The police don’t do it but headteachers and politicians do. Whilst we all pound the beat on our respective patches, the real law enforcers discreetly keep their distance, striding purposefully on with an expression that conveys decisiveness. You never catch them asking everyone what their state of health is as they walk by.
Aloofness might be a characteristic to get some training on. Does it come only with helmet wearing and a chunky mobile or can anyone do it? In contrast, I go around enquiring how it’s going of everyone I meet. I’m programmed, like soap powder in a washing machine, to inject brightness. Even on the most miserable of days, bonhomie is me.
‘All well?’ I cheerily ask a senior colleague at the end of a particularly difficult week. I soon realise it was a mistake. For there are times when optimism, that essential characteristic in school leaders, can look like naivety, lack of awareness or even folly.
He’s thinking: ‘What’s the head got to be so cheerful about? He can’t know the half of what’s going on or he’d be having a nervous breakdown in his office.’ And I’m thinking: ‘The leadership manual tells me I must be relentlessly positive in the face of all adversity.’ So the smile stays fixed. The Captain of the Titanic would have been proud of me.
The teacher had just finished bus duty and all was far from well. A day of truanting and possible substance abuse from a couple of boys had led to unavoidable confrontation. It may have been the mood-enhancing quality of the substance, the start of the weekend, or perhaps the ‘broken society’ but the response from the students to a polite request was loud, personal and laced with sexual innuendo of an exotic variety. The other youngsters and some parents listening must have thought they were at the premiere of an adults only film.
I sigh in sympathy, switch off the smile and replace it with a determined expression that’s supposed to convey weighty assurance of firm action. I’m signalling that they won’t get away with it. Consequences will follow as surely as the school bells ring on the hour. Fixed term exclusion is my conclusion. But with it comes the time-consuming, energy-sapping paraphernalia of phone calls, letters, meetings and support plans. And any thought of a quick after-school getaway vanishes as the process has to be started straightaway.
Who’s being punished here, I wonder, as we wait for the first parent to answer. Will it be an abusive complaint that it’s our fault for letting him leave the site or an understanding apology? Once, on such an occasion, a parent told me he was on his way to sort me out, casually adding that he was bringing his gun. Fortunately, by the time I’d been coaxed out of the locked store cupboard where I’d taken up residence, my deputy had got through to the police to be told the gunman had handed himself in.
Calls made, I feel in control again. There may be horror stories now on the street of indiscipline and extraordinary rudeness at the secondary school, but I’m sticking with unremitting optimism. It’s a mantra to memorise, like those lines teachers used to set their pupils as punishment. And it’s Friday night, after all. So you won’t catch me kicking the wall or screaming in protest, though I might give the Jacuzzi at my local health club some stick later. And I may just practise an aloof smile, ready for the next crisis.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Humpty Dumpty
According to the psychologist, Dorothy Rowe, we’re now in a period when children are being listened to and their views taken into account. Apparently, it’s a by-product of the women’s movement. But, although society is changing, in schools pupil voice may struggle to drown out the discordant noises-off from teacher unions who want to press the mute button.
Pupils are accused of over-stepping the mark, sitting on selection panels, daring to express their views during appointments, and also commenting on what goes on in lessons. Pupil voice, we’re told, means young upstarts can even ask candidates what font they think they most resemble. Well, I’d pick forte. Some apparently even rejected a teacher for a post because they claimed he was like Humpy Dumpty.
This isn’t just an infringement of union rights: it’s an assault on the teacher-pupil relationship in which the adult knows better than the child and is always right. But wait. Substitute ‘men’ for ‘adult’ and ‘women’ for ‘child’ and you can see the tectonic plates shifting as Rowe suggests, leaving the Band of Brothers on the wrong side of the debate.
I first explored student voice when I asked my classes to try out experiments with language, recording and transcribing their responses. With the tape recorder to control them, they followed the protocols of speaking in turn and commenting on the text. Once the writing barrier was removed and techniques learned for spoken contributions, classes which I had imagined to be low in ability gained the capacity to surprise each other as well as me.
At South Dartmoor, we now have an expert Student Learning Forum, volunteers selected by interview, who are trained in classroom observational techniques, using Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power methodology to analyse and report, subject by subject. For example, they look at the learning environment. ‘Why no number lines in Maths rooms?’ they asked last year. Well, there are now and you can see the impact today as children look across the walls, counting from negative to positive numbers.
‘Who can enjoy hockey when the bibs we have to wear are dirty and smelly?’ they quizzed us. We’d never noticed but now the washing machines whir away to make sure it’s no longer an issue. ‘Can we have more student work on the walls, please?’ they request, making it clear to us that the environment really does matter to them. It’s an easy fix.
Our own push now is on assessment for learning. The principles have been explained to the Learning Forum and their latest comments are illuminating: ‘In subject X, we saw 60% of the students offering to answer questions. We think the proportion should be over 80%.’
There are comments about levels of engagement and responses by students to teacher strategies of pausing to allow reflection before requesting answers. The mysteries of how teaching works have been revealed like a David Blaine magic trick and the students marvel at how easy the skilled teacher makes their craft look.
