Andrew Griffith MP (Arundel and South Downs) has shared his concerns on behalf of parents and pupils about the proposed School Bill which is being debated in Parliament led by Secretary of State Bridget Phillipson MP.
But Andrew Griffith is worried that many of the changes will impact West Sussex schools negatively, especially academies and free schools who have for decades been able to specialise and set high standards in education.
Academies are state-funded schools that are independent from local authorities. They enjoy freedoms to cover more subjects and offer greater speciality GCSE's and A levels as well as to innovate teaching and to pay teachers more. The sweeping reforms in the Schools Bill would impose the national curriculum onto academy schools and remove the freedom to pay teachers more where required to retain them.
In the constituency of Arundel and South Downs, more than 6,000 children are in academy schools. The largest of those is Steyning Grammar, an academy school run by Bohunt Academy Trust. Other secondary schools in the constituency are academies including Midhurst Rother College, Ormiston Six Villages, and St Philip Howard.
A number of primary schools in the South Downs are also either academy schools or are joined as a federation with other small schools. For some, this move has helped to protect them from closure.
The Schools Bill, Andrew Griffith points out, “fails to address the issues of recruitment, discipline, and attendance”, but is instead planning to forces all schools back into a one-size-fits-all state-run system which wants to tell academies what to do and what to pay teachers. “This loss of freedom will stifle their growth and results.”
The Schools Bill will require all educators to have Qualified Teaching Status, including in academies, before they enter a classroom. Currently, some schools benefit from independent teacher training programmes such as Inspiring Future Teachers (IFT) which enables training in the classroom from the first day.
Andrew Griffith adds: “More worryingly, The Education Secretary would give herself the power to make decisions about children and their education without parliamentary oversight.”
Andrew Griffith said:
“All our local schools work hard for their pupils, but this bill is a retrograde step which will reduce choice, potentially leading to more school closures and take decision making away from heads and give it to Westminster and town halls.”
