The government’s new Schools Bill is currently going through the House of Lords. The details therein, and some of the reactions, are of consequence to all kinds of schools, and to anyone who has kids of school age, in the UK.

The Department for Education argues that the bill is a timely and proportionate measure to rationalise and simplify the frameworks under which academy trusts operate. Wide-ranging in scope, the Bill has regard for such things as funding agreements, handling of complaints, arrangements for pupil admissions, length of the school day and curriculum. There’s a lot packed in and much potential standardisation which the DfE characterises as a ‘common rulebook’ – sensible, unambiguous, and consistent.

During the course of its second reading however, former education secretaries and ministers have queried the proposals. Noteworthy among the doubters is Lord Baker, education secretary between 1986 and 1989, who cautioned that the bill “increases the powers of the secretary of state and the DfE in a way unprecedented since 1870”. He didn’t stop there: “It’s a real grab for power by the Department for Education” and “You must remember that the DfE since 1870 has never run a school. Now they’re going to take complete control over the education system. And so, I think they should be watched.” Strong stuff pointing to the potential ramifications, most particularly for state directed and funded schools.

Seeking a balanced perspective, we might reference Baroness Morris, education secretary 2001 to 2002, who said the bill was trying to “remedy the faults” of the coalition government who legislated for academy expansion. This is a policy she supported, but which led to, in Morris’s estimation, “fragmentation”. Lord Knight, schools minister for the Blair and Brown Labour governments has been characteristically straightforward in his appraisal: “Right problem … jaw-dropping solution.” Steering a middle path through the debate is not easy, but if the bill passes muster in a largely unmolested form, it will, to all intents and purposes, greatly extend the reach of Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education and his successors.

Governments, of course, have every right to legislate for the nation’s schools, but the bill will additionally enable the DfE to colonise operational decisions that are currently the jurisdiction of school leaders and their non-executive boards. Would a ramping up of centralised Government power be wise for the myriad of schools and colleges in our nation, each navigating nuanced local contexts? Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, observed: “With the best will in the world, neither the politicians nor civil servants in Whitehall know how to run schools. As George Tomlinson, Clement Attlee’s minister of education in the late 1940s, elegantly declared: “Minister knows nowt about curriculum”. There is a distinct possibility that the bill, if rubber stamped, will put Tomlinson’s assertion to the test.

To be clear, Bradford Grammar School is without political affiliation, much like the associations to which we belong. We will work with any Government that genuinely wants to work with us. However, we rightly ask questions of any policy that impacts upon education, irrespective of its point of origin.

The ‘power grab’, if that’s what it is, chimes dissonantly with a core purpose of independent education in the modern era. To illustrate the point, I’ll begin with an amateur history lesson if I may? The European Convention on Human Rights (formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) was enacted by The Council of Europe on 3rd September 1953. The convention was a response to the human rights violations of Second World War and a well-intentioned stopper on any such horror happening again on European soil. Additionally, it was intended to act as a brake on the rise of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. That was the goal. The first protocol of the convention safeguards a parent’s right to a free choice in the education of their children reflective of religious and philosophical convictions. The convention protects plurality in education in the UK and across Europe, protects diversity of approach and ethos to act as a counterweight against the potential rise of a single, narrow and Government sponsored curriculum. It is a check on the power of the state and any messaging that might potentially be commutated through classroom pulpits.

Independent schools like Bradford Grammar School embrace and enact that plurality. Quite rightly we are compliant with expected regulations and standards, and subject to DfE approved inspections, but we are also free to develop our own curricula in accordance with School values and identity, reflective of our unique history and local circumstances. Any growth of state influence over curriculum and operational decision making in schools is something that would therefore be of interest to the independent sector, much like in other schools and colleges.

Independent schools work in willing partnerships with our state funded neighbours, some of us are part of Multi Academy Trusts and some of us sponsor academies. The bill will potentially affect us too, it speaks to our foundations and common purpose, and we have something to add to current debate, from a point of historic principle and everyday practice. Members of the Senior Leadership Team at Bradford Grammar sit on the boards of local standalone state schools and Multi Academy Trusts, as well as independent ‘primaries and secondaries’ in our region. There is much that unites our schools and much we can contribute together to educational policies and practices that have the potential to impact on all children in our nation.

” Independent schools like Bradford Grammar School embrace and enact that plurality.”

Dr Simon Hinchliffe, Headmaster

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