A New Year and an Old Story in schools

‘And so this is Christmas, And what have you done? Another year over, And a new one just begun…’ (John Lennon)

It’s time to ‘bash’ the independent schools again: as ever last year we have had the attack on charitable status (again), the criticism of elitism and places at Oxbridge (again and again) and now, as we enter the New Year, too many private schools are apparently offering ‘easier’ IGCSEs rather than the ‘tougher’, newly reformed, GCSEs. Bah! Humbug!

‘Bashing’ independent schools – again and again

It always strikes me as amazing that with fewer than 10% of the UK school population in independent schools, we seem to attract 90% of the Press attention. We are meant to be a Nation which values ‘the little man’, privatisation, democracy and freedoms – individual and collective – and yet somehow when the word ‘education’ or ‘school’ is combined with ‘private’ or ‘independent’ the blood boils, the prejudices rise and ignorance abounds!

We applaud competition on the High Street and online, we allow people to choose between a range of supermarkets for their weekly shopping without comment and, unless you’re the Home Secretary enjoying a hard-earned family holiday overseas, we value being able to choose a whole range of exciting holiday destinations. When it comes to recognising those families who scrimp and save, however, make sacrifices and hard choices in education – even paying twice for the privilege of schooling – all of a sudden we get onto our self-righteous hobby horses.

Choosing where we might be most effective

The arguments are well rehearsed and clearly made but too many people choose to close their ears and trot out the same old invective against those of us who dare to choose an independent school for our children or, what’s almost worse, deign to work in one. The latter criticism is easily refuted, I feel. When as a 17-year-old I spoke to my Housemaster about being a teacher (yes, I went to an independent boarding school – paid for by working class parents who both left school at 14 years and who sacrificed home ownership, fancy cars and expensive holidays), he wisely suggested I consider where I might be most effective. Having only ever been in private schools myself, I told my Housemaster that I felt I should teach in the State sector. He didn’t try and dissuade me but he also knew me well enough to believe I’d be most influential, happiest and fulfilled in a setting I understood best. At the time of our conversation in the 1970s there was much upheaval in the maintained schools and many teachers were no longer offering to help with sport and extra-curricular activities – aspects of holistic schooling which I value highly. Much has changed in State (and private) schools today, of course, but the advice I received remains valid: choose a school setting where you can best use your talents to enhance the lives of the pupils and, indeed, the colleagues around you.

IGCSEs – the easy option?

And so what of the latest attack on schools which choose IGCSEs? The critics forget that some State schools choose them before the Government decided not to include them in annual exam statistics. They also forget that most independent schools chose them not because they were easier but because they were harder and prepared pupils better for the rigours of A level. Many IGCSES, being international in focus, have a broader curriculum to master. Julie Robinson, the independent schools’ council (ISC) general secretary, puts it succinctly: ‘Schools in the independent sector choose the subject qualifications their pupils sit based on the intrinsic educational quality of the course content. They have a responsibility to ensure pupils are fully prepared for their next steps in life, achieving qualifications that are well-respected and valued by universities and employers…Historically, independent schools opted for IGCSEs due to their rigour and reliability compared with GCSEs, before the introduction of recent reforms, which are still being rolled out’.

Contribution to the UK economy

Others, much more eloquent than me, have made the case for independent schools retaining their educational charitable status – the partnership with local State schools, clubs, societies and community projects speak volumes for their real world ethos – but for those who listen only to economics one statistic stands out: the annual saving to the UK tax payer through the education of children and young people in the independent sector is approximately £3.5 billion. (Please note that if independent schools are drummed out of existence then these pupils will need State educating…) Moreover, independent schools contributed £11.6 billion to the UK economy in 2017 and supported 257,000 jobs. (Figures such as these can be confirmed via the ISC website and RSAcademics, a specialist educational consultancy which works across the State and independent sectors.)

I conclude where I started, with some lyrics from John Lennon’s ‘And so this is Christmas’, and the hope that the New Year is indeed a good one in which we find more to unite than to divide ourselves across the whole of education:

And so happy Christmas, For black and for white, For yellow and red ones, Let’s stop all the fight

Less is more!

A Happy New Year to the readers (reader?) of this blog! I trust you have had a festive break with some refreshment with family and friends. A time to reflect, too, and to make resolutions.

