Education must be about more than achieving the right grades (13th Jan '10)
Education must be about more than achieving the right grades
Published Date: 13 January 2010
By Fiona MacLeod
EARLY August is a tense time for Scottish teenagers. Exam results plop through letterboxes, appear in in-boxes or even, these days, twinkle up as text messages. But why do these results mean so much? Does achieving a raft of A-grades at Higher and Advanced Higher have intrinsic value? Or is it purely about winning a university place?
Rod Grant is headmaster at one of Scotland's prestigious private schools, Clifton Hall in Edinburgh, and believes schools are too geared up towards producing university candidates, rather than rounded individuals.
He says: "We do not ask ourselves this question often enough. What is the purpose of a school? What is it actually for? If you follow our current thinking, it would appear that it is fundamentally founded on the belief that schools are doing well if their pupils achieve a set of excellent examination results.
"The logical conclusion, therefore, is that, above all, we should ensure our pupils' heads are filled with the required knowledge to allow them to pass a series of examinations.
"At the moment, our secondary education system is a protracted application process for tertiary education, and we are the poorer for it."
He says he has met many people with first-class honours degrees who are, he believes, "eminently unemployable", while many people who leave school at 16 with few qualifications can go on to become hugely successful – and he is keen to point out these people are not exceptions to the rule.
"Education is being damaged by the need to jump through academic hoops that actually curtail an individual's imagination and, in many ways, damage their originality of thought," he said.
University criticisms in recent years of new students arriving on campus lacking fundamental skills is, he believes, a problem of their own making, as it is their insistence on exam passes for entry that has stifled creativity.
He says the current process of school exams can be an unimaginative cycle of teaching the content of the curriculum, learning it, and then regurgitating it under examination conditions which, if pupils do well enough, will win them an A grade. However, he disputes that this formula really does represent success.
He argues: "My contention is that this approach is fundamentally flawed and actually quite dangerous."
Youngsters should be allowed to develop their creativity and their critical thinking, he says, citing other countries, particularly in Scandinavia, to support his case.
"Finland has been outperforming us for more than a decade," he says. "If you look at their systems of public education, you see one vital component which is different to our own. Examinations or tests, of any kind, do not kick in before the age of 16. This means that education from six-15 is allowed to develop without the worry of passing the tests."
Critics have long warned that too much testing risks provoking "teaching to the test", where teachers educate youngsters on how to pass exams, rather than actually gather knowledge for its own sake.
Testing at the end of primary school in England, under the Sats system, has been increasingly controversial in recent years, as it puts children as young as ten under the pressure of exam conditions. Parents have long argued that their youngsters struggle to cope with such stress at a tender age. National testing at this age does not exist in Scotland, and in unlikely to be introduced just because of the debate south of the Border.
However, just as much controversy surrounded the proposed new qualifications to be introduced in Scotland in 2014 as replacements for the beleaguered Standard Grade. Furore broke out last year when it emerged a fifth of teenagers could leave school without having sat any externally assessed exams.
Nationals, to be introduced from 2013, will be two levels: levels 4 and 5. National 5, only for pupils capable of higher attainment, will be an externally assessed exam taken at the end of S4 and graded by letter.
National 4 will be taken in S3 and assessed internally by teachers, without being graded, and it is expected about 20 per cent of pupils will stop at this level.
Many people were critical, implicitly supporting the concept that externally examined national tests were the best way of assessing a child's ability and, perhaps, buying into the idea that sitting exams is a kind of rite of passage – a challenge every youngster should go through prior to adulthood.
Mr Grant is not critical of exams themselves, indeed his school performs well in Standard Grade, Higher and Advanced Higher exams, a feat he puts down to small class sizes and individual attention. But key to his school's success is allowing pupils to carve their own paths and to think independently. "It's really important that children get the chance to question. I get so tired when children say to me, 'I read it on the internet'. Where? Who said so?" he says.
He is adamant that schools should not be focused solely on ensuring their pupils achieve the university-entry requirements that they require for their chosen career path, which he fears is sometimes the case.
