7.

3 Secondary schools in England

Governance, policy and curriculum
Shirley Lawes

Introduction
Secondary education in England has passed through three distinct phases since the end of the
Second World War and in many respects it has been transformed. Education has moved from being
a peripheral concern of government to being perceived as central to the economic well-being of
the nation. Equally, there has been an increased emphasis on education as a vehicle for promoting
social justice and greater equality of opportunity throughout society. This change has happened
during a period of enormous social, political and economic change. This chapter will take a brief
look at the origins of state-led education and consider the major reforms of the last 70 years that
have in various ways transformed the organisation and ethos of secondary education and that have
determined how schools are supported, monitored and made accountable. Over this period of time,
not only has the English education system undergone fundamental organisational transformations,
but also both the role of the teacher and views on the purpose of education have evolved as a result
of government policy and broader changes in society. Government policy has both mirrored and led
an increasingly instrumental view of the role and value of education that is most apparent in the
importance placed on various ‘performance indicators’ as well as curriculum content. This account
of the English education system will focus on mainstream provision in the state sector covering the
11–18 age range.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

■■ have an overview of government policy that has affected secondary education in England;
■■ be familiar with the organisational changes that have taken place over the last fifty years
in secondary education in England;
■■ be familiar with key pieces of legislation and government reports that have impacted on
secondary education in England.
2     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

The current picture

The English state secondary school system provides for pupils of all abilities from the age of 11 to
18. Currently, 93% of pupils attend state-funded schools while the remaining 7% are educated in
independent, fee-paying private schools, often known as ‘public’ schools. The education system in
England as it exists today retains the skeletal structure that was established over the latter part
of the 19th century, evolving throughout the 20th century. It is divided into stages based upon
age, and compulsory schooling currently begins at the age of 5 and ends at 16, although there
is an expectation that all young people continue in some form of education and/or training up
to the age of 18. In the state sector education provision is divided into the non-compulsory Early
Years Foundation Stage (ages 3–5), Primary and Secondary which are described as ‘key stages’. The
Primary phase comprises the sub-phases of ‘infant’ and ‘junior’ schools covering Key Stages 1–2 for
5 to 11-year-olds (Reception class to Year 6). Secondary education is divided into Key Stage 3 (Years
7–9) for 11–14-year-olds and Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11) up to the end of compulsory schooling
at 16. External examination, the General Certificate of Education (GCSE) takes place at the end of
Year 11 and pupils are examined in a range of subjects, sometimes as many as 12, including English
and Mathematics. Some schools also offer courses at Key Stage 4 leading to a General National
Vocational Qualification (GNVQ).
At age 16, young people wishing to continue in full-time academic education may then progress
to a 6th Form (Years 12 and 13) which may be provided within a secondary school, or as a separate
Sixth Form College in the locality of the secondary school. At this point pupils choose three or four
subjects to study to the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A Level) often as
preparation for Higher Education. A Levels are the qualification required for entry to university.
Alternatively, some students prefer to attend a local Further Education College (FE College) which
provides a more vocationally orientated curriculum, vocational training or work-based learning,
sometimes combined with academic subjects, and FE colleges frequently offer the opportunity to
re-sit examinations as well as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) at several levels. Although
difficult to enforce and somewhat controversial (see for example Wolf, 2011), all young people are
now expected to continue in some form of education up to the age of 18. This may take a number of
forms other than 6th Form or FE, such as apprenticeships, traineeships or volunteering.
Perhaps what has traditionally characterised the organisation of the English secondary school
system, is the variety of types of school that fall within the state sector. Unlike many other countries,
where state-funded schools are secular, in England there is a long tradition of Church of England,
Roman Catholic and other faith schools which are partly state-funded and also benefit from funding
from various charitable foundations. In some cases, these foundations actually own the lands and
premises that the schools occupy. Faith schools are a significant minority of state-funded secondary
schools, but their presence is a distinctive feature of the English school system.
Traditionally, the supply of state-funded education provision was the overall responsibility of
Local Education Authorities (LEAs), covering all aspects including buildings, staffing, teacher
support and development. LEAs operated within Local Authorities (LAs) which are overseen by
elected members and which are therefore politically driven bodies. So, for example we might talk
about an LA being Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem (Liberal Democrat) controlled. Education
policy in a local area, therefore, to some extent has reflected a political persuasion. However, as
we will see, in recent years the power and responsibilities of LAs in the provision of education
to local areas, has been eroded through fundamental changes to the structure, organisation and
■ ■ ■ ■ 7.3 Secondary schools in England     3

