Wellbeing indicators should should not ‘dictate or determine judgements’, say Ofsted and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in their consultation paper on the topic. They will, instead, provide ‘useful evidence’ for Ofsted inspectors to use alongside other evidence. Inspectors will receive guidance emphasising these points.

Purpose
The indicators are designed to help schools fulfil the ambition laid out in last year’s Children’s Plan that they promote ‘the development of the whole child and young person’, by helping them:

•   > assess the wellbeing issues their pupils face
•   > evaluate the school’s contribution to promoting pupil well-being

Benchmarks
The aim is to provide ‘consistent, benchmarked data’ about aspects of well-being other than pupil’s attainment and progress.
‘National comparison and benchmarking,’ the paper says, ‘are necessary if the data are to provide indicators of relative performance, which are understandable and useful to parents, schools and inspectors.’
There is no intention, it says, to hold schools to account for well-being outcomes over which they have limited influence, such as levels of child obesity or teenage pregnancy.

Quantified data
The paper proposes using two sets of indicators. The first of these will relate to quantified outcomes over which schools can have significant influence, such as:

•   > attendance
•   > absenteeism
•   > school lunches

‘While these indicators present only a partial picture of pupils’ wellbeing,’ the paper says, ‘they do provide indications of pupils’ enjoyment of and engagement with school, their health, and their prospects of achieving economic well-being.’
They also reflect issues which schools:

•   > can influence
•   > already evaluate
•   > are currently scrutinised by inspectors in collecting evidence about a school’s contribution to pupils’ personal development and well-being.

Perception data
The other set of indicators will be based on the perceptions of pupils and parents about how the school contributes to the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes. Topics covered might include the extent to which the school:

•   > promotes healthy eating
•   > helps pupils to manage their feelings and be resilient

They will also look at how far pupils say they:

•   > feel safe            
•   > enjoy school
•   > feel listened to
•   > are able to influence decisions in the school

Ofsted will not develop its own surveys, but will instead accredit those who already provide surveys. The intention is to ‘leave ownership’ with the schools themselves and give them the flexibility to commission additional items and analyses from the survey providers.

Useful
‘The indicators,’ the paper says, ‘must be useful to schools in undertaking self-evaluation and in improving the quality of education and care they provide for children and young people.’

Indicators of a school’s contribution to well-being (Ofsted 080195) can be downloaded from the ofsted link below, responses to the consultation need to be submitted by 16 January 2009

There has been little progress in embedding assessment for learning (AfL) practice in the practice of primary schools, according to an interim report on progress made in the five years since the publication of Excellence and Enjoyment (2003).

Issues
The researchers say they started out with the assumption that ‘there would be in a majority of schools a shared community of formative teachers working collaboratively with children at the centre of the whole school’s teaching and learning ethos and culture.’
What they found in reality was that:

•   > teachers were finding it difficult to make differentiated provision for a range of learning needs and ways of working in their students
•   > their preference for the ‘safety’ provided by formulaic lesson plans left little room for deviation to address the interests and enthusiasms of their students
•   > teachers tended not to have a clear definition of what they meant by formative assessment
•   > the urge to ‘cover’ the curriculum tends to take precedence over providing opportunities for deep learning that takes root in the mind of the learner
•   > a whole jargon has developed around the simple truth of formative teaching which gets in the way of it being practised.

Control
Although a significant majority of the 334 schools that responded to the survey said they gave high priority to formative assessment, the researchers found that there were ‘huge misconceptions’ about what is meant by formative practice.
This finding emerged from visits to the 24 schools which gave the most ‘formative’ responses to the survey. The researchers reported that they did not see a single teacher whose pedagogy was based on formative principles at any of these schools.
Instead they saw teachers ‘controlling’ and imposing the narrowness of the learning agenda and forgetting that the learning is not in the tidiness of the schema but in the response, the involvement, the energy, the interest of the child as a participant learner.’
‘We need to see teachers,’ they plead, ‘having the confidence to relax that control, to allow children to be involved in the ‘why’ am I doing this, ‘what if?’ and in the ‘how?’ can it best be done and encouraging collaboration and conversation and children setting personal progressive targets.’

