'There has been an unprecedented attack on our wonderful profession'

I, and many others loved this letter. As they say, He is only saying what others are thinking.

       but don't have the courage.

'There has been an unprecedented attack on our wonderful profession' - one primary head's open letter to his MP

Colin Harris

8th October 2015 at 17:40

 

This week, Colin Harris, headteacher at Warren Park Primary School in Havant, Hampshire, received a letter from his local MP offering to visit the school. Mr Harris wrote the open letter below in response.

Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter dated 2 October offering to visit Warren Park Primary School.
Unfortunately, I have real reservations about such a visit on several levels.
Under the coalition government and ongoing to the present time, there has been an unprecedented attack on our wonderful profession. I have worked for and supported this profession for the last 37 years in what I hope is considered to be a successful way.
Under Mr Gove [the previous education secretary, Michael Gove], we saw the rise of divisive policies which ensured we created true isolation for teaching. These policies have led to thousands of teachers wanting to leave teaching with little hope of replacing either their number or their quality and experience.
My views on academies, free schools, lack of funding, assessment, Ofsted, pay rises, curriculum reform and the demise of local authorities will, of course, be different to yours. However, does it really matter? We have no forum to actually get people to listen to us, as we are now a true political football to be knocked around for the pleasure of both the media and the government at the expense of the future of our children.
I for one am fed up with it and so thank you for showing an interest, but I have to decline the visit until such time as the government really and truly cares about the future of education.
Yours sincerely,
Colin Harris,
Headteacher

Newsnight, You and Yours, Teachers v Government:70 Years An Official Complaint

rally in Leeds Museum March 2014
 

Someone helpfully tweeted the BBC Complaints link, so I wrote this to them. It cut off after however many words,  and I cut some out, but most of it got through. [It's not polished, but I did have lessons to plan and family to recognise, and it needed to be sent as soon as.]

 

I am writing to complain about the presentations on the NUT and teachers on Radio 4 and Newsnight over past 2 days. Initially I was pleased to see the teachers’ conference covered so prominently on Newsnight, but it was a story about the “left-wing” [as in a minority faction of unrepresentative union leaders] taking over NUT leadership, and was really a story suggesting that the union did not represent its membership, nor teachers in general. Suddenly in the end, we find that the takeover is unlikely, so what was the scare story for?

In You and Yours the education correspondent, Gillian Something tried to minimise the effects and influence of the last NUT strike, in particular making much of how little was 12% of schools was. Well this was thousands of schools and thousands of families affected. It’s all in the spin.

Then there was R4 Wednesday evening at 8pm with a bizarre account of teaching thro the ages [even called Teachers v Government, and in which only the Government got the speaking parts] This was portrayed as strong and intelligent celebrity secretary of states who insisted on their “reforms” against union wishes, portraying teachers as unprofessional, as not having the children’s interests at heart. There was no mention of educational theory thinking/philosophy, text books, teacher-training. At one point Baker was asked, "Were the teachers wrong to object to X", "Yes" he said. I think a teacher being asked to respond to this particular question might have been an interesting piece of balance. But no.

In all cases Gove, in particular, is portrayed as successful and strong, and his random ideas are referred to as “reforms”. One programme described teachers as always complaining. At least You and Yours got a few on to talk about the joys of the job.

The situation in education is extremely serious. The BBC owes it to parents who are not in the profession to explain this situation honestly and with integrity. The highly motivated staff who have been in it for years and will stay, will retire and/or die in harness. The next generation will look see how enthusiasm and professionalism is rewarded and not go there. [Payment by results! What a joke, what an insult!]

 

However, I was inspired by the Lenny Henry presentation on the OU – not exactly on at peak time!  

Victoria Jaquiss FRSA - Teacher, parent, blogger, writer, ex-governor

 

Gove in York, a Bridge too Far, Yudda yudda [!]

I staggered home from the Music Expo in London to find that someone had put Michael Gove on Questiontime without telling me.

Michael acts as if he was a regular nice guy, and he must have paid the BBC a tidy sum to lobotomise the audience as, at one point, they even applaud him. Maybe it was just York. And I noticed the audience was on the small side. Maybe they had to filter a load of people out to be on the [his] safe side. Whatever. Let him come to Leeds, and he can answer for his crimes at Prince Henry's and Primrose, and all the rest. [thought it must be said he picked up the baton that Adonis and Balls handed on to him].

