Primary First 13

PrimaryFirst The journal for primary schools Issue 13 ÂŁ5.00

The environment is the real curriculum. To assume it is ever neutral is illusory.

Anita Rui Olds

National Association for Primary Education

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Editorial The government abolished levels and now there is every sign that they have very little idea what could replace them.

So the political answer is to ask schools to develop their own systems of assessing children’s progress.

The prevailing view of progress consists of a comparison between the results of a baseline assessment (NAPE is fighting this) with the results of the national testing of English and mathematics towards the end of the primary stage. Clearly this is an inadequate view of a child’s growth in maturity, knowledge and skill over the primary years.

The two measured aspects of learning are important but they are very far from being a summation of progress in education. Our consideration of progress must include how a child functions in life. It is not enough to show potential for learning at the age of four and to pass a test at the age of eleven. The possession of knowledge and skill is only a beginning, it is what a child does with that knowledge and skill that matters more. Progress in education must be related to the child as a whole.

It should be stressed that teacher assessments are not merely attempts to predict the results of national testing.

It is evidence which has to be validated by the knowledge of that child by those who know and share experience with him or her. The assessment of children by teachers looks beyond testing and considers the whole child and every aspect of growth and development.

Unlike testing which is susceptible to coaching and which attaches disproportionate importance to immediate recall of rote learning rather than understanding, assessments made by adults who know the child well are more productive of good teaching because the assessments are carried out in the stride of the child and there is no backwash into the curriculum.

The government should take immediate action in one particular respect. Currently the results of the testing of pupils are also used as a measure of the efficiency of schools and teaching. It is this dual purpose which has had such ill effects upon the quality of children’s learning. Increasingly the high stakes now attached to national testing have led to teaching to the test. The curriculum is narrowed unhelpfully and the coached performance of children on the day of the test is far from imbedded learning and hence is forgotten all too quickly in the weeks following the test. This is why SATs are such poor predictors of later educational performance. it is vitally important that the schools’ assessment of pupil progress should be separated from the national assessment of school performance. The current duality of purpose is harmful both to the assessment of children and to the assessment of school efficiency.

About us

Editorial Editorial Board

John Coe Peter Cansell, Stuart Swann, Robert Young

Primary First magazine is published three times per year by the National Association for Primary Education.

Primary First, 57 Britannia Way, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS14 9UY Tel. 01543 257257, Email. nape@onetel.com ©Primary First 2015 No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial content the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

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CONTENTS 03

Editorial

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Doing it by the book The vitally important role of school libraries in achieving quality learning.

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Educational visits ARE education!

Personal experience of learning out of school.

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Thinking aloud must be allowed Sue Cox contrasts SATs with creative education.

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Where have all the values gone?

School governors are important to us but Robert Young asks what is happening as changes are made.

Book reviews

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Do as I say...

Ruth Merttens discusses the myth of Pacific Rim excellence and the value of textbooks.

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Primary Education – Getting to grips with the world?

Geography should engage with the big global issues says Ben Ballin

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The Primary Computing Curriculum: ideas and ways forward A comprehensive analysis of the teaching of computing in contemporary schools.

The Man I Knew A memoir of Christian Schiller, one of the creators of enlightened primary education.

Doing it by the book: Reaping the rewards of a successful school library

by Annike Dase, with additional information by Susan Staniforth Despite numerous studies proving the benefits of effective school libraries1 and increasingly frantic calls for schools to improve literacy across the UK’s population, school libraries are in danger of extinction. But don’t 21st century children need libraries in their schools more than ever before?

Can you stop this gamble with your pupils’ literacy? Of course you can!

Library provision in UK primary schools ranges from book corners in classrooms and weekly visits to the local public library to state-of-the-art learning hubs with high-tech equipment and a professional librarian in charge. Facilities are as diverse as the communities they serve, reflecting local heritage and individual school’s ethos. But all have one characteristic in common: they have the power to provide children with vital opportunities to engage with language, literature, and information, and to develop socially and individually in a safe environment.

Whether you are maintaining a high-spec Learning Resource Centre or dreamy reading corners, here we will call these spaces libraries to ensure ease of reading, not to promote one singular model. Similarly, we shall call the people who manage these facilities librarians, whatever their background and role in the school.

This article sets out the features of high-impact school libraries and provides guidelines for improving and developing your particular set-up.

In these times of austerity and public service cutbacks it can be hard for schools to find means to support their libraries, especially as the pressure grows to provide data for any initiative and prove an immediate impact on achievement. However, a well-managed and supported school library is one of the most economical ways to tick multiple boxes on the score sheet of school improvement.

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06 Reading for pleasure The benefits of reading for pleasure are welldocumented, in reports from The National Literacy Trust2 for example. The operative word here is pleasure. We’re not talking about reading schemes, charming as Biff and his friends may be. Reading schemes and guides undoubtedly have their place, however, the very absence of a prescribed level when browsing bookshelves can be incredibly liberating for a child. School libraries can provide a space where browsing and making your own decisions is encouraged, where it’s ok to borrow a stack of information books on random topics, together with a couple of talking books and a comic to boot. Perhaps half of the books are later discarded as too hard or easy or not interesting enough for this particular child – what a valuable skill to have picked up in times of information overload!

Reading for pleasure requires time and space. A school library can be that magical environment in which to actually lose yourself in a book, especially if it is equipped with beanbags and rugs. Away from the classroom, the pressure is off, allowing for self-discovery and creativity, particularly for children who struggle in the classroom. With a librarian on hand, who can guide and monitor every child on every level, recommend and explain books of all varieties, your school library provides a valuable learning opportunity.

So far, so traditional library setting. This is how libraries are commonly seen to be operating and while generally accepted to be a lovely addition, few people recognise the direct impact on academic achievement a school library can make, which presumably is one reason for underfunding and underusing school libraries.

In fact, active and creative school libraries can be the most powerful force in creating life-long readers, a quality which has been proven to contribute significantly to future happiness.3 Utilising specific contacts and networks, school librarians can arrange book fairs, author, illustrator and storyteller visits and special events, such as World Book Day, to cement the idea that reading is enjoyable and books are full of treasure and magic. The fantastic Patron of Reading scheme4 is a brilliant example of schools working with authors to boost reading for pleasure and creative writing.

A well-managed school library invites children to challenge themselves by exploring different genres, new authors and thus develop a taste for the new,

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the unknown, the yet to be discovered. Through recommended reading, as well as selected displays, and initiatives that tie in with the curriculum, local or national news or traditional festivals, children are encouraged to use books as stepping stones for their journey through childhood education.

Libraries are naturally differentiated environments. In addition to freely choosing books, pupils with specific learning needs can be supported through the provision of books in alternative formats, such as audio books. E-books and E-readers can play a valuable part in this task, which naturally extends to children who are classed as more able and who can, under the guidance of a librarian, be lead towards more challenging texts. Here, the expertise of the librarian is particularly important: giving more able children books for adults or simply throwing the classics of literature at them is rarely effective. A trained librarian with a good library stock can offer a range of books, tailored to an individual pupil’s needs and interests.

There are an increasing number of IT based reader development tools available, such as Accelerated Reader from Renaissance Learning or Scholastic’s Literacy Pro. Administering such (often expensive) programmes successfully is a time-consuming task and one that librarians are best placed to take on.

One feature of reading for pleasure which is often ignored is the valuable experience of discussing your reading with others. Libraries provide a space in which to discuss books, characters, storylines and book covers.

And because it’s not in a classroom, pupils are often more forthcoming with their opinions. Instead of shushing at children, school librarians of today encourage talking and sharing ideas.

“The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.”

(Department for Education 2014)

All of the above tie in directly with objectives set out in the national curriculum.5 Designing a development plan that outlines the way in which the school library does or could meet each objective is straightforward.

Combined with regular and meaningful evaluation,

this strategic framework justifies the allocation of appropriate staff time and resources.

Information Literacy The ability to find, evaluate and use information effectively and ethically is one skill that no child can do without in the 21st century – and the school library is the place to teach it.

More inclusive than the IT lab, as the library can use books and IT side by side, it is especially successful in teaching transferable skills, such as effective information retrieval from books and websites. The school librarian can provide guidance for different topics and learning levels, as well as the crucial follow-up and consistency across key stages.

“The most effective headteachers had a vision for the library’s key role in raising standards of literacy and making a difference to learning.”

(OFSTED 2006) The pastoral role of school libraries Often the most underrated and overlooked contribution to school life, the effective school library is an integral part for ensuring children’s well-being. Library use actively tackles social exclusion by providing opportunities to engage positively with your own and other people’s heritage and experiences through stories, thus becoming a force in the war against bullying.

Spending time in the library during breaks means pupils engage with older or younger children and the most successful school libraries run some sort of library helper scheme, which is fantastic for engaging pupils of all ages.

Such initiatives provide opportunities for learning basic customer service skills and engaging with the wider school community. It can be a real highlight for a pupil to serve a customer, recommend books, be involved in planning events and take responsibility for the effective running of the library. Interestingly, library helpers are not always the most bookish children, nor are they necessarily the naturally outspoken and involved types. The school library provides an opportunity to shine and develop confidence for every child.

Confidence building becomes especially valuable when approaching the transition from primary to secondary school. School libraries have been known to play a crucial role in easing this phase through effective collaboration between the primary school librarian and their secondary counterparts.

We all know that libraries provide safe havens for those of us who need a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Nowhere is this more important than in schools. Every child feels vulnerable at some point during their education, often caused by issues outside school. A quiet space, a non-judgmental area, an opportunity to get away from your peers and the freedom to hide in a corner with a book are vital to those children.

Similarly, the library is often the place where children explore different sides of their personality. It is not uncommon to discover that the loudest child in a class is the quietest one in the library and vice versa. Similarly to lunch halls and playgrounds, school libraries can be places where children ‘let go’.

Librarians who are non-teaching members of staff are often chosen for children as an adult to talk to about difficult issues and can find themselves in situations where children disclose a serious matter to them.

It is therefore imperative that the librarian in charge is trained and sympathetic to different needs, equally equipped to listen as to instruct. Furthermore, school librarians must be included in all staff training and be made aware of any problems between individual children and any safeguarding issues.

“In future, major education initiatives need to consider the potential role of school libraries.”

(National Literacy Trust 2014b) Perhaps most of the activities described above happen in your library already and most of us loathe any additional admin, tests, data, reports and spreadsheets. However, if this essential contribution to social inclusion, literacy development and mental wellbeing is not evaluated, monitored and publically acknowledged (in an inspection report for example), libraries are in danger of being pushed to the sidelines, thus becoming vulnerable to cuts in staff and budgets. Whether we like it or not, proving impact to justify spending is a reality in all aspects of life. Libraries are not sacrosanct and in order to preserve and develop them in our schools, we need to look at them critically and put in place plans and strategies. It is not enough to give a teacher a free lunchtime and £100. Similarly, we cannot expect the complex skills of administering a school library from a lunchtime supervisor or parent helper without providing adequate training and support.

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Far from simply being yet another initiative in need of time, money and attention, creating an effective school library in your school is an involved and rewarding process, and one that will pay dividends in years to come. With adequate support, school libraries can provide a raft in the wild waters of future political, cultural and technological challenges to primary education.

1 Such

as D. Wavell’s report from 2013.

National Literacy Trust provides evidence from research reports, as well as guidance and support for all stages of literacy development. www.literacytrust.org.uk 3 For example in the Reading Changes Lives report from the national Literacy Trust.

4 http://www.patronofreading.co.uk/ 5 Department for Education 2014 2 The

Supporting Libraries School library services are a really helpful way of obtaining resources, guidance and support. If there is no SLS locally the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the School Library Association are also pleased to offer help. Full details of the many opportunities available through the SLA can be found on their website www.sla.org.uk

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Annike Dase has been a school librarian for 13 years. She has led several training courses for primary school staff and is the current Vice-Chair of the School Library Association.