funding of state education. Some of the work in ensuring that schools are operating efficiently and
effectively is now the role of its Governing Body. It is the responsibility of every Head Teacher to
appoint the school’s governing body, which is a group of interested people drawn from the local
community, and usually including a parent representative, to oversee the working of the school
and to hold the Head Teacher to account. These are unpaid positions that rely on the goodwill and
commitment of individuals to support schools in striving to do its best for its pupils and to ensure
a measure of accountability to parents and the local community, independent of Local Authorities.
Now complete Task 7.3.1.

Task 7.3.1
The framework outlined above describes the most common organisation of schools in the
English education system, but there are exceptions. Do you know of other ways that schools
are currently organised in local areas based on age and ability? Discuss with a colleague what
organisational variations there are in different parts of England.

Setting the scene: education and the State

Before we proceed further into the present context of the English school system, it is perhaps
worth taking a glimpse at the past in order to better to understand the present. Although it is not
possible here to do justice to the complex history of education in England, a very brief historical
contextualisation may be useful and encourage the reader to look further into the rich and often
inspirational educational heritage upon which our present system is built.
Until the latter part of the 19th century, education provision was patchy, funded by the church,
philanthropic societies, voluntary organisations and individuals. Access to schooling for most
people was very limited and any education beyond basic reading, writing and numeracy was the
exclusive domain of the wealthy. So-called public schools and to some extent, grammar schools
that had existed in different forms since medieval times, catered for the privileged few. However,
since the late 18th century and notably, the Industrial Revolution, demands for mass education
had been closely associated with campaigns for workers’ rights and had also become more of an
economic imperative. This was a vibrant period in the history of education in England which saw
the first organised attempt at providing basic education for what was to become the working class.
After a century of unparalleled social, political and economic change, the Elementary Education Act
of 1870, or Forster Act, as it is known, established the right to education for all children between
the ages of 5 and 13. ‘Elementary’ schools were created, supervised by school boards, funded by
government and co-existing sometimes unhappily with church and other voluntary schools. This
marked the beginning of a mass education system as such, where education was no longer a charity
but a right, was compulsory and overseen by the state.
Over the following century, how compulsory education for all was understood developed from
‘the 3Rs’ (reading, writing and (a)rithmetic) to a broad curriculum framework of subject disciplines
and much more besides (see Unit 7.2). Secondary education as a phase developed in the period
4     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

