HMI Report on ILEA (1980)

An HMI report based on the 'accumulated records of day-to-day HMI inspections and discussions over the last five years undertaken for a number of purposes in the wide variety of educational establishments and on records of discussions in the administrative offices of the Inner London Education Authority' (page 2).

The complete document is presented in this single web page. You can scroll through it or use the following links to go straight to the various sections:

I The report (page 2)
II The evidence (22)
III Conclusion (115)
Appendices (121)

Note I have removed the names of two particular schools in paragraphs 17.19 and 19.9. Otherwise, the text presented here is as in the original.

The text of Educational Provision by the Inner London Education Authority was prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 5 November 2017.


Educational Provision by the Inner London Education Authority (1980)
Report by HM Inspectors

London: Department of Education and Science 1980
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.


[title page]

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE


REPORT BY HM INSPECTORS

on

EDUCATIONAL PROVISION

BY THE INNER LONDON EDUCATION AUTHORITY

SUMMER, 1980




Copies of this report are supplied to the ILEA for use by its relevant committees and officers and by the governing bodies, heads or principals of schools and other institutions maintained by the ILEA. If required, further copies of the report will be made available to the Authority on application to the Department.

Department of Education and Science
Elizabeth House, York Road, London SE1 7PH


CROWN COPYRIGHT

NO PART OF THIS REPORT MAY BE COPIED OR PHOTOGRAPHED

S427/7/-DS 3/80


[page 1]

L800812CF(3)


CONTENTS

THE REPORT

1. Basis of the report
2. The social milieu
3. The Authority's response to the educational needs of the area
4. A broad assessment of the Authority's response

THE EVIDENCE

5. Nursery education
6. Primary schools
7. Secondary schools
8. School provision for the 16-19 age group
9. 16-19 provision in non-advanced further education
10. General colleges of further and higher education
11. Specialist colleges
12. Polytechnics
13. Colleges of art and design
14. Adult education
15. Youth service
16. Teacher education
17. Inspectorate and advisory services
18. Special needs in schools
19. Special education
20. Support services

CONCLUSION

21. Conclusion

APPENDICES

1. ILEA administration: the top structure
2. Civil and school populations, numbers of schools, post-16 participation rates
3. Statistics of transfer from primary to secondary school, by division
4. Distribution of special schools
5. Pupil/teacher ratios in primary and secondary schools, by division
6. Allocation of resources and the "alternative use of resources" scheme (AUR)


[page 2]

I: THE REPORT

1. BASIS OF THE REPORT

1.1 Most reports presented by HMI are based on specifically planned full or sectional inspection exercises or surveys designed to lead to the report. This one differs in that it rests on accumulated records of day-to-day HMI inspections and discussions over the last five years undertaken for a number of purposes in the wide variety of educational establishments and on records of discussions in the administrative offices of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).

1.2 As with other local education authorities (LEAs) HMI have three main modes of operation within the ILEA area; those of district inspector, general inspector and specialist inspector. Most HMI combine the two last modes and some combine all three. Briefly, the district inspector gathers and interprets to the Department of Education and Science (DES) information about the local education authority and its policies and their effects; and advises the LEA as appropriate on its implementation of DES policies. The general inspector acts as the HMI point of reference for a particular establishment; and the specialist inspector is concerned with work in a particular subject or a phase or aspect of education. To formulate their professional judgements in all.three capacities HMI inspect establishments, meet and discuss issues with administrative, teaching and non-teaching staff, visit classes and groups of pupils or students and talk with individuals. HMI also meet various groups of teachers on in-service training exercises and curriculum development projects, and in subject associations; they meet administrators, LEA inspectors and advisers on both general and specific educational issues; and others, including industrial and commercial representatives, on such issues' as transition between school and employment or, particularly for further education, the inter-relationship between vocational education and training.

1.3 Within the schools sector, HMI last year visited 25% of primary, 55% of secondary and 20% of special schools, mostly for a single day. In addition, since October 1978, HMI have conducted full inspections of six ILEA comprehensive secondary schools, each inspection taking a week and involving


[page 3]

more than 20 HMI. The HMI national surveys of education in primary schools and secondary schools each included 17 ILEA schools. In the past five years HMI have visited about 80% of ILEA primary schools, virtually all secondary schools and 70% of special schools. Many secondary schools are visited on average once every 18 months, and several primary schools have received more than one visit in the five year period, either because of the need to observe teachers on extended probation or because of work of particular interest.

1.4 Within the further and higher education sector, general inspectors usually visit about once a term each establishment for which they carry this responsibility, although such visits may be more or less frequent depending on particular issues or other pressures. Specialist inspectors aim at a broadly similar frequency of visits although, because of the large number of establishments involved and because of other demands on their time, they may be unable to visit some establishments more than once each year. Because of the very much larger number of centres involved, HMI with special concern for adult education and for youth and community work necessarily visit on a sampling basis.

1.5 This report, then, draws on the cumulative experience of HMI. Both in schools and in the further and higher education sector there are inevitably gaps in HMI's knowledge of the ILEA's provision; in some aspects of the Authority's provision visiting has been too infrequent for judgements to be made. The aim is to report broadly on the main aspects of educational provision within the ILEA as an element of the national educational service.

2. THE SOCIAL MILIEU

2.1 The ILEA is responsible for the provision of education in the 12 Inner London Boroughs and the City of London. With 2,428,100 inhabitants it is the largest education authority in England: the next largest is Hampshire with 1,467,400. Birmingham, the next largest metropolitan authority, has 1,050,600. The school population of the ILEA area is currently dropping very rapidly, partly because of movement from the inner city. In January 1980 it was 351,697; on current projections numbers will drop to under 250,000 in 1989.


[page 4]

2.2 Inner London is an area of great unevenness and variety, containing the most affluent, but also many of the most deprived areas in England; the two are often side by side and each borough contains 8 mixture of wealth and poverty, though in varying degrees. In rateable value the area is singularly rich with a penny rate raising £10,700,000; a penny rate raises £1,800,000 in Birmingham and £720,000 in Manchester.

2.3 The area includes the commercial centre of the nation, but the industrial base of inner London itself has shifted and many of the traditional trades are no longer practised with such intensity or in their traditional areas; manufacturing industry in particular has tended to move out, taking with it the more mobile and more skilled workers, often to the new towns. This has changed the balance of employment opportunities as between manufacturing and service industries. Unemployment is generally below the national average level, but there are major pockets of it eg in Lambeth.

2.4 Of 12 areas in England where more than 25% of births in 1977 were to mothers born in the New Commonwealth and Pakistan, four are in inner London. A survey of all school pupils conducted by ILEA's Research and Statistics Division has established that one in ten children in inner London speak English as a second language; ILEA pupils have over 125 different mother tongues, far more than any other LEA in England and more than in New York. The area has large populations of virtually every ethnic minority to be found in the United Kingdom. Because it is a major immigration point, certain districts, such as dockland or South Kensington, have a largely transient population. The population density is higher than in any other LEA. The Department of the Environment's index of social and housing deprivation shows inner London to have greater deprivation than Birmingham, Liverpool or Manchester.

2.5 An unusually high proportion of the population (73.3%) lives in rented accommodation, particularly council accommodation. By national standards there is a very high number of single parent families (14.2%). Much property is in a very dilapidated state or lacks some basic amenities; in several areas there is evidence of urban decay, with its demoralising effect on the young. Absenteeism, particularly among secondary school pupils, is a serious concern. Property costs are high and people often live at a considerable distance from


[page 5]

their place of work: average journey times to work are longer than elsewhere in England; the cost of travel is correspondingly higher. The transport network is planned over the whole of Greater London but some communities are isolated, even in densely populated areas eg Hackney and the Isle of Dogs.

2.6 Because it is responsible for education in the centre of the capital city, the ILEA tends to be the focus of attention and probably receives a greater number of overseas and UK visitors than any other education authority; by virtue of its size, it has more politicians and stimulates more political interest than most other centres of population: press, television and radio coverage is accordingly greater.

3. THE AUTHORITY'S RESPONSE TO THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF THE AREA

3.1 The ILEA's central administration at County Hall deals with all policy matters.

3.2 Ten divisional offices carry out the Authority's responsibilities for the day-to-day administration of schools' matters: each has its own divisional officer, educational psychologists and educational welfare officers. Four "quadrant officers" in County Hall each oversee schools' administration in two or three divisions, co-ordinate with GLC or ILEA central services and are responsible for seeing that divisional planning takes account of facilities in neighbouring divisions. Officers in County Hall deal direct with the Authority's administrative responsibilities in further and higher education, community education, special education and the careers service. Appendix 1 sets out the Authority's administrative arrangements.

3.3 30% of three year olds and 78% of four year olds receive some nursery education either in the 45 nursery schools or in the 408 nursery classes attached to primary schools. In September 1979 the Authority maintained 829 primary schools (including 255 voluntary schools) and 185 secondary schools (73 voluntary), of which one is a boarding school in Suffolk. The geographical distribution of these schools owes much to historical factors independent of present borough boundaries. Current reorganisation


[page 6]

discussions on secondary education and (separately) on educational provision for the 16-19 age group take account of recent and current demographic trends. Appendix 2 lists the number. of schools by division and shows the percentage of pupils receiving post-compulsory education in school; Appendix 3 indicates the net effects of traffic across divisional boundaries in secondary schools.

3.4 To meet the needs of pupils who are handicapped and cannot be educated in ordinary schools, the ILEA maintains 114 special schools. Each division has some of the more common kinds of special school; but schools educating children with less common disabilities are distributed throughout the area. Thirty two of the special schools are residential and 28 are situated outside the Authority's area. Appendix 4 includes information on special schools by division. The schools psychological service has an educational guidance centre in each division. There are ten home tuition centres for pupils awaiting admission to special schools and 39 special day tuition centres for maladjusted children.

3.5 Institutions of higher and further education have developed in response to ILEA, Greater London and national needs. They include five polytechnics, two colleges concerned with teacher training, 15 general colleges of further and higher education, four colleges of art and design, nine specialist colleges, 30 adult education institutes and a wide range of youth centres and clubs.

3.6 Nursery schools have a pupil/teacher ratio of 17.2:1. Because of LEAs' varying policies on the ratio of qualified teachers to nursery assistants it is not possible to establish comparison with nursery pupil/teacher ratios elsewhere. In accordance with Government policy, the ILEA seeks to maintain a child/adult ratio of 10:1 in nursery schools and L3:1 in nursery classes; where possible, it seeks to improve on these ratios.

3.7 Average pupil/teacher ratios in primary schools (17.3:1) and secondary schools (14.1:1) are amongst the lowest in the country (Appendix 5 shows pupil/teacher ratios, by division). For two reasons there are great variations in pupil/teacher ratios between schools:


[page 7]

  • in allocating staff to schools, divisional officers and ILEA inspectors take account of a formula of social and educational disadvantage devised by the ILEA's Research and Statistics Division;
  • schools are also able to choose to buy extra staff in preference to teaching materials through the "alternative use of resources" scheme (AUR). Appendix 6 describes procedures for allocating staff and resources.
3.8 In addition to their regular staffing, schools receive teacher support both on- and off-site for a wide variety of purposes including nurture groups, support groups (for disruptive pupils), intermediate education (for disruptive secondary pupils), the unified language service for English as a second language, peripatetic remedial teachers, home-school liaison teachers and teachers for children with special difficulties. (Division 4 lists 16 sources available to primary schools.) The divisions maintain pools of additional teachers to offset the curricular effects of falling rolls and a force of teachers to cover short notice absences. ILEA staff inspectors also sometimes deploy a group of specialist peripatetic teachers, particularly for science and instrumental music.

3.9 Non-teaching staff include laboratory technicians (one for every two laboratories) and assistants for design and technology and art; most secondary schools have a foreign language assistant for the main language, and at least a share of one for other languages. The Authority pioneered the use of professionally qualified librarians and nearly all secondary schools have one. A more recent development is the employment of media resources officers (MROs) to assist schools to make best use of audio-visual and other equipment. Nearly every secondary school has one; MROs based in teachers' centres are available to help teachers in primary schools; occasionally primary schools use part of their "alternative use of resources" allocation (see Appendix 6) to 'buy' part of an MRO. Primary schools also have 'helpers' and other ancillary support.


[page 8]

3.10 Schools receive help from various specialist agencies or services: the schools' inspectorate of 100 has expertise in all the subjects most commonly taught in schools and in all phases of schooling and includes 12 inspectors of special education. The Authority's further and higher education inspectorate of 18 is unique among English local authorities in its size and range of specialisms. One hundred and seventy eight advisory teachers supplement some aspects of the local inspectorate's work in schools and further and higher education establishments. Other specialist agencies include the schools' psychological service, the careers service and the educational welfare service. The Authority also has a network of 53 teachers' centres, of which ten are multi-purpose (one in each division); the remainder are specialist centres, mostly for individual subjects but some of a slightly more general nature. The Learning Resources Centre publishes many materials specially developed in these centres by ILEA teachers and inspectors for use in ILEA schools. In term time the Authority publishes a weekly magazine 'Contact' to communicate with teachers, governors and parents and to disseminate good practice in its schools and colleges.

3.11 The ILEA inspectorate includes five inspectors who are particularly concerned with the needs of pupils from ethnic minorities. It has two centres for teaching English to ethnic minority pupils of secondary school age and a unified language service to help primary schools. Through liaison with community relations officers, contact with other voluntary bodies and parental and community representation on school governing bodies, the Authority attempts to be aware of all community and educational needs; several institutions are also designated community schools. It has a permanent staff of seven translators/interpreters for some of the main languages spoken in ILEA schools.

3.12 Schools are expected, as is usual, to teach the full ability range of pupils, but in order to supplement provision for the most able pupils some divisions organise special courses for those in primary schools and the Authority runs a large programme of summer short courses for sixth formers. To foster individual talent in music special provision is made at Pimlico School and, additionally, the Authority gives special study awards to young musicians and maintains the London Schools' Symphony Orchestra. Many young


[page 9]

linguists receive travel awards. Special ability classes exist in those sports for which the Schools' Sports Associations do not cater easily eg fencing, judo, gymnastics, rowing. Oxford and Sussex Universities both have special arrangements for admitting a number of promising candidates from ILEA schools to study science and (Oxford only) politics, philosophy and economics (PPE).

3.13 The Authority also makes several arrangements to extend the experience of the inner city child who might never know other surroundings: it maintains three rural centres and one mountain centre; there are 12 residential centres for the use of specific schools or divisions (and a medical team to provide care on these short-stay holidays).

3.14 The Authority's fleet of buses also takes children to the nine out-county playing fields owned by the ILEA. It owns or hires 14 bases for water skills (boats), all the public swimming baths, two cycle tracks, the Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre and the Michael Sobell Centre (Islington).

3.15 To help children make good use of London itself, the Authority administers two museums on behalf of the GLC and maintains a museum education service. It has three youth theatres and organises arts festivals, often in co-operation with other bodies.

3.16 In accordance with Circular 11/67, the Authority has (April 1980) 291 schools which it considers to be in areas of educational or social priority: staff in these schools qualify for an extra allowance under Burnham salary arrangements. It also allows nearly all schools to give staff posts of special responsibility up to the maximum number of points specified in the Burnham agreement for each particular size or category of school; in some cases, by special arrangement, they exceed this by up to 20%.

3.17 1978/79 unit costs were £639 for each pupil in primary school, £830 for each pupil aged 11-16 in secondary school and £1444 for each pupil aged over 16 in secondary school. Capitation allowances are the highest in the country and under the "alternative use of resources" scheme (Appendix 6) schools receive in 1980/81 additional allowances ranging from £21 to £67 for each pupil.


[page 10]

3.18 The Authority's budget for 1980/81 is £597.4 million. This does not take account of recoupment charges, nett receipts from the advanced further education 'pool' and money received through special schemes such as the Urban Aid Programme and the training opportunities programme (TOPS).

4. A BROAD ASSESSMENT OF THE AUTHORITY'S RESPONSE

4.1 This section outlines HMI's views of the extent to which the Authority's provision, described in section 3, caters for its educational responsibilities and meets the needs arising from the social milieu. Sections 5-20 contain the evidence on which these views are based. Section 21 is more specifically a summary of the educational standards achieved in the Authority's establishments.

a. Administrative response

4.2 The ILEA is well staffed by senior officers who are capable administrators and of a high intellectual calibre. They offer elected members sound, well thought out advice on policy options, and papers put forward to the Authority's committees are of a high standard. The planning and development of the education service in inner London has depended to no small extent on the quality of thinking and leadership which they have provided.

4.3 The administrative machine is large, with responsibilities delegated as indicated in Appendix I and with an overall structure of branches and sections dealing with specific aspects. of the service. On occasions its size makes it cumbersome and can give rise to delays in reaching decisions. Within such a large structure there are perhaps inevitable variations in the quality and ability of individuals but broadly speaking the effectiveness of day-to-day administration seems to compare reasonably with that found in other LEAs.

4.4 The administration is alert to incipient trends and is quick to react to them and to commission work to provide more precise information for planning purposes. Resources are often speedily made available to meet emergent needs although the Authority is sometimes slow to withdraw or redistribute those resources as conditions change or when an experimental


[page 11]

approach brings only limited success. The Authority is well served by its Research and Statistics Division which provides much of the necessary planning information and conducts many of the evaluation exercises.

4.5 The lines of communication between individual establishments and the Authority's administrative structure are clearly laid down and, as far as HMI can judge from contacts with schools, colleges and ILEA officers, are generally effective. There are, however, certainly also instances where schools bypass the formal channels of communication and deal direct with senior officers. The ILEA's widely distributed weekly magazine "Contact" is an effective means of communicating policy developments, disseminating administrative information and reporting on good practice within ILEA establishments.

4.6 As section 2 makes clear, the Authority is faced with problems of a type, range and complexity unmatched in other LEAs and any assessment of its performance should take account of the circumstances in which it operates. As an overall generalisation, the ILEA has attempted and is attempting to meet and solve the problems with which it is presented. Its officers and staff, both within administration and in the many educational institutions, have a deep concern for the needs of those with whom they deal and for whom they provide an educational service; and in general they seek to make a humane response to those needs.

4.7 With no shortage of money, the Authority has been responsible for many innovations, not least because several of the problems have either found no solution elsewhere or have arisen earlier in London. Some of its responses have necessarily been experiments which have added to the overall costs of the service without always producing the anticipated results or return on expenditure. Nevertheless other authorities have reason to be grateful to the ILEA for its readiness and ability to experiment.

b. Policies

4.8 The Authority has clear policies on the major structural issues of falling rolls in primary and secondary schools and the arrangements for education of the 16-19 year olds. These have developed as a result of


[page 12]

thorough documentation and careful consultation: in many respects the Authority's procedures at this level of policy making are exemplary.

4.9 Many of the policies relating to provision of facilities, resources and support in schools flow from an overall concern to ensure that teachers do not lack what they need to carry out their work. The quality of these policies is much more variable: the provision of libraries and ancillary help in schools is on a suitable scale, even though by no means all other Authorities make such provision, but there does not seem to be any arrangement for ensuring that schools use them wisely; the decision to establish support units off the school site for disruptive pupils appears to have been implemented hurriedly and without adequate detailed consideration of curricular needs; the policy to expand nursery provision is sound, but it is not clear how the Authority will recruit the extra staff, particularly for the posts of special responsibility.

c. Schools

4.10 In general the number and quality of school buildings are reasonable. Nevertheless the premises of some nursery schools leave much to be desired; the premises of some primary schools were very cramped for the numbers accommodated although the situation is improving as rolls fall; at least one special school (built off-programme) is of a very inappropriate design; some high-rise secondary schools built in the 1950's are particularly difficult to supervise. But the major problems arise from the generally confined nature of school sites, the speed at which school rolls are currently falling, split site operation and the ways in which schools use the accommodation at their disposal.

4.11 Maintenance and redecoration are generally good. Minor repairs, particularly those necessitated by vandalism, could with advantage be speeded up and conceivably arranged by the schools themselves. Although there are inevitably exceptions, caretaking is generally good and many caretakers are committed to the life of their school.


[page 13]

4.12 The aim of improving the standard of the buildings as rolls fall is laudable: in all sectors, except nursery, the Authority is trying to shut surplus buildings or change their educational use. Some primary schools clearly derive benefit from extra space and make good use of it; but others are missing the opportunity to improve teaching accommodation or extend facilities.

4.13 In secondary schools the emerging programme of amalgamations is generally sound and in many respects well documented and managed: in 1970 214 secondary schools accepted entries; in 1981 it will be 168. The Authority has retained much teacher goodwill even in many of the divisions with the most difficult problems in falling rolls. Many secondary schools could, however, give more thought to using their buildings to best advantage: there are too many instances of subject departments having undue difficulty in coordinating their work because of the lack of contiguous specialist areas, and because communications within schools are unnecessarily difficult.

4.14 The Authority also appears to be doing its best to give schools in the voluntary sector every chance, where necessary, to move into premises superior to those occupied at present.

4.15 There is clear evidence that the school sector and the further and

higher education sector each frequently plan the use of buildings without sufficient reference at local level to the needs and plans of the other.

4.16 Through capitation and the "alternative use of resources" scheme, ILEA schools have more money to spend pro rata than anywhere else in the country. There are some well-managed departments which get good use from everything they buy, know precisely what they have and incorporate it into their schemes of work - but they are rare. Despite the generosity of funding, there are surprising shortages which are apparently unnoticed by the teacher, head of department or head or which result from failure of communication between them: they are not occasioned by lack of money.

4.17 The "alternative use of resources" scheme is an enlightened one which in the right hands is a most powerful tool for improvement. Inevitably schools use this money in a variety of ways but it is questionable whether


[page 14]

some of the additional teachers "bought" are really necessary. On the other hand some schools make excellent use of educational visits funded from this source.

4.18 Libraries generally are well funded, but they are not always used by teachers and pupils as a source of learning, although some are excellently integrated into the life and work of a school. The media resources centres are at an earlier stage of development and in some cases have greatly improved the presentation of schools' work; they do not seem able at present to ensure that all the expensive equipment on school premises is used to the best advantage to enhance the quality of teaching.

4.19 The provision of resources in ILEA schools is generous, almost to a fault, for the best possible motives; but heads and staff need to be much better housekeepers. When, in the financial year 1980/81, a few schools are handling over £100,000 a year, and probably more than half the secondary schools receive over £50,000 in capitation and "alternative use of resources" money, the head in particular needs financial expertise: even those applying the same formula have widely varying ideas of the total sum they are prepared to discuss in heads of department meetings and how much they propose to keep in reserve.

4.20 In all ILEA schools staffing is very generous. The Authority and the divisions sensibly allocate extra teachers on the basis of an index of need (Appendix 6). In 1978/79, 56% of staff in ILEA secondary schools held degrees; this compares favourably with the national average of 50% revealed by the 10% national survey conducted in 1977. There are considerable deficiencies in the qualifications of staff in special schools, but these largely reflect national shortages and deficiencies. It is to the Authority's credit that it is taking steps to overcome some of the shortages of teachers for subjects such as physics, mathematics and craft. With the ability of schools to "buy" extra staff under the "alternative use of resources" scheme and because of the basic generosity. of staffing, ill1I are not aware of a single school in ILEA which is poorly staffed in terms of numbers; there are, however, many instances of schools being unable to recruit specialists either in some of the areas indicated above or in others. These shortages cause


[page 15]

schools to offer a restricted curriculum to some pupils, and in some cases to all; this distortion takes a long time to rectify. There are also cases of classes being taught at O- and A-level by teachers who have no qualifications in the subject and, in some of these cases, very little knowledge of it either.

4.21 The deployment of staff generally causes some concern. On average, teachers in secondary schools in ILEA are in contact with classes' for one period less in a week of 40 periods than teachers elsewhere in the country (30 instead of 31); and there is no indication that this extra time is used to prepare for better performance in the classroom. Some teach much more than these figures suggest, but there are schools where teachers are in contact with their classes for as many as five periods less on average than their colleagues elsewhere in the country. In September 1980, for the first time compulsorily, the Authority expects to receive details from all its secondary schools of how staff are deployed and the size of groups they teach. This will provide valuable information, especially with regard to cooperative ventures in the 16-19 sector; it is to be hoped that it will also enable the inspectorate to intervene to restrain the evident liberties which a few schools are taking with generous staffing patterns.

4.22 At all stages schools are well staffed with ancillary help.

4.23 Some of the additional services such as the educational welfare service and the schools psychological service appear to vary greatly in quality, depending on the area and individual. On the other hand, the museum service and careers service are highly regarded.

