A Principled view

There is a real sense of excitement around our school this December, and it’s not just because Christmas is coming! The dawn of any academic year heralds renewal but reviewing this term, I can see that exceptional progress has been made. For 2011-12, we welcomed new pupils at the main entry points into Nursery, Reception, Year 7 and Sixth Form, and new staff to teach and lead. It is what this new crop is achieving that sets the backdrop for this newsletter. On the water our sailors have notched up the position as best sailing school in the country, for example above Sevenoaks and Millfield in the latest national competition. You can see some highlights of their first national sailing season here – : http://goo.gl/VTXYg

Our U12 boys’ rugby squad were unbeaten all term, coming back from the recent Berkshire Rugby Festival winners overall of the 46 teams competing. Going one better, our senior girls’ hockey team won the indoor county championship (beating Wellington College in the process) and went on represent Berkshire in the southern regional stage in which they came 4th, holding their own against schools with vastly superior numbers of girls to choose from. The Young Enterprise team is building its new business case with the help of Cisco’s mentors, while Year 13 pupils are being invited to interview and receiving offers from Universities. We deliver a winning balance of size and engagement – small enough as a school so that everyone gets a chance and big enough to compete with the best in the country! You can see further evidence of this approach in the enclosed Achievements and Scribblings magazines which chronicle the life, work and times of our particular community in all its guises, from Nursery to Sixth Form. What I hope we exemplify best within is just how much your sons and daughters achieve in the round, with every aspect of their lives here filled with opportunities to succeed. We want our pupils to be fundamentally happy at school, to grow in self-worth, to achieve across the broad sweep of school life, and in so doing become the resilient men and women set to survive and prosper in an uncertain world.

I hope it is a “given” that we are a school for all abilities. So we should be, for those who join at 3 years of age have their whole futures ahead of them – we must hold open every possible door to them so that, in every sense, they can explore whilst within our bounds. We are a school of high Expectation, grounded in reality in terms of age and circumstance: our purpose is to nurture high Aspiration amongst our young. Aspirations are what drive boys and girls to be what they will become. As teachers, it is our duty to provide the type of school environment which will enthuse students to do more, to be more and to reach beyond their imagination! As 2012 arrives, it’s time to share with you our next major development plan. As I do so for the next 4 years, it is with some humility! It’s difficult to see ahead quite as clearly as one wants; back in 2008, I had little foresight of the coming chaos in the financial markets, in business and in society at large, and no view at all of the sweeping changes that a Coalition Government would bring to Education. Clearly far more devastating for our families has been the continued turmoil in the global economy, and for the time being there seems little to cheer on that front, though Hope springs eternal, so please read on! Because we have indeed done well despite that bleak backdrop to meet the 8 targets set in 2008.

The first target was to extend what we teach and learn well beyond the confines of the National Curriculum. What happens in the classroom needs to be around a rich and diverse provision; few junior schools have a curriculum as broad as ours so well supported by specialist staff teaching with an obvious love for what they do. There is an alarming gulf growing between the education experienced by our own pupils in these formative years and those in state primary schools. It is the main reason for new junior pupils to join, and it is the main reason why pupils should stay on with us into the secondary years. During the Key Stage 3 years our pupils enjoy a huge diversity of visits and experiences providing brilliant handson learning. Most of the local secondary schools do none of this, and it shows. As a school for all abilities, we are not in the race to be the best just for the clever. The Department for Education’s own research recently published shows that all the plans to fast track more able pupils in the state sector to take GCSEs earlier and accelerate their learning has had precisely the opposite effect – lower achievement, more resits and increased pupil disengagement from the very subjects such as Maths and English in which the Government expects success. But there’s something even more worrying about the state sector’s curriculum changes over recent years, and that is that with such a shortening of the curriculum, the inevitable consequence is ‘teaching to the test’ and head examiners ‘cheating’. Compare and contrast that with our delivery of a broad curriculum supported by an appropriate artistic, sporting and extra curricular provision, the whole evidenced by our successes this term. You can see some great slides from our recent Netball tour to Malta here – http://goo.gl/Cw7Uv.