following the First World War, although only through the pre-existing grammar schools, and was
established in statute in the 1944 Education Act (often known as the Butler Act after the minister
responsible for its implementation). The 1944 Act, passed just before the end of the Second World
War, heralded a new era in English education. It created the first Ministry of Education, and R. A.
Butler became its first Minister.
The Butler Act was one among many pieces of legislation passed in the post-war period, but it was
the most significant in that it introduced the notion that education should be provided according to
children’s age, aptitude and ability in the form of what was called the ‘Tripartite System’. Compulsory
secondary schooling henceforth existed for all young people up to the age of 15 in three distinctive
types of school. Grammar schools, already well-established, were set to provide an academic
education of the sciences, humanities and foreign languages including Greek and Latin. A new
examination, the ‘11+’ (11 plus) was introduced at the age of 11 in elementary schools to determine
which pupils should continue their education in a prestigious grammar school. For those pupils who
did not pass the ‘11+’, then the next tranche of pupils were selected to go to new technical schools
where a diluted form of the grammar school curriculum, together with practical, work-orientated
skills like woodwork and metalwork for boys, and typing and domestic science for girls was taught.
The rest – the majority, went on to new secondary modern schools and the curriculum here was
much in dispute. At this time, the curriculum was the responsibility of each school’s Head Master or
Head Mistress. Some secondary modern Heads chose to offer a more limited academic curriculum,
often cutting out ‘difficult’ subjects like Foreign Languages or Physics in favour of French Studies
and General Science. Many commentators in the decades that followed levelled much criticism
at the Tripartite System claiming that it perpetuated and even created inequality and division in
the education system (Simon, 1991). Grammar school pupils were given the best opportunities of
any schoolchildren in the state system. Initially, they studied for the School Certificate and Higher
School Certificate, replaced in 1951 by General Certificate of Education examinations at O-level
(Ordinary level) and A-level (Advanced level). In contrast, very few students at secondary modern
schools took public examinations until the introduction of the less academic and less prestigious
Certificate of Secondary Education (known as the CSE) in the 1960s.
It was not long before the growing social and political concern over the Tripartite System
grew to the extent that a series of reports showed that it was wasting a large amount of talent.
The selection process with the 11+ examination was seen to be flawed and unfair. The incoming
Labour government in 1964 had made much of reforming the Tripartite System in its election
manifesto and upon election it set about abolishing the 11+ examination and grammar schools to
establish a unified non-selective comprehensive school system. Within the state-funded sector, the
introduction of comprehensive education in the mid-1960s represented a rejection of the selective
system of grammar schools, technical schools and secondary modern schools, and heralded a more
egalitarian approach to education. Although some Local Education Authorities were allowed to
retain selection, the majority opted for the comprehensive system. The 1970s saw the expansion of
comprehensive education across England and Wales, and at the same time, the quality of education
became of more concern to central government. In 1976 Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan
launched ‘The Great Debate’ on education in a landmark speech at Ruskin College, Oxford, in which
he identified “the need to improve relations between industry and education” (Maclure, 1988, p.169).
Importantly, the Ruskin College speech indicated for the first time that education should be linked
to the needs of the economy and that educational decisions should not be left only to educators:
government and other interested parties had a role to play in educational decision-making. At a time
■ ■ ■ ■ 7.3 Secondary schools in England     5

of economic crisis, this marked a watershed in education policy. For two decades comprehensive
education was seen as the way forward for advancing social justice and improving education for all.
Now complete Task 7.3.2.

Task 7.3.2
What are your views on education selection? Are the needs of individuals best met if they
are taught in schools according to their ability? What other views might be considered when
looking at how best education can provide for all children regardless of their ability?

The education legacy of Margaret Thatcher

As time passed, not all schools were seen to be of equal quality, and the Conservative government
led by Margaret Thatcher, in an attempt to improve schools in the 1980s, as well as fulfilling a
political mission of offering choice to parents, introduced the ‘market’ into education (see Ball
(2017) for a full account of this period). No longer would children go to their local comprehensive
school as a matter of course, but parents would be given the right to choose what they saw as the
‘best’ school for their child. Thus schools were in competition with each other to attract the ‘best’
pupils. In order to assist parents in making their choice, a League Table of every school in the
country was established in 1992 (by the Conservative government led by John Major), measuring
school performance through examination results, notably the General Certificate in Education
(GCSE). These league tables, together with the provision to parents of some degree of choice in
the assignment of the school for their child were intended to encourage a ‘free market’ by allowing
parents to choose schools based on their measured ability to teach the National Curriculum. The
prevalence of ‘market forces’ and competition, necessarily meant that some schools performed
better than others, and the less academically successful failed subsequently to attract the most
able and middle-class pupils and thus their ‘performance indicators’ of good exam and inspection
results declined and they became ‘failing’ schools.
A new inspection framework for schools was also introduced in 1992 when the Office for
Standards in Education, (Ofsted, now called the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s
Services and Skills) was created to implement a more rigorous, nation-wide, centralised and, some
would say, more punitive system of inspection that continues to the present time. Ofsted school
inspections have changed and developed over the years, but they remain an important feature of
government regulation and control. The powers and responsibilities of Ofsted are now wide-ranging
and sometimes viewed with scepticism as the recent report by the think-tank Policy Exchange
Watching the Watchmen (2014), reveals.
The introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 was perhaps the most significant policy
intervention in education with far-reaching effects on secondary education. It signalled the
intention by the Conservative government of the time to take more control over education. The
stated purpose by the government was to improve the quality and performance of primary and
secondary education, but it was also seen by some – notably many teachers themselves – as an
6     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

