I Am Number One – The Rise and Rise of Celebrity Culture in Education

The King is dead… Long live the King!

Understand this from the off.  I am only writing this blog because I am a deeply jealous and shallow human soul… So watch me contradict myself.

I am getting pretty sick and fed up with the rise and rise of the ‘celebrity’ teacher and head teacher. I have become pretty ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ about it… I really do think, “I can do that”. But can I? What has suddenly happened in education and why is it a little bit ‘sexy’ all of a sudden to teach on TV or in the media? Leaving me badly dressed and in the corner whilst the younger, funkier and braver all do their stuff out on the floor.

I blame twitter. I would be a liar if I said I didn’t check my followers each day or how many blog hits my mum has added… How sad am I? On one level I am in direct competition with @theprimaryhead (I need followers and I will pay…). I can not live comfortably knowing he is looking down at me from lofty heights – this is born from educational debate though. It is practice competition and to a degree healthy. But is all of this linking, publicity and propaganda positive for education? Here are a few observations…

I was following the Mr Drew twitter feed the other night and after every other, “Those kids parents should be slapped/ imprisoned/ punched” tweet there was a “Mr Drew is amazing/ so patient/ super calm/ incredible” one. I have known quite a few Mr Drew’s in my time. Amazing people who have a certain way of making you happy you are part of their world. I see nothing different in terms of his ability to inspire/ teach than many colleagues I have worked alongside but there is a significant difference… He is one of a few pioneers. Dangerous because he is putting his values, beliefs and habits as an educationist into the very public eye (As did the Educating X series). I think about the times I have felt I wanted to do something like this but pulled back because I did not have the courage to follow it through… The difference is ‘he has’. He has gone beyond his authority as an educationist. He has also done this very publicly. By going beyond his authority I mean he has put his credibility and position on the line in order to tackle the problems at hand… how many others would? In fact look at Twitter and how many of us have pseudo names? Usually we do the opposite we hire people to provide protection or we create systems to ensure security and stability within our role… Solutions with a minimum of disruption.  When Mark Grist (@montygristo) tweeted his new poem ‘Why I Am Angry?’ on the back of his appearance on Mr Drews Boys  he was clearly saying something different. It was refreshing and having listened to it again I know why he has my attention (Not just his love of brilliant board games)… I feel bad that I use celebrity because it is suddenly crass… This is educations alternative scene bought to you by talented and skilled people who share something in common with many of us. They are passionate about young people getting the chances they deserve rather than making excuses for not doing it. They are suddenly representing my world via the media and people are talking.  They are celebrity because they are ‘doing’ it and showing it rather than just writing or talking about it from the shadows.

At this stage I could talk about my week and if I had a camera and editing team I am sure there’s a TV program in it. That shot of me inspiring minds in assembly (Oh those inspired Reception children!); defusing violence; sorting complex situations; watching another person being invited to have my job; calming senior leaders; getting angry about social care, talking to the local shopkeeper about Y6 shoplifters, being grilled for this or that etc etc etc… It’ll need Nick Bloomfield to direct and edit it to add some excitement but I know that I could look pretty good on TV just on one weeks material… But I am not Stephen Drew or any of these others who have made themselves niches recently because I still let the myth of fear drive my decisions around what I say and do… I am still guarded even though I say things that some would not.

I still have:

The fear of being left behind;

The fear of watching others win;

The fear of presiding over monumental failure;

Therefore, why put yourself out there? But this is where TV seems to make a difference… I think I can predict the rest of Mr Drews’ Boys because I know ‘documentary’ a little. Somehow, I feel that the script will show how the beautiful happens alongside the tragic. We will see blood, tears and sweat but ultimately we will grow to love the complexity of each character, willing them on and relishing the successes of those that were so scorned to begin with… Does this have anything to do with our daily jobs or is this TV and celebrity culture controlling education?

I don’t really know… It’s complex as I said. What I do know is I am happy it is happening and I like ALL the comments made about it – even the damn right offensive ones – because they allow education to be debated around the sofa in a slightly different way than in the pub or the coffee shop. It shows the challenges in all their raw and uncomfortable reality rather than in misty, “I can do that” fantasy…

So, I am looking forwards to this years Grazia of education and the Bafta’s for teaching. I like coming home at night and watching others prove to the world that it’s not a simple job, “Open your text books at page 134. You have one hour.” And for that I am grateful. But I know that their stories on screen are replicated up and down the country every day. I hope others see that as well? But in the meantime, follow me so I get MORE followers than @theprimaryhead.

