We had Mike Day who is a cabinet member for education in Swansea in to give us a lecture on the role of education authorities, policies and politics. Mike gave us a outline of the education policy and described education policies as guidlines for actions to achieve goals and objectives. He went on to say that education policy reflects on political opinions, tradition and values and socio-economic objectives and that each policy is set over a long time scale.
Why is education policy needed?
* To guide operational decisions and actions.
* Teachers in classroom, What to do?
* Guidlines or straight jacket?
Who should develop it?
* Politicians or practitioners?
* Politicians elected to represent the people.
* Politicians hold the purse strings.
* Politicians are not subject experts.
* Practitioners know how it works in practice.
* Practitioners see things from their perspective.
* Practitioners unable to take the wider view.
The answer is that there should be a stakeholder engagement leading to meeting of minds.
Where is it developed?
* UK level.
* Welsh Goverment.
* Local authority.
* School and governing body level.
UK Level
* Compulsory school ages (5-16)
* Teachers pay abd conditions.
* Responsibility of local authorities, parents and schools.
Welsh Goverment
* Welsh medium.
* Foundation phase.
* No SATs.
* No academies and free schools.
* HE tution fees.
* Pupil deprivation grant.
Local Authority
* Organisation and number of schools and places.
* Improving standards.
* Advice and guidance to schools.
* Making arrangements to identify children and young people of compulsory school age.
School Governing body level
* Uniforms.
* Start and finish times.
* Raft of policies on personal and social education, child protection, changing, equal opportunties.
* School improvement plan.
Key princilpes
* Stakeholder engagement continuing openness and partnership working.
* Coherence consistence with wider education stratergies and support.
* Flexibility.
* Cost effectiveness.
* Resourced.
Thats all for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment