The Green Party believes in lifelong learning – that people should be provided with the opportunity to learn throughout their lives. Such learning should enhance their quality of life whilst benefiting society as a whole. A variety of educational opportunities should be freely available to all children with subsidized support for Adult Education.

Formal Education within our schools and adult education services have an important role to play in achieving a learning, tolerant and cohesive society. We should learn to respect others and ourselves.

Successive Labour and Conservative Governments seem determined to turn our education service into mere job training centres. The emphasis has been on the National Curriculum and testing with external key stage examinations. League tables certainly measure exam attainment but ignore important aspects of education such as building character and instilling values such as tolerance, respect for others, and non violence. The Greens believe that these qualitative values are just as important, if not more important, than pure exam results.

Whilst constrained by Government legislation and policies in the funding and content of education the LEA has a vital role to play in determining how Education is delivered. Oxfordshire County Council should be far more creative in executing this role with a series of policies that will enhance the educational experiences of all.

Objectives

The Green Party supports an approach that places the highest value on education that helps people realise their full potential and enjoy their educational experience. Achieving scores, improving performance via tests and qualifications are significant stepping stones but the most important goal is that children and adults should be happy and feel that their education has helped them in their personal development.

The Ethos of Education

The Greens will seek to encourage an ethos of cooperation, equal opportunities, promotion of peace and respect for the views of others. We would also seek to build an environmental awareness and an international perception amongst those who take up educational opportunities in Oxfordshire. We must at all stages stand against bullying and encourage a spirit of tolerance and multicultural understanding.

Democracy in Education

The Greens believe that as far as is practically possible learners of all ages should be involved in decision making via direct team building or through representative systems. The concept of democratic decision making and building community cohesion by inclusion will help build a society where participation and involvement of all citizens is the norm. As children grow they should be encouraged to take greater responsibility in planning their own progression and in collaboration with others take greater control of their day-to-day activities.

Future Educational Planning

In future planning of Educational provision approval for new developments needs to take into account the likely catchment of the schools to be built. These new schools and institutions need to be located in such a way that they will generate a mixed social group of participants in their ethnic and socio economic backgrounds.

Funding

The major problem facing Education in Oxfordshire is lack of funding for the Education Service.

This essentially is a national issue, the level of funding for Education being set by Government Ministers and incorporated into the Rates Support Grant Settlement given to local Councils.

Nationally the Greens have a clear policy of redistributing resources away from aggressive military ventures and into public services such as Education. If this were done many billions would be made available for public services in the UK.

In the meantime Oxfordshire Green Party must accept the level of funding set down by the current Government and operate its policies within that revenue base.

Even so, within the perimeters of the given budget the Greens would seek to rebalance the distribution of spending locally to balance the funding of services away from spending on projects such as incineration plants and extensive road schemes to provide extra resources for Education and Social Services.

Equality

In the distribution of funds within the Education Service the LEA should take into account catchment of the schools and institutions it serves and distribute its resources with a view to redressing inequality.

Pre School Provision

The Greens would see advantage in two forms of provision: Children’s and Family Centres and primary schools with nursery units, each focused on creative play.

Parents will be able to decide which option is the most suitable for their children. This provision before the age of compulsory education would be free.

The County Council already runs a number of highly successful Children and Family Centres with day, evening and weekend provision for children and parents. To be successful the centres need to be adequately staffed and purpose built. The Green Party is convinced that such informal centres make a large contribution to support for children and parents. There should be a rolling programme of new centres over the next 5 years that focus on provision in areas of deprivation.

The Green Party sees advantages for children in building closer links between nursery and primary education. To enhance that transition the LEA should encourage the establishment of nursery reception provision within more local Primary Schools. This process is in hand and is increasingly providing places for children from 3 years old upwards. The programme would be to build 2 new units of nursery provision attached to primary schools per year over the next decade.

After School Provision

The Green Party would ensure that the County Council helps schools to set up and run after school clubs. This would widen the social side of the learning experience for children and provide after school provision for parents with full-time jobs.

Healthy Eating in Schools

Schoolchildren face growing problems of obesity and asthma which - if not addressed - will reduce life expectancy and increase ill health, thereby placing a massive burden on the local Health Service in future generations. One in three of our children are overweight with the levels of asthma increasing year on year.