 

Seek Truth – Honesty in Education

My current school’s badge says ‘Seek Truth’ underneath what looks like a cannabis leaf. It used to make me laugh thinking back to the 1970’s and the ‘Truth Police’ skulking the corridors in search for the ultimate holy grail of educational knowledge. Recently, as I have read blog after blog about the purpose of education, I have been thinking about the lies we tell children within the school system.  Not just the lies but the avoidance’s and taboo areas which are part of every day life which do not feature within primary education because they are seen as too controversial. Also, the fact that major parts of our education system are at odds with society and twenty first century living.

Within this blog I am NOT saying whether things are ‘right or wrong/ true or false’ but I am discussing the topic areas because I feel they are too important to continue to ignore. I say this because, rightly, there are more critical voices around individuals blogs (facts and evidence – where’s the research?) and at times it can feel like you are under a lie-detector as your thoughts and views are put to the test.

So here go’s:

1. When you die you go to heaven – religion in schools

Recently, for my headship interview, I was asked to deliver a ‘collective worship’ assembly. I am an atheist. I do not do GOD. I phoned the school up and told them this. Lucky for me they understood. We discussed it in interview and I was clear that I would allow the experts to do ‘religion’ within school and I was happy to work closely with churches and people of faith – in fact I would actively search this out from a community perspective which I feel is very important… (as I have done in all my previous schools both in Muslim and Christian communities) – but I am not going to lie and say I adhere to a religious point of view about life.

It amazes me how many teachers do lie though. I once had a conversation with the head of a diocese who said it would be fine for me to work for them… I find that strange. I come across many teachers and leaders working in faith schools who are not practicing the religion that are at the foundations of their school? They do this secretly, no questions asked and if pushed are happy to lie… Which I like to remind them is against pretty much most religious teaching. This asks the question – what is the point of religion in schools? From my perspective I really struggle with it:

“Christianity: The belief that some invisible cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.” – anon

I am very aware that far more worthy, intelligent and brilliant people do believe and therefore I am not preaching an anti-religious curriculum. But I am asking if schools are the best places and seeing as we are living in an increasingly secular society we should also accept an atheists point of view in primary schools.

If we teach religion for a moral code…  If a religion defines concepts of right (virtuous) and wrong (sinful) behavior. Again, I struggle. I think that Tupac or most RAP artists could give you a ‘love your mother, brother and enemy’ speech to live your life by.

It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes.
Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live
and let’s change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive. 

From my perspective… With the many religions there is one clear truth. Only one of them can be right.

If we allow faith schools then why is a Creationist school any different?

It’s not like we say that humans and dinosaurs co-existed… or evolution has been disproved…

 2. Adults know best

Half the time, we really don’t have a clue what we’re doing. And yet we preach this all the time in school. I am not saying anarchy rules but the number of times we have been hypocrites in the name of keeping to the rules… E.g:

If we don’t punish you, you won’t learn for next time

Eat up your five a day,  and you will live a long and healthy life

Rather than: “You could die tomorrow. In a godless universe.”

What goes around comes around

The just world theory. But we know that bad behaviour is often unpunished (And perpetrated by those we are meant to trust – politicians, the justice system and the banks) and good behaviour is not something that will get you that far on all too many occasions.

That good will over come bad in the end… Does it? Is that what history has taught us?

You should never tell lies

At least not until you’re proficient enough to get away with it. And also when it comes to running a country or something really important. – We lie all the time…

Money doesn’t matter

Only if you have all-powerful oligarchs giving you everything for free, reinforced by politicians and the media. These myths allow the poor to be blamed for their poverty, and the rest of society to avoid taking any of the responsibility… Don’t be poor – be rich … the poor are lazy, drink too much, are not really poor but just bad at organising their money, on the fiddle, having an easy life on benefits or the cause of the deficit this country has…

3.You are special and unique

It’s statistically unlikely. – you are unique and yet you need to conform. The likelihood for most children is they will have an ordinary life. That’s not to say it won’t be wonderful – but they will not all be world famous, great scientists or artists and writers of renown. They will be ordinary people living lives like many millions of others.

Also, it’s great to be special and unique but if you are a teacher and gay – working in a faith school?  How truthful can we be here? We all know the answer to that – and it is wrong.Why should this be hidden behind a wall of silence when it is a basic fact of life?

OK! I am ranting… I lied to you all at the start when I said that I was not saying if things are right or wrong/ true or false. On another day I am sure I can find twenty arguments against what I have said in this blog. I am sure I will upset as many who think this is worth saying.  But what is important is the saying. That’s the freedoms we have in a democracy. I don’t have to face a polygraph, move around looking skittish, have poor eye contact, use my short term memory as an excuse. We are lucky that we live in a society that does not endorse lies…  or do we?

