Smoke and Mirrors

A warning for all teachers in advance of the new term!

Girl overdoses on espresso coffee

In the Apple store in Cincinnati, playing with an iPhone (Santa, please?) I came across this delight:

Haven’t posted anything along these lines for a while.  But this came as a bit of a surprise!

Cost of Private Education Has Risen by 40% in the Past 5 Years.

As a result, [a report by Halifax Financial Services] argues, it is now out of reach to professionals such as scientists, police officers, tax experts, engineers, journalists, clothes designers, teachers and lecturers, writers, trading standards officers and computer programmers.

I guess a little Xtra help from Independent Schools will go towards establising our public benefit to the Charity Commissioners!

Doug Belshaw has pointed out an article in the Guardian this week, written by Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs, outlining a proposal for a non-partisan, independent policy commitee for education (EPC).   As a governor of a small village school, it is clear just how inundated heads are by the requirements foisted upon them by central government.  What schools do need is a form of independence themselves.  As  O’Neill states in one of the 12 points which would establish the EPC’s remit:

Another important role for the EPC would be to give structured insights into the roles played by teachers and how they could be more effective. Many headteachers seem to want to be left to deliver the curriculum with minimal interference from local or national government.

If the EPC is to transcend the vagaries of the political climate, then surely schools need to be released from this burden also.

The challenges facing Independent Schools are many & varied.  Some are seemingly far removed; others more immediate and the need to address them more pressing.  However, regardless of the challenge, a challenge it remains and Independent Schools, especially small ones, must have a coherent range of strategies in place to face them.  In fact such is the concern in the US that a report was commissioned by the NAIS as to the challenges facing Independent schools over the next 20 years.

In the broadest sense we will face challenges from the shifting regional demographic.  An ageing population means fewer pupils to recruit.  Furthermore, increased migration, a mobile workforce, improved technological literacy and a shift in societal values are all part of the challenge of the trends in society that we face.

Economic trends, too, present challenges.  I’m just an educator so maybe my business colleagues can inform me better.  Being a member of governor committees has lead me to recognise the difficulties posed by variation in City salaries and bonuses, changes in interest rates, insurance premiums and taxes and housing and property prices.  Each of these contributes to the decision that parents have to make when considering independent education for their children.

The political and educational climate, although perhaps less imposing to us in some respects than our colleagues in the maintained sector, nevertheless must be considered.  We now have the Charities Act with the need for the provision of public benefit schemes, creating partnerships and sharing resources.  Alongside that are Government schemes such as Every Child Matters which brings with it the concept of wrap-around care (not uncommon to independent schools) and schools as centres for the provision of a wider range of child care through extended services and child care centres. 

In addition there are challenges from the improvements in maintained sector educational provision, the rise in the number of homeschooled children and even the “corporatization” of independent education by companies such as Cognita or GEMS.  Knowledge and understanding of child development, neuroscience and learning is deepening.  The results of research are then published in easy-to-read books or in broadcast, print and on-line media, available to all parents and prospective parents.  The challenge to independent schools is then to both reflect upon this research to inform current practices and also to communicate as completely as possible their philosophy of learning and teaching.

Technologically literate children must be engaged in order to learn and schools will have to face up to the fact that they must stay ahead of their pupils rather than risk being left behind in their wake and seen as an irrelevance.

A further responsibility is our duty of care to the world that we have borrowed from our children.  The Stern Report last year sets a challenge to consider our approach to sustainability and our impact as a community on the environment.

So far, so good.  Yet there are many more issues that somehow impact upon Independent Schools.  Whether that is the revised Primary Strategy or the rising cost of school uniforms.  NESTAs drive for the teaching of soft skills for future labour markets or whether 4×4s are really that bad.  But it all leads into what I feel is the core challenge facing independent schools and that is Knowing What We Are.

It is rough for some independent schools.  Numbers falter, income drops and the downward spiral begins.  But, in what are potentially turbulent times for independent education, a school that is sure of its ethos and confident of its niche within the market is going to survive and, I believe, thrive.

It is a challenge to identify that niche in the market, for governors and head to work together on the school plan with strategic and sound development targets backed by a financial plan to matches this philosophy.

It is a challenge to take the community with us.  To, in plain terms, ask parents to shell out money to buy into our school.  It is essential to communicate our philosophy concisely and coherently.

