Alternatives for including everyone

Sonia Blandford looks at how important it is that we focus on building social mobility from the inside.

Blog by Sonia Blandford

Over the last seven years I’ve been involved in a programme that has reached nearly four million children and young people, their families and teaching professionals in a bid to support not only what they do but also change the way we think about education and its outcomes. Crucially I’ve learned from that work how important it is that we focus on core strength, building social mobility from the inside.

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      string(5731) "Blog by Sonia BlandfordIf we are to embrace new ideas, raise our expectations of and aspirations for children, and really give teachers the support they need to do their job, I’d also suggest we have to have new measures of success that move beyond academic knowledge, and embrace both social and cultural areas.While quantitative analysis has a place in assessing the start and end point, what happens in between is descriptive, empirical and lived, and really values the profession of the school staff. Too often and too easily, the initiatives that many see working in their community or school are cut or changed or challenged because they don’t meet someone else’s criteria for success. In schools, we know this can be those hallowed exam grades carving a path to university, and a reversion to that idea that it’s the best, if not only measure ofsocial mobility.In his latest study, What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-course Model of Wellbeing (84), Professor Richard Layard and his team at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance have concluded that a child’s emotional health is far more important to their satisfaction levels as an adult than other factors (including academic success when young or wealth when older), another challenge to the assumption that academic achievement matters more than anything else. It was interesting, too, to see one of the most shared teacher blogs following the 2017 GCSE results relating to a boy who’d triumphed by getting two Fs in his GCSEs (85), his special school headteacher Jarlath O’Brien arguing that the child in question had overcome phenomenal challenges to get into and stay in school, and demonstrated life changing positive behaviour change while sticking to his studies as a result of the commitment of school staff and the support of his mum. Most would agree that we need to hear more about students like this.While grades are important, there are a myriad of measurements of success. Decision makers should listen hard to teachers as they talk about attendance and the disadvantaged – meaning that children want to be in school, and their families recognise its value. Some heads feel huge success if their children – who may be new to the country, or have been through trauma – are smiling at the end of the day, or feel able to approach them (or their staff ) when they have an issue. Others celebrate the lunchtime club that has fostered friendshipsfor children who’d felt isolated or the books children love to read. Or teachers can simply remember the day when pupils discovered a talent or a passion for something new.Campaigns and initiatives driving these less celebrated outcomes may not get as much attention or the levels of funding seen elsewhere, but they are equally important in promoting success and – in turn – helping support those grades schools are after. I can trace my own desire to get on to the discovery of books and a love of reading. I see now how The Read On. Get On. Campaign, led by a coalition of charities, works to challenge head on the fact that a fifth of all children in England, and close to a third of the poorest children, are unable to read when they leave school – a crucial contributing factor in the educational divide.I have found that learning and the area it covers can be a way to communicate with a family, and with individuals in it. If relevant, it can empower them to get a job, to open a bank account and manage a budget and secure a home. Of course, algebra and languages and Shakespeare are important and I’d never suggest for a minute that we shouldn’t be teaching and enjoying them and celebrating them. The introduction of the national curriculum in 1988 changed teaching and opened up the possibility that every child could access the same knowledge, skills and understanding in every subject. What was missing at this point was an understanding of social and cultural relevance.Regardless of background, challenge and need, achievements come in a variety of forms, and in all avenues of life. Education must acknowledge and understand children’s basic needs and work (if necessary with other partner organisations) to try to meet them if it is to make a difference and allow them to enjoy a sense of their own self-worth and progress to carve out the kind of life they want, where they want to live it – moving forward to become a better version of themselves. Isn’t that everybody’s aspiration, every day?Recognising that, we need to think, as we put today’s curriculum together, where we want it to take us. Instead of focusing on the big world where the same work is supposedly open to everyone, could we start closer to the actual places people live in, where they can extend through learning and language and experience? In schools where I have worked I’ve seen the hardest-to-reach children tune in and engage when teachers relate learning to their individual passions. Those might be gardening or running, computer games or fishing, building or basketball, music or the media. I’ve seen how, when nurtured and understood in a way that involves them, teachers can give those young people confidence in themselves and, so, a desire to learn more. That is core strength, and building social mobility from the inside out. 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Editorial/Opinion