Portrait of a 9 Year Old: What’s the Difference Between a Dog and a Deckchair?

“The slightly confused early morning ramblings of a primary progressive – damn his eyes!”

My 9 year old daughter is waiting for me to make her breakfast… I show her the video ‘Portrait of Lotte’ which is a time-lapse of a child growing up from 0 to 14. It suddenly hits me how much the 9 year old changes during the 10 and 11 years. It’s scary. My ‘little girl’ who needs daddy to make her breakfast is fast growing and changing. But is she ready for what the coming years will demand of her? I have been there when she has had nightmares, been ill, fallen over and needed a cuddle… but what can I offer her when she is old enough for secondary school?

I picture her walking to school on a frosty, cold January and having to exist in the secondary world in the ways I did.

It was cruel – I was dumped, punched, kicked and insulted…

It was hard – I was lost, stuck, confused, laughed at and conscious of my worthlessness…

It was boring – I was tired, cold, wet, lonely and uninterested…

And that was just Monday!

How secondary ready is she because that is a lot of rules to learn and know to get through the day? And there’s not an ellipse in sight!

What should I be doing as a parent to make her secondary ready? And here is my confession – this is the first time I have ever thought to pull apart my responsibilities from those of a school in this way.

Her resilience, empathy, creativity even… Is that for the school or me? What rules am I teaching her and how will they impact on her schooling and future life?

According to my daughter she goes to school for the “…beginnings of maths and literacy and how to make friendships.”

So, how are you doing on those things I ask?

“Pretty good… except friendships… Maths and literacy is also pretty hard!”

I have burnt the toast at this stage and have to start again. She laughs at me and takes the ‘mick’ about my cooking skills… I note how her sense of humour has started to change. Is this on the curriculum? Her humour has marked her out at various stages of her life. I took her to see the poet John Hegley last Monday and he showed a picture of a dog and a deckchair and asked the audience, “What’s the difference between a dog and a deckchair?” My daughter’s hand shot up and I suddenly got that parent panic of, “Oh my god what’s she doing!” Before I knew it we were both on the stage of the Old Vic and the audience was shouting at my daughter:

“What is the difference between a dog and a deckchair?”

“You can only buy one in Asda!”

Where did that come from? How did this little girl suddenly become confident enough to do this? Where did this sense of humour come from? Will this sense of humour help her in secondary?  Should there be a sense of humour test for all 11 year olds? SOH SATS I like that… As a crazed progressive all I need to do is get a meeting with the DFE and I am on to it!

I have noted more and more blogs that want increased rigor and traditional approaches and less ‘namby pamby’ progressive approaches.  The kids need to bring reading, writing and maths skills and rules to school and they need to be drilled in because it is too late to do it aged 12, (I agree, in fact I don’t know any primary progressives that do not?). They will need a body of knowledge that will empower them through Y7 and beyond. They will bring their sense of humour, personalities and traits whether you want them or not and they are going to change every year regardless of school…This raises the question so why bother teaching anything else at primary school? I imagine some colleagues would want this. But it’s a stupid question… we should be asking:

WHAT are children learning about at primary school?

What is planned and what just happens as part of growing up? What are they learning about bullying, social media, themselves and their interests, the world and the moment etc… away from the four walls of the classroom? How are primary schools working alongside this? How do we value the different rules children are learning to survive and be themselves?

Where is the research on cognitive, social and emotional and physical development in the teacher’s planning and daily lessons?

Our obsession with testing (to improve accountability) has, I feel, made us lose some of the more holistic approaches to education. I am all for testing literacy and maths. In fact I want it more often (from Y3) and for it to be built up throughout a child’s primary schooling. But when an 11 year old leaves primary and IS secondary ready let’s not forget that they need to be so much more. Problem is it seems secondary schools don’t need wise cracking comedians and underground street artists who can talk their ways out of a fight, unless they know their tables and the rules for commas. I can see why and if the boot was on the other foot it would do my head in knowing what I have to do to get a child a GCSE. But, do we value the rules learnt by the comedian and the artist as much as the rules they learnt in their essay on Of Mice and Men?

Right now though, I wish my daughter’s primary school had taught her how to make her own breakfast because I have just burnt the toast again!

War of the Roses

My Week by The Primary Bear:

I do not adhere to this miserable little bears point of view. I am just posting because I am really bored and have nothing of worth to say… again!

What a bloody week I have had. I hate term breaks with a passion. It’s bad enough being held captive over the weekends as I’m dragged along to mind numbing ballet recitals, vomit inducing parties and viewings of grannies new stair lift. I’m too old for this! I just want a quiet life. Rotting away in some moldy window gathering bacteria and watching the cactus dry out.