attempt to exert direct control over education and to curb ‘the loony left’ as some Thatcherite
politicians viewed the profession. However, whatever the motivation for introducing a National
Curriculum, the effect was to bring greater coherence to the secondary school curriculum (see
Unit 7.2) and a support framework for teachers to work from.
The creation of school league tables, Ofsted inspection and a National Curriculum are the three
elements of government education reform that began a transformation of the secondary school
system in England. As the ‘Blair Years’ replaced the ‘Thatcher Years’, we see not so much a reaction
against right-wing policies, but more of a continuation and continuity. The key feature of education
policy since the late 1980s that distinguishes the period from the past, is the huge increase in
government intervention at all levels.

The Blair years (1997–2010)

In 1997, Tony Blair led New Labour to power on the mantra of “education, education, education”.
The new Prime Minister thus signalled education as a priority for government action. What followed
was an unprecedented involvement by central government in aspects of education hitherto left to
educators to define and monitor. Besides significant spending on the sector, for the next 10 years, the
government proceeded to implement a raft of legislation aimed at centralising control of education
and increasing direct influence in the management of schools that reflected more of a continuity
than a break with the previous Conservative government. Under New Labour, the social mission of
education was heavily emphasised at the same time as the improvement of educational standards.
There was increasing pressure on schools to perform and to take on greater responsibilities for
solving social inequalities. School Improvement became an important aspect of government policy
and targeting ‘under-performing’ schools through poor examination results and Ofsted inspection
reports became a priority. Radical ways of getting schools to improve were sought. The National
Curriculum took on a more socially orientated look (see Unit 7.2), with a highly generalised set of
social and economic – as well as educational – goals. Throughout the New Labour years, the national
curriculum sought to include what could be seen as political as well as educational objectives. For
example, citizenship education was deployed to increase people’s engagement with politics. A new
emphasis on healthy eating was expected to solve the perceived problem of obesity. The National
Curriculum came to be used to promote environmental awareness. This trend went hand in hand
with the idea that the Curriculum should be ‘relevant’ to the lives and experiences of children
and young people. It was perhaps most clearly expressed in the 2008 version of the National
Curriculum. However, for some critics, the National Curriculum by then had become overloaded
and confused and more concerned with promoting ‘right’ attitudes and teaching skills for life rather
than imparting subject knowledge to pupils. Social justice that had become an important driver of
educational practices during this period with academics such as Geoff Whitty (Whitty et al., 1998)
and John Beck (Beck, 2008) contributing to a growing debate which, arguably by 2018 has taken a
less radical turn into discussions of ‘social mobility’.
As discussed in Unit 7.2, the period from 1997 to 2010 marked a substantial increase in direct
government intervention in the organisation and working of schools. This was sometimes seen as
micro-management that curbed teachers’ professional autonomy and imposed greater regulation,
organisational and working practices on the sector in an attempt to improve standards and increase
coherence in education. The social aims of education were strongly reflected in the National
Curriculum (see, in particular, the 2008 iteration) and the greater emphasis on ‘relevance’ and
■ ■ ■ ■ 7.3 Secondary schools in England     7

