Raising_Attainment_and_the_Impact_on_Enjoy_and_Achieve

Curriculum Studies Task 2 “Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten” (Skinner,B.F 1984:484) Introduction: The aim of this essay is to discuss the present coalition government’s current agenda for the review of the school curriculum as they place yet more focus on raising attainment, in particular at primary level. I will be considering the impact this is having on the children in my primary school, focusing on one diversity issue in particular. I aim to look at the ways in which we deliver the curriculum in order to meet these expected targets and look at how this builds on the Labour government’s initiative, Every Child Matters “enjoy and achieve” strand. The Every Child Matters policy was a Labour government initiative that came about as a direct result of the unfortunate death of a young girl (Victoria Climbe). The central aims of the Every Child Matters framework is the protection, nurture and the improvement of life chances for all children throughout England and Wales. The development of every child matters was as follows: September 2003: government green paper was published. March 2004: Every Child Matters, next steps document was published. December 2004: Every Child Matters, Change for Children and the five outcomes was published (Cheminais, R. 2008:5) “Enjoy and Achieve” is one of the five outcomes of the Every Child Matters (ECM) directive. For a child’s needs to be met under this strand he/she must attend and enjoy school, embarking on a journey that is personal, enriching and socially developing. Our aim in schools is to fulfil these expectations whilst at the same time raising the educational achievement of the child, address any disadvantage that they may experience and close educational gaps that may have arisen due to their economic background. The term “curriculum, can be, and is, used, for many different kinds of programme of teaching and instruction” (Kelly.2009:5) According to Kelly the term curriculum is an umbrella term and can be used and interpreted in many different ways. It is complex due to the several different meanings and definitions that have been used. For the basis of this essay I will use the term “educational curriculum” (Kelly.2009:7). My own interpretation of the term curriculum is that it is, a set of clearly defined objectives that practitioners follow in order to facilitate learning. It is a strategic tool that provides us with a basis for educational provision in schools. The coalition government came into power in 2009. Despite their acknowledgement that most primary schools were doing an excellent job already. It wasn’t long after this that they announced that more must be done to raise standards and narrow the attainment gap (DfE 2011:2). The secretary of state Michael Gove commissioned a review of the National Curriculum on the 19th December 2011 (DfE 2011) with the proposal of implementing the curriculum changes in 2014. There were five principle objectives for commissioning the review of the current curriculum, one of which is the focus on raising attainment “to set rigorous requirements for pupil attainment, which measure up to those in the highest performing jurisdictions in the world” (education.gov.uk). According to the DfE The National Curriculum has 3 aims: successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve; confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives; responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. The government has also targeted white British children from low income backgrounds as a growing national concern. These children are predominantly underachievers with low attainment levels. “underachievement is a major problem in schools serving a disadvantaged inner city community. Some of the lowest levels of achievement are to be found in these areas” (Mortimer,P and Whitty, G. 1997; Demie et al 2002). A vital element of school improvement is to raise the levels of achievement of underachieving groups of pupils. This is now acknowledged by central government in a number of its White Papers and Children service Plans (DfES 1997, DfES 2000, DfES 2008). The Gender Issue: According to the DCSF (2009) gender differences are constructed and they imply that these differences can be reinforced in schools by their peers and teachers, as they make a point of “consistently associating or attributing certain behaviours and characteristics to one gender over the other and then acting accordingly” (DCSF, 2009:2). Research into gender differences in education led to this particular conclusion (Jackson, 2006; Francis, 2000; Alloway et al 2002) “boys and girls produce constructions of gender (masculinity and femininity) that “fit” social norms in the peer group and in wider society. These include giving preference and more time to particular behaviours, interests and school subjects whilst shunning or avoiding others. These gendered behaviours are “deep-seated, and children enact these without being unconsciously aware of them” (Skelton, Francis and Valkanova 2007) Up until recently there was a general stereotypical view amongst educationalists that white British boys were the predominant underachievers in schools. A recent document published by Lambeth government points to the “growing concern about low attainment of white British children from low income backgrounds” ( Demie, F and Lewis, K. January 2010:2). An inspection by OFSTED in October 2011 of the primary school I currently work in, reported the following findings “significant improvement is required because, for significant groups of pupils attainment and achievement are inadequate over time in English. Pupils attainment and achievement have been inadequate over time and are not yet improving fast enough, particularly in English and for groups such as white British girls” (OFSTED 2011:4). Despite the governments efforts to continouosly raise achievement and attainment levels in schools by putting more and more emphasis on assessment and making schools and teachers accountable for these results, this group of children had slipped through the net and had not made sufficient progress in 3 out of 4 years. On further investigation it came to light that these girls had typical characteristics. These girls are often quiet and well behaved in class