But no! Gilmore Academy has better ideas. Get the little minds inspired to write by sending them home with me to tell stories about how much their parents love them… I hate them all!

This week I am stuck with the Roses. And all is not well.

Mr Rose returned from the DFE full of beans talking about the primary revolution. This was much to Mrs Rose’s irritation because she had to cancel her ‘secondary webinar’ with the president of the Lichtenstein mathematical books emporium (best performing education system this week!).

Over a bottle of wine the atmosphere got very frosty. Mrs Rose accused Mr Rose of being a Blob and progressive; She told him to go find his Element up his backside and he called her a reactionary right wing think tank… Not nice. A bear shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of shit. In truth she did have to take me around B&Q for two hours looking at taps and that must be enough to hate all human life.

Seriously, I hark back to the good old days when kids pulled my legs off and set me on fire… That’s the problem with kids today they are far too ready to follow the rules.

A Doorstep Conversation on Education

“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”  Groucho Marx

My new Lib Dem politician knocked on my door last night… I forget his name.  But I am deeply concerned for what he stands for. Not party principles (not sure he had any of his own), they are fine. They are good and at their heart they are right. But with great power comes great responsibility (Yawn… I think he said this). Tough decisions need to be made. We are playing catch up with Finland and Singapore. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was so last year on this… I think we are aiming to be Poland now.

I told him that I feel pretty fed up with the current rhetoric in education. Listening to Gove, Truss, Clegg  and the army of in waiting ‘reformists’ butcher their way through why education needs to be like A or B. Ideologies that are mainly born from hearing about teaching rather than ‘being’ in teaching. It’s in vogue right now to look to a narrow set of performance indicators (mainly PISA) and put our heads in our hands and cry, “We’re all doomed!”

He felt that I should be happy, as a head teacher, with the pupil premium and with what is happening with school dinners (I almost angrily tweaked his tie at this point). I should have shouted in his face:

“YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU HAVE FOUND A MAGIC POT OF GOLD WHEN WHAT YOU DID WAS STEAL SCHOOLS DEVOLVED CAPITAL AND PUT IT INTO A NEW POT THAT SOUNDS FAR MORE WORTHY!”

I didn’t. I am far too polite.

I did quote @schooltruth though because, rather excitedly, I had a tweet replied to about her Guardian article on School Funding (http://bit.ly/1eiZFDd). I told him that I have newspaper cuttings from my present school from the 1980’s that call the school a ‘death trap’ waiting to happen because of the risk of falling masonry. This was because funding had been cut. My Devolved Capital was £43,000 per year… the last three years it has been 4k, 6k and 7k. The school is looking shabby and there is a growing list of things to do such as toilets in the Reception class, damp work, crack work (this is the legal type of crack) and many other things I could not remember on my doorstep at 7:30 PM…

He was looking sheepish at this point because he must have still had 200 doors to knock on and I was eating into ‘people’ time.

THE FOLLOWING PART OF THE CONVERSATION ONLY HAPPENED AFTER HE LEFT (IN MY HEAD):

Me: So you need to think about things a little better don’t you? THINK ‘Generational Future’ rather than ‘Election Future’. Yes, You can use that!  I would appreciate policy that seems to have been thought through, given proper trails and a ‘real’ educational debate.

LibDemMan: But we do. David Laws is finding extra money for schools all over the place!

Me: Under Maria Millar’s mattress?

It was pointless. We were speaking a different language. If I had found a five year old I think they would have understood one of us better than we understood each other. This is the heart of the problem in education right now. I think that twitter has given us too much voice. Conversations on the doorsteps are nothing in comparison to the rise in the twitter voice. Is that why there is sudden interest in meeting twitter folk? But voice is nothing if it does not enact change. I may be ungrateful but I expected more from @headsroundtable. I want an independent voice with real influence that is fighting at the doorsteps of the DFE and ruffling the hair of the change bringers in education… Maybe it’s Ofsted (Either that or Russell Brand?) and maybe in this the real revolution could begin? But, that is another blog altogether.

The ‘Human League’ Tables

In my last post I had a dig at ‘testing’ but in truth I am more concerned about the direction of travel in education. Our obsession with accounting for the quality of ‘education’ via tables, tests and historical ‘status quo’ rather than understanding the meaning of what we are doing or trying to achieve.  I have real doubts about what we teach and why. The test is the raw nerve at the end for me because they just seem to scratch the surface and therefore make education a limp prosthetic to life.

What is it that makes us humane?

