Sanctions - the other side of the coin!

I have had a brief conversation with a fellow Twitterer (@PoliticsTeacher) about my earlier post explaining the rewards system that I had developed in my previous school as Headteacher. The question posed was what I felt about "the penalty systems for the little ones". In a later Tweet the use of detentions for children as young as seven.

As educators our 'front end' conversations tend to focus on being how we positively manage children's behaviour through intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We rarely discuss the sanctions (a word that I prefer to 'penalty') that we use in schools. Most schools will have some form of agreed system of sanctions that are available to class teachers and to the Headteacher. In the current political climate this is likely to receive more public attention in coming months as Mr Gove has repeatedly stated that one of his key objectives is to ensure good discipline in classrooms.

In my school, we spent a considerable amount of time consulting with three main groups when developing our approach to the use of sanctions. With each group the aim of the process was to identify which behaviours they saw as being most disruptive to learning, which they considered to be the most serious (not always the same) and what sort of sanctions they saw as appropriate to be applied in school.

As you might expect there was some variation in opinions. For example the pupils rated consistent chattering in lessons as being very serious and disruptive, whilst teachers saw this as having a manageable impact on learning, and parents were more concerned about physical violence (which was actually very rare). I am not offering an opinion as to which of these groups is right – other than to say the all are.

The challenge as a school leader was to take the information from the consultation and to make some decisions that would consider these views. The result of the consultation was a ladder of behaviours with a ladder of consequences. I use the word consequences deliberately. The consequences included from the teacher dealing with the instance by talking with the child, removing Golden Time allocation (part of the rewards system), recording repeated behaviour in a record book, removal of play time and other more serious sanctions.

Parents were very concerned about the physical safety of the children, and wanted acts of violence dealt with very severely. There were a significant number who would have been happy to see exclusions used regularly. However, the system that we adopted followed a principle of 'proportionate response'. If tempers had flared and both parties needed to accept some responsibility then the sanction would most probably be less than if someone had acted unprovoked.

Training is the most important plank in ensuring that the behaviour and sanctions systems work. Everyone should understand the system. Once a system is agreed on, all staff in the school were expected to work within the system. The pupils had the right to know how they would be dealt with if they chose to behave outside the system. The parents had a right to know the system, and to have faith that it was being applied.

However, a well defined system must have some flexibilities and tolerances. Personally I have never believed that any child comes into school with malice in their heart, and this informed my processes and decision making.  Understanding the causal effects on behaviour is crucial when choosing to apply sanctions. At the less serious end of the scale a teacher makes decisions about when to inform parents that there has been bad behaviour. At the more serious end a Headteacher or Senior Leader has to make difficult decisions about exclusion from a classroom or even exclusion (often publicly called expulsion) from school.

Parents have often told me that they would like to know as soon as something happens. This is not practical or even desirable. Consider the time that it would take to have three conversations every day to discuss each low level transgression of a classroom rule. Teachers would become so overburdened with this duty that they would lose time to plan and resource high quality learning experiences (which would result in more instances of low level transgressions). It is not desirable because behaviour management relies on more than a paper trail system. It relies on relationships between the staff and the learners which are built on trust and respect. If a teacher is talking to parents every time a child transgresses, I don't believe that a good working relationship can be developed. The child will have no respect for the teacher, nor will they develop a trust in them.

Teachers make good choices about when to involve a parent. They use professional judgments all the time about when to involve a parent in the process. Our system had guidelines, but ultimately I trusted my staff to make the right call. Where a decision about parental involvement was not clear then they talked to me or a Senior Leader and were given advice based on and guided by experience. One certainty was that if a teacher had to talk to the parents of a child who had been on the wrong end of poor behaviour, then they would always talk to the parents of the perpetrator – avoiding parents finding out from each other.

Going back to my belief about children's inherent goodness, I believe there is a need for a coherent system of sanctions that is understood by all, including the flexibility that teachers and leaders have in applying this. However, I also believe that it is more important that a policy focusses on the promotion of positive behaviours through intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Value the positive, and the positive will value you?

