PARTNERSHIP WORKING
A new website
that will report
on how well
local services are
working together to meet
local priorities is launching
in December. Ian Hickman
explains what is happening
F LOCAL public services are not up to
I
scratch, schools are often the first to feel
the effects. Teachers understand how poor
health, poor housing or lack of local jobs, for
example, can hold pupils back.
As many local problems are so visible
Local issues
in the classroom, schools are often the first
to detect changes – and the first to instigate action.
However, this is not something that can be tackled by
any individual school alone. to people about their local services, helping them to national picture of these issues. The full list of areas inequalities. For example, what are schools doing to
Unemployment, health, and housing are complex make informed choices and influence decisions. in the CAA framework is available online (see further improve the life chances of pupils at risk of exclusion?
issues that cut across different local agencies. Schools Ofsted will provide an annual rating of performance information). The Oneplace reports will highlight partnership
have an important role to play, but most problems – and for each council’s children’s services, and these results What we report on locally will depend on local strengths and weaknesses and how well schools and
solutions – are shared. will now also feed into this new area assessment as well priorities. For example, if sustainability is a local Children’s Trusts work together. It may be that schools
Until now it has been difficult to see how well as the organisational assessment of local authorities. priority, we might look to see if school travel plans are can use the CAA reports (and the process itself) to
partners have been working together locally to deal Ofsted’s evaluation will take account of the outcomes in place. How successful are they? What are schools put pressure on others locally to pull their weight in
with these problems – and too easy for them to point of its institutional inspections; the annual unannounced doing to increase environmental awareness? For a improving outcomes for local people.
the finger at one another for failings. inspections of local authorities’ contact, referral and health priority, we might check how well schools are Teachers might also find the website a useful
From December, a new website called Oneplace assessment arrangements for children in need; and promoting healthy eating and exercise. classroom resource. The reporting on Oneplace will
will report on local services and how well they are National Indicator Set data. CAA will focus on the ends not the means. If help teachers explain more about the local area, the
meeting local priorities. These reports will be jargon- As part of CAA, Ofsted is also leading a new tackling childhood obesity is a local priority, for environment in which their pupils are growing up, and
free narratives about the local area. programme of inspecting safeguarding and services example, we will ask how many children are obese how big local issues are being tackled. It will also be a
Oneplace will be where the new Comprehensive for looked-after children, which began in June 2009. and why, and is the number likely to reduce – not just good “jumping off” point for more detailed information
Area Assessment (CAA) is reported. CAA involves Inspections of schools will continue as before, albeit whether the primary care trust and schools have a plan about services.
the Audit Commission, Ofsted, the Care Quality with a new inspection framework from this month. to tackle obesity. By bringing judgements of local services together
Commission, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorates of For each area, CAA will report on local priorities. Schools have an important part to play in helping in Oneplace, CAA aims to help ensure that everyone is
Constabulary, Probation and Prisons. Underpinning this will be four headline themes – to address obesity, but if schools are not supported pulling in the right direction. SecEd
They are gathering evidence and intelligence – sustainability, inequality, people whose circumstances and complemented by the primary care trust, the local
drawing on public surveys and information that public make them vulnerable, and value for money. authority and other local organisations, the chances of • Ian Hickman is director of local government with the
bodies already use to manage their own performance In reporting the local priorities, we will also gather making real inroads to the problem are limited. Audit Commission.
– to assess how well services are improving the quality evidence around performance in 10 assessment areas, We will also be looking to see how well all local
of life for local people. including the wellbeing of children and young people partners – including schools – are working together
Further information
CAA will make independent information available and support for families. This will help us to build a to mitigate the effects of poverty and reduce health • www.audit-commission.gov.uk/caa
Notes and jottings Psycho babble
Are you following me? Divide and conquer
DO YOU require your students to pay attention in teachers-only evening session. Organisers promise TEENAGERS CONGREGATE; they are pack In his blackly comedic novel, A Fraction of the
class? I always did. Eye contact and the right look that “teachers of all key stages can get hands-on in animals, and the majority of them are drawn to Whole, author Steve Toltz’s main character notes
on their faces seemed to suggest that they might, just the interactive Launchpad gallery, take in a science groups. It’s a natural behaviour – partly the result that prison ultimately creates a kind of criminal
might, be learning something. show, be creative in a workshop, test their science of the transition towards independence, where they co-operative. In some ways, we are doing much
That is not to say, of course, that I support knowledge in a pub quiz or just relax and chat with begin to draw away from parents and family and out the same thing – creating multiple opportunities for
education-by-lecture, but there surely is a place for the Science Museum’s Learning Team”. into the big world. unhealthy behaviours, without providing individuals
pupils listening attentively to teachers or applying There is no charge and there will be a free drink Doing so alone is a daunting prospect; in a group, with the strength to resist them.
