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Qualifying for the future Round table with: Jim Knight Judith Bennett Ben Williamson
Plus Interview: Kathleen Tattersall The role of Ofqual
Matthew Taylor Parents for change
Harry Fletcher How prisons fail to teach
In association with
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Garry Hawkes is Chairman of Edge, an education foundation dedicated to raising the status of practical and vocational learning. The educational needs of the UK’s young people are forever evolving, yet the curriculum we use to teach them has remained static for the last 20 years. We believe that the National Curriculum needs to be brought into the 21st Century, and that the best way of achieving this is to take a serious look at the pedagogy in our schools and ask if it is getting the best out of each of our students. At Edge, we believe that there are many paths to success; paths that young people should be free to explore without prejudice from people who still hold outdated ideas about the best way to learn. Every child is different, with different strengths and weaknesses, different interests and individual goals. If the government is to succeed in raising the participation age to 18, it is vital that the education system engages students early on in their school career to ensure that they are motivated and eager learners. We want to see a nation of young people who are excited about the wealth of options available to them, rather than encountering young people in turmoil because they do not fall into the desired academic mould. In 2009, Edge will continue to lobby for a curriculum that engages and inspires young people, and that values academic and vocational learning equally. We will once again host VQ Day – a day to celebrate the millions who gain vocational qualifications every year. We will also continue to promote and expand our latest project, Business in Schools. Currently being piloted in Yorkshire and Hertfordshire, Business in Schools is a unique web portal designed to help businesses engage with local schools, providing work-related learning experiences for young people. Work-related learning is something that we feel will be a vital component in a curriculum which is fit-for-purpose. As such, it forms an important part of our Six Steps to Change manifesto; actions that we feel need to addressed by the government to ensure that young people are getting the most out of their education. Edge is committed to lobbying for these changes to create an engaging curriculum which inspires learners and leaves behind a legacy of work-ready, skilled workers who boost the UK economy.
Garry Hawkes CBE Chairman, Edge
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Chosing a path to work
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If only someone would invent an educational satnav device to make the journey from school gate to workplace a little easier. Just punch in the desired career destination and follow the on-screen instructions. Until then, the plethora of courses and colleges, schemes and programmes, on offer will disorientate many learners trying to pick the right route for them. That the landscape is constantly shifting, with new job requirements forming an obstacle here and specialised qualifications rising there, makes it even harder to get one’s bearings. It’s not about to become any simpler. Change and complexity are fundamental characteristics of the 21st century. The educational system must adapt as best it can, sometimes getting it right, sometimes, disastrously, not. Dan Sutch, a learning researcher at Futurelab, the Bristol-based think tank founded by Lord Putnam, argues in our leading article (page 4) that emerging sociotechnological trends such as virtual environments and 3D printers will change our understanding of what schools are. Whatever the destination, Scott Knox (page 7) wants to make sure the starting line is well marked. The head of the Marketing Communications Consultants Association thinks that, in a world full of advertising, schools should do more to promote
themselves and their students, and says his organisation’s members stand ready to volunteer their help. Want to learn how to organise a meal for hundreds in a desert tent? Reporter Alyssa McDonald (page 8) looks at what could be Britain’s biggest on-the-job trainer – the MoD – and finds an impressive service record; two-thirds of those leaving its ranks find work on civvy street within a month. But another huge state institution is failing miserably. Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation officers’ union, warns (page 10) that even though education is the best way to stop reoffending, Her Majesty’s prisons don’t put nearly enough effort in. From military fatigues and prison garb we move on to the school blazer: freelance journalist Karen Falconer (page 13) examines whether school uniforms can improve pupils’ behaviour. The case for including parents at the centre of planning the shift away from a rigid national curriculum (page 14) is put by Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA and himself the father of two boys. And in our interview (page 16), Kathleen Tattersall, the chair of qualifications watchdog Ofqual, tells our political editor, Martin Bright, what inspired her to take the job and how diplomas will bridge the gap between vocational and academic learning. Paul Rodgers
12 January 2009
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Technology reaches for the top of the class
Dan Sutch
New Statesman 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0AU Tel 020 7730 3444 Fax 020 7259 0181 E-mail info@ newstatesman.co.uk
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The hunt for the X factor
Scott Knox
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Forces for learning
Alyssa McDonald
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Captive classes
Harry Fletcher
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Dress code
Karen Falconer
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Parental guidance
Matthew Taylor
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Interview Heading
Martin Bright
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Round table discussion
Editor Paul Rodgers Roundtable editor Caroline Stagg Production and design Leon Parks Sub-editor Sue Laird
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FUTURE EDUCATION
Technology the top of
The challenge for society is to design a system that will prepare the children of today for the world of tomorrow, while ensuring they can make sense of the one they live in now, writes Dan Sutch
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he pupils who first ventured through the gates of a primary school in 1994 could not have imagined the world they would emerge into when they left school last spring. In those days, the Tories were privatising British Rail, the IRA was declaring a ceasefire and letters were being delivered by Royal Mail postmen – twice a day. The information ocean those students swim in today was a hazy science fiction dream 14 years ago. At that time, knowledge came from adults, books or television. The internet was talked about, but only nerds had seen it. Pagers were more common than mobiles. Amazon, eBay, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and Second Life had not been conceived. The pupils who first ventured into school last autumn are certain to face more dramatic changes when they enter the workforce in 2022. Technological change is accelerating and dragging society along behind it. New jobs and new ways of working will emerge, just as web design and portfolio careers have in the past 14 years. The challenge, for society and particularly for those in education, is to design a system that will prepare the children of today for that future world, while ensuring they can make sense of the one they live in now. In building learners’ capacity to live and work in the future, we need to con-
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sider the coming social and technological changes and their implications for jobs, communities and relationships. But how can we prepare the next generation for a future that is shrouded in uncertainty?
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t Futurelab, we forecast that several emerging socio-technological trends will influence formal education, and, in particular, its aim of equipping people for employment. Develop-
ments in communication technologies and virtual worlds are challenging what it means to be “at work”. Other trends point towards new ways of organising learning and teaching. Many are already being investigated as models for education. New computer games are engaging learners in activities that serve both play and educational functions, where they take on a range of roles and solve complex tasks. Digital worlds allow learners to
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reaches for the class
Until recently, teachers saw mobile phones mainly as a distraction, to be turned off or confiscated. Some are now starting to use them as tools for sending students course material
immerse themselves, not just through graphics and sounds, but by investing their emotions in completing personally relevant challenges. Simulations offer learners the chance to experience inaccessible, even dangerous environments, such as bio-hazard laboratories or a black smoker (volcanic seabed vents that pump out sulphur-bearing minerals) deep in an ocean trench. Harnessed to appropriate pedagogical approaches, these emerging
technologies present new ways for learners to experience the workplace and learn about working practices. Consider mobile phones. Until recently, teachers saw them mainly as a distraction, to be turned off or confiscated until the end of class. But some are starting to use smart phones as tools like laptop and desktop computers, sending students course material, for example. At Boston College in Lincolnshire, apprentices taking subjects ranging from catering to social care and trowel occupations in remote rural areas are using smart phones to get help from, and submit work to, assessors. The project, supported by Molenet, the Mobile Learning Network, gauges itself by how well it reduces the number of students who drop out. Technology is making it easier to apply modern pedagogic theories such as “situated learning�, the idea that students learn best when they join a group involved in a shared activity. Several companies are experimenting with linking their own bespoke training courses to digital portfolios that can be downloaded by learners on the move. These innovative projects may be signposts to wider future developments. Other technological developments can support learning in activities that are currently prohibitively expensive. Several veterinary schools have started using the 12 JANUARY 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 5
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jobs become more specialised, the teacher will become less a provider of knowledge and more an expert on how the student can acquire the knowledge they need, with industry providing job-specific expertise. Bringing work and vocational learning closer has obvious educational benefits. But could it have other consequences? The Nuffield Foundation’s Young Foresight project takes secondary students through the process of imagining and developing applications for a new technology, quantum tunnelling composite (QTC), a pressure sensitive conductor. The results have been dramatic, ranging from a touch-sensitive cricket bat that could tell umpires if the LBW rule had been broken, to a heart monitor that could identify irregular beats and activate a pacemaker.
F “Haptic Cow”, a fibreglass model of the rear of a cow linked to a computer, which lets students “feel” (haptic is Greek for touch) the animal’s organs. They palpate the virtual cow’s ovaries, uterus and pelvis, learn to do fertility checks and detect pregnancy. Unlike working with real cows, this method of teaching allows for trial and error without consequences. A similar illusion of touch can be supplied to designers sculpting 3D prototypes on computers. These technologies provide ways for vocational learning to be moved virtually, if not physically, closer to the real world.
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t is easy to imagine future education as the current system with more technological bells and whistles. But societal changes are equally important. The ageing of the population does not just mean that we will need more people trained in nursing and caring. Radical longevity means a longer working life, a greater distance between school qualification and retirement, and more need for reskilling. Students on vocational courses in the future may have decades of experience in other areas. Demand for vocational courses may become more job specific if students are familiar with related subjects. This, combined with a belowreplacement birth rate and high migra6 | NEW STATESMAN | 12 JANUARY 2009
In 20 years, a 3D printer for £500 would let students build production-quality prototypes, blurring the line between vocational learning and work tion, both inwards and outwards, will force institutions and policy makers to deliver courses for multi-generational, pluralistic, mobile student groups. One question this raises is whether the state should shift investment to re-skilling for older learners, or continue to concentrate on formative education and leave retraining to the private sector. For the school-age population, vocational training will have to focus on the skills, competencies and attitudes that will make them ready for work. They will have to cope with change, co-operate in teams and apply their skills and knowledge far outside the contexts in which they were taught. Effort, perseverance and target setting, all benefits associated with computer games, will also be needed in this broad range of skills, suggesting that formal and informal learning may become linked. As
or the past 50 years, Moore’s law, which says that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years, has proved correct. If the trend continues, a 3D printer that costs £500,000 today will cost about £500 in 20 years, affordable for every school and college, if not most classrooms. With students building production-quality prototypes as school projects, the distinction between vocational learning and work would blur, and the benefits of closer relationships between industry and schools could shift dramatically. The growing recognition that vocational learning is important in itself, not as a runner-up to academic courses, but as a complementary route to success, has emerged as the pedagogical establishment has learnt to focus on the needs of the students. Could schools now begin to develop andragogical approaches, listening to the learner, providing greater choice and flexibility, and emphasising reactive teaching? Or will adult vocational learning move towards more traditional pedagogical models, where the teacher and industry partner have far greater control and the focus shifts to the short-term response to market need? Many different vocational-learning futures are possible. The important task now is to understand them, to decide which we prefer, and to begin putting in place the practices and systems to work towards them. Dan Sutch is a learning researcher at Futurelab
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SELLING SCHOOLS
The hunt for the X factor Schools are using aspirations raised by TV shows to attract children to their rolls, but is this good for education? “Yes”, says Scott Knox, as young people need to learn how to thrive in a competitive world “Has your child got the X factor? Greenleaf School is here to help all children realise their potential. It’s not just singing, it could be sport, science, or the arts, whatever your child’s skill, Greenleaf will develop their excellence.”
