Recent scandals at examination boards begs the question; what are schools for? | Ben Gibbs

In response to the Telegraph’s investigation into the result of competition between examination boards in the UK, someone I follow tweeted the following question:  “OK, so my son finishes his A-Levels and gets an A but a kid who had a teacher at an exam board event gets an A*. What happens?”

I looked for a smiley, but there was none.

How terribly sad, I thought, that we have a system in which a parent could so readily have swallowed the idea that a narrowly educated A*-grade student, taught to the test by a teacher who knew what was coming up in the exam and who therefore ignored everything else, might leave school with an advantage over an A-grade student, taught a more broad and rich curriculum, from which they were evidently able to draw down appropriate knowledge when required.

This raises the question about what schools are for, of course. I answered, somewhat flippantly perhaps, that the other child might win the in the exam, but his child would win in life. I’m not altogether sure he was convinced.

But what does it mean for children when parents, as well as teachers, politicians and chief examiners, are complicit in this highly restricted notion of what schools are for?  What does it mean for children when the only measures that matter to everyone around them are the floor targets for A*-C grades and the EBacc?

Well, it means that they come to view their education through the very same reductive lens. Walk into any classroom full of 15 year olds, ask them what they are studying, and they will tell you the subject field (“history, sir”) rather than the object (“the relationship between the working class and the officer class in pre-war Britain, sir”).  Ask why they are studying, and they will answer in relation to their exams (“it’s for my GCSE, miss”) rather than for the sheer delight of knowing stuff (“’cos I want to better myself and understand the roots of the society I find myself living in today, miss”).

Okay, so maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but more worryingly, the current paradigm also means that children are feeling the psychological, physiological and emotional stresses and strains that naturally accompany such consistently reinforced and high-stakes expectations.

As a parent of a three year old boy and a seven year old girl, these two outcomes of the current education system – a narrow, goal-oriented curriculum and stress – are things I wish to protect my children against, not prime them for. This is why they know I am most proud when his childminder or her teacher comments on their empathy, confidence, or happiness, or reports back that they’ve been caring, reliable, or helpful. I will strive to focus on these characteristics and other meta-cognitive skills as they grow older, hopefully strengthening their arm against the onslaught of public examinations and the inevitable years of preparation towards them.

Happily, through my involvement with Whole Education, I am seeing the beginnings of a real grassroots movement for change in an increasing number of our schools.  By looking out, not up for guidance, a great many teachers and leaders in schools around the UK are beginning to re-focus on providing the sort of rounded, broad and whole education they came into the profession for in the first place. Indeed, only this week, I have been discussing the design of a ‘work readiness’ skills programme with colleagues at Ely College in Cambridgeshire, which has at its core the development of independent enquirers, team workers, creative thinkers, self managers, reflective learners and effective participators.

Of course, this isn’t to replace of the sort of rigorous academic grounding our young people need, but to support it. Whole Education wants to help young people get the very best qualifications they can, but to have earned them through being fully engaged in their subject study as part of a much wider and more engaging whole curriculum, and through being resilient, adaptable, motivated and happy independent learners.

This whole education approach is remarkably empowering for the schools, and will be invaluable to the young people themselves as they then go on to navigate their way through further education, employment and life.  But I am also keen to ensure that it’s equally empowering to parents, all of whom know in their hearts that these skills and attributes are far more important to their children’s wellbeing than an A* in anything, and that critically, they actually give their child a far better chance of achieving great academic outcomes at school and through life, without the need for their teachers or exam boards to have loaded the dice in their favour.

Ben Gibbs

Member of Whole Education advisory board; Director, Restart-Ed Ltd; Governor, Ely College; dad!

Ten things learned on my leadership journey | John Dunford

1. Be creative

Dream your dreams and go into school the next day and put them into action. Although many people complain about the pressures of accountability – with some justification – there is still plenty of space for creativity in school leadership. Being creative does not necessarily mean thinking of original ideas. Creativity and innovation can come through using ideas from elsewhere and adapting them to the context of your own school.

2. Water the plants 

When I was appointed as a head, I told the appointment committee that it was my job to water the plants. My predecessor had been an autocrat (it was said that his catch phrase was ‘No’) and I needed to nurture the staff and get them thinking about the job and taking real responsibility, not just passing decisions automatically upwards. But, as in the garden, not all the human plants need the same amount of water and nurturing. And, again as in the garden, some human plants need something much stronger than water to make them successful.

