It is difficult to evidence an improvement in the life chances for young people in England in 2012 compared to 1992. Given that the price of a loaf of bread, average house prices and a gallon of petrol have all at least tripled in price since 1992 the potential lifestyles that young people might enjoy have also been significantly compromised. Change for this millennial generation has not been for the better.   

Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) is a condition that was first

named by the American journalist, Richard Louv. He states,

‘Nature-deficit disorder is not a formal diagnosis, but a way

to describe the psychological, physical and cognitive costs

of human alienation from nature, particularly for children

in their vulnerable developing years’.

(Richard Louv, Psychology Today 2009)

He had first introduced the term in a book he published in

2005, called, The Last Child in the Woods, which was based

on extensive research in which he interviewed child-

development researchers, environmentalists, parents,

children, college students, teachers, scientists. and religious

leaders.  He concluded that children since about 1980 had

become increasingly separated from direct contact with the

natural environment for a number of reasons:

·         urbanisation with more people living in  urban areas

          with more limited access to natural environments

·         more restrictions on the activities that young people

          can legally undertake (‘don’t play on the grass’; ‘don’t

          climb the trees’; ‘don’t swim in the lake’)

·         increasingly restricted access to ‘wild places’ to protect

          endangered landscape, fauna and flora

·         fewer opportunities through organised school outdoor

education experiences

·         ‘time poor’ parents who do not prioritise outdoor

experiences

·         parental anxiety about the risks and dangers of

unsupervised access to the outdoors (‘stranger danger’)

In an interview in 2009, Richard Louv, said,

“The No. 1 reason parents give is: they’re scared. Of “stranger

danger.” Child abductions. That fear is changing our lives. The

irony is, when you look at the statistics on abductions, almost

all are by family members, and the number of abductions has

been going down for about a decade. If those numbers are

going down, what’s going up? I’m afraid it’s people in our

profession. I like to think it’s those TV guys, but it’s also print

media. You watch CNN or Fox or MSNBC and they take a handful

of really terrible crimes against children and repeat them over

and over and over again. When they get done telling us about

the crime, they tell us about the trial over and over and over

again. It’s no accident people think there’s a bogeyman on every corner. We’re literally being conditioned to live in a state of fear.”

The evidence about the spread of NDD amongst young people in

the UK is mounting.  A survey published in 2008 by the National

Trust revealed that whereas 90% of the children questioned

could identify a dalek and Yoda from ‘Star Wars’ the

percentages for recognizing natural fauns and flora were much

less, only;

·         71% could identify a magpie

·         53% could identify an oak leaf

·         50% could tell the difference between a bee and a wasp

     and

·         47% could identify a barn owl 

(National Trust News)

These proportions were not dissimilar to a straw poll I undertook

in a school assembly.  In a report for Natural England, Childhood

and Nature: A Survey on Changing Relationships with Nature

across Generations, published in 2009;

·         40% of adults played in natural places, such as

     woodlands, countryside and heaths when they

     were children whereas now less than 10% of children

     play in such places

·         The most popular place for adults to play when they

     were children was outdoors in local streets (42%)

     whereas children said they played at home indoors more

     than any other place (62%)

·         75% of adults claimed to have had a patch of nature near their homes and over half went there at least once or twice a week whereas now only 64% of children reckon they have a patch of nature near their homes and less than a quarter go there once or twice a week

(Childhood and Nature)

In a report published last month by the National Trust, the naturalist Stephen Moss cited the following statistics as part of his ‘compelling evidence that we as a nation, and especially our children, are exhibiting the symptoms of a modern phenomenon known as ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. In regard to the nation’s health;

•       around three in ten children in England aged between two and 15 are either overweight or obese

•       the proportion classified as obese increased dramatically from 1995 to 2008: rising from 11% to almost 17% in boys, and from 12% to 15% in girls

•       if current trends continue, by 2050 more than half of all adults and a quarter of all children will be obese

(Natural Childhood)

This week the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges reported that 48% of men and 43% of women in the UK will be obese by 2030, a trend that will significantly increase the prevalence of strokes, heart disease and cancer, and lead to higher costs for the NHS. The academy, an umbrella organisation for the medical royal colleges and their 200,000 members, demanded that the Government take "bold and tough" measures to put an end to the role of "irresponsible marketing" by major food and drinks firms in fuelling the obesity crisis. It calls on the health secretary, to ban fast-food firms from sponsoring major sports events; create safe areas around schools where fast-food outlets are not allowed; prohibit the use of celebrities or cartoon figures to sell unhealthy food and drink to children and legal obligation on all food and drink manufacturers to publish on their products clear guidelines about the amount of calories, sugar, fat and salt. These strategies may contribute to curbing some of the sources of obesity but they do not promote positive action by parents and children to engage in more physical activity in the natural environment. Doing the latter also has other benefits.  Stephen Moss refers to the Good Childhood Inquiry, commissioned by the Children’s Society and published in 2009, which found that our children are suffering an ‘epidemic of mental illness’, with significant increases between 1974 and 1999 in the number of children suffering from conduct, behavioural and emotional problems:

·         One in ten children aged between five and 16 have a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder

·         One in 12 adolescents are self-harming

·         About 35,000 children in England are being prescribed anti-depressants.