4.24 Schools thus receive much support for their work from a generous and responsive Authority. Some of it does not necessarily achieve its objectives, partly because of experimental approaches (eg support units) and partly because schools do not always use it well (eg libraries, resource centres). Despite the Authority's considerable efforts to counter educational disadvantage it is still the case that many pupils fail to achieve the standards of which they are capable. Some of the responsibility here must lie with the schools themselves, but it is also true that the


[page 16]

education system generally still lacks a solution to many of the problems of educational disadvantage.

4.25 Nursery education has some weak points, particularly in nursery classes rather than schools, but on the whole it is of a satisfactory to good standard with a little outstanding work.

4.26 There remain some weak primary schools and classes; much work is humdrum and the curriculum shows limitations of a kind common elsewhere in the country. But the Authority and the schools themselves are making determined efforts to provide a more varied curriculum, to assimilate the lessons of the Bullock Report and the HMI Survey of Primary Education and to raise their expectations of pupils. On the whole work is improving and, although there is no room for complacency, work in the great majority of primary schools is generally sound.

4.27 Secondary schools are altogether a much greater cause for concern. Several, particularly some of the former grammar schools, but also some long-established comprehensives have high expectations of pupils and are not satisfied with less than a pupil's best efforts at any level: they consider very carefully the results which their pupils achieve in external examinations in relation to their previous performances, analyse how more progress could be achieved, and identify who performed badly and why - and draw the lessons from such discussions. There are however many classes and schools where expectations are too low and where, despite the efforts of the Authority's inspectorate, teachers assume that mixed ability classes should be taught at a pace which is right for the pupil of slightly below average ability. These schools frequently blame their pupils' backgrounds for the poor results: this is largely unjustifiable. The fault lies in low teacher expectation, perhaps arising from unfamiliarity with the capabilities of abler children, and from lack of pace, interest and variety in the work in class. Frequently too in these schools the work which the least able pupils undertake, often in remedial classes, is undifferentiated; when they go to outside units for support they also often experience unsuitable class teaching.

4.28 Sixth form A-level work generally shows the range of features described above, but the summer schools for sixth formers offer considerable enrichment


[page 17]

to participants. The Authority's other initiatives to make provision for able pupils in the sixth form are all imaginative. However, there are several aspects of consortium teaching arrangements which need consideration.

4.29 It is noticeable that some schools have put much effort into devising courses attractive to the one-year sixth former who has no academic pretensions. Perhaps significantly several of these have involved cooperation with colleges of further education and other institutions.

4.30 While there are considerable amounts of outstanding work in a few secondary schools and work of good quality in some individual departments in others, schools generally need to examine their own performance at all levels much more critically than many appear' willing to do. As a result of great efforts by many teachers, inspectors and those involved in supporting schools in a variety of ways, schools have achieved much through pastoral provision to make them better places to work in; this should be a suitable basis for future improvements in pupils' learning.

4.31 Special education in ILEA provides many facilities for out-district pupils and the special schools generally make a fair attempt to tailor individual programmes of pupils to their particular needs. A few schools are good; some, particularly among day schools for the maladjusted, are very poor. But generally the levels of the pupils' achievements are similar to those elsewhere in the country.

d. Further and higher education

4.32 The senior officers in County Hall maintain direct contact with the senior staff of the institutions of further and higher education; as a consequence of this contact, the Authority's officers have an impressively detailed knowledge of individual establishments and keep in close touch with developments within them. Educational provision for the Authority's area is viewed as a whole and course developments are set within an overall pattern of provision which' avoids wasteful competition and unnecessary duplication between colleges.


[page 18]

4.33 The general standard of provision and the overall quality of work in the colleges of further and higher education are satisfactory. The accommodation available varies from the good to the barely adequate and is mostly fully utilised; indeed many colleges have accommodation pressures which are still being tackled, both by a closer examination of class and group sizes and also by consideration of additional premises which may be released from former educational use by demographic and other changes. As is the case more generally, the quality of the education offered depends to a great extent on the calibre and expertise of individual members of staff, but the average standard in the ILEA colleges is improved by the range of available support services as well as by the generally good standard of equipment and the mutual exchange of views and experience more readily organised within a large single authority.

4.34 A significant development in recent years has been the growth in the range and standard of provision of further education for lower-achieving school leavers. Considerable resources have been made available for this work in terms of staff appointments and physical resources of accommodation and equipment, with a concurrent effort in curriculum development for these young people. This work has proved a sound base for courses provided within the Manpower Services Commission's Youth Opportunities Programme and for other responses to the needs of young people faced with difficulties in obtaining employment. Much sound and imaginative work of this type is being carried out in ILEA colleges, reflecting the concern of the Authority and its officers and the commitment of many of the staff involved.

4.35 More recently, a deliberate policy has been adopted to increase efforts to obtain closer collaboration and co-operation between colleges of further and higher education and their neighbouring schools. This policy is beginning to bear fruit in jointly planned courses, although there is still much progress to be made in joint enterprises of this type.

4.36 Most of the courses of vocational further education are provided for those already in employment and in response to the needs and demands of employing organisations within the Authority's area and, in some cases, beyond. Over recent years the steady departure of manufacturing industry from the inner London area and a relative growth in servicing and clerical-type


[page 19]

activities have been reflected in the demands made on the colleges of further education, as well as in the type of employment opportunities available within the area. In general the colleges have adapted well to these changes and appropriate resources have been made available. Over the same period the colleges have had to adapt to other changes, such as the introduction of periods of integrated full-time education and training under the auspices of some of the Industrial Training Boards, and the introduction of revised curricula and student assessment mechanisms by the Technician and Business Education Councils. It is to, the credit of the colleges and their staffs, as well as the Authority, that in most cases the colleges have coped well with these changes and have avoided severe problems.

4.37 Other facets of the further and higher education service include the five polytechnics, the two colleges concerned with teacher training, the four colleges of art, the nine specialist colleges, the adult education service and the youth service; in total a volume and range of provision unmatched elsewhere.

4.38 Separate sections of this report consider each of these facets in broad terms, but as a generalisation the total further and higher education service is more than adequately resourced, well staffed and well utilised. Overall it makes a satisfactory educational provision for the needs of a large and varied population.

4.39 As in other Authorities, further and higher education establishments of ILEA have had to adapt to continuing change in the nature and distribution of student needs and demands, in the needs of industry and commerce, in resources available and in validation and qualification mechanisms. Their modifications have mostly been successful; a response to which the Authority's support has made a significant contribution. Nevertheless, problems remain and imbalances persist which may be more difficult to solve in a period of contracting resources possibly coupled with reducing demand in some areas of provision.


[page 20]

e. In-service work

4.40 Teachers receive considerable support from in-service work of all kinds - both to further their own interests and careers, and to improve their work in the classroom. Much of this work, in teachers' centres, in school, in the Authority's establishments of further and higher education and elsewhere is of a good standard. It tries particularly to deal with "burning issues" such as the amalgamation of junior and infant schools, the problems of mixed ability teaching and new curriculum developments. It does not at present seem to ensure that teachers, particularly in secondary schools, know the standards of work of which pupils are capable and has not been completely successful in changing teaching styles. Forms of in-service work could also be devised to help heads of departments in schools to manage their resources and departments more effectively than many at present do.

4.41 The Authority's arrangements for the induction of new entrants to the . teaching profession are good, although heads of department in schools do not always give new teachers the necessary support.

f. Ethnic minorities and English as a second language

4.42 The ILEA was the first authority to issue a policy document outlining its aims in relation to multi-ethnic education, and recognising that this was an issue for all educational institutions within the Authority. The work of the inspectorate for multi-ethnic education in raising their colleagues' and the teachers' awareness of the problems and the opportunities of a multicultural society is of considerable importance locally and nationally. With the help of advisory teachers and curriculum project leaders they are developing suitable materials for use in schools. The Authority's provision of teams to work on multi-cultural aspects of the curriculum is very valuable. Much of the work done has been of good quality and has had an influence beyond the ILEA. The Authority also has an enlightened policy of affording support to the pupils' mother tongue where possible. Although its work is not always well integrated with that of the schools, the Authority's unified language service offers much assistance to schools and has developed some helpful teaching approaches.


[page 21]

g. The inspectorate

4.43 Potentially the inspectorate and their colleagues the advisory teachers are a great force for good in the system. Since the William Tyndale affair in the mid 1970's they have undoubtedly achieved much by monitoring primary and nursery schools more closely, helping schools to develop curriculum guidelines and promulgating their own. The Authority's expansion of both the inspectorate and the advisory teacher service was necessary and appears to be paying dividends.

4.44 The special education inspectorate has until recently not had an overview of all special schools in ILEA; its lack of contact with work in normal schools has also been a weakness, but its increased numbers and a new administrative structure in County Hall could well improve matters.

4.45 In secondary schools much depends on the strength of the individual subject teams and, as in all sectors, on the amount of time the inspectorate can spend in classrooms monitoring the standard of work. The teams all spend much time on administrative tasks as well as on observing probationers and running courses at teachers' centres. The inspectorate has persuaded schools to evaluate their own performances and is shortly to start a series of quinquennial reviews of secondary schools to help them to reach objective judgements of their own performance. The concentration of some subject teams on work in years 1 to 3, though not to the exclusion of all else, is perhaps reasonable if it is based on a thorough knowledge of work at all levels in the classroom. But a frequent pre-occupation with mixed ability teaching has not always helped teachers to raise their sights and to become aware of the potential of their abler pupils. Some teams, however, have been active in all spheres and have encouraged the production of work of good standard from the weakest first year pupil to the brightest A-level candidate.

4.46 In the further and higher education sector, inspectors are closely involved with the work of colleges both in their specialist discipline and more generally, including matters related to the curriculum, the acquisition and use of equipment, staffing and resource allocation. Similar cover is provided for adult education and the youth and community field. The service as a whole gains from their work.


[page 22]

4.47 The growth of co-operation between primary and secondary phase inspectors particularly in curriculum development, is welcome; the appointment of a specialist inspector from the further and higher education sector to liaise with the school inspectorate in each division is timely and in line with policy intentions. The ILEA inspectorate's encouragement of educational debate is also calculated to heighten awareness of basic curricular issues. Their internal papers on school size, possible schools curricula and proposals for new course structures in further education are good working tools for elected members and the officers in County Hall.

h. General

4.48 In summary, the Authority has made a great deal of effort to improve provision of material and human resources in the last five years; there are no obvious gaps in its provision in any sector. There are, however, several respects in which the effectiveness of that provision could be improved.

II THE EVIDENCE

(Support services are a major part of the Authority's provision. Most of them are available to all phases of schooling and, in some cases, to institutions of further and higher education. For this reason they are for the most part not considered within the sections on the individual areas of education (sections 5-16a and section 19) but separately, by service, in sections 16b-18 and section 20.)

5. NURSERY EDUCATION

5.1 The Authority has a policy of continually expanding its nursery provision. There are 45 nursery schools and 408 nursery classes attached to primary schools; 31 additional classes and one school are due to open in 1980/81. Approximately one third of the provision is full-time, one third part-time, and one third a mixture of full- and part-time. Nursery provision is for children from three to five years of age. Some nursery schools admit a proportion of the children before their third birthday, generally as a result of referrals from the social services. The official age of entry to infant


[page 23]

school is the beginning of the term after the fifth birthday; this is adhered to for most nursery schools and classes. Otherwise the age of entry is commonly at the beginning of the term in which children become five. At present 30% of three year olds and 78% of four year olds receive some nursery education, including 11% and 60% respectively in full-time education. The authority aims eventually to make provision for 60% of three year olds and 80% of four year olds.

Accommodation, resources and equipment

5.2 The standard of accommodation varies considerably, with some of good quality in new premises or in adaptations of primary school areas left vacant as rolls drop. Some long-established provision is in poor accommodation, but money is not available for refurbishing; in some cases schools and parents have co-operated to improve premises. As in other phases of education in Inner London, there is often a shortage of outdoor space. In some instances moreover access from the playroom to the playground has not been conveniently arranged.

5.3 The ILEA has recently revised its building requirements and has asked the Department of Education and Science to ease its regulations with the aim of reducing the cost of converting vacant primary school classrooms to nursery use. Where possible, new nursery classes will share sanitary provision with the infant school; the Authority will fence in outside play space only if this is essential on the grounds of safety; detached nursery units will not include utility rooms; only one sink will be provided; children will dine elsewhere if providing a meal in the playroom would entail additional cost. This lowering of building standards will reduce conversion costs but it could entail additional supervision costs.

5.4 The range of equipment and resources is impressive, with plenty of books and materials. Those shortages which are apparent usually result from the chosen priorities or management style of an individual head, rather than from any shortage of money (Appendix 6, paragraph A6.9 lists capitation arrangements). Premises and equipment are usually well cared for.


[page 24]

Curriculum

5.5 All nursery schools and units provide social education; with very few exceptions they also provide a reasonable range of .activities which lay the foundation for work in the basic skills on entry to the infant school. However, the oldest children do not always have sufficiently challenging experiences to foster appropriate cognitive development of a general kind.

5.6 In nearly all establishments teachers meet regularly to discuss and plan the curriculum and programme, on daily, weekly and termly bases. The planning is most worthwhile when it is based on the observation of the children's needs. Teachers increasingly realise the importance of explaining to parents what their children do in the nursery, and why. A number arrange for parents to spend time In the nursery observing the children and discuss what they have seen with the nursery staff.

Staffing

5.7 Generally the Authority aims to maintain a child-adult ratio of at least 10:1 in nursery schools and 12.5:1 in nursery classes. As nursery provision expands the Authority is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit qualified teachers. There is frequently a lack of suitable applicants for vacant heads' and deputy heads' posts.

5.8 A notable recent development has been the appointment, on salary scale 2 or 3, of five nursery liaison teachers; of these four are in division 9 and one in division 1. Another two are shortly to be appointed. They are doing much to forge home/school links and to initiate co-operation with other agencies concerned with the under-fives.

Work

5.9 In about a third of the establishments seen very mundane work results in children being little more than minded or occupied. In these cases teachers are reluctant to allow children to begin the day with play indoors and outdoors, teachers intervene too little in the play activities and outdoor materials are often inappropriate; in these establishments story groups are


[page 25]

also often too large. In the remaining two thirds, however, the daily programme gives children lively, worthwhile experiences to foster all-round development. These establishments use a wide range of materials, develop appropriate themes or interests and make good use of educational visits, which they plan and follow up carefully.

5.10 Relationships are generally good and staff are caring. Assessment and record keeping are particularly concerned with language development. A welcome trend is the close study of four or more children, over a short period, by all the staff so that a detailed profile is built up of each child; all the children are included at least once in the course of the year. The information gained is used in completing the official card which accompanies the child on transfer to infant school.

Liaison and continuity

5.11 A central liaison working party brings together the ILEA nursery inspectors, a divisional officer, a senior administrator and a senior representative of the inner London boroughs. It has produced a document on co-operation between services for the under-fives which includes criteria for setting up extended day provision; this has been circulated to schools and social service departments. An extended day provision is in operation or planned in all divisions except division 6. The availability of and demand for this provision vary. Day nursery children in many areas attend a nearby nursery class or school for part of the day.

5.12 There are two nursery centres organised jointly by voluntary concerns supported by the social services departments and the ILEA: two more are proposed. Escalating costs and the different priorities of the two services are causing some problems, and there appears to be some likelihood of the teachers' professional contribution being undervalued. The educational programmes in these centres will need careful monitoring.

5.13 The divisional liaison committees/panels discuss co-operation; in the one case where these do not exist an inspector convenes joint meetings for specific purposes. Some nursery heads are being!involved in committees or in more informal inter-disciplinary groups which meet to discuss placement of


[page 26]

children in the various types of establishment in a particular locality. The Authority makes every effort to strengthen home visiting and has special schemes in operation in Deptford and elsewhere. One specific feature of this attitude is the encouragement of mother and toddler clubs as space becomes available on school premises, although so far there are only a few. The Authority encourages nursery schools to foster links with adult education institutes by providing tutors for classes for mothers to learn English, or for activities such as keep-fit classes and dress-making.

6. PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Accommodation

6.1 Up to the mid-1970's inner London primary schools were often overcrowded. As rolls have fallen the Authority has taken comparatively few places out of use but has instead chosen to allow schools to improve their facilities: this has enabled many schools to .provide separate areas for central libraries, reading workshops, remedial rooms, science and craft areas, musical activities etc, as well as gaining storage space. Several have also improved, or provided for the first time, staffrooms and dining areas. A few schools have made space available for parent groups or, occasionally, for mother and toddler groups. They have increasingly found it unnecessary to share classrooms with other users of school premises such as youth clubs, play centres and adult education institutes. In many respects the picture in the county schools is one of improvement.

6.2 Overcrowding and lack of specialist teaching areas, however, continue in several of the voluntary schools: in many cases their rolls are falling more slowly than in the neighbouring county schools and some are oversubscribed, though many are in fact very small.

6.3 Perhaps inevitably there are both county and voluntary schools which are not using the extra space wisely; some give an impression of persistent overcrowding, because of a reluctance to dispose of superfluous furniture. In others rolls have fallen so quickly that schools now have too few teachers to use specialist areas in a reasonably economical manner. There are instances of two schools with rolls of under 50 existing side by side, with neither


[page 27]

closing because proposals for closure or amalgamation have not met with approval. There are thus clear indications that, given encouragement, the Authority or the diocesan authorities could well accelerate their closure programmes without any danger of being unprepared for possible future upturns in school rolls.

6.4 The buildings themselves usually appear to be in a sound state, although some of the older premises have the majority of the lavatories outside; in some schools children do not have access to hot water. A few schools are in inappropriate buildings as a result of inadequate remodelling. But the most common deficiency, as in all other phases of education in inner London, is shortage of outside space.

6.5 Maintenance is generally of a satisfactory standard (except in a few voluntary schools) although frequent delay in carrying out minor repairs seems to be a considerable irritant to schools. Necessary redecoration and repointing work sometimes disrupt the daily work of the schools. Over the years the Authority has built up good relations with generations of caretakers and the standard of cleaning and caretaking is generally high.

Equipment and resources

6.6 Through capitation and the "alternative use of resources" scheme schools have more money available than in other authorities; for instance, a school of about 200 pupils roughly halfway up the priority index (see Appendix 6) has £12000 to spend in 1980/81. The supply of equipment and resources is generous; apart from their capitation and other allowances, schools are charged preferential prices on major items of equipment such as video-cassette recorders and colour television sets if the Authority decides to introduce them into all its schools. Books, materials and stationery are in good supply. Sometimes a lack of practical materials for science and mathematics is evident and play materials are not always maintained in good condition: this is invariably due to under-development of these particular areas of the curriculum rather than to any shortage of funding. Some schools have outstanding collections of resources of all kinds, well catalogued and well used. In others, the generous resourcing does not automatically lead to good,use in the classroom. All have a good range of reprographic equipment


[page 28]

and many schools have the help of a media resources officer, either shared with another school or from the divisional multi-purpose teachers' centre.

6.7 Central libraries in schools are generally well supplied, though some include too many superficial reference books and too few books of good quality fiction. Several school libraries are not catalogued and sometimes they are not easily accessible, either because of the poor disposition of space in the building or because the library is also used as a teaching space. In some places use of libraries is limited by general classroom dependence on text book or assignment card activities. In the past three or four years some schools have introduced systems to indicate the reading age required for the books and their applicability to particular levels of work. Some schools, but by no means all, ensure that library purchasing is in line with school curriculum developments. On the whole, libraries are attractive and often well-organised, but frequently under-used.

Staffing

6.8 In the early and mid-1970s the rate of teacher turnover was disruptively high: various factors have combined to stabilise staffing to a large extent, including the effects of falling rolls and the drop in the number of promoted posts available. The Authority cushions its schools against the effect of falling rolls by allocating staffing on the previous year's enrolment, but as rolls fall further there will be an increasing need to re-deploy teachers. At present this is not a problem within the individual divisions, but it has been in the past and could shortly become one again.

6.9 Pupil/teacher ratios are usually generous by comparison with the rest of the country: 16.8:1 in county schools and 18.6:1 in voluntary schools, with an overall average of 17.3:1 (see Appendix 5). The range in individual schools is from 23:1 to 11:1. Teaching groups rarely exceed 25 and are sometimes as low as 10-15, but groups of more than 35 are occasionally found in some voluntary schools. Most part-time staff are employed to help with remedial work or music; schools also receive specialist help from peripatetic teachers or teams for specific areas of curriculum development such as mathematics or science, and to help with disruptive pupils, travellers' children or those for whom English is a second language. Primary schools


[page 29]

generally enjoy a good level of ancillary help, including media resources officers and librarians, often financed through the "alternative use of resources" scheme.

6.10 Traditionally, many posts of special responsibility have been allocated for organisational matters such as school trips or audio visual aids. In the past five years posts of special responsibility have increasingly been created for duties concerning language and mathematics; additionally schools are becoming aware of the need for more coordination or leadership by those with expertise in other curricular areas such as science, history and geography. As in other LEAs many of these post-holders are at the moment not greatly affecting the work of colleagues in the relevant subjects; much training is needed to help them exercise their responsibility to the greatest advantage. New heads often find it difficult to redesignate existing posts. It is worth noting that long-standing heads of primary schools have not always had the same chance of the thorough grounding in management training which is now available to those newly appointed.

Curriculum

6.11

In general terms the curriculum in primary schools in ILEA is very similar to that found elsewhere in England, with a heavy emphasis on the basic skills and less thorough work in activities such as science, art and crafts, history, geography and music.

6.12 In response to the Authority's request, in 1977 following publication of the Bullock report 'A Language for Life', most schools have produced their own written statements on language. The Authority has also published clear curriculum guidelines on language, mathematics and drama which many schools are adopting. Planning in other subject areas is sometimes haphazard and few schools possess clearly conceived and expressed schemes of work in social studies, geography, history, environmental studies, science, music, art, craft; work in these subjects frequently lacks purpose and continuity. The Authority will shortly be publishing guidelines for history, geography and social studies but schools need to consider how these general statements should be adapted for local use. A quarter of the schools, however, are already well advanced in their thinking and planning in these areas, often


[page 30]

using Schools Council materials or the ILEA's project on social studies. In these schools, educational visits are carefully integrated with the relevant work and 10-15% of these schools have very good work to show.

6.13 More planning for science is slowly emerging, particularly as the Authority's team of advisory teachers on junior and infant science (JISTT) moves round the divisions: it has already made a considerable impact in divisions 1 and 10 and should eventually strengthen the position of primary school science throughout the Authority. Co-operation with the Area Health Authority results in short programmes of health education being more frequently offered in ILEA schools than are often found elsewhere. Art and craft are too often seen as merely serving other areas of the curriculum and not often enough as important activities in their own right.

6.14 Most schools offer some children some experience of most curricular areas, but by no means all children have easy access to all opportunities. This is partly due to lack of planning and sometimes, as with science, to lack of specific expertise on the staff. Apart from language and mathematics there is comparatively little planning for continuity in schools; with the growth of combined junior and infant schools as the result of amalgamations this is definitely an area which, although it already features in its in-service programme, requires further examination by the Authority.

Organisation

6.15 Pupils enter primary school at the statutory age, although most schools also accept an increasing number of rising-fives. Schools normally group pupils according to the school year of their birth, but falling rolls are gradually forcing a move towards mixed age groupings. A few schools arrange mixed age classes by choice, particularly in infant departments, but this form of organisation is not more favoured in the ILEA than elsewhere.

6.16 In some larger schools mathematics and, occasionally, English are taught in sets in the last two years of primary school. As elsewhere the pattern of teaching basic skills in the morning and allowing pupils to undertake creative activities in the afternoon is widespread in all age groups.


[page 31]

6.17 Also as elsewhere, separate provision for the more able pupil is not very common, but is mainly arranged by a head or a teacher with special responsibility withdrawing pupils for extra work, usually in the basic subjects, but also for activities such as music, map-reading and pottery; some children are also withdrawn for tuition in specific mathematics topics by an advisory mathematics teacher and some schools organise 'club' activities to enrich the school curriculum. For a while summer schools for able children were organised in division 3, but these have been discontinued. In division 7, Saturday morning classes are held at the Horniman Museum.

Pastoral

6.18 ILEA primary schools have become considerably quieter places in the past five years. The fall in rolls, the extra stability of staffing and the support which schools receive from the Authority to tackle specific problems such as disruptive pupils or children with English as a second language have all contributed to this improvement. It is not always clear that the special measures adopted are totally effective: for instance, children returning to class after tuition by teachers from the support teams for disruptive pupils sometimes immediately disrupt classes again; special teams set up in some divisions to follow travellers' children through school do not always succeed in ensuring continuity of attendance.

