Sep 06

Are we placing too much pressure on parents?

By a curious coincidence – or perhaps it was a deliberate act – page 10 of yesterday’s Telegraph drew attention to a central truth of our society that was not explicitly referred to in either of the two articles which appeared solely on that page. The first article, ‘Peer pressure makes mothers push children to milestones’, reported on a study of around 2,000 mothers with children under the age of seven, which showed that over half of mothers felt under some pressure – sometimes from family, sometimes from friends, sometimes from complete strangers – to ensure that their child was ahead of the field in whichever developmental stage he or she was currently going through, be it potty training, walking, talking or the like. Working mothers ‘felt they were judged more because they had jobs, particularly by mothers who did not work’.

The second article, immediately underneath the first, was entitled rather starkly ‘Women’s depression rates have doubled’, and reported on a separate study of 30 European countries which showed that women under 40 were now twice as likely as before to suffer from depression, with this likelihood increasing to three to four times for women between the ages of 25 to 40. This, the report explained, was because of the ‘tremendous burden’ of trying to juggle home and family life.

The connection between the two articles was clear for all to see: women – mothers – come under huge pressures in our society to be perfect, and it is no surprise that sometimes cracks will show and their mental wellbeing and health will become strained as a result. In our world, an underlying drive towards ‘perfect’ parenting is reinforced to mothers incessantly in images of perfection in adverts, television shows and government pronouncements; it stands to reason that with such an overwhelming force, coming from every angle, that this can be incredibly harmful to mothers – and fathers. This is all the more the case because it is all about their children – and which parent does not want to do the best for their children?

Even well meaning statements from well-intentioned sources – to whit, Nick Clegg’s call to parents to support teachers and schools (also in The Telegraph yesterday, on the front page) – can cause angst. While obviously aimed at parents who aren’t fulfilling the basic needs of their children, the implied admonition hits hard any parent who is already semi-persuaded by the underlying message they receive constantly about how they must improve – and how they are not good enough.

The truth is that parenting is an incredibly hard process, which receives little support at times from our wider society, and if we are not careful, we risk isolating parents yet further. Who will want to ask for help when implicitly this will be seen as a failure? (Especially with the nanny state and the secretive Children’s Court lurking in the background.) Who will dare to question the prevalent perception of parenting as a natural, intuitive process, when the reality – ie that parents do not always instinctively know what is the very best for their children, or at the very least have to work hard to gain access to our accumulated wisdom on parenting – is frowned upon?

Parenting is such a vital, essential component of our society that we must – absolutely must – find ways genuinely to value parents and to support them. We must counteract the pressures that parents, especially mothers, face, and we must remind everyone that it is entirely acceptable to share and seek advice when things don’t appear to go quite to plan. Each child is a unique being – a different entity with his or her own path through life. Why would there be a specific manual or blueprint for each one?

Parents are amazing – if they are strongly motivated by love and care for their children, and they are open to the advice, guidance, wisdom and reality checks of other experienced parents, then they can afford to relax and give themselves a break. Their children will be just fine.

Sep 03

A new school term … a new hope and excitement

As I write this post, there is a real sense of excitement and anticipation in the air at school. On Wednesday, all the girls return after the summer break, and we will be greeting a fantastic cohort of new girls, as well as welcoming back girls who are continuing on their journey of education and growth at St Mary’s Calne.

A new year always brings into focus the purpose of education and the central reason for our existence as a school: to ensure that each and every girl becomes the very best person she is meant to be, in every respect, and that by so doing she is enabled to help make the world a better place. The freshness of the start of the academic year gives a renewed impetus to these goals, reminding us of the incredible importance of the task that we have in school to inspire and develop in the girls strong aspirations for their futures.

The main purpose of this blog is not to reflect on school life – the school website, weekly E-Lily newsletters and regular communications from a myriad of people at school (including me) do this admirably, and there is no need to replicate these here. Rather, these posts are intended to reflect on issues connected with the education of girls but at times tangential to them – issues of gender, of the pressures our young people face, of parenting, of careers and further study. However, the start of term is such a milestone in each year, a time imbued with so many powerful emotions, a time of real beginning and renewal, that I cannot let it pass without comment.