Looking beyond the Academies

17 Apr 2018

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      string(5743) "Philosophical Enquiry in SchoolsIn 2004 the Helen Hamlyn Trust (HHT) developed an integrated education programme for Primary Schools to reach children at the earliest stages of their education, to improve engagement and aspirations thus improving outcomes. In 2005/6 Open Futures, which is based on thinking skills pedagogy (Fisher 1998), was initiated by the HHT and led by Lucy O’Rorke. They began a pilot scheme known as growit cookit, with the Royal Horticultural Society and the RSA Focus on Food Campaign, working together in 10 schools along the south coast. In 2006/7 filmit and askit were added to the Open Futures programme. In collaboration with designer the late Andy Cameron, filmit was developed by HHT, and askit was developed with SAPERE to put enquiry at the heart of the school curriculum and specifically to underpin learning in the context of a skills-based approach. Working with schools and their communities in the UK and India, Open Futures ran with widespread success for over 10 years, reaching more than 50,000 children in the UK (Crabbe et al. 2015).Independent evidence showed that both individual strands, as well as the complete Open Futures programme, significantly improved learner outcomes (Boaler 2008), as evidenced by an independent study from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Newcastle (Crabbe, et al. 2015). Research into the effectiveness of Philosophy for Children (P4C) demonstrated repeatedly the positive impacts it had on pupils’ learning and attainment. For example, in a randomised controlled trial study into the impact of P4C in primary and secondary schools, Topping and Trickey (2007) showed significant pre–post cognitive ability gains. The study provided evidence of maintained cognitive gains from collaborative philosophical enquiry that transferred across contexts. askit has a specific procedure and use of learning materials that results in students asking and discussing their own questions, under the direction of a trained teacher, so that the discussion has a direct impact on the students’ ability to think and learn independently.Philosophical Enquiry in FECentral Bedfordshire College (CBC) is a general FE college of approximately 5,500 learners and a turnover of around £12m. The college has three campuses across Central Bedfordshire – in Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard – and a fourth in Luton. The college offers a range of full and part-time courses, including vocational and academic, from further to higher education. The vocational curriculum includes engineering, robotics and automotive, construction, science, hospitality and catering, digital media, public services, sport, hairdressing, holistic therapies, child care education, health and social care, and teacher education. Students study vocationally‐orientated, skills-based subjects that relate directly to their lives and careers beyond the college. In late 2013, CBC was judged to be good (Grade 2) by Ofsted. Following the inspection, the college looked for new pedagogies in its pursuit of excellence. The college worked in partnership with the Open Futures Programme of the HHT to explore the possibility of adapting philosophical enquiry to the technical and vocational education and training sector. The purpose was to use this work as part of a strategy to drive further improvements in teaching, learning and assessment, and raising the aspirations of learners and the expectations of teachers. The askit approach fitted in with CBC’s philosophy of developing students as independent learners and thinkers, alongside developing their problem-solving and literacy skills. In summary, askit complements what is essentially a vocational, skills-based curriculum.askit in the CollegeCBC has developed a new way for FE learners to make sense of their realities and how their vocational studies will impact their future career and society. The work focuses on vocational teachers engaging with learners on matters that directly impact their aspirations and self-esteem in relating their training and their locality to their future careers. It is based on developing learners’ ability to articulate philosophical questions and to deal with each other’s views in a mature manner. It is an enquiry-based approach to teaching, learning and assessment that develops students’ ability to think critically and creatively and learn independently (Topping & Trickey 2007). Its power emanates from what students are able to do by the time they finish any course at whatever level at the college.askit develops a ‘community of enquiry’ where every individual is valued for his/her unique experience and interests. Key aims are to develop understanding and good judgement, and the sense of community grows as students learn to listen to each other, building on each other’s thinking and respecting differences. This is based around the ‘Four Cs of Thinking’: Caring: listening and valuing what others say, showing interest, being sensitive Collaborative: responding and supporting, building on each other’s ideasCritical: questioning and reasoning, seeking meaning, evidence, reasons, distinctionsCreative: connecting ideas and suggesting comparisons, examples, alternative explanations.askit for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) learners in FESEND learners, who follow Pathways courses at CBC, are both demanding and rewarding as a group. askit was used with an Entry level 1 group – learners who have profound and multiple learning"
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Growth Mindset