Amongst the animal world we have, in Dawkins words, “Uniquely big brains” which have “evolved after our habit of walking on two legs.” And this has bought us to where we are today.  TED Blogs recently did a piece entitled ‘What will blow our minds in the *next* 30 years?’ (http://bit.ly/1ilI2zf). When the two worlds of what it is to be humane and our future collide I really think that schools have NO IDEA what we are preparing our children for. Therefore, we stick to the time tested historical approaches. Why wouldn’t you?  The future is scary.  But my argument is we cope with technological, biological and scientific change amazing well – that is why we are where we are today. I think education has coped via the industrial revolution into the modern headfast rush into space, atoms and virtual worlds really well. We support our advancements and prepare people to build upon them. History has taught us this.

On the TED Blog Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab writes about the next 30 years:

You’re going to swallow a pill and know Shakespeare. The way to do it is through the bloodstream; once it’s in your bloodstream, it basically goes through and gets into the brain and when it knows it’s in the brain it deposits the information in the right places. I’ve been hanging around with Ed Boyden and Hugh Herr and a number of people… This isn’t far-fetched.”

Retaining and knowing – knowledge is already more readily available that at any time. The most ignorant of us can access knowledge, within seconds, that 10 years ago would have been available only to the most privileged within academia. What we do from there is where education is lost. Where education has failed to advance is in preparing children for the emotional education you need to make it through life. The life skills… History teaches us, very well, the lessons we seem never to learn:

War, global warming, race crime, gender crime, uncontrolled desires for wealth and power, the folly of pride…  and the list goes on and on… and on…

We never seem to learn and the problems (the real problems) never seem to go away. They are all created by the human animal not coping with each other.

In the grand scheme of life how much difference will a harder SATs test make this year? How important will that league table of high scoring schools really be? Will they have impacted upon the betterment of society? Will they produce the future leaders we will undoubtedly need? Ironically, the current education system, through its ‘world-class’ schools, have produced most of the world leaders of the past 100 years… just saying. I am sure they are very well educated – those politicians – No one doubts Gove’s intellect. But I question his empathy.

My point is nothing will stop our technological and scientific advancement but nothing seems to be developing our emotional development. It’s seen as too ‘new age’ and therefore easy to discredit. Schools are too focused on looking like they are ensuring we provide the basics within a narrow field of life. But, are we forgetting the ‘real’ basics of life?

Surely, we need to develop an education system that takes the following just as seriously:

Failure is a lesson learnt…

That the best things in life are not our possessions… but life itself.

I know, crazy old hippy. I still think that knowledge is a wonderful thing and we should seek it with a passion. I still want children to be articulate and logical… I still think a test is a worth while thing. BUT, it is not as important as life itself. It is nothing when you can sit in a ‘tin can’ staring at earth from space and think about what we are and what we should be.

TESTING TIMES

When you finish reading this you will come to one of two conclusions:

1. Shoot him – he is in education and he is dangerous!

2. Make him Chief Inspector of Ofsted (Which is a little like shooting me)!

I am going to state the bleeding obvious… Why are we testing children?

Is it to find the best performing schools and individuals?

Is it to help children get better – to plan their learning?

Is it to test what is needed in society?

Is it to stretch and set high expectations?

Is it to find our specialists?

Is it to compete internationally?

Seriously, what is the point? I read this week that the new SATs are going to be much harder. Spellings are harder (in fear that we are becoming too Americanized), that calculators are out (In fear that we are becoming too reliant on tools – you know, that thing that truly sets us apart from Apes) and too many Nursery children can not hold a pen (“We CAN test that!” I picture the DFE bods falling off their chairs in over excitement). This is done to the great backdrop that harks on to a ‘Golden Age’ where examinations were ‘proper’ tough and they set you up for the world in a way that the current system is failing to do. Do we really buy into this stuff?

As a result education is suddenly at it’s polarised best. Wilshaw (et al) on one side and the experts who disagree with them on the other. And on we go… arguing within this no win vicious circle on what is best for children in a future that we barely understand.

I have a solution! I have the perfect test for an 11 year old. Here it is:

1. Have they counted the stars?
2. Have they got covered in mud from head to toe and jumped into a pool to clean it off?
3. Have they toasted marsh mellows in a wood over an open fire?
4. Have they cared for something delicate and precious?
5. Have they written to someone THEY care about? (Did they get a reply?)
6. Have they danced the way they want to?
7. Have they found a joke they love?
8. Have they had a conversation with an ‘old’ person?
9. Have they seen a sun rise and a sun set?
10. Have they experienced something that made them go ‘WOW!’?

