State of Education Report 2017 state-of-education-booklet-Final-WEB | Page 22
Governor perspective
Almost six in 10 (59%) school governors expect monitoring
school performance under the new performance measures
to be a challenge over the next academic year – the second
most-cited challenge behind budget pressures.
Governors are, however, confident that they have the
knowledge and skills to hold the leadership team to account
for pupil achievement: more than nine in 10 (93%) agree this is
“The stringent focus on testing and academics at the
expense of the development of the whole child is
represented by the diminishing status of the arts in our
schools. If we look to international best practice we are
doing the reverse of the highest performing countries and
only exasperating the gaps in our system, not fixing anything.
We need a period of stability to let things settle and embed,
including taking the parent and employer stakeholders with
us through the changes we are experiencing.”
Hannah Wilson
Headteacher – Aureus School
the case. They are comfortable, also, in holding the leadership
to account for staff performance: 89% of governors believe
their governing board can do this effectively.
“Over the past year, we have seen an increase in questions
from primary school leaders who are unclear as to how
they can accurately assess pupils due to a lack of guidance
and last-minute policy changes. Questions from secondary
school leaders continue to show concerns around the impact
of progress 8 and the EBacc on their school’s curriculum
offer. The interest in our case studies on KS3 and KS4
curriculum models shows that many school leaders are still
looking for inspiration in this area.
That said, school leaders continue to demonstrate an
incredible ability to adapt to, and overcome, these challenges
through collaboration – working together to moderate
assessment judgements, sharing resources and organising
CPD. The popularity of our articles on moderation reflects this.”
Adam Medlycott
Senior researcher - The Key
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