Our second main target was to refurbish our school environment, and we have made notable steps on all three sites. Yes, we have more to do but the changes already wrought have significantly improved provision across all age groups. Building developments for 2012 include the renewal of the Ridgeway swimming pool, with plans being submitted to the RBWM panel as I write. We start using our new playing fields at Taplow soon, a useful and important addition to our facilities for field games. You can see a slide show of our various developments here: http://goo.gl/nC80M

We live in a digital age, and it has remained important that we use those tools to enhance learning in many and diverse ways. We are well-resourced in this area and the development of our Google ‘Claires Court Hub’ has ensured that our pupils have access to anytime, anywhere tools for learning, and a service that can only grow and keep us at the forefront of digital engagement in the 21st century. Expect us to manage this roll-out carefully though, because these are new skills to lie alongside the old, not to replace them. Reading, writing, drawing, debating, questioning and working hard and with gusto is how we already nurture talent beyond the imagination – that skill-set remains an absolute requirement. But what these tools allow us to do as never before is to collaborate across time and place, to enjoy the excitement of creating with others wherever they are in the world, and to recognise it is the ability to be flexible and adaptable learners that are now the prime requirements for successful employment.

Our fourth aim was to engage more closely with our town and surrounding area. Our 3for3 charity work has and will retain close links with those in our community who are challenged, who don’t have our benefits of background and success, or for whom terminal illness blights their future. Our sponsorship of Art on the Street has assisted in the rejuvenation of the wider Arts community and brought the work of our own young artists onto the High Street. Take a look here at our workshop in operation: – http://goo.gl/wJCdm. The David Course Challenge has brought a new major sporting event to the Schools’ Rugby calendar; indeed whatever the sport you’ll find us working hand in glove with our local clubs and county associations. Outdoor education and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme are embedded well now for both boys and girls, providing further stretch and challenge. Our own Holiday Club offers not just care and activity for children outside of term-time, but excellent employment experience for the young graduates of our sports leaders and child care programmes. The other 4 targets – to promote further Staff professional development, greater PTA Liaison, maintenance of outstanding Pastoral Care, and an enhancement of pupil discipline and attitude to learning – are not so measurable. In these, we have delivered really well and they will remain core to our future development.

See my next Blog on how all this is moving forwards into our next School Development plan.

First things first – it’s been a funny old week in the news, as ever.  Increasingly, as the chickens come home to roost, it seems that plain old common sense is the way forward after all.  As one market maker in Chinese Stock market futures wrote on Saturday “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is!”  Apparently Chinese corporate government is not so rigorous as that in the UK, so what appear to be amazing profit surges are no more than someone fiddling the books.  As if UK PLC is squeaky clean anyway.

Closer to home, there we were in the run up to strike day being promised Armageddon, what with the skies closing and all that Border guard stuff failing to hold-back the daily tide of illegal immigrants at our frontiers, and in reality it was a very quiet day (or so my son tells me who actually works for the BCA).

And I do get that same feel about the UK education scene too.  There were some humorous pictures in the paper of teachers making their point, in a thoroughly decent and middle class way; there was Clarkson going off the deep end too – and actually since that is his normal state of mind, then all was pretty much in order there!.  Like many Independent School leaders, I was thrilled that our staff did not see this as a fight with their own governing body (and whilst my Union, NAHT called me out, I too felt it inappropriate for the time and place), and so like many schools we were able to function pretty normally.  Surprisingly,  we were not actually back in the 1970s with bodies building up in the morgues (yet).

The funny old bit comes in the various bits of news leaking out from the research teams.  No sooner have we learned from DfE research that pushing bright pupils to early GCSE exams means lower grades, more resits, more teaching to the test and the subject Maths losing still further in the A level popularity stakes (read that here http://goo.gl/l4t7p), than we then hear the following

• The new OfSted chief has decided that teacher performance must be rigorously checked against incremental/cash promotions of various kinds – http://goo.gl/syOfc
• Children in dilapidated schools do better than in brand new gin palaces – nice guardian chat piece from 18 months ago here – http://goo.gl/PBD8b to juxtapose against more recent findings here – see TES 2 December and Professor Dylan William’s commentary on the BSF paradox – more money spent, less achieved in terms of teaching and learning.
• Now that science is out of the state primary school SAT treadmill it gets less time in the classroom – http://goo.gl/teYpX
• Armenia is to make Chess compulsory in its junior schools – http://goo.gl/mm5P2

