Making sense of educational success
In 2023, concerns about progress and well-being, parent power and a little optimism
It can be confusing reading the media coverage on education. Parents hear about kids’ not turning up (as I’ve discussed here), about workforce shortages, stunted academic and personal development, and poor well-being, amid the damage done by the closure of schools during the pandemic. And yet we also hear that some international comparisons of education rate us highly. For instance, England performed fourth best (out of 43 countries) in the Progress International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) earlier this year. Our 9 and 10 year olds’ reading ability was well above the average, largely, it is argued, as a consequence of the increasing focus on the use of phonics.
As Schools Minister Nick Gibb put it: ‘Not only are [teachers and teaching assistants] giving their pupils skills vital for success in their later education but also a lifelong love and respect for one of life’s greatest pleasures.’ So while the Department of Education’s recently expanded reading framework for schools to help them ‘meet existing expectations for teaching reading’ may be producing results; I hope a concern with performance doesn’t mean they lose sight of what’s really important here - instilling in children a love of reading.
At the same time, I wonder, based on my observation of my own kids, whether they learn as much from their dreaded devices as they do from books. While I’m as anxious as any parent to protect them from adult content, the textual aspects of playing games and interacting online must contribute to literacy too. But I do have other concerns about content - particularly the content of the books children are reading. We shouldn’t just protect them from exposure to ‘inappropriate’ material or get bogged down in the process of children’s reading. We should also ensure that they are exposed to great material - however challenging it might be to today’s delicate sensibilities.
Having said that, the rise of parent power, in interrogating what schools are teaching their children, paticularly with regards relationships, sex and health education, is to be welcomed. In a letter to schools in October (following a previous one in March), the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, reiterated that ‘schools can and should share curriculum materials with parents, in light of current concerns’. She continues: ‘It is vital that they know what their children are being taught and are reassured that the resources used are thoughtful and appropriate.’ So, putting RSHE to one side, how are children ‘performing’ in other parts of the national curriculum?
Key Stage 2 results, published in July, showed that more pupils were reaching the expected standard in maths (73%) than last year (71%) - despite the ‘lost learning’ associated with school closures during Covid. However, only 59% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. While this was the same as in 2022, it compares poorly with the 65% meeting the expected combined standard in 2019 - i.e., before the Department of Education decided to close the country’s schools. Despite the standard in reading, PIRLS notwithstanding, actually falling slightly from 75% in 2022 to 73% this year; there were slight improvements in writing and science attainment.
To the extent that attainment has improved, the government points not only to phonics, but to the National Tutoring Programme, a funding pot ‘to spend on targeted academic support, delivered by tutors and mentors’ and an attempt to undo the damage of lockdown. But looking ahead, and as the tutoring programme comes to an end, there are some welcome developments.
The appointment of a music education monitoring board, this year, to oversee the government’s national plan for music education, sounds promising. As does the appointment of another panel ‘to advise the government on the development of the [cultural education] plan which will articulate and highlight the importance of high-quality cultural education in schools’. And the publishing of the school sport and activity action plan to ‘support teachers and schools to deliver 2 hours of high-quality PE and provide competitive and extra-curricular opportunities to both girls and boys’.
So, all considered, 2023 has been a mixed bag of children ‘recovering’ from pandemic-times closures; doing really well in some areas and not so much in others; and parental concerns about RSHE (amongst other things). My worry is that, while there is something to be said for the progress made and the panels’ work to come, we are in real danger of getting lost in a managerial approach to education, and forgetting about its content. We need to be thinking about how we safeguard children. But also about - after those long months sat at home - how we introduce them to challenging ideas and the best literature; without alienating parents by presuming to know better.
Image: 1st year classroom, Hallfield Primary School by David Hawgood.