Matthew's RSA blog

Learning some tough lessons

Today is all about Education for the RSA. We are hosting our annual, standing room only Opening Minds Conference – poignantly there is also a report from the authoritative DCSF Select Committee MPs criticising SATS test (again).

There are two lessons to be learned. The first concerns the dynamics of policy development. Over time all policies end up generating unintended consequences. Today, when the Ofsted and league tables are part of every day life, and have a massive impact on school intake and by extension property prices it’s difficult to remember how relatively recent these measures are.

Before these were introduced there was a lack of information for parents to make informed decisions. Hundreds of schools were under performing year on year with few levers to tackle failure. SATS, league tables and published Ofsted inspections were not only necessary but inevitable in an age when the public demands, and can easily get hold of, more information. The democratising impact is that middle class parents always knew through the grapevine which schools were good and which not, the SATS system opened up that information to every parent.

The second is a lesson in humility. Systemic reform is difficult, not least when you need to admit that you may have been wrong. While the idea that schools should be held accountable for their pupils’ performance was absolutely correct, but the result is that pupils, teachers and parents now feel constrained rather than liberated.

The report from the DCSF Select Committee calls for a number of reforms to the current system; one of the most relevant to our mission here at the RSA is the renewed commitment to personal learning for pupils.

We have broadly welcomed the introduction of the new National Curriculum which is far more competency based (and in that way more similar to the Opening Minds Curriculum) and we are looking forward to broadening our curriculum for all the key stages with the Academy in Tipton.

The main criticism from MPs appears to be that the barrage of tests is being used, not only to assess pupils against national targets, but also to determine school funding, performance targets and teacher assessment. This creates a system where heads and teachers are understandably obsessed with testing ability, which leads to the aforementioned constraints on creativity in the classroom.

What is needed is a bit of thinking around how you motivate teachers to be creative in the classroom, and provide them with the tools for that creativity. Schools that teach solely to the test create linear thinkers who are good at memorizing facts and regurgitating them on demand – but schools whose teachers, parents, and pupils are actively engaged in a more imaginative learning process create lateral thinkers, able to work out solutions for themselves. And surely that’s what society needs.

Memoirs of life, love, death and art

We shot into April at the speed of light with a busy week in the lectures team. First up on Monday evening we continued our education series with Edge on developing the potential of every pupil. Geoff Mulgan of the Young Foundation opened the discussion about diversity of provision in the education system, an area of special interest to the RSA as we look ahead to the opening of the RSA Tipton Academy in September. We were delighted to welcome Anders Hultin to the event to speak to us about the Kunskapsskolan in Sweden, an innovative system of preparatory schools which he co-founded.

On Tuesday evening, the novelist Julian Barnes spoke to a packed and attentive Great Room about his memoir of life, love, death and art - Nothing to be Frightened of. This was the first in a new series of collaborations with bookseller Blackwell and we are very much looking forward to welcoming poet, Simon Armitage as our next speaker.

MT has already blogged on our great event on Wednesday with Michael Landy, Neil Boorman and Daniel Miller so I won't elaborate any further than to say that the audio podcast will be available soon for any that missed out on that fascinating discussion.

And to wrap up the week, we welcomed veteran foreign correspondent Robert Fisk to our RSA Thursday stage. After shoe-horning as many people as possible into the Tavern Room, Robert shared memorable moments from his incredible reporting career and caused a great queue of people after the lecture who were eager to question the great man himself.

We slow from a fast gallop to a steady canter next week, and we kick off our week with Tim Harford revealing the hidden logic of life... prepare to be enlightened!

The Big Debate - Academies

Tune in to Teacher's TV tomorrow at 19:00 to see the Jonathan Dimbleby Big Debate on Academies -  featuring Our Matthew in the red corner.  It's a subject close to our heart...

Isabella (Website Editor)

Why are children unhappy?

‘Why are children so unhappy’ trumpets the Independent front page today. The question and the accompanying article creates the impression of a younger generation more disturbed, dysfunctional and depressed than ever before.

The concerns are real enough and the main point in this post is about what we should do. But a word of caution first. When making sweeping and alarming statements it is important to be clear what is being claimed. In particular we need to separate the existence of issues that are worrying from the implication that they are getting worse. To take one example it is, of course, true that we have a big problem with childhood obesity. However, to recognise this is not the same as saying that children are becoming less healthy. Indeed as the RSA Report on Risk and Childhood pointed out last year, on most indicators today’s children are healthier and safer than ever.