Conclusion
The report’s authors conclude that the ‘legacy of the national strategies with their sustenance of the summative accountability agenda has survived the introduction of both Excellence and Enjoyment and Assessment for Learning

Excellence and Enjoyment 2003-08: A five year review of its Assessment for Learning Strategy: has it developed formative teaching and learning in primary classrooms? Is written by Boyle B, & Charles M, CFAS, school of Education, University of Manchester.

Children in the UK need more opportunities for participation in ‘all matters of school, classroom and learning which affect them,’ says the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Their report notes that children have:

•   > very few consultation rights
•   > no right to appeal their exclusion or to appeal the decisions of a special educational needs tribunal
•   > no right to complain regarding educational provision

The government is urged to address these issues while also:

•   > strengthening its efforts to reduce the effects of social background on achievement
•   > investing additional resources to ensure the right of all children to a truly inclusive education
•   > intensifying its efforts to tackle bullying and violence in schools

Committee on the rights of the child, Consideration of reports submitted by states parties under article 44 of the convention (CRC/C/GBR/CO/4) can be downloaded from

Learning outside the classroom can contribute ‘significantly’ to raising standards and to improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development, according to Ofsted’s study of its impact in primary and secondary schools as well as other settings.

Vividness
The impact of learning outside the classroom comes from the way it:

•   > helps to make subjects more vivid and interesting for pupils
•   > contributes to combatting under-achievement
•   > helps overcome difficult behaviour
•   > fosters deeper and higher-quality learning

In one school, the report notes, ‘pupils who had listened passively in a lesson dominated by the teacher became animated and involved once they were given the opportunity to conduct their own research outside the classroom.’

Keys to success
Learning outside the classroom was most successful when it was:

•   > an integral element of long-term curriculum planning
•   > closely linked to classroom activities

Recommendations
The report recommends that schools:

•   > ensure curriculum planning includes sufficient well-structured opportunities for all learners to engage in learning outside the classroom as a key, integrated element of their experience
•   > evaluate the quality of learning outside the classroom to ensure it has maximum impact on learner’s achievement personal development and well-being
•   > ensure equal and full access for all learners to learning outside the classroom

Learning outside the classroom: how far should you go (Ofsted 070219) can be downloaded from www.ofsted.gov.uk

Independence from government and accountability to the market are significant elements in explaining the academic performance of  independent schools, according to a report commissioned by the Headmasters’ and Headmistress’ Conference.

Freedom and flexibility
‘Independence,’ the report says, ‘confers the freedom and flexibility for the schools to carry forward their visions of the intrinsic purposes of education.’
‘Rather than having to comply with the requirements of the government as the monopoly customer,’ it goes on, ‘independent schools are answerable to parents for the quality of the education they are providing.’
Independent school headteachers have the freedom to take decisions close to teaching and learning ‘without the constraints on state schools which were continually having to comply with external directives emanating from offices far away, perhaps occupied by those with little or no classroom experience other than having been pupils themselves.’

Privilege
Headteachers interviewed for the research said that felt privileged in their ‘freedom and flexibility to respond rapidly to an evolving world.’, without the remorselsess pressure of targets, Ofsted regimes, the bidding culture and all the other government initiatives.
‘You can bring in initiatives about inclusion, self-assessment, school dinners and so on,’ remarked one headteacher, ‘but until a government has a kernel of understanding of what schools are about, what they can do and what they cannot do, I don’t think that initiatives of any sort are going to meet with wholehearted, transforming success.’

HMC Schools: A Quantitative Analysis by Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson, Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham can be downloaded from

The protracted campaign to have personal, social and health education (PSHE) made compulsory has resulted in a decision to make the subject a compulsory part of the curriculum from Key Stage 1 to 4 (ages 5 to 16).

