NEWS FOCUS SecEd: On Your Side


The fight for our pensions is on


The average teacher's pension is roughly £9,000. The average teaching assistant gets about £4,000. Teachers’ pensions are not the unwarranted taxpayer-funded bonanza that many people say they are. Lord hutton’s interim report (see page 3) into public


Pete


Henshaw Editor SecEd


sector pensions this week set out a clear case for reform as we expected it to do. he was clear that the case for change is evident. however, it is welcome that he so strongly sent a message out that we should not make the mistake of thinking that public sector pensions are “gold-plated”. Still, despite this assertion and his recommendation that


any short-term savings the government makes must protect accrued pension rights, we have much to be concerned about as he begins work on his final report, when he will recommend just what kind of reform should take place. also of concern is his recommendation that if short-term


savings are what the government wants (I think we know the answer to this one) then they should look at increasing contributions. This paves the way for the government to continue with its spending cuts by targeting public sector pensions. So we await the announcements in Wednesday’s (October 20) Spending review with a concerned air and even more so next year’s final report which will feed directly into the government’s Budget plans. In the interim, we must do everything we can to get


the message across that teachers’ and wider public service pensions are not excessive, as Lord hutton acknowledges, but are modest amounts that form an integral part of the reason that many teachers stay in the profession.


A step too far


Our education minister Michael gove’s headline-grabbing “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” rhetoric is completely misguided and places an onerous burden on schools and their staff. he said at the Tory’s annual conference last week that schools will have the powers to punish students for misbehaviour, no matter where or when it takes place (see page 4). While I welcome his intentions, what Mr gove has


achieved in one fell swoop is to send a clear message to the nation that it is schools and schools alone that are responsible for the behaviour and conduct of our children. In no way can I even begin to agree that a headteacher


should have the responsibility to admonish a child for a reckless act of vandalism or yobbish behaviour on a Saturday evening down the park. That responsibility falls squarely to the police and, most pertinently, to the parents. Most headteachers welcomed Labour’s introduction of


powers to be able to punish students who misbehave when they are representing the school off-site – on the journey to and from the premises or on trips – but as soon as a child takes off that uniform, they are under their parents’ care.


Leave us to it!


More British history and back to the days of losing marks for poor grammar, spelling and punctuation says Michael gove this week (see page 4).admirable? Yes. Warranted? Yes. Should he be dictating this? No! The government speaks endlessly about giving teachers freedom, and about slimming down the curriculum and allowing teachers the liberation to use their professional judgement.and then it hires Professor Simon Schama to advise on a revised history curriculum and directs Ofqual to ensure all gCSes include requirements for spelling, punctuation and grammar. Don’t get me wrong, both announcements are right – but why, after all his promises of freedom for teachers – is our education minister telling us what to teach? Surely he’s got better things to do.


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Training for the next generation


Parkour, or free- running, is becoming well known across the world – from Hollywood to street corners, and now even in schools. Dan Edwardes explains


Parkour – also known as free- running – is the fastest growing free-sport in the world. videos featuring parkour now constitute the most uploaded type of video on YouTube every month. It can be seen in just about every


new hollywood action movie, in numerous television commercials, on poster campaigns for all sorts of brands, being taught in schools and for local councils all over the UK, and being practised on the street corners of every major city in the world. and yet despite this rapid rise to


prominence over the past five years or so, there are still large swathes of the population who have never heard of it. So what is parkour? Put as concisely as possible,


parkour is the refinement of one’s body movement during the interaction with one’s environment as one progresses through it. One ostensible “goal” of the discipline is to be able to traverse any terrain as swiftly and fluidly as possible with efficiency, grace and precision. Parkour focuses on developing


the fundamental attributes required for movement, which include balance, strength, dynamism, endurance, precision, spatial awareness, and creative vision. It is a way of training one’s


body and mind in order to be as completely functional, effective and liberated as possible in the physical realm, and a way of thinking based on rigorous self-discipline, autonomous action and self-will. Beyond this simple explanation,


however, parkour is a discipline of self-improvement on all levels, an art that reveals to the practitioner his or her own physical and mental limits and simultaneously offers a method to surpass them. Since 2005, Parkourgenerations


has been teaching parkour in schools and for social inclusion programmes across the UK, and the discipline has produced incredible results in terms of participation numbers among young people, often engaging groups of children who traditionally do not engage in any sports or physical activities. One explanation for this lies


within the ethos of parkour itself; that it is non-competitive and looks to develop only the natural abilities and talents of each individual rather than attempting to force them to conform to one singular way of performing or “playing the game”. It does not prescribe a certain


SecEd


• 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. Seced also produces Delivering Diplomas. Visit www.deliveringdiplomas.co.uk


way of moving or of completing the exercises, only that each practitioner learns to move in the manner which best suits his or her own anatomical and psychological type. a practitioner of parkour aims


to be self-reliant and physically capable, fit, strong and healthy, honest and sincere, disciplined,


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Jump to it: Dan Edwardes (left) works with youngsters teaching them the art of parkour


focused, creative, and always useful and helpful to others. and it is this ethical foundation to the very physical training of parkour that adds an element for young people that most traditional sports cannot. and it is highly accessible to all. here we have a genuine


transformative practice open to all, not limited to specific locations – in fact it revels in the exploration of new and varied terrain – requiring no special equipment beyond a good pair of shoes and no particular training environment. It is an art geared toward the individual, wherein one develops at one’s own pace and in one’s own unique manner. In fact, parkour can be picked


up at any time, in any place, by anybody. and it is precisely this level of access to a progressive and holistic method of practice that provides a whole new arena for human development on a mass scale. It is an art that encapsulates all the requisite aspects of the ancient transformative practices, providing both a physical and philosophical paradigm for practitioners to use. Indeed, parkour offers a path


by which all can aspire to a sound mind in a sound body. Many take a reactionary stance to parkour, mainly due to how it


is portrayed in the media as “roof- jumping” or an adrenaline rush- seeking activity, and damn it as dangerous, overly risky and contrary to good health and safety. Yet this view is simply outdated and actively detrimental to the development of young people today. First, excessive risk-taking runs


in opposition to the philosophy of parkour. according to one participant, “one of the most striking differences between parkour and other so-called ‘extreme’ sports is that it is not concerned solely with the acquisition of physical skills, but also with the improvement of one’s mental and spiritual wellbeing. ensuring that physical progress is not at the expense of mental progress is one of the main aims of a good traceur”. Second, an element of risk is


essential in the healthy physical and mental growth of all young people. It is precisely the development


of those risk-management tools and paradigms when young, during play, exploration and physical activity, that leads to a healthy body and mind as one matures. Improved spatial awareness,


confidence, cardiovascular fitness, muscular tension and strength, balance and co-ordination all


contribute to an improved standard of living and less chance of injury and/or lifestyle illnesses such as obesity, heart disease and so on.an element of managed risk is vital for the healthy development of any individual. Those of us who teach and have


taught parkour to young people are extremely aware of the enormous benefits this new discipline can have for them, and not only on a physical level. We have seen school “dropouts”


go on to become the recognised athletes of the school. We have seen classrooms of Muslim girls, a demographic that traditionally engages in little sport at school, attend regular weekly sessions in some London schools. We have seen crime-rates in


eight to 13-year-olds drop by 69 per cent in one London borough while we were running a summer parkour course. We know the benefits, and the aim now is for us to enable more young people to be able to access activities like this that appeal and get them active with their support rather than without it.


SecEd


• Dan Edwardes is from Parkour Generations. For more information, www.parkourgenerations.com


SecEd • October 14 2010


Photo credit: copyright@parkourgenerations.com


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