If not now when? The seeds have been sown. The time is ripe. Educators across the realm have questioned the simple fact that if we are able to teacher assess children’s learning for key year group outcomes this year, why not every year? A whopping 82% of teachers surveyed by YouGov, agree that the focus on exams has become disproportionate to the overall wellbeing of students. The curriculum which leads to these exams is also a contributing factor to a multitude of everyday classroom anxiety and SEMH related issues.
Through this article, I hope to open a dialogue; expecting to create more questions than answers and perhaps even ruffle a few feathers along the way! This is a quest for a curriculum that truly has the whole child at its core.
2014 curriculum and prevention of mental health
Since the 2014 curriculum reform, expectations have been ramped up for our children. I have certainly noticed a gradual increase in children with SEMH related issues during that time. Children face a myriad of pressures in their everyday lives and school often gives them some respite. However, there are high curriculum expectations along with pressurised teachers attempting to ensure that a high percentage of pupils meet expected end of year outcomes. Resulting in the heart of teaching, in supporting children in their social and emotional journey through learning, has had its core brutally extracted. Of course, this issue is bigger than just education. There is a clear wider societal context of pressures outside of school for our children such as social media. But in a modern world where schools are at the heart of communities, we perhaps need to look to where else we can support and prevent our child mental health issue epidemic.
Sarah Brennan, Chief Executive of Young Minds states,
“There is a mental health crisis in our classrooms. Many schools are already doing excellent work, but too often they are hampered by competing pressures and a lack of resources. If the government is serious about tackling the crisis, it must rebalance the whole education system.”
However, I’m not convinced that the government is serious and this issue is currently far from the forefront of their minds, appearing more concerned with academics as opposed to pupil emotional wellbeing. Now is the time for Educational influencers to start tightening the thumbscrews and have some frank conversations surrounding the way our education system is not supporting our children’s SEMH needs. Therefore, when society returns to something resembling ‘normal’, the old system won’t automatically be slotted back without it being extensively critiqued.
The negative effects of exams
On the one hand, exams are a normal part of growing up or gaining a qualification and a little bit of exam anxiety is only natural when it is manageable. Unfortunately, in comparison to several decades ago it seems that exam pressure has been hyped up to unrecognisable proportions. Children often don’t have the resilience or stress management skills to cope and teachers are again (as a generalisation), piling on the pressure, through little fault of their own, to ensure that their pass rates match their performance management targets. Childline for instance, report that the percentage of children phoning due to exam stress has been rising for several years. Year six SATs have become nothing more than a tool to starkly compare primary schools, often without considering a wider context or fluctuations in cohorts. There is no great loss to start teacher assessing year six; allowing staff more time to educate the whole child and focus on positive transitions to secondary.
The pressures that staff are under filter down to children who absorb it (children have sixth sense for stressed adults!). Not to mention, the pressure that some families place on their children. Exams in their current format will not be appropriate for our current year five and ten as they have missed reams of curriculum content. The new notion of ‘catch up’ will be little more than the concept of cramming; with little opportunity to embed concepts effectively. Moving forward, we do need to consider whether children should be tested in the same way as they have been and if so, support children with the skills they need to manage their anxiety and social and the current emotional pandemic fallout more effectively.
Employability skills for jobs of the future
Having a slightly more flexible, less knowledge based curriculum would of course allow time to focus on the areas that would on one hand, support children’s social and emotional wellbeing and on the other, teach the skills that they would need for employability (such as resilience and positivity). Hands up who remembers that nice skills based curriculum that the last Labour government nearly brought in? Wherever your political stance lies, perhaps it’s time to reform to a curriculum that is not based on political figures own ideologies and experiences of school. Employers in many fields look for people who work well with others and who are personable as well as displaying positivity and enthusiasm. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), over half of the world’s young people will end up in jobs that haven’t been created yet. They will also change jobs more often, the skills to navigate the future are needed. For my blog regarding jobs of the future please see: https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2018/08/15/future-jobs/.
Conversely, we also need to consider employability from a prevention of mental health need perspective. Adults with moderate or severe needs will find it a challenge to maintain employment. If early intervention in the form of a curriculum promoting wellbeing and mental health prevention, educators could support them as children more effectively, perhaps their working lives would take a more positive course as a result.
Children should be children
I look back fondly to memories of my primary school days (in the 1980s), with projects and topic books and a rather more relaxed attitude. I don’t recall the level of behaviour issues that we see in schools now. Perhaps partly due to expectations being more in line with ‘children being children’. Perhaps we weren’t challenged enough but I think we were less unhappy. More recently, there has been a range of schemes to improve the SEMH of children which are all fantastic in their own rights. Forest schools for example, is amazing for children who have not had the excitement of the great outdoors. The Healthy School Awards are a great way to ensure a well-rounded school which educated the whole child. I led a project in one school I worked on to achieve Lead School Status when that was a ”thing’ in SEMH circles. All very noble causes, yet all still bolt-ons to what should be at the core of our curriculum. If our curriculum was redesigned with SEMH at its core (and forest schools for all!), I wonder if in 20 years if we would churn out more employable, well rounded, tolerant and worldly individuals who would need less costly SEMH interventions. I wonder what great things that generation would achieve.
It feels within education (and perhaps the health service would agree), that we spend our time firefighting at the expense of time and money. ‘Prevention is better than cure’ is touted regularly and certainly applies in this context. I am confident that many positive things will come out of the world’s current difficult situation and I hope that educational reform to support the next generation’s social and emotional development is one of them.
Thanks for reading. If you agree with the main points in this article, please forward it to your SLT and anyone else with educational influence.
For further information for SEMH of pupils please see:
https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/
Lynn