6.19 Generally, relationships between pupils and teachers .are good and most staff show active concern for the wellbeing of the children: it is not only those who are specifically appointed to do so who visit children's homes to talk with their parents; and many schools, particularly in the more disadvantaged areas, have successfully opened their doors to parents and community in a much more general way which can prove highly supportive of the children's education.

Standard of work

6.20 In the early and mid-1970s there were considerable grounds for dissatisfaction with children's performance in many of the Authority's primary schools. But even during that particularly troubled period there


[page 32]

were many other schools which were quietly and systematically educating children. The general picture is slowly improving but remains very patchy.

6.21 Broadly, the standard of work in ILEA primary schools is very similar to that revealed in the HMI Survey of Primary Education in England: all schools are very concerned to ensure that children acquire the basic skills; often this results in an unnecessarily limited curriculum and therefore limited opportunity for the pupils to extend their experience and skills.

6.22 Many infant classes do not make enough use either of children's work with materials or of their first-hand experience to develop literacy and numeracy, although there are indications that teachers are now using a wider range of books and materials than formerly to encourage reading. Children receive much help if they are having difficulty with work; those who find the tasks in class undemanding generally receive much less attention.

6.23 Similarly, there are many instances of classes in junior schools concentrating so heavily on the basic skills that pupils receive too little encouragement to develop initiative and an enquiring mind. The mixed ability organisation of primary schools and the growth of mixed aged classes lead many teachers to give children in their groups 'individualised' work in some areas of the curriculum. This frequently takes the form of work cards which cover a variety of tasks but which are undifferentiated in standard. This widespread style of work frequently ignores the library as a resource and as a necessary adjunct to learning. Because of lack of challenge many children are allowed to proceed at an unduly slow pace. Topic work frequently lacks purpose and depth and is often an exercise in uncritical copying of half-understood texts: many resulting pieces of work are not marked constructively or discussed except in the most cursory fashion. There are also classes where teachers expect all pupils to work at the same pace from the same text books, with little chance to apply their skills to other subjects or activities. As indicated above, schools often have deficient curricula in a variety of respects, leading to gaps in the education and experience of the children.

6.24 Both the individualised and the whole-class approach, when carried to an extreme, as in some cases they are, deprive children of the opportunity to discuss with the teacher or their peers what they are doing; they have for


[page 33]

instance no opportunity to develop their oral skills through drama, class discussion of literature, or exploration of hypotheses arising from scientific experiments. Despite the dullness of some of the work and the limitation of some approaches, children usually work with quiet purpose and attain reasonable standards in the basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics; frequently in these instances their potential is considerably undervalued and teachers demand too little of them in many respects.

6.25 Most schools in ILEA have some work of a good standard at some point in the school; this is not necessarily confined to one or two classes and its incidence rarely has much to do with the characteristics of the catchment area or with any particular form of organisation. In these cases teachers have clearly defined aims, know each pupil's capabilities and offer stimulating work. In return for making high demands they frequently receive the best work of which pupils are capable. In these classes, whatever the subject, pupils have the opportunity to discuss their work and t'o initiate' many of their own tasks; but their work is carefully observed and recorded by the teacher. These classes make good use of the environment and exploit its potential for work in social studies and science as well as English and mathematics both on site and on educational trips: they also make good use of facilities such as the museum service to enliven their approach.

Records and liaison

6.26 Record keeping in primary schools ranges from the sketchy to the intricate, but generally it deals reasonably with pupils' social progress and home circumstances. On the academic side it is rather more limited, featuring progress in language and mathematics, but rarely including comment on progress in other elements of the curriculum. Most schools enter the results of any standardised test which the children take but a few even omit pupils' scores in the ILEA reading test.

6.27 Liaison between secondary and primary schools is also patchy and liaison meetings are frequently confined to discussion of pupils' social behaviour and of schools' admission policies. Where one secondary school might receive pupils from 50-60 primary schools curricular liaison is indeed very difficult to arrange even if the main entry comes from only six to eight


[page 34]

schools. Nonetheless it is surprising that not all secondary schools appear to be aware of the curriculum guidelines on language and mathematics referred to in paragraph 6.12. But some schools are also making genuine and promising attempts to match curricula, often on the basis of these guidelines, and to ensure that children do not lose momentum on transfer to secondary schools. This sometimes takes the shape of formal linking between one secondary school and three or four primary schools, to whose pupils the secondary school gives preference in admission procedures.

7. SECONDARY SCHOOLS

7.1 Secondary education in inner London has been increasingly organised on the comprehensive principle since 1946. Up to 1977, when the last 37 grammar schools (including 32 voluntary) accepted their first comprehensive intakes, it remained partly selective. The 185 secondary schools all take pupils aged 11-18. By a banding arrangement based on the results of verbal reasoning tests at the age of ten, the Authority seeks to ensure that each secondary school receives an equal proportion of pupils from the various ability bands. Arrangements for pupils in post-compulsory schooling are discussed in section 8.

Accommodation

7.2 County secondary school buildings are usually of a good standard. Many date only from the 1960's and 1970's, although some of these present more problems of maintenance than do older premises. Five years ago some schools were very crowded. Because of falling rolls most schools are now able to plan their curricula without feeling greatly constrained by lack of general classroom space, although in many instances schools' utilisation of the space leaves much to be desired. Five years ago, a shortage of laboratory space also affected both the amount of science which schools could offer and their method of teaching it. Additional building and the effects of demography have largely cured this deficiency, but the siting of laboratories continues to cause problems in some schools. Recent building programmes have given many schools separate blocks to accommodate and teach their sixth formers; they have also generally improved library provision to a satisfactory state except where schools occupy more than one site.


[page 35]

7.3 Falling rolls are at present enabling the Authority to close some of its most cramped and least efficient premises. But because of earlier and current amalgamations many schools occupy more than one site and will continue to do so for several years. This can adversely affect the efficiency with which schools operate and deploy teaching staff and other resources. Many schools have few outdoor games facilities on site and take pupils by bus to sports grounds 30-40 minutes away from the main school. It is, however, not always clear that schools are making make full use of their own facilities or others nearby. Travelling on this scale inevitably reduces the amount of time which is available for the rest of the school curriculum.

7.4 Accommodation in the voluntary schools ranges from the new and purpose-built to old adapted buildings; some have grave deficiencies which falling rolls will not obviate (eg poor laboratory provision) although others have some of the best laboratory provision in the area. Some of the 32 voluntary schools which had their first intake of the full range of ability in 1977 are finding that the need to provide a broader curriculum than previously is also putting pressure on their accommodation, despite the fact that the Authority provided certain additional specialist facilities. Some voluntary schools are taking the opportunity to move in to more spacious modern accommodation as it is vacated by county schools on amalgamation or closure.

7.5 Usually the Authority carries out major repairs promptly, but redecoration is overdue in a few places. Vandalism is a problem for some schools, the damage often being said to be caused by outsiders. Frequent delays in repairing this sort of damage and carrying out other minor repairs can be particularly irritating for schools; they can often cause timetabling or administrative problems. Some heads have therefore suggested that the "alternative use of resources" scheme should be extended to make schools responsible for minor repairs resulting from inadequate supervision by teachers during the school day. At present repairs are not a charge on schools' finances.

7.6 Multiple use of buildings, while commendable in itself, sometimes leads to problems, if the main user finds his use of accommodation constrained by the activities of 'sub-tenants'. Some recent full inspections


[page 36]

have revealed poor sanitary arrangements; some toilets are locked or inadequate. Several schools have a problem with graffiti. Because of difficulties in recruiting suitable staff there are unfortunately several secondary schools which are not properly cleaned; there are also of course others which are kept impeccably by caretakers who in many cases have been with the Authority for many years.

Resources

7.7 Through the capitation and "alternative use of resources" arrangements (Appendix 6) ILEA secondary schools have more money to spend than those in other LEAs: a school of 900 pupils may have about £65,000 at its disposal and several schools have £100,000 a year to spend by virtue of the numbers on roll and their position on the priority index. When schools are nearing closure anomalies may arise because initial financial (and staffing) calculations are based on the previous year's enrolment. For instance, for the financial year 1980/81 a school which is due to close in summer 1981 and which knew in April 1980 that it would have about 70 pupils on roll in September was automatically allocated £7,200 capitation and a further £11,000 through the "alternative use of resources" scheme: these allocations have since been reduced.

7.8 It should therefore be very rare at any level in ILEA schools to find serious shortages of text books, stationery, teaching materials, audio-visual aids, or reprographic services. Heads' practices for allocating funds to departments and activities vary: some apply a formula which relates to the number of pupil periods for which each subject is studied; others operate on an ad hoc basis. Despite the generous financing, however, shortages do exist: for instance a shortage of remedial books and materials in a school categorised as serving an area of social priority; departments without a stand for their film projector, a lack of mathematics demonstration materials; a complete annexe which was inadequately equipped; and libraries lacking some basic books, particularly where schools occupy more than one site. These shortages frequently contrast with lavish over-provision and waste in other parts of a school. In many of these cases departments have bought unsuitable books or equipment and have put them in the cupboard unused; in other parts of


[page 37]

the country they would probably have to live with at least some of them. There are clear instances of inefficient management of finances in several schools.

7.9 Secondary schools each have a full time media resources officer whose functions include helping schools to use their equipment well, although some departments make little use of their services except for duplicating worksheets or ordering video-cassettes. This kind of support is rare in other Authorities and, where schools use them properly, the services of the media resources officers have helped teachers to improve presentation of their work, as well as producing information booklets for the school and raising the effectiveness and frequency of use of audio-visual aids. Nonetheless, it is common to find under-use or neglect of existing resources and many schools have expensive equipment which is unused for long periods; sometimes they offer this for sale through the pages of "Contact". It is not always clear why so much "nearly new" or "hardly used" equipment was bought in the first place.

7.10 Libraries are a significant feature of the ILEA's provision and they were the first Authority in the country to give secondary schools fully qualified professional librarians. Libraries are usually attractively accommodated and most have a good stock, although several have gaps in their provision particularly where schools are on split sites (see paragraph 7.8). Any deficiencies result from managerial decisions, not lack of money. Use of these valuable resources varies. In some schools all children are taught systematically how to use the library; its stock to a large extent reflects the needs of the school's curriculum; teachers can refer children confidently to the library knowing that it will be open and welcoming; sixth formers and others are helped to acquire good study habits. Many libraries have good provision for multi-racial education. In other schools, heads do not invite the school librarian to head of department meetings; some heads of department do not suggest titles for the library; its use is not integrated into their thinking and the library itself is often shut. In general the pattern is of good and sometimes excellent availability of support, with probably only half the schools making good use of it.


[page 38]

Staffing

7.11 The Authority's schools have generous pupil/teacher ratios but the effects of teacher shortages in the early and mid-1970s are still evident in the curricula of many schools. The Authority calculates the staffing of schools on a pupil/teacher ratio of 17:1 (including the head) and adds extra staffing according to an index of need. The resulting ratios range from 11.3:1 to 17.3:1 except for schools which are closing or amalgamating, for which the ratio is around 8.8:1; (Appendix 5 gives details of pupil/teacher ratios by division for county and voluntary schools). Staffing is based on the previous year's roll and schools therefore have some chance to adjust their curricula as rolls fall. Divisional offices also have additional teaching staff available for allocation to schools to meet particular local needs as they arise: thus, as staff find new jobs and are not replaced full-time, a school which is nearing closure may not be able to honour its curricular commitments to existing pupils without the divisional office's help. These staffing policies can lead to excessive provision if rolls are dropping rapidly, but the principles are sound and constitute a good model for other authorities. Paragraph 8.14 outlines the qualifications of staff.

7.12 When the last batch of grammar schools becoming comprehensive had their first intake of the full range of ability, the Authority appointed an experienced head to advise the schools on problems of curriculum and organisation; the Authority also allocated them additional staffing in fields of which they had little or no experience, eg remedial work. It seems unfortunate that the Authority has a policy of withdrawing the additional staffing for secondary reorganisation after three years, when the schools are about to meet their first problems with option groups containing pupils of a very wide range of ability preparing for different examinations and two years before their new intake reaches the sixth form. Several schools are cooperating fully with other institutions, particularly at sixth form level, but many have still not come to terms with the fact that in two years' time they will not be able to be self-sufficient at this level. The Authority could consider making adjustments on the index of need to tide these schools over the next four years.


[page 39]

7.13 Apart from the exceptional circumstances of closure, part-time staff are not permitted to account for more than six per cent of a school's staffing. By using their "alternative use of resources" allocations to "buy" additional staff, however, some schools manage to increase the part-time percentage significantly; while obviously giving some extra flexibility, this can also in some respects constrain the organisation of their curriculum. One feature of staffing in inner London is the comparatively low proportion of time teachers spend in contact with their classes: 0.75 of the teaching week against a national average of 0.78 (30 periods a week instead of 31/32 out of 40) and cases exist in ILEA schools of staff teaching on average 0.65 or 0.66 of the school week (26 periods a week out of 40). Given that many classes are very small, particularly in extraction groups in years 1-3, in option groups in years 4 and 5, and in A-level groups, it appears that there is considerable room for improved efficiency in the deployment of staff within the Authority's schools. In the past, the Authority has not had details of the curriculum in all its secondary schools or of how staff are deployed, as this information has been provided only on a voluntary basis. From September 1980, however, each school will make an annual return. (See section 8 for measures to improve the efficiency of staffing in school sixth forms).

Curriculum and organisation

7.14 The typical shape of the curriculum in ILEA secondary schools is similar to that commonly found elsewhere in England: religious education, English, mathematics, science, a foreign language, some form of social studies, physical education, art, craft, music for all pupils in Years 1-3, sometimes with the chance to take a second foreign language in Year 2 or 3 and perhaps separate sciences in Year 3. Remedial work for those with special needs is normally provided by extracting pupils from classes. In years 4 and 5 most schools require all pupils to take a limited number of subjects as a common core and then to choose additional optional subjects, some of which may involve part-time attendance at a college of further education for linked courses.


[page 40]

7.15 Within this general pattern there is a wide diversity which offers examples of virtually all forms of curricular organisation found elsewhere in 11-18 schools. The Authority's inspectorate has recently published its own view of the curriculum from 5-16 which advocates the provision of a greater degree of common experience for pupils in years 4 and 5. Increasingly schools are examining ways of achieving a balanced curriculum for all pupils.

7.16 The most frequent shortcomings in curricular provision for individual children are precisely those noted in other parts of the country and they have much to do with national teacher shortages: not all children have access to design and technology and/or a foreign language in years 1-3. In some schools up to 30 per cent of the pupils take no science in years 4 and 5; the legal requirement to provide religious education is sometimes not met. However, some secondary schools extend the school day to accommodate after school those subjects and activities they are otherwise unable to offer eg at Henry Compton School where provision is funded by the ILEA youth service and includes games training, instrumental ensembles, art and craft work, additional work for the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) or the General Certificate of Education (GCE) and homework preparation, or at Quinton Kynaston school where the area adult education institute provides teaching of German and Latin.

Pastoral care

7.17 Most schools have a clearly understood formal organisation for looking after the social well-being and academic progress of pupils. It is usually based either on the year group, when form tutors and year heads take responsibility for groups as they pass through the school, or on the house system in which each house contains the full age-range of pupils: in both systems and in most ILEA secondary schools it is possible to say that all pupils are known reasonably well by a teacher who has specific responsibility for them.

7.18 In the mid 1970's some schools were having considerable trouble with discipline: premises were often crowded and in many cases schools had not adapted to the rapid change in the composition of their communities. In some areas the schools therefore had to give their main attention to establishing


[page 41]

control and inevitably work suffered in many instances; it appeared to make very little difference at that stage whether schools adopted an authoritarian or a liberal approach.

7.19 In the last four or five years, however. schools have generally become more disciplined communities partly as a result of their own efforts, but largely thanks to the Authority's willingness to allocate funds towards meeting some of the social problems, to the greater stability in staffing and to the fall in school rolls. Many schools now have support units on site to handle disruptive pupils; many also share access to units off-site. It is noticeable that the artificial distinction which many schools used to draw between the academic and pastoral sides of education is much less common; most schools still have separate pastoral and academic hierarchies. but they now tend to reinforce each other's work rather than going their separate ways as formerly: Henry Compton and Stockwell Manor Schools both instance this improvement.

Standards of work: years 1-3

7.20 Authority allocation procedures are designed to ensure that each school receives a balanced entry. Schools often receive helpful records from primary schools, particularly when link arrangements exist (see paragraphs 6.26 and 6.27); from pupils' scores in the Authority's tests of English, mathematics and verbal reasoning, schools know the approximate abilities of the pupils on entry. By no means all schools take note of the transfer records. Most schools teach their new entrants in mixed ability groups; there are sound educational and social reasons for starting this way, particularly in "new" subjects such as French. But there are also considerable dangers when approaches cannot be found which are suitable for all children, especially when this form of organisation is retained for all subjects beyond the end of year 1. After an initial period of observing the pupils and allowing them to settle in to their new school, an increasing number of individual schools, departments and teachers seek ways of enabling children to work to the best of their ability - usually at the end of the first year; they either vary their approaches within the mixed ability group and provide a range of differentiated tasks and opportunities or they redistribute the pupils into ability sets for some subjects, such as mathematics


[page 42]

and French. Setting is in itself no guarantee of more suitable work for all but it often provides a framework by limiting the range of work which has to be handled in any group. The retention of mixed ability grouping up to the end of year 2 or 3 for all or the great majority of subjects is not uncommon in ILEA schools and is most often accompanied by a continuation of undifferentiated teaching; this frequently occurs at a level barely suitable for the middle of the ability range in the group, leaving the least able unheeded and the most able unchallenged.

7.21 The ILEA inspectorate and teachers have given much time to devising materials for use with the pupils in years 1-3: "Insight" materials, imaginatively used, can give a sound preparation for later work in science while allowing children to progress at their individual rates; "World History", an initiative arising from the changing cultural background of Londoners, is a most promising course. Both of these courses are also of significance outside the ILEA area. "SMILE" enables slow learners in mathematics to carry out individual assignments using a series of workcards and several other authorities have carried out similar work in the general bid to raise standards in mathematics. "Eclair" was originally written on the assumption that all French in years 1-3 would be taught in mixed ability groups; it tends to concentrate on activities for the below average pupil, involving too little use of the French language, and needs a great deal of supplementing from other sources if able pupils are to make reasonable progress: examples exist of schools taking less than a year to complete the assignments which "Eclair" provides for two years and then moving on to other material.

7.22 There are instances of successful practice in all subjects and areas of activity, but modern languages are a source of considerable worry with so little of the foreign language being used in many classrooms and with many departments reluctant to supplement "Eclair". Design and technology still suffer from past and present teacher shortages. Science seems generally to be soundly based though suffering from earlier and current difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified staff, and mathematics is the subject of a special, and well-conceived ILEA drive for improvement involving additional specialist help on a pilot basis in two divisions.


[page 43]

7.23 In a few schools the able children do well, but in many schools the pace of work is too slow and the level of teacher expectation too low after about the first six months of year 1, irrespective of the organisational pattern adopted by the school in years 1-3. The consequence of this is that many enter year 4 unprepared to face O-level or CSE with any justifiable confidence at the end of a further two years in school.

Standards of work: years 4 and 5

7.24 In years 4 and 5 the ILEA system is still to some extent selective as their first (1977) intake of the full ability range has not yet reached year 4 in the 26 former voluntary grammar schools. Nationally, grammar schools have a higher proportion of graduate staff than other secondary schools, including comprehensives admitting the full range of ability; HMI has the impression that the former grammar schools in ILEA still conform to this pattern.

7.25 The extent of the common core of subjects which schools require all their pupils to take varies from 40% to 80%; it usually includes English, mathematics and physical education, sometimes science (which is often restricted to particular bands of ability), occasionally some element from the humanities, and rarely a foreign language. RE is frequently omitted. The range of optional subjects from which pupils choose the remaining 20 to 60% needed to complete their curricula is often very broad and the timetabling ingenious, especially where teachers of shortage subjects have to meet several commitments; even where schools have taught pupils in broad ability bands in years 1 to 3, in order to try to meet individual needs they sometimes make the whole range of options theoretically available to all pupils in year 4. Large departments (mainly those in the "core", but often also humanities) are able to accommodate this wide range of abilities by organising their classes according to examination target; too often, however, option groups contain pupils of a very wide range of ability preparing for different examinations, mainly O-level or CSE, or none. Similar cases can be quoted from elsewhere in the country, but that does not make them more acceptable if alternative ways exist of forming more homogeneous groups; certainly in many subjects mixed-target option groups make the teacher's classroom job much harder than it needs to be and thus reduce some pupils' chances of success.


[page 44]

7.26 In years 4 and 5 the pace does not always accelerate beyond that noted in years 1-3. Again, there are examples of good and sometimes outstanding work at all levels: this work is at an appropriate level for each pupil, well managed and prepared according to a clear departmental scheme of work or an individual aim set by the teacher; teachers are well aware of the most suitable methods, rooms are interesting, pupils have the chance to be involved and to demonstrate their comprehension or to query assertions; writing is of a high standard, encouragingly but firmly marked.

7.27 However, roughly two-thirds of the classes observed do not show any urgency of approach and the work does not appear to fit in to a logical scheme of work containing progression towards a clear goal. There is much dull repetition together with mindless copying of notes and work often lacks obvious purpose. Where children are rude or lethargic, it may well be a consequence in these classes of the work they are being offered. It is evident that many teachers underrate the capacities of pupils whatever their level of ability.

7.28 The provisional results of the DES 10% survey of school leavers in the school year 1978/79 show the following performance by pupils in ILEA schools:

1 or more A-level passes10.3% (the national figure was 12.6%)
No A-level pass but 5 or more higher grade O-levels or CSE4.9% (9.1%)
1-4 higher grade O-levels or CSE24.5% (27.8%)
No higher grade a-levels or CSE, but one or more lower grade36.1% (36.7%)
No graded result24.2% (13.8%)


[page 45]

These results, combined with the description of much of the work, make it clear that many pupils in ILEA secondary schools are under-achieving. Too few schools are prepared to use their examination results as a management tool in the way outlined in paragraph 8.27.

7.29 Many children from the ethnic minorities are particularly prone to underachieve. Many are ambitious and capable and the situation appears to be improving slowly, though unfortunately too many schools are content if these pupils achieve any grade in CSE. Schools do not often look separately at the statistics relevant to these pupils' achievements, and too frequently teachers assume that these pupils need an extra year to prepare for public examinations in all subjects.

Falling rolls in secondary schools

7.30 In some divisions the secondary school roll in 1986 will be 45-50% below that in 1976. In 1977, the Authority's development sub-committee discussed the effects of demographic change on school rolls and adopted a standard policy for dealing with falling rolls throughout the Authority. It is possible to argue that the Authority should have acted sooner. As early as 1972, the Authority published 'Planning for 1980' to draw attention to the issues; professional associations and the public appear to have been reluctant to discuss it. National awareness was no greater.

7.31 The Education Officer makes available for public discussion as much statistical information as possible. This includes recent and current populations; projections of school population in the light of births and current migration trends; the capacity and actual and projected rolls of existing schools, separately for the sixth form and for the rest of the school. Published documents also set out a range of theoretical possibilities for accommodating future populations, but these carefully avoid prejudging the likely outcome of the rounds of consultations which ensue before plans are drawn up. Heads, governors, voluntary bodies, teacher associations, community groups and parents are all consulted. The resulting plans, which are submitted for the approval of the Secretary of State, aim to leave 25% surplus capacity; this is in order to improve schools' working


[page 46]

conditions and to leave the room to accommodate any future upturn in birthrate without the necessity of further building or site acquisition. The Authority considers five forms of entry to be the minimum size at which a comprehensive school can offer and staff a reasonable curriculum.

7.31 In three respects the Authority's planning could conceivably make better use of the vast resources at its disposal:

i. it is not always clearly stated that the siting and availability of schools in other divisions can be a significant factor in deciding either which premises should be the main site of any amalgamated school, or indeed whether overall provision in an area is adequate.

ii. policies on secondary reorganisation and provision for the 16-19 age group both assume that secondary reorganisation proposals will take 16-19 provision into account: this is not always seen to be the case, especially when co-operation with institutions of further education is concerned. This might be just one aspect of a more general need in the Authority to consider all schools and further education provision in tandem, which is particularly relevant when deciding on the future use of vacant premises and is only partly met by the register of sites;

iii. the problem of how to rationalise provision in the voluntary sector is to a large degree beyond the Authority's control, but it is clear that substantial over-provision could result if the voluntary schools are not prepared to reduce their provision in line with that in county schools: in some cases it is not clear how effectively proposals made by some of the smallest voluntary schools can guarantee a reasonable curriculum without an unduly expensive injection of resources.

