“New ideas” floated by Department for Education amount to tired re-treads of initiatives which have struggled in the past

Is this the best that the government can do, in terms of setting out ideas for supporting schools to get the best out of pupils as England seeks to emerge from the debilitating educational and health effects of the pandemic?

The thought was prompted after reading a news report suggesting the Department for Education is contemplating a set of what in reality are generally re-treads of policies either enacted and then rejected in the past or floated unsuccessfully as such.

The Guardian reported that the Department for Education was “considering” the return of Sats tests at 14; removing the cap on teachers’ work hours in the national contract, to make it easier for institutions to extend the school day; “accelerating academisation”; and extending Ofsted inspections.

The proposals are “understood to be at an early stage,” the paper reported, adding only that they would be “considered” by the new Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi. But there is plentiful evidence already that the ideas have struggled in the past.

Return of tests at 14. Really?

On the mooted re-introduction of Sats tests at 14, more than 13 years after they were scrapped in 2008, the Guardian reported that this had been because they had been fuelled a “pervasive anxiety*” in pupils’ lives and distorted children’s education.