HIGHER EDUCATION

Head Andrew

Olsson

reflects on the challenges

faced by his school in encouraging pupils to consider higher education, and their engagement with the Aimhigher Associates mentoring scheme

I

JOINED THE Charles Dickens School as headteacher in 2004, and soon found that leading an over-subscribed, non-selective secondary school on the Isle of Thanet in Kent presented a number of challenges. The area as a whole faces many issues around regeneration, employment and social

deprivation and this environment impacts hugely on student aspiration and career expectation. This meant that the school had a large number of young people with ability and good results but who had no experience of progression to higher education within their own family. As we do not have a 6th form at the school, these

bright young people lacked role models and knowledge about options at Level 3. Our first steps to address these issues included

establishing a collegiate system to build school morale, and working to link the strengths of our pastoral care with a drive on achievement. We also reviewed our curriculum to incorporate more vocational options. These developments underpinned a push to increase post- 16 progression into education and training. But while “staying-on” rates were above the Kent average at 69 per cent, Level 3 take-up still needed a considerable boost.

Union address: NAHT

A rebalance of power

And so the Department for Education has

arrived. Mick Brookes

says we have to have a rebalancing of responsibility and autonomy

IT WAS with some astonishment that before Michael Gove’s inaugural troop-rallying address in Sanctuary Buildings, the name had changed from the ubiquitous DCSF, to the Department for Education. The signs at the door had changed and the somewhat surreal pictures of rainbows and helicopters had all but disappeared. My first thought was one of relief, education

once more writ large, followed swiftly by a tremor of foreboding. Are we in for another change in direction that will have us all herded like sheep to some other pasture? My argument in this piece is that the time for “all

change” is over and there has to be a rebalancing of responsibility and autonomy. In The Fourth Way, Hargreaves and Shirley

describe the search for a sustainable system that will be led by teachers bound together by “ideals beyond themselves”. The call is to “move beyond the control of

self-serving professionals under freewheeling progressivism”; the “First Way”; and “beyond the dark thicket of prescription and standardisation that limits capacity and stifles initiative”; the “Second Way” – typified by the introduction of the national curriculum and the targets, tests and tables culture backed up by punitive and inflexible accountability systems. The “Third Way” sought to link integrative

thinking, “linking the best of government leadership (political control) with innovative markets in educational change”. While this approach held promise, Hargreaves and Shirley argue that it was derailed by autocracy,

technocracy and effervescence. Recent legislation has caused another wave of compliance regulation, further stifling professional autonomy and has placed yet more bureaucratic burdens on an already overloaded system. Technocracy has led to an over-reliance on data

that has replaced human values and judgements and where every child is represented as a number. Effervescence represents the short-termism of political imperatives designed to impress a voting public more than integrity of purpose, driven by actual rather than perceived needs of students. “The solutions for tomorrow cannot be based

on retreats to or incremental re-inventions of those that have already failed us”. We therefore have to abandon the inconsistencies and professional licence of the First Way, the cut-throat competition and excessive standardisation of the Second Way, and the persistent autocracy, imposed targets, obsession with data and effervescent interactions of the Third Way. The first question is whether we now have a

political regime that will allow these abandonments and will step back from meddlesome government. The second question is, if they won’t what are we

prepared to do about it? This is not some nostalgic longing for the

producer-dominated culture of the past, but a call for a new professionalism based on active trust. It is high time for the profession to reassert itself and for government and governance to draw back to its proper place of strategic oversight. It is time to focus on what unites the school workforce while trying to address issues that create division. All of this must be based on: • A self-regulating profession that has no time for corrosive cynicism or low aspiration.

• Accountability systems that are more about constructive support than dispiriting judgement.

• A broad, relevant and deep curriculum that is fit for the 21st century – designed with and for the whole learning community, informed but not controlled by assessment.

• Sustained investment. • Public trust and engagement. “We must be clear where we stand as we face one

of the most critical turning points of all time. It is time to step up and step out in order to reach a higher purpose and a better place.”