It is a challenge to know what our parents want and how to give it to them without compromising the school’s aims and those of other parents while at the same time allowing all members of the school community to feel valued.

Is it me or has someone at DfES Towers gone bonkers?  Do we really need another term to describe or otherwise pigeon-hole children.  This time it appears to be an effort to redress the balance over the labelling of children as either “Gifted & Talented” or “Special Educational Needs”.

The DfES publication “Gifted & Talented Education.  Guidance on preventing underachievement: a focus on Dual or multiple exceptionality (DME)” introduces us to the concept of an SEN pupil who might actually have other talents!  Well, thank goodness, for a moment I thought that a label was a prerequisite in today’s educational climate.

I recognise that there are differing schools of thought.  Some believe that labels enable us to tailor educational provison more exactly.  Others feel that labels are too restrictive and prevent children from maximising their potential, they are merely shoe-horned into a “type” by seemingly well-meaning educational psychologists.

However I do feel that far too much emphasis is placed upon a reductionist approach to the process of teaching and learning.  Sure, catogorising individuals based in their cognitive ability would enable better provision of personalised learning.  But an over reliance leads to a person’s full range of talents being unexplored.  So do we need to know what DME is?  Or ought we already know that any one child has an array of gifts and talents that we as teachers must recognise and allow to flourish.

I’ve been taking a stroll through the initiatives & directives that have recently been or are in the process of being published.  Even in independent education there is no longer a hiding place from the top-down application of new schemes, frameworks, policies or guidance.  A veritabnle forest of literature exists in an attempt to tie-down and regulate every aspect of the learning and teaching experience as well as the non-academic aspects of school.  It is a very timely reminder for those of us in independent education just what a duty our colleagues in the maintained sector have a stuatory obligation to carry out. 

The title of this blog is, in part, a reference to the degree of bureaucracy that now exists in school management.  It has become so very difficult for a head to manage that it is quite literally magical that so many remain effective and continue to drive their schools forward!

So, for those interested, here is a summer reading list…

FMSIS

Every Child Matters

Performance Management

EYFS

Renewed Primary Framework

Gifted & Talented Education - with a focus on Dual or Multiple Exceptionalities

Although it clashed with Father’s day (something I did realise & my family forgot) I have just attended a 2-day Advanced Coaching for Performance course.  Although it is organised by ALITE, it was facilitated by Will Thomas from Vision For Learning. 

Coaching is fast becoming the tool-du-jour for schools and LEAs as they seek to improve learning and professional development.  The models within coaching are of a softer touch and provide individuals with a tool kit which addresses issues and concerns held by colleagues and students.  Using the coaching process one enables others to find their own solutions and answers that lie within themselves.

 It was very rewarding.  I made some good friends and I will be writing more about it in the future.

Did you know about this site - www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/?

The DfES circulates consultation documents around schools & anticipates an online response to draft doumentation.  I discovered it through an article by Janette Owen in the Guardian which highlights the difficulties that governors have in becoming aware of the intentions of government before guidelines are imposed upon them.

For example, the article reads:

Disappointed at the lack of information on governornet, I searched for “community cohesion” and was given a link to a 2003 document called “How governors can contribute to community cohesion and accountability”. However, access to the document was forbidden.

I’ve been wondering how to respond to a posting by Peter on what he believes is his purpose in Education.  And bringing these two somewhat divergent ideas together has lead me to conclude that we all must play a role in the one, central aim of our involvement in education: the development of the individual.

Peter has returned to a more structured environment to do what he does best.  Others, such as Terry Freedman, work outside the structured educational establishments in an advisory capacity.  Still more, and they are an increasing number, operate within the formal education sector (schools), yet find the time and indeed have the need to drive their profession forward.  Here I am thinking of those teachers who maintain blogs or achieve sucess or public exposure through the media.

Whichever way you view it, whether you are a governor, teacher, educator or consultant it is your belief in your role that counts.  And that role, as diverse as it can be and as difficult as it may become, has at its core the education of the child.  After that, for me, it is up to you how you express that belief.  If that means switching jobs, demonstrating and agitating for change or reading reams and reams of consultation documents then all the best to you.

John Sutton has written about work that he has done at Green Park School.  It is becoming increasing clear to me that we are approaching a point where blogging & web 2.0 applications are become used as everyday tools for sharing teaching & learning.  Just having a look at the Edublog Awards list is something of a marvel!