BOGTF - learning number bonds and other methods

I want to share some ideas about supporting Key Stage 2 learners with their mathematical development. The methods that I outline below are not necessarily recommended, and I accept that there will be mathematicians who will disagree with my methods. However, they have developed over the best part of a decade where I was the teacher who had the responsibility for ensuring that children who had 'failed' to make progress during Key Stage 2 caught up. Whilst this was a part of the "Standards game" my motivation was for the children, as not having a basic level of numeracy is as detrimental as in life as not being able to read. Shall I jump off my soap box?

Buy One Get Three Free
This method plays on the BOGOF offers that we are all so familiar with in the shops, except it goes one better - you get three free not two!

Purpose: To support the learning and recall of number bonds for pairs of numbers to 10, 100 and 1000.
Apparatus: It is useful for some learners to have some concrete apparatus for this activity.

• ten 1p coins or
• ten uni-link cubes or ten multilink cubes or
• ten coloured counters or
• ten sweets (Healthy Schools alert), etc. etc.

Method: For children that are really struggling to retain and recall the pairs of numbers that make ten it is advisable to play with the ten objects and investigate and explore different pairings. These could be recorded visually, but should be supported by writing as an equation.

Taking the example in the picture on the left, it can be seen that 4 + 6 = 10. Ask the pupils to reverse the coins, thus making 6 + 4 = 10. So here is the first free fact.

Knowing that there are ten coins, remove four of the coins. This is equivalent to 10 - 4 = 6. Replace the coins, making 10 once more. Now remove 6 coins, equivalent to 10 - 6 = 4.

Make sure that the pupil has understood what is happening through the use of the apparatus before writing the four equations:

4 + 6 = 10
6 + 4 = 10
10 - 4 = 6
10 - 6 = 4

From this point guide the pupils to find any common features of the four equations. Of course, you are looking for them to identify that each of the four equations has the same three numbers arranged differently. If the pupils don't see this easily, explore a different pair of numbers through the apparatus.

So, once the pupils have made the connection between the four equations you can move on.

Stage 2
Next, make a list of number pairs that make 10:
0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5, 6+4, 7+3, 8+2, 9+1, 10+0.
If the pupils have understood the principles in the equation forming above they should notice that 5 out of 11 of the pairs above are reversals, and therefore to know all eleven pairs they only need to remember 6 of them (I think it is important not to forget the 0+10 pairing).

The benefit of the BOGTF approach comes out here. When working with pupils who have made very slow progress in Key Stage 2 I have found that one of the thing impeding progress is their self-esteem, and that this has a close link with a fear of having to remember so many things. By learning the five pairings of numbers that make ten, the pupils also have access to another 16 facts. (whoa - that should be 18 I hear you say! It is, but 5+5=10, 5+5=10 and 10-5=5, 10-5=5 reduces to two facts due to the repetition - linking with reducing to lowest common denominator much later in the progression!)

This realisation that if they learn 6 facts that they then have immediate access to 22 facts is an eye opener, and really empowers pupils. However, it is vital that they understand the earlier stage in this process. They have to be able to explain the equivalence (in their own way is fine) to be able to have an intellectual security in converting a known fact to one of its "free group".

Moving on to 100 and 1000
By applying knowledge of what happens when a number is multiplied by 10 the pupil can begin to understand that if they know 4 + 6 = 10 they can apply this to recall quickly that 40 + 60 = 100 etc. Again, where this is insecure, I would recommend using some visual stimulus or apparatus.

#ukedchat - gender differences

image created at http://www.wordle.net/

Wow! Another furiously paced #ukedchat this week. They are great, but mentally exhausting and made even more difficult when your three year old doesn't want to settle down to sleep!

The theme of tonight's chat was whether there is a difference in the way boys and girls learn, and whether or not it matters. About half way through the hour a strand developed which focussed on whether there was something that we as professionals could do that turns this on its head.