The announcement was triggered by a Review of Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in Schools and the report by the Advisory Group on Drug and Alcohol Education, both of which recommended that good PSHE was vital to providing a healthy, rounded education.

Headteacher, Sir Alasdair MacDonald has been appointed to lead a review into how best to make PSHE compulsory, ensuring that there is a place in the timetable and flexibility in the curriculum to take schools’ ethos, pupils’ needs and parents’ values into account.

Updated guidance will also be produced covering the content of the curriculum, based on the existing non-statutory programme of study.

Schools minister Jim Knight has acknowledged the need to develop an accountability system for schools that allows more:

•   > flexibility for schools
•   > personalization for pupils
•   > scope for teacher assessment and professional judgement

He was speaking in a debate in the House of Common on calls by the children, schools and families select committee for a scaling down of the testing regime to allow for  rebalancing of the education system.

SATS scrapped
A few days later, children’s secretary Ed Balls announced that a new School Report Card would replace national tests for 14 year olds. A national-level sample will be tested at Key Stage 3 to assess the health of the system.
Detailed proposals on the report cards are to be set out by the end of the year, leading to a White Paper in spring 2009. The arrangements will be developed by a new expert group, made up of headteachers and education professionals.

The government has rejected the case for reforming the current assessment process because it ‘puts the system out of balance’.
‘There is no reason,’ says the government in its response to the report of the Children, Schools and Families commitee, ‘for testing to result in an unbalanced, narrow curriculum or uninspiring teaching.’ The breadth of the curriculum and the quality of teaching,’ it continues, ‘are both entirely within the control of the school and the teacher.’

Testing and assessment; the government’s response to the committee’s third report of session 2007-8 can be downloaded from

Teaching to the test is a problem that needs to be addressed, according to Ofstred’s response to the report of the Children, Schools and Families Committee on assessment. In some schools,’ it says, ‘an emphasis on tests in English, mathematics and science limits the range of work in these subjects in particular year groups, as well as more broadly across the curriculum in some primary schools.

The government insists that it has never encouraged ‘teaching to the test’, and denies that increases in national test results might result from this practice.

Testing and assessment: Ofsted’s response to the committee’s third report of session 2007-8 can be downloaded from

Research sponsored by The Innovation Unit and the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) concludes that a school is more likely to improve when it ‘learns from its own best people and practices rather than being encouraged to follow central guidance or policy.’

Describing the results of externally-driven change over the past decade as ‘disappointing’, the report says that promoting ‘what an individual school can do to learn from itself’ is ‘beyond the focus of much present educational policy’.

Schools learning from their best: The Within School Variation (WSV) Project by Professor David Reynolds can be downloaded from

Draft guidance on the role of schools in promoting well-being, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), reiterates the need for schools to contribute, with others, to all aspects of children’s well-being, within their ‘core mission of educating children to their full potential.’

The department is also consulting on plans to require schools to work with other partners in Children’s Trusts to improve outcomes for children and young people. ‘By extending the so-called “duty to cooperate” to all schools, said DCSF chief Ed Balls, ‘we can ensure headteachers get the package of measures they need to make sure all children fulfil their potential.’

Responses to promotingpupil.well-being@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk are requested by 25 September, with a view to publishing the final guidance next year,

Schools role in promoting pupil well-being: draft guidance for consultation can be downloaded from

A survey by Ofsted of schools where white British boys from low-income backgrounds perform better in public tests and examinations than their counterparts in other schools emphasises the importance of relationships in explaining this difference.
‘An important feature of the most successful schools surveyed was the close attention they paid to supporting the emotional development of the boys and helping them understand the impact of their behaviour on their learning.’

Another key factor was a strong emphasis on ‘establishing a clear sense of community where everyone felt “accepted”, and had something of value to add to the life of the school and the neighbourhood.’

