Ofsted Cheer
Ofsted Cheer
Ofsted Cheer
My East Anglian Daily Times column:
One of the best bits of my job is that I’m surrounded by optimism.
If your only experience of young people is the way they are portrayed on Waterloo Road, in EastEnders or staggering through any British market town late in a Friday night, then you may be tempted to swallow the lazy tabloid rhetoric that all our youngsters do is spend their lives moaning, clattering out Facebook messages, taking drugs, or sneering at authority figures.
In fact, as the classical philosopher Socrates is supposed to have said, it’s always seemed like this:
“Young people have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannise their teachers.”
There’s a bit of a pattern here.
Older people have always criticised younger people, just as those of us who write occasional newspaper columns can find it easy to snipe at authority from the sidelines.
So since this is Advent – the season in the Christian calendar which most exemplifies hope – I’m going to avoid another column putting the boot into Government policy or lambasting Ofsted’s double-standards.
After all, it’s the season of goodwill and there are mince pies awaiting my attention.
Take last week, when the head of Ofsted delivered his annual report – a kind of state-of-the-nation verdict on England’s schools.
Regular readers will know that I haven’t always been a big fan of Sir Michael Wilshaw. From where I sit, it has sometimes felt as if he is too quick to chase headlines and to fire off a volley of media-pleasing soundbites which do little to help those of us working in schools.
The worst of these was his bald assertion that state schools never stretch most able students. Now I agree that there’s more that all of us could do – including in academies and independent schools.
But as a comprehensive school that has seen fifteen students gain Oxbridge places in the past three years and where sixteen more have gained interviews in the past three weeks, I really have to dispute the idea that we in the state sector are all complacent saps.
Yet in his annual report last week, and his subsequent comments, Sir Michael said a couple of things that I wholeheartedly agree with. First, he dismissed the idea of selection by ability aged eleven.
He reminded us that the track-record of grammar schools in helping children from poor backgrounds to do well through education is pretty woeful.
Many people don’t like to hear this, but today’s grammar schools are rarely engines of social mobility. All credit therefore to this Michael and to Education Secretary Michael Gove for not slavishly following the emotional stampede to suggesting that selecting choosing via a test at eleven is anything other than a cap on achievement for many young people.
And well done too to Ofsted’s chief for reminding us – if we needed reminding – about how important to good schools positive behaviour is.
My hunch is that behaviour in most schools is far better than many people on the outside might realise. But the biggest block on really good behaviour is too often – (at this point I reach for a flak-jacket) – parents who make excuses or don’t support a school’s disciplinary procedures.
Because in an age where social media, fashion and the media encourage young people to express themselves more vocally and from an earlier age, setting them clear boundaries of right and wrong has never been more important.
Real education has to be a partnership between student, parents and school. That’s why it’s not just the school which needs firm and clear expectations of behaviour, rewards and sanctions. It’s what every young person needs at home too.
Sir Michael reminded us that without it few children will ever flourish.
His report should help those of us in schools to work closely with parents to ensure that good behaviour happens in practice, at home and school.
That’s definitely a cause for optimism.
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Sixth Form Festive Joke:
What operating system do Advent calendars use? Windows 24.
Geoff Barton
Published 18 December, 2013
Wednesday, 18 December 2013