I am putting out my book on education at a reduced price! You can now purchase the book for£13.49
My Pricing policy: When I publish a book with a publisher I usually receive around 80p a copy (I’m not in charge of pricing). When I self-publish (as with this book) I set the price to provide me with £1 profit.
I noticed that for some reason Kindle Direct had raised the price to an exorbitant £30,93. I have addressed that and brought it right down.
Paperback – £13.49
I have plans to bring this book out in both Hardback and Digital in the future.
A school functions smoothly if everybody is pulling in the same direction. If there are universal standards and responses the students know where they are and what will happen if they do certain things. If the rules or boundaries, punishments and rewards, are applied differently in different classrooms it can result in students taking advantage, playing people off against each other or becoming confused.
The Head sets the tone. People who disagree either need to be brought into line or removed. However, everyone should have the right to be listened to and their arguments weighed up and everyone deserves respect and clear answers and instructions. Heads cannot be draconian despots. They need to have a degree of flexibility.
Excerpt – A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
Those who are not buying in need coaxing, re-educating, telling or getting rid of. This is why you hold training sessions, meetings and apply your management skills.
Most important is that the students are educated in the way you want them educated, treated how you want them treated and valued and respected in the way you want them respected and valued.
Nothing else matters.
The problem is that people don’t always agree with their managers, feel strongly that they know better than those above them, can be awkward, emotional, lazy, argumentative or plain bloody disruptive.
They have to be brought on board.
The greatest weapon, if weapon I can call it, is praise. Every one of us has a seat of insecurity inside us. Everyone, no matter how old, tough and experienced likes to be told they are doing a good job. Simply by going around praising the things people are doing well inspires them to do more of the same even better. You don’t even have to mention the things you are not so keen on. They rapidly learn what they are being praised for and work accordingly. They work to please.
Children, teachers, grounds-men, office staff and Head teachers are all the same. We are animals. We love to please. Praise fills us with a warm glow. It makes us feel good. In my opinion you can’t get too much praise and recognition. It’s how you train dogs, tigers and elephants. Indeed every animal on earth responds to reward. Negative reinforcement, in the form of punishment or admonition, is nowhere near as effective.
There is nothing more infuriating than working your socks off and nobody notices, or, even worse, the boss takes it for granted, or worse still – claims it as his or hers. That is guaranteed to create resentment and it has happened to me on more than one occasion.
So rule number one – tour smile, praise, listen. By focussing and rewarding the good things the focus shifts. By downplaying the not so good things those bad things become fewer.
You set the tone.
People pick up on the small things.
To reinforce the positive it is important to set up a system of rewards and recognition for staff to make them feel valued.
One idea I was working on was a termly reward, a box of chocs, for the member of staff who was doing one of my pet things best i.e. The prize for the member of staff who had the most positive relationship with students this term is ……….. I held back on this as I thought that it could create jealousy and resentment. But it would be a public recognition of something I held dear and the focus could be changed termly. It might have been worth a spin.
You can’t beat the boost a little note and a chocolate placed in a pigeon-hole can make, or a silly email, a phone call, a beaming smile, word of praise, a personal special visit. They are as important as the policies themselves.
For those whose efforts were ineffective there was always the maxim ‘Don’t work harder – work smarter’ according to the wisdom of Mr Jones who was frequently heard to repeat the phrase at every opportunity. It made sense though rarely seemed to alter people’s behaviour. Some people were doomed to repeat the mistakes of their methodology and were impervious to suggestion.
It works exactly the same with students. Your personal smiles, comments and general announcements and assemblies make them feel loved and valued.
This is the oil that makes the machine operate smoothly.
This was the part of the job that I loved and gave me most reward. There was nothing contrived or insincere about it. It was the element that came naturally.
This was a real incident from my early days in teaching. I myself was caned at school. I resented it. It filled me with fury. I still feel it. Caning creates violence.
A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
I was a young teacher in my second year of teaching. The current Headteacher Mr Walton had decided that the field should be out of bounds. The wet weather had created such muddy conditions that the classrooms and corridors were becoming caked with mud. He informed the staff that anyone walking on the grass would be caned. He was hoping this deterrent would solve the problem.