I believe that there are ways of removing gender differences in learning, and that much of this has to do with ethos building. Setting of expectations for behaviour has such a fundamental effect on the behaviour observed, and as teachers, leaders and educators in general we have fantastic opportunities to be the influencers. (see my earlier post about two percenters)

In my classroom I truly believe that everyone is equal. Boys and girls. What's more, I believe that every child is an individual. As a result I believe that each child will have a unique set of characterstics that will motivate them to learn at their optimum rate. This could sound like a recipe for choas, but it builds upon the notion that there are many attributes that groups of learners will share (e.g. being treated with respect, being treated curteously, being challenged, being secure). Therefore these common attributes (and I'm sure there are others that could and should be added to the preceeding list) develop the core ethos of the practitioner.

This sounds a lot like a class charter doesn't it? Everyone does a class charter now. They are en vogue. However, does everyone live and breathe that charter beyond the second week in September? I would argue that too many don't. This is because as the hustle and bustle of the term builds we fall back to our default personality in the classroom, and if your default personality isn't aligned with the class charter...

So, it takes effort. It also takes demonstration of the values and ethos through the practitioner behaviour. If I want to be treated curteously, then I must treat everyone curteously. Sometimes this is hard. Sometimes I want to scream at that child who has raised their voice and upset someone for the third time in the day. Sometimes I fail, and do shout. However, I must work hard to ensure that this is a very small minority of the time! However, without fail, the effort to live by the values that I want mirrored by the learners in my care is repayed with multiple interest. This is irrespective of gender.

However, I mentioned the need to tailor to the individual. This is essential if all learners are to thrive. Again, there is an investment of time required here. The teacher must know their children as individuals. They must know which children will be motivated by a humourous remark, who is prompted by competition, who is impelled by carrot and stick and apply the appropriate strategy.

The development of ethos must transcend the whole school, and this is the responsibility of the whole school staff but particularly the leadership team. One of the points raised by contributors to the #ukedchat was that developing the ethos amongst the parents can sometimes be difficult as there is a societal expectation that the gender differences will have an impact. My argument here is that we have to be counter cultural as educators. If through research and practice we find pedagogical responses that deliver great results that go against societal expectations then we should shout out about them, not retreat into behaviours that might reinforce the societal stereotypes.

This is a truncated argument, and I do accept that there is strong evidence of gender difference in outcomes in several subject areas. However, many attitudes to learning are formed during primary school that remain with the learner for life. By setting an ethos and expectation of fairness and neutrality in our schools we may be able to work against gender differences. Sadly we may not know if we have been successful for another 30 years or so, when our current crop of learners are parents of children in our schools. That doesn't mean that we should give up. Let's shout from the rooftops about ethos, and model the behaviours we want to see in the mirror!

Good luck!

Twitter Library...#ukedchat

During tonight's #ukedchat (about gender differences in learning) the Kagan approach to cooperative learning was mentioned by several contributors. @KnikiDavies very quickly did some research, and the cheapest she could find the book was £38, which caused a sharp intake of breath.

However, this got me thinking. If there are a whole bunch of people joining this network of twitterers, can their collective power be harnessed to develop a Twitter Library. Here's the concept:

• a page is created that #ukedchat followers can build up an "Essential Reading List"
• if anyone has a copy, they indicate this on the page.
• someone who wants to read the book contacts the owner.
• the owner posts the book on, and the owner of the book is amended on the page.
• when someone else wants the book, they contact the new owner, and that person sends it on.

Ok. This relies on people joining the group being prepared to purchase a book from the list, and then post it onto someone else. The original purchaser is paying for the book, and then for the postage. Why would you? Well, you should then have access to other books that are on the reading list. If the concept works, members of the group only have to buy one book. The only agreement is that everyone agrees to post the book to the person next on the list.

It would work on a great deal of trust, but there is a potential stick. Anyone who does not work within the trust of the library gets mentioned within the community network.

Am I barking mad? Has this been tried before? What tech solutions are available?

@curricadvocate and #ukedlibrary to discuss on Twitter!

Many thanks!

Rewards Systems part 2

Image created at http://www.wordle.net/

I just wanted to outline the reward system that we put in place in my first headship. When I started at the school there was a raffle system (which I have outlined an objection to in Rewards Systems - square peg into round hole) and it needed to change.


My initiial change to introduce a weekly "Star of the Week Certificate" to replace the raffle system. Each class awarded one certificate rewarding something that the recipient had done really well during the week, which could be either behaviour, attitude or learning. The certificate seemed to be well recieved by pupils and parents, but there were occasional comments from pupils about the lack of prizes and the fact that only one or two certificates were being given to each class in a week.

