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.
I wrote this book fourteen years ago when I retired from teaching. It’s been burbling away achieving some glowing reviews but unfortunately didn’t change education across the world! We continue to fail to see the wonder of education as a transforming force. Young minds can be expanded and the world can be improved. Education should be enlightening, wondrous, exciting and fun. All too often it is robotic, stifling and plain boring.
I wanted to do it right!
(I noticed on Amazon that the price for the book had gone up ridiculously. I price my books so that they give me £1 profit. Amazon had put their costs up and that impacted. I’ve addressed that. In the next few days the price should more than half).
So here is an extract from the introduction:
A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
. Education is all things to all men/women. To politicians it is a way of maintaining social order, reinforcing class or enabling mobility and addressing the economic needs of the country. To many it is purely about careers while to others it is about expanding minds, opening horizons and creating wonder. I’m very much in the wonder and awe camp. I am also of the repairing damaged kids persuasion. All my students were equally important and equally valuable. I hope I succeeded in making some of their lives better. That’s what I set out to do. Their chosen career and economic value was secondary to their self-esteem and happiness.
Before starting this I checked on ‘Rate my Teacher’, a scurrilous website that has given a voice to some rather dubious individuals, but one which reflects how some others see you. It offers a modicum of objectivity. It was a little unsettling to see oneself described as an obese penguin from the CIA but on the other side there was also the recognition of the care and respect. It showed a career that was not entirely wasted.
I worked in Education for thirty six years and prior to that I was largely a victim of it for twenty plus years. My experience of schooling gave me the impetus to get involved and change it. My disgust at the education minister and the Tory attempt to belittle all the achievements of recent decades and drag education back to the appalling 1950s is my main reason for writing this. Children should be valued as human beings and not seen as mere economic units for the employment market. Education that is not developing all aspects of human empathy, and creativity as well as expanding minds is wrong. Most leading fascists have been highly educated – after a fashion. It was their empathy, compassion and warmth of spirit that was allowed to atrophy. Any education system that fosters elitism and the smug arrogance that stems from it should be resisted by all caring people. A system that ignores the promotion of human feeling and sound moral and ethical values in order to focus on exam league tables and economic performance is flawed. The society created would be cold and bitter.
I have fought against that limited view of education all my life.
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!!
As a child I rapidly gravitated towards the back of the classroom where I decided I might attract less attention.
During one maths lesson I discovered I had made an error when doing a sum. I had taken to doing things in pencil so that I could correct mistakes. Unfortunately I had forgotten my rubber. I knew the boy behind had a rubber and turned round to borrow it. Silently I picked it up and mouthed ‘can I borrow this?’ holding it up.
He nodded.
I turned back to address the mistake on my book when a wooden blackboard rubber hit me right between the eyes and knocked me flying out of my seat.
Mr W had seen me turn round and flung the wooden blackboard rubber at me. His years of rugby must have given him unerring aim. He got me dead centre in the middle of the forehead.
I was unconscious for ten minutes while he continued with the lesson. Nobody was allowed near me.
When I came round I was obviously concussed. I did not know where I was or what I was doing. My best mate had to guide me round the school for the rest of the day. I was in a complete haze.
A huge lump had shot up on my forehead. It was so large I could actually see it.
When I got home my Mum was appalled but my Dad just said I must have deserved it.
Nothing happened. They never even went in to complain.
Within any classroom there is a pecking order. Boys compete with each other to be top dog. It is biological. The top dog produces different pheromones that make them more attractive to females.
The hierarchy is established through aggression, humour, physical prowess, looks, fashion and verbal dexterity. The relationships are constantly reinforced. Those of similar status vie with each other for position and those at the bottom are the butt of everyone’s put-downs. That is the game.
It can manifest itself in schools as bad behaviour, attention seeking and showing off in the classroom. This is often hard to deal with. Punishments are water off a duck’s back and often seen as a badge of honour. It is amazing how an attitude can change when you take them out of the classroom, deprive them of an audience, and deal with them as an individual.
The other manifestation is bullying. This can take the form of verbal, physical or internet bullying.
Bullying occurs everywhere. There is no institution without it. It has to be dealt with.
