Originally published @ 11:04 am, Wed 25th Aug 2010
GCSEs came through yesterday and I found myself not only receiving news of my nephew and the school I previously chaired, but talking to the somewhat surprised nieces of aunties that couldn't contain their pride.
The kind of thing that I shrank from in my fifth year – “we'll wait for the post card to come through”, “you shouldn't judge anyone's character in such a way” etc.
For a good number of parents, carers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, what their children or relatives are achieving is way beyond what they ever thought possible for themselves. Written off by the eleven-plus; parents not having the money to contribute for some kinds of grammar school; no expectation that children from their estate or village could achieve academically; less known about what brings kids on; computers being things you travelled some miles to see and write a 10 lines program in basic for; video being on betamax.
It’s not so much as we had it tough – it’s that it’s still a marvel, even though expectations are so much higher these days.
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Perhaps more surprising is that better attainment has not led to more social mobility. In lieu of organising a violent overthrow of the state, Beatrice and Sidney Webb (authors of a famous clause of a previous Labour Party constitution) believed socialism would be introduced by sons and daughters of the working class becoming managers and from such positions running businesses and services through popular forms of administration in the interests of working people, by hand or by brain.
Still, let us just take joy in the progress for its own sake.
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Except that means acknowledging that my nephew got 2 more “O-levels” than I got (as well as an NVQ in Welsh). And now I know why so many want to write off exam results as being easier to achieve than in the hard days.
But, hands up – I have to acknowledge he’s done better than me and am pleased to give him that stripy tie he liked (that could have come right out of the nineteen-seventies) – but not the one which (I don’t think even he realised) costs GBP59.
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Good news too for the school I used to chair, which became part of an academy this year.
The first calculations of the results suggest that the 5 good GCSEs pass rate at the Elliott Durham campus has reached 79%, up from below 10% at the end of the last Conservative government. Labour – helping the children who needed most help.
Reasons for a big increase this year probably include the year cohort being a better one at the outset, more money and more staff. But a good part of it will be the ability and know-how of the senior management brought in to run the site.
The children at the site have taken a huge step forward in the first formal year as an Academy. And this would appear to be tricky for a number of people who believe in sole LEA direct provision. The previous framework for Academies required the focus of such provision to be for the school children most in need of help, to require co-operation with the Local Authority in its role of seeking opportunity and success for all, especially inclusion. The creation of an Academy in my patch has meant far more local children choosing the local school, meaning a more comprehensive intake - better for pupils and teachers. And in time, this will bring some of the desirability of living in our neighbourhoods that was lost with the changes of the eighties.
The introduction of potentially academies for all will break up that focus on helping those most in need and will break up the co-operation and co-ordination between schools that helped both schools and communities.
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The national results have improved too - performance improved by 1 percentage point at grades A*-A (from 21.6 to 22.6 per cent) and 2 percentage points at grades A*-C (from 67.1 to 69.1 per cent). http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1319/GCSE%20News%20Release.pdf
Our aim now must be to maximise the value of passing these exams.
The Con Dems are cutting public expenditure before economic recovery is secured and there is some discussion of the risk of a double-dip recession. Just as people's ambitions for children's education has been lifted, we must lift people's ambitions for our economy and society, and make the political price for cutting jobs and services too high.