Susan Staniforth is an independent library consultant with over 35 years experience in the school and public library sector. She is the School Library Association’s Treasurer.

CASE STUDY: The Den, St Mary’s C of E Primary School, Tetbury, Gloucestershire In January 2013 St Mary’s Ofsted inspectors made two main recommendations regarding reading at the school. Firstly, the school needed to develop its library to give children access to a wider range and an improved quality of books. Secondly, it was noted that not all children were reading at an appropriate level and that they needed to be heard reading aloud more.

A decision was made to convert a music room into a library which would be called The Den but funding for this was needed to achieve this. A number of organisations contributed including the PTA, local charitable organisations such as the Tetbury Lions and the children themselves. The children were asked where they most liked to read and this was reflected in a series of rooms in The Den, namely a sitting room, a garden and a bedroom. The room was cleared, it was decorated by teachers and volunteers and carpets were provided by a local shop. Apart from decorating the areas appropriately, furniture was also bought to match and pictures were painted on the walls to reflect children’s interests.

Books were bought from the local bookshop and organised by parents and volunteers with the exception of banding the fiction which was carried out by the School Library Service.

This is a unique type of library as the photographs show but it has transformed a former music room into a vibrant hub of the school which the children enjoy using. Every class has a timetabled slot for the library when they go in and read for pleasure, selecting books from the shelves and reading with adults or taking the opportunity to read their own reading books. It is also where our book group meet each week to discuss the books they are reading with the Assistant Headteacher and it provides a venue for School Council to hold their meetings. We have also used the Den to host local authors who have come to work with the children and the doors from the Den open out into a reflection garden where we have a story telling chair.

References and Resources Browns Books for Students provide a tailored books and media supply service, as well as an ebook platform. www.brownsbfs.co.uk The BookTrust website contains research reports and resources to support literacy in primary schools. www.booktrust.org.uk Department for Education (2014) The national curriculum in England. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335116/ Master_final_national_curriculum_220714.pdf [accessed on 14.04.2015] Greenwood, H., Creaser, C. and Maynard, S. (2008) Successful primary school libraries: Case studies of good practice.

Available from: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/infosci/ lisu/downloads/successful-prim-sch-libs.pdf [accessed on 15.04.2015] The National Literacy Trust (2014) a) Reading Changes Lives. Available from: http://www. literacytrust.org.uk/research/nlt_research/6149_literacy_ changes_lives_2014_a_new_perspective_on_health_ employment_and_crime [accessed on 14.04.2015]

b) School Libraries: A Plan for improvement. Available from: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/5718/School_ Libraries_A_Plan_for_Improvement.pdf Ofsted (2006) Good School Libraries. Available from: www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/HMI2426.doc [accessed on 15.04.2015] Peters Books offer shelf ready books, as well as an ebook platform, reader support materials and library furniture. www.petersbooks.co.uk Streatfield, D., Shaper, S. and Rae-Scott, S. for The School Libraries Group of CILIP (2010) School libraries in the UK: A worthwhile past, a difficult present – and a transformed future? Main report of the UK National Survey. Available from: http://www.cilip.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/fullschool-libraries-report_0.pdf [accessed on 13.04.2015] Wavell, D. (2013) The Impact of School Libraries on Learning.

Available from: http://www.scottishlibraries.org/storage/ sectors/schools/SLIC_RGU_Impact_of_School_Libraries_2013. pdf [accessed on 15.04.2015]

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EDUCATIONAL VISITS ARE EDUCATION!

by Mervyn Benford

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NAPE’s belief support for the I-SPY programme reflects not just the quality of the experience underlying educational visits but the conviction sustaining it.

When I worked in Oxfordshire there was an amazing arrangement whereby groups of six or seven primary schools shared a minibus. The County organised driver familiarisation courses and paid the costs for some years, though ultimately the clusters had to pick up the bill. At Lewknor we really valued this vehicle and every teacher I ever appointed had to be willing to drive it subject to the training.

Most of the schools used it largely for transporting sports teams, maybe an annual outing to a place of interest and perhaps the occasional museum or gallery visit. Entitlement was shared on an equal basis but if a school did not book its allocated day another could claim it. We found ourselves using it once or twice a week on that basis- our normal ration was less than once a week.

The other schools sometimes worried that unless they could take a whole class- the minibus had just 12 seats and a second teacher was advisable for one of them- it would not be proper. We took 12 and they reinforced their learning by presenting their findings, very much orally, to the rest of us- with relevant visual aids.

Another 12 would go somewhere else. All would not go everywhere but would share the learning and have a fair share of visits as a fundamental insight into the everyday world. It was the socially-mediated learning of Vygotsky rooted in the belief that an individual’s learning can be enhanced by the contributions of others.

I have all my old diaries and could list every visit but I prefer to argue the overall impact of such experience.

Visits might link with a study theme, for example the Turners at the Tate or the War Museum for Civil War or World War insights. When we visited museums and galleries ourselves it was always targeted- never a general look around. A visit might exploit a oneoff opportunity such as the Tutankhamen Exhibition in London. Groups might be all-age or a limited age group depending on the activity. That was how our grouping arrangements and timetabling worked. We used it at weekends to take volunteer groups, including parents, to the Festival Hall series of Children’s morning

concerts. Hillingdon tube station just off the M40 was very convenient Saturday parking with a direct Bakerloo service into London.

Though in Oxfordshire we were just 38 miles by motorway from the Planetarium- we knew our way to London well! We could park all day alongside nearby Regents Park and the Planetarium was a regular visit as well as the Regents Canal. The minibus mix with public transport was richly exploited. We used the underground and on one occasion the doors closed with half the group on board, just children. We took the next train and there they were at the next station patiently waiting- all of their own initiative, no mobile phones and station staff calls still going through! They were used to travelling, thinking for themselves, making decisions and taking responsibility- working in teams- exactly what the CBI wants and finds missing in so many seemingly successful ‘A’ levels students and even graduates!

From Lewknor Reading station was just 50 minutes away and we could take children as far as Dawlish and Cardiff for 75p return in good old B days! Portsmouth dockyards (Nelson and Victory) and the Isle of Wight (Carisbrooke and Alum Bay geology) were all within reach. Families were generally pleased to pay! Once Liz told me her husband thought we had too many visits and she had had to defend me! More to the point-with three childrenJohn had had to pay- albeit modest sums- three times that week!

We found it possible by mutual arrangement to have the vehicle for a week for field studies in Devon, Wales, Filey and the Lake District- with access to their exciting learning locations- some venues had repeat visits. The year before I left the school we had just had our first under-sevens long weekend from home and because staff were well experienced and parents well valued visits these rather young children took it well in their stride.

The community was invited sometimes- for a change involving coaches- for example Stonehenge and Avebury.

Those were the days when the children could touch the stones and measure them. We drew an amazed but approving comment from an American visitor as children wielded tapes and rulers and our adults helped record the details. Another whole-community visit was to the horse-drawn barges at Hungerford- an amazing journey of almost total quiet apart from birdsong and cups of tea-

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12 a powerful insight into the far slower pace of life before railways.

Probably the most memorable of all was Lewknor to Hadrian’s Wall or the day! This was a community-link project and interested parents provided additional transport. We set off from Lewknor at 7.00 a.m. heading south in fact for Watford station and the 8.44 fast train to Carlisle. At 11.23 in Carlisle we boarded the pre-booked coach and had a 5 hour tour of the Wall and Houseteads fort and then home by 9.50 p.m. Why? Lewknor was socio-economically the 20th. worst primary in a survey to decide if the county had any Education Priority Areas.

I just knew many of the children would never in their lifetimes go to Hadrian’s Wall. Perhaps we should be in the Guinness Book of Records for furthest school day trip!

if he would tell the children about his work. He agreed provided they came to him so I packed seven into my old Riley Pathfinder (no seat belts or Health and Safety then!) with John’s permission. He had wondered how my class of 40 could do it and that was when the small group reporting back to the rest concept began. I selected the group for their individual talents including growing tape recorder skills, but the whole class prepared the questions and the tape brought the lesson to life back in the classroom.

Inspired by that I planned a series of visits to places in the town such as bus, rail and police stations, post sorting office – again small, different car groups. 40 years later an e-mail from Clifford Lewis checked if I was the same Mr. Benford who had taught him in Chelmsford and invited me to a re-union of pupils of his We drew an amazed era. I still had the large A2 collection of group visit reports and as I reached but approving the rail station he almost shouted with comment from an excitement: “Derek and I did that page American visitor as and we had real difficulties with the children wielded viaduct!” Trains leave Chelmsford high tapes and rulers and above the town and I had included the ground-level view from the park below. our adults helped Janina still remembered having her record the details. finger-prints taken by the police- still vivid after 40 years!

Of course we took our teams to football and netball games and local woods and the cement works at Chinnor and the Post Office Tower at Stokenchurch. I still think we are the only school to have had children on the top viewing platform- and at the time the M40o Chilterns cutting was being made. We also had visits on foot! Prudence, a parent potter, fired work her groups had made but thought they should also see how clay was fired before electricity- they built a brick kiln and used wood. Colin, a parent farmer always welcomed groups at lambing and sheep shearing times. Anne was an expert on the nearby copse and its pond. Once I rang the CEOTim Brighouse- to ask if a parent could take groups off site without a teacher. He told me I was the Headteacher and able to judge the relevant professional factors! Anne knew more about frogs and tadpoles than I did. Colin knew more about shearing than I did. Prudence knew more about kilns than I did. They were all good parents!

The debate about professionally unqualified teaching is more sophisticated than many of us realise- beyond the grasp of political policy perhaps!

I had been convinced of the power of visits in my very first post- when John was my Headteacher. He always asked new staff if there was any one resource the school could provide and I asked for the then new portable 4-inch spool Phillips tape recorder. On my way to school one morning I passed a thatcher at work and asked him

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I have mentioned parents and for me parents along with effective teachers are the principal resources research tells us guarantee educational outcomes- for better or worse! John’s replacement as Head wanted to take part in a Mathematics exhibition in Colchester and asked me if I would plan a project. I offered a traffic survey and for an entire term, both in school time and after-school, plus weekends, my car and seven children sat patiently for an hour at three different locations on the Chelmsford by-pass recording traffic flow. I could not have done that without significant parental endorsement and interest. I left that school fundamentally convinced of the worth of visits and the significance of having parents on the same wavelengths.

At my second school in Sir Alec Clegg’s West Riding we had no minibus! Even so our Wensleydale study by the entire 2nd. year- 3 classes and two coaches- was unusual in the 1960s. It embraced history, geology/geography

and rural industry- a major exhibition ensued in the school hall. The River Ure flowed through the town and occasionally flooded. Each teacher walked the class to the river, discussed it, and returned. I decided car groups during our generous 90- minute lunch break would be richer experience, giving two sites and some time to test flow and extent of flooding. I needed my Headteacher to cover a further half hour and then normal school. Visit experience takes time to be absorbed. Some colleagues expected some immediate writing. At afternoon break the teacher of our youngest class came angrily into the staffroom waving a piece of paper! “You take them to the river. You discuss it. Back in class you write the words on the board and this is what you get! She read out Patrick’s report: “We went to the river in flood and we saw the other class walking back!”

The celebrated Hallé Orchestra from Manchester always performed at the Harrogate Festival. I still have the letter from the Orchestra giving us permission to have my Y6 class attend rehearsals- provided they were in the back rows and kept quiet! I can never forget the electric effect as most sat bolt upright when Barbirolli reached the powerful phrasing of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture! It inspired my determination to include concerts in my future teaching. Deputy-Heads were not paid well in those days and to top up income I took parttime weekend work at a residential school for deaf/SEN children. The school had a minibus and the youngsters liked nothing better than Brimham Rocks and the crags on Ilkley Moor. I was well-prepared for Oxfordshire’s minibuses!

At my first school I had also set a world record by taking three successive groups ski-ing abroad. I suspect noone has ever done it since- not with primary children!