My problem with hearing that tests are getting harder is not the fear that I will fail as a head. We will adapt to this test and the children will get better at doing it. We may have a wobbly year or two where the SIO or Ofsted look at us with a little twinkle in their eye as it dawns on them that they have found the TRUE enemies of promise. But we will sit the children down and cram their dear little brains until they can pass tests in their sleepless dreams.

Do I need to up the number of Level 6 writers I have? Should we expect in 5 years time that all children aim for a level 6? That will produce better writers and I am sure we will storm up the PISA rankings (Hurrah!). But will it produce better mothers and fathers? Better dreamers and thinkers? Better sons and lovers? Or better problem solvers and leaders? So I ask myself – What are we trying to achieve? I just look at that grey joyless zone that has become the Year 6 experience – is that childhood? I had none of the pressure they have when I was at primary school and I can say I am pretty good at my job and I think overall I add to society. So, did my schooling make the difference? By today’s standards it was TERRIBLE. No phonics, no rigour in writing, no idea how to do anything in maths apart from memorise times tables, no concept of differentiation and no real care about whether I was safe or not. But I remember my childhood in very positive ways. I remember climbing trees, being out and feeling very safe, spending all afternoon making daisy chains, searching for ants nests, bird eggs, swimming in lakes etc… Or is that the rose tinted glasses?

Ok, here’s where you shoot me or promote me into the echelons of Ofsted.

Surely we want a rounded eleven year old leaving Primary and heading into the bright lights of secondary? Do secondaries truly trust the test results enough anyway? We must have a MUCH broader way of assessing children. All we seem to do right now is bemoan the lack of grammar, number and phonics rather than the strength of love, inspiration and ambition. Politically our only great advance in education is to make the tests harder. After hundreds of years formalising an education system is that it? This is our sum total of unleashing the aspirations of a generation? I just wish that rather than listen to another debate about how hard the tests are going to be that the press and education world had spent as much energy thinking about what kind of people the world is going to need. There is much sense on both sides of the argument though there is little empathy and even less courage. The world has changed massively in the last decades and yet we still use the same old testing systems as the only way in which to judge the quality of schooling for society. Surely our best thinkers have better ideas? Research shows us that the testing sets up the curriculum and therefore we should spend our energy and resources on the roots rather than gathering the measurable elements. Can we not trust the education world to find a better way? I’d give it a go…

‘What’s that poking the back of my head?’ … click…

The Importance of Activism in Education

“The status quo cannot continue: we need an education spring – an uprising of passion and commitment to the role of schooling in the education of our young. Politics can change the face of education in structural terms but it should not change the heart.” Mick Waters

At this year’s Primary Heads Association of Bristol (PHAB) conference over 120 of us listened to Mick Waters discuss many inspiring topics around learning. One in particular rang out loud and clear. We should teach more about ‘activism’ in schools.

I do not think he knew that we had Fahma Mohamed speaking, a 17 year old Bristol student, who has been campaigning (with the organisation Integrate Bristol) against all forms of Violence and Abuse Against Women and Girls, (VAAWG) and in particular has bought the FGM agenda right to the doorstep of Mr Gove. It was an inspired move. Her speech was compelling and funny especially her reasoning as to why the Education Secretary had to say ‘Yes’ to them (when so many professionals in education fail to get him to even acknowledge them). I have worked in parts of the city of Bristol and Tower Hamlets where FGM was a real issue but I went away today feeling that this is an issue for ALL parts of education in ALL parts of the country (and beyond). This was about voice and action. I grew up listening to music that was about protest and one of my favourite bands was ‘The Dead Kennedys’, who were critical of ‘80s capitalism and culture. But I just listened to vinyl in my bedroom, wore makeup and moped around. To see what has been achieved by this group of people was truly inspiring.

My current school, on the outskirts of Bristol, would seem to be a million miles away from the FGM agenda. I could not disagree more. What I took away from listening today was about how important it is to make this issue become mainstream. This is not about graphic lessons about FGM (everything shown, though uncomfortable at times, was done with artistic integrity). This is about violence and it should be on the agenda of every primary school. How do you speak out about subjects that have been traditionally not spoken about? It reminds me of the notion of being gay or lesbian in the 80’s. No one spoke about it in a proactive and positive way. Times have changed but it still takes pioneers to stand up and face the crowds of disapproving faces. Schools are too slow on too many occasions to champion causes like this. I wonder why? Maybe it is the fear of disapproving parents? The difficult conversations or letters you will get. I once told parents I was concerned that packed lunches were unhealthy. I had a barrage of complaints and told to mind my own business. That was jam sandwiches! It is as if there are some things we think we can tackle and some things that are taboo. We need to break this down.

