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A boy who had just left school was asked by his former headmaster what he thought of the new building. “It could all be marble”, the young man replied, “but it would still be a bloody school!” Significantly that was said neither this year nor last but was recorded in a Ministry of Education Report of 1963.
Half a century later a proud government announced a thirty billion pound programme to replace every secondary school in the country to provide “flexible, inclusive, attractive learning environments. This will be the largest single capital investment in schools for more than fifty years.” Photographs of the few schools that have so far been finished show lavish glass, steel and precast concrete structures as carefully set amidst a comfortable mixture of lawns and shrubs as are upmarket shopping malls.
Yet in essence their fundamental design still reflects a honeycomb of classrooms and teachers’ desks, while buzzing students rush across the hive between, say, business studies and mathematics, technology and history when conditioned by the sound of an electric bell. To survive, pupils have to build mental models of the route to be followed everyday without, in too many cases, ever appreciating how this combination of disconnected subjects amounts to the education of the rounded person. Planners too often forget that it is what happens in the mind that matters, for quality education is so much more than the by-product of the efficient teaching of subjects.
That boy of 1963 is now probably a grandfather. I would be prepared to bet that, if taken by a grandchild to see such a school, he would shake his head and mumble “It could all be marble, but unless what happens within these schools changes dramatically they will still be ‘bloody schools’.”
The architects of these schools know that well in principle. Consequently in a way dear to government bureaucrats they say “we have made it clear that BSF must deliver significant improvements in pupil achievement through innovation and reform.” Which, in Big Brother speak, means conforming to the present prescription which is all about teaching, and oh so little about the human dynamics involved in learning.
Fortunately the financial crisis is slowing down this building programme just sufficient for Parliamentarians to see that they have put the cart before the horse. Quality education is everything to do with teachers, not much to do with structures, and very little to do with buildings.
See Part Nine and Actions 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 of the Briefing Paper
Hello John, Where do I start? I met you years ago at a governors conference at Woodlands in Chorley. I hurried home and downloaded everything I could about the 21sCLI and have passed it around and used it ever since. You kindly sent me a draft of your recent publication and I loved it.
I am a governor at the sixth form in Burnley, was previously a governor of many years at our local Catholic Boys School. I worked in the Voluntary, Community and Faith sectors in community economic development, interfiath and community cohesion. BSF was a vehicle which could not be stopped so I decided against the wishes of my governing body at the Boys school, to strategically engage with the process to enable change from within. I lobbied through my day job, coaching in enterprise, life, personal development, parenting, equestrian, dream mapping, nest building etc etc…
to focus of the training of the teachers and to include a more holistic approach to the development of the students and their interactions in the wider community.
Some is working, against all the odds!! The big one is still missing – the inclusion of emotional intelligence, nlp – whatever you want to call it – into the teacher training package. There are some wins out there but not nearly enough.
29 years experience as a governor has made me realise that the culture has to be changed before we can achieve anything.
I have worked within the BSF framework, and have achieved less than the in freelance work I undertake in schools and colleges as a life coach, drawing on my years of experience with offenders, ex offenders, truants, families, drug and alcohol dependents, graduates into employment, intermediate labour market projects etc.
I feel saddened that I still have a feeling of “going it alone”, albeit with a group of associates, to work towards raising aspiration, empowering and motivating our young people in Burnley to have a sense of adventure, a sense of self and a hunger for life.
I am linked with youth coaching and now with Embrace Co-operation to bring more to Burnley for our young people and with the emergence of the UCLAN base, the prospects are looking much better.
Keep up the great work John. You have been my inspiration since that day in Chorley over 14 years ago.
xx Cath
John Abbott replies:
Thanks, Catherine, so nice to hear from you. I’ve spoken at many conferences but I can remember the Burnley Conference. Although we can feel very much alone as we struggle with these big issues I and the Initiative will do all we can to expand, and hold together, the network. I’m putting a lot of work into these blogs, so do please keep coming back, and bringing some of your friends with you.