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ow’s that for a school marketing campaign? For many parents, relating their child’s future to auditioning for X Factor might be frightening, but that’s the society we live in. Whether through appearing on The Apprentice, getting a contract with Dancing Turtle Records or launching a rival to Reggae Reggae Sauce, youngsters have a strong desire to be applauded for success. And schools are under pressure to cater for that. The marketing of schools is not a new concept. Even before league tables, schools ran fetes and open houses and trumpeted their sports teams’ successes. Such activities promoted individual talent and allowed parents, teachers and pupils to say “look at us, aren’t we good.” One school’s rugby team beating another or the year six choir being asked to perform for the mayor were seen as achievements, until the “competition is bad” bandwagon gathered momentum. As commercial promotion grew during the past half century, school promotion retreated. From being the centre of the community, schools have slipped into the background. The active school that takes part in its community is a declining institution. Schools should be encouraged to showcase their best and most talented pupils both as individuals and as teams. It is in the interests of schools to market themselves in this way for two reasons: to encourage higher achievement in their pupils and to generate greater in-
It is in the interests of schools to market themselves, to encourage higher achievement in their pupils and to generate greater involvement from the community volvement from the community. This form of marketing of schools needn’t mean one school is better than another. That shouldn’t be the case. Instead, communities should be able to celebrate all their schools, one way or another. Marketing can be a positive force in society, not only economically but socially. Many organisations have come to rely on their communication strategies to deliver the change, ideas or money that they need. This doesn’t just mean adverts. Marketing is now a rich soup of communication routes: websites, text messages, events, loyalty schemes and other “interactive touch-points”. Marketing is merely a word to describe how we communicate corporately or individually.
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ach of us receives an estimated 3,000 marketing messages a day. Companies spend millions of pounds to attract our attention to their brands. The government and any number of charitable and not-for-profit groups also invest considerable time and money on everything from direct mail to viral ads on the internet. How great would it be if some of those 3,000 messages were from schools telling us about their achievements? Schools can market themselves to
their communities in many ways. The trick is to take a leaf out of the corporate approach and deliver a single message through every channel. This “integration” ensures that what is being said and how it is being said is the same through every medium, whether it be newsletters, websites, or banners on the playground railings.
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ith a relatively small effort, schools can persuade the local press to report on activities such as poetry contests and science fairs. The result will be much closer bonds between schools and their communities, bonds that are also broader than those between a school and its parents. There is help at hand to achieve this. The communications industry is so big today that living in most schools’ catchment areas will be people who have worked in a marketing department or agency. At the Marketing Communication Consultants Association (MCCA) – a trade association for the UKs best marketing agencies – we have been urging the staff at our member agencies to get involved with community organisations to help them with communications. Many of them already help schools or hospitals in their areas with communications, websites, newsletters and events. We live in a competitive world, and the sooner our nation’s children get into the swing of this the better. If giving them a taste of Fame Academy is what it takes to make children more enthusiastic about school, we should do everything we can to encourage them. Scott Knox is the managing director of the Marketing Communication Consultants Association 12 JANUARY 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 7
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ARMED SERVICES
Forces for learning Most recruits to the military are looking for a challenge, not a career for life. They want accreditation for the skills they learn to help them secure a good job when they return to civilian life. Alyssa McDonald reports
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o career path. Few qualifications. Little confidence. What’s your escape route?” asked one Ministry of Defence recruitment advert last year. Others cut between soldiers solving problems in war zones, and using the same leadership skills back on civvy street. “Want to show the bank manager you mean business?” asked another ad, apparently aimed at future entrepreneurs. Yet despite this steady refrain, if you asked civilians what the military teaches its recruits, typical answers would include “marching, blowing things up” and any number of “ways to kill people”. Lt Col Nick Maher, the head of defence education policy at the MoD, is well aware that education and qualifications are not the first things that come to mind when people think about the forces. “We’re divorced from society,” he admits resignedly when we meet in the MoD’s imposing Whitehall offices. “Most people’s knowledge of the services comes from pictures in the news.” But the combat situations shown on TV are only one aspect of military life. Training for those situations plays a huge, and varied part too: as a result, the military is one of the biggest vocational training organisations in the UK – perhaps the biggest. It provides more than 40 apprenticeships and 2,500 training courses, helping servicemen and women to gain officially recognised qualifications at every level up to a Bachelor’s degree. And this year, along with private companies such as McDonald’s and National Rail, the MoD became an
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awarding body in its own right, issuing qualifications which recognise some of the more military-specific skills. Meanwhile, civilian Britain is badly in need of training. Studies indicate that although the UK currently employs 6 million unskilled workers, we will soon need only 500,000. This doesn’t have to be a disaster: plenty of other jobs will emerge once the current recession ends. But there will be a shortage of people qualified to fill them. Voicing his concerns about “the global skills race” earlier this year, Gordon Brown pointed to “work-based qualifications” as an important part of the solution. Lt Col Maher agrees that for the military as much as any other employer, the ways in which careers have changed mean that accreditation has become more important. “The perception is that young people join the forces for life, but that’s not the case. Most new recruits are young people who want to have a challenge, who want to do something different for a short period of time, but who join with the intention of not staying. So accrediting what they do and what they learn is key for the retention issue – keeping them in, keeping them motivated – but also for when they enter civilian life.”
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he services have three phases of vocational training. As you would expect, much of the first, general phase involves physical training. But, Lt Col Maher points out, the skills learnt at this stage, such as timekeeping and working as part of a team, are intrinsic to army life and valued by civilian employers. In
the second phase, recruits start to train for a particular job, which could be anything from bridge-building to communications; then in the third phase they can specialise even further. Service personnel exist in an almost permanent state of training. As a self-contained model of employment, it’s impressive; but inevitably, some skills are more easily transferable to civilian life than others. “We will always train for the operational need, 100 per cent,” Lt Col Maher says. We won’t add 50 per cent to the training because we think that will give the individual something more outside.” So a soldier may take a language course of GCSE standard at the education centre in Iraq, but a military linguist isn’t the same as a civilian linguist – they’ll be learning “patrol Arabic” or “survival French”, with a focus on military language needs. Similarly, a would-be chef will learn the specifics of catering in the field. “A lot of it is dealing with how on earth you prepare a meal – or structure a whole day’s menu – in conditions where you’re delivering to a fast-moving population, all coming through at the same time, in cold conditions or very hot ones, all from a tent.” It’s easy to see how a military chef’s expertise could translate to the demands of civilian life – catering for a large-scale outdoor event, for example – so trainee chefs can gain a City and Guilds qualification to prove their skills. However, in many cases, training is too military-specific to be adaptable. Combat training is the obvious example, but there are plenty of others. “Some logistics trades,” Lt Col Maher offers. “For in-
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stance, a petroleum operator fills aircraft. You would think, ‘why can’t you just do the same thing outside?’ But that guy or girl has been trained to do their trade in a specific way. Refuelling aircraft at speed, helicopters at speed – is not necessarily an easy match with the outside world.” Earning qualifications designed to reflect civilian life can also be problematic. “Carpenters and joiners within the Royal Engineers – we tried to get them that outside qualification, but because they don’t do scaffolding we’ve struggled. They’re engineers who rebuild, but they’re doing
The military provides more than 40 apprenticeships and 2,500 training courses, helping servicemen and women gain recognised qualifications
Skills learned in the army can prove useful later in civilian life
it in a military environment. They are not building houses for people to live in.”
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till, while adapting military skills to the civilian world clearly has its frustrations, two thirds of ex-Service personnel find work within a month of leaving the armed forces. Even though it’s highly unlikely that all of these are working within their area of expertise, that track record suggests that the armed forces are doing something right. Lt Col Maher notes that the forces can’t take all the credit: they tend to attract motivated people. But he concedes that keeping that level of motivation is important, and that providing ongoing opportunities for training helps: “Of those who were not motivated by school, many will become motivated by the work ethos,” he says. “And suddenly they realise – ‘Oh! I didn’t think I could do that! Suddenly peo-
ple think, ‘I’m good. They are going to pay me more money!’” Compared to almost any other form of employment, the forces provide “a totally different environment,” says Lt Col Maher. “It’s wearing a uniform, being a part of something. It’s not for everybody”. But he agrees that there are lessons for other employers in the services’ approach to skills. On-the-job training isn’t perfect, and it always runs the risk of being so specific to the task at hand that it becomes non-transferable. But it’s a risk worth running. Because the benefits of learning, financial or otherwise, are so much more tangible in the workplace than in a school or college, vocational training can successfully motivate many people for whom more abstract forms of education hold little appeal. And engaging those people is the only way the UK can compete in the global skills race. 12 JANUARY 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 9
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LESSONS BEHIND BARS
Captive classes Prisoners who do not participate in education are three times more likely to be reconvicted, so why isn’t it being made a priority? asks Harry Fletcher 10 | NEW STATESMAN | 12 JANUARY 2009
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he clang of a cell door slamming shut and the heavy tread of a guard slowly walking away are depressing sounds not just for the prisoner, but for all of us. We use jails to punish crimes, but they don’t do enough to prevent future offences. Prisons have been characterised by critics as universities of crime; to reduce reoffending, they must instead teach the skills offenders will need if they are to go straight on the outside. The case for better education behind bars is not just a moral one, though that is strong enough. It also makes sense economically. The Social Exclusion Unit es-
timated five years ago, when the prison population was 73,660, that reoffending by former prisoners cost the taxpayer £11bn a year. By August 2008, the number in jail had soared to a record 83,800. The cost of recidivism has, no doubt, also risen by a further 15 per cent. Yet the total spend on learning and skills in jails in 2006-07 was a paltry £115m, less than £1,400 per prisoner. To gauge the importance of education in jail, one need only look at the devastating socio-economic backgrounds of the prisoners: l 27 per cent were in care as children,
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Successive studies have shown that the best way to turn offenders away from acquisitive crimes such as burglary, car theft and robbery is to raise their self-esteem. Literacy, numeracy and workshop skills are the key to reducing inequality and therefore reoffending compared with 2 per cent of the general population. l 49 per cent were excluded from school, compared with 2 per cent of the general population l 30 per cent were regular truants, compared with 3 per cent of the general population l 65 per cent have numeracy skills at or below the level expected of an 11-yearold, compared with 23 per cent of the general population l Nearly half have a reading ability at or below level one l Two-thirds have drug or alcohol problems l Three-quarters suffer from two or more mental illnesses. Is it surprising that 67 per cent of people entering jail are unemployed?
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uccessive studies have shown that the best way to turn offenders away from acquisitive crimes such as burglary, car theft and robbery is to raise their self-esteem. Literacy, numeracy and workshop skills are the key to reducing inequality and therefore reoffending. Prisoners who do not participate in education are three times more likely to be reconvicted after release, according to the Social Exclusion Unit, while even participation in basic skills programmes reduces reoffending by 12 per cent. The Prison Service has made improvements. But with the prospect of budget cuts of 5 per cent in each of the next three financial years, it is difficult to see how educational services can be maintained, let alone expanded. The Learning and Skills Unit, which has been responsible for prisoner education since 2006, estimates that fewer than a third of inmates are in classes at any one time. Another 10,000 are employed in workshops providing skills in engineering, textiles and woodwork. But most other work is menial. A prisoner in a Young Offender Institution spent an average of 12.2 hours a week on education or work pathways during 2007-08.
