NEWS FOCUS
www.sec-ed.com
SecEd: On Your Side
Stop the food
police!
Last week, the
government introduced
Dr Benard
new guidelines about the
Trafford
nutritional content of school
Guest
meals. all very well and
Editorial
good, but it reminded me of
an incident from last term.
a colleague’s eight-year-old daughter was told that she
was no longer allowed to take a chocolate biscuit to school
to eat in the mid-morning break. Crisps too. My fairly laid-
back friend was ready to laugh about it. I was outraged on
the girl’s behalf – but I wasn’t surprised. the food police
have arrived.
Like most people, I admired the efforts of Jamie Oliver
to raise the standard of food in schools. His crusade was
energetic, frustrating, and great television. Crucially, it
scratched society’s conscience. If you allow a disgraceful
46 pence per day per pupil for lunch (the figure Oliver
quoted), all you will get is turkey twizzlers made from
the sweepings of the abattoir floor, bulked up with fat and
gunge.
a rethink started. It was a positive process, but
never an easy one. a lot of people do eat, and feed
their children, unhealthy junk food. Many kids simply
didn’t like the healthy alternatives Oliver was preparing.
Royal assent: Mr Jenkins
Inevitably, changing attitudes would take time – and
became the 45th recipient of
the Prince Philip Medal earlier
education.
this year, underlining his
But it seems we’re not bothering with educating, with achievements in technology
helping people to make right choices. Instead, we’re
banning things. My friend reckons his daughter’s school
is chasing accreditation as a Healthy school. to tick the
boxes, chocolate and crisps must be proscribed. to hell with
parental choice, striking a balance, or even an occasional
treat – naughty but nice. winning the kitemark is what’s
Spreading the word
important.
that is not education. It’s food fascism.
I can already hear the counter-argument to my wishy-
washy liberal view: “Bernard, it’s okay for people like you
and me, because we know. But there are families out there
on internet safety
who have no idea about a balanced, healthy diet, so we
have to be firm.”
Firm? wasn’t such firmness Chairman Mao’s approach,
wHen BILL Jenkins was three- Medal, which recognises individuals
when the intellectuals who didn’t understand his vital
years-old, his father left and his
After suffering years of abuse
who have made outstanding
message had to be “re-educated” through forced labour?
mother fell ill. He was taken into achievements in science, technology
People are awkward. they don’t behave as “we who
care, where he endured years of at care homes in the 1950s, Bill and industrial development.
abuse.
know best” want. But we have no right to force them to
He now dedicates his life to
Jenkins decided to dedicate his life
He explained: “I was invited to
Buckingham Palace and had lunch
follow our plan, to deny them choice because we don’t trust protecting children from being
to providing safety for children at
with Prince Philip. I was blown
them to make the right decision!
exploited on the internet, by away. City and Guilds Institute
I thought reason had prevailed: the profession had
developing technology to monitor
risk of exploitation on the internet. Chris Parr
put forward five nominees, and he
refused to search children’s lunchboxes. But food
students’ online activity. chooses the winner himself.
I met him at the surrey head visits him to find out more “Rather than it being a personal
totalitarianism has crept in nonetheless, through insidious
office of his company, securus, award it is about the journey of the
indirect pressure on schools in the form of Healthy where he told me about his company, and all the people who
schools accreditation. schools don’t have to outlaw
childhood, his dealings with sir “therefore, risky or dangerous going out and bypassing existing have driven this forward.”
unhealthy foods – but, if they don’t, they won’t get the
alan sugar, and his passion for relationships are more easily blocking technology. Despite increased awareness
ensuring children using the internet established via social networking “Later we added libraries like of the importance of e-safety, Mr
badge. Yet again, school leaders are caught between a rock
are not leaving themselves open to sites and so on, which is why we terrorism, drugs, self-harming Jenkins still feels that the majority
and a hard place.
exploitation. need to keep hammering home the – the more subliminal but equally of schools need to do more to help
even while this government is finally starting He told me: “at three-years-old e-safety message.” dangerous areas. we also looked protect students.
