16 2GM Wednesday December 2 2020 | the times
News
Schools that focus too heavily on the
3Rs are being marked down by Ofsted
for not teaching a wide curriculum, a
report reveals.
The regulator published its annual
report yesterday and said that school
inspections would start again in Janu-
ary but would not be graded — which
will be a relief to many head teachers.
Speaking at the launch, Amanda
Spielman, the chief inspector, warned
about the teaching of climate change,
saying that it was in danger of becom-
Schools lose marks for concentrating on the 3Rs
ing a “morality tale” and “quasi-
religious” if not grounded in science.
She said that there had been a rise in
efforts to “commandeer schools and the
curriculum in support of worthy social
issues”.
The pressure on schools to put more
on to the curriculum was growing, as
they were seen as “the go-to solution”
by advocates who often launch peti-
tions and social media campaigns.
“Treating schools as the great panacea
of our time underlines the importance
of education but it doesn’t make it any
easier to run a school,” she said. How-ever, the report said that schools had
been penalised for narrowing their cur-
riculums.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of
the Association of School and College
Leaders, said: “A full and balanced cur-
riculum is vital but the government and
Ofsted pull in different directions, with
the former judging schools, particularly
primary schools, on English and maths,
and the latter judging them on curricu-
lum breadth.”
The report said: “Primary schools
judged as ‘requires improvement’
sometimes focused extensively onteaching reading, writing and mathe-
matics at the expense of other subjects
in the curriculum... This limits pupils’
ability to thrive in secondary school.
This effect will be especially profound
for disadvantaged pupils.”
It said some secondary schools were
also guilty of narrowing the curriculum
by focusing on teaching to exam speci-
fications. It added: “We do expect all
pupils to have access to a full curricu-
lum, and not spend inordinate time pre-
paring for GCSEs.”
Asked whether there would be a soft-
er attitude after lockdown to schoolsspending too much time on core sub-
jects, Ms Spielman said that inspec-
tions would look at schools in the con-
text of the pandemic.
She said: “We absolutely recognise
that there are hard choices to be made.
Learning time has been lost and what
we expect people to do is to make ra-
tional and sensible choices.”
The report said that losing sight of
vulnerable children because of the pan-
demic should be a matter of national
concern and too many children had not
returned to school and were “ostensibly
being home-educated”.Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
MATT ALEXANDER/PAMonumental tribute
Stonehenge is lit up with
images of heritage
workers who have kept
sites across the UK open
during the pandemic