Across the system, prisoners achieved 146,000 key work skills awards last year, but the Home Office at the same time concluded that factors such as links with former employers and friends and family were more likely to affect job chances. The Shannon Trust, a voluntary organisation, has developed a programme called Toe-by-Toe which teaches prisoners who have basic skills to mentor those who do not. It is successful and popular with prisoners. However, the gains can be lost when prisoners are transferred, released or put on probation. Worse, the Prison Service does not accredit the programme and its future is in doubt. It is essential that a prisoner’s involvement in the educational process be continuous, but because of overcrowding, they are constantly moved around the system. Only a third of education managers said they regularly received prisoners’ education records following transfer. A technological fix for this problem was abandoned in January 2008 when the government curtailed the scope of its new Prisons and Probation IT system, CNomis, which would have allowed everyone involved in a prisoner’s case to see his records. C-Nomis was central to the government’s offender management system. Every prisoner was to have a named offender manager – formerly known as a probation officer – to supervise them through the system. This would have preserved continuity of education, employment and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the amount of traffic generated by probation was massively underestimated initially, so its costs spiralled. The project was parked.
With the pr0spect of cuts of 5 per cent in each of the next three financial years, it is difficult to see how educational services can be maintained
Prison populations are expected to rise over the next few years until available space falls short of demand by about 6,000. Overcrowding has led, and will lead, to a curtailment of activities, including education. For budgetary reasons, most jail education programmes are, in effect, already shut from first thing Friday until Monday morning. Probation, too, is struggling. Although some 60,000 offenders under probation supervision were referred to third-party education providers in 2006-07, staff are finding it difficult to maintain case management systems. Fewer than 3 per cent of probationers were required, as a condition of their release, to participate in education. The National Audit Office found that half of all supervision orders had two or more conditions that were often difficult to fulfil.
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he benefits of education – enhanced skills and employment – are obvious. It would be shortsighted of the government to cut or under-invest in the future. The Ministry of Justice should recognise contributions made by organisations such as Shannon and back them. It should commit to increasing the number of hours spent by each prisoner in education for each year of the next parliament. And it should consider supervision orders that allow offenders to progress over time, dealing first with addictions and later with basic skills and a pathway to work. This incremental approach would mean that the judiciary would be far more involved in monitoring orders than they are now. Such a strategy would benefit everybody; fewer people would become victims, less money would be spent on incarceration, and more tax revenue would be generated, because more people would be in work. Harry Fletcher is an assistant general secretary of Napo, the trade union and professional association for family court and probation staff 12 JANUARY 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 11
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How Learning to Lead ensures young people are at the heart of their education Recently at the Engaging Youth Enquiry in Parliament Geoff Hayward, Director of the Nuffield 14-19 Review, University of Oxford, said: “Young people are more aspirational than they are given credit for and we must recognise that achievement is as important as qualifications.” Richard Williams, Chief Executive of Rathbones said: “We are calling for a fresh thinking into how schools are defined.” ‘Schools’ offer a microcosm of our society, of community and organisation and provide a fantastic and as yet under used resource for learning lessons for life. But how can young people ‘achieve’ more in schools, in a way that is non-threatening to established staff and highly inclusive to all students? Learning to Lead is an approach that has been developed in school, over the past seven years and is now a growing movement of students and teachers who recognise that if change is to happen, doors need to be opened for young people’s aspirations to grow, whatever these may be. Learning to Lead offers tools and structures to support students to take increasing responsibility and become involved in all aspects of their school, from its infrastructure to the way they are taught and what they learn. What has emerged is a simple, yet startlingly effective way of including large numbers of students in leading positive change in their school community and beyond, as well as learning more about who they are themselves and what they want to do in the future. “We wanted to get away from providing adult led familiar old tools and structures and instead explore with students other ways to work effectively together. We saw that in many cases, young people are judged as incapable and disinterested without being given a chance to show how much they care and how they can shine in what they do.” said Neil Mantell - Learning to Lead Wells Blue School, a secondary school in Somerset with around 1500 students is becoming increasingly well known as the case study school for the innovative programme. Students identify what matters to them and receive the LtoL training which helps them to run their projects themselves. Anyone can ‘self-elect’ to join one of the 28 teams. There are around 300 students directly involved in improving everything from the food, to dyslexia support, to reducing energy consumption, to the outside and indoor environment of the school – to name but a few. This is learning through doing. Gethin Hopkin - Year 10: "We don’t just have our say and then nothing happens. We turn our plans into action. After all the school is here for us." Learning to Lead has been ‘passed on’ to nine other schools
in Somerset , through a teacher training programme to form ‘school community link teachers,’ the vital new teaching role that supports students to build community councils in their schools. The success of the approach has been noticed by the Government Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families and help was found to attract funding from the Edge Foundation to support a national pilot of Learning to Lead in 12 secondary schools throughout the country, happening at the moment. This national pilot and the whole approach is being evaluated by the University of Cambridge and the New Economics Foundation during the coming year. Five primary schools have also now piloted the approach to build ‘community classrooms’ where the tools are easily integrated directly into the curriculum and teams are set up as a whole class activity. Maddie - class 6: “Learning to Lead is a very good thing to do. It provides many experiences that children would not otherwise have. It is disciplined and controlled, but not by the teachers or any adult, but by the system and us. But even though it’s disciplined, it isn’t restricting. It just helps you focus on the main idea unpestered by smaller and unimportant ones.” Staff and students in secondary schools are now using Learning to Lead as a collaborative approach to form ‘curriculum communities’ around any given subject to enhance and support its effective teaching and learning. Recently, after a long consultation process, Wells Blue School students came up with a strap –line for their community council. It reads: ‘Because Change doesn’t happen on its own’ Learning to Lead ensures that for positive change to happen, young people are at the heart of their schools and learning. Only then will the many as yet unrecognized and under developed talents of our young have the experience and space to shape their future. Learning to Lead is a Community Interest Company (CIC) – not for profit organisation, with six student members on the board of Directors. For more information, please visit www.learningtolead.org.uk email: susan@ltol.org
Susan Piers-Mantell. Learning to Lead.
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SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Dress code Badge of rebellion or symbol of success, the school blazer is winning top marks from teachers, parents and politicians, reports Karen Falconer
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rom the sexual precociousness of St Trinian’s girls to Adrian Mole’s red sock revolution via the hat-wearing idiosyncrasies of Miss Jean Brodie’s set, school uniforms in fiction have been more a badge of rebellion and non-conformity than of good behaviour and achievement. Yet, politicians, teachers and many parents are now awarding them top marks for performance. To their supporters, uniforms are a modern panacea: they strengthen a school’s ethos, help discipline, support teaching and learning, foster a sense of belonging, act as a social leveller, prepare pupils for the working world, and relieve parents of the pressure to buy expensive brands and children of the daily worry about what to wear. Conservative policy endorses them; and David Cameron wants his children to wear them. More surprisingly, guidelines from Ed Balls’s Department for Children, Schools and Families “strongly encourage” them. Counter-arguments about individuality, freedom of expression and the potential for conflict, as teenagers flaunt dress codes, seem less an issue than cost. The government says most parents favour uniforms, but two charities, Barnados and Citizens’ Advice, recently said that most find the expense stressful. The pressure is on for schools to have affordable uniforms and for suppliers in this £450m market to bring prices down. School ties, blazers and black shoes were once seen almost exclusively in public or grammar schools. Today, 99 per cent of maintained schools in England have uniforms, with 70 per cent sporting a school tie and almost half a blazer. In the new academies, uniforms are an intrinsic part of the branding; they feature on many ailing schools’ improvement plans. Even infants encounter them. “It’s to do with tradition, and the state system emu-
“There are many variables in successful schools: the uniform may be one. But people are drawing a false analogy between them and success” lating the private,” says Clarissa Williams, president of the National Association of Head Teachers. “My experience suggests uniforms impact on behaviour and security in and out of school. They are a corporate identity. What we wear says ‘we are now ready for work’.” But is a uniform merely the latest educational fad? Evidence is hard to find. The DCSF admits it’s largely perceptual. Extravagant claims 10 years ago of behavioural improvements of between 50 and 100 per cent in Californian schools were dashed by an academic paper. The Conservatives published figures last year showing that seven out of ten of
England’s top state schools require blazers and ties. “There are many variables in successful schools: the uniform may be one, but it’s one of many,” says Charles Ward, the general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists. “People are drawing a false analogy between uniforms and success. It’s like saying ‘there are fewer accidents when people drive on the right, so let’s do it, irrespective of driving behaviour.’ ” In the struggle to improve standards, it may be a question of “anything is worth a go”. As anthropologist, author and fashion expert Ted Polhemus says: “The human tendency towards individual style always prevails, so whatever the uniform there will always be personalisation. Without it we wouldn’t have had the wonderful postmodern punk creations, which combined strange hair, torn fishnets and Doc Martens with school uniforms.” And fiction would be less rich. Karen Falconer is a freelance journalist
St Trinian’s girls: a subversive take on the fashion rules at their fictional boarding school 12 JANUARY 2009 NEW STATESMAN | 13
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HOME WORK
Engaging parents in the shift from a rigid national curriculum towards a richer experience is not an optional add-on to innovation in teaching, it is an essential ingredient, says Matthew Taylor
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t is time for a new progressivism in schooling. Parents can be powerful allies and partners in the drive towards more rounded, engaging and enjoyable ways of learning. But achieving change in schools is complex – with tensions between the different objectives of learning – and so is the role of parents. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) is working with a wide range of organisations concerned with education to promote a charter of beliefs and values to guide future schooling (www.thersa.org/educationcharter). According to the charter’s key assertions, the over-riding objectives of schooling should be that children develop a love of learning; that the curriculum should speak to the different abilities and interests of every child; and that children themselves should be involved in the design of their learning. These beliefs call into question both the theory and practice of the national curriculum and assessment framework. Our hope is that the charter will garner active support not just from educationalists and teachers but from parents and pupils. It is important to build from, rather than dismiss, reforms of the past two decades that have given parents more information and power. Schools and teachers must be accountable for their performance and parents have the right to be informed and to have 14 | NEW STATESMAN | 12 JANUARY 2009
Parental guidance
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choices. But there should be a wider framework than league tables and SATs results through which parents can judge their children’s schooling. Parents can be a force for change, but only if they are engaged fully and positively.
novation is to bridge the learning pupils do in school with the learning and experiences they have in the other 80 per cent of their time. This is one reason why new approaches might rely more than traditional ones on engaging parents. Innovation involves risk, so there are ethical and tactical reasons too. Not every parent will have the desire or confidence to engage, but there is good practice that shows schools can be more inclusive. For example, Demos’s research in Knowsley found that the best people to communicate with parents are often other parents. Recognising that many parents lack the confidence to engage individually with public institutions, some schools have contracted with local voluntary groups to build links with minority communities.
