Gavin Williamson pledges a “broader vision” for schools
The Secretary of State for education addressed delegates at the Festival for Education where he pledged to announce a “broader vision” for schools later this year which will focus around the plan of working towards an academised model with all schools joining trusts, which was announced earlier this year.
This follows a week where the government announced an ‘insufficient’ £1.4 billion to support ‘recovery’ along with the vague promise that there were more announcements of additional funding to come. This plan was expected by all within education to be the department’s broader vision for schools, outlined by Sir Kevan Collins the former Education Recovery Commissioner, with recommendations on how the government could sufficiently support schools post-pandemic. However, this ended with the government disregarding the advice of the now former Education Recovery Commissioner and releasing something widely thought to be insufficient in supporting the scale of the task facing schools as they try to move beyond the pandemic.
It seems as though the broader vision for the Department for Education now is not looking to tackle the issues which the pandemic has exacerbated but rather focusing on finishing off the education reform which was a cornerstone of the Conservative’s 2010 policy with forced academisation and building Multi Academy Trusts.