Education Update
Local secondary school teacher ARNOLD THOMAS begins an occasional column on Education in and around Hastings, bearing in mind Nelson Mandela’s view that “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”
An excitable press release from our constituency representative has found its way to the Education Update inbox. It highlights the significant attention being paid to local schools by Helena Dollimore MP and notes that Hastings (along with Scarborough) has been selected as one of the first beneficiaries of Mission Coastal – a government package of additional education support for coastal towns.
We are told the programme “will deploy expert practitioners directly into schools, building teacher capacity and raising standards” whilst “new partnerships with employers, sports clubs, faith groups and youth organisations will provide mentoring, careers support, and cultural enrichment”. Notwithstanding any hard-learnt scepticism school staff may feel about the arrival of ‘expert practitioners’ in their workplace, this all sounds like a good thing. A little extra help is always appreciated. Education Update has contacted our constituency representative to get a bit more detail on funding and the sort of additional help that might be on offer beyond advice.
QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES?
Before the HIP editorial committee agreed to allow me space to expand some personal views on the subject, they asked me what I thought of ‘academisation’. I don’t think I acquitted myself well verbally but thought I’d put it on paper instead. Academisation is politicians paying teams of people to tell them everything is okay well past when it isn’t, and then resign on their behalf when reality catches up.
The truth, though, is that the state’s responsibility cannot be abrogated. The money spent in education, or any allegedly privatised service, is still directed by those in government. As I see it, I work for the State, whatever name is stencilled on the lanyard this year. And despite the money spent on people willing to pretend the blame is theirs, it isn’t.
Civil servants and government mandarins understand that honesty is in their self-interest. Private enterprises always seem to find some benefit to themselves in pretending. I wonder what form that benefit could take? Privatisation has created an unhelpful disconnection between government and its employees. Useful for pretending staff are happy but unable to explain why so few people now want the job. Or are willing to keep it. Unions communicated their member’s feelings, now the only vote left is with one’s feet. Privatisation is ministers paying someone else enough of our tax revenues to take their fall.
ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH
Following the locally organised industrial actions and financial investigations that led to the collapse of the University of Brighton Academy, a number of schools in the area have been adjusting to new management as part of the Mulberry Schools Trust. The Academy, which runs six Secondary’s and two Primaries in London is now also directing the action at the newly renamed secondaries of Mulberry Hastings, Mulberry St Leonards and Mulberry Bexhill as well as local primary schools The Baird, Silverdale and West St Leonards.
Word in the classroom suggests much of the experience thus far has been relatively painless and Mulberry has shown a constructive, even surprising enthusiasm for listening and allowing schools to continue focusing on their own priorities. Long may this approach continue. Even where change is obviously required, allowing schools to use their experience to decide the best route to improvement helps staff feel more valued. Education Update would be interested to hear further thoughts and experiences from staff and families during this significant local transition.
FAR FROM NEAT SOLUTION
Figures from the ONS suggest that there are 625 16-24 year olds in Hastings are currently NEET – Not in Education, Employment or Training. This is equivalent to 10.7% of that age group locally, the highest in Sussex as a whole.
Recent government figures indicate that nationally over 1 million 18 to 24 year olds are NEET out of a national total of about 5.6 million. The report chaired by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn suggests that 6 in 10 of those individuals have never had a job and highlights the difficulty remaining motivated through years of fruitless job-search. Young people face a massive and increasing challenge finding employment. Nationally there are a number of employment areas with considerable skills shortages, specifically health and social care, construction, trades, engineering and digital technology but opportunities for training in these areas are limited by already over-stretched funding. The facilities to teach them are expensive to maintain and schools are not incentivised to offer them while their success is still predominantly measured against outcomes in subjects like Maths and English.
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