Is always a government focus during elections, with each new education secretary wanting to make their marks. Unfortunately all the marks that have been made are not particularly favourable.
The exam reforms for example – which ones ? Well any of them, they all leave teachers with increased workload, lack of comparability (so a B in 2006 is not the same as B in 2018? What about a grade 5/6) – confused? Yes I imagine – so are employers.
Not to mention the stakeholders no sorry service users I mean pupils or is it students ? Actually they are kids wading through their school lives with constant pressure and change.
Let us look at something which is essentially brilliant – Assessment for Learning (AFL) It isn’t a new buzz word having been evident in schools for at least the length of my career which is getting on to 18 years. It yes, helps students reflect on their own and others work, improving standards All good, but when a child constantly is being given improvements some will take that as I’m never good enough, it’s never finished. As adults we know that is the case – we can always improve but sometimes a simple ‘ well done that was awesome’ is what the child needs to hear. As opposed to ‘well done – that was awesome but. Every once in a while we need to just praise. In an assessment following live learning for the duration of the third lockdown some of my feedback was simply ‘ carry on with your amazing attitude to learning’. Obviously not all the time, we need to push and AFL is a brilliant tool but it must have an holistic approach. An approach that considers the individual child and their current mood and circumstance.
Another thing that has become commonplace is afl and the purple pen or whatever colour is used. My previous school wanted writing in black, peer assessment on red, purple to show improvement , teacher comment in green followed by a final purple comment. (Not forgetting pencil to underline, diagrams etc) This in theory did work to some extent but it is a lot easier to stick to three colours and consider the subject. As a performing arts teacher too much time was wasted showing we had done a ‘do it now’ quiz or ‘feedback’ and making sure that the colours were evidenced than actually focusing on the work. It should not be expected every week in a practical subject in which students only see the teacher an hour a week. This massively impacted on the actual skills they needed at Ks4 as up to 50% of every lesson was spent making sure the colours were there. This is counter productive.
Exams – constantly our statistics are compared to those in Asian countries. In which the suicide for teenagers is high. A minister said in an interview which I watched but cannot find for reference ‘this helps streamline and remove those who cannot cope with the pressure’ is that what we really want? Children studying from an early age for hours both in school and before and after. It does not work – why? Because we are not China or Korea, we have a totally different culture. Therefore we should look closer to home and luckily the very best education system is next door it’s Finland. Where a holistic approach has been taken. They realised sitting young children at desks aged four to complete assessments was not that useful. In fact they realised that boys in general develop the fine motor skills later than girls with it taking up to them turning seven. The very skills needed to even hold a pen. So by the time a boy reaches the rip old age of seven he will have been subjected to interventions and extra help to get him to do something his body isn’t physically developed enough for. Could this also add to the boys under performing in comparison to girls?
Comparison another thing that pickles my noodle – my own daughter is always comparing herself unfavourably to her peers, she isn’t as good at… she isn’t as clever as.. she’s falling behind? My response is why who are you racing ? This is a very personal journal one that is completely different to every other child especially siblings and parents. There is no race or winning. There is attitude to learning, trying your best, improving you. We need to deconstruct so much of what education has become and rebuild with an holistic outlook. Schools should be measured in more than numbers and exam grades.
Teacher retention is a big problem (one I will be studying in depth for the next year after already researching for six months) perhaps teacher retention should be studied? A child will perform better with consistency and it is not a purple pen that impacts a child it is a consistent staff body. Yes new staff come and others leave but if it’s a whole new set of teachers every year then again students are unbalanced, consistency is lost.
Einstein said ‘if you ask a fish to climb a tree it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid’ isn’t that the same as valuing English over French or History over Music- surely we should provide a balanced curriculum where everyone excels in something. There is a fantastic you tube recording called ‘ sued the school system’ I urge you to check it out.
Ultimately it is an absolute privilege to teach, despite the way the media and some people like to teacher bash, it is hard work and although not terrible pay not reflective of the hours a dedicated teacher will put in. We deserve to give these kids the absolute best of us. Every child will leave school remembering how a teacher made them feel, even if they forget that lesson that took three hours to plan and fell on its arse because of Jonny having a new fidget toy or the fact it’s snowing.
So on Thursday when the GCSE results come in and the press say all kinds of things remember that. We have had a pandemic and these kids have been the worst affected. That schools did not close and teachers continued to teach. That exams were not cancelled but put back on teachers and schools. Exams were sat and teachers marked them, departments moderated them, school leaders oversaw them. If the kids have done well that is because of the dedication of teachers and the resilience and awesomeness of the current year 11. That kids sat maybe 60 exams to ensure the teachers had enough data and evidence of a grade. That the exams were double marked and moderated, that the data input to then repeat the process with a different paper. Teachers have worked tirelessly during the pandemic like they always do.
Let’s celebrate Education instead of it being a political ping pong ball. Let’s appreciate the work of teachers and let us not forget that these kids on the whole are bloody amazing.
If you like this post you may also like a poem I wrote for my tutor group/ kids called ‘preachkid’ if you go to the home page and then look on the menu.
One piece of advice I can give to new teachers (there is a post just for you) but remember whatever you do the kids will remember how you made them feel. Show them you care.
Update: EXAM DAY whoop my 16 year old got amazing results her progress is nothing short of a vertical climb. Her friends did well also. A- Levels here she comes
Kelly Isaac 