No planes either in those days and it is still one of my greatest professional triumphs helping my wife take a girl with a leg in plaster along a train corridor to the toilet!

We met Anne and her mother two years ago and the whole experience was as fresh as it had ever been.

After each visit we had a parents’ and children gathering to talk about it and show pictures and slides and Julie’s mum came up to tell me that before going to Italy Julie, when the family visited family or close friends, would never sleep in the same room as any children of the host house. After the visit she was happy to and wanted

to. I am still in contact with children from every school in which I worked and they remember little about the lessons- but the visits remain vivid. Music, art, drama and travel were regular school activities such visits both infused and informed.

A very dyslexic pupil behind on reading and writing but a superb “Fagin” ultimately gained ‘A’ level and degree in the bookish academic subject of history. He now runs a successful financial investment company and came to his grandfather’s funeral in a Porsche! The grandfather, as Chair of Governors in 1973, had given the casting vote enabling me to take up a scholarship to visit the USA and study parental involvement in primary education!

The future for our Foundation Stage children is changing radically and rapidly. They need far less the academic ambitions designed for the industrial age. Family and community will increasingly dominate life and living in perhaps painfully changing conditions- richer insights into the everyday world will prove enduring learning fit for purpose. Locke, Bruner, Vygotsky, Liam Hudson, Loris Malaguzzi, Robin Alexander, Maurice Galton, Plowden and Hadow who all knew what education was about must now come into their own.

Mervyn Benford is the former head teacher of Lewknor school in Oxfordshire. From there he moved to advise schools in Warwickshire. He has always been a staunch advocate of the advantages of small schools and is currently Information Officer for the National Association for Small Schools.

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Thinking aloud must be allowed

by Sue Cox

As the strapline to Michael Rosen’s excellent article in The Guardian (April 7th 2015) stated: ‘You cannot prescribe and measure children’s reaction to a poem, or confine it to exact or correct meanings’.

explain what’s being tested.’ (To see the detail: “Standards and Testing Agency, Key stage 1 English reading, sample questions, marks schemes and commentary for 2016 assessment”.)

Rosen suggests to the Secretary of State for Education (at the time of writing, Nicky Morgan) that ‘teachers, children and poets value poetry’ and that if ‘you put a group of

It was serendipitous that when I read this, I was in the middle of preparing for a meeting with teachers studying for their Masters in Advanced Educational Practice. I was planning to share an extract from the wonderful work of Douglas Barnes (Barnes 1976).

As I re-read this it was a timely reminder that understandings of approaches to learning that are in stark contrast to those represented by the 2016 SATs have been around for a very long time. In light of what this latest round of tests is proposing, they are ideas that must be nurtured.

poets, teachers, pupils and parents in a room to talk about why we do this, we come up with a wide range of answers.’ As he forcefully points out, the proposed KS1 SATS for 2016 have, however, established ‘an official view of what poetry is for.’ He elaborates: ‘Here we find “Where Go the Boats?” by Robert Louis Stevenson, followed by eight questions, their correct answers – that’s to say, the only answers that are allowed, and a commentary to

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The extract I had selected was an illustration of what Barnes means by ‘learning by talking’; it presents part of a discussion that took place between four eleven year old girls who were ‘making sense of a poem’. (ibid. p 25). The group of children had been left alone, having been told to talk about the poem in any way they liked. Barnes analyses the children’s discussion, pointing out that they ‘work out their interpretation in collaboration: one puts forward a view, another takes it up and modifies it, another finds evidence, and another sums it up.’ He points out that such discussions are not always ‘neat’

welcome. Michael Rosen is a powerful voice, for one. and may be characterised by hesitations and changes Another source of encouragement is to know that there of direction, but that this is a process of ‘thinking aloud’. is extensive research, such as that mentioned above, that As he explains, the children are using talk to shape their provides alternatives – research that offers other ways of thinking. This ‘groping towards meaning’ is what Barnes thinking about practice and is also framed by different calls ‘exploratory talk’, an idea that has been taken up values and principles that can help to justify minute by and researched by Neil Mercer (Mercer and Littleton 2007; minute risk taking in the classroom. It seems imperative Mercer and Dawes 2008; Mercer and Hodgkinson 2008), that teachers continue to challenge the amongst others, and one that is an important They feel strongly that status quo. aspect of a dialogic approach to teaching that the tests shape not has been explored by researchers such as Those I work with are in no doubt about only what they teach Wells (1999) and has been developed and the pressures that SATS impose. They feel but how they teach it. promoted by Alexander (2008). The openThis new poetry SAT at strongly that the tests shape not only endedness of the task and the discussion and the control over the outcomes that is KS1 demonstrates this what they teach but how they teach it.

This new poetry SAT at KS1 demonstrates given to the children are central. As Barnes unequivocally. this unequivocally. How can an exploratory points out: ‘The more a learner controls his approach to teaching poetry – or any other (sic) own language strategies, and the more he is enabled subject matter – be compatible with a test that demands to think aloud, the more he (sic) can take responsibility for only one ‘right answer’? While the National Curriculum formulating explanatory hypotheses and evaluating them.’ became a reality through the 1988 Education Act, it was The subject matter of poetry is not key to Barnes analysis: established by the same legislation that government he points out that he has chosen this particular discussion cannot prescribe how teachers teach, and that legislation is of a poem as it provides a good illustration, but that still in place. Yet here, teachers are forced to address poetry learning by talking can go on in any subject where children in particular ways, driven by the nature of the Assessment are talking over a problem until they see possible solutions. Tests. There is a difficult line between what counts as the That he has provided this example, however, helpfully content of the curriculum (what teachers teach) and how gives us a view of how we might approach poetry with they should teach it, but the requirement to view poetry children – and indeed of what poetry might be about - that as if there is no room for interpretation clearly encroaches is entirely different from and a welcome antidote to the on that boundary. In doing so, the DFE is, I would suggest, view that Rosen so rightly vilifies. contravening the 1988 Act. The same might be said about synthetic phonics (assessed through the compulsory What is so very worrying about the way this aspect of the phonics check). As a curriculum requirement in learning to English curriculum has been represented in the SATs is, as read it is clearly a designated method of teaching reading.

Rosen points out, how it will drive the way that teachers Similarly, column methods are prescribed as ‘content’ of teach. As he says, the SATS ‘will lay down the activities the new maths curriculum. Assessment by SATs means of thousands of teachers, children and parents between that teachers have no choice but to teach Maths in this now and May 2016.’ Teachers will have little choice but traditional way rather than in ways, such as using chunking to teach to the test. They are faced with the seemingly irresolvable dilemma of having, on the one hand, to ensure and grids, that enable children to build mathematical concepts and processes rather than merely acquire skills in that children are successful in the SATs while at the same performing algorithmic operations. time holding understandings about learning and teaching that run counter to the kind of test response that will lead to success.

Given that teachers feel beleaguered in this way, any forms of support in their quest to pursue practices in the classroom that they see to be ‘good teaching’ – practices that promote exploratory talk, for instance – are no doubt

This current formulation of the 2016 English SATs, and what the consequences of such developments might be, alert us to the importance of on-going debate about what should be taught and how, in English and also across the whole curriculum. This must not be lost. If the National Curriculum is conceived as a prescriptive strait jacket

15

16 designed to secure compliance and conformity, policed

by SATs and OFSTED inspections, this kind of discussion cannot flourish. The curriculum is better conceived as a means of ensuring equal entitlement for children to broad educational provision. Some might argue that the current orders, introduced in 2014, are light on prescription. But, while they may have been promoted as such, this may be misleading. The non-core subjects are, perhaps, less detailed than they were, and this may have been justified in terms of greater freedom for teachers. Interpreted differently, however, the intention may have been simply to ensure that there is more space to focus on the programmes of study in the core subjects of Maths and English – which are more detailed than ever. At the very least this may turn out to be the unintended consequence.

The cursory treatment of the Foundation Subjects effectively marginalises them. As a result, the need to raise the debate about how to understand these subjects may be more readily overlooked. It may be worth pointing out that while the previous incarnation of the National Curriculum (DfEE 1999) was, arguably, over-prescriptive and stipulated some apparently arbitrary selections of content for study, it did at least, in its more detailed treatment of Foundation Subjects, raise the profile of the processes and concepts that might characterise these areas - the emphasis on investigation and the exploration and development of ideas in Art and Design, for instance, and of ‘enquiry’ in Geography. This kind of analysis of the subjects did, pedagogically, allow for exploratory approaches and meaning-making. Further, there was some evidence of engagement with values relevant to the 21st century: the acknowledgement of contemporary and cross-cultural practices in Art and Design and the need for a focus on the topic of sustainability in Geography, for example. To the extent that the current curriculum engages with values at all, these are implicit and traditional. For example, again in Art and Design, it is assumed that there is an unproblematic consensus as to whom the phrase ‘great artists’ refers.

The ways of understanding and constructing knowledge that should constitute the curriculum; the nature of their distinctiveness in terms of both content and processes; the extent to which they should be regarded as discrete; the ways they might be learned and taught should all be matters that remain at the forefront of discussion - as well as the wider, and most important questions about

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what education is for. This is not only relevant to the core subjects of English and its partner, Maths that are now privileged with statutory significance, enshrined in an extensive national curriculum and SATs at Key Stage 1 and 2; it may be especially important in those subject areas that are in danger of falling by the wayside. I would argue that it is essential that the debates about ‘what’ and ‘how’ are kept alive at all costs, so that the kind of practices that are endorsed – or rather, enforced - by the KS1 poetry SATs continue to be most vigorously challenged. An open-ended and exploratory approach, the need to think aloud and collaboratively in the directions that such thinking takes them, is every child’s – and every teacher’s – right.

References: Barnes, D. (1976) From Communication to Curriculum Harmondsworth, UK; Ringwood, Australia: Penguin Books Ltd. DfEE (1999) The National Curriculum: handbook for primary teachers in England London: DfEE/QCA. Mercer N. and Littleton K. (2007) Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking: A socio-cultural approach Abingdon: Routledge.

Mercer, N. and Dawes, L. (2008) ‘The Value of Exploratory Talk’ in Mercer, N. and Hodgkinson S. (Eds.) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage.

Mercer, N. and Hodgkinson S. (Eds.) (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage.

Rosen, M. (2015) Dear Ms. Morgan: your guidance is a minisyllabus on how to wreck poetry The Guardian April 7th.

Wells, G. (1999) Dialogic Enquiry: Toward a Socio-cultural Practice and Theory of Education Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sue Cox is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, the University of East Anglia. She is the author of “New Perspectives in Primary Education: meaning and purpose in learning and teaching”. (Open University Press)

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18

Where have all the values gone?

Issues in the re-constitution process for school governing bodies by Robert Young Recent years have seen school governing bodies take on a more influential role in school in terms of both monitoring aspects of school performance and shaping developments in school policy at a strategic level. Governors have always been instrumental in senior staff appointments, but there is no doubt that governors are now much more prominent in a leadership capacity in schools and this is reflected in the latest methodology for OfSTED school inspections in which there is a stronger emphasis on the contribution of governors to raising levels of achievement and enhancing the quality of pupil experience (January, 2015). In the context of strengthening the links between primary schools and their respective communities, giving a voice to key stakeholders and extending the robustness of the accountability mechanisms within schools, this trend for greater governor participation in the senior management dimension of school life is to be welcomed as part of the process of making schools more open and more democratic. Of course there are many other elements in school life contributing towards a participatory and inclusive ethos in school, extending for example from the model of human relationships which pervades the corridors and classrooms

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to the nature of the partnership established with parents. But there is no doubt that the governing body is an essential element in the fabric which strengthens the school as a democratic entity, providing a platform for school and community perspectives.

With this in mind it is worth considering whether the current school reconstitution process in England is to be viewed in a positive light and whether it raises any issues relating to the democratic dimension of governorship. All school governing bodies (apart from those which have been recently established) have a statutory responsibility to go through the process of reconstitution by September 2015 and in doing so have to conform to a new set of regulations (2012 and 2014). It is a process that has to be informed both by a number of requirements relating to the categories of governor membership and the numbers permitted within each of the categories as well as guidance regarding the processes of reconstitution. The key changes are as follows: - Schools may opt for the minimum number of governors, namely 7 (irrespective of size of school).