The first way is to provide good mechanisms for prevention and reporting:
A high profile ‘Bully Box’ for anonymous complaints that is regularly emptied and all inputs processed fully
Explaining clearly what constitutes bullying and what action will be taken
Working throughout the school to raise sensibilities, promote empathy and the need to respect all people
Celebrating difference and promoting responsible behaviour
Having poster campaigns and assemblies
Having a zero tolerance of all negative attitudes towards minority groups
Using ‘Student Voice’ to set a tone
Opening avenues of communication involving parents, students, all teaching and non-teaching staff, form tutors and heads of year
Having clear well publicised procedures for reporting bullying (putting letters in the box, telling friends, parents, tutors, teachers, head of year, deputy or Head
Instilling the facts in all staff, students, and parents that it is serious and even lesser examples need talking seriously and dealing with. Ensuring they give it priority over everything else
Dealing with small examples so that they do not grow into bigger problems
Processing all bullying incidents through restorative practice. Gathering all the people involved together. Talking the whole thing through. Agreeing culpability and degree of culpability and getting all involved to agree the punishment for their actions
Checking with students through anonymous surveys.
Being constantly vigilant
No school completely eradicates bullying but I am proud that my school had extremely low levels. Students reported feeling comfortable and said that the school was friendly and supported those students who were geekie, different or odd. Those individuals felt secure. Racism, homophobia, sexism and negative attitudes towards other minorities were at an all time low.
That is quite an achievement and one of my greatest.
A previous Head Mike Day told me a heart-warming story. During the eighties he worked hard to counteract the high level of violence, endemic bullying and the elitist system that produced these things.
He did away with streaming and set up mechanisms to deal with all the problems.
He had been there a year and transformed the school. An anonymous note was pushed under his door thanking him for what he had done. The lad wrote that for the first time in his life he felt safe walking around the school.
As an retired teacher and Head of Department I found this book a joy to read. It is many things – personal biography, passionate polemic, practical handbook, education history, inspirational text, you name it – woven together in a natural, organic way which really gives you the feel of school life. The author knows whereof he speaks and in friendly fashion takes you, the reader, by the hand on a headlong and often exciting journey through the maze of modern education. His vision is clear and compelling, he knows what works and what doesn’t, he wants you to share his profound sense of the human potential which we can unlock if only we get our schools right. He articulates a philosophy which puts the whole child at its centre and explores the relationships underlying the magic of educational development. The book is written in a direct, heartfelt, jargon-free style and is packed with amusing anecdotes which illuminate his principles, unlike many dry books on the subject. Passionate and humorous and unafraid of controversy, it certainly gets you thinking. I found it a real page-turner and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in good education, whether outside or inside the teaching profession. For anyone connected with school management, in any capacity, it is essential reading. A unique and valuable voice.
‘Passion for Education – the story of a headteacher’ was I thought the most inspiring book on education since I read A.S. Neill’s Summerhill when I was 15 (over 50 years ago). It ought to be top of the search results when looking for a book on Headteachers. In fact I could only find it here by entering both ‘Headteacher’ and ‘Goodwin’. Never mind, an excellent and uplifting read – every PARENT should read it!
If you have any interest in the education of your child this book is essential reading. Having studied and worked in education myself I find Mr Goodwins insights and experiences very thought provoking. It deserves a place on the shelves of every educational establishment and needless to say a few people at the ministries and especially the minister for education should read this and maybe, just maybe, we could move forward and improve the educational standards of our children where they have been slipping on a global level. Mr Goodwin shows, his Ofsted scores prove the point, that civility and empathy rather than antiquated regimented regimes can be extremely effective.
John Fioravanti
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for all who care about educationReviewed in the United States on 31 December 2017
This is an outstanding treatise on what education should be in the Twenty-First Century. Goodwin is a gifted teacher who had the opportunity to buck the establishment as a Headteacher and create a child-centered learning environment that focused on the whole child. His empathetic approach aspired to make every staff member and every learner a success. As a Canadian educator, I must admit I had some challenges with idioms that are particular to the education system in the UK. However, these small hurdles did not prevent me from understanding his vision for a better style of education. My only regret is that I was unable to teach with Christopher Goodwin.
When I went into education I had a very clear philosophy; I thought it should be a process that expanded minds and encouraged thinking, enabled creativity and should be thoroughly enjoyable.