A
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s the father of two teenage boys I suspect I am not alone in my ambivalence about their schooling. On the one hand, I am anxious for them to do well academically. Having decided to send them to local comprehensives with a mixed intake, I worry they don’t get pushed hard enough when many around them have greater needs. On the other hand, I wish they had more fun. Teenage boys tend to be monosyllabic – especially with their parents – but it would be great if, once in a while, they came home with something interesting to say about their day that didn’t involve a fight in the playground. My ambitions for the boys’ education include not just the hope they do well in exams but that they are good school citizens who learn to lead and be part of a team, who mix with different types of people and get the chance to do things like sport, culture or volunteering that might, otherwise, pass them by. If I was asked to choose between them reaching 16 with eight GCSEs and a love of learning or passing ten but being bored rigid I would go for the former. Yet just as Say’s law of markets tells us that supply creates its own demand, so the supply of performance indicators creates a demand for success in those indicators. If SATs and exam results are the only way for parents to judge schools (and are the passport to good university places) they may give up on other things they care about. This is a false trade-off; schools with a child-centred and creative approach can be successful academically, but there is no question that the current system leads to an obsession with test scores. Some argue the response should be to abolish the assessment framework or the publication of school results. After last year’s marking fiasco, we are likely to see re-
There is no question that the current system leads to an obsession with test and exam scores
form of SATs, with greater freedom for schools to adapt assessment frameworks. The “Making Good Progress” pilot, for example, is evaluating the merits of testing children when they are ready rather than at fixed points in the year. But it is not sensible or realistic to imagine we can do without assessment or that we can block parents from accessing or processing information. It is up to schools to encourage parents to see the bigger picture. The school open days I have been to have tended to feature a speech from the head in which parents are told about exam performance, the school ethos (usually a lecture about the behaviour expected from children) and may include examples of successful extra-curricular activities. Despite the advent of richer child-centred data, parent evenings rarely involve any great effort to help parents understand the school’s approach to teaching and learning. Things are changing, but it is remarkable that secondary schools with multimillion pound budgets and large graduate workforces don’t see innovation as an essential part of what they do. The strength of a curriculum framework like the RSA’s Opening Minds lies in it being a framework that schools must adapt and develop. In the face of social and economic challenges and technological opportunities every school needs to be a site of experiment, innovation and collaboration with other schools and partners. An often cited goal of curriculum in-
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owever, this kind of commitment is the exception. One of my sons goes to a fast improving and well-run school, but the only attempt at engaging parents has been a postal questionnaire; a tool so blunt it almost feels designed to prove parents aren’t interested. I only found out the year seven curriculum was broadly based on Opening Minds when I realised this was what was meant by the blocks in the timetable marked “humanities”. School performance is improving. Creating choice has rightly been a part of Labour’s efforts to improve education. Increasing choice and fostering a greater and more widespread sense of consumer entitlement will be a priority for both main political parties in the future. However, it matters how we do it. The danger is that the parental role will be restricted to that of an agent who chooses institutions on behalf of their children, and that we encourage choice on the basis of a narrow set of measures, rather than making it a partner in delivering systemic change. There is a growing desire to move beyond the narrowness of the national curriculum and to offer pupils a richer and more engaging experience. Parental engagement is not an alternative or an add-on to innovation in teaching and learning, it is an essential ingredient. Additional reporting by Ian McGimpsey, the RSA’s senior manager, education. Matthew Taylor is chief executive of the RSA 12 JANUARY 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 15
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INTERVIEW KATHLEEN TATTERSALL
The chair of Ofqual talks with Martin Bright about social mobility and giving vocational qualifications equal status
“We have to be the midwife to the birth of diplomas” MB The issue of qualification standards, although it may seem rather technical to some people – certainly to some newspaper editors – is one of the most important in education. That means you now hold one of the most important posts in public life. What is it in your background that inspired you to take on this job? KT It might be pretentious to say that it’s the most important job, but I am very conscious of the possibilities of the position and of Ofqual as an organisation. It’s absolutely vital that qualifications be credible. What brought me to it? First, I taught for seven years in a grammar school, a primary and a comprehensive. And I know from personal experience that qualifications open doors. My Mum and Dad both left school at 14 without a single qualification to their names. I was the first in my family to go to university. Qualifications are the way to transform your personal life; it’s the way to transform society. Alright, I’m not going to say “education, education, education” but I do think it is essential. I am absolutely committed to learning and to improving the lives of young people, to making it possible for them to live fulfilled, happy and prosperous lives. Second, I do know quite a bit about standards. I was in an examination board, what is now called an awarding body, for 32 years. First I was in a CSE board, which was working with teachers, and they are absolutely central to the system. I am passionately interested in making it possible for them to fulfil their roles. Before I took on this job, I chaired the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessment – improving assessment, raising its profile, 16 | NEW STATESMAN | 12 JANUARY 2009
giving it a professional status. I suppose, finally, I am a historian and I have a fairly good perspective of standards in the 19th and 20th centuries, about how fallible young people are. Just look at what chief examiners had to say in the 1920’s when about 2 per cent of the population did exams. They were the best, but they couldn’t spell for toffee. MB You are part of that generation which saw huge changes in social mobility, largely driven by education. Why has that mobility faltered? KT What’s your evidence? MB The simplest evidence would be the social class of people getting into top universities which has if anything gone backwards. KT I don’t know if it has gone backwards.I am on the board of my old university, Manchester University, which has done a lot of positive things in terms of access and gender. In my experience there is a greater push now to open the doors and broaden the mix of students than was the case in the 1990s. The efforts of universities to go out into schools, mentoring young people, is greater now than ever it was. Having said that, we can all observe that society has changed considerably over 20 years. If you think about the sorts of jobs that are available, we’ve moved from an industrial, making-things, society to a service society. That has had some impact on how people see themselves, where they can live, upwards mobility, sideways mobility or whether
We are moving into a global society where people live on their wits
there’s any mobility at all. We’ve had a greater influx of people from other countries and that again creates a different sort of mix. So I don’t think it’s as simple as saying “society was moving upwards, there was social mobility, and then, oomph, change”. MB How do you see your role and the way forward for Ofqual? KT My role is to give strategic leadership to the organisation. In particular, it is responsible for assuring standards and public confidence in the qualifications and testing systems. Qualifications depend on the support that they have from employers and higher education. If we look forward, we are at the beginning of a period of change, most notably with the introduction of diplomas. These are being rolled on a pilot basis in a restricted number of fields, with more coming on the stream as time goes by. Those diplomas build on the recommendations of the Tomlinson Committee, of which I was a member until 2004. Tomlinson was more radical – taking a big bang approach – whereas this is a gradual introduction. It will give young people a chance to learn right across the spectrum, vocational to academic. I really hope we can break down that artificial divide which has bedevilled English education. The good thing is that we have support from employers and universities, though as always there are also some critical voices. We are see our role as creating the framework where they can gain credibility and gravitas. MB Why isn’t that credibility already established? Why is this a recurring theme? KT As it was in 1987 when we were anticipating GCSEs, and in 1949 before GCEs
OFQUAL
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and in 1917 before the School Certificate. This attitude of, ‘oh well, it might go wrong’ doesn’t surprise me. Something about change is challenging and perhaps quite frightening for some people. But it interests me that a qualification [GCSEs] which has been criticised like mad has become incredibly popular in its last couple of years. Others will welcome the change and work really hard to introduce it. Ofqual has to build on their enthusiasm while being aware of that sceptical body of opinion. And we’ve got to protect the interests of the learner by making sure that the regulatory framework is right. We’ve got to be the midwife, ensuring that this baby is born into a world as healthy as it possibly can be and that there are lots of people around to love it. MB The curriculum reforms of 2002 misfired. how confident are you that things have not been rushed this time? KT People will always say that you should have more time to do something. But you might, by the time something comes in, have missed the boat. There’s got to be a time for teachers to become acquainted with the new qualifications and that’s all in hand. We go out about a year in advance. I’m not of the school of thought that you must have a long schedule. No
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matter what time you have, you will fill it, and claim that it was not enough. MB Hypothetically, are you in a position to criticise ministers? KT We will be independent of ministers and answerable to Parliament. So there could well be occasions when Ofqual makes observations which are critical. MB Is reform going in the right direction and is it going fast enough? KT The general answer is yes. Every generation has to examine what sort of education is appropriate. We are moving into a global society where people live on their wits. They have to be far more flexible, adaptable. The charge is that we have a the 19th century curriculum wrapped up in a slightly different way. Moving to an agenda that is skills-based, which recognises the interests of employers, is absolutely the right thing to do. MB Can we move to a greater acceptability of vocational qualifications without other institutional and cultural changes? KT You need structural changes that embed different sorts of learning within the culture. The interesting thing about the diploma is the recognition that no one institution has the resources or the expertise to provide the whole of the diploma so schools are working in partnership and that forces some changes in boundaries.
MB How do you keep the independent sector on board? KT The independent sector is as interested in these changes as the state sector. Whatever concerns that they might have expressed, they are going to participate because its the only way in which their students are going to have credibility. MB Can’t they opt for the International Baccalaureate instead? KT The IB is aimed at a particular cadre of students. It is not appropriate for the whole ability range of students. The IB is there, the diploma is there, the GCSE, the A-level. All of this is being promoted as diversity. We’ve got to make sure that all of these are credible. The IB is accredited, so it comes within the regulatory framework. Our responsibility to students in those systems is exactly the same. But my informed view is that the independent sector will participate, as they always have done, and they will choose the qualifications which are appropriate to their students, and generally speaking, they will be the mainstream qualifications which are appropriate for their students. Martin Bright is political editor of New Statesman and was formerly The Observer’s education correspondent 12 JANUARY 2009 NEW STATESMAN | 17
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Round table: is a twoway conversation with pupils realistic? Kim Catcheside (chair) Thanks to all of you for coming today. The subject of our round table discussion, “Engaging with Education”, comes on a particularly pertinent day for the education world, because Sir Jim Rose’s independent review of the primary-school curriculum has been published. This looks at how that curriculum can be made more flexible and how all schools can be persuaded to do what the best are already doing – produce children who have a body of knowledge and are ready to take the sort of individual responsibility for their learning that ought to be expected of them in secondary school. Jim Knight, who is with us, has also this morning published a document on the 21st-century school, in which he explains how schools in England can engage with the people in their communities. We will be asking whether education should be a two-way street with students, in particular, but also parents and local communities having a part to play in shaping the curriculum. If we think that education should be a conversation – and not everybody does think it should be a conversation, certainly not all the way through – we need to discuss how that can be accomplished and identify the potential pitfalls. So, Jim Knight, what role can pupils play in developing their curriculum and in deciding the focus of their education? Jim Knight Among the various announcements that we have made today and will be making during the rest of the week, it is refreshing to have this opportunity to reflect a little bit. The question really around “engaging with education” and 18 | NEW STATESMAN | 12 JANUARY 2008
particularly the involvement of pupils in their own education is quite fundamental in how we think about school improvement, and about improvement across our education system. It is at the heart of personalisation, as I see it. I know that there are some who have arguments about how we define “personalisation” and whether it is useful or not. In Christine Gilbert’s report, 2020 Vision and the work that that review published almost two years ago now, one of the fundamentals that she and her team identified was involving pupils in decisions about their own learning, developing more peer-to-peer learning and giving pupils a sense of empowerment in their learning as part of an engagement.