He hadn’t reckoned with Terry. He was a young student from the new comprehensive intake who had been a problem from the start and was no respecter of rules. Indeed it appeared that Terry regarded rules as a challenge. He earned the respect of his fellow students by flouting rules with blatant disdain.
Terry was the perennial thorn in the side of the school. He was loud, aggressive, rude and surly. He disrupted lessons, picked fights and openly defied everyone and everything.
I was walking down the corridor when I was asked by the Head to assist with the apprehension of young Terry. He had been brought to the Head for flagrantly walking on the grass and when he had ascertained his fate he had promptly got up and run away. This was not playing the game. The Head was used to Grammar School boys. They took their punishment like a man. They didn’t run away!
We went hunting for Terry.
Soon Terry was found. But Terry refused to come quietly and what followed is indelibly imprinted in my mind.
Two burly male teachers marched Terry down the corridor to the Head’s study. Terry was screaming and struggling. When he started kicking out at the two staff two other male staff grabbed his ankles and lifted him off the ground. He was carried headfirst, screaming and writhing along the corridor and he was manhandled into the study. I followed in the wake.
By this time the Head had become angry. His authority had been challenged. What originally was one stripe was now six. He intended to make an example of Terry.
The four male staff had to drag Terry to the desk and physically restrain him by all four limbs; each taking an ankle or wrist and tugging so that Terry was pinned across the desk like a frog awaiting dissection. All the while Terry continued to shriek and struggle to his utmost. He certainly had a florid vocabulary for a thirteen year old.
The Head retreated to the other side of the room and then ran, jumped in the air and brought the cane swishing through the air with all the force he could muster.
Terry screamed and went taut in some great spasm. Then he resumed his struggles in a futile desperate attempt to free himself from the four staff.
The Head repeated this five more times.
At the end of it they let Terry loose and he stood in the doorway with knotted fists and purple face swearing at the six of us.
Some say that caning does no harm. That it is a deterrent. The blood running down Terry’s legs from the split skin on his bum was not the harm. In my opinion the hatred and loathing in his mind were the injuries that would leave the everlasting scars. They wouldn’t heal.
As for deterrence – it was the same string of surly, defiant individuals who were paraded for beatings every week.
My experiences in my own education were very poor. I wanted to create something so much better. I went into teaching to side with the kids and change it for the better. Against all the odds I succeeded.
When I left teaching, after thirty-six years, I was in charge of one of the best school’s in the world. It was a delight . I set about writing this book. It contains my philosophy, anecdotes and the story.
A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
The only way to address the world’s problems is through good education.
As a probationary teacher I set about taking on the hierarchy of the school and changing the beast that was the current school. It was poor and not meeting the needs of all of its students. I wanted a revolution. You don’t have to be in senior management to have a power base to promote positive change. I fought for change and managed to bring in a number of improvements. However, after twenty years of influential input from a lowly position, I realised that the best way of changing the system was to do it from the top and seized my opportunity to move into senior management.
I did things my way. I did not follow the rules. I was the sand in the Vaseline. The senior team found me a major problem. I refused to compromise. I did it the way I felt was right for the students and my own philosophy. And this method was highly successful. In the whole of my time in teaching I did not have a single report or inspection putting me below excellent. On the school’s first Ofsted inspection, in which it achieved ‘Satisfactory’, all my areas were Outstanding. Over the next three Ofsted inspections, two as Deputy Head and one as Head, all my areas of responsibility were deemed ‘Outstanding’. Being a maverick, and not following the rules, does not necessarily mean you cannot gain recognition. Risk taking is a big part of the game. Covering your back is a weakness and a flaw. Doing what is right, even in defiance of the orders from above, is an imperative. You have to follow your conscience.
Duke Ellington supposedly said that there were only two kinds of music: good and bad. The same is true of education. Bad education is destructive to minds, spirits and society. It should be banished even when it produces perceived results. My own maths teacher in secondary school always achieved a 100% pass rate with his classes. I passed maths from his class. Yet nobody was more successful at destroying a subject. To a man we came out of there hating Maths.
