The Great Education Debate
I have tried to keep out of the great grammar school education debate, but I thought I would pose the musings of a head teacher and friend of mine, which I think shows that we can strive for excellence and rigour in education without necessarily going forward with a huge upheaval of schools…this is what he has written. I think you’ll like it.
We want a non-selective school with the best features of a grammar school education. This entails simplicity. Not trying to be everything to everybody and the answer to all society’s ills, just a first rate, high standard of secondary school that knows what it stands for.
Simple rules
Sit down, shut up and get on in lessons. Treat everyone in the community with respect. Adults have earned the right to issue instructions without question. Children walk in at 11 years old and gradually assume the mantle of adult responsibility as they go through to sixth form. Childhood has much to recommend it. I want our children to grow under the guidance of talented, caring adults in a profession that commands respect. We have a very good team of teachers here. They deliver decent lessons. Even so from time to time learning entails hard, silent and even boring slog. That is life and we aren’t here just to entertain.
A simple relationship with home.
Bring your children up to respect what we stand for and we will teach them. The three rules should have been taught a long time ago at home. Youngsters who cannot behave in a classroom should not be there. It damages everyone and stops us moving forward. Those who simply can’t cope need a different kind of service in school, but not at the expense of other youngsters and never in lessons.
Simple approach to results.
Good teachers get good results while weaker ones do not. If you want acknowledgement as a good teacher; deliver. It is never the fault of a class of kids if they fail, nor that of the syllabus, subject or sheer dumb luck. They are well brought up, well managed and capable of the highest standards. If they do not meet them it is the teaching. We can all get better at what we do and often need help, but we can never hide from the moral imperative that results are a large part of how we change lives. If our performance is not right we must deal with it and get them right next time.
Pride
Students shouldn’t dislike school. They should feel a real sense of belonging to something special they understand, buy into and approve of. They want clear relationships with firm sanctions that are consistently applied because they need the boundaries to test themselves against as they grow up. They enjoy telling other students that they go to a school where the bar is set so much higher.
So far….
Our reputation has soared because we are saying publicly what people have wanted to hear. The support for firm immediate action over small-scale indiscipline received huge support. Brighter kids love coming to school. The more typical young person is able to get on because they are not led into bother by distraction. They make the mistakes kids make and accept it when they are pulled up. Even those who struggle find it easier to behave because the ethos is calmer. Teachers love working under this system. The atmosphere around school in lessons is very calm, informal and pleasant. Just like a grammar school.
The obstacles
Heads can’t be heads any more. Schools are asked to be everything to everyone. I believe a headteacher should be a strong personal force and lead firmly from the front. It is difficult and now all quarters consider it undesirable. The powers that be now laugh at the ‘hero head’ and advocate amorphous faceless teams, because the job is too big and they can’t attract candidates. It is too big because we have to do too much that is not about running a first class school. I am in school from 7.15am to 6.15pm at least, every day and work holidays, yet still struggle to get out of the office, mix with the kids and support staff. The advice from government is to work less hours but still the nonsense arrives on my desk. Surely my instructions should be as simple as those we use here; deliver the best possible school to your community. I don’t want to work less hours. I love what we are doing here so much. I want to spend it on the things people really care about. Those things that can turn a school like this into the best non-selective grammar school.
Phi. said on June 5th, 2007 at 2:16 pm:
I find this subject vast and agree and disagree all along the way, he is right, school is a place for education to be achieved it should not be disrupted for the children with the ability to keep up by other children that haven’t and their reasons for this should be dealt with out of valuable lesson time. Poor teachers (the genuine ones) not only (as seen also this week as a topic relevant to male applications for jobs that involve working with children,) do they have to be so careful with political correctness that it may affect their teaching skills and also other problems they may encounter trying to discipline behaviour in the class room I dread to think of some of the confrontations that can arise by doing this with the parents who do not acknowledge they have a responsibility to maintain this discipline.
My disagreement here is that it has only been made relevant to behavioural problems, I think there needs to be better provisions made for the non fluent in english children to have extra curricular time in or out of the school evironment too because I know for a fact that can also be hugely disruptive. Late in my childrens primary school years one of their favourite and lovely teachers married in to my social circle and left work, she informed me at an occasion after this that she felt dissapointed with her career and the little time she had to generally concentrate on the general learning in her class room as she was obliged (equal rights) to spend more of her time helping the children with difficulties (behaviour and language)
than she had left for the capable children in her class.
I am a home schooling parent with two children achieving so much formally and also the general skills they aquire informally when they have been taught to desire to know more and I am very proud of them, there is no official or financial support for this and it does in fact get frowned upon by many in the authorities despite the fact that I chose to take them out of school legally with their best interests at heart and I am convinced by their manners and social skills that even despite what they are achieving with their formal qualifications to date that they are better children for it. This does not mean that I would not have preferred for them to go to school but unable to fund schooling that might have been to a higher standard of learning my choices left me with little faith that they would achieve well and not have been mislead by now.
Could continue forever but to much to do!
bill said on June 5th, 2007 at 7:29 pm:
Despite your comma in the second line of your post, I believe the word “which” is meant to refer to “musings” which as you know is plural so instead of “shows” it should read “show”.
Alan Douglas said on June 5th, 2007 at 9:40 pm:
In order to advance the argument about selection by ability, or streaming, I think a simple experiement should be done.
Take one single bright pupil, and put him/her in a rowdy class. Carefully note if the bright pupil’s presence raises or lowers the overall achievement levels.
Then take one disruptive pupil, and place him/her in a high ability and studious class. Carefully note if this pupil’s presence raises or lowers the overall achievement levels.
From my own distant schooldays, I think I can predict the results.
Then tell David Cameron.
Alan Douglas
Phi. said on June 6th, 2007 at 4:10 pm:
Just in case Bill’s watching any of my comments, please be tolerant when marking them as I’m always in a hurry, especially the ’s’ instead of ‘z’!
Didn’t they used to take all the disruptive kids and put them in one centre, mind you it’s been left to late they may aswell just turn the schools in to centres for disruptive kids and start again!
Phi. said on June 6th, 2007 at 4:11 pm:
sorry Bill ‘too’.