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Yes, we can! Why we need to develop the can-do spirit in our schools Jeremy Sutcliffe Click here for a print version of this article. Are our young people becoming more like American high school kids and, if so, isn’t that a good thing? There has been much debate in the national media recently about the negative side of childhood and growing up, and it is easy to conclude that both education and the state of modern parenthood are in crisis. But while commentators pontificate about “toxic” childhood and politicians look for quick fixes to mend our “broken” society, schools are quietly getting on with what they do best: adapting to changing times and helping their pupils to reach their full potential. Earlier this month, I spent a day at Sawston Village College, a community comprehensive for 11 to 16 year-olds in Cambridgeshire. The school was hosting an event by the National Education Trust, under the theme of ‘Dare to be Different.’ The programme included a presentation by Jacqueline Laver, headteacher of Priory Primary School, Slough who, with the assistance of her deputy, Sue Webb, explained why she had torn up the traditional school curriculum and introduced termly themed lessons based around a famous work of art. Her concern was to move away from a highly formalised curriculum in which children had become ‘SATs robots’ and to try to engage them through creative learning. During the course of the summer term last year, for example, the children studied Edvard Munch’s harrowing painting, The Scream. Their studies went far beyond the world of art, covering the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis in history lessons, the issue of prejudice in citizenship and Judaism in RE. According to Laver, the impact on children’s self-confidence and on overall achievement has been enormous. The Priory School’s curriculum has been widely recognised, with Ofsted rating it as outstanding, and it is now one of 30 National Schools of Creativity. But what perhaps stands out most of all is the way this themed approach raises children’s awareness about the importance of values. This was also true of an outstanding Year 9 history lesson I witnessed during my Sawston visit. The history teacher enthralled his pupils by getting some of them to play the roles of two families, one British, the other German, growing up in the 1930s. He then used the role-play to engage the class in a debate about the origins of the Second World War. The lesson brilliantly captured the mood of the period and pointed to the historical consequences for a society - in pre-war Germany - that was truly broken. I was then privileged to attend a workshop on pupil leadership in which members of the Sawston Village College Pupil Forum demonstrated that our own society (at least as evidenced by young people, if not necessarily our politicians) is in rude health. The pupils gave a series of presentations explaining how their innovative pupil forum worked and how it contributed to the school’s development and values. The forum is made up of an Executive which is fed by three separate forums, Ethos, Learning and Environment, which have a total of 105 members elected annually by the pupils. Each forum plays an active part in running the school. The Environment Forum is currently working on projects to build a wind turbine, implement a recycling system and introduce improvements to indoor and outdoor spaces at the college. The Ethos Forum focuses on fundraising, school rules and policies, including anti-bullying strategies, and has established its own peer mentoring programme. The Learning Forum is perhaps the most radical feature. It actively involves pupils in strategies to improve learning and teaching and makes recommendations on issues ranging from ICT use to cover lessons. Pupil involvement goes well beyond carrying out questionnaires and includes lesson observation and giving presentations at staff meetings. If some of these areas are controversial there is no doubt about the positive effect on Sawston’s forum members, who displayed an impressive range of communication and leadership skills in their presentations while their engagement in school and community life was clear for all to see. These are exactly the kind of positive qualities and skills that are making the use of pupil voice increasingly accepted in schools. Last year, The Times Educational Supplement carried out a survey which found that three-quarters of the teaching profession now favour involving pupils in drawing up teaching and learning policies. Mick Waters, who until last month was director of curriculum at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority, has also stressed the importance of developing vital ‘soft skills’ in teenagers so that they can show they have more to offer when they leave school than a string of GCSE and A-level grades. Waters is now part-time chairman of 360° People, a new company which has developed a programme designed to help young people aged 14 to 19 to become self-confident individuals and responsible citizens. The programme, which is due to start in September after trials in a number of schools during the summer term, enables pupils to assess themselves against a set of desirable characteristics. The aim is to encourage them to take responsibility, become flexible and positive thinkers, recognise their own strengths and work on areas of weakness. ‘We need to empower young people to respect themselves and their society. They want and need to take responsibility for their actions and to feel they can make a difference to their own lives,’ Waters argues. Encouraging pupils to take responsibility for their own learning and development in this way is a far cry from the traditional approach to schooling in Britain. But if we are ever to break out of the old habits of passive learning (and encouraging pupils to become SATs robots certainly does not help) then we need more of this. We need to develop the spirit of enquiry and positive thinking that is common in American culture. We can and we must. Jeremy Sutcliffe is a former associate editor of The Times Educational Supplement. jeremy@jsmediaservices.co.uk Useful links: www.nationaleducationtrust.net www.sawstonvc.org www.360people.uk.com |
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