"Universities should not be allowed to wag the dog – that is, our schools. We should leave it up to individual universities to work out how they attract potential students and how they assess them. Schools should concentrate on educating their pupils, rather than schooling them," he says.
He would like to see a new a period of "educational enlightenment" in Scotland, in which the system is driven by ensuring young people have the important skills they need for modern life, as well as knowledge created in the form of memorised facts they can regurgitate under test conditions.
"It is my contention," he says, "that if we worry less about league tables and more about individual development, then Scotland can become a nation of invention and industry once again.
"Currently, we are not achieving those dreams and those aspirations, and I, for one, am fed up with the notion that a good education equals five As at Higher. Why? Because it just isn't so.
"This is not 'pie in the sky'," he says. "This is absolutely achievable for all of Scotland's children, but we need to radically alter our view of what education is for and need to do it now."
Curriculum for Excellence - The Head’s View (22nd Sep '09)
Parents often ask me what the priorities should be within education. I usually remind them of Skinner’s quote, that is to say, ‘Education is what remains after what has been learned has been forgotten’. This quote makes parents, and teachers too, of course, reflect on what the function of a good school truly is.
When we think back to our own school days our memories are of those instances when we found something to be funny, challenging or, at worst, humiliating. Today, I believe, the truly successful school is the one that relishes the first two and creates an ethos where the third is unacceptable.
The basis for a sound education has to be fundamentally founded in the notion that learning should be enjoyable and about more than just the simple accumulation of facts. Education intrinsically develops our spirit, our emotional core. As soon as learning becomes tedious or pressured, children switch off completely or become incredibly anxious about their ability to learn. A good education, then, becomes more than just learning for the sake of knowledge. It becomes empowering and creates choice and independence. Learning should be a journey of joy, wonder and excitement.
The education system is now so reliant on summative assessment (i.e. examinations) that the education we truly want for our children is in danger of being lost altogether. We have come to the stage where if we cannot measure something then it is not worth doing and we are the poorer for it. That is why assessment for learning is a positive move from the Scottish Executive as is the much-maligned Curriculum for Excellence.
As well as my very serious concerns over summative assessment, my other major worry is the blinkered belief that the function of the good school is to teach children everything. Our knowledge-based curriculum is becoming so over-crowded that we are in danger of covering everything but doing nothing particularly well. Again, Head Teachers must stand firm and allow their schools to prioritise. Clearly we need to listen to what parents tell us, as well as being true to our own educational philosophies, to ensure our core aims of ensuring children are literate and numerate are kept at the very top of our agendas.
By de-cluttering the curriculum and by discriminating against continual summative assessment, we free teachers to focus on their own strengths, to take children on voyages of discovery, to allow personal learning and teaching styles to flourish, to remove the pressure that comes from testing and when all of this is allowed to happen, what do you think happens? In the real world, children and teachers begin to truly enjoy the teaching and learning process. We begin again to realize the fundamental need to have fun, to develop a love of learning, to create a nurturing, caring ethos, to support children through their learning without the need for fear or restrictive demands.
We can offer an education system to be proud of and I, for one, am absolutely committed to the new Curriculum for Excellence, as it will allow teachers to develop teaching programmes worthy of the students who sit before them.
We have to provide an education that is valuable to our pupils, not just for today, but also for thirty or forty years hence. We must ensure that our focus is primarily in helping youngsters to become articulate, literate and numerate but as much as these qualities are essential we must go further and ensure that children are being equipped with skills which will allow them to enquire, reflect, problem solve, develop strategies, be analytical and be creative. To do less would be to disadvantage an entire generation. In addition, we need to think of children as future adults. They are people who will one day lead their nations and it is therefore essential that they learn in a secure environment, where discipline, self-belief and the value of our fellow human beings is central to the learning process. Without developing an ethos where caring for others or valuing differences in culture or religion is seen as worthy, we create citizens who are intolerant and incapable of perspective. This would be the greatest failure of all.