I have always questioned the education system. It seems crazy to put people together grouped by age. That never happens in normal social interaction. This is asking for trouble, particularly during teenage years when hormones are rampant and brains are melting and becoming rewired. It reinforces lots of negative behaviour patterns. It is almost as bad as grouping people according to ability, but not quite. I think we need to bring our best minds to bear to find a better way forward.
Throughout my teaching career I saw my role as trying to make students think and question. I wanted their brains stimulated. I wanted them to enjoy learning and to find it mind expanding.
I am very idealistic.
And – do you know what? – It worked!
This book is about what I believed in and how I did it. It’s real. The anecdotes are real.
A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
In my teaching experience I have known students with lower intelligence, destined for poor grades and lowly jobs, but possessing a range of qualities that left me humbled. I have known highly intelligent individuals, destined for top jobs, who were mean spirited and likely to create misery. My job was to bring out the best in both and my hope is that both types left school better equipped to make a positive contribution to society.
Education is a nebulous thing. We are building the future and the future is not only concerned with careers and wealth; it is also about families, societies, relationships and supporting those less fortunate. How to build a better world should be our curriculum. How we repair damaged children should be our imperative. How we foster positive human values should be our main aim. Teaching and learning, exam results and league tables are almost superfluous in the face of such paramount challenges.
This is why I believe the most important subject, and the most difficult to teach, is PSHE (Personal social and health education). All too often it is poorly delivered, pushed to the shadows and taught by reluctant exponents who happen to have some free space in their timetable. This is a travesty. PSHE is about life, about preparing students for a better world, dealing with the big issues of responsibility, respect, tolerance and empathy. PSHE, like the pastoral system, is about guidance, interaction and development of those qualities that raise the sensibilities. It should be given centre stage, pride of place and only taught by the very best of teachers with the most advanced skills. Anything less is short-changing the future. A school lacking a vibrant PSHE programme is like a robot with no heart. It is pointless.
Chapter 23 – Banding, Streaming and Comprehensive Education
I have already mentioned the first lesson I ever taught at BGS with 2W. After a year in the school with its strict streaming they had all written themselves off. That is something that lasts for life.
But it is not merely the effect on the B band failures it is the effect on the A band as well. I witnessed so many A banders who became lazy and arrogant. They never reached their potential.
I wanted all my students to be successful. All of them were equally important. All of them deserved to feel good about themselves.
In life you get to work and interact with many people with a wide range of ability. They all deserve respect. They all have different qualities. Intelligence is one small factor in a personality.
BGS had been forced to go comprehensive and had one year’s experience of comprehensive kids. Staff were used to the rarefied atmosphere of bright boys who were creamed off from all around and were bussed in from all over the area. The grammar system used to take the top 8% of boys based on an IQ test known as the 11+. 92% of boys were sent into the Technical Colleges or Secondary Moderns. They didn’t have the brains so they had to be good with their hands. It always amused me to hear parents talk about the grammar system and how much better it was. In most cases their son would not have got in. He would have been consigned to the Secondary Moderns. I wonder how pleased they would have been with it then?
When comprehensive education began at BGS the kids were streamed into two distinct groups. There were four classes; two larger classes who were basically A stream and would followed a grammar education and two smaller classes that were B stream and followed some watered down version. Some bright spark had the idea of naming the classes with letters. The A stream were called N & S and the two B Stream were called X & W. Somehow the connotations went over everyone’s head. At least they were not A,B,X and W.
2W had been in the school for one year. It was long enough. They’d picked up the impression that they were not wanted, not valued, and were only there under duress. They were not expected to achieve. They told me: ‘We’re the thickos.’ That was how they saw themselves.
That is the worst indictment of a system I have ever heard.
It is basically human psychology. If someone is labelled as a failure they will feel a failure. If someone is not valued they will feel worthless. If someone is not expected to achieve they will not bother to try.
