Message is a strong one to sell

SPEND 20 minutes talking to the Education minister and his chief officer and the potential benefits of their federated approach to secondary schooling become obvious. The problem, of course, is that the island as a whole does not have that same opportunity.

In turn, that means any announcements about the changes need to be carefully handled so that, in the absence of discussion, people don't see the disadvantages ahead of the positives.

Unfortunately, and certainly from the online reaction, Education has not yet got its message through and there is much concern and hostility to something that actually makes perfect sense.

Setting out how it works is harder, however, because there is a lot of detail behind the headline announcement that still has to be worked through.

Education seems to have gone public in the way it did because, having got head teacher buy-in – which was crucial – talk of 'federation' was starting to leak.

But having a unified school timetable and with it the ability to provide a wider range of classes by involving pupils or teachers from other schools is – now it has been raised – obvious. In fact, it is surprising that it hasn't been done before.

This Education board, however, is fixed on implementing change that improves education for island children and has an ambitious programme for doing so, including local management of schools.

Its recommended Secondary Advisory Board, which will supervise the federated schools, looks bureaucratic and centrist because it is – at this stage. Longer term, it will become independent and reflect what the community wants from its schools and the acceptable level of performance.

In many respects, Education has made life harder for itself by having a fanfare. Seeing secondary education in the round, albeit spread over five campuses, and allocating resources and pupils to best advantage is a management not a political operation. And it provides a real opportunity to drive up standards.

While federating has also got caught up in the 11-plus issue, that is actually a sideshow.

Collaboration between the secondaries with enhanced leadership and a stronger focus on teaching and learning works with or without selection and that's the federation message Education needs to sell.