8. Memorandum submitted by the Department
for Education and Skills (DP 47)
PART ONE
"A note on the key evidence on which the
Government's diversity of provision agenda is built (and copies
of any documents or full references)."
Background
1. Schools Achieving Success, the
Government's 2001 White Paper on schools, confirmed the Government's
commitment to transforming teaching and learning in secondary
schools and the creation of an education system, which responds
to and encourages individual talents and aspirations. The chapter
on diversity outlines plans to build a flexible and diverse system
in which every school is excellent and plays to its strengths,
sharing with others and gaining from partnership.
2. In the Executive Summary of the DfES
July 2002 spending review paper Investment for Reform, the
Government set out a programme for the secondary education and
a vision of a new comprehensive system which will be specialist,
both in the distinctive ethos of each school, and in the focus
it will bring to each child's individual talents.
3. There are many aspects of diversity in
our secondary school system, not least the legal divide between
community, foundation and voluntary schools (and the state-funded
independent schools known as City Technology Colleges and Academies),
but the core of the Government's diversity agenda is the specialist
schools programme. It is the Government's intention that all schools
that wish to join the programme should be able to do so when they
are ready. Beyond the legal structure and the specialist schools
programme there are other "diversity" opportunities
for secondary schools, notably the Training School, Extended School
and Advanced School programmes. Notes on all these initiatives
are included in the separate briefing on the various DfES initiatives
affecting secondary education.
4. The specialist schools programme was
launched by the Department in September 1993 with the first grant-maintained
and voluntary aided schools starting operating as technology colleges
the following year. Initially only grant-maintained and voluntary-aided
schools were eligible to apply, but in the following year all
maintained schools became eligible. The programme was also extended
in 1995 to cover modern foreign languages and in 1997 to cover
sports and arts. In 1997, the new Labour Government re-launched
the programme with a focus on school improvement and the specialist
schools sharing their expertise and facilities with other schools
and the local community.
5. The White Paper Schools Achieving
Success announced an expansion in the specialist schools programme
with plans for at least 1,500 specialist schools by 2005. It also
announced the introduction of four new specialisms: science, engineering,
business and enterprise and maths and computing. Investment
for reform, announced a further expansion of the programme
with plans for at least 2,000 specialist schools by 2006. At September
2002 there are 992 specialist schools.
6. Schools wishing to achieve specialist
school status have to submit development plans setting clear objectives
and measurable targets for extending their teaching and raising
standards in their specialism. They are also required to raise
£50,000 in sponsorship towards the capital costs of a project
to improve the facilities for the specialist area. Schools receive
additional capital and recurrent grants from the Department to
complement business sponsorship.
Rationale
7. The White Paper Schools Achieving
Success acknowledged that whilst there have been many improvements
there are still a number of challenges facing the secondary school
system. Whilst there has been a steady improvement in the achievement
of 16 year olds, more than two fifths of all pupils are still
failing to achieve five good GCSEs (5+A*-C). Around 10% of pupils
gain fewer than five GCSEs at A*-G and half of these fail to gain
at least one GCSE at A*-G or GNVQ equivalent.
8. There is general recognition, in business,
public bodies, sport and other endeavours, as well as education
institutions, that organisations with a distinct identity perform
best, with the ethos acting as a motivator. In schools, this motivation
affecting staff and pupils across a wide range of subjects and
activities, can lead to improvements in teaching and learning.
In this context, the White Paper sets out the Government's vision
for a flexible and diverse school system which is more tailored
to the needs of the individual pupil and where every school is
excellent and plays to its strengths. Specialist schools are a
key strand of the drive to create a more diverse secondary school
system because they encourage schools to identify and play to
their strengths and develop a distinctive mission and ethos. This
has been seen in practice in community, foundation and voluntary
schools. There is also evidence for their success in raising standards.
9. A number of different research studies
have been carried out to assess the impact of the specialist schools
programme on pupil achievement. A study carried out by the London
School of Economics, on behalf of the Department, (West et
al, 2000) found that the average annual improvement in the
percentage of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at A* to C was
1.11 percentage points in specialist schools compared with 0.75
percentage points in non- specialist schools. A difference of
0.36 percentage points. Whilst the authors note that the schools
in the study were, in general, already higher performing schools
in terms of examination results, they nevertheless conclude that
the specialist schools programme has delivered improvements in
examination results over and above the improvements seen in other
schools in the same period.
