Government League Tables - a note of caution. Dr Stephen Wilkinson - Director of Studies

Canford is very proud of the exam results that its pupils produce, through very hard work and determination on their part.  Whilst league tables take many forms, and are often very variable in terms of the criteria used in their compilation, we are always placed highly in relation to schools of a similar type and intake in those published in the Times and the Telegraph after the results come out in August.

The Government league tables, comparing all schools across the country, are based on different criteria, which do not take into account the academic curriculum we teach. The new 'Progress 8' measure introduced by the Government to ensure that schools don't just 'top up' their results with non-academic options such as Media Studies or Tourism and Leisure, also precludes the inclusion of IGCSE results. These more academic specifications are available to independent schools, and used by Canford in around half of the GCSEs taken by our pupils.

As a consequence, the results that our pupils gain in Maths (which is double-weighted in Progress 8), French, German, Spanish, History, Chemistry, Business, and Computing are all disregarded from the calculation of how well our pupils have fared at GCSE.   Read with caution!

Stepping up to the exam challenge with confidence

“I’ve always taken an approach to just get on with the job.”

So says Theresa May and her words strike a chord with me, even if I don’t agree with all of her policies.  With the exam ‘season’ now upon us, I think it is important to reflect on just how hard we are working in independent schools across the country within an ever shifting educational landscape.

Schools are currently tackling significant operational changes such as a major reform of examination systems and more strategic matters such as what is the right ‘type of school’ to best educate our young people – grammar school, free school, academy and so on.  In the independent sector we are working hard to protect the freedom of decision making and action that we currently enjoy and use so effectively “to get on with the job”.  

Alongside the academic and intellectual there is a heightened importance on developing soft skills, building mental toughness, and supporting the well-being of both pupils and staff in an age where the pressures of social media and an ever increasing demand for instant communication and transmission of information has significantly increased the impact of workload expectations, stress and accompanying mental health issues.

We could not “get on with the job” effectively for our pupils without the dedication and commitment of our staff.  Teaching staff shortages have been well documented in the press and statistics show shortfalls across a wide range of subject areas, such as STEM, Humanities, MFL and the Creative Arts.  We are fortunate to attract high quality staff and it is fundamentally important to us that we support their professional development.  A recent joiners’ ‘post induction’ feedback process at Canford revealed that this commitment is highly recognized and much valued.

For pupils sitting external examinations this summer, I hope that that sense of purpose, intellectual curiosity and the blend of those soft skills of self-discipline, resilience, leadership and teamwork, which we work so hard as educators to instil will combine to ensure that those facing the public exam challenge step up as individuals and support and spur each other on collectively to achieve their very best.

Effective communications

I believe this issue is of such importance that we decided to survey the entire school community to find out what they currently felt about communications with Canford, the research findings from which formed the basis of a new communications strategy.

We are living in a fast paced age where technology is developing frighteningly quickly alongside increasingly hectic family lifestyles.  In the past, parents generally expected to hand over responsibility of their child’s education to the chosen school, with little involvement aside from attendance at the occasional sports match and the annual Speech Day and receipt of a school report each term.   Darkening the door of the Headmaster’s study was generally only as the result of their child having committed a misdemeanour!

These days parents want to be much more engaged in their child’s school life, whether they are boarding or day pupils.  I believe this is a real positive, and at Canford we very much promote the triangle of home, school and pupil as a connected effort.  However, as a result of this change parents inevitably want access to a lot more information more frequently from the school, and the advent of smartphones and tablets has enabled direct communication with staff and children on almost a 24/7 basis.   What we found from our research was that, unsurprisingly, many parents have increasingly hectic lifestyles, and therefore want to harness the power of online communications channels as far as possible to access general information, leaving the more traditional face to face and telephone communications for very urgent matters.    Finding out what parents require in terms of information, and tailoring communication methods accordingly, should be a fundamental part of any school’s communications effort.    Indeed one example which emerged is the view that the lengthy ‘old style’ end of term academic report appears to have less relevance and bite than the more up to date, pithy and frequent academic assessment. 

Schools have also moved on in terms of the breadth of the education they offer, and with that have come new challenges for staff who often, particularly in a boarding school, now wear numerous hats such as pupil tutor/ sports coach/ head of department/ weekend trips co-ordinator and much more.   With the extended range of options inside and outside the classroom, communication internally with pupils and staff as well as externally with parents needs to be quick, effective and efficient.  A challenge for schools in light of these changes is the issue of communication overload.  What are ‘reasonable expectations’ in terms of what parents receive from a school and what can reasonably be expected of staff who are under much pressure to deliver quality teaching, learning and pastoral care?   These are key questions which each school must answer when planning its communications.

In such a busy environment, it is indeed easy to be under the illusion that one has communicated effectively when in fact the message is not clear at all to everyone who needs to know it.  As George Bernard Shaw famously quoted:  “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”  Shaw may not be living in our frenzied 21^st century age, but his words are as relevant to school communications today as they ever were to the wider world.