‘useful’ knowledge and the erosion of the value of disciplinary knowledge and the growth of an
instrumental view of education was embedded in education policy in this period.
The gradual introduction of a more business-style managerial approach to school organisation,
together with a heavy emphasis on performativity, accountability and improved leadership, could
be seen to have had a profound effect on the ethos of schools as well as the professional role of
the teacher. But the beginning of what subsequently became the most far-reaching change in the
organisation of schooling was introduced by New Labour in the form of the City Academy. A small
number of City Academies (the prefix ‘city’ was dropped in 2002) were established in an attempt
to improve inner city education. The objective was to replace a small number of under-performing
schools in deprived urban areas by taking what David Blunkett, the then Minister of Education
described as a ‘radical approach’ to school improvement:

In some of the most challenging areas, we believe a more radical approach is needed. Over the
next year, we intend to launch pathfinder projects for new City Academies. These Academies,
to replace seriously failing schools, will be built and managed by partnerships involving
the Government, voluntary, church, and business sponsors. They will offer a real challenge
and improvements in pupil performance, for example through innovative approaches to
management, governance, teaching and the curriculum, including a specialist focus in at least
one curriculum area.
(Blunkett, 2000, in Curtis et al., 2008)

This experiment initiated by New Labour, under the particular guidance of Lord Adonis, a Labour
peer, was to be taken forward and became the lynch-pin of the following coalition government
(Conservative/Liberal Democrat) and then Conservative government that followed. Now complete
Task 7.3.3.

Task 7.3.3
What are the distinctive features of government policy during the ‘Thatcher Years’? How do the
‘Blair Years’ compare? In the experience that you have gained so far in schools, what features
of their education policies still feature in secondary education today?

A new era of change in education: innovation and

experimentation or fragmentation?
In 2010 the newly elected Coalition government, like their Labour predecessors, wasted no time
in forming a new education policy. In the White Paper, The Importance of Teaching (2010), Michael
Gove, the Conservative Secretary of State for Education outlined a number of reforms, notably the
re-writing of the National Curriculum with the intention of giving teachers more autonomy through
a renewed emphasis on a knowledge-rich curriculum.
Reforms in both GCSE and A Level examinations, as well as teacher training were also announced.
Like New Labour over a decade previously, the Coalition government saw education as a prime
8     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

