Beyond Education By Numbers

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How can we get schools focused on the substance of education?

Schools need to be accountable to taxpayers and parents to ensure money is well spent and children well taught. But with the accountability system dominating so much of what England’s state funded schools now do, are we in danger of becoming so pre-occupied by inspection judgements and performance targets that we lose sight of education’s real purposes? And with our obsession with performance data creating strong incentives for schools to game the system and teach to the test, are we in danger of narrowing and hollowing out the education our young people receive?

As the RSA launches its latest report “The Ideal School Exhibition”, director of creative learning & development Julian Astle is joined in conversation by experts from education policy, practice and assessment to explore how schools can resist the magnetic pull of the ‘education-by-numbers’ game and stay true to their own sense of mission. We will hear from a former cabinet minister, an assessment expert and a headteacher about how to reform the system to ensure every child receives a rich and rounded education that prepares them not just to write a good exam, but to live a good life.