The panel was asked if creativity in schools was being stifled, and if the development of critical thinking was being hindered [by Gove's latest random thoughts {aka proposals}]. I would say it is difficult to be creative in this reign of terror. And primary school children are not immune to the terror. Here's a story from when my youngest were in Yr 6.

Royal Park closing, and in perfect condition

 Georgia took her SATs in 1999. Just before she took them, she asked me, rather anxiously, "If I do badly in my exams will get put in the wrong sets at high school?" Well, I was a high school teacher myself: "No, high schools don't take any notice of SATs results." I told her, " They're never accurate enough".

Morgan took his SATs in 2000. Just before he took them he asked me, rather anxiously, "If I do badly in my SATS, will They close the school? 

Well, we had just fought off the first closure proposal. Morgan and Georgia sent Tony Blair Stand up for Royal Park badges. [He commended their enthusiasm but sent them back]. Morgan did well, but They closed the school anyway. Seven years later this striking Victorian beauty stands untenanted at the junction of Royal Park and Queens Road, while the council builds onto the other local primaries to try and cope with the population explosion. 

Last ever Royal Park Steel Pandas

The private company that closed Royal Park, Leopold, Asket Hill, Miles Hill and either closed or merged the 26 other Leeds primary schools was closed down itself in the end, but the damage they did, educationally, socially and psychologically endures still. 

Gove asks schools to instil a body of knowledge and skills in our young people and then he thinks that they will be set up for life. Even if I agreed with the same knowledge and skills, young people are not empty vessels to pour anyone's, let alone a central government's agreed info into. The are already human beings, with minds of their own, and learning styles of their own, and educational and personal needs of their own. These enquiring minds need listening to, and their needs met, not society's needs, not industry's needs.

And Gove had a Govite on the same panel: The Horowitz person thought our children should have a "reservoir of facts". .  dreary things" to set them up. So the answer is yes:

Creativity is being stifled.

Gove by Rote

After dinner I was just writing something or other at the table. My grandson, aged six, approached, "Grandma, would you like me to count in fives?" I opined that I would. Thankfully he stopped at 100; foolishly I challenged him to go further. . . . .

I was impressed.  Mr Gove had only that week announced that pupils ought to learn their tables by rote, and here was JJ only a couple of days later doing it, and quite plainly enjoying it. I thought I'd write to Michael and mention how successful he had been, then it occurred to me: JJ couldn't have done all that stuff in two days; he must have been practising for months.

Now I was really shocked. Mr Gove was the Education Secretary for all of England [and some other places] and he is suggesting that our pupils should learn stuff that they are already doing. 

What else doesn't he know? And is he really in the right job? 

I think we all know the answer.

Green Lane's grass really was as green as it was going to get

The headline for the Yorkshire Evening Post in February said:

PIONEER SCHOOL CUTS SHOCK

The article explained the funding error [it was erroneously given £117,000 - Hey, anyone can make a mistake!], and that "it plans to balance the budget by axing . . seven teaching assistant posts". I wrote the following letter:

6 Feb 2012 letter re Green Lane Primary Academy [printed in YEP 13 Feb]

I find it intriguing that Gove and co would let this propaganda disaster get away: that the extra money given to an academy was a miscalculation, and £117, 000 has to be given back, at the probably expense of seven teaching assistants’ jobs.

The YEP article [Jan 2012] describes Garforth Green Lane as “trailblazing”. It’s not how I would describe the first primary school in Leeds to take the thirty pieces of silver. At our meeting in the WMC in Garforth a couple of years ago, the parents of Green Lane made it clear that they were only in it [academisation that is] for their own school, and for their own kids.

Well, neither parenting nor governance is a paid job. Quite the reverse. Governor training is random and non-compulsory. Parentcraft seems to have missed its slot in the National Curriculum. [One minute you’re walking down the aisle the next minute you’re at a parents’ evening. How did that happen?]

Governors, especially parent-governors do not generally have the time nor the expertise to explore options thoroughly; parents are programmed to care for their own. A little power can be dangerous and go to some people’s heads. And in Michael Gove’s case [he who is the cause of all this upset and misery], a lot of power is a nuclear explosion of a disaster.