In the September I decided that we needed to review the behaviour and rewards policy. This was done in consultation with the pupils, parents, staff and governors. Developing a policy as important as beahviour and rewards has to be done in consultation with the key stakeholders - and the resulting policy was one of the defining policies in the school.

The rewards system developed was one which would encourage individual response, and gave each pupil in the school the opportunity to achieve and be rewarded publicly. Each child was given a merit chart which they kept stapled and folded inside the back of their reading record. The merit chart was constructed as a 5x5 grid. Each time a pupil did something in their work that met a target, or was above and beyond expectations they were given a merit sticker or stamp. A merit sticker could also be awarded for exceptional behaviour, good manners, supporting another pupil, etc. etc. Once a child had earnt five merit stickers they were presented with a "merit star" which was a very simple paper star with their name written on and the date of the award. This was presented in the Celebration assembly on Friday morning.

Once the merit chart was completed the pupil earnt their first badge. This was a "Blue Badge" - and enamel blue badge that they wore on their uniform. Again this was presented in the Celebration Assembly on a Friday morning. Having recieved the Blue Badge the pupil then started another merit chart and started earning merits again. The completion of the second chart led to a Bronze Badge, and from there a Silver Badge. Gold badges were slightly harder to attain - they required a fourth and fifth merit chart to be completed. Each time a pupil acheived a Badge they had their photo on our achievements board in the school entrance, and their name (no photo) published on the achievements page of the school website.

There were no prizes attached to the system, other than the pride of being able to wear the badges. The children always knew exactly how many merits they were from their next badge. What's more, so did their friends, and this led to the children encouraging each other and finding another way of earning another merit. Sometimes, friends might even attempt to persuade their teacher that they really should award a merit to someone close to a Badge award. Funnily enough, this had a positive impact on the development of the peer review and assessment elements of our AfL practice.

I have written this in the past tense, as I am no longer Head at the school (made an interesting decision in light of the change of Government to work for QCDA). However, as far as I am aware the system has been continued by the new Head and there are no plans to change it, so it couldn't have been too bad.

Thanks to Nikki Davies, who commented on my last post. I think there are some interesting similarities between the two systems developed. Please do leave some information about your rewards system. I am very interested to see what else is happening out there.

Rewards Systems - Square pegs and round holes

image created at http://www.wordle.net/

I'm trying to fit a couple of square pegs into round holes at the moment. Rewards systems have been occupying my thinking for the last couple of days. The reason for this procrastination has been two separate conversations. One was with my seven year old son, and the other with my wife.

I picked the children up from their childminder at the end of the day, and went through the usual run of questions (did you have a good day? What did you do at school? Did you learn anything exciting? etc. etc. etc.) when he said something about the rewards system in school. Now, I thought I understood the school's rewards system, which is basically positive rewards with an indicator of how well the pupils had done during the day through a sliding scale which the children's names were pegged to. The system has been in use for a couple of years, and it motivates my son. My son's biggest fear has been that he would ever be placed on the 2 places on the scale that indicate that behaviour and performance was not good. As we had our conversation, my son (7 years old) talked about the lucky child that had pulled the raffle ticket out of the jar. The raffle tickets are the new reward for doing something good.

The second conversation was with my wife, who is a Deputy Headteacher in an urban primary school. One of the staff at her school had been to a conference hosted by Shirley Clarke at the end of last term. I have read several of Shirley Clarke's books about Assessment for Learning and I have been quite heavily influenced by much of what I have read. The link to rewards is that at the conference Shirely Clarke talked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and how assessment and rewards systems can reinforce the process of extrinsic motivation and that this can actually close down aspirations for learners. Therefore, as well as marking without grades, rewards systems should not be used to influence extrinsic behaviours.

So, square pegs and round holes. My son is motivated by rewards. He is, depsite all our best efforts, extrinsically motivated. Praise is enough. He needs to know that what he is doing is a) right and b) pleasing you. Therefore we use rewards regularly at home when something has to be done! I believe in Shirley Clarke's messages about assessment without grading and that we should encourage the development of intrinsic motivation. These two don't go together!

