The Sense of Community - Just4SBMs

comm u nity cohesion

The sense of

Community Alan Cowley examines what the shift in political power may mean for schools in England

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I

write this article less than a week after the formation of the UK’s first national coalition government for more than 70 years. For many it is a time of great uncertainty – but not for me. In the shiftingsand landscape of potentially changing ideologies, where the promised financial constraints on public spending have meant the halting of the BSF programme and could lead to a re-assessment of the role of some government agencies such as Becta, I know that my areas of interest will remain a major government priority.

For me, the choice of those areas was created by a passion to drive the transformation agenda in a radical, yet the most logical way possible; it would appear that the new government thinks so too.

We need to promote the concept of community as being a way we live together, rather than an identifible group David Cameron’s speech, made on the doorstep of No. 10 on 11 May 2010, when he and the country were about to cross the threshold of a new beginning, was less than 400 words long; but within those 400 words he listed what he considered to be his government’s priorities and how he was going to tackle them. Yes, as you’d expect, the pre-election expenses scandal was mentioned, but he finished with the words: “But I believe it is also something else. It is about being honest

about what government can achieve. Real change is not what government can do on its own – real change is when everyone pulls together, comes together, works together, where we all exercise our responsibilities to ourselves, to our families, to our communities and to others.”

Community Cohesion and Parental Engagement will continue to be important strands of government policy for a simple reason: without them, the cultural change that is needed to ensure a more self-confident and selfsufficient country will not be possible. Both collectively and as individuals, we have to re-define what our responsibilities are, and as a profession we must examine how we can facilitate this change by identifying and removing the institutional barriers that we have erected over numerous decades.

For too long the word ‘community’ has been used by the media in particular, but also within education, as a label to describe smaller, yet identifiable groups within our society, such as the school community, the business community, the local community, and in doing so creating the notion that we are a nation of different communities rather than a nation of one community. At the same time there has been an emphasis on the rights of the individual and on the need to recognise diversity – all of which we applaud, but which should be viewed within the context of the need to balance rights with responsibilities and responsibilities with rights. We need to promote the concept of community as being a way we live together, rather than an identifiable group.

It is that building of a sense of community that Community Cohesion promotes. Schools are only just coming to terms with the new guidelines on Community Cohesion and the prominent part

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Schools are only just coming to terms with the new guidelines on Community Cohesion and the prominent part they play within the new Ofsted inspection framework they play within the new Ofsted inspection framework. The major change, which has seen many schools previously ranked as ‘outstanding’ for their community work now receiving grades of ‘satisfactory’, is the change in methodology. It is not just a change in the way we go about our community engagement but a fundamental change in the way that we think about our community engagement.

It is a methodology that presents us with a much more open approach to partnership that recognizes the value of all those we work with and which therefore insists that we consult with them before deciding on a course of action. It is a methodology that says all community activity must also have an outcome from which the impact can be measured. In other words, a way of ensuring that we’re not just wasting time, effort and money. In order to make this change, we need to change the culture within the education system that sees schools as stand-alone entities.

Under a government whose very structure and existence promises a radical change in the way we go

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about things, we within education cannot expect to be able to go about all aspects of our business in the same old way. If we thought that Community Cohesion was a priority for the last government, there can be no doubt that for the coalition it is seen as vital. If we wanted further evidence of this I would look at two other important points that have been made since Cameron’s speech.

[David Cameron suggested that] the task of developing a sense of community will not lie exclusively with education 24

The first can be seen in his suggestion that the task of developing a sense of community will not lie exclusively with education but more importantly will also permeate other aspects of government, with greater community involvement in law and order, the health service and an expressed desire to see every adult becoming a part of an active neighbourhood group. So we can really see some joined-up thinking here.

The second is in the appointment of the new Education Secretary.

