National Association of Head Teachers says academies agenda means education secretary is ignoring bigger picture.
Photograph: Sang Tan/AP
Michael Gove: concentrating his visits on academies or schools that are already performing well.
Headteachers have accused the education secretary of being driven by an ideological agenda after it emerged that almost half the schools he has visited since taking power are – or have applied to become – academies.
A list obtained from the Department for Education reveals that 10 of the 27 schools Michael Gove has visited since he became education secretary are academies. A further two have had government approval to become academies and three are considering applying to switch status.
Across the country, just 3% of primary and secondaries – 638 schools – are, or have applied to become, academies. Gove has said he wants academy status – when schools opt out of local authority control – to be "the norm" because this will drive up standards.
Gove also appears to have concentrated his visits on schools that are already performing well. Thirteen of the 27 schools and two colleges that Gove has been to were rated outstanding at their last full inspection. This, again, does not represent the true picture of what is happening across the country. Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, says just 13% of schools and 6% of colleges are deemed outstanding. None of the visits were to the 8% of schools and 4% of colleges that inspectors have said are inadequate.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said Gove should be reminded that he is education secretary "for all schools, not just those who are following the government's agenda. Really great leaders go and seek the views of people who will challenge and disagree with them," he said. "It's really important that Gove tests out his ideas in schools that aren't going to just say what he wants to hear. This list of schools is trended in favour of academies and the most confident schools, who have been rated outstanding."
In addition, more than half the visits – 16 out of 29 – were to schools and colleges in London. Headteachers have been at pains to remind ministers that London has a different set of educational problems from other parts of the country and should not be viewed as representative of England.
None of the schools Gove has visited select on academic ability, but several are faith schools. Most of the secondary schools he has visited are in poor neighbourhoods. Some 11 of the 17 secondaries have a higher than average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, an important indicator of deprivation.
Headteachers said the number of visits to schools was "reasonable" and they were happy Gove's office had chosen schools and colleges in poor neighbourhoods. But they warned that the education secretary appeared to be driven by an ideological agenda rather than by knowledge of what goes on in schools and colleges.
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said Gove should be visiting more schools outside London because the capital had a "specific educational context that isn't repeated elsewhere". "Certainly a lot of the schools on this list support government policy," he said.
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said Gove should have visited more schools that were against becoming academies. "He is embarking on the biggest dismantling of state education we have ever known – he needs to hear why many schools want to remain attached to their local authority, rather than go it alone."
One headteacher, who did not want to be named and had had a visit from Gove in the last few months, said Gove "does not have the fullest understanding of the state educational landscape". "This is possibly due to the types of experiences he has encountered in his education."
All the headteachers the Guardian spoke to whose schools had been visited by Gove said he had been passionate about education and had been generous with his time. Patricia Sowter, headteacher of Cuckoo Hall, a primary academy in north London, said the visit had given her staff and pupils a "tremendous morale boost in an area of London that is often ignored".
All the visits were as secretary of state and do not include those made as a local MP.
©guardian.co.uk
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