Each September, thousands of children in England make the transition from Reception to Year 1. This shift is often described as moving from play-based learning into more formal schooling. For many children, this can be both exciting and challenging:

The government and Ofsted have proposed a new inspection framework. OST’s view is that these new proposals are not fit for purpose. This concurs with the most recent statements from the unions and headteachers. 

his summer, in July, we could see the greatest number of teachers and headteachers leave schools in England than ever before. In 2022 the government noted that over 40,000 teachers (7,800 more than 2021) left the vocation which is thought to be the highest number for over a decade.

In discussion with peripatetic music teachers, hearing from primary school staff and reading music celebrity columns in newspapers, music is either a sidelined subject, reduced to singing in assemblies or delivered from a pre-prepared programme.

As with the health service, there is much more to the teachers’ strikes than pay. They are about working conditions which include the fabric of the buildings teachers work in (report), school budgets (report), staff shortages and general wellbeing and welfare.

Much of what is demanded of teachers today places them into the role of robots delivering what someone distant has determined appropriate for the average child. Materials designed to save the teacher time and workload remove the artist from their skill base. Further, the outline of standards at each age group removes the dynamic of expectations which expands horizons.

The evidence-base for the current content of teacher training is contested, and the wheels are already coming off the Early Careers Framework (the new two-year period which it takes to achieve QTS).

Surveys of school leavers indicate that employers are frustrated by the lack of skills in problem solving and resilience required by young people for the modern workplace. Our education system seems to switch off the natural curiosity of young children in our schools, whilst preparing for SATs?

Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi is concerned that some groups of children have fallen behind massively in their education during the lockdown, and has funded a small initiative to accelerate their learning.

As our modern world evolves, the learner has to face new ideas and change. Tension pulls at this dynamic, giving the child choices, with parents guiding this but not necessarily controlling it.

The recent DfE Market Review of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) gives us a glimpse of the current provision and explores some possibilities for the ways in which the government proposes for it to be developed. But there are some concerns.

It’s time to consider the shape of the learning structures needed for our future society. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have prompted all those concerned with the education of young people to reassess the place of schools within a child’s learning environment.

It is well known that a young child plays at a particular challenge, before refining their behaviour. Play alongside peers has been in short supply during lockdown and experts, even before COVID, were concerned that in many schools, children were losing unstructured play time during the school day.

In the initial push to ensure children were receiving supportive lessons to carry through at home during the pandemic lockdowns, various issues surfaced mainly due to the speed at which this all happened.

Now is a crucial time to reconsider how we approach assessment. There is no country that tests its young people more than England. Even worse, there is a great disconnect with little understanding of systems used by one phase to the next.

The Oxford School of Thought is a truly independent, primary education think tank – the first of its kind in the UK. All matters educational are the concern of our group of dedicated educators and experts, and they wish to generate considered opinions of all phases of schooling.