3. Work with other schools, not against them 

School leaders are part of a great movement to increase the life chances of young people by raising their aspirations and achievement. That is not confined to your own school. When you are appointed to a school leadership position, you are also being appointed to the co-leadership of education in your area. It is time that governing body appointment committees recognised that.
Of course, all school leaders want their school to be the best and work long hours towards that admirable goal, but this should not be at the expense of other schools. Twenty years ago, when the school down the road was in trouble, the prevailing culture set by the government of the day was to encourage schools to celebrate the fact that they would get more applicants. Now, when a local school is in difficulty, school leaders pick up the phone and say ‘How can I help?’ The system has (or should have) moved from a culture of competition to a culture of collaboration. The benefits of partnership working between schools are proven. It is possible to both compete and collaborate. That happens in the commercial sector and can happen in the public sector too.

4. Leadership style should suit the occasion 

An inspector once asked me about my leadership style and I told him to go and ask the people I led. In fact, good leaders do not have a single leadership style. You adapt to suit the situation. The appropriate leadership style to develop a new school policy on teaching and learning is very different from the style adopted when the fire alarm goes off.

5. Hold to your values

A values-led school is almost always a good school. Successful school leaders are open and clear about the values that underpin the work of the institution. Values are constantly reiterated to staff, students, parents and the community.

6. Focus on learning 

There is so much change in education and so many new (and renewed) policies to implement and demands to answer that it is all too easy for school leaders to lose focus. Part of the job of a good head is to act as a sieve and only let through to others the things that really matter. In that way, school leaders can keep their focus on what should always be the top priority – the quality of teaching and learning.

7. Look outwards, not upwards 

The teaching profession has spent over 20 years in a suffocating centrally directed policy climate, in which governments have told heads and teachers what to do and, increasingly, how to do it. This has created a culture in which school leaders and teachers have grown accustomed to looking upwards to see what they are being told what to do.
The coalition government is saying that schools and teachers should have more freedom, so let’s stop looking up and start looking out to the many amazing projects and ideas that are happening elsewhere.
Let’s build strong professional communities that encourage the sharing of excellent practice, which is out there for all to see.

8. Good leadership is 10 per cent action and 90 per cent communication 

When a school leadership team makes a decision, it is completely useless unless it is communicated in the right way to all the right people. Change will not come without good communication – to staff, students, homes and the community. Spend more time on well directed communication and policies and actions will be much more effective.

9. Smile 

‘There is no degree of enthusiasm that cannot be reduced with sufficient discouragement from the top.’ So school leaders, and heads in particular, need to go about the job cheerfully. After all, if the people at the top look as if they aren’t enjoying the work, there is little chance that others will do so.

10. The 4Hs of leadership 

Humility – There are 7 billion people in the world as important as you are.
Humanity – Every child really does matter and needs to be cared for.
Hope – Every leader needs to be an optimist and believe that all children can succeed.
Humour – The sine qua non of school leadership

Dr John Dunford is Chair of Whole Education

Would you like to see a better baccalaureate for England?

Whole Education had a great time at the ASCL conference last week, talking to people about our work and of our emerging partnership to build ‘a better bac’. We have begun working with ASCL and The Curriculum Foundation to develop thinking around what a better bac should look like. It was clear that there is a massive amount of support for a better, and broader, baccalaureate that helps young people develop a range or rich, well-rounded and coherent pathways of learning. This support is already being voiced by teachers, school and college leaders, universities and other leading organisations and associations. Whilst we need flexibility to offer a challenge for all students, there should be an inclusion of elements recognising skills for employability, civic participation and independent learning. Perhaps most importantly is that the bac should have currency with employers and higher education institutions and should not be another measure of school accountability.

If you’d like to know more about the better bac campaign, voice your support or join the debate, please visit www.abetterbaccalaureate.org

Whose Curriculum Is It Anyway?

By Dr. John Dunford, Chair, Whole Education.

In spite of the new perverse incentives created by the English Baccalaureate to channel students into specified GCSE courses, both the recent education white paper and the forthcoming curriculum review suggest that there will be more flexibility in the future to plan the curriculum. Some schools are planning how they can improve their English Bacc percentage, but others have started to think more long-term about the implications of no longer having to observe national guidance on everything they do.

The first group – and it is easy to understand their motivation – are looking up to see what they have to respond to from the government; the second group are looking out to see what is available from colleagues in other schools and educational organisations.

Whole Education has much to offer the second group in their search for ways to give young people a more rounded education. Whole Education believes that all young people should have an education that helps them to develop the full range of skills, qualities and knowledge they will require for the future, to have an education that is both relevant and engaging, that puts young people at the centre of their learning and that balances both the practical and theoretical. Whole Education’s partner organisations offer a range of ways in which the learning experience can be enhanced.

Join Whole Education at one of the ‘Whose Curriculum Is It Anyway?’ events this February in Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester and explore ways to take advantage of these emerging freedoms in curriculum planning, helping your students exceed expectations and become more engaged learners. For more information on the events, see here.