Another square peg and round hole. I have used positive reward systems in my class and in the school that I was Headteacher of. They worked. They showed pupils that we valued their contributions and they showed the parents that we valued their contributions. I am going to write a separate post to explain the system we used in our school. However, I really have a passionate objection to raffles. To me they reduce a reward to pure chance with no relationship between the effort put in and the reward received. A child only has to get one raffle ticket to be in with a chance of winning. The child who gets ten tickets has a better mathematical chance of being drawn, but how many times have you bought lots of raffle tickets and left the room without a prize. Here's the square peg bit. When I talked to my son, he was very motivated by the raffle system - and actually said that it was better than what they did before. Ouch. (It might be that he got seven tickets in his first week, and sometimes went a whole week last year without moving his peg - different teachers, and I rated last years teacher highly by the way!)

I would be really interested to know your views, and to collect some examples of reward systems that are in place. I would be even more interested to hear from schools that are successfully developing intrinsic motivation methods. Please do add your comments.

Wordnik - a great on line dictionary

This is going to be my shortest post yet.

image from
http://www.fasttranslator.co.uk/

If you are lost for a word, or want to sound more interesting (exciting, absorbing) one then check out Wordnik which is an online dictionary and thesaurus. There is a word of the day which is good fun. Could you get your pupils to find a way to use the word of the day in speech or writing during the day?

http://www.wordnik.com/word-of-the-day

Found via a tweet from @AngelaMaiers. Thanks

The Psychology of #ukedchat

image created in http://www.wordle.net/

I have been thinking. (Steady...)

I was inspired by the #ukedchat this evening. Hence the blog post about "Having Fun". Why was I so inspired? Well, it had something to do with having a dialogue (at a hell of a pace) about a topic that is important to me. It also had something to do with the obvious passion and committment of the other Twitterers. Another reason was simply connecting with a new network of people.

I said that I had been thinking though...

I once listened to Andy Cope at a conference earlier this year. Andy Cope is a motivational speaker, but he also a serious scientist. Cope has been studying the science of happiness - which sounds like a cliched headline from the Daily Mail. One of his major findings/theorie is about "Two percenters and Mood Hoovers".

Let me explain...

A two percenter is that person who always finds the positive in a situation, who is always prepared to say something encouraging even when delivering difficult news, who is the person who others look to for ideas. As the title suggests, these eternally happy and positive people form about 2% of the general population.

A Mood Hoover is the person who sits in the corner and says little, but when they do say somehting it is the sort of comment that sucks the enthusiasm out even the most positive conversation. I think of them as like the Dementors in Harry Potter. The Mood Hoovers make up the bottom 5% of the population.

Everyone else has the capacity to behave like the Two Percenter or like the Mood Hoover. Our behaviours can be directly influenced by the behaviours of other people in the room, and can be determined very quickly because of the other person's behaviour.

Back to #ukedchat...

I think that everyone participating in #ukedchat is a self-selecting Two Percenter. The people are motivated to develop a Personal Learning Network that stretches beyond their school. Why? Because it makes a difference to the learners they are involved with. By the very nature of social networking it would appear to me that this is not restricted to the learners in their schools or classes, but to each and every learner associated with each and every member of the PLN. The committment to be involved in a PLN and something like #ukedchat is an intrinsically positive action.

Thank you to everyone who is involved. I have been invigorated by the discussion, and I'm delighted to be surrounded by Two Percenters. It's a great place to be. If you haven't joined in yet, what are you waiting for?

Having Fun

image created at http://www.wordle.net/

Wow! I've just taken part in my first #ukedchat on Twitter. If you don't yet know what that is, I have attached a link to Ian Addison's blog which explains the concept very succinctly. The topic for this evening's discussion centred around making learning fun.

The discussion spent a lot of time focussing on a definition of 'fun' and it seemed to be agreed that 'fun' should not be used in the flippant sense of larking around, but more in terms of being engaged, motivated, stimulated and energised to use but a few words. Personally I am a big advocate of 'fun'. I don't think there can be enough 'fun' in the classroom, or in any learning - and in defining 'fun' I would agree with  the words used earlier in the paragraph.

