State of Education Report 2017 state-of-education-booklet-Final-WEB | Page 33

“Pupils should be able to follow vocational routes and
work placements without penalising their chances of
competing with the most academic pupils, and without
negatively impacting on a school’s progress 8 score.”
What would secondary leaders change?
Unsurprisingly in the context of these wider results, secondary
leaders – in common with primary leaders – call for a focus on more
core life skills: eight in 10 (79%) think this would help them to better
serve their pupils. The majority of leaders believe in a balanced and
School leader
holistic curriculum offer. Less than half (43%) of secondary school
leaders would split the curriculum into academic and vocational/
technical streams, given the choice. One school leader comments:
“There should be a more balanced offer of courses but I do not agree
56%
25%
10%
Provision of vocational/
technical education
with streaming. Students should have access to the curriculum that
allows them to achieve success and enjoy their learning. This, in most
cases, would be a combination of courses … Flexibility and equal
5%
status (of vocational and academic courses) is what is needed”.
4%
For schools to confidently offer this holistic curriculum, leaders are
48%
36%
Progress of pupils with
special educational
needs or disabilities
calling for more flexibility around progress 8, so that vocational
subjects can count towards the headline measure.
10%
6%
Some schools are choosing to risk their performance in the league
<1%
tables, telling us that they are instead matching pupils with the most
appropriate subjects for them and championing individual pupil
44%
31%
Pupils’ readiness for
employment/
further education post-16
success over school performance tables.
14%
7%
4%
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