Amazing, obvious and important influence number one

With motherhood came my initiation into the TED talks. I LOVE them. They are such a good pick-me-up for inspiration and motivation. The first TED talk that began my journey into thinking the education available to my children is just not good enough was the famous and most watched.

It was a talk by the brilliant and entertaining Sir Ken Robinson, which gave me the permission to start questioning the whole system. I'm sure you have watched them, but here they are just in case.

  And then

My favourite quote from them is that "a three year old is not half a six year old."

I then went on to read his re-published Out of our minds and after watching the talks, when reading the book you can hear his voice in your head. The book makes it clear how outdated the current system is and why it was initially designed the way it was. It also highlights how fast the world is changing and showcases some of the schools which are trying new innovative things.

I loved the story of the early years classroom set up in the foyer of a retirement home, with residents from the home spending time reading one-to-one with the children. This approach not only led to an improvement in the children's reading and the building of strong relationships across the generations, but amazingly a dramatic fall in medication levels in the home.

The main things that stayed with me were;

• Move from an essentially maufacturing model to one that is based more on the principles of agriculture.
• "It's about customisng to your circumstances and personalising education to the people you're actually teaching."
• The real importance for all subjects and disciplines being valued.

He is also a proponent of finding your passion, capitalising on each of our differing but natural talents and doing what you love. This was another kick up the butt for me. Children and their learning are what I love, so it made me want to try and put my money where my mouth is so to speak.

Teach them don't test them.

The starting point and motivation for all my thinking is simple, what do I want for my children? How I started - and I know it's not the best way - was by thinking about what I didn't like about the current system. I hoped that by identifying where I felt it has gone wrong, I could think of how to improve the system.

The first area I highlighted was testing. When I started this whole process, children were sitting their first national tests at seven. Now a reading/ decoding test has been introduced for six year olds and two year olds are also going to being assessed (a developmental check). This just seems utterly ridiculous to me and from my experience, only harms a child's education and puts pressure on families too.

Many Year Six children in English schools spend the entire year revising the information they need to get at least a Level 4 in the SATs. I completely understand the need for The Government to monitor schools, but believe that this is all these tests have become about.

Schools push the children to achieve, not for each child's benefit but for the sake of the league tables. 

This also means that the teaching the children receive is focused on training them to get the correct answer, not inspiring them or encouraging them to think. A recent study by the Welcome Trust found that since the science SAT was removed at the end of Year Six, the time spent teaching science has dropped dramatically. Although this was only a small study of people with a vested interest in science, I think it is a damning insight into our current "broad and balanced" curriculum, and the implications of our approach to testing.

Lower down the school, children's achievement has been translated into numbers/ levels and it has been decided that the children should progress along a linear path. If a child perhaps plateaus over a year, or doesn't make the expected progress, both the child and teacher are made to feel like they have done something wrong! 

There is also a focus on transparency within the current system. In principle, there's nothing wrong with this. The idea of making it clear to each child what they are trying to achieve in an activity and therefore, whether or not they have been successful can be seen as empowering. 

John Hattie has shown, in his book Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement, that visible teaching and learning occurs when the learning intentions and success criteria are clear. Where it falls down is when the transparency extends wider than the individual child, essentially publicising those who can and those who can't to all the class. 

In the Finnish education system, which consistently ranks in the top three in the world in the PISA tests as well as other international comparisons, there is only one mandated exam at the end of the senior year in high school. Alongside, this they only start school at 7. 

Pasi Sahlberg, author of the award-winning book, Finnish Lessons:What can the world learn from educational change in Finnland, says that a 'Systematic pursuit of children's wellbeing and happiness in secure environments takes precedence over measured academic achievements in Finnish schools'. What's more, even with this approach, that in itself appeals to me as a parent, they also obtain very strong academic results. 

For me the key to the Finnish education system, is that in addition to testing less and putting more trust in schools, they give their teachers - who are all qualified to Masters level - the freedom to teach the children in whichever way works best for their cohort.

I think it’s interesting that a few years ago there was a lot of press about how it was terrible how competition had been removed from schools. This was illustrated by lack of competitive sports and even sports days. 

However it seems to me that the competition wasn't removed, it was just redistrubuted back into the classroom. A place where its presence is a lot less fun and much more likely to damage children's self confidence and motivation. I would rather lose a race or a match, than feel like I was losing the learning game.

I have just read a blog by my newest hero David Price, which highlights my feelings in a much clearer way. He shows how through our obsession with targets and testing we are often killing the love of learning which I believe is surely our main job to create/instil. 

From someone who worked in schools and genuinely loved my time teaching, I have now lost any understanding of why children must all learn the same thing at the same time in the same order. The only reason I can see for this is due to the mass market nature of the education system. Today with technology becoming increasingly available, there is no excuse for this approach. The world has evolved, but we still have the same approach to education which is potentially leaving our children's futures facing extinction.

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." 