Wednesday marks the start of something incredibly special, whether it is the very start of a girl’s time at St Mary’s Calne or the continuation of her years in this outstanding place. A full, satisfying, stretching term and year awaits; so many opportunities, and so much potential to be explored and developed. This generation is our future and the hope for the world.

It is my privilege to lead them at such a great school.

Sep 01

How to ensure we don’t wait 70 years for equality

Two weeks ago I wrote about the recent report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, ‘Sex and Power‘, which had calculated the rather gloomy statistic that in some areas of public life, we will most probably need to wait 70 years until there is equality of gender representation at the highest levels. Can we really afford to wait these 70 years? Almost three generations? Even if we could, should we?

In order to effect any change at all, we will need to work from the bottom up as well as from the top down. Legislation is all very well, but it is the changing of hearts, minds and expectations that will make the difference in the end. So, where do we start?

Well, we can start with our current generation of girls. A girl who embarks upon her secondary schooling at the age of 11 in September 2011 will graduate from school in July 2018, and from university in 2021 at the earliest. We have 10 years in which to change her world for the better; what, then, can we do?

First, we can teach her to value herself, to understand her strengths, and not to underestimate her potential and her abilities. We can teach her to take risks, to be resilient, to be courageous and to listen to her inner moral compass. We can teach her to reject pressures to conform to trivialised, sexualised imagery which holds back common perceptions of women.

Secondly, we can give her the tools to negotiate the hurdles and embedded stereotypes she may encounter. The more aware she is of the world around her, of the history of women in the workplace, and of the conflicts that have arisen over the ages, the more sensitive she will be to the task that is still ahead of women in the workplace, and the more she will be able to take the bumpy path in her stride.

A simple prescription, but an effective one. When young women are grounded in a strong sense of who they are, able to put into context the pressures they encounter around them, they are best placed to be able to forge their own path in life. If they are free to be genuinely true to themselves, their world will quite simply be better, for them and for all those around them.

Barack Obama famously said: ‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.’

Girls’ schools are already doing this. If we all did it, think what we could achieve. Can we really wait 70 years?

Aug 29

A new school beckons: helping your 11 year old child make the transition to senior school

September every year brings the first glimpses of autumn and the end of the year, with a hint of coolness in the air, and days becoming visibly shorter. As the calendar year starts to draw to a close, however, the academic year begins in earnest, and for those children entering Year 7 in the next few days, it marks a significant shift in their lives. Most secondary schools are larger, busier, fuller places than primary schools. Bells can ring and corridors can fill with people rushing from one place to another. It can be hard to know everyone, or to feel known. Year 7 pupils are young people on the cusp of teenagehood, when the world begins to seem different; and a move to a new place, a new set of relationships, and a new set of dynamics, will most probably accelerate this change. How, then, do you as a parent support your child?

First, remember that your child is still a child. Although a secondary school will expect your child to take charge of him or herself, your child still needs parental back-up on the organisational front, to make sure that everything runs smoothly. In advance, try to get a grip yourself on the practicalities of day-to-day life in school, from uniform to timetable, so that you can remind your child, reassure and check that all is going to plan.

Second, remember that you are still your child’s parent. Your responsibility for your child will continue until at least the age of 18, and almost certainly for much longer than that. Despite what your child may tell you at times, you are still entitled – in fact, morally and legally required – to check the progress that he or she is making, and to intervene if things go off track. With this in mind, build a solid relationship with your child’s school; learn from the outset to whom you should go if there is an issue, or if you want to find out more, and don’t be afraid to do so. Good schools will welcome this with open arms and will want to communicate well with you; after all, we are all in this together with one single aim: to help your child grow up to be the very best he or she can become.

Third, remember that the notion of growing up as a linear process is – quite simply – a myth. Your child will soon hit puberty, and plunge into a cycle which reflects many of the needy traits you will recall from early childhood – age 2-4 – but with the distinct difference that he or she now possesses far better developed communication and cognitive skills. He or she will need the same levels of attention, but from other sources, other adult mentors as well as you, as he or she starts to evolve the skills necessary to function in society, and to carve out a personal niche. Be attuned to this and encourage other mentor relationships.

The start of Year 7 is an exciting time; a waving goodbye to childhood, and a welcoming in of a period of transition that will culminate in the adulthood that your child deserves and to which he or she must aspire. Embrace it all, on behalf of your child.

Aug 27

To EBacc or not to EBacc …

Following on from my interview in The Independent on Thursday, I thought that it was worth writing a little more about the EBacc and its consequences. Figures released ahead of GCSE results day and published in The Telegraph indicated that fewer and fewer 16 year olds are taking GCSEs in five strongly academic subjects – English, Maths, Science, a Modern or Classical Language and either History or Geography. In 1997, 292,568 pupils took this particular combination of subjects – 49.9% of all the students in English schools – but by 2010 only 140,551 (22%) were taking them. Meanwhile, a plethora of other subjects have taken their place, from Media Studies to Child Care. Concern about the drop in academic rigour of the combination of qualifications taken by 16 year-olds was what prompted Michael Gove to introduce a new performance measure earlier this year, based on the five central subjects, which he called the English Baccalaureate or EBacc, but was he right to do so?

When the EBacc was announced, it was met almost universally with disapproval from the education sector. Largely this was because it was introduced retrospectively, to highlight what had been happening in schools and to focus minds on the fact that the 5 A*-C standard against which schools had been measured disguised the quality of those GCSEs. Personally, I think it was right to draw this into the public consciousness; GCSEs should be about life choices for individuals, and without English or Maths, at the very least, young people have doors closed to them and, crucially, miss out on an understanding of what the world is about, and how it functions. This is why Science and some kind of language awareness too are essential, as is some awareness of history or another humanity; the fact that significant numbers of schools had been allowing their pupils not to study these subjects brought with it the suspicion that this was more for the benefit of the schools and their position in the league tables than it was for the teenager in question, and this needed to be flushed out.

However, not everything was – or is – rosy with the EBacc. First, leaving aside questions of the quality and relevance of the GCSE examinations themselves, the construction of the EBacc was far too restrictive as regards the definite requirement of either History or Geography. Religious Studies, with its rich cultural understanding and awareness of world faiths (which underpin so much of our history as a species) was a glaring omission from this list, and despite representations to the DfE, the position has not budged. This is remarkably blinkered, and has certainly undermined the concept of the EBacc in the eyes of many schools who were perfectly happy and in tune with the notion of rigour embedded in it.

Secondly, the EBacc is not really a baccalaureate at all in the sense of breadth that normally accompanies baccalaureate – from European baccalaureates to the IB. It is a core set of subjects which should be a basic entitlement for young people, and which should give them a framework to help them understand the world and therefore have a more enriched life within it. Positioning the EBacc as a qualification rather than as simply a performance measure – one of many to which parents and other will have access, and which can be explained in a local context – is dangerous. If a school’s position in local league tables depends on this ‘qualification’ – and this is more pertinent to state schools than to independent schools, who already have a healthy disregard for the league tables – then the risk is that it will push schools to focus solely on these subjects to the exclusion of others, in an attempt to make sure that the pupils gain reasonable passes. A core entitlement therefore transmutes into a restrictive curriculum, and this can do no-one any good.

So … look beyond the figures. Good schools will always be doing what is right for the individuals in their care. This is what we should be measuring.

Aug 25

A celebration of GCSE results … but can we ensure this is one of the last?

GCSE results are out, and they are fantastic – a huge congratulations to all girls at St Mary’s Calne, from Year 9 upwards, who have been awarded their GCSEs. A tally of 79% A*-A is outstanding – well done! Almost two thirds of the girls gained at least 8 A* and A grades. They worked hard and their focus and determination paid off. They deserve their success and should delight in the outcome of all their efforts.