Philosophy and Aspiration: Bringing Thinking Skills to Further Education

10 Sep 2018

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      string(5813) "Building Core StrengthIt is important to determine where teachers, leaders, parents and carers might begin. Over the last five years it has become increasingly apparent among the 100,000 targeted children and young people engaged in Achievement for All programmes that the common starting point for the majority is the need to build core strength.Core strength can be described in this context as the confidence and ability to learn, develop and participate in society. Children and young people experiencing disadvantage and underachievement lack confidence, find learning challenging, develop differently and have limited participation in society. Underlying factors, or needs, may be cognitive, physical, emotional or social; each manifest in a fundamental lack of progress of the child or young person when compared to their peers.Causality is often misinterpreted as a diagnosis rooted in a deficit model i.e. children and young people defined by ‘they can’t do this because they have a problem’, which leads to labelling, low expectations, and a rhetoric of failure. Yet Achievement for All has demonstrably proven in many different contexts and settings that ‘they can succeed’.  Meaningful change in society will only occur if we invest in all children and young people. This means finding what is great inside them, digging it out and sharing it with the world not judging or classifying them in a negligent manner. This would include being supportive in a realistic, developmental way that provides a window to what alternative means. This might be through providing housing, food, health and educational support, or simply by encouraging all children and young people to participate, to join in.It takes a mindset that focuses on the possible, daring to believe that there is an alternative way to be. For the child or young person to believe in themselves, the adults around them need to change their behaviours. It is about harnessing behaviours that encourage, challenge and support, nourish and develop; behaviours that are values driven and inclusive.Achievement for All provides a framework that develops leaders and teachers, parents and carers to support and develop children and young people. Through the provision of training, tools, information and knowledge we enable, facilitate, encourage and support; we provide the architecture to build core strength in every child and young person.Evidence informs professional practice, measures our impact, and formulates our strategies to guide our growth from schools to colleges, early years settings and now, young offenders. The technical learning, empirical knowledge and understanding and personal skills of our team have led to improved outcomes for at least 100,000 direct beneficiaries to date. This has been measured by academic progress in reading, writing and maths, and by social developments of each child and young person reflected in behaviour and attendance.Building core strength and illuminating good practice amongst professionals whilst valuing every parent and carer as a partner in their child’s growth and learning is key. It is about demonstrating and modelling that all children and young people can learn regardless of background, challenge or need. Social Mobility and the role of the teacherThe current rationale for inclusion is social mobility – but what is it? For many it’s the ability of individuals to move from one class group to another class group, or one income group to another.  What we do know is that social mobility is related to long term capacity to build the knowledge, skills and understanding of individuals and families so that they can sustain and support themselves – that’s as individuals and as families. We know that social mobility is inter-generational – that generations of the same family, often from low-income groups, can get caught in the poverty trap, unable to change their situation. We also need to be aware that, as in a game of snakes and ladders, social mobility can go down as well as up!  We know that low-income families often start behind other families in our communities. Those children born into low-income families will often start behind and may never catch up. The gap is quite significant in the early years – children have problems with socialising, the environment, speech, language and play, and they have problems with learning. And this gap grows and continues to grow as children move through education. By key stage 2, at least one in four of those children born into low-income families has difficulty in learning, particularly around literacy and numeracy, and by key stage 4 – again, the gap is increasing currently up to 28% against outcomes between the most vulnerable and most successful children. For those children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), there is an even bigger gap – whether we are looking at early years, key stage 2 or key stage 4 – the gap is almost 50%.  What can schools and teachers do?  Schools can make a dramatic difference.  OECD data shows that good early years and primary school experience and better home learning will actually increase attainment at age 11. Those children and young people who are from low-income families are less likely to be low performers if they have supportive teachers whose morale is high, and are provided with extra curricula activities. We need to focus on education, not just in the classroom sense, although I have talked about literacy and numeracy – we should"
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Inclusion

