Let's Get to Work. Harris
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‘Ofsted misunderstands the concept of curriculum’ A digital newspaper determined to get past the bluster and explain the facts. P21 Emails reveal trust The experienced Pensions exodus DID ‘flatten the teachers being could hit state grass’ off-rolled sector P13 P5 P7 SCHOOLSWEEK.CO.UK | @SCHOOLSWEEK FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 | EDITION 174 COUNCIL SUING TRUST FOR £4M Page 9 Harris: We did not game the system Top trust entered hundreds of native speakers for ESOL qualification Former Ofsted director had labelled the practice ‘pure gaming’ But Harris said pupils were entered for ‘real-exam’ prep, not boosting scores INVESTIGATES JESS STAUFENBERG | @STAUFENBERGJ P4 let’s get to work. 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While we try to ensure that the information we She is leaving to head up a team looking at provide is correct, mistakes do occur and we cannot guarantee the accuracy of our material. alternative provision policy at the Centre for The design of the digital newspaper and of the Social Justice think tank. website is copyright of Lsect Ltd and material from the newspaper should not be reproduced without Staufenberg also joined in 2016 and in three prior permission. If you wish to reproduce an article from either the digital paper or the website, years as a reporter has earned plaudits for her both the article’s author and Schools Week must be investigative work, particularly on the issue referenced (to not do so, would be an infringement on copyright). of inclusion and special educational needs Lsect Ltd is not responsible for the content of any Schools Week commissioning editor Cath education. She moves on to a freelance career, external internet sites linked to. Murray and senior reporter Jess Staufenberg based in the north of England. (Staufenberg Please address any complaints to the editor. Email will leave the newspaper this week. will also be working for Schools Week in a @Schoolsweek.co.uk with Error/Concern in the freelance capacity next month). subject line. Please include the page number and Murray joined the publication in 2016 as deputy story headline, and explain what the problem is. editor before becoming its features editor and Both of these talented journalists have been SCHOOLS WEEK IS PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF then commissioning editor and head of digital. integral members of the Schools Week family, In her various roles she has been instrumental and will be sorely missed. LEARNING & SKILLS EVENTS, CONSULTANCY AND TRAINING LTD 161-165 GREENWICH HIGH ROAD LONDON SE10 8JA T: 020 8123 4778 E: [email protected] @SCHOOLSWEEK FRIDAY, APRIL 26 2019 Investigation DO YOU HAVE A STORY? CONTACT US [email protected] Harris swamps ESOL exam with native English speakers The federation stopped entering pupils for JESS STAUFENBERG the qualification this year. The spokesperson @STAUFENBERGJ EXCLUSIVE said this was not because the qualification had been removed from league tables, but A top trust last year entered hundreds of because Ofsted had warned in September native English speakers into a qualification 2017 that entering native speakers could be intended for pupils with English as a second perceived as “gaming”. language. The schools were doing “their own In February Luke Tryl (pictured), then internally designed version” of the Ofsted’s director of strategy, warned that the qualification instead. watchdog was looking at secondary schools An Ofsted spokesperson said that it was entering native speakers into the Cambridge Luke Tryl looking into “a range of qualification and International level 1/2 certificate in English However, a spokesperson for Harris said entry patterns to identify where schools may for Speakers of Other Languages. the qualification was not used to count be using qualifications inappropriately”. That The entries were “pure gaming”, he said, towards the open third bucket, adding that included the ESOL qualification. but he would not reveal which schools were the schools were “categorically not gaming “It would not be appropriate for us to under the microscope. the system”. comment more specifically at this time. A Schools Week analysis has now found “Gaming would only occur if a school However, this work is in progress and we will that six of the 10 schools with the most systematically entered for ESOL to fill report on all instances where evidence of entries last year, compared with their an open bucket space which would not gaming is found.” number of English as an additional language otherwise be filled, for students who didn’t Inspectors have rated all four of the six (EAL) pupils at the end of key stage 4, need this course because they were not EAL.” Harris schools either “outstanding” or “good”. belonged to the Harris Federation. Harris said if you excluded ESOL from The other two haven’t yet been inspected. If each entry counted as one year 11 pupil, its Progress 8 scores last year, the overall The “outstanding” Harris Academy then at least 98 per cent of the GCSE cohort score is “only three hundredths of a grade Falconwood in Kent had just 15 non-English at each school sat the exam. less” (from the current +0.46 with ESOL to speaking pupils, but 177 entries to the ESOL The qualification, which was dropped from +0.43 without). However this implies the qualification – the same number as the performance tables this year, counted in the qualification must have counted in some entire year group. open “third” bucket of Progress 8 last year. pupils’ progress scores. Ormiston Denes Academy in Suffolk, run Accountability experts suggested it could be The trust-wide progress figure also covers by the Ormiston Academies Trust, had just used as a back-up or substitute for other third all its 26 secondaries – meaning any rises at six EAL pupils but 52 entries for the ESOL bucket subjects, potentially boosting scores. the six schools identified in our analysis may exam. Tom Richmond, the founder of the think not show up. An Ormiston spokesperson said it entered tank EDSK, said if any school was “filling up Harris did not provide individual progress a “small number of pupils with low prior their Progress 8 slot with ESOL qualifications” data for the six schools. attainment” for the qualification and had instead of creative and vocational subjects, The spokesperson added headteachers explained this decision to inspectors during pupils could miss out on a broad and entered pupils in the qualification in the a monitoring inspection. balanced curriculum. November exam series because its literacy Cambridge International, the exam board Heads might also enter pupils to improve skills were a “useful preparation for English which delivers the qualification, said the the scores of pupils struggling in their other exams” and gave them real-exam experience qualification was “for students for whom third bucket subjects. before GCSEs. English is a second language”.