GCSEs are remarkably stressful. Girls taking AS and A Levels often remark that the process of taking these more advanced exams, although accompanied by a stress of expectation, with university places hanging on them, is actually less stressful than the process of sitting GCSEs. This is largely down the large number of GCSE examinations expected of any one pupil (typically around 10-11 for an academic candidate), the breadth of subjects (a shift from Geography to German to Biology within a few hours would tax anyone), and the sheer length of time that it all takes. Practical sessions start in March, and final papers may still be going on in mid-June; practically quarter of a year is devoted to the sitting of these exams.

And the time lost from study is exacerbated by their positioning so close to the summer holidays. The relief of exams finishing, and the sheer exhaustion which comes as a result, means that a learning gap of around 6 months can appear, with students then struggling to re-engage with their studies in early September. We combat this at St Mary’s Calne with a Sixth Form induction programme in late June and substantial reading lists, but the girls’ desire for a break from study is entirely understandable. They have gone through the mill, and need to recover … but the outcome is a large hole in their precious learning time at school.

The question is, of course, why we are still putting them through this mill. GCSEs at present are unavoidable: no matter how much we seek to alleviate the pain by entering students for early examination, advising that a limited number of subjects are taken, and seeking constantly to place these exams in context (they are only exams, after all, and not the be all and end all of life), the undeniable fact is that GCSE English and Maths are the basic building blocks of any further study, and that universities look at an applicant’s GCSE results closely, often figuring them into their assessment process.

This does not have to be the case, and you will know some of what I think about this if you have read today’s Independent. Examinations at 16 are a historical construct, a school leaving certificate, from a time when the majority of pupils did not stay on for further study. The school age is rising to 18, and it makes little sense to continue to test at 16. Arguably, if GCSEs are seen as threshold assessments of essentially basic skills, then the age of 16, when apathy and desperation have set in, is far too late to test them. Moreover, in an attempt to ensure that a single exam is accessible to all – and the pass rate continues to rise – the banality of the content of some of the courses on offer is striking. It is no wonder that young people can find Modern Languages GCSEs so uninspiring, for instance; I admire them even more for sticking with them and gaining the grades that they do.

The solution is to test these basic skills earlier, when children are ready to pass a benchmark in reading, writing and maths, as well as linguistic, cultural and scientific awareness – and no later than 14 in any case. Testing children and young people when they are ready, in a very personal way, will allow them to progress faster, to be inspired and to follow their passions. It is not wonder that our young people feel as if they have been placed on a conveyer belt by a relentless society; visit an examinations hall sometime soon and see how it makes you feel. It would be so much better to acknowledge and celebrate achievement over time in a wide range of subject areas without necessarily demanding a public examination. In this way, we would have a chance of recognising real, sustained and sustainable learning rather than the pressurised learning for specific periods, with the implication that it does not matter if this learning is not retained beyond the exam date.

So, has the time come to close the chapter on GCSEs? At the very least, it is fast approaching – but only if we keep up this message. In the meantime, let us celebrate with this year’s GCSE cohorts. Well done to them all for navigating the system so effectively. Congratulations on their results!

Aug 23

School skirts: a matter of human rights?

Ever since this morning’s article in The Times about some schools banning skirts in school from the beginning of the new academic year, I have been waiting with bated breath for the inevitable comment piece decrying the fact that choice has been taken away from girls, and that all girls should have the chance to wear whatever they want, however they want, to school. A matter of human rights, surely? The situation has arisen, however, because a number of schools have recognised that the interpretation of ‘appropriate length’ has become blurred and an issue of contention, and they have realised that they must act. Jonathan Oliver, Head of Wye Valley School, explained that ‘This has come about following the increasing number of girls wearing skirts of inappropriate length and style that has become extremely difficult to manage’.

Whether or not the anticipated comment piece appears will more likely have to do with whether it is displaced by stories predicting record rises in GCSE results (due out on Thursday), rather than anything else, as experience shows that someone, somewhere, is bound to make an issue of it. They would, of course, be wrong to do so: it is entirely up to schools to decide what kind of uniform they require, and it is right for children to get into the habit of doing what is expected in certain contexts. After all, we do young people no favours at all if we pretend that ‘anything will go’ in terms of dress sense once they reach the workplace.