The reason we encourage the media to turn specific and important set of problems into a more pervasive message of social pessimism may be twofold.

Firstly, it is disturbing to realise that unhappiness co-exists with plenty. Although the poorest children are the least healthy (in mind and body) it is clear that even those laden with consumer gadgets and treats can be one or more of sad, unhealthy, anxious, aggressive.

Second, and related, we no longer see childhood problems as the unfinished business of progress (as  it felt when people were abolishing child chimney sweeps, eradicating polio, providing free school meals etc). We see today’s childhood discontents and traumas as the flip side of progress.

But, anyway, on to solutions. There are many and as I said we need to get behind the hype to develop specific solutions to specific problems. However, for the RSA a high priority is enabling schools to be intelligent communities.  The great work of schools like Wellington College (headed by Anthony Seldon) or schools using the Opening Minds curriculum demonstrate the benefit of working directly with these issues.  Still, overall, too many feel like exam factories, in which hearing the pupils' voices or addressing issues like individual and collective well-being are seen as low priorities. Schools are a public institution unlike any other. Young people have a long term relationship with a single institution from which they will emerge with many of their life choices and life chances clearer and more circumscribed (a key paradox of schooling is that it is both about opening up and narrowing down possibilities for students).

Making schools the kind of places where youngsters can individually and collectively overcome the kinds of problems modern life throws at them is vital. It is something I talk about in speeches - such as the one I gave last week to the Association of School and College Lecturers – and I’m sure it will be an important theme in the work of our emerging RSA Future Schools Network.      

Thanks for the comments on the last blog. I agree with Bob and Susie. There are still challenges to be addressed to have more user public services. I think, Bob, the Government remains signed up to user empowerment and contestability in service provision. That is certainly the direction of travel, for example, in employment, and there was an interesting reference to a more radical user driven approach in the recent drugs strategy. And thanks Matt for a very interesting article.                     

International relations

An amazingly busy week for us here in the events team. We started on Tuesday with a joint event with the Equality and Human Rights Commission where David Cameron and Trevor Phillips drew a buzzing crowd to talk about Sharia Law amid the controversial comments that have recently hit the headlines. MT then bumped into DC on his bike outside the Houses of Parliament when DC had only positive things to say about the RSA.

From religion and law to arts as Turner Prize winner, Jeremy Deller spoke about social and environmental challenges with John Wilson of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in the second of our Arts & Ecology Exchanges. With Wednesday came an international slant on education, as Ray Simon, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education travelled to the UK for the first time to speak on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. And from America to Russia as our popular RSA Thursday took on the Russian Presidential elections with an expert panel. Speakers included Edward Lucas who has recently published The New Cold War: How the Kremlin menaces both Russia and the West.

Finally we finished off the week with acclaimed director and self-proclaimed master of hype Tony Kaye with an exclusive screening of his epic documentary Lake of Fire. After a massive 15 years in the making this black and white film tackles the ever-dividing issue of abortion head on.

We step into March with an exciting and varied range of events, including a mini-series on Iraq five years on from invasion. We start with a bang as British filmmaker, Nick Broomfield joins us for an exclusive screening of his new film, Battle for Haditha.

Full steam ahead for the RSA Academy

First some good news. We have agreement from DCSF to the funding agreement for the RSA Academy so it’s full steam ahead for the new school to open in September, and be in the new building early in 2010. We have recruited some really good people to the Academy – many drawn from the existing staff at what is a fast improving school. One job we still have vacant is a Director of Business and Strategy so is anyone out there up for being part of this exciting initiative (you don’t need to be a trained teacher, details on the RSA website)?

This news is timely with the first meeting of our future schools network next week. To hear more about this visit Ian McGimpsey’s RSA Education blog. And while you are cruising our site can I recommend you go to the Carbon Limited site and hear about our fantastic public engagement even in Cardiff at the weekend.