Many of our children bring baggage to school with them. This ranges from a minor dispute with a sibling or parent, to the rabbit dying, to far worse things that we all know happen in the lives of the children we work with. School should be a haven, where the baggage can be left at the door, a place of trust and balance. Each individual needs this - and I include staff in this thought.

So, assuming emotional stability is achieved what is fun? In developing our curriculum at my previous school my one requirement of staff was that they had fun planning and teaching it. (well, apart from covering the curriculum, and being at least good in quality of teaching and learning, and ...). Why? It comes from my own experiences. I know that the best teaching I have ever done has been when I have really enjoyed the content and topic. I know that these made for the lessons that pupils described as their most memorable, and that they remembered what we had been learning.

It's a lofty ambition. However, through collaboration, commitment and consistency we were able to arrive at a curriculum that our pupils regularly called fun. Were they larking about all the time? No. They most definitely weren't. Standards in the school improved dramatically in two years (both measurable through data and softer measures such as behaviour and attendance).

One of the most significant factors in developing fun was to change our pedagogy. We worked very hard to develop strategies that allowed us to act as a Guide On The Side (GOTS) more often than we acted as Sage On The Stage (SOTS). When acting as a SOTS teacher there is a danger that we act as the fountain of all knowledge, and that our voice and thoughts dominate the learning time. Where SOTS teaching takes place more frequently than GOTS I have noticed that there is less involvement in the learning from the pupils. That is not to say that they were unmotivated or unenthusiastic. They weren't. They just weren't committed to participating in the learning. As the ratio of GOTS teaching increased, so too did the enthusiastic involvement of the learner. The GOTS teacher provides prompts, facilitates discussion and intervenes at well judged and carefully planned moments. However, the learners feel more in control, and at the same time more challenged.

As time passed, our learners became more enthusiastic in and out of the classroom. They became more involved with decision making in the school, and their pride in our school increased dramatically. As a result the school became an even more exciting place to be, and the enthusiasm and passion became an ever increasing circle. Parental engagement with the curriculum increased dramatically, and the parents also took on greater shared repsonibility for the learning. Partnership started to be a true description of the teacher-pupil-parent partnership.

This is a very simplistic description of four years of hard work. There were many stumbling blocks and several near disasters. But reaffirming the work was the desire for everyone to have 'fun' - but not just in the sense of larking around!

Ian Addison's explanation of #ukedchat - click here.

Training Days

Today was rather strange. It is the first time in 13 years that I have not been in school either participating in, or leading a training day. I have watched the Twitter traffic talking with optimism and enthusiasm about the first day - most on training days, some with the children in already. My wife has been in school today for the first of two training days. I have taken two days leave, and today have been running my very own mini-kids club (probably should be Ofsteded to check quality of provision). My three children and my nephew and niece have all been here today enjoying the sunshine and bouncing non-stop on the trampoline. We've had a lovely day - but it has made me realise how much I have missed being in school today.

The first day of a new school year is always a good one. Everyone feels (almost) refreshed and has done somthing exciting - even if it is just sitting and reading a few books that have nothing to do with the day job. There is a sense of optimism about all that is to be achieved during the year, and the classroom looks at its glorious best.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon helping my wife set up her classroom  - it has been converted into a 1940s shop / house complete with black out curtains. One of the most exciting parts of setting up the room has been the lack of printing and laminating. Labels have been handwritten, displays drawn with pen and paper, and display boards have no borders - in true austere fashion. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see the reaction of the children when they walk in on Monday morning.

If you have been in school today, I hope you have enjoyed it, and I hope you remember that you are doing the best job in the world. (and that this memory still holds at the end of next week when you are fully into the pace of school life!)

Three blogs that I have read this evening that have given a flavour of the first day in school are:
Mrs Davies's Blog
SMichael920's Blog
NQT Rollercoaster Blog

Press and Blogoshpere Digest - A Levels

Internet Digest                          Week ending: 20th August 2010

A Level Results Special

It has been a light week in the press for education, apart from the Annual focus on A Levels. This week's digest summarises the best (and worst?) of the coverage. One of the most worrying aspects of the coverage from a personal point of view is that the majority of "professional" comment came from staff working in the Independent schools. Very little voice was given to State sector Headteachers – a self-fulfilling prophecy on behalf of the papers?

