Ill be keeping my eye on West Berks schools minister
Mr Laws spoke to the Newbury Weekly News when he dropped into Hungerford’s John O’Gaunt School to meet headteachers and council dignitaries last week.
When asked about their reactions to his discussions concerning the district’s poor record of teaching disadvantaged children, Mr Laws said: “It was a good and thoughtful reaction. Nobody likes by implication to be criticised and I wanted to come with a message today that there is potential to do much better.”
In a recent report, Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw accused West Berkshire of “deep and shocking failure” after it was revealed that in 2012, disadvantaged children from the district had the worst attainment in England at primary school level and the second worst at secondary school.
The report classifies disadvantaged pupils as those from low income backgrounds who are eligible for free school meals.
Mr Laws warned: “I am going to look at the numbers very closely when they come through later this year. Clearly this is not a one-year thing that can be fixed in 12 months, but I would expect over the next few years, if we get this right, for those disadvantaged gaps to close quite significantly in areas such as this.
“I will be watching every year in all the data for primary and secondary schools for low performing authorities.
“I will be praising the ones who are doing better and the ones who are still doing badly I will be chasing up,” added Mr Laws.
“We can’t afford to show complacency because every young person only gets one chance in education.”
Sir Michael recommended that national service teachers – top teachers from across the country employed by the government – be sent into failing schools.
When asked if those recommendations were being acted on, Mr Laws said: “I am certainly looking at what Sir Michael said and I think he is right that we need to try to do more to encourage good teachers to go to some of the more challenging parts of the country and challenging schools.
“I am working with [ education secretary] Michael Gove and the education department to come up with new initiatives that we can put in place which will help to spread the best leadership and the best-quality teaching across the whole country, and not just have it in the areas where young teachers want to settle down.”
Last week, it was announced that teachers are planning to strike over reforms, set to come into effect in autumn, which would see performance-related pay and reductions to pensions.
When asked his view over the proposed strikes – which have been scheduled in the South East for October 17 – Mr Laws said:“We really hope that the teachers will think again about this.
“I think most people in the country are quite baffled about what teachers are striking about. Most teachers are moderate, sensible people. They understand that there has been a good budget settlement for schools at a difficult time and we really hope there won’t be teaching strikes.”
On the subject of pupil premiums – extra money, currently set at £900 per pupil, which is given to schools to help them work with disadvantaged children – Mr Laws said they would ensure schools are spending it in the right way.
“What we are doing now is making it absolutely part of the routine inspection for Ofsted that they will look at the disadvantaged gap and the use of the pupil premium.
“If the attainment gap is closing and they are doing really well, they won’t need to ask lots of questions.
“If it is not closing then they will look very carefully at the way the pupil premium is being spent.
“We are not going to sit back if schools don’t use the money in a sensible way.”
