Education Stories — 03. Pete Ralley
The day education became politicised was the day it started to decline. Let’s give it back to the learners.
We’re kicking off the #FutureOfEducation project by asking people to tell their personal education stories.
[click here to submit your own Education Story]
I’ve always believed in the power of learning
My philosophy of education has always been very simple, namely to teach children to become learners. Whilst I acknowledge that we all need to be taught content, to be able to read, write, basic calculation etc. I believe that teaching the skill of learning is the most important job a teacher can do.
Why is teaching ‘the skill of learning’ the most important job a teacher can do?
I was a primary school teacher for many years, and I always said to my classes that sometime beyond leaving school they would face a problem. It may be they need to learn how to change a tyre or paint a room, in which case they will have to find out how to do it, and they won’t necessarily have someone there to show them how.
They will have to learn for themselves, as we all do, most of the time.
To this end giving children space and freedom to explore, develop, make mistakes and simply work stuff out for themselves is a valuable learning approach.
My life changed when I visited Ingestre Hall in the 1970s
I had a fairly normal 1960s British working-class schooling. The curriculum was quite limited at primary level and high school was okay. The turning point in my life, in many ways, was when I went to Ingestre Hall Residential Arts Centre near Stafford.
In the early 1960s West Bromwich Council took the very bold step of buying Ingestre Hall for the sum of around £16,000.
Ingestre Hall is a Jacobean Mansion set in Capability Brown gardens in the heart of rural Staffordshire. The church has carvings by Grinling Gibbons, and there was a fine, if somewhat dilapidated stable block. A place very far removed from the home life of most of the children in West Bromwich.
Ingestre Hall was set up as a residential arts centre for the children of West Bromwich. Parties of children from all phases of school would spend a week studying either art, drama or music. There was a theme for the week, for example, America or Chinese Culture, and all the work was based around that.
Children would all work on interpreting the theme and produce a piece of art, a play, or suite of music which was performed to their peers on the Thursday afternoon. No previous skills or knowledge were required, but everyone succeeded.
Children were treated with respect, and given independence
What was the secret to the success of Ingestre Hall? For nearly 50 years (it’s still operating now but covering the area of Sandwell which is much larger than West Bromwich), it has been giving children a unique opportunity. Let’s look at what they were given:
Natural Beauty
A beautiful house with all the trappings of country living, set in acres of amazing countryside.
A lot of children from where I grew up had never seen the countryside. I worked with a group there in the 80s and spoke with children who had never seen a cow or a sheep.
Independence
One of the first things we had to do when we got there was to choose a room to sleep and make our own beds.
We were given the choice.
We had to set up our room with our chosen friends. For many this would have been their first time away from home.
Responsibility
Meal times, lesson times and recreation times were all set, but there were no bells to remind us what to do when, we had to take the responsibility of being in the right place at the right time.
We had to work well in our chosen group otherwise we had nothing to show on Thursday.
We had to come up with some ideas and put them into some sort of coherent performance or piece of art.
At coffee and tea breaks we were the ones who set it up and sorted it out. We distributed food at mealtimes and learned to eat and share together. It was no hotel.
Respect
We were treated as creative people. We were listened to and we were allowed to make creative decisions. Yes of course there was a structure but within that structure there was a lot of creative freedom.
We were asked our opinions. Our voices mattered.
So my creativity flourished
I went as a teenager of 16. I was already a bass player in a band and we all went together with our instruments, spending the week creating new songs from scratch.
Music was taught in the long drawing room, overlooking the round lawn, a dream of a location and for a teenage budding rock star it was five days of sheer bliss.
I then went again as part of the summer school group which saw students from all over the country getting together, forming new friendships and being creative.
The music tutor was Greg Holt, a young man himself and very keen to encourage us scruffy lot.
He was forming a band and asked my and a few others to join the ‘Youth Creative Arts Committee’ (YCAC) which met for around six weekends a year.
The chance to go to Ingestre more was an amazing opportunity.