Analysis of results

(i) The Daily Mail – So much for tough new A Levels
(ii) The Daily Telegraph – One in 12 awarded A* grade
(iii) The Independent – New A* grade for 1 in 12 students
(iv) The Guardian – A Level pass rate rises to 97.6%
(v) The BBC – A* grade boosts new exams record
(vi) The TES – Thousands of pupils exceed expectations
(vii) The Telegraph – gender gap narrowing
(viii) The Independent – subject by subject data
(ix) The Mail – no more illusions about education

Articles i – v all raise similar questions about whether the A* grade will be useful in supporting universities to sift out the most talented students. Much re-reporting of the information that many universities have decided not to use the predictions of A* grades in making conditional offers. The Mail also raise the question that Independent sector schools have had more entries receiving the "supergrade". The Mail report (i) on 1 in 13 achieving the grade whilst The Telegraph and The Independent report the 8.3% figure for A* grades against the predicted 7% from modeling done using 2009 grades. One Headteacher is quoted across several articles giving an opinion that the new grade had actually inspired the brightest pupils to work much harder than they might have done previously due to a desire to be awarded the A* rather than 'just' an A.

The Independent article (iii) also features comments from John Dunsford (ASCL) who has said that changes made to the style of question have made sure the exam is demanding and refutes any claim that there has been a dumbing down. The Independent (viii) also published a subject by subject breakdown of grades, which also gives gender comparisons.

The Guardian (iv) reports on the 28th successive annual rise in results (although this year's is rise is 0.1%). The article also reports on a study by Durham University that has shown that a student that got a C in 1988 would receive an A in today's exams (does that mean I can put "but it would be an A now" on my CV?)

The Telegraph article (vii) about the gender gap reports that girls have still outperformed boys this year, but that the gap is now at its smallest since 2001. Does that mean that the papers might start using some photos of boys receiving their grades? Not one photo appearing in the press last week featured a male candidate receiving or celebrating their grades!!

The Mail produced a comment piece (ix) which asks the public and government (previous and present) to think carefully about the A level announcements. It questions the validity of results improving year on year for such a long period of time whilst the PICA study that is quoted shows UK performance in Science, reading and mathematics slipping when compared to other nations. Being ranked 24th in the international study is a "miserable" result.

Percentage of entries achieving an A* grade
Daily Mail              1 in 13       7.6%
Daily Telegraph      1 in 12       8.3%
The Independent    1 in 12       8.3%
The Guardian                          8%
The TES                                 8.1%
The BBC                                8.3%

Subject perspectives

(i) The Telegraph – Dyson warns media A Levels twice as popular as technologies
(ii) The Independent – Students turning to sciences, figures show
(iii) The Guardian – banned subjects list suspicion
(iv) The BBC – Psychology soaring

Within the article about Sir James Dyson's concerns about the number of students taking STEM subjects compared to media subjects there is a more general concern about the suitability of the education system (including higher education) in providing graduates with skill sets that will support the STEM industries. Dyson appears to be calling for a system which places a much greater emphasis on work related learning, including at degree level.

The Independent headline (ii) would appear to contradict the Telegraph headline (i). However, both articles report on the increased uptake in STEM subjects this year. Sir James Dyson's point is that the gap still needs to be dramatically closed if industry in the UK is to continue to be competitive and use British graduates. Twice as many students sat media related exams as STEM exams.

In the Guardian story (iii) there is a whiff of a conspiracy theory. It is reported that the Russell Group of Universities has an unpublished list of subjects which are not acceptable within the admissions process. The list, unsurprisingly in the opinion of the journalist, is biased in favour of students from private schools where the range of subjects taken is much more 'traditional'.

The BBC article (iv) provides some interesting graphics that tell the story of A Level entries and grade awards, both historically and for this year. There is a graph showing the percentage of A grades awarded within each subject, which shows that the subject with the most A grades awarded as a proportion of entries was Further Mathematics, followed by Mathematics! This makes me wonder what the level of self-selection is in each of the subjects, and how this affects the proportion of higher grades awarded?