All that stuff

I am getting ready to move house early in the New Year and have recently spent many a happy hour / day / week / month sifting through the boxes, trunks and bags in my garage. Why on earth have I kept all those history books from university days, those teaching notes from the early 1980s and all those video cassettes from yesteryear? I accept that I am a bit of a hoarder (I prefer to say that as an historian I’m interested in sifting through the past and everything has a value) but there has to come a limit – and, besides, my wife has ordered me to downsize!

Gifts galore

These thoughts of excess and surplus are, I suppose, natural at Christmas time when most of us will no doubt receive many more presents than we really need or want. As a teacher I am extremely grateful to all those pupils who have given me cards, boxes of chocolates and bottles of wine over the years – but I have to confess to ‘re-gifting’ some of those Belgian sweets and bottles of Scotch. (I know, as a Scot, I really should like whisky!) On a different scale, but similarly thought-provoking, I read recently that 200,000 books are published annually in the UK. The Times literary editor, Robbie Millen, wrote an exasperated piece asking people to kindly stop sending books to him as he was overwhelmed. Apparently, with so many books clamouring for our attention, it’s much easier to award them ‘nervous little pats on the head rather than to separate wheat from chaff’ (as DJ Taylor has written in the I newspaper). Moreover, there were 821 films on release in the UK last year (equating to 16 per week) and so surely way beyond the capacity of mere mortals, let along film critics, to assimilate, evaluate (or even enjoy)! Perhaps ‘less is more’?

Plastic pollution

I expect that most of us who have seen some of the harrowing images from Blue Planet 2 (and other Nature programmes) will agree that where plastic is concerned, less is indeed more – more sea creatures and, in time, more health for humans, too. A simple walk around our local woodlands or seashore, even a glance in the roadside ditch, reveals extensive amounts of waste and litter. (Can anyone understand the mentality behind those who apparently throw away tin cans and coffee cups with thoughtless abandon?) Less is more beauty and, again, greater health to the planet. The recent Government decision to increase the cost of single-use plastic bags is to be applauded.

Less stuff and more for all

DJ Taylor, in the aforementioned newspaper, commented on a further concern: …the more stuff becomes available the more the overall quality of things on offer starts to sink…the greater the volume of stuff brought before our eyes the less able we are to discriminate between good and bad, to work out what we really want to watch, read or listen to and establish whether it shapes up. Taylor’s advice for a New Year resolution is that we buy less of everything as we may then enjoy what’s left all the more. This seems to me to be a sound approach but I hope it’s not simply for what it might do for ourselves but also for others. One present I particularly appreciated year on year from a parent was this: a donation made (in place of a ‘thing’) in the School’s name to ‘Oxfam unwrapped’ to help pay for a child’s education in a developing part of the world. Here ‘more’ will definitely be ‘more and not less’!”

Every blessing for 2019…

Dirt can be good for you!

I can remember as a young boarder at Drumley House Prep School in the Ayrshire countryside, regularly coming into the ‘boot room’ in the Main House and being ticked off by Matron for the state of my muddy knees and ‘play clothes’. I always sensed an underlying attitude of good humour and tolerance, however, and I can’t ever remember being punished for my muddy adventures. In fact, we were encouraged to spend time ‘in the woods’ in the school grounds building dens, climbing trees and playing active games. I can also remember the whole school being marshalled onto a newly cleared piece of ground that was being prepared as a cricket field and asked to pick up any stones left lying on the surface. I am sure today that there would have been cries of ‘child labour’ and ‘my rights’ but back then in the 1960s I only remember the fun had from collecting odds and ends including one of my earliest prize possessions – a very tarnished George III shilling dated 1819.

Healthy Food, Healthy Gut, Happy Child

In her book published in 2016, Healthy Food, Healthy Gut, Happy Child, Dr Maya Shetreat-Klein advocates contact with the microbes present in soil, saying dirt could prevent early-onset health issues. “Parents today are keeping their children away from the things that are critical to their health,” suggests Dr Shetreat-Klein. “We are sanitising their lives with cleaning products, pesticides and antibiotics.” (A more recent study also promoted the habit of mothers of new-born babies sucking their child’s bottle, rather than sterilising them, so as to pass on healthy, motherly, antibodies!)