I met some resistance.
Chapter 4 – The Purpose of Education
It always seems to me that this is where everyone gets confused. Everyone talks about education as if they are talking about the same thing. They are not.
Politicians rant about league tables and world standing without any understanding of what they are talking about.
Parents send their children apprehensively into the machine with a modicum of hope but no real understanding of what they are hoping for.
Students are consumed by the process without grasping what is actually happening to them.
The measurable outcomes are easy to grasp and so are given greater importance. The aspects that are not measurable are sometimes acknowledged but usually taken for granted and brushed aside. You cannot measure happiness, empathy, responsibility and tolerance.
Industry cries out for more and better grist for the mill. We in education are always falling short.
There needs to be a national debate.
There needs to be an international debate.
Everything stems from philosophy.
We have to stand back from it so that we can view the edifice of education objectively.
What is the purpose of education?
This is something that needs looking at from all sides. Out of this debate there must be some consensus and the application of intelligence. We can no longer allow education to be the football of political dogma and vested interest. It has to be based on sound philosophy and in the hands of educationalists who know what they are doing.
So what needs to be considered in arriving at this philosophy? Let us look at education in the widest possible light. By exposing the various philosophies to light we might explore them better. I do not necessarily agree with the philosophy enshrined in these objectives nor do I place them in any order. Indeed I abhor some of these philosophies. I merely moot them as considerations in order for us to debate the enormity of this subject. We cannot arrive at concensus without taking into account the full panoply of views. By looking at the monolithic construction that education has become from different angles we might begin to make sense of it.
Here are my views on what various interested parties view as being the fundamental purpose of education:
For enjoyment
To prepare students for jobs and careers in the modern world
To prepare students for life in the 21st century
To provide the basic needs for participating in a technological society – reading, writing, arithmetic and computer competency
To assume a place in society as a positive citizen – moral, sexual and political.
To stimulate imagination and creativity
To grade students so that future universities and employers can easily judge their competence
To create a hierarchy of status in society
To provide the skills, verbal and practical, that are required by employers, society and individuals
To broaden the mind and open it up to further understanding
To create wonder and awe.
To understand science and technological advances
To understand history and learn from it so that we do not make the same mistakes
To absorb knowledge so that it can be processed internally and synergistically used to arrive at new understanding
To explore feelings so that they can be understood and mastered
To explore love, sex and relationships so that adults and children can have better experiences
To promote the sheer love of a subject
To stimulate intelligence and an inquisitive mind
To satisfy the love of learning
To stimulate the love of reading where-in all human experience, the highest thoughts and aspirations, and our dreams are contained
To foster an appreciation of the arts as the highest, most civilised expression of humanity
To investigate morality so that we might build a better, fairer society
To foster tolerance so that we never experience racism, sexism, religious intolerance, homophobia, war, persecution or slavery again in human history
To socialise people so that they are able to enjoy the company of others from all strata and types of society
To teach teamwork and cooperation, so essential to human achievement
To enable the enjoyment of sport and play in all its varieties
To teach about health and fitness so that we can lead vital pleasurable lives
To foster an appreciation of the pleasures of life – literature, food, wine, theatre, opera, music, drama and good company
To care for the environment so that future generations can enjoy the planet
To consider all the issues that threaten life on this planet: overpopulation, pollution, war, species annihilation, overcrowding, poverty, terrorism, and so on – so that we might find solutions
To consider political systems and analyse their effectiveness so that we might produce better systems.
To objectively look at party politics and understand what different political factions stand for so that we might all be better equipped to function in a true democracy.
To investigate capitalism and the world of big business to better understand how the world is organised and run
To promote empathy, responsibility, tolerance, respect and care
To build self-esteem
To foster alert, lively minds who are optimistic and ready to step forward to push back the frontiers with imagination, creativity and exuberance
I am sure there are others to add to this list.
There are some that I believe have no place in education. I do not believe that religion should be allowed anywhere near young vulnerable minds. There is no room for outmoded, primitive superstition in schools. It should be outlawed.
As for religious schools and the brainwashing of young children I view this as child abuse.
Too many minds are stultified by poor education techniques, their imaginations sacrificed on the altar of rote learning for league tables and their enjoyment strangled.