Moreover – and more significantly, I would argue – we owe it to young people to make them very aware that how they conduct themselves in public, including how they wear their clothes, matters in the perception of the public and, ultimately, in their perception of themselves. Why are girls shortening their skirts, rolling the waistbands over and revealing their underwear to the world? The answer is simple: because they are surrounded by pictures, images, music and messages that present sexualised dressing as standard; because, too, they see their role models dressing like this, in overly sexualised ways, and they do not see or appreciate the alternative. Being ‘sexy’ is all that matters.

So … a human rights issue or not? Well, yes, but not in the way the comment writer might present it. If we don’t teach our young people not to imitate the false models they see all around them, and to have more self-esteem in their self-presentation, then we are not enabling them to be the people they can be; we are, in effect, denying them their fundamental human right to be themselves. Let’s do something about the pervasive sexualisation of society now.

Aug 22

Universities – have they lost their way?

An article in yesterday’s Sunday Times argued convincingly that a university degree was no longer the route to secure employment that it has previously been, and indeed is still reputed to be. When asked in a poll by ICM for Santander, only 20% of employers said that they would be more likely to consider a recent graduate for a job rather than a school leaver with 3 years’ experience. This ties in with the research conducted by the 1994 group of leading universities earlier this year; although they sought gamely to show that a university degree was still worth the effort, the fact that stood out was that a full 3 years after graduating, 1 in 5 university leavers still does not have a graduate-level job.

Why on earth is this the case? We have some world-class universities in the UK, and a degree from a UK university should be the route to recognition and career success. The fact that this is increasingly not the case suggests that something has gone very badly awry with the system. Moreover, outstanding candidates with excellent grades, destined for further academic study, should be able to find a place at university, and not be left in the margins. Where has it all gone wrong?

The core, of the problem, of course, is our under-investment as a nation in a wide range of training and employment opportunities to suit all 18 year olds, which has been disguised by an apparently noble desire to raise aspirations of our teenagers. The academic route – which of course starts with GCSE and A Level – has steadily been built up over the past few decades to be seen as the only route to social mobility, and has become the focus for school leavers, to the exclusion of other opportunities; conveniently so, as there are few other opportunities. Where are the apprenticeships and training courses? And why – although we know that professions and trades are essential to our economy – are we not investing in them?

This notion that value lies only in a university education has been promoted by generations of politicians, and Michael Gove declared last year that he will not abandon Labour’s target of 50% of school leavers going to university. This would be admirable if schools were preparing students to be high level academic thinkers – the engineers and scientists that the country needs – but in practice, as the number of ‘soft’ subjects at A Level has grown, so too has the range and number of ‘soft’ subjects at university, to accommodate the needs of the school leavers themselves, who have nowhere else to turn if they wish to develop themselves professionally.

The existence in Clearing last Thursday of university degrees in ‘Watersports’, most of which have now been allocated to aspiring students, says it all. Universities have been dumbing down, rather than schools sharpening up, or the country broadening out its expectations of what we want from our young people. Where, now, is a plumber when you need one? And are we really doing all our young people a favour by insisting that the only route to success is via a course at university?

Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial deserve their positions at the top of university world league tables, and many other universities come close. Many do not. As school leavers are shoehorned into universities, an inevitable consequence is that resources are spread more thinly, and we are beginning to see now that places are simply not available for our best students, who should be taking their academic study to the next level. This must, in part at least, be due to a diversion away from strong academic subjects.

We have got the balance wrong; universities are losing their way. Let’s use the debate on tuition fees to work out the real value of a university course and help set it right.

PS The Sunday Times article mentions that 5 St Mary’s Calne girls have been left without places as a result of the rush for university this year. These girls will be just fine; one or two of them will in fact most probably gain their first choice places once their papers have been re-graded, and for the others, we are working with them to ensure that they do not sell themselves short by taking just any course at just any university. If this means taking a gap year – in which they can build up valuable work and life experience anyway – then this is what they will do. The time and effort that we spend making certain that our leavers find the best direction for them as individuals is a model from which universities might learn.

Aug 20

Sex and power: 70 years until equality?

