The race is well on truly on, if you believe the rhetoric coming from above and from the press. The children are falling behind in this race and must catch up. Learning is linear, this time off school means they have diverted off course, and we need to give them an energy gel so they can get back on track.
What a load of crap!
The talk of catch up infuriates me. Catching up implies that children have not learnt anything in their time off school. Catching up implies that there is a set end goal - like in race - and the children must reach it. Catching up implies that children are on a linear flight path and have fallen behind these expectations. Catching up implies that children are in a race with each other, to see who is the best.
This is so wrong, and shows that the people making the decisions do not understand children, do not understand how children learn and do not value the correct things. All of this talk about extending the school day, shortening the summer holidays and pushing catch up in literacy and maths is wrong on so many levels. What we need to do is nurture the children, reconnect with them, develop their social skills and friendships and work on their emotional health. Get this right, and there is no doubt in my mind that the rest takes care of itself. How do I know this? It is what my school is always like. Yes, there is rigour in English and Maths, but our curriculum is based on skills the children need to develop into happy, well-rounded people. Guess what - they still achieve very well on the government tests and make excellent academic progress.
After the first lockdown, which was much longer than this one (and with less effective remote learning plans), our children came back to school excited but nervous. We nurtured and supported them. We gave them fun activities. We reduced stress and reduced the amount of work expected of them. We knew they needed to feel safe and comfortable. We conducted a baseline assessment, and the children had fallen slightly behind where we would have expected them to be chronologically, but were exactly where we thought they would be after the lockdown. We developed plans and targeted our teaching through high quality classroom instruction. We did not cram or do lots and lots of interventions. We completed a set of assessments at the end of the autumn term - and lo and behold - the children, on the whole, had made excellent progress and had "caught up" to their chronological age.
I don't know about you, but I can hardly remember any content from my time at school. What I do remember is how the teachers made me feel, how they made learning interesting and the skills they taught me. In my A levels, History taught me how to write an essay, how to argue my opinions and how to spot bias. Biology taught me the importance of checking results and being accurate. PE taught me I made a good subject choice, as a large part of the theory was linked to biology...
Yes, I can probably remember some of the content that was taught, but I do know how to think critically, how to access information and how to find the information I need to answer questions. I did well in my exams because I revised hard and have quite a good memory, but as I said this content has not stuck.
We could focus on catching the children up on content by cramming their heads full of information for longer days, and by shortening their holidays. But what damage will this do in the future? Do we create a generation of children who hate learning and school? Do we create a generation of children with emotional difficulties due to not having enough SEMH support after this pandemic? Do we generate a generation of children without the ability to think critically as they have been crammed with information that they haven't had time to explore and learn for themselves?
I know that I cannot, and will not, subject the children in my school to this ideological rubbish. We will focus on supporting and nurturing them when they come back in - there will be no cramming. We will provide high quality classroom teaching, we will support children to close any gaps that have emerged. We will categorically not rip children out of lessons to do endless interventions. These children need to access their full and broad curriculum. We need to remember that for some children these "non-core" subjects are the ones they enjoy the most, learn the most from and make them feel like a success.
Dave McPartlin (@dave_mcpartlin) said it perfectly on Twitter - so I am not going to try and rewrite it:
So let us now take this time to remember this. Now is not the time to worry about the children losing £40,000 over the lifetime of their careers. Now is not the time to worry about content they have missed. Now is not the time to cram, cram, cram.
Now is the time to do what we do best. Care for children. Nurture a love of learning. Build self-esteem. Develop emotional resilience. Teach skills that children will be able to apply throughout their lives. Let the children be children.
Let us be brave for the children we care for. Let us use this opportunity to make a difference, change our focus and work on what is actually important.
PS: This is not a skills based vs knowledge based blog, so please do not make it so!
PPS: I would like to make it clear that there is always a point for well-selected, focused interventions and additional support. We do use interventions, but not to the detriment of the "non-core" subjects.