End of summer term reflections

 

June, traditionally the time of an all day school trip if not a residential usually involving some broadly speaking educational objectives so they will be a field trip with things to find and worksheets to work though either individually in in twos.

I did surprisingly given my autism manage a conversation face to face for the best part of three quarters of an hour with a woman I'd never met before while out shopping whose youngest child goes the local Primary School and others are at a nearby girls school and University  where the topic of Residentials came up in the context of the digitalization of school communication as in a school specific app post the was a rolling list about the week long residential that wasn't structured with requirements such as clothing clearly separated and annoying no paper check list was made available  which is often the most efficient way of ensuring cases are properly packed ticking off as you go along.

Even getting the school to print *anything* off  given many people don't have printers not least those who tend to use smartphones proved a battle of wills.

Then there was the matter of being late in sending any notification of their leaving and an update given the motorway issues that plague this area.

Not everybody uses the internet well - many grandparents who look after school age children when parents are at work  do struggle - and yet everything goes through this with no use of importance to highlight urgent stuff in a deluge across the day

That means things like Internet only Teacher/Parent introductions to that years work can get missed and in any event isn't better for parents to meet others and all to meet face to face the class teacher, Head and Deputy so everybody knows each other and if anyone has skills then offers to assist are more likely to be forthcoming than leaving many feeling marginalized.

It seems to me this digital only approach is rubbing schools of an actual real sense of community between it, parents and the wider community.

Education is for life

One common conception is that education is just for the young, endured for a brief period and then hung on the hat stand indefinitely but it need not be like that.

In some parts of the world substantial numbers of adults are lacking in numeracy and literacy skills often because in their own childhood educational provision was patchy or as soon as they were able to work any kind of learning stopped altogether because of their families situation.

In other instances they may not of studied the subject range  or depth many today feel is desirable to be knowledgeable.

Thus in some parts of the world it is not uncommon for adults to be taught in schools sometimes sharing in lessons, sometimes with classes just for them in school with them in effect becoming scholars again.

I can recall the bemusement of a friend who left school at the earliest possible opportunity with no academic qualifications looking back at her "that's all over with" emotions of the past as like a number of us she took her first examinations several years later.

She'd discovered learning never stops.

It also turned out that in some respects she also shared some of my more littles traits too! 

Grade F edition

This time is one some of us remember well, the anxiety, sleepness nights followed by that visit to school or phoning in the preinternet era as you wait to see how the exam grades you took in the late Spring and Summer  actually turned out.

They matter beyond just personal satisfaction as they factor into getting into work, going into the Sixth or a Sixth Form College and for for some University.

If 2020 has been a year like no other, children in the Fifth and Sixth were unable to take those exams as school shut on March 20th so you might of thought schools, examination bodies and the Dept For Education would of used that time to sort out how you might make "compensatory" awards based on the quality of work, any "mock exams" and practicals taken before.

Evidently not and not just here in England in SNP run Scotland, Labour led Wales and the DUP/SF Northern Ireland we've had essentially the same problems around trying in some way to moderate something that did not and could not be moderated resulting in many upto 40% of grades being reduced by eye watering amounts followed on different timescales by each government.

The palpable anger in England resulted in extraordinary scenes such as these children from Codsall Community College in South Staffordshire protesting outside the Education Minister's constituency headquarters in Codsall, just across the road and with good reason.

As a socially liberal conservative I felt it wasn't just a non starter but wholly unfair to attempt to judge a child's work by past results in exams that were not taken that featured others.

It would one thing to look at samples of graded work to see schools were grading roughly the same way for statistical consistency but to use a system that even when trailed by the exam regulator last year was known to produce gross errors is morally wrong.

In England that was reversed by Mid Monday afternoon but that still leaves the question about universities who've closed admittance who had children with provisional offers rejected on the basis of the flawed modified results left to sort out the mess to gain the place their efforts and abilities deserve.

Education progress.

