'Making the Grade' in Learning and Beyond
‘Making the Grade’ in Learning and Beyond
We’ve had grade hyperbole over the past few weeks and I really don’t want to add to that. It is alarming that an organisation like Ofqual hasn’t got the wisdom and sense to question grades that seem out of sync with previous years or predict the impact on young people and teachers of their systems, processes, actions and outcomes. It’s also alarming that many have hyped up the potential negative impact for young people, adding to their anxiety rather than helping them to get things into perspective. Let’s hope lessons have been learned.
An on-going challenge for me has been to find ways to integrate self-awareness, personal and self-development into formal learning: empower, enable and equip young to make the most of their potential, their education and opportunities beyond formal learning. Knowledge and skills are important, but they are not enough. There is a huge human cost for young people, staff stress levels, communities and wider society, of failure, wasted potential, young people being ill-equipped to maintain their holistic wellbeing. I’ve seen it repeatedly at all levels of education over the past 40 years; bright, able young people not systematically enabled to develop the thinking, attitudes and behaviours that equip them to be their best selves. We tell, rather than enable. We say, ‘Sort your attitude out’, without saying what we mean be that or how to do it. We rely on, and default to, extrinsic motivation, telling young people x grades are good for them, without enabling them to set goals that bring about the much more powerful intrinsic motivation.
Those teachers who teach children first and subjects second know this. Those many teachers and teaching assistants, working tirelessly on the ‘pastoral’ side of our education system know this. Much of the time individuals wear themselves out trying to fill a gap that giving young people their own toolkit could alleviate. Extrinsic motivation means that all the adults around a young person need to be constantly ‘on it’, spending time and energy reinforcing the ‘Why?’, whilst enabling young people to develop their own ‘Why?’ gives them their own motivation and determination.
Mindset and behaviours make one of the biggest differences to outcomes in learning and life for all young people, and it’s remiss of us to expect young people to automatically come to school with these or pick them up by ‘osmosis’. One of the biggest challenges to achieve this in education is that we focus on teaching knowledge and skills. Personal development, building people’s capacity to develop the thinking, attitudes and behaviours to thrive, doesn’t work with a traditional teaching approach. Learning about what self-regard, high self- esteem, confidence and self-belief are is only part of the picture in enabling you to develop them within yourself. We can’t teach self-belief. It also doesn’t work to tell someone to have more confidence, but we can systematically facilitate the learning of it. We can, however, systematically enable young people to develop the essential thinking, attitudes and behaviours to thrive. There are all those grades that could be higher with more intrinsic motivation and belief, that give young people more choices. (Rather than that extrinsic motivation we default to; telling young people getting x grades is good for them). Then there are all those opportunities and challenges we face that rely on more than academic learning. There are all those young people banished from mainstream education because they haven’t been enabled to effectively manage their thinking and behaviours. There are all those wellbeing challenges young people face that they could be better equipped to handle. Making the most of all opportunities requires confidence, a willingness to step out of our comfort zone and resilience, and what about all those many opportunities for which excellent people skills are essential?
Developing core thinking, attitudes, behaviours and capabilities to maintain our holistic wellbeing pays dividends in all areas of life. For example, if we learn to build and manage relationships, through developing our emotional literacy, our assertiveness skills, our ability to have more conversations worth having and our ability to work well with others it pays off in all relationships: personal, social, educational (with teachers and tutors) and beyond in our working lives. Of all the permanent exclusions I reviewed earlier in my career, well over 50% came down to a lack of understanding, ability and skills in managing relationships and interactions with others. My own son pushed hard against rules, things he didn’t want to do, and what he saw as unfairness in an inner-city secondary school. His emotional intelligence and ability to articulately represent himself kept him just the right side the line, whilst for many of his peers that wasn’t the case. Here are just a few examples from young people of what a difference it can make to systematically empower, enable and equip young people to develop themselves to thrive in learning and life.
On 14thJuly 2017 I received this email from Ilana and I will be forever grateful to her for taking the time to write and allowing me to publish her email. I did so at the time and wanted to share again as an example of the long-term value of self-awareness and self-development.