OK the last news item is actually a couple of weeks old, but in general terms it’s probably likely to improve academic attainment more than having performance related pay, let alone rigorously auditing it, or new building or bringing Science back into SATs.  Almost every thing you can see in Independent primary education are the things that make it great.  Small classes, a commitment to the curriculum beyond the textbook, meaning sports, and art and drama etc., making ends meet, great customer service, and (shared with all teachers if only there was time and space) a love of teaching and doing the job well for the parents.  Despite my best efforts this year so far, I have not been able to get those close to government to look at the amazing work we do in our smaller private schools, and bring what they do into the narrative.  Instead, it is once again building anew;  I am so angry that Manchester Grammar School with its sovereign wealth fund of umpteen hundred years is going to open a new free primary school, supported by Mr Gove’s magic pot of money.  What kind of signal does that send out for all the other independent schools in Manchester who don’t have access either to the pot or to MGS patronage, but who have done an amazing job for years.

So if it were to bring back anything, I would bring back assisted places at once, start them at age 7 but forbid them to be available to the post Year 8 cohort.  That way we would really make a difference in the UK.  But this government are as many before them,  simply not open to ‘common sense’ or indeed evidence based investigation and management – we know that now that Mr Gove has started filling all the discretionary posts in his education project with cronies – we know that because surprise, surprise the Daily Mail tells us so – http://goo.gl/RbCQx

This week, a media agency from one of the major universities visited Claires Court to engage our Sixth Formers in some evaluative activities; research is vital to understand young adults’ views for their future, for University and for future employment. The agency made a particular call back to the head of Sixth Form to report that their experience with us and of our Sixth Formers was extraordinary. The openness and willingness of the students to engage seemed second to none.

Well that’s all fine and dandy, but how’s it done, this building of ‘confidence’. In this bog that will develop a bit for a few days, I thought I would have a go at showing you some of our tools in action.

So have a good watch of the presentation I am using this morning Friday 25 November with the Sixth Form, which is about building self-worth. It’s also of course about building resilience, anger and shame; raising political awareness and teaching too about the Armour our society through parliament creates to protect civilians who genuinely care.

http://goo.gl/mZi4C

I’ll write back later about the next steps that developed from the presentation.

Firstly, may I give a warm welcome to all of our families, new and old, on our return to this new Academic Year 2011–12. Because of the very many layers on which our School operates, it’s difficult to be certain who gets to know what, so perhaps it’s helpful to confirm the following; we have started back this year with 109 students in the Sixth Form, 501 secondary pupils, 270 juniors, and 68 in the Nursery, and I am particularly pleased that the Open Days so far have seen us busier than ever, meeting with prospective parents interested in their children joining the School.

The life blood of our Schools is of course the pupils, and the spirit shown by them at all levels has been really quite amazing. As I write, Year 6 are on the Isle of Wight, 57 boys and girls enjoying the opportunity to work together and be away from home for an extended week; their curriculum seems particularly exciting with Beach & River studies joined up with map skills and orienteering, and a wide range of activities and sports. Preparations for our half-term trips are also well advanced, as we send the 1st and 2nd XV’s to Italy on Rugby tour to Lake Garda, the senior Netball sides to Malta, the GCSE linguists to Normandy, the rowers to their first training camp of the year at Longridge and our swimmers to the ISA Regional Gala. Many thanks to all of our families whom were able to support our Bonfire and Fireworks night; we seem to have had over 1200 in attendance at the first big social event in this Olympic year. Star Fireworks display was exceptional (they won the UK award for best display in 2010 and you can see our display: http://goo.gl/qjMtE ), as were the contributions from all; the Cake Sales, Tugs-of-war, Sporting challenges, Pumpkins and Guys. The three PTA Committees gave outstanding support for the event, and of course benefit from the surpluses generated!

We also welcome Mr Paul Bevis to our Leadership group as the Head Teacher at The College, and he has already brought amazing energy and insight into our work, reinvigorating anew our efforts to confirm our status as the leading Junior school in the area. Here, we are adding to our excellent provision and the in-depth preparation for 11+ success, a curriculum philosophy and structure that builds critical, confident and resilient learners, who are inquirers, problem solvers, intellectual risk takers as well as effective communicators. We are further defining how we build the essential foundation of an enduring moral sense and a set of personal values that are underpinned by deep feelings of self worth and happiness.