Dr William Bird is the strategic health advisor for Natural England who leads a health programme to develop the natural environment as a major health resource. In his presentations he cites plenty of evidence about the physical and psychological benefits of engaging with the natural environment. He refers to this study of a family in Sheffield in which the distance that successive generations were ‘allowed’ to roam, at the age of eight, unsupervised had decreased from 6 miles in 1919 to 300 yards in 2009.

 (Let Nature Find Your Senses).

As a way of countering ‘Nature deficit disorder’ in response to the report by Stephen Moss the National Trust launched a campaign last week, The 50 Things to Do Before you're 11 ¾, to encourage young people to engage in activities in the natural environment. I have included the check list below so that it can be printed.  It is a salutary exercise to tick off those activities/experiences you have had by 11¾ and those by subsequent dates.

I had completed 43 by the age of 11¾ and 4 more subsequently.  I had completed most of these activities because I was brought up in a small village in the countryside and spent virtually every daylight hour outside. This is difficult for young people today because on average,

·         Britain’s children watch more than 17 hours of television a week: that’s almost two-and-a-half hours per day, every single day of the year. Despite the rival attractions of the Internet, this is up by 12% since 2007.

·         British children are also spending more than 20 hours a week online, mostly on social networking sites.

·         As children grow older, their ‘electronic addictions’ increase. Britain’s 11–15-year-olds spend about half their waking lives in front of a screen: 7.5 hours a day, an increase of 40% in a decade.

There were only 3 activities on the list I have not undertaken.  Setting up a snail race I have now completed as I set snail races up in whole school assemblies in the week beginning April 16^th.  In the first assembly I competed against snails representing years 8, 10 and 11.  The snails were very active and they all moved beyond our target outer circle of 10 cms, indeed two of them, fell off the table (but were unharmed). This was filmed live and projected on a big screen.  In the second assembly the snails were even more active; all four going well beyond our target circle.  The 'GPM' snail performed impressively in the first assembly outdistancing all competitors but in the Fridat assembly the 'Year 9' snail was comfortably the winner (it didn't head to the edge of the stage and fall off - the fate of the Year 7 & GPM's snails. The point of holding a snail race is to collect snails and find out more about them. The Garden snail (Helix aspersa) is native to the Mediterranean but has spread throughout the world. The adult is covered by a hard, thin calcareous shell 25–40 mm in diameter and 25–35 mm high, with four or five whorls. The body is soft and slimy, brownish-grey, and is retracted entirely into the shell when the animal is inactive or threatened. During times of activity the head and foot emerge. The head bears four tentacles, the upper two of which have eye-like light sensors, and the lower two of which are smaller. The garden snail is a herbivore. The snail's muscular foot contracts to move the animal, and secretes mucus to facilitate locomotion by reducing friction against the ground. Snails move at a top speed of 1.3 centimetres per second (47 meters per hour).

I will undertake some abseiling during Year 9 camp later this term.  This will be a scary experience for me as I do not handle heights well.

Geocaching is something that is new to me. Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. I will try geocaching when I update my phone.

Young people can register for the ’50 Challenge’ on a special website which includes a Parents Centre which includes both general and specific advice about all the activities. The general advice to parents is;

·         when dealing with soil, animals or natural water sources ensure any cuts or wounds are covered with waterproof plasters to avoid infections

·        when dealing with soil, animals or natural water sources discourage your child from putting anything in their mouths

·         after dealing with soil, animals or natural water sources wash your child's hands

·         ensure that warm, suitable, weather resistant clothing is worn during any activities involving water or snow

·         ensure suitable footwear is worn for any activities that may involve slippery or uneven surfaces

·         check the weather reports prior to embarking on any activity and avoid trees and natural water sources in wet or windy weather

·         maintain constant contact and supervision of children whilst undertaking these activities

·         for the more challenging activities find an organised event to ensure the safest conditions for your child

·        check out the following additional information and links for further guidance and safety

(https://www.50things.org.uk/)

In order to encourage and facilitate young people participating in the Challenge the National Trust is opening its doors for free next weekend (21 & 22 April) allowing everyone to explore over 200 National Trust places for free when you download and present a voucher which you can download and print from the website (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/).

Modern technology has brought enormous benefits but the dependency of young people on virtual, artificial on-line activities comes at a cost; the opportunity cost of not enjoying and experiencing this wonderful natural world that we are fortunate to inhabit. In the frontispiece of Richard Louv's book is a quote from a nine year old, "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are". As is splendidly illustrated in the cartoon below, there are 'priceless' compensations in unplugging expensive devices and plugging into nature for free.  