7.32 The low teacher and pupil morale in schools which are closing justify the Authority's general preference for school amalgamation as opposed to closures. Amalgamation also makes stop-gap staffing measures largely unnecessary.


[page 47]

7.33 In general terms, the Authority's procedures on falling rolls are exemplary: they invariably involve good quality documentation and full consultation with all affected bodies; the number of bodies consulted has increased and the stage at which they are consulted has advanced as the Authority has gained experience. The Authority is using the drop in rolls to ensure that at the end of the decade its schools will remain viable but with room for expansion and in the best available premises.

8. SCHOOL PROVISION FOR THE 16-19 AGE GROUP

8.1 The percentage of pupils staying on at school after the age of 16 varies greatly according to neighbourhood (see Appendix 2). Virtually all secondary schools in ILEA have some pupils remaining at school into the sixth although in some instances this is a recent development: virtually all of the schools offer some A-level courses. Except for those 26 former grammar schools which had their first comprehensive intake in 1977, sixth forms usually contain a very wide ability range, with up to two thirds of the pupils staying for only one year and preparing for CSE or O-level. The size of the sixth forms can be as high as 300, but on average it is about 100; and 40% of the schools have sixth forms of under 70. Thirty five per cent of the A-level teaching groups contain fewer than five pupils and a further 40% fewer than ten. The total number of pupils in post-compulsory education in school is at present just over 17,000; forecasts by the ILEA Research and Statistics Division indicate that this number, which was 18,400 in 1976, will drop to about 14,000 by 1985/6.




[page 48]

Policy

8.2 Against this background of falling numbers, small groups and widely ranging targets, the Authority, in 1977, instructed divisional inspectors to discuss and formulate schemes for rationalising post-16 provision in their areas with the 11-18 school as the basic unit: the main purpose was to ensure that all pupils had equal access to provision where it was good and to close gaps in provision where they existed. Divisional inspectors and schools were to plan on a divisional basis initially, but divisional boundaries were not to hinder the development of area schemes if these appeared to be more appropriate to schools' needs. Diocesan authorities were to be consulted and all schools involved. In co-operation with other schools and the colleges of further education, pupils in each school were in the first instance to have access to a basic 12-16* subject A-level curriculum; provision for minority A-level subjects and non-A-level post-16 courses would be the subject of separate discussions. Staffing implications were to be costed and sixth form arrangements were not to make a disproportionate calIon the resources needed in the 11-16 part of the schools.** The problem of small comprehensive schools would become acute in 1982 and need particular attention. A letter to head teachers suggested a sixth form pupil/teacher ratio of 10:1 as a guideline.


*The Authority did not specify what these 12-16 subjects should be, but published a table showing the number of pupils taking each A-level subject in ILEA schools; the 'top twelve' in the rank order were English literature, history, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, art and crafts, economics, geography, French, sociology, pure mathematics. This list does not include a second foreign language, any classical language, any technical subject, or music.

**It will be recalled that staffing in the 11-16 part of the schools is generous.


[page 49]

Patterns of A-level provision

8.3 All the schools took part in the ensuing discussions; with only one exception, they agreed to co-operate with at least one partner school in providing an A-level curriculum: this arrangement enabled small schools to be paired with larger schools whose staffing allowed greater flexibility. A wide range of arrangements for provision of A-level courses has evolved, often in association with local colleges of further education.

8.4 Consortium arrangements mostly involve three or four schools but may involve many more. Schools agree on the basic subjects they will all offer and what each will then make available to other schools in the consortium. In this way pupils have access to 12-16 A-levels but may have to travel to several schools for their tuition. Schools retain total control over their own finances.

8.5 The successful operation of a consortium depends very much on the goodwill and ingenuity of the individual staffs and heads. Several consortia work well to offer a suitable range of A-level subjects, even though it is often still possible to point to continuing gaps in provision (or demand) eg French. In practice, schools now seem to view 16 A-levels as a minimum provision and some consortia seek access to many more as a standard feature, often trying to provide subjects which were not previously on offer, eg psychology: the nine school consortium at the Elephant and Castle works a common timetable to offer 24 A-levels and as in many other arrangements, it also uses some courses in the local colleges of further education. Administrative problems in consortia include particularly the time and expense involved in travelling between schools and the difficulties which some pupils find in identifying with a series of institutions or adapting to the teaching approaches in different schools. Particularly damaging to consortium arrangements, however, is the failure of many schools to take positive action after their initial agreement to cooperate. This means that some consortia are not working at all and in several others some teaching groups remain very small.

8.6 The sixth form centre in division 5 was the first in England; parts of divisions 3 and 7 now also operate similarly. The centres organise their


[page 50]

additional provision on a "neutral" site or sites and are run by joint decisions of the heads of "member" schools although each centre has its own warden or director of studies. If specialist facilities are lacking the centre warden makes suitable alternative arrangements eg Morpeth School in division 5 teaches design and technology and home economics for all schools at the centre; in division 3, the North London Polytechnic lends it science facilities to the sixth form centre; in division 7 all centre science is taught at Brockley County. Schools allocate members of staff part-time to teach in the centres. The centres have no capitation of their own but are financed by joint decisions of the "member" schools. There is a fair amount of cross-boundary traffic, particularly between divisions 3, 4 and 5. These arrangements, while functioning to some extent, seem more vulnerable than consortia to the decision of individual schools not to provide staff or to send their pupils; the staff allocated to the centres are not always those to whom heads would most readily assign A-level classes if the work were on their own premises.

8.7 Joint sixth form arrangements for all courses operate in some pairs of schools. The link between Skinners Girls and Brooke House Boys in division 4 is one of the longest established; in division 1 Christopher Wren and Hammersmith Schools share a sixth form block.

8.8 Individual schools who are not cooperating in consortia or sixth form centres continue to make their own A-level provision; they occasionally work with other schools to meet particular short-term needs ad hoc. This category includes some (not all) of the large comprehensive school's and some of the small former grammar schools, who still have two years before their first comprehensive entry reaches the sixth form.

Non-A level work

8.9 Discussion of how to provide a good range of opportunities below A-level standard is much less advanced than the arrangements for A-level and very few schools offer a reasonable range of opportunities from their own resources. Division 5 has just appointed an assistant director of studies at the sixth form centre to co-ordinate and develop non-A-Ievel sixth form work. Division 3 has conducted a survey of local needs and produced an incisive


[page 51]

discussion document. The sixth form centre organised by three schools in division 7 already offers non-A-Ievel and general courses.

The Elephant consortium offers 22 O-levels and a few of the joint sixth include suitable provision for pupils not aiming at A-level. Several individual schools have been involved in work to develop the Certificate of Extended Education and many schools regret the lack of suitable examination targets for the less able pupils in the sixth forms.

8.10 Several schools and consortia have also developed links with the further and higher education sector in their attempts to find a solution to this problem, such as the very broad general studies opportunities made accessible by co-operation between three schools in division 9 and two local colleges of further and higher education. The Authority's bridging course for low-achieving 15-19 year olds involves ten schools and five colleges of further and higher education (see paragraph 9.8). There are also several instances of colleges of further and higher education helping individual schools or consortia to arrange courses leading to qualifications of the Technician and Business Education Councils (TEC and BEC) and of other examining or validating bodies such as the City and Guilds of London Institute.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLICY

8.11 Many individual schools are not complying with the pupil/teacher ratio guidelines (paragraph 8.2), as is obvious from the fact that 78% of A level groups contain under ten pupils. Two recent HMI full inspection reports have referred to sixth form pupil/teacher ratios of 5.8:1. This arises from the fact that A-level subjects tend to receive seven or eight periods taught in each week of 35-40 periods irrespective of the number of pupils in the group there are instances of joint teaching of first and second year A-level group and of reduced provision for groups of two or three, but these arrangements are not very common. While a few schools operate on a much higher ; pupil/teacher ratio because of the overall size of their sixth form or because of the homogeneity of the year group, others continue to organise their sixth forms with many small groups. As mentioned in paragraph 7.13 Authority expects this year, for the first time on a regular basis, to


[page 52]

receive from all its schools full information on curriculum, group size and number of teaching periods per subject; this information should enable the Authority (also for the first time) to calculate the staffing costs of existing sixth form provision.

8.12 The policy of rationalising schools' 16-19 provision and the measures taken so far to introduce it are sound and reasonable. There has been distinct progress on the A-level front, but little below that level. It is encouraging to note, however, the co-operation between schools and the further education sector and various instances of cross-boundary co-operation. The process is at a very early stage in many places and the Authority is aware of most of the problems which remain: for example, the continued existence of very many small A-level teaching groups, partly because of the failure of individual schools to co-operate except on an ad hoc basis to suit their own ends, and partly because of last-minute changes of plan by potential students; the problems of travel and the loss of time inherent in consortium arrangements; the absence of common experience in education up to the age of 16 which has caused some pupils to drop out of consortium groups; the risk of schools losing good teachers if the opportunity of regular sixth form work is denied them; the problem of allocating suitable staff to some sixth form centres; financial arrangements between schools and, more particularly, between schools and the further and higher education sector.

8.13 The administrative arrangements involving discussion between schools and divisional inspectors are reasonable in themselves if appeals to goodwill can ensure co-operation. If these fail, however, the Authority is aware that the inspectorate will probably need to intervene more firmly and that it will probably be necessary to stipulate minimum acceptable sizes for teaching groups or suggest a reduced time allowance for small groups. The Authority might also usefully consider issuing guidance on how to finance provision in to-operative arrangements.

A-level: the climate for learning

In many respects the Authority and its schools provide favourable conditions for A-level work: all pupils have access to a good range of A level subjects either within their own school or through co-operative arrangements;


[page 53]

56% of all full-time teachers employed in secondary schools by ILEA are graduates, including 36% trained, 13% untrained, 7% BEd (national figures for maintained schools are 35, 8, 7); the common allocation of about a fifth of a week's timetable to each A-level subject is at least as favourable as in most other places, and more than in some; text books, apparatus etc. are in good supply; many school or-departmental libraries are well-stocked with suitable materials; most schools have good laboratory and specialist facilities including microcomputers and access to computer terminals; several schools have either purpose-built or imaginatively adapted sixth form blocks, usually with facilities for small group discussion as well as provision for social gathering; these blocks often also incorporate facilities for private study; sixth formers are often given more freedom or more responsibility than they enjoyed before entering the sixth form: sometimes, though not always, they are given both.

8.15 Within this generally favourable pattern there are inevitably many variations. These do not adversely affect either the choice of subject or the time allocation. In many schools throughout England it is possible to point to deficiencies in sixth form provision: this is also true of some inner London schools and, as elsewhere, they mostly arise from faulty planning on the part of individual schools and departments. They include unwise deployment of staff in the sixth form and extreme cases of individual subjects having so many timetabled periods that pupils' curricula become unbalanced. Shortages of text books and apparatus are also occasionally found as in the case of an A-level mathematics class which had no calculators or demonstration material. Because of the social background of many of the pupils the need for private study facilities for A-level candidates is perhaps more urgent in inner London than in many other places: many first year sixth forms contain large numbers of pupils who do not wish to study quietly in common areas, and who, in many cases, do not show consideration for those who need to. Libraries are mostly welcoming, but they cannot be allowed to meet the needs of A-level candidates to the exclusion of other pupils.


[page 54]

Some problems of sixth form provision

8.16 Increasing co-operation at 16-19 level has highlighted and in many cases magnified some problems. Where teachers from different institutions are jointly responsible for teaching a subject they need to avoid untoward repetition but to be able to refer confidently to work undertaken by colleagues: this requires the development of clear schemes of work for A-level and frequent planning meetings as well as good record-keeping. It also calls for someone to be responsible for the overall standard of the subject. The committee of heads or the teacher generally responsible for co-ordination cannot be assumed to have the necessary expertise. The inspectorate can and does intervene but it would be desirable to establish a clear structure of subject leadership in all co-operative arrangements.

8.17 Some groups of schools, but by no means all, have also realised that teachers in co-operative sixth form arrangements need to be able to take for granted a certain amount of common preparatory work and they have agreed on common O-level and CSE syllabuses; other groups will probably need to give consideration to this too.

8.18 In co-operative ventures, there may often be a tendency for a school library not to service subjects which a school no longer offers, even though pupils have access to them elsewhere. There is a danger of uneconomic multiple provision, but equally there is a danger of pupils being left without suitable sources of reference. Sixth form centres have no long-established library on which to graft extra provision; they therefore tend to be especially deficient. The obvious needs are comparatively easy to meet, but even they call for discussion and firmly guided decisions which are then implemented.

GENERAL AREAS FOR CONSIDERATION

8.19 Pupils starting A-level courses may have over 50% of their time available for private study, having previously had none. Some schools help them to use this time wisely: subject teachers suggest suitable tasks for the library or private study area, tutors suggest how pupils could allocate their time to their various subjects; and schools sometimes provide supervision in


[page 55]

the first year. Pupils who have these advantages tend to form better study habits than those who do not. In co-operative sixth form arrangements schools need to make suitable private study facilities available to external pupils. In some places arrangements are satisfactory; in others much more discussion is needed both on provision of accommodation and on the best ways of training young people in its use.

8.20 A few schools take the reasonable view that the study of three A-level subjects for two (or in too many cases three) years is not an adequate preparation for working life, for future study or for future leisure: these schools organise careers talks, work experience, visits to institutions of higher and further education, and some very ambitious and challenging liberal studies programmes (sometimes in consortia, sometimes in isolation). These schools are very much in the minority and it is an area to which the Authority could well direct attention.

8.21 In all of the 16-19 arrangements which have emerged for schools, the school which a pupil attended up to the end of year 5 retains the responsibility for having an overview of his or her progress. To be able to write reliable references for institutions of higher education and to prospective employers schools need to be able to rely on the judgement and co-operation of all teachers: several instances have been reported to HMI of teachers finding that colleagues are not ready to write sufficiently detailed reports, or that their forecasts of pupils' probable examination performance prove wide of the mark.

Additional opportunities for the 16-19 school pupils

8.22 Four schemes show the Authority's initiative and concern to give its ablest children every opportunity:

i. In 1978 five Oxford colleges each agreed to accept at least one student from ILEA comprehensive schools to read science without requiring them to take the entrance examinations and with lower grades than they would normally demand if they were to make conditional offers of places. With ILEA funding, the colleges

[page 56]

would then provide a fortnight's extra tuition to bring the students up to the necessary standard: in the event it was agreed to admit the first group of students without the extra tuition. The colleges have now extended the scheme to include applicants for places to read PPE.

ii. Sussex University is also willing to 'make allowances for disadvantages' and accept ILEA students for some courses with lower grades than they would normally demand.

iii. In 1977, the Authority's inspectorate started a programme of summer schools for sixth formers taught by the staff of universities, polytechnics, colleges and schools within the ILEA area. The courses are intended either to enable students to "taste" subjects which their schools might not normally provide or to boost their performance in subjects they are already studying. In 1979, 1540 sixth formers took part in this imaginative and ambitious series, with many of the courses taking special account of the needs of able pupils who spend the rest of the year in very small teaching groups. A range of material and approaches was adopted and nearly all pupils show a refreshingly receptive attitude to the opportunities offered. Many make very good progress as well as obviously enjoying the chance to work intensively with like-minded individuals.

iv. The Authority is developing a series of individual learning packs for use by pupils in schools without enough biology, chemistry or physics teachers. These packs are often of a high standard and several schools are beginning to use them for the move towards independent study which they represent.

v. Camberwell School of Art and Design has a strong tradition in school links and provides Saturday classes for local children interested in art and design as a career.


[page 57]

Standard of work

8.23 The pupils themselves, however and wherever their classes are organised, generally co-operate with their teachers. They usually complete set tasks on time and respond to whatever opportunities the teachers offer. Many classes offer very little chance for pupils to do other than sit quietly, do grammar exercises, write essays, work examples, write up experiments or make notes. Each of these tasks has a place in pupils' preparation for A-level, but if all or most of the work in the subject is conducted in these ways pupils' progress is inevitably slower than it might be, for each of these tasks could be completed in private study time once pupils have acquired the necessary technique. It seems impossible to justify the large amount of time spent on dictating notes or copying from the blackboard which is a feature of many A-level classes.

8.24 In other classes, however, pupils find much more challenge and pace, with the chance to analyse, reflect and discuss; in these classes they are encouraged to advance tentative opinions or judgements and to test them against the views and experience of their peers and the teacher. These pupils also use their private study time for some necessary tasks such as those referred to above as well as for independent study. Teachers in these classes are not satisfied with less than the best of which pupils prove themselves capable and they know what an able child can achieve.

8.25 Most classes operate somewhere between these two approaches, but two- thirds of the lessons observed were nowhere near extending able pupils. No school has a monopoly of imaginative approaches, although within schools some departments have sensitively thought out their A-level teaching styles much more thoroughly than others. The best work of pupils is of a very high standard by any criteria, not only by A-level results but also in activities such as performing music, film making, debating, work for young scientist competitions and Duke of Edinburgh awards.

8.26 The obvious criterion used by most of the public in judging standards of performance is A-level. The picture varies widely from school to school. On the one hand, pupils in several schools are passing very few A-levels; on the other, pupils in some schools with apparently similar intakes are passing


[page 58]

many more subjects. In 1978/79 10.3% of ILEA school leavers obtained one or more A-level passes; the national figure was 12.6%. A thorough analysis of A-level results by ILEA's Research and Statistics Division showed conclusively that in 1977 there was very little variation in performance between administrative divisions once the nature of the individual communities was taken into account. Having established the programme the Division expects to be able to process subsequent results more speedily and to be up-to-date by the end of 1980.

8.27 Few schools perform well in all subjects, but equally there are few which do not boast some highlight. Some heads make good managerial use of examination results: they analyse the performance of each department, look for ways in which individual pupils perform well or badly in their whole range of subjects, note particularly pupils' achievements compared with teachers' forecasts and other factors such as banding on entry to the school; they look at the quality of the grades and not just the pass rate. Heads who do not do this, and there are several, could well examine this aspect of their schools' performance, note the areas where pupils appear to have the greatest chance of success (frequently science and computer studies, rarely modern languages), and use the findings as yet one more source of material in their attempts to improve school performance.

Non-A-Ievel

8.28 In many sixth forms two thirds of the pupils have no ambition or aptitude for A-level courses and return for a one year course to gain or improve qualifications. Where schools operate any restriction at all on whether they allow pupils to return, it is usually on the basis of their behaviour rather than on any academic qualification. As noted in paragraph 8.9, the Authority's planning of co-operative provision for these pupils is less advanced than for those who return for A-level courses. However, some schools offer club activities, often in co-operation with the youth service, and several schools such as Sedgehill or Henry Compton have developed their own wide range of courses, frequently in co-operation with local colleges of further education.


[page 59]

8.29 The best provision includes GCE O-level, CSE and Certificate of Extended Education (CEE) pilot courses, as well as the opportunity of access to appropriate courses of BEC, TEC and City and Guilds; some of these courses also involve the ILEA/Royal Society of Arts bridging course for low achieving 15-19 year olds (see paragraph 9.3). The ILEA has several instances of good practice: a purposeful and rewarding CEE pilot course in English in some schools; a strong bridging course offering communication skills and numeracy and incorporating units of music and art to prepare for leisure in another; yet another benefits from the involvement of a commercial firm in offering 'trial run' interviews for careers work.

8.30 Generally, however, the picture is much less ambitious and encouraging: many schools offer only the opportunity of CSE retakes and the possibility of taking O-levels either as a conversion from CSE or as a retake of a subject previously failed; many also have commercial courses and a few have occasional general courses. Nationally, the experience of pupils' success when retaking examinations they have previously failed is not encouraging and the experience in inner London is no different.

8.31 In most schools one year sixth formers rightly receive the same privileges and treatment as those taking A-level; but because they have often had difficulty in studying lower down the school, the large amount of time they have available for 'private study' presents more of a problem than it does for those following an A-level course (paragraph 8.19).

8.32 In general, provision in the Authority is slightly better than that in other parts of the country, because of ' the widespread links with the further education sector and the youth service, the particular initiative of the Authority in launching the bridging course and the support schools receive from the inspectorate and the advisory and careers services.

9. 16-19 PROVISION IN NON-ADVANCED FURTHER EDUCATION

9.1 In non-advanced further education there is no sharp division between provision for the 16-19 age group and that for older students. Much of the traditional vocational provision, both part-time and full-time, in further


[page 60]

education colleges is made for students from the age of 16-plus at the start of their courses of non-advanced further education although students following most of those courses will continue (and indeed may start) on such courses beyond the 16-19 age range. Courses of this type are widely available in the ILEA's general and specialist colleges within an overall co-ordinated pattern arranged to match demands from the whole of the ILEA area and, in some cases, beyond.

9.2 Part-time vocational provision of this type is almost exclusively made for young people in relevant employment who are given appropriate release by their employers, usually on a one-day-per-week basis but sometimes on a block release basis involving short periods of typically three to six weeks full-time attendance at college repeated two to four times in an academic year. Such courses usually follow curricula devised or validated by one of the many national examining or validating bodies or, at the more advanced levels, one of the professional bodies or the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA). In these respects the ILEA colleges do not differ Significantly from those of other LEAs. However the relative proximity of neighbouring colleges, together with the co-ordination between them made possible by a unified overall administration, means that young people in the London area are more likely than those elsewhere to be able to find an appropriate vocational course within reasonable travelling distance; this advantage is most evident in those specialisms which attract relatively few students, for example horology, dental technician's work or prosthetics.

9.3 Most full-time vocational provision for the 16-19 age group is either very specific to particular areas of employment, as in catering or hairdressing, or is designed to prepare for a broader range of employment within a given field as in secretarial work, more general clerical work or the range of technician functions. Again, these courses typically follow curricula leading to recognised qualifications of various types and are. broadly similar to, if perhaps more widely available in variety than, courses available in colleges provided by other LEAs.

9.4 In addition to these types of part-time and full-time courses which, for most colleges, represent a very substantial proportion of the total work load, a further range of provision has been developed for those in the 16-19 age


[page 61]

group who as yet have no specific vocational commitment or who need further general education before turning to more particular preparation for employment.

9.5 The ILEA has long recognised the special educational needs of those young people who leave school with lower achievements (possibly because of lower ability but also including those failing for other reasons to achieve latent potential) and the Education Officer drew particular attention to such needs in a 1973 Review Report (see section 10). As a result, all of the ILEA's 15 general colleges of further and higher education (and some of the specialist colleges) give special attention to the development of courses for young people in this category (now usually referred to as "Appendix II" courses as explained in paragraph 10.3). The Authority has accorded a high priority to this work and has allocated resources specifically to it, in terms both of teaching staff and of physical resources; enhanced grading of some teaching posts has been granted so that such Appendix II work is usually under the leadership of a senior lecturer in each college. Further support has been provided by the ILEA inspectorate and advisory teacher service and significant curriculum development projects have contributed to educational provision of this type both throughout the ILEA area and more widely through co-operation with national examining bodies. Many colleges have 'developed communications and numeracy 'workshops' as well as the single or multi-skilled practical workshops which enable vocational elements or "tasters" to be included within more general educational courses. These developments have also enabled the colleges to participate in curriculum development for the range of courses provided in conjunction with the Manpower Services Commission through the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) including those designed specifically for the young unemployed. Even more recent has been the response of some of the colleges to the Unified Vocational Preparation Programme (UVp), which aims to provide for young people starting employment in jobs which traditionally did not attract formal training or further education. As with many YOP developments, curriculum construction and teaching methods for these UVP courses have been informed by and built on earlier work in the whole Appendix II field.


[page 62]

9.6 Yet a further aspect of 16-19 provision in the colleges is the range of broadly "school type" work which many also offer. This includes part-time and full-time courses leading to GCE 0- and A-level examinations, together with the course leading to the International Baccalaureate offered by two colleges. Some students following such courses do so immediately after leaving school and a declining but still significant number are from overseas. Many are returners to full-time education after breaks of varying duration - and indeed some are mature adults, including married women returning to study. There are also examples where the colleges offer subjects at 0- and A-level which are in smaller demand or for which they have staff with specialist expertise used mainly on more advanced courses; in such cases the college may form part of a consortium with neighbouring schools, accepting sixth form pupils as students for individual A-level subjects such as law, sociology or economics (see paragraphs 8.2 and 8.5). lither examples of joint school/college provision designed for sixth form pupils include courses covering the first stage of more vocational qualifications in further education such as those of the Business Education Council (see paragraph 8.10).