Amongst all the high emotions and press coverage of the A Levels and university entrance last week, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission slipped right under the radar. This report, entitled ‘Sex and Power’, looked at the number of women in power or influence in Britain in 2010-11, and compared it with previous years, looking at trends and predicting as a result the trajectories of female involvement in 27 key occupations over the next few decades.

The figures were worrying: although 17 of the 27 categories showed an increase in women at the top compared to 2007-8, these increases were small, and still did not come close to being at the same level of representation as men. In 10 of the categories, there had actually been a drop compared to 2007-2008, and given that these groups included members of Cabinet, health service executives and public appointments, all of which are roles which seek to represent fairly the wider population (including the 51% of women this contains), then we are right to be concerned.

The report stressed the (sometimes depressingly) slow progress that is happening in the field of gender equality. It estimated that with current trends, it will take 30 years to achieve equality between men and women holding positions as senior police officers, 45 years for the same to happen with the senior judiciary, and 70 years to achieve an equal number of women MPs and women directors in the FTSE 100.

70 years is a long time – 3 generations, almost, into an unforeseeable future. Look at how much the world has changed in the last 70 years, since 1941 – change almost beyond belief. With memories of our history still very vivid in our collective memories, however, we can acknowledge and understand why there are still inequalities in our society: we are still very much a society in transition towards greater fairness and gender understanding. Yet today, in 2011, in our world, we have the structures – the laws, the shared public understanding – very firmly in place for absolute equality and fairness, so why is change taking so long?

The Report is quite clear on this point: ‘Outdated working patterns and inflexible organisations continue to be major barriers to women’s participation in positions of authority.’ This is the bottom line – we are not evolving our working patterns fast enough, despite the fact that the technology and the examples of good practice both exist to do so. We need to continue to seek actively to address this, making it possible for women and men to work in a fluid environment that enables them to respond effectively and with ease to all the demands on their time, not the least of which is the important role that they have in bringing up the next generation and parenting them well.

The A Level results and the success of girls that it highlighted remind us that as a society we invest enormous amounts in the education of our young women. They are ready and more than able to contribute to the improvement of the world, and we are foolish if we continue to make it difficult for them to do so. Let’s not waste their talents.

Aug 18

Let’s celebrate A Level achievement!

Today brings news of many fantastic A Level grades, and I congratulate all the Leavers of 2011 from St Mary’s Calne. Nearly 40% of all their grades were A*s, half of them achieved an amazing full marks in one of their papers, and 1 in 5 of them is off to Oxbridge. An ENORMOUS well done to them all!

In some circles, of course, the same story as ever is doing the rounds, namely that the rise in A and A* grades must mean that exams are getting easier, that marking is less secure, and that – by extension – young people today have a much easier ride than their counterparts a decade or more ago. I do not dispute that there were some serious errors on the part of the exam boards in some of the papers this year, but this should not detract from the accomplishments of the candidates. And of course exams are different today, but this does not necessarily make them easier. I would defy anyone who took A Level French 30 years ago, for example, to achieve highly on the equivalent exam today, which at its highest levels requires near native fluency.

I can assure you that my girls most certainly deserve their grades. They have been extremely well taught, by amazing teachers; they have developed a mature focus on success; and they have fully understood that A Levels are not an end in themselves, but a means to enter Higher Education and prepare for a future career. They have worked hard, with dedication and commitment, and have also devoted considerable time to broadening their experience of life, through sports, Gold Duke of Edinburgh, music, drama, and leadership.

Moreover, these young women have learned to negotiate the pressures of the world adeptly; the pressures on young women to appear and act in certain ways are at times overwhelming, and the greatest advance any young woman can make in this respect is to recognise the pressure for what it is and decide to be true to herself. They are primed and ready to go – to universities, to gap years and then beyond, on to careers and fulfilling lives. They have graduated not just from school but from their teenage years, and they have earned a distinction.

We should not undermine their achievement, nor the achievement of any of our other young people who are receiving their results today. Now is not the time to engage in debate about curriculum failures; it is a time to reward personal endeavour.

I congratulate them all.