To finish with, Louv states,

‘We must do more than talk about the importance of nature; we must ensure that children in every kind of neighborhood have everyday access to natural spaces, places, and experiences. To make that happen, this truth must become evident: we can truly care for nature and ourselves only if we see ourselves and nature as inseparable, only if we love ourselves as part of nature, only if we believe that our children have a right to the gifts of nature undestroyed’.

I make no apologies for the fact that I have returned

to the topic of reading and in particular the importance

of reading books several times in this blog.  

(READING IS TO THE MIND WHAT EXERCISE IS TO THE BODY)

(READING: KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY)

(READING FOR PLEASURE – BOOKS BEFORE 18!)

In the Blog Post I wrote last year on Reading for Pleasure

I stated,

‘I am committed to trying to arrest and reverse the decline

in reading books and reading for pleasure among young people’.

In the first Blog I posted in January of this year

(22 SKILLS FOR THE 21^st CENTURY) I wrote,

‘The queen of these basic skills is reading which is regarded as

the most important skill for living more interestingly, more

empathetically and in a more expansive universe’

Hence my unapologetic return to this topic.  With World Book

Day being celebrated on Thursday March 1^st we are launching

two campaigns to both celebrate and raise awareness about

the importance of reading books for pleasure.

To continue to generate interest in reading for pleasure and to

encourage as many students, staff and parents to read whole

books for pleasure we are  launching a ‘Diamond Jubilee 60

Book   Reading Challenge’. To celebrate the Queen’s diamond

jubilee we are challenging students, staff and parents at NHGS

to read 60 books during the calendar year 2012. A record of the

books read will be made by the readers in the form of ‘bricks’

which will be posted on the wall on the ground floor of the East

Wing of the school opposite the Reprographics Room. Readers

will be asked to complete ‘reading bricks’ with the following

information:

The ‘reading bricks’ in blocks of six can be completed on hard

copy or online. They will be available on-line from the school’s

website or from a box at the reception desk. Each block of six  

can be e-mailed to Mrs Holloway (Reprographics Assistant) who

will print and laminate them before posting on the wall in the

corridor. The authentication is to encourage readers to talk about

the books they read to other people.  The reader merely has to

record the name of a person they have talked to about the book they have read.  The rating will be by stars:

* * * * *       Outstanding; everyone should read this book.

* * * *           Seriously good read – some aspects could be    

                     challenging

* * *             Good read for the keen reader

**                Worth reading – accessible to all

*                  Unsatisfactory reading pleasure

We want to encourage as many students, staff and parents to commit to the challenge.  All books completed between January 1st 2012 and December 31^st 2012 will count.  We would like people to read age-related books but the challenge will be self-regulated. Adults reading ‘children’s fiction’ such as the Harry Potter series or Wind in the Willows is perfectly acceptable whereas I will not include The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Green Eggs and Ham, which I read regularly with my grandchildren, in my tally of sixty books.  But reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with a younger child is better than not reading anything so if people want to include it then that is acceptable. Readers might like to use the Challenge to read books outside their normal reading genres but the choice is entirely the readers’.  In order to incentivise students we will award:

Years 7 to 10 – 60 stamps for completion (12 credits) or pro-rata for the number read

Years 11 to 13 - £6 tokens for completion (nothing for less than 60)

We will also reward staff and parents that complete the challenge.

We are also planning to introduce DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) into NHGS.  Starting the week beginning March 5^th a 15 minute slot each week will be identified.  The time will vary each week.  A bell will indicate when   the session starts and another when it finishes.  Everyone in the school will stop what they are doing and read something for 15 minutes. We are hoping to include everyone: students, teachers, support staff and visitors.

In my Blog in May last year I referred to work and research undertaken by OFSTED, PISA, the NLT (National Literacy Trust), Heinemann, the NUT (National Union of Teachers) and the author Chris Goodall. I tried to present a compelling case for widespread ‘reading for pleasure’ amongst young people.  Reading for pleasure is clearly a priority for the educational leaders at the DfE. It is refreshing and (excuse the pun!) novel to have political leaders who enjoy and celebrate their own personal reading. In an article in the Daily Telegraph on April 1^st 2011 Michael Gove wrote,

‘I want to take on the lowest-common-denominator ethos, the “let’s not be too demanding”, “all this smacks of targets”, “the poor dears can’t manage it”, “the idea of a canon is outmoded”, “it’s all on the internet anyway” culture which is anti-knowledge, anti-aspiration and antithetical to human flourishing. Instead, I want a culture in which the more you read, the more you are celebrated. That’s why I have said we should set our own Fifty Book Challenge. And that’s also why I want to develop a stronger and more durable culture of reading for pleasure. The need for urgency can’t be overstated. In the last 10 years we’ve slipped down the world rankings for literacy from 7th to 25th. And the poorest are suffering most. In 2009, more than one in five 14-year-old boys had a reading age of nine or less: among white, working-class children, 63 per cent couldn’t read and write properly.’