Education Secretary, Damien Hinds

I was delighted that just last week the Education Secretary, Damien Hinds, announced he will launch a ‘bucket list’ of life goals for children. Activities include outdoor activities such as tree climbing, sleeping under canvas and exploring a cave. “Bluntly”, Mr Hinds told the I newspaper, “it is about doing stuff that doesn’t involve looking at a screen. It’s about getting out and about”. He is advocating tree climbing to grow character and build resilience.

Tree climbing is good for you

I have just retired as Headmaster of Ballard School on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire. At Ballard we encourage the climbing of trees, running around in the grounds, the adventures of camping and trekking and the playing of old-fashioned games such as ‘tag’ and conkers, the making of dens and the kicking around of a football with friends ‘just for fun’. One of the prospective parents I met before I had even started my first term at Ballard ten years ago told me how they had just popped into Lymington Hospital to have one of their children checked over after a fall. One of the nurses enquired about their school choice (they were moving to the New Forest) and when they said they intended to visit Ballard, the nurse said (in an approving way I am relieved to say), ‘Oh, that’s the school which lets them fall out of trees’!

Mud, glorious, mud

I have to admit to having been a little cross with pupils who came off the fields after the lunch break with mud on their trousers or their shoes. My thoughts, of course, were with Mum or Dad at home who will likely have to wash the offending article of clothing (or perhaps in the most modern of households the children play their part in the cleaning!). I hope, however, that underlying my stern exterior lay the Prep School boy who rather enjoyed the great outdoors and the dirt and grime which went with it! With a grandson who attended a forest school nursery until recently I have seen life moving full circle.

I’d better follow Mr Hinds’ advice and close down my screen now and get out on the forest trail…even though it’s raining hard!

Back to basics and ‘chalk and talk’?

‘No evidence’ that enjoyable lessons help pupils?

At a time when there is so much Brexit ballyhoo in the Press, I very nearly missed the article last week in the ‘I’ newspaper with its beguiling headline: ‘No evidence’ that enjoyable lessons help pupils learn.

The age of the Banda machine

I am immediately suspicious when I see something in single inverted commas – clearly the ‘school sceptics’ are at work (see what I did there?). My educational antennae are set all the more aquiver when in the first line of the article I find the word ‘myth’ not now inside single inverted commas but within two sets of these over-used indicators! Richard Vaughan writes: The belief that lessons should be made enjoyable for pupils to boost academic achievement is based on a “myth”, according to research. All of a sudden my efforts over the past 38 years to produce coloured Banda worksheets and maps (aka a spirit duplicator invented in 1923), in my best handwriting, to relieve the tedium of monochrome Gestetner copies (first used in 1879) are deemed to be a waste of time. Those hours I spent carefully substituting coloured ink sheets, one after the other, and then reproducing sheets with that delicious smelling lubricant (just heavenly for pupils) were actually null and void. I should have given my hours to honing my most commanding voice, improving my blackboard writing skills, and choosing my nattiest ties to ensure my captive audience sitting in their bare-walled classroom would at least keep their eyes fixed on me.

Computer games, apps and online resources

Gone, too, should be the industry of computer games and apps, whiteboards and video clips in the face of the research carried out for the Centre for Education Economics. (I wonder if the clue is in this imposing title?) A more traditional approach to education, championed by Michael Gove, Nick Gibb et al since 2010, is being giving top marks. The author of this research, Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren, pours much chalk dust on child-centred approaches: The idea that positive emotions and achievement go hand in hand has become deeply entrenched within the education system. Indeed, it is still commonly believed that it is necessary to make learning ‘invigorating’ (there we go again – those pesky inverted commas) for learning to take place at all. Yet our research has found that there is little rigorous evidence in favour of this assumption.

Engaging lessons

Ah! A small chink in the research appears: ‘rigorous evidence’ (sorry, my emphasis this time). My mind flits to the Modern Languages’ classroom next to the Head’s study in my last school where the pupils were invariably excited and interested as the IPads came out, the headphones went on, and the individualised learning started to engage them. (Surely ‘engage’ is the key word here?) Having been so absorbed, the pupils would then chant their vocabulary, practise their pronunciation and even enjoy having a Skype conversation in a language other than their own with pupils in far-flung lands.