About four years ago Bristol set up a special subgroup of the Bristol Safeguarding Children’s Board to get an idea of the extent of the issues around FGM and what positive things they could do. They were shortlisted for a CIPR (press and media) award for their work. I know because my wife was involved. They did not win and I remember my wife saying how most of the people at the award night had never heard of FGM and when they realised what it was they did a horrified shuffle towards another group who were campaigning about something a little more palatable.

I really hope that my colleagues (not those who deal with FGM far too often) who were a little uncomfortable and uneasy felt that they were brave enough to take a little action in support of Fahma, her teacher Lisa Zimmermann and the organisation Integrate Bristol (which does so much more than FGM)… So, see you on the 27^th of JUNE then?

Power to the People

On a few occasions in my life I have been lucky enough to spend some one to one time with people who leave me speechless in awe. Tony Benn, Tim Brighouse, Robert Smith (Ok, I walked past him and said ‘Hi!’ and he smiled at me), Leonard Cohen and Sir Ken Robinson (That’s a band I’d pay to see). These little moments, no matter how fleeting, are burned into my memories.  I particularly remember picking up on a point Ken (I know him so well its first name terms) had raised in his talk:

I NEVER mention I am in education when at parties. NEVER… because the problem with this is everyone will tell you their ideas about what is wrong with education and how they can make it better.

This is so true. He said it was because we all have one thing in common – we have been through education and quite often the English education system. But, after this we go very separate ways.

My point in this blog is this. How much power should parents have over schools? It’s certainly a vote gainer and it ticks all the boxes of allowing tax payers to feel they have a say in their investment. It helps us believe we live in a democracy. BUT, how much impact does it have on a school on a day to day operational level? What should parents be allowed to change and what should be left to the school?

I say this for many reasons. Firstly, I have sat with many a colleague who works in schools in certain areas of the city who say, “You don’t know you are born! Your parents might tell you to your face how they feel; mine send a letter from their lawyer.” Others talk about how making decisions to run their schools have been blocked, changed or delayed because a very vocal minority have not wanted it to happen.

I read this last week in the Guardian:

Ed Miliband plans to give parents the power to call in a specialist team to raise standards in failing schools. Working independently of Ofsted, the experts would be able to draw up action plans to boost school performance, set up links with other academic institutions and replace head teachers.

Powerful stuff and in the present climate I imagine that many head’s would be sitting a little uncomfortably in their leather swivel chairs on reading this. BUT, I think the key point in this is ‘to raise standards’. As a parent I want my child to leave their school able to function, enjoy and make progress during the next stage of their education. I want their primary school to ensure they can. If they are not then I want to know I have places to go to be heard. I know as an educationist that Ofsted do this pretty well – especially the standards game. I also know that when I am personally unhappy the school has a complaints procedure and this has a system and process. But should I be able to change every little detail that I do not like? Or even the bigger ones?

I know that many who read this will be in education and class themselves as ‘professionals’ with pride. I eat, sleep and breathe my work, rather unhealthily at times. Therefore, I feel that I have a position of power and I should be able to exercise that right, even when it is unpopular with others – if I think it will impact upon the school I was employed to run. Herein lies the crisis point – POWER – we just do not like people who have this. I am enraged at the blatant injustice around banking and feel I could do a better job than 95% of politicians. But I am not a banker or a politician. If I want to impact there then I need to make a drastic career change. I am an ‘armchair’ banker and politician. This is not that different from parents. As a parent almost nothing I do or know as a teacher or head teacher makes any difference to my family life. Schooling (running an education establishment) is nothing like being a parent. Parenting is loaded because we can not help but impart our own ‘personal’ values upon who we want our children to become. I feel that as a parent my precious ‘two’ come before all others and I make decisions – selfish decisions – based on this. This is usually the greatest challenge a parent governor faces. This is where life gets complex for schools. Make a decision that 10 or 20 parents feel ‘personally’ about and you have a new school development plan because you will find the whole school ethos, direction and strategy being sucked into what will always be emotional and personal. If you have other issues in your school you suddenly have a big problem.

I know as a head that my parent community are part of my school. I have watched their children grow (Over 7 years) and go from nursery to teenagers. I am deeply proud of that and them. My school is a very special community and believe it or not their support over the years has been deeply moving at times. I have made many decisions that I believe was right for the school – some have worked and some have not. I have been subject to Facebook rants, told “I hope you choke on your dinner”,spat at and most commonly seen as being belligerent when standing my ground. All over decisions based on doing what I believed was best for the children in the school – Why would I do any different?

