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Ministers Come, Ministers Go … A View from the Chair News and Views Ministers Come, Ministers Go … NATE must continue its independent, principled critique of policy, Peter Thomas argues, whoever the latest appointment as Secretary of State for Education is. Here’s a tricky question: how do we respond Oddly enough, it’s the last of these that NATE’s mission to the news that we have a new Secretary of makes me most uneasy. It is, of course, Here’s the problem: NATE has, since the State (SoS) for Education? That has to be possible that he has scrutinised the work 1960s, been an association whose loyalty has news that matters to us. of his recent predecessors (and of Mr N. been to the development of English teaching Well, first, it depends who ‘we’ and ‘us’ are. Gibb) who have made the same claim, and for the benefit of teachers, students and the If it’s we members of the general public, the judged them a failure, so leaving room for subject itself. It has pursued this mission response may, sadly, be ‘What?’ If it’s we who improvement. Perhaps. Or he may have just with rigorous independence, unfunded by take a general interest in public affairs, the grasped the usual soundbite cliché. Either Government or by agencies influencing its response may be ‘Who?’ If it’s we who have way, it would help to know what standards, agenda. That mission must be sustained, and made education our daily care for many years, and standards of what. We shall be told, no that independence preserved, so that NATE’s the response may be ‘Go on – tell me which doubt. In the meantime, we await news of how position is rooted in the principles, values ambitious public-school bloke with no previous the new minister intends to make his name. and research that make English a humane interest or experience in education is about to He has declared his priorities to be a nattily discipline. This means making the humane impose his prejudices upon teachers and learners?’ alliterative ‘funding, further education and free as important as the discipline: it means Of course, each of these responses may be schools’. If funding means restoring 2010 valuing and using students’ own cultural more informed and nuanced than my version per capita rates, raised to match increased capital and equipping them with knowledge of them. Perhaps. I do not want to begin on a population, and if FE gets a boost to do more and skills for life as well as for passing exams. negative note, but there have been 37 occupants than repeat English GCSE (or do it properly) NATE believes that English is varied, subtle of that role (under different titles) since 1945 I’m already with two-thirds of the priorities, and complex – and that learners, and – and 23 since I began teaching. 7 of the 23 though it’s hard not to see ‘free’ schools as a learning itself, are varied, subtle and were women, not that gender is politically diversion of resources from the main needs. complex. That is why NATE takes a non- significant when they included Margaret partisan, sceptical view of debates limited by Thatcher and Gillian Shephard. One of the 23 NATE’s response false binaries of trad/prog or DI/group-work. had been a teacher (Estelle Morris). Three of All of which takes me back to the tricky The recent member survey shows that what the 23 had been educated in non-selective state question at the start. How do we, as NATE, English teachers want most from NATE is schools (David Blunkett, Alan Johnson, Justine respond to an incoming SoS? Do we bid quality resources and ideas for classroom Greening.) So my expectations of the appointed welcome and offer to make our resources, heads of the service I have worked for all my life experience, research and consultancy available? use. NATE must keep this focus, but must cannot be uninfluenced by a historical pattern. That may mean having the offer spurned – as also represent the wider-reaching and when NATE was regarded by Mr Gove and longer-lasting vision of the subject in its The new Secretary of State advisor D. Cummings as part of ‘the Blob’. Or events and publications. What of the latest? Might I reach for the do we submit a detailed and measured response, This means NATE will continue its reassurance of phrases like ‘safe pair of hands’, as with our OFSTED consultation, and then independent, non-partisan critique of ‘fresh pair of eyes’, ‘knows the territory’, or receive no evidence that it was taken into educational policy and practice. It will also ‘intellectually gifted, principled and grounded in account, or even acknowledged? There should, seek to contribute to Government policy, realism’? I am willing to give any one or all surely, be channels of communication between whether invited or not. For the moment, of these a go. More than willing – desperate, government and professional associations, a gesture of specialist availability can be more like. but they seem to have silted up – or we would genuinely made, by writing to the new SoS Step forward Mr Gavin Williamson. not now be looking at a drop in A Level with an outline of what NATE does, and how Best-known facts – as freely offered by Mr English take-up that we would have predicted it may be of service. Our recent response Williamson himself: kept a tarantula in his following the latest GCSE upheaval. There are to OFSTED and our survey, as well as our office as Tory chief Whip and organised B. channels, of course: the DfE has set up response to the current AL situation, should Johnson’s Tory Leadership campaign. Not so advisory groups on curriculum, recruitment be enough to test the water in the Association/ freely offered: sacked as Minister of Defence and retention and initial training but, as Government channel of communication. for leaking information from a secret cabinet Warwick Mansell has demonstrated in his A new SoS has the option of doing some meeting. Recent involvement in education: Education Uncovered blog, the invited members dredging to clear the channel. promoted idea of army-based ethos schools tend to represent organisations and opinions for kids in deprived areas. First announcement favoured by Government, often people with a Peter Thomas as SoS: ‘determined to drive up standards’. stake in privatised training or academy chains. is Chair of NATE 12 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 21 .
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