In conclusion, the remainder of this term is full of extraordinary activity in the Schools, as you’ll see from the details in the Bulletins (see http://www.clairescourt.com); not just because the Parent/Teacher evenings commence, but also Music Concerts for Juniors and Seniors, our Open Chess Festival and our enthusiastic support of Art on the Street in Maidenhead on Saturday 3 December. The PTA’s business also includes their Barn Dance on Saturday 26 November and the PTA Family Disco on Friday 2 December. In short, we should have quite well filled your (and my) diary with a mix of events to suit all ages and tastes, and I hope to meet up with you sometime soon!

James Wilding

Academic Principal

I think we all know that Henry Ford invented the Model T Ford, indeed brought motoring to the masses, 15 million of them to be precise!  What I like about the Henry Ford story is that he was a self-made man; born and brought up on a farm, he was clearly acquainted with hard-work.  His mother died when he was 12, an event which evidently inspired young Henry to live his life as his mother would have wished. During his adolescent years, he used his interest in things mechanical to mend friends’ and neighbours’ watches, though his deeper interest was in developing things mechanical to take the hard-work out of farming using animal labour. At the age of 17 he moved to the nearby city of Detroit to be apprenticed as a mechanic.  15 years later, now married and experienced in both engineering and the ‘new’ electricity, he made his first mechanised quadricycle. For the next 6 years and 2 failed companies, he built and raced his cars to gather sufficient publicity for his enterprise. At the age of 45, he designed and built the Model T Ford, at 50 the mechanised production line that revolutionised manufacture around the world.  He lived to the grand old age of 83, and an icon of the self-made man, an industrialist who continued to care for the common man. Just when you think that his life-story was all good, it must be said his anti-Semitic views were given much publicity by his profound wealth in the 1920s, and will have stoked some of the fires that if nothing else, blinded those Stateside that needed to see the growing threat to Jews across the world, most particularly of course in Nazi Germany.

Let’s be clear about Ford’s success; in the late 19^th century, a University education did not lead to manufacturing success. As now, most of the entrepreneurial success stories came from visionary adults who built their craft skills and understanding of the technological breakthroughs of the day to meet humanity’s needs. It’s all very well to think of the ‘market’ as being the driving force behind Ford’s ambitions, but his legacy of hardwork indicates that it was more than fickle opinion that created 15 million reliable motor cars! He married young, built his own farm and barn, clearly had his wife, Clara’s support as his ideas grew and collapsed in financial disarray before he eventually broke through.  You’ll find a similar pattern in Steve Job’s life story, another remarkable American who died last week. His company published this on their website “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius and the world an amazing human being”.  Amen to that.  You can’t move in this 21^st century without being touched by Job’s remarkable inventions, though it’s worth bearing in mind that neither of these men reached the summit without being part of a peer group that worked for that greater good of humanity as well.

And this is where our school comes in to play, as it is one of my jobs as Academic Principal to create and develop an environment within which boys and girls can develop as successful learners.  So that’s not just about creating an academic environment in which great grades can be achieved, but a culture which values diversity within achievement so that others whose strengths lie in the creative or idiosyncratic are also encouraged and supported too. That marks our school out as very different in the Eastern Thames valley, where good schools are synonymous with a selective entry, and a focus on league table position. Now whilst I’ll move heaven and earth to ensure our school is seen to the best in Maidenhead for academic achievement, there is so much more that we strive to achieve in terms of culture and atmosphere. And there is no better example of this happening in our community than the great school events we host, such as last weekend’s Olympic Bonfire night & Fireworks.  Yes Star fireworks are contracted to add their blitz to the blaze, 2010s Firework company of the Year, and well done them. But we would not have had an event without the hardwork of adults coming together voluntarily to put the ‘show’ together, which included super team work from bands, and pupils, and teams and families, without whose efforts we would not have had great guys and amazing pumpkins.