to loosen its stranglehold on schools a little, crazy
my dad left and my mother was after leaving the forces, at hacking, and identifying pupils He said: “teachers realise the
compulsions still slip in. Cookery is obligatory in
ill and I was taken into care. this Mr Jenkins set up a number of using proxy bypassing. If they do risks, but they don’t want to get
was the early 50s. Unfortunately, companies, offering data security something wrong then they need to involved in sorting them out, and
secondary schools. Maybe that’s not a great loss of
care in those days was not what it systems and selling modems. He be caught. someone will know.” unless they’re forced to do it, they
freedom, though it would be better if schools could make
is now, and we were all quite badly even managed to “swindle” sir I asked Mr Jenkins if his won’t.
up their own minds.
abused. alan sugar along the way. technology was effectively bringing “Unfortunately, the
But, as always, the compulsion to include an activity
“I was very disrupted and quite “One company I worked for Big Brother into our schools. responsibility for monitoring
brings with it a detailed prescription of what must be
angry about what went on, and that manufactured modems, and Unsurprisingly, the technology is levied largely at the network
had a lasting effect.” it was bought by alan sugar. I developer replied: “absolutely not. manager. the only thing he should
done. so it’s not just cookery that will be taught: diet and
as soon as he could, Mr Jenkins did a deal with him and bought a It’s only monitoring for impropriety. be concerned about is making
nutrition, hygiene and safety, and “wise food shopping” will left care and joined the navy. It was million pounds worth of modems It’s not recording everything sure the software’s running. But
be there too. that’s all the fun gone, then.
here, working as a radio operator, for £70,000, which allowed me to you do. It’s only if you trigger he doesn’t know the students.
apple pie is now firmly on the curriculum – and
that he was introduced to the world set up my own company. I guess I something from our libraries of the bullying, racism, drugs,
motherhood, too, now that PsHe is also a statutory
of computers and communications, swindled him, but he didn’t seem to inappropriate words, or our image paedophilia, self-harming, meeting
and it is in this area that he feels want them.” detection software, that the system strangers, all of this stuff the school
subject. Like Harry Potter’s Dementors, government diktat
children are now most at risk. In 2002, Mr Jenkins remortgaged will kick in and take a screen-shot has a responsibility to guard against
will suck the savour and joy out of cookery, as it does He continued: “the weak link his house in order to develop a of something that is suspicious. – even beyond the school gate.
from whatever it gets its hands on.
in the chain when I was younger, software programme that would “we all have a duty of care “even today, we are surprised
I’m tempted to drive around outside primary schools
leaving kids exposed to abuse, was monitor how individuals were using over children, and they are being to see many schools who do
in the care homes, but that weak their computers. It is this system monitored by CCtV cameras, by not understand that it’s a whole
during morning break, chucking chocolate bars in over the
link is now the internet. that securus now sells to schools, teachers, by tests and exams all community responsibility.
fence. I may become the greatest folk-hero since Robin
“a vulnerable child or a child allowing heads to track exactly their life. we’re all being monitored everyone, and that means from
Hood! SecEd who is hurting will seek to establish what pupils are doing with their every day. this is no different, dinner ladies to the chair of
relationships with people they don’t computers. except it sits there as a safeguard and governors, has a role to play.” SecEd
• Dr Bernard Trafford is head of the Royal Grammar
necessarily know, who they have He told me: “In the early days if there are issues, we can deal with
never met eye-to-eye. It is a lot of the software, there were no terms them. It’s all about protection.” • Bill Jenkins is director of
School, Newcastle upon Tyne. The views expressed are
easier to articulate your concerns such as cyber-bullying, but we earlier this year, Mr Jenkins Securus Software. Visit www.
personal.
with someone via a keyboard, when picked up issues of bullying, racism, became the 45th recipient of the securus-software.com for more
you’re not eyeballing them. abuse, misuse of the internet, all City and Guilds Prince Philip information.
6 SecEd • September 17 2009
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20