Boys will be boys

“There are few things as important to the future well-being of our world than the quality of education our children receive.” (McKinsey & Company 2007:17)

Yesterday I spent the day at Eton college. Little old me, a state school teacher, born and bred in the valleys of South Wales, passing the time of day at one of the most prestigious schools in the UK. And perhaps even more surprising than that is how much I enjoyed the experience. Some parents clearly believe in investing very large sums of money to ensure that their children, and more specifically their sons in the case of Eton, receive the very best education possible. So, I guess the big question I was asking myself during this visit was “is the education offered here really that much better, nearly £40,000 pounds a year better, than what we offer our brighter pupils in secondary schools back in Wales?” I say ‘brighter’ because Eton is a selective school, so we are dealing with more academic students here, not just those who are wealthy.

Of course, one of the biggest differences between private and state education in general is the fact that private schools do not have to follow government policies for education. So, if we go back to my last blog post regarding the lack of subject choice for our students at KS4 in state schools in Wales, is the situation better for the boys studying at Eton? The answer is yes. I had the pleasure of speaking to Will, a Year 11 student from Sunderland who won a full scholarship to study at Eton when he was a pupil at a state school in Year 8. He started at Eton in Year 9 and hasn’t looked back. He explained to me that he has to study English language and Maths plus any 2 of the sciences at GCSE level, alongside 5 choices of his own. Young Will had opted for Computer Science and Japanese amongst other things and he plans to go on to study at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge or Durham one day, before becoming a gamer. I have no reason whatsoever to doubt his ambitions and he is setting out to achieve them, with no extra numeracy, literacy, RS, a compulsory language or any form of baccalaureate!

Which leads me nicely into the contemporary issue that is the Welsh Baccalaureate. This subject, both at KS4 and KS5, interests me enormously, as I have been drafted in to teaching it, again at both levels, at my school. It is a compulsory subject in nearly all state schools in Wales, at both GCSE and A Level and it is a subject in which pupils, parents and indeed experts in education, often have limited understanding and very differing opinions. The new Welsh Baccalaureate was introduced for teaching from September 2015 and was designed and developed in response to the findings of the 2012 Review of Qualifications for 14 to 19 year-olds in Wales. The primary aim is to enable learners to develop and demonstrate an understanding of, and proficiency in, essential and employability skills: Communication, Numeracy, Digital Literacy, Planning and Organisation, Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, and Personal Effectiveness. Do these aforementioned skills ring any bells? I believe so.

Those aware of the current changes taking place in education in Wales at the moment will notice the similarities between the aims of the Welsh Baccalaureate, and the type of skills it develops in our young people, and the main purposes of ‘Successful Futures’ (2015), the new curriculum for Wales. Indeed, along with the frameworks for Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Competency, which all educators in state schools in Wales are currently covering, right through from KS1 through to KS3, I wonder if there is any long-term future for the Welsh Baccalaureate at KS4 and KS5?  Will this contemporary issue in education no longer be an issue at all? Will the needs identified in 2012, which were based on skills that our students in Wales were believed to be lacking, still exist in the years to come? Surely not if they are now being addressed across Key Stages and across all subjects.

Likewise, will the need for extra literacy and numeracy lessons and examinations in these areas still be necessary?  Consequently, will the future students of KS4 education in Wales have more choice? Will they have learning opportunities more in line with those of Will? I hope so. I really do. I want our students in Wales to receive the quality of education they deserve. I want our students to have the flexibility to study more of what they enjoy. I want our students to have ambitions and aspirations. I want our students to have the opportunities to meet people, like the inspirational Will, when they end up at the same university together. At the end of the day, boys will be boys, whether they have studied in a state school in Wales or in one of the country’s most selective private schools. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education [should be] the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” and therefore it should never be a barrier.

What about the Here and Now?

I write this blog post as a parent and a teacher in Wales right now. Last week I had to attend an Options Fair for Year 9 pupils at my school. As a teacher of French, my brief was to set up a visually appealing stall in an attempt to sell French as a subject at GCSE level. The year 9 pupils and their parents had the opportunity to chat with me, to find out all about the course and to collect an information leaflet to help with deciding what subjects to choose at GCSE level.

