Shepherds, not Engineers
I had Year 5 parents’ evenings last week, Year 7 parents’ evenings this week, and I have started my Year 5 Future Schools meetings (potentially 42 half hour meetings in three weeks – phew!); I have spent a lot of time talking about pupils’ progress and potential with parents in the last 10 days.
This has led me to reflect, and my first response is appreciation – I am so grateful that we have such dedicated staff who are so committed to helping the boys move forward, and to have such wonderfully involved, supportive and enthusiastic parents. The partnership between school and parent is vital to a child’s development and progress, and I think that this is something that we get right at Pilgrims’. We have committed teachers, interested and supportive parents, and a healthy dialogue between the two – a recipe for success.
My second reflection is more nuanced, and it is that we have to be careful how we talk about how the boys are getting on. Some parents are most concerned about how their charges are doing since the last milestone point (progress), some want to know the relative ranking (attainment), some just want to know that they are working hard and reaching their potential (effort). Which, I am sometimes asked, should we be focusing on most of all? All are valid measures in their way, but as with most things, the truth of course lies in a combination of all three. And of course, they are inexorably linked together – when boys work hard they make progress, and their attainment improves. Of course, the dangerous one is comparative ranking; don’t get me wrong, this definitely has a place, and one of the first questions I am often asked is ‘where did my boy finish?’. I am guilty of it myself; when my daughter comes home with a score from a maths test, one of my first questions is 'what did everyone else in the class get?'. This desire is natural, however, without being tempered with at least a little of the other two, problems do arise.
One problem occurs when we, perhaps unwittingly, transmit this way of thinking to the boys. A little competitive spirit can of course be a good thing (it can drive us on), but boys focusing solely on results compared to others is only ever going to lead to unhappiness (there is always someone doing better) – envy is the enemy. Seeing results in the context of both effort and progress is vital. The way we encourage boys to frame their own development is important.
I will finish with a related point, one that I have been espousing a lot in conversations recently, so apologies if you have heard me say this already. We had a very inspiring speaker in our start of term INSET who at one point was explaining how we all, teachers and parents, need to think of ourselves not as Engineers, but as Shepherds. Our children are not a product to be ‘made’. We are not the ‘grand designer’. We should not believe that we can engineer the outcomes for our children. Our children are a gift, and it is our responsibility to guide them, to prompt them, to lead them, yes, to shepherd them through the challenges that THEY face as they grow into the person they are going to become.
Let's all continue to talk passionately about our children’s academic development, and work together in partnership for their good, whilst remembering it is best to be Shepherds, not Engineers.
Alistair Duncan
Interim Head