The Times Education Commission has come at an important time, taking a microscope to the full range of the education system from early years all the way through to lifelong learning.
We are now at a crossroads where we must ask ourselves whether we go back to the way things were? Or bravely onwards, creating a more relevant education system that celebrates the talents of every young person so they can flourish in life and work.
There is much to applaud across the Commission’s twelve recommendations and we are beginning to see consistent messages across the education sector. Here we highlight the key recommendations that we believe could lead to the biggest wins:
1. British Baccalaureate - Slimming down testing at 16 and introducing a new comprehensive Baccalaureate at age 18.
Alongside colleagues at the Rethinking Assessment movement and the Independent Assessment Commission, we agree that it’s time to rethink our assessment system.
We have long called for a national baccalaureate model to be used alongside a greater suite of multi-modal assessment options. This award would evidence a greater portfolio of projects and skills, and we are starting to see exiting examples coming through such as Rethinking Assessment’s newly launched Learner Profile.
2. Electives Premium - More funding and support for activities like dance, drama and sport that build young people’s wider skills.
Our skills shortages bulletins highlight that employers are looking for skills such as creativity, curiosity, problem-solving. Exactly the type of skills that are being squeezed out through the decline of arts and creative subjects.
We want a curriculum that provides an exciting, inter-disciplinary learning experience – one that provides greater enrichment opportunities and brings learning to life.
3. Bring out the best in teaching – with better career development for teachers as well as a new teaching apprenticeship
We have highly skilled and enthusiastic teachers in schools and colleges who have been consistently ground down by high workloads and a relentless focus on inspection, exam results and accountability.
Instead, we should connect learning to life and give teachers the opportunity to connect regularly with employers. Our Edge teacher externships provide a tangible solution to this. We have also consistently called for the expansion of degree apprenticeships and a new teaching apprenticeship would be truly welcome.
4. A reformed Ofsted - Reforming Ofsted to stop it ‘operating through fear’ and introduce a wider ‘school report card’ to include wellbeing and inclusion
Comparisons will always be used. But rather than being judged purely on exam results, schools should be measured on a broader basket of indicators, including wellbeing, inclusion and extra-curricular opportunities.
Looking across the four nations, England is currently out of step with our heavy accountability ‘stick’ approach. Our research highlights the importance for inspection regimes to move away from adversarial to a performance improvement role – similar to inspectorates in the other three nations.
5. A 15-year strategy for education – putting education above short-term party politics and including voices across the sector
There is a sense of fatigue over the amount of churn in education policy.
But arising from the pandemic, we have recently seen the birth of several important commissions who have already begun to point the direction, including the Independent Assessment Commission, Rethinking Assessment, the 2021 House of Lords Committee on Youth Unemployment and the Times Education Commission.
It is now time for us to build on lessons from the past and work together to provide a coherent long-term strategy.