I use the verb ‘choose’ loosely here. The reality for pupils in KS4 in the here and now in Wales is that they have very little choice. In my school, all pupils in Year 10 have to study the following: Mathematics, Numeracy, English Language, English Literature, at least 2 Sciences, Welsh as a second language (full course), the Welsh Baccalaureate and RS (short course). This comprises of at least 8 GCSEs already, none of which have been chosen by the students themselves. In actual fact, at my school, the pupils can only opt for 2 or 3 subjects of their own choice. This depends on whether they study 2 or 3 science based subjects. This picture is similar across all schools in Wales.

So why does this concern me? Firstly, as a parent of a boy in Year 10, I am disappointed that he has so very few options of his own. The fact that he has to take so many subjects that he doesn’t necessarily enjoy means that he leaves the house every morning with a potentially ‘boring’ day ahead! Is that what education is all about? Is that what we as teachers and educators want to deliver? I think not.

Secondly, in my role as Head of 6th Form, I know that students don’t need to have as many as 11 or more GCSEs in order to go on and study at even the most prestigious of universities. I also know that aside from good GCSE grades in both English language and Maths the remainder of the options only matter according to specific courses at degree level. It is by and large the grades achieved at GCSE which are of most importance for pupils in their futures. Hence surely it is better to concentrate on fewer subjects, and on subjects which appeal more to the individual, in order to maximise chances of achieving the highest results? After all there are so many quotes to back up the idea that if we enjoy what we do then we are more likely to achieve, for example, “the secret of joy in work is contained in one word — excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it” — Pearl S. Buck. It seems to me that we are already setting up these students to under achieve, and to do so in a miserable way.

Thirdly, as an enthusiastic teacher of French, this system is so frustrating. I know that other colleagues of optional subjects, such as humanities, feel the same. I hear all too often phrases like “I really love French Miss but I only have 2 options so I’m sorry I can’t take it”. Languages are perceived as being more traditional, more difficult subjects but this is an issue for another discussion in itself. However, even when a language at GCSE is a compulsory requirement for certain university courses, such as recently announced by the BMA for the undergraduate study of medicine, students in Wales already have to study Welsh. So where does that leave Modern Foreign Languages? Frankly, on the decline! So, despite my attractive stall at the Options Fair and me just returning from a half term spent in Paris on a school trip, I am unlikely to have many of these current Year 9 students sign up for French. On top of that I will be asked, “Why?” by the management team and I will be asked, “What have you done to address this issue of low take up?” I will potentially be blamed for something that is politically driven and unfortunately out of my control.

So how does all this fit in with what we have been discussing on this programme so far? Well we’ve talked about PISA, and it’s only since our disastrous performance in Wales in this test that we’ve focused so much more heavily on numeracy and literacy and the core subjects, hence quashing the optional subjects. We’ve talked about data and about schools focussing on results and in particular on the core subject indicators, perhaps at the expense of staff and student well-being, and this clearly fits in here. We’ve discussed continuity and transitions from early years through to university students. Has any education strategy ever lasted long enough for any actual student to experience one system all the way through? Probably not. Finally, we’ve discussed Kirsty Williams and her vision through Education in Wales: Our National Mission. In her own words, she has said that in future:

“Our learners will be resilient, imaginative, compassionate and ambitious – they will aim high and achieve their goals…Parents and carers across the country must have confidence that their children attend schools that are preparing them well for their future lives, led by teachers who are passionate and talented, and that deliver qualifications that equip them for personal, national and international challenges and opportunities…Our nation needs compassionate and well-rounded individuals who not only have a strong grasp of literacy, numeracy and digital competency, but also the critical thinking skills, imagination and resilience to excel in – and create – the new jobs of tomorrow. We must ensure that no child is left behind.”

These comments are clearly music to my ears. Indeed, the Successful Futures and Global Futures agendas acknowledge that pupils need to become ambitious, capable learners, enterprising, creative contributors, healthy, confident individuals and ethical, informed citizens. This surely means that pupils will have more choice and will take more ownership for their individual learning? How exciting then for us as teachers and for our students to begin working under this new strategy. Without a doubt, as this embeds itself in KS1, KS2 and KS3 then the future of KS4 and GCSE qualifications will have to change to accommodate this new style of education. Happy days!

However, I will finish off from where I started – with the current Year 9 pupils and those who have already started on their GCSE courses, such as my own son. Where does this leave them? Are they forgotten? The missing link? Whilst everyone else is busy preparing for the future of education in Wales, who is looking out for our KS4 students in the here and now?