We’re currently processing the pictures taken on the day, but you can get some measure of the success of the show from this simple video I took using a Flip camera – http://goo.gl/qjMtE.  The music comes from Chariots of Fire (Vangelis) plus John Williams’ Olympic Fanfare. As you watch it, consider too the work of rather better modern day film makers than me, boys I taught at Claires Court, Christian Colson and Toby Hefferman. Christian is best known as the producer of Slumdog Millionaire, for which he received numerous awards including the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for best picture. Toby is somewhat younger, just rising to first assistant director on movies such as Pirates of the Carribean; On Stranger Tides and Clash of the Titans 2.  Here’s a snip of Toby talking through his work on a previous title, Quantum of Solace – http://goo.gl/b2975.  Now it’s true to say that Christian was first an academic achiever and then a film maker, but Toby just went straight to film and has worked blisteringly hard ever since.  And like Mr Ford, whose quote I headed this piece with, Toby continues to work hard on all things, which brings him into contact with Claires Court.

As I lead the review of Claires Court’s development plan for the next 5 years, at the heart of our provision must remain the strength of resolve for our pupils for which we are renowned, namely to build confidence and self-esteem, to equip with  a range of  life-skills and to provide a modern relevant education from which develops a love of learning and an understanding of the need for care and consideration for others. And there is nothing more important than the combination of legacy of world greats to inspire us, and the proximity of the talented pupils, both past and present, who know what our school really stands for and causes them to thrive.  I’ll close with a second quotation, this one from Steve Job’s, and a nice one to inspire every young man and women as they come to work in our school.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

It has been an extraordinarily busy start to the new academic year, so much so that Blogging on matters educational has had to take a bit more of a back seat than I’d like. Every week at school has had major events and highlights, and include not just Speech Day and Parent Teacher Association AGMs, but a whole host of wider community involvement, most notably running the Regional Arts exhibition at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts on Tuesday 4 October. The winning artefacts have been on display in the Arts centre Gallery; the exhibition comes down next Monday, and the winners travel to the National finals, to be held in Wokefield Park later in November. Here’s a video of the exhibition that gives you some idea of the content, covering the work from pre-prep years to A level, in Fine Art, mixed media, textiles and ceramics, digital and 3 dimensions.  http://youtu.be/nGZ21R3MYr4

Art teachers from the 40+ schools in ISA London West install the exhibition by 11am on the day, adjudication is over by 3 pm and the whole lots down by 5pm – an extraordinary ‘flash mob’ approach to art display, and rewarding for the teachers themselves, as it provides valuable insights on how they and their peer group of specialists are responding in the ever changing world of art and education.

The great pity about such events is that an audience of impressionable children don’t get to see the work in its entirety. As my quote from the American Basketball player, Michael Jordan indicates, belief in one’s ability is a prime requirement of success. In Art, where so much is possible if one only knows, seeing Art is amazingly important as a stimulus to the creative juices. Visitors to Claires Court Schools will see our pupils’ Art pretty much everywhere, and that display provides a guarantee that current pupils will get ‘hung’ in the future. It must be said that the older the pupil, the bigger the ‘hanging’ so in the Sixth Form centre there are some seriously large pieces that would not find pride of place in the family living room!

And it’s not just not Art that needs to be seen. Throughout the curriculum it is vital that subjects are brought alive by being seen in context, often up close and personal. I was fortunate enough to visit Flanders with the Year 10 Historians, on their visit to the Ypres Salient, to the memorial of Tyne cot to the fallen at the battle of Passchendaele in the summer of 1917 and subsequent British deaths to the end of the war. There’s no doubt that our young students of War, male and female bear witness to the horror of that conflict, even though now separated from the events by 90 years or so.

Those that know our school well will be aware of the extraordinary range and diversity of our trips, providing every opportunity for hands-on education,. It’s quite amusing to see the faces of teaching staff supporting the Geography department when they arrive at Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic coast of Dorset, and spot for the first time the walk they and their charges are going to take up and over the limestone cliffs to Durdle Door! This year, blessed by the good weather we have all enjoyed, Year 8’s visit provided further exceptional opportunity to witness the extensive erosion that has created this world renowned spectacle, breath the spray and witness the sheer scale of this natural wonder.

There has been a national debate about whether the Health & Safety executive’s remit in recent years has discouraged school trips; this summer their guidance was reduced from 150 pages to 8, and the hope is that schools will rebuild their long list visit and outings programme. Suffice it to say, we haven’t ever cut ours, because it has remained essential in an all ability range school to provide the learning environment that works for all, getting hands-on and made-up to fit the experience to the educational need.  That’s why last Saturday, a whole bunch of us were out practicing our expedition skills in the Eastern Thames Valley; you don’t have to go far outside of Maidenhead to glory in the beauty of our countryside, and on occasion the impenetrability of its footpaths!