9.7 A rather more widespread example of active co-operation between schools and colleges occurs in the provision of linked courses in which school pupils, both before and after school-leaving age, take some element of their total curriculum in the college, typically for a half day or full day each week. Many of these linked courses, the majority of which cater for pupils below school leaving age, provide for some vocational element for which the college has specialist expertise and facilities and several involve some CSE examination target.

9.8 With the last few years, a more structured experimental course has been introduced by ILEA, largely on the initiative of its inspectorate, which has. the aim of bridging the transition from school to college of further education (and employment). This bridging course, which along with three other UK examples has attracted European Community funding, is currently offered at five colleges, each linked with two schools. It provides pupils in their fifth year of schooling with a course jointly devised by school and college staff and usually involving two days attendance at college a week, often with work experience sessions included (see also paragraph 8.10). This experiment


[page 63]

is being externally evaluated on behalf of the European Community and it would be premature to attempt to assess it now, but the initial response of the pupils involved has been encouraging.

9.9 As discussed in section 8, the ILEA is seeking to encourage further school/college cooperation and although it must be said that there are areas where only very slow progress is yet being made, there are other areas where the reverse is true.

9.10 It is difficult to offer a simple assessment of such large, wide-ranging and diverse provision. Standards achieved in the vocational courses within the 16-19 range are largely measured against national criteria through the examining or validating bodies and are generally satisfactory. Achievement in some of the other aspects of 16-19 provision in further education is rather more varied. For example pass rates from some of the full-time GCE O-level courses in colleges of further education are very poor and, as many members of college staff would accept, probably reflect the unrealistic examination targets of the students involved. Despite careful counselling, many young people and perhaps particularly their parents are unwilling to accept that other courses are more appropriate to their needs and abilities. Colleges have been possibly too ready to allow entry to GCE O-level courses for young people who would have been better advised to seek other targets, with the almost inevitable adverse effects on their overall pass rates. There are signs that rather firmer criteria are being laid down for entry to these courses, with renewed efforts to guide applicants to more suitable courses where appropriate. On the other hand, an increasing number of young people are undoubtedly benefiting from the broad range of Appendix II courses now available; and many employers have commented favourably on the personal development achieved on Unified Vocational Preparation courses by their young employees who have been enabled to reveal previously unsuspected potential.

10. GENERAL COLLEGES OF FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION

10.1 In a report in May 1973, the Education Officer put forward proposals for the reorganisation of the provision of vocational further and higher education based on a review of the then local and area college system. The


[page 64]

basic principles of that review were to abandon the division of work between local and area colleges by academic level in favour of 'all-through' colleges where courses in a particular discipline would be provided from the lowest to the highest level consistent with the provision made in the polytechnics; to organise colleges as far as possible on multi-disciplinary lines; and to preserve a special concern for the needs of younger, less able and less advanced students.

10.2 These proposals were largely accepted and in the resulting reorganisation some 29 local and area colleges were merged in various combinations to form 15 all-through colleges. The newly formed colleges generally retained all the sites of their constituent institutions, so that most colleges now operate on mUltiple sites which have no particular relationship to inner London borough boundaries; indeed, many operate on sites located in two or more different boroughs.

10.3 The colleges do not all offer the same range of specialisms, although most offer those courses in wider demand and all offer courses designed for the lower achieving school-leaver (known throughout ILEA as 'Appendix II' courses - the name deriving from the second appendix to the May 1973 report).

10.4 Section 9 described the work carried out in the 15 ILEA general colleges of further and higher education for the 16-19 age group. Much of this work shades into the provision made for older age groups in that many of the courses offered are arranged in a progressive sequence of steadily increasing academic level or degree of specialisation; in most cases it extends up to the more advanced level courses, other than the degree and postgraduate work which is mainly the province of the five polytechnics (Section 12). Nevertheless, a number of these colleges offer courses leading to the examinations of, or qualifications recognised by, the leading professional bodies, and which are themselves at or near graduate level.

10.5 The range of courses offered and the specialist disciplines covered vary between individual colleges within a co-ordinated pattern for the Authority's area as a whole, with the scale and location of provision planned to meet the total demand in a rational way, and to enable the various centres to develop facilities and expertise to cater for viable student groups. For


[page 65]

example, not all the colleges offer courses in engineering subjects and, of these, only certain colleges offer courses in specific aspects of engineering such as motor vehicle work or telecommunications or sheet metal work. The resulting concentration of student demand enables a range of course provision to be made which in practice serves a wider area than that of ILEA alone; many students are drawn from neighbouring LEA areas for the less widely available courses. The Authority establishes, maintains and develops this pattern of provision by a system of course approvals which, in the case of full-time advanced courses, precedes the control mechanisms operated by the Regional Advisory Council and by the Regional Staff Inspector on behalf of the Secretary of State.

10.6 The premises in which these colleges operate range from purpose-built accommodation, of which the most recent example is that on the Barons Court site of the Hammersmith and West London College, only just being brought into use, to adapted former school buildings and leased accommodation, the age of which varies but some of which could with advantage be replaced. In the vast majority of cases the available accommodation is well utilised and, indeed, some colleges are working to full capacity and beyond. The multiplicity of sites, some with considerable distances between them, makes it more difficult for the colleges to establish a corporate identity.

10.7 Maintenance of premises is generally good, although it remains to be seen what effects the lengthening of major maintenance cycles in response to current financial restraints will have on this. Major maintenance and adaptations are dealt with centrally by the relevant GLC Department and the system does not always work as well as it might, with delays causing irritation and frustration to college staff.

10.8 Day-to-day cleaning and care of premises is the responsibility of the college caretaking staff, appointed centrally as part of the ILEA school-keeper service and with individual college 'school-keepers' responsible to officers at County Hall rather than to the individual college principals. This arrangement causes problems from time to time but in general the standard of caretaking is high, particularly in view of the heavy student occupancy of some buildings.


[page 66]

10.9 The standard of equipment in the colleges is generally satisfactory and indeed the ILEA colleges are well equipped, compared with those of many other LEAs. More recent financial constraints may be changing this picture, particularly in respect of the longer-term replacement of heavily used items such as certain machine tools. But as yet no unduly adverse effects have been seen. Major items of capital equipment costing over £600 (the limit recently raised from £400) are purchased centrally from a total budget controlled by the ILEA technical equipment officer. Allocations from the total budget are made against applications from individual colleges by this officer, who judges between competing claims. Generally speaking, this system works reasonably well and colleges are able to acquire essential equipment, both to replace obsolete or worn out items and to meet developing needs such as, recently, the acquisition of relevant microelectronic equipment.

10.10 Apart from being on several sites, one of the more significant characteristics of the ILEA colleges is their size. Most are large establishments with a full-time teaching staff of between 150 and 350 under the academic control of a principal, deputy principal and one or more vice principals, and distributed among several departments, each with a head of department responsible for the organisation and development of a range of courses. Insofar as generalisations can be made, the standard of teaching and quality of educational experience offered in these establishments are comparable with, but not significantly better than, those found elsewhere in the country.

10.11 In addition to the ability and expertise of the individual members of the teaching staff, other major factors impinging on the quality of education offered include the supporting services such as laboratory and workshop technicians, library services and educational technology services. In each of these respects the ILEA colleges are well provided. Each college has an agreed complement of technicians within its staffing establishment, although many find difficulty in adequate recruitment to these posts, both because of the competing claims of local industry where higher salaries may well be available, and also because of detailed criteria relating to the qualification requirements for particular technician grades; these are laid down by the Authority in agreement with the relevant unions and are not always easily satisfied. Each college has reasonable, in some cases very good, library


[page 67]

facilities, with adequate staffing although again there are cases of difficulty, particularly of facilities on some of the sites on which each college operates. Each college has a media resources officer (MRO), most of whom have been trained by means of a course provided in one of ILEA's own colleges. These MROs provide a good supporting service in producing teaching aids of various types including printed material, photographs, slides, overhead projection transparencies and recorded audio and video material. The colleges possess a growing volume of college- and commercially-produced learning packages for use by students either in groups or individually in suitably equipped positions in the libraries. Use is made of material produced by the Authority's Learning Materials Service.

10.12 In general, the ILEA colleges seek to respond to identified needs of the area, as do colleges elsewhere in the country. For example, the growth in youth unemployment has led to the introduction of a variety of courses not only within the Youth Opportunities Programme of the Manpower Services Commission but also more broadly through Appendix II provision (paragraph 10.3), in full-time courses of one year or less in duration, in three days per week courses which enable those students involved also to claim Supplementary Benefit, and in courses of more specific vocational education and training. The special needs of the ethnic minorities are catered for within these arrangements or by special courses in English as a second language (ESL), while some colleges are mounting specially-designed courses for selected adults from the minority communities to prepare them for entrance to higher education courses in ILEA polytechnics. Similar special arrangements between colleges and polytechnics exist to provide 'second chance' entrance to higher education for mature students returning to study but without previous formal entrance qualifications in terms of GCE A-levels.

10.13 Most colleges have arrangements for consultation and liaison with local employers, although in some cases such contacts are tenuous, largely because of the large number of very small firIns which may be involved in supporting students on courses in individual colleges. Where major employers are involved, such as the Post Office, gas, water and electricity boards and the Central Electricity Generating Board contacts are maintained through the relevant training personnel. Recent course developments such as those


[page 68]

brought about by TEC and BEC have led to co-ordinated responses by the colleges, including the grouped arrangements to devise programmes of study for TEC qualifications in telecommunications for Post Office employees. On the other hand, special courses are devised to meet particular industrial needs, of which one example is that arranged at South Thames College for draughtsmen in the petrochemical industry. In several cases, staff of ILEA colleges occupy senior positions in professional bodies related to their own specialist expertise, with consequent advantages in maintaining appropriate contacts and assisting in the development of appropriate course curricula.

10.14 Overall, the ILEA colleges function satisfactorily, gaining much from the concentration of demand made possible by the size of the Authority and the rationalised pattern of provision. As might be expected, problems do arise and the picture is not uniformly satisfactory and does not always reflect the generous resources made available. Some colleges operate in poor accommodation while some do not make the best use of what they have; some have an imbalance of provision with particularly acute pressures in certain specialist areas but with overprovision and small class sizes in others; and some have inadequate clerical support. But in general the colleges are well staffed under adequate leadership with a genuine concern for and loyalty to 'their' college and students.

11. SPECIALIST COLLEGES

11.1 A feature which distinguishes the ILEA further and higher education service from that of other authorities in the country is the number of specialist colleges which it maintains or fully grant aids. These include:-

London College of Printing
College for the Distributive Trades
London College of Furniture
London College of Fashion
Royal School of Needlework
Cordwainers College (for leather and footwear)
Merchant Navy College
Central School of Speech and Drama
London School of Nautical Cookery

[page 69]

In other cases, formerly separate specialist establishments have been merged with another institution while still making the relevant provision available, as at the former Chelsea School of Chiropody which is now part of Paddington College.

11.2 In addition to the area of study indicated in their respective titles, several of these specialist colleges have developed expertise, facilities and a range of courses in other special areas related to, but not at first evidently associated with, their main activity. Thus, for example, the London College of Printing is a centre for graduate and sub-graduate courses in graphic design, media and production design, photography, film and television as well as the range of courses that might have been expected from its title: machine printing, printing ink technology, composition and print finishing processes and, perhaps less obviously, in journalism and various business studies/ management aspects. Similarly, in addition to its range of courses in furniture design and technology or interior design and general furnishing, the London College of Furniture has a highly specialist facility concerned with musical instrument technology; it has also developed a special interest and expertise in toys, play equipment and play environment design and manufacture which has made a notable contribution in the field of play equipment and aids for blind and disabled children and adults.

11.3 In general the specialist colleges are "all-through" establishments in that they offer a progressive range of courses from 16-plus to graduate or equivalent levels. They also offer linked courses for pupils both below and above compulsory school age, and provide a valuable specialist resource for the ILEA area in this and in other contexts. Nevertheless, several also offer undergraduate and post-graduate courses in their particular fields and, for example, over 40% of the work of the London College of Printing, over 30% of the work of the College for the Distributive Trades and over 50% of the work of the Central School of Speech and Drama fall within the category of advanced courses whose costs are met from funds to which all LEAs contribute (the advanced course "pool").

11.4 As with other ILEA establishments of further and higher education, the accommodation occupied by these colleges varies in quality from purpose-built


[page 70]

premises of good standard to much older barely adequate provision. Improvements have been made within the limitations of approval available through the Department of Education and Science's building programme allocation. Thus the premises used by the College for the Distributive Trades for courses in meat and butchery have recently received much-needed refurbishment but proposals for a significant building project for the Central School of Speech and Drama have yet to find a place in a building programme. In several cases the college accommodation is under pressure from the number of students wishing to take up courses although improvements are being made where resources, local and national, permit. A recent project at the Merchant Navy College should provide for improved library, teaching and practical work although the Authority is still grappling with the implications of a decision to centre courses for marine engineering cadets there alongside those for marine deck officer cadets: a decision to which the physical state and impending termination of lease of premises currently in use contributed.

11.5 Again in common with most ILEA establishments of further and higher education, the specialist colleges are well equipped for the courses they provide. In some cases their standing and relationships with the relevant industrial/commercial fields have led to the provision of major items of equipment at below normal costs, as for example the increasingly sophisticated equipment used by the London College of Printing in some of their courses. Not only as a result of such arrangements but also and more generally as a result of the Authority's generous response to identified needs the colleges have available a very good standard of equipment which on the whole is well used and which enables appropriate educational experience to be obtained by the students concerned.

11.6 The various courses offered by these specialist colleges are designed to meet the needs of full-time students preparing to enter employment in related fields at a variety of levels from craft (eg saddlery, bookbinding, musical instrument construction) to professional (eg visual communications design, speech therapy, retail management). They also cater for part-time courses in various formats including block release, part-time day and part-time evening, again at a variety of levels, for students already in employment.


[page 71]

11.7 Most of the teaching staff have had considerable practical experience in employment related to the specialist interests of the college, a characteristic which is of course frequently shared more generally by staff in the further and higher education sector. A common problem faced by all such staff is the need to ensure that this experience is up-dated by frequent contact with current practitioners and many staff maintain such contacts in a variety of ways. Continued attention to this aspect is always needed and the Authority is supportive in efforts by the colleges to make appropriate arrangements, sometimes by secondments or periods of "study leave" spent in appropriate industrial or commercial establishments. But such arrangements could with advantage be made more widely available.

11.8 The education offered to students in the colleges is of a satisfactory standard and some have correspondingly high reputations both regionally and nationally. As a consequence most full-time students have no difficulty, even in these times, in finding suitable employment; some are offered several jobs from which to choose. There are individual cases where improvements could be made in such areas as staff development, coordination of work between departments or improved utilisation of resources but overall these colleges are providing a valuable service both to the students and to their eventual employers.

12. POLYTECHNICS

12.1 ILEA is unique among LEAs in that five polytechnics fall within its area of responsibility. Each is established as a company limited by guarantee, has its own governing body and a considerable degree of autonomy. Each has developed from an establishment with a long history of providing advanced education to degree level which pre-dates its designation as a polytechnic. The main source of finance for the polytechnics is the block grant from the ILEA which is negotiated annually against specific needs and claims presented by each establishment, and within the broad policies of the Authority. Apart from charitable bequests, such as the Sir John Cass Foundation in the case of the City of London Polytechnic, other sources of income for the polytechnics derive from tuition fees and governmental or industrial support for specific research and development projects; apart from fee income, the income from such sources forms a small proportion of the total budget.


[page 72]

12.2 Overall, the polytechnics have been kept on a tight financial rein, particularly in recent years when the Authority has adopted a budget strategy of no growth in higher education. Within this overall constraint each polytechnic has powers of virement between budget heads except those relating to staffing; these powers have been used to try to take account of changing needs and demands, with resources switched where possible from areas of declining to areas of growing demand. Nevertheless such changes cannot be made instantaneously and imbalances remain between and within the five polytechnics. Dealing with these imbalances, themselves ever-changing as developments continue to take place (see paragraph 12.4), is one of the many concerns of the management structures of the polytechnics.

12.3 The five Directors meet together within the Committee of Directors of London Polytechnics (CDLP) for consultation on issues of joint interest and for joint discussions with the Authority's officers. Such mechanisms as well as inter-relationships between faculties and departments can lead to joint provision of certain courses, particularly at the post-graduate level, which combine their specialist strengths to particular ends. However, examples of such co-operation are as yet relatively few in number: it would be worth considering whether further opportunities exist to extend joint provision of this type. Furthermore closer co-ordination and co-operation would be of value in dealing with current imbalances and the under-used resources of some faculties.

12.4 All five polytechnics offer courses in a wide range of disciplines at sub-graduate, graduate and post-graduate levels, and in a variety of modes of attendance which include part-time, block release, sandwich and full-time. They also offer a range of short courses, often designed in co-operation with industry or commerce, some of which are arranged on a full cost basis for specific industrial or commercial needs. Each polytechnic has developed its own range of expertise and provision and similar courses are available in several, although the range and details differ; equally there are some disciplines or aspects to be found in only one or two. The relationship between demand and provision is a continually changing one and imbalances can and do occur. The decline over recent years in the demand for courses in the pure sciences, for example, has left some polytechnics over-provided in staff and resources in these disciplines: a problem which is not confined to the


[page 73]

ILEA polytechnics. Adjustments to this position are not easily or quickly made but currently a working party representative of the five polytechnics and under the chairmanship of an ILEA officer is seeking solutions in respect of two particular aspects - provision for metal science and for plastics technology. Other issues involving difficult but unjust questions of resource utilisation, such as provision for chemistry and physics and their sub-specialisms, remain to be tackled. These problems are reflected in the varying current student/staff ratios in different faculties in the different polytechnics. For ease of comparison, figures are collected in terms of two groups of faculties: Group 1 comprising subjects which are broadly laboratory or workshop based; Group 2 comprising those subjects which are more related to classroom teaching. In terms of these measures the student/staff statistics for the five ILEA polytechnics for Spring 1979 are as shown in table 1.

12.5 These figures highlight some of the issues which the ILEA and the polytechnic managements jointly are currently tackling, not always successfully. The relatively low Group 1 SSRs for the Polytechnic of North London and the City of London Polytechnic, for example, are an indication of the imbalance of provision and demand mainly in the pure and applied science disciplines, while the relatively high Group 2 SSR for City of London Polytechnic reflects the heavy demand for business studies and related courses which is being met only by placing a heavy load on the staff and resources involved. To help meet this demand, the ILEA has provided 31 additional teaching posts over the last two years by redeployment of existing resources. In addition to its full-time course provision, this latter polytechnic provides part-time courses for large numbers of students drawn from offices in the City of London itself.

12.6 As is the case with the other ILEA establishments of further and higher education, accommodation fl)r the five polytechnics is on a multiplicity of sites but, although there are exceptions, most are within reasonably accessible distances from each other. The premises vary from relatively new purpose-built accommodation to much older, adapted buildings which in several cases, but perhaps notably for the City of London Polytechnic, are on leasehold. In this latter case, leases are due to expire in the next few years on a number of buildings which are on prime city centre


[page 74]

sites and for which there remains uncertainty about the renewal of lease. Such renewal, even if negotiable, could well involve very significant rental increases. Much planning time and effort has been spent in connection with the development proposed of a site on Free Trade Wharf in London's docklands but current indications are that the costs of such development would now be beyond likely normal programme allocations. The Polytechnic management team, in consultation with the Authority, is still engaged in seeking solutions to the consequent medium to longer term accommodation problems as the current leases start to expire.

12.7 While these issues are the most acute for the City of London Polytechnic, none of the ILEA polytechnics is free from accommodation problems. In most cases existing premises are under some pressure although the imbalances already mentioned lead to uneven loadings within many of them. Solutions are being sought in several ways including attempts to acquire additional premises (which in the current financial position usually means by renting and adapting) as well as by internal rearrangements and adaptations, the planning for some of which is being carried out in conjunction with the Laboratories Investigation Unit of the Department of Education and Science.

12.8 The computing facilities in the five ILEA polytechnics have been planned and provided conjointly with the Authority's officers and inspectorate, and telephone line links exist between various polytechnic computing installations and also between certain polytechnic computers and the colleges of further and higher education. The City of London Polytechnic also houses computing facilities which provide a service to ILEA schools and colleges. HMI have underlined the need for further developmental work, both in the polytechnics themselves and also in the colleges of further and higher education, to extend the applications of computing and have also expressed reservations about whether enough staff are currently available to achieve this. Nevertheless there are considerable advantages in a situation in which a sizeable number of installations of this type can be planned and operated in a co-ordinated manner.



[page 75]

TABLE 1: STUDENT AND STAFF STATISTICS FOR THE FIVE ILEA POLYTECHNICS (SPRING 1979)

(click on the image for a larger version)


[page 76]

12.9 In addition to the computing links already mentioned, the polytechnics have created and continue to develop links with schools and with their own neighbouring communities. Examples of the former are the courses mounted in the summer for school sixth formers in a growing range of subjects and the several courses of in-service training offered to school teachers on a part-time basis, some of which lead to graduate or post-graduate qualifications. Examples of community related activities are the special efforts made by City of London Polytechnic in relationship to the Tower Hamlets communities and the small business advice services established by some of the polytechnics.

12.10 Links also exist between the polytechnics and colleges of further and higher education and these have led, for example, to a growth of courses in the colleges designed to prepare certain groups of students, often mature students, for entry to specific polytechnic courses. Current examples include "Access" courses for mature students wishing to enter BEd degree courses and BA degree courses in social work, while a similar preparatory course leading to entry to a BEd (mathematics special subject) degree course is planned to start in September 1980 as a contribution to combating the current shortage of mathematics teachers in schools. Examples of other forms of liaison between the polytechnics and colleges include the involvement of some specialist staff from a college of further and higher education in the teaching of a related degree course at a polytechnic.

12.11 A high proportion of the work carried out in these five polytechnics leads to graduate, post-graduate and other qualifications awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) or to examinations conducted or recognised by various professional bodies. Standards are thus measured against and meet national criteria although in several cases wastage rates are high, a problem to which more attention is needed. Members of staff are themselves often involved in relevant CNAA committees and visiting parties, with the consequent advantages to the polytechnics of continuing information about the comparability of standards and curricular issues in other institutions.

12.12 Many undergraduate courses involve students in project work, particularly in the last years of their courses. Such projects may arise for example from specific research interests of staff members, from issues of


[page 77]

current significance in the discipline concerned, from problems encountered during a student's period in industry on a sandwich course, or from specific problems raised by an industrial firm with which the staff have contacts. Some work of good standard has been seen in such fields.

12.13 Polytechnic staff are also engaged in research and consultancy projects both as individuals and as supervisors of post-graduate students' work. Many of these research projects are sponsored by industry and some attract very considerable external funding which in some cases is partly used to employ research assistants. The ILEA also funds a number of research assistants and the polytechnics arrange their own budgets to provide some allowance for staff time for research activities. Research and consultancy otherwise undertaken by staff in addition to normal teaching commitments is separately negotiated, often in consultation with the polytechnic directorate and with appropriate recompense for any utilisation of polytechnic facilities.

13. COLLEGES OF ART AND DESIGN

13.1 At the time of the formation of the polytechnics the ILEA, unlike many other LEAs and against the advice of the Department of Education and Science, decided to retain mostly separate Colleges of Art and Design rather than to incorporate them within their polytechnic faculty structures. Thus, apart from the Sir John Cass School of Art, now a constituent of the City of London Polytechnic, the ILEA still maintains four colleges specialising in forms of art education; Camberwell School of Art and Crafts (located in Southwark), Central School of Art and Design (Camden), Chelsea School of Art (Kensington and Chelsea) and St Martin's School of Art (Westminster).

13.2 Each offers a range of courses at sub-degree, degree and post-graduate level in a number of areas of study, together covering fine art (painting and sculpture), textiles, fashion, ceramics, graphic design, film and television and print-making although, as with other ILEA establishments of further and higher education, particular specialisms are provided on a co-ordinated basis between them. For example, Camberwell School of Art and Crafts has developed a particular expertise - and a national and international reputation - in fine book and fine print production and in print and drawing restoration.


[page 78]

13.3 While more general, lower level art education is provided elsewhere (as, for example, the art classes in many adult education institutes), St Martin's School of Art has retained several adult education classes and the Sir John Cass School of Art also offers a significant proportion of such work alongside its full-time foundation, vocational and degree courses in art and design. More recent developments are leading to proposals from some of the colleges of art to mount part-time BA courses in art.

