A quiet school site at the start of the week with Years 4 and 5 out on their respective residentials. Whilst I have complete trust in my colleagues, it is still reassuring to see the “we’ve arrived” WhatsApp picture and, as the thunderstorms and apocalyptic rainfall threatened to overwhelm the car park outside my window, confirmation that all was well and the boys were enjoying indoor activities settled any concern. In the modern age of communication we have all come to expect updates, not just out of interest in what our children are getting up to, more confirmation that all is OK. My two boys are notoriously bad at this, almost to the point where we think that are deliberately withholding information. Brigid has found a workaround and has sourced a back-up and more reliable font of information in Patrick’s girlfriend, but I think we are coming round to the view that, at now twenty years old, maybe we should respect their privacy and let them lead their own lives without intrusion as my parents did to me.
An interesting topic in the educational sector these past few days, which this morning has been elevated to national press coverage, has been the difficulty of the first Edexcel A Level Maths paper on Wednesday. I have always said that I only worry about a pupil’s performance in an assessment if their first reaction upon walking out is to proclaim “it was easy.” That response rarely results in strong outcomes whilst “that was really difficult” is normally a reliable indicator of a reflective and good performance. What does seem slightly different in the case of this paper though, is that pupils are reporting that the way the paper was designed and structured rendered large sections inaccessible. What children want more than anything from their school, teachers and work is for things to be ‘fair’ and it appears that they feel this particular paper was ‘unfair’. I asked Joseph who sat said paper on Wednesday what he thought and he reported that it was “horrendous – I’ve already signed the petition”; the modern student has a voice and has used it to create a protest online that has elicited over 20,000 signatures! At least he didn’t say that he found it easy…
Nick Baker