A fellow Berkshire Headteacher, Anthony Seldon at Wellington College, went live this week with his frustration of government placing the focus on school performance on grade related league tables. And he’s right – he and I have both been fighting extraordinarily poor exam board marking in some subject areas – most of our Girls GCSE Business studies results have just been raised a grade because of inept external marking of coursework for example. The extraordinary scale of school examination run by government that impacts upon our schools is damaging the very educational experience we seek to provide, and UK schools are now in full consultation about how the new GCSE programme should look from next September. All I can say is that we must give time for our pupils to learn from reality and make some mistakes, from which they can learn and be ultimately more successful in the future.

In a recent OECD report, the UK was ranked 47th out of 65 nations in a table based on the number of teenagers who pick up a book, newspaper or magazine on a daily basis.  It seems from the Data that only four-in-10 teenagers in this country fail to read for enjoyment outside school.  The Daily Telegraphy reports that our secondary pupils are less likely to read than those who live in Kazakhstan, Albania, Indonesia and Peru.  This is the kind of news that should make Teachers and Parents more than  a little concerned. Reading for pleasure is the guaranteed way of improving vocabulary, comprehension, reflection, wisdom and well-being.  With so much evidence in the UK that children’s learning has been brought to its knees, it’s probably time some best practice got some noise in the blog.

There is a nice Arnold Lobel children’s story about the value of friendship, involving the central cast in his children’s book ‘Frog and Toad Are Friends’ (1970). Toad loses a button, and takes Frog on a previous journey, on a thankless and zany search for the missing button.  On returning home, the button is discovered and the Toad, now somewhat chagrined, makes Frog a coat as reward for his troubles, covered with all the buttons they found on the way!  Young children listen to fables such as this fascinated, not just by the superficial story, but by the insights into a deeper understanding of the human condition reading such stories brings.  And they’ll remember the tale for a lifetime.  Such reading is known as deep reading, the same type of reading style you need to adopt for reading poetry, Shakespeare and good literature. Slowing down, losing yourself in the text, immersing in the ideas that such an activity brings to the surface  is the essence of deep reading.

But the kind of reading described here is wholly different to the parallel skill we need to ensure our pupils develop, that being the ability to skim across the digital highway, to make choices of appropriate information  in a sea of data, so that we can synthesise, analyse and evaluate, to make intelligent and informed answer for our solution to a complex problem.  Now this ability to graze is not one brought to the surface by the arrival of the world-wide web, indeed it goes back to the time of Caxton, with the invention of the printing press and the tide of publications that then followed.  It’s just so much easier now to ‘crop’ the answers without needing to understand them.

For what the web offers our children is instant knowledge for questions posed, “I’ll google it, Sir”, followed by click, download and ‘present’.  Such a response was visible in the homework produced anew, when Encarta first appeared for the PC’s hard drive, when photocopiers appeared in libraries, indeed when Britannica arrived in the home library and of course before that, at each stage when technology arrived to make ‘work’ less onerous. If there is a repository of knowledge available somewhere nearby, then we’ll suspend judgment on its usefulness and just ‘own’ that work as if our own.  Job done, time to move on to something more important than ‘copying’ from the ‘board’.  Hmmm.

So here’s the rub; pretty much of all of a child’s life at school in the UK has been determined by the short-term goals of reaching a level, maintain that level in tests and assessments and them raising up a step to the next level from one age group transfer to the next. As a secondary school, all primary ‘feeders’ are able to tell us that their output always reaches Level 4 in English, often Level 5.  I am not the only secondary school leader who feels that the Literacy strategy, well-intentioned for sure, has produced a Houdini trick of monumental proportions, conning us that their children are well-educated, when they are just well ‘tested’. Children may come into Year 7 very well ‘levelled’, but no way equipped with the skills to read and write properly.

