Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference

Today, (9 Mar), is the first day of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference.

The union trailed a number of speeches set to take place today, including from Education Select Committee member Lucy Powell MP, Confederation of British Industry President Paul Drechsler and ASCL union President Carl Ward.

On top of this, the union has published a survey on children’s mental health and social media.

Lucy Powell’s speech will focus on oversight and accountability in the school system.

The speech by CBI President Paul Drechsler’s will discuss the encouragement of thought and creativity in the education system in addition to a more academic curriculum.

The speech by ASCL President Carl Ward will discuss the various policy changes that the Department for Education has undergone over recent years and how this has affected the education system.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

This Government’s long-term reforms are about giving a world-class education to everyone, whatever their background, and they are working.

Thanks to the hard work of teachers, there are now 1.9million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is falling and our young readers now rank among the world’s best.

We must further raise our game to be fit for the future which is why we are introducing new gold-standard GCSEs and new technical qualifications like T-levels which will be on a par with A-levels, providing genuine choice for young people.

Mental Health

ASCL has conducted a survey that claims a majority of headteachers believe social media is damaging children’s mental health. 

To support schools, the Government has pledged £1.7 billion to help promote, protect and improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

DfE’s proposals outlined in the children and young people’s mental health green paper will provide significant additional resources for early mental health intervention for all schools – over £300 million has been made available to support these.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

We recognise that growing today not only bring immense benefits to our children but also new challenges too

We are taking action to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online by introducing a social media code of practice, an annual transparency report and we have funded guidance on how schools can tackle cyberbullying. These measures include setting standards and tracking companies’ progress in stamping out online harm.

We are also looking at how we make sure pupils are taught about mental wellbeing and the effect of internet harm as part of our work to improve Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Personal Social and Health Education in schools.