It’s all voluntary, of course. Departments request these student-led observations because they help them to improve the learning. They commission reports for their subject SEFs- student views without the effort of processing questionnaires. And there is strictly no comment on the teaching- it’s all student-centred. Even so, I can hear the agonised cries of union dinosaurs, snarling in the swamp.
As for appointments, it was a no-brainer to use the Student Council and Sixth Form Councils as interview panels in their own right when my successor was appointed. It means he has widespread and popular endorsement. One candidate unwisely remarked that teaching would not be part of the head’s role if appointed. ‘Why not?’ asked the students. ‘It’s not important enough,’ came the reply. The candidate may not have been called Humpty Dumpty but certainly couldn’t be put back together again after a fall like that, even if forte had been the chosen font.
Ray Tarleton
Pupils are accused of over-stepping the mark, sitting on selection panels, daring to express their views during appointments, and also commenting on what goes on in lessons. Pupil voice, we’re told, means young upstarts can even ask candidates what font they think they most resemble. Well, I’d pick forte. Some apparently even rejected a teacher for a post because they claimed he was like Humpy Dumpty.
This isn’t just an infringement of union rights: it’s an assault on the teacher-pupil relationship in which the adult knows better than the child and is always right. But wait. Substitute ‘men’ for ‘adult’ and ‘women’ for ‘child’ and you can see the tectonic plates shifting as Rowe suggests, leaving the Band of Brothers on the wrong side of the debate.
I first explored student voice when I asked my classes to try out experiments with language, recording and transcribing their responses. With the tape recorder to control them, they followed the protocols of speaking in turn and commenting on the text. Once the writing barrier was removed and techniques learned for spoken contributions, classes which I had imagined to be low in ability gained the capacity to surprise each other as well as me.
At South Dartmoor, we now have an expert Student Learning Forum, volunteers selected by interview, who are trained in classroom observational techniques, using Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power methodology to analyse and report, subject by subject. For example, they look at the learning environment. ‘Why no number lines in Maths rooms?’ they asked last year. Well, there are now and you can see the impact today as children look across the walls, counting from negative to positive numbers.
‘Who can enjoy hockey when the bibs we have to wear are dirty and smelly?’ they quizzed us. We’d never noticed but now the washing machines whir away to make sure it’s no longer an issue. ‘Can we have more student work on the walls, please?’ they request, making it clear to us that the environment really does matter to them. It’s an easy fix.
Our own push now is on assessment for learning. The principles have been explained to the Learning Forum and their latest comments are illuminating: ‘In subject X, we saw 60% of the students offering to answer questions. We think the proportion should be over 80%.’
There are comments about levels of engagement and responses by students to teacher strategies of pausing to allow reflection before requesting answers. The mysteries of how teaching works have been revealed like a David Blaine magic trick and the students marvel at how easy the skilled teacher makes their craft look.
It’s all voluntary, of course. Departments request these student-led observations because they help them to improve the learning. They commission reports for their subject SEFs- student views without the effort of processing questionnaires. And there is strictly no comment on the teaching- it’s all student-centred. Even so, I can hear the agonised cries of union dinosaurs, snarling in the swamp.
As for appointments, it was a no-brainer to use the Student Council and Sixth Form Councils as interview panels in their own right when my successor was appointed. It means he has widespread and popular endorsement. One candidate unwisely remarked that teaching would not be part of the head’s role if appointed. ‘Why not?’ asked the students. ‘It’s not important enough,’ came the reply. The candidate may not have been called Humpty Dumpty but certainly couldn’t be put back together again after a fall like that, even if forte had been the chosen font.
Ray Tarleton
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Election Editorial
So, an invitation at last to join the Government of Great Britain. I thought they’d never ask. But this tricksy Tory attempt to get my vote reminds me of my feeble attempts in assembly to persuade the school that the Student Council are now part of the Leadership Team and have shares in the Governing Body.
‘You are the young leaders of the school and your voice will be heard in decisions we make,’ I proclaim in the Sports Hall, half believing my own rhetoric. It could be an election rally. Well, I know that it will look good in the SEF and be an OFSTED crowd pleaser. But, of course, the reality is that schools these days are so complex, even the heads barely understand them, never mind the governors. What chance does a bunch of well-meaning students, even if they are democratically elected, have to get their heads around curriculum, finance and buildings?
So the great Cameron Con (and that’s con as in ‘con’, not in ‘Conservative’) is to pretend that we can be partners in the Government of the Big Society. Their radical educational idea is an import, something from the European Union they can agree to. The Swedish model has been chosen because, we must assume, it’s the most successful educational system on the planet. Well, this is the country that gave us the music of the pop group, Abba, so perhaps the Tory theme tune should be: ‘Take a Chance on Me.’