My memory now stirs as I recall several ‘learning walks’ (sorry for those pesky commas – I want you to notice this modern? term) during which I come across a diminutive History teacher standing on a desk brandishing a ruler as she led Harold’s doomed forces to quell the Norman invader, the chemistry class in the corridor having exploded yet another test tube leaving their lab filled with green smoke and the English teacher re-enacting scenes from MacBeth outside in the woods complete with mock battles, mysterious blasted heaths and haunting sleep walks. Whatever the research seems to suggest, these pupils were engaged, excited and enthralled by their learning.

Chicken pox

I have just returned from my four-and-a half year old grandson’s house. He was home from school with chicken pox. In amongst the chasing games, the imaginative Lego pirates and the football, I was amazed at how easy it was to engage him in reading using a variety of online and interactive programs, and how effective a booklet on writing skills was in helping him form his letters. Snakes and Ladders was great fun and also hugely useful in learning his numbers and, moreover, this and other games helped him understand the importance of rules, winning and losing. (I was more often than not having to learn how to lose gracefully.)

All I can say, therefore, is that whilst the Centre for Education Economics has no doubt carried out some very useful research, I do hope that it is understood alongside the wealth of attested evidence from hard-working and creative teachers within schools today which more than amply demonstrates that interesting, informed and interactive lessons enable pupils to engage with their learning and to succeed where a diet of chalk and talk teacher-centred lectures will not so readily enable them to do so – even if they sometimes do have their place in today’s classroom.

Stress busting

Teacher stress

We have just had ‘stress in the workplace day’ and the educational Press has again been full of statistics about the impact of increasing workloads on teachers and other professionals. A YouGov survey in 2017 found that 75% of teachers in the UK reported symptoms of stress (including anxiety, depressions and panic attacks) compared with just 62% of the population as a whole.

Research

The Times Educational Supplement last November brought matters into sharp focus as follows:

Teaching is among the most stressful jobs you can do in Britain, according to new health and safety statistics. The latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that in the teaching profession there were 2,460 cases of work-related stress per 100,000 workers.

This was twice the average rate across all industries of 1,230 cases per 100,000 workers in the three-year period averaged over 2014-15 to 2016-17.

“Stress is more prevalent in public service industries, such as education, human health and social care work activities and public administration and defence,” the report states.

It added that previous surveys had found the predominant cause of stress was workload – in particular, tight deadlines. Other causes were too much pressure or responsibility, a lack of managerial support, organisational changes, violence and role uncertainty.

“Work-related stress, depression or anxiety continues to represent a significant ill health condition in the workforce of Great Britain,” the report concludes.

A recent DfE report on teachers’ decisions to leave teaching found workload was the single most common reason – cited by 75 per cent of ex-teachers as the reason they quit the profession. Changes in policy were the second biggest cause.

I have to say that in my 38 years of teaching, I have indeed come across several colleagues who have had time off for stress or who have ‘battled on’ despite being under tremendous pressure. I believe that these instances are increasing and thus they align with this research. A few years ago I went through a particularly stressful period as a Head – brought on, I feel, by a combination of ‘issues’ to do with school parents and their high expectations (unrealistic in some cases) together with a number of tricky staffing concerns. This experience led me to consider, along with some medical intervention, stress-busting / minimising approaches.

Tips

I hasten to add that a degree of stress is, of course, healthy and like most things in life we are looking to reach a balance. My response to my own anxiety was not revolutionary but, I believe, helped me manage the inevitable pressures that came with my job and also with teaching in general. I stopped checking work emails after 9.00 pm, for example, and, indeed, avoided the computer for any reason after this time at night. Furthermore, on holiday I deliberately avoided all emails and made use of the handy ‘out of office’ function on my computer. (My wife is a very good partner in reminding me about this should I be otherwise tempted!) Just this week I heard in a report for Breakfast News on BBC that the ‘French approach’ to emails could be considered in the workplace: no email should be sent to a subordinate outside ‘normal working hours’. Clearly for teachers ‘normal working hours’ needs defining and so perhaps this could apply between 7.00pm and 7.00am?