and they became the “invisible children” by not bringing attention to themselves by the way they acted. They took great care over their work and their handwriting was neat. They also very rarely speak out in class during group discussions or carpet time. These girls also tend to sit quietly during group work and are very compliant, choosing not to engage in the task. During talk partner activity they can often be seen listening rather than talking. OfSTED recognises that inequality of educational attainment is a key factor and a pressing concern of national importance is to close the gap in educational achievement between different social groups (OfSTED 2009). As part of our school development improvement plan and post OfSTED action plan, this issue has been addressed and the school introduced the Achievement for All framework in October 2011. The Achievement for All 3As is an independant charity set up to transform the lives of vulnerable people and their families. Intense focus on meeting attainment levels in school seems to have raised concerns of whether or not teachers are “teaching to targets” rather than focusing on promoting equality of access to the curriculum. Standards are setting the agenda in schools. Schools are promoting academic nurturing and not holistic nurturing. This would explain how this group of girls have managed to slip under the radar for quite some time, as teachers place emphasis on higher and lower ability groups in an effort to raise attainment standards in school. Thorne writes “teachers frequently give boys more classroom attention than girls” (Thorne, B. 1993:2). This type of curriculum delivery is demotivating and demoralising for children and their teachers, as fun subjects such as Art and Drama are replaced with extra maths and English revision lessons. Assessment is an important tool that teachers use to constantly guage the levels of pupils learning so that they can adjust their planning and ensure differentiated learning to meet all pupils needs. Kelly writes “a second danger which we must note is that of assessment coming to lead, rather than support curricular provision” (Kelly. A, V 2009:148). If our children are demotivated and demoralised due to the pressure that they feel under, in order to meet targets, this will be impacting negatively on their motivation to learn. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs implies that “a person’s willingness to accept and participate in their environment relies on the persons own self-concept and related levels of motivation or self-actualisation. Maslow believed that self actualisiation was a human need that could only be met when other levels of attainment had been met. Motivation (or lack of it) can arise from many sources and situations (Petty, G 2004). Every Child Matters “enjoy and achieve” strand requires that for children to enjoy and achieve in school certain requirements must be met by the educational establishment. These are. Children must be ready for school. They must attend and enjoy school. They must take part in personal and social development and enjoy recreation. We must raise the educational achievement of all children and young people, whilst at the same time addressing any disadvantage children may experience and narrowing the gap in educational achievement between children from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. Enjoy and achieve is integrated into the curriculum in my setting by the provision of the “creative curriculum”. This is a learning experience that involves school residentials, excursions, drama, dance, additional sport activities, extra-curricular activities and visitors to the school. Yet despite the school recognising the need for children to enjoy school and making provision for this the reality is that the focus is still very much on reaching government targets and there is overwhelming evidence that children are not currently enjoying school. In a recent TES newspaper article Mansell (2008) wrote three quarters of teachers believe that children’s enjoyment of education is being damaged by the governments methods for measuring and raising achievement, the tests and the exam regime. These findings came from a TES survey of teachers with the particular focus being on the five aims of Every Child Matters. The survey found that 4 out of every 5 teachers felt that pressure to raise attainment conflicted with the broader aims of the ECM initiative. Despite the majority of children appearing to be happy at school there is widespread concern that endless revision of subjects leads to children becoming bored and can also cause anxiety. This I have witnessed in my own setting whilst supporting the Y6 class revising for their SATS at the end of the last school year 2011/2012. Conclusion On the 28th July 2010 in a report to the Education Select committee Michael Gove, the secretary of state was dismissive of ECM stating that “I’ve got no problems with every child matters as a list, but I do think that it’s important that we recognise it should be policed in a hands off way” (http://www.teachingtimes.com/kb/23/working-with-other-agencies-.htm). This statement points to the assumption that the government may be trying to distance themselves from this particular piece of legislation, for reasons that are unclear we can only speculate as to why. Michael Gove was also quick to rename the DCSF, the Department for Children, Schools and Families to the DfE, Department for Education. The document “Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework (2004)” is available on the DfE website as a reference document only. The DfE clearly states that it should not be considered to reflect current policy or guidance (DfE 2012). Not long after this the DfE circulated a memo advising that preferred terminology is to replace the “Every Child Matters” and “The five Outcomes” with “Help Children Achieve More”. When viewed together it points to a possible step away from the Labour initiative of multi-agency collaboration and more towards a singular agenda, raising educational standards regardless of the impact on a child’s wellbeing and their overall enjoyment of school. The coalition government by their own admission are emphasising the focus to be on “achievement” but at what cost to the children and teachers remains to be seen.