By: Blonde Two
I remember the agony and indecision well. Which school to send our three children to, and how to be sure we had made the right decisions.
They are all grown-up now and have all survived the UK education experience (some more happily than others). I have to say that I wish I had had the experience and confidence I have now when we were doing the choosing.
Our (not-so) esteemed government seemed proud recently to announce that they are changing the way that school league tables work http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35364398 (school league tables by the way are a ridiculous attempt to place numerical values on something that is ultimately immeasurable, namely human achievement).
I wouldn’t get excited by the changes if I were you. Exam results are apparently (despite what our big employers say) still the only important measure by which to judge your child’s growth into adulthood.
If I was choosing a secondary school now (and I am very glad that I am not), I would be asking these questions and listening very careful to the answers:
- Has your school built outdoor learning time into its curriculum? (Be sure to ask for specific examples.)
- Does your school encourage and reward staff who run trips? (Ask to talk to a member of staff who regularly does so.)
- Who on your school leadership team is responsible for Outdoor Education? (The answer may well be ‘no-one’.)
- What opportunities will your school give for the development of my child as a whole person? (Imagine you are writing their CV with them in five year’s time.)
And maybe more importantly:
- How is your school going to guarantee that my child will be regarded and educated as a whole person, and not treated as an exam grade figure on a spreadsheet?
You are the customer. If you don’t like the answers, then don’t choose the school!
Its a nightmare ,,,,,,,,,,,The whole system does not work from bottom to top….why do the Politicians not listen to the Teachers?????……is it not obvious that we have not got a Leader in the country of sufficient standing to LEAD THE Education Program ….for an Educational agenda and not a Political Engineering one
Definitely listen to the teachers … did that ever happen?
I saw the degradation of much of the state school system from the inside in the late ’60’s and ’70’s and am told reliably and informedly that it became worse in the ’80’s and early ’90’s: quantitative measures (of both kinds) were vital to give the failing majority in most cities and large towns (and many country schools too) even the basics of a sound education: desperate times do call for strong measures: we all know that numbers alone cannot and do not measure the whole person, or the school, but they do at least tell whether the child is able to converse and count and the school enable them to do so.
There is a still a long way to go: I am among the first to laud outdoor education and its benefits and virtues, but not at all keen if the resources to provide it ‘free’ impoverish the core work of meeting the most basic needs of the many pupils and schools where indiscipline and inertia and material and intellectual deprivation have ruled for too long and have blighted the lives of too many.
Nor is it an answer to say ‘the government must pay more’ – the ‘government’ has no money of its own, only the taxes we all pay – our indebtedness is still rising and still more would inexorably impoverish most the very children we are talking about.
It is not about having a prescriptive system, but about ensuring that its ‘products’, in the widest possible humanitarian sense, are equipped for the modern world, which demands both hard core knowledge as well as the free creative spirit which may (but not does) be engendered by the ‘outdoors’. Our children must be given the education and thus the attitude and opportunity to do the skilled work that today we need to import others to do – as well as to love and respect the natural world.
Hmm, what you say makes sense but I can’t help feeling that the balance has tipped too far the other way. The emphasis now is not on what the youngsters can achieve which boxes they can be made to tick. Not all of the boxes suit all of the youngsters all of the time.
Spot on! What do you remember of your own school days? What will remain with you all your life? What has been of most use to you from your formal education? Personally, I think that the things I learned in the Girl Guides, ie the practical stuff of life were the most useful. I was once chatting to a builder who said he had had little education. I asked him if it would be better to be stranded on a desert island with a person who could teach him algebra or a person who knew how to build a shelter and catch fish. He was thus shown his true worth! B2’s GM
Well said Mum!