The “school source” was quoted as saying that “they were told that becoming an academy was the right thing to do but it seems the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.” It is so sad. The point is that the grass is never greener. And actually a group of us, anti-academies campaigners, union-members, and general do-gooders give up hours of our own time week after week, working hard to explain all the facts to prospective academeers. And we tell people that becoming an academy is the wrong thing to do.

And so sadly for Green Lane, as it always is, it was a small group of people who think they know best taking their school away from the support of the local authority, and not, as Govey and co would have you believe, taking them out of the control of the local authority.

What was that about then?

It was rather a provocative editorial in the TES at thebeginning of January. I wrote as follows:

It’s not exactly a sequitur is it, and it’s non on several counts. Your editorial, Mr Kelly, is full of stuff that doesn’t follow, or make sense; it’s full of innuendo used to propagate a fallacy.
Take the suggestion that kids arrive at the school [where you are a governor], “too many . . . . . unable to count or read”, and then, magic, five years later 8 A-Cs and on they’re on their way to the graduate unemployment market. And your school’s teachers “work incredibly hard” and the feeder schools’ primary school teachers don’t! You need to know that people who take their degrees and go into teaching don’t do it not to bother.

And here you add a complaint that I think should be a cause for celebration, and displayed from all the trees in all the parks: that the primaries “can depend on local support”. Heavens, Gerard, do you mean a local school for every child? Like marriage, for better for worse, standing by the school when the cohort is less academic, or all summer-borns, or all coming from the country where education is really low. And when the g and ts tip the stupid, stupid, dangerous, meaningless scores above the average, you don’t crow, but you know that famine follows feast as surely as feast follows famine.

To suggest that you are personally paying for “poor” primaries, and that your opinion of these schools counts over the opinion of the local parents, well, that’s just provocative.

Your editorial is littered with unsubstantiated statements, such as “ If school leadership is weak,”; you accuse the “Left” of “excusing failure” and of being “ quick to dismiss success”. If it’s weak – is it weak; Who are the Left? Which institution would be more able to transform life chances?

Why, Mr Kelly, one which stands up for itself and for its students. One that fights its oppressors, and demonstrates to the students that it will fight, and fight for them and protect them from Idiot Bear of Little Brain Education Secretaries of State, who wouldn’t know a child if he tripped over one.

I wasn't surprised the TES front page said teachers have no confidence in Gove

The title of the TES article earlier this summer was alarming enough! Front page. Teachers have no confidence in Gove. Well, Michael, Small Bear, you have a shock coming. The schools of this land have been populated with dedicated teachers, who have appreciated being appreciated. Until . .

But Michael, you treat them like the opposition; this is foolish. They are becoming the opposition. And after fighting you and failing to make you understand, they will then leave you. And then you will have no teachers: ie no workforce. By the very fact that teachers are post-graduates puts them into the top whatever % of the UK academic population. And, are these the people you are trying to alienate: the intelligentsia with a conscience? It doesn't seem a very intelligent move.

But Michael, bless you, you went to Oxford, so you probably haven't really met any real people. My foster daughter went to Oxford, so I know it's possible to survive this experience, but, on balance, I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone planning anything more than a dinner party. A political party? No don't do that. Organise a whole country's education system? Michael: Small Bear, don't do it. You're out of your depth. There's thousands of us out there with post-graduate teaching qualifications. Your average voter might be taken in, but Michael, wouldn't you be more effective and more useful if you took note of the people who know stuff: ie those of us who dedicated our whole lives to the education system. The thing is it's not well paid enough to see it as a big career; people tend to do into teaching for vocational reasons. You need to know that we're in it for the right reasons.

It's hard to figure out what got you into education, o unthinkable Gove, but I think you should move out, before you do any more damage.

Mr Gove has a good musical idea, but based on a weird premise

Well, I will pause briefly, in having a go at Mr Gove and his bizarre ideas about calling schools academies and letting in the racketeer/profiteers. Because he has said this:

It’s a sad fact that too many children in state schools are denied the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. Evidence suggests that learning an instrument can improve numeracy, literacy and behaviour. But more than that, it is simply unfair that the joy of musical discovery should be the preserve of those whose parents can afford it.”

