Fiona Millar: The big election idea should be trust teachers

There is a general election looming in case you hadn’t noticed – 114 days away to be precise. But the big education idea has yet to reveal itself. What will it be?

My prediction is that “choice” and its twin sister, “diversity”, will finally fade into the distance. Not just because they suddenly seem very last century, but because the evidence is now incontrovertible; pure choice is impossible. School places aren’t tins of baked beans on a supermarket shelf, to be expanded and contracted at will, and simply inventing new types of schools isn’t a golden bullet when it comes to raising standards.

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And what matters is equally incontestable and quite simple. A good education depends on good teachers and leaders. So why can’t we have that as our big idea? An outstanding headteacher for every local school, leading excellent teachers. I’d vote for that.

It probably isn’t deemed newsworthy enough for the cut and thrust of a general election campaign; too supply-side, not enough “best for my child”, middle-class hand-wringing about Latin and Oxbridge for the sort of education human interest many commentators (wrongly) believe motivates the public.

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But I think the deeper problem is one of trust. A recent Sutton Trust report on What Makes Great Teaching flagged up the importance of school cultures in which trust is blended with challenge to get the best out of staff and pupils.

But what about the culture of trust between government and the professionals? For all the talk of autonomy, central government micromanagement and (often misused) accountability measures suggest that there isn’t really trust in the professionals.

Read the full column here.