13.4 All the ILEA colleges of art continue to receive demands for places on their degree and other courses far in excess of the number of places available. A recent full inspection of one of them showed that all course places were filled, that almost all the students accepted were first choice candidates, that the majority of students had entry qualifications far above the minimum needed for entry, and that the college was operating at full capacity and, indeed, was crowded in some areas. Much the same could be said of the other colleges of art, which together have a good reputation and attract able, good quality students from a very wide catchment area. Indeed, as with the polytechnics, they draw students nationally. High academic standards are achieved in some courses and HMI have been impressed with the overall quality of education provided in some instances. Inevitably there are areas in which improvement is possible but, as an overall provision, the ILEA colleges of art can stand comparison with similar establishments in any other part of the country.

13.5 As with the other maintained ILEA establishments of further and higher education, individual college budgets are negotiated centrally and of recent years there has been growing pressure on available resources. So far, current financial constraints on maintenance, equipment and materials have not greatly affected the quality of education provided, largely because of the generous level of funding previously available. Effects are, however, increasingly felt in terms of purchasing power for consumables. In expensive areas of work, such as film and photography, demands are being made upon, and met by, the students themselves from their own resources. It is also the case that libraries are limited to some degree in the resources they can provide, while shortages of clerical, technical and administrative staff cause delays and can lead to undue pressures on teaching staff. Nevertheless, in overall terms, these colleges are still very well equipped for the range of courses which they provide.


[page 79]

13.6 As a specific result of recent constraints, the ILEA has instructed the colleges of art to cut back on their part-time staffing, with targets of reductions ranging from 9,000 to 30,000 part-time teaching hours per annum being sought from individual colleges. This move is aimed to produce an improvement in existing student/staff ratios in the colleges which are lower than those found in other disciplines. These low student/staff ratios have reflected the smaller group sizes and longer student/teacher weekly contact hours than in other disciplines, and it remains to be seen whether colleges can achieve these targets without appreciable loss in the quality of education provided.

14. ADULT EDUCATION

14.1 Provision of adult education within the ILEA is currently organised in some 30 adult education institutes (AEls) and four literary establishments. Each AEI operates in a headquarters section or building together with a number of main and subsidiary branches, often in or attached to school premises, although some have purpose-built or adapted free-standing premises, of which the most recent example is the headquarters building of the Stanhope AEI, officially opened in May 1977. It may be noted that the Authority has recently accepted proposals by the Education Officer to reorganise this work within 20 larger AEls formed by various amalgamations and mergers of the existing institutions but retaining the use of the present main and subsidiary branch network. This reorganisation is planned to take effect from January 1981 when the new AEls will fall mainly within the boundaries of individual inner London boroughs, although there are still some which will straddle borough boundaries. The new structure should allow a closer working relationship to be established with, for example, local community relations organisations, social services and housing departments; and also allow for improved involvement of local borough councils and officials in the work of the institutions.

14.2 The ILEA adult education service has achieved both a national and an international reputation and includes many examples of outstandingly good provision. Each major institute is headed by a full-time principal and vice-principal and the total full-time staffing establishment is about 320. In excess of 300,000 student enrolments are catered for, covering a great


[page 80]

variety of subjects at a wide range of levels. Some work of an extremely high standard is carried out; examples include the work in music at Morley College or in literature at the City Literary Institute, but there are many others. There is also wide provision, often of a good standard, of courses in adult literacy and numeracy, together with English as a second language for adults in the many ethnic minority groups to be found in inner London. Surveys made by the Authority have indicated that some 20% of the students live outside the ILEA area, although this position may change in the future in view of the decision of some neighbouring Authorities not to meet claims for recoupment.

14.3 Additionally, 34 full-time staff operate in prison education departments (the expenditure for which is recovered from the Home Office) and a further 11 full-time staff work in industrial language training units funded by the Manpower Services Commission and providing courses in English as a second language. Other external funding such as that from Urban Aid has been used to extend and strengthen community-based adult education, especially by the appointment of "outreach" workers attached to the AEIs to identify and investigate needs and to establish links within the· community to enable a more comprehensive adult education service to be provided for people who would not otherwise use its facilities.

14.4 Although each AEI has developed its own character in response to the needs of the community which it serves, there are examples in which provision is made for an Authority-wide need. For example, the City Literary Institute offers courses at a high level (as well as at more modest ones) which draw students from a very wide area and has also taken a number of significant initiatives such as in the introduction of its "Fresh Horizons" course for adults returning to study, in its provision for the handicapped at its centre for the deaf, its unit for adults with severe reading and writing difficulties, or its training for mentally handicapped students and their tutors. The size of the ILEA area has enabled 16 specialist staff to be appointed to its centre for the deaf and these liaise with the heads of schools for the deaf and units for the partially hearing throughout the London area. As a result, a service exists which supports deaf and partially hearing school leavers either on courses at colleges elsewhere or within the centre's own programme. The centre also provides for the training of teachers working with the deaf in further education, adult education and the youth service over a wide area which extends beyond that of ILEA alone.


[page 81]

14.5 In summary, the ILEA adult education service provides a range of opportunities unmatched in any other part of the country. Although, as elsewhere, there are classes whose members continue from year to year with as much of a social objective as an educational one, there is also a wide, rich and varied provision with a genuine educational aim. Standards are, in general, satisfactory and the service has a good reputation nationally. Both administrative and teaching staff continually seek to provide an adult education service relevant to the needs of the population of the whole London area.

15. YOUTH SERVICE

15.1 Although changes in the management structure of the youth service are currently under active consideration within the Authority, overall responsibility for it at present rests with the principal youth officer (pya) at County Hall, who in turn reports to an assistant education officer, also carrying overall responsibility for adult and community education and careers work. The pya is assisted by a deputy and five assistant principal youth officers. In each of the 12 inner London boroughs the service is managed by an area youth officer and at least two youth officers, themselves ILEA officers but based in the youth office for the borough which they serve. Each youth office controls a number of full-time youth workers and the ILEA also funds a large number of part-time youth leaders and workers.

15.2 The ILEA youth service is the largest service of its kind in the UK and has developed characteristics which distinguish it from most other youth services in the country. Among these is the exceptional degree of support given to voluntary youth organisations. The ILEA youth service has direct responsibility for 77 youth centres and 34 youth clubs, but supports no fewer than 650 voluntary clubs and projects with grant aid for salaries or maintenance, sometimes both. Only a minority of the 443 full-time youth workers are employed in statutory provision. The majority are employed by voluntary organisations and are staff who are either seconded by the ILEA or whose salaries are 100% grant aided by ILEA. It is not so much the case that ILEA supports the voluntary organisations as that the voluntary organisations are a major part of the ILEA youth service.


[page 82]

15.3 The ILEA youth service is also characterised by its diversity of provision and practices. Any responsible and responsive service would make wide provision in a major city where there are so many different needs to be met. The added dimension in ILEA is that many of the units meeting the varied needs are themselves strikingly different from each other. They are autonomous organisations with different origins, affiliations and traditions. Often they have different systems of management and sources of funding. As a result, the management of the service must, to a large extent, rely on negotiation and conciliation rather than direction.

15.4 The day to day management of staff and the direction of the service are tempered by the fact that the majority of the staff also have a loyalty and responsibility to the voluntary organisations for whom they work.

15.5 The executive policy decisions about the ILEA youth service are made by the Authority's Further and Higher Education Committee. This committee is advised by the London youth committee on which sit representatives from each of the 12 borough youth committees. The principal youth officer acts as secretary and professional adviser to the London youth committee.

15.6 This situation is partly mirrored at borough level where the area youth officer acts as professional adviser to the area youth committee; this in turn has a number of sub-committees, one of the most important of which is the finance committee which is concerned with the allocation of local grants and part-time staff within the budget allocated to each area within the youth service as a whole.

15.7 The 77 youth centres in the ILEA developed from the former recreational institutes and offer a range of classes with specialist instruction and facilities to groups and individual young people in the areas which they serve. Most youth centres are based on secondary schools and are open between 6.30 pm and 9.30 pm on weekdays during term time. The member of staff in charge is usually a full-time tutor warden who is a qualified teacher, and the instructional staff are drawn from a list of recognised instructors prepared by the ILEA.


[page 83]

15.8 In addition to these youth centres there is a large number of youth clubs, the vast majority of which, as noted above, are voluntary organisations with different origins, traditions and purposes. As is the case elsewhere in the country, it could be claimed that the clubs serve young men better than young women and that there is an emphasis on male orientated sporting activities. Similarly there has been a reduction in recent years in the average age of the youth club member. Nevertheless it must be said that exceptions can be found to both these generalisations.

15.9 Buildings present serious problems for any inner city youth service and many of the premises available are old, in poor repair and in urgent need of redecoration. That constructive youth work is achieved in some of these is a testimony both to the need of young people for the service and to the devotion of the youth workers. The problem of poor premises however defies easy resolution. Young people need local and readily accessible provision; this rules out any possibility of concentrating youth provision in schools or of centralising the provision in fewer clubs of higher quality. Much is being done, separately or jointly, by the ILEA and a range of voluntary bodies, but the enormous scale of the problem and the very large sums of money that would be required to bring up to standard even a small proportion of such premises is of continuing concern. Once again however it should be noted that exceptions can be found where youth work is being carried out in excellent physical provision.

15.10 The youth service attempts to meet the needs of a widely varied population of young people trying to come to terms with inner city life. This population includes a range of different ethnic minority groups and, although some have been founded specifically for members drawn from a single ethnic group, many clubs cater for a multi-ethnic membership.

15.11 The Authority is able to support an exceptionally wide variety of initiatives which lead to much good work with young people. But the existence of strong voluntary organisations which pre-date the statutory service has led to a negotiatory style of management which does not lend itself to the establishment of clear priorities. Youth officers find it difficult to judge the relative worth of the work of voluntary organisations which are extremely diverse in purpose and practice, and they cannot readily


[page 84]

influence the contributions of individual clubs to fit into a coordinated pattern of provision for the local community. Thus good work arises because the Authority is generous with its resources despite its current inability to exercise discrimination in their allocation. Given the variety of organisations involved a solution to this problem will not easily be found, but the Authority should be encouraged to seek one.

16. TEACHER EDUCATION

a. Initial training

16.1 Following the recent national re-organisation and reduction in the total number of places for initial teacher education, ILEA provision in this field has been reduced to that at five centres: Avery Hill, Garnett, and the Polytechnics of North London, South Bank and Thames. A sixth centre at Shoreditch College is one of the leading centres in the country for craft, design and technology, and one of the main sources of CDT teachers, but is about to pass from ILEA to become part of BruneI University. The former Sidney Webb College, in recent years merged with the Polytechnic of Central London, closed at the end of the 1979/80 academic session. Garnett College is one of the four UK centres for pre-service professional education and training of teachers in further and higher education. Rachel McMillan College has merged with Goldsmith's College. Avery Hill College is now the only ILEA establishment remaining as a free-standing college of education. The other formerly separate colleges of education which remain are now departments of education in the polytechnics. Additionally, voluntary institutions make a substantial contribution to teacher training in the area, and relationships between them and the Authority have normally been close.

16.2 The cut-back in the target numbers of students preparing to enter teaching in primary and secondary schools faced colleges of education nationally with severe problems, which were not escaped within ILEA. Although closures and amalgamations, coupled with diversification of courses offered, have gone a long way towards solving these problems, some still remain. Some staff were retained in the prospect of future diversification which has not materialised despite considerable support from the Authority and this is


[page 85]

reflected in the overall student/staff ratios of some of the centres. Nevertheless many, often painful, adjustments have been made and the overall picture is improving.

16.3 Recruitment to pre-service teacher education courses, especially at Avery Hill, remains good and at a satisfactory academic level. There has been a growth in the provision of courses designed especially for mature students returning to study without formal A level qualifications, including those from the ethnic minorities; in some cases these courses are preceded specially arranged preparatory courses in various ILEA colleges of further and higher education. Avery Hill also provides one-year introduction to teaching courses for science graduates from industry seconded by the Authority 'on full pay immediately after appointment and before taking up teaching posts in ILEA schools. Other special provision includes that for pre-service and in-service training for teachers of the handicapped child.

16.4 Although there are a small number of examples where specialist HMI have identified particular shortcomings, in general the standard and quality of work seen in the ILEA teacher education field for all sectors (spanning nursery, primary, secondary and further education) are satisfactory.

b. Induction

16.5 The Authority is one of the minority which currently has an induction scheme for newly qualified teachers in schools and in addition to arranging for newly-appointed teachers to spend days in the new school in the term before taking up the post, allocates staffing on the assumption that probationer teachers count as 0.9 of a full-time member of staff. Schools usually have an experienced teacher in charge of the induction scheme and most schools have their own policy statements on its operation. The LEA inspectorate organises one specialist and one general in-service session each month; for other weeks the probationers are expected to spend their time in a variety of ways such as discussion with their head of department or supervisor, preparing work or watching colleagues teach. On the other side, the teacher responsible for their induction and the head of department are expected to observe the new teacher's lessons frequently to help him acquire and polish the basic teaching skills.


[page 86]

16.6 Some schools scrupulously observe the terms of the implied contract, and in these schools young teachers have every opportunity and are helped to find their feet in the profession. In most, however, while the new teacher has a lighter timetable than colleagues who have satisfactorily completed probation and benefits from the sessions off-site, he receives patchy attention from the head bf department at school; in these less supportive schools probationers' timetables often also contain too many difficult classes or too much small group work. In a few cases schools do not honour their responsibility to new teachers, and occasionally schools refuse to release them for the off-site in-service work.

16.7 Probationers sometimes criticise the off-site sessions but generally seem content with them. The role of head of department in the probationer's induction is critical and, in this sense, the scheme can be seriously limited if departments are weakly co-ordinated and have little up-to-date documentation for guidance, or if teachers are reluctant to criticise each other's work constructively.

16.8 The induction scheme is reasonable and necessary and the Authority's arrangements for the related activities involving its own inspectorate and for the constant review with the professional associations of the scheme's progress are good. All probationers receive some benefit and some receive a great deal.

c. In-service education and training of teachers

16.9 The ILEA is also among the most generous LEAs in its provision for in-service training: in 1979/80 it released the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 599 teachers from school classrooms for in-service work. This represents roughly 2 2/3% of the total teacher force; the national average for 1979, based on returns from all LEAs in January 1979, was about 1%. The releases in ILEA were for six-week courses (48 FTE), one year and one term secondments (235 FTE), DES and other non-ILEA short courses (13 FTE), revision leave for teachers to complete qualifications and part-time paid study leave (ten FTE) and foreign travel grants (two FTE), as well as the courses and activities at teachers' centres and elsewhere (including the Authority's own short course programme) and the single school and divisional conferences. All of these


[page 87]

general elements are available in most other LEAs' budgets but in varying measure. Although in its 1980/81 programme the ILEA has reduced provision for six-week courses, secondments and study leave, it has, commendably, maintained the overall level (598 FTE) by making additional provision for school-focussed in-service work (20 FTE) and training for supply teachers (15 FTE).

16.10 Additionally the Authority has a series of special projects relating specifically to its own local needs, eg provision for Caribbean and other Commonwealth exchanges (ten FTE), teaching of English to non-English speaking children (20 FTE), teaching of slow learning and difficult children (TOSLADIC) courses (50 FTE) and courses on junior science (20 FTE).

16.11 Much of this provision specifically relates to the Authority's own attempts to overcome shortages which are evident nationally; one year secondment provision partly (80 posts) relates to the Authority's scheme to give special training to graduates newly recruited from industry or commerce to teach mathematics, science or design and technology, and who are qualified as teachers in view of their academic qualifications but are without teacher training; it also includes 40 posts for teachers who are seeking qualifications in special education (35 of these teachers are already employed in the Authority's special schools). The one term secondments include attendance at nursery courses at Froebel College and, from September 1980, at Avery Hill.

16.12 The Authority recently disposed of its residential college at Stoke d'Abernon but has access to 30 residential places at Thames Polytechnic's Dartford Annexe and another 30 at Avery Hill College of Education.

16.13 Six week courses may be on a consecutive or on a one day a week basis. They originate in suggestions from inspectors, schools, colleges of education and teachers' centres and cover a varied range of subjects and topics. Current courses include "Developing language and literacy in the multi-ethnic classroom", "The primary headteacher in the 1980's", "Reading and writing in the primary school", "Family background in the multi-ethnic society", "Computer science" and "Mathematics in the comprehensive school". This programme also contains the annual course on "Authority and leadership in the London secondary school" and one on nursery education.


[page 88]

16.14 Each division receives an allocation of money to organise its own courses and conferences in response to divisional initiatives. Many of these take place at weekends and several are residential though the majority occur in the evening at teachers' centres. Recent programmes have included conferences on multi-ethnic education and a course on mathematics and science for young primary teachers; many divisions bring their headteachers together annually to talk through local questions in a highly constructive atmosphere. Divisional inspectors also have money available to organise single school conferences, eg "Continuity in education" (Montem Infants and Junior School), "Falling rolls" (Kennington School), "Developing the school as a community" (St Thomas More). This is also the fund which enabled the ILEA general inspector for Battersea County School to arrange a week-end residential conference where staff considered, for example, assessment, the role of the head of department, methods of grouping children, to follow up points raised by HMI during their full inspection. Other week-end course/conferences have also been observed to lead to useful developments in thinking and practice.

16.15 Similarly ILEA staff inspectors can initiate courses on their particular subjects or phases. Recent instances have included English for non-English-speaking children, the teaching of emotionally disturbed children, teaching on BEC courses in further education, as well as some of the ILEA staff inspectors' specialist interests such as sociology and screen-printed textiles.

16.16 The Authority's ten divisional multi-purpose teachers' centres respond to local demands, mainly though not exclusively from primary teachers and inspectorate. Inevitably this involves a certain amount of duplication which in most cases appears to be kept to a minimum. For this reason two or three divisions sometimes combine forces for some courses, such as those for deputy heads. The offering of a broad programme is particularly dependent on good co-operation between the centre warden and the divisional primary phase inspector. Some multi-purpose centres are well organised and active. The 31 specialist centres and the five general centres such as the Centre for Urban Educational Studies (CUES) and the Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE) also respond to the wishes expressed by teachers and inspectors of the related specialisms. Again relations between the centre wardens and the


[page 89]

responsible inspectors are important. The work and organisation of some are good eg (but not only) CUES, CLPE, the science centres and the English centre in Tower Hamlets.

16.17 The Authority enlists the help of the professional associations in drawing up its central in-service programme and in evaluating the various courses. This is a valuable and sensible contact; it is however unfortunate that the associations do not appear to be prepared to offer advice and comment when the Authority attempts to discuss the possibility of trimming its in-service budget.

16.18 Teachers' centres also provide a forum or focus for teachers to meet and discuss items of mutual concern in an informal atmosphere, and much of the Authority's curriculum development work starts here, usually with the participation of the inspectorate and often involving seconded teachers. Some of the resulting guidelines, eg on language and mathematics in the primary school and on drama, are of good quality and were well piloted before their adoption by the inspectorate for dissemination throughout the schools. The mathematics "Checkpoints" are available only to those who have been trained in their use (paragraphs 7.21 and 8.22 describe some curriculum development work for secondary schools).

16.19 The staff of most of the teachers' centres also go out to the schools to help in the classroom, to provide tutors or speakers for school-based inservice work and to follow up courses which teachers have attended at the teachers' centres. Apart from keeping a good display of available books and materials, many teachers' centres also provide a valuable information service to teachers in ILEA and further afield.

16.20 Many schools make use of this generous in-service provision, although there are occasional cases of heads not being prepared to deploy staff flexibly to allow them to attend courses. However, some schools have clear policies of analysing teachers' and departments' individual needs and fostering attendance at suitable courses; these schools often keep careful records - which in some instances they also share with their governors. Some secondary school full inspection reports note the encouragement teachers


[page 90]

receive from their heads to attend courses; others refer to schools and departments which could well reconsider their policies on staff development.

16.21 Much of the in-service work for teachers in secondary schools has been aimed at developing materials for teaching mixed ability groups in years 1 - 3. Sixth form work has also constantly featured in discussion groups. These two aspects have often been helpful, and in some subjects good, but need to be seen in the context of the standards of work as discussed in sections 7 and 8. General work on slow learners and pupils from ethnic minorities is increasing teachers' awareness of suitable teaching techniques. Comparatively little attention has been given to work in years 4 and 5. It will be evident from other sections of this report that in-service work is still not totally effective in changing styles of teaching, but also that it now needs particularly to concentrate on raising teachers' expectations of all pupils in secondary schools to take account of the improving standards in primary schools, and to give heads of department training in departmental leadership.

16.22 The Authority, like all others, has shortages of teachers in specific subjects. It is taking its own measures (see paragraph 16.11) to meet at least some of the shortages by encouraging teachers of 'surplus' subjects to take additional courses. It has an arrangement through which teachers of biology can obtain a qualification in physics; teachers of any surplus subject can convert to a mathematics qualification provided that they have a suitable background; courses at the Polytechnic of the South Bank are designed to enable language teachers to improve their knowledge of a second language to the point where they can teach it.

16.23 For the further and higher education service the ILEA has a good record in terms of in-service teacher education, much of which is broadly in line with and pre-dates the recommendations put forward by the Advisory Committee for the Supply and Training of Teachers. Newly appointed staff in the colleges of further and higher education at lecturer I and lecturer II grade not already holding formal teaching qualifications and with less than five years full-time teaching experience are required to take a part-time course at the Central London Annexe of Garnett College for which the syllabus includes


[page 91]

the aims and organisation of vocational further and higher education, principles of teaching and practical teaching. On completion of this course, further day-release is available for those wishing to obtain the formal qualification, an opportunity which many accept.

16.24 Inevitably, on such a broad canvas, there is bound to be some work of a not very good standard, but it is not the rule. The Authority's enlightened policies on in-service work, mainly implemented by the inspectorate, deserve credit for the recent general improvement in standards in nursery and primary schools and will no doubt contribute to any plan to bring about a similar improvement in secondary education.

17. INSPECTORATE AND ADVISORY SERVICES

17.1 The ILEA's Chief Inspector is one of three chief officers directly responsible to the Education Officer. He has two deputies, one each for schools and further and higher education. The 120 inspectors include small teams of specialists in all the subjects most commonly taught in secondary schools, each team being led by a staff inspector. Additionally, and in some cases comparatively recently (see paragraph 17.4), the ILEA inspectorate also includes three nursery specialists with a range of school and social services experience, 15 primary phase specialists, 12 inspectors in special education, each qualified for a specific handicap, and 18 inspectors of further and higher education, again with a range of specialisms. In some subjects, such as languages, home economics and drama, the schools' inspectorate also has responsibilities in further and higher education. Many of the ILEA are active members of their respective professional associations, some are national and international figures, and many speak at courses and conferences in all parts of the country.

17.2 With the aim of achieving detailed local knowledge, the Chief Inspector assigns schools' inspectors as a team of four or five in one of the divisions where they have responsibility for a group of schools and work mainly from the divisional office; each team is coordinated by a divisional inspector and includes specialists in primary and special education. Each inspector, however, also belongs to a central specialist team most of which


[page 92]

are based in County Hall and all of which work throughout the Authority's area. From September 1980 an FHE inspector will be nominated for each division to work with schools' inspectors on matters concerning the 16-19 age group.

17.3 Each member of the inspectorate for further and higher education has both general responsibility for a small group of colleges and specialist subject responsibilities for the Authority's area as a whole. They maintain close contact with the colleges, attend meetings of the college governing bodies, are involved in staff appointments and advise the Authority on such matters as ,the purchase of equipment. They also advise on the location of courses and effectively perform a central controlling function in this respect. In addition to carrying out formal inspections of establishments from time to time they also organise and provide some of the in-service training for college staff. They have been responsible for several initiatives in the colleges, including encouragement of and involvement in curriculum development activities for lower achieving students in the 16-19 age group.

17.4 The composition of the schools' inspectorate has changed in four significant respects in the last few years. Unlike many other authorities, the ILEA has appointed additional nursery specialists as it has expanded nursery provision; following the William Tyndale affair in 1975/76 the Authority implemented its pre-existing plan and appointed extra primary specialists to ensure that each division could have at least one; and when the Authority found that district inspectors were unable adequately to supervise ESN(M) schools and schools for the delicate and the maladjusted (see paragraph 19.19) they expanded the special education team to achieve a similar coverage to that available to primary schools. In acknowledgement of the changing composition of the Inner London school population they have also appointed five inspectors for multi-racial education.

17.5 Apart from inspectorial tasks associated with monitoring, reporting on and attempting to raise standards in schools and supervising teachers in their probationary year(s), the schools' inspectorate has several other functions. These include advising schools on staff appointments, advising the Authority on senior staff appointments to schools and deciding on the deployment of


[page 93]

teachers assigned to divisional staffs. They also advise the Authority on some aspects of educational policy, are involved in subsequent discussions and supervise the implementation of that policy.