- The minimum consists of the headteacher plus one elected

staff governor, one local authority governor and at least 2 parent governors - Community governors have been replaced by co-opted governors and at least two would be expected on the governing body - Associate members may be appointed by the re-constituted governing body to strengthen individual committees, but they do not have voting powers at full governing body meetings Underpinning the process of change we are asked to streamline the governing body so that they should be no bigger than necessary to secure the range of skills they need. We are informed that smaller governing bodies are likely to be more cohesive and dynamic.

Governors are being urged to use this process to take stock of whether their size, structure and membership are fit for purpose to deliver their core functions and other duties.

Certainly the principle of reviewing the structure and composition of the governing body is to be applauded and the government deserves credit for kick-starting this process. What is open to question, however, are the premises on which their favoured model is built.

Why should an assumption be made that small is beautiful? The dynamism of a governing body is bound up with the calibre of its membership and not their numerical strength per se. Indeed one could argue that a governing body with the minimal membership of seven is much more likely to lack dynamism by virtue of its restricted membership than a larger body with a greater diversity of expertise and viewpoints. Cohesiveness may be at risk on a governing body where the membership is limited but where there is dissension and animosity. At least with a larger governing body there is less risk of a few voices becoming over-bearing because they are having to justify their position in a context which is more inclusive.

In addition, the smaller the governing body, the more difficult it is to operationalise the committees which are dependent on the willingness and goodwill of its members to make them work. One can draw on associate members to provide relevant expertise for particular committees, but they are not elected and do not have the democratic raison d’etre of governors.

It is also asserted in the Guidance that smaller governing bodies are able to act more decisively and one recognises that there is a risk of a vacuum in leadership being created where there is a multiplicity of personal agendas on a governing body. One also appreciates that there are occasions when decisions have to be taken at short notice, especially in situations of crisis. However, if the structure of the governing body incorporates a leadership group, which is both empowered to respond to emergency type situations and to take the lead in shaping strategy, then the case for a streamlined governing body evaporates.

With this in mind, some governing bodies have established an executive group within the governing body, but one could argue this title is misleading, given the executive responsibilities of the headteacher. Our school governing body has granted a leadership role to the Pay and Strategy Committee with a membership comprising the chair, two vice-chairs and two other governors who are committee chairs, but we are also clear that it does not in any sense replace the full governing body – it is there to service and to strengthen it.

Why are we not asked to take account of the size of the school in the re-constitution process? Surely there should be a relationship between the size of the governing body and the size of the school population? With increasing size the school takes on an increasing number of staff and parents, its organisational structures become more complex and its relationships with the external world become more multi-faceted. One might argue therefore that this should be reflected in the composition of the

governing body, but in its place we are presented with a one size fits all model. Of course there is some flexibility through the possibility of co-options and in reality most school governing bodies are drawing on this mechanism for ensuring that the governing body is able to carry out its core functions. But one has to ask about the logic of a system which potentially allows a governing body to restrict itself to a membership of seven irrespective of whether it is a small village school with 60 pupils or a large suburban primary school with 800 pupils (or indeed a comprehensive secondary school with 2000).

Why is there no reference to the democratic role of governing bodies? At a time when the government is broadcasting the importance of celebrating British values in education, it does seem extraordinary that the guidance fails to highlight the significance of the governing body as a representative entity, articulating the perspectives of its key stakeholders, thereby translating the spirit of democracy into educational leadership. It is a concern which was highlighted in the December 2014 edition of the CASEnotes (Campaign for State Education), regretting the fact that through reconstitution schools were in danger of losing their all important links with the local community. And yet the Prime Minister, no less, in the Mail on Sunday, 15 June 2014, wisely asserted that Our freedom doesn’t come from thin air. It is rooted in our parliamentary democracy…..we need to be far more muscular in promoting British values and the institutions that uphold them. That’s what a genuinely liberal country does: it believes in certain values and actively promotes them. It says to its citizens: this is what defines us as a society. Subsequently John Nash, the Schools Minister, proclaimed that We want every school to promote the basic British values of democracy (Adams, R. 27 November, 2014).

Surely the promotion of those values should apply to the reconstitution process for governing bodies insofar as they have a representative function within and beyond the school community and potentially the governing body is a key institution for representing and giving voice to local as well as professional interests? Indeed, one can argue that their effectiveness is inextricably linked to the extent to which they are able to capture the diversity of perspectives which make up a school community. It is significant that the recently published DfE document (November 2014) explicitly argued the case for teaching how democracy and the law work in Britain, in contrast to other forms of government in other countries. Moreover, in a policy document, Promoting Social Action, published by the Cabinet Office (March 2014), the case is made for 19

20

encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society. Yet such considerations do not apply, it would seem, to the recomposition of the governing body.

In its place, the guidance focuses on the process of streamlining the governing body so that it can execute its responsibilities as smoothly and decisively as possible.

It legitimately argues that careful consideration should be given to the skills and experiences underpinning the capacity of the governing body to do its job effectively, but there is no reference to the importance of the governing body membership representing the distinctive interests of its constituent parts. Only one elected staff member is allowed in the re-constituted body, irrespective of school size and yet the effectiveness of the governing body is significantly bound up with the expertise of staff members.

Moreover, given the increasing numerical strength of non-teaching staff, there would appear to be a strong case for ensuring that they are represented as of right on any governing body, but no such provisos are incorporated into the Guidance.

The local authority is now restricted to a single member for nomination on the governing body and that is also difficult to justify in the context of the continuing role played by the LA in the financing, maintenance and monitoring of mainstream schools. The replacement of community governors by co-opted governors may appear to be a purely cosmetic change, but names can have symbolic resonance and some of us regret the passing of this title which reinforces one’s obligations to the wider community.

In summary, there is a strong case for arguing that streamlining a governing body may well put at risk its effectiveness, in terms of limiting its range of expertise and perspectives and reducing its claim to be representing the diverse interests which make up the school community.

That is certainly the position we have taken on our governing body: we did not want to go down the route of converting ourselves into a quasi-board of directors and in common with many other schools, we are utilising the mechanism of co-option to ensure that the governing body is as representative as possible.

The government may have seen the reconstitution process as an opportunity for slimming down, but one suspects that in practice many governing bodies will want to proceed in the opposite direction, fuelled by a concern to retain as far as possible the potency of the governing body as a communal voice, perceiving its strength and credibility as being bound up with the

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extent to which it can represent the kaleidoscope of interests and perspectives within and beyond the school gates. Democratic values are alive and kicking in most school governing bodies, despite and not because of the reconstitution process!

References Adams, R. Schools must actively promote British values, The Guardian, November 2014 Cabinet Office, Promoting Social Action: encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society, Gov.UK. March 2014 Cameron, D. British Values, Mail on Sunday, 15 June 2014 CASEnotes, Cutting School and Community Ties, Campaign for State Education, Issue 55, December 2014 DfE, Promoting Fundamental British Values through SMSC, Gov.UK. November 2014 DfE, The Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools: Statutory Guidance for Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools and Local Authorities in England, Gov.UK. March 2015 OfSTED, School Inspection Handbook, Gov.UK. January 2015 The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 and the School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 as amended by the School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014

Robert Young has been Chair of Governors at Bannockburn Primary School, Greenwich, since 2002. In 2013 he was appointed an assessor for Governor Mark Accreditation and in 2014 he was appointed a National Leader of Governance. He joined the NAPE National Council in 2014, having been Chair of NAPE SE London from its inception in 1986 until 2014. Prior to semi-retirement, he was Director for Learning and Quality in the School of Education at the University of Greenwich.

Reviews by John Coe VOYAGERS History and Geography

The Story of Life

Published by Rising Stars UK Ltd

Illustrated by Amy Husband

This comprehensive series of ideas , resources, and lesson plans covers the teaching of geography and history in primary school. The series is divided into three packs (Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper key Stage 2) Each pack has six units, one for each half term, and contains a teacher’s guide and an online resource bank.

It’s all there, almost everything you know and need to know about history and geography at the primary stage. If you are a teacher working under pressure to deliver the English and mathematics core of the national curriculum you need look no further for support in covering these two important elements of young children’s learning which are themselves closely related to the core. Even better, the lessons loaded with content as they are, have been framed with an eye to the achievement of an ‘Excellent’ accolade by Ofsted.

The thinking teacher who is mercifully free from pressure to distort the curriculum and who recoils from ready-made lessons, seeking instead to create the curriculum out of the interaction between teacher and taught, will need to cherry-pick their support from the rich availability of ideas and suggestions which are offered. Key Stage 1 teachers, in particular, are likely to find the suggestions of independent learning areas to be the most fertile source of ways to stimulate children’s learning.

This review has a small but nonetheless important niggle which bears upon the status of teachers who choose to work with young children. The term “generalist teacher” used in the series introduction would be better replaced with “primary specialist”. The latter is the preferred term for all of us who specialise in the growth and development of young children. Our essential skill is to match conventional subjects to the nature of our pupils.

By Catherine Barr & Steve Williams

This is a brave attempt to tell the story of evolution in the space of 30 pages of text and cartoons. The science cannot be questioned, the authors know their stuff and show much expertise in telling the story in good clear English. Yet there is an awkward mismatch between the clarity and truth of the words and the picture books for tinies approach to the illustrations. It isn’t sensible to draw an amoeba with a speech bubble coming out of it saying “yum, yum!” nor is it helpful to draw skeletons of dinosaurs with a speech bubble proclaiming “We’re all extinct”.

The book is not recommended for the book corner, there is too great a confusion between fantasy and fact.

Young children are fascinated by the story of the evolution of life on our planet. The story is powerful and intriguing, there is absolutely no need to garnish it with cartoons. One vital aspect of children’s development in the primary years is their growing ability to discriminate between fact and fiction. They are helped enormously if we adults are careful always to make such a discrimination ourselves. Sadly the book, taken as a whole, talks down to children and is likely to confuse them. It is hoped that when the authors write again for children they will seek an artist who will match the scientific accuracy of their words with a similar accuracy of illustration.

Easy Spelling Aid App

by Christopher Jarman

Children today look for help almost instinctively to their ipads, tablets or smart phones. This new Easy Spelling App from Australian developer, Nuapp Productions, is designed for both the iPhone and iPad, and is simple to use, while being extremely sophisticated in what it offers.

Pupils merely touch a large picture of a microphone and say the word or short phrase he or she needs to spell. They then press the word ‘Done’ and the word comes on the screen correctly spelt in the hand writing style of their, or their teacher’s choice in both capital letters and lower case. The style can be set in advance and will stay that way until changed.

The handwriting choices are: Two UK styles are Jarman and UK Cursive, and two Australian styles, Victoria modern cursive, and New South Wales foundation manuscript; then USA d’nealian manuscript.

The international appeal of this app is exceptional as it supports 19 languages, including UK, American and Australian accents. My friends and family who are multilingual have tested French, German, Russian, Dutch, Italian and Japanese, and found that the speech recognition and the written spelt results are amazingly accurate.

All this for the download price of £2.29 UK! This is an unusual piece of software that really does what it claims. Even the most Luddite IT-hating teacher would have to admit the usefulness of this little teaching aid. Once downoaded, no further purchases are required. Updates will arrive automatically.

The app has been designed mainly for children between the ages of 6 to 8, but anyone of any age who feels shaky about their spelling would love this.

The GB App Store web page is:- https:// itunes.apple.com/gb/app/easy-spellingaid/id885452495?mt=8

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Do as I say…

The question posed by this paper is fundamental. To what degree should the minister for education in an open democracy, be allowed to prescribe the intimate detail of what happens in every primary classroom in the country?

