school profile - Doubled Up

 It only dawned on me recently that, when we selected the infant school for our kids, we hadn't actually looked at the junior school that it feeds into and that, seeing as they will be spending longer there than at the infant school, this was probably unwise. Anyway, last night the junior school had an open evening and I took my eldest along. And, boy, was I impressed! The head's presentation was far from slick - the remote broke down for the PowerPoint presentation and he had to keep bobbing up and down to move the slides on, and he only remembered to introduce himself a couple of minutes into his talk. But I think that says a lot - actually, he was more keen to tell us about his school and his children than about himself. He struck me as a really kind man who genuinly wanted the best for the children in his care. Everything he said was positive, everything was about building up children's self-esteem, everything was about the children.

The point at which he won me over completely was when he said; "We've tweaked the National Curriculum a bit. Well, actually, we've used it to suit our purposes." He went on to explain that, whilst the kids have full access to the NC, they are not bound by it. If a class shows a massive interest in, say, learning Russian, and the teacher can accomodate it, then they go with it. Despite this, SATs results (yawn) are excellent (I would argue it could also be because of this?).

The school is incredibly well cared for and well resourced - swimming pool, football pitches, library, ICT etc etc. The staff we met are friendly and approachable. They have links to about 8 countries, are committed to learning outside the classroom and have an excellent pastoral system. Yet, last year, when Ofsted made a (one day) visit, the inspector only deemed it a 'good' school with many outstanding features. The reason? SATs results had 'dipped' that year.

I have one question - what is more important? A positive learning experience that builds confidence and self esteem and teaches children to respect each other and their environment, or level 4 SATs? To me the answer is obvious.

I've just spent two hours of my weekend updating the school profile. This was nothing compared to last year, when it needed completely rewriting.

This year, before changing the profile, I met with the Head and we discussed what needed to be changed/omitted/included. So that was half an hour of her precious time taken up during the last week of term.

Now, as far as I understand, the profile is to be written by governors and its aim is to tell parents and other interested parties about the school in non technical terms. Sounds like a great idea. However, when I went onto the website to update it, I was informed that it had been viewed a total of 35 times over the past year. It doesn't seem that people know that the profiles are there. And thinking about it, when I investigated schools for my children, I first talked to people locally, then looked at the websites and Ofsted reports. I didn't know back then that the profiles existed.

I wonder if other schools have found the same thing? Have many people visited their profiles? Do they think that people are aware that they exist? It certainly seems a lot of work for something that very few people are using. Or are there any parents out there who have found it useful to read? Does it give you information that you wouldn't have found elsewhere?

I spent last week helping out at an old school of mine because their Head of Languages was off sick. I spent three days working with GCSE groups to help them through their oral exams. It is a secondary school that was coming out of special measures when I left. Then, a couple of years ago, it was rebranded and given a good few hundred thousand pounds, a new name, uniform and Head Teacher.

Yet, from what I saw, the issues were still much the same. The windows may have been given a coat of paint in a new colour, the reception area was smart, and the meeting room in which I carried out the GCSE oral exams was fabulous. But the courtyard where some or the children go at break and lunchtime was grey, soulless and lacking in seating, cover and plants. The uniforms looked smart, but when I commented on this to the lady on reception she said (in front of the children I had just complimented) " Yes, shame their behaviour doesn't match their appearance".

There were new, large signs saying that it was a non-smoking premises, but this obviously didn't apply to the Year 11s I saw coming out from behind a bank (directly in front of the Head's office), nor to the Year 9s who were standing, unhidden, behind the language rooms. And the language rooms were the same huts that I had taught in 10 years ago and were leaking, crumbling and smelly back then.

And the children I was working with - all of them very pleasant, but desperately underconfident. On a one-to-one basis, most of them managed to say something to me in French, but the moment they were in a group, their eyes went down, they began to fiddle with their various face piercings, giggle, chew gum with open mouths or fiddle with their split ends. It was as if it was the cool thing to do to pretend that they were rubbish.

Other evidence of a culture that it was uncool to achieve came in what I didn't see.  There were no awards, cups, posters anywhere in the main hall, very little student work displayed in the corridors. Yes, there were comfy chairs and a coffee machine in the reception, but where were the photos of student achievement, where were the newspaper cuttings, the art work, the school-play posters? Where were the kids who made eye-contact in the corridor, or who held a door open rather than knocking you off your feet when they went past? Where were the members of staff outside their classrooms at breaktime and between lessons making sure that children arrived on time?

I left feeling desperately sad for these children. They are the ones who most need building up, but I felt, despite the influx of money a few years back, that they were still being let down.