17.6 In some of these functions the inspectorate is assisted by two other groups: the wardens and deputy wardens of the teachers' centres (84.7 full-time equivalent) and a staff of 178 advisory teachers. This includes 29 with phase responsibilities (16 for primary and nursery, 1.5 for secondary, 4.7 for special education and 7 for further and higher education); 75 for individual subjects, mainly in the secondary schools; 60 for support services, including 20 for educational television, 18 for the Learning Materials Service, 1 for the house magazine "Contact" and 14 miscellaneous. Eighty-five of these advisory teachers are on the Chief Inspector's regular staff; the other 90+ posts result from special votes of the Authority, eg to improve mathematics teaching (11 posts), to improve science teaching (ten posts) or multi-cultural education (12 at CUES); the great majority of the advisory teachers in the support services were the subject of special votes by the Authority eg 37 at the Learning Materials Service. Advisory teacher posts are frequently one year secondments in the first instance. Several of the special votes also involve the appointment of additional peripatetic teachers whose services schools can buy through the AUR scheme, usually at scale 1 cost irrespective of the actual grade of post.

17.7 All the teachers' centre staff and many of the advisory teachers are involved in the in-service programme, both at the teachers' centres and with in-school follow-up. Many advisory teachers work with probationers, particularly in the primary and nursery phases. Their other tasks vary according to the phase and subject, eg helping infant and junior schools to prepare for amalgamation; nursery advisory heads help schools to set up new nursery classes and advise on desirable improvements; primary advisory teachers for language are based at the CLPE and they also "undertake school-based in-service training eg in helping schools to band reading schemes, to improve book corners and libraries and to develop schemes of work". Groups of science advisory teachers work in one or two divisions at a time and in some areas HMI have noted teams of advisory teachers being assembled at very short notice to meet particular local needs, often with the additional support of specially appointed peripatetic teachers eg in mathematics. While


[page 94]

much of this broad provision is well co-ordinated, there are also cases where better co-ordination would produce more effective handling of problem areas, particularly in secondary education.

17.8 HMI would like to see monitoring and improving curricula and standards in the schools as the prime functions of any LEA's inspectorate. They are however aware that many of the other tasks referred to in paragraph 17.5 are time-consuming and have a bearing on those prime functions.

17.9 Since the LEAs took on full responsibility for the great majority of probationary teachers in 1978, HMI normally visit only those probationers who are in danger of failing. These visits and associated contacts with the ILEA inspectorate suggest that, although it is possible to cite instances of probationers who have had inadequate attention, ILEA inspectors are fair, helpful and firm in these dealings, giving the probationers support both personally and through the advisory teacher service. HMI do not have responsibility for assessing probationers whom the Authority considers to have no undue problems; occasionally, in the normal course of their visiting, HMI meet young teachers who have completed their probationary period to the satisfaction of the Authority but who do not appear to be ready to take on a full assignment.

17.10 HMI have no direct experience of the ILEA inspectorate's duties in respect of staff appointments, employment of divisional staff and the redeployment of staff as school rolls fall; but they are aware that each of these administrative tasks reduces, sometimes considerably, the time available for classroom visiting.

17.11 On matters of major policy the inspectorate produces substantial papers for planning, for briefing elected members and, sometimes, for furthering public discussion, eg a paper on staffing secondary schools as rolls fall, which now illumines much of the Authority's basic planning (divisional inspectors are also very deeply involved in any planning to close or amalgamate schools as rolls fall); a paper on 16-19 co-operation which guided discussions leading to many of the new arrangements and could form the basis of stronger intervention by the Authority (section 8); and on curriculum for


[page 95]

the 5-16 age group, which in the long term could help secondary schools to build more firmly on the work of the primary schools and to eliminate some of their own unnecessary duplication or breadth of provision.

17.12 The inspectorate, the advisory teachers and the teachers' centre wardens and their deputies have a heavy commitment to in-service work (see section 16). In some cases, eg nursery phase work and geography, the inspectorate also publishes regular newsletters or bulletins.

17.13 The inspectorate's knowledge of the Authority's schools and thus their ability to improve them very largely depends on the amount of school visiting and classroom observation they are able to undertake. This occurs in three main ways: through the short visit of a general inspector or specialist to a school or department, a team 'visitation' of longer duration to consider a limited number of aspects of a school's work, and the programme of full inspections, which, following the William Tyndale affair, was reinstated in 1975 after having earlier been discontinued. Since then, the Authority has conducted full inspections of 27 primary, one special and eight secondary schools.

17.14 The inspectorate also has further information available to it in its monitoring of schools, particularly the results of reading, mathematics and verbal reasoning tests in the primary school, the CSE and GCE results in the secondary school and, in all cases, the head's report to the Governors. From 1980/81 all school staffs will each year consider the schools' and their own performance on the lines suggested in the Authority's 1977 publication "Keeping the School under Review". A report to the Governors will summarise the results. This annual review will form the basis for a quinquennial review of each secondary school carried out by staff in co-operation with the inspectorate. A ten school pilot scheme starts in the school year 1980/81. This arrangement will largely replace the full inspection programme in secondary schools, although the full inspection programme will still include a small number of secondary schools.

17.15 For secondary schools the inspectorate now also has details of the curriculum and staff deployment. In view of the clearly wasteful deployment of staff in some schools and the Authority's initiatives on curriculum and


[page 96]

16-19 arrangements, it is unfortunate that this information was, up to September 1980, given only on a voluntary basis.

17.16 The mainly satisfactory and improving standard of education in the nursery and primary sectors, which is reported in sections 5 and 6, is to some extent due to the activities of the recently extended specialist inspectorate which can diagnose in-service needs largely in the course of routine visiting, can meet many of those needs and has developed curriculum guidelines for several areas of experience, often in consultation with secondary phase subject specialists. Some individual schools have also made good use of published full inspection reports in planning their own future developments.

17.17 The picture in secondary schools and in the 16-19 sector as described in sections 7 and 8 shows that considerable scope remains for inspectorial action. In the broadest terms, HMI has the impression that the Authority's general inspectors 'know' the secondary schools for which they are responsible and that they are aware of the weakest teachers, though perhaps not of generally weak departments. HMI also has the impression that some branches of the Authority's inspectorate spend as much time in curricular development as on observing work in classrooms and particularly with probationers. In 1977 the Authority carried out a survey of mixed ability teaching in its schools and offered them advice on teaching mixed ability groups, which, on the whole, the schools appear not to have followed. The curriculum analysis mentioned in paragraph 7.13, 8.11 and 17.15 will enable the Authority to update its information on the incidence of mixed ability teaching.

17.18 HMI's general experience and full inspection reports together with the results of the ILEA inspectorate's full inspections show that it is necessary to assess the performance of each subject or department individually and to see the effect on it of the school's overall policies. The self-assessment procedure can work well where schools and teachers adopt an objective approach and is potentially of great value in any attempt to raise standards in secondary schools; it is only likely to be effective in less favourable circumstances if accompanied by inspectorial observation of and attention to standards in the individual subjects or departments in the classroom between the quinquennial reviews which are intended largely to replace the full inspection programme in secondary schools (see paragraph 17.14).


[page 97]

17.19 In the field of special education the ILEA inspectorate has undoubtedly had some major problems to handle such as [names of two schools removed]. It is hoped that the recent expansion of the special education inspectorate will help to make these occurrences less frequent. Increased co-operation between inspectors for special education and those for ordinary schools could help both to broaden the curriculum of some special schools and to raise teachers' expectations in ordinary primary and secondary schools, as well as to enable the Authority to realise its policy of making some provision in ordinary schools available to children in special schools.

18. SPECIAL NEEDS IN SCHOOLS

18.1 For the many reasons indicated in section 2 the ILEA has an unusually large number of pupils requiring some form of special help. In both primary and secondary schools this takes many forms and provision variously covers low achievement in school work, pupils whose behaviour disrupts normal work and problems deriving from the multi-racial nature of the classes.

a. Remedial work in basic skills

18.2 Most schools put much energy, staffing and finance into providing for their least able pupils, although these are variously defined. Remedial departments or rooms usually have a wide range of books, materials and equipment at their disposal, and central or departmental libraries sometimes and increasingly give an indication of the reading age needed for particular books.

18.3 In primary schools there are often several teachers, frequently part-time, who give extra tuition to children who are having trouble with their work; heads and deputy heads may also be involved and in addition the LEA has a staff of peripatetic remedial teachers. Usually groups of children or individuals are withdrawn for extra tuition as required; but sometimes the remedial teacher works beside the class-teacher in the classroom, and a growth in this practice is advisable where very young infants are among those receiving remedial tuition.


[page 98]

18.4 Secondary schools often provide remedial work in years 1-3 by withdrawal from normal classes; provision in years 4, 5 and 6 is more frequently accommodated within the option scheme or as a specific course. When years 1-3 are organised in ability bands the remedial department is responsible for a specific group of pupils and teaches them for most of the week. These pupils have continuity of teaching and secure relationships with their teachers, but they often receive a much more restricted curriculum than the rest of their peer group. Sometimes books and materials used in remedial groups are not compatible with those used in the courses being followed by children in the higher ability bands. The pupils' timetables typically include reduced time allocations for science and foreign languages, if indeed they take these subjects at all. But more significant is the frequent reduction in the content of the subjects covered, particularly mathematics and English. These distinctive special arrangements leave pupils at a considerable disadvantage if their problems in basic skills take long to emerge or to remedy; they then have great difficulty in rejoining their year groups, especially if this does not happen until optional courses are begun.

18.5 The main alternative form of provision in secondary schools is to withdraw pupils from classes of the subject in which they experience difficulty and to teach them separately. This usually has the advantage of allowing the pupils to remain in classes where they are making suitable progress and it enables them to form a wider range of social relationships than is possible in an exclusively remedial group; if, however, the remedial and the class teachers do not co-ordinate their work carefully pupils have little chance of catching up. As with all aspects of the curriculum, many variations occur, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

18.6 The work of remedial departments in the ILEA's primary and secondary schools is generally characterised by dedication and diligence. Pupils mostly progress reasonably, especially those whose problems are discovered early in their school careers. But there is often at all levels a surprising lack of specific professional expertise in developing individual approaches to individual difficulties; in banded arrangements many remedial groups are taught as complete classes at a uniform pace. Nearly all teachers and departments enjoy some success and some have considerable achievements to


[page 99]

show; in the latter case teachers have frequently devised a clear programme of work for individual children which is fully in tune with the work of the teachers they are supporting.

18.7 The Authority also offers a wide range of off-site facilities to help with remedial problems, including reading centres, tutorial classes, educational guidance centres, centres for learning problems and language centres, and some divisions provide peripatetic remedial support for schools. An instance of good practice is the Hungerford education guidance centre to which children are referred after thorough assessment. School and centre then agree on specific objectives for them to pursue jointly. Progress is reviewed weekly and when children return to normal schools after three months teachers receive a detailed follow-up plan. Work in other centres and tutorial classes is often also well organised and the Battersea County Full Inspection report describes a reading centre which succeeds in improving children's achievements. The close liaison between centre and school instanced above is not present in all centres and this detracts very considerably from the potential value of the work. Most schools make use of some or all of the many facilities provided, but it is unlikely that many derive full benefit from the whole range.

b. Provision for disruptive pupils

18.8 Some schools' remedial departments also take children with behavioural problems; other schools establish separate units for them either on - or off - site eg Wandsworth Schools' individual work centre or the Durand Unit attached to Stockwell Manor School. The Authority's Research and Statistics Division has only recently compiled a complete list of all such provision in secondary schools. Referral arrangements are often intricate, involving all tiers of a school's hierarchy. Pupils mainly attend the unit only for that part of their timetable in which they have been disruptive. They do work set by their subject teacher(s) under the supervision and sometimes with the help of the teacher in charge of the unit. These units are usually small (6-15 pupils at any one time) and mostly retain close contact with the work of the main school. There is a very wide range of regime and approach. As implied by the general improvement in discipline in the last five years, many schools succeed with this approach and the appointment of home/school liaison


[page 100]

teachers has often enabled schools to enlist parental help more frequently. For some pupils, referral to the school's unit proves to be a first step to referral to an intermediate education (or treatment) centre or ultimately to a school for the maladjusted.

18.9 In the past two years, however, the Authority has allocated £3.7m specially to meet the problem of disruptive pupils; one aspect of this has been the development of off-site support units for pupils in secondary schools. Schools in the individual divisions have decided whether and how they wish to establish these units; the divisions have made their own arrangements for accommodating them, usually in premises vacated as school rolls fall. The units are generously staffed, with teachers in charge usually on scale 4 or scale 3 posts; referrals are the responsibility of a committee of the "sponsoring" heads.

18.10 The Authority has clear policies on the duties of the units for disruptive pupils but the implementation of these in the divisions is very much less clear-cut. In some cases heads say that they have insisted on taking their own decisions because of the slowness of the schools' psychological service in responding to requests for help. Some of the units successfully return more than 50% of their pupils to their original or alternative schools within 6-12 weeks. But some of the units cannot accept further referrals because schools are unwilling to readmit troublesome pupils and, at least in division 6, there is talk of opening further units to allow differentiation between short and long-stay referrals. In division 8 on the other hand some schools are reluctant to refer pupils to them. In some areas the recruitment and retention of suitable staff for the units is proving difficult and some units are operating below staffing complement. For instance, of two units in division 8, each with 14 pupils, one has three teachers and the other has one.

18.11 The curricula available in the units are inevitably limited by accommodation and staff expertise: they may have few, if any, facilities for practical science or much craft work and conceivably no teacher able to teach these subjects. In some cases sponsoring schools need to give detailed consideration to the curricula which the units offer.


[page 101]

18.12 As implied above, schools have had a reasonable measure of success with on-site provision and it is significant that division 5 has decided to concentrate the efforts of its special unit team on helping schools on their own premises and to withdraw pupils to the off-site unit as little as possible. A wide range of provision exists elsewhere in ILEA for seriously disruptive pupils in the form of intermediate education/treatment centres and" schools for the maladjusted, as well as home tuition arrangements for those awaiting admission to the schools for the maladjusted; the Social Services Department has parallel provision for this group of youngsters. Taking account also of the shortage of skilled teachers in some subjects, an apparent lack of curricular liaison in some instances,and other factors indicated above,the whole programme of off-site units for disruptive pupils probably needs reappraisal.

c. Multi-racial education

18.13 Inner London's population has a greater diversity of cultural backgrounds than has that of any other LEA. The Authority has given high priority to meeting the problems arising from this characteristic and has initiated several large scale programmes to cover a large number of pupils.

18.14 The Research and Statistics Division's index of need (Appendix 6) has enabled the Authority to determine its priorities on school staffing and, incidentally, to raise teachers' general awareness of the questions of disadvantage;its literacy survey has since 1967 monitored the progress of ethnic minority groups of one cohort. The Authority's inspectorate now includes a team of five specialists in multi-racial education, with a support team of advisory teachers and curriculum project leaders; this has enabled the Authority to formulate policy and offer advice to schools based on the collective thinking of a specialist group.

18.15 Many children for whom English is not their native language need extra tuition in it. A Research and Statistics Branch survey in 1978/79 established the facts with a precision which no other LEA appears to possess: 7% of pupils north of the river and 2.5% south of the river need specific help with English; for every two in secondary schools needing help there are


[page 102]

about five in primary schools. The Authority's present provision has three strands:

  • several primary and secondary schools have their own departments of, or specialists in, English as a second language;
  • pupils in primary schools without such specialist provision are helped by a language centre, of which each division has at least one; some have two or three. There are also two centres for children of secondary school age;
  • a unified language service of 65 specialist teachers of English as a second language staff the centres and work in schools to help them overcome the problem of unexpected influxes of such pupils. The service also provides in-service training and acts in a general advisory capacity. Because of the range of issues which it faces it has developed expertise ranging from the teaching of children of infant age in ordinary classes through to teaching in language centres those pupils who arrive in this country half way through their secondary education, but with little or no English. The team of seven translators/interpreters between them speak several of the languages most commonly used by the immigrant pupils. This small team has translated into seven of the most common immigrant languages some of the 'World in a City' material developed by the centre for Urban Educational Studies (CUES). But they also assist schools in many other ways, particularly in home visiting, translating school letters to parents and attending some interviews with parents. Each is attached to a specific language centre according to the concentration of language needs, but each may be required to work anywhere within the Authority's area.
18.16 These three forms of organisation all benefit considerably from the work of CUES which has suggested approaches to language issues relating to ethnic minorities; these range from English as a second language at the initial stages (the Second Language in the Primary School Project - SLIPP) through to mother tongue teaching. It has also developed courses for teachers


[page 103]

of English as a second language from which teachers may gain specialist qualifications.

18.17 Despite this already good provision the Research and Statistics Branch survey has revealed further needs and particularly the imbalance between the two sides of the river. The Authority has accordingly authorised the expansion of the unified language service to 90 teachers. Because of the high mobility among many ethnic minority groups in London it is particularly advantageous that the Authority has such an extensive and well-conceived programme.

18.18 Equipment and resources in the language centres are ample and generally in good condition; the range of books is sometimes outstandingly good and often, commendably, features a number in pupils' native languages. Pupils are often encouraged to take reading books home and many do so. Apart from the language work - which generally progresses reasonably - the language centres for primary school pupils also include in their curricula work on number, geography and history, although these aspects may sometimes be at a very simple level which provides little challenge for the children's intellectual or linguistic abilities; in some cases also these centres group children roughly by age and then teach at a single level irrespective of the age and standard of the pupils in the group. HMI's full inspection reports refer to work at the centres for secondary school pupils as "at an appropriate level" (Hampstead), "in a rich environment" (Henry Compton) and in excellent working conditions (Battersea County).

18.19 At both primary and secondary school levels, however, there is frequently a lack of liaison between teachers in the centres and the schools, with a consequent loss of momentum for the pupils who in some cases obviously feel at a loss at school.

18.20 Secondary schools do not always possess detailed knowledge of the ethnic backgrounds of or the languages spoken by their pupils although they could clearly benefit from this knowledge both in understanding pupils' needs and in planning curricula. Nonetheless full inspection reports refer to schools' curricula including good international emphases in some subjects


[page 104]

(Hampstead), some work of good quality on multi-ethnic topics (Battersea County), valuable work within the Lambeth "whole school" project (Stockwell Manor), and suitable work in English on the language of prejudice (Henry Compton).

18.21 Much evidence suggests a keen awareness of the value of encouraging pupils to develop skills in their mother-tongue - the bi-lingual project for the under-fives (BUF) is one example of this. Several secondary schools now encourage pupils to take public examinations in their mother-tongue and some help by providing tuition in or after school.

18.22 HMI's full inspections of secondary schools have revealed much evidence of signal success in achieving harmonious communities or in promoting good relations between ethnic communities. The ILEA has by no means solved all the educational issues resulting from a multi-racial community, but they have made significant and substantial progress in a number of areas of need.

19. SPECIAL EDUCATION

Range of provision

19.1 The Authority maintains a full range of specialist services and facilities for handicapped pupils. Each administrative division of ILEA has provision for ESN(M), ESN(S) and maladjusted pupils; schools or units for delicate, partially hearing, deaf, partially sighted, blind, physically handicapped and language disordered pupils are available within the ILEA area and the Authority maintains 32 boarding special schools including 30 outside its own boundaries (Appendix 4). The Authority has also developed provision for some recently recognised needs such as day and boarding provision for children with autism and specific learning difficulties; it is also one of the few to have its own boarding school for severely mentally handicapped (Brastow) and for partially hearing pupils with secondary handicaps (Rayners). This is a broad range by national standards: handicapped children in inner London have a better chance than most of attending within the Authority a school designated for their particular handicap.


[page 105]

19.2 In inner London 2.56% of children are in special schools or units (the national average is 1.8%) and there are waiting lists for places in schools for the maladjusted. But otherwise, rolls in special schools are falling and in most cases are currently 15-35% below the peaks for their respective handicap.

19.3 Other authorities also make much use of ILEA's provision. Extra-district pupils currently occupy 7% of all places in ILEA's special schools, including 10.4% of boarding places. But if the three most common forms of handicap (ESN(M), ESN(S) and maladjusted) are excluded, extra-district pupils take 17% of the places overall: they take 66.7% of the places at Linden Lodge (blind, boarding) and 56.9% at Rayners.

19.4 The geographical distribution of schools and units largely results from the historical availability of sites or of premises for conversion; about a quarter of the schools are outside the Authority's boundaries. When the Authority has responded to new needs by opening new schools or units, it has not always modified existing provision, although some current plans to provide more boarding accommodation for maladjusted pupils use spare capacity elsewhere in the special education system. The Authority is now surveying its total provision for special education and is considering alternative patterns of provision.

Accommodation

19.5 The type of accommodation to a large extent depends on the nature of the handicap, but is generally suitable. New buildings are usually of a reasonable standard and some are models of their type eg the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee School (ESN) built in 1977; one exception is Crusoe House all-age school for maladjusted pupils, built in 1972, which is so poorly designed that it hinders attempts to maintain discipline and constrains the curriculum which the school can offer. Where the Authority has refurbished older premises this has usually been successful. As rolls fall there is perhaps a tendency to utilise spare space in other premises without proper regard for the full requirements of the new use eg the remodelling of part of Philippa Fawcett College to accommodate a 40 place boarding school for the


[page 106]

maladjusted. Generally classroom space is good. Art and home economics usually have good facilities; craft, design and technology premises are mostly satisfactory. Specialist facilities for science tend to he minimAl: this usually arises from the schools' and the Authority's failure to see the necessity for a full range of curriculum in the schools, rather than from any inability to provide the necessary facilities or equipment. In common with other types of school in the Authority (and in other urban authorities) the amount of outdoor space available on site is frequently below the desirable standard.

Resources

19.6 Capitation is high by national standards (Appendix 6 gives details). For the first time, from September 1980 special schools will be allowed to spend up to 10% of their capitation on additional staff and minor works etc as an extension of the AUR scheme. In their first year new schools receive double capitation.

19.7 Schools thus have plenty of books, materials and audio-visual and other equipment; home economics seems to be particularly well provided for. As stated earlier, provision for science is sparse. The Authority tends to provide some expensive audio-visual items as standard issue, eg video-cassette recorders, but the use which teachers make of these varies greatly. Good support is available to the schools from media resources officers based at the two centres for special education.

Staffing

19.8 Staffing standards in ILEA special schools are usually those suggested as appropriate in the Department of Education and Science Circular 4/73. There are, however, instances of schools being unable to recruit enough full-time staff; where possible, these schools often make up their complement by employing a greater number of part-time staff than is strictly desirable if supervision of activities and continuity of teaching are to be assured.

19.9 There are obvious shortcomings in the qualifications of staff employed. The Authority tries to recruit suitably qualified staff and is reluctant to


[page 107]

appoint any probationers except those who have completed initial courses in teaching pupils with mental handicap; these find posts in both ESN(M) and ESN(S) schools. Unfortunately there are several other probationers in post without special qualifications or training, often in schools for the maladjusted and other inappropriate locations. When HMI inspected [name of school removed], it was found that only ten of the 20 staff possessed a suitable qualification, although a further six were studying for one.

19.10 The special education centre in Webber Row provides a focus for the Authority's in-service programme. One of the main events is the twice yearly ten week TOSLADIC course (for teachers of slow learning and difficult children), attended in the period 1975-1980 by 200 teachers. The availability of in-service training is above the national average. However, some of the full-time secondments, particularly those for teachers of maladjusted pupils, have been to courses unsuited to the needs 0f the service.

Referrals

19.11 Pupils are referred to the special education system by their ordinary schools; the schools psychological service has developed a classroom observation procedure to enable infant teachers to identify as early as possible any pupils who might need special education. Referral processes will probably also involve contact with doctors and educational psychologists. The special education procedures are strictly adhered to for almost all pupils entering special schools. Schools for the maladjusted will accept pupils only on the additional recommendation of the schools psychiatric service.

19.12 Although the majority of children referred probably enter the right kind of school, there are examples of children being placed inappropriately. Schools for the delicate often have a significant number of behaviourally disordered children who have not gone through the educational psychologist network. There is also evidence of placement in special schools for reasons unconnected with the designated function: at Turney School (ESN(M)) pupils have been admitted above the usual IQ range associated with ESN(M) provision; some of above the average level for children in ordinary schools.