themselves single-mindedly to tasks? for the first 500 teachers through the door, plus free teens can gauge what and how others are doing I suggest that we need to seek out opportunities
Well, I’m obviously way off beam. Only 43 per cake and live music. things, and learn accordingly. As in any other culture, for kids to congregate in healthy groups – so, in fact,
cent of 158 PGCE students in institutions across After that it’s a cash bar. Might be a good too, teens share common interests and needs, and are mixing up the groups in which they currently reside
the country believe that you need to pay way of seeing what’s on offer for your learning the rules and demands of friendship. and get them spending much more time together. And,
attention in order to learn according to charges. Science Museum curators will In studies of human behaviour, these groups are more importantly, getting them on their own.
research by the University of Bristol. be leading tours of Cosmos & Culture, known as “cliques”, and are a healthy part of a While the average school doesn’t have massive
Well, the good news is that Dr the new gallery celebrating the teenager’s social development. Teenagers resources for one-to-one counselling or teaching,
Paul Howard-Jones, senior lecturer International Year of Astronomy. have also learned to cluster for mutual a good mentor system can produce much the
in education, who led the research, You need to book (020 7942 4777 security and protection. A single teen is same results. Various research has showed
agrees with me. (That’s a relief). and edbookings@sciencemuseum. more easily intimidated, more likely that mentoring brings out the best in both
He and his colleagues are org.uk) to be harassed and abused, than in a the mentor and the mentored; kids who
now worried about the lack of group. There is strength in numbers. have in the past been less than ideal
“neuroscience literacy” in trainee Geeks can tweet too. Like SecEd Group behaviour is not school citizens take the responsibility
teachers. Neuroscience is not, but itself (SecEd_Education), and necessarily violent, and healthy of guiding youngsters seriously, and
arguably should be, part of the initial several of its staff and contributors as adolescent groups can provide rise to the challenge.
teacher training curriculum. So people individuals, I am now on Twitter – just safety, companionship and More relevantly, perhaps,
are arriving in classrooms without accurate the ticket for a journalist who can excitement. These days, however, kids learn other types of
understanding of how the brain works. think only in soundbites, they tell me. cliques are considered to be behaviour and key social skills,
Instead they have serious misconceptions. You can “follow” me, if you are so “gangs”, and any congregated as well as developing confidence
It could explain a lot. minded (and don’t mind that sinister group of kids is suspect. in putting forward ideas, listening
verb with its stalking connotations). The presupposition is that and debating. Taken out of their
In the mid-1990s, I wrote forcefully in But I am not, of course, the Susan Elkin these kids en masse are trouble, network, they are given time to
national newspapers about the absurd who is an American photographer. I and when the bad press and the analyse themselves and the behaviour
(in my view) practice of allowing am SusanElkinJourn. assumptions become a regular of the group.
parents to take children out of school One of the first messages posted to/ feature, there is no doubt that kids do Every teacher will be aware of the fact
for holidays. about me on Twitter said: “I automatically start behaving according to expectations that even the most seasoned rebel is a different
Gradually ministers woke up to the follow geeks like you,” which seems to put – if you’re in trouble and under suspicion for person when he’s given individual attention, and
problem and term-time holidays are now me in my place. doing nothing, what’s the point of being good? listened to. En masse, few teenagers will admit to
frowned upon, but still permitted and popular I think it was because (shhhh!) I mentioned Much of the behaviour learned throughout mistakes or shortcomings; en masse, few will look
– not least because holiday companies routinely a book I was reading. Well I shan’t (can’t) stop the teenage years is accumulated in the peer group, at themselves and their lives and set goals, because
discount off-peak breaks. talking about reading and shall also use Twitter to so even the best-brought-up kids can be led astray it’s all about “the group”. However, on their own
Witness a cottage holidays ad in The Daily draw attention to blogs, articles and thoughts about and begin to exhibit problem behaviours. Kids are they’ll most certainly respond to enthusiastic, positive
Telegraph just as term started. Declaring its breaks where I’m at. bored; they are also hormonal, and it doesn’t take attention, and begin to see themselves as individuals
“perfect for families”. It recommended its website I’ve also been wondering, having been on a short much to set things alight. who are capable of standing on their own two feet.
for “late availabilities,” including September 5 to course to learn about the ins and outs of Twitter (and The thing is, too, that we actually encourage So, take the time to divide. Only then can we
12. Shouldn’t this sort of advertising, which incites no, that’s not a joke. Geekishly, I really did) whether groups; we teach kids in groups; they play games begin to conquer the problems that underpin much
the temporary – irresponsible? – rejection of formal there is scope for using a social network such as and sports in groups; extra-curricular activities are of today’s youth culture, and hamper their learning
education, be controlled? Twitter as a teaching tool in schools? Any thoughts? undertaken in groups. and development.
There are, in fact, probably very few opportunities
Here’s something which might be useful. On October • Susan Elkin is a freelance education journalist and for kids these days to relate to adults, role models, • Karen Sullivan is a bestselling author, psychologist
13, the Science Museum is running a rather jolly former teacher. and/or mentors on a one-to-one basis. and childcare expert. Email kesullivan@aol.com
SecEd • September 17 2009 7
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