And the problem is of course that the children have been encouraged along the way by both praise and fortune; they have done what has been asked of them and success has followed.  What a pity we did not actually ensure that they learned for themselves what pleasures and pitfalls exist when undertaking depth studies; times when children are left to their own devices by the teacher in the classroom, architect of course of the learning environment but not of the instructor forcing in the knowledge. During my early years of headship, Year 6 pupils would arrive at Claires Court for interview, carrying with them their folder called ‘Topic’.  The best would be able to take me through a marvelous journey of discovery, threading historical, scientific and geographical ideas, stitched together with good language and great handwriting – no wordprocessing in those days.

So looking forward, our secondary schools have to loosen their curriculum, ensure there are plenty of discovery days for children to visits and explore real places where history happened, where geography and science are being made, but couple that with ordered time in the classroom, where actually the children have the opportunity to sit and read. It’s odd now in our target infested world, just how many children feel that they have the right to interrupt and misbehave in class; such behavior immediately destroys the environment in which such deep reading and contemplation happens.  You can see at a glance though why countries with much lower standards of living have better readers; the night-time distractions of PC and games machine simply don’t exist, and family values can’t include the installation of flat screens and wireless home networks to permit 24 hour edutainment on demand.

Parents need to brave enough to ensure that over  an hour before lights out, children are withdrawn from electronic gadgetry, not just PC or games machine, but TV and sound system too. Deprived of stimulation, the inquisitive mind will turn to easy reading, any reading, often repetitive, through which a love of reading slowly, and for pleasure is developed. Picture the acquisition of any complex skill; it takes time and care to get it right, but once learned, never unlearned.  And for such rules to be hard-wired into the family psyche, we need parents know this – not just a ‘nice to do if we were not so busy’ but a ‘need to do for our child’s whole emotional and intellectual well-being’.  How hard an ask is that?

During the next few weeks, the next steps of our development of ICT innovation are made.

Firstly, we are bringing on stream 100 net books for class usage at schools and college, most of which have been provided through funds raised by our PTA committees.  The model we have chose to use is the HP 100e, a robust made-for-education machine that should serve us well for 3 years or so.  They come on a 24 station trolley, and connect to the network wired trolley wirelessly.

Secondly,  we have pioneered the development of a Learning Hub for Schools based on the tools aggregated under the Google Apps for Education banner.  We are hosting the first 2 open access pilot courses in the UK  for these softwares this coming weekend, and our service based at http://www.clairescourt.net will provide a whole virtual school domain for pupils and staff, up in the Cloud.

Once enrolled into the service, our pupils will have access to a host of Google tools, such as Docs, Sites, Calendar and GMail, yet protected from the outside world as all of the tools only work internally.  External emails don’t come in any more than internal ones escape. As

our Year 6 pupils found in their trial last year, the tools allow for effective collaboration on projects, presentations and publications.  The Claires Court Hub will also provide unprecedented access between teachers and pupils should we close for any reason. Families won’t need to worry about downloading any software locally at home; providing they have access to the Internet, not only can they access documents and notices, but they also have access to the softwares needed to edit or create anew.

Each Hub member has loads of private storage space for files, plus links through to the other services the school provides, such as Taecanet Springboard and MyMaths.  During the next few months, the 6 pioneer schools in the country using this service will no doubt grow, share experiences and benefit from all the benefits of being in a large Google supported network.

You can find out more about Google Apps for Education here – http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/ – and if you want to take part in one of our 7 training events this Autumn, just let me know.

And finally, apparently the joke voted number 1 from this year’s Edinburgh fringe – by Nick Helm – “I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”  In the list the Telegraph published, I preferred Tim Vine – “Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.”

LOL!

Those who know me recognise I have ‘previous’ in this area.  As Chairman of ISA in 2002, during our Annual Conference, I called for the end of Key Stage 1 and 2 Assessments. At the time, it was sufficiently interesting that national press and regional radio cottoned on.  What concerned me then, and what concerns me now, is for a curriculum to inspire, there must be time for pupils’ interest, aptitude and skills to grow.  At some stage during the development of Assessment & Learning over the past 40 years, we have got much of it right.  The trouble is, when we have for English (for example) we haven’t for Maths, yet when reorganisation happens it happens across the board – moving the target for Maths onto some shorter term functional assessments might be a good thing (can they pass a Numeracy paper for example, such as the Proficiency in Arithmetic test run by the AEB in the 80s and early 90s), but that’s not the way forward to assess creative writing.  You don’t move dartboards so that wayward arrows hit the bull!