10. An Ofsted evaluation of the progress
of Specialist Schools (Ofsted, 2001) noted that the trend of improvement
in GCSE average point scores in specialist schools was slightly
greater than the national rate, and that more pupils in technology,
language and arts colleges were achieving five or more GCSE A*-C
and A*-G grades than in maintained schools nationally. Performance
of pupils in sports colleges was slightly below the national average
for A*-C grades and in line with the average for A*-G grades.
11. The Department's value-added analysis
based on 2001 outcomes shows that during Key Stage 3, in each
core subject, on average pupils in specialist schools made an
eighth of a level more progress than pupils in all maintained
mainstream secondary schools. The difference is more noticeable
for pupils at the lower end of the KS2 prior attainment range
(those with below an average level 4) and for pupils in schools
with high levels of pupils eligible for free school meals. During
Key Stage 4, pupils' average progress in specialist schools is
higher than for pupils in all schools by about 1.5 GCSE points,
or the equivalent of one grade higher in one or two subjects.
12. Professor David Jesson, of York University,
on behalf of the Technology Colleges Trust, has also looked at
the performance and value added of specialist schools, (Jesson,
2001) and (Jesson, 2002), using GCSE performance and prior attainment
measures aggregated to school level. Both studies concluded that
specialist schools were adding considerably more value than other
comprehensive schools. The most recent study concluded that in
value added terms, comparing Key Stage 2 results with GCSE results
(using the 5+ A*-C indicator), the non selective specialist schools
performed significantly better (four percentage points above the
predicted level) than the other maintained comprehensive and modern
schools (one percentage point below the predicted level).
13. The NFER (Schagen et al, 2002)
undertook a research project to assess the impact of specialist
schools, as part of a wider study looking at the impact of specialist
and faith schools. They concluded that, in 2000, technology and
language colleges obtained better results than non-specialist
schools at key stage 3 and at GCSE, but for arts and sports colleges
the picture is more varied and less positive. Around 80% of specialist
schools were Technology or Language Colleges at that time. The
authors noted that other factors eg ethnicity, EAL and level of
parental support could also be relevant in accounting for the
differences in results. Analysis of the data to explore whether
specialist schools succeed at the expense of neighbouring non-specialist
schools was broadly inconclusive.
14. In addition to attainment, a number
of studies have reported on other positive effects of specialist
school status. West et al (2000) noted that headteachers
of specialist schools reported that they were engaged in outreach
with primary schools (80%); with other secondary schools (58%);
and with community groups (44%). It is now a requirement for all
specialist schools to be engaged in these programmes. Over two
thirds of headteachers also reported that specialist school status
had resulted in increased pupil motivation.
15. A parallel study, based on case studies
(a structured random sample) and designed to complement the LSE
research, was carried out by the University of Leeds (Yeomans
et al, 2000). This concluded that the programme was widely
perceived by schools to be effective with teachers reporting that
specialist school status had promoted a culture of achievement
and an improvement in the quality of teaching.
16. The Ofsted evaluation (Ofsted, 2001)
also concluded that four out of five of the well established specialist
schools covered by the survey were in large measure achieving
the aims of the specialist schools programme and that for these
schools, specialist school status had often been the catalyst
for innovation and had helped to sustain or accelerate the momentum
of school improvement.
17. Research undertaken by NfER on behalf
of the Technology Colleges Trust (Rudd et al, 2002) looked
at the success factors which were characteristic of high performing
specialist schools and concluded that these were: interconnectedness,
whole-school ethos, management styles, teachers going the extra
mile, innovative use of staffing, active use of performance data,
a focus on the individual, a broad and flexible curriculum and
resources and status. These broadly correspond with earlier findings
of Tooley and Howes (1999). The seven habits of highly effective
schools, which covered 10 specialist schools. We recognise,
of course that the characteristics cited by both Tooley and Howes
and Rudd et al are likely to apply equally to successful
non-specialist schools.
18. Research evidence on the impact of the
specialist school programme to date is broadly positive both in
terms of the impact of the programme on attainment and in terms
of the wider reported benefits on school ethos, teaching and learning,
and pupil motivation. Not surprisingly the evidence suggests that
the beneficial effects increase over time. This is consistent
with the view of the programme as a long-term investment, with
each new designation as the beginning of a process, which is likely
to take a number of years to reap the full benefits. This is the
basis for the extension of the specialist school programme and
for the place of the programme at the centre of the diversity
agenda.