(Gove on Reading)

More recently the Schools’ Minister, Nick Gibb, said in a speech on the 200^th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth, on February 7^th 2012,

“We need to raise our sights beyond ‘ok’.  By the end of primary school, we want children to be able to read fluently, to interpret a book’s meaning, and be able to enjoy more complex books by the likes of Morpurgo, Wilson and Dahl. Every young person should have read at least one Dickens novel by the end of their teenage years. I most emphatically do not, however, want to give the impression reading is valuable only in the utilitarian sense of getting a job or passing a test. Quite the opposite. Once young people learn to read, they should read because it is enjoyable and a good thing in its own right. . . . As a boy, I took to books because I was inspired to do so by the imagination of authors like CS Lewis, Arthur Conan-Doyle and C.S Forester, as well as Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie. As an adult, nothing gives me greater pleasure than visiting a school like Stockwell Park High School and listening to students talking with real passion about their own favourite books. But according to the OECD, the UK is ranked a lowly 47th out of 65 nations on the number of young people who read for enjoyment. Only 60% of teenagers regularly read for pleasure in this country, compared to 90 per cent in countries like Kazakhstan, Albania, China and Thailand. One could argue that young people have many competing (and important) demands on their time with the attractions of social media, TV, games consoles and smart phones. But it is gravely concerning to see this country’s young people falling out of love with reading, especially when literature still has such a unique and irreplaceable part to play in our lives . . . The National Literacy Trust released research recently that suggests only one in three children owns a book. Yet we know that the difference in reading ability between pupils who never read for enjoyment, and those who read for just half an hour a day, is equivalent to a year’s schooling by the age of 15.”

(Gibbs on Reading)

Michael Gove generated some criticism for his advocacy of 11 year olds reading 50 books a year. Anthony Browne, the former children's laureate said,

"It's always good to hear that the importance of children's reading is recognised – but rather than setting an arbitrary number of books that children ought to read, I feel it's the quality of children's reading experiences that really matter. Pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books is what counts – not simply meeting targets."

Our Diamond Jubilee Challenge is voluntary and is intended to promote students’ pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books and should not be viewed as merely a quantitative challenge.

The National Literacy Project which became the National Literacy Strategy under the Blair Government, which came to power in 1997, although contentious, did bring about improvements in standards and the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools. The Rose Review undertook an independent review of the teaching of early reading in 2006 which resulted in changes to the National Literacy Strategy and Framework so that high quality phonic work became the major approach to teaching reading in primary schools.    At Key Stage 2 (age eleven) the percentage of young people achieving the expected levels for reading increased by 8 percentage points over ten years, from 78% in 1999 to 86% in 2009. In 2010, there was a slight drop of 2 percentage points. Overall levels remained the same in 2011. The percentage reaching the expected levels in English increased from 70% in 1999 to 80% in 2009. Levels increased by 1 percentage point in 2010 and again increased by another 1 percentage point in 2011 (LITERACY IN 2011). However whilst there have been measurable improvements in literacy that has not been reflected in reading books. A report ‘What Kids Are Reading’ – commissioned by Renaissance Learning – has now been published for the last two years. The study was carried out by Professor Keith Topping at the University of Dundee. Essentially the reading choices of around 150,000 readers from Year 1 to Year 11 were analysed. Between them, these children read well over 1.8 million books. The main findings were:

·         In the first four years, difficulty was above what would be age-appropriate, but in Year 5 it fell slightly below this criterion, and generally declined steadily after that. Girls generally tended to choose harder books than boys of the same age.

·         Regarding popularity of authors; Roald Dahl remained the most popular children’s author when measured by adding appearances in the top 20 lists (38).

·         There are some disturbing signs regarding difficulty of books for high-achieving children. Although in a small number of years the difficulty of books remained the same as in 2010, in the majority of years the difficulty of books had sharply declined. No pupils from any year were reading books with a difficulty of more than two years or more above their actual level.

·         Struggling readers chose the same books that appeared on the lists for average readers of a higher chronological age. The difficulty of the books read started almost at the right level (two years behind chronological age), but very quickly the difficulty fell away until the readers were very much under-challenged.

·         Very few non-fiction titles are read by children – but boys like non-fiction more than girls. However, the difficulty of non-fiction books mirrored that for fiction books - so there was no evidence that either boys or girls read harder non-fiction books more successfully than fiction.

·         In Years 5-6 relative difficulty declines somewhat, but children are still reading above their chronological level. There is a marked difference after Year 6 (the year before secondary transfer). Beyond this point the favoured books are no longer above chronological age and a rapid decline in difficulty sets in.

·         Girls tended to read harder books than boys of the same age, which is not surprising given their better attainment at reading. Boys showed more interest than girls in non-fiction books, especially in the secondary years, but they were not more difficult and the boys did not read them any more carefully.