But, I found out recently, that when it comes down to ‘personal beliefs’ there is little that can be done. And today this will very quickly go around every media possible. It is then amazing how targeted and personal it becomes. People can be very mean… libelous even. I see why we teach children about being safe and respectful on line. It is a shame a whole generation missed out on this. One of my favorite moments with a parent at my school was, when I was still very green around the gills, a mum storming into my office and staring me out… She then pointed at my face and said,

“You know the problem with men and power?”

“…No?”

“Small dicks!”

She then calmly turned away and walked out. I am just pleased she did it face to face rather than on Facebook.

What I Learnt This Week from Judgeless Observations

I have had a week in which I feel rather bruised and battered because I decided to stand up for something I felt strongly about in the wrong forum (Everyone felt differently to me) and about something that gets passions rising – school uniform. Sometimes, I wish I did not go with my instincts. That has not been the case with judgeless lesson observations though. The nicest thing ever said about me in a 360 was, “Brian (Yep – being open and honest after being ‘outed’ this week) has never forgotten what it is like to be in the classroom – as a child or a teacher.” I love the person who wrote that! I think it is something that sticks with me and it was with this in mind that I went into lessons this week.

Following the in vogue format I started lesson observations this week purposely avoiding the judgement grade. In fact, it was far more than this. I purposely avoided the now accepted way of doing a lesson observation. I did none of the following:

Look in books to see either progress, marking or challenge.

Talk to children about learning intentions or targets.

Look for a WALHT.

Look at planning.

Focus on PP children, or children with concerning APP data.

And it was the most refreshing time I have had in the classroom for years.

This is what I did do.

Make each visit as focussed upon the teachers Performance Management as possible.

Look for the positives.

Look at the challenges the teacher and children faced in the lesson. For example, questioning in a reception class where pace could be killed because of so many questions (due to the fact that the teacher had such an exciting and inspired idea) that it is almost impossible for the teacher NOT to respond to them – worse still challenging ideas (“Men cannot have a cream bag”) without just telling them.

Have open and honest conversations about what I saw, heard and observed based on trying to give GOOD advice. This was based on another great challenging conversation with my deputy who basically said – if you give them nothing then what is the point in doing the lesson observation?

Try to be a LEARNER again. I had an epiphany in lesson two. Recorders, I just sat there and thought lets be in the lesson and see what I CAN learn. Firstly, the children were amazing. They were offering all sorts of advice before I started. Hold it like this, make sure you fully cover the holes, A is like this etc. I then hit the difficultly of keeping up because the others had already had three lessons from a brilliant teacher who really knew her stuff. I was left behind so I reverted back to my 7 year old self and began to play the class clown, making children laugh playing imaginary jazz recorder. One withering look from the teacher, I was meant to be observing, refocused me. As the lesson went on I felt great with each little success – a clean note, keeping in time and remembering some pretty complex routines. At the end of the lesson we were doing mini compositions and I felt excited that I could do it but also proud for the children in class. It was like we belonged because we were in it together.

I left the lesson thinking THAT’s IT! For next year’s performance management targets everyone should have to learn a NEW instrument. BE a learner and our staff meetings should be based on sharing our experiences. Then everyone should have to perform to the children and talk about what they learnt and had to overcome. By NOT doing the classic Ofsted lesson observation I had left the lesson with a little more insight and a much better understanding of learning.

Finally I observed a P4C (Philosophy for Children) lesson with a reflective and brilliant teacher doing it for the first time. We have talked a lot about P4C and if this had been a typical grading lesson I think they would have not been as open in their teaching. It felt much more real than typical observed lessons, much more honest – by that I mean it went where it took us rather than the teacher taking it where they think the observer wants it to go. With this teacher (the only one who has left me emotional after a lesson – for good reasons) being able to feel the judgement was not about set criteria, but far more about developing her craft, seemed liberating. We spoke via email after and they came up with suggestions for next time and how they could involve the quieter children and develop the session.

So what have I learnt?

My teachers are suddenly much more impressive because I am not narrowing the criteria for what a lesson looks like. I am not seeing them as grades I am seeing them as professionals.

I am thinking about lessons and learning differently because I am not looking at the bleeding obvious, (books, marking, targets and planning).

The discussion afterwards is not a “Am I safe? Did I get through? Only good?” type conversation but a LEARNING one – in which we talk about the future and how we develop our practice. That’s not to say those conversations did not exist before but now they seem less of a problem to have because they do not upgrade or degrade the teacher.

It is very early days and I still believe in aspects of the rigorous observation (but they are much easier to separate from the in class observation) but I do feel that I have learnt something very valuable this week about how to take the art of lesson observations forward.