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We start with great leadership, leading really strong teaching and learning, and then engaging strongly with parents. I would couple that with engaging strongly with pupils Jim Knight
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We learn about the roots of a good education system from looking at the comparable jurisdictions around the world. Last week, I attended an international educational leaders’ dialogue in Melbourne, where we were discussing all of these things. We start with great leadership, leading really strong teaching and learning, and then engaging strongly with parents. I would couple that with engaging strongly with pupils. The heart of good teaching is imparting knowledge and understanding, but in a way that makes young people want to get up in the morning and go to school. Increasingly, I think, that means relating learning to the real world and the world that those young people are in. I saw a fantastic Melbourne primary school using information communication technology (ICT) to achieve fantastic results. They had a TV studio and they were broadcasting every day on FM radio to parents as they came to pick up their kids from school. There was really good practical learning, but young people also had some feeling of ownership over what they were doing. Learning took place in large open-plan classrooms with the whole year being taught in various groups. It looked slightly chaotic at times, but it appeared incredibly successful to me in terms of all of those young people being encouraged in their learning. It was the best use of embedded ICT that I have ever seen in a primary school. We changed the law this year to get more pupil voice into the way that schools are being run. I think that is equally important as part of personalising the
learning experience, and needs to run from primary, into secondary and beyond. The nature of that will change as students develop different learning and understanding. This is fundamental to delivering our vision of a 21st-century school system. Andy Powell I agree that engagement in learning is at the heart of personalisation. I see us moving from approaching education as an assembly line to one of mass customisation, ensuring many paths to success for all young people. We need to create far more young people who are explorers, who are supported in finding out for themselves what they are good at, what they enjoy and who they want to be in life. At the moment, rather than explorers, we have too many young people who are, if you like, birds in a cage. They may have purpose and a desire to succeed, they may be doing very well in our largely academic system, but they are, maybe, conforming to what is expected of them by other people in the system. If you open the door of that cage, they may not have the enterprise and initiative to find a route that is for them and to develop themselves to the full. On the other hand, some who have their own mind and are free birds actually find it a real struggle to fit in with the curriculum and the discipline of a school and then do not know which way to go because they are not supported. We also have those who have neither purpose nor independence. If we are to have more explorers, we certainly need much more involvement from young people in their own learning, particularly leading up to 14. Suddenly, when you are 14 you are asked, “What are you going to do? This choice may be important for your life. Are you going to follow a diploma in hospitality or do a young apprenticeship?” Let me give two examples I am particularly fond of. The first is from a very white working-class area where a school had a language cafe where the students served other young students in a foreign language. Also, every Friday morning they had a “university”. Every term, each young person in that school picked two out of a list of 20 things that they would like to do on that Friday morning. That ranged from hairdressing, where local hairdressers came in, to dance, where Northern Dance came in, to learning a different foreign language to developing and running their own museum. The other example relates to a charity called Learning to Lead, which was commented on by the select committee. The Blue School in Wells decided it wanted to engage its young people more and, rather than just have a few people on the student council, it started young people working in teams in the school. It now has over 400 pupils in 40 different teams. They started off doing up the toilets and discussing “How do we get more private play areas?” but moved on to totally change the transport system and bring some money in. They have worked on dyslexia, the curriculum, environmental and self-sustainable development and so on. So those are just two examples. 12 JANUARY 2008 | NEW STATESMAN | 19
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We cannot all be explorers all the time. You do need a base of knowledge Jane Lees
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Jane Lees Young people are naturally explorers. Sometimes, by the time they come to secondary education a lot of their enthusiasm for exploration has, unfortunately, been dampened. Some are natural leaders and some take their part in a different way. It is about finding their particular role doing certain projects or finding a way through learning. However, we cannot all be explorers all the time. You do need a base of knowledge. You must have the basics of literacy, numeracy and ICT. I would agree with Jim Rose’s interim report that it is essential to acquire them before you even come to secondary education. We need to make certain that literacy, numeracy and ICT are absolutely embedded – then pupils can fly. Frank McLoughlin As a further education (FE) college principal, I think it is extremely important that young people understand that there is more than one path to success. That is why the diplomas are so important. By Year 9, so many young people can feel that they are going to struggle through the GCSE pathway they are on. For them to know that there is a real pathway to work and a career is desperately important. There are some shocking statistics. In Islington, half the children are born into workless households. They are a long way from the world of work. Showing them a route to work or higher education (HE) and then a real job is extremely motivational. Diplomas must work and they must work for the economy because people are saying, “We cannot have half of young people going to HE”. I would say, if we get half of our young people going into HE, that is fantastic, but what about the other 50 per cent? We have to ensure proper pathways for them. Apprenticeships have gained renewed energy and
interest. When people think of apprenticeships, they think of engineers. We are running apprenticeships in the creative industries. That is the second largest employment area in London. People are going into real work and potential careers. The important thing is the motivational reality for young people and their parents about work at the end of the process, whether it is HE, vocational courses or apprenticeships. They must have realistic aspirations and expectations. David Hughes The basics are absolutely critical. If you cannot read, write, communicate and work in teams, then you cannot get on, cannot work and be a part of the community. For so many people, the basics are completely abstract and meaningless. The motivation to do literacy and numeracy is incredibly low for many young people, unless they can see the application of it. If you put it into a practical setting that young people are interested in, you can really get that motivation. Too often we expect everyone to conform to the norm. If they do not conform we think it’s their problem, not the problem of the institution. Last week, I went to the passing out ceremony of something called the Life Project. It is a one-week course for 14–16 year-old kids. The project is run by the Fire Service and involved kids who have just gone off the rails. The project puts them under incredible discipline. By the end of the week they are using breathing apparatus, all of the fire apparatus and doing a show for the parents. The parents are saying, “I never thought my kids could do that.” The kids suddenly get motivated. They do want to go back and get their GCSEs because they know they need them to be able to get into the Fire Service, the police or the army.
Round table participants
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Judith Bennett Chair, National Governors Association
Prof Matthew Harrison Director of Education Programmes, Royal Academy of Engineering
Kim Catcheside (Chair) Social Policy and Education Correspondent, BBC
David Hughes Regional Director, London Learning and Skills Council
Jean Franczyk Head of Learning, Science Museum
Rt Hon Jim Knight MP Minister of State for Schools and Learners
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Bernice McCabe I agree about the whole sense of students being motivated. It is that whole sense of making sure that our young people are in charge of their own destinies. I was directing a seminar for headteachers last week through the Prince’s Teaching Institute that was attended by headteachers from across the country. We also had a panel of pupils taken from a number of the schools of those headteachers who were present. We asked them what they felt was most important in their learning and in their schools. A year ago, the Training and Development Agency’s research into the pupil voice showed that pupils felt the most important thing in learning – nearly half of them put it top of their list – was teachers having an excellent knowledge of the subject that they were teaching. The students on this panel at the seminar talked about the benefits of subject teaching because it enables you to expand on any ideas you might have. If you teach people through an overarching approach, it does not necessarily allow for a creative thought pattern to develop in the way that subject-based teaching does. It is quite a misleading assumption that children cannot have fun while they are learning subjects. I read the summary of Jim Rose’s report this morning and was delighted to see that it says that the curriculum proposed for primary schools will promote challenging subject teaching alongside equally challenging cross-curricular studies. The debate in education seems so polarised. People pretend it is either one thing or the other but it’s not. Jim Knight The desire for everything to be black or white, vocational or academic, topic-based or subject knowledge-based is a real constraint. Jim Rose was
very clear that he is not proposing a return to the topicbased learning that failed in the past, but he is talking about making learning relevant and fun, but with really strong subject-based knowledge as part of that. Bernice McCabe He says, “High-quality subject teaching must not disappear from primary schools.” I do not hear that reported in the media today. Matthew Harrison I have a concern, and it comes out of what I have been learning through my involvement in the engineering diploma. This diploma ought to be active, it ought to involve problem-solving and be linked to the real world; students should get a sense of a job well done and they should make things that actually function and solve practical problems. However, the reality is that not all teachers are in a position to make that happen. In the past 13 weeks that the diplomas have been running, I have been talking to teachers. There are loads of great examples where the teaching is going fantastically well, but it happens when the teachers know where to draw in their subject expertise. They are well connected to the local employer who has fantastic real-world examples, which they can show to their students. It works really well when we have teachers in the classroom who know the contribution they can make to fundamental knowledge and when to bring others in to underpin that with the excitement and gloss of the real world. The trouble is that not all teachers fit into that category. I am seeing evidence of a culture where teachers have been isolated in a world of teacherclass-classroom for too long. The only thing that changed in that environment was that the children
Jane Lees President, Association of Schools and College Leaders
Frank McLoughlin Principal, City and Islington College
Sir Alasdair Macdonald Headteacher, Morpeth School
Andy Powell Chief Executive, Edge
Bernice McCabe Headmistress, North London Collegiate School
Prof Dylan Wiliam Professor of Educational Assessment, Institute of Education
Ben Williamson Senior Learning Researcher, Futurelab
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The involvement of young people in shaping the future of education
Edge Learner Forum members interview schools secretary, Ed Balls In keeping with the old adage of ‘Do as I do and not as I say’, Edge (the education foundation) has created a network of young people throughout the country with the mission of raising the status of practical and vocational learning. The aim of the movement is to empower young people to act as agents of change and to define their own ways of bringing about that change. The first ‘Edge Learner Forum’ was set up in London in 2004 and there are now eight groups around the country from Cumbria to Sussex boasting over 200 members. Edge created and supports the Learner Forum because we believe that lasting change will only be achieved when it is demanded and articulated by young people themselves. What are we trying to achieve? • Youth-led change in line with Edge’s core mission. If change is articulated and advocated by young people themselves it: sticks with young people; has impact on decision-makers; has longevity; and has reach into communities • A legacy – a sustainable, flexible and innovative model for engaging learners which will evolve over time to capture the zeitgeist and avoid becoming stuck in outmoded ways of working • A much wider movement for change – young people