Professor Topping said,

“There are some disturbing signs regarding difficulty of books. Although in a small number of years the difficulty of books remained the same as our study in 2010, in the majority of years the difficulty of books has sharply declined. If we are to address the worrying decline in reading skills identified in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) world ranking for Britain, we have to ensure our children are reading at or above their reading age.”

(WHAT KIDS ARE READING)

Rather worryingly (given what I wrote earlier) The Very Hungry Caterpillar was the twelfth most popular book for 14 to 16 year old girls.  

Frank Cottrell Boyce, who won the Carnegie Medal for children's writing following the publication of his book Millions, said:

"The Government has done fantastic work on literacy, but that's not the same thing as reading. It is like comparing health to sport. One is something functional, the other is something you do because you enjoy it."

As reported by Nick Gibb the UK ranked 47^th out of 65 in the OECD Reading survey from 2009. In the report it stated,

‘Reading for enjoyment is associated with reading proficiency: PiSA finds that a crucial difference between students who perform well in the PiSA reading assessment and those who perform poorly lies in whether they read daily for enjoyment, rather than in how much

time they spend reading. On average, students who read daily for enjoyment score the equivalent of one-and-a-half years of schooling better than those who do not'.

(PISA STUDY 2009)

Research published by the Literacy Trust in 2011 into the interrelationships of reading enjoyment, attitudes, behaviour and attainment underscored the importance of developing effective methods to encourage children and young people to read for pleasure.

(THE GIFT OR READING). The Group has also published research into the number of books read by young people and concluded,

‘So, does reading more books make a difference? This short paper has shown that it does. For example, children and young people who read 50 books or more a year are more likely to enjoy reading more and to do better at school. And four books a month does seem to be a tipping point. While there are at times staggering differences in terms of their wider literacy behaviour between young people who read a lot of books in a month compared with those who read none or very few in a month, we are not claiming or suggesting that these relationships are causal. Do children and young people who read more books enjoy reading more because of that or if they enjoy reading in the first place are they just more likely to do it? There are so many factors and those kinds of questions are sadly outside of the scope of the research at this present time. What can be said about the volume of books read and reading attitudes and attainment may seem almost too obvious: children and young people who enjoy reading, read more; children who struggle at school are less likely to be reading outside of school. However, even though the research does not throw up any big surprises it is still important to know what the facts are. We should not just assume that children who read 50 books do better because it sounds logical – it is important to know if it is actually true'.

(IS FOUR THE MAGIC NUMBER?)

ITV’s Daybreak programme launched a campaign on February 27^th to, ‘Get Britain Reading’. A survey by Daybreak and First News of 1,200 young people found,

• 96% of children surveyed have read a book in the last week
• 39% of children surveyed never read to or with their parents
• 40% of children surveyed say no one reads to them
• 46% of children surveyed say they would like their parents to spend more time reading to them
• 94% of children surveyed say they see their parents reading
• 89% of children surveyed think it's very important to be able to read

Actor Michael Sheen is one of the celebrities supporting the campaign. He said,

"Books have been like doorways for me all my life. When I was growing up, being able to read books let me enter new worlds and discover all kinds of new possibilities . . . My own favourite books growing up were things like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. As a teen I discovered the Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings, the Elric stories, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy are some of the best books I've ever read. So many books and so many doors leading to so many exciting worlds."

(GET BRITAIN READING)

If you want some suggestions for books to read then the Indpendent produced a list of 50 recommendations recommended by five leading children’s authors. (50 Books Every Child Should Read). Marilyn Achiron in an OECD Blog about their research, sums up my sentiments about reading for pleasure,

‘ To have the habit of reading, which is much easier to develop when one actually enjoys reading, is to have the key to the store of knowledge acquired through the millennia, the tools to interpret and apply that knowledge, and the foundation on which to build a lifetime of learning. Parents and educators can instil and feed this invaluable habit by having books available at home, reading to and in front of their children, and suggesting reading material that students find interesting and relevant. The late American psychologist B. F. Skinner had a point: “We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.’

(READING: THE VIRTUE OF PLEASURE).

I posed the following question in a school assembly a couple of

weeks ago; Are intelligent, gifted and talented people obliged to

use their intelligence, gifts and talents for their benefit and the benefit of others? I asked this question as it is a key aim of the school. In introducing the aims of the school in the Year 7

Handbook it states:

The School’s motto "Living to Learn Learning to Live"

encapsulates the school's purpose.  We believe the school,

through both the formal curriculum and the wide range of

opportunities, activities, challenges and experiences it provides

should develop in students a capacity for lifelong learning. We

aim to improve students' capabilities to learn more easily and

effectively in the future.  This is achieved through the school's

curriculum, teaching, resources and environment which equips

them with the necessary knowledge, skills, understanding and

mastery of  learning processes. This should enable them to lead

happy, fulfilled, challenging, rewarding and successful lives. The

school's aims (SA) will be achieved within a stable, orderly and

secure environment in which each student is able to:

