A FORTHCOMING General Election has produced some eye-catching suggestions as to how education will look at the end of 2010.
Perhaps we can blame Ken Boston’s Australian ancestry for what he may have felt was a revolutionary idea when he proposed the abolition of GCSEs, in favour of a School Certificate based on five main subjects. Dr Boston, the outgoing chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) — the government quango that provides advice on curriculum management — seems not to have noticed that his proposal would take us back precisely to where we were 70 years ago. Advancement, indeed.
More eye-popping still is the proposal from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as reported by The Observer, that children as young as five should be taught how to save money in a piggy bank.
Leaving aside any ethnic-minority sensitivities, to talk about banks and “porkies” in the same breath may be thought to be injudicious. Lessons based on pigs with little snouts going to market could be in danger of misinterpretation by tiny tots, who may feel that some of those with bigger snouts seem to get more than their fair share at the trough.
I am all for Tumbletown Primary having a go at sorting out the National Debt, but don’t hold your breath. A couple of years ago, schools were asked to sort out binge drinking, and look what has happened to that.
GENERALLY speaking, what happens at home and in the world outside has more influence on behaviour than schools do. We banged on for years in schools about smoking, to little effect, until the law made smokers pariahs just about everywhere, and doctors moved them to the bottom of the list for treatment. Smoking is now seen as “uncool”, the epithet dreaded by every adolescent. It could happen with drinking and debt, but it will not be for schools alone to achieve it.
Diet, however, is a different matter. One of the great successes of 2009 has been the accelerating progress of schools in preparing wholesome and healthy school meals. Food is a big player in schools in a way that alcohol is not, and we have been able to play a significant part in lowering the levels of obesity.
But in 2010 expect the boffins to jump in and instruct us to report on diet to parents. You know the kind of thing: “Jimmy is making good progress with his reading and writing, but he is paying far too little attention to his greens. He is also taking an unhealthy interest in sausages and buns.”
ANOTHER continuing improvement in 2010 will be in schools’ ability to communicate quickly and effectively with parents. Not only has electronic registration at each lesson made truancy blindingly obvious, a mobile phone number and/or an email address for virtually every parent now means that messages can get through without delay.
The value of this was brought sharply into focus in the recent cold snap that necessitated school closures. Formerly, we were heavily dependent on local radio stations. Not surprisingly, less diligent pupils were in the habit of ringing the radio stations themselves to announce that their school was closed. The inevitable introduction of a password, which no bleary-eyed headteacher could possibly remember at 6.30 a.m., made the system even more precarious. Now, at the press of a button, everybody knows.
The Schools Admissions Code will have its inevitable annual overhaul in 2010. The recent decision of the Schools Adjudicator to uphold objections to the admissions policy of Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, in west London (News, 8 January), will have far-reaching implications for church schools across the country.
The principal objection centred on the school’s “complex points system” in relation to church-based activities that was found to be “potentially discriminatory” and in breach of the Admissions Code. The churches’ vast army of Sunday-school teachers, crèche-minders, coffee-servers, and bell-ringers will therefore now have no reward for their labours — in respect of church schools, that is. The Admissions Code to heaven is, thankfully, another matter.
Astonishingly, the objection was raised not by the local authority but by the Roman Catholic diocese of Westminster. Given that, in many cases, the diocesan bishop is the chair of governors of the local church school, “shooting yourself in the foot” has taken on a whole new meaning.
I AM sure that we can predict that “safeguarding”, the OFSTED mantra for 2009, will continue to dominate schools’ planning processes in the forthcoming year. Horror stories abound of highly regarded schools “failing” their inspection because a perimeter fence was too low, or because some stray youth wandered into the school unchallenged. Pitfalls are everywhere. In a bid to be helpful, County Councils have taken to providing schools with “useful” advice.
Ours comes in the form of a bulletin, Accident and Near-Incident News. We are asked to decide whether we should fill in a “near-miss” form or a “hazard” form. A puddle on the floor brings our advisers to a paroxysm of excitement. That old favourite the Bunsen burner features prominently, as do shelves, which are invariably too low or too high. Ladders have an unfortunate habit of collaps-ing. Caretakers in some schools seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on the roof, apparently trying to rescue balls. In which context it is probably safe to say we will have a new Minister of Education by the end of 2010.