Present

Prof Robert Eaglestone (Chair) – English Association

Barbara Bleiman – English and Media Centre (Education Consultant)

Andrew McCallum – English and Media Centre (Director)

George Tsoulas  – Linguistics Association of Great Britain (President)

Lesley Jeffries – University Council of General and Applied Linguistics (Chair)

Jo Tregenza – United Kingdom Literacy Association (Vice President)

Louise Johns-Shepherd – Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (Chief Executive)

David Duff – English Association (Chair)

Rob Penman – English Association (President)

Elizabeth Draper – English Association (Chair, SFE Committee)

Jonathan Morgan – National Association for the Teaching of English  (Director)

Clare Lees – Institute of English Studies (Director)

Gail Marshall – University English (Chair)

Seraphima Kennedy – National Association for Writers in Education (NAWE)

Graeme Trousdale – Council for Linguistics In Education

Jenny Richards – English Association (Chair, Higher Education Committee)

Apologies

Nikki Copitch – National Association of Advisors in English

Jon Burton – International Association of Teachers as a Foreign Language

Jenny Stevens

1. Welcome

All members introduced themselves, and BE thanked DD for all his work in chairing the CEF.

2. Update and previous meeting

DD ran through the minutes of the previous meeting (13 October 2021), which focused on NATE’s proposals for GCSE English Language reform. DD noted that, following the October 2021 meeting, the proposals were revised to take into account perspectives of other CEF members. DD reported this work to the DfE, who invited JM and DDto a meeting in December 2021, at which the DfE requested a briefer document focusing on tweaks to the existing GCSE, with the full support of the CEF. A sub-group worked on the editing of the proposal to agree a collective statement which was completed in July 2022, and submitted to the DfE with the offer of a meeting with a larger delegation. The statement was received but due to turmoil in the government the DfE was unable to respond more fully.

3. Recruitment figures

BE presented a brief digest of recruitment figures, which was prepared with the support of Alex Thomson and DD.

• Against previous year: GCSE Literature numbers slightly down; GCSE English Language slightly up. Caveated: as most students take these exams, the figures are not necessarily that meaningful.
• Against previous year: A Level English, English Literature, and English Language and Literature. Recruitment for A Level Englishes is on a decline, and as the cohort is larger now than in previous years, the decline is greater proportionately than these figures show.
• Against previous years: UCAS entrant data. Mostly stabilised or very slightly up. Caveated: as codes and titles change, it is challenging to compare figures year on year; and the cohort overall is slightly larger this year than in previous years.

Some schools enter students early for Eng lit GCSE in Y10, and enter again in Y11, which might skew the figures (AM).

AM flagged up a drop in applicants to teacher training in English, and a drop in quality in applicants, which is a consequence of fewer people taking A Level English – even with the bursary being reintroduced. EMC raised this issue of the lifecycle of English with the DfE several years ago. BB raised complementary issues around Oak National Academy’s “ready-made curriculum” and the decrease in numbers of people undertaking subject-specialist teacher training. JM noted that the uptake of Oak-style curricula is likely to increase if the number of English subject-specialist teachers decreases.

DD flagged up the relative proportions of entrants to university for Lang, Lit, and Creative Writing: creative writing has almost half as many applicants as Lit, which is striking in the context of there no longer being an A Level in Creative Writing.

ACTION: BE to share raw figures with all.

4. Membership of the CEF

BE invited comments on whether new members should be invited to join the CEF: LitDrive; Team English; Royal Society of Literature. Members discussed the tension between creating space on the Forum for significant voices in the discipline, versus the importance of sharing values across the member organisations of the Forum (and therefore the means to achieving consensus), which is challenging when member organisations are more dispersed/fragmented.  

ACTION: BE to invite RSL to join

ACTION: CEF to create statement of values/ethos and mission (to be included on the CEF website)

5. CEF website

BE highlighted a series of options for the CEF website. The members agreed to keep the existing free WordPress site, using a new domain name.

ACTION: Becky Fisher to move website to new CEF domain name

6. Updates from members

BE noted that, for future meetings, members will be invited to collaboratively build the agenda.

BB noted that the CEF might want to engage with the issue of the Oak National Academy.

BE noted that a working party – across University English and EA – has been formed to generate recommendations on GCSE English Literature to take to the DfE.

LJS noted that CLPE will be releasing the outcomes of a survey of primary teachers on poetry.

GM noted that University English is working with an ethical PR company to think about a campaign for English aimed at young people aged 16 – 18 and their parents and supporters.

DD noted that the English Association is developing a campaign – “Choose English” – aimed at 14 – 16 year-olds, centred on the decision point where young people choose their A Levels. The EA has engaged with a specialist education media company, and, following a period of investing pump-priming funding in initial work, is developing a funding model for the production of the full campaign.

LJ noted that it would be helpful for the CEF to seek ways tonavoid duplication and find synergies across all the promotion that is taking place across Englishes.

ACTION: GM to contact Arts and Humanities Alliance to check representation for linguistics and language

GT highlighted that CLIE has advocacy projects underway.

RP noted that the EA (and BB) attended the AQA forum in December 2022, highlighting that AQA is the market leader for English (about 70% of candidates study the AQA specification). At the forum, the following statistics where shared: 80% of candidates studying Lit GCSE study An Inspector Calls, and a similar proportion study A Christmas Carol. RP commented that the lack of challenge may be responsible for students choosing not to take A Level Englishes, as well as the assessment-driven model of the GCSE curriculum. ED noted that exam bodies like OCR and AQA recognise the need for reform, but are stymied by the need to maintain their business.

ED reported that the EA’s Education Committees are working together with other organisations to understand the skills and aptitudes that English teaches (and needs to teach in the future), and how those skills/aptitudes are taught. This collaborative group will also work on ways to communicate this information with a wider audience. JR noted that this work will be reported into the CEF in support of the other campaigning work that is happening. This group is working with two-week deadlines, and is currently establishing a shared vocabulary, and undertaking a holistic review of existing research.

AM noted that teachers leaving the profession because of the content of the curriculum as much as because of their workload (agreeing with RP’s point about the limited challenge of the curriculum).

BB outlined the complex of challenges to deciding where to intervene: the content and delivery of the GCSE curriculum; accountability culture; Ofsted’s opinion on what constitutes ‘good English’. BB asked whether CEF could try to explain (to Ofsted, government, public) what English actually is – what students are currently doing at GCSE and Key Stage 3 isn’t English at all.

7. Future planning

It was agreed that at the next meeting, the Forum should:

• Share and maintain an overview of all the work that is being produced by member organisations
• Share updates on the progress of the various campaigns
• Agree one or two issues to discuss with the DfE.

ACTION: ALL to send documents for sharing to Becky Fisher in advance of the next meeting

It was agreed that:

• The Forum should talk to
  • Labour politicians, to educate them about the key issues. Labour will be focusing on early years education, so this should be the Forum’s starting point. A sub-group of the Forum could be the right way to develop an effective approach, and clear, short, well-supported messages. Coordination with other AH subjects – like Modern Languages – will also be important.
  • Exam boards.
  • Geoff Barton (Gen Sec, ASCL) – to offer strategic advice.
• NAAE work in and across schools, and can provide a valuable perspective on what is going on in classrooms.

ACTION: BE to invite Geoff Barton to speak at the next meeting of the Forum

Members were reminded that the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement consultation is open, and all feedback is welcome. JR praised the SBS.