SA1          Develop a capacity for lifelong learning

SA2          Continuously develop skills, acquire knowledge and

                 improve understanding

SA3          Develop a mind which is lively, critical, independent,

                 curious and creative

SA4          Acquire an enlightened set of attitudes and values

                 including an appreciation of sustainability

SA5          Accept responsibility and respect others

SA6          Reach the highest personal, intellectual and physical

                 attainment of which he or she is capable

SA7          Prepare for active citizenship and dynamic employment

Clearly SA6 is unequivocal in its exhortation to ‘reach the

highest personal, intellectual and physical attainment of which

he or she is capable’. It is almost impossible to determine

whether the students achieve that particular aim at the end of

five years but I think that the Year 11 cohort in 2011 came

very close. The students performed so well that in the secondary

school performance tables published on January 26^th NHGS was

placed 17^th out of 4,200 secondary schools in England. These

performance  tables capture only one type of outcome, academic

attainment, but it is crucial for their future development. As a

selective school NHGS has very able young people with the

potential to achieve very highly. The vast majority of the students

in Year 11 in 2011, with the informed guidance and unrelenting

support of their teachers and the active and  unflagging help of

their parents did reach the highest personal and intellectual

attainment that they were capable of achieving.    

My question was seeking to challenge the students at NHGS to ensure that they did use their intelligence, gifts and talents to the full. Even though the students accept the aim they might legitimately ask; Why? I therefore put forward some thoughts and insights from religion, philosophy, economics and history to support the exhortation.

In the Bible, Matthew, Chapter 25, there is the Parable of

the Talents,

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far

country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto

them his goods.

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to

another one; to every man according to his several ability;

and straightway took his journey.

Then he that had received the five talents went and traded

with the same, and made them other five talents.

And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other

two.

But he that had received one went and digged in the earth,

and hid his lord's money.

After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and

reckoneth with them.

And so he that had received five talents came and brought

other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.    

There is another parable in Luke, Chapter 19, which has a similar theme to that of the Parable of the Talents. The implications of these parables are that we should maximise the use of our natural talents or our wealth for our own and others' benefit.  The consequences for

not complying will depend on your belief.

Similar stories are also found in traditional cultures. The story of the soup stone relates the tale of a tramp who knocks on the door of a house and asks the woman who lived there if she could feed him.  She says she has nothing to give but he tricks her into using ingredients in the house to add to the stone he places in water in a pot to produce a soup.  This story has several variations one of which is from Portugal (http://www.dltk-teach.com/fables/stonesoup/mtale.htm). The Legend of the Indian Paint Brush tells the story of the Little Gopher who could not run fast, hunt well or fight like the other young braves in his tribe.  He was told by a Shaman that he did have a special talent which was revealed to him in a dream-vision whilst walking in the hills. He was told he would be remembered for painting pictures of the glorious deeds and exploits of the tribe. He then discovered an ability to draw and paint and he recorded the happenings in the tribe in brilliant colours and the paint brushes he used took root and became the paint brush flowers which are found naturally in the western parts of North America(http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=endscreen&NR=1&v=BY8PMlKiyXY).

These stories are about discovering the talent within and making the best use of the talent that you have. The implication is that everyone has a talent or aptitude waiting to be exploited. This notion is one that Henry Van Dyke, the American poet, evokes in his line, "The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best."   

In the eighteenth century the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in the ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’ published in 1785 developed the idea of the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative is central to Kant’s deontological moral system.  People should act out of moral duty which is free from context and consequence.  Two formulations determine categorical imperative:

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law and

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.

This means that all actions should be capable of being universalised and you never treat people as a means to an end but always as an end. Kant exemplifies the categorical in the ‘Groundwork’  in a number of ways one of which is "failing to cultivate one's talents." He proposes a man who if he cultivated his talents could bring many goods, but he has everything he wants and would prefer to enjoy the pleasures of life instead. The man asks himself how the universality of such a thing works. While Kant agrees that a society could subsist if everyone did nothing, he notes that the man would have no pleasures to enjoy, for if everyone let their talents go to waste, there would be no one to create luxuries that created this theoretical situation in the first place. Not only that, but cultivating one's talents is a duty to oneself. Thus, it is not willed to make laziness universal, and a rational being therefore has a moral duty to cultivate their talents.

(http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/kant2.htm)

The political economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program, stated,

‘In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

(http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/)

The phrase summarises the principles that, in a fully developed communist society, every person should contribute to society to the best of his or her ability and consume from society in proportion to his or her needs. Whether a fully developed communist society, as envisioned by Marx, has ever been developed is a mute  point. The assertion is that people should contribute according to their ability which implies that individuals should utilize their talents to the full for the general improvement of society.  