This week the Church of England that apart from being an Established religion of Anglican Christianity here in the UK is a substantial provider of both primary and secondary education though its schools that are open to all, made a pronouncement around gender equality in a set of guidance issued to Heads and others running them.
In it it was clearly established that a culture of humiliation, intimidation and ridicule was not to be accepted within school for children with gender identity issues or  have differing forms of sexuality  from the mainstream was not going to be tolerated.
This covered staff but also from other children in the classroom.
In this the issue of childhood exploration of roles and identities through play such as dress up was addressed by saying a boy who wishes to wear a Tutu or a Girl who wishes to dress in attire associated with boys roles  would be accepted without anyone saying "Don't be silly, pick something else" or with any acceptance of the same from that childs peers.
Some in the UK media read that as saying ordinarily in a class a boy might wear a Tutu but this wasn't about uniform so much as play and exploration of roles through it.
What was made very plain is in so far as presenting as either non-binary or in a gender different to that assigned goes, this is to be accepted and a child would be permitted to wear school uniform from with the range that in their opinion best suits them as that child.
In other words uniform was to be upheld but in a form allowing expression of a child's gender identity. Something socially liberal but fairly traditional sorts like me would agree with and indeed would of willing engaged with had it been an option for us at that time in our childhood.
While I'm not an Anglican I find much within this I can agree with as we do not send children into school to be intimidated or humiliated for just being the gender and sexuality they truly are. 

Thoughts around learning

There's nothing quite so stereotypical British as national panics best talked over tea and a common one is around educational standards although it could be argued part of this reflects the debate around learning and retaining facts over looking things up and following a process.
My feelings are more that you do need a knowledge base so you know  8 x 8 is 64 and The Great Fire of London did take place in 1666 so you can both know off the bat if something is 'wrong' and work efficiently. It is hard to progress when you haven't mastered the basics as like a good number of dyslexic people I know only to well which was a reason I ended up resuming studying a while ago.

Much of this chart from a UK national newspaper is familiar in that what I was expected in my class when I was educated strongly aligned with that common during in the 1950's and following reforms, changed.  My feeling is what happened has been less is required to be known and over a longer period which shows up when international comparisons are made.
It's hard to believe that in that time children are less capable of learning even if we are more enlightened around the things that can making learning more harder for some and prepared to assist more.
It may be how we teach that needs to be addressed apart from having the kind of classroom I had when the teacher just walked in with the texts needed, you got up to greet them and from that point on you were expected to sit still and pay attention rather than dealing with messing about with cellphones and the like.

Segregated education

I'm not feeling that brilliant today to be honest but I felt like talking just a little around education policy today.
Education in the UK is something of a hodge podge between ownership (private, independent and local authority), structures (age ranges, selective or comprehensive admissions), specialisms (arts, IT, sport etc) and so on thanks to considerable parental choice and alternating national and local government ideologies support by pet theories.
One point of considerable and sometimes very bitter controversy is about how children with disabilities should be taught and with many things often their are agendas.
For a long period, certainly going back to the Victorian era in so much that education in general was considered back then if a child didn't fit in well with the school system then it either wasn't educated and maybe placed in some institution or send to a  'special school' such as schools for the blind to learn Braille and a skill.
Since 1945 a system of special schools was established in many authorities to cater for the needs of different groups of disabled people such as those with physical disabilities (70's no longer approved term Physically handicapped), what was then classed as Educational Subnormal (aka a 70's term 'mentally handicapped') and a loose category for what is termed emotional and behavioural needs that from the outset didn't exactly co-relate to prevailing definitions used by medical authorities and other arms of government.
In the 1970's increasingly the model of separate provision was questioned as for the most part the need for special schools for physical disabilities often had more to do   inaccessible buildings,  deliberate exclusion from any kind of pe never mind not in many instances being prepared and entered for regular national examinations in everyday school subjects.
Because you maybe lost a limbs function doesn't mean you lost your brain!
Equally it could be argued that differences in intelligence span are part of the human condition and that comprehensive intakes were supposed to take account of.
Not unsurprisingly the combination of opponents to special provision and those who often saw the budgets including the transportation budgets as money that could be better spent meant many schools were either shut down or had their categories for admission altered.
One area of considerable discussion is around the handling of children who exhibit behavioural and emotional difficulties as increasingly reports came out suggesting that the trend toward integration with such children in mainstream schools was causing difficulties when it came to holding efficient classes with incidents breaking out and high levels of support by classroom assistants for such children.
Recently the National Autistic Society has got involved in projects to establish 'free schools' specifically for those with Autism and Aspberger's syndrome one of which will be a few miles away from me in currently redundant 1970's Elementary school building where unlike schools in the 60's thru late 1980's children will follow a standard school curriculum but with a lot of work around understanding and relating to everyday social skills and structures.
It may be step away from total integration but if it helps to realize the gifts those with Autism/Aspberger's have and better enable them to use them in the so-called 'normal' world to everyone's advantage then maybe taking a step back from a theory can be step forward.