target for intervention and reform. The Importance of Teaching heralded sweeping changes in the
state education system: “We want every school to be able to shape its own character, frame its
own ethos and develop its own specialism” promising to “increase freedom and autonomy for all
schools” (DfE, 2010, p.11). As well as through curriculum reform, this was to be achieved primarily
by increasing the number of Academy schools and by vigorously promoting the introduction of
free schools. The Academy Bill passed by parliament in July 2010 sought to actively encourage
all primary and secondary schools to ‘opt out’ of the mainstream state system, their aim being to
free-up schools to provide a locally based education appropriate to local needs. They receive their
funding directly from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) rather than from local authorities.
Academies have subsequently grown in number and now over 50 per cent of secondary schools
have obtained Academy status and a sizeable proportion are Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) with
private sponsorship. Academies are publicly funded independent schools “that provide a first-class
education”, according to government claims. In exchange for up to £2m, private sponsors have a
strong influence in the running of an academy, including setting the school’s ethos and appointing
its governors. The government funds the rest of the costs through the Education and Skills Funding
Agency (ESFA). Any school now can apply to become an Academy, and is indeed encouraged to do so.
Academies thus have a far greater degree of autonomy and freedom to organise themselves more
or less independently of the Local Authority, but within the state sector. These schools are directly
responsible to the Department for Education, and are charged with providing education appropriate
to the local area. So the original mission of giving low-achieving schools freedom to innovate and
improve their exam results and all-round performance has been expanded to include all schools.
Schools that have not become Academies remain within the remit of Local Authorities. However,
at a time when LA funding has been cut, these schools are often hard-pressed to compete with
what are perceived as ‘better-off’ local Academies. However, it is also true that currently, some
MATs are experiencing their own financial difficulties as being entirely responsible for all aspects
of provision including pre-service, and in-service training presents its own challenges. ‘Freedom’
was the government watchword in the promotion of the Academy system. Academies are free
and independent to recruit staff, establish pay and conditions and operate entirely outside of
LA control. They do not have to follow the National Curriculum (although many do) and have the
freedom to change the lengths of terms and school days. They are free to establish partnerships
and sponsorship arrangements, appoint governors and operate their own financial systems,
answerable only to Ofsted and directly to the DfE. Sponsors come from a wide range of backgrounds
including successful schools, businesses, universities, charities and faith bodies. Sponsors are held
accountable for improving the performance of their schools and in turn tend to operate rigorous
accountability procedures for staff and are closely concerned with pupil attainment and examination
results. Academy schools also have greater freedom in budget management and greater autonomy
in respect to governance. They are required to have at least two parent governors.
The fairly rapid transition from an entirely state-funded national system of secondary education,
to a more quasi-privatised system operated under government supervision has drawn both praise
and criticism and has been the subject of much heated debate in ideological division within education
and the media. Critics, such as Miller (2011) complain of ‘short-termism’, others such as the Anti-
Academies Alliance, founded in 2005, brought together groups of trade unionists, parents and
politicians opposed to what was seen as the privatisation of state education and the removal of local
democratic control and the inevitable draining of resources from the diminishing maintained sector.
The desire to top the league tables has led, it is claimed some schools to avoid particular, vulnerable
■ ■ ■ ■ 7.3 Secondary schools in England     9

pupils. Astle and Ryan (2008), on the other hand, in a collection of papers argued that Academy
schools were pioneers in educational change and that the removal of LA control was a financial
incentive for schools to take on greater responsibility for their improvement and a liberation from
the burgeoning micro-management that had been imposed on them in the preceding decade.
The creation of free schools was a further major education reform which took the notion of
independence a step further. Free schools have been controversial and arguments have centred
on their value for money, freedoms over the curriculum, how well they meet demand for places
and serve the local population. The Department for Education created the opportunity for any
interested group of parents, teachers, religious group or other interested parties, to open a school,
financed directly by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control to
respond to local educational needs. Like Academies, they are state-funded schools with the same
legal status as academies and subject to Ofsted inspection in the same way, but also like academies
are not obliged to follow the national curriculum.
The first 24 free schools opened in September 2011 and this increased to 425 by early the start
of the 2016/17 school year. Critics like Melissa Benn (2011) accuse the government of favouring the
middle classes and contributing to an already confusing educational landscape. Others claim that
the opportunity to experiment and innovate can only be of benefit to education. Toby Young, the
journalist and founder of the West London free school defended the principle of free schools as
being exactly a way for middle-class parents to obtain a good liberal education for their children
without resorting to the fee-paying independent sector (Young, 2011). David Perks, founder and
Principal of the East London Science School is passionate about giving the children of East London
the best education possible and is convinced of the value of good education especially to children
who are not normally offered it. According to Perks,

A good education should open doors to new worlds and expand a pupil’s horizons. No subject
is too challenging and every child should be expected to succeed. I want each pupil to have
the opportunity to study the subjects that will equip them not only to understand the world
but to change it for the better. … What makes the East London Science School different from
other London state schools is a commitment to deliver a high quality academic education to
all pupils regardless of background or ability. We aim to give all our pupils a solid foundation
of knowledge which they can draw on the rest of their lives-.
(www.eastlondonscienceschool.co.uk)

The conviction and vision of educators like David Perks cannot be denied. It remains to be seen
whether Academies and Free Schools can radically change and improve the landscape of education
in England in the coming years. Perhaps what we may conclude from Perks is that the fundamen-
tal issue is not what sort of buildings or internal organisation schools adopt, it is whether broader
society has a belief in education, not as an instrumental good with a contingent relationship to the
needs of economy, but as a good in itself (Lawes, 2010).