Bibliography
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Schools:
Best Practice in Specialist Schools Tooley and Howes, published
by Technology Colleges Trust, 1999
Examining the Impact of the Specialist Schools
Programme (LSE) published by DFEE, Research Report RR 196, April
2000
The Impact of the Specialist Schools Programme:
Case Studies (Leeds University) published by DFEE Research Report
RR 197, April 2000
Educational Outcomes and Value Added Analysis
of Specialist Schools Year 2000, and Value Added and the Benefits
of Specialism, both by David Jesson (University of York), published
by the Technology Colleges Trust, 2001 and 2002 respectively
Specialist Schools: And evaluation of progress,
published by OFSTED, October 2001
The Impact of Specialist and Faith Schools on
Performance (Schagen et al) published by National Foundation
for Educational Research (NFER), 2002
High Performing Specialist Schools: What Makes
the Difference? Rudd et al (NFER) published by NFER, 2002
PART TWO
TYPES OF
SCHOOL
"A note setting out the definitions of
all the various types of school (foundation/voluntary aided/grammar/specialist/advanced
specialist etc), and the mechanisms for (and criteria for assessing)
change of status."
LEA MAINTAINED SCHOOL
CATEGORIES
1. The School Standards and Framework Act
1998 established a new framework for the organisation of schools.
Section 20 established the following new categories of maintained
schools to replace the former categories from 1 September 1999:
Community schools
The LEA employs the school's staff, owns the
school's land and buildings and is the admissions authority ie
it has primary responsibility for deciding the arrangements for
admitting pupils.
Foundation schools
The governing body is the employer and the admissions
authority. The school's land and buildings are either owned by
the governing body or by a charitable foundation.
Voluntary Aided schools
The governing body is the employer and the admissions
authority. The school's land and buildings (apart from playing
fields which are normally vested in the LEA) will normally be
owned by a charitable foundation. The governing body will contribute
towards the capital costs of establishing the school and any subsequent
capital building work.
Voluntary Controlled schools
The LEA is the employer and the admissions authority.
The school's land and buildings (apart from playing fields which
are normally vested in the LEA) will normally be owned by a charitable
foundation.
2. All the new categories of school share
common characteristics. In particular:
(a) schools are self-managing. They are run
by their governing bodies and staff, not by LEAs. The Code of
Practice on LEA-School Relations ensures that LEA intervention
is kept to a necessary minimum.
(b) schools receive recurrent funding from
LEAs through a devolved funding system. This is designed to maximise
budget delegation. It does not provide incentives for schools
to opt for one category rather than another.
3. Schools have different histories/aspirations.
The main differences are as follows.
Governing Bodies
4. The composition of governing bodies varies
between school categories. Between March 2003 and 31 August 2006
all school governing bodies will have to choose and adopt a new
constitutional model. In this new framework the size of the governing
body can range from a minimum of nine to a maximum of 20. Within
this range each governing body can adopt the model of their choice,
provided it complies with the guiding principles for their category
of school.
Religious Character
5. Foundation, voluntary aided and voluntary
controlled schools can be designated by the Secretary of State
as schools with a religious character. The staffing arrangements
of these schools include scope to preserve the religious character
of schools as they can apply a religious or denominational test
in appointing or promoting staff. They also provide "denominational"
collective worship.
Capital Funding
6. LEAs are responsible for funding all
capital works at community, foundation and voluntary controlled
schools. At voluntary aided schools, governing bodies are generally
responsible for the provision of premises and all capital work
to school buildings. The Department assists the governors of voluntary
aided schools with grant of up to 90%.
Mechanisms for Change of School Category
7. Where a Governing Body wishes to change
category it must follow a statutory process. This involves four
stages: Consultation (informing and seeking views of all interested
parties), Publication (a formal notice published in the local
newspaper, at the school gates and in a local public place), Objection
period (two months to allow those opposed to the proposals to
formally log their objections), Decision (by the local School
Organisation Committee [SOC] or, if the SOC cannot agree unanimously,
the independent School Adjudicator). This can take between 6 and
12 months but we propose to reduce this timescale in regulations
on which we plan to consult shortly.
8. It is not possible for a school to gain
or lose a religious character via the change of category provisions.
A Governing Body wishing to do this would have to publish proposals
to close the school and linked proposals to open a new school.
9. When the SOC and Schools Adjudicator
consider statutory proposals for a change of category they are
required to take into account guidance issued by the Secretary
of State. The guidance gives details of factors that must be taken
into account when making the decision. These factors include:
the effect the proposals will have on standards of education provision
in the area, the extent of parental demand for type of school
in question, the views of interested parties, whether the school
is in special measures or has serious weaknesses, if the proposal
is for the school to become voluntary aided whether the governing
body can meet their financial responsibilities, etc.