Whole Education’s ‘What Are Schools For?’ Conference

Delegates listen to final panel debate

Monday was a busy day for the Whole Education team. We held our first conference on the topic, ‘What are Schools for? and were privileged to hear from a diverse range of speakers including Anthony Seldon, Guy Claxton, representatives from both the Cambridge Primary Review and Nuffield Review and BT, as well as teachers and youth workers from across the country.

In the morning, John Dunford introduced Whole Education’s belief in equipping young people with the skills, qualities and knowledge they would need in order to flourish as citizens in the public world, individuals in the workplace, and private people in pursuit of rich and fulfilling lives. Anthony Seldon of Wellington College encouraged teachers to be brave, and to teach according to their professional judgement, not merely in order to pass tests, while Guy Claxton and others pointed to the clear research base illustrating, not only the negative effects of our current system, but the positive outcomes to be had through widening our understanding of what it is to be an educated person in the 21st century. A great deal of issues were discussed on the day, but with the dust now settled, a few key points from the conference stand out for me:

For the surprising majority of teachers at the conference there was a misalignment between the sort of teaching they had wanted to employ when they had first joined the profession and the reality of what their schools and colleges currently asked them to do. Whole Education not only wishes to discover the causes of this misalignment, but is seeking to offer teachers with the tools to rectify it.

It’s time to become curriculum planners again! by Whole Education Chair, John Dunford

The announcement of the Government’s curriculum review offers a rare opportunity for those who have children’s interests at heart to engage in a serious debate about what they should learn during their years of compulsory schooling. The prospect of a slimmer national curriculum promised in last week’s white paper also creates space for schools to plan what they want to do. Ministers lead us to believe that there will be plenty of gaps to allow teachers to use their creativity in their pupils’ interests.

Of course, ministers still make pronouncements about what history they think should be taught or how young children should learn to read, but politicians have never been able to resist the temptation to indulge their preferences and share their views on what should be in the curriculum.

Notwithstanding these flights of ministerial fancy, however, after 20 years of a top-down detailed national curriculum, we can surely look forward to becoming curriculum planners again. It is a role that older teachers will remember with a rosy glow: the CSE mode 3 syllabuses that they designed, set and marked themselves, awarding certificated grades after due external moderation.

This is an extract from an article written by John Dunford, Chair of Whole Education. Read the full article at : http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6064862

Does the system recognise ‘skills, qualities and knowledge’?

What a day for the education system yesterday! Whilst some of Gove’s changes will allow teachers greater responsibility and control, will the emphasis on testing and passing exams risk squeezing out other skills and qualities that are just as vital in today’s world?

At Whole Education, we are addressing a growing concern that our education system, as it stands, is leaving too many young people not equipped with the range of skills, qualities and knowledge they will need in order to flourish in the world they will encounter beyond school and in the world of work.

What do we mean by skills, qualities and knowledge? In terms of skills, we mean things such as the capacity to lead others, to problem-solve and to direct our own work; the ability to communicate effectively, collaborate and work well in teams as well as think critically and independently.

In terms of qualities, we mean attributes such as resilience in the face of set backs, flexibility and adaptability in the face of change as well confidence and a positive mental attitude. In terms of knowledge, we mean a strong grasp of literacy and numeracy but also a wider understanding of our culture.

As any job advert will tell you, formal qualifications are only part of what today’s employers are looking for. As the Confederation of British Industry has stated, and as recent research by the London Development Agency has found, employers continue to find that their most academically bright recruits lack the essential skills and qualities needed to function in the workplace: they cannot communicate effectively, work under their own motivation or direction, or work well in teams.

Almost one million young people are no longer engaged in learning, many switched off by school. Education does not have to be this way and at Whole Education we are working to highlight the on-the-ground projects, programmes and practices – that schools are involved with across the country – that help develop a range of skills, qualities and knowledge.

Find out more about the projects that Whole Education partners are running at our ‘What are Schools for?’ conference on 6 December. There are a small number of places left, book HERE

Preparing for launch this afternoon

After such a long hiatus of Whole Education blogs, this morning is probably an odd time to be blogging with our launch less than 4 hours away, but there is a strange calm here – probably before the storm – that has provided a few spare moments.

At the launch we’ll be hearing from young people via the Edge Learner Forum, the Harris Student Commission on Learning and Angela Jhanji on the need for a whole education. We’ll also be hearing from Caroline Waters, Head of People and Policy at BT and Christina Bush, Head of Learning and Development at Waitrose, on why employers are backing Whole Education.

This will be followed by examples of Whole Education across the country and brief descriptions of all our partners work (see the right panel), before some discussion and a drinks reception.

