Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

The teachers’ manifesto There’s an election due in 2024, whichmeans we’ll hear various ideas from the different parties about how the education systemneeds to change over the coming months – but what do teachers think? Teacher Tapp regularly polls over 10,000 teachers to build a picture of the reforms they’d like to see on the ground. After the past few years it’s little surprise that over half of secondary teachers feel that school funding should be the government’s top priority, though recruitment also weighs heavily on their minds. Both areas are closely linked, but with the latest recruitment targets for secondary teachers missed yet again, recruitment stands apart as an urgent issue on its own. Secondary teachers also want to see a focus on behaviour, with several teachers reporting that behaviour is at its worst for years – particularly outside of the classroom. 3 things we’ve learnt about … TEACHERS’ HOPES THIS ELECTION YEAR An election year promises a new direction where education policy is concerned – so what would teachers like to see prioritised? Parties’policies ranked Last year, Teacher Tapp took 15 of Labour’s published policies, asked teachers to rank them and found a surprising amount of agreement over which they welcomed the most. The three most popular policies all concerned improvements to mental health support provision, including the appointment of more mental health professionals in schools. Also popular is Labour’s policy of replacing single-word Ofsted grades with a ‘balanced scorecard’. Policies that secondary teachers seem less enthusiastic about include retention payments to ECTs – which came in last – and the continuing requirement for all children to follow the National Curriculum. The other main parties have published some education policies of their own, but so far not enough to conduct a similar exercise. Once they do, however, we’ll be giving them the same treatment. What about curriculum reform? Labour’s plan to review the National Curriculum and existing assessment arrangements is notable for only placing 8th, with policies such as introducing an annual per-teacher training entitlement (6th) and ending VAT and rates exemptions for private education providers (7th) both proving more popular. Several other Teacher Tapp polls have shown that reforming assessment simply isn’t seen as a current priority by most teachers. This may go some way to explaining why the Conservatives’ proposed introduction of a new Advanced British Standard has had such a cool reception. The concept may not be a bad one in principle, but there are more pressing issues to attend to. Primary teachers are, though, more in favour of assessment reform– which is perhaps not unexpected, since primary schools must nowmanage voluntary tests for 7-year-olds, mandatory phonics and online multiplication checks. For more snappy insights like this, and to be part of the panel, please join in via the free Teacher Tapp app available to download for iOS and Android. You will learn something new every day. IF YOUWERE EDUCATION SECRETARY, WHATWOULD BE YOUR TOP PRIORITY IN 2024? School funding Teacher recruitment Social mobility SEND/Alternative Provision Assessment reform None of the above 1 2 3 50% 37% 1% 6% 4% 3% Question answered by 6,372 teachers on 02/01/24 (results weighted to reflect national teacher and school demographics) 39 teachwire.net/secondary R E S E A R C H