To ensure a healthy diet the Greens believe that free school meals should be provided for every child in primary schools (3-11) and a subsidized menu on offer in secondary schools up to the age of 16. The meals should offer a balanced nutritional diet that focuses on healthy eating. Vegetarian options should always be included in the range of food available.

Each school kitchen should have the facilities to cook and prepare the full range of food on offer with a minimum of food processed via external providers. The food provided should also, as far as possible, be Fair Trade and locally produced.

Fast food and drinks machines irrespective of their income should be removed from school premises.

It is important that all children learn cookery and domestic science as a part of their Life Skills programme before they leave school, to stop reliance on prepared processed food.

There are Schools in the County that already have breakfast clubs to provide a good first meal of the day for some pupils. The Green Party would help more schools to establish breakfast clubs.

Schools Based Health Service

The Greens believe that in conjunction with the local NHS a schools based children’s Health Scheme should be established which, if parents agree, will offer free health checks and advice. These services will be on offer to all children who have parental consent as a free service delivered at the school. Professional medical advice will cover a wide range of issues such as: weight, allergies, teeth, head lice, asthma, sexual health, depression, and general health.

Multicultural Provision

All Oxfordshire schools should encourage a wide multicultural mix in their intake .This cultural diversity should be celebrated within the life of the school.

Academies

The Green Party is against the Government scheme to introduce ‘academies’, regarding them as anti democratic and in no way an effective structure to improve underperforming schools. Greens believe that breaking away from Local Education Authority services and placing the school in the hands of private sponsors is detrimental to the children’s educational development.

External Contracting

Over the last 30 years there has been an increasing tendency to ‘out source’ services. Although it is accepted that for minor, one off measures a private contractor may be the solution, the Greens believe that any move away from an established, publicly accountable service provision will not help the service in the long term. All measures legally possible should be taken to encourage schools and institutions to use ‘in house’ services wherever possible. Greens will resist all attempts to privatise education provision.

Life Long Learning

The Green Party believes in Life Long Learning and therefore would seek to restructure the County Council delivery of Educational Services. The present structure with the theme of Children and Young People excludes Adult Education and works against the concept of Life Long Learning. The present structure is designed for a time when all school education has been broken way from Local Government control and only Children’s Services remains. The new structure would be charged with the delivery of education via one Education Department which would include nursery, primary, secondary, and all forms of tertiary education including Adult Education.

Adult Education

The Green Party accepts that the majority of the funds underpinning Adult Education provision will come via established Government agencies (at present the Learning and Skills Council). Whilst such bodies exist there is no option but to continue seeking these quasi governmental agency’s support for the bulk of the funding base. However, funding from Government agencies has focused on registering Adult Education courses as either fee paying or part of a programme of training recognised as an NVQ Qualification and therefore free.

The Greens see Adult Education as having a wider role and a significant position in providing a stepping-stone for those who wish to return to learning, and as a form of enjoyment or personal development.

The Green Party would accept that a certain range of foundation course such as ESOL, Basic life Skills, Computer Literacy for Adults etc. should be provided free by the County Council. The Greens see these initial entry strata as vital to building personal confidence and a deeper involvement with education.

There should also be a general subsidy, variable according to the course, for all non qualification courses. The range of subsidy should vary according to the location of delivery and the community need for the course. The ability of the learners to be able to pay should also be taken into account.

Courses that have an NVQ award or are fully supported by the Learning & Skills Council should continue to be on offer on the same basis as now.

The range of discretionary free provision of Adult Education courses to certain sections of the community such as the unemployed, disabled, and specific disadvantaged groups should continue. However a new group, pensioners (over 60), should also be eligible for free provision.

Religious Education

The Green Party does not wish to support the establishment of more faith based schools or institutions and would explore the possibility of breaking the link between education and religion in schools.

If schools follow the legal requirement to hold an act of worship, Greens would support this being non sectarian and multi faith.

Teaching Methods

The Greens believe that teaching methods and contents are best left to professional educators not politicians.

The Character of Schools

The Green Party would encourage Governors to build the character and reputation of a school by orientation towards a specialist theme; Music, Technology, Sport, Science, the Arts, Drama, Literature, etc. The Greens believe that a full curriculum should always be available but a way of developing the character of a school is via a particular theme.

Community Schools and Extended Services

The Greens see local schools as important social hubs and would encourage schools to build links to the local community via Adult Education classes or social lettings. Schools should also reach out to their community making links with community-based organizations such as allotment societies, old folks’ groups, potential employers and cultural groups.