‘Dear Beverley,
I am not sure if you will remember me as this email is quite out of the blue. My name is Ilana Foreman and I have just graduated from the University of Leicester.
We met last June where I worked as a residential summer school mentor as part of the Leicester Enhanced Access Programme at the University where the students attended your equipped2succeed programme.
In preparation for this summer school as a mentor, myself and the other mentors attended a training session – during this session you asked me what one of my goals was and I answered, ‘to achieve a good degree’. You then asked what I thought a ‘good’ degree was and I said a 2.1, and you asked why I didn’t push myself and aim for a 1st. At that time, I had a very negative mindset about my abilities, was very stubborn and honestly thought it was unrealistic for me to get a 1st.
Throughout the summer school I attended the equipped2suceed workshops with the students and found them to be very inspiring and they genuinely helped me to change my mindset. I don’t think I realised it until a while after but that summer school was a key turning point for me and I’ve since stopped underestimating myself and learnt that setting realistic goals and targets really helps give me a focus and something to work towards.
A long story short – I entered my final year of University with a new determination and a belief in myself and my abilities and pushed myself a lot. I had comments from many people that I seemed happier, positive and more confident in myself. This week I have graduated from the University of Leicester with a 1st class BSc Psychology degree and am so proud of what I have achieved.
I guess the purpose of this email is to say thank you! I know the summer school was run for students and I was working as a mentor, but your workshops were really helpful and definitely helped me change my mindset and gave me the confidence and skills to succeed. So I just thought I’d write you a quick email to say thank you!
Best wishes,
Ilana Foreman’
Ilana started and Msc in Clinical Child Psychology at Anglia Ruskin Cambridge university in September 2017. She is now Assistant Psychologist; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
September 2019 - reflection from Fatima Ahmed who participated in the equipped2succeed Girls Aiming High project 2017/18
‘Participating in the equipped2succeed course enabled me to not only improve my self-awareness and self-development but allowed me to improve my ability to positively manage relationships, interpersonal skills and social wellbeing which I have been able to implement into my university, professional and personal life. This in turn has allowed me to increase my self-belief, confidence and positive mental attitude and has given me a brighter outlook on life. I believe the equipped2succeed course should be made mandatory within the educational system as the course teaches life- skills they don't teach you in school.’
January 2020 - reflection from a 17-year old young man who was involved in an equipped2succeed programme for young offenders:
‘I started the course because I had to be there because of my order. I thought it was just another course and I’d keep my head down and get through it. The more we did the more I saw that this was different. It forced me to think about myself which was hard. One of the turning points for me was when we did work on building a growth mindset and I saw how I’d got stuck in my thinking. It also made me step out of my comfort zone in presenting myself and my ideas. Very early I thought this should be in Y.O.I.s. (Young Offenders Institutes).’ J.
In July 2020 I received this LinkedIn Message from a young man I worked with when he was on the verge of being permanently excluded from school 10 years ago.
‘Hi, Hope you are well.
I’d like to take a minute to thank you! I don’t know if you remember me, but you helped me in (name of school). Teachers once said that I’d end up going to prison. Just as I was about to give up, you had come to work with us. I have now achieved a degree from a Russell group university. I have also been awarded a scholarship to do a Masters. Thank you for helping me out!! I cannot thank you enough. Kind regards D.’
July 2020
‘Beverley has always championed the importance of knowledge, skills, and behaviours. Throughout my education and attaining professional qualifications, I have found these environments have weighted heavily towards knowledge and skills. However, as I’ve progressed up the career ladder, I’ve realised the importance of behaviours and how vital it is to develop these just as much as practical skills and knowledge of my industry. Beverley’s wealth of experience and expertise has helped me develop a greater sense of self-awareness, enabling me to focus on and nurture the behaviours I need to succeed.’
Jordan Rowson (27) - Marketing Manager, Boots
I am truely grateful to everyone who takes the time to get in touch and it is my vision that the network of people who have been a part of equipped2succeed will continue to grow.