‘Devil will be in the detail’ – Hampshire and Portsmouth headteachers respond to education secretary’s pledge to ‘trust in teachers’

Addressing Parliament, Gavin Williamson said the government had ‘learned lessons’ from last year’s grading debacle and that he would ‘trust in teachers rather than algorithms’ when grading GCSE and A-levels.

The confirmation of teacher assessed grading was welcomed by Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for education, Cllr Suzy Horton.

Cllr Horton said: ‘On the surface it’s a very positive move that, as Gavin Williamson said himself, the government is going to trust the judgement of teachers estimated grades. However the detail as to how this is going to happen is still very vague – the devil will be in the detail.’

Headteacher at Crofton School, Simon Harrison, said: ‘I welcome the clarity that examinations are to be cancelled as this was unclear following the prime minister’s statement on Sunday night. We have confirmation that teacher assessed grades are to be used but what we now need are the details as to how this is going to work to make sure all students get the grade they deserve.

‘If we are going to cancel exams then it’s better we do it now so we can work with students based around whatever form of assessment is in place.’

Last summer saw a U-turn to replace an algorithm with teacher-estimated grades. However this proved problematic with 76 per cent of pupils attaining a grade 4 or above – compared to 67.1 per cent in 2019 – raising concerns about inflated grades.

Priory School headteacher Stewart Vaughan said: ‘While we are upset students will not be able to do their exams we still have a lot to understand about the implementation of teacher-assessed grades. There were so many mistakes made in the summer and it’s important pupils get the grades they deserve to go on and do what they want to do.’

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While welcoming the government’s move to put their trust in teachers’ judgements the National Education Union (NEU) feels the situation of schools teaching to the exam could have been averted if a clear uniform back-up-plan of ongoing assessment had been established.

NEU president and Portsmouth teacher Amanda Martin said: ‘We asked the government eight months ago to have a plan B in place in case the exams did not go ahead. This could have been ongoing formal assessment such as coursework or module testing which could have been sat under exam conditions.

‘While schools have been carrying out some form of their own ongoing assessments they’ve all been doing their own thing. We asked for all the exam boards to collaborate to set ongoing questions and essays which could have been sat by all pupils.’

At heart of this debate is the welfare of pupils who’ve now had almost a year of learning disruption and education uncertainty.

Mr Vaughan said: ‘I had an assembly with students yesterday to acknowledge the huge uncertainty they’ve had to deal with – this cohort of students have had more disruption than any other previous year group. They are obviously destabilised and worried but we are in constant contact with them and providing the support they need.’

Digital divide

In his address to Parliament the education secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed that schools had a legal responsibility to provide between three and five hours remote teaching each day, depending on the age of pupils, and that the quality of online provision would be inspected by Ofsted.

However it’s digital access to remote education more so than the quality of teaching which provided the biggest barrier to learning during the last lockdown.

To help bridge the digital divide Mr Williamson said the government had purchased one million laptops and said that a total of 750,000 computers would be delivered to disadvantaged pupils by the end of next week.

While welcoming the news, headteachers remain sceptical until they see the promised computers delivered for distribution.

Priory School headteacher Stewart Vaughan said: ‘While we are in a stronger position than previously we are still waiting for all the laptops we were promised during the last lockdown. After we received 29 computers we were told we would get another 119 and we are still waiting for them to arrive.’

Crofton School headteacher Simon Harrison added: ‘During the last lockdown we did not get the laptops we were promised and so hopefully it will be different this time around.’

Children who don’t have access to remote learning have also been added to the list of vulnerable students who can attend school.

While agreeing with the rationale behind this decision, Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for education Suzy Horton is concerned at the impact this could have on the number of students in school and the potential spread of the virus.

Cllr Horton said: ‘If all keyworker pupils are in school along with an expanded number of vulnerable children who don’t have access to remote learning then this could lead to 50 per cent of children being in school which will be in conflict with infection control and the reason behind the lockdown.’

To support digital learning Mr Williamson also announced that all major phone network providers would waive any data charges for the use of educational websites. The education secretary also pledged the return of the food voucher scheme for children entitled to free school meals.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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