How do we educate our children to take their place in the Economies of the 21st Century, given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week?  I aim to answer what Claires Court is doing a few paragraphs down, but there exists a serious background that’s worth sharing first.

In a remarkable presentation given to the Royal Society of Arts back in 2010, Sir Ken Robinson posed this question and helped the entire education industry by then elaborating the why, how and what we should do to ensure those future generations of workers were able to rise to the, then and now, unseen challenges that lay in their wake. Sadly, Sir Ken passed away back in 2020, aged 70 of cancer. As Professor Reason (see last week’s blog) was to the world of Human Error (an expert), so Professor Robinson was to Creativity specifically and to Arts Education in general. You can see the RSA Animate of his speech here, and it’s a master class that sadly has “only” been watched by 17 million people. It’s very disappointing that it is barely understood by politicians, whose choices have already been made by the dogma they choose to follow.

The last government failed to invest in the arts, creative industries and skills economy, undervaluing and often ignoring further education completely. Their suggested, yet narrow replacement for the multilayered ecosystem of City & Guilds awards and BTEC, known as T levels, has barely got going, in the main because they don’t reflect the dynamism needed for skills in industry. At least they did expand the possibilities within state structures, through permitting the development of academies and encouraging their further growth to support failing schools where possible. Britain’s “strictest headteacher”, Katherine Burblesingh, was able to transform school opportunities in Wembley by opening Michaela Academy, perhaps the country’s most successful state school in terms of Progress 8 measures. Despite the opportunities given by the government, she and many others have been clear that their failure to invest financially in the buildings and infrastructure has left the country’s education estate facing immense challenges. 

Now we have a Labour government that has made the decision to launch the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, one that had not really received any scrutiny prior to its launch in December. Like many proposed Acts of Parliament, there is a lot of clearing up being undertaken in its various sections, some of which have the full approval of the profession (and indeed the opposition). For onlookers from the private sector, you will guess correctly that we’ve not been involved in any consultations, despite some of us being very keen! Whilst the ‘puff around the Department for Education’s publicity references that state schools and academies are keen on the changes planned, matters such as restricting uniform to three items, reducing schools abilities to plan for new buildings (down to bike sheds) and perhaps as importantly as any, restricting state schools to using only qualified teachers whatever the school’s core aspirations seems to tie in heads to petty bureaucracy and box ticking at the micro level never imagined to date, and certainly not envisaged by Sir Ken. If you want to read what the state sector’s strictest head thinks of this, you can read Burblesingh’s article in the Spectator here. 

Not just because of the change in US Presidents, almost every bit of the world has been turned upside down and will continue to baffle and frustrate us all. Gaza and Ukraine seem insoluble, Yemen and Sudan unreachable, so it is brave to suggest we can actually plan and provide for our children and future adults pretty well. Human youth and their spirit is always encouraging, often inspirational, and in most schools, we have local examples of ‘Greta Thunberg’ and Malala Yousafzai’ in our midst, warriors and refugees both showing us that there is much hope for the future. Our entire school curriculum across the age range is designed to create curiosity, and in its own way, manages to support children from diverse perspectives for learning, and specialisms are encouraged in so many ways.

What last Friday’s Careers Fair stall holders provided for Years 10 and 12 were appropriate deep dives into their current states of learning. We had 36 exhibitors, a mix of employers, apprenticeship providers, visionary placement agencies for elsewhere in the world, public services and a raft of Colleges and Universities. I visited all the stalls (but not the student workshops that were also run to steer the day to a successful conclusion), and it’s very clear that the world very much remains their oyster. There were pearls to be found everywhere; when the largest British bank, Lloyds, is clearly trying to show that going to Uni is certainly NOT the only destination they’d encourage, when the RAF, police, Cliveden Hotel and college courses locally were swarmed, it’s clear that our young people are being pretty discerning at the ages of 15 and 17!

I am delighted that the University of Cardiff were due to be in attendance (one of two dozen Unis) in part because the enthusiasm of our rowers around the Oxford Brookes stall did need some balancing, and we have lots of Cardiff University Alumni now doing really well out in jobs they could not possibly have imagined after A-levels. Sam MacGregor’s Geography degree was never going to open the doors of Radio 1 for him, but uni provided the vehicle to learn how to broadcast. 

I’ll close with the story of another Cardiffian & Claires Courtier, Jo Beck, who chose Journalism, Culture and Media studies for her BA and then completed her journey into broadcasting by studying for her Master’s. After a starter career at BBC Berkshire, she’s spent the last 4 years with CNN, where she is now both a producer and host for CNN’s “5 Things” podcast. With Pope Francis’s funeral needing to have a suitably sensitive commentary, CNN turned to Jo, and her 10-minute ‘Remembering Pope Francis’ is a great listener’s summary of one amazing human’s life and times. You can listen to that podcast here. As you can see in this review from X, Jo is highly thought of by her audience:

It’s natural for parents and grandparents to worry about what the world has to hold in store for our young children, facing such a troubled landscape as we do. In next week’s blog, I will publicise the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, probably the first ray of sunshine seen by Britons for six years. Post-war society was built on the ruins of the world’s worst conflict, and yet, my own and subsequent generations have enjoyed the most prosperous and healthiest of times. Then, as now, it was the diversity of opportunity that had to be sought for and grasped, and it was certainly a world for all sorts and types. Now, as then, and as so clearly demonstrated by Jo’s approach to her work, we just need to radiate the sunshine and keep looking for the upsides – there’s room in the world for every type and style of learning, and those of us who lead independent schools know we can celebrate that diversity and revel in it every day!

PS 

Here’s Sir Ken’s lecture to teachers on being a teacher – it’s my ‘go-to listen’ when my academic mojo needs stirring!