[page 108]

Curriculum

19.13 Some ILEA special schools (ESN(M) and (S) and some physically handicapped) are large of their type, with space for up to 200 pupils; they can therefore concentrate on particular age ranges - normally primary or secondary - and usually offer a reasonable range of curriculum. Where schools are small they often also have a wide age-range of pupils; nationally and within ILEA the consequence is often a deficient curriculum. As rolls fall the Authority will need to check frequently to ensure that all special schools offer adequate curricula.

19.14 Many special schools do not include science in their curriculum; schools with pupils who are capable of succeeding in public examinations are often unable to offer them specialist teaching except on a part-time basis; schools for the maladjusted have a heavy and desirable investment in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment, but this too often dominates their thinking at the expense of curricular planning. Inevitably, health care requirements obtrude into teaching time in the case of certain handicaps. The referral system does not always ensure that children are placed in schools or units which can offer them a suitable curriculum.

19.15 Schools for the maladjusted often co-operate with each other on admissions to avoid overloading any school with too many problems. And ESN(M) schools which are near to each other frequently co-operate on the admission of pupils: it would be of advantage if more co-operation were evident in the curriculum also.

19.16 After referral by their ordinary school many pupils have to wait before a place becomes available in a school for the maladjusted; during this period they often receive tuition at home or in nurture or tuition groups out of school. Curricular provision in these circumstances tends to omit most work which calls for specialist facilities.

19.17 Some schools have established links with normal schools or with colleges of further education to close some of the obvious gaps in their provision or to offer extra opportunities to their pupils, eg Elm Court's (delicate) use of science facilities at Tulse Hill School, Paddock School's


[page 109]

(ESN(S)) co-operation with South Thames College of FE; and Elizabeth Burgwin School's link with the Christopher Wren School for reading workshop facilities, which enables pupils to attend classes in both schools and to benefit from the expertise of both staffs. As so often, these arrangements and links depend heavily on the insight, energy and initiative of the people involved: there are indications that the wish to establish links is growing.

19.18 The annual Special Schools Music Festival has encouraged some remarkable music development in some special schools.

Standards of work

19.19 Within the limitations described above, special schools and units generally make a fair attempt to tailor the individual programme of pupils their needs. Some special schools in ILEA are doing well, eg Paddock ESN(S), John Aird for the hearing impaired and the FD Roosevelt (physically handicapped). This is often despite adverse circumstances resulting from staffing instabilities in the early and mid-1970s. However standards in some schools, particularly some day schools for the maladjusted, are disturbingly low. Until recently these schools, ESN(M) and schools for the delicate were not monitored by the Authority's specialist inspectors. On the whole, pupils' levels of achievement are very similar to those elsewhere in the country and largely reflect the national strengths and weaknesses of the specific forms of education.

20. SUPPORT SERVICES

20.1 Several aspects of the support available to all ILEA schools and colleges and to the Authority itself have been considered elsewhere in this report: peripatetic teachers, a wide range of additional help on- and off-site for the teaching of English as a second language, additional teachers to meet remedial and behavioural problems, in-service provision, inspectorate and advisory services, the planning aids from Research and Statistics Division, librarians and media resources officers. There are also references to many other facilities available to schools eg field study centres, the museum service. This section deals briefly with five other aspects of support.


[page 110]

Schools psychological service

20.2 The ILEA schools psychological service aims primarily "to offer professional support and will promote and maintain good mental health and social adjustment among children in schools and elsewhere and ensure that they receive learning opportunities appropriate to their individual needs". The principal educational psychologist is responsible to the Chief Inspector.

20.3 The team encompasses the full range of relevant expertise and comprises two deputy principal educational psychologists and about 70 educational psychologists organised in small local or specialist teams; it has recently been reorganised into divisional teams, each serving a single area of the ILEA under a divisional educational psychologist. These teams of 3-6 psychologists are encouraged to develop distinctive ways of working depending on what other local services are available and on the particular professional orientation of the teams. The service has 14 child guidance clinics including at least one in each division.

20.4 The divisional teams are based at these clinics and participate in their work with children and families, or visit schools to advise on possible referrals to remedial groups or special education: they undertake the comprehensive assessment of individual children and situations, which involves regular consultation with and advisory service to schools and other agencies. They do not carry out routine and brief assessments of large numbers of children. The service has, however, designed a classroom observation procedure to help infant teachers to identify children in need of special help; it is not yet in general use. The team collaborates with other administrative officers in preventative work and such matters as counselling children and their families (especially those with emotional handicaps), group work with teachers, other professionals and parents, and contributes to the in-service education of teachers and to action research which is relevant to the needs of the education service in London.

20.5 Paragraph 19.12 raises a question about some referrals to special education. Some full inspection reports indicate that schools benefit from the help of the schools psychological service, but that in some cases this help could usefully be extended to enable the schools to improve work in their remedial departments.


[page 111]

20.6 In September 1979 the general establishment was slightly in excess of one psychologist to about 6,000 school-aged children. The service does not keep statistics of the number of children dealt with in any particular year by any of the teams.

Educational welfare service

20.7 Truancy and absenteeism are great problems in many ILEA schools, particularly though not exclusively in the secondary sector. Many secondary schools have attendance rates of about 90% in the first three years, and some absence is of course legitimate. Attendance rates, however, then drop in some of these schools to 65-70% in the fifth year. Sixth formers rarely present a problem in this respect. Some schools however achieve much higher attendance rates at all stages.

20.8 The headquarters of the educational welfare service are at County Hall and each division has its own educational welfare office; each school has an assigned educational welfare officer (EWO). Because of the great amount of cross-boundary traffic many schools have contact with more than one EWO.

20.9 Whenever HMI has attended case conferences between EWOs and, for instance, heads of year, relations have been cordial, despite several instances of problems of discontinuity caused by frequent changes in the assignment of EWOs.

20.10 In some schools the cases are discussed briefly but thoroughly with, in the best instances, frequent follow-up reports. The system works reasonably well for some schools, but it cannot work independently of the ethos and expectations of the schools themselves. The intermediate education/treatment centres for persistent truants and some of the disruptive pupil support units are successful in persuading some persistent truants to attend school.

20.11 Some schools however say that they receive little if any support from the educational welfare service and have mentioned delays of up to two years by the EWO in following up referrals. It is obvious from the figures in paragraph 20.7 that the educational welfare service is by no means achieving


[page 112]

its goal, particularly with the older pupils. Apart from the complications caused by frequent changes of personnel, by cross-boundary traffic and by the varying attitudes of schools to pupil attendance, several EWOs complain that the staff of the Social Services Departments do not give suitable priority to encouraging attendance at school.

Student welfare service

20.12 All FHE establishments offer a student welfare service and each has a full-time student services officer. Because of the nature of its clientele, truancy has no real significance in further and higher education although absences from part-time courses are reported to the employer and joint steps taken to rectify any associated problems. Most of the issues dealt with by the college student services officers relate to the personal problems of students, which may include accommodation problems of young people living away from home for the first time as well as problems of a more confidential nature. Although HMI can have no direct knowledge of such transactions, the impression gained from talking with students is that these officers provide a sympathetic service which is of great value to those who seek their help.

Careers service

20.13 The organisation of the careers service, with its headquarters at County Hall, also mirrors the divisional organisation as far as schools are concerned. Each school with pupils of secondary school age has at least one assigned careers officer or, in some cases, two.

20.14 The most obvious part of the careers officer's work concerns job placement. Careers officers visit the schools in the autumn and spring terms to interview those who will be leaving school in the following summer. The number of first job-placement interviews conducted has risen only slightly in the last five years (32,747 in 1974/75 to 33,495 in 1978/79); but this is at a time when the relevant school rolls have fallen slightly. The Education Officer's report on the careers service 1978/79 (ILEA Paper 075) points out the difficulty of comparing the incidence of second interviews because of changes in reporting procedures; but it suggests that the number of subsequent


[page 113]

interviews for all candidates (estimated at approximately 40,000 from all sources) in 1978/79 is a considerable advance on the 18,349 second and subsequent interviews conducted by the service previously.

20.15 In many cases this initial job-placement interview is not the first occasion on which pupils have been in contact with the careers service, as several schools invite careers officers to participate in the process leading up to option choices at the end of Year 3 or to contribute to careers education programmes in third, fourth and fifth years in schools. Further involvement includes helping schools in their contacts with industry, organising or staffing divisional careers conventions and co-operating in industry/education projects. The Service has also produced a handbook for careers teachers.

20.16 Reports of full inspections recently conducted by HMI and general contacts with pupils speak well of the work of the careers service in terms of job placement and of the service's willingness to help schools' careers education programmes when requested. The generally mediocre quality of careers education in many schools means that pupils are not always well placed to make the best use of the work of the careers service. While a few schools offer hardly any careers education at all, there are a few with outstanding work; and the inspector for careers education is gradually increasing schools' awareness of the need to include it in their curricular.

20.17 Within the further and higher education service, each major establishment has one or more full-time careers officer, usually backed up by a wide range of available material on careers, courses and employers. For the polytechnics, recruitment visits by employers are arranged and national and local vacancy lists are made available. In all establishments careers advice and guidance is provided on a self-referral basis and often also as a specific input to various full-time courses. But in addition to this source of help, students receive both advice and active assistance in job location from subject specialist staff whose own contacts with local firms not infrequently lead to informal notifications of potential vacancies. It is by no means unusual for a local employer to approach the college to seek recruits from among recommended full-time vocational students, while individual staff are known to make considerable efforts both by using their


[page 114]

own contacts and also in co-operation with college careers staff to place their students in employment. It says much for their relationships and the standard of their courses that they usually succeed, particularly in respect of such courses as those in catering, secretarial, craft and technician specialisms.

Learning Resources Centre

20.18 This organisation provides a wide range of specialist services covering libraries, media resources, educational television, and publication of material developed in teachers' centres or elsewhere within ILEA.

20.19 The specialist librarian service is an enlightened and important contribution to the work of the schools; sections 6, 7 and 8 refer to the importance placed on the library service, but draw attention to respects in which schools' use of it falls short of the Authority's intentions.

20.20 The individual sections also cover discussion of the use of media resources and the work of the media resources officers - again, a picture of schools' underuse of a potentially valuable service. The Learning Resources Centre has a group of advisory teachers who, on invitation, spend periods of six weeks or more organising media resources systems in a school so that schools can derive the greatest benefit from the equipment and services at their disposal: this is a significant aspect of the centre's work, but it seems to have affected relatively few schools to date. However, much wider and more effective use is made of the work of media resources officers in establishments of further and higher education.

20.21 For several years the Authority had its own full educational television service similar to that of Glasgow in Scotland. Some of its work pioneered new approaches, but undoubtedly some of it was little used by schools; and it did not always avoid unnecessarily making its own programmes when, in some cases, perfectly acceptable alternatives were already available commercially. In 1979, faced with steeply increasing costs, the service ceased to transmit and now makes tapes and cassettes of its own programmes and productions available cheaply to all ILEA schools and colleges. It has handed the marketing of its films to the Central Film Library. However, its service of


[page 115]

recording musical and dramatic productions is of great value to the schools; its expertise also ensures good quality video cassette recordings for inservice training eg on the good use of play in nursery schools, good examples of school music teaching and an outstanding series to train foreign language assistants. It also achieves a similarly good standard of presentation in, for instance, geographical field work.

20.22 The publication section has negotiated several agreements with commercial publishing houses for making teaching materials developed by ILEA available outside the Authority. The recent amalgamation of the publications and television sections was long overdue.

20.23 The standard of presentation of the Learning Resources Centre's products is high though the quality of their content varies; it has pioneered and continues to pioneer some valuable approaches but it has not always avoided serious waste. In this respect it seems probable that it could be made more cost-effective, particularly as far as its activities in schools are concerned.

III CONCLUSION

21. CONCLUSION

21.1 In this report HMI have reviewed their collective experience of inspecting education in Inner London over the last five years. No period can be viewed in isolation from those preceding it and the early 1970's in schools in ILEA were a period of considerable change in the ethnic composition of school populations, of high teacher turnover and of continued belief in the virtues of large comprehensive secondary schools, often on several sites. Although some of these characteristics were present elsewhere in the country, they were nowhere else so pronounced in combination as in London. The William Tyndale affair in 1975/76 was a watershed which significantly changed the Authority's attitude to its schools and increased its awareness of standards within them.

21.2 In further and higher education (FHE) these years saw the initial development of the polytechnics. In the mid-1970s, reorganisation of the colleges of further and higher education led to economies of scale and


[page 116]

improved co-ordination of provision over a wide range of mainly vocationally related courses.

21.3 The pupil population of inner London contains a large number of disadvantaged children. In addition about 40% are from ethnic minority groups and one in ten of all pupils speaks a mother tongue which is not English. Significant parts of the area suffer from urban decay and some have changing populations. The ILEA is faced with a combination of problems to an extent probably unmatched elsewhere in England and Wales.

21.4 As with other LEAs, the ILEA education service includes sectors dealing with nursery, primary, secondary, special, further, higher and adult education, and youth work. The performance of these sectors is not uniform and there are dissimilarities within and between them. Generalised statements can cover only the broad picture; individual exceptions can be found to most of them, including some schools which are decidedly less good than average and some with work of considerable distinction. The following paragraphs sum up HMI's assessment of the standard of performance as they have observed it in each of the main fields.

21.5 Nursery education is generally of a satisfactory standard and is improving; it is able to influence and give help and guidance to the whole pre-school network. The range and quality of education in primary schools has also improved greatly in the last five years. The atmosphere in the schools is much more orderly; the children's performance in the basic skills is improving in response to the higher expectations of the teachers; and, gradually, these skills are being more fully and effectively applied to other parts of the curriculum and so further enhanced. Although patchy, the standard of work is now broadly satisfactory and continues to improve.

21.6 Secondary schools, with help from many quarters, have mainly become quieter places than they were five years ago. Also on the credit side, there are many instances of notably harmonious relations between all sections of the school communities. Schools often arrange for pupils for whom English is a second language to approach public examinations on a time scale which enables them to perform confidently. They also make elaborate and imaginative arrangements to ensure that pupils who have not mastered the basic skills at


[page 117]

entry have every chance to do so in their early years in secondary school. Some work on curriculum development is of national significance. Pupils who stay on in the sixth form for one year, but who have little or no academic ambition, frequently achieve reasonable success in some of the new courses organised for them by the schools and the Authority, often in co-operation with establishments of further and higher education. Similarly some of the A-level work has pace and challenge and is very good, occasionally outstanding. Several of the former grammar schools, a few of the long established comprehensive schools and individual departments in some other schools demand and receive high standards of work from the great majority of their pupils.

21.7 But, as a very broad generalisation, too many secondary schools expect too little from their pupils at all levels and much work lacks pace, variety and interest. Where schools choose to group their pupils without reference to individual abilities and achievements, teachers often fail to adjust their own approaches accordingly and pupils suffer. Curricular materials developed for years 1 to 3 do not always encourage the necessary individualised approach in these circumstances, or offer enough challenge for the abler pupils. Too many schools wrongly assume that all pupils from ethnic minorities automatically need an extra year to prepare for all their public examinations; and some schools view a-level as an inappropriate target at the end of five years for any of their pupils. There is therefore a considerable tendency for many pupils of all abilities in the compulsory years to achieve less than they are capable of. The one-year sixth former achieves as little success with O-level and/or CSE retakes in ILEA schools as elsewhere in the country. Much A-level work is slow, narrow and unchallenging, with a considerable minority of pupils taking three years to prepare for the examinations and then performing poorly.

21.8 In summary, some of the ILEA's secondary schools are good by any standard; they also constantly evaluate and seek to improve their performance by all means at their disposal. Some schools start from further back but are seeking to improve themselves. But, despite encouragement from the ILEA inspectorate to do so, many secondary schools currently seem reluctant to analyse critically pupils' examination performance and other possible


[page 118]

measures of the schools' effectiveness. Overall, the secondary sector needs considerable improvement.

21.9 ILEA offers a very broad range of special schools and units and is important in this respect as a local and regional resource. Physical provision is generally good and very generous resources are available to the schools. Much of the work in this sector is satisfactory, with strengths and weaknesses similar to those elsewhere in the country. However in some schools, particularly but not exclusively some of those for the maladjusted, standards give cause for serious concern.

21.10 The further and higher education sector provides a good range of general and vocational courses to match the range of local demand, while some more specialist provision draws students from a much wider area. The colleges have been provided with generous resources and the standard of equipment is very good, well maintained, and usually up-to-date; it is mostly well used under the guidance of a suitably qualified teaching staff but, although the general standards achieved are satisfactory, they are not noticeably higher than are achieved elsewhere. Work for the low ability pupils in colleges of further and higher education has been a particular priority and has led to many young people entering employment with increased self-confidence and enhanced capabilities. ILEA provides 13 of the 17 special preparatory courses for entry to higher education available in the country; and these recruit essentially from the ethnic minorities. Much of the work in ILEA polytechnics, as in many others, is of satisfactory quality both at undergraduate level and in the postgraduate and research fields. Standards in colleges of art, which have been exceptionally well funded, are very satisfactory and the colleges have a good reputation for both sub-graduate and graduate work.

21.11 In the six institutions maintained by the Authority in which initial teacher training occurs, much of the work is sound and in some subject areas it is very good indeed. Both initial and in-service training take particular account of conditions and practices in ILEA schools. In-service training is provided on a generous scale and its quality is generally good.


[page 119]

21.12 ILEA is to be commended for its policy, unusual elsewhere, of requiring newly-appointed untrained full-time staff in further and higher education at Lecturer I or II grades with less than five years' previous teaching experience to undertake teacher training on a part-time day release basis. This requirement, together with the Authority's in-service training and support policies, helps to raise general teaching standards in colleges of further and higher education.

21.13 Adult education provision within the ILEA is on a scale probably unmatched elsewhere and, while generally of satisfactory standard, reaches high peaks of quality in some cases which set it above that available in most other areas. It has a deservedly high reputation and attracts students from outside the ILEA area.

21.14 Youth work in ILEA is a combination of statutory and grant-aided voluntary arrangements. The Authority has allocated large resources to support an extensive and varied programme of work which attempts to meet the diverse needs of a cosmopolitan youth population facing the problems of living in a large capital city. Some of its achievements in this respect are encouraging and tend to give a lead in this area of work.

21.15 The wide range of support services and their consistently good staffing levels and resourcing are factors which distinguish ILEA from other authorities and which sometimes attract national interest for their achievements. Not all the services are equally strong or effective and their influence on the quality of education largely depends on the use which institutions choose or are able to make of them. The ILEA inspectorate, the only "support" group with a right to intervene, has been responsible for a number of innovations and improvements in all sectors, but perhaps to a lesser extent in secondary and special education, where the task is more difficult and much remains to be done. The strengthening of the primary inspectorate and their clearer remit have borne fruit. The recent increase in the establishment of inspectors for special education should help to improve the overall performance of pupils in special education placements.


[page 120]

21.16 In the past five years the Authority has given energetic and unremitting attention to a multiplicity of matters and to the deployment of considerable financial resources to counteract these problems. The picture that currently emerges is of a caring and generous authority with considerable analytical powers to identify problems, the scale of which is, in some cases, unique in this country. It frequently pilots imaginative or innovative approaches; but it does not always adequately evaluate the new approaches it introduces, avoid unnecessary duplication of provision or ensure that schools derive the greatest benefit from the additional resources made available. Schools have, in any case, very generous staffing, resources and funding which in HMI's view they do not always deploy wisely. There are disturbing examples of waste and inefficiency. Performance in nursery and primary education and in further and higher education is generally sound and improving. In secondary schools and special education performance is much patchier; it calls for the same kind of firm handling which has improved the other sectors. Secondary schools will in future have the benefit of improved standards in primary schools on which to base their work.

21.17 It is probable that external circumstances and past events will cause many of the problems in the Authority's area and institutions to persist. If, however, the Authority can continue to develop its in-service training programme and retain the goodwill of its existing teachers, and if it can continue to recruit and keep sufficient good teachers, there is enough good practice in all sectors to justify reasonable confidence that considerable further improvement can be achieved. This improvement certainly does not call for extra resources; it can largely come from increasing teachers' awareness of pupils' abilities and from developing a greater capacity and willingness to assess their performance.




[page 121]

APPENDIX 1: THE TOP STRUCTURE

(click on the image for a larger version)


[page 122]

APPENDIX 2: ILEA

(click on the image for a larger version)


[page 123]

APPENDIX 2: ILEA (continued)

(click on the image for a larger version)


[page 124]

APPENDIX 4: SUMMARY OF 1979 STATISTICS SHOWING PUPIL NUMBERS AT TRANSFER FROM PRIMARY TO SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ILEA, BY DIVISION

(click on the image for a larger version)


[page 125]

APPENDIX 4: DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIAL SCHOOLS


[page 126]

APPENDIX 5: SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS (PRIMARY) AT SEPTEMBER 1979


[page 127]

APPENDIX 6

ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES AND THE ALTERNATIVE USE OF RESOURCES (AUR) SCHEME

A.6.1 Objective

The Authority determines, year by year, the resources that can be made available. The AUR scheme is designed to allow the schools themselves to have a major say in how the money should be used. A.6.2 Main Essentials

Well in advance, each school is notified of the resources it will have for the following school year. The information is given in two parts:-

1. Main staffing (both teaching and non-teaching). Schools may not reduce their staff but may add to it.

2. Money resources, quoted under the sub heads:-

a. School allowance
b. Additional resources
Subject to certain limitations, schools may choose to spend any of the resources 2a and 2b on
1. Additional teachers
2. Additional non-teaching staff
3. School allowance (books, equipment, educational visits, etc)
4. Minor works (county schools only)
A.6.3 Calculation of Entitlement

TEACHERS

The basic entitlement is determined by applying current teacher allocation formulae as follows:-

Primary

1:28 applied to an estimated roll for the summer term allowing for infants expected to be admitted in the Spring and Summer terms (+1 for a remainder of 14 or more), and one for each nursery class.
Secondary
1:17 applied to the previous year's enrolment; this delays the full impact of roll fall year by year and, in particular, safeguards the provision for each year's 11+ cohort up to their third year.

For some primary and secondary schools teachers are allocated over and above the basic staffing on the advice of the inspectorate to meet special needs (eg, non-English speaking pupils, curriculum organisation). Some posts are also allocated to cushion schools against the expected roll fall.


[page 128]

After allocation of these extra staff positions, primary schools receive additional allocation as necessary to ensure that none has a planned staffing ratio less favourable than 1:27
NON-TEACHING STAFF
Basic entitlements are also determined in relation to the same calculations of roll, and additional allocations for special needs (in terms of hours for primary helper or general assistants) are made for some schools on the same basis as for teachers.
A.6.4 Money Resources

(a) SCHOOL ALLOWANCE - derived by applying current per capita rates to actual September roll for secondary and estimated summer term roll for primary schools. Primary schools receive a lump sum addition. The rates are reviewed and notified to schools annually (see paragraph A6.9)

(b) ADDITIONAL RESOURCES - calculated by reference both to roll and the school's position on the index of educational need priority, ie, a school high on the index will have a significantly higher entitlement than one with similar roll but lower in the list. Actual allocations to school are based on a computer prepared list, but there is provision for variation by the divisional officer or district inspector in the light of local circumstances not necessarily reflected in the EPA list.

A.6.5 Limitations of Choice under AUR

Schools are allowed wide discretion under the scheme, but may not:-

(a) Forego any teaching or non-teaching staff post from the authorised staff allocation for its cash equivalent.
(b) Use more than 80% of their additional resource (A.6.2b) for additional teaching staff "(unless in exceptional circumstances prior approval is given).
(c) Vire [sic] authorised staff positions
(d) Spend more than £1500 on anyone minor improvements job (County schools only).

[page 129]

A.6.6 Control of Expenditure

Schools options, once made, are recorded by the different sections of the department with management responsibility for that aspect of expenditure. The sections then monitor spending through the year, eg, the local divisional office will be concerned with the teaching staff, the school equipment centre with spending on school allowance.

A.6.7 Spread of Expenditure

Planned expenditure in the academic year 1978/9 was:-

A.6.8 Research and Statistics Division

Are concerned in collection and computation of data for the educational priority indices - prepared every two years. The Division also calculate the notional additional resources allocation for each school to reflect both roll and EPA position.

The educational priority index for primary schools takes account of the following criteria:


[page 130]


[page 131]

A.6.9 SCHOOL ALLOWANCE - RATES FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1980/81

ORDINARY SCHOOLS

A.6.10 SPECIAL SCHOOLS

Special schools do not at present participate in the AUR scheme. From September 1980 they will be able to vire [sic] up to 10% of their per capita allowances in this way. Nursery schools do not participate in the AUR scheme.