The need for an urgent discussion on this matter has been increased by recent pronouncements from within DfE. In November Nick Gibb made a speech in which he reiterated an announcement made the year before

by Elizabeth Truss, stating that Chinese or Singaporean-style mathematics textbooks were what was required to improve English Primary maths . The response of both the profession and the publishing industry was lukewarm at best. Publishers are already, and have been for some while, producing a variety of textbooks carefully tailored to the different styles of the programmes they accompany. And we may note that one of the hallmarks of an open democracy and a diverse society is that schools vary in ethos and style. As the Expert Report (2011) suggested, children are best served by teachers who are able to shape their teaching to fit local conditions whilst also complying with the demands of a nationally statutory curriculum.

In February, the minister raised the stakes considerably, requiring publishers to ‘produce the textbooks that teachers need, not what they want’. He warned that if publishers do not comply, then DfE would want to introduce state approved textbooks or a tight system of kite-marking.

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This is the latest in a progressively intrusive set of prescriptions from DfE and increasing centralised control over the minutia of classroom practice on the part of the minister himself.

Last year, we were presented with the most authoritarian and detailed statutory National Curriculum we have ever had. It stipulates not only the content (which is fair enough) but also the precise calculations, methods and strategies. It even, in the sample SATs, goes as far as to state that children will not get a mark for intelligent mathematical thinking unless they are writing out their calculations using Mr Gibb’s preferred layout. On top of this, we now have the serious threat of state-prescribed textbooks, Chinese or Singaporean style, in front of every child in every class in every primary school in England.

Perhaps the main point here concerns the nature of the relationship between government and classroom teachers. To what extent should a minister in an open democracy presume that he has the right, as well as the expertise and relevant experience, to tell teachers that what ‘they want for their pupils’ is not ‘what their pupils need’. Is this not, as Robin Alexander describes it, ‘blatantly politicised intervention’ and, ironically, precisely an example of what the Minister himself promised to eschew in his government’s ‘new approach to educational policy… designed to foster the autonomy of the teaching profession and sweep away the prescriptive and ideological national strategies’.

Teaching, Alexander reminds us, ‘is a

by Ruth Merttens moral matter, not merely a technical one’. Education, in any society, is based on a system of beliefs and values and there is every likelihood that these are different in Singapore and different again in Shanghai.

Indeed, one of the main issues with Nick Gibb’s textbook proposals is that it is exceedingly unlikely that wrenching one, supposedly key, factor out of its cultural, pedagogical, political and ethical context and inserting it into a wholly different situation is very unlikely to have the desired consequences and may produce some wholly unforeseen and equally unwelcome effects.

We become alive to this danger when we consider some broad educational differences between England and Singapore or Shanghai. Let us start with the most basic. In most Pacific Rim countries, ‘school’ is regarded by children as a ‘job’ – you go to it, you work hard. In England, children expect to enjoy primary school; if a child is unhappy at school, their parents are beating a path to the teacher’s or head-teacher’s room to complain.

“Jimmy’s crying on the way to school,” they might say, accusingly. And it is simply unacceptable for the teacher to respond, “Tough cheese, so am I!” We are obliged to, and moreover, want to, take the complaint seriously.

This links to the fact that, in England, corporal punishment has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Teachers take time and trouble in English primary schools to help each child feel a success. Competition in learning is played down, and efforts are made to ensure that all children succeed at

massive difference that England is an open democracy, their own level. We strenuously avoid branding children as where diversity is appreciated as integral to our society. ‘failures’. Contrast this with the high stakes tests and the Most primary teachers value difference over uniformity and highly competitive ethos which, in East Asian countries, creativity over compliance. However, it is true that memory means that some children are failing from early on, whilst is our weak suit – in modern Britain, children do little others are succeeding. learning by heart outside their classroom environment. By However, some differences put the UK at a disadvantage. contrast, in the East Asian countries of which we speak, In Singapore and Shanghai, education is highly valued; memory and rote learning are strong suits and children a teacher has a high standing, and is a highly trained are culturally disposed to conform and comply rather than individual. (In Shanghai, the Chinese teachers have five question. However, concomitantly, creativity and critical years training to learn how to teach maths. Contrast this enquiry are features of English education, which certainly with five days on some ‘fast track’ training programmes result in the UK punching above its weight in these areas. here.) In England generally, teachers are not regarded as So, since arguably, the Minister for Education or Schools, of particularly high standing, and education is certainly even in an open democracy, has the not highly valued, particularly by certain right to advise and offer (strong) sub-groups and communities. Furthermore, In England generally, children in the UK no longer memorise teachers are not regarded guidance, it would seem to follow that this advice should be based on accurate prayers, chants or even telephone as of particularly high numbers as routine parts of daily living. standing, and education information and trusted, well-grounded, expert opinion. In this instance, is the Memorisation is not required in everyday Minister’s information correct, and is it life, and for many children absolutely the is certainly not highly valued, particularly by based on ‘trusted and well-grounded’ only learning-by-heart that they do is within the four walls of their classroom. certain sub-groups and expert opinion? The desire to place a Singaporean-style textbook in front of Whereas in both Shanghai and Singapore, communities. every child rests on the assertion that routinised memorisation, whether of England is doing poorly in the International chants, prayers or other traditional cultural comparisons with regard to mathematics. It also takes as rituals, remains endemic. Children come to school having its starting point, the notion that textbooks are the key already memorised many things. Their memories are well factor in another country’s success and that it follows that trained. We shall return to this point later. they would produce success here. I first deal with English Other educational differences are more specific. In English primary children’s performance on international tests. schools, questioning is the norm – it is expected and If we look at the results of the PISA tests, England does encouraged. Children are seen as ‘active learners’ and, not seem to shine. In PISA 2012 , the United Kingdom even by Ofsted, this perspective is regarded as both performed around the average and was listed 26th, on a normal and commendable, essential to learning. In the par with Denmark, France, Portugal and Norway amongst more authoritarian regimes of the Pacific Rim, children others. Mean performance was unchanged from 2006 and are neither expected nor encouraged to question received 2009. It is clear that these English 15 year olds perform wisdom or authority. They may more accurately be substantially lower in mathematics than those from many described as passive recipients of delivered knowledge. other European countries, including the Netherlands, (Perhaps this is a trait that the ministers would like Germany and Austria. However, it is still more depressing English children in state schools to emulate?) In addition, that, when they were 10, these English students had in England, creativity and originality are encouraged and outperformed all of these countries in 2007. This is esteemed by teachers; they are seen as both possible because, if we look at the results for Primary age children and admirable qualities and primary education in as reported in the International Comparisons produced England endeavours to foster these characteristics. It is by the TIMSS survey , conducted on a four-yearly cycle, a acknowledged by the authorities in both Singapore and completely different picture emerges.

Shanghai, that this indeed is the ‘weak suit’ of Pacific Rim education.

• 1995: England’s 10 year olds ranked 16th in the sample, scoring an average of 513 points, 16 points I shall return to these points later, but we may note that, below the international average of 529. summing our differences, we conclude that it makes a

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• 2003: our ten year olds had risen to 10th position, scoring 531, 36 points over the international average.

• 2007: England were up to 7th, and their score of 541 was 41 points above the international average. No European country was higher.

• 2011: England ranked 9th and the score of 542 was 42 points above the international average. The only European countries above England were Finland and Flemish Belgium.

well in all the International Comparisons, both at 9 and at 15 years of age. Have the experts been able to ascertain whether textbooks appear to be a – or even ‘the’ – key factor in their success. Tim Oates, the Minister’s adviser, argues that they are in his paper, ‘Why Textbooks Count’.

Although Oates informs us that, as background to the paper, over 200 textbooks for primary and secondary children in all subjects were studied, it should be pointed out that studying a textbook does not give us any sense as to its relative impact-value within a ‘successful’ country’s achievement, nor, in the case of a country ranked lower in the tables, in its failure. So the statement, ‘Textbooks have played a key role in system improvements in key jurisdictions…’ (p4) has no visible evidence to back it up.

And, unfortunately for Oates and the Minister, assertion is not argument.

Key to the assertion that English primary schools are not, as the minister claims, failing English children in relation to maths, is the table in the TIMSS report showing the rate at which countries have improved or declined from 1995 to 2011. In these terms, England is second with only one country improving more. It is important to remind ourselves, and the minister, of what we may conclude.

Two pieces of evidence are available – one is the Core It is widely accepted that the improvement from 16th to 2 Research Programme, led by David Hogan, Principal 7th was brought about by the rigorous and high-quality, Research Scientist at Singapore’s National Institute of if expensive, programme of CPD encompassed by the Education. As Robin Alexander comments, ‘The Core 2 National Numeracy Project (1996), subsequently the NNS research is conspicuously absent from both Oates’s (1998). The training and accompanying materials, the fact paper and ministers’ consciousness.’(p4 ibid) This was a that several teachers in every primary school participated large, multi-variant study, using systematic (this was not ‘trickle down’) and, crucially, observation, video-recording, interviews that there was a widespread concurrence Primary education is and outcome measures in a large and of opinion in terms of both the aims and working very well in the pedagogy, all combined to produce England – we appear to nationally representative stratified sample of primary and secondary pupils. an extraordinarily successful intervention. be doing better in the The research looked at the relationship So, we are being asked by DfE to international tests than between various classroom practices, consider the use of prescribed uniform almost all European including textbooks, and outcomes in terms textbooks in primary schools when the countries as well as many of children’s achievements. The results stated reason for doing so is based on incorrect data. At least in relation to other open democracies, did not give the unambiguous go-ahead to the textbook lobby that the Minister maths, Primary education is working such as the United States, wished to see – presumably a reason why very well in England – we appear to be Canada and Australia. it is ignored. Maths textbooks do not have doing better in the international tests a statistically significant direct impact, than almost all European countries as although they are significant in models of the relationship well as many other open democracies, such as the United between traditional instruction, direct instruction and States, Canada and Australia. Following this evidence, surely the minister should be looking hard at what happens student achievement. to children’s numeracy between the ages of 11 and 15? ‘more important is Hogan’s insistence that it’s essential Also, maybe we should consider the fact that many open to look well beyond bivariate relationships of the kind democracies, including Scotland, who are more dependent that ministers prefer in order to grasp how textbook on stand-alone textbooks than English primary schools are, use and impact are part of the much larger and appear to do worse in these comparisons. more complex business of pedagogy, which in turn is Turning to the second plank in the Minister’s platform, I embedded in and shaped by culture, history, values and consider the expert opinion on which the injunction to beliefs relating to teaching, learning, knowledge and use uniform, stand-alone textbooks is based. It cannot the goals of education’ (p5 ibid) be denied that the Pacific Rim countries do exceptionally The second piece of research which casts doubt on any

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easy assumption that textbooks are the crucial factor in the success of East Asian countries, is that of John Jerrim of the Institute of Education (2014). He studies secondgeneration East Asian immigrants in Australia and finds that they outperform their native Australian peers in mathematics by more than 100 PISA test points – the equivalent of two and a half years of schooling . Clearly these children are not using state-prescribed standardised textbooks, since they are living and growing up in Australia.

Jerrim concludes: ‘there is no ‘silver bullet’ that can explain why East Asian children excel academically.’

However, for those teachers genuinely interested in looking at what we can learn from these different and successful jurisdictions, there are factors that look promising in that they suggest potential improvements to current practice.

These would not involve whole scale and fundamental changes to culture and ethos in English primary schools, but rather ways in which teaching and learning in mathematics could be enriched through the adoption of small but potentially significant pedagogical tweaks. I enumerate these here: 1. A greater awareness of what may be termed ‘a schooling of the memory’. Since we have plenty of evidence that most English children no longer routinely memorise chants, prayers, poems or anything else before entering primary school, or indeed, during their primary education, we need to be aware that learning by heart is a key issue for us. Since memory is like any other faculty, ‘use it or lose it’ applies in spades. It is therefore necessary, in a way that it may not have been in the past, to build in a short daily space for the rehearsal of previously taught memorised facts. This needs to be separate from the maths lesson. I have written about this elsewhere.