Schools must now ensure a strong, values-based ethos where children learn in an environment that is thoughtful and mutually supportive. They must focus on the unquestionable need for literacy and numeracy whilst, at the same time, giving children the breadth and variety of experience that will round them as human beings. We must draw back from the stifling requirements of summative assessment and we must prioritise within our vast knowledge-based curriculum.
Schools develop well when differences are not only tolerated but also welcomed. We live in an age where society, or perhaps government, seeks to ensure ‘consistency’, but in so doing, parameters are inadvertently set that create a ‘one size fits all’ mentality. This is dangerous. We need schools to be different from each other; each offering their own priorities and areas of expertise. Why? Because no one system of schooling works for every individual child – we need to address that fact rather than ceding to the belief that education can only be delivered in one way.
A 21st century education should take children by the hand and show them the wonder of learning, and in so doing, create a generation of people thirsty for knowledge but, more importantly, it should teach us compassion and thereby enable wisdom. To educate properly we need to care less about the storing of facts and more about the lighting of fires, less about league tables and more about wider achievement, less about examination results and more about the citizens we aspire to be, less about conforming to the norm and more about celebrating differences. Scotland could be leading the way and should be leading the way – we just need to have faith in what each and every one of us knows in our heart, that education is far more important than the simple learning and retention of facts.
My fervent belief is that Curriculum for Excellence provides us with the platform for a worthy 21st Century Education and each of us should be applauding it and welcoming it with open arms.
'Risk-averse' parents fail their children, warns head - The Scotsman (11th Sep '09)
Published Date: 06 July 2009
By FIONA MACLEOD
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT
CHILDREN must be exposed to risk or they will grow into adults unable to cope with work or grown-up life, a leading headteacher has said.
Rod Grant, headmaster of Clifton Hall independent school in Edinburgh, says parents have become hugely "risk averse".
He said it was wrong to remove trees from playgrounds or diving boards from swimming pools in a misguided attempt to protect youngsters.
He said: "Today, we live in a world that is fearful. Parents have become hugely risk averse, so their children are exposed to a back garden – under supervision, of course – at best.
"My plea is that each of us is, in some way, responsible for modifying these deep-rooted fears that we all share.
"We should not place children at unnecessary risk but we must expose them to some risk.
"Otherwise, we risk their future health and safety and that is something none of us want."
He suggests youngsters should not be cocooned from danger, but allowed to explore the world.
Mr Grant said: "Childhood has never been risk-free. But if we succumb to our fears, our children may end up ill-equipped to live successfully in adulthood.
"Protecting children from the risks of trees, diving boards, escalators, uncomfortable social situations and incomplete homework assignments is almost certain to produce adults with deficits."
A culture of legal action, imported from the US, has seen a rise in unusual measures taken to protect youngsters. An Aberdeenshire primary created a special "snowball zone" last winter, so those wishing to avoid icy bombardment could avoid "danger". A Carlisle headteacher in 2004 insisted pupils wore safety goggles to play conkers, saying: "It's just being sensible. We live in a litigious society."
In the same year, Menstrie Primary in Clackmannanshire banned conkers after experts said the pastime threatened the lives of pupils who suffered severe reactions to nuts.
Abbeyfield Secondary School in Chippenham, Wiltshire, banned children playing with balls larger than a tennis ball on health and safety advice. Teachers feared the school was open to legal action from parents after a number of children suffered minor injuries caused by playtime games.
Other councils have threatened to remove roadside horse chestnut trees on the grounds that children might run into the path of traffic while collecting the chestnuts.
Suffolk County Council banned hanging baskets in case they fell on passers-by.
Mr Grant's comments were backed by child-development expert Sue Palmer who said youngsters risked becoming either bullies or bullied themselves, if not exposed to playground rough and tumble.
She said: "It's not just the workplace they won't be able to cope with as adults, it is social interaction. If they are not out there with the other kids, learning how to get along with people and make up after arguments, and take responsibility for their own actions, there's the likelihood that later on they will either become bullies or victims."
She said children needed their independence. She added: "Not only will that child grow up into an adult not able to cope. But there will be a social cost from creating people who simply don't have the resilience to bounce back from adversity."
Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic (30th Apr '09)
Clifton Hall School
Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic
Background and Context
The WHO constantly monitors the various flu-type viruses that emerge each year and categorises the development of each within six defined phases, with particular concern where there is evidence that a virus that emanated in animals or birds has become adapted to humans. The Headmaster will routinely monitor the WHO categorisation of virus developments and advise the SMT of unusual or worrying developments. Advice will also be issued through SCIS.
Planning Assumptions
Advice to all sectors is that they should seek to continue operating as normally as possible during a pandemic, but should plan for much higher than usual levels of staff absence and the consequences as well as for other possible disruption resulting from the pandemic's impact on other services. However, schools are potentially different from other settings. Children are highly efficient "spreaders" of respiratory infections, amongst themselves and to adults. Once the nature of any future pandemic is detected, the Government may advise schools to close for a stated period. Our response to any pandemic should cover both closure and the school remaining open.
The School's Response
The Bursar and the Director of Studies will be responsible to the Headmaster for co-ordinating the school's response, which will be graduated according to what may be a quickly changing scenario. Unless directed to close, the aim will be to conduct business as normal within the following:
• The school does not have the facilities to treat those suffering from influenza.
• Staff feeling unwell or displaying symptoms such as a high temperature will be sent home immediately.
• Similarly, pupils will be referred to a designated area where they will remain until collected at the first opportunity by their parent(s) or guardian. The school must retain an up-to-date list of parent/guardian contact details.
• Pupils and staff deemed to be at high risk due to pre-existing conditions should be advised to stay at home for all or part of any pandemic.
• The Scottish Government, through the local authority, will advise on any mandatory closure of the school when pupils and staff would be sent home with the school reverting to its normal security for periods of closure.
• Should local conditions, such as insufficient staff to ensure the proper supervision of pupils occur, the Headmaster will inform the Chairman of Governors accordingly and order closure.
• The Director of Studies will manage academic staff absences on a daily ad hoc basis making best use of available staff.
• In the event of school closure, in consultation with academic staff, the SMT will consider what arrangements could be made to continue educating pupils by the use of e-mails, remote tutorials/work-setting. Within this, priority would be given to pupils approaching external examinations.
Infection Control
As a matter of course pupils and staff should minimise potential virus transmission through good hygiene measures as follows:
• By covering the nose and mouth with single-use disposable tissues when sneezing, coughing, wiping and blowing noses.
• By disposing of used tissues in the nearest waste bin.
• By keeping hands away from the mucous membranes of the eyes and nose.
• By washing hands regularly throughout the school day, particularly before handling food.
Cleaning and Waste Disposal
General
Cleaning Staff take the following measures to improve general hygiene as a matter of course:
• All hard surfaces in kitchens, door handles, telephone headsets, toilet seats and flushes are wiped over with an approved, chlorine based anti-septic solution on a daily basis.
• Waste bins are emptied on a daily basis with the contents being sealed in plastic bags prior to disposal.
Pandemic
• If and when instructed by the Bursar, all cleaning staff will be issued with medicated facemasks and latex gloves, which will be worn when employed on cleaning duties.
• The school Estates’ Manager is to ensure that receptacles containing sealable plastic bags are deployed around the school for the collection of used paper tissues.
• They are to be emptied on a daily basis and disposed of in sealed plastic bags: If practical, they should be burnt.
Communication
The Headmaster along with the SMT will be responsible for ensuring that the following is put in place:
• A letter informing parents of school policy and procedures if flu pandemic reaches the UK will be issued.
• Information will also be given to staff and governors.
• The school website will be used to share information.
• Contact details of all parents/guardians will be updated.
WHO Phase 5 Declared
If WHO and the Scottish Government declare a Phase 5 Pandemic the following additional measures will be taken:
Education
• Staff planning and resourcing for distance learning will take place.
• No school fixtures/trips to be allowed.
