Learning for life dies in Y6 by Martin Tibbetts

Learning for life dies in Y6 where enthusiastic children are no longer taught things new but rehearsed endlessly for a test. From then on, they are exposed to SATs ad-nauseam and a resulting reduced curriculum which does not address the skills they need to be successful citizens of the 21st century. In Y6 an organised educational visit or a drama activity is something they will remember as something special. The sadness is that is all that they remember from the year. Research is showing that the National Strategies are not improving literacy and numeracy. Are we surprised when pupils are given disconnected skills to absorb work done within a teaching lesson devoid of a long term context and no opportunities to exploit that skill taught on a meaningful and sustained basis?

While the Government are promoting "Creativity in the Curriculum" this will not happen until SATs and the publication of school results cease. Until then, teachers, schools and (sadly) pupils will be put through the SAT mechanistic process with no due regard to the individual talents of pupils whose futures may lie not in Maths, English or Science but in the Foundation subjects or the extra curricular opportunities provided by intuitive and caring teachers who understand the needs and strengths of their pupils. At GCSE level coursework (a real opportunity for pupils to take control of their learning and become a stakeholder in their learning opportunities) has been downgraded to such an extent that it is meaningless to the learner. If "Creativity in the Curriculum" means anything, surely coursework is a vehicle for that student's expression of creativity.

Using a theatre analogy, there was a time when teachers could create the script. Now teachers have been de-professionalised to the extent that they are mere readers and deliverers of a script that has no value other than meeting a narrow set of targets. Our pupils are relegated to being stage hands with little ownership of what they are taught and what they wish to engage with, both in school and beyond school.

By way of anecdote, my Primary School and High School had a joint project to plant trees on the school campus shared by staff and students from both schools. A former pupil, Carl (a High School 6th form student), approached me and told me that the drama work done in my Primary School had, in his words, "Given me the drama bug". He thanked me for that as he is now employed by national theatres for lighting work including the NEC, in Birmingham, for major popular music concerts. That was his life chance in an era before league tables dominated educational thinking. Carl would never have achieved level 3 in Y6 SATs, but he was enabled to discover his strengths and develop his enthusiasms and make a success of them in life. What chance would Carl have now of achieving that in the current national context?

I do believe the Labour Government have put increased funding into education and there are aspects of the "National Strategies" which have provided teachers with more resources and a much needed focus - more so in Primary Schools where classroom teachers are tasked with teaching the whole curriculum and teaching specialised areas of the curriculum which they were not trained for. The Government should be thanked for that. The politicians will argue that the electorate won't understand a multi-million pound investment figure being put into Education or Health Services as proof that they have made a difference in those sectors. Thus the need for targets, they will argue.

Targets have flaws! The Prime Minister, during the election campaign, was shocked to learn that NHS targets can be manipulated with regard to a patient seeing a doctor within 24 hours. In our schools, teachers are faced with similar targets to meet. I don't believe that teachers manipulate targets, but they are certainly driven by ensuring all school resources and energies are focused on league table status and SAT/GSCE exam results in the subjects that appear to matter.

The new OFSTED regime of "Short Notice" inspections has as its starting point the "Self Review" of the School and its SAT/GCSE results. If SATs and exam results are "not matching with schools of a similar type", that school is at risk of being catagorised as a "School with Serious Weaknesses" or put in "Special Measures".

Light years away from Carl!

The Government can not have their cake and eat it. They wish to promote a more expansive and creative curriculum. This will never happen until the pressure is off schools to perform well in league tables based on examination of pupil skills in a decontextualised range of tasks which represent a fraction of what good schools really do to create a rounded person well equipped to make a success in a multicultural, technological, continually changing world.

A recent international poll, published in the Guardian, showed that the UK has the biggest percentage of its population going to theatre, visiting museums and supporting the arts. Carl has a future. Emma is currently a pupil in Y6 .She won't make Level 4, but a superb actress, dancer and musician. She will feel a failure not achieving the Government target for the school. But she is a pupil with talent. She is creative and I suspect will become disaffected when reaching adolescence in her secondary school. Her talent will not count in school league tables and, unlike Carl, never be nurtured until the obsession with targets changes. She probably won't get the Doctor's appointment, should she need one in the future, because it doesn't help the 24 hour local GP practice target.

Martin Tibbetts
Past Chair of NATE, Headteacher and past Additional Inspector to HMI

These views expressed by Martin Tibbetts are personal and may not reflect the views of the National Association for the Teaching of English or those currently held by OFSTED and HMI.