The cleverest boy in my school was a genius. He passed every exam with a clear grade A. He was also a joyless, timid, and boring individual without spark or passion and was unemployable except to stoke the icy furnaces of academia or the depths of library archives. Heaven help us if we churn out such vacuous products of stifling education systems. He was an utter failure.
In 1974 I walked out of my research for my Master’s degree following a disagreement with my supervisor. We had a child and another on the way and I found myself unemployed. To fill in time while I considered what to do with my life I applied for a teaching course and ended up in a career that spanned thirty-six years – taking me from probationary teacher to Headteacher.
There were many ups and downs and, when I left, I set about writing my experiences down. It’s my insight into education; my education bible!
Chapter 25 – Restorative Practice
Restorative Practice is not only the way forward for schools but also the way forward for society.
It is fair, just and provides long lasting results. It avoids victims and resentment which usually results in grudges and further retributions or alienation.
As Head of the Pastoral system in the school I introduced Restorative Practice before it was invented. I’m sure lots of reasonably minded pastoral managers did likewise. We did it because it made sense and it works.
One has to bear in mind when making a statement like this that nothing is one hundred percent successful. Sometimes we are human and don’t carry the processes out well. Sometimes there are issues and personality clashes that make resolution impossible. Often there simply is not the time or will to get it to work. I am mindful of the individual who posted their report regarding my good self on Rate-your-teacher. He accused me of acting like the CIA when it came to dealing with playing field fights. He went on to abuse me for being short and having a long grey beard and accused me of being a weed smoking hippie. Obviously he felt aggrieved and was not one of my greatest successes. You can’t win them all.
However this is one where you can win most. Of that I am sure. All it takes is some time and a mediator with the skills and empathy to resolve issues. The chief skill is being able to listen.
The process is easy.
I used to bring all the involved parties in, isolate them, and get them to write down what had happened from their perspective. I also gathered all the witness statements and personally read them.
When I had an idea of what had gone on I brought all the parties together in one room and talked things through. I got each of them to explain what they had done and why. I got everyone else to comment on this. My job was to tease out exactly what had happened and get all parties to see and accept what their part was and what they had done wrong.
In my experience nothing is ever what it seems at first sight. Hardly ever is there a clear-cut black and white situation. All incidents have multiple causes, misunderstandings and degrees of guilt. Rarely is there a completely innocent party. This particularly applies to staff. Often a teacher has had a bad day and found themselves wound up and furious. They expect you to instantly take their side and believe their side of things without question. This has to be resisted. Often I have found the teacher has a degree of guilt. They may well have misunderstood, misheard, or inadvertently contributed to an escalation. The Pastoral leader has to stand up to the teacher concerned and be scrupulously fair. Teachers have a tough job and need support but each incident has to be dealt with objectively. If they are in the wrong to any degree that has to be teased out and accepted. The important thing is to rebuild relationships and find a way forward that all are happy with.
Once consensus has been achieved on what all parties have done and what was done wrong we move on to how to put it right.
This process involves accepting guilt and agreeing how to put things right. This normally involves apologies, handshakes and punishments.
When it comes to punishments I always asked the students what it was they felt they deserved. Invariably they would come out with a harsher punishment than that I would have given.
At the end the underlying issues have been resolved, a way forward established and suitable sanctions applied. The students leave without a sense of injustice, having been listened to and taken seriously and there is no ongoing resentment.
It is a system I applied successfully throughout my time in education. It worked.
The main objection has always been that it is time consuming. In the short term it is. In the long term it isn’t.
There is a danger that resentment and alienation result in recurrence after recurrence. Nothing is resolved.
Restorative Practice resolves issues. It could do the same for crime. Instead of using a hugely costly and lengthy process involving courts, judges and prisons, most cases could be resolved in a similar way. Fines, community service and even prison sentencing could replace the detentions.
It works and it is cost effective.
Of course it will never happen while the barristers and lawyers have such a vested interest in maintaining such a lucrative system that buys them their estates.
One thing is quite clear and that is that schools should always avoid any system that is inflexible and automatically aligns punishments to crimes. These can only be used as indicators.
Staff like the reassurance of having a clear, black and white system. There is no such thing.
In practice all crimes are nuanced by context and severity. Each incident is different. They have to be treated differently and punished accordingly.