The drawing back of the state and the politicisation of education

Besides the fundamental structural changes to secondary education in England in recent
years, the 2014 version of the National Curriculum and subsequent reforms of GCSE and A level
examinations further reflect the government’s avowed intention to free teachers up to reclaim
10     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

their professional autonomy and to reshape the curriculum. However, there may be a number
of barriers to this aim. Firstly, it is difficult for teachers to suddenly reclaim their autonomy,
after decades of increasing intervention and regulation by government. Secondly, the pressures
of Ofsted inspections and the benchmark of achieving good examination results may militate
against experimentation and autonomy. Moreover, prevailing attitudes see little intrinsic value in
education; ‘useful’ knowledge seems to be valued more highly, so from this perspective, the study
of anything that does not contribute to examination success is in danger of becoming a marginal
pursuit. When education is presented to young people as being of only instrumental value in
getting a job, it is reduced to a set of ‘skills’ that places to one side ideas of opening of minds and
developing the intellect. Perhaps the preoccupation with what is ‘relevant’ to young people, with
what relates to their limited experience of the world in an instrumental sense, has prevented us
from seeking to broaden their horizons and provide an education that helps them to understand
the world through knowledge of subjects.
At a time when the political status of schools has become elevated, education has been seen as
the solution to manifold social, political and economic problems. At the same time the curriculum
has been instrumentalised and as a result, education today is rarely seen as an end in itself, as
having intrinsic value in its own terms. The instrumental approach might be well meaning, but it
has a significant and negative impact on schooling. Particularly damaging is the way education is
increasingly treated as a preparation for work. School has come to be regarded as a place where
children should develop skills and competences for employment, rather than a place of learning for
the sake of learning. Thus the blurring of the boundaries between school and society has facilitated
an approach where knowledge is treated as a means to achieve other aims. While it is true that
education and politics are mutually dependent, they are nevertheless distinct spheres even though
politics requires educated citizens, and education requires dynamic politics to give it a wider
purpose and certainty. However, we should be aware of the unintended negative consequences that
may arise from the casual and thoughtless politicisation of education that distracts teachers from
their central intellectual and cultural responsibilities. Schools cannot provide solutions to economic
problems. Now complete Task 7.3.4.

Task 7.3.4
Teachers are often accused of ‘teaching to the test’ at the present time. What is meant by that?
Is there anything wrong with it and if so, why do teachers do it?
Think about the subject(s) that you teach. What. If any, do you think is its intrinsic value as a
body of knowledge in the secondary school curriculum?

The teaching profession in England: teaching today

Teaching in recent years has changed fundamentally in a variety of ways and links to the past seem
more tenuous. Becoming a teacher, learning to teach, has also changed considerably. In the 1970s
■ ■ ■ ■ 7.3 Secondary schools in England     11

