Head Teacher’s Address 2003

Ladies and Gentlemen, honoured guests, it gives me great pleasure to deliver my annual address to the school.

As teachers and as parents we have a common expectation of education and of school.  We strive to ensure that each and every young person who attends our school, sits in our classroom, and studies our subject gains the maximum benefit from the school experience.  While it might well be argued that my remarks this morning might be aimed at the wrong sector of the parent body, in that we are gathered here to share in the celebrations of those young people who have been supported in achieving success, I would like to take the very public opportunity afforded by my annual address to comment on the nature of the shared approach to learning which must exist between parent and teacher if children are to achieve and develop.

The teachers in this school are most conscious of the contribution which they are expected to make to this shared responsibility in ensuring that our young people have access to the highest quality educational provision and support.  In a constant and ongoing process of improving what we do we have as a school addressed in excess of twenty five major issues in our School Development Plan over the last 3 years covering areas such as creating an Anti Bullying strategy, to reviewing our approach to Homework.  We have this year gained independent accreditation of the success of our efforts in developing the school.  Our Resourced Location for the education of pupils with Autistic Spectrum disorders gained full accreditation from the national Autistic Society – the first and still the only mainstream secondary school in the United Kingdom to do so.  The implementation of the Higher Still programme into the school and the significant improvement in our S5/6 examination results over the past four years was identified as a national exemplar of good practice by the Times Educational Supplement and in February the school gained full accreditation as an Investor in People making us one of only a handful of schools in Scotland to be so recognised.

We are most aware of the potential impact which we have on the lives and life chances of young people at both an educational level and at a personal level.  In terms of our interactions with them we are at least accepting of, if not totally comfortable with, the notion that we can never be in neutral gear with pupils.  We are powerful role models as such will either be in forward or reverse gear.

I have to say to you this morning however that the impact which teachers can have on the majority of pupils is only minimal.  There is no doubt in my mind that success in learning whether it be the learning of basic life skills and the accepted norms of good citizenship or a first class honours degree from the highest university in the land can only be achieved if the student benefits from a shared and consistent approach to support from home and school.  Schools can without doubt make a difference but by far the greatest impact on a child is the impact of the home.

This was brought home to me most clearly one morning last December.  On the previous evening the 12 pupils who constitute our madrigal Group had performed at the Malcolm Sergeant Cancer Care Concert at the Caird Hall.  Such was the quality of their performance that I have never received as many unsolicited telephone calls and letters from members of the general pubic making comments such as – superb; fantastic; a marvellous advert for what schools can do; you must be so proud of your pupils and their teacher – be in no doubt ladies and gentlemen I am!

On the same night we had another function on in the school during which around a dozen pupils of the same ages as those in the madrigal group gained access to the school by breaking open a fire door.  Once inside the building they set about vandalising and trashing a number of classrooms.

Harris is a truly comprehensive school.  Both groups of pupils had the same teaching, heard the same message, had the same opportunity to benefit from everything which this school has to offer and to share in the values which we promote.  I put it to you that if we are to be successful in the development of good citizenship and the promotion of social inclusion then teachers and parent must have a shared appreciation of the value of education and follow a shared agenda in relation to the values to be promoted within education.

This line of thinking is neither novel nor revolutionary.  The value of a shared approach to supporting a child’s learning and development has been talked of – mainly by teachers talking to and at parents – for a long time.  While I would not presume to lecture any parent on what I felt were effective parenting skills I would like to expand and clarify the “shared approach” by identifying four fundamental values which must in my opinion be shared by teacher and parent if together we are to be successful in educating young people.

In the first instance we must as adults be able to engage with young people and be seen by them to be able to do so.  We must have an empathy with them and take time to show an active and genuine interest in what they do and the challenges which they face.  We must recognise and accept them for what they are before we can make an attempt to educate or support.  Engagement is however more than an exercise in promoting human value and to be successful in engaging with our young people we must be able to negotiate and co-operate with them and give them the skills to do so with us.  Of fundamental importance to any relationship with children however is that our expectations of them remain consistently high.  There is no more powerful force for good or ill in the relationship between adult and child than the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The second shared value between parent and teacher follows on from the first.  Within any relationship with children there must be a clearly defined structure.  It is vital that pupils understand and are given tangible proof of a consistent and shared home school approach to limits, personal responsibility and accountability.  A mixed message or no message in this area does nothing to foster the essential level of trust which is fundamental to effective support.  How can we ever hope to foster autonomy, participation and independence of thought and action in young people if we do not present them with a clear understanding of the parameters of social interaction and of acceptable personal behaviour expected.

The third area in which a shared approach is essential is in ensuring young people learn and develop in a stimulating environment.  Learning must take place in the context of achievable but stretching targets and goals where challenge is part of that environment and curiosity is encouraged.  Real life learning must incorporate the opportunity to take risks, and make mistakes without fear but in an environment which promotes responsibility for ones actions supported by the opportunity to learn experientially.

Having engaged with our children, provided them with the stimulus to learn and the structure in which to do so the last shared valued between parent and teacher must be the obligation to provide children with meaningful feedback on their actions.  Children cannot function in a vacuum and must be given information regarding their progress or lack of such.  Success must be acknowledged and praised and difficulties encountered discussed in an open, honest and supportive way.  It is only in this way that we can hope to foster both the responsibility and accountability which are the essential supports to development of effective citizenship.

If we wish to motivate young people it is my belief that teachers and parents must share a common approach to each and all of these four values.  Not to do so is to leave the child ill prepared to meet the demands with which life will present them.

Structure, stimulation and feedback without engagement will result in alienation.

Engagement structure and stimulation without feedback will result in uncertainty.

Structure engagement and feedback without stimulation will result in boredom.

AND Engagement feedback and stimulation without structure will result in chaos.

In each of these events we do less than a service to the child if through our failure to provide the appropriate conditions for learning and development we ask them to face the world with a deficit in the skills necessary so to do.  We can all put names to pupils who fall into each of these areas of deficit.  Children damaged in any of these ways are often classed as demotivated or unmotivated.  I find it difficult to accept that there is any such thing but rather there are children who are highly motivated in the wrong areas.  There would appear to be more than enough highly motivated vandals at large in society today.  I do not claim to have all the answers and I would not for a minute suggest that school teachers are always right but I would suggest to you that we do get it right most of the time.  I do not apologise however for the high profile which we give to the values which we feel are fundamental to effective education and citizenship.  The fact that we gather here this morning to celebrate the success of over 130 young people who have achieved awards, the award of over 360 gold behaviour certificates and 94 Duke of Edinburgh awards bears a weighty testament to this claim.

If you take anything away from my address this morning, I ask that it be the belief that children benefit most from school when teachers and parents work together in close harmony and share the same common value system.  We are more than open to your criticism of how and what we do but in the end it is critical to the success of young people that we adopt a consistent approach to learning and development.

To draw to a conclusion I would like to thank all of my staff for their efforts over the past year on behalf of the pupils.  To those members of staff who leave us today I thank you for your contribution to education and to Harris Academy and wish you all the best of fortune in the future whether that may be in the next stage of your educational career or in the happy days of retiral.

To the pupils who leave us I hope that you feel that we have prepared you well enough to face the world with confidence.  You go with our best wishes for your future.  To those of you who leave us after 6 years a special mention in that you started in Harris in the same morning as did I.  All I would say to you is I hope you have enjoyed the last 6 years as much as I have.

For those of us who remain, school will start at 9.00 am on Monday 18^th August for staff and at 9.00 am for pupils on Tuesday 19^th August.

I am proud to be Headteacher in Harris Academy.