John Howson

Oxford Mail:

Oxfordshire County Council member of the education scrutiny committee 

So, Oxford is to be given a new secondary school, The Swan School.

The fact that it is a free school means it will be controlled by the Department for Education at Westminster and funded through the Education Funding Agency, with no oversight by locally elected politicians.

Does this matter? I think it does.

Although Oxfordshire County Council will be responsible for the construction of the new school, once built, it will be run by an un-elected board that in turn will be overseen by the un-elected Regional School Commissioner.

The commissioner for Oxfordshire has oversight of all schools managed by the Department for Education in a vast area from Brimsdown in North London to Burford in the Cotswolds. Interestingly, the idea of putting schools under a commissioner rather than continue the involvement of locally elected politicians was originally suggested by Labour.

I have two key concerns about such new schools.

One, as already expressed, is about the extent to which the oversight of state schooling is being taken away from local communities.

The Conservative Party on Oxfordshire County Council is keen to see as many primary schools transfer to national academy status.

This allows these schools to set their own admissions policy, decide upon their own curriculum and have the right to employ unqualified teachers, not to mention the ability to shut up shop at a moment’s notice as two academies have already done so far this year.

In both cases the local authority suddenly had to find new schools for the pupils at the schools that closed.

I am sure that The Cherwell School-operated free school will have a responsible admissions policy, use qualified teachers – many no doubt trained by The Cherwell School’s own training scheme – and have a curriculum in line with that of The Cherwell School. But it is the principle that is at stake here.

Should local politicians retain any responsibility for the planning of school places? And what if a future Conservative government mandated that some academies should become selective schools?

After all, this government has already decided that all ‘coasting’ schools should become academies.

My other anxiety centres around what the new national schools reveal about the Conservative Party’s approach to austerity.

The county pupil place plan did not identify the need for a new secondary school in the city as soon as 2017, although it is clear one will be needed eventually.

By creating a new school early, resources are being used in a manner that might deprive other state funded activities of the cash they need to continue.

Now, one school by itself won’t make much difference, but the Conservatives are aiming for 500 new national schools across the country during this parliament.

There are now rumours that the Liberal Democrat-inspired free infant school meals policy will be scrapped by the Conservative government, releasing £600 million, presumably partly for these new schools.

As school meals cost parents around £400 of post-tax income such a move would be quite a blow to many hard working parents on low incomes or zero hours contracts that don’t quite qualify for benefits. Abolishing the free meals will also affect pupil’s learning if the research into the value of children eating a hot meal at lunch-time is correct.

Finally, there is the issue of where all schools will find their teachers from? Too many school places means more teachers are needed than if the school system was working at maximum effectiveness.

That wouldn’t matter if there were sufficient teachers to go around, although it would cost more.

Sadly, we aren’t recruiting enough teachers into training across England in many secondary subjects and schools are already reporting difficulties recruiting mathematics, English, geography and physics teachers. Schools are also finding it challenging to recruit new leaders.

The county council will remain responsible for the ‘oversight’ of the education of young people living in Oxfordshire and although the opposition parties cannot do anything to stop government policy, I am sure that we will hold the government to account where we see any of these national schools performing less well than they should.

Whether the government will take any notice is a moot point.

If they don’t, then schooling will become like the NHS, a national service, largely nationally administered.