Summit 2015: HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw backs regional Schools Challenge
Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw mentioned the North East Schools Challenge at this year’s Summit, saying he welcomes efforts to get it off the ground.
Sir Michael asked the Summit audience: “What can be done to raise ambitions and improve outcomes, particularly in your secondary schools, in order to end the depressing cycle of under-achievement, particularly for our poorest children?
“Certainly political backing at both a national and local level is an important ingredient in driving up standards. Elected leaders like Jules Pipe, the Mayor of Hackney, have been instrumental in raising school standards across London by holding the feet of officers and headteachers to the fire and maintaining a clear focus on the achievement of the most disadvantaged pupils.
“So I welcome efforts to get the North East Schools Challenge off the ground, although I know there are frustrations about the pace of progress.
But within a rapidly evolving education landscape , Director Mike Parker believes this has become incredibly difficult and has challenged the Department for Education to provide support or a structure to enable schools to lead change across a wider area.
During his opening speech at the Summit, Mike said:
“The reality is that there isn’t the structure in place to deliver a Challenge in the way they were delivered in London and Manchester, and smaller challenges that continue to this day are built on single authority mandates that bear little correlation to this region.
“We are in a perverse dichotomy where the rhetoric of the Government is not matched by support for solutions. Nicky Morgan is desperate to see the end of regional educational disparity – as are we. And yet, the Government is blind to the opportunity to that exists to put schools in the driving seat of change across boundaries.
“It would appear that Devolution offers the next opportunity to drive this change and I would urge the Department for Education to visibly engage with this process.”