Reception

ROBERT LOBATTO

Robert Lobatto Robert with student speakers at the ‘Education On The Move’ Conference

Tucked away in a semi-subterranean space, nestled between the Photography Studio and the stationery cupboard is a small, air-conditioned room. Inside, you find treasure consisting of photographs, documents and artefacts that go back to 1897. This is our archive, neatly arranged, with historical papers carefully tucked into protective wallets.

As with any good archive, it lives and breathes and Year 6 have recently been exploring its content. They have discovered the original school song, have leafed through the handwritten school magazine of 1914, and have studied the war years in Royston when our site was commandeered by the army. They explored the idealism of our founders who saw education as an engine improve society. Inspired by what they found, letters have been flooding my way requesting more girls cricket, regular lessons in the treehouse, and the return of the goat!

At the very same moment, the Times Education Committee Report also landed on my desk. Its 20 members include luminaries from across the educational and political landscape and they painted a bleak picture of the state of education in England.

They described the paltry levels of provision and funding for early years, with funding well below the European average and childcare seen as more of a way to enable parents to work than a vital educational experience for young children. They highlighted a testing regime which automatically condemns a third of all pupils to ‘fail’ due to capping the number of students who can achieve a pass.

Due to the unrelenting focus on exam outcomes, they analysed the decline of creative subjects and the failure to develop the broader skills of communication, collaboration, and creativity required by employers.

And they focussed on well-being. There are multiple causes of mental health challenges, but the Commission found that many students themselves cited the pressure of exams as a driving force. 1 in 6 young people are now seen to suffer from a probable mental health disorder and more than half of adult mental health problems emerge before the age of 15. British children are among the unhappiest in the world. The OECD found that pupils in the UK suffered the steepest decline in life satisfaction between 2015 and 2018 and ranked 34th out of 35 countries for fear of failure.

Robert with students

Comparing the Year 6 letters with the Interim Report, reminded me why it is so important that KAS champions a broader vision. As our recent Inspection report lays out, it is by embracing a holistic approach that we stretch far beyond short-term goals to long-term educational and personal development.

Is it not right for all schools to embrace the creative subjects as we do? These subjetcs unquestionably nurture conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and individual responsibility as much as any other parts of the curriculum.

Does it not make sense for schools to nurture broader skills and personal qualities as happens here? Opportunities in the 6-8 curriculum, in the Village, in new courses during the GCSE years, and in the EPQ qualification at Sixth Form level systematically build these to prepare our young people for the future.

And should not well-being be front and centre of everyone’s thinking? Children will always compare themselves to one another, but schools can have a very different approach in this area. Exams will always be part of assessment, but should not coursework, portfolios and presentations also contribute towards final grades, avoiding the one-off, all-or-nothing high stakes scenario which dominates our system? Rather than lazily using comparison and ordering of children as a motivator to work hard, can the focus not be on intrinsic motivation, valuing everyone’s achievement on its own terms?

I am grateful that our late Victorian founders built these principles into our DNA; and they also set us a broader task. As a charity, they saw our role not only to educate our own KAS community, but to turn the dial in the wider system. They maintained that we have a responsibility to campaign against the superficial preparation for testing which all the research shows is forgotten within a few months and instead advocate for deeper learning. They promoted the Arts which bring millions to the economy as well as personal and communal cultural richness. They pushed for freedom, allowing young people to find their own path and take responsibility for who they are. Above all, they championed a child-centred approach to schooling where the needs of the individual take precedence over the external pressure to meet institutional accountability measures.

King Alfred has therefore always had this aspiring utopian mission. Today, more than ever, we can recognise that we have an approach, a philosophy and a history that addresses many of the depressing problems in our system. That is why we must continue to campaign, to run our conferences and to build our outreach programme - we can use our experience, our know-how and our passion to join with others, build partnerships and make a difference on the ground.

This idealism, I feel, would resonate with our Year 6’s. As well as working with the Archive, they met and interviewed a group of Old Alfredians, some of whom had been here as far back as the 1940s.

“Was it interesting?” I asked a couple of the pupils. “Fascinating” they said, “we loved their stories about school life, and what they did next.” “Any surprises?” I asked. “Well, a lot of what they said made it sound quite similar, although I think they had even more freedom in those days.” “And did they have anything in common?” I finally asked. “Oh yes,” they both replied. “They all wanted to improve the world.”

Robert discussing the Space Interdisciplinary Enquiry with Y7 students