Anyway, you can read the whole Press release below – of course I am hugely proud of our pupils’ achievements, boys and girls, and I say that all the time, but they and I know too that by and large their education has been diminished by the repetitive testing they have endured to 16+.  And they get to continue that way to 18 too.  Now in some ways, modules for A levels has led to significant improvements in tracking pupil progress in the final 2 years of pre-University education, with no GAP Year 12 enjoyed by the lazier student. Exam boards have learned from the past and have reduced numbers of modules, and with only three or four subjects on the table, the demands are less onerous.  The key failure however that still arises at this level is that we simply don’t have confidence in the assessment process.  If a 41 out of 50 raw mark can be published as 73%, regressed by the exam board so that it reports fewer A grades, natural justice is not served.  Of course you have got to take account of the difference in difficulty of papers and find some mechanism for adjustment, so that one season’s A matches another in a subject, but Chief Examiners across the land confirm privately that this regression is more than that.  Political masters will not see grade inflation, so force this tinkering which discredits the process, because the assumption is that the Raw score mark is correct. Now actually for many subjects, up to a 10% variation can happen in the natural way of things.  One candidates tightly drawn and constructed arguments might actually be too good for an inexperienced marker to see. So 41 could actually be 45, and score 85% say, confidently into the A band!

Any way, such arcane discussion about Exam board practice rather takes me away from the main thrust of this message, which is that the curriculum assessment must support education not damage it!

Claires Court Schools – GCSE results 2011

Core statistics.

113 candidates sat 1138 GCSEs, pass rate 99.8% (A*-G), 80% pass rate A*-C.

87% of candidates gained 5 or more GCSE higher grade passes, and 76% including English and Mathematics.  

Commentary

Claires Court remains unusual as an Independent school in that we are not selective on Academic ability.  For some of our pupils, gaining a hatful of A* and A grades is the target, and for many others, securing a higher grade pass alone is the result they seek, opening as those do access to A level and equivalent courses at Sixth Form level. Once again I am delighted to report excellent GCSE results for our boys and girls, gaining similar results in recent years with 87% gaining 5 or more GCSEs including English and Maths.  With individuals actually averaging over 8 GCSE higher grades ahead, most are have made their major target, being now well set for A level courses in our own sixth form and elsewhere.  We consider ‘outstanding scholarship performances’ to be for all candidates with at least 5A grades, and 21 of our pupils have reached that standard.  Best male was Joe Curran who gained 5A* and 2 As, best girl was Michaela Lawson who gained 4A* and 5As. Other Star candidates include Headboy Ben Aldren and Head Girl Jo Beck who both gained 8A*/A, Kirah Bradley and Chester Camm both gained 3A* and 1A in Maths and the sciences, with Chester gaining an A grade in A level computing adding a real extra to his challenge to be our best number cruncher!  Sarah Allerton, Aaron Bhalla, Alex Corrigall, Alex Fyfe, Ashleigh Richards, Jessica Evans, Ellie Griffiths all gained at least 6 or more A*/A, with English, English Literature, History Maths, Sciences Religious Studies, Physical Education and Spanish leading the way at departmental level across both boys and girls. 

More generally, it is really pleasing to see that the nation’s focus has returned to encouraging pupils to pursue traditional subject-based disciplines, recognisably our ‘offer’ at Claires Court..  Personally I believe most young men and women are best prepared for A level and University by following subjects that are known to be rigorous and that encourage depth of thought and application of skills to answer challenging questions.  Longer term, we are not best served by modular examinations that stretch from age 14 to 18, which inevitably focusses attention on the ‘test’; students need time to develop and take responsibility for their learning, develop innovation and excitement in equal measure for their studies.  Of the leading world nations, we are the only one that requires such intensive examination throughout the secondary phase.  It is time to dispatch GCSEs and other public assessments prior to 18 to the past; such awards don’t tell employers anything about a young adult’s ability to work, they encourage specialisation too early before learners actually know what’s good for them, and they detract from the broader purpose that schools have to educate their children fully for their futures!  Not withstanding these reservations about GCSEs in general, I am very proud of all of our pupils’ achievements this year; in academy, sport, the arts and community involvement, Claires Court’s 16+ cohort are well set to play their full part for the future.