Government and Education Flashcards

1
Q

What were the aims of the New Labour gov between 1997-2010?

A
  • Focus was to reduce inequality
  • Provide an education system that gave everyone an equal chance of success
  • Compensatory policies to help disadvantaged pupils
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2
Q

What were the 7 educational policies New Labour implemented?

A
  1. Education Action Zone (EAZ)
  2. Aim Higher
  3. National Literacy Challenge
  4. City Academies
  5. Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)
  6. Sure Start
  7. Specialist Schools
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3
Q

What was EAZ?

AO1

A
  • Inner city schools in deprived areas received extra funding for resources
  • Aimed to help close the gap by providing schools with resources they need
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4
Q

What was Aim Higher?

AO1

A

Aimed to raise the higher aspirations for those underepresented within education

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5
Q

What was the National Literacy Challenge?

AO1

A
  • Set literacy and numeracy hours introduced in primary schools
  • Reduced max class size to 30 for 5-7 year olds
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6
Q

How can we analyse National Literacy Challenge?

AO3

A

Mainly benefits boys as they are the people who typically underperform in reading tasks

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7
Q

What are city academies?

AO1

A
  • Introduced in 2000
  • Schools that are state schools but are independent of LEA and receive funding directly from gov
  • Also have private sponsors
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8
Q

How can we analyse city academies?

AO3

A

Mossbourne Academy was once a failing school but after becoming a city academy they became outstanding. Thus relevant as city academies are rising in number and success

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9
Q

What is EMA?

AO1

A
  • Educational Maintanence Allowance introduced to encourage disadvantaged pupils to stay in school post 16
  • £30 a week as long as they went to all lessons
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10
Q

How can we analyse EMA?

AO3

A

Not relevant today as staying in education until 18 is now compulsory

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11
Q

How can we evaluate EMA?

AO3

A

PRO: Benefits WC as they are able to pay for travel and equipment
CON: Only avaliable to those over 16 years old

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12
Q

What is Sure Start?

AO1

A

Compensatory education policy - preschool children could receive early support and intervention. They provided:
- family support e.g. access to specialist parenting advice and language therapy
- post natal support
- information and guidance on breastfeeding
- healthcare and nutrition guidance e.g. help stop smoking

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13
Q

What are specialist schools?

AO1

A
  • Focus on a chosen subject area
  • Private funding from sponsors and additional funding from gov
  • Were allowed to choose 10% of pupils based on aptitude in chosen subject area
  • This aimed to improve standards
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14
Q

How can we analyse specialist schools?

AO3

A

In line with New Right Theory of marketisation and raising standards through being selective and privatised

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15
Q

How does Benn evaluate the New Labour policies?

AO3

A
  • New Labour Policies were contradictory - ‘New Labours Paradox’
  • Aimed to reduce inequality through policies like EAZ but also raised inequality by increasing tuition fees - fee pay schools are the ones MC parents opt for
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16
Q

What were the aims of the 2010 Conservative gov?

A
  • To encourage competition, excellence, and innovation
  • Free schools from the ‘dead hands of the state’

Ball and Exley: to mix the old with the new - combined parental choice with new types of schools and implemented policy to help disadvantaged pupils

17
Q

What changes did the 2010 Conservative gov make to education?

A
  • Outstanding cademies
  • Free schools
  • Pupil Premium
  • Linear exams
  • Progress 8
  • Scrapped Sure Start and EMA
  • Cut funding of schools by 60%
  • Increased university tuition to £9,200
18
Q

How did academies impact education?

AO2

A
  • In 2010 schools rated Outstanding by OFSTED were encouraged to leave LEA control and receive funding firectly from gov and were given full control over their curriculum
  • This lead to the academisation of schools by gov
  • By 2017 68% of schools had been converted to academies - some received private funding others from the gov
  • By 2022 80% of schools were academies or free schools
19
Q

How can we evaluate academies?

AO3

A
  • Ball: Fragmentation - comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of private companies which leads to greater inequality
  • Hall: academies are an example of public services being handed over to private capitalists/companies e.g. educational businesses
  • Marxists: claim that privatisation and competition raises standards is a myth used to legitimise making education another source of profit for bouregeoisie
  • Machin and Vernoit: academies are significantly more advantaged than state schools as they have less FSM pupils
20
Q

How did Free Schools impact education?

AO2

A
  • School 21 are able to form their own curriculum e.g. boxing projects in PE and coaching to build self-esteem
  • Funded directly by group that set it up rather than LEA thus giving them more control over finances
21
Q

How can we evaluate free schools?

AO3

A

Disadvantage FSM pupils as they often carry out social selection - in 2011 in Bristol only 6.8% of pupils at free schools wre FSM which is much less compared to 22.5% in the city

22
Q

How did Pupil Premium impact education?

AO2

A
  • Schools receive additional funding per term for pupils eligibly for FSM
  • Changed school admissions code in 2014 so students of Pupil Premium were given priority in school applications
23
Q

How can we evaluate Pupil Premium?

AO3

A

In 2012 OFSTED found that pupil premium was often not spent on the students it was meant to help - only 1/10 said it made a difference

24
Q

How did EBACC impact education?

AO2

A
  • Driven by the belief in ‘real subjects’ - made students studying EBACC a feature of school league tables in 2010
  • National Curriculum was reformed with more push for subjects like English, Maths, Sciences, languages, computing, history, and geography with more demanding National Curriculum Tests
25
Q

How can we evaluate EBACC?

AO3

A

Not taken up by the majority of students - only 38.7% in 2021

26
Q

How did linear exams impact education?

AO2

A
  • Eliminated coursework for most subjects
  • All students had to take end of year exams
  • Aimed to raise srandards and make A Levels more demanding
27
Q

How did Progress 8 impact education?

A

Introduced in 2016:
- Measured pupils progress in 8 subjects repleacing 5 A*-C including maths and English
- Made it harder for schools to raise standards

28
Q

How can we evaluate the coalition gov policies?

AO3

A

STRENGTHS:
- Academies gave outstanding schools more power over finances - could invest into specific needs to further raise standards
- Increased competition raises standards and pupil attainment

WEAKNESSES:
- Higher uni tution fees disadvantages WC pupils from entering higher education thus limiting their life chances
- Ball: education has become a commodity
- Only improves standards for schools that can afford to compete