John Dewey

So my school idea in a nutshell

As the title suggests this is very much an in a nutshell version. One that may generate as many questions as it offers answers. I'm more than happy to answer those questions though.


Since starting this process I have become aware of other schools which have similar approaches and beliefs, I hope to share these with you on this blog. I would really love your thoughts and feedback and would be so excited to find anyone who might like to help me turn this idea into a reality...



My Objective

• To create a learning environment which embraces and builds on a child’s natural curiosity, diverse interests and desire to learn.
• To develop a personalised curriculum for each child, through which they can acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary for them to thrive in the 21st century.
• To nurture the dispositions and attitudes that will enable young learners to become happy, fulfilled and successful members of their communities, equipped for life long learning.

The current education landscape is changing dramatically. The Khan Academy, for example, has become an inspiration for many educators and there are an increasing number of online courses available. I believe that these courses create amazing opportunities for the individual, but we must not lose the social and practical side of learning.

My aim is to create an environment that embraces these new approaches while still giving children the time, space, equipment and friends to fully explore their own ideas. School should be an exciting and engaging space for children. A place which opens up their learning opportunities and horizons. A place which ultimately belongs to them.

The Curriculum/ Learning Approach

The approach has its basis in my experience in the early years, my first school was heavily influenced by Reggio Emilia, and learning through play. The children will lead the learning with the adults there to carefully scaffold and enhance each child's journey. 

When a child expresses an interest in a topic, they will then work alongside an adult to create a plan. This would include what they know and what they would like to find out and achieve. This plan would be displayed and anyone in the school community would be able to offer thoughts and ideas. 

Similarly if any other child is interested, they could join the project. Children developing the skills to work independently and collaboratively would be actively supported and the projects would last as long as the children’s interest and motivation.

The adults would work to map these experiences against the specific learning goals to ensure the children's progress and that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to gain qualifications. The exact style and content of these plans would obviously develop with the children, but fundamentally all children would use a similar approach regardless of age. 

As the children progress, they will also be given the opportunity to work on briefs set by real organisations. They would work through the process from research to pitch, during this process the teachers would help identify and scaffold the skills the children need to complete the task. In this way children would have contact with industry from a young age, facilitating better understanding as well building relationships.

The Staff

The staff will be a mix of educationalists and skilled workers (experts) in a range of fields. The educationalists will take responsibility for groups of children’s learning, monitoring their individual progress and ensuring they are developing the skills they need. They will also work closely with the experts to help them create valuable learning opportunities and experiences that enhance each child’s interests. 

I envisage the experts to initially be a craftsperson, chef, musician and gardener. Then as the school grows, so would the range of experts. These individuals would all be provided with workshop, or similar, space and encouraged to work on their own projects within the school environment. To do this, they would of course need to have a proportion of their working day/week allotted to this. The aim of this would be to ensure good role models for the children and enthusiastic and engaged staff.

The Physical Space

The physical space would be more of a campus style environment than traditional school, ideally with outside space - preferably with some woodland/wild space as well as open space for games and sport. 

The rooms/ buildings I would like to begin with are an early years area, a library-quiet space, a studio/ office-containing computers and work stations, a workshop (this would be for all forms of making and initially art activities) and finally, a kitchen with an eating area. 

As the school grows, new areas would be added. While somewhat opposite, a theatre and science lab feel important additions as at the heart of the school's ethos will be offering a breadth of experience. The children would have access to the whole environment and would be able to move freely between the areas as they choose.

The how, what and why

I'm starting this blog to help me keep track of and organise my thoughts, and hopefully chart my progress.
I am/was a primary school teacher. I loved teaching and was a bit of a geek, I guess. I specialised in early years and became increasingly passionate and soap boxy about it. The problem was I ended up quite blinkered, solely focused on the little ones rather than looking at education as a whole.

My muses.

Then I had two children of my own and have been lucky enough to be able to stay at home with them. They have given me a new perspective on education, forcing me to realise that there is life beyond the early years. As cute as they are now, they will grow up and move on from early years education settings. And it's this that inspired my slightly bonkers adventure into school/education reform.
Education and schooling is my hobby, obsession and passion. I hope that I can take this interest forward to something more concrete one day. My ultimate aim (read as dream) is to open a school. To this end, over the last three years I have read a lot, watched a fair few TED talks and talked to lots of people with differing thoughts and ideas. But as with everything, the more I read, watched and learnt, the more I realised I don't know.
On this blog I hope to chart the inspirational people who have and are continuing to mould and challenge my thinking. And when I'm brave enough, share my vision for the school I would like my children to go to, and where I would like to work. I will mainly get the chance to write and update it at strange times of night, so my posts may sometimes lack punctuation and any sense, especially as often I will be trying to recall events from the last 3 years.
But if you can bear with me, I would greatly appreciate thoughts, feedback and links to further reading by anyone who finds the time to read this, the well intentioned ramblings of a slightly overtired mum.