Ammanford: School categorisation system questioned

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POLITICIANS from across the political spectrum have responded strongly to an article that appeared in last week’s Carmarthenshire Herald.

In our edition​ published​ on April 8, we reported on how Ysgol Bro Banw in Ammanford had been found to have unsatisfactory prospects for improvement in its leadership.

An Estyn report into the school, which was inspected shortly after its Green Banding in the Welsh Government’s School Categorisation Scheme, found that school leaders have failed to check the accuracy of teacher assessment enough or consider assessment outcomes rigorously alongside the evidence of standards in pupils’ books. More tellingly, the school’s self-evaluation report does not present an accurate and honest picture of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.

The Estyn report also stated that the school’s governors did not exercise sufficient oversight as they did not understand performance data presented to them.

Bearing in mind the gulf between the Estyn report and the School Categorisation outcome, The Herald contacted the Welsh Government, Wales’s opposition parties from the last Assembly, and the Association of Directors of Education Wales (ADEW) for their comments on the situation and what it said about the Welsh Government’s School Categorisation Programme generally.

As the Welsh Government has entered its pre-election purdah period, we were directed to Welsh Labour’s press office for a comment.

Our efforts to contact Welsh Labour went without reply, as did our request for a comment from ADEW, which is responsible for drawing up the scheme in the first place. When we contacted ADEW to follow up our initial inquiry, we were told out query was being dealt with by the WLGA’s press office.

Kate Evans-Hughes, Director of Education at Pembrokeshire County Council, told us: “As part of the agreed National Model for Regional Working, Welsh Government, local government, regional education consortia and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) have worked together to ensure a national and consistent approach to the categorisation of schools.

“It is my belief that questions regarding the robustness of the system should be addressed to Welsh Government.”

Angela Burns, the Welsh Conservative’s shadow spokesperson on education told The Herald: “I am entirely unsurprised by the issues brought to light by the conflicting opinions over the school in Ammanford, this reflects concerns brought to me by head teachers and Unions alike.

“​The Welsh Labour Education Minister keeps getting this wrong, there is no one size fits all approach possible in ascertaining whether a school is on track or not and these endless iterations of school performance systems are simply lazy government.

“​Schools were first subjected to the much discredited banding system, now it’s this colour coded nonsense that takes no account of a school’s local community environment, of how many children with additional learning needs are on the roll and at what level nor whether the school has sufficient funding for the staff required for the task at hand.

“So it can be of no surprise that we have a workforce with a high stress related absence rate and over 100 head teacher vacancies. It’s a tough job made even more so by contradictory and arbitrary sets of measures.

“My proposals for a College of Teachers where standards are set by educators and Government, where teachers and parents work within the context of their school and local community and where pupils are treated, and measured, as individuals will produce better outcomes, more sensible data and has the support of the profession.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat William Powell, who is contesting Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, in which Ysgol Bro Banw is located, said: “As a qualified teacher, school governor and crucially as a parent, monitoring school performance is a high priority.

“Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that the Welsh Government’s School Categorisation system needs a radical shake up. Although it does represent an improvement on the discredited School Banding policy, it is far too reliant on statistical information and teacher assessment in providing a snapshot of a school’s performance.

“This can lead to the kind of rogue results and anomalies that we see in the Ysgol Bro Banw.

“Welsh Liberal Democrats are committed to delivering a system which places more emphasis on individual pupil profiling, with appropriate support delivered where necessary.

“In addition, we think there must be more emphasis on stretching talented and able pupils – and this sometimes gets lost in the morass of data associated with school categorisation. Similarly, sometimes the particular situation of pupils with additional learning needs such as autism are not properly taken into account. This has to change.<

“Estyn Inspection, with the delivery of a post inspection action plan, is a much more sophisticated and accurate system, which takes account of many external factors potentially lost or under-represented in the Welsh Government categorisation.

“I have come across other situations in Mid and west Wales where a potentially adverse rogue result from school categorisation can lead to a blight on a school, sometimes provoking a pupil exodus and unleashing a completely unnecessary spiral of decline.