Fulfilling potential
Use it or lose it Helen Jeys stops to think about an ‘independent’ education I have just finished reading The State of Independence, edited by David James and Jane Lunnon. I would urge you to read it if you have not already. It is a fantastic summary of the challenges the independent school sector will potentially face over the next few years, a period James and Lunnon label ‘defining’. In the book, Briony Scott, Director of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia (AGSA), says the following: ‘Today, one of our major academic challenges is to reclaim the spirit of that independent, sacred space. In the face of relentless pressure to the contrary, it is a challenge to stop, pause and reflect. To think for ourselves. The pressure to wade through the flood of opinions, taking mandates and directives without question, speeding up and making rapid changes, lest we be perceived as old fashioned or out of date, is enormous … The ability to be a part of society but to remain independent of group norms and group think is essential for a true education to take place.’ The book has provided me with much food for thought, but this quote, for me personally, stands out. There seem to be so many pressures on us as a sector at the moment that I wonder how much time we actually take to sit back, as Scott recommends, and think about the education our school offers and consider whether it truly is ‘independent’. What does an ‘independent education’ mean to us as school leaders and how do we provide it? A cursory search of Google highlights the differences between independent and state schools, but the focus is on money, class size and whether one is born into privilege, which we know is a huge and inaccurate generalisation. Very few articles mention anything about the nature of the education offered by the independent sector and what makes our curriculum truly ‘independent’. We do have the ability to separate ourselves from government recommendations; we do not have to follow the potential strait jackets of Progress 8 and the EBacc Curriculum; but what do we offer that makes us truly stand out? Of course, we want our students to achieve brilliantly and to have the ability to access the best courses at the most prestigious universities. This ensures that we are bound, in some ways, to examination boards. However, aren’t we about more than this? Perhaps part of our answer to this comes down to our individual visions for our schools and what we, together with our stakeholders, believe is important, but I wonder if we reflect, with our staff, on this question very often, if at all. In the same book, Kevin Stannard (Director of Innovation and Learning at the GDST) talks about the need to ‘cast off the educational equivalent of William Blake’s ‘mind-forg-d mannacles’.’ How can we do this? What are his recommendations? Stannard comments that the way forward is to ensure that we teach ‘well beyond the test’, which he calls the mantra of any truly independent school. Briony Scott talks about the importance of fostering ‘independent thought, and to never lose the sight of the importance of wisdom’.
My focus at the moment, then, is to think about this issue for my own school. How is my school offering an ‘independent’ education? As a sector, we know that we offer a first-rate educational experience in small classes with children and parents who share the same ethos and ambitions. We know that we can offer excellent extra-curricular activities which enable our pupils to develop their talents. We are also fantastic at offering a pastoral education which is proactive and is fully mindful of the importance of the mental health of every student who attends our schools. We can also boast excellent results and outstanding university destinations. But I do think that we need to come back to some basics - what about the actual education we offer. How does our provision stand out? How are we preparing our students for their futures in a way that does make us ‘independent’? A wonderful article, written by Christy Grattan in the Daily Telegraph in September 2017, sees a student who has just received his A Level results, commenting: ‘I wanted to be a teacher until I realised how frustrating the status quo is; inspiring educators are forced to make the best of it, as frustrated as their students. A by-product of the density of the required material now is that teachers themselves are so inundated by marking and the proto-liturgy of exams that their own intellectual growth is diminished. Surely someone in the vocation – note the term vocation and not business – of education, should be afforded the chance to continue their professional development.’ Indeed, Helen Pike, Master of Magdalen College School, Oxford comments that the need to respond to ‘demands that are determined by others’ and the subsequent ‘lack of autonomy’ is leading to many teachers leaving the profession. This is a tragedy. We need to remember how fortunate we are to work in the independent sector. Rather than being ‘undervalued vehicles for government directives’, we should be the innovators and do what we encourage our students to do – to take risks so that we can offer an education that we can be proud to call ‘independent’. Perhaps a return to basics and a consideration of whether we are offering a Curriculum + can provide us with a focus for our reading during this new term of the year! Helen Jeys is the Headmistress of Alderley Edge School for Girls Autumn 2019
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