Sustainability

All educational institutions should seek to achieve sustainable drainage by 2025. This will only be possible after the establishment of individual school plans and modification of the existing buildings and their heating systems. Work in this area is already underway but is too slow. Additional Officers charged with implementing this policy must be appointed forthwith.

Money should be made available for alternative heating, solar lighting systems and new drainage systems to be installed along with insulation programmes for each institution.

All schools should, by 2025, seek to achieve 95% recycling rates. All waste produced by the school should be individually identified into recycling systems to fit their Local Government collection systems with a minimum of residual waste. Schools will be encouraged to use the local Council waste collection system rather than private providers.

Special Needs Children

The Greens wish to see a diverse and inclusive education system that is a true reflection of the local community. Pupils with disabilities, learning disorders or challenging behaviour should be integrated into mainstream schools wherever possible.

However it is accepted that for certain children special schools may be the only practical consideration. The judgment as to which is best for each child should be determined by the parents and educationalists, plus medical professionals if relevant.

Off site referral units may also be appropriate systems for certain very disruptive children.

The Greens would support the overhauling and streamlining of the statementing of Special Needs children with a view to targeting resources more appropriately.

Central Support Systems

The Green Party believe that the role of the Local Education Authority should be to support schools and institutions with a range of services that schools would find useful and that are to the advantage of their learners.

Over the last 30 years the central services have declined in their influence and power to support educational institutions. The Green Party would seek to revitalize the range of services on offer in a number of areas and make the services more attractive to educational providers.

Improving the services on offer will make being a part of the County Service more appealing to schools and underpin loyalty to the Education Authority.

At the present time the Local Authority provides over 60 services that schools and educational institutions can buy into if they wish. A number of the service areas are based on special government grants to promote specific objectives within schools, e.g. The Schools Sustainability Project. Other services are traditional services that the County Council has always provided such as Entry and Assessment.

Given the nature of Government funding it is inevitable that special projects development teams will be brought into existence. These will need to be evaluated in the light of the Government initiative they are designed to foster.

The Services of special note that the Greens would earmark for future development or creation are:

A School Advisory Network (existing provision restructured / expanded) A service which would circulate information to head teachers and staff, and provide advice to governors and parents.

Governance (existing expansion) More support is needed to help school governors in their role. The Greens would support an expansion in the governor training programme and more day to day support for school governors, especially parents.

International Service (existing provision expansion) The service developing international links should be expanded to support a more international perspective in each school. Publicity Unit (new) Private schools in Oxford are in a marketing consortium and promote their achievements well. A Public Sector Education Publicity Unit should be created to promote state school achievements. This would be separate from the existing General Publicity Unit that promotes all County Services.

Schools Counselling Service (existing provision expanded) Academic Research has revealed that British children are amongst the most unhappy in Europe. Vital support services based in the County can play a pivotal role in seeking personal support for children who suffer depression or domestic or school based abuse. A vital element in that support is the Schools Counselling Service aimed at early identification and treatment of learning problems. The Greens believe this service must operate on a quasi independent basis balancing out the rights of the child against the duties of the education authority.

The Professional Development Service (existing provision expanded) The Teachers Centre exists to support Teachers with their curriculum development and teaching skills. Extra support for this service would be welcomed by the teaching profession concerned with professional development.

Theatre in Education Group (new) The Greens would support the concept of operating a Theatre in Education group touring Oxfordshire schools with a varied range of drama classes and theatrical productions on a contractual basis.

The Music Service (existing provision expansion) The Greens believe that the Music Service is a vital Element of Education in Oxfordshire and should be expanded with extra revenue for staff and facilities.

Private Sector Integration

The major reasons for the continual underperformance of state schools in Oxfordshire (by socio economic analysis) is the large number of private schools drawing away children from middle class backgrounds, effectively creating a grammar/secondary modern structure.

The Oxfordshire Greens would seek to support the integration of private institutions into the public sector provision to create a true comprehensive structure, but would seek to do so in an incremental manner that does not disrupt individual children’s education placements and as far as possible maintains parental choice. Such moves would require national legislation.

As a prelude to the integration of the private sector into the public provision the County Council should reach out to private institutions and seek to encourage their involvement by building partnerships and offering helpful professional central services to the private sector. By private institutions taking up these services at cost effective rates in bi-annual contracts, pathways to integration based on trust and educational advantage can be built.