2. A developmental approach to the use of images and models, such that we achieve a far greater consistency throughout children’s primary education. Currently, most teachers use models and images in their teaching but it tends to be haphazard through the school, and too often depends on preferences of individual teachers

or which CPD courses they happen to have attended lately! One way of achieving a developmental approach to the use of images and models is to compel the use of state textbooks in which this consistency has been predesigned and is therefore guaranteed. Another, more democratic way, is to alert teachers to the importance of this consistency so that they adopt a whole-school developmental approach, drawing on suitably consistent materials such as an indigenous maths programme or even devising these to suit their own school context.

3. A depth of understanding and more embedded learning. The Singaporean and Shanghai textbooks tend to spend a relatively long time on each mathematical topic, but revisit these only infrequently. In this way, they argue, they achieve more depth of learning.

However, in England we are inclined to adopt a spiral curriculum in maths. This is for good reason, since memory, as we have said, is our ‘weaker suit’. Teaching addition /subtraction in September and October, then shape in November and December and multiplication/ division in January and February, and so on, carries the relatively high risk in an English context that children simply will not remember what they were taught. Much of it then, will require re-teaching. For this reason, the NNS encouraged teachers to adopt a spiral curriculum with children being taught each mathematical topic each term. When this was ‘broken’ by the return to teaching in ‘Blocks’ encompassed by the PNS (2006), there was substantial evidence of a decline in both outcomes and standards, as documented by the Williams Report in 2008.

However, the downside of a spiral curriculum, where topics are revisited fairly regularly, is that children may not spend sufficient time on key skills and fundamental concepts for these to become ‘embedded’ as they do in a ‘blocked’ curriculum. This can be ‘cured’ by ensuring that these key skills and fundamental concepts are persistently and systematically re-taught within other topics. For example, in teaching counting up subtraction, we actively re-teach

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Figure 1: This produces overlearning, whereby children go over and over these things, thus enabling them to become embedded in the ways desired.

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adding to the next hundred or thousand and also the fundamental concept of place value.

In conclusion, my argument resides in the fact that we do not know precisely which of a variety of related and interdependent features of Pacific Rim teaching is key to the success of these countries in PISA. We do know that Primary Maths in England produces results well above the international averages and that children’s numeracy declines sharply between 11 and 15 years of age. It therefore seems a wilful and dangerous policy to introduce a prescription for Shanghai or Singapore-style textbooks in every Primary classroom. But more importantly we need to consider to what extent, in an open democracy, one minister has a right to prescribe and standardise the intimate detail of classroom practice in all primary schools.

In a diverse and tolerant society, it is very unlikely that, in education especially, ‘one size’ will fit all. We may not value conformity as much as we value other things, creativity and critical thinking amongst them. And, at the end of the day, one should not underestimate the experience, the professionalism and – yes – the wisdom of the primary teachers in England, who perhaps do know better than the minister what their children need.

PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment, 2012 OECD TIMSS: Trends in International Mathematics and Science, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Boston College National Numeracy Strategy, 1998 NNS: A Handbook for Primary Teachers. HMSO Oates, Tim. Why Textbooks Count A Policy Paper by Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development, Cambridge Assessment, November 2014 Jerrim, John. ‘Why do East Asian Children Perform so well in PISA? An investigation of western born children of East Asian descent.’

2014 Working Paper No. 14-16, Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, London Steiner, George. Real Presences 1989 Faber and Faber USA Merttens, Ruth. Textbooks from Shanghai and Singapore: a national debate Plenary Lecture Maths Association Conference 2015 See the Williams Report (2008) for the criticism of the move from the NNS spiral where each topic was taught at least once in each term to the PNS where topics were taught in blocks.

Williams, Sir Peter. ‘Independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools’ 2008 HMSO

References Gibb, Nick Minister for Schools, speech November 2014 and a second speech in February 2015, addressed to Publishers.

Report by the Expert Panel – Policy paper: Framework for the National Curriculum 2011 National Curriculum Review HMSO Alexander, Robin. Teaching to the Text March 2015 Cambridge Primary Review Trust

Ruth Merttens is Co-Director of the Hamilton Trust, currently she is seconded from the University of St. Mark and St. John. She is responsible for the oversight of all of the Hamilton Trust’s work in education and has led many new initiatives. Not least in a busy professional life, she teaches every week in her local primary school.

Christian Schiller ~ In his own words In response to many requests a reprint of the Schiller book in its original paperback format is available from the National Association for Primary Education £4.95 + £1.00 P&P Moulton College, Moulton, Northampton, NN3 7RR Tel: 01604 647646

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Primary Education Getting to grips with the world?

by Ben Balin

“This is the era of globalisation, and perhaps of unprecedented opportunity. But there are darker visions. The gap between the world’s rich and poor continues to grow. There is political and religious polarisation. Many people are daily denied their basic human rights and suffer violence and oppression. As if that were not enough, escalating climate change may well make this the make - or - break century for humanity as a whole. Such scenarios raise obvious and urgent questions for public education.”

(Alexander, 2010, page 15) This article looks at where English primary education stands in relation to these questions. It draws on a seminar run by the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, Tide~ global learning and Birmingham City Council.

Darker visions Robin Alexander, writing above, is not alone in seeing ‘darker visions’ about the world and its future. Here is David Davis, Professor of Drama in Education at Birmingham City University: “We are complicit in driving ourselves and the planet to destruction. We have glimpses of what is happening and momentarily look to see if there is a brake but then let those in power crack the whip and hurtle us more rapidly into the crisis… So what sort of education do we need to avoid sleepwalking towards death?” (Davis, 2014, pp 2-3) At the time of writing, the Library of Birmingham was in the news. Opened by Malala Yousafzai in 2013, amongst loud fanfares, it was my home city’s new iconic building.

What could be a better symbol for England’s second city, as a place valuing education and culture, than this great big wedding cake of books and steel filigree? Who better to open it than an inspirational young advocate for universal literacy? Moreover, a pupil in the city?

And yet, in 2015, less than two years later, it looked set to lose over half its staff. How do we make sense of news like that? What do we say to the children? It is hardly likely to escape their notice.

By definition, the ‘global’ is not just out there: we are a part of it. In our globalised economy and interdependent world, no community, or library, is immune to worldwide economic, environmental, social and technological pressures.

If we think (as I do) that this news item is symptomatic of both the state of the world and the status of education within it, then we are inevitably wading into the muddy waters of politics, of competing values and ideologies.

This is not easy for primary teachers.

Education for… global learning and sustainable development In a changing and sometimes threatening world, what is education for? Not indoctrination, clearly, but there also seems to be broad agreement among educators, governments and policy makers that it is about more than literacy, numeracy, test or even PISA results, employability and economic competitiveness. Here are some milestones along the road…

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1988. The cross-curricular dimension of ‘environmental education’ is part of the first National Curriculum for England and Wales.

1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Governments around the world pledge to ‘reorient’ their education systems to sustainable development (United Nations: Agenda 21). Local authority Agenda 21 programmes begin to appoint officers with an education brief.

2000. The first Citizenship curriculum explicitly references both sustainable development and the idea of ‘global citizenship.’

2000s. Several ambitious initiatives are launched in England.1 • Enabling Effective Support builds schools’ capacity for global learning.

• International school linking is promoted as part of the statutory commitment to promote community cohesion.

• The Sustainable Schools Framework, supported by a vast body of resources and regional networks, emphasises whole school change.

2010. The Global Learning Programme offers CPD and support for schools on global issues at KS2 and 3.

Now. Engagement with global issues in school is voluntary.

Despite other pressures, many primary schools make the choice to do so. Schemes like the Global Teachers’ Award, Rights Respecting Schools and Eco Schools remain popular, with their emphasis on pupil participation and community engagement. Despite a reduction in the statutory ’global’ content of the National Curriculum, many teachers find ‘hooks’ like the distant locality study in KS1 Geography, or the non-European modules in KS2 History.

“Children, their World, their Education” The final report of the Cambridge Primary Review lent its name to the seminar for teachers and educators in Birmingham in November 2014.

Two key developments helped set the scene for this event.

Firstly, the influential Cambridge Primary Review Trust had made the decision to add sustainability and global citizenship to its priorities (they were already aims).

Secondly, The United Nations was about to establish a new set of worldwide ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, with

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Goal 4.7 calling on member states to “by 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.” (United Nations, 2014).

Speaking at the seminar were Professor Robin Alexander, Chair of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, and Cathryn Gathercole from Tide~ global learning (who was working on indicators against the proposed UN goal).

The following is synthesised from the discussions that emerged, and I hope gives some pointers to primary teachers about policy, practice and principle, now and in the future.2 Most of them take the form of questions, and I certainly hope that they stimulate further debate.

What are the underlying values at play? If elements in the current economic system are unjust and destructive, do we really want to ‘sustain’ them? Robin Alexander talked about the difference between ‘world-beating’ and ‘worldsustaining’ education.3 Can the present education system cope with practices which necessarily emphasise critical thinking and transformative action? Can we really trust the government’s ability or willingness to take on the challenges involved?

Are PISA’s present proposals to embrace criteria for ‘global competencies’ ultimately self-defeating? (Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the sa me thinking we used when we created them”) (Einstein, 2015).

We do not need to wait to receive permission from on high to make positive changes happen. There is a ‘climate of caution’ in English schools at this time of great systemic change, but we can draw strength from the Cambridge Primary Review’s statement that “‘pessimism turned to hope when witnesses felt they had the power to act” (Alexander, 2014, page 189).

If we censor the scariness of the world from children, do we end up failing to protect them?4 The statement continues, “The children who were most confident that climate change would not overwhelm them were those whose schools had replaced unfocussed fear by factual information and practical strategies for sustainability.”

Does failure to engage leave children feeling overwhelmed and in a state of ‘unfocussed fear’? If so, the responsible course of professional action seems clear.

Constructive strategies go beyond the formal curriculum.

They include thinking about the school’s vision, and engaging children, parents and community in generating that vision. The diverse communities around many schools offer particular opportunities for ‘thinking globally, through

their inbuilt connections to the wider world.’ Is there scope for seeing the debate around ‘British values’ as an opportunity, insofar as it raises questions about schools, democracy and the wider community?

Leadership that is prepared to take responsible risks is crucial. This includes heads and governors, as well as teachers as trusted curriculum makers who are able to bring the ‘paper’ curriculum to life in meaningful ways.

Leadership touches on questions about ‘pupil voice’ and participation.

There are many ‘win-wins’. Addressing global questions presents huge curriculum opportunities: for personalised learning that reflects local and individual needs; for access to information, new experiences and fresh perspectives; for learning partnerships; for the use of Information technology; for providing a context and purpose for literacy and numeracy; for hands-on, grounded learning that also develops higher-order thinking; for using and applying skills and knowledge; for developing emotional literacy; and as a key vehicle for Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural Understanding.

Global interdependence is not only a threat: it can open up new opportunities for dialogue and communication; for intercultural and international learning; for introducing diverse perspectives; for understanding commonalities between our lives and those of people in other places; for change and constructive citizenship.

The local community can provide many opportunities for engaging with wider global issues. This is a sphere where local action can lead to real empowerment, where parents and others can be directly engaged: invigorating both children’s learning and a sense of community.

How do we introduce the idea to children that our local communities are also global ones? About how the wider world impacts on the local area? About the many ways that what people do locally can have both local and global benefits? This implies taking time to listen to children (and parents), so as to understand and connect to their issues.

This could build on and extend the work of a school council. There are opportunities at both KS1 and 2 for meaningful data collection, for looking at local geography and geographical processes, for investigating local and global history, for creating persuasive or instructional texts, for art, for science, design technology, drama, PSHE and citizenship.

For all this to work, we need to get beyond one-off

projects and into sustained learning. Otherwise, grand plans can misfire and “become a series of disconnects, which ultimately lead to a lack of agency.”