Every Child Included

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5780) "It is time to challenge the injustice of the current prevailing view of social mobility, that the vulnerable and disadvantaged have somehow failed and they should become more middle class, pass the required number of exams followed by university. In contrast we should reflect on the thinking and action needed to change if every child is to be included, regardless of their background, challenge or need. I argue that our change-making focus must be upon the following:Improving Early years provision: In England, Sure Start Children’s Centres were the main vehicles for ensuring excellent quality family services and provision were located in accessible places and welcoming to all. The aim for every Sure Start Centre was to improve outcomes for all children and families. There are some fine nursery settings that take that approach today. If we want all families to fully participate in early years we need to share the benefits of early years education by building a respectful relationship with families to help ensure growth and school readiness.Building a relevant curriculum: Pupils who have barriers put before them will never succeed. The school curriculum needs to be relevant and attainable, not divisive. To succeed in school every child needs to be included. A curriculum that is not socially and culturally relevant, and which presents more barriers than opportunities simply will not engage children in learning.The current national curriculum in England is cast in a middle-class mould. There are solutions to this dilemma that, if implemented, would address the needs of all children. The first is to break down the barriers to learning by providing opportunities for all children to participate in social and cultural activities, sport, the arts, debating, volunteering, wider community-based provision, museums, trips and much more. The second requires us to relate the curriculum to the social context of the child and their future. All communities have a rich heritage, which can provide significant resources. In terms of their future, learning about the workplace can begin in primary school, increasing ambitions, breaking down barriers, and providing relevance to learning. Increasing access to learning for all children should be the benchmark of a successful school. A considered, realistic approach to improving outcomes for all pupils is needed, using evidence-based programmes such as Achievement for All to provide support for leaders and teachers at this critical time. The gap has been closed where this support has been embedded.Improving teaching: The need to understand how and why children can learn is fundamental to pedagogy – to understand how teachers teach. Getting teaching right for the vulnerable and disadvantaged remains an ongoing challenge in many schools. An appropriate starting point would be to increase understanding of how disadvantaged children and those identified with special educational needs or disabilities learn and refocus teacher and professional training on the majority of the population in schools, identifying what is needed to prepare children for work. It is also about changing themindset of the adults and services around the school to improve the outcomes for all children. I have long since known that if you change the attitudes and behaviours of adults you improve the attitudes and behaviours of the child.Widening our focus to ask why success is only measured by exam results? The annual media frenzy that follows primary phase national curriculum assessments (SATs) and secondary phase GCSE exam results only serves to remind most vulnerable and disadvantaged children they have failed to achieve government expected levels. EPI’s Closing the Gap research6 reminds us that it will take decades to close the gap, which includes reference to special educational needs. A more meaningful assessment at secondary phase would be destination outcomes: measuring student’s outcomes by where the examinations take them. This would be complementary to recent research and theory on the changing skill needs of business and industry.Consider the future that children and young people will live in…The Problems of Designing a FutureIt is very difficult to predict — especially the future-Commonly attributed to Neils Bohr (Physicist). Quite simply, we cannot design an education system that would preempt the challenges of the future. If we attempted to do this, the only resource available to us is our understanding of now, projected forward. History demonstrates that this resource will always be insufficient for the task: even the best-informed projection will be wrong, to a greater or lesser degree. For example, in 1964, the writer Arthur C. Clark predicted with alarming accuracy the online world of 2014 and changes to employment. However, Clark also predicted with equal confidence the universal delegation of manual work to trained chimpanzees.The best evidence we have suggests that the most effective support that we can give to young people to meet the challenges of tomorrow is to embed pedagogies and practice that could be described as future-aware. Future-aware pedagogies support young people to develop the mindset, capacities, and characteristics required to meet new challenges as they arise, and on their own terms. These include:Effective collaborationBeing able to reflect on, and extend knowledgeSelf-regulation and self-developmentResearch and problem-solving skillsEffective use of technologyCommunicationCreativity and innovationMetacognitionGrit and resilienceThese pedagogies underpin"
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Blogs

Social Inclusion for Social Mobility – A New Way of Thinking

13 Jun 2021

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