Reforming the system

(i) The Independent – new A* grades have revived the debate about dumbing down
(ii) The Telegraph – exams face major overhaul
(iii) The Guardian – changing habits may spell the end for pencil and paper tests

The Independent article (i) is a lengthy analysis of the current A level system and its relationship with the University admissions system. The article makes the assumption that the key raison d'être of the A Level is to support Universities in offering places to the right candidates in a fair and equitable way. As the number of students taking the A level has increased dramatically, so too has the number of students passing – and this is one of the central problems in using the A Level grades as an equitable system. However, the article also points out that our stay-on rate to further and higher education is lower than many developed countries, and points out that several developed nations have seen the economic downturn as a reason for increasing higher education funding not cutting it.

The article goes on to make the following points:

· The A* grade is an improvement in the system by requiring a 90% pass for the A2 year.

· The introduction of the 'stretch and challenge type questions is a positive development as it places an emphasis on the thinking skills rather than just knowledge retention. However, it also causes a problem as the quality of the marker must be higher and the article expresses concerns that there are enough suitably qualified markers in the system.

· Predicted grades do not support an equitable admissions system. Universities should have access to raw scores so that they can see which students have scraped the grade and which have passed easily.

· To allow this to happen the exams should be taken earlier in the cycle – which the article points out is already being done in GCSE qualifications.

The Telegraph article (ii) takes the chance to report on the review of the A levels that is to take place later this year, including mentioning again the possible axing of the AS level exam. Questions are raised about the changes made to introduce the A* grade, which have not actually improved the quality of the syllabus in the opinion of one commentator. The following quote from Anastasia De Wall, head of education at think tank Civitas is an indication of the feel of the article overall "The very introduction of the A* showed there was a fundamental crisis in the system. The fact that so many people have got them shows that they are not the solution.

"The problem is re-sits, because so many people are re-sitting their AS papers, doing better every time and getting better overall results in the end."

The third article published in the Guardian (iii) has an interesting perspective on the future methodology of testing. It refers to Ofqual when saying that in the future it is likely that students will take all their exams on a computer rather than through handwritten methods. There are responses from a number of people, who point out the biggest barrier to this is the capability of software at the moment to allow certain tasks, e.g. graphing, to completed on a computer. The suggestion is that pupils entering Reception classes this September are likely to be the first generation of students to dispose of the pencil and paper.

Alternative Qualifications – IB and Diploma

(i) The Independent – Leading Independent Grammar to recommend IB
(ii) The Telegraph – we need a clearer way to assess top students
(iii) The Telegraph – Just 600 pupils take new diploma

Chelmsford County High School for Girls in Essex is going to recommend that it's students study the IB rather than the A Level. Reported in the Independent (i), the Headteacher of this school feels that the IB will be a better qualification to study as it is broader in range, and requires the students to develop analytical and thinking skills. She does note that take up is likely to be slow, as the students and parents tend to be quite conservative in their choices.

In article ii John Schmitt, Head of English at Charterhouse, reviews three different systems: A Levels, IB and Pre-U. In the article he is making the case for IB and Pre-U being much better systems for developing the talents of the brightest students. The case is made on comparing the grading systems and on syllabus content. One interesting point made about the IB and Pre-U is that they are developed and refined without Government intervention.

The first award of Advanced Diplomas is covered in The Telegraph (iii). The article is quite dismissive of the qualification, and makes much of the fact that only 600 have been awarded. There is a partial breakdown of the numbers and percentages awarded an A grade in each of the diplomas offered. In the article, the future viability of the qualification is called into question with the announcement of the scrapping of science, humanities and languages being referred to again.

Other Stories

(i) The Guardian - letters

The Guardian carry three letters in response to an article written for the G2 section. In one letter the respondent challenges the author on her demand that A Levels should be completed by examinations as these prepare people for the "real world", by making a point that in her world of work nothing is written and presented from memory alone, and is usually done with a modicum of peer review against a tight deadline. Sound familiar?