I try to get to bed before 10.00pm rather than waiting to watch the News first before retiring for the night. In my workplace I strove to look for opportunities to delegate work and, yes, to trust others to do things better than me! Even if in my view they didn’t manage this, it is their learning experience that’s important. In addition to this, I very consciously tried not to dwell on imaginary conversations ahead of ‘difficult meetings’: it’s fine to plan for these and consider scenarios but as I walked home of an evening (and this woodland walk was a privilege to savour), I very consciously tried to leave them behind recognising that there’s nothing further I can do until the next day – or after the weekend.

Why worry?

We will all have things which suit us personally and fit with our lifestyles to reduce stress further (and for me this includes prayer and Christian fellowship – as well as time with my wife and family). It’s tremendously important, however, to look for those ‘little extras’ which we can do (or stop doing) when the going gets too tough. This may mean a conversation with your GP but will also involve wise advice from those who know us best along with, perhaps, the tips above over online habits and self-control with our endless ‘what if’ thoughts. As someone has pointed out, 90+% of the things we worry about never happen – and so why worry in the first place?

Retirement – rough or smooth?

The retirement letter

‘Dear Mr James’, a civil service department chief wrote to a recently retired tax inspector, ‘Thank you for your 46 years’ service for the Department. In this time, you have had 12 days’ sick leave. As you retire, please make sure you return your leather case and pens. Yours sincerely…’

I am not making this up! This was indeed the retirement letter the father of a close family member received (admittedly a few years ago now). He had had a good farewell party but now his life time employer wanted back his monogrammed leather case (he’d had two in his working life) together with the biros that remained. He was not permitted back inside the office and was thus, effectively, cut off from his former colleagues and workplace.

I am sure that some who retire will be happy being as far away as possible from where they had previously worked and may even appreciate no longer seeing some, if not all, of their former work mates. I can’t answer for Mr James above (not his real name), but after 46 years in one place I am sure that the type of severance he experienced was not only sudden and severe but also distressing, disturbing and needlessly harsh.

The importance of community

I retired as a Headmaster at the end of August this year. I still live within ten minutes’ walk of my former school and continue to bump into colleagues, governors, pupils and parents as I shop locally, play sport and attend church. Like Mr James I had a super ‘send-off’ (several, in fact, from a wonderful spread of people within my school family) but, thankfully unlike Mr James, I did not receive a letter requesting the return of my school leather case (aka mobile ‘phone and laptop – already handed back). I did experience, however, the pain of being separated from a community I had been part of for nine years – and I still feel the separation keenly. (My ‘leather case’ moment was having my request for the birth dates of colleagues, so that I could continue to send cards to each annually, turned down owing to GDPR regulations!)

Don’t misunderstand me: my former school has been very tolerant of me continuing to maintain some contact via the weekly parent and staff hockey team (I’m the ‘Aged Al’ who trots up and down the wing receiving the occasional friendly pass) and they have been very kind with invitations to key events. My successor and other senior staff have also been more than approachable and friendly. The ‘problem’ is partly me (and my sensitivities) and partly the inevitable process involved in leaving an institution after many years at the helm and my determination to steer clear and thus not ‘queer the pitch’ for the new Head and management that have replaced my regime.

Schools can be families, too

An organisation such as a school is indeed a family – and where I worked we regularly referred to it as such. I genuinely miss the pupils and having an insight into their progress (hence the delight last weekend when I met a senior pupil on a train. I had to restrain myself from being too intrusive). I wonder, with a professional interest, how certain appointments are faring – former colleagues in new positions of responsibility and pupils who are now leading the school as prefects. I also miss taking a caring and prayerful interest in the lives of the teachers and other staff, many of whom I appointed and some who allowed me to play a small part in their lives – and not only at school.

There is no easy answer to this loss of a collegiate community, except to encourage other employers to ensure that the occasionally painful part of transition from work to retirement (no matter the position held) is remembered and thought through sensitively. As I have said, I have been fortunate in my former employer and community. No doubt time and distance will bring some more balm: I’m moving to another part of the country once the solicitors in the property chain get their act together – no doubt the substance of another blog! I continue to feel a part of the school communities in which I have served, and especially the two where I have been Head, and so I hope each will also continue to indulge me with occasional news and invitations – and remember other staff who have ‘moved on’ and still feel a part of the wider school family.