Every Parent Matters

By Alistair Owens keen2learn

The best people to manage a situation are those on the ground, at the sharp end of operations. Teachers are therefore eminently more able to use their operational skill and judgement to maximise school performance than a remote theorist.

The National Curriculum has been played around with for all of its 22 years existence. Results published in April 2009 show we are failing badly in the educational standards at primary level in maths and English; the essential bedrock that influences attainment in secondary education. Although the rate of improvement in numeracy and literacy shows a marginal improvement over last year the rate of improvement is slowing. The numbers being left behind are massive. Can we continue to fail 160,000 11 year olds – a quarter of the total are still missing the target?

Teachers are locked into targets that see some of the brighter students abandoned in favour of addressing the needs of the struggling children. Hardly an altruistic move when the motivation is primarily the need to move the overall numbers up.

We are in the midst of a national financial crisis that bears similar markers. Although the jury is still out, the economic collapse was heavily influenced by government policy to get banks to invest in social markets and areas of risk to improve performance. The judgment of the banks became clouded by people in high places who knew little about the operations at the sharp end. Stressed bankers took risks in order to meet targets. Incentivised by greed the odds were too high and beyond the expertise of many individuals. The resultant spectacle of the banks and the system as we know imploding did little to instil confidence in the hierarchy.

Are we seeing the corollary in our education policy? The fun has gone out of schooling, SAT’s and GCSE milestones, the measure of educational standard, have burdened the “Best years of their life” designed to nourish a lifelong quest for learning. Yet some success stories are around.  A top performing school in Bradford broke free and introduced “brain breaks.” A combination of fun and exercise to encourage learning has been a great success. The teaching resources are there they just need to be released. Let the profession responsible for the results use their skill and judgement to achieve success.

Children who see education as a fun activity thrive. Putting fun learning back into the schooling process is not taking some easy route. Managing the process needs skill and energy, but the results can be extremely rewarding. There is another hidden asset. Engaging parents in the process at home is vastly easier with educational games than conventional exercises.

Homework in this form can also be seen as enjoyable and as children spend 85% of their waking time outside school could capture a huge and predominately untapped resource. The homework process seeks to get children to practise the lesson content. This improves learning retention and gives children the experience of working without the teacher around, an essential feature when considering SAT’s and GCSE exams.

The choice between a tedious text book exercise for homework or an educational game played with family or friends… humm let me think.

The UK primary school curriculum is in the throws of a massive positive update, or another upheaval depending on which way you look at it. Clearly the current system is ailing with many performance targets being missed despite the inclination to manipulate the results -inherent with any target based system.

The “teach to test” syndrome is leaving children with an incredibly shallow depth of knowledge and unprepared for the ardours of the global changes that will affect their adulthood. Will the next series of educational games be a  positive move?

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Keen2learn blog

“Beating swords into ploughshares” took on a new relevance  recently when toys shops in Trinidad said  children were abandoning toy guns for educational games. Whether it is parental influence or the  choice of children it is good to see toy weapons are being ditched for educational games that are now appearing on the market. Many games are now linked to the curriculum so the lasting fun at home can bring real benefits to achievement in the classroom.

Alistair Owens =>
educational games

August is a crazy month. The outcome of years of blood sweat and tears of schooling are revealed in the exam results that tumble through the letter box. But it’s not just the kids that are on the receiving end, teachers, schools and the entire educational system are judged by the verdict.

Our teaching resources, education procedures continue to fail at primary level with increasing numbers failing English, maths and science. We even managed to fail the exam marking system. The knock-on passes a considerable burden to secondary schools who, beset with their own issues and objectives, have little capacity to correct the shortfall.

At secondary level exam results come into further criticism. Improved pass rates are put down to easier exams. And those choosing to leave school at this point face employers claiming the Key stages are unmatched to their needs and expectations.

And at “A” level children working hard and long to pass exams face an association with lowered exam standards and concern from Universities unable to detect the student likely to excel from the borderline case.

The education journey continues to meet censure at each successive stage point. But the overall the system is failing the children rather than the other way round. Maybe a solution would occur if the National curriculum and examination became the responsibility of the receiving body. Primary schools syllabus would be set and marked by secondary schools. GCSE would become the responsibility of the CBI, and “A” level would be controlled by the universities.

We would then process children through a system matched to evolving market needs, and utilise the practical skill and judgement of academia and commerce.

Alistair Owens writes articles with news and views of the educational system. Concerned with the criticism and pressures that face teachers and children alike. He believes educational games should be at the forefront in the schooling  as teaching resources in the classroom and equally important at home to induce a fun element to learning that inspires and encourages far more that text books.

A growing concern voiced by many teachers is the level of disruption occurring in the average class. Ranging from the severe to a simple case of horseplay at the start of the lesson it has a dramatic effect in draining the teaching resources as well as impacting on the development of children in the class All is not lost as parents can affect a striking recovery plan that helps their child and the teacher.

Edward Lazear of the Hoover Institution found that, “If, on average, each student disrupts the class just 1 percent of the time, the time available for learning drops to 74 percent for a class size of 30.” Even the best teachers can only do so much, and many have cited disruption as the most stressful element of teaching. It is no wonder that the “teach to test” syndrome is one consequence of a school’s need  to grasp some vestige of achievement by streamlining the teaching content to hit targets  Regrettably this  results in a veneer of knowledge, presenting  a smart image on the surface but with little depth. Now it is possible for parents to use educational games at home to give greater practical support in the teaching activities of their children.
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