If schools are to tackle educational inequality and raise levels of achievement, they need to be re-designed with a focus around relationships, according to a paper written by policy adviser Charles Leadbeater for The Innovation Unit at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

‘Children learn,’ he says, ‘when they have the right relationships. Those relationships make them feel cared for; give them recognition for who they are, where they come from and what they have achieved; motivate them to learn; engage them to be participants in learning.

Leadbeater says that consequences of adopting such an approach is to promote the importance of:

•  > learning in a wide variety of settings from a wide variety of people
•  > giving pupils more say over what they could learn, how, where and when
•  > providing an experience of learning that is collaborative and experiential, encouraging self-evaluation and self-motivation

What’s next?: 21 ideas for 21st century learning by Charles Leadbeater can be downloaded from

A think-tank report on how to improve the quality of teaching in UK schools has suggested that individual teachers should be given more control over their professional development, rather than being required to undergo a potentially ‘restrictive’ Masters degree.

Teachers, it says, should be given:

•   > a fund to spend on their own professional development
•   > a mentor to guide them throughout their career

‘The school would focus its efforts on building the mentoring programme, while individual teachers would be responsible for using their entitlement, with the support of their mentor, to make the best possible use of this system.’

‘There is widespread agreement,’ the authors claim, ‘that teachers have far too little control over their own professional development, and that too much of it is determined by central government priorities.

More Good Teachers by Sam Freedman, Briar Lipson and Professor David Hargreaves is published by Policy Exchange and can be downloaded from

The promotion of communication skills should no longer be elbowed out by literacy and numeracy, according to a report commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) from John Bercow MP.

‘The ability to communicate,’ his report says, ‘is an essential life skill for all children and young people and it underpins a child’s social, emotional and educational development.’

The Bercow Report: a review of services for children and young people (0-19) with speech, language and communication needs (DCSF-00632-2008) can be downloaded from

Teachers need more and better preparation if they are to promote emotional literacy, according to research carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Teachers consider the training they receive ‘in the areas of psychological development and pedagogical techniques’ to be inadequate, because initial teacher training (ITT) course ‘tries to achieve too much in too short a time.’
 ‘A whole school approach,’ the report says, ‘is needed in order to teach psychological skills seriously. All teachers must be trained in how to integrate concern for psychological development into their lessons and interactions with students.’

Those who can? By Julia Margo, Meghan Benton, Kay Withers and Sonia Sodha can be downloaded from

The House of Commons committee set up to monitor its operation has questioned the wisdom of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) trying to simultaneously deliver:

•   > the six new strategic objectives set out in The Children’s Plan
•   > the five Every Child Matters (ECM) outcome
•   > the five Public Spending Agreement (PSA) objectives

 ‘It is not clear,’ the committee’s report on the new department says, ‘why the ECM outcomes could not be used as the basis of the plan.’ It may be the case that the new objectives ‘do not stray far from the outcomes’, but they are ‘different in emphasis.’

The Department for children, schools and families and the children’s plan, second report of session 2007-08, House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committeee (HC213) can be downloaded from

Claims for the educational value of more differentiation by ability or attainment are not supported in the research literature, according to one of the final reviews for the Primary Review.

The researchers argue that, while there is no evidence that structured ability groupings will have a positive impact on attainment, there is evidence that they will have a negative effect on social and personal outcomes for some children.
They look at evidence that more social mixing occurs where pupils are not grouped by ability, and also highlight the ways in which setting:

•   > splits friendship groups
•   > reduces the social support that pupils have developed
•   > stimulate anxiety when groupings change

By contrast, there is considerable evidence for the value of giving groupwork a much more central role in educational policy and school practice.
‘Given space and time to develop pupils’ group working skills,’ they say, ‘teachers can bring about a transformation in the teaching and learning environment.

Classes, groups and transitions: structures for teaching and learning by Peter Blatchford, Susan Hallam, Judith Ireson and Peter Kutnick (Research Survey 9/2) can be downloaded from