence from the OECD regarding its international study.[8] The results of the first cycle revealed that the UK had performed well in the PISA study, although the disparity between high and low achieving pupils was greater than average. New Zealand was ranked third in the PISA study for mathematics and literacy examination results,[9] with only Finland and Korea producing a better performance. England was ranked 8th and 9th respectively.[10] New Zealand had also shown an interesting disparity between the highest and lowest performing results in its tests. We were particularly interested in the comparison of the English education system and that of a system which had produced a better performance and yet faced similar problems.

13. The success of an education system can be measured not only by the number of students who succeed, but by the number of students who fail. Generally children who are motivated to learn and supported in their education will succeed throughout the world, despite the differences in education systems. An education system which has the ability to successfully educate children without these advantages is a system worth studying. New Zealand's secondary education system had been recognised as one of the most effective in the PISA study. We were keen to see how New Zealanders tackled underachievement.

Diversity of Provision

  14. Birmingham has a great variety of secondary provision. During our visit to the city we were able to visit 13 schools, a pupil referral unit and a womens academy at a further education college. We were particularly interested in visiting schools which had applied for, or had been awarded, specialist school status and discussing with them their relationship with neighbouring schools, as well as learning and understanding what changes specialism had brought to their school.

15. Secondary education in Birmingham is provided through a combination of comprehensive schools, grammar schools, secondary modern schools,[11] specialist schools, single sex schools, faith schools and independent schools. The city is well serviced by public transport and this allows pupils access to the wide diversity of secondary school provision. Children travel across the city to attend specific schools. Although this diversity hides real problems for parents in exercising a choice with many pupils ending up in schools that they have not chosen. It is a system of parental preference not parental choice. Birmingham is home to the largest comprehensive girls school in Europe. Swanshurst Girls School serves a large catchment area made up of both local authority and private housing and recruits from 60 feeder primary schools. This school has a major impact on the intake of surrounding secondary schools which consequently have an extremely high gender imbalance.

16. We were able to talk to teachers and students from a variety of secondary schools about the pros and cons of working in an authority with so much diversity. We were keen to take forward the issues they raised with us into our Diversity of Provision inquiry this year.

17. On the issue of specialist schools, Professor Brighouse said the current specialist schools programme did "not help the issue of social justice and every kid getting a fair chance of developing their talents" and that "the sooner it is directed to all schools the better".[12] Professor Brighouse believed that "every school should be a specialist school and they ought to have the resource that goes with it".[13] Ms Owen of Bartley Green Technology College was also concerned that other schools would be disadvantaged by comparison to local specialist schools. She asked "what happens to those schools who are not special in any way? I do feel that something will have to be done about those schools because usually they are in the most challenging circumstances where they are fighting to hold the line and improve and then everybody else is getting this leg up and they are still trying to maintain their standards and are probably being berated for not having made more progress too."[14] Since we went to Birmingham the Government has expanded the specialist school programme to enable, in theory, all schools to become specialist.

18. Professor Ted Wragg, Chairman of the Birmingham Education Commission,[15] was not in favour of schools being asked to raise money in the process of achieving specialist schools status "it seems to me like Robin Hood in reverse to give most to those who have it".[16] He noted that a school's ability to raise the £50,000 required was dependent on the location of the school and the support of local businesses.[17]

19. We were particularly interested in the model of secondary education suggested by Professor Brighouse, which encourages schools to work together in local groups (collegiates) to provide a co-ordinated response to the schooling needs of each area. We intend to look at this issue in greater depth in our inquiries.

20. New Zealand schools are categorised by a 'decile' system. This system classifies schools by the socio-economic status of its student intake and awards each school a budget based on this classification. We were pleased to visit schools with high and low decile status. We will explore the advantages and disadvantages of such a system during our forthcoming inquiries.

