NEWS FOCUS SecEd: On Your Side


A day when we all came together


COMMUNITYCOHESION is one of those phrases increasingly being used in schools but I often wonder if educationalists mean different things. Unfortunately, one of the drivers for school leaders to become au fait with the term is the most recent Ofsted Evaluation Schedule published in 2009 which we are currently inspected under. The judgement which reflects this is “the effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion”. If you are inspected under the new framework you are


Paul


Ainsworth Guest


Editorial


likely to find that community cohesion is not an outcomes- driven judgement. Ofsted inspectors will not decide on their judgement according to how children behave, what the inspectors see during observations, or how student express themselves in focus groups.You may have children who are very bothered about the community they live in, have a good understanding of their place in the world and consistently involve themselves in projects which support people from different backgrounds, but you do not achieve the highest judgements. Why you may ask? The reason is that to reach the highest grades you must have a carefully crafted community cohesion policy which has been thoroughly audited. Incidentally this is the reverse of the healthy schools


judgement which is outcomes-driven.You may have healthy schools awards and have an excellent PSHE provision but if children are bringing in crisps and chocolate bars in their lunch boxes they are not achieving the healthy outcomes – yes even in a secondary school! That though is another editorial. The summer term gives a time for the community to


bond through summer fêtes or talent shows.My school’s summer concert had a starring role from a teacher who retired four years ago and returned to act as guest vocalist for year 11 pupils who had been working on blues numbers for their final performances. I am sure in many schools, Wednesday, June 23, brought


community cohesion alive in many schools. England defeated Slovenia 1-0 and progressed to the knock-out stages (I won’t mention what happened on Sunday). The World Cup is a wonderful opportunity for bringing


communities together. Over the last week our pupils have commiserated with our French national language teacher over the travails of her national team. There has been wonderful banter within the staffroom with our teacher born in Germany, which I am sure continued this week! But today was a lovely experience. The hot sunshine


meant that kitchen staff ran a lunchtime barbecue so popular the queues resembled Wimbledon’s. Lunch was extended with pupils who had eaten, happily sitting on the playing fields. When the football was shown on big screens in two large rooms, the school was a real community with all the young people acting as one. Football is so different from what I remember of the 70s and 80s dominated by hooliganism and racism. Many of the pupils left at half time for their buses


so staff moved to one room to continue watching. This developed the cohesive feel, it was not just teaching staff, administration colleagues joined us as did our cleaning staff. In fact it is one of the few times when such a broad group of colleagues sat and enjoyed an event. I believe it would have been churlish of me to have


insisted on lessons today, to have commanded the support staff to stay at their posts or as I heard of one school blocking internet access to stop teachers showing the game in their rooms! There are many ways of achieving community cohesion, some may insist on policies and audits. I am sure many teachers would agree what it really is about is a school and the community coming together with a shared experience whatever that may be! Today was one afternoon that the pupils and staff alike will remember for years to come. ”


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Dyslexia at age 18


IF NEW initiatives are delivered as planned the vast majority of school-age dyslexics will have been identified well before any thought of higher education has entered their heads. If the new cohort of specially trained teachers have the opportunity for appropriate intervention we should have every chance of performing to our maximum potential in GCSE and A level exams. Successes breeds success, and


even more of us are likely to be securing even more places at ever more demanding universities. And that very same success will be breeding the next level of chal- lenges. Dyslexia is generally considered


as a “specific learning difficulty” and at school can manifest itself in a variety of guises and disguises. At university however it becomes much more a specific “literacy” challenge – there is a lot more to read, a lot more to write, and a whole new vocabulary of concepts and jargon to acquire. My wife works with dyslexics


at a college for creative arts and points out the non-sense there can be in this. If history students are not marked on their ability to paint a picture of the six wives of Henry VIII why, she asks, should art stu- dents be judged on their ability to deliver 5,000 words on Abstract Impressionists?


