What would improve the teaching of English in Swindon?

This question gives the impression that there is something wrong with the teaching of English in Swindon.

This view has been promoted by the Government, and helped by the media.

In fact, standards in Swindon are at or near the national average for all subjects and age ranges, and have been rising steadily for several years due to the hard work of many groups including pupils, parents, teachers and others.

We need to look to the future and see what can be done to continue to improve. There is not one simple answer, but many interconnected factors that will influence standards.

Children must be secure and supported by a family to make progress, which is obvious when children enter school.

Those that come from a happy home, where they have been supported and encouraged with a wide range of experiences, usually have a much better vocabulary, are able to communicate with others and have standards of behaviour that make it easy for teachers to concentrate on education, not discipline.

The local authority needs to encourage many pre-school services that support families, in order to decrease the number of children who have a poor start even before they attend school.

An example of this would be the provision of quality libraries across Swindon, and opening hours that are geared to the needs of pre-school parents so that a love of books is established early in life.

It is also clear that the council needs to ensure progress is made in aspects of social services that involve children.

If you ask a farmer how to increase the weight of a pig, he will answer give it more food and look after it well; he will not answer weigh it more often.

Unfortunately, many people in education seem to think the way to increase standards is to test children, teachers, authorities and anything else that moves and announce that they are failing to reach the required standard.

This successfully convinces everybody that they are failing; they become depressed and find it difficult to maintain present standards let alone improve on them.

Children are tested virtually every year at great expense to prove what their teachers already know about them. This means children are taught how to pass tests rather than to appreciate and enjoy English.

Which is more enjoyable sitting an exam on a play or watching a live production of it?

Ofsted inspections cost more than £2 million each year nationally. Think what Swindon schools could do with that amount of money.

Swindon delivers virtually national averages with some of the lowest funding in the country.

The average Swindon school receives for each pupil a little over £2,000 a year. In the best-funded authorities, schools receive considerably more than twice as much. Is it little wonder local schools struggle to balance their books?

With a difficulty in retaining staff in Swindon, more support and encouragement must be given to change the culture from critical to supportive.

Ask any Swindon teacher how they could do a better job and they would ask for less form filling, less changes of rules each year, time to actually teach children and fewer meetings.

The average teacher works 50 hours a week before taking work home to mark and plan for the rest of the term. The removal of pressure on teachers and the occasional thank you for the good work they do, would go a long way to improving morale and therefore standards in Swindon schools.