In a contemporary work, The Element; How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Sir Ken Robinson, Emeritus Professor of the Arts at Warwick University and now resident in Los Angeles, talked to a wide range of people including musicians, scientists, business leaders and teachers about how they developed their talent or aptitude. Being in your element refers to times when you are engaged in things that you really enjoy when you lose track of time (http://vodpod.com/watch/3244143-sir-ken-robinson-interview-part-1).

In an interview in 2009 he said,

“I've interviewed a lot of people for the book, and, you know, there was a time when Paul McCartney, so to speak, was not Paul McCartney. You know, it isn't that all these people were born as celebrities; they achieved some celebrity because of pursuing their own particular talent and their passion. And I do think we all have that in us, yeah. The people achieve their best when they firstly tune into their natural aptitudes – and lots of people I have interviewed aren't musicians, they're mathematicians, they're business leaders, they're teachers, they're broadcasters, you know, they've found this thing that they completely get. But the second thing is that they love it. And if you can find that - a talent and a passion - well that's to say you never work again”.

(http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2600125.htm)

And in another interview with the Guardian in the same year he said,

"All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think. Most students never get to explore the full range of their abilities and interests ... Education is the system that's supposed to develop our natural abilities and enable us to make our way in the world. Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn."

Sir Ken Robinson thinks that the rigidities of the education system in England stifles creativity and limits the opportunities for young people to find what they are good at; what their talents or aptitudes are.  He also thinks the subject-based curriculum is unhelpful. 

“The idea of separate subjects that have nothing in common offends the principle of dynamism. School systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines ... which makes possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/10/teaching-sats)

I disagree with him about the subject curriculum because I think it provides a useful pedagogic framework for engaging in knowledge and understanding about the world and beyond. The disciplines of the subjects and their particular methodologies and conceptual insights have developed over centuries, in some cases,  which facilitate rather than hinder learning.  There is a responsibility on schools to provide as many opportunities as possible for the students on roll to engage in a wide range of different learning experiences and activities to enable them to find their particular talents or aptitudes and then be encouraged to develop them fully. Gareth Wynne, the Associate Director of FutureLab, in an article in SecEd June 9^th 2011 wrote,

‘One of FutureLab’s trustees, Professor Dylan Wiliam argues that ‘schools have improved dramatically but the changes in the world have been even more extraordinary. In the past the rate at which our schools generated skills was greater than the rate at which low-skill jobs were being destroyed, so we make progress’. Given the current premium on talent and skills and the relentless shedding of “no qualifications” jobs in the UK, it is no longer sustainable for schools to work simply as ‘talent refineries’. Professor Wiliam suggests , ‘that schools have to be talent incubators, and even talent factories. It is not enough to identify talent in our schools any more; we have to create it’   

I like the idea of schools as incubators.  I have witnessed many students at NHGS who have developed a real passion for example in history, physics, playing a musical instrument, writing or sport which they did not have before coming to the school. That the Year 13 students in 2011 went on to study 91 different courses at 54 different universities is evidence of the diversity of talent that the school encourages.

In a Blog posting in December 2008 I referred to the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  In that he asserts that great success is hardly ever solely the result of extraordinary innate talent but of other factors, such as luck, accidents of timing, opportunity, an appetite for plain hard work and our cultural background. To truly master any skill, he suggests, requires about 10,000 concentrated hours. If you can identify your talent and you work hard exploiting it then the time and effort become intangible.

(http://www.nhgs.co.uk/blogs/headsblog/blog/default.aspx?dtf=20081201000000&dtt=20081231235959).

As Sir Ken Robinson said in a TED talk in 2010 (http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html),

“I think we have to recognize a couple of  things here. One is that human talent is tremendously  diverse. People have very different aptitudes. But it's not only about that. It's about passion. Often, people are good at things they don't really care for. It's about passion, and what excites our spirit and our energy. And if you're doing the thing that you love to do, that you're good at, time takes a different course entirely”.

There is another element which is your demeanor.  Humility, mutual respect, graciousness and appreciation are all important. As the American football coach, Lou Holtz said,

“Your talent determines what you can do.

Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do.

Your attitude determines how well you do it.”

At this time of year I have taken the opportunity, in the past, to post a Blog about the secondary performance tables which for 2011 were published on Thursday January 26th 2012. In 2009 I wrote about the limitations of contextual value-added (CVA) (TEN POINTS THAT PUTS NHGS IN A LEAGUE APART!) and in 2011 I wrote about the English Baccalaureate (THE BEST SCHOOL IN YORKSHIRE AND THE BEST VALUE). The discredited CVA has been abandoned but the Eng Bac

does not yet include RE or English Literature so we will need to continue to campaign about that measure.  The Department for Education (DfE) published the results of more than 3,300 secondary and 900 independent schools’ GCSE and A Level exams as part of the Coalition Government’s drive for greater transparency - giving parents

more information than ever before about how their child’s school is performing. The DfE is publishing 400 per cent more data about secondary schools than in 2010. The 2011 Schools Performance Tables now include:

·         how well disadvantaged children perform in each school

·         whether previously high, middle and low achieving pupils continue to make progress

·         how many pupils at each school are entered into the core

          academic subjects that make up the EBacc.

