Signs of a positive learning environment - Junior School Open Evening
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.
Submitted by Libby Reid on 26 Nov 2008
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GCSEs versus self confidence
I think children who are self confident are more likely to do well academically. Belief in yourself is more likely to make you take chances, recover from mistakes and learn from them.
I can see your point about needing GCSEs, but at the same time, I have to ask why the emphasis on five A*s-Cs? And to me the answer is, because that is how schools are judged. My feeling is that it is a false target, in as much as someone, somewhere has decided that the C grade is desirable and that schools will be judged as to how many children they can drag kicking and screaming to five A-C grades. Because of this children get targeted, as in your school, for being borderline grade C. I'm not saying it's wrong (did it myself as Head of Modern Languages, but I do think it is misguided. And I think that schools are pushed into it because of the way they are judged by the media, the government and, sadly, by many parents. It is also unfair on the children who are borderline A grade, or borderline E grade. What about their extra tuition?
Certainly for my children, I will be selecting a school, not on the basis of the number of children who get 5 A*s to C grades, but on the basis of how happy the children and staff are, the support they get and the encouragement they get to do the very best they can in every aspect of the curriculum. I will be also looking at how they make learning as interesting and stimulating as possible and at the other experiences the children get when they are in school.
And I would put money on the fact that a school that is full of happy children and staff and that has an interesting and stimulating curriculum will probably have a high number of children getting five A*-Cs.
Results on paper or in person?
Hi Libby,
It's easy to say that developing the child is more important than exam results during the early years. It's now also easy for colleagues in the secondary sector to not worry about SATs results anymore!
However I'm currently working on a whole shcool project with a large group of borderline students (those who may not get 5 A*-Cs) because without these bits of papers their life chances may be severely reduced.
Our senior leadership team is currently in 'debate' over whether to have citizenship lessons at Key Stage 4 using up time that could be spent on core subjects of English, Maths and Science but more in-keeping with the national curriculum. The alternative would be to have one-off citizenship immersion days to 'cover' the pupils entitlement whilst increasing the number of hours of teaching for 'the all important 5 A*-C including English and Maths'.
Is the ideal is for early years to develop confidence, morality etc. so that by the time the children are studying GCSEs they know it all! No easy answers to your question I'm afraid!
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