What opportunities are being denied? I am puzzled.

I think it is appropriate here to sing the praises of Leeds, Leeds ArtForms:Music Service, the schools of Leeds and City of Leeds School in particular. And the picture above is of the award-winning Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows taken at Leeds Town Hall on February 12 this year, two days after some of them had played at the consultation evening which outlined the proposals to close their school and put an end to the band. The event was the Leeds Schools Prom, run by Leeds ArtForms Music Service; it was a celebration of the some of the best central Leeds ensembles, and they played to as many Leeds primary schools as would fit in Leeds Town Hall.

And now rewinding to February 10, when some of the darkest clouds started to blow over the Hyde Park area of Leeds and over my life, my family's life, my neighbours' lives, and the lives of the newly-arriving immigrants to Leeds looking for sanctuary. The day of the public consultation to close down City of Leeds School.

It was actually also my partner's birthday, but while he was gazing forlornly and alone on the birthday dinner that we had to abandon, the "kids" and I were at school welcoming 400 parents, councillors, staff, community activists, members of the press and the dark forces of evil [as one might describe the would-be closers]. We were doing this by playing some tunes on the ArtForms' steel pans, housed at City of Leeds School; we were the leaders and players of Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows, winners of the Music For Youth World Music Award 2009, just played the Albert Hall.

And you know, Michael, you're right, playing music can improve literacy, numeracy and behaviour. And all but two of the Sparrows of university age are actually at college or university. [The two who aren't are my own children, but that's another story].

The Sparrows have always known that playing music would improve their literacy etc, and I would wave this theory at them and at their parents whenever they tired of the rehearsals, and dreamed, in the winter months, of getting the bus back early to Beeston, or Holbeck or Burley and snuggling up in front of the tele. And yet was it only last week that one of them forewent playing a gig on a Saturday because she had so much homework? Yes, it was.

At City of Leeds School, in the Music Department we have four acoustic and one digital drum-kit/s, three cellos, about 8 violins, 15 small glockenspiels, a samba set, about 15 keyboards, 2 upright pianos, about 8 brass insturments, 3 flutes, 3 clarinets, 3 dohls, 10 acoustic guitars, 3 electric guitars and 2 bass guitars, 16 steel pans [including 3 sets of basspans] and boxes of new good quality hand percussion, and anything I have forgotten. We have peripatetic teachers from Leeds ArtForms for brass, keyboards, vocals, steelpan, drum-kit, woodwind, higher strings, lower strings. Children come out of lessons to see the peris and can practise breaks and after school whenever they want. We charge £10 a term for lessons, and, if parents or carers can't afford that [and some can't] they don't need to pay.

Between the two of us Music teachers we play most of the instruments and sing. GCSE Music classes are full and popular; and there are also the BTEC Performing Arts classes etc.

But because one cohort, one year, ie the year before [60% plus not there even in Year 7, and not even English as a fluent second language], overall academically did badly, it was enough for Ed Balls and Ed Leeds to conspire between them to shut us down altogether. And to achieve this end, spokespeople for Ed Leeds were hardly ever off the airways and out of the papers, giving us a good rubbishing. Worse, Ed Balls offered in his letter to call a snap Ofsted. Disgraceful! [But, as the snap Ofsted completely backfired . . . Yo!]

That was an unashamed plug for our Music Department, for the Leeds ArtForms Music Service and for Leeds itself [Mr Gove, if you're ever in Leeds . . . . ]. And I am saying, yes, in this school serving the poorer neighbourhoods, we especially value Music, and the other Arts, and work hard to get pupils involved [eg big project coming up with Opera North]. And yes, there's always the odd skirmish with the Core Subjects about leaving Maths or Science for a quick scrape with the peri on the violin.

So what I am asking you, Mr Gove, what do you mean, when you say:
It’s a sad fact that too many children in state schools are denied the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. ?

Not the case at City of Leeds School, not the case at Primrose, or Parklands, or Carr Manor, or Lawnswood, or South Leeds or any other high school in Leeds that I visit as part of my ArtForms job.

Music just needs bigger status, and for that, Michael, thanks for the interest, but whatever you do please don't start trying to measure anything. And I will be back to the usual hostilities tomorrow.