Government Policies by Party

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Conservative Government Policies 1979-1997

Government policies on marketisation and raising standards (1980s onwards).

Management and funding

Management moved away from local authorities and to governors and headteachers.
The Conservative governments changed the formula used to calculate funding. Money is now allocated to schools based on the number of pupils in a school.

Choice

Parental choice and open enrolment – any school with vacancies had to accept any pupil until they were full.
A National curriculum and national testing (SATs) was implemented.

Control measures

Establishment of Ofsted to measure school performance and school quality.
Introduction of school performance tables (league tables), ranking schools on the grades achieved by their students and the 'quality' of each school.

Labour Government Policies 1997-2010

There was some continuation of New Right ideology under Blair’s leadership (1997-2010). Here are some government policies on marketisation and raising standards (1980s onwards).

Overview of improvements

Increased funding for schools.
More nursery education.
Smaller primary school classes.

Education Action Zones

Establishment of Education Action Zones and academies in the more disadvantaged areas.
Education Action Zones are special areas, often in deprived parts of the country. The aim was to unite local schools, local parents & businesses to try to improve education in these areas.

Funding

Introduction of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).
This provided supplementary funds or income to support children from less advantaged backgrounds as they continued in school.

Specialisms

Introduction of Specialist school status where all secondary schools were encouraged to adopt a specialist subject area.
For example, some schools could become 'Language Colleges' and specialise in teaching languages to their pupils.

Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Policies 2010 – 2015

There was a resurgence of some New Right social policies previously adopted by the Conservatives in the 1980s and 1990s.

Academies and free schools

Increase in the number of academies. Academies get the money for their budget directly from the central government (or department for education), instead of from the local government. Academies often have more autonomy around which teachers they should hire and how they choose which pupils should be admitted to their school.
Introduction of free schools. Free schools are schools that are set up by a group of people (sometimes parents) and they also receive their funding directly from the central government.

Funding

Introduction of the pupil premium (extra money for the most disadvantaged pupils).
How much money schools get in 'pupil premium' is often linked to the incomes of the parents of the children who attend the school.

Curriculum

Introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).
- The Department for Education define the EBacc as the subjects English Language & Literature, Maths, Science, Geography or History, and a language.
National Curriculum Reform (academies exempted).
Exam reform (new-style GCSE, AS and A levels). Coursework was removed from many subjects and exams were less modular, with AS levels de-emphasised and most GCSE exams happening at the end of year 11.