LEAD ARTICLE: “Mind the Gap – Learning from Good Practice” by NAPCE Secretary Jill Robson
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Mind the Gap- Learning from Good Practice by Jill Robson
As I sit down to write this article the country is just about recovering from the constant bombardment in the media about the July general election.
One of the reoccurring themes has been the promise of levelling up, whether about the North/South divide or the widening gap between rich and poor.
The Labour Party’s manifesto caused great consternation in many quarters with the policy to make private schools pay VAT, affecting the 7% of the school population who are privately educated.
There have always been discussions about the advantages of a private education and recently the BBC in collaboration with the Open University, produced a series of programme’s called “The State We’re In” where writer and rapper Darren McGarvey looked at various aspects of life in Britain today.
In the one on education, he set out to understand why the privately educated dominate Britain’s top jobs.
He started off by stating that the attainment gap between the rich and the poor has barely altered in the last twelve years. During the programme he visited a variety of successful educational provision.
His first experience was visiting Gordonstoun School in Scotland as he tried to find what it is that sets the children, who are educated privately, apart from those in the state system.
He found that what is being taught in the classroom is the least important aspect of life at the school where the facilities include an onsite theatre, superb sporting facilities including a climbing wall and 50 acres of grounds giving an extensive programme of extra-curricular activities.
His conclusion from his visit is that all the staff from the school are fixed on giving the students every opportunity to succeed.
He describes it as a priority pass to whatever career they choose. He then looked at state schools where the other 93 per cent of children are educated. He visited a school in Wales, where despite the picturesque surroundings many children are living in poverty and where the school runs its own food bank and supplies pre-loved school uniforms.
In addition, the school runs an excellent safe haven centre providing mental health support to the children.
The next visit was to Finland, a country which usually ranks highly on the PISA tables. He was shown around by a very confident 11-year-old who explained that the school doesn’t have uniforms, they stay with the same group of children and teacher until they are 16 and call them by their first name. All school meals are free as is all school equipment.
Teachers also have complete freedom to teach what they choose rather than have to adhere to a set programme of study.
There are no performance tables and teachers are respected by the children, parents and society.
Finland has made a determined effort to remove the barriers to inequality and wants to be an equal society as that will benefit everyone.
McGarvey then moved on to look at early years learning and discovered that poorer children are four months behind, before they even start school and that bridging the attainment gap needs to start even before the child gets into the classroom.
He visited a family hub in Yorkshire where a First Friends group focusses on the crucial attachment with babies and mothers as well as providing emotional and practical support to families.
After this he moved to his home country of Scotland, to a primary school in an area that has the highest level of deprivation in the country. Here all activities are based on play, both explorative and guided, with an emphasis on collaborative work.
The transition from nursery is eased by play which the headteacher maintained, captures intelligence in a different way.
His final visit was to a state secondary school where there is a focus on outdoor and compassionate learning. The XP academy was set up by two teachers who wanted the focus on empowerment of students, equity and kindness.
Each morning starts in registration groups, reviewing the previous week and praising fellow students. McGarvey is shown around by two students and comments that they “are every bit as confident as their private school counterparts” they explained that the school works on an expedition basis, rather than subject based learning.
There is a focus on outcomes in terms of preparation for life and on developing kindness. The two founders explain that there is research on the correlation between kindness and academic ability and that kindness equates to higher academic achievement.
McGarvey comments that there are lots of parallels between XP academy and Gordonstoun. They acknowledge that Kurt Hahn the founder of Gordonstoun was also the founder of Outward Bound which like XP is all about equity.
James Timpson, the owner of the Timpson’s shoe repair company gave a “Ted Talk” where he outlined his business philosophy, which is based on trust and kindness.
His view is that the more people are trusted, the happier they are, which makes them better colleagues. Kindness is about caring for colleagues and he instils that kindness by ensuring that that leaders know and understand their colleagues.
He conducts a questionnaire each year asking “How happy are you with your boss” on a scale of 1-10 with many of his managers getting a 100% score. He states that the happier his workforce is, the more productive they are and the more money the company makes.
Looking back to the Finnish education system, Children don’t start school until they are seven, there are free/ subsidised nursery places, every child gets free school meals up until 16, teaching is a valued profession and paid as such and university is free.
There are no private schools so it is in everyone’s interest to ensure that all schools are good.
Recently I have been busy reading and judging the submissions for the NAPCE pastoral care awards, as ever there are some brilliant nominations of teachers, schools and education personnel which shows that there is excellent practice in so many schools in the UK.
However, we need the country as a whole to recognise this good practice and to ensure that the opportunity for it to be shared and disseminated is provided and perhaps most importantly the funding for this process is available.
In his summing up of the state of British education Darren McGarvey remarks that schools need to be compassionate places, addressing social, emotional and academic needs and that our education system needs to implement radical and innovative techniques.
He states that “in every other area of life when we find a better way of doing things, particularly in commerce, we immediately implement it. I would like to see that innovative spirit implemented in the education system”.
Hopefully our new Government will take up the challenge of the task of levelling up and we will see some real progress in narrowing the attainment gap between children from rich and poor backgrounds.
Jill Robson
NAPCE General Secretary |