WHO Phase 6 Declared
School policy will be to continue to teach until such time as the first case of suspected pandemic flu is in school or we are instructed by the local health authority to close the school. If pandemic flu is diagnosed the school will act on advice from the local health authority but it is likely that it will close and that teaching will be suspended until advised by the local health authority.
Communication
The Headmaster with the SMT will be responsible for ensuring that the following measures are put in place:
• The SMT will meet as agreed to be updated on the school and the local situation.
• Arrangements will be made to man phone lines and post messages on the relevant area of the school website.
• Staff will be kept informed as appropriate.
• School suppliers will be contacted and deliveries postponed.
Education
• Will continue as normal until the first case of flu is diagnosed in school.
• Distance learning procedures will be enacted for all year groups if feasible.
• Staff will provide support from home if possible.
In the event of an outbreak occurring during a school holiday the SMT will meet to discuss the school's policy in light of national advice and instruction.
In the event of an outbreak occurring during the period for external examinations the school will follow the policy and instruction provided by the SQA.
Post-Pandemic
Depending on the severity and outcome of the pandemic the management team will meet to take appropriate measures to discuss:
• Strategic planning for the recovery of lost learning time and subsequent management of this.
• Recuperation, including possible cancellation of fixtures and trips until the management team is clear that the school community has caught up with any potential lost education.
• School reopening will be communicated by the school website and e-mail.
• SMT will coordinate counselling and other services if required.
• Planning will be reviewed.
Conclusion
It is difficult to determine in advance the likely consequences for the school in the event of a major pandemic. The school should continue to function unless instructed to close or in the event of local conditions making continuation impossible or unsafe. Flexibility would be required by all staff, with due emphasis at all levels being given to minimising the risk through good and responsible personal and general hygiene.
Golf venue puts children on course (30th Dec '08)
By GEMMA FRASER, Edinburgh Evening News
A UNIQUE golf course designed specifically for children is set to be created in the Capital to encourage take-up of the sport amongst young people.
The "fun and inspiring" course, to be set within the grounds of Clifton Hall School in Newbridge, is said to be the first of its kind in the UK to incorporate all the different elements.
The elements featured consist of a short game area, fun area
and putting green, as well as a mini golf course and target area.
A "fairground" driving range with a number of different and colourful targets designed to appeal to children of all ages is also included in the plans.
The course – designed by professional course architect Ronnie Lumsden – will be set in seven acres within the school grounds and will be open to the public and schools as a free community facility.
The school has teamed up with Mr Lumsden and head golf professional at the championship Dalmahoy course, Scott Dixon, to progress the plans.
They have yet to secure funding but plan to target local businesses and the Scottish Government, which has its own drive to encourage young people to get involved in the sport in time for Scotland hosting the Ryder Cup in 2014.
They are also in talks with clubgolf, the body representing junior golf in Scotland, over how to progress their plans.
Mr Dixon already coaches children at Clifton Hall every Friday and will continue to coach when the new course gets up and running.
He said: "We have come up with the ultimate facility for children.
"It's going to be an area that impresses and motivates so that we can encourage more children to get involved in golf.
"The whole course will be totally for kids, with bright, fun targets.
"It's something that's unique, that's never been done before and that's totally there for the kids.
"Golf has in the past had strict rules and guidelines but this will be the ultimate learning environment for children taking up golf.
"We want to get Scottish golf back on the world map."
Clifton Hall's headmaster Rod Grant is excited to be able to offer this course at his school.
He said: "This is a community golf project unlike anything else in the UK.
"We want it to be open to all children under the age of 16 for free, with automatic access regardless of money.
"What we are trying to do is get kids involved in golf, loving the game, understanding the etiquette and most importantly, enjoying the game.
"Although it will be on Clifton Hall's land, we are throwing the facility open to the community.
"This will be the only golf course where an adult has to be accompanied by a child instead of the other way around."
Clifton Hall School has recently invested £2.5 million into a series of improvements and refurbishments to coincide with its recent merger with St Serf's School.
The amalgamation has doubled the school roll at Clifton Hall to around 230 pupils, meaning that for the first time in its 80-year history, it can cater for youngsters aged three to 18.
