A new government, so change there must be and eyecatching at that. Little chance of a careful review (the advantage of a new administration) – the chance to build on what has worked well and move on from that which has not. What can be done to resist the indiscrimminate broom and spin of big government? It used to cross my mind in the classroom occasionally, that if the school population decided to walk out, there was little or nothing we could as teachers to restrain them. Perhaps we have reached a similar ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ moment. Never before has it seemed so important for schools to unite and to determine their own agenda. The long winded and commonly manipulated (politically) accountability route up to London and back down again, can’t really compete with a school relating directly to the wishes and needs of its own school community – now that is surely a more powerful democratic model. This is our school, our partnership. Let us begin from here and build, in partnership with other schools, our own future – surely this is the honest definition of localism. In these chaotic, market driven, budget cutting, divisive times, it is the only way. The Waggon Model – draw the assets into a protective circle and look to the schools, large and small, strong and struggling, in our own areas.
Cluster support
Who will referee the new world of clusters?
A familiar phenomenon in education is that those who need the most support are usually the furthest away from receiving it. Whether this is the parents of the students most in need but least likely to be seen at a parents evening, or the schools on the edge, schools who may be the hardest to engage in a cluster. With a good deal of instability around the future role of Local Authorities or Childrens Services and the prospect of more stand alone academies and parent run schools, one might ask who is going to keep an eye on this free for all.
It is perhaps to the US we could look for a model that could be adapted here – the concept of the School Superintendent. We may even have had such a role ourselves in a previous age. The Superintendent has the power (through a Board or elected Committee) to intervene to support local groups of schools. They might broker arrangements to ensure that all schools are supported through clusters and help prevent situations where different types of schools go it alone. They might also relieve some of the pressure of Head Teachers by representing the cause for the strategic local interests and support the move to integrated agency approaches at a local level. You obviously need the right person in the job but then that’s true of all posts in education.
Licence to Teach: Licence to Train?
The proposal in the 21st Century Schools White Paper that all teachers should have their licence to teach renewed every 5 years is controversial. Setting aside the issues around how it might be done and by whom, the other key issue is the linked entitlement; that every teacher should have easy access to the support and training that is required for skills to be sustained. The other professions (e.g.medical, legal) presumeably (hopefully!) have established and resourced systems for a continuous ‘topping up’ of professional skills and standards. What of teachers? It is safe to say that each school and each context will be different (key problem: consistency and equality of entitlement). It is also safe to say that the opportunities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers vary hugely depending on the ethos of the school, pressures, budgets etc. The answer to all of this seems to centre on developing clusters for CPD. This appears to be a sound idea, particularly as CPD from outside the school is becoming more difficult to access and more expensive. However, cluster development is often akin to marriage; often troubled my a mismatch of expectations and under constant pressure from scarce resources.
Power Shift: School Commissioning
Once schools have begun to collaborate, the first realisable benefit is the opportunity to make use of a strength in numbers and in economies of scale. Clusters can commission services from a variety of sources. The obvious partners are the different agencies represented within the local Childrens Trust and who are charged with and funded for the realisation of the requirements of the local Childrens Plan. Schools need to know what they need and to express this clearly. Other potential partners can include Universities (for Masters and Foundation Degrees), Providers of Initial Teacher Training (for specific subjects and year expertise). Some clusters have successfully commissioned ICT solutions. Charities and other representatives of the Third Sector are also potential partners. Bartering with neighbouring clusters is another possibility. The opportunities are there.
Can education compensate for society?
Every Child Matters is both a noble and powerful aim. It can, if it becomes a true collaboration between all the agencies (Schools,Social Services, Health Agencies, Charities, Youth, Community and the Police in particular) it can perhaps help to prevent the desperate consequences of muddled responsibilities that emerge periodically from tragic cases of child neglect. It can also support the greater achievements and welfare of all children. The substantial challenge lies in leading a large number of organisations to a point where the benefits of collaboration can be realised. It is surely right that schools are the focus for the ‘how’ and ‘why’, and although every child matters, we need to focus on success for the most needy. As Bernstein famously reflected ‘ Education cannot compensate for society’ – it may well have been true 40 years ago, we may, with our advanced welfare experience, just be able to create something different today. However, with the shrinkage of many Childrens Services, it may be up to leading schools and local clusters to take the initiative, an initiative that has the potential to deliver substantial benefits.
The logic of Maslow’s thinking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs is surely that we cannot aim to educate in isolation of the other parameters for learning which relate to basic needs. Addressing the relevant factors is clearly a shared task for parents, schools, agencies and government.
P.S. It looks as if the Every Child Matters agenda has been cut off at the knees. This could just be the worst case of a false economy anywhere in the current maelstrom of cuts. Schools are one of the most efficient institutions in society and the comparitively low level of funds needed to provide an expert, sympathetic, targetted and locally co-ordinated approach, would have stretched a long way towards delivery of a preventative and supportive impact on child, young person and family welfare. Please read later blogs on Chord Centres as a further development of ideas on this subject.
Musings on school clusters
I went for a wintry walk with my daughter Emily this afternoon. She works for the NSPCC and we were talking about how our working lives may overlap in the future. Linking the NSPCC to individual schools and establishing a firm relationship based on awareness of ChildLine should be part of the new move to put clusters of schools in direct contact with the voluntary sector. This of course also applies to a wide range of stakeholders. With the current review of the role of Training Schools by TDA, I’ve been thinking about how all this will fit with the development of Childrens’ Trusts and I shall be continuining with this theme over the next few weeks.
Education Today 