Hit

We are all positive about our children being able to get back to school. We have to find some way of getting back to normal. I know that many of my school colleagues have spent the summer worrying through the ways that will keep teachers and students safe.  But being positive about the children going back does  not mean we are not apprehensive.

So here on the first Friday night of the first week back I listen to the local news.

‘Parents horrified by photos crowded school bus with standing students on way to Lancaster’

‘Bolton records large spike in corona cases 60+ per 100 000. 13 is the average.‘

‘A Burnley school has sent more than 25 pupils home to self-isolate after a student tested positive for corona-virus on the first day of school.’

Whatever measures schools may  have in place, this is the context that they will have to face for some time. However we plan  to   help students bridge  the gap in their learning from the lock-down, we are going to operate in disruptive times. Talking with my colleagues in Sweden who have been back in school for at least two weeks now, they are already facing the autumn cold season and students present with symptoms that suggest they may need to isolate; teachers too. These are going to be challenging times to manage and for school leaders to get their  heads  out of being transactional. They are inevitably focused on managing the return and the numerous changing aspects; they have little headspace left.

But we really do need different thinking- a new paradigm for our schools. We saw with the exam results this year, that applying a technical solution rather than one that is adaptive to a new situation leads to major problems. What is more, in this case OFQUAL and the DFE had months to think about how they might respond, and yet it was only in a matter of days that the whole thing unraveled. Whatever we might think about the Labour party’s suggestion of delaying  the examination dates in 2021, at last someone is  thinking early. But it is not an adaptive solution. It is fiddling with the present situation.

I have been involved in all levels in the examination system over a number of decades, not just as a school leader but as a chief moderator and chief examiner. I lived through a time when schools were able to design their own CSE courses and assessments, through times of total teacher assessment to one with modular examinations. In all of these scenarios with their strengths and weaknesses, I never saw a lack of rigour and attention to detail.

In the geography programme I oversaw, we had moderators who approved the internal assessment projects as fit for purpose. We then moderated each schools assessments, and I moderated the moderators.

Systematically we have seen the stripping out of any teacher assessment and a move to just terminal examinations in many subjects. So when we have the situation when these are cancelled there is no effective back up or rigorous assessment standardised across the country. We cannot seek an algorithmic solution to a new situation. It needs more careful thought and in the longer term a systematic change.

Taking us back to basics, do we not want all our young people to master significant elements of learning? And yet we only judge this at one point in time. We know they are all different and although we strive to get them through the foundational hurdle, some just need more time. Focusing on a fixed time changes the conversation from mastery to pace.  Surely however we test, it should be seen as formative. “This is where I am and I need to do this to reach that mastery level. ”  Thinking like this means that the doomsayers who grieve about the months of lost learning or use phrases like ‘ a lost generation’ need to realise that learning is lifelong and we need to personalise our response  to every situation.  Learning is not time limited but a journey. I could develop this further  talking about  personalisation   and motivation, visibility and agency but that’s a different blog. But basically a personalised response recognises where students are – not their age- and works with them to design a learning pathway to mastery. And this works across transitions. So if this year universities are worried that students will not have secured the anticipated learning outcomes of previous A level students, there is plenty of time to differentiate their learning programmes.

So what would be new paradigm thinking here. Well there is the immediate and then there is the  longer  term.

IMMEDIATE

1. Accept that this is going to be a disrupted year and allow schools to focus on quality of teaching and learning rather than meeting as yet unknown accountability measures.
2. Remove or  significantly modify the accountability measures for the 2021 season.
3. Work with schools to help design  effective in school assessments through the year
4. Look more carefully at the GCSE, A level and BTEC rubrics and do more than tinker with content and its assessment. It’s a one-off year. Be fair. Students have had such a variable experience through lock down.  Don’t penalise them again.

It will be a lost generation if we allow this to reduce student self belief with the consequential  knock on to reduced social mobility. We need these decisions in September. Immediately. The expectation that we are just going  to have a similar but watered down assessment and accountability framework  at the end of the year is limiting what schools can do and plan. They want to create a visible learning and assessment pathways for students now, and for that they need the destination.

LONGER TERM

1. Recognise that assessment needs to be fit for purpose. Terminal examinations need to just be part of the equation.
2. Recognise the need for a more formative approach to our assessment. We need a ‘ not yet’ view of assessment outcomes. Perhaps in the longer term, external examinations might be earlier with the opportunity of feedback and a chance to continue working on deficit areas.
3. Do we really need all that content? Does this prevent depth of learning and the enabling of curiosity and problem solving. Look at what employers tell us they want from young people.
4. Invest in teacher training to embed best practice in  formative assessment throughout the learning journey.

Believe me I am not arguing for  a dumming down of our educational expectations – in fact the opposite. I’m urging for more space to learn with a transparent assessment journey.However we get to this  better position,  it will not be through short term decisions that tweak the present.  We need to deal with the immediate and take this opportunity to rethink against our moral purpose and values. Whatever we did over the last decade has not removed the disadvantage gap. Covid  19 has just shown we had it hidden. We need to learn from others and take a radical view. With COVID and BREXIT round the corner, we need our young people to be creative, imaginative, self driving, optimistic. and committed. This is why we need a new paradigm.

There’s another paradigm blog coming focusing on teaching learning and school structures. I suspect both these blogs will once again consign me once again to Michael Gove’s ‘BLOB’.