You might say you wouldn’t put one first, that both matter equally. Or that you think young people’s wellbeing and happiness far outweigh everything else. But schools in this country can feel a constant tension between these two priorities, as a result of our current school accountability system. Here are two examples where there is probably no tension.
Nadia
Nadia is what some might call a ‘high flyer’: she sailed through Primary school, performing strongly academically, in ‘creative’ endeavours and in sport. She had a lot of friends, she was regularly in the School Production, and she played piano and violin both in and out of school. In her SATs at the end of Year 6, she scored among the highest results in her school and she was in the top 20% of pupils nationally for her combined score. She transferred to secondary school with a lot of her friends and she is already in the girls’ football and netball teams as well as the top sets for all the subjects that use setting. She was elected as her Form Class representative on the School Council. Nadia’s teachers love having her in their class because she is keen and cheerful and she loves to help other students who get stuck with the work. Nadia is, visibly, a happy and very successful student at this time.
Dover
Dover is also in Year 7. He struggles with his reading and his behaviour and although he doesn’t have an Education, Health and Care Plan, he was placed on the school’s Register of Special Needs at the start of Year 7 based on the information provided by his Primary school. Dover says he ‘finds learning stuff really hard’. He has no friends at the school – he did have one friend to begin with, but they fell out shortly after the start of the school year. Dover has told his Form Tutor that he often feels ‘sad’ and at these times he ‘just wants to stay in bed all day and not get up’. He cries easily, and a lot. School and Dover’s parents are in regular contact and the parents have recently referred Dover for counselling through his GP. They say they are struggling to know what to do for the best for him. The school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead has placed Dover on the school’s Safeguarding watchlist. The SENDCo has also assigned Dover a key worker, whom Dover talks to regularly and he has told the SENDCo that he feels that this support helps him.
It would not be unreasonable to say that the school needs to prioritise Nadia’s academic achievement, because she appears to be a well-adjusted, happy and successful student. What she needs most is plenty of academic challenge all the way through school to ensure she achieves the outcomes that her prior attainment (that is, her SATs results) suggests she should achieve at the end of Year 11 – a GCSE Grade 8 or 9 in all of the subjects she will study at Key Stage 4.
It would not be unreasonable to say that the school needs to prioritise Dover’s social, emotional and mental health at this time. What’s the point of his Maths teacher pushing him really hard right now to get high Maths results, and sanctioning him when he doesn’t get his homework done on time, when Dover is so obviously struggling with the most basic things?
Those may be easy calls, but the vast majority of young people in school do not fall into one of these two situations. The vast majority have some friends, are fairly happy, mainly do their homework, behave themselves well enough, work pretty hard in lessons and as a result make reasonable progress – they tend to carry on like that throughout their school life, they do pretty well in their final exams and they are then able to take their next steps.
Here is an example from the USA where academic achievement is the clear priority. In the KIP (‘Knowledge is Power’) schools in the USA, the following typically happens:
- The schools have a ‘no excuses’ approach to inappropriate behaviour – every incident of inappropriate behaviour is sanctioned; a strict discipline code is prioritised, and students’ behaviour tends to be outstanding in these schools – you can ‘hear a pin drop’ in lessons when the teacher is talking and in corridors between lessons as students proceed calmly and purposefully to their next lesson
- Teaching is disruption-free
- The schools appear to be happy enough places and certainly no less happy than other schools, on average
- Students’ outcomes in end of key stage exams that are equivalent to our GCSEs, BTECs and A levels are very strong
The KIP schools would say they absolutely do care about students’ wellbeing, but what they trumpet loudly is their academic achievement – these schools are far more likely to have the mantra, ‘We get OUR students into College’ than the mantra, ‘Our students’ wellbeing and happiness come first!’ They do this because they believe that students who are academically successful – and especially those students who start from a position of disadvantage – are far more likely to be happy and successful students.
In this country there are schools that take a similar stance, the best-known of which is probably The Michaela School in London. Last time I looked, Michaela had the highest Progress 8 score of all of the State secondary schools in England, at over 2 points above the expected standard score of zero – their students are performing out of their skins in their formal examinations year after year. Are the Michaela School students less happy than students in lower-performing schools? I would guess not.
In his book, ‘Making Kids Smarter’, David Didau appears to take a similar view to the Michaela School, which can be summed up as: whatever our aims for education are, they will be best served by ensuring our students know a lot of ‘stuff’; so we should prioritise them gaining that knowledge because if young people end up knowing a lot and as a result are academically successful at school, then all of the other worthwhile aims schools may have – building character, personal development, socialisation and preparing young people for their next steps – are likely to follow from their strong academic progress and their attainment in their exams. I feel persuaded by this argument.
Is it possible to emphasise both students’ well-being and their academic progress equally? That’s the question I’m raising. Clearly, young people’s most basic needs need to be met, and anyone in Dover’s position needs a tailored approach to get them to a place where they are ready for the rigours of the daily strong academic ‘push’. But the vast majority of young people need to be encouraged and ‘pushed’ and and taught well and expected to achieve the highest possible academic standards all of the time – knowledge really is power and the more of it that young people have, the better.
The tension remains!
