Woolly brains and the DfE

 My brain has been a little wobbly for the last week. 

The anniversary effect.

But even so, I can still smell when something is off. And something seems to be rotten in the DfE. 

Yesterday, all primary school teachers seemed to agree that the numerical reasoning SATs paper was the hardest they’ve seen. Year 6 children were walking around school looking dazed and exhausted. I’m guessing it’s because the DfE can’t do numerical reasoning themselves.

They also chose that day to tweet: “The Office for Statistics Regulation has today acknowledged that we have been transparent in demonstrating that our teacher pay offer is fully-funded. The offer was fair, reasonable and recognised teachers hard work. Read more.”

I read more. https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-graham-archer-schools-costs-funding/

I scratched my head.

I didn’t read it as a ringing endorsement. I read it as the opposite. I asked my statistical brained son to read it to make sure my woolly brain was working. He agreed. It sounded more like a chastisement rather than an endorsement. 

They said that it wasn’t in their remit to judge the affordability of the pay offer but that the DfE had been clear and published lots of data on their calculation (except for high needs funding, which they urge more transparency on) however their definition of ‘fully-funded’ is at a national level, rather than an individual school level. It said that the DfE has acknowledged this in a document but appeared to be questioning the use of the term fully-funded. It said that the documents state,  ‘The cost increases presented are averages across all schools in England and should not be read as pertaining to individual schools. All schools need to understand and plan for their own situation’.

The report concluded, “ We consider that the Department for Education has evidenced its claim that the offer is fully funded in line with its definition. However, we acknowledge that some users may interpret fully funded to refer to the individual school level. In the light of this difference of interpretation, it is important that the Department for Education continues to support understanding by being clear about its use of the term fully funded.”

It’s all very well being clear but if your definition doesn’t meet that of normal human experience then you are never going to win the argument. 

Numerical Reasoning SATs paper

Q1. School A needs £100 to fund its pay rises, school B needs £200, school C needs £300 and school D needs £400. The DfE calculates the total cost to be £1000 and shares that equally between the schools. How much does each school get and which schools will go bankrupt?

See, it’s not so hard is it? 

Anyway, wish me and my woolly brain luck today with the year six children. We will be trying to learn 11 songs when we probably all need to be rocking, quietly in a darkened room.