The three parties are promising much that is similar in education. Test yourself. Who is offering pupil premiums to direct funding to the most disadvantaged schools? Definitely the Lib Dems who thought of it but now also Labour and probably the Tories as well. Who wants to create a form of national service for young people? It’s a great idea and hopefully will become a compulsory part of the curriculum but it’s Labour and Conservatives with likely Lib Dem support. Who is promising one- to-one tuition? Wasn’t that a Labour policy before the Lib Dems snatched it? Feel a coalition government coming on?
My SEF is as long as War and Peace. So the Conservative policy of reducing OFSTED’s brief from seventeen areas to four will appeal to every school, especially after the Alice in Wonderland adventures attempting to monitor safeguarding, happiness and even health.
But the free schools concept will have unexpected consequences. Parents and charitable groups have a strong record of establishing their own schools in this country. It’s not a new idea. It’s just that these schools have, until now, been outside the state system and funded privately. If they can be established through the state and without regulation, checks and controls, why would any parent continue to pay, for example, to send their child to a prep school? Why not start an alternative, using existing resources and get the state to pay for it? And the biggest irony is that the Tories, the Party of the free market, could be responsible for the decline of private education in this country. Now that’s something to cheer about.
The Labour Government has a proud record in education - as long as you’re not a graduate with a £20k debt to start your career. Results have improved dramatically, with practically half of all Year 11 students achieving the Government’s GCSE benchmark - a remarkable achievement and a tribute to teachers.
There is now an educational community of schools sharing ideas, curriculum practice and even leadership. Academies, Trusts and Federations have blossomed, based on British educational research and rooted in what works rather than what has been stolen from the shelf in a Swedish store. And the budgets for bowls to catch water from leaky roofs- high spending areas during the last Conservative Government- now register zero.
In a three party race, this time it looks as if Abba’s other hit lyric, ‘The Winner Takes it All’, might be a thing of the past where politics is concerned. We may find ourselves, after a long night on May 6, with both a parliament hung over and a personal hangover. That would get my vote.
Ray Tarleton - this editorial also appeared on page 6 of the May 6th edition of SecEd digital: http://bit.ly/9Cks8W
‘You are the young leaders of the school and your voice will be heard in decisions we make,’ I proclaim in the Sports Hall, half believing my own rhetoric. It could be an election rally. Well, I know that it will look good in the SEF and be an OFSTED crowd pleaser. But, of course, the reality is that schools these days are so complex, even the heads barely understand them, never mind the governors. What chance does a bunch of well-meaning students, even if they are democratically elected, have to get their heads around curriculum, finance and buildings?
So the great Cameron Con (and that’s con as in ‘con’, not in ‘Conservative’) is to pretend that we can be partners in the Government of the Big Society. Their radical educational idea is an import, something from the European Union they can agree to. The Swedish model has been chosen because, we must assume, it’s the most successful educational system on the planet. Well, this is the country that gave us the music of the pop group, Abba, so perhaps the Tory theme tune should be: ‘Take a Chance on Me.’
The three parties are promising much that is similar in education. Test yourself. Who is offering pupil premiums to direct funding to the most disadvantaged schools? Definitely the Lib Dems who thought of it but now also Labour and probably the Tories as well. Who wants to create a form of national service for young people? It’s a great idea and hopefully will become a compulsory part of the curriculum but it’s Labour and Conservatives with likely Lib Dem support. Who is promising one- to-one tuition? Wasn’t that a Labour policy before the Lib Dems snatched it? Feel a coalition government coming on?
My SEF is as long as War and Peace. So the Conservative policy of reducing OFSTED’s brief from seventeen areas to four will appeal to every school, especially after the Alice in Wonderland adventures attempting to monitor safeguarding, happiness and even health.
But the free schools concept will have unexpected consequences. Parents and charitable groups have a strong record of establishing their own schools in this country. It’s not a new idea. It’s just that these schools have, until now, been outside the state system and funded privately. If they can be established through the state and without regulation, checks and controls, why would any parent continue to pay, for example, to send their child to a prep school? Why not start an alternative, using existing resources and get the state to pay for it? And the biggest irony is that the Tories, the Party of the free market, could be responsible for the decline of private education in this country. Now that’s something to cheer about.
The Labour Government has a proud record in education - as long as you’re not a graduate with a £20k debt to start your career. Results have improved dramatically, with practically half of all Year 11 students achieving the Government’s GCSE benchmark - a remarkable achievement and a tribute to teachers.
There is now an educational community of schools sharing ideas, curriculum practice and even leadership. Academies, Trusts and Federations have blossomed, based on British educational research and rooted in what works rather than what has been stolen from the shelf in a Swedish store. And the budgets for bowls to catch water from leaky roofs- high spending areas during the last Conservative Government- now register zero.
In a three party race, this time it looks as if Abba’s other hit lyric, ‘The Winner Takes it All’, might be a thing of the past where politics is concerned. We may find ourselves, after a long night on May 6, with both a parliament hung over and a personal hangover. That would get my vote.
Ray Tarleton - this editorial also appeared on page 6 of the May 6th edition of SecEd digital: http://bit.ly/9Cks8W
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