A dyslexia diagnosis as a child does not count for much come 18 and university, when a new assessment is crucial. Dyslexia expert and author


Al Campbell explains As adult dyslexics we jump


from the provision of education acts and into the realms of the Disability Discrimination Act. Whether or not we feel “disabled” we are techni- cally unable to do things in the way normal people are expected to do them – in terms of legislation that’s where we fit. Quite bizarrely, as we enter


the adult world, we have to prove our dyslexia all over again. Being assessed as dyslexic as a child does not cut the mustard at 18. Part of the reason for this is


that the earlier we are spotted the more chance we have to learn to compensate. Dyslexia is for life. However


we learn to address the symptoms and adapt. Like a person with one leg longer than the other, we learn to cope with it, and most of us limp along really quite successfully. Thus given the extra coaching


and extra time in exams we to all intents and purposes “look normal”. However faced with new hills to climb we can still struggle until we


IN RESPONSE…


Last Week, SecEd covered the Sutton Trust’s report into the damage that increasing tuition fees could do to the number of students from poorer backgrounds going onto university (More information needed on HE, SecEd 254, June 24 2010).


SecEd


• Paul Ainsworth is vice principal at Belvoir High School in Leicestershire and a member of SecEd’s editorial advisory board. Pete Henshaw is publisher and editor of SecEd. Email editor@sec-ed.co.uk, visit www.sec-ed.co.uk and follow us at www.twitter.com/SecEd_Education.


Sir, My school, Colmers School, serves a community once dominated by the Longbridge Rover car plant, which has the lowest number of adults with Level 3 and above qualifications in Birmingham. There has been no tradition of young people going into higher education, it was always seen as irrelevant.This lack of aspirations was one reason we introduced our Learning for Life


course, which has transformed our school.One of its five aims directly addresses the information, advice and guidance (IAG) agenda. But it does more than that.Operating from year 7 to 11, we promote from day one the importance of lifelong learning. The impact has been to create a culture in our school, where it is considered normal to want to go into higher education. For the second year in


succession, according to Connexions data, the numbers of students going into Level 3 courses rose significantly. It’s about making clear to


students that there is a big, wide world out there, full of challenge, full of opportunity. As an 11 to 16 school we were heavily into ensuring our students got their Level 2 qualifications because of


league tables. Three years ago, we decided this was too short-sighted. If we motivated our students to aim beyond that then they became more independent people who saw a wider purpose to their learning. In three years our Level 2 qualifications rose by over 20 per cent. Last week,Michael Gove


visited our school and spoke to a group of year 10 students and asked them if they had ideas for a career. Not only did they each explain what their hopes were, they also talked of their plans to achieve them, which included going to university and the courses they would take there. One of the group asked if tuition fees would be raised because he came from a family background that might struggle to foot the bill. The secretary of state told the group


how impressed he was by their ambition and explained some of the ways they could get support to achieve their goals. Three years ago we would


not have had such clarity and confidence like that. IAG has a big part to play in all this, I’m not denying that. But I think more important is the need to develop independently minded young people who start to form their plans upon entry into secondary education so they can spend the next years refining those plans. But you need a vehicle to do that, which is embedded in the curriculum, Learning for Life has provided that vehicle for us.


Phil Parker Assistant headteacher Colmers School, Birmingham


learn to cope all over again. That is why the change from GCSEs to A level, and the move from A level to university, are typical times for hitherto undiagnosed dyslexia to surface. As such, it is essential for those


around us, our teachers and men- tors, to realise and remind us that, just because we look like we are coping at one level, university is a whole new ball park. Much to my surprise (and distress) I fell into this trap with my own deeply dyslexic son. After he delivered straight A and A* grades at GCSE I made the mistake of thinking all was now well – until he starting getting Cs and Bs in the 6th form. The tertiary education system


takes extensive pains to look after its dyslexic cohort. Whether rightly or wrongly – as from some per- spectives it can look like doing too much too late – it positively rewards dyslexics. Substantial funding is available in the way of hardware, software, and funding for one-to-one tuition, mentoring


and study skills to help dyslexics perform to their true potential. Given the proper resources and


support there is every reason for dyslexics to hit the ground run- ning at university. However, these resources have to be formally applied for and funding approved. I have recently analysed a set


of data from the Higher Education Statistical Authority about dyslexic undergraduates. There are clear indications that the trend in dyslexia at university is moving inexorably onwards and upwards, and more quickly in girls than in boys. This puts pressure on an already


stretched system. In such an impor- tant cultural, educational and envi- ronmental move it is important that dyslexics do not get left behind. On this basis the advice to dys-


lexic students must be not to wait to get to university before they have that new assessment which confirms the dyslexic diagnosis and makes the resource and support available. Instead ensure they make time


to be properly re-assessed before they go, and get their applications for funding in as soon as the system permits.


SecEd


• Al Campbell is head of research at the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre and author of A Dyslexic Writes – available from www. adyslexicwrites.com


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SecEd • July 1 2010


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