If we want citizenly action to be seen to make a difference, then we need to tap into global success stories: gains for literacy or healthcare; communities around the world who have made things work for themselves. We need these stories to help empower learners, and to help balance and contextualise the truths conveyed by the ‘darker visions’ All this means ‘thinking time’ for teachers, resources and CPD; networking to share ideas, practice, questions. Many of the organisations referenced below offer relevant support.

Conclusion The world is undergoing a period of rapid change.

The nature of that change has the potential to cause great and irreversible harm, but could also create immense benefits. Primary schools are not immune to the processes involved, which impact on them both structurally and educationally.

In the current climate of testing, measurables, league tables, and international competition, many schools will need a stronger sense of permission and support from national government than the present ‘it’s-all-up-to-you’ approach. The proposed new UN goals for education seem to be a welcome step in that direction, but more is needed as a matter or urgency.

Right now, teachers and schools can take a lead, and give themselves permission to engage with these questions.

There is a paradox in this: we need to justify engagement in terms of the existing system and the things that it values; even if those values may themselves be questionable.

To engage with big global issues means offering motivation and purpose for learning, fostering meaningful dialogue and higher order thinking. These are also features of good teaching in general, and this offers one clear and pragmatic way forward.

When we look for solutions, it will be important to remember that there are good ideas, resources and examples that we can build on. However, the ‘darker visions’ of today’s world also demand fresh thinking by teachers and educators, moral leadership, critical awareness and professional creativity. I hope this brief article helps set the debate rolling.

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30 Links and references Alexander, R. (Ed.) (2010). Children, their world, their education.

Final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review. Abingdon: Routledge.

Cambridge Primary Review Trust: http://cprtrust.org.uk Davis, D. (2014). Imagining the real – Towards a new theory of drama in education. London: Institute of Education Press.

Einstein, A. (2015). Quoted at http://www.brainyquote.com/ quotes/quotes/a/alberteins121993.html, (accessed 1/1/15).

Global Learning Programme (England): http://globaldimension. org.uk/glp SEEd: http://se-ed.co.uk Sustainable Development Goals: http://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/focussdgs.html Tide ~ global learning: www.tidegloballearning,net - including resources, CPD and a report on the seminar United Nations (1992). Agenda 21. Downloadable at http:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21. pdf (accessed 1/1/15). Chapter 36 deals with “Reorienting education towards sustainable development” and states clearly that “While basic education provides the underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning.”

United Nations (2014). Open Working Group proposal for Sustainable Development Goals. http://sustainabledevelopment.

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un.org/focussdgs.html (accessed 1/1/15).

Some useful blogs: Robin Alexander, Cambridge Primary Review Trust http://cprtrust. org.uk/cprt-blog/ Ann Finlayson, SEEd http://se-ed.co.uk/edu/category/blogs/ Bill Scott, University of Bath http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/edswahs/ Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales had their own parallel initiatives, Wales combining the two strands together under the title of ‘Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship.”

2 A seminar report appears on the Tide~ global learning website www.tidegloballearning.net 3 David Davis’s book is particularly interesting about using drama in education to start ‘Imagining the Real’ – that is, to start seeing ourselves and the world without the prism of ideology.

4 There were similar findings in a 2004 Birmingham University survey on children’s views about Global Citizenship education, which spoke of their “anxiety about the global future, especially climate change and geopolitical instability.” See: www.tidec. org/further-reading-reflections/global-citizenship-educationneeds-teachers-and-learners 1

Ben Ballin is a consultant on global learning and primary geography.

The Primary Computing Curriculum Thoughts, ideas, ways forward...

by Stuart Swann • Take Computing off timetable and embed it across the curriculum • Deliver programming through literacy • Use graphical programming and steer clear of text-based coding • Promote E-safety every time children use technology • Use the ambiguity of the requirements to your advantage • You’re probably covering a lot of the requirements already!

My work frequently takes me into primary schools and into the maelstrom that is the new Computing Curriculum.

While few would argue that the old, irrelevant QCA guidance for ICT needed to be changed, it would seem that the primary community wasn’t quite ready for this ‘radical’ new curriculum, with its strange and ambiguous language.

But is it really radical, and why are so many primary schools reaching out to people like myself for help? Over the course of this article, I will examine the reasons for this, put forward my interpretation of the document and give my thoughts on the one aspect that really has caused waves – programming.

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I have, over the past couple of years, visited numerous primary schools to help them with their strategic and practical planning for the new Curriculum. Schools generally feel that they need help interpreting the terminology and delivering the new requirements. This is due in part to the written requirements being so vague and ambiguous. We have gone from a very prescriptive tome (the QCA Scheme of Work for ICT) to something that can fit on a sheet of A4.

Whilst to some, the ambiguity of the requirements is a golden opportunity to develop and implement something truly meaningful; others are finding it more of a challenge to do so. There are no official suggestions or solutions as to how to deliver these requirements. There isn’t even a glossary of terms to help define the language used (algorithm, anyone?).

A report in March from CAS (Computing at School) indicated that teachers are, on the whole, calling for more training, as they are concerned that their students know more than we do. I can understand how these teachers have been left feeling deskilled. However, with some help in deciphering the language used, and examining what we are doing already, I believe that the implementation of the new requirements is achievable by all primary colleagues, and not just ‘the Computing specialist.

I see the curriculum as being divided into four distinct parts: Using technology effectively across the curriculum • KS1: use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content • KS2: select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information Programming • KS1: understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, and that programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions • KS1: create and debug simple programs • KS1: use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs • KS2: design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or

simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts • KS2: use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output • KS2: use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs Computational Thinking / Understanding how computers work • KS1: recognise common uses of information technology beyond school • KS2: understand computer networks, including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the World Wide Web, and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration E-Safety • KS1: use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies • KS2: use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content • KS2: use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact One thing is clear, and this is the message that is coming through from the DfE and those who were involved in the writing of the curriculum – these requirements should be delivered in a contextual way, as opposed to the delivery of only skills-based lessons. There is a strong argument, I feel, for NOT having computing / ICT on timetable, as this runs the risk of compartmentalising the subject. There should be an expectation that the skills outlined above, and the use of technology in the classroom are delivered within the context of the wider curriculum, otherwise the disconnect between ‘normal’ lessons and what children experience with technology widens.

Let’s take each one of these sections in turn…..

Using technology effectively across the curriculum These requirements are in many ways the most straightforward to implement. Using a range of technology to transform the learning process, and more

illustrates this further (https://www.commonsensemedia. org/videos/introduction-to-the-samr-model#)

Technology in the classroom Redefinition Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable

Many schools are already addressing this, with their use of (for example) iPad, used by the children to

Children can (and should) be creating their own websites, blogs (I recommend Weebly for Education for both of these) and mobile apps (see appshed.com) which are content and information-rich, and can be used to not only record and show their understanding of a topic, but as a vehicle for them to be real-life publishers of content.

The above examples also have a crossover into programming, according to the definitions offered in the Programmes of Study.

We must be careful, though, that the technology is used in a meaningful and appropriate way, that it goes beyond simply research and playing maths games, and that the focus is always on the subject or topic in hand.

The computing skills should not be the primary focus in these lessons. If they are, then importance is taken away from what teachers want their children to achieve.

I believe we need to reach a point where children are given a task (e.g. present your knowledge and understanding of states of matter) and the technology is so transparent that we choose the most appropriate tool for the job. This could be: an eBook, a website, a mobile app, an animation or, of course, writing it down using a pencil and paper.

We must remember, particularly when looking at this set of requirements, that technology is not a silver bullet, and that its use must be meaningful or, at best, transformational. We spent a long time in schools throwing technology at the curriculum and hoping that it stuck. This simply cant happen any more.

“Use technology as a tool, just like a pencil for learning. Use technology in the right way. Don’t become a slave to it”

Malcolm McLaren, Speaking at Handheld Learning 2009 Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) Model

Modification Technology allows for significant task redesign

Enhancement

record their work and extend their subject understanding through the production of content, which is often shared beyond the school. This content can take the form of: e-books, video, animation, sound recording etc.

Transformation

importantly to move beyond simply digitising what we already do is key here. The ability for children to move from being consumers of information to publishers of content is a very exciting prospect, and one that is achievable through using technology creatively and thoughtfully across the curriculum.

Augmentation Technology acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement Substitution Technology acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional improvement

Image from http://rde.nsw.edu.au/tpack-s Whilst none of the ‘stages’ of the SAMR model are ‘wrong’, I would argue that if children continually use technology where it is merely a substitute, or where it provides only functional improvement (augmentation) – that is to say that they are merely digitising what they already do and acting as consumers (for example using iPad only as a research tool, or word processing to copy up a piece of written work)– that we will not see the true impact of the use of these tools. If, however, teachers strive to ‘cross the line’ into modification and redefinition, then we will begin to see real transformation in both engagement and output. The children go from being mere consumers to producers of content – and that’s when it gets interesting! The notion of children being publishers of content which reaches a wider audience – for example mobile apps which document a school journey as it happens, or sending videos and animations to YouTube – gives their work real-world relevance and an audience beyond the classroom.

Programming This is the section of the curriculum that is worrying teachers the most. I see there being two fundamental reasons for this. One is the terminology used in the curriculum (algorithm, debug etc.), and the other is the role parts of the mainstream media have played in reporting how our children are to be taught. Their grasping of the latest buzz words (‘coding’, for example) and misinformed reporting sent many a teacher back to school in September scared and unsure of what to do.

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curriculum that many schools found difficult to deliver, often due to a lack of expertise and equipment.

‘Control’ has been rebranded and it is now much more in the spotlight. New words have been thrown around without any understanding of their meaning.

‘Coding’ is being used as a catch-all by the media and other organisations keen to capitalise on this ‘new’ phenomenon.

We need to reassure teachers that we CAN deliver the programming requirements (some without a computer), and demystify this area of the curriculum.

Interestingly, the word ‘code’ does not appear once in the whole curriculum, from Key Stage 1 up to Key Stage 4.

For us to move forward with this strand of the curriculum, it is important to understand and define terms.

Tony Ballantyne, in his October 2014 blog ‘Why We Need to Define the Difference between Coding and Programming’ suggests that: “programming is the general term, and coding refers specifically to text based programming. It’s quite straightforward: you program your digital video recorder, dishwasher or home alarm system. You code in Java, Python or C++ It’s a useful distinction. It allows you to distinguish between programming in languages such as Scratch, and coding in languages such as Logo” I would tend to agree, and see this as a very useful distinction, especially for primary teachers. The word ‘code’ carries too many connotations, and blurs the lines between what is achievable and appropriate in primary and what belongs in secondary. The curriculum at Key Stage 3 states that pupils should “use two or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual”. I would therefore discourage primary teachers from introducing text-based programming languages, and instead stick to visual, graphical solutions that have much more meaning to primary children than lines of text.

Of course, programming has always been a part of ICT in schools. In the old curriculum it was called ‘control’.

The problem then was that this was the strand of the

PrimaryFirst

So what can schools do? I feel that, to start with, they need to look at their wider curriculum and seek opportunities where instructional language could play a part. If children are looking at instructional, or directional language, or are studying instructions of any sort, that’s as good a place as any to introduce programming.

Children can write an algorithm for making a cup of tea, or how to get from their house to school. The tried and tested game of blindfolding a member of the class and directing them around the classroom, or a maze, is still a great way to introduce instructional language. What teachers will find with this activity is that the children giving the instructions will naturally refine their language (“debug”) and reach a point where they will be giving “clear and unambiguous instructions”. They could even devise their own programming language for this activity.

When the children do move to programming using a range of graphical languages, we need to ensure that we do not overload them straight away with too many differing ones. It is better to stick with two or three different programs, which offer progression opportunities throughout the key stages and lead naturally to more complex software.

I would also advise that using something that is ‘real’ (i.e. not just screen-based) is worthwhile. This is a natural progression from learning programming physically and embodying the concepts (the blindfold game).

