The national schools commissioner discusses school improvement

The national schools commissioner Sir David Carter spoke at the Westminster Education Forum about his plans for school improvement. Amongst his ideas, Sir David spoke of the benefit that outstanding schools could get from learning from schools that have been in special measures.

He said: “I think there is as much, possibly even more, to learn from the teachers who have gone from special measures to good as [there is] from the ones that have gone from good to outstanding. Yet at the moment the badges in our system don’t reflect that.

“The system that we live in makes an assumption that only good or outstanding schools are helpful schools."

But Sir David added: “If you work in a special measures school, the reality is that you have some brilliant practice. There’s just not enough of it and it is not in the right place.

"[And in outstanding schools] not everything is outstanding, and you have got to pay attention to those things in as much detail as anyone else.

"There are more people coming forward to be sponsors who have been in special measures than those who have been outstanding for 10 years.”

Speaking about academy chains, Sir David also said that it is a 'myth' that chains failed because they grew too quickly. He said: “There’s this myth in the system that says some of our early multi-academy trusts grew too fast, too soon, and that’s why they failed.

"That’s a myth – it’s not true. Yes, some of them did grow quite quick, but because they grew quickly wasn’t why they failed.:

Instead, Sir David said they failed because they gave the same degree of autonomy to those in special measures as they did to outstanding schools; they didn't have a school improvement strategy for their trust; they didn't have a family of schools to cluster around in a local area.