21. The education system in New Zealand has developed cultural immersion education for children of Maori or Pacific origin. These schools, more prevalent at the primary level, are designed to teach children about their cultural heritage and traditions alongside a full academic curriculum. We were particularly interested in the concept of celebrating a cultural background as a tool to raise pupil achievement as there is the dual benefit of children being able to learn from an early age in their mother tongue and greater hope for these languages that they will not be further marginalised in New Zealand.

Pupil Achievement

  22. The PISA study showed that both the UK and New Zealand had large disparities in pupil achievement. However, the two education systems are quite distinct and we were keen to compare the methods implemented by Birmingham's and Auckland's educators to raise pupil achievement.

23. New Zealand's schools operate in a decentralised system where individual schools have considerable responsibility for their own governance and management, working directly with the Ministry of Education and its agencies.[18] The Ministry of Education has established eleven regional offices which interact with schools at a local level. We were interested to note that this system had continuing issues with raising the achievement of underperforming pupils. Although the British system is more centralised and operates through local education authorities, teachers in this country are working hard to deal with very similar problems.

24. The degree of testing and examination in the English education system has been described as inappropriate. Whilst in Birmingham, many teachers told us that the key stage tests at 7, 9 and 11 were excessive and placed a huge demand on the student. The New Zealand system by sharp contrast has been described as suffering from a lack of assessment. Whilst in Auckland the Committee was surprised to discover that there was no statutory testing in secondary schools before the examinations at sixteen.

25. In Birmingham we took evidence from Professor David Gillborn and Dr Simon Warren of the Institute of Education, University of London, about their work on the academic achievement of Afro-Carribean boys. We were particularly interested in his concern that "certain kinds of cognitive tests, which some people at the moment view as a way of getting past stereotypes, have systematically worked against black people".[19] Professor Ted Wragg told us that "between four and five times as many boys as girls are excluded from secondary schools for bad behaviour. Their exam results now are ten percentage points adrift compared with 0.9 of a percentage point in 1984."[20] We will take further evidence on this issue during our inquiry into pupil achievement.

26. The Ministry for Education in New Zealand told us that Maori and Pacific Islander students were over-represented in all classifications relating to poor performance. During our visit we were able to see the work undertaken in Auckland to raise pupil achievement. We will reflect on what the British system can learn from Auckland's work.

Teacher Retention

  27. We were told in the majority of the schools we visited in Birmingham that they had teaching vacancies. Schools located in more deprived areas found it difficult to attract teachers in shortage subjects. One headteacher told us that they had been forced to keep new teachers who were not up to the required standard because of the lack of applicants for the position. Another school however was very positive about the graduate teacher programme where more mature people who were switching from another profession could train while being in the school teaching. We found that there had been a mixed response to the graduate teacher programme in Birmingham. Teachers acknowledged that there was more money being fed into schools and this was reflected in the many new resources we saw whilst visiting the schools. All the teachers that we had the pleasure to meet during our visit were extremely committed to their job and to the children of Birmingham. Mr Arnott, headteacher of Stockland Green School, partly attributed the dedication of teachers in Birmingham to the work of Professor Brighouse. "We have had more resources and we have had somebody who has talked up education, who has challenged, who has supported us."[21]

28. Teachers in New Zealand had recently taken the Government to arbitration over wages and were surprised to be awarded a greater increase (20 per cent) than the teaching union had asked for (10 per cent). One of the main issues affecting schools in New Zealand is the high rate of temporary emigration of teachers to the UK, which was attributed to the considerably higher teacher salaries in the UK.

29. Our forthcoming inquiry into teacher retention has been greatly informed by our visits to both Auckland and Birmingham. We want to explore the support available for teachers and how this could be improved. We saw some excellent and innovative teachers during our visits and remain extremely grateful for the time they gave up to talk to us about their work.