getting other people involved in making change happen Putting words into action! 2008 has been a very busy year for the Edge Learner Forum with the completion of a number of significant projects involving young people working with Edge’s other main audience groups – namely Employers, Parents, Opinion Formers and Teachers. At the start of the year the Learner Forum was contracted by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) to conduct an investigation into the new 14-19 Diplomas; identifying the questions young people would need to know about the qualifications and then setting about investigating the answers. Young people were at the heart of the project from designing the investigation to interviewing the respondents – including Ed Balls, the schools secretary – and ultimately assisting with the editing of the film. The project culminated in the production of a DVD which will be distributed by the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to 4500 schools in January. In February, members of the Learner Forum were invited to present their impressions of the current provision of careers advice at the Houses of Parliament. The youth involvement
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was a critical part of the Skills Commission inquiry which leaving school; citing a lack of knowledge of future careers culminated in the production of ‘Inspiration and Aspiration – and a lack of business awareness; the Edge Learner Forum Realising our potential in the 21st Century’. The recommenteams set about making a difference. During an employer dations of the report have been taken a stage further by Edge engagement event held at the ITV Central studios, young with the initiation of the ‘Skills Edge’ project. The aim of ‘Skills people were able to air their feelings about the recruitment Edge’ is to improve access to careers advice for young people. practices used by employers in the region. This collaborative In line with our commitment to keeping young people at the two way dialogue allowed employers to reflect on their centre of activities, members of the Learner Forum were also existing approaches to recruitment and to realise that they involved in the subsequent evaluation of on-line careers might be missing out on real talent. The session resulted advice. Their input will form a major part of the intelligence in changes to a number of employers’ recruitment driving the project as it moves forward. methodologies. In Sussex the Learner Forum worked with the From the corridors of power to the corridors of schools Local Authority to investigate current failings in the provision throughout the UK there is ongoing conversation and debate of work experience across the county. The project culminated around the subject of ‘pupil voice’ and ‘pupil involvement’ in in the production of a poster to help employers and young the provision of education. In 2007 members of the London people get more out of the work experience opportunity. Learner Forum began work on an innovative concept of taking In York the Learner Forum was commissioned to produce a pupil voice into pupil action and ultimately into school action ‘Visionary’ film on careers options which was subsequently with the development of a ‘student led school inspection’. The used as the basis of a structured process to prepare young pilot project operating under the working title of ‘Edge people for work experience. Instead’ was carried out in May 2008 at South Camden Turning their attention to teachers, the Edge Learner Forum Community School. teamed up with the The inspection is based Institute of Education Employer engagement has also been a key theme for around the four key areas to work on a number of other areas of Edge’s work in 2008 with the launch of the of Respect, Environment, workshops with their PGCE Aspiration and Learning, students. The Learner Business in Schools campaign in Yorkshire, Humber and topics which had Forum-led sessions Hertfordshire. The centrepiece of the campaign previously been used as a enabled the trainee is a free, online platform which identifies local framework for consultation teachers to work with opportunities at schools and colleges for businesses about learning in the young people on issues to provide a wide variety of work-related learning to school. The inspection took surrounding classroom young people, complimentary to the time and resources place over a period of four motivation and the benefits they have available. days during which time of adopting a practical a team of 50 student approach to learning. Edge is also committed to ensuring that employer reviewers worked with staff In September the Edge engagement is a central theme at the two Edge and pupils throughout the Learner Forum held a sponsored academies which are opening in Nottingham school on a number of National Conference and and Milton Keynes in 2009. In addition to featuring activities. The project panel debate in London specialist hubs where local employers will work involved a combination of which featured over a interviews, questionnaires, hundred young people and alongside students, the Business and Enterprise Academies workshops and observafifty key influencers from have both appointed members of the Senior Management tions and culminated the world of education. The Teams with responsibility for ensuring that employers play in the collaborative event coincided with the a major part in the development of students and vice versa. preparation of an action launch of the Edge Learner plan for the 2008/9 Forum website at academic year. In addition to the entire process involving real www.edgelearnerforum.co.uk where we encourage young world practical learning for young people, one of the greatest people across the UK to sign up and support the movement. outcomes was that the ‘student voice’ has been listened to While considerable progress has already been made, we are and that the majority of the recommendations have been determined that the young people remain at the centre of written into the school development plan. New strategies everything we do in 2009 and beyond. Our key theme for the resulting from the project covered a wide variety of topics New Year is the growth of our network. In addition to including careers advice, parental involvement and teacher delivering more innovative youth led approaches to practical development. The knowledge gained by the learner forum learning, we are determined to reach out and involve members was taken forward later in the year to the OFSTED thousands of young people in Edge’s campaign. 2009 will see expert seminar on learner involvement in school inspections. the launch of an Edge funded feature length film The consultation is currently live on the OFSTED website which explores the UK education system; we are aiming to and the Learner Forum team will continue to work with empower young people to define the way in which this film OFSTED in 2009. can help to act as a catalyst in raising the status of practical In Birmingham, York and Sussex the Edge Learner Forum and vocational learning so that all young people can achieve turned their attention to employers and the critical need for their potential. young people to better understand the world of work and their Jonathan Bramsdon is Partnership Director at Edge future career options. Major employer bodies regularly www.edge.co.uk bemoan the lack of ‘employability skills’ in young people
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grew up and left, and that, periodically, the assessment changed or the curriculum changed. The diplomas are proposing one hell of a challenge because they are asking teachers to not behave in an isolationalist way – which is a natural instinct – and to invite others into the classroom who are not trained as teachers and who do not have a sense of pedagogy necessarily. It is that letting go. If we want to see the diploma succeed, we need to find ways of helping our teachers to overcome this cultural barrier quickly. Kim Catcheside Teachers should become explorers? Matthew Harrison Yes. When I hear of teachers exploring through dialogue, for example, science teachers talking to their maths colleagues, I relax. If the design and technology people are talking to local industry, I relax. When I get very worked up is when I discover that teachers are talking to themselves. We need to find that way to get them to connect with those around them. Frank McLoughlin I think that Tim Brighouse said that teachers talking to each other is the best thing for a successful school, college, university or whatever it is. However, I think the big problem is the motivation of the children who we know are not going to do well, whose class tells us that they are not going to do so well and how we get teachers engaged with that. The diploma forces that. Young people can practise those real work skills following the diploma and it is incredibly motivational. I do not think it should be either universities or apprenticeships. What we must do is to make sure that both of those routes are as strong as each other. I think that is a goal for our economy. Jean Franczyk One of the most important things to consider within a school environment is the influence of the out-of-school environment on learning. We only spend about 15 per cent of our time in a formal learning environment in the course of our lifetimes. I
One of the most important things to consider within a school environment is the influence of the out-ofschool environment on learning Jean Franczyk
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like to think of these things in a triangle of essentials. You have to find a way to engage young people and that means connecting with them where they are. You have to give them the means of building capacity and skills. That covers the numeracy and literacy. You also have to give them continuity and the ability to advance in acquiring those skills and demonstrating proficiency. If you are missing any one of those things, your structure will collapse. What places like the Science Museum are so good at is that engagement, that hook. The things we do build capacity, build confidence, increase communication and those things are then put back into that formal learning environment. This allows students to do better at whatever it is they choose to do. My primary message is that the world outside of school can do so much to aid and assist a young person’s advance in either their academic career or their vocational career. Alasdair Macdonald We seem to have drifted into an area that is really about what makes good learning. However, our question here is, “What role can pupils play in developing their curriculum?” I would probably argue in an almost neo-fascist kind of way that this is not a huge area for pupils to be involved in. I think being involved in their learning is hugely important and I would not question having opportunities for the independent learners to work in a teamwork situation. However, I think that we could get carried away on the importance of pupil voice. I think it is important that pupils are particularly involved in the learning and they determine that to some extent, but in terms of developing their curriculum to focus their education, I am not sure how much of that you do with a six-year-old. David Hughes Perhaps not a six-year-old and perhaps there is something about being age specific but, if you caricature our education system, 50 per cent or so of our young people go through the system, get their A-levels, go to university and do fine. However, there is another group – around 10 per cent of young people – who just drop out completely and are alienated by the time they get to 16. Nobody ever asks them, “What would you like?” Nobody ever says to them, “Look, this doesn’t work, does it?” I think we should just be a bit braver and start to ask them at an earlier age. We should try to break down the prison that becomes school for a lot of them, because a lot of them do not want to be in school from 9am–3pm. As soon as you give them the chance to go and do something different, often in an FE college at 14, they jump at the chance and they become completely different kids, completely motivated. Where you can get schools and colleges working together, the teaching can be improved on both sides. You can really get that cross fertilisation of ideas. We need to ask young people at a much earlier age, “What do you want?” and “How should we deliver it?”
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Until young people value themselves, until they feel they have a contribution to make, I do not think that things will happen in the way we want Judith Bennett
and there was not enough time for creative thought, for talking to children and for listening to them. Until young people value themselves, until they feel they have a contribution to make (this is not lip service or having a school council where somebody goes along to listen to what is said periodically), I do not think that things will happen in the way we want. It is a tremendous and worthwhile opportunity that I think teachers ought to embrace. I hope that moves towards a flexible curriculum and what Jim Rose said about the primary curriculum today can help that to come back and become embedded, because I think it lost its way somewhere at the beginning of the 1990s and we need to find it again.