Other classifications relevant to LEA Maintained
schools
10. Under the 1998 Act, the term grammar
school is applied to a maintained school (whether community,
voluntary or foundation) that had selective admission arrangements
on the basis of high ability, for all or substantially all of
its pupils, at the beginning of the 1997-98 school year. There
is no provision for new grammar schools to be established. Existing
grammar schools may become non-selective schools by the process
of parental ballots.
11. The other `types' of maintained secondary
school are descriptions of non-statutory Government programmes
available to maintained secondary schools. These are: specialist
schools, training schools, extended schools, advanced schools,
and beacon schools, and they are described in the briefing
on the various DfES initiatives affecting secondary education.
NON—LEA STATE
FUNDED SCHOOL
CATEGORIES
City Colleges
12. City Colleges (City Technology Colleges
and City Colleges for the Technology of the Arts) (CTCs) are independent
schools funded by Government under the Education Act 1996. They
are urban schools with a broad curriculum but placing an emphasis
on science and technology, or on technology in its application
to the performing and creative arts. The Government is not creating
any further CTCs. CTCs could become Academies by negotiating a
basis for a new agreement with the Secretary of State. They would
need to meet the different criteria placed upon Academies eg the
requirements on admissions.
Academies
13. Academies (formerly City Academies,
for which provision was made in the Learning and Skills Act 2000)
are independent schools funded by Government. They usually replace
one or more of the LEA maintained school categories listed above
but can be established as entirely new schools to meet basic need
or as part of a wider local reorganisation. They may be established
in urban or rural areas and cover any age category. They have
a broad curriculum but place an emphasis on one or two curriculum
areas.
PART THREE
INITIATIVES RELATING
TO POST-ELEVEN
EDUCATION
"A note setting out the various DfES initiatives
which relate to post-eleven education (for example, the specialist
schools programme, excellence in cities, etc.)"
Sections follow on:
Specialist Schools
Extended Schools
Advanced Schools
KS3 Strategy
14-19 Policy
Training Schools
Excellence in Cities
Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances and
Leadership Incentive Grant
Schools Causing Concern
SPECIALIST SCHOOLS
There are currently 992 specialist schools across
eight specialisms—Languages; Technology; Arts; Sport; Business
and Enterprise; Science; Engineering; Maths and Computing. There
are specialist schools now in all areas of England, covering 97%
of LEAs. Over a million pupils now attend specialist schools.
The network of specialist schools is made up
of:
— 443 Technology Colleges.
— 18 Business & Enterprise
Colleges.
— 12 Mathematics & Computing
Colleges.
— 4 Engineering Colleges.
Our target is for a further 1,000 specialist
schools by 2006 (bringing a total of almost 2,000 specialist schools).
This is an interim target and we want to accelerate the rate of
expansion.
Aims of the programme
— To raise standards of achievement
across the whole school and in the specialism for pupils of all
abilities.
— To raise standards of teaching and
learning in the specialism.
— To extend the range of opportunities
available to pupils which best meet their needs and interests.
— To develop in the school, characteristics
which signal their changed identity and which reflect the school's
aims.
— To benefit other schools and the
wider community in the area.
— To strengthen the links between schools
and private and charitable sponsors.
Specialist School application process
To qualify for designation, schools must present
a four-year school and community development plan with ambitious
but achievable targets and performance indicators against which
success can be judged. Continued designation depends upon satisfactory
performance. Each application must raise at least £50,000
in unconditional sponsorship in order to be considered. Schools
with less than 500 pupils (based on figures from the most recent
Annual School Census) will need to raise less sponsorship—equivalent
to £100 per pupil, with a minimum of £20,000.
All applications must include:
— A four-year Development Plan with
measurable objectives and performance targets which focuses on
improving provision for and standards in the relevant specialist
subjects;
— Sponsorship details, including proposals
for achieving ongoing links with sponsors;
— An outline of the school's bid for
a capital grant to improve facilities for teaching the specialist
subjects;
— An indication of how you would use
the additional annual grant to implement your School and Community
Development Plans and achieve the targets which you have set for
improved performance and higher standards
History of the programme
The programme was launched in 1994 with 49 schools.
Then it was an exclusive club for grant maintained schools and
voluntary aided schools. It grew out of the CTC programme.
The programme was extended in 1995 to cover
modern foreign languages and in 1997 to cover sports and arts.