Michael Gove is a well-respected politician who has shadowed education for several years, developing a real interest and knowledge of the area and so I think we can safely assume that in him we have an Education Secretary who is there because that’s where he wants to be; it is not a stepping stone to further promotion - it’s the fulfillment

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The Government plans to make it quite clear to all that teachers can confiscate objects that are considered dangerous or likely to disrupt of a passion. He is known for being approachable, optimistic and, if the rumours regarding the formation of the current cabinet are to be believed, he has the strength of conviction to fight his corner, which I’m sure school leaders will applaud. Once the new policies have been outlined and a ‘road map’ presented,

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there is an excellent chance that they will remain in place for the life of the Government, enabling sustainable planning to take place in schools.

The community is not of course the only area within education where the Education Secretary plans to make an impact. Having seen colleagues in schools spend huge amounts of time planning and re-writing schemes of work and lesson plans to meet the requirements of changing exam syllabi, I’m sure the promise to remove political interference from GCSEs and A levels will prove most popular and provide a period of relative calm in which teachers will feel they can ‘get on with the job.’

The Conservative election promise to restore discipline and order to the classroom could be viewed by the cynical as something that is easy to say but harder to do. However, those of us who have worked in schools recognise how the requirement to give 24 hours notice of an after-school detention has been milked for all that its worth by some pupils and presented them with a metaphorical rod with which to beat school leaders. The Government’s plans to abolish that rule will be welcomed in schools as a logical step in the right direction. Similarly, there will be few secondary teachers in the country who are not sick of the ‘you’re not allowed to take that – it’s theft’ argument when trying to confiscate the object in question from a disruptive pupil.

The Government plans to make it quite clear to all that teachers can confiscate objects that are considered dangerous or likely to disrupt. Again, a good example of a small, easily introduced measure that can have a huge and rapid impact – not just on pupil attainment, but on the

quality of life for teachers.

I know that one of the major concerns for the last government was not achieved - namely the desire to close the attainment gap between high achievers and the disadvantaged. In fact that gap widened in recent years. The new government however has taken up the gauntlet and promises to find additional funding that will be targeted directly at the issue.

Given the overwhelming evidence that clearly demonstrates how simple measures to encourage parental engagement can lead to massive gains in pupil achievement; I would hope that any such plan will recognize the importance of the role that all parents can play in raising achievement. As in all things, if we expect people to take greater responsibility for something we have to give them greater involvement in it. For too long the structures that we have developed in and around the institution of education have unwittingly kept parents at arm’s length.

We need to find ways of removing those barriers, both psychological and attitudinal, so that parents can support their children’s learning in the home and reinforce the importance of what goes on in the classroom. Certainly the Government’s plans to allow parents to set up and run their own independent state schools shows a desire to recognise the importance of parental opinion, although it has been criticised by some commentators as financially unsustainable.

I am sure it will be argued that many parents do not feel comfortable or equipped to deal with the institution of formal education and therefore may not be attracted by the proposition of starting their own school, whilst others – perhaps those who

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feel more at home in the current education environment – will.

With that in mind an infrastructure must be put in place to ensure that this initiative does not unwittingly become a device that actually serves to further widen the attainment gap.

I would hope that parents are not presented with this as a first option and that a move to make meaningful parental engagement a working reality could go a long way to solving the issues that might lead to parental dissatisfaction in the first place. It would seem to me that a systemic approach that saw the development of meaningful parental engagement as a priority across the country, would be worthy of investment before the ‘nuclear option’ is considered.

I can remember Tony Blair, a couple of years after taking office as Prime Minister, saying that his plans for reform were being thwarted by the forces of conservatism with a small ‘c’. He wasn’t talking about the Conservative Party but about people working in our great institutions up and down the country who did not want to move out of their comfort zone or who weren’t prepared to think about things in a different way. Times are changing and those working within the field of education in particular should be willing to embrace meaningful, beneficial change.

Education as a national institution exists because within our culture we recognise the need to change individuals. Schools alone cannot change society but they can play a part in the transformation.

Community Cohesion, and particularly the way in which schools are now required to engage with the community, can play a major part in this.

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