Alasdair Macdonald I will come back with one word, and that is “class”. The 50 per cent that goes through the school system successfully is overwhelmingly middle class and the other 50 per cent is not. If we are not very careful we will be saying that there is something that works well for the middle classes, the more affluent and more articulate in our society, but let us give choice to the other ones. I am really unhappy about young people making major life choices at the age of 13. They often come from families where there is no history of education, or perhaps even an alienation from education. It is very risky territory. That will not be happening in your leafy suburbs, in your middle-class schools, your grammar schools and your independent schools. They will not be making those choices. What they will be saying is “Let’s continue through to the age of 16 at least, and then we will start to make some important decisions.” My experience would suggest overwhelmingly that, for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, we should keep them on the standard curriculum until 16 and then let them make some choices – but let them be real choices. I think that if you do it much earlier than that, all you are doing is reinforcing our class system. Judith Bennett I was a secondary teacher for 24 years. I think one of the problems is that it is not just about talking to children but actually listening to them. A lot of the children are not used to being taken notice of. At home they are not talked to very often, especially if they are in families in deprived areas or where education is not valued. Schools must listen to young people. It may be that they are not in a position to contribute a great deal to developing their curriculum, but you can start them thinking and valuing themselves because you listen to them and make them feel that their contribution counts. I do not know whether this seemed to disappear because of the National Curriculum, because so many people were concerned to get through whatever needed to be done. We all followed the same course
Dylan Wiliam The first question we need to be asking is what it is that we want kids to learn. How they should be learning it should be a second consideration. I think the key idea developing here is informed choice. I agree with Alasdair. I do not think that many kids are in a position to make an informed choice even at the age of 14 about the choices they have. I think kids can make informed choices about how they learn much earlier than they can make informed choices about what they learn. For me the crucial question is around what it is that the teacher is doing. It seems to me that there are two traps. One extreme is the teacher who tries to do the learning for the learner, and at the other extreme is the teacher who says, “I do not teach. I just facilitate learning,” which is just basically hanging around. The best teachers engineer effective learning environments. They take into account the mass customisation that is possible but do not try to individualise. That is the trap with mass customisation. It is not individualisation. It is about using kit in the classroom as learning resources for one another. While I am sure that Bernice is right that kids want their teachers to know their subject, the evidence is that it does not actually make much of a difference to student outcomes. If you get an above average teacher – as opposed to an average teacher – in terms of their subject knowledge, you will learn 4 per cent more in a year from that teacher. But if a teacher who is above average in terms of how they teach teaches you, you will learn 50 per cent more. So, how teachers teach makes far more difference because what they do is open up exploration and make the learning more exciting. It seems to me that we need to work on the quality of the teaching force. Teachers do not get better just by being left to their own devices. What we have to do is to create structured ways in which teachers systematically get better at the things that make most difference to student outcomes, taking into account this notion of informed choice. Ben Williamson A lot of that is the sort of thing that we have been studying in the Enquiring Minds Programme. We have been talking to many students who say things like, “When I am listened to by 12 JANUARY 2008 | NEW STATESMAN | 25
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teacher, I feel that I am getting a fair chance and I am getting a fair hearing.” What the teachers then say is, “While I am doing this kind of teaching, responding and reacting to some of the needs of the students, I am developing a more dynamic sense of my own craft, of the profession that I joined.” For teachers it is about supporting children to ask questions about the kind of real-world experiences they are having. We are not necessarily saying that, by linking to the real world, we are always creating a more engaging and relevant curriculum. Sometimes we might be reproducing all sorts of things in the real world that we want schools to counter and question. For me it is teachers listening and acting upon what students say. Jim Knight I do not disagree with much of what has been said. Consistently getting good teachers, as Matthew was talking about, is fundamental, as is ensuring the managed collaboration and managed conversation for teachers to learn from each other. Technology can help us – not through Facebook but through a more managed form of networking. We now have to make that technology work for us. Dylan’s notion of informed choice is important. I would not want anyone to think that, in setting out the diploma programme, for example, we want people to make a choice at 13 that they will be studying for diplomas for the next five years if that is the wrong choice. They are allowed to make the wrong choice at 13 and 14. The choice that they are making when they choose between diplomas and GCSEs is one of different styles of teaching and learning. It is a difference in how things are being taught as opposed to, necessarily, what is being taught. The fundamental choice is, “Are you turned on by the traditional dry academic stuff of teaching and learning?” or “Are you turned on by a more applied style of teaching?” If, at 16, you choose to do A-levels, choose to do apprenticeships or choose to carry on doing
How do we compensate for the lack of engagement at home or how, ideally, do we stimulate that engagement at home with parents? Jim Knight
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diplomas, then we have designed the qualification to allow that to happen. It absolutely has to be a bridging qualification to different things, so you can, in some ways, make a choice at 13 that becomes the wrong choice for you at 16. We are quite clear, also, in terms of what people are learning, that they have to carry on learning if they choose diplomas, GCSEs or the functional skills of English, maths and ICT. The question of class that Alasdair raises is an extremely interesting one – if a slightly dangerous one for politicians to comment on too much. I have become very interested in parental engagement in learning because, in terms of class, that is one of the key differences. If your own experience of education was not great, you are less likely as a parent to become very engaged in your own child’s learning. That is more likely to happen if you are from a disadvantaged background than an advantaged one. We need teachers and their leaders to be able to address that difference if we want to address the attainment gaps. How do we compensate for the lack of engagement at home or how, ideally, do we stimulate that engagement at home with parents? We need to work with adult education to sharpen up that engagement between home and school and give parents a feeling of confidence about doing education with their children. Jane Lees It really does come down to the teachers and having structures in there that allow that the curriculum diet can be seen by the teachers themselves, because sometimes they do not know what a child goes through in school in a day. To shadow a child through a school day can be an eye opener. Best teacher practice can be shared through peer observation and evaluated. Where you have those structures in place, you get a real dialogue going on between the teachers to make certain that they have something they can share, evolve and ensure that it impacts on their children. In terms of engaging those pupils, Assessment for Learning is a really powerful tool. It gives pupils the targets to track themselves, with the support of their teachers or the classroom assistants and teaching assistants in schools. Then, of course, using the virtual learning environment (VLE) where it might be appropriate to support that learning. Bernice McCabe I totally agree that it comes down to the teachers. Teaching is one of the few professions where you do not go back to your original training. You can, potentially, work for 40 years and not go back to your original subject. Taking your phrase, Jim about traditional dry academic style of teaching and learning, I think that is a misconception. Rigorous, enthusiastic subject teaching can be exciting and fun. Time and time again I interview people for jobs at my school and I cannot get them to talk about their subjects. They will talk about methodology and exciting children, but it is very difficult to get them to go back to the heart of what really enthuses them. Most children are enthused by
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After another six years of learning, they will not have a clue why they did it, what they want to do or who they are in life. I do not think that is good enough for the 21st century Andy Powell
getting to grips with something tangible in a subject; the skills can develop from there. Skills cannot develop in a knowledge vacuum. What does “personalised learning” mean? Does it mean that every child needs to think for themselves and that we need to make sure that every child in the class learns to the limit of their potential? But is that not what good schools have always done? I heard somebody say the other day at a conference that we want children to be producers, not consumers of knowledge. I do not know what that means. Does it mean that we want them to think for themselves or to be engaged? Of course that is true. It is almost like there is some brave new world that is being created somewhere out there and it does not relate to good schools and what effective teaching is about. The sooner we put teachers back in connection with their subject and teaching subjects in a way that enthuses children, the sooner standards will rise, not just for the middle classes but for all children. Andy Powell I really enjoyed the distinction between the how and the what. It reminded me of a couple of examples. One is where I met with students who were at school but doing a placement at a college on a construction course. When asking them how they were getting on, the light shone in their eyes about this construction course, and one of the reasons was “They treat me like an adult.” The danger then is that somebody will think, “That is because they have got a fascination with construction and they want to go into construction.” Actually, they have got a fascination with being treated with respect and being treated like an adult. The other thing is something I came across recently, which are surveys done by the Campaign for Learning, where they chart the amount of time that students spend on certain activities in school. Not surprisingly, there are some high percentages of being read to from books, looking at the blackboard and being asked questions. For natural explorers, there is
an extraordinarily small period of time to ask questions and so on. We are not looking to remove the pedagogy but, through Lewisham, we funded what I understand is the first ever course for college lecturers that provides a totally different pedagogy in how you teach this practical stuff. In recent discussions with the National College of School Leadership and the Teacher Development Agency there seems to be nothing for teachers on the pedagogy of how you teach this more applied stuff. In our work with diplomas in Hertfordshire, where we are trying to support them on the ground, that is the biggest problem. The teachers just do not know quite how to deal with this thing. Finally, someone said earlier about the 50 per cent who are doing fine and getting on well. Actually, I want to challenge that, because I know lots of teenagers and young people who, because they come from middle-class backgrounds are doing absolutely fine but they get a lot of support from parents because they are conformists. They do not really know why or what they are doing. They will go and do their A-levels. They will go to university and they will come out. I know that after another six years of learning, they will not have a clue why they did it, what they want to do or who they are in life. I do not think that is good enough for the 21st century. Matthew Harrison I would like to bring some facts to bear. We skirted around the subject of class and what that means to educational and life outcomes. Sir Alan Langland’s Report [Gateways to the Professions] was very clear that one key to social mobility is access to the professions. The most under-represented group in the professions is the lower half of the socioeconomic scale. For the longest time, the professions have waited until young people are 18 or older before they ask them to make a choice. We have had several generations of this. So, it would seem logical to say that late choices are not encouraging young people into things like the professions that give them social mobility. In a sense, although it is highly risky to ask 13-year-olds to make important decisions that may affect their future, it seems only inevitable that we have to encourage them to start making decisions at 13 if we are going to break the generation-to-generation cycle. The upper half of the socio-economic scale goes into the professions and does very nicely, thank you, but the other half does not. The flip side to that coin is that we need a lot more engineers. We cannot just rely on the same families, who have produced boy child after boy child who go on to become engineers, to keep the infrastructure running. We have to find more people. Coming back to the diplomas where I spend so much time, it is risky to get 13-year-olds to make decisions. But, in the case of the diplomas, it is quite a safe decision. Actually, all you are asking them is, “What would you like to do for a day-and-a-half in the week?” because the rest of the time they will be doing their regular GCSEs and everything else. If they 12 JANUARY 2008 | NEW STATESMAN | 27
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like that different style of learning, they might choose to take it on later but, if not, what they will have demonstrated to themselves is the ability to make a decision and to relate that decision to the consequences. While it is risky, if you are going to open up the professions, I think the only choice you have is to get people to make decisions earlier. Alasdair Macdonald One of my pet hates is listening to politicians who say that what we need to do is to get our best teachers into our most challenging schools. I think it is a complete misreading of the situation. In my school and in hundreds of similar schools, we have some fantastic teachers who would knock the spots off teachers in more affluent areas. That the examination results in challenging schools are not as good as those in other communities is not to do with the quality of teaching. If we go down that road, we are going down a blind alley because all that will happen is that, as much as we improve the quality of teaching in our schools in inner-city areas, the same thing will be happening elsewhere and we will not close gaps. The history of our education system is that standards have gone up but there has been a relatively insignificant closing of gaps. Increasingly, my experience is – to disagree with everything we said just now – that teaching is important but it is overrated. What we are doing is what has gone on since education became compulsory. We are just replicating a model across the entire system and thinking, “If it works here, it will work there.” I do not think that that is the case. I think that, if we keep on improving the quality of teaching, the children in innercity schools will be left behind still. The gaps will not close because, as fast as the inner-city schools improve, the others will move ahead. We want good teaching, but there are other things that are also very important. These are to recognise that we need to do something different for the young people who come from backgrounds where there is no history of education, where the parents do not know what higher education is, who have never seen
We are obsessed with the notion that we can change our society through better pedagogy but we will not Alasdair Macdonald