School Admissions

  30. Birmingham has a complex variety of school admissions arrangements. Professor Brighouse was concerned that the current policy did not address many of the issues facing large cities. He told us that the Government needed to "be firm of purpose about stipulating criteria for admission and co­ordinated admission arrangements and about the issue of children who are excluded and then placed in another school, because the tendency is for the most highly­rated schools to kick children out when they are kicking over the traces, but then not accept others".[22]

31. The Admissions policy in New Zealand is mainly based on the concept of zoning. When a school has too many children wishing to enrol, the Ministry of Education may allow a school to operate an enrolment scheme to prevent overcrowding. Many of the schools in Auckland have a local 'zone' and a child has a right to attend a school if they live within its zone. If a school is not full once it has accommodated all the children within its zone, those extra places can be offered to children from outside the zone. Preference is given to certain children (e.g. they have a sibling at the school) but most children have to go into a strictly controlled ballot for the remaining places. Extra places tend to be restricted, so the element of choice is very limited. Parents could try to exercise this 'choice' by moving in to the school's zone or falsely claiming a right to attend the school. We were told that this system had various consequences which included the tendency of better-off parents to move into the zones of higher decile schools (schools with an intake of children from a richer socio-economic background). Both admissions systems had elements to recommend them and we will take further evidence on this issue during the final part of our secondary education inquiry.

Conclusions

  32. We began our inquiry into secondary education with two informative visits. We recognise that the Committee is not often able to explore policy issues with so many of the practitioners who work within the policies we examine. We were extremely grateful for the opportunity to do so on this occasion.

33. We have had the opportunity to examine education in two challenging urban environments. Both cities have experienced a variety of education policies over recent years designed to improve secondary education. It was interesting to visit Auckland, a city which had moved from a system very similar to our own to a extremely decentralised administration. Despite the obvious differences in structure, the PISA survey indicates that both education systems deliver a high standard of education to the majority of students. Both also continue to search for effective methods to raise the achievement of underperforming groups of students. We will continue to explore all the issues raised with us throughout our secondary education inquiry.


1   Ofsted / Audit Commission Inspection of Birmingham Local Education Authority - April 2002 Back

2   Minutes of Evidence taken before the Education and Skills Committee on 16 - 20 September 2002  Back

3   Defined as average of ward deprivation scores, in the LEA districts. Department for Transport Local Government and the Regions Indices of Deprivation 2000: Appendix C - District Level Summaries of the Ward Level Index of Multiple Deprivation. Back

4   Professor Tim Brighouse was Birmingham's Chief Education Officer from 1993 until 2002. Back

5   Ofsted / Audit Commission Inspection of Birmingham Local Education Authority - April 2002 Back

6   Ofsted, PRESS RELEASE: NR 2002­66, 10 April 2002 Back

7   Ofsted / Audit Commission Inspection of Birmingham Local Education Authority - April 2002 Back

8   Minutes of evidence taken before the Education and Skills Committee: Wednesday 20 March 2002, HC 711-i Back

9   Average mathematics and literacy scores. Back

10   The United Kingdom was ranked as 8th and 9th in the PISA mathematics and literacy tests. Back

11   Birmingham LEA does not use the term secondary modern. It only makes a distinction between selective and non-selective schools. Non-selective schools are classified as comprehensive, regardless of their intake. The DfES does not use the term secondary modern, however it recognises the term as an acceptable category in its Annual Schools' Census. Back

12   Q.292 Back

13   Ibid Back

14   Q.112 Back

15   The Birmingham Education Commission had revealed widespread dissatisfaction with education policy in the city and a disturbing level of under­achievement in its reports. There was evidence of a lack of resourcing and that the school building stock was in a poor state. The Commission recommended a number of specific measures to be taken by the Education Department to raise achievement. Back

16   Q.20 Back

17   Ibid Back

18   A small number of schools require serious inventions by the Ministry of Education. In 2001 144 schools, out of the 2718 schools on New Zealand, required intervention. This could be compared with the 129 schools put in special measures by Ofsted in 2001. Back

19   Q.191 Back

20   Q.6 Back

21   Q.129 Back

22   Q.291 Back


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2003
Prepared 10 March 2003