CASEnotes

Press Officer Michael Pyke offered the following contribution to The Guardian Letters on the 4th May 2025 The scathing comments of Professor Julia Waters on the government's proposed minor tweaks to the way OFSTED inspects and reports on schools are entirely justified and everything she says is completely true.  In the last 25 years stress caused by OFSTED inspections has been cited in no less than 10 coroner's reports into the deaths of headteachers and there is clear evidence that many more school leaders have seriously considered suicide following an inspection.  It is quite astonishing that the current "consultation" makes no reference to this shocking fact while appearing to be based upon the premise that a system which aims to "improve" things by the deliberate use of public humiliation is fundamentally sound and just needs some minor and largely cosmetic improvements. The system is far from sound: not only does OFSTED ruin lives but there is no evidence at all that anything it has ever done since it was introduced in 1992 has brought about any significant improvement in our schools.  Its only clearly observable "achievement" is to have brought about a crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers. The government must know all this and it is time it had the courage to acknowledge that a complete re-think is well overdue. Michael Pyke The Campaign for State Education The edited, published version of the letter can be read in full at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/may/04/an-overhaul-is-not-enough-ofsted-must-go

Press Officer Michael Pyke contributed the following letter to The New Statesman (19/03/2025): Dear Sir, I regularly enjoy Andrew Marr's insights into Westminster politics but his knowledge of state education seems rather limited - as is often the case with the privately educated.  He asserts that the Children's Well-being and Schools Bill is a product of a "union-driven agenda", without providing any evidence for this view or any explanation of what it is supposed to mean; he implies that the briefing against Bridget Phillipson, that she has listened "to all the wrong people" in "rolling back...academy reforms," is justified but again provides no evidence, while snobbishly referring to "comprehensive-school thinking" without, apparently, realising that the great majority of secondary academies are themselves comprehensive schools. In fact, as Alasdair Macdonald wrote in the NS of February 28th, there is no evidence whatsoever that academy schools are any better at raising attainment than Local Authority maintained schools but there is plenty of evidence that money that should be spent on children's education is ending up in the pockets of managers within multi-academy trusts.  As for the much vaunted "freedoms" that academy schools are about to lose, one - the ability to employ unqualified teachers - is quite obviously undesirable while the other - the ability to deviate from the National Curriculum - is completely meaningless as curriculum content is almost entirely dictated by the examinations system. Since Michael Gove was belatedly sacked from the post in July 2014, there have been no fewer than 10 Education Secretaries.  Before Bridget Phillipson, the only one to show any serious interest in or aptitude for the job was Justine Greening.  It is more than time that education had a Secretary of State able to combine intelligence with longevity.  Ms Phillipson is obviously intelligent, is interested in the job and should be encouraged by her leader to stay in post and develop her ideas.  The people briefing against her should find something more useful to do with their time and Andrew Marr should read up on state education. Yours etc, Michael Pyke The Campaign for State Education The published, edited version of the letter can be found here: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/03/letter-of-the-week-the-state-of-education

Press Officer Michael Pyke's letter was published in The New World on the 19th March 2025. The edited, published version of his contribution can be found here: https://www.thenewworld.co.uk/letters-look-at-the-bigger-numbers-rachel/ Dear Sir, David Handley describes Peter Hyman's proposals for education reform as "impressive and radical" (letters, March 13th).  It would be more correct to describe them as necessary but seriously insufficient.  Everything Hyman says is true but he fails to address the underlying problem that our education system - both public and private - is based upon ideas developed in the 1860s, especially about the nature and purpose of education and who should receive it, from which we have never really moved on.  Among the many problems that urgently need addressing (but won't be) are: 1.  For all the pious talk of "social mobility", the social structure of the system both reflects and reinforces existing patterns of hierarchy, as it always has done.  This results in vast resources being narrowly focussed upon the education of the children of the rich, who continue to form a ruling caste within society, while the children of everyone else are obliged to attend schools all of which are seriously under-resourced and many of which are structurally unfit for purpose. 2.  We have a huge shortage of teachers because not enough young people want to do the job and those who give it a try soon quit.  Successive governments have not had the slightest idea of how to remedy this situation but have seemed unwilling to learn from countries who don't have this problem. 3.  School attendance rates are dropping alarmingly.  Politicians conveniently blame this upon bad habits picked up during the pandemic but increasing dissatisfaction with school, especially among older children, was becoming apparent long before 2020 (e.g. in a 2018 survey, over 50% of children in years 10 and 11 said that they "actively disliked" school).  It is becoming more and more clear that the education system needs a complete re-set of the kind undertaken by Finland in the 1970s, with spectacularly successful results, but Bridget Phillipson will be lucky to hold on to her job if she attempts anything more ambitious than tinkering around the edges.  Yours etc, Michael Pyke The Campaign for State Education