We formed a band called ‘The Time Wasters’. We played several gigs to support ‘Rock Against Racism’ and recorded and album (vinyl) which was re-released a few years ago.
Eventually I became the chair of the committee and developed a programme of taking our creativity into the community.
How did Ingestre Hall change me?
- Ingestre Hall, and the way it operated, made me believe in myself, gave me huge confidence and taught me that creativity was important and valued.
- It was such an amazing place and huge fun. The weekends I spent there are still very clear in my mind and very special to me.
- I met Paula there, my wife of 32 years. The first time I met her was on the eve of my 17th birthday when we had just played a set in the Great Hall. We have been together for 40 years and are one of several other ‘pairings’ of Ingestre students.
- It sowed, and established, the seed of creativity that has been, and continues to be, part of my life. Paula and I have been very active in our adopted village in terms of art. We ran art classes for children, are an integral part of the biennial eight day arts festival, run the monthly free cinema and have been part of the dramatic society for 25 years. I still play in bands.
- We have passed the love of creativity onto our three children who all have very creative natures and have been part of our creative life in the village. They had grown to appreciate the power of their own creativity and will no doubt pass it on to their own children.
- It steered my approach to teaching, an approach that does not seem to be in favour at the moment and something that bothers me greatly. I fear the current education system will result in children who have not had the chance to be truly creative, to simply try their own way. That can only be a bad thing for future generations.
My two cents on what the education system needs now
In my 30 years of working in primary education (the last 10 years I have been freelancing working in schools across the UK as part of my work as a Heritage Consultant) this is what I feel we need in education:
Get away from so much prescription in the National Curriculum
The English Key Stage One and Two document has 88 pages. Art & Design has 2!
No school can deliver 88 pages of such detailed content whereas art more or less says, “do some creative stuff”.
Put the children back at the centre of education
At the moment education is about assessment, recording, test results, OFTSED.
Does it really address what the children need?
It assumes they all need the same thing. It assumes they can all be measured by the same subjects, in the same way.
Is that right?
Ask the children how they wish to learn and what they wish to learn
Not for everything but for at least some of it.
In 2013 I worked with a school to create some learning resources for other schools. I gave them no cribs, no starting point, no links.
The teachers at the school struggled with the idea and were quite reluctant.
The resources they created won an award.
Being a teacher allows one to appreciate how others learn. Why not let children do that?
Give the children some independence
What I see in schools now are children plodding their way through what seems to be an interminable sea of English Language and Maths exercises. I see stressed teachers who don’t want to teach what the children don’t want to learn.
A couple of examples of ‘doing it right’
Integrated days
During my final teaching practice and in the first few years of my teaching career I operated an integrated day approach.
Whole-class teaching was limited to a session at the start of each day. There were three groups, all undertaking different subjects. I acted as a consultant and gave the children some responsibility for ensuring they stayed on task. Over the course of the day each group would have completed the required programme of work. Friday was left for catching up.
Real-life learning situations
For 20 years I have run a programme called Schools PLC. Children run companies use real money to make real products, to sell to real people. They make the decisions. Success depends upon their willingness to work well as a group, do all they need to succeed and make all their own decisions.
The aim of the project is to make a profit and pay back the money borrowed from the ‘bank’. In all the occasions I have run this programme not one group has failed to do so.
Peer marking
Allow the children to mark their own, or their peers work. Marking 30 maths books is a tiresome and time-wasting process. If a child marks his or her own work they are being trusted, they will begin to spot their own mistakes and where they need help.
Yes a teacher needs to look at the work but do children really look at the marking? Do they really take note of what the teacher has written and strive to take their comments on board? Who is the marking for? In my opinion the marking is for parents and inspectors.
Allow failure
I believe that getting things wrong is as powerful and useful a learning approach as success. Making a mistake ensures a lesson learned, usually. No one should be afraid of getting something wrong.
I do despair at the moment about the state of education in UK primary schools and fear the impact it will have on our children.
The day education became politicised was the day it started to decline.
Let’s give it back to the learners.
[click here to get involved or submit your own Education Story]