• Mick Brookes is general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. Visit www.naht.org.uk

Listening to ‘people like us’

The opportunity to engage with Aimhigher offered

a chance for us to focus on our more able students. Aimhigher is a government-funded programme which aims to widen participation in higher education among young people from under-represented groups by shifting aspiration horizons and raising awareness of the options available through higher education. We initially worked with our Aimhigher-funded

learning mentor, who provided support for pupils in overcoming barriers to learning in order to achieve

their full potential. Our mentor ran individual and group sessions to engage our young people in the idea that higher education could be for them, and the impact was immediate. All 25 students supported by Aimhigher matched or exceeded Fischer Family Trust D targets (used to estimate each pupil’s likely attainment) and all went on to Level 3 courses. While this new emphasis on information and

guidance quickly benefited our most able students, some of the harder-to-reach students did not respond at the same rate. So when the opportunity to join the pilot Aimhigher Associates scheme crossed my desk in 2008, it was a Eureka moment. The programme promised to match university students from backgrounds similar to those of my own

The power and influence of higher education students working with ‘failed’ non-selective students in their own area of interest and talent

‘

needs to be bottled and replicated rapidly

pupils, and establish a long-term mentor relationship, with the potential to develop over several years. Not only would it “humanise” higher education and make our learners realise that they could continue their education, it would also help to strengthen our relationship with higher education providers – often a challenge for a school with no 6th form. The Aimhigher Associates scheme lends itself well

to a subject-led approach, and we decided that the focus subject for the school would be art. The subject director instantly recognised the potential of working alongside the staff and students from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Kent and arranged a visit to the campus. The impact was frankly startling: almost overnight students who hadn’t a clue what career direction to take were interested in having conversations about progression to higher education, and one visit achieved so much more than hours of classroom-based information and guidance. However, the real key to success was maintaining

this focus and enthusiasm, and here the Aimhigher Associates came into their own. These UCA students worked alongside the year 10 learners, coming to the school regularly for afternoon art lessons. The power and influence of higher education students working with “failed” non-selective students in their own area of interest and talent needs to be bottled and replicated rapidly. These “normal, cool people” talking about decision-

making, pathways into higher education, and their own journeys and aspirations, inspired and motivated the learners to an extent we could not have foreseen.

12

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While it is still too early to measure impact, as an

indicator of success, applications to post-16 art college have increased tremendously. We have been so pleased by the change Aimhigher Associates has brought about in the school that this year we have already rolled-out a version of the scheme in PE, and Canterbury Christ Church University students are now working with our year 9 and 10 pupils in this area. Similar levels of engagement are being experienced, with the additional bonus of our own former students returning as Associates. Throughout the process, the Aimhigher Kent and

Medway Partnership Team and Kent County Council Aimhigher Lead have been hugely supportive, and the link through to Aimhigher was critical in taking much of the organisational burden away from the department and allowing the subject director to focus on the quality of student experience. The scheme does require senior leadership support

and flexibility to run, however, particularly when timetables and rooming impact on other subjects. Good data analysis and guidance of pupils is also essential to maximise the benefits of this scheme, as is parental communication. For my school, the Aimhigher Associates scheme

has been a total success, raising the expectations of pupils in a curriculum area and exposing them to opportunities and careers many pupils thought were unattainable. The link with higher education has proved vital and productive, and is an area we will continue to develop. The on-going relationship with the Associates has

built up a confidence and trust with many pupils that has allowed them to explore careers in an informal and much more natural manner than can be achieved through information and guidance provision alone. Aimhigher Associates has proved to be an invaluable

asset in the drive to raise aspiration and change the mentality of pupils who believe higher education is not for them. The genius is having “ordinary people like us” delivering a positive and consistent message, constantly reaffirming that the route to higher education is attainable.

SecEd

• Andrew Olsson is headteacher of The Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, Kent.

Further information

www.aimhigher.ac.uk/practitioner/home/

Aimhigher Associates: key facts

• Aimhigher is a government-funded programme working to encourage young people from non-traditional backgrounds to consider progressing to higher education.

• Aimhigher Associates is a mentoring scheme set up to establish long- term relationships between university undergraduates and young people in schools and colleges.

• Funded for three years, Associates estimates 5,500 university students will support over 21,000 learners each year.

• The scheme targets year 9 to 13 pupils, encouraging them to realise their full educational potential.

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