What’s new and what isn’t in UK secondary education? an alien answers

21 Observations from the Schools and Academies Show 2021

Schools and Academies Show 2021 during COVID-19 pandemic. Image credit: author’s own.

If you’re wondering what’s going on in secondary education in the UK, read this 21-point alien’s guide to the business of education. After working in education in France, Japan, and Micronesia since 2005, this UK-educated returnee reports on the Department of Education-funded Schools and Academies Show in November 2021, the UK’s largest education policy event.

Those up-to-date with recent UK education lingo should skip these bullet points intended for aliens and others less familiar:

• Maintained schools receive government funding through their local authority and must follow the national curriculum.
• Academies receive funding directly from the government, are run by not-for-profit academy trusts, and do not have to follow the national curriculum.
• Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates both schools and academies.
• If Ofsted rate a school ‘inadequate’, the school must convert to an academy — no consultation permitted.
• If Ofsted rate an academy ‘inadequate’, the academy is monitored, unless they are ‘re-brokered’ to a different multi-academy…