Last Friday was the RSA Xmas Party. We always have it in January as Hospitality staff are working flat out on other people’s events in December. After a knife edge vote it was decided to go to a Medieval Banquet in St Katherine’s Dock. I dressed up as Richard the Lionheart and being the only man in costume felt like a complete plonker. The night was great because RSA colleagues are fun people to be with but I will draw a discreet veil over the quality of food and ‘entertainment’.      

Thanks again to Ian Gilmour for taking the pro-social interventions idea on to the RSA networks platform. Ian has loads of ambitious ideas for where we take this next but we will need to keep adding examples and growing the conversation if we are to get to a take off point.

If you heard or saw me doing punditry over the weekend on the Peter Hain resignation and the Alan Johnson allegations, I hope I managed to tread the fine line between being impartial and – as I always do – trying to counter the general view that all politicians are corrupt and dishonest. I went out on a limb by saying on Radio 4 and 5 that I thought the AJ allegations were specious. But the way this shock horror exclusive story has faded quickly from view suggests that – on this occasion – I was right.         

Drinking with Dave and other stories

Hello and welcome to a new section of the blog, where each week the events team will take you behind the scenes of our packed programme of lectures and screenings.

It's been a really busy week here with an event happening every day, so we are only just now trying to draw breath.  Monday evening's RSA Screens event with Dave Gorman went down really well - he's such an interesting guy although he was telling us in the bar afterwards that he’s trying to leave behind his wacky comic persona, and carve out a reputation as a serious documentary-maker making “proper grown-up telly”.

Also, still picking up coverage of our event with the Chancellor last week, It’s good to know that RSA events have a life beyond John Adam Street.

We’ve been getting ready for the start of our new series on education and rushing around trying to find a copy of Michael Young's new book for Ian in our Education team, who's going to be doing an interview with Prof Young for the RSA Journal.  It should be a good start to the series.

And finally… off to Oxford this evening to attend the first event in a new series in partnership with Oxford Amnesty Lectures, looking at the very topical subject of religion and human rights with major international thinkers including Simon Schama, Ronald Dworkin and Asma Jahangir .

The debate goes on

I found the responses to the last post really interesting. Peter’s argument as I understand it is that the real gap is not between the state and private sector but between parents who provide the right background for their children and those who don’t. I agree with this but it underlines why I worry.

My personal view is that the state-private divide doesn’t just separate children; it can also mean that some schools take for granted the engagement of parents (after all they haven’t paid all that money only to be passive consumers), while for others it is hard to get any more than a tiny minority of parents involved.

Caring, involved parents aren’t just an asset for their children; they are more likely to be part of the broader life of the school. So here again private schools have an embarrassment of riches while state schools in poor areas have unviable parent schools associations and unfilled parent governor vacancies.

Beth’s question about how to scale up local initiative and commitment is a huge one. Time and again promising local projects fail to replicate when they are scaled up because they lack the commitment and vision of those who began the initiative or because public funding comes with the wrong strings attached. In the end this is one of the strongest arguments for decentralisation.

I am interested in seeing if the RSA can do anything around strengthening relationships between parents and between parents and schools. Maybe we can learn something from Book Start Plus.

Suzanne, I agree that getting the very best teachers to go into and stay in the state sector is really important and I think Teach First is great.

There are loads of issues I wish I had time to write about.

For example, is it true - as a company advisor told me the other day - that large retail companies now face a squeeze between customers demanding ever greater levels of corporate responsibility and aggressive but largely anonymous investors and corporate raiders seeking to take advantage of any company that deviates from an exclusive focus on the bottom line (one of the issues we want to look at in a planned project called Tomorrow’s Investor)?

But I should really focus on the big change programme in the RSA. We heard yesterday that we had got some really helpful funding from NESTA to enable us as we seek to turn the RSA Fellowship into a network for civic innovation.

The funding means we can put a team in place to work on the substance, the people and the offline and online support for an early set of RSA Fellows networks.

The hard work starts here but as I go round the Fellowship – the weekend before last I was in Scotland - I am still getting really positive feedback about the idea of putting the Fellows and their commitment to change at the heart of the RSA.

So a bitty blog I’m afraid. This will only go to confirm the prejudices of Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur – How today’s internet is killing our culture. He is speaking here tonight in the first of our impressive autumn series of lectures. It promises to be a lively debate (check out his spat with Emily Bell from the Guardian). If you want me to ask any questions on your behalf please send them in.