The publication of the School Performance Tables for 2011 provide another occasion for NHGS to celebrate. In a table published by the BBC they ranked all the secondary schools according to the percentage of students who had achieved the key national threshold standard for Level 2 which is 5+ A*-C GCSE grades including English and Mathematics (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16729387). Some 158 of the 4,200 secondary schools achieved 100% including NHGS so they then ranked the schools according to the total points per student. Each GCSE grade a student achieves carries a points tariff (A*-58; A-52; B-46;C-40 etc) so the average points score is the total points achieved by the year group divided by the number of students in the year.  This year NHGS students scored 648.3(compared to 561.7 in 2010) which placed NHGS 17th in the table.  This is a commendable achievement given that the funding for NHGS in 2010-11 was £4,714 per student. This is even more impressive when compared to some other well-known schools. St Paul’s attended by the Chancellor George Osborne was 31st with 617.8 points (Fees £18,825 pa); Westminster attended by the Deputy Prime Minister was 80th with 562.1 (Fees £21,078 pa) and Eton attended by the Prime Minister was 120th with 513.4 points (Fees £21,067 pa). The Fees for Eton College are theoretical as it is a boarding school only so a relative day rate has been calculated based upon comparisons with Westminster and St Paul’s. It is remarkable how close the fees are for these schools – they must obviously undertake a comparison price check like the supermarkets (more M & S versus Waitrose than Costcutter versus Lidl). Although this is just one table drawn from the multitude of statistics published by the DfE its worth is justified as it reflects the most important Key Stage 4 performance indicator (5+A*-C including English and Mathematics) and the average total number of qualifications achieved by the whole year group.

Pictured alongside the Coalition Government's leaders is James who scored the highest average points score in NHGS's Year 11 in 2011.  In terms of ability, character and potential there are very many students at NHGS who should aspire to top positions and leading roles which a true meiritocracy would facilitate.

This league table is dominated by state grammar schools which occupy all of the top twenty places.  Indeed state grammar schools take up 43 out of the top 50 places. Some 42% of the 164 grammar schools in England achieved 100% 5+A*-C in 2011 compared to about 10% of the secondary independent schools. Speaking about the figures published last week the Schools’ Minister Nick Gibb said,

“We should have high expectations for all children regardless of their circumstances. Today’s figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many schools across the country. All too often, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds aren’t given the same opportunities as their peers. Children only have one chance at education. These tables show which schools are letting children down. We will not hesitate to tackle underperformance in any school, including academies. Heads should be striving to make improvements year on year, and we will not let schools coast with mediocre performance.”

In the light of the performance of the independent schools he could have said,

“We should have high expectations for all children regardless of their circumstances. Today’s figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many independent schools across the country. All too often, pupils from extremely advantaged backgrounds are given far more opportunities than their peers in the state system yet do not achieve as well as they should do. Children only have one chance at education. These tables show which independent schools are letting children down. We will not hesitate to tackle underperformance in any school, including private schools. Heads should be striving to make improvements year on year, and we will not let independent schools coast with mediocre performance.”

Of course exam results are only one measurable output of a school’s achievement.  As it states on the St Paul’s website,

‘One of the weaknesses of the league table culture is its tendency to focus on statistics. An education at St Paul’s is not about percentages of A grades or whatever. It is about enabling pupils to get to their first choice of university. We have helped the overwhelming majority of Paulines to achieve their personal aims; it is the people we care about, not just the statistics’.

This is an important consideration but has to be placed in context. If NHGS received the Eton level of funding we would have £24 million a year which is four times the level of our current funding.  Even allowing for area cost adjustments that is a very lavish level of funding.  I could completely re-build NHGS with one year’s ‘Eton level’ funding.

Research by the Centre for Market and Public Organisation based at Bristol University found that:

‘We show that provision of performance data is useful to parents, and Hastings and   Weinstein (2008) show that it will be used by parents and can be transformative to the 

educational outcomes for disadvantaged students’.

(http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2010/wp241.pdf)

This information is used in a case study about school choice for a school in Bristol (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49ut7gAjLwo&feature=related).

Nick Gibb wrote,

‘the purpose of performance tables must be to incentivise schools to raise standards and to enable parents to make informed decisions when choosing a school’.  

This particular table will hopefully encourage parents choosing private education to question whether they are getting value for money. That the present Government is dominated by politicians who were educated in the private sector, notwithstanding their obvious ability and talent, may be more attributable to those hefty fees buying privilege than performance.

The secondary performance tables can be accessed on the DfE website (http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/?pid=pt2011_&cre=superhomepageflash) where there is also a useful guide (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0FESMRIwGk).