The Government saw its potential for enriching
the school system and re-launched it in 1997. For the first time
schools were required to develop a community dimension and share
their resources with partner schools. In 1998 it was extended
to special schools.
When the programme was introduced it was more
focused on specialisation—providing future technologists
and engineers rather than on whole school improvement. The programme
is still about specialisation but its role as a vehicle for achieving
whole school improvement is more important.
The White Paper Schools Achieving Success
published in 2001 announced an expansion in the specialist
schools programme with plans for at least 1,500 specialist schools
by 2005. It also announced the introduction of four new specialisms:
science, engineering, business and enterprise and maths and computing.
Education and Skills: Investment for Reform,
published in July 2002 to accompany the announcement of the outcome
of the Comprehensive Spending Review, announced a further expansion
of the programme with plans for at least 2000 specialist schools
by 2006.
On 28 November 2002 the Secretary of State announced
that there would no longer be a cap on the number of schools that
could be designated each year and that a special sponsorship fund
would be established to help schools that had made strong efforts
to raise sponsorship but had not reached the £50,000 target.
Build-up of specialist schools over time
The profile showing the expansion in the number
of specialist schools operational from each September from 1994
is as follows:
Selection
Specialist schools must abide by the Code of
Practice on school admissions. The School Standards and Framework
Act 1998, and associated regulations:
— Ban any new selection by ability,
other than sixth forms and fair banding: banding is where pupils
are tested and then placed in ability bands, with the aim of ensuring
that pupils of all abilities are represented in a school's intake,
and that no level of ability is substantially over-represented
or substantially under-represented;
— Require schools wishing to introduce
banding to publish statutory proposals;
— Allow schools with a specialism in
certain prescribed subjects to give priority to up to 10% of pupils
on the basis of aptitude in those subjects; this does not apply
just to those schools in the specialist schools programme—any
admission authority of a school which believes that the school
has a specialism in one or more of the prescribed subjects may
decide to give priority in this way;
— Allow schools which have existing
partial selection by ability or aptitude (ie arrangements which
were in place in the 1997-98 school year and continuously since
then) to continue with these arrangements, provided there is no
change in the method of selection or the proportion of pupils
selected;
— Allow admission authorities (and,
in the case of existing partial selection, parents) to object
to an Adjudicator about proposed admission arrangements. The Adjudicator
can rule out or modify a school's proposed arrangements—including
partial selection. But he cannot rule on matters for which other
statutory procedures are necessary eg the removal of selective
admission arrangements at grammar schools.
EXTENDED SCHOOLS
The Schools: Achieving Success White
Paper outlined the Government's commitment to promoting and developing
"extended" schools. More recently Investment for
Reform gave a commitment to create extended schools, particularly
in disadvantaged areas.
An extended school is likely to be open to pupils,
families and the wider community throughout the school day, before
and after school hours, at weekends and during school holidays.
The services offered by the school might include childcare, health
and social care, adult and family learning, ICT access, study
support or sports and arts facilities.
There won't be a single model of an extended
school. The range of services offered and facilities provided
in extended schools will differ from one school to another. We
are encouraging schools—working closely with other local
partners and agencies—to develop services appropriate to
local needs and priorities, and to their own resources.
There are many reasons why schools might want
to adopt this approach. Pupils' level of achievement, motivation
and aspiration are raised where they are involved in activities
such as after school clubs. Having other professionals on the
school site can mean that underlying problems that get in the
way of children's learning can be dealt with more effectively
with minimal disruption to learning. Where families are involved
in activities such as family learning, sports and arts and adult
education they become more involved in their children's education,
embrace new learning opportunities and act as role models encouraging
their children to learn.
The Education Act 2002 gives governing bodies
the power to provide, or contract with others to provide, family
and community facilities and services. It also puts in place a
number of safeguards. For instance it requires the governing body
to:
— Ensure that such provision does not
interfere with the school's main duty to educate its pupils;
— Consult stakeholders, including LEAs,
before developing new services;
— Have regard to advice given by the
LEA and guidance issued by the Secretary of State.
We are funding pathfinders in 25 LEAs in the
current academic year to test out the extended schools approach.
The pathfinders, which are due to begin in December, will look
at the impact of providing extended services on a number of outcomes
such as pupil attainment, behaviour and attendance, but also the
greater flexibility given to schools through the Education Act.
They will cover a range of services and models of delivery including
delivering services across clusters of schools and in different
types of schools—secondary, primary, special.
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