I remember a talk I had with a previous Head about a very prestigious grammar school which will be nameless. They creamed off the top 6% of boys from a large catchment area in a Northern city. They then streamed these kids into five classes. They ranged from the super-bright to the very bright. The top class were destined for the top of the top. They left with inflated egos and clutches of Grade As heading for Oxbridge as a staging post to high office. The bottom class were disaffected and barely scraped a pass.
Any one of those lads from that bottom class would have been among the highest achievers from my school. They would have felt valued, worked hard and left with their A grades and a bright future.
I believe in the comprehensive system. I believe that it is the best system possible. It is also the hardest to teach but none-the-less the most fulfilling.
To make it work you have to really value every single child. It’s not about intelligence. There is much more to a human being than intelligence. It is not about achievement either. It is about effort. It is about valuing and rewarding effort. It is not about the outcome.
Once you start valuing kids for their results you have lost it. They must be valued for who they are and the effort they put in.
Once you stream them or band them you create failure. That’s as bad as the 11+.
It all comes down to finance. Mixed ability teaching is not impossible but it is extremely hard. With good support, great lesson planning and use of resources the bottom end can be extended.
Everybody wants to do well. How can we soften the frustration of those who find that no matter how hard they try they can’t do it as well as the others?
For those people who say: ‘That’s life. They’ve got to learn one day. They need to learn what life is about. There are winners and losers. It’s a hard lesson.’ I say you are absolutely wrong. I wanted my school to counter that heartlessness. I wanted to foster empathy, compassion and respect. Superior arrogance is wrong. I say we do not have to have winners and losers. That is just the way the old establishment operated. They were wrong. There are better ways of doing things. All my students were winners.
I remember one lad with great admiration. I ran a human biology course as a mixed ability class for both streams. It was a big lively group with a wide range of ability. Everyone thought it would be a disaster. It was a great success.
This one boy was from the B stream. I’d checked his test results. He was 79 on the scale. 100 was average. 79 was quite low. In order to achieve an exam pass you were supposed to be over a 100.
This lad sat at the front and concentrated really hard. He was totally focussed and putting everything in. I can still remember his serious face and wrinkled forehead. No one was trying harder.
At the end of each lesson he was invariably there at my desk.
‘Please sir, I didn’t quite understand this.’
I sat down with him and went through it until he’d got it straight. He went home and worked at it.
He got enough passes at GCSE to get into the 6th form. He got an A in human biology. He did the same in A level and got three passes. He should not have been up to doing A level.
He went to college and although he dropped out at the end of the second year he found a good interesting job. You don’t get much greater success than that.
I had experienced a wondrous three years as a student during the late sixties. It was my hedonistic years of Rock ‘n’ Roll in London. Three gigs each week, a wild social life, loads of reading and being madly in love, was the backdrop to having to go to a few lectures here and there. I shared a room in the East End with a mad genius and we had fun and put the world to rights.
After that it was all downhill. I had to get a job. I worked at my old college as a lab tech doing a part-time M.Phil.
I figured that when I had reached the end of my tether I had another year of freedom up my sleeve; I could go back to college for a year and do a post graduate certificate of education – PGCE.
That came after three years. I had a big row with my supervisor who wanted me to do another year before submitting my Master’s degree. I told him to stick it, in slightly stronger words, and walked out.
Hull University accepted me on to their course and I found my year in mid seventies Hull far removed from my three years in sixties London. Ho hum.
At the end of the year I drifted into applying for teaching posts. I was offered the first one I applied to. It was at Beverley Grammar School. In some ways it was considered the best job on offer and my tutor, with whom I had major confrontations over his hypocritical teaching methods, was amazed. Unbeknown to him there were things he did not know. BGS had been forced to change to a comprehensive school and it was struggling. They had realised they needed young comprehensive teachers. I was it.
What my fellow students could not understand was why I had accepted the job in the first place. The school seemed the opposite of what all my ideals stood for. It was.
I liked it because it was a challenge. I knew exactly where I stood.
I was reminded of the car stickers I had seen in America. There were two types: America- love it or leave it!! Or America – love it or change it!!
Education is the big hope for the world! It is imperative that it is focussing on the whole child to bring out all their talents, skills and develop them as caring human beings.