We have a full house expected so for those not able to make the launch we will be posting some videos of the speeches on the Whole Education website.

Look out for more regular blogging updates from the team on what we and our partners are doing, as well as comment on interesting stories and practices we hear of across the globe.

Exercising the right to a whole education

Written by Charlotte Young, Whole Education

A Whole Education should encompass not only the opportunity to excel in academic or vocational studies, but also access to excellent training in physical pursuits, including sports. Is this currently the case? Do our children all have equal access to good sports facilities?

A recent Times article by Matthew Syed states that, according to a leaked report, over a third of all British Olympians in the GB team went to private school. Further, 58% of those who won gold medals at the 2004 games were privately educated. Is this an indication that only those able to attend an independent school can access the best sports facilities and training? Does this mean that the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games is a privilege given only to the privately educated?

This problem extends far beyond the school walls – indeed, a private school with the money to give its students access to ‘top-notch’ rowing, sailing, horse-riding or athletics training, for example, is one way in which a child might reach his potential as a future Olympian but it would be short-sighted to think that this is the only route. It is also those whose family have the time and the money to support them in their love of equestrianism, or their dream of winning a gold medal for skiing in the winter Olympics who have the opportunity to realise these kinds of achievements. What is clear though is that not all young people have access to these provisions, and this is a problem if we wish to give all young people access to a whole education.

One expensive solution, as is being pursued by the government at present, is to pump lots of money into the provision of Olympics sports – an expensive and unsustainable solution it seems, particularly in the current economic climate. Instead, expanding the range of sports represented at the Olympics would present a more cost effective and inclusive solution, as Syed argues. To do so would probably not eliminate the problem of elitism in some of the more expensive sports (in an ideal world we would perhaps pursue both the above suggestions), but it would certainly allow more young people the opportunity to one day compete in the Olympic Games.

Whilst changing the elitism currently present in the Olympic Games might not be particularly easy to do, what is perhaps more important when considering a whole education is the provision of good sports facilities more generally – the opportunity for a young person to have good quality football training or attend a good cricket club, say. If we were to expand the range of sports in the Olympics would this have an impact on the proportion of privately educated people competing? I would hope that it might. Whilst independent schools and wealthy families will always have more to spend on providing access to good sporting facilities, the introduction of academies and of specialist sport schools suggests that we might see the inequality in sporting provision and achievement decrease. Projects such as ‘Street Games’, a charity that develops sport with disadvantaged communities, are also helping to ensure that sport is made accessible to young people regardless of their social circumstances, or the school they attend. What is important now is ensuring initiatives such as these can be accessed by all young people.

A great education debate? What are schools for?

Written by Douglas Archibald, Whole Education

We were interested to read Anthony Seldon’s commentary in The Observer on Sunday 14th February, next to the headline ‘Top head demands school revolution’. His commentary notes that “the new focus on league tables is narrowing the quality and breadth of education.” He points out that “universities and employers often feel that schools are very effective in instructing pupils in how to get top marks, but are less impressive at teaching them how to think”.

It is reminiscent of an old anecdote about the boy who was caught looking out of the window by his teacher during class:

Teacher: “What are you doing boy?”
Boy: “I was just thinking, sir.”
Teacher: “You don’t come to school to think, boy. Get on with your work.”

We agree with Seldon, both in his analysis and the need for a national education debate.

It is telling that universities and employers are becoming increasingly vociferous on the issue. At least 18 universities now set their own admissions tests to filter candidates with the same grades. Employers such as M&S and Tesco have been scathing in the general lack of work ready skills that school leavers and graduates enter the workforce with.

Seldon’s comments were a welcome Valentine’s present for us at Whole Education as we venture into the outside world. We think there is a latent majority of teachers, young people, parents, employers, youth workers and concerned citizens who agree with our aims and common beliefs about education.

There is an important ingredient we’d like to add to the debate. While some people may feel the ‘system’ is broken or needs changing, there are numerous examples of Whole Education across the country where young people are being taught to think for themselves and are being given the skills they need for work, rather than just to the test.

However, rather than it being down to luck (or privilege) whether or not you live near a school with an inspirational head and workforce doing amazing things ‘despite’ the system, we believe every young person should have access to a Whole Education. We will be working to help celebrated and spread these examples, increasing provision and the choice for those who want a Whole Education.

It is about choice and provision. As Michael Gove rightly points out in today’s Daily Mail, “some parents would want a rigorous traditional academic education with desks neatly marshalled and traditional football. Others will want something which is more flexible, more imaginative.”

We are not sure about Goldie Hawn’s credentials to run schools, but think an increasing amount of parents and young people want and expect a Whole Education. We think they should get it.

Let the debate begin …

… and visit our website if you’d like to get involved.