The old favourite Bee-Bots are good for this, and do not need to be confined to the Early Years. Although they are simple to use, we can incorporate them into increasingly complex situations across the curriculum (particularly mathematics) and which would involve children applying their understanding of algorithms to other learning situations (put the Bee-Bot on a slope, on a range of surfaces etc. and see how these factors affect movement

and speed) and this, for the teacher, would mean that Computing skills are developed contextually.

into any situation in which children use, or encounter, technology.

Another recommendation would be LEGO Education products, particularly WeDo for use in all years, and Mindstorms EV3 for older Juniors. There are a multitude of scientific, mathematical, design technology and literacy opportunities when using these products, and the visual programming which is included in these packs is straightforward and scalable (low entry point, high ceiling).

This could begin in Key Stage 1 with a ‘tech walk’ around the school or local area, looking for uses of technology in the real world, and discussing how and why it is used. A perfect example here is studying the behaviour of traffic lights and pelican crossings. This, then, would feed back into the concept of programming.

There are, of course, plenty of cheap (and free) screenbased solutions. For iPad I would look at: Daisy the Dinosaur, Scratch Jr, A.L.E.X, Hopscotch, Kodable and the Bee-Bot apps and, of course, for PC and Mac, Scratch is a must (it can also be used with LEGO Education WeDo!).

I am not going to write about these applications in depth, but there is enough there to get going with and to develop uses across the curriculum – and not a line of code in sight.

There are other solutions, of course. Initiatives such as Hour of Code, Code Club, Espresso Coding and Code Academy are all enjoying a roaring trade as some schools turn towards ready-made solutions. For some schools, these things work, and I would be wary of criticising them too much if schools are happy with them. Code Academy even offer CPD for teachers, meaning that any work they do in schools has sustainability. Their resources, mainly based around Scratch, also seem very sound. However, schools do need to do their research and be careful about what they use. They must ensure that they avoid the dangers: of deskilling teachers, of an over reliance on screen-based learning, or handing the teaching over to someone else, and of compartmentalising the subject into discrete lessons. If the latter is allowed to happen, we will find ourselves 15 years in the past where there is that disconnect (in the children’s minds as well as the curriculum) I mentioned earlier between ‘normal’ lessons and ‘ICT’.

As the children begin to use technology in a meaningful way across the curriculum, we must ensure they understand the mechanics of what they’re doing. When a pupil sends a video to the school YouTube channel, we must ask the questions “what is actually happening to your video? Where and how is it being stored?” and be prepared to explain the answers.

This strand can, with a little planning, be covered with little explicit teaching, and can be subsumed into the other three areas of the curriculum.

E-Safety E-safety plays an important role in what we do in school, and is of high priority within the National Curriculum requirements. As such, it needs to be taught effectively, and planned for in every situation where children are using technology.

E-safety in school should be more than just a week in February. This is a good time to focus on certain aspects of e-safety, and to run a series of dedicated activities, but the day-to-day messages need to be getting through to the children every time they use technology.

Understanding How Computers Work These requirements are really about Computational Thinking and are, as Miles Berry put it in his article in January’s ‘Teach Primary’, the ‘golden thread’ running through the curriculum. Read the whole article here: http://milesberry.net/2015/02/teaching-computing/ To meet the criteria set out in these requirements, teachers must plan to ask children relevant questions at the right time. As such, we can plan these concepts

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36 Outside organisations can help with this. Teachers will discover a wealth of resources if they register with an organisation such as CEOP or the NSPCC. We must realise that e-safety is a broad church, covering everything from sexual exploitation and online grooming, to discerning Internet research, to making sure trailing cables aren’t a trip hazard.

One way forward is to hold an assembly every term or half term for relevant key stages, and focus on specific themes (being kind online, discerning use of the Internet, privacy etc.).

Following this, e-safety concepts should be planned into every lesson in which the children use technology – If children are creating mobile apps that will be downloadable by parents, what are the e-safety implications? If they are creating a narrated slideshow about World War II, do they understand about copyright when saving images from the Internet?

This is not necessarily teaching e-safety in isolation, but making the message relevant to what the children are doing.

I refer back to the findings by CAS, and the many teachers who feel they know less than their pupils. This may be so, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, for all their confidence and ease in which they use technology – not just in school but also in their lives beyond the classroom – what they rarely do is question what the implications are of what they are doing. Our job as teachers is to encourage this questioning so that our children have a greater understanding and are equipped with the tools they need to help deal with uncomfortable or tricky situations which may arise.

It is imperative that schools engage parents if any e-safety strategy is to be truly effective. If we are to ask our children to continue building their websites and apps at home, or to use web-based storage for their school and homework, then parents must be aware of this and recognise the advantages, as well as the possible risks.

My hope for this article was to have dispelled a few myths, and to have offered some ways forward. I would recommend that, in order to deliver the curriculum requirements, schools produce a programme of study, rather than a more prescriptive scheme of work. This will allow for development and changes in technology, which are bound to happen over the next few years.

A programme of study should contain a list of minimum expectations in terms of both outcome and coverage, along with suggestions of software and hardware.

By using this approach, teachers will be able to look for opportunities to include technology and address the requirements of the Curriculum within the context of their children’s wider learning.

It should also pre-empt any radical development of technology by allowing for a rolling programme of professional development and hardware refresh.

One thing is certain: teachers cannot be– for want of a better word - computer illiterate anymore.

Computing (or ICT) has, for too long, been one of these subjects that many primary teachers think we need specialist knowledge for, and for some this may be so, but I would like to think that, with a little training and a true understanding of what is required and where it can be applied, all primary teachers will soon be better equipped to deliver the curriculum.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” Eric Hoffer.

Stuart Swann is the Computing lead for NAPE. Starting his career as a mainscale primary teacher, he is currently a director of Impact Education Solutions and prior to this work he was for ten years curriculum lead for the City Learning Centres in Greenwich where he implemented initiatives to raise educational standards through the use of technology. He is a LEGO Education Academy Certified Trainer, an Apple Distinguished Educator, an Apple Education Trainer and a Digital Cre8or trainer and assessor.

PrimaryFirst

The Man I Knew

by Geoffrey Marshall

My only claim to any sort of notice is that I knew Mr. Schiller.

Not only that but he knew me! To me and our group he was always Mr. Schiller, not from any sort of wish of his to keep us at a distance but because he was born a Victorian when that was the custom. Looking back, there was never any attempt to do otherwise because we all sensed that to do so would have somehow soiled our relationship. At one time we numbered nearly a hundred but I think we are now no more than three, one of whom I am glad to say is of course John Coe, so I think it is high time he was remembered.

To me it is quite shocking that we should have to memorialise him, because he was once the most influential man in British primary school education, the best of which was renowned throughout the world. To everyone else he was Christian Schiller the man who more than anyone had made it what it had become. What was achieved, how did it happen and why is he forgotten?

In his early life he was the Boys Own hero: Head of School, champion athlete, distinguished war record with Military Cross, Cambridge degree in Mathematics and on to Teacher Training followed in due course by an appointment to the Ministry of Education as an Inspector of schools. He eventually went to work in the slum schools of pre-war Liverpool where he first saw the depressing disparity between the imposed curriculum and the lively intelligence and creativity of the children. It was there that he was so warmed by the Hadow Report which he had played no

small part in creating and which almost as an afterthought created the Junior school and by implication the Infant school.

It contained this crucial phrase, his voice echoing down the years to this day: ‘The curriculum is to be thought of in terms of activity and experience rather than knowledge to be acquired and facts to be stored.’ The implications of those few words were the inspiration for the rest of his professional life, with the addition of one other: choice. He insisted that just as an ability to make choices is a token of our identity, so children must be encouraged to do the same but always within their capacity to choose. With those few words education was utterly changed. It became a process of learning by reflecting upon first hand experience over time whilst making considered choices within the child’s capacity to choose.

With Robin Tanner he was the inspiration for teachers scattered across the country as he lectured, hosted conferences and simply sat beside children. He spoke in plain language about what he knew from what he had seen and he joined with teachers as they responded in their own ways to what they in turn saw before them. In Bristol a head teacher thought that to arrange for children to learn from each other in mixed age groups would be helpful. So came about what she called family groups or as it became known vertical grouping. Other teachers were thinking in terms of classrooms being more like workshops, where a variety of immediate experiences could be observed and where children worked over differing times depending upon their task. So came about what came to be known as the differential day. Mr. Schiller was suspicious of these tags because he feared they would represent a fashionable response to different individual circumstances.

Everyone, he insisted, has the responsibility to decide according to his own experience.

When he retired as Staff Inspector he agreed to head a course for teachers at the Institute of Education. It began in 1952 and ran for ten years with just twelve teachers each year as its members. That number is astonishing. It was then and it is now, but it was twelve because he thought that with either less or more group dynamics would cause problems in a discussion, but such was his stature that he was able to insist upon that and every other detail of his design. The learning was to be by weekly visits to schools to be with teachers and

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38 children followed the following day by discussion of what we had seen. This, with sometimes passionate and opinionated exchanges continued until lunchtime when Mr. Schiller would bring it to an end with some thoughts to take with us for further talk and reading. Each term we went on a weeks’ residential visit seeing a school each day, afterwards again testing our observations and ideas against each others.

It all epitomised his thinking. There was no timetable. We chose how best to spend our time. There were no obligations at all: no essays or notes, no end of term exams, nothing even to prove we had been present on a particular occasion. After a life of being tested and examined, of proving something to someone, I had a strange feeling of being cut adrift of not quite knowing what best to do and it took me a while to adjust. But in consequence I never worked so hard. I became the very model of a self improver! On the last day I carried away with me a slip of paper affirming that I had made a satisfactory contribution at the Institute to the course on The Education of Children in The Junior School and that was all.

I think it may have been harder for me than some who came from more sophisticated parts. I was all agog while they talked knowingly about Cuisenaire and suchlike stuff.

For me, from rural Kent, it was a beam of light upon another world. Wherever I went I found it almost beyond belief that children could be so autonomous and responsible, their work showing such understanding and control of the materials they were using, and it was all taking place in such a quiet and orderly way. I had been brought up to believe that the first requirement was to show control. Here there was certainly control but it was self control.

Since then I have helped with any number of courses and without fail the members have been eager to ask the how questions but not the why? That is what I did when I began as the new boy headteacher after the course. I tried to remember all the fascinating skills and techniques I had seen in Oxfordshire and the West Riding. ‘Creative writing’ was fashionable then. The children needed stimulating experiences close to hand so I took them out into a wood and we listened for birds, for the rustle of leaves, for the distant cattle coming home, for the tractor over the hill.

‘We done that sir. What do you want us to write? Why?’ That question has remained with me until now. What is education? What is it for and who decides?

Looking back I think it was part of his design that he would ensure we should remain together over the years by calling an annual conference to renew ourselves with talks and comments upon issues of the day, about individual concerns and of course about the splendid displays of children’s work.

PrimaryFirst

By tradition we gathered on the final day to hear Mr. Schiller.

This is my special memory and his words are my inspiration.

Each occasion was remarkable. For his thoughts which remain true to this day: for his presence, and for a detail which remained a mystery to me until after his death. He was a slim man, still the upright athlete with good colour and keen eyes. He stood in a comfortable tweed suit, always with his hands clasping his lapels. But it was the delivery.

He spoke without hesitation, his eyes searching the room, the words considered and apt and quite remarkably always concluding on the hour, to the very minute. Masterly!

His secret it turns out was that he had learnt it so that he could deliver precisely as he wanted. The notes he used for some of these talks came to light and have been published.

But the meticulous preparation was typical of the man. I loved him. He kept me going when I needed courage and the source of his inspiration became mine. I think he was right then and he is today. That is the man I knew.

The pictures above are of Christian Schiller with children of Sherwood Park Primary, Tunbridge Wells.

Geoffrey Marshall was a head teacher in Kent where the schools he led were recognised as embodying high standards through the use of teaching methods matched to the nature and, in particular, the creativity of the children. He spent 1962 as a student with Christian Schiller.

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