New schools partnership aims to drive up standards

PLANS for a new school-led system to raise education standards for all Oldham children have been launched.

The recommendation is the first to be revealed by the Oldham Education and Skills Commission, chaired by former Education Secretary, Estelle Morris.

Launched last summer, the independent commission was asked to develop an ambitious vision for local children’s education.

Its final report will be published in September, but the first recommendation was outlined in a speech by Baroness Morris to headteachers at the Oldham Schools Alliance summer conference yesterday.

The schools-led system would be a new type of partnership, based on sharing responsibility equally between the council, schools and the community. It would take on collective responsibility for raising aspirations and achieving better outcomes by setting and achieving ambitious improvement targets.

The Commission says while Oldham has several excellent schools, there is also too much “underperformance”. It believes headteachers are best placed to understand how to drive up standards and this can be best achieved if schools work together. Its recommendation is a new independent body to make the collaboration a success.

“This would see a fundamental change for the responsibility for education across Oldham – and it’s the start of a crucial journey,” she said. “This plan is about all schools coming together regardless of age-group, governance, sponsorship or denomination, or whether it is an academy, local authority-maintained or free school.

“We’re saying that what really matters here is that shared vision for every child to reach their full potential. What also really matters is that if you’re an educator in Oldham you have a responsibility for the education of every local child – not just those you are directly responsible for, day to day.

“How we all fulfil that challenge is by working together on genuinely equal merit and in a new culture of collaboration where each school shares data, accepts and offers best practice, where targets and progress are shared, where all learn and improve together – and where children reap the benefits.”