a university. They need some support outside the classroom on raising aspirations, something that will engage them with education and make them want to be there. If you talk to parents, they want the children to do well but they do not know what to do. We have done that Fire Service course for years. It is a great week, but two weeks later it has not made much difference because those children do not have a network to support them. We need a two-pronged approach to this. I am talking about inner-city schools here. We need top-quality classroom practice and we need to put significant resources into supporting those young people – making them want to come to school working with their families – and not see that as an add-on extra. That should be the core of what we are doing. We are obsessed with the notion that we can change our society through better pedagogy but we will not. Kim Catcheside I sense a definite feeling from the representatives of FE colleges to being much more open to enabling students to materially affect the curriculum. So there is one strand there. Another big strand is having teachers, perhaps, as leaders. They are the explorers who are the leaders of the expedition. Another thing I would like to look at, which I think goes back to what Alasdair has been saying, is that if we are talking about enabling children to be consumers, then we need to offer much better advice and show them much earlier what options there are. We must try to embed that into our curricula much earlier. It is a bit more about giving information, about enabling students to be informed participants. Middleclass people are so much better at being informed consumers of public services, so how do we even up the playing field in those circumstances? Dave Hughes People have not said it is about the quality of teaching only. They talked about the context of the teaching and the pedagogy of the teaching. I agree that this discussion is class based. A lot of what has been said really resonates. To go back to something that Matthew said as well, why are we not asking young people at 11, 12 or 13 if they want to make the choice about what they do in the future, because the danger is that we just spoon feed them what they are given. Why not start to open up where there is a gap in their understanding about the world. Their aspirations are limited by the culture in which they grew up. If we could start to open that up and actually give some of those kids the opportunity to see at a much earlier age what is available to them, they might make a really positive decision to do a diploma that would motivate them through those difficult teenage years. Frank McLoughlin I would like to support Alasdair’s idea about the schools or the colleges having a bigger cultural role, so that it is not just about the role you have in taking young people on a journey, but it is where you sit within your communities. I think one of the reasons why my college has been so successful
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Motivation is what we see when we get the match between challenge and capability right. That is why the personalisation agenda is so right Dylan Wiliam
is because we play a full role in our community. I was in Chicago last month looking at Chicago City colleges. The authorities have built a new campus in downtown south Chicago. It is a very brave development and is about connecting those communities. The teachers are critical, as is getting the community of the establishment to join up with that. I do not want to be insulting, but getting bright people to teach A-levels is not rocket science. Getting good people to understand how you bring a group of young people from very mixed backgrounds through a programme to motivate them all is a challenge. I think I might have failed as a middle-class parent. My own son went to our local school and he has done okay-ish but I could see the boys who would drop out from the first year they were there. It was absolutely obvious. You were knocking square pegs into round holes. So, the job of keeping those young people in education, which is why the diplomas are so good, is vital. You have to find an alternative route to success for those young people. I do not see enough schools that see their responsibilities extending beyond the school gates. They say, “We have got a difficult enough job to do here,� but reaching beyond the school boundaries and getting everybody joined up on that journey is vital. My final point is about giving teachers broader experience. I am still surprised by how many teachers in schools, and potentially in colleges, are just people who have gone through the journey from school to university and back to school. Often they are replicating the diet they had in school but it needs to be done differently. I think that teachers supporting each other and working in different ways, with young people being involved in observation of lessons and in the selection of teachers, all of those are really empowering for young people and give them an insight into how the world could be for them. Dylan Wiliam By the age of 36 months, a kid in a middle-class household will have had addressed to them by an adult 25 million more words than a kid in a
family on benefits. So, middle-class kids always make more sense of adequate or below adequate teaching than working class kids do. I disagree with Alasdair. We need to get the best teachers to the kids who actually need it most. The evidence is that we are actually doing quite a good job of that because the quality of teaching in the average school in the state sector is far higher than the average quality in the private sector. We can deduce that from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study results. For me, the important thing is this notion of keeping the working class kids tuned in. If you begin to fall behind in reading development or mathematical development, you get a vicious spiral where you give up because you do not understand it and then you decide that it is better to be thought lazy than stupid. We want them to experience the beauty and elegance of mathematics when you are doing it as pure mathematics. Motivation is not an input into learning. Motivation is what we see when we get the match between challenge and capability right. That is why the personalisation agenda is so right. We see motivation when kids have that buzz when they are concentrating for hours on something because it is pushing their thinking forward and it is just at the level they can cope with. The problem with teacher quality is that teachers are very good at teaching to each other but teaching is a physical and embodied, almost balletic, activity and you cannot get teachers to talk their way into a new way of acting. Surgeons like watching other surgeons, but the only way they improve is by practising. We need to find ways of helping teachers practise. It is a culture of you coming into my classroom to hold up a mirror to me so that I can help move my plans forward. Where you have the best teachers, there are no achievement gaps between kids who come in with behavioural difficulties and those who do not, between kids who come in from families with very low levels of education and very high levels of education. That is why Finland is doing so well. They have 50 applications for each teacher-training place. They are taking their teachers from the top 25 per cent of college graduate population. We are taking our teachers from the bottom 50 per cent or so. In the short term, we need to improve our teacher quality. In the long term, we need to improve our teacher quality by raising the bar for teaching. We need to improve the quality of applicants for teacher posts and work with the teachers we have to improve their classroom skills. The stuff we are doing in England is as good as anything anywhere else in the world. We have schools with the best data in the world, as far as I am aware. We have an incredibly rich conversation about student voice. There are amazing things going on, with kids running conferences for teachers. So we should not beat ourselves up too much. We have a huge way to go but we are doing some incredibly exciting stuff. 12 JANUARY 2008 | NEW STATESMAN | 29
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Matthew Harrison Mention has not been made of role models. Perhaps the reason why Frank’s FE college is working is that there are local people who can support those students when they are outside class and they can learn about the pathways available for local jobs. What we have learned in south-east London is that, when you connect young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to people who know how to get into university, who know how to talk their way into a good job and to a good profession, you get this magical connection or combination of great teaching and the social networks of influence that come from role models. Alasdair Macdonald I think that the point I am trying to make about teacher quality is that teacher quality is incredibly important but those middle-class children have parents who are providing all sorts of other things in terms of enrichment, aspiration and support for learning. If we just carry on doing what we have always done and do it a bit better, I do not think that we will change anything significantly. What are we doing about the enrichment, about the aspiration, about the support for learning? If we get those bits right, what the teachers are doing in the classroom will start to be more effective. Look at a school’s budget. The average secondary school spends something like 75 per cent of its budget on teachers and 3 per cent or 4 per cent on enrichment, support for learning and aspirations if you are lucky. We have to recognise that that is a core part of what we do. Ben Williamson It seems to me that often we do not ask teachers what their purpose is or have conversations about the purposes of their job. One of those issues around voice might be that we are trying to enhance children’s skills for a more high-tech economy. It may be around simply raising aspiration in relation to social context, socio-economic class and so on. As teachers, we are trying to develop in children a great appreciation for subjects. There are things that
You get this magical connection or combination of great teaching and the social networks of influence that come from role models Matthew Harrison
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are not static, stuck in their ways, old-fashioned and out of date, but things that are moving and constantly changing. It seems to me that, in relation to the proposed Masters programme for teachers, we need to have conversations about underlying ideology, agendas and purposes of education. Jim Knight It is important that we should continue to focus on what is going on in the classroom and continue to try to raise the quality of teaching. Things like the Teach First scheme have worked well in trying to deploy the best young teachers into the most challenging circumstances and then there are things like the Graduate Teacher Programme and now Transition to Teaching, which brings people who have other experience into the classroom. Quite a few of those teachers are people who have come into teaching relatively late. However, there is a danger that we use our marginal revenue on the things we already do a lot on and know a lot about for quite a limited and marginal return. What Alasdair is talking about is that the 85 per cent of time when pupils are not in school is the time we need to focus on a little bit more, particularly around narrowing the gaps and compensating for what may not be otherwise good at home. Generally, schools need to be more outward facing. Leaders need to take on more system leadership. We need more co-location of other services around schools. We need better engagement with employers and we need to continue to increase engagement with universities. Then, having employers and universities coming into the schools and colleges can bring in other role models. These things are fundamental in taking us on to the next stage and delivering what remains the biggest English problem, the persistence of the attainment gaps. Kim Catcheside I am going to ask you, briefly, to answer the original question, which I am going to interpret as “Should we make education a genuine two-way conversation dynamic in which we genuinely respond to what pupils say they want? If so, what is the most effective way of doing that?” Dylan Wiliam I used to foster teenagers, and one of the things we learned was that the kids’ interests are not necessarily their wishes. So, what we need to do is listen to the children and to equip them with the skills to develop and inform choices. We now know that five- and six-year-olds have incredible insights into how they learn best, and teachers who do not capitalise on that are making their job much harder. We need a more careful conversation about the extent to which we allow children to choose not to read, for example. As children get older their wishes have to be taken into account more, rather than just their interests. The important point is that they get such a rich curricular experience that they understand what it is like to be good at writing and what it is like to be good at drama. The trouble at the moment is that it is not an informed choice.
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Education policy does not have education at its heart. It seems to be developed in response to problems Bernice McCabe
Bernice McCabe Children need to be educated to make informed choices. They need to be involved. They will often give you a very sensible answer. It seems to me that education policy does not have education at its heart. It seems to be developed in response to problems. Giving schools the freedom to define their own culture is absolutely key. We cannot assume that children know the answers. We must not ask them to run before they can walk. So they have to be taught things first. Andy Powell I would stress this much richer, wider range of experiences and curriculum experiences from as young as possible. The teaching pedagogy is very interesting. Presumably, teachers are becoming more facilitators and there is a different pedagogy. In countries such as Sweden and Holland, life is very different. So I think there are options there.
Jane Lees I agree with what Dylan Wiliam has just said because sometimes the best interests of the child are definitely not what they would wish to do at a given age, especially with peer pressure. So adults need to be prepared to take some hard decisions with the child. Judith Bennett I think that what we need is a twoway conversation but I think that we need to be looking at what is behind the children and their background because there is not yet an answer to hard-to-reach families. Jane Franczyk You have to listen to young people. I think that that is the way to find out any number of things about their views of the world. A great longitudinal study in the US about which people at age 30 were practising scientists, in medicine, engineering and so on found that the most significant thing was whether someone at age 11 expressed a career interest in any of those sciences. So, make sure you give really young people a level of understanding and awareness of what is out there but also answer their questions about, “How would I get to do that thing?” I am thrilled to hear that you are interested in the 80 per cent of time spent outside of school. David Hughes Anyone who is a parent knows that if you give kids responsibility, they respond. If you give them the responsibility and the tools with which to make informed choices, they will. We need leaders of schools and learning environments, colleges and so on, to be aware that that is the culture that we should be trying to create for them. Frank McLoughlin It is about the culture of the establishment. It is about aspiration, expectation, looking at some of the traditional power relationships between managers and teachers, teachers and students and the whole deal. It is also an acknowledgement of the place of that school or college in its community – that it can go beyond the boundaries.
Ben Williamson I think we need to recognise that children are socially participative, that they are intellectually inquisitive and that we need to support that in schools. We also need to recognise and respond sensitively to all the influences on children’s lives, be aware about whether that is about the type of socio-economic factors that are affecting their day-today lives or whether it is about their experience of the consumer media culture. Alasdair Macdonald Referring to what Jim said about marginal revenue funding, if there is such a thing, then what I would be asking is whether that is actually closing gaps or just raising attainment? I think we need to be very clear that the two are not the same thing. Pupil voice is great, and I am all for that sort of stuff. However, I do not think that this will do anything to close gaps. In fact, it will probably help the more articulate to widen the gap if we are not careful. Matthew Harrison To answer the question very quickly, I think young people should make decisions about their education from a very young age. It is just that those early decisions need to be light ones that do not have tremendous consequences for the future. As they grow up, the decisions become more important and have greater significance. At every stage, people who have their best interests at heart should support them. For some, that is parents and carers. For those who do not have that quality of support, that ought to come, in my view, from the universities, the charities and the employers who understand the locality, understand the school, understand what they are trying to achieve. Kim Catcheside Thank you so much for taking part in this fascinating discussion. It is impossible to sum it up but I will have a stab. We should listen to children but we should not necessarily do what they ask or allow them to have an influence on what happens too much until we are confident that they have been supported to make an informed choice. 12 JANUARY 2008 | NEW STATESMAN | 31