and 1980s most secondary school teachers qualified to teach after completing a Post Graduate
Certificate in Education (PGCE). This qualification was university-based and besides a short period
of ‘teaching practice’ in a school, was largely an academically orientated study of the so-called
Foundation Disciplines, that is the Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History of education
together with ‘Method’ courses that considered the specific didactics of subject disciplines. In
the wake of the 1988 Education Reform Act and the introduction of the National Curriculum the
government of the day turned its attention to reforming Teacher Education and to wrest control
from the university sector. In 1994 an entirely new system of initial teacher training was introduced
in England. The ‘partnership model’ as it became known, shifted the emphasis from university-
based teacher education to a more practical initiation into teaching whereby two-thirds of the one
year course was spent in two different schools which worked in a contractual collaboration with
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Qualified Teacher Status was obtained at the end of the year by
achieving all the competences laid down by government (through the now defunct Teacher Training
Agency, which was part of the DfE). Over the intervening years, the role of higher education in the
education of teachers has been gradually eroded as government policy was based on the belief that
the act of teaching is a craft that can be learned on the job through working alongside experienced
teachers (Gove, 2010). In recent years therefore the aim has been to give schools a lead role in
the training of teachers, and the introduction of the ITT scheme ‘School Direct’ gave schools the
lead in the recruitment and initial training of teachers. This policy continues to be pursued by the
current Conservative administration and while it is tacitly understood that university education
departments retain an involvement in teacher education, their role has become increasingly
marginal. Nevertheless, learning to teach remains a challenging experience for student teachers
and the knowledge and experience gained during this initiation period is a valuable foundation for
future professional learning.
Reforms come and go, education systems develop and shift in different directions and the
pendulum in terms of professional demands and priorities swings back and forth all too often,
but it is the power of knowledge and ideas that moves education forward. The enduring essence
and fundamental raison d’être of teachers committed to their profession is their passion for their
subject, a belief in the capacity of knowledge to inspire and a delight in seeing young people develop
and grow intellectually.

SUMMARY AND KEY POINTS

■■ This unit has introduced some of the key developments in the English education system
since the beginning of state education.
■■ Important aspects of education policy have been discussed and the impact of their
implementation considered critically.
■■ The unit has attempted to demonstrate how some knowledge of the history of education
can help us understand current developments and inform our educational thinking in
relation to the future.
12     7 The School, curriculum and society  ■ ■■■

Š Further resources
Gillard, D. (2018) Education in England: A History, viewed 5 January 2019, from www.educationengland.
org.uk/history
This online resource provides an exhaustive account of the history of education in Britain from early
times to the present day. It includes important contextual background including profiles of key educational
figures and politicians together with online access to a huge number of education documents, articles and
legislation. An excellent resource.
Simon, B. (1991) Education and the Social Order 1940-1990, London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Brian Simon is widely acclaimed as one of Britain’s foremost historians of education. This book, which examines
the recent past is a readable, scholarly work that provides fascinating insights into education over the
second half of the 20th century. An essential read for anyone interested in the history of education.

References
Astle, J. and Ryan, C. (eds.) (2008) Academies and the Future of State Education, London: CentreForum.
Ball, S.J. (2017) The Education Debate, 3rd edition, London: Policy Press.
Beck, J. (2008) Meritocracy, Citizenship and Education: New Labour’s Legacy, London: Continuum.
Benn, M. (2011) School Wars: The Battle for British Education, London: Verso.
Curtis, A., Exley, S., Sasia, A., Tough S. and Whitty, G. (2008) The Academies Programme: Progress, Problems
and Possibilities: A Report for the Sutton Trust, London: Institute of Education, University of London.
DfE (Department for Education) (2010) The Importance of Teaching: The School White Paper, from https://
www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-importance-of-teaching-the-schools-white-paper-2010
Lawes, S. (2010) The Parochialism of Localism, Institute of Ideas, from www.battleofideas.org.uk/2010/
battles/5421
Maclure, S. (1988) Education Reformed: A Guide to the Education Reform Act, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Miller, P. (2011) ‘Free choice, free schools and the academisation of education in England’, Research in
Comparative and International Education, 6(2), 181.
Simon, B. (1991) Education and the Social Order 1940–1990, London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Waldegrave, H. and Simmons, J. (2014) Watching the Watchmen, viewed 13 March 2018, from https://
policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/watching-the-watchmen.pdf
Whitty, G., Halpin, D. and Power, S. (1998) Devolution and Choice in Education: The School, the State and the
Market, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Wolf, A. (2011) Review of Vocational Education, London: Department for Education.
Young, T. (2011) How to Set Up a Free School, London: Penguins Special.